JPH06187104A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a printer which can output received print data to the other printer or the like. CONSTITUTION:The command system of print data from a host computer 200 is identified by an automatic print control command system identification processing part 113. As the result of this identification, when processing is made possible by control programs (1141-1143) stored in the external or internal areas of a command analysis part 114, printing is executed by this printer 100 while using any correspondent control program. On the other hand, when the processing of the received print data is made possible by a control program 1144 provided on a printer 300 connected through an interface 115 for transmission, the print data are transferred to the printer 300 by a transmission buffer 116 and the interface 115.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which operates by receiving print information from an external device such as a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional printing apparatus has an interface capable of bidirectional communication as an interface for inputting print data. However, this interface is used to output data to another printing apparatus. It wasn't something. Further, in a conventional printing apparatus that automatically identifies a print control command system, if there is no corresponding command system, processing is performed using a specific command system.

There are printing methods such as a dot impact method, an ink jet method, a laser beam method, and a thermal transfer method in a printing apparatus. Depending on the difference of the printing methods, it is possible to make a copy using, for example, carbon copy paper (dot impact). Method) and others (inkjet method, laser beam method, etc.). In other words, it is necessary to prepare a plurality of printers according to the type of paper to be printed and the intended use.

[0004]

In the above-mentioned conventional example, when there is no corresponding command system in the automatic identification of the print control command system, a certain command system is applied. For this reason, there is a problem that a command system different from the command system expected by the user may be processed, and the expected print result cannot be obtained. Therefore, there is also a problem that paper resources are wasted.

Further, since the laser beam printer using the laser system as the printing system is a non-impact system,
I cannot make copies using carbon paper. Therefore, it is necessary for the user to perform a complicated work such as switching the connection of the printer as necessary. In addition, users who want to prioritize the high speed of the laser beam printer will not only need to recreate various forms that were previously made from copy carbon paper, but also the impact type printer that was used up to now becomes unnecessary. There was a waste of money.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and provides a printing apparatus capable of outputting received print data to another printing apparatus or the like and eliminating the above problems. The purpose is to do.

[0007]

A printer according to the present invention for achieving the above object has the following configuration. That is, in a printing device that executes recording on a recording medium based on print data from an external device, a first communication unit for receiving print data from the external device is connected to another printing device, A second communication unit for transmitting the print data received from the first communication unit to the other printing device, and recording is performed by using the printing device, or by the second communication unit. A setting unit that sets whether to transmit the print data, and a transmitting unit that transmits the print data from the second communication unit based on the setting by the setting unit are provided.

[0008]

With the above arrangement, the setting means sets whether the print data received by the first communication means is processed by the printing apparatus or output from the second communication means. Then, according to the setting made by the setting means, the printing apparatus records the print data received by the first communication means, or outputs the print data by the second communication means.

Therefore, for example, by connecting another printing device to the second communication means, it becomes possible to increase the compatible command system and select a printing method suitable for the recording medium. .

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Before describing the configuration of this embodiment, the configuration of a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as "LBP") to which this embodiment is applied will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing the structure of a printer to which the present invention is applicable, for example, the case of an LBP. In the figure, reference numeral 100 denotes an LBP main body, which inputs and stores print information (character codes, etc.), form information, macro commands, etc. supplied from an externally connected host computer or the like, and according to the information. A corresponding character pattern or form pattern is created, and an image is formed on a recording paper which is a storage medium. Reference numeral 120 is an operation panel on which switches for operation and LED indicators are arranged, and 110 is the LBP main body 100.
Is a formatter control unit for performing control processing and print processing by analyzing character information and the like supplied from the host computer.
The print information expanded by the formatter control unit 110 is converted into a video signal of a corresponding pattern and output to the laser driver 131.

The laser driver 131 is a circuit for driving the semiconductor laser 141, and switches on / off the laser beam 142 emitted from the semiconductor laser 141 according to the input video signal. Laser light 1
A rotary polygon mirror 143 is swung to the left and right to scan and expose the electrostatic drum 144. As a result, an electrostatic latent image having a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 144. The latent image is developed by the developing unit 145 arranged around the electrostatic drum 144 and then transferred to the recording paper. A cut sheet is used as the recording paper, and the cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 146 mounted on the LBP 100, and is fed by the paper feed roller 147 and the transport roller 1.
It is taken into the apparatus by 48 and 149 and supplied to the electrostatic drum 144. Then, the electrostatic latent image on the electrostatic drum 144 is transferred to the recording paper to form an image.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the schematic arrangement of the printing apparatus of this embodiment.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 200 denotes a host computer, which outputs print information consisting of printer data and control codes to the printing apparatus 100.

The printing apparatus 100 is functionally roughly divided into a formatter control section 110, an output control section 130, and a printer engine section 140.

The formatter control section 110 includes a reception interface (I / F) section 111 for receiving print data from the host computer 200, a reception buffer 112 for that purpose, a print control command system automatic separate processing section 113, and a command analysis. The unit 114 is provided. Furthermore, a transmission interface (I / F) unit 115 for the purpose of connecting to another printing apparatus 300 and a transmission buffer 11 therefor.
6, a command execution unit 117, and a page memory 118. In addition, the memory card 4 which is an external storage means
A connector 119 for connecting to the printer 00 and an operation panel 1 for setting and displaying various states of the printing apparatus
Equipped with 20 etc.

Receiving interface (I / F) section 11
The reception buffer 112 for 1 is a storage unit that temporarily holds the print information received from the host computer 200. Further, the print control command system automatic identification processing unit 113 examines a part of the contents of the reception buffer 112 to identify which type of print control command system the print information sent from the host computer 200 is described. I do. Then, based on this identification result, the command analysis unit 114 performs a switching process for selecting the corresponding control program.

The command analysis section 114 is composed of a collection of control programs 1141 to 1144 conforming to each print control command system. Further, the area for storing these is divided into an internal area and an external area, and when the external area is selected (when the control program 1141 is selected), it is stored in the memory card 400 which is an external storage means via the connector 119. Configured to select a region that is In addition, the command analysis unit 114 is connected to the transmission interface (I / F) unit 115 and the printer 3
The information about the print control command system of 00 is apparently used as the control program 1144, and is used as the information for the switching process in the print control command system automatic identification processing unit 113. The apparent control program 1144 does not have the function of actually executing the command analysis process and generating and outputting the intermediate code. When this apparent control program 1144 is selected, the received print data is output to the printing apparatus 300 via the reception buffer 116 and the transmission interface unit 115.

On the other hand, the commands analyzed by the actual control programs 1141 to 1143 in the command analysis unit 114 are the intermediate results of the analysis of the print data, and the command execution unit 117 is more uniform and easier to process. Is converted to the form of intermediate code of the format. Then, the command execution unit 117 executes each command by this intermediate code, and the commands related to character printing and graphic drawing are sequentially expanded in the page memory 118. Although not shown, the formatter control unit 110 is generally configured by a computer system using a central processing unit (CPU), a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory (RAM), and the like. There is.

The output control unit 130 includes a page memory 118.
Is converted into a video signal, and the image is transferred to the printer engine unit 140. The printer engine section 140 is a printing mechanism section for forming a permanent visible image on the recording paper with the received video signal, and has been described above with reference to FIG.

Next, the print control processing procedure in the present embodiment in the printing apparatus thus constructed will be described with reference to the flow charts shown in FIGS.

First, in step S1, various states are initialized. Specifically, in the print control command system automatic identification processing, the information that manages the determined command system is initialized to the default value, and the automatic identification flag that determines whether the command system has been established is reset. A counter (CNT) that manages the number of times the identification process is repeated is cleared to zero.

Next, in step S2, print data is received from the host computer 200, and the received data is sequentially stored in the reception buffer 112. When the minimum data required for the print control command system automatic identification processing is stored in the reception buffer 112, the state of the automatic identification flag is checked in step S3, and if this flag is not set, the process proceeds to step S4. . However, if the content of the reception buffer 112 is less than the minimum number of data necessary for performing the print control command system automatic identification processing, the input of data is waited for a predetermined time. If the data is still not sent, it times out, the automatic identification flag is set with the default value command system, and the process proceeds to step S3.

Steps S4 to S8 in FIG. 4 are processes relating to automatic identification of the print control command system. First, in step S4, a predetermined data string is fetched from the reception buffer 112, and the data string is passed as a parameter to the print control command system automatic identification processing in step S5. The processing content in step S5 will be described later. In response to the identification processing result of step S5, it is checked in step S6 whether the command system sent from the host computer 200 has been decided to be a specific command system. If the command system is confirmed, step S7
Then, the line connecting the reception buffer 112 and the command analysis unit 114 is switched to the established command analysis unit.
Then, in step S8, the information for managing the command system is updated to the determined print control command system, the automatic identification flag is set, and the process returns to step S2.

When the command is not confirmed in step S6, a counter (CN
T) is counted up, and steps S4 and S are performed until the value of this counter becomes equal to or more than the processing abort set value (T).
Repeat 5 and S6. If the counter becomes equal to or larger than the set value in step S10, the print control command system automatic identification processing is terminated. Then, the process proceeds to step S11, the information for managing the command system is updated to the print control command system of the printing device connected to the output interface, the automatic identification flag is set in step S12, and the process from step S2 is performed again. To continue. In this way, even if the automatic identification process fails, the print data is transferred to another connected printing device, so that the possibility of obtaining the correct print result expected by the user is higher than before. Further, when the printing device is not connected to the transmission interface 115, the data is discarded in the process described later, so that the uncertain data that has failed in the identification in the automatic identification process does not produce a useless output result. It will also happen.

If the automatic identification flag is set in step S3, the flow advances to step S16 to determine whether the identified control command system is assigned to the printing device connected to the transmitting interface 115. To do. If they match, step S1
In step 3, it is checked whether another printing device 300 is actually connected to the transmission interface 115. The reason for checking whether or not another printing device is connected is to prevent the problem that data stays in the transmission buffer 116 for the transmission interface 115 indefinitely when there is no connection. is there. In this embodiment, if the printing apparatus is not connected in step S13, a discarding process is performed in step S15 to invalidate all the print data. If a printing device is connected, the print data input from the host computer 200 and stored in the reception buffer 112 is transferred to the transmission buffer 116 and printed via the transmission interface 115 in step S14. Device 3
Output to 00.

On the other hand, if the result of determination in step S16 is not a control command system assigned to the transmitting interface 115, the process proceeds to step S17. After step S17, a predetermined printing device process is performed by any of the control programs 1141 to 1143 of the command analysis unit 114 of the printing device 100.

First, in step S17, the contents of the reception buffer 112 are read from the beginning and passed to one of the control programs 1141 to 1143 in the internal area or the external area of the command analysis section 114. Which of the control programs 1141 to 1143 is delivered to is determined by the identification result of the print control command automatic identification processing unit 113.

In the control program, first, step S18
To check if it is a paper ejection instruction, and if it is a paper ejection instruction,
In step S23, output processing is performed. Also step S
If the print data analyzed in 18 is not a paper discharge instruction, the process proceeds to step S19, and it is determined whether the analyzed command is a command for expanding the page memory such as character printing or graphic drawing. Here, if it is not the expansion processing to the page memory, the process proceeds to step S22, and processing other than character printing / graphic drawing (for example, processing such as print position movement control and font registration) is performed. Further, in the case of the command of the expansion processing to the page memory, the process proceeds from step S19 to step S20. In step S20, an intermediate code in a form that facilitates command execution processing for expansion processing such as printing and drawing is generated. Then, in step S21, the command execution unit 117 receives the intermediate code and performs expansion processing to the page memory 118. After the completion of the expansion process, the process returns to step S17, and the print data analysis process is repeated.

If it is determined in step S18 that the paper ejection instruction is issued, the process proceeds to step S23. In step S23, the page memory 118 in the output control unit 130.
Contents of the printer engine unit 14
A video signal for 0 is converted and an image is transferred and output. The printer engine section 140 forms a permanent visible image on the recording paper with the received video signal and prints it (step S24). Then, by discharging the printed result, the print control process per page is completed (step S25).

The movement of the entire printing apparatus will be described below with reference to FIGS.
However, in the computer system of the formatter control unit 110, these processes are actually executed by the software program as a C program.
The function is realized by the execution of the PU.

Next, the print control command system automatic identification processing procedure in step S5 of FIG. 4 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

<Description of Print Control Command System Automatic Identification Processing Unit> In FIG. 5, first, in step S11, 64 bytes of print data is read from the reception buffer 112 at a time and copied to a local buffer. If the ring buffer structure is used as it is, the data may extend to the end and the beginning of the reception buffer in the physical space, and in such a case, it becomes difficult to compare the character strings. Therefore, in the automatic identification processing, the physical space is provided with a continuous local buffer.

Next, in step S12, the number of entries in the feature extraction data table that describes the characteristic commands of each control command system that are present in pair with the N control programs in the command analysis unit 114 of the printing apparatus is calculated. The managed counter n is initialized to 1.

Here, the feature extraction data table exists in the command analysis section 114 in pair with each control program, and the apparent control program 11 is present.
This table only exists in 44 as well. Here, the structure of the feature extraction data table shown in FIG. 6 will be further described. As shown in FIG. 6, the feature extraction data table includes the following information. That is, a data type part indicating that this table is feature extraction data, a data size part indicating the size of the entire table (total number of bytes), and an emulation ID part describing an ID number of each predetermined command system feature. , An emulation name section that describes the name of each command system, a command format section that stores the command format, a confirmation table pointer section that points to the start address of the confirmation table, a determination table pointer section that points to the start address of the determination table, and these two It is composed of a confirmation table section and a determination table section, which are the actual states of the tables pointed by the pointers. Then, the fixed table describes commands that exist only in that command system, and the determination table describes commands that also exist in other command systems.

Returning to FIG. 5 again, in step S13, the contents of the final table of the currently selected n-th feature output data table and the local buffer are compared. Then, in step S14, if there is a match as a result of this content comparison, the process proceeds to step S24, and the command system checked at that time is determined. If they do not match, the process proceeds to step S15. In step S15, the contents of the determination table in the feature extraction data table and the local buffer are compared. This result is determined in step S17, and if there is a match, the value of the determination counter is incremented by 1 in step S16. If they do not match in step S17, it is checked in step S18 whether or not all the determination tables have been checked. If not checked, go to step S19,
After incrementing the value of the error counter for counting the number of times of disagreement by one, the process returns to step S15 and the above-described processing is repeated.

If all the judgment tables have been checked in step 18, it is checked in step S20 whether all the Nth judgment tables have been checked. If there is any item that has not been checked, the counter n is incremented by 1 in step S21 and the process is repeated from step S13. When all the judgment tables entered in step 20 have been checked, the process proceeds to step S22, and the differences between the judgment counters and the error counters are totaled.
The command system in which this difference satisfies a certain reference value and has the largest value is determined as the command system to be used (step S23, step S24), and if not, it is undetermined (step S25). .

By the above processing, the command confirmation processing is performed in the automatic identification of the print control command system.

With the above configuration, the printing apparatus of this embodiment can be used as follows.

FIG. 7 shows an example of an invoice and a delivery slip of a product which are often used in general office procedures. The delivery slip can be made several copies at a time by carbon copy paper, but when printing using a printer, there is a drawback that it can be handled only by an impact type printer. On the contrary, the invoice does not need to be copied, and it is desirable that the invoice be printed out neatly and at high speed, and it is often inconvenient to perform the above paperwork with a single printer. In particular, although LBP has excellent characteristics such as cleanliness, high speed, and quietness, it is not used in the above-mentioned office processing field because it is not an impact method. Has occurred. Further, the LBP and the impact type printer are sometimes switched and used one by one, and the user is forced to perform a complicated operation. The printing apparatus according to the present embodiment has an excellent effect of solving such problems all at once.

FIG. 8 shows an LB having the print control means of the present invention.
It is a figure which shows an example of the wire dot printer of P and the printing system connected to it of the impact system. Where LB
The P has a control command system "ABC", and the wire dot printer has a control command system "XYZ". Furthermore, as an apparent control command system for the output interface of the LBP, the control command "X
YZ "is assigned. The LBP side outputs other than carbon paper, and the wire dot printer side handles delivery slips using carbon paper. Invoice is described by control command system" ABC ". According to the present embodiment, the host computer does not care about the contents to be output or the type of paper to be output to the LBP, and the printed matter on the carbon copy paper is described by the control command system "XYZ". In the LBP having the print control means of this embodiment, when the print data according to the control command system "XYZ" is first received, the automatic identification processing unit switches to the output interface, and The print data is output to the wire dot printer connected to the output interface, while the control command "ABC" Content in written, since LBP .LBP and wire dot printers the printing process in the body it becomes possible to perform printing processing at the same time, so that the even both effects such that is also shortened the time required for output.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
Even when the copy carbon paper needs to be printed, it is not necessary to switch the printers one by one, so that there is an effect that a user can easily reduce the printer switching operation. Further, there is an effect that the user can widen the selection range of paper types and emulation without being aware of the two printers. In addition, when replacing the printer, the existing printer can be used without any trouble.

Further, since the output to the transmitting interface is performed by the automatic identification processing, the printing apparatus main body 1
In 00, there is an advantage that print data that cannot be printed is not printed out, which leads to elimination of waste. Further, since it becomes possible to perform the printing process with two printers connected to the transmitting interface, the time required for output can be shortened.

In the first embodiment, the present invention is applied during the emulation automatic switching process, but more reliable selection can be made according to the explicit switching support from the user. The explicit switching support from the user is performed by a control command from the operation panel of the printing apparatus main body or the host computer. In this case, since the automatic identification processing does not intervene, it is not necessary for the printing apparatus main body side to recognize the control program of the printing apparatus connected to the transmission interface.

Further, the command analysis unit 11 inside the printing apparatus
It is also possible to convert the print control command corresponding to the printing device connected to the transmission interface 115 at 4 and output it. In this case, there is an advantage that the control command system received from the user can be unified.

Furthermore, by connecting a plurality of printing apparatuses of this embodiment in a daisy chain, the time required for actual printing can be dispersed, and the printing processing time can be shortened.

A laser beam printer has been described as an example of the image forming apparatus of this embodiment, but the image forming apparatus is not limited to this and is applicable to an ink jet printer described below.

<Schematic Description of Apparatus Main Body> FIG. 9 is a schematic view of an ink jet recording apparatus IJRA to which the present invention can be applied. In the figure, the carriage HC that engages with the spiral groove 5004 of the lead screw 5005 that rotates via the driving force transmission gears 5011 and 5009 in conjunction with the forward / reverse rotation of the drive motor 5013 has pins (not shown). Then
It is reciprocated in the directions of arrows a and b. This carriage HC
Inkjet cartridge IJC is mounted on. A paper pressing plate 5002 presses the paper against the platen 5000 in the moving direction of the carriage. 5
Reference numerals 007 and 5008 denote photocouplers for confirming the presence of the carriage lever 5006 in this area, and checking the motor 501.
3 is a home position detecting means for switching the rotation direction of the motor 3. Reference numeral 5016 denotes a member that supports a cap member 5022 that caps the front surface of the recording head.
Reference numeral 5 denotes a suction means for sucking the inside of the cap, which performs suction recovery of the recording head via the opening 5023 in the cap. 5
Reference numeral 017 is a cleaning blade, and 5019 is a member that allows this blade to move in the front-rear direction, and these are supported by a main body support plate 5018. Needless to say, a well-known cleaning blade can be applied to this example instead of this form. Reference numeral 5012 denotes a lever for starting suction for suction recovery, which moves in accordance with the movement of the cam 5020 that engages with the carriage, and the movement of the driving force from the driving motor is controlled by a known transmission means such as clutch switching. To be done.

The capping, cleaning, and suction recovery are configured so that the desired processing can be performed at their corresponding positions by the action of the lead screw 5005 when the carriage comes to the area on the home position side. As long as the desired operation is performed at the timing, any of the above can be applied to this example.

<Description of Control Configuration> Next, a control configuration for executing the recording control of the above-described apparatus will be described with reference to the block diagram shown in FIG. In the figure showing the control circuit, 1700 is an interface for inputting a recording signal, 1701 is an MPU, 1702 is an MPU 1701.
RO storing the control program executed by
M and 1703 are dynamic type ROMs for storing various data (recording data, recording data supplied to the head, etc.). Reference numeral 1704 is a gate array that controls the supply of print data to the print head 1708, and includes an interface 1700, an MPU 1701, and a RAM 17.
It also controls the data transfer between 03. Reference numeral 1710 is a carrier motor for carrying the recording head 1708, and 1709 is a carrying motor for carrying the recording paper. Reference numeral 1705 is a head driver for driving the head, and 1706 and 1707 are motor drivers for driving the carry motor 1709 and the carrier motor 1710, respectively.

The operation of the above control structure will be described. When a recording signal is input to the interface 1700, the gate array 1
A recording signal is converted between the 704 and the MPU 1701 to print data for printing. And the motor driver 1
The recording heads 706 and 1707 are driven, and the recording head is driven according to the recording data sent to the head driver 1705 to perform printing.

It is obvious that the constituent elements of the present invention can be incorporated in the control structure of the ink jet printer as described above, and the present invention is not limited to the laser beam printer and can be applied to the above ink jet printer and the like.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0055]

As described above, according to the printing apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to output the received print data to another printing apparatus or the like. Therefore, print data that cannot be processed by the printing apparatus can be processed by another printing apparatus or the like. Alternatively, by connecting a printing apparatus of a different printing method as another printing apparatus, it becomes possible to deal with various recording media.

[0056]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing the structure of a laser beam printer of this embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing apparatus of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a print control processing procedure in this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a print control processing procedure according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a print control command system automatic discrimination processing procedure in the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the structure of a feature extraction data table in the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a print output result according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a usage status of the printing apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an inkjet recording apparatus I to which the present invention can be applied.
It is a general view of JRA.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a control configuration for executing recording control of the inkjet recording device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 printing device (LBP) 110 formatter control unit 111 reception interface 112 reception buffer 113 print control command system automatic identification processing unit 114 command analysis unit 115 transmission interface 116 transmission buffer 117 command execution unit 118 page memory 120 operation panel

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus for performing recording on a recording medium based on print data from an external apparatus, comprising: a first communication unit for receiving print data from the external apparatus; and the first communication. Second communication means for transmitting the print data received from the means, and setting means for setting whether to record using the printing device or to transmit the print data from the second communication means And a transmission unit that transmits the print data from the second communication unit based on the setting by the setting unit. 2. The printing device further comprises an identification unit for identifying a command system of the print data received by the first communication unit, wherein the setting unit has the command system of the print data identified by the identification unit. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting is made so that the print data is transmitted from the second communication unit when the above does not correspond. 3. A registration means for registering information on the other printing device connected by the second communication means, wherein the setting means registers the result of the identification by the identification means and the registration means. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein whether or not to transmit the print data from the second communication unit is set based on the obtained information. 4. The setting means performs recording using the printing device according to a setting instruction from an operation panel or an external device connected to the first communication means, or the second device
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the communication unit sets whether to transmit the print data. 5. The discarding unit that discards the print data when another printing device is not connected to the second communication unit is further provided. Printing device. 6. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein recording is performed on a recording medium by a laser beam method based on the print data received by the first communication unit. . 7. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein recording is performed on a recording medium by an inkjet method based on print data received by the first communication unit.