INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND PRINTING APPARATUS COMMUNICATING WITH INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS

Abstract

An apparatus identifies one of a plurality of users or one of a plurality of groups that has issued a printing request and enables selection of one of printing purposes associated with the identified user or the identified group. The apparatus acquires printing format restriction information corresponding to the selected printing purpose and issues an instruction for execution of printing processing within a range of the acquired printing format restriction information.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing system in which an information processing apparatus, a server apparatus, and a printing apparatus according to a first embodiment are employed.

FIG. 2 is an illustration for explaining a data flow of the printing system shown in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a host computer shown in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a format restriction table, which represents printing formats for individual printing purposes, that stores printing formats selectable for individual printing purposes and that is held in the authentication server shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a printing purpose table, which represents printing purposes for individual users, that stores printing purposes selectable by individual users and that is held by the authentication server shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a user group table that represents members of individual user groups and that is held in the authentication server shown in FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a user interface used for selecting a printing purpose and displayed by a UI operation unit shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a form of a restriction ticket generated by the authentication server.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a printing format setting screen displayed by the UI operation unit shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a printing format setting screen displayed by the UI operation unit shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the printing format setting screen displayed by the UI operation unit shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 12 shows a configuration of a job packet generated by a printer driver shown in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 shows a configuration of a print job generated by the printer driver shown in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which restriction information is not provided.

FIG. 14 shows a configuration of a print job generated by the printer driver shown in FIG. 3 according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which restriction information is provided.

FIG. 15 shows a job packet indicating restriction information shown in FIG. 14 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of the printing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing an example of a first data processing process performed by the printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing an example of a second data processing process performed by the printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an example of a third data processing process performed by the printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart showing an example of a fourth data processing process performed by the printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 shows an example of a login screen performed by a printing apparatus according to another embodiment.

FIG. 22 shows an example of a printing format setting screen displayed on a display device by the UI operation unit shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 23 is an illustration for explaining a memory map of a storage medium in which various data processing programs that can be read by the printing apparatus according to each of the embodiments of the present invention are stored.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus including a printer driver that generates a print job to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, the information processing apparatus comprising: an identification unit that identifies one of a plurality of users or one of a plurality of groups that has issued a printing request;a setting unit that sets selectable printing purposes associated with the identified user or the identified group;a selection unit that selects one of the printing purposes set by the setting unit;an acquisition unit that acquires printing format restriction information corresponding to the printing purpose selected by the selection unit; andan execution-instructing unit that issues an instruction for execution of printing processing within a range of the printing format restriction information acquired by the acquisition unit.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a display unit that displays the printing purposes; anda control unit that displays, in accordance with the printing format restriction information acquired by the acquisition unit corresponding to the printing purpose selected by the selection unit from among the printing purposes displayed on the display unit, a printing format to be restricted by being masked on a printing setting screen displayed on the display unit such that the printing format to be restricted is not selectable.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when the identification unit identifies that the user who has issued the printing request belongs to more than one of the plurality of registered groups, a printing purpose is displayed on the display unit in accordance with the logical OR of printing purposes of the more than one of the plurality of registered groups.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit that stores printing format restriction information associated with the printing purposes for the individual users or the individual groups, wherein the acquisition unit acquires the printing format restriction information from the storage unit.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit acquires from a server apparatus printing format restriction information set for the user or the group that is identified by the identification unit.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit inhibits the selection of the printing format to be restricted by displaying the printing format to be restricted in gray or by not displaying the printing format to be restricted.

7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a transfer unit that transfers, every time a print job is output, print history information including the printing purpose selected for the identified user and the print job to a server apparatus.

8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a storage unit that store, every time a print job is output, print history information including the printing purpose selected for the identified user and the print job.

9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the storage unit compresses the print history information and stores the compressed print history information.

10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the setting unit sets users or groups for the individual selectable printing purposes.

11. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a user who belongs to more than one of the plurality of groups is identified, after selecting one of the more than one of the plurality of groups, the selection unit enters a state in which a corresponding printing purpose is capable of being selected.

12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the set printing format restriction information is added to the print job and transferred to the printing apparatus.

13. A printing apparatus including an operation unit, the printing apparatus comprising: an identification unit that identifies one of a plurality of users or one of a plurality of groups that has issued a printing request;a setting unit that sets selectable printing purposes associated with the identified user or the identified group;a selection unit that selects one of the printing purposes set by the setting unit;an acquisition unit that acquires printing format restriction information corresponding to the printing purpose selected by the selection unit; andan execution-instructing unit that issues an instruction for execution of printing processing within a range of the printing format restriction information acquired by the acquisition unit.

14. The printing apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising: a display unit that displays the printing purposes on the operation unit; anda control unit that displays, in accordance with the printing format restriction information acquired by the acquisition unit corresponding to the printing purpose selected by the selection unit from among the printing purposes displayed on the operation unit, a printing format to be restricted by being masked on a printing setting screen displayed on the operation unit such that the printing format to be restricted is not selectable.

15. The printing apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising a storage unit that stores printing format restriction information associated with the printing purposes for the individual users or the individual groups, wherein the acquisition unit acquires the printing format restriction information from the storage unit.

16. The printing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the acquisition unit acquires from a server apparatus printing format restriction information set for the user or the group that is identified by the identification unit.

17. The printing apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising: a reception unit that receives a print job from an information processing apparatus; anda restricting unit that restricts execution of the print job in accordance with the printing format restriction information when the printing format restriction information is added to the print job received by the reception unit.

18. The printing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the restricting unit includes a determination unit that determines whether the number of pages of the print job output thus far exceeds the maximum number of output pages set in the printing format restriction information,wherein when the determination unit determines that the number of pages of the print job output thus far does not exceed the maximum number of output pages, the execution of the print job is continued, andwherein when the determination unit determines that the number of pages of the print job output thus far exceeds the maximum number of output pages, the execution of the print job is terminated before completion.

19. The printing apparatus according to claim 17, wherein the restricting unit includes a determination unit that determines whether the number of pages of the print job output thus far exceeds the maximum number of output pages set in output restriction information,wherein when the determination unit determines that the number of pages of the print job output thus far does not exceed the maximum number of output pages, the execution of the print job is continued, andwherein when the determination unit determines that the number of pages of the print job output thus far exceeds the maximum number of output pages, the execution of the print job is terminated before completion.

20. A method for use in an information processing apparatus including a printer driver that generates a print job to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, the method comprising: identifying one of a plurality of users or one of a plurality of groups that has issued a printing request;displaying selectable printing purposes associated with the identified user or the identified group;selecting one of the displayed printing purposes;acquiring printing format restriction information corresponding to the selected printing purpose; andissuing an instruction for execution of printing processing within a range of the acquired printing format restriction information.

21. A method for use in a printing apparatus, the method comprising: identifying one of a plurality of users or one of a plurality of groups that has issued a printing request;displaying selectable printing purposes associated with the identified user or the identified group;selecting one of the displayed printing purposes;acquiring printing format restriction information corresponding to the selected printing purpose; andissuing an instruction for execution of printing processing within a range of the acquired printing format restriction information.

22. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by an information processing apparatus including a printer driver that generates a print job to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, causes the information processing apparatus to perform operations comprising: identifying one of a plurality of users or one of a plurality of groups that has issued a printing request;displaying selectable printing purposes associated with the identified user or the identified group;selecting one of the displayed printing purposes;acquiring printing format restriction information corresponding to the selected printing purpose; andissuing an instruction for execution of printing processing within a range of the acquired printing format restriction information.

23. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a printing apparatus, causes the printing apparatus to perform operations comprising: identifying one of a plurality of users or one of a plurality of groups that has issued a printing request;displaying selectable printing purposes associated with the identified user or the identified group;selecting one of the displayed printing purposes;acquiring printing format restriction information corresponding to the selected printing purpose; andissuing an instruction for execution of printing processing within a range of the acquired printing format restriction information.