JP2002268855A - System and method for forming image and computer readable recording medium with program for making computer perform image forming method recorded thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize smooth printing that has high throughput by selecting an image forming device fitting a printing attribute when image forming devices that respectively have different imaging processes are connected to a network. SOLUTION: In an image formation system having a plurality of host computers 11, 12 and 13, a plurality of printers 21, 22 and 23 that respectively have different imaging processes, and a printer front end 3 for performing selection processing in response to a printing request from the host computers 11, 12 and 13 on the network 4, the printer front end 3 collects printing attribute information such as print quality of a document of the printing request and the number of copies to be printed and selects a printer among the printers 21, 22 and 23 according to the printing attribute information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which selects an image forming apparatus suitable for print attribute information and prints out an image when a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming processes are connected on a network. The present invention relates to a forming system, an image forming method, and a computer-readable recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the image forming method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In printing in a conventional image forming apparatus,
A method has been adopted in which an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected in consideration of the color attribute of a document. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-15875, entitled "Printing Apparatus, Print Control Method, and Storage Medium" is disclosed as a related technical document.

[0003]

However, in the conventional image forming method, there is a problem in which image forming apparatus the image is formed, and the selection based on the characteristics of the output document is limited. That is, when there are printers A, B, and C, and there is a document to be output, only the printer is selected from the viewpoint of which printer is available and which printer can be used.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above, and when image forming apparatuses having different image forming processes are connected on a network, an image forming apparatus suitable for print attributes is selected. It is an object to realize flexible and high-throughput printing.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, an image forming system according to claim 1 is provided.
On a network, there are provided a plurality of computers, a plurality of image forming apparatuses each including an image forming engine having a different image forming process, and a selection processing unit for executing a selection process according to a print request from the plurality of computers. An image forming system, wherein the selection processing means collects print attribute information such as print quality and the number of prints of a document requested to be printed, and selects the print attribute from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines. The image forming apparatus is selected according to the information.

According to the present invention, print attribute information such as print quality and the number of prints of a document to be printed is collected, and a plurality of images having different image forming engines are determined based on the obtained and judged print attribute information. By selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among the forming apparatuses, it becomes possible to perform a print output by an image forming apparatus that is suitable for printing attributes or is most appropriate.

Further, in the image forming system according to the second aspect, the selection processing means selects a printing load, a number of printed sheets, and a printing load from a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process. The image forming apparatus is selected in accordance with one of the criteria of printing speed, printing quality, and printing cost.

According to the present invention, print attribute information such as the print load, the number of prints, the print speed, the print quality, and the print cost of a document to be printed is collected, and based on the obtained judgment and based on the print attribute information, By selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, an image that is suitable or most appropriate for a document print load, the number of prints, a print speed, a print quality, and a print cost. Printing output by the forming apparatus becomes possible.

In the image forming system according to a third aspect, the selection processing means selects an image forming apparatus from a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process. If necessary, conversion into a page description language that can be processed by the printer is performed.

According to the present invention, when an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, a page description language (Page Description Language) which can be processed by a printer as necessary. (Language: PDL)
By performing the conversion to, there is no need for each image forming apparatus to have a decoder corresponding to a plurality of PDLs.

In the image forming system according to a fourth aspect, the selection processing means includes a plurality of image forming engines each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process based on input device information to be printed. The image forming apparatus is selected from the apparatuses.

According to the present invention, when an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, an image forming apparatus (such as color or monochrome) suitable for input device information is selected. By selecting, an image forming apparatus capable of printing a color image is selected, for example, when the input device outputs a color image.

Further, in the image forming system according to the present invention, the plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process include an electrophotographic system, an ink jet system, a thermal transfer system, and a thermal sublimation system. , Silver salt method and stencil method.

According to the present invention, a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines are of an electrophotographic type, an ink jet type, a thermal transfer type, a thermal sublimation type, a silver halide type, and a stencil type, thereby providing a wide range of printing attributes. It becomes possible to adapt to.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming method, a plurality of computers, a plurality of image forming apparatuses each including an image forming engine having a different image forming process, and the plurality of computers are provided on a network. Selection processing means for performing a selection process according to the print request, and a print quality information of a document to be printed, a step of collecting print attribute information such as the number of prints,
Selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines based on the obtained print attribute information.

