JP2006338281A - Printer server, printing system, program, and printing control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent unnecessary printing from being performed when printing electronic data stored or displayed on a computer.
A printer server 1 shared by a plurality of computers for printing electronic data is provided. A printing system in which the printer server 1, the client computer 2, and the printer 3 are connected to a communication network is constructed. The printer server 1 converts the electronic data transmitted from the client computer 2 into a page description language format and stores it in the storage means, and in response to an instruction for printing from the client computer 2, Second means for transmitting electronic data in a page description language format stored in the storage means to the printer 3.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer server shared by a plurality of computers for printing electronic data.

  In order to print electronic data such as document files, graphic files, and image files that are saved or displayed on a computer, the electronic data to be printed has conventionally been printed in a page description language format by a printer driver installed on the computer itself. In other words, a method of transmitting to a printer by spool processing from a computer is employed.

  In addition, in order to convert the format of printable electronic data stored or displayed on a computer, a conventional method is to output to a file using a printer driver installed on the computer itself, or a format installed on the computer itself. A method of using conversion application software is employed. As a method using a printer driver, for example, a method of adding additional information in a format to be converted to electronic data and performing conversion through an API (Application Program Interface) has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-181905 (paragraph numbers 0022 to 0029, FIG. 1)

However, the conventional printing method described above has the following problem (a).
(A) Since the electronic data to be printed is converted into the page description language format by the printer driver and immediately sent to the printer by the spool process and printed, it is difficult for the user to cancel the printing. As a result, wasteful printing results in wasted paper resources and increased printing costs. There are various cases of such waste of printing, such as double printing of the same document, and mix-up of documents to be printed. However, the larger the office, the greater the waste of this printing, saving paper resources and printing. The need for cost reduction increases.

The conventional format conversion method described above has the following problem (b).
(B) Since the electronic data is directly converted into the desired format, a printer driver and format conversion software corresponding to the type and version of the tool (for example, a document creation tool) that created the electronic data must be installed. Conversely, electronic data created with a new type or version of tool that is not supported by the printer driver or format conversion software installed on the computer cannot be converted.

  In view of the above-described points, the present invention solves the problem (a) and suppresses unnecessary printing from being performed when printing electronic data stored or displayed on a computer. And Another object of the present invention is to solve the above problem (b) so that electronic data can be converted into a target format without depending on the type and version of the tool that created the electronic data. .

  In order to solve this problem, the present invention proposes a printer server shared by a plurality of computers for printing electronic data. The present invention also proposes a printing system in which the printer server, client computer, and printer are connected to a communication network. The present invention also proposes a program for causing a computer to function as such a printer server. The present invention also proposes a print control method executed by the printer server.

  The printer server converts the electronic data transmitted from the client computer into a page description language format and stores it in the storage means, and stores the memory in response to an instruction for printing from the client computer. And second means for transmitting electronic data in a page description language format stored in the means to the printer.

  When the user transmits electronic data to be printed from the client computer to the printer server, the printer server converts the electronic data into a page description language format and stores it in the storage means. However, the electronic data in the page description language format is not immediately transmitted to the printer.

  Then, when the user instructs printing on the client computer, electronic data in the page description language format is transmitted from the printer server to the printer in response to the instruction.

  As described above, according to the present invention, after electronic data to be printed is converted into the page description language format by the printer driver, it is not sent immediately to the printer, but is sent to the printer for the first time according to a user instruction. Printed.

  Therefore, after sending electronic data to the printer server and before instructing printing, the user double-prints the same document (double transmission to the printer server) or mixes the documents to be printed (electronic data not to be printed). Whether or not to instruct printing is finally determined. Thereby, when printing the electronic data preserve | saved or displayed with the computer, it can suppress that useless printing is performed.

  As an example, it is preferable that the printer server further includes means for transmitting image data of electronic data in the page description language format converted by the first means to the client computer.

  As a case where useless printing is performed, there is a case where printing / correction is repeated because the user's desired layout (such as the size of characters and how to open a margin) is not achieved. On the other hand, by transmitting the image data of the electronic data converted into the page description language format to the client computer, the user can monitor the layout of the electronic data to be printed on the monitor of the client computer. It is possible to browse and finally determine whether or not to instruct printing. As a result, it is possible to further suppress unnecessary printing.

  Also, as an example, in response to an instruction from the client computer to convert to a predetermined format, the printer server converts the electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means into the predetermined format. It is preferable to further include means for transmitting to the client computer.

  Thus, the electronic data transmitted to the printer server by the user is not directly converted into the target format, but is converted into the target format via the page description language format and returned to the client computer. The page description language is a language that describes the attributes such as characters, figures, and images and the position information of the characters, figures, and images in the page. By converting this information into the target format, the electronic data can be converted. Format conversion can be performed without depending on the type and version of the created tool.

  When the format conversion is performed in this way, the second means of the printer server stores the electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means in the storage means even after being transmitted to the printer. It is suitable to leave.

  Thus, even after printing the electronic data, the user can instruct format conversion and convert the electronic data into a target format.

  Further, as an example, it is preferable that the printer server further includes means for deleting electronic data in a page description language format stored in the storage means in response to an instruction for deletion from the client computer.

  As a result, the electronic data transmitted from the client computer to the printer server by the user can be deleted from the printer server by the user's operation when, for example, it is determined at the end of printing or no printing instruction is given. Therefore, a printer server having a finite storage capacity can be shared by many computers.

  Further, as an example, the printer server displays a list of electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means on the monitor of the printer server, and in response to an instruction for deletion by the operation of the printer server. It is preferable to further comprise means for deleting the electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means.

  Accordingly, the administrator who manages the printer server can check the list of electronic data transmitted from each client computer on the monitor of the printer server and delete unnecessary electronic data from the printer server. Therefore, a printer server having a finite storage capacity can be shared by many computers.

  According to the present invention, when printing electronic data stored or displayed on a computer, it is possible to suppress the useless printing from being performed. Furthermore, the electronic data can be converted into a target format without depending on the type and version of the tool that created the electronic data.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a printing system according to the present invention. An intranet is constructed by connecting the printer server 1, the plurality of client computers 2, and the printer 3 to the LAN line 4 in one office.

  The client computer 2 is a personal computer used by a user (office staff) one by one. The client computer 2 has no printer driver installed, but has a Web browser installed.

  The printer server 1 is a server shared by each client computer 2 for printing electronic data on the printer 3, and is composed of, for example, a workstation. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of the printer server 1. The printer server 1 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12, a RAM) 13, and a LAN interface 14, and a hard disk 15, a keyboard 16, a mouse 17, and a monitor 18 are connected to each other via predetermined interfaces (not shown).

  In the hard disk 15, a printer driver 19, format conversion software 20, and Web server software 21 are installed as application software, and a print support program 22 is installed.

  The printer driver 19 is a program for converting electronic data to be printed into electronic data in a page description language (here, Post Script) format used by the printer 3 in FIG. The format conversion software 20 is a program for converting the format of electronic data in Post Script format into a TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format or a PDF (Portable Document Format) format. The Web server software 21 is a program that causes a computer to have a Web server function (information transmission function by WWW). As these printer driver 19, format conversion software 20, and Web server software 21, existing appropriate application software may be used.

  The print support program 22 is a program for performing processing such as printing and format conversion on electronic data transmitted from a client computer using the printer driver 19, format conversion software 20, and Web server software 21 described above. is there.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing contents by the print support program 22. In this process, first, it is determined whether or not new electronic data has been received from any of the client computers (step S1), and a transmission request for data of the user's Web page is received from the Web browser of any of the client computers. An operation for displaying an administrator screen with the keyboard 16 or the mouse 17 of FIG. 2 is performed, whether or not there is a determination (step S2), whether or not there is any instruction on the user web page (step S3). The determination of whether or not it has been received (step S4) and the determination of whether or not there is any instruction on the manager screen (step S5) are repeated until the answer is yes in any step.

  If the answer is YES in step S1, the transmitted electronic data is converted into electronic data in Post Script format by the printer driver 19 of FIG. 2 (step S6). Then, the electronic data in Post Script format is stored in the hard disk 15 of FIG. 2 (step S7), and the process returns to step S1.

  If the answer is YES in step S2, the user Web page data including the image data of the electronic data transmitted so far from the requesting client computer and stored in the PostScript format on the hard disk 15 is converted into the Web of FIG. It is generated by the server software 21 and transmitted to the requesting client computer (step S8). Then, the process returns to step S1.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a user Web page that is opened to the requesting client computer by the process of step S8. This user Web page is a reduced list of images (layouts within the page) 31 of each electronic data that has been transmitted from the requesting client computer to the printer server 1 and converted into the Post Script format. Is displayed. In addition, when all the electronic data images 31 cannot be displayed on the monitor screen at once, scroll display is performed. Next to each image 31, check boxes 32 are displayed in a one-to-one correspondence.

  The user Web page includes “batch printing”, “selective printing”, “batch TIFF conversion”, “selection TIFF conversion”, “batch PDF conversion”, “selection PDF conversion”, “batch deletion”, “ A menu button 33 labeled “Delete selection” is displayed.

  Note that the Web server software 21 in FIG. 2 publishes a Web site including the user Web page, and links to the user Web page from the top page of the Web site. Each client computer 2 in FIG. 2 is assigned an ID and a password determined by the user. By inputting the ID and password on the top page, a user Web prepared exclusively for each client computer 2 is provided. Link to a page.

The operation method on the user Web page is as follows (1) and (2).
(1) When instructing printing, format conversion to the TIFF format, format conversion to the PDF format, or deletion of all the electronic data displayed as a list as the image 31, the “collective printing” and “ Click “TIFF Conversion”, “Batch PDF Conversion” or “Batch Delete”.

  (2) When instructing printing, format conversion to the TIFF format, format conversion to the PDF format, or deletion of only a part of the electronic data listed as the image 31, a part of the electronic data is displayed. After checking the check box 32 next to the image 31 of the electronic data, the menu button 33 is clicked on “Selected Print”, “Selected TIFF Conversion”, “Selected PDF Conversion” or “Selection Delete”.

  In step S3 in FIG. 3, it is determined whether or not the menu button 33 has been clicked on any of the user Web pages in FIG. 4 that have been disclosed to the client computer so far.

  If no, the process directly returns to step S1. On the other hand, if “yes” is a click of “collective printing” or “selective printing” (that is, an instruction for printing), “collective TIFF conversion”, “selective TIFF conversion”, “collective PDF conversion” or “selective PDF conversion” Is clicked (that is, an instruction for format conversion to the TIFF format or PDF format), or is a “collective deletion” or “selection deletion” click on the menu button 33 (that is, an instruction for deletion) (step S9). ).

  If it is a print instruction, the Post Script format electronic data instructed to be printed is transmitted from the hard disk 15 in FIG. 2 to the printer 3 in FIG. 1 as spool data by the printer driver 19 in FIG. 2 (step S10). . Then, the process returns to step S1. In step S 10, the electronic data that has been transmitted to the printer 3 is also stored in the hard disk 15 without being deleted from the hard disk 15.

  In the case of an instruction for format conversion to the TIFF format or the PDF format, the Post Script format electronic data instructed for format conversion is converted into the format specified by the format conversion software 20 in FIG. 2 (TIFF format or PDF format). The format is converted (step S11). Then, the electronic data in the TIFF format or PDF format is transmitted to the requesting client computer (step S12), and the process returns to step S1.

  If it is an instruction to delete, the electronic data in Post Script format instructed to delete is deleted from the hard disk 15 in FIG. 2 (step S13). Then, the process returns to step S1.

  If the answer is yes in step S3, an administrator screen including a list of postscript electronic data stored in the hard disk 15 in FIG. 2 is displayed on the monitor 18 in FIG. 2 (step S14). Then, the process returns to step S1.

  Although not shown in the drawing for the administrator, all Post Script format electronic data stored in the hard disk 15 is added with information on the date and time of reception and the amount of data for each client computer that sent the electronic data. Are displayed as a list. In addition, check boxes and buttons for selecting and deleting individual electronic data are displayed.

  In step S5, it is determined whether or not deletion is instructed on the manager screen. If no, the process directly returns to step S1. On the other hand, if yes, the electronic data in Post Script format instructed to be deleted is deleted from the hard disk 15 (step S15). Then, the process returns to step S1.

  Next, how the user prints electronic data in this printing system will be described.

  When the user transmits electronic data to be printed (document file, graphic file, image file, etc.) stored or displayed on the client computer 2 to the printer server 1, the electronic data is converted into the Post Script format in the printer server 1. Conversion is performed (steps S1, S6 and S7 in FIG. 3). However, this Post Script format electronic data is not immediately transmitted to the printer 3.

  Thereafter, when the user accesses the top page of the website of the printer server 1 on the client computer 2 and inputs the ID and password, the user including the image 31 of the electronic data to be printed converted into the Post Script format. The Web page (FIG. 4) is displayed on the monitor of the client computer 2 (steps S2 and S6 in FIG. 3).

  At that time, an image 31 of only the electronic data transmitted from the client computer 2 is displayed on the monitor of each client computer 2. Therefore, the image of the electronic data transmitted from the other client computer 2 is not displayed on the monitor of each client computer 2, and the image of the electronic data transmitted from each client computer 2 is not displayed on the other client computer 2. Is not displayed on the monitor. This ensures security and protects privacy.

  The user can check whether or not there is a double printing of the same document (double transmission to the printer server 1), a mistake in a document to be printed (transmission of electronic data not to be printed to the printer server 1), etc. Confirmation is made from the image 31, and it is finally determined whether or not to instruct printing. Whether the electronic data to be printed is to be printed as an image 31 on the user web page and what kind of layout (character size, how to open margins, etc.) is printed, and finally printing is instructed. Decide whether or not.

  Examples of unnecessary printing in offices include double printing of the same document, mix-up of documents to be printed, and repeated printing / correction because the layout did not match the user's expectations. Such useless printing can be suppressed by checking and browsing on the user Web page.

  After the confirmation / browsing, the user finally decides to instruct printing, and clicks “collective printing” of the menu button 33 (or checks the check box 32 and clicks “select printing”). The Post Script format electronic data instructed to be printed is transmitted from the printer server 1 to the printer 3 by spool processing and printed by the printer 3 (steps S3, S9 and S10 in FIG. 3).

  In addition, the user clicks “batch TIFF conversion” or “batch PDF conversion” of the menu button 33 of the user web page (or the check box 32 is checked and “selection TIFF conversion” or “selection PDF conversion” is selected). Is clicked), the electronic data transmitted from the client computer 2 to the printer server 1 is converted from the Post Script format to the TIFF format or the PDF format, and transmitted from the printer server 1 to the client computer 2 (FIG. 3). Steps S3, S9, S11 and S12).

  As a result, the electronic data sent to the printer server 1 by the user is not directly converted into the target format (TIFF format or PDF format), but is converted into the target format via the Post Script page description language format. And returned to the client computer 2. The page description language is a language that describes the attributes such as characters, figures, and images and the position information of the characters, figures, and images in the page. By converting this information into the target format, the electronic data can be converted. Format conversion can be performed without depending on the type and version of the created tool.

  Then, the electronic data in Post Script format stored in the hard disk 15 (FIG. 2) of the printer server 1 is not deleted from the hard disk 15 after being transmitted to the printer 3 according to the user's print instruction, and continues to the hard disk 15. (Step S10 in FIG. 3). Therefore, even after printing the electronic data, the user can convert the electronic data into a target format without depending on the type and version of the tool that created the electronic data.

  When the user clicks “collective delete” on the menu button 33 of the user Web page (or checks the check box 32 and clicks “select delete”), the electronic script in the Post Script format instructing the deletion is displayed. Data is deleted from the hard disk 15 (steps S3, S9, S13 in FIG. 3).

  As a result, the electronic data transmitted from the client computer 2 to the printer server 1 by the user can be deleted from the printer server 1 by the user's operation when, for example, it is determined at the end of printing or no printing instruction is given.

  On the other hand, the administrator of the printer server 1 also checks the list of electronic data transmitted from each client computer 2 on the administrator screen displayed on the monitor 18 (FIG. 2) of the printer server 1, In addition, unnecessary electronic data can be deleted from the printer server.

  Therefore, the printer server 1 having a finite storage capacity can be shared by many client computers 2.

  In the above example, image data (image 31 in FIG. 3) of electronic data in Post Script format is transmitted from the printer server 1 to the client computer 2 in the form of a Web page. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and image data of electronic data in Post Script format is transmitted from the printer server 1 to the client computer 2 in a form other than a Web page, and the client computer 2 browses the image data with some viewer. Alternatively, an instruction for printing, format conversion, or deletion may be issued.

  In the above example, the print support program 22 uses the printer driver 19, the format conversion software 20, and the Web server software 21 to convert to Post Script format, send image data to the client computer 2, Printing and format conversion to TIFF format and PDF format are performed. However, as another example, the content of at least one of the printer driver 19, the format conversion software 20, and the Web server software 21 may be included in the print support program 22 itself.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of the overall configuration of a printing system according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a main part of a printer server. It is a flowchart which shows the processing content by a printing assistance program. It is a figure which shows a web page for users.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer server 2 Client computer 3 Printer 4 LAN line 11 CPU
12 ROM
13 RAM
14 LAN interface 15 Hard disk 16 Keyboard 17 Mouse 18 Monitor 19 Printer driver 20 Format conversion software 21 Web server software 22 Print support program 31 Image of electronic data 32 Check box 33 Menu button

Claims (9)

First means for converting electronic data transmitted from a client computer into a page description language format and storing the converted data in a storage means;
A printer server comprising: second means for transmitting electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means to a printer in response to an instruction for printing from the client computer. The printer server according to claim 1,
A printer server further comprising means for transmitting image data of electronic data in the page description language format converted by the first means to the client computer. The printer server according to claim 1,
Means for converting the electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means into the predetermined format and transmitting it to the client computer in response to an instruction from the client computer for conversion to the predetermined format A printer server. The printer server according to claim 3,
The printer server characterized in that the second means stores the electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means in the storage means even after being transmitted to the printer. The printer server according to claim 1,
A printer server, further comprising means for deleting the electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means in response to an instruction for deletion from the client computer. The printer server according to claim 1,
Means for displaying electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means on a monitor of the printer server;
A printer server further comprising means for deleting the electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means in response to an instruction for deletion by an operation of the printer server. A printer server, a client computer, and a printer are connected to a communication network;
The printer server is
First means for converting electronic data transmitted from the client computer into a page description language format and storing it in a storage means;
A printing system comprising: second means for sending electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means to the printer in response to an instruction for printing from the client computer. . First means for converting electronic data transmitted from another computer into a page description language format and storing it in a storage means;
Second means for transmitting electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means to a printer in response to an instruction for printing from the other computer;
As a program to make the computer function. A first step of converting electronic data transmitted from a client computer into a page description language format and storing it in a storage means;
And a second step of transmitting electronic data in the page description language format stored in the storage means to a printer in response to an instruction for printing from the client computer.

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