JP2003330648A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To always output images of the same quality in a store job subjected to RIP and stored. <P>SOLUTION: A host computer is provided with a means for generating a store job to be stored in a printing device, and for transferring it to the printing device and a means for issuing a command to carry out the printing of the store job. The printing device is provided with a means for preparing a correction table for correcting the fluctuation of the quality of an image to be printed out, a means for preparing image data by correcting the transferred store job, a means for storing the prepared image data, a means for detecting the condition of an environment parameter affecting the quality of an image to be printed out, a means for judging whether or not print should be carried out when receiving the issued command to carry out the print, and a means for carrying out print by extracting the stored image data when judging that the print should be carried out. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a host computer that generates print data according to a user's instruction,
The present invention relates to a printing system including a printing apparatus that performs data processing on print data transmitted from the host computer via a predetermined communication medium to generate image data and actually prints on a medium such as paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art First, a conventional printing system will be described.

In a printing system composed of a host computer and a printing device, not only the printing data generated from the host computer is printed, but also a function of obtaining information of the printing device and setting an environment is required from the host computer. ing. In particular, due to the recent spread of networks, sharing a single high-performance printing device with fast print processing time with multiple users via a network minimizes management costs while meeting a large amount of printing needs in the office. The usage form of pressing is becoming popular. Under this circumstance, the administrator wants to manage the printing device at a remote place in real time, and the general user performs the secondary operation such as checking the processing status of the print job issued by himself or canceling it. There is a demand for printing, and many printing systems have been realized to meet this demand.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a printing system embodying a mechanism for transmitting a print job from a host computer to a printing device, acquiring information of the printing device, and setting an environment in the conventional printing system. The conventional printing system includes a host computer 300 and a printing device 3
50 is connected via a predetermined printing medium 380.

The host computer 300 includes an application section 301, a printer driver section 302, a transmission buffer 303, I
The / F driver unit 304, the utility unit 305, the logical channel control unit 306, and the job packet generation unit 307 are included.

The application unit 301 provides the user with a graphical user interface and generates image data suitable for the user's purpose. Printer drive section 30
2 is a page description language (hereinafter abbreviated as PDL) that allows the printing device 350 to print the image data generated by the application unit 301.
Convert to data. The transmission buffer 303 temporarily stores the PDL data generated by the printer driver unit 302.
The job packet generation unit 307 adds the information of the print job owned by the application unit 301 to the data stored in the transmission buffer 303 and generates a job packet according to a predetermined format.

The utility unit 305 obtains information about the printing apparatus 350 and provides a graphical user interface to the printing apparatus according to the user's or administrator's request.
It sets device information in 350, and generates a management packet for requesting acquisition and cancellation of the status of a print job. The logical channel control unit 306 controls the multiplexing of the job packet generated by the job packet generation unit 307 and the management packet generated by the utility unit 305, and plays a role of a transport layer in the OSI7 layer. The I / F driver 304 transmits the data generated from the logical channel control 306 and receives the data transmitted from the printing device 350.

The printing device 350 includes a logical channel control unit 351,
Device database 352, job preprocessor 353,
Reception buffer 354, image generation unit 355, image memory 356, image transfer unit 357, printer engine unit 358, I / F driver unit 3
59, an information management unit 360, and an operation panel 361.

The I / F driver unit 359 is a host computer 30.
Reception of data transmitted from 0 and logical channel control unit 3
The data generated from 51 is transmitted. The logical channel control unit 351 analyzes the data received by the I / F driver unit 359, classifies the job packet into the job preprocessor unit 353 and the management packet into the information management unit 360, and conversely, the information management unit 3
The management packet transmitted from 60 is transmitted to the I / F driver unit 359.

The job preprocessor unit 353 receives and interprets the job packet, and receives the PDL data from the reception buffer 3
In step 54, the job management information is sent to the device database unit 352.

The reception buffer 354 stores PDL data in the order in which they are received.

The device database unit 352 stores job information such as the number of copies, output paper size, and printing of multiple pages, and device-related information.

The image generation unit 355 performs a translation process based on the PDL data stored in the reception buffer 354, the job information stored in the device database 352, and the correction data stored in a calibration table (not shown). Converted to raster data and transmitted to the image memory 356.

The image memory 356 stores raster data for a plurality of pages and transfers it to the image transfer unit 357.

The image transfer unit 357 acquires the raster data from the image memory 356, and carries out the paper carrying process performed by the printer engine 358, and also transmits it as video data to the printer engine unit 358 based on the raster data.

The printer engine unit 358 physically prints on paper based on the video data transmitted from the image transfer unit 357 using a known electrophotographic technique.

When all the sheets of the job have been printed and the discharge of the sheets has been completed, the information of the job is deleted from the device database 352.

The information management unit 360 receives the information acquisition request from the utility unit 305 in the form of a management packet, acquires necessary information from the device database 352, converts it into a management packet, and converts it into a management packet via the logical channel control unit 351 to a host computer. Reply to. In addition, the end of the job is detected, and the end notification is voluntarily converted into a management packet and notified.

