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US 2004/0169884 A1Published application
Printing system including a printer and client devices connected by a network
AssigneeBrother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsAkihiro Yamada, Hiroyuki Funahashi, Yoshiko Orito
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A printing system includes a printer and computers connected by an network. A mail server is provided for transmitting notification data from the printer to the computers in the form of an email message. Print data stored in the printer is erased once the print data has been used for reprint operations a certain amount of times. If the amount of print data stored in the printer exceeds a reference size, then print data sets are selected for erasure based on predetermined conditions. Data stored in the printer can be retrieved from the printer and amended at the computer.
Claims27
A printing system for performing printing operations for print data, comprising:
- a network, a print controller connected to the network, a mail server connected to the network, and a plurality of client devices connected to the network, wherein:
- each of the plurality of client devices includes a print data transmitter that transmits print data sets to the print controller;
- the print controller includes:
- a print data receiver for receiving the print data sets from the client devices;
- a print data manager for designating correspondence between received print data sets and a print management information that indicates conditions of printing operations for each of the received print data sets;
- and
- a notification data preparer that prepares, based on the print management information, notification data to be notified to at least one client device, and that transmits the notification data to the mail server;
- the mail server includes an electronic mail preparer that prepares the received notification data into an electronic mail message, and that transmits the electronic mail message to the at least one client device;
- and
- the at least one client device further includes an electronic mail receiver that receives the notification data in the electronic mail message from the mail server.
7 more elements
A print control method for controlling printing operations performed in a printing system that includes a network, a print controller connected to the network, a mail server connected to the network, and a plurality of client devices connected to the network, the print control method comprising the steps of:
- transmitting print data sets from one of the client devices to the print controller;
- receiving, at the print controller, the print data sets from the client devices;
- designating, in the print controller, correspondence between the received print data sets and print management information that indicates conditions of printing operations for each of the plurality of received print data sets;
- preparing, in the print controller, the notification data based on the print management information to be notified to at least one client device;
- transmitting the notification data from the print controller to the mail server;
- preparing, at the mail server, received notification data into an electronic mail message to the at least one client device;
- and
- receiving, at the at least one client device, the notification data in the electronic mail message from the mail server.
5 more elements
A printing system for performing printing operations on a plurality of print data sets, the printing system comprising:
- a reprint number setter that sets, for each print data set, a reprint number representing an upper limit of how many times reprinting operations are to be performed on each print data set, and that appends, as appended information, a corresponding reprint number to each of the plurality of print data sets;
- a holder that holds the plurality of print data sets as targets of reprint processes:
- a reprint controller that retrieves, from the holder, a print data set for which a reprint command is received and that controls reprint processes for the retrieved print data set;
- and
- a print data eraser that erases, from the holder, each print data set that the reprint controller has used for reprint processes for a number of times equaling the corresponding reprint number.
2 more elements
A program storage medium capable of being read by a computer in a printing system for performing printing operations on a plurality of print data sets, the program comprising:
- a program of setting, for each print data set, a reprint number representing an upper limit of how many times reprinting operations are performed on each print data set;
- a program of appending, as appended information, a corresponding reprint number to each of the plurality of print data sets:
- a program of holding the plurality of print data sets as targets of reprint processes;
- a program of retrieving a held print data set for which a reprint command is received;
- a program of controlling reprint processes for the retrieved print data set;
- and
- a program of erasing each held print data set that has been used for reprint processes for a number of times equaling the corresponding reprint number.
4 more elements
A print controller comprising:
- a reception unit that receives a plurality of print data sets for print jobs from a client device;
- a storage unit that serially stores the print data in a spool region by print job:
- a print data manager that associates the print data sets stored in the spool region with print management information that includes a predetermined condition;
- a judgment unit that judges whether or not total data size of print data sets stored in the spool region exceeds a preset reference data size;
- and
- a print data eraser that, when the judgment unit judges that the total data size exceeds the reference data size, selects a print data set according to the predetermined condition of the print management information associated with each print data set, and erases the selected print data set from the spool region.
