JPH09190312A - Printing system and data processing method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve the availability of the printer resources in a printing system and to freely construct a printer environment by decentralizing the printing information which are concentrically transferred to a certain printer. SOLUTION: The grouping information showing the correspondence between the printers (a) to (f) and the printer drivers 22 to 24 which are designated in groups via a keyboard 9, etc., is previously stored in a RAM 2, etc. When a desired driver 22, for example, is pointed via the keyboard 9, etc., a CPU 1 selects the printer (a) out of the printable groups according to the driver 22 and based on the grouping information stored in the RAM 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system capable of communicating with a plurality of printing devices and a plurality of information processing devices on a network, and a data processing method of the printing system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a printing system in which a plurality of printing devices and a plurality of information processing devices can communicate on a network, a printer driver selected by each information processing device (printing created based on a predetermined application) is selected. (The information is converted into PDL data based on a predetermined page description language and transmitted to the printer) and the printer has a one-to-one correspondence, and the user instructs printing by directly designating the printer driver corresponding to the printer. Was there.

[0003]

Therefore, even when there are a plurality of printers capable of processing PDL data based on the same page description language (PDL), print jobs concentrate on a specific printer. In some cases, the resources on the network cannot be effectively used, and the print processing efficiency is significantly reduced.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the first to fifth inventions of the present invention is to provide a plurality of prints on a network for each printer driver. By registering and managing devices in groups and selecting a print device that can print according to the printer driver's designation, it is possible to distribute the concentration of transfer of print information to one of the print devices, and to print on the system. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system and a data processing method of the printing system that can efficiently construct device resources and freely construct a printer environment.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of printing devices having different page description languages on a network and output information are converted into print information corresponding to each page description language. In a printing system capable of communicating with an information processing apparatus having a plurality of printer drivers to be transferred to each printing apparatus, a designating unit for group designating each printer driver and each printing apparatus corresponding to each page description language,
A storage unit that stores grouping information indicating the correspondence between each printer driver group-designated by the designation unit and each printing apparatus, an instruction unit that designates a desired printer driver, and a printer driver designated by the instruction unit. And a selecting means for selecting a printer in a printable group based on the grouping information stored in the storage means.

A second invention according to the present invention is whether or not an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected when no printing device can be selected in the group of printer drivers designated by the selecting means. The determination means for determining whether or not the determination result and the determination means for determining the alternative printer driver based on the determination result of the determination means are provided.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the determining means determines the alternative printer driver based on the set priority order.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a plurality of printing devices having different page description languages on a network and output information are converted into print information corresponding to each page description language and transferred to each printing device. In a data processing method of a printing system capable of communicating with an information processing apparatus having a plurality of printer drivers, a designation step of group-designating each printer driver and each printing apparatus corresponding to each page description language,
A registration step of registering grouping information indicating a correspondence between each printer driver group-designated by the designating means and each printing device in a storage medium, an instruction step of instructing a desired printer driver, and the instructed printer driver A selection step of selecting a printer in a printable group based on the grouping information registered in the storage medium according to the step, and a transfer step of transferring print information corresponding to the page description language to the selected printer. Is to have.

A fifth aspect of the present invention is a determination step of determining whether or not an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected, and a determination of determining an alternative printer driver based on the determination result. And a process.

[0010]

In the first aspect of the invention, the grouping information indicating the correspondence between each printer driver group-designated by the designating unit and each printing device is stored in the storage unit, and the desired printer driver is designated by the designating unit. Then, the selection means selects a printer in the printable group based on the grouping information stored in the storage means according to the designated printer driver, and the printing device specified in the group can print. If not, it is possible to automatically select a printing device capable of printing in the same group and distribute the printing information to a plurality of printing devices registered according to the designation of the printer driver.

In the second aspect of the invention, when the selecting means cannot select any printing device in the group of the designated printer drivers, the determining means can further select an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information. It is determined whether the output information is output as much as possible by extending the printing device selection range from the same group to the printing device resources of another group by the determining means based on the determination result. Enables printing.

In a third invention, the determining means is
It is possible to determine the alternative printer driver based on the set priority order and preferentially set the printing device intended by the user as the printing device candidate for the alternative printing.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, each printer driver and each printing device are designated as a group corresponding to each page description language, and grouping is performed to show the correspondence between each printer driver designated by the group and each printing device. In a state where the information is registered in the storage medium, a desired printer driver is instructed, a printer in a printable group based on the grouping information registered in the storage medium is selected according to the instructed printer driver, Transfers print information corresponding to the page description language to the selected printer, and if the printing device specified in the group is not ready for printing, the printing device that can print in the same group is automatically selected. Then, it is possible to distribute and transfer the print information to a plurality of printing devices registered in response to the designation of the printer driver. That.

