Printing device

Abstract

To provide a printer capable of working with a printing job which does not allow printing.SOLUTION: A printer 100 capable of being connected to another printer 100 through a network includes: an acquisition part 112 that acquires information on printing jobs that the other printer 100 has; and a display control part 114 that makes a screen display, among the printing jobs that the other printer has, a first job that can be printed by itself and a second job that cannot be printed by itself in a discernible manner. The display control part 114 performs display control allowing a printing designation by a user for the first job; and performs display control not allowing the printing designation by the user for the second job, and also performs display control of a guide designation 410 for guiding the other printer 100 capable of printing the second job.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 10

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a printing device and the like. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, there is known a printing system in which a print job is shared among a plurality of printing devices that can communicate with each other via a network. In this case, a printing device other than the printing device to which the print job was sent can execute the print processing of the print job. Patent Document 1 discloses a method that enables a user to execute the print processing and obtain the print results in any printing device, regardless of which printing device the user sent the print job to. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2020-082468 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, when print jobs are shared in a printing system including multiple printing devices, there are cases where a print job stored in a given printing device cannot be handled by other printing devices due to limitations in the capabilities of the printing devices, etc. Even in such cases, it is desirable to improve usability even if only slightly. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] One aspect of the present disclosure relates to a printing device that can be connected to other printing devices via a network, and includes an acquisition unit that acquires information on print jobs held by the other printing devices, and a display control unit that displays a list of the print jobs held by the other printing devices in a distinguishable manner, including a first job that the other printing device can print and a second job that the other printing device cannot print, wherein the display control unit performs display control for the first job to enable a user to specify a print job, and for the second job to disable the user from specifying the print job, and performs display control for a guidance specification that guides users to the other printing devices that can print the second job.

[0006] Moreover, one aspect of the present disclosure relates to a printing device that is connectable to other printing devices via a network, and includes an acquisition unit that acquires information on print jobs held by the other printing devices, and a display control unit that displays a list on a first screen of the print jobs held by the other printing devices, in such a way that only one of a first job that the other printing device can print and a second job that the other printing device cannot print, is selectable, wherein the display control unit performs display control to display a deletion screen separately from the first screen, on which deletion of print jobs held by the other printing devices can be specified, and relates to the printing device that performs display control to make the first job and the second job distinguishable and selectable on the deletion screen. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] 1 shows an example of the configuration of a printing system including a printing device. [Diagram 2] 1 shows an example of the configuration of a printing device. [Diagram 3] 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process in the printing system. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating a print job accumulation process. [Diagram 5] FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating a process of storing a print job. [Figure 6] 5A and 5B are schematic diagrams for explaining processes such as obtaining information about a print job. [Figure 7] FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating a process of obtaining information about a print job. [Figure 8] FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating a printing process. [Figure 9] 11 is a flowchart for explaining a screen display process. [Figure 10] 11A and 11B are diagrams illustrating examples of screens to which the method of the present embodiment is applied. [Figure 11] FIG. 11 is another diagram for explaining an example of a screen to which the method of the present embodiment is applied. [Figure 12] 13A and 13B are diagrams illustrating examples of screens in a modified example of the embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0008] The present embodiment will be described below. Note that the present embodiment described below does not unduly limit the contents of the present disclosure described in the claims. Furthermore, not all of the configurations described in the present embodiment are necessarily essential components of the present disclosure.

[0009] 1 and 2, a configuration example of a printing device 100 and a printing system 10 including the printing device 100 will be described. Fig. 1 shows a configuration example of a printing system 10 in which print jobs are shared among a plurality of printing devices 100. In Fig. 1, five printing devices 100 are shown as examples: a first printer 100A, a second printer 100B, a third printer 100C, a fourth printer 100D, and a fifth printer 100E, but the number of printing devices 100 is not limited to this.

[0010] The first printer 100A to the fifth printer 100E are capable of communicating with each other via a network. This network may be an internal network such as an intranet, or a network that uses a public line such as the Internet.

[0011] The terminal device 200 is a device that transmits a print job to a given printing device 100 via a network. The terminal device 200 is, for example, a PC, but may also be a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal. The number of terminal devices 200 is not limited to one, and multiple terminal devices 200 may be connected to the network.

[0012] In this embodiment, the first printer 100A and the second printer 100B are printers that support printing on A3 paper, while the third printer 100C, the fourth printer 100D, and the fifth printer 100E are printers that support printing on A4 paper, and cannot handle print jobs that are set to print on A3 paper.

[0013] 2 is a configuration example of the printing device 100. The printing device 100 includes a processing unit 110, a communication unit 120, a storage unit 130, a printing unit 140, and a display unit 150. The processing unit 110 includes an acquisition unit 112 and a display control unit 114. However, the printing device 100 is not limited to the configuration in FIG. 2, and various modifications are possible, such as omitting some of these components or adding other components. Furthermore, the printing device 100 may be a multifunction peripheral (MFP) having multiple functions including a printing function.

