JP2005327135A - Print processing method, print processing program, recording medium, and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer driver for outputting print at a designated time of day without giving special loads on a printer server or printer. <P>SOLUTION: A spooling module 10 is a module for accumulating print data whose output is instructed by the printer driver 4 temporarily, receives a time of day signal from a real time clock (RTC) which is not illustrated, and transmits print data of the designated time of day to the printer 9. A management table 11 is a table for storing information such as printing time of day, while an error table 12 is a table for storing information on printing data whose printing is not succeeded. A print setting changing module 7 is a module for changing printing time of day instruction or the like of the accumulated print data. The printer driver 4 normally resides at a memory from the time of activation of a PC 1 and, not only from application 2 but also with operation of a mouse or the like of the PC 1, it is called at any time and a variety of settings or the like are instructed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a print processing technique for performing print output to a printing apparatus such as a printer in a personal computer (PC), a workstation, or the like.

When an application program (hereinafter referred to as an application) is used on a PC or the like and a document or a processing result is to be printed on paper, a print instruction is normally issued to the printing apparatus through the application. In recent offices, printing apparatuses are often used jointly by a plurality of users via a network. There is also a multifunction machine in which a copying machine or a facsimile machine has the function of a printing device. In such a case, the print instructions may be concentrated and the results output by the user may be mixed in with other results, or a large amount of printing may cause trouble for other users. In particular, a large number of printouts are generally performed at night when there are fewer users. A normal printing apparatus starts printing upon receiving a print instruction, but a printing apparatus that can specify urgency and printing time at the time of printing instruction has also been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1). According to this prior art, when a time designation button displayed on the display screen of a computer is clicked, a time designation print signal is sent to the printer via the server, and on the printer side, based on the signal until that time is reached. A printing control program is programmed so that printing is not performed but printing is started only at that time (see paragraph 25 of Patent Document 1).
JP 2000-272205 A

However, the above-described conventional technique has a problem that an area for storing print data is required for the printer or server, and that the person who issued the print command cannot confirm what instruction has been issued. In addition, since the print data storage area is a printer or a server, an administrator who performs maintenance such as reprinting or deleting the processing of print data that failed to be printed is required.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described circumstances, and an administrator for managing print data that has failed to print in an area for storing print data for waiting for a print time in a print server or a printing apparatus. The purpose of the present invention is to enable print output at a specified time without requiring a special load on the network.
Another object of the present invention is to enable display of designated print data, change of designated print time, cancellation, and the like.
Another object of the present invention is to enable display, reprinting, canceling, etc. of print data that has failed to be printed.

In order to solve the above problems, a printing processing method according to claim 1 is a printing processing method for obtaining printing output by instructing printing from a computer to a printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus interprets the print request. Generating the print data by converting it into a printer language capable of storing, storing the print data in a storage unit of the computer itself, designating a print execution time of the print data, storing in the storage unit And the step of transmitting the print data whose print execution time is reached from the print data to the printing apparatus.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the print processing method according to the first aspect of the present invention, the method further includes a step of displaying a state of the print data stored in the storage unit and a step of changing the designated print execution time. It is characterized by.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the print processing method according to the first or second aspect, the method further includes a step of designating a processing method when printing fails at the printing execution time.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing method according to the third aspect, in the step of designating a processing method when the printing fails, the print data is automatically deleted or reprinted. The step of designating whether to delete after printing.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing method according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the step of setting a password for the print data, the input of the password when instructing the processing of the print data, and the And a step of checking the entered password.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing method according to the first aspect of the present invention, the method further comprises the step of deleting, from the storage means of the computer itself, the print data that has not been printed at the designated print execution time. It is characterized by.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the print processing method according to the first aspect, the step of displaying information of print data that has not been printed at the specified print execution time and the execution of the print are not performed. And a step of printing or deleting the print data based on an instruction from the operator.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print processing program for generating a print data by converting a print request into a printer language that can be interpreted by a printing apparatus, and a procedure for storing the print data in a storage unit of the computer itself. , And a procedure for designating a print execution time of the print data, and a procedure for transmitting print data whose print execution time is reached from the print data stored in the storage means to a printing apparatus.
Further, according to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing program according to the eighth aspect, the program further includes a procedure for displaying a status of the print data stored in the storage unit and a procedure for changing the designated print execution time. It is characterized by.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing program according to the eighth or ninth aspect, the method further includes a step of designating a processing method when printing fails when the printing execution time is designated.

Further, in the print processing program according to claim 10, in the print processing program according to claim 10, the procedure for specifying a processing method when the printing fails is that the print data is automatically deleted or reprinted. This is a procedure for designating whether to delete after printing.
Further, according to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing program according to any one of the eighth to eleventh aspects, a procedure for setting a password for the print data, and input of a password when instructing processing of the print data, And a procedure for checking the inputted password.
Further, according to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing program according to the eighth aspect, the program further includes a procedure of deleting print data that has not been printed at the designated print execution time from the storage means of the computer itself. Features.
According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in the print processing program according to the eighth aspect, a procedure for displaying information of print data that has not been printed at the designated print execution time and the execution of the print are not performed. And a procedure for printing or deleting the print data based on an instruction from the operator.
A fifteenth aspect is a computer-readable recording medium that records the print processing program according to any one of the eighth to fourteenth aspects.
According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus that performs printing using the print processing method according to any one of the first to seventh aspects.
According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, a printing apparatus performs printing using the print processing program according to any one of the eighth to fourteenth aspects.

According to the present invention, printing can be performed at the time designated by the user's intention and responsibility, and the storage area for print data and the administrator managing the storage area are not required for the printing apparatus or the print server.
Also, since the print data is sent to the printing apparatus at the printing execution time, the print data waiting for printing can be confirmed without imposing a burden on the network, and can be canceled or changed according to the situation.
Also, the user can set in advance the processing of print data when printing fails at a specified time, and can be used properly according to the type of document, such as a confidential document, a large number of documents, and a document with a deadline for submission.
Furthermore, since the print data that failed to be printed can be printed or deleted according to the user's instruction, it is possible to easily cope with even when printing fails.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a functional configuration according to the printer driver of the present invention. The PC 1 is a computer that operates an application 2 such as document creation or spreadsheet software, and the printer driver 4 according to the present invention also operates on the PC 1. The application 2 issues a print request to the printer driver 4 operating on the PC 1. An OS (Operating System) module 3 is an OS module that mediates between the application 2 and the printer driver 4 when a print instruction is issued.
A UI (User Interface) driver 5 is a module in the printer driver 4 that displays a screen activated from the print dialog of the application 2 and allows the user to make various print settings, cancellation, reprint settings, and the like. It is. The graphic driver 6 is a part that generates print data composed of command groups (PDL) that can be interpreted by the printer from data to be printed with reference to print settings. The output port 8 is a port for connecting to a parallel interface for sending print data to a printer, a USB, and a network interface such as IEEE802.x. The printer 9 has a normal specification that does not have a special scheduling function or priority processing function.
The spooling module 10 is a module for temporarily storing print data instructed to be output from the printer driver 4 of the present invention. The spooling module 10 receives a time signal from a real time clock (RTC) (not shown), and print data at a specified time. Is transmitted to the printer 9. The management table 11 stores information such as the print time of accumulated print data, and the error table 12 stores information about print data that has failed to be printed. The print setting change module 7 is a module for changing the print time designation of the stored print data. The printer driver 4 is resident in the memory when the PC 1 is activated, and can be called not only from the application 2 but also by an operation of the mouse or the like of the PC 1 to instruct various settings.
The print instruction is issued in the PC 1 by an instruction from the application 2 such as document creation. At that time, data conversion is performed in order to print the printed matter by the printer 9 by the printer driver 4 via the OS module 3. It is the UI driver 5 that makes detailed settings related to printing desired by the user at the time of data conversion in the printer driver 4.

