JPH1148584A - Print system and split printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate the necessity for rearranging a printed paper by allocating the number of pages to be split printed optimally for respective printers at the time of split printing. SOLUTION: Currently available printers in a print system are listed up (S402) and a pair of face-up printer and face-down printer are selected among the listed printers. The print starting pages of the face-up printer and the face- down printer are then set, respectively, at the end and head of pages to be printed (S405, S406). Subsequently, the face-up printer performs printing in descending order (S407) and the face-down printer performs printing in ascending order (S408).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing system having a plurality of printers and a division printing method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Normally, in a printing system having a plurality of printers, when printing a document created on a host computer, one of available printers is selected and the selected printer is used. I was printing.

When a document is divided and printed by a plurality of printers (split printing), the document is divided into specific pages, and the divided pages are printed in the same order by all printers used for printing. I was

[0004]

However, when printing with one printer, even if there are other printers available, it is not possible to perform print processing at a speed higher than the capability of the printer used for printing. Absent.

[0005] Even when printing is performed by a plurality of printers, it is difficult to optimally distribute the number of pages to be printed by each printer when the printing speeds of the printers used for divided printing are different.

Further, when a failure such as an error or a paper break occurs in a certain printer, complicated processing is required to print the page in charge of the failed printer by another printer. .

[0007] Further, in the case where an image that cannot be printed due to an obstacle is printed by another printer, the printing cannot be performed in an appropriate printing order and direction. For example, if a 100-page document is printed by two printers at 50 pages each, and one printer prints 30 pages and stops because of a paper shortage, the remaining 20 pages may be printed by the remaining printers. It is not possible to print in the order in which the pages were printed in succession, and it is necessary to rearrange them after printing and printing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and when performing divided printing by two or more printers, the number of pages to be divided and printed is optimally distributed to each printer, and paper is It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system and a division printing method that can eliminate the necessity of re-arranging the printing.

[0009]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing system comprising: a host computer; a face-up printer that discharges paper with a print surface facing upward; And a plurality of printers each including at least one face-down printer, wherein the host computer includes a pair of one face-up printer and one face-down printer among the plurality of printers. A printer selection unit for selecting two or more printers including: a printer start page and a printing order of the face-up printer selected by the printer selection unit; Printing of the face-down printer selected by Setting means for setting a start page and a print order in the first page of the print target page and in ascending order, wherein each of the printers forming the pair prints according to the print start page and the print order set by the setting means, respectively. A printing unit that prints the target page, a detection unit that detects a page that is currently being printed and a page that has been printed by the other printer forming the pair, and a page that is to be printed by the printer. A print stop unit that stops printing by the printing unit when the page is being printed by the other printer or has been printed, detected by the detection unit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the printing system according to the first aspect.
5. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of printers configuring the printing system each print first the printing target document in ascending order from the first page of the printing target page, and print the printing target document. A second printing unit that prints in descending order from the last page of the target page.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the printing system according to the first aspect.
Or the printing system according to 2, wherein the printers forming the pair each include a failure detection unit that detects that a failure has occurred in the other printer that configures the pair, and the other printer that uses the failure detection unit. Output means for outputting a print stop command to the other printer when it is detected that the failure has occurred, proxy printing means for printing a page that has not been completely printed by the other printer, and the printer A print canceling unit for canceling printing when the print canceling command is received from a printer other than the printer selected by the selecting unit or from the host computer.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the printing system according to the first aspect.
4. The printing system according to any one of items 1 to 3, wherein the printing system has at least three printers, and the host computer includes a print target page that causes the printer that forms the pair to print the print target document. The page is divided into print target pages to be printed by a printer that does not form the pair, and the face-up printer that forms the pair is caused to print in ascending order from the first page of the print target page of the pair, and the face-down printer that forms the pair The printer is characterized by having control means for controlling each printer so that printing is performed in descending order from the last page of the page to be printed of the pair.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the printing system according to the fourth aspect.
The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the host computer comprises: a printer type determining unit configured to determine whether a printer that does not form the pair of the three or more printers is a face-up printer or a face-down printer; A print order setting unit configured to set a print order of a printer that does not form the pair according to a result of the determination by the type determination unit.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a divided printing method comprising a plurality of host computers each including at least one face-up printer that discharges paper with the print surface facing upward and one face-down printer that discharges paper with the print surface facing downward. In the division printing method of a printing system having a printer, the host computer may include, among the plurality of printers, two or more printers including a pair including one face-up printer and one face-down printer. Select, set the print start page and the print order of one face-up printer constituting the pair in the last page and the descending order of the print target page, and set the print start page and the print start page of one face-down printer constituting the pair. Set the print order to the first page of print target page and ascending order, In each of the printers forming the pair, the printing target page is printed according to the set print start page and printing order, and the other printer forming the pair has completed printing with the printing target page currently being printed. If the page to be printed is detected by the printer and the page to be printed in the future is the detected page that is being printed by the other printer that forms the pair or the page that has been printed, the printer Printing is stopped.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the division printing method according to the sixth aspect.
Wherein the plurality of printers constituting the printing system each have a function of printing the print target document in ascending order from the first page of the print target page, and a function of printing the print target document on the print target page. And a function of printing in descending order from the last page.