In a fifth aspect of the present invention, it is determined whether or not an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected, an alternative printer driver is determined based on the result of the determination, and another alternative printer driver is selected from the same group. The printing device selection range is extended to the printing device resources of the group, and it is possible to print the output information as much as possible.

[0015]

【Example】

First Embodiment [Configuration of Laser Beam Printer] FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating the configuration of a printing apparatus to which the present invention is applied. For example, a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as LBP) is shown. The LBP is configured so that a character source and a fixed form (form data) can be registered by a data source (not shown).

In the figure, reference numeral 1000 denotes an LBP main body, which is an externally connected host computer 3000.
Character information (character code) supplied from (see FIG. 2), form information, macro commands, etc. are input and stored, and corresponding character patterns, form patterns, etc. are created in accordance with these information, and are recording media. An image is formed on the recording paper.

Reference numeral 1200 is an operation unit panel on which operation switches and LED indicators are arranged, and 1100 is an LBP10.
00 is a printer controller for controlling the whole and analyzing character information and the like supplied from the host computer 3000. The printer controller 1100 converts the character information into a video signal having a corresponding character pattern and outputs the video signal to the laser driver 1001.

The laser driver 1001 is a semiconductor laser 1
002 is a circuit for driving the laser beam 002, which is a laser beam emitted from the semiconductor laser 1002 in accordance with an input video signal.
003 is switched on and off.

The laser beam 1003 is oscillated in the left-right direction by the rotary polygon mirror 1004 to scan the surface of the electrostatic drum 1005. As a result, an electrostatic latent image having a character pattern is formed on the surface of the electrostatic drum 1005. The electrostatic latent image is developed by the developing unit 1006 provided around the electrostatic drum 1005.
And then transferred to recording paper. A cut sheet is used for the recording paper. The cut sheet recording paper is stored in the paper cassette 1007 mounted on the LBP 1000, and the paper feed roller 1008 and the transport roller 1
009, 1010, is taken into the apparatus, and is supplied to the electrostatic drum 1005.

[Configuration of Printer Control System] Next, the configuration of the printer control system will be described.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining the arrangement of a printing system showing the first embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, it is composed of a host computer as an information processing apparatus and a printer as a printing apparatus. The case is shown.

In the figure, reference numeral 3000 denotes the above-mentioned host computer, which executes the processing of a document in which graphics, images, characters, tables (including spreadsheets, etc.) are mixed based on the document processing program recorded in the ROM 3. CPU1
Is provided. The CPU 1 centrally controls each device connected to the system bus 4.

The ROM 3 is the program ROM 3
a, a font ROM 3b, and a data ROM 3c. In the program ROM 3a,
A document processing program to be described later is stored, and font R
The OM 3b stores font data and the like used in the document processing, and the data ROM 3c stores various data used in the document processing and the like.

A RAM 2 is a main memory of the CPU 1,
Functions as a work area. A keyboard controller (KBC) 5 controls key input from a keyboard (KB) 9 and a pointing device (not shown). 6 is a CRT controller (CRTC), CR
The display of the T display (CRT) 10 is controlled.

A disk controller (MC) 7 includes a hard disk (HD) and a floppy disk (F) for storing a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, edit files and the like.
Control access to the external memory 11 such as D).

8 is a network interface circuit (N
W I / F) is connected to another host computer or printer 1000 via a predetermined network 21 to control communication with another device such as the printer 1000.

The CPU 1 executes outline font rasterization processing for the display information RAM set in the RAM 2, and WYSIWY on the CRT 10.
G is possible.

The host computer 30 having the above configuration
The CPU 1 in the data processing unit 2000 on the 00 side is a CRT.
Various windows registered in accordance with a command designated by a mouse cursor (not shown) or the like are opened on 10 and various data processing is executed.

On the other hand, in the printer 1000, 12 is a CPU, and various devices connected to the system bus 15 based on the control program stored in the program ROM of the ROM 13 or the control program stored in the external memory 14. Control access to
An image signal is output as output information to a printing unit (printer engine) 17 connected via the printing unit interface 16.

The ROM 13 is the program ROM 1
3b, ROM 13a for font, ROM 13c for data
It has a separate storage area. Program ROM 13
A control program described later is stored in b, a font ROM 13a stores font data used when the output information is generated, and a data ROM 13c.
In the case of a printer having no external memory 14 such as a hard disk, the information and the like used on the host computer 3000 are stored.

The CPU 12 can perform communication processing with the host computer 3000 and other printers via the network interface circuit 18, and can notify the host computer 3000 of information and resource data in the printer.

Reference numeral 19 denotes a RAM which functions as a main memory and a work area for the CPU 12, and the memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown). The RAM 19 is used as an output information expansion area, an environment data storage area, a non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), and the like.

The external memory 14 such as the hard disk (HD) or IC card described above is a disk controller (M
C) Access is controlled by 20. External memory 14
Is connected as an option and stores font data, emulation programs, form data, and the like.

Reference numeral 1200 denotes the operation panel described above,
An operation switch, an LED display, and the like are provided.

The above-mentioned external memory 14 is not limited to one, and a plurality of external memories may be provided. In addition to the built-in font, an optional font card and a plurality of external memories storing programs for interpreting printer control languages of different languages are provided. It may be configured to be connectable. Furthermore, NV not shown
A RAM may be provided to store the printer mode setting information from the operation panel 1200.

Correspondence between this embodiment and each means of the first invention and its operation will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 (described later).

The first aspect of the invention is to provide a plurality of printing devices (printers a to a) having different page description languages on the network 21.
f) can communicate with the information processing apparatus (host computer 3000) including a plurality of printer drivers (drivers A to C) that convert output information into print information corresponding to each page description language and transfer the print information to each printing apparatus. In the printing system, a designation means (designated and input by the keyboard 9 or the like) for group-designating each printer driver and each printing device corresponding to each page description language, and each printer driver group-designated by the designation means Storage means (RAM 2, external memory 11, etc.) for storing grouping information indicating correspondence with each printing device (for example, an arbitrary number of printing device numbers (including network ID etc.) selectable for a driver name), An instruction means for instructing a desired printer driver (instruction input by the keyboard 9 or the like),
Selection means for selecting a printer in a printable group based on the grouping information stored in the storage means according to the printer driver instructed by the instruction means (the CPU 1 is instructed based on a program stored in the ROM 3 or the like). And selecting a printer in a printable group based on the grouping information stored in the RAM 2 according to the printer driver (when the driver A is selected, the printers a to c are selection candidates). Grouping information indicating the correspondence between the printer drivers A to C and the printers a to f that are group-designated by the keyboard 9 or the like is stored in the RAM 2 or the like, and the desired printer driver such as the driver When A is instructed, the CPU 1 executes R in accordance with the instructed printer driver A. When the printer a in the printable group based on the grouping information stored on the M2 is selected and the printer a designated in the group is not in the printable state, the printer a can be printed in the same group. It is possible to automatically select the printers b and c and distribute the print information to the plurality of printers b and c registered according to the designation of the printer driver A.

[Network Configuration] Next, FIG. 3 shows a system conceptual diagram of a network printing system including a plurality of host computers and printers.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining the network printing system environment in the printing system according to the present invention. The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

As shown in this figure, on the host computer 3000, the printer driver corresponding to the control language (hereinafter referred to as PDL) of each printer is stored in the ROM 3 described above.
Alternatively, it is stored in the external memory 11. In the present embodiment, a case is shown in which three types of PDLs, printer driver (driver A) 22, printer driver (driver B) 23, and printer driver (driver C) 24 are installed.

Printers a, b, c, d, e and f are connected to the network 21. The printers a, b, and c are the driver A group 25, the printer d is the driver B group 26, and the corresponding PDLs are the same.
The printers e and f are the group 27 of the driver C.

In this case, one host computer corresponds to each printer only to one PDL, but there may be a plurality of host computers on the network, and one printer corresponds to a plurality of PDLs. You can do it.

[Selection and Printing of Printer] The operation of the printing system having the above configuration will be described.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a first embodiment of the data processing method of the printing system according to the present invention,
This corresponds to a processing procedure for designating a driver to be printed from the user interface program on the host computer 3000, selecting a printer on the network from the designated driver, and performing print output. (1) to (7)
Indicates each step.

First, the user is the host computer 300.
On 0, specify the driver for printing with the user interface program (1). When the driver is designated, the number of printers in the driver group is counted by the counter C.
Set to (2). Here, when the driver group A is designated, "3" is set in the counter C.

Next, it is confirmed whether or not there is a printer in the driver group (3). If it is confirmed that there is a printer, that printer is selected and the counter C is set to "1".
Decrement (4).

During the printing process of the selected printer,
If it is confirmed that the printer is in the printable state instead of the error state (5), the print data is transmitted to the printer and the printing process is performed (6).

On the other hand, in step (5), if the selected printer is not in a printable state, step (3)
Return to and select the printer again.

In step (3), if all the printers in the driver group are not in a printable state, an error message is displayed to the user on the host computer (7), and the process ends.

Correspondence between this embodiment and each step of the fourth invention and its action will be described below with reference to FIG.

A fourth aspect of the invention is to provide a plurality of printing devices (printers a to a) having different page description languages on the network 21.
f) and an information processing device (host computer 300) including a plurality of printer drivers for converting output information into print information corresponding to each page description language and transferring the print information to each printing device.
0) in the data processing method of the printing system capable of communicating with each other, a designation step of designating each printer driver and each printing device in a group corresponding to each page description language (the step before the step (1) in FIG. No)), and a registration step of registering grouping information indicating the correspondence between each printer driver and each printing device group-designated by the designating unit in the storage medium (the step before step (1) in FIG. 4 (not shown)). )), An instruction step of instructing a desired printer driver (step (1) of FIG. 4), and a printable group based on the grouping information registered in the storage medium according to the instructed printer driver. Selection process for selecting a printer (step (2) to FIG. 4)
(5))) and the transfer step (step (6) in FIG. 4) of transferring the print information corresponding to the page description language to the selected printer to execute the print specified in the group. If the device is not in a printable state, a process of automatically selecting a printable device in the same group and distributing print information to a plurality of printers registered according to the printer driver's designation It is possible to do.

[Second Embodiment] In the first embodiment, a case will be described in which an error is displayed and print processing is not performed when all the printers in the designated driver group are not in a printable state. However, the print data may be created by another driver and the print processing may be performed. Hereinafter, the embodiment will be described. The hardware structure of this embodiment is assumed to have the structure shown in the first embodiment.

Correspondence between the present embodiment and each means of the second and third inventions and their functions will be described with reference to FIG.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when any one of the printing devices cannot be selected by the selecting means in the designated printer driver group, it is determined whether or not an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected. Determining means (the CPU 1 makes a determination based on a program stored in the ROM 3) and a determining means (a CPU 1 that determines an alternative printer driver based on the determination result of the determining means).
Is determined based on the program stored in the ROM 3), and the CPU 1 cannot select any printing device in the group of the designated printer drivers,
Further, the CPU 1 determines whether or not an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected, determines an alternative printer driver based on the result of the determination, and determines from the same group to printing device resources of other groups. The printing device selection range is expanded to enable printing of output information as much as possible.

A third aspect of the present invention is the determining means (the CPU 1 determines based on a program stored in the ROM 3).
Makes it possible to determine an alternative printer driver based on the set priority order and preferentially set a printing device intended by the user as a printing device candidate for alternative printing.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a second embodiment of the data processing method of the printing system according to the present invention,
This corresponds to a processing procedure for creating print data by another driver and performing print output when all the printers in the specified driver group are not in the printable state. Note that steps (1) to (8) indicate each step. Further, when the same processing as in the first embodiment is performed and all the printers in the specified driver group are in the print-disabled state in step (3) of the loop from step (3) to step (5), Check if another driver is installed on the host computer 3000 and whether print data can be created by another driver (8). If another driver can be used for replacement, proceed to step (1). Return and repeat the process.
It should be noted that in the present embodiment, the selection of the alternative driver is performed according to the priority order set in advance for each driver.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step (8) that there is no printer that can print even if another driver is substituted, or if substitution is not possible, an error message is displayed to the user on the host computer. (7), and the process ends.

Correspondence between the present embodiment and each step of the fifth invention and its action will be described below with reference to FIG.

A fifth aspect of the invention is, in addition to the step of the fourth aspect of the invention, a determination step of determining whether or not an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected (step (8) in FIG. 5). And a determination step (step (1) in FIG. 5) of determining an alternative printer driver based on the determination result, to extend the printing device selection range from the same group to printing device resources of other groups. By doing so, it is possible to print the output information as much as possible.

[Third Embodiment] In the second embodiment, the case where the selection of the alternative driver is performed in accordance with the priority order set in advance for each driver has been described.
The alternative driver may be selectable by the user on the host computer.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. In this case, by reading a storage medium storing a program represented by software for achieving the present invention into the system or apparatus, the system or apparatus can enjoy the effects of the present invention.

Furthermore, by downloading and reading the program represented by the software for achieving the present invention from the database on the network by the communication program, the system or apparatus can be
It is possible to enjoy the effects of the present invention.

[0063]

As described above, the first embodiment according to the present invention is described.
According to the invention, the grouping information indicating the correspondence between each printer driver and each printing device group-designated by the designating unit is stored in the storage unit, and the desired printer driver is designated by the designating unit, In the case where the printing device specified in the group is not in the printable state, the selection unit selects the printer in the printable group based on the grouping information stored in the storage unit according to the designated printer driver. In this case, it is possible to automatically select a printing device capable of printing in the same group and distribute the printing information to a plurality of printing devices registered according to the designation of the printer driver.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when the selecting means cannot select any printing device in the group of the designated printer drivers, the determining means further selects an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information. Since it is determined whether or not it is possible, and the determining unit determines the alternative printer driver based on the determination result, the output information is expanded as much as possible by extending the printer selection range from the same group to the printer resources of other groups. Can be printed.

According to the third aspect of the invention, since the determining means determines the alternative printer driver based on the set priority order, the printing device intended by the user is preferentially selected as the printing device candidate for the alternative printing. be able to.

According to the fourth invention, each printer driver and each printing device are designated by a group corresponding to each page description language, and a group indicating the correspondence between each printer driver designated by the group and each printing device is designated. In a state where the grouping information is registered in the storage medium, a desired printer driver is instructed, and a printer in a printable group based on the grouping information registered in the storage medium is selected according to the instructed printer driver, Since the print information corresponding to the page description language is transferred to the selected printer, if the printing device specified in the group is not in the printable state, the printing device that can print in the same group is automatically selected. You can select and perform the process of distributing and transferring print information to multiple printers registered according to the specified printer driver. .

According to the fifth aspect, it is determined whether or not the alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected, and the alternative printer driver is determined based on the determination result. It is possible to extend the printing device selection range to the printing device resources of other groups and print the output information as much as possible.

Therefore, it is possible to disperse the concentration of the transfer of the print information to any one of the printing apparatuses, to improve the efficiency of the printing apparatus resources on the system, and to freely construct the printer environment.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a network printing system environment in a printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of the data processing method of the printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of the data processing method of the printing system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 RAM 3 ROM 8 network interface circuit 10 CRT 12 CPU 13 ROM 19 RAM 21 network

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus comprising: a plurality of printing devices having different page description languages on a network; and a plurality of printer drivers for converting output information into print information corresponding to each page description language and transferring the print information to each printing device. In a printing system capable of communicating with each other, a designation unit that designates each printer driver and each printing device as a group corresponding to each page description language, and each printer driver and each printing device that are designated by the designation unit as a group Storage means for storing grouping information indicating correspondence, instruction means for instructing a desired printer driver, and printing based on the grouping information stored in the storage means according to the printer driver instructed by the instruction means A printing system comprising: a selection unit that selects a printer in a group. 2. A determining means for determining whether or not an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected when the selecting means cannot select any printing device in the designated printer driver group. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, further comprising: a determining unit that determines an alternative printer driver based on a determination result of the determining unit. 3. The printing system according to claim 2, wherein the determining unit determines the alternative printer driver based on the set priority order. 4. An information processing apparatus comprising: a plurality of printing devices having different page description languages on a network; and a plurality of printer drivers for converting output information into print information corresponding to each page description language and transferring the print information to each printing device. In a data processing method for a printing system capable of communicating with each other, a designation step of designating each printer driver and each printing device in a group corresponding to each page description language, and each printer driver and each printer driver group designated by the designating means. A registration step of registering grouping information indicating correspondence with a printing device in a storage medium, an instruction step of instructing a desired printer driver, and the grouping information registered in the storage medium in accordance with the instructed printer driver. Selecting a printer in a printable group based on a page for the selected printer And a transfer step of transferring print information corresponding to the description language. 5. A determination step of determining whether or not an alternative printer driver capable of printing the output information can be selected, and a determination step of determining an alternative printer driver based on the determination result. The data processing method of the printing system according to claim 4.