To provide a printing system that can print, on a medium, an alignment mark for aligning the medium in a processing device that performs processing on the medium after printing without complicated work carried out by a user. The printing system includes a printer, the processing device, a printer control unit, a processing device control unit, a data creating unit that creates printing data for performing printing on the medium and processing data for performing processing on the medium after printing, and a data processor that transmits the printing data to the printer control unit and transmits the processing data to the processing device control unit. The data processor creates alignment data for aligning the medium in the processing device, and transmits the alignment data to the printer control unit. The printer control unit controls the printer to print the alignment mark on the medium.

Disclosed is a cutter module to be used with a printing apparatus. The cutter module comprises a blade driving mechanism; and a rotary cutting blade driven by the blade driving mechanism. The blade driving mechanism comprises: a clutch mechanism selectively to enable the blade driving mechanism to drive the rotary cutting blade in a forward cutting direction or a backward direction. Also disclosed is a printing system comprising the cutter module and a method to be used with the cutter module.

A cutting device comprises an upper support and a lower support arranged above and below a media plane, and a contact-free coupling device to engage and disengage the upper support and the lower support, wherein one of the upper support and the lower support is a master support and the other one of the upper and lower supports is a slave support, and further comprises a master cutting blade arranged in the master support, wherein when the upper and lower supports are engaged, the slave support follows movement of the master support.

A printer includes: a printing head; a conveyor; a cutter for cutting the medium to provide a segmented medium; a discharge roller; a counter roller; a sensor for detecting whether the segmented medium remains between the discharge roller and the counter roller; and a controller configured to perform: setting an operation mode to one of a first mode and a second mode depending on a medium kind; controlling the printing head and the conveyor to perform a first print control on the medium; controlling the sensor to detect whether the segmented medium has been removed; and permitting a second print control to be performed. When the operation mode is the first mode, the second print control is permitted after the sensor detects whether the segmented medium has been removed. When the operation mode is the first mode, the second print control is permitted without controlling the sensor.

A printer includes a printing unit, a conveying unit, a cutting unit, a casing and a controller. The controller is configured to perform receiving a setting for a discharge mode of a printed medium piece. The controller is configured to further perform, in a case where the discharge mode is currently set to a forcible discharge mode, forcibly discharging the printed medium piece from the casing through the discharging opening, a leading edge of a continuous printing medium being conveyed by a first feed amount in the conveying direction by driving the conveying unit such that the printed medium piece is pushed by the leading edge of the continuous printing medium. The controller is configured to further perform, in a case where the discharge mode is currently set to a non-forcible discharge mode, non-forcibly discharging the printed medium piece from the casing.

A post-processing apparatus includes: a cutter that cuts a transported sheet; a waste bin that stores a cutting waste generated by a cutting operation of the cutter and falling from the cutter; a sensor that detects the cutting waste at a predetermined position in a depth direction in the waste bin; and a hardware processor that controls the cutting operation of the cutter according to a cutting mode, sets a predetermined value according to the cutting mode when the sensor detects the cutting waste, counts the number of times of cutting by the cutter after the sensor starts to detect the cutting waste, and detects that the waste bin is full when the counted number of times of cutting reaches the predetermined value.

A printing apparatus includes a first roller pair configured to convey a continuous medium, a printing head that is located downstream of the first roller pair and that performs printing on the continuous medium, a cutting unit that is located downstream of the printing head and that is configured to cut the continuous medium, a second roller pair that is located downstream of the cutting unit and that is configured to convey the continuous medium, a common driving source configured to apply driving force to the first roller pair and the second roller pair, and a clutch mechanism configured to cut power from the driving source to the second roller pair, wherein the clutch mechanism is a one-way mechanism that transmits the power when the continuous medium is conveyed in a forward direction and does not transmit the power when the continuous medium is conveyed in a reverse direction.

A printing apparatus includes: a first conveyor that unspools a rolled-up medium for transport; a print head that prints on the medium; a cutter that cuts off, from the medium, a printed portion on which printing has been performed by the print head; a second conveyor that transports, in a sandwiching manner, the printed portion cut off by the cutter; a drive that drives at least the first conveyor; and a processor that controls the drive, wherein after the printed portion is cut off by the cutter and before printing is started by the print head, the processor controls the drive such that the first conveyor transports the medium in an ejection direction to a position where the medium is sandwiched by the second conveyor.

A printing apparatus includes a platen roller that transports a medium, a print head that is disposed to face the platen roller and prints on the medium, a cutter that cuts off, from the medium, a printed portion on which printing has been performed by the print head, a drive that drives the platen roller, and a processor that controls the drive. After the printed portion is cut off by the cutter, the processor controls the drive such that the platen roller transports the medium in an ejection direction and holds the medium still. After an instruction to start next printing by the print head is received, the processor controls the drive such that the platen roller transports the medium in a reverse direction opposite to the ejection direction.

A device, system and method for making custom printed products. In one embodiment of the method, input selecting one or more vector graphics is received from a user device along with a size of for the printed product. Pixel edge detection is performed on the image to generate a plurality of polygons corresponding to all shapes in the image. Polygons below a size threshold are removed. An offset is applied to each polygon. The polygons are combined. A smoothing algorithm is applied to the combined polygon. A set of curves that define the smoothed polygon is determined. A cut path is dynamically generating for the printed product in real-time in dependence on the modified vector graphic cut path and the received size so that the cut path has a shape dependent on the modified vector graphic cut path and a size dependent on the received size. The image is printed on a substrate for the image product in dependence on the received size and the offset so that the printed image has a printed size equal to the received size less the offset. The substrate is cut in dependence on the cut path.