Image forming apparatus and printing control method

Abstract

This approach minimizes the increase in the amount of code required for job tickets while allowing the same job ticket to be applied to different print data. [Solution] A job ticket includes overall settings that indicate the print settings for the entire page, and exception settings that indicate print settings for predetermined pages. The exception settings include predetermined key information for identifying which pages among the pages constituting the print data to which the print settings indicated by the exception settings should be applied. The image forming unit is instructed to form the image of the print data according to the print settings indicated by the overall settings included in the job ticket, and for pages among the pages constituting the print data that contain the key information, the exception settings are applied to form the image.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a print control method.

Background Art

[0002] In the commercial printing industry that receives orders for creating printed materials from customers and delivers the printed materials desired by the customers, with the development of digital printing, a print management method is known in which a job ticket is created and managed based on the print settings included in a print job, and the print settings are easily performed by using this job ticket during reprinting or printing as a regular operation.

[0003] Patent Document 1 describes a technique for partially changing the print processing conditions of a print job including image data of a plurality of pages. Patent Document 2 describes a technique for suppressing a discrepancy between the print desired by a user and the print recognized by an image forming system for a saved print job. Patent Document 3 describes a technique that enables a user to easily compare images printed with different print settings.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Patent Document 2

Patent Document 3

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] A job ticket includes a general setting that specifies the print settings for the entire page, and an exception setting that specifies the print settings for a specific range of pages. For example, suppose in print data A, pages 1, 11, and 25 are the starting pages of a chapter, and a job ticket is created that includes an exception setting to print pages 1, 11, and 25 on thick paper. When print data A is printed according to this job ticket, pages 1, 11, and 25, which are the starting pages of the chapters mentioned above, will be printed on thick paper.

[0006] However, for print data B, which has a different chapter start page than print data A, this job ticket cannot be used as is, and the page number in the exception settings must be rewritten. Also, if the contents of the exception settings included in the job ticket are rewritten according to the content of each print data in this way, the amount of code in the job ticket increases.

[0007] This invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and aims to enable the application of a common job ticket to different print data while suppressing an increase in the amount of job ticket description. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] An image forming apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes an image forming unit that forms an image of an image indicated by print data on a recording medium, a control unit that causes the image forming unit to perform image forming according to a job ticket, the job ticket includes an overall setting that indicates the print settings for the entire page and an exception setting that indicates the print settings for a predetermined page, the exception setting includes predetermined key information for identifying the page to which the print settings indicated by the exception setting should be applied among the pages constituting the print data, and the control unit causes the image forming unit to perform image forming of the image indicated by the print data according to the print settings indicated by the overall setting included in the job ticket, and for the page containing the key information among the pages constituting the print data, it applies the exception setting to perform image forming.

[0009] A print control method according to one aspect of the present invention is a print control method in an image forming system that prints an image indicated by print data onto a recording medium according to a job ticket, wherein the job ticket includes an overall setting that indicates the print settings for the entire page and an exception setting that indicates the print settings for a predetermined page, the exception setting includes predetermined key information for identifying the page to which the print settings indicated by the exception setting should be applied among the pages constituting the print data, the image forming unit is instructed to perform image formation of the image indicated by the print data according to the print settings indicated by the overall setting included in the job ticket, and the exception setting is applied to the page containing the key information among the pages constituting the print data to perform image formation. [Effects of the Invention]

[0010] According to the present invention, print data includes key information predetermined for the pages to which the exception setting applies, and the job ticket specifies the pages to which the exception setting applies among the pages constituting the print data using the key information. When the control unit causes the image forming unit to print the print data according to the job ticket, the printing of the pages containing the key information among the print data is performed according to the exception setting described in the job ticket. In other words, it is possible to easily specify within the job ticket which pages to which the print setting indicated by the exception setting applies.

[0011] Furthermore, in multiple different print datasets, pages containing the aforementioned key information can be designated as pages to which exception settings should be applied. This eliminates the need to rewrite exception rules for each print dataset, allowing the use of a common job ticket and reducing the time and effort required to create job tickets. Moreover, simply listing the key information reduces the amount of code required for the job ticket compared to listing the page numbers of the print dataset, leading to increased efficiency in the image formation system's processing.

[0012] Therefore, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to apply a common job ticket to different print data while suppressing an increase in the amount of description in the job ticket. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0013] [Figure 1] This is a schematic diagram of the image forming system. [Figure 2] This diagram shows the electrical configuration of the image forming system. [Figure 3] This is a diagram showing an example of a job ticket. [Figure 4] This is a diagram showing an example of a job ticket. [Figure 5] This is a diagram showing an example of a job ticket. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0014] Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus, an image forming system, and a printing control method according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of an image forming system 100 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The image forming system 100 comprises at least an image forming apparatus 1 and an electronic terminal 2 according to one embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 1 is, for example, a multifunction printer that prints printed materials (brochures, flyers, posters, etc.) for the business activities of a company or organization. Network N is a network capable of sending and receiving data, such as a LAN (Local Area Network) or the Internet.

[0015] Electronic terminal 2 is an electronic device such as a personal computer (PC), which sends a print job to image forming apparatus 1 according to instructions from the user. Image forming apparatus 1 performs printing according to the received print job.

[0016] The image forming system 100 may also include network storage 3. Network storage 3 is storage that enables data sharing between electronic devices connected to the network N, such as the image forming apparatus 1 and the electronic terminal 2.

[0017] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the electrical configuration of an image forming system 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image forming apparatus 1 includes a control unit 11, an input reception unit 12, an image forming unit 13, a storage unit 14, a communication unit 15, and the like.

[0018] The input reception unit 12 includes hard keys such as a decision key and a start key for performing determination operations for various operations and settings, and a display unit 121, and various instructions from the user are input thereto. The display unit 121 is an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or the like, and displays an operation screen, a message, and the like. The display unit 121 may be integrally configured with a touch panel.

[0019] The image forming unit 13 includes, for example, an electrophotographic image forming mechanism, and prints an image on paper according to print data and a job ticket received from the electronic terminal 2. The storage unit 14 includes, for example, an HDD, and is a large-capacity storage device that stores image data, various programs, data tables, and the like. The communication unit 15 is a communication module that exchanges various data including print data with external devices such as the electronic terminal 2 via a network N such as the Internet.

[0020] The control unit 11 is composed of a processor, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), and the like. The processor is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), or the like. The control unit 11 functions as a control unit 111 by the processor executing a control program stored in the ROM or the like. The control unit 111 controls the overall operation of the image forming apparatus 1.

[0021] The electronic terminal 2 includes a control unit 21, an input reception unit 22, a communication unit 23, a storage unit 24, and the like.

[0022] The input receiving unit 22 is equipped with a pointing device such as a keyboard or mouse, and receives various instructions from the user. The display unit 221 is an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or the like.

[0023] The communication unit 23 communicates with the image forming apparatus 1 via a network N such as the Internet. This is a communication module that exchanges various data with external devices such as the above. The storage unit 24 is a large-capacity storage device consisting of an SSD (Solid State Drive) or HDD (Hard Disk Drive) that stores various programs, data tables, etc., and stores the job ticket 241. The job ticket 241 is a file that contains the print settings necessary for executing a print job in industrial printing.

[0024] Furthermore, the storage unit 24 stores a control program for executing a print control method, which is one embodiment of the present invention. However, this control program may not be stored in the storage unit 24, but rather as a web application stored in the network storage 3.

[0025] The control unit 21 consists of a processor, RAM, ROM, etc. The processor is a CPU, MPU, or ASIC, etc. The control unit 21 functions as a control unit 211 when the processor executes a control program stored in the ROM, etc. The control unit 211 is responsible for the overall operation control of the electronic terminal 2.

[0026] Here, the types of print settings described in the job ticket 241 include overall settings, which indicate print settings for the entire page, and exception settings, which indicate print settings for a specific range of pages. In other words, overall settings are information that shows each item of the print settings that applies to the entire page and their setting values. Exception settings are information that shows each item of the print settings that applies only to a predetermined range of pages and their setting values. The job ticket 241 uses data formats such as JDF (Job Definition Format) or XJDF (Exchange Job Definition Format) and is written in XML (Extensible Markup Language), for example. The image forming apparatus 1 receives the job ticket 241 from the electronic terminal 2 and executes printing with the print settings indicated in this job ticket 241.

[0027] Figure 3 shows an example of a job ticket. For example, suppose print data A has 30 pages, and the chapters in print data A start on page 1, page 11, and page 25. The job ticket shown in Figure 3 contains instructions for setting the paper type for pages 1, 11, and 25, which are the start pages of the chapters, to thick paper.

[0028] In Job Ticket J1 shown in Figure 3, tags 71 and 72 describe the overall settings, indicating that all pages constituting the print data will be printed on plain paper. Tags 73 to 78 describe exception settings, with tags 73, 75, and 77 specifying pages 1, 11, and 25 of the print data, which are the starting pages of each chapter, and tags 74, 76, and 78 indicating that the paper type for the pages specified above will be thick paper. By describing the exception settings in Job Ticket J1 in this way, the print settings will be such that only specific pages, which are the starting pages of each chapter, will be printed on thick paper.

[0029] Here, we assume that print data B, which is different from print data A, has 50 pages, and the chapters begin on pages 1, 13, 22, and 39. If we use the same overall settings as job ticket J1 for print data B, and specify the chapter start pages and set the paper type to thick paper, then when printing print data B using job ticket J1 as shown in Figure 3, thick paper will be used on pages other than the chapter start pages. Therefore, in order to specify the chapter start pages and set the paper type to thick paper for print data B, it becomes necessary to create a new job ticket with the same overall settings as job ticket J1, but with the description of the page numbers to which the exception setting is applied rewritten.

[0030] In this embodiment, the exception setting includes predetermined key information for identifying which pages among the pages constituting the print data to which the print setting indicated by the exception setting should be applied. The job ticket then describes the exception setting, including the key information and the print setting to be applied only to the pages containing that key information. When the image forming apparatus 1 prints the print data according to this job ticket, the control unit 111 causes the image forming unit 13 to print according to the print setting indicated by the exception setting in the job ticket when printing pages containing the key information. As a result, the exception setting is applied to the pages among the pages constituting the print data that contain the key information. In other words, by adding key information to the pages among the pages constituting the print data to which the user wants the exception setting to be applied, the user can apply the exception setting only to the desired pages.

[0031] An example of the key information described above is explained below. For example, if the print data is a PDF (Portable Document Format) document, a table of contents can be created using the bookmark function to match the chapter structure within the PDF. Using this function, when creating or editing a PDF, the user sets a bookmark on the page that marks the start of a chapter. The specific bookmark information written in the PDF document to set this bookmark is used as the key information for the exception setting. For the overall settings of the job ticket, the exception setting describes this key information and the exception setting that applies to the page containing that key information.

[0032] Figure 4 shows an example of a job ticket in this embodiment, illustrating the contents described using exception settings that include key information in relation to the overall settings. In job ticket J2 shown in Figure 4, tags 81 and 82 are exception settings. Tag 81 is key information, and tag 82 indicates the print content that will be set as an exception. Here, the exception setting specifies that the print settings indicated by tag 82 (MediaType=”Paper” MediaTypeDetails=”Thick” and paper type should be thick paper) should be applied to the page containing the key information indicated by tag 81 (“Pert Key=”Chapter Start”), in relation to the overall settings included in job ticket J2.

[0033] Let's explain with a specific example. Print data A has 30 pages, and the chapters start on pages 1, 11, and 25. That is, pages 1, 11, and 25 of print data A contain key information ("Chapter Start"). For this print data A, printing is performed using job ticket J2, which has the above exception setting (key information ("Chapter Start"), and print settings (MediaType="Paper", MediaTypeDetails="Thick", paper type is thick paper) applied to the overall settings) applied. In this case, the control unit 111, according to job ticket J2, has the image forming unit 13 print only the pages containing the key information (pages 1, 11, and 25) of print data A on thick paper, and print the other pages on "Stationery" (stationery paper) as indicated by the overall settings of job ticket J2.

[0034] Furthermore, print data B, which is different from print data A, has 50 pages, and the chapters start on pages 1, 13, 22, and 29. In other words, in print data B, key information ("Chapter Start") is included on pages 1, 13, 22, and 29. When printing is performed on this print data B using the job ticket J2, the control unit 111, in accordance with the job ticket J2, has the image forming unit 13 print only the pages containing the key information (pages 1, 13, 22, and 29) of print data A on thick paper, and print the other pages on "Stationery" (stationery paper) as indicated by the overall setting of job ticket J2.

[0035] As described above, by describing the print content using the exception settings according to this embodiment in the overall settings of the job ticket, the pages to which the print settings indicated by the exception rule should be applied can be easily specified using the key information. For example, in the case of an exception rule that uses page numbers to specify the pages to which the print settings indicated by the exception rule should be applied, it is not possible to create a job ticket using the same exception rule for multiple print data to which the pages to which the exception settings should be applied are all different. However, with the exception settings according to this embodiment, it is possible to create a job ticket using the same exception rule even for multiple print data to which the pages to which the exception settings should be applied are all different. Therefore, according to this embodiment, it is possible to apply the same common job ticket to different print data while suppressing the increase in the amount of job ticket description. According to this embodiment, the amount of job ticket description can be reduced compared to simply describing the page numbers of the print data. As a result, the time and effort required to create job tickets can be reduced.

[0036] Next, we will explain how to specify the range of pages to which the exception setting applies in a job ticket. Figure 5 shows an example of a job ticket in this embodiment. In job ticket J3 shown in Figure 5, tags 91 and 82 are exception settings. Tag 91 indicates the key information and the range to which the exception setting applies, and tag 82 indicates the print content to be set as an exception. Here, the exception setting specifies that the print setting indicated by tag 82 (MediaType="Paper" MediaTypeDetails="Thick", paper type is thick paper) should be applied to the overall settings included in job ticket J3, from the page containing the key information indicated by tag 91 ("Pert Key="Chapter Start") to the range to which the exception setting applies ("RelativeIndex="0 2"). Here, we show an example of "RelativeIndex="0 2" as information indicating the range to which the exception setting applies. "RelativeIndex="0 2" indicates a range of 2 pages from the page containing the key information. The range to which the exception setting applies can be changed by changing the value "0 2" in "RelativeIndex="0 2", which indicates the range to which the exception setting applies, to a value that indicates the range desired by the user.

[0037] In this embodiment, pages within a specified range from the page containing key information among the pages constituting the print data are designated as pages to which the exception setting applies, even if they do not contain key information ("Pert Key="Chapter Start"). This allows for the creation of job tickets using the same exception setting for each print data with a different page structure, by specifying the page range along with the key information in the job ticket's exception setting description, for example. The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiments and various modifications are possible. Furthermore, the configuration and processing of the above embodiments described with reference to Figures 1 to 5 are merely one embodiment of the present invention and are not intended to limit the present invention to such configuration and processing. [Explanation of symbols]

[0038] 100 Image Forming Systems 1. Image forming apparatus 11 Control Unit 111 Control Unit 12 Input reception section 121 Display section 13 Image forming unit 14 Storage section 15 Communications Department 2 Electronic terminals 21 Control Unit 211 Control Unit 22 Input Reception Section 221 Display section 23 Communications Department 24 Memory section N Network

Claims

1. An image forming unit that forms an image of the print data on a recording medium, A control unit that causes the image forming unit to perform image formation according to a job ticket, The aforementioned job ticket includes overall settings that show the print settings for the entire page, and exception settings that show the print settings for predetermined pages. The aforementioned exception setting includes predetermined key information that identifies the page among the pages constituting the print data to which the print settings indicated by the exception setting apply. The control unit causes the image forming unit to perform image formation of the image indicated by the print data according to the print settings indicated by the overall settings included in the job ticket, and the image forming apparatus applies the exception settings to the page containing the key information among the pages constituting the print data and performs image formation.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the exception setting further includes range specification information indicating the page range to which the exception setting applies.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the print data does not contain a page containing the predetermined key information, the control unit causes the image forming unit to perform image forming according to the job ticket without applying the exception setting.

4. A print control method in an image forming apparatus that prints an image indicated by print data onto a recording medium according to a job ticket, The aforementioned job ticket includes overall settings that show the print settings for the entire page, and exception settings that show the print settings for predetermined pages. The aforementioned exception setting includes predetermined key information for identifying the pages among the pages constituting the print data to which the print settings indicated by the exception setting apply, A print control method comprising: causing an image forming unit to form an image of the print data according to the print settings indicated by the overall settings included in the job ticket, and applying the exception settings to the page containing the key information among the pages constituting the print data to perform image formation.

Images