JP2010125837A - Image forming device, output controlling device and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To achieve a flexible output of a document by allowing the alteration of a page order and the duplication of an output page without the need to process output data such as a PDL when an output of the document is conducted by an image forming device. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming device comprises a printing instruction receiving part 110 which receives a printing instruction including document data and the control information of a printing subject; a control information analyzing part 120 which analyzes the control information included in the printing instruction and obtains the information of the output order for each page of arbitrarily designated document data included in the printing instruction; an image generating part 130 which generates an image for each page in accordance with the document data; an image storing part 140 which stores the generated image; and an output control part 150 which reads out the image stored in the image storing part 140 in accordance with the information of the output order for each page of the document data obtained by the control information analyzing part 120 and allows an image forming part 160 to form the image. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, an output control apparatus that controls the image forming apparatus, and a program.

  When it is desired to print out multiple pages of document data using an image forming device, it is desirable to output pages in a different order from the original page order in the document data, or to output specific pages in duplicate. There is. In such a case, in order to output document data in a desired page order, conventionally, output data (PDL (Page Description Language) data or the like) in which the page order is changed in a printer driver or the like is created to create an image forming apparatus. (See Patent Document 1).

  The technique described in Patent Document 1 generates a PDL file and a page configuration information file when PDL print data and a print job are received from a print spooler. When there is an instruction for recovery printing specifying a print page, this system generates a recovery print job for the specified page using control information stored in the page configuration information file. Then, the recovery print job is sent to the printer together with the PDL print data of the designated page stored in the PDL file, and the recovery process is executed.

JP 2003-44239 A

Conventionally, when printing a document having a plurality of pages in an output order different from the page order of document data, it is necessary to create output data in which the page order is changed.
An object of the present invention is to print a document in a desired output order without creating output data in which the page order is changed when printing is performed in an output order different from the page order of document data by the image forming apparatus. It is to make it possible.

The invention described in claim 1 includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a medium using an image forming material, a receiving unit that receives a print instruction including document data to be printed and control information, and the print instruction An analysis unit that analyzes control information, an image generation unit that generates an image of each page based on the document data, a holding unit that holds the image generated by the image generation unit, and an analysis of the analysis unit An output control unit that reads out the image held in the holding unit according to the output order of each page of the obtained document data and forms the image in the image forming unit. is there.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, the output control unit leaves the image in the holding unit when the image read from the holding unit is set to be output thereafter based on the output order. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the image is not set to be output, the image is deleted from the holding unit.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, the output control unit is configured to determine whether or not to output each page number and each registered page number in the page order of the document data based on the output order, and whether to hold by the holding unit. A first table describing whether or not, a specific page number in the document data, a subsequent page number output after an image of the specific page number is output, and an image of the subsequent page number after the output A second table that describes whether or not to continue to hold the image of the page number, and reads out the image of each page from the holding unit according to the description of the first table and the second table The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming unit outputs the image.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the output control unit relates to a page described as needless to be held in the first table and a page described as needless to be held in the second table. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein after the image is read out, the image is deleted from the holding unit.
The invention according to claim 5 further includes an operation unit for arbitrarily designating the output order of each page of the document data regardless of the page order of the logical page of the document data, and issuing a print instruction, The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reception unit receives a print instruction issued by the operation unit.
The invention according to claim 6 is based on a receiving unit that receives a print instruction including document data to be printed and control information, an analysis unit analyzing unit that analyzes the control information included in the print instruction, and the document data An image generating unit that generates an image of each page, a holding unit that holds the image generated by the image generating unit, and an output order for each page of the document data obtained by the analysis of the analyzing unit An output control device comprising: an output control unit that reads out the image held in the holding unit and transfers the image to an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a medium using an image forming material. .
In the invention according to claim 7, the output control unit registers each page number in the page order in the document data based on the output order, and whether the output is necessary or not with respect to each registered page number. A first table describing whether or not to hold and a specific page number in the document data are registered, and a subsequent page number and an image of the subsequent page number output after the image of the specific page number is output. A second table describing whether or not to continue holding the image of the subsequent page number after the output, and according to the description of the first table and the second table, the image of each page The output control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the output control apparatus reads out from the holding unit and outputs the read-out image to the image forming apparatus.
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the computer receives a print instruction including document data to be printed and control information, an analysis means for analyzing the control information included in the print instruction, and the document data An image generating unit that generates an image of each page based on the image data and holds the image in the storage device according to the output order of each page of the document data obtained by the analysis by the analyzing unit. A program that reads and functions as an output control unit that transfers the image to an image forming apparatus that forms an image on a medium using an image forming material.
In the invention according to claim 9, the output control means registers each page number in the order of pages in the document data based on the output order, and the necessity of output and the holding by the holding means for each registered page number. The first table describing whether or not is necessary and the specific page number in the document data are registered, and the subsequent page number output after the image of the specific page number and the image of the subsequent page number are output After that, a second table describing whether or not to continue holding the image of the subsequent page number is created, and according to the description of the first table and the second table, the image of each page is The program according to claim 8, wherein the program is read from a holding unit and output to the image forming apparatus.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when printing in the output order different from the page order of the document data, the document is printed out in the desired output order without creating output data in which the page order is changed. be able to.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, unnecessary images are deleted from the holding unit, so that the use efficiency of the storage area of the holding unit can be improved as compared with the case where this configuration is not used.
According to the invention of claim 3, it is possible to output the document in the output order arbitrarily designated in the print instruction based on the created first table and second table.
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the unnecessary image is deleted from the holding unit based on the first table and the second table, the storage area of the holding unit is compared with a case where this configuration is not used. The use efficiency can be improved.
According to the fifth aspect of the invention, it is possible to print out a document by designating a desired page order in the operation unit of the image forming apparatus.
According to the invention of claim 6, the image forming apparatus can be controlled to print out the document in the desired page order without rewriting the page order of the document data in the print instruction.
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, the image forming apparatus can be controlled based on the created first table and second table, and the document can be output in the output order arbitrarily designated in the print instruction. .
According to the invention of claim 8, it is possible to print out the document in a desired page order without rewriting the page order of the document data in the print instruction by controlling the image forming apparatus by the computer.
According to the invention of claim 9, the computer controls the image forming apparatus based on the first table and the second table to flexibly cope with the output order arbitrarily specified in the print instruction, A document can be output.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
<System configuration>
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment.
The image forming apparatus 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a print instruction receiving unit 110 for receiving a print instruction (print job), and a control information analyzing unit 120 that extracts and analyzes control information from the acquired print instruction. In addition, the image forming apparatus 100 includes an image generation unit 130 that generates an image based on image data included in the print instruction, and an image holding unit 140 that holds the generated image. Further, the image forming apparatus 100 includes an output control unit 150 and an image forming unit 160 for outputting an image.

  The print instruction receiving unit 110 receives a print instruction including control information and a drawing command. The print instruction is received and acquired from an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer. Alternatively, the image may be displayed on a display device or the like of the operation panel of the image forming apparatus 100 and an input by a user operation may be received. In the control information, settings in print processing and attribute information of an image to be output are described. Information specifying the page range to be output is also described in this control information. The drawing command includes document data. The document data is described in PDL or the like.

  The control information analysis unit 120 extracts control information from the print instruction acquired by the print instruction reception unit 110 and analyzes it. In the present embodiment, in particular, when a page range to be output is specified by the control information, a page range list representing the output page order is created based on this information. Conventionally, this type of page range is specified by individually specifying a desired page or specifying a desired page range according to the logical page of the document (page image in document data). It was. If a designation that does not follow the logical page order is made, the print instruction is not accepted. On the other hand, in this embodiment, not only the pages to be output are specified in the logical page order of the document but also in the reverse direction to the logical page order (that is, any page is specified before the previous page). Or specify a particular page multiple times. The created page range list is sent to the output control unit 150.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration example of the page range list.
In the page range list shown in FIG. 2, a page range entry is registered for each page instruction described in the control information of the print instruction. Each entry has a first page (lower), a last page (upper), and the next page. A pointer to the entry (next) of the instruction is described. By tracing this page range list from the top, the output page order specified in the print instruction is grasped.

  The image generation unit 130 generates an output page image (image data) based on the document data included in the print instruction drawing command acquired by the print instruction reception unit 110. The page images are generated in order from the first page in the logical page of the document. When there is a page that is not output in the specification of the page range by the control information, only the page to be output by skipping the page may be generated according to the logical page order. The generated image is stored and held in the image holding unit 140.

  The output control unit 150 reads out the images generated by the image generation unit 130 from the image holding unit 140 based on the output page order information obtained by the analysis of the control information analysis unit 120 and sequentially outputs the images to the image forming unit 160. Let In principle, the image is output in order from the first page according to the logical page of the document. When the above-mentioned page range list is created by the control information analysis unit 120, it is described in the page range list. This is done in page order. In the present embodiment, in order to output in the page order of the page range list, two types of tables called a page output control table and a page storage table are prepared.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration example of the page output control table.
The page output control table 151 illustrated in FIG. 3 includes a “page” column, an “output” column, and a “save” column. In the “page” column, a numerical value representing a page number of a logical page which is an original page of a document is registered. Thereby, it is shown that the corresponding line is a setting related to the page image of the page. In the “output” column, a value of “TRUE” or “FALSE” is entered. When the value is “TRUE”, the page image of the page is transferred to the image forming unit 160. On the other hand, when the value is “FALSE”, the page image of the page is not transferred to the image forming unit 160. The value “TRUE” or “FALSE” is entered in the “Save” column. When the value is “TRUE”, the page image of the page is stored in the image holding unit 140. On the other hand, when the value is “FALSE”, the page image of the page is not stored in the image holding unit 140. In the latter case, the page image is discarded after the processing of the page is completed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration example of the page storage table.
The page storage table 152 illustrated in FIG. 4 includes a “page” column, an “output” column, and a “continuation” column. In the “page” column, a numerical value indicating the number of the logical page that is the original page of the document is registered. Thereby, it is shown that the corresponding line is a setting related to the page image of the page. In the “output” column, page numbers of page images held in the image holding unit 140 are registered. When the page indicated in the “page” column is processed, the page image registered in the “output” column is read out and transferred to the image forming unit 160 in association with the processing. The “Continue” column contains a value of “TRUE” or “FALSE”. When the value is “TRUE”, no particular processing is performed. On the other hand, when the value is “FALSE”, the page image registered in the “output” column is deleted from the image holding unit 140 after being sent to the image forming unit 160.

  After creating the table configured as described above, the output control unit 150 reads the page image from the image holding unit 140 according to the table, transfers the page image to the image forming unit 160, and outputs the page image. The procedure for creating the two tables will be described later.

  The image forming unit 160 forms the image transferred from the output control unit 150 on a medium such as paper using an image forming material such as toner or ink. The image forming method may be any method such as an electrophotographic method, an inkjet method, or an electrostatic induction method.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus configuration example of the image forming apparatus 100.
The image forming apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 5 includes, as an image forming mechanism, a photosensitive drum 20a and an exposure device 20b corresponding to each color of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K). And a transfer belt 20c as an intermediate transfer member. A secondary transfer roll 20d is provided at a so-called secondary transfer position where an image (toner image) is transferred from the transfer belt 20c to a medium (paper or the like). In addition, the image forming apparatus 100 includes a paper feed cassette 20e that stores paper as a recording medium, and a fixing device 20f for fixing the transferred paper. Further, the image forming apparatus 100 displays a control device 20g for controlling the operation of the entire image forming apparatus 100, information indicating the state of the image forming apparatus 100, and an operation instruction to the image forming apparatus 100. And an operation panel 20h. The control device 20g includes a CPU, a nonvolatile memory that stores programs for controlling the CPU to realize various functions, a volatile memory for work in each process, and a magnetic disk device that is a secondary storage device. Is provided. The operation panel 20h is configured by combining display means such as a liquid crystal display and input means such as a touch panel and a keyboard, for example.

  FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of an electrophotographic apparatus, but as described above, the present embodiment can be applied to various types of image forming apparatuses such as an ink jet system and a thermal system. it can. The illustrated apparatus is a so-called tandem type digital color machine, but the present embodiment can be applied to image forming apparatuses having various configurations such as a 4-cycle type color machine and a monochromatic machine.

  When the image forming apparatus 100 in FIG. 1 is realized by the apparatus configuration illustrated in FIG. 5, the print instruction receiving unit 110, the control information analysis unit 120, the image generation unit 130, and the output control unit 150 are, for example, programmed control of the control device 20 g This is realized by a CPU and a memory. The image holding unit 140 is realized by a storage unit such as a memory or a magnetic disk device of the control device 20g. Further, the image forming unit 160 is realized by an image forming mechanism including a photosensitive drum 20a, an exposure device 20b, a transfer belt 20c, a secondary transfer roll 20d, a paper feed cassette 20e, a fixing device 20f, and the like.

<Table creation procedure>
Next, a procedure for creating the page output control table 151 and the page storage table 152 will be described.
6 to 8 are flowcharts showing a processing procedure for creating the page output control table 151 and the page storage table 152 from the page range list.
Referring to FIG. 6, the output control unit 150 first initializes the page output control table 151 (step 601). If the page range is not specified and the page range list is not created by the control information analysis unit 120, the output control unit 150 may output the page image according to the logical page of the document to be output. Therefore, the process ends without creating a table (step 602).

  On the other hand, when the page range is specified and the page range list is created by the control information analysis unit 120, the output control unit 150 acquires the page range list (step 603) and specifies the page range list. Among the pages to be processed, a variable “last” representing the last page is initialized (step 604). Next, the output control unit 150 acquires entries in order from the top of the page range list (step 605), and performs registration processing in the page range table (step 606). When the registration process is completed for all entries in the page range list, the table creation process is terminated (step 607).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing detailed contents of the page range registration process shown in step 606 of FIG.
In this registration process, the output control unit 150 first sets the value of the variable i as the first page (lower) in the entry of interest acquired in step 605 of FIG. 6 (step 701). Next, the output control unit 150 determines whether or not the value of the variable i exceeds the last page (upper) in the entry of interest as a process termination condition. If the value of the variable i exceeds the end page (Yes in step 702), the process ends because there is no unprocessed page in the entry of interest.

  If the value of the variable i has not reached the last page (No in step 702), then the output control unit 150 compares the value of the variable i with the value of the variable last. If the value of the variable i is equal to or greater than the value of the variable last (No in step 703), it means that the page is the first processing target after processing in the logical page order of the document. Accordingly, the output control unit 150 adds an entry to the end of the page output control table 151, and registers the value of the variable i in the “page” column, TRUE in the “output” column, and FALSE in the “save” column ( Step 704). Then, after updating the value of the variable “last” to the value of the variable “i” (step 705), 1 is further added (step 708), and the process returns to step 702 to determine the end condition again.

  On the other hand, if the value of the variable i is less than the value of the variable last (Yes in step 703), it means that the page is a page before the page already registered at the end of the page output control table 151. Therefore, the output control unit 150 performs registration processing for the i page in the table (step 706). Then, an entry is added to the end of the page storage table 152, and the value of the variable “last” is registered in the “page” column, the value of the variable i is registered in the “output” column, and FALSE is registered in the “continuation” column (step 707). Thereafter, 1 is added to the value of the variable i (step 708), and the process returns to step 702 to determine the end condition again.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the detailed contents of the page registration process shown in step 706 of FIG.
In this registration process, the output control unit 150 first acquires the top entry of the page output control table 151 (step 801). If there is no entry (No in step 802), the output control unit 150 adds an entry (in this case, the first entry) to the end of the page output control table 151, and sets the variable i in the “page” column. The value, FALSE in the “output” column, and TRUE in the “save” column are registered (step 806).

  If the first entry exists (Yes in step 802), the value of the “page” column of the entry is compared with the value of the variable i (steps 803 and 804). When the value of the “page” column is less than the value of the variable i (Yes in step 803), the page (i-th page) that is focused on as a processing target is registered in the entry acquired from the page output control table 151. This means that the page is after the current page. Therefore, the output control unit 150 further acquires the next entry (step 805) and returns to step 802. If this process is repeated and the next entry no longer exists (No in step 802), it means that the page output control table 151 contains only the page before the page of interest. Therefore, the output control unit 150 adds an entry to the end of the page output control table 151, and registers the value of the variable i in the “page” column, FALSE in the “output” column, and TRUE in the “save” column ( Step 806).

  When the value of the “page” column of the acquired entry is equal to the value of the variable i (No in step 803, Yes in step 804), the page focused on as a processing target (i-th page) is the page output control table 151. Means that it has already been registered and has been processed twice or more. Therefore, the output control unit 150 changes the value of the “save” column in this entry from FALSE set to TRUE in step 704 of FIG. 7 (step 807).

  Furthermore, when the value of the “page” column of the acquired entry is larger than the value of the variable i (No in step 803, No in step 804), the page (noting the processing target) in the page output control table 151 ( This means that there is no entry corresponding to (i-th page), but the subsequent page is registered. Therefore, the output control unit 150 inserts a new entry immediately before the current entry, and registers the value of the variable i in the “page” column, FALSE in the “output” column, and TRUE in the “save” column ( Step 808).

  After the page output control table 151 is updated in any of steps 806, 807, and 808, the output control unit 150 acquires the first entry in the page storage table 152 (step 809). If an entry exists (Yes in step 810), it is checked whether or not the value of the variable i is registered in the “output” column of the entry. When the “output” column is not the variable i (No in Step 811), the output control unit 150 acquires the next entry (Step 813) and returns to Step 810. If the “output” column is the variable i (Yes in step 811), the output control unit 150 changes the value of the “continuation” column of the entry from FALSE set to TRUE in step 707 of FIG. (Step 812). Then, the next entry is acquired (step 813), and the process returns to step 810. These processes are repeated, and if there is no entry with the variable “i” in the “output” column in the page storage table 152 (No in step 810), the page registration process is terminated. Thereafter, as described above, a new entry is added to the end of the page storage table 152 in step 707 of FIG.

<Operation of output control>
Next, the operation of output control by the output control unit 150 will be described.
FIGS. 9 and 10 are flowcharts showing an operation procedure for reading out and outputting an image from the image holding unit 140 based on the page output control table 151 and the page storage table 152.
Referring to FIG. 9, the output control unit 150 first acquires the first entry of the page output control table 151 as a processing target (step 901). Then, the following processing is repeated for each page until the print job is completed (step 902).

  The output control unit 150 reads the page image of the nth page from the image holding unit 140 (step 903). Here, the variable n has an initial value of 1, and is incremented by 1 every time the processing from step 903 onward is repeated, and the last page number in the logical page of the document to be output is a maximum value. is there. That is, for each processing cycle, page images are sequentially read from the first page to the last page in the document to be output.

  Next, the output control unit 150 checks whether or not a page range to be output (Page Range) is specified in the print instruction control information. If the page range is not specified (No in step 904), the page images may be output according to the logical page order of the document. Therefore, the output control unit 150 transfers the page image read from the image holding unit 140 to the image forming unit 160 as it is (step 905), and returns to step 902.

  When the page range is specified (Yes in step 904), the output control unit 150 next checks the value of the “page” column of the entry of the page output control table 151 acquired as the processing target. If the value of the “page” column in the entry is not the variable n (No in Step 906), the page image is not an output target, so the output control unit 150 discards the page image (Step 907), and proceeds to Step 902. Return.

  On the other hand, when the value of the “page” column in the acquired entry is the variable n (Yes in Step 906), the output control unit 150 performs page image processing on the page image acquired in Step 903 (Step 908). The contents of this process will be described later. Thereafter, the output control unit 150 acquires the next entry as a processing target from the page output control table 151 (step 909), and returns to step 902.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing detailed contents of the page image processing shown in step 908 of FIG.
In this process, the output control unit 150 first checks whether the value in the “output” column of the entry of the page output control table 151 acquired as the processing target is TRUE or FALSE. When the value of the “output” column is TRUE (Yes in Step 1001), the output control unit 150 transfers the page image read in Step 903 of FIG. 9 to the image forming unit 160 (Step 1002). On the other hand, when the value of the “output” column is FALSE (No in step 1001), the page image is not transferred to the image forming unit 160.

  Next, the output control unit 150 checks whether the value of the “saved” column of this entry is TRUE or FALSE. If the value of the “Save” column is TRUE (Yes in Step 1003), the page image is used again later, so the output control unit 150 leaves the page image in the image holding unit 140 (Step 1004). . On the other hand, when the value of the “save” column is FALSE (No in step 1003), the page image is not used thereafter, so the output control unit 150 deletes (discards) the page image from the image holding unit 140. (Step 1005).

  Next, the output control unit 150 obtains an entry whose value in the “page” column is the value of the variable n from the page storage table 152 (step 1006). If such an entry does not exist in the page storage table 152 (No in step 1007), the process ends.

  If the desired entry exists (Yes in step 1007), the output control unit 150 reads the page image of the page registered in the “output” column of this entry from the image holding unit 140 (step 1008), and Transfer to the forming unit 160 (step 1009). Then, it is checked whether the value of the “continuation” column of this entry is TRUE or FALSE.

  When the value of the “continuation” column of the entry is TRUE (Yes in step 1010), the output control unit 150 acquires an entry in which the value of the “page” column in the page storage table 152 is the next value of the variable n. (Step 1011), the process returns to Step 1007. On the other hand, when the value of the “continuation” column of the entry is FALSE (No in Step 1010), the output control unit 150 deletes the page image read in Step 1008 from the image holding unit 140 (Step 1012). Then, an entry whose value in the “page” column in the page storage table 152 is the next value of the variable n is acquired (step 1011), and the process returns to step 1007.

<Specific example>
Next, the operation of this embodiment will be further described by taking a specific print instruction as an example.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a dialog box used when a print instruction is issued.
A dialog box 200 shown in FIG. 11 is displayed on the display device of the image forming apparatus 100 when issuing a print instruction from the information processing apparatus connected to the image forming apparatus 100. Further, when a print instruction is issued by operating the operation panel of the image forming apparatus 100, the image is displayed on the display device of the operation panel. In the example shown in FIG. 11, a dialog box 200 includes a file input field 201 for specifying a document (file) to be printed, a page input field 202 for specifying a page range to be printed, and an output. A printer input field 203 for designating the image forming apparatus 100 and a button object (“print” button) 204 for issuing a print instruction are provided.

  Here, it is assumed that a document (PDF file) having up to 20 logical pages is to be printed and each page is output in the order of the 10th page, 9th page, 12th page, 9th page to 10th page. . In this case, in the dialog box 200 of FIG. 11, information (file name, path name, etc.) for specifying a document to be printed is input to the file input field 201, and the above page range designation information is input to the page input field 202. Entered. Specifically, for example, “10, 9, 12, 9-10” is described. Information (device name, device ID, etc.) specifying the image forming apparatus 100 is input to the printer input field 203, the button object 204 is selected, and a print instruction is issued. The print instruction includes control information including page range designation information input in the page input field 202 and a rendering command including a document specified by the information input in the file input field 201.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of print instruction control information.
FIG. 12 shows control information described in XML (eXtensible Markup Language). In the control information of FIG. 12, the description of each value tag described under the page-ranges tag is the page range designation information. In the value tag, a specified page range is described by the first page (lower-bound) and the last page (upper-bound). In the illustrated example, there are four designations “10”, “9”, “12”, and “9-10”.

  When the print instruction configured as described above is received by the print instruction receiving unit 110, the control information analysis unit 120 analyzes the control information shown in FIG. 12, and based on the page range designation information, the page range list Create As described above, since four pieces of designation information are described in the control information in FIG. 12, a page range list including four entries as shown in FIG. 13 is created here.

Next, the output control unit 150 creates the page output control table 151 and the page storage table 152 according to the procedure shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 based on the page range list shown in FIG.
FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the page output control table 151, and FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the page storage table 152.
Referring to FIG. 14, when each item is represented by {page, output, storage} in the page output control table 151, {9, FALSE, TRUE}, {10, TRUE, TRUE}, {12, TRUE, FALSE }, There are three entries. Referring to FIG. 15, if each item is represented by {page, output, continuation} in the page storage table 152, {10, 9, TRUE}, {12, 9, FALSE}, {12, 10, There are three entries, FALSE}.

  Next, the output control unit 150 generates a page generated by the image generation unit 130 and held in the image holding unit 140 according to the procedure shown in FIGS. 9 and 10 based on the output control table 151 and the page storage table 152. The image is read and transferred to the image forming unit 160.

  Specifically, since the “page” column of the first entry in the page output control table 151 is 9, page images up to the eighth page are discarded. Next, the first entry of the page output control table 151 is “page” column 9, “output” column FALSE, and “save” column TRUE. Are not transferred to the image storage unit 140 but are stored in the image storage unit 140. In addition, since there is no entry whose “page” column is 9 in the page storage table 152, other pages related to the ninth page are not output.

  Next, since the “page” column is 10, the “output” column is TRUE, and the “save” column is TRUE, the entry of the second row of the page output control table 151 is that the page image of the 10th page is the image forming unit. The image is transferred to 160 and output, and held in the image holding unit 140. Subsequently, since the page storage table 152 includes entries of “page” column 10, “output” column 9 and “continuation” column TRUE, the page image of the ninth page is read from the image holding unit 140. And transferred to the image forming unit 160 for output. In this entry, since the “continuation” column is TRUE, the page image of the ninth page is held without being deleted from the image holding unit 140 at this time.

  Next, since the “page” column of the third row entry of the page output control table 151 is 12, the page image of the 11th page is discarded. Since the “page” column is 12, the “output” column is TRUE, and the “save” column is FALSE, the page image of the 12th page is transferred to the image forming unit 160 and output. And deleted from the image holding unit 140. Subsequently, in the second row of the page storage table 152, there is an entry in which the “page” column is 12, the “output” column is 9, and the “continue” column is FALSE. The image data is read from the image forming unit 140, transferred to the image forming unit 160, and output. In this entry, since the “continuation” column is FALSE, the page image of the ninth page is deleted from the image holding unit 140 after being read. Furthermore, in the third row of the page storage table 152, there is an entry in which the “page” column is 12, the “output” column is 10, and the “continuation” column is FALSE. Accordingly, the page image of the tenth page is read from the image holding unit 140, transferred to the image forming unit 160 and output, and further deleted from the image holding unit 140.

  Next, since there are no subsequent entries in the page output control table 151, page images on and after the 13th page are discarded. As described above, the page images are output in the order of the 10th page, the 9th page, the 12th page, the 9th page, and the 10th page as specified in the print instruction.

  As mentioned above, although this embodiment was described, the technical scope of this invention is not limited to the range as described in the said embodiment. For example, in the above operation example, after creating page images for all logical pages in a document, the output control unit 150 reads out and outputs pages to be printed, and discards unnecessary page images. On the other hand, the control information analysis unit 120 first checks the presence / absence of page range designation information. If there is designation information, a page image may be created only for the page designated by the page range list.

  In the above configuration example, the control device provided in the image forming apparatus analyzes the print instruction control information and controls the output. However, these functions are provided separately from the image forming apparatus. You may implement | achieve with an output control apparatus. In addition, it is clear from the description of the scope of the claims that various modifications or improvements added to the above embodiment are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

