Abstract:
A computer generated method disclosed. The method includes receiving a print job data stream, determining if the print job data stream comprises a secure print job, and inserting a control operator to designate a secure print job data stream if the print job data stream comprises a secure print job.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    The invention relates to the field of printing systems. Particularly, the invention relates to securing confidential print jobs. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Computing centers that employ one or more printers to serve a group of users, such as a networked group or other work group, typically rely on the printers to batch process print jobs (e.g., print-out a series of different print jobs in succession). Often a user of the group needs to print a job at a group printer that includes confidential or sensitive documents. However, in such instances it may be inappropriate to immediately print such a job and have the job placed in a printer output bin where other users may have access. Accordingly, many group printers provide a secure print option. 
         [0003]    Secure print enables a user to designate a document as secure prior to printing. In response, the print job instructs the printer to hold the job at the printer with a security number (PIN), rather than immediately printing. The user is then required to physically go to the printer panel and input the PIN number in order to print the document. 
         [0004]    Another feature of secure print jobs is that no part of a secure job is stored on persistent storage (e.g., hard disk). However, this feature eliminates many types of print job data streams jobs that can be sent to a printer in Secure Print mode. For example, Portable Document Format (PDF) jobs typically must be spooled prior to being processed for printing. Moreover, PDF files include indexing information for each page to allow for segmentation. 
         [0005]    Postscript print jobs, however, can be streamed with all segmentable pages (page boundaries) being determined without the need for the job to be spooled. Postscript is a dynamically typed concatenative programming language that includes a postscript interpreter that is used to rasterize the job during print processing. Thus, Postscript is often implemented for secure print jobs. 
         [0006]    Print preview is also a feature implemented at printers, which allows a user to view all or part of a job in a reduced size and reduced resolution view (e.g., “thumbnails”). The preview of a job can typically be viewed in any order (e.g., pages 1, 100, 3, 50, etc), where the first page of a job is shown to a user without user intervention. Additional pages are requested on the printer console. 
         [0007]    However, previewing secure print jobs poses a problem in that rasterized pages have to be written to disk for pages that have been viewed and requested again later (e.g., requests: page1, page 4, page 1) and for pages requested before the current page being viewed (e.g., page 1 when the current page being viewed is 5). 
         [0008]    Accordingly, a mechanism to preview secure print jobs without writing rasterized images is desired. 
       SUMMARY 
       [0009]    In one embodiment a computer generated method is disclosed. The method includes receiving a print job data stream, determining if the print job data stream comprises a secure print job, and inserting a control operator to designate a secure print job data stream if the print job data stream comprises a secure print job. 
         [0010]    In another embodiment, a method includes receiving a request to preview a page of a secure print job at a printer, determining if the requested page is from a new print job received at the printer, determining if the requested page is the next page in order of the print job if the requested page is not from a new print job, rasterizing the requested page if the requested page is the next page in order of the print job and displaying the requested page at a printer user interface (UI) console. 
         [0011]    In a further embodiment, a printing system is disclosed. The printing system includes a printer and print server including a printing software product to receive a print job data stream, determine if the print job data stream comprises a secure print job and insert a control operator to designate a secure print job data stream if the print job data stream comprises a secure print job. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0012]    A better understanding of the present invention can be obtained from the following detailed description in conjunction with the following drawings, in which: 
           [0013]      FIG. 1  illustrates one embodiment of a data processing system network; 
           [0014]      FIG. 2  is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a process performed by a printing software produce for previewing secure print jobs; 
           [0015]      FIG. 3  illustrates one embodiment of a printer; 
           [0016]      FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a process performed by a printer; and 
           [0017]      FIG. 5  illustrates one embodiment of a computer system. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0018]    A mechanism to preview secure print jobs is described. In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without some of these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form to avoid obscuring the underlying principles of the present invention. 
         [0019]    Reference in the specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. 
         [0020]      FIG. 1  illustrates one embodiment of a data processing system network  100 . Network  100  includes a data processing system  102 , which may be either a desktop or a mobile data processing system, coupled via communications link  104  to network  106 . In one embodiment, data processing system  102  is a conventional data processing system including a processor, local memory, nonvolatile storage, and input/output devices such as a keyboard, mouse, trackball, and the like, all in accordance with the known art. In one embodiment, data processing system  102  includes and employs the Windows operating system, or other operating system, and/or network drivers permitting data processing system  102  to communicate with network  106  for the purposes of employing resources within network  106 . 
         [0021]    Network  106  may be a local area network (LAN) or any other network over which print requests may be submitted to a remote printer or print server. Communications link  104  may be in the form of a network adapter, docking station, or the like, and supports communications between data processing system  102  and network  106  employing a network communications protocol such as Ethernet, the AS/400 Network, or the like. 
         [0022]    According to one embodiment, network  100  includes a print server  108  that serves print requests over network  106  received via communications link  110  between print server  108  and network  106 . Print server  108  subsequently transmits the print requests via communications link  110  to one of printers  109  for printing, which are coupled to network  106  via communications links  111 . 
         [0023]    In one embodiment, a print application at data processing system  102  allows a user to select the desired print server  108  and submit requests for service to printer  109  via print server  108  over network  106 . In other embodiments, additional/alternative presentation architectures (e.g., Printer Job Language (PJL), PostScript, etc.) may be implemented at the print application. Printers  109  may also include user interface consoles  120  that enable users to preview pages of a print job at a printer  109  prior to printing 
         [0024]    Although described as separate entities, other embodiments may include print server  108  being incorporated in one or more of the printers  109 . In yet further embodiments, the print server and printer may be physically separate entities. Therefore, the data processing system network depicted in  FIG. 1  is selected for the purposes of explaining and illustrating the present invention and is not intended to imply architectural limitations. Those skilled in the art will recognize that various additional components may be utilized in conjunction with the present invention. 
         [0025]    According to one embodiment, print server  108  implements a printing software product that manages the printing of documents from data processing system  102  and one or more of printers  109 . In other embodiments, the printing software product manages printing of documents from multiple data processing systems  102  to the one or more printers  109 . In a further embodiment, the printing software product may be implemented using either InfoPrint Manager (IPM) or InfoPrint ProcessDirector (IPPD), although other types of printing software may be used instead. 
         [0026]    In one embodiment, the printing software product processes a print job data stream. If the printing software product detects that the job is a secure print postscript job, the printing software product inserts a loop postscript control operator ({. .. .}loop) into the job data stream.  FIG. 2  illustrates one embodiment of a process performed by the printing software product to enable a preview of secure print jobs. At processing block  210 , a print job is received. 
         [0027]    At processing block  220 , it is determined whether the print job is a secure print postscript job. If the job is not a secure print postscript job, the data stream is transmitted to a printer  109 , processing block  240 . However if the job is a secure print postscript job, the loop postscript control operator is inserted into the data stream, processing block  230 , prior to transmission to the printer  109 . 
         [0028]      FIG. 3  illustrates one embodiment of a printer  109 . Printer  109  includes a control unit  340  and a print head  360 . Control unit  340  processes and renders objects received from print server and provides sheet maps for printing to print head  360 . Control unit  340  includes a rasterizer to prepare pages for printing. Particularly, rasterizer includes a raster image processor (RIP) that converts text and images into a matrix of pixels (bitmap) that will be printed on a page. 
         [0029]    In one embodiment, control unit  340  enables a secure postscript job to be interpreted infinitum upon encountering the loop control operator. In a further embodiment, the job may be terminated by control unit  340  when either there are no more requests for the job or a new job is received.  FIG. 4  is a flow diagram illustrating one embodiment of a process performed by control unit  340  upon receiving a request to preview a print job including the loop control operator. 
         [0030]    At processing block  410 , a request is received from the UI  120  console to preview a page of a print job. At processing block  420 , it is determined whether the request is for a newly received job. If the request is for a new print job, it is determined whether the RIP is running at control unit  430 . If so, the RIP is terminated, processing block  440 , before beginning processing of the new request, processing block  450 . Otherwise, control is forwarded directly to processing block  450 . At processing block  460 , a request is sent to interpret the next page of the print job (e.g., the page that follows the current page being processed). Control is then forwarded to decision block  470 , discussed below. 
         [0031]    If at decision block  420 , it is determined that the job is not new, it is subsequently determined whether the requested page is the same as the current interpreted page of the print job, decision block  470 . If the requested page is not the next page of the print job, control is returned to processing block  460  where a request is sent to rasterize the next page of the print job. However if the requested page is the next page of the print job, the preview page is rasterized and forwarded to UI  120  control panel, processing block  480 . 
         [0032]      FIG. 5  illustrates a computer system  500  on which data processing system  102  and/or server  108  may be implemented. Computer system  500  includes a system bus  520  for communicating information, and a processor  510  coupled to bus  520  for processing information. 
         [0033]    Computer system  500  further comprises a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamic storage device  525  (referred to herein as main memory), coupled to bus  520  for storing information and instructions to be executed by processor  510 . Main memory  525  also may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions by processor  510 . Computer system  500  also may include a read only memory (ROM) and or other static storage device  526  coupled to bus  520  for storing static information and instructions used by processor  510 . 
         [0034]    A data storage device  525  such as a magnetic disk or optical disc and its corresponding drive may also be coupled to computer system  500  for storing information and instructions. Computer system  500  can also be coupled to a second I/O bus  550  via an I/O interface  530 . A plurality of I/O devices may be coupled to I/O bus  550 , including a display device  524 , an input device (e.g., an alphanumeric input device  323  and or a cursor control device  522 ). The communication device  521  is for accessing other computers (servers or clients). The communication device  521  may comprise a modem, a network interface card, or other well-known interface device, such as those used for coupling to Ethernet, token ring, or other types of networks. 
         [0035]    Embodiments of the invention may include various steps as set forth above. The steps may be embodied in machine-executable instructions. The instructions can be used to cause a general-purpose or special-purpose processor to perform certain steps. Alternatively, these steps may be performed by specific hardware components that contain hardwired logic for performing the steps, or by any combination of programmed computer components and custom hardware components. 
         [0036]    Elements of the present invention may also be provided as a machine-readable medium for storing the machine-executable instructions. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, floppy diskettes, optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magneto-optical disks, ROMs, RAMs, EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, propagation media or other type of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions. For example, the present invention may be downloaded as a computer program which may be transferred from a remote computer (e.g., a server) to a requesting computer (e.g., a client) by way of data signals embodied in a carrier wave or other propagation medium via a communication link (e.g., a modem or network connection). 
         [0037]    Whereas many alterations and modifications of the present invention will no doubt become apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art after having read the foregoing description, it is to be understood that any particular embodiment shown and described by way of illustration is in no way intended to be considered limiting. Therefore, references to details of various embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the claims, which in themselves recite only those features regarded as essential to the invention.