JP6935666B2 - Printing system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device, a printing device, a conversion device, a printing system and a program.

In Patent Document 1, a mobile device uploads a print job to a server, sends a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) indicating the print job to an MFP (Multifunction Printer), and the MFP that receives the URL prints based on the URL. An image recording system that downloads a job and executes a print process based on the downloaded print job is disclosed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2014-149666

In a printing system in which print data can be transmitted from a mobile terminal device such as a smartphone to a printing device to execute a printing process, it is known in advance which printing device the user gives a printing instruction to. I can't know. In addition, the data type of printable print data may be different in each printing device. Therefore, after the user determines the printing device to execute the printing process, it is necessary for the printing device to generate print data of a printable data type and transfer the print data to the determined printing device.

An object of the present invention is, as compared with a configuration in which a user determines a printing device to be printed, and then generates print data of a data type that can be printed by the printing device and transmits the print data to the printing device, until the start of printing. It is to provide an information processing apparatus, a printing apparatus, a conversion apparatus, a printing system and a program capable of shortening the time.

The invention according to claim 1 executes a printing process on a first receiving means for receiving image data and identification information for identifying the image data, and an image data received by the first receiving means. A conversion means for converting into print data of a plurality of preset data types that may be selected at the time of printing, and a storage means for storing the print data converted by the conversion means in association with the identification information. , The second receiving means for receiving the data type information of the printable print data together with the identification information of the image data to be printed from the printing apparatus, and the identification information received by the second receiving means are stored. A conversion device including a first transmission means for selecting print data that can be printed by the printing device from a plurality of data types of print data and transmitting the selected print data to the printing device.
The image data to be printed, a transfer means for transferring together with the identification information for specifying the image data to the conversion device, to the selected printing apparatus to perform the printing process, including the identification information An information processing device provided with a second transmission means for transmitting a print instruction, and the printing device does not acquire information on the data type of printable print data.
A third receiving means that receives a print instruction including identification information for identifying the image data to be printed from the information processing apparatus, and printing that can be printed by the own device together with the identification information included in the print instruction. A printing device including a third transmission means for transmitting data type information of data to the conversion device, and a print processing execution means for executing a printing process based on the print data transmitted from the conversion device.
It is a printing system having.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, print data of a data type that can be printed by the printing device is generated after the user determines the printing device to be printed without increasing the processing load in the information processing device. It is possible to provide a printing system capable of shortening the time until the start of printing as compared with the configuration in which the printing is transmitted to the printing apparatus.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the printing system of 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating how the mobile terminal apparatus 10 performs short-range wireless communication with printing apparatus 41-43. It is a figure which shows an example of the data type of the print data which can be printed by each of the printing apparatus 41-43. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware composition of the mobile terminal apparatus 10 in 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of the mobile terminal apparatus 10 in 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the operation at the time of giving a print instruction to a printing apparatus in the mobile terminal apparatus 10 of 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of processing when a printing instruction is given to a printing apparatus in the printing system of 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a sequence chart for demonstrating the exchange of information performed between the server apparatus 20, the mobile terminal apparatus 10, and the printing apparatus 41-43 in the printing system of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the process at the time of giving a print instruction to a printing apparatus in the printing system of the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. 6 is a sequence chart for explaining the exchange of information between the server device 20, the mobile terminal device 10, and the printing devices 41 to 43 in the printing system of the third embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating an example of processing when a printing instruction is given to a printing apparatus in the printing system of 3rd Embodiment of this invention.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system of the first embodiment of the present invention includes a server device 20 that provides a cloud service, a wireless LAN access point 50, and a mobile terminal device (information processing device) such as a smartphone. ) 10, and printing devices 41 to 43 that execute printing processing based on print data.

The server device 20 and the printing devices 41 to 43 are connected to each other via the Internet 30, and the mobile terminal device 10 is also connected to the Internet 30 via the wireless LAN access point 50.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the mobile terminal device 10 of the present embodiment mutually communicates with the printing devices 41 to 43 via a communication line of a short-range wireless communication standard such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) or WiFi. It is configured to be able to send and receive data.

The mobile terminal device 10 also supports a proximity wireless communication standard called NFC (Near Field Communication), and data is transmitted to and received from the printing devices 41 to 43 via a communication line of this proximity wireless communication standard. It has a function that can perform.

By having such a function, the mobile terminal device 10 can directly transmit print data to the printing devices 41 to 43 and perform printing without going through a network such as the Internet 30. It has become.

Specifically, by tapping (approaching) the mobile terminal device 10 to a reading device such as an IC card reader provided in each printing device 41 to 43, printing data is instructed to each printing device 41 to 43. Is done. Then, the mobile terminal device 10 and the printing devices 41 to 43 exchange setting information for short-range wireless communication such as Bluetooth and WiFi via close-range wireless communication to establish a short-range wireless communication line and move. Print data is transferred from the terminal device 10 to each of the printing devices 41 to 43.

Here, when giving a print instruction to each of the printing devices 41 to 43, the image data to be printed is printed by a PDL (Page Description Language) that can be printed by the respective printing devices 41 to 43. It is necessary to convert to the described print data.

There are various data types (data formats) such as PS (Post Script (registered trademark)), PCL (Printer Command Language), and simple PDL in this PDL, and each printing 41 to 43 can print. The data type of print data is different.

Further, recent printing devices are provided with a PDF direct function that enables direct printing without converting PDF (Portable Document Format) data into PDF data as well as print data described in PDL, which is a dedicated language for print data. There are also some. Furthermore, recent printing devices have an office direct function that enables direct printing without converting Microsoft office (registered trademark) data such as Microsoft's document creation software Word, Excel, and PPT (Power Point) into PDL data. Some are equipped.

What kind of PDF is supported, or the status of support for the above-mentioned PDF direct function and office direct function differs depending on the model and price range of the printing apparatus.

FIG. 3 shows an example of data types of print data that can be printed by the printing devices 41 to 43, respectively.

With reference to FIG. 3, it can be seen that the higher the price of the printing apparatus, the larger the number of printable data types (data formats) of print data tend to be. For example, since the printing device 41 is a relatively low-priced device, it supports only print data described by a simple PDL that requires print data close to a bitmap image.

Since the printing device 42 is a device that is more expensive than the printing device 41, it has a function of being able to print the print data described by the PCL and the PDF data.

Further, the printing device 43 is a so-called multifunction device having a plurality of functions such as a printing (printing) function, a scanning function, a copying (copying) function, and a facsimile function, and is more expensive than the printing devices 41 and 42. It is a device. Therefore, the printing device 43 has a function capable of printing print data described by PCL and PS, PDF data, and office data.

As described above, since the types of printable print data are different between the printing devices 41 to 43, the type of print data required depends on which printing device of the printing devices 41 to 43 is selected to execute the printing process. Will also change. However, it may take some time to convert the image data to be printed into print data, and if the user selects a printing device to perform printing processing and then generates printing data, the printing processing is performed. It may take some time to get started.

Therefore, in the printing system of the present embodiment, the time until the start of printing is shortened by performing the following operations.

Next, FIG. 4 shows the hardware configuration of the mobile terminal device 10 in the printing system of the present embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 4, the mobile terminal device 10 is a printing device 41 to 43 via a CPU 11, a memory 12, a storage device 13 such as a flash memory, a short-range wireless communication line such as Bluetooth, or a near-field wireless line such as an interface. It has a wireless communication interface (IF) 14 for transmitting and receiving data to and from the user interface (UI) device 15 composed of a touch panel, a liquid crystal display, or the like. These components are connected to each other via a control bus 16.

The CPU 11 executes a predetermined process based on the control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13 to control the operation of the mobile terminal device 10. In the present embodiment, the CPU 11 has been described as reading and executing the control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13, but the program is stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and stored in the CPU 11. It is also possible to provide.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the mobile terminal device 10 realized by executing the above control program.

As shown in FIG. 5, the mobile terminal device 10 of the present embodiment includes a short-range wireless communication unit 31, a control unit 32, a data storage unit 33, a display unit 34, an operation reception unit 35, and a proximity radio. It is provided with a communication unit 36.

The short-range wireless communication unit 31 transmits / receives data to / from the printing devices 41 to 43 via the above-mentioned communication lines such as Bluetooth and WiFi. Further, the proximity wireless communication unit 36 transmits / receives data to / from the printing devices 41 to 43 via the NFC communication line.

The data storage unit 33 temporarily stores the image data to be printed, and stores the PDL data after converting the image data. The display unit 34 displays various images to the user. In addition, the operation reception unit 35 inputs an operation from the user.

The control unit 32 controls the short-range wireless communication unit 31, the proximity wireless communication unit 36, the data storage unit 33, the display unit 34, the operation reception unit 35, and the like, and is instructed to print via the operation reception unit 35. Controls such as conversion of image data into PDL data and transmission of the converted PDL data to a printing device are performed.

Then, when receiving a print instruction for a certain image data, the control unit 32 sets the image data such as the document data to be printed in all of a plurality of preset image data before the printing device for executing the printing process is selected. Convert to print data of the data type of.

Here, all data types mean all types of PDL data that can be generated by the mobile terminal device 10. Further, when the printing devices that can be selected in advance are known, all types of print data that can be printed by the plurality of printing devices may be used as all data types. Further, the data type of the print data that may be selected when the print instruction is given may be determined in advance, and the data type may be set to all the data types.

For example, when the printing devices 41 to 43 as shown in FIG. 3 exist, the print data of all data types are simple PDL data, PCL data, PS data, PDF data, and office data.

Then, when the control unit 32 detects the surrounding printing devices via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 and displays the list via the display unit 34, the user executes the printing process from the printed devices displayed in the list. Select a printing device for. Alternatively, the user approaches the printing device that executes the printing process by himself / herself, and taps the mobile terminal device 10 on the reading unit of the printing device to select the printing device for executing the printing process.

In this way, when the printing device is selected by the user, the control unit 32 acquires information on the data type that can be printed by the printing device from the printing device selected to execute the printing process.

Then, the control unit 32 prints printable in the printing device selected to execute the print process from the converted print data of the plurality of data types based on the acquired printable data type information. Data is selected, and the selected print data is transmitted to the printing device via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 or the like.

Next, the operation when giving a printing instruction to the printing device in the mobile terminal device 10 of the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in the mobile terminal device 10, the image data to be printed by the user is specified, and print settings such as the number of prints are made (step S101).

Then, the control unit 32 starts converting the image data to be printed into all kinds of PDL format print data (step S102).

Then, the control unit 32 searches for printing devices existing in the surroundings by wireless communication via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 (step S103), and displays a list of the found printing devices on the display unit 34 (step S104). ..

Then, when the user selects a printing device to execute the printing process from the list of printing devices displayed, the control unit 32 is selected via the operation receiving unit 35 and receives the information of the printing device.

Then, the control unit 32 acquires the data type information of the print data that can be printed by the printing device from the printing device selected by the user via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 (step S105).

For example, when the printing device 42 shown in FIG. 3 is selected as the printing device on which the user executes the printing process, the control unit 32 acquires two types of information, PCL and PDF, as printable data types.

Then, the control unit 32 determines one data type of the print data to be transmitted to execute the print process from the acquired plurality of data types (step S106), and prints the print data of the determined data type. It is transmitted to the device (step S107).

When the user selects a printing device that executes printing processing by tapping the mobile terminal device 10 on the printing device, the control unit 32 uses an NFC line via the proximity wireless unit 36 to display the printing device. Information on the data type of printable print data may be acquired.

An example of the processing performed in this way will be described with reference to FIG. 7. FIG. 7 shows an example in which the mobile terminal device 10 selects the printing device 43 and executes the printing process.

First, the image data (document data) to be printed is selected and the print setting is made, so that the mobile terminal device 10 performs a process of converting the image data into all kinds of print data. In FIG. 7, the image data to be printed is converted into all types of convertible print data such as PS data, PCL data, simple PDL data, PDF data, and office data.

Then, the mobile terminal device 10 acquires information on the printable data type from the printing device 43 selected for performing the printing process. Here, since the data types that can be printed by the printing device 43 are PCL, PS, PDF, and office document, the mobile terminal device 10 acquires this information.

Then, the mobile terminal device 10 selects one type from the type information of the print data that can be printed by the acquired printing device 43. Here, it is assumed that the control unit 32 has selected the PCL data.

Then, the control unit 32 selects the PCL data from the plurality of types of print data that have already been generated and transmits the PCL data to the printing device 43. Then, the printing device 43 receives the transmitted PCL data and executes the printing process.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, the printing system of the second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

The printing system of the second embodiment of the present invention is such that the server device 20 executes a conversion process of the image data to be printed into print data for the printing system of the first embodiment described above. The only difference is that it is set to.

Therefore, in the following description, the same configuration as the configuration in the first embodiment will be described using the same reference numerals, and the points different from the operation in the first embodiment will be described.

In the present embodiment, the server device 20 that provides the cloud service functions as a conversion device that converts the transmitted image data into print data of a plurality of preset data types.

Then, the control unit 32 transfers the image data to be printed to the server device 20 which is an external device before the printing device for executing the printing process is selected.

Then, the control unit 32 acquires information on the data type that can be printed by the printing device from the printing device selected for executing the printing process via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 or the like.

Then, the control unit 32 selects the data type of the print data for executing the print process in the printing apparatus selected for executing the print process based on the acquired information on the printable data type. , The print data of the selected data type is acquired from the server device 20.

Then, the control unit 32 transmits the print data acquired from the server device 20 to the printing device selected for executing the printing process via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 or the like.

Next, in the printing system of the present embodiment, the exchange of information between the server device 20, the mobile terminal device 10, and the printing devices 41 to 43 will be described with reference to the sequence chart of FIG.

First, in the mobile terminal device 10, the image data to be printed by the user is specified, and print settings such as the number of prints are made (step S201). Then, the control unit 32 transmits the image data to be printed to the server device 20 (steps S202 and S203).

Then, the server device 20 executes a process of converting the received image data into all kinds of PDL format print data (step S204).

Further, the control unit 32 searches for printing devices existing in the surroundings by wireless communication via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 (step S205), and displays a list of the found printing devices on the display unit 34 (step S206). ..

Then, when the user selects a printing device to execute the printing process from the list of printing devices displayed, the control unit 32 is selected via the operation receiving unit 35 and receives the information of the printing device. Here, it is assumed that the printing device 43 is selected as the printing device that executes the printing process.

Then, the control unit 32 requests the type information of printable print data from the printing device 43 selected by the user via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 (step S207), and prints from the printing device 43. Acquires information on the data type of print data that can be printed (step S208).

Then, the control unit 32 determines one data type of the print data to be transmitted for executing the print process from the acquired plurality of data types (step S209), and transmits the print data of the determined data type. The server device 20 is requested to do so (step S210).

Then, the server device 20 transmits the print data of the data type requested by the mobile terminal device 10 from all the converted print data to the mobile terminal device 10 (step S211).

In the mobile terminal device 10, the control unit 32 transmits the received print data to the printing device 43 (steps S212, 213), and the printing device 43 executes a printing process based on the transmitted print data (step S212). S214).

Next, an example of the processing performed in this way will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 shows an example in which the mobile terminal device 10 selects the printing device 43 and executes the printing process.

First, the image data (document data) to be printed is selected and the print setting is made, so that the mobile terminal device 10 transmits this image data to the server device 20. Then, the server device 20 performs a process of converting the received image data into all kinds of print data. In FIG. 9, the image data to be printed is converted into all types of convertible print data such as PS data, PCL data, simple PDL data, PDF data, and office data.

(1) Then, the mobile terminal device 10 acquires information on the printable data type from the printing device 43 selected for performing the printing process. Here, since the data types that can be printed by the printing device 43 are PCL, PS, PDF, and office document, the mobile terminal device 10 acquires this information.

(2) Then, the mobile terminal device 10 selects one type from the type information of the print data that can be printed by the acquired printing device 43. Here, it is assumed that the control unit 32 has selected the PCL data. Then, the control unit 32 requests the server device 20 to transmit the PCL data.

(3) Then, the server device 20 selects PCL data from the plurality of types of print data that have already been generated and transmits the PCL data to the mobile terminal device 10. Therefore, the mobile terminal device 10 acquires the PCL data transmitted from the server device 20.

(4) Finally, the mobile terminal device 10 transmits the acquired PCL data to the printing device. Therefore, the printing device 43 receives the transmitted PCL data and executes the printing process.

[Third Embodiment]
Next, the printing system of the third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In the printing system of the third embodiment of the present invention, the printing devices 41 to 43 take the print data converted by the server device 20 by themselves with respect to the printing system of the second embodiment described above. Only the points that were made are different.

Therefore, in the following description, the same configuration as the configuration in the second embodiment will be described using the same reference numerals, and the points different from the operation in the second embodiment will be described.

In the mobile terminal device 10 of the present embodiment, the control unit 32 transfers the image data to be printed to the server device 20 which is an external device together with the data ID (identification information) for identifying the image data.

Then, the control unit 32 transmits a print instruction including the data ID (document ID, job ID) to the printing device selected to execute the print process.

Further, when the server device (conversion device) 20 in the present embodiment receives the image data and the data ID, the server device (conversion device) 20 converts the received image data into print data of a plurality of preset data types. Then, the server device 20 stores all the converted print data in association with the data ID.

Then, when the data ID of the image data to be printed and the data type information of the print data that can be printed by the printing device are received from the printing devices 41 to 43, a plurality of data stored corresponding to the received identification information are received. The print data that can be printed by the printing device is selected from the types of print data, and the selected print data is transmitted to the printing device.

When the printing devices 41 to 43 in the present embodiment receive the print instruction including the data ID, the server device outputs the data type information of the print data that can be printed by the own device together with the data ID included in the print instruction. Send to 20. Then, the printing devices 41 to 43 execute the printing process based on the printing data transmitted from the server device 20.

Next, in the printing system of the present embodiment, the exchange of information between the server device 20, the mobile terminal device 10, and the printing devices 41 to 43 will be described with reference to the sequence chart of FIG.

First, in the mobile terminal device 10, the image data to be printed by the user is specified, and print settings such as the number of prints are made (step S301). Then, the control unit 32 transmits the image data to be printed to the server device 20 together with the data ID (steps S302 and S303).

Then, the server device 20 executes a process of converting the received image data into all kinds of PDL format print data (step S304).

Further, the control unit 32 searches for printing devices existing in the surroundings by wireless communication via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 (step S305), and displays a list of the found printing devices on the display unit 34 (step S306). ..

Then, when the user selects a printing device to execute the printing process from the list of printing devices displayed, the control unit 32 is selected via the operation receiving unit 35 and receives the information of the printing device. Here, it is assumed that the printing device 43 is selected as the printing device that executes the printing process.

Then, the control unit 32 gives a print instruction including the data ID of the image data to be printed to the printing device 43 selected by the user via the short-range wireless communication unit 31 or the proximity wireless communication unit 36. Transmit (steps S307, S308).

Then, the printing device 43 transmits the data ID received from the mobile terminal device 10 and the type information of the print data that can be printed by the own device to the server device 20 (step S309).

Therefore, the server device 20 determines one data type for executing the print process from the printable data types received from the print device 43 (step S310), and prints the determined type of print data. It is transmitted to the device 43 (step S311). Then, the printing apparatus 43 executes a printing process based on the transmitted print data (step S312).

Next, an example of the processing performed in this way will be described with reference to FIG. Also in FIG. 9, a case where the mobile terminal device 10 selects the printing device 43 and executes the printing process will be described as an example.

(1) First, since the image data (document data) to be printed is selected and the print setting is performed, the mobile terminal device 10 transmits this image data together with the data ID to the server device 20. Then, the server device 20 performs a process of converting the received image data into all kinds of print data. In FIG. 11, the image data to be printed is converted into all types of convertible print data such as PS data, PCL data, simple PDL data, PDF data, and office data.

(2) Further, the mobile terminal device 10 transmits a print instruction including the data ID to the print device 43.

(3) Then, the printing device 43 transmits the data ID included in the received print instruction and the type information of the print data that can be printed by the own device to the server device 20 as a data transmission request. Here, since the data types that can be printed by the printing device 43 are PCL, PS, PDF, and office document, the server device 20 acquires this information.

(4) Then, the server device 20 selects one type from the type information of the print data that can be printed by the acquired printing device 43. Here, it is assumed that the server device 20 has selected the PCL data. Then, the server device 30 transmits the PCL data to the printing device 43 from among the plurality of types of print data stored in association with the received data ID. As a result, the printing device 43 receives the transmitted PCL data and executes the printing process.

In the present embodiment, before issuing a printing instruction from the mobile terminal device 10 to the printing devices 41 to 43, the data ID is transmitted in advance to the surrounding printing devices 41 to 43, and the printing devices 41 to 43 are transmitted in advance. Then, the print data corresponding to the received data ID may be downloaded from the server device 20.

With such a configuration, when each printing device 41 to 43 receives a printing instruction including a data ID from the mobile terminal device 10, the printing data is already stored, so that the printing data can be stored more quickly. The printing process can be started.

In such a case, the print data will remain in the printing device that has not been selected as the printing device that executes the printing process. Therefore, each of the printing devices 41 to 43 deletes the printed data when the received and stored print data is not printed and a predetermined time elapses in advance. For example, each printing device 41 to 43 deletes the stored print data when 24 hours have passed without printing.

Alternatively, when the printing process is completed in a certain printing device, the mobile terminal device 10 may transmit to a printing device other than the printing device that the print data is to be discarded. Further, the printing device that has executed the printing process may send a deletion instruction to the other printing device to delete the print data corresponding to the data ID.

10 Mobile terminal device (information processing device)
11 CPU
12 Memory 13 Storage device 14 Wireless communication interface (IF)
15 User interface (UI) device 16 Control bus 20 Server device (conversion device)
30 Internet 31 Short-range wireless communication unit 32 Control unit 33 Data storage unit 34 Display unit 35 Operation reception unit 36 Proximity wireless communication unit 41-43 Printing device 50 Wireless LAN access point

Claims (1)

The possibility that the first receiving means for receiving the image data and the identification information for identifying the image data and the image data received by the first receiving means are selected when executing the printing process. A conversion means for converting into print data of a plurality of preset data types, a storage means for storing the print data converted by the conversion means in association with the identification information, and identification information of the image data to be printed. A second receiving means for receiving information on the data type of print data that can be printed together with the printing device, and print data of a plurality of data types stored corresponding to the identification information received by the second receiving means. A conversion device including a first transmission means for selecting print data that can be printed by the printing device and transmitting the selected print data to the printing device.
The image data to be printed, a transfer means for transferring together with the identification information for specifying the image data to the conversion device, to the selected printing apparatus to perform the printing process, including the identification information An information processing device provided with a second transmission means for transmitting a print instruction, and the printing device does not acquire information on the data type of printable print data.
A third receiving means that receives a print instruction including identification information for identifying the image data to be printed from the information processing apparatus, and printing that can be printed by the own device together with the identification information included in the print instruction. A printing device including a third transmission means for transmitting data type information of data to the conversion device, and a print processing execution means for executing a printing process based on the print data transmitted from the conversion device.
Printing system with.

Images