JP2001134394A - Information processor information processing method and computer readable storage medium in which program is stored - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print result to users without failure by creating one combined job by combining a plurality of print jobs. SOLUTION: When a combining instruction to make the plurality or print jobs into one combined job is made, this problem is solved by providing an information processor with a means to analyze print setting information for the plurality of print jobs and to generate print setting information for the combined job formed by unifying pieces of information only one of which can be set for one print job.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium storing a computer readable program. In particular, a host computer combines a plurality of print requests into one print job. Technology.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when printing one document (document data) generated by a certain application in a host computer, one print job generated from the document is usually set in advance by a printer driver. A set of print setting attributes including a plurality of print setting items to be set is defined.

[0003] A "collective printing" function for storing document data instructed to be printed by an application in a client (host computer) without outputting the document data to a printer, and transmitting a plurality of pieces of document data collectively to the printer as one job. There is software having

A print job generated by a user using a plurality of applications, for example, an application A suitable for preparing a document, an application B suitable for preparing a table, an application C suitable for preparing a drawing, and the like. Sometimes you want to print them all together, but the "collective printing" function only collects multiple print jobs into one print job, and you are instructed to print them all together. Since the output is also performed in the order of printing, the user must spool the page on the output page, which is inconvenient. For example, documents, drawings, documents, tables,
To print a document consisting of a document and one page, the first page is created and spooled by the application A, and the second page is created by the application B.
The third page must be created and spooled again by the application A, the fourth page must be created and spooled by the application C, and the fifth page must be created and spooled by the application A.

When a user wants to preview data to be printed together as one, he can see the preview provided by each application. I could not see the reflected preview.

Further, when a plurality of files are to be printed together as a single print job, there is no means for providing the user with a designation of finishing for the combined job. There is a problem that there is no printer having a preview function, and there is a problem that it is impossible to know how to actually print out by a printing apparatus without printing.

When the page layout function (N pages / sheet) is used on the device side by using "collective printing", similar page layout processing can be performed for a plurality of jobs. However, it has not been possible to combine print jobs with a different layout for each original print job.

[0008]

As described above, the conventional "collective printing" is merely continuous printing, and it is not possible to create one print job using a different layout for each page. Did not.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism which can combine print jobs having respective print setting information.

[0010] When a plurality of print jobs each having print setting information are collectively formed into one combined job, if the settings for printing are originally different, some settings are unified. It is necessary to have a mechanism for performing the unification, and in the case of unifying automatically, an object is to provide a mechanism for knowing what has been changed and what has been unified.

Also, a function of managing and editing a plurality of print jobs in units of jobs after they are combined, for example, a function of rearranging the print order in units of jobs regardless of the order of printing, It is an object of the present invention to provide a function of deleting a print job from a job or returning a combined job to a single original job.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for editing a print job in units of logical pages, for example, deleting unnecessary pages.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a mechanism for editing a combined job in page units and returning the original job to a single job.

[0014]

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above object has the following arrangement.

That is, an information processing apparatus that generates print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, converts data to be printed generated by an application into a print job in an intermediate code format, and prints the data to be printed. Intermediate code conversion means for temporarily storing in association with the setting information, combination instruction means for instructing a combination of a plurality of intermediate code format print jobs corresponding to the different data to be printed into one combined job; When the combining instruction unit issues a combining instruction to convert a plurality of print jobs into one combined job, the print setting information of the plurality of print jobs is analyzed, and information that can be set only one for one print job is analyzed. Setting unifying means for generating print setting information for a unified combined job.

The setting unifying means analyzes the print setting information of the plurality of print jobs to be combined, and unifies the settings when only one information can be set for one print job is different. And a confirmation unit for confirming whether or not to combine print jobs.

The print job in the intermediate code format is temporarily stored as a page drawing file in page units.

The print setting information for the combined job is added with information designating a page drawing file to be laid out on a physical page.

The print setting information is temporarily stored as a print setting file for each print job.

Further, the apparatus further comprises preview display control means for controlling to display a preview based on print setting information of the print job or the combined job.

[0021] Further, there is further provided an order control means for operating a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and changing the order of the print jobs.

Further, the apparatus further comprises a job deleting means for operating a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and deleting a specific print job.

Further, the apparatus further comprises job dividing means for dividing the combined job into a plurality of print jobs before combining.

Further, there is further provided a job duplicating means for designating the print job or the combined job and creating a duplicate of the designated print job.

Further, the print job or the combined job further includes setting initialization means for returning an initial state at the time of creating data in an intermediate code format, which is a basis of the job, based on print setting information.

[0026] Further, there is further provided a page editing means for deleting a designated page from the logical pages in the print job or the combined job.

Further, there is further provided print data generating means for generating print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus based on the intermediate code format data temporarily stored by the intermediate code converting means.

A drawing command generating means for converting the intermediate code format data temporarily stored by the intermediate code converting means into a drawing command interpretable by the drawing means of the OS and outputting the drawing command; And a print command allocating means for passing a print command received via the OS drawing means from the drawing command generating means to the intermediate data conversion means and passing the print command received from the drawing command generating means to the print data generating means.

The disease instruction is a GDI function,
The print command is a DDI function, and the print data is in a printer language.

Further, another solution of the present invention is realized by a method for controlling the above device, a storage medium storing a program, or a computer program.

[0031]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS [First Embodiment] An embodiment suitable for applying the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a printer control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Note that if the functions of the present invention are executed, the LA, whether a single device or a system including a plurality of devices, may be used.
The present invention can be applied to a system in which a connection is made via a network such as N or WAN and processing is performed.

Referring to FIG.
0 includes a CPU 1 for executing document processing in which graphics, images, characters, tables (including spreadsheets and the like) are mixed based on a document processing program or the like stored in the program ROM of the ROM 3 or the external memory 11; System bus 4
The CPU 1 generally controls each device connected to. The program ROM or the external memory 11 of the ROM 3 stores an operating system program (hereinafter referred to as OS), which is a control program of the CPU 1, and the like. The font ROM or the external memory 11 of the ROM 3 stores Font data and the like to be used are stored, and various data used when performing the above-described document processing and the like are stored in the data ROM of the ROM 3 or the external memory 11. The RAM 2 functions as a main memory, a work area, and the like for the CPU 1.

The keyboard controller (KBC) 5
It controls key input from a keyboard 9 or a pointing device (not shown). CRT controller (CRTC)
6 controls the display of a CRT display (CRT) 10. Reference numeral 7 denotes a disk controller (DKC) which stores a boot program, various applications, font data, a user file, an edit file, a printer control command generation program (hereinafter referred to as a printer driver), a hard disk (HD), and a floppy disk (F).
D) controls access to the external memory 11. A printer controller (PRTC) 8 is connected to a printer 150 via a bidirectional interface (interface) 21.
0 to execute communication control processing with the printer 1500.

The CPU 1 executes a process of developing (rasterizing) the outline font in the display information RAM set on the RAM 2 and, for example,
YSIWYG is possible. Further, the CPU 1
Various registered windows are opened based on a command specified by a mouse cursor or the like (not shown) on the RT 10,
Perform various data processing. When performing printing, the user opens a window related to print settings, and can set a printer and a print processing method for a printer driver including selection of a print mode.

The printer 1500 is controlled by the CPU 12. The printer CPU 12 outputs an image as output information to a printing unit (printer engine) 17 connected to the system bus 15 based on a control program or the like stored in the program ROM of the ROM 13 or a control program or the like stored in the external memory 14. Output a signal. The program ROM of the ROM 13 includes a CPU 1
2 and the like. The font ROM of the ROM 13 stores font data and the like used when generating the output information.
In the case of a printer having no external memory 14 such as a hard disk, information used on a host computer is stored in M.

The CPU 12 can communicate with the host computer via the input unit 18 and can notify the host computer 3000 of information in the printer and the like. The RAM 19 functions as a main memory of the CPU 12, a work area, and the like. The RAM 19 is configured so that the memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown). In addition, RAM
19 is an output information development area, environment data storage area, NV
Used for RAM and the like. Hard disk (H
D), access to the external memory 14 such as an IC card is controlled by a memory controller (MC) 20. The external memory 14 is connected as an option and stores font data, an emulation program, form data, and the like. Reference numeral 18 denotes the above-described operation panel on which switches for operation, an LED display, and the like are arranged.

The number of the external memory 14 is not limited to one, but a plurality of the external memories can be connected. In addition to the built-in fonts, an optional card and a plurality of external memories storing programs for interpreting printer control languages of different languages can be connected. It may be configured as follows. Furthermore, NVRAM (not shown)
And the printer mode setting information from the operation panel 1501 may be stored.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a typical printing process in a host computer to which a printing device such as a printer is directly connected or connected via a network. The application 201, the graphic engine 202, the printer driver 203, and the system spooler 204 exist as files stored in the external memory 11, and when executed, are loaded into the RAM 2 and executed by the OS or a module using the module. It is a program module. Further, the application 201 and the printer driver 203
It can be added to the FD of the external memory 11, a CD-ROM (not shown), or the HD of the external disk 11 via a network (not shown). External memory 1
Application 201 stored in RAM 2
Is loaded and executed, but this application 2
01 to the printer 1500,
Similarly, output (drawing) is performed using the graphic engine 202 which is loaded into the RAM 2 and is executable.

The graphic engine 202 similarly loads the printer driver 203 prepared for each printing device from the external memory 11 to the RAM 2 and sets the output of the application 201 in the printer driver 203. The GDI (Gr.) Received from the application 201
From aphic Device Interface (DPH) function to DDI (Device Dri)
ver Interface) function and convert it to the printer driver 2
The DDI function is output to 03. Printer driver 203
Is the DDI received from the graphic engine 202.
Control commands that the printer can recognize based on the function,
For example, it is converted to PDL (Page Description Language). The converted printer control command is output as print data to the printer 1500 via the interface 21 via the system spooler 204 loaded into the RAM 2 by the OS.

The printing system according to the present embodiment has a configuration in which print data from an application is temporarily spooled as intermediate code data as shown in FIG. 3 in addition to the printing system including the printer and the host computer shown in FIG. Have.

FIG. 3 is an extension of the system of FIG. 2, and has a configuration in which a spool file 303 composed of an intermediate code is temporarily generated when a print command is sent from the graphic engine 202 to the printer driver 203. In the system shown in FIG. 2, the application 201 is released from the printing process when the printer driver 203 has converted all print commands from the graphic engine 202 into printer control commands. On the contrary,
In the system of FIG. 3, the spooler 302 converts all print commands into intermediate code data,
3 is output. Usually, the latter requires less time. Further, in the system shown in FIG. 3, the contents of the spool file 303 can be processed. As a result, for print data from the application,
Functions that the application does not have, such as enlargement / reduction and printing by reducing a plurality of pages to one page, can be realized.

For these purposes, the system shown in FIG. 2 is spooled with intermediate code data as shown in FIG.
The system has been extended. In order to process print data, settings are usually made from a window provided by the printer driver 203, and the printer driver 203 stores the settings in the RAM 2 or the external memory 11.

The details of FIG. 3 will be described below. As shown in the figure, in this extended processing method, the dispatcher 301 receives a DDI function as a print command from the graphic engine 202. The print command (DDI) received from the graphic engine 202 by the dispatcher 301
Function) is based on a print command (GDI function) issued from the application 201 to the graphic engine 202, the dispatcher 301 stores the spooler 302 stored in the external memory 11 in the RAM 2
, And sends a print command (DDI function) to the spooler 302 instead of the printer driver 203.

The spooler 302 analyzes the received print command, converts the print command into an intermediate code for each page, and outputs the intermediate code to the spool file 303. The spool file of the intermediate code stored in page units is called a page drawing file (PDF: Page Description File). Also, the spooler 302 performs processing settings (Nup, double-sided,
Staple, color / monochrome designation, etc.) are acquired from the printer driver 203 and stored in the spool file 303 as a file for each job. At this time, the setting file stored for each copy is referred to as a job setting file (SDF: Spool Description File).
Call. This job setting file will be described later.
Although the spool file 303 is generated as a file on the external memory 11, it may be generated on the RAM 2. Further, the spooler 302 stores the spool file manager 304 stored in the external memory 11 in RAM.
2 and notifies the spool file manager 304 of the generation status of the spool file 303. After that, the spool file manager 304 determines whether or not printing can be performed according to the contents of the processing settings related to the print data stored in the spool file 303.

When the spool file manager 304 determines that printing can be performed using the graphic engine 202, the despooler 305 stored in the external memory 11 is loaded into the RAM 2, and the spool file 303 is stored in the despooler 305. To print the page drawing file of the intermediate code described in.

The despooler 305 stores the spool file 30
3 is processed according to the job setting file including the processing setting information included in the spool file 303, and the GDI function is regenerated.
The GDI function is output again via the graphic engine 202.

When the print command (DDI function) received by the dispatcher 301 from the graphic engine 202 is based on a print command (GDI function) issued from the despooler 305 to the graphic engine 202, the dispatcher 301 uses the spooler 302. Instead, a print command is sent to the printer driver 203.

The printer driver 203 generates a printer control command composed of a page description language or the like based on the DDI function acquired from the graphic engine 202 and outputs the command to the printer 1500 via the system spooler 204.

Further, FIG. 3 shows an example in which a previewer 306 and a setting change editor 307 are provided in addition to the extended system described above to enable preview, change print settings, and combine a plurality of jobs. .

In order to perform print preview, change print settings, and combine a plurality of jobs, the user first needs to specify “output destination” in the properties of the printer driver shown in FIG.
It is necessary to specify "store" in the pull-down menu which is a means for performing the operation. If only the preview is desired, it is also possible to select "preview" as the designation of the output destination.

The contents set in the properties of the printer driver as described above are stored as a setting file in a structure provided by the OS (called DEVMODE in Windows OS). The structure includes, for example, a setting as to whether or not to store data in the spool file manager 304 during processing settings included in the spool file 303. The spool file manager 304 reads the processing settings via a printer driver, When the store is designated, the page drawing file and the job setting file are generated and stored in the spool file 303 as described above, and the window screen of the spool file manager pops up as shown in FIG. A list of jobs that have been created is displayed. FIG. 16 shows an example in which four jobs are spooled, and the job can be operated by pressing the menu bar or the menu icon immediately below the menu bar. The number of menu bar and menu icon operations is the same. The operation types include "Print" with the job selected, "Save and print" to print with the spool file of the intermediate code intact, and "Output preview for the job considering the print settings". "Preview", "Delete" to delete the intermediate code spool file, "Duplicate" to generate a copy of the intermediate code spool file, "Join" to combine multiple intermediate code spool file jobs into one job ,
"Split", which divides a combined job into a plurality of original jobs, "Job Edit", which changes the print settings (layout settings, finishing settings, etc.) of a single job or a combined job, and "Top", which makes the print order of a job first "Move to one", increase the print order of a certain job by one, "move up", specify the print order of a certain job, "move down", and end the print order of a certain job There are at least 11 operations of “move last”.

When the preview of a certain single job or a combined job is designated on the window screen (FIG. 16) of the spool file manager, the previewer 306 stored in the external memory 11 is loaded into the RAM 2 and the previewer 306 is loaded. For spool file 3
An instruction is issued to perform a preview process of the job of the intermediate code described in 03.

The previewer 306 is a spool file 3
Page drawing file (PD
F) are sequentially read, processed in accordance with the contents of the processing setting information included in the job setting file (SDF) stored in the spool file 303, and a GDI function is output to the graphic engine 202. By outputting drawing data to the client area, output on the screen becomes possible.

The graphic engine 202 can perform appropriate rendering according to a designated output destination. Accordingly, the previewer 306 processes the intermediate code included in the spool file 303 in accordance with the processing settings included in the spool file 303, similarly to the despooler 305, and
It can be realized by a method of outputting using. In this way, the processing settings set by the printer driver are stored in the spool file 303 as a job setting file, and the data of the page drawing file is processed and output based on the job setting file. If Nup (processing for reducing and arranging N logical pages into one physical page and printing) is specified, double-sided printing is performed, bookbinding printing is specified. If a stamp is specified, a print preview similar to that output by the printer can be provided to the user accordingly. Note that the preview function of the conventional application software for creating a document, for example, draws based on the page settings in the application, so the print settings in the printer driver are not reflected, and the printout is actually performed. Could not be recognized by the user.

By performing the preview processing as described above, a large preview of the print processing settings included in the spool file 303 is displayed in the previewer 306 as shown in FIG.
The previewer 306 is then closed by a user's non-display instruction, and control is passed to the spool file manager window screen (FIG. 1).
Go to 6).

If the user performs printing in accordance with the content displayed by the previewer 306, a print request is issued by instructing "print" or "save and print" on the spool file manager 304. . The print request is sent to the despooler 305 as described above.
Then, the GDI function is generated by processing the page drawing file based on the job setting file, transmitted to the graphic engine 202, a print command is sent to the printer driver 203 via the dispatcher 301, and printing is executed.

Next, setting change using the setting change editor 307 will be described.

As a method of realizing the same as the preview,
In FIG. 9, the setting can be made for a job designated as “store”. The spool file manager 304 is popped up by a similar flow, and a list of spooled jobs is displayed. When "Job Edit" is specified on the spool file manager window screen (FIG. 16) and a setting change instruction is issued, the setting change editor 307 stored in the external memory 11 is loaded into the RAM 2 and the setting change editor is read. 307 is instructed to display the current or default processing settings. Then, a job setting screen as shown in FIG. 18 is displayed.

The setting change editor 307 obtains the job setting file of the job for which “job edit” is specified from the spool file 303 and, based on the setting items specified in the job setting file, displays the job setting screen shown in FIG. Change the default value of. In the example illustrated in FIG. 18, the job setting file of the job designated as “job edit” includes the number of copies: one, the printing method: one side, the staple:
None, layout: one page / sheet or the like is specified.

The setting change editor 307 also processes the page drawing file of the intermediate code included in the spool file 303 according to the contents of the processing setting included in the job setting file stored in the spool file 303, and uses the graphic engine 202. By outputting to the own client area, a small preview output on the screen shown in FIG. 18 becomes possible.

Here, it is possible to change and correct the contents of the processing settings included in the job setting file stored in the spool file 303. At this time, even if the user has the items that can be set in the printer driver 203 in the user interface on the setting change editor 307,
The user interface of the printer driver 203 itself may be called. As shown in FIG.
You can specify the printing method (single-sided, both eyes, bookbinding printing), stapling (saddle finisher, etc.), page layout, layout order, etc.
Most of the items that can be specified by the printer driver can be reset. However, changes in settings relating to print quality such as resolution and graphic mode are not permitted.

The changed items are authenticated according to the authentication request on the setting change editor 307, and the control is transferred to the spool file manager 304. If the change is approved, the print setting changes will be saved, but not saved in the original job setting file, but a new job output setting file used for job editing etc. is newly created and saved Will do. Details of the job output setting file will be described later with reference to FIG.

If the user performs printing in accordance with the contents of the setting change, as in the case of confirmation in the previewer 306,
A print request is issued on the spool file manager 304. The print request is transmitted to the graphic engine 202, a print command is sent to the printer driver 203 via the dispatcher 301, and printing is executed.

Further, on the window screen (FIG. 16) of the spool file manager, it is possible to specify that a plurality of print jobs are combined and printed as one print job. Again, like previews and setting changes,
A job in which the output destination is specified as “store” in the properties of the printer driver in FIG. 9 is assumed.

When the user joins print jobs, first, the application 201 sends the printer driver 20
3 is called, and a store is selected from the user interface as shown in FIG. As described above, by this selection, the spool file is stored in the spool file 303, and the window screen (FIG. 16) of the spool file manager pops up as shown in FIG. The spooled jobs are displayed in a list on the spool file manager window. By performing the same operation from the application 201, a list of a plurality of jobs is displayed on the spool file manager 304.

Here, when a plurality of jobs are selected and "combination" is designated, the setting change editor 307 stored in the external memory 11 is loaded into the RAM 2, and the setting change editor 307 is displayed on the list. Instructs to display the first job or default processing settings. Then, a connection setting screen as shown in FIG. 18 is displayed. Here, the setting change editor 307 is used as the connection setting screen, but another module may be used.

The setting change editor 307 processes the page drawing file of the intermediate code included in the spool file 303 according to the contents of the processing setting included in the job setting information stored in the spool file 303, and is designated as a combined job. The output on the screen is performed by outputting all the jobs to its own client area using the graphic engine 202. At this time, a small preview of all the jobs selected in the preview area shown in FIG. 18 is possible. When generating a combined job, a job output setting file is generated by expanding the job setting file of each single job. The job output setting file is also generated at the time of editing a job. One setting file can be created for one job. One copy file is also generated for a combined job.

Here, for each job, it is possible to display the processing settings before combining, or to change and correct the processing settings to a unified processing setting as a combined job and display it. At this time, the user can have the items that can be set in the printer driver 203 in the user interface on the setting change editor 307 or call the user interface of the printer driver 203 itself.

As described above, the combined job and the changed items are authenticated in accordance with the authentication request on the setting change editor 307, and the control is transferred to the spool file manager 304. By these operations, the plurality of jobs selected earlier are displayed as one combined job on the spool file manager window.

If the user performs printing in accordance with the setting change contents, as in the case of confirmation in the previewer 306,
A print request is issued on the spool file manager 304. The print request is transmitted to the graphic engine 202, a print command is sent to the printer driver 203 via the dispatcher 301, and printing is executed.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a color laser printer having a double-sided printing function, which is an example of the printer 1500.

This printer is a host computer 300
The laser light modulated with the image data for each color obtained based on the print data inputted from 0
Scans the photosensitive drum 15 to form an electrostatic latent image.
Then, this electrostatic latent image is developed with toner to obtain a visible image,
This is multiplex-transferred for all colors to the intermediate transfer member 9 to form a color visible image. Further, the color visible image is transferred to the transfer material 2 and the color visible image is fixed on the transfer material 2. The image forming unit that performs the above control includes a drum unit having a photosensitive drum 15, a primary charging unit having a contact charging roller 17, a cleaning unit, a developing unit, an intermediate transfer body 9, a paper cassette 1 and various rollers 3, 4, 5, 7, a transfer unit including the transfer roller 10, and a fixing unit 25.

The drum unit 13 is formed integrally with a photosensitive drum (photosensitive member) 15 and a cleaner container 14 having a cleaning mechanism also serving as a holder for the photosensitive drum 15. The drum unit 13 is detachably supported by the printer main body, and is configured such that the unit can be easily replaced according to the life of the photosensitive drum 15. The photosensitive drum 15 is formed by applying an organic photoconductor layer to the outer periphery of an aluminum cylinder, and is rotatably supported by the cleaner container 14. The photosensitive drum 15 is rotated by transmitting a driving force of a drive motor (not shown). The drive motor rotates the photosensitive drum 15 in a counterclockwise direction according to an image forming operation. The electrostatic latent image is formed by selectively exposing the surface of the photosensitive drum 15 to light. In the scanner unit 30, the modulated laser light is reflected by a polygon mirror that rotates in synchronization with a horizontal synchronization signal of an image signal by a motor 31a, and irradiates the photosensitive drum via a lens 32 and a reflecting mirror 33.

The developing units are three color developing units 20Y and 20Y for developing yellow (Y), magenta (M) and cyan (C) in order to visualize the electrostatic latent image.
M, 20C, and one black developing unit 21B for developing black (B). The color developing units 20Y, 20M and 20C and the black developing unit 21B have sleeps 20YS, 20MS, 20CS and 21B, respectively.
S, these sleeps 20YS, 20MS, 20CS,
Coating blade 20Y pressed against the outer periphery of each 21BS
B, 20 MB, 20 CB and 21 BB, respectively. Also, three color developing units 20Y, 20M, 20
C is provided with application rollers 20YR, 20MR, and 20CR.

The black developing device 21B is detachably attached to the printer main body, and the color developing devices 20Y, 20M and 20C are detachably attached to a developing rotary 23 which rotates around a rotation shaft 22. ing.

Sleep 21BS of black developing unit 21B
Are arranged at a minute interval of, for example, about 300 μm with respect to the photosensitive drum 15. Black developing unit 21B
Is a sleep 21B that rotates in a clockwise direction while conveying toner by a feeding member built in the container.
A charge is applied to the toner by frictional charging so that the toner is applied to the outer periphery of S by the application blade 21BB. Also, by applying a developing bias to Sleep 21BS,
The photosensitive drum 15 is developed in accordance with the electrostatic latent image to form a visible image on the photosensitive drum 15 using black toner.

The three color developing units 20Y, 20M, 20
C rotates with the rotation of the developing rotary 23 during image formation, and a predetermined sleep 20YS, 20MS, 20S.
The CS is opposed to the photosensitive drum 15 at a minute interval of about 300 μm. As a result, the predetermined color developing units 20Y, 20M, and 20C are stopped at the developing position facing the photosensitive drum 15, and a visible image is created on the photosensitive drum 15.

At the time of color image formation, one of the intermediate transfer members 9
The developing rotary 23 rotates with each rotation, and a yellow developing device 20Y, a magenta developing device 20M, a cyan developing device 20C,
Next, a developing process is performed in the order of the black developing device 21B.
The intermediate transfer member 9 rotates four times to sequentially form visible images using the yellow, magenta, cyan, and black toners. As a result, a full-color visible image is formed on the intermediate transfer member 9.

The intermediate transfer member 9 is configured to rotate in accordance with the rotation of the photosensitive drum 15 in contact with the photosensitive drum 15, and rotates clockwise at the time of forming a color image. Undergoes multiple transfers of visible images. Further, the intermediate transfer body 9 simultaneously transfers the color visible image on the intermediate transfer body 9 to the transfer material 2 by multiple transfer by nipping and transporting the transfer material 2 by contacting a transfer roller 10 described later during image formation. An intermediate transfer member 9 is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the intermediate transfer member.
And a density sensor 9c for detecting the density of the toner image transferred to the intermediate transfer member.

The transfer roller 10 includes a transfer charger which is supported so as to be able to contact and separate from the photosensitive drum 15, and is configured by winding a metal shaft with a medium-resistance foam elastic body.

The transfer roller 10 is separated downward so as not to disturb the color visible image during the multiple transfer of the color visible image onto the intermediate transfer member 9 as shown by a solid line in FIG. After the four color visible images are formed on the intermediate transfer member 9, the transfer roller 10 is moved by a cam member (not shown) in accordance with the timing of transferring the color visible images to the transfer material 2. It is located above indicated by.
As a result, the transfer roller 10 is pressed against the intermediate transfer member 9 with a predetermined pressing force via the transfer material 2 and a bias voltage is applied, so that the color visible image on the intermediate transfer member 9 is transferred to the transfer material 2.
Is transferred to

The fixing unit 25 transfers the transfer 2
It fixes the transferred color visible image, and includes a fixing roller 26 for heating the transfer material 2 and a pressure roller 27 for pressing the transfer material 2 against the fixing roller 26. The fixing roller 26 and the pressure roller 27 are formed in a hollow shape, and have heaters 28 and 29 therein, respectively. That is, the transfer material 2 holding the color visible image is transported by the fixing roller 26 and the pressure roller 27,
The toner is fixed to the surface by applying heat and pressure.

The transfer material 2 after the fixing of the visible image is thereafter discharged to the paper discharge section 37 by the paper discharge rollers 34, 35 and 36, and the image forming operation is completed.

The cleaning means is for cleaning the toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 15 and the intermediate transfer member 9, and is provided after the visible image formed by the toner formed on the photosensitive drum 15 is transferred to the intermediate transfer member 9. The waste toner or the waste toner after transferring the four color visible images formed on the intermediate transfer body 9 to the transfer material 2 is transferred to the cleaner container 1.
4

The transfer material (recording paper) 2 to be printed is taken out from the paper feed tray 1 by the paper feed roller 3 and is conveyed so as to be sandwiched between the intermediate transfer body 9 and the transfer roller 10 to be transferred by the color toner. The image is recorded, passes through the fixing unit 25, and the toner image is fixed. In the case of single-sided printing, the conveyance path is formed so that the guide 38 guides the recording sheet to the upper paper discharge unit, but in the case of double-sided printing, the path is formed so as to guide the recording sheet to the lower duplex unit.

The recording paper guided to the double-sided unit is once fed into the lower portion of the tray 1 (conveying path indicated by a two-dot chain line) by the conveying rollers 40 and then conveyed in the reverse direction and sent to the double-sided tray 39. On the double-sided tray 39, the sheet is turned upside down from the state of being placed on the sheet feed tray 1, and the sheet is turned upside down in the transport direction. By transferring and fixing the toner image again in this state, double-sided printing can be performed.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing of the page unit saving step in the generation of the spool file 303 in the spooler 302.

First, at step 501, the spooler 302
From the application to the graphics engine 202
The print request is accepted via the. In the application, a dialog for inputting print settings as shown in FIG. 8 is displayed, and the print settings input from this dialog are passed to the spooler 303 from the printer driver. The setting input dialog shown in FIG. 8 includes setting items such as 801 for determining the number of logical pages to be laid out on one physical page.

In step 502, the spooler 302
It is determined whether the received print request is a job start request. If it is determined in step 502 that the received print request is a job start request, the process proceeds to step 503, where the spooler 302 issues a spool file 303 for temporarily storing intermediate data.
Create Subsequently, in step 504, the spooler 3
02 notifies the spool file manager 304 of the progress of the printing process.
Is initialized to 1. Here, the spool file manager 304 reads job information and processing settings for the job whose printing has started from the spool file 303 and stores the information.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 502 that the request is not a job start request,
Proceed to 6.

In step 506, the spooler 302
It is determined whether the received request is a job end request. If it is determined that the request is not a job end request, the flow advances to step 507 to determine whether it is a page break. If it is determined in step 507 that the page is a page break, the process advances to step 508 to notify the spool file manager 304 of the progress of the printing process. Then, the page number counter is incremented, the page drawing file storing the intermediate code is closed, and the next page drawing file is generated.

If it is determined in step 507 that the received print request is not a page break, the process proceeds to step 509, where the spooler 302 prepares for writing the intermediate code in the page drawing file.

Next, at step 510, the spooler 302 stores the print request in the spool file 303.
Performs a process of converting the DDI function of the print request into an intermediate code. In step 511, the spooler 302 writes the print request (intermediate code) converted into a form that can be stored in step 510 into the page drawing file of the spool file 303. After that, returning to step 501,
The print request from the application is received again. This series of processing from step 501 to step 511 is executed by the application by a job end request (End Doc).
Continue until you receive The spooler 302 simultaneously acquires information such as processing settings stored in the DEVMODE structure from the printer driver 203 and stores the information in the spool file 303 as a job setting file. On the other hand, if it is determined in step 506 that the print request from the application has ended the job, all the print requests from the application have ended.
In step S2, the progress of the printing process is notified to the spool file manager 304, and the process ends.

FIG. 6 shows the spool file manager 30.
4 is a flowchart showing details of control between a spool file 303 generation process and a print data generation process described below.

In step 601, the spool file manager 304 receives a notification of the progress of the printing process from the spooler 302 or the despooler 305.

In step 602, the spool file manager 304 determines whether the progress notification has been received in step 50 described above.
It is determined whether or not the notification is a print start notification from the spooler 302 notified in step 4, and if so, step 6
03, and print processing settings are stored in the spool file 303.
And start managing jobs. On the other hand, in step 602, if the print start notification is not from the spooler 302, the process proceeds to step 604, and the spool file manager 304 receives a print end notification of one logical page from the spooler 302 notified of the progress notification in step 508 described above. Determine if there is. If it is a printing end notification of one logical page, the process proceeds to step 605, and logical page information for this logical page is stored. Then, in the subsequent step 606, it is determined whether printing of one physical page can be started for the n logical pages for which spooling has been completed at this time. If printing is possible, the process proceeds to step 607, where the physical page number is determined from the logical number allocated to one physical page to be printed.

For the calculation of the physical page, for example, if the processing setting is such that four logical pages are arranged on one physical page, the first physical page can be printed when the fourth logical page is spooled. This is the first physical page. Subsequently, the second physical page can be printed when the eighth logical page is spooled.

Even if the total number of logical pages is not a multiple of the number of logical pages allocated to one physical page, step 5
The logical page to be allocated to one physical page can be determined by the spool end notification in step S12.

In step 608, information such as the logical page number constituting the printable physical page and the physical page number in the format shown in FIG. 10 is stored in the job output setting file (physical page information). , And the despooler 305 is notified that the physical page information has been added for one physical page. Thereafter, the flow returns to step 601 to wait for the next notification. In the present embodiment, print processing can be performed even if all spools of the print job have not been completed at the time when one page of print data, that is, a logical page constituting one physical page is spooled.

On the other hand, if the progress notification is not the printing completion notification of one logical page from the spooler 302 in step 604, the process proceeds to step 609, and the spool file manager 304 notifies the spool file 302 from the spooler 302 notified in step 512. It is determined whether the notification is a job end notification. If it is a job end notification, the process proceeds to step 606 described above. On the other hand, if the notification is not a job end notification, the process proceeds to step 610, where the spooled file manager 304
It is determined whether it is a print end notification of one physical page from 05. If the notification is a print end notification of one physical page, the process advances to step 612 to determine whether the printing of the processing settings has been completed. If printing is completed, step 61
The process proceeds to step 2 to notify the despooler 305 of the end of printing.
On the other hand, if it is determined that the printing for the processing settings has not been completed, the process proceeds to 606 described above. The despooler 305 in this embodiment assumes one physical page as a unit for performing the printing process. In step 608, information necessary for performing printing processing of one physical page is sequentially stored in a file and is in a reusable format. However, if reusing is unnecessary, a high-speed medium such as a shared memory is used. , And overwrites one by one physical page one after another to save the speed and resources. If the progress of the spool is faster than the progress of the despooling, or if the despooling is started after the spooling of all pages is completed, at step 608, the page print is not notified for each physical page without being notified. According to the progress of the despooling side, it is possible to reduce the number of times of notification by setting the notification content that a plurality of physical pages or all physical pages can be printed.

If it is determined in step 610 that the notification is not the print end notification of one physical page from the despooler 305, the process proceeds to step 613, and the spool file manager 304 determines whether the print end notification is from the despooler 305. . If the notification is determined to be a print end notification from the despooler 305, the process proceeds to step 614, where the spool file manager 304 deletes the corresponding page drawing file of the spool file 303 and ends the processing. However, on the other hand, if it is not a print end notification from the despooler 305, the process proceeds to step 615, performs other normal processing, and waits for the next notification.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing details of the print data generation process in the despooler 305.

The despooler 305 reads necessary information (page drawing file and job setting file) from the spool file 303 in response to a print request from the spool file manager 304 and generates print data. The method of transferring the generated print data to the printer is as described with reference to FIG.

In generating print data, first, in step 7
01, the aforementioned spool file manager 30
Enter the notification from 4. In the following step 702, the despooler 305 determines whether the input notification is a job end notification, and if it is a job end notification, proceeds to step 703, sets an end flag, and proceeds to step 705. On the other hand, if it is not a job end notification in step 702, the process proceeds to step 704, and the above-described step 60 is performed.
It is determined whether a print start request for one physical page in step 8 has been notified. If it is not determined in step 704 that the request is a start request, the process proceeds to step 710, performs other error processing, and returns to step 701 to wait for the next notification. On the other hand, if it is determined in step 704 that the print start request is for one physical page, the process proceeds to step 705,
The despooler 305 saves the ID of the printable physical page notified in step 704. In the following step 706, the despooler 305 determines whether or not all pages of the physical page ID stored in step 705 have been printed. If all physical pages have been processed, the process advances to step 707 to determine whether the end flag has been set in step 703 described above. If the end flag is set, it is considered that the printing of the job has been completed, and a notification of the end of the processing of the despooler 305 is sent to the spool file manager 304, and the processing is ended. If it is determined in step 707 that the end flag has not been set, the process returns to step 701 and waits for the next notification. On the other hand, if it is determined in step 706 that printable physical pages remain, step 708
Then, the despooler 305 displays the stored physical page ID.
, Sequentially reads unprocessed physical page IDs, reads information necessary for generating print data of a physical page corresponding to the read physical page IDs, and performs print processing. In the printing process, the despooler 305 converts the print request command stored in the spool file 303 into a format (GDI function) recognizable by the graphic engine 202 and transfers it. Processing settings (hereinafter referred to as N-page printing) in which a plurality of logical pages are laid out into one physical page as in the present embodiment are converted in this step while taking the reduced arrangement into consideration. When the necessary printing processing is completed, the subsequent step 70
In step S9, the spool file manager 304 is notified of the end of the print data generation for one physical page. Then, the process returns to step 706 again, and repeats until the printing process is performed for all printable physical page IDs stored in step 705.

The above is the flow of the printing process using the dispatcher 301, spooler 302, spool file manager 304, and despooler 305. By performing the above-described processing, the application 201 is released from the printing processing at the timing when the spooler 302 generates the intermediate code and stores the intermediate code in the spool file 303. Therefore, the processing is completed in a shorter time than when the application 201 outputs the intermediate code to the printer driver 203 directly. . Further, since the spool file 303 is temporarily stored as an intermediate file (page drawing file, job setting file) based on the print setting of the printer driver, the user can recognize the print preview to be actually printed, It is possible to combine and rearrange the print jobs generated by the application, and to allow the user to change the print settings without starting up the application again and printing.

Here, in the printing process using the spooler 302, a job output setting file is generated by the despooler 305 when a print request is issued to the graphic engine 202. A file is generated. The job output setting file is equivalent to a job setting file for a single job, and is generated based on a plurality of pieces of job setting information for a combined job. Here, the job output setting file will be described.

