Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Communication
Reexamination Certificate
1998-04-23
2001-01-30
Moore, David K. (Department: 2724)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Communication
C358S001200, C358S001600, C358S001160
Reexamination Certificate
active
06181436
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print managing system and a print managing method for managing print data sent from client apparatuses to a printing apparatus through a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up to now, a printing system, in which print data is sent from a plurality of client apparatuses through a network, the print data is received and processed by a printing apparatus or a print server apparatus adaptable to the network and the received and processed print data is printed out by the printing apparatus, is put to practical use.
In such a printing system, a print spool function is disposed on a Printing apparatus or a print server apparatus, in many cases. The print spool function is a function of sorting the print data from each client apparatus into a management unit referred to as a print job, and then managing the allowance or rejection of the output of each print job, a print order and the like, and sequentially outputting each print job to a print output section in order to print out.
Further, information of the print jobs managed by the print spool function are displayed as a list by each client apparatus, the printing apparatus or the print sever apparatus, and a user can order to change the printing order, cancel or stop the printing operation, etc. by viewing the displayed list of the information of the print jobs.
Namely, identification information of the client apparatus by which the print data corresponding to each print job is outputted, identification information called a print job name and information of a data capacity to be printed out, a reception time of a print job or the like are displayed as the information of each print job. The user can select the desired print job by viewing these information, and give his or her orders to the client apparatus.
However, there may be a case that only a vague name is given to a print job name in the conventional printing system, depending on an application software by which the print data is outputted and the like. Moreover, there may be a case that the client apparatus corresponding to each print job cannot be identified depending on a used communication protocol.
Thus, there may be a case that it is difficult to determine which jobs correspond to what kind of print data.
Then, a method which can display a content of the print data as an image in a client apparatus, a network printing apparatus before printing is proposed and disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open (KOKAI) No. 62-291263, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open (KOKAI) No. 6-110626, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open (KOKAI) No. 7-40608 or the like.
According to such a method, it is possible to confirm a content of the print data. However, in such a method, it is difficult to confirm the plural print jobs simultaneously, so that the user cannot easily select a desired print job from the plural print jobs managed by the print spool function. In order to enable easy selection of the desired print job from the plural print jobs managed by the print spoor function, a list of the print jobs is required.
Further, if the image is indiscriminately displayed, there may be the risk of other people viewing the print data that is not desired to be viewed. This results in a problem of a security.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a first object of the present invention to provide a print managing system and a print managing method which can distinguishably display a content of each print job in order to make selection of the print job easy.
Further, it is a second object of the present invention to provide a print managing system and a print managing method which can keep print data secret.
According to the present invention, the aforementioned first object can be achieved by a print managing system having: a plurality of client apparatuses for generating print data and sending the generated print data to a printing apparatus; and the printing apparatus connected with each of the client apparatuses though a network for receiving the print data from each of the client apparatuses, managing the received print data as a print job, which is an unit corresponding to one print data received from each of the client apparatuses, and printing the received print data for each print job, each of the client apparatuses having: a print data generating device for generating the print data; a print data sending device for sending the generated print data to the printing apparatus; a print job information request device for sending a request signal to request print job information to the printing apparatus; a print job information receiving device for receiving the print job information from the printing apparatus; and a print job information display device for displaying the received print job information as a list, in which management information of the print job and a rough image correlated with the print data corresponding to the Print job included in the received print job information are arranged, the printing apparatus having: a print data receiving device for receiving the print data from each of the client apparatuses; a print data storing device for storing the received print data; a rough image producing device for producing a rough image, which roughly shows an image corresponding to the stored print data, on the basis of the stored print data; a rough image storing device for storing the produced rough image, and correlating the produced rough image with the stored print data on which the produced rough image is based; a print job managing device for managing the stored print data as the print job; a request receiving device for receiving the request signal from each of the client apparatuses; and a print job information sending device for sending the print job information including the management information to identify the print job managed by the print job managing device and the rough image correlated with the print data corresponding to the print job to each of the client apparatuses in response to a reception of the request signal.
Namely, in each of the client apparatuses, the print data generating device generates the print data, and the print data sending device sends the generated print data to the printing apparatus. Then, in the printing apparatus, the print data receiving device received the print data from each of the client apparatuses, and the print data storing device stores the received print data. Then, in the printing apparatus, the rough image producing device produces the rough image on the basis of the stored print data. The rough image is rough image showing the image corresponding to the stored print data. For instance, the rough image is produced by reducing the size of the image corresponding to the print data or by simplify the image corresponding to the print data. Further, in the printing apparatus, the rough image storing device stores the rough image. At this time, the rough image storing device correlates the rough image with the print image on which the rough image is based when the rough image is produced. Furthermore, in the printing apparatus, the print job managing device manages the stored print data as the print job. The print job is unit corresponding to one print data sent from each of the client apparatuses.
Next, in each of the client apparatuses, the print job information request device sends the request signal to the printing apparatus. The request signal is a signal to request the printing apparatus to send the print job information. Then, in the printing apparatus, the request receiving device receives the request signal from each of the client apparatuses. In response to the request signal, the print job information sending device sends the print job information. The print job information includes the management information of the print job managed by the print job managing device and the rough image correlated with the print data corresponding to the print job.
Further, in each of the client apparatuses, the print job inform
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Moore David K.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Poon King Y.
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