JP2002196909A - Printing system, method and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cancel only a specific job transmitted by a host among printing jobs waiting for printing in a printer, by a command from the host. SOLUTION: When receiving a printing job from the host 2, the printer 1 produces an unique job ID in it, stores the command of the printing job in a printing cue 12 by linking the command to the job ID, and notifies the host 2 of the job ID. The host 2 stores the notified job ID and the name of the printing job in an ID table 22. In canceling the printing job from the host 2, the host 2 incorporates the job ID of the job to be cancelled, which is selected by users, with a canceling command, and transmits the canceling command to the printer 1. The printer 1 cancels only the printing jobs having the same ID numbers as those included in the canceling command within the printing cue 12.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printer and a printing system capable of canceling a print job already sent from a host computer to a printer by a command from the host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a print job already sent to a printer can be canceled, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-6 / 1997.
There is a printing system as shown in US Pat. In this system, when print job data is sent from a host computer (hereinafter abbreviated as a host) to a printer, the printer queues the received print job data in a reception buffer. Thereafter, when a cancel command, which is one of emergency commands, comes from the host, the printer immediately processes the cancel command asynchronously with the processing of the print job data and clears the reception buffer. As a result, the print job waiting for printing in the reception buffer is canceled.

[0003]

In the conventional system described above, when a plurality of hosts are connected to a printer, a print command from another host waiting for printing is issued by a cancel command from a certain host. There is a risk of being canceled even before. Further, when a plurality of print jobs are waiting to be printed in the printer, the plurality of print jobs cannot be individually canceled and discriminated.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to eliminate the possibility that a print job from a certain host waiting for printing in a printer is canceled by a cancel command from another host.

Another object of the present invention is to enable a plurality of print jobs waiting to be printed in a printer to be distinguished and individually cancelled.

[0006]

A printing system according to the present invention includes a printer for receiving and printing a print job, and at least one host device capable of transmitting a print job and a cancel command to the printer. Prepare. The printer assigns a unique job ID within the printer to each print job at the stage of receiving the head portion of the command sequence constituting each print job, and stores each job ID in association with each print job. Then, each job ID is notified to the host device that has transmitted each print job.
The printer stores each received print job in a print queue. The host device stores the job ID notified from the printer, and when canceling a certain transmitted print job, obtains the job ID of the print job to be canceled from the stored job IDs. ,
A cancel command including the job ID is transmitted to the printer. When receiving the cancel command from the host device, the printer cancels the print job associated with the job ID that matches the job ID included in the cancel command among the print jobs in the print queue.

According to this system, the printer individually cancels a job using a job ID uniquely set for each job. Accordingly, not only a specific job among a plurality of jobs can be canceled, but also the user of each host device can cancel the job I of the job issued by another host device.
Since D cannot be known, there is no danger of erroneously canceling a job of another host device.

Further, according to this system, a job ID is given to the host device at the stage of receiving the head portion of the command sequence constituting the print job, so that the print job is still completely in the print queue. This can be canceled at the stage where printing is waiting.

The printer may be configured to notify the host apparatus of waiting information indicating a waiting state (for example, a waiting order and a waiting time) of each print job in a print queue together with the job ID of each print job. Good. Then, the host device can take flexible measures according to the waiting state.

When canceling a job, the host device displays a list of saved job IDs on a screen, incorporates the job ID selected by the user from the displayed job IDs into a cancel command, and sends the job ID to the printer. It can be configured to transmit. Or job I
A job name (for example, a file name of a print document) is also stored in association with D, and a list of the job names is displayed in place of the job ID or together with the job ID, and the user selects the job name from the list. Job I corresponding to the completed job name
D may be incorporated in the cancel command and transmitted to the printer. This makes it easier for the user to select a job to be canceled.

The functions of the above-described printer and host device are as follows.
Typically, it can be realized using a computer, and a computer program therefor includes a disk-type recording medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk and a hard disk, various memories such as a semiconductor memory and a card-type memory, or a communication network. And the like, and can be supplied to a computer through various program recording media.

Note that each host device typically has one
One computer machine such as one personal computer, but is not necessarily limited to it. A group of a plurality of computer machines can be one host device, or a command is sent to a printer. Other devices that can be connected, such as a printer server, a parent printer to which a child printer can connect, combinations thereof, and their combination with a computer machine, as well as the entire network to which the printer is connected and individual A physical or logical segment can also be a host device.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the printing system of the present invention. The printer 1 has a print job canceling function, and is connected to a host computer (hereinafter referred to as a host) 2 through a cable 3. The printer 1 receives a print job from the host 2, processes the print job to generate image data to be printed, and fetches the image data generated by the print processing unit 11 and supplies the image data from the paper feed tray 14. The printer includes a printer engine 13 that prints the target image on a sheet and discharges the target image to a discharge tray 15, and a print queue 12 that temporarily stores a print job received from the host 2 on a first-in first-out basis. The host 2 is, for example, a personal computer or the like.
A printer driver 21 that converts print job data given by the printer 1 into data in a format that can be understood by the printer 1 and sends the data to the printer 1, and an ID table 22 that stores the job ID returned from the printer 1.

A plurality of hosts may be connected to the printer 1 through a communication network such as a LAN or the Internet. In this example, one host 2 is connected to the printer 1 by a cable 3. Is shown.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, the print job transmission operation of the host 2 will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Host 2
Upon receiving the print job data from the OS, the printer driver 21 converts the print job data into data in a format understandable by the printer 1 (a sequence of print commands written in a predetermined language) in step 201 of FIG. A sequence of print commands is sequentially sent from the head to the printer 1 via the cable 3 via the OS.

When the print processing unit 11 of the printer 1 receives the head of the print command string, it executes a process shown in steps 303 and 304 in FIG. ID) and returns it to the host 2 through the cable 3. Then, the printer driver 21 of the host 2 determines in step 202 that the job ID returned from the printer 1
And stores the job ID in the ID table 22 in association with the job name of the currently transmitted print job (for example, the file name of the print document). Thereafter, the printer driver 21 sends the remaining print command group of the print job to the printer 1 in step 203, and ends the processing.

Next, the print job receiving process of the printer 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In step 301, the print processing unit 11 of the printer 1 waits for a print job from the host 2 and, when a print command sequence constituting the print job arrives, proceeds to step 302 and sequentially prints the received print commands. The data is stored in the queue (reception buffer) 12. Print processing unit 11
Determines the unique job ID in the printer 1 for the received print job in step 303 when the first part of the print command string is received and stored, and assigns the job ID to the print queue in the print queue 12. At step 304, the job ID is notified to the host 2 through the cable 3. Thereafter, the print processing unit 11 determines in step 305 that the host 2
Receives the remaining print command strings of the print job sent from the printer, and stores the remaining print command strings in the print queue 12 following the print command string head previously stored in the print queue 12.

The print processing unit 11 is configured to determine the job ID for the print job after receiving all the print commands for the print job from the host 2 and notify the host of the job ID. Can also. However, in order to be able to cancel the print job at a stage where the print job is still completely waiting for printing in the print queue 12, the print job is received immediately, that is,
When the head of the print command sequence is received, the job I
It is desirable to determine D and notify the host.

When the print processing unit 11 notifies the host 2 of the job ID in step 304, the print processing unit 11 waits for the print job with the job ID in the print queue 12 or the wait time related to the wait time. The information may be transmitted to the host 2, and the printer driver 21 of the host 2 may be configured to display the waiting information on a screen. Then, since the user can grasp the waiting time until the printing of his or her document is started, the user can take flexible measures such as canceling the job if the user waits too long.

When the user of the host 2 cancels the print job after sending the print job to the printer 1, the user performs a predetermined cancel operation on the host 2. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a cancel process of the host 2 for receiving a cancel operation. After receiving the job ID in step 202 in FIG. 2, the printer driver 21 of the host 2 executes step 4 in FIG.
In step 01, the process waits for a cancel operation. When the cancel operation is performed, the process proceeds to step 402, where
And reads the print job name and the job ID attached to the print job name from the list, and displays a list thereof on the display screen (not shown) of the host 2. On this list, the user selects a print job to be canceled with a cursor or the like. Accordingly, the printer driver 21 acquires the job ID of the selected job in step 403, sends a cancel command incorporating the job ID to the printer 1 in step 404, and ends the process.

Next, the processing of the printer 1 which has received the cancel command will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The print processing unit 11 of the printer 1 executes Step 501
In step 502, when a cancel command is waited for and a cancel command is received, a print job having a job ID matching the job ID incorporated in the cancel command is searched from the print queue 12. As a result, if a cancel target print job having a matching job ID is found in step 503, the process proceeds to step 504. If not found, the process in FIG. 5 is terminated and the print job process is continued. When the process proceeds to step 504, the print processing unit 11 cancels the print job to be canceled.

Here, the print job is canceled by the following method, for example. The print processing unit 11 reads the print commands from the print queue 12 in the order received, interprets the read print commands to create bitmap data of the image to be printed, and passes the bitmap data to the printer engine 13 to execute printing. go. In this process, the print processing unit 11 collates the job ID assigned to the print job of the print command stored in the print queue 12 with the job ID included in the received cancel command, and finds a match. As for the print job, the print command is read from the print queue 12 and ignored (that is, the normal print processing of interpreting the print command and generating the image data is not performed, but simply reading the print command). Just throw it away). As a result, the command of the print job to be canceled is ejected from the print queue 12 and the print queue 12 becomes empty, but printing of the print job is canceled.

When a cancel command is received,
If the print processing unit 11 has already developed a part of the job to be canceled into bitmap data, or is already printing on paper, the part being printed is printed as it is, and printing is still performed. The bitmap image not included in the print queue is deleted, and the print command remaining in the print queue 12 is read out from the print queue 12 and ignored, thereby canceling the print job.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the printer 1 assigns a job ID to each print job, and notifies the host 2 that issued the job the job ID.
To cancel an arbitrary print job from the host 2,
Requests the printer 1 to cancel by designating the job ID, and the printer 1 cancels only the print job having the designated job ID. Therefore, when a plurality of hosts 2 are connected to the printer 1, each host 2 can know only the job ID issued by itself, and the job ID of the print job issued by another host
, The possibility that a cancel command from one host includes a job ID from another host is substantially zero, and therefore, a cancel command from one host causes There is no risk of canceling the print job.

Since a job ID is uniquely determined in the printer 1 for each print job, when a plurality of print jobs are waiting to be printed in the printer 1, different job IDs are assigned to those print jobs. Therefore, each print job can be canceled separately from the others.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, they are for explanation of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those embodiments. The present invention can be embodied in various other forms different from the above-described embodiment in specific configurations, operations, functions, functions, and the like without departing from the gist thereof.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating print command generation / transmission processing performed by a printer driver of a host.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a print command receiving process performed by the printer.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating cancel command generation / transmission processing performed by a printer driver of a host.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a print job canceling process performed by the printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer 2 Host 3 Cable 11 Print processing part 12 Print queue 13 Engine printer 14 Paper feed tray 15 Paper discharge tray 21 Printer driver 22 ID table

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A printer that receives a print job and performs printing, and at least one host device that can transmit the print job and a cancel command to the printer, wherein the printer performs each print job. At the stage where the head portion of the command sequence to be composed is received, a unique job ID is assigned to each print job in the printer, each job ID is stored in association with each print job, and each job ID is stored. And a job receiving unit that stores the received print job in a print queue and a cancel command including a specific job ID from the host device. Job I among print jobs in the queue that matches the specific job ID
D, a cancel unit for canceling a print job associated with D, wherein the host device is an ID storage unit for storing the job ID notified from the job reception unit of the printer, and has been transmitted to the printer. And a cancel request unit for acquiring a job ID of the print job to be canceled from the ID storage unit when canceling the print job, and transmitting a cancel command including the acquired job ID to the printer. system. 2. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein the job receiving unit notifies the host device of waiting information indicating a waiting state of the printing job in the printing queue together with a job ID of the printing job. system. 3. A cancel request unit of the host device displays a list of the job IDs stored in the ID storage unit on a screen, and assigns a job ID selected from the displayed job IDs to the cancel command. The printing system according to claim 1, which is included. 4. The host device, wherein the ID storage unit stores a job name of each print job together with each job ID in association with each job ID, and wherein the cancel request unit stores the ID storage unit. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein a list of the job names stored in the list is displayed on a screen, and a job ID associated with a job name selected from the displayed job names is included in the cancel command. 5. A printer capable of receiving a print job and a cancel command from the outside, wherein at a stage where a head portion of a command sequence constituting each print job is received, a unique print command is assigned to each print job in the printer. A job ID is assigned, each job ID is stored in association with each print job, and each job ID is notified to a host device that has transmitted each print job, and each received print job is stored in a print queue. A job accepting unit, and a canceling unit that, when receiving the cancel command including the specific job ID, cancels a print job associated with a job ID that matches the specific job ID among the print jobs in the print queue. And a printer with. 6. A computer in a printer, which can receive a print job and a cancel command from the outside, uniquely identifies each print job in the printer at the stage of receiving a head portion of a command sequence constituting each print job. And stores each job ID in association with each print job, notifies the host device that transmitted each print job of each job ID, and stores each received print job in a print queue. Receiving a cancel command including a specific job ID, and canceling a print job associated with a job ID matching the specific job ID among print jobs in the print queue. Computer readable carrying computer program for functioning as means Program recording medium. 7. A method in which a printer cancels a print job received from at least one host device in response to a cancel command from the host device, wherein a first part of a command sequence constituting each print job is received. At this stage, a host device that assigns a unique job ID within the printer to each print job, stores each job ID in association with each print job, and transmits each job ID to each print job And storing each received print job in a print queue. Upon receiving a cancel command including a specific job ID from the host device, the print job in the print queue includes Job ID that matches the job ID of
Canceling the print job associated with the
Print job canceling method.