Electrophotography – Remote monitoring
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-09
2003-02-04
Beatty, Robert (Department: 2852)
Electrophotography
Remote monitoring
C399S079000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06516157
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stand-alone or network-connected printing system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a printing system that can identify the printing cost in advance.
2. Description of the Related Art
The art of interest to the present invention for counting the number of copies to calculate the copying expense is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-52626 and Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 56-27162. The technique of detecting termination of a copy operation to calculate and display the copy rate from the “number of copies×unit cost” is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laying-Open No. 4-11547.
There are times when the expense of a desired copy job is to be identified before actually carrying out a copy operation. The copy rate is calculated as “number of copies×unit cost”. This “unit cost” depends on various conditions such as the size of the recording sheet and full color/two-color/black-and-white mode. The size of a recording sheet is determined according No the size of the original document and the magnification rate. Since the calculation of the total fee of copies taken in various modes from various documents is complicated, it is difficult to confirm in advance whether the copy fee is within an intended amount of cost or not. It is desired to easily identify in advance the cost of a specific copy job.
It is also desirable to be able to alter the mode (for example, alter the copy mode from full color mode to black-and-white mode, or alter the magnification rate to reduce the size of the recording sheet) when identification is made that the intended account is exceeded after setting a copy job. Accordingly, an intended amount of cost can be satisfied.
In accordance with the spread of personal computer communication and image softwares, the user of a personal computer can provide a display of various types of images easily on the screen of his/her own display device at home. It is easy to print out such images on a recording sheet by virtue of improvement in the printer's performance and reduction in cost.
However, a printer of high performance that provides a printout on a large-sized sheet with the picture quality of a color image approximating that of a silver halide photograph is yet too expensive for a general user to own.
A printing system is proposed that allows-printout of a high quality even for users that do not posses their own exclusive color printer of high performance. In this printing system, the personal computer of a user is connected to a color printer of high performance via a communication line. Each user shares the usage of the connected color printer.
FIG. 43
is a schematic block diagram of a conventional printing system
800
.
Referring to
FIG. 43
, a printing system
800
includes personal computers
802
a
-
802
c
of respective users, a color printer
804
of high performance, a printer controller
805
for providing control of color printer
804
, a display
803
associated with printer controller
805
, and a communication line
806
. Each of personal computers
802
a
-
802
c
is installed at the home of respective users. Color printer
804
and printer controller
805
are installed at an appropriate site, such as in a convenience store.
When a user wants to obtain a printout, the user enters an image file DFa into a personal computer
802
a
, for example, and also a print reservation instruction and user name at the same time.
In response, personal computer
802
a
assigns an image file number
903
a
for the input image file DFa, and transmits the same together with the user name as a header file
902
a
to printer controller
805
and color printer
804
. Therefore, header files
902
a
-
902
c
transmitted from various users are accumulated in printer controller
805
and color printer
804
. At this time point, image file DFa is not yet transmitted.
The user then goes to the convenience store where printer controller
805
and color printer
804
are installed to instruct execution of a printout operation. On the screen of display
803
of printer controller
805
, a plurality of image file numbers
903
a
-
903
c
and associated user names sent from respective users are provided.
The user searches for his/her own user name and image file number
903
a
to enter a print execution instruction with respect to the appropriate image file number
903
a
. In response, image file DFa is transmitted from personal computer
802
a
to color printer
804
to be stored in a memory
807
of printer
804
. The user sets the appropriate printing conditions such as the sheet size, resolution of picture quality, the number of copies, and the like for color printer
804
. The cost required for the printing operation is determined, and then a printing operation is executed.
In the above-described conventional printing system
800
, the user had to take the trouble of going to the installed site of color printer
804
and then set the printout conditions for color printer
804
. The user can identify the expense corresponding to a printout execution only after setting various printing out conditions for color printer
804
.
In other words, some time is required before the user obtains a printout of a desired image after going to the installation site of color printer
804
. Furthermore, the user cannot identify the expense information required for printout before coming to the installed site of color printer
804
.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing system that can identify the expense of a desired printout job prior to a printing out operation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing system that allows the printing mode to be altered so as to satisfy an intended amount of cost when the expense for a printing out job exceeds the intended amount.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a printing system that can execute a printing out job after confirming that an intended amount of cost is satisfied when the cost for a printing out job is predetermined.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a printing system connected to a network including a printer apparatus that is network-connected to a user side data processor that allows the user to obtain, at the user side data processor, information of expense required for a print out before the user goes to the installed site of the printer apparatus.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a printing method that allows expense of a desired printing out job to be identified prior to the printing out job.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a printing method that allows a printing out job to be carried out after confirmation of an intended amount of cost being satisfied when the cost for a printing out job is predetermined.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a printing method of a printing system connected to a network including a printer apparatus network-connected to a user's terminal that allows the user to obtain, at the user's terminal, information of expense required for a print out before the user goes to the installed site of the printer apparatus.
The above objects of the present invention can be accomplished by a printing system including elements set forth in the following.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a printing system includes an input unit for entering a print job, a calculation unit for calculating a printing cost according to an input printing job, a display for providing a display of the calculated printing cost, and a controller allowing modification of the displayed printing job, and permitting a printing operation after confirming that there is no modification in the displayed printing job.
According to the present invention, the printing cost is calculated and displayed according to an input printing job. Since modification of the di
Ikenoue Yoshikazu
Maruta Syuji
Beatty Robert
Minolta Co. , Ltd.
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