JP2000085211A - Print-controlling method and printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a printing system capable of printing other printing data quickly with priority without scrapping printing data already accumulated in a printer. SOLUTION: A transmitting device 10 for transmitting printing data per job unit with identification data showing the order of printing priority applied, and a printer 20 for receiving the printing data from the transmitting device, and recognizing the order of printing priority from the identification data applied to the printing data so as to form an image of the job with the higher printing priority order with priority in the case a job with a printing priority order higher than the job whose image is formed is received, are provided.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printing control method and a printing system, and more particularly, to handling when a plurality of jobs exist.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing system including a host computer that sends print data and a printing device that performs printing, printing is performed in the order in which print data is received by the printing device.

For example, when print data of a plurality of pages, print data with a large number of copies, print data with a long processing time, etc. are already stored in a printing apparatus, the next print data must be printed until the printing is completed. Cannot be printed.

[0004]

That is, it is necessary to wait for the printing of already stored print data to be completed even if the print data has high urgency or is small in the number of pages or copies. Alternatively, it is necessary to discard the already accumulated print data and print the print data with high urgency.

[0005] Such a problem occurs remarkably in a recent network environment, and can occur particularly when a plurality of computers are connected to one printing apparatus via a network. .

An object of the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and prints other print data quickly and preferentially without discarding print data already stored in a printing apparatus. Is to realize a printing system that can perform the printing.

[0007]

The present invention for solving the above problems is as described below. (1) According to the first aspect of the present invention, print priority identification data is added to print data for each job and transmitted, and the print data is received and held, and the print priority of print priority added to the print data is stored. A print control method characterized by identifying identification data and giving priority to printing a job having a higher print priority.

In this printing control method, by adding identification data indicating printing priority to print data, it is possible to form an image with priority on a job having a higher printing priority. Therefore, even if there is print data already stored in the printing apparatus, other print data can be printed quickly and preferentially without discarding it.

(2) A transmission apparatus for transmitting print data in job units with identification data indicating a print priority order, and receiving and holding print data from the transmission apparatus. A print device configured to identify a print priority from the identification data added to the print data, and to print a job with a high print priority with priority. is there.

In this printing system, by adding identification data indicating print priority to print data, it becomes possible to form an image by giving priority to a job having a higher print priority. Therefore, even if there is print data already stored in the printing apparatus, other print data can be printed quickly and preferentially without discarding it.

(3) The invention according to claim 3, wherein the printing apparatus has a function capable of suspending and resuming a job under image development, and a job having a higher print priority than a job under image development is generated. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein, in the case of performing the job, the job having a higher print priority is printed with priority.

In this printing system, the identification data indicating the printing priority is added to the printing data, and the printing system is provided with a function capable of suspending and resuming the job during the image development. When a job with a higher priority is generated, a job with a lower print priority is interrupted, and a job with a higher print priority is printed with priority.
Then, after the printing of the job having the higher print priority is completed, the interrupted job is resumed. For this reason, even if there is print data for which an image is being developed by the printing apparatus, other print data can be printed quickly and preferentially without discarding it.

(4) The printing system according to any one of claims 2 and 3, wherein the transmission device includes a setting unit for setting a printing priority. It is.

In this printing system, the setting unit can set the printing priority when adding the identification data indicating the printing priority to the printing data. For this reason, even if there is print data already stored in the printing apparatus, it is possible to print other print data quickly and preferentially in accordance with the set print priority without discarding the print data.

(5) The invention according to claim 5, wherein the printing device includes a printing priority transmitting unit that transmits information on a printing order to the transmitting unit, and the transmitting device transmits the printing order information from the printing unit. The printing system according to any one of claims 2 to 4, further comprising display means for receiving and displaying the information.

In this printing system, identification data indicating the print priority is added to the print data, and when forming an image with priority given to a job having a higher print priority, information on the print order is transmitted from the printing apparatus to the transmitting apparatus. By sending the print data, it becomes possible for the transmitting device to grasp the progress of printing.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS <Configuration of Printing System> An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to a screen. Here, an embodiment of the present invention will be described using a printing system including the host computer 10 and the printing apparatus 20 shown in FIG.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a printing system according to the present invention. The printing system generates drawing data such as characters and graphics and various control commands, and transmits the printing data as a host computer 10. The printing system analyzes the received control commands and drawing data, converts them into images, and performs printing. And an apparatus 20. Also,
It is assumed that the host computer 10 and the printing apparatus 20 are connected by a bidirectional interface and can transmit and receive data to and from each other.

<Structure of Host Computer> The host computer 10 includes a print data output unit 11 that generates print data composed of drawing data such as characters and graphics and various control commands. A priority setting unit 12 for enabling setting, and an identification data adding unit 1 for converting the priority set from the outside into identification data identifiable by the printing apparatus 20 and adding the identification data to the print data.
3, a data transmission unit 14 for transmitting the print data to which the priority order identification data has been added to the printing device 20, and a printing order information display unit 15 for indicating the printing order inside the printing device 20.

The priority setting section 12 displays a screen on a display (not shown) for enabling the operator to set the priority of a job to be printed. For example,
In the case where the priority order is represented by eight numbers from 0 to 7 and represented by "numerals", the operator can set the priority order from 0 to 7 by displaying a setting screen as shown in FIG.

When printing from an application on the host computer 10, the timing of displaying the setting screen described above depends on the method of displaying when the operator presses the print start button of the application, and on the print setting screen of the application. A method of adding a priority order setting item and prompting the user to set a priority order at the same time as setting other printing conditions can be considered.

The identification data adding unit 13 displays the priority set by the operator through the screen in the priority setting unit 12,
For example, it is converted into identification data composed of commands and parameters indicating priorities as shown in FIG. 3, and is added to the head of print data composed of drawing data such as characters and figures and various control commands. As a result, print data in job units as shown in FIG. 4 is generated. The addition to the top is for the purpose of quickly determining the priority on the printing apparatus 20 side, and there is no problem where the addition is performed regardless of the determination speed.

The data transmitting section 14 is provided with the identification data adding section 13
The print data to which the identification data of the priority order is added is transmitted to the printing apparatus 20. <Configuration of Printing Apparatus> The printing apparatus 20 includes a data receiving unit 21 for receiving print data sent from the host computer 10, a storage medium 22 for storing received print data, and a storage medium 22 for storing received data. Storage medium 22
A priority order identification unit 23 for decoding priority identification data of received data in units of jobs stored in the storage unit 22; a job waiting in the storage medium 22 for holding received data; a job in development of an image in the image development unit 26; The print order determination unit 24 determines the print order from the jobs being printed according to the priority of each job, the job state storage medium 25 holding the determined print order, and the job state storage medium 25 In accordance with the printing order, data in page units is read out from the storage medium 22 for holding received data, a command analysis and conversion into image data are performed, and an image expansion unit 26 that expands the image data in a frame memory, A print engine 27 having a print engine and engine control for printing the image data in the memory on paper; If PECO and the host computer 1
When there is a request from the print order information display unit 15 of 0,
A print order information transmission unit 28 for reading the current job status from the job status storage medium 25 and transmitting the read job status to the print order information display unit 15.

In the above configuration, the job status storage medium 25 stores the status of all print jobs currently existing in the printing apparatus 20, for example, the job I as shown in FIG.
Information such as D, job name, status, priority, printing order, and address of the storage medium 22 for holding received data is stored and held.

Here, the job ID is an ID for convenience in the printing apparatus 20, and the job name is the host computer 1
0 is the application name or file name, etc., the status is the current processing status of the job during image development or printing, the priority is the priority obtained by the priority identification unit 23, and the printing order is printing. The printing order is determined by the order determining unit 24, and the address is a head address on the reception data holding storage medium 22 for the job waiting in the reception data holding storage medium 22. The timing of storing and holding each item is different, and the contents will be described later.

The data receiving section 21 is provided with a buffer having a predetermined capacity (for example, 256 bytes), and stores print data sent from the host computer 10.
The received data is stored in the storage medium 22 for storing received data by a predetermined capacity (for example, in units of 256 bytes). However, depending on the transfer speed from the host computer 10, even if 256 bytes of data are not always stored in the buffer, the stored data may be stored in the storage medium 22 for storing received data. Here, a job ID is assigned and stored in the job state storage medium 25.

The storage medium for holding received data 22 is
The received data is held for each job (see FIG. 6A). In this case, the boundaries of the jobs are represented using the head address of the received data holding storage medium 22 of each job, and the addresses are stored in the job state storage medium 25 (see FIG. 6B).

In parallel with holding the newly received job in the storage medium 22 for holding received data, the priority order identification unit 23 analyzes the priority order identification data added to the head, and analyzes the obtained job. Priority is assigned to job status storage medium 2
Hold at 5. After that, an order determination request is issued to the print order determination unit 24. In parallel, if the receiving job has higher priority than the image developing or printing job, the image developing or printing process is interrupted and the receiving This is to make it possible to print on a paper.

The print order determining unit 24 determines the priority order of the received data obtained by the priority order identifying unit 23, the job waiting in the existing storage medium 22 for holding received data, and the image developing unit 26 under image development. And the printing unit 27 compares the priorities of the jobs being printed and determines the printing order. As a result, the priorities during image development are compared, and the printing order is determined. As a result, if the print order of the job of the received data is earlier than that of the job under image development or printing, the interruption request is issued to the image development unit 26 or the print unit 27. If the print order does not reverse to the job being developed or being printed, the newly obtained print order is stored in the job state storage medium 25.

The image developing section 26 reads the print data from the storage medium 22 for holding received data in accordance with the print order stored in the job state storage medium 25, analyzes the command, and converts the data into image data. Then, the converted image is expanded in the frame memory. Printing order determination unit 2
When the interruption of the processing is requested by the step 4, the state in the image development and the image of the frame memory during the development are saved in the standby memory, and the image development of the newly received data is performed. Here, a part of the frame memory is used as a standby memory. When the image development of the received data is completed and the processing is passed to the printing unit 27, the state of the saved image development and the frame memory being developed are restored, and the image development is resumed.

The printing section 27 is equipped with a print engine, and prints the image data of the frame memory developed by the image developing section 26 on paper. Here, in the print suspension processing when the print suspension is requested by the print order determination unit 24, the print processing of the current page cannot be suspended because the processing for actually printing on paper is performed in page units.
However, in the case of a job including a plurality of pages or when the number of copies is specified to be two or more, after the processing of the current page is completed, the processing of the newly received job is performed before the processing of the next page.

<Operation of Printing System> FIG. 7 schematically shows a state in which there are a plurality of jobs each having a plurality of pages. Here, the job 1 is processed across the image developing unit 26 and the storage medium 22 for holding the received data,
The third and subsequent pages remain in the received data holding storage medium 22.

In this state, even if a new high-priority job is received and the print order determination unit 24 requests the print interruption of the processing, the print processing of the current page, that is, the first page of the job 1 is not interrupted. However, as described above, the processing before the processing in the image developing unit 26, that is, the processing of the second and subsequent sheets of the job 1 is temporarily suspended, and after the printing processing of the first page of the job 1 is completed, The printing process of the newly received high-priority job is started. When the print processing of the job with the higher priority is completed, the print processing of the original state, that is, the print processing of the second and subsequent pages of job 1 is restarted.

FIG. 8 shows the state of a job when the number of copies is specified to be two or more. For job 4, the number of copies is specified to be three, and the first copy is printed.
If a new high-priority job is received in this state and a print interruption of the processing is requested by the print order determination unit 24,
The first page of the copy being printed by the print engine continues the printing process as it is, the status of the process after the second copy and the image data of the frame memory are saved in the save memory, and the printing process of the newly received data is performed. Do. After the processing of the received data is completed, the state of the second and subsequent sheets saved in the save memory and the image data in the frame memory are restored, and the processing is restarted.

Here, transfer and display of the printing order information will be described. The print order information display unit 15 and the print order information transmission unit 28 are connected by a bidirectional interface, and the print order information transmission unit 28 indicates that “the print data has begun to be received” and “the job in which the image forming is completed has been completed. , Etc., or the print order information display unit 15
When the print order information request is received from, the current job state of the printing apparatus 20 is read from the job state storage medium 25 and transferred to the print order information display unit 15.

The print order information display section 15 displays the job status of the printing apparatus 20 sent from the print order information transmission section 28 on the screen of the host computer 10. The bidirectional interface may be the same as the transmission and reception of print data, or may be separated. When the same is used, the print order information cannot be received during the transmission of the print data from the host computer 10 side, and it is necessary to wait for the end of the transmission. The bidirectional interface used here does not matter whether it is parallel or serial.

In such a printing system, by transmitting the printing order information from the printing apparatus 20 to the host computer 10, it becomes possible for the host computer 10 to grasp the progress of printing.

Next, the flow of processing after newly receiving print data and determining the print order by the print order determination unit 24 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First,
After the printing order is determined, the newly received job (hereinafter,
It is determined whether the print order of the received job is later than the job in which the image is being formed (hereinafter, the job being formed) (S1 in FIG. 9).

Here, if the received job is in a printing order prior to the developing job (YES in S1 of FIG. 9), a processing interruption command is issued to the image developing unit 26, and the image data and state during image formation are awaited. Save to memory and wait (FIG. 9S
2).

Thereafter, the image developing section 26 performs image developing of the received job (S3 in FIG. 9). Further, it is determined whether or not the printing order of the received job is earlier than the printing job (FIG. 9S
4) If it is earlier, a print interruption command is issued to the printing unit 27,
The processing data and status during printing are saved in a standby memory (not shown) in the printing unit 27, and wait (S5 in FIG. 9).

Then, the print data of the received job is developed into an image in the frame memory by the image developing unit 26, and the printing process is further performed by the printing unit 27 (S6 in FIG. 9). After the image data developed by the image developing unit 26 is passed to the printing unit 26, the waiting image developing process is restored from the standby memory,
Resume the suspended image data development. When the print processing of the received job is completed, the print processing in the standby state is restored from the standby memory, and the print processing is restarted (S7 in FIG. 9).

If the printing order of the received job and the printing job is determined to be later than the printing job of the image forming job (S4 in FIG. 9), the processing of the currently printing job ends. (S8 in FIG. 9), and upon completion, the process proceeds to the above-described step S6.

If the received job is not in the printing order prior to the developing job (NO in S1 of FIG. 9), the received job is stored in the received data holding storage medium 22 according to the normal processing order and is made to stand by. (FIG. 9S9).

As described above, by adding the identification data indicating the print priority to the print data, it is possible to perform image formation (image development and printing) by giving priority to a job having a higher print priority. Therefore, even if there is print data already stored in the printing apparatus, other print data can be printed quickly and preferentially without discarding it.

In the description of each of the above examples, the embodiment in which the host computer 10 and the printing apparatus 20 are in a one-to-one relationship is used. However, a printing system using a plurality of host computers or a plurality of printers is used. Is still feasible.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, print priority data is added to print data for each job and transmitted, and this print data is received and held, and the print data is added to the print data. By identifying print priority identification data and printing jobs with high print priority with priority, other print data can be printed quickly with priority without discarding print data stored in the printing device. It becomes possible to do.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration using a host computer and a printer in a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a display screen that allows setting of a priority order in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which priority order identification data added to print data is represented in a command format in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a data structure of a print job including a plurality of pages to which priority order identification data is added in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of information on all jobs in the printer according to the embodiment of the present invention in a table.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a waiting job in a storage medium for received data and a job state storage medium storing states of the jobs according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a case in which one job of the embodiment of the present invention extends to three locations: a storage medium for received data, an image forming unit, and a printing unit.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a case in which one job according to the embodiment of the present invention is designated to have two or more copies.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation after newly receiving print data and determining a print order in the embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Host computer 11 Image data output unit 12 Priority setting unit 13 Identification data addition unit 14 Data transmission unit 15 Printing order information display unit 20 Printer 21 Data reception unit 22 Received data holding storage medium 23 Priority identification Unit 24 printing order determination unit 25 job status storage medium 26 image developing unit 27 printing unit 28 printing order information transmission unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A method of adding print priority identification data to print data of a job unit, transmitting the print data, receiving and holding the print data, identifying print priority identification data added to the print data, A print control method, wherein a job having a higher print priority is printed with priority. 2. A transmission apparatus for transmitting print data in a unit of job to which identification data indicating a print priority is added, receiving and holding print data from the transmission apparatus, and identifying the print data. A printing apparatus configured to identify a print priority from data and print a job with a higher print priority with priority. 3. The printing apparatus has a function capable of suspending and resuming a job under image development, and when a job having a higher print priority than a job under image development occurs, the print priority is reduced. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein printing is performed by giving priority to a high job. 4. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the transmission device includes a setting unit that sets a print priority. 5. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a printing priority transmitting unit configured to transmit printing order information to the transmitting unit, wherein the transmitting unit receives and displays the printing order information from the printing unit. The printing system according to any one of claims 2 to 4, further comprising: