Printing apparatus and printing method
A printing apparatus for performing printing under control of a head controller which receives image data, and which is connected to a print head for printing. The head controller includes an image data shaping unit for shaping the image data into print data corresponding to the print head, a sequence information generating unit for generating sequence information, based on the print data, showing operation at a time of printing by the print head, a data guarantee information adding unit for adding data guarantee information to the print data and the sequence information, for error detection based on the print data and the sequence information, a readout unit for reading print information including the print data, the sequence information, and the data guarantee information, and an information inspecting unit for inspecting propriety of the print information based on the data guarantee information and the sequence information read by the readout unit.
1. A printing apparatus for performing printing under control of a head controller which receives image data from a print image generator, and which is interposed between the print image generator and a printing station with a print head having a plurality of inkjet type heads juxtaposed in a primary scanning direction perpendicular to a secondary scanning direction corresponding to a direction of movement relative to printing paper for printing, each head having a plurality of nozzles arranged in the primary scanning direction, the head controller comprising:
an image data shaping unit for shaping the image data into print data corresponding to each of the nozzles arranged on the plurality of heads juxtaposed on the print head;
a sequence information generating unit for generating sequence information based on the print data, the sequence information including sheet IDs indicating pages of the printing paper, line IDs indicating line numbers of the print data in the secondary scanning direction, head IDs indicating numbers of the heads, and nozzle IDs indicating nozzle row numbers in a direction of arrangement of the nozzles on the print head, and showing, with the sheet IDs, the line IDs, the head IDs, and the nozzle IDs, operation at a time of printing the print data by the print head;
a data guarantee information adding unit for adding, to the print data and the sequence information, data guarantee information generated from the print data and the sequence information for error detection in print information;
a readout unit for reading the print information including the print data, the sequence information, and the data guarantee information, and generated for each of the nozzles arranged on the plurality of heads; and
an information inspecting unit for inspecting propriety of the print information with the data guarantee information added thereto, which inspection is carried out before the print information is transmitted to the printing station, by inspecting propriety of the data guarantee information based on the data guarantee information and the sequence information read by the readout unit, and inspecting propriety of the sequence information by comparing the sequence information with printing sequence information as the printing progresses.
2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to generate the data guarantee information consisting of error-correcting codes, by encoding the printing data and the sequence information.
3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the head controller further comprises a buffer unit disposed between the data guarantee information adding unit and the readout unit.
4. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the head controller further comprises a buffer unit disposed between the data guarantee information adding unit and the readout unit.
5. The printing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the head controller further comprises a buffer unit disposed between the data guarantee information adding unit and the readout unit.
6. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the head controller further comprises a buffer unit disposed between the data guarantee information adding unit and the readout unit.
7. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to use a bank control mode which sets up a virtual arrangement of primary scanning and secondary scanning in two dimensions, and writes the print information to the buffer unit.
8. The printing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to use a bank control mode which sets up a virtual arrangement of primary scanning and secondary scanning in two dimensions, and writes the print information to the buffer unit.
9. The printing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to use a bank control mode which sets up a virtual arrangement of primary scanning and secondary scanning in two dimensions, and writes the print information to the buffer unit.
10. The printing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to use a bank control mode which sets up a virtual arrangement of primary scanning and secondary scanning in two dimensions, and writes the print information to the buffer unit.
11. The printing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to use a roll control mode which takes into consideration a delay between a plurality of nozzle rows arranged in a secondary scanning direction on the print head, and writes the print information to the buffer unit while shifting write-in positions.
12. The printing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to use a roll control mode which takes into consideration a delay between a plurality of nozzle rows arranged in a secondary scanning direction on the print head, and writes the print information to the buffer unit while shifting write-in positions.
13. The printing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to use a roll control mode which takes into consideration a delay between a plurality of nozzle rows arranged in a secondary scanning direction on the print head, and writes the print information to the buffer unit while shifting write-in positions.
14. The printing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the data guarantee information adding unit is arranged to use a roll control mode which takes into consideration a delay between a plurality of nozzle rows arranged in a secondary scanning direction on the print head, and writes the print information to the buffer unit while shifting write-in positions.
15. A printing method for performing printing under control of a head controller which receives image data from a print image generator, and which is interposed between the print image generator and a printing station with a print head having a plurality of inkjet type heads juxtaposed in a primary scanning direction perpendicular to a secondary scanning direction corresponding to a direction of movement relative to printing paper for printing, each head having a plurality of nozzles arranged in the primary scanning direction, the method comprising the steps of:
shaping the image data into print data corresponding to each of the nozzles arranged on the plurality of heads juxtaposed on the print head;
generating sequence information, showing operation of the print head at a time of printing based on the print data, the sequence information including sheet IDs indicating pages of the printing paper, line IDs indicating line numbers of the print data in the secondary scanning direction, head IDs indicating numbers of the heads, nozzle IDs indicating nozzle row numbers in a direction of arrangement of the nozzles on the print head, and showing, with the sheet IDs, the line IDs, the head IDs and the nozzle IDs, operation at a time of printing the print data by the print head;
adding, to the print data and the sequence information, data guarantee information generated from the print data and the sequence information for error detection in print information;
reading the print information including the print data, the sequence information, and the data guarantee information, and generated for each of the nozzles arranged on the plurality of heads;
inspecting propriety of the print information with the data guarantee information added thereto, which inspection is carried out before the print information is transmitted to the printing station, by inspecting propriety of the data guarantee information based on the data guarantee information and the sequence information, and inspecting propriety of the sequence information by comparing the sequence information with printing sequence information as the printing information as the printing progresses; and
executing printing based on the print information when results of the inspection of the data guarantee information and the inspection of the sequence information are both proper.
16. The printing method according to claim 15 , wherein the step of adding the data guarantee information generates the data guarantee information consisting of error-correcting codes by encoding the printing data and the sequence information.
17. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the head controller is arranged to execute printing based on the print information when results of inspection of the data guarantee information and inspection of the sequence information are both proper.