JP2001026166A - Printing system and printing job control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce elimination work for an unnecessary printing job in a printing system capable of spooling a plurality of printing jobs. SOLUTION: A printer 10 receiving printing jobs from a data processor 5 to perform printing is equipped with a data memory part 13 for spooling the printing jobs received from the data processor 5, a printing part 15 performing printing based on each printing job and an operation panel display part 24 displaying the data related to the printing jobs spooled in the data memory part and, when a predetermined time is elapsed after the printing jobs are spooled in the data memory part 13, the display method of the data related to the printing job in the operation panel display part is altered.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system comprising a data processing device and a printer device, and more particularly, to a printer device for spooling and outputting a print job received from a data processing device, and managing print jobs in the printer device. About the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a printer device is connected to a data processing device such as a computer via a network or directly, receives a print job transmitted from the data processing device, and prints out the print job. The printer device usually has a data storage unit for storing a print job, and temporarily stores the print job received from the data processing device in the data storage unit,
Print out in the order received. Thereby, the printer device can receive a plurality of print jobs asynchronously with the print processing. In the following description, the operation of storing the print job in the data storage unit in order to asynchronously perform the reception and the printing of the print job in this manner is referred to as “spool”. In such a printer device, the print jobs stored in the data storage unit are not output in the order received, and are designated from among the spooled print jobs after waiting for a user's instruction on an operation panel provided in the printer device. A function of printing out the output data may be considered.

[0003]

However, in the printer having the above-described functions, the print job spooled in the data storage unit is not erased in the data storage unit because the print job does not need to be printed. May be left alone. In such a case, a predetermined manager (user) must periodically check the print jobs stored in the data storage unit and delete unnecessary print jobs. For this purpose, the administrator needs to know the print job name, the time when the print job was spooled to the storage device, and the like. However, since the display section of the operation panel provided on the printer generally does not have a sufficient size, it is difficult to display the print job name and the input time of the job into the data storage section.
For this reason, it is conceivable to increase the size of the operation panel, but there is a problem in terms of the manufacturing cost of the printer device.

[0004] Therefore, in a printing system including such a printer device and a data processing device, it is demanded to easily realize means for reducing the burden on the administrator for deleting unnecessary print jobs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing system and a print job management system which reduce unnecessary work of deleting print jobs in a print system capable of spooling a plurality of print jobs. It is to provide a method.

[0006]

A printing system according to the present invention comprises a data processing device, a data processing device, and a printing device having printing means for printing a print job transmitted from the data processing device. The printing system includes a spool unit for storing the received print job, an instructing unit for instructing the printing apparatus to start printing the print job, and a printing unit based on the print job when instructed by the instructing unit. And display means for displaying information about the print job stored in the spool means. The display unit changes a display method of information on the print job when a predetermined time has elapsed since the print job was stored in the storage unit.

A printing device according to the present invention is a printing device that receives a print job from a data processing device and prints it.
The apparatus includes a spool unit for storing a print job received from the data processing device, a printing unit for executing printing based on the print job, and a display unit for displaying information about the print job stored in the spool unit. The display unit changes a display method of information on the print job when a predetermined time has elapsed since the print job was stored in the spool unit.

The change of the display method includes inverting the brightness, adding a predetermined symbol to the display of the management information when the predetermined time has not elapsed, and controlling the print job. The information can be displayed by blinking the information or by changing the display color of the print job management information.

A recording medium according to the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium on which a program for controlling a printing system is recorded. The program includes a procedure for receiving a print job instructed to perform a print process asynchronously after the reception, a procedure for storing the received print job, a procedure for displaying information about the stored print job, and a procedure for displaying the print job. Changing the display when a predetermined time has elapsed after receiving the print job.

[0010] A print job management method according to the present invention receives a print job instructed to perform a print process asynchronously after reception, stores the received print job, and displays information on the stored print job. , Print job display,
This is changed when a predetermined time has elapsed after receiving the print job.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a printer system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printer system according to the present invention. As shown in the drawing, the printer system includes a data processing device 5 and a printer device 10.
The data processing device 5 and the printer device 10 are connected via a network 50 and exchange data. A plurality of data processing devices may be connected to the network 50, and the printer device 10 may be shared by these data processing devices. In such a printer system, a print job is transmitted from the data processing device to the printer device 10 via the network 50, and the printer device 1
0 receives this print job and prints out the print data included in the print job according to the settings included in the print job.

The data processing device 5 includes a print job transmitting unit 2
1, a print job generation unit 22, and a management data setting unit 23
Consists of The print job transmitting unit 21 transmits a print job to the printer device 10 via the network 50. The print job generation unit 22 generates a print job. The management data setting unit 23 manages predetermined setting information when generating a print job. The data processing device 5 having such a configuration may have a CPU, for example, and may be realized by a personal computer that executes various functions by executing a predetermined program.

The printer device 10 includes an operation panel 11 on which a user performs a predetermined operation, a controller 12 for controlling each unit in the printer device 10, a data storage unit 13 for storing a print job and the like, And a printing unit 15 for printing out. The controller 12 includes a print job receiving unit 26 that receives a print job from the data processing device 5 via the network 50, and a print job control unit 2
7 The data storage unit 13 has a spool management file storage unit 29 and a print data storage unit 230.
The data storage unit 13 is realized by, for example, a RAM or a hard disk device. The operation panel 11 includes a panel display unit 24 for displaying predetermined information, and a panel control unit 25 for controlling display on the operation panel 11, input / output of the operation panel, and the like. FIG. 2 shows an example of the operation panel 11. As shown in FIG. 2, the operation panel 11 has buttons 24a to 24e for various settings in addition to the display unit 24. The printer device 10 includes a CPU, and each function of the controller 12 and the like is realized by the CPU executing a predetermined program. Further, the data processing device 5 and the printer device 10
May be provided by a recording medium such as a floppy disk or a CD-ROM.

Upon receiving the print job from the data processing device 5, the printer device 10 temporarily stores (spools) it in the data storage unit 13. That is, the spooled print job is printed out immediately after the spooling, when there is a print output instruction from the user, or when the print time included in the print job has been reached. For this reason, the print job is spooled in the print data storage unit 30 of the data storage unit 13, and the management information of the print job spooled in the print data storage unit 30 is stored in the spool management file storage unit 29 as a "spool management file". It is memorized.

A printer driver, which is software corresponding to the printer device 10 for setting print data, is installed in the data processing device 5. The user makes a print request to the printer device 10 on the data processing device 5, and at this time, sets a print job using a printer driver. FIG. 3 is a display example of a print job setting screen displayed by the printer driver on the data processing device 5. On this screen, the user can enter a job name (JOB NAME), user name (USER NAME),
Set spool settings (SPOOL), print time (PRINT TIME), etc.

The print time (PRINT TIME) is a setting for designating a print time when printing is performed at a desired time. The spool setting (SPOOL) is a setting for determining whether to print the print job asynchronously with the reception timing. That is, after reception by the printer device 10,
This is a setting for instructing whether printing is performed immediately (synchronously) or when a user's instruction is given or when a designated print time is reached (asynchronously). When the spool setting is "ON", the print job is printed at the time of the user's instruction or at the designated print time, and when the spool setting is "OFF", the print job is printed immediately after receiving the print job. .

When the user starts printing data, the user first makes settings for printing on a setting screen by a printer driver. The data processing device 5 waits for the setting of the print job by the user on the setting screen, and after the setting is completed, subsequently executes the print job transmitting process shown in FIG.