The division printing method according to claim 8 is the method according to claim 6.
Or, in the divided printing method according to 7, in each of the printers constituting the pair, when it is detected that a failure has occurred in the other printer constituting the pair,
The printer outputs a print stop command to the other printer forming the pair, and the printer prints a page that has not been printed by the other printer forming the pair instead.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the division printing method according to the seventh aspect.
Or the division printing method according to 8, wherein the printing system includes at least three printers, and the host computer configures the print target page and the pair to be printed by the printer forming the pair in the host computer. The page is divided into print target pages to be printed by a non-printer, and the face-up printer forming the pair is caused to print in ascending order from the first page of the print target page of the pair, and the face-down printer forming the pair is The printing is performed in descending order from the last page of the pair of print target pages.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the divisional printing method according to the ninth aspect, in the host computer, a printer which does not form the pair among the three or more printers is a face-up printer. It is characterized in that it is determined whether the printer is a face-down printer, and the printing order of the printers that do not form the pair is set in accordance with the result of the determination.

[0019]

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

(First Embodiment) First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the printing system according to the present embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1, a printing system includes a client computer 101, a print server computer 102, a face-up printer 103 that discharges paper with its print surface facing upward, and a face-down printer 104 that discharges paper with its print surface facing downward. Are connected to a network.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the client computer 101 shown in FIG.

The computer 101 includes a central processing unit (hereinafter, referred to as a CPU) 201, an external interface 202 for interfacing the network with the computer, a keyboard 203 and a pointing device 204 for an operator to input or instruct various data. ,
Storage unit 205 built into the computer body, CRT
The main part thereof is constituted by a display unit 206 made up of the above and a data input device 207 for inputting data from the outside.

FIG. 3 shows the printers (face-up printer 103, face-down printer 10) shown in FIG.
It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the principal part of 4).

Each of the printers 103 and 104 has a central processing unit (hereinafter, referred to as a CPU) 301 and a face-down paper discharge unit 302 or a face-down paper discharge unit 302 that conveys printed paper so that the print surface is discharged downward. A face-up paper discharge unit 304 that transports printed print paper so that the paper is discharged with the surface facing upward; an image forming unit 303 that performs a predetermined image forming process; a print paper cassette 305 that stores the print paper; External interface 307 for interfacing with data buffer 306 and the network
Thus, the main part is constituted. In the following description, a suffix “a” is added to the reference numeral of each component when indicating a component of the face-up printer 103, and a subscript “b” is added to the reference numeral of each component when indicating a component of the face-down printer. .

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the division printing process in the printing system having the above-described configuration.
A program for executing this flowchart is stored in the storage unit 205 of the client computer 101, and is executed by the CPU 201. Also, this program allows the user to operate the client computer 10
1 is started when a printout of data is instructed.

First, the CPU 201 determines whether there are two or more pages to be printed (step S40).
1). If the determination in step S401 is affirmative (YES), the currently available printers in the printing system are listed up (step S402) and displayed on the display unit 206.

Then, the CPU 201 proceeds to step S40.
It is determined whether at least one face-up printer and one face-down printer can be used among the printers listed in step 2 (step S403).

A negative determination is made in step S401 (NO).
Or the determination in step S403 is negative (N
If the answer is O), the CPU 201 selects one usable printer from the printers in the printing system (step S410), and changes the print start page and the print order according to the paper discharge direction of the printer. Determine (Step S
411). That is, if the selected printer is the face-down printer 104, printing is performed in ascending order from the first page of the print target page.
The printing start page and the printing order are determined so that printing is performed in descending order from the last page of the printing pages.

Subsequently, the CPU 201 proceeds to step S41.
The printer selected at 0 is caused to print the print target page in accordance with the print start page and the print order determined at step S411 (step S412). Then, it is determined whether or not printing of all the pages to be printed has been completed (step S413). If the determination is affirmative (YES), the process is immediately terminated. If the determination is negative (NO), the process proceeds to step S413. It returns to the procedure of S412.

On the other hand, if the determination in step S403 is affirmative (Y
In the case of (ES), the division print processing is performed.

That is, the CPU 201 determines in step S402
A pair of one face-up printer 103 and one face-down printer 104 is selected from the usable printers restored in step S4 (step S4).
04), the print start page of the face-up printer 103 is set as the last page of the print target page (step S).
405), the print start page of the face-down printer 104 is set as the first page of the print target page (step S406). Note that even if the user selects a printer to be output from the printer displayed on the display unit 206, the selection in step S404 and the step S40
5 and the setting in step S406 have priority. And
The face-up printer 103 prints the pages to be printed in descending order (step S407), and the face-down printer 104 prints the pages to be printed in ascending order (step S408).

When printing is started in each of the printers 103 and 104, the CPU 201 causes the two printers 103 and 104 to start printing.
It is determined whether or not printing at 104 has been completed (step S
409), if the determination is affirmative (YES), the process is immediately terminated. If the determination in step S409 is negative (NO), the process returns to step S407, and the printing process is continuously performed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a print processing procedure executed by the face-down printer 104 in step S408 described above.

First, the CPU 301b acquires a page being printed by the other printer paired with the face-down printer 104, that is, the face-up printer 103 (step S501). It is determined whether the page is a page to be printed (step S502). Step S502
If the determination in step (1) is affirmative (YES), it means that printing of the entire print target page has been completed, and the present process is immediately terminated (step S506). Also, negative (NO)
If so, the page to be printed is printed (step S503).

After the printing in step S503 is completed,
The CPU 301b determines whether or not the printing has been performed up to the last page of the print target page (step S504). If the determination in step S504 is affirmative (YES), the process ends (step S506). Step S5
If the determination in step 06 is negative (NO), the page to be printed is set as the next page (the next page in the ascending order from the page printed in step S503) (step S5).
05), returning to step S501.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a print processing procedure executed by the face-up printer 103 in step S407 described above.

First, the CPU 301a acquires a page being printed by the other printer which is performing paired printing as a pair with the face-up printer 103, that is, the face-down printer 104 (step S601). It is determined whether the page is to be printed by the face-down printer 103 (step S602). If the determination in step S602 is affirmative (YES), this processing is terminated (step S606). If the determination in step S602 is negative (NO), the page to be printed is printed (step S603).

