JP2000267824A - Printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To store print data when a printer driver is not connected to a printer and to automatically print them when it is connected to the printer. SOLUTION: This printer driver converting a printing request from an application into a printer language on a PC and a WC is provided with a means S102 monitoring whether or not a printer is connected to a port for a printing object, when the printer is not connected, an output destination is set in a file and outputted to the file, and when the monitoring means confirms that the printer is connected to the port, the print data stored in the file are automatically and successively transmitted to the printer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a pudding driver for controlling an output device mounted on a so-called personal computer (PC), workstation (WS) or the like.
The present invention relates to a printer driver that can be used for a copying machine or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A print management system in which a printer driver controls the order of printing on a logical printer and executes printing in accordance with the order of print requests from the logical printer is disclosed, for example, in JP-A-7-334334. Is already known.

[0003]

For example, a business person carries a portable personal computer (PC), and does not print the created print data such as sentences on the spot.
When you print after returning to your office, you often forget to print when you actually return to your desk. However, the related art does not take measures to prevent forgetting to print the print data once created.
Thus, the present invention enables a print data to be output as if a printer is connected, that is, as if printing is performed in a pseudo manner, even if the printer is not connected to the portable PC, and An object of the present invention is to automatically send a print file to a printer when a printer is connected and execute printing, thereby eliminating forgetting to print.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a printer driver for converting a print request from an application into a printer language has means for monitoring whether or not a printer is connected to a target port for printing. A printer driver for setting the output destination to a file and outputting print data to the file when the monitoring unit confirms that a printer is not connected to the port. It is.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the printer driver according to the first aspect, when the monitoring means confirms that the printer is connected to the port, the print data stored in the file is automatically transmitted. A printer driver having means for sequentially transmitting data to a printer.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the printer driver according to the second aspect, when the print data stored in the file is transmitted to the printer, it is determined whether or not the printer corresponds to a print code output by the driver. A printer driver having means for checking and transmitting print data only when the printer driver supports the printer driver.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the printer driver according to the first aspect, wherein the print data stored in the file is output from when print data is output to the file until a printer is connected to the port. A printer driver having means for automatically compressing and managing.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer driver according to the first aspect, further comprising means for displaying and deleting print data stored in a file.

A sixth aspect of the present invention is the printer driver according to the second aspect, further comprising means for designating a time at which print data stored in a file is transmitted to the printer.

[0010]

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a printer driver module according to the present invention. An application 1 operates on a personal computer (PS) or a workstation (WS) and issues a drawing request. Reference numeral 2 denotes a printer driver module according to the present invention. Reference numeral 3 denotes one of the modules stored in the printer driver, which is a printer port monitoring module that monitors whether a printer is connected to the print port. Reference numeral 4 also denotes one of the modules stored in the printer driver, which is a file monitoring module for outputting to a file when output to a print port is not possible. Reference numeral 5 denotes a file for storing print data instead of transmitting the data to the port. A transmission module 6 transmits data to a port.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a module including a printer driver according to the present invention. The printer driver of the present invention converts a print request from an application on a personal computer (PC) or a workstation (WS) into a printer language as shown in the figure, and a printer is connected to a port for printing. A print port monitoring module 3 for monitoring whether or not a printer is connected to the port, and when the monitoring module 3 confirms that a printer is not connected to the port, an output destination is set to a file, and print data is output to the file. It has a file management module 4 for performing the operations.

In the printer driver according to the first aspect of the present invention, when the monitoring module 3 further confirms that a printer is connected to a port, the print data stored in the file is transmitted in the background. It has a transmission module 6 for automatically transmitting data sequentially to the printer.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the printer driver according to the second aspect of the present invention, when the print data stored in the file is further transmitted to the printer, the printer responds to the print code that the printer discharges, that is, outputs the print code. There is a means for checking whether or not the print data is transmitted, and the print data is transmitted only when it is supported.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the printer driver according to the first aspect, the print data stored in the file after print data is output to the file until a printer is connected to the port. Is automatically compressed and managed.

(5) The printer driver according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying print data stored in a file on a browser or the like and deleting the print data.

(6) The printer driver according to (2), further comprising means for designating a time at which the print data stored in the file is transmitted to the printer.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described. FIG. 2 summarizes the operation flow of the first and third aspects of the present invention. In the figure, when a print request is received from the application 1 shown in the module configuration diagram to the printer driver 2, that is, when printing is started in the processing flow,
The printer driver 2 checks whether the printer is connected to the designated port by using the print port monitoring module 3 (S101). As a result of the investigation, if a printer is connected to the specified port (S102, YE
S) Then, it is checked whether or not the printer can recognize the file code system, that is, whether or not the printer can understand the transmission data (S103). If the printer can understand the transmission data (S103, YES), the data is checked. The data is transmitted (S105), and printing is performed. If the printer is not connected to the designated port (S102, NO) and if the printer does not understand the transmission data even if it is connected (S105, NO), the output destination is set to a file and the transmission data is Is saved in an arbitrary file (S10
4).

