Abstract: A method and a device for controlling the motion of a carriage in an ink jet apparatus. First, the printer receives a signal representing a command to replace the cartridge mounted on the carriage. Then, a paper detection device determines whether paper is present in the printing area of the printer. If paper is detected in the printing area, then the carriage is moved outside of the printing area. When no paper is detected by the paper detection sensor, the carriage is moved to the center of the printing area. Then, a user replaces the old ink cartridge with a new ink cartridge and sends a command to the printer indicating that the replacement process is completed. Then the carriage is returned to the position it occupied prior to the printer receiving the replace cartridge command.

Abstract: Provided with driver operating under a Microsoft Windows operating system which senses the replacement of the ink cartridge in an automatic manner and generates a print data adapted to the type of ink cartridge in case the user replaces the ink cartridge with a pressing of an ink replacement button disposed in an inkjet printer for the user's more efficient use, the driver software performing a process including the steps of: when a new ink cartridge replaces an old ink cartridge by means of an ink replacement button, performing a first bidirectional communication for sensing the type of the ink cartridge; checking whether the ink cartridge sensed is a black one; if the ink cartridge is a black one, generating black print data according to the black ink cartridge; and if the ink cartridge is not a black one, generating color print data according to the color ink cartridge.

Abstract: An ink jet recording apparatus of the invention checks a nozzle contact status of the recording head, when a nozzle slip-out occurs. If the nozzle slip-out has occurred because the nozzle is choked up, then the nozzle is automatically cleaned up. Otherwise, such as if the nozzle slip-out is caused by the poor contact of the nozzle, then the ink cartridge moves to a replacing position to inform the user that the nozzle has the poor contact. Thus, the user can easily learn of the nozzle contact status and quickly take proper measures.

Abstract: In a transporting system and method for an ink-jet printer, a paper is transported to an ejecting area without being jammed or folded by moving a print head back and forth to level-guide the transported paper with respect to the lower surface of the print head when the paper is at a designated position, while continuously transporting the paper toward the ejecting area. The system and method provide for a paper sensor which generates a sensing signal when the paper enters the paper feeding area, a position value designator which stores first and second designated position values, and an arithmetic controller which counts the number of paper feed driving steps, compares the count value to the designated position values, and determines based on the latter comparison when the paper is at a point between the feed area and the eject area at which it needs to be supported by movement of the print head back and forth.

Abstract: In an image formation apparatus receiving image data from a host computer and having an automatic paper-feed mode and a manual paper-feed mode, a method for the automatic correction of the printing margin in the manual paper-feed mode, includes the steps of: storing in a memory of the image formation apparatus a margin differential value corresponding to a difference between printing margins of each mode; selecting one among the automatic and manual modes and generating a signal indicative of the selected mode; and determining whether the generated signal corresponds to the manual paper-feed mode and then correcting the received image data according to the stored margin differential value. Thus, a margin differential existing between automatically fed paper and manually fed paper can be corrected automatically, without separate software manipulation by the user.

Abstract: An automatic sheet feeder for an ink-jet printer that uses a solenoid driven cam to move the paper tray away from the pickup roller when a sheet of paper is loaded into the printer from the automatic feed roller. This causes the paper transport velocity to be steadier and improves the quality of printing.

Abstract: A method for printing in a draft mode of a serial printer includes a first printing step for printing information data in a first direction on a first line, and a second printing step for printing information data in a second direction opposite to the first direction on a second line. The second printing step includes checking the number of dots corresponding to the data to be printed, and aligning the dots to be printed corresponding to the first and second lines in a predetermined form by determining dots to be printed according to the checked number of dots. According the principles of the present invention, every other dot is skipped and printed in turns, that is, a first dot is printed and a next dot is not printed when the number of the adjacent dots is an odd number. To the contrary, when the number of the adjacent dots is an even number, a first dot is not printed and a next dot is printed.

Abstract: A method and a device for adjusting the printing position of a printer head. When a recordable medium having a greater thickness than that of a standard cut sheet of letter size paper is inserted in an electrophotographic apparatus, it is often necessary to increase the distance between the top recordable medium in the paper supply tray and the paper input port in the electrophotographic apparatus to allow a greater number of thick sheets of recordable medium to be loaded. One method of increasing the distance is to rotate a guide panel into a position that abuts the electrophotographic apparatus and increases the distance between the paper supply tray and the paper receiving port. Unfortunately, this causes the printer head to require adjustment, as the horizontal positioning of the printable medium fed into the printer has changed. This inventive method and device uses a sensor to determine when the guide panel has been rotated and automatically adjusts the printer head's position.