JPH11219273A - Printing system and printing control method in printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system and a printing control method therein capable of printing a job, printed by the same printer driver, by a printer of the highest priority, and upon the occurrence of a fault, automatically switching to a printer of the next priority for printing in a constitution where plural printers are connected to one host computer. SOLUTION: This printing system is provided with a printer driver 102 equipped with a user interface by which a user can set a printing priority order for indicating which one of the plural printers is to be preferentially used and a spooler 103 for performing control so as to transmit printing data to a printer of the highest priority and performing the control so as to transmit the printing job to a printer of the next priority in the case of judging that printing can not be performed in the printer of the highest priority.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing system and a printing control method in the printing system, and more particularly, to any one of a plurality of printing apparatuses connected to a single host computer via a bidirectional interface. The present invention relates to a printing system and a printing control method in a printing system suitable for setting a priority order as to whether or not to use a printing device preferentially.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a printer control system in which a host computer and a printer are connected. FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional printer control system. In a printer control system according to a conventional example, a host computer 700 and a printer 710 are connected via a printer cable 706. The host computer 700 includes an application program 701, a printer driver 702, a spooler 703, a printer monitor 7
04, and a communication driver 705. The above application programs 701 to communication driver 705 include:
This is a program that runs on the host computer 700. In addition, the printer 710 includes the printer controller 7.
The printer controller 711 includes an input unit 712, an analysis unit 713,
Expansion unit 714, frame memory 715, printing unit I / F
(Interface) 716 is provided.

A host computer 700 and a printer 71
The user No. 0 operates the application program 701 to execute a print operation. The print data output from the application program 701 is written in a page description language (eg, PostScript, LIPS, PC) that can be interpreted by the printer 710 in the printer driver 702.
L, etc .: hereinafter abbreviated as PDL) and converted to a spooler 703
Sent to The spooler 703 temporarily stores the PDL data in a file, and then sends the PDL data to the printer monitor 704 while reading the PDL data from the file. The printer monitor 704 transmits the PDL data as it is to the communication driver 7.
Send to 05. The communication driver 705 transfers the PDL data to the printer 710 via the printer cable 706.

[0004] From the host computer 700 to the printer 7
PDL data transferred to the input unit 712
Is sent to the analysis unit 713. Analysis unit 71
In step 3, the PDL data is analyzed, and an intermediate code having a data format suitable for bitmap expansion by the expansion unit 714 is created. The intermediate code created by the analysis unit 713 is subjected to bitmap development by the development unit 714 and stored in the frame memory 715. The printing unit I / F 716 records a print result on a recording medium such as paper by performing, for example, on / off control of a laser beam on the printing unit 717 in accordance with the contents of the frame memory 715.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned prior art has the following problems.

(1) In general, a host computer has a hardware configuration capable of simultaneously connecting a plurality of printers by mounting an expansion board or the like.
It is physically possible to connect a plurality of the same printer to one host computer. However, in the related art, the number of printers that can be connected to one printer driver is limited to one. For this reason, only one printer can print using one printer driver, and if a failure such as running out of paper or a jam occurs that cannot be continued with that printer, printing continues until the failure is cleared. I couldn't do that. In particular, when printing via a network, there is often no printer nearby, and such troubles have occurred frequently.

(2) In some host computers, a plurality of printers can be connected to one printer driver in some cases. However, since it is not known which printer is to be used for printing, it is not easy to use. There was a problem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has been made in consideration of the above-described problem. In a configuration in which a plurality of printers are connected to one host computer, a job printed by the same printer driver is printed by a high-priority printer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system and a printing control method in the printing system, which enable the printer to automatically switch to a printer capable of printing with the next highest priority even when a failure occurs and perform printing. And

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of printing apparatuses can be connected to a host apparatus and one print job can be executed by any one of the printing apparatuses. Setting means for setting a printing priority of a printing apparatus, and printing control means for controlling print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus having the highest printing priority. And characterized in that:

In order to achieve the above object, according to a second aspect of the present invention, when the printing control means determines that printing cannot be performed with the printing device having the highest printing priority, printing is performed on the printing device having the next highest printing priority. It is characterized by controlling to transmit data.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the print control means performs control so as to notify a user which of the printing apparatuses has performed printing. It is characterized by.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control unit comprising: a developing unit that expands print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus in a bitmap format; and a compression unit that compresses the bitmap data. Is characterized by controlling to transmit the compressed bitmap data to the printing apparatus based on the printing priority.

