JP2001142657A - Printing system for network - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to connect a plurality of pieces of printing data for a printer, to reprint the printing data, to edit the printing data in a page unit and to instruct printing on a Web browser. SOLUTION: The printing application 11 of a client 1 transmits a printing instruction to the printer 4 through a network 3. In the printer 4, a printing data plotting part 42 performs plotting with the printing data as a base, and a printing engine 43 prints its bit image data on paper or the like. A mass storage device 44 stores the bit image data in a page unit. An HTTP server 45 also presents an HTML page to the outside by an HTTP protocol. The Web browser 21 of a client 2 displays the HTML page offered by the server 45 and allows a user to select printing data. Thus, it is possible to perform a detailed printing instruction by using the HTML page.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a network printing system having a printing device connected to a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing apparatus as shown in FIG. 6 has been provided. Hereinafter, the conventional printing apparatus 101 will be described with reference to FIG. This printing device 101
An image forming controller 111, an operation panel 112, and a printer engine 113 are provided. The image forming controller 111 includes, for example, a host I / F (interface) 114, a program storage unit 115, a font storage unit 116, a volatile storage unit 117, and a nonvolatile storage unit 1.
18, panel I / F 119, hard disk 120, main control unit 121, print control unit 122, backup control unit 123, print history table creation unit 124, print data transfer unit 1
25, print result restoration processing unit 126, and engine I / F
127 is provided.

The host I / F 114 is an interface for communicating data and commands with the host device 102 in two directions. The program storage unit 115 includes, for example, a ROM, and stores a program for managing data in the image forming controller 111 by the main control unit 121 and controlling peripheral modules. The font storage unit 116 includes, for example, a ROM, and stores various fonts used when converting print data into video data to be sent to the printer engine 113.

The volatile storage unit 117 stores, for example, a volatile R
AM, and stores print data, print control data (SP, CR, LF, HT, VT, etc.) of the print data, video data in page units converted using fonts, and the like. In the following description, the print data and the print control data are collectively referred to as “print data or the like”. The non-volatile storage unit 118 stores data and the like that should be retained even when the power is turned off. The panel I / F 119 is used to input control signals and data from the operation panel 112,
And an interface for outputting. The hard disk 120 stores print data and the like and print data attributes such as the print data.

[0005] The main control unit 121 includes a program storage unit 11.
5, the control of the entire printing apparatus 101 is performed. The print control unit 122 includes the host device 102
Is converted into video data on a page-by-page basis using the font stored in the font storage unit 116, and the converted video data is sent to the printer engine 113 via the engine I / F 127.
13 to print out. When the print control unit 122 converts print data and the like received from the host device 102 into video data in page units and prints out the print data and the like, the backup control unit 123 print data and the like received from the host device 102 and the print data And other print data attributes in one file.
And backs up print data and the like and print data attributes of the print data and the like.

When a print history list creation instruction is input from the operation panel 112 or when a print history list creation instruction command is received from the host device 102, the print history table creation unit 124 sends each print data list from the hard disk 120. The print data attribute is read, a print history list is created based on the read print data attributes, and the created print history list is sent to the print control unit 122 for printing. When receiving the print data or the like backed up from the host device 102 via the host I / F 114 and the transmission instruction command of the print data attribute, the print data transfer unit 125 receives a file such as the print data specified by the transmission instruction command. Is read from the hard disk 120 and transmitted to the host device 102 via the host I / F 114.

The print result restoration processing unit 126 receives an instruction to print again based on specific print data or the like from the operation panel 112, or receives an instruction from the host device 102 to print again based on specific print data or the like. Upon receiving the command, the designated print data and the like are read from the hard disk 120 and sent to the print control unit 122 for printing. The engine I / F 127 includes the image forming controller 1
An interface for transmitting video data and a control signal from the printer engine 11 to the printer engine 113, and transmitting a status signal from the printer engine 113 to the image forming controller 111. The operation panel 112 displays the status of the printing apparatus 101, specifies the mode of the printing apparatus 101, and performs input such as switching of fonts. The printer engine 113 performs a printing process based on video data from the image forming controller 111 and a control signal.

[0008]

However, the above-described conventional printing apparatus has the following problems. (1) The first problem is that reprinting of print data is instructed from the operation panel. Therefore, in order to accurately display reprintable options, a more expensive operation panel is required, and the cost of the apparatus is reduced. That would lead to a rise. (2) A second problem is that a plurality of print data cannot be combined into one print because one print data is reprinted as it is. Here, “one printed matter” means a unit for performing a binding process, a punching process, and the like in a post-processing device of a printing device. (3) A third problem is that since print data is handled as one file, it cannot be handled flexibly in page units.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a network printing system capable of combining a plurality of print data, reprinting, editing and printing in page units, and designating them on a Web browser. Is to do.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a network printing system in which a printing device is connected to a network, wherein the printing device has a print data storage unit for storing print data in page units. A storage device, a printing unit that prints the print data stored in the print data storage unit, and a Web server that receives a print instruction for the print data stored in the print data storage unit via a network, By transmitting a print instruction including a print page designation from the client on the network to the Web server, the print data stored in the print data storage unit is printed in page units.

In the network printing system of the present invention,
A printing device is connected to a network, and in this printing device, a print instruction including a print page designation is sent from a client on the network to a Web server, so that the print data stored in the print data storage unit is printed in page units. So that multiple print data can be combined,
It is possible to instruct reprinting, editing and printing in page units on the Web browser of the client. Therefore, in the network printing system of the present invention, a reprint instruction of print data can be issued on the Web browser screen of the client, and various instructions can be provided with a wide variety of options without making the operation panel of the printing apparatus expensive. This can be supported by display, and the cost of the printing apparatus can be reduced.

Further, since detailed instructions and settings are made on the client side and sent to the printing apparatus via the network, it is possible to give finer instructions than when directly instructing from the operation panel of the printing apparatus. Combining a plurality of print data, reprinting, editing and printing in page units can be easily executed.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the network printing system according to the present invention will be described in detail. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a network printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. First, an outline of a network printing system according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1. A network 1, a client 1, a client 2,
And the printing device 4.

The client 1 transmits print data from the print application 11 to the printing apparatus 4, and the client 2 browses the print data stored in the printing apparatus 4 using the Web browser 21. Then, the print data is instructed. Further, the printing apparatus 4 prints and saves the print data from the client 1 or performs both printing and saving, provides the content display information of the saved print data to the client 2 through the HTTP server 45, and The print instruction of the stored print data from the printer is received, and the designated print is performed.

In the above configuration, first, when a print instruction is issued from the print application 11 of the client 1, the print data is transmitted to the printing apparatus 4 via the network 3 via the network I / F 12.
In the printing apparatus 4, the print data drawing unit 42 draws based on the print data to generate bit image data. The print engine 43 prints the bit image data on paper or the like to obtain a printed material. The large-capacity storage device 44 stores the bit image data in page units. In addition, the HTTP server 45 has an HTML that selects bit image data of the mass storage device 44 as an option.
The page is presented to the outside using the HTTP protocol.

On the other hand, the Web browser 2 of the client 2
Reference numeral 1 denotes the above-described HTTP server 4 as means for selecting a page to be printed by the user via the network I / F 22.
5 is displayed, and the user is caused to select print data. Thus, in the system of the present embodiment,
By constructing a user interface for instructing printing of the data stored in the printing apparatus by HTML, it is possible to instruct printing of the stored print data from an external device of the client via the network 3. In addition, since the Web browser on the client is used,
It is not necessary to install a dedicated program on the client, and an external user interface is added without changing the operation panel of the printing apparatus, so that an increase in apparatus cost can be suppressed.

Next, the network printing system of the present embodiment as described above will be described more specifically. FIG. 2 shows FIG.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the network printing system shown in FIG. First, the client 1 is a computer device that generates print data. The print application 11 of the client 1 generates a print command and sends it to the printer driver 12. The printer driver 12 of the client 1
The print command from the print application 11 is converted into print data that can be interpreted by the printing device 4 and transmitted to the printing device 3. The network I / F 13 of the client 1 is connected to the client 1 and the network 3
Is to connect.

The client 2 is a computer device that issues a print instruction for stored print data. Then, the Web browser 21 of the client 2 displays the HTML document received from the network by the HTTP protocol, and if the HTML document is an input form, transmits the user's input to the HTTP server of the document receiving source. . Also, the network I / F 2 of the client 2
2 is for connecting the client 2 to the network 3.

Next, the printing apparatus 4 will be described. The printing device 4 prints print data, stores print data, and prints the stored print data. The network I / F 41 includes the printing device 4 and the network 3
And are connected. Further, the print data receiving unit 46 receives print data from a computer device on the network 3 via the network I / F 41. The print data drawing unit 42 analyzes the print data received by the print data receiving unit 46 and generates bit image data for each page. The print engine 43 generates a hard copy from the bit image data as a print.

The large-capacity storage device 44 stores various data. In this embodiment, in particular, in the present embodiment, the print data storage unit stores bit image data of print data for each original print data by using a page as a minimum unit. have. HT
The TP server 45 uses the network I / F 41 to send various H to external devices connected to the network 3.
Provides TML page information. And this HTML
The reprint designation HTML page 47 of the pages refers to the print data storage section of the mass storage device 44, enumerates the data stored in the print data storage section for each original print data, Is a form described in an HTML language that allows the user to select print data.

The rendered page printing section 48 extracts the print data selected by the user from the large-capacity storage device 44 and sends it to the print engine 43 in response to an instruction from the Web browser 21 displaying the reprint designation HTML page 47. In addition,
In the configuration of this example, client 1 and client 2
May be the same computer device. In that case, the Web browser 21 operates on the client 1. If the print application 11 performs an operation dependent on the printing device 4 and can directly generate print data interpretable by the printing device 4, the printer driver 1
2 is not required.

Next, the operation of the network printing system configured as described above will be described. First, on the client 1, the user operates the print application 11 to
Printing is performed on the printing device 4. At this time, the print application 11 calls a setting screen of the printer driver 12 for the printing apparatus 4 and actually prints on the printing apparatus 4, performs printing and data saving simultaneously, or only saves without printing. Or choose.

The print data sent to the printing device 4 is shown in FIG.
The data string has the following structure. Here, the print control instruction unit 50 stores a print / save instruction in a command format that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 4 along with information such as the number of print copies and collation. The print data 51-1 to 51-n are
The print data is received by the print data receiving unit 46 and sent to the print data drawing unit 42. The print data drawing unit 42 receives the print data in the format shown in FIG. 3 and stores the settings according to the print control command. Then, the print data is sequentially drawn in bit image data in page units.

Each time the generation of one page of bit image data is completed, the print data drawing section 42 converts the bit image data into the print engine 43 or the large-capacity storage device 44 according to the setting by the print control command 50.
Or send to both. The print engine 43 generates a hard copy as a printed matter from the transmitted bit image data. The mass storage device 44 stores bit image data for each page as a file. At this time, a file system capable of storing the page number of the bit image data file of the original print data is used.

On the client 2, the user
b. Execute the browser 21 and access the HTTP server 45 on the printing apparatus 4. The HTTP server 45 is a Web server
The reprint designation HTML page 47 is transmitted directly to the browser 21, or the user follows a hyperlink from another HTML page prepared on the HTTP server 45, thereby causing the reprint designation HTML page 47 to be displayed.
Send The reprint designation HTML page 47 has, for example, a screen design as shown in FIG. Then, the reprint designation HTML page 47 sends the print data designated by the Web browser 21 and its order, the number of copies, and the presence or absence of collation to the drawn page printing unit 48. The rendered page printing unit 48 extracts the bit image data of the print data from the large-capacity storage device 44 in the specified order, and prints the bit image data with the print engine 43.

Next, the operation of the reprint designation HTML page will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. In the initial state, the print data list 61 contains a list of print data stored in the large-capacity storage device together with the print data name, date and time of data generation, and the number of pages. When any print data is selected from the print data list 61 and the selection button 62 is clicked with a mouse or the like, the print data name is added to the print list 63. Print list 63
Indicates the print data name of the currently selected print data, and when the print execution button 69 is clicked,
Printed in the order listed. The print order up button 64 and the print order down button 65 have a function of shifting the order of the print data selected in the print list 63 one by one upward or downward.

A print list delete button 66 is for canceling print data selected in the print list 63 and removing the print data from the print target. Number of copies designation section 67
Is for specifying how many copies of the print data specified in the print list 63 are to be printed. Collation designation part 68
Is used to specify whether to perform collated printing, that is, whether printing is performed in copies. The print execution button 69 is
This is for executing printing of the print data specified in the print list 63. Save print data delete button 70
Is for deleting the print data selected in the print data list 61 from the mass storage device 44.

As described above, in the network printing system of the present embodiment, since the Web browser of the client is used for specifying the print data, an easy-to-understand user interface can be constructed while suppressing an increase in the cost of the printing apparatus. Further, since the print data is specified via the network, the operator can issue a print instruction without going to the printing apparatus.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In this embodiment, the basic configuration of the system is the same as that of the first embodiment, but the reprint data designation method is further devised. FIG. 5 shows a screen configuration of a reprint designation HTML page in the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, the print data list 71 includes a reduced image of the first page in the list of print data stored in the large-capacity storage device 44 together with the print data name, the date and time of data generation, and the number of pages. . When any print data is selected from the print data list 71 and the selection button 72 is clicked with a mouse or the like, the print data name is added to the print list 73. The page being displayed can be changed by the display designation control 81. It is also possible to select only the pages displayed in this way and add them to the print list 73. After confirming the pages, the range of the pages to be added can be specified by the page number.

The print list 73 lists the print data names of the currently selected print data, and the print data added in page units with the number of pages. When the print execution button 79 is clicked, printing is performed in the order of listing. The print order up button 74 and the print order down button 75 have a function of shifting the order of the print data selected in the print list 73 one by one up or down. The print list delete button 76 is for canceling the print data selected in the print list 73 and excluding it from the print target.

The number-of-copies specifying section 77 is for specifying how many copies of the print data specified in the print list 73 are to be printed. The collation specifying section 8 is for specifying whether to perform collation printing, that is, whether to perform collating printing.
The print execution button 9 is for executing printing of the print data specified in the print list 3. The save print data delete button 80 is used to delete the print data selected in the print data list 71 from the mass storage device 44. This designation also allows deletion designation in arbitrary page units, not in print data units.

As described above, in the present embodiment, since a reduced image of a printed matter is added, even in the case of print data for which the print data name is not known, it is possible to easily specify the print data by referring to the image. can get. Originally, the stored print data is already rendered bit image data, so that preparing the reduced image can be easily realized even for the printing apparatus 4. In addition, since it is possible to specify pages, it is possible to obtain print data in a more flexible combination.

[0033]

As described above, in the network printing system of the present invention, a printing device is connected to a network, and the printing device sends a print instruction including a print page designation from a client on the network to a Web server. The print data stored in the print data storage unit is printed in page units. For this reason, it is possible to instruct, on the Web browser of the client, to combine, reprint, and edit and print a plurality of print data on a page basis without using an expensive operation panel of the printing apparatus. In addition, various instructions can be supported by displaying abundant options, and the cost of the printing apparatus can be reduced. Also, since detailed instructions and settings are made on the client side and sent to the printing apparatus via the network, it is possible to give finer instructions than when directly instructing from the operation panel of the printing apparatus. Combining data, reprinting, and editing and printing in page units can be easily performed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the network printing system shown in FIG. 1 in some detail.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing print data sent to a printing device of the network printing system shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a print instruction screen in the network printing system shown in FIG.

5 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of a print instruction screen in the network printing system shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional printing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 2, ... client, 3 ... network, 4 ...
Printing device, 11 ... Print application, 21 ... W
web browser, 42 print data drawing unit, 43 print engine, 44 large-capacity storage device, 45 HTT
P server.

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A network printing system in which a printing device is connected to a network, wherein the printing device includes a storage device having a print data storage unit for storing print data in page units, and a print device stored in the print data storage unit. A print unit that prints data; and a Web server that receives a print instruction for print data stored in the print data storage unit via a network, and designates a print page from the client on the network to the Web server. By sending a print instruction including
A network printing system configured to print the print data stored in the print data storage unit on a page-by-page basis. 2. A print command including a plurality of print page designations and a combination designation is transmitted from a client on the network to the Web server, whereby the print data stored in the print data storage unit is combined in page units. 2. The network printing system according to claim 1, wherein printing is performed. 3. The network printing system according to claim 1, wherein the client sends the print instruction to a web server via a web browser. 4. The network printing system according to claim 3, wherein the web browser adds content display data of print data provided by a printing apparatus to a designation screen for performing the print instruction. 5. The network printing system according to claim 4, wherein the content display data is for displaying reduced image data of print data. 6. The network printing system according to claim 4, wherein the content display data is constituted by an HTML page. 7. The network printing system according to claim 1, wherein the Web server is an HTTP server. 8. A print data drawing unit for drawing based on print data stored in a print data storage unit, and a print engine for printing print data drawn by the print data drawing unit. 2. The network printing system according to claim 1, further comprising: