JPH1016344A - Printing control apparatus, printing control method and printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing control apparatus capable of performing insert printing in a page unit. SOLUTION: A user forms printing data to which a comment compsn. showing page kinds (fixed page, variable page and replacement page) with respect to respective pages is added. This printing data is received by a printing demand receiving part 302 to be divided into data of a page unit and the divided data are stored in an internal memory 306. A page kind judging part 304 reads respective pages from the internal memory 306 and judges the page kind based on the comment compsn. Memory addresses of respective pages or page kinds are registered in a job control part 308. A job forming part 310 refers to the registered data of the job control part 308 to read the data of the respective pages from the internal memory 306 to develop them as an image on a printing data forming part 312 to print the image by a printer 40. At this time, the job forming part 310 successively replaces varible pages based on respective replacing pages to realize insert processing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a print control apparatus and method for processing print data supplied from a client machine such as a computer in a network environment, and more particularly, to a page-by-page insert printing. , Method and system for

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A merge printing function for sequentially replacing only portions such as addresses and addresses in the same text and performing printing is known as a general function in client applications such as word processor software. Such an application creates one print data by inserting data of a variable portion into data of a fixed portion and transmits the print data to a printing apparatus or a print server. The print data in the form inserted in the part is created. Therefore, insertion printing has been realized by directly processing print data supplied from the client side on the printing apparatus or the server side.

On the other hand, there is also known a method of realizing the same function on the printing apparatus or server side, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 62-65216 and 3-104669. In these systems, a printing device or a server superimposes data of a fixed portion and a variable portion separately transmitted from a client side to generate a one-page print image.

[0004]

In the field of document creation,
For example, the first document is page A, page B and page C
The second is pages A, D, and C, and the third is pages A, E, and C, and so on. Sometimes you want to.

However, as described above, the insertion printing technique known conventionally relates to a so-called form overlay in which a fixed portion and a variable portion are combined in one page. I couldn't respond. For this reason, there has been a demand for an apparatus and method for realizing page-by-page insert printing.

Also, for example, if the page-by-page insertion process is performed by application software on the client machine side, it is necessary to repeatedly transmit the data of the page of the fixed portion to the printing apparatus by the number of insertions. Is extremely long.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve such a problem, and a printing control apparatus and method and a printing system for realizing page-by-page insertion printing. It is an object of the present invention to provide a print control apparatus, a print control method, and a print system that can perform data transmission between a client and a printing apparatus in a short time.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a page dividing means for dividing print data received from a client machine into page data in page units, wherein each page data is a fixed page, Variable pages,
Page type determination means for determining which of the replacement pages, storage means for storing each page data or each page image obtained by expanding the same, storage address and page type of the page data or page image of each page And management information generation means for generating order information indicating the order relationship between fixed pages and variable pages,
Referring to the correspondence information, page data or a page image is read from the storage unit to generate a print job, and the replacement page is replaced with the replacement page and the fixed page for each replacement while sequentially replacing the variable page with each replacement page. Job generating means for generating a print job in which pages are arranged in accordance with the order information.

In this configuration, print data input from the client machine to the print control apparatus is divided into a fixed page, a variable page, and a replacement page for each page.
Page types. The fixed page is a page common to each output document, and the variable page is a page used to indicate the position of a page having different contents for each output document. The replacement page is a page that is replaced with the variable page. Such print data is described in, for example, a predetermined page description language (PDL). The print control device receives such print data, divides it into page data in page units, and determines the page type of each page data by the page type determination means.
Further, each of these page data or each page image obtained by developing them is stored in the storage means. The management information generating means generates management information for generating an insertion print job, that is, the correspondence information and order information. Then, the job generating unit reads out the page data or the page image from the storage unit, and replaces the variable page with each of the replacement pages sequentially, and arranges the replacement page and the fixed page for each replacement according to the order information. Generate a print job. At this time, the job generation unit performs page data expansion processing as necessary. Each print job generated by the job generating means is sequentially transmitted to a printing device, where printing on paper or the like is performed. Here, the generation of the print job by the job generation unit is performed by a specific one in the print control apparatus.
Not only when generating in the form of one job file but also without generating such a file, the data of each page image of the fixed page and the replacement page is sequentially output in the order according to the order information. As a result, a mode in which printing is performed as one job is also included.

[0010] According to this configuration, when print data including a fixed page, a variable page, and a replacement page is supplied from the client machine side, the print controller converts the variable page portion into each replacement page. It is possible to generate a merged print job that is sequentially replaced. Further, according to this configuration, it is possible to realize the insertion printing on the print control device side, so that there is no need to perform the insertion processing on the client side. Further, in this configuration, since the same fixed page is not repeatedly transmitted from the client side for each insertion, the data transmission time between the client machine and the print control device can be reduced.

In this configuration, the page type of each page can be determined based on the presence or absence of identification information in the description of each page data or the type of identification information. That is, the client side adds identification information indicating the page type to each page of the print data, and the print control device detects the identification information to determine the page type.
The identification information may be given to each of the fixed page, the variable page, and the replacement page. However, for example, since the identification information is not added, the page is a predetermined page type (for example, a fixed page). May be configured.

In addition to the method of describing page type information in print data on the client side, the print control apparatus is provided with a user interface for receiving designation of a page type from a user. The page type of the page can also be determined.

