JP2003099228A - Network print system and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a user to use a plurality of printer/composite machine and their settings and functions, etc., on a network without any special awareness and to eliminate check misses and printing misses by misunderstanding. SOLUTION: A network print system is constituted by connecting a plurality of clients and the plurality of printer/composite machine, and a client issues a print job and one of the printer/composite machines. This system has an information managing means which detects and holds the settings and functions of the printer/composite machine and a print destination selecting means which selects a printer/composite machine meeting print conditions requested for the print job out of the plurality of printer/composite machine by referring to information held in the information managing means and makes the machine print.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network printing system and a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Normally, when printing a document, there are not many cases in which special printing is designated.
In the case of sorting printed materials or printing conference materials, there are increasing cases in which paper types and trays are specified, staple processing is performed, and punch processing for filing is performed. The number of models that support such functions, such as increasing the number of paper types and providing user-specific settings, has increased, but it has not yet met the demand.

For example, when issuing an instruction sheet in a factory or the like, the colors are classified according to the process.
Printers with multi-sheet feed trays cannot meet the demand, and as a countermeasure, multiple printers with similar functions are arranged, paper of different colors is set in each printer tray, and the printer and tray are specified. The current situation is that they are printing.

Further, since the use of functions such as stapling and punching is limited, depending on the case, it is not always necessary to equip all printers with such functions.

Even if all the devices can be renewed, it is often necessary to use them together with the printers that have been used up to now.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems and allows a user to use a plurality of printers / multifunction peripherals and their settings and functions in a network without being particularly aware of them. A first object of the present invention is to provide a network printing system and a printer / multi-function machine that can perform printing errors and eliminate printing mistakes due to check mistakes and misunderstandings.

Further, a network printing system and a printer / composite which can achieve the above object even in a model that does not support the concept of a paper type (paper type discrimination function) or a model that does not have an automatic registration function of information such as settings and functions. The second purpose is to provide a machine.

[0008]

In order to achieve such an object, the invention according to claim 1 includes a plurality of clients,
A network printing system in which a plurality of printers / multifunction machines are connected, a print job is issued from a client, and printing is performed by any of the printers / multifunction machines,
Information that is held in the information management unit that detects and holds the settings and functions of the printer / multifunction device, and the printer / multifunction device that meets the requested printing conditions for the print job when printing See multiple printers /
And a printing destination selecting means for selecting from the multi-function peripheral to perform printing.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the printer / multi-function peripheral informs the information management means of information such as its settings and functions at a predetermined timing such as when the power is turned on. It is characterized by having an information registration means for performing a process of transmitting and registering.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a plurality of clients and a plurality of printers / multifunction machines are connected to each other, and a print job is issued from the client so that one of the printers / printers
A network printing system for printing in a multi-function peripheral, including an information management unit that holds information on settings and functions of the printer / multi-function peripheral, and a printer that does not support the concept of paper type Manual registration supporting means for accepting manual registration of information such as functions, paper feed trays, and paper types set corresponding to the trays, and storing the information in the information management means; A printer / multifunction machine suitable for the requested printing conditions, and a print destination selecting means for selecting a printer / multifunction machine from a plurality of printers / multifunction machines by referring to the information held in the information management means and performing printing. If the model selected as a print destination candidate does not support the concept of paper type when selecting the print destination, it is set as a paper tray. Is characterized in that to perform the corresponding information with reference to the paper type specified print job and transfer into a paper feed tray specified printing a seed.

According to a fourth aspect of the invention, there is provided an information management means according to the first aspect and a printing destination selection means.

The invention according to claim 5 is characterized by comprising the information management means according to claim 3, a manual registration corresponding means, and a printing destination selecting means.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a network printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The present system is configured to include a plurality of clients 10, a plurality of printers (including multi-function peripherals) 20, and a server 30, and these are LAN-connected.

The client 10 is a PC (personal computer) or the like used by each user, has print document data, and issues a print job to the server 30 when performing printing.

The printer 20 is a hardware printing device and receives print data from the client 10 and performs print processing on paper. This may be a multi-function peripheral (multi-function peripheral) having a copy function in addition to the print function.
The printer 20 has an information registration unit 21. Each printer 20 is connected to the network via a predetermined interface. Network I if connected directly
/ F card for connection.

The server 30 includes a plurality of clients 10.
A print server software that receives a print job from (1 to m), queues the print job, and solves transfer to a plurality of printers 20 (1 to n), and a computer that executes the software. The server 30 has an information management unit 31.
And a print destination selection unit 32.

A detailed description will be given with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, in the LAN, three clients 10 (c1 to
c3) and two printers 20 (p1, p2) are connected. First, when the power of each printer 20 is turned on, the information registration unit 21 of the printer 20 transmits information such as the configuration, settings, and functions of the printer 20 to the server 30, and the information management unit 31 of the server 30 stores the information. Register information (Fig. 2
Arrow 1). An example of registration information is shown in FIG.

When printing is performed, the print job (print data) issued by each client 10 is transmitted to the server 30 (arrow 2 in FIG. 2). Next, in the server 30, the print destination selecting unit 32 refers to the information managing unit 31, and selects a printer suitable for the print condition requested by the print job from the printers whose information is registered. And
The server 30 transfers the print data to the selected printer 20 to perform printing (arrow 3 in FIG. 2).

As a specific example of the printing process, it is assumed that each installed printer has two paper feed trays. If it is assumed that five types of paper (white, yellow, red, blue, green) are required for the instructions of each process, three printers will be used for that purpose.

The three printers are designated as p1 to p3. It is assumed that white paper is loaded in both trays of the printer p1, yellow paper is loaded in the tray 1 of the printer p2, red paper is loaded in the tray 2, blue paper is loaded in the tray 1 of the printer p3, and green paper is loaded in the tray 2 (white paper. Since the paper is frequently used because it can be used for purposes other than the instructions, we decided to use two trays). Conventionally, for example, when printing on blue paper,
The user confirms the printer in which blue paper is set (in this case, printer p3 / tray 1), selects that printer as the output destination, designates tray 1 and gives a print instruction, and prints. .

In the first embodiment of the system of the present invention, each printer 20 causes the information registration unit 21 to operate the server 30 at a predetermined timing such as when the power is turned on or when the configuration is changed. To the information management unit 31 of the server 30 by transmitting printer information (information including settings and functions) to the server. In this case, the printer p3 has a two-stage tray configuration, and registers information including tray information and paper type information that blue paper is set in the tray 1 and green paper is set in the tray 2 in the information management unit 31.

When performing printing, the user does not need to specify a printer for printing from the plurality of printers 20 in the client 10, but instead, the type of paper to be printed, here the paper type "blue" is specified. A print job is issued by designating and issuing a print instruction. The print job including the print instruction condition is transmitted to the server 30 and analyzed.
When it is determined in the server 30 that the paper type “blue” is conditionally specified, the print destination selection unit 32 refers to the information registered in the information management unit 31 according to the flow of FIG. Search for the set printer. When a printer satisfying the printing condition, here the printer p3, is selected, the server 30 transfers the print data to the printer p3 and causes it to print.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of print destination selection processing of the network printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. In the first step, the client 10
A print job is issued by the server 30 and the server 30 receives the print job. The printing destination selecting unit 32 refers to the registration information held by the information managing unit 31 to list the printers that satisfy the conditions required by the print job (steps S1 to S6).

It is confirmed whether or not there is a printer candidate satisfying the conditions, and if there is a candidate (step S7, YES), the flow advances to flow 2. If there is no printer satisfying the printing conditions, it is processed as an error (step S8).

In Flow 2, it is confirmed whether the listed printer is a model that supports the concept of paper type or the like (step S9). If it is a model that does not support it (step S9, NO), the second execution is performed. Perform example processing (discussed below). If it is a supported model (step S9, YES), the most appropriate printer is selected from the candidates in consideration of the status of each printer and network, the transfer destination printer / multifunction peripheral is determined, and the corresponding address is determined. To perform printing (step S1)
1).

The flow of the candidate list up process in the print destination selection unit 32 is as follows. First, referring to the condition designation command included in the print job from the client 10, it is confirmed whether or not the paper type is designated (step S1). If there is, the registration information of the information management unit 31 is referred to, and the printers that can use the designated paper are listed as candidates (step S2).

Further, it is confirmed whether or not stapling is designated in the condition designation command (step S3), and if there is stapling, a printer capable of stapling at the designated stapling position is listed as a candidate from the information list (step S3). S4).

Further, it is confirmed whether a punch is designated in the condition designation command (step S5), and if there is a punch, a printer capable of punching at the designated punch position is listed as a candidate from the information list (step S5). S6).

Although the above three printing condition designations are determined here as an example, determinations are also made for other functions.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of a network printing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. Elements similar to those in the first embodiment are designated by the same symbols. Second
In this embodiment, the server 30 further includes a manual registration support unit 33. In the second embodiment, the printer 40 that does not have the function of registering information with the server as in the first embodiment.
Alternatively, when using / combining the printer 40 or the like that does not have the concept of the paper type (the function to determine the paper type designation), the printer information is manually registered in the server 30.

