JP2004078497A - Output control method and device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an output control method and a device, capable of outputting a unified banner sheet regardless whether or not an output device such as a printer supports the output of the banner sheet. <P>SOLUTION: A banner sheet generating part 15 generates a banner sheet on the basis of an attribute acquired by an attribute acquiring part 12 from a job received by a job receiver 11, device information acquired by a device information acquiring part 14 from an output destination device, and a resource such as a template which is configured and stored in a resource storage part 13 previously. The generated banner sheet is combined with a banner sheet by a banner sheet job generating part 16 and a job transfer part 17 transmits it to the output destination. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an output control method and apparatus, and more particularly, to an output control method and apparatus for performing printing output including a banner sheet at an output destination such as a printer.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Some printing apparatuses such as printers shared by a plurality of users print a banner sheet or the like at an output break in order to facilitate identification of a plurality of job processing results. For example, JP-A-1-317954, JP-A-8-40629, and JP-A-8-245050 describe a configuration in which a printing apparatus inserts a banner sheet or the like between outputs for each job. .
[0003]
In recent years, with the improvement of network technology, many print server systems have been introduced, in which a plurality of printers connected to a network are centrally managed and provided to users. In the print server system, various types of printers can be centrally managed, so printers that support banner sheet output and printers that do not support banner sheets may be managed together. In this case, it is conceivable that jobs may be concentrated on printers that support banner sheet output, or that printers that do not support banner sheet output take time to identify output results.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, when sharing a printer, banner sheet output is often desired, but not all printers support banner sheet output. Also, even if each printer supports banner sheet output, the banner sheet output from each printer does not necessarily have the same design and print content, and the entire system is considered. In some cases, the user may feel inconvenience.
[0005]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an output control method and apparatus capable of outputting a unified banner sheet regardless of whether an output device such as a printer supports banner sheet output. I do.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an output control method for transmitting a received job to a specified output destination, wherein attribute information of the job is extracted from the received job and the specified output Acquiring the output destination information of the output destination from a destination, generating a banner sheet based on the attribute information and the output destination information, and transmitting the generated banner sheet to the output destination together with the job. I do.
[0007]
Also, the invention of claim 2 is characterized in that, in the invention of claim 1, the output destination information is obtained and held in advance from the output destination.
[0008]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, when the job is described in a page description language, the attribute information is obtained by analyzing the page description language. And
[0009]
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the banner sheet is combined with the job and sent to the output destination.
[0010]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a resource corresponding to the output destination is held in advance, and the banner sheet is generated using the held resource. I do.
[0011]
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the banner sheet is generated by a description in a page description language, and the description includes an instruction to obtain predetermined information at the output destination and the obtained information. And printing instructions.
[0012]
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided an output control device for transmitting a received job to a designated output destination, wherein the job receiving unit receives the job, and the attribute information of the job is received from the job received by the job receiving unit. Attribute information extracting means for extracting, output destination information obtaining means for obtaining output destination information of the output destination from an output destination specified by the job received by the job receiving means, and an attribute obtained by the attribute information obtaining means. A banner sheet generating unit that generates a banner sheet based on the output destination information obtained by the output destination information obtaining unit; and a job transmission that sends the banner sheet generated by the banner sheet generating unit to the job and the output destination. Means.
[0013]
The invention of claim 8 is the invention of claim 7, wherein the output destination information obtaining means obtains the output information in advance from the output destination, and holds the obtained output destination information. And
[0014]
According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the seventh aspect, when the job is described in a page description language, the attribute information acquiring means analyzes the page description language, and analyzes the result from the analysis result. Acquiring the attribute information.
[0015]
The invention according to claim 10 is the invention according to claim 7, further comprising a job synthesizing unit that generates a composite job by synthesizing the job with the banner sheet generated by the banner sheet generating unit, wherein the job sending unit Sends the combined job generated by the job combining means to the output destination.
[0016]
The invention of claim 11 is the invention of claim 7, further comprising resource holding means for holding resources according to the output destination, wherein the banner sheet generation means is held by the resource holding means. The banner sheet is generated using resources.
[0017]
In a twelfth aspect of the present invention based on the seventh aspect, the banner sheet generating means generates the banner sheet in a description in a page description language, and instructs the description to acquire predetermined information at the output destination. And an instruction to print the acquired information.
[0018]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of an output control method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0019]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a print server system to which the present invention is applied. As shown in the figure, the print server system includes a print server 1 and clients 2 (2-1 to 2-n), a scanner 3 (3-1 to 3-m), and a printer 4 (4-1 to 4-l). ), A fax server 5 and a mail server 6 connected via a network 7.
[0020]
The print server 1 according to the present invention sends a job received from the client 2 or the scanner 3 to output destinations such as the printer 4, the fax server 5, and the mail server 6, and outputs a banner sheet to these output destinations. Let it.
[0021]
The client 2 runs application software and issues a job from the application software via a printer driver. The scanner 3 reads a document, generates image data, and issues a job based on the image data.
[0022]
The printer 4 prints an image or the like on a sheet based on a job. The fax server 5 transmits the image data to the designated destination based on the job. The mail server 6 transmits an electronic mail with image data attached to a designated destination based on the job.
[0023]
Note that the scanner 3 and the printer 4 and the fax server 5 and the mail server 6 may be configured as the same device having both functions, and other devices may be connected to the network 7. .
[0024]
Here, the details of the print server 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the print server 1. In FIG. 2, a configuration showing a general function as a print server is omitted.
[0025]
As shown in FIG. 1, the print server 1 includes a job receiving unit 11, an attribute acquiring unit 12, a resource holding unit 13, a device information acquiring unit 14, a banner sheet generating unit 15, a banner sheet job generating unit 16, and a job transferring unit 17. It comprises.
[0026]
The job receiving unit 11 receives a job from the client 2 or the scanner 3. The job to be received includes data image data described in a page description language.
[0027]
The attribute obtaining unit 12 obtains an attribute necessary for generating a banner sheet from the job received by the job receiving unit 11. The attributes acquired by the attribute acquisition unit 12 include an output destination, a document name, a print instructor name, a paper size, the number of output pages, and the like. In some cases, it is not possible to obtain the paper size, the number of output pages, and the like from a job described in a page description language. In this case, the page description language is analyzed to obtain a desired attribute. I do.
[0028]
For example, in a description using a page description language as shown in FIG. 3A, numbers 595 and 841 are extracted from the description “{/ PageSize [595 841]} setpagedevice” with an underline 81. This indicates that the paper size is 595 points in width and 841 points in height, so this value is converted to millimeters and the fact that the paper size is A4 is obtained.
[0029]
In the description shown in FIG. 3A, the description “showpage” with the underline 82 and the underline 83 is a command for drawing a page, and therefore, the number of appearances of this “showpage” is obtained. Thus, the number of pages can be obtained. However, in practice, a command "showpage" is defined to be replaced with another command "sp" like the description "/ sp showpage def% showpage" with an underline 85 in FIG. In some cases, the page may be rendered using the description “sp” with the underline 86 and the underline 87, respectively. Therefore, instead of simply calculating the number of appearances of “showpage” by a keyword search, etc. Interpretation is often required.
[0030]
The resource holding unit 13 holds resources such as templates required for generating a banner sheet. The template and the like are described in a page description language, and the same contents may be described in a plurality of types of page description languages. Further, a template or the like may be held as an image.
[0031]
The device information acquisition unit 14 acquires device information of an output destination such as the printer 4 or the fax server 5 by using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) or the like, and holds the device information. If the output destination device cannot acquire device information, the device information acquisition unit 14 holds the device information input by the administrator or the like.
[0032]
The device information acquired by the device information acquisition unit 14 includes not only the type of the output destination including the type of the printer, but also the type of the supported page description language, the supported font, the resolution, the drawing area, and the like. In the type of the supported page description language, information such as whether or not the device name, time, and the like can be obtained by itself based on the description of the language is also obtained.
[0033]
The banner sheet generating unit 15 generates a banner sheet based on the attributes acquired by the attribute acquiring unit 12, the resources held by the resource holding unit 13, and the output destination device information acquired and held by the device information acquiring unit 14. Create a job. The job to be generated is described in a page description language corresponding to the output destination. For example, if the output destination can acquire its own device name, a command such as “product show” is described instead of the device name. The output destination obtains the device name, and if the output destination can obtain the time, a command such as "_calender / Year get show" is described instead of the time, and the output destination obtains the time. If the output destination only supports the output of an image, the banner sheet generating unit 15 creates an image based on the description in the page description language for the banner sheet, and thereafter, sets the created image as the output destination. Convert to the appropriate format. Alternatively, a template of an image held in the resource holding unit 13 may be acquired, a character image or the like may be combined with the template, and the combined image may be converted into a format corresponding to an output destination. Good.
[0034]
The banner sheet job generation unit 16 combines the job received by the job reception unit 11 and the banner sheet job generated by the banner sheet generation unit 15. The combining of the jobs may be performed such that the two jobs are regarded as one job, or the two jobs may be continuously processed as two jobs.
[0035]
The job transfer unit 17 sends the job synthesized by the banner sheet job generation unit 16 to a designated output destination. When it is determined that the banner sheet does not need to be generated based on an instruction or setting, the job transfer unit 17 may send the job received by the job receiving unit 11 to a designated output destination. .
[0036]
Next, the operation of the print server 1 will be described from the processing flow. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of the process of the print server 1.
[0037]
When the job receiving unit 11 receives the job (YES in step 101) and determines that the received job requires setting the banner sheet output (YES in step 102), the print server 1 receives the attribute (step 102). 12 acquires an attribute required for generating a banner sheet from the job (step 103), and passes the acquired attribute to the banner sheet generating unit 15.