The UI driver 5 is started from the application 2 at the time of printing, but can be started without the application 2 being involved as in the case of performing basic printer settings from the OS with the OS module 3 interposed. . Data conversion and print settings during printing are processed by the graphic driver 6 and the print setting change module 7. Print data that has undergone data conversion and print setting processing is converted to printable data by being sent to the printer 9. The print data is temporarily stored in the hard disk or the like of the PC 1 by the spooling module 10 at the final stage of the printer driver 4 and then sent to the printer 9 via the output port 8.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display for setting a printing date and time when a printing instruction is issued.
When the PC 1 prints a document from a document application or the like, the UI driver 5 displays a screen that can be operated by the user regarding the setting of the printing date and allows the user to select whether or not to set the printing date and time on the screen. When “Done” 20 is clicked, a dialog (described later) for setting the printing date and time is displayed. If the print date and time are not to be set, clicking “Don't” 21 will send the print data to the printer 9 for printing. “Cancel” 22 is clicked when canceling the print instruction itself.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display when setting the printing date and time.
When setting the printing date and time on this display screen, the user inputs the date and time to be printed in the input frame for setting the printing date and time. The print data is actually sent to the printer 9 via the output port 8 and printed at the designated date and time.
On this display screen, when the PC 1 or the printer 9 is not turned on at the set printing date and time, for example, when the normal operation cannot be performed, it is possible to specify to delete the print data accumulated as a print failure. In this case, the “delete” check box 23 on the display screen may be checked. Normally, it is desirable to enable reprinting without checking it, so it is blank in the preset, but if you can easily instruct printing again, or if you know that the printing process will be done reliably If “Delete” is selected, the load on the PC 1 becomes lighter. When necessary items are entered on the display screen and the user clicks “OK” 24, the print data processing moves to the spooling module 10, and the print data is accumulated and sent to the printer 9 at the set print date and time. . When “Cancel” 25 is clicked, the display screen returns to the display screen of FIG.
It should be noted that a mechanism may be provided in which the user can refer to the fact that printing has failed and deleted is recorded in a log later. Also, the timing of deletion is the time when the specified time has passed. If the PC 1 is not turned on and cannot be operated at that time, the accumulated print data is deleted when the PC 1 becomes operable. Will do. It should be noted that a grace period may be provided instead of deleting immediately when a printing failure is found. In such a case, it may be realized by providing a function of notifying at the time of deletion and requesting confirmation, displaying a deletion notice notice at a predetermined time interval to give a warning, and deleting when the warning exceeds a predetermined number of times.

The case of automatically deleting print data that has passed the print designation time has been described so far, but the case of selecting not to delete automatically will be described.
A user who has selected not to delete automatically can execute printing at an arbitrary timing after the print designated time, but if anyone can print, the confidentiality of the print data may be impaired. In the present invention, confidentiality is ensured by prompting for a password. The password is input on the display screen of FIG. 3 (although it is a normal display in the figure, if the “delete” check box at the top is checked, a half-brightness display is provided). The number of characters in the password and the character limit can be determined arbitrarily. Note that password entry is not essential, and there may be no problem even without a password. When a password is input, if printing is not performed at a designated time, print data with a password is accumulated.
Next, how to cancel printing schedule and instruct to change the printing date and time will be described. The user can activate the printer driver 4 at an arbitrary timing, and can attempt to reset or cancel the print data waiting for printing on the display screen.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display for instructing change of print settings. When the printer driver 4 is activated and the editing tab is selected, the dialog shown in FIG. 4 is displayed, and a list of print data stored waiting for printing is displayed. This screen display can also be used for the purpose of confirming the waiting state of the print instruction made by the user.
On this screen, a file name to be stopped can be selected by referring to the request (print instruction) date and time, the print date and time, etc., and clicking “Delete” 26, a print cancel instruction can be performed. The symbol in the column P indicates that a password is set, and the check mark in the delete column at the right end indicates that print data is deleted when printing fails. A plurality of print data can be selected at a time.
When “Change” 27 is clicked after the file name is selected, a dialog for setting the printing date and time shown in FIG. 3 is displayed, and the printing date and time can be reset. If only the waiting state is to be confirmed without making any changes or the like, “End” 28 may be clicked.

Next, a method for instructing reprinting of print data that has passed the print designation time will be described. The user can activate the printer driver 4 at an arbitrary timing, and can attempt to reprint the print data that failed to be printed on the display screen.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display for instructing reprinting. When the printer driver 4 is activated and the reprint tab is selected, the dialog shown in FIG. 5 is displayed, and a list of print data that has failed (accumulated) is displayed. As a reprint target designation method, a desired target file name may be designated from a list of print data accumulated on this screen. The print data has a file name set by the user in the application 2. The method of assigning the file name is not limited to this, but it is desirable to know the contents of the print data from the file name. Click the file name on this screen to select it (multiple files can be selected), and click “OK” 29. If a password is set for the print data, the dialog shown in FIG. 6 is displayed. .
FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display for inputting a password when reprinting / deleting. Enter your password in this dialog. If multiple files are selected in the previous print data specification, this dialog appears multiple times. When the user clicks “OK” 30 after entering the password, the check box 31 “Delete print data after printing” is checked in the preset, so the print data is sent to the printer 9 and printed. When the password is entered and the preset is unchecked, this print data is deleted without being printed.

Next, processing contents of the printer driver of the present invention will be described in detail.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the printer driver when a print instruction is issued from an application. When the user issues a print instruction while the application is being executed, the printer driver displays the print date setting dialog described in FIG. 2 and prompts the user to select whether to set the print date (step 101). . When the user clicks “Set” to set the print date and time (step 102), the print date and time setting dialog 1 (print date and time input dialog) in FIG. The user is prompted to enter deletion permission / prohibition and password settings (step 103). Then, the printing date and time input at step 103, whether or not to delete when printing fails, the password, and the file name acquired from the application are added to the management table 11 (step 104), and the print contents are expanded into print data. Then, it is stored in the file having the aforementioned file name and accumulated in the spool area of the hard disk (step 105). In addition, when adding to the management table 11 at step 104, it sorts in order with an early printing date.
If the user selects “do not perform” the print date setting in step 102, the print data is expanded and sent to the printer (step 105). If the printer cannot be operated because the power is not turned on, an error to that effect is displayed and the process is terminated. Note that the process is also terminated when the user selects “cancel” in step 102.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of the printer driver when the PC is activated. The printer driver searches the management table 11 for data whose print designation date and time is before the current time in order to check whether there is print data that has reached the print designation date and time while the power is off (step 201). . Then, for the found print data (step 202), it is checked whether or not deletion is specified at the time of printing failure (step 203). If deletion is specified, the print data is deleted from the spool area, and the management table 11 deletes this print data. The print data entry (information about print data) is deleted (step 204).
If deletion is not designated in step 203, the entry in the management table 11 is deleted, and information relating to print data is moved to the error table 12 (step 205). Then, when the processing is completed for all the found print data (step 206), the processing is terminated.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processing of print data having a print date and time designation. The printer driver is a resident program, and this entire process is performed in parallel with, for example, the process in the case where a print instruction is given from the application described with reference to FIG. 7, and is running even when the user is not involved.
When the current time is acquired from the RTC (step 301), it is compared with the print date and time of the first entry in the management table 11 (step 302). This is for processing print data that has not been subjected to print processing at a designated date and time for some reason, but in order to avoid a processing delay when there are a large number of print data at the same time, for example, 2 Those that are too long are not subject to error processing. Error processing is performed on the print data for which more time has passed (step 303). Since this error processing is the same as Step 203 to Step 205 described with reference to FIG.
If the current time is earlier than the specified date and time of the first entry in the management table 11 or has elapsed within a predetermined time, printing will occur from now on, and the current time is compared with the first entry in the management table 11 (step 304). If the print date has not yet been reached (NO in step 304), the process returns to step 301 to repeat the processing so far.
If the current time is equal to the printing date of the first entry in the management table 11 or has elapsed within a predetermined time (YES in step 304), the print data is transmitted to the printer (step 305). If the transmission is normally performed and the printer receives print data (YES in step 306), the print data is deleted from the spool area, the entry is also deleted from the management table 11 (step 307), and the process returns to step 301.
If the process has not been completed normally (NO in step 306), if there is a deletion designation at the time of printing failure (YES in step 308), the print data is deleted from the spool area, and the entry is also deleted from the management table 11 (step 309). ), The process returns to step 301. If there is no deletion designation at the time of printing failure (NO in step 308), the print data entry is deleted from the management table 11, moved to the error table 12 (step 310), and the process returns to step 301. The above processing is repeated while the PC is operating.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a process of canceling print data to be printed / changing the print date and time, which is started by the user. For example, the user can call a printer driver as necessary by clicking a predetermined icon displayed on the screen.
When the printer driver is called, the print setting dialog described with reference to FIG. 4 is displayed (step 401). Although another screen is actually displayed, the print setting dialog shown in FIG. 4 is displayed by clicking the “Edit” tab from the screen. The user designates the print data (file name) whose printing is to be canceled or the printing date / time is changed in this dialog, and clicks “delete” 26 or “change” 27. The list of print data shown in the dialog is a list of data stored in the management table 11. For each print data designated in this way (step 402). First, it is checked whether a password is set for the print data (step 403). If it has been set, a password input dialog is displayed to allow the user to input the password (step 404), and it is determined whether the password is correct (step 405). If the password is not correct, the process proceeds to the next designated print data (if any).
If the password is correct, the next process differs depending on whether “Delete” 26 or “Change” 27 is clicked in the print setting dialog. If “delete” 27 is clicked (YES in step 406), the print data entry is deleted from the management table 11, and the accumulated print data is also deleted (step 407). If “change” 26 is clicked instead of “delete” 27 (NO in step 406), the print date and time setting dialog 2 (see FIG. 3) is displayed (step 408), and the management table 11 is displayed according to the input items. To correct. Since the management table 11 is arranged in the order of printing date and time, it is necessary to change the order according to the reset printing date and time.
As described above, when all of the designated print data is completed (step 410), the process is terminated.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing reprint / deletion processing of a print error performed by the user. For example, the user can call a printer driver as necessary by clicking a predetermined icon displayed on the screen. When the printer driver is called, the print setting dialog described with reference to FIG. 5 is displayed (step 421). Although another screen is actually displayed, the print setting dialog of FIG. 5 is displayed by selecting the “Reprint” tab from that screen. In this dialog, the user designates the print data (file name) that failed to be reprinted or deleted and clicks OK. The list of print data shown in the dialog is a list of data stored in the error table 12. For each print data designated in this way (step 422). First, it is checked whether a password is set for the print data (step 423). If it has been set, the reprint setting dialog described with reference to FIG. 6 is displayed, the input of the set password is requested, and the user is prompted to select whether to delete after printing (step 424). If the password is not correct (NO in step 425), it is determined whether there is next print data (step 429). If the password is correct (YES in step 425), it is checked whether deletion after printing is selected (step 426). If it is selected, the print data is transmitted to the printer (step 427), and the print data is deleted. The print data entry is deleted from the error table 12 (step 428).
If deletion after printing is not selected (NO in step 426), the print data is deleted, and the entry of this print data is deleted from the error table 12 (step 428).
If the password is not set (NO in step 423), the above steps 427 and 428 are executed, and reprinting is performed by the printer. As can be seen from the description, when deletion after printing is not selected, only deletion of print data is performed. If no password is set, it is not possible to delete only, but it is deleted after printing. The above processing is performed for all designated print data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration according to the printer driver of the present invention. The figure which shows the example of the screen display for setting the printing date in the case of a printing instruction. The figure which shows the example of the screen display at the time of setting printing date. The figure which shows the example of the screen display for instruct | indicating the change of a print setting. The figure which shows the example of the screen display for instruct | indicating reprinting. The figure which shows the example of the screen display which performs the password input at the time of reprinting / deletion. 6 is a flowchart illustrating processing contents of a printer driver when a print instruction is issued from an application. 6 is a flowchart showing processing contents of a printer driver when a PC is activated. 10 is a flowchart illustrating processing of print data having a print date designation. 10 is a flowchart illustrating processing for canceling printing / changing a printing date and time. 10 is a flowchart showing processing for reprinting / deleting a print error.

Explanation of symbols

1 PC, 2 application, 3 OS module, 4 printer driver, 5 UI driver, 6 graphic driver, 7 print setting change module, 8 output port, 9 printer, 10 spooling module, 11 management table, 12 error table

Claims (17)

  A print processing method for instructing printing from a computer to obtain a print output, wherein a print request is converted into a printer language that can be interpreted by the print device, and print data is generated; A step of accumulating in its own storage means, a step of designating a print execution time of the print data, and a step of transmitting print data having a print execution time from the print data stored in the storage means to a printing device; A print processing method characterized by comprising:   2. The print processing method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of displaying a state of print data accumulated in the storage unit and a step of changing the designated print execution time. .   3. The print processing method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of designating a processing method when printing fails at the printing execution time.   The print processing method according to claim 3, wherein the step of designating a processing method when the printing fails is whether to automatically delete the print data or to delete it after printing in a reprintable state. A print processing method characterized in that it is a step of designating.   5. The print processing method according to claim 1, wherein a password is set in the print data, and when the print data is instructed, the password is input and the input password is inspected. And a print processing method.   2. The print processing method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of deleting, from the storage means of the computer itself, print data that has not been printed at the designated print execution time. .   The print processing method according to claim 1, wherein a step of displaying information of print data that has not been printed at the designated print execution time, and print data that has not been printed are displayed by an operator. And a step of performing printing or deletion based on the instruction.   Specifying a procedure for generating print data by converting a print request into a printer language that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus, a procedure for storing the print data in a storage unit of the computer, and a printing execution time of the print data A print processing program for executing a procedure and a procedure for transmitting print data whose print execution time has been reached from print data stored in the storage unit to a printing apparatus.   9. The print processing program according to claim 8, further comprising: a procedure for displaying a status of print data stored in the storage means; and a procedure for changing the designated print execution time. .   10. The print processing program according to claim 8, further comprising a procedure for designating a processing method when printing fails when the printing execution time is designated.   The print processing program according to claim 10, wherein the procedure for specifying a processing method when the printing fails is whether to automatically delete the print data or to delete after printing in a reprintable state. A print processing program characterized by a specified procedure.   12. The print processing program according to claim 8, wherein a procedure for setting a password for the print data, a password input when instructing the processing of the print data, and the input password are inspected. And a printing process program.   9. The print processing program according to claim 8, further comprising a procedure of deleting print data that has not been printed at the designated print execution time from the storage means of the computer itself.   9. The print processing program according to claim 8, wherein a procedure for displaying information of print data that has not been printed at the designated print execution time, and print data that has not been printed are displayed by an operator. A print processing program further comprising a procedure for performing printing or deletion based on an instruction.   The computer-readable recording medium which recorded the printing processing program of any one of Claims 8 thru | or 14.   A printing apparatus that performs printing using the printing processing method according to claim 1. 15. A printing apparatus that performs printing using the print processing program according to claim 8.

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