FIG. 10 shows an example of a job output setting file in which information constituting a printable physical page generated by the spool file manager 304 in step 608 is stored. Field 1001 is
This is an ID for identifying the job, and can be stored in the form of a file name storing this information or a name of a shared memory. A field 1002 is job setting information. The job setting information includes the graphic engine 202.
Structure needed to start printing the job against
Specify N page printing, specify additional drawing such as page frame,
Information that can be set only once for one job, such as finishing specifications such as the number of copies and stapling, is included. The job setting information 1002 stores as much information as necessary according to the function for the job. Field 1
003 is the number of physical pages of the job.
This indicates that the physical page information is stored for this number. In the present embodiment, the number of physical pages that can be printed is notified, so that operation is possible without this field. Thereafter, physical page information is stored in the number of fields 1003 from the field 1004 to the end. The physical page information will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the job setting information shown in the field 1002 of FIG. Field 1
101 is the total number of physical pages. Field 1102
Is the total number of logical pages. Fields 1101 and 1102 are used when printing the number of pages and the like as additional information in addition to the print data. If printing continues, both fields are provisional values, or
Spool file manager 304 until printing is completed
Delays the creation of printable physical page information. A field 1103 is copy number information for specifying how many copies of the print job are to be printed. A field 1104 is used to specify whether to print a copy in a case where a plurality of copies are set in the field 1103. A field 1104 is finishing information such as stapling, punching, and Z-folding, and is designated when there is a finisher in the printer main body or outside. A field 1106 is additional print information in which information to be added to a job, such as decoration such as a page frame, additional information such as a date, a user name, the number of pages, and watermark printing is stored. As the number of functions increases, the number of fields included in the job setting information also increases.
If double-sided printing is possible, a field for storing the specification of double-sided printing is added.

FIG. 12 shows an example of the physical page information shown in the field 1004 of FIG. The first field 1201 is a physical page number, for managing the printing order,
This value is used when additional printing of the physical page number is performed. A field 1202 is physical page setting information. When a layout or color / monochrome can be designated for each physical page, the layout and color / monochrome settings are stored. A field 1203 is the number of logical pages allocated to the physical page. When four pages are allocated to one physical page, 4 or an ID indicating 4-page printing is stored. Field 120 after field 1204
The information of the logical pages is stored by the number specified in 3.
Depending on the number of pages printed from the application 201, the actual number of page data may be smaller than the number of pages specified in 1203. In such a case, special data indicating an empty page is stored in the logical page information.

FIG. 13 shows an example of the physical page setting information 1202. The field 1301 stores the designation of the order of arranging the logical pages on the physical page (from the upper left to the side, from the upper left to the bottom, etc.) in the order of arrangement of the logical pages on the physical page, and by N page printing. Depending on the system,
The setting of 1301 may be substituted by arranging the order of the logical page information after the field 1204 instead of the order of the page numbers, instead of the order of the page numbers. Field 1302 is information on the front and back of double-sided printing.
For example, it is used when aligning the binding margin on the front and back. A field 1303 is a specification of a color page or a monochrome page. When the printer has a monochrome mode and a color mode, a document in which color pages and monochrome pages are mixed,
This value is used when it is desired to print a color page in a color mode and a monochrome page in a monochrome mode. By having this information, it is possible to change the processing by the color printer in page units in the auto color mode. In other words, a color page is composed of intermediate transfer members (intermediate transfer drums and intermediate transfer belts) or transfer members (transfer drums and transfer belts) corresponding to the number of device colors,
The transfer can be controlled by making four rotations for YMCK and making one rotation only for black for a monochrome page. A field 1304 is additional print information that is used when printing additional information such as the number of pages and the date on a physical page. A field is added to the physical page setting information according to the function of the system.

FIG. 14 shows an example of the logical page information 1204. Field 1401 is the logical page
The ID is used to refer to the intermediate code of the page drawing file corresponding to the logical page from the spool file 303 using this ID. It is sufficient that the intermediate code of the logical page can be accessed using this ID, and it may be a file or a memory pointer, or may contain the intermediate code itself constituting the logical page. A field 1402 is a logical page number when the logical page number is printed as additional information.
Used for auxiliary information of logical page ID. Field 14
In the format information 03, various setting items that can be specified in logical page units are stored. For example, additional print information such as a page frame and various setting information specified in units of logical pages such as an enlargement / reduction ratio are stored. If necessary, attribute information for a logical page such as color / monochrome information for each logical page can be stored.
Conversely, in a system where setting can be switched in logical page units and attribute information in logical page units is unnecessary,
Field 1403 is unnecessary.

The job output setting file is configured as described above. Note that the job setting file is almost the same, and includes a print format (one-sided, two-sided, bookbinding printing), a print layout (Nup, poster printing), additional information (watermark, date, user name addition), number of copies, paper size information. Each of the physical pages includes an arrangement order of logical pages, a front side or a back side of double-sided printing, a color mode, and the like.

Further, FIG. 3 shows an example in which a setting change editor 307 having a job setting change function is provided in addition to the extended system described above. In the present embodiment, the job settings include a single job included in the job setting file and a combined job included in the job output setting file shown in FIG. Because it is independent from the file 303,
Job settings can be changed by recreating the job output setting file. The setting change editor 307 alone or in cooperation with the spool file manager 304 realizes a job setting change function by recreating a job output setting file or rewriting a part thereof.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing details of the job setting change process in the setting change editor 307.

First, in step 1501, the setting change editor reads a job setting file or a job output setting file. The job output setting file is the same file that the previewer 305 and the despooler 303 read. Next, the process proceeds to step 1502, where the read result is displayed to the user. Step 1503
Then, the user interacts with the user on the user interface as shown in FIG. 18, and changes the setting contents by specifying the above-described menu or the like. This step may be performed not in an interactive manner but in a batch manner in which changes are made in accordance with the contents of setting changes written in a file or the like. Then step 15
04, at step 1501, the setting change editor
A determination is made as to whether the content read first and the currently specified setting content have been changed. If the settings match, the process advances to step 1505 to generate a new job output setting file, notify the spool file manager of the change, and end the processing. If it is determined in step 1505 that there is no change, the spool file manager is notified that there is no change, and the processing ends. In this way, a new job output setting file is generated. When the “OK” button is selected on the user interface screen of FIG. 18, the new job output setting file becomes valid, and the old job output setting file is created. The file is deleted. Also, the job setting file for a single job is saved without being deleted, not changed from the job output setting file. Also,
When the “Return to initial state” button is selected on the screen in FIG. 18, the new job output setting file is deleted, and the old job output setting file is enabled and reflected on the display. In this embodiment, the setting change editor 307 is described as a separate module, but may be a part of the user interface of the spool file manager 304. The setting change editor 307 does not actually write the contents of the change to the job output setting file, but only notifies the spool file manager 304 of the contents of the setting change. An implementation format performed on the manager 304 side may be used.

FIG. 3 further shows an extended system for combining a plurality of print jobs and printing as one print job. The extension for despooling and previewing the combined job will be described.

Normally, the intermediate format spool file 303
Is created for each job. In the case of a single job, since the intermediate code of each logical page in the processing target job file is read out in order and the processing is performed, the logical page ID in the field 1401 indicates a relative position indicating where each logical page is located in the file. Alternatively, it can be realized by an absolute offset. In the case of a combined job, it is necessary to specify the spool file and the page information belonging to the job from the job ID in the field 1401. In this embodiment, the spool file is specified by adding an ID for identifying the spool file to the logical page ID. In this case, the main change is only the field 1401. This is because if the spool file can be identified, the reading of the page portion can be processed by the same logic as the processing of the single job. When the spool file is stored in a separate file for each logical page, there is also an implementation form in which the file name of the logical page is used as the logical page ID of the field 1401 as it is.

The operation flow of the user when actually combining a plurality of documents will be described. FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a user operation up to a state where the user is listed on the screen of the spool file manager 304.

In step 1901, when printing is started from the application, a dialog of the printer driver is opened, and designation for spooling to an intermediate file format in a state operable on the user interface is made. In the example of the dialog of the printer driver in FIG. 9, “Store” is selected from the combo box 901. Next, the processing proceeds to step 1902, where printing (not actual printing,
From the app's point of view, it looks printed. In other words, this is because background printing processing is being performed, and a drawing command is being output from the application to the graphic engine.) When spooling is started in an intermediate file format as shown in FIG. The print job created in the intermediate data format is listed on the screen of the user interface of the spool file manager 304 so that the user's designation can be accepted. In this state, the user can select one document from the list and print it, or change print settings once and check the contents of the settings on the screen.

In this case, since the user intends to combine a plurality of print documents, the flow advances to step 1903 to determine whether all the documents to be combined have been set and printed. If there are documents to be combined that have not been printed (output processing of the drawing command to the graphic engine), the process returns to step 1901 to repeat the printing process of another combined document. If all the documents to be combined have been printed, the process proceeds to the combining process.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a user operation when combining a plurality of documents listed in FIG.

First, in step 2001, the user is caused to select a document to be combined on the user interface shown in FIG. 16 using a pointing device such as a mouse. When a print job is selected, the selection state is notified so that the user is notified that the print job has been selected. This is realized by inverting the color around the document icon (FIG. 22), but a detailed description of the control is omitted because it is a known technique of the OS. FIG. 22 shows a state where a plurality of documents (three documents in this example) to be combined are selected.

From this state, the process proceeds to step 2002, where
The user is instructed to combine print jobs from a menu or a toolbar. If the spool file manager 304 determines that the user has issued a job combine instruction, the print job is combined. Here, the present system checks the setting contents of each document by reading the job setting file from the intermediate file storing the documents to be combined, and can set only one for one print job. It is determined whether or not there is setting content, for example, information on finishing. If the setting content is specified, a confirmation message regarding the setting of the merged document and the merged document as shown in FIG. 23 is displayed. In the present embodiment, control is performed such that a setting release message is always displayed when a setting content that allows only one setting to be set for one print job is specified. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
The setting contents of a plurality of print jobs to be combined are determined, and control is performed so that a setting release message is displayed when the setting contents that can be set only once for one print job are different for the plurality of print jobs. You may.

In the following step 2003, the user confirms the contents of the confirmation message and selects a user interface (FIG. 23).
Is controlled to be displayed in the spool file 304, and it is determined which instruction is given by the user whether to combine or not to combine.

If it is determined in step 2003 that no combination is specified, the flow returns to step 2001 to select a document (print job) again. Going back from step 2001 and returning to the print flow of FIG. 19, even if a new document is printed, the settings of the already printed document may be changed and reprinted.

If it is determined in step 2003 that combination has been designated, the process proceeds to step 2004, in which the spool file manager 304 combines the selected print jobs using the setting change editor 307. Control.

In step 2004, as shown in FIG. 24, a combined job icon indicating a combined job combined by the setting change editor is displayed, and the user interface of the user interface is set so as not to display a plurality of print jobs before combining. Control the display.

Note that even when a combined job is generated,
The page drawing file and job setting file of each combined print job remain spooled in the spool file 303, and only a job output setting file for the combined job is created. The physical page information in the job output setting file includes information as to which page drawing file is to be arranged in which page layout.

FIG. 21 is a diagram showing an example of unification and rounding of settings when combining a plurality of documents. For simplicity, the setting items are limited to the number of copies and N-page printing. Document A was printed with the setting of 5 copies / 4 pages printing, and document B was printed with the setting of 2 copies / 1 page printing.

When the document A and the document B are combined, the number of copies is reset to one, the document A is set to print four pages, and the layout information of the document B is set to print one page.
The number of copies can be set for a unit handling print jobs (specified in FIG. 11), that is, only one setting can be set for one print job, so that a combined job needs to be unified or reset to a new value. The page layout (layout information) is information held in settings for individual documents and pages, that is, physical page information (1203 in FIG. 12), and is not required to be unified. Therefore, the page layout (layout information) is printed with the original document settings. .

The reason why some settings are changed or not changed when the data are combined will be described. In general, there are many types of print settings, and they are classified into those that can exist only once in the entire job after combining, and those that can exist for each job or page in the combined job. Is the table of FIG.

The setting of having only one combined job is meaningful of stapling the entire job combining document A and document B, as in the stapling setting.
This is a setting in which stapling only the portion of document B loses the combined meaning. On the contrary,
If the user wants to simply staple and output the document A and the document B, the user wants to save the settings of four-page printing and one-page printing set in the original document. In fact, the setting for printing a plurality of pages on one page is a setting for imposing on the surface of the paper to be printed, so that it is not necessary to combine the entire job when combining. Such setting items can be mixed even after the combination.

The confirmation message in step 2003 indicates that the setting can be mixed even after the connection.
The user is asked to confirm the setting items to be mixed and the setting items to unify the settings. FIG. 23 described above presents only items for unifying settings to the user. Since there are many types of actual setting items, it is more convenient to use a format in which the confirmation message does not list all items but presents only representative items as shown in FIG.

FIG. 29 is a view for explaining the logical structure of the intermediate file. Broadly, a setting information portion of a print job and data of each page of the job are stored.
The setting information portion of the print job corresponds to the above-described job setting file (SDF), and in a Windows environment, DEVMODE or PDEV
All items set in the print dialog are saved, including information on a structure called ICE. The data of each page corresponds to the above-described page drawing file (PDF),
Depending on the implementation of the system, a structure having a different entity for each page may be used, or a structure in which all the contents are stored in one file as shown in FIG. When a plurality of jobs are combined, the SDF section is scanned from the intermediate file of the target document, the contents of the settings are compared, and the processing of unifying and rounding the settings is performed.

Next, the internal data structure of the combining process will be described. FIG. 27 shows the spool file manager 30.
4 is an example of a data structure (job management list) for managing a job in a state listed in FIG. The spool file manager 304 adds the ID of the intermediate file to the job management list each time the intermediate file is spooled. The ID of the intermediate file is information that can specify the intermediate file from the ID. For example, the file name is used as the ID if the intermediate file exists in the file system, and the pointer is used as the ID if it exists in the memory. Can be

FIG. 28 shows an example of the job management list when the spool file manager 304 manages a combined job. In this example, in order to distinguish a combined job from a normal job, one job is represented by a pair of a flag indicating whether the job is a combined job and a job ID. When the flag indicates a normal job, the ID of the intermediate file is stored. When the flag indicates a combined job, the ID of the combined job is stored.

Here, since the combined job is managed in the memory, a pointer to a structure representing the combined job is stored. The structure that represents the join job is
It is composed of the number of jobs in the combined job and the ID of the intermediate file of each print job in the combined job. In this way, it is possible to save resources required for job operation by operating a logical value that is a job ID instead of directly operating an intermediate file in which data is actually stored. . In addition, since the structure of the intermediate file is preserved even when the job combination is repeated, the job can be returned to the state at the time of spooling.

FIG. 32 is a flowchart showing job operation processing in the spooler 302 and the spool file manager 304.

First, in step 3201, the spooler 302 or spool file manager 304 receives a notification from the user and a print start notification.

At step 3202, the spooler 30
No. 2 determines whether the received notification is a job print notification of the store setting. If it is determined in step 3202 that the notification is a print start notification of store settings, the process advances to step 3203, and the spool file manager 304 registers the intermediate file ID of the notified print job in its own job management list. Then, the process returns to step 3201 again to accept the next notification.

If it is determined in step 3202 that the notification is not the job print start notification of the store setting, step 32
In step S04, the spool file manager 304 determines whether the notification is a job combination instruction notification in FIG. If it is a combination instruction notification, step 3205
Then, the spool file manager 304 uses the setting change editor 307 to create a combined job structure for managing the combined job.

Then, the flow advances to step 3206, where the spool file manager 304 stores all the intermediate file IDs of the currently selected job to be combined in step 3205.
Copy to the combined job structure created in step. Next, the process proceeds to step 3207, where the spool file manager 304
Deletes the job copied to the combined job structure from the held job management list, and newly executes step 3
The combined job structure created in 205 is added to the job management list. Then, the process returns to step 3201 again and waits for the next input.

If it is determined in step 3204 that the instruction is not a combination instruction, the process proceeds to step 3208, and the spool file manager 304 determines whether the instruction is a job deletion instruction. If it is a job deletion instruction, step 3209
To determine whether the job specified to be deleted is a combined job or a normal job. If it is determined that the job is a combined job, the process advances to step 3210 to delete the combined job structure at the end of the pointer registered in the job management list, and the process advances to step 3211 to issue a deletion instruction from the job management list. Delete the job that was deleted.

If it is determined in step 3209 that the job is not a combined job, the process skips step 3210 and proceeds to step 3211 in which the spool file manager 30
No. 4 deletes the job from the job management list. Then, the process returns to step 3201 again and waits for the next input.

If it is determined in step 3208 that the instruction is not a deletion instruction, the flow advances to step 3212, and the spool file manager 304 determines whether the instruction is a job copy instruction. If it is determined that this is a job copy instruction, the spool file manager 304 adds the currently selected copy target job ID to the job management list. The same applies to a combined job, and the pointer indicating the combined job structure may be copied. However, in the method of simply copying, the management when deleting a job becomes complicated, so it is necessary to save the number of times of reference to the job in a separate list. Alternatively, a method may be used in which an intermediate file or a combined job structure itself is copied and assigned a different ID for management. In this case, the management of the deletion is simple, but the time required for the copy and the extra resources for storing the copied intermediate file are consumed excessively, so that it is necessary to use them properly according to the characteristics of the system.

Then, the process returns to step 3201 again and waits for the next input. If it is determined in step 3212 that the job is not a duplicate of the job, the process proceeds to step 3214, and the spool file manager 304 determines whether the job is a job disassembly instruction. If it is determined that the instruction is a job disassembly instruction, the process proceeds to step 3215, where the spool file manager 304 determines the intermediate file ID held in the combined job structure indicated by the job pointer of the job to be disassembled. All the jobs are returned to the job management list, the job to be disassembled is deleted from the job management list, and the combined job structure is also deleted. Then, the spool file manager 304 displays a job icon of a single job on the user interface screen of FIG.

Before proceeding to step 3215, FIG.
As shown in 5, a message for confirming whether or not the disassembly processing may be performed may be issued. And again, step 32
Return to 01 and wait for the next input.

Next, the operation of the combined job will be described. The data structure used for print preview of the combined job is managed by a configuration such as job-paper (front / back) -logical page as shown in FIGS. 10 to 14. The information of the combined job to be configured is managed in job units as shown in the combined job structure (job output setting file) in FIG.
Therefore, in the present system, it is possible to perform an operation for each print job constituting the combined job.

FIG. 30 shows an example of a user interface for changing the setting of a combined job. 300
Reference numeral 1 denotes a list of print jobs included in the combined job. It is possible to change the job order by operating the job order change interface 3002. The top button 3002 is the first (top) button for moving the selected print job in the combined job. The next button is a button for changing the order of the selected print job to the next higher print job. The next button is a button for changing the order of the selected print job to the next lower print job. The bottom button is a button for moving the selected print job to the end (bottom) in the combined job. As described above, by operating the order change button, the order of the print jobs in the combined job can be changed. That is, the application A spools the job 1, the job 3, and the job 5 successively, and the job 2 is sequentially spooled by the next application B and the job 4 is sequentially spooled by the application C. By operating the order change button later, the order of the job 1, the job 2, the job 3, the job 4, and the job 5 can be aligned, and the operability is significantly improved. Note that the physical page number (or job ID) of the job output setting file is updated with the change in the order.

