JP2009026203A - Print processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To unify the kinds of paper sheets to be used between respective division jobs in the same print job when distribution printing is performed. <P>SOLUTION: Each printer includes a media sensor for discriminating the kinds of paper sheets set in a paper feed tray. The paper sheet kinds read by the media sensor are collected, and then, the division jobs are transmitted only to the printer with the same paper sheet kinds set therein. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print processing system, and more particularly, to a technique for unifying the types of paper used in each printing apparatus when printing a single print job is distributed by a plurality of printing apparatuses connected to a network.

  In recent years, it has become common to use printing apparatuses connected to a network in an office or the like, and a situation in which a plurality of printing apparatuses are connected to one network has also appeared. A so-called distributed printing system has been proposed in which one print job is divided and printed by a plurality of printing apparatuses in such an environment (for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2).

In such a distributed printing system, since one print job is output from a plurality of printing apparatuses, there is a possibility that a print result finally obtained is composed of a plurality of paper types. Therefore, Patent Document 3 discloses an idea of storing the paper type used by each printing apparatus and selecting only the printing apparatus where the stored paper type is located when distributing the print job. .
JP-A-9-218764 JP-A-10-198540 JP 2002-23981 A

  However, in the above method, it is assumed that the user sets the type information of the set paper. Therefore, there is a possibility that the paper type actually set in the paper feed tray may not match the paper type specified by the user. Also, the paper type set by the user may not represent a specific paper type such as “arbitrary”, and in such a situation, it is not possible to select a printing apparatus to be distributed so that the paper types match. There is also a problem.

In order to solve the above problem, the print processing system according to claim 1 is a print processing system that generates a print job and outputs the print job to a plurality of printing apparatuses connected via a network.
A paper type selection means for specifying a paper type for outputting a print job;
A paper type reading means for reading the type of paper set in the paper feed tray of the printing apparatus;
A paper type collecting means for collecting the paper type acquired by the paper type reading means from each printing device in the network;
Job dividing means for dividing a print job;
A data transmission unit that transmits the divided print job via a network to a printing device in which the paper type specified by the paper type selection unit and the paper type set in the printing device acquired by the paper type collection unit match. It is characterized by having.

The print processing system according to claim 2 is the print processing system according to claim 1,
The job dividing unit divides the print job so that the paper type specified by the paper type selecting unit matches the number of printing devices in which the paper type set in the printing apparatus acquired by the paper type collecting unit matches. It is characterized by that.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the print processing system according to the first or second aspect, wherein the paper type reading means is constituted by a CCD device.

  A print processing system according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the print processing system according to the first or second aspect, wherein the paper type reading means includes a wireless IC tag reading device.

  A print processing system according to a fourth aspect is the print processing system according to the first or second aspect, wherein the paper type reading means is constituted by a bar code reader.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to unify output paper types in a distributed printing environment in which one print job is output to a plurality of printing apparatuses.

  Embodiments of a print processing system according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the entire system in an embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, a client 101 is a PC operated by a user. The user performs printing using the printing processing method of the present invention in order to obtain printed matter from the PC. Clients 102-103 are shown to show that there are a plurality of PCs throughout the system. Although printing can be performed from these PCs, in this embodiment, only the case where printing is performed from the client 101 will be described.

  The print server 104 executes and manages various processes from reception of a print job output by the clients 101 to 103 to output to the printing apparatuses 105 to 107 described later.

  The printing apparatuses 105 to 107 form images on paper based on the received print data.

  The network 108 enables data communication between connected devices.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the printing apparatuses 105 to 107 in FIG. 1. The printing apparatus of this embodiment is a laser beam printer.

  In FIG. 2, printing apparatuses 105 to 107 take in paper from the paper feed cassette 201 or the manual feed tray 202, form an image on the paper with the electrophotographic unit 203, and output the paper to the output tray 204.

  Further, 205 and 206 in FIG. 2 are media sensors using a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), and by measuring the light reflectivity and color of the paper set in the paper feed cassette 201 or the manual feed tray 202, the type of the paper. Determine. Specifically, the paper type is plain paper, OHT paper, or the like.

  Next, the operation of the print processing system of the present invention will be described with reference to a flowchart. In the present embodiment, an example will be described in which a print job is transmitted from the client 101 to the print server 104, and after the print server performs processing described later, the print job is distributed and printed on the printing apparatuses 105 to 107. To do.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the client 101 during print processing, and FIG. 4 is a GUI used by the user at that time.

  First, in step S301, the transmission destination of the document data is designated. This is done by selecting a desired print server from the GUI combo box 401. In this example, it can be seen that the document data is printed via the print server 104.

  In step S302, various parameters for printing are set. Here, the parameters to be set are the page to be printed, the number of copies to be printed, the right or wrong of double-sided printing, and the specification of the reduction / enlargement ratio. These parameters are set by a GUI (not shown) displayed when the area 403, the area 404, and the button 402 are pressed.

  In step S 203, “distributed printing” is designated using the GUI area 405. In this area, “whether or not to perform distributed printing” and “paper type to be used for distributed printing (combo box 406)” can be designated.

  Note that the order of steps S301 to S303 may be changed.

  In step S304, a print job is generated according to the settings in steps S302 to S303. This step is started when the button 407 is pressed.

  Finally, in step S305, the print job generated in step S304 is transmitted to the transmission destination displayed in the GUI area 401. In this example, the print job shown in FIG. 4 is sent from the client 101 to the print server 104.

  Next, print processing in the print server 104 will be described. Here, the printing process means a process from receiving print data transmitted from the client 101 to transmitting the print data to a printing apparatus in the network.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing print processing in the print server 104.

  First, in step S501, a print job transmitted from a client is received and stored in a hard disk in the print server.

  In step S502, the print job received in step S501 is analyzed to investigate whether or not distributed printing designation (area 405 in FIG. 4) has been performed. If distributed printing is not designated (NO in step S502), the print job is transmitted to any of the printing apparatuses (printing apparatuses 105 to 107) in the network in step S503. In this case, the printing device to be selected may be determined at random, or the printing device to be used for non-distributed printing may be specified in the print server 104.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the print job transmission operation. The print server 104 checks whether or not the destination printing apparatus is idle (step S601), and if it is idle, transfers the print job (step S601).

  Returning to FIG. 5, the case where distributed printing is designated for a print job (YES in step S502) will be described. In this case, the print server 104 further analyzes the print job and investigates whether or not a unified paper type designation (the combo box 406 in FIG. 4) has been made (step S504).

  If the unified paper type is designated (YES in step S504), the paper type set in each printing apparatus (printing apparatus 105 to 107) on the network is acquired in step S505.

  In this process, the print server 104 issues a paper type reading command to each of the printing apparatuses 105 to 107, and each printing apparatus that has received the command receives media sensors (205 and 206 in FIG. 2) installed in each paper feed tray. ) Is used to obtain the paper type set for each paper feed tray. Further, each printing apparatus transmits the acquired paper type information to the print server 104 as a response to the command.

  In step S506, a printing apparatus that outputs a print job is selected according to the paper type information acquired in step S505. Specifically, the printer on the network in which the paper type selected in the combo box 406 in FIG. 4 is set is selected. Since this print processing system is a distributed printing system, a plurality of printing apparatuses may be selected.

  In step S507, the print job is divided according to the number of printing apparatuses selected in step S507. If there is no uniform paper type designation (NO in step S504), the number of printing apparatuses connected in the network is divided (in the case of the connection form as shown in FIG. 1, it is divided into three).

  Next, in step S508 and step S509, the print job generated in step S507 is sequentially transmitted to the printing apparatus in the network selected in step S506. If it is transmitted to all the selected printing apparatuses (YES in step S507), the printing process is completed. If there is no uniform paper type designation (NO in step S504), the transmission destination is all printing apparatuses in the network.

  With the above processing, when the user designates a uniform paper type, the paper type of the output result can be unified in a distributed printing environment where one print job is output to a plurality of printing apparatuses.

  In the first embodiment, the print job is transmitted to each printer via the print server 104, but the print server is not necessarily required, and the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 5 may be executed in the client 101. In this case, step S305 and step S501 are not necessary, and the flowchart of FIG. 5 sets the print job generated in step S304 as the processing target.

  In the first and second embodiments, the media sensors 205 and 206 in FIG. 2 use CCDs. However, the print processing system of the present invention is not limited to this, and the paper used for the printing apparatus is paper. A medium on which seed information is recorded may be added, and the media sensors 205 and 206 may determine the paper type by reading data from the medium.

  Specifically, when a wireless IC tag (RFID) is added to a sheet, the media sensor becomes an RFID reader. In addition, when the paper type information is added to the paper with a barcode, the media sensor becomes a barcode reader.

It is a block diagram showing the structure of the whole system in the 1st Example of this invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating the structure of a printing apparatus. 6 is a flowchart for explaining print processing in a client. A GUI used by a client user. 6 is a flowchart illustrating print processing in a print server. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a print job transmission operation;

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Client 102 Client 103 Client 104 Print server 105 Printing device 106 Printing device 107 Printing device 108 Network

Claims (5)

A print processing system that generates a print job and outputs the print job to a plurality of printing apparatuses connected via a network.
A paper type selection means for specifying a paper type for outputting a print job;
A paper type reading means for reading the type of paper set in the paper feed tray of the printing apparatus;
A paper type collecting means for collecting the paper type acquired by the paper type reading means from each printing device in the network;
Job dividing means for dividing a print job;
A data transmission unit that transmits the divided print job via a network to a printing device in which the paper type specified by the paper type selection unit and the paper type set in the printing device acquired by the paper type collection unit match. A print processing system characterized by having.   The job dividing unit divides the print job so that the paper type specified by the paper type selecting unit matches the number of printing devices in which the paper type set in the printing apparatus acquired by the paper type collecting unit matches. The print processing system according to claim 1.   The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein the paper type reading unit includes a CCD device.   The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein the paper type reading unit includes a wireless IC tag reading device.   The print processing system according to claim 1, wherein the paper type reading unit includes a bar code reader.

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