Multi-bin orientation sensitive printing system and method

Details Multi-bin orientation sensitive printing system and method Multi-bin orientation sensitive printing system and method

2003-02-14

2004-12-21

Lee, Susan (Department: 2852)

Electrophotography

Machine operation

Job mode

C399S081000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06834169

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The invention relates to devices, methods, and systems for printing simplex and duplex pages of a print job. Specifically, the invention relates to devices, methods, and systems for printing orientation sensitive simplex and duplex pages within a single print job.
2. The Relevant Art
Information is becoming increasingly more available in digital format. The information is stored for example on hard disk drives, CD-ROMs, memory cards, etc. For text information, however, many people still prefer to store, disseminate, and review printed pages. To get the information from a digital format to printed pages, printers are used.
FIG. 1
illustrates a conventional printing system
100
used for printing documents. Generally, a host application
102
prepares and formats a print job
104
. The host application
102
is typically a software application with printing capabilities. For example, the host application
102
may include a word processor, a spreadsheet, a scheduler, or the like. Alternatively, the host application
102
may be a print server, printer driver, operating system component, or other software component configured to provide a print job
104
to a printer
106
.
Typically, the print job
104
comprises control information and data. The data is the information stored as a document that is to be reproduced on a printed page. While the term “document” as used herein generally refers to text documents, those of skill in the art recognize that a document may comprise a variety of types of printed information available from a printer including text, graphics, or a combination of these. The control information provides instructions to the printer regarding the format, type, and layout of the printed page on the paper.
The print job
104
may be sent to a printer
106
across a link
108
. While a conventional printer
106
is illustrated and described, those of skill in the art will readily recognize that the printer
106
may be embodied as an ink jet printer, laser printer, copier, mopier, or other document reproducing office machine. The link
108
represents a communication path between the application
102
and the printer
106
. The link
108
may be a direct connection such as a parallel port, but is most often a network connection such as a wired or wireless LAN (Local Area Network) connection. The printer
106
is configured to print the document on paper as requested by the print job
104
.
Generally, the printer
106
prints on pre-cut sheets of paper of a selected size and orientation fed from a bin. The paper is fed in one direction through the printer
106
with the paper originating in a portrait or landscape orientation. The printer
106
prints either on the side facing up or the side facing down as a sheet passes through the printer
106
.
The printer
106
may be configured in certain currently available systems to provide both simplex printing, and duplex printing. As used herein, simplex printing refers to printing on a single side of a sheet of paper and duplex printing refers to printing on both sides of a sheet of paper. Consequently, simplex pages are pages which have printed information on one side of a sheet of paper and duplex pages are pages which have printed information on both sides of a sheet of paper.
The conventional manner of simplex printing and duplex printing on conventional blank sheets is relatively straight forward. The paper is fed through the printing mechanism and out to a stacker. If the page is a simplex page, the paper passes straight through the printer. If the page is a duplex page, one page is printed on one side and then the paper is flipped over and the paper passes through the printing mechanism again to print a page on the opposite side of the paper. By flipping the paper, a single side print mechanism is capable of duplex printing.
Simplex printing and duplex printing becomes more complicated when the paper includes special characteristics. Examples of such characteristics include letterhead, pre-printed single or dual sided forms, paper containing watermarks, logos, borders, or backgrounds on one side, paper with a special finish or design on one side, and the like. Paper for which a designated side is intended to receive printed information is referred to herein a side-sensitive paper. The page to be printed on is referred to as a side-sensitive page. Because conventional printers
106
are designed to only print on one side at a time, side-sensitive pages generally require that the paper face either up or down in the bin.
In addition, the paper may include physical characteristics such as holes along one edge, an irregular shaped edge, perforations, or the like, such that a designated placement of the information on the page in relation to the physical characteristic is desired. Paper for which the edge or other physical characteristics of the paper requires that a certain edge be oriented in a particular direction in relation to the printing mechanisms is referred to herein as edge-sensitive paper. Because conventional printers
106
are designed to minimize paper movement, including flipping, edge-sensitive paper must be oriented in the bin with a particular edge facing the printer
106
.
Of course, pages may be printed on paper which is both side sensitive and edge sensitive. The term “orientation sensitive” as used herein refers to print jobs and corresponding paper which are side sensitive, edge sensitive, or both side and edge sensitive. Orientation sensitive print jobs require that the paper be placed in the bin in such a manner that a particular side is facing up and a particular edge is facing the printer
106
. The particular paper characteristics discussed above may cause pages to be orientation sensitive for either simplex printing, duplex printing, or both.
FIG. 1A
illustrates a problem which exists when printing simplex and duplex pages on orientation sensitive paper that passes through a printer
106
configured to print on a single side of the paper at a time. Suppose orientation sensitive paper
110
is supplied to a printer
106
that executes a print job
104
for printing simplex and duplex pages. The paper
110
in this example has holes punched on the left-hand side. Generally, simplex pages travel along a simplex path
112
. Along the simplex path
112
, the paper
110
is not flipped, consequently, the paper
110
exits the printer
106
in the same orientation, with the holes oriented on the left-hand side. Duplex pages travel along a duplex path
114
and are flipped to allow for printing on the opposite side. Because the duplex page is flipped, as mentioned above, the duplex page exits that printer
106
with the holes oriented on the right-hand side. Of course, this problem is compounded if the simplex pages require one type of orientation sensitive paper and the duplex pages require a different type of orientation sensitive paper. For example, in addition to being edge-sensitive, the duplex pages may be side-sensitive as well.
Generally, it is desirable to make the printing process as automated as possible. Currently, users expect the printed pages they retrieve from the printer to be properly oriented. Orientation sensitive pages which exit the printer in a non-uniform orientation require a user to re-arrange the pages. This may be inconvenient, particularly if the number of duplex pages and simplex pages varies considerably. In the worst case, a user may be required to rearrange every other page in the stack of printed pages for a document. Consequently, one problem faced in the relevant art is that printing information on orientation sensitive paper in which some pages are simplex and some are duplex results in pages stacked in a non-uniform orientation.
FIG. 1B
illustrates a simplified side view of a printer
106
. Of course, the printer
106
may include other components which are not illustrated herein for clarity purposes. Illustrated in
FIG. 1B
are examples of a simplex path
112
and a duplex path
114
. Generally, t

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