JP2014052839A - Document printing method, document printing program, and document printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To print the document data of a large volume of pages by utilizing printer performance to a maximum in a document printing system.SOLUTION: A document printing system 1 requests print job generation to a spooler service part 101, issues a drawing command of one page of document data 2 (10), obtains intermediate form data 110 by a page unit to generate temporary print data 120 (121), obtains a temporary size which is a total data size of temporary print data 120 generated thus far and a maximum page size which is a maximum value of a data size per page (122), adds the maximum size to the temporary size to obtain the predicted size of the print data of the print job, determines whether the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size of the print data of a printer 105 (15), and executes processing (10) for instructing the spooler service part 101 to close the print job when the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size.

Description

  The present invention relates to print processing of form data, and more particularly to print processing of form data of a large number of pages.

  The form printing system receives a drawing command for the form data to be printed, converts the form data into print data that can be interpreted by the printer, transfers the print data to the printer, and executes print processing. As an example of processing, the print server that constitutes the form printing system has a spooler service function for processing efficiency, spools print jobs (print data), and prints by the drawing processing function of the form printing system. Intermediate format data (metafile, extended metafile, etc.) independent of the printer model is generated from the form data. Further, a printer driver corresponding to the output printer asynchronously converts the intermediate format data into print data, and a port control function corresponding to the output printer transfers the print data to the output printer. The operations of the drawing processing function, the printer driver of each printer, and the port control function are controlled by a processing unit (print spooler) that controls the spooler service of the print job.

  In the printing process of very large size form data such as form data such as resident tax payment slips and entrance examination question booklets, the number of output pages may exceed 1 million. On the other hand, the printer has a limit on the data size that can be processed at one time. For example, the upper limit is set to 2, 4 gigabytes (GB).

  Accordingly, since the data size of the form data to be printed exceeds the upper limit of the printable data size of the printer, it is necessary to divide the print data transferred to the printer.

  As a conventional method for limiting the size of print data, an upper limit value for the number of prints allowed is set for each user, and in the case of a print job in which the number of prints exceeds the set upper limit value, whether or not printing is allowed for the amount exceeding the upper limit value is determined. There is known a method of specifying and performing a printing process based on the specification.

  As another conventional method, a print amount to be divided into jobs is determined based on the amount of change between the latest calibration information held by the printer and past calibration information, and the divided print jobs are sequentially transferred to the printer. Processing is known.

JP 2005-165953 A JP 2008-176717 A

  When printing a large amount of forms, it is necessary to specify the number of pages of the form and instruct the printing process so that the printer does not exceed the upper limit of the data size that can be handled by one printing process. In this case, even if the print data converted from the form data to be printed is simply binary divided, the printer cannot correctly recognize the divided print data.

  In general, when a high-speed printer starts printing, that is, at the time of printing for the top data of print data (corresponding to several tens of pages of form data), the rotational speed of the printer mechanism reaches a high value. Therefore, the printer performance cannot be demonstrated. If the print data is divided finely, the printer rotation speed is often not high, and the printer performance cannot be exhibited.

  For jobs that require printing large amounts of data, it is necessary to print as efficiently as possible, and the size of the data that does not exceed the upper limit of the printable data size so that the printer can print with maximum performance. The print data needs to be transferred to the printer.

  However, the size of the print data is several tens to several hundred times the size of the form data to be printed in the raster processing process, but the extent to which the size increases depends on the data content, so the form to be printed It is difficult to accurately predict the print data size from the data size.

  It is an object of the present invention to provide a form printing method, a form printing program, and a form printing system that perform a printing process that can efficiently print a large amount of form data by maximizing the printing performance of a printer.

  According to the form printing method disclosed as one aspect of the present invention, a computer having a spooler service unit that spools a print job requests the spooler service unit to generate a print job, and the form data of the print job is 1 Temporary print data corresponding to the printer is issued by issuing a drawing command for a page, specifying the printer specified in the print job, obtaining intermediate format data generated by the drawing processing of the form data And obtaining a temporary size that is the total data size of the temporary print data generated up to the present time based on the data size of the temporary print data, and the maximum value of the data size per page in the temporary print data The maximum page size is acquired, and the maximum size is added to the temporary size to obtain print data in the print job. Obtain a predicted size, determine whether the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size of the print data of the printer, and if the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size, instruct the spooler service unit to close the print job The process is executed.

  Furthermore, a form printing program disclosed as one aspect of the present invention is for causing a computer to execute processing realized by the above-described form printing method. Furthermore, a form printing system disclosed as an aspect of the present invention includes a processing unit that realizes the processing in the above-described form printing method.

  According to the above-described form printing method, a large amount of form data can be efficiently printed by making the best use of the printer performance without depending on the printer model.

It is a figure which shows the block structural example of the form printing system in one Example. It is a figure which shows the data structural example of the data size information in one Example. It is a figure which shows the data structural example of the management information in one Example. It is a figure for demonstrating the flow of a process of the form printing system in one Example. It is a figure which shows the transition example of the data size information in the size count process in one Example, and management information. It is a figure which shows the transition example of the data size information in the size count process in one Example, and management information. It is a figure which shows the transition example of the data size information in the size count process in one Example, and management information. It is a figure which shows the transition example of the data size information in the size count process in one Example, and management information. It is a figure which shows the example of a processing flow of the form printing part in one Example. It is a figure which shows the example of a processing flow of the form printing part in one Example. It is a figure which shows the example of a processing flow of the monitoring part in one Example. It is a figure which shows the example of a processing flow of the size count part in one Example. It is a figure which shows the hardware structural example of the computer apparatus with which a form printing system is implemented.

  Hereinafter, a form printing system disclosed as one aspect of the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a block configuration example of a form printing system according to an embodiment.

  In the present embodiment, the form printing system 1 is implemented by a computer.

  The form printing system 1 includes a form printing unit 10, a monitoring unit 11, a size counting unit 12, a data size information storage unit 13, a management information storage unit 14, a data size prediction unit 15, a spooler service unit 101, a drawing processing unit 102, a printer. A driver 103, a port control unit 104, and a printer 105 are provided, and form data 2 is printed by the printer 105. It is assumed that the printer 105 is designated as the output destination of the form data 2.

  The form data 2 is data including a large number of pages such as various tax payment notices, notifications, and nationwide examination question booklets. The form data 2 is stored in an external storage device connected to the form printing system 1 or transferred to the form printing system 1 via a network.

  The spooler service unit 101 receives a drawing command from the form printing unit 10 via an OS (operating system), generates and spools a print job, and causes the designated printer 105 to execute the print job. The spooler service unit 101 controls the drawing processing unit 102, the printer driver 103, and the port control unit 104.

  Upon receiving a drawing command, the drawing processing unit 102 generates intermediate format data 110 independent of the printer model from the form data 2 to be printed. The intermediate format data 110 is, for example, an EMF (Enhanced MetaFile) format data file.

  The printer driver 103 is provided corresponding to each printer, and converts the intermediate format data 110 into print data 111 that can be interpreted by the corresponding printer. The port control unit 104 is provided corresponding to each printer, and transfers the print data 111 to the corresponding printer.

  Since the processes of the spooler service unit 101, the drawing processing unit 102, the printer driver 103, and the port control unit 104 are known, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  The form printing unit 10 is a processing unit that controls the printing process of the form data 2.

  The form printing unit 10 issues a drawing command for each page of the form data 2 in order to predict the data size of the print data in the print job, and based on the determination result of the data size prediction unit 15 to be described later, From the total data size of each intermediate format data 110 corresponding to one page of data 2, the data size of the intermediate format data 110 of one print job is determined. Thereafter, the form printing unit 10 uses the information (management information) held in the management information storage unit 14 (to be described later) to make a print request for the number of pages of the form data 2 corresponding to the determined data size of the intermediate format data 110. (Rendering command) is issued and the spooler service unit 101 is requested to generate a print job.

  The monitoring unit 11 monitors a drawing command for each page of the form data 2 issued by the form printing unit 10 and activates the size counting unit 12 in accordance with the detected drawing command. Further, the monitoring unit 11 updates the management information held in the management information storage unit 14 based on the information (data size information) held in the data size information storage unit 13.

  The monitoring unit 11 performs provisional print data 120 (1 of the form data 2) generated by the data size information storage unit 13 corresponding to the intermediate format data 110 based on the detected drawing command by processing of the size counting unit 12 described later. Page size), and the accumulated data size (referred to as “temporary printing size”) is written to the data size information storage unit 13, the number of pages of the form data 2 of the detected drawing command, that is, the form The number of pages rendered with data 2 is accumulated, and the accumulated number of pages (referred to as “temporary page number”) is recorded in the management information storage unit 14.

  The size counting unit 12 takes out the intermediate format data 110 for one page of the form data 2, generates temporary print data 120 corresponding to data to be converted when printing processing is performed, and outputs the temporary print data 120 (form data 2). Data corresponding to one page) is accumulated, and the “temporary print size”, which is the total data size of the temporary print data 120 generated from the start of processing to the current processing time point, has been processed in the past The maximum value of the data size of the temporary print data 120 (referred to as “page maximum size”) is recorded in the data size information storage unit 13, and the temporary print data 120 input after the calculation of the data size is discarded.

  For this processing, the size count unit 12 calls the printer driver 103 corresponding to the printer 105 and generates the print data generation unit 121 having a printer driver function equivalent to the printer driver 103. Further, the size counting unit 12 calls the port control unit 104 corresponding to the printer 105, inputs data with the same function as the port control unit 104, counts the size of the input data, and then inputs the input data. The count unit 122 including the function of discarding

  The print data generation unit 121 executes print processing on the intermediate format data 110 for one page of the form data 2 generated by the drawing processing unit 102, and converts the intermediate format data 110 into temporary print data 120. The temporary print data 120 is the same as the print data 111 that the printer driver 103 converts from the intermediate format data 110.

  The count unit 122 obtains the data size of the temporary print data 120 converted by the print data generation unit 121 and adds it to the temporary print size in the data size information storage unit 13. Further, the count unit 122 updates the maximum page size of the data size information storage unit 13 with the calculated data size when the calculated data size of the temporary print data 120 is larger than the maximum page size of the data size information storage unit 13. To do. Thereafter, the count unit 122 discards the temporary print data 120.

  Accordingly, every time the print data generation unit 121 converts the intermediate format data 110 corresponding to one page of the form data 2 into the temporary print data 120, the “temporary print size” of the data size information in the data size information storage unit 13 is used. ”Is added to the data size of the temporary print data 120 for one page of the form data converted in the current process, and the“ number of temporary pages ”of the management information in the management information storage unit 14 has been rendered with the form data 2 One page is added.

  The data size information storage unit 13 is a storage area that holds data size information related to the size of the temporary print data 120. The data size information includes a spooler job number, a temporary print size, and a maximum page size. The spooler job number is an identification number of a job assigned to the generated print job. The temporary print size is the total (total data size) of the data size of the temporary print data 120 converted from the start of the job to the current processing time. The page maximum size is the maximum value of the data size of the temporary print data 120 processed in the past.

  The management information storage unit 14 is a storage area that holds management information used for managing print processing of the form data 2. The management information includes a spooler job number, a temporary print size, a maximum page size, the number of temporary pages, a printer name, and the like. When a plurality of print jobs (job files) are generated for printing one form data 2, , Recorded for each print job.

  The data size prediction unit 15 obtains an upper limit value (referred to as “upper limit size”) of the print data size of the printer 105 based on the printer setting information of the printer 105 designated by the drawing command, and generates the generated temporary Based on the total data size of the print data 120 (temporary print size), the data size of the temporary print data 120 when the next page corresponding to the number of pages in which the form data 2 has been drawn at the time of processing is drawn is predicted. Then, it is determined whether the predicted size of the temporary print data 120 (referred to as “predicted size”) exceeds the upper limit size of the printer 105.

  More specifically, the data size prediction unit 15 refers to the management information, calculates the predicted size by adding the page maximum size to the temporary print size of the temporary print data 120, and the calculated predicted size is the upper limit size of the printer 105. Is judged under the following conditions.

Condition: Predicted size <Maximum size of printer x Safety factor (for example, 0.9)
Note that the safety factor of the above condition is a preset constant value, and takes an arbitrary positive value greater than zero. The safety factor may be determined for each printer or each printer model.

  The data size prediction unit 15 determines that the predicted size does not exceed the upper limit size when the above condition is satisfied, and determines that the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size when the above condition is not satisfied, and displays the determination result as a form. Notify the printing unit 10.

  The form printing unit 10 issues a drawing command for the next page of the form data 2 if the determination result indicates that the predicted size does not exceed the upper limit size based on the determination result of the data size prediction unit 15.

  On the other hand, if it is determined that the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size, the form printing unit 10 notifies the spooler service unit 101 that the print job is closed. Further, the form printing unit 10 requests the spooler service unit 101 to generate an empty print job (new print job), and starts the next page after the number of pages for which the drawing command is issued in the closed print job for the form data 2. A drawing command for a page is issued.

  The spooler service unit 101 receives the close notification of the form printing unit 10 and closes the intermediate format data 110 in the spool. Therefore, the print data 111 converted from the intermediate format data 110 by the printer driver 103 is the upper limit size of the printer 105. It is a data that includes the page data that has been rendered with the temporary print data 120.

  Further, the intermediate format data 110 of the new print job generated by the spooler service unit 101 based on the request from the form printing unit 10 is the last page of the form data 2 included in the closed print job (that is, the temporary print data 120). The data is the data with the next page after the last page rendered as the first page.

  As a result, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the print data 111 that exceeds the upper limit size value that can be printed or that there is too much size is transferred to the printer 105, and the printing performance of the printer 105 is maximized. Can be used for printing.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration example of the data size information.

  The data size information includes data items of a spooler job number, a temporary print data size, and a page maximum size.

  The spooler job number is an identification number of a print job requested to be generated by the form printing unit 10 and is a number assigned and managed by the spooler service unit 101.

  The temporary print data size is the total data size (temporary size) of the temporary print data 120 at the current time. The page maximum size is the maximum value of the data size per page in the temporary print data 120 at the present time.

  In the example of the data size information shown in FIG. 2, in the print job with the spooler job number “001”, the total data size of the temporary print data 120 converted up to the present time is “10,000,000 (bytes)”, and the page It indicates that the maximum value of the unit data size is “100,000 (bytes)”.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration example of management information.

  The management information includes data items of print server name, printer name, spooler job number, temporary page number, temporary print size, and maximum page size.

  The print server name is identification information of a computer (print server) to which print processing is assigned when the form printing system is configured by a plurality of computers. The printer name is identification information of a printer designated as an output destination. The spooler job number is a print job identification number. The temporary page number is the total number of pages that have been rendered as temporary print data 120. The temporary print data size and the maximum page size are the same information as the data size information.

  In the example of the management information shown in FIG. 3, the spooler job number 001, 002 is assigned to the form data 2 in the printing process managed with the print server name “localhost” and the output name is the printer name “BBBB”. This shows that the two print jobs generated are generated.

  The print job with the spooler job number 001 indicates that the temporary print data size is “205,000 (bytes)”, and 20 pages of form data (from the first page to the 20th page) are to be printed. The print job with spooler job number 002 has a temporary print data size of “200,000 (bytes)” and data for 10 pages of form data (from the 21st page to the 30th page) is to be printed. Respectively. Although there are differences in the number of pages of form data 2 to be printed between the two print jobs, the temporary print data size that is the predicted size of the data size of the print data 111 does not exceed the upper limit of the print data size of the printer “BBBB” I understand that.

  The form printing system 1 does not simply divide a print job by the number of pages of the form data 2, but based on the data size of the temporary print data 120 generated by simulating the print data converted by the printing process, The data size to be printed in one print job is determined so that print data 111 having a data size close to the limit can be transferred to the printer 105.

  Next, the flow of print processing of form data in the form printing system 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

  (1) The form printing unit 10 of the form printing system 1 requests the spooler service unit 101 to draw the Nth page of the form data 2.

  (2) The drawing processing unit 102 executes drawing of the Nth page of the form data 2 and generates intermediate format data 110 of N pages.

  (3) The form printing unit 10 requests the N page size count of the form data 2.

  (4) The size count unit 12 calls the printer driver 103 to activate the print data generation unit 121 and generates N pages of temporary print data 120 corresponding to the print data from the N pages of intermediate format data 110.

  (5) The size counting unit 12 activates the counting unit 122 to acquire the data size of the temporary print data 120 for N pages, and uses the acquired data size for the N pages as the temporary print size in the data size information storage unit 13. Is accumulated in the data size recorded in, and written to the maximum page size. Thereafter, the size counting unit 12 deletes the temporary print data 120 for which the data size has been acquired.

  (6) When the data size information storage unit 13 is updated, the monitoring unit 11 counts up the number of temporary pages in the management information storage unit 14, and further manages the temporary print size and the maximum page size of the data size information. Write to.

  (7) The data size prediction unit 15 has a predicted size obtained by adding the maximum page size to the temporary print size recorded in the temporary print size of the management information storage unit 14 (the total data size of pages printed by the spooler). Then, it is determined whether or not the upper limit size of the printer 105 (a value considering the safety factor) is exceeded. If the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size of the printer, the spooler job is closed with the number of pages recorded in the temporary page count. Complete.

  Therefore, the spooler service unit 101 processes a print job for N pages of the form data 2 as one job spooler, and the printer 105 executes printing with a data size not exceeding the upper limit size.

  5 to 8 are diagrams showing transition examples of data size information and management information in the size count process. Here, it is assumed that five pages of form data 2 are printed, and that the upper limit size of the printer = 700 KB (kilobytes) and the safety factor = 0.9.

  As shown in FIG. 5A, when the form printing unit 10 requests the printing of the form data 2, the server name (localhost), printer name (AAAAA), and the like, which are set in the spooler service unit 101 and control the printing process. The spooler job number (001) is recorded in the management information storage unit 14. Here, the management information is in an initial state, and the number of temporary pages, the temporary print size, and the maximum page size are all “0”.

  When the processing of (1) to (5) shown in FIG. 4 is executed for the first page of the form data 2 and the data size “200 KB” of the temporary print data 120 is acquired, as shown in FIG. The acquired data size is recorded in the temporary print size (200 KB) and the maximum page size (200 KB) of the data size information storage unit 13.

  In the process (6) shown in FIG. 4, the temporary print size (200 KB) and the maximum page size (200 KB) of the data size information are written in the management information storage unit 14 as shown in FIG. 1 is added to the number of pages to obtain “1”.

  The predicted size obtained by adding the maximum page size (200 KB) to “200 KB” which is the data size up to one page on which the temporary print data 120 has been rendered in the process (7) shown in FIG. 4 is the upper limit value of the printer. It is determined that the upper limit size (630 KB) obtained by multiplying 700 KB by the safety factor 0.9 is not exceeded, and drawing of the next page (second page) is requested.

  Subsequently, the processing of (1) to (5) shown in FIG. 4 is executed for the second page of the form data 2, and the data size “250 KB” of the temporary print data 120 is acquired, as shown in FIG. As described above, the data size (450 KB) accumulated in the temporary print size of the data size information storage unit 13 is recorded, and the maximum page size is updated to the data size (250 KB) of the second page.

  In the process of (6) shown in FIG. 4, the temporary print size and the maximum page size of the data size information are written in the management information storage unit 14 as shown in FIG. 6B, and 1 is added to the number of temporary pages. To “2”.

  In the process (7) shown in FIG. 4, it is determined that the predicted size (450 KB + 250 KB) on the two pages where the temporary print data 120 has been rendered does not exceed the upper limit size (630 KB), and the next page is requested to be rendered. Is done.

  With respect to the third page of the form data 2, the processes (1) to (5) shown in FIG. 4 are executed, the data size “150 KB” of the temporary print data 120 is acquired, and as shown in FIG. The accumulated data size (600 KB) is recorded in the temporary print size in the data size information storage unit 13. The page maximum size (250 KB) is not updated because it is larger than the data size of the third page.

