JP2002123377A - Printing controller, printing control method and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To secure the mutual page output of interrupted document information and document information in the middle of printing processing by automatically eliminating the situation where the printing output of preceding document information of a small number of pages is delayed due to that the interrupted document information of a large number of pages, where is designated to be interrupt-printed, is printed preferentially. SOLUTION: When receiving the interrupted document information, which is designated to be interrupt-printed, in the middle of printing processing based on the document information received from a host computer 1001 earlier, a page scheduling part 1061 decides the page output of the received interrupted document information and the document information in the middle of printing processing based on a fixed rate. Based on decided page output schedule, a CPU 1034 controls the mutual output of the document information in the middle of printing and the interrupted document information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a print control apparatus, a print control method, and a storage medium for performing print processing based on document information received from a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the number of jobs, drawings, and the like, which are printed by transferring data from a host computer to a printing apparatus, has been rapidly increasing due to the rapid progress of OA in office work.

An environment in which a plurality of computers and printing apparatuses are used extensively on a network is also common, and a plurality of users share and use the printing apparatuses. On the other hand, printing apparatuses capable of printing a large number of tens of sheets per minute in monochrome printing have been proposed because of the improvement in the processing capability of the printing apparatuses due to technological advances.

[0004] As the environment in which a plurality of users can use the same printing apparatus has become general, it is possible to interrupt a document having a high urgency or a high priority while printing the document. There is a printing apparatus having an interrupt printing function for printing first.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart showing an example of a print processing procedure in this type of print control apparatus, and corresponds to, for example, a processing procedure for generating image information as an intermediate object of a document in a printer controller. In addition,
(4001) to (4004) show each step.

First, when the power of the printer is turned on, the generation of image information is started, the data input from the host I / F of the printer controller provided in the printing apparatus main body is monitored, and whether or not the data is present (input) is checked. (4001), if the data input is not recognized, the input is waited. If the data input is recognized, one page of image information is generated while interpreting the data (400).
2) At the same time, the image information is stored in the memory secured in the print controller (4003).

Next, it is checked whether or not the generation of image information of all pages in the document has been completed. If the generation has been completed, the processing from step (4001) is spelled back and the image information of the document is deleted until no data is left. Is generated.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (4004) that the processing has not been completed, the processing from step (4002) is repeated to generate image information of pages in the document.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart showing an example of a print processing procedure in this type of print control apparatus, and corresponds to a print execution processing procedure for printing from image information in a conventional printer controller. In addition, (5001)-
(5008) indicates each step.

When the power is turned on, printing is started, and the generation of image information is monitored to determine whether image information exists (5001). When it is recognized that image information has not been generated, the generation of image information is performed. Continues to monitor and recognizes that image information has been generated, checks if there is an interrupt page, and if it determines that there is an interrupt document page, the next page of the interrupt document to be printed Is selected (5003).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (5002) that there is no interrupt page, the next page to be printed is selected from the normal (interrupted document) document (5004).

Next, a discharge port of the selected page is set (5005), image information / bitmap image for the page is generated (5006), a discharge destination is set and transferred to the engine (5007). The engine prints the transferred image and discharges it to a specified discharge destination.

Then, it is checked whether or not printing of all pages for which image information has been generated has been completed (5008). If it is determined that printing has not been completed, the processing from step (5002) is repeated to print all pages. Is completed, the process from step (5001) is repeated.

Thus, for example, a document BUN1 of five page data designating a discharge bin 1 which is a sheet post-processing device that can be mounted on an engine (indicated as a document 1 in the figure)
During printing, 100-page data document BUN2 (in the figure, document 2
If the image information of the document BUN2 is generated when the printing of the third page of the document BUN1 is completed, the processing order is as shown in FIG. 40, and the document BUN2 is printed from the fourth printing. In the 103rd printing, printing of the document BUN2 is completed. Thereafter, printing from the fourth page of the document BUN1 is restarted. In the 105th process, printing of all documents is completed.

If the printing time of all pages is the same and the printing time of one page is t seconds, if the number of interrupted documents to be printed by the interrupt is large, the printing The time at which the interrupted document ends is normally t × 5 seconds, but in FIG. 41 it is t × 105 seconds, which makes the user wait extremely.

[0016]

In a conventional printing apparatus, on the one hand, an interrupted document is given priority. When data of the interrupted document is sent from a host computer, the interrupted document being printed is Even in such a state, the printing was stopped once and the printing was shifted to the interrupted document.

As a result, when the number of output interrupt documents is very large, the printing of the interrupted document does not end indefinitely, and the printing time of the interrupted document becomes longer by the printing time of the interrupting document. It has been pointed out that the user who prints the document has to wait a long time.

Further, when a situation occurs in which interrupted documents are consecutive, the user who requests normal print processing without printing the interrupted document indefinitely and without printing it to the end is made to wait a long time. The problem was pointed out.

Further, when an interrupted document arrives, interrupted printing has been uniformly stopped, so that resources are similarly allocated to the interrupted document and the interrupted document,
Intermediate control of setting the resource allocation according to the importance of the interrupt is impossible, and the user of the interrupted document may not be able to output to the end.

In addition, when performing interrupt printing on a document that is currently being printed for each user or group, if priority is high according to the setting level, interrupt printing can be performed.
If it is low, the setting that interrupt printing cannot be performed is possible, but interrupt printing is realized by allocating available resources while making use of both user and group printing. Only things could monopolize the printing device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and a first object of the present invention is to provide a print control apparatus for performing a print process based on document information received from a host computer. During the printing process based on the received document information, when interrupt document information instructed to perform interrupt printing from the host computer is received, a page output schedule of the received interrupt document information and the document information being printed is set to a predetermined time. The interruption document information having a large number of pages designated for interruption printing is determined by controlling the mutual output between the document information being printed and the interruption document information based on the determined page output schedule. This automatically eliminates the delay in the printout of document information with a small number of pages, which is prioritized, and automatically interrupts document information. Control device that guarantees a mutual page output between the document and the document information being printed, flexibly responds to each user's printing request, and can freely construct a convenient printing environment. And a print control method and a storage medium.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a print control apparatus which performs a printing process based on document information received from a host computer, and when interrupt document information is received, printing of the interrupted document information is started from the printing process of the previously received document information. When it is determined whether or not a predetermined condition that can be shifted to the process is satisfied, if it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the printing process based on the previously received document information is performed, and By shifting to the interrupt printing process, the print output timing of the interrupt document information is changed depending on the mutual relationship between the preceding document information and the interrupt document information, and the interrupt document information with a large number of pages designated for interrupt printing Is automatically prioritized, and the printing output of the document information with a small number of preceding pages is delayed automatically, and the interrupted document information and A print control device that guarantees mutual page output with document information during printing processing, flexibly responds to each user's print request, and can freely construct a convenient print environment; and An object of the present invention is to provide a print control method and a storage medium.

[0023]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, during print processing based on document information received in advance from a host computer, interrupt document information instructed by the host computer for interrupt printing can be received. A print control device that determines a page output schedule of the interrupt document information to be processed and the document information being printed in accordance with a predetermined ratio based on a predetermined ratio (corresponding to the page scheduling unit 1061 shown in FIG. 1); ) And control means (corresponding to CPU 1034 shown in FIG. 1) for controlling mutual output of the document information being printed and the interrupt document information based on the page output schedule determined by the page scheduling means. It is.

A second invention according to the present invention has a setting means for setting the predetermined ratio based on the input resource allocation information.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the resource allocation information can be specified by a command from the host computer.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the resource allocation information can be specified according to a panel operation by a user.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the predetermined ratio is a ratio of the number of output sheets.

In a sixth aspect according to the present invention, the predetermined ratio is a ratio of a printing time.

In a seventh aspect according to the present invention, the predetermined ratio can be set for each user or each group.

An eighth invention according to the present invention is a print control apparatus capable of receiving interrupted document information instructed by the host computer to perform interrupt printing during printing processing based on document information previously received from the host computer. 19. A determination unit for determining whether or not a predetermined condition that allows a transition from the print processing of the previously received document information to the print processing of the interrupt document information is satisfied during the processing of the interrupt document information (interrupt shown in FIG. 19). When the determination unit determines that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the print processing based on the previously received document information is replaced with the interrupted document information. And an interrupt print switching management unit (corresponding to the interrupt print shift management unit 1070 shown in FIG. 19) for shifting to the interrupt print process. It is.

A ninth invention according to the present invention is characterized in that the interrupt print switching management means performs printing based on the previously received document information when the determination means determines that the predetermined condition is not satisfied. After terminating the process with priority, the process shifts to the interrupt printing process of the interrupt document information.

A tenth invention according to the present invention is directed to a first interrupt print shift number setting means (corresponding to the interrupt continuous print number management unit 1071 shown in FIG. 25) for setting the remaining number of prints of the document information being printed. ), And the predetermined condition is determined based on the remaining number of prints of the document information during the printing process set by the first interrupt print shift number setting means.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, a second interrupt print shift number setting means (corresponding to the interrupt continuous print number managing unit 1071 shown in FIG. 25) for setting the expected number of prints of the document information being printed. And the predetermined condition is determined based on the expected number of prints of the document information during the printing process set by the second interrupt print shift number setting means.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a third interrupt print shift number setting means for setting a continuous number of prints of document information during a printing process, wherein the predetermined condition is that the third condition is satisfied. This is determined based on the number of continuous prints of the document information during the printing process set by the interrupt print shift number setting means (corresponding to the interrupt continuous print number management unit 1071 shown in FIG. 25).

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, the first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting means can be set for each user or each group.

According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, the second interrupt print transfer sheet number setting means can be set for each user or each group.

In a fifteenth aspect of the present invention, the third interrupt print transfer sheet number setting means can be set for each user or each group.

According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control apparatus for a print control apparatus capable of receiving interrupted document information instructed by an interrupt print from the host computer during print processing based on document information previously received from a host computer. A page scheduling step (step (8005) shown in FIG. 4) of determining a page output schedule of the interrupt document information to be processed and the document information being printed in accordance with a predetermined ratio; A control step (step (9001) shown in FIG. 5) for controlling mutual output of the document information being printed and the interrupt document information based on the page output schedule determined by the page scheduling step.

A seventeenth invention according to the present invention has a setting step of setting the predetermined ratio based on input resource allocation information.

According to an eighteenth aspect of the present invention, the resource allocation information can be specified by a command from the host computer.

According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, the resource allocation information can be specified according to a panel operation by a user.

In a twentieth aspect according to the present invention, the predetermined ratio is a ratio of output sheets.

In a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, the predetermined ratio is a ratio of a printing time.

According to a twenty-second aspect of the present invention, the predetermined ratio can be set for each user or each group.

According to a twenty-third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control apparatus which is capable of receiving interrupted document information instructed by the host computer for interrupt printing during print processing based on document information previously received from the host computer. A determining step of determining whether a predetermined condition that allows a transition from a print process of the previously received document information to a print process of the interrupt document information is satisfied during the processing of the interrupt document information (FIG. 22 (22002)), and, when it is determined in the determination step that the predetermined condition is satisfied, from the print processing based on the previously received document information to the interrupt print processing of the interrupt document information. (Step (22003) shown in FIG. 22)
(22004)).

According to a twenty-fourth aspect of the present invention, in the interrupt print switching management step, when it is determined in the determining step that the predetermined condition is not satisfied, printing based on the previously received document information is performed. After terminating the process with priority, the process shifts to the interrupt printing process of the interrupt document information.

According to a twenty-fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step (not shown) for setting the remaining print sheet number of the document information being printed, and the predetermined condition is as follows: This is determined based on the remaining number of prints of the document information during the printing process set in the first interrupt print transfer number setting step.

A twenty-sixth invention according to the present invention has a second interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step (not shown) for setting an expected print sheet number of the document information during the printing process. This is determined based on the expected number of prints of the document information during the printing process set in the second interrupt print transfer number setting step.

A twenty-seventh invention according to the present invention has a third interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step (not shown) for setting a continuous print sheet number of the document information being printed, and the predetermined condition is as follows. This is determined based on the number of continuous prints of the document information during the printing process set in the third interrupt print transfer number setting step.

In a twenty-eighth aspect of the present invention, the first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step can be set for each user or each group.

According to a twenty-ninth aspect of the present invention, the second step of setting the number of sheets to be transferred to interrupt printing can be set for each user or each group.

According to a thirtieth aspect of the present invention, the third interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step can be set for each user or each group.

According to a thirty-first aspect of the present invention, a print control apparatus capable of receiving interrupted document information instructed by the host computer to perform interrupt printing during printing processing based on document information previously received from the host computer is provided. A page scheduling step (step (8005) shown in FIG. 4) for determining a page output schedule of the interrupted document information and the document information during the printing process based on a predetermined ratio, and the page scheduling step. The computer executes a control step (step (8004) shown in FIG. 4) for controlling mutual output of the document information being printed and the interrupted document information based on the page output schedule. It is recorded in a readable manner.

A thirty-second invention according to the present invention has a setting step of setting the predetermined ratio based on input resource allocation information.

According to a thirty-third aspect of the present invention, the resource allocation information can be specified by a command from the host computer.

According to a thirty-fourth aspect of the present invention, the resource allocation information can be designated according to a panel operation by a user.

In a thirty-fifth aspect of the present invention, the predetermined ratio is a ratio of output sheets.

In a thirty-sixth aspect according to the present invention, the predetermined ratio is a ratio of a printing time.

[0059] In a thirty-seventh aspect of the present invention, the predetermined ratio can be set for each user or group.

A thirty-eighth invention according to the present invention is directed to a print control apparatus capable of receiving interrupted document information instructed by the host computer to perform interrupt printing during printing processing based on document information previously received from a host computer. A judgment step (step (22002) shown in FIG. 22) for judging whether or not a predetermined condition capable of shifting from the print processing of the previously received document information to the print processing of the interrupt document information is satisfied during the processing of the interrupt document information. )) And interrupt print switching for shifting from print processing based on the previously received document information to interrupt print processing of the interrupt document information when it is determined in the determination step that the predetermined condition is satisfied. A program for executing management steps (steps (22003) to (22004) shown in FIG. 22) The beam in the storage medium in which computer was recorded readably.

According to a thirty-ninth aspect of the present invention, in the print switching management step, when it is determined by the determining step that the predetermined condition is not satisfied, a printing process based on the previously received document information is performed. After the priority termination,
The processing shifts to interrupt printing processing of the interrupt document information.

A fortieth invention according to the present invention has a first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step (not shown) for setting the remaining print sheet number of the document information being printed, and the predetermined condition is as follows: This is determined based on the remaining number of prints of the document information during the printing process set in the first interrupt print transfer number setting step.

According to a forty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a second interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step (not shown) for setting an expected print sheet number of document information being printed, and the predetermined condition is as follows. This is determined based on the expected number of prints of the document information during the printing process set in the second interrupt print transfer number setting step.

A forty-second invention according to the present invention has a third interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step (not shown) for setting a continuous print sheet number of the document information being printed, and the predetermined condition is as follows. This is determined based on the number of continuous prints of the document information during the printing process set in the third interrupt print transfer number setting step.

According to a forty-third aspect of the present invention, the first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step can be set for each user or each group.

In a forty-fourth aspect of the present invention, the second step of setting the number of sheets to be transferred to interrupt printing can be set for each user or for each group.

According to a forty-fifth aspect of the present invention, the third interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step can be set for each user or each group.

[0068]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which a printing control apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention can be applied. A printing apparatus to which a sheet post-processing apparatus can be connected is taken as an example, and a host computer 1001 and a laser beam printer 1030, and a communication line 10 connecting both of them.
02.

The laser beam printer 1030 shown in FIG.
Reference numeral 1031 denotes a printer controller that controls the operation of the entire printer. An input / output buffer 1033 transmits / receives control codes and data from / to each communication unit via a host I / F unit 1032 which controls input / output to / from the host computer 1001.

Reference numeral 1034 denotes a CPU which controls the operation of the entire printer controller. 1035 is a ROM, a CPU
A program for describing the operation of 1034 is incorporated. Reference numeral 1036 denotes a RAM, which is used as a work memory for interpreting the control codes and data, performing calculations required for printing, and processing print data. The capacity of the RAM 1036 can be expanded by an option RAM or the like, and a part of the RAM 1036 may be used as an NVRAM.

Reference numeral 1037 denotes an image information generation unit which generates various image objects based on the settings of data received from the host computer 1001. Reference numeral 1038 denotes a bitmap image development / transfer unit which develops an image object into a bitmap image and transfers the developed bitmap image to the printing device engine.

Reference numeral 1039 denotes a printing device engine unit (engine unit), which includes an engine control unit 1046 and a paper discharge unit 1047.
And printing is actually performed on paper. Reference numeral 1040 denotes an engine I / F, which proliferates the printer controller 1031 and the engine 1039. Reference numeral 1041 denotes an operation panel unit for operating the printing apparatus. Reference numeral 1042 denotes a panel I / F, which proliferates the printer controller 1031 and the operation panel 1041.

Reference numeral 1043 denotes an external memory unit which is used for storing print data, information on various printing apparatuses, and the like. 1044
Denotes a memory I / F unit, which proliferates the printer controller 1031 and the external memory unit 1043. Reference numeral 1055 denotes a system bus which connects the above units.

The program ROM 1035 includes a document information management unit 10 for managing various information of a print document, such as print pages of all documents such as interrupted / interrupted documents, single-sided / double-sided information, and address management for objects.
60, and a program of a page scheduling unit 1061 for determining the printing order of single-sided / double-sided and interrupt / interrupted documents.

First, a configuration example of a laser beam printer is shown in FIG. 2 as an example of an output device to which the embodiment of the present invention can be applied.
This will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 shows the engine unit 1039 shown in FIG.
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a laser beam printer.

The laser beam printer 1030 has a housing 2001 as shown in FIG.
A mechanism for configuring the engine unit 1039, an engine control unit 1046 that controls each print process (for example, a sheet feeding process) by each mechanism, and a printer controller 1031 (shown in FIG. 1) are housed. A control board storage unit 2003 is built in.

Each mechanism for constituting the engine unit 1039 includes forming an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive drum by operating a laser beam, visualizing the electrostatic latent image, and applying the visualized image to printing paper. An optical processing mechanism for performing the transfer, a fixing processing mechanism for fixing the toner image transferred to the printing paper, a paper feeding processing mechanism for the printing paper, and a printing paper conveyance processing mechanism are provided.

The optical processing mechanism is a laser scanner unit 202
2, a laser driver 2006 for turning on and off a laser beam emitted from a semiconductor laser (not shown) according to image data supplied from the printer controller 1031; It is swung in the main scanning direction by the rotating polygon mirror 2007. The laser light oscillated in the main scanning direction is turned back to the photosensitive drum 2005 via the reflection mirror 2008, and exposes the photosensitive drum 2005 in the main scanning direction.

At this time, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the photosensitive drum 2005 previously charged uniformly by the primary charger 2023 by scanning exposure with laser light, and the latent image is supplied from the developing device 2020. (In the present embodiment, K (black) toner is used as the toner), the toner image is visualized. next,
The toner image on the photosensitive drum 2005 is transferred to a transfer charger 2025.
Is transferred onto the printing paper 2027 fed in synchronization with the sub-scanning direction by the paper feed processing mechanism.

The photosensitive drum 2005 and the developing device 2
020 is housed in a drum unit 2004 detachable from the housing 2001. Also, the reflection mirror 2008
Is a semi-transmissive mirror, on the back side of which is a beam detector 200 composed of, for example, a photodiode.
9, the beam detector 2009 detects the laser beam, and the detection signal is transmitted to the printer controller 103.
Given to one.

The printer controller 1031 generates a horizontal synchronization signal (so-called BD signal) for determining the exposure timing in the main scanning direction based on the detection signal of the beam detector 2009, and the horizontal synchronization signal is output to the printer controller 1031. .

Reference numeral 2024 denotes a cleaner.
5 to remove the remaining toner. Reference numeral 2021 denotes a pre-exposure lamp that removes electricity from the photosensitive drum 2005.

On the other hand, the fixing processing mechanism is provided with a heater for heating the toner image transferred to the printing paper. The heater controls the temperature according to a signal from the engine control unit 1046 so that a predetermined fixing temperature is obtained.
During printing standby, power reduction control (power saving control is also performed).

The paper feeding mechanism for the printing paper is the printing paper 2
027 for accommodating cassette 2010 and paper feed tray 201
9 and the reversing paper feed unit 2011 are selectively fed.

The cassette 2010 is mounted in the housing 2001, and the cassette 2010 is provided with a size detecting mechanism for electrically detecting the size of the printing paper in accordance with the movement position of a partition (not shown). ing. Cassette 20
From the uppermost printing paper accommodated in the cassette 10, the printing paper is conveyed to the paper supply roller 2013 by the rotation of the cassette paper supply clutch 2012 in units of one sheet.

The cassette paper feed clutch 2012 comprises a cam intermittently driven by a driving means (not shown) for each paper feed, and feeds one print sheet every time the cam rotates once. You.

The feed roller 2013 conveys the printing paper to a position where the leading end of the printing paper corresponds to the registration shutter 2014, and the registration shutter 2014 presses and releases the fed printing paper to supply the printing paper. The paper is stopped and released, and the registration shutter 201 is released.
Operation 4 is controlled so as to synchronize with the sub-scanning of the laser beam. The cassette 2010 is configured such that a predetermined number of optional cassettes (not shown) can be stacked and mounted according to size or the like.

On the other hand, the manual feed tray 2019 is provided in the housing 2001, and is manually operated by the user.
The printing paper loaded on the printer 19 is fed by a feed roller 2015 toward a registration shutter 2014.

On the other hand, the printing paper transport processing mechanism includes a transport roller 201 that transports the printing paper, for which the pressing by the registration shutter 2014 is released, toward the photosensitive drum 2005.
6 and the printing paper discharged from the fixing device 2017
Each flapper 2030, 2031 for guiding to the paper discharge tray FD formed on the upper portion of the sheet feeder 001 and each transport roller 203
2, 2033 and driving means (not shown) for driving each of the transport rollers 2032, 2033.

The flapper 2031 can switch the discharge destination of the discharge tray FD formed on the upper portion of the housing 2001 and the discharge tray FU formed on the side surface of the housing 2001 by switching the flapper 2031. When performing face-down printing (printing is performed with the surface of the young page of the printed document facing down), the discharge tray FD
When performing face-up printing (printing with the front side of the young page of the document facing up), the document is discharged to the discharge tray FU.

Further, by switching the flapper 2030, double-sided printing can be performed. 2011
Denotes a reversing sheet feeding unit, and the engine transport roller 203
4,2035,2036, and a flapper 2037. In the case of performing duplex printing and performing face-down printing (printing on the paper output tray FD such that the front side is lower in the figure and the back side is upper side in the figure), the printing paper 2027 is first printed from the back side and the cassette 2010 (Arrow (1)), the back side is printed (arrow (2)), and the sheet is guided to the reversing sheet feeding unit by the transport rollers 2038 and 2034 by the flapper 2030 (arrow (4)).

A sensor (not shown) is connected to the printing paper 202.
When the trailing end of the sheet 7 is detected, the printing paper 2027 is stored in the reversing paper feed unit 2011 in parallel with the cassette 2010 by the conveyance roller 2035 by rotating the conveyance roller 2034 in the reverse direction and switching the flapper 2037. At this time, the surface (back surface) printed on the printing paper faces upward. Next, when the reversing sheet supply unit 2011 is designated as the sheet supply destination, the sheet passes through the transfer roller 2036 and the sheet supply roller 2013 (arrow (8)), passes through the transfer charger 2025 and the fixing unit 2017, and is printed on the surface again (arrow). (9)) By switching the flappers 2030 and 2031, the paper is discharged from the paper discharge tray FD (arrow (10)).
In addition, when performing face-up printing by performing double-sided printing (printing with the front side down in the figure and the back side up in the figure when paper is discharged to the paper discharge tray FU), print the front side first,
The paper is discharged to the reverse paper feed unit 2011, the back side is printed,
The sheet is discharged from the reverse sheet feeding unit 2011 to the sheet discharge tray FU (arrow (11)). Also, the housing 2001
, An operation panel 2002 for configuring the operation panel unit 1041 is attached.

The operation panel 2002 includes a switch group for inputting an instruction, an LED display for displaying information,
A CD display is provided. An external memory unit 2040 for configuring an external memory unit 1043 used for storing print data and the like by the printer controller 1031 is attached.

The printer 1030 shown in FIG. 1 has a paper discharge unit 1047 for managing the operation of the paper discharge device functioning as an optional unit, and the paper discharge device shown in FIG. Is possible.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing an example of a paper discharge device that can be optionally connected to the housing 2001 shown in FIG.
It is communicably connected via the paper ejection unit 1047 shown in FIG. Note that the paper ejection device 3001 shown in FIG. 3 is detachable from a portion of the housing 2001 indicated by a paper ejection tray FU.

The paper discharging device 3001 includes a paper discharging bin (BIN1) 3002 for holding printed paper, and a paper discharging bin (B
IN2) 3003, discharge bin (BIN3) 3004, discharge bin (BIN4) 3005, discharge bin (BIN5) 3
006, and a paper discharge bin (BIN6) 3007.

Reference numerals 3021 to 3030 denote transport rollers, which transport the paper sent from the engine unit to each bin 3002 to 3003.
7 for discharging the paper.

Numerals 3050 to 3055 are flappers for switching the transport direction of the paper on which printing has been completed. For example, when the flappers 3050 and 3054 are switched as indicated by the dotted lines, the transported printing paper is guided to the discharge bin 3004 face up.

The discharge bin 3007 is used as a bin for discharging special paper such as thick paper or OHT. In addition, by sending the printing paper to the discharge bin 3007, it is also possible to discharge the paper to the discharge bins 3002 to 3006 in a face-down manner.

In this case, first, the flapper 3050, 305
1 is set to the position shown by the solid line in the figure, the sheet is once sent to the output bin 3007, and after passing through the flapper 3051, the sheet is returned by rotating the transport roller 3022 in the reverse direction to return the sheet to the dotted line of the flapper 3051. By setting the position as the position, the sheet is turned upside down, and the flapper 3054 is switched to the position shown by the dotted line in the drawing, so that it is possible to perform face-down printing.

As described above, by operating the respective flappers, face-up and face-down printing can be performed on each of the discharge bins 3002 to 3006.
Stapling apparatuses 3010, 3011, 3012, 3013, 301 capable of stapling documents discharged to the respective discharge bins are provided in the discharge bins 3002 to 3006.
4 is attached. Each stapling device 3010,
Staples 3011, 3012, 3013, and 3014 have a structure in which stapling is performed directly in each paper discharge bin, so that there is no effect when paper is discharged to another paper discharge bin.

Next, the operation of the printer controller 1031 in the above system configuration will be described below.

In the host computer 1001, when execution of printing is specified by a user's specification, the control code and data transmitted from the host computer 1001 via the communication line 1002 are transmitted, and the host
The data is stored in the RAM 1036 via the input buffer 1033 via the / F section 1032.

The CPU 1034 executes the program R
In accordance with the program described in the OM 1035, the image information generation unit 1037 performs data processing, and performs processing such as figures, characters, and image data one by one (image object).
Generate image information for.

At this time, the document information management unit 1060 manages the document information sent from the host computer 1001 for each document, recognizes the data of the interrupt document and the interrupted document, and manages the printing state of those data. .

Then, the page scheduling section 106
In the first step, while considering which page is to be printed next according to the information of the document information management unit 1060, the bitmap image development / transfer unit 1038 actually converts the image information of all image objects in one page to be printed next. The bitmap image is sent to the printing apparatus engine unit 1039, and is discharged from the designated discharge port.

On the other hand, in the case of double-sided printing, when face-down printing is performed, the image on the back side is first developed into a bitmap image to be actually printed by the bitmap image developing / transferring unit 1038 and developed. The bitmap image on the back side is sent to the printing apparatus engine unit 1039 and fed from the cassette to the reverse sheet feeding unit 2011 shown in FIG.
Paper.

Subsequently, the front surface image is developed into a bitmap image to be actually printed by the bitmap image developing / transferring unit 1038, and the developed bitmap image of the front surface is sent to the printing device engine unit 1039, where the reverse feeding is performed. Paper is fed from the paper unit 2011 and is discharged to the discharge tray FD in FIG.

Next, the operations and processing steps of the document information management unit 1060 and the page scheduling unit 1061 will be described in detail.

The image information generation unit 103 in the present embodiment
7. The operations and processing steps of the document information management unit 1060 and the page scheduling unit 1061 are almost the same as the processing shown in FIGS. 38 and 39, but the processing corresponding to FIG. It becomes

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a first data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. Note that (8001) to (8009) indicate each step.

When the printing process is started, the generation of image information is monitored to determine whether printing of all pages is completed (8001), and it is determined that printing of all pages is completed. In step (8002), the printing process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (8001) that printing of all pages has not been completed, it is checked whether or not a page of the interrupt document exists (8).
003) If it is determined that an interrupt page exists, a page selection process at the time of interrupt is performed (8005).
The page selection process at the time of interruption (details will be described with reference to FIG. 5) is started, and after the process is completed, step (800) is executed.
Proceed to 6).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (8003) that there is no interrupt page, the next page to be printed is selected from normal (interrupted documents) documents (8004).

Next, a discharge port of the selected page is set (8006), image information / bitmap image for the page is generated (8007), a discharge destination is set, and transferred to the engine unit 1039. (8008).

The engine unit 1039 prints the image data transferred from the bitmap image developing / transferring unit 1038 and discharges the image data to a specified discharge destination. Then, it is checked whether or not printing of all pages for which image information has been generated is completed (8009). If it is determined that printing has not been completed, the processing from step (8003) is repeated, and printing of all pages is completed. If it is determined that the processing has been performed, the processing from step (8001) is repeated.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of the second data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. Note that (9001) to (9003) indicate each step.

First, it is determined whether the page currently being printed is the page of the interrupted document to be printed by the interrupt or the page of the interrupted document being printed first (900).
1) If it is determined that the page is an interrupted document page, the page to be printed next is selected as the page to be printed next to the interrupted document (9002), and the process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (9001) that the page is not the page of the interrupted document but the page of the interrupted document, the page to be printed next to the interrupted document is selected (9003), and the process ends. I do.

As described above, by performing the scheduling for selecting the next page, the page of the interrupted document and the page of the interrupted document are always printed alternately.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention, and the horizontal axis indicates time.

In the above embodiment, for example, the discharge bin 3
During printing of a document BUN1 of 5 page data (designated as document 1 in the figure) specifying 002, a 100 page data document BUN2 (designated as document 2 in the figure) specifying the discharge bin 3003 is printed. If the image information of the document BUN2 is generated at the end of printing the third page of the document BUN1, the page processing order shown in FIG.
Document BUN2 is printed from the first printing, and then document BUN1 as the interrupted document and document BUN2 as the interrupting document are alternately printed.
The printing of UN1 is completed, and thereafter, in the 105th process,
Printing of all documents is completed.

Even when the number of interrupted documents to be printed by the interrupt is large, the time when the interrupted document being printed ends can be changed from the development and transfer of the bitmap image of one page to the engine unit 1039. If the time until the end of printing is equal to t for all pages, in the example shown in FIG.
× 7 seconds later, since the user of the interrupted document and the user of the interrupted document are equal, the remaining pages printed by the user of the interrupted document at the time of the interrupt (1 page time × (remaining repage at the time of the interrupt)) = T x 2 seconds).

In the above configuration, the printing of the interrupted document and the printing of the interrupted document are shared by an equal distribution of the printing apparatus, and the printing of the interrupted document and the interrupted document is fixed. , And even if the number of interrupted documents output is very large, the interrupted document is not printed forever and the waiting time of the user who is printing the interrupted document is reduced. It becomes possible.

[Second Embodiment] In the first embodiment,
A case has been described in which the user who is printing the interrupted document and the user who is printing the interrupted document equally allocate the resources of the printing apparatus and print the resources. May be. Less than,
The embodiment will be described.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram for explaining a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which the printing control apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention can be applied. The same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 denote the same parts. It is.

In FIG. 8, reference numeral 1062 denotes an interrupt printing resource allocating unit which manages the use ratio of the printing apparatus resources of the interrupted document and the interrupted document. Reference numeral 1061 denotes a page scheduling unit which determines which page to print next from the information of the document information management unit 1060 in consideration of the allocation of resources to be used when printing a document, in accordance with the information of the interrupt printing resource allocation unit 1062.

Note that the interrupt resource allocating unit 1062
The page processing ratio and the number of pages to be printed are distributed and set as shown in FIG. 9 according to the setting by the data from the host computer 1001 and the setting of the operation panel unit 1041.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a page processing distribution information table managed by the RAM 1036 or the external memory unit 1043 shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 9, in the present embodiment, the print ratio of the interrupted document and the interrupted document is determined, and for example, printing of 75% to 25% is specified. In the present embodiment, it is interpreted as the ratio of print output pages, and indicates that the setting is such that the printing of the document is switched at a ratio of three pages to one page.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of the third data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. (14001) to (14005) indicate each step.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.
2 is a diagram showing an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention, and the horizontal axis shows time.

First, step (8003) shown in FIG.
In step (800) after the determination of YES is made,
When the page selection process at the time of interruption shown in 5) is started,
It is determined whether the page currently being printed is the page of the interrupted document to be printed by the interrupt or the page of the interrupted document being printed first (14001). Referring to the number of print pages of the interrupt document in the indicated table, it is determined whether or not the pages of the interrupt document are printed by the specified number of pages (by the ratio) (14002). ), It is determined that the page of the interrupt document has not been printed, the page to be printed next is selected as the page to be printed next to the interrupt document (14003), and the process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (14002) that the pages of the interrupt document have been printed by the specified number of pages (by the ratio), the flow advances to step (14004) to print the next page of the interrupted document. Select the page to be interrupted and end the page selection at the time of interruption.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (14001) that the page is not the page of the interrupted document, the page number of the interrupted document is referred to in the table shown in FIG. It is determined whether or not the page of the interrupted document is printed (14005), and if it is determined that the pages of the interrupted document are not printed by the designated number of pages, the page to be printed next is next to the interrupted document. Select the page to be printed on (14004),
The process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (14005) that printing of the interrupted document has been completed for the specified number of pages, the flow advances to step (14003) to select the next page of the interrupted document to be printed. Then, the page selection at the time of interruption is completed.

The other steps are the same as those in the procedure shown in FIGS. 38 and 4.

As described above, the scheduling of the next page is performed, so that the page of the interrupted document and the page of the interrupted document are sequentially printed for each designated number of pages.

According to the second embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, for example, during printing of a document BUN1 of five page data specifying the discharge bin 3002, a 100-page data document BUN2 specifying the discharge bin 3003 is printed. If the image information of the document BUN2 is generated when the printing of the third page of the document BUN1 is completed, the page processing order is as shown in FIG. 11, and the document BUN2 is printed from the fourth printing. The document BUN2, which is the interrupted document, is printed for the specified number of pages of 3 shown in FIG. 9, and then, the document BUN1, which is the interrupted document, is printed for the specified number of pages, shown in FIG. Is completed, and thereafter, in the 105th process, printing of all documents is completed.

Even when the number of interrupted documents to be printed by the interrupt is large, the time when the interrupted document being printed ends can be changed from the transfer of the one-page bitmap image to the end of printing by the engine. If the time t is equal to t for all pages, t = 11 seconds in FIG.
In the case of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 12, the user of the interrupted document is (time of one page × (remaining pages at the time of interruption) × (page ratio) = t seconds × two pages ×
(3 pages ÷ 1 page)), that is, a delay of t × 6 seconds is required.

In the table shown in FIG. 9, if the ratio of interrupt documents set by the user is increased, it is possible to perform control for emphasizing processing of interrupt documents, and if the ratio of interrupted documents is increased, Control can be performed to give priority to the processing of the document being printed, and by changing these set values, it becomes possible to perform processing of changing the priority according to the importance of the interrupted document.

In the above configuration, the user who prints the interrupted document and the user who prints the interrupted document always set the ratio of the number of output sheets or the printing time so that the interrupted document is always set. Eliminates the state that the user cannot output to the end, manages interrupted documents and interrupted documents on a page basis, allocates resources to interrupted documents and interrupted documents in the same way, and allocates resources according to the importance of interrupts. Can be controlled to set the allocation.

[Third Embodiment] In the first and second embodiments, at the time of interrupt printing, the resources of the printing apparatus for the interrupted document and the interrupted document are shared at a fixed ratio on a page basis. An example has been described in which control is performed so that detailed settings can be made. However, a configuration may be adopted in which a page processing schedule is controlled according to a set print processing time ratio for each user or group that is using it. Hereinafter, the embodiment will be described.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram for explaining a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which the printing control apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention can be applied. The same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 denote the same parts. It is.

In FIG. 13, reference numeral 1075 denotes a print execution time management unit for managing the print execution time of a document. Reference numeral 1061 denotes a page scheduling unit, and a print execution time management unit 10
According to the information of 75, the page to be printed next is determined from the information of the document information management unit 1060 in consideration of the allocation of resources used when printing the document.

In the print execution time management unit 1075, according to the settings from the data from the host computer 1001 and the settings on the operation panel unit 1041, the print execution time management unit 1075 shown in FIG.
It is assumed that print execution time allocation information as shown in FIG. 5 is set and stored and managed in the RAM 1036 or the external memory unit 1043 shown in FIG.

FIGS. 14 and 15 show the RAM shown in FIG.
FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a page processing distribution information table managed by an external memory unit 1036 or 1036.

In FIG. 14, the print ratio of the interrupted document and the interrupted document is determined for each user name.
And the user B, for example, to designate the print processing in a distribution of 75% to 25%, to calculate the calculation in minutes, and to switch the printing of the document in a ratio of 3 minutes to 1 minute. I have. In FIG. 15, the print ratio of the interrupted document and the interrupted document is determined for each group name, and the print processing is allocated to the group A and the group B by, for example, 75% to 25% distribution, and is calculated in minutes. In this case, the setting is such that the printing of the document is switched at a ratio of three minutes to one minute. It should be noted that users C and D are registered in group A, and users E and F are registered in group B.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing an example of the fourth data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. Note that (19001) to (19007) indicate each step.

FIGS. 17 and 18 are diagrams showing an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention, wherein the horizontal axis indicates time.

First, the step (8005) shown in FIG.
Then, the page selection processing at the time of interruption is performed, and when the page selection processing at the time of interruption is started, whether the page currently being printed is the page of the interruption document to be printed by interruption,
First, it is determined whether the page is the page of the interrupted document that is being printed (19001). If it is determined that the page is the page of the interrupted document, the document shown in FIG. Then, it is determined whether or not the page of the interrupt document is printed for the designated time (190).
02) If it is determined that the page of the interrupt document has not been printed for the specified time, the page to be printed next to the interrupt document is selected (19003), and the process is terminated.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (19002) that the printing of the interrupt document has been completed for the specified time, the allocation time of the interrupt document has ended.
The print time during measurement is cleared (19006), and the next page to be printed in the interrupted document is selected (1900).
4), end the page selection at the time of interruption.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (19001) that the page is not the page of the interrupt document, the document shown in FIG. 14 is referred to the time setting of the user currently on the interrupted printing side or the group shown in FIG. Then, it is determined whether or not the page of the interrupted document has been printed for the designated time (19005). If it is determined that the page of the interrupted document has not been printed for the designated time, it is printed next. As the page, the page to be printed next to the interrupted document is selected (19004), and the process ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (19005) that printing of the interrupted document has been completed for the designated time, the allocated time of the interrupted document has ended, and the printing time being measured is cleared. (19007), the process proceeds to step (19003), the next page to be printed in the interrupt document is selected, and the process ends. The other processing procedures are the same as the processing procedures shown in FIG. 38 or FIG.

Thus, for example, during the printing of the document BUN1 of the 5-page data specifying the discharge bin 3002, the 100-page data document BUN2 specifying the discharge bin 3003 is printed.
At the end of printing the second page of document BUN1,
It is assumed that image information of the document BUN2 has been generated.

The document BUN1 is printed by the user A, the document BUN2 is printed by the user B, a bitmap image is generated, and the time until printing is completed is t minutes for the document BUN1 and t × 1 for the document BUN2. If it takes .5 minutes, the print processing order is based on the page processing schedule as shown in FIG. 17, and the interrupt processing starts from the third print. First, during the specified time t of the interrupted document, the document BUN1 Page 3 is printed and changed to the document BU for the specified time t × 3 minutes of the interrupt document.
Page 1 and page 2 are printed in N2, and thereafter, interrupt printing is processed alternately according to the time setting.

As shown in FIG. 15, users C and D belong to group A, and users E and D belong to group B.
When the user F is registered, the output bin 30
It is assumed that the 100-page data document BUN2 specifying the paper output bin 3003 is printed during the printing of the document BUN1 of 5 page data specifying 02, and the image information of the document BUN2 is generated when the printing of the second page of the document BUN1 is completed. I do.

The document BUN1 is printed by the user C, the document BUN2 is printed by the user F, a bitmap image is generated, and the time until the printing is completed is t minutes for the document BUN1 and t × for the document BUN2. If it takes 1.5 minutes, the print processing order is as shown in FIG.
Interrupt processing is performed from the first printing. First, for the specified time t of the interrupted document, Page 3 of the document BUN1 is used.
Is printed and changed to the specified time t ×
During three minutes, Page1 and Page2 of the document BUN2 are printed, and thereafter, interrupt printing is alternately performed according to the time setting.

In this embodiment, a user or a group is also divided into two. However, by preparing settings for a plurality of users and groups, other users and groups can be set between users and between groups. Alternatively, it is possible to relatively set the priority of the document being interrupted and the document to be interrupted printed for the group.

By performing the scheduling with the next page selected in this way, it is possible to manage the ratio of the resource of the page of the interrupted document to the resource of the interrupted document by time, and further, to print for each user or group. Execution time management can be performed.

Further, by managing in this way,
The processing of the user who prints the interrupted document is not necessarily prioritized, and a setting can be made to prioritize the processing of the user who prints the interrupted document, and it is possible to provide a means that can preferentially use the printing apparatus. .

[Fourth Embodiment] In each of the above embodiments, the printing process of the interrupted document is delayed by the interrupted document by switching the printing process between the interrupted document and the interrupted document by a user at a fixed rate. Has been described, the print processing of the interrupted document and the interrupted document may be switched and controlled in accordance with certain conditions, for example, information on the number of sheets to be transferred for interrupt printing set by the user. Hereinafter, the embodiment will be described.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram for explaining a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which the print control apparatus according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention can be applied. The same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 denote the same parts. It is.

In FIG. 19, reference numeral 1070 denotes an interrupt print shift management unit which sets print shift condition information as shown in FIG. 20 by setting from data from the host computer 1001 or by setting on the operation panel unit 1041. Become. The page scheduling unit 1061
Then, according to the information of the interrupt print transfer management unit 1070, the printing order of the one-sided / two-sided, interrupted / interrupted document is considered from the information of the document information management unit 1060 in consideration of whether to shift to printing of the interrupted document. Decide whether to print the page next.

FIG. 20 is a diagram for explaining an example of print transition condition information managed by the interrupt print transition management unit 1070 shown in FIG. 19. In this embodiment, when executing an interrupt document, the interrupted document The condition is that if the remaining number of prints is equal to or more than five (for example, five), the process proceeds to the interrupt document print process.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart showing an example of the fifth data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. Note that (21001) to (21007) indicate each step.

First, when printing is started, generation of image information is monitored to determine whether or not image information has been generated (21001). If it is determined that image information has been generated, Determines whether there is an interrupt document page (21002). If it determines that there is an interrupt page, it performs an interrupt page selection process described in detail in FIG. 22 (21003). After the end of the process, the flow advances to step (21005).

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (21002) that there is no interrupt page, the next page to be printed is selected from normal (interrupted documents) documents (21004).

Next, a discharge port of the selected page is set (21005), image information and a bitmap image for the page are generated (21006), a discharge destination is set, and the page is transferred to the engine unit 1047 (21006). 21007). Then, the engine unit 1047 prints the transferred image and discharges the image to a specified discharge destination.

Then, it is checked whether or not printing of all pages for which image information has been generated has been completed (21008). If it is determined that printing has not been completed, step (21002) is performed.
And if it is determined that printing of all pages has been completed, the process from step (21001) is repeated.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart showing an example of the sixth data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. Note that (22001) to (22004) indicate each step. Further, in the present embodiment, an example is set in which, when the number of unprinted documents to be interrupted is five or more, the process shifts to print control of interrupted documents.

The step (2100) shown in FIG.
In step 3), when the page selection process at the time of interruption is started, first, it is determined whether only the interruption document remains to determine whether to print the interruption document, or whether the number of sheets for interrupt printing has been set. Is checked (22001), and if it is determined that there is no interrupted print page or if, for example, “0” is the initial value and is not set, the same processing as the conventional processing is executed, and step ( 22003), the next page of the document to be subjected to the interrupt printing (the first page of the interrupt document) is selected, and the page selection process at the time of the interrupt is ended.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (22001) that the number of sheets for transfer to interrupt printing has been set,
It checks how many pages of the interrupted document currently being printed have the number of pages remaining to be processed (22002). If it is determined that the number is smaller than the number of interrupted prints, the remaining interrupted pages are output with priority. Then, the next page of the document currently being printed is selected (22004), and the page selection process at the time of interruption is ended.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (22002) that the number is larger than the number of sheets to be transferred to interrupt printing, there is a possibility that the interrupt document will be made to wait. Therefore, the next page of the interrupt document with high urgency is selected. (22003)
End the page selection at the time of interruption.

As described above, except for the process of selecting the next print page, the process is the same as the conventional process. By performing the scheduling in which the next page is selected, the interrupted document is not printed. The transition to the interrupt printing is performed depending on the remaining pages.

FIG. 23 is a diagram for explaining a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention, and the horizontal axis indicates time.

According to the above embodiment, similar to the conventional example,
While printing the document BUN1 of the 5-page data specifying the output bin 3002 (output bin number 1), the output bin 3003
If it is assumed that the 100-page data document BUN2 specifying the (output bin number 2) is printed and the image information of the document BUN2 is generated at the end of printing the third page of the document BUN1, the document processing order as shown in FIG. Become. As shown in FIG. 20, when the interrupted print transfer number of the interrupted document (which is the interrupt print shift condition) is set to 5 pages, or when the image information of the interrupting document BUN2 is generated, the interrupted document is output. Since the remaining number of prints is two, pages 4 and 5 of document BUN1, which is the interrupted document, are printed first before printing the interrupted document.

Then, with the end of the interrupted document, the rest of the document BUN2, which is the interrupted document, is printed. As a result, the printing order is as shown in FIG. 24, the printing of the document BUN1 is completed by the fifth printing, and
In the fifth process, printing of all documents is completed.

As described above, by setting the remaining print number of the interrupted document to the interrupt print transfer number, the remaining print number of the interrupted document is taken into consideration. It is possible to reduce the waiting time of the user during printing by changing the timing of shifting to printing of a document.

[Fifth Embodiment] In the fourth embodiment described above, the case where the remaining print number of the interrupted document is set as the interrupted print transfer number has been described. It is also possible to configure so as to perform an embedded print transition control, or to check the continuous number of interrupt documents when interrupt documents continue. Hereinafter, the embodiment will be described.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram for explaining a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which the printing control apparatus according to the fifth embodiment of the present invention can be applied. The same reference numerals as in FIG. 19 denote the same parts. It is.

In FIG. 25, reference numeral 1071 denotes an interrupt continuous print number management unit which manages the number of sheets to be continuously printed by interrupt printing and the number of sheets to be printed by interrupt printing. The page scheduling unit 1061 determines which page is to be printed next from the information of the document information management unit 1060 in consideration of the allocation of resources to be used when printing a document, according to the information of the interrupt continuous printing number management unit 1071. .

FIG. 26 is a view for explaining an example of the print transfer condition information managed by the interrupt print transfer management unit 1070 shown in FIG. 25. In this embodiment, when the interrupt document is executed, the interrupt document is The total number of prints of the interrupt document in the case of continuous printing and the remaining planned number of prints of the interrupt document to be printed in total is specified. An example is shown in which a transition is made to printing control of an interrupted document when the total number of continuous prints of the document is 12 pages or more.

Note that the continuous total number of prints of the interrupt document is set by data from the host computer 1001 or user setting from the operation panel unit 1041, and the set value (stored in the RAM 1036 or the external memory unit 1043). ) Is managed by the interrupt print shift management unit 1070.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart showing an example of the seventh data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. Note that (27001) to (27006) indicate each step.

In step (21003) shown in FIG. 21, when the page selection process at the time of interruption is performed, first, only the print of the interrupt document remains to determine whether to print the interrupt document, or It is checked whether or not the interrupted print transfer number is set (27001), and if it is determined that no interrupted print page remains or if it is determined that “0” is an initial value and is not set, for example, The same processing is performed, and the flow advances to step (27003) to select the next page of the document to be subjected to interrupt printing (firstly, the first page of the interrupt document), and further increase the counter for counting the total number of interrupted print sheets by +1. (27004), the page selection process at the time of the interruption ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (27001) that the number of sheets for transfer to interrupt printing has been set,
It is checked whether the value obtained by adding the number of interrupted prints currently being printed and the number of interrupted prints currently being printed (current number of interrupted prints) and the planned number of interrupted prints is “0” or less than the number of sheets to be switched (27002). If it is determined that the number of interrupted prints is less than the number of interrupted prints, it is determined that the number of interrupted prints is not too large, and the interrupted document is output with priority. Therefore, the next page of the interrupt document is selected (27003), the counter for counting the total number of interrupted prints is incremented by one (27004), and the page selection process at the time of interrupt is terminated.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (27002) that the number of sheets for interrupt printing is larger than the number of sheets for interrupt printing, that is, it is determined that the number of sheets for interrupt printing becomes large and the interrupted document is made to wait, and For priority output, the next page of the interrupted document is selected (27005), the counter for counting the total number of interrupted prints is reset to "0" (27006), and the page selection process at the time of interruption is terminated. .

The process is the same as the process of the fourth embodiment except that the method of selecting the next print page is different, and the process returns to the process of FIG.

FIG. 28 is a diagram for explaining a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.
9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention, and the horizontal axis indicates time.

According to the above embodiment, similar to the conventional example,
While printing the document BUN1 of the 5-page data specifying the output bin 3002 (output bin number 1), the output bin 3003
If the 100-page data document BUN2 with the specified (output bin number 2) is printed and the image information of the document BUN2 is generated when the printing of the third page of the document BUN1 is completed, an attempt is made to print a 100-page interrupt document. At this stage, since the number of transferred sheets for interrupt printing in FIG. 26 is larger than 12, the printing of the document BUN1 of the interrupted document currently being printed is finished first, and then the interrupt document of document BUN2 is printed, as shown in FIG. Processing order. As a result, the same print result as in FIG. 24 is obtained as in the fourth embodiment.

The number of sheets to be transferred for interrupt printing is the same as above, and an interrupt IR1 occurs during printing of the document BUN1 of the 5-page data specifying the output bin 3002, and the 5-page data document BUN2 specifying the output bin 3003. Is printed, and an interrupt IR2 is further generated during the printing, and the image information of the 100-page data document BUN3 that specifies the discharge bin 3006 (discharge bin number 5) is generated.
In the case of the interrupt printing of the document BUN2, since the number of sheets to be transferred to the interrupt printing is less than 12, the document BUN2 is first printed in the middle of the document BUN1.

However, when the interrupt IR2 occurs, the total number of interrupted prints becomes 5, and the number of printable sheets of the interrupt document BUN3 is added to 100, which is larger than the number of transferred interrupted prints of 12, so that at that time, The fourth and fifth pages in the middle of the document BUN1 are printed first, and the document BUN3 is finally printed. As a result, the processing order is as shown in FIG. 28, and the printing result is as shown in FIG.

As described above, the interrupted document is printed by changing the timing of transition to the interrupted document printing by giving priority to the interrupted document depending on the number of interrupted document prints in consideration of the number of interrupted document prints. The waiting time of the user can be reduced.

Also, in the case where the interrupted document is continuous, the number of consecutively printed interrupted documents is taken into consideration, and the interrupted document is given priority depending on the number of printed interrupted documents.
By changing the timing to shift to the printing of the interrupted document, the waiting time of the user who is printing the interrupted document can be reduced.

[Sixth Embodiment] In the fourth and fifth embodiments, according to the set interruption print switching number at the time of interruption printing, the interruption is performed according to the number of interrupted documents or interruption documents. A case has been described in which control is performed so as to reduce the waiting time of the user who is printing the interrupted document by shifting the timing of printing, but interrupt printing switching is performed for each user or group using the printer. The number of copies may be specified, and the priority may be dynamically switched and controlled by the interrupted document or the user or group using the interrupted document. Hereinafter, the embodiment will be described.

FIGS. 30 and 31 are diagrams showing an example of an interrupt print shift number setting table in the print control apparatus according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention, which is stored in the RAM 1036 or the external memory unit 1043 in FIG. 19 or FIG. Be managed.

In particular, in the example shown in FIG. 30, when the interruption is being performed by the user A, the number of remaining prints of the interrupted document is 5, and when the interruption is being performed by the user B, the remaining number of prints of the interrupted document is 20. This corresponds to a case where the timing of interrupt printing is set to be changed on a sheet boundary.

In the example shown in FIG. 31, users C and D
The number of remaining prints of the interrupted document is 5 for an interrupt during printing by a user of the group GA to which the user belongs, and the remaining number of prints of the interrupted document is 20 for an interrupt during printing by a user of the group GB to which the users E and F belong. This corresponds to a case where the timing of interrupt printing is set to be changed on a sheet boundary. Note that the hardware configuration of the printer and the like is the same as in the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart showing an example of the eighth data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. Note that (32001) to (32004) indicate each step.

In the step (21003) shown in FIG. 21, when the page selection processing at the time of interruption is performed, first, only the printing of the interruption document remains to determine whether to print the interruption document, or It is checked whether the interrupted print transfer number of the user or group of the interrupted document is currently set (3.
2001), if there is no interrupted print page left or if it is determined that, for example, “0” is the initial value and the number of sheets to be interrupted by the user or group is not set, the processing is the same as the conventional processing, and step ( 3200
Proceeding to 3), select the next page of the document on which interrupt printing is to be performed (the first page of the interrupt document), and end the page selection process at the time of interruption.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (32001) that the number of sheets to be transferred to interrupt printing for the user or group of the interrupted document has been set, processing remains among the interrupted documents currently being printed. The number of pages to be printed is checked (32002), and if it is determined that the number is smaller than the number of sheets for interrupt printing set for each user or group, the remaining number of interrupted sheets is output with priority. The next page of the document being printed is selected (32004), and the page selection process at the time of interruption ends.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (32002) that the number of sheets for interrupt printing is larger for each user or group, there is a possibility that the interrupted document may be made to wait. Select the next page of the document and end page selection at interrupt.

Except for referring to the number of sheets to be printed for each user or group as described above, the process is the same as the process of the fourth embodiment, and returns to the process of FIG.

FIGS. 33 and 34 are diagrams for explaining a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. FIGS. 35 and 36 show an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention. It is a figure which shows a horizontal axis and time.

According to the above embodiment, for example, the user A
Prints a 100-page data document BUN2 in which the user B has specified the output bin 3003 while the document B is printing the document BUN1 of 10-page data in which the output bin 3002 is specified.
Assuming that the image information of the document BUN2 is generated at the end of the printing of the third page of the UN1, the number of pages to be interrupted for the interrupted document is set to 5 in the user A as shown in FIG. At the time when the image information of the document BUN2, which is the interrupted document, is generated, the remaining number of prints of the interrupted document is 7 pages.
The processing is performed as shown in FIG.
In step (2), since the number is larger than the number of transferred sheets, step (32)
At 003), the document BUN2 which is the interruption document is printed first. As a result, printing is performed in the order shown in FIG.

On the other hand, on the other hand, the user B
During printing of the document BUN3 of 10-page data specifying 004, the user A prints the 100-page data document BUN4 specifying the output bin 3005. When the printing of the third page of the document BUN3 is completed, the image information of the document BUN4 is displayed. If it is generated, as shown in FIG. 30, in the user B, the interrupted print transfer number of the interrupted document is set to 20 pages, and the document BUN which is the interrupted document is set.
At the time when the image information of No. 4 is generated, since the number of remaining prints of the interrupted document is 7 pages, it is processed in the order shown in FIG. 34, and is smaller than the transfer number in step (32002) shown in FIG. , Step (32004)
, The document BUN3 which is the interrupted document is printed first. As a result, printing is performed in the order shown in FIG.

[0209] Similar processing is performed even if the number of sheets to be transferred for interrupt printing is set in a group as shown in FIG. While printing the document BUN1 of the 10-page data in which the user D specifies the output bin 3002, the user F prints the 100-page data document 2 in which the output bin 3003 is specified, and outputs the document BU.
Assuming that the image information of the document BUN2 is generated at the end of the printing of the third page of N1, in the group A to which the user D belongs, as shown in FIG. When the image information of the document BUN2, which is the interrupting document, is generated, since the number of remaining prints of the interrupted document is 7 pages, the processing is performed in the order shown in FIG. 33, and the process shown in FIG. In step (32003), the document BUN2, which is the interrupted document, is printed first. As a result, FIG.
5 are printed in the order shown in FIG.

On the other hand, on the other hand, the user F
During printing of document BUN3 of 10-page data specifying 004, user D prints 100-page data document BUN4 specifying output bin 3005. When printing of the third page of document BUN3 is completed, image information of document BUN4 is displayed. If it is generated, as shown in FIG. 31, in the group B to which the user F belongs, the interrupted print transfer number of the interrupted document is set to 20 pages, and the image information of the document BUN4 which is the interrupted document is generated. At this point, since the remaining number of prints of the interrupted document is seven pages, the processing is performed in the order shown in FIG. 34. In step (32002) shown in FIG. ), The document BUN3 which is the interrupted document is printed first. As a result, FIG.
Are performed in the order shown in FIG. 7, and the operation is the same as that when the number of sheets for interrupt printing is set by the user name.

In the above embodiment, the user,
Alternatively, the group is divided into two, but by preparing settings for multiple users and groups,
Obviously, it is also possible to relatively set the priority of the document being interrupted and the document to be interrupted printed between users and groups, for other users or groups.

It is apparent that it is also possible to set the number of sheets to be transferred to interrupt printing for an interrupt document in the same manner as in the fifth embodiment.

At the same time, it is apparent that the number of sheets to be transferred to the interrupted document and the number of sheets to be transferred to the interrupted document can be used together.

By setting the number of interrupted documents according to the user or group that is printing a document in this way, even a user with a low interrupt priority has a small number of interrupted documents or a large number of interrupted documents. In this case, by not shifting to interrupt printing until the interrupted document is completed, it is possible to reduce the waiting time of a user with a low priority.

Note that constructing a system by appropriately combining the first to sixth embodiments is within the scope of the present invention. The first to third embodiments and the fourth to sixth embodiments can be selected. And the print processing order control is dynamically switched according to the setting state of the mode. Thereby, the respective effects shown in the first to sixth embodiments are synergistically obtained.

According to the above-mentioned first to third embodiments, even when the number of output interrupt documents is very large, printing of the interrupted document does not continue forever, and the user who is printing the interrupted document can continue printing. Waiting time can be reduced.

Further, by setting the ratio of the number of output sheets or the ratio of the printing time, the interrupted document and the interrupted document are managed in page units, and even when the interrupted documents are continuous, the interrupted document is printed. Can reduce the waiting time of the user who is printing the interrupted document without continuing printing forever.

Further, by setting the ratio of the number of output sheets or the ratio of the printing time, it is possible to eliminate the state that the user of the interrupted document cannot always output to the end, and manage the interrupted document and the interrupted document in page units. And assigning resources to the interrupt document and the interrupted document in the same manner, and controlling to set resource allocation according to the importance of the interrupt.

[0219] Interrupt printing is realized by allocating available resources while utilizing both printing between users and between groups, and eliminating the possibility that only the one with the highest interrupt level monopolizes the printing apparatus. Between users,
Control for allocating available resources can be performed based on the relative relationship between groups.

Further, according to the fourth to sixth embodiments,
By changing the timing of shifting to printing of the interrupt document, the waiting time of the user during printing can be reduced.

Also, taking into account the number of interrupted document prints,
Depending on the number of interrupted documents to be printed, the interrupted document can be prioritized, and the timing of transition to interrupted document printing can be changed to reduce the waiting time of the user during printing.

Further, considering the remaining number of prints of the interrupted document, depending on the number of prints, priority is given to the interrupted document, and the timing of transition to printing of the interrupted document is changed to reduce the waiting time of the user during printing. can do.

Also, in the case where interrupted documents are continuous, the interrupted document is given priority depending on the number of printed interrupted documents in consideration of the number of consecutively printed interrupted documents.
By changing the timing of shifting to printing of the interrupt document, the waiting time of the user during printing can be reduced.

Further, since the setting can be made for each user or group, the interrupted document is terminated when the number of interrupted documents is small or the number of interrupted documents is large even for a user having a low interrupt priority. By not shifting to interrupt printing until now, the waiting time of a user with a low priority can be reduced.

The configuration of a data processing program readable by a printing system to which the print control device according to the present invention can be applied will be described below with reference to a memory map shown in FIG.

FIG. 37 is a diagram illustrating a memory map of a storage medium that stores various data processing programs that can be read by a printing system to which the print control device according to the present invention can be applied.

Although not shown, information for managing a group of programs stored in the storage medium, for example, version information, a creator, etc. are also stored, and information dependent on the OS or the like on the program reading side, for example, An icon or the like for identification display may also be stored.

Further, data dependent on various programs is also managed in the directory. In addition, a program for installing various programs on a computer or a program for decompressing a program to be installed when the program to be installed is compressed may be stored.

In this embodiment, FIGS.
16, FIG. 21, FIG. 22, FIG. 27, FIG. The functions described in (1) and (2) may be performed by a host computer by a program installed from the outside. In that case, CD-ROM, flash memory, FD
The present invention can be applied to a case in which a group of information including a program is supplied to an output device from a storage medium such as the above or from an external storage medium via a network.

As described above, the storage medium storing the program codes of the software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to the system or the apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or MP) of the system or the apparatus is supplied.
It goes without saying that the object of the present invention is also achieved when U) reads and executes the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, C
D-ROM, CD-R, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, EEPROM, etc. can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) And the like perform part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, The CPU provided in the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing,
It goes without saying that a case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.

[0235]

As described above, the first embodiment according to the present invention is described.
According to the forty-fifth aspect, in the print control device that performs the print process based on the document information received from the host computer, the print control device performs the print process based on the previously received document information,
When receiving interrupt document information instructed to perform interrupt printing from the host computer, a page output schedule of the received interrupt document information and the document information being printed is determined based on a fixed ratio, and the determined page is determined. Since the mutual output between the document information being printed and the interrupt document information is controlled based on the output schedule, interrupt document information having a large number of pages designated for interrupt printing is prioritized, and the number of preceding pages is small. Automatically eliminating the delay of print output of document information, guaranteeing mutual page output between interrupted document information and document information being printed,
It is possible to freely construct a convenient printing environment while flexibly responding to each user's printing request.

Further, in a print control apparatus which performs print processing based on document information received from a host computer, when interrupt document information is received, it is possible to shift from print processing of previously received document information to print processing of the interrupt document information. When it is determined whether or not the predetermined condition is satisfied, when it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the printing process based on the previously received document information is changed to the interrupt printing process of the interrupt document information. By shifting, the print output timing of the interrupt document information is changed depending on the mutual relationship between the preceding document information and the interrupt document information, so that the interrupt document information having a large number of pages designated for interrupt printing is given priority. Automatically eliminates the delay of print output of leading document information with a small number of pages. The guarantee mutual page output of the document information, flexibly while addressed to the print request of each user, the effect of such can be constructed excellent print environment convenience freely.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which a print control apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a printing device engine unit illustrated in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a paper discharge device that can be optionally connected to the housing illustrated in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a first data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a second data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which a print control apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a page processing distribution information table managed in a RAM or an external memory unit illustrated in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a third data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which a print control apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a page processing distribution information table managed by the RAM or the external memory unit illustrated in FIG. 13;

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of a page processing distribution information table managed by a RAM or an external memory unit shown in FIG.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a fourth data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which a print control apparatus according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

20 is a diagram illustrating an example of print transfer condition information managed by the interrupt print transfer management unit illustrated in FIG. 19;

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a fifth data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a sixth data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 23 is a diagram illustrating a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a diagram showing an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a block diagram illustrating a control configuration of a printing apparatus to which a print control apparatus according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention can be applied.

26 is a diagram illustrating an example of print transfer condition information managed by the interrupt print transfer management unit illustrated in FIG. 25.

FIG. 27 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a seventh data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt print shift sheet number setting table in the print control apparatus according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt print shift sheet number setting table in the print control apparatus according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an eighth data processing procedure in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 34 is a diagram illustrating a page processing schedule in the print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 35 is a diagram showing an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 36 is a diagram showing an example of an interrupt document output schedule in the print control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 37 is a diagram illustrating a memory map of a storage medium that stores various data processing programs that can be read by a printing system to which the print control device according to the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a print processing procedure in this type of print control apparatus.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a print processing procedure in this type of print control apparatus.

FIG. 40 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in a conventional print control apparatus.

FIG. 41 is a diagram illustrating an example of an interrupt document output schedule in a conventional print control apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1001 Host computer 1002 Communication line 1030 Laser beam printer 1031 Printer controller 1032 Host I / F section 1033 Input / output buffer 1034 CPU 1035 Program R0M 1036 RAM 1037 Image information generation section 1038 Bitmap image development / transfer section 1039 Printing apparatus engine section 1040 Engine I / F section 1041 operation panel section 1042 panel I / F section 1043 external memory section 1044 memory I / F section 1046 engine control section 1055 system bus 1060 document information management section 1061 page scheduling section

Claims (45)

[Claims] 1. A printing control apparatus capable of receiving interrupted document information instructed by an interrupt printing from the host computer during a printing process based on document information previously received from a host computer. Page scheduling means for determining a page output schedule of the interrupt document information and the document information being printed based on a predetermined ratio; and the document information being printed based on the page output schedule determined by the page scheduling means. And a control unit for controlling mutual output of the interrupt document information and the interrupt document information. 2. Based on input resource allocation information,
2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a setting unit that sets the predetermined ratio. 3. The print control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the resource allocation information can be specified by a command from the host computer. 4. The printing control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the resource allocation information can be specified according to a panel operation by a user. 5. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined ratio is a ratio of output sheets. 6. The printing control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined ratio is a ratio of a printing time. 7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined ratio can be set for each user or each group.
The print control device according to any one of the above. 8. A print control device capable of receiving interrupted document information instructed by the host computer for interrupt printing during a printing process based on document information previously received from a host computer, the print control device comprising: Determining means for determining whether a predetermined condition capable of shifting from the print processing of the previously received document information to the print processing of the interrupt document information is satisfied, and the predetermined condition Interrupt print switching management means for shifting from print processing based on the previously received document information to interrupt print processing of the interrupt document information when it is determined that Print control device. 9. The interrupt print switching management unit, if the determination unit determines that the predetermined condition is not satisfied, after giving priority to a print process based on the previously received document information, 9. The printing control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the process is shifted to an interrupt printing process of the interrupt document information. 10. A first interrupt print shift number setting means for setting a remaining interrupt print shift number setting means for setting a remaining print number of document information in a printing process, wherein the predetermined condition is the first interrupt print shift number setting means. 9. The print control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the print control apparatus is determined based on the remaining number of prints of the document information during the printing process set by the following. 11. A second interrupt printing shift number setting means for setting a scheduled number of prints of document information in a printing process, wherein the predetermined condition is set by the second interrupt printing shift number setting means. 9. The print control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the print control apparatus is determined based on the set expected number of prints of the document information during the printing process. 12. A third interrupt printing shift number setting means for setting a continuous interrupt printing shift number setting means for setting a continuous printing number of the document information being printed, wherein the predetermined condition is the third interrupt printing shift number setting means. 9. The print control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the print control apparatus is determined based on the number of continuous prints of the document information during the print processing set by the following. 13. The print control apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said first interrupt print transfer number setting means can be set for each user or each group. 14. The print control apparatus according to claim 11, wherein said second interrupt print transfer number setting means can be set for each user or each group. 15. The print control apparatus according to claim 12, wherein said third interrupt print transfer number setting means can be set for each user or each group. 16. A print control method in a print control apparatus capable of receiving interrupted document information instructed by the host computer to perform interrupt printing during print processing based on document information previously received from a host computer, wherein A page scheduling step of determining a page output schedule of the interrupt document information and the document information being printed based on a predetermined ratio; and a document being printed based on the page output schedule determined by the page scheduling step. And a control step of controlling mutual output of the information and the interrupt document information. 17. The print control method according to claim 16, further comprising a setting step of setting the predetermined ratio based on the input resource allocation information. 18. The print control method according to claim 17, wherein the resource allocation information can be specified by a command from the host computer. 19. The print control method according to claim 17, wherein said resource allocation information can be designated according to a panel operation by a user. 20. The print control method according to claim 16, wherein the predetermined ratio is a ratio of output sheets. 21. The print control method according to claim 16, wherein the predetermined ratio is a ratio of a print time. 22. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined ratio can be set for each user or each group.
6. The printing control method according to any one of 6, 17, 20, 21. 23. A print control method in a print control device capable of receiving interrupt document information instructed by an interrupt print from the host computer during a print process based on document information previously received from a host computer, the print control method comprising: A determining step of determining whether a predetermined condition capable of shifting from the print processing of the previously received document information to the print processing of the interrupt document information is satisfied during the processing of the information; and And an interrupt print switching management step of shifting from a print process based on the previously received document information to an interrupt print process of the interrupt document information when it is determined that is satisfied. Control method. 24. The interrupt print switching management step,
When it is determined in the determining step that the predetermined condition is not satisfied, after the printing process based on the previously received document information is preferentially terminated, the process is shifted to the interrupt printing process of the interrupt document information. 24. The print control method according to claim 23, wherein: 25. A first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step for setting a remaining print sheet number of the document information being printed, wherein the predetermined condition is that the first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step be performed. 24. The print control method according to claim 23, wherein the print control method is determined based on the remaining number of prints of the document information during the print processing set by the following. 26. A method according to claim 26, further comprising the step of setting a second number of sheets for interrupt printing to set the number of sheets to be printed of the document information being printed. 24. The print control method according to claim 23, wherein the print control method is determined based on the set expected number of prints of the document information during the printing process. 27. A third interrupt print shift number setting step for setting a continuous interrupt print shift number setting step for setting a continuous print number of the document information being printed, and wherein the predetermined condition is the third interrupt print shift number setting step. 24. The print control method according to claim 23, wherein the print control method is determined based on the number of continuous prints of the document information during the print processing set by the following. 28. The print control method according to claim 25, wherein the first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step can be set for each user or each group. 29. The print control method according to claim 26, wherein the second interrupt print transfer number setting step can be set for each user or each group. 30. The print control method according to claim 27, wherein the third interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step can be set for each user or each group. 31. A print control apparatus capable of receiving interrupt document information instructed to perform interrupt printing from the host computer during a printing process based on document information previously received from a host computer, the interrupt document information to be processed and the A page scheduling step of determining a page output schedule with the document information being printed based on a predetermined ratio; and, based on the page output schedule determined by the page scheduling step, the document information being printed and the interrupted document information. And a computer-readable storage medium storing a program for executing a control step of controlling mutual output with the computer. 32. The storage medium according to claim 31, further comprising a setting step of setting the predetermined ratio based on the input resource allocation information. 33. The storage medium according to claim 32, wherein said resource allocation information can be specified by a command from said host computer. 34. The storage medium according to claim 32, wherein said resource allocation information can be designated according to a panel operation by a user. 35. The storage medium according to claim 31, wherein the predetermined ratio is a ratio of the number of output sheets. 36. The storage medium according to claim 31, wherein the predetermined ratio is a ratio of a printing time. 37. The system according to claim 3, wherein the predetermined ratio can be set for each user or each group.
The storage medium according to any one of 1, 32, 35, and 36. 38. A print control apparatus capable of receiving interrupt document information instructed by the host computer to perform interrupt printing during printing processing based on document information previously received from the host computer. A judging step of judging whether or not a predetermined condition capable of shifting from the printing process of the previously received document information to the printing process of the interrupt document information is satisfied; and that the predetermined condition is satisfied by the judging step. If it is determined, a computer-readable storage storing a program for executing an interrupt print switching management step of performing a print process based on the previously received document information and shifting to an interrupt print process of the interrupt document information Medium. 39. The print switching management step, wherein, when it is determined by the determining step that the predetermined condition is not satisfied, the print processing based on the previously received document information is preferentially terminated, and 39. The process is shifted to interrupt print processing of interrupt document information.
The storage medium according to the above. 40. A first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step for setting a remaining print sheet number of the document information being printed, wherein the predetermined condition is that the first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step be performed. 39. The storage medium according to claim 38, wherein the storage medium is determined based on the remaining number of prints of the document information during the printing process set by the following. 41. A method according to claim 41, further comprising the step of setting a second number of sheets to be transferred for interrupt printing to set the number of sheets to be printed of the document information being printed. 39. The storage medium according to claim 38, wherein the storage medium is determined based on the set expected number of prints of the document information being set in the printing process. 42. A third interrupt print transfer number setting step for setting a continuous print number of document information in a printing process, wherein the predetermined condition is the third interrupt print transfer number setting step. 39. The storage medium according to claim 38, wherein the storage medium is determined based on the number of continuous prints of the document information during the printing process set by the following. 43. The storage medium according to claim 40, wherein the first interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step can be set for each user or each group. 44. The storage medium according to claim 41, wherein said second interrupt print transfer number setting step can be set for each user or each group. 45. The storage medium according to claim 42, wherein the third interrupt print transfer sheet number setting step can be set for each user or each group.