JP2001331288A - Picture forming system and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a picture forming system for allowing a user to perform printing according to a print condition decided by himself or herself. SOLUTION: A host 1 transmits data indicating a use ID specific to a user who uses the host 1 via a printer driver 15 and the table of customized print conditions through a communication cable to a laser printer 3. A controller 4 which receives the data through a host I/F 5 stores and preserves the data indicated by the data with the user ID in an NVRAM 7. Afterwards, when receiving print data indicating the user ID from the host 1, the controller 4 retrieves the received user ID from among the user ID of the table registered in the NVRAM 7, and executes the printing processing of the received print data by using the print condition registered corresponding to the matched user ID.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image forming system comprising a host and a printer and having a function of registering printing conditions unique to each user, and to the printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a PDL (printer description language) control command and print data from a host represented by a personal computer are received via a bidirectional communication cable such as a LAN, and the data is analyzed to obtain a predetermined data. A controller board that functions, a non-volatile memory that is attached to the controller board and that does not lose data even when the power is turned off, an engine unit that prints out print data sent from the controller board on recording paper, and an engine unit Peripheral devices such as attached multi-bin print posts and finishers, and operate on the host.
2. Description of the Related Art There is known an image forming system having components such as a printer driver for setting a control command.

[0003] Such conventional image forming systems include:
There is a function called "program registration". This is done by registering a table of customized printing conditions (programs) in the controller, specifying the program number from the printer driver, restoring the printing conditions on the printer side, and printing based on the printing conditions. Is executed.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional "program registration" function, each user shares the registered "program: printing condition", and is unaware of coordination with other users. There was a problem of not getting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and enables a user to perform printing in accordance with his or her own determined printing conditions without being conscious of adjusting the printing conditions with other users. It is intended to be.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an image forming system according to the present invention provides an image forming system comprising a host and a printer connected to the host via a communication cable and used by a plurality of users. In the forming system, a user-specific user I
D, and a table describing a printing condition including one or more items set by the user is transmitted, and the printer registers the received printing condition table together with a user ID.

In the printer according to the present invention,
Receiving means for receiving from the host a table describing a user-specific user ID and a printing condition comprising one or more items set by the user; and registering means for registering the received printing condition table together with the user ID Are provided.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image forming system using a laser printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a host 1 typified by a personal computer or the like sends a PDL command emitted by a printer driver 15 to a laser printer (hereinafter, printer) 3 connected via a bidirectional communication cable 2 typified by a LAN. Send the control code and print data.

The controller 4 is a general term for a control mechanism that receives data sent from the host 1, converts the data into print data as video data, stores the print data in the RAM 10, and finally outputs the print data to the engine unit 14. It consists of the following modules.

The host I / F 5 is an interface unit for receiving a control signal from the host 1 to the laser printer 3 and various data. The CPU 9 executes the program RO
The data from the host 1 is processed according to M6. RAM
Reference numeral 10 denotes a work memory for processing by the CPU 9, a buffer for managing and temporarily storing data from the host 1 in page units, and a bit for converting data stored in the buffer into an actual print pattern and storing print data. It is used as various storage areas such as a map memory.

The program ROM 6 stores a main program for managing data in the controller 4 and controlling peripheral modules. NVRAM
Reference numeral 7 denotes a non-volatile memory that holds various setting value information that must be held as the controller 4 even when the power is turned off. The operation panel I / F 8 is a laser printer 3
And an interface for displaying various information of the controller 4 and a signal with the operation panel 12 for the user to perform various operations. The engine I / F 11 is connected to the controller 4
An interface unit for transmitting and receiving signals such as control signals from the engine unit 14 to the engine unit 14, status signals from the engine unit 14 to the controller 4, and video signals from the controller 4.

The operation panel 12 is a main user I / F unit comprising a display unit for displaying various information of the printer, and a switch unit for instructing various operations such as a printer mode and font switching. The engine unit 14 forms an electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor based on a video signal and a control signal from the controller 4, develops the electrostatic latent image, feeds a transfer sheet from a sheet feeding unit, and transfers and fixes the image to form an image. . The printer peripheral device unit 13 is a peripheral device such as a multi-bin print post or finisher attached to the engine unit.

FIG. 2 is a table configuration diagram showing an example of a list of printing condition items mainly focusing on peripheral device settings attached to the printer 1. As shown in the figure, the printing conditions
Paper feed tray, output tray, stable, finisher,
A print post, a mailbox, a duplex unit, a resolution, and the like can be designated or set.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment according to the first aspect of the present invention will be described. Through the printer driver 15 on the host 1 connected to the communication cable (LAN) 2, a user ID unique to the host 1 and data indicating a customized printing condition table are transmitted to the laser printer 3. The controller 4 receiving this data via the host I / F 5 stores the table indicated by the data in the NVRAM 7.

After that, when the controller 4 receives the print data including the user ID from the host 1, first, the NV
The received user ID is searched for from the user IDs in the above table registered in the RAM 7, and the matching user ID is searched.
After performing the above designation or setting using the printing conditions registered corresponding to D, the received print data is printed.

If the printing conditions for the received user ID are not registered in the NVRAM 7, the controller 4 prints the print data using the printing conditions received from the printer driver 15.

Next, the operation of the second embodiment according to the second aspect of the present invention will be described. In the above-described first embodiment, the customized printing conditions are stored in the customized table as N
Since it is registered in the VRAM 7, even printing condition items that do not actually need to be registered are registered, and there is a problem that the use efficiency of the nonvolatile memory is low. This embodiment solves this problem.

That is, in the present embodiment, the printing condition for registration transmitted by the printer driver 15 to the controller 4 together with the user ID is not a table of all printing condition items, but individual items of printing conditions. They are separately transmitted together with the user ID and registered.

Thereafter, when the controller 4 receives the print data from the host 1 together with the user ID, first, the NV
Host 1 from the user IDs registered in RAM 7
Is searched for the user ID. User ID that hit the search
For the individual printing condition items registered corresponding to the above, the conditions of the registered items are used, and for the unregistered items, the printing condition items received from the printer driver 15 are used. Prints the print data.

Next, the operation of the third embodiment according to the third aspect of the present invention will be described. In the above-described second embodiment, there is no means for confirming the content of each print condition item for each user ID registered in the NVRAM 7 of the controller 4, and therefore, for example, the first-come-first-served basis of a shared resource such as a discharge bin of a print post is used. There is a problem that the reservation status cannot be grasped. This embodiment solves this problem.

That is, in the present embodiment, upon receiving a request from the printer driver 15, the controller 4 stores a list of printing conditions registered for each user ID stored in the NVRAM 7 through the communication cable 2. Send it to the printer driver 15. The printer driver 15 displays the registered printing condition list received from the controller 4 on the screen of the host 1 to allow the user to confirm. When the user deletes or changes the print condition items registered on the screen of the host 1, the printer driver 15 changes the registered contents together with the user ID from the PDL.
A command is sent to the controller 4 and the NVRAM
7 is updated.

[0022]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, since printing is performed using printing conditions customized for each user ID unique to each host, printing performed by another user is set. The user can perform printing in an environment in which his or her registered printing conditions are guaranteed without conflicting with the conditions and without worrying about changes in printer program registration or printing conditions.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the printing conditions can be registered for each item, so that the user can register only the items that he / she wants to fix with his / her own setting, thereby making it possible to compare with the first aspect. As a result, the use efficiency of the nonvolatile memory is greatly improved.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the user ID registered in the printer and its printing condition items can be confirmed and updated on the host screen. This is effective when it is necessary to grasp not only the user's own settings but also the settings of other users when using the shared resources of the printer, such as whether the user of the ID has reserved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a table showing a print condition item list (example) designated by PDL.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host 2 Communication cable 3 Laser printer 4 Controller 5 Host I / F 6 Program ROM 7 NVRAM 8 Operation panel I / F 9 CPU 11 Engine I / F 12 Operation panel 13 Printer peripheral device unit 14 Engine unit 15 Printer driver

Claims (8)

[Claims] An image forming system comprising a host and a printer connected to the host via a communication cable and used by a plurality of users, wherein a user ID unique to the user from the host and one set by the user An image forming system, wherein a table describing printing conditions including the above items is transmitted, and the printer registers the received printing condition table together with a user ID. 2. When transmitting a table describing the printing conditions, the host sends a user ID for each item of the printing conditions.
2. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the printer registers with the user ID for each of the received printing condition items. 3. The printer transmits the registered printing condition items together with a user ID in response to a request from the host, and the host displays the received printing condition items and the user ID on a screen, 3. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the user can confirm, delete, and change his / her own print condition items displayed on the screen. 4. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the host is configured to store print data and a user ID.
The printer searches the registered table based on the received user ID, and performs print processing of the print data using a print condition corresponding to the matched user ID. Item 2. The image forming system according to Item 1. 5. A receiving means for receiving, from a host, a table describing a user ID unique to a user and a printing condition comprising one or more items set by the user; and a user ID for storing the received printing condition table. And a registration means for registering the printer. 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the receiving unit receives, from the host, a user ID for each item of the printing condition together with a user ID, and the registration unit registers the received printing condition together with a user ID for each item of the printing condition. Item 6. The printer according to Item 5. 7. The printer according to claim 6, further comprising a transmission unit configured to transmit the registered printing condition items together with a user ID in response to a request from the host. 8. A search means for receiving print data and a user ID from the host, and searching the registered table based on the received user ID, a user ID matching the search result. 5. The printer according to claim 4, further comprising printing means for performing printing processing of the print data using printing conditions corresponding to the printing conditions.