JP2005190093A - Print system, printer, print control unit and printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print system for dynamically setting a paper discharging port to enable a user to know the set paper discharging port before paper discharge. <P>SOLUTION: This print system is configured of a printer 1 equipped with a plurality of paper discharging ports and one or more print control units. The printer is provided with a means which detects the using condition of the paper discharging port, a means which transmits the use condition information to an inquiry for the using condition of the paper discharging port from the print control unit and a means which discharges printed paper to the designated paper discharging port based on a paper discharging port designation command. The print control unit is provided with a means which makes an inquiry for the use condition of the paper discharging port, a means which decides the paper discharging port based on the use condition information, a means which notifies the user of the decided paper discharging port and a means which transmits the paper discharging port designation command to designate the decided paper discharging port to the printer. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly to a printing system including a printing apparatus having a plurality of paper discharge ports.

  Printers that are intended to be shared by multiple users, such as printers developed for office use, have multiple paper discharge ports, and have been printed from different discharge ports for each user who performed printing. One having a so-called mailbox function for discharging a sheet is known.

  Conventionally, the mailbox function is a function in which a user and a paper discharge port are fixedly associated with each other in advance. For this reason, if multiple users are set for the same paper discharge port because the number of users is greater than the number of paper discharge ports, printing from different users can be performed on one paper discharge port. The results were sometimes mixed.

  In order to solve this problem, in Patent Document 1, a printer that has received print data sent from a host computer dynamically sets a discharge outlet by detecting an unused bin, and to which discharge outlet A technique for notifying a user by returning to the host computer whether the output has been made is disclosed.

JP 2001-88404 A

  In the above-described technique, although the discharge port is dynamically set, the user knows from which discharge port the paper is discharged after the end of printing. For this reason, the user must go to the printer to obtain the print result after confirming the paper discharge outlet notified after the print processing is completed.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a technique for enabling a user to know a set paper discharge port before paper discharge in a printing system that dynamically sets a paper discharge port.

The first aspect of the present invention for solving the above problems is as follows.
A printing system including a printing device having a plurality of paper discharge ports and one or more printing control devices,
The print control device includes:
Usage status inquiry means for inquiring of the usage status of the paper discharge outlet to the printing apparatus;
A discharge port determining means for determining a discharge port based on usage status information sent from the printing apparatus;
A paper discharge outlet notifying means for notifying the user of the determined paper discharge outlet;
Command output means for transmitting a paper discharge port designation command for designating the determined paper discharge port to the printing apparatus;
The printing apparatus includes:
Usage status detection means for detecting usage status of the paper discharge port;
A usage status transmission unit that transmits usage status information based on a detection result of the usage status detection unit in response to an inquiry about the usage status of the paper discharge port from the print control device;
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing system comprising: a discharge unit that discharges a printed sheet to a specified sheet discharge port based on a discharge port designation command from the print control apparatus.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the print control device dynamically determines the paper discharge port based on the usage status of the paper discharge port of the printing device, notifies the user and transmits it to the printing device. The user can know the discharged paper outlet before paper discharge.

In addition, the second aspect of the present invention for solving the above problem is as follows.
A printing system including a printing device having a plurality of paper discharge ports and one or more printing control devices,
The print control device includes:
Usage status inquiry means for inquiring of the usage status of the paper discharge outlet to the printing apparatus;
A discharge port designation receiving unit that presents usage status information sent from the printing apparatus to the user and receives designation of a discharge port;
Command output means for transmitting a paper discharge port designation command for designating the designated paper discharge port to the printing apparatus;
The printing apparatus includes:
Usage status detection means for detecting usage status of the paper discharge port;
A usage status transmission unit that transmits usage status information based on a detection result of the usage status detection unit in response to an inquiry about the usage status of the paper discharge port from the print control device;
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing system comprising: a discharge unit that discharges a printed sheet to a specified sheet discharge port based on a discharge port designation command from the print control apparatus.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, the print control apparatus presents the usage status of the discharge outlet of the printing apparatus to the user, determines the discharge outlet based on the designation from the user, and transmits it to the printing apparatus. The user can know the set paper discharge port before paper discharge.

  The present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an outline of a hardware configuration of a network printing system to which the present invention is applied.

  As shown in this figure, the network printing system includes a plurality of computers 30 for realizing various processes by application software, printing processes by a printer driver, and the like, and a plurality of paper discharge ports, and has a so-called mailbox function. The printer 10 is configured to be connected by a computer network. In the present embodiment, the computer 30 functions as a print control device that generates print data and transmits the print data to the printer 10, and the printer 10 functions as a print device that performs printing based on the received print data.

  A printer driver, which is a computer program for causing the computer 30 to function as a print control apparatus, is generally developed by the manufacturer of the printer 10 and recorded and distributed on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or via a computer network such as the Internet. Distributed. The configuration of the network printing system is not limited to this.

  For example, a general-purpose personal computer can be used as the computer 30. A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 31 that executes various programs, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 32 that temporarily stores data, programs, and the like, and the computer 30. Are provided with a ROM (Read Only Memory) 33 in which various data, various programs and the like are previously stored in a nonvolatile manner, and a network interface 34 for connection to a network.

  The computer 30 includes a display device 21 such as a color display, an input device 22 such as a mouse and a keyboard, a media reading device 23 that reads data from a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, and a built-in or external auxiliary storage device 24. Connected. Of course, the configuration of the computer 30 is not limited to this.

  The printer 10 is, for example, a laser type page printer. A laser-type page printer includes a toner cartridge that contains toner in a housing, and performs printing by transferring the toner to a printing medium such as printing paper. The printer 10 may be either a color laser printer or a monochrome laser printer. For example, an ink jet printer may be used instead of the laser method.

  The printer 10 includes an interface 11 that controls transmission and reception of data with the computer 30 via a network, a CPU 12 that executes various programs such as a printer driver, a RAM 13 that temporarily stores print data and the like, and a printer 10 that controls the printer 10. A ROM 14 in which various data and various programs are stored in a nonvolatile manner, a print cartridge 15 including a toner cartridge, a photosensitive drum, and a laser beam irradiation mechanism, an operation panel 16 that receives instructions from a user, font data, and the like are stored. A hard disk (HDD) 17, a paper feeding device 18 that feeds paper, and a paper discharge device 19 that discharges printed paper. Of course, the configuration of the printer 10 is not limited to this.

  The paper discharge device 19 has a plurality of paper discharge ports (bins), and discharges paper from one of the bins based on a bin designation command sent from the computer 30 by being included in the print data. That is, a plurality of bins function as so-called mailboxes.

  Next, functional configurations realized in the computer 30 and the printer 10 by the printing system will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG.

  As shown in the figure, on the computer 30, an operating system unit 300, an application unit 310, and a printer driver unit 320 are configured.

  The operating system unit 300 is so-called basic software of the computer 30 that provides system management of the computer 30 and a basic user operating environment.

  The application unit 310 has a function for causing the computer 30 to perform processing for creating and editing a document, and the CPU 31 executes a word processor program, a graphics processing program, and the like read by the RAM 32, thereby executing the processing on the computer 30. Configured.

  The printer driver unit 320 performs processing for controlling the printer 10 to execute printing. Specifically, when a print instruction is received from the user, the drawing data of the document generated by the application unit 310 is read and converted into print data in a format that can be interpreted by the printer 10 according to the print settings. To the printer 10. Here, the drawing data is data described in the specifications defined in the operating system unit 300, and the print data is described in a page description language, for example, and includes a command group that controls the printer 10. . Note that the print data can include a bin designation command for designating discharge from any bin of the printer 10.

  In order to perform these processes, the printer driver unit 320 includes a user interface unit 321 that receives print instructions, print settings, and the like from a user, and a print processing unit 322 that generates, manages, and transmits print data.

