JP2006171991A - Agent and distributed printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a user-friendly proxy and distributed printing system.
A printing cost per standard print job of a model that supports proxy printing is obtained from a printer or a database (printing cost calculated from power consumption, paper cost, and toner cost for printing data of a standard paper size). And a means for rearranging the member printers in order of cost by displaying cost information for each member printer on the user interface for proxy and distributed printing settings. Further, a means for the user to designate the priority order of member printers from the rearranged printer list is provided.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a proxy and distributed printing system having a device control language using bidirectional communication, which is configured by connecting a computer device and a printer device.

In the conventional proxy and distributed printing member printer settings, printer objects in which port information such as IP addresses on the network, model names, printer driver names, etc. are set are displayed as candidates, and the user can select a model name or I specified it by relying on the printer driver name.
JP 09-319533 A

  However, in the above conventional example, even if the user tries to select a printer with a low printing unit price, it is necessary to know the printing unit price for each model, which is difficult and troublesome for the user.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to provide a user-friendly proxy and distributed printing system.

  Printing cost (standard paper size data) for standard print jobs of models that support proxy and distributed printing from input / output devices (hereinafter collectively referred to as printer devices) such as computers and printers (hereinafter collectively referred to as printer devices) or databases Is provided with a means for acquiring power consumption, printing cost calculated from paper cost and toner cost, and registered printer devices (hereinafter referred to as members) in order of cost in the user interface of proxy and distributed printing settings. A means for rearranging printers and descriptions) is provided.

  If necessary, a means for displaying cost information on the user interface is provided.

  Further, a means is provided for designating the priority order of member printers after the user sees the list of printers rearranged in this cost order and after the order of the member printers has been corrected.

That is, according to the present invention, a printer device which is an input / output device having a plurality of printing functions such as a plurality of computers and printers is connected via a communication interface.
When sending a print request to a group of default input / output devices such as printer devices (hereinafter referred to as group printers) that can process the print request on the sending side, try printing from a member printer that is a registered printer device with a high priority. When printing fails, the printing request on the transmission side is divided into page units for each member printer of the proxy printing system and the group printer having a function of substituting for other member printers according to the priority order until printing succeeds. In a printing system including a distributed printing system capable of transmitting,
A two-way communication means between the printer device and the computer;
On the printer device side,
A printer device information notifying means for notifying a model information such as a model name of a printer device, a printer function information, etc. in response to a request from a host computer;
On the host computer side,
Printer registration means for registering on the host computer all printer devices that the user can print on the network;
A member printer setting unit that allows a user to arbitrarily set the registered printer as a member printer of a group printer by a user interface or the like;
In the member printer setting means, output cost acquisition means capable of acquiring standard output cost information per sheet for all member printers;
In the member printer setting means, a cost order display means for sorting and displaying a list of member printers by output cost;
A proxy and distributed printing system comprising means for registering all or part of the printers displayed in the order of low cost as the priority order of member printers in that order.

  According to the present invention, conventionally, in the member printer setting for proxy and distributed printing, even if the user tries to select a printer with a low printing unit price, the user needs to know the printing unit price for each model. Although it is difficult and troublesome, it is possible to provide a user-friendly system by obtaining the printing cost from the printer and providing the user with a means for sorting the printer by the printing cost on the member printer setting screen. .

  Even if the device does not support printing cost information, by registering cost information for the model name in the setting file on the host computer side, the user can set the member printer for proxy and distributed printing as in the first embodiment. It is possible to provide a selection means based on the printing cost.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment suitable for applying the present invention will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information processing system to which the present invention can be applied. It is assumed that one or more client computers are connected in this system.

  In FIG. 1, reference numerals 102, 103, and 104 denote information processing apparatuses as client computers (clients), which are connected to a network 106 by a network cable such as Ethernet (registered trademark) and can execute various programs such as application programs. And a printer driver having a function of converting print data into a printer language corresponding to the printer. Note that the printer driver supports a plurality of printer drivers. Of course, it is assumed that the printer can be applied to various types of printers such as a laser beam printer using a minimum electrophotographic system, an inkjet printer using an inkjet system, and a printer using a thermal transfer system. .

  Reference numeral 101 denotes an information processing apparatus as a server (hereinafter referred to as a print server) according to the present embodiment. The information processing apparatus 101 is connected to the network 106 via a network cable and stores files used in the network, Or monitor. The print server 101 manages a plurality of printers connected to the network 106.

  As the configuration, the clients 102 to 104 and the print server 101 are general information processing apparatuses, and the client and the print server each store a print control program for performing different controls.

  The print server 101 is a general information processing apparatus and can simultaneously have the functions of the clients 102 to 104.

  The print server 101 in the present embodiment further stores and prints a print job including print data for which a print request has been issued from the client computers 102, 103, 104, or print data from the client computers 102, 103, 104. Only the job information that does not include the print job, manages the print order of the client computers 102, 103, and 104, notifies the client in the print order that the transmission permission of the print job including the print data is received, and the network printer 105 And a function for acquiring various status information and print job information and notifying them to the client computers 102, 103, and 104.

  Reference numeral 105 denotes a network printer as a print control apparatus, which is connected to the network 106 via a network interface (not shown), analyzes a print job including print data transmitted from a client computer, and converts it into a dot image page by page. Convert and print page by page. A network 106 is connected to the client computers 102, 103, 104, the server 101, the network printer 105, and the like.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. The client computers 102, 103, and 104 that are information processing apparatuses have the same configuration, and the server 101 has the same or equivalent hardware. The configuration. Therefore, it demonstrates as a block diagram explaining the structure of a client and a server.

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 200 denotes a CPU that is a control unit of the information processing apparatus, which executes an application program, a printer driver program, an OS, a network printer control program of the present invention, and the like stored in a hard disk (HD) 205. Control to temporarily store information, files, etc. necessary for program execution.

  Reference numeral 201 denotes a ROM which is a storage unit, and stores therein various data such as a program such as a basic I / O program, font data used in document processing, and template data. Reference numeral 202 denotes a RAM which is temporary storage means, and functions as a main memory, work area, and the like of the CPU 200.

  Reference numeral 203 denotes a floppy (registered trademark) disk (FD) drive as a storage medium reading means. As shown in FIG. 5 to be described later, a program stored in the FD 204 as a storage medium is loaded into the computer system through the FD drive 203. can do. Note that the storage medium is not limited to the FD, and may be any CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, PC card, DVD, IC memory card, MO, memory stick, and the like.

  Reference numeral 204 denotes a floppy (registered trademark) disk (FD) as a storage medium, which is a storage medium storing a computer-readable program.

  Reference numeral 205 denotes one of external storage means, which is a hard disk (HD) that functions as a large-capacity memory, and stores an application program, a printer driver program, an OS, a network printer control program, related programs, and the like. Further, a spooler which is a spool means is secured here. The spool means is a client spooler in the client, and a server spooler in the print server. In the print server, job information received from the client is stored, and a table for controlling the order is also generated and stored in the external storage means.

  Reference numeral 206 denotes a keyboard which is an instruction input unit. The user instructs the client computer and the operator or administrator inputs an instruction of a device control command to the print server.

  A display 207 is a display unit that displays commands input from the keyboard 206, the status of the printer, and the like.

  A system bus 208 controls the flow of data in a computer that is a client or a print server.

  Reference numeral 209 denotes an interface which is an input / output unit, and the information processing apparatus exchanges data with an external apparatus via the interface 209.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the memory map of the RAM 202 shown in FIG. 2, and is a memory map in a state where the network printer control program loaded from the FD 204 is loaded into the RAM 202 and can be executed.

  In this embodiment, the network printer control program and related data are loaded directly from the FD 204 into the RAM 202 and executed. However, every time the network printer control program is operated from the FD 204, the network printer control program is already executed. May be loaded into the RAM 202 from the HD 205 in which is installed.

  The medium for storing the network printer control program may be a CD-ROM, CD-R, PC card, DVD, or IC memory card in addition to the FD. Furthermore, it is possible to store the network printer control program in the ROM 201, configure it as a part of the memory map, and execute it directly by the CPU 200.

  In addition, software that realizes the same function as each of the above devices can be used as an alternative to a hardware device.

The network printer control program may be simply referred to as a print control program. The print control program includes a program for instructing the client to change the print destination of the print job, or for instructing to change the print order, and in the print server to perform the print job order control. , A program for notifying the end of printing of a print job, a request for changing the printing destination, and the like is included. The print control program of the present invention for performing such control may separately divide a module installed in the client and a module installed in the print server, or one print control program is executed. It may function as a client or a print server depending on the environment. Alternatively, it is possible to install a module having a client function and a module functioning as a print server on one computer, and to perform a pseudo parallel operation at the same time or in a time division manner.

  Reference numeral 301 denotes a basic I / O program, which has an IPL (Initial Program Loading) function for starting the operation of the OS by reading the OS from the HD 205 into the RAM 202 when the control device is turned on. This is the area that contains the program.

  Reference numeral 302 denotes an operating system (OS), and 303 denotes a network printer control program, which is stored in an area secured on the RAM 202. Reference numeral 304 denotes related data, which is stored in an area secured on the RAM 202. Reference numeral 305 denotes a work area in which an area for the CPU 200 to execute the printer control program is secured.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a memory map of the FD 204 illustrated in FIG. In FIG. 4, 400 is the data content of the FD 204, 401 is volume information indicating data information, 402 is directory information, 403 is a network printer control program which is a print control program described in the present embodiment, 404 Is the related data. The network printer control program 403 is a program based on the flowchart described in the embodiment. In this embodiment, the client and the server have the same configuration.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a relationship with the FD 204 inserted into the FD drive 203 shown in FIG. 2, and the same components as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  In FIG. 5, the FD 204 stores a network printer control program and related data described in the present embodiment.

  Next, a print job control system that uses a plurality of printers according to the present embodiment and performs the above-described printing processing such as distribution, broadcast, and substitution will be described.

  In the present embodiment, print settings can be centrally instructed to individual printer drivers corresponding to a plurality of printer devices, and a De-spooler (described in detail later) is provided for each printer driver. A driver that generates basic data (general-purpose document data) for generating a general-purpose print file for notifying a drawing command to a printer is called a group printer driver. Each printer driver depending on the printer device is called a member printer driver.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram showing how a print job issued from a general application such as MicroSoft (registered trademark) in the client server model of this system is processed in the print job control system. In FIG. 6, reference numeral 600 denotes a client machine, which indicates a machine on which a client module of the print job control system operates.

  Usually, when a printing instruction is given, the application program generates a series of drawing commands via the graphic function of the OS, and passes them to Windows (registered trademark) Spooler via the printer driver. Windows (registered trademark) Spooler takes a procedure of passing print job data to the port monitor selected by the user and transmitting it to the printer device.

  In the present embodiment, the user designates a print job control system port monitor 621 (hereinafter abbreviated as job control port monitor in this embodiment) and instructs printing in advance. The application program 601 generates a drawing command via a series of OSs.

  Upon receiving the drawing command, the group printer driver 603 generates general-purpose document data for generating a general-purpose print file, and sends it as print job data to the job control port monitor 621 instead of a port monitor that transmits print job data to the printer device. Send. The job control port monitor 621 does not transmit print job data to the printer device 650 but transmits it to the print job control system print service 622 (hereinafter abbreviated as job control print service in this embodiment). The job control print service 622 has a function of managing the status of the job / device managed by the job control server 630. Further, when the device and the client PC operate in a peer-to-peer connection environment, the job control print service 622 manages information such as the device status and job status notified from the device, and And a function of giving a predetermined command. This corresponds to a function for managing device information and job information of a plurality of printer devices 650.

  The print job control system print manager 623 (hereinafter abbreviated as job control print manager in this embodiment) checks the state of the print job in the job control print service 622 by the user, It is a program that provides a user interface (UI) for operation.

  The job control print manager 623 transmits / receives information to / from the job control print service 622 via the software interface (API) of the job control print service 622, and mainly an external printer device managed by the job control print service 622. It has a function to acquire the state information as an event. Event notification types include warnings when the amount of toner is low, communication failure between the client and device, memory shortage, full output tray, and other error / warning information notifications, and return from error to normal status Notification of normal information is assumed.

  The print job control system server 630 (hereinafter abbreviated as job control server in the present embodiment) performs centralized control (scheduling) the timing at which the job control print service 622 on each client 600 transmits print job data to the printer device 650. )is doing. The print job control system server 630 monitors the status of the power control status, fault information (paper jam), etc. during printing of each device (printing apparatus) that can communicate via the network, and the job control print service 622. Has a function to notify events. Here, regarding the monitoring of the status change of the printer status, the job control print service 622 can directly acquire a notification (event) of the status change from the printer device.

  The print job control system management console 633 (hereinafter abbreviated as “job control management console” in this embodiment) exchanges information and instructions with the job control server 630 via an API for accessing software of the job control server 630. By doing so, the entire print job control system can be monitored.

  Further, the job control server 630 communicates with each printer device 650 using the device information control module 631 to obtain information about a print job and an operation state in each printer and perform an operation. The acquired information can be transferred to the job control print service 622 on the client 600 side.

  Next, printing from the group printer driver 603 in this embodiment will be described.

  The group printer driver 603 generates the general-purpose document data described above from a series of drawing commands generated by the application program. This general-purpose document data is converted by the job control print service 622 into a general-purpose print file that is an intermediate format file independent of the type of printer device. The configuration of this general-purpose print file will be described later.

  As described above, this general-purpose print file is guided from the Windows S (registered trademark) spooler 604 through the job control port monitor 621 (a) to the job control print service 622 (b). The job control print service 622 generates a drawing command based on the general-purpose print file according to the type of job control performed on the print job (c), and then the PDL driver 602 sends the drawing command to the printer device 650. Is a PDL file that can be interpreted. In FIG. 6, an example in which job control print service 622 performs job control for dividing a print job into two for this print job, and an example in which two member jobs are generated is indicated by two arrows (c). Yes. The PDL file generated by the PDL driver 602 passes through the Windows (registered trademark) spooler 604 and the job control port monitor 621 (d), and is again delivered to the job control print service 622 (e). The job control print service 622 transmits PDL print job data to the printer device 650 in accordance with an instruction from the job control server 630 (f).

  The job control print service 622 logically divides one general-purpose print file into a plurality of print jobs in accordance with the instructions in the print instruction document in the general-purpose print file, and transmits them to different printer devices or once. Re-send print job data to another printer device. (C), (d), (e), and (f) in FIG. A indicate the print job data path in such a case.

  On the other hand, when the application software creates a general-purpose print file and the application software directly inputs the general-purpose print file as a print job, the general application is a method of passing information to the group printer driver 603 or the group printer driver 603. The processing content of is different. As described above, in the case of a general application, when handing drawing information to the group printer driver 603, the application calls a Windows (registered trademark) GDI function in the same way as a normal printer driver, and the group printer driver 603 responds accordingly. General-purpose document data is generated, and the generated general-purpose document data is generated into a general-purpose print file by the job control print service 622. On the other hand, in the case of an application that directly creates a general-purpose print file, the application already has a general-purpose print file and supplies it to the group printer driver 603. The group printer driver 603 rewrites the print instruction in the general-purpose print file based on a preset printing method as necessary, and sends it to the Windows S (registered trademark) Spooler 604.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a general-purpose print file.

  The general-purpose print file used in this embodiment includes a print instruction unit 8-a and a document data unit 8-b. The print instruction part is a part describing document information and a print instruction. The document data is obtained by converting application data into general-purpose data, and has a data format independent of the printer language.

  The print instruction unit includes a header part, a page information part, a print format instruction part, an output method designation part, a group printer driver setting information part, a member printer number, a member printer driver name, and a member printer driver setting information part.

  The header part is a part for storing information such as version identification and file information of this file.

  The page information part is a part for storing information such as the number of pages of document data in the document data part 8-b and the size of each page.

  The print format instruction unit is a part that stores information related to the output format such as a print page range, the number of copies, document data imposition information (N-UP, bookbinding printing, etc.), a staple command, a punch command, and the like.

  The output method designating unit is a part that stores information such as distributed printing, color / monochrome distributed printing, proxy printing, and broadcast printing as an output method.

  The group printer driver setting information part is a part for storing UI setting information of a group printer driver described later.

  The number of member printers is a part for storing the number of member printers associated with the group printer driver.

  The member printer driver name is a part for storing the printer driver name of the member printer.

  The member printer driver setting information section is a part that stores, for example, DEVMODE information as setting information of the driver UI of the member printer.

  The member printer driver name and member printer driver setting information section have as many storage areas as the number of member printers stored.

  The group printer driver 603 described with reference to FIG. 6 records the settings on the group printer driver GUI in the print instruction unit 8-a when generating a general-purpose print file. Further, the group printer driver 603 converts the data received by the GDI into general-purpose data and records it as document data in the document data portion of the general-purpose print file.

  Next, the relationship between the print system provided by Windows S (registered trademark) and the print job in the print job control system and the processing outline will be described in more detail.

  In FIG. 7, a print job control system 700 shows the range of the print job control system that straddles physical machines on which the server and client control programs operate. The output port (Output Port) 711 managed by the server is associated with the proxy output port (Proxy Output Port) 712 of the job control print service 622 of the client, and the proxy on each client associated with one port. All output ports are managed in a unified manner. In this embodiment, actual print job data is held in the proxy output port 712 of each client. The job control server 630 does not perform transmission processing of the print job data itself, but only instructs the job control print service 622 to transmit a print job. In response to the instruction, the job control print service 622 of the client transmits print job data to the device 650.

  Next, processing when the print job control system 700 performs value-added printing such as proxy printing, distributed printing, and broadcast printing will be described.

  When the print job control system 700 performs value-added printing such as proxy printing, distributed printing, and broadcast printing, as described above, the user or application 601 prints to a printer to which the group printer driver 603 is assigned. Must be issued. The job control print service 622 receives job data processed by the group printer driver 603 as a general-purpose print file via the job control port monitor 621. The job control print service 622 receives this job and issues a job (member job) to another printer to which the PDL driver is assigned via the DeSpooler 701 for printing.

  At this time, the DeSpooler 701 interprets the print instruction part 8-a of the general-purpose print file described with reference to FIG. 8, processes the document data of the document data part 8-b, and converts it into Windows (registered trademark) GDI. , Issue a print instruction to each printer driver and issue a print job. For example, when a 2-UP instruction is recorded in the print format designation section, document data for two pages is reduced and laid out on one sheet of paper. In the case of distributed printing or broadcast printing, a job is issued to a plurality of member printers described in the print instruction section 8-a according to these settings. In the case of proxy printing, when a proxy condition is satisfied, a member job is issued in accordance with a user's operation in advance for automatic proxy and for manual proxy. Further, the instruction information corresponding to each member printer driver is extracted from the printing instruction section 8-a by a module different from the De-spooler described above, and the print instruction for each extracted member printer driver is sent to the De-spooler. A form that allows a spooler to interpret is also assumed.

  Further, when the DeSpooler 701 issues a job to each member printer, it is necessary to create a DEVMODE for each member printer as a print instruction corresponding to the member printer driver. This DEVMODE is described in the print instruction section 8-a. The contents are appropriately reflected in the DEVMODE of each member printer.

  The job control print service 622 on the client side receives the PDL data of each member job rendered by the PDL driver 602 via the job control port monitor 621, notifies the server side of information regarding the received job, It is temporarily stored in its own proxy output queue (Proxy Output Port) 712. Thereafter, after receiving a transmission instruction from the job control server 630, it is transmitted to the print device 650.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processing on the host computer side for the proxy printing and distributed printing control method of this embodiment. The processing on the host computer side of this embodiment will be described below according to the flowchart.

  In this embodiment, the group printer driver 603 and the like implement the following member printer setting functions.

  First, when starting the program of the printing system of the present embodiment, necessary initialization processing is performed (S901). Here, information necessary for initialization is acquired from the model names, printing functions, cost information, etc. of all printers registered in the host, and a printer information list L is created. This creation process will be described later with reference to FIG. Thereafter, the processing loop is entered. First, it is determined whether a member printer setting request for a group printer has been detected (S902). In the case of Yes, the setting S necessary for initializing the current member printer setting screen is acquired from the setting file or the memory (S903). Next, the setting screen (UI) is initialized and displayed with the acquired setting S (S904). The user performs a setting change operation using the setting UI (S905). It is determined whether the operation is a printer sorting instruction in order of printing cost (S906). If Yes, L is used to obtain cost information from the printer information list L for all printers displayed on the setting UI. The cost information is updated (S907). L is created at the start of the program, but a new printer may be added while the program is running. In that case, the printing cost information regarding the printer is acquired from the printer, and if necessary, written in the setting file and L is updated. The printing cost is the printing cost per standard print job, and is calculated from the power consumption, paper cost, and toner cost for printing the standard paper size data. In this embodiment, it is obtained from the printer device. It shall be possible. Next, the printing cost information of all display printers is acquired from the updated L (S908). The acquired printing cost is a price, and since it is a numerical value, it can be sorted (rearranged), so it is sorted in ascending order and displayed on the setting UI. If necessary, cost information is also displayed (S909), and the process returns to S905. If No in S906, it is determined whether the OK button has been pressed on the setting screen. If Yes, the user setting is saved, the setting is terminated (S911), and the process returns to S902. If No in S910, it is determined whether the cancel button has been pressed on the setting screen. If Yes, the setting is not saved, the setting is terminated (S913), and the process returns to S902. In the case of No in S912, appropriate processing is performed (S914), and the process returns to S905. Since S914 is not related to the essence of the present invention, the description thereof is omitted.

  A specific example will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 12 shows an example of the setting UI for the proxy printing printer. In the central list, the member printers are displayed with the top priority. In this UI, when a “printer addition / deletion” button is pressed, a UI as shown in FIG. 13 is displayed to add / delete a member printer.

  In FIG. 12, by pressing the “cost” bar at the top of the list, the printers can be rearranged in order of cost, and this can be set as the priority order of member printers. It is also possible to provide a toggle function in ascending order with the first press, and higher order with the next press. In the example of FIG. 12, after sorting in order of cost, the user can press the “↑” or “↓” button at the right center of the UI to change the priority order of the printers.

  The UI in FIG. 13 is used not only for proxy printing but also for adding / deleting member printers for distributed printing.

  The left list displays a list of printers that can be registered as member printers of proxy or group printers for distributed printing that have already been registered in the host computer. In the right list, output destination printers (candidates) selected and added by the user in the left list as a substitute or distribution destination are displayed. The list on the left is rearranged in the order of cost (in this case, in the order of cheapness) by designating the printer sorting method in the center of the UI as “cost” and presented to the user. The user selects a part or all of the rearranged list, and presses an “add” button to move the selected printer to the right list in the same order as the left order. The “Add All” button moves all printers from the left list to the right list in the same order. When the user finishes the setting, if the “OK” button is pressed, the output destination printer selected in the right list is registered as a member printer of the proxy or distributed printing group printer.

  The creation of the printer information list L in S901 will be described below with reference to FIG.

  In this embodiment, it is assumed that there is a setting file for holding universal information or initialization information in order to quickly initialize the program. With reference to this, the internal data / UI of the program is initialized. The printer information list is also held here. If there is no setting file, the printer information list L may be created by the result of communication with the device and, if necessary, an inquiry (API call) to another process. First, a list of printer names registered in the host computer is acquired from the API or the setting file, and the setting file F in which the values of the printer information list are stored is read (S1001). The number of registered printers acquired in S1001 is set to N, and the index counter variable i is initialized to 0 (S1002). Next, i and N are compared to determine whether i is smaller than N (S1003). If Yes, it is determined whether the information of the i-th element Pi in the registered printer list exists in F (S1004). If Yes, it is determined whether there is unregistered data among information necessary for program initialization, such as the model, printing function, and printing cost information, for Pi (S1005).

  If Yes in S105 or No in S1004, an unregistered information acquisition request is transmitted to the printer Pi. Alternatively, if there is a server computer that collectively manages printer information, an acquisition request is transmitted to the server computer (S1006). After S1006 or if No in S1005, the index counter is incremented (S1007), and the process returns to S1003. If NO in S1003, it is determined whether a response packet has been received from the printer (S1008). If YES, it is determined whether the response is a request made in S1006 (S1009). If YES, the corresponding information is determined from the response packet. (S1010), the acquired information is added to the printer information list L (S1011), and the process returns to S1003. If NO in step S1008, it is determined whether the information on all registered printers has been updated, or whether a list update stop request has been received due to a timeout due to timer processing (S1012). If YES, the printer information list is stored in the setting file F. If there is a change in the data of L, it is written and saved (S1013), and the process ends. In the case of No in S1012, processing is performed as appropriate (S1014) and the process returns to S1003, but this is irrelevant to the essence of the present invention, and the description thereof is omitted.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 11, the device-side processing of the substitution and distributed printing method of this embodiment will be described.

  First, the device is reset and an initialization process is performed (S1101). Next, it is determined whether there is reception from the host computer (S1102). If there is reception, it is determined whether it is a request for obtaining printer information such as model, function, printing cost information, etc. (S1103). The information is written into the RAM (S1104). As a result, the processing result is transmitted to the requesting side by the transmitting means of the device (S1105). If the answer is No in S1103, it is determined whether the request is a print request from the host computer (S1107), and if the request is a print request, appropriate print processing is performed (S1108). If NO in S1102 and S1107, it is determined whether an end command has been received (S1106 and S1111), and if it is an end command, the process is terminated (power off). In the case of No in S1106, it is confirmed whether there is transmission data in the RAM (S1109), and if it is, transmission processing is performed (S1110).

  In the case of No in S1109 and S1111, other appropriate processing is performed (S1112 and S1113). Since this is not related to the essence of the present invention, the description is omitted. If NO in step S1102, it is determined whether or not there has been an end command such as pressing the power button of the device. If YES, the process ends (power off). After S1105, S1108, S1110, S1112, and S1113, the process returns to S1102, and the process is repeated.

  In the first embodiment, printing cost information is acquired from the printer device. If the printer device does not support this information, printing can be performed by previously registering the printing cost information related to the device in the setting file of the first embodiment. Since the cost is a fixed value for each model, it can be used. Even when the same information is acquired via the management server, the same setting file may be held on the management server side.

  The format of the setting file is as follows (excerpt), for example.

[Canon LASER SHOT LBP-2810] ;; model name PrintCost = 5.0 ;; Yen / Standard Formatted Page Printing.
Since most printer devices can acquire the model name, the model name is acquired from the device, the setting file is searched by the model name, and the value of the printing cost (PrintCost) key is acquired.

Block diagram for explaining a module and an input / output device constituting a printing system in which the device search method of the present embodiment is implemented Block diagram illustrating the configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the embodiment The figure which shows the memory map in the block diagram shown in FIG. The figure which shows an example of the memory map of FIG. The figure which shows the relationship with FD inserted in FD drive shown in FIG. Diagram showing the processing flow of the client server model of this system The figure which showed the print job control system of the client server model of this system The figure which showed an example of the structure of the general-purpose print file of this system Flow chart showing processing of host computer of this system A flowchart showing the printer information list creation procedure in the processing of the host computer of this system Flow chart showing processing of device of this system The figure which shows an example of the user interface of the device proxy printing setting of this system The figure which shows an example of the user interface of the member printer setting of substitution and distributed printing of this system

Explanation of symbols

101 Server 102, 103, 104 Client 105 Network printer 106 Network

Claims (3)

A printer device, which is an input / output device having a plurality of printing functions, such as a plurality of computers and printers, is connected via a communication interface,
When sending a print request to a group printer in a group of default input / output devices such as a printer device that can process the print request on the sending side, printing failed from a member printer that is a registered printer device with a high priority. In this case, according to the priority order, it is possible to divide and send the transmission side print request to each member printer of the proxy printing system and the group printer having a function of substituting for other member printers until printing succeeds. In a printing system equipped with a distributed printing system,
A two-way communication means between the printer device and the computer;
On the printer device side,
A printer device information notifying means for notifying a model information such as a model name of a printer device, a printer function information, etc. in response to a request from a host computer;
On the host computer side,
Printer registration means for registering on the host computer all printer devices that the user can print on the network;
A member printer setting unit that allows a user to arbitrarily set the registered printer as a member printer of a group printer by a user interface or the like;
In the member printer setting means, output cost acquisition means capable of acquiring standard output cost information per sheet for all member printers;
In the member printer setting means, a cost order display means for sorting and displaying a list of member printers by output cost;
A proxy and distributed printing system comprising means for registering all or a part of the printers displayed in order of low cost as priority order of member printers in that order. The output cost acquisition means according to claim 1, wherein the printer device holds its own cost information,
A proxy and distributed printing system that notifies cost information acquisition requests from a host computer. The output cost acquisition means according to claim 1 has a cost information list including cost information for each model for all compatible printers on the host computer,
The printer device information notification means acquires model information from the printer,
An agency and distributed printing system characterized in that an output cost is obtained from the cost information list based on the obtained model information.