In this configuration, the variable page can be used as a dummy for indicating the position of the replacement page, and the variable page itself can be used as one of the replacement pages.
It is also possible to generate an insertion print job including fixed pages and variable pages.

In a preferred aspect of the present invention, the management information generating means determines the order information based on a relative order of each fixed page and variable page in the received print data. With this configuration, the order information is generated based on the relative order relationship between fixed and variable pages excluding the replacement page in the print data. Therefore, if the user creates a document by arranging fixed pages and variable pages in the order of pages at the time of printing on the client machine, the printing control device automatically automatically arranges the pages without creating special order designation information. Information can be extracted.

[0015] In another aspect of the present invention, the page type determining means further identifies which variable page each replacement page corresponds to, and the management information generating means further comprises: each replacement page. Generates replacement management information indicating which variable page each corresponds to, and the job generating means,
By referring to the replacement management information, each variable page is replaced with a corresponding replacement page, and the transmission process is repeated. According to this configuration,
It is possible to cope with a case where a plurality of insertions are made in one document. In this configuration, by describing the page identifier of the corresponding variable page for the replacement page, the correspondence between the variable page and the replacement page can be detected by the page type determination means.

Further, another aspect of the present invention has means for detecting an output set identifier in each page data, and the job generating means includes, for each output set identifier, each page having the same output set identifier. Is read from the storage unit to generate a print job.
According to this configuration, it is possible to specify the pages making up each insertion print job by the output set identifier, and it is possible to cope with a detailed specification of the page configuration of the insertion document. Further, in this configuration, when there are a plurality of replacement pages having the same output set identifier,
By configuring the variable page to be replaced by the plurality of replacement pages, it is possible to realize insertion printing in which one page is replaced by a plurality of pages.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print data generating apparatus for processing document information input by a user into print data of a predetermined format, and a print apparatus for receiving print data from the print data generating apparatus and printing the print data. In the system, the print data generation device includes a user interface for receiving designation of whether a page type of each page of the document information is a fixed page, a variable page, or a replacement page, and prints the document information. When processing into data, there is provided identification information adding means for adding identification information indicating a page type to each page based on the designation input, and data transmission means for transmitting print data with the identification information added. ,
The printing apparatus includes: a data receiving unit that receives the print data; a page dividing unit that divides the received print data into page data in page units; and each of the page data is a fixed page, a variable page, or a replacement page. Page type determining means for determining whether or not each of the page data or each page image obtained by expanding these page data, correspondence information between the page data or the page image storage address of each page and the page type, and Management information generating means for generating order information indicating the order relationship between each fixed page and variable page; and job generating means for generating a print job by reading page data or a page image from the storage means with reference to the correspondence information. There is a replacement page for each replacement while replacing the variable page with each replacement page. And the fixed page and having a printing means for performing a job generating unit which generates print job aligned according to the order information, the print processing based on the generated print job.

In this configuration, for example, a print data generation device such as a word processor has a user interface for designating a page type, and adds identification information corresponding to the designation received therefrom to the data of each page for printing. Generate data and send it to the printing device. The printing apparatus divides the print data into page units, determines the page type based on the identification information of each page data, and sequentially replaces the variable page with each replacement page based on this page type, For each replacement, the replacement page and the fixed page are printed in the order of the order information.

With such a system configuration, it is possible to realize insertion printing in page units, and it is not necessary to repeatedly transmit the same fixed page from the print data generation apparatus for each insertion, so that the data transmission time is short. I can do it.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

[Embodiment 1] Before describing the configuration of this embodiment, FIG. 1 shows a system to which this embodiment is applied.
This will be schematically described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 1, a client machine 10 such as a computer has application software such as an editor and a word processor, and generates document information in response to a user input. When printing the created document information, the applications convert the document information described in a data format depending on the application into a page description language (PDL) format such as PostScript and output the converted document information to the network 20. . The print control device 30 connected to the network 20 expands the print data described in the PDL into a raster image and supplies the raster image to the printing device 40. The printing device 40 performs printing based on the raster image.

Now, a description will be given of a configuration for realizing page-by-page insert printing in such a system. In the following description, as an example, three documents (documents # 1 to # 3) having the same first, third, and fourth pages and different second pages as shown in FIG. 2 are generated by insertion printing. explain.

In order to obtain the insertion print result as shown in FIG. 2, the client machine 10 generates print data 500 as shown in FIG. The print data 500 includes a fixed page 510, a variable page 520, and a replacement page 53.
It is composed of three types of pages, namely, 0. The fixed page 510 is a page having contents common to each document, and the variable page 520 is a page used to indicate the position of a page having different contents for each document. The replacement page is a page that is replaced with the above-described variable page.
That is, in the present embodiment, the page configuration of the document to be printed out is defined by the arrangement order of the fixed pages 510 and the variable pages 520 in the print data 500.
The print data 500 is described in PDL, and the description of the variable page 520 and the replacement page 530 includes a comment statement “% FXVaria” for identifying the page type.
"blePage" (variable page) or "% FXReplacePage"
(Replacement page). The print control device 30 determines the type of each page based on the comment text, and performs an insertion process.