[0014] The processing unit 110 controls each unit in the printing device 100, such as the communication unit 120. Specifically, the processing unit 110 is a processor or a controller. The processing unit 110 may include multiple CPUs, such as a main CPU and a sub-CPU. The main CPU controls each unit of the printing device 100 and performs overall control. The sub-CPU is, for example, a CPU that performs communication control of the communication unit 120. Note that a CPU that performs various processes related to printing may also be provided.

[0015] The processing unit 110 of the present embodiment can be configured by the following hardware. The hardware can include at least one of a circuit for processing digital signals and a circuit for processing analog signals. The hardware can be configured by, for example, one or more circuit devices or one or more circuit elements mounted on a circuit board. The circuit device is, for example, an integrated circuit device. The circuit elements are, for example, active elements such as transistors, or passive elements such as resistors or capacitors. The processing unit 110 can be realized by the following processor. The printing device 100 of the present embodiment includes a storage unit 130 (described later) that stores information, and a processor that operates based on the information stored in the storage unit 130. The processor includes hardware. The processor can be various processors such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), or a DSP (Digital Signal Processor). The storage unit 130 may be a semiconductor memory such as a static random access memory (SRAM) or a dynamic random access memory (DRAM), a register, a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk drive, or an optical storage device such as an optical disk drive. The storage unit 130 stores, for example, computer-readable instructions, and the processor executes the instructions to realize the function of the processing unit 110 as processing. The instructions may be instructions of an instruction set constituting a program, or instructions that instruct the hardware circuit of the processor to operate. Furthermore, all or a part of the processing unit 110 may be realized by cloud computing. The acquisition unit 112 acquires information on the print job from another printing device 100 via the communication unit 120 described later. The display control unit 114 controls the display of the display unit 150 described later in the printing device 100. The display control unit 114 may be realized, for example, by a processor dedicated to display, or may be realized by the processor of the processing unit 110 described above.The display control unit 114 displays a list of print jobs held by other printing devices 100 in a manner that allows the printing device 100 to distinguish between first jobs that the printing device 100 can print and second jobs that the printing device 100 cannot print. Specific display examples will be described later with reference to Figs. 10, 11, and 12.

[0016] The communication unit 120 communicates with other printing devices 100 and terminal devices 200 via a network. The network here can be realized by a WAN (Wide Area Network) or LAN (Local Area Network), and may be wired or wireless. Specifically, the communication unit 120 is an IC (Integrated Circuit) chip or module that performs wired or wireless communication.

[0017] The storage unit 130 stores various types of information such as data and programs. The processing unit 110 and the communication unit 120 operate, for example, using the storage unit 130 as a work area. As described above, the storage unit 130 may be a semiconductor memory, a register, a magnetic storage device, or an optical storage device.

[0018] The printing unit 140 includes a print engine. The print engine is a mechanical configuration that executes printing of an image on a print medium. The print engine includes, for example, a transport mechanism, an inkjet type ejection head, and a carriage drive mechanism that drives the ejection head. The print engine prints an image on the print medium by ejecting ink from the ejection head onto the print medium transported by the transport mechanism. Various media such as paper and cloth can be used as the print medium. Note that the specific configuration of the print engine is not limited to the one exemplified here, and it may be one that prints with toner using an electrophotographic method.

[0019] The display unit 150 is configured with a display that displays various information to the user, etc. The display unit 150 is, for example, a touch panel, and also serves as an operation interface that accepts input operations from the user.

[0020] The terminal device 200 transmits a print job to, for example, the first printer 100A. The user who transmitted the print job using the terminal device 200 moves to the desired printing device 100 and obtains the print results at that printing device 100. Because the print job is shared, the printing device 100 from which the user obtains the print results is not limited to the first printer 100A. The user can obtain the print results at any printing device 100 among the first printer 100A, the second printer 100B, the third printer 100C, the fourth printer 100D, and the fifth printer 100E.

[0021] Here, consider a case where a user issues a print instruction to the second printer 100B. The print instruction here is, for example, a login operation or an authentication operation, which will be described later. The printing device 100 according to this embodiment is a printing device that shares print jobs with other printing devices 100, as shown in FIG.

[0022] The print job here refers to a set of data used when the printing device 100 executes one printing process. The print job includes at least identification information for uniquely identifying the print job and print image data to be printed. As will be described later with reference to FIG. 4, the printer driver 202 of the terminal device 200 may convert the original data into print data in a different format described using a page description language (PDL) or the like. In this case, the terminal device 200 stores the original data before conversion. The printing device 100 receives and analyzes the converted print data, and then stores the analysis processing result. That is, even for the same print job, the data format may differ depending on the situation. The print job in this embodiment and its modified examples includes the above-mentioned original data and print data, but may also include information in other data formats, such as the above-mentioned analysis processing result.

[0023] 1, if the first printer 100A to the fifth printer 100E are all the same model, then the hardware configuration of the printing device 100, the characteristics of the ink and toner used, the available print settings, etc. are common. In other words, print jobs stored in a given printing device 100 can be reused in other printing devices 100, making it easy to share print jobs.

