JPH05270075A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print on a sheet of color paper, which coexists with cut sheets of plain paper, without stopping a printing operation and to inform a user when a sheet of color paper is absent. CONSTITUTION:When an instruction to insert a sheet of color paper is given from a host device 1 during the period of time that printing is carried out on a sheet of plain paper, a color-sheet presence/absence detection part 10 ascertains whether or not a sheet of color paper exists in a sheet hopper 9. When a sheet of color paper is present, a device control part 7 stops the carrying of a sheet of plain paper, carries a sheet of color paper from the sheet hopper 9, and ejects it after printing is carried out thereon. When a sheet of color paper is absent, information on the absence of a sheet of color paper appears on a display part 4 to inform a user of it.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device, and more particularly to a printing device for printing and discharging mixed cut plain paper and colored paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional printing apparatus, as shown in FIG.
A main control unit 14 that controls the operation of the printing device 13, a display unit 15 that is visible from the outside, an operation unit 16 that can be operated from the outside, a device control unit 19 that controls the device unit of the printing device 13, A paper hopper 20 for inserting paper, a paper presence / absence detection unit 21 for detecting whether or not plain paper is present in the paper hopper 20, a memory buffer 18 for storing data from the host device 12, and a memory buffer 18 for storing data. A character drawing control unit 17 for dot-developing data into a printable form and a printing unit 22 for actually printing dot-expanded data on plain paper are configured.

The operation of the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 2 will be described below. When the paper hopper 20 to be used is designated from the higher-level device 12 or the operation unit 16, the main control unit 14 issues a command to the device control unit 19, and the device control unit 19 responds to the command to print plain paper from the paper hopper 20. 13 and carries out dot development of the data stored in the memory buffer 18 into a printable form by the character drawing control unit 17,
The printing unit 22 prints this on plain paper and discharges it to the outside of the printing device 13. Further, during the control operation, the paper presence / absence detection unit 21 always confirms whether or not the plain paper is present in the paper hopper 20, and if the absence of the plain paper is detected, the main control unit 14 recognizing this detects the display command to the display unit 15. Is displayed, and the display unit 15 displays a message indicating that there is no plain paper to inform the user.

[0004]

Since this conventional printing apparatus does not have a function of recognizing colored paper, when printing mixed plain paper and colored paper, the paper is printed and discharged to the outside of the printing apparatus. Then, stop the printing operation once, select the other paper hopper, and start the printing operation again,
A method in which plain paper and colored paper are put in advance according to the number of pages in one paper hopper has to be taken into consideration, and both methods have a problem that it is troublesome and the operability is poor.

[0005]

A printing apparatus according to the present invention is capable of printing a main control section for controlling a printing operation, a memory buffer for storing data sent from a host apparatus, and the data stored in the memory buffer. A character drawing control unit for developing dots in a form, a first paper hopper for inserting plain paper,
A second paper hopper for inserting colored paper, a colored paper presence / absence detection unit for detecting whether or not there is colored paper in the second paper hopper according to a colored paper insertion instruction from a host device, and a detection result of the colored paper presence / absence detection unit. If there is colored paper, a device control unit that conveys the colored paper from the second paper hopper to the inside of the apparatus, and if there is no colored paper, a display unit that displays the absence of colored paper by a command from the main control unit. It has and.

[0006]

The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. The printer 2 has a main controller 3 that controls its operation, a memory buffer 6 that stores data sent from the higher-level device 1,
A character drawing control unit 5 for developing dots stored in the memory buffer 6 into a printable state, a printing unit 11 for actually printing the expanded data on paper, a paper hopper 8 for inserting plain paper, Paper hopper 9 for storing colored paper
And a paper hopper 9 according to a colored paper insertion command from the host device 1.
A colored paper presence / absence detection unit 10 for detecting whether or not there is colored paper in the
If there is colored paper according to the detection result of the colored paper presence / absence detection unit 10, the device control unit 7 that conveys the colored paper from the paper hopper 9 to the inside of the printing apparatus 2 and the colored paper by the command from the main control unit 3 when there is no colored paper. And a display unit 4 for displaying that there is no.

When the paper hopper 8 of the printer 2 is selected,
The plain paper contained in the paper hopper 8 is conveyed to the inside of the printing apparatus 2, and the data stored in the memory buffer 6 is dead-developed into a printable form by the character drawing control unit 5, and the dot-developed data is converted. The printing unit 11 actually prints and ejects it to the outside of the printing apparatus 2. Next, when a color paper insertion command is issued from the host device 1, the main control unit 3 that recognizes this command
Causes the colored paper presence / absence detection unit 10 to detect whether or not there is colored paper in the paper hopper 9, and if there is colored paper according to the detection result, the main control unit 3 issues a command to the device control unit 7 and recognizes this command. The device control unit 7 stops the conveyance of the plain paper from the paper hopper 8 that has been selected so far, and newly selects the paper hopper 9. When the paper hopper 9 is selected, the device control section 7 conveys the colored paper contained in the paper hopper 9 into the printing device 2 and converts the data stored in the memory buffer 6 into characters as in the case of plain paper. The drawing control unit 5 develops dots into a printable form, and the printing unit 11 actually prints the dot-developed data on colored paper to print the data on the printing device 2.
To the outside. When there is no colored paper, the main control unit 3 issues a command to the device control unit 7 to stop the transport of plain paper from the paper hopper 8 that has been selected so far, and also to the display unit 4. The display unit 4 displays the absence of colored paper to inform the user.

[0008]

As described above, according to the present invention, whether or not there is colored paper in the paper hopper for colored paper is detected by the colored paper presence / absence detection unit in response to a colored paper insertion command from the host device, and the colored paper is detected. If there is, the device control unit stops the plain paper transport from the normal paper hopper, instead transports the colored paper in the colored paper hopper into the printing device and discharges it after printing to the outside of the printing device. be able to. If there is no colored paper, the display indicates that there is no colored paper. Therefore, the user only needs to separately put the plain paper and the colored paper in the two paper hoppers, and can easily perform the congestion printing of the plain paper and the colored paper.
Operability can also be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a conventional printing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,12 Upper device 2,13 Printing device 3,14 Main control unit 4,15 Display unit 5,17 Character drawing control unit 6,18 Memory buffer 7,19 Device control unit 8,9,20 Paper hopper 10 Color paper presence / absence detection Parts 11, 22 Printing part 16 Operation part 21 Paper presence detection part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A main control unit for controlling a printing operation, a memory buffer for storing data sent from a host device, and a character drawing control unit for developing dots of the data stored in the memory buffer into a printable form. , A first paper hopper for loading plain paper, a second paper hopper for loading colored paper,
According to the color paper presence / absence detection unit that detects whether or not there is a color paper in the second paper hopper according to a color paper insertion instruction from the host device, and if there is a color paper according to the detection result of the color paper presence / absence detection unit, It is characterized by further comprising a device control unit for conveying colored paper from the second paper hopper into the apparatus, and a display unit for displaying the absence of colored paper in response to a command from the main control unit when there is no colored paper. Printing device.