  In the process (6) shown in FIG. 4, the temporary print size and the maximum page size of the data size information are written in the management information storage unit 14 as shown in FIG. 7A, and the number of temporary pages is incremented by one. To “3”.

  In the process of (7) shown in FIG. 4, since it is determined that the predicted size (600 KB + 250 KB) on the three pages where the temporary print data 120 has been rendered exceeds the upper limit size (630 KB), the spooler is displayed on the third page. Job (001) is completed.

  Next, for the printing of the fourth and subsequent pages of the form data 2, as shown in FIG. 7B, the server name (localhost) that controls the printing process set by the spooler service unit 101 as the next spooler job. The printer name (AAAAA) and the spooler job number (002) are recorded in the management information storage unit 14.

  For the fourth page of the form data 2 and the first page of the spooler job (002), the processes (1) to (5) shown in FIG. 4 are executed, and the data size “100 KB” of the temporary print data 120 is acquired. Then, as shown in FIG. 7C, the acquired data size is recorded in the temporary print size (100 KB) and the maximum page size (100 KB) of the data size information storage unit 13.

  In the process (6) shown in FIG. 4, the temporary print size (100 KB) and the maximum page size (100 KB) of the data size information are written in the management information storage unit 14 as shown in FIG. 1 is added to the number of pages to obtain “1”.

  In the process (7) shown in FIG. 4, it is determined that the predicted size (100 KB + 100 KB) of one page on which the temporary print data 120 has been rendered does not exceed the upper limit size of the printer, and the fifth page of the form (spooler) (2nd page) is required to be drawn.

  With respect to the fifth page of the form data 2, the processes (1) to (5) shown in FIG. 4 are executed, and the data size “250 KB” of the temporary print data 120 is acquired. As shown in FIG. The accumulated data size (350 KB) is recorded in the temporary print size of the data size information storage unit 13, and the maximum page size is updated to the data size (250 KB) of the second page.

  In the process of (6) shown in FIG. 4, the temporary print size and the maximum page size of the data size information are written in the management information storage unit 14 as shown in FIG. 8C, and the number of temporary pages is incremented by one. To “2”.

  Here, since the drawing request for all pages of the form data 2 has been completed, the determination process (7) shown in FIG. 4 is not required, and the spooler job (002) is completed on the second page.

  Therefore, in the printer 105, the form data 2 for five pages is divided into two spooler jobs having a data size of less than the upper limit value 700 KB, and three pages (first to third pages) and two pages (four to four). (5th page) is printed.

  9 and 10 are diagrams illustrating an example of a processing flow of the form printing unit 10.

  When the form printing unit 10 requests generation of a print job for the form data 2, the spooler service unit 101 generates the requested print job and assigns a spool job number to the print job (step S1).

  The form printing unit 10 acquires the print server name, printer name, and spooler job number relating to the print job from the spooler service unit 101, and records them in the management information storage unit 14 (step S2).

  Further, the form printing unit 10 notifies the monitoring unit 11 of a monitoring request including the print server name, printer name, and spooler job number (step S3).

  When the form printing unit 10 issues a drawing command for one page in order from the top of the form data 2, under the control of the spooler service unit 101, the drawing processing unit 102 prints the data for the page for which the drawing command has been issued. It is determined whether it is the first page of the job (step S4), and only when it is the first page of the print job (Y in step S4), data for one page of the form data is drawn to generate intermediate format data 110. (Step S5).

  When the form printing unit 10 requests the monitoring unit 11 to count the size of temporary print data, the size counting process by the size counting unit 12 is executed (step S6).

  When there is a notification of completion of the size counting process by the size counting unit 12, the monitoring unit 11 acquires the temporary print data size and the maximum page size from the data size information storage unit 13 and records them in the management information of the management information storage unit 14. (Step S7).

