Printing control system

A print system in which a printer and a client personal computer are connected to a network, wherein:

• said printer comprises:
• a paper feed cassette having residual quantity detection means of sheets of paper,
• a storage section for storing an updated residual quantity information of sheets of paper of each paper feed cassette as MIB (management information base) information,
• a switching mechanism, when sheets of paper in one paper feed cassette are exhausted, for automatically switching a paper feed destination when there are sheets of paper of the same size in another paper feed cassette,
• a communication mechanism for transmitting all said residual quantity information of sheets of paper to said client personal computer upon request of said client personal computer,
• a printing unit, and
• said client personal computer obtains said MIB (management information base) information from said printer using an SNMP (simple network management protocol), comprising:
• a generation unit for generating print data corresponding to a print job and
• a control unit for inputting said residual quantity information of sheets of paper and calculating a number of sheets of paper necessary for said print job and comparing said residual quantity information and said number of sheets of paper necessary, and when judging an occurrence of exhaustion of sheets of paper according to a comparison results, notifying it to a user before sending said generated print data to said printer.

A method by a printer and a client personal computer are connected to a network, comprising:

• acquiring sheet information from said printer to said client personal computer through the network,
• generating print data corresponding to a print job,
• acquiring information of a residual quantity information of sheets of paper from the sheet information,
• acquiring a number of sheets of paper required for said print job,
• comparing said residual quantity information with said number of sheets of paper required,
• determining whether or not exhaustion of sheets of paper will occur based on a result of the comparison;
• and
• displaying that exhaustion of sheets of paper will occur on a display of the client personal computer before transmitting print data to the printer when exhaustion of sheets of paper will occur.