[0024] However, when different printer models are mixed, there are cases where the desired results are not obtained when a print job stored in a given printer 100 is used for printing processing in another printer 100. In other words, there is a risk that the desired print results will not be obtained by unconditionally allowing the sharing of print jobs. For example, as described above, the first printer 100A and the third printer 100C support different paper sizes, and the third printer 100C, which supports only A4 paper, cannot execute a print job that supports A3 paper.

[0025] 3 is a flowchart explaining the process in the printing system 10 including the printing device 100 of this embodiment. When this process starts, first, a print operation is executed in the terminal device 200, and a print job is stored in the storage unit 130 of a given printing device 100 (step S101). Below, an example will be explained in which the printing device 100 that stores the print job is the first printer 100A.

[0026] Next, the user instructs the printing device 100 that the user desires to execute printing to print. The following describes an example in which the printing device 100 that executes the printing process is the second printer 100B. Specifically, the user performs an authentication operation on the second printer 100B. The authentication operation may be an operation of holding a given authentication card over a card reader, an operation of inputting authentication information such as a user ID and password on the touch panel of the second printer 100B, or face authentication for a predetermined imaging device. The authentication operation can be rephrased as a login operation. The second printer 100B performs the authentication process, and if it is determined that the user is an authorized user, it proceeds to specific processing related to printing. Authentication printing is widely known, so a detailed description will be omitted.

[0027] The second printer 100B acquires various information from its own storage unit 130 and from other printing devices 100 with which it can communicate via the network, and displays a screen based on the acquired information on the display unit 150 (step S102). Note that the screen here is, for example, a home screen display 300 described later in FIG. 10, and the second printer 100B acquires print job information required for the screen display. Note that, as described later in FIG. 6, in the process of step S102, it is not necessary to acquire print image data, which is essential for printing.

[0028] The second printer 100B accepts the user's selection input of the job to be executed, determines the job to be executed, and then executes the print process of the job to be executed (step S103). For example, the second printer 100B obtains the job to be executed from the first printer 100A, and executes printing of the obtained job to be executed.

[0029] The print job accumulation process shown in step S101 in Fig. 3 will be described in detail with reference to Fig. 4 and Fig. 5. Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the print job accumulation process, and Fig. 5 is a sequence diagram for explaining the flow of the print job accumulation process.

[0030] A user performs a print operation in application software 201 of terminal device 200 (step S201). The application software 201 is any software that can run on the OS (Operating System) of terminal device 200 and can execute a print operation. Specifically, terminal device 200 includes a processor and memory (not shown). The application software 201 is stored in the memory. The processor operates in accordance with the application software 201 to realize each function of the application software 201, including the print operation.

[0031] Based on the printing operation, the printer driver 202 of the terminal device 200 generates print data and saves it in the spool 204 (step S202). The print data here includes identification information of the print job and user information that indicates the user who created the print job. The print data can be converted into data including print setting information and print image data by interpretation processing in the first printer 100A.

[0032] The print data stored in the spool 204 is sent to the first printer 100A via an interface such as the port monitor 205 (step S203). The spool 204 is a memory of the terminal device 200. The port monitor 205 is a communication interface for the printing device 100 included in the terminal device 200. The printer driver 202 is software that can run on the OS of the terminal device 200. The printer driver 202 is stored in the memory of the terminal device 200, and the functions of the printer driver 202, including the print data generation process, are realized by the processor of the terminal device 200 operating in accordance with the printer driver 202.

[0033] The first printer 100A receives the print data from the terminal device 200, analyzes the print language in the processing unit 110, and then stores the analysis results in the storage unit 130 (step S204).

[0034] The terminal device 200 also saves the print image data for each page and the identification information of the print job in its own job pool 203 (step S205). The job pool 203 is a memory of the terminal device 200. The job pool 203 and the spool 204 may be the same memory or different memories. Note that the second printer 100B is not yet operational at this point, and will be described later with reference to Figs. 7 and 8.

[0035] In FIG. 4, the information stored in the job pool 203 of the terminal device 200 and the information stored in the storage unit 130 of the first printer 100A both correspond to print jobs. As shown in FIG. 4, a print job includes identification information of the print job, print setting information, and print image data. By including the identification information, the terminal device 200 and each printing device 100 can execute appropriate processing without confusing the print jobs. Furthermore, the print image data is information that identifies the image to be printed. The print setting information is information on the size of the printing paper, but also includes other information such as color / monochrome setting, double-sided / single-sided printing setting, and number of copies to be printed. By including the print setting information and print image data in the print job, it becomes possible to print a desired image using desired settings.

[0036] Furthermore, a print job stored in the first printer 100A, which is another printing device 100, includes information identifying the terminal device 200 that is the sender of the print job. The information identifying the terminal device 200 is, for example, a sender address that indicates the address of the terminal device 200 that is the sender of the print job. In the strict sense, the sender address is the IP address (Internet Protocol address) of the terminal device 200, but other addresses such as a MAC address may also be used.

[0037] Furthermore, the information identifying the terminal device 200 is not limited to an address, and other device-specific information may be used. By including information identifying the terminal device 200 that is the sender of the print job in the print job, the printing device 100 that executes the print job can select the terminal device 200 as the acquisition destination of the print job. For example, when the second printer 100B determines that a print job stored in the first printer 100A is to be executed as the job to be executed, it becomes possible to acquire the job to be executed from the terminal device 200.

[0038] Furthermore, the print job stored in the first printer 100A, which is another printing device 100, includes user information that identifies the user who created the print job. By including the user information in the print job, authenticated printing becomes possible, and it is possible to prevent the print results from being taken away or mixed up. The user information is information that is added when the print data is generated by the printer driver 202, for example.

[0039] Next, step S102 in Fig. 3 will be described in detail with reference to Fig. 6 and Fig. 7. Step S102 includes acquisition of information required for screen display, processing related to responses, and screen display processing. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram explaining the process of acquiring information related to a print job and the process of screen display, and Fig. 7 is a sequence diagram explaining the flow of the process.

[0040] The user executes a login operation on the second printer 100B, which is the printing device 100 that the user wishes to use to execute printing (step S301). The login operation in step S301 is, for example, an authentication operation in which an authentication card is held over a card reader, as described above.

[0041] The second printer 100B performs an information acquisition process on the printing devices 100 that share the print job: the first printer 100A, the third printer 100C, the fourth printer 100D, and the fifth printer 100E (step S302). Specifically, the second printer 100B performs a process to inquire as to whether or not there is a print job for the logged-in user. In a broader sense, the logged-in printing device 100 performs an information acquisition process on the printing devices 100 other than itself that are included in the sharing group of the print job (step S302). In the process of step S302, the second printer 100B performs the inquiry using user information indicating the logged-in user as a key.

[0042] Each printer other than the second printer 100B performs information response processing (step S303). That is, if each printer has stored a print job for the target user, it responds with information about the print job. More specifically, each printer acquires user information from the second printer 100B, and responds with information about print jobs that are determined to match the acquired user information. Note that if each printer responds with a print job that includes print image data in the processing of step S303, the load on each printer increases. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6, in the processing of step S303, the second printer 100B acquires data from the print job excluding at least the print image data.

[0043] Specifically, the second printer 100B acquires the identification information of the print job because it needs to uniquely identify the print job. The second printer 100B also acquires the sender address, assuming that the print job will be acquired from the sender terminal device 200. In this embodiment, the second printer 100B needs to acquire print setting information to determine whether each print job can be printed. Furthermore, the user information is information used in the user verification process in each printer other than the second printer 100B, and the second printer 100B can omit acquiring the user information. However, it is also possible to acquire information about all print jobs from the other printers, and perform a verification process in the second printer 100B to determine whether the user information matches. In that case, the second printer 100B needs to acquire user information from the other printers.

[0044] In the process of step S303, the second printer 100B may obtain metadata indicating the data format of the print image data, or a portion of the data of the print image data.

[0045] 7, steps S302 and S303 are illustrated as being performed once each, but each may be performed multiple times. For example, after obtaining and responding to information regarding the existence of a print job associated with user information, information regarding whether the existing print job is printable may be obtained and responded to.

[0046] The second printer 100B also acquires information about the print job from its own storage unit 130 (step S304). This is because there may well be a case where the printing device 100 to which the print job is sent from the terminal device 200 is the same as the printing device 100 to which the user logs in.

[0047] After acquiring information about the print job, the second printer 100B displays various screens based on the acquired information on the display unit 150 (step S305). The various screens are, for example, a home screen display 300 described below in FIG. 10, a print designation unavailable display 400 associated with the home screen display 300, a guide designation 410, and the like.

[0048] In this embodiment, the user may change the information of the print job. In this case, the second printer 100B performs the information change process for the other printing device 100 (step S308), and displays the screen on the display unit 150 based on the changed information (step S310). Details will be described later with reference to FIG. 11.

[0049] The processing unit 110 may periodically determine whether communication with other printing devices 100 is possible through the communication unit 120. The processing unit 110 then performs processing to exclude other printing devices 100 determined to be unable to communicate from targets for acquiring information related to print jobs. In this way, it is possible to suppress requests for information related to print jobs from printing devices 100 that are unable to communicate. For example, if a request for acquiring information related to print jobs is made to a printing device 100 that is unable to communicate, the time from the user's login in step S301 to the screen display in step S305 will be long, which may cause stress to the user. In this regard, by checking the status of each printing device 100 in advance in the background, the targets for processing in step S302 can be limited to printing devices 100 that are able to communicate, and therefore it is possible to shorten the time from login to the display of the job selection screen.

[0050] 8 is a sequence diagram explaining the flow of the print process in step S103. First, the processing unit 110 of the second printer 100B accepts a selection input from the user on the job selection screen. The processing unit 110 then determines the selected print job as the job to be executed (step S401). In this way, it is possible to appropriately determine the job to be executed using the job selection screen.

[0051] The second printer 100B sends an acquisition request for the job to be executed to the first printer 100A (step S405), and the first printer 100A replies with the job to be executed (step S406). Specifically, the second printer 100B identifies the identification information of the job to be executed that was determined based on the job selection screen, and sends an acquisition request including the identification information to the processing unit 110 of the first printer 100A. The processing unit 110 of the first printer 100A acquires print setting information and print image data linked to the acquired identification information from its own storage unit 130. The processing unit 110 of the first printer 100A then sends the acquired print setting information and print image data to the second printer 100B.

[0052] The second printer 100B then uses the printing unit 140 to print based on the acquired print setting information and print image data, and provides the user with a printed product that is the print result (step S407).

[0053] After that, the processing unit 110 of the second printer 100B sends a deletion request to the other printing devices 100, the first printer 100A and the terminal device 200 (steps S408 and S409). The deletion requests of steps S408 and S409 are sent in association with the identification information of the job to be executed. Specifically, the terminal device 200 deletes each piece of information associated with the specified identification information from the job pool 203. The first printer 100A also deletes each piece of information associated with the specified identification information from its own storage unit 130. In this way, when the printing process of a given print job is completed, each device that stores each piece of information related to that print job can appropriately execute the deletion process.

[0054] FIG. 9 is a flow chart explaining the details of the screen display (step S305). The display control unit 114 of the second printer 100B performs a process to generate unprintable designation screen information (step S500). Specifically, based on the information received in step S303, the display control unit 114 determines for each print job whether it can be printed by itself, i.e., whether the desired print result can be obtained with the second printer 100B, and generates screen information showing print jobs for which it has determined that the desired print result cannot be obtained by itself. Specific screen examples will be described later using FIG. 10 etc.

[0055] Next, the display control unit 114 of the second printer 100B performs a process to generate guidance specification screen information (step S510). Specifically, based on the information responses from the other printing devices 100 regarding whether or not each print job can be printed in step S303 described above, the display control unit 114 performs a process to generate screen information that guides the second printer 100B to a printing device 100 that can obtain the desired print result for print jobs that the second printer 100B has determined it cannot print itself, i.e. cannot print by itself. Specific screen examples will be described later using FIG. 10 etc.

[0056] Next, the display control unit 114 of the second printer 100B performs a process to generate home screen information (step S520). Specifically, a process is performed to generate screen information for the home screen display 300 as shown in Fig. 10 based on the screen information generated in steps S510 and S520. For example, the display control unit 114 of the second printer 100B performs a process to superimpose a print job icon on a specified background image, and a process to superimpose a device search button icon 320 (described below) as necessary.

[0057] The display control unit 114 of the second printer 100B then performs processing (step S530) to display various screens on the display unit 150 based on the generated screen information. Specifically, the home screen display 300, which will be described later, is displayed, and then the user can select an icon, which will be described later, to appropriately display a print designation unavailable display 400 or a guide designation 410.

[0058] FIG. 10 is an example of a screen to which the method of this embodiment is applied. In the following description, it is assumed that a user in front of the third printer 100C is viewing a display example displayed on the display unit 150 when a print job compatible only with A3 paper is sent to the first printer 100A. In other words, it is assumed that the third printer 100C, which only supports A4 paper, cannot print a print job compatible only with A3 paper. The same is true for the fourth printer 100D and the fifth printer 100E. Similarly, it is assumed that a user in front of the third printer 100C is viewing a display example displayed on the display unit 150 in the screen examples shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12 described later. These screen examples can be realized by the process of step S305 in FIG. 7 described above.

[0059] After the user performs authentication at the third printer 100C, the home screen display 300 in FIG. 10 is displayed on the display unit 150. In the example of the home screen display 300, an icon indicating a first job corresponding to A4 paper and an icon indicating a second job corresponding to A3 paper are displayed. Also, a check box icon 310 is displayed superimposed on the icon of each print job, so that the user can know whether or not each print job has been selected. Also, when the user selects the check box icon 310 of the first job that can be printed by the third printer 100C and further selects the print start button icon 330, the first job can be printed. Also, in the example of FIG. 10, the background of the home screen display 300 is displayed in the colors shown in B1 and B4.

[0060] As described above, the third printer 100C cannot print print jobs that are compatible with A3 paper. Therefore, when the user selects the check box icon 310 that corresponds to the second job, the print designation unavailable display 400 is displayed. This allows the user to identify whether the selected print job can be printed by the third printer 100C. Note that in the example of FIG. 10, the home screen display 300 is switched to the print designation unavailable display 400, but this is not limited to this, and a reduced print designation unavailable display 400 may be displayed superimposed on the home screen display 300. The same applies to the guide designation 410, the delete designation 420 and the setting change designation 430 described later in FIG. 11, the print designation 540, the first guide designation 550, the second guide designation 552, the first delete designation 560, and the second delete designation 562 described later in FIG. 12.

[0061] Furthermore, when the user selects the device search button icon 320 displayed superimposed on the icon of the second job, a guide specification 410 is displayed. That is, the display control unit 114 of the third printer 100C performs display control to guide the user about other printing devices 100 that can print the second job. Specifically, the display control unit 114 of the third printer 100C performs display control to guide the user that the first printer 100A and the second printer 100B, which support printing on A3 paper, can print the job. In this way, the user can know which printing device 100 can print the print job that cannot be printed on the printing device 100 in front of them.

[0062] It is also possible to add to the above-mentioned processes as appropriate a process of changing the display mode of the print start button icon 330 to a specified mode when the user selects the check box icon 310 for the second job, or a process of not accepting a selection from the user. The specified mode is, for example, a semi-transparent mode, but it may also be hidden, or it may be a mode in which it is not possible to recognize that printing is possible. In this way, the user can easily recognize that the second job cannot be printed by the third printer 100C.

[0063] Furthermore, the device search button icon 320 is displayed superimposed only on the icon of a job that cannot be printed. In other words, as shown in C, the device search button icon 320 is not displayed superimposed on the icon of the first job, which is a printable job. In this way, the user can easily distinguish whether or not each print job is printable based on whether or not the device search button icon 320 is displayed.

[0064] Also, as shown in B2 and B3, the icon of a printable first job and the icon of a non-printable second job may be made to have different colors. Furthermore, the colors of the icons of the first job and the second job may be made to be different from the background color of the home screen display 300 shown in B1 and B4. In this way, printable jobs and non-printable jobs can be easily distinguished on the display unit 150.

[0065] As described above, the printing device 100 of the present embodiment is a printing device 100 that can be connected to other printing devices 100 via a network, and includes an acquisition unit 112 that acquires information on print jobs held by the other printing devices 100, and a display control unit 114 that displays a list of print jobs held by the other printing devices, in a manner that distinguishes between a first job that the printing device can print and a second job that the printing device cannot print. The display control unit 114 performs display control for the first job to enable a user to specify a print job, and for the second job to disable a user to specify a print job, and also performs display control for a guide specification 410 that guides other printing devices 100 that can print the second job. In this way, the first job that the printing device can print and the second job that the printing device cannot print are displayed in a manner that distinguishes between the first job that the printing device can print and the second job that the printing device cannot print, so that the user can easily recognize the existence of the second job. Furthermore, the display of the guide specification 410 allows the user to know which printing device 100 can print the second job. Conventionally, printing devices 100 have only displayed a message indicating that the second print job that cannot be printed cannot be printed, so the user is confused as to which printing device 100 to use for printing, which causes problems in that work does not proceed smoothly. In this regard, by applying the method of the present embodiment, the user can operate the printing device 100 to search for another printing device 100 that can print the print job that the user cannot print. This allows the user to quickly identify the printing device 100 that can print the print job, and to proceed with the work smoothly.

[0066] The method of the present embodiment is not limited to this, and various modifications such as adding other components are possible. The items that can be set by the user are not limited to those described above. In addition, the same can be done for jobs in which printing devices that can print and printing devices that cannot print are divided depending on other capabilities of the printing devices. FIG. 11 is another display example to which the method of the present embodiment is applied. In FIG. 11, the reference numerals are omitted for the components that have already been described in FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 11, the home screen display 300 may further include a setting change button icon 340 and a delete button icon 350 in addition to the various icons and the like described above. When the user selects the delete button icon 350 that is displayed superimposed on the icon of the first job or the icon of the second job, a screen of the delete designation 420 opens, and a message is displayed to confirm that the print job related to the icon superimposed on the delete designation button icon 530 is deleted. For example, although not shown in the figure, the display of the delete designation 420 can be realized by adding a process of generating screen information of the delete designation 420 to the process of step S305 in FIG. 9.

[0067] Then, for example, when the user performs an operation to delete the second job, the icon for the second job is deleted. For example, in step S308 described above, the processing unit 110 of the third printer 100C sends a command to the first printer 100A, which has the print image data for the second job, to delete the information for the second job. Then, the processing unit 110 of the first printer 100A deletes the information for the second job stored in the storage unit 130. In addition, in step S310, the display control unit 114 of the third printer 100C performs display control of a screen that reflects the changes. Specifically, the display control unit 114 of the third printer 100C performs display control to erase the icon for the second job from the display unit 150. These processes enable display control related to deletion, etc. to be realized.

[0068] Unlike the device search button icon 320 described above, the delete button icon 350 is superimposed on all print job icons. This is because a user may mistakenly send print job data to the printing device 100 regardless of whether the print job is printable or unprintable.

[0069] As described above, the display control unit 114 of this embodiment controls the display of the deletion designation 420 that enables the user to delete the first job and the second job. If unnecessary data such as a print job sent by mistake continues to accumulate in the storage unit 130, a problem may occur in which new print jobs cannot be stored. In this regard, by applying the method of this embodiment, unnecessary print jobs can be appropriately deleted in the printing device 100, and the storage area of ​​the storage unit 130 can be secured. This avoids the problem of being unable to store new print jobs, and suppresses a decrease in the convenience of the printing system 10.

[0070] Furthermore, when the user selects setting change button icon 340 displayed superimposed on the icon of the first job or the icon of the second job, setting change designation 430 is displayed. The user may then use setting change designation 430 to change the settings of the print job associated with the icon superimposed on setting change button icon 340. For example, similar to the case of deletion designation 420, the display of setting change designation 430 can be realized by adding a process of generating screen information for setting change designation 430 to the process of step S305 in FIG.

[0071] As shown in FIG. 11, the setting change items include a setting for selecting color printing or monochrome printing, a setting for selecting single-sided printing or double-sided printing, and a setting for changing the number of copies to be printed. However, the present invention is not limited to these, and other setting change items may be displayed. When a user performs an operation for changing the settings of a specific print job, the processing unit 110 of the third printer 100C instructs the printing device 100 having the print setting information of the specific print job to change the print setting information in step S308. The processing unit 110 of the printing device 100 that has received the instruction then performs a process for changing the print setting information stored in the storage unit 130. Note that, if the information of the specific print job is stored in the storage unit 130 of the third printer 100C, the processing unit 110 of the third printer 100C does not perform step S308, but performs a process for changing the print setting information stored in its own storage unit 130. The display control unit 114 of the third printer 100C also performs display control of a screen that reflects the changed settings in step S310. Specifically, the display control unit 114 of the third printer 100C performs display control to update the setting change designation 430.

[0072] The display control unit 114 of the third printer 100C may also perform display control to hide a predetermined setting change item. For example, if none of the printing devices 100 constituting the printing system 10 can perform double-sided printing, display control may be performed to hide the setting for selecting single-sided printing or double-sided printing. Although not shown in FIG. 7, each printing device 100 that received the instruction in step S308 may add a process of responding with information to the printing device 100 that issued the instruction in response to the setting change in step S308 in response to the setting change. For example, if a print job that was not printable before the setting change becomes printable as a result of the setting change, each printing device 100 that received the instruction to change the setting in step S308 may respond with information to that effect to the printing device 100 that issued the instruction to change the setting. In this case, the display control unit 114 of the printing device 100 that issued the instruction to change the setting may perform display control of a screen corresponding to the setting change in step S310. For example, the display control unit 114 of the printing device 100 that issued the instruction to change the settings performs display control such as changing the color of the icon of the print job that has become printable as a result of the setting change, and erasing the device search button icon 320 that is superimposed.

[0073] As described above, the display control unit 114 of the present embodiment performs display control of the setting change specification 430 that enables the setting change of the print job of another printing device 100. For example, the user may only realize that the print job setting is incorrect after coming to the location of the printing device 100 related to the print execution. Furthermore, if the print job including the incorrect setting is a second job that cannot be printed by the printing device 100, the user will have to request a person who operates the printing device 100 at another location to change the setting of the second job and print the second job with the changed setting, which places a heavy burden on both the requester and the requestee. Therefore, problems such as miscommunication are likely to occur, and the possibility of a problem in which the desired printed matter cannot be obtained increases. In this respect, by applying the method of the present embodiment, the requester changes the setting of the second job himself and only needs to inform the requestee that the second job is to be printed, which reduces the burden on the requester and the requestee. As a result, the requestee can smoothly execute the printing and the requester can obtain the desired printed matter, thereby improving the convenience of the printing system 10.

[0074] Further, the screen examples to which the method of the present embodiment is applied are not limited to the above. For example, in the examples shown in Figs. 10 and 11, the home screen display 300 displays both a printable first job and an unprintable second job, but is not limited to this. For example, a screen displaying only the first job, a screen displaying only the second job, and a screen displaying both the first job and the second job may be displayed separately according to the purpose. Note that the display examples described below can be realized by appropriately applying the methods described above, and therefore detailed explanations will be omitted.

[0075] 12 is a diagram illustrating a modified example of this embodiment. When the printing device 100 is started, a home screen display 500 is displayed on the display unit 150. The home screen display 500 includes a print designation button icon 510, a device search designation button icon 520, and a delete designation button icon 530.

[0076] When the user selects print designation button icon 510, print designation 540 is displayed. At this time, only icons related to printable print jobs are displayed in a list in print designation 540. The user can obtain the desired printed matter by selecting the icon of the first job, which is the print job that the user wants to print, and then selecting the icon for executing printing.

[0077] Furthermore, when the user selects the device search designation button icon 520, a first guide designation 550 is displayed. At this time, a list of only icons related to print jobs that cannot be printed is displayed in the first guide designation 550. Then, when the user selects the icon of a second job that cannot be printed by the third printer 100C but that the user wishes to print using another printing device 100, a second guide designation 552 is displayed. In the second guide designation 552, a list of printing devices 100 that can print the second job is displayed.

[0078] Furthermore, when the user selects the delete designation button icon 530, a first delete designation 560 is displayed. At this time, the first delete designation 560 displays a list of both the icon of the first job that can be printed and the icon of the second job that cannot be printed. Also, as shown in D1 and D2, the icon of the first job and the icon of the second job are displayed in different forms. In this way, the user can easily determine whether or not the print job can be printed by the third printer 100C. Then, the user can select the print job that he or she wants to delete. For example, when the user selects the icon of the first job, a second delete designation 562 is displayed. In the second delete designation 562, the user is asked to confirm whether or not to delete the first job.

[0079] As described above, the printing device 100 of the present embodiment is a printing device 100 that can be connected to other printing devices 100 via a network, and includes an acquisition unit 112 that acquires information on print jobs held by the other printing devices 100, and a display control unit 114 that displays a list of only one of the print jobs held by the other printing devices 100, a first job that can be printed by the printing device itself, and a second job that cannot be printed by the printing device itself, in a selectable manner on a first screen. The display control unit 114 performs display control to display a first deletion specification 560, which is a deletion screen that can specify deletion of print jobs held by the other printing devices, separately from the first screen, and performs display control to make the first job and the second job distinguishable and selectable on the deletion screen, the first deletion specification 560. In the display examples of FIG. 10 and FIG. 11, the home screen display 300 displays the first job that can be printed, the second job that cannot be printed, and the print start button icon 330. 12, only the first job that can be printed is displayed in print designation 540, and both the first job that can be printed and the second job that cannot be printed are displayed in first deletion designation 560. In this way, only jobs that are subject to printing, device search, and deletion are displayed, so that print jobs according to the purpose can be appropriately displayed. Although not shown in the figure, a screen related to changing settings may be provided separately and called up by a change settings button.

[0080] As described above, the printing device of this embodiment is a printing device that can be connected to other printing devices via a network, and includes an acquisition unit that acquires information on print jobs held by the other printing devices, and a display control unit that displays a list of print jobs held by the other printing devices in a manner that distinguishes between a first job that the printing device can print and a second job that the printing device cannot print. The display control unit performs display control for the first job to enable a user to specify printing, and for the second job to disable a user to specify printing, and also performs display control for guidance specifications to guide users to other printing devices that can print the second job.

[0081] In this way, the first job that the user can print and the second job that the user cannot print are displayed in a distinguishable manner, so the user can easily recognize the existence of the second job. Also, the user can perform an operation to search for another printing device that can print the print job that the user cannot print, so the user can quickly find out which printing device can print the print job, improving the convenience of the printing system.

[0082] Furthermore, the display control unit may perform display control of a deletion specification that enables the user to delete the first job and the second job.

[0083] In this way, the problem of being unable to store new print jobs can be avoided, and a decrease in the convenience of the printing system can be suppressed.

[0084] The display control unit may also control the display of setting change designations that enable changes to the settings of print jobs held by other printing devices.

[0085] In this way, when requesting that an unprintable job for which settings are to be changed be printed on another printing device, the burden on the requester and the requested device can be reduced, and the convenience of the printing system can be improved.

[0086] The printing device of the present embodiment is a printing device connectable to other printing devices via a network, and includes an acquisition unit that acquires information on print jobs held by the other printing devices, and a display control unit that displays a list of print jobs held by the other printing devices in a distinguishable manner, including first jobs that the printing device can print and second jobs that the printing device cannot print. The display control unit controls the display of a deletion screen that allows the deletion of print jobs held by the other printing devices to be designated, and controls display on the deletion screen to make the first jobs and the second jobs distinguishable and selectable.

[0087] In this way, when print jobs that can be printed by the user and print jobs that cannot be printed by the user are mixed, print jobs can be displayed appropriately according to purpose.

[0088] Although the present embodiment has been described in detail as above, it will be easily understood by those skilled in the art that many modifications are possible without substantially departing from the novel matters and effects of the present disclosure. Therefore, all such modifications are intended to be included in the scope of the present disclosure. For example, a term described at least once in the specification or drawings together with a different term having a broader meaning or the same meaning may be replaced with that different term anywhere in the specification or drawings. In addition, all combinations of the present embodiment and modifications are also included in the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, the configuration and operation of the printing device are not limited to those described in the present embodiment, and various modifications are possible. [Explanation of symbols]

[0089] 10...printing system, 100...printing device, 100A...first printer, 100B...second printer, 100C...third printer, 100D...fourth printer, 100E...fifth printer, 110...processing unit, 112...acquisition unit, 114...display control unit, 120...communication unit, 130...storage unit, 140...printing unit, 150...display unit, 200...terminal device, 201...application software, 202...printer driver, 203...job pool, 204...spool, 205...port monitor, 300...home screen display, 310 ...check box icon, 320...device search button icon, 330...print start button icon, 340...change settings button icon, 350...delete button icon, 400...print unavailable display, 410...guide specification, 420...delete specification, 430...change settings specification, 500...home screen display, 510...print specification button icon, 520...device search specification button icon, 530...delete specification button icon, 540...print specification, 550...first guidance specification, 552...second guidance specification, 560...first deletion specification, 562...second deletion specification

Claims

[Claim 1] A printing device that can be connected to other printing devices via a network, an acquisition unit that acquires information about a print job held by the other printing device; Among the print jobs held by the other printing device, a first job that can be printed by the other printing device and a second job that can be printed by the other printing device are selected. Display control for displaying a list of only one of the jobs on the first screen, i.e., the first job and the second job that cannot be printed. Department and Including, The display control unit is The deletion screen on which deletion of a print job held by the other printing device can be designated is referred to as the first screen. Display control is performed to display the On the deletion screen, the first job and the second job are distinguishable and selectable. A printing device that performs display control to

Images