Printing apparatus

An apparatus for printing a page of a book which is opened to expose a pair of pages lying within a plane of conveyance of the book, said apparatus comprising:

• printing means for printing onto one page of said exposed pair of pages of the book;
• page turning means adjacent to and separated from said printing means to define a path of book conveyance, said page turning means for turning said one page of said exposed pair of pages;
• and
• guide means for guiding the book along said book conveyance path defined between said print means and said page turning means, said guide means movable between a print position wherein said guide means is disposed inside of said page turning means to expose a page of the book to said printing means to thereby permit said print means to print upon the page exposed thereto and, a page turning position wherein said guide means is disposed inside of said printing means to expose a page of the book to said page turning means to thereby permit said page turning means to turn the page exposed thereto;
• and
• first driving means operatively coupled to said guide means for moving said guide means between said print and page turning positions;
• wherein said page turning means includes
• (a) a roller selectively rotatable in first and second opposite directions;
• (b) first transfer means for selectively transferring said roller along said conveyance path between a first position above said one page and a second position above the other page of said pair of exposed pages, wherein said one and other pages are picked up and caused to run onto said roller when said roller is in said first and second positions, respectively;
• (c) pressing means for pressing said one and other pages against said roller when said roller is in said first and second positions, respectively;
• (d) second driving means for rotating said roller in said first direction when said roller is in said first position so that said one page is picked up and caused to run onto said roller, and for rotating said roller in said second direction, opposite to said first direction, when said roller is in said second position so that said other page is picked up and caused to run onto said roller;
• and
• (e) second transfer means for transferring said book in a conveyance directly within said conveyance path when said one page is located on said roller in said first position so that said roller is shifted from said first position toward said second position thereby turning said one page, and for transferring said book when said other page is located on said roller in said second position so that said roller is shifted from said second position toward said first position thereby turning said other page.