Graphical sheet technique for automatically changing the conditions of a printer/plotter
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Company
InventorsJuan B. Belon Fontal, Joseph Giralt Adroher, Andrew David Mackenzie
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A technique for altering the operating conditions of a printer/plotter, which includes a laminar medium on which the coded marks are made in accordance with parameter values, an optical detector system for reading the laminar medium, a so-called acquisition system which picks up the signals from the optical system, and a microprocessor which can compare the coded values for the parameters with equivalence tables in order to provide the appropriate instructions to the printer/plotter components for changing the parameter settings.
Claims16
Method of altering the values of the setting parameters which determine the operating conditions of a printer/plotter machine or apparatus, characterised by:
- a) the production on laminar medium of optically readable different marks which are respectively coded in accordance with different values of the setting or configuration parameters of the printer/plotter machine or apparatus;
- b) supplying the laminar medium with the optically readable marks to an automatic optical reader head of the printer/plotter machine or apparatus;
- c) automatic reading of graph signals produced on the laminar medium, by means of the optical reader head incorporated in the machine or apparatus control components;
- d) transmitting the result of said automatic reading to a system microprocessor;
- e) comparing the values read with fixed tables stored in a computer memory, containing the equivalents of the different parameter values;
- f) emission of instructions by the microprocessor to the components of the machine or apparatus having operating conditions which depend on the precise values of the different parameters, and
- g) wherein the aforesaid production step includes allowing a printer/plotter user to apply optically readable graphic marks to the laminar medium prior to said supplying step.
A method of altering the setting parameters which determine the operating conditions of a printer/plotter, comprising the steps of:
- creating a laminar medium in the form of a graphical sheet having a plurality of zones, each zone being associated with at least one of the setting parameters and each zone having different reference areas respectively representing different values for the setting parameter of such zone;
- supplying said graphical sheet which includes certain marked reference areas to an automatic reader head on the printer/plotter;
- reading the marked reference areas with the reader head on the printer/plot;
- changing the operating conditions of the printer/plotter based on the results obtained by said reading step, and
- including the step of allowing a printer/plotter user to apply graphic markings to the graphical sheet prior to said supplying step.
A method of altering the setting parameters which determine the operating conditions of a printer/plotter, comprising the steps of:
- creating a laminar medium in the form of a graphical sheet having a plurality of zones, each zone being associated with at least one of the setting parameters and each zone having different reference areas respectively representing different values for the setting parameter of such zone;
- supplying said graphical sheet which includes certain marked reference areas to an automatic reader head on the printer/plotter;
- reading the marked reference areas with the reader head on the printer/plotter;
- changing the operating conditions of the printer/plotter based on the results obtained by said reading step;
- and
- wherein said reading and changing steps occur automatically upon user-actuation of a single-step manual control.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.