JP2003196046A - Printing control device and printing control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To user-friendly cope with a printing request of satisfying no printing restricting condition. <P>SOLUTION: A request accepting processing part 14 compares a printing attribute designated in the printing request sent from a client 6 with the printing restricting condition set in a printer and a printing restricting condition database 12. An inquiry processing part 16 informs the client 6 of the effect when the printing request does not coincides with the condition, and presents a changing candidate for a noncoincident condition. A request optimization processing part 18 corrects the printing request 26 by the changing content sent from the client 6. An output processing part 2 makes a job on the basis of the printing request coincident with the condition, and outputs the job to a designated printer 4. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control apparatus and method, and more particularly to a method of coping with a print request that violates a preset print restriction condition.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 is a network configuration diagram of a general intranet to which a plurality of printers are connected. The LAN 2 includes a plurality of printers 4, a client 6 for issuing a print request including a print attribute designated by a user, a database server 8 for storing document data and image data, and print control for the printer 4. The print server 10 is connected. In this printing system environment, the user issues a print request from the client 6 by designating the data file to be printed, the printer, the number of copies, and further the print attributes such as paper size, color, double-sided printing, header footer, and margin. Print server 1
0 retrieves the data specified based on the print request from the client 6 from the database server 8, generates a job according to the specified print attribute, and queues it in the specified printer 4.

By the way, in recent years, various data can be obtained through the Internet for a fee or free of charge, and various display formats and different paper sizes are mixed to create data due to development of document creation software. can do. As described above, the data to be printed is diversified, and the printing system needs to construct a printing environment that can handle such diversified and complicated data. For this reason, there are many cases where the intranet is provided with printers 4 of different models having different outputable paper sizes and different specifiable attributes. The print server 1 that knows the functions and attributes of each printer 4
For 0, the printer 4 that can be used for each client user such as an individual or a department, and the limiting conditions such as the number of printable sheets, the number of copies, and the sheets for each printer 4 are set.

The user needs to select an appropriate printer 4 in order to print the data to be printed with the required size, the number of copies, and the desired print attributes. The print server 10 sets the print conditions specified in the print request sent from the client 6 and the functions and attributes of the printer 4 specified as the output destination, the attributes, and the restriction conditions preset for the user. The job is generated in response to the print request only when the comparison is made and it is determined that printing is possible. On the other hand, when the condition is not satisfied, the print request is not accepted. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-36470 discloses a configuration in which an upper limit number of sheets that can be designated for a printer is set, and when the requested number of print sheets exceeds the upper limit number of sheets, output for the print request is prohibited. ing.

[0005]

However, there are cases where the data attributes to be printed, the paper size suitable for printing, etc. are not known due to the fact that they are not created by themselves. For example, when a print request is issued by designating a URL, it may not be possible to actually print before printing. In such a case, the user cannot always specify an appropriate printer and attribute, and the print server cannot accept the print request if an incorrect printer or attribute is specified in the print request.

[0006] Further, for example, the user does not know that A3 size documents are mixed in A4 size documents, and designates a printer that is not permitted to print A3 size and requests printing of a plurality of copies. When issuing, the print server cannot accept the print request as it is because it is a print request from an unauthorized user. Even if the paper size is appropriate, when the designated number of print copies exceeds the upper limit of the user, this print request cannot be accepted as it is.

Further, even if the user intends to specify a printer having a double-sided printing function when issuing a print request for a plurality of pages including double-sided printing, a printer that does not actually have the double-sided printing function due to a erroneous memory or an operation error. When the print request is specified, the print server cannot accept the print request as it is, assuming that an inappropriate printer is specified.

In the above case, it is terrible if the printing is not accepted unconditionally because it does not meet the printing restriction conditions. Although it is possible to immediately return a message that the request is not accepted because the maximum number of prints has been reached, for example, a print request for printing a large number of copies can be batch processed at night. Conventionally, it is impossible to inform the user that the print request does not meet the restriction condition. Therefore, there is a possibility that the user will be greatly damaged.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a print control apparatus and a print control apparatus capable of responding to a print request that does not satisfy a print restriction condition in a user-friendly manner. A print control method is provided.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, a print control apparatus according to the present invention outputs data to be printed based on an attribute and a printer designated in a print request sent. In a print control device for controlling, a print restriction condition storage unit for storing, as a print restriction condition, a specification of a printer, a function, and a printable condition set for each print requester, and a print request issued by the print requester. When the contents specified in the request reception processing unit that receives the print request and the print request received by the request reception processing unit do not match the print requester and the print restriction condition related to the print request, that effect is indicated. Inquiry processing means for notifying the print requester and inquiring about its correspondence, and for printing the data to be printed based on the print request that matches the print restriction condition. And having an output processing means for outputting to the motor.

Further, the inquiry processing means inquires of the change requester of the content item that does not match the print requester, and the request acceptance is made with the change request specified by the print requester in response to the inquiry from the inquiry process means. A request adequacy processing unit that corrects the print request received by the processing unit.

Further, the inquiry processing means is characterized in that the print requester is presented with a change candidate of a content item that does not match based on the print restriction condition.

Further, the inquiry processing means is characterized by making a notification and an inquiry to a specified inquiry destination.

In the print control method according to the present invention, a receiving step of receiving a print request in which at least a print attribute and a printer as an output destination are specified, contents specified in the print request, printer specifications, functions, and It is determined that the print request does not match the print restriction condition as a result of the condition comparison step for comparing the print restriction condition including the condition that can be designated for printing set for each print requester and the comparison by the condition comparison step. When this is done, an inquiring step for notifying the print requester of that fact and inquiring about the correspondence, and an output step for outputting the data to be printed in response to the response from the print requester are included.

The method further comprises a print request adequacy step of correcting the print request accepted in the acceptance step with the change content designated by the print requester in response to the inquiry in the inquiry step, and the output step includes the print request adequacy. The data to be printed is output on the basis of the print request corrected by the conversion step.

Further, the inquiry step is characterized in that a notification and an inquiry are made to a designated inquiry destination.

[0017]

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

Embodiment 1. FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a print control apparatus according to the present invention. The print server 10, which corresponds to the print control device, controls the output of the print target data stored in the database server 8 based on the attribute and the printer specified in the print request sent from the client 6. The overall configuration of the system including the print server 10 may be the same as that shown in FIG. The print server 10 according to the present embodiment is
A print restriction condition database 12 prepared in advance,
It has a request reception processing unit 14, an inquiry processing unit 16, a request optimization processing unit 18, an output processing unit 20, and a restriction condition management unit 22. It should be noted that the functions originally possessed by the print server are omitted from the drawings and the description of the functions is omitted.

In the print restriction condition database 12, information regarding the printer 4 and conditions that can be designated for printing set for each client 6 or user who issues a print request are registered in advance as print restriction conditions. The information about the printer 4 corresponds to the specifications and function information of each printer 4, and for example, various functions such as a paper size physically compatible with the printer 4, color printing, double-sided printing, and margin printing are set. . Moreover, for example, the upper limit of the paper size, the upper limit of the number of copies, the upper limit of the number of sheets, and the like are set as the use restrictions. Further, in the present embodiment, the upper limit such as the paper size is set as the resource saving mode. On the other hand, the conditions set for each client 6 or department or user (hereinafter collectively referred to as “user”) are the paper size and the number of copies that can be printed from the printer 4 specified in the print request. However, the condition that the request from the user is not permitted is set. For example, a usable printer 4, a paper size that can be printed even by the usable printer 4,
Upper limits such as the number of copies and the number of sheets are set.

The request reception processing unit 14 receives a print request issued by the user. The request reception processing unit 14 in the present embodiment includes a comparison processing unit 24, and compares the content specified in the received print request with the print restriction condition related to the user. Inquiry processing unit 16
As a result of the comparison by the comparison processing unit 24, when the print request does not match the print restriction condition, the print request is notified to the user and the correspondence is inquired. In the request adequacy processing unit 18, the request reception processing unit 14 corrects the print request 26 with the change content designated by the inquiry to the user by the inquiry processing unit 16. The output processing unit 20 outputs the print target data to the printer 4 based on the print request that matches the print restriction condition. The restriction condition management unit 22 maintains the print restriction condition database 12.

Next, the operation of the printer server 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The request reception processing section 14 receives the print request sent from the client 6 (step 10).
1) By grasping the printer 4, the paper size and the number of copies designated in the print request by analyzing the contents,
Understand whether or not various functions such as double-sided printing are specified. And
The comparison processing unit 24 retrieves the print restriction conditions for the user from the print restriction condition database 12 and compares them (step 102). Here, if the print request matches the print restriction condition, the print request is passed to the output processing unit 20 as if the print condition such as an appropriate attribute is set. The output processing unit 20 creates a job based on the print request and outputs it to the designated printer 4 (steps 103 and 108).

On the other hand, when the print request does not meet the print restriction condition, the inquiry processing section 16 notifies the print requester to that effect and inquires about the correspondence (step 104). In the present embodiment, FIG.
In the screen examples shown in FIGS. 5A to 5C, notification, inquiry, and change contents input screen are also used.

First, in the example shown in FIG. 3, the printer name in which the document name of the data to be printed and the job name are displayed, and A0 size paper is not set under the job name is displayed.
Is displayed and a warning message indicating that a print request for a document including the document of A0 is issued is displayed. Then, under the message, the user is inquired about what to do with the print request that did not meet the print restriction conditions this time. In this example, as the correspondence, the output is performed as it is, that is, the printing is performed with the attribute or the like that does not satisfy the print restriction condition, the paper size is changed, the printer 4 as the output destination is changed, or the print is canceled. Ask or ask.

In the present embodiment, not only the specifications of the printer 4 are violated, but also the limiting condition for each user is set not only as authority but also as a guide to call attention. Therefore, if there is no error in the designation of the printer 4, the warning can be output as it is when the warning is against the guide condition. Therefore, when the user who sees the warning message illustrated in FIG. 3 still wants to print under this designated condition, the user can print. Further, in the case of this example, since the paper size is a problem, the inquiry processing unit 16 suggests that A0 is reduced to A3 and printing is performed as a coping method. Further, since the printer 4 is prepared with sheets up to A3 size, the sheet size can be selected. Further, the printer 4 can be changed for the case where it is desired to print the print data (original) as it is in A0. As the selectable printer 4, it is desirable that the list box displays the printers 4 having the A0 size.

According to the present embodiment, as described above, when the print request of the user does not meet the predetermined print restriction condition, the print is simply prohibited, or the fact that the print is prohibited is not notified. , Notifying that the condition is not met and asking the user how to respond depending on the situation. Furthermore, a method that can be dealt with (change of paper size and printer in the above example) and candidates that can be selected when changing in each method are presented. This allows the user to deal with the desired method even when the print condition specified in the print request does not match the print restriction condition of the user.

Further, in the example shown in FIG. 4, the document name of the data to be printed and the job name are displayed, and below that, it is indicated that a print request is issued which violates the limited number of copies, that is, the upper limit of the number of prints. Warning message is displayed. Then, below the message, the user is inquired about the coping method, as in the example shown in FIG. In this example, the number of copies and the printer 4 can be changed because it violates the number of copies. When changing the number of copies,
Alternatively, it is desirable that a value exceeding the condition value of the user cannot be selected. When changing the printer 4,
It is desirable to set the list display of the printers 4 which are permitted to print the designated number of copies. Further, in the screen illustrated in FIG. 4, the print contents are displayed as thumbnails so that the contents of the print data can be confirmed in advance. Then, when the thumbnail is double-clicked, it is enlarged and displayed.

Further, in the example shown in FIG. 5, the document name of the print target data and the job name are displayed, and a print request is issued below the print target data (document) of 4 pages or more. A warning message to that effect is displayed. That is, since the coping method of changing the printer is not presented, it is understood that the user is permitted to print up to three pages. In this case, 1
It proposes a coping method such as Nup for printing a plurality of pages on a sheet of paper, double-sided printing, both of them, or outputting while the print restriction condition is violated or cancelled. Further, in this example, the print data can be confirmed in advance by the thumbnail as in the case of FIG. 4, but since there are a plurality of pages of print data, a button is created so that it can be seen as the previous page.

When the user selects the change contents from the screens exemplified above, the request adequacy processing unit 18 accepts the change contents through the inquiry processing unit 16 (step 105). Then, if it is not canceled, the request adequacy processing unit 18 corrects the print request 26 received by the request reception processing unit 14 with the changed content received via the inquiry processing unit 16 (steps 106 and 107). In addition,
When the user selects the output as is, the print request 26 accepted by the request acceptance processing unit 14 is regarded as proper. The output processing unit 20 includes the request optimization processing unit 18
The job is created on the basis of the print request that meets the print restriction condition by being optimized by (4) and is output to the designated printer 4 (step 108).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the fact that the printing restriction condition is not met is not simply prohibited but the fact that the printing condition is not met is notified, and the situation is reported. Asked the user how to respond according to the. Furthermore, the candidates of change contents that can be dealt with are selectively presented. As a result, the user can know that the print condition specified in the print request does not match the print restriction condition of the user, and can cause the user to confirm which condition did not match. it can.

Therefore, even if the attributes of the print data, the paper size, etc. are not known because they are not created by themselves,
The paper size and the printer 4 can be changed with reference to the warning message from the printer server 10.
In addition, a print request is issued without knowing that the document to be printed has a mixture of unauthorized paper sizes, or even if the user knows that the document sizes are mixed, he or she carelessly selects the A0 size paper. According to the present embodiment, the user can be inquired even when the printer 4 that cannot print is specified. That is, it is possible to not only notify that the user makes a request that violates the print restriction conditions, but also detect and notify even a setting error by the user. Further, not only the notification but also the warning screen shown in FIGS. 3 to 5 can be corrected.

By the way, in the present embodiment, as described above, the warning message illustrated in FIG. 3 to FIG. 5 is output when the content set in the print request does not satisfy the print restriction condition. The print restriction condition is set by the restriction condition management unit 22. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of the print restriction condition setting screen in the present embodiment. From this screen, a predetermined restriction condition is set for each printer 4. Since the physical setting based on the specifications, functions, etc. of each printer 4 is set as another condition, it is set as the misprint warning mode in this example. Further, in this embodiment, the resource saving mode can be set. When the resource saving mode is selected, the comparison processing unit 24 employs each upper limit value set in the resource saving mode instead of the misprint warning mode for comparison with the received print request.

Embodiment 2. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the print control apparatus according to the present invention. The print server 10 in the present embodiment has a configuration in which the inquiry destination information database 28 is added to the first embodiment.

In the above example, when the print restriction conditions are violated,
A warning message is sent to the client 6 that issued the print request, and an inquiry is made. The present embodiment is characterized in that the inquiry destination can be designated. Therefore, the inquiry destination information database 28 is set with the inquiry destination for each user. As the information set as the inquiry destination, the mail address of the information terminal device or the mobile phone owned by the user is set.

Regarding the operation of this embodiment, only the processing different from that of the first embodiment will be described. In step 104 shown in FIG. 2, the inquiry processing unit 16 inquires the notification destination to the effect that the print restriction condition has been violated. It will be specified based on the destination information database 28. At this time, if the other party cannot execute the program, but is a mobile phone with an Internet function, an e-mail is used instead of downloading the screen. Then, the request adequacy processing unit 18 corrects the print request 26 received by the request reception processing unit 14 with the content described in the reply mail received via the inquiry processing unit 16 (step 10).
7).

According to the present embodiment, since the inquiry destination can be designated, it is possible to make an inquiry to the user even when the print restriction condition is violated when the print process is executed at night.

For the purpose of this embodiment, it is desirable that the inquiry destination information database 28 be capable of setting the inquiry destination for each time zone. Further, in the present embodiment, the printer driver installed in the client 6 is assumed to be the same as the conventional printer driver, but the printer driver may be improved so that the inquiry destination can be added to the print request. Good. By doing so, the inquiry destination information database 28 becomes unnecessary.

[0038]

According to the present invention, the fact that the sent print request does not meet the preset print restriction conditions does not prohibit the printing, but informs the print requester to that effect. You can notify and inquire about the correspondence.

Further, it is possible to make an inquiry about the change content of the content item that does not match, and correct the received print request with the change content specified by the print requester in response to the inquiry.

Further, since the change candidates are presented at the time of the inquiry, the print requester can change to a printable request by selecting from the candidates.

Further, since the inquiry destination can be designated, the notification and inquiry can be received at the destination desired by the print requester.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing print control processing executed by a printer server according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a client when a print request does not meet a print restriction condition in the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a client when a print request does not meet a print restriction condition in the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a client when a print request does not meet a print restriction condition in the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for maintenance of print restriction conditions in the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a network configuration diagram of a general printing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

2 LAN, 4 printers, 6 clients, 8 database server, 10 print server, 12 print restriction condition database, 14 request acceptance processing unit, 16
Inquiry processing section, 18 request optimization processing section, 20 output processing section, 22 print restriction condition management section, 24 comparison processing section,
26 print request, 28 contact information database.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. In a print control device for controlling output of data to be printed based on an attribute specified in a print request sent and a printer, the print setting is performed for each printer specification, function, and print requester. A print restriction condition storage unit that stores a specifiable condition as a print restriction condition, a request acceptance processing unit that accepts a print request issued by a print requester, and contents specified in the print request accepted by the request acceptance processing unit. When does not match the print requester and the print restriction conditions related to the print request, the print requester is notified of that fact and the inquiry processing means for inquiring the correspondence is met, and the print restriction condition is met. A print control device comprising: an output processing unit that outputs data to be printed to the printer based on a print request. 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inquiry processing unit inquires of the change requester of the content item that does not match the print requester, and the print request is issued in response to the inquiry from the inquiry processing unit. A request control processing unit that corrects a print request received by the request reception processing unit according to a change content specified by a person, and a print control apparatus. 3. The print control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the inquiry processing unit presents a candidate for change of a content item that does not match based on a print restriction condition to the print requester. Control device. 4. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inquiry processing unit makes a notification and an inquiry to a specified inquiry destination. 5. A reception step of receiving a print request in which at least a print attribute and a printer as an output destination are specified, contents specified in the print request, printer specifications, functions, and printing set for each print requester. If a print request does not match the print restriction condition as a result of the comparison in the condition comparison step that compares a print restriction condition including a condition that can be specified in A print control method comprising: an inquiring step of notifying a requester and inquiring of its correspondence; and an output step of outputting data to be printed in response to a response from a print requester. 6. The print control method according to claim 5, further comprising a print request adequacy step of correcting the print request accepted in the accepting step with the change content designated by the print requester in response to the inquiry in the inquiring step. The print control method, wherein the output step outputs the print target data based on the print request corrected by the print request optimizing step. 7. The print control method according to claim 5, wherein the inquiring step notifies and inquires to a determined inquiry destination.