1 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the page range list used by this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the data structural example of the page output control table used by this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of the page preservation | save table used by this embodiment. 1 is a diagram illustrating an apparatus configuration example of an image forming apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence which produces a page output control table and a page preservation | save table from the page range list | wrist in this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the detailed content of the page range registration process of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the detailed content of the page registration process of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the operation | movement procedure which outputs an image based on the page output control table and page storage table in this embodiment. 10 is a flowchart showing detailed contents of page image processing of FIG. 9. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the dialog box used at the time of issuing a printing instruction | indication. It is a figure which shows an example of the control information of a printing instruction. It is a figure which shows the page range list produced based on the control information of FIG. It is a figure which shows the page output control table produced based on the page range list | wrist of FIG. It is a figure which shows the page preservation | save table created based on the page range list | wrist of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20,100 ... Image forming apparatus, 110 ... Print instruction reception part, 120 ... Control information analysis part, 130 ... Image generation part, 140 ... Image holding part, 150 ... Output control part, 160 ... Image formation part, 20g ... Control apparatus 20h ... operation panel

Claims (9)

An image forming unit that forms an image on a medium with an image forming material;
A receiving unit for receiving a print instruction including document data to be printed and control information;
An analysis unit for analyzing the control information included in the print instruction;
An image generation unit that generates an image of each page based on the document data;
A holding unit for holding the image generated by the image generating unit;
An output control unit that reads the image held in the holding unit according to the output order of each page of the document data obtained by the analysis of the analysis unit, and causes the image forming unit to form the output control unit;
An image forming apparatus comprising:   The output control unit leaves the image in the holding unit when the image read from the holding unit is set for output based on the output order, and the image is not set for output. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is deleted from the holding unit. The output control unit
Based on the output order,
A first table describing the necessity of output and the necessity of holding by the holding unit with respect to each page number and each registered page number in page order in the document data;
Whether to continue holding the image of the specific page number in the document data, the subsequent page number output after the image of the specific page number is output, and the image of the subsequent page number after outputting the image of the subsequent page number Create a second table describing the heels,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an image of each page is read from the holding unit and output to the image forming unit in accordance with the description of the first table and the second table.   The output control unit reads out an image of the page after reading an image of the page for a page described as needless to be retained in the first table and a page described as needless to be retained in the second table. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the image forming apparatus is deleted from the holding unit. An operation unit for issuing a print instruction by arbitrarily specifying the output order of each page of the document data regardless of the page order of the logical page of the document data;
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reception unit receives a print instruction issued by the operation unit. A receiving unit for receiving a print instruction including document data to be printed and control information;
An analysis unit for analyzing the control information included in the print instruction;
An image generation unit that generates an image of each page based on the document data;
A holding unit for holding the image generated by the image generating unit;
An image forming apparatus that reads the image held in the holding unit in accordance with the output order of each page of the document data obtained by the analysis by the analyzing unit, and forms the image on a medium using an image forming material An output controller to transfer to,
An output control device comprising: The output control unit
Based on the output order,
A first table that registers each page number in page order in the document data, and describes the necessity of output and the necessity of holding by the holding unit for each registered page number;
Register a specific page number in the document data, and continue holding the image of the subsequent page number after outputting the subsequent page number and the subsequent page number output after the image of the specific page number is output Create a second table that describes whether or not to
The output control apparatus according to claim 6, wherein an image of each page is read from the holding unit and output to the image forming apparatus in accordance with the descriptions in the first table and the second table. Computer
Receiving means for receiving a print instruction including document data to be printed and control information;
Analyzing means for analyzing the control information included in the print instruction;
Image generating means for generating an image of each page based on the document data and causing the storage device to store the image;
An image forming apparatus that reads the image held in the storage device in accordance with the output order of each page of the document data obtained by the analysis by the analyzing unit, and forms the image on a medium using an image forming material As output control means to transfer to
A program characterized by functioning. The output control means includes
Based on the output order,
A first table that registers each page number in page order in the document data, and describes the necessity of output and the necessity of holding by the holding means for each registered page number;
Register a specific page number in the document data, and continue holding the image of the subsequent page number after outputting the subsequent page number and the subsequent page number output after the image of the specific page number is output Create a second table that describes whether or not to
9. The program according to claim 8, wherein an image of each page is read from the holding unit and output to the image forming apparatus in accordance with the descriptions of the first table and the second table.

Images