PRINTING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

• US 20070147870A1
• Filed: 12/27/2006
• Published: 06/28/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/28/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Matsumoto, Yutaka, Suzuki, Toshiya, Shindo, Nobuhiro, Iura, Saori, Nishinosono, Michiaki, Ohzaki, Hiroki
• Granted Patent: US 7,697,861 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 399/82
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5012 Priority interrupt; Job recovery, e.g. after jamming or malfunction
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5083 for scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G03G 15/5091 for user-identification or authorisation

Abstract

A printing apparatus receives a plurality of print jobs containing print data from a host computer connected thereto through a network. The printing apparatus temporarily stores the print job in a storage unit to print the print data. The printing apparatus receives a request to pause or restart printing of a print job, and controls execution of the print job in response to the request. Upon receiving a request to restart a print job being paused, the printing apparatus determines a printing order according to a predetermined condition to print the print job.

Claims

1. A printing apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit that receives a plurality of print jobs including print data from a host computer connected through a network to the printing apparatus;

a storage unit that temporarily stores therein the print jobs;

a printing unit that prints the print data contained in the print job stored in the storage unit;

a request receiving unit that receives a pause request and a restart request to pause and restart printing of a print job; and

a print-job control unit that controls execution of the print job in response to the pause request and the restart request, and, upon receiving the restart request for a print job being paused, determines a printing order according to a predetermined condition to print the print job.

2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, upon receiving the restart request for the print job being paused, the print-job control unit determines the printing order to print the print job in an order in which the print job has been received from the host computer.

3. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, upon receiving the restart request for the print job being paused, the print-job control unit determines the printing order to print the print job last among the print jobs stored in the storage unit.

4. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, upon receiving the restart request for the print job being paused, the print-job control unit determines the printing order to print the print job first among the print jobs stored in the storage unit.

5. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, upon receiving the restart request for the print job being paused, the print-job control unit determines the printing order to print the print job in an order specified by an external device.

6. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

upon receiving a print job including print data with user information that indicates a user who requests printing, the storage unit stores therein the print job together with the user information, and

upon receiving the restart request for the print job being paused, the print-job control unit determines the printing order to print the print job last among print jobs with user information identical to user information of the print job, of the print jobs stored in the storage unit, without changing a printing order of print jobs with different user information.

7. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

upon receiving a print job including print data with user information that indicates a user who requests printing, the storage unit stores therein the print job together with the user information, and

upon receiving the restart request for the print job being paused, the print-job control unit determines the printing order to print the print job first among print jobs with user information identical to user information of the print job, of the print jobs stored in the storage unit, without changing a printing order of print jobs with different user information.

8. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

upon receiving a print job including print data with user information that indicates a user who requests printing, the storage unit stores therein the print job together with the user information, and

upon receiving the restart request for the print job being paused, the print-job control unit changes, as specified, a printing order of print jobs with user information identical to user information of the print job, of the print jobs stored in the storage unit, without changing a printing order of print jobs with different user information.

9. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an acquisition unit that acquires a print job;

a storage unit that temporarily stores therein the print job;

a determining unit that determines whether data to be temporarily stored in the storage unit will cause an overflow in the storage unit;

a pausing unit that pauses storing of the print job in the storage unit when the data will cause an overflow in the storage unit; and

a deleting unit that deletes at least one of print jobs stored in the storage unit when the data will cause an overflow in the storage unit.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the deleting unit deletes the print jobs in any one of order in which the print jobs are submitted to the image forming apparatus, order of date and time on which the print jobs are submitted to the image forming apparatus, descending order of data amount of the print jobs, ascending order of data amount of the print jobs, and ascending order of priority of the print jobs.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the deleting unit deletes print jobs until data temporarily stored in the storage unit is reduced to a predetermined amount.

12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 11 further comprising a setting unit that sets the predetermined amount.

13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9 further comprising a print-job control unit that prints at least one of the print jobs stored in the storage unit when the data will cause an overflow in the storage unit, wherein

the deleting unit deletes the print job that has been printed from the storage unit.

14. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a receiving unit that receives a print job;

a storage unit that temporarily stores therein the print job;

a print-job control unit that sequentially processes print jobs temporarily stored in the storage unit, and pauses a print job in response to a pause request; and

a determining unit that determines whether it is permitted to pause the print job based on a physical quantity related to the print jobs stored in the storage unit, wherein

when it is not permitted to pause the print job, the print-job control unit does not accept the pause request.

15. The image forming apparatus according to claim 14, wherein, when the storage unit stores therein a predetermined number of print jobs being paused, the determining unit determines that it is not permitted to pause the print job.

16. The image forming apparatus according to claim 14, wherein, when a storage area does not have enough available space required for printing, the determining unit determines that it is not permitted to pause the print job.

17. The image forming apparatus according to claim 14 further comprising a measurement unit that measures a pause time for which each print job is paused, wherein

the print-job control unit forcibly restarts a print job that has been paused for more than a predetermined time among print jobs being paused.

18. The image forming apparatus according to claim 14 further comprising a measurement unit that measures a pause time for which each print job is paused, wherein the print-job control unit forcibly cancels the print job that has been paused for more than the predetermined time.

19. The image forming apparatus according to claim 17 further comprising an indicating unit that indicates the print job that has been paused for more than the predetermined time.

20. An image forming apparatus comprising:

a job storage unit that stores therein print-job identification information that identifies a print job in association with job state information indicating a current state of the print job, the job state information indicating printing state when printing of the print job is started;

an instruction receiving unit that receives a pause instruction to pause a print job corresponding to the print-job identification information stored in the job storage unit;

a job-state identifying unit that refers to the job state information associated with the print-job identification information to identify the current state of the print job in response to the pause instruction; and

a print-job control unit that does not pause the print job when the print job is in the printing state.

21. The image forming apparatus according to claim 20, wherein the job storage unit further stores therein user identification information that identifies a user who requests the print job in association with the print-job identification information, the image forming apparatus further comprising:

a user-identification-information acquisition unit that acquires user identification information from an external device;

a print-job specifying unit that specifies print-job identification information associated with acquired user identification information; and

an output unit that outputs the print-job identification information.

22. The image forming apparatus according to claim 20, wherein

the job storage unit further stores therein user identification information that identifies a user who requests the print job,

the print-job identification information includes a plurality of pieces of print-job identification information that identify a plurality of print jobs, respectively, each associated with the user identification information, and

the job state information includes a plurality of pieces of job state information indicating current state of the print jobs, respectively, the image forming apparatus further comprising:

an operation-information acquisition unit that acquires user identification information and job operation information indicating an operation for each print job from an external device;

a print-job specifying unit that specifies, from the plurality of pieces of print-job identification information, at least one piece of print-job identification information associated with user identification information identical to acquired user identification information; and

a changing unit that changes job state information associated with specified print-job identification information based on the job operation information.

23. The image forming apparatus according to claim 22, wherein, when there are plurality of pieces of print-job identification information associated with user identification information identical to the acquired user identification information, the print-job specifying unit specifies print-job identification information most recently registered in the job storage unit from the plurality pieces of print-job identification information.

24. The image forming apparatus according to claim 20, wherein

the job storage unit further stores therein user identification information that identifies a user who requests the print job,

the print-job identification information includes a plurality of pieces of print-job identification information that identify a plurality of print jobs, respectively, each associated with the user identification information, and

the job state information includes a plurality of pieces of job state information indicating current state of the print jobs, respectively, the image forming apparatus further comprising:

an operation-information acquisition unit that acquires print-job identification information and job operation information indicating an operation for each print job from an external device;

a user specifying unit that specifies user identification information associated with acquired print-job identification information;

a print-job specifying unit that specifies at least one piece of print-job identification information associated with user identification information that is identical to the specified user identification information and registered in the job storage unit after the acquired print-job identification information; and

a changing unit that changes job state information associated with specified print-job identification information based on the job operation information.

25. The image forming apparatus according to claim 22, wherein

the operation-information acquisition unit acquires a pause instruction as the job operation information, the print-job specifying unit specifies the print-job identification information when the job state information associated with the specified print-job identification information indicates print wait state, and

the changing unit changes the job state information to indicate paused state.

26. The image forming apparatus according to claim 24, wherein

the operation-information acquisition unit acquires a pause instruction as the job operation information,

the print-job specifying unit specifies the print-job identification information when the job state information associated with the specified print-job identification information indicates print wait state, and

the changing unit changes the job state information to indicate paused state.

27. The image forming apparatus according to claim 22, wherein

the operation-information acquisition unit acquires a restart instruction as the job operation information,

the print-job specifying unit specifies the print-job identification information when the job state information associated with the specified print-job identification information indicates paused state, and

the changing unit changes the job state information to indicate print wait state.

28. The image forming apparatus according to claim 24, wherein

the operation-information acquisition unit acquires a restart instruction as the job operation information,

the print-job specifying unit specifies the print-job identification information when the job state information associated with the specified print-job identification information indicates paused state, and

the changing unit changes the job state information to indicate print wait state.

29. The image forming apparatus according to claim 21 further comprising

a determining unit that determines whether the job storage unit stores therein print-job identification information associated with job state information indicating any one of printing state and print wait state;

and

a changing unit that changes job state information indicating paused state stored in the job storage unit to indicate print wait state when there is no print-job identification information associated with the job state information indicating any one of printing state and print wait state.

30. The image forming apparatus according to claim 29, wherein when there is no print-job identification information associated with the job state information indicating any one of printing state and print wait state, the changing unit changes one of a plurality of pieces of job state information indicating paused state stored in the storage unit to indicate print wait state.