3 more elements
A printing system comprising:
- a client device for handling a plurality of print data sets for print jobs:
- a print controller connected to the client device, wherein:
- the client device includes a print data transmission unit for transmitting the plurality of print data sets to the print controller;
- and
- the print controller includes:
- a reception unit that receives the plurality of print data sets from the client device;
- a storage unit that serially stores the print data in a spool region by print job;
- a print data manager that associates the print data sets stored in the spool region with print management information that includes a predetermined condition;
- a judgment unit that judges whether or not total data size of print data sets stored in the spool region exceeds a preset reference data size;
- and
- a print data eraser that, when the judgment unit judges that the total data size exceeds the reference data size, selects a print data set according to the predetermined condition of the print management information associated with each print data set, and erases the selected print data set from the spool region.
8 more elements
A program storage medium capable of being read by a computer of a printing system that includes a client device and a print controller, the client device handling a plurality of print data sets for print jobs, the print controller being connected to the client device and controlling print processes using the plurality of print data sets, the program comprising:
- a program of transmitting, from the client device, the plurality of print data sets to the print controller;
- a program of receiving, at the print controller, the plurality of print data sets from the client device;
- a program of serially storing the received print data sets by print job in a spool region of the print controller;
- a program of associating the print data sets stored in the spool region with print management information that includes a predetermined condition;
- a program of judging whether or not total data size of print data sets stored in the spool region exceeds a preset reference data size;
- a program of selecting a print data set according to the predetermined condition of the print management information associated with each print data set when the judgment unit judges that the total data size exceeds the reference data size;
- and
- a program of erasing the selected print data set from the spool region.
5 more elements
A printing system comprising:
- a network, a print controller connected to the network, and a printer connected to the network;
- the print controller including:
- a print-controller-side transceiver that transmits commands and data to and receives commands and data from the printer over the network;
- and
- a print-controller-side controller that controls the print-controller-side transceiver to selectively transmit to the printer a storage command commanding the printer to store data, a retrieval command commanding the printer to retrieve and transmit stored data, and an update command commanding the printer to update stored data;
- and the printer including;
- a printer-side transceiver that transmits commands and data to and receives commands and data from the print controller over the network;
- a storage unit that stores data;
- and
- a printer-side controller that, upon receipt of a storage command, stores data in the storage unit, and, upon receipt of a retrieval command, controls the storage unit to retrieve data indicated by the retrieval command and controls the printer-side transceiver to transmit the retrieved data to the print controller;
- the print controller further including an amender that amends data retrieved by and transmitted from the printer as a result of the retrieval command, the print-controller-side transceiver transmitting the amended data to the printer;
- wherein the printer-side controller, upon receipt of an update command, updates data stored in the storage unit based on the amended data from the print controller.
9 more elements
A method of controlling a printing system including a network, a print controller connected to the network, and a printer connected to the network, the method comprising the steps of;
- transmitting a storage command from the print controller to the printer;
- storing data in a storage unit of the printer, upon receipt of a storage command at the printer;
- transmitting a retrieval command from the print controller to the printer;
- retrieving the data from the storage unit of the printer, upon receipt of the retrieval command at the printer;
- transmitting the retrieved data from the printer to the print controller;
- amending the data transmitted from the printer as a result of the retrieval command,
- transmitting the amended data from the print controller to the printer;
- transmitting an update command from the print controller to the printer;
- and
- updating, upon receipt of an update command, the data in the storage unit of the printer, based on the amended data from the print controller.
7 more elements
A program storage medium capable of being read by a print controller of printing system including a network, the print controller connected to the network, and a printer connected to the network, the program comprising:
- a program of transmitting a storage command to the printer, commanding the printer to store data in a storage unit of the printer;
- a program of transmitting a retrieval command to the printer, commanding the printer to retrieve the data from the storage unit and transmit the data to the print controller;
- a program of amending data transmitted from the printer as a result of the retrieval command;
- a program of transmitting the amended data to the printer;
- and
- a program of transmitting an update command from the print controller to the printer, commanding the printer to, upon receipt of the update command, update the data in the storage unit of the printer, based on the amended data from the print controller.
3 more elements
A program storage medium capable of being read by a printer of printing system including a network, a print controller connected to the network, and the printer connected to the network, the program comprising:
- a program of receiving a storage command from the print controller, and storing data in a storage unit accordingly;
- a program of receiving a retrieval command from the print controller, retrieving the data from the storage unit accordingly, and transmitting the data to the print controller;
- a program of receiving amended data from the print controller;
- and
- a program of receiving an update command from the print controller, and accordingly updating the data in the storage unit, based on the amended data from the print controller.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.