JP2000172478A - Printer and its control method, printer driver, print system, control method for information processor, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer which can safely and securely print individual information. SOLUTION: The printer 20 has a fingerprint recognition system 23 which can recognize a fingerprint and a job file 20 having fingerprint information 19 in a queue 25 is stored in a user section 25a. A print part 27 prints print data 31 of the job file 30 stored in the user section 25a according to the fingerprint information obtained from the fingerprint recognition system 23. Relating to this printer 20, information which is not desired to be open to others can be related to the fingerprint information in relation to user individuals of individual information, etc., and the fingerprint information when obtained can be printed, so the individual information, etc., can securely be printed. Further, output for individuals can securely be performed without providing any accessories such as output boxes for the individuals.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, a control method thereof, and a printer driver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A system in which a document is created on a personal computer and output by a shared printer is generally used. Some systems have a personal output box with a lock mechanism to output personal documents or documents describing contents that are desired to be kept confidential using this printing system.

[0003]

Personal computers are used not only in factories or offices, but also in various situations such as at home or in cars, and the contents output by printers are accordingly diversified. As the exchange of e-mail via the Internet has become popular, the processing of documents or data related to personal information by personal computers has increased,
Printers also need to cope with such situations.

Providing an output box that can be opened and closed with a key or a password is one of the solutions. However, if the number of users who share the printer increases, the installation area increases, and the cost of providing the output box also increases, which is not a preferable solution. Usually, the document is automatically ejected to an output box, and since the output box is configured so that the presence or absence of a document can be recognized, the secret of the output content may not be completely retained.

On the other hand, a printing system in which a keyboard is provided in a printer and a password can be input is effective. The user can be identified by inputting the password, and it can also be recognized that the user who input the corresponding password exists near the printer. For this reason, it is possible to simply output the information related to the password and output the personal information without disclosing it. Therefore, a large system such as an output box is not required.
Personal information can be safely output by a simple and low-cost system with a printer alone or a keyboard attached.

However, in a system using a password, a password that is difficult to be stolen, that is, a password that is difficult to remember, is required in order to secure a security level. Is done. Therefore,
This results in a difficult-to-use system that attempts to maintain high security.

Therefore, in the present invention, it is easy to use,
It is another object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus which can sufficiently protect personal information with a simple configuration and a control method thereof. It is another object of the present invention to provide a printer driver and the like related thereto.

[0008]

For this reason, in the present invention, individual identification is performed using fingerprint information instead of a password. That is, the printing apparatus of the present invention includes fingerprint recognition means capable of reading fingerprints and recognizing individual fingerprints, and printing means capable of printing information previously associated with fingerprint information obtained from the fingerprint recognition means. It is characterized by. Further, a method for controlling a printing apparatus according to the present invention is a method for controlling a printing apparatus having a fingerprint recognition function capable of reading fingerprints and recognizing individual fingerprints, comprising the steps of obtaining fingerprint information by a fingerprint recognition mechanism; A printing step of printing information associated with the information in advance.

An individual can be almost completely authenticated by judging a fingerprint. Further, in recent years, a fingerprint recognition or fingerprint authentication system has been developed which is compact but has high accuracy, and a system which can be adopted instead of a password for logging in to a network via a personal computer has appeared. Therefore, a printing apparatus which can reliably identify an individual by mounting such fingerprint recognition means can be realized with a simple configuration and can be provided at low cost. In addition, by adopting a fingerprint as personal authentication information, the user does not have to remember a complicated password or regularly update the password, so that a very convenient printing apparatus can be provided.

In the printing apparatus and the control method according to the present invention, by reading a fingerprint, information related to the fingerprint is printed. For this reason, it can be seen that the user having the fingerprint is near the printing apparatus, and that the user is permitted to output information related to the fingerprint. Therefore, by simply outputting the information associated with the recognized fingerprint information, it is possible to output the user's personal information without disclosing the information to an external person, and the information is not disclosed outside the user's intention. . For this reason, the user's confidentiality can be maintained without employing a complicated, large and expensive system such as an output box having a lock mechanism. Furthermore, since the fingerprint does not need to be memorized by the user, it does not burden the user. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing apparatus that is easy to use and that can ensure the security of personal information at a high level.

Furthermore, fingerprints differ not only for each user but also for individual fingers. Therefore, it is possible to cause the printing apparatus to perform about ten different processes by simply reading the fingerprint. The user only needs to memorize which finger corresponds to which process. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing apparatus having a user interface that is extremely simple, easy to remember, and easy to use. For example, it is possible to make the type of the form to be printed correspond to the finger, or to make the number of prints correspond to the finger. If the order in which the fingerprints are read is patterned and associated with the processing, almost all processing of the printing apparatus can be instructed by the fingerprint.

Further, the printing apparatus of the present invention is not limited to output of print data including personal information, but can be used to output information desired personally. In other words, there is a system that can prevent confusion by outputting to a different tray for each output destination in a shared printing device regardless of whether or not the lock can be performed. According to the printing apparatus of the present invention, output contents (print data) can be held in the printing apparatus itself or an external storage area, and a fingerprint can be read to print information related thereto. Therefore, the printing apparatus of the present invention can print out for each user without preparing a tray for each output destination. In addition, it is also possible to store fingerprint information of authorized humans such as service personnel, and to output information for a special use such as a maintenance status sheet when the fingerprint information is recognized.

The specification of the present invention proposes some means or methods for associating fingerprint information with print data. One of them relates print data directly to fingerprint information. That is, in a file storage unit or a file storage step capable of storing print data and supplying it to a printing unit or a printing process, a job file including print data can be stored with fingerprint information attached. The easiest way is to include fingerprint information in the job file. Of course, the fingerprint information may be provided in another file associated with the job file. With this configuration, the presence / absence of data to be printed can be determined only by the presence / absence of information related to the read fingerprint, even if fingerprint information is not registered in the printing apparatus in advance.

The print data directly associated with the fingerprint information is read by an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer having a fingerprint recognition function capable of reading fingerprints and recognizing individual fingerprints and a data creation function of creating print data. The fingerprint information obtained by the fingerprint recognition function can be provided to the printing apparatus by executing an output step capable of outputting the fingerprint information in association with the data for printing. These features are:
Provided as a printer driver having output means capable of reading fingerprints and outputting fingerprint information obtained from a fingerprint recognition device capable of recognizing individual fingerprints in association with print data in a state recorded on a suitable recording medium it can. Of course, a computer network is also included in the recording medium.

The printing data and the fingerprint information obtained from the fingerprint recognition device are associated with each other, and are recorded on a recording medium in a state readable by a computer. Can be output. The recording medium may be one built in the printing device,
It may be an external recording device. Of course, it includes a recording device connected via a computer network. The easiest way to associate print data with fingerprint information is to include print data and fingerprint information in the job file.

The fingerprint information preliminarily associated with the print data may be input from the fingerprint recognition device for each job file. Alternatively, the fingerprint information may be valid during the job. The fingerprint information effective during a job includes, for example, fingerprint information used to log in to a network or a computer.

Instead of directly associating print data with fingerprint information, it is also possible to register fingerprint information in advance in a printing apparatus and indirectly associate it with fingerprint information. One method is to provide appropriate identification information in the job file,
This is a method in which means for associating the identification information with the fingerprint information is provided. According to this method, if a job file including identification information, for example, a user name or the like is stored, identification can be performed by fingerprint information.

It is also possible to provide a section associated with fingerprint information in advance in the file storage means and store the job file in that section. With this method,
Processing (confidential print) using a section associated with fingerprint information like a mailbox can be performed.
Further, in this process, if the job file includes the fingerprint information of the sender, the sender can be authenticated from the fingerprint information. It is also possible to set this section as a download section of information according to the user's preference, and it is possible to provide a printing apparatus having a function of outputting information obtained by collating information obtained from the Internet or the like with a fingerprint.

Further, some processes can be realized by using the printing apparatus and the control method of the present invention. By providing a means capable of identifying information that is not associated with fingerprint information, information that is not associated with fingerprint information can be printed immediately, and information associated with fingerprint information can be stored. That is, information that is not associated with the fingerprint information can be printed under different conditions from information associated with the fingerprint information.

In the case where a means capable of registering fingerprint information is provided in advance, when the fingerprint information that has not been registered is recognized, information associated with the fingerprint information that has not been registered, for example, an instruction manual, etc. May be printed.

As described above, in the printing apparatus and the information processing apparatus of the present invention and the printing system in which these are connected by means capable of transferring print data associated with fingerprint information, the fingerprint information is handled as common authentication information. As a result, confidential information or other personal information can be securely and securely processed without being disclosed to a third party. Although some handling of fingerprint information suitable for a printing apparatus is disclosed in this specification, it is desirable to input fingerprint information every time as a system with high security. As described above, the fingerprint information does not impose a burden on the user even if it is input every time, and is unlikely to cause an error. In addition, when fingerprint information is newly input at the time of use, there is no need to store the information in the printing apparatus, so that the influence on the capacity of the auxiliary storage device such as NVRAM is small.

On the other hand, by registering the fingerprint information as a user, the fingerprint information can be used not only for management of print data but also for other user management. For example, referring to the fingerprint information, the usage status of the printing apparatus can be totaled for each user, and a billing process can be performed.

[0023]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be further described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an outline of a printing system using a printer according to the present invention. The printing system 1 according to the present embodiment includes a personal computer (hereinafter, a personal computer) 10 and a printer 20 connected to the personal computer 10 via a LAN 2. The personal computer 10
Under the control of the OS 11, application software such as a word processor (hereinafter referred to as a word processor) 12 capable of inputting character data and the like operates. In the personal computer 10 of this example, a fingerprint recognition system 13 is operated as one of application software.
For this reason, the personal computer 10 includes, as one of the input devices,
A fingerprint reader 14 capable of reading the fingerprint of a finger placed thereon is added.

In the personal computer 10 of this embodiment, the fingerprint authentication is performed by LA.
The authentication procedure is for logging in to a predetermined computer network connected in N2. When starting up the personal computer 10, the fingerprint recognition system 13 analyzes the fingerprint of the finger placed on the fingerprint reader 14, and the fingerprint information 19 obtained as a result is collated in the user registration unit 15 of the OS 11. When the fingerprint information matches the fingerprint information of the registered user, the personal computer 10 is logged on to the network.

In the printing system 1 of this embodiment, the fingerprint information 19 read at the time of logon is used as user identification information while the personal computer 10 is operating. Therefore, when the information input by the word processor 12 is to be printed by the printer 20, the printer driver 16 installed in the personal computer 10 is activated, and the fingerprint information acquisition unit 16 a uses the fingerprint information valid in the fingerprint recognition system 13. 1
9 is acquired. Then, the fingerprint information 19 is included in the job file 30 together with the print data 31 and transmitted. For this reason, the job file 30 supplied from the personal computer 10 to the printer 20 via the LAN 2 has fingerprint information 19 in addition to the conventional job control data 33 and print data 31.

The fingerprint information 19 may be any data as long as the fingerprint can be identified. Therefore, the image data of the fingerprint itself may be used, but the image data has a large amount of data, and it needs to be stored and transferred, and it takes time to process and match the registered fingerprint with an appropriate algorithm. It takes. For this reason, information obtained by performing a process according to an appropriate algorithm on a fingerprint read by the fingerprint reader 14 and extracting features is used.

The fingerprint information from which the features are extracted is not the image data itself, but is used by extracting feature points (end points and branch points of ridges) or correlations between the feature points included in the fingerprint pattern. Therefore, the fingerprint information 19 is
Although it has a sufficient amount of information to identify each fingerprint, the amount of information itself is sufficiently smaller than the image data. For this reason, even if the job file is stored in the job file 30, the capacity of the job file is not greatly increased.
Even if transmission / reception is performed via N2, there is no obstacle to traffic. The job file 3 containing the fingerprint information 19
Even if 0 is stored in a storage section (hereinafter, queue) 25 set in a storage device such as a hard disk of the printer 20, the capacity of the queue is not significantly affected.

The printer 20 of the printing system 1 of the present embodiment
Such a job file 30 is received via the LAN 2, and print data 31 included in the job file 30 is printed on a predetermined print paper 29 and output. For this reason, a receiving unit 21 that receives the job file 30, a registration file 22 in which fingerprint information of the user is registered, a fingerprint recognition system 23 also having a function as a fingerprint reader, a queue 25,
A printing unit 27 that outputs print data of the job file 30 in the queue 25 to the printing mechanism 28 based on the fingerprint information obtained from the fingerprint recognition system 23.

The receiving section 21 has a function of determining whether the received job file 30 contains the fingerprint information 19 or not.
If the job file 30 is not included, the job file 30 is immediately transferred to the output queue of the printing mechanism 28. As a result, the content of the job file 30 that does not include the fingerprint information is
It is output immediately when the printing mechanism 28 becomes empty.

The receiving unit 21 also has a function of referring to the fingerprint registration file 22 and collating the fingerprint information 19 included in the job file 30 with the fingerprint information of the registered user. If the fingerprint information 19 included in the job file 30 belongs to a registered user, the queue 2
Applicable user section prepared in 5 (personal queue)
25a. On the other hand, if there is no corresponding fingerprint information in the fingerprint registration file 22, the fingerprint information is registered in the fingerprint registration file 22 as a new user, and
5, a user section is newly established and job files are stored.

The fingerprint recognition system 23 extracts fingerprint information from fingerprints read by the same algorithm as the fingerprint recognition system 13 mounted on the personal computer 10 described above. Therefore, when the same user places the same finger on the fingerprint recognition system 23 of the printer 20, fingerprint information having the same identity as the fingerprint information obtained by the personal computer 10 is obtained. Therefore,
The printing unit 27 compares the fingerprint information obtained from the fingerprint recognition system 23 with the fingerprint information of the user registered in the registration file 22, and when the fingerprint information matches the fingerprint information of the registered user, the corresponding user in the queue 25 is checked. The print data of the job file 30 stored in the section 25a is sent to the printing mechanism 28 for printing.

FIGS. 2 to 4 show a printing system 1 of the present embodiment.
Is shown in a flowchart. Hereinafter, further description will be made with reference to these flowcharts. FIG. 2 shows an outline of the processing in the personal computer 10. First, in step 51, character data and the like are input using the word processor 12. When the process of printing the input character is selected in step 52, the printer driver 1
6 starts. The printer driver 16 first checks in step 53 whether or not a network login has been performed. If the user is logged in, the fingerprint information used for the login is handled as valid fingerprint information 19 of the user.

On the other hand, if the user is not logged in, the fingerprint information acquisition unit 16a of the printer driver displays an appropriate screen at step 54 to confirm whether the print data requires authentication. If authentication is required, step 55
To start the fingerprint recognition system 13 and read the user's fingerprint to acquire fingerprint information. The fingerprint information obtained in step 55 or the fingerprint information 19 used for login is
In step 56, the job file 3 together with the print data 31
0 and transmitted to the printer 20 in step 57. If it is determined in step 54 that the authentication is unnecessary, the process of acquiring the fingerprint information is not performed, and the job file 30
Is transmitted to the printer 20 without fingerprint information.

The process for obtaining a fingerprint input in step 55 is as follows:
Even when valid fingerprint information is present in the job after login, it may be performed every time printing processing is performed. As a result, print data that requires authentication and print data that does not require authentication can be intentionally separated and sent to the printer 20. Further, when authentication is required, the fingerprint information used for login may be stored in the job file 30 as a default, thereby saving the trouble of starting the fingerprint recognition system one by one.

FIG. 3 shows that the printer 20 has the job file 3
The processing when 0 is received is shown. Upon receiving the job file 30, the receiving unit 21 of the printer 20 first checks in step 61 whether or not the fingerprint information 19 exists. If the fingerprint information 19 is not included, the job file 30 is sent to the output queue of the printing mechanism 28 and printed in step 65. On the other hand, if the fingerprint information 19 is included in the job file 30, it is confirmed whether or not the job file 30 has been registered. If not, the user is registered in the registration file 22 at step 63. Then, in step 64,
The job file 30 is stored in the section 25 a of the user corresponding to the fingerprint information 19.

In the printer 20 of the present embodiment, the fingerprint information 19 is collated by providing the fingerprint registration file 22, but the fingerprint information 19 of the newly received job file is
The fingerprint information of the job file 30 stored in the queue 25 may be compared with the fingerprint information, and if it is the same, it is stored in the same section 25a, and if not, it is stored in a new section. .

FIG. 4 shows an outline of a process for printing in the printer 20 using the fingerprint authentication system. First, in step 71, it is determined whether or not a finger is put on the fingerprint recognition system 23 to obtain fingerprint information. If the fingerprint information is not input, the printer 20 of the present example proceeds to step 7
When the job file 30 that is in the standby state and does not include the fingerprint information is received at 2, the print data is printed as needed. On the other hand, when the fingerprint information is obtained in step 71, it is determined in step 73 whether the fingerprint information has been registered in the registration file 22 or not.

If the fingerprint information has not been registered, step 77
In step 78, it is determined whether or not the process when the unregistered fingerprint information is input is specified. Only when the process is specified, the process is executed in step 78. If the processing is not specified, the printing mechanism 28 does not move and nothing is printed. The processing when the unregistered fingerprint information is input includes printing out an instruction manual for a new user, outputting an announcement that the user is not a registered user, and the like.

If the fingerprint information obtained from the fingerprint recognition system 23 in step 73 is a registered user, first, in step 74, the presence or absence of a plurality of registered fingerprints as the same user is determined. If a plurality of fingerprints are registered for one user, it is determined which finger is the fingerprint. If an instruction to change printing conditions such as paper size, font, and number of sheets with a finger is registered in the registration file 22, conditions corresponding to the fingerprint information obtained by the fingerprint recognition system 23 are set in step 75. In step 76, all the print data of the job file 30 stored in the corresponding user section 25a is printed.

If the printer is a simple printer, it will not be necessary to include a process of setting conditions by replacing the finger to be recognized, such as steps 74 and 75. However, a fingerprint is authentication information that can be held by a single user, and about 10 types of conditions can be easily set only by changing the finger for fingerprint authentication. For example, if a user handles a variety of forms, this finger is determined in advance as to which form is to be set and set in the printer 20. By simply changing the finger to be read by the fingerprint authentication system 23, the desired form can be changed. Can be printed. Further, it may be possible to determine a finger for designating the number of sheets and a finger for starting printing, and output the number of sheets as many times as the number of times of reading the finger for designating the number of sheets. Further, by changing the pattern for reading a plurality of fingers, it is also possible to set more conditions using only fingerprint information.

As described above, in the printer 20 of the present embodiment, the information of the job file 30 to which the fingerprint information 19 has been added is stored in the fingerprint recognition system 23 of the printer 20 by the fingerprint information 19.
If you cannot get it, it will not be printed. Conversely, job file 3
The print data of the job file 30 is printed as soon as the fingerprint information matching the fingerprint information 19 included in 0 is obtained from the fingerprint recognition system 23. The fact that the fingerprint information of the user can be obtained by the fingerprint recognition system 23 of the printer 20 means that the user is touching the printer 20, and if the user outputs a printed matter determined to require authentication in that situation, It can properly process the printed matter output by itself. Therefore, there is no problem even if a printed matter containing the user's personal information or confidential information is output, and the security of the information can be ensured.

For this reason, the printer 20 of this embodiment is a printer very suitable for outputting such information requiring security. In addition, since the user is authenticated with a fingerprint, unlike a password, it is stolen,
The user will not forget it. Therefore, it is a user-friendly printer that can securely and securely output personal information and is easy to use.

The printer 20 of this embodiment can be used not only to output confidential information such as personal information, but also as a printer having a personal data box or mailbox. By including the identification information of the user who is the recipient in the job file 30, the receiving unit 21 can accumulate the job file 30 in the section 25a assigned to the user. At this time, if the fingerprint information of the user that can be distributed to the section 25a assigned to the user is registered in the registration file 22 in advance, the message dial that exchanges information only when the fingerprint information of the sender and the fingerprint of the receiver match is performed. You can add new functions such as model output or confidential printer.

The personal computer 10 or the printer 20
It is possible to have the function of automatically acquiring information on a computer network such as the Internet connected to the LAN 2 by itself, and to accumulate the information acquired by such a function in the user's section 25a. I can put it. In such a system, when the user places his / her finger on the fingerprint authentication system 23 of the printer 20, the desired information stored in the queue 25 is automatically output. Of course, the information may be a mail, and in this case, the section 25a of the user functions as a mailbox.

Further, it is possible to allocate one or more of the user sections 25a for a specific authorized staff such as a serviceman and register the fingerprint of the staff. Error information and the like can be stored in the section 25a of the staff, and the status sheet can be automatically output if a finger is placed on the fingerprint authentication system 23 when the service person comes to the periodic inspection. It is.

Further, since the printer 20 of this embodiment has a reliable and highly secure authentication system,
It is also suitable as an application dedicated to handling personal information that moves, for example, as a terminal for farm banking. Even when the passbook contents are printed, since the fingerprint information is output after being recognized, it is possible to reliably prevent the contents from being disclosed.

As described above, the printer 20 of the present embodiment can specify the output contents by the fingerprint information, and can be used for various purposes as described above, as well as management of personal information. Of course, the above-described processing performed based on the presence or absence of fingerprint information is merely an example, and different processing may be performed. For example, when a job file to which fingerprint information has not been added is received, it can be returned to the transmission source with an indication that printing of an unidentifiable job file is not performed. When a job file to which fingerprint information that has not been registered is added is received, it is possible to cancel the job on the assumption that the job file is not an instruction from the user of the printer.

In the above description, an example is described in which fingerprint information is included in the job file. However, the fingerprint information may be transmitted to the printer as an associated file that is different from the job file. However, including fingerprint information in the job file is the easiest way to associate.

Further, it is also possible to receive a job file to which other information capable of identifying a user, for example, a user number or the like is added, and to associate the user number with the fingerprint information of the user using a user registration file or the like. is there. Even in such a method, the user authentication in the printer is performed using the fingerprint, and the above-described processing can be performed. However, it is needless to say that it is desirable to perform user authentication with the same information as the personal computer on the transmission side.

In this example, a system in which a job file is transmitted to a printer via a network is described. However, the job file is stored in another appropriate recording medium, for example, a magnetic disk or a CD-ROM. You may do it. Since the fingerprint information serves as protection information for the medium or the file, a storage medium that can be output only by the user himself can be created.

In the above description, the printer driver is installed in the personal computer. However, the printer driver is recorded on an appropriate recording medium, for example, a floppy disk and recorded by the user. of course,
It is also possible to provide to the user via the Internet or the like.

[0052]

As described above, the printing apparatus of the present invention has means for recognizing a fingerprint, and can print information associated with fingerprint information obtained in advance. Accordingly, by associating the information such as personal information that is related to the individual user and that is not desired to be disclosed to others with the fingerprint information, it is possible to print safely and reliably. Furthermore, personal output can be reliably performed without providing an accessory such as a personal output box.

The printing apparatus of the present invention can add various new functions as described above by utilizing fingerprint information as a user interface. Therefore, according to the present invention, the range of use of the printing apparatus can be expanded, and a more convenient and easy-to-use printing apparatus can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing of a printer driver shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing when the printer shown in FIG. 1 receives a job file.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an outline of processing when the printer shown in FIG. 1 prints a job file.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printing System 2 LAN 10 Personal Computer (PC) 11 OS 12 Word Processor (Word Processor) 13 Fingerprint Authentication System 14 Fingerprint Reader 15 User Registration File 16 Printer Driver 16a Fingerprint Information Acquisition Unit 19 Fingerprint Information 20 Printer 21 Receiver 22 Registration File 23 Fingerprint Recognition system 25 Job file recording area (queue) 25a User compartment 27 Printing unit 28 Printing mechanism 30 Job file 31 Print data 33 Job control data

Claims (29)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus comprising: a fingerprint recognizing means for reading a fingerprint and recognizing individual fingerprints; and a printing means for printing information previously associated with fingerprint information obtained from the fingerprint recognizing means. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a file storage unit that stores a job file including print data and can supply the job file to the printing unit, wherein the job file is accompanied by the fingerprint information. Printing device. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the fingerprint information is included in the job file. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a file storage unit that stores a job file including print data and can supply the job file to the printing unit; the job file includes identification information; And a means for associating the fingerprint information with the fingerprint information. 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a file storage unit that stores a job file including print data and can supply the job file to the printing unit, wherein the file storage unit stores a section previously associated with the fingerprint information. A printing device, comprising: 6. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: means for identifying presence / absence of the fingerprint information associated with the information, wherein the printing means associates the information not associated with the fingerprint information with the fingerprint information. A printing apparatus that prints under conditions different from the information that is provided. 7. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a unit capable of registering the fingerprint information in advance, wherein the printing unit is capable of printing information associated with the unregistered fingerprint information. Printing device. 8. A printer driver having output means capable of reading fingerprints and outputting fingerprint information obtained from a fingerprint recognition device capable of recognizing individual fingerprints in association with print data. 9. The printer driver according to claim 8, wherein the output unit is capable of outputting a job file including the print data and the fingerprint information. 10. The output device according to claim 8, wherein
A printer driver capable of outputting a job file containing the data for printing, and further having means for inputting the fingerprint information from the fingerprint recognition device for each job file. 11. The output device according to claim 8, wherein:
A printer driver capable of outputting valid fingerprint information during a job together with a job file containing the data for printing. 12. A printing apparatus according to claim 1, an information processing apparatus comprising the printer driver according to claim 8,
Means for transferring print data associated with the fingerprint information from the information processing apparatus to a printing apparatus. 13. A recording medium, wherein print data and fingerprint information obtained from a fingerprint recognition device capable of recognizing a read fingerprint are associated with each other and recorded in a computer-readable state. 14. The recording medium according to claim 13, wherein a job file including the print data and the fingerprint information is recorded. 15. A method for controlling a printing apparatus having a fingerprint recognizing function capable of reading fingerprints and recognizing individual fingerprints, the method comprising: obtaining fingerprint information by the fingerprint recognizing mechanism; And a printing step of printing information. 16. The method according to claim 15, further comprising a file storing step of storing a job file including print data and supplying the job file to the printing step, wherein the job file is accompanied by the fingerprint information. Control method of a printing device to be used. 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the fingerprint information is included in the job file. 18. The method according to claim 15, further comprising a file storing step of storing a job file including print data and supplying the job file to the printing step, wherein the job file includes identification information; And a step of associating the fingerprint information with the fingerprint information. 19. A file storing step according to claim 15, further comprising a file storing step of storing a job file including print data and supplying the job file to said printing means. A method for controlling a printing apparatus, wherein the job file is stored. 20. The method according to claim 15, further comprising the step of identifying whether or not the fingerprint information associated with the information is present. In the printing step, information that is not associated with the fingerprint information is associated with the fingerprint information. A method for controlling a printing apparatus, wherein printing is performed under a condition different from that of the information. 21. The method according to claim 15, further comprising a step of registering the fingerprint information, wherein the printing step includes a step of printing information associated with the unregistered fingerprint information. Control method for a printing apparatus. 22. A method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising: a fingerprint recognition function capable of reading fingerprints and recognizing individual fingerprints; and a data creation function of creating print data, wherein the control method is provided by the fingerprint recognition function. A method for controlling an information processing apparatus, comprising: an output step capable of outputting fingerprint information associated with printing data. 23. The control method according to claim 22, wherein, in the output step, a job file including the print data and the fingerprint information is output. 24. The method according to claim 22, wherein the output step is capable of outputting a job file containing the data for printing, and further comprising the step of inputting the fingerprint information from the fingerprint recognition function for each job file. Control method for an information processing apparatus having the same. 25. The control method according to claim 22, wherein the output step is capable of outputting the effective fingerprint information during the job together with a job file including the data for printing. 26. A driver capable of executing a process of reading fingerprints and outputting fingerprint information obtained by a fingerprint recognition function capable of recognizing individual fingerprints in a readable state to a computer in association with print data. A recording medium on which a program is recorded. 27. The recording medium according to claim 26, wherein in the output processing, the driver program for outputting a job file including the print data and the fingerprint information is recorded. 28. The output processing according to claim 26, wherein in the output processing, a job file including the print data can be output, and further, the fingerprint information is input from the fingerprint recognition function for each job file. A recording medium storing the driver program capable of executing the program. 29. The output processing according to claim 26, wherein, in the output processing, the driver program capable of executing the processing of outputting the valid fingerprint information during the job together with the job file including the print data is recorded. A recording medium characterized by being recorded.