JP2000177214A - Print system having ejecting-position display means - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently take out ejected recording-material by sending a processing request for obtaining ejecting-position information to a printer control part, by storing and displaying the transmitted position-and-printed job information, and by transmitting the ejecting-position information to a controller according to the processing request. SOLUTION: When the ejection of a printed recording-material into an ejecting device 13 is finished, process finish information is transmitted from a printer control device 5 to a controller 2, and a processing request for obtaining the ejecting-position information of a print job is transmitted from a processing-request control part 14 to the printer control device 5. After receiving, the ejecting-position information is transmitted to the controller 2 by the ejected-position-information processing part 16. The controller 2 stores the ejected-position information in a storage device by an ejected-position-display control part 15, and displays the ejecting-position information by means of illustration showing an ejection state, etc. onto the display device 3. To take out the print job, the display is checked and the print job to be taken out can be specified based on various information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a host computer for transmitting a print job, a controller having means for analyzing commands and data sent from the host computer, drawing, and transmitting a drawing result, and a controller for transmitting a drawing result. The present invention relates to a printing system that includes a printer control device that performs print control based on commands and data, an engine mechanism that prints video data output from the printer control device, and a discharge device that discharges a recording material from the engine mechanism. is there.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art First, an outline of a configuration of a conventional printing system will be described with reference to a printing system configuration diagram of FIG. A conventional printing system creates a document to be printed and sends the document as a print job to a host computer 1.
A controller 2 that receives print data from the host computer 1 and develops it into bitmap data; a display device 3 that displays data stored on a storage device (not shown) in the controller 2;
A printer controller 5 for receiving and printing bitmap data and controlling printing; a bidirectional interface 4 for connecting the controller 2 to the printer controller 5; an engine mechanism for printing video data output from the printer controller 5 And an ejection device 13 for ejecting the recording material printed from the engine mechanism 12.

[0006] Next, an outline of a print sequence (this case is referred to as online printing) when print data is transmitted from a host computer in a conventional printing system and printed will be described with reference to a block diagram of the conventional printing system in FIG. I do. A document to be printed is created by the host computer 1, and when a print job is transmitted from the host computer 1 to the controller 2, the controller 2 analyzes and expands the print data. The developed result is sent to the printer control device 5 as bitmap data with a command added as necessary. Commands and data transmitted from the controller 2 are received by the printer control device 5 via the bidirectional interface 4.

[0004] Commands and data received by the printer control device 5 are analyzed by an interpreter 6 in the printer control unit, and the result is stored in a frame memory 10 as print data of a bitmap by a drawing processing unit 7.

The data in the frame memory 10 is output by the engine control unit 8 as video data to the engine mechanism unit 12 together with the number of the specified discharge device analyzed by the interpreter 6, and printing is performed. After the end, the printed recording material is discharged to the discharge device 13 corresponding to the specified discharge device number. Note that the recording materials are stacked in order from below the discharge device 13.

The operation panel 11 displays the printing status of the printer controller 5 and the engine mechanism 12.

When there are a plurality of discharge devices, there is a discharge device automatic switching function for automatically switching the discharge destination.
This function is to select the next highest priority discharging device when the discharging device specified in the print job exceeds the upper limit of the discharge allowable amount, switch to that device, and discharge it. If the capacity is exceeded, similarly select the next highest priority discharger). During printing, when the discharge device exceeds the allowable amount, if the discharge specification is fixed, printing is interrupted (error occurs), but if automatic, printing is not interrupted and the discharge device can be switched to continue printing. This is generally effective when a large number of print jobs are continuously printed. In addition, the switching priority order of the discharge devices is generally in the order of the discharge device numbers, but customization is possible in the conventional printing system.

The sequence of the discharge device automatic switching function will be described with reference to the flowchart of the discharge control processing section in FIG.

The discharge device automatic switching function is processed by the discharge control processing section 9 in FIG. The discharge control processing unit illustrated in FIG. 7 determines the end of the print processing for the print job, and determines whether the discharge device that is currently discharging is in a full state if the print processing is being performed. When the discharge device is in the full state, if there are a plurality of discharge devices and the automatic switching designation is ON, the discharge device switching process 18 switches to the discharge device B having the next highest priority, and continues printing. If there is one ejection device, or if there are a plurality of ejection devices and no automatic switching is specified, a full error of the ejection device is detected in error processing 19, printing is stopped, and the process ends.

A sequence example of the discharge device automatic switching function will be described with reference to FIG. However, the priority order of the discharge devices in the figure is A, B, C, D. When the printer control device 5 receives and prints a plurality of print jobs and discharges the print jobs to the discharge device A, the discharge control processing unit 9 outputs discharge device full information indicating whether the discharge device acquired from the engine mechanism unit 12 is full or not. Is constantly monitored. When the full state of the discharging device A is detected, a discharging device switching request to the discharging device B is issued to the engine mechanism unit 12, and the engine mechanism unit 12 receiving the switching request sends the recording material discharge to the discharging device B. Switch. Thereafter, every time the discharge device becomes full, switching is performed in accordance with the priority order.

When printing a print job with a large amount of data of several hundred pages or more, or when printing a plurality of print jobs continuously, the automatic switching function needs to take out the recording material until all the discharge devices are full. Therefore, the removal operation can be performed collectively instead of the removal operation for each discharge device, which is very efficient. However, on the other hand, especially when a plurality of print jobs are printed / discharged, a plurality of jobs and a job divided by the automatic switching function are stacked on each discharge device. The disadvantage is that it is not possible to judge immediately and reliably where it is discharged. In addition, when transmitted from a plurality of host computers 1, print jobs by a plurality of operators may be printed and ejected and mixed together in the same ejection device, and it becomes more difficult to determine the ejection position of the print job of the operator. I can say.

For this reason, it is necessary to take out the recording material from each ejection device and compare the contents of the print job transmitted from the host computer 1 with the print result to search for it. Work efficiency becomes poor.

The discharge device 13 has a function called an offset stack function as a function for improving the efficiency of taking out a print job. This offset stack function will be described with reference to FIG.

The offset stack function is for stacking recording materials by shifting the discharge position for each page. By applying this function, the discharge position can be shifted for each print job and stacking can be performed. . As shown in FIG. 8, the use of this offset stack function makes it easy to see the division of the print job, and the work of taking out the print job becomes easy.

[0015]

In a conventional printing system, when a large number of print jobs or a plurality of print jobs are continuously printed, when one discharge device is provided, each print job is discharged to any position in the discharge device. It is difficult to judge which print job is to be ejected. On the other hand, in the case where a plurality of ejection devices are provided and the ejection device automatic switching function is provided, it is determined which ejection device and where in the ejection device each print job is ejected. However, in both cases, a lot of checking work occurs, and the work efficiency of taking out the print job is very poor. In particular, in the latter case, when the print job is divided into two discharge devices by the automatic switching function, it is not possible to determine to which discharge device each of the divided print jobs is discharged. Then, it is necessary to specify the position where the sheet is stacked in the discharge device, and further specify the other divided print job in the same manner as described above. The number of confirmations increases, and the extraction work efficiency becomes very poor.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system which eliminates the drawbacks of the above-mentioned conventional system and which can efficiently perform the work of taking out the discharged recording material after printing.

[0017]

In order to achieve the above object, a controller issues a processing request for obtaining information (discharge position information) indicating a discharge position to a printer control device; And a function of storing and displaying the discharge position information and print job information for the print job transmitted from the printer control device, and a function of transmitting the discharge position information to the controller in accordance with the processing request in the printer control device. Accordingly, the discharge position information for the print job, which is effective information, can be provided to the operator. As a result, since a print job is printed and is checked in the take-out operation after being discharged to the discharge device, only a plurality of print jobs stacked in the specified discharge device are separated. Can be realized. In particular, when a plurality of discharge devices are provided and a discharge device automatic switching function is provided, it is not possible to determine to which discharge device the print job is discharged by this function, but the discharge device can be first specified by the above three additional functions. Therefore, the above-described confirmation is only made for the separation of a plurality of print jobs in the discharge device, and compared with the conventional example (FIG. 6).
It is possible to realize a printing system with a very high removal work efficiency.

In the case where the offset stack function described in the above-mentioned conventional technique is provided, the break of the print job can be surely recognized, so that the break of the print job can be easily confirmed. Therefore, since the print job can be immediately taken out, the operator only needs to take out the print job, thereby realizing a printing system having a higher take-out work efficiency than the above-mentioned printing system in which the offset stack function cannot be used.

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a block diagram of a printing system shown in FIG. 1, a flowchart of a discharge control process shown in FIG. 2, a discharge position display screen shown in FIG. 3, and a take-out job selection screen shown in FIG. explain.

In this embodiment, in contrast to the above-described conventional example (FIG. 6), the controller 2 requests the printer control unit 5 to obtain the discharge position information of the print job, and the processing request control unit 14 and the printer control unit. 5, a discharge position display processing unit 16 for receiving and displaying the discharge position information transmitted from the printer 5, and in the printer control device 5, discharging position information for transmitting the discharge position information in response to the processing request from the controller 2. A part 16 is newly added, and a part of the processing of the discharge control processing part 9 for controlling the discharge of the recording material by monitoring the state of the discharge device in the printer control device 5 is changed.

First, the discharge control processing section 9 will be described with reference to the flow chart of the discharge control processing section in FIG.

The discharge control processing section 9 determines the end of the print processing for the print job, and determines whether or not the discharge apparatus currently discharging is in a full state during the print processing. In the full state, if there are a plurality of discharge devices and the automatic switching designation is ON, the current discharge device number (hereinafter, discharge device number) in the newly added discharge position information acquisition processing 17 and the discharge device in the discharge device A number indicating the stacking order of the print job (hereinafter, “job stacking number”) and the number of print jobs (the number of prints) of the print job in the discharge device are acquired as discharge position information for transmission to the controller 2, and the discharge device is switched In process 18, the printer is switched to the next higher-priority discharge device and printing is continued. When there is only one ejection device, or when there are a plurality of ejection devices and no automatic switching is specified, the ejection position information is obtained as the ejection position information. A full error of the device is detected, and the process ends. When the printing process for the print job has been completed, the above-described ejection position information is acquired, and the process ends.

Next, the printing sequence of this embodiment will be described with reference to the block diagram of the printing system shown in FIG. When a print job is transmitted from the host computer 1 to the controller 2, the controller 2 analyzes and develops the print job, and transmits the print job to the printer control device 5 via the bidirectional interface 4. After the commands and data received from the controller 2 are received by the printer control device 5, they are analyzed by the interpreter 6 and the drawing processing unit 7, respectively.
When the stored bitmap data is sent to the engine control unit 8, the changed discharge control processing unit 9 in the engine control unit 8 monitors the discharge device full information, and based on the discharge control process, Then, a discharge device to be discharged after printing is selected, the number of the selected discharge device and video data are output to the engine mechanism unit 12, and printing is executed in the engine mechanism unit 12.

When the printed recording material is ejected to the ejection device 13 and the ejection of the print job is completed, a message indicating the end of processing is transmitted from the printer control device 5 to the controller 2, and the controller 2 receives the message after receiving the message. The newly added processing request control unit 14 transmits a processing request for acquiring print job discharge position information to the printer control device 5. After receiving the processing request from the controller 2, the printer control device 5 transmits the discharge position information to the controller 2 in the newly added discharge position information processing unit 16. After receiving the discharge position information, the controller 2 stores print job information (print job identification number, print job name, etc.) for the print job in a storage device (not shown) in the controller 2 in the newly added discharge position display control unit 15. , The sender of the print job) and the received discharge position information are stored in the display device 3 provided in the controller 2 to show the discharge state of the print job, the print job information and the print job information for each print job. Displays the discharge position information.

A method of taking out a print job from the discharge device will be described with reference to a discharge position display screen shown in FIG.

When a print job is taken out of the discharge device, first, information displayed on the display device 3 of the controller 2 is confirmed. In FIG. 3, the job ID, title, and owner information respectively correspond to the print job identification number of the print job, the name of the print job, and the sender of the print job. The print job to be taken out can be specified.
In FIG. 3, the stacker number, the job number, and the number of sheets correspond to the discharger number, the job stacking order number, and the number of prints, respectively. Print jobs can be retrieved.

Further, the processing in the controller 2 after the print job is taken out (hereinafter referred to as post-take-out processing) will be described with reference to the take-out job selection screen of FIG.

After one or a plurality of print jobs have been taken out from the discharge device, the operator sets the discharge position display screen shown in FIG. 3 to match the contents on the discharge position display screen with the state in the discharge device. Eject button 20 in the center right of the screen
Is selected, the screen is switched to the extraction job selection screen shown in FIG. The job check button 21 on the extraction job selection screen shown in FIG. 4 is checked, and a job ID for one or a plurality of actually extracted print jobs is selected from the job list box 22, and an OK button 25 is selected.
Confirm with. After the confirmation, the take-out job selection screen is cleared, and the taken-out print job is displayed on the diagram showing the job stack state in FIG. 3 and an update screen (not shown) is deleted from the job list.

On the other hand, when all the print jobs have been taken out of the ejection device, the stacker check button 23 shown in FIG.
Is checked, and the relevant stacker number is selected from the stacker list box 24 and confirmed with the OK button 25. After the determination is made, the extraction job selection screen is cleared as described above, and an update screen (not shown) is displayed in which the extracted print job is deleted from the job stack status diagram in FIG. 3 and the job list.

In the case of the present embodiment, the job ID, title, owner, and stacker number, job number, and the number of sheets, which are print job information as shown in FIG. Will be displayed,
Since the discharge device number, the job stacking order number, and the number of printed sheets for the print job can be specified, the confirmation at the time of taking out the print job is only the separation of a plurality of print jobs stacked in the specified discharge device. In the case of a printing system having an offset stack function, unlike the case described above, it is easy to take out the print job as shown in FIG. , And the take-out work becomes very easy.

In the post-extraction process, for the operation of retrieving a plurality or all of the print jobs collectively, the print job information and the discharge position information for the retrieved print job on the controller 2 are stored for each print job. However, since the deletion can be performed in a plurality of units or in units of discharge devices, the post-processing can be efficiently performed.

Further, when all the print jobs have been taken out of the above-mentioned discharge device, the discharge device empty information indicating that the recording material in the discharge device 13 has become empty is output from the discharge device 13 to the printer control device 5. And the acquired information is transmitted to the controller 2, and the controller 2 receives the information, whereby the information of the extracted print job can be automatically deleted instead of the manual operation. It can be unnecessary.

As an application example of the present invention, as compared with the conventional example (FIG. 6), a discharge device number as a discharge position information, a job loading sequence number,
And a discharge position information processing unit for acquiring the number of prints and storing the information in a storage device (not shown) of the printer control device 5 and a discharge display control unit for displaying the discharge position information for the print job on the operation panel 11. By doing so, a similar effect can be obtained.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the function of issuing a processing request for acquiring the discharge position information to the printer control device by the controller and storing the discharge position information for the print job transmitted from the printer control device are stored. In addition, the printer control device has a function of transmitting the discharge position information to the controller in accordance with the processing request. Since the material is not arbitrarily obtained, but is merely a division of a plurality of print jobs stacked in the discharge device, a printing system with high removal work efficiency can be provided. Also, in a printing system having an offset stack function, by using this function, sorting for each print job is easy, so that it is possible to provide a printing system with higher take-out work efficiency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printing system for explaining one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an emission control processing unit for explaining one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a display screen of discharge position information for explaining one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an extraction job selection screen for explaining one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining a configuration of a conventional printing system.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional printing system.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a conventional discharge control processing unit.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating a discharge device automatic switching function.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an offset stack function.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: host computer, 2: controller, 3: display device, 4: bidirectional interface, 5: printer control device, 6: interpreter, 7: drawing processing unit, 8: engine control unit, 9: emission control processing unit, 10 : Frame memory, 11: operation panel, 12: engine mechanism, 13:
Ejecting device, 14: Processing request control unit, 15: Ejection position display control unit, 16: Ejection position information processing unit, 17: Ejection position information acquisition process, 18: Ejection device switching process, 19: Error process, 20: Eject button , 21: Job check button, 22: Job list box, 23: Stacker check button, 24: Stacker list box, 25: O
K button.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C061 AS02 HN18 HQ06 5B021 AA01 AA02 BB01 BB10 CC05 PP04

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A host computer for transmitting a print job, a controller for receiving a print job from the host computer, developing the print job into bitmap data for printing, and transmitting bitmap data to which a command is added as necessary, and a controller for the controller. A display device for displaying various information; a printer control device for receiving commands and data from the controller to perform print control; a bidirectional interface for connecting the controller and the printer control device; and video data output from the printer control device In a printing system having an engine mechanism for printing a print job and a discharge device for discharging the recording material from the engine mechanism, a discharge position information for each print job transmitted from the host computer and printed and discharged to the discharge device is controlled by the controller. To printer controller Means for requesting processing, and means for transmitting discharge position information of the printer control device in response to the processing request from the printer control device to the controller, wherein the controller identifies at least one of print job information and discharge position information for each print job. A printing system for displaying one of them on a display device. 2. After extracting one or more or all print jobs in one or more ejection devices, print job information corresponding to one or more or all print jobs in the ejected ejection devices and 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the discharge position information is deleted by a manual operation on a controller. 3. A printer according to claim 1, further comprising means for detecting that the recording material has been taken out of the ejection device, after taking out all the print jobs in one or a plurality of ejection devices, 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the controller automatically deletes print job information and discharge position information corresponding to all print jobs. 4. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein print job information and discharge position information for each print job are displayed on a display device of the printer control device.