JPH10240459A - Print controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print controller with which quality is managed based on the deadline. SOLUTION: A constitutive work element receiving means 2 receives constitutive work elements describing a transfer speed item required for predicting transfer speed in the case of transferring a job, an image formation processing item for predicting time required for the image formation processing of job and a printing processing item for predicting time required for the printing processing of job. A statistic transfer speed information storage and managing means 4 previously calculates the transfer speed, stores and manages it as statistic transfer speed information. A statistic processing speed information storage and managing means 5 previously calculates the image formation processing speed, stores and manages it is statistic processing speed information. Based on the statistic transfer speed information and statistic processing speed information, a printing end time calculating means 6 calculates the final printing end time of the job. A printing order control means 7 performs the optimum scheduling of the job from the final printing end time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control device, and more particularly to a print control device for efficiently operating a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, desktop publishing (D
With the development of TP), more complex and sophisticated prints are created on computers connected to a network. For this reason, it is possible to output from a printer a print having the same quality as a printed matter created by photoengraving.

[0003] In addition to the improvement of the processing speed of the printer, a printing contract service for outputting a large amount of printed matter created by DTP is also being provided, but at present it is difficult to operate the printer efficiently. .

[0004] First, since data described in the page description language (PDL), which is a premise of DTP, is expressed in a language, it is difficult to predict the time until it is actually developed into an image and output. And so on.

[0005] Furthermore, in the case of a high-quality printed manuscript including a full-color photograph, the data amount increases, and the time for transmitting this data to the print server must be considered. .

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-348793 discloses an efficient printer operation technique in which the operation status of a plurality of printers connected to a network is determined and a job is assigned to an optimum printer. .

[0007]

However, in the above prior art, there is no concept of the time required for print processing such as data reception and image development, and therefore, quality control based on delivery date cannot be performed. There was such a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a print control apparatus for efficiently operating a printer while conscious of quality control based on a delivery date. I do.

[0009]

According to the present invention, there is provided a print control apparatus for efficiently operating a printer, comprising: a job receiving unit for receiving a job described in a page description language; Transfer speed items required for estimating the transfer speed at the time of transfer, the image formation process items required for estimating the time required for image formation processing of the job, and the time required for print processing of the job. A constituent work element receiving unit that receives a constituent work element in which a print processing item necessary for prediction is described, a job / component work element storage unit that stores the received job and the constituent work element, Transfer speed statistical information storage management means for calculating the transfer speeds of the plurality of jobs in advance and storing and managing the transfer speed statistical information; For a certain object, calculated in advance the processing speed at the time of performing the image forming process for each of a plurality of the objects, and the processing speed statistical information storing and managing means for storing and managing the processing speed statistics,
A first predicted value for predicting the transfer end time of the job based on the transfer speed statistical information from the transfer speed item, and an image forming process of the job based on the processing speed statistical information from the image forming process item Print end time calculating means for obtaining a second predicted value for estimating the time and a third predicted value for estimating the print processing end time from the print processing item to calculate a final print end time of the job And a print order control unit that schedules the job and optimizes the print order of the job from the calculated print end time.

Here, the job receiving means receives a job described in a page description language. The component work element receiving unit is used for a transfer speed item necessary for estimating a transfer speed at the time of transferring a job and an image forming process for converting the job into print data in a format suitable for a print process of a printer. A component work element in which an image forming process item required for estimating time and a print process item required for estimating time required for print processing of a job are received is received.

[0011] The job / component work element storage means stores the received job and the component work element. The transfer speed statistical information storage management means calculates a transfer speed at the time of transferring a job in advance, and stores and manages the transfer speed as transfer speed statistical information. The processing speed statistical information storage management means calculates in advance the processing speed when performing image forming processing on each of the plurality of objects such as images, pictures, figures, and characters, and calculates the processing speed statistics. Store and manage as information.

