JP4286818B2 - Printer driver and printing system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer driver and a printing system that drive various printing apparatuses.

  In a terminal connected to a printing device via a network line or a communication line such as a USB cable, when printing an image such as a document or an image edited by an application or the like on the printing device, call the operation screen of the printer driver. After various settings are made on the operation screen, a print start button or the like is clicked. Accordingly, predetermined print information is transmitted from the terminal equipped with the printer driver to the printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus executes predetermined printing processing based on the print information.

In addition, a technology has been proposed in which a printer driver links a plurality of external modules and switches print settings and print processing according to a job name, a print source application, a print medium type, and the like (for example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document). 2).
Japanese Patent No. 3530708 JP 2002-297343 A

  However, in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 described above, functions that the original printer driver does not have (for example, specific footer information printing, cover sheet page insertion, etc.) cannot be realized on a job-by-job basis. Is fixed to the application type, the medium type, etc., and there is a problem that it is not flexible.

  The present invention has been made in order to eliminate such inconveniences, and provides a printer driver and a printing system that can be realized by sequentially adding a printing function that does not exist in the original printer driver in units of specific print jobs. The purpose is to do.

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printer driver having a plurality of external modules, a registration interface for registering operation conditions and module information of the external modules for each module, and the registration interface A management database that stores registration information registered using an interface; and a print control unit that executes a predetermined print process based on print information that is output when printing is started. It is determined whether or not the print information includes an operation condition of the registration information stored in the management database. When it is determined that the print information includes the print information, the external module corresponding to the module information is activated. Thus, the print information added with the print processing of the external module is transmitted to the printing apparatus.

  According to the above configuration, when the print information output at the start of printing includes the registration information operating condition stored and managed in the management database in advance, the external module corresponding to the module information of the registration information is activated. Since the print information to which the print processing of the external module is added is transmitted to the printing apparatus, a print function that does not exist in the original printer driver can be realized for each specific print job.

  In addition, since the operation conditions and module information of the external modules can be registered for each module using the registration interface, it is possible to sequentially add printing functions not provided in the original printer driver for each specific print job. In addition, before executing a print job, settings specific to the job to be printed can be registered.

In the present invention , the module information includes a module name and an argument at module startup.

In the present invention , the registration interface is a registration API (Application Program Interface).

In the present invention , the registration interface can be registered from an application or an external program.

The present invention also provides a printing system comprising a device on which a printer driver is mounted and a printing device connected to the device via a communication line. The printer driver according to the present invention is used as the printer driver. This is the configuration used.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain an effect that a printing function that is not included in the original printer driver can be realized by sequentially adding a specific print job unit.

Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a printer driver which is an example of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the operation of the printer driver.
A printer driver 1 as an example of an embodiment of the present invention is mounted on a user terminal (device) 10 connected to a printing device 2 via a communication line 3 such as a network line or a USB cable, as shown in FIG. A registration API (Application Program Interface) 4, a management database (storage means) 5, and a print control means 6 are provided.
The user terminal 10 and the printing apparatus 2 are collectively referred to as a “printing system”.

  In addition to the printer driver 1, the user terminal 10 includes a plurality of external modules 7 to 9 made up of, for example, DLL (dynamic link library) files and linked to the print control unit 6. When printing an image such as a document or an image edited on the application 11 of the user terminal 10, the operation screen of the printer driver 1 is called, various settings are performed on the operation screen, and a print start button is displayed. Is clicked, the predetermined print information is transmitted from the printer driver 1 to the printing apparatus 2, and the printing apparatus 2 executes predetermined printing processing based on the print information.

  The registration API 4 registers the operating conditions A to C of the external modules 7 to 9, module names A 1 to C 1 (identifying modules, for example, DLL file names) and arguments A 2 to C 2 at the time of module activation for each module. For example, a setting registration screen is called from the application 11 or the module information registration utility (external program) 12 and is registered by user input. The registered information (operation condition, module name, argument) is stored and managed in the management database 5 in the order of entry. The management database 5 is a tabular database whose unit is the contents of a set of operating conditions, module names, and arguments.

Examples of contents registered using the registration API 4 include the following.
(Example 1)
Operating condition A = “if print job issued by application with process ID = 100 and paper size is A4”
Module name A1 = "Header.dll" (a program that prints a character string at the top of the page)
Argument A2 = “(external secret)” (meaning “content to be printed is (external secret)”)

(Example 2)
Operating condition B = “If job name starts with (receipt)”
Module name B1 = "Signature.dll" (a program that prints the user's employee number as a header)
Argument B2 = "None" (There may be a module with a specification that does not take an argument.)

The print control means 6 executes a predetermined print process based on print information output together with a print command from the application 11 at the start of printing. In this embodiment, the print control means 6 searches the management database 5 and prints output. It is determined whether or not the information includes the operating conditions of the registration information stored and managed in the management database 5.
When it is determined that the operation condition (for example, “operation condition A”) is included in the output print information, an external module (for example, external module 7) corresponding to the module name (for example, “A1”) is selected. The print information to which the print processing of the external module 7 is added is transmitted to the printing apparatus 2. When a plurality of operation conditions are included in the output print information, a plurality of external modules corresponding to the respective module names are activated and the same processing is executed.

  Further, the external modules 7 to 9 receive arguments registered in the management database 5 when loaded in the print control means 6 and perform predetermined interpretation. In Example 1 above, the character string to be printed is an argument, but interpretation of the argument is left to the external module. Furthermore, the print control means 6 notifies the external modules 7 to 9 of the event as necessary, and the external modules 7 to 9 perform necessary processing (additional print command insertion or the like) each time.

Next, an example of the operation of the printer driver 1 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG. Here, Steps S <b> 1 to S <b> 6 correspond to the print control unit 6.
First, when print information is output together with a print command from the application 11 in step S1, the process proceeds to step S2, and the registration information in the management database 5 is searched for the number of entries in step S2.

Next, in step S3, it is determined whether or not the output print information includes an operation condition in the registration information of the management database 5. If it is determined that the output print information includes, the process proceeds to step S4 and is not included. If it is determined, the process proceeds to step S6.
In step S6, normal print information is transmitted to the printing apparatus 2, while in step S4, an external module corresponding to the module name of the retrieved set of operating conditions is loaded and activated, and the process proceeds to step S5. In S <b> 5, the print information added with the print processing of the external module is transmitted to the printing apparatus 2.

  As is apparent from the above description, in this embodiment, when the print information output at the start of printing includes the operating conditions of the registration information stored and managed in advance in the management database 5, the registration information The external module corresponding to the module name is activated, and the print information added with the print processing of the external module is transmitted to the printing apparatus 2. For this reason, for example, if the print job is issued by an application with process ID = 100 and the paper size is A4, the character string “confidential” is printed at the top of the page, or the job name is (receipt). If it starts, a print function that does not exist in the original printer driver, such as header printing of the employee number of the user, can be realized in a specific print job unit.

  Also, the registration API 4 can be used to register the operating conditions, module names, and arguments of the external modules 7 to 9 for each module. In addition, before a print job is executed (for example, immediately before), settings dedicated to a job to be printed can be registered.

  Note that the communication line, printing apparatus, external module, registration interface, management database, print control means, etc. of the present invention are not limited to those exemplified in the above embodiment, and depart from the gist of the present invention. It can be changed appropriately within the range not to be.

1 is a block diagram for explaining a printer driver that is an example of an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an example of an operation of a printer driver.

Explanation of symbols

1 Printer Driver 2 Printing Device 3 Communication Line 4 Registration API (Registration Interface)
5 Management database 6 Print control means 7 to 9 External module 11 Application 12 Module information registration utility (external program)

Claims (5)

A printer driver having a plurality of external modules,
A registration interface for registering the operating conditions and module information of the external module for each module;
A management database for storing registration information registered using the registration interface;
Printing control means for executing predetermined printing processing based on printing information output at the start of printing,
The print control unit determines whether or not the print information includes an operation condition of registration information stored in the management database, and responds to the module information when determining that the print information includes The external module is activated, print information to which print processing of the external module is added is transmitted to the printing apparatus, and it is determined that the print information does not include the operating condition of the registration information stored in the management database In this case, the printer driver transmits normal print information to the printing apparatus without activating the external module . The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the module information includes a module name and an argument at module startup. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the registration interface is a registration API. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the registration interface can be registered from an application or an external program. A printing system comprising a device equipped with a printer driver and a printing device connected to the device via a communication line,
A printing system using the printer driver according to claim 1 as the printer driver.

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