JP2007286713A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily back up an image data file recorded in a memory card and to grasp of a printing status of an image data file, in a printing system provided with a printer having a memory card slot and a computer. <P>SOLUTION: The printing system is provided with: a printing means for printing the image data file recorded in the memory card; a printing history recording means for recording information for identifying an image data file having been printed; an output means for adding printing status information to the image data file having been printed and outputting them; an image data file storage means; and an image file management means for acquiring information on the image data file recorded in the memory card with a predetermined cycle, and acquiring an image data file from the printer to store it in the image file storage means, when the image data file not stored in an image data file storage section is recorded in the memory card. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly to a printing system that backs up image data files.

  Conventionally, printers perform printing based on print data sent from a host computer. However, in recent years, image data is directly read from a memory card or the like in which image data is stored, and the printer does not pass through the host computer. The models that can execute the printing process are becoming widespread. This type of printer is generally used to print images taken with a digital camera. Insert a memory card that contains images taken with a digital camera into the slot, and specify the images and number of prints on the operation panel. Print processing is executed.

  A printer equipped with a memory card slot can also function as a memory card read / write device when connected to a host computer. For example, Patent Document 1 describes that an image data file read from a memory card by a printer is copied to a host computer.

As a result, the image data file on the memory card can be backed up to a recording device on the host computer side.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-30087

  In the invention described in Patent Document 1, the user has to perform a copy operation or the like when backing up the image file on the memory card, and the operation is complicated. Further, it is convenient if the user can grasp the printing status on the printer for each backed up image file.

  The present invention is a printing system comprising a printer equipped with a memory card slot and a computer, so that the image data file recorded on the memory card can be easily backed up and the printing status of the image data file can be grasped. The purpose is to.

A printing system according to one aspect of the present invention for solving the above problems is as follows.
A printing system comprising a printer equipped with a memory card slot and a computer,
The printer is
Printing means for reading and printing the image data file recorded on the memory card;
Printing history recording means for recording information for specifying the image data file that has been printed;
Output means for outputting an image data file in response to an acquisition request from the computer, comprising output means for adding and outputting printing status information to the image data file that has been printed,
The computer
Image data file storage means for storing image data files;
When information on the image data file recorded on the memory card is acquired from the printer at a predetermined cycle and an image data file not stored in the image data file storage unit is recorded on the memory card, And image file management means for acquiring an image data file from the printer and storing the image data file in the image file storage means.

  Thereby, the image data file recorded on the memory card can be easily backed up.

  Here, the image file management means of the computer can accept the setting of the predetermined cycle from the user.

In addition, the computer
The image processing apparatus may further include display means for displaying an image based on the image data file stored in the image file storage means together with the added printing status information.

  Thereby, the user can grasp the printing status of the image data file.

A computer that is one embodiment of the present invention for solving the above-described problems is provided.
A computer for controlling a printer equipped with a memory card slot,
Image data file storage means for storing image data files;
When information on the image data file recorded on the memory card is acquired from the printer at a predetermined cycle and an image data file not stored in the image data file storage unit is recorded on the memory card, And image file management means for acquiring an image data file from the printer and storing the image data file in the image file storage means.

  Here, the image file management means can function by a resident computer program.

A computer program which is one embodiment of the present invention for solving the above problems is
A computer program for causing a computer to function as a printer host for controlling a printer equipped with a memory card slot,
Image data file storage means for storing image data files;
When information on the image data file recorded on the memory card is acquired from the printer at a predetermined cycle and an image data file not stored in the image data file storage unit is recorded on the memory card, A computer is caused to function as an image file management unit that acquires an image data file from the printer and stores the image data file in the image file storage unit.

A printer that is one embodiment of the present invention for solving the above problems is provided.
A printer with a memory card slot,
Printing means for reading and printing the image data file recorded on the memory card;
Printing history recording means for recording information for specifying the image data file that has been printed;
Output means for outputting an image data file in response to an acquisition request from a connected computer, comprising: output means for adding printing status information to the printed image data file and outputting it .

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a printing system to which the present invention is applied. As shown in the figure, the printing system is configured by connecting a printer 1 and a computer 50.

  The printer 1 includes a reading device 15 that reads an image data file from a memory card 14 mounted in a slot 15a, and is a printer capable of a stand-alone printing process. That is, the printer 1 can perform printing without using the computer 50 by performing printing based on the image data file read from the memory card 14.

  The printer 1 includes a CPU 31, a RAM 32, a ROM 33, an auxiliary storage device 34, an external I / F 35, a print engine 37, an operation panel 3, a monitor 17, and a reading device 15, which are connected by a bus 36.

  The CPU 31, RAM 32, and ROM 33 operate in cooperation with each other to control various processes in the printer 1. The auxiliary storage device 34 is a readable / writable nonvolatile recording medium, and information for specifying a printed image data file among the image data files recorded on the memory card 14, for example, a file name, File size etc. are recorded.

  The external I / F communicates with the computer 50 according to a transmission standard such as USB.

  The print engine 37 is a mechanical mechanism that performs a printing process, and includes, for example, a recording head, a carriage motor, a paper feed motor, and the like. In this example, the print engine 37 employs an ink jet printing mechanism, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a laser type printing mechanism may be used.

  The computer 50 is not particularly illustrated, but a general personal computer including a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, an auxiliary storage device, an input / output device and the like can be used. The computer 50 can implement various functions as described later by installing and executing a computer program distributed by the manufacturer of the printer 1, for example.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the appearance of the printer 1. As shown in the figure, the printer 1 is an injection type printer having an operation panel 3 on the right side of the upper surface of the main body 2. A paper supply device 4 is provided on the back side of the main body 2, and a cut sheet set in the sheet feeder 5 or a roll paper set in the roll paper support unit 6 is fed into the main body 2. Below the cover 7 provided in the center of the main body 2, a printing mechanism to be described later is mounted, and a printing process is executed by the operation of the printing mechanism so that the printed paper 8 is discharged from the discharge port 9 at the lower front side of the main body 2. Discharged.

  The operation panel 3 includes a display device 11 having a setting screen 10 and an operation unit 12 including a plurality of operation switches (operation buttons). The setting screen 10 is a liquid crystal display device, and displays a menu screen for manually selecting, for example, the paper type (cut sheet or roll paper), paper size (A4, etc.), layout, photo selection, number of prints, and the like. Further, the operation unit 12 is provided with a power switch 13a for turning on the printer 1, a maintenance switch 13b that is pressed when an error occurs, and a roll paper switch 13c that is pressed when operating the roll paper. .

  The printer 1 is a stand-alone type equipped with a reading device 15 for inserting a memory card 14 for a digital camera and capable of printing an image read from the memory card 14 without being connected to the computer 50. A memory card 14 is detachably attached to the slot 15a of the reading device 15. The memory card 14 includes, for example, a compact flash (registered trademark), a smart media (registered trademark), a memory stick (registered trademark), and the like.

  A display device (monitor) 17 for displaying an image read from the memory card 14 is attached to the upper part of the main body 2 of the printer 1. The monitor 17 is a color liquid crystal display device. For example, a monitor screen 18 of 1.6 inches is adopted. In the stand-alone printer 1, when an image stored in the memory card 14 is selected and printed, it is used without being connected to the computer 50, so that the image cannot be confirmed on the screen of the computer 50. However, by displaying a color image on the monitor screen 18 of the monitor 17, image confirmation and print layout confirmation can be performed without connection to the computer 50.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a characteristic functional configuration of the printing system according to the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the computer 50 includes an image file management unit 510, an image file storage unit 520, and an image file display unit 530.

  The image file management unit 510 is a functional unit configured virtually by a resident program. The image file management unit 510 periodically communicates with the printer 1 to determine whether a new image file is recorded on the memory card 14 attached to the printer 1, and determines that a new image file is recorded. If so, the image file is acquired.

  The image file storage unit 520 is an area in which the image file acquired by the image file management unit 510 is recorded, and can be configured on an auxiliary storage device such as a hard disk.

  The image file display unit 530 is a functional unit configured virtually by an application program for browsing the image file recorded in the image file storage unit 520.

  The printer 1 also includes a print control unit 110, a print execution unit 120, and an image file processing unit 130.

  The print control unit 110 controls printing based on image data read from the memory card 14. Specifically, the image data stored in the memory card 14 is subjected to processing such as resolution conversion, color conversion, and halftone to generate ink dot data for each color, and a print execution unit configured by the print engine 37. 120 is printed.

  The image file processing unit 130 performs processing for accessing the image data file recorded on the memory card 14. When the image data file is read and printed by the printer 1, processing for recording the identifier of the image data file is performed.

  Therefore, the image file processing unit 130 has a print history recording unit 131. The print history recording unit 131 can be configured on the auxiliary storage device 34. The information recorded in the print history recording unit 131 can be, for example, the date and time of printing, the file name of the image data file to be printed, the file size, the creation date, and the like.

  Next, image data file backup processing of the printing system in the present embodiment will be described.

  In this embodiment, the user performs backup settings for the image file management unit 510 in advance. For example, the backup can be set on a backup setting screen as shown in FIG. When the image file management unit 510 receives a backup setting instruction from the user, the image file management unit 510 displays a backup setting screen as shown in FIG.

  As shown in the figure, the backup setting screen accepts settings for the backup target printer and the confirmation cycle.

  The image data file recorded on the memory card 14 attached to the printer set as the backup target printer is the target of backup.

  The confirmation cycle is an interval for performing communication with the printer 1 as the backup target printer and determining whether a new image file is recorded on the installed memory card 14. In the present embodiment, “hourly”, “daily”, “weekly”, “manual”, and “others” can be selected. Here, “manual” is a setting for communicating with the printer when an instruction from the user is accepted, not periodically. For this reason, a “confirm” button for accepting an instruction from the user is arranged on the backup setting screen. “Others” is a setting for the user to arbitrarily specify the interval. For this reason, a “detailed setting” button for displaying a screen for arbitrarily designating an interval is arranged on the backup setting screen.

  In this embodiment, the image file management unit 510 is a resident program so that it can communicate with the printer 1 at intervals designated by the user.

  Next, the flow of image data file backup processing in the printing system for which the above-described backup setting has been completed will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  The image file management unit 510 determines whether or not the period set from the previous image data file backup process has passed according to the confirmation cycle set by the user (S101).

  As a result, when it is determined that the set period has elapsed (S101: Y), the image file processing unit 130 of the printer 1 is communicated and stored in the memory card 14 installed in the slot 15a. Information on the image data file is acquired (S102). Here, the information to be acquired is information for specifying an image data file, and can be, for example, a file name, a file size, a file creation date, and the like.

  Then, based on the acquired image data file information, it is determined whether there is an image data file that has not yet been backed up in the memory card 14, that is, whether there is a newly created image data file (S103). This determination can be made by comparing the image data file group recorded in the image file storage unit 520 with the information of the image data file stored in the memory card 14.

  Specifically, if an image data file having the same file name and file size stored in the memory card 14 is recorded in the image file storage unit 520, it can be determined that the backup has already been performed. it can. If it is difficult to determine whether or not they are the same, the user may be confirmed.

  As a result, if it is determined that there is no image data file not backed up in the memory card 14 (S103: N), the process returns to the process (S101) and waits for the set period to elapse.

  On the other hand, when it is determined that there is a new image data file not backed up in the memory card 14 (S103: Y), the image data file is backed up. At this time, the image file processing unit 130 of the printer 1 adds print information to the image data file for backup and transmits it to the computer 50 (S104).

  That is, when the image file processing unit 130 reads out the image data file to be backed up from the memory card 14, the image file processing unit 130 refers to the print history recording unit 131 to check whether the image data has been printed in the past, If so, information indicating that printing has been completed is recorded at a predetermined location in the header portion of the file. Furthermore, information such as the number of times of printing and the date and time of printing may be recorded. For example, when the image data is in JPEG format, the predetermined portion of the header portion of the file can be an application marker portion. If the printer 1 is not printing, it is not necessary to record information in the header portion of the image data file.

  As described above, the image file processing unit 130 records information of the image data file to be printed in the print history recording unit 131 when the printer 1 performs printing. By referring to 131, the image file processing unit 130 can check the print history of the image data file to be backed up.

  Further, the image data file for recording the information printed in the header portion is not the original image data file recorded in the memory card 14 but the read backup copy file. Has no effect.

  Then, the image file management unit 510 records the backup target image data file acquired from the image file processing unit 130 in the image file storage unit 520 (S105). When there are a plurality of image data files to be backed up, the above processing is performed for each image data file.

  When the backup process is completed for all the image data files to be backed up, the process returns to the process (S101), and again waits for the set period to elapse.

  As described above, according to this embodiment, when a new image data file exists, it is automatically backed up, so that the user's trouble can be reduced.

  The user can browse the image data file backed up in the computer 50 by using the image file display unit 530.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a backup image data file list screen displayed by the image file display unit 530.

  In the example of this figure, the backed up image data files are displayed as a list in a thumbnail format. Of course, the display mode is not limited to this, and various formats can be adopted.

As shown in the figure, a mark “printed” is displayed in the vicinity of the thumbnail image corresponding to the image data file in which information indicating that printing has been performed is recorded in the header portion. This indicates that the image data file has been printed by the printer 1. Of course, the display mode indicating that printing has been completed is not limited to this example. Thus, according to this embodiment, the user can grasp the printing status of the backed-up image data file. .

1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a printing system to which the present invention is applied. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of a printer. 1 is a block diagram showing a characteristic functional configuration of a printing system. The figure which shows a backup setting screen. The flowchart which shows the flow of the backup process of an image data file. The figure which shows an example of the list screen of backup image data.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printer, 3 ... Operation panel, 4 ... Paper feeder, 5 ... Sheet feeder, 6 ... Roll paper support part, 7 ... Cover, 8 ... Paper, 9 ... Paper discharge port, 10 ... Setting screen, 11 ... Display device , 12 ... operation unit, 14 ... memory card, 15 ... reading device, 17 ... monitor, 18 ... monitor screen, 31 ... CPU, 32 ... RAM, 33 ... ROM, 34 ... auxiliary storage device, 35 ... external I / F, 36 ... Bus, 37 ... Print engine, 50 ... Computer, 110 ... Print control unit, 120 ... Print execution unit, 130 ... Image file processing unit, 131 ... Print history recording unit, 510 ... Image file management unit, 520 ... Image file Storage unit, 530... Image file display unit

Claims (7)

A printing system comprising a printer equipped with a memory card slot and a computer,
The printer is
Printing means for reading and printing the image data file recorded on the memory card;
Printing history recording means for recording information for specifying the image data file that has been printed;
Output means for outputting an image data file in response to an acquisition request from the computer, comprising output means for adding and outputting printing status information to the image data file that has been printed,
The computer
Image data file storage means for storing image data files;
When information on the image data file recorded on the memory card is acquired from the printer at a predetermined cycle and an image data file not stored in the image data file storage unit is recorded on the memory card, An image file management unit that acquires an image data file from the printer and stores the image data file in the image file storage unit. The printing system according to claim 1,
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the image file management means of the computer receives the setting of the predetermined cycle from a user. The printing system according to claim 1,
The computer
A printing system further comprising display means for displaying an image based on the image data file stored in the image file storage means together with the added print status information. A computer for controlling a printer equipped with a memory card slot,
Image data file storage means for storing image data files;
When information on the image data file recorded on the memory card is acquired from the printer at a predetermined cycle and an image data file not stored in the image data file storage unit is recorded on the memory card, A computer comprising image file management means for obtaining an image data file from the printer and storing the image data file in the image file storage means. A computer according to claim 4,
The image file management means functions by a resident computer program. A computer program for causing a computer to function as a printer host for controlling a printer equipped with a memory card slot,
Image data file storage means for storing image data files;
When information on the image data file recorded on the memory card is acquired from the printer at a predetermined cycle and an image data file not stored in the image data file storage unit is recorded on the memory card, A computer program for causing a computer to function as image file management means for acquiring an image data file from the printer and storing it in the image file storage means. A printer with a memory card slot,
Printing means for reading and printing the image data file recorded on the memory card;
Printing history recording means for recording information for specifying the image data file that has been printed;
Output means for outputting an image data file in response to an acquisition request from a connected computer, comprising: output means for adding printing status information to the printed image data file and outputting it Printer.

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