MXPA97007861A - Distribu print system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a document processing system that includes at least one apparatus for reproducing the document and handling the production on demand of a document job. The work of the document is characterized by a set of work attributes with each attribute of the document's work going to be processed by the document's processing system. The document processing system, which also includes a document server to handle the conversion of document work into production on demand, comprises: a plurality of queues mapped to a plurality of document processing subsystems, each one of the plurality of wait queues includes a set of queue attributes that characterize the extent to which each processing subsystem of the document, mapped to one or more of the plurality of queues is capable of processing a portion of work supplied to one or more waiting queues. The document processing system further includes a queue utility that communicates with the plurality of queues. The wait queue utility compares the set of work attributes and shifts the set of attributes of the queue to generate a set of information that corresponds to the set of attributes of the job with those queues, among the plurality of queues , which are capable of completely processing at least a portion of the document's work. In practice, at least a portion of the work of the document is matched with a wait queue of the plurality of queues based on the set of information generated by the queue's utility.

Description

PRINT SYSTEM DISTRIBUTED BACKGROUND This invention relates generally to a distributed printing system with a plurality of subsystems that process a document and, more particularly, to a system which examines the attributes of a document for the purposes of supplying one or more portions of the document to one or more. more than the document processing subsystems based on the examination of the attributes. According to a standard model of network printing, a work was developed in a workstation and supplied to a printer, by means of a server, for the purpose of executing the work. An example of such a standard network printing model was described in U.S. Patent No. 5,493,634 to Bonk et al. (Issued: February 20, 1996). This printing model is appropriate for those situations in which the printer is very suitable for printing the job according to certain criteria required by the user of the system. For example, if the user expects to have a selected number of impressions generated within a certain block of time in a selected location and such criteria are met in the printer, then the user is satisfied. If the REF: 25693 criteria can not be met, however, customer dislike can be assured. To avoid this kind of customer dislike, a distributed printing model of the type described in U.S. Patent No. 5,287,194 of Lobiondo ("Lobiondo") (Issued: February 15, 1994) has been proposed. Lobiondo describes a programming routine and management system for a print shop, which provides the optimal program of print jobs in a network. Routine programming uses the total complex of available printers in a local location and / or a remote location to assign and finish print jobs based on a plurality of criteria, including the requested term for the project. If the requested term time does not allow printing of the print job by a single printer, the print job is assigned to a plurality of available printers, each printing a portion of the finished print job. Examples of "type of work criteria" mentioned in Lobiondo may include "selection of media format, size, number of copies, term time, etc.". Several systems suggest the advantage of dividing a job and sending the resulting portions to a plurality of printers. In the October 1995 edition of the Hardcopy Observer (published by.), On page 15, a multiple printer arrangement, known as "MicroPress" is described in the part as follows: Like any winder, the "MicroSpool" of PressDirector 's, the winder takes the files inside, storing them until RIP is free and sends them to the printer. But T / R systems have many unique functions added to a MicroSpool, the main purpose of which is to make a multi-desktop desktop of color lasers that act like a large laser. The key feature of MicroSpool is called "electronic collation". After the software has performed a job, the resulting pages are stored as compressed bitmaps in the hard drive of the system. Then a "parsing" process sends the pages to the available machines at exactly the direct frequency, so that when the printing is done, the stacks produced by each machine can be placed on top of each other to create a Multiple copy job completed with the sheet separator inserted between the copies. "The software searches the work and performs the parsing so all four machines start and end at the same time," says Daly. "It's technically very complicated, there's a big algorithm, great. "A product similar to the MicroPress described above is mentioned as follows in the December 1995 edition of the HardCopy Observer, on page 69: The product that Entire Image Director has developed. is very similar to the MicroPress T / R systems (Observer 10/95), which uses a PC-based server to activate multiple color laser machines, from Canon desktop computers, multiple as if they were a single virtual machine. High speed Entire technology does the same thing, except that it is designed to drive multiple HP LaserJet 5Si monochrome lasers.On the contrary to what was discussed in the above, the model in which the work seems to be divided into the base of at least one work-level attribute, for example impressions produced per unit of time, an article from PF Morgan's Xerox Disclosure Journal (volume 16, No. 6, November / December 1991) entitled "Integration of Black Only and Color Printers" contemplates an approach in which the portion of a work, developed in the page-level information base, is supplied to a plurality of printers. In particular, in the approach described by Morgan, a work with black / white and color pages is provided.

The work is separated at the base of the color, in such a way that the black / white part of the work is supplied to a black / white printing system and the color part of the work is supplied to a full color process machine. Preferably, the color prints corresponding to the color part of the work are supplied in a sheet inserter, so that the color prints can be inserted in the stream of black / white prints corresponding to the part black / white of work. It is readily understood by those skilled in the technique of the inserter design, which combines inserting sheets into a stream of prints, requires a programming routine of the type described by U.S. Patent No. 5,489,969 to Soler (Issued: 6 February 1996). More particularly, the Soler patent, when read in conjunction with the descriptions Morgan teaches a system in which a work stream with "holes" or chipped cavities is developed by means of a suitable programming routine. In turn, it is believed that ordered supply sheets, such as sheets of a stack of color prints, would be insertable into the stream to realize one of the Morgan focus objects. Several teachings of the prior art are believed to complement the approach described by Morgan. For example, it is known that color can be achieved in printing with various systems related to color. In one aspect of color reproduction, the black / white prints are outstanding with color by the use of three level xerography of the type described in United States Patent No. 4,078,929 to Gundlach (Issued March 14, 1978). ). As described by U.S. Patent No. 5,524,181 to Sung et al., It is understood that three tier xerography can be implemented in a network printing environment. In another aspect of color reproduction, U.S. Patent No. 5,373,350 to Taylor et al. (Issued December 13, 1994) describes a printer, which combines technologies of xerographic printing and thermal inkjet printing in a single unit, which is capable of producing prints with text and color graphics, ie prints of accented color. Both of Lobiondo's patents mentioned above and Morgan's article directly or indirectly direct the concept of classifying a work according to one or more work attributes. Describing a work in terms of work level and / or page level attribute is considered, in some detail, by the description of U.S. Patent No. 5,181,162 to Smith et al. (Issued: January 19, 1993). Smith's patent describes an object oriented to the management of documents and production systems in which documents are represented as collections of logical components or "objects" that can be combined and physically mapped in a page by page placement. The stored objects are organized, accessed and manipulated by means of a database management system. The manipulation of the object or images with respect to one or more selected pages is further taught by U.S. Patent No. 5,450,541 to Rourke et al. (Issued on September 12, 1995). The Rourke patent describes a printing system in which an image, ie a bitmap, can be placed on an electronic page at a predetermined location and then reproduced on a printout at a location corresponding to the predesignated location at which It was adjusted during the placement. Preferably, the bitmap is obtained from a directory in the mass memory of the printing system. The concept of managing a work based on its attributes is further described in U.S. Patent No. 5,467,434 to Hower Jr. et al. (Issued: November 14, 1995) and United States Patent No. 5, 450, 571 by Rosekrans et al. (Issued: September 12, 1995). Each of the Hower and Rosekrans patents illustrates systems which use servers that have multiple queuing capabilities. In addition, United States Patent 5,129,639 to DeHority (Issued June 14, 1992) describes a system which allows interactive communication between a client and a server, when the server is incapable, due to an attribute decoupling, for meet the requirements of the client's work. The advantage of using one or more queues in a printing process has been demonstrated by U.S. Patent No. 4,947,345 to Paradise et al. (Issued on August 7, 1990). Paradise describes a system in which copy / print jobs are supplied to an exit queue, which communicates with a printer, while Fax jobs are delivered to a held queue, which is communicated with the queue waiting to exit. In practice, after a certain number of Fax jobs have accumulated in the waiting queue maintained, they are supplied to the output queue in such a way that the Fax jobs are printed ahead of all the jobs currently residing in the waiting queue for departure. It is believed that the criteria used to divide a job into the Lobiondo patent is largely directed towards work level information instead of page level information. It is further believed that all the systems described in the above in which the multiple work portion are sent to multiple printers, except the system described by the Morgan article, seems to teach separating from the division of a job into groups of non-contiguous pages, since doing so could lead to problems in the intercalation. The division of a work into groups of non-contiguous pages may be required, however, in situations where certain attributes are repeated sporadically, through work. For example, a work can consist of a book with chapters which a fusion article will be applied at the beginning of each chapter. Although the Morgan article is adapted for the division of a work into groups on a non-contiguous basis, it teaches a classification technique that is believed to be far less than the optimal one in which it requires classification in a scanning device. This sorting style not only requires dedicated hardware, but also the time of an operator who is required to spend time on the operation of the scanning device. It would be advantageous to provide a system that has the ability to understand the attributes of a job, at a suitable front end or server, and to couple the work with one or more units for processing the document based on such understanding.

The present invention employs the ability of the network to achieve various advantageous purposes. The following discussion is intended to provide an antecedent for any appropriate network implementation required by the modality described in the following: Examples of some recent patents that relate to the network environments of a plural remote terminal of shared users of printers in network, include Xerox Corporation, U.S. Patent Nos. 5,243,518, 5,226,112, 5,170,340 and 5,287,194. Some patents in this material by others include U.S. Patents Nos. 5,113,355, 5,113,494 (originally filed on February 27, 1987), 5,181,162, 5,220,674, 5,247,670; 4,953,080 and 4,821,107. In addition, by way of background, some of the following United States patents of Xerox Corporation also include examples of network systems with printers: 5,153,577; 5,113,517 , 072,412 5,065,347; 5,008,853; 4,947,345; 4,939,507 4, 937,036, 4,920,481; 4,914,586; 4,899,136; 4,453,128 4,063,220 4,099,024; 3,958,088; 3,920,895; and 3,597,071. Also noted are the United States Patents of IBM Corp. Nos. 4,651,278 and 4,623,244 and the United States Patent of Canon No. 4,760,458 and Japanese Publication No. 59-63872 published on November 4, 1984. Some of the these various earlier patents also describe multifunctional or integral machines [digital scanner / facsimile / printer / copiers] and their controls. Some other network systems related to publications include "Xerox Office System Technology", "... Xerox 8000 Series Products: Workstations, Services, Ethernet, and Software Development" c1982, 1984 by Xerox Corporation, OSD-R8203A , Ed. T. Linden and E. Harslem, with a "Table of Contents" citing their numbers before the publications and an Abstract dating from April 1981 announcing "the 8110 Star Information System, A New Personal Computer .."; "Xerox System Integration Standard Printing Protocol XSIS 118404", April 1984; "Xerox Integrated Production Publishers Solutions: .." Bloklet No. "610P50807" "11/85"; "Printing Protocol-Xerox System Integration Standard" c1990 by Xerox Corporation, XNSS 119005 May 1990; "Xerox Network Systems Architecture", "General Information Manual", XNSG 068504 April 1985, with extensive bibliographic annotation, c1985 by Xerox Corporation; "Interpress: The Source Book", Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, New York, 1988, by Harrington, S.J. and Buckley, R.R .; Adobe Systems Incorporated "PostScript? Language Reference Manual", Addison-esley Co., 1990; "Mastering Novell? Netware", 1990, SYBEX, Inc., Alameda, CA, by Cheryl E. Currid and Craig A. Gillett; "Palladium Print System" CMIT 1984, et sec .; "Athena85" "Computing in Higher Education: The Athena Experience", E. Balkovich, et al, Communications of the ACM, 28 (11) p. 1214-1224, November 1985; and "Apollo87" "The Network Computing Architecture and System: An Environment for Developing Distributed Applications", TH Dineen, et al, Usenix Conference Proceedings, June 1987. It is mentioned with respect to commercial network systems with printers and software, for Is this the 1992 Xerox? Corporation "Network Publisher" version of 1990 publishing system "DocuTech?" including the "Network Server" for Novell networks? 3.11 of the client, supporting different network protocols and "Ethernet"; and the Interpress Electronic Printing Standard, Version 3.0, Xerox System Integration Standard XNSS 048601 (January 1986). Also, the very old Xerox? Corporation "9700 Electronic printing System"; the "VP Local Laser Printing" software packaged application, which, together with the Xerox? "4045" or another Laser Copier / Printer, the "6085" "Professional Computer System" using Xerox Corporation "ViewPoint" or "GlobalView?" software and a "local printer [print service] Option", computer, comprises the "Documenter" system. The still old Xerox? Corporation "8000" "Xerox Network Services Product Descriptions" also describes another old Xerox electronic document printing system? Corporation.

Also the Eastman Kodak systems "LionHeart?" , from the first announcement, September 13, 1990. The currently published, commercial "systems software" includes popular LAN workstation connections including Novell? DOS 7.0, "Windows?" NT 3.1 and IBM OS / 2 Version 2.1. The descriptions of all the patents cited and / or discussed in the foregoing in these foregoing are incorporated herein by reference.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a document processing system is provided that includes at least one document reproduction apparatus and handle production on demand of a document job. The document work is characterized by a set of work attributes with each work attribute that is related to a way in which the document work is going to be processed by the document processing system. The document processing system, which also includes a document server to handle the conversion of document work into production on demand, comprises: a plurality of queues mapped to a plurality of document processing subsystems, each one of the plurality of wait queues includes a set of queue attributes that characterize the extent to which each processing subsystem of the document, mapped to one or more of the plurality of queues is capable of processing a portion of work supplied to one or more waiting queues; a queue utility that communicates with the plurality of queues and compares the set of work attributes and each set of queue attributes to generate a set of information that corresponds to the set of attributes of the job with those queues waiting queues among the plurality of waiting queues, which are capable of completely processing at least a portion of the work of the document; and at least a portion of the document work corresponding to one of the plurality of queues based on information set generated by the queue utility. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a document processing system is provided that includes at least one document reproduction apparatus and the production management by the demand of a document job. The document work is characterized by a set of work attributes with each work attribute that is related to a way in which the document work is going to be processed by the document processing system. The document processing system, which also includes a document server to handle the conversion of document work into production on demand, comprises: a first set of one or more queues mapped in a first set of subsystems of document processing, each of the first set of one or more queues that includes a set of queue attributes that characterize the extent to which each processing subsystem of the document mapped to one or more of the first set of queues of Wait is capable of processing a portion of work supplied to one or more waiting queues of the first set of queues and each of the first set of document processing subsystems that are part of a first family of document processing subsystems; a second set of queues mapped to a second set of document processing subsystems, each of the second set of queues that include a set of queue attributes that characterize the extent to which each processing subsystem of the document mapped to one or more of the second set of queues is capable of processing a portion of jobs supplied to one or more waiting queues of the second set of queues and each of the second set of document processing subsystems that is part of a second family of document processing subsystems; a queue utility that communicates with the first and second sets of queues and compares the set of work attributes with each queue attribute set to generate a set of information that corresponds to the set of attributes of the queue. work with those queues, between the first and second queue sets, which are capable of completely processing at least a portion of the work of the document; and on the basis of the set of information generated by the queue utility, a first portion of the job that is matched with the first set of queues and a second portion of the job that is matched with the second set of queues.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 is a schematic elevation view of a network printing system; Figure 2 is a block, schematic, partial diagram of the network printing system of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a representation of a format for an electronic work ticket; Figures 4 and 5 are representations of job tickets used for portions of the program of a print job as displayed on a customer screen; Figure 6 is a block diagram, schematic based on the embodiment of Figure 2, in which the waiting queues are grouped at the base of the functionality; Figure 7 is an elevation view of a screen in which the available standby queues grouped in terms of functionality are displayed; Figure 8 is a flow chart demonstrating an approach in which the attribute profile for a job is developed to determine one or more queues for which the job is to be delivered; Figure 9 is a schematic view of an attribute profile for a job; Figure 10 is a schematic view of a summary of job attributes compared to two rows of a job attribute profile; Figure 11 is a flowchart that shows how a job is analyzed syntactically to obtain the attributes selected from the job application for the application of an accentuated color; and Figure 12 is a block diagram, schematic of a printing system capable of integrating the multiple work portions in a single production.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED MODALITIES Although the present invention will be described hereinafter in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that it is not intended to limit the invention to that embodiment. On the contrary, it is understood that it covers all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. With reference to Figure 1, there is shown a network document processing system 10 of the type adapted to incorporate the present invention. The processing system 10 comprises a plurality of printers 12-1, 12-2, 12-3, ... 12-n for processing print jobs and making prints in accordance with the work programming instructions for each job printed. Each of the printers 12-1, 12-2, 12-3, 12-n can be any suitable printer, capable of producing impressions on the printing media such as paper from video image signals and can, for example, example, understand laser printers, ink jet printers, digital copiers, full or clear process color printers, ionographic printers, combinations of the above devices, etc. In system 10, where multiple printers are integrated into a network processing system, individual printers typically have different document processing capabilities, as will be apparent. As used herein, printers 12-1, 12-2, 12-3, ... 12-n include virtual printers of the type described by U.S. Patent Nos. 5,371,837 and 5,450,571. The system 10 provides printing processing by various work stations or clients 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, ... 15-n. Clients 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, ... 15-n, which can be remote and / or on-site, are operatively linked to printers 12-1, 12-2, 12-3 , 12-n by means of server 25 as it will be apparent. As will be appreciated, although only one server and a limited number of document processing apparatuses is shown in Figure 1, the preferred embodiment contemplates the use of many servers and document processing units as required to meet the demands of the users. of the system. Customers provide the electronic documents that are the source of the print jobs and for this purpose individual ones for all customers 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, ... 15-n can have a document explorer, disk entry, dashboard, fax, etc., to generate the electronic document that comprises the work that will be printed. Clients 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, ... 15-n have a User Interface (Ul) 16 with interactive screen 17 that allows program selections for print jobs to be made. Screen 17 displays the various programming selections available in the form of a work ticket as will be appreciated. Printers 12-1, 12-2, 12-3, ... 12-n, clients 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, ... 15-n and server 25 are operationally interconnected by the network or communication channels 27. With reference to Figure 2, the relationship of an individual client, such as the client 15-1, to the server is shown in further detail. In the illustrated embodiment of Figure 2, the client 15-1 includes one of the Ul 16 and an electronic work ticket 35, which work ticket 35 allows the user to schedule a print job for the transmission of the server 25. In In general, work ticket 35 includes information that relates to the attributes that characterize a document job. More particularly, the attributes typically include work level attributes (e.g., set amount, copy count, finishing requirements, plex and page numbering), page level attributes (e.g. , image quality, reduction / enlargement and sides that will be with the image), and image level attributes (for example image size, image color, location of the image in relation to a page). In one example, the electronic document or documents 39, which includes training related to the image and the attribute, is transmitted from the client 15-1 to the server 25. With reference to Figure 3, the client / server work ticket 35 can assume ASCII format. Additionally, by the use of the client interface dialog software Ul, suitable, the selections of the print job can be displayed on the screen 17 of the Ul 16, in such a way that the user can realize which print selections are available for programming a print job. The disclosures of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,450,571 and 5,467,434 describe, in detail, the proper arrangement for work tickets generated for network printing systems that employ multiple queues. The examples of the work ticket are suitable for use in a network printing environment are shown in Figures 4 and 5 of the drawings. In particular, with reference to Figure 4, the works are programmed in a Work Program mode in which it has displayed on the screen 17 (Figure 1) the work ticket 35 with a work classification card 37 so that the work is scheduled. Job ticket 35 presents various work selections available for programming, while work record card 37 displays the basic instructions for the system to print the job. Various types of work tickets are provided with access through the icon 39 Tickets and Types of Work. Job Ticket 35 has three programming levels, referred to as "Work Level", "Basic" and "Special", each having a series of icons for accessing the various programming selections available at that level. The classification card 37 is, in the illustrated modes of Figures 4 and 5, associated with each level of programming, such that the activation of a particular work level / page or of a specific icon, the classification card 37 appropriate is displayed on the screen 17. It will be appreciated that certain aspects of programming, although shown being in the "Page Level" in Figure 4, facilitates the placement of a specific image, for example a bitmap, whose image typically has its own set of specific attributes. More particularly, as shown in conjunction by Figures 4 and 5, by the use of the special registration card together with the attribute file for an image or bitmap - the bitmap which is depicted in Figure 5 as the "XYZ" tag - places the job for a pre-stored bitmap that can be easily performed. The classification of the placed work suggested by Figure 5 is described, in detail, by U.S. Patent No. 5,450,541 ("Method of Applying Electronically Stored Labels to a Print Job"). As will be further appreciated by those skilled in the art, the preferred embodiment contemplates that the system calls the bitmap, of the type described by U.S. Patent No. 5,493,634, can be used to designate, in a work station. of the client, which of the bitmaps, stored in a server / remote network printer that will be applied to one or more pages of a job. As will be presented in the following, a client user, in one example, could access the bitmap of "Subdirectory 1" (Figure 5) on the remote network server / printer and provide all the necessary information to eventually print the map of pre-stored XYZ bits. Referring again to Figure 2, server 25 includes one or more wait queues 42-1, 42-2, ... 42-N, queues (e.g., print queues) 42 that are provided for selection by the user in a section or file 43. Each of the queues 42 is mapped to one of the files or configuration profiles (eg print profiles) 44-1, 44-2, ... 4-n. Each of the printer profiles includes a list of printer properties, the properties in one example, are advantageously arranged to describe the combinations of job selections available in a printer selected from the printers or family of processing units 12 of the document. Each of the print queues 42 is associated with one or more of the document processing units or printers 12. It should be recognized that there may be a plurality of queues for the same printer, as in the case where virtual printers are provided. Accordingly, in a second example, a printer (referred to herein as a virtual printer) can be structured to provide different printer functions, with a corresponding print queue and profile provided for each different structured printer. In the preferred embodiment, the queues 42 communicate with a queue 48 utility. As it will appear from the following description, the queue utility is provided with the necessary software to allow the attribute information of a job. is analyzed syntactically and arranged in a database 50. The corresponding image components are preferably stored in the mass memory (not shown). Both of the queue and database utility communicate with a principal server control 52, the control of the principal server that is responsible for providing the queue utility with the necessary processing capability that facilitates the movement of the data between the utility of the queue, the database, and the queues. The functionality of the queue utility will be discussed in more detail in the following. Still with reference to Figure 2, preferably, the electronic documents 39 are placed in a document directory 54. In one example, the control of the server 52 combines a set of documents 39 with a corresponding combination of the selection of the print job to form a document work. An example of a server processor capable of combining a set of electronic documents, such as a print data file (page description language) and a corresponding combination of selections of the print job, such as a work ticket, in a work file for printing can be found in the patent. United States No. 5,226,112 to Mensing et al. (Issued: July 6, 1993). Other very suitable provisions for handling jobs at a network level can be found in United States Patent Nos. 5,113,494 (which describes a server processor suitable for RIPing a document), 5,220,647 (describing a server with various control). levels as well as the database with concomitant handling), and 5,483,653 (which describes a server with a parser and storage). With reference to Figures 6 and 7, the preferred queuing structure of the present approach is discussed. In the illustrated embodiment of Figure 6, the waiting queues are organized into three groups, namely a black and white waiting queue group ("B / W waiting queue") 58, queue group 60 wait for full-process color printing ("FPC queues") and 60 queue groups of accented color printing ("AC queues") 62. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, although Three waiting queue groups are shown in Figure 6, the preferred modality contemplates the use of as many waiting queue groups as required to meet the demands of the users of the system. Preferably, the various groups are mapped to one or more servers placed throughout the network document processing system and refer specifically to Figure 7, each group includes a list of corresponding queues with various network printers. As it should be recognized, the printer may be grouped in terms of families, the concept of families that are further described in U.S. Patent No. 5,450,571. Also as it should be recognized, the families related in Figure 6 do not need to be printers, but on the contrary they can be a guest of the document processing devices, typically found in a printing or processing system of the distribution document. As follows from the discussion of the previous queue mapping, the various queues of queue groups can be mapped to the components or processing families of the document in a way that optimizes the individual requirements of the queue groups. system users. With reference to Figure 8, a software implementation for the distribution of one or more work portions of a job between one or more wait queues based on the work attributes is described. In general, the technique proposes an approach in which the information of the attribute associated with a job, ie attribute information interspersed in an electronic document and the corresponding work ticket, is interleaved in an electronic document and the corresponding work ticket is "syntactically analyzed" and used to dynamically generate a list or matrix of waiting queues available for processing in at least a portion of the work. Then one or more waiting queues are selected at the base of the list or matrix, to execute one or more portions of the job. In the illustrated implementation of Figure 8, which can be employed in a separate network server of the type described in the above or a server connected with a printing apparatus of the type described in Patent Application Serial No. 08 / 315,274 now allowed, a job is sent to the server in step 90. The job, ie the electronic document and the work ticket associated with the job, is then analyzed syntactically in step 92, for the information that is related to the attributes of the level of work (ie Jl, J2, ... JN). As will be appreciated, the parsing can include nothing more than exploring the work ticket and the electronic document (also referred to as "master work") to collect the necessary attribute information. Along with the parsing, the work can be placed in a suitable form for editing. It will be appreciated that a work, when in a PDL format is not easily edited, In this way to facilitate editing, the work is placed in an information format (step 94), for example such as TIFF or any other editable format, suitable . It should be noted that the preferred modality contemplates the placement of the work in an intermediate format, if the work is going to be edited or not, because in doing this, among other things, it facilitates the preparation of the print for the demand of the work. RIPing the work to place it in an intermediate format can be easily accomplished with a platform of the type described in U.S. Patent Nos. 5,113,494 and 5,220,674. Once the work is in an appropriate intermediate format, it should be placed in the buffer (step 96), so that the appropriate editing procedures of the type alluded to in the following, in relation to the discussion of Figure 11 can run with him. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, in one example the intermediate format would allow editing at an objective oriented level in which the components of the image or objects can be added to or removed from the document work. With reference again to step 92, in practice, the information of the work level attribute is placed in the buffer (Figure 2) and compared with the information made available by the configuration of the 44 files. When determining that the attribute of the work corresponds to an attribute of a waiting queue, a line is developed in a matrix 104 (Figure 9), by means of step 106. Each waiting queue capable of processing in at least a portion of the work, based on the coupling between at least one work-level attribute and a configuration file attribute is listed in matrix 104. As shown in the illustrated matrix of Figure 9, as a minimum, queues 1 and N they are able to execute at least a portion of the work at a work level. In step 108 the work is further analyzed syntactically to determine which information and page level attribute (Pl, P2, ... PN) must exist. With a resulting list of page-level attributes another comparison is made with the configuration files to update the array 104 (step 110) to reflect which queues are capable of executing at least a portion of the work based on the attributes of the page level. As shown in the illustrated matrix of Figure 9, as a minimum, queues 1, 5 and N are capable of executing at least a portion of the work at a page level. In step 112, the work is further analyzed syntactically to determine the attribute information of the image level (ll, 12, ... ÍN) must exist. A resulting list of attributes of another image level comparison is made with the configuration files to update the array 104 (step 114) to reflect which queues are capable of executing at least a portion of the work based on the attributes of the level of image. As shown in the illustrated matrix of Figure 9, as a minimum, queues 1, 5, 9 and N are capable of executing at least a portion of the work at an image level. Now with reference to step 118, a subroutine is started to determine which of one or more of the queues should be used to execute the work is initiated. Assuming that one or more individual queues are available to execute all the work completely, an interactive determination as to whether the unit or processing units of the document mapped to the queue or individual wait queues is suitable for executing the work is done in step 120. In an example, a client user is requested by the server , according to an interactive scheme of the type described in U.S. Patent No. 5,129,639. To evaluate whether the selected attributes of a document processing unit associated with one or more queues is acceptable to the user. As can be understood, there are certain circumstances in which a user can find the queue or queues available, individual queues, inadequate to execute their work. For example, each processing unit of the available document may be arranged in a location that is unsuitable for the user or each available processing unit may be classified at an unacceptable processing speed (for example, printing per unit of time is unacceptably low). . Preferably, in step 122, if a document processing unit meets the requirements of the user, all the work is communicated to a waiting queue corresponding to the processing unit of the document. On the other hand, if no waiting queue is available that can meet the demands of the user, then the user is provided, at step 124, with an opportunity to develop a multiple queue profile or simply initiate a return. Assuming that the user chooses to develop a multiple queue profile or that no individual queue is available for job processing, the user is, under certain circumstances, provided with an opportunity to establish a new queue or reconfigure a pre-existing waiting queue (see step 126). If the user has the ability to establish or reconfigure a waiting queue, then the process proceeds to step 128, where the user performs a necessary establishment / reconfiguration operation and communicates the work to the established / reconfigured wait queue. In some circumstances, it may be advantageous to provide a user with the power to manipulate the waiting queue. In fact, some degree of manipulation of the waiting queue is contemplated by the Xerox Print XNS protocol or MIT Paradigm Print Paladium. In many situations, however, it can be very undesirable to provide a user with power to handle the queue. That is, allowing a system administrator to manipulate the waiting queue may be acceptable, while allowing a less educated user to manipulate the queue can be very unacceptable. For those situations in which establishment / reconfiguration is not allowed, a user is willing to explore the possibility of a multiple queue profile, the process proceeds to step 130 where the queue utility 48 (Figure 2) automatically and dynamically develops one or more multiple queue profiles from which the user can choose. With reference to Figure 10, an example of the development of a multiple queue profile is discussed. In particular, an exemplary work can be characterized by the following established attribute: . { Jl, J3, J5, P4, P6, 12, 15, 17.}.

For the situation in which an individual wait queue with this set attribute does not exist and a multiple queue profile is requested, the queue utility looks for the array 104 (Figure 9) for two complementary queues. In the example of Figure 10, the following attribute is set from Queue 2: . { Jl, J3, P6, 15, 17.}. complements the following set attributes of Queue 7: . { J5, P4, 12.}.

To implement the development of the profile of the multiple waiting queue, previous example, the queuing utility looks for the matrix 104 (Figure 9) for two complementary waiting queues and, by means of step 130, notifies the user of each establishment of the wait queues available to execute the user's work. A very suitable situation for a multiple queue profile exists, when a job includes a blank / black portion and one or more color type portions. In one example, the work may include multiple color types, such as both the process of color and accent / clear color, also being sent to two wait queues (one waiting queue with black / white capability and another waiting queue with color-accented capacity) map to an individual printer. With specific reference to 11, an approach to manipulating the accentuated color portion of a work was discussed in more detail. Preferably, a page is provided to the queue utility 48 (Figure 2) (step 134) and the parsing proceeds as described above. A determination is made in step 136, as to whether an image exists on the page provided. If there is no image, ie the bitmap or sweep on the page, then the process proceeds to step 138 to determine whether the entire work has been analyzed syntactically. Assuming that the entire work has not been analyzed syntactically, then another page is obtained (step 140) and the process forms a circuit back to step 136. If there is an image on the page, then a determination is made by means of the step 142, to determine whether the image is an accent color image, for example a color merge article. Assuming that the image comprises an accented color image, a profile, with a corresponding corresponding instruction is developed in step 144. Generally, the accented color profile will include (as shown, for example in Figure 5) information regarding, among other things, the placement of the page, placement of the image, color and print control. As it should be recognized, the print control would include information to control the operation of the print head, such that operations such as alternate annotation, cover color printing could be obtained. In cover operations a color can be applied over the top of a portion of text to lighten the text, and in alternate color printing, the application of the color can be alternated the jet output of an ink from a head during one time interval and another ink from the same head during another time interval. It will be appreciated that the preferred embodiment comprises the achievement of alternating color with any suitable, printable format material, eg, developer material. In an application, all the accented color information may be provided for an image by the server 25 or by a client. Preferably, the accented color profile for a given page includes an accented color pattern and corresponding data. In one example, the accented color pattern is specified by up to eight strips evenly distributed across a page with each strip that is described by the data that relates to the location, height and color. In practice, a server operator or a client generates a file and the data for the pattern is generated with a strip data generator utility. The strip data generator utility generates a suitable bitmap by adaptation for, among other commands, the Line, Box Text String and Bitmap commands. Each page in the job may have a strip pattern associated with it and the data may vary from page to page. In one example, a user could indicate the location of an image for a page given by the designation of a specific strip and where, within the strip, a sweep (which also has a specific color) appears. When the accented color is programmed by a client, the accented color information can be provided by means of a suitable known application, such as Word, Pagemaker or PowerPoint ("Word" and "PowerPoint" are trademarks attributable to Microsoft products while that "Pagemaker" is a trademark attributable to an Adobe product). The color used by the client must be representative of a final result, but no colorimetric accuracy is required. All objects, for example text, graphs, diagrams, paintings, tables, mean that they are black / white must be created as such and all objects mean that they are colored must be created (colored) as such. Then the client, with an appropriate activator converts the information regarding the specifications of the accented color in the form of work using the standard Adobe L2 PostScript encoder on his workstation. All client operations, with respect to accented color can be performed on server 25 (Figure 2) instead of the client. In this way, a merger item, for example a logo, can be added to a document even when the customer has not requested it. This server capacity can be useful for the case in which the server used by an institution, for example university, wishes to designate the source of a document even if the client did not intend to do so. Even with reference to the illustrated modality of the Figure 11, the operations necessary to execute the editing operations of the type described in the above are performed for a given image, in step 145. It will be appreciated that each time an editing operation is performed, the revision of the copy of the work in the buffer in the server (see for example, step 98 of Figure 8) must be updated appropriately. Additionally, each profile developed by an accented color image is, in step 146 integrated in matrix 104. In this form, the queue profile for all the work may reflect those attributes associated with the accented colored pages. Decisions 138 and 148 allow the process to either analyze the work in addition to one or more accented color images or choose not to do the syntactic analysis subroutine. Now with reference to Figure 12, an example for the processing of a job including black / white, the full color process and accented color portions are shown. In particular, a portion of the work can be supplied to a full process color printer (document processing unit 1) and another portion can be supplied to a black / white printer with accented color capability (processing unit 2). documents). As should be appreciated, the document processing unit 2 preferably includes the component, for example, database, mass memory and system state controller, needed to store the image data associated with the job, as well as all the necessary printing instructions and page level templates (programmed strip patterns). In turn, the work is programmed to 1) generate white / black prints, 2) accentuate the white / black prints with one or more colors and supply both the white / black prints and the colored prints, accentuated to an integrator of the work in the form of a stream. In practice, the programming capabilities of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,095,342 and 5,184,185, the description of which are incorporated herein by reference, would be utilized in conjunction with a color accentuation device, suitable near the exit end. of document processing unit 2 to develop a printing output stream of black / white and accent color prints. The data for the accented color pages, as well as any of the control instructions attached to operate the accented color device, would be obtained from the mass memory of the document processing unit 2 - the control instructions that are communicated to the document processing unit 2 previously by the server 25 of Figure 2. Additionally, the "holes" would be provided in the stream, according to the procedure of the program of the U.S. Patent No. 5,489,969 to receive impressions of the color process supplied to the job integrator. As illustrated by the Soler patent, color prints can be fed from a tray into the stream of the prints provided by the document processing unit 2. In one example, color prints would be supplied directly from the document processing unit 1 to the work integrator by means of a suitable conveyor system. In such an exemplary approach, impressions would be delivered at the top of one of the integrating trays and the system would be notified of its arrival. At the same time, the work that corresponds to the color prints supplied, would be designated as an interrupted print job of the current job could be interrupted, so that the work that corresponds to the color prints supplied could be printed immediately. In this way, color prints will not be inadvertently supplied for the job that is currently processed. The numerous features of the embodiment described in the foregoing can be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art. First, a provision, including a plurality of queues and a wait queue utility for example the attributes of a job, is provided. According to the examination of work attributes, a matrix, indicating each of the waiting queues that is capable of processing at least a portion of the work is fully developed. By reference to the matrix, the waiting queue utility determines one or more waiting queues, from the plurality of waiting queues for which one or more portions of the work will be provided. Second, the matrix is developed by reference to a complete range of work attributes. A job can be characterized in terms of work level attributes, page level attributes, and image level attributes. Many known layouts divide a job based on the attributes of the job level and at least one known disposition divides a job based on the page level attributes. The preferred modality parses a job for the purposes of generating a matrix based on the attributes of the job, the page and the level of the image. Therefore, work divisions, by reference to the matrix, can be placed for attributes other than the work level and / or page level attributes. Third, in a preferred mode approach, queues are grouped as a function of the type of the document processing subsystem with which a given wait queue is mapped. For example, the white / black printing machines are grouped in a first set, the full process color printing machines are grouped in a second set and the accentuated / clear color printing machines are grouped in a third set. In this approach, a first portion of a job can be provided to an established wait queue, while another portion of the job can be provided to another established queue. Finally, the preferred embodiment establishes an approach that greatly facilitates a multi-dimensional color printing system, which is dynamic and flexible. -In particular, a client advantageously provides a job to a server, which analyzes the work, in a way that is transparent to the client and when necessary, divides the work to supply multiple printers. If the accented color pages are present in the job, the server coordinates the printing of the color pages accentuated by the provision of all the necessary data and instructions for a printing machine chosen dynamically by the server. In one example, the server can add an article or color merge to portions of a job to manufacture the job source even when the user has only implicitly indicated a desire to have the merge article added. It is noted that in relation to this date, the best method known to the applicant to carry out the aforementioned invention, is that which is clear from the present description of the invention. Having described the invention as above, property is claimed as contained in the following:

Claims (27)

1. A document processing system that includes at least one document reproduction apparatus and the production management by the demand of a document work, the work of the document that is characterized by a set of work attributes with each attribute of the work that relates a way in which the work of the document is going to be processed by the document processing system, including a document server to handle the conversion of the work of the document into production by demand, characterized in that it comprises: a plurality of queues mapped to a plurality of document processing subsystems, each of the plurality of queues includes a set of queue attributes that characterize the extent to which each document processing subsystem, mapped to one or more than the plurality of waiting queues is capable of processing a portion of work supplied to one or more waiting queues; a queue utility that communicates with the plurality of queues and compares the set of work attributes and each set of queue attributes to generate a set of information that corresponds to the set of attributes of the job with those queues waiting queues among the plurality of waiting queues, which are capable of completely processing at least a portion of the work of the document; and at least a portion of the document work corresponding to one of the plurality of queues based on information set generated by the queue utility.

2. The seventh processing of the document according to claim 1, characterized in that the set of attributes of the work, includes a first subset of attributes and a second subset of attributes, in which the set of information is developed by a) parsing the document work a first time to determine if at least a first portion of the work is executable with one or more of the document's processing subsystems, b) parsing the work of the document a second time to determine if at least one second The work portion of the document is executable with one or more of the document's processing subsystems.

3. The document processing system according to claim 2, characterized in that the first portion is matched with a first waiting queue of the plurality of waiting queues to execute in one of the plurality of processing subsystems of the document and the second one. The portion is correlated with a second tail of the plurality of waiting queues to execute in a second subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems.

4. The document processing system according to claim 3, characterized in that the first subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems comprises a printing system for printing an image with multiple colors and the second subsystem of the plurality of subsystems of the document. document processing, comprising a printing system which would normally mark a substantial portion of a document work with only black developer material or ink.

5. The seventh processing of the document according to claim 4, characterized in that the printing system which would normally mark a substantial portion of a document work with only black developer material or ink includes a subsystem to accentuate an impression with a material or ink developer of color that is not black.

6. The document processing system according to claim 2, characterized in that the work of the document includes attributes of the level of the work and a plurality of pages with each page that includes one or more page-level attributes, in which the first Attribute subset comprises work level attributes and the second subset of attributes comprises page level attributes.

7. The document processing system according to claim 2, characterized in that the set of attributes of the work includes a third subset of attributes, in which the set of information is further developed by the parsing of the work of the document a third time for determine if at least one third portion of the document's work is executable with one or more of the document's processing subsystems.

8. The seventh processing of the document according to claim 7, characterized in that the work of the document includes attributes of the level of the work and a plurality of pages with each page that includes one or more attributes of level of the page and the one in which one more of the plurality of pages, includes one or more images characterized by the attributes of the image, in which the first subset of attributes comprises work-level attributes, the second subset of attributes comprises the attributes of the page level and the third subset of attributes comprises attributes of the level of the image.

9. The document processing system according to claim 8, characterized in that the second portion is matched with a first waiting queue of the plurality of waiting queues for execution in a subsystem of the plurality of processing subsystems of the document and the third portion is reciprocated with a second waiting queue of the plurality of waiting queues for execution in a second subsystem of the plurality of subsystems of document processing.

10. The document processing system according to claim 9, characterized in that the second subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems, comprises a subsystem for applying an accent color that is not black to a marked print, at least in part with material or revealing ink, black.

11. The document processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that the information set comprises a matrix in which each column or row designates an extension to which a portion of the work of the document can be fully processed with a subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems.

12. The document processing system according to claim 11, characterized in that a decision to provide separate portions of the document work to multiple queues of the plurality of queues, respectively, is made on a basis of a relation between at least two of the columns of the matrix or at least two of the rows of the matrix.

13. The document processing system according to claim 1, characterized in that substantially all the production of the demand is generated in only one of the plurality of the processing subsystems of the document.

14. A document processing system that includes at least one apparatus for reproducing the document and handling the production on demand of a document job, the document work is characterized by a set of work attributes with each attribute of the document. work that relates to a way in which the work of the document will be processed by the system of document processing, which includes a document server to handle the conversion of the work of the document into production by demand, characterized in that comprises: a first set of one or more queues mapped in a first set of document processing subsystems, each of the first set of one or more queues that include a set of queue attributes characterizing the extension to which each processing subsystem of the document mapped to one or more of the first set of queues is capable of cessation of a portion of work supplied to one or more waiting queues of the first set of queues and each of the first set of document processing subsystems that are part of a first family of document processing subsystems; a second set of wait queues attached to a second set of document processing subsystems, each of the second set of queues that include a set of queue attributes that characterize the extent to which each processing subsystem of the The document mapped to one or more of the second set of queues is capable of processing a portion of jobs supplied to one or more waiting queues of the second set of queues and each of the second set of processing subsystems of the document that is ee part of a second family of document processing subsystems; a queue utility that communicates with the first and second sets of eepera queues and compares the set of job attributes with each queue attribute set to generate a set of information that corresponds to the set of attributes of the queue. work with those queues, between the first and second queue sets, which are capable of completely processing at least a portion of the work of the document; and at the base of the information set generated by the queue utility, a first portion of the job that is matched with the first set of queues and a second portion of the job that is matched with the second set of queues .

15. The document processing system according to claim 14, characterized in that the first set of one or more document processing subsystems comprises one or more printers to mark the document with one or two colors and the second set of one or more subsystems of the document comprises one or more printers for marking documents with at least three colors.

16. The document processing system according to claim 15, characterized in that at least one of the first set of one or more document processing subsystems, includes a subsystem for applying accented color that is not black to a marked print, so less in part, with black revealing material or ink.

17. The document processing system according to claim 14, characterized in that the set of attributes of the work, includes a first subset of attributes and a second subset of attributes, in which the set of information is developed by a) parsing the document work a first time to determine if at least a first portion of the work is executable with one or more of the first set of one or more subsystems processing the document and b) parsing the work of the document a second time to determine if at least a second portion of the work of the document is executable with one or more of the second set of document processing subsystems.

18. The document processing system according to claim 17, characterized in that the first portion is matched with one of the first set of one or more queues to be executed in one of the first set of one or more processing subsystems of the document and the The second portion is matched with a waiting queue of the plurality of queues to be executed in a subsystem of the second set of one or more processing subsystems of the document.

19. The document processing system according to claim 17, characterized in that the work of the document includes attributes of the work level and a plurality of pages with each page that includes one or more page level attributes, in which the first subset of attributes comprises work-level attributes and the second subset of attributes comprises page-level attributes.

20. The document processing system according to claim 17, characterized in that the set of attributes of the work includes a third subset of attributes, in which the set of information is further developed by the parsing of the work of the document a third time, to determine if at least a third portion of the work of the document is executable with one or more of any of the first set of one or more processing subsystems of the document or the second set of one or more processing subsystems of the document.

21. In a processing system a document that includes at least one document reproduction apparatus and the production management by the demand of a document work, the work of the document that is characterized by a set of work attributes with each attribute of the work that is related to a way in which the work of the document is going to be processed by the document processing system, which includes a document server to manipulate the conversion of the work of the document into production on demand, a method characterized in that it comprises: mapping a plurality of queues waiting for a plurality of document processing subsystems, each of the plurality of queues that includes a set of queue attributes, which characterize the extent to which each subsystem processing the document mapped to one or more of the plurality of queues, is capable of processing a portion n of the work supplied to one or more of the waiting queues; compare the set and attributes of the job and each set of attributes of the queue to generate a set of information that corresponds to the set of attributes of the job with those queues, among the plurality of queues, which are capable of processing completely at least a portion of the work of the document; and matching at least a portion of the work of the document with one of the plurality of waiting queues based on the information set generated by the utility of the waiting queue.

22. The method according to claim 21, wherein the set of work attributes includes a first subset of attributes and a second subset of attributes, further characterized in that it comprises developing the set of information by, a) parsing the work of the document a first time to determine if at least a first portion of the work is executable with a subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems, and b) parsing the work of the document a second time to determine whether at least a second portion of the document. The work of the document is executable with a subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems.

23. The method in accordance with the claim 22, further characterized in that it comprises matching the first portion with a first waiting queue of the plurality of queues waiting for execution in a subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems and matching the second portion with a second queue of waiting for the plurality of waiting queues for execution in a second subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems.

24. The method in accordance with the claim 23, further characterized in that it comprises editing the second portion before executing it in a second subsietem of the plurality of subsystems of the document processing.

25. The method according to claim 23, wherein the set of attributes of the work includes a third subset of attributes, further characterized in that it comprises parsing the work of the document a third time to determine if at least a third portion of the work of the The document is executable with a subsystem of the plurality of document processing subsystems.

26. The method in accordance with the claim 22, further characterized in that it comprises mapping at least one waiting queue of the plurality of queues for a first family of one or more importers and mapping at least one of the plurality of queues to a second family of one. or more printers.

27. The method according to claim 26, further characterized in that it comprises providing the first family of one or more printers with the ability to mark a document with one or two colors and provide the second family of one or more printers with the ability to mark a document with three or more colors. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A document processing system is provided that includes at least one apparatus for reproducing the document and handling the production by the demand of a document job. The work of the document is characterized by a set of attributes of the work with each attribute of the work that is related to a way in which the work of the document is going to be processed by the processing system of the document. The document processing system, which also includes a document server to handle the conversion of document work into production on demand, comprises: a plurality of queues mapped to a plurality of document processing subsystems, each one of the plurality of wait queues includes a set of queue attributes that characterize the extent to which each processing subsystem of the document, mapped to one or more of the plurality of queues is capable of processing a portion of work supplied to one or more waiting queues. The document processing system further includes a queue utility that communicates with the plurality of queues. The wait queue utility compares the set of attributes of the job and each set of attributes of the queue to generate a set of information that corresponds to the set of attributes of the job with those queues, among the plurality of queues , which are capable of completely processing at least a portion of the document's work. In practice, at least a portion of the work of the document is matched with a waiting queue of the plurality of queues based on the set of information generated by the utility of the waiting queue.