Printer, control method and program thereof

The present invention relates to a printing apparatus capable of accepting a plurality of jobs, a control method and a program thereof.

Recent digital printing machines support a wide variety of media types. As a result, complex and high-value-added output can be easily created by using multiple types of media. In addition, digital printing machines for the POD market generally have a function called job hold. The job hold is a function of temporarily or permanently holding a plurality of print job data in a digital printing machine and selecting and printing specific job data at a later stage. It also has a function to select desired data from a plurality of print job data held by the job hold function. This allows the operator to select job data corresponding to the desired print process. The operator of the digital printing machine selects a plurality of job data to be printed and instructs the printing process at the stage where a certain number of print job data to be processed are stored by the job hold function. That is, efficiency can be improved by collectively printing the stored print job data.

Further, in the digital printing machine, when a job is registered, it is determined whether or not the attribute information of the media used in the job matches the attribute information of the media registered in the paper cassette. Some make a mismatch judgment. For example, in the media mismatch judgment, if the attribute information of the media used in the job is "A4 plain paper" and the attribute information of the media registered in the paper cassette is "A4 plain paper", the judgment result is It becomes a "match". On the other hand, for example, if the attribute information of the media used in the job is "A4 plain paper" and the attribute information of the media registered in the paper feed cassette is "A4 coated paper", the judgment result is "mismatch". It becomes.

Patent Document 1 proposes to read the identification information included in the recording medium, determine whether or not the recording medium can be used for the user associated with the identification information, and control the image formation based on the determination result. There is.

<p num="0005"><patcit num="1"><text>Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-62970</text></patcit></p>

<p num="0006"> In the setting of the media used for the print job, attributes indicating the properties of the media such as basis weight, surface quality, shape, and color may be specified together with the media identifier. Since the attributes that express media are very diverse, it is not realistic to support all of them, and attributes that can specify highly important attributes according to the user of the digital printing machine and the ability of the digital printing machine, etc. It should be supported as. When specifying attributes, the following problems may occur in digital printing machines.</p><p num="0007"> The case where two operators A and B share one digital printing machine at intervals and execute a job will be described as an example. For example, it is assumed that a plurality of print jobs executed by both operator A and operator B are sent to the hold function provided in the digital printing machine in advance, and later printed together when the digital printing machine can be occupied and used. First, operator A sends a plurality of jobs to the digital printing machine. One of the media entries (media information) managed by the digital printing machine is selected at the stage of being input, and is stored in the job hold in a state of being associated with it. Operator B also specifies the media by specifying the attributes in the same way, and sends a plurality of jobs to the digital printing machine. At the stage of inputting, one of the media entries managed by the digital printing machine is selected and stored in the job hold in the associated state. It should be noted that the media mismatch determination is performed when the job is submitted.</p><p num="0008"> When Operator A can occupy and use the digital printing press, he lists the jobs he has stored with the hold function and tries to determine the physical media to actually use. At this time, the operator A can edit the attributes of the media entries that are mismatched in the media mismatch determination so as to match the physical media actually used, and then start printing.</p><p num="0009"> It is assumed that the use of the digital printing machine of the operator A is finished, and then the operator B uses the same digital printing machine. It is assumed here that the job by operator B refers to the same media entry as the media entry used by operator A, who is the device user. As described above, Operator A edits the attributes of the media entry at the operator's own discretion to obtain the desired form of the deliverable in order to execute the print job in charge. Therefore, there is no guarantee that the media entry in this state will be equally suitable for operator B. If operator B neglects to check the attributes of the media entry or overlooks important attribute information, a deliverable using media that is inappropriate for operator B is immediately generated.</p><p num="0010"> The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. Even if it is necessary to edit and use some attributes of the media information in the media information referred to by a plurality of operators, the desired deliverables are suitably output to other operators who use the media information after that. The purpose is to provide devices, methods, and the like.</p>

<p num="0011">In order to achieve the above object, the printing apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, it is a printing device, and for each of a plurality of types of storage media to be printed, the media information related to the storage medium and including information of a target person who is permitted to use the storage medium. A storage means for storing information, a reception means for receiving a print job, an analysis means for analyzing attribute information related to a recording medium used in the print job in a print job received by the reception means, and an analysis means for analyzing the attribute information. Among the media information stored in the storage means, the media information corresponding to the attribute information is included in the media information in which the operator who instructed the print job received by the receiving means is included as the target person. It is provided with a search means for searching from and an additional means for newly adding the media information of the storage medium used in the print job received by the reception means if the corresponding media information is not searched by the search means. It is a feature.</p>

<p num="0012"> According to the present invention, even if it is necessary to edit and use some attributes of the media information in the media information referred to by a plurality of operators, the desired result can be obtained by other operators who use the media information thereafter. The thing can be output favorably.</p>

<figref num="1">It is a figure for demonstrating the whole configuration example of the digital printing machine 102 and the system which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="2">It is a figure for demonstrating the internal system configuration of the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="3">It is a figure for demonstrating the configuration of the apparatus which can input a job to the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="4">It is a figure for demonstrating various data stored in ROM 207 included in the structure of the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="5">It is a figure for demonstrating various data stored in HDD311 included in the configuration of the computer which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="6">It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the setting data of the print job created by the computer which concerns on 1st Embodiment, and is transmitted to a digital printing machine 102.</figref><figref num="7">It is a figure for demonstrating an example of the media information before improvement which is managed by the media management part 211 of the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="8">It is a figure for demonstrating an example different from FIG. 6 of the setting data of the print job created by the computer which concerns on 1st Embodiment, and is transmitted to a digital printing machine 102.</figref><figref num="9">It is a figure for showing an example of another state of the media information shown in FIG. 7.</figref><figref num="10">It is a figure for showing an example of the media information managed by the media management part 211 of the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="11">It is a figure for showing an example of another state of the media information shown in FIG.</figref><figref num="12">It is a figure for showing an example after editing of the media information shown in FIG.</figref><figref num="13">It is a figure for showing the structure of the print job data which can be received by the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 1st Embodiment .</figref><figref num="14">It is a flow diagram for demonstrating the operation of the print job received and executed in the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="15">It is a figure for demonstrating the flow of the application media determination process of the received print job in the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 1st Embodiment.</figref><figref num="16">Of the print job operations shown in FIG. 14, it is a flow chart for explaining the details of S1414.</figref><figref num="17">Of the print job operations shown in FIG. 15, it is a flow chart for explaining the details of S1512.</figref><figref num="18">It is a figure for showing an example of the media information managed by the media management part 211 of the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.</figref><figref num="19">It is a figure for showing an example of another state of the media information shown in FIG.</figref><figref num="20">It is a figure for showing an example of still another state of the media information shown in FIG.</figref><figref num="21">It is a figure for demonstrating the flow of the inspection process of the search target media which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.</figref><figref num="22">It is a figure for showing an example of the media information managed by the media management part 211 of the digital printing machine 102 which concerns on 3rd Embodiment.</figref><figref num="23">This is an example of the media information editing operation screen displayed on the operation unit 204 of the digital printing machine 102 according to the third embodiment.</figref><figref num="24">It is a figure for showing an example of the result of having operated the edit screen shown in FIG.</figref><figref num="25">It is a figure for demonstrating the operation of the screen display displayed on the operation part 204 which concerns on 3rd Embodiment.</figref>

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the following embodiments do not limit the present invention according to the claims, and not all combinations of features described in the present embodiments are essential to the means for solving the present invention. ..

&lt;First embodiment&gt; &lt;System configuration&gt; Hereinafter, the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 17. First, with reference to FIG. 1, the configuration of the digital printing machine for the POD market according to the present embodiment and the system configuration using the same will be described. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of devices are connected via the network 100. Here, an example is shown in the case where the digital printing machine 102 and the computer 101 are connected, but the system of the present invention is not limited to this configuration, and may be configured to include various other devices.

The digital printing machine 102 is an example of a printing device, and devices having a plurality of different roles are connected to each other to enable complicated sheet processing. Hereinafter, each part constituting the printing apparatus will be described.

The printer unit 1000 is a device for transporting media stored in a paper feeding unit, which will be described later, and forming an image of developed image image data on the media using toner. Specifically, first, a light beam, for example, a laser beam, which is modulated according to the image data, is incident on a rotating multifaceted mirror (polygon mirror or the like), and is irradiated to the photosensitive drum as reflected scanning light through the reflection mirror. .. The latent image formed by the laser beam on the photosensitive drum is developed by the toner, and the toner image is transferred to the sheet material, that is, the medium, which is attached on the transfer drum. A full-color image is formed by sequentially executing this series of image forming processes on yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) toners. Further, in addition to the above four colors, a toner called a special color, a transparent toner, or the like may be transferred. The sheet material on the transfer drum, which is image-formed in full color, is conveyed to the fuser. The fuser is composed of a combination of rollers and belts, has a built-in heat source such as a halogen heater, and melts and fixes the toner on the sheet material on which the toner image is transferred by heat and pressure.

Further, the printer unit 1000 of the digital printing machine 102 is provided with a scanner 224 and an operation unit 204 arranged on the upper surface of the printer unit 1000. Since the operation unit is located on the upper surface of the printer unit 1000, it is not shown in the figure. The operation unit 204 provides various interfaces for the operator to perform various settings and operations of the printer unit 1000 according to the present invention.

The digital printing machine 102 is configured so that various accompanying devices can be attached in addition to the printer unit 1000. Hereinafter, various auxiliary devices will be described. The large-capacity paper feed devices 221, 222, and 223 are paper feed devices configured to be removable from the main body. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of paper feeding devices can be mounted. Further, each paper feeding device further includes a plurality of paper feeding units 233, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241. As described above, since a plurality of large-capacity paper feeding devices can be mounted, the digital printing machine 102 has a configuration capable of improving convenience during execution of a larger-capacity printing process.

The large-capacity stackers 225 and 226 are devices for internally stocking a large amount of output printed media. In a device provided with a large-capacity paper feed device, the generated output is also inevitably large in capacity, so such a device is required. The configuration according to the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 shows a configuration in which two large-capacity stackers are connected.

The large-capacity stackers 225 and 226 can instruct the opening process of the outer lid for taking out the loading media on the internal loading tray by an explicit operation of the operator. At the same time, the outer lid can be automatically opened according to an instruction from the printer unit 1000. When the outer lid is opened, the process of loading the printed media on the large-capacity stackers 225 and 226 is controlled to be stopped in advance. Further, the large-capacity stackers 225 and 226 can be configured to have a function of shifting the loading position of any media when the printed media is loaded. This makes it possible to facilitate the sorting process when the operator later takes out a large amount of loaded media in a certain bundle unit.

The folding device 232 is a device for performing various complicated folding processes such as middle folding, Z folding, tri-folding, and four-folding. The saddle stitch binding machine 227 is a unit for enabling saddle binding, saddle folding, punching, shift paper ejection, etc. when creating staple processing and bookbinding output on a sheet from the printer unit 1000. Is equipped with. In the digital printing machine 102 of the present embodiment, when the saddle stitch binding machine 227 is used to create a saddle stitch binding output product, the folding function of the folding device 232 described above is not used, and the saddle stitch binding machine is provided. The output is formed by combining the saddle folding function and the saddle stitching function. The cutting device 230 is a device for transporting a saddle-bound bookbinding output product in the saddle-stitching bookbinding machine 227, cutting a portion corresponding to the edge portion, and forming the edge on a flat surface.

The inserter 228 is a unit having a function of inserting the media held in the inserter at an appropriate timing based on the setting into the media sent from the printer unit. The inserter allows media that does not require printing to be inserted between printed media. The illustrated inserter 228 is provided with a plurality of large-capacity paper feed units so as to withstand a large-capacity printing process, similar to the above-mentioned large-capacity paper feed devices 221, 222, 223.

The case binding machine 229 is a device for forming a case binding output by gluing a cover of a bundle of media printed by the printer unit 1000 or inserted by the inserter 228. Alternatively, the case binding machine 229 can also be used for the heaven glue binding process, which corresponds to the process of gluing and binding without attaching a cover. The case binding machine 229 is referred to as a case binding machine because it is at least a sheet processing device capable of performing the case binding process.

The digital printing machine 102 can be roughly divided into three parts with the printer unit 1000 as a boundary. The accompanying device arranged on the right side of FIG. 1 from the printer unit 1000 is called a paper feeding system device. The main role of the paper feed system device is to continuously supply the media loaded inside to the printer unit at an appropriate timing. It also detects the remaining amount of media loaded inside. A paper feed stage 231 also exists inside the printer unit 1000, and can perform functionally equivalent to a paper feed system device. These paper feed stages provided by the printer unit itself will also be referred to as paper feed system devices for the sake of explanation.

On the other hand, the accompanying device arranged on the left side of the printer unit 1000 in FIG. 1 is called a sheet processing device. The sheet processing apparatus performs processing such as adding or accumulating various processing processes to the media for which the printing process has been completed. The above-mentioned paper feed system device and sheet processing device are collectively referred to as a sheet processing device 200 in the following description.

The computer 101 is a general-purpose computer connected to the digital printing machine 102 via the network 100. Here, various application programs can be executed, and print jobs can be sent to the printing device.

&lt;Configuration of printing device&gt; Next, the internal configuration (mainly the software configuration) of the digital printing machine 102 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Since the blocks shown in the figure are divided into units at the system block level, there are some parts that do not necessarily correspond to the units of the equipment configuration shown in FIG.

The digital printing machine 102 includes a non-volatile memory such as a hard disk drive 209 (hereinafter, referred to as an HDD) capable of storing data of a plurality of jobs to be processed inside. In this embodiment, an example of the digital printing machine 102 using an HDD is shown, but the storage device is not limited to the HDD as long as it is a storage device having a similar large capacity and non-volatility.

Further, the digital printing machine 102 is provided with a copy function for printing the job data received from the scanner unit 201, which will be described later, on the printer unit 203 via the HDD 209. Further, it is provided with a printing function for printing job data received from an external device via an external I / F 202 unit corresponding to an example of a communication unit by the printer unit 203 via HDD 209. The digital printing machine 102 is an MFP type printing device (also referred to as an image forming device) having such a plurality of functions. In other words, the digital printing machine 102 of the present embodiment may be a printing device capable of color printing or a printing device capable of monochrome printing, and may have any configuration as long as various controls described in the present embodiment can be executed.

The digital printing machine 102 includes a scanner unit 201 that reads a document image and processes the read image data. It also includes a facsimile, network connection device, and an external I / F 202 that sends and receives image data to and from an external dedicated device. Further, it includes an HDD 209 capable of storing image data of a plurality of jobs to be printed received from either the scanner unit 201 or the external I / F 202.

The HDD 209 also stores various management information that is permanently stored, changed, and managed by the digital printing machine 102. Further, the printer unit 203 is provided to execute the printing process of the data of the job to be printed stored in the HDD 209 on the print medium. Further, the digital printing machine 102 also includes an operation unit 204 having a display unit, which corresponds to an example of a user interface unit.

The controller unit (also referred to as a control unit or CPU) 205, which is an example of the control unit included in the digital printing machine 102, comprehensively controls the processing and operation of various units included in the digital printing machine 102. .. The ROM 207 stores various control programs required in the present embodiment, including a program for executing various processes of the flowchart described later. Further, the ROM 207 also stores a display control program for displaying various UI screens on the display unit of the operation unit 204, including the user interface screen (hereinafter referred to as a UI screen) shown in the figure.

By reading and executing the program of ROM 207, the controller unit 205 causes the digital printing machine 102 to execute various operations described in the present embodiment. There is also a program for executing the operation of interpreting the page description language (hereinafter abbreviated as PDL) data received from the external device via the external I / F 202 and expanding it into raster image data (bitmap image data). It is stored in ROM207. Similarly, a program for interpreting and processing a print job received from an external device via the external I / F 202 is also stored in the ROM 207. These are processed by the software.

The ROM 207 is a read-only memory in which programs such as boot sequences and font information and various programs such as the above programs are stored in advance. Details of various programs stored in ROM 207 will be described later. The RAM 208 is a readable and writable memory that stores image data sent from the scanner unit 201 and the external I / F 202, as well as various programs and setting information.

The HDD 209 is a large-capacity storage device that stores image data compressed by the compression / decompression unit 210. The HDD 209 is configured to be able to hold a plurality of data such as print data of the job to be processed. The controller unit 205 controls the data of the job to be processed input via various input units such as the scanner unit 201 and the external I / F 202 so that the printer unit 203 can print the data of the job to be processed via the HDD 209. It also controls so that it can be transmitted to an external device via the external I / F 202. In this way, the controller unit 205 controls various output processes of the data of the job to be processed stored in the HDD 209 so that it can be executed.

The compression / decompression unit 210 compresses / decompresses the image data stored in the RAM 208 and the HDD 209 by various compression methods such as JBIG and JPEG. Based on the above configuration, the controller unit 205 included in the printing system also controls the operation of each sheet processing device 200.

The sheet processing device 200 corresponds to the paper feeding system device and the sheet processing device described in FIG. The media management unit 211 is a module for managing information on media types that can be processed by the digital printing machine 102.

&lt;Configuration of information processing device&gt; Next, the internal configuration of the computer 101, which is an information processing device, will be described with reference to FIG. The CPU 301 executes programs such as an OS, a general application, and a bookbinding application stored in the program ROM of the ROM 303 or loaded from the HDD 311 to the RAM 302. The RAM 302 functions as the main memory, work area, etc. of the CPU 301. The keyboard controller (KBC) 305 controls keystrokes from the keyboard 309 and pointing devices. The CRT controller (CRTC) 306 controls the display of the CRT display 310. The disk controller (DKC) 307 controls access to HDD311 and floppy (registered trademark) disks (FD) that store boot programs, various applications, font data, user files, and the like. The printer controller (PRTC) 308 controls the exchange of signals with the connected printer unit 1000. The network controller (NC) 312 is connected to the network and executes communication control processing with other devices connected to the network.

&lt;Printing device program and data structure&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 4, various programs stored in the ROM 207, read and executed by the controller unit 205 in the digital printing machine 102, and data used by the programs and the like will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, the ROM 207 stores a control program for realizing various functions that can be provided by the digital printing machine 102.

The boot loader 401 is a program executed immediately after the power of the digital printing machine 102 is turned on. The boot loader 401 contains programs for executing various boot sequences required to boot the system. The operating system 402 is a program for the purpose of providing an execution environment for various programs that realize the functions of the digital printing machine 102. This mainly provides functions such as resource management of the memory of the digital printing machine 102, that is, ROM207, RAM208, HDD209, etc. in FIG. 2, and basic input / output control of various devices.

The data transmission / reception program 403 is a control program for performing transmission / reception processing performed when a data input / output request occurs via the external I / F 202 in FIG. Specifically, it is a control program that includes a protocol stack such as TCP / IP and communicates various data exchanged with external devices connected via the network 100. The communication processing performed here is in charge of processing specialized for communication processing such as the transmission / reception level of data packets input / output between the digital printing machine 102 and the external I / F 202 and the HTTP server, and the received data described later. Analysis processing related to the contents of is not included. The data analysis process is executed by the controller unit 205, which will be described later, based on the description contents of another program.

The JDF function program 404 is a program that executes the JDF print function executed by the controller unit 205 according to the instruction of the external I / F 202 when the JDF job data is received by the digital printing machine 102 via the external I / F 202. is there. JDF stands for Job Definition Format. In the JDF print function performed by the controller unit 205, the operation of each device is sequentially instructed by the controller unit 205 in an appropriate order based on the processing order and processing conditions described in this program. As a result, the JDF print process is finally controlled to be executed. Each device includes the sheet processing device 200, the printer unit 203, the HDD 209, the compression / decompression unit 210, the RAM 208, and the like in FIG. In addition, the analysis processing of the JDF job data received via the external I / F202, the judgment processing of whether or not the JDF contains an invalid setting as a result of the analysis processing, and the setting change to eliminate the invalid setting. A program to do such things is also included.

The copy function program 405 is a program for executing the copy function executed by the controller unit 205 according to the instruction from the operation unit 204 when the user of the digital printing machine 102 instructs the execution of the copy function via the operation unit 204. Is. The copy function is realized by sequentially instructing the operations of these devices in an appropriate order by the controller unit 205 based on the processing order and processing conditions described in the program for the resources in the digital printing machine 102. As a result, the copy process is finally controlled to be executed. Each of the above-mentioned devices includes a scanner unit 201, a printer unit 203, a sheet processing device 200, an HDD 209, a compression decompression unit 210, a RAM 208, and the like.

The scan function program 406 is for executing the scan function executed by the controller unit 205 according to the instruction from the operation unit 204 when the user of the digital printing machine 102 instructs the execution of the scan function via the operation unit 204. It is a program. The scanning function performed by the controller unit 205 is executed as follows. Modules such as the scanner unit 201, HDD209, compression / decompression unit 210, and RAM208 are controlled by the controller unit 205 based on the processing order and processing conditions described in the program for the resources in the digital printing machine 102. At that time, by sequentially instructing the operation of each of these devices in an appropriate order, the scan process is finally controlled to be executed.

The PDL function program 407 executes the print function executed by the controller unit 205 according to the instruction of the external I / F 202 when the PDL data (print job data) is received by the digital printing machine 102 via the external I / F 202. It is a program to print. The PDL print function is realized by sequentially instructing the operation of each device in an appropriate order by the controller unit 205 based on the processing order and processing conditions described in this program. As a result, the PDL print process is finally controlled to be executed. Each device includes a sheet processing device 200, a printer unit 203, an HDD 209, a compression / decompression unit 210, a RAM 208, and the like.

The BOX function program 408 is a program that executes the BOX function executed by the controller unit 205 according to the instruction from the operation unit 204 when the user of the digital printing machine 102 instructs the execution of the BOX function via the operation unit 204. is there. The BOX function is realized by sequentially instructing the operation of each of these devices in an appropriate order by the controller unit 205 based on the processing order and processing conditions described in the program for the digital printing machine 102. Each device includes a scanner unit 201, a printer unit 203, a sheet processing device 200, an HDD 209, a compression decompression unit 210, a RAM 208, and the like. For the stored job data, the settings at the time of storage can be changed and executed.

The UI function program 409 is a control program for the operation unit 204. The UI function program 409 identifies the input contents of the operation unit 204 by the user of the digital printing machine 102, makes an appropriate screen transition, and gives a processing request instruction to the controller unit 205. The media management program 410 is a program for executing the management functions related to the media available to the digital printing machine 102. The media-related information managed by the program is stored on the HDD 209 by the processing of the program.

The job hold function program 411 is a program executed by the controller unit 205 in response to an instruction from the operation unit 204 when the user of the digital printing machine 102 instructs the execution of the job hold function via the operation unit 204. In this function, the digital printing machine 102 executes the printing process by job hold by sequentially instructing the operation of each of these devices in an appropriate order by the controller unit 205 based on the processing order and processing conditions described in this program. It is controlled to be done. Each device includes a printer unit 203, a sheet processing device 200, an HDD 209, a compression decompression unit 210, a RAM 208, and the like. For the stored job data, the settings at the time of storage can be changed and executed.

When the print job data is stored from the computer 101, which is an external device, to the job hold function of the digital printing machine 102, the process is performed based on the following procedure. That is, the PDL function program 407, the JDF function program 404, or the like instructs the job hold function to store the job data instead of printing the job data. Whether to give a print instruction or store the job in the job hold function by the PDL function program 407 or the JDF function program 404 is determined by designating a printing application running on the computer 101 to which the job is input. The designation is reflected in the setting attribute in the job data to be processed by the PDL function program 407 or the JDF function program 404, and the PDL function program 407 or the JDF function program 404 switches the processing based on the setting attribute.

It should be noted that the various functional programs described in the present embodiment do not need to include all of them, and may be configured to include a part thereof or a functional program other than those described above. In any case, it goes without saying that the present invention is valid as long as the items described in the claims are satisfied.

The saved document storage area 412 is a storage area for saved job data managed by the job hold function program 411. The job data to be saved received from the outside of the digital printing machine 102 is stored in the area together with the print settings.

&lt;Program configuration of information processing device&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 5, the configuration of various programs stored in the HDD 311 of the computer 101, which is an information processing device, and read and executed by the CPU 301 will be described. Since the operations of the boot loader 501 and the operating system 502 are the same as those of the boot loader 401 and the operating system 402 of the printing apparatus in FIG. 4, the description thereof will be omitted.

The device driver 503 is a program for controlling various hardware connected to the computer 101. Programs for controlling KBC305, CRTC306, DKC307, etc. are also included.

The print application program 504 is a general term for programs that run on a computer and aim to provide various functions and services to POD system users. The print application program 504 has a function of creating or editing print job data. Similarly, the print application program 504 has a function of converting various print specifications set from a setting screen (not shown) of the application into corresponding print settings.

Further, the application can conversely convert the settings included in the print settings into the internal information necessary for controlling the display items of the setting screen of the corresponding print application program 504. Further, the print application program 504 also has a function of selecting a print setting file stored in the HDD 311 and creating print job data. The print application program 504 has the ability to convert to PDL command format or JDF format as print settings and combine it with print target data to create print job data.

The network control program 505 is a program executed when a print job is transmitted to the digital printing machine 102 connected by the network 100 to the print job data created by the print application program 504. The program can also be configured to have functions such as transmitting print data and, after transmission, acquiring the progress information of a print job executed by the digital printing machine 102 connected to the computer 101 for the progress of the printing process. .. The other programs 506 include all the programs that do not fall under any of the above, but detailed description thereof will be omitted.

&lt;Print settings: Operator A&gt; Next, the print settings of the storage print job transmitted from the computer 101 to the digital printing machine 102 and stored by the job hold function program 411 will be described with reference to FIG. The computer 101 sends the print target data to the digital printing machine 102 together with the print settings shown in FIG. In the digital printing machine 102, the printing process is performed by the external I / F 202 receiving the print job data including the print setting and executing the various functional programs shown in FIG. 5 under the control of the controller unit 205.

FIG. 6 shows a case where JDF (Job Definition Format) is used as an example of the print setting format. However, the present invention may use print settings based on a print format other than JDF. Here, in order to illustrate JDF, an example in which a print job by the JDF function program 404 shown in FIG. 5 operates will be described.

601 indicates a place where the designation of the media in the JDF format is included. In the JDF format, 602 represents the size of the media and 603 represents the basis weight. In other words, the JDF shown in FIG. 6 is a setting method for designating media by attribute designation, and the attributes specified at that time are size and basis weight, and their values are, for example, A4 and 100. In FIG. 6, as an example, other media attributes such as color and surface property are not specified, but other media attributes may be specified. In the following description, the operator who submitted the print job shown in FIG. 6 will be described as the operator A.

&lt;Media information&gt; Next, an example of media information managed by the media management unit 211 of the digital printing machine 102 in the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 7. The media information is stored and managed in RAM 208 and 209 by executing the media management program 410 by the controller unit 205.

It shows the state in which the five types of media indicated by 701 to 705 are registered. As a matter of course, the digital printing machine 102 can handle an overwhelmingly large number of media than the number shown in FIG. 7.

The fields indicated by 706 to 712 indicate the media attributes corresponding to each media. ID706 is an ID uniquely assigned to the media under the control of the media management unit 211. Although not described in this embodiment, it is possible to specify the media by the ID by including this ID in the print settings.

Name 707 is a name string given to the media. Basis weight 708 is a number representing the weight per unit area of media. Surface 709 is a field for recording parameters related to the surface of the media. The shape 710 is a field for recording feature parameters related to the shape of the media. Color 711 is a field for recording parameters related to the color of the media. Size 712 is a field for recording parameters related to the size of the media. In the case of the digital printing machine 102 according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the size 712 is not essential. Therefore, in the media shown in 703 and 704, a special value called ANY is assigned to identify that the field of size 712 does not contain an explicit value.

ID706 is intended to ensure uniqueness of the system and the user does not have permission to edit. On the other hand, the name 707, the basis weight 708, the surface property 709, the shape 710, the color 711, and the size 712 are configured so that the system administrator of the digital printing machine 102 can change them.

It is assumed that the state of the media entry in which the print job including the setting shown in FIG. 6 is registered is input to the digital printing machine 102. The media setting in FIG. 6 was attribute specification, and the specified attribute had a size of A4 and a basis weight of 100. In the media shown in FIG. 7, it is the media entry indicated by 702 that meets this requirement. Therefore, when a print job including the settings shown in FIG. 6 is submitted to the digital printing machine 102, it is stored inside the digital printing machine 102 by the job hold function in a state in which the media entry shown in 702 is instructed to be used. To.

For example, there may be a case where a print job including an attribute specification is submitted to the digital printing machine 102 and there is no media entry that matches the condition of the media attribute of the job setting. In the example of FIG. 6, there is no media entry having a size of A4 and a basis weight of 100 in any of the entries shown in FIG. There are a plurality of methods for avoiding the digital printing machine 102 in this case.

First, it is conceivable to shift to the optimum paper-less mode, which is a typical behavior when there is no suitable paper. However, in this embodiment, a use case is assumed in which a print job is stored in a job hold and stored and printed at a later stage. Therefore, even when it is detected that there is no paper, the job is stored in the job hold, and the phenomenon of no paper is controlled at the stage when the job is tried to be printed by the job hold.

Secondly, a mode of selecting the default paper can be considered. Even if none of the above applies, it is assumed that the media is temporarily mapped to one of the media managed by the media management unit, and the operator changes the media settings as needed at a later stage.

Thirdly, an automatic media registration mode can be considered. If it is determined that none of the media entries is suitable, media entries that include them are added to the media information shown in FIG. 7 based on the media attribute information included in the job settings. , It is a mode to store the added one as the selected state.

&lt;Print settings: Operator B&gt; FIG. 8 shows an example of print settings of a storage print job different from that shown in FIG. 6, which is transmitted from the computer 101 to the digital printing machine 102 and stored by the job hold function program 411. An example of a job issued by an operator other than that shown in Fig. 6 is assumed. The print setting is sent to the digital printing machine 102 together with the print target data in the same manner as the print setting of FIG. Here, as in FIG. 6, the case where JDF is used as an example of the print setting format is shown.

Of the various settings included in the JDF in FIG. 8, the location indicated by 801 is the location where the media is specified in the JDF format. In JDF format, 802 represents the size of the media and 803 represents the color. In other words, the JDF shown in FIG. 8 is a setting method in which media is specified by attribute specification, and the attributes specified at that time are size and color, and their values are A4 and white. Other media attributes such as basis weight and surface properties are not specified.

When a print job including the settings shown in FIG. 8 is submitted to the digital printing machine 102, it is stored in the digital printing machine 102 by the job hold function in a state in which the media entry shown in 702 is instructed to be used. In the following, the operator who submitted the print job shown in FIG. 8 will be described as the operator B.

&lt;Media information after editing&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 9, the state immediately after the operator A edits the media entry to be used before executing the output processing of the stored job will be described. As shown in Figure 9, of the media entries indicated by 702, the basis weight has been changed to 120 and the color has been changed to red. The edited content itself has no meaning of the present invention. The attributes of the media entry are only shown as an example of what was edited by Operator A before printing. In any case, this edited content will be described below as being desirable as a medium to be used by the operator A.

It is assumed that the output of the print job shown in FIG. 6 is completed, the operator A releases the digital printing machine 102, and the digital printing machine 102 is transferred to the next operator, for example, the operator B. The print job of operator B is stored in a state in which the media entry indicated by 702 in FIG. 9 is associated as the target media as described with reference to FIG. If the state of the media entry at the stage when the print job of FIG. 8 is submitted is the state shown in FIG. 7, the media entry of 702 is saved as matching the condition with respect to the media setting of the print job of FIG. .. However, since the operator A subsequently edits the media entry indicated by the 702 during the occupancy period of the digital printing press 102, the condition of the media entry does not match the storage time of the print job shown in FIG. In other words, when the editing operation of the media entry by the operator A is a succeeding job and the same media entry is stored as the media to be used, a phenomenon may occur in which the information at the time of storage and the information of the media entry are different. That is, a situation occurs in which a medium that does not meet the intention of the operator B is eventually associated with the print job shown in FIG.

If the print job shown in FIG. 8 is executed as it is, an unintended deliverable of operator B will be generated. It is assumed that the operator B notices the editing of the media entry shown in 702 of FIG. 9, changes the media entry so as to obtain the desired media entry, and then executes the printing process. In such cases, editing the media entry is cumbersome. Further, it is assumed that in this state, the operator A again submits another job to the same digital printing machine 102 with the same media setting at a later stage. This time, operator A suffers from the side effect of editing the media entry by operator B, and in any case, it falls into an inefficient state.

&lt;Improved media information&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 10, a partially improved version of the media information of FIG. 7 will be described. The parameters from 1006 to 1012 are the same as the parameters from 706 to 712, so the description thereof will be omitted. The difference here is that the field indicated by 1013 has been added.

The owner 1013 field is for identifying the available audience for the media entry. Only when the operator who submitted the print job is described in the owner 1013 and matches the target person, it is searched as the media entry corresponding to the submitted job and controlled to be the target media to be used. In other words, even if there is a matching media entry in the print job media attribute specification such as basis weight and size, if the target person does not match, the media entry is not selected as a usage target. Is controlled. That is, by controlling so that media other than the target person cannot be used, it is possible to avoid a race condition of a single media entry by a plurality of operators, thereby solving various problems associated with editing as described above. ..

Note that the media entry that the target person has in common is a special value provided to realize that all operators are intentionally allowed to use it. When this media is associated as the media to be used, the conflict reference state based on the information in the target field cannot be avoided, and the operation is the same as when the media information in FIG. 7 is used. However, in operation, it is convenient to be able to use such sharable media, so it is provided.

&lt;Editing example with improved media information&gt; Next, referring to FIG. 11, when the media information managed by the media management unit 211 of the digital printing machine 102 according to the present embodiment is in the state shown in FIG. 10, the print job by the operator B shown in FIG. 8 is shown. The state of the media information immediately after the input of is described.

Reference numeral 1014 is a new media entry, and the media attributes of the media entry are set so that the media attributes are based on the media attributes included in the print settings shown in FIG. That is, even if the corresponding media entry is searched with the print job input in FIG. 8 as an opportunity, there is no media that can be used by the operator B and that matches the media settings of the print job shown in FIG. Therefore, it is registered as a new media entry and used as the media entry to be used.

As mentioned above, in the newly added media entry, among the media attributes of the print job that triggered the addition, for those that are not specified, the fields other than ID1006, name 1007, and owner 1013 are , Complemented and stored by default value. This is expected to be further complemented by the operator at a later stage. As the above-mentioned default value, a form may be adopted in which a default value is set in the range that can be taken by the attribute of each field and the value is stored when a new media entry is added.

Further, FIG. 12 shows the result of performing the same editing operation as that performed by the operator A in FIG. 9 when the media information managed by the media management unit 211 of the digital printing machine 102 is in the state shown in FIG. An example is shown. Shows the result of operator A changing the basis weight and color attributes for the media entry indicated by 1002.

In the case of FIG. 12, the target of the media entry indicated by 1002 is operator A. In other words, Operator B is unaffected by this edit. This is because operator B has added the media entry indicated by 1014 as a result of submitting the job shown in FIG. 8 and has selected it as the target for use of the job.

Similarly, if Operator B edits the content of the media entry indicated by 1014, Operator A is not affected by that edit. In this way, by avoiding multiple references by a plurality of operators of the media entry, it is possible to solve the problem when the media entry is edited.

&lt;Structure of print job data&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 13, the configuration of the print job data executed by the JDF function program 404, which can be processed by the digital printing machine 102, will be described. Print job data in a JDF job generally consists of three parts.

JMF (Job Messaging Format) 1301 is a data area that defines commands defined in the JDF specifications. In the present embodiment, the behavior when the JDF job is received is defined by the data. Specifically, the process of switching whether to execute the received print job data up to the output process or to store the received print job data in the digital printing machine 102 so that the job hold function program 411 can be used after the expansion process is performed. specify. In addition, various settings related to JDF job execution can be defined by JMF1301, but details are omitted.

The JDF (Job Definition Format) 1302 is a data area for storing print setting information as shown in FIGS. 6 and 8. As described in the explanations of FIGS. 6 and 8, the information regarding the media settings used in the print job is also included in the data. The PDL data 1303 is an image data area to be printed by the print job.

In a JDF job, it is common to combine the above three data areas and send them as single-state data to the digital printing machine 102. However, although a job input method in another form can be specified in JDF, the details are omitted because it is not important for explaining the effect of the present invention.

&lt;Processing procedure&gt; Next, the processing procedure of the JDF function program 404 executed by the controller unit 205 will be described with reference to FIG. The JDF function program starts processing when the digital printing machine 102 receives the job data shown in FIG. 13 via the external I / F 202 as a trigger. Further, the process described below is realized by the controller unit 205 reading the JDF function program 404 stored in the ROM 207 or the HDD 209 into the RAM 208 and executing the process.

In S1401, the controller unit 205 executes JMF analysis processing. This corresponds to the data analysis process described in JMF1301 in FIG. The following describes the case where JMF1301 includes a setting to execute storage instead of printing.

In S1402, controller section 205 executes JDF analysis processing. This corresponds to the data analysis process described in JDF1302 in FIG. Media settings by specifying attributes are also included here. Subsequently, in S1403, the controller unit 205 extracts the settings related to the media from the print job settings analyzed in S1402. Specifically, the analysis results of the media settings described in the locations corresponding to 601 and 801 in FIG. 6 or 8 are acquired.

In S1404, the controller unit 205 searches for a media entry that matches the media setting acquired in S1403 from the media information held in the digital printing machine 102 managed by the media management unit 211. The process in this step corresponds to the process of searching the media attribute information specified by JDF from the media information shown in FIG. 10 for the media entry that can be used in the submitted job. Alternatively, if the corresponding entry does not exist, as described in the explanation in FIG. 11, the additional processing of the corresponding entry is also included in the execution content of the same step. Details of the processing of S1404 will be described later.

In S1405, the controller unit 205 expands the PDL data 1303 and creates image information based on the print settings extracted in S1403. Specifically, the image information expressed in the PDL language is converted into internal data such as a bitmap that can be printed. Subsequently, in S1406, the controller unit 205 processes the expanded image data created in S1405. The processing content is whether to print or store the expanded image data.

Next, with reference to FIG. 15, the detailed procedure of the processing of S1404 in FIG. 14, that is, the search processing of the media entry to be used in the job will be described. Further, the process described below is realized by the controller unit 205 reading the JDF function program 404 stored in the ROM 207 or the HDD 209 into the RAM 208 and executing the process. In the process, the JDF function program 404 requests the media management program 410 to execute some processing under the control of the controller unit 205.

In S1501, the controller unit 205 acquires a list of attributes in the media to be checked in advance. This is the information corresponding to the information extracted in S1403 in FIG. Subsequently, in S1502, the controller unit 205 extracts the media entry to be searched. Specifically, among the media information shown in FIG. 11, the media that are effective for the owner of the media to be surveyed are narrowed down. In other words, the information in the column of owner 1013 in FIG. 11 executes the process of extracting only the list of the operator who is the job executor and the media entries that are common at this stage. As a result, a process for limiting the user is performed regarding which of the media entries available in the digital printing machine 102 is associated with the media specified in the media setting of the print job. This is a process intended to avoid a race condition for a single media entry, as described in FIG.

In S1503, the controller unit 205 determines whether or not the inspection has been completed for all the entries of the media information extracted in S1502. This is for forming a loop process for performing all matching between the media entry extracted by S1502 and the media in S1501. If the inspection is completed, proceed to S1512, otherwise proceed to S1504.

In S1504, the controller unit 205 sets the result storage flag for determining the processing result to the initial value. If the value of this flag is true at the time of the final determination of this process, it indicates that the media matching the media specified by the attribute specified in the print job exists in the media information extracted by S1502. Otherwise, the value of the flag will be false.

Subsequently, in S1505, the controller unit 205 selects the media entry to be collated from the media entries extracted in S1502. The selection is made according to the information obtained in S1403. Specifically, the attribute information set in 601 or 801 will be selected. In S1506, the controller unit 205 selects one media entry from the attributes to be inspected among the media entries selected in S1505. Specifically, it is one of the fields selected in S1505 among the fields such as basis weight 1008, surface property 1009, shape 1010, color 1011, and size 1012 shown in FIG.

In S1507, the controller unit 205 determines whether or not the collation process has been performed for all the attributes to be inspected. If so, proceed to S1513, otherwise proceed to S1508. In S1508, the controller unit 205 compares the attributes of the media entries extracted in S1506 with the attributes acquired in S1501, and determines the result in S1509. If it indicates that the judgment result of S1509 matches, the process returns to S1506, and if it does not match, the process proceeds to S1510.

In S1510, the controller unit 205 determines whether or not the value of the attribute of the media entry is ANY or Default. These ANY or Default are not explicit values. In other words, any attribute value matches these values. Therefore, if it is ANY or Default, it is regarded as equivalent to the one that matches in the judgment of S1509, and returns to S1506 to continue the loop processing.

On the other hand, if the result of S1510 is false, it means that a mismatched attribute value was detected as a result of collation. Therefore, in S1511, the controller unit 205 considers that the media to be compared do not match each other, sets a false value in the flag for storing the comparison result, and returns the processing to S1506.

If the result of the determination of S1507 is true, the process proceeds to S1513, and the controller unit 205 determines the value of the flag. That is, when the value of the flag is true, it is determined that the media to be inspected by the loop processing performed up to the immediately preceding step and the attribute value have been collated. In this case, the media is determined to be the media associated with the media specified by the print job, and the flow in the figure is terminated.

On the other hand, if the result of the determination of S1513 is false, it is determined that the attribute value is not collated with the media to be inspected by the loop processing performed up to the immediately preceding step. In this case, return to S1503 and move on to the processing of the next media to be compared. Similarly, loop processing is executed until media that can be considered as a match is found.

If the determination result of S1503 is true, it corresponds to the situation where there is no match as a result of searching for all media entries that match the media attributes of the print job. In this case, the process proceeds to S1512, and the controller unit 205 refers to the attributes of the print job, creates a new media entry, and ends the process. This corresponds to the process of adding the media entry indicated by 1014 described in FIG.

In the examples shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, the media used by the print job was one type. Of course, it is possible to use multiple media in a single print job. In that case, the process is repeated for the number of media types in the above flowchart.

FIG. 16 shows a detailed procedure for extracting the media entry to be investigated in S1502 of FIG. The process described below is realized by the controller unit 205 reading the JDF function program 404 stored in the ROM 207 or the HDD 209 into the RAM 208 and executing it.

In S1601, the controller unit 205 acquires the information of the operator who is the executor (operator) of the print job. The information may be acquired from the print setting information shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 8, or may be based on the login information given the execution authority of the digital printing machine 102.

After S1602, a loop process is formed to perform the desired inspection for all the entries of the media information shown in FIG. In S1602, the controller unit 205 determines whether or not all media entries have been inspected, and if so, ends the loop processing. On the other hand, if it is not finished, proceed to S1603.

In S1603, the controller unit 205 selects the media entry to be inspected. This corresponds to the process of sequentially selecting each media entry shown in FIG. In S1604, the controller unit 205 extracts information about the target person for the media entry selected in S1603. This corresponds to the extraction process of the owner information of the owner 1013.

In S1605 and S1606, the controller unit 205 compares the operator information acquired in S1604 and S1601 with the user information. That is, it is determined whether the operator information and the user information of the owner 1013 of the media entry match, or whether the user information is common. In other words, it is determined based on the operator information whether or not the operator satisfies the conditions of the media that can be used when the print job is executed.

If any of S1605 and S1606 is true, the process proceeds to S1607, and the controller unit 205 stores the media entry as a media list to be investigated. On the other hand, when both S1605 and S1606 are false, the controller unit 205 skips the media entry and returns the process to S1602 in order to apply the same determination process to the next media entry.

FIG. 17 shows the detailed procedure of the automatic media registration process in S1512 of FIG. 15. The controller unit 205 reads the JDF function program 404 stored in the ROM 207 or the HDD 209 into the RAM 208 and executes the process described below. It is realized by.

In S1701, the controller unit 205 adds a new entry to the media information management area shown in FIG. In this state, only the entry is added, and the value of each field information in the entry is not set. However, ID1006 is assigned a unique ID corresponding to the added entry. The ID is controlled by the media management department 211 so that uniqueness is always guaranteed. In S1702, the controller unit 205 initializes the media entry added in S1701 with the initial value, that is, the default value. Here, the values in the fields 1007 to 1013 are updated by the initial values. What kind of value is used for each field as the initial value is controlled by the media management unit 211, but the initial value may be controlled to be variable.

In S1703, the controller unit 205 updates the value of each field of the media entry in the state initialized in S1702 by the value acquired in S1501, that is, the media setting information in the print job. As a result, the media setting information of the print job can be reflected in the media entry added in S1701. In S1704, the controller unit 205 updates the value of the owner information of the owner 1013 according to the operator of the print job, that is, the operator information, which triggered the addition of the media entry.

As described above, the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment is media information related to the storage medium for each of a plurality of types of storage media to be printed, and the use of the storage medium is permitted. Stores media information, including information about the person. Further, when the printing device receives the print job, the printing device analyzes the attribute information related to the recording medium used in the print job, compares the analysis result with the media information already stored, and instructs the print job. Search for applicable media information available to the user. Here, if the corresponding media information is not searched, the printing apparatus newly adds the media information of the storage medium used in the received print job. As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when the media information is multiple-referenced by a plurality of operators, the portion is edited and used when some of the attribute information included in the media information is different. Add as new media information without. Therefore, it is possible to prevent other operators from obtaining undesired deliverables.

&lt;Second embodiment&gt; Hereinafter, the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 18 to 21. In the first embodiment described above, an example of avoiding the problem that the media entry is multiple-referenced by a plurality of operators has been described by using the information of the owner 1013. In the present embodiment, instead of using the owner information for the media entry, a method for solving the same problem will be described by providing information indicating whether or not the media entry is in the referenced state.

&lt;Media information&gt; First, with reference to FIG. 18, an example of media information managed by the media management unit 211 of the digital printing machine 102 in the present embodiment will be described. This will be described in comparison with FIG. 10 shown in the first embodiment.

The field indicated by 1813 is different from the media information in the first embodiment. That is, in the present embodiment, the media entry has a reference state 1813 field that holds information on whether or not the media entry is in the reference state by the print job. The problem can be solved by controlling using the information of the reference state 1813. The reference state is information indicating whether or not a predetermined user is referencing the entry. For example, when in the reference state, other users are controlled so that they cannot refer to the entry. This makes it possible to avoid multiple references.

FIG. 19 shows an example in which the media information is edited after the print job having the print settings shown in FIG. 6 is submitted when the media information in the present embodiment is in the state shown in FIG. .. As shown in FIG. 19, the reference state of entry 1802, which is a media entry that matches the media settings included in the print job, that is, the media size 602 and the basis weight 603, is updated.

FIG. 20 shows an example in which the media information is edited after the print job having the print setting shown in FIG. 8 is submitted when the media information in the present embodiment is in the state shown in FIG. .. As shown in FIG. 20, it can be seen that the media entry indicated by entry 1814 has been added from the state shown in FIG. This is the media entry indicated by 1802 as the media containing the preferred conditions at the time the print job is submitted. However, since the media entry is in the reference state, it is added as a new media entry to avoid multiple references, and the result is that the media is controlled to be in the reference state. As described above, it is possible to avoid the multiple reference state by adding the information that identifies the reference state to the media entry.

&lt;Processing procedure&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 21, the processing procedure for extracting the search target media entry in the present embodiment will be described. The process described below is realized by the controller unit 205 reading the JDF function program 404 stored in the ROM 207 or the HDD 209 into the RAM 208 and executing it. In the process, the JDF function program 404 requests the media management program 410 to execute some processing under the control of the controller unit 205. Further, the flowchart shown in FIG. 21 corresponds to the flowchart of FIG. 16 of the first embodiment, and is for showing the detailed processing of S1502 in the present embodiment.

After S2101, a loop process is formed to perform the desired inspection for all entries of the media information shown in FIG. In S2101, the controller unit 205 determines whether or not all media entries have been inspected, and if so, ends the loop process. On the other hand, if it is not finished, proceed to S2102. In S2102, the controller unit 205 selects the media entry to be inspected. This corresponds to the process of sequentially selecting each media entry shown in FIG.

In S2103, controller 205 extracts reference information about the media entry selected in S2102. This corresponds to the process of extracting the information defined in the reference state 1813. Subsequently, in S2104, the controller unit 205 determines whether or not the entry is in the reference state based on the information acquired in S2103. If the determination result is false, the process proceeds to S2105, and the controller unit 205 stores the media entry as a media list to be investigated and returns the process to S2101. On the other hand, if the determination result is true, the media entry is skipped, and the controller unit 205 returns the process to S2101 in order to apply the same determination process to the next media entry.

As described above, the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment is media information related to the storage medium for each of a plurality of types of storage media to be printed, and whether or not the media information is referred to. Stores media information including reference information indicating. Further, when the printing device receives the print job, the printing device analyzes the attribute information related to the recording medium used in the print job, compares the analysis result with the media information already stored, and instructs the print job. Search for applicable media information available to the user. Here, if the corresponding media information is not searched, the printing apparatus newly adds the media information of the storage medium used in the received print job. As described above, according to the present embodiment, even when the media information is multiple-referenced by a plurality of operators, the portion is edited and used when some of the attribute information included in the media information is different. Add as new media information without. Therefore, it is possible to prevent other operators from obtaining undesired deliverables.

&lt;Third embodiment&gt; Hereinafter, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 22 to 25. In the second embodiment described above, an example is shown in which the problem associated with the multiple reference of the media entry is avoided by providing the information of the reference state 1813 shown in FIG. Further, in the second embodiment described above, when multiple references are detected based on the information in the reference state 1813, a new media entry is created to avoid the multiple reference state. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, as in the second embodiment, the media entry is provided with information regarding the reference state, but when it is determined that multiple references may occur, another process is performed. An example of avoiding the multiple reference state is shown. That is, when an attempt is made to execute an editing operation on a media entry in the multiple reference state, a control is performed to prompt the operator of the digital printing machine 102 for avoidance processing by warning that the media entry is in the multiple reference state. The other process may be applied to the first embodiment.

&lt;Media information&gt; First, the media information in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Corresponds to the information in FIG. 18 in the second embodiment. The number of references 2213 stores the number of references for each media entry. This makes it possible to distinguish between a non-reference state, a single reference state, and a multiple reference state. Since the other fields and the like are the same as those in FIG. 18, the description thereof will be omitted.

&lt;Screen example&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 23, an example of an operation screen for editing the media information displayed on the operation unit 204 of the digital printing machine 102 will be described. On the operation screen 2300, a list of media registered in the digital printing machine 102 is displayed. The list is displayed based on the media information shown in FIG. That is, information about a plurality of media is displayed in the media list 2301. Of these, the media indicated by 2302 is in the selected state. Media 2302 corresponds to the media of entry 1802 in Figure 22.

Similar to the second embodiment, the case where the storage print job shown in FIG. 6 is input immediately after the storage print job shown in FIG. 6 is input will be described as an example. It is assumed that the state of the media information at this time is the state shown in FIG. That is, the media corresponding to entry 1802 is referenced by two different jobs.

The detailed edit button 2303 provided on the operation screen 2300 is a button for transitioning to a screen for changing the attributes of the media selected in the media list 2301. When the detailed edit button 2303 is operated in the screen state shown in FIG. 23, the screen transitions to the media attribute edit screen of entry 1802. However, since the media of entry 1802 is multiple-referenced, allowing editing of attributes to fit one job can be inconvenient for the other job. Reference numeral 2304 is a scroll button for displaying screen components and scrolling and displaying information on media that cannot be displayed in the media list 2301.

FIG. 24 shows an example of a screen displayed immediately after the detailed edit button 2303 is operated on the operation screen 2300. In order to suppress the occurrence of problems caused by editing media in the reference state from multiple jobs, when an edit instruction for the media in the multiple reference state is detected, a warning screen 2400 is displayed to alert the operator. The purpose is to do. That is, at the same time as displaying a warning message, when canceling editing, operating the cancel button 2401 returns to the operation screen 2300. Further, when editing is performed after recognizing that the user is in the conflict reference state, the editing can be forcibly executed by operating the edit button 2402.

&lt;Processing procedure&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 25, a processing procedure of the operation of the editing process on the media editing screen shown in FIGS. 23 and 24 in the present embodiment will be described. The processing described below is realized by the controller unit 205 reading the media management program 410 and the UI function program 409 stored in the ROM 207 or the HDD 209 into the RAM 208 and executing them.

In S2501, the controller unit 205 is in a state of waiting for input from the operator. This corresponds to a waiting state for accepting a selection operation by the operator for any of the screen elements shown in FIGS. 23 and 24. The operation proceeds to S2502 triggered by the operation of any of the screen components shown in FIGS. 23 and 24 by the operator.

In S2502, the controller unit 205 determines whether or not the input operation from the operator selected in S2501 is the operation of the detailed edit button 2303. If so, proceed to S2503, otherwise proceed to S2508. In S2503, the controller unit 205 determines the media entry in the selected state at the time of operating the detailed edit button 2303, and in S2504, acquires the reference state in the media entry. This corresponds to the process of acquiring the information in the reference state 1813 regarding the media to be investigated among the media information shown in FIG.

In S2505, the controller unit 205 determines the reference information acquired in S2504. Specifically, it is determined whether or not the media to be inspected in the process prior to the same step is in the reference state. If the result of the determination in the same step is true, that is, if the number of references 2213 indicates a value of 1 or more, the warning screen 2400 shown in FIG. 24 is displayed. On the other hand, if the determination result is false, that is, if the value of the number of references 2213 indicates 0, the process proceeds to S2507, and the controller unit 205 transitions to the media attribute editing screen without displaying the warning screen 2400. To do.

If the determination result of S2502 is false, it indicates that the operation selected by S2501 is an operation other than the detailed edit button 2303. In that case, the process proceeds to S2508, and the controller unit 205 performs the corresponding processing, but detailed description thereof will be omitted.

As described above, the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment configures the media information so as to include the number of references instead of the reference information in the second embodiment. Here, when the number of references indicates 0, it is determined that the reference is not made, and when the number of references indicates 1 or more, it is determined that the reference is not made. Further, when it is determined that the reference is made, that is, when there is a possibility of multiple reference, a warning screen is displayed on the operation unit in order to call the operator's attention. Therefore, also in the present embodiment, as in the second embodiment, it is possible to prevent other operators from obtaining undesired deliverables.

&lt;Other embodiments&gt; The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications (including organic combinations of each embodiment) are possible based on the gist of the present invention, and these are excluded from the scope of the present invention. is not it. For example, in the present embodiment, the controller unit 205 of the digital printing machine 102 is the main body of various controls, but a part or all of the various controls are executed by the digital printing machine 102 and an external controller in a separate housing. It may be configured as possible.

The present invention is also realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment is supplied to the system or device via a network or various storage media, and the computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or device reads the program. This is the process to be executed.

101: Computer, 102: Digital printing machine, 200: Sheet processing device, 201: Scanner unit, 202: External I / F, 203: Printer unit, 204: Operation unit, 205: Controller unit, 207: ROM, 208: RAM , 209: HDD, 211: Media Management Department