JP2003076526A - Printing system and recording medium in which program is recorded - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manage print data after conversion corresponding to a plurality of printers on a network and to enable a user to select a printer based on the print data. SOLUTION: The printing system is provided with a client device 2, a printer 3 and a server 1 having the print data, that converts the data into a form suitable for the printer to which the data is outputted and distributes the data to the printer. The server 1 is provided with a storage mans 13 that stores the print data after the conversion by associating it with the print data and a data base 15 that stores and manages identification information to indicate by which form (format) the print data after the conversion is converted and is provided with structure to enable the user to select the printer from information in the data base 15.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system in which a server device transmits print data via a communication line such as a network in response to a request from a client device and prints out by a printing device such as a printer. In addition, the present invention relates to a recording medium in which a print data management program in a server device is stored for realizing the printing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, for example, a server connected to a network used in an electronic newspaper system or the like distributes print data to a large number of printers connected to the network and prints from the printer. There is a system. In particular, in a printing system via a network, a server device that stores print data, a client device that requests the print data, and a printing device that prints the print data are usually connected to a communication line. ing.

In the above configuration, generally, in order to print the print data stored in the server device with a printer or the like, it is necessary to convert the print data into a format interpretable by the printer. Further, since there are various kinds of page description languages for converting print data provided in the printer, the page description language is often different for each printer. Therefore, for each print request from the client device, the model conversion must be performed for each printer to output, and there is a problem that it takes a long time to print.

Therefore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-024857 discloses the following configuration. The server device converts the print data before the conversion process stored by itself into a model that can be interpreted by the printer (the print data after the conversion process), and associates the print data before the conversion process with the print data after the conversion process. And store it (as an index file). Then, when a request for print data (before conversion processing) is issued from the printer, the server device refers to the index file and confirms whether or not there is print data after conversion processing corresponding to the print data. The processed print data is transmitted to the printer. In other words, it is not necessary to convert the print data every time the print data is specified by the client device.

[0005]

However, the technique described in the above publication has not solved the following problems. In other words, the user cannot recognize which printer among the plurality of printers on the network has the print data after the corresponding conversion process before selecting the printer, and thus the print data after the conversion has already been converted. The problem is that some printers cannot be selected.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to manage print data after conversion corresponding to a plurality of printers on a network, and a user can select a printer based on the print data. It is to provide a printing system that can be selected.

[0007]

A printing system according to the present invention has a client device, a printing device, and print data, converts the data into a format suitable for the printing device to be output, and distributes the data to the printing device. A server device is provided, and in response to a request from the client device, the printing device outputs the converted print data from the server device. The server device stores the converted print data in correspondence with the print data, and the storage destination of the converted print data in the storage device for each print data requested by the client device. And the management information that stores and manages the identification information indicating which format (format) the converted print data is converted. According to the above configuration, in response to the request from the client device, the server device transmits the print data to be provided to the printing device designated by the client device, and prints out the print data. In the printing apparatus, a compatible print data format is defined among a plurality of types. Therefore, the server device converts the print data into a model suitable for the printing device to be transmitted, and transmits the model. At this time, the type-converted print data to be transmitted is stored in the storage unit of the server device in association with the print data before conversion, and any type is converted according to the information of the storage destination of the print data. The management unit also stores the identification information indicating whether or not it has been performed. Then, in response to the subsequent print data request from the client device, the management unit converts the requested print data into a model suitable for the model of the designated printing device and stores the converted print data in the storage unit. If the converted print data is stored, the print data is read from that storage destination and sent to the specified printing device. . Therefore, by storing the print data that has been model-converted once and reading it out after the next time, the conversion processing that is very burdensome for the server device is reduced, and for a certain print data, arbitrary model different from each other You can specify any printing device.

