JP2004280749A - Printer compliant to network, network equipment, and online printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a confidential printing function without deteriorating the use efficiency of a printer buffer. <P>SOLUTION: When a confidential printing request including printing data of PDL format is transmitted from a PC, the data transfer part 26 of a printing control part 25 transfers rasterize data generated in a rasterizer 22 to a printing requesting source or a PC designated in the printing request and erases rasterize data on a buffer in the printer. When a printing instruction is inputted by a user through the operation panel of the printer 2, a data acquisition part 27 acquires rasterize data designated by input from a PC specified based on transfer destination information stored at the time of data transfer. The printing control part 25 delivers the acquired rasterize data to a printing mechanism 23 to start the printing on paper. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an online printing system having a network-compatible device and a network-compatible printer, and more particularly, to prevention of a decrease in buffer use efficiency in a network-compatible printer.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is an online printing system constructed so that a network compatible printer can be connected to a network and shared by a plurality of personal computers (PCs). In this system, when a user sends a print request from his or her PC to a printer, the printer rasterizes the print data included in the print request to generate rasterized data and prints it on paper.
[0003]
However, when the printer is shared by a plurality of users, the printed matter output to the tray of the printer may be exposed to the eyes of the plurality of users, which may not be preferable in terms of confidentiality.
[0004]
Therefore, conventionally, in order to secure the security of print output contents, when a print request is sent from a PC, rasterized data is generated as before, but the generated rasterized data is not output on paper. It is put on hold while holding it in the buffer of the printer. Then, there has been proposed a technique in which the output of rasterized data to a sheet is started only when a user inputs an input of predetermined security information such as a personal identification number and a collation key (for example, see Patent Documents 1 and 2). If such security information is input from the operation panel mounted on the printer, the user can obtain the print contents without being seen by a third party. In particular, by generating the rasterized data in advance, the user does not have to wait for the time required for generating the rasterized data in front of the printer, which is efficient. As described above, a function that suspends the printout until the person who instructed the output instructs it on the operation panel of the printer and requests the input of a personal identification number or the like when executing the printout is generally called a confidential print function. ".
[0005]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-3-269756 [Patent Document 2]
JP-A-7-98691
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the conventional confidential print function, the rasterized data is held in the buffer of the printer. Therefore, if a print request is further sent without an output instruction for the held rasterized data, the buffer capacity is reduced. As a result, there is a possibility that the buffer use efficiency is reduced and the printing function is eventually stopped. In order to avoid a decrease in the buffer use efficiency and a stop of the printing function, it is sufficient to provide the printer with a large-capacity buffer. Of course, there is no problem if the user sends a print request at a timing that allows the user to immediately get a print without using the confidential print function. However, the user may wait in front of the printer for an uncertain rasterization processing time.
[0007]
SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is to provide a network-compatible printer and an online printing method that can execute printing without lowering the buffer use efficiency. is there.
[0008]
Another object of the present invention is to provide a network-compatible device capable of assisting online printing in a network-compatible printer so as not to lower the buffer use efficiency.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, a network-compatible printer according to the present invention includes a rasterizing unit that generates rasterized data by rasterizing print data included in a print request sent from a print request source device. Data transfer means for storing the rasterized data generated by the rasterizing means in a buffer by transferring the rasterized data to a data holding device designated by the print request source device, and then deleting the data; and input print instruction information And a data acquisition unit for acquiring rasterized data from the data holding device in accordance with the above, and holding the rasterized data in the data holding device until printing is performed.
[0010]
A destination information holding unit that holds identification information of the data holding device and identification information of the rasterized data transferred to the data holding device in association with the identification information of the data holding device; By referring to the means, the data holding device holding the rasterized data specified by the input print instruction information is specified.
[0011]
Further, the print request source device and the data holding device are the same network compatible device.
[0012]
A network-compatible device according to the present invention is a data-holding device that holds rasterized data generated by the network-compatible printer based on the print data in response to a print request including print data in the network-compatible device connected to the network-compatible printer. And a print requesting means for transmitting the identification information.
