JPH02185463A - Printing in electrophotographic printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow printing to be performed by a printing device if form size required by a host-side device in advance does not coincide with that for a printing device by detecting form size for a printing device, displaying the detected size and further displaying the form size required by a host-side device in advance. CONSTITUTION:If a request for printing is entered to a printing device from a host-side device through an interface, a printer control device displays information on the form size for a paper feed cassette 17 and information on the form size required by the host side device on a form size display. If a mode selector switch 33 is turned ON, and conditions of form size for the paper feed cassette 17 of the printing and the form size required by the host-side device are acceptable, a printing switch can be pressed to print data on the form of the paper feed cassette 17 with the printing device. In addition, if the form size for the printing device needs to be changed, the paper feed cassette 17 containing required forms is attached to the printing device.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is applicable to a host device and a printer device, especially when the paper size of the printer device does not match the paper size that the host side requires in advance. The present invention relates to a printing method using an electrophotographic printer that can also print on images.

[Conventional technology]

As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-73637, conventional devices print only when the paper size requested by the host side and the paper size of the printer device match.
If you need printed matter immediately, or if you are printing without selecting a specific paper size for the printer, or if the printer is loaded with paper of a different paper size than the one requested by the host, you may be unable to print. There was a problem.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the above conventional technology, printing is performed only when the paper size required by the host device and the paper size of the printer device match, so if you need printed matter immediately or When printing without particularly selecting a paper size for the printer, there is a problem in that the printer cannot print even if the paper set in the printer is different from the paper size requested by the host side.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to enable a printer to print even if the paper size previously required by the host device and the paper size of the printer do not match.

[Means to solve the problem]

The above purpose is to detect the paper size of the printer device (
This is achieved by detecting and displaying the paper size using a detection sensor (not shown), and displaying the required paper size in advance by the host device.

[Operation] When the host side device prints with a printer device,
The paper size of the printer device and the paper size required by the host device are displayed, and an inquiry is made as to whether printing can be performed under the displayed conditions.

As a result, even if the paper size of the printer device and the paper size required by the host side device are different, the paper sizes of both are displayed, so the paper size of the printer device and the paper size required by the host side device are displayed. The size can be seen immediately, and printing can be started immediately on the printer, especially when printing on any paper size. There is no possibility that you will not be able to print unless you reload paper of the same size as the paper you are using.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the present invention will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 8. First, a conventional printing process will be explained with reference to FIG. A main electronic device 7 that charges the body 6, a developer 8 that develops an electrostatic latent image formed by exposing the charged photoreceptor 6 with an exposure source 23 such as a laser beam or an LED as a toner image, and a paper 10 that produces a toner image. A transfer charger 9 for transferring; a cleaner device 15 for removing developing toner remaining on the photoreceptor 6 after transfer;
Erase lamp 16 for erasing the electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 6
This is done by placing Paper 10 is stored in a paper feed cassette 17 disposed on the side of the electrophotographic printer, separated one by one by a pickup roller 18, and fed to registration rollers 19, 19'. On the other hand, during the printing process, the main charger 7 first operates to charge the photoreceptor 6.
After that, the charged area on the surface of the photoconductor is exposed to light by the exposure source 23 to form an electrostatic latent image, and the developer 8 develops the toner to form a visible image.
19', the transfer charger 9 is operated to transfer toner onto the paper 1o that has been fed on the same side as the beginning of the electronic process. The transferred paper 10 is separated from the photoreceptor 6 (separation means is not shown) and sent to the fixing device 20 by the paper conveyance guide 11. The paper 10 that has been thermally fixed by the fixing device 20 is transferred to the paper ejection tray 22 by the paper ejection rollers 21 and 21'.
The paper is ejected to

First, a conventional printing method will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 6. When a print request is input from the host device to the printer device via the interface device, the printer control device compares the paper size information of the cassette with the requested paper size information of the host device, and if they match, the printer control device The printer was starting the printing process only as printable.

(The paper sizes may be compared on the host side device and printed only when they match.)

For this reason, as shown in Figure 6, if the paper size requested by the host device is not available in the printer device, printing cannot be performed and the paper will not be printed on the paper in the printer device until the paper is set in the printer device. There was a thing.

Next, a first embodiment according to the present invention will be described using FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIGS. 4 to 6.

When a print request is input from the host side device to the printer device via the interface device, the printer control device converts the paper size information of the paper feed cassette 17 and the paper size information requested by the host side into the paper size shown in FIG. Display on the display (via the interface device, a print request signal, paper size information required by the host in advance, and print information signals are sent from the host device to the printer device, and from the printer device to the host device, (The paper size information of the paper feed cassette is sent.) If the mode changeover switch 33 in FIG. 5 is set to the OFF side, the conventional printing method is used, and printing is performed only when the two paper sizes match.

On the other hand, if the mode selector switch 33 is set to the ON side, an inquiry will be made as to whether it is OK to print based on the conditions of the paper size in the paper cassette 17 of the printer device and the paper size requested by the host device. If it is acceptable, press the print switch 32 shown in FIG. 5 to print on the paper in the paper feed cassette 17 using the printer device.

Further, in response to the above inquiry, if the user wishes to change the paper size of the printer, the paper feed cassette 17 containing the required paper is installed in the printer. Then, in the flowchart of FIG. 1, the process returns to 401, the paper size display of FIG. 5 is updated, and the subsequent steps are as described above.

In the above method, the paper size is displayed on the printer side and the printing operation is performed by the printer, but the same may be done on the host side and the printer prints on the paper.

Next, a second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 4 to 8.

The print flow from when a print request is received from the host device to the printer device up to the process 503 in FIG. 7 is the same as in the first embodiment. Next, in step 504 in FIG. You will be asked if you would like to proceed with the process. If magnification conversion processing is not performed, the printing method is the same as the printing method of the first embodiment.If 0 magnification conversion is performed, magnification conversion processing is entered.

This process is performed by comparing the paper size of the printer device and the paper size requested by the host side, as shown in FIG. 8(a).

As shown in (b), the paper size (print information) requested by the host side
The magnification is converted on the memory in the interface device of the printer (not shown) to match the paper size of the printer, or the directions of the paper sizes are different as shown in (Q) in Figure 8. In this case, the paper size requested by the host (
(Print information) is rotated on the memory in the printer device, and then the magnification is converted as described above to match the paper size of the printer device. Then, this print information on the host side is sent to the optical system of the printer device and printed on the mlo of the printer device.

In the above method, similar to the first embodiment, the paper size is displayed on the printer side and the printing operation is performed by the printer, but the same thing is done on the host side and the printer prints on the paper 10. You may.

According to this embodiment, printing can be performed even if the paper size requested by the host side and the paper size on the printer side do not match, so printing can be performed regardless of the paper size of the printer device. When doing so, you can immediately start printing on the printer device, which eliminates the problem of being unable to print unless you reload the printer device with paper of the same size as that required by the host device, which was the case in the past. .

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, even if the paper size requested on the host side and the paper size on the printer side do not match.

Since printing can be performed using a printer device, especially when printing on any paper size of the printer device, printing can be performed immediately with the printer device. This eliminates the situation where printing is not possible unless paper of the same size as required by the side device is set again.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a print flow diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the host side device and inverted printer, Fig. 3 is a print flow diagram of a conventional method, and Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the printer device. , FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the paper size display device, FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the paper size relationship during printing, FIG. 7 is a printing flow diagram of the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 8 is a diagram showing magnification conversion. FIG. 4...Paper sensor, 5...Paper sensor, 6...Photoconductor, 7...Main charger, 8...Developer, 9...
- Transfer device, 10... Paper, 11... Paper transport guide, 15... Cleaner device, 16... Erase lamp, 17... Paper feed cassette, 18... Pick up roller, 19, 19'... Registration roller, 2o.
...Fuser, 21.21'... Paper ejection roller, 22...
- Paper output tray, 23... Exposure source, 30... Host credit paper size indicator, 31... Printer side paper size indicator, 32... Print switch. Fig. 2 Pudding 7 down j1 strike side Fig. 4 Fig. 7 Fig. 5 z Fig. 6, “η Liao
/IA'('ll11j, Ll$ 715) Figure 8 (α) (b) A: Host/Iff! 1. -Paper holder b: M resistance 17/I swipe on the printer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a printer device that uses paper and a host side device connected to the printer device, even if the paper size required in advance by the host side device and the paper size of the printing device are not equal, A printing method for an electrophotographic printer characterized by being able to print on paper of a printer device. 2. An electrophotographic printer according to claim 1, characterized in that a paper size required in advance by a host device is compared with a paper size of a printer device, and both paper sizes are displayed. printing method. 3. In claim 1, if the paper size required in advance by the host device and the paper size of the printer device are not equal, the print information on the host side is rotated, enlarged, or reduced. A printing method for an electrophotographic printer, characterized in that a magnification conversion process is performed to print the paper so that it fits within the paper size of the printer device.