Method, apparatus and non-transitory recording medium for reducing a printing time utilizing file division

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11003399-B2
Application number	US-201816123178-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 6, 2018
Priority date	Sep 29, 2017
Publication date	May 11, 2021
Grant date	May 11, 2021

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes circuitry to receive a file including data of a plurality of pages and position information indicating individual positions of data of the plurality of pages. The circuitry further starts printing of one of the plurality of pages based on data specified by specifying information that indicates a position of data of one of the plurality of pages. The circuitry further starts the printing of one of the plurality of pages when receiving the specifying information before the position information.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising circuitry configured to:
when beginning to receive at least a portion of a file including data of a plurality of pages and position information indicating individual positions of data of the plurality of pages;
transmit, after receiving at least the portion of the file and before determining whether at least the portion of the file includes determination information indicating at least the portion of the file is dividable, a print start notification to start printing of the plurality of pages;
determine, upon receiving the print start notification, whether at least the portion of the file includes determination information indicating that at least the portion of the file is dividable to generate divided files; and
generate, before buffering all of the plurality of pages, divided files from at least the portion of the file and print generated files sequentially when at least the portion of the file includes the determination information, wherein
when generating each of the divided files, the circuitry
extracts data for a predetermined number of pages based on boundary information indicating a boundary of each page included in at least the portion of the file,
generates information indicating the position of the data in the divided file, and
generates a file including the extracted data and information indicating a generated position.

2. The image forming apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein, when at least the portion of the file includes determination information indicating that at least the portion of the file is dividable to generate divided files, the circuitry starts printing of at least two of the plurality of pages.

3. The image forming apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the boundary information is arranged between pages of the plurality of pages included in at least the portion of the file.

4. The image forming apparatus of claim 2 ,
wherein the circuitry:
determines whether at least the portion of the file includes the determination information indicating that at least the portion of the file is dividable to generate the divided files to determine whether divided files including the data of one of the plurality of pages are to be generated; and
generates the divided files including the data of one of the plurality of pages in response to a determination indicating that at least the portion of the file is dividable to generate the divided files including the data of one of the plurality of pages.

5. The image forming apparatus of claim 2 ,
wherein, when at least the portion of the file includes no determination information that indicates that at least the portion of the file is dividable to generate a divided file, the circuitry:
determines whether at least the Portion of the file is dividable to generate divided files including the data of one of the plurality of pages according to whether an object to be referred is one of a preceding object arranged in another page and an object arranged in a latter page; and
generates the divided file of the data of one of the plurality of pages in response to a determination indicating that at least the portion of the file is dividable to generate the divided files including the divided file of the data of one of the plurality of pages.

6. The image forming apparatus of claim 5 ,
wherein, when a determination indicating that at least the portion of the file is not dividable to generate divided files including the divided file of the data of one of the plurality of pages is made in processing a page being after a first page of the plurality of pages, the circuitry:
stops generating the divided files including the data of one of the plurality of pages; and
starts printing of pages, on which a discharging process is not performed yet, from at least the portion of the file that includes the data of the plurality of pages and position information indicating individual positions of data of the plurality of pages.

7. The image forming apparatus of claim 4 ,
wherein, when at least the portion of the file includes the determination information indicating that at least the portion of the file is dividable to generate divided files and the circuitry changes a determination indicating that at least the portion of the file is dividable to generate divided files determined due to the determination information to a determination indicating that at least the portion of the file is not dividable to generate divided files in processing a page being after a first page of the plurality of pages,
the circuitry:
stops generating the divided files including a divided file of the data of one of the plurality of pages; and
starts printing of pages, on which a discharging process is not performed yet, from at least the portion of the file that includes the data of the plurality of pages and position information indicating individual positions of data of the plurality of pages.

8. The image forming apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising a memory configured to store the data received by the circuitry, and
wherein the circuitry generates the divided files based on the data stored in the memory.

9. The image forming apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry determines one of whether the number of pages included in one of the divided files is the number of pages that is to be printed on one side of a sheet, whether the number of pages included in one of the divided files is the number of pages that is to be printed on both sides of a sheet, and whether a file includes one page in a case of intensive printing.

10. The image forming apparatus of claim 8 ,
wherein the circuitry determines an upper limit number of pages to be included in the divided files according to the number of available central processing unit (CPU) cores and available capacity of the memory, and
generates, from at least the portion of the file, the divided files including pages corresponding to the determined upper limit number.

11. The image forming apparatus of claim 10 ,
wherein the image forming apparatus includes a plurality of CPU cores, and performs a spooling process and one of a parsing process and a rendering process in parallel.

12. The image forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry
reads an image, and
generates a file including data of a plurality of pages, position information indicating positions of data of the plurality of pages, and information indicating a position of one of the plurality of pages, the position information being read after the data of the plurality of pages and the information indicating a position of one of the plurality of pages is received.

13. The image forming apparatus of claim 1 , wherein when generating each of the divided files, in response to completing a reception of the data for the predetermined number of pages based on the boundary information, the circuitry starts generation of the divided files including the data for the predetermined number of pages.

14. An image forming system, comprising:
the image forming apparatus of claim 1 ; and
a generator configured to generate a file including data of a plurality of pages, position information indicating individual positions of data of the plurality of pages, and information indicating a position of data of one of the plurality of pages,
wherein the file is to be read in a manner that the position information is read after the data of the plurality of pages and the information indicating a position of data of one of the plurality of pages.

15. A communication system, comprising:
the image forming apparatus of claim 1 ; and

Assignees

• Suzuki Junji
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Suzuki Junji

Classifications

• G06F3/1212 Primary

  achieving reduced delay between job submission and print start · CPC title

• G06F3/1248

  by printer language recognition, e.g. PDL, PCL, PDF · CPC title

• G06F3/124

  Parallel printing or parallel ripping · CPC title

• G06F3/1205

  resulting in increased flexibility in print job configuration, e.g. job settings, print requirements, job tickets · CPC title

• G06F3/1254

  Automatic configuration, e.g. by driver · CPC title