KR0164837B1 - Printing control method of a complex printer - Google Patents

Abstract

end. The technical field to which the invention described in the claims belongs

The present invention relates to a printing control method for a composite printer comprising an ink jet printer and a laser beam printer.

I. The technical problem that the invention is trying to solve

In a composite printer comprising an ink jet printer and a laser beam printer, a method of printing predetermined image data by mixing color printing and black printing is provided.

All. Summary of Solution of the Invention

In the printing control method for a composite printer connected to an external device through a parallel port, the printer switches to a printing mode according to a predetermined printer selection signal received through the parallel port and prints an image according to image data received from the external device. It is characterized by.

la. Important uses of the invention

Multiple Printer Can be used to control each printer.

Description

Control method of complex printing of complex printer

The present invention relates to a composite printer in which two or more printers are integrated, and more particularly, to a method of printing predetermined image data by controlling each printer constituting the composite printer.

In conventional ink jet printers, printing by beautiful colors is possible. Such a color is usually reproduced by a combination of three colors (Yellow, Cyan, Magenta), and even black can be reproduced by the combination of the three colors. However, black reproduction requires a combination of all three colors, which consumes color ink. In addition, there is a problem in printing a well-organized document report due to the color bleeding by the three color combinations. In such a case, it is common to print a document composed of black and white using a laser beam printer. On the other hand, ink jet printers are used in four colors by adding black ink to three colors of color ink, but also many times use laser beam printers, which usually require less maintenance and use laser beam printers for various important documents. do. On the other hand, briefing materials containing a lot of color pictures or figures are usually printed using an ink jet printer. However, depending on the type of document to be printed, alternating use of an ink jet printer and a laser beam printer each time is a great inconvenience for the user, resulting in a decrease in utilization of office space.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing control method of a composite printer which can obtain an optimal image desired by a user by maximizing the advantages of each printer constituting the composite printer.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a method for printing predetermined image data by mixing color printing and black printing in a composite printer consisting of an ink jet printer and a laser beam printer.

1 is a connection state diagram of a composite printer and a host computer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a flow chart for forming the printing of the composite printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a block diagram of an ink jet printer of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a block diagram of a laser beam printer of Figure 1;

5 is a composite printing control flow chart according to an embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a transition state diagram of each printer operating a printing operation according to a mode selection signal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a diagram illustrating a connection state of a composite printer 200 and a host computer 100 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The composite printer 200 is composed of an ink jet printer 300 and a laser beam printer 400 and is connected to the host computer 100 through a parallel port.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a printing forming process of the composite printer 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The laser beam after color printing an image according to predetermined image data from an ink jet printer 300 is shown. The composite printer 200 is configured such that predetermined image data is monoprinted through the printer 400.

FIG. 3 shows a block diagram of an ink jet printer (hereinafter referred to as IJP) 300 in FIG. Referring to FIG. 3, the controller 302 is composed of a Centronics interface 304, a CPU 306, an interface 308, a ROM 310, and a RAM 312. The Centronics interface 304 is connected to the host computer 100 through a parallel port and interfaces the input and output signals transmitted between the host computer 100 and the CPU 306. The CPU 306 executes a control program stored in the ROM 3108 to control each part of the printer through the interface 308. The ROM 310 stores a control program of the CPU 306 and various initial data. The RAM 312 temporarily stores data according to the operation of the CPU 306. The interface 308 interfaces signals input and output between the CPU 306 and the input / output devices, that is, the operation panel 314 and the motor drivers 316 and 320, the head driver 324, and the ink cartridge detector 328. The operation panel 314 has a plurality of buttons for inputting various commands and a display device for displaying various operation states under control of the CPU 306. The motor driving unit 316 drives the CR (Carrage) motor 318 under the control of the CPU 306. The CR motor 318 is driven by the motor driving unit 316 to move the carriage in the horizontal direction. The motor driving unit 320 drives the LF (Line Feed) motor 322 under the control of the CPU 306. The LF motor 322 is driven by the motor driving unit 320 to feed and feed the paper. The head driving unit 324 drives the recording head 326 mounted on the carriage under the control of the CPU 306 to record the image on the sheet. The recording head 326 has a plurality of nozzles and is driven by the head driver 324 to eject an ink through the nozzles to record an image on paper.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as LBP) 400 of FIG. 1. The LBP 400 generally includes a video controller 410 and a print engine unit 430. It consists of an operating panel unit (Operating Panel Equipment) 422. 4, a computer interface 412 is connected between the host computer 100 and the CPU 414 to interface the input and output signals between the host computer 100 and the CPU 414. The CPU 414 converts code data received from the computer interface 412 into image data that can be processed by the printer engine according to a control program stored in the ROM 420, and print engine unit 430. To send. The RAM 418 connected to the CPU 414 temporarily stores various data input from the OPE 422 and the host computer 100 under the control of the CPU 414. The engine interface 416 interfaces signals input and output between the CPU 414 and the print engine 430. The OPE 422 is controlled by the CPU 414 and includes a plurality of keys and a display device for inputting various commands. The print engine 430 may include a video interface 432, an engine controller 434, an input / output (I / O) interface 436, a sensor circuit 438, an instrument driver 440, and an electrophotographic developing unit ( 450 and connected to the video controller 410. The video interface 432 provides an interface for transmitting and receiving signals between the video controller 410 and the engine controller 434. The engine controller 434 controls the mechanical driving unit 440 and the electrophotographic developing unit 450 under the control of the video controller 410, and prints an image according to the image data received from the video controller 410 on paper. In addition, the engine control unit 434 detects an operation state (eg, paper transfer state) of each part of the print engine unit 430 through the sensor circuit 438. The I / O interface 436 is connected between the engine controller 434, the sensor circuit 438, the mechanical driver 440, and the electrophotographic developing unit 450 to interface the input / output signals of the engine controller 434. The sensor circuit 438 drives various sensors for detecting the operation state of each part of the print engine unit 430, the paper feeding and conveying state, and the developer amount, and provides the engine control unit 434 with a detection signal of each sensor. do. The mechanism driving unit 440 drives various mechanisms for feeding, feeding and printing paper sheets under the control of the engine control unit 434, and the electrophotographic developing unit 450 according to the image data under the control of the engine control unit 434. Images are printed by electrophotographic development.

Hereinafter, a complex printing control process of the complex printer 200 in which the IJP 300 and the LBP 400 having the configurations of FIGS. 3 and 4 will be described will be described with reference to FIG. 5.

5 is a flowchart illustrating a complex printing control process according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates a control flow chart performed by each CPU 306 and 414 of the IJP 300 and the LBP 400. Referring to FIG. 5, in step 460, the CPUs 306 and 414 of the printers 300 and 400 check whether a printing command corresponding to predetermined image data is received from the host computer 100. When the printing command is received, the CPU 306 or 416 of each of the printers 300 and 400 proceeds to step 470 to check whether the data received through the parallel port has a selection data command for selecting the corresponding printer. That is, if the CPU 306 or 414 of each printer 300 or 400 includes the selection data 1 command in the data received through the parallel port in step 470, the CPU 306 of the IJP 300 proceeds to step 480. While printing the image according to the received image data, the CPU 414 of the LBP 400 is kept in the standby state until the end of printing. On the other hand, if the check result of step 470 includes the selection data 10 command in the data received through the parallel port, the IJP 300 maintains the standby state while the CPU 414 of the LBP 400 proceeds to step 480 to receive the data. The image according to the predetermined image data is printed. Meanwhile, the selection data command according to an embodiment of the present invention may be defined as 2 bit data as shown in Table 1 below.

mode Selection data Standby mode 0 IJP printing mode One LBP Printing Mode 11

Hereinafter, an operation state of each printer that performs printing according to a printer selection data command will be described with reference to FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a transition state of each printer operating in accordance with a mode selection signal according to an embodiment of the present invention. When the selection data received from the host computer 100 is 1 command, the IJP 300 prints. Mode, and if the command is 10 LBP (400) operates in the printing mode. On the other hand, if the received selection data is 0, all of them stay in standby. Therefore, when the selection data 1, 10 are sequentially input from the host computer 100, the composite printing can be performed as shown in FIG.

As described above, the present invention has an advantage of using a combination of color printing, which is an advantage of an ink jet printer, and mono printing, which is an advantage of a laser beam printer, for a predetermined image data.

Claims (2)

In the printing control method of a composite printer connected to an external device through a parallel port, And switching to a printing mode according to a predetermined printer selection signal received through the parallel port to print an image according to image data received from the external device. The printing control method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the complex printer is composed of an ink jet printer and a laser bill printer, and a color printing operation and a mono printing operation are performed in combination.