JP2001034433A - Printing system and method for controlling the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system for operating a print output by transferring application data from a client side, and for operating a detail output instruction at the client side, and a method for controlling the printing system. SOLUTION: A data obtaining part 21 receives output instruction information which can not be included in application data transferred from a client 1 separately from the application data, and allows at least one of an application 22, a printer driver 23, and an instruction adding part 24 to operate the addition of the output instruction based on the output instruction information received by an instruction deciding part 25.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing system and a control method thereof, and more particularly to a printing system and a control method thereof that enable a client to use a network printer with easy operation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When printing is performed from an output device such as a printer connected to a network, generally, an application is started on a client side and a PDL (page d) is executed.
Output data, such as description language, is transferred to the print server and printed from the output device.

[0005] For example, as shown in FIG. 5, a client 501 is connected to a print server 502 via a network.
, And printout can be performed from the output device 503 via the print server 502. For this reason,
The client 501 includes an application 511, a printer driver 512 corresponding to the output device 503, and a data transfer unit 513.

When a print output is instructed from the client 501, first, an application 511 that has created a document to be printed is started, and the application 511 is started.
And the printer driver 512 to generate output data. The generated output data is transferred from the data transfer unit 513 to the print server 502 via the network, and stored in the spooler 521. The output data stored in the spooler 521 is sequentially sent to the output device 503 and printed out.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 5, printer drivers 512 corresponding to all output devices 503 (including those not shown) that may be used are installed in the client 501. I have to put it. That is, it is necessary to install a plurality of printer drivers in all the clients connected to the network.

Further, in the client 501, it is necessary to start an application corresponding to a document each time a print instruction is issued, and when printing a document created by another user, the corresponding application is not necessarily installed. Not always, you may have to start with installing the application.

As described above, the configuration shown in FIG. 5 requires installation of the printer driver 512 and the like on the client 501 side, requires much time and effort for operation, and requires complicated work. there were. Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No.
There is a “print system” described in Japanese Patent No. 15610.

In the “printing system” described in JP-A-11-15610, as shown in FIG. 6, various applications 623 (623-1 to 623-3) and output devices 603-1 to 623-3 are provided in a print server 602. 603-3
The printer drivers 624-1 to 624-3 corresponding to the above are installed. Then, on the client 601 side, when a print instruction is given, the storage device 611 is used.
The document to be printed stored in the application data is stored in the application data (data corresponding to the application, which can usually be opened only by the application).
The data is transferred to the print server 602 via the data transfer unit 612.

In the print server 602, the application data acquired by the data acquisition unit 621 is opened by one of the applications 623-1 to 623-3 by the operation of the application selection / activation unit 622, and a desired output device 603 (603-1) is opened. To the printer driver 624 (624-1 to 624-624) corresponding to
In step 3), the data is converted into output data such as PDL and output device 603.
Output to

[0010]

As described above, in the "print system" described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-15610, an application is started on the print server side to generate output data. There is no need to install a printer driver on the side, making operation easier.

Some output devices are capable of selecting an output tray, and others are capable of post-print processing such as staples. However, usually, the application data cannot include output instruction information such as output tray selection and stapling processing. Therefore, an output instruction cannot be issued from the client side.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a printing system capable of transferring application data from a client side to perform print output and giving a detailed output instruction on the client side, and a control method therefor. .

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, data dependent on predetermined application software is transferred from a client to a server, and the server transfers data from the client to the server. In a printing system that converts data into a predetermined format by application software corresponding to the data and converts the converted data into data corresponding to an output device and outputs the data to the output device, the client includes output instruction information in the data. And an instruction content adding means for adding an instruction content corresponding to the output instruction information to data to be output to the output device based on the output instruction information. It is characterized by the following.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the instruction content adding means instructs the application software of the instruction content of the output instruction information, and the application software receives the instruction content from the client. Data is converted into data to which additional information corresponding to the instruction content is added.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the instruction content adding means adds additional information corresponding to the instruction content of the output instruction information to the data converted by the application software. And converting the data into data corresponding to the output device.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the instruction content adding means directly adds additional information corresponding to the instruction content to data output to the output device. I do.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the instruction content adding means is provided when the output instruction information added by the output instruction adding means includes an output instruction for prohibiting combination. The output instruction is ignored or changed.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the output instruction adding means adds an output instruction input by a user to the data as output instruction information, and the combination is prohibited. It is characterized in that input of an output instruction is prohibited.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, data dependent on predetermined application software is transferred from a client to a server, and the server converts the data from the client into data of a predetermined format by application software corresponding to the data. In a control method of a printing system for converting and converting the converted data into data corresponding to an output device and outputting the data to the output device,
The client adds output instruction information to the data, and the server adds instruction content corresponding to the output instruction information to data to be output to the output device based on the output instruction information. .

According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the seventh aspect of the invention, the instruction content is added by the application software by adding data from the client to data to which additional information corresponding to the instruction content is added. It is characterized by conversion.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the invention of the seventh aspect, the instruction content is added by adding additional information corresponding to the instruction content to data converted by the application software. Is performed by converting the data into data corresponding to.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the seventh aspect of the invention, the instruction content is added by directly adding additional information corresponding to the instruction content to data to be output to the output device. It is characterized by.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the invention of the seventh aspect, the instruction content is added when the output instruction information includes an output instruction for prohibiting combination, or the output instruction is ignored or ignored. It is characterized by being changed.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the seventh aspect of the invention, the client adds an output instruction input by a user to the data as output instruction information and inputs the output instruction for which combination is prohibited. Is prohibited.

[0025]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an embodiment of a printing system and a control method thereof according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing system according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system includes a client 1, a print server 2, and an output device 3. Note that the output device 3 is the same as that shown in FIG.
As shown in (a), the print server 2 and the network 4
2 or may be directly connected to the print server 2 as shown in FIG. Output device 3
, There is no limitation on the number of devices.

The client 1 includes a storage device 11 and a data transfer unit 12, and transfers a document, which is application data stored in the storage device 11, from the data transfer unit 12 to the print server 2.

The print server 2 includes a data acquisition unit 21, an application 22, a printer driver 23, an instruction adding unit 24, and an instruction determining unit 25. The data acquisition unit 21 receives the application data transferred from the client 1, and the application 22
The printer driver 2 converts the application data received by the data acquisition unit 23 into data of a predetermined intermediate format.
Output to 3. The printer driver 23 converts the input intermediate format data into output data such as PDL and outputs the output data to the output device 3. The instruction adding unit 24 adds an output instruction that cannot be added by an instruction to the application 22 or the printer driver 23 to the output data. The instruction determination unit 25 acquires output instruction information transferred together with the application data from the client 1 via the data acquisition unit 21, and gives an output instruction to each of the application 22, the printer driver 23, and the instruction addition unit 24.

In FIG. 1, for ease of explanation,
Although the configuration in the case of one application 22, one printer driver 23, and one output device 3 is shown, a plurality of these can be provided similarly to the configuration shown in FIG. 6.

Here, the output instruction adding section 12 will be described. When a print output is instructed from the client 1, the application data stored in the storage device 11 may be directly transferred to the print server 2, but there may be a case where an output instruction that cannot be included in the application data is desired. Such an output instruction is, for example,
The output instruction adding unit 12 generates the output instruction, attaches the output instruction to the application data, and transfers the generated output instruction to the print server 2 via the data transfer unit 13. The output instruction adding unit 1
The input of the output instruction to 2 is performed by an operation unit (including an input unit such as a keyboard and a mouse) not shown.

Next, the instruction determining unit 25 will be described in detail. The instruction determination unit 25 acquires output instruction information transferred together with the application data from the client 1 via the data acquisition unit 21, and, based on the output instruction information, the application 22, the printer driver 23,
An instruction is given to each of the instruction adding units 24.

The instruction given to the application 22 is a content that can be processed by the application 22, and includes, for example, an enlargement / reduction print instruction and a designation of a font.
The instruction given to the printer driver 23 is a content that can be processed by the printer driver 23, and includes, for example, designation of the number of copies and paper. The instruction given to the instruction adding unit 24 is all contents that cannot be processed by the application 22 and the printer driver 23, and is, for example, post-printing processing such as stapling. In addition, client 1
The output instruction information includes the number of copies, collation, color printing, double-sided printing, designation of an input tray, and fax output (when the print server 2 also operates as a fax server, the telephone number, resolution, and broadcast designation) Etc.). Since the output instructions that can be added by the instruction adding unit 24 include output instructions that can be added by the application 22 and the printer driver 23, all output instructions may be added by the instruction adding unit 24. 22, the printer driver 23, and the instruction adding unit 24 may instruct all the processable contents.

The instruction determining unit 25 also determines whether the client 1
Confirm the contents of the output instruction information from and perform the prohibition processing. In the prohibition processing here, for example, the stapling processing can be performed only when the output device 3 outputs to “Tray 1”.
If stapling is not possible when output to another tray, "Tray 2" is output as an output instruction.
This is performed when output to the printer and stapling processing are given. When such an output instruction is given, the instruction determination unit 25 ignores the unexecutable instruction, forcibly changes the output instruction, notifies an error to the client 1, and the like.
Which of these processes is to be performed is set in advance.

In addition, the prohibition processing is performed when an output instruction not supported by the output device 3 is given.

Next, referring to FIG. 3, an instruction determination processing procedure in the instruction determination unit 25 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of the instruction determination process.

When the instruction determining unit 25 acquires the output instruction information from the client 1 via the data acquiring unit 21,
First, the contents of the output instruction are confirmed (step 10).
1). As a result of the confirmation, if there is no designation for the prohibition processing (NO in Step 102), an instruction to the application 22 (Step 103), an instruction to the printer driver 23 (Step 104), and an instruction to the instruction adding unit 24 (Step 104) Step 105) is performed and the process ends.

On the other hand, if there is an instruction to be subjected to the prohibition processing (YES in step 102), if it is set so that the instruction is ignored (YE in step 106).
S), proceed to step 103 ignoring the corresponding instruction.
In this setting, for example, if the output to “tray 2” and “staple processing” are specified, the stapling processing is not performed, as described in the above example.

When there is an instruction to be subjected to the prohibition processing (YES in step 102), if it is set so that the instruction is forcibly changed (step 10).
(NO in step 6 and YES in step 107), change the corresponding instruction (step 108), and proceed to step 103. In this setting, for example, when the output to “Tray 2” and the “staple processing” are designated, the output instruction to “Tray 2” is changed to the output instruction to “Tray 1”. Become.

Further, when there is an instruction for the prohibition processing (YES in step 102), the client 1
If it is set to notify an error to the client 1 (NO in step 106, NO in step 107), the client 1 is notified of the error (step 109), and the application 22, the printer driver 23, and the instruction adding unit 24 are notified. Notification of the stop of the printing process (step 11).
0), and the process ends.

Next, an example of adding an instruction in each section of the application 22, the printer driver 23, and the instruction adding section 24 will be described.

When an instruction is added by the application 22, for example, "HANDLE handle = GetProcessHandle (" WordProcessor "); SendMessage (handle," Scale: 0.71 "); SendMessage (handle," INITIALIZE "); CloseProcessHandle (handle ); ”(Example of description in C language).

In the first line of this instruction, "HANDLE handle = Ge
tProcessHandle ("WordProcessor");"
Gets the process handle of the application named sor.

Subsequently, in the second line, "SendMessage (handle,
"Scale: 0.71");", a reduction instruction of 0.71 times is sent, and then output processing (output of intermediate data) is performed.

Next, in the third line, "SendMessage (handle," I
NITIALIZE ");" clears the previous reduction instruction, and closes the process handle with "CloseProcessHandle (handle)" on the fourth line.

In the case where an instruction is added by the printer driver 23 (the staple can be specified or the printer driver can be specified), for example, a function call is performed, and “void * handle = OpenDriver (“ Driver1 ”); SetDeviceMode (handle, "staple", "upper-left"); CloseDriver (handle) ".

This command opens a driver named Driver 1 on the first line, instructs stapling processing on the upper left side of the paper on the second line, and closes the driver on the third line.

When an instruction is added by the instruction adding unit 24, "100 100 moveto [position to start writing characters] (Times) setfont [font specification] 100 setfontsize [font size] (Test String) show [ Test String description] 1 For output data such as "showpage [draw an image, output one copy]" (output by the printer driver 23, [] is a description and is not actually described) An instruction such as “finishing staple-upper-left [staple processing on the upper left side of the paper] output-tray center [output to the center tray] copy-count 2 [2 copies output]” is added.

With the addition of this instruction, the output data becomes "<< / Staple top-left >> setpagedevice << / OutputBin >>>> setpagedevice 100 100 moveto (Times) setfont 100 setfontsize (Test String) show 2 showpage " It is changed (the underlined part is changed).

In the above description, the instruction determining unit 2
In step 5, the prohibition processing is performed. However, it is also possible to prevent the client 1 from specifying a combination of output instructions that is prohibited.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of a display screen when the client 1 issues an output instruction. Client 1
Assuming that the screen displayed by the GUI (graphical user interface) is a screen 200-1 shown in FIG. 4A, if "Tray 1" is designated in the output tray designation field 201-1, " Since the tray 1 can be stapled, the check box 202-1 for instructing stapling can be changed.

On the other hand, if "Tray 2" is designated in the output tray designation field 201-2 as in a screen 200-2 shown in FIG. 4B, "Tray 2" cannot be stapled. The check box 202-2 for instructing the stapling process is in a state where it cannot be changed (gray display or the like).

As described above, if the combination of output instructions that are prohibited from being specified on the client 1 side cannot be specified,
The instruction determination unit 25 does not need to perform prohibition processing on the contents of the output instruction.

In each of the above-described embodiments, the client 1 and the print server 2 have been described as being different from each other. However, both the client 1 and the print server 2 may be configured in the same apparatus. And the data acquisition unit 21 becomes unnecessary.

[0054]

As described above, according to the present invention, the print server receives the output instruction information that cannot be included in the application data transferred from the client separately from the application data, and receives the received output instruction information. Is configured to add an output instruction from at least one of the application, the printer driver, and the instruction adding unit based on the above, so that the user can instruct the print processing without starting the application on the client side. In addition to this, it is possible to issue detailed instructions for output.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a network configuration of a printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an instruction determination process.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen when an output instruction is issued from a client 1.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram (1) showing a configuration of a conventional print system.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram (2) showing the configuration of a conventional print system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 client 2 print server 3 output device 11 storage device 12 output instruction addition unit 13 data transfer unit 21 data acquisition unit 22 application 23 printer driver 24 instruction addition unit 25 instruction determination unit

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: transferring data dependent on predetermined application software from a client to a server, wherein the server converts the data from the client into data of a predetermined format by application software corresponding to the data, and converts the converted data. In a printing system that converts the data into data corresponding to an output device and outputs the data to the output device, the client includes an output instruction addition unit that adds output instruction information to the data, and the server includes the output instruction information And a command content adding unit for adding a command content corresponding to the output command information to data to be output to the output device based on the print command. 2. The instruction content adding means instructs the application software of the instruction content of the output instruction information, and the application software adds data corresponding to the instruction content to the data from the client. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the printing system converts the data into data. 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the instruction content adding unit adds additional information corresponding to the instruction content of the output instruction information to the data converted by the application software, and converts the data into data corresponding to the output device. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein 4. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the instruction content adding unit directly adds additional information corresponding to the instruction content to data output to the output device. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the instruction content adding unit ignores or changes the output instruction when the output instruction information added by the output instruction adding unit includes an output instruction for prohibiting combination. The printing system according to claim 1. 6. The output instruction adding unit adds an output instruction input by a user to the data as output instruction information, and prohibits the input of an output instruction whose combination is prohibited. 1
The printing system as described. 7. Transferring data dependent on predetermined application software from a client to a server, wherein the server converts data from the client into data of a predetermined format by application software corresponding to the data, and converts the converted data. Is converted into data corresponding to the output device, and the control method of the printing system outputs the data to the output device, wherein the client adds output instruction information to the data, and the server, based on the output instruction information, A control method for a printing system, characterized by adding an instruction corresponding to the output instruction information to data to be output to an output device. 8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the instruction content is added by the application software converting data from the client into data to which additional information corresponding to the instruction content is added. Printing system control method. 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the adding of the instruction content is performed by adding additional information corresponding to the instruction content to the data converted by the application software and converting the data into data corresponding to the output device. A method for controlling a printing system according to claim 7. 10. The control method according to claim 7, wherein the addition of the instruction content is performed by directly adding additional information corresponding to the instruction content to data output to the output device. . 11. The method according to claim 7, wherein, when the output instruction information includes an output instruction for prohibiting combination, the addition of the instruction content is performed by ignoring or changing the output instruction. Printing system control method. 12. The client according to claim 7, wherein the client adds an output instruction input by a user to the data as output instruction information, and prohibits input of an output instruction whose combination is prohibited.
The control method of the printing system described in the above.