The operation panel 361 is composed of a display device such as a liquid crystal or LED mounted on the main body of the printing device 350 and operation buttons, and reflects the setting from the user in the device database through the information management section 360, or , The current device status such as an error is displayed.

Next, the mechanism of the job cancel function in the conventional example will be described.

The job cancel function is a function for requesting the print cancel of a job transmitted to the printing apparatus by the user or administrator who has issued the print request. The user interface in the utility section 305 or the operation panel 361. Request cancellation from.

When the printing apparatus 350 receives a print request for a print job, the job preprocessor unit 353 recognizes the new job, assigns a job ID that is uniquely maintained in the printing apparatus to the job, and stores the information in the device database. It is stored in the section 352. This information is interpreted and drawn for all pages of the print job, and is deleted when the printer engine unit 358 detects that the discharge of the last page is completed.

The utility unit 305 issues a management packet requesting acquisition of an in-apparatus job list to the printing apparatus 350, and the printing apparatus 350 displays a list of the job IDs of all jobs recognized in the apparatus. Send. The utility unit 305 receives this and displays it using the graphic user interface.

The user who sent the print job or the administrator of the printing apparatus 350 can cancel the job.
This is done by designating a job ID to be canceled from the graphic user interface of the utility section 305, converting it into a management packet, and issuing a cancellation request command to the printing device 350. When the job cancel request management packet is transmitted to the printer 350, the information management unit 36
When 0 is detected and the job is present on the print path, the print is canceled.

When canceling from the operation panel 361, it is difficult to explicitly specify the job ID.
The job with the most progress on the print path is targeted for cancellation. Specifically, when a job is being processed by the printer engine unit 358, the job ID is targeted for cancellation, and if not, the image transfer unit 357, the image generation unit 355, and the like are being processed on the print path. When the job is found, the corresponding job ID is determined and it is targeted for cancellation. The cancellation of a job by the operation panel 361 is different only in the method of determining the corresponding job ID, and the actual cancellation process in the printing apparatus is the same as the cancellation by the utility 305.

By the above operation, it is possible to cancel any job stored in the printer 350.

A printer having a store print function of a job for executing printing by storing raster data expanded into a bitmap of a print job in a memory such as an HDD in the printer semi-permanently and in accordance with an instruction from the host. There is. By using this store print function, once the store job is stored in the printer, the same image can be printed quickly as many times as the user wants, and because it has been expanded to a bitmap. It is like this.

Further, the output image of the printer changes according to the state change such as environmental change such as temperature and humidity change. Therefore, in order to maintain the quality of the output image, it is necessary to perform a process for correcting the output characteristic of the printer engine, that is, a calibration, in accordance with a state change such as an environmental change. This calibration has become an extremely important process as the resolution and color of the printer have been increased.

In the conventional printer, the printer engine automatically executes the calibration when the power is turned on or when printing of a predetermined number of pages is completed.

[0030]

Unlike the printing of a normal job, the printing of a store job is performed many times after a certain time has elapsed after being stored and stored in the printer, and irregularly. It is highly possible that printing is performed under different environmental conditions each time.

In this way, when printing is performed under different environmental conditions, even if the same store job in the printer is printed, different image quality is output depending on the environment such as temperature and humidity when the printing is performed. It becomes an image.

However, from a user who attaches particular importance to image quality,
Since the same store job is being printed, there is a demand for always obtaining output images of the same image quality.

Therefore, by executing the print job of the store job in the same environment as when the store job is performed, it is possible to eliminate the fluctuation factors due to the difference in environment such as temperature and humidity, and to output the output image with a constant image quality. Can be reproduced and printed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned points, and the environment when storing the environment data such as temperature and humidity when the correction table used when creating the raster data of the store job is created is stored in the store. Save as data, and when print execution is actually instructed for the store job, compare the environmental data such as the current temperature and humidity with the environmental data such as temperature and humidity when storing in the store,
By waiting for the same environment and automatically executing printing when the same environment is achieved, it is possible to always provide output images of the same image quality.

Further, according to the present invention, by issuing necessary instructions to equipment such as an air conditioner, a humidifier, and a dehumidifier, environmental data such as the current temperature and humidity can be stored in the environment such as temperature and humidity when the store is stored. It is possible to always provide an output image with the same image quality by controlling the data to be the same as the data, waiting for the same environment, and automatically executing printing when the environment becomes the same. I am trying.

[0036]

In order to achieve the above object, a printing system according to the present invention is a printing system in which a host computer and a printing apparatus are connected via a communication medium, and the host computer is a printing system. A print job to be stored in the apparatus (hereinafter referred to as a store job), and a store job generation and transfer unit that transfers the print job to the printing apparatus; and a print execution designation unit that issues a command to execute the printing of the store job The printing apparatus includes a calibration unit that creates a correction table for correcting variations in image quality of an image to be printed out, and a correction table created by the calibration unit for the store job transferred by the print job generation and transfer unit. Image expansion means for creating image data after correction based on the image, and an image created by the image expansion means. When an image data spooling means for storing data, an environment detecting means for detecting a state of an environmental parameter affecting the image quality of an image to be printed out, and a command for executing printing issued by the print execution designating means are received. A print execution determining means for determining whether to perform print execution, and a print executing means for taking out image data from the image data spooling means and executing printing when the print execution determining means determines to perform print execution. , Are included.

[0037]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be illustratively described in detail below with reference to the drawings. However, the constituent elements described in this embodiment are merely examples, and the scope of the present invention is not intended to be limited thereto.

(First Embodiment) The first embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are prints embodying a mechanism for transmitting a print job from a host computer to a printing apparatus, acquiring information of the printing apparatus, and setting an environment in the printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of a system. The printing system includes a host computer 200 that generates a job to be printed, a printing device 100 that actually prints on paper, and predetermined interfaces 210 and 120. Interface 21
0 and 120 may be a local interface defined by IEEE1284 or a network interface such as EtherNet. In this embodiment, the case of the network interface will be described.

In FIG. 2, the host computer 200
Is a page description language (hereinafter referred to as PDL) that allows the printing apparatus 100 to print the application unit 201 that generates desired print data while the user operates the graphical user interface, and the image data created by the application unit 201.
(Abbreviated as) a printer driver unit 202 for converting to data, a transmission buffer 203 for temporarily storing the PDL data converted by the printer driver unit 202, the PDL data stored in the transmission buffer 203 and the job attribute of the application unit 201. A job packet generation unit 207 that generates a predetermined job packet from the information, confirms the status of the printing apparatus 100, confirms the printing status of the transmitted print job, cancels the print job, and stops the operation using a graphical user interface. Then, the utility unit 205 that converts these requests into management packets that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 100, the logical channel control unit 206 that allocates the job packet and the management packet to different channels, and multiplexes the transport layer in the OSI7 layer. , Convert logical data into electrical signals and interface It is composed of an I / F driver unit 204 for exchanging data.

In FIG. 1, the printing apparatus 100 converts logical data into electric signals, analyzes the data received from the I / F driver unit 101 and the I / F driver unit that exchanges with the interface, and analyzes the job. A logical channel control unit 102 that allocates a packet and a management packet to different channels and multiplexes transport layers in the OSI 7 layer, receives a job packet, and analyzes it.
The attribute information of the print job is stored in the device database unit 105, the PDL data is distributed to the reception buffer 104 and stored in the job preprocessor unit 103, the reception buffer 104 in which the PDL data is stored in the order received, the job processing order and the storage Job management table that describes whether or not
111, the PDL data stored in the reception buffer 104 and the correction data stored in the job information calibration table 115 stored in the device database 105 are translated into raster data by the translation process, and the image spooler 107 The image generation unit 106, which stores the raster data for a plurality of pages of a plurality of jobs, acquires the raster data from the image spooler 107 and the image spooler 107, which is passed to the image transfer unit 108, and the paper transport process performed by the printer engine 109. Printer engine based on raster data
The image transfer unit 108 that transmits the video data to the 109,
Based on the video data transmitted from the image transfer unit 108 using a known electrophotographic technique, the printer engine unit 109 that physically prints on paper, receives the management packet transmitted from the host computer 200, and requests it. In response to this, information is acquired from the device database unit 105, a job cancel request, a store request, and a print execution request are made.In addition, a job end or device error is detected and a notification event is sent to the host computer 200 autonomously. An information management unit 110 to issue, a store processing unit 112 that performs actual store processing and print execution processing when a job store designation and print execution designation are performed, a liquid crystal or LED installed in the main body of the printing apparatus 100, and the like. Operation panel 113 consisting of the display device and operation buttons, temperature and humidity are detected and provided as environmental data That the environmental sensor 11
4. It is composed of calibration correction data and a calibration table 115 for storing environment data at the time of creating the correction data.

When the image generation unit 106 stores raster data in the image spooler, the job ID is passed as a key, and the job ID can be retrieved as a key even when it is retrieved later.

Further, when the image generation unit 106 stores raster data in the image spooler, environmental data such as temperature and humidity when the correction table used for conversion to raster data is created is stored in the job of the job. The information is stored in the equipment database unit 105 as one piece of information. This environmental data is the environmental data when the job is stored in the store, and is used at the time of the description of 905 in FIG. 9 described later.

Data communication performed from the logical channel control unit 206 of the host computer unit 200 to the logical channel control unit 102 of the printing apparatus is, for example, in the case of a network.
In the case of TCP / IP or local, it is assumed that the transport layer level multiplexing is performed by the protocol defined by IEEE1284 / IEEE1284.4, and the detailed description will be omitted.

The job packet logically transmitted from the job packet generator 207 is the job preprocessor 10
Received by 3, this route is called the job channel. The management packet transmitted / received from the utility unit 205 is transmitted / received by the information management unit 110, and this route is called a management channel. It is specified that both channels are capable of bidirectional communication, but regarding the job channel, one direction of the host computer-> printing device does not hinder the embodiment of the present embodiment.
The job channel and management channel are multiplexed at the transport layer level in the OSI7 layer, and the flow processing of one does not affect the other.

Next, the structure of the job packet and the management packet will be described.

The job packet and the management packet are application layer protocols and have a packet structure composed of a header part and a parameter part.

One print job is composed of a plurality of job packets. A collection of a series of job packets that constitutes a print job is called a job script.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of a job packet. The vertical axis represents bytes and the horizontal axis represents bits of each byte. In the figure, the operation code in the 0th to 1st bytes is a 2-byte length indicating the function of the packet.
It is an ID. The following values can be taken in the job packet. 0x0201 Job start operation 0x0202 Job attribute setting operation 0x0204 PDL data transmission operation 0x0205 Job end operation The block number in the 2nd and 3rd bytes is the sender's response when the sender of the job packet requests a reply. It is a number used to take correspondence to which response request. For example, if error packets with block number = 2 are returned when job packets with block numbers = 1, 2, and 3 are sent in succession, when the response comes back, the sending side sends the second job packet It is possible to identify that an error has occurred.

The parameter length of the 4th to 5th bytes is an area showing the byte length of the data part and can show 0 to 64K bytes.

The 6th to 7th bytes are areas showing various flags of the job packet and show the following values, respectively.

Error flag: When this value is 1, it indicates that an error has occurred in the printing apparatus. This flag is added to the reply packet sent from the printing device to the host computer.

Notification flag: When this value is 1, it is not a reply to the request packet from the host computer, but
It indicates that the printing device notifies the host computer that there is some notification item.

Continuation flag: When this value is 1, it indicates that the remaining data is sent in the next job packet because all the data did not fit in the data part. The next job packet has the same operation code as the previous packet,
You have to set the block number.

Reply request: Set to 1 when a reply packet is required from the host computer to the printer. When it is 0, the request packet is not returned when it is processed normally. When an error occurs in the printing apparatus, the reply packet with the error flag set to 1 is always transmitted regardless of 0/1 of the reply request.

User ID in the 8th to 9th bytes and 10 to 1
The 1st byte password is an area used for authentication when security restrictions are imposed on the operations that can be performed by the request packet. This embodiment is not affected.

From the 12th byte onward, additional data corresponding to the operation code is stored.

In the case of the job start operation, the job execution mode is described as additional data. The execution modes that can be specified are listed below.

0x01: Normal execution of job. The job is added to the end of the queue of the printing apparatus as a normal job, and the printing process is performed when scheduling is started.

0x04: Store the job. The job is treated as a store job at the same time as it is submitted, and is actually stored and stored as raster data without being printed.

In the case of the job attribute setting operation, the job attribute ID and the job attribute value to be set are set. The job attribute ID indicates an attribute relating to the job or an identifier corresponding to the environment, and an ID corresponding to the attribute of the job defined by ISO-10175 (DPA) is assigned in advance. The typical job attributes are listed below.

Job attribute ID 0x0101 Job name 0x0103 Job owner name 0x016a Job size 0x0104 Paper size 0x0105 Multiple page printing In addition to this, depending on the function of the printing device, the job attributes such as the number of copies, monochrome and color, and the corresponding ID Can be allocated.

For a PDL data send operation,
PDL data is stored in the additional data section.

Since the data of one job packet is up to the maximum size that can be stored in the parameter length, 64 KB
It can be stored up to, and further data is divided into multiple PDL data transmission operations and transmitted. In this case, 1 is set in the continuation flag.

In case of the job end operation, there is no additional data.

Next, the job packet generator 207 in the host computer will be described.

5 and 6 are flowcharts for explaining the operation of the job packet generator 207.

The job packet generation unit 207 performs processing after the printer driver unit 202 is activated when the print designation is selected by the application unit 201 and the printer driver unit 202 completes generation of print data in the transmission buffer unit 203. Be started.

At 501, it is determined whether the job is designated as a store. The store designation is designated by the property provided by the user interface of the printer driver unit 202. If the store is designated, the operation mode is set to 0x04 in 503, and if not, the operation mode is set to 0x01 in 502.

At 504, a job start operation code (0
x0201) is specified as a job packet to the logical channel control unit.
Issued at 206. At this time, the operation mode is set in the additional data area of the job packet, and the normal job or the store job is designated.

After that, all the operations are used only for setting the information of the job until the job end operation is issued.

At 505, the job name is set. A job packet with a job attribute setting operation code (0x0202) in the area for storing the operation code in FIG. 5, a job attribute ID (= 0x0101) indicating the job name in the parameter section, and a name that is the job attribute value is specified in the logical channel. Issued to the control unit 206.

