JP2023020863A - Printing system, image forming apparatus, image processing apparatus, and comparison method - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a printing system that can check if all pages are printed simply with a small processing load.SOLUTION: The present invention provides a printing system having: a data input unit that acquires print data including a plurality of pages; a data for comparison acquisition unit that extracts data for comparison from the print data for every page of the print data; an image acquisition unit that acquires, from read image data obtained by reading a printed material on which the print data is printed, image data of a position corresponding to the data for comparison for every page of the printed material; and an output unit that outputs comparison results of comparison between the data for comparison and the image data of a position corresponding to the data for comparison for the respective pages.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

The present invention relates to a printing system, an image forming apparatus, an image processing apparatus, and a comparison method.

For example, in financial contracts such as insurance and banking, various types of data required for contracts are generated and stored in a mixture in servers, storage media, and the like. This data includes scanned data such as a form and text data such as a trial balance sheet. Regarding a contract, these documents are printed and stored.

In the case of important documents, it is requested to check whether all pages of the dossier have been printed. This is because pages may be missing due to the effects of paper jams, double feeding, out of paper, interrupt printing, print cancellation, or the like.

A system for confirming that necessary documents have been printed has been devised (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In Patent Document 1, a two-dimensional code specifying each page is added and printed, the printed matter is read, the two-dimensional code is analyzed to determine whether or not there is a missing page, and if there is a missing page, the page is A form printing system for automatically reprinting is disclosed.

However, in the conventional technique, there is a problem that information not included in the original data is printed on the printed material. Furthermore, conventional techniques cannot be used for printing systems that cannot add two-dimensional codes, photographs, images, and the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system capable of easily confirming whether or not all pages have been printed with a small processing load.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a data input unit that acquires print data including a plurality of pages, a comparison data acquisition unit that acquires comparison data from the print data for each page of the print data, and the print data. an image acquisition unit for acquiring image data at a position corresponding to the data for comparison for each page of the printed matter from the read image data obtained by reading the printed matter on which the is printed; and an output unit for outputting a result of comparing the image data of each page.

It is possible to provide a printing system that can easily confirm whether or not all pages have been printed with a small processing load.

It is a figure explaining a comparison technique. It is a figure explaining a comparison method. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of a printing system; FIG. It is a block diagram explaining an example of the hardware constitutions of DFE. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of an image forming apparatus; FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image forming apparatus; FIG. FIG. 2 is an example of a functional block diagram illustrating functions of a printing system divided into blocks; FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the overall flow of processing for determining whether or not pages of a printed form are missing using comparison data; FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing a process of determining whether or not a page of a printed form is missing using comparison data; FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram illustrating an example of a method for extracting characters or images different from the processed page as comparison data; FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating a method of acquiring comparison data based on processed pages; FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method of extracting characters or images different from comparison data of a processed page as comparison data; FIG. 10 is a diagram schematically illustrating a method of obtaining comparison data based on processed comparison data; FIG. 10 is an example of a flowchart showing a procedure for a comparison unit to compare image data of a printed matter and comparison data; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a warning screen displayed by the display/operation unit of the image forming apparatus; FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a warning screen displayed by the display/operation unit of the image forming apparatus; FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a print job management screen displayed by a console of a management server or a client PC; It is a figure which shows an example of a form.

Hereinafter, a printing system and a comparison method performed by the printing system will be described with reference to the drawings as an example of embodiments for carrying out the present invention.

<Explanation of technology to be compared>
First, with reference to FIG. 1, a technique to be compared with this embodiment will be described. There are two methods for confirming that each page of the document has been printed. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a comparison technique.

1. The printing system adds a serial number (page number) 9, a two-dimensional code (or bar code) 8, etc. to the original print data (FIG. 1(a)) and prints (FIG. 1(b)). The printing system reads the serial number and two-dimensional code of the printed matter to determine whether all pages have been printed (FIG. 1(c)).

2. The printing system converts the original print data into an image and prints it, and then compares the image data generated by reading the printed material with the image of the print data.

However, in method 1, the printing system needs to change the print format of the form in advance to add the serial number and the two-dimensional code, and the serial number and the two-dimensional code are printed on the printed matter. In method 2, if the print data is image data such as PDF or Tiff, it is easy to convert it into an image. In this case, it is necessary to generate image data from print data. In addition, since the amount of data is large due to the comparison of the entire surface, it is necessary to prepare a high-speed information processing apparatus.

<Outline of comparison method of the present embodiment>
Therefore, in this embodiment, the following comparison method is adopted.

The printing system records the portions (characters, images) where each of the print pages to be printed differs from the processed page as comparison data together with position information. Then, the printing system compares the image data obtained by reading the printed matter (OCR (Optical Character Recognition/Reader) may be used for characters) with the comparison data to determine whether each page has been printed. do. A processed page refers to a page on which comparison processing or creation of comparison data has been completed for print data or image data obtained by performing image formation processing on print data.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the comparison method of this embodiment. FIG. 2A shows print data 51 of the first page, comparison data 52 and image data 53 of printed matter. FIG. 2B shows print data 54, comparison data 55, and image data 56 of a printed matter for the second page. FIG. 2(c) shows print data 57, comparison data 58, and image data 59 of a printed matter for the third page.

(i) First, the printing system generates comparison data 52 for the first page. The comparison data 52 for the first page is characters or images (including graphics) acquired from the print data 51 for the first page according to the acquisition position information set and stored in advance, and the acquired information. This is location information that identifies the location of the . Acquisition position information is information relating to the position where characters or images are to be acquired on the page of the received print data. Acquisition position information may include not only the position information within the page (start point coordinates and end point coordinates in the case of a rectangle), but also the number of characters or the image range size within the page. The acquisition position information may be set in advance. Therefore, it can be said that the acquisition position information is setting information or reference information in which a position, the number of characters, or a range that serves as a reference for acquiring characters or images in a page is set. The acquired position information may be set by displaying a setting screen on the operation screen of the device or on the web browser of a PC connected to the device or network and inputting the position, the number of characters, and the range. In addition, when the print data for which the data for comparison is to be acquired is in a language such as PDL, the setting screen refers to the included data to display the character position, number of characters, and characters included in the PDL for the user to select. You may also display a screen that prompts you to If the print data is image data such as PDF or JPEG, an input screen may be displayed by dragging and dropping the position or range, or the setting screen may be automatically switched according to the file format. Also, the acquisition position information may be randomly determined using a random number or the like.

In FIG. 2A, the comparison data 52 is "ABCD" which is the first four characters of "ABCD 1234".

(ii) The comparison data for the second and subsequent pages are characters or images in the print data that are different from the processed page. The acquisition position information may be prepared for each page or may be different for each page (characters or images different from the processed page are specified based on the acquisition position information). The number of characters or image range size may be set in advance, or may be randomly determined using random numbers or the like. Comparison data for the second and subsequent pages are also stored together with the position information. Note that the comparison data for the second and subsequent pages may be characters or images different from the already acquired comparison data. That is, in the print data, characters or images different from the comparison data already acquired up to the previous page are the comparison data for the next page. Since the object of comparison is comparison data, the load of comparison can be reduced in some cases.

In FIG. 2B, "ABCD" of "ABCD 5678" matches the previous page.
Since "5678" does not match the print data of the previous page, "5678" is the data 55 for comparison.

(iii) The same applies to page 3. In FIG. 2(c), "EF" in "EFCD" does not match the 1st and 2nd pages. "90" out of "1290" does not match pages 1 and 2. Therefore, “EF” and “90” are comparison data 58 .

With such a method, different data for comparison can be extracted for each page, so when comparing the image data of the printed material and the print data, it is possible to confirm that each page of the print data is printed. can be done with Since there is no need to compare the print data and the entire page of the printed matter, there is no risk of misjudgment that they do not match due to the presence or absence of dust or blur. Page differences such as missing pages or mixed pages can be detected with high accuracy for printing of forms and the like, where the quality of the printed material does not matter whether it is printed according to the print data.

<Terms>
The print data is data for printing described in a language such as PDL that can be interpreted by the image forming apparatus, but may be a file such as PDF created by an application or the like.

The data for comparison is characters or images that are not included in other pages, among a part of each page. The data for comparison does not have to be completely included in other pages, but since the frequency of duplication is low, any data can be used as long as it can guarantee that there is no missing page.

The comparison results may include both matched or unmatched pages, or only unmatched pages or only matched pages may be saved as results.

<Configuration example of printing system>
First, an example of the system configuration of the printing system 100 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the printing system 100. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3 , the printing system 100 has a client PC 101 (Personal Computer) 101 , a DFE 102 (Digital Front End) 102 , an image forming apparatus 103 and a management server 104 . These are connected so as to be able to communicate with each other via the Internet or the like.

The client PC 101 creates a print job that the user wants to print, and transmits the print job to the DFE 102 or management server 104 . The client PC 101 has a display unit such as a liquid crystal display and input devices such as a mouse and a keyboard.

The DFE 102 receives a print job from the client PC 101 or the management server 104 , creates image data (also called drawing data) using a RIP (Raster Image Processor) engine based on the received print job, and sends the image data to the image forming apparatus 103 . to send. Here, the DFE 102 is an example of an image processing device.

The image forming apparatus 103 forms an image on a recording medium based on the image data received from the DFE 102 .

The management server 104 manages print jobs received from the client PC 101 . Also, the management server 104 transmits a print job to the DFE 102 in response to a request from the DFE 102 .

Note that the printing system 100 may connect a plurality of image forming apparatuses 103 and a plurality of client PCs 101 in a communicable manner.

<Hardware Configuration Example of DFE>
Next, referring to FIG. 4, the hardware configuration of the DFE 102 will be described. FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of the DFE 102. As shown in FIG. The DFE 102 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 201, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 202, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 203, a HDD (Hard Disk)/SSD (Solid State Drive) 204, and an I/F (Interface ) 205.

Among these, the CPU 201 uses the RAM 203 as a work area and executes programs stored in the ROM 202 to control the operation of the entire DFE 102 .

The HDD/SDD 204 is used as a storage unit and stores preset setting values. Information stored in the HDD/SSD 204 may be used by the CPU 201 when executing a read program.

An I/F 205 is an interface that enables communication between the DFE 102, the client PC 101, the image forming apparatus 103, and the management server 104. FIG.

<Hardware Configuration Example of Image Forming Apparatus>
Next, the hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 103 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 103. As illustrated in FIG. Image forming apparatus 103 has CPU 301 , ROM 302 , RAM 303 , HDD/SSD 304 , I/F 305 , image forming section 306 , reading section 307 , and operation panel 308 .

Among them, the CPU 301 uses the RAM 303 as a work area and executes programs stored in the ROM 302 to control the operation of the entire image forming apparatus 103 .

The HDD/SDD 304 is used as a storage unit and stores preset setting values. Information stored in the HDD/SSD 304 may be used by the CPU 301 when executing the read program.

The I/F 305 is an interface that enables communication between the image forming apparatus 103, the DEF 102, the client PC 101, and the management server 104. FIG.

An image forming unit 306 is a print engine that forms an image on a print sheet. A reading unit 307 is a reading device that reads an image formed on a print sheet. An operation panel 308 serves both as a display for displaying operation menus and statuses of the image forming apparatus and as a touch panel for accepting operations.

<Configuration Example of Image Forming Apparatus>
Next, the configuration of the image forming apparatus 103 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the image forming apparatus 103. As illustrated in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6, the image forming apparatus 103 includes tandem electrophotographic photosensitive drums 403K, 403C, 403M, and 403Y, an intermediate transfer belt 402, a secondary transfer roller 404, and a paper feeding unit 400. , a conveying roller pair 401 , a fixing roller 405 , in-line sensors 406 a and 406 b , a reversing path 407 and a conveying path 408 . The image forming apparatus 103 also has a control unit 200 .

The image forming unit 306 in FIG. 5 includes photosensitive drums 403K, 403C, 403M and 403Y, an intermediate transfer belt 402, a secondary transfer roller 404 and a fixing roller 405. FIG. The reader 307 of FIG. 5 also includes in-line sensors 406a and 406b.

The image forming apparatus 103 has a configuration in which photoconductor drums 403Y, 403M, 403C, and 403K (hereinafter collectively referred to as photoconductor drums 403) of each color are arranged along an intermediate transfer belt 402, which is an endless moving means. The image forming apparatus 103 is a so-called tandem type image forming apparatus. The upstream side of the intermediate transfer belt 402 in the transport direction along the intermediate transfer belt 402 on which an intermediate transfer image is formed to be transferred onto the printing paper fed from the paper feed unit 400 and transported by the pair of transport rollers 401 . Photoreceptor drums 403Y, 403M, 403C, and 403K are arranged in this order.

The image forming apparatus 103 forms a full-color image by superimposing and transferring, onto the intermediate transfer belt 402, the images of each color developed with toner on the surfaces of the photosensitive drums 403 of each color.

The image forming apparatus 103 forms an image on the intermediate transfer belt 402 on the surface of the printing paper conveyed on the conveying path 408 at the position closest to the conveying path 408 of the printing paper indicated by the dashed line in the figure. A full-color image is transferred by the function of the secondary transfer roller 404 .

The image forming apparatus 103 further conveys the printing paper on which the image is formed, and causes the fixing roller 405 to fix the image (image formation). The fixing roller 405 heats and presses the printing paper onto which the full-color toner image has been transferred, thereby fixing the full-color toner image to the printing paper. The fixing roller 405 can generate heat by a built-in heater such as a halogen heater to heat the printing paper.

When performing double-sided printing, the image forming apparatus 103 performs image formation on the front side of the print sheet, then conveys the print sheet to a reversing path 407 in the conveying path 408, reverses the front and back sides, and then transfers the sheet to the secondary transfer roller 404 again. Transport to position.

The paper feeding unit 400 accommodates a plurality of printing papers in an overlapping state. The paper feed unit 400 picks up the stacked and accommodated printing paper with a pickup roller in order from the top, and supplies it to the conveying roller pair 401 using paper feed rollers, which are a pair of rollers.

Further, the image forming apparatus 103 is provided with in-line sensors 406a and 406b on the downstream side of the fixing roller 405 in the conveying direction of the printing paper. Both sides of the printing paper are read by the fixing roller 405 to obtain read image data of the image fixed on the printing paper. Note that two in-line sensors (406a and 406b) are not necessarily required, and only the in-line sensor 406a may be used. When the sensor 406a is the only sensor, the image forming apparatus 103 performs reading with the in-line sensor 406a when the image is formed on the front side, and then performs image formation on the back side.

A scanner device 410 is arranged on the upper surface of the image forming apparatus 103 . The image forming apparatus 103 has an ADF (Auto Document Feeder) 411 that also serves as a cover for the scanner device 410 . The ADF 411 is a device that has a tray on which a plurality of printed materials P can be placed, and feeds the printed matter one page at a time to the scanner device 410 so that all pages can be scanned in order. The image forming apparatus 103 can scan the printed matter with the in-line sensors 406 a and 406 b or the scanner device 411 .

Note that the image forming apparatus having the scanner device 411 may be different from the image forming apparatus 103 that prints printed matter.

<About functions>
FIG. 7 is an example of a functional block diagram for explaining the functions of the printing system 100 by dividing them into blocks. In FIG. 7, the DFE 102 and the image forming apparatus 103 have the functions described below, but the management server 104 may have the functions of the DFE 102 instead of the DFE 102 . Alternatively, the image forming apparatus 103 may have all functions. FIG. 7 merely shows the functions of the entire printing system divided into the DFE 102 and the image forming apparatus 103 for convenience. Any device in the printing system 100 may have it.

<<DFE>>
The DFE 102 has a communication unit 11, a data input unit 12, a data expansion unit 13, a comparison data acquisition unit 14, an image acquisition unit 15, a comparison unit 16, an output unit 17, and a comparison data storage unit 19. . These functions of the DFE 102 are functions or means implemented by the CPU 201 shown in FIG.

The communication unit 11 receives print data from the client PC 101 and transmits image data obtained by ripping the print data to the image forming apparatus 103 . The communication unit 11 also receives image data generated by reading printed matter from the image forming apparatus 103 . Note that in this embodiment, known functions of the DFE 102 are omitted.

Print data may be transmitted in a file format such as PDF or Tiff, or may be transmitted after being converted into PDL by the client PC 101 .

The data input unit 12 receives input of print data via the communication unit 11 . In the case of file-format print data, the data expansion unit 13 converts the print data into PDL in the same manner as the printer driver. That is, in PDL, the position, size, color, font, etc. of each character are specified, and the position of the image is specified.

Thereby, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 can acquire the comparison data from the print data. The comparison data acquisition unit 14 acquires characters or images that are not included in processed pages (pages 1 to N-1 when starting from page 1 and processing page N), together with position information. . Alternatively, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 acquires characters or images that are not included in the comparison data of the processed page together with the position information. Details will be described later.

When the data for comparison is text, there are two formats for the data for comparison.
・Character data (character code)
·image data

When the comparison data is character data, the image data of the printed matter transmitted from the image forming apparatus 103 requires OCR processing. If the comparison data is image data, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 needs to convert the character data into image data.

The image acquisition unit 15 extracts read image data from the image data of the printed matter transmitted from the image forming apparatus 103 based on the position information of the comparison data. The comparison unit 16 compares the read image data with the comparison data and transmits the comparison result to the management server 104 . If there is a page where the read image data and the comparison data do not match, the comparison unit 16 determines that the page is missing. The management server 104 manages the execution status of print jobs together with management numbers, file names to be printed, and the like, and records missing pages in association with print jobs.

The output unit 17 outputs the comparison result to the console of the DFE 102, the client PC 101, or the like. The output unit 17 may function as a web server. The output unit 17 can also transmit the comparison result to the image forming apparatus 103 and the image forming apparatus 103 can display it.

表１は、比較用データの一例を示す。比較用データ記憶部１９にはページごとに比較用データである文字データ又は画像データが、位置情報と対応付けて記憶されている。比較用データが文字の場合、文字コードで保存されても画像データとして保存されてもよい。比較用データの作成方法の詳細は図１１等で説明する。また、表１では、連続した複数の文字に１つの位置情報が対応付けられているが、文字ごとに位置情報が対応付けられてもよい。

Table 1 shows an example of comparative data. The comparison data storage unit 19 stores character data or image data as comparison data for each page in association with position information. If the comparison data is text, it may be stored in character code or as image data. The details of the method for creating comparison data will be described with reference to FIG. 11 and the like. Further, in Table 1, one piece of position information is associated with a plurality of continuous characters, but position information may be associated with each character.

表２は、印刷データ（ＰＤＬ）がPostScriptの場合の印刷データを示す。PostScriptでは、座標と文字のセットで印刷データが作成される。表２のＰＤＬデータの項目に、１文字以上の文字列について文字情報と位置情報が含まれている。表２のＰＤＬ文字情報の項目は、ＰＤＬデータから取得された１文字以上の文字列に関する文字情報であり、ＰＤＬ位置情報の項目はＰＤＬデータから取得された文字列の位置情報である。例えばＰＤＬ位置情報は、対応するＰＤＬ文字情報を印字するための位置（例えば座標）を示す情報である。表２の文字情報と位置情報は比較用データの作成前に生成される。

Table 2 shows print data when the print data (PDL) is PostScript. In PostScript, print data is created with a set of coordinates and characters. The PDL data item in Table 2 includes character information and position information for a character string of one or more characters. The PDL character information item in Table 2 is character information relating to a character string of one or more characters obtained from PDL data, and the PDL position information item is position information of the character string obtained from PDL data. For example, the PDL position information is information indicating the position (coordinates, for example) for printing the corresponding PDL character information. The character information and position information in Table 2 are generated before the comparison data is created.

<<Image forming apparatus>>
The image forming apparatus 103 has a communication section 21 , a printing section 22 , an image generation section 23 , and a display/operation section 24 . These functions of the image forming apparatus 103 are realized by the CPU 301 shown in FIG. 5 executing a program expanded from the HDD/SSD 304 to the RAM 303 and by the program controlling the hardware shown in FIG. It is a function or a means.

The communication unit 21 receives the ripped image data from the DFE 102 . Also, the image data of the printed matter generated by the image generation unit 23 is transmitted to the DFE 102 . If the image forming apparatus 103 also has the comparison data storage unit 19 or shares the comparison data, only the read image data acquired from the image data of the printed matter based on the position information of the comparison data is transmitted to the communication unit. 21 can be sent to the DFE 102 .

The image generator 23 scans the printed matter to generate image data of the printed matter. The display/operation unit 24 is implemented by an operation panel 308 having a touch panel and hard keys, and displays information and receives user operations.

<Overall flow of processing>
FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the overall flow of processing for determining whether or not pages of a printed form are missing using comparison data.

S1: The user operates the client PC 101 to select documents (electronic data) to be printed, such as contract documents, and print them. The client PC 101 transmits the document file as it is or the print data converted into PDL to the DFE 102 .

S2: The comparison data acquisition unit 14 of the DFE 102 creates comparison data for each page and stores it in the comparison data storage unit 19 .

S<b>3 : Upon completion of saving the comparison data or while generating the comparison data, the DFE 102 transmits the ripped image data to the image forming apparatus 103 . The image forming apparatus 103 prints image data. The image data ripped by the DFE 102 may be transmitted to the image forming apparatus 103 even if the storage of comparison data is not completed for all pages. In other words, if the comparison data is stored one page or more ahead of the printing, it is possible to compare the read image data and the comparison data in real time.

S4: The image generation unit 23 of the image forming apparatus 103 reads (scans) the printed matter in parallel with printing, and generates image data. Alternatively, the image generating unit 23 of the image forming apparatus 103 finishes printing all pages (or a certain number of pages or more), and the user scans the image data with the scanner device 410 to generate image data of the printed matter.

S5: The DFE 102 acquires the image data of the printed matter, and the image acquisition unit 15 acquires the read image data from the image data by referring to the position information of the comparison data of the corresponding page. A comparison unit 16 compares the comparison data and the read image data.

S6: The comparison unit 16 saves the comparison result for each page (transmits it to the management server). The user can display and browse the comparison results on the client PC 101, the console of the DFE 102, or the operation panel 308, for example.

<Procedure of processing or operation>
FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram showing a process in which the printing system 100 uses comparison data to determine whether pages of a printed form are missing.

S11: First, the client PC 101 transmits print data to the DFE 102 according to a user's operation.

S12: The communication unit 11 of the DFE 102 receives the print data, and the data input unit 12 accepts input of the print data. The comparison data acquisition unit 14 acquires comparison data from the print data. The details will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 to 12. FIG. It should be noted that the data developing unit 13 develops the print data into PDL as necessary before obtaining the comparison data.

S<b>13 : The communication unit 11 of the DFE 102 transmits the image data obtained by ripping the print data to the image forming apparatus 103 .

S14: The communication unit 21 of the image forming apparatus 103 receives the image data, and the printing unit 22 prints in page order.

S15: In the sequence diagram of FIG. 9, assuming that the image forming apparatus 103 has the image generating unit 23, the image generating unit 23 reads the printed material and generates image data in parallel with printing.

S16: The communication unit 21 of the image forming apparatus 103 transmits the image data to the DFE 102 immediately after reading (in real time). The image forming apparatus 103 may attach the page number, or the DFE 102 side may assign the page number.

S17: The communication unit 11 of the DFE 102 receives the image data, and the comparison unit 16 starts comparison with comparison data. Details of this processing will be described with reference to FIG.

S18: The comparison unit 16 saves the comparison result for each page (sends it to the management server).

S<b>19 : If the comparison result is a mismatch, the communication unit 11 transmits a print interruption to the image forming apparatus 103 . As a result, the image forming apparatus 103 displays a warning screen 500 as shown in FIG.

<Extraction of data for comparison>
FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating a method of extracting characters or images different from the processed page as comparison data. The comparison data acquisition unit 14 determines whether the print data is the first page based on the page break of the print data (S101).

Since there is no processed page in the print data of the first page, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 acquires a certain number of characters from a position determined based on the acquisition position information (or a position determined at random) or at random. Characters or images of the number of characters obtained are created and stored as data for comparison (S106). Which of the characters and figures is to be used as data for comparison may be set in advance or may be randomly determined.

FIG. 11 is a diagram schematically illustrating a method of obtaining comparison data. In FIG. 11, Table 1 will be described as an example. FIG. 11A shows a method of obtaining comparison data for the first page. When four characters are used as data for comparison, "ABC" and "X" are obtained in order by referring to the print data of the first page based on the obtained position information 61, and "ABC" and "X" are obtained. It becomes the data for comparison with the positional information. The position information is P1: (xs1, ys1) (xe1, ye1), (xs2, ys2) (xe2, ye2) as vertices of the circumscribing rectangle of "ABC" and "X".

These four characters are an example, and the user may be able to set the amount of data for detecting differences between pages. Since an upper limit is set for the amount of data (the number of characters), it is possible to prevent the entire page from being compared.

Returning to FIG. 10, description will be made. In the case of the print data of the second and subsequent pages, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 acquires a position ( Alternatively, one character or one image is extracted from a randomly determined position (S102). After the first character is determined, the characters may be acquired one by one in order. Which of the characters and figures is to be used as data for comparison may be set in advance or may be randomly determined. Alternatively, characters and graphics may be obtained alternately within the page.

Next, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 determines whether or not there is the same character or image at the same position on the processed page (S103).

If the determination in step S103 is Yes, the process returns to step S102 to acquire the next character or figure. This processing will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 11(b) shows a method of obtaining comparison data for the second page. When four characters are used as data for comparison, "A" is identified in order based on the acquisition position information 61, but "A" exists at the same position in the processed page (page 1). The same applies to "B". "D" does not exist at the same position on the processed page. Therefore, "D" becomes data for comparison. Next, 'P', 'Q', and 'R' are also not present at the same position on the processed page. Therefore, 'D', 'P', 'Q', and 'R' are data for comparison together with the positional information. The position information is P2: (xs3, ys3) (xe3, ye3), (xs4, ys4) (xe4, ye4) as the vertices of the circumscribing rectangle of "D" and "PQR".

FIG. 11(c) shows a method of obtaining comparison data for the third page. When four characters are used as data for comparison, "A" is specified in order based on the acquisition position information 61, but "A" exists at the same position in the processed pages (pages 1 and 2). "E" does not exist at the same position on the processed page. Therefore, "E" becomes data for comparison. "D" exists at the same position in the processed page (page 2). Next, 'S', 'T', and 'U' do not exist at the same position on the processed page. Therefore, 'E', 'S', 'T', and 'U' are used as comparison data together with the positional information. The position information is P3: (xs5, ys5) (xe5, ye5), (xs6, ys6) (xe6, ye6) as the vertices of the circumscribing rectangle of "E" and "STU". Note that the position information on the first page is information that is the same as the position information preset in the acquired position information. On the other hand, the location information created for the second and third pages does not exist in the processed page in the area of the location information set in the acquired location information (or the location information created on the first page). position information indicating the position where the character/image exists. Therefore, position information (area information, start point coordinates and end point coordinates in an image) changes for each page, thereby reducing the load of comparison processing.

表３は、表２の印刷データから作成される比較用データを説明する表である。表３のＰＤＬ文字情報とＰＤＬ位置情報は表２とおなじものである。比較用文字情報は、各ページにおいて前ページまでに既出でないため取得される文字列である。比較用位置情報は、比較用文字情報の位置情報である。

Table 3 is a table for explaining comparison data created from the print data in Table 2. The PDL character information and PDL position information in Table 3 are the same as in Table 2. The character information for comparison is a character string acquired on each page because it has not appeared on the previous page. The positional information for comparison is the positional information of the character information for comparison.

The comparison data acquisition unit 14 creates (converts) characters different from the processed page as comparison data from the character information and the position information acquired from the PostScript (PDL) data. When the comparison data is four characters, the first page compares the data of A, B, C, and X with the comparison data of the first page. For the second page, D, P, Q, and R data not included in the processed page are used as comparison data for the second page. For the third page, data of E, S, T, and U that are not included in the processed page are used as comparison data for the third page. That is, for each page, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 acquires a predetermined number of characters of character information and position information that have not been acquired as comparison data up to the previous page from the beginning of the page as comparison data.

Note that the acquisition position information may be a fixed range (position). The comparison data acquisition unit 14 extracts characters or images at fixed positions from the print data, associates them with position information, and uses them as comparison data.

If the page is a blank page with no characters or images, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 records the comparison data as a blank page.

Although characters are acquired as comparison data in FIG. 11, the same applies to images. Since the print data specifies the print positions of images such as jpeg and gif, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 identifies the images in the order of their appearance within the page, and determines whether the same image exists at the same position on the previous page. to decide. In image-to-image comparison, the colors of the same pixel positions are compared.

Returning to FIG. 10, description will be made. The comparison data acquisition unit 14 saves the position information and the characters or images in the comparison data storage unit 19 (S104). When saving, there are a method of converting characters into image data and a method of saving character codes as they are.

The comparison data acquisition unit 14 determines whether or not comparison data of a predetermined number of characters or images has been saved (S105). As for images, since the same image is less likely to be printed on multiple pages than characters, a smaller number of comparison data than characters may be stored.

If the determination in step S105 is No, the process returns to step S102.

As described above, comparison data that are not duplicated for each page are stored in the comparison data storage unit 19 .

Further, as shown in FIG. 12, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 may extract characters or images different from the comparison data of the processed page as the comparison data. FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining a method of extracting characters or images different from comparison data of a processed page as comparison data. Note that the explanation of FIG. 12 mainly explains the difference from FIG.

The process of FIG. 12 differs from step S103 of FIG. 10 in the process of step S203. That is, in step S203, the comparison data acquisition unit 14 determines whether or not the same character or image is registered at the same position in the comparison data of the processed page (S203).

FIG. 13 is a diagram schematically explaining a method of acquiring comparison data. FIG. 13(a) for explaining the comparison data of the first page is the same as FIG. 11(a).

FIG. 13(b) shows a method of obtaining comparison data for the second page. When four characters are used as comparison data, "A" is specified in order based on the acquisition position information 61, but "A" exists at the same position of the comparison data of the processed page (page 1). The same applies to "B". "D" does not exist at the same position in the comparison data of the processed page. Therefore, "D" becomes data for comparison. Next, 'P', 'Q', and 'R' do not exist at the same position in the comparison data of the processed page. Therefore, 'D', 'P', 'Q', and 'R' are data for comparison together with the positional information. The position information is P2: (xs3, ys3) (xe3, ye3), (xs4, ys4) (xe4, ye4) as the vertices of the circumscribing rectangle of "D" and "PQR".

FIG. 13(c) shows a method of obtaining comparison data for the third page. When four characters are used as comparison data, "A" is specified in order based on the acquisition position information 61, but "A" exists at the same position of the comparison data of the processed page (page 1). "E" does not exist at the same position in the comparison data of the processed page. Therefore, "E" becomes data for comparison. "D" exists at the same position in the comparison data of the processed page (page 2). Next, 'S', 'T', and 'U' do not exist at the same position in the comparison data of the processed page. Therefore, 'E', 'S', 'T', and 'U' are used as comparison data together with the positional information. The position information is P3: (xs5, ys5) (xe5, ye5), (xs6, ys6) (xe6, ye6) as the vertices of the circumscribing rectangle of "E" and "STU".

The method of extracting the comparison data by comparing the contents of the page with the comparison data in this way has the advantage that the load of the comparison processing is less than the method of comparing the contents of the pages. That is, when the number of pages of print data is several thousand to tens of thousands, comparison with comparison data can reduce the number of objects to be compared.

Although the comparison data is the same in FIGS. 11 and 13, the comparison data may differ depending on which of the processed page and the processed comparison data is compared.

<Comparison of image data of printed matter and data for comparison>
FIG. 14 is an example of a flow chart showing a procedure for the comparison unit 16 to compare the image data of the printed matter and the comparison data. Note that the comparison may be performed in parallel with printing, or may be performed after printing.

The DFE 102 receives image data of printed matter (S301).

The image acquisition unit 15 extracts the read image data from the image data based on the page number attached to the image data of the printed matter (or counts the page number) and based on the position information of the comparison data of the corresponding page. (S302).

If the data for comparison is a character code, the comparison unit 16 performs OCR processing on the read image data and converts it into a character code (S303).

Next, the comparison unit 16 compares the read image data and the comparison data (S304). If they match (Yes in S305), the process proceeds to step S307. Note that the comparison between image data is performed on a pixel-by-pixel basis, and if the pixels match at a certain ratio or more, it may be considered to match (perfect match is not required).

If they do not match (No in S305), the output unit 17 outputs a warning display (S306). When comparison processing is performed by the DFE 102 , the output unit 17 may transmit the comparison result to the operation panel 308 of the image forming apparatus 103 or display it on the console of the management server 104 . The output unit 17 may be displayed on the console of the DFE 102 . Note that when the image forming apparatus 103 is performing the comparison, the image forming apparatus 103 can voluntarily display a warning without an instruction from the DFE 102 .

Further, when printing and comparison are being performed in parallel, the communication unit 11 requests the image forming apparatus 103 to suspend printing.

If there is a next page, the comparison unit 16 continues the comparison process (S307). Even if printing is interrupted, the comparison itself is possible. However, if a page is missing, there is a high possibility that the comparison data and the read image data do not match the pages after the page where the comparison data and the read image data do not match, so the comparison process may also be interrupted.

In reading the printed matter, the orientation of the printed matter changes depending on the setting direction to the ADF 411, and it is conceivable that the orientation of the printed matter is rotated by 90, 180, or 270 degrees. The image acquisition unit 15 may rotate the image data of the printed matter and acquire the read image data from each rotation angle.

<< Supplement when the comparison result is inconsistent >>
When printing and comparison are being performed in parallel, the comparison unit 16 stops printing of the image forming apparatus 103 . The output unit 17 displays and prints the mismatched page number, and waits for user confirmation.

Alternatively, there may be a setting for the user to handle page discrepancies after printing, and if this setting is valid, the image forming apparatus 103 prints all pages even if there are page discrepancies. After printing, the image forming apparatus 103 displays/prints the mismatched corresponding page number. Another image forming apparatus 103 may perform this printing.

FIG. 15 shows an example of a warning screen 500 displayed by the display/operation unit 24 of the image forming apparatus 103 . FIG. 15 is an example of a warning screen 500 when printing and comparison are being performed in parallel. The image forming apparatus 103 that displays the warning screen 500 may be different from the image forming apparatus 103 that prints.
• A message 501 "printing" indicates that printing is currently being performed.
"Page number" 502 indicates the number of pages that have been printed or the number of pages that have been compared with each other and do not match the total number of pages.
- A message of "page discrepancy" 503 indicates that the comparison result is inconsistent.
A cancel button 504 is a button for accepting cancellation of printing. That is, since printing is currently suspended, the user can abort printing at the point when a mismatch occurs.
A continuation button 505 is a button for accepting continuation of printing. In other words, since printing is currently suspended, the user can continue printing even though a mismatch has occurred.
A page designation print button 506 is a button for displaying another dialog and accepting printing of page numbers and page ranges to be printed. That is, since printing is currently suspended, the user can reprint the page (and beyond) where the mismatch occurred. This image forming apparatus 103 may be another printer.

Note that the output unit 17 may display the non-matching comparison data and read image data on the warning screen 500 . In addition, the output unit 17 may display page difference content regarding which of the characters or images is different.

<< Supplement when comparing after printing ends >>
When a reading mechanism is not attached to the paper path of the printer and reading is performed by the scanner device 410, the DFE 102 starts comparing the comparison data and the read image data after the user designates the form name. This is because the DFE 102 does not know which printed form is to be read. Alternatively, the image forming apparatus 103 may read the first page and identify a matching form from the comparison data. If the form cannot be specified on the first page, the process of selecting matching forms from the comparison data is also performed for the second and subsequent pages.

If the comparison result is a mismatch, the comparison unit 16 stops reading. The output unit 17 displays or prints the page difference content and the corresponding page number, and waits for user's confirmation. Alternatively, in the case of a reading mechanism that cannot stop reading, all pages are read even if a discrepancy is detected, and the content of page differences and the number of corresponding pages are displayed or printed. The page differences and the number of corresponding pages may be printed after all pages are compared.

FIG. 16 shows an example of a warning screen 510 displayed by the display/operation unit 24 of the image forming apparatus 103 . FIG. 16 is an example of a warning screen 510 when comparison is performed after printing is finished.
- A message 511 "confirming page differences" indicates that comparison is currently being performed.
"Page number" 512 indicates the page number being compared with respect to the total number of pages, or the page number for which the comparison result is inconsistent.
- A message of "page discrepancy" 513 indicates that the comparison result is inconsistent.
A cancel button 514 is a button for accepting cancellation of comparison.
A continuation button 515 is a button for accepting continuation of the comparison.

Note that the output unit 17 may display the non-matching comparison data and read image data on the warning screen 510 .

<Management in print jobs>
The management server 104 manages the execution status of print jobs. A comparison result between the comparison data and the read image data is also registered in the execution state. The console of the management server 104 and the client PC 101 can display the print job execution status.

FIG. 17 shows an example of a print job management screen 520 displayed by the console of the management server 104 or the client PC 101. As shown in FIG. The print job management screen 520 has items of print job management number 521 , form name 522 , image forming apparatus 523 , status 524 , and number of pages 525 .
The print job management number 521 is identification information for identifying the print job.
The form name 522 is the name of the printed form. A form name may be referred to as a file name.
The image forming apparatus 523 is the name and identification information of the image forming apparatus 103 to which the print job is assigned.
A status 524 indicates the status of the print job, and includes printing completed, printing, page error occurring, waiting for printing, and the like.
• The number of pages 525 is the total number of pages of the print job.

A print job whose status is page discrepancy is emphasized by color or the like, and when the user presses it, a sub-screen 530 is displayed. A sub-screen 530 displays a page number 531 where a mismatch has occurred, a difference content 532, a cancel button 533, a continuation button 534, and the like. Therefore, the user can cancel or continue printing from the print job management screen 520 as well.

<Example of a form>
FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an example of a form. Characters are input to the form using a PC or the like. In the case of handwritten input, the comparison data may be image data. Although FIG. 18 shows the cover of the form as an example, in reality, many pages such as another page of the attached form, trial balance, and image data are attached. The page verification method of the present embodiment can determine whether each page has been printed.

<Main effects>
According to the present embodiment, different comparison data can be extracted for each page. Therefore, when the image data of the printed matter and the comparison data are compared, it is possible to confirm that each page of the print data is printed. can be done with Since there is no need to compare the print data and the entire page of the printed matter, there is no risk of misjudgment that they do not match due to the presence or absence of dust or blur. Page differences such as missing pages or mixed pages can be detected with high accuracy for printing of forms and the like, where the quality of the printed material does not matter whether it is printed according to the print data.

<Other application examples>
Although the best mode for carrying out the present invention has been described above using examples, the present invention is by no means limited to such examples, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. and substitutions can be added.

For example, in the present embodiment, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus has been described, but an image forming apparatus using other methods such as an inkjet method may print.

In addition, numbers such as ordinal numbers and numbers used in the description of the embodiments are all examples for specifically describing the technology of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the illustrated numbers. Moreover, the connection relationship between the components is an example for specifically describing the technology of the present invention, and the connection relationship for realizing the function of the present invention is not limited to this.

Also, the division of blocks in the functional block diagram is an example, and a plurality of blocks may be implemented as one block, one block may be divided into a plurality of blocks, and/or some functions may be moved to other blocks. good. Also, a single piece of hardware or software may process functions of multiple blocks having similar functions in parallel or in a time division manner.

Also, each function of the embodiments described above can be realized by one or more processing circuits. Here, the "processing circuit" in this specification means a processor programmed by software to perform each function, such as a processor implemented by an electronic circuit, or a processor designed to perform each function described above. devices such as ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits), DSPs (digital signal processors), FPGAs (field programmable gate arrays) and conventional circuit modules.

<Appendices to Claims>
[Claim 1]
a data input unit for obtaining print data including a plurality of pages;
a comparison data acquisition unit that retrieves comparison data from the print data for each page of the print data;
an image acquisition unit that acquires image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data for each page of the printed matter from read image data obtained by reading the printed matter on which the print data is printed;
an output unit for outputting a comparison result obtained by comparing the comparison data and image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data for each page;
A printing system comprising:
[Claim 2]
The comparison data acquisition unit retrieves the comparison data together with position information on the page of the comparison data,
2. The image acquisition unit according to claim 1, wherein the image acquisition unit acquires the read image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data from the image data of the printed matter based on the position information for each page of the printed matter. printing system.
[Claim 3]
The comparison data acquisition unit extracts the comparison data together with the position information based on preset acquisition position information for the first page of the print data,
For the second and subsequent pages of the print data, characters or images determined based on preset acquisition position information and different from the processed page are taken out as the comparison data. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein:
[Claim 4]
The comparison data acquisition unit extracts the comparison data together with the position information based on preset acquisition position information for the first page of the print data,
For the second and subsequent pages of the print data, characters or images determined based on preset acquisition position information and different from the comparison data of the processed pages are used as the comparison data. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the printing system is fetched as a
[Claim 5]
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a comparison unit for comparing said read image data with said comparison data after converting said read image data into character code by OCR processing when said comparison data is character code. 5. The printing system according to any one of -4.
[Claim 6]
When the printing of the print data and the comparison of the comparison data and the read image data are performed in parallel,
6. The printing system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein when it is determined that the comparison data and the read image data do not match, printing is interrupted by the image forming apparatus.
[Claim 7]
When it is determined that the comparison data and the read image data do not match, the output unit specifies the mismatched page number, print stop button, print continuation button, and page to print. 7. The printing system of claim 6, wherein buttons are displayed.
[Claim 8]
The print data includes character information and position information for each character string of one or more characters, and the comparison data acquisition unit acquires the character information and the position information for each page before acquiring the comparison data. 8. The printing system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the printing system is obtained by associating.
[Claim 9]
The comparison data acquisition unit acquires, as the comparison data, the character information of a predetermined number of characters from the character information acquired for each page in page order,
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the character information of a predetermined number of characters and the position information, which have not been acquired as the comparison data up to the previous page, are acquired as the comparison data for each page from the beginning of the page. printing system.
[Claim 10]
10. The printing system according to claim 9, wherein the position information acquired as the comparison data by the comparison data acquisition unit changes for each page.

100 printing system 101 client PC
102 DFEs
103 image forming apparatus

Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2011-213006

Claims (13)

a data input unit for obtaining print data including a plurality of pages;
a comparison data acquisition unit that retrieves comparison data from the print data for each page of the print data;
an image acquisition unit that acquires image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data for each page of the printed matter from read image data obtained by reading the printed matter on which the print data is printed;
an output unit for outputting a comparison result obtained by comparing the comparison data and image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data for each page;
A printing system comprising: The comparison data acquisition unit retrieves the comparison data together with position information on the page of the comparison data,
2. The image acquisition unit according to claim 1, wherein the image acquisition unit acquires the read image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data from the image data of the printed matter based on the position information for each page of the printed matter. printing system. The comparison data acquisition unit extracts the comparison data together with the position information based on preset acquisition position information for the first page of the print data,
For the second and subsequent pages of the print data, characters or images determined based on preset acquisition position information and different from the processed page are taken out as the comparison data. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein: The comparison data acquisition unit extracts the comparison data together with the position information based on preset acquisition position information for the first page of the print data,
For the second and subsequent pages of the print data, characters or images determined based on preset acquisition position information and different from the comparison data of the processed pages are used as the comparison data. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the printing system is fetched as a 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a comparison unit for comparing said read image data with said comparison data after converting said read image data into character code by OCR processing when said comparison data is character code. 5. The printing system according to any one of -4. When the printing of the print data and the comparison of the comparison data and the read image data are performed in parallel,
2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein when it is determined that the comparison data and the read image data do not match, printing is interrupted by the image forming apparatus. When it is determined that the comparison data and the read image data do not match, the output unit specifies the mismatched page number, print stop button, print continuation button, and page to print. 7. The printing system of claim 6, wherein buttons are displayed. The print data includes character information and position information for each character string of one or more characters, and the comparison data acquisition unit acquires the character information and the position information for each page before acquiring the comparison data. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the printing system is acquired in association with the printing system. The comparison data acquisition unit acquires, as the comparison data, the character information of a predetermined number of characters from the character information acquired for each page in page order,
9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the character information of a predetermined number of characters and the position information, which have not been acquired as the comparison data up to the previous page, are acquired as the comparison data for each page from the beginning of the page. printing system. 10. The printing system according to claim 9, wherein the position information acquired as the comparison data by the comparison data acquisition unit changes for each page. a data input unit for obtaining print data including a plurality of pages;
a comparison data acquisition unit that retrieves comparison data from the print data for each page of the print data;
an image acquisition unit that acquires read image data corresponding to comparison data from image data of a printed matter on which the print data is printed;
an output unit for outputting a comparison result obtained by comparing the comparison data and the read image data for each page;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a data input unit for obtaining print data including a plurality of pages;
a comparison data acquisition unit that retrieves comparison data from the print data for each page of the print data;
an image acquisition unit that acquires image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data for each page of the printed matter from read image data obtained by reading the printed matter on which the print data is printed;
an output unit for outputting a comparison result obtained by comparing the comparison data and image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data for each page;
An image processing device comprising: a data input unit obtaining print data comprising a plurality of pages;
a step in which a comparison data acquisition unit retrieves comparison data from the print data for each page of the print data;
an image acquiring unit acquiring read image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data for each page of the printed matter from the read image data obtained by reading the printed matter on which the print data is printed;
an output unit outputting a comparison result obtained by comparing the comparison data and image data at a position corresponding to the comparison data for each page;
A comparison method characterized by having

Images