JP2009123147A - Print control system, print control apparatus, print control method, print control program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print control system, a print control apparatus, a print control method, a print control program and a recording medium that increase printing efficiency by assigning a print job to a plurality of printers on a network. <P>SOLUTION: The print control apparatus 1 receives a print job and then performs division scheduling based on the printing performance of a plurality of printers on a network, such as printing speeds, the printing state of each printer, and the requested time to complete printing that is requested by the print job received, the division scheduling determining the number of divisions and the printers to print the print job such that the expected time to complete printing of the print job is closest to the requested time to complete printing that is requested by the print job. The plurality of printers to print the print job print the divided print job in parallel. Thus, the number of divisions and the printers to print the print job are determined optimally for the printing performance and the printing state, i.e., the actual states of the printers to be used for parallel printing, and the requested target time to complete printing. The printing can be completed at the target time. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control system, a print control device, a print control method, a print control program, and a recording medium, and more specifically, a print control system that improves print efficiency by allocating print jobs to a plurality of print devices on a network, The present invention relates to a print control apparatus, a print control method, a print control program, and a recording medium.

  In recent years, there has been a tendency to digitize information, and printing devices such as printers, facsimiles, and copying machines used for outputting digitized information have become indispensable devices. Business printing devices used in company offices and offices, and printing services of printing service companies that provide printing services under the commission of customers are connected to a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network). Moreover, it is common that it is shared by terminals such as a plurality of PCs (Personal Computers) connected to the network. When sharing a printing device via a network like this, when a printing device receives another print job during the processing of a certain print job, rather than executing the printing jobs in the order received, Conventionally, there is also a method of interrupting a print job and executing a newly received print job, so-called interruption processing, and processing a print job that requires urgent processing in advance.

  Further, when a plurality of printing devices are connected on the network, in order to improve printing efficiency, a print control device is provided on the network, and the print control device receives a print job from the client, There is a technique in which the print job is divided into a plurality of pieces and allocated to a plurality of printing apparatuses on a network for distributed printing (see Patent Document 1).

  In this distributed printing, conventionally, a print job division technique (see Patent Document 2) that divides a print job in units of copies or pages based on the attributes of the print job or the print job deadline for printing. A technique is disclosed in which a printing apparatus on a network is searched for an idle time longer than the printing time required for printing a print job, and if the idle time is not found, the print job is divided and printed (see Patent Document 3).

JP 2004-5166 A JP 2006-24005 A JP 2002-63003 A

  However, the conventional techniques described in Patent Document 2 and Patent Document 3 require improvement in order to further improve printing efficiency.

  In other words, with the above distributed printing technology, a print job is divided and printed in divided units or pages, or a print job is divided and distributed when no free time is found for each print job. However, the actual state of the printing apparatus that is the printing destination that executes the divided print job is not taken into consideration, and improvement is necessary to improve the printing efficiency.

  Further, in the above prior art, only the case where there is a single print job is considered, and when the print job is generated continuously, the printing status of the printing apparatus (paper out, paper jam, copy or facsimile) (Interrupt processing such as communication processing) is not taken into consideration, and it is necessary to improve in consideration of the case where print jobs occur continuously.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a print control system, a print control apparatus, a print control method, a print control program, and a print control system for efficiently printing a print job in consideration of both the request contents of the print job and the actual state of the printing apparatus as a printing destination. The object is to provide a recording medium.

  A print control system, a print control apparatus, and a print control method for efficiently printing in consideration of both the request contents of the print job and the actual state of the printing apparatus as a printing destination even when the print jobs are generated continuously An object of the present invention is to provide a print control program and a recording medium.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, when a print job is received, the print performance of a plurality of printing apparatuses on the network, the printing status of each printing apparatus, and the print completion request time requested by the received print job are determined. Then, the selection of a plurality of the printing devices to be processed in parallel and the distribution ratio of the received print job to the selected printing device are set, and the printing performance and the printing status of the set printing devices of the respective distribution destinations are set. The estimated print completion time of the received print job is calculated, and the distribution destination printing apparatus and distribution ratio that are closest to the print completion request time within the print completion request time are determined and the distribution ratio is determined. Performing division scheduling to divide the print job into divided print jobs, and distributing the divided print jobs corresponding to the printing devices to the determined printing devices, respectively. It is a symptom.

  In addition, according to the present invention, when a divided print job is distributed to a printing destination printing apparatus, the processing status of the divided print job and the processing status of other print jobs other than the divided print job are monitored, and based on the monitoring result. Recalculation of the predicted print completion time of the divided print job distributed to the printing apparatus is performed, and when the calculation result exceeds the print completion request time, re-division scheduling of the received print job is performed again.

  In addition, when the divided print job is distributed to the printing destination printing apparatus, the present invention monitors the error status in the distribution destination printing apparatus of the divided print job and detects an error. Based on the processing status of the divided print job, the re-division scheduling of the received print job is performed again.

  According to the present invention, when a print job is received, the print job is determined based on the print performance of a plurality of printing apparatuses on the network, the printing status of each printing apparatus, and the print completion request time requested by the received print job. A division scheduling is performed to determine the number of divisions and the printing destination printing apparatus that are closest to the print completion request time requested by the print job, and the divided printing jobs are printed to a plurality of printing destination printing apparatuses. In this way, it is possible to determine the optimal number of divisions and the printing device of the printing destination for the printing performance and printing status that are the actual conditions of the printing destination to be printed in parallel, and the target print completion request time. Printing can be ensured to improve usability.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, since the Example described below is a suitable Example of this invention, various technically preferable restrictions are attached | subjected, However, The scope of the present invention limits this invention especially in the following description. As long as there is no description of the effect, it is not restricted to these aspects.

  1 to 7 are diagrams showing an embodiment of a print control system, a print control apparatus, a print control method, a print control program, and a recording medium according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 shows a print control system and a print according to the present invention. 1 is a functional block configuration diagram of a print control apparatus 1 to which an embodiment of a control apparatus, a print control method, a print control program, and a recording medium is applied.

  In FIG. 1, a printing control device 1 uses a printing device as a general term for a plurality of printing devices (hereinafter, in this embodiment, a device having a printing function, such as a printer, a facsimile machine, a copying machine, and a composite machine). .)) May be connected to a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) connected thereto, or may be mounted on a printing apparatus connected to the network. A client device such as a personal computer that requests printing to the printing device via the print control device 1 is connected to the network, and a print job is transmitted to the print control device 1 from these client devices. .

  Although not shown, the print control apparatus 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a writable ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like, and includes a CD (Compact Disc), an MO (Magneto-Optical Disk), A print control program and necessary data recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read Only Memory), a CD-RW (Compact Disc Rewritable), a DVD (Digital Video Disk), a memory card, and a flexible disk are illustrated. 1 is provided with a functional module as shown in FIG. 1 by being read by a non-reading unit, stored in a ROM or the like, incorporated in an OS (Operating System) or the like, and executed by a CPU. It is constructed as a print control apparatus 1 that executes.

  The print control apparatus 1 has the data reception unit 2, the monitoring processing unit 3, the print performance acquisition unit 4, the data analysis unit 5, and the distribution rate calculation unit shown in FIG. 6, a job analysis unit 7, a job management unit 8, a data transmission unit 9, and the like. The management processing unit 3 includes a print status monitoring unit 3 a and a job status monitoring unit 3 b, and the job management unit 8 includes a print job management unit. A unit 8a and a schedule management unit 8b are provided.

  The data receiving unit 2 performs communication processing with a client device connected to the network, receives a print job including print data and print setting information from the client device, and receives the received print job (print data and print setting information). The data is passed to the data analysis unit 5.

  The data analysis unit 5 analyzes the print data and other print information, and acquires print job information such as the number of copies and the number of pages.

  The printing performance acquisition unit 14 is a printing device registered in advance as a printing device to be managed by the printing control device 1 among the printing devices on the network, for example, printing speed, printing quality, double-sided printing, color printing. It functions as a printing performance management means for performing printing performance acquisition processing for acquiring and managing printing, printing method, and the like.

  The monitoring processing unit 3 monitors the status of the printing apparatus that has submitted the print job via the network. Specifically, the printing status monitoring unit 3a determines the status of the printing apparatus that has requested the print job, whether or not the paper has run out, and consumption. The presence / absence of a product, the occurrence of paper jam, and the like are monitored via the network, and the job status monitoring unit 3b executes a print monitoring process for monitoring the progress status of the requested print job, for example, how many pages have been printed. It functions as a print monitoring means.

  The distribution ratio calculation unit 6 prints the print completion predicted time requested by the print job from the print performance of each printing apparatus acquired by the print performance acquisition unit 14 and the job information (data characteristics) of the print job analyzed by the data analysis unit 5. The distribution ratio (distribution ratio) of the print job that becomes the shortest within the completion request time is calculated, and the job decomposition unit 7 decomposes the print job based on the calculation result of the distribution ratio calculation unit 6.

  The job management unit 8 manages the print data of the received print job and the distributed print job, and the print job management unit 8a manages the analysis result of the data analysis unit 5 for each job. The schedule management unit 8b schedules the received print job and the distributed print job and manages the status of the scheduled print job. The distribution rate calculation unit 6, job separation unit 7, and job management unit 8 function as job management means for executing job management processing for performing division scheduling for dividing a print job into divided print jobs as a whole.

  The data transmission unit 9 functions as a distribution unit that executes distribution processing for transmitting and distributing the print job scheduled by the schedule management unit 8b of the job management unit 8 to the target printing apparatus via the network.

  Although not shown in FIG. 1, when the print control apparatus 1 is mounted on a printing apparatus such as a printer apparatus, the print control apparatus 1 distributes print jobs to the printing apparatus and monitors the printing status. Also do.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. The print control apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment analyzes the performance and printing status of the printing apparatus on the network for the received print job, and determines the printing job based on the printing deadline requested by the printing job and the printing apparatus status. The print job division required for completion and the print device that is the execution request destination of the divided print job are determined, and the print jobs received by the respective print devices are executed in parallel.

  In the print control apparatus 1, an administrator or the like can make various settings regarding scheduling as shown in FIG. 2, and the scheduling setting is, for example, an operation display unit (not shown) of the print control apparatus 1. By selecting the scheduling setting mode by operating the key, a scheduling setting screen G1 as shown in FIG. 2 is displayed on the display unit such as a liquid crystal display of the operation display unit, and check items are checked on the scheduling setting screen G1. It can be set by doing. As an item that can be set, for example, in the case of FIG. 2, whether to reschedule “automatically” when printing is not completed by the printing deadline requested by the print job depending on the printing status of the printing destination, or “manual” Select whether to perform the automatic scheduling, rescheduling when an error occurs in the printing device at the printing destination (scheduling when an error occurs), select whether to perform automatically or manually, and set the error type for rescheduling For example, as a selection of “out of paper”, “paper jam”, “out of toner”, “service call”, etc. and setting of a division unit when a print job is divided into a plurality of printing apparatuses, For example, selection from “job unit”, “copy unit”, and “page unit”. Note that the setting items for scheduling are not limited to those described above. For example, in FIG. 2, automatic and manual can be selected for rescheduling, but automatic and manual are also selected for initial scheduling. You may make it selectable.

  In this way, when the data receiving unit 2 receives a print job from a client device on the network in a state where the scheduling setting items are selected and set in this way (step S101), the print performance acquiring unit 14 Among the printing devices on the network, the printing performance of a printing device registered in advance as a printing device to be managed by the printing control device 1, such as printing speed, printing quality, duplex printing, color printing, printing method, etc. Obtain (step S102).

  Next, the data analysis unit 5 analyzes the print data of the print job received in step S101 and stores it in the print job management unit 8a, and passes it to the distribution rate calculation unit 6 (step S103), and the distribution rate calculation unit 6 However, based on the analysis result of the print job of the data analysis unit 5 and the scheduling setting state, the distribution rate of the print job is calculated and passed to the job decomposing unit 7 so that the predicted print completion time becomes the shortest (step S104). .

  The job disassembling unit 7 disassembles the print job based on the distribution rate calculated by the distribution rate calculating unit 6, calculates the print completion predicted time of the print job, and displays the calculation result as the schedule management unit 8b of the job management unit 8. (Step S105).

  The schedule management unit 8b determines a printing apparatus that is the execution destination of each divided print job based on the data analysis result stored in the print job management unit 8a and the print job decomposition result and calculation result of the job decomposition unit 7. Division scheduling is performed (step S106).

  Next, as shown in FIG. 4, the printing status monitoring unit 3a of the monitoring processing unit 3 monitors the current printing status of the printing request destination printing apparatus of the divided print job, and if necessary, the printing status monitoring unit 3a The current print job status of the printing apparatus is monitored (step S107), and the time at which all the divided print jobs in the printing apparatus that is the printing destination of each divided print job is the initial print completion predicted time of the print job. It is checked whether or not a delay (printing completion delay) occurs (step S108).

  In step S108, the schedule management unit 8b checks whether a device error has occurred in the printing destination printing apparatus when there is no delay in completion of the print job in step S108 (step S109), and if no device error has occurred. Then, each divided print job is transferred to the data transmission unit 9, and the data transmission unit 9 transmits and distributes each divided print data to the designated printing destination printing apparatus via the network (step S110).

  In step S108, when a delay in completion of the print job occurs, the schedule management unit 8b checks whether there is another available printing device (step S112), and if there is no available printing device, the current allocation is performed. It is determined that printing is performed at the shortest print completion time, and each divided print job is transferred to the data transmission unit 9, and the data transmission unit 9 transmits each divided print data via the network. Then, each is transmitted and distributed to the printing device of the designated printing destination (step S110).

  If there is another available printing device in step S112, the process returns to step S106 in FIG. 3, and the schedule management unit 8b performs rescheduling with the available printing device as one of the printing destinations (step S116). ) Based on the rescheduling result, the same processing as described above is performed from the monitoring of the printing status of the printing destination (steps S107 to S110, S112).

  In step S108, a delay in completion of the print job does not occur. However, in step S109, if an apparatus error (for example, paper jam, paper out, toner out, service call, etc.) has occurred in the printing destination printer, The management unit 8b checks whether the device error is an error selected and set as an error type for rescheduling set in the scheduling setting screen G1 (step S111). If the error is not an error type for rescheduling, Each divided print job is passed to the data transmission unit 9, and the data transmission unit 9 transmits and distributes each divided print data to the designated printing destination printing apparatus via the network (step S110).

  In step S111, if the error occurring in the printing apparatus is an error type for rescheduling, it is checked whether there is another free printing apparatus (step S112). It is determined that it is the shortest print completion time to perform printing with the currently assigned printing apparatus, and each divided print job is transferred to the data transmission unit 9, and the data transmission unit 9 transmits each divided print data to the network. Then, the data is transmitted to the specified printing destination printing apparatus and distributed (step S110).

  If there is another available printing device in step S112, the process returns to step S106 in FIG. 3, and the schedule management unit 8b performs rescheduling with the available printing device as one of the printing destinations (step S116). ) Based on the rescheduling result, the same processing as described above is performed from the monitoring of the printing status of the printing destination (steps S107 to S112).

  As described above, when the print control apparatus 1 of this embodiment receives a print job, the print performance including at least the print speed of a plurality of printing apparatuses on the network, the printing status of each printing apparatus, and the request for the received print job Based on the print completion request time to be performed, division scheduling is performed to determine the number of divisions and the printing destination printing apparatus that are the print completion prediction time closest to the print completion request time requested by the print job. The divided print job is printed in parallel by a plurality of printing destination printing apparatuses.

  Therefore, it is possible to determine the optimal number of divisions and the printing device of the printing destination for the printing performance and printing status that are the actual conditions of the printing destinations to be printed in parallel, and the target print completion request time, and printing more reliably at the target time. Completion can improve usability.

  In this way, when the print job is divided so that the print job from the client device is completed at the shortest time at the print completion request time and the print job is transmitted to a plurality of printing devices, the print control device 1 performs predetermined processing. At the timing, the printing status monitoring unit 3a and the job status monitoring unit 3b of the monitoring processing unit 3 monitor the printing status and print job of the printing request destination printing apparatus, and determine whether it is necessary to reschedule the print job.

  That is, the printing apparatus that is the printing destination of the divided print job generates a print job requested to be printed without going through the print control apparatus 1 or generates an urgent job such as copying or facsimile. The print job requested by the user may be postponed, and there is an error in the print job scheduled for the requesting printing apparatus of the divided print job before requesting the divided print job or the printing apparatus itself. Occasionally, there may occur a situation where the printing process is interrupted. When such a situation in which a printing delay occurs occurs, there is a possibility that a situation in which printing is not completed by the initial predicted completion time of printing may occur.

  Therefore, even after the divided control job is transmitted to the printing apparatus, the print control apparatus 1 executes the process from step S107 of FIG. 4 at every predetermined timing, and the print status monitoring unit 3a and the job of the monitoring processing unit 3 If the status monitoring unit 3b determines in step S108 that there is a delay in the predicted print completion time, as described above, it checks whether there is another available printing device, and there is another available printing device. 3, the schedule management unit 8b performs rescheduling with the vacant printing apparatus as one of the printing destinations (step S116), and based on the rescheduling result, the printing destination If the same processing as described above is performed from the monitoring of the printing status and it is determined that the estimated printing completion time is earlier when the vacant printing apparatus is used, a printing delay occurs. To migrate divided print job to a new printing device from the generated printing device status. That is, the divided print job is deleted from the printing apparatus in which the printing delay has occurred, the divided print job is transmitted to the new printing apparatus, and the same processing as described above is performed from the monitoring of the printing state of the printing destination ( Steps S107 to S110, S112).

  In step S112, when there is no other available printing device, the monitoring processing unit 3 causes the current printing device to perform printing as it is.

  In step S109, when a device error occurs in the printing apparatus to which the print job is sent, the monitoring processing unit 3 sets the device error as an error type requiring rescheduling set on the scheduling setting screen G1. It is checked whether or not the error is selected and set (step S111), and if it is not an error type for rescheduling, divided printing is executed as it is.

  In step S111, when the error type is the rescheduling error type, the monitoring processing unit 3 checks whether there is another free printing device (step S112), and when there is no free printing device, the current allocation is performed. The divided printing is executed as it is using the printing apparatus.

  If there is another available printing device in step S112, the process returns to step S106 in FIG. 3, and the schedule management unit 8b performs rescheduling with the available printing device as one of the printing destinations (step S116). ), Based on the rescheduling result, a divided print job is transferred from the printing apparatus in which the error has occurred to a new printing apparatus, and the same processing as described above is performed from the monitoring of the printing status of the printing destination (steps S107 to S107). S112).

  For example, when rescheduling is performed in units of copies, 3000 print jobs are scheduled in the printing apparatus A, an error occurs in a print job scheduled before the print job, interrupt printing or printing If there is a possibility that the print completion time of the print job may be delayed due to an error on the device side, etc., the distribution rate to each printing device should be as much as possible in units of copies, as judged from the printing performance of other printing devices. For example, scheduling is performed such that 2000 copies are allocated to the high-speed printing apparatus B and 1000 copies are allocated to the relatively low-speed printing apparatus C.

  In the rescheduling process, when an error occurs and the divided print job is transferred to another printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus in which the error has occurred is restored, the divided print job is returned to the restored printing apparatus. It is also possible to reschedule whether or not to select an optimal print job.

  As described above, even after a divided print job is transmitted to the printing device and distributed, the divided print job is periodically monitored to monitor the divided print job, such as an error in the printing device or an interrupt print job. As a result, if the printing is stopped or the estimated print completion time is delayed, the distribution rate of the divided print jobs and the requested printing device are dynamically reviewed to dynamically minimize the estimated print completion time. Therefore, it is possible to further improve the printing efficiency and the usability.

  In addition, when errors occur in a printing apparatus that is a divided printing destination, in general, printing cannot be resumed unless the user resolves these errors, but there are a plurality of printing jobs that execute divided printing jobs. It is burdensome for the user to monitor whether an error occurs in the printing device. As described above, when an error occurs in the printing device at the divided printing destination, the print job is automatically re-sent to another printing device. Scheduling can reduce the burden on the user and improve usability.

  Furthermore, as described above, the print control apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment can select the error type for automatically performing the division scheduling, and thus can further improve the usability. In other words, depending on the type of error that occurs in the printing device, there are those that can be recovered immediately, such as paper jams or running out of toner, and there are serious errors that take time to recover, such as failures. In this case, it is possible to select an error type for automatically performing division scheduling appropriately according to the nature of the print job, the usage status of the printing apparatus, and the like, so that the usability can be further improved. In addition, depending on the print job, there are processes that can be executed only by a specific printing apparatus, for example, stapling, punching, etc., and the specific processing function cannot be used because the printing apparatus is automatically changed. Can be reliably prevented, and the usability can be further improved.

  If a situation requiring the resetting of the scheduling occurs, if the rescheduling setting is set to manual distribution on the scheduling setting screen G1, the display on the operation display unit of the print control apparatus 1 And a rescheduling screen display to enable manual rescheduling. As shown in FIG. 2, whether to perform the rescheduling manually or automatically is selected in both the case where a prediction completion time delay occurs and the case where a device error occurs on the scheduling setting screen G1. It can be carried out.

  In addition, during the printing process, the print control apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment performs, for example, an initial scheduling by a printing apparatus error, a print job error, an interrupt printing such as a copy, as shown in FIG. Because the actual print completion time is delayed from the expected print completion time, when rescheduling to change the print destination to another printing device is performed, the printing device of the print destination is changed. Notification may be made by a method such as displaying on the display unit of the operation display unit the printing device or the like that has completed printing by rescheduling.

  In this way, it is possible to easily know a printing apparatus that is a printing destination in divided printing, and it is possible to improve usability.

  Further, the printing apparatus 1 may be a display method in which a screen for displaying the printing apparatus of the original printing destination is prepared and displayed, and when the printing destination is changed by rescheduling, that fact is also displayed. In this case, for example, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the printing apparatus 1 may display the scheduled print job and the estimated print completion time of the print job as a schedule view screen for each printing apparatus.

  In this way, the progress status of the divided print job can be known, and the usability can be further improved. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6, when the scheduling status is displayed graphically, the progress status of the divided print job can be known more appropriately, and the usability can be further improved.

  In addition, the print control apparatus 1 according to the present exemplary embodiment causes the scheduled print job to generate an error in a print job scheduled before the print job, or to cause an interrupt printing or an error on the printing apparatus side. If there is a possibility of delay in the print completion time of the print job, rescheduling is performed as described above. In this case, for example, a plurality of print jobs existing in a plurality of printing apparatuses are distributed. In order to maintain the print completion order of the initial print job, when priority is given to each divided print job and the divided print job is transferred to another printing apparatus, the divided print job is changed based on the priority. The processing order may be controlled.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 7A, the priority is given to the scheduling order or the order in which the print control apparatus has received the jobs, and the print jobs “job2”, “job4”, “job5”, “ When job6 "is arranged in the schedule queue in this order, and print jobs" job1 "and" job3 "are arranged in the schedule queue in this order in printing apparatus B, an error occurs in printing apparatus A. When rescheduling the print job “job2” to the printing apparatus B, the print job “job2” is set between the print jobs “job1” and “job2” of the printing apparatus B as shown in FIG. Insert and place.

  In this way, when there is a delay in the expected print completion predicted time, rescheduling to another printing apparatus prevents a situation in which printing is not performed in the order of scheduling as a result, The divided print jobs can be printed in the order of the original schedule, and the usability can be further improved.

  In addition, the print control apparatus 1 according to the present exemplary embodiment can select “job unit”, “copy unit”, and “page unit” as a print job division unit. Therefore, for example, if a delay occurs in the expected print completion predicted time and rescheduling is performed for another printing apparatus in units of jobs, the printing required time of the divided print job is a new printing destination printing apparatus. Depending on the printing performance, if the new printing destination printing device is a low-speed machine, there is a risk that it will be even later than the initial expected print completion time. If parallel printing is performed by dividing the printing apparatus, the time required for printing can be shortened regardless of whether the printing apparatus is low speed or high speed. Furthermore, when an error occurs during printing of a divided print job in the printing apparatus, it is possible to perform printing more in time with the print completion request time by transmitting only unoutput pages to other printing apparatuses.

  Then, as described above, the printing apparatus that has received the divided print job performs the print job according to the received divided print job.

  Therefore, it is possible to efficiently divide the print job and perform the printing process efficiently as the entire printing system.

  The printing apparatus that has received the divided print job not only notifies the processing result of the print processing according to the received divided print job in response to the inquiry from the print control apparatus 1 as described above, but also The processing result may be notified from the printing apparatus to the print control apparatus 1 at an appropriate timing such as when the processing of the print job is completed or an error occurs.

  In this way, the print control apparatus 1 can acquire the processing state of the print job more quickly, and the printing efficiency can be further improved.

  The invention made by the present inventor has been specifically described based on the preferred embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the above, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Needless to say.

  The present invention can be used for a print control system, a print control apparatus, a print control method, a print control program, and a recording medium that efficiently execute a print job by using a plurality of printing apparatuses on a network.

1 is a functional block configuration diagram of a print control apparatus to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a scheduling setting screen displayed on a display unit of the print control apparatus in FIG. 1. 2 is a flowchart showing print control processing by the print control apparatus of FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating processing subsequent to the print control processing in FIG. 3. FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a scheduling change notification screen displayed on a display unit of the print control apparatus in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a schedule view screen indicating a predicted print completion time for each printing apparatus displayed on the display unit of the printing control apparatus in FIG. 1. Explanatory drawing of rescheduling of prioritized print jobs.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Print control apparatus 2 Data reception part 3 Monitoring processing part 4 Print performance acquisition part 5 Data analysis part 6 Distribution rate calculation part 7 Job analysis part 8 Job management part 9 Data transmission part

Claims (20)

  A print control system in which a plurality of printing apparatuses that receive a print job and perform print processing, and a print control apparatus that divides and passes the print job to the plurality of printing apparatuses when the print job is received are connected to a network The printing control apparatus includes a printing performance management unit that manages printing performance of the plurality of printing apparatuses, a printing monitoring unit that monitors a printing status of each printing apparatus, and the received received print job. A plurality of units that perform the parallel processing based on the printing performance of each printing apparatus managed by the printing performance management means, the printing status of each printing apparatus monitored by the print monitoring means, and the print completion request time requested by the received print job The selection of the printing device and the distribution ratio of the received print job to the selected printing device are set, and the printing performance and printing of each of the set printing devices are set. The estimated print completion time of the received print job is calculated based on the situation, and the distribution destination printing device and distribution ratio that are closest to the print completion request time within the print completion request time are determined. A job management unit that performs division scheduling to divide the received print job into divided print jobs, and a distribution unit that distributes the divided print jobs corresponding to the printing device to the determined printing device, respectively. A printing control system.   Equipped with a print control device that is connected to a network and receives a print job, and at least one of the plurality of printing devices divides the received print job and passes it to the plurality of printing devices for parallel processing A printing control system, wherein the printing control device includes a printing performance management unit that manages printing performance of the plurality of printing devices, a printing monitoring unit that monitors a printing status of each printing device, and the received reception printing. The parallel processing based on the print performance of each printing apparatus managed by the print performance management means, the printing status of each printing apparatus monitored by the print monitoring means, and the print completion request time requested by the received print job Select a plurality of the printing devices to be set and set a distribution ratio of the received print job to the selected printing devices, and set the distribution destination printing devices A print completion prediction time of the received print job is calculated based on the printing performance and the print status, and the calculated print completion prediction time is within the print completion request time and the distribution destination printing device closest to the print completion request time Job management means for performing division scheduling for determining the distribution ratio and dividing the received print job into divided print jobs; and distribution means for distributing the divided print jobs corresponding to the printing apparatus to the determined printing apparatuses, respectively. A printing control system comprising:   A print control apparatus that divides an accepted print job into a plurality of printing apparatuses on a network and performs parallel processing, and a printing performance management unit that manages printing performance of the plurality of printing apparatuses on the network; and Print monitoring means for monitoring the printing status of each printing apparatus, printing performance of each printing apparatus managed by the printing performance management means for the received received print job, and printing of each printing apparatus monitored by the print monitoring means Based on the status and the print completion request time requested by the accepted print job, the selection of the plurality of printing devices to be processed in parallel and the distribution ratio of the accepted print job to the selected printing device are set, and the setting is performed. The estimated print completion time of the received print job is calculated based on the print performance and the print status of each distribution destination printing apparatus, and the calculated print completion predicted time is calculated as the print completion required time. Job management means for performing division scheduling for dividing the received print job into divided print jobs by determining the distribution destination printing device closest to the print completion request time within the time and dividing the received print job into divided print jobs, and for the determined printing device Distributing means for distributing the divided print jobs corresponding to the printing apparatus, respectively, and a printing control apparatus.   The print control apparatus includes a page unit, a copy unit, or a job unit as a division unit of the print job, or a division unit selection unit that prioritizes and selects the job unit. The print control system according to claim 1, the print control system according to claim 2, or the print control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the received print job is divided by the division unit selected by the selection unit.   When the distribution unit distributes the divided print job, the print control unit causes the print monitoring unit to process the processing status in the printing apparatus to which the divided print job is distributed and print jobs other than the divided print job. The job management means recalculates the predicted print completion time of the divided print job distributed to the printing apparatus based on the monitoring result of the print monitoring means, and the calculation result 5. The re-division scheduling of the received print job is performed again in consideration of the recalculation result of the predicted print completion time when the print completion request time exceeds the print completion request time. A print control system or a print control apparatus according to claim 1.   When the distribution unit distributes the divided print job, the print control unit also monitors an error status in the printing apparatus to which the divided print job is distributed, and detects an error. The job management unit performs the re-division scheduling of the received print job again based on the type of error detected by the print monitoring unit and the processing status of the divided print job. The print control system or the print control apparatus according to claim 5.   The print control apparatus includes an error designation unit that designates an error type at the printing apparatus destination that requires execution of the re-division scheduling, and the job management unit specifies a type designated by the error designation unit. When the print monitoring unit detects that the error has occurred in the printing apparatus that is the printing destination of the divided print job, the subdivision scheduling of the received print job corresponding to the divided print job is executed. The print control system or the print control apparatus according to claim 6.   When the job management unit performs the re-division scheduling according to the other print job in the printing apparatus or the occurrence of the error, the job management unit assigns the divided print job of the printing apparatus to another printing apparatus on the network in units of pages. The print control system or the print control apparatus according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein   The print control apparatus includes selection means for selecting whether to execute the division scheduling and / or the re-division scheduling automatically or manually, and the job management means determines the division scheduling or / or according to the selection result. The print control system or the print control apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the subdivision scheduling is executed.   The print control apparatus includes information notification means for notifying and outputting the print performance of each printing apparatus managed by the printing performance management means and the printing status of each printing apparatus monitored by the print monitoring means, and the job management means At least at the time of selection of the printing device for distributing the print job in the division scheduling by manual execution and / or the re-division scheduling and setting the distribution ratio of the print job to the selected printing device. The print control system or the print control apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the notification information is notified.   The print control apparatus includes a notification unit configured to notify and output, as division scheduling information, information on a division state of the division print job by the division scheduling and information on the printing apparatus to which the division print job is distributed. The print control system or the print control apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10.   In the division scheduling and / or the re-division scheduling, the job management unit gives order information for designating a processing order of the divided print job to the divided print job, and the distribution unit is given the order information. 12. The print control system or the print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the divided print job is distributed to the printing apparatus that processes the divided print job.   5. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the divided print job distributed from the print control apparatus is received, the printing apparatus executes print processing according to the divided print job. The print control system according to any one of 12.   The print control system according to claim 13, wherein the printing apparatus transmits a processing result of the divided print job to the print control apparatus.   A print control method for dividing a print job to a plurality of printing apparatuses connected to a network and performing parallel processing, the printing performance management process for managing the printing performance of the plurality of printing apparatuses, and each of the printing apparatuses A print monitoring process for monitoring the print status of the printing apparatus, a print performance of each printing apparatus for managing the received print job received by the print performance management process, a printing status of each printing apparatus monitored by the print monitoring process, and the Based on the print completion request time requested by the received print job, the selection of the plurality of printing apparatuses to be processed in parallel and the distribution ratio of the received print job to the selected printing apparatus are set, and each of the set distributions A predicted print completion time of the received print job is calculated based on the print performance and print status of the previous printing apparatus, and the calculated print completion predicted time is within the print completion request time. Job management processing for performing division scheduling for dividing the print job into divided print jobs by determining the distribution destination printing device closest to the print completion request time and the distribution ratio, and corresponding the determined printing device to the printing device And a distribution process for distributing the divided print jobs.   In the print control method, when the divided print job is distributed, in the print monitoring process, the processing status of the printing apparatus to which the divided print job is distributed and the processing status of print jobs other than the divided print job are displayed. The job management process recalculates the predicted print completion time of the divided print job distributed to the printing apparatus based on the monitoring result of the print monitoring process, and the calculation result is the print result. 16. The print control method according to claim 15, wherein when the completion request time is exceeded, the re-division scheduling of the accepted print job is performed again in consideration of a recalculation result of the predicted print completion time.   When the divided print job is distributed in the distribution process, the print control method also monitors the error status in the printing apparatus to which the divided print job is distributed. 16. The re-division scheduling of the received print job is performed again in the job management process based on the type of error detected in the print monitoring process and the processing status of the divided print job. Item 17. The print control method according to Item 16.   A print control program that divides a print job to a plurality of printing devices connected to a network and performs parallel processing, and print performance management processing steps for managing the printing performance of the plurality of printing devices; A printing monitoring process step for monitoring the printing status of the apparatus; a printing performance of each printing apparatus that manages the received received print job in the printing performance management process step; and a printing monitoring process step that monitors the printing performance of each printing apparatus that is monitored in the printing monitoring process step. Based on the print status and the print completion request time requested by the received print job, the selection of the plurality of printing devices to be processed in parallel and the distribution ratio of the received print job to the selected printing device are set, The estimated print completion time of the received print job is calculated based on the print performance and the print status of the set printing device of each distribution destination, and the calculated print completion time is calculated. A job management processing step for performing division scheduling for determining a distribution destination printing apparatus closest to the print completion request time within the print completion request time and a distribution ratio and dividing the print job into divided print jobs; A distribution control step of distributing the divided print jobs corresponding to the printing device to the determined printing device, respectively.   The print control according to any one of claims 1 to 14, wherein the print performance includes at least a print speed among a print speed, print quality, double-sided printing, color printing, and a printing method. The system or the printing control apparatus, the printing control method according to any one of claims 15 to 17, or the printing control program according to claim 18.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the print control program according to claim 18 or 19 is recorded.

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