JPH0973375A - Print control method and apparatus thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: When print data is composed of a plurality of pages and the attributes of the print data are different for each page, the user changes the printer device to use it, or However, I had no choice but to let the printing be executed in preparation for the printing of a specific page not to be the desired printing. The first data stored in the ROM 4 is recognized by recognizing the attribute of the print data received from the host computer 1.
And a printer engine that prints the print data is selected based on the attribute information of each of the second printer engines 9 and 10. The print data is transmitted to the printer engine selected in this way and printed. The determination of the attribute and the switching of the printer engine can be performed in units of print data pages.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control method and apparatus for selecting and outputting a printing apparatus to be used according to print data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when print data is output to a printer device for printing, the user selects a printer device most suitable for the print data in advance and prints the print data by outputting the print data to the selected printer device. I was going.

[0003]

Therefore, for example, when the print data is composed of a plurality of pages and the attributes of the print data are different for each page, the user changes the printer device to be used accordingly. Alternatively, the printing has to be executed in preparation for the printing of the specific page not to be the desired printing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and provides a printing method and a device capable of printing by connecting different types of printing devices and switching the printing devices according to the attribute of print data. To aim.

Another object of the present invention is to print even if printing print data consisting of a plurality of pages, it is possible to judge the attribute for each page of the print data and select a printing device according to the attribute to perform printing. A control method and an apparatus therefor are provided.

Further, an object of the present invention is to provide a print control method and apparatus capable of selecting and printing an optimum printing apparatus according to the attribute of print data contained in the page even within the same page. To provide.

[0007]

To achieve the above object, a print control apparatus according to the present invention has the following arrangement.
That is, a print control device that connects a plurality of types of printer devices, outputs print data to the printer devices, and prints the print data, the recognition means recognizing attributes of the print data received from a data source, and the plurality of printer device types. Corresponding to one of the plurality of types of printer devices based on storage means for storing respective attribute information, the attribute of the print data recognized by the recognition means, and the attribute information stored in the storage means. The printer includes a selection unit that selects a printer device, and a control unit that transmits the print data to the printer device selected by the selection unit and prints the print data.

In order to achieve the above object, the print control method of the present invention includes the following steps. That is, it is a print control method of connecting a plurality of types of printer devices, outputting print data to them, and printing, and a recognition step of recognizing attributes of print data received from a data source and stored in a memory. Based on the attribute information of each of the plurality of types of printer devices and the attribute of the recognized print data,
The method includes a step of selecting a corresponding printer device from the plurality of types of printer devices, and a step of transmitting the print data to the selected printer device and printing it.

[0009]

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the recognition means recognizes an attribute of each page of the print data.

Further, according to a preferred embodiment, the recognition means judges the image area within one page of the print data and recognizes the attribute for each area.

According to a further preferred embodiment, the selecting means selects a printer device in page units of the print data.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention,
The attribute indicates a color image or a monochrome image.

Further, according to a preferred embodiment, the attribute indicates the resolution of print data. Furthermore, according to the preferred embodiment, the printing speed can be further improved by printing by using a plurality of types of printer devices in parallel.

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[First Embodiment] As a first embodiment of the present invention, a print control system capable of connecting a plurality of printer engines and switching between them for printing will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the arrangement of a print control system according to this embodiment. In this figure,
For convenience, an example in which two printer engines are connected will be described.

The host computer 1 outputs print data to the multi-print controller 2 through the cable 11 applied to Ethernet, SCSI, RS232C, etc., for example. This multi-print controller 2
Is the CPU3, CPU3 that controls the entire controller 2.
Data stored between the host computer 1 and the ROM 4 which stores the control program and printer attribute information executed by the CPU 3, the RAM 5 which is used as a work memory when the CPU 3 executes the processing, and temporarily stores various data. Communication interface (I / F) for delivering and receiving
The unit 6, the main bus 7, the engine control unit 8 that controls the printer engine group including the first and second printer engines 9 and 10, and the first printer engine 9 that is a printer engine of a different type from each other. It has a second printer engine unit 10.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a control operation in the print control system 2 of the present embodiment. A control program for executing this processing is stored in the ROM 4 and executed under the control of the CPU 3.

First, in step S1, the data sent from the host computer 1 is received. Based on this data, it is determined whether or not the printer is automatically selected, and when the automatic selection is instructed, the process proceeds to step S3, and the printer engine 9 stored in the ROM 4 Read 10 attributes. Then, in step S4, the current page to be printed is set. The initial value of the page is 1 page.

Then, in step S5, the attribute of the current page included in the data sent from the host computer 1 is checked. Then, the process proceeds to step S6, and according to the attributes of the current page obtained in step S5, the current page is selected from the printer engines 9 and 10 provided in the print control system according to the attributes of the printer engines read in step S3. Select the best printer engine for your output. And step S7
To the printer engine selected in step S6,
The data received from the host computer 1 is sent.

At this time, in step S8, step S
It is checked whether or not the printer engine selected in 7 is in use, and if so, the process proceeds to step S9, and the process shifts to job waiting, which waits until the printing process ends. Then, in step S9, when the selected printer engine becomes operable, the process proceeds to step S10, and print data is output to the printer engine to perform printing. In step S11, it is determined whether or not the print processing is completed, and if the print processing is performed up to the last page, this print processing is completed.

On the other hand, if there are remaining pages in step S11, the process proceeds to step S12, the number of pages is counted, and the process returns to step S4.

On the other hand, if the printer selection is not automatic in step S2, the process proceeds to step S13 to wait until the printer engine to be used is set by the user,
The print data is output to the designated printer engine and the printing ends.

(Second Embodiment) Next, the operation of the multi-print controller 2 according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The configuration of the printing system of the second embodiment is similar to that of FIG. 1, but here the first printer engine 9 is used.
Is a laser beam printer engine for monochrome printing, and the second printer engine 10 is an inkjet printer engine for color printing. A control program for executing this process is also stored in the ROM 4.
The processing of steps S21 to S24 in FIG.
Since it is the same as steps S1 to S4, the description thereof will be omitted.

In step S25, based on the print data of the page to be printed, the page data is separated into image areas,
It is divided into a color image area and a monochrome character area. Next, in step S26, the black and white print data area portion is output to the first printer engine 9, which is a laser beam printer. In step S27, the color image area portion is output to the second printer engine 10, which is a color inkjet printer. Then, the process proceeds to step S28, and the output data is checked to see if the output work is completed to the end
If it is finished, the output work is finished. If not, the process proceeds to step S29, the page number is incremented, and the process returns to step S25.

If it is not set automatically, step S30
Then, the process proceeds to step S3 and sets to output to the printer engine set by the user. The settings made here will be the fixed printer for the current data output. Then, the process proceeds to step S31, and printing is performed by the printer engine fixed in step S30.

Next, another example of the present embodiment will be described. Here, two printer engines for black and white and for color output are provided as the first and second printer engines 9 and 10, as described above. As a result, when the image to be output is monochrome, it is output to the monochrome printer engine, and the page including the color image is output to the color printer engine. The host computer 1 determines whether such print data is a color image or black and white.
The determination is made based on the attribute information indicating whether the image is a monochrome image or a color image included in the data transmitted from. Also,
The black-and-white printer engine and the color printer engine can operate in parallel, so when printing based on print data in which black-and-white images and color images are mixed, the printer engines can be switched according to the attributes of each page. By printing in parallel, the overall printing speed can be increased.

The processing in this case is shown in the flowchart of FIG. Incidentally, steps S41 to S45 and step S of FIG.
The processes of 57 and S58 are performed in steps S21 to S24 and steps S30 and S31 of the flowchart of FIG.
The description is omitted here.

In step S46, it is checked whether the page data sent from the host computer 1 includes a color image or a monochrome image. When the color image is included, the process proceeds to step S47, and the image data is output to the second printer engine 10 for color output. In step S48, the second printer engine 1 for color output is used.
It is checked whether 0 is operating, and if so, step S4
In step 9, the process proceeds to print job standby processing. Step S4
If the second printer engine 10 is not operating in step 8, the process proceeds to step S50, and the second printer engine 1
The print data is output to 0 and printed.

If the page is monochrome data in step S46, the flow advances to step S51 to output the print data to the first printer engine 9 for printing a monochrome image. Then, as in the case of printing the color image described above, if the first printer engine is printing in step S52, the process shifts to job standby in step S53, and if not printing, the process proceeds to step S54, and the first printer engine The print data is output to 9 and printed. And step S5
In step 5, it is checked whether printing is completed up to the last page, and if so, the process is terminated, and if there are remaining pages, the process proceeds to step S56 to count the number of pages, and then step S4.
Go to 5.

(Second Embodiment) In the second embodiment, a laser beam printer engine and an inkjet printer engine are provided as the first and second printer engines 9 and 10. Then, for example, if the fine image quality is prioritized, the laser beam printer engine that is the first printer engine 9 is selected, and if the printing speed is prioritized, the second printer engine 10 that is the inkjet printer engine is selected. To print. The method of selecting the printer engine in this case may be set in advance, or may be performed by creating a print destination designating file and selecting based on this file in the step of selecting the printer engine. Further, since these two printer engines can operate in parallel, when printing a plurality of pages of data, the overall print processing speed can be increased by distributing these two printer engine print data.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the processing in the other embodiment 2.

Referring to FIG. 5, the processing flow of another embodiment 2 will be described. This is the same as that of the color printing engine and the monochrome printing engine in the above-described first embodiment.
The P output engine and the inkjet printer engine are replaced, and the other operations are the same, so the description thereof will be omitted.

(Other Embodiment 3) In another embodiment 3, as the first and second printer engines 9 and 10,
Equipped with printer engines having different resolutions, an appropriate printer engine is selected according to print data and printing is performed. For example, if the output image is an image, a high resolution (for example, 60
Printing is performed by the printer engine (first printer engine 9) of 0 dpi, and if the print data is of relatively low resolution (for example, 300 dpi) such as character data, the second printer engine 10 is used for printing. The method of selecting the printer engine in this case may be set in advance, or a print destination file is created and prepared, and the step of selecting the printer engine is executed. Also in this case, since both printer engines can operate in parallel, it is possible to increase the printing speed when printing the print data for a plurality of pages.

The processing in this case is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

The processing in this case is also basically the same as that in the above-mentioned flowchart, except that it is switched depending on whether the resolution of the print data of the page to be printed is 300 dpi or 600 dpi.

(Other Embodiment 4) Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described. Here, a plurality of printers 2
7 is connected to a server 25 by an RS232C line 26, and this server 26 is connected to a plurality of client machines 21 to 23 via an Ethernet 24.
When the server 25 receives a print command from the plurality of client machines, the server 25 searches for a vacant printer out of the plurality of printers 27 and outputs the print data. Therefore, the waiting time for printing in the client machine can be reduced.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the processing in the server 25. The plurality of printers 27 are
It is assumed that n printer engines are installed.

First, in step S101, when print data is received from any of the client machines 21 to 23, the process proceeds to step S102 to check the attributes of each of the plurality of printers 27 connected to the server 25. The attribute information is stored in the ROM or disk of the server 25. In this way, the process proceeds to step S103, and which printer is used to print the received print data is determined based on the attribute information. This processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

Next, the process proceeds to step S104, and step S
The print data is output to the printer determined in 103.
In step S105, it is checked whether or not the selected printer is operating, and if so, the process proceeds to step S106, a waiting job is created, and if printing becomes possible in step S105, the process proceeds to step S107 to print data to the printer. Print and print.

Next, the printer selection processing in step S103 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG.

First, in step S111, an initial value "1" is assigned to "n" indicating an ID number of a printer among the plurality of printers 27. Next, in step S112,
It is checked whether the printer having the ID number corresponding to "n" is currently operating. If not in operation, step S113
Then, the printer for printing the page is determined to be the "n" th printer.

On the other hand, in step S112, if the printer is in operation, the process proceeds to step S114 to store the number of waiting jobs of the "n" th printer. And step S
Proceed to 115 to increment "n". Next, in step S116, it is checked whether or not the value of "n" is equal to or more than the number of the plurality of printers 27. If it exceeds, the process returns to step S117, and if not, the process returns to step S112.

In step S117, step S114
Among the number of waiting jobs stored in each printer, the printer with the smallest number of waiting jobs is determined as the printing target printer device.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when print data having different attributes are printed, the print data can be automatically switched appropriately according to the attributes of the print data. The print result can be obtained.

Even when data such as a document and an image to be printed spans a plurality of pages and the attributes of each page are different, an appropriate printer is selected and printed without changing the connection or setting of the printer. can do.

Furthermore, since the print data of each page is distributed to a plurality of printer engines and they can be operated in parallel and printed, the time required for printing can be reduced.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices such as a host computer, an interface and a printer, or to an apparatus composed of a single device such as a copying machine. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is implemented by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. In this case, the storage medium storing the program according to the present invention constitutes the present invention. Then, by reading the program from the storage medium to the system or device, the system or device operates in a predetermined manner.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, different types of printers can be connected, and the printers can be switched according to the attributes of print data to perform printing.

Further, according to the present invention, even when printing the print data consisting of a plurality of pages, it is possible to judge the attribute for each page of the print data and select the printing device according to the attribute to print.

Further, according to the present invention, even in the same page, it is possible to select and print an optimum printing device according to the attribute of the print data included in the page.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a printing process in the printing system of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a printing process in a printing system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a printing process in a printing system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a printing process in a printing system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a printing process in a printing system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printing system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a printing process in a printing system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a printing process in a printing system according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Host Computer 2 Multi-Printer Controller 3 CPU 4 ROM 5 RAM 6 Communication Interface (I / F) Unit 8 Engine Control Unit 9 First Printer Engine 10 Second Printer Engine 21-23 Client Machine 25 Server 27 Multiple Printer Devices

Claims (20)

[Claims] 1. A print control device for connecting a plurality of types of printer devices, outputting print data to the printer devices, and printing the print data, the recognizing means recognizing attributes of the print data received from a data source; A storage unit that stores attribute information of each of the printer devices, an attribute of the print data recognized by the recognition unit, and attribute information stored in the storage unit, among the plurality of types of printer devices. 2. A print control apparatus comprising: a selection unit that selects a corresponding printer device from among the items; and a control unit that transmits and prints the print data to the printer device selected by the selection unit. 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recognition unit recognizes an attribute for each page of the print data. 3. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recognition unit judges an image area within one page of the print data and recognizes an attribute for each area. 4. The print control device according to claim 1, wherein the selection unit selects a printer device for each page of the print data. 5. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attribute indicates a color image or a monochrome image. 6. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the attribute indicates a resolution of print data. 7. The print control device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of types of printer devices include a laser beam printer device. 8. The print control device according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of types of printer devices include an inkjet printer device. 9. The print control device according to claim 1, wherein the attribute of the print data defines a printing method of a printer device. 10. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes a plurality of printer devices selected by the selection unit to perform printing in parallel. 11. A print control method for connecting a plurality of types of printer devices, outputting print data to them, and printing the print data, comprising a recognition step of recognizing attributes of the print data received from a data source, and a memory step of storing in a memory. Selecting a corresponding printer device from the plurality of types of printer devices based on the attribute information of each of the plurality of types of printer devices and the attribute of the recognized print data, A step of transmitting the print data to a printer to print the print data. 12. The recognizing step recognizes an attribute for each page of the print data.
3. The printing control method according to 1. 13. The recognizing step is performed on the print data 1
The print control method according to claim 11, wherein the image area in the page is determined, and the attribute is recognized for each area. 14. The printer device is selected in page units of the print data.
14. The print control method according to any one of items 1 to 13. 15. The print control method according to claim 11, wherein the attribute indicates a color image or a monochrome image. 16. The print control method according to claim 11, wherein the attribute indicates a resolution of print data. 17. The printer device of the plurality of types includes a laser beam printer device.
3. The printing control method according to 1. 18. The printer device of the plurality of types includes an inkjet printer device.
2. The printing control method according to 1. 19. The print control method according to claim 11, wherein the attribute of the print data defines a print method of a printer device. 20. The printing control method according to claim 11, wherein in the printing step, printing is performed in parallel by a plurality of selected printer devices.