JPH10202976A - Printing control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate a gap of print results of printing data even when printing data divided longitudinally are continuously printed, by making a paper feed amount between adjacent printing data zero by a paper feed instructing means when a continuos printing mode is set by a continuos printing mode-setting means. SOLUTION: In the printing control apparatus, a paper feed among instructing means makes an instruction of a paper feed amount, and a continuos printing mode-setting means sets a continuos printing mode whereby a plurality of printing data are aligned for every printing data and printed to one long sheet. When the continuous printing mode-setting means sets the continuos printing mode, the paper fed amount instructing means makes the paper feed amount zero. If the paper feed amount is set to zero every time the divided printing data are finished to be printed, no gap is brought about between adjacent printing data. If the paper feed amount is set to smaller than zero, the adjacent printing data are overlapped by a predetermined amount and printed, and consequently no gap is brought about between the printing data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control apparatus for printing a plurality of continuous print data in a row for each print data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a method for printing on a long screen such as a hanging curtain, for example, there is a method for printing by dividing all data to be printed on a long screen into a plurality of print data.

Here, the print data refers to data that can be processed at once by a print control device that controls a printing device such as a printer.

[0004] That is, by printing the divided print data sequentially and sequentially, and after printing all the data, the print result is cut and stuck together to make one long print. To get the result.

In this method, even if the volume of data to be printed in a long format is increased, the data is divided into appropriate print data and printed in accordance with the processing capability of the print control device. There is no need for the device to have a huge data area.

For example, if the data to be printed is Adobe Systems
If the data is described in a page description language (PDL) such as PostScript of Hewlett Packard or PCL of Hewlett Packard, the print control device processes one page as one unit. If not, several hundred megabytes to one page of data
A few gigabytes of data space may be required.

However, even in such a case, in the method of dividing the print data into print data, the divided print data is regarded as one page of data and processed. There is no need to own a secure data area.

[0008]

However, in the above method, as described above, the divided print data is sequentially and continuously printed, and after all the data have been printed, the print result is obtained. By cutting and pasting the data, one long print result is obtained, so after printing all the data, the work of cutting and pasting each print result always occurs. However, there is a problem that the operation becomes considerably complicated when printing a large-sized long document.

In order to avoid this operation, there is a method of continuously printing divided print data.

However, even in this method, even if a fixed amount of paper is automatically fed after the printing of each print data or the paper is not fed, a paper feed mechanism mounted in the print control device is used. Due to the structural error of the above, there is a problem that the printing start position is slightly shifted, so that a gap is generated between the printing results of the respective printing data, and the joint of the printing results of the respective printing data becomes clear. .

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem. Even when printing long-division print data continuously, there is a gap between print results of the print data. It is an object of the present invention to provide a print control device that can obtain a good print result without generating the print control.

[0012]

In order to achieve this object, a printing control apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises a paper feed amount designating means for designating a paper feed amount, and a plurality of continuous print data. And a continuous print mode setting means for setting a continuous print mode for printing one sheet in a long length, wherein the continuous print mode is set by the continuous print mode setting means. When set, the paper feed amount instructing means sets the paper feed amount between the adjacent print data to 0 or less.

In the printing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the paper feed amount instructing means instructs the paper feed amount, and the continuous print mode setting means arranges a plurality of continuous print data for each print data. Then, a continuous print mode for printing one sheet in a long length is set.

When the continuous print mode setting means sets the continuous print mode, the paper feed amount instructing means sets the paper feed amount to 0 or less.

Accordingly, if the paper feed amount is set to 0 every time printing of the divided print data is completed, no gap is generated between adjacent print data, and the paper feed amount becomes less than 0. If it is set, adjacent print data is printed with a predetermined amount of overlap, and similarly, no gap is generated between print data.

Further, the print control device according to a second aspect of the present invention includes a print stop means for preventing, after the predetermined print data has been printed, the next print data following the print data from being printed for a predetermined time. It is characterized by:

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the printing apparatus, after the predetermined print data is printed, the print stop means does not print the next print data following the print data for a predetermined time. To

Thus, a sufficient time for fixing the print result of the print data already printed on the recording paper is secured, so that the printing of the overlapping portion with the next successive print data is smoothly performed. It will be.

[0019]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printing control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a print control device 100 is connected to a PC 10 which is a computer device via an input cable 9 and to a printing device 20 such as a printer via an output cable 11.

Inside the print control apparatus 100, a PC
Input interface 7 actually connected to 10
The output interface 8 actually connected to the printing apparatus 20, the ROM 2, the RAM 3, and the HDD 4.
, The CPU 1 and the input panel 6 are interconnected via the bus 5.

The ROM 2 is a read-only memory,
A continuous printing control procedure 80 which is a program for performing a printing operation in a continuous printing mode which will be described later, a print data conversion procedure 81 which is a program for converting printing data 200 which will be described later sent from the PC 10 into printing image data 201 which will be described later, and the like. A program for controlling the printing operation control device 100 is stored.

The RAM 3 is a memory that can be read and written at any time, and stores print control data 202 to be described later such as a paper feed amount to be described later.

Further, the HDD 4 is a memory which can be read and written at any time, like the RAM 3, and can store data similar to the RAM 3, but as an external storage device,
In particular, the print data 2 is used as a large-capacity storage area.
00, and is used as a storage area for the print image data 201.

The CPU 1 performs arithmetic processing according to a program stored in the ROM 2 and writes data to the RAM 3, HDD 4, input panel 6, input interface 7, and output interface 8 via the bus 5. And a reading operation.

The input panel 6 is connected to the print control device 10.
0, the various setting values of the print control device 100
This is a means for inputting to U1.

Further, the output interface 8 is connected to the CP
In accordance with the instruction from U1, the print image data 201 sent from the HDD 4 and the print control data 202 sent from the RAM 3 are input, and those data are sent to the printing apparatus 20.
Is output to.

Similarly, the input interface 7 receives the print data 200 sent from the PC 10 according to the instruction of the CPU 1 and outputs the print data to the HDD 4, the RAM 3 or the CPU 1 via the bus 5. Things.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the flow of the printing process according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, first, the PC 10
Is created on the PC 10 or P
The data sent to C10 is divided for each print data 200, and the print control device 100
Send to The print control device 100 creates print image data 201 which is data of an image developed by the printing device 20 based on the sent print data 200, and print control data 202 which instructs the printing device 20 to perform a printing method.
Is created inside the print control apparatus 100. The print image data 201 and the print control data 202 are transmitted to the printing device 20 via the output cable 11. The printing device 20 prints the print image data 201 based on the print control data 202 sent from the print control device 100.

Next, referring to FIG.
The process flow of 0 will be described more specifically.

First, the print data 2 sent from the PC 10
00 is transmitted to the input interface 7 via the input cable 9 and temporarily stored in the HDD 4 via the bus 5. The print data 200 stored in the HDD 4 is
Print data conversion procedure 81 stored in ROM 2 in advance
Is converted into print image data 201 in accordance with
The print image data 201 is stored in the DD 4. At the time of this print data conversion, the RAM 3 is used as a work area, and the converted print image data 201 and print control data 202 input from the input panel 6 and instructing a printing method of the printing apparatus 20 are output to the output interface 8. Is transmitted to the printer 20 via the output cable 11.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the printing apparatus 20. 3, a printing apparatus 20 includes a paper feed control circuit 27 for controlling a feed amount of recording paper to be printed, a motor drive circuit 26 for driving a motor, and a print image data sending circuit 21 for sending print image data 201 to be printed. ,
A paper feed roller 28 for feeding recording paper to be printed, a motor 25 for driving the paper feed roller, a gear mechanism 24 meshing between the motor 25 and the paper feed roller 28, and a printing mechanism for actually printing on the recording paper And a head 22.

The paper feed control circuit 27 includes a motor drive circuit 2
6 is electrically connected to the motor 25 via a lead wire or the like, and the motor drive circuit 26 is also electrically connected to the motor 25 via a lead wire or the like. Further, the motor 25 includes a gear mechanism 24.
And the print image data sending circuit 21 is electrically connected to the print head 22 via a lead wire or the like.

In the printing apparatus 20, when the print image data transmission circuit 21 receives the print image data 201 from the output interface 8, the print image data transmission circuit 21 converts the print image data 201 into a head drive signal for driving the print head 22. I do.

The printing head 22 ejects ink in accordance with the head drive signal if the printing apparatus 20 is an ink jet printer, and controls the heating time if the printing apparatus 20 is a thermal printer, thereby printing an image on the recording paper 23. To form.

When the paper feed control circuit 27 receives from the output interface 8 the print control data 202 including the paper feed amount, which is the moving amount of the recording paper 23, the paper feed control circuit 27 The data 202 is converted into a control signal obtained by superimposing the drive speed of the motor 25 on the print control data 202, and the converted control signal is output to the motor drive circuit 26. The motor drive circuit 26 actually outputs the control signal output from the paper feed control circuit 27 to the motor 2.
5 and outputs the drive signal to the motor 25.

The motor 25 rotates by a desired paper feed amount according to the drive signal output from the motor drive circuit 26,
The rotation is performed by the paper feed roller 2 via the gear mechanism 24.
8 is transmitted. Then, the recording paper 23 is fed by a predetermined amount by the rotation of the paper feed roller 28.

Hereinafter, the rotation direction of the paper feed roller 28 in the forward rotation of the motor 25 in FIG.
The rotation direction of the paper feed roller 28 in the reverse rotation of No. 5 is defined as the B direction.

Next, a method of setting the continuous printing mode will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the configuration of the input panel, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the data structure in the RAM 3.

Here, the continuous print mode is a mode in which a plurality of continuous print data are arranged in a row for each print data and one sheet is printed long. That is, the print control device 1
00, a plurality of continuous print image data 201 sent from
Is a mode in which the printing device 20 prints one long sheet.

In the present embodiment, the setting of the continuous printing mode is performed by using the input panel 6.

In FIG. 4, an input panel 6 includes a power switch 30 for turning on / off the power of the print control apparatus 100, a reset switch 31 for returning the print control apparatus 100 to an initial state, and an ON / OFF state for the continuous print mode. A continuous print mode setting switch 32 which is a continuous print mode setting means to be turned off, a reverse paper feed amount setting box 33 for displaying a reverse paper feed amount when the continuous print mode is set, and an UP for increasing the reverse paper feed amount. Key 34 (paper feed amount indicating means)
And a DOWN key 35 for reducing the reverse paper feed amount.
(Paper feed amount instructing means).

Here, the reverse paper feed amount means the amount when the paper feed roller 28 of the printing apparatus 20 feeds paper in the B direction.
This is shown in dot units, which are the minimum units to which paper is fed.

Therefore, for example, when the value of the reverse paper feed amount setting box 33 is "1", the paper feed roller 28 rotates one dot in the direction opposite to the printing direction.

In FIG. 5, a continuous print mode setting flag 40 is a flag which is set when the continuous print mode is selected, and has a 1-byte area allocated thereto.
In the present embodiment, when the continuous print mode is set, the continuous print mode setting flag 40 is set to “1”, and the value of the reverse paper feed amount storage area 41 described later becomes valid. If the continuous print mode is not set, the continuous print setting flag 40 is set to a value other than “1”.

The reverse paper feed amount storage area 41 indicates the paper feed amount of the paper feed roller 28 in dot units, which is the minimum unit for feeding paper, and is assigned a 4-byte area.

That is, in this embodiment, the value of the reverse paper feed amount storage area 41 ranges from “00000000” to “FF”.
FFFFFF "can be set.

Here, first, the operator of the printing control apparatus 100 turns on the power switch 30 and then turns on the UP key 34.
Alternatively, by pressing the DOWN key 35 to increase or decrease the value of the reverse paper feed amount setting box 33, the reverse paper feed amount in the continuous printing mode is set. In this case, the UP key 34
Is pressed, the value in the reverse paper feed amount setting box 33 increases, and when the DOWN key 35 is pressed, the value in the reverse paper feed amount setting box 33 decreases.

However, the value of the reverse paper feed amount setting box 33 does not become less than zero.

When the operator presses the continuous print mode setting switch 32 after determining the value of the reverse paper feed amount setting box 33, the print control apparatus 100 sets the continuous print mode setting flag 40 in FIG. And the value set in the reverse paper feed amount setting box 33 is transferred to the reverse paper feed amount storage area 41 and stored. For example,
When the value set in the reverse paper feed amount setting box 33 is “1”, the value of the reverse paper feed amount storage area 41 is “1”.
When the set value is “15”,
The value of the reverse paper feed amount storage area 41 is set to “F”.

When the user wants to cancel the setting of the continuous printing mode, the operator may press the reset switch 31.

Next, the printing operation in the continuous printing mode will be described with reference to FIG.

The printing operation in the continuous printing mode is stored in the ROM 2 in advance as a continuous printing control procedure 80, and is processed according to the procedure.

Prior to the processing, the operator operates the PC 10
The data to be printed is divided, and a plurality of independent print data 200 are created.

FIG. 6A shows the recording paper 23 before printing is started.
And the positional relationship between the print head 22 and the print head 22. In FIG. 6A, the horizontal direction is the main scanning direction, and the vertical direction is the sub-scanning direction.
Is the home position in the main scanning direction.

In this embodiment, the printing operation in the continuous printing mode is described as bidirectional printing, but it is apparent that the printing operation may be performed as one-way printing.

First, the printing operation for the first sheet will be described.

The printing head 22 performs printing while moving from left to right by one line in the main scanning direction, and stops after printing to the right end of the print image 50 (FIG. 6B). And
After the paper has been fed in the sub-scanning direction by the length of the printing head 22 in the circumferential direction (FIG. 6C), the printing head 22 is further moved.
Prints while moving one line from right to left in the main scanning direction, and stops after printing to the left end of the print image 50 (FIG. 6D).

By repeating the above operation until the print image data for one page is completed, a print result for one page is obtained. Then, the paper is fed by the length of the printing head 22 in the circumferential direction in the sub-scanning direction (FIG. 6E).

By repeating the above operations of FIGS. 6B to 6E until one print image 50 is printed,
One print image 52 can be obtained (FIGS. 6 (f) and 6 (g)).

Finally, the printing head 22 returns to the home position for the next printing (FIG. 6).
(h)).

Thus, the printing of the first sheet is completed.

Next, the printing operation of the second sheet will be described.

When printing the second sheet, first, the print control device 100 checks whether or not the continuous print mode setting flag 40 of the RAM 3 is “1”, and if it is “1”, For example, it is determined that the printing mode is the continuous printing mode, and the value of the paper feed amount storage area 41 is read. Then, a value obtained by multiplying the read value by −1 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 20 as the print control data 202. A negative value means that the paper feed roller 28 is rotated in the B direction. The printing apparatus 20 inputs the transmitted print control data 202 to the paper feed control circuit 27 and outputs the print control data 202 to the motor drive circuit, thereby driving the motor 25 to move the paper feed roller 28 in the B direction. (FIG. 6 (i)).

By reversing the paper feed roller 28, it is possible to secure the overlapping portion 51 between the first print image 52 and the next print start position.

Further, the operations shown in FIGS. 6B to 6E are repeated as the second printing. As a result, the first print image 52 and the second print image 53 are combined at the overlapping portion 51, and the continuous printing of two sheets is completed (FIG. 6 (k)).

By repeating the above printing operation for all the print data 200 to be continuously printed, even when printing a huge amount of data, it is possible to smoothly print one long sheet and to generate a gap. Can be prevented.

Next, a method of feeding paper between print data when the continuous print mode is set will be described. This is achieved by providing a print stop means for preventing the next print data following the print data from being printed for a predetermined time after the predetermined print data is printed.

That is, in the state of FIG. 6 (h), the predetermined time until the next continuous print data is printed is:
The transmission of data from the print control device 100 to the printing device 20 is stopped. By the predetermined time, the already printed portion is sufficiently fixed on the recording paper 23,
At the time of printing the overlapping portion 51, the ink does not bleed or flow.

This is particularly effective when the printing device 20 is an ink jet printer.

Next, the printing operation in the case where the backlash of the gear mechanism 24 of the printing apparatus 20 is considered will be described. That is, even if the motor 25 rotates slightly, if the amount of backlash of the gear mechanism 24 is less than the amount, the rotation of the motor 25 is not transmitted to the paper feed roller 28,
There is a problem that the paper is not sufficiently fed.

In such a case, the motor 25 is reversely rotated by a rotation angle corresponding to the sum of the set paper feed amount and a predetermined amount exceeding the backlash amount, and thereafter, the motor 25 is rotated beyond the backlash amount. By performing forward rotation by a rotation angle corresponding to a predetermined amount, the influence of backlash can be suppressed. However, the predetermined amount is,
It must be larger than the backlash.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the drawings, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. For example, in this embodiment,
Although the setting of the continuous printing mode, the setting of the reverse paper feed amount, and the ON / OFF of the power switch are performed using the input panel 6, they may all be set from the PC 10.

[0075]

As is apparent from the above description,
In the print control apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the paper feed amount instructing unit instructs the paper feed amount, and the continuous print mode setting unit arranges a plurality of continuous print data for each print data in a row. Set the continuous printing mode for printing on a long sheet.
When the continuous print mode setting unit sets the continuous print mode, the paper feed amount instructing unit sets the paper feed amount to 0 or less, so that no gap occurs between the print data and the desired print result is obtained. Obtainable. Also, there is no need to perform lamination after printing.

Further, the print control device according to the second aspect is characterized in that:
After the predetermined print data is printed, the print stop means prevents the next print data following the print data from being printed for a predetermined time, so that the print result of the print data already printed is fixed on the recording paper. Sufficient time is secured, and the printing of the overlapping portion with the next successive print data can be smoothly performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a print control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a flow of a printing process according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a flow of processing of print data.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing the configuration of the input panel.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a data structure in a RAM.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a continuous printing control procedure.

[Explanation of symbols]

 32 Continuous print mode setting switch 34 UP key 35 DOWN key

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A paper feed amount instructing means for instructing a paper feed amount, and continuous printing for setting a continuous print mode in which a plurality of continuous print data are arranged in a row for each print data and one sheet is printed long. A print control device comprising: a mode setting unit, wherein when the continuous printing mode is set by the continuous printing mode setting unit, the paper feed amount instruction unit sets the paper feed amount between adjacent print data. A print control device, wherein the value is 0 or less. 2. After the predetermined print data is printed,
2. The print control device according to claim 1, further comprising a print stop unit that prevents printing of the next print data following the print data for a predetermined time.