JP2004086889A - Printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a computer having indicated printing to recognize which bin printed paper is ejected to when a printer comprising a plurality of bins is shared by computers 2, 3, 4, 5 connected to a network (LAN) 1. <P>SOLUTION: In this system, a printer 100 comprising a plurality of bins and computers 2, 3, 4, 5 are connected by a network (Ethernet (R)) 1, and printing is performed by the printer 1 according to a print command of any computer. A printer driver of the computer 2/3/4/5 having indicated printing to the printer 1 displays the selected bin when data indicating destination of paper eject is returned from the printer 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
[Industrial applications]
The present invention relates to a printer driver for controlling a printer connected to a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network).
[0002]
[Prior art]
There is provided a system in which a plurality of computers and at least one printer are connected to a LAN and print processing is performed in response to a command from an arbitrary computer. In such a system, the printer is shared by multiple users (= shared resource), and the printed paper of each user is ejected from the same printer. For this reason, there is also provided an apparatus in which a plurality of bins are provided in a printer, and printed sheets of each user are discharged to different bins, thereby facilitating sorting for each user.
[0003]
In some cases, the computer and the printer are set apart from each other, and the state of the printer may not be visible to the operator. For this reason, a technique for displaying the status of the printer on a display of a computer has been provided (for example, “at work”, “wps (Windows Printing System)” by Microsoft Corporation).
[0004]
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-89161 discloses an apparatus provided with a plurality of bins as paper discharge destinations. When the number of copies to be sorted or the like exceeds the total number of bins, the bins are moved to an upper block and a lower block. There is disclosed an apparatus which controls the system so as to classify the blocks into blocks and alternately sort the upper blocks and the lower blocks.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In a system in which a printer having a plurality of bins is connected to a network and shared by a plurality of computers, sheets to be printed are discharged to different bins based on a command from each computer. However, each computer cannot know in which bin the printed paper is discharged. For this reason, when the user goes to the place where the printer is installed and collects the printed paper, it is necessary to search for his / her own printed paper from a large number of bins, which is troublesome.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to be able to know in which bin a printed sheet is discharged at a computer installation location.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention is configured as in the following [1] to [3].
[1] Configuration 1:
A printer driver operating on a computer system, which instructs a printer that ejects image-printed paper to a bin selected from a plurality of bins to output a print and controls a function of the printer,
Transmitting means for outputting print information and printer control information to a printer connected to the computer system,
Receiving means for receiving printer information input from the printer;
Display instruction means for displaying print information and printer information on display means on the computer system,
The receiving means receives information indicating a position of a bin to which a sheet printed by a print instruction is output,
A printer driver for displaying, on the display means, a bin to which printed paper is discharged based on the received information.
[2] Configuration 2:
A connection unit that connects to a network to transmit and receive data, a unit that prints an image corresponding to print data input from the connection unit on a sheet in response to a print command input from the connection unit, Means for receiving transmission source data indicating the transmission source from the connection means and storing the data in a memory; means for detecting the presence or absence of paper in a plurality of bins; and means for responding to the detection result at the start of printing based on the print command. Means for selecting a bin as a paper discharge destination, and supplying the discharge destination data indicating the selected bin and the transmission source data stored in the memory to the connection means, so that the discharge destination data is transmitted via the network. Means for transmitting to a transmission source, the printer driver being used for a printer having a printer based on the destination data. Printer driver, characterized in that it comprises means for displaying on the display means on a computer driver operates.
[3] Configuration 3:
An interface for connecting to a network, a unit for printing an image on a sheet according to printer control information input via the interface, a unit for respectively detecting the presence or absence of a sheet on a plurality of bins, and the detection result Means for selecting a bin from which paper after printing by the printer control information is to be discharged based on the printer control means, and means for returning discharge destination data indicating the selected bin to the transmission source of the printer control information via the interface, A printer driver used for a printer having
Print control means for providing printer control information to the printer side via a network based on information from application software,
Display control means for displaying information from the printer side input via a network on a display,
The display control means, when information from the printer side input via a network includes the discharge destination data, displays the discharge destination together.
