Image forming apparatus, control method for image forming apparatus, and program

Abstract

To solve the problem that when a special sheet which a user does not want to be used by other persons is installed, there is no mechanism to restrict sheet feeding other than a sheet installation person, and the special sheet is erroneously used by other printing jobs in some cases.SOLUTION: An image formation device can register a user name capable of using a sheet feeding stage on information on each of the sheet feeding stages, and prevents erroneous use of the sheet by allowing the sheet feeding stage attached with the user name to control sheet feeding so that only the user can use the sheet feeding stage.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for controlling an image forming apparatus that can prevent the misuse of special printing paper in a printing environment where printing paper for office documents and special printing paper are used together. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, with the increasing sophistication and image quality of multifunction printers, the variety of finishing devices, and the expansion of the paper types they can handle, there has been an increasing trend for printed materials that were previously output at printing plants to be produced in-house using multifunction printers installed in offices. Multifunction printers used in such printing environments are often shared with other printers for printing regular office documents, and two types of paper may be temporarily loaded into the same paper feed tray: plain paper for regular printing and special printing paper for in-house printing. In such cases, users who print in-house obtain their finished products by specifying the paper feed tray in which they loaded their own paper. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2019-85207 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] However, since only the person who installed the paper can know whether special printing paper for in-house printing is installed, there was a possibility that another person's print job specifying the same paper feed tray would mistakenly use the special paper. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] In order to solve the above problem, an image processing device according to one aspect of the present invention has the following configuration.

[0006] That is, a display unit, a receiving unit for receiving an instruction to reserve a paper feed unit based on an operation by a login-authenticated user on a screen displayed on the display unit, and To check the reservation status of the paper feed unit The printer is characterized by having a display means for displaying information indicating the reservation status of the paper feed unit on the display unit upon receiving an operation, and a prohibition means for prohibiting printing using the reserved paper feed unit for users other than the user who has been authenticated by login. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to the present invention, for example, paper feeding is controlled so that a paper feed tray designated by a user can be used only by that user, thereby preventing the misuse of paper. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] 1A is a front view of an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present disclosure, and FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram of a printer engine. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the image forming system according to the first embodiment. [Figure 3] 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of operations of the image forming system according to the first embodiment. [Figure 4] 6 is a flowchart showing the contents of a printer driver process for generating a print job in the first embodiment. [Figure 5] 5 is a flowchart showing the contents of a printer process executed by the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment. [Figure 6] 10 is a flowchart showing the contents of a page generation process of a printer process in the first embodiment. [Figure 7] 6 is a flowchart showing the contents of a printing process of a printer process in the first embodiment. [Figure 8] 6 is a flowchart showing the contents of a paper feed tray reservation process of the printing process in the first embodiment. [Figure 9] 10 is a display example of a login screen of the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment. [Figure 10]10 is a display example of a home screen of the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment. [Figure 11] 10 is a display example of a paper setting screen of the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment. [Figure 12] 10 is a display example of a paper type setting screen of the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment. [Figure 13] 10 is a flowchart showing the contents of a feed determination process in the printing process according to the first embodiment. [Figure 14] 10 is a display example of an out-of-paper error screen of the image forming apparatus according to the first embodiment. [Figure 15] FIG. 4 is an image diagram showing a display example of a setting screen for printing conditions displayed by the driver software in the first embodiment. [Figure 16] 11 is a display example of a paper setting screen for a paper feed tray by a user different from the person who made the reservation of the image forming apparatus in the second embodiment. [Figure 17] 11 is a display example of a reservation setting screen for a paper feed tray of an image forming apparatus according to a third embodiment. [Figure 18] 11 is a display example of a reservation status screen for a paper feed tray of an image forming apparatus according to a third embodiment. [Figure 19] 13 is a display example of a paper setting screen for a paper feed tray by a user different from the person who made the reservation of the image forming apparatus according to the third embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the following embodiments do not limit the scope of the present invention, and not all of the combinations of features described in the embodiments are necessarily essential to the solution of the present invention. [Example]

[0010] Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus according to the present disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings. The image forming apparatus includes a printer, a copier, a facsimile, and a multifunction device that combines the functions of these, and has a function of forming an image on a sheet, which is a recording medium (printing function).

[0011] The image forming apparatus 100 shown in Figure 1(a) is a multifunction peripheral that forms an image on a sheet. The term "sheet" includes paper such as paper sheets and envelopes, plastic films such as sheets for overhead projectors (OHPs), and cloth. In the drawings, the terms "paper" and "paper feed" are used, but unless otherwise specified, they are used to refer to sheets in general, including sheets other than paper.

[0012] The image forming apparatus 100 includes devices such as a printer unit 101, a scanner unit 108, multiple paper feed cassettes 102, 103, 104, and 105, a manual feed tray 106, and a discharge tray 107. Hereinafter, the paper feed cassettes 102, 103, 104, and 105 and the manual feed tray 106 will be collectively referred to as paper feed trays. The scanner unit 108, which serves as an image reading device, optically scans an original document and converts the scanned image into electronic image information using a photoelectric conversion element such as a CCD. The printer unit 101 forms an image on a sheet using a printer engine 110, which is an example of an image forming section, based on image information input from the scanner unit 108 or an external host computer. Each of the paper feed cassettes 102 to 105 stores sheets, and the manual feed tray 106 supports the sheets placed on the tray. The sheets held in the paper feed cassettes 102 to 105 and the manual feed tray 106 are separated one by one by a paper feed unit (not shown) and fed to the printer engine 110. The paper feed cassettes 102 to 105 and the manual feed tray 106 are all examples of paper feed stages that hold sheets to be supplied to an image forming unit. The sheets on which an image has been formed by the printer engine 110 are discharged to a discharge tray 107, which is a discharge unit.

[0013] As shown in FIG. 1B, the printer engine 110 has an electrophotographic image forming unit PU. The image forming unit PU includes a photosensitive drum 1, which is a drum-shaped photosensitive member, a charging device 2, an exposure device 3, a developing device 4, and a cleaning device 6. When the printer engine 110 is requested to start an image forming operation, the charging device 2 uniformly charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 1, and the exposure device 3 scans the photosensitive drum 1 with a laser beam to form an electrostatic latent image on the drum surface. The developing device 4 supplies charged toner to the photosensitive drum 1 to develop the electrostatic latent image into a toner image. The toner image carried on the photosensitive drum 1 is transferred to a sheet by a transfer device 5. The toner image transferred to the sheet is fixed to the sheet by a fixing device 7, which uses a thermal fixing method, for example.

[0014] Next, an image forming system including the image forming apparatus 100 will be described with reference to Fig. 2. The image forming apparatus 100 is connected to a wired or wireless network via a communication interface (I / F) 212, and communicates with an information processing apparatus such as a personal computer (PC) 200.

[0015] It is assumed that a printer driver 202 is installed in the PC 200 as driver software that generates a job (hereinafter, a print job) that commands the image forming apparatus 100 to form an image. The printer driver 202 generates a print job written in PDL based on, for example, document data received from a document creation application on the PC 200. PDL is an abbreviation for Page Description Language, examples of which include PS, PCL, and LIPS (registered trademark). The PC 200 is also assumed to include a control unit such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), and storage units such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), RAM (Rewritable Memory), and HDD (Hard Disk Drive). The printer driver 202 transmits the generated print job to the image forming apparatus 100 via a communication interface 203 of the PC 200 and a network.

[0016] The image forming apparatus 100 is equipped with control circuits (213, 214, 216) that each realize a specific function, a control unit 219 that controls these control circuits, and storage devices (220, 217) that can temporarily or permanently store data. As will be described in detail later, image data sent from the PC 200 is converted into raster-format image data by the control circuit and saved. In addition, image information read from an original by the scanner unit 108 is also saved as image data. This image data is sent to the printer engine 110 as a video signal and used in the image formation operation by the printer engine 110.

[0017] Control unit 219, an example of a control means, is a central processing unit that performs overall control of image forming apparatus 100, and reads and executes a control program stored in storage unit 220. In the following description, unless otherwise specified, each step of the control process of image forming apparatus 100 is assumed to be executed by control unit 219. Storage unit 220, an example of a storage means, includes a ROM, RAM, HDD, etc., and in addition to temporarily or permanently storing the control program and setting information of image forming apparatus 100, is also used as a working memory when control unit 219 executes the control program.

[0018] Furthermore, the image forming apparatus 100 is provided with a user interface (UI) screen 218 as a display means capable of displaying information. The UI screen 218 includes a display unit including a display such as a touch panel equipped with soft key functions, and an operation unit including hard keys such as a numeric keypad and a print start button.

[0019] (Image formation flow) The flow of image formation in this embodiment will be described below. As shown in Fig. 3, it is assumed that a paper feed tray reservation process (S301) is performed before image formation is performed. Paper feed tray reservation is a process for setting users who can use each paper feed cassette and manual feed tray in which sheets to be used in image formation are placed, and the details will be described later. Thereafter, the PC 200 generates a print job by printer driver process (S302) and outputs it to the image forming apparatus 100. When a print job is input to the image forming apparatus 100, the image forming apparatus executes printer process (S302) to process the print job.

[0020] (Printer driver processing) The printer driver processing will be described using the flowchart in Fig. 4. Note that each of the following steps is achieved by a control means such as a CPU installed in PC 200 executing a program that constitutes printer driver 202. The printer driver processing is initiated when a user of PC 200 performs an operation to instruct a document creation application to execute printing, for example. Note that it is assumed that document data indicating the content to be printed (documents, drawings, etc.) has been generated in advance using a document creation application or the like (S401).

[0021] A setting process for setting attribute information of a print job is performed based on a user's operation signal to the PC 200 (S402 to S404). Specifically, as shown in FIG. 15, a setting screen 1501 for setting print conditions is displayed on the display of the PC 200, and the screen is ready to accept user operations. A tab 1502 indicates that this is a screen for setting print settings. A paper size setting field 1503 displays the setting value for the sheet size, a paper type setting field 1504 displays the setting value for the sheet type, and a paper feed stage setting field 1505 displays the paper feed stage specified as the sheet supply source. As for sheet size, in addition to "original size" which specifies the same size as the document data, standard sizes such as "A4" and user-defined sizes which the user inputs numerically can be selected. As for sheet type, in addition to "plain paper 1," settings such as "plain paper 2" which has a larger basis weight than "plain paper 1" and "coated paper" can be selected. As for paper feed stage, either one of the paper feed cassettes 102 to 105 or the manual feed tray 106 can be selected. In addition, for each of the sheet type and the paper feed tray, options such as "automatic selection" that leaves the selection to the image forming apparatus may be provided. The driver software sets information specifying the sheet size, sheet type, and the paper feed tray from which the sheets will be fed, based on an operation signal from the user via such a print setting screen 1501.

[0022] Next, the printer driver 202 sets the owner name and document name of the print job (S405, S406). The owner name is information for identifying the user who created the print job, and in this embodiment, the ID of the user currently logged in to the PC 200 (i.e., the ID of the user who has been authenticated for login) is used as the owner name. The document name is information for identifying a data file such as a document or drawing to be printed, and is obtained, for example, from the application that generated the document data.

[0023] Then, printer driver 202 generates PDL data conforming to the PDL format based on the document data and various setting information (S407). The PDL data includes page data representing the drawing content of each page and print job setting information (sheet size, sheet type, paper feed tray, owner name, document name, etc.). Note that page data is image information generated by printer driver 202 from the document data in accordance with the PDL format. The generated PDL data is transmitted to image forming apparatus 100 via the network (S408).

[0024] (printer processing) When a signal representing PDL data reaches the image forming apparatus 100, the control unit 219 of the image forming apparatus 100 starts printer processing. As shown in Fig. 5, the printer processing includes a page generation process (S501) that roughly generates image data for each page, and a print process (S502) that forms an image on a sheet based on the image data.

[0025] First, the contents of the page generation process will be described with reference to FIG. 2 and the flowchart in FIG. 6. A print job sent from the PC 200 is received by the data receiving unit 213 and temporarily stored (S601). The print job stored in the data receiving unit 213 includes page data as image information in the PDL format. This page data is analyzed by the interpreter 214 (S602) and converted into intermediate data 215 (S603). Note that intermediate data refers collectively to drawing objects such as bitmaps, run-lengths, trapezoids, boxes, and high-speed boundary-encoded bitmaps, background patterns, and the drawing logic for drawing raster-format images from these. In addition, print job setting information such as sheet size included in the PDL data is extracted through analysis by the interpreter 214 and stored in the memory unit 220 by the control unit 219.

[0026] The renderer 216 performs RIP processing on the intermediate data 215 and stores the data in the image data storage unit 217 (S604). Note that RIP is an abbreviation for Raster Image Processing, and refers to the process of generating raster format image data from image data such as a vector image.

[0027] Next, the contents of the printing process will be explained with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 7. When the printing process starts, the control unit 219 initializes a parameter P indicating the page being processed (current sheet) (S701). The parameter P is an integer value that satisfies P ≥ 1. The control unit 219 determines whether the parameter P exceeds a variable Pmax indicating the total number of pages (the number of sheets specified by the print job) (S702), and as long as P ≤ Pmax, repeatedly executes the following processes (S703 to S708). It is assumed that the variable Pmax is extracted by analyzing the PDL data and stored in the storage unit 220.

[0028] First, the control unit 219 refers to the storage unit 220 to acquire information on the paper feed tray setting (see S404 in FIG. 4), and performs a paper feed determination process to determine whether a sheet can be fed from the specified paper feed tray (S703). The contents of the paper feed determination process will be described in detail later. If the paper feed determination process determines that paper can be fed, one sheet is fed (S704). The control unit 219 also reads image data of the sheet being processed from the image data storage unit 217 (S705), converts this into video data, and transfers it to the printer engine 110 (S706). Then, when the printer engine 110 executes a print process (image forming process) on the sheet based on the video data (S707), the control unit 219 increments the parameter P (S708).

[0029] When image formation on the total number of pages (Pmax) of sheets is completed (No in S702), the printing process ends.

[0030] (Paper tray reservation) Next, reserving a paper feed tray (S301) will be described with reference to the flowchart in Fig. 8. Here, the description will be made assuming that a user (user name: user1) places the following special sheet in the paper feed cassette 102 and reserves it.

[0031] Sheet size: A4 Sheet type: Coated paper First, user 1 places the special sheet in the paper feed cassette 102. Next, user 1 operates the UI screen 218 of the image forming apparatus 100 to set the size and type of the placed sheet.

[0032] 9 on the UI screen 218, and waits for an operation from the user (S801). The screen 901 for user authentication includes input fields 902 and 903 for accepting a user name and a password, a selection field 904 for selecting a login destination, and a login button 905 for confirming the input and starting the authentication process. When the control unit 219 detects that the login button 905 has been pressed, the control unit 219 performs authentication processing based on the input information, and when authentication is complete (S802), the control unit 219 displays a home screen 1001 shown in FIG. 10 on the UI screen 218 (S803).

[0033] The home screen 1001 includes a button 1002 to be selected when using the copy function, a button 1003 to be selected when using the send function, and a button 1004 to be selected when using the box function. A button 1005 is also provided for configuring various settings for the image forming apparatus 100. The setting button 1005 is also pressed when setting the size and type of sheets installed by the aforementioned user 1 and reserving a paper feed tray. When the control unit 219 of the image forming apparatus 100 detects that the various setting button 1005 has been pressed, it displays a screen (not shown) for selecting various setting items. When the control unit 219 detects that a button for setting the sheet among the various setting items has been pressed, it displays a screen 1101 for setting the sheet, as shown in FIG. 11 (S804). Paper feed tray selection buttons 1102 to 1106 are displayed on the paper setting screen 1101, and the setting status of each paper feed tray is displayed on each button. The contents of each display will be described later. The screen also has a button 1107 for changing the sheet type, buttons 1108 and 1109 for setting the sheet size to special sizes such as an envelope or postcard, and a reservation button 1110, which is the most distinctive setting in this patent. Each of the setting buttons 1107 to 1110 is operated after selecting one of the paper feed tray selection buttons 1102 to 1106 described above.

[0034] The display of the setting status 1102 to 1106 of each paper feed tray will be described in detail below. The setting status of each paper feed tray is stored as paper feed tray information in the memory unit 220 of the image forming apparatus 100 as shown in Table 1 below. The sheet size 2002 in the table is the size that each paper feed tray automatically detects when the sheet is installed or is set by the user. The sheet type 2003 is set using the sheet type setting button 1107, and the remaining sheet amount 2004 indicates the remaining amount detected by each paper feed tray in four levels. Furthermore, the reserver 2005 in the table represents the user who can occupy the paper feed tray, which is the most distinctive element of this patent, and is set using the reserve button 1110 mentioned above. In the example of Table 1 below, all fields are blank, indicating that the tray is available for anyone to use.

[0035] [Table 1]

[0036] Next, the operation when a certain paper feed tray is selected (for the sake of explanation, it is assumed that 1102 corresponding to the paper feed cassette 102 is selected) and the sheet type setting button 1107 is pressed will be described. When the control unit 219 of the image forming apparatus 100 detects that the sheet type setting button 1107 has been pressed, it displays a paper type setting screen 1201 shown in FIG. 12 on the UI screen 218. Then, the control unit 219 obtains and displays the sheet type set for the selected paper feed tray (here, the paper feed cassette 102) from the paper feed tray information stored in the storage unit 220. FIG. 12 shows that plain paper 1 (1202) has been set. In addition to plain paper 1 (1202), the paper type setting screen 1201 also displays cardboard 1 (1204), coated paper (1206), and the like. The user selects a sheet type here and presses the OK button 1208. Then, the control unit 219 detects that the OK button 1208 has been pressed, updates the paper feed tray information described above, and completes the setting of the sheet type.

[0037] Next, the operation for reserving a paper feed tray will be described. For the sake of explanation, it is assumed here that user1 reserves the paper feed cassette 102. When the control unit 219 of the image forming apparatus 100 detects that the reserve button 1110 has been pressed while the button 1102 corresponding to the paper feed cassette 102 is selected, the control unit 219 records the name of the currently logged-in user in the reserver field of the paper feed tray information stored in the storage unit 220 (S805). This allows user1 to occupy the paper feed cassette 102. To cancel the reservation, the reserve button 1110 is pressed again, and in this case, the reserver field of the paper feed tray information stored in the storage unit 220 is cleared. The specific paper feed operation in response to the occupancy of a paper feed tray will be described in detail in the paper feed determination process below.

[0038] Table 2 shows the changes that have been made to the paper feed tray information shown in Table 1 as a result of the sheet type change and reservation process. For easier comparison, the items that have been changed from Table 1 are highlighted in reverse color.

[0039] [Table 2]

[0040] (Paper feed determination process) Next, the paper feed determination process (S703) will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

[0041] In the feed determination process, the control unit 219 first acquires the print job setting information stored in the storage unit 220 in S602 (S1301). The print job setting information includes the job owner name, the sheet size, sheet type, and paper feed tray setting information required for printing. Note that the sheet size, sheet type, and paper feed tray setting information are all included in the print job as automatic or specific values ​​(values ​​specifying a specific sheet size, specific sheet type, or specific paper feed tray). Note that if the job owner name in the print job is blank or automatic, all paper feed trays reserved by someone are deleted in S1304. Next, the control unit 219 acquires the paper feed tray information stored in the storage unit 220 (S1302). The paper feed tray information is a compilation of the setting information for each paper feed tray shown in Table 2 above. This acquired paper feed tray information is copied as a paper feed tray candidate list and used to determine the paper feed trays that will be candidate paper feed trays in subsequent processes (S1303). Next, the control unit 219 compares the reserving user (2005) recorded for each paper feed tray in the paper feed tray candidate list with the job owner acquired in S1301. If a paper feed tray has been reserved by someone other than the job owner, the control unit 219 deletes that paper feed tray from the paper feed tray candidate list (S1304). For example, if the job owner is user1 and the paper feed tray reservation status is as shown in Table 2, no paper feed tray is deleted from the paper feed tray candidate list. If the job owner is someone other than user1, the control unit 219 deletes the paper feed cassette 102 from the paper feed tray candidate list. As a result, only information about paper feed trays that can be used by the job owner remains in the paper feed tray candidate list. In other words, the use of a paper feed tray reserved by a user other than the job owner is prohibited.

[0042] Next, the control unit 219 refers to the paper feed stage setting information from the setting information of the print job acquired in the previous step S1301, and deletes all paper feed stages other than the specified one (paper feed unit other than the specified one) from the paper feed stage candidate list (S1305). The paper feed stage setting information is information specified in the paper feed stage setting field 1505 described above. If a specific paper feed stage is specified in the paper feed stage setting field 1505, all paper feed stages other than the specified one are deleted from the paper feed stage candidate list, and if automatic selection is set, no paper feed stages are deleted from the paper feed stage candidate list.

[0043] Next, the control unit 219 selects the most suitable paper feed tray from those remaining in the paper feed tray candidate list (S1306). Specifically, the paper feed tray candidate list is searched to see if there is a paper feed tray holding sheets that match the sheet size and sheet type required for printing described in the setting information of the print job. In S1307, the next process is switched depending on the paper feed tray search results. If a paper feed tray is found, that paper feed tray is notified to the subsequent flow (S1308), and the paper feed determination process ends. Note that if a specific paper feed tray is specified, and if the print job contains a value indicating that the information on the sheet size and sheet type required for printing is automatic, the specified specific paper feed tray will be selected in S1306.

[0044] On the other hand, if it is determined in S1307 that the paper feed tray cannot be found, the control unit 219 displays an out-of-paper error screen 1401 shown in Fig. 14 on the UI screen 218 of the image forming apparatus 100. The out-of-paper error screen 1401 displays information (size and type) of the sheet required to continue the print job (1409). At this time, the user can perform one of the following operations:

[0045] Place the sheet described in 1409 in one of the paper feed trays to resolve the out-of-paper error.

[0046] By pressing any of the paper feed tray selection buttons 1402 to 1406, the processing is forcibly continued with a paper feed tray that accommodates sheets different from that of 1409. At this time, it is preferable that paper feed trays reserved by users other than the job owner are not displayed, or are displayed but grayed out so that they cannot be selected.

[0047] Pressing the stop button 1407 stops the print job.

[0048] The control unit 219 waits for one of the above operations to be performed by the user. If there is any change in the state of the paper feed tray (S1310), it is determined that the user may have installed paper, and the process proceeds to S1302, where the process for searching for the optimal paper feed tray is performed again. If an instruction from the UI screen 218 by the user is detected (S1311), the process proceeds to S1312, where the next process to be performed is switched depending on the instruction. If one of the paper feed tray selection buttons 1402 to 1406 is selected, the selected paper feed tray is notified to the subsequent flow (S1308), and the paper feed determination process ends. On the other hand, if it is detected that the stop button 1407 has been pressed, the print process itself ends.

[0049] As described above, the paper feed tray reservation process can restrict use by anyone other than the person who made the reservation. Therefore, when using expensive paper such as coated paper, by reserving the paper feed tray in which the paper is placed in advance, it is possible to prevent the paper from being used by anyone other than the person who made the reservation. [Example]

[0050] The second embodiment has all the configurations of the first embodiment, but also has an additional configuration. Specifically, in the sheet setting (FIG. 11) in the first embodiment, the following operation restrictions are additionally imposed in the second embodiment. The details will be explained using FIG. 16.

[0051] As described above, sheet setting operations are performed by specifying the paper feed tray whose settings are to be changed using paper feed tray selection buttons 1102 to 1106, and then pressing one of the buttons 1107 to 1110 corresponding to the setting to be changed. For example, to change the sheet type of paper feed tray 1 (paper feed cassette 102), the corresponding paper feed tray selection button 1102 is selected, and then the sheet type setting button 1107 is pressed. Other settings, such as the sheet size, can also be changed. At this time, if paper feed cassette 102 has already been reserved by user 1, operations on paper feed cassette 102 by users other than user 1 are restricted. Specifically, when paper feed cassette 102 is selected using paper feed tray selection button 1602, the control unit 219 controls the display by shading setting buttons 1607 to 1610 to make them unselectable, thereby preventing other users from changing the settings. On the other hand, when user 1, who has reserved paper feed cassette 102, operates the buttons, the shading is not applied, and settings can be changed without restriction. Furthermore, if user 1 presses the reservation button 1610 again to cancel the reservation, any user will be able to change the settings for the paper feed cassette 102.

[0052] As described above, by controlling so that only the person who has reserved a paper feed tray can change the settings of that paper feed tray, it is possible to prevent sheet settings from being changed by mistake by a user who has not made a reservation. [Example]

[0053] The third embodiment has all the configurations of the first and second embodiments, and also has the following additional configuration. That is, in the paper feed tray reservation process (S301) in the first embodiment, a reservation is made by pressing the reservation button 1110, but in this embodiment, a reservation time (reservation period) can be set as follows. Details will be explained using Fig. 17 and Fig. 18. That is, a reservation period for occupying the paper feed tray can be set.

[0054] FIG. 17 shows a reservation time setting screen 1701 that is displayed on the UI screen 218 when the reservation button 1110 is pressed after selecting paper feed tray 1 (paper feed cassette 102) with the paper feed tray selection button 1102 in step S805. The reservation time setting screen 1701 includes fields 1702 to 1706 for inputting the date and time for reserving the paper feed tray. Screen 1701 shows that an input has been made to reserve paper feed tray 1 (paper feed cassette 102) from 10:00 to 12:00 on May 10, 2021. Accordingly, the reservation user field 2005 in the paper feed tray information shown in Tables 1 and 2 is expanded as shown in Table 3 below. Specifically, in addition to reservation user information 2107, date and time information (2102 to 2106) indicating when the reservation is made can also be recorded. Furthermore, since it becomes necessary to manage reservations for multiple times, they are managed in a list as shown in 2101 below. Table 3 below shows that two reservations have already been made for paper feed stage 1 (paper feed cassette 102). Here, when the control unit 219 detects that the OK button 1709 has been pressed, it confirms the reservation, updates the paper feed stage information for paper feed stage 1, and returns to the original screen (1101). Table 4 shows an example of the results of updating the paper feed stage information for paper feed stage 1. To make it easier to see the differences in the table, the items shaded in black are the updated contents from Table 3.

[0055] [Table 3]

[0056] [Table 4]

[0057] On the other hand, if the cancel button 1708 is pressed, the reservation is not made and the screen returns to the original screen (1101). Furthermore, when the control unit 219 detects that the button 1707 for checking and canceling the reservation status has been pressed, the UI screen 218 displays a paper feed tray reservation status screen 1801 shown in FIG. 18. The reservation status screen 1801 displays a timetable (1802) showing the reservation status for several days. The control unit 219 creates and displays the timetable based on the paper feed tray information shown in Table 3 above. The timetable (1802) displays the time set on the reservation time setting screen 1701 (the grid-filled area in 1803) and already reserved times (the black-filled area in 1804). The user can cancel a reservation by selecting a reserved area and pressing the cancel button 1805. In this case, the control unit 219, in conjunction with the pressing of the cancel button 1805, deletes the corresponding reservation information from the paper feed tray information.

[0058] Next, we will explain the changes to the paper feed determination process (S703) that come with the ability to set a reservation time. In S1304 in the first embodiment, the reserver (2005) in the paper feed tray information was compared with the job owner acquired in S1301 above, but in this embodiment, the comparison is made between the reserver who has made a reservation at the job execution time and the job owner. For example, if the paper feed tray information for paper feed tray 1 is as shown in Table 4 and the job execution time is 11:00 on May 10, 2021, the reserver No. 1 is user1. Similarly, if the job execution time is 14:00 on May 10, 2021, the reserver No. 2 is user2.

[0059] Next, a description will be given of a change to the method of restricting changes to paper feed tray settings described in the second embodiment in conjunction with the addition of the reservation time setting feature. In the second embodiment, to restrict changes to settings by anyone other than the person reserving the paper feed tray, the setting buttons 1107 to 1110 are shaded as shown in the paper setting screen 1601. In the third embodiment, since the reservation time can be set, the restriction on changes by shading the setting buttons is switched depending on whether or not the person reserving the paper feed tray is the person reserving the paper feed tray at the time of operation (operation time). For example, if the paper feed tray information for paper feed tray 1 is as shown in Table 4 and a user other than user1 presses the paper feed tray selection button 1602 to select paper feed tray 1 (paper feed cassette 102) at 11:00 on May 10, 2021, the control unit 219 displays the screen shown in FIG. 19. The difference between the paper setting screen 1901 and the screen 1601 shown in the first embodiment is that the reservation button 1901 is not shaded. The shading is not used so that anyone other than user1 can reserve the paper feed tray even during user1's reservation time. Also, the reservation cancellation (1805) is controlled so that only the person who made the reservation can cancel the reservation at any time.

[0060] In the first embodiment, a paper feed tray reserved by a user other than the job owner is deleted from the paper feed tray candidate list and prevented from being used. However, in the third embodiment, a reservation period is set, and printing may be performed after the reservation period has expired. That is, without deleting the paper feed tray from the paper feed tray candidate list, the paper feed tray may be set to have a lower priority when selecting the optimal paper feed tray in S1306. That is, if there is another paper feed tray that matches the paper size and paper type, that other paper feed tray may be selected, but if there is no matching paper feed tray, the current paper feed tray (the paper feed tray currently reserved by another user) may be selected in S1306. In this case, the print job will be kept waiting without being printed until the reservation period expires, and once the reservation period has expired, the print job will begin printing using that paper feed tray.

[0061] As described above, by making it possible to set a time for reserving a paper feed tray, it becomes possible to efficiently manage and operate paper feed tray reservations by a plurality of users.

[0062] Incidentally, sheet type is a concept that does not include sheet size, but is information that indicates the surface texture and thickness of the sheet. For example, this includes plain paper, thick paper, and OHP. Conversely, sheet size is a concept that does not include sheet thickness. Also, paper is sometimes referred to as a sheet, but this has the same meaning. [Example]

[0063] In the first to third embodiments, a print job input from the printer driver 202 was described, but in this embodiment, a copy job process will be described in more detail. This fourth embodiment includes all of the configurations of the first to third embodiments.

[0064] The difference between a print job and a copy job is mainly whether the page data read from the image data storage unit 217 in print processing S705 is generated based on data input from the printer driver 202 or generated by the scanner unit 108. As for the paper feed tray reservation processing S301 and paper feed determination processing S703, which are the most distinctive features of this patent, there is almost no difference between a print job and a copy job, so a description of the copy job will be omitted.

[0065] (Other Examples) The present invention can also be realized by supplying a program that realizes one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or device via a network or a storage medium, and having one or more processors in the computer of the system or device read and execute the program.The present invention can also be realized by a circuit (e.g., ASIC) that realizes one or more functions.

Claims

1. A display unit; a receiving unit that receives an instruction to reserve a paper feed unit based on an operation by a login-authenticated user on a screen displayed on the display unit; a display unit that displays information indicating the reservation status of the paper feed unit on the display unit in response to an operation to check the reservation status of the paper feed unit on the screen; An image forming apparatus comprising: a prohibition unit that prohibits printing using the reserved paper feed unit from being performed by a user other than the user who has been authenticated by login.

2. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a paper feed unit other than the paper feed unit reserved by the login-authenticated user can be used for printing by any user.

3. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information about the paper placed in the paper feed unit reserved by the login-authenticated user can be changed only by the login-authenticated user.

4. In addition to an instruction to reserve a paper feed unit, a period for reserving the paper feed unit is also accepted from the login-authenticated user, 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the restriction on use of the paper feed unit by the prohibition unit is carried out only during the period.

5. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein, during the period in which the restriction continues, even if another user logs in, a button for changing information about the paper installed in the paper feed unit is not displayed.

6. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein during the period in which the restriction continues, even if another user logs in, a button for changing information about the paper installed in the paper feed unit is grayed out.

7. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information indicating the reservation status is information indicating a date and time when the paper feed unit is reserved.

8. 8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the information indicating the reservation status is a time table indicating the dates and times when the paper feed unit is reserved, the time table being a plurality of days.

9. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the accepting unit accepts an operation to cancel the reservation made by the user while the information indicating the reservation status is displayed.

10. a receiving step of receiving an instruction to reserve a paper feed unit based on an operation by a login-authenticated user on a screen displayed on the display unit; a display step of displaying information indicating the reservation status of the paper feed unit on the display unit in response to an operation for checking the reservation status of the paper feed unit on the screen; a prohibition step of prohibiting printing using the reserved paper feed unit from being performed by a user other than the user who has been authenticated by login.

11. a receiving step of receiving an instruction to reserve a paper feed unit based on an operation by a login-authenticated user on a screen displayed on the display unit; a display step of displaying information indicating the reservation status of the paper feed unit on the display unit in response to an operation for checking the reservation status of the paper feed unit on the screen; A program for executing a control method for an image forming apparatus, comprising a prohibition step of prohibiting printing using the reserved paper feed unit for a user other than the user who has been authenticated by login.

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