JP4072423B2 - Printing apparatus and control method thereof, and host computer and control method thereof - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a control technology for a printing apparatus having a printing function for a tab area of a tab sheet.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing system that can print characters or the like on a tab area (index area) of a tab sheet (index sheet) is known. Conventional printing on tab paper and subsequent processing are generally performed in the following procedure.
[0003]
(1) Enter or select a character string to be printed in the tab area on the application program.
(2) The character string to be printed in the tab area of the tab sheet is processed on the application program (setting of character size, font, etc.), and a page for the tab sheet is created.
(3) Print the tab sheet only in advance, and then insert the tab sheet for each chapter or section of the body document.
[0004]
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-358932
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the above method has the following problems.
[0006]
(1) For each tab sheet, it is necessary to set a tab sheet insertion position in accordance with the configuration of the text document, and to perform appearance processing for printing a character string in the tab area, which is complicated.
(2) It is necessary for the user to determine a character string to be printed in the tab area in accordance with the content of the text document, and it takes time to determine a character string to be printed in the tab area.
(3) It is necessary to print the main body document and the tab paper separately in a job, and it is impossible to obtain a print result in which the tab paper is inserted at a desired position by executing the job once. Inefficient.
[0007]
Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to easily perform settings related to tab sheet insertion and tab area printing, and it is possible to obtain a print result in which tab sheets are inserted at desired positions in one print job. The purpose is to do so.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
One aspect of the present invention is a printing comprising: a first printing unit that performs printing on a first recording medium; and a second printing unit that performs printing on the tab area in a second recording medium having a tab area. Determining whether or not a predetermined delimiter position is included in a page unit of document data input from a storage unit that stores at least one page of document data to be printed , according to an apparatus control method a step, when it is determined to include the delimiter position in the determination step, the page prior to printing by the first printing unit, in advance the user from the document data of the page in its separator position the string that is extracted to the settings is printed by the second printing means, it is determined that the no contain the delimiter position in the determination step It can is characterized by a control step of so that controlling the page is printed by the first printing unit.
[0009]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
[0010]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to the embodiment. As shown in the figure, this system has a configuration in which a host computer 200 and a printer 212 are connected.
[0011]
First, the configuration of the host computer 200 will be described.
[0012]
A CPU 204 controls the operation of the entire apparatus, a ROM 205 stores various basic programs, and a RAM 206 functions as a main storage device.
[0013]
Reference numeral 201 denotes a keyboard, and an interrupt signal corresponding to an input from the keyboard is generated by the keyboard controller 207. Reference numeral 202 denotes a display, and display output to the display 202 is controlled by a display controller 208. Reference numeral 203 denotes a hard disk device (HDD), and input / output to the HDD 203 is controlled by a hard disk controller 209. Reference numeral 210 denotes a communication interface (I / F) for performing communication with the printer 212. Reference numeral 211 denotes a CPU bus for connecting each component.
[0014]
As shown in the figure, the HDD 203 generates an operating system (OS), an application program for creating document / image data, and print data for the printer 212 based on data created by the OS and application programs. Stores the printer driver.
[0015]
Next, the configuration of the printer 212 will be described.
[0016]
A CPU 214 controls the overall operation of the printer, 215 a ROM storing a control program and various data for operating the printer, and 216 is used as a work area for the CPU 214 to execute various programs. RAM.
[0017]
Reference numeral 217 denotes a communication interface for communicating with the host computer 200. A hard disk controller 218 controls input / output to / from the hard disk 213. A video interface 219 mechanically outputs a pattern, and functions as an engine control processing unit including an input / output interface that exchanges data and signals with the printing apparatus drive system (engine unit) 221. Reference numeral 220 denotes a CPU bus that connects each component.
[0018]
Although not shown, the printer 212 has an optional cassette for placing tab paper as a second recording medium in addition to a paper cassette for placing ordinary printing paper as a first recording medium. In accordance with a control command from the host computer 200, printing processing is performed while selecting a cassette for supplying paper to the engine unit 221.
[0019]
The outline of the printing process in the printer 212 is as follows.
[0020]
First, a control command for initializing a printer transmitted from a printer driver in the host computer 200 is received, and initialization processing is performed based on the control command. Subsequently, a printer print control command transmitted from the host computer 200 to cause the printer 212 to perform printing is input, and the input printer print control command and various setting parameters are analyzed. Next, bitmap data is generated based on the print control command and control setting parameters, and the generated bitmap data is transmitted to the printing apparatus drive system (engine unit) 221 via the video interface 219 to insert a tab sheet. The document including the tab area printing is output (222 in FIG. 2).
[0021]
The print control processing by the host computer 200 in the embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. A program corresponding to this control process is the above-described printer driver, which is loaded into the RAM 206 and executed by the CPU 204. This printer driver is activated via the OS in the process of performing various initialization processes for document creation and print output by an application program.
[0022]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of print control processing by the printer driver in the embodiment.
[0023]
First, in step S401, various print attribute setting parameters and character / graphic / image data constituting a document instructed to be printed by an application are input. In the present embodiment, an instruction to insert a tab sheet and an instruction to print in the tab area can be given at a predetermined break position (for example, for each chapter or each section) in the text document. The control process when these instructions are given will be described later with reference to FIG.
[0024]
Next, in step S402, these input parameters and data are analyzed.
[0025]
Next, in step S403, from the analysis result of step S402, in order to prepare for printing such as paper size, printing direction, drawing resolution setting, coordinate system unit setting, etc., each setting parameter for the printer is converted and generated into a printer control command. The printer is then sent to initialize the printer.
[0026]
Steps S404 and S406 are branches for separating the parameters and data analyzed in step S402 into character data, graphic data, and image data and performing corresponding processing. The character data, graphic data, and image data separated in step S404 and step S406 are subjected to character printing control processing, graphic drawing control processing, and image drawing control processing in step S405, step S407, and step S408, respectively.
[0027]
In step S409, based on the character printing, graphic drawing, and image drawing control processes in steps S405, S407, and S408, pattern output forms such as drawing output attributes, size calculation, and drawing output position are determined, and the printer output page The document configuration control processing to be arranged in is performed.
[0028]
In step S410, the document output control data configured in step S409 is converted and generated as a print control command for the printer to output the document to the printer as a print control command generation process.
[0029]
Next, in step S411, the print control command generated in step S410 is transmitted to the printer 212 as output transmission processing to the printer. As a result, the document is printed from the printer 212 (step S412).
[0030]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a print control process when there is an instruction to insert a tab sheet and print a tab area in step S401.
[0031]
First, in step S301, a character string determination condition to be printed in the tab area of the tab sheet is set. This setting is performed, for example, by allowing the user to select candidate determination conditions via a user interface (displayed on the display 202) provided by the printer driver. As the determination condition candidates, for example, from the top of the page, (1) one word, (2) a predetermined number of characters, (3) a range until a character end code such as NULL appears, (4) until a line feed code appears And (5) character strings printed on the same baseline (same line).
[0032]
Alternatively, a character string prepared in advance as a character string to be printed in the tab area, for example, (6) “Chapter 1, Chapter 2,...”, (7) “Section 1, Section 2,. A specific character string such as the above may be selected, and a user may input an arbitrary character string as a character string to be printed in the tab area.
[0033]
Further, with respect to the character string determined at this time, attributes such as a character font (font) and a vertical / horizontal writing direction can be set.
[0034]
In step S302, text document data is input from the application program. The input text document data is stored in the RAM 206 or the HDD 203, and in this embodiment, when the data input for one page is completed, the process proceeds to the next step S303.
[0035]
In step S303, it is determined whether or not the page includes a predetermined break position. Specifically, for example, it is determined whether or not the page includes the start position of the chapter or section of the text document. For example, when there is a character string printed with an attribute different from the typeface attribute, character modification attribute, and character size attribute normally used in the text at the top of the page, it is determined that there is a section start.
[0036]
If it is determined that the chapter or section is started, the process proceeds to step S304, and the tab sheet tab is determined from the text document data input in step S302 based on the character string determination conditions to be printed in the tab area set in step S301. A character string to be printed in the area is extracted and temporarily stored in the RAM 206.
[0037]
Next, in step S305, the character size adjustment of the character string extracted in step S304, the character string, based on the attribute setting indicating the print mode such as the character font designation and the horizontal / vertical writing direction designation set in step S301. Various print control processes for performing print appearance and processing such as rotational arrangement and character print position adjustment are performed, and a tab sheet insertion instruction in the body document and a print instruction in the tab area are performed. Thereby, the tab sheet printed in the tab area is discharged.
[0038]
FIG. 1 shows an example of a document created by an application program. Here, “A Tradition of Excellence” shown in 101 and “Point-and-click Operation” shown in 103 each represent the title of a chapter or section. In this case, for example, in step S301, if the determination condition for the character string to be printed in the tab area is set to “character string existing in the same baseline at the top of the page”, the respective titles are displayed as shown in 102 and 104, respectively. Is extracted and printed in the tab area.
[0039]
Subsequently, the process proceeds to a text document printing process in step S306, printing is performed, and printed paper is discharged.
[0040]
On the other hand, if it is determined in step S303 that it is not the start of a chapter or section, that is, a document page in the middle of a chapter or section, a tab sheet insertion instruction and a print instruction to the tab area are not performed. The process directly proceeds to the text document printing process in step S306, and printing is performed.
[0041]
Thereafter, in step S307, it is determined whether or not all document data has been completed. If it is determined that the entire document data is not complete, that is, the document continues on and after the next page, the process returns to step S302 and the printing process for the next page is continued.
[0042]
On the other hand, when it is determined that all document data has been completed, that is, all pages have been printed, the process proceeds to a job end process, and this print control process ends.
[0043]
In the case of the control process described above, the processes in steps S302 to S307 are performed for each page of the text document, and as a result, the tab area is printed at a predetermined break position (chapter or section start position) of the text document. Tab paper will be inserted.
[0044]
As described above, according to the present embodiment, the tab driver creation including the tab sheet printing on the tab sheet and the tab sheet insertion process in the body document are automatically performed by the printer driver. Therefore, for each tab sheet, the user determines the character string to be printed on the tab sheet in accordance with the configuration of the body document, sets the tab sheet insertion position, and performs the appearance processing for character string printing on the tab area. This eliminates the need for complicated operations for tab sheet printing. Furthermore, since the execution of character string printing in the tab area is controlled for each page of the body document, it is not necessary to perform separate jobs for printing the body document and printing the tab sheet. Thus, it is possible to obtain a printing result in which the tab sheet is inserted at a desired position. As a result, it is possible to provide a printing system that is excellent in operability, efficient, simple, and highly operable.
[0045]
(Other embodiments)
The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above. However, the present invention can take an embodiment as a system, apparatus, method, program, storage medium, or the like. In addition, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus composed of a single device.
[0046]
In the present invention, a software program (a program corresponding to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is directly or remotely supplied to the system or apparatus, and the computer of the system or apparatus is provided. Is also achieved by reading and executing the supplied program code. In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, the form does not need to be a program.
[0047]
Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. That is, the scope of the claims of the present invention includes the computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.
[0048]
In this case, the program may be in any form as long as it has a program function, such as an object code, a program executed by an interpreter, or script data supplied to the OS.
[0049]
As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, flexible disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R).
[0050]
As another program supply method, a client computer browser is used to connect to an Internet homepage, and the computer program itself of the present invention or a compressed file including an automatic installation function is downloaded from the homepage to a recording medium such as a hard disk. Can also be supplied. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer is also included in the claims of the present invention.
[0051]
In addition, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and key information for decryption is downloaded from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. It is also possible to execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install the program on a computer.
[0052]
In addition to the functions of the above-described embodiments being realized by the computer executing the read program, the OS running on the computer based on the instruction of the program is a part of the actual processing. Alternatively, the functions of the above-described embodiment can be realized by performing all of the processes.
[0053]
Furthermore, after the program read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board or The CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.
[0054]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, settings relating to tab sheet insertion and tab area printing can be easily performed, and a print result in which a tab sheet is inserted at a desired position in one print job can be obtained. Can be.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating character string printing in a tab area according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to the embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating print control processing when there is an instruction to insert a tab sheet and print a tab area in the embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an outline of print control processing by a printer driver in the embodiment.

Claims (6)

A control method for a printing apparatus, comprising: a first printing unit that performs printing on a first recording medium; and a second printing unit that performs printing on the tab area in a second recording medium having a tab area. ,
A determination step of determining whether or not a predetermined break position is included in a page unit of the document data input from a storage unit that stores at least one page of document data to be printed ;
Condition when it is determined to include the delimiter position in the determination step, that the page prior to printing by the first printing unit, a preset user from the document data of the page in its separator position in the string to be extracted is printed by the second printing means, said when the it is determined that the separated position is not included in the determination step, so that the control is printed by the said page first printing means A control step to
A control method for a printing apparatus, comprising: A printing apparatus comprising: a first printing unit that performs printing on a first recording medium; and a second printing unit that performs printing on the tab area in a second recording medium having a tab area,
Storage means for storing at least one page of document data to be printed;
Determination means for determining whether or not a predetermined break position is included in a page unit of document data stored in the storage means ;
Condition when it is determined to include the separated position by the determining means, for the page prior to printing by the first printing unit, a preset user from the document data of the page in its separator position in the string to be extracted is printed by the second printing means, wherein, when it is determined that does not contain the delimiting position by determining means, so that the control is printed by the said page first printing means Control means to
A printing apparatus comprising: Based on the supplied print data, it is connected to a printing apparatus configured to be able to insert tab paper during printing of a document and print on the tab area and to print the tab area, and the print data is connected to the printing apparatus. A host computer that sends
Storage means for storing at least one page of document data to be printed;
Determination means for determining whether or not a predetermined break position is included in a page unit of document data stored in the storage means ;
Wherein when it is determined to include the separated position by determining means, said storage means stores a character string to be extracted in advance by conditions set by the user from the document data of the page unit as a tab area print data is allowed, the tab sheet data based on said tab area print data stored in the storage means, print data generation for generating print data inserted before the page that is determined to include the separated position by the determining means Means,
A host computer characterized by comprising: Based on the supplied print data, it is connected to a printing apparatus configured to be able to insert tab paper during printing of a document and print on the tab area and to print the tab area, and the print data is connected to the printing apparatus. A method of controlling a host computer that transmits
A determination step of determining whether or not a predetermined break position is included in a page unit of the document data input from a storage unit that stores at least one page of document data to be printed ;
Wherein when it is determined to include the delimiter position in the determination step, the storage means stores a character string to be extracted in advance by conditions set by the user from the document data of the page unit as a tab area print data A memory step to
Printing to generate print data to which the tab paper data based on said tab area print data stored in said storage means in the storage step was inserted before the page that is determined to include the delimiter position in the determining step A data generation step;
A method for controlling a host computer, comprising:   A program for causing a computer to execute the control method according to claim 1.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 5.

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