A printer driver, characterized in that:
[0007]
[Action]
Printer control information transmitted from the computer via the network is taken into the printer.
That is, an interface for connecting to a network, a unit for printing an image on a sheet according to printer control information input via the interface, a unit for respectively detecting the presence or absence of a sheet on a plurality of bins, Means for selecting a bin from which paper after printing based on the printer control information is to be discharged based on the detection result, and means for returning output destination data indicating the selected bin to the transmission source of the printer control information via the interface Are taken into the printer.
In the computer that has given the printer control information to the printer, the printer driver executes a process of displaying the bins of the printed sheets according to the printer control information on the display based on the output destination data returned from the printer. You.
[0008]
【Example】
The printer 100 used in the present embodiment is connected to a LAN (Ethernet) 1 as shown in FIG. 1, and four computers 2, 3, 4, and 5 are also connected to this LAN. This enables communication between the four computers and communication between the computers 2, 3, 4, and 5 and the printer 100.
[0009]
The printer 100 has a mail bin device 200 as shown in FIG.
During the printing operation, the paper 102 in the paper feed cassette 101 is separated from the uppermost layer by the paper feed roller 103, the image is printed by the image forming unit 104, and then sent to the mail bin 200 by the discharge roller 105. Here, the image forming unit 104 is a block for printing an image corresponding to print data on a sheet. For example, if the printer 100 is an electrophotographic printer, the image forming unit 104 is a well-known type of charging, exposing, developing, transferring, and fixing. Is a block for performing the image forming process. The replacement may be performed by means for forming an image by another known method (thermal transfer method, ink jet method, dot impact method, etc.).
[0010]
The printed paper sent to the mail bin device 200 is conveyed by the rollers 201 and reaches the gate 211. The four gates 211 to 214 are members for switching the bin to which the printed paper is discharged by opening and closing the gates. For example, when the gate 211 is in the open state (horizontal state) as shown, the printed paper is guided onto the upper surface of the gate 211 and discharged onto the bin 231. Similarly, when the gate 211 is in the closed state (vertical state) and the gate 212 is in the open state (horizontal state), the printed paper is on the left side of the gate 211 (the surface corresponding to the lower surface in the horizontal state shown). It is guided to the upper surface of the gate 212 (the surface corresponding to the right surface in the vertical state in the drawing) and is discharged onto the bin 232. Similarly, the printed paper is discharged onto bins 233 to 235 according to the setting state of gates 211 to 214.
In the drawing, reference numerals 221 to 225 denote sensors for detecting the presence / absence of sheets in the bins 231 to 235, respectively, and the detection results are input to a printer control unit 302 described later.
[0011]
The printer 100 and the Ethernet 1 are connected via a network interface 301 as shown in FIG. The interface 301 controls the Ethernet 1 protocol. In addition, the data received from the Ethernet 1 is analyzed, and at least data specifying the transmission source (transmission source data) and printer control data (print command and print data) are input to the printer control unit 302. Further, it analyzes the data sent from the printer control unit 302, creates destination data specifying a destination (= the computer that instructed the print) based on the source data, and sends it to the Ethernet 1. At this time, if there is data indicating the selected bin (discharge destination data; described later), the discharge destination data is also output to the Ethernet 1. As a result, the discharge destination data is transmitted to the computer specified by the transmission destination data (= the computer that instructed the print).
[0012]
The printer control unit 302 controls an input load 303 and an output load 304 according to printer control data input from the interface 301. That is, the papers 102 in the paper feed cassette 101 are sequentially unwound from the top layer, an image corresponding to the print data is formed in the image forming unit 104, and then sent to the mail bin 200, and the presence or absence of the paper in the bins 231 to 235 is determined. Controls the operation of discharging to the bin selected according to. Here, the input load 303 is, for example, an input signal from the paper presence / absence detection sensors 221 to 225, and the output load 304 is, for example, the rollers 103, 105, 201, the image forming unit 104, or the gates 211 to 225. 214 is a control signal for driving.