Further, the printer 4 has no concept of paper type.
Corresponding to 0, the server 30 refers to the conversion table and converts the paper type designation command included in the print job issued from the client 10 into a tray designation command (listing up printers that meet the conditions. After the processing is performed, the flow 2 and step S1 of FIG. 4 are further performed.
0 processing is performed). The conversion table describes information for solving the condition specification command from the client such as the paper type and the function of each printer in association with each other. An example of the conversion table is shown in FIG.

When the information is manually registered, the registration information is not erased by turning the power OFF / ON, and the above-mentioned registration information is always maintained until a new manual registration process is performed. To be done.

The server 30 will be described with reference to the above example.
In the print destination selection unit 32, the printer p3 in which the designated paper “blue” is set is selected, and it is checked whether the selected printer is a manually registered printer or not, and the selected printer p3 is selected. Is a printer whose information is manually registered, the conversion table is referred to and the paper type designation command “paper type (blue)” from the client 10 is transmitted to the tray designation command “print destination (p3) Tray (1) ”is replaced. Then, the print data is transferred to the printer p3 together with the tray designation command. By such processing, it becomes possible to perform printing by the same operation as in the first embodiment even when printers of types that do not support the concept of paper type are mixed.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a network printing system according to the third embodiment of the present invention. Instead of the server 30 in the first and second embodiments, a printer 50 having that function serves as a substitute. The printer 50 includes an information management unit 51, a print destination selection unit 52, which has the same functions as the components of the first and second embodiments.
The manual registration unit 53 is provided. The print job from the client 10 is transmitted to the printer 50, the print destination is resolved and transferred to the corresponding printer 20 for printing as in the first and second embodiments.

The above-described embodiment shows an example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited thereto, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. It is possible.

[0037]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the user has a plurality of printers / printers.
It is possible to perform print processing without paying special attention to the multi-function peripheral, and it is possible to eliminate a conventional check error when selecting a printer and a print error caused by misunderstanding.

According to the third aspect of the invention, it is possible to use a model that does not support the concept of paper type or a model that does not have an information registration function.

According to the fourth and fifth aspects of the present invention, it is possible to perform print processing without preparing a server computer and without being aware of the printer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a network printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an outline of processing in the network printing system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of printer information registered in an information management unit 32.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of the network printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration of a network printing system according to a second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a conversion table for manually registered model correspondence.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of a network printing system according to a third embodiment of this invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 clients 20 Printers / Multifunction machines 30 servers 21 Information Registration Department 31 Information Management Department 32 Print Destination Selection Section 33 Manual registration support section 40 Printer / Multifunction machine 50 printers / multifunction machines

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A network printing system in which a plurality of clients and a plurality of printers / multifunction peripherals are connected, and a print job is issued from the client and printed by any of the printers / multifunction peripherals, An information management unit that detects and holds the settings and functions of the printer / multifunction device, and a printer / multifunction device that meets the required printing conditions for the print job when printing is held in the information management unit. Referring to the information contained in the
A network printing system comprising: a printing destination selecting unit that selects from the multi-function peripheral to perform printing. 2. The printer / multifunction device comprises an information registration means for transmitting information about settings and functions of the printer / device to the information management means at a predetermined timing when the power is turned on and performing registration processing. The network printing system according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. A network printing system in which a plurality of clients and a plurality of printers / multifunction peripherals are connected, and a print job is issued from the client and printed by any of the printers / multifunction peripherals, For information management means that retains information on settings and functions of printers / multifunction devices and printers that do not support the concept of paper type,
Accepts manual registration of information such as available printers, printer functions, paper feed trays, and paper types set corresponding to the trays, and stores the information in the information management means. And a printer / multifunction machine suitable for the print condition requested for the print job at the time of printing, by referring to the information held in the information management means.
A printing destination selecting unit that selects and prints from the multi-function peripheral, and, when the printing destination is selected, if the model selected as a printing destination candidate is a model that does not support the concept of paper type, A network printing system, wherein the paper type designation of the print job is converted into a paper feed tray designation, transferred, and printed by referring to the correspondence information between the paper feed tray and the set paper type. . 4. A printer comprising the information management unit according to claim 1 and the printing destination selection unit. 5. A printer comprising the information management unit according to claim 3, the manual registration corresponding unit, and the printing destination selection unit.