Next, a configuration for generating such print data 500 will be described. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating a main configuration of the client machine 10 according to the present embodiment. In this example, a document processing device 106 (for example, a word processor) is realized by software on the client machine 10. Document Editor 1
08 is an input device 102 such as a keyboard or a mouse.
Based on the user's input given through the server, document information is generated and edited. The document editing unit 108 also controls the entire document processing device 106. The display device 104 of the client machine 10 receives the information of the currently edited document from the document editing unit 108 and displays it. The document information generated and edited by the document editing unit 108 is stored in the document storage unit 110. The document storage unit 110 is, for example, a work area secured on the main storage.

When performing insertion printing as shown in FIG.
First, the user uses the document processing device 106 to create a six-page document (see FIG. 3). When the document is completed and the user inputs a print instruction, the print instruction interface 1
12 is started. The print instruction interface 112
This is an interface for receiving print attribute settings such as the number of print copies, and in the present embodiment, further has a function of setting insert printing. That is, the print instruction interface 112 displays a dialog box or the like on the display device 104, and the user appropriately sets print attributes for the dialog box. When the user selects the insert print mode in this dialog box, the print instruction interface 112 displays the insert edit box 120 shown in FIG.

A print image 126 (six pages in this example) of each page of the document to be printed is displayed in the insert edit box 120, and a variable page setting button 122 for setting a page type and a page setting button for replacement are set. 12
4 is displayed. In order to perform the insertion printing as shown in FIG. 2, the user first selects the second page of the print image 126 using a mouse or the like, and then clicks the variable page setting button 122. As a result, the second page is set as a variable page. Then, the fifth page is selected, the replacement page setting button 124 is clicked, and the same operation is performed on the sixth page. As a result, the fifth page and the sixth page are respectively set as replacement pages. When all the settings are completed, the setting button 128 is clicked to close the insertion edit box 120. In this example, a page that is not selected as any of the variable page and the replacement page is a fixed page.

When the user selects, for example, a “print OK” button in the dialog box, the document storage unit 11
0 is supplied to the PDL processing unit 114,
Here, the document information is converted into a description in the PDL format. At this time, in the present embodiment, the PDL processing unit 114 receives the information of the page type set in the print instruction interface 112, and outputs the PDL of the variable page and the replacement page.
Are added to the description described above. The PDL format print data created in this way is transmitted to the print control device 30 via the network 20 as a print request job.

Next, the configuration and operation of the print control device 30 will be described.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the printing control device 30 and the printing device 40 according to the present invention. 6, a print request receiving unit 302 receives a print request job from the client machine 10, and divides print data forming the job into page-based data (hereinafter, page data). The page type determination unit 304 detects a comment indicating the page type from the description of each page data, and determines the page type of each page according to the detection result. The internal memory 306 stores each page data or a result of developing each page data into a raster image (hereinafter, referred to as a page image). The job management unit 308 manages a table of management information for insertion printing. Job generation unit 310
Generates an insertion print job with reference to the management information of the job management unit 308. The print information creation unit 312 uses P
The print data (page data) in the DL format is transmitted to the printing device 4
0 is a mechanism for developing raster image data that can be printed. The page buffer 314 temporarily stores a page image supplied from the print information creation unit 312 or the internal memory 306. The data transmission unit 316 transmits the data of the page image in the page buffer 314 to the printing device 40.

FIG. 8 shows an example of the data content of the job management information 350 managed by the job management unit 308. The job management information 350 includes the number of pages 352 of the output document generated by insertion and the page number 3 of the variable page.
54, replacement page information 356, and page information 358 indicating the storage address of the data of each page in the internal memory 306. In the replacement page information 356,
For each replacement page (in the present embodiment, the variable page itself is also managed as one of the replacement pages as described later), a replacement flag indicating whether the replacement page has not been replaced or has been replaced. Is provided. This flag is initially set to the “unreplaced” state, and is set to “replaced” when the page is inserted in the job generation process described later.

The procedure of the process according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When a print request job (that is, print data) is transmitted from the client machine 10 via the network 20, the print request receiving unit 302 receives the print request job (S10), divides it into page data in page units, and 306 (S12). At this time, information on the storage address of each page data is sent to the job management unit 308, and based on this information, each storage address is registered in the page information 358 of the job management information 350 (S14). That is, as shown in FIG. 8, the page information 358 includes, for each page,
The storage address of each page data stored in the internal memory 306 is registered. In the example of the print data in FIG. 3, the storage address is registered for each of the page data of six pages.

When the storage of each page data is completed in this way, next, the page type determination unit 304 reads the comment part of each page data from the internal memory 306 sequentially from the first page (S18). Determine the page type of the page.

That is, first, in the comment part, “% FXVaria
It is determined whether a description “blePage” is included (S20). If the description is included, the page is determined to be a variable page, the determination result is sent to the job management unit 308, and the page number of the page is changed to the variable page number 354 and the replacement page information of the job management information 350. It is registered in 356 (S22). In the present embodiment, the variable page indicates the page position where the insertion is to be performed, and at the same time, is itself the first page to be inserted in the insertion process. Therefore, the page number of the variable page is also registered in the replacement page information 356. You. In this case (that is, when the page is a variable page), the count value of the page number counter is incremented by 1 (S28). This page number counter is for calculating the number of pages of a document generated by insertion printing. When this is completed, the processing for the page ends, and the processing shifts to the next page (S30).

If the page is not a variable page, it is determined whether the page is a replacement page (ie, whether "% FXReplacePage" is included) (S24). If it is determined that the page is a replacement page, The page number of the page is registered in the replacement page information 356 (S26). If the page is a replacement page, the process proceeds to the next page without counting the number of pages (S30).

If it is determined in S24 that the page is not a replacement page, the page is called a fixed page. In this case, after only incrementing the count value of the page number counter (S28), the process proceeds to the processing of the next page (S30).

When the above process is completed for all the pages of the received print data (S16), the count result of the page number counter is sent to the job management unit 308, and the page number 352 of the job management information 350 is set. It is registered (S32).

As a result of such processing, the job management information 350 shown in FIG. 8 is completed for the print data shown in FIG.

When the job management information 350 is completed in this way, the job generation section 310 is started. The job generation unit 310 accesses the job management unit 308, checks the replacement flag in the replacement page information 356, and determines whether there is an unreplaced page (S34). If there is an unreplaced page, an insertion printing process in which the unreplaced page is inserted is performed as described below.

That is, the job generating section 310 sequentially retrieves the page numbers registered in the page information 358 from the top, and determines whether or not the page is a variable page (S38). This determination is made based on whether the page number matches the variable page number 354. As a result, if the page is not a variable page, it is further determined whether or not the page is a replacement page (S44). As a result, if it is determined that the page is not a replacement page, the page is a fixed page.
Reads the page data of the page from the internal memory 306 by referring to the storage address of the page information 358,
The information is supplied to the print information creation unit 312. Print information creation unit 31
2 performs Rip processing (processing to develop into a raster image) of the received page data (S46). The image data obtained as a result is supplied to the printing device 40 via the page buffer 314 and the data transmission unit 316, and printed (S48).

If it is determined in S38 that the page is a variable page, the job generating section 310 sets the page number as an unreplaced page among the replacement pages registered in the replacement page information 356. (For example, the page with the smallest page number), read the page data of the replaced page from the internal memory 306 with reference to the page information 358, and supply it to the print information creation unit 312 (S40). . After this process, the status of the replacement flag of the replaced replacement page is changed to “replaced” in the replacement page information 356 of the job management unit 308 (S4).
2). Then, the page information of the replacement page sent from the job generation unit 310 is output to the print information
The p process is performed (S46), and printing is performed by the printing device 40 (S48).

When printing is performed for the currently targeted page number in this manner, the page number counter in the job generating section 310 is incremented by one (S
50). Then, in S36, the count value of the page number counter is compared with the value of the page number 352 of the job management information 350, and it is determined whether the printing process has been completed by the number of pages of the output document. If the count value of the counter is smaller than the number of pages 352, the job generation unit 310
Retrieves the next page number from the page information of the job management unit 308, and repeats the processing of S38 to S50 described above. When the count value of the page number counter becomes equal to the page number 352, it means that printing of one set of output documents has been completed. Therefore, the count value of the page number counter is initialized to 0, and the process returns to S34 to determine the unchanged value. Check if there is a replacement page. In this way, by repeating the processing until there is no unreplaced replacement page, a desired insertion print result can be obtained. For example, when the print data shown in FIG. 3 is given, the print control device 30 and the printing device 40 perform processing according to the above-described procedure, so that an output result as shown in FIG. 2 can be obtained.

In the flowchart of FIG. 7,
If the determination result of the variable page determination in S38 is No,
At 44, it is determined whether the page is a replacement page. In S44, if the print data is created in a pattern that a replacement page is added after a basic set including fixed pages and variable pages as shown in FIG. 3, the determination result is always No. Becomes Nevertheless, the reason why such a step is provided is to allow a pattern in which the replacement page falls between the fixed page and the variable page as the arrangement order of the pages of the print data. As such a pattern, for example, as shown in FIG. 9, a pattern in which a replacement page 530 (third and fourth pages) is attached immediately after the variable page 520 (second page) can be considered. In the case where the print data of FIG. 9 is input, in this embodiment, when sequentially processing each page registered in the page information 358 in the order of the page number, the printing process is performed for the replacement page by the determination in S44. The process moves to the next page without performing it. With this process, in the present embodiment, the replacement page is not printed except when replacing the variable page. As described above, in the present embodiment, if the fixed pages and the variable pages are arranged in the order of the pages at the time of printout when the print data is created, no matter where the replacement page is placed,
The replacement page is correctly replaced with the variable page.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, print data including fixed pages, variable pages, and replacement pages is created on the client machine and supplied to the print control device. The apparatus analyzes the print data, sequentially replaces the variable page portion with each replacement page, and prints it, whereby a desired insertion print result can be obtained. Further, according to the present embodiment, since the data of the fixed page, the variable page, and the replacement page is transmitted only once from the client machine to the print control apparatus, the insertion process is performed on the client machine (in this case, the same processing is performed). Is transmitted by the number of insertions), the data transmission time between the client machine and the print control device is shorter.

In the above embodiment, the internal memory 30
6, page data in PDL format is stored, and in each insertion process, the page data is sequentially read out and developed, and printing processing is performed. However, the present invention is not limited to this. It is also possible to store the image data in the memory 306 and read out and print out the image data in each insertion process. In this case, the job management unit 308
The storage address of the image data may be managed as the page information 358. FIG. 10 shows a processing procedure in the printing control device 30 and the printing device 40 when this method is adopted. In FIG. 10, steps for performing the same processing as the steps in FIG. 7 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.
Hereinafter, the processing procedure of this method will be described in comparison with the procedure of FIG.

In the procedure of FIG. 7, after the page data of each page is stored in the internal memory 306 in S12, the storage address of each page data is stored in the job management unit 308 in S14.
I was registered. On the other hand, in the procedure of FIG.
2 stores the page data in the internal memory 306 in the same manner, but at this stage, the registration of the storage address in the job management unit 308 is not performed. That is, in the procedure of FIG. 10, after the page type analysis / registration processing (S16 to S32) is completed based on the page data in the internal memory 306, Rip processing (expansion processing) is performed on each page data (S52). The data of each page image generated as a result is stored in the internal memory 306 (S5).
4), the storage addresses of these page images are registered in the page information 358 of the job management unit 308. When the job management information is completed in this way, the insertion processing loop (S36 to S50) is repeated as described above,
Desired insert printing can be performed. Note that, in this method, the job generation unit 310 extracts the already developed image data from the internal memory 306 and
Since it is only necessary to transmit the data to 0, the Rip process at the stage of S46 as shown in FIG. 7 is not necessary. In the procedure of FIG. 7, the Rip process is performed on the page data of the fixed page each time the insertion process is performed. However, in the procedure of FIG. 10, the Rip process of the data of the fixed page is performed only once, so the time required for the print process is required. Is reduced compared to the example of FIG.

[Second Embodiment] In the first embodiment, there is only one variable page in one document, and the variable pages are replaced with replacement pages on a one-to-one basis. On the other hand, there may be a case where a plurality of portions in one document are desired to be variable pages, or a case where one variable page is to be replaced with a plurality of pages. Hereinafter, an embodiment for coping with such a case will be described.

The device configuration of this embodiment is basically the same as that of the first embodiment (see FIGS. 4 and 6), except that the functions of the components are slightly different. Therefore, the following description will be made with reference to FIGS. Embodiment 1
In the following description, the differences between the functions are described clearly.

FIG. 11 shows five sets of output documents composed of a combination of nine types of pages, in which the first and fourth pages are common and the pages between them are different. Hereinafter, a case where a document as shown in FIG. 11 is generated will be described as an example.

In this case, on the client machine 10,
The print data 500 for nine pages as shown in FIG. 12 is created. In the present embodiment, in each output set of FIG. 11, the second page is replaced with a set of the fifth and sixth pages and the seventh page, and the third page is replaced with the eighth page and the ninth page, respectively. In the print data 500, the second page and the third page are set as variable pages 520-1 and 520-2, respectively. And the 5th to 7th pages are replaced pages 5 for the 2nd page
30-1 and the eighth and ninth pages are set as replacement pages 530-2 for the third page.

FIG. 13 shows a description example of a comment sentence of each page of the print data for obtaining the output result of FIG. In FIG. 13, the second and third pages include:
Comment sentence 40 indicating that the page is a variable page
2 (“% FXVariablePageID”). In these descriptions, numbers “1” and “2” following “PageID” are identifiers used for identification when there are a plurality of variable pages. Further, each of the fifth to ninth pages includes a comment sentence 404 (“% FXReplacePageID”) indicating that the page is a replacement page. In this case, the 5th to 7th pages are described with a PageID of “1” to indicate that they correspond to page 2, and the 8th and 9th pages have a PageID of “2” to indicate that they correspond to page 3.
Is described.

The variable page and the replacement page include:
A comment sentence 406 (“% FXReplacePageSet”) for indicating in which output set the page is used is described. The number included in the comment indicates the number of the output set in which the page is adopted. For example,
Since the variable page 2 is used for output sets 1 and 2 (see FIG. 11), “% FXReplacePageSet: 1”
And two comment statements "% FXReplacePageSet: 2".

The fifth page and the sixth page are replaced with the second page in a set of two pages. In order to express this, the fifth page and the sixth page have the same Page ID.
And a comment sentence specifying the PageSet, and a comment sentence 408 ("% FXReplacePage") indicating the number of each page in the replacement set.
Num ") is described. The number included in the comment sentence indicates the order of the page in the replacement set.

Such print data 500 is created in the client machine shown in FIG. 4 as follows.
After the user generates nine pages of document information in the document editing unit 108, the user opens the insertion edit box 120 as illustrated in FIG. 5 by the print instruction interface 112, and sets the variable page and the replacement page. Do. In this embodiment, since there are a plurality of variable pages, it is necessary to input the correspondence between each variable page and each replacement page. Various methods are conceivable as a method of realizing the input of the correspondence. For example, the following method can be used. After the variable page is selected, the replacement page selected until the next variable page is selected is set as a replacement page corresponding to the former variable page. That is, in this method, after selecting and setting a variable page, a corresponding replacement page is selected, and the setting button 124 is clicked and set. If there are a plurality of replacement pages corresponding to the variable page, this operation is repeated. At this time, in the case of replacing a set of a plurality of pages, for example, the pages to be replaced are selected in the order in which they are to be printed by clicking a mouse or the like, and finally, the replacement page setting button 124 is clicked only once. Thus, in the interface, the plurality of pages are 1
Interpreted as a set of replacement pages. The print instruction interface 112 interprets such an operation, generates information serving as a source of a comment sentence as shown in FIG. 13, and supplies the information to the PDL processing unit 114. As a result, the PDL processing unit 1
14 inserts a comment sentence as shown in FIG. 13 into each page of the print data.

Next, the processing of the print control device 30 receiving such print data will be described. In the present embodiment, in order to cope with a relatively complicated insertion designation as shown in FIG. 11, the print control apparatus 30 generates job management information 450 having a structure as shown in FIG. I do.

The job management information 450 includes a page number 452 of an output document generated by insertion, a set number 454 of output documents, variable page information 456 indicating correspondence of a page number and a Page ID of each variable page, and replacement page information 458. ,
And page information 460 indicating the page type of each page and the storage address in the internal memory 306. The replacement page information 458 includes, for each replacement page (including a variable page), an identifier (PageID) of a variable page corresponding to the page, a page number, and one or more pages.
In the case of a set, the order of the page in the set (PageNum), the number of the output set (Set), and the like are registered. The page type in the page information 460 is
“0” indicates a fixed page, “1” indicates a variable page, and “2” indicates a replacement page.

The processing procedure for creating such job management information 450 is the same as that of S16 in FIG.
Basically the same as S32. However, S22 and S
26 is slightly different from that of the first embodiment. That is, in S22, since the page is a variable page, the page number of the page and the Page ID described in the comment statement are changed to the variable page information 45.
6 as well as "% FXReplacePageNum" and "% FXRplacePageNum"
The value of PageNum or Set is obtained from the description of “eplacePageSet” and registered in the replacement page information 458. "% FXReplacePa
If there is no description of "geNum", PageNum is set to 1. At this time, the page type in the page information 460 is also set. In S24, since the page is a replacement page, registration of replacement page information 458 and
The page type is set in the page information 460.
Also, from the description of "% FXReplacePageSet" of each page,
The total number of sets of output documents is calculated and registered in the number of sets 454.

When such job management information is completed,
The job generation unit 310 is activated. This job generation unit 3
FIG. 15 shows the procedure of the insertion process performed by 10. The procedure in FIG. 15 corresponds to the portion (A) surrounded by a broken line in FIG.

The job generation unit 310 includes three variables “Set”, “Page”, and “PageNum” used for controlling the processing.
"Has a counter.
"Is used to indicate the number of the output set currently being processed," Page "is used to indicate the number of pages for which printing processing has been completed in the output set, and" PageNum ".
Is used to indicate the order of the page currently being processed in the set of replacement pages. When activated, the job generation unit 310 first sets these counters to S
1, Page = 1 and PageNum = 1, respectively.
The next step S62 is a step of checking whether or not the processing has been completed for all output sets. The variable "Set" is compared with the number of sets 454 registered in the job management information 450, and the set number of sets ≤ In the case, the judgment result is N
o, and if Set> the number of sets, the determination result is Yes. In the next step S64, the variable Pa is set when the processing for a certain output set is completed and the process proceeds to the next output set.
This is the step of initializing ge. Then, the next step S66 is a step of checking whether or not printing of all pages has been completed for the output set currently being processed, and the result of the determination is that the variable Page has the page number 452 or less of the job management information 450. In the case of No, it becomes Yes when Page> number of pages.

If the result of the determination in S66 is No, the job generation unit 310 sequentially retrieves the page numbers registered in the page information 460 from the top, and determines in S70 whether the page is a replacement page. Is determined. This determination is made based on the value of the page type in the page information 460. This S70 is provided for the same purpose as S44 in FIG. If it is determined that the page is a replacement page, the process returns to S66 without performing processing such as printing. In this case, since the variable Page is not incremented, the determination in the next S66 is No. Therefore, the job generation unit 310 extracts the next page number from the page information 460, and performs the determination in S70.

If it is determined in S70 that the page is not a replacement page, it is next determined in S72 whether the page is a variable page. If the result of this determination is No, the page is a fixed page, and the page data of the page is read from the internal memory 306 by referring to the address of the page information 460 (S7).
4) Developing into a raster image (S76)
0 is printed (S78). When printing is completed, the variable Page indicating the number of pages that have been printed is incremented by one,
It returns to S66. If the page is determined to be a variable page as a result of the determination in S72, the page ID of the page is determined from the variable page information 456 by referring to the job management information 450 of the job management unit 308 in S84. Then, in the replacement page information 458, the page ID, Se
The values of t and PageNum are the PageID of the variable page and the variable
Search for records equal to the current value of Set and PageNum. If there is a corresponding record (S86), an address corresponding to the page number of the record is obtained from the page information 460, and the page data of the replacement page is read from the address of the internal memory 306 (S9).
0), and develops it into a raster image (S92).
0 is printed (S94). Then, set the variable PageNum to 1
Increment and return to S84 to repeat the same process. If the replacement page is a set of a plurality of pages by incrementing the variable PageNum, the next page of the set is read and printed in the next processing loop. become. When the printing of one set of replacement pages is completed, the determination in S86 becomes No. Therefore, the variable PageNum is initialized to 1 and the variable
Page is incremented by 1 and the process returns to S66.

When the variable Page becomes equal to the value of the number of pages 452 of the job management information 450 in the determination of S66 while printing each page in this manner, if all pages of the output set are to be printed. Is completed, the variable Set is incremented by one (S6).
8) The processing shifts to the processing of the next output set, and the above processing is repeated. Then, in S62, when the variable Set becomes equal to the number of sets 454 registered in the job management information 450,
Since the printing of all the output sets has been completed, the process ends.

The above procedure will be described by taking as an example the case where the output set 3 is printed in the example of FIG. 11. Since the first page (page number 1) is a fixed page, it is printed as it is. The second page (page number 2)
Since it is a variable page of PageID1, first the job generation unit 310
In step S84, a page having a page ID of 1 and a page number of 1 in the set 3 is searched for, and the page number 5 is obtained from the replacement page information 458. The page of page number 5 is printed next. After this printing, PageNum is incremented by 2
Becomes Accordingly, the job generation unit 310 next searches for a page whose PageNum is 2 with set 3 and PageID1 in S84, and obtains a page number 6. When the page of page number 6 is printed, PageNum is set to 3, and then the job generation unit 310 sets S3, PageID1, PageNum in S84.
Search for page 3 but there is no corresponding page.
After initializing Num and incrementing Page, the next 3
The processing proceeds to the page (page number 3). Since this third page is a variable page of PageID2, the page of the set 3, PageID2, and PageNum1 is searched in S84, the page number 8 is obtained as a result, and this page is printed in S94.
Then, in S84, set 3, PageID2, PageNum
Search for page 2, but since there is no corresponding page, 4
The process proceeds to the process for the page (page number 4). Since the fourth page is a fixed page, it is printed as it is (S78).
When this printing is completed, the page is incremented in S80, and its value becomes 5. Accordingly, the determination in the next S66 is Yes, the variable Set changes from 3 to 4 in S68, and the process proceeds to the next output set 4.

According to the processing procedure of FIG. 15, an output set as shown in FIG. 11 can be printed out, for example, for the job management information 450 of FIG.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, a complicated insertion printing process is realized, for example, when one document has a plurality of variable pages or when one variable page is simultaneously replaced with a plurality of pages. can do.
Needless to say, the present embodiment can execute a simple insertion process as shown in FIG.

In this embodiment, if the insertion process is performed using the developed image data as in the modification of FIG. 10 in the first embodiment, the time required for the development process can be saved.

In the above embodiment, the identifier PageID is used to identify a plurality of variable pages. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the page number itself of the variable page is used as an identifier, and A method in which the page number of the variable page corresponding to the replacement page is described as a comment statement is also possible.

Next, as an application example of the second embodiment, an example of realizing an insertion printing method in which replacement pages are sequentially inserted between fixed pages without forming variable pages in print data will be described. I do.

For example, a case where two output sets in which the second page is sequentially replaced as shown in FIG. 17 will be described as an example. Such insertion printing can be easily performed by the method of the first embodiment, but another method is employed here. That is, in this example, as shown in FIG. 16, each replacement page (the fourth and fifth pages) 730 is sequentially inserted into the insertion position 720 between the first page and the second page, which is the fixed page 710. Thus, an output set as shown in FIG. 17 is obtained.

In order to realize this, first, a document of 5 pages is created on the client machine 10, and a comment sentence as shown in FIG. 18 is respectively added to the data of pages 1, 4 and 5 of these 5 pages. Add. The meaning of each comment statement is the same as described above. That is, in this example, 1
The comment sentence 750 is described by regarding the page as a variable page. Then, in each output set, the first page is sequentially (1 page + 4 pages) and (1 page + 5 pages)
, A desired insertion is realized. Therefore, in the first page, a comment sentence 752 is described to indicate that the page is the first page of a series of replacement pages, and further, a comment sentence 754 is described, and the corresponding page is described in the first page. It is used for the first and second output sets. Then, for the fourth and fifth pages, by describing the comment sentences 756 and 758, respectively,
These are the second pages of the replacement pages of the first set and the second set, respectively.

Then, the print control device 30 receiving such print data obtains the job management information shown in FIG. 19 by the same procedure as in the second embodiment. If processing is performed according to the procedure shown in FIG. 15 with reference to the job management information, FIG.
7 can be obtained.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above.

In each of the above embodiments, the comment sentence for designating the page type in the print data is created using the user interface provided on the client machine. However, the present invention is not limited to this. A configuration in which data is written in PDL is also possible.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, the setting of insertion printing is performed on the client machine side. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The machine may simply generate only necessary page data and transmit it to the print control device, and the print control device may use the interface to set the insertion printing.

In each of the above embodiments, the variable page itself is printed as one of the replacement pages. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the variable page may be used as a dummy page for purely indicating the insertion position. Configurations are also possible.

[0076]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The variable page portion is sequentially replaced with each replacement page, and page-by-page insertion printing can be performed. Further, according to the present invention, since insertion printing can be realized on the print control device side, there is no need to perform insertion processing on the client side. Further, according to the present invention, it is only necessary to transmit data of a minimum number of pages from the client machine to the print control apparatus, and the same fixed page is repeatedly transmitted as in the case of performing insertion processing on the client machine. Since data transmission is not performed, the data transmission time between the client machine and the print control device can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an insertion print result.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of print data output from a client machine in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a client machine in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen of a user interface for insertion print setting.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a print control device and a printing device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram exemplifying data content of job management information managed by a job management unit 308 in the first embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating another example of the structure of print data that can be handled by the print control apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to a modified example of the first embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of an insertion print result created in the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a structure of print data generated by a client machine in a second embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a description example of a comment sentence included in the print data of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of data content of job management information used for managing insertion processing in the second embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of an insertion process according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of print data in an application example of the second embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of a merge print result in an application example of the second embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a description example of a comment sentence included in the print data of FIG. 16;

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example of data content of job management information in an application example of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 client machines, 20 networks, 30
Printing control device, 40 printing devices, 102 input devices, 1
04 display device, 106 document processing device, 108 document editing unit, 110 document storage unit, 112 print instruction interface, 114 PDL processing unit, 302 print request receiving unit, 304 page type determination unit, 306 internal memory, 308 job management unit , 310 job generation unit, 312 print information creation unit, 314 page buffer, 316 data transmission unit.

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. A page division unit for dividing print data received from a client machine into page data in page units, and a page type for determining whether each page data is a fixed page, a variable page, or a replacement page Determination means; storage means for storing each page data or each page image obtained by developing them; correspondence information between the page data or page image storage address of each page and the page type; and the order of each fixed page and variable page Management information generating means for generating order information indicating a relationship; reading out page data or a page image from the storage means with reference to the correspondence information to generate a print job, and sequentially changing the variable pages with each replacement page. While replacing, the replacement page and fixed page for each replacement follow the order information. Print control apparatus characterized by having a job generating unit which generates print job lined Te. 2. The print control device according to claim 1, wherein the page type determination unit determines the page type of each page data based on the presence or absence of identification information in the description of each page data or the type of the identification information. A print control device characterized by the above-mentioned. 3. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the page type determination unit has a user interface for receiving an input of a page type designation for each page, and based on the input from the user interface. A print control apparatus for determining a page type of each page by using the print control unit. 4. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the job generation unit replaces the variable page with one of the replacement pages.
A printing control device characterized by being treated as one. 5. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the management information generation unit generates the order information based on a relative order of each fixed page and variable page in the received print data. A print control device characterized by: 6. The print control device according to claim 1, wherein the page type determination unit further identifies which variable page each replacement page corresponds to, and the management information. The generating unit further generates replacement management information indicating which variable page each replacement page corresponds to, and the job generating unit refers to the replacement management information to generate each variable page. A print control apparatus, wherein the transmission process is repeated by replacing each corresponding replacement page. 7. The printing control device according to claim 6, wherein each replacement page describes a page identifier of a corresponding variable page, and the page type determination unit determines each replacement page by a page identifier. A print control device for identifying which variable page corresponds to which variable page. 8. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a unit for detecting an output set identifier in each page data; A print control unit that reads out data of each page having the same output set identifier from the storage unit and generates a print job. 9. The print control apparatus according to claim 8, wherein, when there are a plurality of replacement pages having the same output set identifier, the job generation unit replaces the variable page with the plurality of replacement pages. A print control device characterized by the above-mentioned. 10. A step of dividing print data received from a client machine into page data in page units; a step of determining whether each page data is a fixed page, a variable page, or a replacement page; A step of storing in the storage means the page data or each page image obtained by expanding the page data, indicating correspondence information between the page data or the page image storage address of each page and the page type, and the order relation between each fixed page and variable page. Generating order information; reading page data or a page image from the storage unit with reference to the correspondence information to generate a print job, and replacing each variable page with each replacement page while sequentially replacing each variable page. A mark where replacement pages and fixed pages are lined up according to the order information for each Method characterized by comprising the steps of generating a job, a. 11. A method for creating a plurality of print documents in which only some of the pages are different, the client machine comprising: a fixed page common to each print document; and a position of a page having different contents for each print document. And generating print data including a variable page for indicating the first page and one or more replacement pages to be replaced with the variable page. The printing apparatus divides the print data received from the client machine into page data in page units. Determining whether the page type of each page data is a fixed page, a variable page, or a replacement page; storing each page data or each page image data obtained by developing these in a storage unit; Generates the correspondence information between the storage address of the data or the page image and the page type, and generates the fixed page based on the print data. And generating order information indicating a relative order relationship between the variable pages, and while sequentially replacing the variable pages with the respective replacement pages, storing the page data or page image of the replacement page and the fixed page for each replacement. Means for generating print jobs that are read from the means, arranged in accordance with the order information, and sequentially printing the generated print jobs. 12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the client machine adds identification information indicating a page type to each page in the print data, and the printing apparatus determines whether or not the identification information exists in each page data or the type thereof. Determining the page type of each page data based on the data. 13. The method according to claim 11, wherein the client machine generates print data in which fixed pages and variable pages are arranged in the order of print output, and the printing device determines the fixed pages and variable pages in the print data. Generating said order information based on a relative order. 14. A printing system comprising: a print data generation device that processes document information input by a user into print data of a predetermined format; and a printing device that receives print data from the print data generation device and prints the print data. A print data generation device, a user interface for receiving designation of whether the page type of each page of the document information is a fixed page, a variable page, or a replacement page; and processing the document information into print data. In this case, the printing includes: identification information adding means for adding identification information indicating a page type to each page based on the designation input; and data transmission means for transmitting print data with the identification information added. The apparatus includes: a data receiving unit that receives the print data; and a page division that divides the received print data into page data in page units. A column, a page type determination unit for determining whether each page data is a fixed page, a variable page, or a replacement page; a storage unit for storing each page data or each page image obtained by developing these; Management information generating means for generating correspondence information between the storage address of the page data or page image of the page and the page type, and order information indicating the order relationship between each fixed page and the variable page; and Means for generating a print job by reading out page data or a page image from the means, and replacing the variable pages with the respective replacement pages sequentially, and printing replacement pages and fixed pages for each replacement in accordance with the order information. Job generating means for generating a job, printing means for performing a printing process based on the generated print job, A printing system comprising: