JP2002077600A - Print data process - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a user to manage printing of a confidential document and the like without writing a password, for preventing excessive printing of the confidential document. SOLUTION: A print data processing device for developing a job data to a print data is provided which comprises a detecting means which detects whether at least any one of specified character and graphic is present or not in the job data, and a storage means where, if at least one of the specified character and graphic is detected by the detecting means, a print information of the job data and a part of the job data are stored. In a print data process where the job data from the data processing device is developed to the print data, it is detected whether at least one of the specified character and graphic is present in the job data, and if at least one of the specified character and graphic is detected, the print information of the job data and a part of the job data are stored in the storage means.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to management of print data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It has become an environment in which high-speed printers can be used very generally. For this reason, printing of in-house secret documents and the like is often performed using a printer.

[0003]

Problems that are to be solved by the present invention
The number of copies is also limited, and making copies is also limited. However, in an environment that has data such as a secret document and can even use a printer, an original can be made by printing as much as possible. Therefore, it is necessary to restrict printing of secret sentences and the like. For this reason, for example, in the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-32721, when transmitting a confidential document by a facsimile apparatus, a specific pattern is specified on a specific portion of a transmission original in order to prevent leakage to a recipient other than the recipient. Is described. The password is output using the receiving side so that the pattern can be identified. In this technique, a printing person restricts printing of a confidential document or the like using a password. However, it is desirable that the user can manage printing of secret documents and the like without writing a password.

It is an object of the present invention to prevent confidential documents from being printed more than necessary.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a print data processing apparatus for developing job data into print data, comprising at least one of specific characters and graphics in the job data.
Detecting means for detecting whether or not one exists, and storing the print information of the job data and a part of the job data when the detecting means detects at least one of the specific characters and graphics. Means. For example, the print information includes information for specifying a user who has instructed to print job data, information for specifying a data processing device that has instructed to print job data, information on the date and time of instructing to print job data, The total number of prints, and
This is at least one of the number of copies of the job data.
Preferably, the print data processing device further includes a transmission unit that transmits the print information stored in the storage unit to a predetermined data processing device. Preferably, the print data processing device outputs the print data of the job data only when receiving a print permission from the predetermined data processing device. Preferably, the print data processing device prints the job data when the job data is data from the predetermined data processing device. A printing system according to the present invention includes the above-described print data processing device and a printing device that prints print data from the print data processing device.

In the image data processing method according to the present invention, in print data processing for expanding job data from a data processing device into print data, it is determined whether at least one of specific characters and graphics exists in the job data. When at least one of the specific character and graphic is detected, print information of the job data and a part of the job data are stored in the storage unit.

A computer-readable recording medium according to the present invention is a program for expanding job data from a data processing device into print data, and determines whether at least one of specific characters and graphics exists in the job data. A program for recording the job data and storing a part of the job data in the storage means when at least one of the specific characters and graphics is detected.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows an example of a system including a printer. The printer 10 is connected to the network 1
00 is connected. The network 100 includes a plurality of host computers 101, 10 for instructing printing.
2. An administrator's computer (server) 103 for network management and information management is connected. Other than this, a printer, a personal computer, and the like are connected to the network 100, but the description thereof is omitted here. In addition, the printer 10 can operate without a network.
It is locally connected to the computer 12. These include, for example, parallel port connection, USB, Ird
a.

For example, when a user of the computer 101 prints a document, the computer 101 creates data for printing using a driver suitable for the printer 10 and sends the data to the printer 10. On this occasion,
The transmission route of the print data includes a case where the print data passes through a print server on the computer 103 of the administrator and a case where the print data is directly transmitted to the printer 10. this is,
Although it is determined by the setting of the printer on the network, the present invention can be applied to both cases. In some cases, data is sent to the printer by the computer 12 which is sent directly to the printer 10 without going through a network. The print data sent to the printer 10 via the computer 103 or directly is sent to the controller 20 in the printer 10.

FIG. 2 shows the controller 20 in the printer 10. The controller 20 has a parallel port 27, a network port 28, and a USB port 29 as communication ports for connecting the computer and the printer 10. Other Irda ports, IEEE 1394
, An RS232C port, etc. are conceivable, but are omitted here. The reception processing unit 21 performs a reception process of data transmitted through each of the ports. The main processing unit 22 performs processing necessary for processing and storing and printing the transmitted data. The print data storage unit 24 stores the transmitted print data. The expanded data storage unit 25 stores the print data stored in the print data storage unit 24 after being expanded by the main processing unit 22. The interface unit 26 is provided with the expanded data storage unit 2.
5 is sent to the printer engine. Information storage unit 23
Stores the top page of the detected confidential document and its print information.

In the printer 10, when predetermined specific character data or graphic data is recognized in a document to be printed using the character recognition technology and the pattern recognition technology in the printer controller 20, the administrator is notified of the job. Send print information about the data. Thereby, the administrator manages the confidential document. As described above, the printer 10 automatically detects whether predetermined specific character data or graphic data exists in the job data, and determines that the document to be printed is a confidential document. To determine if they are According to the result, information for managing the confidential document is given to an administrator or the like.

Here, the specific pattern refers to a character or graphic pattern representing a confidential document. FIG.
An example of a specific pattern composed of characters and figures is shown. The characters are, for example, "important", "confidential", "copy prohibited", "Confidential", and the like. As the figures, for example, three types of patterns are shown. In the present embodiment, when such a specific character or graphic pattern is recognized, the print data for the print job and the first page of the print job are stored in the information storage unit 23, and further, the management is performed. To the computer 4 of the user.

FIG. 4 shows the controller 20 of the printer 10.
5 is a main flowchart of FIG. When the power of the machine is turned on, the program starts (S1). First, the CPU and peripheral circuits are initialized (S2). Here, interrupts are first prohibited, and then I / O port setting, memory check, communication check, initial data setting, interrupt prohibition, and the like are performed. When the initialization is completed, a timer for a task to be processed is set at regular intervals (S
3), the interrupt that has been prohibited until then is set to the enabled state (S4). Next, it is confirmed whether or not there is a print job to be processed at present (S5). If there is no print job, a data transfer process (S6) is performed. If there is a print job, no data transfer process is performed. Next. Next, it is checked whether the print permission flag is set (S
7) If not standing, proceed directly to step S9,
If the flag is set, the print processing (S8) is performed, and the process proceeds to step S9. It is determined whether a timer for a task that needs to be processed at regular intervals has timed out (S9). If there is time up,
The processing at the time-up is performed (S10), and when the processing is completed, the processing from step S5 is repeated. Other tasks are performed by interrupt processing each time an event occurs.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a received data storage process when print data is received. When the data is received, an interrupt occurs, and the process goes out of the main flow and enters the received data storage processing (S11). First, the parallel port 2
7. It is confirmed from which of the network port 28 and the USB port 29 the data is being received (S12).
Next, the data from the confirmed receiving port is read (S
13) The read data is stored in the print data storage unit 24.
(S14). Thereafter, it is confirmed whether the received data is completed (S15). If not, the processes of steps S13 and S14 are repeated until there is no more received data. If the reception data is completed, the reception completion interrupt is set (S16), and the process returns to the main loop (S16).
17).

FIG. 6 shows a flow of data expansion processing.
Here, the print data written in the print data storage unit 24 is expanded in order to make the data printable. When the reception completion interrupt is set in step S16 in FIG. 5, the data expansion process (S21) is called, and an interrupt process for data expansion is started. First, the print data is stored in the print data storage unit 24.
(S22). Next, the read print data is analyzed (S23), and the print data is developed into a printable form (S24). Next, the developed data is written to the developed data storage unit 25 (S25). Next, it is confirmed whether or not the print data to be developed ends (S26). If not, the processing from step S22 is repeated. If the print data to be expanded is completed, an interrupt of expansion completion is set (S27), and the process returns to the main loop (S28).

FIG. 7 shows a routine for checking whether predetermined data such as a specific character string or a specific graphic is included in the expanded data. For example, a specific character string or graphic data pattern as shown in FIG. 3 is stored in advance. Step S2 in FIG.
When an interrupt for completion of development is set in step 7, the development data check (S31) is called. First, a text data portion in the expanded data is extracted (S32). Next, it is checked whether the extracted text data matches the character string stored in advance (S33). If the corresponding character string exists, the process proceeds to step S36. If not, graphic data is extracted from the developed data (S34), and the extracted graphic data is compared with a specific pattern stored in advance (S34).
35). If there is a corresponding pattern, proceed to S36,
If not, the process proceeds to step S37. In step S37, a print permission flag is set, and the process returns to the main loop. If a specific character string or specific pattern is found in the expanded data, print information about the print with the specific character string or specific pattern (when, who,
After storing the number of copies and the data of the top page of the print in the information storage unit 26 (S36), the process proceeds to step S37.

FIG. 8 shows a routine for a print process of the developed data. When the print permission flag is set in step S37 of FIG. 7, step S41 is called and the printing process is started. First, the print engine determines whether or not printing is possible (S42). If the print engine is in a state where printing of the previous job is being performed, warming up is being performed, or printing cannot be performed due to some error, the process returns to the main loop (S45). If the print engine is capable of printing, the development data is transferred to the engine through the interface unit 26 of the controller 20 and printing is performed (S
43). When the data development is completed, the print permission flag is cleared (S44), and the process returns to the main loop (S44).
45).

FIG. 9 shows a routine for transferring the data stored in step S36 of FIG. When the data transfer process (S51) is called in step S6 of the main loop in FIG. 4, first, it is checked whether or not there is data to be transferred (S52). Return (S55). If there is data to be transferred, the data is transferred (S53). Data transfer is performed for each print information. When transfer of one print information is completed, the transferred data is erased (S5).
4) Returning to step S52, it is confirmed whether or not there is data to be further transferred. When the transfer of all data is completed, the process returns to the main loop (S55). The transferred data is stored in the computer 4 of the administrator. The administrator can check the stored data and check whether there is more confidential document output than necessary.

In the above-described embodiment, printing is executed as it is even when a specific character string or graphic is found. The printer according to the second embodiment described below automatically detects whether or not the document to be printed is considered to be a confidential document. Authorization authority for printing is given. This printer uses character recognition technology and pattern recognition technology in the printer controller to print when a specific character or graphic pattern such as "confidential", "important" or "secret" is recognized in the document to be printed. To temporarily stop printing without the permission of the administrator. If printing is not permitted, the data in the print data storage unit 24 and the development data storage unit 25 are cleared. This automatically prevents unnecessary printing of the confidential document, and allows the administrator to manage the confidential information more strictly than in the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 shows a main flow of the print controller according to the second embodiment. When the machine is turned on, the program starts (S101).
First, the CPU and peripheral circuits are initialized (S10).
2). That is, interrupts are first disabled, and then I / O
It performs port setting, memory check, communication initial data setting, interrupt prohibition, etc. When the initialization is completed, a timer for a task to be processed is set at regular intervals (S103), and the interrupts that have been prohibited until then are enabled (S104). Next, it is checked whether a print permission flag is set (S1).
05) If the flag is not set, the process proceeds directly to step S107, and if the flag is set, the print process (S10) is performed.
After performing 6), the process proceeds to step S107. Step S
At 107, it is checked whether or not the timer for the task that has to be processed at regular intervals has timed out, and if there is a time up, the process at the time up is performed (S108). The processing from S105 is repeated. Other tasks are performed by interrupt processing each time an event occurs. Note that the flow of FIG. 5 for performing the received data storage processing when print data is received is also performed in this embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a data development process. Here, the print data written in the print data storage unit 24 is developed in order to convert the print data into printable data. When the reception completion interrupt is set in step S16 in FIG. 5, data expansion processing (S201) is called, and an interrupt processing for data expansion is started.
First, it is determined whether the transmitted data is print data or print control data from an administrator (S202). If the data is print data, the same processing as in the flow of FIG. 6 of the first embodiment is performed. That is, data is read from the print data storage unit 24 (S203). Next, the read print data is analyzed (S204), and the print data is developed into a printable form (S205). The expanded data is written in the expanded data storage unit 25 (S206). Next, it is confirmed whether or not the print data to be expanded is completed (S207).
Is repeated. If the data to be printed is completed, an interrupt for completion of development is set (S208).
Return to the main loop (S213).

If the transmitted data is print control data from the administrator, a specific character or pattern has been found in the processing of FIG. 12 described later. In this case, printing is not performed unless the administrator permits. First, it is checked whether printing is permitted (S209). If printing is permitted, a print permission flag is set (S210), and the process returns to the main loop (S213). If the printing has not been permitted, the data in the print data storage unit 24 is cleared (S211), and subsequently, the developed data storage unit 25
After clearing the development data written in (S21)
2) Return to the main loop (S213). This allows
If printing is not permitted, printing becomes impossible.

FIG. 12 shows a flow of a developed data check process for checking whether or not a specific character string or pattern data is included in the developed data. here,
If a predetermined character string or pattern data is included, printing is temporarily stopped. When an interrupt for completion of development is set in step S208 in FIG. 11, the development data check (S301) is called. First, a text data portion in the expanded data is extracted (S30).
2) It is checked whether the extracted text data matches a specific character string stored in advance (S303).
If a corresponding character string exists, the process proceeds to step S307. If not, graphic data is extracted from the developed data (S304), and the extracted graphic data is compared with a specific pattern stored in advance (S305). If there is a corresponding pattern, the process proceeds to step S307; otherwise, the process proceeds to step S306. After setting the print permission flag in step S306, the process returns to the main loop (S3).
09). Step S307 is a step to be performed when it is determined that a specific character string or a specific pattern is present in the expanded data. The number of copies and the data of the top page of the print are stored in the information storage unit 26. Thereafter, a data transfer process is performed for the administrator (S308), and the process returns to the main loop (S308).
309). In this case, since the print permission flag is not set, the data cannot be printed. The expanded data is transferred to the computer 4 of the administrator.

When the print permission flag is set in step S210 in FIG. 11 or step S306 in FIG. 12, the print processing shown in FIG. 7 is performed. Since this processing has already been described, the description is omitted here.

FIG. 13 shows a data transfer process (S3 in FIG. 12).
08). When the data transfer process (S501) is called, the data stored in step S307 of FIG. 12 is transferred (S502). When the transfer is completed, the transferred data is erased (S503), and then the data of FIG. The process proceeds to step S309 (S504).

The transferred data is stored in the administrator's computer 4. After confirming the stored data and checking the contents, the administrator decides whether or not to permit printing, and if so, returns a permission signal to the printer, and if not, sends a non-permission signal. Return to printer. The printer sets the print permission flag or clears the print data according to the permission / non-permission signal from the administrator in the flow of the development data check in FIG.

Various modifications can be made to the above embodiment. For example, in the second embodiment, when the expansion data includes a specific character or pattern, when the job data is received from the administrator's computer 4 (predetermined data processing device), the print permission is issued. If so, the job data is being printed. However, the job data may be transmitted from the administrator's computer 4 only when the administrator permits printing. In this case, the job data is stored in the computer 4 of the administrator.
, A print permission flag is set. Further, the print data and the development data in the printer may be automatically cleared when, for example, the print permission is not received within a predetermined time.

[0028]

According to the present invention, since a specific pattern representing a secret document or the like is automatically detected in the print data, the administrator can grasp the printing status of the secret document or the like. In addition, when a specific pattern indicating a secret document or the like is automatically detected, printing cannot be performed without the permission of the administrator, so that the secret document or the like can be managed more strictly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a system including a printer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a controller of the printer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a specific pattern

FIG. 4 is a main flowchart of the controller of the printer according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of print data reception processing.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of print data expansion processing.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of checking a specific pattern in expanded data.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a print process of developed data.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of data transfer.

FIG. 10 is a main flowchart of the controller of the printer according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of print data expansion processing.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a development data check.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a data transfer process.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 printers, 12 computers, 20
Controller, 21 reception processing unit, 22 main processing unit, 23 information storage unit, 24 print data storage unit, 25 development data storage unit, 102, 1
03 host computer, 104 administrator's computer.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C087 AA03 AA11 AB06 BA05 BD01 BD41 BD52 5B021 AA01 BB01 BB04 BB10 CC02 CC07 DD03 JJ09 5C077 LL14 MP05 NP07 PP55 PP63 PP65 PP66 PP78 PQ22 SS05 TT02

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A print data processing apparatus for expanding job data into print data, comprising: a detection unit configured to detect whether at least one of a specific character and a graphic exists in the job data; A print data processing apparatus comprising: a storage unit that stores print information of the job data and a part of the job data when the detection unit detects at least one of the specific character and the graphic. 2. The print information includes information for specifying a user who has instructed to print the job data, information for specifying a data processing device that has instructed to print the job data, and date and time when the print of the job data was instructed. The print data processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information is at least one of information, the total number of prints of the job data, and the number of copies of the job data. 3. The print data processing device according to claim 1, further comprising a transmission unit that transmits the print information stored in the storage unit to a predetermined data processing device. 4. The print data processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the print data of the job data is output only when print permission is received from the predetermined data processing apparatus. 5. The print data processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the control unit prints the job data when the job data is data from the predetermined data processing apparatus. 6. A printing system comprising: the print data processing device according to claim 1; and a printing device that prints print data from the print data processing device. 7. In print data processing for expanding job data from a data processing device into print data, it is detected whether at least one of a specific character and a graphic exists in the job data, and When detecting at least one of the figures,
An image data processing method, wherein print information of the job data and a part of the job data are stored in the storage unit. 8. A program for expanding job data from a data processing device into print data, comprising: detecting whether at least one of a specific character and a graphic exists in the job data; When detecting at least one of a character and a figure,
A computer-readable recording medium recording a program, comprising: printing information of the job data; and storing a part of the job data in the storage unit.