JP3902946B2 - Printing apparatus, printing control method, and printing system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus that prints out an electronic document, a printing control method, and a printing system.
[0002]
[Prior art]
The rapid spread of personal computers and the Internet has promoted the digitization of documents regardless of the industry. Along with this, the demand for print output is increasing, but in order to obtain a large amount of prints or high-quality prints, it is common to request a copy shop. A general method for printing orders is to send document data to a copy shop by means of communication means such as e-mail via the Internet.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when requesting printing of document data to an output agency that also sells over-the-counter, such as kiosks and convenience stores, the output product touches the eyes of customers and the client's privacy cannot be protected. .
[0004]
Also, with the increase in print output demand, it is expected that print services will be popularized in stores that do not have large-scale printing systems such as kiosks and convenience stores in the near future. Here, when a large number of print orders are inundated into a store that does not have a large-scale printing system, it is possible that the transmitted document data exceeds the capacity of the order server at the store and the system goes down. In order to avoid this, a method of preparing a large-capacity server that can accept the expected maximum amount of orders can be considered. However, there is a problem that the large-capacity server is expensive.
[0005]
In addition, by collecting the document data for which output has been ordered on the server, there is a possibility that the received document data as a whole may be damaged or lost, such as when a failure occurs in the server. In order to avoid this, the server system must have a high fault-tolerant performance by duplicating servers, and the cost will increase further. In addition, if an advanced system is used, the management becomes complicated and sophisticated, so that the introduction becomes difficult.
[0006]
  The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, manages location information indicating the location of data stored in an external server and authentication information, and according to a request by an authenticated user, By printing data acquired from the location indicated by the managed location information, it is possible to provide a printing apparatus, a printing control method, and a printing system that are low in cost, high in data safety, and consider user privacy. Objective.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has the following configuration.
[0008]
  A printing device,
  Indicates the location of data stored in an external server different from the printing apparatusStorage means for storing location information and authentication information in association with each other;
  SaidStored in storage meansAuthentication informationOn the basis ofAuthentication means for determining whether or not to accept the print instruction;
  When the print instruction is accepted by the authentication means,Stored in the storage meansAcquisition means for acquiring data from the location indicated by the location information;
  Acquired by the acquisition meansWasPrinting means for printing data.
[0009]
  Or a printing device,
  Storage means for storing location information indicating the location of data stored in an external server different from the printing device and authentication information in association with each other;
  Obtaining means for obtaining data from the location indicated by the location information stored in the storage means;
  An input means for inputting authentication information;
  Authentication means for determining whether authentication information input by the input means corresponds to authentication information stored in the storage means;
  And printing means for printing the data acquired by the acquisition means when the authentication information input by the input means corresponds to the authentication information stored in the storage means.
[0021]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[First Embodiment]
First, a configuration of a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as “LBP”) suitable for applying the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Needless to say, the printer to which this embodiment is applied is not limited to the laser beam printer, but may be a printer of another printing method. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0022]
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser beam printer applied to this embodiment. This LBP can register a character pattern or a fixed form (form data) from a data source (not shown). In the figure, the LBP 1000 inputs and stores character information (character code), form information, or a macro instruction supplied from an externally connected host computer, and corresponding character patterns and forms according to the information. A pattern or the like is created, and an image is formed on recording paper as a recording medium. The operation panel 1012 is provided with switches for operation, LED indicators, and the like. The printer control unit 1001 controls the entire LBP 1000 and analyzes character information supplied from the host computer. The control unit 1001 mainly converts character information into a video signal having a corresponding character pattern and outputs the video signal to the laser driver 1002.
[0023]
The laser driver 1002 is a circuit for driving the semiconductor laser 1003, and switches on and off the laser light 1004 emitted from the semiconductor laser 1003 in accordance with the input video signal. A laser 1004 is swung left and right by a rotary polygon mirror 1005 and scans on the electrostatic drum 1006. As a result, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 1006. This latent image is developed by the developing unit 1007 around the electrostatic drum 1006 and then transferred to the recording paper. A cut sheet is used as the recording paper. The cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 1008 mounted on the LBP 1000 and is taken into the apparatus by a paper feed roller 1009 and transport rollers 1010 and 1011, and is stored in an electrostatic drum 1006. Supplied.
[0024]
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printing system of the present embodiment. In FIG. 2, host computers 2000 and 3000 are general computers connected to the Internet, and are provided with a keyboard and a pointing device as input means, a display such as a CRT as a display device, and stored in a file device such as a hard disk. By executing the program by the processor, a function corresponding to the program can be realized. In addition, Internet connection is realized by providing a network interface such as a modem. Computers 2000 and 3000 are terminals serving as clients that place print orders with respect to the printing system 9000. Here, computers 2000 and 3000 are used by users suzuki and sato, respectively.
[0025]
Since the document server 4000 is a Web server generally used on the Internet, the document server 4000 can provide content stored in the storage device of the server 4000 itself using the HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) protocol. It is. A printing system 9000 is a printing system that implements the present invention, and an operation panel 1012 is connected to the printing apparatus 1000. The operation panel 1012 is a touch panel or the like, and can be directly operated by the users suzuki and sato to take out the output ordered by the user. Here, the operation panel 1012 is configured to be connected to the printing apparatus 1000, but may be configured inside the printing apparatus 1000. In the above configuration, for example, the computers 2000 and 3000 and the document server 4000 are installed in a user's home or office, and the printing system 9000 is installed in a store that provides an output service such as a convenience store.
[0026]
<Configuration of printing device>
FIG. 3 shows an internal configuration of the printing apparatus 1000. 3, the printing apparatus 1000 includes a formatter control unit 1100, a panel input / output unit 1020, a job storage unit 1030, a printer interface 1200, an output control unit 1300, and a printer engine unit 1400.
[0027]
The formatter control unit 1100 includes a protocol control unit 1101, a print instruction processing unit 1102, a document data analysis unit 1103, a data drawing unit 1104, and a page memory 1105. The protocol control unit 1101 is a means for performing communication with the outside by analyzing and transmitting a network protocol. The protocol control unit 1101 transmits a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) to an http server such as the document server 4000 using the HTTP protocol. Is obtained. A method for acquiring a document described by a URL using the HTTP protocol is a process widely used in general browsers, and thus description thereof is omitted.
[0028]
The print instruction processing unit 1102 analyzes the contents of a print job in which the URL indicating the location of the document data, the output form of the document, and the like are described, and passes the document data and the output form information to subsequent processing blocks. is there. Further, the print instruction processing unit 1102 is a unit that receives input / output information from the panel control unit 1020 and performs processing. The print instruction processing unit 1102 also has a function of performing password authentication, which will be described later, and a function of decrypting the received encrypted password.
[0029]
The document data analysis unit 1103 is means for analyzing document data and converting it into an intermediate code in a format that is easier to process. The intermediate code generated in the document data analysis unit 1103 is passed to the data drawing unit 1104 for processing. The data drawing unit 1104 develops the intermediate code into bitmap data, and the developed bitmap data is sequentially drawn in the page memory 1105.
[0030]
The panel input / output control unit 1020 controls input / output from the operation panel 1012 shown in FIG. 2. Information input / output by the panel input / output control unit 1020 is processed by the print instruction processing unit 1102. The job storage unit 1030 is a unit that stores a print job extracted from a print order, and is realized by a secondary storage device such as a hard disk.
[0031]
The printer interface 1200 is a means for input / output with the outside. In this embodiment, it is connected to a network. The output control unit 1300 converts the contents of the page memory 1105 into a video signal and transfers the image to the printer engine unit 1400. The printer engine unit 1400 is a printing mechanism unit for forming a received video signal on a recording sheet as a permanent visible image.
[0032]
In general, the formatter control unit 1100 is configured by a computer system using a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, and the like. Therefore, in this case, the functions of the protocol control unit 1101, the print instruction processing unit 1102, the document data analysis unit 1103, and the data drawing unit 1104 described above are executed by the CPU executing a program stored in the ROM or RAM. Carried out. The page memory 1105 is realized by a RAM. FIG. 12 shows a configuration of the printing apparatus 1000 when the formatter control unit 1100 is realized by the CPU. 12, the same components as those in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted. The job storage unit 1030 is realized by a hard disk, and the hard disk 1030 is connected to the bus 15 via the disk control unit 1029. The formatter control unit 1100 includes a CPU 12, a RAM 19, and a ROM 13. A program stored in the ROM 13 is executed by the CPU 12, and the procedures shown in FIGS. 6 to 9 are executed. The program may be stored in the RAM 19. In this case, this program is loaded from the hard disk 1030 as a file device to the RAM 19 and executed.
[0033]
<Composition of print job>
Next, an example of the configuration of a print job stored in the job storage unit 1030 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 4, the print job is composed of four items, username, URL, password, and option. username is a user identifier for identifying an orderer who has ordered printing. For example, in the case of an order by e-mail, an e-mail address corresponds to this. The URL is the URL of the document data to be printed, and describes the address, directory, and file name of the document server. When one user orders a plurality of document outputs, a plurality of items are stored for one username. The password is a password set by the orderer himself. In this embodiment, the password is attached to the e-mail when ordering by e-mail. Alternatively, the operation panel 1012 may be used for setting. The option is information other than these, and when a paper size or the number of output copies is designated, this is an area in which such information is stored. The user identifier and the password are the same as the orderer when the ordered document data is printed by the printing system 9000, or the authorized recipient of the output matter requested by the orderer. This is authentication information referred to in order to verify this.
[0034]
FIG. 5 is a specific example of a print order by e-mail. In this example, a user having the user identifier “suzuki@mydomain.mycompany.com” described in the column 502 is directed to the email address “prn01@somedomain.someshop.com” of the printing apparatus 1000 described in the column 501. Issue a print order. The fact that it is a print order is indicated by <order print> in the column 503, and the description from there to </ order> in the column 507 indicates that it is one print order. A column 506 describes that the print target is document data called doc1 stored in the document server 4000 (http://myserver.com), and a column 504 indicates the size by a <paper> tag. In the column 505, it is described that the output is one copy by the <copies> tag. In addition, the password is encrypted and attached to the email. This encryption decryption key is given to the printing apparatus 1000.
[0035]
As described above, the print order data includes the identifier of the orderer, the identifier of the document data to be printed, and the stored server address, and further includes a password when authentication is performed. Further, print setting information such as the paper size and the number of copies is included as necessary.
[0036]
The document doc1 for which output is instructed here may be one stored by the user suzuki in the document server 4000, or may be a document created by a third party.
[0037]
<Printing control procedure>
Next, in the printing system configured as described above, the overall print control processing procedure in the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6, 7, 8, and 9. S601 to S605 in FIG. 6, S701 to S707 in FIG. 7, S801 to S805 in FIG. 8, and S901 to S908 in FIG.
[0038]
FIG. 6 shows an order receiving process in which the printing system 9000 receives a print order. First, in step S601 and step S602, the print output order wait and the determination of whether or not an order has been received are repeated until an order is received. Whether or not an order has been received can be determined by whether or not an e-mail such as that shown in FIG. 5 has arrived. If it is determined in step S602 that a print order has been received, the process proceeds to step S603, where the contents of the print order are analyzed, and in step S604, the user identifier, document URL, and output option information are extracted. Do. In the example of FIG. 5, “suzuki@mydomain.mycompany.com” is the user identifier, “http://myserver.com/doc1” is the URL of the document, and “A4” and “1” are the output options. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S605, and when the extracted information is stored in the job storage unit 1030 in the format shown in FIG. 4, one order receiving process is completed, and the process from S601 is repeated. In step S604, if a password is attached, the password is also stored as part of the print job. If the password is encrypted, store it after decrypting it.
[0039]
FIG. 7 shows a process in which the printing system 9000 outputs an ordered printed matter in response to an instruction from an orderer who has visited the store. The procedure in FIG. 7 is executed by the formatter control unit 1100.
[0040]
First, in step S701, the panel input / output control unit 1020 detects access to the operation panel 1012. Next, it is determined whether or not access to the operation panel 1012 has been detected in step S702, and the processing from step S701 is repeated until there is an access.
[0041]
If access to the operation panel is detected in step S702, the process proceeds to step S703, and a menu screen is displayed on the operation panel 1012 so that the operator can search for his / her user identifier. If this menu can find the job that the user has ordered, for example, a job that is currently ordered and waiting for a visit to the store (that is, an unoutput) is read from the job storage unit 1030, and the user identifier of the read job May be displayed in alphabetical order, or a menu in which a user directly inputs a user identifier. In step S704, it is detected whether a user identifier has been selected (or input), and the processes in steps S704 and S705 are repeated until the user identifier is selected. If a user identifier is selected in step S705, the process further proceeds to step S706.
[0042]
In step S706, a password input menu is displayed and password input is accepted. If the operator and the orderer are the same person, the operator knows the password and therefore the correct input is performed. If not, or if the orderer incorrectly enters the password, the processing from step S706 is performed. Is repeated until the passwords match (step S707). On the other hand, if the passwords match in step S707, the print instruction is authenticated as having verified the legitimacy of the operator, and the process proceeds to the actual printing process. If a password is not set in advance by the orderer, a predetermined character string or the like is used as the password. Alternatively, if the password is not set in advance by the orderer, steps S706 to S707 may be skipped. These steps S706 and 707 correspond to user authentication in a narrow sense, but in a broad sense, the steps including the input of an identifier in step S703 to step S707 may be called authentication.
[0043]
In actual printing processing, the document is acquired from the URL stored by the user identifier in the document acquisition processing in step S708, and then the output processing is performed in the drawing processing in step S709.
[0044]
In step S705, if the orderer identifier is not input correctly and if the correct password is not input in step S707, the user is given an opportunity to input again. It is desirable to stop the process as an error if the re-input reaches the predetermined number. It is desirable to record the error on a hard disk or paper medium and report the error in a manner that can be perceived by not only the operator but also the store clerk. The error may be reported by sounding the buzzer at a high volume.
[0045]
Further, when printing is completed in step S709, it is desirable to delete the completed print job from the job storage unit 1030.
[0046]
FIG. 8 shows the document acquisition process used in FIG. This process is a process for obtaining a document ordered by the user. First, in step S801, the corresponding user identifier, that is, the identifier input in step S704 is searched from the job information stored in the job storage unit 1030. If a job is detected, the process proceeds to step S803. If a corresponding job cannot be detected, the process proceeds to step S806, and an error message indicating that there is no print order by the operator is displayed on the operation panel. If the input of the identifier in step S704 is performed by selection from the list of identifiers included in the job stored in the job storage unit, the corresponding user identifier always exists, and therefore step S802 can be skipped. good.
[0047]
On the other hand, when the process proceeds from step S802 to step S803, the URL of the document corresponding to the detected user identifier is detected. Since the user identifier and document URL are tabulated as described with reference to FIG. 4, they can be easily detected. In step S804, the URL of the document is transmitted to the document server using the HTTP protocol of the document. Since the document server is a Web server, the document data specified by the URL is returned by HTTP protocol communication. Finally, in step S805, the document data sent from the document server is downloaded (read), and the process ends. .
[0048]
FIG. 9 shows a drawing process corresponding to step S709 in FIG. This process is a process for actually performing a printing process. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the document data is described in a structured description language such as XML or HTML, but it is needless to say that the data is not limited to this as long as the data format can be processed by the printing system. In the structured description language, the structure of a document is described by a tag, and printing is performed according to the tag.
[0049]
First, in step S901, the document data analysis unit 1103 checks whether it is a page end tag. If it is a page end tag, the process proceeds to step S906 to perform processing. If it is not a page end tag in step S901, it is determined whether or not the next analyzed tag is a tag that needs to be expanded into a page memory such as character printing or graphic drawing (step S902). Proceeding to S905, processing according to the tag such as attribute setting and printing position control is immediately performed. On the other hand, when the process proceeds from step S902 to step S903, an intermediate code in a form that can be easily expanded into a bitmap is generated. In response to this intermediate code, the data rendering unit 1104 performs a process of expanding the page memory 1105 (step S904). After the expansion process is completed, the process returns to step S902 of FIG. 5 to repeat the document data analysis process. If the page end tag is determined in step S901, the output control unit 1300 converts the contents of the page memory 1105 into a video signal for the printer engine unit 1400 and outputs the image (step S906). The printer engine unit 1400 forms a permanent visible image on the recording paper and prints the received video signal (step S907). When the result printed in step S908 is discharged, the print control process per page ends.
[0050]
With the above configuration and procedure, it is sufficient to store the identifier of the output orderer and the location of the document data in the printing apparatus, and the document data itself is stored in the document server. Thus, even when the output order is congested, the amount of individual data can be reduced, so the amount of data and processing time processed by the printing system can be reduced, and the occurrence of a failure due to data congestion can be prevented.
[0051]
Further, since the orderer or the person who received the trust instructs the actual output, the orderer's privacy can be protected.
[0052]
Further, since the document data itself is not stored in the printing system, the safety of the document data is improved.
[0053]
[Second Embodiment]
In the first embodiment, an example is described in which a print order is issued to a printing system using a URL of a document. In this embodiment, an example in which document data is transmitted to a printing system will be described.
[0054]
FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printing system of this embodiment. In FIG. 10, reference numerals 2000 and 3000 denote general host computers connected to the Internet, which are terminals serving as clients for placing print orders. As in the first embodiment, 2000 and 3000 are used by users suzuki and sato, respectively. 4000 is a document server, which is a web server generally used on the Internet, and can provide content stored in its own storage device using the HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) protocol. It is.
[0055]
Reference numeral 9000 denotes a printing system according to the present invention, which includes a printing apparatus 1000 and a document spooler 5000. Similar to the configuration of FIG. 3, the printing apparatus 1000 includes a secondary storage device 1030 to which an operation panel 1012 is connected. The operation panel 1012 can be directly operated by the users suzuki and sato to take out the ordered output. Here, the operation panel 1012 is configured to be connected to the printing apparatus 1000. However, even if it is configured inside the printing apparatus 1000, there is no problem as a configuration of the present invention. Reference numeral 5000 denotes a document spooler that temporarily holds document data. The document spooler 5000 is a Web server like the document server 4000.
[0056]
Next, the operation will be described with a specific example of the print order shown in FIG. FIG. 11 shows an example of a print order in which a user having a user identifier of suzuki@mydomain.mycompany.com places an order by e-mail to an e-mail address prn01@somedomain.someshop.com, as in the first embodiment. Here, the difference from the first embodiment is that the document document 2 itself to be printed is directly attached to the e-mail and transmitted. In this embodiment, the email address prn01@somedomain.someshop.com is not the address of the printing apparatus 1000 but the address of the document spooler 5000.
[0057]
When the document spooler 5000 receives an e-mail print order as shown in FIG. 11, the document spooler 5000 temporarily stores the document data document2 attached to the e-mail in the secondary storage device of the document spooler 5000 itself. Then, the URL of the saved document2 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 1000 in the form of e-mail shown in FIG. 5, for example, together with the user identifier suzuki@mydomain.mycompany.com and the attached information paper size A4. As in the first embodiment, the printing apparatus 1000 creates a print job having the configuration shown in FIG. 4 and stores it in the job storage unit 1030. Thereafter, as in the first embodiment, the process waits for the orderer to come to the store, and the processing of FIGS. 7 to 9 is performed according to the operation.
[0058]
With the above configuration, the user does not need to separately store the document data in the server and order the output. For this reason, those who cannot use the document server can also use the output service. Further, as in the first embodiment, since the orderer issues a print instruction, the privacy of the user can be protected.
[0059]
Note that the URL included in the message transmitted from the document spooler 5000 to the printing apparatus 1000, that is, the location and name of the document data, the portion indicating the address and directory of the document spooler, that is, the portion other than the file name, This information is uniquely added by the spooler 5000 and cannot be known by the orderer. Therefore, when displaying the order contents on the operation panel in the storefront processing by the list of document data identifiers, it is more preferable to display only the file name of the document data. Of course, if a list of orderer identifiers is displayed, the procedure shown in FIG. 7 may be used as in the first embodiment. As described above, the document spooler 5000 replaces the document server 4000, whereby the printing apparatus 1000 can be realized with the same configuration as that of the first embodiment. Therefore, by simultaneously applying the first embodiment and the present embodiment, it is possible to easily provide a printing system that can process both a print order by URL and a print order by document attachment.
[0060]
In the first and second embodiments, an example of a print order by e-mail is shown, but the present invention is not limited to this as long as the order can be received via a network. For example, an order from a homepage that is generally used for Internet shopping, hotel reservation, or the like can be considered.
[0061]
In the first and second embodiments, an example of specifying a document using a URL has been described. However, any other instruction method may be used as long as it indicates a location where document data is stored.
[0062]
In the first and second embodiments, an example of communication using the HTTP protocol has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this as long as the document can be acquired.
[0063]
Furthermore, in the first and second embodiments, the user identifier is displayed in the job search menu in the storefront processing, but the user identifier can be displayed as an arbitrary character string by registering a name or nickname in advance.
[0064]
In the first and second embodiments, an example in which a structured description language is used as the format of document data has been shown. It goes without saying that there is nothing.
[0065]
【The invention's effect】
  As explained above, according to the present invention,Location information and authentication information indicating the location of data stored in an external serverAnd manageBased on the authentication information, print the data obtained from the location indicated by the managed location informationBy doing so, it is possible to provide a printing system that considers data safety and privacy at low cost.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a side sectional view showing a structure of a laser beam printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a print order (job) table according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a specific example of a print order in the first embodiment.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an order processing procedure in the first embodiment.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a storefront processing procedure in the first embodiment.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a document acquisition processing procedure in the first embodiment.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a drawing processing procedure in the first embodiment.
FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to a second embodiment.
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a specific example of a print order in the second embodiment.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus.
[Explanation of symbols]
1012 ... Operation panel
1000 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Printing device
1002 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Laser driver
1003... Semiconductor laser
1004 ... Laser light
1005 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Rotating polygon mirror
1006 ... Electrostatic drum
1007 ... Development unit
1008 ... Paper cassette
1009 ... Feed roller
1010 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Conveyance roller
1011... Transport roller
1012 ... Operation panel
1100 Formatter control unit
1101... Protocol control unit
1102... Print instruction processing unit
1103... Document data analysis unit
1104 Data drawing unit
1105 Page memory
1200 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Printer interface
1300 Output control
1400... Printer engine section
2000 ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ ・ Host computer
3000 ... Host computer
4000 ... Document server
5000 ... Document spooler
9000 ... Printing system

Claims (20)

A printing device,
Storage means for storing location information indicating the location of data stored in an external server different from the printing device and authentication information in association with each other;
Authentication means for determining whether to accept a print instruction based on the authentication information stored in the storage means ;
An acquisition unit that acquires data from a location indicated by location information stored in the storage unit when the print instruction is accepted by the authentication unit;
Printing apparatus, characterized in that it comprises a printing means for printing the data acquired by the acquisition unit. The authentication unit further includes an input unit for inputting an identifier, and the authentication unit determines that the print instruction is accepted when the identifier input by the input unit matches the identifier included in the authentication information stored in the storage unit. The printing apparatus according to claim 1. The authentication unit further includes an input unit for inputting an identifier and a password, and the authentication unit further includes a password when the identifier input by the input unit matches an identifier included in the authentication information stored in the storage unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: prompting an input , and determining that a print instruction is accepted if a password input by the input unit matches a password included in authentication information stored in the storage unit . Printing device. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the external server is a Web server that provides data using HTTP, and the location information is a URL of data. Via an electric communication line, the printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that it comprises a receiving means for receiving said authentication information and said location information. Wherein the data to a printing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the data described in a structured description language. The storage means stores the location information, the authentication information, and output option information indicating an output option in association with each other,
7. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit prints data acquired by the acquiring unit based on an output option indicated by output option information stored in the storage unit. The printing apparatus according to item. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores one piece of the authentication information and the plurality of pieces of location information in association with each other. A printing device,
Storage means for storing location information indicating the location of data stored in an external server different from the printing device and authentication information in association with each other;
Obtaining means for obtaining data from the location indicated by the location information stored in the storage means;
An input means for inputting authentication information;
Authentication means for determining whether authentication information input by the input means corresponds to authentication information stored in the storage means;
A printing apparatus comprising: a printing unit that prints data acquired by the acquisition unit when the authentication information input by the input unit corresponds to the authentication information stored in the storage unit. The printing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the external server is a Web server that provides data using HTTP, and the location information is a URL of data. The printing apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a receiving unit configured to receive the location information and the authentication information via a telecommunication line. The storage means stores the location information, the authentication information, and output option information indicating an output option in association with each other,
12. The printing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the printing unit prints data acquired by the acquiring unit based on an output option indicated by output option information stored in the storage unit. The printing apparatus according to item. The printing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the storage unit stores one piece of the authentication information and the plurality of pieces of location information in association with each other. A printing control method performed by a printing apparatus,
And location information indicating the location of data stored in different external server from the printing apparatus, a storage step of manually stored in association with each unit and authentication information,
An authentication step of determining whether to accept a print instruction based on the authentication information stored in the storage unit ;
An acquisition step of acquiring data from the location indicated by the location information stored in the storage means when the print instruction is accepted by the authentication step;
And a printing process for printing the data acquired in the acquisition process. 15. The authentication step according to claim 14 , wherein when the identifier input by the input unit matches an identifier included in the authentication information stored in the storage unit, it is determined that the print instruction is accepted . Print control method. The authentication step further prompts the input of a password when the identifier input by the input means matches the identifier included in the authentication information stored in the storage means, and the password input by the input means 16. The print control method according to claim 14 , wherein if the password matches the password included in the authentication information stored in the storage unit, it is determined that the print instruction is accepted . A printing control method performed by a printing apparatus,
A storage step of storing the location information indicating the location of data stored in an external server different from the printing device and the authentication information in association with each other in the storage unit;
An acquisition step of acquiring data from the location indicated by the location information stored in the storage means;
An input process for entering authentication information;
An authentication step of determining whether the authentication information input by the input means corresponds to the authentication information stored in the storage means;
A printing step of printing the data acquired in the acquisition step when the authentication information input in the input step corresponds to the authentication information stored in the storage means. . The computer,
Storage control means for storing the location information indicating the location of data stored in an external server different from the computer and authentication information in association with each other, and storage means ;
Authentication means for determining whether to accept a print instruction based on the authentication information stored in the storage means ;
An acquisition unit that acquires data from a location indicated by location information stored in the storage unit when the print instruction is accepted by the authentication unit;
Printing means for printing data acquired by the acquisition means;
Computer program to make it function as . Computer
Storage control means for storing the location information indicating the location of data stored in an external server different from the computer and the authentication information in association with each other, and storage means;
Obtaining means for obtaining data from the location indicated by the location information stored in the storage means;
An input means for inputting authentication information;
Authentication means for determining whether authentication information input by the input means corresponds to authentication information stored in the storage means;
When the authentication information input by the input means corresponds to the authentication information stored in the storage means, a computer program for causing the data acquired by the acquisition means to function as a printing means for printing. A computer-readable storage medium for storing the computer program according to claim 18 or 19 .

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