US 6,115,132 AGranted

Printing system that transmits job information independently of print data

AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha

InventorsTakuji Nakatsuma, Takashi Yagita, Junichi Takeda, Koichiro Wanda, Mitsuo Kimura, Takuya Kakehashi

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Abstract

A client transmits only job information of print data to a server, the server manages a print order in accordance with the job information, and if printable, the client transmits the print data directly to a printer. After the print is completed, the printer notifies the server of a print completion, and upon reception of this print completion notice, the server instructs the client to delete the print data. In a print system on a network configured as above, the network traffic is not increased, a large memory capacity is not necessary for the server so that the server load is reduced, the job management of the server can be performed by the client, the completion of a print operation can be monitored, and a print operation is possible even if the server is in an error state.

Claims82

Dependent claims

A print system comprising:

a print control apparatus;
and
an information processing apparatus,
wherein said information processing apparatus comprises:
transmitter for transmitting job information that includes information designating a printer but includes no print data to said print control apparatus so as to allow said print control apparatus to control a print order of the printer, and
a spool circuit adapted for spooling the print data corresponding to the job information transmitted from the transmitter in a memory even after the transmitter transmits the job information to said print control apparatus,
wherein said print control apparatus comprises:
a sequential order controlling circuit adapted for controlling the print order at the printer in accordance with the job information that includes information designating the printer but includes no print data, the job information being transmitted from the transmitter, and
an outputting circuit adapted for, when the sequential order controlling circuit judges that printing is due in the printer for print data of a job represented by the job information, outputting output enabled information to said information processing apparatus, the output enabled information indicating that the print data can be output to the printer, and
wherein said information processing apparatus instructs the transmitter to transmit the job information of the print data, necessary for the sequential order controlling circuit of said print control apparatus, to said print control apparatus, said print control apparatus instructs the sequential order controlling circuit to control the print order in accordance with the job information transmitted from the transmitter, and, when said print control apparatus outputs the output enabled information to said information processing apparatus, said information processing apparatus transmits the print data stored in the memory to the printer.

7 more elements

A method of controlling a print system comprising an information processing apparatus and a print control apparatus, said method comprising the steps of:

transmitting job information that includes information designating a printer but includes no print data from the information processing apparatus to the print control apparatus so as to allow the print control apparatus to control a print order of the printer;
spooling the print data corresponding to the job information transmitted in said transmitting step in storage means even after said transmitting step transmits the job information to the print control apparatus;
controlling the print order at the printer in accordance with the job information that includes information designating the printer but includes no print data, the job information being transmitted in said transmitting step;
outputting output enabled information from the print control apparatus to the information processing apparatus when said controlling step judges that printing is due in the printer for print data of a lob represented by the job information, the output enabled information indicating that the print data can be output to a printer;
instructing said transmitting step to transmit the job information of the print data, necessary for said controlling step, to the print control apparatus;
instructing said controlling step to control the print order in accordance with the transmitted job information;
and
upon output of the output enabled information from the print control apparatus to the information processing apparatus, transmitting the stored print data from the information processing apparatus to the printer.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 08/997,790Filed 24 Dec 1997
Priority: JP 8-34963427 Dec 1996
Granted: 5 Sep 2000
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification8 codes

G06F 3/1205
Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management: resulting in increased flexibility in print job configuration, e.g. job settings,…
G06F 3/1213
Achieving reduced delay between job submission and print start: at an intermediate node or at the final node
G06F 3/1259
Print job management: print job monitoring, e.g. job status
G06F 3/126
Print job management: job scheduling, e.g. queuing, determine appropriate device