JP2003122548A - Image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming system capable of selecting a print area of an advertisement according to a print document in performing printing with an advertisement, so as to reduce accounting for printing by a user himself. SOLUTION: This image forming system is provided with an image forming device 1 having a printing function, an advertisement management server 2 in which a plurality of advertisement data are registered, and an advertiser terminal 3 registering the advertisement data. The image forming device 1 freely selects and specifies a print data area 11 and/or advertisement data area 12 in printing paper 10 when the user 4 performs printing with an advertisement, and obtains the selected and specified advertisement data area 12 from the advertisement management server 2 to perform print processing. The advertisement management server 2 informs the advertisement data use status based on the obtained advertisement data to the advertiser terminal 3, and the advertiser terminal 3 pays the outlays for advertising directly to the user 4 according to the informed use status of the advertisement data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming system, and more particularly, to an image forming system that charges for printing and prints with advertisement.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a commercial service that charges a printing fee for printing / copying by an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a copying machine, advertisement data is inserted into print data, and the printing fee is free with the advertisement revenue. Or, the ones that reduce the price are provided. For this service, the following methods are specifically used. (1) A sheet on which advertisement data is printed is stored in the printer as a printing sheet in advance, and the printing sheet is used to output when printing the printing data. (2) Advertising data is registered in the printer as overlay data, overlay processing is performed in the printer for any print data, and the advertisement data is mixed with the print data and output. (3) When a document created by an application such as a word processor is converted into print data on a computer for printing by a printer, advertisement data is embedded in the print data of the document to create print data, and the print data is printed by the printer. And output.

[0003]

However, the above conventional technique has the following problems. (1) When using printing paper on which advertising data is printed in advance, for example, when the advertising data during the campaign period becomes unusable due to the expiration of the campaign period, the printing paper cannot be used. It becomes useless. (2) When using overlay processing, there are many printers that provide free printing services, etc., and when registering new advertisement data or deleting old advertisement data, all printers On the other hand, addition / deletion operations have to be performed, which is very troublesome. Further, the number of overlay data that can be registered in the printer is limited by the memory capacity of the printer, etc. Therefore, when various types of data are mixed, the data is frequently replaced. (3) When embedding advertisement data when generating print data,
This can be achieved if the document is converted to print data only on a specific computer, but if processing is performed on an unspecified number of computers, it is necessary to add a function for data conversion to all computers. It is difficult to realize.

In all of the above-mentioned methods, print data may be overwritten on the advertisement data, so that depending on the print data, an important part of the advertisement data may be overwritten and erased. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and when printing with an advertisement, the print area of the advertisement can be selected according to the print original, and as a result, the charge for the print is charged. An object is to provide an image forming system that can be reduced by the user himself.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an image forming system according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises an image forming apparatus including a printing means for synthesizing an image of an original with an image for advertisement and printing it on a sheet. In an image forming system in which an image management apparatus including a storage unit that stores the advertisement image and an information processing terminal are connected to each other via a network,
The image forming apparatus, a notification unit for notifying the image management apparatus of the usage status of the advertisement image by the printing unit,
Designating means for designating at least one of a document image area in which the image of the document is printed and an advertisement image area in which the advertisement image is printed, among the areas on the paper.
Of the stored advertisement images, an acquisition unit that acquires an advertisement image corresponding to the designated at least one area from the storage unit of the image management apparatus, wherein the image management apparatus is the image forming apparatus. It is characterized by comprising another notifying means for notifying the information processing terminal of the usage status of the advertising image notified from the device.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming system according to the first aspect, the information processing terminal includes a registration means for registering the advertisement image stored in the storage means, and the notification. And a payment means for paying an advertisement fee to the user of the image forming apparatus according to the usage status.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming system according to the second aspect, the payment means directly pays the advertisement fee to a user of the image forming apparatus.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming system according to the second aspect, the payment means indirectly charges the user of the image forming apparatus with the advertisement fee via the image management apparatus. It is characterized by paying to.

An image forming system according to a fifth aspect is the image forming system according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, wherein the printing means charges the user for printing on the paper. And a determining means for determining the printing fee according to the paid advertisement fee.

An image forming system according to a sixth aspect is the image forming system according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, wherein the designating unit is for a desired advertisement from among the stored advertisement images. It is characterized in that an image area is selected.

An image forming system according to a seventh aspect is the image forming system according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, wherein the designating unit designates the advertising image area according to the charge. Is characterized by.

An image forming system according to claim 8 is the image forming system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the acquisition means acquires the advertisement image at the time of printing on the paper. Is characterized by.

An image forming system according to a ninth aspect is the image forming system according to any one of the first to seventh aspects, wherein the acquisition unit preliminarily prints the advertisement image at predetermined time intervals or on the paper. It is characterized in that it is acquired after printing.

An image forming system according to a tenth aspect is the image forming system according to any one of the first to ninth aspects, characterized in that the storage means appropriately updates the advertisement image.

[0016]

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

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

In FIG. 1, the image forming system includes an image forming apparatus 1 having a printing function, an advertisement management server 2 including a server computer, and an advertiser side terminal 3 including an information processing terminal such as a personal computer. , These are connected to each other via a network including a LAN. The user 4 is a user who uses the image forming apparatus 1, but even if an unspecified user, the image forming apparatus 1 is used.
May be an administrator, or may be a maintenance management company such as a seller who manages or maintains the image forming apparatus 1 based on a maintenance contract or the like.

The image forming apparatus 1 includes a print unit (not shown) for performing print processing of print data, an operation unit for receiving an operation from the user 4, an input unit for inputting print data or image data of an original, and the like. A memory for storing input print data and image data, a communication unit that is connected to a network to perform data communication with the advertisement management server 2, and a control unit that controls the above-described units by a CPU or the like are provided. The image forming apparatus 1 may be a printer, a copying machine, or a multifunction machine having a copying function, a facsimile function, and the like.
Further, the printing method of the image forming apparatus 1 may be an electrophotographic method or another printing method such as an inkjet method.

The operation unit of the image forming apparatus 1 includes a key unit for inputting and a display unit including an LCD (liquid crystal display). The input unit includes a CCD (charge coupled device) or the like for reading a document image. The memory stores the image data and print data of the document input from the input unit, and also stores the software program executed by the control unit. The control unit reads out the program stored in the memory as necessary and performs the processing of FIG. In addition, the control unit
A predetermined charging process is performed for the use of the image forming apparatus 1 by the user 4.

The advertisement management server 2 has a CPU (not shown),
A memory such as a hard disk and an operation unit such as a keyboard are provided, and data communication is performed with the image forming apparatus 1 and the advertiser-side terminal 3 that are connected via a network, and image data for advertisement (hereinafter referred to as “advertisement data”). ) Etc. are stored and managed. In the advertisement management server 2, the user 4 has the image forming apparatus 1
When printing or the like is performed by using, the billing information and the usage status for the printing or the like are received from the image forming apparatus 1 to manage them. Further, the CPU reads the program stored in the memory and performs the processing of FIG.

The advertiser-side terminal 3 registers the advertisement data that the advertiser requesting the advertisement wants the image forming apparatus 1 to print on the advertisement management server 2 via the network (advertisement data registration). This allows the memory of the advertisement management server 2 to store and save a plurality of various advertisement data registered from the plurality of advertiser terminals 3. It should be noted that the registration may be performed by designating the valid period of the advertisement at the time of registration, or by designating the advertisement fee paid when the advertisement is printed for each advertisement.

When printing is performed using the image forming apparatus 1, the user 4 selects whether or not an advertisement may be inserted in the printed and output result. For example, when the user 4 desires to print an unimportant original document and selects that an advertisement may be inserted, the user 4 prints an area (print data area) on the printing paper and / or an advertisement. An area (advertisement data area) on the printing paper in which data is inserted and printed is designated by the operation unit.

When the user 4 designates the print data area and / or the advertisement data area, the image forming apparatus 1 will print the print data area 11 and the print data area 11 on the printing paper 10 as shown in FIG. 2 based on the designation. The advertisement data area 12 is determined. At this time, when designating the print data area 11 or the advertisement data area 12, for example, a plurality of advertisement data areas 12a and 12b having different sizes as shown in FIG. 2 may be prepared in advance to select a desired one. The print data area 11 and the advertisement data area 12 may be freely designated by the operation unit. Note that when the print data area 11 is selected / designated, the remaining portion automatically becomes the advertisement data area 12, and when the advertisement data area 12 is selected / designated, the remaining portion automatically becomes the print data area 11. Becomes

The user 4 selects the print data area 11 etc.
When designating, it may be selected and designated according to the charge for printing and the burden of consumables. For example, the printing fee charged at the time of printing can be made free or reduced by inserting the advertisement data or by the size of the insertion of the advertisement data. Therefore, when the user 4 desires the free printing, a predetermined advertisement is given. It is only necessary to select and specify the insertion of data.

In the image forming apparatus 1, a program executed by the control unit overwrites print data such as characters and images on a preset advertisement data area 12 so that the print data and the advertisement data cannot be combined. It is possible to specify the advertisement data area 12 by displaying a preview before printing. When printing a manuscript with an advertisement, when the advertisement data area 12 is selected / designated, the image of the manuscript is left as it is and only the advertising part is cut.
Other advertisement data is inserted into the advertisement data area 12 for printing, or the image of the original is automatically scaled to fit the designated print data area 11 and the image is printed in the print data area 11 without fail. It is also possible to do.

After determining the print data area 11 and the advertisement data area 12 for the printing paper 10, the image forming apparatus 1 notifies the advertisement management server 2 of information (advertisement area information) about the selected / designated advertisement data area 12. (Notification of advertisement area information), after obtaining advertisement data from the advertisement management server 2 (acquisition of advertisement data) and allocating it to the printing paper 10,
Perform print processing. The advertisement data may be acquired at the time of printing, or if there is a constraint such as the image transfer time, the advertisement data may be acquired and stored / saved in advance. In this case, it is possible to prevent the advertisement data from becoming obsolete by acquiring and storing new advertisement data at regular intervals or after printing the storage data.

When the image forming apparatus 1 finishes the printing process, it notifies the advertisement management server 2 that the printing has been completed normally. When the advertisement management server 2 receives the notification of the normal end of printing from the image forming apparatus 1, the advertisement management server 2 notifies the advertiser who registered the advertisement data of the print status (usage status) of the advertisement data (advertisement data usage status notification). . The advertiser terminal 3 directly pays the advertising fee to the user 4 of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the notified advertising data usage status. As a result, the advertisement fee can be paid to the user 4 according to the use of the image forming apparatus 1.

As a method of paying the advertisement fee, for example, the printing fee is free for the user 4 who has used half of the printing paper 10 for advertisement, or the printing fee is paid when 1/4 of the printing paper is used for advertisement. Use a pre-arranged method such as half price.

In the above image forming system, the advertising fee is directly paid from the advertiser side terminal 3 to the user 4, but the user 4 manages or maintains the image forming apparatus 1 based on a maintenance contract or the like. In the case of a maintenance management company such as a sales agency, the maintenance management company may charge the user an amount obtained by deducting the advertisement fee from the maintenance fee based on the contract. At this time, the maintenance management company may make the expenses related to consumables such as paper charges and toner charges free or discount by the amount corresponding to the advertisement charge.

Although FIG. 1 shows a configuration in which one image forming apparatus 1 is connected to the advertisement management server 2, a plurality of image forming apparatuses 1 may be connected to the advertisement management server 2.

Next, the printing process executed by the image forming system of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a printing process executed by the image forming system of FIG. Note that steps S1 to S7 are processing executed by the control unit of the image forming apparatus 1, step S8 is processing executed by the CPU of the advertisement management server 2, and step S8.
9 is a process executed by the CPU of the advertiser side terminal 3.

In FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 1 determines whether the user 4 has selected the print with advertisement (insertion of advertisement) (step S1). As a result of this determination, when the advertisement insertion is not selected (NO in step S1)
In the normal print mode, the normal print process without advertisement is executed (step S2), and this process ends. At this time, the user 4 is charged with a normal printing fee.

On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S1, when the insertion of the advertisement is selected (YES in step S1), the print data area and / or the advertisement are printed according to the document the user 4 desires to print, that is, the print data. Select and specify the data area. The image forming apparatus 1 determines the print data area 11 and the advertisement data area 12 based on the selection / designation of the user 4 (step S3).

Next, the image forming apparatus 1 notifies the advertisement management server 2 of the content selected / designated by the user 4, that is, the advertisement area information, and acquires the advertisement data satisfying the advertisement area information from the advertisement management server 2. Yes (step S4). If the advertisement data satisfying the contents selected / designated by the user 4 is stored in the image forming apparatus 1, the advertisement data is stored in the image forming apparatus 1 without acquiring the advertisement data from the advertisement management server 2. Use advertising data.

Subsequently, when the image forming apparatus 1 acquires the advertisement data from the advertisement management server 2, it allocates the print data area and the advertisement data area to the printing paper (step S).
5) The printing process is performed (step S6). When the printing of the print data in which the advertisement data is inserted is completed, the advertisement management server 2 is notified of the normal completion of the advertisement printing and the advertisement data usage status such as the size of the advertisement data area and the number of print copies (step S7).

The advertisement management server 2 notifies the advertiser terminal 3 of the usage status of the advertisement data (step S8). The advertiser pays the advertisement fee corresponding to the usage state of the advertisement data to the user 4 (step S9), and ends this processing.

According to the above embodiment, the image forming apparatus 1
When the user 4 prints with an advertisement, the user can freely print data area 11 and / or advertisement data area 1 on the printing paper 10.
2 is selected / designated, the selected / designated advertisement data area 12 is acquired from the advertisement management server 2, and print processing is performed.
The advertisement management server 2 notifies the advertiser side terminal 3 of the advertisement data use state based on the acquired advertisement data, and the advertiser side terminal 3 directly sends the advertisement fee to the user 4 according to the notified advertisement data use state. Because you pay, you can select the print area of the advertisement according to the print original when printing with advertisement,
As a result, the charge for printing can be reduced by the user himself.

In the above embodiment, the advertiser may pay the advertisement fee directly to the user 4 and settle the payment directly between the advertiser and the user 4, or as shown in FIG. 4, the advertisement management server. Two
You may make an indirect payment through the administrator or the operator of. Further, regarding payment settlement, the image forming apparatus 1
It may be carried out with a maintenance management company that is outsourced for maintenance management such as maintenance. In this case, the burden on the user 4 side can be reduced by deducting the amount equivalent to the advertisement fee from the maintenance contract fee and the printing fee of the maintenance management company.

Regarding payment settlement, the image forming apparatus 1 may be carried out with a maintenance management company or the like that is entrusted with maintenance management such as maintenance. Naturally, the same effect can be obtained even in the form of deducting the amount equivalent to the advertising fee from the maintenance contract fee and the printing fee.

[0042]

As described in detail above, according to the image forming system of the first aspect, in the image forming apparatus, the notifying means notifies the image managing apparatus of the usage status of the advertisement image by the printing means and specifies it. Means out of the area on the paper
At least one of the original image area in which the image of the original is printed and the advertising image area in which the advertising image is printed is designated, and at least one of the designated areas of the advertising image stored by the acquisition unit. The advertisement image corresponding to is acquired from the storage unit of the image management apparatus, and in the image management apparatus, the other notification unit notifies the information processing terminal of the usage status of the advertisement image notified from the image forming apparatus. When performing the attached printing, the print area of the advertisement can be selected according to the print original.

According to the image forming system of the second aspect, in the information processing terminal, the registration means registers the advertising image stored in the image management device, and the payment means forms the image according to the notified usage status. Since the advertisement fee is paid to the user of the apparatus, it is possible to store and save a plurality of image data for advertisement registered from a plurality of information processing terminals, and to advertise to the user according to the use of the image forming apparatus. You can pay the fee.

According to the image forming system of the third aspect, the payment means directly pays the advertisement fee to the user of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, the effect of the image forming system of the second aspect can be surely obtained. it can.

According to the image forming system of claim 4, the payment means indirectly pays the advertisement fee to the user of the image forming apparatus through the image management apparatus. Therefore, the image forming system of claim 2 The effect of can be more reliably exhibited.

According to the image forming system of the fifth aspect, the printing means determines the printing fee according to the billing means for charging the printing fee to the user for printing on the sheet and the advertising fee paid. Since it is provided with a determining unit for performing the printing, the user can reduce the charge for printing.

According to the image forming system of the sixth aspect, the designating means selects a desired advertisement image area from the stored advertisement images. Therefore, when performing printing with advertisement, according to the print original. The print area of the advertisement can be selected.

According to the image forming system of claim 7, since the designating means designates the advertising image area in accordance with the charge, the effect of the image forming system of any one of claims 1 to 5 Can be played reliably.

According to the image forming system of the eighth aspect, the obtaining means obtains the advertisement image at the time of printing on the paper, so that the effect of the image forming system according to any one of the first to seventh aspects is obtained. Can be played more reliably.

According to the image forming system of the ninth aspect, the acquisition means acquires the advertisement image in advance at regular intervals or after printing on paper, so that the advertisement image is obtained even when there is a restriction on the image transfer time or the like. Image data can be easily acquired.

According to the image forming system of the tenth aspect, the storage means appropriately updates the advertisement image, so that the advertisement data can be prevented from becoming obsolete.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a print area assigned to a print sheet by the image forming apparatus 1 of FIG.

3 is a flowchart showing a printing process executed by the image forming system of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an overall configuration of an image forming system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Image forming device 2 Advertising management server 3 Advertiser terminal 4 users

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Koichi Hashimoto             3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo             Non non corporation (72) Inventor Hideaki Suzuki             3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo             Non non corporation F-term (reference) 2C061 AP01 AP03 AP04 AP07 AQ05                       AQ06 HJ08 HN05 HQ17 HX10                 2C087 AA03 AB05 AC07 AC08 CA02                       CB13                 5B021 AA01 CC07 NN00

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus including a printing unit configured to combine an advertisement image with an image of an original to print on a sheet, an image management apparatus including a storage unit that stores the advertisement image, and an information processing terminal. In an image forming system connected to each other via a network, the image forming apparatus, a notification means for notifying the image management apparatus of the usage status of the advertisement image by the printing means,
Designating means for designating at least one of a document image area in which the image of the document is printed and an advertisement image area in which the advertisement image is printed, among the areas on the paper.
An acquisition unit that acquires, from the storage unit of the image management apparatus, an advertisement image corresponding to the designated at least one area of the stored advertisement images, wherein the image management apparatus is the image forming apparatus. An image forming system comprising another notifying means for notifying the information processing terminal of the usage status of the advertising image notified from the apparatus. 2. The information processing terminal registers a registration means for registering the advertisement image stored in the storage means, and an advertisement fee for a user of the image forming apparatus according to the notified use status. The image forming system according to claim 1, further comprising: a payment unit that pays. 3. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the payment unit directly pays the advertisement fee to a user of the image forming apparatus. 4. The image forming system according to claim 2, wherein the payment unit indirectly pays the advertisement fee to a user of the image forming apparatus via the image management apparatus. 5. The printing means comprises a charging means for charging a printing fee to the user for printing on the paper, and a determining means for determining the printing fee according to the paid advertising fee. The image forming system according to claim 1, further comprising: an image forming system. 6. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the designating unit selects a desired advertising image area from the stored advertising images. . 7. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the designating unit designates the advertising image area according to the charge. 8. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit acquires the advertisement image at the time of printing on the paper. 9. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit acquires the advertisement image in advance at regular intervals or after printing on the paper. . 10. The image forming system according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit appropriately updates the advertisement image.