  The data size prediction unit 15 refers to the management information storage unit 14, calculates the predicted size by adding the temporary print data size and the page maximum size (step S8), and whether the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size of the printer 105. Is determined (step S9). If the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size of the printer 105 (Y in step S9), the process of step S10 is executed, and if the predicted size does not exceed the upper limit size of the printer 105 (N in step S9), the process proceeds to step S12. Processing is executed.

  In step S10, the form printing unit 10 instructs the spooler service unit 101 to close the print job, and notifies the size counting unit 12 of the end of the processing. Further, the form printing unit 10 determines whether there is a subsequent page in the form data 2 (step S11). If there is a continuation page in the form data 2 (Y in step S11), the process returns to step S1, and if there is no continuation page in the form data 2 (N in step S11), the process ends.

  In the process of step S12, the form printing unit 10 issues a drawing command for the next page of the form data 2, and the drawing processing unit 102 generates the next page of the form data 2 based on the drawing command. Intermediate format data 110 is generated (step S12). The form printing unit 10 determines whether there is a continuation page after the drawn page of the form data 2 (step S13). If there is a continuation page in the page in which the form data 2 is drawn (Y in step S13), the process returns to step S6, and if there is no continuation page in the page in which the form data 2 is drawn (N in step S13). Then, the process of step S14 is executed.

  In step S14, the form printing unit 10 instructs the spooler service unit 101 to close the print job, notifies the size counting unit 12 of the end of processing, and ends the processing.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow example of the monitoring unit 11.

  The monitoring unit 11 determines whether an end instruction is notified by the process of step S14 (step S21). If the end instruction is not notified (N of step S21), the process of step S22 is executed, and the end instruction is received. If notified (Y in step S21), the process is terminated.

  In the process of step S22, the monitoring unit 11 determines whether or not the monitoring request by the process of step S3 has been notified. If the monitoring request has been notified (Y of step S22), the process of step S23 is executed and monitored. If the request has not been notified (N in step S22), the process returns to step S21.

  In the process of step S23, the monitoring unit 11 notifies the printer name (printer 105) and activates the size counting unit 12.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow example of the size counting unit 12.

  When activated by the processing in step S23, the size counting unit 12 selects the printer driver 103 to be used from the printer drivers held in the form printing system 1 from the notified printer name, and acquires its function. . Then, the size count unit 12 generates a print data generation unit 121 incorporating the acquired printer driver function. Further, the size counting unit 12 acquires a port control function for the printer 105 held in the form printing system 1, and generates a count unit 122 incorporating the acquired port control function (step S31).

  The size counting unit 12 determines whether or not an end instruction is notified by the process of step S10 or step S14 (step S32), and if the end instruction is not notified (N of step S32), executes the process of step S33. If an end instruction has been notified (Y in step S32), the process ends.

  In step S33, it is determined whether a size count request has been made in step S6. If there is a size count request, step S34 is executed (Y in step S33), and if there is no size count request (step S33). N) in step S33, the process returns to step S32.

  In the process of step S 34, the print data generation unit 121 refers to the intermediate format data 110 of the corresponding print job, acquires data for one page of the form data 2, and uses the function of the printer driver 103. Print data 120 is generated.

  Subsequently, the size counting unit 12 obtains the data size of the generated temporary print data 120 and calculates the total data size of the temporary print data 120 generated up to the present time as “temporary print data size” in the data size information storage unit 13. If the data size of one page is larger than the maximum page size recorded in the data size information storage unit 13, the acquired data size is recorded in “maximum page size” (step S35). The size count unit 12 notifies the completion of the size count (step S36).

  The form printing system 1 described above can be implemented by dedicated hardware provided with the processing unit shown in FIG. 1 or a computer device.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example of a computer device in which the form printing system 1 is implemented.

  A computer apparatus 200 in which the form printing system 1 is implemented includes a CPU 201, a memory 202, a print control unit 204 to which a printing apparatus 203 is connected, a storage device 205 such as a hard disk, and a communication control unit 206 for network connection. 207 is connected.

  A program for executing the operating system and the form printing system 1 is stored in the storage device 205, and is read from the storage device 205 to the memory 202 when executed by the CPU 201. The CPU 201 is executed as the operating system and the form printing system 1, and includes a spooler service unit 101, a drawing processing unit 102, a printer driver 103, a port control unit 104, a form printing unit 10, a monitoring unit 11, a size counting unit 12, and a data size. The printing control unit 204 and the communication control unit 206 are controlled according to the processing content of the prediction unit 15 and the like, and a predetermined operation is performed.

  The printing apparatus 203 corresponds to the printer 105.

  Form data 2 to be processed by the form printing system 1 is stored in a storage device of another computer device that can be accessed via the storage device 205 or the communication control unit 206.

  During execution of the form printing system 1, data in the middle of processing is mainly stored in the memory 202, but may be stored in the storage device 205. That is, form data 2, data size information, management information, temporary print data 120, intermediate format data 110, print data 111, and the like are stored in the memory 202 or the storage device 205.

  The computer 200 has various types of hardware as described in the above-described embodiments by organically cooperating hardware such as the CPU 201 and the memory 202 described above and a program that realizes the operating system and the components of the form printing system 1. Realize the function.

  A program for realizing the form printing system 1 may be stored in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, CD-RW, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, or a flexible disk.

  Note that the elements constituting the form printing system 1 may be realized in any combination. A plurality of components may be realized as one member, and one component may be configured from a plurality of members. Further, the form printing system 1 is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various improvements and changes may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  As described above, according to the disclosed form printing system 1, in the printing process of a large amount of form data, the following points can be solved without depending on the printer when using a printer having a print data size restriction. Can do.

  -Form data that is a large number of pages can be printed without violating the upper limit size of the print data of the printer.

  • The number of divisions of form data that impairs printer performance can be minimized.

  Therefore, it is possible to realize efficient printing of the form data by making the best use of the printer performance.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Form printing system 10 Form printing part 11 Monitoring part 12 Size count part 120 Temporary print data 121 Print data generation part 122 Count part 13 Data size information storage part 14 Management information storage part 15 Data size prediction part 101 Spooler service part 102 Drawing process Unit 103 Printer driver 104 Port control unit 105 Printer 110 Intermediate format data 111 Print data 2 Form data

Claims (3)

Computer
Request the spooler service unit to generate a print job, issue a drawing command for one page of form data for the print job,
Identify the printer specified in the print job, acquire the intermediate format data generated in the form data drawing process in units of pages, generate temporary print data corresponding to the printer,
Based on the data size of the temporary print data, obtain a temporary size that is the total data size of the temporary print data generated up to now,
In the temporary print data, obtain the maximum page size that is the maximum data size per page,
Obtaining the predicted size of print data in the print job by adding the maximum size to the temporary size, determining whether the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size of the print data of the printer;
A form data printing method, comprising: instructing the spooler service unit to close the print job when the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size. To a computer with a spooler service section that spools print jobs,
Requests the spooler service unit to generate a print job, issues a drawing command for one page of form data for the print job,
Identify the printer specified in the print job, acquire the intermediate format data generated in the form data drawing process in units of pages, generate temporary print data corresponding to the printer,
Based on the data size of the temporary print data, obtain a temporary size that is the total data size of the temporary print data generated up to now,
In the temporary print data, obtain the maximum page size that is the maximum data size per page,
Obtaining the predicted size of print data in the print job by adding the maximum size to the temporary size, determining whether the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size of the print data of the printer;
A form data printing program for causing the spooler service unit to execute a process for instructing the spooler to close the print job when the predicted size exceeds the upper limit size. A form printing unit that receives a print job specifying an output printer, draws the print job in units of pages, and generates intermediate data;
For each page, a size count unit that generates temporary print data that is print data corresponding to the output printer from the intermediate data, and acquires the size of the temporary print data corresponding to the page;
For each page, a data size prediction unit that determines whether data output to the output printer is possible based on the cumulative size of the temporary print data up to the page and the maximum value of the temporary print data up to the page;
When it is determined that data output to the output printer is possible, the maximum number of pages to be output to the output printer is updated. When it is determined that data output to the output printer is not possible, up to the maximum number of pages. A form printing system comprising a form printing unit for outputting jobs.

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