JP2004348622A - Electronic document printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic document printing system capable of more quickly providing the whole printed outputs to a user by using a printer having a direct printing function for interpreting electronic document data and converting the interpreted data into printing data and capable of easily performing device control for printed matters of electronic document data consisting of a plurality of pages. <P>SOLUTION: The printing system 10 is constituted of the printer 30 capable of directly rasterizing an electronic document prepared by a format in which structural description necessary for interpreting the structure of data is described in the final part of the electronic document and a computer device 20. The computer device 20 edits the electronic document prepared by the format as new electronic data block in each page, combines respective data blocks to one transferring file and transmits the file to the printer 30. Control by device control command is performed in unit of file for forwarding. Processing time can be shortened by processing the transfer of the electronic document data and printing processing in parallel. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a structure description necessary for interpreting the structure of data to be printed, such as an electronic document (PDF data) created in Adobe Acrobat (trade name) format manufactured by Adobe Systems (Adobe Systems). The present invention relates to an electronic document printing system that prints electronic document data created in a format described at the end of an electronic document, and in particular, transmits the electronic document data as it is to a printing device, and the printing device transmits the electronic document data. The present invention relates to an electronic document printing system that uses a printing apparatus having a direct printing function of interpreting, converting the data into print data, and printing, and performing device control such as stapling processing when printing a plurality of pages of electronic document data. is there.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in a data processing device in a network environment, many documents (documents) are digitized and stored on a memory device of a server device or another computer device, and each computer storing the electronic document represents the Internet. Adobe Acrobat (Portable Document Format) manufactured by Adobe Systems, XML (extensible Markup Language), HTML (Hyper Text Document), and HTML (Hyper Text Document). Those suitable for reference and distribution on a network have been used.
[0003]
An electronic document created in the format described above can be linked to another document specified by a URL on a computer or a network by describing a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) in the electronic document. It is configured to allow reference. When browsing an electronic document on a computer device, an Internet connection application is activated to specify the address of the electronic document by a URL to display the corresponding electronic document, or to display an external document when the document including the external reference is displayed. When the pointer displayed as a reference is clicked, the referenced document is immediately displayed and viewed, or the corresponding document can be downloaded and stored in the computer device.
[0004]
In particular, electronic documents created in the Acrobat PDF (trade name) format, which is software developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated, can be viewed using the Acrobat Reader (PC application trade name), which is distributed free of charge by the company to view the contents. Although it is necessary, it is widely used in general, and is recently installed as a standard function in many computer devices (such as personal computers). This software can display documents in the original layout regardless of the type of computer device, and can print brochures and instruction manuals distributed via the Internet in the same format as the original printed materials on the computer device. Widely used for display and reference.
[0005]
Conventionally, when an electronic document (PDF data) created in Adobe Acrobat (Acrobat) PDF format is printed, it is downloaded from the Internet and taken into a computer device, or created by a user of the computer device. After saving the electronic document in PDF format, opening the electronic document (PDF data) using an acrobat reader and checking it on the display screen of the computer device, the PDF data is transmitted to the computer device or a print server on a network. After being reconfigured into print data using a page description language (Page Description Language) such as PDL that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus by the printer driver held by the printer driver, the printer is connected to the network. To print and send to the printing apparatus (printer) are common in the electronic document printing system configurations.
[0006]
For example, when printing a PDF-format electronic document downloaded and stored in a computer device, the procedure has a time relationship with the procedure shown in FIG. That is, the computer device opens the saved electronic document in the PDF format by the acrobat reader. At this time, the Acrobat reader interprets the PDF data, and the document is displayed on a display or the like. The time required for interpreting the PDF data is T11 in the figure. When the user designates printing, the computer device converts the PDF data into a language interpretable by the printing device, for example, PDL data (print data) described in the PDL language by the printer driver. The time required for the conversion to the PDL data is T12 in the figure.
[0007]
This PDL data is transferred to the printing device. The time required for this transfer process is T13 in the figure. Upon receiving the transferred PDL data, the printing apparatus performs a rasterization process (developing it into bitmap data) for one page for each page and prints it. The time required for the rasterization is T14 in the figure, and the rasterization process is sequentially performed for each page break of the PDL data when the document includes a plurality of pages. The time for performing the printing process based on the bitmap data created by the rasterizing process is represented by T15 in the figure.
[0008]
Printing starts when the first page of print data (PDL data) has been received and the first page has been bit-mapped, and each page has finished receiving the print data of the page and the print data of the page is converted to a bit map. It is performed where it has been transformed. For this reason, since it takes time to print out all pages, the user feels that the waiting time is long, and there has been a demand for a printing system for electronic documents that can obtain printouts in a shorter time.
[0009]
According to the configuration of such a general printing system, even if an electronic document is in a format suitable for reference and distribution on a network, it is converted into print data using a PDL language or the like when printing. Data that is larger than the original electronic document size because it is sent to the printing device, and the print data cannot be completely received by a low-end printing device with a reduced reception buffer and page buffer capacity. And printing was hindered in some cases.
[0010]
From such a background, for example, in the following Patent Document 1, the electronic device such as PDF (Portable Document Format), XML (extensible Markup Language), and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) receives the electronic document directly on the printing apparatus side. A direct printing type printing apparatus having a function of interpreting an electronic document in each format described above and converting the electronic document into print data is disclosed.
[0011]
In the case of the direct printing method disclosed in Patent Document 1, generally, PDF data is smaller than print data reconstructed using PDL or the like which is a page description language, so that low-end printing with a reduced storage capacity. The apparatus has the advantage that the entire data can be easily received, and the data transfer time from the computer apparatus to the printing apparatus is reduced.
[0012]
When printing a PDF-format electronic document stored in a computer using this printing apparatus, the procedure is time-related to the procedure shown in FIG. That is, the computer device transfers the saved PDF format electronic document to the printing device in the same format. The time required for this transfer processing is T23 in the figure. When the printing apparatus has completely received the transferred PDF data, the PDF interpreter starts interpretation of the PDF data, and performs rasterization processing (developing into bitmap data) for each page and prints. The time required for the rasterization is T24 in the figure, and the rasterization process is sequentially performed for each page configuration of the PDF data when the document includes a plurality of pages. The processing time for printing by the printing mechanism based on the bitmap data created by the rasterizing process is represented by T25 in the figure.
[0013]
In the printing system that directly transfers PDF data as described above, printing starts from the point where the PDF data has been completely received, so that a time T23 (FIG. 8) for transferring the print data via a network or the like and a printing time T23 (FIG. 8). There is a restriction that the time T24 (FIG. 8) at which the apparatus interprets the PDF data and actually converts it into a bitmap (rasterize) cannot overlap.
[0014]
By the way, this is a restriction caused by the structure of the electronic document in the PDF format, and this point will be described below. FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of an electronic document in PDF format. As shown in FIG. 9, the PDF format is structurally classified into four types: a header part, a body part, a mutual compatibility table part, and a trailer part. The transfer of the PDF data is performed by a header part, a body part, a mutual compatibility table part, and a trailer part. It is performed in the order of the division.
[0015]
The header part is version information of the application (acrobat / PDF) used to create the PDF data, and the body part is a page object that describes the page structure of the document, or text or image drawing data (contents) that is the body of the document. ) And data objects describing resources such as fonts and the like used for drawing these data. The cross-compatibility table contains information indicating the positions of all objects in the body, that is, This is a part in which a list of information (pointers) indicating the position (location) from the head of the PDF data of the object is described. The trailer part is described in the information indicating the head position of the mutual compatibility table part and the body part. This part describes the information indicating the root address of the catalog object.
[0016]
The catalog object is information that forms the basis of the tree structure of the PDF data, and has a structure in which a description of the catalog object refers to a page object or a thumbnail object indicating a page configuration of the PDF data (document).
[0017]
When the PDF interpreter receives the trailer at the end of the PDF data (the start part of the PDF data in the true sense), the PDF interpreter stores the mutual compatibility table in the storage device based on the start position information of the mutual compatibility table, The page configuration is followed by referring to the catalog object, the page object of the first page is analyzed, and the data object described in the page object is obtained and rasterized. The PDF interpreter refers to the mutual compatibility table stored to obtain the contents of each object. That is, the PDF format is configured to obtain the corresponding position information in the PDF data from the object described in the mutual compatibility table and its position information, and to analyze the description of the target object. That is, the electronic document in the PDF format has a structure in which a structure description necessary for interpreting the structure of data to be printed is described at the end of the electronic document.
[0018]
Therefore, when interpreting the PDF data, it is necessary to first refer to the trailer section existing at the end of the data to check where in the data the cross-compatible table and the catalog object exist. The arrow in FIG. 9 indicates the flow of the interpretation of the PDF data. First, as indicated by the arrow A, the head position information of the mutual compatibility table of the trailer unit (pointer value following the “startxref” flag indicating where in the entire data is located) ) Is used as an index from the beginning of the entire data, an inter-compatible table is searched, and the inter-compatible table is stored in the storage unit.
[0019]
Next, referring to the catalog object as shown by the arrow B, a page object is searched. When there are a plurality of pages, the page object 1 which is the first page is found, the position of the page object 1 is obtained from the mutual compatibility table, the page object 1 is searched as shown by an arrow C, and the first page is entered from the description. The data object to be obtained, for example, the data object 1 is known, the position of the data object 1 is obtained from the mutual compatibility table, the data object 1 is searched as indicated by an arrow D, and rasterization is performed based on the contents, resources, and the like described therein. I do.
[0020]
After receiving the trailer at the end, the object of the body is searched using the mutual compatibility table. Therefore, the time T23 (FIG. 8) for transferring the PDF data and the PDF interpreting unit in the printing apparatus are set. Cannot be overlapped with the time T24 (FIG. 8) for interpreting the PDF data and converting it into a bitmap (rasterize), and it takes time until printing.
[0021]
In order to improve this, by dividing PDF data consisting of a plurality of pages, reconstructing the PDF data for each page, and transferring the PDF data to the printing apparatus, the transfer process and the print process can be executed in an overlapping manner. It is considered that the printing system is designed to reduce the printing time.
[0022]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-2002-358183 (FIG. 3, paragraph [0005] column)
[0023]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when the PDF data is divided into pages and reconfigured into PDF data for each page and transferred to the printing apparatus as described above, other printing is performed during transfer of the divided PDF data group. The job may be interrupted, causing a problem of consuming labor for sorting printed output materials. In addition, since each divided PDF data is itself a single print job, when considering device control in printing, for example, stapling, a unit of an output material printed for each divided PDF data is considered. In this case, the stapling process is performed, and the result of device control intended by the user cannot be obtained.
[0024]
The inventor of the present application has made various studies in order to solve the above-described problems, and as a result, edits the PDF data to be printed into new PDF data data blocks for each page, and converts each edited data block. By combining the data into one transfer file and transmitting the data to the printing device, the transfer process of the PDF data and the print process in the printing device can be overlapped, and the transfer file can be used for the print job. It has been found that desired device control can be realized by adding a device control command as a unit, and the present invention has been completed.
[0025]
That is, the inventor focused on the transfer time T23 in FIG. The length of the transfer time T23 of the PDF data to be printed depends on the file size of the PDF data to be transferred. Printing of the PDF data is not started unless the transfer time T23 has elapsed. Therefore, the time required for outputting the first page is reduced by dividing the PDF data into PDF data for each page, combining the divided data blocks into one transfer file, and transferring the file to a printing device. It is found that it is possible and can be made into one print job.
[0026]
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to solve the above-described disadvantage, and to print electronic document data created in a format in which a structure description necessary for interpreting the structure of data to be printed is described at the end of the electronic document. In an electronic document printing system, a printing apparatus having a direct printing function for transmitting electronic document data as it is to a printing apparatus, interpreting the electronic document data on the printing apparatus side, converting the electronic document data into print data, and printing the data, and using the entire printing output It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic document printing system capable of providing the user with a shorter time and performing device control such as stapling processing when printing a plurality of pages of electronic document data.
[0027]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The above object of the present invention can be achieved by the following configurations. That is, the electronic document printing system according to the present invention includes a computer device and a printing device connected to the computer device directly or via a network, and the computer device interprets the structure of data to be printed. In an electronic document printing system that transmits electronic document data created in a format in which a required structural description is described at the end of the electronic document as it is to a printing device and prints the data on the printing device,
The printing device includes an electronic document data interpreting unit that interprets and rasterizes the electronic document data, the computer device includes an electronic document data processing unit and a file combining unit,
The electronic document data processing unit edits the electronic document data to be printed into a new electronic document data block for each page, and the file combining unit combines the edited electronic document data blocks into one transfer file. Then, the data is transmitted to the printing apparatus.
[0028]
With this configuration, page rasterization and printing can be performed in parallel, so that a print output of an electronic document created in a format such as the PDF format can be provided to the user in a shorter time. Since the transfer file is one print job, it is possible to provide an electronic document printing system capable of performing device control desired by a user without interruption of another print job.
[0029]
Further, according to another aspect of the electronic document printing system according to the present invention, the file combining unit combines the edited electronic document data blocks for each page in an arbitrarily set order into one transfer file. Alternatively, the file combining unit creates a second transfer file by adding an arbitrary device control code to the transfer file, and generates the second transfer file. The electronic document printing system according to claim 1, wherein the transfer file is transmitted to the printing apparatus. With this configuration, the user can perform printing in a desired order and execute device control such as stapling according to the user's intention.
[0030]
According to another aspect of the invention, the printing apparatus receives the transfer file or the second transfer file, and receives an electronic document data block for one page by the electronic document data interpretation unit. Page printing, and printing is performed by a printing mechanism unit, and the printing apparatus is configured to perform printing by the printing mechanism unit based on a device control code added to the second transfer file. Device control is performed on the output printed matter.
[0031]
With this configuration, the printing start time of each page can be shortened, the printing time can be shortened, and device control such as stapling can be executed according to the user's intention.
[0032]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an electronic document printing system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the attached drawings, taking an example of an electronic document (PDF data) created in a PDF format. However, the embodiment described below exemplifies an electronic document printing system for embodying the technical idea of the present invention, and is intended to limit the present invention to the electronic document printing system of a specific embodiment. However, the present invention is equally applicable to other aspects included in the claims.
[0033]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an electronic document printing system according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing apparatus, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are schematic diagrams showing a concept of re-editing PDF data. FIG. 5 and FIG. 5 are flowcharts showing processing procedures of the electronic document printing system of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a time chart showing a printing procedure and a time relationship in the electronic document printing system according to the present invention.
[0034]
An electronic document printing system 10 according to the present invention includes a computer device 20 and a printing device 30 connected via an intra network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) 14 as shown in FIG. The computer device 20 can be connected to the WWW server device 40 or the like via the network 12 such as the Internet. The computer device 20 creates an electronic document according to the PDF format by itself, or the WWW server device via the Internet 12 From 40, an electronic document created in PDF format can be downloaded and saved.
[0035]
The computer device 20 includes an electronic document data processing unit and a file connection unit. The electronic document data processing unit is specifically a PDF data processing unit 21 (hereinafter, referred to as a PDF data processing unit 21). When the computer device 20 prints an electronic document of a plurality of pages created in the PDF format, The data processing unit 21 divides the PDF data to be printed into pages, edits the new PDF data again, and combines the newly edited data blocks of the PDF data into one transfer file by the file combining unit 22. To the printing device 30. At this time, the user can set the printing order using input means such as a keyboard (not shown). For example, setting input such as specifying the page of the original PDF data in ascending order, descending order, or specifying an arbitrary page as the first page is performed, and the file combining unit 22 combines the data blocks in the set page order to transfer the file for transfer. And
[0036]
The printing device 30 has an electronic document data interpreting unit for interpreting electronic document data having the above-described structure. The electronic document data interpreting unit is, specifically, a PDF interpreting unit 33 capable of directly rasterizing an electronic document created in Adobe Acrobat (Acrobat) PDF (trade name) format. Each time one page of PDF data transferred from the apparatus 20 is received, the PDF data is analyzed, rasterized, and printed.
[0037]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the printing apparatus 30. The printing device 30 includes an interface unit 31, a PDF data receiving unit 32, a PDF interpreting unit 33, a printing mechanism unit 34, a control unit 35, and a storage unit 36. The control unit 35 is composed of a normal MPU (microprocessor unit), and controls the operation of each unit. The storage unit 36 includes a RAM, a ROM, an HDD, and the like. A control program for the control unit 35 to control each unit is stored in the ROM. The RAM is used as a temporary storage unit for control, and the HDD is used for storing data.
[0038]
The PDF data (data block) of each page constituting the transfer file transmitted from the computer device 20 is received by the PDF data receiving unit 32 from the LAN 14 via the interface unit 31. When one page of PDF data (data block for each page edited by the computer 20) is received by the PDF data receiving unit 32, the PDF interpreting unit 33 analyzes the PDF data as described above, and The compatibility table is searched and stored in the storage unit 36.
[0039]
The PDF interpreting unit 33 searches the position in the PDF data of each object of the body part with reference to the mutual compatibility table stored in the storage unit 36 and performs page rasterization. The printing mechanism 34 performs printing based on the rasterized bitmap data.
[0040]
3 and 4 are schematic diagrams showing the concept of re-editing PDF data by the computer device 20. FIG. As described above, the PDF data 40 to be printed is composed of a header section, a body section, a cross-compatible table section, and a trailer section. The PDF data processing unit 21 divides the PDF data into pages, and re-edits each data in the PDF format to create divided data blocks 401 to 403. At the head of each data block, a mark A indicating the head of the divided PDF data block and a mark B indicating the size of the divided data block are added to form data blocks 401A to 403A.
[0041]
The file combining unit 22 receives the data blocks 401A to 403A, combines them as one transfer file 42 as shown in FIG. 4, and marks the end of the combined data block as the end of the job (job end). C is added. When performing device control such as stapling when combining the files shown in FIG. 4, a device control code 44 corresponding to each device control function is added to the head of the combined transfer file 42.
[0042]
The computer device 20 transfers the transfer file 42 combined by the file combining unit 22 to the printing device 30 and prints it. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the printing process of the electronic document printing system. First, in step S11, the PDF data processing unit 21 divides the original PDF data into pages, and re-edits each in the PDF format to create divided data blocks 401A to 403A (see FIG. 3).
[0043]
In step S12, the file combining unit 22 combines the data blocks 401A to 403A, and adds a mark C indicating the end of the data block to create one transfer file. At the time of connection, if the user specifies to perform device control such as stapling, a device control code 44 (see FIG. 4) corresponding to each device control function is added to the head of the combined transfer file 42. The computer device 20 transfers the transfer file 42 to the printing device 30.
[0044]
When the printing device 30 receives the transfer file 42, the PDF interpreting unit 33 checks in step S14 whether or not the mark C is the job end. If the job end mark C has not been received, the PDF interpreting unit 33 interprets the PDF data of the size indicated by the mark B every time a block of PDF data of one page is received in step S15. The rasterizing is performed, and the printing mechanism unit 34 performs printing based on the bitmap data created by the rasterizing.
[0045]
When the job end mark C is detected in step S14, the printing mechanism unit 34 performs post-processing specified by the device control code 44 (see FIG. 4) in step S17. For example, if the device control code 44 is a code for designating stapling, the printing mechanism unit 34 performs stapling by aligning the output of each printed page.
[0046]
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a printing procedure and a time relationship of the electronic document printing system according to the present invention. According to the aspect of the present invention, when printing PDF data, the PDF data processing unit 21 and the file combining unit 22 of the computer device 20 divide the PDF data into pages and reconstruct the PDF data into PDF data blocks for each page. Then, the data blocks are combined to create one transfer file and transmitted to the printing device 30.
[0047]
Further, in the aspect of the present invention, when printing PDF data, the PDF data is divided into pages as described above, reconstructed into new PDF data for each page, and combined into one transfer file. By transmitting the data to the printing apparatus 30, the time of the PDF data transfer time T3 and the time of the bitmap (rasterizing) time T4 are overlapped.
[0048]
That is, as shown in FIG. 6, when printing PDF data, if the PDF data includes a plurality of pages, the computer device 20 divides the PDF data by the PDF data processing unit 21 and The data is re-edited into new PDF data, and each data block is combined into one transfer file by the file combining unit 22. The time required for this processing is T1 in the figure. The computer device 20 transfers the combined transfer file to the printing device 30. The time required for this transfer is T3 in the figure.
[0049]
The printing device 30 interprets the PDF data by the PDF interpreting unit 33 and performs page rasterization every time reception of the data block (PDF data) for one page is completed. The time required for this page rasterization is T4 in the figure. The printing mechanism unit 34 receives and rasterizes page rasterized data (bitmap data). The time required for this printing is represented by T5 in the figure.
[0050]
As described above, the PDF data has a configuration as shown in FIG. 9, and is classified into four types: a header portion, a body portion, a mutual compatibility table portion, and a trailer portion. When interpreting the PDF data, first, always refer to the trailer part existing at the end of the data to check where in the data the mutual compatibility table exists. Then, from the "startxref" flag of the trailer unit, the value is used as an index (pointer) from the beginning of the entire data to find the mutual compatibility table, and the mutual compatibility table is stored in the storage device. Then, by referring to the mutual compatibility table, the page object is traced, the data object included in the page is known, and the entity of the target data is obtained and rasterized by the information described in the data object.
[0051]
That is, in the present invention, in the computer device 20, the PDF data processing unit 21 first traces the page object from the trailer unit, searches the mutual compatibility table, determines the data object described in the page object, and At the stage of searching for data (contents and resources) to be drawn from the pointer, each page is edited and reconfigured into a PDF data block as shown in FIG. 3 for each page. Are combined to create a transfer file 42 as shown in FIG.
[0052]
In addition, when creating new PDF data by editing page by page, the computer device 20 divides and reconstructs the original PDF data according to the page order set by the user, and creates a file for transfer in that order. The print data may be combined and transferred to the printing device 30, and the printing device 30 may be configured to perform the printing process in the order of the transferred PDF data. For example, when the user performs an input for setting the order of pages to be printed with respect to the original PDF data page order, the PDF data processing unit 21 reconstructs new PDF data in the set page order. It operates to transfer the data to the printing device 30, and can print the PDF data in the page order desired by the user. That is, the user can print the original PDF data in any order such as ascending order, descending order, or any page order for setting and input.
[0053]
In order to process PDF data, it is necessary to temporarily store the entire PDF data in some storage means. Naturally, the larger the size (file capacity) of the PDF data, the longer the transfer / spooling time becomes The time required to print the eyes increases. In addition, since a storage device in the printing apparatus is used for the size of the storage apparatus, a low-end printing apparatus with a limited storage capacity may interfere with printing of a large-sized electronic document.
[0054]
However, by dividing the PDF data for each page by the processing of the computer device 20 and combining and transmitting the data into one transfer file, the processing in the printing device 30 is performed for each page, and the transfer / spool time is reduced. The time until the first output is obtained becomes shorter. Further, the transfer time and the printing time can be overlapped, and the printing speed of the entire data can be increased. Further, since the storage capacity of the printing apparatus used at a time can be small, even a low-end printing apparatus can print a large-sized electronic document without any trouble.
[0055]
Further, when printing is performed using PDF, the PDF data processing unit 21 of the computer device 20 divides the PDF data into pages and transmits the data, so that the data transfer time T3 and the time T4 for bitmapping (rasterizing) are exceeded. It is possible to wrap. As a result, the user can obtain a print output in a shorter time.
[0056]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, according to the electronic document printing system of the present invention, the transfer time and the print time can be overlapped, and as a result, the user can obtain a printed matter obtained in a short time. . In addition, since the device is not interrupted by another print job during the transfer of the data to be printed and the control operation by the device control command can be performed in the unit of the combined transfer file, the device control function as intended by the user is provided. Can be executed. This method is particularly effective for printing an electronic document with a large number of pages created in a format such as the PDF format, and has an excellent effect as an electronic document printing system.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the configuration of an electronic document printing system according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus in the electronic document printing system according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the concept of re-editing PDF data by the computer device 20.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the concept of combining files of PDF data blocks by the computer device 20.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the electronic document printing system according to the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a time chart showing a procedure and a time relationship of a PDF data printing process of the electronic document printing system according to the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a time chart showing a procedure and a time relationship of a PDF data printing process in a conventional general electronic document printing system.
FIG. 8 is a time chart showing a PDF data printing process and a time relationship in an electronic document printing system using the printing device disclosed in Patent Document 1.
FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram showing a configuration of an electronic document created in a PDF format and a procedure for interpreting PDF data.
[Explanation of symbols]
10 Electronic Document Printing System 12 Internet (Network)
14 LAN (intranet)
20 computer device 21 PDF data processing unit 22 file combining unit 30 printing device 33 PDF interpreting unit

Claims (5)

The electronic device includes a computer device and a printing device connected to the computer device directly or via a network. The computer device has a structure description necessary for interpreting the structure of data to be printed, written at the end of the electronic document. In an electronic document printing system that transmits electronic document data created in a format as it is to a printing device and prints it with the printing device,
The printing device includes an electronic document data interpreting unit that interprets and rasterizes the electronic document data, the computer device includes an electronic document data processing unit and a file combining unit,
The electronic document data processing unit edits the electronic document data to be printed into a new electronic document data block for each page, and the file combining unit combines the edited electronic document data blocks into one transfer file. And transmitting the electronic document to the printing apparatus. The file combining unit combines the edited electronic document data blocks for each page in an arbitrarily set order to form one transfer file and transmits the file to the printing apparatus. 2. The electronic document printing system according to 1. The file combining unit creates a second transfer file by adding an arbitrary device control code to the transfer file, and transmits the second transfer file to the printing apparatus. The electronic document printing system according to claim 1, wherein: The printing apparatus receives the transfer file or the second transfer file, performs page rasterization each time an electronic document data block for one page is received by the electronic document data interpreting unit, and performs printing by the printing mechanism unit. The electronic document printing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the electronic document printing system is configured to: 5. The electronic document according to claim 3, wherein the printing device performs device control on a printed matter output by a printing mechanism based on a device control code added to the second transfer file. Printing system.

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