JP2013161333A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system for reducing power consumption relating to printing, and for performing printing under the consideration of confidentiality.SOLUTION: A printing system includes: a server for storing a print job whose user range for designating a plurality of users who are permitted to perform printing is set; and a printer for executing the print job transmitted from the server. The printer transmits information relating to the user who performs access to the server, and the server extracts the print job whose user range includes the user who performs access from among the stored print jobs, and transmits the extracted print job to the printer.

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly to a printing system provided with a server for storing print jobs.

  In an image forming apparatus, particularly an electrophotographic printing apparatus, a large amount of electric power is consumed particularly in a fixing unit in order to thermally fix toner. If the print request is not continuous but arrives at an indefinite time interval, the normal mode in which the printing unit can be operated and the power saving mode in which the power to the printing unit is cut off are repeated. The cycle of temperature and normal temperature will be repeated, and a lot of power will be consumed.

  In order to solve this problem, Patent Documents 1 and 2 propose a method of printing a plurality of print jobs together in order to reduce power consumption.

  However, when printing a plurality of print jobs together, it is necessary to consider the confidentiality of the printed document. If the user forgets to collect a document, an unspecified number of users can view the text, which causes information security problems.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-228561 discloses a method that allows simple output control when printing a confidential document. However, in this document, the power consumption of the apparatus is not taken into consideration.

JP 2010-137410 A JP 2011-24409 A JP 2005-63238 A

  On the other hand, in recent years, a printing system in which an image forming apparatus and a server operate in cooperation with each other has been proposed, and a method for reducing power consumption by storing print jobs in the server has been proposed.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system capable of reducing power consumption related to printing and capable of printing in consideration of confidentiality.

  A printing system according to an aspect of the present invention includes a server that accumulates print jobs in which a user range capable of specifying a plurality of users permitted to print is set, and a printer that executes a print job transmitted from the server. Is provided. The printer sends information about the accessing user to the server, and the server extracts the print job included in the user range from the stored print jobs and sends the extracted print job to the printer. To do.

  Preferably, the terminal device further includes a terminal device connected to the server, and the terminal device includes a print job creation unit that creates a print job and a setting unit that sets a user range for the created print job.

  Preferably, the server calculates the number of jobs for each user who is permitted to print based on the set user range of the accumulated print jobs, and identifies the user who accesses based on the calculation result.

  In particular, when a predetermined number or more of print jobs are accumulated in the server, the number of jobs for each user permitted to print is calculated based on the set user range of the accumulated print jobs.

  In particular, the server calculates the number of jobs for each user who is permitted to print based on the set user range of the accumulated print jobs after a certain period of time has elapsed since the previous print job transmission.

  Preferably, the printer includes an authentication unit that executes an authentication process, and the printer transmits information about the user to the server when the authentication process of the accessing user in the authentication unit is successful.

  In the printing system, it is possible to perform printing in consideration of confidentiality while reducing power consumption related to printing.

It is a figure explaining the outline of the printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the flow of a process of the printing system according to embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining an example of the setting screen of a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the specific example of the printing process in the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the outline of the printing system according to the modification of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the flow of a process of the printing system according to the modification of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining the specific example of the printing process in the printing system according to the modification of embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining another flow of a process of the printing system according to the modification of embodiment of this invention.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the same parts and components are denoted by the same reference numerals. Their names and functions are also the same.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Referring to FIG. 1, a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a personal computer (PC) 2 that is a terminal device, a print server 10, and a multi function peripheral (MFP) 20. These are connected via a network (not shown). The network may be wired or wireless.

The main functional blocks of each device will be described.
The PC 2 according to the embodiment of the present invention creates a user range setting unit 4 for setting a user range permitted to print, and a print job for sending to the MFP 20 the document data created by the document creation application software A print job creating unit 6 for sending the print job, and a print job sending unit 8 for sending the created print job to the print server 10. The user range set by the user range setting unit 4 is included in the print job and transmitted to the print server 10 as a part of the print job.

  The print server 10 includes a print job storage unit 12 for storing the received print job in, for example, an HDD (not shown), and a standby print job transmission unit 14 for transmitting the stored print job to the MFP 20.

  The MFP 20 includes a user authentication unit 22 that performs authentication processing of a user to be accessed, a print start instruction unit 24 that receives a print start command, and a printing unit 26 that executes print processing. It is assumed that the MFP 20 in this example is permitted to execute an operation only for a user whose authentication processing has been successfully performed by the user authentication unit 22. It is assumed that authentication data for each user necessary for the authentication process is registered in the MFP 20 in advance.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 2, first, in PC 2, print job creation unit 6 starts creating a print job (sequence Sq2). Specifically, the printer driver is activated to send document data created by the document creation application software to the print server 10.

  Next, in the user range setting unit 4, a user range for setting a range of users permitted to print is set (sequence Sq4).

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a printer driver setting screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  With reference to FIG. 3, it is possible to give setting instructions regarding various printings on the setting screen 100. In this example, a case where a button 102 for setting a range of users permitted to print is provided. By pressing the button 102, the user range setting screen 200 is displayed, and the user range permitted to be printed can be specified on the user range setting screen 200.

  Specifically, an “all” button 202 that permits printing to all users, an example of specifying a group of users that are permitted to print, “department X” that designates a department, button 204 of “department Y”, individual A case where buttons 206 of “user A” and “user B” for specifying the user are provided is shown.

  In the user range setting screen 200, when another user included in the user range accesses the MFP 20 by designating a range in which the user permits printing, the other user executes the print job. Is possible.

  By pressing the OK button 208, the user range set on the user range setting screen 200 is included in the print job.

  Referring to FIG. 2 again, next, print job transmission unit 8 transmits the print job to print server 10 (sequence Sq6).

  The print job storage unit 12 of the print server 10 receives the print job transmitted from the PC 2 and stores it in the HDD or the like (sequence Sq8).

  On the other hand, user authentication unit 22 of MFP 20 requests a user accessing MFP 20 for user authentication processing (sequence Sq10).

  When the authentication process is successful, the print start instruction unit 24 of the MFP 20 requests the print server 10 to transmit the accumulated print job and transmits information regarding the user for which the authentication process is successful (sequence). Sq12).

  Then, standby print job transmission unit 14 of print server 10 determines a print job (also referred to as standby print job) to be transmitted to MFP 20 based on the information about the user received together with the job request (sequence Sq14).

  Then, standby print job transmission unit 14 of print server 10 transmits the determined print job to MFP 20 (sequence Sq16).

  Then, the print start instruction unit 24 of the MFP 20 receives the transmitted print job and outputs it to the printing unit 26. Then, the printing unit 26 prints the print job (sequence Sq18).

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the printing process in the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 4, here, a case where seven print jobs (documents 1 to 7) created by users A to G are accumulated in the print server 10 is shown.

  In addition to the user name, a user range is set for the print job. Document 1 is “Overall”, Document 2 is “Department X”, Document 3 is “Department X”, Document 4 In the figure, “all” is set, “department Y” is set for document 5, “department Y” is set for document 6, and “department Y” is set for document 7. It is assumed that users A, B, and C belong to department X, and D, E, F, and G belong to department Y. Information relating to the department may be held by the print server 10 or only by the MFP 20.

Here, a case where the user G accesses the MFP 20 will be described.
When the authentication process is successful in the user authentication unit 22 of the MFP 20, the print start instruction unit 24 transmits the job request and information on the department Y as well as the user name as information about the user G.

  The standby print job transmission unit 14 of the print server 10 determines a print job to be transmitted based on information about the user (user G and department Y) transmitted from the MFP 20.

  Specifically, based on the information of the user G and the department Y, the print jobs relating to the documents 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are extracted from the stored HDD and transmitted from the print server 10 to the MFP 20.

  Then, the MFP 20 executes a print job related to the documents 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Note that the print jobs related to the documents 2 and 3 are maintained in the print server 10.

  With this processing, print jobs relating to five documents (1, 4, 5, 6, and 7) can be collectively printed in the MFP 20, and power consumption in the printing system can be reduced.

  Also, by setting the range for which printing is permitted as the user range, it is possible to allow only permitted users, ie, users who can browse, to print, and to maintain confidentiality. As in this example, there is no problem even if the user is in the same department, and the convenience is high. In this example, the case where the user name is also transmitted as the information regarding the user has been described. However, only the information regarding the department may be transmitted.

  In the case of this method, other users, for example, users in the same department, collect and print and collect sentences about users in the same department, but it is unclear which sentence corresponds to which user. For example, information on the correspondence relationship may be displayed on the operation panel of the MFP 20, or a user name to be distributed to the printed material may be printed and displayed.

  In this example, the case where the user range is set on the setting screen of the printer driver has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this case, and the data is embedded in advance in the text data created by the document creation application software. You may make it do.

(Modification)
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an outline of a printing system according to a modification of the embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 5, as compared with the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, the point that print server 10 is replaced with print server 10 # is different. Since the other points are the same, detailed description thereof will not be repeated.

  Specifically, the print server 10 # is different in that a collection person setting unit 16 is further provided.

  The collection person setting unit 16 sets priorities based on the print jobs stored in the print server 10 #, and identifies which users need to access the MFP 20. The result is output to the standby print job transmission unit 14.

  The standby print job transmission unit 14 determines whether or not to transmit a standby print job according to information from the collection person setting unit 16.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow of the printing system according to the modification of the embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 6, first, in PC 2, print job creating unit 6 starts creating a print job (sequence Sq2). Specifically, the printer driver is activated to transmit document data created by the document creation application software to the print server 10.

  Next, in the user range setting unit 4, a user range is set (sequence Sq4).

Next, the print job transmission unit 8 transmits a print job (sequence Sq6).
The print job storage unit 12 of the print server 10 receives and stores the print job transmitted from the PC 2 (sequence Sq8).

  On the other hand, the user authentication unit 22 of the MFP 20 requests a user authentication process from the accessing user (sequence Sq10).

  When the authentication process is successful, the print start instructing unit 24 of the MFP 20 requests the print server 10 to transmit the accumulated job and transmits information regarding the user G for which the authentication process has been successful (sequence). Sq12).

  Next, the collection person setting section 16 of the print server 10 sets the priority order based on the received information regarding the user G together with the job request (sequence Sq13).

  Next, the standby print job transmission unit 14 of the print server 10 determines a print job to be transmitted to the MFP 20 based on the set priority order (sequence Sq14).

  Then, standby print job transmission unit 14 of print server 10 transmits the determined print job to MFP 20 (sequence Sq16).

  Then, the print start instruction unit 24 of the MFP 20 receives the transmitted print job and outputs it to the printing unit 26. Then, the printing unit 26 prints the print job (sequence Sq18).

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of the printing process in the printing system according to the modification of the embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 7, here, a case where seven print jobs (documents 1 to 7) respectively created by users A to G are stored in the print server is shown.

  User ranges are set for the print jobs. Document 1 is “all”, document 2 is “department X”, document 3 is “department X”, document 4 is “entire”, The document 5 shows the case where “Department Y”, the document 6 shows “Department Y”, and the document 7 shows the case where “Department Y” is set. It is assumed that users A, B, and C belong to department X, and D, E, F, and G belong to department Y. Information relating to the department may be held by the print server 10 or only by the MFP 20.

Here, a case where the user G accesses the MFP 20 will be described.
When the authentication process is successful in the user authentication unit 22 of the MFP 20, the print start instruction unit 24 transmits the job request and information on the department Y as well as the user name as information about the user G.

  The collection person setting unit 16 of the print server 10 sets the priority order based on the information (user G and department Y) related to the user transmitted from the MFP 20.

  Specifically, the number of documents (number of jobs) included in the user range is counted for each user. A case is shown in which there are four users A to C and five users D to G, respectively.

  The case where the priority is set according to the number is shown. Specifically, the users D to G are set to the first priority, and the users A to C are set to the second priority.

In this example, only the user with the highest priority is allowed to print.
Since user G has the first priority, printing is permitted and a print job relating to sentences 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7 is executed.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating another flow of processing of the printing system according to the modification of the embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to FIG. 8, first, in PC 2, print job creating unit 6 starts creating a print job (sequence Sq2). Specifically, the printer driver is activated to transmit document data created by the document creation application software to the print server 10.

  Next, in the user range setting unit 4, a user range is set (sequence Sq4).

Next, the print job transmission unit 8 transmits a print job (sequence Sq6).
The print job storage unit 12 of the print server 10 receives and stores the print job transmitted from the PC 2 (sequence Sq8).

  On the other hand, the user authentication unit 22 of the MFP 20 requests a user authentication process from the accessing user (sequence Sq10).

  When the authentication process is successful, the print start instructing unit 24 of the MFP 20 requests the print server 10 to transmit the accumulated job and transmits information regarding the user A for which the authentication process is successful (sequence). Sq12).

  Next, the collection person setting section 16 of the print server 10 sets the priority order based on the received information regarding the user A together with the job request (sequence Sq13).

  Next, the standby print job transmission unit 14 of the print server 10 determines a print job to be transmitted to the MFP 20 based on the set priority order (sequence Sq14). At that time, as described with reference to FIG. 7, the user A is not allowed to print because it is not the first priority but the second priority.

  Then, standby print job transmission unit 14 of print server 10 transmits to MFP 20 that the print job transmission is prohibited (sequence Sq17).

  As a result, no print job is transmitted to the MFP 20, and only a user with a high priority can execute the print job.

  With this process, when the user G accesses the MFP 20, the priority order of the user G is high, so that print jobs relating to five documents can be printed together, and power consumption in the printing system can be reduced. It is. On the other hand, when user A accesses MFP 20, printing is not permitted because user A's priority is low. That is, by specifying a user who is permitted to print, more efficient printing is possible, and power consumption can be reduced.

  In this example, the process of setting the priority in the collection person setting unit 16 has been described for a case where a job transmission request is received from the user. However, the process is not limited to this timing. The processing may be executed when the number of print jobs stored in the server 10 exceeds a predetermined number, or the processing may be performed when a predetermined time or more has passed since the previous print job transmission. You may make it perform.

  Further, in this example, the case where only the user with the first priority is permitted has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is also possible to permit a user with a predetermined rank or higher (for example, fifth or higher). is there. Or you may make it restrict | limit by how many people and the number of people from the upper rank.

  In the case of this method, a user with high priority does not always access the MFP 20. Therefore, for example, the print server 10 can output an instruction for urging access to the MFP 20 from the print server 10 to the PC of the user with high priority so that the user with high priority can easily access. is there. For example, it is possible to prompt the user to access the MFP 20 by a pop-up window.

  In this example, the case where a department can be set as a user range has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this information, and for example, it may be set by job title. Alternatively, a user who is permitted to print directly may be designated by a user name.

  The image forming apparatus according to the present invention is not limited to the MFP, and may be a printer apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, or the like.

  The embodiment disclosed this time should be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

  4 user range setting unit, 6 print job creation unit, 8 print job transmission unit, 10 print server, 12 print job storage unit, 14 standby print job transmission unit, 16 collection person setting unit, 20 MFP, 22 user authentication unit, 24 print start instruction section, 26 print section, 100 setting screen, 200 user range setting screen.

Claims (6)

A server that stores print jobs with user ranges that allow multiple users to be allowed to print,
A printer that executes a print job transmitted from the server,
The printer sends information about the accessing user to the server,
The server
The access user extracts the print job included in the user range from the accumulated print jobs,
A printing system for transmitting the extracted print job to the printer. A terminal device connected to the server;
The terminal device
Print job creation means for creating a print job;
The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising setting means for setting the user range with respect to the created print job. The server
Based on the set user range of the accumulated print jobs, calculate the number of jobs for each user permitted to print,
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the accessing user is specified based on a calculation result.   The number of jobs for each user permitted to print is calculated based on the set user range of the accumulated print jobs when a predetermined number or more of print jobs are accumulated in the server. Printing system.   The server calculates the number of jobs for each user who is permitted to print based on the set user range of the accumulated print jobs after a lapse of a certain period from the transmission of the previous print job. Printing system. The printer includes an authentication unit that executes an authentication process,
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the printer transmits information about the user to the server when the authentication process of the accessing user in the authentication unit is successful.

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