JP2007086887A - Image processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing apparatus that prepares a notice period before filter settings are changed and give notice of the filter setting change to general users. <P>SOLUTION: The image processing apparatus comprises a filter means for substituting input PDL data, a substitution detection flag means for detecting that the filter means performs substitution, a filter setting holding means for controlling the validation/invalidation of the filter means, a notice period timer means for managing the time to announce filter setting change, a flag means for controlling whether or not to announce filter setting change, and a notice output means for giving a notice output. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing system, an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a storage medium, and more particularly to setting change control of a filter processing function implemented on firmware.

  Conventionally, software of an image processing apparatus has been mainly constructed as so-called firmware that is static and fixed on a real-time operating system (OS). Such firmware is stored in the device's non-volatile memory in a state where it is statically linked to a single load module even if it is internally composed of multiple modules, and the firmware is stored on the hard disk at system startup. The program is loaded into a RAM from a nonvolatile memory such as a ROM and executed, or directly executed on a nonvolatile memory such as a ROM. In particular, firmware constituting an embedded system such as a low-cost image processing apparatus is generally configured not to dynamically load or link a partial module because of its economic efficiency and safety.

  In other words, the storage capacity of the symbol table necessary for realizing dynamic linking and the overhead related to the processing for resolving the symbol address deteriorates the cost performance of the device, and is additionally loaded and linked. This is because there is a risk that the quality and security of the entire system, which have been fully evaluated and achieved before linking the submodule by the submodule, are threatened.

  Conventionally, an additional software operating environment has been provided on the real-time OS of embedded system firmware, and the software dynamic characteristics such as dynamic loading, dynamic linking and dynamic memory operation are supported in the additional software operating environment. An image processing apparatus has been developed. The additional software operating environment consists of an interpreter and a set of application programming interfaces (APIs) and frameworks, and what is supposed to be a kind of OS or computing platform for the software that runs on it. provide.

  The interpreter sequentially reads, interprets and executes a series of instruction sequences including instructions included in a predetermined instruction set. When this instruction set is regarded as being equivalent to the instruction set for the hardware CPU, the interpreter is sometimes called a virtual machine (virtual machine). A set of APIs and frameworks operate on the software operating environment to access various resource groups that abstract the resources and hardware resources provided by the actual real-time OS underlying the software operating environment. Provide for software to do. The resources include an instruction execution context by a processor, various inputs / outputs (I / O) including a memory, a file system, and a network interface.

  In particular, the instruction execution context can independently manage the instruction execution context on the interpreter independently of the multitask mechanism provided by the actual CPU and the real-time OS. Similarly, the memory can also provide its own memory management for the software operating environment.

  Since software operating in such a software execution environment is sequentially read and interpreted and executed by an interpreter, there is a possibility that an operation that adversely affects the system can be excluded by monitoring the instruction sequence in the course of these processes. In addition, since access to various resources from software on the software execution environment operates the resources indirectly via the API group and framework group provided by the software execution environment, operations that adversely affect the system in this process are performed. May be excluded. Therefore, the approach of providing a hierarchy of software execution environments consisting of an interpreter, API group, and framework group inside the firmware is basically the operation of software in the firmware of a low-cost embedded system that should be configured statically and fixedly. It is very effective for partially introducing the characteristic (for example, refer to Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).

  In the above approach, a Java (registered trademark) virtual machine can be adopted as an interpreter to realize a hierarchy of software execution environments, and APIs and frameworks related to Java (registered trademark) can be adopted. In 2003, a person commercialized MEAP, which is a multifunction machine having a Java (registered trademark) platform built in the firmware of an image processing apparatus.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, using an application download type printer having a network computer inside, a data file to be printed and an application corresponding to the data file are downloaded from the computer network into the printer, and the application is downloaded on the network computer. A printer with a built-in network computer that opens, converts the data file into a raster image by printing, and prints it, and a computer network system having the printer are disclosed. A case where the application is a “Java (registered trademark) applet” is also disclosed. The case where the application is pushed from the client together with the print data file and the case where the printer pulls from the application server or the like are disclosed (see, for example, Patent Document 3).

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a plurality of terminal devices equipped with a plurality of peripheral devices and software for operating the peripheral devices and a server device including at least a database relating to software for operating the peripheral devices are connected to a transmission line, and a network is formed based on a predetermined communication protocol. A network communication system for performing communication, wherein the peripheral device requests / acquires all / a part of software for operating the peripheral device from the server device, or latest module information corresponding to a module used by the software, and a client control unit A network communication system including a software distribution agent that distributes the acquired latest module to a terminal device is disclosed. It is also disclosed that “java (registered trademark) applet” and “java (registered trademark) application” can be supplied as client side modules used by software for operating peripheral devices (see, for example, Patent Document 4). .)

  On the other hand, based on the above conventional example, the present applicant discloses the following technique.

  There is a wide variety of customer printing environments and requirements in various environments. Especially in mission-critical business systems, there is a strong demand for maintaining the stability of the entire system once it has started operating normally, and it may not be allowed to easily change printer drivers and applications. Under such restrictions of the actual printing environment, printer vendors have a mission to respond to various customer demands by responding to the printer side rather than requesting response from the customer environment side. For example, if there are finishing functions such as double-sided printing and bookbinding as a new function provided by a new printer product, a print job including a command sequence that uses the new function is generated via a dedicated printer driver developed at the same time. Or, it is natural that the customer's business application can make full use of these new functions by updating so that a print job including a newly added command sequence is generated. However, as described above, it is required that the new functions of the apparatus can be used by responding to the printer side without affecting the customer system.

  In order to respond to these demands on the printer side without affecting the customer system side, there is a method of revising the firmware constituting the printer and releasing it individually, and this method may actually be taken. However, individual handling by remodeling the firmware requires a lot of development period and development costs including re-evaluation of the quality of the entire device, and advanced update by field engineers etc. for updating the firmware incorporated in the device delivered to the customer environment Since maintenance work is required, there is still a problem in terms of cost effectiveness in order to respond quickly to customer requests.

  In fact, some of these requests don't change the entire printer firmware, but add pre-processing before interpreting the received print data stream and then convert the print data stream itself. Can respond. Therefore, there is a need for a more dynamic mechanism that can add only software that implements pre-processing before interpreting a received print data stream, in a flexible and expandable manner independent of other firmware.

  In a conventional example such as MEAP in which a software operation environment layer such as a Java (registered trademark) platform is embedded in the firmware of an embedded system, a new device embedded application independent of the firmware can be developed on the software operation environment. It was possible to access the print function of the apparatus from a Java (registered trademark) application via the API.

  However, since the Java (registered trademark) platform is positioned in the embedded application layer in the firmware, the print data receiving function and the print server function realized as a native embedded application in the same layer are not included in the Java (registered trademark) application. It was not possible to divert.

  That is, for example, it is necessary to re-implement a print server function that implements various print service protocols for receiving print data via a network on the Java (registered trademark) side, and development load, evaluation load, and memory area at the time of execution. It was inefficient.

  On the other hand, in the conventional example that does not have a software operating environment hierarchy in the firmware of other embedded systems, the entire embedded system has a configuration that can be dynamically linked and plugged in, and the entire system has a dynamic configuration. It was. If it is assumed that the only part where dynamic characteristics are required is a mechanism that flexibly and extensiblely adds preprocessing before interpreting the received PDL data stream, these conventional approaches are It was not suitable for low-priced small-scale systems because of the cost increase associated with the overhead of configuring the entire system as dynamic software and the difficulty of quality assurance.

Therefore, a filter unit that performs pre-interpretation processing on the PDL data stream received by the printer is implemented as flexible and expandable software, and is configured to be clearly separated from other parts of the printer firmware that require stability. As a result, the productivity of customization of the PDL printer is improved.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-282684 JP 2003-256216 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-53132 JP-A-11-306107

  The processing function of the filter unit of the above-described conventional example mainly installs a filter according to the user's use environment at the time of equipment installation and validates the setting.

  There are various types of filters, but it is also possible to consider a n in 1 filter that performs a filtering process that consolidates a plurality of (n) page data into one sheet to save printing paper.

  For example, the device administrator can easily manage the total cost related to printing by enabling the n in 1 filter only during the period when the number of printed sheets increases.

  However, in an operation system in which the device administrator periodically changes the filter settings, a general user who uses the device is not aware of the change in the filter settings, and as a result, the print output intended by the user cannot be obtained. It is possible to do. For this reason, there is a problem that it is necessary for the general user to permeate the filter setting set in the device.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides an image processing apparatus that provides a notice period before changing filter settings and generates a notice of change of filter settings for general users. With the goal.

  In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has the following means.

  Filter means for performing replacement processing of input PDL data, replacement detection flag means for detecting that replacement processing has been performed by the filter means, and filter setting holding means for controlling validity / invalidity of the filter means And a notice period timer means for managing the time for generating the filter setting change notice, a flag means for controlling whether or not the filter setting change notice is generated, and a notice output means for generating the notice output. It is characterized by that.

  The data processing of the filter means includes pattern matching for finding a specific data pattern appearing in PDL data, and processing for generating and replacing new data corresponding to a portion matching the pattern.

  The replacement detection flag means is characterized in that pattern matching is performed in the data processing of the filter means, and the state of the flag is changed when new data is generated and replacement processing is performed.

  The filter setting holding means for controlling the validity / invalidity of the filtering means holds two types of setting information, a current setting and a next setting.

  The filter setting holding means loads the next filter setting to the current filter setting according to the state of the notice period timer.

  Filter means for performing replacement processing of input PDL data, replacement detection flag means for detecting that replacement processing has been performed by the filter means, and filter setting holding means for controlling validity / invalidity of the filter means And a notice period timer means for managing the time when the filter setting change notice is generated, a flag means for controlling whether or not the filter setting change notice is generated, and whether or not the notice is generated is managed for each user. And a notice output means for generating a notice output.

  The flag for controlling whether or not the filter setting change notice is generated is characterized in that the notice occurrence information holding unit changes the state based on the information of the user who issued the notice.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to generate a filter setting change notice for a general user during a certain notice period, and it is possible to smoothly penetrate the filter setting change.

  In addition, by managing information on whether or not a notice has been generated for each user, there is also an effect that the filter setting can be quickly activated if the notice has been generated.

  An image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a detailed block diagram of the printer of the present invention.

  As shown in the figure, 100 printers are composed of the following blocks and are connected by an internal main bus 101.

  Reference numeral 102 denotes a control unit that controls the whole. It consists of memory and CPU.

  Reference numeral 103 denotes an operation panel. The operation panel is used by the operator to instruct the printer operation mode and various settings. In the present invention, a notice of filter setting change is displayed.

  Reference numeral 104 denotes a host interface controller. The host interface controller has a computer network communication function such as Ethernet (registered trademark). It is used to transfer a print job from a host computer connected via a computer network.

  The interface method is not particularly limited as long as it is a method connected to a computer. The received print job is transferred to the filter unit 105.

  A filter unit 105 is a characteristic part of the present invention. The filter unit performs data substitution, that is, filter processing, on the received PDL format print job data by a method such as specific data pattern matching. In this filter part, it is set as the structure which can connect one or more some filters. The filtered PDL format print job is transferred to the translator 106.

  Details of the filter unit will be described with reference to FIG.

  Reference numeral 106 denotes a translator. The translator interprets the print data described in PDL and converts it into a description in an intermediate language for printing suitable for rendering processing. A description of print data in an intermediate language for printing suitable for rendering processing is called a display list. The translator 106 has a unique implementation that is different for each type of PDL specification, and every translator converts each PDL into a renderer-specific display list.

  The converted display list is transferred to the 107 renderer.

  Reference numeral 107 denotes a renderer. The renderer develops the display list into a raster image and stores it in the development memory 108.

  Reference numeral 108 denotes a development memory. An image for storing a raster image developed by the renderer 107 is a memory.

  A printer engine 109 forms a permanent visible image on recording paper or the like.

  FIG. 2 is a detailed block diagram of the filter unit.

  As described above, the filter unit is configured to be capable of connecting one or more filters. Although the figure shows a case where three filters are connected, the number of filters is not limited, and any number of filters having the same configuration can be connected.

  As shown in the figure, the filter unit 105 includes the following blocks.

  Reference numeral 1000 denotes a filter bus IF. The filter bus IF performs data input / output with other blocks via the internal bus 101 of the printer. Specifically, the filter unit inputs a PDL-format print job received by the host interface 104 via the filter bus IF, and the PDL-format print job filtered by the filter unit passes through the filter bus IF to the next 106. Output to translator.

  Reference numeral 1100 denotes a filter processing unit. As shown in the figure, it comprises a plurality of individual filter programs 1110, 1111 and 1112. Each filter program performs data substitution, that is, filter processing, on the input PDL format print job data by a method such as specific data pattern matching. The processing inside the filter will be described later using a flowchart.

  1200 is a notice period timer. Time information for the period for generating the notice is counted.

  Reference numeral 1201 denotes a current filter setting holding unit. Holds current filter setting information.

  Reference numeral 1202 denotes a next filter setting holding unit. It holds filter information that becomes valid after the notice period ends.

  Note that when the notice period timer of 1200 finishes timing, the information of the 1202 next filter setting holding unit is loaded into the current filter setting holding unit of 1201.

  Reference numeral 1203 denotes a filter setting change notice flag. This is a flag for controlling whether or not to notify the filter setting change. In the case of “true”, the process for determining the occurrence of a notice is executed by the filter program.

  Reference numeral 1204 denotes a filter processing detection flag. This holds the state as if the replacement process was performed in the filter program. Set to false prior to filtering, and set to true if replacement processing is performed during filtering.

  Reference numeral 1300 denotes a notice message output unit. A message for displaying a filter setting change notice on the operation panel 103 is generated.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a procedure of current filter setup.

  When the device is installed, the 1201 current filter setting holding unit needs to be initialized only once.

  This figure shows the procedure.

  This figure shows the display unit of the operation panel 103 of the printing apparatus.

  Reference numeral 401 denotes a list of filters installed in the printer, and a filter name is selected with the up and down buttons 403 and 404. The filter indicated by the arrow 402 is a setting target, and the filter function is selected to be enabled by the enable / disable button 405.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a procedure for setting up the next filter.

  It is a figure which shows a mode that the setting of the 1202 next filter setting holding | maintenance part of 1202 and the notice period measurement time of a 1200 notice period timer are set.

  The validation of the filter is the same as the current filter setting in FIG.

  Reference numeral 407 denotes a notice period. This figure shows a case where the notice period is set to 3 days. The notice period can be selected with the up and down buttons 408 and 409.

  When the next filter setting and the selection of the notice period are completed, the 406 end button is pressed to end the processing.

  The notice period timer starts counting from the time when this process is completed, and the period until the remaining time becomes zero is set as the notice period.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a conventional filter process.

  This figure shows a state where the printing policy of the device administrator is 2in1 (printing that combines data of two pages into one page), and the 2in1 filter is installed and set to ON in the printing apparatus.

  When a general user transmits print data from the host computer in this state, the 2-page data is combined into one page and printed out by the 2-in-1 filter processing.

  If the general user does not know the filter setting of the printing apparatus, it is assumed that it is different from the intended print output.

  In the present invention, assuming such a situation, a notice period for changing the setting of the filter is provided, and a notice is generated during the notice period, so that the printing policy of the device manager is instilled to general users.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing filter setting change notice processing of the present invention.

  This figure shows an example in which the printing policy after the end of the notice period of the device manager is changed to 2 in 1. This shows a situation in which a 2-in-1 filter is installed in the printing apparatus and is currently turned off and set to on after the notice period ends. That is, the current setting of the 2 in 1 filter is OFF and the next setting is ON.

  In this state, when a general user transmits print data from the host computer, the printing apparatus performs a 2-in-1 filter process. However, since it is during the notice period, the PDL data is not replaced and only the notice is generated. The print output is the same as the PDL data sent by the user, and a notice message “Next notice: 2 in 1” is output on the operation panel.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the filter program.

  This flowchart describes the internal processing of the filter programs 1110, 1111 and 1112 in the filter unit 105 described in FIG. All processes in each filter are the same.

  This process shows a process from input of a PDL job as an input stream, sequential pattern matching, replacement of the matched portion data by a predetermined method, and output to the output stream.

  One of the features of the present invention is that when pattern matching is performed in the filter processing, the notice flag, the current setting, and the next setting are evaluated, and the replacement processing and the replacement detection flag are controlled according to the evaluation result.

  Setting the replacement detection flag to true prompts the user to output the filter setting change notice.

  In step S3000, necessary preprocessing is performed. The preprocessing includes initialization of attributes used internally by the filter, preprocessing for a pattern description used for pattern matching, and the like.

  In step S3001, an amount of data necessary for pattern matching processing is read from the input stream.

  In step S3002, pattern matching is performed in order to find the appearance of a data pattern to be operated by this filter from the input data stream. The data pattern to be manipulated by the filter may be a fixed data string itself or a description in a formal language such as a regular expression. Various implementations for finding the appearance of data matching the pattern description from the data stream are widely known (grep, sed, AWK, Perl, etc. are famous).

  In step S3003, if the pattern matching result is determined and data matching the pattern description is found in the data stream, the process proceeds to step 3004. Otherwise, the process proceeds to step S3007.

  In step S3004, the state of the filter setting change notice flag is determined. If true, the process proceeds to step S3005, and if false, the process proceeds to step S3009.

  In step S3005, the current filter setting state is determined. If it is OFF, the process proceeds to step S3007, and if it is ON, the process proceeds to step S3006, and this filter is applied to the partial data string in the data stream that matches the pattern description. Perform the operation according to the purpose and replace with the result. The process proceeds to step S3007.

  In step S3009, the state of the next filter setting is determined. If it is OFF, the process proceeds to step S3007, and if it is ON, the process proceeds to step S3010, and the state of the replacement detection flag is set to true. The process proceeds to step S3007.

  In step S3007, a processed partial data string (that is, a data string in which the monitored pattern does not appear or a data string in which the process in step S3005 is performed on the data string including the monitored pattern) is performed. Write to the output stream.

  In step S3008, it is determined whether or not the input stream has ended. If the end has been reached, the process ends. Otherwise, the process returns to step S3001 and the above procedure is repeated.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the received job.

  This flowchart explains the internal processing in the printing procedure of the general user described in FIG.

  When the print job sent by the user does not match the print policy of the device administrator, the processing until the filter setting change notice is displayed on the operation panel is shown.

  In step S4000, the printing apparatus receives a print job, and the process advances to step S4001.

  In step S4001, the control unit 102 initializes the filter setting change notice flag to false and the filter processing detection flag to false, and the process proceeds to step S4002.

  In step S4002, it is determined from the state of the notice period timer whether the notice period is in progress. If false, the process proceeds to step S4004. If true, the process proceeds to step S4003, and the filter setting change notice flag is set to true. The process proceeds to step S4004.

  In step S4004, the received PDL data is input to the filter unit 105, PDL filter processing is performed, and the process proceeds to step S4005.

  In step S4005, the state of the filter setting change notice flag is determined. If false, the process advances to step S4008 to print out. Filter setting change notice output is not performed.

  On the other hand, if the state of the filter setting change notice flag is true, the process proceeds to step S4006.

  In step S4006, the state of the filter treatment detection flag is determined. If false, the process proceeds to step S4008 to print out. Filter setting change notice output is not performed.

  On the other hand, if the state of the filter processing detection flag is true, the process proceeds to step S4007, a filter setting change notice is given, and then the process proceeds to step S4008 to print out.

  In the case of this configuration, the 1300 notice message output unit in FIG. 2 generates a message to be displayed on the panel, and performs a filter setting change notice.

  According to this embodiment, there are the following effects.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to generate a filter setting change notice for a general user during a certain notice period, and it is possible to smoothly penetrate the filter setting change. In addition, the device administrator can easily make a filter setting change reservation after setting the advance notice period, which can also reduce the device management load.

  In the first embodiment, the filter setting change notice is output on the operation panel, but a structure in which the notice message is directly printed on the printing paper is also conceivable.

  Embodiments will be described below.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating filter setting change notice processing in the second embodiment.

  This figure shows an example in which the printing policy after the end of the notice period of the device manager is changed to 2 in 1. This shows a situation in which a 2-in-1 filter is installed in the printing apparatus and is currently turned off and set to on after the notice period ends. That is, the current setting of the 2 in 1 filter is OFF and the next setting is ON.

  In this state, when a general user transmits print data from the host computer, the printing apparatus performs a 2-in-1 filter process. However, since it is during the notice period, the PDL data is not replaced and only the notice is generated. For printout, “next: 2 in 1” is printed on the paper with respect to the PDL data sent by the user (output example A).

  When an automatic duplex printing unit is installed in the printing apparatus, duplex printing is automatically performed, and “next: 2 in 1” is printed on the back side and printed on the lower right side of the back side of each page (output example B).

  FIG. 10 is a detailed block diagram of the filter unit of the second embodiment.

  The difference from FIG. 2 in the first embodiment is that a 1400 notice addition filter processing unit is provided instead of the 1300 notice message output unit.

  The 1400 notice addition filter processing unit adds PDL for printing out a notice message to the input PDL. By providing this module, a notice message output to the print output described in FIG. 9 is realized.

  The processing flow is the same as that of the first embodiment described with reference to FIG.

  Instead of outputting a message to the operation panel in the filter setting change notice in step S4007, the filter setting change notice is reflected in the print output.

  According to this embodiment, there are the following effects.

  In the first embodiment, the filter setting change notice is output to the operation panel as a message. However, in the second embodiment, a message having a higher warning level can be output to the user because the message is directly output to the printed matter. become. In addition, it is possible to reliably output a notice message for each print job.

  In the first and second embodiments, the filter setting change notice is determined based on whether the notice period is the notice period. However, if user information is included in the print job, it is determined whether the filter setting change notice is output for each user. Configuration is also conceivable.

  Embodiments will be described below.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating filter setting change notice processing in the third embodiment.

  This figure shows an example in which the printing policy after the end of the notice period of the device manager is changed to 2 in 1. This shows a situation in which a 2-in-1 filter is installed in the printing apparatus and is currently turned off and set to on after the notice period ends. That is, the current setting of the 2 in 1 filter is OFF and the next setting is ON.

  First, the case of user A JOB (first time) will be described.

  When the user sends print data from the host computer in this state, the printing device performs 2-in-1 filter processing. However, since the notice period is in effect during the first printing of the user, PDL data is not replaced and a notice is generated. Stay on. The printout prints out “next: 2 in 1” on the paper and PDL data sent by the user at the lower right of each page.

Next, the case of the second printing process of the user who once generated a notice will be described.
It corresponds to user A JOB (second time).

  When the user transmits print data from the host computer in this state, since the advance notice has already been generated, print output is performed with the next filter setting after the end of the advance notice period even during the advance notice period. The result is a filtered print output.

  Next, the case of the first printing process of a new user will be described.

  It corresponds to user B JOB (first time).

  When the user sends print data from the host computer in this state, the printing device performs 2-in-1 filter processing. However, since the notice period is in effect during the first printing of the user, PDL data is not replaced and a notice is generated. Stay on. The printout prints out “next: 2 in 1” on the paper and PDL data sent by the user at the lower right of each page.

  FIG. 12 is a detailed block diagram of the filter unit of the third embodiment.

  The difference from FIG. 10 in the second embodiment is that a 1500-notification-completed table holding unit is provided.

  The notice occurrence completed table is a table holding the user name of the user who has issued the notice. It accumulates information about the user who issued the notice. This table is configured to accumulate user information that outputs a filter setting change notice during the notice period, and to clear the contents when the notice period timer ends.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a filter setting change notice occurrence table in the third embodiment.

  As shown in the figure, it is a table configured to add a user name that has issued a filter setting change notice.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a reception job according to the third embodiment.

  This flowchart explains the internal processing in the printing procedure of the general user described in FIG.

  The user who issued the filter setting change notice accumulates the notice occurrence information, and when the notice has been issued even during the notice period, the user performs print output with the filter setting after the notice period ends.

  In step S5000, the printing apparatus receives a print job, and the process advances to step S5001.

  In step S5001, the control unit 102 initializes the filter setting change notice flag to false and the filter processing detection flag to false, and the process proceeds to step S5002.

  In step S5002, it is determined from the state of the notice period timer whether the notice period is in progress. If false, the process proceeds to step S5007, and if true, the process proceeds to step S5003 to extract the user name from the print job. The process proceeds to step S5004.

  In step S5004, the advance notice generated table is referred to and the process proceeds to step S5005.

  In step S5005, it is determined whether the user name in the print job extracted in step S5003 is included in the notice occurrence completed table referenced in step S5004. If true, the process proceeds to step S5007. If false, no notice is generated for the user, and the process advances to step S5006 to set the filter setting change notice flag to true. The process proceeds to step S5007.

  In step S5007, the received PDL data is input to the filter unit 105, PDL filter processing is performed, and the process proceeds to step S5008.

  In step S5008, the state of the filter setting change notice flag is determined. If false, the process proceeds to step S5011 to print out. Filter setting change notice output is not performed.

  On the other hand, if the state of the filter setting change notice flag is true, the process proceeds to step S5009.

  In step S5009, the state of the filter treatment detection flag is determined. If false, the process advances to step S5011 to print out. Filter setting change notice output is not performed.

  On the other hand, if the state of the filter processing detection flag is true, the process proceeds to step S5010, a filter setting change notice is performed, and then the process proceeds to step S5011 to print out.

  According to this embodiment, there are the following effects.

  In the third embodiment, for the user who has issued a notice, the second printing is not a notice from the second printing, and even during the notice period, the filter processing is performed with the filter setting after the notice period ends, and the printout is performed for a shorter period of time. -Efficiently infiltrate the printing policy of device managers.

Detailed block diagram of the printer of the present invention Detailed block diagram of filter section Diagram showing the current filter setup procedure Diagram showing next filter setup procedure Diagram showing conventional filter processing The figure which shows the filter setting change notice process of this invention Flow chart showing processing procedure of filter program Flow chart showing processing procedure of received job The figure which shows the filter setting change notice process in Example 2. Detailed block diagram of filter section of embodiment 2 The figure which shows the filter setting change notice process in Example 3. Detailed block diagram of filter section of embodiment 3 The figure which shows the structure of the filter setting change notice generation completion table in Example 3. FIG. Flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for a reception job according to the third embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Printer 200 Host computer 300 Host interface communication path 101 Internal main bus 102 Control part 103 Operation panel 104 Host interface controller 105 Filter part 106 Translator 107 Renderer 108 Deployment memory 109 Printer engine 1000 Filter bus interface 1100 Filter processing part 1110, 1111, 1112 Filter program 1200 Notice period timer 1201 Current filter setting holding part 1202 Next filter setting holding part 1203 Filter setting change notice flag 1204 Filter processing detection flag 1300 Notice message output part 1400 Notice addition filter processing part 1500 Notice occurrence table holding part

Claims (7)

  Filter means for performing replacement processing of input PDL data, replacement detection flag means for detecting that replacement processing has been performed by the filter means, and filter setting holding means for controlling validity / invalidity of the filter means And a notice period timer means for managing the time for generating the filter setting change notice, a flag means for controlling whether or not the filter setting change notice is generated, and a notice output means for generating the notice output. An image processing apparatus.   2. The data processing of the filter means includes pattern matching for finding a specific data pattern appearing in PDL data, and processing for generating and replacing new data corresponding to a portion matching the pattern. An image processing apparatus according to 1.   The image processing according to claim 1, wherein the replacement detection flag unit performs pattern matching in the data processing of the filter unit, and changes the flag state when new data is generated and the replacement processing is performed. apparatus.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the filter setting holding unit for controlling validity / invalidity of the filter unit holds two types of setting information, a current setting and a next setting.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the filter setting holding unit loads a next filter setting to a current filter setting according to a state of the notice period timer.   Filter means for performing replacement processing of input PDL data, replacement detection flag means for detecting that replacement processing has been performed by the filter means, and filter setting holding means for controlling validity / invalidity of the filter means In addition, a notice period timer means for managing the time when the filter setting change notice is generated, a flag means for controlling whether or not the filter setting change notice is generated, and whether or not the notice occurs is managed for each user. An image processing apparatus comprising: a notice generation information holding means for generating a notice output and a notice output means for generating a notice output.   The flag for controlling whether or not the filter setting change notice is generated changes the state based on the information of the user who has issued the notice. Image processing apparatus.

Images