[0013]
A network-compatible device according to another aspect of the present invention is a network-compatible device connected to a network-compatible printer via a network, the data receiving unit receiving rasterized data sent from the network-compatible printer, and the data receiving unit receiving the rasterized data. A data holding unit for holding the rasterized data; and a data transmitting unit for transmitting the rasterized data held in the data holding unit in response to a request from the network compatible printer, wherein the rasterization generated by the network compatible printer is performed. It is characterized by holding data.
[0014]
An online printing method in a network compatible printer according to the present invention is an online printing method in a network compatible printer that executes printing in response to a print request sent from a print request source device. A rasterizing step of generating rasterized data by rasterizing the print data included in the request; and transferring the rasterized data generated by the rasterizing step to a data holding device specified by the device identification information included in the print request. And a data erasing step of erasing rasterized data in a buffer of the network compatible printer after confirming data holding by the data holding device. A data acquisition step of acquiring rasterized data from the data holding device; and a printing step of executing printing based on the rasterized data acquired by the data acquisition step, and holding the rasterized data in the data holding device until printing is performed. It is characterized by making it.
[0015]
Further, the print request source device and the data holding device are the same network compatible device.
[0016]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0017]
Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an online printing system having a network compatible device and a network compatible printer according to the present invention. The network-compatible device according to the present invention may be any device having a network communication function and a printing function such as a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) other than the PC shown in FIG. FIG. 1 shows a system configuration in which a network compatible printer (hereinafter simply referred to as “printer”) 2 and a plurality of PCs 4 are connected via a network 6.
[0018]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the printer 2 according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 shows a communication processing unit 21, a rasterizer 22, a printing mechanism 23, a user interface 24, and a print control processing unit 25. The communication processing unit 21 performs data communication with the PC 4 via the network 6. The rasterizer 22 rasterizes the print data included in the print request. The printing mechanism 23 executes printing by outputting rasterized data on paper. The user interface 24 receives data input by the user via an operation panel (not shown) mounted on the printer 2, and provides information to the user by displaying information related to printing.
[0019]
The print control processing unit 25 controls the rasterizer 22 and the printing mechanism 23 based on the print request sent from the PC 4 to execute a print process. The print control processing unit 25 includes a data transfer unit 26, a data acquisition unit 27, and a transfer destination information holding unit 28 which are characteristic in the present embodiment. The data transfer unit 26 transfers the rasterized data to a designated transfer destination. The data acquisition unit 27 acquires the transferred rasterized data according to an input instruction. The transfer destination information holding unit 28 holds information on the transfer destination of the rasterized data. One of the features of the present embodiment is a processing function provided by the print control processing unit 25. The processing function is realized by executing an application by the CPU of the printer 2.
[0020]
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the PC 4 according to the present embodiment. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that all PCs 4 have the same configuration. FIG. 3 shows a communication processing unit 41, an application 42, a print spooler 43, and a printer auxiliary unit 44. The communication processing unit 41 performs data communication with the printer 2 via the network 6. The application 42 is software for creating a printed matter. The print spooler 43 temporarily stores the printed matter (hereinafter, “print data”) converted into a command format that can be interpreted by the printer 2 until it is transferred to the printer 2. The print spooler 43 has a print request unit 45 that transmits a print request including print data to the printer 2. The printer assisting unit 44 includes a data receiving unit 46, a data holding unit 47, and a data transmitting unit 48, and assists the confidential print processing in the printer 2 by holding the rasterized data generated by the printer 2. Details of the processing in the printer auxiliary unit 44 will be described later. One of the features of the present embodiment is a processing function provided by the printer auxiliary unit 44. The processing function is realized by executing an application by the CPU of the PC 4.
[0021]
Next, the operation in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
[0022]
In the PC 4, in response to a request from the application 42, the print request unit 45 of the print spooler 43 sends a print request including print data in a PDL (Page Description Language) format to the printer 2 via the communication processing unit 41 and the network 6. Transmit (step 101). The transmitted print request includes, in addition to the print data, the address of the PC 4 that is the source of the print request and the source information including the identification information (user ID) of the user using the PC 4.
[0023]
Upon receiving a print request sent from the PC 4 via the network 6 and the communication processing unit 21 (step 201), the print control unit 25 in the printer 2 generates a print job. Then, in accordance with the print job, the rasterizer 22 rasterizes the PDL format print data included in the print request (step 202). The rasterized data generated by the rasterizer 22 is stored on a buffer of the printer 2. If the received print data has been rasterized, the print control unit 25 distributes the received print data to the printing mechanism 23 as it is.
[0024]
When a confidential print is requested by the user, the print control unit 25 does not send the generated rasterized data to the printing mechanism 23 as in the related art. After generating the rasterized data, the print control unit 25 in this embodiment transfers the rasterized data in the buffer to the PC 4 that has issued the print request by the data transfer unit 26 (step 203). The transfer destination of the rasterized data can be specified with reference to the transmission source information included in the print request. When confirming the normal end of the transfer, the data transfer unit 26 temporarily stores the address of the transfer destination PC 4, the job ID, and the user ID in the transfer destination information holding unit 28 in association with each other (Step 204). The address of the PC 4 is information for specifying the transfer destination of the rasterized data. The identification information of the transfer destination need not be an address, but may be, for example, the host name of the PC 4 if a DNS (Domain Name System) server exists. The job ID is information for identifying the rasterized data transferred at the time of subsequent printout. The data identification information may be information other than the job ID, such as a job title, which can be determined when the user instructs printout. The user ID is information for specifying the user who has issued the print request. The transfer destination information held in the transfer destination information holding unit 28 is sent to the PC 4 together with the rasterized data as data identification information. Then, the data transfer unit 26 deletes the rasterized data in the buffer (Step 205). Note that the process of holding the transfer destination information in the transfer destination information holding unit 28 (step 204) does not necessarily have to be immediately after the rasterized data transfer process (step 204), but after the print request receiving process (step 201). What is necessary is just a period until immediately before the print instruction input receiving process (step 206).
[0025]
In the PC 4, the data receiving unit 44 of the printer auxiliary unit 41 receives the rasterized data transferred from the printer 2 (Step 102), and holds it in the data holding unit 47 (Step 203). At this time, the data identification information sent together with the rasterized data and the storage location information in the PC 4 are held so that the held rasterized data can be identified and taken out. In FIG. 3, the data holding unit 47 is shown as being provided inside the printer auxiliary unit 41, that is, on the memory. However, the data holding unit 47 may be realized by an external storage device such as a hard disk device.
[0026]
Thereafter, when the user who has issued the print request in the PC 4 inputs a printout instruction from the operation panel of the printer 2, the user interface 24 accepts the printout instruction and passes it to the print control processing unit 25 (step 206). In the instruction input by the user, a user ID and a job ID for specifying rasterized data to be printed out are specified. The print control processing unit 25 extracts transfer destination information matching the input information from the transfer destination information holding unit 28 and performs user authentication by inquiring an authentication server (not shown) (step 207). Then, the data acquisition unit 27 transmits an acquisition request including the transfer destination information to the PC 4 holding the rasterized data (Step 208).
[0027]
Upon receiving the acquisition request transferred from the printer 2 (step 104), the printer auxiliary unit 44 of the PC 4 extracts the corresponding rasterized data from the data holding unit 47 based on the information included in the request, and The transmitting unit 48 returns the data to the printer 2 (Step 105). After the data is returned, the information related to the rasterized data held in the data holding unit 47 may be deleted.
[0028]
In the printer 2, when the data acquisition unit 27 receives the rasterized data sent from the PC 4 in response to the acquisition request (step 209), the print control unit 25 sends the received rasterized data to the printing mechanism 23 and executes printing. (Step 210). After execution of the printing, the transfer destination information held in the transfer destination information holding unit 28 may be deleted.
[0029]
According to the present embodiment, the rasterized data generated in response to the confidential print request as described above is transferred to the PC 4 that issued the print request and held therein, but is not stored in the buffer of the printer 2 but is deleted. Therefore, even if a large amount of pending rasterized data for which a printout instruction has not been issued occurs, the buffer utilization efficiency does not decrease due to the pending rasterized data. Further, since the printer 2 rasterizes the print data at the time of receiving the print request, if the user gives a printout instruction, the printing can be started immediately after the acquisition of the rasterized data.
[0030]
Embodiment 2 FIG.
In the first embodiment, the rasterized data generated in response to the print request is transferred to the PC 4 that has transmitted the print request. In other words, this is the case where the print request source device that is the source of the print request and the data holding device that holds the rasterized data generated based on the print request are the same PC 4. This embodiment is characterized in that the print request source device and the data holding device are realized by different PCs 4.
[0031]
Since the PC 4 in the first embodiment operates as both a print request source device and a data holding device, the PC in the present embodiment may have the same configuration as that of the first embodiment. PC 4 may operate as a print request source device or as a data holding device. Accordingly, the PC 4 serving as the print request source device may have the communication processing unit 41, the application 42, and the print spooler shown in FIG. 3, while the PC 4 serving as the data holding device is provided with the communication processing unit 41 shown in FIG. It is sufficient to have the printer auxiliary unit 44. Note that the online printing system in the present embodiment may be the same as in the first embodiment. Since the configuration of the printer 2 is realized by the PC 4 in which the print request source device and the data holding device are different, the processing corresponding to this may be basically the same as that of the first embodiment to a slightly different extent.
[0032]
Next, the operation in the present embodiment will be described. The PC 4 that performs the print request transmission process (step 101) and the PC 4 that performs the process of holding the rasterized data (steps 102 to 105) are different from each other. Is almost the same as that in FIG. Therefore, the operation in the present embodiment will also be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The description of the same processing will be simplified or omitted as appropriate.
[0033]
For example, the PC 4 that transmits the print request is PCa in FIG. The PCa transmits a print request including the print data in the PDL format to the printer 2 via the communication processing unit 41 and the network 6 (Step 101). The transmitted print request includes information on the transfer destination in addition to the print data, the address of the PCa, and the transmission source information including the user ID as in the first embodiment. For example, if the PCa causes the PCb to hold the rasterized data, the transfer destination information includes the address of the PCb.
[0034]
Upon receiving the print request sent from the PCa (step 201), the print control unit 25 in the printer 2 causes the rasterizer 22 to generate rasterized data (step 202). After generating the rasterized data, the print control unit 25 in the present embodiment transfers the rasterized data in the buffer to the PC 4 as the print request source by the data transfer unit 26 (step 203). The transfer destination is specified by referring to the transfer destination information included in the print request. In this example, the rasterized data is transferred to PCb. Further, the data transfer unit 26 holds the address of the transfer destination PCb, the job ID, and the user ID in the transfer destination information holding unit 28 in association with each other (step 204). It is preferable from the viewpoint of information management that the address of the PCa is also stored. Also in the present embodiment, the rasterized data in the buffer is deleted (step 205).
[0035]
When the PCb, which is the data holding device, receives the rasterized data transferred from the printer 2 by the data receiving unit 44 of the printer auxiliary unit 41 (Step 102), it holds it in the data holding unit 47 (Step 203). It is preferable from the viewpoint of information management that the PCb holds the address of the PCa sent from the printer 2 in order to recognize which PC is the rasterized data based on the print request issued from which PC. Subsequent processes performed by the printer 2 and the PCb are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof is omitted.
[0036]
According to the present embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, the buffer use efficiency of the printer 2 does not decrease due to the pending rasterized data. In particular, in the present embodiment, the print request source device and the data holding device can be different. Accordingly, even when the remaining storage capacity of the PCa that is the print request source is small, or when the PCa is turned off by shutting down after transmitting the print request, the rasterized data is stored in the PCb that has sufficient storage capacity and is operating. You can request temporary storage. Of course, the rasterized data may be stored in another PC for other purposes.
[0037]
In this embodiment, the address of the PCb serving as the data holding device is added to the print request as transfer destination information. In the first embodiment, transfer destination information is not added. This is because it is assumed that the print request source device and the data holding device are the same, and that the transmission source information of the print request can be used as the transfer destination information of the rasterized data. That is, it is not necessary to separately add transfer destination information. However, it is desirable that they are common in design, but if the data structure of the print request is shared between the first and second embodiments, the transfer request information is also included in the print request in the first embodiment. You may make it add separately. In this case, the address of the PC 4 set in the source information may be copied to the transfer destination information.
[0038]
As described in each of the above embodiments, the present invention is to improve the conventional online print processing using the confidential print function which can suppress the buffer capacity by holding the rasterized data in the buffer of the printer 2. However, for example, even when the confidential print function is not used, the present invention can be applied to a case where the buffer capacity is insufficient due to the issuance of a job quantity exceeding the processing capacity of the printer 2.
[0039]
Further, the processing functions executed by the printer 2 and the PC 4 described above can be realized by an application program, and are realized by installing the programs recorded on the recording medium in the printer 2 or the PC 4 and executing the programs by the CPU. The recording medium is, for example, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a CD-ROM, a memory built in a computer, or the like.
[0040]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, the rasterized data generated in response to a so-called confidential print request is transferred to the data holding device and held there, while the data is deleted in the buffer of the network compatible printer without being held. Even if a large amount of pending rasterized data is generated, the suspended rasterized data does not reduce the buffer use efficiency of the network printer.
[0041]
Further, since the network-compatible printer rasterizes the print data when receiving the print request, if a print instruction is given by the user, printing can be started immediately after obtaining the rasterized data from the data holding device.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an online printing system having a network compatible device and a network compatible printer according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a printer according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a PC according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation in the first embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
2 printer, 4 PC, 6 network, 21 and 41 communication processing unit, 22 rasterizer, 23 printing mechanism, 24 user interface, 25 print control processing unit, 26 data transfer unit, 27 data acquisition unit, 42 application, 43 print spooler , 44 printer auxiliary unit, 45 print request unit, 46 data receiving unit, 47 data holding unit, 48 data transmitting unit.

Claims (7)

Rasterizing means for generating rasterized data by rasterizing print data included in a print request sent from a print request source device;
Data transfer means for storing the rasterized data generated by the rasterizing means in a buffer, transferring the rasterized data to a data holding apparatus designated by the print request source apparatus, and then deleting the data;
Data acquisition means for acquiring rasterized data from the data holding device according to the input print instruction information,
Wherein the rasterized data is held in the data holding device until printing is performed. The network-compatible printer according to claim 1,
A transfer destination information holding unit that holds the identification information of the data holding device in association with the specific information of the rasterized data transferred to the data holding device,
Wherein the data acquisition unit specifies the data holding device holding the rasterized data specified by the input print instruction information by referring to the transfer destination information holding unit. . The network-compatible printer according to claim 1 or 2,
The network-compatible printer, wherein the print request source device and the data holding device are the same network-compatible device. In a network-compatible device connected to a network-compatible printer,
A network-compatible device comprising: a print request unit that transmits a print request including print data to a print request including identification information of a data holding device that holds rasterized data generated by the network-compatible printer based on the print data. . In a network-compatible device connected to a network-compatible printer,
Data receiving means for receiving rasterized data sent from the network compatible printer,
Data holding means for holding the rasterized data received by the data receiving means,
Data transmission means for transmitting rasterized data held in the data holding means in response to a request from the network-compatible printer,
A network-compatible device having rasterized data generated by the network-compatible printer. In an online printing method in a network compatible printer that executes printing in response to a print request sent from a print request source device,
A rasterizing step of generating rasterized data by rasterizing the print data included in the print request sent from the print request source device;
A data transfer step of storing the rasterized data generated by the rasterizing step by transferring the rasterized data to a data holding device specified by the device identification information included in the print request;
A data erasing step of erasing rasterized data on a buffer of the network compatible printer after confirming data holding by the data holding device;
A data acquisition step of acquiring rasterized data from the data holding device according to the input print instruction information;
A printing step of performing printing based on the rasterized data obtained by the data obtaining step,
Wherein the rasterized data is held in the data holding device until printing is performed. The online printing method in a network compatible printer according to claim 6,
The online printing method in a network compatible printer, wherein the print request source device and the data holding device are the same network compatible device.

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