Printing system and method for printing of printing system

Abstract

To solve such the problem that a user has to conduct adjustment of printing conditions of a printing device and adjustment of quality of material such as glossy feeling of a medium and the operation is difficult.SOLUTION: A printing system includes: a medium processing device 30 for processing a medium; a printing device 20 for performing printing on the medium that has been processed by the medium processing device 30; and a control unit 40 for controlling the medium processing device 30 and the printing device 20. The control unit 40 determines processing conditions on the medium processing device 30 on the basis of information relating to a type of the input medium to facilitate a work of adjusting printing conditions and quality of the material of the medium.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a printing system and a printing method for the printing system, and more particularly to a printing system including a printing device and a media processing device, and a printing method for the printing system. [Background technology]

[0002] 2. Description of the Related Art Printing devices that print on glossy media such as wrapping labels are known. In order to obtain the desired glossiness, in addition to the method of selecting from multiple media with different glossiness, another method is to use a glossy print production device, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, which can change the glossiness of the medium by bringing the medium into close contact with a mirror-finished hot roller. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2-160590 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] Conventional glossy print production equipment can be used to change the glossiness of media. However, if the glossiness of the media changes, the corresponding printing conditions naturally change as well. Therefore, to obtain the desired print, users must adjust the printing conditions of the printing equipment and the material, such as the glossiness of the media, separately, which is a difficult task. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] The present invention is a printing system comprising a printing device that prints on a medium, a medium processing device that processes the medium before printing to change its material, and a control unit that controls the printing device and the medium processing device, wherein the control unit receives information about the type of medium on which printing is to be performed, instructs the medium processing device on processing conditions that correspond to the received information about the type of medium, and controls the printing device to print on the processed medium based on the information about the type of medium.

[0006] Also, there is provided a printing method for a printing system that includes a printing device that prints on a medium, a medium processing device that processes the medium before printing to change its material, and a control unit that controls the printing device and the medium processing device, and that executes the steps of: receiving information about the type of medium to be printed on; instructing the medium processing device on the processing conditions of the medium processing device that correspond to the received information about the type of medium; and controlling the printing device to print on the processed medium based on the information about the type of medium. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Figure 2] 10 is a flowchart executed by the printing system. [Figure 3] 1 is a table of substrate types and parameters. [Figure 4] 10 is a display example showing information about the type of medium. [Figure 5] 10 is a flowchart executed by a printing system according to a modified example. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of output. [Figure 7] FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a printing system according to a modified example. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0008] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the same figure, the printing system 10 comprises a printing device 20 that prints on a medium, a medium processing device 30 that processes the medium before printing to change its material, and a control unit 40 that controls the printing device 20 and the medium processing device 30.

[0009] The printing device 20 generally performs predetermined printing on continuous media such as roll paper, and in this embodiment, continuous media is supplied from a media processing device 30. The media processing device 30 has rolled media set therein before processing, processes the media based on specified processing conditions to change the material properties related to gloss, and supplies the processed media to the printing device 20.

[0010] The control unit 40 instructs the processing conditions of the medium processing device 30 and the printing conditions of the printing device 20. The control unit 40 has a display operation unit 41 for receiving instructions from the user and is capable of receiving information regarding the type of medium to be printed on. The control unit 40 also has a memory unit 42 for storing, as a table, the processing conditions of the medium processing device 30 corresponding to the received information regarding the medium type and the printing conditions for controlling the printing device 20 to print on the processed medium based on the information regarding the medium type. The processing conditions include the contents of the corresponding processing control, and the printing conditions include the contents of the corresponding printing control.

[0011] FIG. 2 shows a flowchart executed by the control unit of the printing system. In step S100, the control unit 40 waits for the selection of the type of substrate. The selection of the type of substrate is a process of acquiring information about the type of medium. The type of substrate is called the substrate type.

[0012] 3 shows a table of substrate types and parameters. This table is stored in the storage unit 42. Examples of substrate types include density, gloss, ink adhesion, and ink permeability. Each of these corresponds to a specific processing condition. However, the types of substrates are not limited to these. The figure shows that various substrate types can be selected, ranging from texture-rich to wood-free paper-like properties. An example of texture-rich paper is Japanese paper-like properties, while an example of wood-free paper-like properties is photo paper-like properties. For example, by changing the density parameter, it is possible to change the texture from rich to fine paper-like.Similarly, by changing the material expression parameters of gloss, ink adhesion, and ink permeability, it is also possible to change the texture from rich to fine paper-like.

[0013] FIG. 4 shows an example of a display indicating information about the type of medium. The control unit 40 displays the screen shown in the same figure on the display operation unit 41 to accept information about the type of medium. As shown in the same figure, one of the following options, which are displayed in the label column LB: Tightness, Glossiness, Ink Adhesion, or Ink Penetration, is selected by checking it in the radio button column BT. Only sliders SL selected in the radio button column BT are enabled, and sliders SL corresponding to unselected label columns LB are disabled as indicated by dashed lines. Information about the type of medium is specified by tapping and moving an enabled slider SL left or right, and the control unit 40 accepts the information about the type of medium.

[0014] Next, in step S105, the control unit 40 reads the processing conditions corresponding to the information about the medium type, and in step S110, reads the printing conditions corresponding to the information about the medium type. The control unit 40 receives information about the medium type via the user interface shown in Figure 4 on the display operation unit 41, and based on this information, reads the corresponding processing conditions for the medium processing device 30 and the printing conditions for the printing device 20 from the memory unit 42.

[0015] Then, in step S115, the control unit 40 instructs the medium processing device 30 on the processing conditions and issues a drive instruction, and in step S120, instructs the printing device 20 on the printing conditions and issues a drive instruction. The medium processing device 30 starts operating under the instructed processing conditions and processes the medium under those processing conditions. As a result, the rolled medium before processing is processed based on the instructed processing conditions, changing the gloss-related properties and supplying the medium to the printing device 20. Furthermore, since the printing device 20 has been instructed on printing conditions corresponding to the medium processed based on the processing conditions, it prints on the supplied medium based on those printing conditions. In this way, the processing conditions for the media processing device 30 and the printing conditions for the printing device 20 are identified in accordance with the information regarding the type of media, making it easy to adjust the printing conditions and the media material.

[0016] Step S100 corresponds to a process of receiving information regarding the type of medium to be printed, steps S105 and S115 correspond to processes of instructing the medium processing device 30 on the processing conditions of the medium processing device 30 corresponding to the received information regarding the type of medium, and steps S110 and S120 correspond to processes of controlling the printing device 20 to print on the processed medium based on the information regarding the type of medium.

[0017] For example, even if information about a type of media is specified in advance, it may not necessarily match the user's preferences, and in fact, it may be necessary to specify information about a different type of media in order to match the user's preferences. Conventionally, it has taken a great many steps to find something that matches the user's preferences through trial and error.

[0018] FIG. 5 shows a flowchart executed by a printing system according to a modified example. In step S200, the control unit 40 waits for the selection of the type of substrate. This process is the same as in step S100. Next, in step S205, the control unit 40 determines a plurality of different substrate types centered around the selected type of substrate. For example, if a specific gloss level is selected in step S200 and the parameter corresponding to that gloss level is C0, in step S205, parameters C1 and C2 corresponding to the gloss levels before and after parameter C0 are identified centered around parameter C0.

[0019] In step S210, the control unit 40 loads processing conditions corresponding to a plurality of different substrate types, and in step S215, loads printing conditions corresponding to a plurality of different substrate types. Three different substrate types represented by parameters C0, C1, and C2 were determined in step S205. Three processing conditions corresponding to each of the three substrate types are loaded, and printing conditions corresponding to each of the three substrate types are loaded.

[0020] Next, in step S220, control unit 40 issues a drive instruction to medium processing device 30 specifying a plurality of different processing conditions, and in step S225 issues a drive instruction to printing device 20 specifying a plurality of different printing conditions.

[0021] Figure 6 shows an example of the output in this case. The drive instructions to the medium processing device 30 and the drive instructions to the printing device 20 are synchronized. Therefore, when the medium processing device 30 is driven while changing the medium processing conditions for each section of a predetermined medium in response to a plurality of different processing conditions, the roll-shaped medium is processed into media with different substrate types for each section and supplied to the printing device 20. This state is displayed as substrate type A, substrate type B, and substrate type C.

[0022] Furthermore, because the printing devices 20 are synchronized, printing control is performed corresponding to each substrate type. Specifically, the printing device 20 performs printing corresponding to printing control corresponding to substrate type A on the portion of substrate type A, performs printing corresponding to printing control corresponding to substrate type B on the portion of substrate type B, and performs printing corresponding to printing control corresponding to substrate type C on the portion of substrate type C. If substrate type B has a gloss corresponding to the central parameter C0, printing is performed under appropriate printing conditions for substrate types A and B before and after a slight change in gloss. Even if a user requests a specific gloss, they will be provided with three print samples with slightly different gloss levels, allowing them to select the one that best suits their preference.

[0023] According to this variant, the control unit 40 determines a plurality of different processing conditions based on information regarding the type of medium received, and these different processing conditions are processing conditions for a plurality of substrates with different properties, and as a result, the control unit 40 performs a plurality of prints corresponding to the plurality of different processing conditions.

[0024] In this example, multiple different substrate types are determined based on the selected substrate type, and processing conditions and printing conditions corresponding to each substrate type are set. -Memorize a set of processing and printing conditions for multiple different substrate types, · The processing conditions are changed for multiple different substrate types, but the printing conditions are standardized only for the selected substrate type. Once processing and printing conditions have been identified for multiple different substrate types, they can be further combined. As such, it includes a variety of variations. The combination of substrate type and printing conditions does not necessarily have to be one-to-one, and it may be preferable for users to be able to select based on the printed results.

[0025] FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the system configuration of a printing system according to a modified example. In the same figure, this printing system 100 includes multiple printing devices 120a, 120b, and 120c that print on media, multiple medium processing devices 130a, 130b, and 130c that process the media before printing to change its material, and a control unit 140 that comprehensively controls these multiple printing devices 120a, 120b, and 120c and the multiple medium processing devices 130a, 130b, and 130c.

[0026] To improve printing efficiency, multiple printers 120a, 120b, and 120c and multiple media processing devices 130a, 130b, and 130c can be installed, and the control unit 140 can control printing by appropriately combining these. Connecting each device via a network also makes it easy to change the system.

[0027] It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments. The mutually replaceable components and configurations disclosed in the above embodiments may be appropriately changed and applied. Although not disclosed in the above embodiments, members and configurations that are publicly known and can be mutually substituted for the members and configurations disclosed in the above embodiments may be appropriately substituted, and their combinations may be changed and applied. Although not disclosed in the above embodiments, members and configurations may be substituted by those skilled in the art based on publicly known techniques as substitutes for the members and configurations disclosed in the above embodiments, and the combinations may be changed and applied. is disclosed as an embodiment of the present invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0028] 10,100...printing system, 20,120a,120b,120c...printing device, 30,130a,130b,130c...medium processing device, 40,140...control unit, 41...display operation unit, 42...storage unit.

Claims

1. A printing system including a printing device that prints on a medium, a medium processing device that processes the medium before printing to change its material, and a control unit that controls the printing device and the medium processing device, A printing system characterized in that the control unit receives information regarding the type of medium to be printed, instructs the media processing device on the processing conditions of the media processing device that correspond to the received information regarding the type of medium, and controls the printing device to print on the processed medium based on the information regarding the type of medium.

2. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit includes a storage unit that stores a table in which information about the type of medium is associated with processing conditions of the medium processing device.

3. 3. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the processing conditions include any one of tension, glossiness, ink adhesion, and ink permeability.

4. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the control unit determines a plurality of different processing conditions based on received information about the type of medium.

5. 5. The printing system according to claim 4, wherein the plurality of different processing conditions are processing conditions for a plurality of substrates having different properties.

6. 5. The printing system according to claim 4, wherein the control unit controls the printing unit to perform a plurality of printing operations corresponding to the plurality of different processing conditions.

7. A printing method for a printing system including a printing device that prints on a medium, a medium processing device that processes the medium before printing to change its material, and a control unit that controls the printing device and the medium processing device, receiving information regarding the type of medium to be printed; instructing the media processing device on processing conditions for the media processing device corresponding to the information on the type of the received media; and controlling the printing device to print on the processed medium based on the information about the medium type.

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