JP2015032035A - Print management system, control method of print management system, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a poster printing system capable of reducing trouble for putting divided printed matter together.SOLUTION: A print management system comprises: blank setting means for setting a blank for folding printed matter and putting the printed matter together thereby, including a first blank for a valley fold with respect to a print surface and a second blank for a mountain fold with respect to a print surface; first print control means which controls printing, so that the printed matter set for the first blank has the end of printing at a side of paper, which is generated by folding the blank by the valley fold, and printing is performed inside the side of the paper; and second print control means which controls printing, so that the printed matter set for the second blank has the end of printing at a fold position for the mountain fold of the blank, and printing is performed inside the fold position.

Description

  The present invention relates to a print management system capable of performing poster printing.

  When printing an output such as a poster that is larger than the maximum output size of an output device such as a multifunction peripheral or a printer, the page is divided into a plurality of sheets for printing. The number of sheets required for printing is calculated according to the division printing setting, and the user creates a poster by joining the printed sheets.

  Even in this case, when the sheets are joined, a burden is imposed on the user such as cutting and pasting margins. On the other hand, Patent Document 1 has been proposed which aims to reduce the burden on the user during poster printing.

JP 2011-216006 A

  According to the patent document, borderless printing reduces the burden on the user to some extent, but it is a problem that borderless printing is not always possible for all paper sizes. A technique is disclosed in which a non-printing is performed and a side opposite to the non-printing is laid out so that a borderless printing is not performed.

  However, in order to use the technique of the patent document, it is necessary to configure at least one side to perform borderless printing. Certainly, if you can perform borderless printing that prints without creating margins on the paper, you can join the paper relatively easily, but if you output from a printer that cannot perform borderless printing, such as a laser printer, When joining together, it takes time to cut the margins with scissors or a cutter.

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide a poster printing system that can reduce the trouble of joining divided prints.

  A print management system capable of printing a large image by stitching together a plurality of printed materials, a first margin for folding the printed matter and joining the printed surfaces. A margin setting unit that sets a margin and a second margin for folding the print surface with respect to the print surface, and the side set as the first margin is folded by folding the margin valley. A first print control unit that controls printing on the inner side of the side of the paper with the side of the printed paper as a print edge, and a fold obtained by folding the margin on the side set as the second margin And a second printing control means for controlling printing inside the folding position at a position where the position is an end of printing.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the poster printing system which can reduce the effort at the time of joining the divided printed matter can be provided.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration of a print management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus in a print management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of a print management apparatus in a print management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of a print management system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. It is a figure explaining the flow of the conventional poster printing concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the output image of the printing management system concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the 1st printing completion figure of the printing management system concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the 2nd printing completion figure of the printing management system concerning embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the print output setting screen of the print management system concerning embodiment of this invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of print output from the information processing apparatus of the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of print output of the print management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a detailed flow of a print management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration of a print management system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The print management system of the present embodiment is configured such that the information processing apparatus 100, the print server 200, and the print management apparatus 300 are communicably connected via a local area network (LAN) 400.

  A printer driver is installed in the information processing apparatus 100 to which a personal computer or the like can be applied, and print data is transmitted to the print server 200 or the like via an application program, and a predetermined storage location (spool area) of the print server 200 is transmitted. And can be output to the print management apparatus 300 to which a multifunction peripheral or the like can be applied.

  The print management system manages and controls printing of a printed matter related to poster printing output from the print management apparatus 300.

  The information processing apparatus 100 is also installed with an application for displaying the status of the print management apparatus 300. When the status change notification is received from the print server 200, the status information notified when the user is logged in is included. The GUI is displayed in the foreground.

  Further, the information processing apparatus 100 can directly issue a print instruction to the print management apparatus 300, and the user can perform print output by directly operating the print management apparatus 300. Yes.

  In the present embodiment, the print management system is configured by a plurality of apparatuses as described above, but the functions of these print management systems are performed by the print management apparatus 300 alone, or the information processing apparatus 100 and the print server 200. It can be done in cooperation.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus in the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The information processing apparatus can be applied to the information processing apparatus 100, the print server 200, and the like.

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU that comprehensively controls each device and controller connected to the system bus 204. Further, the ROM 203 or the external memory 211 is necessary for realizing a function executed by the information processing apparatus 100 such as a BIOS (Basic Input / Output System), an operating system program (hereinafter referred to as OS), which is a control program of the CPU 201. Various programs to be described later are stored.

  A RAM 202 functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 201. The CPU 201 implements various operations by loading a program necessary for execution of processing from the ROM 203 or the external memory 211 into the RAM 202 and executing the loaded program.

  An input controller 205 controls input from an input device 209 such as a keyboard and a pointing device. A video controller 206 controls display on a display device such as the display device 210. These are used by the operator as needed.

  A memory controller 207 is connected to the hard disk (HD), flexible disk (FD), or PCMCIA card slot for storing a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, editing files, various data, etc. via an adapter. The access to the external memory 211 such as a compact flash (registered trademark) memory is controlled.

  A communication I / F (interface) controller 208 is connected to and communicates with an external device via a network (for example, the LAN 400 shown in FIG. 1), and executes communication control processing on the network. For example, communication using TCP / IP is possible.

  Note that the CPU 201 enables display on the display device 210 by executing outline font rasterization processing on a display information area in the RAM 202, for example. Further, the CPU 201 enables a user instruction with a mouse cursor (not shown) on the display device 210.

  The processing of each step shown in the flowchart to be described later for realizing the present invention is executed by a program that can be read and executed by a computer, and the program is recorded in the external memory 211. Then, it is executed by the CPU 201 by being loaded into the RAM 202 as necessary. Furthermore, a definition file and various information tables used when executing the program are also stored in the external memory 211, and a detailed description thereof will be described later. Next, the hardware configuration of the print management apparatus 300 in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the print management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 3, reference numeral 316 denotes a controller unit which is connected to a scanner 314 functioning as an image input device and a printer 312 functioning as an image output device, while being connected to a LAN (for example, the LAN 400 shown in FIG. 1) or a public line (WAN). By connecting to (for example, PSTN or ISDN), input / output of image data and device information is performed.

  In the controller unit 316, reference numeral 301 denotes a CPU, which is a processor that controls the entire system. A RAM 302 is a system work memory for the CPU 301 to operate, and is also a program memory for recording a program and an image memory for temporarily recording image data.

  A ROM 303 stores a system boot program and various control programs. A hard disk drive (HDD) 304 stores various programs for controlling the system, image data, and the like. The print data with security settings received from the information processing apparatus 100 is also stored in the HDD 304.

  An operation unit interface (operation unit I / F) 307 is an interface unit with the operation unit 308. Further, the operation unit I / F 307 serves to transmit the key information (for example, pressing of the start button) input from the operation unit 308 to the CPU 301.

  A network interface (network I / F) 305 is connected to a network such as the LAN 400 and inputs / outputs data. A modem 306 is connected to a public line and inputs / outputs data such as FAX transmission / reception.

  Reference numeral 318 denotes an external interface (external I / F), which is an I / F unit that accepts external inputs such as USB, IEEE 1394, printer port, RS-232C, and the like, and is required when performing user authentication in this embodiment. A card reader 319 for reading a non-contact IC card (storage medium) is connected to the external I / F 318. The CPU 301 can control reading of information from the IC card by the card reader 319 via the external I / F 318, and can acquire information read from the IC card. The above devices are arranged on the system bus 309.

  An image bus interface (image bus I / F) 320 connects the system bus 309 and an image bus 315 that transfers image data at high speed, and is a bus bridge that converts a data structure. The image bus 315 is configured by a PCI bus or IEEE1394. The following devices are arranged on the image bus 315.

  A raster image processor (RIP) 310 develops vector data such as a PDL code into a bitmap image. A printer interface (printer I / F) 311 connects the printer 312 and the controller unit 316, and performs synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data. A scanner interface (scanner I / F) 313 connects the scanner 314 and the controller unit 316 and performs synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data.

  An image processing unit 317 corrects, processes, and edits input image data, and performs printer correction, resolution conversion, and the like on print output image data. In addition to this, the image processing unit 317 performs image data rotation and compression / decompression processing such as JPEG for multi-valued image data and JBIG, MMR, MH for binary image data. Then, the image processing unit 317 drives the scanner 314 to perform image processing on the image data that has been read, converts the image data into a file outputable format (for example, a PDF format file), and cooperates with the CPU 301 to perform network processing. A file of image data can be transmitted to an external device via the I / F 305.

  The scanner 314 illuminates an image on paper as a document and scans it with a CCD line sensor, thereby converting it into an electrical signal as raster image data. The original paper is set on the tray of the original feeder, and when the apparatus user gives a reading start instruction from the operation unit 308, the CPU 301 gives an instruction to the scanner 314, and the feeder feeds the original paper one by one to read the original image. I do.

  The printer 312 is a part that converts raster image data into an image on paper. The method is an electrophotographic method using a photosensitive drum or a photosensitive belt, and an image is directly printed on paper by ejecting ink from a minute nozzle array. There are inkjet methods for printing, but any method may be used. The activation of the printing operation is started by an instruction from the CPU 301. The printer 312 has a plurality of paper feed stages so that different paper sizes or different paper orientations can be selected, and has a paper cassette corresponding thereto.

  The operation unit 308 has an LCD display unit, and a touch panel sheet is pasted on the LCD. The operation unit 308 displays an operation screen of the system. When a displayed key is pressed, the position information is displayed on the operation unit I / F 307. To the CPU 301 via The operation unit 308 includes, for example, a start key, a stop key, an ID key, a reset key, and the like as various operation keys.

  Here, the start key of the operation unit 308 is used when starting a document image reading operation. At the center of the start key, there are two color LEDs, green and red, which indicate whether or not the start key can be used. Further, the stop key of the operation unit 308 functions to stop the operation in operation. The ID key of the operation unit 308 is used when inputting the user ID of the user or manually performing logout processing of the user. The reset key is used when initializing settings from the operation unit.

  The card reader 319 reads information stored in the non-contact IC card under the control of the CPU 301 and notifies the CPU 301 of the read information via the external I / F 318.

  With the configuration described above, the multi-function peripheral can transmit the image data read from the scanner 314 to the LAN 400 and print out the print data received from the LAN 400 with the printer 312.

  Also, the image data read from the scanner 314 can be faxed to the public line by the modem 306, and the image data received by fax from the public line can be printed out by the printer 312.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The print management system 410 includes a print data receiving unit 411, a poster print processing unit 412, a margin setting unit 413, and a print control unit 414.

  The print data receiving unit 411 acquires print data using a scanner or the like included in the print management apparatus 300 such as a multifunction peripheral, or receives print data from the information processing apparatus 100 via a printer driver.

  The poster print processing unit 412 executes various processes related to poster printing when poster print is set when the print data receiving unit 411 acquires print data. For example, the received print data for one page is enlarged and divided and printed on a plurality of sheets (4/2/2, 9/3/3 × 3, 16/4/4, etc.). .

  Depending on the number of sheets, the data to be printed on the sheet calculates the scaling ratio. The number of sheets to be divided can be selected by the user. After printing, a large image (for example, a large poster) can be finished by pasting the printed materials.

  The margin setting unit 413 performs settings related to the margin when the return poster printing option, which is a feature of the present invention, is set. The folded printing option is an item that can be selected when executing poster printing. When this item is selected, it is possible to fold the blank portion and connect the folded portions. Details will be described later.

  The print control unit 414 controls printing so that the image divided by the poster print processing unit is printed at a position that takes into account the margin set by the margin setting unit 413. It is also possible to print a crease line on the margin.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the flow of conventional poster printing according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  When it is desired to print a large image output product 505 from the print data 501 received by the print data receiving unit 411, the print data 501 is divided into divided images 502 and 503 and printed out.

  The user cuts out margins 504 of the printed matter that has been output and stitches them together using tape or the like to generate a large image 505.

  If a printer capable of borderless printing is used, the process of trimming the margin 504 can be omitted, but the process of joining with a tape or the like is necessary. In the present invention, since the margins can be folded and the printed sheets can be combined, it is possible to omit the process of joining together with a tape or the like. The configuration of the margin will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an output image of the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In the figure, the folding printing is applied to the paper A601 and the paper B604.

  The sheet A 601 is folded at a margin 602 with respect to the printing surface 603. At that time, the printing position of the printing surface is adjusted so as to start from the inner side of the side of the folded paper.

  The paper B 603 is mountain-folded at a position 605 with respect to the printing surface 606. At that time, the printing position of the printing surface is adjusted so as to start from the inner side of the position where the mountain fold 605 is made.

  In this case, the print areas of the paper A and the paper B are shown by dotted lines in the figure, and the blank portion is folded so that the folding positions 602 and 605 are hooked to each other (combination of valley folding and mountain folding). . Thereby, it becomes possible to connect them without using a tape or the like.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a first print completion diagram of the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In this figure, the image for one poster is printed when poster printing is performed using three sheets vertically.

  When printing of the original document 701 is accepted, three printed materials 702, 703, and 704 are output. A large image 708 can be generated by connecting these three output products vertically.

  Since the printed materials 701 and 704 are printed materials having ends, 702 has a margin for turning back below the printing surface and 704 above the printing surface. In the example, a printed material 705 having a valley fold margin on the lower side, a printed material 706 having a mountain fold margin on the upper side, a valley folded margin on the lower side, and a printed material 707 having a mountain fold margin on the upper side are printed. As described above, it is desirable that the adjacent sides such as the lower part of 702 and the upper part of 703 are set so as to form a valley fold and a mountain fold.

  The user can obtain a large image by connecting the paper by performing mountain folding and valley folding along the crease.

  As shown in the print image 702, a crease line indicating a valley fold or a crease line indicating a mountain fold as shown in the print image 703 may be printed. Since the print area serves as a mark, a crease line can be eliminated for mountain folding.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a second print completion drawing of the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  This figure is an image diagram in the case where poster printing is performed by using three sheets of vertical and horizontal sheets for one image.

  When printing of the original document 801 is accepted, the margin is set and the print image is enlarged / reduced as in the print image 802. Here, no margin for turning is provided in the outermost part when the pieces are joined. In the present embodiment, in the middle sheet, all the top, bottom, left and right margins are margins for turning back.

  In 803, the user first connects the upper and lower print images using the folded margins, and then in 804 uses the left and right folded margins to connect to obtain a large image 805.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a print output setting screen of the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  This screen is an example of a screen set in the information processing apparatus 100 or the print management apparatus 300. When displayed on the information processing apparatus 100, this screen is displayed on the screen of the printer driver and accepts settings from the user.

  When displayed on the print management apparatus 300, it is displayed on an operation panel such as a touch panel, and can accept settings from the user.

  In the print setting 901, in addition to items used for normal printing such as the document size and output paper size, the number of sheets for poster printing is set in the page layout 902. Here, settings relating to the number of divided poster prints such as (Poster 2 × 2, Poster 3 × 3, Poster 4 × 4) are accepted.

  By inputting the check of the return poster printing 903, the return poster printing of the present invention is executed. If no check is entered, normal poster printing is performed. The check may be input when the poster print setting is selected in the page layout.

  The return margin 904 can specify the size of the return margin. The size specified here is used for print setting as a margin for wrapping.

  A preview screen 905 reflecting the set contents is displayed and can be confirmed.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of print output from the information processing apparatus of the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  4 is a flowchart when print data is transmitted from the information processing apparatus 100 to the print management apparatus. In step S <b> 1001, when the user issues a print instruction on the information processing apparatus 100, a printer driver screen is displayed.

  In step S1002, a print dialog as shown in FIG. 9 is displayed. In step S1003, the document size is specified, in step S1004, the output paper size is input, and in step S1005, the page layout 902 is specified.

  If the folded poster printing 903 is checked in step S1006 after the layout is input in the page layout, the process proceeds to step S1007, the input of the folded margin 904 is accepted, and the process proceeds to step S1008. On the other hand, if the return poster printing is not designated, the process proceeds to step S1008.

  When the print button is pressed from the printer driver in step S1008, settings relating to return poster printing are executed in step 1009. Details of the processing will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S1010, print data is output according to the contents set in the folded poster printing process.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the print output of the print management apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 10, the flow in which a print instruction is given via the printer driver of the information processing apparatus 100 has been described. In the present embodiment, a flow in which the user directly operates the print management apparatus 300 to perform printing will be described. Since the basic flow is the same as that in FIG. 10, only different processing parts will be described.

  In step S1101, the user performs a copy operation from the operation panel of the print management apparatus 300 to display a copy screen as shown in FIG. Thereafter, the processing from step S1102 to step S1107 is the same as the processing from step S1102 to step S1007 in FIG.

  When the user presses the print start button in step S1108, the process proceeds to step S1109 to perform the return poster printing process, and in step S1110, the image data is output and the process ends.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of detailed processing of the print management system according to the embodiment of the present invention.
This corresponds to the folded poster printing process of FIGS.

  In step S1201, the number of divisions specified in the page layout of the print setting screen is acquired. In step S1202, a return margin 904 is acquired, and the margin size is determined. In the case of mountain folding, the input folding margin is set as the margin size, and in the case of valley folding, a size twice as large as the input folding margin is set as the margin size.

  In step S1203, a portion obtained by removing the margin area from the sheet is calculated as a printable area. In step S1204, the overall enlargement / reduction ratio is calculated from the printable area and the input document size, and an image to be printed on the printable area at the enlargement / reduction ratio calculated in step S1205 is generated.

  In step S1206, the processing loops until data for all the images is generated. When all the data is generated, the processing is terminated, and the processing returns to the processing of FIGS. 10 and 11, and the image data is output.

  Although one embodiment has been described above, the present invention can take an embodiment as, for example, a system, apparatus, method, program, or recording medium, and specifically includes a plurality of devices. The present invention may be applied to a system including a single device.

  The program in the present invention is a program that can execute the processing method of the flowchart shown in the embodiment, and the storage medium of the present invention stores the program that can execute the processing method of the flowchart in the embodiment. Yes. The program in the present invention may be a program for each processing method of each device in the embodiment.

  As described above, a recording medium that records a program that implements the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus stores the program stored in the recording medium. It goes without saying that the object of the present invention can also be achieved by executing the reading.

  In this case, the program itself read from the recording medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the recording medium storing the program constitutes the present invention.

  As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, a flexible disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD-ROM, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, EEPROM, silicon A disk, solid state drive, or the like can be used.

  Further, by executing the program read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the computer based on an instruction of the program is actually It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the processing and the processing is included.

  Furthermore, after the program read from the recording medium is written to the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board is based on the instructions of the program code. It goes without saying that the case where the CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  Further, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or apparatus. In this case, by reading a recording medium storing a program for achieving the present invention into the system or apparatus, the system or apparatus can enjoy the effects of the present invention. Furthermore, by downloading and reading a program for achieving the present invention from a server, database, etc. on a network using a communication program, the system or apparatus can enjoy the effects of the present invention.

  In addition, all the structures which combined each embodiment mentioned above and its modification are also included in this invention.

100 Information processing apparatus 200 Print server 300 Print management apparatus 400 LAN

Claims (7)

A print management system capable of printing a large image by joining a plurality of printed materials,
A margin for setting the first margin for folding the printed surface into a valley and the second margin for folding the printed surface in a mountain fold, the margin being capable of folding the printed material together Setting means;
First printing for controlling printing on the inner side of the side of the paper, with the side of the paper folded by the valley being folded at the side set as the first margin as the end of printing. Control means;
A second print control means for controlling printing to the side set as the second margin as a print end at a folding position where the margin is folded, and to the inside of the folding position;
A print management system comprising:   The print management according to claim 1, wherein the margin setting unit sets the adjacent sides when the stitches are combined so as to be a set of the first margin and the second margin. system. A margin size specifying means for specifying the size of the margin;
The print management system according to claim 1, wherein the margin setting unit sets a margin size specified by the margin size specifying unit for the margin.   The printing according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein when the margins are set on the upper and lower sides or the left and right sides of the printed matter, the first margin and the second margin are set differently. Management system.   5. The print management system according to claim 1, wherein the margin setting unit performs printing control of a folding line for performing valley folding or mountain folding on the margin. 6. A control method of a print management system capable of printing a large image by connecting a plurality of printed materials,
The margin setting means is a margin that can be folded and joined to the printed matter, and includes a first margin for performing valley folding on the printing surface and a second for performing mountain folding on the printing surface. A margin setting step for setting margins;
The side of the paper folded when the first printing control means turns the margin into a valley with respect to the side set as the first margin is set as an end of printing, and the inner side of the side of the paper A first print control step for performing print control;
The second printing control unit performs printing control with a folding position obtained by folding the margin as a print end on the side set as the second margin, and printing control is performed on the inner side of the folding position. Control steps;
A control method for a print management system, comprising: A program that can be read by a print management system capable of printing a large image by connecting a plurality of printed materials,
The print management system;
A margin for setting the first margin for folding the printed surface into a valley and the second margin for folding the printed surface in a mountain fold, the margin being capable of folding the printed material together Setting means;
First printing for controlling printing on the inner side of the side of the paper, with the side of the paper folded by the valley being folded at the side set as the first margin as the end of printing. Control means;
A second print control means for controlling printing to the side set as the second margin as a print end at a folding position where the margin is folded, and to the inside of the folding position;
A program for causing a print management system to function.

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