JP2003285507A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Problem] To print a status sheet quickly without affecting a print job being executed. A controller (10) of a printer (1) manages print jobs received via a network (4) by a scheduler (10a) and registers them in a schedule table in the order of reception. Then, printing is executed in the order registered in the schedule table. Control panel 13
When a print instruction for a status sheet is received from the printer, the print job is regarded as a print job virtually received from the interface, and is registered in the schedule table so as to have the highest priority among print jobs waiting to be executed. As a result, when the print job being executed is completed, printing of the status sheet is executed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer,
In particular, the present invention relates to a printer having a function of printing a status sheet displaying the printer status, setting values, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art There is a printer having a function of printing a status sheet displaying information about the printer such as printer status and setting values. In such a printer, when a predetermined operation is received on the control panel provided in the printer housing, the status sheet is printed.

The status sheet is used for confirming whether the operation of the printer is normal, checking the current setting state of the printer, and confirming when an optional device is attached to the printer. When a print command is accepted, even if another print process is in progress,
An interrupt is given to print with priority.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an image of the processing at this time. In the figure, an interface 111 for connecting to a host computer is parallel, USB,
It has a physical connector such as a network. When a print job is received from the host computer via any of the connectors, the printer controller 110 receives the print job and executes the print processing. If another print job is received during the execution of the print processing, the print job is stored in the buffer and printing is executed in the order of reception.
Here, when the user operates the control panel 113 to instruct a status sheet print command during printing of a certain print job, this command is issued by the interface 1
It is input to the controller 110 through a route different from that of 11. Then, the controller 110 interrupts the printing that is being executed, ejects the paper that is being printed, and then prints the status sheet. In such a case, it is necessary to re-execute the interrupted printing, and the printing paper is wasted.

[0005]

When printing a status sheet or the like, information necessary for knowing the status of the printer is printed, so it is desired to output it faster than other print jobs. There is a demand that you do not want to interrupt the job.

Particularly, in the network printing system, in order not to affect the print jobs of others,
Although it is necessary for the printer to print the status sheet after confirming that another user's print job is not being executed, it takes time and labor, and it is difficult to reliably know another person's print job.

It is an object of the present invention to quickly print a status sheet without affecting the print job being executed.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, according to the present invention, a status sheet printing means for printing a status sheet for displaying information on a printer based on an instruction from a user, a host computer, and An interface unit for connection, a print job receiving unit for receiving a print job instruction from the connected printer host, a printing unit for executing the print job to perform printing, and an instruction for the received print job are received. A print order management unit that stores the print jobs with the highest rank among the unexecuted print jobs stored therein in order, and the print order management unit is a status sheet. When the print instruction is received, a print job for printing the status sheet is generated and Printer and to store assigned the highest rank among the printing jobs is provided.

According to such a printer, the status sheet can be printed quickly without affecting the print job being executed.

Here, when the print job for printing the status sheet is included in the unexecuted print jobs, the print order management means receives the status sheet even if the status sheet print instruction is accepted. It is possible not to store a print job for printing.

By doing so, it is possible to prevent the status sheet from being printed a plurality of times even if the status sheet print command is received again while waiting for the status sheet to be printed.

Further, the status sheet printing means can receive an instruction from the user by operating the control panel.

At this time, the print order management means considers the status sheet printing instruction received from the control panel as received from the interface means, generates a print job for printing the status sheet, and The highest rank of the executed print jobs is stored.

Further, if the print job is not completed within a predetermined reference time after the start of execution of the print job, the print order management means considers the print job as completed and does not execute it. When the print job includes a print job for printing the status sheet, a shorter reference time can be used than when the print job does not include the print job.

By doing so, it is possible to prevent the printing of the status sheet from being held for a long time.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an example of the configuration of a network printing system to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in the figure, the network printing system includes a plurality of computers 2 on a network 4.
The network compatible printer 1 is connected. However, the present invention is not limited to the network printing system as shown in FIG. 1, but can be applied to a printing system in which a local printer is connected to one computer.

In FIG. 1, the computer 2 functions as a printer host that sends print data to the printer 1 and causes the printer 1 to print the print data. Various processes for functioning as a printer host are performed according to a computer program such as dedicated software installed in the computer 2 and a printer driver.

As the computer 2, for example,
A general personal computer including a display device, an input device, a storage device, a communication device, etc. can be used.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining an example of the hardware configuration of the printer 1.

As shown in the figure, the printer 1 has a CP
A controller 10 including U, RAM, ROM, etc. for controlling the printer 1, an interface 11 for connecting to the network 4, a print engine 12 including a printing mechanism, a paper feeding / discharging mechanism, etc., and a user. And a control panel 13 that receives an instruction from.

In this embodiment, the controller 10
Controls the normal print processing based on the print job received from the computer 2 and the processing based on the status sheet print command received from the control panel 13. The controller 10 also manages the print order of a plurality of received print jobs.
a. Detailed processing contents of the controller 10 will be described later.

The interface 11 has, for example, physical connectors for parallel, USB, and network, and receives print data and the like from the computer 2 according to a predetermined protocol.

The print engine 12 performs actual print processing under the control of the controller 10. In the present embodiment, printing based on print data received from the computer 2 and printing based on status sheet printing data generated by the printer 1 are performed.

The control panel 13 generally includes a plurality of operation buttons and a display panel, and the user can input instructions such as reset, forced paper ejection, and status sheet printing by operating the operation buttons. .

Next, the processing operation of the printer 1 in this embodiment will be described.

First, the process in which the printer 1 manages the print job received from the computer 2 will be described.

When the data receiving unit 101 of the printer 1 receives a print job from the computer 2, the print job identification information, for example, the print job name, and the computer 2 are received.
And the identification information thereof are sent to the scheduler 10a of the control unit 102.

The scheduler 10a is, for example, as shown in FIG.
The schedule table as shown in (a) is managed, and the identification information of the received print job and the identification information of the computer 2 (host) are recorded in the schedule table in the order of reception. Then, the print data is received from the computer 2 and the print processing is executed in the recorded order.

In FIG. 3 (a), the print jobs recorded in the column "in execution" are print jobs currently undergoing print processing, and in the following, "1", "2", ...
・ Record the print job in the column. Then, when the printing process of the print job recorded in the column indicated as “in execution” is completed, the information of the print job is erased and the following print jobs are advanced. As a result, the print job recorded in the “1” column is moved to the “In progress” column, and the printing process is started.

In this way, when the printer 1 receives the print jobs from the computer 2, the printers 1 execute the print jobs in the order of reception.

Next, when a print job is being executed and there is a print job waiting to be executed, the control panel 1
A process when the status sheet print command is accepted from No. 3 will be described.

When the controller 10 receives a status sheet print command from the user via the control panel 13, the controller 10 notifies the scheduler 10a of a status sheet print request. At this time, in the printer 1, the status sheet print request is treated as a print job. That is, the status sheet print request is controlled as a print job input from the virtual interface, not an interrupt print command from a route separate from the interface 11 as in the related art.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image of the processing at this time. In the figure, the interface 11 for connecting to the computer 2 is provided with a virtual interface that accepts a status sheet print command from the control panel 13 as a print job in addition to a physical connector such as parallel, USB, or network. There is.

As a result, in response to the status sheet print request, the controller 10 creates a print job for printing the status sheet and registers it in the scheduler 10a. At this time, it is assumed that the registration has the highest priority among the print jobs waiting to be executed, and FIG.
As shown in (b), it is registered in the column of "1" of the schedule table. Then, other print jobs waiting to be executed are delayed one by one.

By doing so, the status sheet can be printed quickly without affecting the print job being executed.

In order not to interrupt the print job being executed by the status sheet printing, for example, a status sheet print command from the control panel may be interrupted at the break of the print job. It gets complicated.

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the status sheet printing is handled as a print job virtually input from the interface, so that the status sheet printing can be easily realized at the break of the print job. It has become. Moreover, most of this processing can be performed by software, so that the amount of design change from the conventional one can be small. Of course, the virtual interface is just a virtual interface, and the form adopted for implementation is arbitrary.

In this embodiment, since the status sheet is printed after the currently executed print job is completed, the control panel is operated again while waiting for the status sheet to print, and the status sheet print command is issued. May be accepted. In such a case, in order to prevent the status sheet from being printed a plurality of times, it is desirable not to register the status sheet prints again when the status sheet prints are registered in the schedule table.

In the print job management, when a code that clearly indicates the end of the print job being executed cannot be detected, it is considered that the print job has ended after a predetermined time has elapsed (timeout), and the next print job is executed However, when the printing of the status sheet is registered in the schedule table, the time until timeout may be set shorter than usual. By doing so, it is possible to prevent the printing of the status sheet from being held for a long time.

The print command for the status sheet is not limited to the input from the control panel 13, but may be sent from the computer 2, for example. Also in this case, the status sheet print command is treated as a print job, and is registered in the schedule table as a print job with the highest priority among print jobs waiting to be executed.

Further, in the present embodiment, the status sheet print command is given as an example of prioritized printing, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the registered font information print command, the reserve job print command, and the like can be handled in the same manner as the status sheet print command.

[0044]

As described above, according to the present invention, the status sheet can be printed quickly without affecting the print job being executed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an example of the configuration of a network printing system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining an example of a hardware configuration of the printer 1.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a schedule table.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an image of status sheet print command acceptance in the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an image of a conventional status sheet print command acceptance.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Printer 2 ... Computer 4 ... Network 10 ... Controller 10a ... scheduler 11 ... Interface 12 ... Print engine 13 ... Control panel 101 ... Data reception unit 102 ... Control unit 110 ... Controller 111 ... Interface 113 ... Control panel

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 2C061 AP01 HH03 HJ06 HK04 HK11                       HK19 HN04 HN05 HN15 HR02                       HR06                 2C187 AE07 BF21 BH05 GC02 GC06                 2H027 EJ11 FA30 FC02 ZA07                 5B021 AA04 BB10 CC04 DD01 EE01                 5C062 AA02 AA05 AA35 AB22 AB38                       AB42 AF00 BA04

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A status sheet printing means for printing a status sheet for displaying information on a printer based on an instruction from a user, an interface means for connecting to a host computer, and a print job from a connected printer host. A print job receiving unit that receives an instruction, a printing unit that executes the print job to perform printing, and an order of the received print job that is stored in order of reception, and the stored unexecuted print job. A print order management unit that causes the print unit to print the print job with the highest rank among the jobs; and when the print order management unit receives a status sheet print instruction, the print order management unit prints a print job for printing the status sheet. The feature is that the job is created and stored with the highest rank of unexecuted print jobs. Printer to. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the print order management unit issues a status sheet printing instruction when a print job for printing a status sheet is included in the unexecuted print jobs. A printer characterized by not storing a print job for printing a status sheet, even if a print job is accepted. 3. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the status sheet printing means receives an instruction from a user by operating a control panel. 4. The printer according to claim 3, wherein the printing order management unit prints the status sheet by regarding the status sheet printing instruction received from the control panel as being received from the interface unit. A printer for generating a print job of, and storing the print job with the highest rank among unexecuted print jobs. 5. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the print order management unit determines that the print job has ended if the print job does not end within a predetermined reference time after the start of execution of the print job. A printer that is regarded as a printer and uses a shorter reference time when an unexecuted print job includes a print job for printing a status sheet than when the print job is not included.