JP2009217354A - Printing system, information processing method, storage medium, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print job management method for surely acquiring a status of "under stop reading" even when a body job is canceled just after data are transmitted, and for confirming the end of the job when the print data of a print job are such data that it is possible to transmit all print data including a job end command by the first transmission processing of the print job. <P>SOLUTION: When it is decided that the first print data of the print job are such one that it is possible to transmit all print data including the job end command, the print data are divided into print data excluding the job end command and the job end command without fail, and transmitted to a printer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing method and a print job management method in a printing system.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing system is generally composed of a printer that enables output, a host computer that controls the printer and generates print job data, and a communication interface that connects both of them. An operating system operates on the host computer, and various software programs operate on the operating system. When printing various types of documents created with application software, the application software, printer driver, and operating system perform function calls according to the specified procedure to exchange data and generate printer commands. Is transferred to the printer for printing. The language monitor of the printer driver performs two-way communication with the printer using a communication function provided by the operating system. As a result, the printer status can be acquired, and the language monitor inquires the printer at any time (by polling) to check the status transition, thereby managing the print job.

  For example, the printer normally updates the status to “in-job” when print data is received. If a print job is canceled in the middle of a print job, the printer changes the status to “Reading Abandoned” to continue discarding the print data, and after finding the job end command, performs job end processing and changes the status to “Idle” The next job can be accepted.

  At this time, the language monitor checks the status by polling after sending the print data to the printer, and if the status is "Reading abandoned", it sends a job end command (not necessary if already sent) . Thereafter, the process waits until the “idle” status is confirmed. If the “idle” status is confirmed, the job is terminated.

  In summary, the language monitor determines the end of the job by checking the status transition from “Job in progress” to “Job end” of the printer, and if the main body job is canceled, the status from “Unloading” to “Idle state” The end of the job is determined by checking the transition.

As an example of the above, Patent Document 1 below can be cited.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-200825

  However, in the case of a small print job in which even the job end command is entered in the first print data transmission process of the job, if the main body job cancel is performed immediately after the print data transmission, the time when the status is “Unloading” Will be shorter. A time series showing the operation of the language monitor and the printer at this time is shown in FIG. If print data including a job end command is transmitted at a time, the status transitions from “discarding” to “idling” before the language monitor next acquires the printer status by polling. As a result, the printer driver cannot acquire the “reading abandoned” status and can only acquire the “idle” status. As a result, the printer driver cannot confirm that the printer driver has transitioned from “Reading Abandoned” to “Idle”, and thus the job cannot be terminated.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problem. When it is determined that all the print data can be transmitted at once in the first print data transmission process of the job, the job end command is transmitted in the first print data transmission process. By sending the print data and the job end command separately to the printer without sending the message, when the main job is canceled, you can always get the status of “Abandoned”, and you can confirm the end of the job reliably It is to provide a job management method.

  In order to solve the above problems, a first information processing apparatus of the present invention is a printing system including a printing apparatus, an information processing apparatus connected to the printing apparatus, and a printer driver operating on the information processing apparatus. The printing apparatus returns status information to the information processing apparatus; the printing apparatus analyzes print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus; and the printing system includes the information Status request means for requesting a return of status from the processing apparatus to the printing apparatus, status analysis means for analyzing the status acquired by the status request means, and the printing system can transmit data once A data transmittable amount acquiring means for acquiring the amount, and the printing system includes a print job data to be transmitted. A determination unit that determines whether or not all data of a print job can be sent at one time as compared with the data transmission possible amount acquired by the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit; and the printing system includes the determination unit If it is determined that the print job data can be sent at one time, the print job data is converted into the first print data of the print job before the job end command and the second print data of only the job end command portion. The print data dividing means for dividing the print data, and the printing system sends the second print data divided by the print data dividing means to the printing apparatus, and then sends the first print data to the printing apparatus. As a result of acquiring the status of the printing apparatus and analyzing the status by the status analysis means, it is determined that “Unloading” or “In-job” A print data transmitting means for transmitting the second print data after confirming status, characterized by having a.

  In order to solve the above problems, a second information processing apparatus according to the present invention is a printing system including a printing apparatus, an information processing apparatus connected to the printing apparatus, and a printer driver operating on the information processing apparatus. The printing apparatus returns status information to the information processing apparatus; the printing apparatus analyzes print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus; and the printing system includes the information Status request means for requesting a return of status from the processing apparatus to the printing apparatus, status analysis means for analyzing the status acquired by the status request means, and the printing system can transmit data once A data transmittable amount acquiring means for acquiring the amount, and the printing system includes a print job data to be transmitted. A determination unit that determines whether or not all data of a print job can be sent at one time as compared with the data transmission possible amount acquired by the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit; and the printing system includes the determination unit If it is determined that the print job data can be sent at one time, except for the job end command part of the print job data, is it the same size as the single data sendable amount obtained by the data sendable amount obtaining unit? And print job data transmission means for adding dummy data to the print job data so as to have a larger size and transmitting the data to the printing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a third information processing apparatus according to the present invention makes a determination based on a type of a communication interface connecting the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a fourth information processing apparatus according to the present invention is characterized by determining from an empty buffer amount of the printing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above problems, a fifth information processing method of the present invention is a printing system comprising a printing apparatus, an information processing apparatus connected to the printing apparatus, and a printer driver operating on the information processing apparatus. The printing apparatus returns status information to the information processing apparatus; the printing apparatus analyzes print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus; and the printing system includes the information Status request means for requesting a return of status from the processing apparatus to the printing apparatus, status analysis means for analyzing the status acquired by the status request means, and the printing system can transmit data once A data transmittable amount acquiring means for acquiring the amount, and the printing system includes a print job data to be transmitted. A determination unit that determines whether or not all data of a print job can be sent at one time as compared with the data transmission possible amount acquired by the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit; and the printing system includes the determination unit If it is determined that the print job data can be sent at one time, the print job data is converted into the first print data of the print job before the job end command and the second print data of only the job end command portion. The print data dividing means for dividing the print data, and the printing system sends the second print data divided by the print data dividing means to the printing apparatus, and then sends the first print data to the printing apparatus. As a result of acquiring the status of the printing apparatus and analyzing the status by the status analysis means, it is determined that “Unloading” or “In-job” A print data transmitting means for transmitting the second print data after confirming status, characterized by having a.

  In order to solve the above problems, a sixth information processing method of the present invention is a printing system comprising a printing apparatus, an information processing apparatus connected to the printing apparatus, and a printer driver operating on the information processing apparatus. The printing apparatus returns status information to the information processing apparatus; the printing apparatus analyzes print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus; and the printing system includes the information Status request means for requesting a return of status from the processing apparatus to the printing apparatus, status analysis means for analyzing the status acquired by the status request means, and the printing system can transmit data once A data transmittable amount acquiring means for acquiring the amount, and the printing system includes a print job data to be transmitted. A determination unit that determines whether or not all data of a print job can be sent at one time as compared with the data transmission possible amount acquired by the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit; and the printing system includes the determination unit If it is determined that the print job data can be sent at one time, except for the job end command part of the print job data, is it the same size as the single data sendable amount obtained by the data sendable amount obtaining unit? And print job data transmission means for adding dummy data to the print job data so as to have a larger size and transmitting the data to the printing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, a seventh information processing method of the present invention is characterized in that the determination is made according to a type of communication interface connecting the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an eighth information processing method of the present invention is characterized in that a determination is made based on an empty buffer amount of the printing apparatus.

  According to the above configuration, even if the print data is small enough to send all of the print data at the same time in the first print data transmission process of the job, it is possible to always obtain the status “Abandoned” when canceling the main body job. It is possible to provide a job management method that can reliably end the job. In addition, the above configuration can be realized by handling only the printer driver without changing the operation processing of the printer main body, and is small print data that can transmit all of the print data at one time. It is possible to provide a job management method capable of reliably ending a job without degrading the print processing performance even when the configuration is realized.

  Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiment.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments do not limit the present invention according to the claims, and all combinations of features described in the present embodiments are essential to the solution means of the present invention. Not exclusively.

<Embodiment 1>
The configuration of the computer apparatus of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 shows an example in which an inkjet printer and a PC are connected. The PC and the ink jet printer may be directly connected via an I / F such as USB, or may be connected to a printer connected to a server PC on the network. Alternatively, the printer may be directly connected to a network and accessed from a PC on the network.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of a host computer that is an example of a host device that creates print data to be transmitted to the inkjet recording apparatus and displays an abnormal printer status and a warning.

  A printer 104 such as an ink jet printer is connected to the host computer 100.

  The host computer 100 has application software 101 such as a word processor, spreadsheet, and internet browser. When printing, various drawing processing command groups (image drawing commands, text drawing commands, and graphics drawing commands) indicating output images issued by the application software 101 are sent to the printer driver 103 via the operating system (OS) 102. Entered. The printer driver 103 is software that processes the drawing command group to generate print data and causes the printer 104 to print the print data.

  In the host computer 100, the above software is stored in the HDD 105 or the ROM 108, read out to the RAM 107, and executed by the CPU 106. It is assumed that an IBM AT compatible personal computer that is generally used as the host computer 100 shown in FIG. 2 is used. Then, it is assumed that an arbitrary application software 101 having a printing function is installed in such a personal computer and a printer 104 is connected.

  In the host computer 100, output image data is generated by using application software 101 using text data classified into text such as characters, graphics data classified into graphics such as graphics, image image data classified into photographic images, and the like. Created. When printing an image based on the output image data, the application software 101 issues a print output request to the OS 102, the text data portion is a text drawing command, the graphics data portion is a graphics drawing command, and the image image data portion is an image drawing command. Is issued to the OS 102.

  When the OS 102 receives a print output request from the application software 101, it passes a drawing command group to the printer driver 103. The printer driver 103 processes a print output request and a drawing command group delivered from the OS 102, creates print data that can be printed by the printer 104, and sends the print data to the printer 104. The host computer 100 and the printer 104 are connected by an interface capable of bidirectional communication such as USB (Universal Serial Bus).

  Next, FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of software (mainly a printer driver) of the printing system in the embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, an application 101 creates a document, inquires the user interface driver 203 about the function of the printer system in order to print the document, and then notifies the printing system including the OS print service 202 of the start of printing. When the OS print service 202 receives a print start notification from the application 101, the OS print service 202 notifies the user interface driver 203 of a print start print event by the application 101. Subsequently, the application 101 supplies the print data of the document to be printed to the OS print service 202 and continues the printing process. Print data via the OS print service 202 is stored in the spool file 204. The print processor 205 reads print data from the spool file 204, and the print data is sent to the language monitor 207 via the graphics driver 206. The language monitor 207 transmits print data to the printer 104 while performing bidirectional communication with the printer 104. The language monitor 207 receives status information held by the printer 104 as needed. The language monitor 207 informs the status monitor 209 of the current printer and printing status based on information received from the printer and print data to be transmitted. The status monitor 209 not only displays the status of the printer and printing, but also presents a response option to the user when printing is interrupted for some reason, receives a response input from the user, and the language monitor 208 To communicate. The above software is stored in the HDD 105 or the ROM 108, read out to the RAM 107, and executed by the CPU 106.

  From here, the detailed processing of the present invention will be described. A detailed process flow of the language monitor 207 is shown in FIG. First, when the print job is started, the language monitor 207 receives the first print data (S501), and checks whether the end job command is included in the data (S502). If not included, the print data received in S501 is transmitted to the printer 104 (S509). The language monitor 207 receives the status (S510), receives the print data again (S511), and transmits the print data to the printer 104 (S512). It is checked again whether the job end command is included (S513), and if it is included, the job completion notice process (obtains the status by polling and waits until “job end”) is performed (S514), and the job is processed. finish. In S502, if the job end command is included in the first print data, it is confirmed whether or not the print job can transmit all the print data to the printer 104 by the first transmission process of the job. First, the size (number of bytes) of the received print data is checked (S503). Next, it is determined whether or not the size of the print data checked in S503 can be transmitted to the printer 104 at one time (S504). This determination method can be determined according to the type of communication interface connecting the host computer 100 and the printer 104. For example, if the host computer 100 and the printer 104 are connected by USB, data up to 4 Kbytes can be transmitted at a time, so if the number of bytes of print data is 4 K or less, it can be transmitted at once. It can be judged. A means for acquiring the communication interface between the host computer 100 and the printer 104 is not described in detail here. As another method, a determination method of checking the free capacity of the reception buffer of the printer 104 and comparing it with a block of print data can be considered. Of course, the determination method is not limited to these two, and it goes without saying that other determination methods are also included in this case. From the above, it is determined whether or not the print data can be transmitted at once. If it is determined that the print data cannot be transmitted at once, S509 to S514 are performed. If it is determined that the data can be transmitted at one time, the print data is transmitted to the printer 104 (S505), the status is continuously acquired by polling (S506), and the status is waited until the status becomes “Abandoned” or “Job in progress” ( S507). If it is confirmed that the status is “reading abandoned” or “job in progress”, only the job end command is transmitted to the printer 104 (S508). Then, job notification processing (continuing to acquire the status by polling and waiting for “idling”) is performed (S514), and the job is terminated.

<Embodiment 2>
FIG. 6 shows another method that can surely confirm the status transition from “reading abandoned” to “idle” when the main body job is canceled.

  First, when the print job is started, the language monitor 207 receives the first print data (S601), and checks whether the end job command is included in the data (S602). If not included, the print data received in S601 is transmitted to the printer 104 (S609). After obtaining the status (S610), the language monitor 207 receives the print data again (S611) and transmits it to the printer 104 (S612). It is checked again whether the job end command is included (S613). If it is included, the job end notice process is entered (S614), and the job is ended. (Supplementary but the delivery process in S614 is the same as that in S514.) In S602, if the job end command is included in the first print data, the print data can be transmitted to the printer 104 by one transmission process. To check. First, the size (number of bytes) of the received print data is checked (S603). Next, it is determined whether the number of bytes of the print data checked in S603 can be transmitted to the printer 104 all at once (S604). As described in the first embodiment, this determination method may be a type of communication interface or a free space in the printer reception buffer in the printer 105, and methods other than these two methods may be used. If it is determined by this determination method that transmission cannot be performed once, S609 to S614 are performed. If it is determined that data can be sent at once, dummy data should be inserted before the print data job end command so that the size of the print data excluding the job end command is the same or larger than the size that can be sent at once. It is added (S605). For example, if the size that can be transmitted at a time is 4K bytes and the size of the print data excluding the job end command is 3K bytes, 1K bytes of dummy data is added to the print data to make a total of 4K bytes. By adding dummy data in this way, the print data cannot be transmitted at once, but can always be transmitted twice (the job end command can be transmitted for the second time). . The print data without the job end command added with the dummy data is transmitted to the printer 104 (S606). Then, the status of the printer 104 is acquired (S607). At this point, the printer should be analyzing print data including dummy data. Then, since the status should be “in process” or “discarded” if the main body job cancellation is performed, at least one of the two statuses can be acquired. A job end command (including print data) is transmitted to the printer 104 (S608), job completion notice processing is performed (S614), and the job is terminated.

<Embodiment 3>
An object of the present invention is to supply a recording medium recording software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and store the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus in the recording medium. Needless to say, this can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, a DVD, or the like is used. it can.

  In addition, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also the OS running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code performs the actual processing. Needless to say, a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the processing, is also included.

  Furthermore, after the program code read from the storage medium is written to the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function is based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the CPU of the expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a printer process and a printer driver (language monitor) process when a main body job is canceled. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the connection environment of a printer and PC. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of an image processing apparatus. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a module in a printer driver and a processing flow. It is a figure which shows the processing flow of Example 1 in embodiment which can apply this invention. It is a figure which shows the processing flow of Example 2 in embodiment which can apply this invention.

Claims (10)

In a printing system comprising a printing apparatus, an information processing apparatus connected to the printing apparatus, and a printer driver operating on the information processing apparatus,
The printing device
Status return means for returning the status to the information processing apparatus;
The printing apparatus includes a print data analysis unit that analyzes print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus,
The printing system includes status request means for requesting a status return from the information processing apparatus to the printing apparatus;
Status analysis means for analyzing the status acquired by the status request means;
A data transmittable amount acquisition means for acquiring a single data transmittable amount;
A determination unit that determines whether or not all of the print job data can be sent at one time as compared with the data transmission possible amount acquired by the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit when the print job data to be transmitted is;
If it is determined by the determination means that the print job data can be sent at a time, the print job data is the first print data of the print job before the job end command, and the second only of the job end command portion. Print data dividing means for dividing the print data;
After the second print data divided by the print data dividing means is sent to the printing apparatus, the status request means acquires the status of the printing apparatus, and the status analysis means A print system comprising: a print data transmitting unit configured to transmit the second print data after confirming a status of “discarding reading” or “in process” as a result of analyzing the status. In a printing system comprising a printing apparatus, an information processing apparatus connected to the printing apparatus, and a printer driver operating on the information processing apparatus,
The printing device
Status return means for returning the status to the information processing apparatus;
The printing apparatus includes a print data analysis unit that analyzes print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus,
The printing system includes:
Status request means for requesting a status return from the information processing apparatus to the printing apparatus;
Status analysis means for analyzing the status acquired by the status request means;
A data transmittable amount acquisition means for acquiring a single data transmittable amount;
A determination unit that determines whether or not all of the print job data can be sent at one time as compared with the data transmission possible amount acquired by the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit when the print job data to be transmitted is;
If it is determined by the determination means that the print job data can be sent at one time, except for the job end command part of the print job data, the one-time data transmittable amount acquired by the data transmittable amount acquisition means and A print system comprising: print job data transmission means for adding dummy data to print job data so as to be the same size or larger and transmitting the data to the printing apparatus.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the data transmittable amount obtaining unit makes a determination based on a type of a communication interface connecting the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit determines from a free buffer amount of the printing apparatus. In an information processing method for a printing system including a printing apparatus, an information processing apparatus connected to the printing apparatus, and a printer driver operating on the information processing apparatus,
The printing device
Status return means for returning the status to the information processing apparatus;
The printing apparatus includes a print data analysis unit that analyzes print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus,
The printing system includes status request means for requesting a status return from the information processing apparatus to the printing apparatus;
Status analysis means for analyzing the status acquired by the status request means;
A data transmittable amount acquisition means for acquiring a single data transmittable amount;
A determination unit that determines whether or not all of the print job data can be sent at one time as compared with the data transmission possible amount acquired by the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit when the print job data to be transmitted is;
If it is determined by the determination means that the print job data can be sent at a time, the print job data is the first print data of the print job before the job end command, and the second only of the job end command portion. Print data dividing means for dividing the print data;
After the second print data divided by the print data dividing means is sent to the printing apparatus, the status request means acquires the status of the printing apparatus, and the status analysis means An information processing method for a printing system, comprising: transmitting the second print data after confirming a status of “discarding reading” or “in-job” as a result of analyzing the status. In an information processing method for a printing system including a printing apparatus, an information processing apparatus connected to the printing apparatus, and a printer driver operating on the information processing apparatus,
The printing device
Status return means for returning the status to the information processing apparatus;
The printing apparatus includes a print data analysis unit that analyzes print data transmitted from the information processing apparatus,
The printing system includes status request means for requesting a status return from the information processing apparatus to the printing apparatus;
Status analysis means for analyzing the status acquired by the status request means;
A data transmittable amount acquisition means for acquiring a single data transmittable amount;
A determination unit that determines whether or not all of the print job data can be sent at one time as compared with the data transmission possible amount acquired by the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit when the print job data to be transmitted is;
If it is determined by the determination means that the print job data can be sent at one time, except for the job end command part of the print job data, the one-time data transmittable amount acquired by the data transmittable amount acquisition means and An information processing method for a printing system, comprising: adding dummy data to print job data so as to have a size equal to or larger than the size, and transmitting the dummy data to the printing apparatus.   The printing system information according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the data transmittable amount acquisition unit makes a determination based on a type of a communication interface connecting the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus. Processing method.   The information processing method for a printing system according to claim 5, wherein the data transmission possible amount acquisition unit determines from a free buffer amount of the printing apparatus.   A program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method according to any one of claims 5 to 8.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 9 is recorded.

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