FIG. 3 is a diagram collectively showing an operation flow according to the second, fourth, and sixth aspects of the present invention. In the figure, when the host device is started (START), the printer driver
Whether the printer is connected to the port is checked using the print port monitoring module 3 (S201). If the printer is connected (S201, YES), it is determined whether or not there is a designation of a time to be transmitted to the printer (S20).
4) If there is a designated time, it is determined whether or not it is the currently designated time (S205). If it is the designated time (S205, YE)
S), it is checked whether transmission data exists (S20).
6) If there is (S206, YES), it is checked whether or not the transmission data is compressed (S207). If the data is compressed, it is decompressed using the file management module 4 (S208), and If the data is not compressed in step 207, the data is transmitted to the printer as it is (S209). If it is not the designated time in step 205, or if there is no transmission data in step 206, the processing flow returns to the beginning. In addition,
In the first step 201, if a printer is not connected to the port (S201, NO), it is checked whether or not transmission data exists (S202), and the data is stored on a storage device such as a hard disk. If you have
The transmission data is compressed using the file management module 4.

The operation flow of the invention described in each claim has been described above. The operation of each claim will be described as follows. According to the first aspect of the present invention, when a print request is received from the application 1, whether or not a printer is connected to a specified port is connected to the specified port using the print port monitoring module 3, and the result of the check is determined. When a printer is connected to the port, data is transmitted to the printer. When a printer is not connected to the port, the output destination is set to a file and the transmission data is stored in an arbitrary file (a file for transmission). ). According to this, as shown in FIG. 4, when the printer is not connected to the port of the PC when going out, when the print mode is selected, for example, "The printer is not connected to the port" on the PC display screen. The message "The transmission result is saved in a file" appears, notifying the user that the transmission data has been saved in the file, and then, when the printer is connected to the port of the PC, the message " The printer is connected to the port. The saved print file will be sent. "Message appears and printing starts.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the host device is started, it is checked whether or not a printer is connected to the port by using the print port monitoring module 3, and when the printer is connected, the printer is connected. When the file (transmission file) data created by the first invention is in a storage device such as a hard disk, the file data is sequentially transmitted to the printer.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, when transmitting the file data to the printer in the second aspect of the invention, it is determined whether or not the printer can recognize the file code system, that is, whether or not the printer is compatible with the print code of the driver. Investigate
The file data is transmitted to the printer only when the file data is supported.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a case where the printer is not connected to the port even when the host device is activated, and the file data stored in the first aspect of the present invention is stored in a storage device such as a hard disk. Performs file compression using the file management module 4, and uses the module 4 when a printer is connected to a port and data of the file is transmitted to the printer. Decompress and send.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the transmission file created in the first aspect of the present invention is developed using the file management module 4, displayed on a screen, and can be deleted as necessary.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in transmitting the file data to the printer in the second aspect of the invention,
It is determined in advance whether the time is a designated time, and if it is the designated time, transmission data is transmitted to the printer.

[0025]

According to the first aspect of the invention, it is possible to easily make a print reservation even when going out. Also, there is no need to change the output destination port. According to the second aspect of the invention: It is possible to easily execute a print reservation made while going out. In particular, since it operates in the background, output can be performed automatically without any load on the user. Effects corresponding to the third aspect of the invention: When an incorrect port is designated for output to a printer, or when a different printer is connected to an output destination port, unnecessary data transmission can be avoided.

Effects corresponding to the fourth aspect of the present invention: By compressing a file of a print reservation made while going out, the load on a storage device such as a hard disk can be reduced. According to the fifth aspect of the invention: The accumulated transmission files can be easily managed, and unnecessary output can be eliminated. According to the sixth aspect of the invention, it is possible to execute print reservation at an arbitrary time, and to output a file without imposing a load on the host device when processing a large number of documents. I can do it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a module configuration diagram including a printer driver of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an operation flow of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing another operation flow of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing the invention of claim 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Application 2 ... Printer driver 3 ... Print port monitoring module 4 ... File management module 5 ... File

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A printer driver for converting a print request from an application into a printer language, wherein a means for monitoring whether or not a printer is connected to a port intended for printing, and wherein the means for monitoring is such that a printer is connected to the port. A printer driver comprising means for setting an output destination to a file when it is confirmed that the connection is not established, and outputting print data to the file. 2. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein when the monitoring unit confirms that the printer is connected to the port, the print data stored in the file is automatically transmitted to the printer. A printer driver having means. 3. The printer driver according to claim 2, further comprising means for checking whether the printer supports a print code output by the driver when transmitting the print data stored in the file to the printer. A printer driver for transmitting print data only when the printer driver supports the printer. 4. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein the print data stored in the file is automatically compressed from a time when the print data is output to the file until a printer is connected to the port. A printer driver having means for managing the printer driver. 5. The printer driver according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying and deleting print data stored in a file. 6. The printer driver according to claim 2, further comprising means for designating a time at which print data stored in a file is transmitted to the printer.