JP2000353068A - Printer and print control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently control printing processing of plural printing data received from computer equipment or the like. SOLUTION: This device is a printer equipped with a printing means 14 for executing printing processing and a control means 11 for receiving plural printing jobs and controlling the printing means 14 so that the received printing job is successively executed. In this case, an amount of interference allowable data is set on the basis of an amount of data of the printing job currently being executed and it is controlled so that the amount of data of the printing job of the printing plan, the amount of the set interference allowable data are compared and decided when the printing job which is going to be printed next is generated or changed, and the printing job currently being executed is interrupted and interference printing of the printing job going to be printed next is started when the printing job that is going to be printed next is not more than the amount of interference allowable data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing control method for spooling print data received from a plurality of computer devices and sequentially printing the spooled print data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Various proposals have been made with respect to a technique for controlling a printing order in a case where a plurality of print data received from a host device or the like is temporarily spooled and sequentially printed. For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-283134 proposes giving priority to print data with a small data amount, print data with a long waiting time, or print data with a large number of skips.

In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-162415, a job having a higher priority is interrupted for a job being printed, and the priority of the process being printed is changed in accordance with the progress of printing. It has been proposed. In the case of this proposed technique, the priority is lowered every time the number of prints reaches a predetermined number.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. Hei 6-139031 and Hei 9-190317 refer to the timing of interruption, and immediately interrupt the processing during printing or complete the page being printed. Whether to interrupt or complete printing of the page being communicated,
Each is characterized. Further, after the interrupt printing is completed, the interrupted printing is resumed.

[0005]

By the way, in a process of temporarily spooling print data received from a host device or the like and sequentially printing the print data, it is possible to solve the problem that large print data occupies the printer and small data waits for a long time. In order to adjust the waiting time as a whole, it is not sufficient to control only one of the queue standby and the print processing, and it is necessary to control the processing order consistently in both of them.

In the case of interrupting processing during printing, a determination as to whether or not to interrupt is determined by reflecting the entire amount of data currently being printed and how much data has been printed to the priority. Becomes inappropriate.

[0007] Furthermore, as for passing while waiting in a queue, simply giving priority to a small data amount or setting a limit on the number of times of passing is not enough to adjust the waiting time. Absent. Also,
Since even one page has very large data, in order to make the interruption effective, it is necessary to determine the interruption timing in consideration of the remaining processing amount of the currently printed page.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to provide a printing apparatus and a printing control method capable of efficiently controlling the printing processing of a plurality of print data received from a computer device or the like. I do.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus for executing a printing process, and a control for receiving the plurality of print jobs and controlling the printing unit to sequentially execute the received print jobs. The control means sets an interrupt allowable data amount based on the data amount of the currently executing print job, and sets the interrupt allowable data amount when the next print job to be printed is generated or changed. The data amount of the print job scheduled to be printed is compared with the interrupt allowable data amount set above, and when the print job to be printed next is equal to or smaller than the interrupt allowable data amount, the print job that is currently being executed is determined. The present invention is characterized in that interrupt printing is started for a print job to be printed next after interruption.

In the present invention, for example, JP-A-10-0587
No. 98 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-232746 predict the time required for printing based on the processing time prediction, and use this as the amount of data to make it suitable for waiting time adjustment. Whether or not to interrupt the print job being printed is determined based on the remaining print data amount, and the already interrupted data amount is also taken into consideration, including the period of waiting in the queue. Further, when the page currently being printed has a large capacity and the amount of remaining data is small, an interruption is made after the printing of the page is completed, and when the amount of remaining data is large, an interruption is immediately made.

Next, a more specific configuration of the present invention will be described below. In the printing apparatus of the present invention, the interrupt allowable data amount is dynamically set in accordance with the remaining data amount (unprocessed data amount) of the currently executed print job, and the interrupt allowable data amount is used by using the interrupt allowable data amount. If the system is configured to determine whether or not an interrupt is possible, the interrupt printing process is not performed when the remaining data amount of the currently executed print job becomes small, so that the currently executing process is interrupted, interrupted, or interrupted. It is possible to prevent a reduction in processing efficiency due to overhead in resuming the performed print job.

