JPH096561A - Printer control device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent the reduction of through-put when printing aborting processing is executed by a printer control device capable of simultaneously processing plural printing jobs. CONSTITUTION: When a printout aborting instruction is applied from an instruction means 10 to an output control part 20, an instruction substituting part 23 sets up the number of output sheets for an abort-instructed job which is stored in an output storing part 21 to '0' and substitutes a non-output instruction for an output instruction stored in an instruction storing part 31 included in an output processing part 30. When the contents of the storing part 31 express a non-output instruction, a non-output instruction response control part 32 in the processing part 30 inhibts the printout of a job corresponding to the non- output instruction and informs the control part 20 only of the output end of the job. Thereby the aborting processing can be executed without deleting the output instructions of jobs other than the aborted job which are stored in the storing part 31.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer control device capable of simultaneously processing a plurality of print jobs based on a stored output instruction of a series of print jobs. The present invention relates to improvement of a print output stop control method for a job.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a printer stop process, when the start of the stop process is designated by the instructing means, first, the print output operation currently being executed is stopped, and the paper being output is Waiting for all to be discharged, cancellation processing was being performed. Such a cancellation process occurs by storing output instructions relating to a series of print jobs, and is similarly performed in a printer control device capable of simultaneously processing the plurality of print jobs based on the stored output instructions.

An example of a print canceling process in a conventional printer control device of this type will be described below with reference to FIGS. Here, in order to make it easier to understand the actual state of the print cancel process, a description will be given including a normal print job output process.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a main part of a printer control device in a conventional device of this type, in which at least one output instruction of a job to be printed or a print job currently being processed is canceled. The instruction means 10 that can give a stop instruction to cause the data to be output, the data storage unit 40 that can store at least one page of image data to be printed out, and the output means specified from the data stored in the data storage unit 40. An output storage unit 21 for storing the number of output sheets per page of each print job is provided, and the output instruction of the target job is actually issued according to the output number, and the number of output instruction instructions issued is stored in the number storage unit 22. Output control unit 2
0, an instruction storage unit 31 for storing an output instruction issued by the output control unit 20, and an output processing unit 30 for executing print output processing of a target job based on the stored output instruction. .

The designation of print output for a desired print job stored in the data storage unit 40 is made from the instruction means 10 to the output control unit 20. The output control unit 20 has an output storage unit 21 and a number-of-sheets storage unit 22 respectively corresponding to each page of the specified job to be output, and outputs the number of output pages of the pages corresponding to the output storage unit 21. Then, the output instruction of the corresponding page is issued to the output processing unit 30 according to the stored number of output sheets. At this time, the number of issued output instructions is stored in the number storage unit 22.

On the other hand, the output processing section 30 includes an output control section 20.
The output instruction issued from is stored in the instruction storage unit 31, and the stored output instruction is used to print out the job of the corresponding page from the data storage unit 40. When the output processing unit 30 finishes the print output for the output instruction, it issues an output end instruction to the output control unit 20 and deletes the finished output instruction from the instruction storage unit 31.

Further, in the output control unit 20, the output processing unit 3
Each time the output end instruction from 0 is received, the output storage unit 21
The output storage unit 21 and the output instruction number stored in the number storage unit 22 are decremented by "1".
When the number of output sheets in "1" is "0", the output of the job is finished.

Next, the canceling process when the canceling instruction is given from the instructing means 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In this example, print jobs A and B exist, and print job A includes A-1 and A-.
There are 3 pages of 2 and A-3, and print job B has B-
When there are two pages 1 and B-2 and a cancel instruction is received, it is assumed that the print job A is canceled when the page A-1 is being output. .

First, in the instructing means 10, when the user performs a cancel instruction operation for a certain job,
The instruction means 10 sends a cancel instruction to the output control unit 20. As a result, the output control unit 20 receives the cancel instruction (step 501) and refers to the number-of-sheets storage unit 22 corresponding to the page corresponding to the received cancel instruction to output the output to the output processing unit 30. It is determined whether an instruction has been issued (step 50).
2).

If the output instruction has already been issued (YES in step 502), the output control section 20 issues an output stop instruction to the output processing section 30 (step 503). The stored information in the instruction storage unit 31 when the output instruction is issued has the content shown in FIG.

On the other hand, when the output processing section 30 receives the output stop instruction, it stops the print output corresponding to the new output instruction from the instruction storage section 31, and when all the outputs for the recording sheet currently being conveyed are discharged. In step S504, an output end instruction is issued to the output control unit 20, and then an output stop completion instruction is issued (step 504). The stored information in the instruction storage unit 31 at this point has the content shown in FIG.

Further, the output control unit 20 receives the above-mentioned output stop completion instruction, confirms that there is no sheet currently being output, and then performs a process of deleting all the output instructions in the instruction storage unit 31 ( Step 505),
At the same time, the output instruction number in the page number storage section 22 for all pages is cleared (step 506). For the page corresponding to the cancel instruction, the number of output sheets stored in the output storage unit 21 is cleared (step 507),
As a result, the cancellation process is executed.

Subsequently, the output control section 20 clears the contents of the instruction storage section 31, and then issues a processing start instruction to the output processing section 30 (step 508). At this point in time, since there is no output instruction in the instruction storage unit 31, the output processing unit 30 that has received the processing start instruction enters a state of waiting for an output instruction and print output is not started. The information stored in the instruction storage unit 31 at this point is shown in FIG.
The contents are as shown in.

In the output instruction waiting state, in the output control unit 20, there is a page in which the number of output instructions stored in the number storage unit 22 is smaller than the number of output sheets stored in the output storage unit 21 (designation). If the output instruction for the number of output sheets is not completed), the output instruction for the job of the page is issued (step 509). For the first time after this output instruction is issued, the stored information in the instruction storage unit 31 is changed to that shown in FIG.
The contents are as shown in (1), and the first print output after the cancellation process is executed by the output processing unit 30.

[0015]

As described above, in the above-mentioned conventional apparatus, in the printer stop processing, when the start of the stop processing is designated by the instructing means, first, the print output operation currently being executed is stopped, Inside the printer, the cancellation process is performed after waiting for all the sheets being output to be ejected. In this case, especially in a printer controller that can process multiple print jobs at the same time,
Since the processing is once stopped by the stop processing, the start of output of the next print job to be delayed is delayed, and there is a problem that the overall throughput is significantly reduced.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and to provide a printer control device capable of reducing a decrease in throughput at the time of print cancel processing when a plurality of print jobs are processed at the same time.

[0017]

According to the present invention, printing of each page output designated by the instructing means (the same instructing means 10) out of the stored data in the data storing means (data storing section 40 in FIG. 1). An output control unit that manages the number of output sheets and the number of output instructions for each job in each storage unit (the same, the output storage unit 21, the sheet number storage unit 22) and issues the output instruction of the corresponding job based on the management information (the same, Output control unit 20)
And the output instruction is stored in the instruction storage unit (the same instruction storage unit 31).
And a print processing unit (the same output processing unit 30) for performing print output of the corresponding job based on the output instruction, each time the print output is completed, the output processing unit transfers to the output control unit. In the printer control device, which subtracts one from the output sheet number and the output instruction number by one according to the issuing end instruction, and performs the output end processing of the job when the output sheet number becomes 0, print output for the arbitrary job from the instructing unit. When the instruction to cancel is given, the number of output sheets for the job stored at that time is set to 0.
And an instruction replacement unit that replaces the output instruction of the job stored in the instruction storage unit with a non-output instruction (the same instruction replacement unit 23), and a job of the non-output instruction that exists in the instruction storage unit. And a non-output instruction response control means for prohibiting print output and instructing only the output end (the same non-output instruction response control section 32), and canceling printing of a series of jobs stored in the instruction storage section. Processing
It is characterized in that it is executed without deleting the output instruction of the job not subject to the cancel instruction.

[0018]

According to the present invention, when a stop instruction is given from the instructing means, the output control means confirms that the output processing means has issued output instructions, and then issues these issued output instructions. The contents of the non-output instruction are replaced by the processing of the replacing means and held in the instruction storage unit. On the other hand, in the output processing means, the non-output instruction response control means prohibits the print output of the job that is found to be the non-output instruction, but returns only the output end instruction to the output control means. .

According to this control, for the job replaced by the non-output instruction, the output control means is notified of the same status information as when the normal print output of the job is completed, so that the printer is stopped. In addition, an operation state in which issuing of an output instruction is started again after all output instructions are cleared does not substantially occur, and inevitably, a decrease in throughput due to the printer operation stop does not occur.

[0020]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a main part of a printer control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and the same reference numerals are given to the functional blocks having the same functions as the respective sections in the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. Attached.

In the apparatus of this embodiment, the output controller 20
Is an output storage unit 21 that stores the number of output pages per page of the pages designated to be output by the instruction unit 10 among the data stored in the data storage unit 40, and the output stored in the output storage unit 21. When the output instruction of the target job is issued according to the number of sheets, in addition to the number storage unit 22 for storing the number of issued output instructions, the above-mentioned output is performed when the instruction output means 10 gives a print output stop instruction. The instruction replacement unit 23, which sets the number of output sheets for the job to which the cancellation instruction is given stored in the storage unit 21 to 0, and replaces the already issued output instruction for the job with the non-output instruction It is configured to include.

Further, the output processing section 30 includes an instruction storage section 3 for storing the output instruction issued by the output control section 20.
In addition to 1, when the content of the instruction storage unit 31 is a non-output instruction, the print output of the target job of the non-output instruction is prohibited, and only the output end regarding the job is notified to the output control unit 20. The non-output instruction response control unit 32 is provided.

When there is no stop instruction from the instruction means 10 in the apparatus of this embodiment, the output processing is performed in the same manner as in the conventional case. That is, in the device of this embodiment, the output control unit 20
Is output to the output processing unit 30 and stored in the instruction storage unit 31 based on the output instruction, the output processing unit 30 reads out the instruction target job from the data storage unit 40 and prints it out. While issuing an end instruction to the output control unit 20, the output control unit 20 outputs the output storage unit 21 every time the output end instruction is received.
When the output number stored in the number storage unit 22 becomes 0, the output end process of the corresponding job is performed by subtracting 1 from the output number stored in the number storage unit 22 and the output instruction number stored in the number storage unit 22. By doing so, it operates to process multiple print jobs simultaneously.

Next, the canceling process when the canceling instruction is given from the instructing means 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. Also in this description, print jobs A and B exist, and print job A includes A-1,
There are three pages, A-2 and A-3, and print job B has
When there are two pages B-1 and B-2 and a cancel instruction is received, it is assumed that cancel processing is performed for print job A when page A-1 is being output. I shall.

First, when the user performs a stop instruction operation in the instructing means 10, the instructing means 10 sends a stop instruction to the output control section 20. As a result, the output control unit 20 receives the cancel instruction (step 201) and refers to the number-of-sheets storage unit 22 corresponding to the page corresponding to the received cancel instruction.
It is determined whether or not an output instruction has already been issued to the output processing unit 30 (step 202).

Here, when the output instruction has already been issued (YES in step 202), the output control unit 20 causes the instruction replacement unit 23 to perform the above-mentioned issuance stored in the instruction storage unit 31 of the output processing unit 30. Among the output instructions that have already been processed, the processing corresponding to the job corresponding to the cancel instruction is replaced with the non-output instruction (step 203). In this example, step 2
The storage information in the instruction storage unit 31 when the output instruction is issued in 02 has the content as shown in FIG. Therefore, in the subsequent processing of step 203, the instruction replacement unit 23, according to the above assumption, outputs the output instructions (output instructions A-1, A-2, A-3) corresponding to the print job A among these output instructions. Change to non-output instruction. The stored information in the instruction storage unit 31 after this change has the content as shown in FIG. At the same time when the output instruction is changed to the non-output instruction, the output control unit 20 clears the number of output sheets in the output storage unit 21 regarding the job changed to the non-output instruction (step 204).

On the other hand, the output processing section 30 includes an instruction storage section 31.
It is known that the output instruction A-1 has been changed to the non-output instruction A-1 at the time when the print output execution for the output instruction A-1 at the head portion stored in is ended. Also issues an output end instruction A-1 to the output control unit 20. The stored information in the instruction storage unit 31 at this point is in a state as shown in FIG. Also,
When the output processing unit 30 refers to the instruction storage unit 31 to start the next output, and if the content of the instruction is a non-output instruction, the output control unit 20 does not execute the print output for this job. In response, the output end instruction is issued as it is. In the case of this example, since the output instructions corresponding to the second and third pages following the first page of the print job A are changed to non-output instructions, the non-output instruction response control unit 32 determines To the output control unit 20.

On the other hand, when the output control unit 20 receives the output end instruction, as a normal process, the output sheet number and the sheet number storage unit 22 in the output storage unit 21 corresponding to the page corresponding to the output end instruction are output. 1 for each output instruction number
Only subtract. At this time, since the output number in the output storage unit 21 has already been cleared (step 204), the subtraction process is not naturally performed. Further, at this time, since only one output instruction is issued for the first page of the print job A, the number of output instructions stored in the number-of-sheets storage unit 22 becomes “0” by the above subtraction processing. Therefore, at this time, the output control unit 20 determines that the output of the corresponding page is all finished and starts the end of the page.

Thereafter, similarly, for the non-output instructions A-2 and A-3, the output end instructions A-2 and A-3 are sent from the output processing section 30 to the output control section 20, and these page pages are output. Each end process is started. As a result, all three pages for print job A are
When the print output of only the first page is stopped, the processing of print job A ends.

For the subsequent print job B, the output storage unit 31 of the output processing unit 30 continues to store the output instructions related thereto (see FIG. 2C).
Therefore, in the output processing unit 30, the instruction storage unit 3
The print output of the print job B is executed according to the stored information of 1.

[0031]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, when a stop instruction is given, the output control means causes the output instruction issued to the output processing means to be processed by the instruction replacing means. In the output processing means, the non-output instruction response control means prohibits the print output of the job found to be the non-output instruction, and stores only the output end instruction in the output processing means. For the job replaced with the non-output instruction, the output control means is notified of the same status progress information as when the normal print output of the job is completed, and as a result, the printer is substantially stopped. No operation occurs, and the decrease in throughput can be minimized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a main part of a printer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of print cancel processing in the apparatus of this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state of information transition in an instruction storage unit during print cancel processing in the apparatus of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a main part of a conventional device of this type.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of print cancel processing in the conventional apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state of information transition in the instruction storage unit during print cancel processing in the conventional apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 instruction means, 20 output control section, 21 output storage section, 22 number storage section, 23 instruction replacement section, 30 output processing section, 31 instruction storage section, 32 non-output instruction response control section, 40 data storage section

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The number of output sheets and the number of output instructions for each print job of each page designated to be output from the instruction unit in the storage data of the data storage unit are managed in each storage unit, and the corresponding job is based on the management information. Output control means for issuing the output instruction and print processing means for storing the output instruction in the instruction storage unit and performing print output of the job based on the output instruction, each time the print output is completed. A printer control device that subtracts the output sheet number and the output instructed number by 1 in accordance with an end instruction issued from the output processing unit to the output control unit, and performs an output end process of the job when the output sheet number becomes 0, When the instruction unit gives an instruction to stop the print output for an arbitrary job, the number of output sheets for the job stored at that time is displayed. And an instruction replacing unit that replaces the output instruction of the job stored in the instruction storage unit with a non-output instruction, and prohibits the print output of the non-output instruction job existing in the instruction storage unit, A non-output instruction response control means for instructing only termination, and performing print cancel processing of a series of jobs stored in the instruction storage unit without deleting output instructions of jobs not subject to cancel instruction A printer control device characterized by the above.