JP2001010171A - Printer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer system in which the necessity of the rearrangement of outputted papers after printing by a user is eliminated to save the time required therefor. SOLUTION: In a printer system, printing is required to a network interface controller 120 by two connections, namely a first connection for transmitting a printing data in the order from a forefront page to a last page and a second connection for transmitting the printing data in the order from the last page to the forefront page, and when a face-down (a method in which the front faces of outputted pages are faced downwards and papers are overlapped and outputted) output mouth 105 of the printer 104 can be used, the data of printing job is received by the first connection and printing is carried out. When a face-up (a method in which the front faces of the output pages are faced upwards and papers are overlapped and outputted) output mouth 106 of the printer 104 can be used, the data of printing job is received by the second connection and printing is carried out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a printer system, and more particularly, to a printer system connected to a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of printer system, print data transmitted from a host device is always transmitted from the first page. Therefore, when printing is to be performed by the face-up output port of the printer device, the user needs to rearrange the sheets after the printing is completed.

[0003]

A problem with this conventional printer system is that the user cannot always obtain printed output products in a stacked state with the top page table up. . The reason is that the print data transmitted from the host device is always transmitted from the first page.

[0004] It is an object of the present invention to provide a first method in which a computer connected to a network sends print data in order from the first page to the last page for one print job.
And a second connection for sending print data in order from the last page to the first page, so that the printer device uses the first connection if a face-down output port is available,
The object of the present invention is to provide a printer system that saves time by using the second connection if the face-up output port is usable, thereby preventing the user from rearranging the paper output after printing.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a printer system in which a computer connected to a network transmits a print job in order from a first page to a last page for one print job, and a first connection and a last connection. A print request is sent to the network interface controller through two connections, a second connection for sending print data in order from the page to the first page, and the network interface controller faces down the printer device (paper down with the output page table down). If the output port is usable, the data of the print job is received and printed by the first connection, and the printer apparatus is face-up (outputting the sheet with the output page table facing up). The second connection if the output port is available Printing receives data of the print job.

The printer system of the present invention is connected to a network and the printer device, has a function of receiving print data from a computer on the network, and transmitting the print data to the printer device. The network interface controller is provided.

Further, the printer system according to the present invention includes a network interface unit for controlling transmission and reception of physical data to and from the computer via the network, and a network interface unit for receiving data of the print job on the network. A print job management unit that performs control, acquires information on the printer device (whether an available output port is face-up or face-down, etc.), and transmits the print job transmitted from the print job management unit to the printer device. And a printer device communication unit for transmitting to the network interface controller.

Further, the printer system of the present invention creates and manages a queue of the print job transmitted from the network interface unit, determines which print job is to be printed by the printer device, And a print job management unit that acquires the data from the network interface unit and transmits the data to the printer device communication unit.

Further, the printer system of the present invention checks whether there is a new print request (print job) from the network by the network interface unit,
If there is, print it to the end of the queue (connected to the end of the queue and executed later), and if there is no job being printed, check if there is a print job in the queue.
If there is a print job in the queue, the printer device communication unit is inquired whether the available output port of the printer is face-down or face-up. When the face-down output port is available, the connection of the print job at the head of the queue is the first page From the last page of the same print job when the face-up output port is available, select the second connection to transmit the print data from, and disconnect the unused connection; Next, the data of the print job at the head of the queue is received from the network interface unit, transmitted to the printer communication unit, and printed by the printer.

Further, the printer system of the present invention has a face-down (a method in which sheets of paper are output with the output page table facing down) and a face-up (a sheet of output pages facing up). And a printer device having both or one of the output ports.

[0011]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment. FIG.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram in the case of outputting to the face-down output port of the printer device, and FIG.

Referring to FIG. 1, in a printer system according to this embodiment, a network interface controller (hereinafter, referred to as NIC) 120 is connected to a network 110 and a printer device 104, and receives print data from a computer on the network 110. And has a function of transmitting the print data to the printer device 104.

In the printing system according to this embodiment, a first connection in which a computer connected to the network sends print data in order from the first page to the last page for one print job, and a first page from the last page. A print request is sent to the NIC 120 through two connections to the second connection that sends print data in the order of pages, and the NIC 120 faces down the printer device 104 (a method of overlaying paper with the output page table facing down). If the output port 105 is usable, the data of the print job is received and printed by the first connection (see FIG. 3),
If the output port 106 of the printer device 104 can be used as a face-up (a method in which paper is output with the output page table facing upward), the print job data is received and printed through the second connection (see FIG. 4).

The network interface unit 101 controls transmission and reception of physical data with a computer via the network 110. Here, a connection is established with each computer on the network 110 to realize reliable communication.

The print job management unit 102 controls data reception of a print job on the network 110. For a print request that has passed through the network interface unit 101, the print job management unit 102 creates and manages print jobs in a queue, and
4 to determine whether to print. Print job management unit 102
Determines the job to be printed, acquires the data of the print job from the network interface unit 101, and transmits it to the printer device communication unit 103.

The printer communication unit 103 transmits the print job transmitted from the print job management unit 102 to the printer 104. Further, the printer communication unit 103 acquires information on the printer 104 (whether an available output port is face-up or face-down).

The printer 104 prints a print job sent from a computer on the network 110 via the printer communication unit 103. Printer device 104
Is a face-down output port 105 (a method in which paper is output with the output page table facing down) and a face-up output port 106 (a method in which paper is output with the output page table facing up). ) And / or one of them.

The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 2 in conjunction with FIGS. 1, 3, and 4.

First, the network interface unit 101
Check whether there is a new print request from the network 110 (step 201). If so, it is accepted (step 202). This print job is linked to the end of the queue (the later in the queue, the later the job is executed) (step 203). Next, if there is no job being printed (step 204), it is checked whether there is a print job in the queue (step 205). If there is a print job in the queue, the printer communication unit 103 is inquired as to whether the available output port of the printer apparatus 104 is the face-down output port 105 or the face-up output port 106 (step 206). Face-down output port 105
When is available, the connection of the print job at the head of the queue selects the first connection for transmitting print data from the first page (see FIG. 3). When the face-up output port 106 is usable, a second connection for transmitting print data from the last page of the same print job is selected (see FIG. 4). Unused connections are disconnected (step 207). Next, the data of the print job at the head of the queue is transferred to the network interface unit 10.
1 is transmitted to the printer communication unit 103 and printed by the printer (step 208).

Next, the network interface unit 10
1 to check whether there is a new print request from the network 110 (step 201). If there is a new print request, the process proceeds to step 202. If not, the process proceeds to step 204 to check whether there is a job being printed (step 204). If there is no job being printed, step 2
05, and if so, to step 208.

[0022]

As described above, the effect of the present invention is as follows.
Since the printed matter of the output result is always obtained in a stacked state with the top page of the table facing up, the user does not have to rearrange the paper output after printing, which saves time.

The reason is that for one print job,
By using two connections, a first connection that sends print data in the order from the first page to the last page, and a second connection that sends print data in the order from the last page to the first page, the printer device can This is because if the face-down output port is used, the first connection is used, and if the face-up output port is used, the second connection is used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram in the case of outputting to a face-down output port of a printer device.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram in the case of outputting to a face-up output port of a printer device.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 101 Network interface unit 102 Print job management unit 103 Printer device communication unit 104 Printer device 105 Face-down output port 106 Face-up output port 110 Network 120 Network network interface controller

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A first connection in which a computer connected to a network sends print data in order from the first page to the last page for one print job, and a print data in order from the last page to the first page. A print request is sent to the network interface controller in two connections with the second connection to be sent, and the network interface controller is used by the face-down output method of the printer device (a method in which paper is output with the output page table facing down). Receiving and printing the data of the print job through the first connection if possible;
If a face-up (a method of superimposing and outputting paper with the output page table facing up) of the printer device is available, the data of the print job is received and printed through the second connection if the output port is usable. Printer system. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a network interface controller connected to a network and the printer device, receiving the print data from a computer on the network, and transmitting the print data to the printer device. The printer system according to claim 1, wherein: 3. A network interface unit for controlling transmission and reception of physical data with the computer via the network, and a print job management unit for controlling data reception of the print job on the network. A printer communication unit that acquires information on the printer (whether an available output port is face-up or face-down, etc.) and transmits the print job transmitted from the print job management unit to the printer; The printer system according to claim 2, further comprising the network interface controller having: 4. A method for creating and managing a queue for the print job transmitted from the network interface unit, determining which print job is to be printed by the printer device, and transmitting the print job data from the network interface unit. 4. The printer system according to claim 3, further comprising a print job management unit that acquires and sends the acquired print job to the printer device communication unit. 5. The network interface unit checks whether there is a new print request (print job) from the network, and if there is, accepts the request and returns to the end of the queue (the later the queue, the later the order is executed). )
If there is no print job, check if there is a print job in the queue, and if there is a print job in the queue, ask the printer device communication unit whether the available output port of the printer device is face down or face up, When the face-down output port is available, the connection of the print job at the head of the queue selects the first connection for transmitting the print data from the first page, and when the face-up output port is available, the connection starts from the last page of the same print job. The second connection for transmitting the print data is selected, the connection which is not used is disconnected, the data of the print job at the head of the queue is received from the network interface unit, and the data is transmitted to the printer unit communication unit. A printer system characterized by printing by a device. 6. A face-down (method of superimposing paper with the output page table facing down) and an output port and face-up (a method of superimposing paper with the output page table facing up)
6. The printer system according to claim 1, further comprising a printer device having at least one of said output port and said output port.