Printing system, print instruction apparatus and print instruction method

Abstract

The invention provides a printing system, a print instruction apparatus and a print instruction method. the print instruction apparatus can send print instructions to a plurality of image forming apparatuses. A control section of the print instruction apparatus includes a database holding an apparatus information list recorded with identifying information of the image forming apparatuses, and an apparatus managing section configured to transmit live confirming information to each of the image forming apparatuses with referring to the apparatus information list, recognize image forming apparatuses connected to the communication network based on receipt of response to the live confirming information, transmit an acquisition request of device information to an image forming apparatus selected on a screen showing a list of the recognized image forming apparatuses, and acquire the apparatus information from the selected image forming apparatus.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a printing system, a printing instructing device and a printing instructing method, in particular to a printing system, a printing instructing device and a printing instructing method which maintain the sleep state of an image forming device to realize energy saving. Background technique [0002] Image forming devices such as printers and MFPs (MFP: Multi Function Peripheral) perform controls such as keeping the temperature of the fuser that fixes the toner image formed on the paper at a constant temperature in order to shorten the waiting time until the printed matter is output. Therefore, the power consumption in the ready state (normal state) is large. Therefore, when the state of being unused for a certain period of time continues, the image forming apparatus transitions from the ready state to the sleep state (energy-saving state) that consumes less power than the ready state, thereby reducing power consumption. ...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0006] However, in terms of resources and costs, there are many limitations in realizing the above-mentioned proxy response function. Depending on the performance of the proxy response function and the network environment, even if it is limited to the data packets that need to be processed, a large number of packets will be received. data packets, so that the image forming apparatus cannot be kept in the sleep state, but frequently returns to the ready state, and the power consumption of the image forming apparatus cannot be effectively reduced

[0007] In addition, when multiple types of image forming apparatuses are connected to the network, it is necessary to install a printer driver for each type on each client computer device, resulting in cumbersome operations. A common printer driver (called Universal Printer Driver (UPD: Universal Printer Driver)) corresponding to various image forming apparatuses has been put into practical use.

In this universal printer driver, a broadcast packet to search for an image forming apparatus is thrown, and each image forming apparatus returns to a ready state in order to provide device information to the packet, so a plurality of installed universal printers are connected to the network. In the case of a computer device with a driver, every time the universal printer driver is started, the image forming device returns to the ready state, making it more difficult to reduce power consumption

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