At 506, the owner of the job is set. A job attribute setting operation code (0x0202) is stored in the area for storing the operation code in FIG. 5, and a job attribute ID (= 0x010) indicating the job owner is displayed in the parameter section.
3) And, the job packet in which the owner name as the job attribute value is specified is issued to the logical channel control unit 206.

At 507, the size of the job is set. A job attribute setting operation code (0x0202) is stored in the area for storing the operation code in FIG. 5, and a job attribute ID (= 0x016) indicating the job size is displayed in the parameter section.
A) and a job packet specifying the data size of the job that is the job attribute value is issued to the logical channel control unit 206.

At 508, the size of the PDL data to be transmitted is substituted into the variable size.

In 601 of FIG. 6, the size of the variable size is checked and it is compared whether it is larger than 64K. The size of the parameter that can be specified in the job packet is limited to 64K bytes because the size of the parameter length of the packet header is expressed in 16 bits.Therefore, more data is issued by dividing it into multiple job packets. Will be. If the size of the PDL data is larger than 64 Kbytes, the continuation flag of the packet header of FIG. 5 is set to 1 in 605, and further, in 606, 64 Kbytes of PDL data is extracted from the transmission buffer 203,
In the PDL data transmission operation (0x0204) in the area for storing the operation code of, the job packet in which the extracted PDL data is designated in the parameter section is issued to the logical channel control section 206. Also, in 607, the transmitted 64 Kbytes are subtracted from size, and the process returns to the branch of 601.

At 601, if the data size is 64 Kbytes or less, transmission of all data is completed by one more PDL data transmission operation. In this case, in 602, the continuation flag of the packet header of FIG.
It is set that the L data transmission is the last, and in 603, all PDL data is taken out from the transmission buffer 203, and the PDL is stored in the area for storing the operation code in FIG.
In the data transmission operation (0x0204), a job packet in which the extracted PDL data is designated in the parameter section is issued to the logical channel control section 206.

Then, at 604, a job packet in which the job end operation code (0x0205) is designated in the area for storing the operation code of FIG. 4 is issued to the logical channel control unit 206, and the processing is ended.

Next, the job management table 111 will be described.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the job management table.

[8-1] indicates that jobs 1 to 4 are registered in the job management table 111. The status indicates the status of the job. One of the following is set in the status. 1 Printing a normal job 2 Printing a store job 3 Not printing a store job

In the case of [8-1], jobs 1 and 3 are normal jobs being printed, job 2 is a store job being printed, and jobs are
4 is a store job that is not being printed.

All normal jobs are being printed and the status is 1. When the store job is stored in the store, it is not being printed and has a status of 3, and while it is being printed, it is being printed and has a status of 2. And
When printing is completed, the process returns to 3.

When the image transfer unit 108 transfers video data to the printer engine unit 109, the job management table
The raster data of the job is taken out in order from the top of 111. However, at this time, the raster data of the non-printing store job whose status is set to 3 is not extracted. That is, the store job that is not being printed remains unprinted.

Here, when the job preprocessor unit 705 adds the job 5 to the job management table,

As shown in [8-2], the job 5 is added to the end of the job management table 111, although the status is set to 1 or 2. Ie this

In the case of [8-2], it is added between the job 3 and the job 4. At this time, the status of job 5 is set to 1. If this job 5 is 0x in operation mode
If 04 is the designated store job, the store processing unit 112, which has received the store instruction from the job preprocessor unit 705, resets the status to 3 in 903.

When it is recognized that the job 1 has been extracted to the end, the normal job, job 1

It is deleted from the job management table as shown in [8-3].

If the store job is stored and until the user explicitly issues a delete instruction,
Printing can be executed by the user as many times as necessary. for that reason,
If the store job being printed whose status is set to 2 has been taken out to the end, the status is reset to 3 and moved to the end of the job management table 111. In this case, the job management table is not deleted. That is, when recognizing that the job 2 has been extracted to the end, the job 2 that was the store job being printed is

As in the example of [8-4], the status will change to 3, and it will be moved to the end.

As described above, the job management table 111 controls the order of jobs processed by the image transfer unit 108 and manages store jobs.

Next, the utility section 205 will be described.

The utility section is provided for the printing apparatus 100 to specify operations such as print job list and attribute display, job cancellation, and print execution instruction for store jobs.

The operation performed by the utility is performed by using the management channel and transmitting / receiving a management packet equivalent to a job packet for transmitting a print job.
The management packet has a data structure as shown in FIG. 4, like the job packet. The contents of each information of the packet header of the 0th to 11th bytes are the same as the job packet, and only the operation code is different as follows. 0x010b Print job cancel specification 0x0123 Print job interrupt specification 0x010d Print job list acquisition 0x0121 Store job print execution specification 0x0122 Store job deletion 0x0105 Attribute setting 0x0106 Attribute acquisition Unlike the job packet, the management packet is an individual packet Used for a unique purpose. By job packet,
When the print job is transmitted, the printing apparatus causes the device database unit 305 to operate by the function of the job preprocessor unit 103.
Stores job information. When the utility unit 205 wants to know which job is stored in the printing apparatus, it sends a management packet designating the operation code (0x010d) for acquiring the print job list to the management channel. In the parameter part, the object ID = 0x0102 indicating the print job class that is the object to be acquired is specified.

This management packet is sent to the logical channel control unit 20.
6 sent to the printing device 100 via the interface 210
Information management unit 310.

The information management unit 310 recognizes that the print job list is acquired based on the operation code of the received management packet, acquires the print job list information stored in the device database unit 305, and returns the reply packet. Do. The parameter portion of the reply packet stores the number of print jobs recognized by the printing device and a list of object IDs uniquely determined by each print job.

When each print job has job name, owner, and size information by the job attribute setting operation, the utility section 405 can acquire detailed information about the print job.

When the utility section acquires the list of print jobs, it prints a management packet in which the acquisition of attributes is specified in the operation code (= 0x0106) in order to further acquire detailed attributes for each print job. Send to device.

The information management section 310 recognizes that the operation code of the received management packet is attribute acquisition, and sets the attribute of the specified attribute ID corresponding to the object ID of the specified print job stored in the device database section 305. Acquire and send back a reply packet. In the parameter section of the management packet, the object ID of the print job to be acquired and the ID of the attribute to be acquired are specified. For example, to obtain the job name of the first print job, specify 1 for the object ID and 0x0101 for the attribute ID.

Next, the print execution processing of the store job will be described.

When the utility unit 205 wants to print an arbitrary job stored in the printing apparatus, the management packet in which the print execution designation of the print job is designated in the operation code (= 0x0121) is printed. Send to device 100. At this time, as the additional data, the job ID of the store job for executing printing is specified.

The information management unit 110 recognizes the print execution designation of the store job based on the operation code of the received management packet, and instructs the store processing unit 112 to execute the print execution.

The operation when the store processing unit 112 receives the print execution instruction will be performed at the time of the description of FIG. 9 described later.

As described above, when the user designates the print execution from the utility section, the print processing is performed.

Next, the store job deletion process will be described.

When the utility unit 205 wants to delete any stored job that has entered the printer, a management packet in which the print execution designation of the print job is specified in the operation code (= 0x0122) is sent to the printer 100. Send to. At this time, the job ID of the store job to be deleted is specified as additional data.

The information management section 110 recognizes that the store job is designated to be deleted by the operation code of the received management packet, deletes the job information of the corresponding job ID from the device database section 105, and further deletes the raster of the corresponding job ID. Delete the data from the image spooler 107.

As described above, when the user designates the deletion of the store job from the utility section, the designated store job is deleted.

Next, the job preprocessor section 103 will be described.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the job preprocessor section 103.

In FIG. 7, the job preprocessor unit 10
3 starts when the printing device 100 starts up, and thereafter, the printing device 100
The process continues until the power is turned off.

First, at 701, various initialization processing for future operation is performed to receive a job packet. Upon receipt, at 702 a comparison is made as to whether it is a job start operation. If an operation other than the job start operation arrives, the operation is illegal, the job packet is discarded in 703, and the process returns to 701.

On the other hand, when it is judged at 701 that the job is a job start operation, at 704, the job ID of the job is acquired. The job ID is assigned as a 2-byte number and is used as a key for reading / writing job attribute information in the device database unit 105. Then 705
In the job management table 111
D is added.

At 706, the additional data of the job packet is searched and it is compared whether the operation mode is 0x04. 0x
In the case of 04, the store is designated as described above, and in this case, in 707, the store processing unit 112 is instructed to store the job. As a result, the store processing unit 112 that has received this instruction sets the status of the job in the job management table 111 to 3.

Subsequently, at 708, the next job packet is received. At 709, a comparison is made as to whether the job packet is a job end operation, and if so, the series of loops is exited and the operation returns to the initial state of 701.

On the other hand, if not, in 710, if the received job packet is an attribute setting operation, in 711, attribute data is set in the device database section 105. At this time, the key is the job ID acquired in 704 and the attribute ID and attribute data described in the additional data of the job packet. When the attribute setting is completed, the next job packet is received, and the process returns to step 708.

At 712, a comparison is made as to whether or not the job packet is a PDL data transmission operation. If not, the job packet is discarded because it is an invalid job packet that does not correspond to any operation. Return to 708. On the other hand, if it is a PDL data transmission operation, at 714, PDL data is added to the reception buffer 104.

The PDL data stored in the reception buffer 104 can be read any number of times until it is erased due to the completion of the job.

When the addition to the reception buffer 104 is completed, the next job packet is received, and the process returns to 708.

Through the above operation, the job preprocessor section 103 distributes the job packets to the device database section 105 and the reception buffer 104.

Next, the operation of the store processing unit 112 will be described.

When the job preprocessor unit 103 recognizes the store designation of the print job, the store instruction is issued to the store processing unit at 707. At this time, the job ID for storing is also notified.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart for explaining the operation performed by the store processing unit 112 at that time.

In FIG. 9, it is judged at 901 whether or not a store instruction has been issued, and if there is no instruction, the operation proceeds to 904. When a store instruction is issued, the job specified for store in 2 is moved to the end of the job management table. Then, in 903, the status of the job is set to 3. As a result, the job will be processed by the image transfer unit until the print execution designation is issued from the host and the print is executed.
It is a store job because it is not fetched by 108.

Subsequently, in 904, it is judged whether or not the print execution instruction is given, and when the print execution instruction is given, 905
At, the environment data when the job is stored in the store is acquired from the device database unit 105. Then, in 906, environmental data such as the current temperature and humidity are acquired from the environmental sensor 114. Then, at 907, the current environmental data is compared with the environmental data at the time of storing in the store to check whether they are the same. Here, if they are not the same, the process returns to the beginning 901.
If they are the same, the process proceeds to 908, the status of the job is set to 2, and in 909, the job is moved to the end of the status 1 or 2. Then return to the top 901. As described above, when the current environment data obtained in 906 is the same as the environment data at the time of storing in the store, the store job specified by the print execution is executed by printing.

As described above, the environmental data such as temperature and humidity when the correction table used when creating the raster data of the store job is created is stored as the environmental data when the store is stored, and When printing is instructed for that store job, compare the environmental data such as the current temperature and humidity with the environmental data such as temperature and humidity at the time of store and wait until the same environment is reached. , When the environment becomes the same, it operates so that printing is automatically executed.

(Second Embodiment) In the first embodiment, when the print execution of the store job is instructed, it is merely waiting for the current environment such as temperature and humidity to become the same as when the store was performed. However, in the present embodiment, by issuing an instruction to a device such as an air conditioner or a humidity controller that can change the environment in the vicinity of the printing apparatus, the environment is positively set to the same as the environment when the store is stored. It operates differently.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram of the printing system in this embodiment.

In the figure, one printer 1101, two host computers 1102 and 1103, an air conditioner 1104,
The humidity controller 1105 is connected to the same network.

The printer 1101 can issue an instruction to the air conditioner 1104, the dehumidifier 1105, and the humidifier 1106 via the network.

That is, the printer 1101 issues a temperature setting instruction to the air conditioner 1104, and the air conditioner 1104 operates according to the instruction to reach the specified temperature.

Further, the printer 1101 issues a humidity setting instruction to the humidity adjusting machine 1105, and the humidity adjusting machine 1105 operates according to the instruction so that the humidity becomes the specified humidity.

The humidity adjuster may be a humidifier or a dehumidifier.

Next, the store processing unit in this embodiment
The operation of 112 will be described.

When the job preprocessor unit 103 recognizes the store designation of the print job, the store instruction is issued to the store processing unit at 707. At this time, the job ID for storing is also notified.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart for explaining the operation performed by the store processing unit 112 at that time.

In FIG. 10, it is determined at 1001 whether or not a store instruction has been issued, and if there is no instruction, the process proceeds to 1004.
When a store instruction is issued, the job specified for store in 2 is moved to the end of the job management table. Then, in 1003, the status of the job is set to 3. As a result, the job is not taken out by the image transfer unit 108 until the print execution designation is issued from the host and the print execution is performed, and thus it is a store job.

Subsequently, in 1004, it is judged whether or not a print execution instruction is given, and when the print execution instruction is given, 1005
At, the environment data when the job is stored in the store is acquired from the device database unit 105. Then, in 1006, environmental data such as the current temperature and humidity are acquired from the environmental sensor 114. Then, at 1007, the current environmental data is compared with the environmental data stored in the store to check whether they are the same. Here, if they are the same, the process proceeds to 1008, the status of the job is set to 2, and in 1009, the job is moved to the end of the status 1 or 2. Then return to the first 1001.

On the other hand, if the current environmental data at 1007 and the environmental data at the time of storing in the store are not the same, at 1010, the air conditioner 1104 and the humidity controller are adjusted so that the temperature and humidity become the same as the environment at the time of storing in the store. Instruct the 1105 as described above. Then, return to the first 1001.

As described above, the environmental data such as temperature and humidity when the correction table used when creating the raster data of the store job is created is held as the environmental data when the store is stored. When a print execution is instructed for that store job, the environmental data such as the current temperature and humidity is compared with the environmental data such as temperature and humidity at the time of store, and if they are different, the store The environment change device is instructed so that it becomes the same as the environment at that time, and it waits until it becomes the same environment, and when it becomes the same environment, it automatically executes printing.

(Third Embodiment) In the first and second embodiments, the example of the store job is shown, but the target print job is not limited to the store job. In particular, this is highly effective for a print job in which the environment is likely to change due to the passage of time between the raster data expansion and the actual printing.

For example, it is effective even in the case of a so-called secure job in which raster data is expanded in the printer and the actual printing is executed by the password input by the user's panel operation.

(Other Embodiments) Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices, or may be composed of one device. It may be applied to the device.

The present invention supplies a software program for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus directly or remotely, and a computer of the system or apparatus reads out the supplied program code. Including cases that can be achieved by executing. In that case, the form need not be a program as long as it has the functions of the program.

Therefore, the program code itself installed in the computer to implement the functional processing of the present invention by the computer also implements the present invention. That is, the claims of the present invention include the computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.

In this case, the program may take any form such as an object code, a program executed by an interpreter, or script data supplied to an OS as long as it has the function of the program.

As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD
-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, non-volatile memory card, ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM,
DVD-R).

In addition, as a method of supplying the program,
It can also be supplied by connecting to a homepage on the Internet using a browser of a client computer, and downloading the computer program itself of the present invention or a compressed file having an automatic installation function from the homepage to a recording medium such as a hard disk. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from different homepages. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for implementing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the claims of the present invention.

Also, by encrypting the program of the present invention, C
By storing the information in a storage medium such as a D-ROM and distributing it to the user, and having the user who satisfies the predetermined conditions download the key information for decrypting the encryption from the home page via the Internet, and by using the key information It is also possible to execute the encrypted program and install the program in a computer to realize it.

Further, the computer executes the read program to realize the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the OS and the like running on the computer execute the actual processing based on the instructions of the program. The function of the above-described embodiment can be realized also by performing a part or all of the above.

Furthermore, after the program read from the recording medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted in the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program,
CPU provided on the function expansion board or function expansion unit
Performs a part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0147]

According to the present invention, according to the present invention, the print execution of the store job is performed under the environment when the raster data of the store job is created. Therefore, the same store job is stored using the store print function. When printing is performed many times, the user can always obtain an output image of the same image quality, no matter what timing the printing execution instruction is given from the user.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a printing system embodying a mechanism for transmitting a print job from a host computer to a printing apparatus, acquiring information of the printing apparatus, and setting an environment in the printing system of the first embodiment. .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a printing system embodying a mechanism of transmitting a print job from a host computer to a printing apparatus, acquiring information of the printing apparatus, and setting an environment in the printing system of the first embodiment. .

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a printing system that embodies a mechanism of transmitting a print job from a host computer to a printing apparatus, acquiring information of the printing apparatus, and setting an environment in the conventional printing system.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of a job packet.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a job packet generation unit.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a job packet generation unit.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a job preprocessor unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a job management table.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a store processing unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a store processing unit according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram of a printing system according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

200, 300 Host computer 100, 350 Printer 120, 210, 380 Interface 201, 301 Application section 202, 302 Printer driver section 203, 303 Transmission buffer 204, 304 I / F driver section (host computer) 205, 305 Utility section 206 , 306 Logical channel control unit (host computer) 207, 307 Job packet generation unit 101, 359 I / F driver unit (printing device) 102, 351 Logical channel control unit (printing device) 103.353 Job preprocessor unit 104, 354 Buffers 105, 352 Device database section 106, 355 Image generation section 107 Image spooler 356 Image memory 108, 357 Image transfer section 109, 358 Printer engine section 110, 360 Information management section 111 Job management table 112 Store processing section 113, 361 Operation panel 114 Environmental sensor 115 Calibration table

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A printing system in which a host computer and a printing device are connected via a communication medium, the printing job being stored in the printing device in the host computer (hereinafter, store job).
And a print execution designating unit that issues a command to execute printing of the store job. Calibration means for creating a correction table for correcting variations, and image data after correcting the store job transferred by the print job generation transfer means based on the correction table created by the calibration means And an image data spooling unit for storing the image data created by the image developing unit, an environment detecting unit for detecting a state of an environmental parameter affecting the image quality of an image to be printed out, and the printing When the command for executing the printing issued by the execution designating means is received, it is determined whether to execute the printing. Print execution determining means for refusing, and print executing means for taking out image data from the image data spooling means and executing printing when the print execution determining means determines to perform print execution. Printing system. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print execution determining unit determines the state of the environmental parameter detected by the environment detecting unit and the state of the environmental parameter when the image expanding unit creates the image data. The printing system is characterized in that when and are the same, it is determined that printing is to be executed, and in other cases, printing is not to be executed. 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print execution determining means determines the state of the environmental parameters detected by the environment detecting means and the state of the environmental parameters when the image expanding means creates the image data. And is within a certain difference, it is determined to execute printing,
A printing system characterized by determining that printing is not executed at other times. 4. The printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising environment change instruction means for instructing an external device to change a state of an environmental parameter near the printing apparatus. And printing system. 5. The printing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the environment change instructing means gives an instruction to an external device so as to be the same as the state of the environment parameter when the image expanding means created the image data. A printing system characterized by the above.