JP2001117735A - Printing controller and its program recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently print out all pages of printing data consisting of plural pages specified as a printing object in the case of distributing the printing data to plural printers and printing out the data by distributing pages so that the total printing processing time of each printer becomes approximately uniform by considering differences in the printing processing capacity of each of printers and differences in printing processing quantity required for the practical printing of each page. SOLUTION: When printing request information is transferred from a CPU 1, a printing control part 8 distributes and allocates printing data consisting of plural pages to plural printers on the basis of the printing processing quantity of each page required for the printing of each page in the printing data to be printed and the printing processing capacity value of each printer. Each page is allocated so that the total printing processing time of each printer becomes approximately equal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a print control apparatus for distributing and printing print data for a plurality of pages designated as a print target to a plurality of printing apparatuses, and a program recording medium thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there has been known a distributed printing method in which print data for a plurality of pages designated as a print target is distributed to a plurality of printing apparatuses and printed. It is determined how to assign all pages to be printed to a plurality of printing apparatuses having different print processing capacities, and the page assignment is performed accordingly. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, three printing apparatuses Printer
When print data of a total of 120 pages is allocated to 1, 2, and 3, the print processing capability of each printing apparatus, that is, the number of pages to be processed per unit time is “10”, “20”, “3”.
If "0", the ratio of the print processing capability of each printing device to the total value "60" is obtained, and the number of pages to be allocated to each printing device is determined by dividing the total number of pages according to this ratio. I have to. In this case, in the printing device Printer1, 10/60 * 120 =
20, in the printing device Printer2, 20/6
0 * 120 = 40, and in the printing device Printer3, 30/60 * 120 = 60 is determined as the number of pages allocated to each printing device. By performing such page allocation, printing can be efficiently performed in a short time even if the printing is a huge number of pages.

[0003]

However, even if the number of pages to be allocated is determined according to the print processing capacity as described above, and the printing operations of the respective printing apparatuses are started at the same time, the respective printing apparatuses will be approximately It is rare that printing is completed at the same time,
Only one printing device may have an extremely long printing time compared to other printing devices. That is, when printing with a line printer, if the print data of each page is exactly the same condition, each printing device will complete printing almost simultaneously, but a page with an extremely large number of characters and many images are included. If the printing devices that are intensively assigned pages take longer printing time, and even if distributed printing is performed by multiple printing devices, it is not possible to expect improvement in printing efficiency when viewed as a whole printing was there. The object of the present invention is to
When print data for a plurality of pages specified as a print target is distributed to a plurality of printing devices and printed, a difference in print processing capability of each printing device, and a print processing amount per page unit required for actual printing. In consideration of the differences, the pages are allocated so that the total print processing time in each printing apparatus is substantially equal, so that printing of all pages can be executed efficiently.

[0004] The means of the present invention are as follows. According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control apparatus for distributing and printing print data for a plurality of pages designated as a print target to a plurality of printing apparatuses, wherein for each page based on the print data to be printed, A print processing amount specifying unit that specifies a print processing amount per page required for actual printing; a print processing capacity specifying unit that specifies a print processing capacity value per unit time for each of a plurality of printing apparatuses; The print data for the plurality of pages is sent to a plurality of printing devices based on the print processing amount specified for each page by the amount specifying unit and the print processing capability value specified for each printing device by the print processing capability specifying unit. Page allocating means for allocating in a distributed manner, wherein the page allocating means allocates the pages so that the total print processing time in each printing apparatus is substantially equal. In addition,
The print processing amount specified for each page by the print processing amount specifying means is summed for all pages, and the print processing capacity value specified for each printing apparatus by the print processing capacity specifying means is calculated. In addition to calculating the total print processing capacity value for each device, the ratio of the print processing capacity value of each printing apparatus to the total print processing capacity value is calculated, and the total page print processing amount is calculated at each ratio for each printing apparatus. Determining means for determining the optimum print processing amount for each printing apparatus by dividing the printing data is provided, and the page allocating means distributes and assigns the print data for a plurality of pages to the plurality of printing apparatuses. At this time, each printing device is set such that the total value of the print processing amounts of the pages allocated to the respective printing devices up to the present time is the optimum print processing amount determined by the determination unit corresponding to the printing device. Page to Ri may be carried out against.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a print processing amount per page unit required for actual printing is specified for each page based on print data to be printed, and a unit for each of a plurality of printing apparatuses is specified. Identify the print capacity value per hour. When the print data for the plurality of pages is distributed and assigned to a plurality of printing apparatuses based on the print processing amount specified for each page and the print processing capability value specified for each printing apparatus, The pages are allocated so that the total print processing time in the apparatus is substantially equal. Therefore, when print data for a plurality of pages designated as a print target is distributed to a plurality of printing devices and printed, the difference in the printing processing capability of each printing device and the printing process per page unit required for actual printing. By allocating each page so that the total print processing time in each printing apparatus is substantially equal in consideration of the difference in the amount, the printing of all pages can be executed efficiently.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a data processing device according to this embodiment. This data processing device comprises a plurality of external printing devices PTR1, PTR2, PTR3 #,
When distributing print data for multiple pages specified as a print target to multiple print devices and printing the data, how to print all pages to be printed on multiple print devices with different print processing capacities per unit time The total printing in each printing device is considered in consideration of the difference between the printing processing capability of each printing device and the difference in the printing processing amount per page unit required for actual printing. It is characterized in that page allocation is performed so that the processing time is substantially equal. Before describing the features of this embodiment in detail, the hardware configuration of this embodiment will be described below.