That is, when a user sets a job name, a user name, a spool setting, a printing time, and the like on a setting screen of the printer driver, the information is stored in the management data setting unit 23. Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 4, the data processing apparatus 5 first generates a print job file in the print job generation unit 22, and opens the print job file (S11). The job name, user name, spool setting, and print time set by the user on the setting screen of the printer driver are written in this print job file (S12 to S15). FIG. 5 shows an example of the contents of the print job file generated in this manner. Thereafter, the current time is written to the print job file as the transmission time (S16), and the print data is subsequently written to the print job file (S17). Thereafter, the print job file is closed (S18), and the print job transmitting unit 21 transmits the print job file to the printer device 10 via the network 50 (S19).
As described above, the print job file includes various setting information for printing the print data in addition to the print data.

Next, the operation of the printer 10 will be described.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process performed by the printer device 10.

When the power of the printer 10 is turned on (S21), first, the print job control unit 27 checks whether a print job is received by the print job receiving unit 26 (S22). When print data is received, the spool setting of the received print job file is "ON"
It is checked whether or not is set (S23). Whether or not the spool setting is “ON” is determined based on whether or not “SPOOL = ON” is described in the print job file. If the spool setting is "ON",
Then, the print data in the print job file is sent to the printing unit 15 (S2).
5). Upon receiving the print data, the printing unit 15 prints out the data. If a print job has not been received in step S22, it is determined whether or not the call button 24a has been pressed on the operation panel 11 (S26). If the call button 24a has been pressed, the spool job management process (S27) is performed. If the call button 24a has not been pressed, the spool job automatic deletion processing is performed (S2).
8). The above processing (S22 to S28) is performed by the printer 1
Repeat until the power of 0 is turned off.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the spool job management process (step S27). In this processing, deletion of spooled data and execution of printing are performed according to a user's instruction.

Specifically, the spool management file is opened (S31). The spool management file is a file for managing a print job spooled as described above, and as shown in FIG. 8, a job name, a user name, and a transmission time (time transmitted from the data processing device). , Print time (time to be printed), data file name, and the like. Next, the variable a indicating the pointer is set to 1 (S32). It is checked whether the position indicated by the pointer a is the end of the spool management file (EOF: End of File) (S33). When the pointer a indicates EOF, the process proceeds to step S47. If the pointer a does not indicate EOF, it is checked whether or not the pointer a is 0 (S34).
If the pointer a is not 0, display processing on the operation panel 11 is performed (S35), and it is checked whether or not the delete button 24d is pressed (S36). When the delete button 24d is pressed, the data of the print job designated by the pointer a in the spool management file is deleted (S37), and the data on the a-th line of the spool management file is deleted (S38).

If it is determined in step S36 that the delete button 24d has not been pressed, it is checked whether the forward button 24c has been pressed (S39). When the forward button 24c is pressed, 1 is added to the pointer a (S40). When the forward button 24c is not pressed, it is checked whether the previous line button 24b is pressed (S41). When the backward button 24b is pressed, 1 is subtracted from the pointer a (S4).
2) If not, it is checked whether or not the print button 24e has been pressed (S43).

When the print button 24e is pressed, the print execution of the spool data indicated by the pointer a is performed (S44). Details of the spool data print execution process will be described later. If the print button 24e has not been pressed, it is determined whether or not the call button 24a has been pressed (S45). When the call button 24a is pressed, the display on the operation panel is erased (S46), the spool management file is closed (S47), and the process returns. If the call button 24a has not been pressed, step S3
3 and the above processing is repeated.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of the display processing on the operation panel (step S35). In this processing, display processing on the operation panel is performed. First, the a line of the spool management file is read (S51), and it is checked whether or not a predetermined time has passed since the print job of the line was transmitted (S52). This determination is based on a in the spool management file.
This is performed by checking the transmission time of the print job on the line, comparing the transmission time with the current time, obtaining the elapsed time, and comparing the elapsed time with a predetermined time. If the predetermined time has elapsed, the job name and the user name are displayed by a normal display method as shown in FIG. 10A (S5).
4). If the predetermined time has not elapsed, the brightness of the job name and the user name is inverted and displayed in the case of the normal display method as shown in FIG. 10B (S5).
4). That is, when the spool status is displayed on the display unit 24 of the operation panel 11, a job that has passed a predetermined time or more after transmission in a spooled print job is different from a print job that has not passed a predetermined time or more. It is displayed in the display method. As a method of changing the display, the display is reversed as described above, a predetermined symbol (here, “*”) is displayed as shown in FIG. A method of blinking the display as shown is conceivable. Alternatively, the display colors may be different. Alternatively, these may be combined.

Further, the spool management information may be displayed on the display unit of the data processing device 5 as shown in FIG. FIG. 12A shows a spooled print job that has been transmitted for more than a predetermined time after transmission, and displays it with an asterisk (*).
Shows an example of blinking display. In addition, reverse display or display color change may be performed. The configuration of the printer system (see FIG. 17) for displaying the spool management information on the data processing device 5 will be described later.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of the spool data print execution process (step S44). In this process, when the spooled print job is printed, a process of deleting data related to the printed print job from the spool management file and from the print data storage unit 30 is performed.

Specifically, first, the print data indicated by the data file name of the print job on the a-th line of the spool management file is extracted from the print data storage unit 30 (S61).
The extracted print data is sent to the printing unit 15 (S6).
2). The print data is printed out by the print unit 15. Thereafter, in the spool management file, the data of the print job in the a-th line is deleted (S63), and the print data sent from the print data storage unit 30 to the printing unit 15 is deleted (S63).
64).

FIG. 14 shows a data spooling process (step S).
It is a flowchart of 24). In this process, a print job is newly registered in the spool management file, and further, the received print job data is stored in the print data storage unit 30.

In FIG. 14, first, the print job receiving unit 26 receives a print data file (S71), and the print job control unit 27 opens a spool management file in the spool management file storage unit 29 (S72). Next, the print data file is read, and data indicating a new print job (here, the job of SPL0004.prn) is added to the spool management file (S73). FIG. 15 shows print data (SP data) in the spool management file shown in FIG.
L0004.prn) is newly added. Then, the print job data file is stored in the print data storage unit 30 (S74). Finally, the spool management file is closed (S75), and the process returns.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of the spool job automatic deletion process (step S28). By this processing, of the print jobs spooled in the printer device 10, jobs that have been spooled for a certain period of time or more are automatically deleted.

As shown in FIG. 16, first, a spool management file is opened (S81). Next, it is checked whether or not there is a job that has passed a predetermined time, for example, 20 hours or more from the transmission time (S82). If there is no job that has passed the predetermined time, the spool management file is closed (S8).
6) Return. If there is a job that has passed a certain time or more (S83), the line of the job that has passed a certain time or more is deleted from the spool management file (S8).
4). Then, the print data file related to the deleted job is deleted from the print data storage unit (S85).
Finally, the spool management file is closed (S86), and the process returns.

FIG. 17 shows another configuration of the printer system. In FIG. 17, the data processing device 5 'is different from the print job transmitting unit 21 in that the print job transmitting / receiving unit 2
1 ′, and further includes an input unit 33 including a keyboard and a mouse, and a display unit 35 including a display and the like. Further, the printer device 10 'includes a print job transmitting / receiving unit 26' instead of the print job receiving unit 26 described above.
The print job transmitting / receiving sections 21 'and 26' transmit / receive information about the print job via the network 50. With this configuration, instead of issuing a print instruction for a spooled print job on the operation panel 11 of the printer device 10,
This can be performed in the data processing device 5. That is, the data processing device 5 ′ transmits the spool management file data to the print job
1 ′, and is displayed on the display unit 35. At this time, as described above, the spool status is displayed by a display method according to the elapsed time since the spooling. When the user confirms this display and issues a print instruction for a specific print job at the input unit 33, the data processing device 5 'sends this instruction to the printer device 10', and the printer device 10 'sends the print job transmission / reception unit 26' In response to this, printing is started by the method described above.

As described above, in the printer system of the present embodiment, in order to indicate the presence of a print job that has passed a predetermined time or more after being spooled in the printer device, a normal print job A display different from the display is performed. This makes it possible to realize a function for a user to know the existence of a print job that has been spooled for a long time without changing hardware in the printer system.

[0036]

According to the present invention, the display method is changed for a print job that has passed a predetermined time or more since the printer device was received. Thus, the user can easily know the existence of a print job that has been spooled for a long time and is waiting for printing. The burden of deleting unnecessary print jobs can be reduced. At this time, the display method is changed by reverse display, blinking display, or display with a predetermined symbol added, thereby changing the hardware configuration of the printer device, that is, without particularly expanding the display unit of the display means. Can be changed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printer system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an operation panel in the printer device.

FIG. 3 is a view showing an example of a printer driver setting screen.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a process when transmitting a print job.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a print job file.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a process performed by the printer device.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a spool job management process.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a spool management file.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a display process on an operation panel.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a change in a method of displaying a print job on the operation panel ((a) display before a predetermined time after spooling (normal display), (b) changed after a predetermined time after spooling Display (reverse display)).

FIG. 11A is a diagram showing an example of a display of a print job after a predetermined time has elapsed from spooling on the operation panel ((a)).
When a predetermined symbol “*” is added, (b) in the case of blinking display).

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a display of a print job after a predetermined time has elapsed after spooling in the data processing device ((a) a case where a predetermined symbol “*” is added, (b) a case of blinking display) ).

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of spool data print execution processing.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a data spooling process.

FIG. 15 is a view for explaining addition of a print job to a spool management file.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a spool job automatic deletion process.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing another configuration of the printer system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5, 5 'Data processing device 10, 10' Printer device 11 Operation panel 12 Controller 13 Data storage unit 15 Printing unit 33 Input unit of data processing device 35 Display unit of data processing device 50 Network

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A printing system comprising: a data processing device; and a printing device having a printing device for printing a print job transmitted from the data processing device. Instruction means for instructing the start of printing of a print job, printing means for executing printing based on the print job when instructed by the instruction means, and printing stored in the spool means. Display means for displaying information about the job, wherein the display means changes a display method of the information about the print job when a predetermined time has elapsed since the print job was stored in the storage means. Printing system. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein said spooling means is provided in said printing apparatus. 3. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein said instruction means is provided in said printing apparatus. 4. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein said instruction means is provided in said data processing device. 5. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein said display means is provided in said printing apparatus. 6. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein said display means is provided in said data processing device. 7. A printing apparatus for receiving and printing a print job from a data processing device, comprising: a spool unit for storing the print job received from the data processing device; and a printing unit for executing printing based on the print job. Display means for displaying information about the print job stored in the spool means, wherein the display means displays information about the print job when a predetermined time has elapsed since the print job was stored in the spool means. A printing method for changing a display method of the printing device. 8. The display method according to claim 7, wherein the display method is changed by inverting the display brightness of the information before the lapse of the predetermined time and displaying the information on the print job after the lapse of the predetermined time. Printing device. 9. A display method for displaying information on a print job after a predetermined time has elapsed by adding a predetermined symbol to the display of information before the predetermined time has elapsed. The printing device according to the above. 10. The printing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein a display method is changed by blinking display of information on a print job after a predetermined time has elapsed. 11. The printing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein a display method is changed by changing a display color of information on a print job after a predetermined time has elapsed from that before the predetermined time has elapsed. 12. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for controlling a printing system is recorded, the program comprising: a procedure for receiving a print job instructed to perform a print process asynchronously after reception; A computer executes a procedure for storing a print job, a procedure for displaying information about the stored print job, and a procedure for changing the display of the print job when a predetermined time has elapsed after receiving the print job. A recording medium characterized by causing a recording medium to be read. 13. A print job management method, comprising: receiving a print job instructed to perform a print process asynchronously after reception; storing the received print job; and displaying information about the stored print job. And a display method for changing the display of the print job when a predetermined time has elapsed after receiving the print job.