By operating the job deletion interface 3003, a print job can be deleted from a combined job. By deleting the print job, the number of the corresponding physical page or logical page in the job output setting file is updated.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing a processing flow when the order of jobs is changed and jobs are deleted.

In step 3310, the spool file manager 304 receives an input from the user.

In step 3202, the spool file manager 304 determines whether the input from the user is a job deletion request. If it is determined that the job is a job deletion request, the process advances to step 3303 to determine whether the job is the last job in the combined job. If there is no longer any data in the combined job as a result of the deletion, the process returns to step 3301 without doing anything and waits for the next input. Depending on the processing of the user interface,
If there is no more data as a result of deletion, the user may not be able to select deletion from the beginning.

If it is determined in step 3303 that the data selected will not be lost even if the selected job is deleted, the flow advances to step 3304 to proceed to spool file manager 304.
Deletes the ID of the job specified to be deleted from the combined job structure. FIG. 31B illustrates an example of a change in the data configuration in the process of step 3304. In this example, the second job is deleted. The job ID indicating the second job is deleted from the combined job structure, and the subsequent jobs are shifted to the empty position. Furthermore, the deletion processing is completed by reducing the data holding the number of jobs in the combined job by one.

If it is determined in step 3302 that the request for job deletion is in, the process proceeds to step 3305, and the spool file manager 304 determines whether the instruction is to change the order of jobs. Step 33
If it is determined in step 05 that the order of the jobs has been changed, the process advances to step 3306 to replace the ID of the job to which the currently selected target job is to be moved. FIG. 31A shows an example of a data structure change when the order of jobs is changed, in which the second job is brought to the top. By changing the job ID held at the position of the first job and the job ID held at the position of the second job in the combined job structure, the order of the jobs is changed. If it is determined in step 3305 that the order of the jobs is not changed, the process according to the instruction is performed, and the process returns to step 3301.

Next, the operation in page units will be described. The page can be deleted in logical page units by the control 3004 in FIG. In this case, the physical page information file is operated. 300 in FIG.
Since the preview is displayed at 5, the physical page information file has already been created from the job management list.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart for explaining the processing for deleting a logical page in a job. Although the processing is for a combined job, the same flow is applied to a single job, except for the processing at the job boundary.

First, in step 3401, the spool file manager 304 determines whether the page to be deleted is the last data of the job. If the deletion causes data to no longer exist in the job, the process ends without performing the deletion process.

If it is determined in step 3401 that the logical page can be deleted, the flow advances to step 3402 to search the physical page information file for a page corresponding to the logical page selected on the preview. And step 34
Proceeding to 03, it is determined whether or not the file is the last page of the combined job.

If it is not the last page, step 340
Then, the process proceeds to step 5 where it is determined whether or not the job is the last page of the job of the element constituting the combined job. The determination of the job boundary may be performed only when special processing needs to be performed at the job boundary. An example of a special job boundary process is that a job
If the last page of A is printed on the front side and it is possible to set whether to print the first page of the following job B on the back side of the paper, depending on the setting, what is printed on the back side of the last page Print on the next sheet without printing
There is a process of printing the first page of B, continuously printing the first page of job B on the back side, or dividing the physical page information file.

If it is determined in step 3405 that the job boundary is a job boundary, the flow advances to step 3407 to process the job boundary, and the flow advances to step 3408. Step 34
If it is determined in step 05 that the page is not a job boundary page, the process advances to step 3408. In step 3408, the spool file manager 304 shifts the page next to the logical page to be processed in order to fill an empty page. Then, the process proceeds to step 3409 and shifts the page to be processed backward by one, and returns to step 3403. When the processing advances to the last page of the combined job as a result of sequentially repeating, it is determined in step 3403 that this is the last page,
Proceed to step 3404.

In step 3404, it is determined whether there is no logical page on the last physical page to be processed as a result of shifting the page. If there is no logical page to be displayed on the physical page, the flow advances to step 3405 to delete the physical page information itself. If the physical page is not empty, the process ends without deleting the physical page.

Even if the present invention is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), a single device (copier, printer, facsimile, etc.) Device).

An object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium that stores software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments by using a computer (or CPU or MPU) of a system or an apparatus. It is also achieved by reading and executing the code.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, C
DR, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, DV
D, MO, ROM and the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) Performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the program code is read based on the instruction of the program code. The CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

An object of the present invention is to provide a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiment.
This can also be achieved by installing the program in a computer (or CPU or MPU) of a system or an apparatus, and reading and executing the installed program code.

In this case, the program code downloaded and installed by the Internet download service or the like implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the program code itself constitutes the present invention.

[0172]

As described above, the present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for generating print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, wherein data to be printed generated by an application is converted into a print job in an intermediate code format. An intermediate code conversion means for converting and temporarily storing the print data in association with the print setting information of the data to be printed, and a print job in a plurality of intermediate codes corresponding to the different data to be printed, and
Joining instruction means for issuing a joining instruction to make one joining job;
When the combining instruction unit issues a combining instruction to convert a plurality of print jobs into one combined job, the print setting information of the plurality of print jobs is analyzed, and information that can be set only one for one print job is analyzed. Since there is a setting unifying unit that generates print setting information for a unified combined job,
It is possible to combine a plurality of print jobs having print setting information, and it is possible to eliminate the problem of the print setting at the time of the combination.

The setting unifying means analyzes the print setting information of the plurality of print jobs to be combined, and unifies the settings when only one piece of information can be set for one print job is different. Or a confirmation unit for confirming whether or not to combine print jobs. Therefore, it is possible to avoid undesired combination by the user.

Further, since the print job in the intermediate code format is temporarily stored as a page drawing file in page units, handling of data is simplified when jobs are combined.

Since the print setting information for the combined job is added with information designating a page drawing file to be laid out on a physical page, the combined job itself has an intermediate data format such as a page drawing file. Since it is not necessary to have drawing data, the processing at the time of combining is lightened.

Further, since the print setting information is temporarily stored as a print setting file for each print job,
Jobs become cheaper to handle.

[0177] Further, there is provided preview display control means for controlling display of a preview based on print setting information of the print job or the combined job.
It is possible for the user to confirm the print result before printing.

Further, since there is further provided an order control means for manipulating a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and changing the order of the print jobs, the intermediate code can be created without considering the printing order especially when creating the intermediate code. Order can be determined according to the user's preference.

Further, since there is further provided a job deleting means for operating a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and deleting a specific print job, there is no need to recreate a combined job.

In addition, the present invention further includes a job dividing unit for dividing the combined job into a plurality of print jobs before combining, so that each of the combined jobs can be returned to a single job. It becomes possible.

Further, since there is further provided a job duplicating means for designating the print job or the combined job and creating a duplicate of the designated print job, even if another job is to be included in a certain job, the duplication is performed. Make page control possible.

Further, the print job or the combined job further includes setting initialization means for returning an initial state at the time of creating intermediate code format data based on the print setting information. Operations such as job editing can be performed with confidence.

Further, since there is further provided a page editing means for deleting a designated page from the logical page in the print job or the combined job, the job operation desired by the user can be performed, and the operability and freedom can be improved. The degree improves.

Further, the apparatus further comprises print data generating means for generating print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus based on the intermediate code format data temporarily stored by the intermediate code converting means. After generation, printing can be performed without restarting the application.

A drawing command generating means for converting the intermediate code format data temporarily stored by the intermediate code converting means into a drawing command interpretable by the drawing means of the OS and outputting the same, And a print command allocating means for passing the print command received through the OS drawing means from the drawing command generating means to the intermediate data converting means, and passing the print command to the print data generating means from the drawing command generating means. Conventional print data conversion means can be used, and even if such a mechanism is provided, the number of development steps can be reduced.

The disease order is a GDI function,
Since the print command is a DDI function and the print data is in a printer language, this mechanism can be provided to a general OS.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print control apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a typical print system of a host computer to which a printer is connected.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print system that temporarily spools an intermediate code before converting a print command from an application into a printer control command.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing in a spooler 302.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing print control in the spool file manager 304.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing in the despooler 305.

FIG. 8 is an example of a print setting screen.

FIG. 9 is an example of a print spool setting screen.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data format passed when a physical page print request is issued from a spool file manager 304 to a despooler 305.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a data format passed when a physical page print request is issued from the spool file manager 304 to the despooler 305.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of a data format passed when a physical page print request is issued from the spool file manager 304 to the despooler 305.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a data format passed when a physical page print request is issued from the spool file manager 304 to the despooler 305.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data format passed when a physical page print request is issued from the spool file manager 304 to the despooler 305.

15 is a flowchart illustrating a setting change process in a setting change editor 307. FIG.

FIG. 16 is an example of a screen displaying a list of print jobs spooled by the spool file manager.

17 is an example of a screen of a previewer 306. FIG.

18 is an example of a screen of a setting change editor 307. FIG.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a user operation when spooling to the spool file manager 304 as illustrated in FIG. 16;

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a user operation when combining jobs.

FIG. 21 is a conceptual diagram for explaining unification and rounding of settings when combining a plurality of documents.

FIG. 22 is an example of a user interface for selecting a plurality of documents to be combined in order to combine a plurality of documents.

FIG. 23 is an example of a user interface for requesting unification of settings and confirmation of rounding at the time of connection.

FIG. 24 is an example of a user interface indicating that a plurality of documents selected in FIG. 22 have been combined;

FIG. 25 is an example of a confirmation message when a job is disassembled.

FIG. 26 is an example of a classification of non-unified settings and unified settings when setting unification / rounding is performed in combination.

FIG. 27 shows an example of a data structure when the spool file manager 304 manages a plurality of print jobs.

FIG. 28 is an example of a data structure when the spool file manager 304 manages a plurality of print jobs and a plurality of combined jobs.

FIG. 29 is an example of the internal structure of an intermediate file.

FIG. 30 is an example of a screen for editing a combined job.

FIG. 31 is an example of data processing when rearranging or deleting jobs after combination in job units.

32 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a job editing process in the spool file manager 304. FIG.

FIG. 33 is a flowchart showing an example of processing in the spool file manager 304 when job setting editing processing of a combined job in the setting change editor 307 is performed.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart showing an example of the status of processing in the spool file manager 304 when a page is deleted in the setting change editor 307.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 RAM 3 ROM 4 System Bus 12 CPU 13 ROM 19 RAM 3000 Host Computer 1500 Printer

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Satoshi Nishikawa 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 2C061 AP01 AP03 AP04 HJ06 HJ07 HN15 HN19 HN21 HN23 HR01 HR06 5B021 AA01 AA02 BB01 DD12 FF03 KK01 PP08

Claims (46)

[Claims] An information processing apparatus for generating print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, comprising: converting data to be printed generated by an application into a print job in an intermediate code format; and printing the data to be printed. Intermediate code conversion means for temporarily storing in association with setting information; combining instruction means for performing a combining instruction to combine a plurality of intermediate code format print jobs corresponding to the different data to be printed into one combined job; When the combining instruction unit issues a combining instruction to convert a plurality of print jobs into one combined job, the print setting information of the plurality of print jobs is analyzed, and information that can be set only one for one print job is analyzed. An information processing apparatus, comprising: setting unifying means for generating print setting information for a unified combined job. 2. The setting unifying unit analyzes print setting information of a plurality of print jobs to be combined, and unifies settings when information that can be set only one for one print job is different. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a confirmation unit for confirming whether to select whether to combine print jobs. 3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print job in the intermediate code format is temporarily stored as a page drawing file in page units. 4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the print setting information for the combined job is added with information designating a page drawing file laid out on a physical page. 5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print setting information is temporarily stored as a print setting file for each print job. 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a preview display control unit that controls to display a preview based on print setting information of the print job or the combined job. 7. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an order control unit that operates a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and changes the order of the print jobs. 8. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a job deletion unit that operates a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and deletes a specific print job. 9. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a job dividing unit that divides the combined job into a plurality of print jobs before combining. 10. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a job duplicating means for designating the print job or the combined job and creating a copy of the designated print job.
10. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 9 to 9. 11. The print job or the combination job further includes a setting initialization unit for returning an initial state at the time of creating data in an intermediate code format based on the print setting information, based on print setting information. Claims 1 to 1
0. An information processing apparatus according to claim 0. 12. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a page editing unit that deletes a designated page from a logical page in the print job or the combined job. 13. A print data generating means for generating print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus based on intermediate code format data temporarily stored by the intermediate code converting means. 13. The information processing apparatus according to any one of 1 to 12. 14. A drawing command generating means for converting data in an intermediate code format temporarily stored by the intermediate code converting means into a drawing command interpretable by a drawing means of an OS and outputting the command, and a drawing means of the OS from the application. And a print command allocating means for passing a print command received via the OS to the intermediate data conversion means and a print command received from the drawing command generating means via the OS drawing means to the print data generating means. 14. The method according to claim 13, wherein
An information processing apparatus according to claim 1. 15. The information processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the disease command is a GDI function, the print command is a DDI function, and the print data is in a printer language. 16. An information processing apparatus for generating print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, comprising: converting data to be printed generated by an application into a print job in an intermediate code format; An intermediate code conversion step of temporarily storing the job in association with the setting information; and a combining instruction step of combining a plurality of intermediate code format print jobs corresponding to the different data to be printed into a combined job. When a combining instruction to convert a plurality of print jobs into one combined job is issued in the combining instruction step, the print setting information of the plurality of print jobs is analyzed, and information that can be set only one for one print job is analyzed. A setting unifying step of generating print setting information for a unified combined job. 17. The setting unifying step analyzes print setting information of a plurality of print jobs to be combined, and unifies settings when information that can be set only once for one print job is different. 17. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising a confirmation step of confirming whether to select whether to combine print jobs. 18. The print job in the intermediate code format,
18. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein the information is temporarily stored as a page drawing file for each page. 19. The print setting information for the combined job includes:
2. The information to designate a page drawing file laid out on a physical page is added.
8. The information processing method according to item 8. 20. The information processing method according to claim 16, wherein the print setting information is temporarily stored as a print setting file for each print job. 21. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising a preview display control step of controlling to display a preview based on print setting information of the print job or the combined job. 22. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising an order control step of operating a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and changing the order of the print jobs. 23. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising a job deleting step of operating a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and deleting a specific print job. 24. The information processing method according to claim 16, further comprising a job dividing step of dividing the combined job into a plurality of print jobs before combining. 25. The method according to claim 16, further comprising the step of causing the user to designate the print job or the combined job and creating a copy of the designated print job.
25. The information processing method according to any one of claims 24 to 24. 26. The print job or the combined job further includes, based on print setting information, a setting initializing step of returning an initial state at the time of creating data in an intermediate code format which is a basis of the job. Claims 16 to 2
5. The information processing method according to item 5. 27. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a page editing step of deleting a designated page from the logical pages in the print job or the combined job.
27. The information processing method according to any one of items 6 to 26. 28. A print data generating step for generating print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus based on data in the intermediate code format temporarily stored in the intermediate code converting step. 28. The information processing method according to any one of items 16 to 27. 29. A drawing command generating step of converting data in an intermediate code format temporarily stored in the intermediate code converting step into a drawing command interpretable by a drawing unit of an OS and outputting the command, and a drawing unit of the OS from the application. A print command received via the drawing means of the OS from the drawing command generating step, and a print command allocating step passed to the print data generating step from the drawing command generating step. 29. The information processing method according to claim 28, wherein: 30. The information processing method according to claim 29, wherein the disease instruction is a GDI function, the print instruction is a DDI function, and the print data is in a printer language. 31. A storage medium storing a program for generating print data to be transmitted to a printing device, wherein the data to be printed generated by an application is converted into a print job in an intermediate code format, and An intermediate code conversion step of temporarily storing the print data in association with the print setting information of the data to be printed; An instruction step; and in the case where an instruction to combine a plurality of print jobs into one combined job is issued in the combining instruction step, the print setting information of the plurality of print jobs is analyzed, and only one print job is analyzed for one print job. A setting unifying step of generating print setting information for a combined job in which unsettable information is unified. Storage medium capable program is stored taken. 32. The setting unifying step analyzes print setting information of the plurality of print jobs to be combined, and unifies settings when information that can be set only once for one print job is different. 32. The storage medium according to claim 31, further comprising a confirmation step of confirming whether to select whether to combine print jobs. 33. The print job in the intermediate code format,
33. The storage medium according to claim 31, wherein the storage medium is temporarily stored as a page drawing file in page units. 34. The print setting information for the combined job,
4. A method according to claim 3, wherein information for designating a page drawing file laid out on the physical page is added.
3. The storage medium according to 3. 35. The storage medium according to claim 31, wherein said print setting information is temporarily stored as a print setting file for each print job. 36. The storage medium according to claim 31, further comprising a preview display control step of controlling to display a preview based on print setting information of the print job or the combined job. 37. The storage medium according to claim 31, further comprising an order control step of operating a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and changing the order of the print jobs. 38. The storage medium according to claim 31, further comprising a job deletion step of operating a plurality of print jobs in the combined job and deleting a specific print job. 39. The storage medium according to claim 31, further comprising a job dividing step of dividing the combined job into a plurality of print jobs before combining. 40. The method according to claim 31, further comprising the step of causing the user to designate the print job or the combined job and creating a copy of the designated print job.
40. The storage medium according to any one of claims 39 to 39. 41. The print job or the combined job further includes, based on print setting information, a setting initializing step of returning an initial state at the time of creating data in an intermediate code format which is a base of the job. Claims 31 to 4
0 storage medium. 42. The method according to claim 3, further comprising a page editing step of deleting a designated page from the logical pages in the print job or the combined job.
42. The storage medium according to any one of 1 to 41. 43. A print data generating step for generating print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus based on the data in the intermediate code format temporarily stored in the intermediate code converting step. 43. The storage medium according to 31 to 42. 44. A drawing command generating step of converting the intermediate code format data temporarily stored in the intermediate code converting step into a drawing command interpretable by a drawing unit of the OS and outputting the command, and a drawing unit of the OS from the application. A print command received via the drawing means of the OS from the drawing command generating step, and a print command allocating step passed to the print data generating step from the drawing command generating step. 44. The storage medium according to claim 43, wherein: 45. The storage medium according to claim 44, wherein the disease command is a GDI function, the print command is a DDI function, and the print data is in a printer language. 46. A computer-readable program for generating print data to be transmitted to a printing apparatus, comprising: converting data to be printed generated by an application into a print job in an intermediate code format; And an instruction to combine the intermediate code conversion program code temporarily stored in association with the print setting information and the plurality of intermediate code format print jobs corresponding to the different data to be printed into one combined job When a command for combining a plurality of print jobs is issued by the program code for instruction and the program code for combining instruction, the print setting information of the plurality of print jobs is analyzed, and one print job is analyzed. Settings that generate print setting information for a combined job that unifies information that can only be set for one job A computer program that is executable by a computer, comprising: a program code for unification.