JP2008269140A - Printed matter, print method and print program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide printed matter containing information that specifies a source of printing, and more particularly, a computer and a printer having performed printing, printed matter on which information that specifies time and date is turned to a two-dimensional code, divided and arranged at a predetermined position, its print method, and a print program. <P>SOLUTION: The printed matter comprises a document print area on which document data comprising characters and images are arranged and a source information print area on which a two-dimensional code obtained by coding information that specifies the source of printing is divided into a predetermined number of pieces and each of the divided two-dimensional code is arranged. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printed matter including information for specifying a printing origin, and more specifically, a computer and a printer that have performed printing, and information for specifying a date and time are two-dimensionally encoded and divided and arranged at predetermined positions on a printing sheet. The printed matter, its printing method, and printing program.

In recent years, leakage of personal information due to outflow of customer lists has become a problem. For this reason, many companies have strengthened internal controls and security measures, but information leakage continues to be a social problem. This information leakage path includes a notebook PC, a portable recording medium, a printed matter taken out, or a network such as e-mail or Web. Among them, it has been reported that information leakage by printed matter accounts for about half (NPO Japan Network Security Association "2005 Information Security Incident Information Report").
Since printed materials are the easiest way to communicate information, attention has been paid to management for many years. For example, setting of a confidential rank for a document, formulation of a document distribution rule and a storage rule corresponding to the confidential rank, and the like. However, even if these things are notified to the parties concerned and made thorough, they are powerless against intentional removal.
In order to minimize the risk of taking out printed materials, it is most effective to minimize information from printed materials. However, some printing is necessary and difficult to eliminate. As one method for this, it is conceivable to use a mechanism that cannot be easily output when printing. For example, when printing, authentication of being a qualified person is performed and the number of people who can print is restricted. Furthermore, even if information leakage occurs due to printed matter, it is possible to print illegally by providing a mechanism that allows tracing (traceability) from what printer and what time of day the printed matter is output. It is a deterrent to what you do. As an example of this, it is conceivable to automatically print the printer name and date / time on printed matter when printing is performed.
As a method for specifying a printer, unlike a method for printing a printer name or the like on a printed matter, a method for printing a specific pattern that cannot be easily identified has been proposed. In color printing, a pulse train signal of a dot image signal to be printed is generated and printed by changing a pulse width of a pulse train signal corresponding to a position for drawing a pattern (specific pattern) for specifying a printer. (Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-77604 A

As described above, information leakage due to taking out printed matter is a problem, and specifying one of the printers as a countermeasure is a deterrent to information leakage. For this reason, it is conceivable to automatically print information that specifies the printer that has printed and the printing date and time. However, if you want to tamper with the printed information, it is hard to say that it is certain.
The method proposed in Patent Document 1 is considered to be an effective technique that is difficult to falsify because the information for specifying the printer changes the pulse width of the drawing dots for color printing in accordance with the specific pattern instead of characters. However, it is limited to color printing and not monochrome printing.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printed matter, a printing method, and a printing program in which it is difficult to falsify source information such as a computer or a printer regardless of monochrome or color.

The printed matter, the printing method, and the printing program of the present invention are configured as follows.
(1) First invention
The printed matter according to the first aspect of the invention divides a document print area in which document data composed of characters and images is arranged, and a two-dimensional code in which information specifying the printing origin is coded, and each of the divided two-dimensional codes And an origin information printing area arranged at a predetermined position.
(2) Second invention In the second invention, the arrangement of the divided two-dimensional code in the printed matter of the first invention in the origin information print area is set in a source information print area that is predetermined in association with the division position. It is characterized by being arranged. For example, when a two-dimensional code is divided into four parts, the upper-left divided two-dimensional code is placed in the origin information printing area provided at the upper right of the printing paper, and the upper right, lower left, and lower right divided two-dimensional codes are respectively It is arranged in the origin information print area provided in the upper left, lower right, and lower left.
(3) Third invention In the third invention, the information specifying the origin of printing in the printed matter of the first and second inventions is the ID of the computer that instructed printing, the ID of the printer that performed printing, and the date and time. Or any combination thereof.
(4) Fourth invention The fourth invention is the printing method of the first invention.
(5) Fifth Invention The fifth invention is an invention of a printing program of the first invention.

  As described above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

  According to the first invention, according to the above, it is possible to provide a printed matter in which information specifying the origin of the printed matter is two-dimensionally encoded and further divided, so that it is difficult to tamper with the information.

  According to the second invention, the arrangement of the divided two-dimensional code arrangement position in the origin information printing area is ruled in advance, so that the falsification becomes more difficult.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, at least one of the computer that instructed printing, the printer that performed printing, and the date and time of printing can be specified.

  According to the fourth aspect of the invention, it is possible to provide a printing method in which it is difficult to falsify information specifying the printing origin.

  According to the fifth aspect, this makes it possible to provide a printing program in which it is difficult to falsify information specifying the printing origin.

An embodiment of a printed matter and a printing method will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 1 shows an example of a printed matter 1 according to the present invention. In this example, a document printing area 20 and four origin information printing areas 30 are arranged at approximately four central positions of the printing paper 10. is there. The document print area 20 prints document data, and the origin information print area 30 prints four-dimensionally divided two-dimensional codes of information indicating the origin of printing. FIG. 1 is drawn to emphasize the origin information print area 30. For example, the origin information print area 30 is about 4 mm square with respect to the A4 size 210 mm × 297 mm of the printing paper 10.

  The divided two-dimensional code to be printed in the origin information printing area 30 is changed in the printing position and direction as shown in FIG. 2A, for example (the patterns of the four divided two-dimensional codes are indicated by 1 to 4). , The placement and direction are indicated by the numbers). By changing the arrangement position and direction (printing direction) of the two-dimensional code divided in this way, decoding becomes more difficult, and the two-dimensional code divided into four by folding the paper as shown in FIG. This is because they can be gathered together and taken together with, for example, a CCD camera, synthesized, and decoded. That is, the dotted line shown on the left in FIG. 2B indicates a mountain fold, the dashed line indicates a valley fold, and when folded, each two-dimensional code has a position and direction before division as shown on the right. To be aligned.

  FIG. 3 shows an example in which the QR code 40 is used as a two-dimensional code and divided into four. The divided patterns 41 to 44 correspond to, for example, the two-dimensional codes 31 to 34 shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 1, the origin information printing area 30 is provided at the four corners of the printing paper. However, it may be provided at the bottom as shown in FIG. The divided two-dimensional codes 51 to 53 in FIG. 4 are vertically divided into three, and the divided two-dimensional code 52 is mirror-inverted. The divided two-dimensional code 53 is inverted up and down. The arrangement direction of the two-dimensional code divided in this way can be rotated in units of 90 °, or can be reversed vertically and horizontally. If a rule is determined in advance, when the divided two-dimensional code is synthesized, the state before the division may be restored based on the rule.

  Next, the mechanism of the computer that prints the printed matter shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. Three computers 100 to 102 and three network printers 300 to 301 are connected to a LAN (Local Area Network) 200 in FIG. Each of the computers 100 to 102 is set so that any of the network printers 300 to 301 can be used.

  In such a state, the configuration of the computer 100 is shown in FIG. 6 (the computer 101 and the computer 102 are the same as the computer 100). In FIG. 6, a computer 100 includes a control unit 110 that controls the entire system, a communication control unit 120 that is connected to the LAN 200 and transmits control information and print data to a printer, a clock unit 130 that measures the date and time, and document data that stores document data. The storage unit 140 includes a system storage unit 150 that stores the MAC address of the computer 100 itself and the set MAC address of the printer, a print data storage unit 160 that stores print data, and a print program 180 developed on the main storage 170.

  The print program 180 further includes a document data storage unit 181, a source information acquisition unit 182, a two-dimensional code generation / division unit 183, a print data arrangement unit 184, and a print instruction unit 185. Next, these individual functions will be described.

  The document data storage unit 181 stores the document data instructed by the operator in the document data storage unit 140 based on the printing instruction from the operator (or the document data storage unit 140 is a storage unit for the document data instructed by the operator. May be)

  The origin information acquisition unit 182 acquires the MAC address of the computer 100 itself stored in the system information storage unit 150 and the MAC address of a printer (for example, the printer 300) designated by the operator. Further, the current time is acquired from the time measuring unit 130.

  The two-dimensional code generation / division unit 183 arranges the MAC addresses of the computer 100 and the printer 300 acquired by the source information acquisition unit 182 and the current time in a predetermined order, and generates a QR code based on the conventional technology (QR code). Is generated as image data). Subsequently, the generated QR code is divided into four (four pieces of image data of the four divided QR codes are created).

  The print data arrangement unit 184 develops the bit image on the print data storage unit 160 in the origin information print area 30 shown in FIG. 2 at the arrangement position and direction shown in FIG. Subsequently, one page of sentence data stored in the document data storage unit 181 is taken out, and a bit image is developed in the sentence print area 20 shown in FIG. Subsequently, the same process is performed for the next page.

  The print instruction unit 185 issues a print instruction at a timing when the print data arrangement unit 184 finishes developing the QR code and the bit image of the document data in the print data storage unit 160. That is, the data in the print data storage unit 160 is transmitted to the printer 300 via the LAN 200 under the control of the communication control unit 120.

  The printer 300 receives the print data transmitted from the computer 100 and prints it.

  In this embodiment, the printer is an example of a network printer. However, the printer may be a local printer, or a network printer and a local printer may be mixed.

  As shown above, when the operator issues a print instruction, the print program 180 automatically generates a two-dimensional code of origin information including the MAC address and print date of the printer designated as the computer in addition to the text data. Then, it is divided and printed at a predetermined position. When a problem such as information leakage occurs, the two-dimensional code printed on the printed matter can be decrypted to identify which printer from which computer and what time of day. Further, since the origin information can be converted into a two-dimensional code and further divided to change the arrangement position and direction, tampering is difficult.

In addition to the above embodiment, the following additional notes are disclosed.
(Appendix 1)
A printed material with information specifying the origin of printing,
A document print area in which document data composed of characters and images is placed;
A printed matter comprising: a predetermined number of two-dimensional codes obtained by dividing information specifying the origin of printing; and a predetermined number of origin information printing areas in which each of the divided two-dimensional codes is arranged. .
(Appendix 2)
The printed matter according to appendix 1, wherein the divided two-dimensional code is arranged in the origin information print area in association with the division position.
(Appendix 3)
The supplementary information 1 or 2 is characterized in that the information specifying the printing origin is any one of an ID of a computer instructing printing, an ID of a printer that performs printing, a date and time, or a combination thereof. Prints.
(Appendix 4)
A printing method for printing including information for identifying the origin of printing,
Computer
Document data storage procedure for storing document data composed of characters and images in the document data storage unit;
From the system information storage unit that stores the ID of the computer and the ID of the printer connected to the computer, and the timing unit included in the computer, the ID and the current date and time of the computer and the printer that prints are used as source information. Origin information acquisition procedure to be acquired,
A two-dimensional code generation procedure for generating a two-dimensional code based on the acquired source information;
The two-dimensional code is divided into a predetermined number, each of the divided two-dimensional codes is arranged in a predetermined origin information printing area of a printing paper, and the document data is taken out from the document data storage unit to be a predetermined document printing area Print placement procedure to be placed in
A printing method comprising: a printing instruction procedure for instructing the printer to print the arranged two-dimensional code and document data.
(Appendix 5)
A printing program that prints information that identifies the origin of printing,
On the computer,
Document data storage procedure for storing document data composed of characters and images in the document data storage unit;
From the system information storage unit that stores the ID of the computer and the ID of the printer connected to the computer, and the timing unit included in the computer, the ID and the current date and time of the computer and the printer that prints are used as source information. Origin information acquisition procedure to be acquired,
A two-dimensional code generation procedure for generating a two-dimensional code based on the acquired source information;
The two-dimensional code is divided into a predetermined number, each of the divided two-dimensional codes is arranged in a predetermined origin information printing area of a printing paper, and the document data is taken out from the document data storage unit to be a predetermined document printing area Print placement procedure to be placed in
A print program for executing a print instruction procedure for instructing the printer to print the arranged two-dimensional code and document data.
(Appendix 6)
The printed matter according to appendix 1 to appendix 3, wherein the IDs of the computer and the printer are MAC addresses.
(Appendix 7)
2. The printed matter according to appendix 1, wherein the divided two-dimensional code is arranged in the origin information print area in a predetermined direction in association with the division position.

It is an arrangement example of a document print area and a source information print area. This is an example of arrangement and restoration of a two-dimensional code. This is an example of four divisions of the QR code pattern. It is an example of arrangement | positioning of an origin information printing area | region. A computer and a printing apparatus connected on a network. It is a structural example of a computer.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printed matter 2 Printed matter 10 Printing paper 20 Document printing area 30 Source information printing area 31 Four-division two-dimensional code 32 Four-division two-dimensional code 33 Four-division two-dimensional code 34 Four-division two-dimensional code 40 QR code 41 Four division QR code 42 QR code divided into 4 43 QR code divided into 4 44 QR code divided into 4 100 computer 101 computer 102 computer 110 control unit 120 communication control unit 130 timing unit 140 document data storage unit 150 system information storage unit 160 print data Storage unit 170 Main storage unit 180 Print program 181 Document data storage unit 182 Source information acquisition unit 183 Two-dimensional code generation / division unit 184 Print data arrangement unit 185 Print instruction unit 200 LAN
300 Network Printer 301 Network Printer 302 Network Printer

Claims (5)

A printed material with information specifying the origin of printing,
A document print area in which document data composed of characters and images is placed;
A printed matter comprising: a predetermined number of two-dimensional codes obtained by dividing information specifying the origin of printing; and a predetermined number of origin information printing areas in which each of the divided two-dimensional codes is arranged. . The printed matter according to claim 1, wherein the divided two-dimensional code is arranged in the origin information print area in association with the division position.   3. The information specifying the printing origin is one of an ID of a computer instructing printing, an ID of a printer that performed printing, a date and time, or a combination thereof. Printed matter described in 1. A printing method for printing including information for identifying the origin of printing,
Computer
Document data storage procedure for storing document data composed of characters and images in the document data storage unit;
From the system information storage unit that stores the ID of the computer and the ID of the printer connected to the computer, and the timing unit included in the computer, the ID and the current date and time of the computer and the printer that prints are used as source information. Origin information acquisition procedure to be acquired,
A two-dimensional code generation procedure for generating a two-dimensional code based on the acquired source information;
The two-dimensional code is divided into a predetermined number, each of the divided two-dimensional codes is arranged in a predetermined origin information print area of a print sheet, and the document data is taken out from the document data storage unit and a predetermined document print area Print placement procedure to be placed in
A printing method comprising: a printing instruction procedure for instructing the printer to print the arranged two-dimensional code and document data. A printing program that prints information that identifies the origin of printing,
On the computer,
Document data storage procedure for storing document data composed of characters and images in the document data storage unit;
From the system information storage unit that stores the ID of the computer and the ID of the printer connected to the computer, and the timing unit included in the computer, the ID and the current date and time of the computer and the printer that prints are used as source information. Origin information acquisition procedure to be acquired,
A two-dimensional code generation procedure for generating a two-dimensional code based on the acquired source information;
The two-dimensional code is divided into a predetermined number, each of the divided two-dimensional codes is arranged in a predetermined origin information print area of a print sheet, and the document data is taken out from the document data storage unit and a predetermined document print area Print placement procedure to be placed in
A print program for executing a print instruction procedure for instructing the printer to print the arranged two-dimensional code and document data.

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