[0038]
Upon receiving the attribute from the attribute acquisition unit 12, the banner sheet generation unit 15 specifies an output destination based on the attribute (Step 104). Then, the banner sort generation unit 15 obtains the device information of the specified output destination from the device information obtaining unit 14 (step 105), and based on the obtained device information, outputs from the resource holding unit 13 a template such as a template corresponding to the output destination. Acquire resources (step 106).
[0039]
Subsequently, the banner sheet generation unit 15 generates a job for the banner sheet based on the acquired attributes, device information, and resources (Step 107). After that, the banner sheet job generating unit 16 combines the job received by the job receiving unit 11 with the job generated by the banner sheet generating unit 15 (Step 108), and the job transfer unit 17 specifies the combined job. The output is sent to the output destination (step 109), and the process ends.
[0040]
If the job receiving unit 11 determines that the output of the banner sheet is not required for the received job (NO in step 102), the job transfer unit 17 immediately sends the job to the output destination (step 102). 109), and the process ends.
[0041]
By performing such processing, the print server 1 can output the banner sheet even to an output destination that does not support the banner sheet, and absorbs the difference between the output destination devices to unify them. We can make banner sheet of good design and quality. This is because, even when the drawing areas (indicated by broken lines in the drawing) are different from each other, for example, as in the banner sheet shown in FIGS. Can be output. Then, even when the job is transferred to another output destination having a different drawing area due to a failure or the like, a banner sheet with no character breakage can be output.
[0042]
Also, if information such as time can be obtained at the output destination, a banner sheet on which accurate print end time and fax transmission time are printed can be created even when printing a document having many pages.
[0043]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, in a print server, a banner sheet is created based on attributes acquired from a received job, device information acquired from an output destination device, and resources set and held in advance. Because it is configured to generate banner sheets, it is possible to output banner sheets even to output destinations that do not support banner sheets, and to absorb differences in output destination devices, banners of uniform design and quality Sheets can be created.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a print server system to which the present invention has been applied.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the print server 1.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a description example in a page description language.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of processing of the print server 1.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an output example of a banner sheet.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Print server 2, 2-1 to 2-n Client 3, 3-1 to 3-m Scanner 4, 4-1 to 4-l Printer 5 Fax server 6 Mail server 7 Network 11 Job receiving unit 12 Attribute acquisition unit 13 Resource holding unit 14 Device information acquisition unit 15 Banner sheet generation unit 16 Banner sheet job generation unit 17 Job transfer unit 81 Underline 82 Underline 83 Underline 85 Underline 86 Underline 87 Underline

Claims (12)

In an output control method of sending a received job to a specified output destination,
Extracting attribute information of the job from the received job, acquiring output destination information of the output destination from a designated output destination, generating a banner sheet based on the attribute information and the output destination information, An output control method, wherein the generated banner sheet is sent to the output destination together with the job. The output destination information is
2. The output control method according to claim 1, wherein the output control method is obtained in advance and held from the output destination. The attribute information is
2. The output control method according to claim 1, wherein when the job is described in a page description language, the job is obtained by analyzing the page description language. The banner sheet,
2. The output control method according to claim 1, wherein the job is combined with the job and sent to the output destination. 2. The output control method according to claim 1, wherein resources corresponding to the output destination are held in advance, and the banner sheet is generated using the held resources. The banner sheet,
2. The output control method according to claim 1, wherein the output control method is generated by a description in a page description language, and the description includes an instruction to acquire predetermined information at the output destination and an instruction to print the acquired information. In an output control device for sending a received job to a designated output destination,
Job receiving means for receiving a job,
Attribute information extracting means for extracting attribute information of the job from the job received by the job receiving means;
Output destination information obtaining means for obtaining output destination information of the output destination from an output destination specified by the job received by the job receiving means,
A banner sheet generating unit that generates a banner sheet based on the attribute acquired by the attribute information acquiring unit and the output destination information acquired by the output destination information acquiring unit;
An output control device comprising: a job sending unit that sends the banner sheet generated by the banner sheet generating unit to the job and the output destination. The output destination information acquisition means,
The output control device according to claim 7, wherein the output information is acquired in advance from the output destination, and the acquired output destination information is held. The attribute information acquisition means,
8. The output control device according to claim 7, wherein when the job is described in a page description language, the page description language is analyzed, and the attribute information is obtained from the analysis result. The image processing apparatus further includes a job combining unit that creates a combined job that combines the banner sheet generated by the banner sheet generating unit and the job,
The job sending means includes:
8. The output control device according to claim 7, wherein the combined job generated by the job combining unit is sent to the output destination. Further comprising a resource holding means for holding a resource corresponding to the output destination,
The banner sheet generating means,
8. The output control device according to claim 7, wherein the banner sheet is generated using resources held by the resource holding unit. The banner sheet generating means,
8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the banner sheet is generated by a description in a page description language, and the description includes an instruction to acquire predetermined information at the output destination and an instruction to print the acquired information. Output control device.

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