Image forming apparatus and method for discharging a medium
AssigneeOki Data Corporation
InventorTaisei Kobayashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus is capable of placing a line feed operation on hold. A memory holds an amount of line feed and discharge direction information. A controller parses the printer control data, and detects the position of the print medium based on the detection signal. An image forming section prints on the print medium while transporting the print medium. When the discharge direction information indicates a direction opposite to a direction in which the print medium is line fed. When the position of a final printed area on a page of print medium is within the page of the print medium, if a line feed is performed, the controller adds a new amount of line feed to the amount of line feed in the memory, and then places the resultant amount of line feed on hold.
Claims12
An image forming apparatus, comprising:
- a memory that stores discharge direction information indicative of a discharge direction in which a print medium is discharged, page length information about the page length of a page of the print medium, and the position of a line on the print medium relative to a leading end of the page of print medium if a line feed operation is performed;
- a receiving section configured to store printer control data and print data received from an external apparatus, the printer control data including line feed commands;
- a position detector that outputs a detection signal indicative of a position of the leading end of the page of print medium in the image forming apparatus;
- an image forming section configured to perform printing on the page of print medium and transporting the page of print medium;
- controller means reading and for parsing the print data and the printer control data until the receiving section no longer holds the print data and the printer control data, and then controlling the image forming section so that the image forming section feeds the page of the print medium to a print start position in accordance with the detection signal, and then prints the print data on the page of print medium in accordance with the parsed print data and the printer control data;
- wherein the controller means includes determination means for determining whether the discharge direction information indicates a discharge direction opposite to a line feed direction in which the page of print medium is advanced by the line feed operation and whether the parsed printer control data is a line feed command, and
- wherein the controller means further includes line-feed command parser means for adding the amount of line feed specified by the line feed command to the position on the print medium held in the memory if the determination means determines that the discharge direction is opposite to the line feed direction and that the parsed printer control data is the line feed command, and for placing the line feed operation based on the added result on hold if the position of the line on the print medium after addition is within the page length.
A method of discharging a print medium, comprising:
- receiving print data including printer control data and character data from an external apparatus, the print control data including line feed commands, a discharge direction in which a page of print medium should be discharged after printing, and a page length of the page of the print medium;
- feeding the page of print medium to a print start position;
- holding, in a memory, a position on the page of print medium when the page of print medium is at the print start position;
- parsing the print data;
- printing parsed character data when the parsed print data is character data;
- and
- determining whether or not to conduct an adding step in which the amount of line feed specified by a line feed command is added to the position of the print medium held in the memory, the determination being based on whether first and second conditions exist, the first condition being that the parsed data is the line feed command and the second condition being that the discharge direction is opposite to a line feed direction in which the page of print medium is advanced during a line feed operation,
- wherein the adding step is conducted if the first and second conditions are determined to exist and the added result is placed on hold if the position on the print medium after addition is within the page length.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.