JPH11272435A - Computer readable medium for recording printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate a printing failure and to realize high speed printing by installing a program for realizing a function for searching a printer which can execute printing under a printing condition that is set at present and selecting a printer to be used. SOLUTION: A plurality of printers 11-13 are connected to a computer 1 and a printer driver has one to one correspondence to any printer via OS. The printer driver transmits printing data to a printer to be connected which is set by the OS with its communication function. When the computer 1 generates printing data of a document in accordance with the operation of a keyboard on the screen of a display device with an application on a storage device 2, it outputs data to the desired printer and prints it, the printing condition is set in accordance with the operation of the keyboard by the printer driver. When the instruction of printing start is given, a printer which can execute printing under a printing condition which is set at present is selected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a computer-readable recording medium such as a floppy disk, an optical disk, or a hard disk which stores a printer driver used in a computer such as a personal computer to which a plurality of printers can be connected.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A computer as described above creates print data such as a document in accordance with an operation of a keyboard or the like on a screen of a display device (display) by an application, and outputs the print data to a desired printer for printing. At that time,
Printing conditions are set by a printer driver in accordance with an operation of a keyboard or the like, and designated information of the printing conditions and created print data are transmitted to a desired printer to perform printing.

[0003]

However, in each printer, due to hardware limitations (for example, when there is no option such as a duplex unit), print data received from a computer is designated by a designated printing condition (for example, In some cases, printing cannot be performed in an optional mode such as a duplex printing mode, and an unexpected print result may be obtained. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has as its object to eliminate printing failure as described above and to enable rapid printing.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium in which a printer driver including a program shown in each of the following (1) to (4) is recorded. .

(1) A program for realizing a function of searching for a printer capable of printing under currently set printing conditions and selecting a printer to be used in a computer to which a plurality of printers can be connected. (2) When the selected printer is in use, the program of (1) includes a program for causing the computer to realize a function of selecting another printable printer.

(3) If there is no other printer capable of printing in the program of (2), the program includes a program for realizing the function of requesting a change in the setting of printing conditions in the computer. (4) The program of (2) includes a program for causing the computer to realize a function of notifying that printing cannot be performed under the currently set printing conditions when there is no other printable printer.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of a printing system including a computer and a plurality of printers that load and use a printer driver from a recording medium according to the present invention.

[0008] This printing system comprises a computer 1,
And a plurality of printers 11 to 13 (other image forming apparatuses such as a multifunction peripheral having a printer function). The computer 1 is a host computer such as a personal computer or a word processor, and includes a storage device such as a hard disk device, a parallel interface (hereinafter, "interface" is abbreviated as "I / F") 3, and a network I / F 4. .

The storage device 2 is a recording medium used as an area for storing various programs such as an operating system (hereinafter abbreviated as “OS”), applications, and printer drivers. The parallel I / F 3 controls communication with the printer 11. Network I /
F4 controls communication between two printers 12 and 13 via a network 14 such as a local area network (LAN).

The computer 1 also has a floppy disk drive (FDD) not shown. The FDD is for writing (recording) or reading data on various floppy disks including the floppy disk 15 as a computer-readable recording medium on which the printer driver according to the present invention is recorded.

Here, the printer driver will be described. Note that the computer 1 actually performs various processes by reading a program such as a printer driver, but for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the program itself performs various processes.

The printer driver receives a print instruction (print data) requested by the application via the OS, and
The basic function is to convert it into a language understood by the printer and send it to the printer. The printer that receives the print data interprets the print data, develops a bit image (image data), and sends the bit image to a printer engine as a video signal to perform printing, thereby forming a physical image.

The computer 1 includes a plurality of printers 11
To 13 are connected, and the printer driver has one-to-one correspondence with any of them via the OS. The printer driver transmits print data to a connection destination printer set in the OS by the communication function of the OS. In general, transmitting print data to a printer driver means transferring the print data to a transmission unit provided by the OS.

The printer driver is, as shown in FIG.
The file is supplied as one or more files stored in the floppy disk 15, and is copied in a required format into a storage area inside the storage device 2 by the OS at the time of installation. However, the printer driver can be sufficiently supplied by other media (recording medium) such as a CDROM or a transfer means such as a communication line or a network, as long as the printer can be understood by the OS. Further, the printer driver can be recorded in the storage device 2 in advance.

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing one example of a processing routine executed by the printer 1 on the storage device 2 by the computer 1 shown in FIG. The computer 1 generates print data such as a document in accordance with an operation of a keyboard or the like on a screen of a display device (not shown) by an application on the storage device 2 and outputs the print data to a desired printer for printing. The driver sets printing conditions according to the operation of the keyboard or the like.

Thereafter, when there is an instruction to start printing, the routine shown in FIG. 1 is executed to search for a printer capable of printing under the currently set printing conditions and select a printer to be used. That is, first, in step 1, information (for example, hardware information such as the presence or absence of a duplex unit and information indicating the current operation status) of any of the printers 11 to 13 (here, the printer 11) connected is read. .

Next, in step 2, the information of the printer 11 and the currently set printing conditions (for example, the duplex printing mode,
600 dpi), and based on the result, it is determined in step 3 whether the printer 11 can perform printing under the currently set printing conditions. If printing is possible, the printer 11 determines in step 4 Determine whether or not it is currently in use.

If the printer 11 is not currently in use, the printer 11 is selected as an output destination printer (printer to be used) in step 6 and information (printer name or the like) indicating that is selected in step 7. The information is displayed on the screen of the display device not informed to the user, and in step 8, the designated information of the currently set printing conditions and the created print data are transmitted to the selected printer to perform printing.

When the printer 11 is currently in use, although not shown in FIG. 1, information indicating that fact is displayed on the screen of the display device to notify the user, and in step S5, the information is transferred to another printer. It is determined whether or not a change has been instructed, and if not, the processes of steps 6 to 8 are sequentially performed.
However, in this case, since the printer 11 is still in use, printing cannot be executed immediately.

On the other hand, if the printer 11 cannot print under the currently set printing conditions, or if an instruction to change to another printer is given, it is checked in step 9 whether another printer exists and another printer is checked. If there is, the process returns to step 1 to read the information of the printer 12 and performs the same processing as described above. If there is no other printer, it is not shown in FIG. Information indicating that there is no printer that can print under the currently set printing conditions is displayed on the screen of the display device to notify the user.

Further, although not shown in FIG. 1, information for requesting the change of the print condition setting is displayed on the screen of the display device in accordance with a predetermined instruction, and then, in step 10, the setting of the print condition is changed. It is determined whether or not there is an instruction. If the instruction is given, the screen of the display device is returned to a normal printing condition setting screen (not shown) to enable an operation for changing the printing condition setting. .

Then, in step 11, the setting of the printing conditions is changed by the user's operation of the keyboard or the like, and when there is an instruction to start printing again, the process returns to step 1 and performs the same processing as described above. If there is an instruction not to change the setting of the printing condition, the processing of steps 6 to 8 is sequentially performed. However, in this case, since there is no printer that can print under the currently set print conditions, any printer that is not currently in use may perform printing, but unexpected print results may occur. There is.

For example, if there is no printer that can print under the currently set print conditions (step 9),
As shown in the above, a dialog box containing the message "There is no printer that can print with the current settings (currently set print conditions)" is displayed on the display device, and "OK" is specified by the user's operation of the mouse or the like. Then, as shown in FIG. 4, "document setting (print condition setting)"
Change? Is displayed on the display device.

Then, the process waits for designation of "Yes" or "No" (step 10). If "Yes" is designated, the process proceeds to step 11 to enable an operation for changing the setting of the printing condition. However, if "No" is specified, a dialog box containing the message "An unexpected print result may occur if the settings are not changed" is displayed on the display device as shown in FIG. 5, and "OK" is displayed. When is designated, the process proceeds to step 6.

As described above, the printer driver installed in the storage device 2 from the floppy disk 15
Since the computer 1 is provided with a function of searching for a printer capable of printing under the currently set print conditions and selecting a printer to be used, the user can use the printers 11 to 13 to perform the functions.
It is possible to quickly print the print data created on the computer 1 under desired printing conditions without knowing the hardware setting conditions (such as the presence or absence of an option such as a duplex unit and the resolution).

When the selected printer is in use by the printer driver, the computer 1 can also realize the function of selecting another printable printer, so that the time until printing is completed can be reduced. This is convenient when the user wants to quickly obtain a print result.

Further, when there is no other printer capable of printing, the printer driver notifies the computer 1 of a function of notifying that printing cannot be performed under the currently set printing conditions and requesting a change of the printing conditions. The user can realize that printing cannot be performed under the currently set print conditions, and can immediately change the print condition settings and start printing again.

If there is no other printer capable of printing, the printer driver has a function of notifying that printing cannot be performed under the currently set printing conditions. It is also possible to make the computer 1 realize only one of the functions for requesting the setting change of the condition.

[0029]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, even if the user does not know the setting status regarding the hardware of each printer, the print data created on the computer under the desired printing conditions can be obtained. Printing can be performed quickly, and no unexpected print result is produced.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the same effects as those of the first aspect of the invention can be obtained, and the time until printing is completed can be shortened. is there. According to the third or fourth aspect of the invention, it is possible to obtain the same effect as that of the second aspect of the invention, and furthermore, it is understood that the user cannot perform printing under the currently set printing conditions.
It is possible to immediately change the print condition settings and start printing again.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing routine executed by a printer driver on a storage device 2 by a computer 1 shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printing system including a computer and a plurality of printers that load and use a printer driver from a recording medium according to the present invention.

3 is a diagram showing a screen according to the present invention displayed on the display device of the computer 1 shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing another screen according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing still another screen according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: computer 2: storage device 3: parallel I / F 4: network I / F 11 to 13: printer 14: network 15: floppy disk

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A computer which records a printer driver including a program for realizing a function of searching for a printer capable of printing under currently set printing conditions and selecting a printer to be used in a computer to which a plurality of printers can be connected. Possible recording medium. 2. A computer-readable recording medium recording the printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the program has a function of selecting another printable printer when the selected printer is in use. A computer-readable recording medium on which a printer driver is recorded, including a program to be realized by the computer. 3. A computer-readable recording medium in which the printer driver according to claim 2 is recorded, wherein the program has a function of requesting a setting change of a printing condition when there is no other printable printer. A computer-readable recording medium that stores a printer driver and includes a program to be realized by a computer. 4. A computer-readable recording medium in which the printer driver according to claim 2 is recorded, wherein the program cannot be printed under currently set printing conditions if there is no other printable printer. And a computer-readable recording medium storing a printer driver, the program including a program for causing the computer to realize the function of notifying the user.