JPH07160449A - Decentralized copying system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an output result with high reliability when a form overlay is specified as to a decentralized copying system which has processing functions decentralized and arranged on a network. CONSTITUTION:When a job passed from a job acceptance part 31 is a form overlay job, a job control part 32 requests a job division part 33 to divide the job into data corresponding to A and data corresponding to B. The job division part 33 divides the job into the data corresponding to A and data corresponding to B. A job control part 32 passes the respective data, to a proper job processing part 36 according to the instruction contents of the divided respective data. After the processing, the job control part 32 obtains both the data of A and B, passes the data to a form composition part 34, and requests it to put the data of A and B together.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a distributed copying system in which processing functions are distributed and arranged on a network. In the following description, print processing includes copy processing, and a device that executes these processes is called a printer device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a copying system such as a printer device, a document input section for reading a document, a copy content instruction section for instructing the content of copy processing, for example, the number of copies, enlargement / reduction, etc., and a copy output of the document on paper. And a copy processing execution unit. Normally, these units are integrally formed. On the other hand, a system (hereinafter referred to as a distributed copying system) is conceivable in which the above-mentioned units are dispersedly arranged on a network so that copying processing can be performed while a paper manuscript or an electronic manuscript is present. There is.

[0003]

Some of the above-mentioned copying systems have a form overlay function for combining form data and print data for output.
In order to specify the form overlay in the conventional copying system, it is necessary to first send the form data to the printer device for registration, and then send the print data. Therefore, if you specify the form overlay in a network environment such as a distributed copying system,
Depending on the timing, an unintended output result may be obtained when form data registration is instructed to the same printing apparatus from another.

Further, in order to perform the form overlay processing, the form data must have a format unique to the printer device, or the data formats of the form data and the print data must be the same. There is a drawback that the form overlay process cannot be performed when the print data size is different.

An object of the present invention is to provide a distributed copying system capable of obtaining a highly reliable output result by transmitting form data and print data as one job when designating a form overlay. And

Further, by providing a function for unifying the size and data format of data to a specific size and data format, form overlay processing is also performed for combinations of form data and print data having different sizes and data formats. It is an object of the present invention to provide a distributed copying system capable of performing the above.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a distributed copying system which is provided with a function of registering form data and which can save the labor of registering form data when designating a form overlay.

[0008]

A distributed processing system according to the present invention is a distributed copying system including a document input section, a copy content instruction section, and a copy processing execution section. Form data and print data are stored in the copy content instruction section. A job generation unit that combines and generates as one job is provided, and the job division unit that interprets the job received from the copy content instruction unit in the copy processing execution unit and divides the job into form data and print data It is characterized in that a form synthesizing means for synthesizing the form data and the print data is provided.

Further, the copy processing executing unit unifies the data format of the form data and the print data to a specific data format, and the size of the form data and the print data to a specific size. Size unifying means can be provided.

Further, the copy processing execution unit may be provided with form data registration means for registering the divided form data.

[0011]

The user uses the job generation means of the copy content instruction section to combine the form data and print data into a single job, and sends it to the copy processing execution section.
The copy processing execution unit analyzes the contents of the job, and when the form overlay is instructed, requests the job dividing unit to interpret the job and divide it into form data and print data. Form data and print data are processed by the corresponding job processing units. Next, the form data and the print data processed by the job processing unit are passed to the form synthesizing means to request the form synthesizing process. The form combining means creates combined data from the processed form data and print data.

When the data formats of the form data and the print data divided by the job dividing means are different, the data format unifying means unifies the data format of the form data to the data format of the print data, for example. When the size of the form data and the size of the print data are different, the size unifying unit performs the enlarging / reducing process on the form data so that the form data has the same size as the print data. This allows the user to specify any combination of data of different data formats and sizes.

When the registration of the form data is instructed, the form data is passed to the form registration means to request the data registration. As a result, the user can save the time and effort of registering the form data in advance when designating the form overlay.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the distributed copying system according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

In the distributed copying system of this embodiment, a document input section for reading a document image, a copy content instructing section for instructing the content of copy processing, for example, the number of copies and the presence / absence of enlargement / reduction, and the read original image. And a copy processing execution unit for copying and outputting the sheets on paper, and these units are distributed and arranged on the network. Of these, the document input unit and the copy content instruction unit are realized by a host computer or a scanner, and the copy processing execution unit is realized by a printer device. The host computer and the printer device (or the scanner) may be separated from each other, or the printer device (or the scanner) may have a computer built therein.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional structure for realizing the above-mentioned document input section and copy content instruction section.

The document input section 11 is composed of the following blocks.

The electronic manuscript management unit 21 is composed of a file system or the like on a computer on which the manuscript input unit 11 operates, and is a hard disk connected to the computer.
An electronic original stored in a storage device such as a CD-ROM or a floppy disk is handled as data.

The image reading section 22 inputs a physical document such as paper as image data by driving an image reading device such as a scanner. The read document is delivered to the image processing unit 23.

The image processing unit 23 carries out predetermined image processing such as noise removal and data compression on the read image data, if necessary. The processed image data is delivered to the electronic document management unit 21 when it is stored as an electronic document and to the copy instruction activation unit 24 when it is copied.

The copy instruction activation unit 24 activates the copy instruction input unit 25 corresponding to the designated copy processing execution unit 13. At this time, the copy instruction activation unit 24 passes the relevant document to the copy instruction input unit 25. The format of the document may be a page description language used in the printer device, image information read from the image reading device, or a unique format created by an application. Further, each can be in a compressed or encrypted format.

The copy content instructing section 12 is composed of the following blocks.

The copy instruction input unit 25 receives a print instruction from the user via a user interface (not shown). Regarding the instruction of the form overlay, the electronic document used as the form data and the print data, or the paper document read by the image reading unit 22 is designated, and various instructions are accepted.
At this time, an instruction as to whether to register the form data is also accepted.

The job generating section 26 generates a job from the image data of the original document and an instruction regarding printing. When the form overlay is instructed, each original of the form data and print data and the copy instruction input unit 2
The print instructions collected in step 5 are collectively generated as one job. Further, the generated job is passed to the transfer original processing unit 27 as needed. The transfer document processing unit 27 performs processing such as data compression in order to reduce the transfer data amount, and returns it to the job generation unit 26. The job sending unit 28 sends the job delivered from the job generating unit 26 to the designated copy processing executing unit 13 via a network (not shown).

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional structure for realizing a copy processing execution unit.

The job acceptance section 31 includes a copy content instruction section 12
The job created in step 1 is accepted, normalized, and passed to the job controller 12. Normalization means unifying the jobs sent in various formats into the job formats defined by the copy processing execution unit 13. There are n job reception units 31 (job reception units (1) to
(N)), the job sent from the copy content instructing unit 12 is a job receiving unit 3 that conforms to the job format.
1 is accepted.

When the job accepting unit 31 receives the normalized job, the job control unit 32 executes the print instruction attached to the job, so that the job processing unit 38 corresponding to the instruction is executed until all the instructions are completed. Scheduling such as passing a job to and requesting processing is repeated.
When the form overlay is instructed, the job dividing unit 33 is requested to interpret the job and divide it into form data and print data.
The job processing unit 36 corresponding to each of the form data and the print data returned from is requested.
At this time, if the data formats of the form data and print data are different, the instruction content for the form data or print data (or both) should be unified to either one of the data formats or to another common format. Add data format changes to. Similarly, if the size of the form data and the size of the print data are different, an enlargement / reduction instruction is added to the instruction content for the form data so as to match the size of the print data. Then, the processed form data and print data returned from the respective job processing units are passed to the form synthesizing unit 34 to request the form synthesizing process.

The job dividing unit 33 includes the job control unit 3
The job passed from 2 is interpreted and divided into form data and print data. An identifier for guaranteeing the identity of jobs is added to the divided form data and print data.

The form compositing unit 34 composes composite data from the processed form data and print data according to the instruction of the job control unit 32. When the registration of the form data is instructed, the form data is passed to the form registration unit 35 to request the data registration. When the form data registered in the form registration unit 35 is designated, the form registration unit 35 is notified of that fact.

The form registration section 35 registers the form data passed from the form composition section 34 in a memory means (not shown). Further, in response to a request from the form synthesizing unit 34, the memory means is searched and the designated form data is passed to the form synthesizing unit 34. Note that the form data may be registered before the form combining unit 34 creates the combined data.

The job processing section 36 is a section for processing one or a plurality of print instructions, and has n job processing sections 36 arranged therein. The job processing unit (1) is a format converter having a function of converting a document format into another format, and the job processing unit (2) (not shown).
Is an image processor having a function of expanding a document into image information, and a job processing unit (3) (not shown) sends an event such as job processing completion to a designated notification destination such as a user who issues a print instruction. Notifier to notify. The image data that has undergone the necessary processing in the job processing unit 36 is passed to the designated job output unit 37 and printed out.

The job output unit 37 is provided corresponding to one or a plurality of printer devices, and is also connected to a network interface (not shown). The n job output units 37 are provided, and execute job output, that is, print on an output medium (job output unit (1)) or redirect (job output unit (n). Means to actually print out on paper, and an output unit for executing this exists corresponding to the printer device controlled by the copying process executing unit 13. Further, redirection is the copying process executing unit 13. If the job cannot be processed, the job is processed by another copy processing execution unit 1
It means to transfer to 3.

Next, in the distributed copying system described above, the operation when two electronic originals A and B having different data formats and sizes are designated as a form original and a print original, respectively, and form overlay is performed will be described.

First, the user designates the electronic originals A and B as form data and print data, respectively, via the user interface (not shown) of the copy instruction input unit 25. The form data and the print data can be designated by an operation such as overlaying the icons on the windows corresponding to the electronic documents A and B on the virtual platen of the printer. When you specify form data and print data, a window that prompts you to copy appears. Input various instructions regarding copy processing through this window. The copy instruction can be given to both form data and print data. If you want to register the specified form data in the printer,
At the same time, instruct to register form data. By performing these operations, the form overlay instruction is completed.

Next, when the data corresponding to the electronic originals A and B and the copy instruction are passed from the copy instruction input unit 25 to the job generating unit 26, the job generating unit 26 collectively generates them as one job. FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of the generated job. In FIG. 3, the "form overlay flag" is a flag indicating that it is a form overlay job. The job generated by the job generating unit 26 is sent from the job sending unit 28 to the job control unit 32 through the job receiving unit 31 of the copy processing executing unit 13.

When the job control section 32 recognizes that the job is a form overlay job by the flag added to the passed job, it divides the job into data corresponding to A and data corresponding to B. Part 3
Ask 3.

The job dividing unit 33 interprets the content of the job and divides it into data corresponding to A and data corresponding to B. In the example of FIG. 3, the instruction block for B functions as a separator when dividing. The two pieces of divided data are passed to the job control unit 32. At this time,
An identifier and a flag indicating form data or print data are added to the two data in order to guarantee the identity of the job. FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of the divided jobs.

When the job control unit 32 looks at the instruction contents of the respective divided data and recognizes that the size of A is different from the size of B, the size of A (form data) is changed to B (print data). An enlargement or reduction instruction is added to the instruction content for A so as to match the size. At this time, a rotation instruction can be added to A as required. In this embodiment, if the size A and the size B are different, the size A is adjusted to the size B, but the size B may be adjusted to the size A.

Next, the job control unit 32 passes each data to an appropriate job processing unit 36 according to the instruction contents of the data corresponding to A and B, and requests the processing.
At this time, if the data formats of A and B are different, for example, the data format of A is ESC / P and the data format of B is PostScript, for A, request the format converter from ESC / P to PostScript for processing. However, for B, the request for processing is not made, and the data formats of A and B are unified to PostScript. In addition to this, request bitmap expansion for both A and B,
The data formats of A and B can be unified into a bitmap. On the other hand, when the sizes of A and B are different, the image processor performs the process of enlarging or reducing the size.

As for the configuration of the copy processing execution unit 13, the job processing unit 36 for processing the data of A and B can independently perform parallel processing to speed up the processing.

Upon completion of the processing, each job processing section 36 passes the processed data to the job control section 32. At this time, the sizes of A and B are unified with the size of print data B.

The job control unit 32 obtains the processed data of both A and B, and when the identity of the job is confirmed by the identifier, passes the data to the form synthesizing unit 34 and synthesizes the data of A and the data of B. Ask. At this time, the job control unit 32 follows A according to the contents of the form overlay instruction.
An instruction to register the form data of No. 1 to the form registration unit 35 is added.

The data corresponding to A and B passed to the form synthesizing unit 34 have the same format and size. The form synthesizing unit 34 synthesizes A and B data in accordance with the form data / print data flag in the data. Also, the data of A is passed to the form registration unit 35, and is requested to register it. Form registration section 3
In 5, the data corresponding to A is given an ID and registered in association with the user ID of the user. Next, when the form data registered in the form registration unit 35 is designated when the form overlay is instructed, the form data is searched by this ID. The data registered by the form composition unit 34 is printed by a predetermined printer device or stored in a storage device (not shown).

Next, the processing procedure of the copy processing execution unit 13 when the form original A and the print original B are overlaid on each other will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the job control unit 32 is the job reception unit 3
When the form overlay instruction is given (step 101 “Y”), the job dividing unit 33 is requested to divide the received job into form data and print data ( Step 10
2). The job dividing unit 33 interprets the content of the job, divides it into form data and print data, adds a job identifier to the form data and print data, and passes it to the job control unit 32 (step 103).

The job control unit 32 looks at the instruction contents of each of the divided data to detect the size (step 104), and if it is necessary to change the size (step 10).
5 "Y"), the size conversion instruction is added to the instruction content for A (step 106). Subsequently, if the data format needs to be changed (step 107 “Y”), A or B
A data format change instruction is added to (or both) instruction contents (step 108). Next, the job control unit 32 responds to the instruction contents of the data corresponding to A and B, respectively.
The respective data are passed to the appropriate job processing unit 36 and requested to be processed (step 109).

When the processing in the job processing section 36 is completed,
The job control unit 32 checks whether or not the form data registration is instructed (step 110), and if the registration is instructed (step 110 “Y”), an instruction to register the form data in the form registration unit 35 is added. (Step 111). Next, the job control unit 32 passes the form data and the print data to the form synthesizing unit 34, and requests the form synthesizing process. The form combining unit 34 creates combined data from the processed form data and print data. At this time, if the registration of the form data is instructed, the form data is registered in the form registration unit 35 (step 112).

If there is no form overlay instruction in the job contents in step 101 (step 101
"N"), normal job processing is performed (step 11)
3).

As an application example, print data and various processing instructions such as N-up and stapling may be combined and handled as one job.

[0050]

As described above, in the distributed processing system according to the present invention, the job sending side sends form data and print data as one job, and the job processing side divides the job to perform form overlay processing. Since this is performed, even if the form overlay is specified in the network environment, it is not affected by the data registration of other users, so that a highly reliable output result can be obtained.

Further, when the size and the data format of the form data and the print data are different, since they are unified to a specific size or data format, it is possible to specify any combination of the data formats and the data of different sizes. It becomes possible, and more flexible form overlay specification becomes possible.

Further, since the form data is registered on the job processing side as needed, the labor of registering the form data in advance can be omitted, and the form overlay specification with excellent operability can be performed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration for realizing a copy processing execution unit.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration for realizing a document input section and a copy content instruction section.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a generated job.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a divided job.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for performing form overlay.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A distributed copying system in which a manuscript input section, a copy content instructing section, and a copying process executing section independently function, and each of which performs data communication with each other through a network and processes one or a plurality of manuscript formats, The copy content instruction unit includes a job generation unit that combines form data and print data to generate one job, and the copy processing execution unit interprets the job received from the copy content instruction unit,
A distributed copying system comprising: a job dividing unit that divides form data and print data; and a form combining unit that combines the divided form data and print data. 2. The distributed copying system according to claim 1, wherein the copy processing execution unit has a data format unifying unit for unifying the data formats of the form data and the print data into a specific data format. 3. The distributed copying system according to claim 1, wherein the copying processing execution unit has a size unifying unit that unifies the sizes of the form data and the print data to a specific size. 4. The distributed copy system according to claim 1, wherein the copy processing execution unit has form data registration means for registering divided form data.