  In the present embodiment, the user interface unit 321 inquires of the printer 10 about the usage status of the bins included in the printer 10 during printing, and dynamically determines a bin to be specified according to the acquired usage status of the bins. A portion 321a is provided. Here, the usage status can be, for example, whether or not the bin is empty.

  In other words, in this embodiment, the computer 30 acquires the usage status of a plurality of bins provided in the printer 10 and determines an empty bin as a designated bin. Then, the user is notified of the bin to be discharged, and a bin designation command for designating the determined bin is included in the print data and output to the printer 10.

  Thereby, before the printer 10 starts the printing process based on the print data, the user can know the bin to be discharged.

  In FIG. 2, a print control unit 110 and a print execution unit 120 are constructed on the printer 10.

  The print control unit 110 interprets the print data transmitted from the computer 30 and performs control for causing the printer 10 to perform printing based on the print data. Specifically, print image data based on the print data is generated, and an instruction is sent to the print execution unit 120 to print this print image data.

  The print execution unit 120 includes a print engine 15, a paper supply device 18, a paper discharge device 19, and the like. The print engine 15 applies a sheet fed from the paper supply device 18 according to an instruction from the print control unit 110. Execute printing. Then, the paper discharge device 19 discharges the printed printing paper. At this time, if a bin is designated by a bin designation command included in the print data, the paper is discharged to the designated bin. When the print data does not include a bin designation command, the print data is discharged from a predetermined standard discharge port, for example, a face-down tray.

  In the present embodiment, the printer 10 can grasp the usage status for each bin. The usage status is, for example, whether or not a bin is used, and the state in which the bin is used is a state in which printed paper remains in the bin.

  For this reason, the print execution unit 120 includes a bin usage status detection unit 120a. For example, the bin usage state detection unit 120a arranges a paper sensor in each bin to detect the presence or absence of paper. The paper sensor can be used regardless of optical type, mechanical type or the like.

  When the printing control unit 110 receives an inquiry about the bin usage status from the computer 30, the bin usage status detection unit 120 a checks the usage status of each bin and transmits the result to the computer 30.

  Next, the processing operation of the printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The process shown on the left side of the flowchart is a process in the computer 30, and the process shown on the right side of the flowchart is a process in the printer 10.

  This process is performed when printing is performed using the mailbox function. That is, processing is started when a print command including an instruction to use a mailbox is received from the user. This command can be received from the user via the user interface unit 321 of the printer driver unit 320.

  First, the bin setting unit 321a of the printer driver unit 320 inquires of the print control unit 110 of the printer 10 about the usage status of the bin (S101).

  In response to this inquiry, the print control unit 110 uses the bin usage status detection unit 120a of the print execution unit 120 to acquire the usage status of each bin, and uses the bin information of the printer driver unit 320 to obtain information on the available bins. It transmits to the setting part 321a (S201). Of course, instead of information on empty bins, information on whether or not each bin is empty may be transmitted.

  The bin setting unit 321a of the printer driver unit 320 that has received the information on the empty bin determines a bin to be designated according to a predetermined rule (S102).

  Here, the predetermined rule may be a rule in which, for example, a priority is assigned to each bin, and the bin having the highest priority among the empty bins is determined. The priority order may be, for example, the order from the top of the bin. Further, when there is no empty bin, for example, it is possible to determine a default paper discharge port as a bin to be designated. Or you may make it wait for printing execution until an empty bin is made.

  When the bin to be designated is determined, the user interface unit 321a displays an example as shown in FIG. 4 and notifies the user from which bin the paper is discharged (S103).

  In addition, the print processing unit 322 generates print data to be printed, and outputs a bin designation command for designating the determined bin to the printer 10 including the print data (S104).

  Then, the printer 10 executes printing based on the print data (S202), and discharges printing paper from the designated bin according to the bin designation command (S203).

  Thus, according to the present embodiment, the user can know the bin to be discharged before the printer 10 starts the printing process based on the print data.

  Next, the processing operation of the printing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the first embodiment described above, when the bin availability status is acquired, the printer driver unit 320 determines a bin to be designated according to a predetermined rule. To accept the bin specification from the user. Also in the flowchart, the process shown on the left side is a process in the computer 30, and the process shown on the right side is a process in the printer 10.

  This process is performed when printing is performed using the mailbox function. That is, processing is started when a print command including an instruction to use a mailbox is received from the user. This command can be received from the user via the user interface unit 321 of the printer driver unit 320.

  First, the bin setting unit 321a of the printer driver unit 320 inquires of the printing control unit 110 of the printer 10 about the usage status of the bin (S111).

  In response to this inquiry, the print control unit 110 uses the bin usage status detection unit 120a of the print execution unit 120 to acquire the usage status of each bin, and uses the bin information of the printer driver unit 320 to obtain information on the available bins. It transmits to the setting part 321a (S211).

  The bin setting unit 321a of the printer driver unit 320 that has received the information on the empty bin displays a bin designation screen as shown in FIG. 6 as an example (S112), and accepts the bin designation from the user (S113).

  In the bin designation screen, information indicating whether or not each bin is empty is provided, and a column for accepting designation is provided. In the example of this figure, bins that are not available are displayed in gray so that they cannot be specified. However, it may be possible to designate a buried bin. Further, for example, only a bin set as a default such as a face-down tray may be specified when it is not empty.

  The print processing unit 322 generates print data to be printed and outputs to the printer 10 a bin designation command for designating a bin that has been designated by the user in the print data (S114). At this time, similarly to the first embodiment, the user interface unit 321a may display the example shown in FIG. 4 to notify the user from which bin the paper is discharged.

  Then, the printer 10 performs printing based on the print data (S212), and discharges the printing paper from the designated bin according to the bin designation command (S213).

  As described above, according to this embodiment, the user can know the bin to be discharged before the printer 10 starts the printing process based on the print data.

The block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of a network printing system. The block diagram which shows the function structure of a network printing system. The flowchart explaining the processing operation of a 1st Example. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen for notifying a bin to be discharged. The flowchart explaining the processing operation of a 2nd Example. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen for accepting designation of a bin to be discharged.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Printer, 11 ... Interface, 12 ... CPU, 13 ... RAM, 14 ... ROM, 15 ... Print engine, 16 ... Operation panel, 17 ... HDD, 18 ... Paper feed device, 19 ... Paper discharge device, 21 ... Display device , 22 ... input device, 23 ... media reading device, 24 ... auxiliary storage device, 30 ... computer, 31 ... CPU, 32 ... RAM, 33 ... ROM, 34 ... network interface, 110 ... print control unit, 120 ... print execution unit , 120a ... bin usage status detection unit, 300 ... operating system unit, 310 ... application unit, 320 ... printer driver unit, 321 ... user interface unit, 321a ... bin setting unit, 322 ... print processing unit

Claims (12)

A printing system including a printing device having a plurality of paper discharge ports and one or more printing control devices,
The print control device includes:
Usage status inquiry means for inquiring of the usage status of the paper discharge outlet to the printing apparatus;
A discharge port determining means for determining a discharge port based on usage status information sent from the printing apparatus;
A paper discharge outlet notifying means for notifying the user of the determined paper discharge outlet;
Command output means for transmitting a paper discharge port designation command for designating the determined paper discharge port to the printing apparatus;
The printing apparatus includes:
Usage status detection means for detecting usage status of the paper discharge port;
A usage status transmission unit that transmits usage status information based on a detection result of the usage status detection unit in response to an inquiry about the usage status of the paper discharge port from the print control device;
A printing system comprising: a discharge unit that discharges a printed sheet to a specified sheet discharge port based on a discharge port designation command from the print control apparatus. A printing system including a printing device having a plurality of paper discharge ports and one or more printing control devices,
The print control device includes:
Usage status inquiry means for inquiring of the usage status of the paper discharge outlet to the printing apparatus;
A discharge port designation receiving unit that presents usage status information sent from the printing apparatus to the user and receives designation of a discharge port;
Command output means for transmitting a paper discharge port designation command for designating the designated paper discharge port to the printing apparatus;
The printing apparatus includes:
Usage status detection means for detecting usage status of the paper discharge port;
A usage status transmission unit that transmits usage status information based on a detection result of the usage status detection unit in response to an inquiry about the usage status of the paper discharge port from the print control device;
A printing system comprising: a discharge unit that discharges a printed sheet to a specified sheet discharge port based on a discharge port designation command from the print control apparatus. A printing apparatus having a plurality of paper discharge ports,
Usage status detection means for detecting usage status of the paper discharge port;
A usage status transmission unit that transmits usage status information based on a detection result of the usage status detection unit in response to an inquiry about the usage status of the paper discharge port from the print control device;
A printing apparatus comprising: a discharge unit that discharges a printed sheet to a specified sheet discharge port based on a discharge port designation command from the print control device. The printing apparatus according to claim 3.
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the usage status detection unit detects whether or not a sheet exists for each paper discharge port as a usage status of the paper discharge port. A printing control apparatus for controlling a printing apparatus having a plurality of paper discharge ports,
Usage status inquiry means for inquiring of the usage status of the paper discharge outlet to the printing apparatus;
A discharge port determining means for determining a discharge port based on usage status information sent from the printing apparatus;
A paper discharge outlet notifying means for notifying the user of the determined paper discharge outlet;
A print control apparatus comprising: a command output unit that transmits a paper discharge port designation command for designating the determined paper discharge port to the printing apparatus. The printing control apparatus according to claim 5,
The discharge port determining means receives information relating to the empty state of the paper discharge port as the usage status information, and determines a discharge port according to a predetermined rule from among the empty paper discharge ports. A printing control apparatus characterized by the above. A printing control apparatus for controlling a printing apparatus having a plurality of paper discharge ports,
Usage status inquiry means for inquiring of the usage status of the paper discharge outlet to the printing apparatus;
A discharge port designation receiving unit that presents usage status information sent from the printing apparatus to the user and receives designation of a discharge port;
A print control apparatus comprising: a command output unit that transmits a sheet discharge port designation command for designating the designated sheet discharge port to the printing apparatus. The print control apparatus according to claim 7.
The paper discharge port designation receiving means presents the user with information on the empty state of the paper paper discharge port as the usage status information, and receives the designation from the empty paper discharge port. . A printer driver that causes a computer to function as a print control device that controls a printing device having a plurality of paper discharge ports,
Usage status inquiry means for inquiring of the usage status of the paper discharge outlet to the printing apparatus;
A discharge port determining means for determining a discharge port based on usage status information sent from the printing apparatus;
A paper discharge outlet notifying means for notifying the user of the determined paper discharge outlet;
A printer driver that causes a computer to function as command output means for transmitting a paper discharge port designation command for designating the determined paper discharge port to the printing apparatus. The printer driver according to claim 9.
The discharge port determining means receives information relating to the empty state of the paper discharge port as the usage status information, and determines a discharge port according to a predetermined rule from among the empty paper discharge ports. Printer driver. A printer driver that causes a computer to function as a print control device that controls a printing device having a plurality of paper discharge ports,
Usage status inquiry means for inquiring of the usage status of the paper discharge outlet to the printing apparatus;
A discharge port designation receiving unit that presents usage status information sent from the printing apparatus to the user and receives designation of a discharge port;
A printer driver that causes a computer to function as command output means for transmitting a paper discharge port specifying command for specifying the specified paper discharge port to the printing apparatus. The printer driver according to claim 11.
The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the discharge port designation receiving unit presents information relating to an empty state of the paper discharge port to the user as the usage status information, and receives a designation from an empty discharge port.

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