Small-Job Print Control for Reliable Immediate Cancellation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing print control systems fail to promptly stop subsequent jobs when a job cancel instruction is issued during printing, particularly from the image forming apparatus-side, leading to incomplete cancellation of ongoing jobs.
Innovation Solution
A print control apparatus with a hardware processor that receives small jobs, accepts job cancel instructions, and controls the termination or interruption of printing operations, including monitoring and analyzing job characteristics to determine cancel targets.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If continuous printing of small jobs is performed without monitoring cancel instructions, then printing productivity is maintained, but job cancellation reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary actions by continuously monitoring job cancel instructions from both client terminals and the image forming apparatus itself before printing completes. The monitoring unit proactively detects cancel requests and triggers interruption before the printing process finishes, ensuring reliable cancellation while maintaining continuous printing capability.
2Device complexity
If job cancel monitoring is implemented only from client terminal side, then device complexity is reduced, but job cancellation reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The monitoring unit is designed with universal functionality to receive job cancel instructions from multiple sources including both client terminals and the image forming apparatus itself. This multi-source monitoring capability ensures comprehensive job cancellation coverage without requiring separate monitoring systems for different instruction sources, maintaining reasonable device complexity while improving reliability.
3Productivity
If subsequent jobs continue printing after cancel instruction, then printing productivity is maintained, but loss of time increases due to incomplete cancellation
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments job control by individually managing each received job's printing process. When a cancel instruction is detected, the control unit selectively interrupts only the affected job while allowing other jobs to continue printing. This segmentation approach prevents wasted time on incomplete cancellation while maintaining overall printing productivity through parallel job processing.
Data Source
AI summary
A print control apparatus includes a hardware processor. The hardware processor receives a plurality of small jobs transmitted from a client terminal based on a print instruction, performs control to perform printing based on the received small jobs, accepts a job cancel instruction that is a printing terminate instruction or a printing interrupt instruction, and when the job cancel instruction is accepted during reception of the plurality of small jobs, performs control such that the printing based on the small jobs is terminated or interrupted.