JP2002244821A - Method of printing by using print server, print server, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method of printing by using a print server without requiring installing of drivers for all of the printer present in the network on a host side. SOLUTION: In the host 1, a PDF writer, for example, as a printer driver for preparing a PDF, is used to prepare a PDF and the PDF is transmitted to the print server 2. The print server 2, receiving the PDF, a printing job, opens the received data by using Acrobat Reader, and transmits the data to a selected printer 4 by using the driver of the printer 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing method, a print server, a program, and a recording medium. A printing method for printing print data on a network printer using a server, a print server for executing the method, a program for executing the method, and a computer-readable recording medium on which the program is recorded About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a prior art relating to a method of transferring print data to a printer connected to a network, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 8-185279 and 8-185.
No. 289, "Image forming system and printer data transfer processing method of image forming system". Both of the above publications include a page description language (PD
L) A system and data transfer processing method in which data having different command systems are developed into bitmap data and sent to a printer.

[0003]

However, since PDLs used by manufacturers differ, it is necessary to install drivers for all printers existing on the network on the host side. Further, general office documents and the like do not need the unique functions of the printer, etc., and simply output quickly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is not necessary to install drivers of all printers existing on a network on a host side. , A program, and a recording medium.

Also, according to the present invention, the user does not need to confirm the currently available printers in the actual printing operation, and further, the user sends the print job to the print server without being aware of the functions of each printer. Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing method using a print server, a print server, a program, and a recording medium that can be output only by using a print server.

Further, the present invention provides a printing method using a print server, a print server, a program, and a recording medium that do not require the user to search for an output destination printer that has output from the print server. For other purposes.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in an environment where a print server connected to a plurality of hosts via a network and a plurality of printers having different page description languages (PDLs) are provided, each of the hosts performs the printing. A print server for transmitting a print job only to a server and performing printing from one of the printers from the print server is used.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the print server receiving the print job searches the printer for an idle printer from among the printers. Data is converted into PDL of the printer and transmitted.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect of the present invention, the print server notifies the host that transmitted the print job of information about the printer that has output the print job. It is what it was.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print server which is connected to a plurality of hosts and a plurality of printers having different page description languages (PDLs) via a network. The printer is characterized by searching for an idle printer from among them, converting the data of the print job into PDL of the printer and sending the data to the printer.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the information processing apparatus according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, further comprising means for notifying a host that has transmitted the print job of information on a printer that has output the print job. .

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for executing the printing method according to any one of the first to third aspects.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium storing the program according to the sixth aspect.

[0014]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a printing method in a network printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the drawing, 1 is a host, 2 is a print server, 3 is a network, 4a -4d (often represented by 4) are printers. Note that the host 1 refers to a device capable of giving a print instruction, such as a host computer, and although not shown, there are usually a plurality of such devices.

With respect to the printing method in the network printer system of the present embodiment, a printing operation from the host 1 will be described. In the conventional printing method, when performing printing processing from the host 1, the user is a nearby printer,
After checking the printer 4 that is not currently used, for example, the color printer 4c, the printing process is performed using the driver of the printer 4c. However, in the present invention, the user only needs to perform the printing process on the print server 2 using the driver for the print server 2 without checking the printer 4 that is not currently used. here,
Data sent from the host 1 to the print server 2 is in a general-purpose page description language (hereinafter, referred to as PDL).

Next, print settings for the print server 2 will be described. In the driver from the host 1 to the print server 2, the following settings can be made. (1) selection of black and white / color, (2) selection of sending to a specific printer or sending to an arbitrary printer (speed priority),
(3) Priority when sending to an arbitrary printer.

The print server 2 searches for an available printer 4 based on the print settings for the print server described above. Regarding the selection of black and white / color, when black and white is selected, an idle one, that is, a usable one is selected from the black and white printer 4a and the black and white printer 4b. If a color is selected, the color printer 4
c and the color printer 4d that can be used are selected.

Further, regarding the selection of sending to a specific printer or sending to an arbitrary printer, when it is selected to send to a specific printer, the designated printer is selected. If it is selected to send to an arbitrary printer, it is selected according to the following priority. That is, according to the specified priority,
Select a printer. For example, when the priority is “black and white printer 4a” → “black and white printer 4b” → “color printer 4
c) → “color printer 4d”, and when the monochrome printer 4a and the monochrome printer 4b are in use,
The color printer 4c is selected.

The processing of the print server 2 is as follows.
The data (print job) sent from the host 1 is converted into PDL for the selected printer and sent to the printer. At the same time, it is preferable to notify the selected printer 4 to the host 1.

As a more specific example of the present embodiment, a PDF (Porta) manufactured by Adobe
Using a PDF Writer, which is a printer driver for creating a ble document format, a PDF is created and transmitted to the print server 2. The print server 2 that has received the PDF file, which is a print job, opens the received data using Acrobat Reader manufactured by the company, and transmits the data to the selected printer 4 using the driver of the selected printer 4. at the same time,
The host 1 is notified of the selected printer 4.

According to the present embodiment, each print job is converted into the PDL of the output printer 4 by the print server 2, so that only one printer driver needs to be installed on the host 1 side. Also, in the actual printing operation, the user does not need to check the printer 4 that can be used at present, and output is possible only by sending a print job to the print server 2. In addition, the user can use the printer 4
Just do the printing work without being aware of each function,
The print server 2 searches for the printer 4 in an idle state, converts the PDL into a PDL suitable for the printer 4, and performs printing. Further, by performing the above-described notification, the user does not need to search for the printer 4 as the output destination.

The embodiments of the printing method according to the present invention have been described above. However, the present invention is not limited to a print server for executing the above-described processes, but also for causing a host or a print server to execute the processes. The present invention can also be realized as a program and a recording medium readable by a computer (host computer) storing the program.

[0023]

According to the present invention, it is only necessary to install one printer driver for a printer having a different PDL, and the printing process is not performed for the printer in use. The troublesomeness can be reduced.

The printing of general office documents does not require a redundant function unique to the printer, and the quality is high speed irrespective of the difference in the fine part of the font or the subtle color difference in color printing. The user wants to be printed. According to the present invention, the print server searches for an idle printer and converts it into the PDL of the printer, so that the user can obtain an output result in a short time.

According to the present invention, since the print server sends a print job to an idle printer,
The user can perform the printing process and immediately retrieve the output result at the notified printer. In addition, it can be confirmed that the processing has been correctly performed by being notified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a printing method in a network printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... host, 2 ... print server, 3 ... network,
4a to 4d: Printer.

Claims (7)

[Claims] In an environment where a print server connected to a plurality of hosts via a network and a plurality of printers having different page description languages (PDLs) are provided, each host receives
A printing method using a print server, wherein a print job is transmitted only to the print server, and printing is performed from the print server by one of the printers. 2. A print server that receives the print job searches for an idle printer from the printer, converts the data of the print job into PDL of the printer, and transmits the data to the printer. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein the print server notifies information about a printer that has output the print job to a host that has transmitted the print job. 4. A plurality of host and page description languages (PD
L) a print server connected to a plurality of printers of different types via a network, for a print job from each host, searching for an idle printer from among the printers; A print server for converting job data into PDL of the printer and sending the converted data. 5. The print server according to claim 4, further comprising means for notifying the host that transmitted the print job of information about the printer that has output the print job. 6. A program for executing the printing method according to claim 1. Description: 7. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 6 is recorded.