JP2000235473A - Printer system and machine readable recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the interruption of printing due to the running-out of sheets by preliminarily judging whether or not all the pages of a document can be printed, and automatically changing a print condition for printing all the documents. SOLUTION: At the time of printing, a PC(personal computer) obtains residual sheets of a designated size set at a printing device (S1), and obtains the total number of pages of a document to be printed (S2), and compares the residual sheets with the total number of pages of the document (S3). When the total number of pages of the document is larger than the residual sheets (S3; No), variable magnification command in the data is checked, and when setting for increasing the variable magnification is operated, the setting of the variable magnification is changed to standard or reduction (S4), and the print data to which an intensive printing command is added are transferred to the printing device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a machine readable program storing a control program for controlling a printing apparatus which receives and prints print data described in a page description language or the like by a computer to perform printing. It relates to a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printer control program called a printer driver is installed in a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a PC). When printing a document created using an application program such as a word processor, the printer driver generates print data corresponding to the document data and sends the print data to the printing apparatus. For example, a printer driver of a printing apparatus that supports a page description language such as PostScript generates print data composed of program data described in the page description language. The printer driver can change the settings of various printing conditions (paper size, font, scaling, number of lines, line spacing, single-sided / double-sided printing, etc.) as necessary. Is sent to the printing device in a form included in the print data. The printing device prints a document on paper under the set printing conditions by executing a printing operation according to the print data received from the printer driver. Therefore, by changing the printing conditions on the printer driver, it is possible to perform printing under desired conditions by variously changing the paper size, font, magnification, and the like.

[0003]

However, when checking the contents of a document created on a PC, it is easier to read on paper than to read what is displayed on a monitor screen. Printing is often performed. In such a case, it is not always necessary to strictly set the printing conditions, and the font, the magnification, the number of lines,
There is often no problem even if the setting of the printing condition such as the line spacing is changed. Nevertheless, with a conventional printer driver, when a print instruction is issued, print data is generated according to the print conditions set at that time,
When printing a document with a large character size, a document with a small number of lines per page, or a document with many page breaks, the number of sheets used increases, and the remaining amount of paper in the printing device is smaller than the number of pages of the document. In such a case, there was a problem that printing was interrupted halfway. Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is to print all pages of the document by setting printing conditions at that time from information of the document to be printed and paper information of a printing apparatus used for printing. A printer system capable of reducing inconvenience that printing is interrupted due to running out of paper by automatically changing printing conditions so as to determine in advance whether or not the document can be printed. Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium on which a printer control program for realizing a simple system is recorded.

[0004]

The present invention uses the following means to solve the above-mentioned problems. The invention according to claim 1 relates to a machine readable recording medium recording a printer control program, wherein a step of acquiring a total number of pages of a document to be printed, and a designated sheet set in a printing apparatus are provided. Obtaining the number of remaining pages, and comparing the remaining number with the total number of pages, and when the remaining number is less than the total number of pages,
Changing the print data of the document to be sent to the printing apparatus so that the document can be printed on all of the remaining sheets or less. Claim 2
According to the present invention, a program for causing a computer to execute a step of setting a print condition of the print data to aggregate printing when the remaining number of sheets is less than the total number of pages is further recorded on the recording medium according to claim 1. It is characterized by having done. The invention according to claim 3 further includes a step of determining whether or not the printing device is a device capable of performing double-sided printing on the recording medium according to claim 1, wherein the remaining number is less than the total number of pages, and When the printing apparatus is an apparatus capable of performing double-sided printing, a program for causing a computer to execute the step of setting the printing condition of the print data to double-sided printing is recorded. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer system, comprising: a computer for generating print data according to a program recorded on the recording medium according to any one of the first to third aspects; and a computer based on the print data from the computer. And a printing device for performing printing. With the above-described configuration, according to the inventions described in claims 1 to 3, by reading and executing a program recorded in the computer, information of a document to be printed,
Based on the paper information of the printing device used for printing, it is determined in advance whether all pages of the document can be printed by setting the printing conditions at that time, and the printing conditions are automatically set so that all the documents can be printed. Since the print data can be transferred to the printing apparatus after changing the print data, it is possible to reduce the troublesomeness of interrupting the printing due to running out of paper. Further, by causing a computer to read the program included in the recording medium according to any one of claims 1 to 3, the printer system according to claim 4 can be realized. Therefore, the recording medium can be easily distributed and sold as a software product independently of the apparatus or as a set with a printing apparatus.

[0005]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a printer system showing an embodiment of the present invention. The printer system of this embodiment comprises a known personal computer (PC) in hardware and a known printing device 4 such as a laser printer or a digital multifunction peripheral, and executes a printer control program recorded on a recording medium according to the present invention. The following operations are performed by causing the computer to read and execute the program. The arrows in the figure indicate the flow of print data when printing is performed. The print data is translated into a page description language by the printer driver 1, and then the spooler (Spooler) 2
Spooled in the language / port monitor (Language
Monitor / Port Monitor) 3 to the printing device 4. At this time, the language / port monitor 3 executes the processing shown in FIG. In step S1, information on the remaining amount of paper of the designated size set in the printing apparatus 4 is acquired. Here, since the remaining number of sheets remaining in the printing apparatus 4 cannot be accurately grasped, the approximate number of sheets remaining in the sheet feeding tray of the printing apparatus 4 and the number of prints performed up to that point are approximated. Check the amount. In step S2, the total number of pages of the document to be printed is obtained. The exact number of pages of this document can be obtained from the print job information. In step S3, the number of remaining pages obtained in step S1 is compared with the total number of pages obtained in step S2. If the total number of pages of the document is smaller than the remaining amount of paper in the printing device 4 (No in S3),
The print data is transferred to the printing device 4 without any change in the printing conditions and printing is performed. On the other hand, if the total number of pages of the document is larger than the remaining amount of paper in the printing apparatus 4, that is, if it is determined that the paper runs out during the printing of the document under the current printing conditions, step S4 is executed.
Proceed to. In step S4, the variable magnification command in the print data is checked, and if there is a portion in which the magnification is set to be large, the setting of the variable magnification is changed to standard or reduced, and the process proceeds to step S5. In step S5, as many characters and lines as possible are printed on one page ignoring the aggregate print command, that is, a page break command, or the characters and lines for a plurality of pages are combined into one page in the initial setting. After a print command is added to the print data, the print data is transferred to the printing device 4 and printing is performed. That is, in step S4 and step S5, all the documents can be printed on paper less than the remaining amount of paper of the printing apparatus 4.
The variable magnification command and the aggregate print command of the print data of the document to be sent to the printer 4 are changed or added. As described above, when the remaining amount of paper in the printing apparatus 4 becomes small, the printing conditions are automatically changed, so that it is possible to reduce the trouble of interrupting printing due to running out of paper.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation example of this embodiment. The contents of steps S11 to S13 are the same as steps S1 to S3 in FIG. That is, when printing is performed, the PC obtains the remaining amount of paper of the designated size set in the printing apparatus 4 (S11), obtains the total number of pages of the document to be printed (S12), and prints out the remaining paper. Compare the amount with the total number of pages of the document (S1
3). As a result, if the total number of pages of the document is smaller than the remaining amount of paper in the printing apparatus 4 (No in S13),
The print data is transferred to the printing device 4 without any change in the printing conditions and printing is performed. On the other hand, if the total number of pages of the document to be printed is larger than the remaining amount of paper in the printing apparatus 4 (Yes in S13), the process proceeds to step S14. In step S14, it is determined whether or not the printing device 4 is a device capable of performing double-sided printing. Here, the PC acquires the configuration of the printing apparatus by the bidirectional communication function. As a result, if the device cannot perform double-sided printing, the print data is output to the printing device 4 as it is. If it is determined that the device can perform double-sided printing (Yes in S14), the process proceeds to step S15. . In step S15, after adding a double-sided print setting command to the print data, the print data is transferred to the printing device 4 and printing is performed. As described above, when the remaining amount of paper in the printing apparatus 4 becomes small, the mode is automatically changed to double-sided printing, so that it is possible to reduce the troublesomeness of interrupting printing due to running out of paper.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a function setting screen in this embodiment. As shown in the figure, a check box C is displayed on the function setting screen so that the user can select whether to change the setting and print when the remaining amount of paper is small. If the check box C is checked, the printing conditions are automatically changed when the total number of pages of the document is smaller than the remaining amount of paper in the printing apparatus 4. At the bottom of the function setting screen, a notice is displayed to notify the user that the print layout may be changed by the print condition automatic change function. In the above embodiment, in FIG. 2, after obtaining information on the remaining amount of paper of the designated size set in the printing apparatus 4 in step S1, the total number of pages of the document to be printed is obtained in step S2. However, the order of step S1 and step S2 does not matter.

[0008]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects can be obtained. Claim 1 and Claim 2
According to the recording medium according to the invention described above, by reading and executing the programs recorded in the computer, the information of the document to be printed and the sheet information of the printing apparatus used for printing can be obtained at that time. Since it is possible to determine in advance whether or not all pages of the document can be printed by setting the printing conditions, and to automatically change the printing conditions and transfer the print data to the printing apparatus so that the entire document can be printed, It is possible to reduce the annoyance that printing is interrupted due to running out of paper.
According to the recording medium of the third aspect of the present invention, by reading and executing the program recorded on the recording medium by a computer, information of a document to be printed and paper information of a printing apparatus used for printing can be obtained. Therefore, it is determined in advance whether all pages of the document can be printed by setting the printing conditions at that time, and when the remaining amount of paper is small, it is possible to automatically change to double-sided printing and perform printing. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the annoyance that the printing is interrupted due to lack of paper. According to the printer system of the fourth aspect of the present invention, all the pages of the document are set based on the information of the document to be printed and the paper information of the printing apparatus used for printing by setting the printing conditions at that time. Automatically changes the printing conditions and transfers the print data to the printing device, or automatically changes to double-sided printing so that the entire document can be printed. Since it is possible, it is possible to reduce annoying that printing is interrupted due to running out of paper.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a printer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing another operation example of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a function setting screen according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: printer driver, 2: spooler, 3: language / port monitor, 4: printing device.

Claims (4)

[Claims] A step of obtaining a total number of pages of a document to be printed; a step of obtaining a remaining number of designated sheets set in a printing apparatus; and comparing the remaining number with the total number of pages. And if the remaining number is less than the total number of pages, changing the print data of the document to be sent to the printing device so that the entire document can be printed on the paper of the remaining number or less. A machine-readable recording medium on which a program to be executed is recorded. 2. A program for causing a computer to execute the steps of: setting a print condition of the print data to aggregate printing when the remaining number of sheets is less than the total number of pages; 2. The recording medium according to claim 1, which is readable by a machine. Determining whether the printing device is a device capable of performing double-sided printing; and determining whether the printing device is a device capable of performing double-sided printing when the remaining number of sheets is less than the total number of pages. 2. The machine-readable recording medium according to claim 1, wherein a program for causing a computer to execute the steps of: setting a data printing condition to double-sided printing; 4. A computer that generates print data according to a program recorded on the recording medium according to claim 1, and a printing device that performs printing based on print data from the computer. Printer system characterized by the above-mentioned.