JP2007293673A - Print control method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide technique for limiting printing with an unauthorized printer or by an unauthorized user regardless of the authorization of an OS or the user. <P>SOLUTION: The input of a print job with respect to a printer spooler is monitored. When the print job is input, it is determined whether the printing of the job is permitted or not. When the printing is permitted, printing is performed based on the print job. When not, the print job is canceled. Consequently, when digital watermark software etc., is installed, setting is performed so as to permit the printing of a document with the digital watermark imparted thereto and not to permit the printing of a document without the digital watermark imparted thereto. The printing with the unauthorized printer or by the unauthorized user is limited without: changing the authorization of the user due to a limit in the OS; performing the addition of the user to a print terminal; and being limited by an environment. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control method and a program suitable for being applied to a system for printing a document with a digital watermark.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a system that prints a document (document) with a digital watermark is known. Digital watermarking is a technology that embeds various types of information such as the creator, date of creation, and copyright display by adding processing that cannot be seen with the naked eye to the document to be printed. The printed material in which the digital watermark is embedded can be read by scanning with a scanner and verifying using a predetermined verification application. This makes it possible to specify when and who printed the document.

  For example, when software for providing such a digital watermark is installed in one terminal, for example, there are cases where it is desired to restrict use (printing restriction) for the user of the terminal. For example, when printing an arbitrary document on the terminal, it is assumed that printing is performed after adding a digital watermark in which predetermined information is embedded, and printing of a document without a digital watermark is prohibited. In order to place such usage restrictions, in the conventional method, a user who cannot print at all is added to each user. Normally, a user ID that cannot be printed is forcibly logged in and specified when printing is instructed. If a printer is designated, the user is switched to a user who can print, and is printed with a digital watermark. After printing, the user is returned to the original user who cannot print. User switching is to switch the current logged-in user to another user by calling a predetermined API of the OS. By switching the user, it is possible to switch the user environment such as printing permission / non-permission. As described above, each user is restricted from printing without a watermark.

  As described above, in the method of switching to a user who can temporarily print at the time of printing and returning to a user who cannot perform printing thereafter, it is necessary to add a user who can print to each terminal, which requires work man-hours. There's a problem. In particular, when installing digital watermarking software in a system that has an existing printing environment, it was necessary for the administrator to go to each of the existing terminals to rewrite the printing environment. . Further, since the user is switched at the time of printing, a printable user prints, and there is a problem that the existing management / billing system for each user cannot be used. Furthermore, it is necessary to use the security function of the OS to switch users, which may cause a security problem. In addition, there is a performance degradation in the processing of the OS for switching users.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problems, and in particular, to provide a technique for restricting unauthorized printers and users from printing regardless of OS or user authority. To do.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention monitors the input of a print job to a print information temporary storage means (for example, a printer spooler), and is printing permitted when the print job is input? Whether or not printing is permitted, printing is executed based on the print job, and if not, the print job is canceled.

  For example, it is applied to a system for giving identification information such as a digital watermark, and in response to a print instruction for document data issued from a higher-level application, it is determined whether or not to give identification information to the document data. Identification information is assigned to the determined document data, and whether or not the user has the authority to print a document without identification information is determined for the document data determined not to be assigned identification information. Predetermined determination information is added to the recorded document data or the document data without identification information when the user has the authority to print the document without identification information, and the print job of the document data is temporarily stored as print information The print job input to the print information temporary storage means is detected, and the determination information is added to the document data of the detected print job. Whether determined, the determination information to print the document data has been granted, so as to cancel the print job of the document data that is not the determination information is granted.

  In response to a print instruction for document data issued from a higher-level application, as a method for determining whether or not to add identification information to the document data, for example, the user specifies whether or not identification information is to be given by the higher-level application. You can do it. Alternatively, in the program according to the present invention, the user may be allowed to set whether or not identification information is given as an operation attribute. In addition, for a user who is determined to always give identification information by the administrator, the user may not be allowed to select not to give identification information, and may be processed so as to always give identification information.

  As to whether or not the user has the authority to print a document without identification information, for example, the administrator may set the presence or absence of the printing authority for each user in advance. The determination information may be information that explicitly indicates printing permission, for example, information such as a flag. In addition to explicit determination information, (1) printing is permitted when the output destination is a specific printer, (2) printing is permitted when the user has a specific user name, and (3) a print document. The implicit determination information such as permitting printing when the name of the document is a specific document name is also within the scope of the present invention.

  The identification information is arbitrary information given to identify the document regardless of whether it can be visually recognized, such as a digital watermark or a background character.

  According to the present invention, a printer or a user who does not permit printing without changing the user's authority due to restrictions by the OS, without adding a user to the printing terminal, and without being restricted by the environment. It is possible to restrict printing. Accordingly, for example, when digital watermark software or the like is installed, it can be set so that only a document with a digital watermark can be printed.

  An embodiment for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a system that forcibly embeds and prints an electronic watermark on an arbitrary document and prohibits printing of a document without the electronic watermark. The user terminal 100 includes a display device 101, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 102, an input device 103, a memory 104, and a communication controller 109. These units are connected to each other by a communication line 115a such as a bus line. The display device 101 displays given information based on an instruction from the CPU 102. The CPU 102 controls processing of the entire terminal by executing various programs loaded on the memory 104. The input device 103 is, for example, a keyboard or a mouse. Various programs executed by the CPU 102 are loaded into the memory 104. Here, the service program 105, the application program 106, the printer driver 107, and the printer driver 108 are illustrated. The communication controller 109 performs communication control with the network 114 such as a LAN. The user terminal 100 is connected to a server 110, a scanner 111, a printer 112, and a printer 113 via a network 114. A plurality of similar user terminals are connected to the network 114, but only one is shown here.

  In the system shown in FIG. 1, a digital watermark is assigned to a document to be printed and printing is controlled by a service program 105 and an application program 106. In other words, these programs 105 and 106 do not exist before the digital watermark software is installed, and any upper-level application program executed by the user (for example, document creation software or spreadsheet software). When printing of an arbitrary document is instructed, the print data is transferred to the printer driver 107 or 108 corresponding to the instructed printer, and the driver 107 or 108 sends the print data to the corresponding printer 112 or 113 for printing.

  On the other hand, when the digital watermark software is installed, the service program 105 is started when the user terminal 100 is started up, and the application program 106 is started when a print request is received from a higher-level application. You can restrict printing of documents. Specifically, the administrator creates a digital watermark software installer for each user by setting permission / non-permission of watermarkless printing, and each user uses the installer to install the digital watermark software. Install the software. A user permitted by the administrator to print without a watermark can print both a watermarked document and a watermarkless document. A user who has not permitted watermarkless printing by the administrator can only print a watermarked document.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flow of printing control in the system of FIG. The same numbers as those in FIG. Although not shown in FIG. 1, the upper application programs 201 and 205 are document creation software, spreadsheet software, and the like used by the users 200 and 204. It is assumed that the user 200 creates a document using the upper application program 201 and instructs printing. The application program 106 receives the print instruction. (Normally, the printer driver receives a print instruction from the upper application program 201, but by installing the digital watermark software, a print instruction is received so that the application program 106 receives a print instruction from the upper application program 201. It is assumed that a hooking mechanism is incorporated.) The application program 106 embeds a digital watermark in the given print data, adds job determination information 216, and sends the print data to a predetermined printer driver 1 (107 in this case). send. The printer driver 1 (107) inputs a print job to the spooler 202 of the printer driver 1 according to the print instruction.

  On the other hand, the service program 105 includes a print job cancel function 211, a print job determination function 212, a spool control function 213, a print job monitoring function 214, and a user interface 215. The print job monitoring function 214 of the service program 105 constantly monitors all printer spoolers in the user terminal and detects the input of a print job. When a print job is input, the print job determination function 212 determines whether job determination information 216 is given to the print data. When it is given, it is assumed that the document is permitted to be printed, and the document is output to the designated printer 1 (112) for printing.

  The application program 106 does not embed a digital watermark when it is instructed not to embed a digital watermark in the document when there is a print instruction from the upper application program 201. However, if the user has the right to print a document without a digital watermark, the job determination information 216 is assigned to the document. If not, the job determination information 216 is not provided, and the document is passed to the printer driver. . As described above, whether or not there is an authority to print a document without a digital watermark is determined by permission / non-permission of watermarkless printing for each user set by the administrator in the installer.

  Now, assume that the user 200 is a user who does not have the authority to print a document without a digital watermark, and that the user 200 instructs the printing of a document without a digital watermark from the upper application program 201. At this time, since the application program 106 is instructed not to embed a digital watermark, the digital watermark is not embedded in the print data, and the user has no print authority for a document without the digital watermark. The job determination information 216 is not assigned to. A print job to which the job determination information 216 is not assigned is input to the spooler 203 of the printer driver 2, for example. The service program 105 detects job input to the spooler 203, and determines whether or not job determination information 216 is given to the print data by the print job determination function 212. In this case, since the job determination information 216 is not given, the print job is not output from the spooler 203 to the printer 113, and the print job is automatically canceled (deleted from the spooler). This prohibits printing of a document without a digital watermark. Note that if the user 200 has the authority to print a document without a digital watermark, the application program 106 applies a job to the print job when the user 200 instructs to print a document without a digital watermark. Determination information 216 is given. Thereby, if the user has authority, a document without a digital watermark can be printed.

  Note that if some upper application program 205 is installed after the digital watermark software is installed, the print instruction from the upper application program 205 may be passed directly to the printer driver 108 without going through the application program 106. It is done. In this case, since the job determination information 216 is not added to the print data passed to the printer driver, the job determination information 216 is not added to the job input to the spooler 203. Therefore, as described above, the print data to which the job determination information 216 is not added is not output to the printer.

  FIG. 3 shows a processing procedure of the application program 106. The application program 106 is activated when there is a print request from a higher-level application program running on the user terminal 100. In step 301, a print request from a higher-level application program is accepted. In step 302, it is determined whether to embed a digital watermark. This determination is performed based on an instruction from the upper application program (that is, an instruction from the user). When embedding a digital watermark, in step 303, a process of embedding the digital watermark in the print data is performed. Thereafter, in step 304, job determination information is added. In step 305, print data with job determination information is output to the printer driver of the designated printer. If it is determined in step 302 that no digital watermark is to be embedded, it is determined in step 306 whether or not there is an authority to print a document without a digital watermark. In this determination, since the administrator specifies whether or not the authority is permitted for the user when installing the digital watermark software, the process proceeds to step 304 if there is the authority, and to step 304 if there is no authority. Proceed to 305. As a result, a print request from a user who does not have the authority to print a document without a digital watermark is output without adding job determination information to the print data.

  In order to embed a digital watermark in all documents to be printed and to set so that a document without a digital watermark cannot be printed, steps 302 and 306 are deleted, and a digital watermark is always embedded in the print data of the received print request. Job determination information may be added and output. In this case, the user cannot specify no digital watermark.

  In this embodiment, an example in which whether or not to embed a digital watermark in a document is described from an upper application program is described. In order to do so, the upper application is not installed when digital watermark software is installed. A predetermined add-in software or the like is incorporated, and a function for specifying whether to embed a digital watermark is added. Also, instead of instructing whether to embed a digital watermark from the upper application program, the user can set whether to embed the digital watermark on the attribute screen of the application program 106, and the digital watermark is set based on the setting information. Whether or not to embed may be determined.

  FIG. 4 shows the processing procedure of the print job determination function of the service program 105. The service program 105 is activated at the same time when the user terminal 100 is activated and the OS is activated, and monitors all spoolers in the terminal with the print job monitoring function. When a print job is input to any spooler, the processing in FIG. 4 is executed. First, in step 401, whether printing is permitted / not permitted is determined by a printing permission / not permission determination function. This is a function for determining whether or not the job determination information 216 is added to the print data of the print job extracted from the spooler. In step 402, it is determined whether the document is permitted to be printed. This is a process for determining that printing is permitted for a document to which job determination information is assigned, and not permitting a document that is not. If printing is not permitted, printing is not permitted in step 403, and the print job is canceled (deleted from the spooler). If permitted, the print data is output to the printer designated in step 404 and printed.

  Here, the print job is canceled in step 403, but printing is performed for the time being, (1) a warning message is notified to the printer, (2) a notification is sent to the administrator by e-mail, and (3) a print log is displayed. Processing such as recording may be performed. Alternatively, the print job may be canceled and the processes (1) to (3) may be performed.

  FIG. 5 shows the overall flow of the printing process. When the user terminal is activated and the OS is activated (500), the service program 105 is activated (501). As a result, the spool control function is also activated (502). The user instructs printing of an arbitrary document from an arbitrary upper application program. As a result, the application program 106 is activated, and the application program 106 receives the print request and executes the print processing as described in FIG. 3 (511). As a result, the print job output to the printer driver is spooled, for example, by the printer spooler 1 (512). On the other hand, since the service program 105 is activated, the print job input to the printer spooler 1 is detected by the print job monitoring function (513). The processing described in FIG. 4 is performed for the print job (514), and when printing is permitted (515), the print job is output to the printer 1 and printed (516, 517).

  On the other hand, it is assumed that the user gives an instruction to print a document without a digital watermark from the upper application program. The application program 106 receives the print request, performs the printing process of FIG. 3 (521), and the print job is input to the printer spooler 2, for example (522). At this time, if the user is not authorized to print a document without a digital watermark, the job determination information is not given and the print job is input to the printer spooler 2 (522). The service program 105 detects the input of the job by the print job monitoring function (523), and performs the processing of FIG. 4 (524). In this case, since no job determination information is given, the print job is canceled (526) and is not output to the printer. If the user is authorized to print a document without a digital watermark, the job determination information is added to the print data without the digital watermark and spooled, so printing is performed.

  In the above embodiment, whether or not to permit printing is indicated by adding or not adding job determination information. Instead of using job determination information, (1) the output destination is a specific printer. (2) Print permission when the user has a specific user name, (3) Print permission when the print document name is a specific document name, etc. The print permission / non-permission may be determined.

  In the above embodiment, the application 106 is arranged between the host application and the printer driver. However, the function of the application 106 may be included in the printer driver.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which a digital watermark is added to a document has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to a digital watermark, and can be applied to a document to which arbitrary identification information is added. For example, the present invention can be applied to a case in which a visible background character is added to a document instead of a digital watermark.

1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a digital watermark printing system incorporating a printing control method according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows the flow of printing in the system of FIG. Flow chart showing an example of operation procedure of application program Flow chart showing operation procedure of service program Diagram showing the overall flow of printing in this system

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... User terminal, 101 ... Display apparatus, 102 ... CPU, 103 ... Input device, 104 ... Memory, 105 ... Service program, 106 ... Application program, 107 ... Printer driver 1, 108 ... Printer driver 2, 109 ... Communication controller, 110 ... server, 111 ... scanner, 112 ... printer 1, 113 ... printer 2, 114 ... network.

Claims (4)

A printing control method for printing a document by a computer with a printing function,
Monitoring the input of a print job to the print information temporary storage means by the job monitoring means;
A step of determining whether or not printing of the print job is permitted by the job determination means when the print job is submitted;
A print control method comprising: a step of executing printing based on the print job when printing is permitted by the print control means; and canceling the print job otherwise. A print control program for printing a document by a computer with a print function,
The computer,
Means for monitoring the input of a print job to the print information temporary storage means;
Means for determining whether printing of the print job is permitted when the print job is submitted; and
A print control program that executes printing based on the print job when printing is permitted, and functions as means for canceling the print job otherwise. A printing control method for printing a document with identification information or a document without identification information by a computer with a printing function,
A step of determining whether or not to add identification information to the document data in response to a print instruction of the document data issued from the higher-level application;
The step of giving the identification information to the document data determined by the identification information giving means to give the identification information;
A step of determining whether or not the user authority has a print authority for a document having no identification information with respect to document data determined not to be given identification information;
A step of adding predetermined determination information to document data without identification information when the determination information adding means has document data with identification information or when the user has a print authority for a document without identification information;
A step of submitting a print job of the document data to a print information temporary storage unit;
A step in which a print job monitoring unit detects a print job input to the print information temporary storage unit;
A step of determining whether or not the determination information is added to the document data of the detected print job;
Printing execution means printing the document data to which the determination information is attached;
And a step of canceling the print job of the document data to which the determination information is not given. A printing control program for printing a document with identification information or a document without identification information by a computer with a printing function,
The computer,
Means for determining whether or not to add identification information to the document data in response to a print instruction of the document data issued from the upper application;
Means for giving identification information to document data determined to be given identification information;
Means for determining whether the user has the authority to print a document without identification information for document data determined not to be given identification information;
Means for giving predetermined determination information to document data to which identification information is given, or to document data without identification information when the user has the authority to print a document without identification information;
Means for submitting a print job of the document data to a print information temporary storage means;
Means for detecting a print job submitted to the print information temporary storage means;
Means for determining whether or not the determination information is given to the document data of the detected print job;
Means for printing document data to which the determination information is attached; and
A print control program which functions as means for canceling a print job of document data to which the determination information is not given.

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