JP2007210174A - Printing system and printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that without a large capacity storing apparatus of a separate body, it is impossible to store an image stored in a memory card or the like. <P>SOLUTION: The printing system is equipped with a server and a printing apparatus mutually communicating through a network. The printing apparatus has a card reading part which reads an image stored in a memory card when the memory card is mounted, a printing part which develops the image read from the card reading part to a printing job and prints it on a medium, and an image transmitting part which transmits the image read from the card reading part to the server. The server has an image storing part which stores the image transmitted from the image transmitting part of the printing apparatus, and an image transmitting part which transmits the image stored in the image storing part to the printing part of the printing apparatus when requested from the printing apparatus. The printing part of the printing apparatus prints the image received from the image transmitting part of the server. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system and a printing apparatus. In particular, the present invention relates to a printing system including a server and a printing apparatus that communicate with each other via a network, and a printing apparatus that can communicate with the server via a network.

2. Description of the Related Art A printing apparatus having a direct print function for directly reading and printing an image stored in a storage medium such as a memory card and an image storage function for connecting a mass storage device for storing image data is known (for example, a patent) (See Literature 1, Patent Literature 2, and Patent Literature 3.) These printing apparatuses can store an image stored in a memory card or the like in a mass storage device without separately preparing a personal computer or the like.
JP 2004-9316 A JP 2004-216559 A JP 2004-358723 A

  However, these printing apparatuses have a problem that an image stored in a memory card or the like cannot be stored without a separate mass storage device.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, in the first embodiment of the present invention, a printing system including a server and a printing apparatus that communicate with each other via a network, the printing apparatus having a memory card attached thereto, A card reading unit that reads an image stored in the memory card; a printing unit that prints on a medium; and an image transfer unit that transfers an image read from the card reading unit to a server. An image storage unit that stores the image transferred from the transfer unit, and an image transmission unit that transmits the image stored in the image storage unit to the printing unit of the printing device when requested by the printing device; The printing unit of the printing apparatus prints the image received from the image transmission unit of the server. Thereby, the image stored in the memory card exceeding the storage capacity of the printing apparatus can be stored, and the stored image can be printed. In particular, even when the storage capacity of the printing device is small or when there is no external storage device attached to the printing device, the image stored in the memory card can be stored and the stored image can be printed.

  The image transfer unit of the printing apparatus transfers the image to the server in association with the printing condition at the time of printing the image, and the image storage unit of the server corresponds to the image and the printing condition transferred from the image transfer unit of the printing apparatus. The image transmission unit of the server associates the image stored in the image storage unit with the printing condition and transmits the image to the printing unit of the printing apparatus. The printing unit of the printing apparatus receives the image from the image transmission unit of the server. The printed image may be printed under printing conditions. Thereby, the printing apparatus can print the backed up image under the conditions printed in the past. Therefore, the user can save the trouble of setting the printing conditions again.

  The image transmission unit may transmit printing conditions for printing to the server in association with the image when the image is printed by the printing unit.

  The image transmission unit of the server may transmit all images corresponding to printing conditions that satisfy a predetermined condition based on a user instruction to the printing apparatus.

  The server stores the image in the image storage unit in association with the printing apparatus identification information for identifying the printing apparatus of the transmission source, and when requested by the printing apparatus, the image transmission unit of the server prints in the image storage unit An image stored in association with the apparatus or a thumbnail corresponding to the image may be transmitted to the printing apparatus. Thus, the server can easily search for images uploaded from the printing apparatus and download them in a batch. Further, the user can print an image after confirming an image to be printed with a thumbnail.

  The card reading unit of the printing apparatus reads card identification information for identifying the memory card, the image transfer unit of the printing apparatus transfers an image in association with the card identification information read by the card reading unit, and the server prints The image transferred from the image transfer unit of the apparatus and the card identification information are associated with each other and stored in the image storage unit. The image transmission unit of the server receives the card identification from the reading unit of the printing apparatus when requested by the printing apparatus. The information may be acquired, the image stored in the image storage unit, the image associated with the printing device identification information and the memory card, or the thumbnail corresponding to the image may be transmitted to the printing device. As a result, when downloading an image from the server to a printing apparatus with a memory card attached, the server can easily search for an image stored in the memory card and download it in a batch.

  The image transmission unit of the server transmits thumbnails corresponding to all images corresponding to the connected printing device or the memory card of the connected printing device, and the printing unit of the printing device receives from the image transmission unit of the server. You may also print the thumbnails.

  The server may further include a developing unit that develops the image into a print job, and the image transmission unit of the server may transmit the image to the printing unit of the printing apparatus in a print job format in which the image is developed by the developing unit. Thereby, since an image and a print job can be transmitted according to the situation, the printing apparatus can reliably print the image.

  The printing unit of the printing device can expand the image into a print job, and the image transmission unit of the server compares the data amount before expanding the image into the print job and the data amount after expansion into the print job. Then, the one with the smaller data amount may be transmitted to the printing unit of the printing apparatus. Thereby, the server can shorten the transmission time of an image. In particular, when the network bandwidth is narrow, the image transmission time can be shortened.

  The server further includes a printing apparatus information acquisition unit that acquires expansion information indicating whether the printing apparatus can expand an image into a print job, and the image transmission unit of the server prints a transmission destination based on the expansion information. If the apparatus can develop a print job, the image may be transmitted without being developed into a print job, and if the print job cannot be developed, the image may be developed and transmitted. As a result, the server can reliably print regardless of the type of printing apparatus.

  The printing unit of the printing apparatus can develop an image into a print job, and the server further includes a printing apparatus information acquisition unit that acquires quality information indicating print quality when the printing apparatus develops the print job. Then, the image transmission unit of the server prints an image based on at least two of the print quality due to the expansion of the expansion unit of the server, the print quality due to the expansion of the printing unit of the printing apparatus, and the print quality desired by the user. It may be determined whether to transmit without expanding to a job or to expand and transmit to a print job. Thereby, the printing apparatus can print an image with higher quality.

  The image transmission unit of the server expands the image when receiving information indicating that the image printing does not end normally from the printing unit after transmitting the image to the printing unit of the printing apparatus without expanding the image into a print job. The printed job may be transmitted to the printing unit of the printing apparatus. Thereby, the server can be surely printed by the printing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, according to a second embodiment of the present invention, a printing apparatus that communicates with a server via a network reads an image stored in a memory card when the memory card is inserted. A card reading unit; a printing unit that prints on a medium; and an image transfer unit that transfers an image read from the card reading unit to an image storage unit of the server. The printing unit is stored in the image storage unit of the server. Get the image you want and print it. Thereby, the effect similar to 1st Embodiment can be acquired.

  The above summary of the invention does not enumerate all the necessary features of the present invention, and sub-combinations of these feature groups can also be the invention.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described through embodiments of the invention. However, the following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the scope of claims, and all combinations of features described in the embodiments are included. It is not necessarily essential for the solution of the invention.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of a printing system 10. The printing system 10 includes a server 30 that communicates with each other via a network 80, and a printer 20 as an example of a printing apparatus. The printer 20 includes a display screen 22 that is a user interface and a card mounting unit 24 that is an interface with the memory card 40. Further, the printer 20 stores printing apparatus identification information (hereinafter referred to as “printer ID”) for identifying the printer 20 and type identification information (hereinafter referred to as “printer type ID”) for identifying the type of the printer 20 in the ROM area. Remember. The printer 20 also has a direct print function for directly reading and printing an image stored in a memory card. The purpose of the printing system 10 shown in FIG. 1 is to back up an image stored in a memory card 40 inserted into the printer 20 to a server 30.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of a block diagram of the printer 20. FIG. 3 schematically shows images and the like stored in the memory card 40. FIG. 4 shows an example of a printed matter on which information visually indicating success or failure of image transfer is printed. The printer 20 illustrated in FIG. 2 includes a card reading unit 200, a card writing unit 210, a display unit 220, a printing unit 230, an image transfer unit 240, and a deletion confirmation unit 250. The memory card 40 stores card identification information (hereinafter referred to as “card ID”) for identifying the memory card 40 in the ROM area. The card ID may include, for example, a memory card manufacturer, a memory card type, and a memory card manufacturing number.

  The display unit 220 of the printer 20 displays thumbnails corresponding to images stored in the memory card 40 and thumbnails received from the server 30. Further, the display unit 220 is associated with each thumbnail, an image selection button for receiving selection of each image, a read print button for receiving a request to print an image stored in the memory card 40, and print for receiving selection of a printing condition. A condition button, a reception print button for receiving a request to print an image stored in the server 30, and an image deletion button for receiving a request to delete an image stored in the memory card 40 are displayed on the display screen 22. . Instead of displaying these buttons on the display screen 22, buttons may be physically provided on the operation panel of the printer 20.

  Further, the display unit 220 displays a message or the like indicating a warning to the user on the display screen 22. The display unit 220 displays a message indicating a warning “There is an untransmitted image but will it be deleted?”. In addition, the display unit 220 indicates that all images including unsent images stored in the memory card 40 are to be erased when a message “There are unsent images but will you delete them?” Is displayed. A forced image deletion button for accepting the request is also displayed. Thereby, it is possible to prevent an image stored in the memory card 40 and not stored in the server 30 from being deleted accidentally.

  The card reading unit 200 reads information stored in the attached memory card 40 when the memory card 40 is attached to the card attachment unit 24. As shown in FIG. 3, the memory card 40 reads, in addition to an image, a thumbnail of the image, transfer information indicating that the image has been transferred to the server 30, and print conditions for printing the image in association with the image. Accordingly, the printer 20 can perform different processing depending on whether or not the image is backed up in the server 30. In the example of FIG. 3, the transfer information is either transferred (flag “1”) or not transferred (flag “0”). The printing condition refers to a condition related to printing such as the paper size when an image is printed. The card reading unit 200 passes the card ID, image, thumbnail, printing condition, and transfer information to the image transfer unit 240.

  When the card reading unit 200 receives a notification that the image deletion button displayed on the display screen 22 has been pressed, the card reading unit 200 delivers the image and transfer information to the deletion confirmation unit 250, and Information indicating a determination result of whether or not to delete an image without warning the user is received. When the card reading unit 200 receives information indicating that the image is to be deleted without warning the user, the card reading unit 200 passes the information indicating that to the card writing unit 210. On the other hand, when the card reading unit 200 receives information indicating that the image is not deleted without warning the user, the card reading unit 200 passes the information indicating that to the display unit 220.

  When the card reading unit 200 receives a notification that the forced image deletion button has been pressed, the card reading unit 200 notifies the card writing unit 210 of the notification. When the card reading unit 200 receives a notification that the reading print button and the printing condition button have been pressed, the card reading unit 200 transfers the image and the printing condition indicated by the pressed button to the printing unit 230. Further, the card reading unit 200 passes the printing condition indicated by the pressed button to the card writing unit 210. When the card reading unit 200 receives a notification that the reception print button or the image selection button has been pressed, the card reading unit 200 passes the received notification and the card ID to the image transfer unit 240.

  When the image transfer unit 240 receives the card ID, image, thumbnail, printing condition, and transfer information from the card reading unit 200, the image transfer unit 240 determines whether there is an untransferred image based on the transfer information. The image transfer unit 240 reads the printer ID of the printer 20 when determining that there is an untransferred image. Then, the image transfer unit 240 transfers the card ID, untransferred image, thumbnail, print condition, and printer ID to the server 30. As a result, the printer 20 can transfer the image that has not been transferred to the server 30 to the server 30 again based on the transferred information written in the memory card 40 during the next network communication. Therefore, even when the image stored in the memory card 40 is deleted by mistake, the image stored in the server 30 can be used. In addition, when transferring an untransferred image or the like to the server 30, the image transfer unit 240 receives from the server 30 transferred information associated with the transferred image.

  Further, the image transfer unit 240 reads the printer type ID of the printer 20 and transfers it to the server 30 when receiving the notification that the reception print button has been pressed from the card reading unit 200 and the card ID. In addition, when the image transfer unit 240 receives information indicating that the image printing has not been completed normally from the printing unit 230 described later, the image transfer unit 240 transmits the information indicating that to the server 30.

  When the card writing unit 210 receives from the card reading unit 200 information indicating that the image is to be deleted without warning the user or a notification that the forced image deletion button has been pressed, The image, transfer information, and printing conditions stored in are deleted. The card writing unit 210 also writes the transfer information received from the image transfer unit 240 to the memory card in association with the image.

  The deletion confirmation unit 250 determines from the image received from the card reading unit 200 and the transfer information whether the image should be deleted without warning the user. In this case, if the image stored in the memory card 40 does not include an untransferred image with transfer information “0”, the deletion confirmation unit 250 deletes the image without warning the user. Information indicating that is transferred to the card reader 200. On the other hand, if the image stored in the memory card 40 includes an untransferred image with transfer information “0”, the deletion confirmation unit 250 indicates that the image is not deleted without warning the user. The indicated information is transferred to the card reading unit 200. When the card reading unit 200 receives an instruction from the user to delete the transferred image, the deletion confirmation unit 250 deletes all the images with the transfer information “1” among the images stored in the memory card 40. You may pass to the card reading part 200 that it erases.

  The printing unit 230 receives, from the card reading unit 200 or the image transfer unit 240, an image or thumbnail to be printed and its printing condition, or a print job of the image or thumbnail to be printed. The printing unit 230 determines whether the received information is a print job.

  If the printing unit 230 determines that an image and printing condition, or a thumbnail and printing condition have been received, the printing unit 230 develops the received image or thumbnail into a print job based on the printing condition. Then, the printing unit 230 prints on the medium based on the print job. On the other hand, if the printing unit 230 determines that an image print job or a thumbnail print job has been received, the printing unit 230 prints on the medium based on the print job.

  Further, the printing unit 230 visually determines whether the image shown in FIG. 4 has been transferred to the server 30 based on the transfer information received from the image transfer unit 240 and the thumbnail received from the card reading unit 200. Create and print the information shown. Thereby, it can be confirmed whether or not the image is stored in the server 30.

  In addition, when the printing unit 230 receives an image and printing conditions from the image transfer unit 240, the printing unit 230 determines whether printing of the image or thumbnail has been normally completed. If the printing unit 230 determines that the processing has not ended normally, the printing unit 230 passes information indicating that to the image transfer unit 240. Similarly, when the printing unit 230 receives a thumbnail and printing conditions from the image transfer unit 240, the printing unit 230 may determine whether or not the thumbnail printing has ended normally.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the server 30. FIG. 6 schematically shows an image and the like stored in the image storage unit 300. FIG. 7 schematically shows information stored in the printing apparatus information storage unit 340. The server 30 includes an image storage unit 300, an image transmission unit 310, a development unit 330, a printing device information acquisition unit 342, and a printing device information storage unit 340.

  The image storage unit 300 stores images, thumbnails, card IDs, printer IDs, and printing conditions in association with the images. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 6, the image storage unit 300 includes an image file in the JPEG format and the file name associated with the image file name in the folder with the printer ID name created under the folder with the card ID name. Stores a file indicating printing conditions. Thereby, the image stored in the memory card 40 exceeding the storage capacity of the printer 20 can be stored, and the stored image can be printed. In particular, even when the storage capacity of the printer 20 is small or when there is no external storage device attached to the printer 20, the image stored in the memory card 40 can be stored and the stored image can be printed. . Furthermore, when downloading an image from the server 30 to the printer 20, the server 30 can easily search for an image uploaded from the printer 20 and download it in a batch. In addition, when downloading an image from the server 30 to the printer 20 with a memory card attached, the server 30 can easily search for an image stored in the memory card and download it in a batch. Further, the user can save the trouble of setting the printing conditions again. Here, when the image storage unit 300 stores an image or the like stored in a memory card identified by one card ID attached to the printer 20 identified by one printer ID, When the folder does not exist, a folder with the printer ID name is automatically created. When the folder with the printer ID name does not exist under the folder with the card ID name, the printer ID name under the folder with the card ID name. The folder may be automatically created. Note that the image storage unit 300 may store an image file or the like under a card ID name folder created under a printer ID name folder.

  The printing apparatus information acquisition unit 342 acquires development information indicating whether the printer 20 can develop an image into a print job, and quality information indicating print quality when the print job is developed from the printer 20. The printing apparatus information acquisition unit 342 stores the development information and the quality information in the printing apparatus information storage unit 340.

  As illustrated in FIG. 7, the printing apparatus information storage unit 340 stores the expansion information and the resolution in association with the printer type ID and the printer type ID. The resolution is an example of information indicating print quality when the printer 20 can develop a print job.

  The development unit 330 develops the thumbnail or the image received from the image transmission unit 310 into a print job based on the print condition, and delivers the print job to the image transmission unit 310. As a result, the user can print the image after confirming the image to be printed with the thumbnail.

  When the image transmission unit 310 receives an image, a card ID, a printer ID, and printing conditions from the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20, the image transmission unit 310 stores the received image, card ID, printer ID, and printing conditions in the image storage unit 300. Deliver. Further, the image transmission unit 310 transmits transfer information to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 in association with the received image.

  When the image transmission unit 310 receives the notification that the reception print button has been pressed, the printer type ID, and the card ID from the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20, the image transmission unit 310 receives the received printer type ID and The image associated with the card ID and the printing conditions are acquired from the image storage unit 300. Furthermore, in addition to acquiring the image and printing conditions from the image storage unit 300, the image transmission unit 310 acquires the development information and resolution associated with the received printer type ID from the printing apparatus information storage unit 340. Then, the image transmission unit 310 determines whether the printer 20 that is the transmission destination can develop the print job based on the obtained development information. When the image transmission unit 310 determines that the printer 20 can expand the print job, the print quality of the expansion by the expansion unit 330 is further based on the acquired resolution, and the print unit 230 of the printer 20 that is the transmission destination. It is also determined whether or not the print quality is higher than that of the development. Accordingly, the printer 20 can print an image with higher quality.

  When the image transmission unit 310 determines that the printer 20 cannot develop the print job, the image transmission unit 310 passes the thumbnail and the print condition acquired from the image storage unit 300 to the development unit 330 and receives the thumbnail print job from the development unit 330. Then, the image transmission unit 310 transmits the thumbnail print job to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20.

  The image transmission unit 310 determines that the printer 20 cannot expand the print job, or determines that the print quality due to the expansion of the expansion unit 330 of the server 30 is higher than the print quality due to the expansion of the printing unit 230 of the printer 20. In this case, the image is developed into a print job and transmitted to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20. In this case, when the image transmission unit 310 receives the notification that the image selection button has been pressed, the printer type ID, and the card ID from the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20, the image transmission unit 310 displays the image selection button. The print job of the image selected by the above is transmitted to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20.

  On the other hand, the image transmission unit 310 determines that the printer 20 can develop the print job, and the print quality due to the expansion of the expansion unit 330 of the server 30 is lower than the print quality due to the expansion of the printing unit 230 of the printer 20 or If it is determined that they are the same, the thumbnail and the printing conditions are transmitted to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20. After that, when receiving a notification that the image selection button has been pressed, the printer type ID, and the card ID from the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20, the image transmission unit 310, as in the case of the thumbnail, 310 transmits the image selected by the image selection button and the printing conditions to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20.

  After transmitting the image selected by the image selection button and the printing condition to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20, the image transmission unit 310 receives information indicating that the image printing is not normally completed from the image transfer unit 240. In this case, the image print job is transmitted to the image transfer unit 240. As a result, the server 30 can reliably cause the printer 20 to print.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation for transferring an image to the server 30. This flowchart starts when the memory card 40 is loaded into the card loading unit 24 of the printer 20. In addition, the image memorize | stored in the memory card 40 mounted | worn shall contain an untransferred image. Further, the left side of the flowchart shows the operation of the printer 20, and the right side shows the operation of the server 30.

  The card reading unit 200 of the printer 20 reads the card ID, image, thumbnail, printing condition, and transfer information stored in the attached memory card 40 (S100). The card reading unit 200 passes the card ID, the image, the thumbnail, the printing condition of the image, and the transferred information to the image transfer unit 240. Then, the card reading unit 200 delivers the thumbnail to the display unit 220 and the printing unit 230. The display unit 220 displays thumbnails on the display screen 22.

  The image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 extracts an untransferred image from images received based on the received transfer information and reads the printer ID. The image transfer unit 240 transfers the card ID, untransferred image, thumbnail, print condition, and printer ID to the server 30 (S110).

  The image transmission unit 310 of the server 30 delivers the received card ID, untransferred image, thumbnail, printing condition, and printer ID to the image storage unit 300. The image storage unit 300 stores a thumbnail, a card ID, a printer ID, and a printing condition in association with the received image (S200). The image transmission unit 310 of the server 30 transmits transfer information “1” indicating that the image has been transferred in association with the received image to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 (S210).

  The image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 transfers transfer information “1” indicating that transfer has been performed in association with the image to the card writing unit 210 and the printing unit 230. The card writing unit 210 writes transfer information “1” indicating transfer completion in the memory card 40 in association with the image (S120).

  The printing unit 230 of the printer 20 creates information that visually indicates whether the image has been transferred to the server 30 based on the transfer information received from the image transfer unit 240 and the thumbnail received from the card reading unit 200. And printing (S130). And this flowchart is complete | finished.

  In the form shown in FIG. 8, when the memory card 40 is mounted on the card mounting unit 24 of the printer 20, the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 transfers the image to the server 30, but the transfer timing is Not limited to. As another example, when image printing is instructed, the image transfer unit 240 may transfer an image related to the printing to the server 30. In this case, if the transfer to the server 30 fails when printing is instructed, the transfer information is left as “0” indicating non-transfer, and the printer 20 is not connected when the next network connection. The transferred image may be transferred to the server 30 again.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation for printing an image stored in the server 30. This flowchart starts when the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 receives the notification that the reception print button has been pressed from the card reading unit 200 and the card ID. Further, the left side of the flowchart shows the operation of the printer 20, and the right side shows the operation of the server 30.

  The image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 reads the printer type ID of the printer 20. The image transfer unit 240 transfers the notification that the reception print button has been pressed, the printer type ID, and the card ID to the server 30 (S300).

  The image transmission unit 310 of the server 30 acquires the image, thumbnail, and printing conditions associated with the received printer type ID and card ID from the image storage unit 300 (S500). In addition, the image transmission unit 310 acquires development information and resolution associated with the received printer type ID from the printing apparatus information storage unit 340. In this case, when the image transmission unit 310 receives a notification indicating that the reception print button has been pressed, the printing apparatus information acquisition unit 342 queries the transmission source printer 20 for the development information and resolution. These may be acquired and stored in the printing apparatus information storage unit 340.

  The image transmission unit 310 of the server 30 determines whether the printer 20 that transmits the image can expand the print job based on the acquired expansion information (S520). In step S520, when the image transmission unit 310 determines that the printer 20 can expand the print job (S520: Yes), the image transmission unit 310 does not expand the thumbnail into the print job, and prints the print conditions and the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 together. Transmit (S570).

  On the other hand, in step S520, when the image transmission unit 310 determines that the printer 20 cannot develop the print job (S520: No), the image transmission unit 310 delivers the thumbnail and the print condition to the development unit 330. The development unit 330 develops the thumbnail into a print job based on the print condition (S540). The development unit 330 then transfers the thumbnail print job to the image transmission unit 310. The image transmission unit 310 transmits the thumbnail print job to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 (S550).

  The image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 passes the received thumbnail to the display unit 220 via the card reading unit 200, and the display unit 220 receives the selection of each image in association with the thumbnail and each thumbnail. The button is displayed on the display screen 22 (S310). The image transfer unit 240 passes the received thumbnail print job to the printing unit 230.

  The printing unit 230 determines whether a thumbnail print job has been received (S320). If it is determined that a thumbnail print job has been received (S320: Yes), the printing unit 230 prints on the medium based on the thumbnail print job (S330).

  The card reading unit 200 receives a notification that the image selection button has been pressed, and passes the notification and the card ID to the image transfer unit 240. The image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 transfers the notification that the image selection button has been pressed, the card ID, and the printer type ID to the server 30 (S340).

  When the notification indicating that the image selection button has been pressed is received from the image transfer unit 240, the image transmission unit 310 delivers the image selected by the image selection button and the printing conditions to the development unit 330. The developing unit 330 develops the image into a print job based on the printing conditions (S552). Then, the development unit 330 passes the image print job to the image transmission unit 310. The image transmission unit 310 transmits the image print job to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 (S560). The image transfer unit 240 transfers the print job of the image selected by the image selection button to the printing unit 230. Then, the printing unit 230 prints on the medium based on the print job of the image selected by the image selection button (S350). Then, this step ends.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S320 that the printing unit 230 has received a thumbnail that has not been developed into a print job (S320: No), the printing unit 230 develops the received thumbnail into a print job based on the printing conditions. (S360). The printing unit 230 prints on the medium based on the developed thumbnail print job (S370).

  Similarly to step S340, the card reading unit 200 receives a notification that the image selection button has been pressed, and passes the notification and the card ID to the image transfer unit 240. The image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 transfers the notification that the image selection button has been pressed, the read printer type ID, and the card ID to the server 30 (S380).

  When the notification indicating that the image selection button has been pressed is received from the image transfer unit 240, the image transmission unit 310 determines that the print quality by the expansion of the expansion unit 330 of the server 30 is based on the resolution acquired in step S500. It is determined whether or not the print quality is higher than the print quality developed by the printing unit 230 of the printer 20 that transmits the image (S530).

  In step S530, when the image transmission unit 310 determines that the print quality due to the expansion of the expansion unit 330 of the server 30 is higher than the print quality due to the expansion of the printing unit 230 of the printer 20 (S530: Yes), the above-described steps S522 and S560 is executed.

  On the other hand, when it is determined in step S530 that the print quality due to the expansion of the expansion unit 330 of the server 30 is lower than or the same as the print quality due to the expansion of the printing unit 230 of the printer 20 (S530: No), The transmission unit 310 transmits the image selected by the image selection button and the printing condition to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 without developing the print job (S580). The image transfer unit 240 passes the image selected by the image selection button and the printing conditions to the printing unit 230.

  The printing unit 230 develops the image selected by the received image selection button into a print job based on the printing conditions (S390). The printing unit 230 prints on the medium based on the print job of the image selected by the developed image selection button (S400). The printing unit 230 determines whether the printing of the image has been completed normally (S410). In step S410, if the printing unit 230 determines that printing of the image has not ended normally (S410: No), the printing unit 230 passes information indicating that to the image transfer unit 240. Then, the image transfer unit 240 executes Step S540. On the other hand, in step S410, when the printing unit 230 determines that the image printing has been normally completed (S410: Yes), this flowchart ends.

  Note that, instead of steps S520 and S530, the image transmission unit 310 of the server 30 may compare the data amount before the image is expanded into the print job and the data amount after the image is expanded into the print job. The image transmission unit 310 may transmit the smaller data amount to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20. Alternatively, the image transmission unit 310 of the server 30 may compare the data amount of the image and printing conditions with the data amount of the image print job. Thereby, the server 30 can shorten the image transmission time. In particular, when the bandwidth of the network 80 is narrow, the image transmission time can be shortened.

  In step S530 illustrated in FIG. 9, the image transmission unit 310 determines whether the print quality due to the expansion of the expansion unit 330 of the server 30 is higher than the print quality due to the expansion of the printing unit 230 of the printer 20, and Although it is determined whether or not the print job is developed and transmitted, the determination method is not limited to this. As another example, the user selects the print quality, the image transmission unit 310 compares the print quality selected by the user with the print quality that can be developed by the printer 20, and the printer 20 selects the image with the print quality selected by the user. When the image can be expanded into a print job, the image may be transmitted to the printer 20 without being expanded on the image transmission unit 310 side.

  Further, in steps S340 and S380 shown in FIG. 9, the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20 notifies the fact that the image selection button has been pressed, and the image transmission unit 310 of the server 30 transmits the image to the printer. However, the method of transmitting the image is not limited to this. As another example, all images corresponding to printing conditions that satisfy a predetermined condition based on a user instruction may be transmitted to the printer 20. In this case, the printer 20 may display the received image on the display unit 220 and accept a print selection, or list and print the thumbnails of the received image, or automatically print the image. May be printed automatically.

  In this case, the number of times that the image has been printed, the date that the image has been printed, the number of times that the image has been viewed, and the date that has been viewed may be associated with the image. These printing conditions may be stored in the image storage unit 300 of the server 30, stored in the printer 20, or recorded on the memory card 40. Furthermore, the predetermined condition may be the order in which the number of times of printing or browsing is large, the number of times is a certain number or more, within a certain range, the number of times “0”, and the date of printing or browsing is recent or within a certain period. As described above, for example, the number of times the image has been printed is stored in the image storage unit 300 of the server 30, and the image transmission unit 310 selects the image associated with the number of times of printing “0” based on a user instruction. The image is extracted from the image storage unit 300 and the extracted image is transmitted to the image transfer unit 240 of the printer 20.

  Further, the card writing unit 210 writes the printing conditions of the image to the memory card 40 when there is an instruction to print the image stored in the memory card 40 or when the printing is normally completed. . In this case, when the printing conditions for the image have already been written in the memory card 40, the card writing unit 210 may update the printing conditions for the current printing, and display whether or not to update. The information may be displayed on the unit 220 and selected by the user. Further, when printing an image received from the server 30, the card writing unit 210 may write the printing condition in the memory card 40 in association with the image.

  Further, the image transfer unit 240 transmits the printing conditions of the image to the server 30 when there is an instruction to print the image stored in the memory card 40 or when the printing is normally completed. When the image corresponding to the image is stored in the image storage unit 300, the server 30 stores the print condition in the image storage unit 300 in association with the image. In addition, in the corresponding images, the date and time when the printing conditions stored in the memory card 40 are updated and the date and time when the printing conditions stored in the image storage unit 300 of the server 30 are updated are displayed in the image transfer unit 240. Alternatively, when the image transmission unit 310 compares them and they are different, the printing conditions with the newer date and time and the printing conditions with the older date and time may be updated.

  Furthermore, in the forms shown in FIGS. 1 to 9, the image to be printed is selected by the image selection button, but the selection method is not limited to this. In another example, a scanner that reads an image may be provided in the printer 20 to read that an image has been selected.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of an order sheet 50 used when the printer 20 has a scanner. When the image is read from the memory card 40 by the card reading unit 200 or when the image transfer unit 240 receives an image from the server 30, the printing unit 230 of the printer 20 receives the thumbnail 52 and the thumbnail 52 of the image. The order sheet 50 including the check box 54 corresponding to the above is printed. In this case, the printing unit 230 may store the position of the check box 54 on the order sheet 50 in association with the image, or print a barcode that identifies the image adjacent to the check box 54. May be. After the user checks the check box 54 for the order sheet 50, the scanner reads the order sheet 50. The printer 20 determines whether or not the check box 54 in the order sheet 50 read by the scanner is checked by image analysis, and is selected to print an image corresponding to the checked check box 54. You may decide that Furthermore, the order sheet 50 may be used for selection when deleting an image in addition to selection when printing an image.

  According to the present embodiment, it is possible to store an image stored in the memory card exceeding the storage capacity of the printing apparatus and print the stored image. In particular, the image stored in the memory card can be stored even when the storage capacity of the printing apparatus is small or when there is no external storage device attached to the printing apparatus.

  As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated using embodiment, the technical scope of this invention is not limited to the range as described in the said embodiment. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications or improvements can be added to the above-described embodiment. It is apparent from the scope of the claims that the embodiments added with such changes or improvements can be included in the technical scope of the present invention.

1 shows an example of a printing system 10. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a printer 20. FIG. An image etc. memorized by memory card 40 are shown typically. An example of a printed matter on which information visually indicating success or failure of image transfer is printed is shown. An example of the server 30 is shown in a block diagram. An image etc. stored in image storage part 300 are shown typically. The information stored in the printing apparatus information storage unit 340 is schematically shown. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation of transferring an image to a server 30. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation for printing an image stored in a server 30. An example of the order sheet 50 for selecting an image is shown.

Explanation of symbols

  10 printing system, 20 printer, 22 display screen, 24 card mounting unit, 30 server, 40 memory card, 50 order sheet, 52 thumbnail, 54 check box, 80 network, 200 card reading unit, 210 card writing unit, 220 display , 230 printing unit, 240 image transfer unit, 250 deletion confirmation unit, 300 image storage unit, 310 image transmission unit, 330 development unit, 340 printing device information storage unit, 342 printing device information acquisition unit

Claims (13)

A printing system comprising a server and a printing apparatus that communicate with each other via a network,
The printing apparatus includes:
A card reading unit that reads an image stored in the memory card when a memory card is mounted;
A printing section for printing on a medium;
An image transfer unit that transfers the image read from the card reading unit to the server;
The server
An image storage unit for storing the image transferred from the image transfer unit of the printing apparatus;
An image transmission unit that transmits the image stored in the image storage unit to a printing unit of the printing device when requested by the printing device;
The printing system of the printing apparatus, wherein the printing unit prints the image received from the image transmission unit of the server. The image transfer unit of the printing apparatus transfers the image to the server in association with a printing condition at the time of printing the image;
The image storage unit of the server stores the image transferred from the image transfer unit of the printing apparatus and the printing condition in association with each other,
The image transmission unit of the server associates the image stored in the image storage unit with the printing condition and transmits the image to the printing unit of the printing apparatus;
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit of the printing apparatus prints the image received from the image transmission unit of the server under the printing condition.   The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the image transmission unit transmits the printing printing conditions to the server in association with the image when the printing unit prints the image.   4. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the image transmission unit of the server transmits all images corresponding to the printing condition satisfying a predetermined condition based on a user instruction to the printing apparatus. The server stores the image in the image storage unit in association with printing apparatus identification information for identifying the printing apparatus as a transmission source,
When requested by the printing apparatus, the image transmission unit of the server displays the image stored in the image storage unit in association with the printing apparatus or a thumbnail corresponding to the image. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the printing system is transmitted to the printer. The card reading unit of the printing apparatus reads card identification information for identifying the memory card;
The image transfer unit of the printing apparatus transfers the image in association with the card identification information read by the card reading unit;
The server stores the image transferred from the image transfer unit of the printing apparatus and the card identification information in association with each other in the image storage unit,
The image transmission unit of the server acquires the card identification information from the reading unit of the printing apparatus when requested by the printing apparatus, and stores the card identification information in the image storage unit and associates it with the memory card. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the received image or a thumbnail corresponding to the image is transmitted to the printing apparatus. The image transmission unit of the server transmits thumbnails corresponding to all images corresponding to the connected printing device or a memory card of the connected printing device,
The printing system according to claim 5 or 6, wherein the printing unit of the printing apparatus prints the thumbnail received from the image transmission unit of the server. The server further includes a developing unit that develops the image into a print job,
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the image transmission unit of the server transmits the image to the printing unit of the printing apparatus in the form of the print job in which the image is expanded by the expansion unit. The printing unit of the printing apparatus is capable of developing the image into the print job,
The image transmission unit of the server compares a data amount before developing the image into a print job and a data amount after developing the print job, and sends the smaller data amount to the printing unit of the printing apparatus. The printing system according to claim 8 which transmits. The server further includes a printing apparatus information acquisition unit that acquires expansion information indicating whether the printing apparatus can expand the image into the print job;
Based on the development information, the image transmission unit of the server transmits the image without developing the print job when the destination printing apparatus can expand the print job, and cannot expand the print job. The printing system according to claim 8, wherein in the case, the print job is expanded and transmitted. The printing unit of the printing apparatus is capable of developing the image into the print job,
The server further includes a print information acquisition unit that acquires quality information indicating print quality when the printing apparatus develops the print job,
The image transmission unit of the server is based on at least two of print quality due to expansion of the expansion unit of the server, print quality due to expansion of the printing unit of the printing apparatus, and print quality desired by the user. The printing system according to claim 8, wherein it is determined whether the image is transmitted without being expanded into a print job or is expanded and transmitted into the print job.   The image transmission unit of the server receives information indicating that the printing of the image does not end normally from the printing unit after transmitting the image to the printing unit of the printing apparatus without developing the image into a print job. The printing system according to claim 8, wherein the print job in which the image is expanded is transmitted to the printing unit of the printing apparatus. A printing device that communicates with a server via a network,
A card reading unit that reads an image stored in the memory card when a memory card is mounted;
A printing section for printing on a medium;
An image transfer unit that transfers the image read from the card reading unit to an image storage unit of the server;
Have
The printing unit is a printing apparatus that acquires and prints the image stored in the image storage unit of the server.

Images