JPH1191217A - Printing processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the specifying of the cause of an error, an output data and the like in a job, in which an output error is generated, by a method wherein an error banner data is generated based on an error information and the error banner is printed on a sheet of paper, different from the output paper of printing data of a fore page in the size or direction thereof. SOLUTION: When an error in printing process is detected by the error detecting unit 204 of printing job processing unit 203 of a printing processing unit 102, an information on the error is informed to an error banner preparing unit 209 through an error information memory unit 205. A banner for preparing an error information, corresponding to the generated error, is extracted out of the banner data storing unit 208 in accordance with the informed error information in this case and an error banner sheet is prepared. Then, the error banner data is transmitted to a printing information preparing unit 206 to determine the size of output paper of a banner page or a sheet of paper, having a size larger than that of a fore page, for example, in accordance with the size, of paper before or after the burner page is outputted, and the size of paper is outputted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus, and more particularly, to an output error, that is, a printing error or the like, in a print process of print data created by a document and drawing creating apparatus or an image processing apparatus. The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus that facilitates identification of an error in an output result at the time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a print processing apparatus that executes print processing, when printing over a plurality of pages is performed based on a user's print request, the user issues a print request as a job that is a unit of a predetermined number of print pages. It is common. The print processing apparatus executes printing of a job related to a print request by a printer, but at the time of print processing, a data transmission error, a memory shortage, an image development processing error, etc.
Output errors may occur due to various causes.

Conventionally, when an error occurs in such a print processing apparatus, an output status (including an error) of a user's printer is displayed on a display device, and an error banner sheet is discharged into a printout sheet. By doing so, the user is notified of the occurrence of an error. However, in the conventional error banner sheet, only one sheet of a predetermined pattern is output in the same paper and form as that of a normal output, so that it is possible to determine in which portion of a document an error has occurred. It cannot be easily grasped. Further, if information indicating that an error has occurred is merely displayed on the display device, the location of the error cannot be easily known, and all outputs must be checked again. Even when an error banner sheet is output, the operation of confirming the ejection of the error banner sheet imposes a heavy burden on the user when a large number of print sheets are output.

[0004] As a prior art showing a configuration for facilitating an error checking operation, there is a printer error control system described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-323643. That is, when an error that does not need to be stopped during printing occurs during printing, the content of the error is described in an error log in the EEPROM of the printer, and printing is continued as it is. Thereafter, when the printer is turned off and then turned on again, it is checked whether or not there is data in the error log in the EEPROM. If there is error log data, the status information in the EEPROM and the error Print out on the status sheet together with the error data in the log. In this way, it is possible to reliably notify the user of the occurrence of the error and make it confirmed.

[0005] However, the printer error control method described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-323643 is performed under the condition that an error notification is performed by turning off and on the printer. However, this does not make it easy to check for errors. As described above, in the conventional print processing apparatus, it is difficult to confirm an error location and an error content when an error occurs in print output, and the user has required a great deal of labor for the operation.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above-mentioned conventional problems. In a printing process, output is performed based on output result information after printing based on a print request from a user. It is an object of the present invention to provide a print processing apparatus that can easily specify an error cause, output data, and an error position in a job in which an error has occurred.

In addition, the present invention outputs error banner sheets created on sheets of different sizes and directions in output data, thereby facilitating identification of an error position and outputting error banners in document data. A print processing apparatus that enables output in an arbitrary mode set by a user, for example, setting of whether to output a plurality of banners (for each page where an error occurs), and the like, enables easy identification of an error cause and output data. The purpose is to provide.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a print processing apparatus of the present invention executes output of print data and can output the print data to a plurality of sheets having at least one of different sizes or directions. A print processing device having a printer, a print job processing unit for processing a print job according to the print request and outputting to the printer print data that can be printed on an output sheet selected from a plurality of sheets; Error detecting means for detecting an error and storing the error data as error information; error banner generating means for generating error banner data based on the error information; and an output sheet for the print data of the previous page of the error banner output position. And print information creation that creates print information so that it is printed out on paper of at least one of size or orientation. And having a means.