[0007] The CPU 1 is a central processing unit that controls the overall operation of the data processing device according to the operating system and various application software in the storage device 2. The storage device 2 includes, in addition to an operating system and various application software, a database,
It has a recording medium 3 which stores character fonts and the like and is constituted by a magnetic, optical, semiconductor memory or the like, and a drive system therefor. The recording medium 3 is a fixed medium such as a hard disk or a CD-RO that can be removably mounted.
M, a floppy desk, a RAM card, a portable card such as a magnetic card. Further, the programs and data in the recording medium 3 are stored in the R under the control of the CPU 1 as necessary.
An AM (for example, a static RAM) 4 is loaded, and data in the RAM 4 is saved on the recording medium 3.
Further, the recording medium may be provided on an external device side such as a server, and the CPU 1 can directly access and use the program / data in the recording medium via a transmission medium. The CPU 1 can also take in a part or all of the data stored in the recording medium 3 from another device via a transmission medium, and newly or additionally register the data in the recording medium 3. That is, the transmission control unit 5 receives a program / data transmitted from another device constituting the computer communication system via a wired transmission line such as a communication line or a cable or a wireless transmission line such as radio waves, microwaves or infrared rays. And can be installed in the recording medium 3. In addition, program /
The data may be stored and managed on an external device such as a server, and the CPU 1 may directly access and use the program / data on the external device via a transmission medium.

[0008] As described above, the CPU 1 is not limited to the program / data resident in a fixed manner in advance, and stores the program / data externally supplied via a recording medium or a transmission medium, or stores the program / data on the external device side. Operations specific to this embodiment can also be executed by directly using the managed programs / data. On the other hand, a transmission control unit 5, an input unit 6, a display unit 7, and a print control unit 8, which are input / output peripheral devices, are connected to the CPU 1 via a bus line. Control. The transmission control unit 5 is, for example, a communication interface including a communication modem, an infrared module, an antenna, and the like. The input unit 6 is an operation unit that constitutes a pointing device such as a keyboard, a touch panel, a mouse, or a touch input pen, and inputs character string data and various commands. The display unit 7 is a liquid crystal, a CRT, a plasma display device, or the like that performs full-color display. The print control unit 8 includes a plurality of printing apparatuses PTR1,
The PTRs 2 and 3 are connected, and the print control unit 8 controls which page is to be allocated to which printing apparatus when receiving the print request information from the CPU 1. Each of the printing devices PTR1, PTR2, PTR3 # is a non-impact printer such as thermal transfer or ink jet or a dot impact printer.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data structure of the print request information transferred from the CPU 1 to the print control unit 8. The print request information includes "printer information to be used", "print processing amount information",
"Print data information"
Is the identification information indicating the printing device used in the current printing among the printing devices PTR1, PTR2, and PTR3 #. “Print processing amount information” is a print processing amount per page unit required for actual printing calculated for each page based on print data designated as a printing target, and is based on a total dot area in one page. This is the print processing amount. That is, the print processing amount is a value obtained by accumulating the number of print-on dots included in one page as it is, but the value does not need to be exact and is an approximate data amount in one page. You may. “Print data information” is print data for each page obtained by developing characters, images, and the like included in each page into bitmap image data. It should be noted that “printer information used”, “print processing amount information”, “print data information”
Usually, the “print processing amount information” calculated by the application software at the time of document creation is added to the print request information and transferred to the print control unit 8. Is not added, the print control unit 8 calculates this.

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing the contents of a printing device hardware specification information table SPC provided on the printing control unit 8 side. Each printing device PTR1, PTR2, PT
The print processing capability value is fixedly stored in association with R3 #. Here, the printing capacity value is the number of pages that can be printed per unit time, and the printing capacity value differs for each printing device. When an external printing device is added, data of the added printing device is additionally registered in the printing device hardware specification information table SPC. Also,
FIG. 3B shows the contents of the candidate memory CAN. This candidate memory CAN is a work memory for temporarily storing, for each printing apparatus, pages of print candidates assigned to the printing apparatus and information on the amount of print processing.

Next, the operation of the print control unit 8 in this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Here, a program for realizing each function described in this flowchart is stored in the recording medium 3 in the form of a readable program code.
The PU 1 sequentially executes an operation according to the program code. Further, the CPU 1 can also sequentially execute the operation according to the above-described program code transmitted via the transmission medium. That is, an operation unique to this embodiment can be executed using a program / data externally supplied via a transmission medium in addition to a recording medium.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a print control operation which is started when print request information is transferred from the CPU 1 to the print control unit 8. First, "used printer information" is obtained from the print request information, a list of used printing devices is created (step S1), and the printing device hardware specification information table SPC is referred to based on the "used printer information". The contents of the list are sorted in ascending order of print processing capability (step S2). in this case,
For example, as shown in FIG.
1, the print processing capability values of PTR2 and PTR3 are A1, A
Assuming that A2> A3 and A3>A2> A3, the contents of the printing device list are the printing devices PTR1 and PT3.
R2 and PTR3 are sorted in this order. Then, “print processing amount information” is acquired for each page (step S3). If “print processing amount information” is not added to the print request information (step S4), printing is performed by the print control unit 8 side. Create processing amount information. That is, for each page, the operation of calculating the total value of the number of print-on dots of all characters and graphics included in one page as the print processing amount information of the page is repeated for each page (step S5). . The total print processing amount Qtotal corresponding to all pages to be printed is obtained by adding up the “print processing amount information” of each page calculated in this way or the “print processing amount information” of each page obtained from the print request information. Is calculated (step S6).

Next, the first printing device is selected from the used printing device list (step S7), and an error status confirmation signal is transmitted to the selected printing device to check the error status of the selected printing device. (Step S8). Here, it is determined whether or not there is a confirmation response (step S9). If there is no response, it is determined that the printing apparatus is not connected, or even if it is connected, it is in an error state such as no paper, no ink, etc. The printer selected this time is deleted from the list (step S11). If it is not in the error state, the printing apparatus hardware specification information table SPC is searched based on the selected printing apparatus, and the corresponding print processing capability value An is obtained (step S10). Then, it is checked whether an unconfirmed printing device exists in the list (step S12). Since the first printing device has been selected and specified, the process returns to step S7 to select and specify the next printing device. Thereafter, the above operation is repeated until an error state is confirmed for all the printing apparatuses.

As a result, when the error status of all the printing devices in the printing device list is checked, the print processing capability value A of each printing device obtained in step S10 is obtained.
By summing n, the total value of the print processing capability values of all the printing devices usable in the current printing is calculated as the total print processing capability value Atotal (step S13). And
One printing device, initially the first printing device PTR1, is selected from the printing device list as a target (step S14). In this case, since the contents of the printing device list are arranged in descending order of the print processing capability value, first, the printing device PTR1 having the largest processing capability is selected. Then, an ideal print processing amount Pn to be allocated to the printing apparatus is calculated according to the following equation (step S15). Pn = Qtotal * (An / Atotal) That is, the print processing capability value An of the selected printing apparatus
Calculates the ratio of the total print processing capacity value Atotal obtained by summing the print processing capacity values of the respective printing apparatuses, and calculates the total page print processing amount obtained by summing the print processing amounts of all pages at this ratio. By dividing Qtotal, an optimum print processing amount Pn for the printing apparatus is calculated. FIG. 5 (B)
This is a diagram in which the optimum print processing amounts P1, P2, P3 obtained for each of the printing devices PTR1, PTR2, PTR3 are schematized. In this case, the printing devices PTR1, PTR2, PTR
3 is A1>A2> A as described above.
3, the optimum print processing amount P
1, P2 and P3 satisfy P1>P2> P3.

Next, one page having the largest print processing amount is selected from all the pages to be printed, and the selected page is selected as a print candidate page for the printing apparatus currently focused on together with the print processing amount. Additional registration is made in the memory CAN (step S16). In this case, as shown in FIG. 5B, assuming that the print processing amounts for all five pages to be printed are Q1 to Q5, they are in the relationship of Q4>Q5>Q1>Q2> Q3. The fourth page with the larger amount is selected as a print candidate. Then, the print processing amount for all pages that are print candidates for the printing apparatus currently focused on is stored in the candidate memory CAN.
, And sums them, and calculates the sum as a candidate total processing amount Pmax (step S17). At this time, since only four pages are assigned to the printing device PTR1 at this time, the total candidate processing amount is Pmax = Q4.

The candidate total processing amount Pm obtained by this
ax is compared with the ideal print processing amount Pn obtained in step S15 (step S18). As a result,
If Pmax> Pn is not satisfied, that is, if there is a margin in the print processing amount of the candidate of the printing apparatus currently focused on, it is determined whether there is any unselected page (step S19). Then, after selecting a page having the next largest print processing amount, the page is allocated to the printing apparatus as a print candidate. Thereafter, the above operation is repeated while adding candidate pages one by one until the condition of Pmax> Pn is satisfied. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5C, in the printing apparatus PTR1 having the largest processing capacity, the fourth page having the largest print processing amount and the fifth page having the second largest print processing amount are set as print candidates. Assigned respectively.

Thus, when it is detected that the condition Pmax> Pn is satisfied and the page allocation to the first printing apparatus is completed, the print request for all pages which are print candidates for the printing apparatus is requested. The print data is extracted from the information, and the print data is transmitted to the currently focused printing apparatus and a print instruction is issued (step S20). Then, the printing apparatus starts printing for the number of transmitted pages. And
It is checked whether there are any printing devices that have not been printed yet (step S21). However, since the first page has been allocated and the printing has been started, the process returns to step S14 and returns to the printing device list. From the first printing apparatus PTR2 in this case, the above-described operation is repeated until the page allocation for all the printing apparatuses is completed and the printing is started. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5C, the first page and the second page are assigned to the second printing device PTR2 as print candidates and printed. Next, when attention is paid to the third printing device PTR3 having the smallest print processing capability, only the third page having the smallest print processing amount is allocated to this printing device PTR3 and printed (see FIG. 5C). ).

As described above, in this embodiment, C
When the print request information is transferred from the PU 1, the print control unit 8 determines a print processing amount per page unit required for actual printing for each page based on print data to be printed, and a print processing amount for each printing device. Since print data for a plurality of pages is distributed and assigned to a plurality of printing apparatuses based on the print processing capacity value, the difference between the printing processing capacity of each printing apparatus and the printing processing amount of each page is different. In consideration of the above, it is possible to allocate pages such that the total print processing time in each printing device is substantially equal, and even if a page with an extremely large number of characters or a page with many images inserted is included, Even if the print data amount of each page is extremely different, printing of all pages can be efficiently executed in a short time as compared with the conventional distributed printing. In this case, an all-page print processing amount obtained by summing the print processing amounts of all pages for all pages, and a total print processing capacity value obtained by summing the print processing capacity values of the printing apparatuses for all the printing apparatuses are obtained. Calculate the ratio of the print processing capability value of each printing device to the print processing capability value, and divide the total page print processing volume by each ratio for each printing device, to obtain the optimal printing for the printing processing capability for each printing device. When determining the processing amount and allocating the print data for multiple pages to multiple printing devices in a distributed manner, the total value of the printing processing amounts of the pages allocated to each printing device up to the present corresponds to the printing device. Since the pages are allocated to the respective printing apparatuses so that the optimum print processing amount determined as described above is obtained, ideal and uniform page allocation can be performed reliably and easily.

In the embodiment described above, C
If the “print processing amount information” is not added to the print request information transferred from the PU 1, the print control unit 8 turns on printing of all characters and graphics included in one page for each page. Although the value obtained by accumulating the number of dots is calculated as the print processing amount information of the page, the calculation may be performed on the CPU 1 side. Further, the print control unit 8 determines how to distribute print data for a plurality of pages designated as a print target to a plurality of printing apparatuses.
U1 may make the determination. Further, if the printing capacity of each printing apparatus is substantially the same, the ratio of the printing capacity value of each printing apparatus to the total printing capacity value Atotal, which is the sum of the printing capacity values of each printing apparatus, is also substantially the same. In such a case, an ideal print processing amount Pn may be obtained by dividing the total page print processing amount Qtotal obtained by summing the print processing amounts of all pages by the number of printing apparatuses. That is, it is determined whether or not the print processing capabilities of the printing apparatuses are substantially the same. If the print processing capacities are not substantially the same, the above-described embodiment is applied. May be used for division. Further, the above-described embodiment is not limited to the stand-alone type, but may constitute a distributed computer communication system in which two or more components of the present invention are physically separated in a housing. .

[0020]

According to the present invention, the print processing amount per page unit required for actual printing for each page based on print data to be printed and the print processing capability value for each printing apparatus are used. Since print data for a plurality of pages is distributed and assigned to a plurality of printing devices, each printing device is considered by taking into account the difference in the printing processing capacity of each printing device and the difference in the amount of printing processing for each page. Can be assigned such that the total print processing time is substantially equal, even if a page with an extremely large number of characters or a page with many images inserted is included.
Printing of all pages can be efficiently executed in a short time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a data processing apparatus including a plurality of external printing apparatuses.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data structure of print request information transferred from a CPU 1 to a print control unit 8;

FIG. 3A is a diagram showing the contents of a printing device hardware specification information table SPC provided on the printing control unit 8 side, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the contents of a candidate memory CAN.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a print control operation that is started when print request information is transferred to the print control unit 8.

5A and 5B specifically show how print data for a plurality of pages specified as a print target is distributed to a plurality of printing apparatuses. FIG. 5A is a diagram illustrating a print processing amount of each page. FIG. 3B is a diagram schematically illustrating an ideal print processing amount obtained for each print processing device, and FIG. 3C is a diagram illustrating pages allocated to each print device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 CPU 2 Storage device 3 Recording medium 5 Transmission control unit 6 Input unit 7 Display unit 8 Print control unit PTR1, PTR2, PTR3 Printing device SPC Printing device hardware specification information table CAN candidate memory

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Katsunori Tsutsumi 2-229 Sakuragaoka, Higashiyamato-shi, Tokyo Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Tokyo Office (72) Inventor Takaho Watanabe 2-229 Sakuragaoka, Higashiyamato-shi, Tokyo Shio Computer Co., Ltd. Tokyo Office (72) Inventor Tsuneji Tamura 2-229 Sakuragaoka, Higashiyamato-shi, Tokyo Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Tokyo Office (72) Inventor Makoto Tsurumi 2-229 Sakuragaoka, Higashiyamato-shi, Tokyo Address Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Tokyo Office F-term (reference) 2C061 AQ01 AQ04 AQ05 HJ06 HK18 HV13 HV14 HV35 2C087 AB08 AC05 AC07 AC12 BA05 BA09 BC07 CA05 5B021 AA01 EE02

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A print control apparatus for distributing print data for a plurality of pages designated as a print target to a plurality of printing apparatuses and printing the data, wherein each page is printed based on the print data to be printed. A print processing amount specifying unit that specifies a required print processing amount per page unit; a print processing capacity specifying unit that specifies a print processing capacity value per unit time for each of a plurality of printing apparatuses; and the print processing amount specifying unit. The print data for the plurality of pages is distributed and assigned to a plurality of printing apparatuses based on a print processing amount specified for each page and a print processing capacity value specified for each printing apparatus by the print processing capacity specifying unit. A print control apparatus, comprising: a page allocating unit, wherein the page allocating unit allocates pages such that a total print processing time in each printing device is substantially equal. 2. A print processing amount specified by the print processing amount specifying means for each printing apparatus, the total page print processing amount obtained by adding up the print processing amounts specified for each page by all the pages, A total print processing capacity value obtained by summing the processing capacity values for all the printing apparatuses is obtained, and a ratio of the print processing capacity value of each printing apparatus to the total print processing capacity value is obtained. Determining means for deciding the optimum print processing amount for each printing apparatus by dividing the page print processing amount is provided, and the page allocating means is configured to divide the print data for a plurality of pages into a plurality of printing apparatuses. When the number of pages is distributed and assigned, the sum of the print processing amounts of the pages allocated to each printing device up to the present time is set to the optimum print processing amount determined for the printing device by the determination unit. Like The print control apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that to perform the page allocation to the printing apparatus. 3. A recording medium having a program code readable by a computer, comprising: a computer for specifying a print processing amount per page unit required for actual printing for each page based on print data to be printed; A readable program code, a computer readable program code for specifying a printing capacity value per unit time for each of a plurality of printing devices, a printing processing amount specified for each page, and a specifying for each printing device And a computer-readable program code for distributing and assigning the print data for the plurality of pages to a plurality of printing apparatuses based on the obtained print processing capability value.