JP2002103750A - Printer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer system wherein possibility of a printing-standby condition of a color printer is reduced, concurrent printing by a monochrome printer and the color printer can be executed and efficient printing of print data including a color page can be executed. SOLUTION: There is disclosed the printer system including a server device that comprises the color printer and the monochrome printer connected thereto, receives the print data from a host device, outputs the print data for a color page to the color printer and outputs the print data for a monochrome page to the monochrome printer. The monochrome printer judges whether or not the color printer is in a printing-standby condition and transmits the print data to the color printer and transmits part of the print data to the color printer when the color printer is in the printing-standby condition.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printer system that enables efficient printing, and more particularly to a printer system that efficiently executes color printing and monochrome printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, print data transmitted as the same print job is configured to be output from the same printer.

However, if a single print job includes pages containing only black and white data and pages containing color data, the above-described configuration wastes running costs for printing black and white data. I will.

As a conventional technique for solving such a problem, there is a server apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-146763 (this is referred to as a conventional technique).
The server device according to this conventional technique aims to reduce running costs and further improve printing speed, print quality, and the like by outputting color pages of print data to a color printer and monochrome pages to a monochrome printer. Server device.

[0005] In order to achieve such an object, a server device according to the prior art determines whether or not there is a designation relating to a color in document units with respect to a PDL command received via a network, and this determination is made. , A new PDL command is created for each of the print document including the color specification and the print document not including the color specification.

[0006]

However, in the server device according to the prior art as described above, the print data to be printed by the color printer is only the color pages, and the print data of many monochrome pages is set in the print standby state. This causes a problem that the printing time is not efficient in terms of printing time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and is to connect a color printer and a monochrome printer which are printer systems, receive print data from a host device, and output a color page to the color printer. A printer that has a server device that outputs a monochrome page to the monochrome printer; a determination unit configured to determine whether the color printer is in a print standby state; and a transmission unit configured to transmit print data to the color printer. By providing a function of transmitting a part of print data to the color printer when the color printer is in a print standby state, the state in which the color printer is in a print standby state is provided. Reduced by monochrome and color printers Perform parallel printing, thereby, an object of the invention to provide a printer system efficient printing of the printer data can be including color pages.

The present invention also relates to a printer system having a server device for connecting a color printer and a monochrome printer and receiving print data from a host device, wherein the server device relates to the status of the color printer and the monochrome printer. An acquisition unit for acquiring information, and information relating to the printing performance of the color printer and the monochrome printer; and outputting a part of a color page and a monochrome page to the color printer, and outputting the remaining monochrome pages. By further providing a function to output to a monochrome printer, if the printer is in an energy-saving state, it takes into account the time from the energy-saving state until printing can be performed and the printing speed of the color printer and monochrome printer, taking into account the printing time of the printer data Can be shortened An object of the present invention is to provide a printer system.

Further, according to the present invention, in the above-described printer system, the color printer is controlled not to transmit when the print data to be transmitted to the color printer is less than a predetermined number of pages. Provided is a printer system that can suppress the cost increase when the effect of shortening the printing time cannot be expected so much as to the power consumption for printing from a state and the cost increase by printing with a color printer. The purpose is to:

[0010]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer system in which at least one host device and a server are connected on a network, wherein the server is A server connected to a color printer and a monochrome printer, wherein the server receives print data received from the host device;
A color printer page output unit that outputs a color page included in the print data to a color printer; and a monochrome printer page output unit that outputs a monochrome page included in the print data to a monochrome printer. A color printer status determining unit that determines whether the printer is in a print standby state; and a print data transfer unit that transfers a part or all of the print data received from the server to the color printer. Is characterized in that the print data is transferred when the color printer is in a print standby state.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the printer system according to the first aspect, the monochrome printer stores the number of pages of print data to be transferred by the print data transfer unit and the monochrome printer in advance. The print data transfer unit further includes a transfer page number comparison unit configured to compare the predetermined number of pages with the predetermined number of pages. , Transfer a part or all of the print data.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer system in which one or more host devices and a server are connected on a network, wherein the server is connected to a color printer and a monochrome printer, and the server is connected to a monochrome printer. A print status detection unit that detects the print status of the color printer and the monochrome printer, and a performance storage unit that stores the performance of the color printer and the monochrome printer.
Based on the printing status of the color printer and the monochrome printer, and the performance of the color printer and the monochrome printer,
A part of the color page and the monochrome page included in the print data received from the host device is output to the color printer, and the remaining print data is output to the monochrome printer.

[0013]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [Features of the Present Invention] The present invention relates to a printer system that enables efficient printing, and more particularly to a printer system that efficiently executes color printing and monochrome printing. is there.

In order to achieve such an object, a printer system according to the present invention has the following configuration.

First, a first embodiment of the present invention connects a color printer and a monochrome printer, receives print data from a host device, outputs color pages to the color printer, and outputs monochrome pages to the monochrome printer. Wherein the monochrome printer includes a determination unit that determines whether the color printer is in a print standby state, and a transmission unit that transmits print data to the color printer. It is configured to further have a function of transmitting a part of print data to the color printer when the printer is in a print standby state.

According to a second embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a printer system having a server device for connecting a color printer and a monochrome printer and receiving print data from a host device, wherein the server device includes the color printer and the printer. An acquisition unit for acquiring information relating to the state of the monochrome printer, and information relating to the printing performance of the color printer and the monochrome printer; outputting a part of a color page and a monochrome page to the color printer; It is configured to further have a function of outputting a page to the monochrome printer.

Further, according to a third embodiment of the present invention, in the printer system according to the first embodiment, a monochrome printer transmits a print data to a color printer when print data to be transmitted is less than a predetermined number of pages. Not to operate.

Hereinafter, the printer systems according to the above-described embodiments will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment] First, the configuration of a printer system according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
Shown in The operation of the printer system according to the present embodiment is shown in the flowcharts of FIGS.

{Configuration According to First Embodiment} Referring to FIG. 1, the configuration of a printer system according to a first embodiment of the present invention is such that a server device 200 and host devices 100 to 102 are connected on a network 1. And server 2
00, a monochrome printer 300 and a color printer 400 connected to the network 2 are connected.

(Configuration of Server Device 200) The server device 200 described above has a configuration as shown in FIG. Here, referring to FIG. 2, the server device 200 according to the present embodiment includes a network interface unit 2
01, print data storage unit 202, memory 203, and R
The printer includes an OM 204, a CPU 205, printer interface units 206 and 207, and a color / monochrome determination unit 208.

The monochrome printer 300 according to the present embodiment is configured to detect the printing status (print standby status) of the color printer 400 connected via the network 2.

With the above configuration, the server device 20
No. 0 receives print data from the host devices 100 to 102 via the network 1 from the network interface unit, and stores the print data in the print data storage unit 202. The print data stored in the print data storage unit 202 is transmitted to the color / monochrome determination unit 208.
If the page is a monochrome page, the page is output from the printer interface unit 206 to the monochrome printer 300 via the network 2. If the page is a color page, the page is output to the color printer 400 via the printer interface unit 207.

Thereafter, the server device 200 terminates the process if the output has been executed as described above for all the pages stored in the print data storage unit 202, and repeats the process otherwise.

On the other hand, the monochrome printer 300
Receives print data from the server device 200.
At this time, if the monochrome printer 300 is not printing, the received print data is printed for one page. If the monochrome printer 300 is printing, it is checked whether the color printer 400 is in a standby state. If not, the process returns to the processing of checking whether printing is in progress. Here, when the color printer 400 is in the standby state, the print data is transferred to the color printer 400 by one page.
Thereafter, if the printing process has not been executed for all the received pages, the process returns to the process of checking whether printing is being performed.

{Operation of First Embodiment} Such an operation will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the server device 200 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the monochrome printer 300 according to the present embodiment.

(Operation of Server 200) Referring to FIG. 3, the server 200 first has a host device (100 to 102).
), The print data is received (step S101). Thereafter, the server 200 determines whether or not the print job target page in the received print data is color (Step S102).

In this determination, if the page of the print job is in color (Yes in step S102),
The server 200 is connected to the color printer 400
Then, the target page is output (step S104), and the process proceeds to step S105. On the other hand, when the print job target page is a monochrome image (N in step S102).
o), the server 200 outputs the target page to the connected monochrome printer 300 (step S10).
3), the process proceeds to step S105.

Thereafter, in step S105, the server 200 determines whether or not output of all pages of the print data received from the host device to the printer (color printer or monochrome printer) is completed (step S105). If there is a page that has not been output yet (No in step S105), the process from step S102 is performed on the next page. Also, in the determination of step S105, when the output has been completed for all pages (Yes in step S105)
s), the server 200 ends the processing.

However, in a series of flows as described above,
Print data received by each printer (monochrome printer 300 and color printer 400) is handled as one print data including all pages on each printer side.

(Operation of Monochrome Printer 300)
FIG. 4 shows an operation example of the monochrome printer 300 with respect to the operation of the server 200 as described above. Referring to FIG. 4, when the monochrome printer 300 according to the present embodiment receives one or more pages of print data from the server device (step S201), the monochrome printer 300 (the monochrome printer 30) receives the print data.
It is determined whether or not (0) is currently being printed (step S202).

If it is determined in step S202 that the printer itself is not printing (No in step S202), the monochrome printer 300 prints one page of the print data received from the server 200 (step S205).
Move to step S206. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S202 that the printer itself is printing (Yes in step S202), the monochrome printer 300
Determines whether the color printer 400 is currently printing (step S203).

If it is determined in step S203 that the color printer 400 is printing (step S203).
No), the monochrome printer 300 proceeds to step S20
The process returns to the process 2 to determine again whether or not the user is currently printing. On the other hand, if the color printer 400 is not performing printing in step S203 (Yes in step S203), the monochrome printer 30
0 transfers one page of the print data received from the server 200 to the color printer 400 (step S2).
04), and proceed to step S206.

Thereafter, in step S206, the monochrome printer 300 determines whether or not the above processing has been completed for all pages included in the print data received from the server 200 (step S20).
6) If there is a page on which processing has not been performed yet (No in step S206), the process returns to step S202, and the processing in step S202 and subsequent steps is performed on the next page. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S206 that the processing has been executed for all pages (Yes in step S206), the monochrome printer 30
0 ends the processing.

{Effects of First Embodiment} With the above-described configuration and operation, the printer system according to the present embodiment is capable of printing data to be printed by a color printer, such as that provided in a server device according to the prior art. Is a color page only, and print data with many monochrome pages may cause the color printer to be in a print standby state, which is inefficient in terms of printing time. Become. That is, a server device that connects a color printer and a monochrome printer in the printer system of the present embodiment, receives print data from a host device, outputs color pages to the color printer, and outputs monochrome pages to the monochrome printer. In a printer system having
The monochrome printer includes a determination unit that determines whether the color printer is in a print standby state, and a transmission unit that transmits print data to the color printer. When the color printer is in a print standby state, the monochrome printer transmits to the color printer. By having a function to transmit a part of the print data, it is possible to reduce the state in which the color printer is in the print standby state, and to perform the parallel printing by the monochrome printer and the color printer to efficiently print the printer data including the color pages. Printing is possible.

[Second Embodiment] Next, a second embodiment of the printer system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 5 and 6 are configuration diagrams illustrating the configuration of the present embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the printer system according to the present embodiment.

{Configuration of Second Embodiment} Referring to FIG. 5, a printer system according to the present embodiment is configured such that host apparatuses 100 to 102 and a server 500 are connected to a network 1, and a monochrome printer 600 is connected to the server 500. And the color printer 400 are connected.

(Configuration of Server 500) As shown in FIG. 6, the server 500 according to the present embodiment comprises a network interface unit 201 and a print data storage unit 20.
2, a memory 203, a ROM 204, a CPU 205, printer interface units 206 and 207, a color / monochrome determination unit 208, a monochrome buffer 501, and a color buffer 502.

In the above configuration, the operations of the network interface unit 201, print data storage unit 202, memory 203, ROM 204, CPU 205, printer interface units 206 and 207, and color / monochrome determination unit 208 are basically the same as those of the first embodiment. Since it is the same as the embodiment, the description is omitted here.

Further, the server 500 according to the present embodiment
Printing performance of the connected monochrome printer 600 and color printer 400 (number of prints per unit time: p
pm) and the printing status.

In the above configuration, the monochrome buffer 501 and the color buffer 502 are configured to execute operations unique to this embodiment. Hereinafter, the operation according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

{Operation of Second Embodiment} (Operation of Server 500) FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the server 500 in the present embodiment. Referring to FIG. 6, the server 500 according to the present embodiment receives print data from a host device (any of 100 to 102) and stores the print data in the print data storage unit 202 shown in FIG. 6 (step S301).

When the print data received from the host device is stored in the print data storage unit 202,
The server 500 determines the stored print data for each page by the color / monochrome determination unit 208, distinguishes between monochrome pages and color pages, temporarily stores only monochrome pages in the monochrome buffer 501, and stores only color pages in color. Temporarily store in buffer 502 (step S
302).

Thereafter, the server 500 moves one page (first page) of the print data stored in the monochrome buffer 501 to the color buffer 502 (step S303).

When the print data for one page is moved to the color buffer 502 in this manner, the server 50
The value 0 calculates the time M required when the print data stored in the monochrome buffer 501 is printed by the monochrome printer 600 (step S304).

Further, the server 500 determines in step S304
Similarly to the above, the time C required when the print data stored in the color buffer 502 is printed by the color printer 400 is calculated (step S305).

After calculating the time M and the time C in this way, the server 500 next compares the calculated time M with the time C to determine whether or not M ≧ C (step S).
306).

In the determination in step S306, M ≧ C
(Yes in step S306), the server 50
0 returns to step S303, and the monochrome buffer 5
A process of moving one page of print data from 01 to the color buffer 502 is executed. On the other hand, if M <C in the determination in step S306 (No in step S306), the server 500 proceeds to step S306.
At step 303, the print data for the last page moved last is returned to the monochrome buffer 501 (step S30).
7) Then, the print data stored in the color buffer 502 is output to the color printer 400, and the print data stored in the monochrome buffer 501 is output to the monochrome printer 600 (step S30).
8).

<< Effects of the Second Embodiment >> By performing the above-described configuration and operation, the printer system according to the present embodiment connects the color printer and the monochrome printer and receives the print data from the host device. In a printer system having a device, the server device has an obtaining unit that obtains information about the status of the color printer and the monochrome printer, and information about print performance of the color printer and the monochrome printer. Has a function of outputting a part of the image data to the color printer, and outputting the remaining monochrome pages to the monochrome printer. Printer and monochrome pudding Consider the printing speed, it is possible to shorten the printing time of the printer data.

[Third Embodiment] Next, the configuration and operation of a printer system according to a third embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, since the printer system according to the present embodiment can realize the same configuration as the printer system shown as the first embodiment above, this embodiment refers to this. However, the monochrome printer according to the present embodiment is
In order to execute an operation different from that of the first embodiment, the monochrome printer 700 is used.

{Operation of Third Embodiment} The operation of the printer system according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

(Operation of Server 200) The operation of the server 200 according to the present embodiment is similar to that of the flowchart shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, the server 200 receives print data from the host device (any of 100 to 102) and stores it in the print data storage unit 202.
The print data stored in the print data storage unit 202 is determined by the color / monochrome determination unit 208, and is output to the monochrome printer 700 if the page is a monochrome page. If it is a color page, it is output to the color printer 400. Thereafter, the server 200 ends if all pages stored in the print data storage unit 202 have been output, and repeats this otherwise.

(Operation of Monochrome Printer 700) In response to such an operation of the server 200, the monochrome printer 700 that has received the print data from the server 200 executes an operation as shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 8, when the monochrome printer 700 according to the present embodiment receives print data from the server 200 (step S401), it determines whether or not the monochrome printer 700 is currently printing. (Step S402).

If it is determined in step S402 that the printer itself is not printing (No in step S402), the monochrome printer 700 proceeds to step S404 to print one page of print data (step S40).
4), proceed to step S408. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S402 that the printer is printing (Yes in step S402), the monochrome printer 7
00 detects whether the color printer 400 is currently printing (step S403).

If it is determined in step S403 that the color printer 400 is printing (step S403).
No), the monochrome printer 700 proceeds to step S40.
2 and the subsequent processing is executed again. On the other hand, when the color printer 400 is in the standby state in the detection in step S403 (Yes in step S403)
s) When the monochrome printer 700 prints the print data received by simultaneous printing by itself (the monochrome printer 700) and the color printer 400, the printing is completed in the shortest time if any pages are transferred to the color printer 400. Then, the number N of pages to be transferred at this time is calculated (step S405).

Next, the monochrome printer 700 determines whether or not the page number N calculated in step S405 is larger than a predetermined page number (predetermined page number) (step S406). (Step S406
Yes), the monochrome printer 700 transfers the print data of the number N of pages in the received print data to the color printer 400 (step S407), and proceeds to step S408. In contrast, step S
When the number of pages N is equal to or smaller than the predetermined number of pages in the determination of 406 (No in step S406), the monochrome printer 700 proceeds to step S408.

Thereafter, in step S408, the monochrome printer 700 determines whether or not the above-described series of processing has been performed on all pages included in the received print data (step S408), and executes the processing. If there is any remaining page (No in step S408), the monochrome printer 700 proceeds to step S402.
Return to. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S408 that the processing has been completed for all pages (Yes in step S408), the monochrome printer 70
0 ends the processing.

{Effects of Third Embodiment} With the configuration and operation described above, the printer system according to the present embodiment transmits the monochrome printer to the color printer in the printer system shown in the first embodiment. By not sending print data when the number of pages is less than the specified number of pages, the effect of shortening the printing time is reduced, because the power consumption for the color printer to be able to print from the energy-saving state and the cost of printing with the color printer are increased. Can not be expected so much, it is possible to suppress an increase in cost.

[0061]

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, in the conventional server device, print data to be printed by a color printer is only color pages, and print data of many monochrome pages is provided. In this case, a state in which the color printer is in a print standby state occurs, and it is possible to solve the problem that the printing time is not efficient.

That is, a color printer and a monochrome printer, which are the printer systems of the present invention, are connected, print data is received from a host device, color pages are output to the color printer, and monochrome pages are output to the monochrome printer. In a printer system having a server device, the monochrome printer includes a determination unit that determines whether the color printer is in a print standby state, and a transmission unit that transmits print data to the color printer. By having a function of transmitting a part of the print data to the color printer when in the state, the state in which the color printer is in the print standby state is reduced, and by performing the parallel printing by the monochrome printer and the color printer, Printer data including color pages Efficient printing is possible.

According to the second embodiment of the present invention,
In a printer system having a server device that connects a color printer and a monochrome printer and receives print data from a host device, the server device obtains information on the status of the color printer and the monochrome printer; Printer and information on the printing performance of the monochrome printer,
By having a function of outputting a part of a color page and a monochrome page to the color printer, and outputting the remaining monochrome pages to the monochrome printer, when the printer is in an energy saving state, it is possible to print from the energy saving state until printing is possible. In consideration of this time and the printing speed of the color printer and the monochrome printer, the printing time of the printer data can be reduced.

Further, according to the third embodiment of the present invention,
In the printer system according to the first embodiment, the monochrome printer does not transmit the print data to be transmitted to the color printer if the number of pages is less than a predetermined number of pages. If the effect of shortening the printing time cannot be expected so much as to the cost increase of printing with a color printer, it is possible to suppress the cost increase.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a server 200 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the server 200 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the monochrome printer 300 according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a server 500 according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation of the server 500 according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a monochrome printer 700 according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 2 Network 100-102 Host computer 200, 500 Server 201 Network interface unit 202 Print data storage unit 203 Memory 204 ROM 205 RAM 206, 207 Printer interface unit 208 Color / monochrome determination unit 300, 600, 700 Monochrome printer 400 Color printer 501 monochrome buffer 502 color buffer

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printer system in which one or more host devices and a server are connected on a network, wherein the server is connected to a color printer and a monochrome printer, and wherein the server receives from the host device. Print data receiving means for receiving the generated print data; color printer page output means for outputting the color pages included in the print data to the color printer; and monochrome for outputting the monochrome pages included in the print data to the monochrome printer. A printer page output unit, wherein the monochrome printer is a color printer state determination unit that determines whether the color printer is in a print standby state, and a part or all of the print data received from the server. The printer to be transferred to the color printer Has a cement data transfer means, and said print data transfer means, if the color printer is a print standby state, the printer system characterized by transferring the print data. 2. The monochrome printer according to claim 1, further comprising: a transfer page number comparison unit configured to compare the number of pages of the print data transferred by the print data transfer unit with a predetermined number of pages stored in the monochrome printer in advance. The print data transfer unit transfers a part or all of the print data when the number of pages of the print data to be transferred is larger than the predetermined number of pages as a result of the comparison by the transfer page number comparison unit. The printer system according to claim 1, wherein 3. A printer system in which one or more host devices and a server are connected on a network, wherein the server is connected to a color printer and a monochrome printer, and the server is the color printer and the server A print status detection unit that detects a print status of the monochrome printer; and a performance storage unit that stores the performance of the color printer and the monochrome printer.The server includes a print status of the color printer and the monochrome printer. Based on the performance of the color printer and the monochrome printer, a part of the color pages and monochrome pages included in the print data received from the host device is output to the color printer, and the remaining print data is output to the monochrome printer. Printer system characterized by outputting to a printer Beam.