JPH1058767A - Printing processing method and equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To clarify divisions of large quantities of data continuously printed on output paper, and facilitate data division. SOLUTION: A printer driver 1 issues a control command which notifies a start at the head of print data. A control section 2 instructs by the control command a label processing section 3 to do processing when printing begins. The label processing section 3 outputs detailed information including names of print data, transmission time, users on labels in a data output means 4, and pastes a label on the first page of each print data outputted from the printing section 6 in a labeling means 5. Labels are plastered in the form of tugs and show details of print data. Even if multiple sets of data are printed continuously, print data requested by users are clarified.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print processing method and apparatus for continuously printing a plurality of data by a plurality of users via a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as a part of an OA equipment system particularly in a business office, a plurality of input terminals such as word processors are connected to a single printer device by a network system, and a plurality of input terminal users are provided with a plurality of input terminals. Print data is output continuously. In this case, it is necessary to clarify the division of the print data to be continuously output and easily determine from which user the data is requested to be output.

[0003] Proposals concerning such a system include, for example, an output device for a sheet for separating received originals described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-74866 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 6-74866.
There is a network printer described in Japanese Patent No. 342349.

[0004] The former is a facsimile machine as a specific example of a receiving sheet sorting sheet output device. In order to easily sort a printed document, a sheet that clearly shows the division of the receiving document from a viewing angle is printed. Out.

Also, in the latter network printer, a delimiter of the received data is searched for, the description contents of a page for identifying the data delimiter, and the like are set, and between the data, the same size as the output data size is set. A sheet is output, and the sheet is used as a page for identifying data breaks.

[0006]

However, the devices described in these publications have the following common problems to be solved. One is that a sheet or identification page that clarifies a data segment is output in the same size as the output data. Therefore, when a large number of output papers on which a plurality of data are continuously printed are discharged to a paper discharge port of the printer device,
Data separation sheets and identification pages may be lost. Sorting in such a case is troublesome,
The distinction of the angle becomes meaningless.

One is to detect the break of each data,
That is, a sheet and an identification page for data separation are set in the printer device or a portion corresponding thereto. Since it is necessary to additionally provide a memory, a CPU, and the like, there is a problem that the processing load as viewed from the entire printer apparatus increases.

Accordingly, a main object of the present invention is to provide an efficient print processing method and apparatus which can maintain a plurality of data divisions clearly even when a large amount of output paper is discharged to a paper discharge port, and can omit a sorting operation. To provide.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a print processing method and apparatus which does not require an additional memory or CPU for data delimiter processing and reduces the processing load on the apparatus.

[0010]

A print processing apparatus according to the present invention receives a control command notifying the start of print data transmitted by a printer driver and determines whether to perform label processing or normal print processing. It has a control unit. It has a label processing unit for performing label processing based on a control signal from the control unit, and has a normal printing unit for performing print processing of print data. Further, the label processing unit has a data information output unit that writes details of the print data on the label, and has a label attaching unit that attaches the label when the first page of the print data is discharged. .

Therefore, with the above configuration, in the print processing method, the printer driver issues a control command for notifying the start of each print data to the start. The control unit instructs the label processing unit to perform the processing at the start of the print processing according to the control command. In the label processing unit, the data information output unit outputs the data detailed information such as the name, transmission time, and user of each print data to a label, and the label pasting unit outputs the print data of each print data printed from the print unit. Attach a label to the first page. The label is attached in the form of a tag, and details about the print data are displayed. Even if a plurality of print data are continuously printed, the print data requested by the user is clarified.

That is, since a control command for notifying the delimitation of the print data is added to the print data transmitted from the printer driver, the delimiter of the data is detected inside the printer device as in the prior art, and the detection is performed. The memory CPU that performs processing based on signals is omitted, and there is no need for processing. Further, since detailed information of the print data to be output on the label has already been obtained using the OS function or the like, it is not necessary to perform another process inside the printer device.

Since the label to be pasted on the first page of data and used to delimit the data is of a tag type, it is easy to distinguish between continuous print data even if it is lost among a plurality of print data.
Since the data name and the like are displayed on the label and are pasted with offset for each data, the user can easily separate the output paper of the target print data.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of a print processing method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the print processing apparatus according to the embodiment. The apparatus includes a printer driver 1 which is an external module. The printer driver 1 transmits a control command for notifying the start of data output and print data to the printer device. That is, in the printer driver 1,
When processing print data, for example, the name of each print data transmitted by the OS (basic software for personal computers) function,
Label display information such as a transmission time and a transmission user name is obtained.

On the other hand, the apparatus has a control unit 2 as an internal module. The control unit 2 receives a control command relating to each print data sent from the printer driver 1. The received control command determines whether or not the output of the print data is notified, and whether or not label processing is required. When it is determined that the control command notifies the start of output, a command signal for label processing is output, and when other determinations are made, normal printing processing is instructed.

Therefore, a label processing unit 3 is provided, and label processing is performed based on a control signal from the control unit 2. The label processing unit 3 has a data information output unit 4 for outputting information about the print data and performing display printing on an actual label. The label processing unit 3 prints the label on the first page of the print data at the paper discharge port of the printer device. A label attaching means 5 for attaching is provided.

A printing section 6 is provided. The printing unit 6 is controlled by a control signal from the control unit 2.
Normal printing processing other than the label processing described above is performed.

Next, the operation of the apparatus according to this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step 1, when processing print data, the printer driver 1 of the external module obtains label display information such as a data name, a transmission time, and a user name using an OS function or the like. Subsequently, in Step 2, the printer driver 1 sends a control command for notifying the start of data to which the label display information is added to the printer device.

In step 3, the control unit 2 in the printer determines whether or not the control command received from the printer driver 1 notifies the start of print data output. If it is determined that the print data is to be output (Yes), the process proceeds from step 4 to step 5.
And sends a control signal to the label processing unit 3 to instruct processing.

That is, in step 4, detailed information on the data added to the control command of the data start notification is sent from the control unit 2 to the data information output unit 4 of the label processing unit 3. The data information output means 4 outputs and displays the label display information on the actual label, and sends a signal relating to the positioning of the label attaching position to the label attaching means 5 (step 5). On the other hand, the label attaching means 5 provided at the paper discharge port of the printer device
Waits until the first page of the print data is discharged. The position where the label is attached is offset for each different data, and does not overlap with the previously discharged print data.

If it is determined in step 3 that the control command does not notify the start of print data (N
o) The normal printing process shown in step 6 and subsequent steps is performed in the printing unit 6.

That is, in step 6, following the control command of the data start notification, normal printing processing is performed in the printing unit 6, and in step 7, it is determined whether or not the first page of the first page. You. If it is the first one (Ye
s) The label is attached by the label attaching means 5 of the label processing unit 3 at the paper discharge port of the printer device (step 8). The determination as to whether or not the ejected print data is the first sheet (step 7) is not conscious of the printing process. The label is prepared by the label processing unit 3 (step 5), and is first ejected. The received print data is used to determine the first sheet. Therefore, the label processing unit 3 does not affect the normal printing processing at all. Finally, the first print data to which the tag-type label indicating the data details is attached is stacked in the paper discharge port (step 9).

FIG. 3 shows an image of printed matter stacked at the paper discharge port of the printer when a plurality of print data are continuously printed. According to this, print data A ~
The labels A to D corresponding to the D output sheet are smaller than the sheet size, and are provided, for example, between the first and second pages of the data D.

[0026]

As is apparent from the above description, in the printing method and apparatus according to the present invention, even if the output paper is discharged in a state where each data is overlapped, each data can be easily classified by the tag type label. Can be identified. Since the label is attached in a smaller size than the size of the output paper, it does not mix with the same size as the output paper unlike the conventional identification sheet. In addition, since the labels displaying the data details are pasted with offsets, the classification of each data is obvious at a glance, and the burden of the user on data classification is reduced.

Further, since special processing is not required for normal print processing after receiving the print data as a delimiter or part of other data, a memory or CPU for performing special arithmetic processing in the linter apparatus is not required. Thus, the load on the apparatus is reduced, which is advantageous in terms of operability, cost, and durability of the apparatus.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating an image of printed matter stacked at a paper discharge port in the printer device according to the embodiment;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer driver 2 Control part 3 Label processing part 4 Data information output means 5 Label sticking means 6 Printing part

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Agency reference number FI Technical display location G06F 3/12 B41J 29/00 H

Claims (7)

[Claims] When printing a plurality of print data successively, a control command for notifying the start of data for judging the division of each print data is issued, and detailed information such as a print data name is added to the control command. A print processing method, characterized in that: 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the first page of the print data is discharged, a tag-like label for identifying a data section is output in a discharge port at each output paper of each print data. The print processing method according to claim 1. 3. When printing a plurality of print data successively, a control command for notifying the start of data for judging the division of each print data is issued, and detailed information such as a print data name is added to the control command. A print processing device comprising a control device. 4. The control device according to claim 1, further comprising a control unit that receives the control command and determines one of a label process and a normal print process. 4. The apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising: a label processing unit for attaching a tag-like label for identifying a data division to each output paper of each print data at a discharge port when discharging the page. Print processing device. 5. A printer driver for transmitting a control command for notifying start of print data, a control unit for receiving a control command from the printer driver and determining label processing or normal print processing, and A label processing unit that performs label processing by a control signal; and a printing unit that performs normal printing processing of print data by a control signal from the control unit.The label processing unit further includes: 5. The print processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising data information output means for entering details, and label attaching means for attaching a label when the first page of the print data is discharged. 6. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the printer driver is an external module that acquires label display detailed information including a data name, a time, a user name, and the like using an OS function or the like when processing the print data. 6. The print processing apparatus according to 5. 7. The print processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the label processing unit can be mounted with an option.