Print control apparatus, print system, and non-transitory recording medium for identifying at least one of a plurality of printers capable of executing a print job

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10521173-B2
Application number	US-201816127458-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 11, 2018
Priority date	Oct 23, 2017
Publication date	Dec 31, 2019
Grant date	Dec 31, 2019

Abstract

A print control apparatus controls at least one printer including a first printing mechanism to perform a first printing process with a first paint and a second printing mechanism to perform a second printing process with a second paint. The print control apparatus includes circuitry configured to set, based on an operation performed by a user, a print order in which the first printing process and the second printing process are executed, generate a print job based on the print order, acquire device information representing relative positions of the first printing mechanism and the second printing mechanism, determine whether the print job is executable in one pass printing based on the print order and the device information, and notify the user of information indicating whether the one pass printing is executable.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A print control apparatus to control a plurality of printers, each of the plurality of printers including a first printing mechanism to perform a first printing process with a first paint and a second printing mechanism to perform a second printing process with a second paint, the print control apparatus comprising:
circuitry configured to
set, based on an operation performed by a user, a print order in which the first printing process and the second printing process are to be executed;
generate a print job based on the print order;
acquire device information representing relative positions of the first printing mechanism and the second printing mechanism;
determine whether the print job is executable in one pass printing based on the print order and the device information;
notify the user of information indicating whether the one pass printing is executable;
retrieve at least one of the plurality of printers capable of executing the print job in the one pass printing based on the print order and the device information; and
notify the user of information identifying the at least one of the plurality of printers retrieved, capable of executing the print job in the one pass printing.

2. The print control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the first paint is different from the second paint, and is used to perform color printing.

3. The print control apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a user interface, wherein the circuitry is further configured to control display of an image visualizing the print order on the user interface.

4. The print control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein upon the circuitry determining that the one pass printing is inexecutable, the circuitry is configured to perform a process of prompting the user to select whether to execute multiple pass printing of executing, as the print job that is generated, a plurality of print jobs in a plurality of passes, and
in response to a selection of the user to execute the multiple pass printing, the circuitry is configured to generate the plurality of print jobs for the respective plurality of passes.

5. The print control apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of printers each further include a post-processing mechanism to perform post-processing on a printed medium,
wherein the circuitry of the print control apparatus is configured to perform post-processing settings for the post-processing based on an operation performed by the user, and
wherein the plurality of print jobs being generated are usable by the circuitry to instruct performance of the post-processing on a relatively last one of the plurality of print jobs based on the post-processing settings.

6. The print control apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry is configured to perform separate plate settings for separate plate printing of printing a specified color selected from a plurality of colors of the first paint and the second paint based on an operation performed by the user, and
wherein the circuitry is configured to generate the print job to print the specified color.

7. A print system comprising:
a plurality of printers, each including
a first printing mechanism to perform a first printing process with a first paint, and
a second printing mechanism to perform a second printing process with a second paint; and

a print control apparatus connected to the plurality of printers via a network, and including circuitry configured to
set, based on an operation performed by a user, a print order in which the first printing process and the second printing process are to be executed,
generate a print job based on the print order,
acquire device information representing relative positions of the first printing mechanism and the second printing mechanism,
determine whether the print job is executable in one pass printing based on the print order and the device information,
notify the user of information indicating whether the one pass printing is executable,
retrieve at least one of the plurality of printers capable of executing the print job in the one pass printing based on the print order and the device information, and
notify the user of information identifying the at least one of the plurality of printers retrieved, capable of executing the print job in the one pass printing.

8. The print system of claim 7 , wherein the first paint is different from the second paint, and is used to perform color printing.

9. The print system of claim 7 , further comprising a user interface, wherein the circuitry of the-print control apparatus is further configured to control display of an image visualizing the print order on the user interface.

10. The print system of claim 7 , wherein upon the circuitry of the print control apparatus determining that the one pass printing is inexecutable, the circuitry of the-print control apparatus is configured to perform a process of prompting the user to select whether to execute multiple pass printing of executing, as the print job that is generated, a plurality of print jobs in a plurality of passes, and
in response to a selection of the user to execute the multiple pass printing, the circuitry of the-print control apparatus is configured to generate the plurality of print jobs for the respective plurality of passes.

11. The print system of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of printers each further include a post-processing mechanism to perform post-processing on a printed medium,
wherein the circuitry of the print control apparatus is configured to perform post-processing settings for the post-processing based on an operation performed by the user, and
wherein the plurality of print jobs being generated are usable by the circuitry of the print control apparatus to instruct performance of the post-processing on a relatively last one of the plurality of print jobs based on the post-processing settings.

12. The print system of claim 7 , wherein the circuitry of the print control apparatus is configured to perform separate plate settings for separate plate printing of printing a specified color selected from a plurality of colors of the first paint and the second paint based on an operation performed by the user, and
wherein the circuitry of the print control apparatus is configured to generate the print job to print the specified color.

13. A non-transitory recording medium storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by one or more processors that control a plurality of printers, each of the plurality of printers including a first printing mechanism to perform a first printing process with a first paint and a second printing mechanism to perform a second printing process with a second paint, cause the one or more processors to perform a print controlling method comprising:
setting, based on an operation performed by a user, a print order in which the first printing process and the second printing process are to be executed;
generating a print job based on the print order;
acquiring device information representing relative positions of the first printing mechanism and the second printing mechanism;
determining whether the print job is executable in one pass printing based on the print order and the device information;
notifying the user of information indicating whether the one pass printing is executable;
retrieving at least one of the plurality of printers capable of executing the print job in the one pass printing based on the print order and the device information; and
notifying the user of information identifying the at least one of the plurality of printers retrieved, capable of executing the print job in the one pass pri

Assignees

• Teruya Akira
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Teruya Akira

Classifications

• G06F3/1282

  High volume printer device · CPC title

• G06F3/1215

  achieving increased printing speed, i.e. reducing the time between printing start and printing end · CPC title

• G06F3/1241

  Dividing a job according to job requirements, e.g. black/white and colour pages, covers and body of books, tabs · CPC title

• G06F3/1208

  resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours, workflows, print preview · CPC title

• G06F3/1256

  User feedback, e.g. print preview, test print, proofing, pre-flight checks · CPC title