JP5948774B2 - Printing system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a printing system .

  In the field of printing systems, conventionally, a technique for monitoring the status of a printing apparatus by a host device that issues a printing instruction is known. For example, when the host device and the printing device are connected via a LAN, the host device requests status information from the printing device at predetermined intervals using the SNMP (simple network management protocol) protocol or the like. Thus, the host device can obtain the status information of the printing apparatus. As a result, the user of the host device can easily grasp the progress of the print job and the occurrence of an error in the printing apparatus while being away from the printing apparatus.

  By the way, generally, there are a great many types of status information of a printing apparatus. Accordingly, if all status information is transmitted to the host device every time there is a request from the host device, the printing apparatus is forced to bear a large burden to execute the processing (hereinafter referred to as response processing). Become. In particular, if there is a request during the execution of the printing process, the response process may hinder the original printing processing capability of the printing apparatus from being exhibited, which is not preferable. In addition, when the host device and the printing apparatus are connected via a network such as a LAN, the status information transmitted by the response process becomes a factor in increasing network traffic, which is not preferable in this respect. .

  On the other hand, the host device does not always require all the status information of the printing apparatus. For example, status information that has not changed since the previous acquisition or status information that does not affect the execution of a print instruction from the host device is not normally required.

Therefore, in order to reduce the processing load on the printing device and suppress network traffic, the host device explicitly requests the necessary status information, and the status information is transmitted from the printing device to the host device. desirable.
As a technology related to this, in Patent Document 1, the host device first acquires information on whether or not the printing apparatus is in an energy saving state, and changes information acquired according to the result, that is, requested status information. Techniques to do this are disclosed.

JP 2008-77209 A

  According to the technique disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the requested status information is changed depending on whether the printing apparatus is in an energy saving state. For this reason, the printing device does not need to transmit all the status information to the host device, so the processing load is reduced. Moreover, since the status information to be transmitted is limited, it contributes to the suppression of network traffic.

  However, in the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1, in order for the host device to appropriately change the status information requested to the printing apparatus, it is necessary to confirm whether the printing apparatus is in an energy saving state in advance. is there. For this reason, an exchange for confirming the state of the printing apparatus occurs between the host device and the printing apparatus, in addition to the conventional status information request and response. Therefore, the number of requests to be processed by the printing apparatus is increased as compared with the prior art.

Based on such a situation, a technique for further reducing the burden on the printing apparatus and suppressing network traffic is desired. SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a printing system that reduces processing load on a printing apparatus and suppresses network traffic.

A printing system according to the present invention is a printing system comprising: a host device that issues a printing instruction to a printing device; and a printing device that executes a printing process in accordance with a printing instruction from the host device. Includes a data generation unit that generates print data corresponding to the printing device, a monitoring unit that monitors status information output by the printing device, and outputs the print data generated by the data generation unit to the printing device. And an output unit that outputs the print mode information included in the print data to the monitoring unit, and the monitoring unit outputs at least the printing device when the output unit outputs the print data to the printing device. Is the period during which the process based on the print data is executed or the period until the printing apparatus completes the process based on the print data. As the output of the status information from the device is polling interval corresponding to the print mode, and wherein the requesting the output of the status information to the printing apparatus.

According to the present invention, to reduce the processing load of the printing apparatus, it is possible to provide a suppressing printing system network traffic.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram specifically illustrating the configuration of the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a figure explaining the process of the printing system illustrated by FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an initial process of the printer driver exemplified in FIG. 1. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an end process of the printer driver exemplified in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an initial process of the port monitor exemplified in FIG. 1. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a transmission process of the port monitor exemplified in FIG. 1. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a port monitor termination process illustrated in FIG. 1; 3 is a flowchart for explaining print start reception processing of a monitoring unit exemplified in FIG. 1. 3 is a flowchart for explaining print mode reception processing of a monitoring unit exemplified in FIG. 1. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a print end reception process of a monitoring unit exemplified in FIG. 1.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to the present embodiment. A printing system 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a printing apparatus 1 and a host device 2 connected to the printing apparatus 1.

  The host device 2 is, for example, a personal computer, and includes a main storage device 20, a CPU (not shown), and an input device. The main storage device 20 includes a document editing application 21 and a printer driver 22 that converts print data from the application 21 into print data (hereinafter referred to as PDL data) corresponding to a printing device such as a PDL format. And a port monitor 23 for transmitting PDL data to the printing apparatus 1 and a monitoring unit 24 for monitoring the status of the printing apparatus 1. That is, the main storage device 20 stores these as programs.

  The monitoring unit 24 is a module that can bidirectionally communicate between the printing apparatus 1 and the host device 2. The monitoring unit 24 may be, for example, an SNMP manager or an application that monitors the printing apparatus 1 using the SNMP manager.

  In the host device 2, a CPU (not shown) reads and executes these programs stored in the main storage device 20 according to an operation signal from an input device (not shown). As a result, the host device 2 can send PDL data to the printing apparatus 1 to give a printing instruction, and can monitor the status of the printing apparatus 1 as will be described later.

  The printing apparatus 1 includes an interface (IF) unit 10, a control unit / analysis unit 11, a printing mechanism unit 12, an auxiliary storage unit 13, a display unit 14, and an input / authentication operation unit 15. The display unit 14 and the input / authentication operation unit 15 may constitute an operation panel, for example, and may be provided in front of the printing apparatus 1.

  The IF unit 10 receives the PDL data transmitted from the host device 2 and transfers it to the auxiliary storage unit 13 via the control unit / analysis unit 11. The control unit / analysis unit 11 reads the PDL data from the auxiliary storage unit 13 and generates image data such as bitmap data, for example. Further, the control unit / analysis unit 11 controls the driving of the printing mechanism unit 12 based on the analysis result of the command included in the PDL data and the generated image data. Thereby, the printing apparatus 1 can execute a printing process.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1 more specifically. With reference to FIG. 2, the processing in the printing apparatus 1 described above will be described in more detail.

  The printing apparatus 1 is typically connected to the host device 2 and the Internet via a wired LAN, a USB interface, or the like as illustrated in FIG. Note that the connection between the printing apparatus 1 and the host device 2 or the Internet may be performed via an interface of a standard other than USB or a wireless LAN.

  As illustrated in FIG. 2, the printing apparatus 1 includes a main power unit (MPS) 31, an engine control unit (PRCONT) 32, an interface control unit (IFCONT) 33, an operation panel 34, Toner sensor 35, belt unit 36, double-sided unit 37, high voltage unit (HVU) 38, motor control unit (MDCONT) 39, drive unit 40, paper feed unit 41, and head 42 , A developing device (TS) 43, a drum set (DS) 44, a fixing unit 45, and a paper discharge unit 46.

  Here, PRCONT32, IFCONT33, and MDCONT39 correspond to the control unit / analysis unit 11 illustrated in FIG. The IFCONT 33 also corresponds to the IF unit 10 illustrated in FIG. Further, the operation panel 34 corresponds to the display unit 14 and the input / authentication operation unit 15 illustrated in FIG. The other components mainly correspond to the printing mechanism unit 12 illustrated in FIG.

  The MPS 31 is connected to an external power source such as an AC 100V commercial power source. The MPS 31 supplies power to each unit of the printing apparatus 1 such as PRCONT32, IFCONT33, and MDCONT39. Particularly for high voltages, it is supplied by the HVU 38. The operation panel 34 displays an operation screen, status information of the printing apparatus 1, and the like.

  The IFCONT 33 receives the PDL data sent from the host device 2 and develops image data corresponding to each print color in the memory based on the PDL data. In addition, a command included in the PDL data is transmitted to the PRCONT 32. In addition, IFCONT 33 also receives a command input from operation panel 34 and transmits the command to PRCONT 32.

  The PRCONT 32 print command for each color (for example, cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), black (K)) based on the command supplied from the IFCONT 33 and the like and the image data developed in the memory. Is output to the head 42. The PRCONT 32 also outputs a control signal to the HVU 38 and the paper feed unit 41.

  The MDCONT 39 controls, for example, a motor provided in the drive unit 40, the belt unit 36, and the like. The DS 44 includes a plurality of photoconductors provided for each color. The head 42 includes, for example, an array of light emitting elements such as EL and LEDs, and functions as an exposure unit that exposes a photoconductor included in the DS 44 based on a print command. The belt unit 36 includes an intermediate transfer belt on which toner images formed on a plurality of photoconductors are transferred to combine images. The drive unit 40 circulates and moves the intermediate transfer belt.

  The TS 43 encloses a predetermined amount of toner corresponding to the printing color (for example, an amount of toner capable of printing about 6000 sheets when printed on A4 size paper at 5% recording density). . The TS 43 is provided with a toner sensor 35 for detecting the remaining amount of toner held in the internal toner storage chamber. After the toner images of a plurality of colors are superimposed on the intermediate transfer belt, the toner image is transferred to a sheet at the secondary transfer portion of the intermediate transfer belt. The sheet having the toner image attached thereto is sent to the fixing unit 45. The fixing unit 45 fixes the toner on the paper by applying heat or pressure.

  The paper feed unit 41 feeds paper according to a control signal from the PRCONT 32. The paper discharge unit 46 discharges the fixed paper to a paper discharge tray. The duplex unit 37 controls sheet re-feeding for duplex printing.

  The printing apparatus 1 is a printing apparatus that can selectively switch between different printing processing speeds, and has low power consumption. Therefore, the printing apparatus 1 is referred to as an ecology printing mode (hereinafter referred to as a low speed mode). ) And an operation in a high-speed printing mode (hereinafter referred to as a high-speed mode).

  When the low-speed mode and the high-speed mode are switched, the printing apparatus 1 changes various settings such as the MDCONT 39, the drive unit 40, and the fixing unit 45, and changes the sheet conveyance speed, the thermal fixing temperature, and the like. Switching between the low speed mode and the high speed mode can be performed by a print instruction from the host device 2.

  Next, it will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 12 that the printing system 100 according to the present embodiment reduces the processing load on the printing apparatus and suppresses network traffic.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining processing of the printing system illustrated in FIG. 4 and 5 are flowcharts for explaining the initial process and the end process of the printer driver exemplified in FIG. 1, respectively. 6, 7, and 8 are flowcharts illustrating the port monitor initial processing, transmission processing, and termination processing illustrated in FIG. 1, respectively. FIGS. 9, 10, and 11 are flowcharts for explaining the print start reception process, the print mode reception process, and the print end reception process of the monitoring unit exemplified in FIG. 1, respectively.

First, the overall processing of the printing system will be outlined with reference to FIG.
In the host device 2, when print processing of the application 21 is executed by a CPU (not shown) (see FIG. 3A), print data is output from the application 21 to the printer driver 22.

  The printer driver 22 converts the print data received from the application 21 into the PDL format and generates PDL data corresponding to the printing apparatus 1. At this time, the print mode information is embedded in the header portion of the PDL data (see FIG. 3B).

  The print mode information is not limited to these. For example, monochrome printing / color printing designation, single-sided printing / double-sided printing designation, low-speed printing / high-speed printing designation, printing paper size designation, For example, paper feed tray designation, confidential printing designation, and the like.

  The PDL data generated by the printer driver 22 in this way is output to the port monitor 23. Upon receiving the PDL data, the port monitor 23 outputs the contents of the header portion of the PDL data (hereinafter referred to as header information) to the monitoring unit 24 and also outputs the PDL data to the printing apparatus 1 ((( c), see (d)).

  The printing apparatus 1 that has received the PDL data starts a printing process. On the other hand, the monitoring unit 24 that has received the header information from the port monitor 23 extracts print mode information from the header information. Then, according to the contents of the print mode information, the monitoring unit 24 sends status information to the request item of status information (hereinafter referred to as polling information) acquired from the printing device 1 to be monitored and the printing device 1. At least one of the requested polling operation intervals (hereinafter referred to as polling intervals) is changed (see (e) of FIG. 3). Thereafter, the monitoring unit 24 requests status information from the printing apparatus 1 at the polling information request item and the polling interval after the change (see (f) of FIG. 3). The printing apparatus 1 responds to the request (see (g) of FIG. 3). That is, the printing apparatus 1 transmits the requested status information to the monitoring unit 24.

  When the monitoring unit 24 determines that the printing process requested by the host device 2 to the printing apparatus 1 based on the response from the printing apparatus 1, that is, status information, the polling information request item before starting printing is performed. And the interval is restored to the default setting (see (h) of FIG. 3). Note that the monitoring itself of the status of the printing apparatus 1 by the monitoring unit 24 is performed before the printing mode information is received from the port monitor 23. That is, the setting before starting printing is a default monitoring setting used in monitoring performed before reception of print mode information from the port monitor 23.

  With reference to FIGS. 4 to 12, the processing of the printer driver 22, the port monitor 23, and the monitoring unit 24 in the processing of the entire printing system illustrated in FIG. 3 will be described in more detail.

  When the printer driver 22 receives the print data from the application 21, as illustrated in FIG. 4, first, as initial processing, the printer driver 22 acquires the setting information of the printer driver 22 set in the host device 2, and from the setting information. Print mode information is extracted (step S1). Then, the extracted print mode information is stored in the header part of the PDL data (step S2).

  Thereafter, as a normal process, the printer driver 22 generates PDL data corresponding to the print data, and stores the result in the body portion of the PDL data. At this time, the printer driver 22 also saves a command that is a command for the printing apparatus 1 in the body portion of the PDL data.

  Finally, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the printer driver 22 analyzes all print data such as information such as the number of print pages and whether or not the entire document to be printed is a monochrome document as an end process. Otherwise, information that cannot be determined (hereinafter referred to as general information) is stored in the footer portion of the PDL data (step S3).

  When the port monitor 23 receives the PDL data generated by the printer driver 22, the port monitor 23 performs the following operation on the monitoring unit 24 in addition to the operation of outputting the PDL data to the printing apparatus 1.

First, when receiving the PDL data, the port monitor 23 notifies the monitoring unit 24 of the start of printing as an initial process as illustrated in FIG. 6 (step S4).
As described above, the monitoring unit 24 monitors the status of the printing apparatus 1, and information about the printing start is notified to the monitoring unit 24 in order to contribute to the monitoring of the printing apparatus 1. Note that the reason for notifying the start of printing from the port monitor 23 instead of the printer driver 22 to the monitoring unit 24 is that when the host device 2 determines the printing start of the printing apparatus 1, a printing instruction is output to the printing apparatus 1 as much as possible. This is because it is desirable to make a judgment immediately before the start.

  Thereafter, the port monitor 23 executes a transmission process illustrated in FIG. The port monitor 23 reads header information from the PDL data (step S5). If the header information can be read, the header information is transmitted to the monitoring unit 24 (steps S6 and S7).

  However, when the setting of the printer driver 22 is a default setting determined between the printing apparatus 1 and the host device 2, the printer driver 22 does not need to embed print mode information in the header portion of the PDL data. Good. In this case, since there is no information in the header portion, the port monitor 23 cannot read the header information, so transmission of the header information to the monitoring portion 24 is omitted.

  Finally, the port monitor 23 executes a termination process illustrated in FIG. That is, the port monitor 23 transmits the contents of the footer part of PDL data (hereinafter referred to as footer information) to the monitoring part 24 (step S8), and notifies the monitoring part 24 of the end of printing (step S9).

  When the print start is notified from the port monitor 23, the monitoring unit 24 executes a print start reception process illustrated in FIG. That is, the monitoring unit 24 sets request items for default polling information set in advance in the host device 2 (step S10), and further sets a default polling interval (step S11).

  The polling information is status information of the printing apparatus 1 requested to the printing apparatus 1, and specifically includes, for example, information on consumables such as toner, information on errors, and the like. The polling interval is a time interval of a polling operation in which the host device 2 requests status information from the printing apparatus 1.

  Thereafter, when the header information is received, the monitoring unit 24 starts the print mode reception process illustrated in FIG. First, the monitoring unit 24 extracts print mode information from the received header information (step S12). Then, the monitoring unit 24 changes polling information, that is, a request item of status information requested to the printing apparatus 1 based on the print mode information (step S13).

  For example, when monochrome printing is specified in the print mode information, it is determined that the color toner information is unnecessary, and may be excluded from the status information for requesting the color toner information to the printing apparatus 1. When confidential printing is designated, the print data is stored in the HDD of the printing apparatus 1 and is not printed immediately. Therefore, status information for requesting various information relating to the printing process (for example, information on toner and paper). May be excluded. If a specific paper feed tray is specified, it is determined that information on other paper feed trays is unnecessary, and is excluded from status information for requesting information on other paper feed trays from the printing apparatus 1. Also good. That is, the monitoring unit 24 performs control to request the printing apparatus 2 to send only necessary and sufficient status information items according to the printing mode information set by the printer driver 22.

  Further, the monitoring unit 24 changes the polling interval, that is, the interval for requesting status information from the printing apparatus 1 based on the extracted print mode information (step S14). For example, when the high-speed mode is specified in the print mode information, the polling interval may be narrower than when the low-speed mode is specified. This is because the status of the printing apparatus 1 is more likely to change when the printing apparatus 1 is operating in the high speed mode than when the printing apparatus 1 is operating in the low speed mode. Thereby, the status of the printing apparatus 1 can be grasped more accurately. However, when the printing apparatus 1 is a printing apparatus that cannot operate in the high-speed mode with the duplex printing setting, the polling interval is set to the low-speed mode when the duplex printing is designated even when the high-speed mode is designated. You may set in the same way.

  As described above, the monitoring unit 24 changes at least one of the status request item of the printing apparatus 1 to be monitored and the polling operation interval for requesting status information from the printing apparatus 1 according to the contents of the printing mode information. Thereafter, the status of the printing apparatus 1 is monitored according to the required items and intervals.

  Further, when the monitoring unit 24 determines that the printing process requested by the host device 2 to the printing apparatus 1 is completed based on the status information obtained from the response from the printing apparatus 1, the printing illustrated in FIG. End reception processing is started. That is, the monitoring unit 24 restores the polling information request item and the polling interval set in steps S10 and S11 of FIG. 9 (steps S15 and S16).

  As described above, according to the printing system 100 and the host device 2 according to the present embodiment, the print mode information extracted from the header information of the PDL data generated by the host device 2 that issues a print instruction to the printing apparatus 1. The status of the printing apparatus 1 to be monitored can be determined based on the above. That is, necessary status information can be determined without accessing the printing apparatus 1. For this reason, unnecessary access to the printing apparatus 1 can be avoided and the information exchanged can be minimized. As a result, the processing load on the printing apparatus is reduced and network traffic is suppressed. be able to.

  Further, according to the printing system 100 and the host device 2 according to the present embodiment, an appropriate polling interval can be determined based on the printing mode information. Therefore, it is possible to request status information from the printing apparatus 1 at an optimum frequency as necessary. For this reason, requests and responses are generated at a frequency that is truly required. As a result, the processing load on the printing apparatus can be reduced and network traffic can be suppressed.

  It should be noted that the printing system 100 and the host device 2 according to the present embodiment can be changed in various ways, and the above-described effects of reducing the processing load of the printing apparatus and suppressing the network traffic even by the change. Can be obtained.

  For example, if the monitoring unit 24 is monitoring the status of the printing apparatus 1 before the start of printing is notified, the default setting preset in the host device 2 in steps S10 and S11 in FIG. Instead of setting the polling information request item and polling interval, the default polling information request item and polling interval in the print processing set in advance in the host device 2 may be set.

  As a result, the printer driver 22 only needs to embed only the print mode information different from the default setting in the print processing in the header portion of the PDL data, so that the processing load on the host device 2 can be reduced. In addition, by changing the polling information request item and the polling interval setting during the print processing period and outside the print processing period, specifically, when the print process requested by the host device 2 is not being executed, the print job By not requesting the information on the error and the error information such as paper jam or out of toner, it is possible to effectively reduce the processing load of the printing apparatus 1 and suppress the network traffic particularly outside the printing processing period.

  In this case, in steps S15 and S16 in FIG. 11, instead of restoring to the default polling information request item and polling interval in the printing process set in steps S10 and S11 in FIG. It should be noted that the default polling information request item and the polling interval are set.

The printing system 100 and the host device 2 may change the polling interval in consideration of the print start notification and the print end notification transmitted from the port monitor 23 to the monitoring unit 24 in addition to the print mode information. Good.
For example, the monitoring unit 24 determines that the transmission processing on the host device 2 side is delayed when the print end notification is not received even after a predetermined time has elapsed after receiving the print start notification. The polling interval may be increased. Thereby, the processing load of the printing apparatus 1 can be further reduced, and network traffic can be suppressed. It also contributes to reducing the processing load on the host device 2.

  Although several embodiments of the present invention have been described, the present invention is included in the inventions described in the claims and their equivalents. Hereinafter, the invention described in the scope of claims at the beginning of the filing of the present patent application will be added.

Appendix 1
A printing system comprising: a host device that issues a printing instruction to a printing device; and a printing device that executes a printing process in accordance with a printing instruction from the host device,
The host device is
A data generation unit for generating print data corresponding to the printing apparatus;
A monitoring unit for monitoring status information output by the printing apparatus;
An output unit that outputs the print data generated by the data generation unit to the printing apparatus and outputs the print mode information included in the print data to the monitoring unit;
The printing system, wherein the monitoring unit sets a transmission / reception condition of status information of the printing apparatus to be monitored according to the contents of the printing mode information.

Appendix 2
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring unit requests the printing apparatus to transmit status information corresponding to the printing mode information as the transmission / reception condition.

Appendix 3
The printing system according to attachment 2, wherein the monitoring unit excludes items related to color printing from the items of the status information when the received printing mode information is a monochrome printing mode. system.

Appendix 4
In the printing system according to attachment 2, when the received print mode information includes print designation information for a specific paper size, the monitoring unit selects a paper other than the specific paper size from the status information item. A printing system that excludes information about a paper feeding device that feeds paper.

Appendix 5
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the monitoring unit sets a polling interval according to the printing mode as the transmission / reception condition.

Appendix 6
The printing system according to appendix 5, wherein the monitoring unit changes the setting of the polling interval in a short time when the received printing mode information includes information designating high-speed printing processing for the printing apparatus. And printing system.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printing apparatus 2 ... Host apparatus 10 ... IF part 11 ... Control part / analysis part 12 ... Printing mechanism part 13 ... Auxiliary storage part 14 ... Display part 15 ... Input / authentication operation unit 20 ... main storage device 21 ... application 22 ... printer driver 23 ... port monitor 24 ... monitoring unit 31 ... MPS
32 ... PRCONT
33 ... IFCONT
34 ... Operation panel 35 ... Toner sensor 36 ... Belt unit 37 ... Double-sided unit 38 ... HVU
39 ... MDCONT
40 ... Drive unit 41 ... Feeding unit 42 ... Head 43 ... TS
44 ... DS
45... Fixing unit 46... Paper discharge unit 100.

Claims (2)

A printing system comprising: a host device that issues a printing instruction to a printing device; and a printing device that executes a printing process in accordance with a printing instruction from the host device,
The host device is
A data generation unit for generating print data corresponding to the printing apparatus;
A monitoring unit for monitoring status information output by the printing apparatus;
An output unit that outputs the print data generated by the data generation unit to the printing apparatus and outputs the print mode information included in the print data to the monitoring unit;
When the output unit outputs the print data to the printing apparatus, the monitoring unit performs at least a period when the printing apparatus is executing a process based on the print data or a process based on the print data by the printing apparatus The printing apparatus is requested to output the status information so that the output of the status information from the printing apparatus becomes a polling interval corresponding to the printing mode during a period until the completion of the printing. system. When the printing mode is a first printing mode that causes the printing apparatus to execute a first printing process, the monitoring unit causes the printing apparatus to perform at a lower speed than the first printing mode. The printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the polling interval is set to be shorter than that in the second print mode in which the print process is executed in step 1.