Further, the print processing apparatus according to the present invention is characterized in that when the output position of the error banner is the first page of the print job, the error banner is output on paper of a predetermined size and direction. And

Further, when the output position of the error banner is at a position following the output page of the print data of the print job, the print processing apparatus of the present invention outputs the print data of the print data of the previous page of the output position of the error banner. An error banner is output on paper of a size larger than the size.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
The print information creating unit has a unit that determines an output paper size and a direction of the print data related to the print job from the outputable paper, and at least one of the output paper size and the direction of the determined print data is different. It is characterized by having a means for selecting a sheet from sheets that can be output as an error banner output sheet.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
In the case where a plurality of different types of paper are included in the output paper of the print data relating to the print job, the output banner of the error banner is output by using at least one of the different output papers of at least one of the size and the direction of the plurality of types of print data. It is characterized in that a configuration is adopted in which paper is selected from paper that can be output as paper and printed out.

Further, in the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
The print job processing unit is configured to output error information to the error banner generation unit only when an error banner output request is set in a print request parameter set for each print job. .

[0014]

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an embodiment of a system to which a print processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied. The print processing system according to the present exemplary embodiment includes printers 1 and 101, a print processing unit 102 connected to the printer 1, printers 2 and 103, a client device 104, and a database 105. Are connected to enable data communication.

In the embodiment shown in FIG.
Is connected to the printers 1 and 101, but a configuration in which the print processing unit is incorporated in the printer and integrated with the printer is also possible. Further, a plurality of client devices, printers, and databases may be further connected to the network shown in FIG.

Printer 1, 101 and Printer 2,
Reference numeral 103 denotes printing of data transferred from the client device 104 or the database 105 via the network in accordance with a print request from the client device 104. The printers 1 and 101 include a print processing unit 1
A print request from the client device 104 is received by the print processing unit 102. Output control of the printers 2 and 103 is executed in the printer 2.

Printer 1, 101 and Printer 2,
Reference numeral 103 denotes various sizes such as A3, A4, B4, and B5 so that printing on paper of a plurality of sizes and directions is possible.
It has a predetermined number of trays for accommodating sheets of the same size in the vertical and horizontal directions so that they can be output in the vertical and horizontal directions, and has a print sheet supply mechanism for supplying a sheet selected from a plurality of set sheets to the output unit. And print data can be output to the selected paper.

Although not shown, the print processing unit 102
May have a data processing function such as a data enlargement / reduction function or a data rotation function, and if these functions are provided, enlargement / reduction and rotation of print data as necessary. The processing is executed.

The printer may have, for example, a paper folding function, a punch function, a staple function, a binder function, or the like. If these functions are provided, the printed output paper is subjected to processing such as folding, punching, binding with staples, or binding using punch holes according to the respective functions.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the print processing unit 102 in the print processing apparatus of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the print processing unit 102
01, print job processing unit 203, printer control unit 20
7, a banner data storage unit 208, and an error banner creation unit 209. The request reception unit 201 has a print request storage unit 202, the print job processing unit 203 has an error detection unit 204, an error information storage unit 205, And a print information creation unit 206.

The request accepting unit 201 checks an argument relating to a print request from a client and interprets the argument.
These are stored in the print request information storage unit 202. Various data related to the stored print request is sent to the print job processing unit 2.
03 is output or referred to at the time of print job processing.

A print job processing unit 203 performs various processes of a print job, which is a print request from a client accepted by the request accepting unit 202. For example, data transfer and various conversions of print parameters when print data regarding a print job received from a client is stored in a remote storage device such as a database connected to a network. When an error occurs in each of the processes involved in the printing process, the error detection unit 204 detects the error and stores the error in the error information storage unit 205. Based on the error information, the banner data creation unit 209 extracts the banner data from the banner data storage unit 208, creates the banner data, and merges the data that can be output normally with the print information creation unit 206.

The printer control unit 207 mainly performs interaction between the printer and the print processing unit. The banner data storage unit 208 stores a banner data pattern serving as a base. This can be freely registered by the user in correspondence with an expected error pattern.

The form of the error banner output together with the print data from the printer when an error occurs can be freely set by the user. The error banner set by the user is output, for example, in a format as shown in FIG. In the example of the error banner illustrated in FIG. 3, the mode of the error that has occurred, the name of the job in which the error has occurred, and a comment field are set. As items to be output in the error banner sheet, various items such as an error occurrence date and time, an identifier of the client device that has requested the print job, and the number of error pages can be set.

