JP2000148429A - Printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To securely perform summarized printing using print characters which can be discriminated by eliminating the output of print characters which can not be discriminated owing to the summerized printing. SOLUTION: The size of print characters which can be decided are registered as criteria for decision making by a readability decision part (S1). With an expansion indication for data of a text by a DDI control part, whether or not the character size is reduced through a summarizing process and the expansion size are confirmed (S2). When is decided that the registered size is equal to or less than the expansion size in a process S3, it is decided that the characters can be decided and a printing process is performed. When the registered size is larger than the expansion side, the characters can not be decided, so the DDI control part is informed that the print characters can not be discriminated as a next process (S4). The DDI control part displays a notice or error message to an application program and guits the printing process.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer driver used for a network printer, a multifunction peripheral having a printer function, and more particularly to a printer driver for performing aggregate printing (multiple page printing).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, almost all printers (including printer drivers) have a function of collective printing (printing a plurality of pages). As a result, it is provided that the waste of paper resources is eliminated and the amount of information per sheet is increased so that a reader of printed material can easily understand the information. However, on the other hand, the escalation of functions has progressed, and there is a printer which has a function of consolidating not only two sheets and four sheets but also 16 sheets at present.

[0003] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-61085 discloses a basic application for aggregate printing. That is, in the aggregate printing performed at the reduction ratio designated by the user, N / 2 pages or N / 4 pages are printed without printing N pages of the original.
It is stated that they are aggregated into sheets. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
What is described in Japanese Patent Application No. 99615 is different from aggregate printing, but is intended to reduce the size of characters when data does not fit within one page when trying to print.

[0004]

However, a printer that performs aggregate printing with such a configuration has a problem in terms of, for example, whether a document printed by 16-sheet aggregate printing can be actually determined (readable). However, there is a problem that most print characters are printed out with characters that cannot be read.

The present invention is directed to solving the above-mentioned problem of the prior art, and prints characters that cannot be distinguished in order to perform aggregate printing, thereby eliminating waste of paper resources and making it possible to perform distinguishable printing. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer driver capable of reliably performing integrated printing by using characters, reducing waste of resources, and improving human efficiency.

[0006]

In order to achieve this object, a printer driver according to the present invention collectively prints a plurality of pages into one page to provide an integrated printing function that saves time and paper. A printer driver having a function of determining whether a print character is identifiable (readable) and a function of detecting, before printing, that a print character is not identifiable due to character reduction by aggregate printing, before printing. When detecting that the printed character cannot be determined, the user is notified of the fact.

Further, when the printer driver detects that the print character is indistinguishable, the printer driver replaces the indistinguishable print character with a dot or a symbol and prints out the data, thereby performing the printing process at high speed. And

[0008] The printer driver is configured to automatically change the reduction ratio to perform collective printing in which the print characters can be distinguished when the print characters cannot be distinguished by performing the collective printing specified by the user. It was done.

According to the above configuration, it is detected that the print characters are reduced and the unreadable characters are printed by the aggregate printing,
Can be notified.

In addition, when printing out for checking the layout of the entire document, high-speed printing processing can be performed by replacing indistinguishable characters with symbols or the like registered in advance.

Further, when it is detected that the printed characters cannot be read due to the character reduction by the aggregate printing, the reduction ratio of the print characters can be changed to obtain an identifiable aggregate output.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a printer driver, and 2 denotes a DDI (Device Driver) which is an interface between an application program and a printer driver.
A DDI control unit 3 which receives a print instruction from an application program via a ver interface) and gives various instructions relating to printing to each unit is an image area of data to be printed on the printer. A frame buffer 4 output to the frame buffer 3 in accordance with the DDI protocol, and an image creation unit for creating (drawing) an image on the frame buffer 3. The image buffer 5 actually reduces (enlarges in some cases) the image when performing collective printing. The image scaling unit 6
An image editing unit that edits an image on the frame buffer 3 and rewrites indistinguishable characters with another symbol or the like;
Reference numeral 7 denotes a readable determination unit that determines whether the text developed in the frame buffer 3 is a identifiable character.

In the printer driver configured as described above, for example, when an operation instruction of a desired print request is given by a user using an application program running on a host computer, information is exchanged with the printer driver, and Is instructed to print out the desired print data.

Here, a description will be given of a process of judging whether or not it is possible to determine (readable) a printed character. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the determination process in the readable determination unit, which will be described with reference to FIGS. First, the readable determination unit 7
Is registered as the internal information of the printer driver as the criterion of the determination, the size of the printable character which can be determined (S
1). The expansion of the text data is instructed by the DDI control unit 2, and the size of the expansion is checked to see how much the character size has been reduced by the aggregation processing (S
2). A comparison is made between the previously registered size and the developed size (S3). This size is the size in dot units when the image data is printed and output, for example,
A size up to a size of 12 × 12 dots is set as a discriminable size, and if the size is reduced and expanded to any other size, it is determined that the discrimination is impossible.

In step S3, it is determined that the print character is identifiable when the registered size ≦ the developed size. That is, in this example, if the character has a size of 12 × 12 dots or more, the printing process is performed as it is. When the registered size is larger than the developed size, the print character cannot be determined. Therefore, as the next process, the DDI control unit 2 is notified that the print character cannot be determined (S4).

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an integrated printing process of the printer driver according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The processing operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the print data created by the application program of the host computer, the printer driver 1 receives an instruction for aggregate printing specified by the user (S5). As a result, the image creating unit 4 expands the print data on the frame buffer 3 (S6). In this example, since the instruction is for aggregate printing, the print data is reduced to one page and expanded. After the expansion of the print data, if there is text data in the print data, the readable determination unit 7 determines whether or not it is a character size that can be determined (readable) by reduction by the aggregation process (S7). In this process S7, when it is determined that the determination is possible (Ye
s) The image data developed in the frame buffer 3 is printed out (S8). When it is determined in the process S7 that the determination is impossible (No), the DDI control unit 2 notifies the application program of the determination or directly displays an error message to stop the printing process.

This makes it possible to prevent print characters from being printed out in a state in which print characters are indistinguishable from the user's intention when performing aggregate printing.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an integrated printing process of the printer driver according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The processing operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In the print data created by the application program of the host computer, the printer driver 1 receives an instruction for aggregate printing specified by the user (S10). As a result, the image creating unit 4 expands the print data on the frame buffer 3 (S1).
1). At this time, when there is text data in the print data, the DDI control unit 2 checks whether or not the print characters can be identified by the reduction by the aggregation process before expanding the text data on the frame buffer 3 (S12). The readable determination unit 7 determines whether the characters of the text data can be determined (S13). In the process S13, when it can be determined (Yes), the text data is developed on the frame buffer 3 (S14). Further, in the next process, the printing process of the image data developed on the frame buffer 3 is performed (S
16).

When it is determined in step S13 that the character cannot be determined (No), the image editing unit 6 replaces a point or a symbol set and registered in advance with a character that cannot be determined and stores it in the frame buffer 3. (S15). Then, the process proceeds to the next step S16 to perform the printing process.

[0020] This makes it possible to perform printing only for confirming layout by aggregate printing at higher speed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the collective printing process of the printer driver according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The processing operation of the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. As in the second embodiment, in the third embodiment as well, the printer driver 1 receives an instruction for aggregate printing specified by a user in print data created by an application program of the host computer (S20). As a result, the image creating unit 4 expands the print data on the frame buffer 3 (S21).
At this time, if there is text data in the print data, the DDI control unit 2 checks whether or not the print character can be determined by the reduction by the aggregation process before expanding the text data on the frame buffer 3 (S22). Readability determination unit 7
It is determined whether or not the characters of the text data can be determined (S23). In the process S23, when it can be determined (Yes), the text data is developed in the frame buffer 3 (S24). Further, a printing process of the image data developed in the frame buffer 3 in the next process is performed (S2).
7).

If it is determined in step S23 that the print character cannot be determined (No), the DDI control unit 2 calculates a reduction ratio at which the print character can be determined, and based on the calculated reduction ratio, the number of aggregated pages per page. Is calculated (S25). The image creating section 4 re-develops the print data on the frame buffer 3 at the reduction ratio corresponding to the number of aggregated pages calculated in the process S25 (S26). Then, the process proceeds to step S27 to perform a printing process of the image data developed in the frame buffer 3.

[0023] This eliminates the inability to determine the characters printed and output when instructing the aggregate printing.
The amount of information per sheet can be increased without wasting paper resources, and human efficiency can be improved.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By performing the aggregate printing, it is possible to prevent printing of print characters that are reduced and cannot be read.

Further, when printing out to see the layout of the entire document, it is not necessary to read the printed characters. High-speed printing can be performed without the need for printing.

In addition, it is possible to prevent output of a print character in which the printed character cannot be read due to the reduction of the character by the aggregate printing, and to obtain an output of the aggregate print using the distinguishable character.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a determination process of a readable determination unit according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an integrated printing process of the printer driver according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an integrated printing process of a printer driver according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an integrated printing process of a printer driver according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer driver 2 DDI control part 3 Frame buffer 4 Image creation part 5 Image scaling part 6 Image editing part 7 Readability determination part

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A function of determining whether print characters can be discriminated (readable) in a printer driver having an aggregate print function that saves time and paper by printing a plurality of pages collectively on one page. When,
A function for detecting that a print character is indistinguishable due to character reduction by integrated printing before printing, and, when detecting that the print character is indistinguishable by the function, notifying the user to that effect. Characteristic printer driver. 2. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein when the printer driver detects that the print character is indistinguishable, the printer driver replaces the indistinguishable print character with a dot, a symbol, or the like, prints out the printed character, and performs the printing process at high speed. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein 3. The printer driver according to claim 2, wherein when the printing character cannot be determined when the printing is performed by the user, the reduction ratio is automatically changed to perform the printing in which the printing character can be determined. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein