JP4621418B2 - Print processing apparatus, print processing method, program, and computer-readable recording medium - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus, a print processing method used in the print processing apparatus, a program, and a computer-readable recording medium on which the program is recorded.

In a conventional printer device, when printing is started, it is determined whether the job is a permitted user. If the job is not permitted, the job is reset, and printing is started when the job is permitted. (For example, see Patent Document 1). For this reason, after printing starts, anyone can perform operations. At this time, if a malicious other person performs a job reset operation, important printing is discarded (job reset). It was.
JP 2001-322338 A

  An object of the present invention is to prevent printing from being stopped by another person performing a job reset operation during printing.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print processing apparatus for printing an image on paper, a print stopping unit for stopping a printing operation of the printing unit based on a job reset instruction, and after stopping the printing operation. An authentication means for performing user authentication, a change means for changing a user authentication target set in advance to a user set in the apparatus when performing user authentication by the authentication means, and a user changed by the change means. Control means for ignoring the job reset instruction and restarting the printing operation when the user authentication fails, wherein the authentication means performs authentication with the user selected by the selection means. It is a feature.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the printing apparatus according to claim 1, when performing the user authentication, if there is no input of the authentication information within a predetermined time is characterized in that the authentication failure .

According to a third aspect of the invention, in the printing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a measuring means for measuring the number of authentication failure, when performing the user authentication, the measured number of authentication failure times is greater than a predetermined number of times for are those characterized by having a, and inhibiting means for inhibiting the job reset.

Invention of claim 4, wherein, in the printing apparatus according to claim 1, when performing the user authentication, authentication is performed at the user set in the device, information identifying the user as error history information It is characterized by recording .

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print processing method for printing an image on paper, a print stop step for stopping a print operation of the print step based on a job reset instruction, and after stopping the print operation. An authentication step for performing user authentication, a change step for changing a user authentication target set in advance to a user set in the apparatus when performing user authentication in the authentication step, and a user changed in the change step And a control step of ignoring the job reset instruction and resuming the printing operation when the user authentication fails.

According to a sixth aspect of the invention, there is provided a program for printing an image on paper, a print stop process for stopping a print operation of the print process based on a job reset instruction, and user authentication after the print operation is stopped. An authentication process for performing user authentication, a change process for changing a user authentication target set in advance to a user set in the apparatus when performing user authentication by the authentication process, and a user changed by the change process by the user When authentication fails , the computer is caused to execute a control process of ignoring the job reset instruction and resuming the printing operation.

According to a seventh aspect, according to claim 6, wherein the program, when performing authentication of the user, if there is no input of user information within a predetermined time to be executed to process by the authentication failure to the computer It is characterized by.

The invention according to claim 8 is the program according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the number of authentication failures is a predetermined number or more when performing the measurement process for measuring the number of authentication failures and the user authentication. Is characterized by causing a computer to execute prohibition processing for prohibiting job reset.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the program according to the sixth aspect, when the user authentication is performed, information for identifying the user is recorded as error history information when the user set in the device is authenticated. It is characterized by causing a computer to execute processing .

A recording medium according to a tenth aspect of the invention is characterized by being readable by a computer on which the program according to any one of the sixth to ninth aspects is recorded .

  According to the present invention, user authentication is performed based on a job reset instruction, and if the authentication fails, the job reset is ignored and printing is continued, so that another person issues a job reset instruction and printing is stopped. This can be prevented.

  According to the present invention, after a printing operation is temporarily stopped based on a job reset instruction, user authentication is performed, and when user authentication fails, an unauthorized person who is not registered performs a job reset operation. The reset operation is ignored and the printing operation is resumed.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer system using a printer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
In FIG. 1, 1 is a host computer, 2 is a printer device, and 10 is a network. The host computer 1 creates a print instruction and print data for the printer apparatus 2 via the network 10.

  In the printer apparatus 2, a CPU 3 controls the entire apparatus, converts print data from the host computer 1 into an image, and passes it to the printer engine 4. A printer engine 4 prints an image on paper. Reference numeral 5 denotes a memory, which is a storage device used by the CPU 3. A program for operating the printer device 2 is installed and necessary information is stored therein. In addition, the image created by the CPU 3 is stored. A host interface 6 is connected to the host computer 1 via the network 10. Reference numeral 7 denotes an engine interface to which the printer engine 4 is connected. Reference numeral 8 denotes an operation panel which performs key input and display from the user. An operation panel interface 9 is connected to the operation panel 8.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 shows examples of various data registered in the memory 5. FIG. 4 shows a display example related to user authentication displayed on the operation panel 8. In FIG.
(A) shows a user name and password for user authentication.
(B) shows a data example of time when it is determined that there is no input of authentication information for user authentication. (C) shows an example of data of the number of failures to prohibit job reset.
(D) shows an example of error history data.

  In FIG. 2, when a printing operation is being performed, if a job reset is instructed by pressing the job reset key 12 (see FIG. 4A) on the operation panel 8 in step S1 (hereinafter, step abbreviated), In S2, if the number of authentication failures in S5, which will be described later, is greater than or equal to the preset number (here, 9 times) shown in FIG. 3C, the subsequent job reset is prohibited in S11 and processed. Exit. If the number of authentication failures is smaller than the set number, the printer engine 4 is instructed to stop printing in S3, and the printing operation is stopped.

Here, in S4, a display for prompting user authentication is performed on the operation panel 8 as shown in FIG. In step S5, the control panel 8 waits for input of authentication information from the user. If the predetermined waiting time has elapsed, the process proceeds to S9 as an authentication failure.
If authentication information is input within the predetermined time, user authentication is performed based on the authentication information in S6. As a user authentication method, for example, there is a method in which the user name and password registered in the memory 5 shown in FIG.

  Or you may make it select the user set to the apparatus or the user of a job by the content set beforehand. When a user set in the apparatus is selected, it is sufficient that authentication can be performed by any of all the users registered in FIG. If a job user is selected, it must be able to authenticate with a user name that matches the job user.

If the authentication is successful in S6, the user name is recorded in the error history of FIG. Next, in S8, the display of FIG. 4C is performed, and the job is reset and the printing operation remains stopped.
On the other hand, if authentication fails in S6, the number of authentication failures is measured in S9, then the job reset in S1 is ignored in S10, the printer engine 4 is instructed to resume printing, and the printing operation is resumed.

According to the present embodiment, user authentication is performed based on a job reset instruction, and if the authentication fails, the job reset is ignored, thereby preventing others from resetting the job during printing.
Also, when there is no authentication information input operation within a predetermined time during user authentication, the job reset is ignored due to the authentication failure, so that the print stop time is not unnecessarily lengthened and printing is performed. Can be resumed.
In addition, when the number of authentication failures becomes a predetermined number or more, by prohibiting subsequent job resets, it is possible to eliminate the risk that the authentication is broken while the authentication operation is performed many times.

  In addition, as described above, user authentication is performed after printing is stopped by a job reset instruction. However, if only the user of the job is targeted for user authentication, only the user of the job can perform job reset. Therefore, when there is no user of the job nearby, even if useless printing is performed, the job cannot be reset and printing can be stopped, so that a problem of waste of paper occurs. In this embodiment, since the user authentication target set in advance can be selected by the user set in the apparatus, the user set in the apparatus resets the job even when there is no job user nearby. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the paper from being used wastefully.

  In addition, a user set in the apparatus can perform job reset, but there is a problem that it is not known who performed job reset. According to this embodiment, when a job reset is performed by the user authentication set in the apparatus, the user identification information is recorded in the error history of the job. You can know by looking.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an operation according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the example of the data registered. It is a block diagram which shows a user authentication screen and the screen relevant to it.

Explanation of symbols

2 Printer device 3 CPU
4 Printer engine 5 Memory 8 Operation panel 12 Job reset key

Claims (10)

Printing means for printing an image on paper;
Print stopping means for stopping the printing operation of the printing means based on a job reset instruction;
Authentication means for performing user authentication after stopping the printing operation;
Changing means for changing a user authentication target set in advance to a user set in the apparatus when performing user authentication by the authentication means ;
Control means for ignoring the job reset instruction and resuming the printing operation when the user authentication fails for the user changed by the changing means ,
The print processing apparatus, wherein the authentication unit performs authentication by a user selected by the selection unit.   2. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when performing the user authentication, if authentication information is not input within a predetermined time, the authentication is failed.   The measuring means for measuring the number of authentication failures, and the prohibiting means for prohibiting job reset when the measured number of authentication failures is a predetermined number or more when performing the user authentication. Item 3. The print processing apparatus according to Item 1 or 2.   The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when performing the user authentication, information for identifying the user is recorded as error history information when authentication is performed by a user set in the apparatus. A printing process for printing an image on paper;
A printing stop process for stopping the printing operation of the printing process based on a job reset instruction;
An authentication step of performing user authentication after stopping the printing operation;
When performing user authentication by the authentication step, a change step of changing a preset user authentication target to a user set in the device;
A control step of ignoring the job reset instruction and resuming the printing operation when the user authentication fails with the user changed in the changing step ;
A print processing method characterized by comprising: A printing process that prints images on paper;
A print stop process for stopping the print operation of the print process based on a job reset instruction;
An authentication process for performing user authentication after stopping the printing operation;
When performing user authentication by the authentication process, a change process for changing a user authentication target set in advance to a user set in the apparatus;
A control process for ignoring the job reset instruction and resuming the printing operation when the user authentication fails for the user changed in the change process ;
A program that causes a computer to execute.   The program according to claim 6, wherein when performing authentication of the user, the computer is caused to perform processing as authentication failure when no user information is input within a predetermined time.   The computer is caused to execute a measurement process for measuring the number of authentication failures and a prohibition process for prohibiting job reset when the measured number of authentication failures is a predetermined number or more when performing the user authentication. The program according to claim 6 or 7.   The computer according to claim 6, wherein when performing user authentication, when performing authentication with a user set in the apparatus, the computer is caused to execute a process of recording information for identifying the user as error history information. program.   The computer-readable recording medium which recorded the program of any one of Claims 6-9.

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