In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, the total of the data amount of the print job already interrupted with respect to the currently executed print job is added to the data amount of the print job to be printed next, and whether or not an interrupt is possible. May be determined. In this case, the total interrupt amount for the currently executing process is restricted, so that a print job with a small data amount can be prevented from interrupting endlessly. In such a configuration, when a print job is waiting in the queue, the order is changed based on the interruptable data amount of the previous print job, and the print job currently being executed is queued in the queue. The total of the data amount of the overtaken print job may be added to determine whether or not the interruption is possible.

In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, a storage unit for saving the print job being executed is provided, and the processing status is saved in the storage unit when the print job is interrupted, and the interruption is performed based on the saved content when the interrupt printing is completed. If the print job is configured to be restarted, it is easy to restart the interrupted print job. Further, in this case, if the total amount of the data amount that allows the interrupt or the total amount of the already interrupted data is saved in the storage unit, it is not necessary to recalculate the data amount when the process is restarted.

In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, at the end of interrupt printing, the interruptable data amount of the interrupted print job and
Next, a determination is made as to whether or not an interrupt is possible based on the data amount of the print job to be printed. If the interrupt is possible, the interrupted print job is not restarted, and interrupted printing of the next print job to be started is continued. With such a configuration, it is possible to prevent overhead caused by useless restart interruption. When this configuration is adopted, the total of the data of the print job that has already been interrupted may also use the saved value.

In the printing apparatus of the present invention, setting means for setting a lower limit value of the data amount is provided, and when the data amount of the process currently being executed is smaller than the lower limit value, regardless of the judgment of the interruption based on the interruption allowable data amount. If the print job to be printed next is not interrupted, if the amount of data of the currently executing process is very small, the interruption of the currently executing process when interrupt printing is performed, interrupt printing, or It is possible to prevent a reduction in processing efficiency due to an overhead in restarting the interrupted print job.

In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, a predicting means for predicting the print processing time is provided, and if the predicted processing time is used as the data amount of the print job, it is possible to determine whether the interruption is possible or not by using the print data having a short processing time. Then, it is possible to perform print control that feels like an interruption may be made.

In the printing apparatus of the present invention, if a measuring means for measuring the number of printed pages is provided and the measured number of pages is used as the data amount of the print job, the determination of the interruption possibility is made by comparing the number of printed pages. Since the comparison can be performed in terms of processing functions, the data amount can be easily predicted.

In the printing apparatus of the present invention, setting means for setting interrupt level data in a print job is provided, and the data amount of a print job to be printed and the interruptable data amount of a print job to be interrupted are respectively determined. If the system is configured to determine whether interruption is possible by correcting the interruption level data, the extent to which interruption printing is accepted can be set according to the user's request.

In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, there is provided a predicting means for predicting a remaining processing time of the page currently being developed, and when the processing being currently executed is interrupted, the remaining processing of the page currently being developed by the predicting means is provided. The time is predicted, and if the remaining processing time is equal to or more than a predetermined reference value, the image data processing of the currently developed page is immediately interrupted, and if the remaining processing time is smaller than the predetermined reference value, the current processing is performed. Wait until the image data processing of the developing page is completed,
If the printing process is interrupted, the waiting time of the interrupted print job can be shortened.

In this case, a measuring means for measuring the processing time of the page currently being developed is provided, and when the currently executing processing is interrupted, the remaining processing time predicted by the predicting means and the remaining processing time are measured by the measuring means. When the calculated ratio is smaller than the reference ratio, even if the remaining processing time is equal to or greater than the predetermined reference value, the calculated ratio is the image data of the page currently being developed. If the printing process is interrupted after the process is completed, the printing efficiency can be improved. In other words, if only the remaining processing time is used as a criterion and the processing is interrupted, the processing will be interrupted even if the expansion processing has already been performed for a long time, resulting in poor efficiency. Accordingly, when the developed processing time is very long, the developing process can be continued and the printing process can be interrupted after printing the page, so that the printing efficiency can be improved.

According to a print control method of the present invention, in a print control method for receiving a plurality of print jobs and sequentially executing the received print jobs, an interrupt allowable data amount is set based on a data amount of a currently executed print job. Aside
When a print job to be printed next is generated or changed, the data amount of the print job to be printed next is predicted, and the predicted data amount is compared with the interrupt allowable data amount of the above setting. When the data amount of the next print job to be printed is equal to or less than the interrupt allowable data amount set above, the currently executed print job is interrupted, and the interrupt print of the next print job to be printed is started. It is characterized by:

In the printing control method according to the present invention, when the currently executing process is interrupted, the remaining processing time of the currently developed page is predicted, and if the remaining processing time is equal to or longer than the reference value, the currently developed page is being developed. Immediately interrupts the image data processing of the current page and, when the remaining processing time is smaller than the reference value, waits for the end of the image data processing of the currently developed page, and prints after the printing processing of the page ends. If the processing is interrupted, a setting can be made so that a print job that is to be interrupted is not kept waiting for a long time.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention. The printing apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment is connected to a plurality of host A apparatuses 2 such as personal computers and host B apparatuses 3 via a network 4 and spools print data from the host apparatuses to sequentially print the data. The processing is performed, and the processing order is controlled according to the amount of data to be printed. In addition, as the print data amount,
Although the number of pages that can be easily processed may be used, the processing time is used in this embodiment because the time required for the printing process is suitable for adjusting the waiting time.

The printing apparatus 1 includes a control unit 11 and a network I / F unit 12, a printer I / F unit 13, a printer engine 14, a processing state storage unit 15, and a suspension state storage unit 16 connected as peripheral devices. , Clock 17, storage unit 1
8 and the print queue 19.

The control section 11 is a functional section for controlling the operation of the printing apparatus 1 and processing data. The control section 11 is a non-volatile memory such as a flash memory for storing a program for causing the CPU to perform a predetermined operation (or a storage section to be described later). And a RAM for storing the operating state and data to be processed.

The control unit 11 includes a data amount prediction unit 11
1, a print data processing unit 112, an interrupt processing unit 113, and a queue management unit 114. Each part 111-
Reference numeral 114 denotes a functional unit executed by a program.
Although FIG. 1 shows only functional units necessary for the description of the present embodiment, other functional units necessary for this type of printing apparatus such as an error processing unit and a display control unit are provided. I have.

The data amount prediction unit 111 predicts the time required for processing based on the contents of the print data. The print data processing unit 112 develops the print data received from the host A device 2, the host B device 3,... Into a bitmap. The interrupt processing unit 113 determines whether or not an interrupt will be described later, and controls the interruption and return of the printing process. Queue management unit 11
Reference numeral 4 controls the processing order of the waiting print jobs.

The method of estimating the processing time executed by the data amount estimating unit 111 is not particularly limited. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
A method disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 0-232746 can be used.

On the other hand, the network I / F unit 12 connected to the control unit 11 communicates with the host A device 2 and the host B device 3 via the network 4 based on a predetermined protocol.
・ ・ Exchange data with.

The printer I / F unit 13 converts the print data developed by the print data processing unit 112 into the printer engine 1.
4 The printer engine 14 forms an image on a print medium using toner or ink.

Processing status storage unit 15 and interruption status storage unit 16
Are RAMs for storing the progress status of the processing of the target print job and the criterion for determining whether or not the interruption is possible.

The processing state storage unit 15 stores the current state of the print job being processed, and the interruption state storage unit 16 stores the state of the currently suspended print job at the time of interruption. Although the processing state storage unit 15 and the interruption state storage unit 16 are described separately from the control unit 11 in FIG. 1 for ease of explanation, they may be integrated with the RAM included in the control unit 11. Good.

The data stored in the processing state storage unit 15 is
Total page number 151, processing page 152, completion flag 1
53, a remaining data amount 154, a lower limit data amount 155, an interrupt allowance rate 156, an interrupt allowance amount 157, an already interrupted amount 158, and the like. The contents of these data are as follows.

The total number of pages 151 indicates the total number of pages of print data being printed. Processing page 152: The page number of the processing page of the print data being printed.

Completion flag 153: Indicates whether or not the processing of the processing page 152 has been completed. Remaining data amount 154: Estimated processing time required for the remaining print processing of the print data being printed.

Lower limit data amount 155: Lower limit of remaining data amount 154 at which processing during printing is interrupted. Interruption allowance ratio 156: Indicates a ratio of allowing an interruption to the remaining data amount 154 (a value obtained by multiplying a predetermined ratio for the printing apparatus by an interruption level described later).

Interruption allowance 157: The limit of the time during which an interruption is allowed for the printing process (remaining data amount 154 ×
Interrupt permission rate 156).

Interrupted amount 158: The time during which an interrupt has already been made to the printing process. The interruption state storage unit 16 is a storage unit that stores the processing state stored in the processing state storage unit 15 at the time of interruption as information at the time of interruption, and like the processing state storage unit 15, the total number of pages 161 Middle page 162, completion flag 16
3, remaining data amount 164, lower limit data amount 165, interrupt allowance 166, interrupt allowance 167, and interrupted amount 1
68 and the like are stored.

The clock 17 is an IC for measuring the passage of time. The storage unit 18 mainly stores the print data D1, D2, D received from the host (A) device 2, the host (B) device 3,.
3 This is a hard disk for storing. Also, the storage unit 1
Reference numeral 8 may be used to store a program used by the control unit 11 or to back up data other than print data, but a specific description thereof is omitted here.

The print queue 19 is a RAM that indicates the processing order of waiting print jobs, print data of each print job, and the interrupt status of each print job. In the print queue 19, the waiting print jobs are stored and managed in the waiting queues 191, 192,. The print job that is currently printing is stored in the execution frame 193, and the print job that is interrupted and interrupted during printing is stored and managed in the interrupt frame 194. Although the print queue 19 is also shown separately from the control unit 11 in FIG. 1 for simplification of description, it may be integrated with a RAM included in the control unit 11.

Each part 191, 192, 1 of the print queue 19
The print jobs stored in 93, 194,... Are as shown in FIG.

Print job ID: data for identifying a print job. Print data ID: indicates print data in the storage unit 18 corresponding to the print job.

Host: Indicates the host device that has requested printing. User: Indicates a user who has requested printing.

Interrupt level: attitude to interrupt set in advance for each user (host) (0: passive to 1: active)
Is shown.

Interruption allowable ratio: A ratio obtained by multiplying a ratio determined in advance by the printing apparatus by an interrupt level. Estimated print data amount: Estimated print processing time of print data (entire print processing and each page).

Interruption allowance: The limit of the time during which the print job allows interruption (overtaking) (predicted print data amount (entire print processing) × interruption allowance).

Interrupted amount: The total time during which the print job has already been interrupted (overtaken). Next, a schematic flow of the process of the present embodiment will be described below.

First, when a print request is received from the host (A) device 2, the host device (B) 3,..., The print data is received and stored in the storage unit 18, and the print queue 19 is received.
Are added to the end of the queues 191, 192,. When the turn comes, the printing process starts, and the print data stored in the storage unit 18 is sequentially processed by the print data processing unit 112 and printed by the printer engine 14.

During the print execution, as shown in FIG. 3A, the print job J being executed in the execution frame 193 is executed.
1 is large, occupies the printing apparatus 1 for a long time, and the print processing of the first print job J2 in the queues 191, 192...
As shown in FIG. 3B, the control is performed such that the print job J1 is interrupted and the print job J2 is processed first, and when the processing of the print job J2 is completed, the interrupt is performed as shown in FIG. The print job J1 is returned to the execution frame 193. Also, if the next print job J3 is completed in a short time, FIG.
As shown in (d), a process of further interrupting the first print job J3 of the queues 191, 192,... Is performed.

The interrupt processing unit 113 determines whether or not to permit the interruption with reference to the processing state storage unit 15.

Next, when the processing of the page being processed is completed, the completion flag 153 is set and the page 15 being processed is set.
2 is updated, and the completion flag 153 is reset before the processing of the next page starts. When the processing page 152 is equal to all the pages 151 and the completion flag is set, the print job has been completed.

When the completion flag 153 is set and the processing page 152 is updated, the remaining data amount 154 is updated. The remaining data amount stores the processing time obtained by accumulating the unprocessed pages in the estimated print data amount of the print job in the execution frame 193 of the print queue 19.

This remaining data amount 154 has an interrupt allowance of 1
The product is multiplied by 56 to obtain an interrupt allowance 157. The determination as to whether or not to cause an interrupt is made based on whether or not the predicted print processing time (entire print processing) of the print job at the head of the queue 191, 192. Do with. If it is smaller, the printing in the execution frame 193 is interrupted, and the print job at the head of the queues 191, 192,... Is interrupted.

By doing so, the processing proceeds and the remaining processing time is reduced, and at the same time, the time during which interruption is permitted is also reduced. Only interruption of a print job having a processing time corresponding to the remaining time of the print job being printed is permitted. Will be able to

The interrupted amount 158 is obtained by accumulating the time interrupted each time an interrupt printing process occurs. By copying the data of the interrupted amount of the print job in the execution frame 193 of the print queue 19 when the print processing starts, the time interrupted (passed) during the standby can be accumulated. Become like By considering the interrupted amount 158 in the above-described determination of the possibility of interrupt, it is possible to avoid a case where a large number of small processes are interrupted and the total delay time due to the interrupt exceeds the allowable interrupt amount.

When the printing process is started, the data of the interrupt allowance 156 of the print job in the execution frame 193 of the print queue 19 is copied. The interrupt allowance is a value obtained by multiplying the ratio set in the printing apparatus 1 by the interrupt level. When determining whether or not to cause an interrupt, the queues 191, 192,.
The value obtained by dividing the estimated print processing time of the print job (interrupting side) at the head of the job by the interrupt level is used for the determination. In other words, if the value of the interrupt level is large, it becomes aggressive to the interrupt (it can be interrupted by a person instead of itself), and if it is small, it is reluctant to the interrupt (it does not interrupt the person instead of not being interrupted) )It turns out that. Instead of such multiple levels of write levels, a user (host) can determine whether or not to perform an interrupt using a rate set by the printing apparatus as an interrupt allowable rate (1) or not (0). Attitude may be set.

If the number of interrupted print jobs becomes plural, the processing becomes complicated. Therefore, the interrupt allowance 156 of the print job interrupted by another print job is forcibly set to zero. As a result, double interruption can be prevented, and the number of interrupted print jobs can be limited to one.

When the interrupt tolerance is relatively large, an interrupt may occur even if the remaining data amount becomes small. However, the processing efficiency is reduced due to the overhead due to the interruption, saving, and returning. The effect may be larger than the effect. In order to avoid this, in the present embodiment, the lower limit data amount 155 is set in advance, and if the remaining data amount 154 falls below this, the interrupt allowable amount 1
No interruption is made regardless of the determination by 57.

When an interrupt occurs and the processing being executed is interrupted, the contents of the processing state storage section 15 are stored in the interrupted state storage section 16.
When the processing is restored, the contents of the interrupted state storage unit 16 are returned to the processing state storage unit 15 and the print processing is resumed from the point of interruption. The print queue 1
When it is determined whether the state of FIG. 9 returns from the state of FIG. 3B to the state of FIG. 3C or changes to the state of FIG. The content of the interrupted state storage unit 16 is referred to instead of 15.

The flow of the above-described interrupt determination processing is summarized as shown in the flowchart of FIG.

This interrupt determination process is called when a print job in the queue 191 of the print queue 19 which is a candidate to be interrupted changes. For example, when a new print job occurs when the queue 191 is empty, the first print job in the waiting state is canceled, or a print job generated later overtakes the first print job in the waiting state. Is called an interrupt determination process. Also, in order to prevent the number of interrupted print jobs from being increased, instead of forcibly setting the interrupt allowance to 0, if there is an interrupted print job, this interrupt determination process may not be called. .

The details of the interrupt determination process shown in FIG. 4 will be described below for each step. <Step S1> First, it is determined whether or not the remaining data amount 154 is smaller than the lower limit data amount 155. If the remaining data amount 154 is smaller, the interrupt determination process ends. On the other hand, if the remaining data amount 154 is equal to or larger than the lower limit data amount 155, step S
Proceed to 2. <Step S2> Interrupt request amount, that is, print queue 19
.. Of the print job at the head of the waiting queues 191, 192... And the interrupted amount 158 (interrupt request amount + interrupted amount) exceed the interrupt allowable amount 157. It is determined, and if it exceeds, the interrupt determination processing is terminated, and if the interrupt request amount + the interrupted amount is equal to or less than the interrupt allowable amount 157, the process proceeds to step S3. <Step S3> After the processing in the print data processing unit 112 and the printer engine 14 is stopped and the interrupted amount 158 is updated, the contents of the processing state storage unit 15 are
Evacuate to <Step S4> The print queue 19 is changed from the state shown in FIG. 3A to the state shown in FIG.
Operate. <Step S5> The print process of the print job newly entered in the execution frame 193 of the print queue 19 is started, and the process waits until the print process ends. When the interrupt printing is completed, it is determined whether or not to interrupt the next print job continuously. Since the interrupting process has already been interrupted, the lower limit determination as in step S1 is not performed. <Step S6> Interrupt request amount, that is, print queue 19
Of the print job at the head of the waiting queues 191, 192... And the interrupted amount 168 of the interrupted state storage unit 16 (interrupt request amount + interrupted amount)
Determines whether or not exceeds the allowable interrupt amount 167,
If it exceeds, the process proceeds to step S8, and if the interrupt request amount + the interrupted amount is equal to or less than the interrupt allowance 167, the process proceeds to step S7.
Proceed to. <Step S7> After the print queue 19 is operated so as to be in the state shown in FIG. 3D, the process proceeds to step S5. <Step S8> After the print queue 19 is operated so as to be in the state shown in FIG. 3C, the process proceeds to step S9. <Step S9> Return the contents of the interruption state storage unit 16 to the processing state storage unit 15 and execute the execution frame 1 of the print queue 19.
The print processing of the print job returned to 93 is restarted from the point of interruption based on the contents returned to the processing state storage unit 15, and the interrupt determination processing ends.

Here, in the above-described interrupt determination processing shown in FIG. 4, if the processing time of the page being processed is short in step S3, even if the processing is interrupted after waiting for the end of the page being processed,
There is no big difference if you stop immediately and process the page that was being processed after resuming from the beginning. However, if the remaining processing time of the page being processed is long, and if the processing of the page is completed, a print job that can be interrupted and immediately printable will wait for a long time. Also, even if the remaining processing time of the page being processed is long, if a long time has already been spent processing the page, it is very wasteful to interrupt without waiting for the processing of the page to end. Become.

Therefore, in step S3 of FIG. 4, by changing the interruption timing based on the remaining processing amount of the page being printed, the time during which the interrupted print job waits and the interrupted print job are delayed by reprocessing. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing that the arbitration can be performed at the same time. The processing flow of FIG. 5 will be described for each step. <Step S21> Of the estimated print data amount of the print job in the execution frame 193 of the print queue 19, the remaining time is obtained from the difference between the processing time of the processing page and the processing time actually measured by the clock 17 for the processing page. Estimate processing time. If the estimated value of the remaining processing time is smaller than the predetermined value, the process proceeds to step S23; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S2.
Proceed to 2. <Step S22> If the ratio between the above-mentioned estimated value of the remaining processing time and the actually measured processing time is smaller than the predetermined ratio, the process proceeds to step S23. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S24. <Step S23> Wait for the end of the page being printed. <Step S24> Processing in print data processing section 112 and printer engine 14 is stopped. <Step S25> The already interrupted amount 158 is updated, and the contents of the processing state storage unit 15 are saved to the interruption state storage unit 16.

In the above process, when the printing process starts, the data of the interrupted amount in the print job in the execution frame 193 of the print queue 19 is stored in the processing state storage unit 15.
If it is copied to the already-interrupted amount 158, it is possible to determine whether or not to permit the interrupt by accumulating the time interrupted (passed) during the standby. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of accumulating the interrupted processing time of the print job in the print queue 19 during the standby time (print queue order change process).

The process of changing the order of the waiting print queue is called when there is a new print request, when the print job is canceled, or when the data amount of the print job changes such as a change in the number of print copies.

The details of the print queue order changing process shown in FIG. 6 will be described below for each step. <Step S31> If there is a new print job, the process proceeds to step S32. If not, the process proceeds to step S34. <Step S32> The print data amount of the new print job is predicted. <Step S33> Place new print job in print queue 19
, The end of the queues 191, 192..., And the above-described print data amount and the allowable interrupt amount calculated based on the print data amount. <Step S34> The queue 191 of the print queue 19,
The print jobs from the beginning to the end of 192... Are picked up one by one, and the process loops to step S39. <Step S35> If the print job before the target print job has been canceled, the print jobs are sequentially moved forward. <Step S36> The print data amount (entire) of the target print job is compared with the interruption allowance amount of the previous print job + the already interrupted amount in the same manner as in step S2 of FIG. As a result of this determination, if the previous print job can be interrupted, the process proceeds to step S37. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S39. <Step S37> The print data amount (entire) of the target print job is added to the interrupted amount of the previous print job. <Step S38> The target print job is replaced with the previous print job. <Step S39> At the end of the loop of step S34, if the target print job is at the end, the process ends.
Otherwise, the process returns to S34 for the next print job.

[0069]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When spooling print data received from a plurality of computer devices and sequentially printing the print data, an interrupt allowable data amount is set based on the data amount of the print job currently being executed, and the subsequent data is set within the range of the interrupt allowable data amount. Print jobs are prioritized, so that the printing order can be efficiently controlled, for example, reliably preventing the inconvenience that large data print jobs occupy the printing apparatus and small data print jobs wait for a long time. be able to.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating data stored in a print job in a print queue.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating a moving state of a print job in a print queue.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for interrupting a print job during print processing;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure when printing processing is interrupted.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for interrupting a print job waiting in a print queue.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 printing apparatus 11 control unit (control means) 111 data amount prediction unit 112 print data processing unit 113 interrupt processing unit 114 queue management unit 12 network I / F unit 13 printer I / F unit 14 printer engine (printing unit) 15 processing state Storage unit 16 Suspended state storage unit 17 Clock 18 Storage unit 19 Print queue 191, 192... Queue 193 Execution frame 194 Interruption frame 2 Host A device 3 Host B device 4 Network

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A printing apparatus comprising: a printing unit that executes a printing process; and a control unit that receives a plurality of print jobs and controls the printing unit to sequentially execute the received print jobs. The means sets an interrupt allowable data amount based on the data amount of the currently executed print job, and when a print job to be printed next is generated or changed,
The data amount of the print job scheduled to be printed is compared with the interrupt allowable data amount of the above setting, and when the next print job to be printed is equal to or smaller than the interrupt allowable data amount, the currently executed print job is interrupted. A printing apparatus which starts interrupt printing of a print job to be printed next. 2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of dynamically setting an allowable interrupt data amount in accordance with the remaining data amount of the currently executed print job, and determining whether or not an interrupt is possible using the interrupt allowable data amount. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising adding a cumulative total of the data amount of the print job which has already been interrupted with respect to the currently executed print job to the data amount of the print job to be printed, and determining whether or not the interruption is possible. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein 4. When a print job is waiting in a queue,
The order is changed based on the interruptable data amount of the previous print job, and the total amount of the data amount of the print job that has been overtaken while the currently executing print job is waiting in the queue is also added to determine whether the interrupt is possible. 4. The printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein: 5. A storage unit for saving a print job that is being executed, wherein the control unit saves the processing status in the storage unit when the print job is interrupted, and interrupts the processing status based on the saved content when the interrupt printing is completed. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing job is restarted. 6. At the end of the interrupt printing, a determination is made as to whether or not an interrupt is possible based on the amount of interruptable data of the interrupted print job and the amount of data of the next print job to be printed.
2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the interruption is possible, the interrupted print job is not restarted, and the interruption print of the next print job to be printed is continuously started. 7. A setting means for setting a lower limit value of the data amount, wherein when the data amount of the process currently being executed is smaller than the lower limit value, regardless of the determination of the interrupt based on the interrupt allowable data amount, 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a print job to be printed is not interrupted. 8. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising prediction means for predicting a print processing time, and using the predicted processing time as a data amount of the print job. 9. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising measuring means for measuring the number of printed pages, and using the measured number of pages as a data amount of a print job. 10. A setting means for setting interrupt level data in a print job, and the data amount of a print job scheduled to be printed and the interrupt allowable data amount of a print job to be interrupted are corrected by the respective interrupt level data. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein whether or not the interruption is possible is determined. 11. A predicting means for predicting a remaining processing time of a currently developed page, wherein when the currently executing processing is interrupted, the predicting means predicts a remaining processing time of a currently developed page, If the remaining processing time is equal to or greater than a predetermined reference value, the image data processing of the currently developed page is immediately interrupted, and if the remaining processing time is smaller than the predetermined reference value, the image data of the currently developed page is 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing process is suspended after the image data processing is completed. 12. A measuring means for measuring a processing time of a page currently being developed, and when the currently executing processing is interrupted, the remaining processing time predicted by the predicting means and the remaining processing time measured by the measuring means. Calculate the ratio with the expanded processing time, and when the calculated ratio is smaller than the reference ratio, even if the remaining processing time is equal to or greater than the predetermined reference value,
12. The printing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the printing process is interrupted until the image data processing of the page whose ratio calculation value is currently expanded is completed. 13. A print control method for receiving a plurality of print jobs and sequentially executing the received print jobs, wherein an interrupt allowable data amount is set based on a data amount of a currently executed print job. When a print job to be printed is generated or changed, the amount of print job data to be printed next is predicted, the predicted data amount is compared with the above-mentioned interrupt allowable data amount, and then determined. When the data amount of the print job to be printed is equal to or less than the interrupt allowable data amount of the above setting, the currently executed print job is interrupted, and interrupt printing of the next print job to be printed is started. Printing control method. 14. When interrupting a process currently being executed,
Predict the remaining processing time of the page currently being developed, and if the remaining processing time is equal to or greater than the reference value, immediately suspend the image data processing of the page currently being developed, and 14. The print control method according to claim 13, wherein when the size is smaller, the image data processing of the currently developed page is waited for, and the print processing is interrupted after the print processing of the page is completed.