When an error occurs during printing, for example, when an error banner output as shown in FIG. 3 is performed, a user who makes a print request sets an error banner output instruction flag as a parameter in setting a print job (Job). I do. FIG. 4 shows an example in which an error banner output is instructed using a command format. In the example shown in FIG.
When outputting a file “ps”, a comment “abc” is put in the banner data pattern “banpatn1” in the start banner, black is specified, an error banner is specified, banner output is specified for each page where an error occurs, and “ebanpatn1” is specified. Is designated by adding a comment "def" to the banner data pattern in black. Here, the job is a job including one or a plurality of document data as one processing unit.

The format for instructing the output of the error banner may be a method of inputting a command as shown in FIG. 4 or a format in which a user inputs a predetermined item in a preset format. After the print job output instruction for which the error banner output instruction is issued as shown in FIG. 4, if all documents are normally output, this setting does not affect other settings. An error banner is output together with other print data only when an error occurs.

The print processing apparatus of the present invention outputs a set error banner sheet to an error occurrence location in a print output sheet so that the output location can be easily detected when an error occurs in the printing process. The error banner output paper size is output on a paper of a different size or direction from the output paper of the previous page, that is, the paper on which the document data relating to the print job is output.

The output of the error banner sheet when an error occurs will be described with reference to FIGS. When an error during print processing is detected by the error detection unit 204 of the print job processing unit 203 of the print processing unit 102 in FIG. 2, information on the error is transmitted to the error banner creation unit 209 via the error information storage unit 205. Notified. The error banner creating unit 209 extracts banner data for creating error information corresponding to the generated error from the banner data storage unit 208 according to the notified error information, and creates an error banner sheet.

The created error banner data is transferred to the print information creating unit 206, and the print information creating unit 206
The output paper size of the banner page is determined according to the paper size before and after the banner page is output. As described above, the paper size is set, for example, to output on a paper one size larger than the previous page size. In the case of this setting, if the print data of the previous page at the position where the error banner sheet, which is the error occurrence position, is to be output is A4 portrait, the error banner sheet is output on A3 portrait paper.

Various settings can be made for the output paper for the banner page. For example, (1) If the first page is the first document, the document is output in A4 portrait mode. (2) If it is the first page or later of the first document, the document is output on paper one size larger than the previous page size. (3) Settings such as outputting on paper of the same size as the previous page and changing direction, and (4) output of a plurality of banners (for each page where an error occurs) in one document data. Can be set.

Further, output is performed on a sheet which is one size larger than the above (2) previous page size. (3) Output on paper of the same size as that of the previous page and with the direction changed. Priority is given to multiple settings such as (2) in printable paper
It is also possible to set to output to the paper of the same size and the direction changed in (3) only when there is no paper larger by one size.

Further, the above (2) 1 of the previous page size
Output on large size paper. (3) Output on paper of the same size as that of the previous page and with the direction changed. If the previous page has the maximum size that can be output by the output printer, or if the output printer is a standard paper printer, the error banner cannot be output based on the setting of (2). Based on the setting of 3), the output paper direction of the previous page data is confirmed, and output is performed in a direction different from the previous data. Some printers have an offset mechanism (shift the output result) and the like, and the function may be used. If the output paper is set to an arbitrary length, an error banner sheet of a fixed paper size is output.

In order to make the output paper size or the direction of the error banner sheet different from the output of the previous page, the output paper of the error banner sheet is determined based on the comparison between the document data and the output data paper. Will be done. The size and direction of the document data output paper are set in advance by the user or the like, and the user specifies in advance the banner page output paper so that the output paper of the document data has a different size, and sets the error banner during the print request. Alternatively, the output paper size of the error banner sheet can be determined by recognizing the output paper size output by the print processing unit and selecting a different paper size. FIG. 5 shows an example of this configuration.

As shown in FIG. 5, the print information creating unit 206
Has a paper size / direction acquisition unit 2061, a data direction acquisition unit 2062, and a print direction control unit 2063. The paper size / direction acquisition unit 2061 is a storage device 206 that can be accessed by the printer 2065 or the print information creation unit 206.
The currently set paper information is obtained from the printer paper information file in No. 4, and the existing paper size and the direction in which the paper size is set are obtained.

For example, in the case of the A3 size, the printing paper direction is vertical and horizontal, and in the case of the A2 size, the printing paper is horizontal only.
6, the information about the paper size and orientation set in the printer acquired by the print information creation unit 206 includes [A3, portrait], [A3, landscape], [A2,
Horizontal].

A paper size / direction acquisition unit 2061
The presence or absence of paper corresponding to the size of the print data determined based on print data, print parameters and attributes, etc. sent in response to a print request from the client device,
And information about the presence or absence of paper to be output as an error banner may be obtained based on the output request of the error banner, and if the print request is a print request that specifies the size and orientation of the output paper, these are detected, Information on only the presence / absence of paper in those sizes and directions may be obtained.

The data direction acquisition unit 2062 includes print data sent in response to a print request from the client device,
This is a unit for acquiring the direction of print data detected based on print parameters and attributes.

The above-mentioned paper size / direction acquisition unit 2061,
The data direction acquisition unit 2062 can operate in parallel or serially in the print information creation unit 206, and the operation order is not limited.

The print direction controller 2063 sets the print paper direction. This setting is performed by the paper size / direction acquisition unit 206
1. The data printing direction is set based on the paper direction and the data direction obtained by the data direction obtaining unit 2062. Alternatively, the printing direction may be set based on a predetermined output sheet direction setting reference. In this case, the output paper direction setting reference is stored in a file system or a floppy disk of the storage device 2066 accessible by the print information creating unit 206.

As described above, the print information creation unit 206
The output paper size and direction of the print data determined according to the print data, print parameters, and attributes sent in response to the print request from the client device are determined.

In a print job using a plurality of print paper sizes, it is necessary to make appropriate print paper settings according to print data. For example, if print data of A4 and A3 are mixed, and A4 portrait and landscape paper and A3 portrait and landscape paper are set in the printer, the paper size / direction acquisition unit 2061 and the data direction Paper corresponding to each data is selected based on the information obtained by the acquisition unit 2062, and printing is executed.

When an error is detected by the error detection unit 204 in FIG. 2 and an error banner sheet is output, a banner page output request from the error banner creation unit is input to the paper size / direction acquisition unit 2061. Then, a printable sheet having a size different from the sheet set by the print request is acquired. This is based on a preset reference from the paper excluding the paper type previously selected as the print output paper relating to the print job. For example, if the first page of the above-mentioned (1) first document is A4 portrait (2 If it is the first page and subsequent pages of the first document, it is selected in accordance with criteria such as a sheet one size larger than the previous page size, and (3) a sheet of the same size as the previous page size but with the direction changed. These criteria are stored in a memory in the print information creating unit 206, a file system of an accessible storage device 2066, a floppy disk, or the like. A message such as an error message shown in FIG. 3 is output and printed out on a sheet selected according to these criteria.

For example, if the paper sizes that can be output by the printer are A2 and A3, and the output paper size of the print data is, for example, A3, the error banner selection criterion is “a paper one size larger than the previous page size”. If so, the banner page is output on A2 paper. Also, the paper that can be output by the printer is A
In the case of only three portraits and three landscapes, the selection of the error banner is set to “paper of the same size as that of the previous page and the direction is changed”.
When an error banner sheet is output on the next page of print data output in a vertical direction, the error banner sheet can be output on A3 horizontal paper.

The print processing apparatus of the present invention sets the selection criteria of the error banner as described above, sets a sheet of any size or direction in an output device such as a printer, and obtains a sheet size / direction acquisition unit 2061. Based on the recognition of a plurality of papers, the error banner output processing is performed on the paper of the selected size and direction.

If the print job requested by the client has a setting to print out the document data on a plurality of different paper sizes, a print sheet that is different from the print-out paper in those jobs is used as the error banner output paper. And output the error banner data to the selected sheet. This makes it possible to easily determine the position of the error banner data even when the print data is output on a different paper size.

FIG. 6 shows an output state when no error occurs during the processing of a print job relating to a print request from a client. The output paper 603 that has been normally printed on the paper discharge tray 602 of the printer 601 is discharged. FIG. 6 shows that the output paper is uniformly A4 portrait.

FIG. 7 shows an output state in the case where no error occurs during the processing of a print job relating to a print request from a client, similarly to FIG. The output paper 703 and the output paper 704 that are normally printed on the paper output tray 702 of the printer 701 are discharged. FIG. 7 shows that
The figure shows a case where output paper 704 of A4 length and output paper 704 of A3 length are mixed.

FIG. 8 shows an output state when an error (conversion error, transfer error, etc.) occurs during job output and an error banner output is set in the print job setting. The output paper 803 and the output paper 804 that are normally printed on the paper discharge tray 802 of the printer 801 are discharged. In FIG. 8, an error banner 805 is output at a position where an error has occurred. FIG. 8 shows that
Similar to FIG. 7, the output paper of the print data is the A4 vertical output paper 804 and the A3 vertical output paper 803, and shows a case where print papers of different sizes are mixed. The error banner 805 is output in a size different from both output paper sizes, and its position, that is, the location where the error has occurred can be easily determined.

As shown in FIG. 8, the error banner is output on a sheet having a size or direction different from that of the print data output sheet. As described above, the user can freely set the error banner output sheet. The error banner can be output in various modes other than the mode shown in FIG.

Although the print processing apparatus of the present invention has been described above, the components of the print processing apparatus of the present invention, for example, the print job processing unit, are not limited to the configuration shown in the embodiment, but are the configuration block diagrams of the embodiment. May have a structure in which a plurality of means are integrated.

[0051]

As described above, according to the print processing apparatus of the present invention, when a print request is made, the user who made the print request has made an error in which page of which document in the print output data. Can be easily identified. In addition, it is possible to easily detect the location of the error even during print output. For example, when there is a large amount of output data, an enormous amount of time is required to check output sheets one by one. Can save money.

Further, according to the print processing apparatus of the present invention,
When printing on a plurality of different paper sizes in the event of a print job output error, it is possible to output the error banner data on a paper different from the paper printed and output in those jobs. It is easy to specify an error position even in a print job having mixed sizes.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a system to which a print processing apparatus according to the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing unit in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an error banner format in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of setting an error banner output in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a print information creating unit in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a printer and a sheet configuration (part 1) when a sheet is discharged in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a printer and a sheet configuration (part 2) when a sheet is discharged in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a printer and a paper configuration (part 3) when the paper is discharged in the print processing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 Printer 1 102 Print processing unit 103 Printer 2 104 Client device 105 Database 201 Request receiving unit 202 Print request information storage unit 203 Print job processing unit 204 Error detection unit 205 Error information storage unit 206 Print information creation unit 207 Printer control unit 208 Banner Data storage unit 209 Error banner creation unit 2061 Paper size / direction acquisition unit 2062 Data direction acquisition unit 2063 Printing direction control unit 2064 Storage device 2065 Printer 2067 Storage device 601, 701, 801 Printer 602, 702, 802 Output tray 603, 703 , 803 Output paper 704, 804 Output paper 805 Error banner

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A print processing apparatus having a printer capable of outputting print data and capable of outputting to a plurality of paper sheets having at least one of different sizes or directions, wherein the print processing apparatus processes a print job related to a print request. Print job processing means for outputting to a printer print data that can be printed on an output sheet selected from among the paper sheets; an error detection means for detecting an error during printing and storing the error information as error information; Error banner generating means for generating error banner data based on the error banner, and printing the error banner on a sheet different from at least one of the size and the direction of the print data output sheet of the previous page at the error banner output position. A print processing apparatus, comprising: print information creating means for creating print information. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the output position of the error banner is the first page of the print job, the error banner is output on a sheet of a predetermined size and direction. The print processing apparatus according to the above. 3. When the output position of the error banner is a position following the output page of the print data of the print job, a sheet having a size larger than the output paper size of the print data of the previous page of the output position of the error banner. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an error banner is output to the printer. 4. The print information creating unit has a unit that determines an output paper size and a direction of print data relating to the print job from a printable paper, and an output paper size or a direction of the determined print data. 4. The print processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for selecting at least one of different sheets as the output sheet of the error banner from the outputable sheets. 5. In a case where a plurality of different types of paper are included in the output paper of the print data relating to the print job, each of the plurality of types of output data of the print data is different in at least one of size and direction. 5. The print processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the printer is configured to select a printable sheet as the output sheet of the error banner from the printable sheets and print out. 6. The print job processing unit outputs error information to the error banner generation unit only when an error banner output request is set in a print request parameter set for each print job. The print processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, further comprising: