JP2007058548A - Image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform printing while connecting and sorting a plurality of jobs of partially different delivery. <P>SOLUTION: This image forming system has an image information generation means, an image forming job holding means, a connection job selection means, a connection sorting image formation instruction means, an image forming means, and a control means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming system and a control method for the image forming system, and more particularly to a control method for printing a plurality of print jobs for each sorting by a printer.

  When printing a plurality of print jobs such as a meeting or school distribution, if the distribution destinations match among the plurality of jobs, it is sufficient to combine the jobs and print a plurality of jobs as one job. However, when the distribution destination members and groups are partly common and different between jobs, it has been necessary to manually print and print them separately afterwards.

  In flyer advertisements such as real estate, a technique called posting advertisement is used. It is possible to divide into segments according to the conditions of the region and housing complex, etc., and it is attracting attention as an advertisement that is easier to notice and more effective than newspaper insert advertisements. For example, the name of an apartment is included in a flyer to increase the advertising effect. However, even if flyers are posted in the same area, multiple flyers whose distribution destinations do not match must be printed as independent jobs, and must be sorted out after printing or posted separately. There wasn't.

As disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-222157, the idea of creating one booklet from a plurality of print jobs is already known.
JP 2000-222157 A

  However, in the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-222157, the print job does not have the destination information, and if it is desired to print a plurality of print jobs with partially different sorts, manual sort after printing is performed. Was necessary.

In order to overcome the above problems, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes:
Image information generation means such as application software on the client PC that instructs variable data printing that refers to a database that stores destination information.
Image forming job holding means such as PostScript (registered trademark) RIP with spool function,
Combined job selection means such as utility software for selecting a plurality of jobs for performing combined sorting printing from a plurality of jobs held in the image forming job holding means;
Combined sorting image forming support means such as utility software for instructing combined sorting printing,
Image forming means for performing combined sorting printing based on instructions;
An image forming system comprising a control unit for forming an image.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to combine a plurality of jobs with different destinations and perform printing while sorting them, so that troublesome sorting work after printing becomes unnecessary.

[First Example]
The first embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

[System configuration]
FIG. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 101 denotes a client PC that transmits a print job. Reference numeral 102 denotes a first print job created on the client PC 101, which designates group 1 as destination instruction information. Reference numeral 103 denotes a second print job created on the client PC 101, which designates group 2 as destination instruction information. These print jobs are sent to the RIP 107 via the LAN 104 by Ethernet (registered trademark). The RIP 107 has a function of rendering a print job written in the Postscript language and printing it with the printer 108. Then, the print jobs 102 and 103 are held on the hard disk in the RIP 107. In addition, the destination DB 105 exists in the LAN 104, and holds information regarding what kind of job each group specified by the print jobs 102 and 103 prints. Then, with the merged and divided printing instruction utility software 106 running on the RIP107 or client PC 101, specify which of the print jobs held in the RIP107 is to be combined and printed, specify the sorting method, and instruct printing To do. Then, according to the designation, the RIP 107 sorts and prints the print job for each destination as indicated by 109 while referring to the destination information in the destination DB 105.

  As shown in FIG. 1, group 1 is for A, B, C, and E, and group 2 is for A, D, E, and F. A feature of the present invention is a control method for printing a plurality of jobs that are partially common and partially different in this way, as shown in 109.

[Printer Driver UI]
FIG. 2 shows a printer driver screen for transmitting a print job from the client PC 101 to the RIP 107 in this embodiment. This is a general OS printer driver screen. From the list box 201, a printer registered in the client PC 101 can be selected. Here, RIP 107 is selected with the name “Printer-1”. The property button of 202 makes it possible to make detailed settings for Printer-1. This will be explained later. In 203, the status of Printer-1 is displayed. In 204, the type of Printer-1 is acquired from a PPD (PostScript (registered trademark) Printer Description) file and displayed. 205 shows a port for connecting Printer-1. “IP_222.111.12.34” indicates that the IP address is 222.111.12.34. The explanation column 206 is a column indicating additional information of Printer-1, but nothing is displayed here. A check box 207 is used when saving as a file without sending it to the printer. 208 designates a printing range, and radio buttons can be used to specify whether all pages are printed, only one page that is currently open, or pages in a designated range are printed. Reference numeral 209 denotes a column for designating the number of copies. Pressing the OK button 210 sends a print job, and pressing the 211 cancel button cancels printing. The button 212 operates in the same manner as the cancel button 211.

  The UI when the property button 202 is pressed will be described with reference to FIG.

[Detailed Print Settings UI]
FIG. 3 shows a detailed print setting screen. A layout tab 301, a paper / quality tab 302, a destination tab 303, and a PostScript (registered trademark) tab 304 are configured. FIG. 3 shows a state in which the destination tab characteristic of the present invention is opened. By checking the check box 305, it is possible to perform destination designation printing. Then, the group 1 to the group 15 can be designated by the list box 306. This group corresponds to the group registered in the destination DB 105.

  When the OK button 307 is pressed, the setting is confirmed and the screen returns to the screen of FIG. When the cancel button 308 or the window close button 309 is pressed, the setting is discarded and the screen returns to the screen of FIG.

  Other layout tabs 301, paper / quality tabs 302, and PostScript (registered trademark) tabs 304 are general UIs of the OS, and are not described here.

[Destination DB]
FIG. 4 shows the internal data structure of the destination DB 105. In this embodiment, the destination DB is composed of a name list DB 401 and a destination group table 408. The name list DB includes items of ID 402, name 403, address 404, house form 405, age 406, and child presence / absence 407. The destination group table 408 includes a group number 409 and a condition 410. Group No. 409 corresponds to the group designated by the destination designation 306 in FIG. 3, and in this embodiment, 1 to 15 can be defined and designated from the driver. The condition 410 defines a conditional expression using configuration items of the name list DB 401. The destination group table 408 can be arbitrarily defined and used by the user separately from the name list DB 401.

  The destination DB has a function of returning an ID string that satisfies the condition when a group number is sent via the LAN 104. The communication takes the following form.

Query to destination database: QUERY: GROUP = 1
Answer to destination DB: ANSWER: ID = 0001, 0002, 0003, 0005, ...
[RIP and printer]
FIG. 5 is an electrical block diagram of an electrophotographic color copying machine that performs printing in this embodiment. This electrophotographic color copying machine is an integrated one of the RIP 107 and the printer 108 of FIG. Reference numeral 501 denotes a CPU bus. 502 is a CPU. A RAM 503 is used as a frame buffer for scan image data and print image data and as a work area for system operation. Reference numeral 504 denotes a ROM in which a boot program at startup is recorded. Reference numeral 505 denotes an HDD I / F. Reference numeral 506 denotes an HDD for storing system software and scanned image data. A scanning unit 507 includes a CCD sensor and a halogen lamp. Reference numeral 508 denotes a printer unit which uses an electrophotographic color printer. Reference numeral 509 denotes an image processing unit, which shows image processing by various ASICs such as gamma correction, calibration, and color space conversion. Reference numeral 510 denotes a LAN I / F, which is connected to a LAN based on 100BaseT / 10BaseT Ethernet (registered trademark). Reference numeral 511 denotes an I / O controller. An operation unit 512 includes an LCD, a touch panel, mechanical buttons, and the like.

  Jobs can be stored in the HDD 505. In the combined sorting printing of the present invention, jobs that have been specified for sorting are not printed immediately, but the jobs are stored in the HDD 505, and instructions from the combined sorting printing utility are given later. According to the above, combined sorting printing is performed.

[Print operation]
The printing operation will be described with reference to FIG. A job described in Postscript or PDF is received via the Network I / F 510 and stored in the work RAM 503. Then, the CPU 502 interprets the description of the postscript, generates a raster image, and stores it in the frame buffer 503. The raster image is developed by the printer 508 and output to paper. This operation is repeated in the order of MCYK to form a color image.

[Combined sort printing instruction utility]
FIG. 6 shows a screen of the combined sorting printing instruction utility. Use 601 to select the target RIP. Here, “Printer-1” which is RIP107 is selected. Below that, the destination designation jobs held by the selected RIP 107 are listed. 602 displays the job name, 603 displays the date and time when the job was sent, 604 displays the page number of the job, and 605 displays the destination setting. The scroll bar 607 can display jobs that cannot be displayed. Each job has a check box 606, and it is possible to specify which job is to be printed in the combined sorting printing.

  At 608, either shift, staple or partition paper can be selected for sorting. In the shift, the paper discharge port of the printer 108 moves left and right, and the output paper discharge position changes each time the destination changes. Staples are bundled on a stable basis for each destination. Blank paper is inserted when the destination changes. Two pages of the original job are arranged on one sheet of paper. In check box 609, 2 in 1 is performed for each destination. It is also possible to print different jobs on one sheet of paper. Check box 610 can be used to instruct whether to perform double-sided printing. This makes it possible to print different jobs on the front and back of a single sheet of paper.

  When the user presses the print button 611, the user presses the cancel button 612 or the window close button 613 that starts the combined sorting printing according to the designation, and the process ends without printing.

  In this embodiment, it is assumed that the partition paper feeds blank paper of the same size as that of printing. However, a paper feed stage for the partition paper may be selected. It is also possible to make the partition easy to distinguish. In addition, the destination of a document obtained by printing destination information or the like on a partition sheet may be made easy to understand.

[Join sort printing flow]
FIG. 7 shows a processing flow of the RIP 107 when executing combined sorting printing. In 701, the destination designation information of the designated job is acquired. This corresponds to acquiring the group number designated in the destination designation list box 306 of FIG. 3 for each designated job. In 702, the destination information corresponding to those group numbers is acquired from the destination DB 105. In step 703, a table for combination printing for the specified job is created. This corresponds to the table written on the destination DB 105 in FIG. Next, at 704, the destination counter is set to the first destination in the table. In step 705, jobs corresponding to the destination counter are sequentially printed. At this time, if 2-in-1 or double-sided instructions are given by the combined sorting print instruction utility, printing is performed accordingly. Next, at 706, the sorting process is performed. Control is performed along any one of shift / staple / partition paper specified by the combined sorting print instruction utility. At 707, it is determined whether all destinations have been completed. If not yet completed, a destination counter is recommended next at 708 and the process returns to 705 to repeat.

  Through the above processing, the specified jobs are combined and sorted and printed for each destination.

[Other examples]
In this embodiment, the shift / staple / partition paper sorting method has been described. However, sorting by a mechanical sorter may be used. Also, it is not limited to 2 in 1 or both sides, and more various impositions and bookbinding may be performed.

  In this embodiment, the print content is not changed for each destination, but the print content may be changed for each destination. The personal name or apartment name of the destination information may be added to the print. This is a technique known as variable data printing, and it is possible to perform combined sorting printing using a database for that purpose as a destination DB.

  In the present embodiment, printing on paper has been described. However, it is also possible to use electronic processing means such as delivering the combined and sorted contents by e-mail or sending by FAX. Further, the electronic data for each destination may be stored in a server, and the storage location may be transmitted by e-mail for each destination.

System Configuration Printer driver screen Detailed print settings screen Destination DB configuration Color copier internal configuration diagram Combined sort screen Join sort printing process flow

Claims (19)

Image information generating means for generating a plurality of image forming jobs;
An image forming job holding means for holding an image forming job from the image information generating means;
A combined job selecting unit that selects a plurality of image forming jobs to be combined from the image forming jobs held in the image forming job holding unit;
A combined sorting image formation instructing unit for instructing to combine a plurality of image forming jobs selected by the combined job selection unit and form a sorted image;
An image forming unit for forming an image in accordance with an instruction from the combined sorting image formation instructing unit;
A control unit configured to combine a plurality of image forming jobs selected by the combined job selection unit in accordance with an instruction from the combined sorting image formation instructing unit, and to control the image forming unit to form an image by the destination and to form an image by the image forming unit; And
In the image information generating means, each image forming job has a plurality of image forming instructions, each of which has information on which destination image forming product, and the destination information of the plurality of image forming jobs does not necessarily match. An image forming system. The image forming system according to claim 1,
An image forming system, further comprising destination information adding means for adding destination information of each part of each image forming job when the image forming means forms an image. The image forming system according to claim 1,
A sorting method instruction means for selecting a sorting method from a plurality of sorting methods;
The image forming system, wherein the image forming unit forms an image while sorting using a sorting method specified by the sorting method instruction unit. The image forming system according to claim 3.
The sorting method selectable by the sorting method instruction means includes sorting by partition paper,
An image forming system, further comprising: partition paper inserting means for inserting a partition paper at a boundary of sorting when the image forming means forms an image. The image forming system according to claim 4.
An image forming system, wherein the partition paper inserted by the partition paper insertion means is a blank paper. The image forming system according to claim 4.
An image forming system, wherein the partition paper inserted by the partition paper inserting means is fed from a designated paper feeding means. The image forming system according to claim 4.
An image forming system, wherein the destination information is image-formed on the partition paper inserted by the partition paper inserting means. The image forming system according to claim 3.
The sorting method selectable by the sorting method instruction means includes sorting by a mechanical sorter,
An image forming system, further comprising: a sorting unit that sorts each sorting when forming an image with the image forming unit. The image forming system according to claim 3.
The sorting method selectable by the sorting method instruction means includes sorting by staple sorting,
An image forming system, further comprising: a staple sorting unit that performs staple sorting for each sorting when the image forming unit forms an image. The image forming system according to claim 3.
Sorting methods selectable by the sorting method instruction means include sorting by shift,
An image forming system, further comprising a shift unit that shifts and discharges paper for each sorting when an image is formed by the image forming unit. The image forming system according to claim 3.
The sorting method selectable by the sorting method instruction means includes imposition,
An image forming system, further comprising imposition means for imposing and outputting for each sorting when an image is formed by the image forming means. The image forming system according to claim 3.
The sorting method selectable by the sorting method instruction means includes bookbinding,
An image forming system further comprising bookbinding means for bookbinding for each sorting when the image forming means forms an image. The image forming system according to claim 1,
The image information generating means has a function of generating a plurality of variable data image forming jobs, each variable data image forming job has variable data image forming instruction information,
For variable data image formation, it has variable data providing means for providing variable image formation data for a destination key according to variable data image formation instruction information,
The control means controls to combine a plurality of variable data image forming jobs selected by the combined job selection means in accordance with an instruction from the combined sorting image formation instructing means, and to sort the images for each destination and form an image with the image forming means. An image forming system. The image forming system according to claim 1,
The image forming system prints on paper. The image forming system according to claim 1,
An image forming system control method, further comprising: an image data storage unit that stores an image formed by the image forming unit as a file as electronic data. The image forming system according to claim 15, wherein
Network means;
An image forming system, further comprising electronic data means for transmitting the image data stored in the image data storage means to a destination using network means. The image forming system according to claim 15, wherein
The image forming system, wherein the electronic data transmitting means transmits image data by using an electronic mail. The image forming system according to claim 15, wherein
The electronic data transmission unit transmits storage location information of image data stored in the image data storage unit using electronic mail. The image forming system according to claim 15, wherein
The image forming system, wherein the electronic data transmitting means transmits image data using FAX.

Images