[0013]
The printer control unit 302 also stores, in a predetermined area of the memory 305, transmission source data (data indicating the computer that instructed the printing) input from the interface 301. Also, data (discharge data) indicating the bin of the printed paper discharge destination selected according to the presence or absence of the paper in the bins 231 to 235 is transmitted to the interface 301 together with the transmission source data read from the memory 305. As a result, the ejection destination data is transmitted to the computer specified by the transmission source data via the interface 301 and the Ethernet 1 as described above.
[0014]
As described above, in the printer control unit 302, in addition to controlling the image forming operation, storing / reading of the transmission source data and selection of the bin are controlled. Further, the output destination data indicating the selected bin and the destination of the output destination data are controlled. Is output to the interface 301 in association with the transmission source data indicating.
[0015]
Next, control on the computer side will be described with reference to FIG. 8, and further, control with the printer control unit 302 of the printer 100 will be described with reference to FIGS.
[0016]
FIG. 8 shows a part of the printer driver installed in the computers 2, 3, 4, and 5, and controls the printer 100 in response to a print request from application software. That is, when there is a print request from the application software (S401; YES), printer control information (print command and print data) is transmitted to the printer 100 via the Ethernet 1 based on the information from the application software (S402). . When information is input from the printer 100 (S403; YES), a display based on the information is displayed on the display (S406). At this time, if the information from the printer 100 includes output destination data indicating the number of the bin where the printed paper is output (S404; YES), the information is also displayed on the display. It is displayed (S405). The display is performed, for example, as shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, a picture and a character indicating the bin of the discharge destination are displayed. If there is paper in all the bins of the printer 100 at the start of printing in accordance with the print command and the printing is stopped (see the case of FIG. 7 described later), that fact is displayed.
[0017]
FIG. 5 shows control executed by the printer control unit 302 in FIG. 3 in response to a command from a computer (any one of the computers 2, 3, 4, and 5). FIG. 6 shows step S103 in FIG. Shows an example of the control executed by the control unit.
[0018]
First, when printer control information such as a print command and print data and transmission source data (data for specifying the computer that instructed the print) are input from the Ethernet 1 through the interface 301 (S101; YES), The transmission source data is stored in the memory 305 (S102).
[0019]
Next, a process for selecting which of the five bins 231 to 235 the printed paper should be discharged (discharge bin selection process; S103) is performed. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the presence / absence of paper (whether empty or not) is determined in order from the first bin (n = 1) (S201, S202 to S204), and as a result, the n-th (n = 1 to n) is determined. 5) If it is determined that there is no sheet in the bin (S204; YES), the n-th bin is selected as the discharge destination (S205). Further, data indicating that the n-th bin is selected (= discharge destination data) is output to the interface 301 together with the transmission source data (see S102) read from the memory 305 (S207). In response, the interface 301 transmits the discharge destination data to the computer specified by the transmission source data via the Ethernet 1.
When it is determined that there is a sheet in all of the bins 231 to 235 (S203; YES), the uppermost first bin 231 is selected as the discharge destination (S206).
[0020]
When the bin where the printed paper is to be discharged is selected, paper is supplied from the paper supply cassette 101 (S105), and an image corresponding to the print data is formed on the supplied paper by the image forming unit 104. Then, the sheet on which the image has been formed is discharged to the selected bin (S107). When this printing process is completed for all target sheets (= when all printing operations specified by the print control information are completed / S108; NO), this process is completed. Step S104 is a step corresponding to the process of FIG. 7 (discharge bin selection process 2 = another example of the discharge bin selection process), and is performed when the process of FIG. 6 (discharge bin selection process 1) is performed. Is ignored in step S104.
[0021]
In the discharge bin selection process 2 of FIG. 7, when it is determined that there is a sheet in all of the bins 231 to 235, a process different from that of FIG. 6 is performed. That is, in that case, the bin is not selected (S307), and the fact that the bin could not be selected is notified to the transmission source computer via the interface 301 and the Ethernet 1 (S308). In addition, the determination in step S104 in FIG. 5 becomes YES, and this processing ends.
[0022]
As described above, this embodiment relates to the printer 100 and the computers 2, 3, 4, and 5 connected to the network 1, and has the following systems and devices. That is,
(1) A plurality of computers and at least one printer are connected to a network, a printer is activated by an instruction from an arbitrary computer to perform printing, and the destination of printed paper is different for each computer. A system in which the bin of the discharge destination is set as described above, and furthermore, information indicating the bin of the discharge destination is transmitted to the computer that instructed the printing, so that the computer can know the bin of the discharge destination.
(2) A computer which is provided in the system of (1) and has means for displaying the bin at the discharge destination on a display so that an operator can visually recognize the bin.
(3) In the system according to (1), the destination of the printed paper is set to an empty bin at the start of the printing, and if there is no empty bin, a predetermined bin is set. System that sets the bin as the destination bin.
(4) In the system of (1) above, the destination of the printed paper is set to an empty bin at the start of the printing, and if there is no empty bin, the printing operation is stopped. And transmitting the fact to the computer that instructed the printing.
(5) The system of (4) is provided with means for displaying on the display so that the operator can visually recognize that the discharge destination cannot be set because there is no empty bin and the print operation has been stopped. Computer.
(6) The computer according to (2) or (5), wherein the computer performs display on a display using illustrations.
And other systems and devices.
[0023]
【The invention's effect】
When a print command is issued from a computer connected to the network, the printer selects a bin to which printed paper is to be discharged according to the presence or absence of paper in each bin, and transmits the selection result to the computer that instructed the print. Is done. Accordingly, the printer driver operating on the computer instructing the printing causes the display unit to display the bin where the printed paper is discharged. Therefore, when the operator goes to the place where the printer is installed and collects it, the operator can quickly collect the target printed paper from a large number of bins.
The conventional printer driver only outputs a print job.In the present invention, however, the printer driver has a function of acquiring information on a bin to which a printed sheet is discharged and displaying the bin on a display unit of the computer. The operator can know the bin of the discharge destination without starting a separate program for knowing the bin of the discharge destination.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a network environment in which a printer according to an embodiment is installed.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer according to the embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of the printer according to the embodiment.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a display on a display of a computer instructing image printing.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing print processing in the printer of the embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of a process in step S103 of FIG. 5;
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing another example of the process in step S103 of FIG. 5;
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing of a computer instructing image printing.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Network 2, 3, 4, 5 Computer 100 Printer 200 Mail Bin Device 231, 232, 233, 234, 235 Bin

Claims (3)

A printer driver operating on a computer system, which instructs a printer that ejects image-printed paper to a bin selected from a plurality of bins to output a print and controls a function of the printer,
Transmitting means for outputting print information and printer control information to a printer connected to the computer system,
Receiving means for receiving printer information input from the printer,
Display instruction means for displaying print information and printer information on display means on the computer system,
The receiving means receives information indicating a position of a bin on which a sheet printed according to a print instruction is output,
A printer driver for displaying, on the display means, a bin to which a printed sheet is discharged based on the received information. Connecting means for connecting to a network to transmit and receive data, means for printing an image corresponding to print data input from the connection means on a sheet in response to a print command input from the connection means, Means for receiving transmission source data indicating the transmission source from the connection means and storing the data in a memory; means for detecting the presence or absence of paper in a plurality of bins; and means for responding to the detection result at the start of printing based on the print command. Means for selecting a bin as a paper discharge destination, and supplying the discharge destination data indicating the selected bin and the transmission source data stored in the memory to the connection means, so that the discharge destination data is transmitted via the network. Means for transmitting to a transmission source, the printer driver being used for a printer having a printer based on the destination data. Printer driver, characterized in that it comprises means for displaying on the display means on a computer driver operates. An interface for connecting to a network, a unit for printing an image on a sheet according to printer control information input via the interface, a unit for respectively detecting the presence or absence of a sheet on a plurality of bins, and the detection result Means for selecting a bin from which paper after printing by the printer control information is to be discharged based on the printer control means, and means for returning discharge destination data indicating the selected bin to the transmission source of the printer control information via the interface, A printer driver used for a printer having
Print control means for providing printer control information to the printer side via a network based on information from application software,
Display control means for displaying information from the printer side input via a network on a display,
The display control means, when the information from the printer side input via a network includes the discharge destination data, displays the discharge destination together,
A printer driver, characterized in that:

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