The printing system of the present invention has a configuration in which the print data requested by the client device is converted into a model (format) suitable for the printing device, transmitted to the printing device, and printed out. The client device includes a conversion unit that converts the print data type received from the server device, and a transmission unit that transmits the converted print data. The server device transmits the print data after the model conversion to the client device. To the client device, storage means for storing print data returned from the client device in response to the transmission request, and print data after conversion in the storage device for each print data requested by the client device. A management unit that stores and manages identification information indicating which type (format) of the converted print data is converted together with the information of the storage destination of the data.
According to the above configuration, the server apparatus collects the print data which is suitably implemented on the network in the business office and which is converted by a person using his / her personal computer as a client apparatus. Then, when another person tries to output on another personal computer, if there is conversion data suitable for the printing device among the collected print data after the conversion process, the server device prints the data before the conversion process. Instead of delivering data, the print data after the conversion process is delivered. As described above, even in the configuration in which the print data type conversion is performed on the client device side, the conversion processing can be reduced when the print data is output in the same type after the next time. Further, the print data whose type has been converted by each client device can be centrally managed on the server device side.

The printing system of the present invention comprises a storage means for holding the data printed by the printing device, and the management means of the server device stores the information for identifying the printing device for each print data, and the client device. When the print data corresponding to the print request from the printer has been output by any of the printing devices, the information of the printing device is returned to the client device. According to the above configuration, when the user requests print data that has already been output, the user can immediately print out by notifying the information of the printing device that holds the data. Can be specified or a printing device close to the user can be specified, and convenience can be improved.

In the printing system of the present invention, the management means of the server device stores information identifying the printing device that has printed out the print data, as well as information indicating the capabilities of the printing device, and the server device is the client device. It has a function to compare the printing device that has already been printed out, specified by the above method, and the case where it is printed out by a printing device that is higher in performance than the printing device even if it has never been printed out. When printing is completed by a printing device having a high capability, the presenting means for presenting the result to the client device when the printing process is completed quickly is provided. According to the above configuration, by changing the output destination to the printing device which is presented and printing is completed quickly,
Users can get prints faster.

In the printing system of the present invention, the server device is
When the transmission of the print data to the printing device designated by the client device is in a standby state, it has a configuration including a presenting unit that presents to the client device the printing device that has already printed out the same print data. According to the above configuration, by changing the output destination to the presented printing apparatus, the user can obtain the printed matter faster.

The printing system of the present invention comprises a presentation means for presenting to the client device print data that can be provided by the server device corresponding to the printing device specified by the client device. According to the above configuration, it is possible to allow the user to select only the data that can be printed by the printing device designated by the user, and to prevent the existence of the data that cannot be provided from being known. Further, by excluding data that cannot be printed due to the capability of the printing device, such as color printing data for a monochrome printing device, from the selection target, quick selection is possible.

In the printing system of the present invention, the server device detects whether or not the print data for which a new print request has been made has already undergone type conversion, and the printing for which a new print request has been made. When the data is in the process of type conversion, a printing control unit that adds and prints the number of copies according to the print request to a printing device that prints out the converted print data is configured. According to the above configuration, at the time of the newly generated print request, if the previous print request is already in the type conversion, it waits until the type conversion is completed and exchanges the converted data. Become. Therefore, at the time of print output that is performed as soon as the conversion is completed, the same printing apparatus can add and print the number of copies according to the newly generated print request, so that the waiting time of the user can be shortened.

The recording medium of the present invention is recorded so that it can be read by a computer so that the printing system described above is executed. The printing system according to any one of claims 1 to 8 can be executed by the computer-readable recording medium.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [Embodiment 1] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a system of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory diagrams of a server.
The printing system of the present invention has a configuration in which a server device 1, a client device 2, and a printing device 3 are connected to a network 5. The server device 1 is a device that collectively stores and manages print data. The client device 2 is realized by, for example, a personal computer (PC), and a user can access the server device 1 on the network 5, search for desired print data, and request transmission of the data. , A device provided with means for arbitrarily selecting the printing device 3 for printing out. The printing device 3 is realized by, for example, a printer,
This is a device for printing out print data on a recording medium such as paper.

The server device 1 sends the print data to the printing device 3
Printer driver 11 to convert to a model that can be interpreted by
And a file 13 that stores the print data and the converted print data in association with each other, and manages the print data and the converted print data as index data.
A database 15 having a function of determining the identification / processing capability of the printing device 3 on the network, and a printing device information section 1 for providing management information of the printing device 3 to the client device 2.
7 and 7. The client device 2 includes a display 21 that allows a user to recognize all kinds of information, and printing device selection software 25 that allows the printing device 3 on the network 5 to be selected. It should be noted that an input means (keyboard) 22 and an instruction means (mouse) 23 are provided as in a normal PC. The printing device 3 includes a print data storage unit that holds and stores print data printed by each device. That is, the printing device 3A includes a data storage unit 30A and a printing device 3B.
Is provided with a data storage unit 30B, and the printing apparatus 3C is provided with a data storage unit 30C.

The printing process in this printing mechanism will be described. First, the user specifies print data to be printed from the client device 2 via the network 5 to the server device 1 among the print data (print data before conversion) stored in the server device 1. Further, the printing device is selected as the printing device A. Then, the designated print data is output by the printer driver 11 of the server device 1.
The data is converted into data that can be interpreted by the printing device A selected by the user (print data after conversion). Then, the converted print data is transmitted to the printing apparatus A. The printing apparatus A is configured to print the received print data after conversion on a recording medium such as paper.

As described above, in order to print the print data stored in the server device 1 by the printing device 3 or the like, it is necessary to convert the print data into a format interpretable by the designated printing device 3. This is because there are various types of page description languages for data conversion that the printing device 3 has, and therefore the type conversion must be performed for each printing device. However, although the series of printing processes of the network printing system is executed as described above, the server device 1 sends the print data (print data before conversion) designated by the client device 2 to the selected printing device 3. The interpretable print data is converted by the printer driver 11 provided in the server device 1, and the print data before the conversion and the print data after the conversion are associated with each other and stored in a file (storage unit) 13 as index data. The index data is managed by the database (management means) 15. The index data further stores an identification mark indicating in which format (format) the converted print data is converted.

With this configuration, in response to the subsequent request for print data from the client device 2, the database 15 causes the requested print data to be designated by the printing device (for example, printing device A). First, it is collated whether or not it has been converted and stored in the file 13 with a model suitable for the model. If it is stored, the information of the storage destination is referred to, the converted print data is read from the storage destination, and is transmitted to the designated printing apparatus.

As described above, the server apparatus 1 stores and manages the print data whose type has been once converted, and reads the converted print data from the next time onward, so that the server apparatus 1 is extremely burdened. The conversion process can be reduced. In particular, the index data in the database 15 is a list in which the print data before conversion and the print data after conversion are associated with each other, as shown in FIG. For example, multiple print data before conversion matsu.tx
There are t, take.doc, ume.pdf. Then, for each print data, the presence or absence of the converted print data corresponding to the printing apparatus and the time when the converted print data is accessed can be recognized. If you cannot output due to the printer's capability, for example, print data ume.pdf
Is print data before conversion of a color image, and if the printing apparatus B is a monochrome printer, the printing data B cannot be printed by the printing apparatus B. In such a case, the index data is “impossible”.

According to the above configuration, for example, the print data tak
In the e.doc, only the print data C corresponding to the printing device C exists. Regarding the print request when outputting to the printers A and B, it is understood that new data conversion is required. As described above, by referring to the index data, the server device 1 can perform data conversion as needed.

Further, in the present printing system, the storage unit of each printing apparatus is configured to be able to hold (store) print data that has already been printed (print data after conversion). That is, the printing data storage unit 30A,
The printing apparatus B includes a print data storage unit 30B, and the printing apparatus C includes a print data storage unit 30C. The database 15 of the server device 1 can recognize the converted print data in the print data storage unit of the printing device 3. With this configuration, if the print data corresponding to the print request from the client device 2 has already been output by any of the printing devices 3, the information can be presented to the client device 2. For example, in FIG.
As shown in (a), if the print data take.doc has already been printed by the printing device C and is stored as the print data C, as shown in FIG.
Printer C that holds print data after conversion of take.doc
Is displayed on the display of the client device 2.

As a result, the user can recognize that the printing device C holds the converted print data corresponding to the print data take.doc. Therefore, when the printing apparatus C is selected, there is no need to newly perform data conversion, and the time until printing can be shortened. In this case, the print data information for each printing device can be represented as a list of all print data as shown in FIG. 2C and can be distributed to the client device 2. In the network printing system, the database 15 of the server device 1 is also used.
Thus, the processing capacity status of each printing device 3 connected to the network 5 is also managed.

Here, the management of the processing capacity of the server 1 will be described. The server 1 is a printing device that has been printed by the client device 2 (for example, printing device C).
It has a function of comparing the case of performing printing with a printing apparatus (for example, the printing apparatus A) having a higher performance than the printing apparatus even if the printing apparatus has never printed. Then, when it is determined from the comparison result that the printing is completed by the printing apparatus A having a high capability, the printing is completed quickly, and the server 1 presents the printing apparatus information unit 17 to the client apparatus 2.

FIG. 2D shows a display example in the printing device information section 17. The presence or absence of the converted print data corresponding to the print data take.doc is indicated by a ◯ mark when each printing device exists, and by a − mark when there is no print data. According to this, it can be seen that the printing apparatus C holds the converted print data corresponding to the print data take.doc. However, the printing apparatus has its own processing capability, and even if the printing data take.doc is converted and printed, another printing apparatus may be faster than the printing apparatus C. Here, the printing device A is the other printing device B,
A case where the printing speed is higher than that of C will be described with reference to FIG.

In consideration of the processing capability of the printing device and the holding status of the print data after conversion, the client device 2 displays the order of printing that can be performed at the highest speed with the numbers 1, 2 and 3. Although the printer C holds the converted print data, the printing speed is ranked second, and the printer A does not hold the converted print data, but the rank is displayed first. By showing to the client. Therefore, the user can select the fastest printing device and can shorten the time until printing.

[Second Embodiment] Another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. The members having the same functions as those used in the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. In a normal printing system, the time required for printing from the server device to the printing device varies depending on the processing status of the printing device.
Therefore, as described in the first embodiment, even if the user selects the fastest printing device, if the selected printing device is processing other print data, the desired converted print data is transmitted. It may not be possible to do so and it may take a long time.

Therefore, the network printing system described in this embodiment is a database of a server device,
It is configured to manage the usage status of printing devices connected to the network. As shown in FIG. 3, the server 10 includes a job management unit 12 and a processing time calculation / comparison unit 16. The management information of the job management unit 12 and the processing time calculation / comparison unit 16 of the server device 10 is displayed on the client device 2 as in the display example shown in FIG. Even if the user selects the fastest printing device C, this display indicates another printing device that is empty when the printing device C is "processing" print data, and in this example, "empty". The display device A can be changed to the display device A, which allows the user to reduce the waiting time for data transmission. Also, users of the network printing system tend to frequently use printing devices in their vicinity. Therefore, it becomes necessary to recognize print data that can be printed by a printing device in the vicinity.

Therefore, in this network printing system, the data extraction unit 14 is provided, and the printable print data of the selected printing device is extracted from the data extraction unit 14 of the server device 10 and displayed on the client device 2. be able to. An example of this table is shown in FIG. For example, when the user selects the printing device B, it indicates that the printing data that can be printed by the printing device B is matsu.tex and take.doc, and whether or not there is the converted printing data corresponding to the printing data (○ , -Mark) is displayed. Here, FIG.
Like “print data B of ume.pdf” in (a), “not allowed”
In the case of, a mark such as ... is added to indicate that it is not possible to prevent confusion among users and enable quick selection.

Further, in this network printing system, the server 10 is provided with the conversion status detecting section 18 so that the conversion status of the print data (during model conversion) can be detected. The conversion status detector 18 is indicated by an index as shown in FIG. The conversion status is displayed on the client device 2 as shown in (b). Further, when a new print request is made to the printing apparatus that is undergoing model conversion, the number of copies of the print request can be added by the job management unit 12.

For example, if the user Y print data take.doc
When the printing device C holding the print data take.doc is the fastest (numeral 1) when printing the user, the user Y naturally selects the printing device C (the display of FIG. 5C). . However, the printing apparatus A may be converting the print data take.doc into print data in response to another user X's print request. In such a case, the printing apparatus A displays the processing order 1 as (d), and the user Y selects the printing apparatus A later, so that the job management unit 12 of the server apparatus 10 processes the printing apparatus A. In this configuration, a desired job of the user Y (the number of prints) can be added later.

With this configuration, exchange of print data after conversion is eliminated. That is, printing can be performed at the same time when the conversion process of the printing apparatus A is completed, and the waiting time for the user can be shortened.

[Third Embodiment] Another embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Members having the same functions as those used in the first and second embodiments are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. The network printing system shown in the present embodiment includes a server device 10
0, the client device 200, and the printing device 3 are network-connected. The client device 200 includes a printer driver 211 and a data transmission unit 213 in addition to the printing device selection software 225. The server device 100 includes a data reading unit 1 in addition to the file 130, the database 150, the printing device information unit 170.
Equipped with 10. The printer driver 211 of the client device 200 has a function of converting print data. Then, the data reading unit 11 of the server device 100
In response to a print data transmission request (print data after conversion) from 0, the data after conversion is transmitted from the data transmission unit 213 to the server device 100. Then, the server device 100 reads the print data before conversion and the transmitted print data after conversion by the data reading unit 110, and makes them correspond to each other, and creates the file 13 as index data.
Save to 0. The index data is managed by the database 150.

As a result, the server device 100 can form a network printing system without a printer driver. That is, the load on the processing capacity of the server device 100 can be reduced.

The network printing system having the configuration described in the first to third embodiments can be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium as a program to be executed by the computer. As a result, it is possible to provide the convenience of being able to freely carry a recording medium on which a program for executing the network printing system is recorded.

[0036]

According to the printing system of the present invention, the converted print data corresponding to a plurality of printers is managed, and the user can select the printer based on the print data.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration explanatory diagram of a printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a table showing an example of managing print data.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration explanatory diagram of an example of another printing system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a table showing a display example on a client device.

FIG. 5 is a table showing a management example of print data.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration explanatory diagram of an example of still another printing system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols] 1,10,100 servers 2,200 client devices 3 printing devices 5 network 11,110,211 Printer driver 12 Job management department 13,130 files 14 Data extractor 15,150 databases 16 Processing time calculation and comparison unit 17,170 Printing device information section 18 Conversion status detector 25,225 Printing device selection software 213 Data transmission unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A client device, a printing device, and a server device for converting print data into a format suitable for the printing device to be output and delivering the printing data to the printing device, wherein the server responds to a request from the client device. In the printing system for outputting the converted print data from the device to the printing device, the server device stores the converted print data corresponding to the print data, and the print data for each print data requested by the client device. In addition to the information on the storage destination of the converted print data in the storage means, the management for storing and managing the identification information indicating which printing device the converted print data is converted into And a printing system. 2. A printing system configured to convert print data requested by a client device into a type suitable for the printing device, send the printing data to the printing device, and print out the printing data. A conversion unit that converts the type of the print data that has been converted, and a transmission unit that transmits the print data after the conversion, wherein the server device requests the client device to transmit the print data after the model conversion; A storage unit for storing the print data after the format conversion returned from the client device; and, for each print data requested by the client device, together with information on the storage destination of the print data after the conversion in the storage unit, Management means for storing and managing identification information indicating which type of converted print data is converted. Printing system, characterized in that the. 3. The printing device comprises a storage unit for holding the printed data, and the management unit of the server device stores information for identifying the printing device that has printed out for each print data, and from the client device. The printing system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when the print data corresponding to the print request is already output by any of the printing devices, the information of the printing device is returned to the client device. . 4. The management unit of the server device stores information indicating the capability of the printing device together with information for identifying the printing device that has printed out the print data, and the server device prints the data specified by the client device. The printer has a function of comparing a device with a printer output by a printer having a capacity higher than that of the printer. The printing system according to claim 3, further comprising a presentation unit that presents a result. 5. The server apparatus presents to a client apparatus a printing apparatus that has already printed out the same print data when transmission of print data to the printing apparatus designated by the client apparatus is on standby. The printing system according to claim 3, further comprising means. 6. The presenting device according to claim 1, further comprising a presenting unit that presents print data that can be provided by the server device to the client device, corresponding to the printing device designated by the client device. The printing system described. 7. The server device includes a detection unit that detects whether or not the print data for which a new print request has been made has already undergone type conversion, and a detection unit that has a print data for which a new print request has been made. When it is detected that the model conversion is in progress, a print control unit that causes the printing apparatus that performs print output to additionally print the number of copies according to the print request,
The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising: a printing system. 8. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for causing a computer to execute the printing system according to claim 1.