According to the present invention, print attribute information such as print quality and the number of prints of a document to be printed is collected, and a plurality of images having different image forming engines are determined and obtained based on the obtained print attribute information. By selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among the forming apparatuses, it becomes possible to perform a print output by an image forming apparatus that is suitable for printing attributes or is most appropriate.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the image forming method, a plurality of computers, a plurality of image forming apparatuses each including an image forming engine having a different image forming process, and the plurality of computers are provided on a network. A selection processing means for executing a selection process in response to the print request of step (a), wherein a step of collecting input device information to be printed, and a step of performing different operations based on the obtained input device information. Selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having an image engine.

According to the present invention, when an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, an image forming apparatus (color or monochrome, etc.) suitable for input device information. By selecting, an image forming apparatus capable of printing a color image is selected, for example, when the input device outputs a color image.

According to the image forming method of the present invention, the print load, the number of prints, the print speed, the print quality, and the print load are selected from a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process. The image forming apparatus is selected in accordance with one of the printing cost criteria.

According to the present invention, print attribute information such as the print load, the number of prints, the print speed, the print quality, and the print cost of a document to be printed is collected, and based on the obtained judgment and based on the print attribute information, By selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, an image that is suitable or most appropriate for a document print load, the number of prints, a print speed, a print quality, and a print cost. Printing output by the forming apparatus becomes possible.

In the image forming method according to the ninth aspect, when an image forming apparatus is selected from a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process, The conversion into a page description language that can be processed by the printer is performed.

According to the present invention, when an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, a page description language (PDL) which can be processed by a printer as necessary. By performing the conversion to, there is no need for each image forming apparatus to have a decoder corresponding to a plurality of PDLs.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming method, the plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process include an electrophotographic system, an ink jet system, a thermal transfer system, and a thermal sublimation system. , Silver salt method,
This includes the stencil method.

According to the present invention, a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines are of an electrophotographic type, an ink jet type, a thermal transfer type, a thermal sublimation type, a silver halide type, and a stencil type, so that a wide range of printing attributes can be obtained. It becomes possible to adapt to.

Further, in the computer-readable recording medium according to the eleventh aspect, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium.
A program for causing a computer to execute the image forming method according to any one of the tenth aspects.

According to the present invention, a program for causing a computer to execute the image forming method according to any one of claims 6 to 10 is recorded.
0 can be realized by a computer.

[0027]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of an image forming system and an image forming method according to the present invention and a computer-readable recording medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the image forming method will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. And will be described in detail. The present invention is not limited to this embodiment.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an image forming system applicable to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, host computers 11, 12, 13; printers 21, 22, 23;
The printer is configured by a printer front end 3 that analyzes a print attribute in a print output request of the printers 2 and 13 and selects any one of the printers 21, 22, and 23, and a cable or a network (LAN) 4 that connects them. .

In this embodiment, as a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process, for example, an electrophotographic monochrome printer 2
1. An ink jet type color printer 22 and a stencil type monochrome printer 23 are used. Although a plurality of printers 21, 22, and 23 are connected as described above,
Since the printer front end 3 is interposed, the host computer 11, 12, and 13 see the printer as one printer. And the printer front end 3
It has a database of the profiles of the connected printers 21, 22, 23.

First, the outline of the operation of the image forming system will be described. In the host computers 11, 12, and 13, a print output process is started by an application program according to a print command from a user. Then, the printer driver converts the document information of the application into the PDL format and outputs it to the printer. Host computer 11,
The PDL format document information output from the printers 12 and 13 is sent to the selected printer via the printer front end 3. In the printer controller, the document information is finally converted (decoded) into bitmap document information. The document converted to the bitmap format is sent to the image forming engine, where the document is printed on a recording sheet to generate a hard copy.

The printers 21, 22, 2
3 is a printer to be selected as a print output device. This is based on the print setting menu 3 shown in FIG.
0 is the base. The user selects an appropriate item from the menu print setting menu 30. This embodiment shows an example in which cost priority is selected.

First, here, menu selection is executed (step S1). Here, the standard 31 is selected (step S2). In addition, cost priority 32 or speed priority 3
If No. 3 is selected, it is determined whether or not the number of prints is 10 or more (step S3), and if it is above 10, a stencil printing machine is selected (step S4). Alternatively, when the image quality priority 34 is selected, it is further determined whether or not the image is a monochrome image (step S6). If it is determined that the image is not a monochrome image, an inkjet printer is selected (step S7). When the standard 31 is selected, the printer (electrophotographic printer) set as default is selected (step S2). On the other hand, step S3
In step S6, if it is determined that the print is not more than 10 sheets, or if it is determined in step S6 that the image is a monochrome image, an electrophotographic printer is selected (step S6).
5).

That is, based on this information, the printer front end 3 selects an appropriate image forming apparatus under control according to the flowchart shown in FIG.
In this embodiment, since the selection items are cost priority 32 and the number of print copies 35 is 50, the stencil printing machine is selected as the image forming apparatus.

This is because, when a certain number of sheets or more are printed, the stencil printing method has a lower printing unit price than the photographic method, so that printing with good cost performance is performed. Further, in printing a large number of printouts, a printer using an electrophotography as an imaging engine must decode the PDL for each page every time.
Since the stencil printing machine only needs to make a master (master) once, it is expected that a high throughput can be achieved.

(Embodiment 2) Next, Embodiment 2 will be described with reference to FIG. In the first embodiment, the PDL output from the host computer can be decoded by the printer. However, PDL
There are various formats, and any format may be used as long as the printer can support the PDL format generated by the printer driver as a PDL format that can be decoded by the printer. In particular, under the present circumstances, a driver and a printer are handled as one set for each maker. Therefore, it is not easy to output data using a driver of an A maker and a printer of a B maker. Also, even if provided by the same maker, if the PDL format is different or the version is different, appropriate print processing may not be performed.

Therefore, in order to solve this problem, the printer front end 3 first employs FIG.
After selecting an image forming apparatus according to the steps indicated by (1) (step S11), it is checked whether the PDL passed from the host computer can be decoded by the selected printer (step S12). If you can decode it, just send the data to the selected printer,
Print processing is performed (step S14). If it cannot be decoded, it is converted to a PDL format that can be decoded.
(Step S13), print processing is performed (Step S15).

As described above, the PD is added to the printer front end.
By providing the L conversion function, there is no need for each image forming apparatus to prepare a decoder corresponding to a plurality of PDLs.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 5 is an overall configuration diagram of an image forming apparatus applicable to an embodiment of the present invention. This system analyzes a request of a digital camera 51 as an input device, a printer 21, 22, 23 as an image forming apparatus, and a request of the digital camera 51, and selects an arbitrary one from a group of printers 21, 22, 23. , And a cable or network (L
AN) 4.

In this embodiment, an electrophotographic monochrome printer 21, an ink jet color printer 22, and a stencil monochrome printer 23 are used as a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines.

First, an outline of the operation of the image forming system will be described with reference to FIG. Three printers 21, 22, and 23 are connected to the printer front end 3. When these printers 21, 22, and 23 are connected, the printers 21, 22, and 23 notify the printer front end 3 of their presence. Notify through network 4. The printers 21, 22, 23 and the printer front end 3 exchange data, and a service ID, service contents, and a driver are entered in a database (DB) in the printer front end 3 (FIG. 6). This is performed autonomously while the network 4 is hot (active).

Now, here, the digital camera 51
It is assumed that a user who wants to output a hard copy of the image has connected the digital camera 51 to the network 4. The digital camera 51 also goes through the above-described process and is entered in the database of the printer front end 3 (FIG. 6). Then, in order to output an image of the digital camera 51, a print service is requested to the printer front end 3 (FIG. 6).

The printer front end 3 sends a service corresponding to the requested print service to the digital camera 5.
1 and the digital camera 51 returns the returned printer 2
Download printer drivers 1,2,23
(In FIG. 6). More specifically, when a print service is requested, the printer front end 3 detects that the request source (input device) is the digital camera 3 and selects one of the printers 21, 22, 23 currently registered in the database. The most suitable one, in this case, the printer 2 capable of color output is selected. If the print service request is FAX (facsimile s petite), the printer 1 is selected because it is monochrome and has a small number of prints.

Next, the digital camera 51 converts the image into the PDL format using the downloaded printer driver and outputs the image to the printer. The PDL format document information output from the digital camera 51 is sent to the printer via the printer front end 3. At this time, the printer front end 3 does nothing, and passes the data. Then, the data is finally converted (decoded) by the printer controller into bitmap document information. The document converted to bitmap format is sent to an imaging engine, where a hard copy is generated.

By the way, the method of selecting an image forming apparatus described above can be programmed, recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and executed on a computer. In addition, a part of the method of selecting the image forming apparatus may be implemented on a network and realized through a communication line. Further, it is also possible to transmit and receive data from the communication device to an external device in the method of selecting an image forming apparatus as needed. Further, this program can be distributed to each device such as a personal computer via the recording medium via a network such as the Internet.

In the present invention, the connection equipment, network configuration, image forming engine system, menu items, processing flow, and the like are not limited to these. That is, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
It can be changed as appropriate without changing the gist of the invention.

[0046]

As described above, according to the image forming system of the present invention (claim 1), print attribute information such as print quality and the number of prints of a document to be printed is collected and obtained. Judging and selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines based on the print attribute information, the printing output by the image forming apparatus that is suitable for the printing attribute or the most appropriate one. This makes it possible to perform printing that is flexible, has a high printing throughput, and is suitable for the required print quality.

According to the image forming system of the present invention, the print attribute information such as the print load, the number of prints, the print speed, the print quality, and the print cost of the document to be printed is collected. Based on the obtained determined print attribute information, by selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines,
Flexible, high-throughput printing with appropriate print quality because print output by an image forming apparatus that matches or is most appropriate for the document printing load, number of prints, print speed, print quality, and print cost is possible. Can be performed.

According to the image forming system of the present invention (claim 3), when an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, the By converting the data into a page description language (Page Description Language: PDL) that can be processed by the printer, each image forming apparatus
Therefore, it is not necessary to have a decoder corresponding to the image forming apparatus, so that it is possible to select an appropriate apparatus from a plurality of image forming apparatuses without worrying about a difference in a page description language.

Further, according to the present invention (claim 4), when an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, the apparatus is adapted to the input device information. By selecting an image forming apparatus (such as color or monochrome), for example, when an input device is a color image output, an image forming apparatus capable of printing a color image is selected. Can be handled.

Further, according to the image forming system of the present invention (claim 5), a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines can be used in an electrophotographic system, an ink jet system, a thermal transfer system, a thermal sublimation system, a silver sublimation system. By adopting the stencil method and stencil method, it is possible to adapt to a wide range of printing attributes, so the type of print image, number of prints, processing speed,
An image forming apparatus corresponding to cost or the like can be used.

According to the image forming method of the present invention, the print attribute information such as the print quality and the number of prints of the document to be printed is collected, and the obtained print attribute information is determined. Based on the above, by selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, it becomes possible to perform print output by an image forming apparatus that is suitable for printing attributes or is most appropriate. Therefore, it is possible to perform printing that is flexible, has a large print throughput, and is suitable for required print quality.

According to the image forming method of the present invention (claim 7), when an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, input device information is selected. By selecting an image forming apparatus (e.g., color or monochrome) that is suitable for printing, an image forming apparatus capable of printing a color image is selected, for example, when the input device is a color image output. It is possible to appropriately cope with image types and the like.

According to the image forming method of the present invention, the print attribute information such as the print load, the number of prints, the print speed, the print quality, and the print cost of the document to be printed is collected. Based on the obtained judgment and printing attribute information,
By selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, an image that is suitable or most appropriate for a document print load, the number of prints, a print speed, a print quality, and a print cost. Since the printing output by the forming apparatus is enabled, it is possible to perform printing with flexibility, high printing throughput, and appropriate print quality.

According to the image forming method of the present invention (claim 9), when an appropriate image forming apparatus is selected from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, the In addition, by performing conversion into a page description language (PDL) that can be processed by a printer, it is not necessary for each image forming apparatus to have a decoder corresponding to a plurality of PDLs. The selection can be made without concern for differences in the page description language.

According to the image forming method of the present invention (claim 10), a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines can be used in an electrophotographic system, an ink jet system, a thermal transfer system, a thermal sublimation system, a silver sublimation system. By adopting the stencil method and the stencil method, it is possible to adapt to a wide range of printing attributes. Therefore, it is possible to use an image forming apparatus corresponding to the type of print image, the number of prints, the processing speed, the cost, and the like.

According to the computer-readable recording medium of the present invention (claim 11), claims 7 to
By recording a program that causes a computer to execute the image forming method according to any one of the tenth aspects, the image forming method according to claims 6 to 10 can be performed by a computer.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an image forming system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a print setting menu according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a selection operation of the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an overall configuration diagram of an image forming system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an operation flow of the image forming system according to the third embodiment of the present invention;

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Printer Front End 4 Network (LAN) 11, 12, 13 Host Computer 21 Printer 1 22 Printer 2 23 Printer 3 30 Print Setting Menu 51 Digital Camera

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of computers, a plurality of image forming apparatuses each including an image forming engine having a different image forming process on a network, and a selection process for executing a selection process in response to a print request from the plurality of computers. Means,
Wherein the selection processing means collects print attribute information such as the print quality of the document of the print request and the number of prints, and from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines, An image forming system for selecting an image forming apparatus according to print attribute information 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection processing unit selects a print load, a number of prints, a print speed, a print quality, from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process.
The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the image forming apparatus is selected according to one of printing cost criteria. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selecting unit selects an image forming apparatus from among a plurality of image forming apparatuses having image forming engines having different image forming processes.
2. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein conversion to a page description language that can be processed by a printer is performed. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the selection processing unit selects an image forming apparatus from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having image forming engines having different image forming processes based on input device information to be printed. The image forming system according to claim 1. 5. A plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process, including an electrophotographic system, an ink jet system, a thermal transfer system, a thermal sublimation system, a silver halide system, and a stencil system. The image forming system according to claim 1. 6. A plurality of computers, a plurality of image forming apparatuses each including an image forming engine having a different image forming process on a network, and a selecting process for executing a selecting process according to a print request from the plurality of computers. Means,
Collecting print attribute information such as print quality and the number of prints of a document to be printed, and a plurality of images having different image forming engines based on the obtained print attribute information. Selecting an appropriate image forming apparatus from among the forming apparatuses. 7. A plurality of computers, a plurality of image forming apparatuses each including an image forming engine having a different image forming process on a network, and a selecting process for executing a selecting process according to a print request from the plurality of computers. Means,
An image forming method comprising: collecting input device information to be printed; and obtaining an appropriate image from a plurality of image forming apparatuses having different image forming engines based on the obtained input device information. Selecting an image forming apparatus. 8. A print load, a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process.
8. The image forming method according to claim 6, wherein the image forming apparatus is selected based on any one of the following criteria: the number of prints, the printing speed, the print quality, and the printing cost. 9. When selecting an image forming apparatus from a plurality of image forming apparatuses each having an image forming engine having a different image forming process, conversion to a page description language that can be processed by a printer is performed as necessary. The image forming method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, wherein: 10. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming apparatus having an image forming engine having a different image forming process;
The image forming method according to any one of claims 6 to 9, comprising an ink jet system, a thermal transfer system, a thermal sublimation system, a silver halide system, and a stencil system. 11. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute the image forming method according to claim 6 is recorded.