The printing end time calculating means estimates the job transfer end time based on the transfer speed statistical information from the transfer speed item, and calculates the job end time based on the processing speed statistical information from the image forming process item. A final print end time of the job is calculated from a second predicted value that predicts the image forming process end time and a third predicted value that predicts the print process end time from the print process item. The printing order control means includes:
The job is scheduled, and the print order of the job is optimized based on the calculated print end time.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of a print control apparatus according to the present invention. A client 20 that edits a print image and a print control device 10 are connected on a network 30. The printer 40 is connected to the print control device 10.

The job receiving means 1 has a page description language (P
DL) is received. Further, when the print control device of the present invention is a printing device including a storage device for storing a job and an image forming device, the job receiving unit 1 performs the job control based on the configuration work elements described later. Is transmitted to the storage device or the image forming device.

The constituent work element receiving means 2 receives a constituent work element in which a transfer speed item, an image formation processing speed item, a print processing item, and a desired delivery date of output completion are described.
The transfer speed item includes items necessary for estimating the transfer speed when transferring a job via the network 30. The image forming process items are items necessary for estimating the time required for the image forming process. Print processing items are
It consists of items necessary for estimating the time required for print processing of a job.

The image forming process is a process for converting a job into print data of a format suitable for the print process of the printer 40. The print process is a process of actually converting the print data by the printer 40. This is the process of printing out.

The job / component work element storage means 3 stores the received job and component work elements. Further, the transfer speed statistical information storage management means 4 transfers the job to the network 3.
The transfer speed at the time of transfer from the client 20 to the print control device 10 via the “0” is calculated in advance, and accumulated and managed as transfer speed statistical information.

The processing speed statistical information storage and management means 5 calculates in advance the processing speed at the time of performing image forming processing on various objects such as photographs, figures, characters, etc., which are image data, for each of the plurality of objects. It is stored and managed as processing speed statistical information.

The printing end time calculating means 6 calculates the first to third predicted values to calculate the final printing end time. The first predicted value is a predicted value obtained by predicting the transfer end time of the job from the transfer speed item based on the transfer speed statistical information. The second predicted value is a predicted value obtained by predicting the image forming processing end time of the job based on the processing speed statistical information from the image forming processing item. The third predicted value is a predicted value obtained by predicting the print processing end time from the print processing item. From these predicted values, the final print end time of the job is calculated.

The print order control means 7 schedules the job and optimizes the print order of the job from the calculated print end time. The schedule display unit 8 displays the job schedule scheduled by the print order control unit 7 on the client 20.

Next, the operation of the client 20 will be described. First, the client 20 is a general workstation or personal computer, and has DTP software and various application software capable of exchanging data with them.

The DTP software has a function of laying out a page of data created by a dedicated application specializing in creation of objects such as images, pictures, figures, and characters, which are image data. Then, the print image edited by the client 20 is transferred to the print control device 10 via the network 30 as a job described in PDL. In the present invention, the constituent work elements are transmitted to the print control device 10 first before the job as the actual data is transferred. Details of the constituent working elements will be described later.

Next, the operation of the print control apparatus 10 will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a schematic operation procedure of the print control apparatus 10. [S1] The constituent work element receiving means 2 receives constituent work elements in which a transfer speed item, an image forming processing speed item, and a print processing item are described, and stores the constituent work elements in the job / component work element storage means 3. [S2] The transfer speed statistical information storage management means 4 calculates in advance the transfer speeds of various jobs transferred via the network 30, and stores and manages the transfer speeds as transfer speed statistical information. [S3] The processing speed statistical information storage management means 5 calculates the processing speed when performing image forming processing for each of various objects in advance, and stores and manages the processing speed as statistical information. [S4] The printing end time calculating means 6 calculates a predicted value of the transfer speed, a predicted value of the image forming processing end time, and a predicted value of the printing processing end time. Is calculated. [S5] The job receiving means 1 receives the job and stores it in the job / component work element storage means 3. [S6] The print order control means 7 optimizes the print order of the job based on the calculated print end time.

The jobs whose order is controlled are subjected to image forming processing in the printer 40, and are converted into print data of a format suitable for the printing processing of the printer 40, and then printed. If there is post-processing such as stapling, these printed materials are sent to a post-processing device. In the above description, the image forming process is performed by the printer 40. However, the image forming process may be performed in the print processing apparatus 10, and the print data may be output to the printer 40.

Next, a print image edited by the client 20 and a PDL description example thereof will be described. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print image. The print image 21 is configured as an aggregate of various objects such as a photograph object 21a, a graphic object 21b, and a character object 21c.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a PDL description example of various objects shown in FIG. In the PDL data 1a in the job, the photographic object 21a is represented by a description 21a-1, the graphic object 21b is represented by a description 21b-1, and the character object 21c is represented by a description 21c-1. The PDL expression format is an example of a case where the description is made using PostScript (trademark of Adobe System).

Next, the constituent working elements will be described. The constituent work elements are transmitted in advance from the client 20 before transferring a job including PDL data to the print control device 10 via the network 30. Also, the configuration work elements can be automatically generated from the DTP application, or can be manually created and input.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the constituent work elements. The title 2a-1 is used to distinguish it from a job that is actual data. The basic element 2a-2 is used for estimating the transfer time of a job on the network 30. The transfer time can be obtained from the total data size written in the basic element 2a-2.

The print instruction 2a-3 indicates a print instruction for a printed material extending over a plurality of pages, and describes the contents of post-print processing, a desired delivery date, and the like. The detailed information 2a-4 describes detailed information for each page, and describes an individual instruction for each page, an object size for predicting a processing time of a print image, and the like. The setting of the image quality mode for each page is also described.

As described above, the constituent work elements 2a used in the present invention include figures, characters, raster sizes, created application names, and the like in order to determine the transfer speed, the time required for image forming processing and printing processing. Data such as the type of printed matter defined by the user is described.

The constituent work element 2a can set an image quality mode, and is independent of a job. Therefore, even for a job including a plurality of pages, any graphic portion, raster portion, character, It is possible to control the image quality for each part.

Next, a detailed operation for calculating the final print end time of a job in the print control device 10 will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure for calculating the print end time of a job. [S10] The constituent work elements sent from the client 20 are stored in the job / structured work element storage means 3. [S11] The printing end time calculation means 6 calculates a predicted value of the transfer speed from all data sizes described in the constituent work elements based on the transfer speed statistical information. [S12] The print end time calculation means 6 inquires of the print order control means 7 whether there is a job already scheduled in order to know whether or not the image forming process of the job can be started immediately at the end of the job transfer. .
If there is, go to step S13; otherwise, go to step S1.
Go to 4. [S13] The printing end time calculating means 6 calculates the image forming processing end time of the job which has been scheduled. Thereby, the image forming process start time of the newly arrived job can be calculated. [S14] The print end time calculating means 6 obtains a predicted value of the image forming process end time of the job from the size of each object in the detailed information described in the constituent work element based on the processing speed statistical information. That is, the image formation processing time for each page is added, and the predicted value of the image formation processing end time is obtained from the image formation processing start time calculated in step S13. [S15] The print end time calculating means 6 inquires of the print order control means 7 whether there is a job already scheduled in order to know whether the print processing of the job can be started immediately at the end of the image forming processing. . If there is, go to step S16; otherwise, go to step S17.
Go to [S16] The print end time calculating means 6 calculates the print processing end time of the job which has been scheduled.
Thus, the print processing start time of the newly arrived job can be calculated. [S17] The print end time calculating means 6 obtains a predicted value of the print end time required for the print processing of the job from the basic elements described in the constituent work elements and the print instruction. Since the processing speed of the printer is fixed depending on the printing speed, PPM, and printing quality, it can be calculated from the number of sheets and the number of copies.

After the printing is completed, even if the processing such as bookbinding is automated, the number of sheets, the quality, and the specified time such as perforation are fixed values irrelevant to the transmitted job. Therefore, these can also be easily calculated as fixed numerical values.

The printer 40 including the post-processing and the like as described above
The time required for the printing process at the time depends on the fixed system and can be easily predicted. [S18] The printing end time calculating means 6 calculates the final printing end time of the newly arrived job from the predicted value of the transfer speed, the predicted value of the image forming processing end time, and the predicted value of the printing processing end time.

Next, the delivery date prediction display on the screen of the client 20 will be described. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the delivery date prediction display on the screen of the client 20. Jobs JOB1 to JOB3 are already reserved as the reservation status of the printer A, and the estimation result when a new print process is requested to the printer A is displayed on the screen 20a.

When it is desired to display such an estimation result, only the constituent work elements need to be transmitted to the print control device 10. Note that the drawing shows a delivery date prediction in a case where the image forming process can operate sequentially and the printing process can operate in parallel with the image forming process. When the desired delivery date is indicated in the constituent work element, a display for notifying the desired delivery date is made like a mark 20b.

Next, the printing order control when the desired delivery date is specified will be described. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure for optimizing the printing order control when a desired delivery date is specified. Here, it is assumed that when the jobs 1 to 3 in FIG. 7 are scheduled, the delivery date of the estimated newly arrived job is designated as 6:30. [S20] The printing end time calculating means 6 calculates the final scheduled printing end time of the newly arrived job. [S21] The printing order control means 7 determines whether the desired delivery date is satisfied. If it satisfies, it goes to step S26, and if it does not, it goes to step S22. [S22] The printing order control means 7 reschedules after the delivery date. Here, the scheduling is performed so that the print control of JOB 3 with the latest delivery date is performed last. [S23] The print end time calculating means 6 recalculates the print end time of the newly arrived job. [S24] The printing order control means 7 determines again whether the desired delivery date is satisfied. If the condition is satisfied, the process proceeds to step S27. If the condition is not satisfied, the process proceeds to step S25. [S25] The schedule display means 8 displays the client 2
A warning notification is displayed at 0. Further, an image quality mode change operation button is displayed. [S26] The print order control means 7 changes the high image quality mode portion designated by the user to the standard mode and reschedules it in order to reduce the processing time related to the image forming process and the print control, and goes to step S20. Return. [S27] The schedule display means 8 redisplays the job schedule.

Next, a warning display screen on the client 20 will be described. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a warning display screen 20c on the client 20. An image quality mode change operation button 2 for controlling the image quality in page units as the content of the instruction to change the constituent work elements when displaying the warning
0d is displayed. In this way, all the image quality modes are clearly displayed, and when it is not possible to meet the delivery date, it is possible to return the page of the high image quality mode to the standard and keep the delivery date.

As described above, the print control apparatus 10 of the present invention predicts the job transfer speed, the image forming processing end time, and the print control end time from the constituent work elements, and calculates the final print end time. The configuration was adopted. As a result, quality control can be performed based on the delivery date, and the printer can be operated efficiently.

When the delivery date does not meet the demand, the image quality mode change operation button 20d and a warning notice are displayed on the client 20. This allows you to control print quality such as resolution on a page-by-page basis,
It is possible to easily obtain the optimal combination of delivery date and quality.

Further, the printing order control means 7 is designed to optimize the printing order control. This makes it possible to improve the operation rate and productivity of the printer.
Next, a first modification of the present invention will be described. FIG. 10 is a system configuration diagram of the first modification. Clients 50a to 50n on a network 30 and a print control device 10a
And the printers 41a to 41n are connected. These printers 41a to 41n are PDL printers. The printer 40a is connected to the print control device 10a.
The storage device 40b is connected to a.

The PDL printer 41a is connected to the network I
F41a-1 and an image forming apparatus 41a-2, which sequentially interpret and form images while receiving PDL data from the network 30. Since no storage device is required, the time required for copying a large amount of data in the system can be saved, and the output of the first sheet from the start of receiving data is fast.

On the other hand, the printer having the spooler receives one piece of data and then starts image formation.
Although the output of the sheet is delayed, a plurality of pages can be output in page order, and the output of a plurality of copies can be performed. The print control device 10a includes all the fonts that are not frequently used, such as the characteristics of the printer, or a plurality of printers having extremely high resolution and color reproducibility but having a low printing speed. All PDLs connected to make the best use of the various characteristics of your printer
Controls printing to the printer. That is, these PDLs
The transfer speed of a printer or the like and the processing speed of each object are stored, and the processing time in each PDL printer is predicted.

A PDL printer without a spooler sequentially interprets the PDL while receiving the PDL, and terminates printing almost at the same time as data transfer for forming an image. Thus, network traffic is an important factor in output speed. Networks such as Ethernet rapidly reduce their transfer rate when simultaneously accessing clients exceed a certain threshold. Therefore, in consideration of the characteristics of the network, the time at which data transfer is started from the client to the printer is determined by the print order control means so that a large amount of PDL data is simultaneously transferred from a plurality of clients to a plurality of printers in a distributed manner. Perform a schedule.

Next, display screens on the clients 50a to 50n will be described. FIG. 11 is a display screen showing the delivery date prediction of a plurality of printers. Multiple clients 50
a to 50n send in advance to the print control device 10a the constituent work elements of the job to be printed out. The user on the client receives a display screen satisfying the optimized transfer start time and the desired delivery date from the print control device 10a in a form as shown in FIG. It is also possible to start the transfer automatically when the transfer start time comes with the software on the client.

Next, the system operation of the first modification will be described. FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a system operation procedure according to the first modification. [S30] From the constituent work elements, one adaptive printer that satisfies the constituent work elements is selected from the printers 41a to 41n connected to the network. This means that a color printer is selected, for example, for a double-sided printing instruction or a color job. [S31] The transfer start time of the scheduled job of the adaptive printer is determined. [S32] It is determined whether or not the number of sessions of a plurality of data exchanges between another printer and the client does not exceed the network limit. If not, go to step S33. If not, go to step S34.
Go to [S33] The time at which the number of sessions does not cause performance degradation in the network is obtained from the scheduled time table. [S34] The transfer start time to the transfer end time are calculated in consideration of the characteristics of the printer (image formation during reception with or without spooler). [S35] The printing time is calculated. [S36] In the compatible printers on all the networks, the respective scheduling is confirmed. If the calculation has not been completed, the process returns to step S30, and if the calculation has been completed, the process proceeds to step S37. [S37] A printer capable of outputting data in the shortest delivery time is selected from all applicable printers. At this time, it is also possible to select all the printers satisfying the delivery date and let the user select at the quality level. [S38] Display and notification of transfer start time and end start time,
Remember.

As described above, according to the first modification, it is possible to estimate the delivery date of a printed material without transmitting a large amount of actual PDL data, and to automatically select an optimum printer. It is possible to prevent a decrease in transfer speed due to an increase in traffic when a large number of clients use one network intensively, and to shorten the end time of printing.

Further, the print quality can be controlled by selecting the output destination without changing the PDL data to be executed.
The most optimal combination of delivery time and quality can be easily obtained.

Furthermore, the order control for improving the operation rate of each of a plurality of various printers and image forming apparatuses for a plurality of printed materials whose delivery date is instructed is realized, and the productivity of the entire network system can be improved. Will be possible.

Next, a second modification of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 are diagrams illustrating the configuration work elements used in the second modification. This constituent work element is used to improve the accuracy of estimating the time required for the image forming process using the user-defined object information and job information.

Among the printed materials created in PDL, those having a characteristic configuration, such as a definition 2b-1 such as a leaflet, a catalog, a manual, etc., a name 2b-2 of software that has created it on a page, and an object are created. Software 2b-3 and object type 2b-
Third, a type such as a company logo mark or a product diagram is added to the constituent work elements.

These definitions are not preset by the system, but allow the user to freely define them. For example, software names 2b-2 and 2b-3 are as follows:
It is installed in the client that you are using. That is, it is defined by the system, and 2b-1 and 2b-
4 and the like are the types of objects defined by the user. In the figure, characters, figures, and photographs, which are types of these objects, are further classified.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing the concept of the data structure in the processing speed statistical information accumulation management means. A thick solid line frame is a type defined by the system, a double solid line frame is a user-defined type, and a solid line frame is a type provided by the system.

As a definition of a print job, the T of the photographic software in the characteristic configuration 2 created by SOFTA is used.
By tracing a multi-tree such as distinction of type A, it is possible to obtain an average processing speed in each characteristic configuration and type. The processing speed statistical information accumulation management means stores the total processing amount and the total processing time for each image quality mode for each stratified object.

From the processing amount Hv [n] and the processing time Ht [n] in the high image quality mode, the high image quality average processing speed Hav [n] (= Hv [n] ÷ Ht) of the stratified objects.
[N]), and similarly, the standard image quality average processing speed Sav [n] (= S) of the stratified object from the processing amount Sv [n] and the processing time St [n] in the standard image quality mode.
v [n] ÷ St [n]) is obtained.

The print end time calculating means calculates Hav [n] and Sav [n] obtained from the data amount of the individual object described in the constituent work element and the designated image quality.
A time for performing image forming processing on an individual object is required. It is possible to calculate the time required to generate the final printed matter, taking into account the sum of the processing times of all the objects described in the constituent work elements, the paper feeding speed and the post-processing time in the fixed printer. Then, in addition to the schedule elements, a final estimated delivery date is required.

Next, a case will be described in which the objects defined above are actually processed by the image forming processing means. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing details of the image forming processing means. The image forming processing means 60 shown in the figure exists in the print control device.

In the image forming processing means 60, the actual data of the PDL data is developed into the intermediate format by the intermediate format creating means 62 so that the processing time for each object can be collected and the image quality can be defined for each object. After that, data is passed to the interpreter 63 for each object, and an image forming process is performed.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the concept of the intermediate format. The intermediate format is composed of data to be separately created on a page for each object and data indicating the vertical relationship of each page. The upper / lower relationship is reconstructed into an image of one page by the image synthesizing means 64 based on the rules defined in the page description language.

For example, as an example of reconstructing the simplest hierarchical relationship, in the case of post script, all objects can be reconstructed by overwriting each other, and the pixel of the uppermost object has the same coordinates on the same page. Is data for outputting the pixel of.

The quality of each object designated by the constituent work element for each object data is passed from the constituent work element analysis means 61 to the interpreter 63. When the rendering of each object is completed, the interpreter 63 notifies the processing speed statistical information storage management means of the type classified by the constituent work element, the processing amount and the processing time. Then, the time that the object defined by the user actually required for processing and the processing amount are extracted from the image forming unit, and are sequentially updated as statistical information.

FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 show a P-side program on the client side in which the constituent work instruction data is added to the beginning of one job and sent instead of the constituent work elements as separate data.
This is also an embodiment of transmitting DL data. Or, in general, if the function is limited by using the fact that the element corresponding to the minimum configuration work element from the PDL data is described in the comment of the PDL data, the processing in the system described below is optimized. Can be

If the component work element sends the PDL data at the beginning, the printing apparatus that receives the print job in the form of the print server does not store the job in the print spooler in order to speed up the printing of the first page. Jobs can be sent directly to the image forming processing means.

In the case of a job in which image formation cannot be started until the constituent work elements have received all print jobs, print jobs are stored in the spooler once rather than receiving data from the network while sequentially forming images. Performing image formation from the above can shorten the network occupation time.

However, for example, when PDL data of color photograph data is sent for only one page, the print job is once stored in the disk which is a spooler, and is again transferred from the disk via the internal bus of the system. In order to read the data and send it to the image forming processing means, the time for writing and reading data on the disk may cause a delay in actual printing.

Next, the case where the time until the final print output is obtained will be described. FIG. 18 is a flowchart for optimizing the time until a final print output is obtained. [S40] A constituent work element is extracted. [S41] The operation status of the image forming processing means is determined. If it is being used, go to step S47; otherwise, go to step S42. [S42] It is analyzed from the constituent work elements whether the final print output is faster when the image formation is performed while receiving the data, or whether the image formation cannot be started until all the PDL data has been received. [S43] It is determined whether the spool is an essential condition.
If it is necessary, go to step S47; otherwise, go to step S44. For example, the output of a plurality of copies in the order of pages of a plurality of pages requires spooling. [S44] In the case of a plurality of copies of one page, a delivery date prediction in consideration of writing and reading of data in the system,
The delivery date is predicted when data is directly passed to the image forming from the network. [S45] It is determined whether the direct image formation has a short delivery time. If shorter, go to step S46; otherwise, go to step S47. [S46] The data is passed to the image forming processing means. [S47] Data spooling is performed. [S48] The job scheduling is updated.

As described above, according to the second modification, since the statistics of the system time of a characteristic object can be automatically tabulated based on the object type defined by the user, the working environment and the tendency of the user can be more accurately determined. Can be reflected in the estimate. Since the definition of the object can be freely performed by the administrator of each system, the same accuracy as that estimated by the administrator having the know-how can be obtained by a general user who does not have the know-how.

Further, it is possible to determine the print quality for each object which cannot be performed by general DTP software. For this reason, it is possible to print as standard only one object in one page with high image quality, and to optimize print quality and print speed by creating drawing data in an image quality mode in which only necessary parts take time. Can be realized.

Further, by utilizing the constituent work elements for data flow control in the PDL data system,
While taking advantage of the spooling system's merit of reducing the data copy in the system, sharing the printer from multiple clients, and reducing the time occupied by the client transfer, if there is a condition, the first print instruction is issued. A print system that can reduce the time required to obtain a printout can be realized.

[0070]

As described above, the print control apparatus of the present invention predicts the job transfer speed, the image forming process end time, and the print process end time from the constituent work elements, and calculates the final print end time. Configuration. As a result, quality control can be performed based on the delivery date, and the printer can be operated efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of a print control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a schematic operation procedure of the print control apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print image.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a PDL description example of various objects.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration work element.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure for calculating a print end time of a job.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a delivery date prediction display on a screen of a client.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure for optimizing print order control when a desired delivery date is designated.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a warning display screen on a client.

FIG. 10 is a system configuration diagram of a first modification.

FIG. 11 is a display screen showing delivery date predictions of a plurality of printers.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a system operation procedure according to a first modification;

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing constituent working elements used in a second modification.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing constituent working elements used in a second modification.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a concept of a data structure in the processing speed statistical information accumulation management means.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating details of an image forming processing unit.

FIG. 17 is a diagram showing the concept of an intermediate format.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart for optimizing the time until a final print output is obtained.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Job receiving means 2 Constituent work element receiving means 3 Job / constituent work element storage means 4 Transfer speed statistics information accumulation management means 5 Processing speed statistics information accumulation management means 6 Printing end time calculation means 7 Printing order control means 8 Schedule display means 10 Print control device 20 client 30 network 40 printer

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A print control apparatus for efficiently operating a printer, a job receiving means for receiving a job described in a page description language, and a transfer required for estimating a transfer speed when transferring the job. A speed item, an image forming process item necessary for estimating the time required for the image forming process of the job, and a printing process item required for estimating the time required for the printing process of the job are described. A constituent work element receiving means for receiving a constituent work element, a job / component work element storage means for storing the received job and the constituent work element, and the transfer rates of a plurality of jobs are calculated in advance, Transfer speed statistical information storage and management means for storing and managing transfer speed statistical information; and The processing speed when the image forming process is performed is calculated in advance, and the processing speed statistical information storage management means for accumulating and managing the processing speed statistical information, based on the transfer speed statistical information from the transfer speed item A first prediction value for predicting the transfer end time of the job, a second prediction value for predicting the image formation processing end time of the job based on the processing speed statistical information from the image formation processing item, and A third predicted value that predicts a print processing end time from a processing item, and a print end time calculation unit that calculates a final print end time of the job; and performs the job scheduling. A print order control unit that optimizes a print order of the job from a print end time. 2. The printing control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the constituent work element receiving unit receives the constituent work element further describing a desired delivery date of output completion. 3. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising schedule display means for displaying a schedule of said job scheduled by said print order control means to a client. 4. The print control apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the schedule display unit displays a warning notification to the client when the print end time does not meet a desired delivery date. 5. The print control according to claim 1, wherein said print order control means stores characteristics of a plurality of said printers connected to a network, and selects an optimal printer from said constituent work elements. apparatus. 6. The print control device according to claim 1, wherein the print control device is a printing device including a storage device that stores the job and an image forming device. 7. The job receiving means in the printing device performs selection control of transmitting the job to the storage device or transmitting the job to the image forming device based on the constituent work elements. The print control device according to claim 6, wherein: