JPH03220624A - Optimum control system for printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To minimize the print processing time of all print data to be an object by referring to a processing time characteristic table to calculate the predictive print processing time of plural print data at every printer and selecting a printer so that the predictive print processing time is minimum. CONSTITUTION:A predictive print time calculating part 12 refers to a processing time characteristic table 11, where print processing time at every printer for fundamental elements of print data as the object is preliminarily stored, to calculate the predictive print processing time of each printer for each of plural print data to be the object. An optimum control part 13 selects the printer for each print data based on calculated times so that the predictive print processing time of all print data to be the object is minimum. When the optimum control processing of printers is terminated, print data to be the object are distributed sequentially to respective printers selected by the optimum control part 13 to execute the print processing. Thus, the print processing time of plural print data is shortened.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] Regarding an optimal control method for a printer in a printing system that includes a plurality of printers with different characteristics and prints a plurality of print data with different processing times, the optimal control of the printer is efficient. A printer in a printing system that is equipped with multiple printers with different characteristics and prints multiple pieces of print data with different print processing times, with the aim of minimizing the print processing time for all target print data. This is an optimal control method for controlling multiple pieces of target print data by referring to a processing time characteristic table that stores the printing time for each printer for the basic elements of each target print data, and the processing time characteristic table. A predicted print processing time calculation unit that calculates the predicted print processing time for each print data for each printer, and a predicted print processing time for all target print data based on the calculated predicted print processing time for each print data. The present invention is configured to include an optimum control unit that selects a printer for each print data so that the time is minimized.

[Industrial application field]

In a printing system that includes a plurality of printers with different characteristics and prints a plurality of pieces of print data with different print processing times, the present invention provides a method for printing each print so that the print processing time for all target print data is minimized. This invention relates to an optimal control method for printers that selects printers for data.

[Conventional technology]

In a printing system where multiple printers are connected, such as multiple printers on a network, the target print data is characters such as alphanumeric characters and Japanese characters, figures such as straight lines and circles, binary images and ternary values. There are many types of images such as images.

On the other hand, the characteristics of multiple printers are not uniform; some printers are suitable for printing text consisting of characters but not suitable for printing figures and images, while others are capable of printing figures and images but are not suitable for printing text at high speed. There are many types of printers, including printers designed to efficiently print figures and images.

Therefore, the print processing time of each printer for these print data not only differs depending on the type of print data, but also usually differs depending on the characteristics of the printer even for the same type of print data.

In this way, in a printing system equipped with multiple printers with different characteristics, the printer is configured for each print data so that the print processing time for the multiple print data with different print processing times is minimized. It is necessary to perform optimal control of the printer that makes the selection.

Next, with reference to FIG. 6, a conventional selection control method for each printer for each print data performed in a printing system including a plurality of printers with different characteristics will be described.

In FIG. 6, various types of target print data are spooled in the external storage device 31.

Each type of print data includes print data containing only text, print data containing only figures or images, print data containing both text and figures, etc., and the print processing times thereof generally differ. Printing graphics and images is faster than printing text consisting of characters.

32a to 32c are printers, and the printer 32a is a low-speed printer for printing text, and is not suitable for printing figures or images. Printer 32b is a medium speed printer and is designed for printing graphics and images, but can also print text at medium speeds. printer 32c
is a high-speed printer and is capable of high-speed printing of text, but the printing speed of figures and images is slower than that of the printer 32b, so it is more suitable for text printing than for printing figures and images.

A host 33 performs selection processing of each printer for each target print data and print control for each printer.

In this configuration, the host 33 includes printers 32a to 32a.
32c in a predetermined order (for example, printer 23a→22b→
22c) and sequentially allocate each target print data. For example, if the target print data is print data A consisting of text, print data B consisting of figures and text, print data C consisting of text, print data D consisting of figures and text, and print data E consisting of text, the print data Printers 32a, 32b and 32c are selected for A, B and C, respectively.

Since the next print data D is print data consisting of graphics and text, the printer that finished printing earlier among the printers 32b and 32c is selected and the print data D is allocated to it.

Since the next print data E is print data consisting of text, the printer that completed printing earliest among the printers 32a to 32c is selected and print data E is assigned to it.

Similarly, for print data to be printed next, the printer that finished printing the print data earliest is selected from among the printers that can print the print data, and the print data is allocated.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

As mentioned above, the conventional printer selection control method in a printing system equipped with multiple printers with different characteristics first selects printers in a predetermined order and sequentially allocates target print data, and then For print data, the blink that completed printing earliest is selected and assigned from among the printers that can print the print data.

This selection control method has the advantage that the printer selection process for each print data is simple, but it does not guarantee high-speed printing processing of the entire print data, so there is a problem that optimal control of the printer cannot be realized.

For example, when the print process of the low-speed printer 32a is completed and print data consisting of a large amount of text is to be printed during the print process of the medium-high speed printers 32b and 32c, the low-speed printer 32a is selected instead of the high-speed printer 32c. Since print data consisting of a large amount of text is allocated by the printer, it takes time to print the text, reducing the overall print processing efficiency. Further, when the print processing of the high-speed printer 32c is completed and print data consisting of figures and text is to be printed during the printing process of the medium-speed printer 32b, the high-speed printer 32c is selected and the print data consisting of the figures and text is selected. Since print data is allocated, it takes longer to print than when using a medium-speed printer 32b.
The overall print processing efficiency will be reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an efficient printer optimal control method that selects a printer for each print data so that the print processing time for all target print data is minimized.

[Means to solve the problem]

The means adopted by the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems are as follows:
This will be explained with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, 11 is a processing time characteristic table,
The print processing time for each printer for each basic element of target print data is stored.

The basic elements of print data are characters in the case of text, basic figures such as straight lines, circles, arcs, triangles, and rectangles in the case of figures, and images of standard patterns are selected in the case of images.

The print processing time for each basic element varies depending on the type and size of the basic element.

If the types and sizes of basic elements are classified in detail, the optimal control of the printer itself will be better, but it will take a lot of time to detect the types and sizes of basic elements for each piece of data in the print data. This is inconvenient because the entire print processing time takes longer.

Therefore, each basic element of the print data is selected so as to minimize the print processing time of the entire target print data, including the recognition processing time of each basic element and the optimum control processing time described below. For example, in the case of characters, the average print processing time for each character size, in the case of figures, the print processing time for each unit figure, and in the case of images, the average print processing time per unit area of a standard pattern are the basic elements of each. is adopted as the print processing time. In this way,
Since it becomes easy to calculate the predicted print processing time of each print data using these as basic elements, it is possible to perform optimal control of the printer that is good on average. Note that the predicted printing processing time for each of these basic elements varies depending on the printing speed characteristics of each printer, and is therefore determined by experiment or calculation for each printer.

Reference numeral 12 denotes a predicted print processing time calculation unit, which calculates the predicted print processing time for each print data of a plurality of target print data for each printer by referring to the processing time characteristic table 11. .

Reference numeral 13 denotes an optimum control unit, which controls the process selected by the printer for each print data so that the predicted print processing time for all target print data is minimized based on the calculated predicted print processing time for each print data. conduct.

[For production]

Before the optimum control operation of the printer is started, for example, at the time of starting up the printing system, the processing time characteristic table 11 has the following information:
The print processing time for each printer for each basic element of target print data is stored in advance.

The predicted printing time calculation unit 12 uses a processing time characteristic table 11
With reference to , the predicted print processing time for each print data of a plurality of target print data is calculated for each printer.

The optimum control unit 13 adjusts each print data so that the predicted print processing time of all target print data is minimized based on the predicted print processing time of each print data calculated by the predicted print time calculation unit 12. (Details of this optimal control process will be explained in the Examples section).

When the optimal printer control process is completed, each target print data is sequentially allocated to each printer selected by the optimal control unit 13, and the print process is executed.

As described above, the predicted print processing time for each print data of a plurality of target print data is calculated for each printer from the print time for each printer for the basic elements of print data, and the predicted print processing time for each print data is Since the printer for each print data is selected based on the print data, it is possible to easily realize optimal control of the printer and shorten the print processing time for a plurality of print data.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the processing time characteristic table of the same embodiment, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of the predicted print processing time for each printer for each print data of the same embodiment, and FIG. 5 is an optimal control processing flowchart of the same embodiment. It is.

(^) Configuration of the Embodiment In FIG. 2, 10 is a host, 21 is an external storage device in which a plurality of print data is spooled, and 22a to 22c are printers having different characteristics.

Regarding the processing time characteristic table 11, predicted print processing time calculation section 12, and optimal control section 13 in the host 10,
This is as explained in FIG.

14 is an external storage interface, which connects the external storage device 2
Performs read/write control of print data for No. 1.

Reference numeral 15 denotes an input/output interface, which serves as a read/output interface for a plurality of printers 222 to 22c connected to the host 10.
Performs light control.

3 16 is a controller that controls the operation of each part in the host 10 to optimally control the printer, and controls printing processing in each selected printer.

Reference numeral 17 denotes a memory, in which a control program for the controller 16 is stored, and a work area (not shown) used by the predictive print processing time calculation section 12 and the optimal control section 13 to perform their calculations. ing.

[Operation of the embodiment]

The optimal control operation of the printer of the embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 5. There are three printers 22a to 22c, and a plurality of target print data are as shown in FIG. The case of D1 to D6 will be explained as an example.

The printer 22a is a low-speed printer for printing text, and is not suitable for printing figures or images.

Printer 22b is a medium speed printer and is designed for printing graphics and images, but can also print text at medium speeds. The printer 22c is a high-speed printer and is capable of printing text at high speed, but the printing speed of graphics and images is slower than that of the printer 22b, so it is more suitable for printing text than for printing graphics and images.

The print data D, as shown in FIG. 4, is a long text, the print data D2 is data containing approximately equal amounts of text and figures, the print data D is a short text, and the print data D4 is a long text. is data that has more text parts than graphic parts, print data D5 is a long text, and print data D6 is a short text.

Before the optimum control operation of the printer is started, for example, at the time of starting up the printing system, the processing time characteristic table 11 has the following information:
The basic element printing time for each printer for the basic element of each target print data is stored in advance.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the processing time characteristic table 11. In the left column of the processing time characteristic table ■1, there are characters,
The basic element columns of each print data of figures and images are illustrated. In the case of characters, basic elements are selected for each character size such as 10 points, 15 points, 20 points, etc., and the average print processing time for all characters in each character size is selected as the print processing time for each basic element. be done. 2~
all"'CI3, b, ~b, 3 and C11""CI:l shown in column 4 are font size 10 points, 1
These are the basic element printing processing times of the printers 22a, 22b, and 22c for each basic element of 5 points and 20 points. These basic element print processing times are determined by experiment or calculation for each printer.

The optimal control processing operation of the printer of this embodiment will be explained below according to the processing steps of the flowchart of FIG.

(Step S) The controller 16 sends the print information of the first print data D among the plurality of print data to be printed and information regarding the printers 22a to 22c that will print to the predicted print processing time calculation unit 12, and The predicted print processing time for print data D for each printer is calculated.

The print information indicates the type of print data D and its data amount. The print data D, as shown in FIG. 4, is a long text.

The predicted print processing time calculation unit 12 refers to the processing time characteristic table 11, calculates the predicted print processing time for the first print data D for each printer, and stores it in a work area (not shown) of the memory 17. Store.

Let the predicted print processing times for print data D of the printers 22a, 22b, and 22c be a, , b, and cl.
As shown in FIG. 4, the predicted print processing time a of the low-speed printer 22a is calculated as the largest value, and the predicted print processing time c of the high-speed printer CI is calculated as the shortest value.

■ Step S.

When the predicted printing processing time calculation section 12 finishes calculating the predicted printing processing time of each printer for the print data D1, the controller 16 causes the optimum control section 7 to start the optimum control processing.

The optimum control unit 13 temporarily adds the predicted print processing time alxc of the print data D calculated by the predicted print processing time calculation unit 12 to the cumulative processing time of the printers 22a to 22c.

The cumulative processing time of a printer is the cumulative value of the processing time for all print data that has been allocated to that printer up to that point.
Printers 22a, 22b and 2 up to n print data
Let An, , Bn, and Cn represent the cumulative processing time of 2c.

The cumulative processing time A of the printers 22a to 22c for the print data D. -, BO, and C6 are all 0 as a matter of course, so the sum of the cumulative processing time and the predicted print processing time is ao, b, and C8.

■ Step S3 The optimum control unit 13 determines the cumulative processing time aI”C of each printer.
The magnitude relationship of I is compared and its minimum value is detected. In the case of print data D, the cumulative processing time C8 of the printer 22c
is detected as the minimum value.

■ Step S4 The optimal control unit 13 selects the printer 22c that has the smallest cumulative processing time for the print data D as the printer to print the print data D1, and stores it in a work area (not shown) in the memory 17. .

(2) Step Ss The optimum control unit 13 calculates the cumulative processing time of each printer up to the print data D, and stores it in a work area (not shown) in the memory 17. Print data D, up to printer 22
The cumulative processing times A, , B, and C of a, 22b, and 22c are 0.0 and cl.

(2) Step S6 The controller 16 determines whether the print data number has reached the final print data number.

Number 1 of print data D1 is number 6 of final print data D6
Since it is smaller, it is determined that the optimal control process will not end, and the process moves to the next step S.

(2) Step S7 The controller 16 increments the count value of a counter (not shown) for counting the print data number by "1" and updates it to "1".

■ Optimum control for print data D2-Db By repeating the processing of each step 5l-37 described above, optimal control for print data D2-D6 can be performed for print data D
are executed sequentially in the same way as in .

FIG. 4 shows the predicted print processing time aI'''CI, a2~c2, az~C3% for each printer for each print data D, ~D6 obtained through each of the above processes.
It shows a4-C4, a5-C5 and a6-c6. The length of the arrow written below each predicted print processing time indicates the time length of each predicted print processing time.

If the print data is text, the predicted print processing time is calculated by multiplying the text data amount (number of characters) by the basic element printing time of the text. If the print data is a figure, multiply the figure's magnification by the basic element printing time of the figure.
The predicted print processing time is calculated. Similarly, when the print data is an image, the predicted printing processing time is calculated by multiplying the image magnification by the basic element printing time of the image.

Further, Table 1 below shows how each printer 22a to 22a corresponds to each print data D1 to D6 obtained through the above optimal control process.
22c shows the predicted print processing time and its magnitude relationship, as well as each printer selected to print each print data.

1 Table 1 Printing of the print data D1 is performed by the printer 2c as described above. Therefore, the cumulative processing time A+ of the printers 22a, 22b, and 22c until the print data D+,
B+ and C1 become 0.0 and cl.

If the next print data D2 is to be printed by the printers 22a, 22b, and 22c, the printer 22c will print both print data D1 and D2, so the estimated print processing time for each printer 22a, 22b, and 22c is , a2 2, b2 and C++Cz, respectively.

Each printer 22a when printing this print data D2
, 22b and 22c are as follows:
Estimated print processing times a1, b+, c+ and B2, b2 for only print data D and B2 of each printer in FIG.
, C2, as shown in the second row of Table 1, B2
>C, + + C2>b2.

From this, the printer 22b with the shortest estimated print processing time for the print data D2 is selected as the printer that prints the print data D2. The right column of Table 1 shows the printer selected to print each print data. Furthermore, the cumulative processing times A2, B2, and C2 of the printers 22a, 22b, and 22c up to the print data D2 are 0, b2, and C2, respectively.

In the same manner, print data D3 to D are sent to each printer 2.
2a, 22b, and 22c, the predicted print processing time and the magnitude relationship are shown in 3 to 6 of Table 1.
It is calculated as shown in the column.

3. Since the printer 22a has the shortest predicted print processing time when printing the print data D3, the printer 22a is selected to print the print data D3.

Since the printer 22b has the shortest predicted print processing time when printing the print data D4, the printer 22b is selected to print the print data D4.

Since the printer 22c has the shortest predicted print processing time when printing the print data D5, the printer 22c is selected to print the print data D5.

Since the printer 22a has the shortest estimated print processing time when printing the last print data D3, the print data D6
The printer that prints is selected as printer 22a.

Each print data D selected as described above.

Information about each printer that prints D6 is stored in a work area (not shown) of the memory 17.

(2) Step S6 4 When the selection of the printer 22a that prints the print data D6 is completed, the print data number reaches the final print data number 6, so the controller 16 ends the printer optimum control process.

■ Target print data D1 to D6 as described above
When the optimal control is completed, the controller [6] sequentially retrieves the print data D1 to D6 from the external storage device 21, and sequentially allocates the print data D1 to D6 to each printer selected by the optimal control to print them.

If this is done, as is clear from Table 1, each print data D, to D6 will be printed by the printer with the shortest processing time, so all the target print data D,
~D6 can be printed in the minimum processing time.

Although the embodiment in which there are six pieces of print data and three printers has been described above, optimal control can be performed in the same way even when the print data and printers have different numerical values.

〔Effect of the invention〕

5 As explained above, the present invention calculates the predicted print processing time for each print data of the target compound print data for each printer based on the print time for each printer for the basic elements of the print data, and Since the printer for each print data is selected based on each expected print processing time, it is possible to easily realize optimal control of the printer and shorten the print processing time for a plurality of print data.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the basic configuration of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the processing time characteristic table of the embodiment, and Fig. 4 is the same. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the predicted print processing time for each print data according to the embodiment, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the optimum control processing flowchart of the same embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a sixth diagram illustrating a conventional printer selection control method. In FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, 10... host, 11... processing time characteristic table,
12... Estimated print processing time calculation unit, 13... Optimal control unit, 14... External storage interface, 15...
Input/output interface, 16...controller, 17
...Memory, 21...External storage device, 22a-22
c...Printer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printing system that includes a plurality of printers (such as 22a) with different characteristics and prints a plurality of print data with different print processing times, the print processing time of all target print data is the minimum. An optimal control method for printers that selects a printer for each print data such that: (a) a processing time characteristic table that stores printing times for each printer for basic elements of each target print data; (11) and (b) Predicted print processing time calculation that calculates the predicted print processing time for each print data of the plurality of target print data for each printer by referring to the processing time characteristic table (11) (12) and (c) Select a printer for each print data so that the predicted print processing time of all target print data is minimized based on the calculated predicted print processing time of each print data. An optimal control method for a printer, comprising: an optimal control section (13);