[0013] To achieve the above object, the invention of claim 5 is characterized in that it can be applied to a system in which a plurality of printing apparatuses are connected to a host apparatus via a network such as a LAN.

In order to achieve the above object, according to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a plurality of printing apparatuses can be connected to a host apparatus, and one print job can be distributed to any one of the printing apparatuses and printed. A printing control method in a printing system, comprising: a setting step of setting a printing priority of a printing device; and a printing control step of controlling to transmit print data to a printing device that is printable and has the highest printing priority. It is characterized by having.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the printing control step, when it is determined that printing cannot be performed by the printing device having the highest printing priority, printing is performed on the printing device having the next highest printing priority. It is characterized by controlling to transmit data.

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, in the printing control step, control is performed so as to notify a user of which of the printing apparatuses has performed printing. It is characterized by.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 9 has a developing step of expanding print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus in a bit map, and a compressing step of compressing the bit map data. Is characterized in that control is performed such that the compressed bitmap data is transmitted to the printing apparatus based on the printing priority.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 10 is characterized in that it is applicable to a system in which a plurality of printing apparatuses are connected to a host apparatus via a network such as a LAN.

[0019]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[1] First Embodiment A printer control system according to a first embodiment of the present invention can simultaneously connect a plurality of identical printers to a single host computer, and can simultaneously connect a single host computer to a single host computer. It is possible to automatically sort and print a print job to any one of a plurality of identical printers that can print. In other words, it is possible to set a priority order for printing for each connected printer, and a function for printing on the printer with the highest priority and a user of the printer can arbitrarily set the priority order. If the printer with the highest priority is unable to print, the printer automatically switches to the printer with the next highest priority. Notification function.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser beam printer (hereinafter abbreviated as LBP) as an example of the printer according to the first embodiment of the present invention. LBP
Are the printer controller 301 and the laser driver 30
2, semiconductor laser 303, rotating polygon mirror 305, electrostatic drum 306, developing unit 307, paper cassette 308,
Feed roller 309 and transport rollers 310 and 311 are LBP
The main body 300 (corresponding to the printer 300 in FIG. 2) is provided. Note that the printer to which the first embodiment of the present invention is applied is not limited to LBP.
It goes without saying that a printer of another printing method may be used.

The configuration of each of the above components will be described in detail. The LBP main body 300 is provided with a host computer (FIG. 2) connected to the outside by the function of each component provided in the LBP main body 300.
Input) the PDL data supplied from), analyze it, convert it to bitmap, convert it to video data,
An image is formed on a recording paper as a recording medium. The printer controller 301 processes PDL data supplied from the host computer. The printer controller 301 converts the input PDL data into a video signal having a corresponding pattern, outputs the video signal to the laser driver 302, and outputs various statuses of the LBP to the host computer. Has been notified.

The laser driver 302 includes the semiconductor laser 3
This circuit is for driving the laser light 304 emitted from the semiconductor laser 303 in accordance with the video signal input from the printer controller 301. The rotating polygon mirror 305 is a semiconductor laser 303
The laser light 304 emitted from the camera is reflected and shakes in the left-right direction. The electrostatic drum 306 is driven to rotate by a driving mechanism. The developing unit 307 is provided around the electrostatic drum 306, and develops an electrostatic latent image formed on the electrostatic drum 306. The paper cassette 308 stores recording paper such as cut sheets, for example. The paper feed roller 309 is
The recording paper in the paper cassette 308 is fed onto the transport path.
The transport rollers 310 and 311 transport the recording paper fed by the paper feed roller 309 to the electrostatic drum 306 side.

In the above configuration, the laser beam 304 is
The electrostatic drum 30 is swung right and left by the rotating polygon mirror 305.
6 is scanned and exposed. As a result, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern or a graphic pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 306. This latent image is developed by a developing unit 307 provided around the latent image drum 306, and then transferred to a recording sheet. As described above, for example, a cut sheet is used for the recording sheet, and the cut sheet recording sheet stored in the sheet cassette 308 is taken into the apparatus by the feed roller 309 and the transport rollers 310 and 311. Is supplied to the electrostatic drum 306 side.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the printer control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. In this example, the laser beam printer (LBP) shown in FIG. 3 will be described as an example. As will be described later, as long as the functions of the present invention are performed, a single device or a system including a plurality of devices may be used.
It goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to a system in which processing is performed via a network such as a LAN.

The printer control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention generally comprises a host computer 200 and a printer 300 (corresponding to the LBP main body 300 in FIG. 3). The host computer 200 has a CPU
201, RAM 202, ROM 203, keyboard controller (KBC) 205, CRT controller (CR
TC) 206, memory controller (MC) 207, printer controller (PRTC) 208, keyboard (KB) 209, CRT display (CRT) 21
0, an external memory 211 is provided. Printer 3
00 is a CPU 222, a RAM 223, a ROM 224,
Input unit 226, printing unit I / F (interface) 22
7, a printing unit 230 is provided. In the figure, reference numeral 201 denotes a controller of the host computer, 301 denotes a printer controller, and 204 and 225 denote system buses.

The structure of each part of the host computer will be described in detail.
Based on the document processing program and the like stored in the storage device 203b, document processing in which graphics, images, characters, tables (including spreadsheets and the like) are mixed is executed, and each device connected to the system bus 204 is comprehensively controlled. In addition to controlling, execution of a flowchart shown in FIG. 5 described later is controlled based on the control program. The CPU 201 is, for example, a RAM 202
A process of rasterizing the outline font in the display information RAM set above is executed, and a so-called WYSIWYG (What You) is displayed on the CRT display 210.
See Is What You Get: a function that allows you to print in the same size and shape as is visible on the display screen. Further, the CPU 201 opens various registered windows based on a command specified by a mouse cursor (not shown) on the CRT display 210 or the like, and executes various data processing.

The RAM 202 functions as a main memory, a work area, and the like for the CPU 201. ROM 203
Font ROM 203a, program ROM 203b,
The data ROM 203c is provided. Font ROM2
03a stores font data and the like used when the CPU 201 performs the above-described document processing. Program ROM 2
03b stores a control program of the CPU 203 and the like. The data ROM 203c stores various data used when the CPU 201 performs the above-described document processing and the like.
A keyboard controller (KBC) 205 includes a keyboard (KB) 209 and a pointing device (not shown).
Controls key input from. CRT controller (CR
TC) 206 is a CRT display (CRT) 210
Control the display for.

A memory controller (MC) 207 controls access to the external memory 211. A printer controller (PRTC) 208 is connected to the printer 300 via a predetermined bidirectional interface 221.
The communication control process with the printer 300 is executed. A keyboard (KB) 209 is used for various data input and various instructions. A CRT display (CRT) 210 displays graphics, images, characters, tables, and the like. The display method is not limited to the CRT display, and other display methods such as a liquid crystal display can be used. The external memory 211 stores a boot program, various applications, font data, user files,
It is composed of a hard disk (HD), a floppy disk (FD), etc. for storing edited files and the like.

The configuration of each part of the printer will be described in detail.
A printing unit (printer engine) 222 comprehensively controls access to each device connected to the system bus 225 based on a control program stored in the ROM 224, and is connected via a printing unit I / F 227. An image signal (video data) is output to 230 as output information. The CPU 222 can perform communication processing with the host computer 200 via the input unit 226, and can transmit information and the like in the printer 300 to the host computer 200.
00 is configured to be notified.

The RAM 223 functions as a buffer memory for storing PDL data received by the input unit 226 and a frame memory (see FIG. 1) for storing bitmap data developed by the developing unit (see FIG. 1). ROM224
Stores the above control program and the like. Input unit 226
Communicates with the printer controller 208 of the host computer 200 via the bidirectional interface 221. The printing unit I / F 227 receives the bitmap data from the frame memory (see FIG. 1) configured by the RAM 223, converts the bitmap data into video data, and sends the video data to the printing unit 230. The printing unit 230 performs a printing operation based on the video data.

FIG. 1 shows a host computer 200 in a printer control system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram for explaining main processing of the printer 300A and the printer 300B. In addition, the first of the present invention
In the embodiment of the present invention, for example, two printers 300A and 300B are connected to the host computer 200, but the number of connected printers is not limited to the illustrated one. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a connection configuration.

In the printer control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention, a printer 300A is connected to a host computer 200 via a printer cable 131A and a printer 300B is connected via a printer cable 131B. It has a configuration. The host computer 200 executes the application program 10
1, a printer driver 102, a spooler 103, a printer monitor 104, and a communication driver 105. The above-described application program 101, printer driver 102, spooler 103, printer monitor 104,
The communication driver 105 is a program that operates on the host computer 200.

The printer 300A includes a printer controller 301A (corresponding to 301 in FIG. 2) and a printing unit 116.
(Corresponding to 230 in FIG. 2), and the printer controller 301A operates the input unit 111 (22 in FIG. 2).
6), an analysis unit 112, a development unit 113, a frame memory 114, and a printing unit I / F 115 (corresponding to 227 in FIG. 2). The printer 300B includes a printer controller 301B (corresponding to 301 in FIG. 2) and a printing unit 126 (corresponding to 230 in FIG. 2).
(Corresponding to 226 in FIG. 2), the analysis unit 122, the development unit 12
3, frame memory 124, printing unit I / F 125 (FIG. 2)
227).

The function of each unit will be described in detail together with the operation.
Host computer 200 and printers 300A, 300
The user of printer B uses the user interface prepared by printer driver 102 to print
A priority order can be set as to which of the plurality of (for example, two in this example) printers 300A and 300B connected to the printer 2 is to be used preferentially. The printer monitor 104 is connected to the printer controller 301.
A, 301B, and the printer 300A,
The status of 300B is regularly monitored.

The spooler 103 includes a printer monitor 104
The printer is configured to receive information about the status of the printer from the printer and determine which printer can print. Since the spooler 103 can also receive the priority information of the connected printer from the printer driver 102, the spooler 103 determines which of the connected printers is the printer that can print and has the highest priority. You can judge.

Host computer 200 and printer 30
The users 0A and 300B operate the application program 101 to execute a printing operation. The print data output from the application program 101 is converted into a P
The data is converted into DL data and sent to the spooler 103. The spooler 103 temporarily stores the PDL data in a file, and then sends the PDL data to the printer monitor 104 while reading the PDL data from the file. At that time, the spooler 103
Is a printer port (LPT) to which data is to be sent so that data can be sent to the printer having the highest priority among printable printers connected to the printer driver 102.
1 :, LPT2: etc.) to the printer monitor 104.

The printer monitor 104 transmits PDL data and information on a printer port to be transferred to the communication driver 105.
Send to The communication driver 105 sends the PDL to the printer port to be transferred according to the information of the printer port to be transferred.
Data is transferred (in this case, the printer 300A is capable of printing and has a higher priority than the printer 300B, so it is assumed that the printer 300A is selected).

From the host computer 200 to the printer 3
PDL data transferred to the input unit 11
After that, it is sent to the analysis unit 112. Analysis unit 1
In step 12, the PDL data is analyzed, and an intermediate code having a data format suitable for bitmap expansion by the expansion unit 113 is created. The intermediate code created by the analysis unit 112 is bit-mapped by the expansion unit 113 and stored in the frame memory 114. The printing unit I / F 115
According to the contents of the frame memory 114, for example, on / off control of the laser beam is performed on the printing unit 116, so that the printing result is recorded on a recording medium such as paper. It is configured that the user can know that printing has been performed by the printer 300A by using a user interface relating to a print job prepared by the spooler 103.

Next, an automatic printer change, a priority setting method, and a print printer determination method in the printer control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. This will be described with reference to FIG.

First, a mechanism for automatically changing the printer for printing will be described. If a failure such as a paper jam or an out-of-paper condition cannot be continued in the printing printer (for example, the printer 300A), the printer monitor 104 of the host computer 200 sends the printer status from the printer controller 301A of the printer 300A to the printer status. And notifies the spooler 103 of the information. In accordance with the printer information received from the printer monitor 104, the spooler 103 detects that a failure has occurred in which the printer 300A cannot continue printing, and from among the connected printers, the printer that can print and has the next highest print priority. Find out. In the case of the first embodiment, the printer 300B is selected.

The spooler 103 transmits information (for example, L) to transfer the next print job that has not been transferred to the printer to the printer port to which the printer 300B is connected.
PT2: etc.) and send it to the printer monitor 104. The printer monitor 104 sends the PDL data and information on the printer port to be transferred to the communication driver 105. The communication driver 105 transfers the PDL data to the printer port to be transferred according to the received printer port information (sent to the printer 300B in this case). Printer 300B from host computer 200
The print processing in the printer 300B after the PDL data is sent to the printer 300A is the same as that in the case of the printer 300A.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a print priority setting method in the printer driver 102 of the host computer 200 of the printer control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The display screen of the CRT display 210 of the host computer 200 Is shown. Users of the host computer 200 and the printers 300A and 300B
Mouse and keyboard 209 in this user interface
(See FIG. 2 above) and the like to set the priority of the printer. In FIG. 4, first, in a port selection portion 401, a port of a printer connected to the printer driver 102 is selected. By checking multiple,
Multiple printers can be selected.

Next, in the priority setting section 402, the priority of printing for the selected printer is set. In this example, LPT1 (printer 300A) has priority 1 (highest priority) and LPT2 (printer 300A).
B) is set to priority 2 (the second highest priority). The name of the connected printer is displayed in a portion 403. If the user presses the OK button 404, the changed settings are validated and the priority setting process ends. 40
When the cancel button 5 is pressed, the changed settings are discarded and the priority setting process ends.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an algorithm of a print printer determination method in the spooler 103 of the host computer 200 of the printer control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. This program is executed at the start of each print job. First, a printer having the highest print priority is selected from the connected printers set on the user interface of the printer driver 102 (step S501). Next, using the information on the status of each printer received from the printer monitor 104, it is determined whether this printer can print (step S502).

If it is determined in step S502 that this printer cannot print, the printer having the next highest priority is selected (step S503).
The process returns to step S502. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S502 that this printer is capable of printing, information on the port (L
PT1 etc.) to the printer monitor 104 (step S504). Next, a process of reading the print data from the spool file and sending the print data to the printer monitor 104 is performed (step S505), and when the transfer is completed, this process ends.

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the host computer of the printer control system determines whether the user preferentially uses a printer among the plurality of printers. Printer driver 10 equipped with user interface capable of setting ranking
2 and control to transmit the print data to the printing device that is printable and has the highest printing priority, and if it is determined that printing cannot be performed with the printing device with the highest printing priority, printing with the next highest printing priority is performed. A spooler 1 that controls print data to be transmitted to an apparatus and notifies a user of which printer has performed printing using a user interface.
03, the following effects are obtained.

According to the above configuration, in a configuration in which a plurality of printers are connected to one host computer, there is an effect that a job printed by the same printer driver can be printed by a high-priority printer.

Further, even if a trouble that cannot be printed by a high-priority printer occurs, printing can be automatically switched to the next higher-priority printable printer, so that printing can be performed due to a printer failure. This has the effect of avoiding the situation of disappearance.

Further, the user of the printer can arbitrarily set the priority of the printer, and can easily know which printer the print job has been printed. There is an effect that it is possible to avoid a situation in which the user is confused without knowing it, and to realize a flexible printing environment.

[2] Second Embodiment A printer control system according to a second embodiment of the present invention comprises a plurality of identical printers simultaneously connected to a single host computer, as in the first embodiment. In addition to being able to be connected, one print job can be automatically distributed to any one of a plurality of the same printers that can print and printed. In other words, it is possible to set a priority order for printing for each connected printer, and a function for printing on the printer with the highest priority and a user of the printer can arbitrarily set the priority order. If the printer with the highest priority is unable to print, the printer automatically switches to the printer with the next highest priority. Notification function.

In the above-described first embodiment of the present invention,
The printer control system that transfers PDL data output by the printer driver 102 of the host computer 200 to a printer and prints the PDL data has been described. However, taking advantage of the remarkable performance improvement of recent host computers,
Decompress and expand the bitmap on the host computer side,
A printer control system for transferring compressed bitmap data to a printer has also been realized. By doing this,
Significant cost reduction on the printer side can be realized. In a second embodiment of the present invention, a printer control system that expands and compresses a bitmap on a host computer side and transfers the compressed bitmap data to a printer will be described.

A laser beam printer (LBP), which is an example of a printer constituting a printer control system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, includes a printer controller 301 and a laser controller, as in the first embodiment. Driver 302, semiconductor laser 303, rotating polygon mirror 305,
Electrostatic drum 306, developing unit 307, paper cassette 308, paper feed roller 309, transport rollers 310 and 311
Is provided in the LBP body 300 (see FIG. 3 above). The configuration of each unit has been described in detail in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will not be repeated. Incidentally, the printer to which the second embodiment of the present invention is applied is not limited to the LBP, and it goes without saying that a printer of another printing method may be used.

Further, the printer control system according to the second embodiment of the present invention generally comprises a host computer 200 and a printer 300, as in the first embodiment. The host computer 200
CPU 201, RAM 202, ROM 203, keyboard controller (KBC) 205, CRT controller (CRTC) 206, memory controller (MC) 20
7. Printer controller (PRTC) 208, keyboard (KB) 209, CRT display (CRT) 2
10, an external memory 211 is provided. The printer 300 includes a CPU 222, a RAM 223, and a ROM 22.
4, input unit 226, printing unit I / F 227, printing unit 230
(See FIG. 2 above). The configuration of each unit has been described in detail in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will not be repeated.

FIG. 6 shows a host computer 600 in the printer control system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram for explaining main processing of the printer 650A and the printer 650B. The second embodiment of the present invention
In the above embodiment, for example, two printers 650A and 650B are connected to the host computer 600. However, the number of connected printers is not limited to the illustrated one. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a connection configuration.

In the printer control system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, a printer 650A is connected to a host computer 600 via a printer cable 631A, and a printer 650B is connected to the host computer 600 via a printer cable 631B. It has a configuration. The host computer 600 executes the application program 60
1, printer driver 602, spooler 603, printer monitor 604, page buffer 605, developing unit 60
6, band bitmap memory 607, compression section 608,
A communication driver 609 is provided. The application program 601, the printer driver 602, the spooler 603, the printer monitor 604, the decompression unit 606, the compression unit 608, and the communication driver 609 are programs that operate on the host computer 600.

The printer 650A includes a printer controller 651A (corresponding to 301 in FIG. 2) and a printing unit 615.
(Corresponding to 230 in FIG. 2), and the printer controller 651A has an input unit 611 (22 in FIG. 2).
6), a buffer memory 612, a decompression unit 613, and a printing unit I / F 614 (corresponding to 227 in FIG. 2). The printer 650B includes a printer controller 651B (corresponding to 301 in FIG. 2) and a printing unit 625 (corresponding to 230 in FIG. 2). The printer controller 651B includes an input unit 621 (226 in FIG. 2). , A buffer memory 622, a decompression unit 623, and a printing unit I / F 624 (corresponding to 227 in FIG. 2).

The function of each of the above sections will be described in detail together with the operation.
Host computer 600 and printers 650A and 650
The user of B performs a printing operation by operating the application program 601. Application program 6
01 is output to the printer driver 6
In 02, the processing is performed in band units obtained by dividing one page into uniform rectangular areas, and the expansion unit 606 outputs an intermediate code, which is a data format suitable for bitmap expansion, in band units. The intermediate code output from the printer driver 602 is temporarily stored in the page buffer 605 via the spooler 603 and the printer monitor 604.

When the intermediate code for one page is stored in the page buffer 605, printing by the printer 300A starts, the intermediate code of the first band is sent from the page buffer 605 to the developing unit 606, and the band bit map memory Bitmap expansion is performed during 607. The bitmap data expanded in the bitmap in the band bitmap memory 607 is sent to the compression unit 608, converted into compressed bitmap data, sent to the communication driver 609, and transferred to the printer 300A.

From the host computer 600 to the printer 3
The compressed bitmap data transferred to 00A is stored in the buffer memory 612 via the input unit 611. The compressed bitmap data stored in the buffer memory 612 is expanded to the original bitmap data by the expansion unit 613, and then sent to the printing unit I / F 614. Printing unit I / F
In step 614, after the received bitmap data is subjected to appropriate conversion processing to generate video data, the printing unit 615 performs, for example, on / off control of a laser beam to record a print result on a recording medium such as paper. I do.

In FIG. 6, the processing for selecting a printer with a higher priority on the spooler 603 and the printer monitor 604, the processing for selecting a printable printer, and the method of notifying the printer port to output are described in the first embodiment. This is similar to the case of FIG. 1 described in the embodiment.

As described above, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, the host computer of the printer control system prints out which of the plurality of printers the user preferentially uses. Printer driver 60 equipped with a user interface capable of setting the order
2 and control to transmit the print data to the printing device that is printable and has the highest printing priority, and if it is determined that printing cannot be performed with the printing device with the highest printing priority, printing with the next highest printing priority is performed. A spooler 6 that controls the printer to transmit print data and notifies a user of which printer has performed printing using a user interface.
03, a decompression unit 606 for decompressing the print data to be transmitted to the printer in a bitmap, and a compression unit 608 for compressing the bitmap data, the following effects are obtained.

According to the above configuration, in a configuration in which a plurality of printers are connected to one host computer, there is an effect that a job printed by the same printer driver can be printed by a high-priority printer.

Further, even if a trouble that cannot be printed by a high-priority printer occurs, printing can be automatically switched to the next higher-priority printer capable of printing. This has the effect of avoiding the situation of disappearance.

Further, the user of the printer can arbitrarily set the priority of the printer, and can easily know which printer the print job has been printed. There is an effect that it is possible to avoid a situation in which the user is confused without knowing it, and to realize a flexible printing environment.

Further, as an effect peculiar to the second embodiment, as described above, on the host computer side, the print data to be transmitted to the printer is bitmap expanded and compressed, and the compressed bitmap data is printed. Since transmission to the printer is performed based on the priority order, there is an effect that a significant cost reduction on the printer side can be realized.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. A storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or the apparatus executes the program code stored in the storage medium. Needless to say, this can also be achieved by executing the reading.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS and the like running on the computer are actually executed based on the instructions of the program code. It goes without saying that a part or all of the above-described processing is performed, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0072]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of printing apparatuses can be connected to the host apparatus, and one print job is distributed to any one of the printing apparatuses. A printing system capable of printing, comprising: setting means for setting a printing priority of a printing device; and printing control means for controlling printing data to be transmitted to a printing device having the highest printing priority. Therefore, the following effects are obtained. In a configuration in which a plurality of printing devices are connected to one host device, there is an effect that a job printed by the same printing device driver can be printed by a printing device with a high priority.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the printing control means of the printing system determines that printing cannot be performed by the printing device having the highest printing priority, the printing data is transmitted to the printing device having the next highest printing priority. The following effects are obtained because the transmission is controlled. In addition to the effect of the first aspect of the present invention, even when a failure that cannot be printed by a high-priority printing device occurs, printing can be automatically switched to the next-highest-priority printing device. So
There is an effect that it is possible to avoid a situation in which printing cannot be performed due to a failure of the printing apparatus.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the printing control means of the printing system controls the printing apparatus so as to notify the user which of the printing apparatuses has performed printing. The effect is as follows. In addition to the effects of the first and second aspects of the present invention, the user of the printing apparatus
Since the priority order of the printing devices can be set arbitrarily and the printing device that has printed the print job can be easily known, the user can be confused without knowing which printing device has been used for printing. This has the effect that a flexible printing environment can be realized.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a printing system includes a developing unit for developing a bit map of print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, and a compressing unit for compressing the bit map data. Since the control is performed such that the compressed bitmap data is transmitted to the printing apparatus based on the print priority, the following effects are obtained. In addition to the effects of the first to third aspects of the present invention, the host device side
Since the print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus is bitmap-expanded and compressed, and the compressed bitmap data is transmitted to the printing apparatus based on the printing priority, the cost of the printing apparatus can be significantly reduced. is there.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the printing system is applicable to a system in which a plurality of printing devices are connected to a host device via a network such as a LAN.
The following effects are obtained. In a system in which a plurality of printing apparatuses are connected to a higher-level apparatus via a network such as a LAN, similar to the above-described inventions of claims 6 to 9,
A situation in which a job printed with the same printing device driver can be printed on a printing device with a higher priority, and automatically switched to a printing device capable of printing with the next highest priority and printing cannot be performed due to a failure in the printing device There are various effects that a user can be prevented from being confused without knowing which printing device has been used for printing, a flexible printing environment can be realized, and a significant cost reduction on the printing device side can be realized.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control system in which a plurality of printing apparatuses can be connected to a host apparatus and one print job can be distributed to any one of the printing apparatuses for printing. The method comprises the following steps: a setting step of setting a printing priority of a printing device; and a printing control step of controlling to transmit print data to a printing device that is printable and has the highest printing priority. It has the following effects. In a configuration in which a plurality of printing devices are connected to one host device, there is an effect that a job printed by the same printing device driver can be printed by a printing device with a high priority.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, in the printing control step of the printing control method in the printing system, if it is determined that printing cannot be performed by the printing device having the highest printing priority, the printing device having the next highest printing priority The following effects are obtained because the control is performed so that the print data is transmitted to the printer. In addition to the effect of the sixth aspect of the present invention, even when a failure that cannot be printed by a high-priority printing device occurs, printing can be automatically switched to the next-highest-priority printing device. Therefore, it is possible to avoid a situation in which printing cannot be performed due to a failure of the printing apparatus.

According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, in the print control step of the print control method in the print system, control is performed so as to notify a user of which of the printing apparatuses has performed printing. Therefore, the following effects are obtained. In addition to the effects of the sixth and seventh aspects of the present invention, the user of the printing apparatus can arbitrarily set the priority of the printing apparatus, and can easily determine which printing apparatus has printed the print job. Since it is possible to know, it is possible to avoid a situation in which the user is confused without knowing which printing device has been used for printing, and it is possible to realize a flexible printing environment.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, a printing control method for a printing system includes a developing step of developing a print job to be transmitted to a printing apparatus into a bitmap, and a compressing step of compressing bitmap data. In the printing control step, control is performed to transmit the compressed bitmap data to the printing apparatus based on the printing priority, so that the following effects are obtained. In addition to the effects of the inventions of claims 6 to 8, the print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus is bitmap-decompressed and compressed on the host apparatus side, and the compressed bitmap data is transmitted to the printing apparatus based on the printing priority. Since the transmission is performed, there is an effect that a significant cost reduction on the printing apparatus side can be realized.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the printing control method in the printing system is applicable to a system in which a plurality of printing devices are connected to a host device via a network such as a LAN. It works. Even in a system in which a plurality of printing devices are connected to a host device via a network such as a LAN, a job printed by the same printing device driver can be printed with a high priority, as in the above-described inventions. Which printing device has been used by the user to avoid a situation where printing cannot be performed due to a printing device failure by automatically switching to the next higher priority printing device that can print on the device and printing There are various effects that a confusing situation can be avoided without understanding, a flexible printing environment can be realized, and a significant cost reduction of the printing apparatus can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram for explaining main processing of a host computer and a printer in a printer control system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a printer control system according to first and second embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an internal configuration of a laser beam printer as an example of a printer in the printer control system according to the first and second embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a print priority setting method in a printer driver of a host computer of the printer control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an algorithm of processing of a print printer determination method in a spooler of a host computer of the printer control system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating main processing of a host computer and a printer in a printer control system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer control system according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101, 601 application program 102, 602 printer driver 103, 603 spooler 104, 604 printer monitor 105, 609 communication driver 111, 121, 611, 621 input unit 112, 122 analysis unit 113, 123, 606 expansion unit 115, 125, 614 , 624 printing unit I / F 116, 126, 615, 625 printing unit 200, 600 host computer 209 keyboard 210 CRT display 300A, 300B, 650A, 650B printer 613, 623 decompression unit

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A printing system in which a plurality of printing devices can be connected to a host device and one print job can be distributed to any one of the printing devices for printing. A printing system comprising: a setting unit that sets print data; and a print control unit that controls print data to be transmitted to a printing device that is printable and has the highest print priority. 2. The printing control means according to claim 1, wherein, if it is determined that printing cannot be performed by a printing device having the highest printing priority, printing is transmitted to a printing device having the next highest printing priority. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein 3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing control unit controls the printing apparatus so as to notify a user of which of the printing apparatuses has performed printing. system. 4. A printer according to claim 1, further comprising: a decompressing unit that decompresses the print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus in a bitmap format; and a compression unit that compresses the bitmap data. 4. A control method for transmitting bitmap data.
The printing system according to any one of the above. 5. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the printing system is applicable to a system in which a plurality of printing apparatuses are connected to a host apparatus via a network such as a LAN. 6. A printing control method in a printing system in which a plurality of printing devices can be connected to a host device and one print job can be distributed to any one of the printing devices for printing. A print control method for setting a print priority of a print device and a print control step of controlling print data to be transmitted to a printing device that is printable and has the highest print priority. . 7. In the printing control step, when it is determined that printing cannot be performed by the printing device having the highest printing priority, control is performed so that print data is transmitted to the printing device having the next highest printing priority. A printing control method in the printing system according to claim 6. 8. The printing method according to claim 6, wherein in the printing control step, control is performed so as to notify a user of which of the printing apparatuses has performed printing. A print control method in the system. 9. A printing apparatus comprising: a bitmap expansion step for expanding print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus; and a compression step for compressing bitmap data. 9. The print control method in the print system according to claim 6, wherein control is performed to transmit bitmap data. 10. The print control according to claim 6, wherein a plurality of printing apparatuses are connected to the host apparatus via a network such as a LAN. Method.