After the printing in step S603 is completed,
The CPU 301a determines whether or not printing has been performed up to the first page of the print target page (step S604). If the determination is affirmative (YES), the present process ends (step S606). If the determination in step S604 is negative (NO), the page to be printed is set to the next page (the next page in the descending order from the page printed in step S603) (step S605), and step S601 is performed. Return to

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when performing divided printing by two printers, one face-up printer 103 and one face-down printer 104 are selected as a pair, Each printer is controlled so that the face-up printer 103 prints from the last page and the face-down printer 104 prints from the first page, and the page to be printed by one printer is already printed by the other printer. When printing or printing is in progress, printing on one of the printers is terminated, so even if the processing speed of the two printers used for split printing is different, In contrast, the number of pages to be divided and printed can be optimally distributed.
The face-up printer 103 and the face-down printer 104 are selected one by one, and the respective printers are controlled so that the face-up printer 103 prints from the last page and the face-down printer 104 prints from the first page. So,
Even when the above-described print control is performed, it is not necessary to perform a complicated process of rearranging the papers after printing is completed.

(Second Embodiment) Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In this embodiment, even when the face-up printer and the face-down printer constituting one pair cannot be used at the same time at the start of printing, the same processing as in the first embodiment is performed. It is configured to be applicable. Note that the overall configuration of the printing system can be realized by a configuration similar to the configuration illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3 described above, and thus the description will be made by using these drawings.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a divided print processing procedure executed in the print system according to the present embodiment. The program for executing this flowchart is stored in the storage unit 20 of the client computer 101.
5 is executed by the CPU 201. This program is activated when the user instructs the client computer 101 to print data.

First, the CPU 201 of the client computer 101 determines whether there are two or more pages to be printed (step S701). Step S7
If the determination at 01 is affirmative (YES), the currently available printers in the printing system are listed up (step S702), and among the listed printers, the face-up printer and the face-down printer are respectively listed. It is determined whether the devices can be used one by one (step S703).

The determination in step S703 is affirmative (YE
If S), the divided printing process is performed. Step S7
The processing procedure from step S04 to step S709 is the same as the processing procedure from step S404 to step S409 shown in FIG.

If the determination in step S701 is negative (NO), or the determination in step S703 is negative (NO)
In step S710, the CPU 201 selects one usable printer from the printers in the printing system (step S710), and determines a print start page and a printing order according to the paper discharge direction of the printer. (Step S71
1). That is, if the selected printer is the face-down printer 104, the printing start page and the printing order are determined so that printing is performed in ascending order from the first page of the print target page, and if the selected printer is the face-up printer, printing is performed in descending order from the last page of the printing page. I do.

Subsequently, the CPU 201 proceeds to step S71.
In step S712, the printer selected in step 0 prints the print target page in accordance with the print start page and the print order determined in step S711. Then, it is determined whether printing of all pages to be printed has been completed or not (step S713). If the determination is affirmative (YES), the present process is immediately terminated.

If the determination in step S713 is negative (NO), it is determined whether a printer paired with the printer selected in step S710 can be used when performing divided printing (step S714). . That is, if the printer selected in step S710 is the face-up printer 103, the face-down printer 104
Is available, or when the printer selected in step S710 is the face-down printer 104 and the face-up printer 103 is available, the determination in step S714 is affirmative (YES). If the determination in step S714 is affirmative (YES), printing is performed in descending order from the last page when the usable printer is the face-up printer 103, and in ascending order from the first page when the usable printer is the face-down printer 104. The print start page and the print order are set to be performed (step S715), and then the above-described step S7 is performed.
07 and step S708.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a set of face-up printers 10
3 and the face-down printer 104 cannot be used at the same time, printing starts using one of the available printers first, and then starts printing when the other printer becomes available. Is used to perform divided printing, the number of pages to be divided and printed can be optimally distributed to each printer as in the first embodiment described above. It is not necessary to perform complicated processing of rearranging the paper later.

(Third Embodiment) Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. FIG.

In this embodiment, in a printing system configured in the same manner as the first and second embodiments, even if one of the printers forming a pair is stopped in the middle of divided printing due to some failure. , The remaining pages can be automatically made printable by the other printer forming the pair.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a print processing procedure executed by the face-down printer 104 according to the present embodiment. A program for executing this flowchart is stored in the storage unit 205,
This is executed at 301b.

In this flowchart, step S8
The processing procedure from 01 to step S806 is the same as the processing procedure from step S501 to step S506 shown in FIG.

The determination in step S802 is affirmative (YES).
In step S807, the CPU 301b determines whether a failure such as an error or a paper jam has occurred in the face-up printer 103 when the page to be printed is printed (step S807). If the determination in step S807 is affirmative (YES), the CPU 301b issues a print stop instruction to the face-up printer 103 in which a failure has occurred (step S808), and proceeds to step S803. On the other hand, if the answer to step S807 is negative (NO), it means that printing of the entire print target page has been completed, and the process is immediately terminated (step S806).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a print processing procedure executed by the face-up printer 103 according to the present embodiment. A program for executing this flowchart is stored in the storage unit 205,
This is executed at 301a.

In this flowchart, step S9
The processing procedure from 01 to step S906 is the same as the processing procedure from step S601 to step S606 shown in FIG.

The determination in step S902 is affirmative (YES).
In step S907, the CPU 301a determines whether the face-down printer 104 has caused a failure such as an error or a paper jam when printing the print target page (step S907).

If the determination in step S907 is affirmative (YE
In the case of S), the CPU 301a issues a print stop instruction to the face-down printer 104 in which a failure has occurred (step S908), and proceeds to step S903. On the other hand, if the answer to step S907 is negative (NO), it means that printing of the entire print target page has been completed, and the present process is immediately terminated (step S906).

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the face-up printer 10 forming one pair
Even if a failure such as an error or a paper jam has occurred in one of the face-down printer 104 and the face-down printer 104, the printing process in that printer is stopped and the other printer in which the failure has not occurred automatically As a result, the remaining pages can be printed, and thus the user's complicated work related to error processing can be reduced.

(Fourth Embodiment) Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. FIG.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the printing system according to the present embodiment. As shown in the drawing, in the present embodiment, a case where divided printing is performed using three printers 1002 to 1004 will be described. The configuration of the main part of the computer 1001 is the same as the configuration shown in FIG.
Reference numerals 1004 each have the same configuration as the configuration shown in FIG.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a divided print processing procedure in the print system according to the embodiment. The program for executing this flowchart is
It is stored in the storage unit 205 and executed by the CPU 201. In this printing system, a print command to each printer is issued from the computer 1001.

First, the CPU 201 determines whether there are three or more pages to be printed (step S110).
1). If the determination in step S1101 is affirmative (YES), the currently available printer in the printing system is restored (step S1102) and displayed on the display unit 206.

Then, the CPU 201 proceeds to step S11
02, it is determined whether a pair of one face-up printer and one face-down printer and another face-down printer can be used (step S110).
3).

If the determination in step S1101 is negative (N
If the answer is O) or if the determination in step S1103 is negative (NO), the CPU 201 selects one available printer from the printers in the printing system (step S1112), and The print start page and the print order are determined according to the paper discharge direction (step S1113). That is, if the selected printer is a face-down printer, the print start page and the print order are determined so that printing is performed in ascending order from the first page of the print target page, and if the selected printer is a face-down printer, printing is performed in descending order from the last page of the print page. .

Subsequently, the CPU 201 proceeds to step S11
In step S1114, the printer selected in step S12 prints the print target page in accordance with the print start page and the print order determined in step S1113. And
It is determined whether the printing of all the pages to be printed has been completed (step S1115). If the determination is Yes, the process ends. If the determination is No, the process returns to step S1114.

On the other hand, if the determination in step S1103 is affirmative (YES), divided printing processing is performed.

That is, the CPU 201 proceeds to step S110
A pair of one face-up printer and one face-down printer is selected from the available printers listed in 2 (step S1104),
The print start page of the face-up printer is set to a page corresponding to 2/3 of all pages counted from the top of the print target page (step S1105), and the print start page of the face-down printer is set to the first page of the print target page (step S1105). Step S1106).

Next, from among the printers listed in step S1102, a face-down printer other than the printer selected as a pair in step S1104 is selected (step S1107), and the print start page of the face-down printer is printed. The page is set to a page corresponding to ／ of all pages counted from the top of the page, and the printing order is set in ascending order (step S1008). When selecting the face-up / face-down pair in step S1104, even if the user selects a printer to be used from the printers displayed on the display unit 206, the selection in step S1104 and the step S1105
And the setting in step S1106 has priority.

Then, the face-up printer and the face-down printer constituting the pair selected in step S1104 print from the first page of the pages to be printed to a page corresponding to ／ of all pages (step S1110). ), And causes the face-down printer selected in step S1107 to print from a page corresponding to ／ of all pages to the last page (step S1109).

Then, the CPU 2 of the computer 1001
No. 01 determines whether or not printing has been completed by both printers (step S1111). If the determination is affirmative (YES), this process ends immediately. In addition, negation (N
If the answer is O), the flow returns to step S1109 to continue the printing process.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, when performing divided printing using three printers, a pair of a face-up printer and a face-down printer is created, and the pair is configured. In each of the printers, the divided print processing is performed in the same manner as in the above-described first to third embodiments. Therefore, for pages whose pair is in charge of printing, pages to be printed are optimally distributed and printed. An effect is obtained that a complicated process of rearranging printed printing papers after completion can be eliminated.

In this example, a face-down printer is selected in step S1107, and in step S1108, the first page of the page in charge of printing of the printer (that is, a page corresponding to 2/3 of all pages in this embodiment) is selected. It was set to print in ascending order.
Similar effects can be obtained by selecting a face-up printer and printing in descending order from the last page in charge of printing.

In this embodiment, the case where three printers are used has been described. However, even when the present invention is applied to the case where four or more printers are used, one face-up printer and one It is needless to say that the same effect can be obtained by creating one or more pairs of the face-down printers and performing the same print control as in the present embodiment on the printing pages of the pair.

When the method described in this embodiment is applied to the third embodiment, in addition to the above-described effects, if a failure occurs in any printer, the printing target of that printer is The page can be automatically printed by another printer, so that it is possible to reduce troublesome work of the user regarding error processing.

(Fifth Embodiment) Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 12 shows a print start page and a print order of a printer that does not form a pair of a face-up printer and a face-down printer among printers used for divided printing executed in the printing system according to the present embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the processing procedure which determines.
Note that the division processing described in the above-described fourth embodiment is applied to the printer selected as a pair of the face-up printer and the face-down printer, and a description thereof will be omitted in this embodiment.

First, the CPU 201 having issued the print request,
Among printers that can be used for divided printing, printers that do not form a pair of a face-up printer and a face-down printer are restored (step S1201).
The remaining pages are divided according to the number of listed printers and the number of pages not to be printed by the pair of face-up and face-down printers among the pages to be printed, and the sharing of each printer listed in step S1201 is performed. (Step S120)
2).

Subsequently, the CPU 201 selects one of the listed printers and determines whether or not the printer is a face-up printer (step S1103). The determination in step S1103 is affirmative (Y
If it is (ES), the printing start page and the printing order of the printer are set so that printing is performed in descending order from the last page of the assigned page (step S1204). Step S
If the determination in step 1203 is negative (NO), the printing start page and printing order of the printer are set so that printing is performed in ascending order from the first page of the assigned page (step S1205).

Step S1204 or S120
After the setting in step 5, the CPU 201 proceeds to step S12
It is determined whether the settings for all printers listed in 01 have been completed (step S120).
6). If the determination in step S1206 is affirmative (YES), this process ends, and if it is negative (NO), the process returns to step S1203.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the pages shared by a pair of a face-down printer and a face-up printer are described above, including the case where divided printing is performed using three or more printers. In addition to obtaining the same effects as in the fourth embodiment,
As for a printer in which a pair of a face-up printer and a face-down printer cannot be formed, an effect is obtained that printing can be performed in an appropriate order.

The processing programs used in the first to fifth embodiments are a floppy disk, a CD,
-It may be configured to be stored in a recording medium such as a ROM or a magnetic tape.

Further, it goes without saying that the present invention is also applied to a case where the present invention is realized by supplying a program to a printing system or a computer. In this case, the storage medium storing the program according to the present invention constitutes the present invention. Then, by causing the printing system or the computer to read the program from the storage medium, the printing system or the computer operates according to a predetermined procedure.

[0085]

As described above, according to the printing system of the first aspect or the divided printing method of the sixth aspect, one face-up printer is selected from a plurality of printers constituting the printing system in the host computer. And two or more printers including a pair composed of one face-down printer, and the printing start page and the printing order of one face-up printer constituting the pair are set as the last page and the descending order of the pages to be printed. And the print start page and print order of one face-down printer constituting the pair are set to the top page and ascending order of the print target page, and the set print start page is set in each of the printers constituting the pair. And prints the print target page according to the print order, and the other printer forming the pair Detecting the print target pages have been printed and printed pages in printing, the pages to be now printed in the printer, is the detection,
If the page is being printed or has been printed by the other printer forming the pair, the printing on that printer is stopped, so when performing divided printing using multiple printers, printing is performed. This has the effect of optimizing the number of pages to be distributed and eliminating the need to rearrange the paper after printing.

According to the printing system of the third aspect or the division printing method of the eighth aspect, when it is detected that a failure has occurred in the other printers forming the pair in each of the printers forming the pair, Since the printer outputs a print stop command to the other printer forming the pair, and the printer prints a page that has not been completed by the other printer forming the pair, When performing split printing on two printers,
In addition to the effect of optimally allocating the number of pages to be printed and eliminating the need to rearrange paper after printing, even if a failure occurs in one of the paired printers, the remaining printer remains Page can be automatically printed, and the effect of reducing the user's complicated work related to error processing can be obtained.

According to the printing system of the fourth aspect or the divisional printing method of the ninth aspect, the printing system has at least three printers, and the host computer can print the document to be printed in the pair. And a print target page to be printed by a printer that does not configure the pair, and the face-up printer that configures the pair prints in ascending order from the first page of the print target page of the pair. Since the face-down printers forming the pair are caused to print in descending order from the last page of the print target page of the pair, when performing divided printing by three or more printers, about,
An advantage is obtained in that the pages to be printed can be optimally distributed, and the complicated processing of rearranging the printed printing paper after printing is completed can be eliminated.

According to the printing system of the fifth aspect or the divided printing method of the tenth aspect, in the host computer, among the three or more printers, a printer which does not form the pair is a face-up printer or a face-down printer. Is determined, and according to the result of the determination, the printing order of the printers that do not constitute the pair is set.Therefore, when performing divided printing with three or more printers, the number of pages to be printed is reduced. In addition to the effect of distributing the paper optimally and eliminating the need to rearrange the paper after printing, the effect of eliminating the necessity of rearranging the page in charge of the printer that does not form a pair after printing is completed is eliminated. can get.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of the client computer shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of the printer illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a divided print processing procedure.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a print processing procedure executed in step S408 illustrated in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a print processing procedure executed in step S407 illustrated in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a divided print processing procedure executed in the print system according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a print processing procedure executed by a face-down printer of a printing system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a print processing procedure executed by the face-up printer of the printing system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of a printing system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a divided print processing procedure in the print system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for determining a print start page and a print order of a printer that does not form a pair, which is used for divided printing performed in a print system according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention. .

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 client computer 103 face-up printer 104 face-down printer 201 CPU 205 memory 1001 computer 1002 to 1004 printer

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A printing system comprising: a host computer; and a plurality of printers each including at least one face-up printer that discharges paper with a print surface facing upward and at least one face-down printer that discharges paper with a print surface facing down. The host computer is a printer selection unit that selects two or more printers including a pair of one face-up printer and one face-down printer from the plurality of printers, and the printer selection unit The print start page and the print order of the selected face-up printer are set to the last page and the descending order of the print target page, and the print start page and the print order of the face-down printer selected by the printer selecting means are set to the top of the print target page. Set page and ascending order Each of the printers forming the pair includes a printing unit that prints a print target page in accordance with the print start page and the printing order set by the setting unit, and the other printer that forms the pair. Detecting means for detecting a page currently being printed and a page for which printing has been completed in the printer; and a page which is to be printed in the printer and which is being detected by the detecting means and which is being printed by the other printer. Or a print canceling unit for canceling printing by the printing unit when the page has been printed. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of printers comprise a first printing unit that prints the document to be printed in ascending order from a top page of the page to be printed, and a page that prints the document to be printed. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising: a second printing unit that prints in a descending order from the last page of the print job. 3. The printers forming the pair each have a fault detecting unit for detecting that a fault has occurred in the other printer forming the pair, and the fault detecting unit detects the fault in the other printer. Output means for outputting a print stop command to the other printer when the occurrence has occurred, proxy printing means for printing pages that have not been printed by the other printer, and selection by the printer selection means The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising: a print cancel unit configured to cancel printing when the print cancel command is received from a printer other than the printer or the host computer. 4. The printing system has at least three printers, and the host computer causes a printer to be printed by the printer that forms the pair and a printer that does not form the pair to print the document to be printed. The page to be printed is divided into pages to be printed, and the face-up printer constituting the pair is caused to print in ascending order from the first page of the pages to be printed of the pair, and the face-down printer constituting the pair is directed to the page to be printed of the pair. 4. The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising control means for controlling each printer so that printing is performed in descending order from the last page. 5. The printer type determining means for determining whether a printer that does not form the pair of the three or more printers is a face-up printer or a face-down printer, and the host computer determines the printer type. 5. The printing system according to claim 4, further comprising: a printing order setting unit that sets a printing order of a printer that does not form the pair according to a result of the determination by the unit. 6. A printing system comprising: a host computer; and a plurality of printers each including at least one face-up printer that discharges paper with the printing surface facing upward and at least one face-down printer that discharges paper with the printing surface facing down. In the division printing method, the host computer selects two or more printers including a pair composed of one face-up printer and one face-down printer from the plurality of printers, and configures the pair. The print start page and print order of one face-up printer to be set are set to the last page and descending order of the print target page, and the print start page and print order of one face-down printer forming the pair are set to the print target page. Set the first page and the ascending order. Prints the print target page in accordance with the set print start page and print order, and detects the print target page that is currently being printed and the print target page that has been printed by the other printer forming the pair. If the page to be printed by the printer is the detected page that is being printed by the other printer forming the pair or has been printed, the printing by the printer is stopped. And a division printing method. 7. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of printers comprise a function of printing the document to be printed in ascending order from the first page of the page to be printed, and a function of printing the document to be printed from the last page of the page to be printed. 7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising a function of printing in descending order. 8. In each of the printers forming the pair, when it is detected that a failure has occurred in the other printer forming the pair, printing is stopped from the printer to the other printer forming the pair. Output the command,
8. The divided printing method according to claim 6, wherein a page which has not been printed by the other printer forming the pair is printed by the printer instead. 9. The printing system includes at least three printers, and the host computer causes the printers forming the pair to print the print target document and the printers not forming the pair to print the print target document. The page to be printed is divided into pages to be printed, and the face-up printer constituting the pair is caused to print in ascending order from the first page of the pages to be printed of the pair, and the face-down printer constituting the pair is directed to the page to be printed of the pair. 9. The division printing method according to claim 7, wherein printing is performed in descending order from the last page of the divided printing. 10. The host computer determines whether a printer that does not form the pair of the three or more printers is a face-up printer or a face-down printer, and according to a result of the determination,
10. The division printing method according to claim 9, wherein a printing order of a printer that does not form the pair is set.