JPH11259254A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiency execute one printing job by using plural picture forming devices. SOLUTION: A print server 5 can combine a printer (picture forming device) 2 having an upward paper ejecting function with a printer 1 or 3 having a downward paper ejecting function among three printers 1-3, and allow the printer 1 or 3 to execute each divided printing job in a forward page sequence and the printer 2 to execute this in a backward page sequence. Or, the paper ejecting functions of the three printers 1-3 are checked, and a combination of the picture forming devices with the highest printing efficiency can be determined on the checked result.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system in which a plurality of image forming apparatuses such as printers are connected via a transmission path such as a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as disclosed in, for example, JP-A-9-141975 or JP-A-9-218764, a single print job is divided by a plurality of printers and executed partly. 2. Description of the Related Art A printing system has been proposed that improves the execution speed of a print job.

In such a printing system, even in a print job using a relatively low-speed printer, by using a plurality of printers at the same time, it is possible to have a function equivalent to that of a high-speed printer.

For example, when printing one document consisting of 100 sheets of paper, printer A prints 1 to 30 pages, printer B prints 31 to 60 pages, and printer C prints The printing of 61 to 100 pages is assigned. By doing so, if the printer ABC has approximately the same printing speed, about 1
Printing can be completed in a time of / 3.

[0005]

However, in the above-described conventional printing system, it is difficult to optimally distribute print jobs. For example, even if a printer having the same performance is used, it is difficult to determine a print job due to a difference in transfer speed. ,
In many cases, there is a difference in the print job end time of each printer.

That is, a situation can be considered in which, although a certain printer is still executing a print job, another printer has completed the print job and is in an idle state. Also, usually, when multiple printers are prepared, it is usually necessary to configure them with different models,
It is difficult to optimally distribute print jobs. On the other hand, the division setting of the print job and the page order of the printed matter depend on the paper discharge function of the printer.

For example, it is assumed that the printer A starts a print job from page 1 and the printer B starts a print job from page 51. As a result, the printer A prints pages 1 to 50, and the printer B prints pages 51 to 100. If the printer A finishes earlier than the printer B, Is printed, the page order as one document will be different.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to enable a print system to efficiently execute one print job by a plurality of image forming apparatuses.

[0009]

According to the present invention, a plurality of image forming apparatuses are connected via a transmission line such as a network, and one print job is divided by a plurality of image forming apparatuses and executed one by one. In order to achieve the above object, a printing system having a print job control means is configured as follows.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, the print job control means includes an image forming apparatus having an upward discharge function and an image forming apparatus having a downward discharge function among a plurality of image forming apparatuses. The image forming apparatus having the paper function is provided with means for executing the divided print jobs in the forward page order, and the image forming apparatus having the upward sheet discharging function is provided with the means for executing the divided print jobs in the reverse page order.

The print job control means includes means for checking the paper discharge function of the plurality of image forming apparatuses, and means for determining a combination of the image forming apparatuses having the highest printing efficiency based on the check result by the means. Should be provided.
Further, it is desirable to connect at least three image forming apparatuses via a transmission path.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a printing system embodying the present invention.
It comprises a plurality of printers 1 to 3, a PC client 4, a print server 5, and a network 6 such as a LAN (local area network) interconnecting them.

The user can create a print data file on the PC client 4 or instruct each of the printers 1 to 3 on the network 6 to perform printing, transmit the created print data, and print it. . Also, print data can be transferred from the print server 5 on the network 6 to each of the printers 1 to 3 and printed. Here, the print server 5 has a job management unit, and functions as a print job control unit according to claim 1 or 2.

Although the system has been described on the premise of a network here, a network is not necessarily required if the printer is shared.
A connection method using another transmission path may be used. Also,
There is no restriction on the physical configuration, such as when the print server and the printer are integrated or an image forming apparatus other than the printer is used.

Next, the operation of the printing system according to this embodiment according to the present invention will be described. In addition, PC
Consider a case where a client 4 issues a print job of 100 documents. The PC client 4 sends the created print data to the print server 5. The print server 5 divides the received print data. Thereafter, a print instruction and print data are output to two of the three printers 1 to 3.

Here, the printers 1 and 3 have a downward discharge function, and the printer 2 has an upward discharge function. Therefore, the print data is transmitted to the printer 1 so as to execute the print job in the forward page order from the first page,
The print data is transmitted to the printer 2 so as to execute the print job in a reverse page order from the 100th page.

The two printers 1 and 2 start a print job according to the instruction and the print data. Print server 5
Transmits the subsequent print data while observing the processing status of the printers 1 and 2, and the print job is completed when the total number of prints by the printers 1 and 2 reaches 100.

In the above example, one print job can be efficiently executed by combining two printers. However, even when three or more printers are combined, a printer that performs upward discharge can be used. A similar effect can be obtained by executing a print job in a reverse page order from the last page.

The print server 5 is a PC client 4
If you don't get instructions for a particular printer from
Check the paper discharge function of the three printers 1 to 3 on the network 6, determine the configuration to execute the print job most efficiently from the check result, and determine the combination of the printers with the highest print efficiency. To determine.

Here, a printer capable of printing is determined,
By grasping the paper discharge function (upward paper discharge, downward paper discharge), printing speed, and the like of each printer, a combination of printers that is considered to have the best printing efficiency is determined.
Thereafter, the divided print jobs are executed by the respective printers.

The PC client 4 creates a plurality of print data files to be printed or, if there are a plurality of print data files on the print server 5, specifies the file to be printed. A job is issued, but the method of issuing the print job is not specified in the present invention.

Hereinafter, the operation of the print server 5 according to the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of the print server 5 according to the present invention.

When the print server 5 receives a print job from the PC client 4 (when there is a print instruction), the print server 5 determines whether or not there is a designation of a divided job. And
If there is a designation of a split job, the PC client 4
The print data received from the server or the designated print data is divided into pages.

Subsequently, among the three printers 1 to 3, P
The printer 1 or 3 having the downward discharge function is combined with the printer 2 having the upward discharge function according to the designation from the C client 4, and the printer 1 or 3 executes the print job in the forward page order from the first page. The print data is transmitted to the printer 2 so that the print job is executed in the reverse page direction from the last page.

Thereafter, upon receiving a print completion notification or a next data request notification from the printer executing the print job,
It is determined whether the number of print data transmitted to the printer has reached the total number of print jobs, and if the total number of print jobs has not reached, the subsequent print data is transmitted to the printer, and When the number of prints has been reached, the print job ends.

In the above example, it is assumed that a printer in charge of a divided print job is designated when a print job is issued. And the printer combination having the highest print efficiency, that is, the combination of the printer 1 or 3 having the downward discharge function and the printer 2 having the upward discharge function is determined based on the check result. You can also.

The operation in the case where one print job is divided by two printers and executed partly has been described. However, one print job may be divided and executed partly by three or more printers. it can. For example, two printers (A,
B) and two printers (C,
D) is connected, and a single print job is divided and executed partly by those printers, the following processing may be performed.

That is, to the printers A and B having the downward discharge function, the print data is transmitted in the forward page order at intervals of the pages to be printed (from the first page to the printer A, the printer B is transmitted). Print data is transmitted from the 20th page), and the print data is transmitted to the printers C and D having the upward discharge function in the reverse page order with a space between the pages to be printed (printer C). The print data is transmitted from the 100th page to the printer D and from the 80th page to the printer D).

In this case, it is not possible to adjust the printers in the same direction. However, in consideration of the printing speed of the printers, the print jobs are assigned to the printers B and D, which are in charge of larger intermediate pages. By transmitting (print data), resources can be effectively used.

[0030]

As described above, according to the printing system of the first aspect of the present invention, an image forming apparatus having an upward discharge function and an image having a downward discharge function among a plurality of image forming apparatuses. In combination with the image forming apparatus, the image forming apparatus having a downward discharge function has a forward page order, and the image forming apparatus having an upward discharge function has a reverse page order.
Since the divided print jobs can be executed, it is possible to improve the printing efficiency when one print job is divided and executed partly by a plurality of image forming apparatuses.

Further, according to the printing system of the second aspect of the present invention, the discharge functions of the plurality of image forming apparatuses are checked, and the combination of the image forming apparatuses having the highest printing efficiency is determined based on the check result. Because you can
Even when the image forming apparatus is not designated by the client, it is possible to improve the printing efficiency when one print job is divided by a plurality of image forming apparatuses and executed one by one.

According to the printing system of the third aspect, since at least three image forming apparatuses are connected via the transmission path, one print job is divided by each of the image forming apparatuses. When the printing job is executed part by part, the printing efficiency can be improved as compared with the case where one print job is divided by at least two image forming apparatuses and executed partly.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printing system embodying the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation example according to the present invention by the print server 5 of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 1-3: Printer 4: PC client 5: Print server

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A printing system, comprising: a plurality of image forming apparatuses connected via a transmission path such as a network; and a print job control means for dividing one print job by the plurality of image forming apparatuses and executing a part of the print job. Wherein the print job control unit combines an image forming apparatus having an upward discharge function and an image forming apparatus having a downward discharge function among the plurality of image forming apparatuses to form an image having a downward discharge function. A printing system comprising means for executing divided print jobs in the apparatus in the forward page order and in the reverse page order in the image forming apparatus having the upward discharge function. 2. The print job control means determines a combination of a means for checking a paper discharge function of the plurality of image forming apparatuses and an image forming apparatus having the highest printing efficiency based on a check result by the means. The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising: 3. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein at least three image forming apparatuses are connected via the transmission path.