JP4586839B2 - Image processing apparatus, printing system, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, a printing system, and a program.

  A variable data printing technique is known in which a print image in which contents are replaced for each target is generated in cooperation with a database, and printing is performed using the print image. Variable data printing is also called variable printing or variable printing. In recent variable data printing, it is possible to replace not only simple character strings such as addresses but also graphs and other complicated images according to database records. In variable data printing, by applying individual records to common layout data, a print result corresponding to each record is obtained.

  Also known is a printing process for printing a plurality of logical pages on one sheet of paper, such as double-sided printing or so-called N-up printing. N-up printing is a process in which N logical pages are printed side by side on one physical page (that is, one side of a sheet) (N is generally an integer that is a power of 2).

  When generating a print image, for example, when the image processing apparatus cannot access software resources (information resources) such as images to be used, forms (format data), fonts, and external character fonts, or data of such software resources If is broken, an error occurs because a print image cannot be generated. An error also occurs when a required field in a record is empty or an invalid value, or when the number of fields in the record is incorrect.

  In normal printing, if an error occurs during generation of an image for printing of one job (that is, one print data input from a host computer or a client computer, or a print process for the one print data), It is common to interrupt the generation of the image. In response to interruption of image generation, an error sheet indicating that an error has occurred is printed, or an image generated until an error occurs is printed.

  On the other hand, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for allowing generation of a print image to continue even if there is an error in part of print data. The apparatus described in this document stores the position information and size of each instruction block in the print data at the time of reading the print data, and at the time of error detection, the position information of the instruction block executed at that time and The size is read, and the data corresponding to the size from the head position of the instruction block is overwritten with data indicating a blank. Then, the print data processed in this way is interpreted again and developed into bitmap data or the like.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-320139

  According to the present invention, when a plurality of logical pages generated based on a plurality of records by variable data printing is printed on one sheet, even if an error occurs in the generation of an image corresponding to the record, it is printed incompletely. The object is to allow the processing to continue without outputting the paper.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a receiving unit that receives variable print data including a plurality of records and a logical page corresponding to a record by executing a designated drawing program for each record in the variable print data. A printing apparatus using an image generation unit that generates an image of the image, a storage unit that stores an image of one or more logical pages generated by the image generation unit, and an image group of logical pages stored in the storage unit A print control unit that performs control to execute a printing process for printing images of a plurality of logical pages on one sheet of paper, and the print control unit causes the printing apparatus to store a plurality of logical pages on one sheet. either record the record to be printed the on one sheet of paper in generating an image of the logical pages to be used for executing the printing process for printing an image by the image generating means In particular in response error for de, prohibit printing using an image group of the image and the logical page to be printed on the same sheet of the logical page corresponding to the record in which the error stored in said memory means is generated Error processing means, and error processing means for performing error processing for causing the image generation means to switch the record for image generation to a record to be printed on the next sheet of the sheet and to continue generating a logical page image. An image processing apparatus is provided.
The invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the image generation unit responds to the record based on an interpretation process for interpreting the drawing program for each record and an interpretation result of the drawing program for each record by the interpretation process. An image generation process for generating an image of the logical page to be executed, and the image processing apparatus further includes: the image generation unit configured to determine which of the plurality of logical pages to be printed on the one sheet of paper. A page number management unit that manages information indicating whether the interpretation processing has been completed for pages up to the page; and the error processing unit generates an error in any one of the records to be printed on the one sheet In this case, based on the information managed by the page number management means, printing is performed on the one sheet after the record in which the error has occurred. Until the record corresponding to the last logical page to be processed, at least the interpretation processing is executed by the image generation unit, and the record next to the record corresponding to the last logical page should be printed on the next sheet 2. The image processing according to claim 1, wherein the image generation unit switches the image generation target record to a record to be printed on the next sheet and continues generation of an image of a logical page. Device.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a receiving unit that receives variable print data including a plurality of records and a logical page corresponding to a record by executing a designated drawing program for each record in the variable print data. An image generation unit that generates an image of the image, a storage unit that stores an image of one or more logical pages generated by the image generation unit, a printing apparatus, and an image group of logical pages stored in the storage unit Te, and print control means for performing control to execute the printing process for printing images of a plurality of logical pages to one sheet of paper to said printing apparatus, said printing control means for a sheet of paper to the printing apparatus A record to be printed on the one sheet when the image generating unit generates a logical page image used for executing a printing process for printing a plurality of logical page images. In response to an error has occurred for one of the record, the error is stored is used an image group of logical pages to be printed on the same paper as the image of the logical page corresponding to the record generated in the storage means Error processing means for prohibiting printing, and error processing means for causing the image generation means to switch the record for image generation to a record to be printed on the next sheet of the sheet and to continue generating the logical page image And a printing system.
The invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the image generation means corresponds to the record based on an interpretation process for interpreting the drawing program for each record and an interpretation result of the drawing program for each record by the interpretation process. Image generation processing for generating an image of a logical page to be executed, and the printing system further includes: how many pages of the plurality of logical pages to be printed on the one sheet by the image generation means A page number management unit that manages information indicating whether the interpretation processing has been completed for the eyes, and the error processing unit generates an error in any one of the records to be printed on the one sheet of paper In this case, based on the information managed by the page number management means, printing on the one sheet after the record in which the error has occurred Until the record corresponding to the last logical page to be processed, at least the interpretation processing is executed by the image generation unit, and the record next to the record corresponding to the last logical page should be printed on the next sheet 4. The printing system according to claim 3, wherein a record is generated, and the image generation unit switches the image generation target record to a record to be printed on the next sheet and continues generation of an image of a logical page. 5. It is.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a step of receiving variable print data including a plurality of records in a computer and executing a designated drawing program for each record in the variable print data correspond to the records . using an image generating step of generating an image of the logical pages, storing the image of the logical pages the generated in the storage device, an image group of the logical page stored in the storage device, 1 in printing device A print control step for performing a print process for printing images of a plurality of logical pages on a sheet of paper, and a plurality of logical page images for one sheet in the printing apparatus in the print control step. A record to be printed on the one sheet of paper when the image generating step generates an image of a logical page used for executing a printing process for printing. Corresponding to the occurrence of an error for any one of the records in the group, a logical page image group to be printed on the same sheet as the logical page image stored in the storage device and corresponding to the record in which the error has occurred. as well as prohibiting the printing using a program for executing the error processing step of continuing the generation of an image of the logical pages target record of the image generated by switching the record to be printed on the next sheet of the paper, the It is.
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the image generating step, an interpretation process for interpreting the drawing program for each record and an interpretation result of the drawing program for each record by the interpretation process are supported. An image generation process for generating an image of a logical page to be executed, and the program generates up to how many pages of the plurality of logical pages to be printed on the one sheet in the image generation step A page number management step for managing information indicating whether the interpretation processing has been completed for the computer, and in the error processing step, for any one of the records to be printed on the one sheet of paper If an error occurs, based on the information managed by the page number management step, From the record in which the error occurs to the record corresponding to the last logical page to be printed on the one sheet, at least the interpretation processing is executed in the image generation step, and the record corresponds to the last logical page. The record next to the record is the record to be printed on the next sheet, and the image generation step is switched to the record to be printed on the next sheet in the image generation step to continue generating the logical page image. The program according to claim 5, wherein:

According to the first to sixth aspects of the invention, when a plurality of logical pages generated based on a plurality of records in variable data printing are printed on a single sheet, even if an error occurs for a certain record, it is incomplete The processing can be continued without outputting the paper printed on the .

  With reference to FIG. 1, the configuration of the image forming system of the embodiment will be described. This system includes a print server 100 and a printing apparatus 200. The printing apparatus 200 prints an image on a sheet. The print server 100 converts print data (for example, described in a page description language) input from the client device 300 into image data that can be handled by the printing device 200 and provides the image data to the printing device 200. In addition, the print server 100 may have a function of controlling the execution order of print data (also referred to as “job”) input from the client device 300. The print server 100 and the printing apparatus 200 may be separate apparatuses interconnected by a communication path such as a network or a cable, or may be configured as an integrated apparatus. The print server 100 can communicate with the client device 300 via a communication path such as a network or a cable.

  Here, the print server 100 has a variable data printing function for processing variable printing (variable print) data. The variable print data includes information indicating one or more records to be printed and information indicating a layout program applied to the record group. An example of the data content of the variable print data is shown in FIG. In this example, the description “(layout01) SETLAYOUT” on the first line specifies a layout program to be used in this variable print data processing. The identification name of the layout program used is “layout01”, and “SETLAYOUT” is an instruction for designating the layout program. The second and subsequent lines are data of a record group to be printed. That is, the second line represents the field name of each field (item) in the record to be printed. In this data example, a direct mail including individual image data is printed for each customer, and the record includes the customer ID, name, and image data identifier (for example, file name). Each line after the third line is an individual record. The entity of the image data to be printed is stored in the resource repository 120 (shown in the print server 100 in FIG. 1, but is not limited thereto, and may exist on a network accessible from the print server 100). Saved.

  The layout program is a program that describes a procedure for generating an image for printing from a record in variable print data, and is described in a language such as a page description language. The layout program includes a command for generating an image based on the values of one or more fields in the record. This type of command draws a different image for each record. The layout program may include a command for drawing fixed data that does not depend on a record, a command for moving the drawing position, and the like.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of the layout program. This example shows the contents of the layout program “layout01” specified in the variable print data of FIG. “SETFORM” on the first line is a command for designating a background form image to be used in this layout program. Similarly, “form01.tif” on the first line is an identifier (for example, a file name) of the background form image to be used. The second line is a command to start drawing from the coordinates (72, 144). The third line is a command for drawing and outputting a character string “Notice to Sama” after drawing (“show”) the customer's name (NAME field) as text. The fourth line is a command for drawing and outputting an image corresponding to the customer indicated by the IMG field. The layout program and the background form image used therein are stored in the resource repository 120 in association with the identifier.

  The client apparatus 300 generates variable print data as illustrated in FIG. 2 and transmits it to the print server 100 to request printing. In the above example, the layout program and the background form image in the resource repository 120 are used. However, the layout program and / or the background form image (or both) are transferred from the client apparatus 300 to the print server 100 together with the variable print data. You may send it. In the above example, the record group to be printed is included in the variable print data. Instead, information that uniquely identifies the record group in the network database is included in the variable print data. These records may be described and the records may be acquired from the database during variable printing.

  In the print server 100, the job receiving unit 110 receives a job (in this case, variable print data) from the client device 300.

  The resource repository 120 stores various resources used when processing variable print data. For example, one or more layout programs, one or more form data (such as a background form image), one or more image data commonly used for a plurality of records other than the form, and external character fonts are stored. .

  The layout processing unit 130 processes the variable print data and generates image data for printing. That is, the layout processing unit 130 executes a layout program for each record in the variable print data, generates image data for each record, and supplies the image data to the printing apparatus 200. For example, the layout processing unit 130 draws (overlays) a fixed image or an image for each record on the background form image to generate image data corresponding to each record.

  The layout processing unit 130 interprets and executes a layout program (referred to as an interpretation execution unit) and a portion that renders a raster image by processing intermediate data (also referred to as a display list) obtained as a result of the interpretation execution. (Referred to as a drawing unit). Further, a function of operating only the interpretation execution unit without operating the drawing unit may be provided. For example, when an error occurs, the drawing unit is stopped and the interpretation execution unit continues to interpret and execute the layout program. Control variables used across multiple records, such as record serial numbers, may be handled in the layout program. In such a case, even if an error occurs in a certain record, the subsequent record can be processed correctly by continuing to interpret and execute the layout program and processing such a control variable. Although the drawing unit may be operated in the case of an error, if the operation is stopped, the load on the layout processing unit 130 is reduced accordingly.

  The image data generated by the layout processing unit 130 is supplied to the printing apparatus 200. The printing apparatus 200 prints the image data on a sheet. A post-processing device 250 may be provided after the printing device 200. The post-processing device 250 performs post-processing such as stapling, punching, or bookbinding on the printing result output from the printing device 200, for example. Here, the post-processing device 250 may control to post-process the print result for each record (for example, bookbinding for each print result of one record). For example, the client apparatus 300 may generate job data including variable print data and job control information that instructs post-processing (for example, bookbinding) for each record, and transmit the job data to the print server 100. In this case, according to the job control information, the print server 100 outputs a post-processing instruction to the printing apparatus each time image data (for example, this image data may be for a plurality of pages) is output, for example, for one record. It may be sent to the post-processing apparatus 250 via 200 or directly.

  The error processing unit 135 executes processing related to an error caused by a record when the image processing unit 130 generates image data. The processing of the error processing unit 135 will be described in detail later.

  The image storage unit 140 is a device for temporarily storing the image data of each page generated by the layout processing unit 130 until the start of printing. The image data stored in the image storage unit 140 may be raster image data or intermediate data.

  The error log storage unit 150 stores log information regarding errors that have occurred during the processing of the layout processing unit 130. The log information includes, for example, the date and time when the error occurred, the identifier of the job in which the error occurred, the type of the error, and the identifier of the record in which the error occurred.

  The image storage unit 140 and the error log storage unit 150 are configured using hardware such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) or a hard disk drive, for example.

  Next, an example of processing procedures of the layout processing unit 130 and the error processing unit 135 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. The layout processing unit 130 has two exclusive operation modes, a normal mode and an abnormal mode. When the variable print data processing is started, the layout processing unit 130 is set to the normal mode.

  In this procedure, first, the layout processing unit 130 extracts layout designation information from variable print data received from the job reception unit 110, and acquires a layout program indicated by the layout designation information from the resource repository 120 (S1). The layout processing unit 130 initializes the image storage unit 140, the error log storage unit 150, and various control variables such as the variable i indicating the record number (for example, the initial value of i is 1). Next, the layout processing unit 130 acquires the i-th record from the variable print data (S2). Then, the layout processing unit 130 executes a layout program for the acquired record (S3). For example, the layout processing unit 130 executes the layout program in order from the first line, and if there is a command that refers to a record in the layout program, executes the command using the acquired record. The procedures in FIGS. 4 and 5 are typically easy to understand assuming that one page (logical page) image is generated for one record in step S3.

  The error processing unit 135 monitors the occurrence of an error due to the record in the logical page generation processing for the record in the layout processing unit 130 (S4).

  When the error processing unit 135 detects that an error due to the record has occurred, the layout processing unit 130 shifts to an abnormal mode (S5), and the error processing unit 135 displays log information about the error in the error log storage unit. 150 is registered (S6). Once a transition to the abnormal mode is made, the normal mode is not restored until the image generation processing for the next sheet proceeds, regardless of whether there is an error in the subsequent record. If no error has occurred, steps S5 and S6 are skipped.

  Next, the layout processing unit 130 determines whether the image data created from the record in step S3 corresponds to the last logical page on the current print target paper surface (S7). For example, at the stage where the image of the first page of one page is generated by 2-up (mode in which two logical pages are arranged and printed on one side of the paper) printing, the result of this determination is No (No). Note that when the layout processing unit 130 executes the layout program to generate an image, which of the front and back images of the paper is currently being generated, in the case of N-up, what is in the paper surface. Since it manages whether the image of the second logical page is generated, that information can be used. If the determination result in step S7 is No, it is determined whether or not the record is the last record in the variable print data (S8). If not, the record number i is incremented by 1 (S9). Returning to S2, the next record is processed. If it is the last, the layout processing unit 130 proceeds to step S12 in the procedure of FIG. 5, and performs image printing or error processing.

  The above steps S2 to S9 are repeated until images of all logical pages to be printed on one side are generated or the last record is reached. In the abnormal mode, the drawing unit of the layout processing unit 130 may be stopped and only the interpretation execution unit may be operated in step S3.

  If the determination result in step S7 is Yes (positive), the image on one side of the sheet is completed. In this case, the layout processing unit 130 determines whether or not the side is the “front” side of the sheet (S10). Since this example performs double-sided printing, if the current surface is the front surface, the image data of the completed front surface is temporarily stored in the image storage unit 140 (S11). Proceed to S8.

  When the completed surface is the “back” surface, the front and back image generation has been completed, so the layout processing unit 130 proceeds to step S12 in the procedure of FIG. 5 and performs image printing or error processing.

  In step S12 of FIG. 5, the layout processing unit 130 determines whether or not the current mode is a normal mode. If it is in the normal mode, it means that no error has occurred in the generation of the images on both the front and back sides. More specifically, an image of the front surface is extracted from the image storage unit 140 (S13), the image is supplied to the printing apparatus 200, the front surface is printed (S14), and the back surface generated this time is further displayed. An image is supplied to the printing apparatus 200 to print the back surface (S15). When the last record is reached during generation of the front surface image (No in S8), the image storage unit 140 has no front surface image. In this case, in steps S13 to S15, the image of the front surface generated at that time is simply sent to the printing apparatus 200 for printing.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S12 that the current mode is the abnormal mode, output control at the time of error (S16) is executed. The output control at the time of error is, for example, simply canceling printing for the record. As another example of output control at the time of an error, instead of printing a record, a special sheet (a slip sheet) such as a colored sheet is used to indicate the location of a page where an error has occurred. There is a process to output to. In either case, not only the record in which an error has occurred, but all the records that are printed on the same sheet as that record are not printed.

  While some examples of output control at the time of error have been described above, the print server 100 includes one or more control functions. When the print server 100 includes a plurality of such control functions, the administrator or user may select one of the control functions to be used and set it in the print server 100.

  In the above example, the error caused by the record is that the resource such as the image or form for each record cannot be accessed, the data of such resource is corrupted, the data of the external character font used in the record processing May not be in the image forming apparatus, the required field in the record may be empty or an invalid value, or the number of fields in the record may be incorrect. When an error caused by something other than a record occurs, the print server 100 may perform error processing similar to the conventional one.

  After step S15 or S16, the layout processing unit 130 deletes the front image in the image storage unit 140 (S17). Then, it is determined whether or not the current record is the last one in the variable print data (S18). If it is not the last one, the normal mode is entered (S19), and the record number i is incremented by 1 (S19). S9) Returning to step S2, the next record is processed. If the current record is the last one, an error log is output (S20), and the process ends.

  The error log may be output from the printing apparatus 200, for example, or may be written out as a file. An example of the data content of the error log is shown in FIG. In this example, the error log is described in a markup language such as XML (eXtensible Markup Language). In this example, the error log for one variable print data (job) is one element that starts with a start tag <print_log> and ends with an end tag </ print_log>. In the start tag <print_log>, a job name (for example, a variable print data file name), a job ID, a job execution date, and the like are shown as attributes. An <errors> element is included in the <print_log> element. An <errors> element represents a group of errors that occurred in the job, and an <error> element indicating log information of each error is listed in this element. Each <error> element includes, as attributes, an ID for identifying an error, an identification number of a record in which an error has occurred (“rec-number”), an error code indicating the type of error, and the like. The <error> element includes an explanatory text representing the error content as character string information. Note that this example is a log when the image “002.tif” of the second record of the variable print data in FIG. If multiple errors occur in a job, an <error> element is generated for each error and added within the <errors> element. Note that the example of FIG. 6 illustrates a log that may include not only an error but also log information regarding various events that occur during job processing. Logs other than errors are embedded in the <print_log> element as an element parallel to the <errors> element.

  The user can grasp the content of the error by referring to the output error log, and can take a measure for eliminating the error. For example, if the image data specified in the record is broken, the image file may be repaired. Further, when the image data specified in the record is an image in a format that cannot be printed by the printing apparatus (for example, when printing an image that requires 6-color ink for a printing apparatus that uses 4-color ink), the printing apparatus Just prepare an image that can be printed with. If the image data specified in the record is not in the resource repository 120, the image data is registered in the resource repository 120, or the identification information of the image data specified in the record is corrected to the correct one. That's fine. If there is no external character font required for printing a record, it is sufficient to add the external character font to the resource repository 120 or change the designation of the font used in the record. If there is no value in the field in the record, or if the value is invalid, it is sufficient to supplement or correct the value of the field.

  Note that the processing procedures in FIGS. 4 and 5 can be handled even when double-sided printing and N-up printing are specified at the same time. The procedure when single-sided N-up printing is designated is the procedure shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 except for steps S10 and S11.

  4 and 5, the number of logical pages generated from one record is the number of logical pages printed on one side of the paper even when a plurality of logical pages are generated from one record by the layout program. The logical page group generated from a predetermined number of records that is as follows can be used when both sides of one sheet are completely filled. As an example of such a case, for example, there are cases where two logical pages are generated per record by 2-up and duplex printing.

  When the print server 100 processes variable print data, even if an error occurs for a certain record, the print server 100 continues the process for the remaining record group.

  Further, when an error occurs in any of a plurality of pages corresponding to one record, the print server 100 does not print out any of the plurality of pages.

  The print server 100 exemplified above is realized, for example, by causing a general-purpose computer to execute a program representing the processing of each functional module described above. Here, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, the computer includes, as hardware, a microprocessor such as a CPU 1000, a memory (primary storage) such as a random access memory (RAM) 1002 and a read-only memory (ROM) 1004, an HDD ( HDD controller 1008 that controls (hard disk drive) 1006, various I / O (input / output) interfaces 1010, network interface 1012 that performs control for connection to a network such as a local area network, etc. are connected via bus 1014, for example. Circuit configuration. In addition, for example, a disk drive 1016 for reading from and / or writing to a portable disk recording medium such as a CD or a DVD, a portable memory of various standards such as a flash memory via the I / O interface 1010 is connected to the bus 1014. A memory reader / writer 1018 for reading from and / or writing to the nonvolatile recording medium may be connected. A program in which the processing contents of each functional module exemplified above are described is stored in a fixed storage device such as a hard disk drive via a recording medium such as a CD or DVD, or via a communication means such as a network, and stored in a computer. Installed. The program stored in the fixed storage device is read into the RAM 1002 and executed by a microprocessor such as the CPU 1000, whereby the functional module group exemplified above is realized. Some or all of these functional module groups are used as hardware circuits such as dedicated LSI (Large Scale Integration), ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array). It may be configured.

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an example of an image forming system. It is a figure which shows an example of the data content of variable print data. It is a figure which shows an example of the content of a layout program. It is a flowchart which shows a part of example of the process sequence of a layout process part and an error process part. It is a flowchart which shows the remaining part of an example of the process procedure of a layout process part and an error process part. It is a figure which shows an example of the data content of an error log. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of a computer.

Explanation of symbols

  100 print server, 110 job receiving unit, 120 resource repository, 130 layout processing unit, 135 error processing unit, 140 image storage unit, 150 error log storage unit, 200 printing device, 250 post-processing device, 300 client device.

Claims (6)

Receiving means for receiving variable print data including a plurality of records;
Image generation means for generating an image of a logical page corresponding to a record by executing a designated drawing program for each record in the variable print data;
Storage means for storing one or more logical page images generated by the image generation means;
Print control means for performing control for causing the printing apparatus to execute print processing for printing images of a plurality of logical pages on one sheet using the logical page image group stored in the storage means;
When the image generation unit generates the logical page image used by the printing control unit to cause the printing apparatus to execute a printing process for printing a plurality of logical page images on one sheet, the one sheet In response to the occurrence of an error for any one of the records to be printed on the other paper, the image is printed on the same paper as the logical page image stored in the storage means and corresponding to the record in which the error occurred. Error processing for prohibiting printing using the image group of the logical page to be generated, and generating a logical page image by switching the image generation target record to the record to be printed on the next sheet of the sheet in the image generation unit. Error handling means for performing error handling to be continued;
An image processing apparatus comprising:   The image generation means generates an image of a logical page corresponding to the record based on an interpretation process for interpreting the drawing program for each record and an interpretation result of the drawing program for each record by the interpretation process Generation process, and
  The image processing apparatus further manages information indicating how many logical pages of the plurality of logical pages to be printed on the one sheet by the image generation unit are completed. With page number management means,
  The error processing means, when an error occurs in any one of the records to be printed on the one sheet of paper, based on the information managed by the page number management means, after the record in which the error has occurred Until the record corresponding to the last logical page to be printed on the one sheet, at least the interpretation processing is executed by the image generation unit, and the record next to the record corresponding to the last logical page is set to the next record. A record to be printed on a sheet of paper, and the image generation unit switches the record of the image generation target to a record to be printed on the next sheet, and continues to generate a logical page image.
  The image processing apparatus according to claim 1. Receiving means for receiving variable print data including a plurality of records;
Image generation means for generating an image of a logical page corresponding to a record by executing a designated drawing program for each record in the variable print data;
Storage means for storing one or more logical page images generated by the image generation means;
A printing device ;
Print control means for controlling the printing apparatus to execute print processing for printing images of a plurality of logical pages on one sheet using the logical page image group stored in the storage means;
When the image generation unit generates the logical page image used by the printing control unit to cause the printing apparatus to execute a printing process for printing a plurality of logical page images on one sheet, the one sheet In response to the occurrence of an error for any one of the records to be printed on the other paper, the image is printed on the same paper as the logical page image stored in the storage means and corresponding to the record in which the error occurred. Error processing for prohibiting printing using the image group of the logical page to be generated, and generating a logical page image by switching the image generation target record to the record to be printed on the next sheet of the sheet in the image generation unit Error handling means for performing error handling to be continued;
A printing system comprising:   The image generation means generates an image of a logical page corresponding to the record based on an interpretation process for interpreting the drawing program for each record and an interpretation result of the drawing program for each record by the interpretation process Generation process, and
  The printing system further includes a page for managing information indicating how many pages out of the plurality of logical pages to be printed on the one sheet by the image generation unit are completed. A number management means,
  The error processing means, when an error occurs in any one of the records to be printed on the one sheet of paper, based on the information managed by the page number management means, after the record in which the error has occurred Until the record corresponding to the last logical page to be printed on the one sheet, at least the interpretation processing is executed by the image generation unit, and the record next to the record corresponding to the last logical page is set to the next record. A record to be printed on a sheet of paper, and the image generation unit switches the record of the image generation target to a record to be printed on the next sheet, and continues to generate a logical page image.
  The printing system according to claim 3. On the computer,
Receiving variable print data including a plurality of records;
An image generation step of generating an image of a logical page corresponding to a record by executing a designated drawing program for each record in the variable print data;
Storing the image of the generated logical page in a storage device ;
Using images of the logical page stored in the storage device, and a print control step of performing control to execute the printing process for printing images of a plurality of logical pages to one sheet of paper to the printing apparatus,
When the image generating step generates the logical page image used for causing the printing apparatus to execute a printing process for printing a plurality of logical page images on one sheet in the printing control step. In response to the occurrence of an error in any one of the records to be printed on the other paper, the image is printed on the same paper as the logical page image stored in the storage device and corresponding to the record in which the error has occurred. as well as prohibiting the printing using the image group of logical pages to the error processing step for the target record of the image generated by switching the record to be printed on the next sheet of the sheet to continue the production of the image of the logical pages ,
A program for running   In the image generation step, an image for generating an image of a logical page corresponding to the record based on an interpretation process for interpreting the drawing program for each record and an interpretation result of the drawing program for each record by the interpretation process Generation process, and
  The program manages the number of pages for managing information indicating how many logical pages of the plurality of logical pages to be printed on the one sheet in the image generating step are completed. Further causing the computer to execute a step,
  In the error processing step, when an error occurs in any one of the records to be printed on the one sheet of paper, based on the information managed in the page number management step, the records after the error occurred Until the record corresponding to the last logical page to be printed on the one sheet, at least the interpretation processing is executed in the image generation step, and the record next to the record corresponding to the last logical page is A record to be printed on the next sheet, and in the image generation step, the record of the image generation target is switched to a record to be printed on the next sheet and the generation of the logical page image is continued.
  The program according to claim 5.

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