1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus which can connect a plurality of types of printers, especially, an ink-jet printer.
2. Related Background Art
Conventional printers for recording data on recording media such as a paper sheet, an OHP sheet, and the like (to be referred to as a recording sheet or simply as a sheet hereinafter) have been proposed to carry recording heads of various recording systems. As recording heads, wire-dot, thermal, thermal-transfer, and ink-jet heads are available.
In particular, since an ink-jet system directly injects or ejects ink onto a recording sheet, it has received attention as having a low-running cost and quiet recording method.
Of ink-jet systems, recently, an ink-jet printer of a type for injecting an ink from injection or ejection ports to a recording medium using bubbles generated by heat energy to record characters or images has been developed. This printer has heat generation resistors (heaters) which are arranged in the respective injection ports and are considerably smaller than piezoelectric elements used in a conventional ink-jet printer, and multiple injection ports can be arranged at a high density. Therefore, a high-quality image can be obtained, and high-speed and low-noise features can also be provided.
On the other hand, a facsimile apparatus is required not only to transmit an image at high speed but also to receive a high-quality image at high speed. The ink-jet printer of the above-mentioned type is considered as one of such printers which can satisfy the requirements in terms of its features.
A printer adopting the ink-jet system normally uses a recording head constituted by aligning very small injection ports. For this reason, an ink is prevented from being in a state not suitable for injection or recording due to entrance of bubbles or dust into the injection ports, or an increase in viscosity due to evaporation of an ink solvent. If the ink suffers from the state not suitable for recording, processing (injection recovery processing) for removing these injection error factors by refreshing the ink is executed.
As a means for executing the injection recovery processing, the printer may comprise a cap capable of covering an injection port forming surface of the recording head, and a pump communicating with the cap to apply a suction force thereto. With these means, ink injection energy generation elements inside the injection ports are driven toward the cap to inject an ink from all the injection ports (to be referred to as preliminary injection hereinafter), or a suction force is applied in a state wherein the injection port forming surface is covered with the cap, so that an ink is drawn by suction from the injection ports, thereby forcibly discharging an ink. Thus, the injection error factors are removed together with the ink.
In the ink-jet printer described above, since an ink fixing condition varies depending on a use environment or quality of paper to be used, a fixing time can be set. In the thermal transfer printer, a printing density can be set.
The various recording apparatuses such as a wire-dot printer, a thermal printer, a thermal transfer printer, an ink-jet printer, and the like have different physical recording ranges due to differences in their recording systems.
The various recording apparatuses have different recording sheet supply (paper supply) operations due to differences in their recording systems, and also have different paper feed positions. Even in recording apparatuses adopting the same recording system, if they have different assortments, their paper feed operations may often be different from each other.
Some recording apparatuses can mount a cut sheet feeder for automatically feeding cut sheets so as to allow continuous recording even when cut sheets are used. Different paper feed operations must be performed depending on whether or not the cut sheet feeder is mounted.
In recent years, information processing apparatuses which can connect several types of printers (e.g., the ink-jet printer, a thermal transfer printer, and the like) have been developed. The information processing apparatuses can select printers according to their recording characteristics.
However, in the conventional information processing apparatus described above, it is impossible to set only necessary items according to an assortment of printers to be connected. Therefore, a fixing time or a recording density cannot be alternately set depending on whether an ink-jet printer or a thermal transfer printer is connected.
If items associated with all the connectable printers are allowed to be set, unnecessary items must be set, resulting in inconvenience.
In an information processing apparatus having a facsimile function, a power supply of the apparatus is usually kept ON all day long to always allow reception. When an ink-jet printer is connected to such an information processing apparatus, a problem regarding execution timing of injection recovery processing is posed. Some conventional printers execute injection recovery processing when the power supply is turned on. However, when printers have a function such as a facsimile function which is used while the power supply is kept ON, they suffer from an ink injection error. That is, when the power supply is kept ON, injection recovery processing is not executed even when a printer is not used for a long period of time. For this reason, normal recording is disturbed due to the ink injection error.
Furthermore, since printers have different recording ranges depending on assortments of printer, an application for creating recording data must consider differences in recording ranges of printers in the conventional information processing apparatus.
Since a paper feed operation of a printer main body differs depending on assortments of printer or the presence/absence of a cut sheet feeder, a recording start position varies due to a difference in paper feed position. For this reason, a user must align a paper sheet position to obtain the same recording start position every time a paper sheet is set, resulting in cumbersome operations.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds