JPH11296333A - Method for distributing print job - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase a printing speed, and to reduce the costs of hardware and maintenance by distributing a print job to plural printers by a client computer. SOLUTION: In a print job distribution method, a print job 50 generated by the application of a computer is divided into several small print job segments 410, 420, and 430, and transmitted through a network to plural network printers 20, 22, and 24. During a printing operation, a printer inquiring part/printing lapse monitor 110 continues inquiry to a printer by a state request 310, and obtains a printer state and a print job elapse state report 460. Thus, the print job 50 can be decomposed again at the time of the misoperation of a printer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to controlling a plurality of printers on a computer network, and more particularly, to a method for distributing print jobs among a plurality of printers.

[0002]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Computers are becoming increasingly used in many aspects of life and work. It is important that as computers become more used, they can share data with each other. Networks are commonly used to cause computers to communicate with one another. Networks connect computer equipment by means of wires, cables, telephone lines, wireless, light, and so on. However, all networks include computer equipment (hardware) and programs (software) that enable the equipment to communicate. A software program that enables hardware communication over a network is called network transport (network t).
ransport). Transferring a data file between two devices on a network is commonly referred to as transmission. For example, a computer user "sends" a file to be printed to another computer that controls the printer.

A network limited to a small number of computers in a local area is a local area network.
Network (local area network) or LAN
Called. A larger network that spans multiple buildings, cities and continents is a wide area network (wide ar
ea network) or WAN. The Internet is the best known example of a WAN.

In recent networks, things other than computers are connected. Today, peripherals such as printers, mass storage systems and communication devices have become standard features. A computer connected to a network is a network computer.
), And the printer connected to the network is called a network printer. Within a network, computers can be designed for use by one person at a time,
It is called a single user system. Generally, many single-user systems are connected to each other by a network, and they use the services of a larger computer, called a server. Some servers have a large storage capacity and serve as a repository for data or programs. Such a server is
Server (database server) or disk server (d
isk server). Other servers control one or more printers and receive data to be printed from a single user computer. These types of servers are called print servers. A network with a single user system, called a client, that works with one or more servers is referred to collectively as a client-server system. In such a system,
Client stores, communicates and prints data,
Use resources or services of other computers (servers).

Many programs are executed in a client computer. Some of these programs, called network transports, run in the background and communicate with a server and possibly other clients. There are also programs called applications that are easy for the user to understand. Applications include, for example, word processing (wor
d processing) programs, spread sheet programs, and e-mail programs. Most application programs can send output to a printer. The print data is generated on the client side by the operation of the application program. If the user instructs the word processing program to print, for example, one character, a print job is generated (generated) on the client side. Even simple operating systems generate print jobs by instructing existing files to be sent to a printer. Then, the client computer sends the print job to the print server via the network.

[0006] Print servers are a common component in many modern networks that are connected to the network and receive print jobs sent from client computers. The print server receives the print job generated on the client side and prepares to send it to the printer. The print server queries the associated printer to determine if the printer is ready or if it can receive the data to be printed. Interrogation of this printer by the print server may occur over the network, depending on the type of connection, or by a direct connection between the print server and the printer. The printer
Responds by informing the server of its status. There are many types of printer status, online /
Offline, mechanical failure, paper jam, consumable condition and backlog of work (w
ork backlog). Also, black and white vs. color, print speed, paper size and printer language (printer language)
Some states indicate the capabilities of the printer, such as option e). Once the print server has identified a printer that is available for the job, it may perform additional processing on the print job or send it directly to the printer. The additional processing is any processing from adding a print job control instruction to ending the generation of a raster image for a printer. The above raster image processing is
Sometimes abbreviated as “RIP”.

[0007] As faster printing is required,
Cluster printing has become increasingly popular. Cluster printing uses multiple printers to increase the overall printing speed. Such speeding up
Divide print jobs between multiple printers (dividin
g) or by parsing. For example, if one printer can print a 100 page job in 25 minutes, then conceptually the same job can be printed using 5 printers in 5 minutes. Cluster printing has several advantages.
These advantages include increased job throughput with multiple printers, fault-tolerant printing with printer redundancy, and the expansion of systems. The additional expendability of the system is obtained by adding a printer. An example of cluster printing is one in which a set of server electronics acts as several print engines. This electronics uses Raster Image Processing (RIP)
Is needed. In addition, printing mechanism or marking
There is also an example of cluster printing in which not only the engine but also the RIP electronic circuit is used repeatedly. Many complex prints
The job requires an additional RIP processor to provide print data at a rate that meets the requirements of the print engine. One example of cluster printing is described in US Pat.
No. 596,416. Some cluster printing configurations have a print server logically connected to a printer via a network, while others have a print server.
Some require a direct physical connection between the server and the printer mechanism, and at the expense of consumability, put the print server and printer in the same cabinet.
Some are packaged in.

[0008]

The cluster printing method has a disadvantage that a print server is required. Another disadvantage is that a dedicated communication link is required between the print server and the printer, which limits the position of the printer relative to the server.

[0009] The print server, whether used within the context of cluster printing or not, is conventionally a general purpose computer. Special software dedicated to the task of controlling one or more printers customizes the print server. Such a server is logically connected to the printer by a network, or physically connected via a dedicated connection line. The printing capabilities in a network depend on the availability of the print server. If the print server is not functioning, no printing can be performed. In addition, adding a print server to the network will increase hardware and maintenance costs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a client computer communicates with a plurality of printers on a network to divide a print job, thereby increasing printing speed and reducing hardware and maintenance costs. It is an object of the present invention to provide a print / job distribution method that suppresses a print job.

[0011]

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a dedicated computer is not required as a print server. Generally, in a client-server system, tasks related to a print server are distributed to a plurality of client computers. According to the present invention, a client computer can communicate with multiple printers over a network, and can divide print jobs among several printers. By printing a single print job on several printers, the speed of printing is increased, redundancy and
Consumability due to reduced hardware requirements (expendab
ility).

According to a method according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a network computer decomposes a print job and sends it to one or more network printers without requiring a dedicated print server. be able to. In this embodiment, an application on a computer generates a print job.
The same computer divides or decomposes the print job into smaller segments for each printer and sends the print job segment to each printer.

In another embodiment of the invention, the computer queries a network printer to display to the user a list of printers available for the print job. In some embodiments, a subset, which is a subset of some of the available printers, can be selected without user input; in other embodiments, a list of printers and features available to the user And select a subset of printers to receive the print job segment. After transmitting the print job segments to the selected printers, the computer monitors the progress of each printer and its associated print job. The computer may be part of a local area network that directly and logically communicates with the printer, temporarily connected to a wide area network, or other network configuration known to those skilled in the computer network arts. May be a part of.

In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the hardware includes a computer that communicates with a plurality of printers via a network. The software program on the computer is a print job originator that generates a print job.
r), a printer inquiry section (pr
int interrogator), for each printer, a print job parser that separates the print job into print job segments, and a network that sends the print job segments to the printer via a network. It consists of several main parts such as transport. An optional feature of the software program is to notify the user of the status of the printer and allow the user to select a printer to receive the print job segment based on user criteria. There is an interface.
In addition, an optional feature of the software includes a printer progress monitor that notifies the user of the status of the print job segment, including the end of the job.
).

[0015] In still another embodiment of the present invention,
If the original printer becomes unavailable, for example due to an error or out of paper condition, the ability to monitor print segments is used to resend the print job segment to another printer. This feature provides the redundancy that one or more printer failures are compensated for by other printers. Furthermore,
As new printers are added to the system and made available, the print job is split into smaller parts,
The printing time can be shorter than before.

One embodiment of the present invention is a CD-ROM
Alternatively, it is realized by loading software from a computer-readable program storage medium such as a network. The software includes a program for querying the printer, a program for notifying the status, a program for splitting the print job, and, optionally, displaying available printers via a user interface and allowing the user to select one. And other programs described above. It also provides additional features that allow printer redundancy by relocating print job segments.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a dedicated computer as a print server is not required, a print job is divided into several printers, and a plurality of client computers are connected on a network. Can communicate with other printers. By printing one print job on several printers, the printing speed can be increased, providing redundancy and expendability with reduced hardware requirements. The present invention solves the problems associated with conventional print servers, which are general purpose computers with dedicated software or custom processors dedicated to the task of controlling one or more printers. That is, the printing function of a conventional network print server depends on the availability of one or more print servers. When these print servers are not functioning, they cannot print at all. Furthermore, the present invention eliminates the need for a conventional print server in many applications, and reduces the additional cost and maintenance of separate print servers.

In an existing network of computers and printers, a preferred embodiment of the present invention is a printer driver located on a client computer. Many network topologies
), The conventional print server can be deleted. By dividing a print job into multiple print job segments distributed over several printers, the time required for a print job to complete can be reduced. Thereby, the user using the present invention can obtain the following advantages. That is, faster print job completion by operating several printers simultaneously, redundancy by using multiple printers, and network
Consumability by easily increasing the number of printers.

The present invention can be implemented in the network topology shown in FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a plurality of computers logically connected to a plurality of printers via a network. The network computers 10, 12, 14, 16 are connected to network printers 20, 22, 24 via a network 30. In practice, networks are local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WAs).
N) or a hybrid network (hybrid ne)
twork). How to realize the network is not important in the present invention. Examples of network connections include twisted pair
wire pairs), coaxial cables, infrared light beams, telephone lines, and radio frequency (RF) links. In FIG. 1, all network computers and network printers are logically or physically coupled so that they can communicate over a network 30. As with the network itself, the communication method on the network can take many forms. Examples of network communication include TCP / IP and Token Ring.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, any of the network computers 10 to 16 prints a print job segment during printing.
It can be sent to printers 20-24. For example,
It is assumed that an application running on the network computer 12 has generated a print job of 60 pages.
The actual application is not important for the present invention, but common applications include word processors,
There are spreadsheets, graphics programs and simple print file instructions. The network computer 12 queries the network printers 20-24 to determine their availability.

Three network printers 20-24
Are all available for printing, the network computer 12 breaks the 60 page print job into three 20 page print job segments, one for each of the three network printers 20-24. Make it a segment. Then, the network computer 12 transmits the print job segment of 20 pages to each printer. As a result, the printing time can be reduced by three times as compared with the case where one printer prints 60 pages. If one of the printers, e.g., printer 22, is unavailable due to a paper jam, paper shortage, backlog of print job, etc., the print job from network
The segments are the remaining network printers 20, 24
Sent to. Print jobs from the computer 12 are decomposed to the network printers 20, 24 so that 30
It becomes a print segment of a page, which can be half of the printing time by only one printer. Further, if other printers (not shown) are added to the network, print job times can be further reduced and redundancy and flexibility can be increased.

In another embodiment, the decomposition of the print job into print job segments may depend on the speed of each printer. For example, if the network printer 20 is the network printer 2
If faster than 2, 24, network printer 20 can send more print job segments to network printer 20 because network printer 20 can print more in a given amount of time than network printer 22 or 24. I do.

In the above description, the concept of dividing a print job among many computers in a computer and printer network has been described.
In the following description, software components (com
A more detailed description of the operation and operation of ponent) will be provided.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a program used by the computer shown in FIG. Applications running on network computers
Programs can be simple text, complex images, raster displays of dots, or many possible printer control languages (p
rinter control language)
A job 50 is generated. A general network computer includes a printer driver 52 and a spooler (spooler).
er) 55 and each program called a network transport 150. These programs allow print job 50 to be sent to a network printer via network 160. The present invention uses some additional programs. That is, a printer inquiry section and a print progress monitor (printer inquiry section / print progress monitor) 110, a print job parsing section (print job parser) 120, a user interface 130, and a display selection section (display s).
elect) 140, which are collectively called the print job processor 100. These programs are linked in several places by program links 60 to become network computer programs.

The program of the present invention is shown separately from printer driver 52, spooler 55, and network transport 150 for clarity. For those skilled in the art of printer drivers, spoolers, and network transports, it is understood that the program of the present invention can be included as part of a printer driver, spooler, or network transport. It will be obvious.

By including the program of the present invention in this manner, a user can control cluster printing by a printer driver interface such as a dialog box. For example, the user may select the printer or criteria selected by the user for automatic cluster printing via a print dialog box common to operating system services on most network computers.

In FIG. 2, a print job 50 is
On the way to the printer driver 52, it is captured by one of the links 60 into the print job processor 100. In the print job processor 100, a printer inquiry section / printing progress monitor (hereinafter, referred to as a "printer inquiry section") 110 operates via the network transport 150 to inquire a printer on the network to send a message to each printer. Judge the state of. At this time, some printers are available because they are ready to receive a print job, but cannot be used due to a number of reasons such as failure, print job backlog or media incompatibility. There is also a printer. As a result of the inquiry process, the printer inquiry unit 110 creates a list of available printers. The user interface 130 reports available printers and printer status to the user. The display selection unit 140 displays the status to the user and allows the user to select a network printer to receive the print job segment. In this way, the user can select a subset from the list of available printers to create a list of printers that have been selected to receive segments of the print job. The criteria that a user uses to select a subset will vary depending on what the user prioritizes. Examples of the user's priority include the position of the printer and the print quality.
Using the user interface 130 to select a subset of available printers is optional. In another embodiment of the present invention, a subset of printers that can be used to receive print job segments is created based on predetermined criteria set up by a system administrator or user in advance. Once a subset of available printers is determined, print job decomposer 120 decomposes the original print job into print job segments for each of the selected printers. The print / job disassembly unit 120 is connected to link 6
0 to the print job segment
Transfer to drive 52. And the printer driver 52
Is the spooler 55 and the network transport 1
50 to each selected printer.
Submit the job segment. Program link 6
0 allows the program of the present invention to control and monitor the progress of the print job segment. After the print job segment has been sent to the selected printer, printer interrogator 110 continues to monitor the status of the printer. By checking the printer status via the network transport 150, the printer interrogator 110 determines whether all print job segments have been properly printed. For example,
When the network printer 22 (see FIG. 1) becomes unusable due to the out of paper condition, the printer inquiry unit 1
10 instructs the print job disassembly unit 120 to disassemble the original print job again and cancel the unprinted portion of the print job segment initially sent to the network printer 22.
This portion, which was originally scheduled to be printed by the printer 22, is canceled by the network printer 22 and sent again to another of the selected printers.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the program shown in FIG. First, a print job is created on a computer (block 300). The printer interrogator determines the status of the printer on the network (block 310). From the state thus determined, the printer interrogator creates a list of available printers and optionally displays it to the user, as shown at block 320. Optionally, through the program steps of block 330, the user
Review this list of available printers and select a printer from this list to create a subset of printers. The design of such user interfaces is well known to those skilled in the art of graphical user interface design. Block 34
At 0, the system of the program making up the print job processor 100 has a list of print jobs and the printers to which the print jobs are sent. Here, the print / job decomposing unit 340
Decomposes the print job for the selected printer using multiple criteria (block 340). The above criteria vary from system to system, but examples of criteria include print speed, print quality, printer physical location, printer color capabilities, print job backlog,
And paper handling capacity. At block 330, depending on system configuration or user input, the print job decomposer may determine the print job resolution based on the print speed for the draft print job, or based on the print quality or color content of the finished print. Generate a segment. Because some computer networks may span continents, the physical location of the printer is important for users who need only local copies. Also, the user may specify that a certain copy be printed on a printer in another office in a different town or country. The print job decomposer, at block 340, divides the original print job into printer job segments for each of the selected printers, and then divides the print job segments for each of the selected printers. Send. During printing of the print job segments, the print job interrogator checks the progress of the print job segments at each printer at block 350 by interrogating those printers. If the status returned from the printer indicates that all print job segments have been successfully printed, then at decision block 360 it is determined that the job has ended and the process ends. If one or more printers have difficulty printing the assigned print job segment, decision blocks 370-38
Proceeding to 0, the list of selected printers is modified and, at block 390, the print job segment of the failed and inoperable printer is again disassembled and sent to another printer. The query of the printer continues at block 350 until all print job segments have been printed. When all print job segments have been completed, the user is notified of the completion by the user interface.

FIG. 4 is a diagram summarizing the program shown in FIG. 2 and its operation. An application program running on the client computer generates a print job 50. The printer inquiry unit 110
An inquiry is made to the network printer 450 by a status request 310 for determining the status of the printer on the network. Network printer 450 returns a status report 460 that includes the progress of the current print job. From the state thus returned, the printer inquiry unit 110 creates a list 470 of available printers to be passed to the user interface 130. The user interface 130 passes the list of available printers to the display selection unit 140 that displays a list 320 of available printers to the user. The user creates a printer option 330 from the list of available printers, and returns this to the display selection unit 140. The resulting subset of available printers 480 is passed to the print job decomposer 120 by the user interface 130. The print / job decomposing unit 120
Using this subset 480, the print job
The segments 410, 420, 430 are formed. Then, the print job disassembly unit 120 transmits, via the printer driver 52, the spooler 55, and the network transport (not shown), the network printers 20, 22,. 24, the print job segments 410, 420, and 430 are transmitted. As mentioned above, the criteria for print job decomposition vary.

Additional factors affecting print job decomposition include the length and number of copies included in the print job itself. For example, a print job that copies 60 copies of a 10 page copy is best broken down into 3 printers into 3 print job segments of 20 copies of a 10 page copy. . Conversely, a single print job for one 600 page document is divided into three print jobs divided into 1 to 200 pages, 201 to 400 pages, and 401 to 600 pages.
It is best decomposed as a job segment. Optionally, print job decomposer 120 can generate a print job classification sheet and configure an output bin of the printer with instructions to manually match print job segments. During the printing operation, the printer inquiry unit 110 continues to inquire the printer by the status request 310, and obtains the status report 460 of the printer status and the print job progress. Thereby, the print job processor 100
Can disassemble the print job 50 again when the printer malfunctions.

From the foregoing, it can be seen that the printer control according to the present invention allows the user to provide a faster print speed, printer redundancy, and an easy way to all add a printer without the need for a dedicated print server. Can be obtained.

Although a number of specific embodiments of the present invention have been described and illustrated, the invention is not limited to the specific forms or arrangements of components as described and illustrated above, but rather by the following claims. Is limited only by the range.

The embodiments of the present invention will be summarized below. 1. Network computer (10,12,14,
16) executes the network computer (1).
Print jobs (5, 0, 12, 14, 16)
0) to a plurality of network printers (20, 22, 2).
4. The method of dispersing in 4), wherein a. Generating the print job (50) (300); b. The print job (50) is stored in a plurality of print jobs.
Decomposing (340) into job segments (410, 420, 430); c. The print job segment (410, 42)
0,430) to the plurality of network printers (2,
0, 22, 24, 450) (34)
0) and a print job distribution method comprising:

2. The network printer (20,
22. The print job distribution method of claim 1, further comprising the step of reporting the status of (22, 24).

3. The print job distribution method according to claim 1, further comprising a step (110, 350) of monitoring the progress of the print job segment (410, 420, 430).

4. The network printer (20,
22, 24, 450) (110, 35)
0). The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of creating a list of available printers (470).

5. List of available printers (4
70), the print job segment (41)
The print job distribution method of claim 4, further comprising the step of creating a subset (480) of printers for receiving (0, 420, 430).

6. List of available printers (4
70), the print job segment (41)
0, 420, 430). The print job distribution method of claim 4, further comprising selecting (330) a selected printer (480) to receive the (0, 420, 430).

7. An apparatus for distributing a print job (50), comprising: a. A network (160); b. A plurality of printers (20, 22, 24, 450) connected to the network (160); c. A computer (10, 12, 14, 16) connected to the network (160) and communicating with the plurality of printers (20, 22, 24, 450); ) Is i. Generate the print job (50) (30)
0) a print / job generator (300); ii. The plurality of printers (20, 22, 24, 45)
0) to determine the status (460) of the printer inquiry unit (1)
10) and iii. Decomposing the print job (50) into a plurality of print job segments (410, 420, 430) (340); a print job decomposing unit (120)
And iv. The plurality of print job segments (41)
0, 420, 430) to the network (160).
Through the plurality of printers (20, 22, 24, 45)
0) to the network transport (15
0) and a print job disassembly apparatus comprising:

8. The computer (10, 12, 1)
4, 16), the plurality of printers (20, 22, 2).
4,450) status (460), and further comprising the plurality of print job segments (410, 420,
430) is received by the plurality of printers (2).
The print job disassembly apparatus of claim 7, further comprising a user interface (130) that allows the user to select (330) from (0, 22, 24, 450).

9. The computer (10, 12, 1)
4, 16), the plurality of printers (20, 22, 2).
(4,450) to monitor the progress of the print job segment (410, 420, 430) (35).
0) The print / job disassembly apparatus according to the above 7, further comprising a print progress monitor (110).

10. A print job (50) executed by the network computer (10, 12, 14, 16) from the network computer (10, 12, 14, 16) is transferred to a plurality of network printers (20, 22, 24, 16). 450) to perform the steps of the method distributed on the computer (10,1).
2, 14, 16) a computer readable program storage medium that actually embodies a program of instructions executable by the method, wherein the method of distributing the print job comprises: a. Generating the print job (50) (300); b. The print job (50) is stored in a plurality of print jobs.
Decomposing (340) into job segments (410, 420, 430); c. The print job segment (410, 42)
0,430) to the plurality of network printers (2,
0, 22, 24, 450) (24).
0) and a program storage medium comprising:

[0044]

Since the present invention is configured as described in detail above, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
A computer as a print server that requires a dedicated communication link with the printer is not required.

Also, a client computer can communicate with a plurality of printers on a network, and can divide a print job among several printers. This allows a single print job to be printed on several printers, increasing the speed of printing, increasing redundancy, and gaining consumability with reduced hardware requirements. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 illustrates a plurality of computers logically connected to a plurality of printers via a network.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a program used by the computer shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the program shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram summarizing the program and its operation shown in FIG. 2;

[Description of Signs] 10, 12, 14, 16 Network Computer 20, 22, 24, 450 Network Printer 30, 160 Network 50 Print Job 52 Printer Driver 55 Spooler 60 Link 100 Print Job Processor 110 Printer Inquiry Copy / Print Progress Monitor 120 Print Job Decomposition Unit 130 User Interface 140 Display Selection Unit 150 Network Transport 310 Status Request 320,470 List of Available Printers 330 Printer Options 410,420,430 Print Job Segment 460 Status report 480 Subset

Claims (1)

[Claims] A network computer (10, 1)
2, 14, 16) executes a print job (50) from the network computer (10, 12, 14, 16) by a plurality of network printers (20, 20, 16).
22, 24), comprising: a. Generating the print job (50) (300); b. The print job (50) is stored in a plurality of print jobs.
Decomposing (340) into job segments (410, 420, 430); c. The print job segment (410, 42)
0,430) to the plurality of network printers (2,
0, 22, 24, 450) (34)
0) and a print job distribution method.