JP2010277324A - Print instruction device and print instruction program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print instruction device and a print instruction program, allowing previous notification of a printing-impossible state before executing printing in a printer, based on prohibition information specified for the printer. <P>SOLUTION: This print instruction device includes: a printer information acquisition means 10D acquiring prohibition processing information 211A or 211B describing contents of post-processing unexecutable from the printer 2A or 2B; a storage part 11 storing the acquired information as prohibition processing information 11C; a print setting content designation means 10C designating print setting contents of document information 11D in response to a request inputted to an operation means; a prohibition processing decision means 10E deciding whether or not the designated print setting contents correspond to the prohibition processing information 11C; and a print content display means 10B displaying print contents of the document information 11D, and displaying prohibition display to the designated print setting contents when it is decided that the designated print setting contents correspond to the prohibition processing information 11C. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print instruction apparatus and a print instruction program.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 is a print instruction apparatus that performs print control based on print data to be processed and print attribute information set for the print data, and based on information about the layout in the print attribute information. Layout preview display means for displaying a print data layout preview, and output form preview means for displaying an output form preview of print data based on information relating to the output form among the print attribute information, and reflect various print settings A print instruction apparatus that performs the preview display is described.

JP 2004-102614 A

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a print instruction apparatus and a print instruction program capable of notifying in advance of a non-printable state before executing printing on a printing apparatus based on prohibition information defined in the printing apparatus. There is.

[1] Prohibition processing information acquisition means for acquiring prohibition processing information describing contents of post-processing that cannot be executed by the printing apparatus from a communicably connected printing apparatus, and designation of print setting contents input to the operation means Print setting content specifying means for specifying the print setting content of the document information in response to a request, and a prohibition for determining whether the setting content of the post-processing included in the specified print setting content corresponds to the prohibition processing information In response to the print setting content display request input to the processing determination means and the operation means, the print setting content of the document information is reflected and displayed, and it is determined that the post-processing setting content corresponds to the prohibition processing information. And a print content display means for displaying that the setting content of the post-processing is permitted or prohibited.

[2] When the print content display unit receives a request to execute the printing of the document information with the print setting content specified by the print setting content specifying unit, the print content display unit The printing instruction apparatus according to [1], wherein a display indicating permission or prohibition is performed.

[3] The print content display means displays, when the print setting content is designated by the print setting content designation means, the permission or prohibition of the setting content of post-processing in the previous period. The printing instruction device according to claim 1.

[4] A prohibition processing information acquisition function for acquiring prohibition processing information describing the contents of post-processing that cannot be executed by the printing apparatus from a printing apparatus that is communicably connected, and printing input to the operation unit A print setting content specifying function for specifying the print setting content of the document information in response to the setting content specifying request, and whether or not the setting content of the post-processing included in the specified print setting content corresponds to the prohibition processing information. A prohibition process determination function for determining and displaying the print setting contents of the document information in response to a print content display request input to the operation means, and the setting contents of the post-processing correspond to the prohibition process information A print instruction program that, when determined, operates as a print content display function that displays whether to permit or prohibit the setting contents of the post-processing.

  According to the invention according to claim 1 or 4, based on the prohibition information defined in the printing apparatus, it is possible to notify the user in advance of a non-printable state before executing printing in the printing apparatus.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, based on the prohibition information set in the printing apparatus, the user can be notified in advance of a state incapable of printing immediately before executing printing in the printing apparatus.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to notify the user in advance of a non-printable state when the print setting content is designated based on the prohibition information defined in the printing apparatus.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the schematic which shows the structural example of the printing instruction | indication apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic which shows the structural example of the printing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic which shows the structural example of the prohibition process information of the printing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic which shows the example of a display of the printing instruction | indication apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example of the print instruction apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

(Configuration of printing system)
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  The printing system 100 includes electronic parts such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), and edits document information stored internally by software such as a word processor or a spreadsheet, depending on the operation of the software. In addition to displaying characters and images on the display unit 12 and receiving a print instruction operation for document information, the print instruction apparatus 1 that transmits a print instruction for the document information to the printing apparatus 2A or 2B, and printing from the print instruction apparatus 1 Printing apparatuses 2A and 2B that receive instructions and print on the accommodated paper and generate printed matter.

  The printing apparatuses 2A and 2B have post-processing units 220A and 220B that apply processing to the printed matter by a stapler or a punch.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of the print instruction apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The print instruction apparatus 1 includes a CPU and the like, controls each unit and executes various programs, a storage unit 11 that includes a storage device such as an HDD and a flash memory, and stores information, and an LCD (Liquid) A display unit 12 configured to display images, characters, and the like, and a communication unit 13 that communicates with the printing apparatuses 2A and 2B via a communication unit such as a LAN (Local Area Network).

  The control unit 10 executes a print instruction program 11A, which will be described later, so that the document editing unit 10A, the print content display unit 10B, the print setting content designation unit 10C, the printing device information acquisition unit 10D, and the prohibition process determination unit. 10E and the print instruction transmission unit 10F are operated.

  The document editing unit 10A edits the contents of document information 11D, which will be described later, based on the user's operation contents input from an operation unit (not shown). The print content display unit 10B previews the print content on the display unit 12 when printing the document information edited by the document editing unit 10A. The print setting content designating unit 10C designates the print setting content such as the print size, the print orientation, and the post-processing content based on the operation content input from the operation unit. The printing apparatus information acquisition unit 10D includes the name of the printing apparatus, the driver of the printing apparatus, information on the paper stored in the tray of the printing apparatus that executes printing, whether or not color printing is possible, prohibition processing information indicating non-printable contents, and the like. To get. The prohibition process determination unit 10E determines whether the print setting content designated by the user corresponds to the prohibition process based on the prohibition process information acquired by the printing apparatus information acquisition unit 10D. The print instruction transmission unit 10F transmits a print instruction of the specified print setting content to the printing apparatus specified via the communication unit 13.

  The storage unit 11 includes a printing instruction program 11A that causes the control unit 10 to operate as the above-described units, a printing device name acquired from an external printing device by the printing device information acquisition unit 10D, a printing device driver, and a printing device tray. Printing apparatus information 11B, which is information on the paper accommodated in the printer and information on whether color printing is possible, forbidden processing information 11C indicating non-printable contents acquired from the external printing apparatus by the printing apparatus information acquisition unit 10D, Document information 11D to be edited by the document editing means 10A is stored.

  FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. Although the printing apparatus 2A has been described, the printing apparatus 2B is assumed to have the same configuration.

  The printing apparatus 2A includes a CPU and the like, and controls each unit and executes various programs. The storage unit 21A includes a storage device such as an HDD and a flash memory and stores information. A print function unit 22A that executes printing and a communication unit 23A that communicates with the print instruction apparatus 1 via communication means such as a LAN. Further, the print function unit 22A includes a post-processing unit 220A that applies processing to the printed printed matter by a stapler, a punch, or the like.

  The control unit 20A operates the printing apparatus information transmission unit 200A, the print instruction reception unit 201A, and the print execution unit 202A.

  The printing apparatus information transmitting unit 200A transmits the printing apparatus information 210A and the prohibition processing information 211A stored in the storage unit 21A in response to a request from the printing instruction apparatus 1. The print instruction receiving unit 201 </ b> A receives a print instruction from the print instruction apparatus 1. The print execution unit 202A causes the print function unit 22A to execute the print instruction received by the print instruction reception unit 201A.

  The storage unit 11 includes printing device information 210A, which includes information such as the name of the printing device 2A, information about the paper stored in the tray of the printing function unit 22A, and whether the printing function unit 22A can perform color printing, and printing. Based on the configuration of the functional unit 22A, forbidden processing information 211A that is information on printing processing in which printing and post-processing are prohibited is stored.

  FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of prohibition processing information of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The prohibition processing information 211A is an example of the contents of the prohibition processing of the printing function unit 22A of the printing apparatus 2A, and indicates the post-processing that can be executed by the post-processing unit 220A that cannot be executed depending on the sheet size or the combination of sheets. ing. For example, “A4 vertical” is printed on the “first page” and “A3 side” is printed on the “next page”, and then the “two upper staples” of the paper is printed by the post-processing unit 220A. This indicates that the post-processing is “NG-1”, that is, post-processing cannot be performed. In addition, for example, a sheet of “A4 freshness only” or “A4 yokomomi” is printed, and thereafter, the post-processing unit 220A performs post-processing of “Z-fold right binding” and “Z-fold left binding” of the paper. Indicates that you cannot.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a display example of the print instruction apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  The print content display 14 is a screen for performing a print preview before printing a document in the print instruction apparatus 1, and includes document information 140 indicating the document to be printed and a document such as a text-based document or an image-based document. A document type selection unit 141 that selects the type of the document, a printing device selection unit 142 that selects a printing device that transmits print data and instructs printing, a print image display unit 143 that displays a preview of the print image of the document, and printing Rotation selection unit 144 that selects how much the image is rotated according to the paper, post-processing selection unit 145 that selects the content of post-processing to be performed on the printed matter, and executed when the selected post-processing cannot be performed A prohibition display 146 for indicating that the printing is prohibited, and a print execution instruction unit 1 for instructing the printing apparatus to execute printing with the content selected in the print content display 14. And a 7.

  In addition to displaying the print image, the print image display unit 143 reflects and displays the processing content selected by the rotation selection unit 144 and the post-processing selection unit 145 on the print image. For example, when “two upper staples—vertical” is selected in the post-processing selection unit 145, the stapler display 143a is displayed with the designated contents. In addition to the stapler display 143a, Z-folding, punching holes, and the like may be displayed as images.

(Operation)
Hereinafter, the operation of the print instruction program according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  First, a user of the print instruction apparatus 1 edits document information by operating an operation unit (not shown) in the print instruction apparatus 1, and displays a print content display 14 to preview the print contents before executing printing. Operate to The document editing unit 10A of the print instruction apparatus 1 operates according to the operation content and edits the document. The print content display unit 10B operates according to the operation content. After the print content display 14 is displayed, the print instruction transmission unit 10F transmits the print instruction to the printing apparatus 2A or 2B. Hereinafter, the operation of the print instruction apparatus 1 after the display operation of the print content display 14 will be described.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the print instruction apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

  First, when an operation for displaying the print content display 14 is input to an operation unit (not shown) (S1; Yes), the print content display means 10B displays the print content display 14 on the display unit 12 as shown in FIG. (S2). Next, when an operation is input to the operation unit and the print setting content specifying unit 10C operates and a printing device is specified in the printing device selection unit 142 of the print content display 14 (S3; Yes), the printing device information is displayed. The acquiring unit 10D acquires the printing device information and prohibition information of the printing device from the designated printing device, and stores the acquired information as printing device information 11B and prohibition processing information 11C in the storage unit 11 (S4).

  Next, when the process for the print image is selected in the rotation selection unit 144 or the post-processing selection unit 145 (S5; Yes), the prohibition process determination unit 10E refers to the prohibition process information 11C acquired from the printing apparatus and prohibits the prohibition process. Processing determination is executed (S6). When the process for the print image is a forbidden process (S7; Yes), for example, when any of “NG-1” to “NG-8” illustrated in FIG. 4 is satisfied, for example, as illustrated in FIG. The prohibition display 146 is displayed (S8), and the prohibition content 146a indicating the reason for the prohibition is displayed in a pop-up manner.

  When the process for the print image is not a prohibition process (S7; No), and when the process for the print image is not selected in step S5 (S5; No), the print execution instruction unit 147 is operated (S9; Yes). The print instruction transmitting unit 10F transmits the print instruction of the content set in the print content display 14 to the selected printing apparatus (S10). The prohibition display 146 and the prohibition content 146a may be displayed when the rotation selection unit 144 and the post-processing selection unit 145 are selected, or may be printed when the print execution instruction unit 147 is operated. It is good also as a structure displayed without transmitting an instruction | indication.

[Other embodiments]
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, the prohibition process information 11C may be referred to the prohibition process information 211A or 211B of the printing apparatus 2A or 2B when the prohibition process determination unit 10E executes the determination without storing it in the storage unit 11.

  In addition, the document editing unit 10A, the print content display unit 10B, the print setting content designation unit 10C, the printing apparatus information acquisition unit 10D, the prohibition process determination unit 10E, and the print instruction transmission unit used in the above embodiment. 10F, printing apparatus information transmitting means 200A, printing instruction receiving means 201A, and printing execution means 202A may be read from a storage medium such as a CD-ROM into a storage unit in the apparatus, via a communication means such as the Internet. May be downloaded from a server device or the like connected to the storage unit in the device. Moreover, you may implement | achieve part or all of the means used by the said embodiment by hardware, such as ASIC.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Print instruction | indication apparatus, 2A ... Printing apparatus, 2B ... Printing apparatus, 10 ... Control part, 10A ... Document edit means, 10B ... Print content display means, 10C ... Print setting content designation means, 10D ... Printing apparatus information acquisition means, 10E: Prohibition processing determination means, 10F: Print instruction transmission means, 11 ... Storage section, 11A ... Print instruction program, 11B ... Printing device information, 11C ... Prohibition processing information, 11D ... Document information, 12 ... Display section, 13 ... Communication 14, print content display, 20 A, control unit, 21 A, storage unit, 22 A, print function unit, 23 A, communication unit, 100, printing system, 140, document information, 141, document type selection unit, 142, printing apparatus. Selection unit 143: Print image display unit, 143a ... Stapler display, 144 ... Rotation selection unit, 145 ... Post-processing selection unit, 146 ... Prohibited display, 146a ... Prohibited content, 1 7 ... print execution instruction unit, 200A ... printing apparatus information transmitting unit, 201A ... print instruction receiving unit, 202A ... print execution unit, 210A ... printing apparatus information, 211A ... conflict processing information, 220A ... post-processing unit

Claims (4)

Prohibition processing information acquisition means for acquiring prohibition processing information describing the contents of post-processing that cannot be executed by the printing apparatus from a printing apparatus that is communicably connected;
A print setting content specifying means for specifying the print setting content of the document information in response to the print setting content specifying request input to the operation means;
Prohibition process determination means for determining whether or not the setting contents of the post-processing included in the specified print setting contents correspond to the prohibition process information;
In response to a print content display request input to the operation means, the print setting content of the document information is reflected and displayed, and when it is determined that the setting content of the post processing corresponds to the prohibition processing information, the post processing A print content display means for displaying that the setting content is permitted or prohibited.   When the print content display unit receives a request to execute printing of the document information with the print setting content specified by the print setting content specifying unit, the print content display unit permits or prohibits the setting content of post-processing in the previous period. The print instruction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a display to the effect is displayed.   The print content display unit according to claim 1, wherein when the print setting content is designated by the print setting content designation unit, the print content display unit displays the permission or prohibition with respect to the setting content of post-processing in the previous period. Pointing device. Computer
A prohibition processing information acquisition function for acquiring prohibition processing information describing the contents of post-processing that cannot be executed by the printing apparatus from a printing apparatus connected to be communicable;
A print setting content specifying function for specifying the print setting content of the document information in response to the print setting content specifying request input to the operation means;
A prohibition process determination function for determining whether or not the setting contents of post-processing included in the specified print setting contents correspond to the prohibition process information;
In response to a print content display request input to the operation means, the print setting content of the document information is reflected and displayed, and when it is determined that the setting content of the post processing corresponds to the prohibition processing information, the post processing A print instruction program that operates as a print content display function that displays permission or prohibition of the set content.

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