JP2002254773A - Image forming method, image forming device, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing setting method, a printing device, a printing control program and a recording medium by which a centralized setting of print can be automatically changed and something troublesome can be reduced with regard to the printing setting method to set for printing a print data described in a page description language or the like, the printing device using the same, the printing control program and a recording medium printing device. SOLUTION: Total number of page of a document to print is acquired and the printing setting is changed according to the acquired number of page. For example, the printing setting is changed in order to centralize the total number of page toward a prescribed number of page.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming method, an image forming apparatus, a program, and a recording medium, and more particularly, to an image forming method, an image forming apparatus, a program, and recording for forming an image based on preset settings. Regarding the medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A printer control program called a printer driver is installed in a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a PC). The printer driver is a program for generating print data corresponding to the document data and sending it to a printing apparatus when printing a document created using an application program such as a word processor.

For example, a printer driver of a printing apparatus supporting a page description language such as PostScript generates print data composed of program data described in a page description language. The printer driver uses various printing conditions (paper size, font, scaling, number of lines, line spacing,
Settings such as double-sided printing can be changed as necessary, and the set printing conditions are sent to the printing apparatus in a form included in the print data of the document. The printing apparatus prints a document on paper under the set printing conditions by executing a printing operation according to the print data received from the printer driver. Therefore, by changing the setting of the printing conditions on the printer driver, printing can be performed under desired conditions by variously changing the paper size, font, magnification, and the like.

[0004]

However, when checking the contents of a document created on a PC, it is easier to read on paper than to read what is displayed on a monitor screen. Printing is often performed. In such a case, it is not always necessary to strictly set the printing conditions, and the font, the magnification, the number of lines,
There is often no problem even if the setting of the printing condition such as the line spacing is changed.

However, in the conventional printer driver, when a print instruction is issued, print data is generated in accordance with the print conditions set at that time, so that a document having a large character size, a document having a small number of lines per page, When a document having many page breaks is printed, the number of sheets used increases. For this reason, if the remaining amount of paper in the printing apparatus is smaller than the number of pages of the document, printing is interrupted halfway.

In order to solve such a problem, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-235473, the present applicant changes the setting according to the remaining amount of paper in the printer main body, and prints when there is little paper. It proposes a technology that aggregates documents that should be printed and performs printing that is normally set with abundant paper.

On the other hand, there are many image forming apparatuses such as printers having an aggregation function at present. Users rarely use these functions for printing official sentences, but often print Web pages or read diagonally.

For this reason, the functions are often used for the purpose of saving paper, or because it is more convenient to collect information on one sheet. The setting of the printer should be changed according to the number of prints, and the number of prints differs for each print. That is, it is necessary for the user to change the printer settings while considering the number of pages of the document for each printing, which is very troublesome.

[0009] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an image forming method, an image forming apparatus, and a program capable of automatically changing a setting for forming and collecting images to reduce the complexity of operation. And a recording medium.

[0010]

According to the present invention, the total number of pages of a document to be printed is obtained, and the print setting is changed according to the obtained number of pages. For example, the print setting is changed so that the total number of pages is reduced to a predetermined number of pages.

According to the present invention, the total number of pages of a document to be printed is obtained, and the print settings are changed based on the obtained number of pages, for example, such that the total number of pages is consolidated into a predetermined number of pages. Thus, the document can be printed without interruption due to running out of paper. Therefore, the user does not need to perform the setting operation of the printer for each printing. In addition, the user does not need to perform the printer aggregation setting operation for each printing.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

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

The printer system of this embodiment is composed of a known personal computer (PC) and a known printing device 4 such as a laser printer or a digital multifunction machine. The printer driver 1 is installed in the PC in advance. Printer driver 1
The program is provided by a recording medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk or a CD-ROM.
Installed on PC.

The print data is translated into a page description language by a printer driver 1, and then a spooler (Spooler) 2
Spooled in the language / port monitor (Language
Monitor / Port Monitor) 3 to the printing device 4.

At this time, the printer driver 1 acquires the total number of pages of the document to be printed, and executes a process of changing the print setting based on the acquired number of pages. For example, a process of changing print settings so as to aggregate the total number of pages into a predetermined number of pages is executed.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing of the printer driver according to one embodiment of the present invention.

First, in step S1, the total number of pages of a document to be printed is obtained. The total number of pages of the document is obtained from the print job information.

Next, in step S2, it is determined whether or not the total number of pages of the document acquired in step S1 is the number of pages for which the setting condition is changed. If it is determined in step S2 that the total number of pages of the document has not reached the number of pages whose setting conditions are to be changed, the processing of this embodiment ends. At this time, the print data is translated into a page description language,
The spool is spooled on the spooler 2. That is, processing for normal printing is performed.

When the total number of pages of the document reaches the number of pages for which the setting conditions are to be changed in step S2, the user is confirmed in step S3 to change the settings. In step S3, for example, a screen indicating that the setting has been changed is displayed on the display of the PC, and the user clicks a button on the screen to select whether or not to change the setting.

If the user has selected not to change the setting in step S3, the processing of this embodiment ends. At this time, the print data is translated into a page description language, and then spooled in the spooler 2. That is, processing for normal printing is performed.

If the user selects to change the setting in step S3, the print format is changed to the setting preset on the setting screen in step S4.

FIG. 3 shows a screen configuration diagram of a setting screen according to an embodiment of the present invention.

The page number input section 12 of the setting screen 11
By inputting the number of pages into 14, the setting can be changed based on the input number of pages. For example, when "1" is input to the page number input section 14, one page is printed on one sheet of paper. Also, “2” is entered in the page number input section 14.
Will print two pages on a single sheet of paper. Further, when "4" is input to the page number input section 14, four pages are printed on one sheet.

For example, "6" is entered in the page input section 12.
By inputting, it can be set so that up to the sixth page can be accommodated on one sheet of paper. As a result, even when one page is printed, it can be set so that it is printed on one sheet of paper. That is, even if one page is printed, 2
Printing is performed at in1, and the paper consumption can be prevented from being reduced without changing. Further, the page input unit 13
, It is also possible to set such as 2 in 1 for 10 or more sheets.

By checking the check box 15, the contents of the change are displayed on the screen before the setting is changed. Thereby, the user can confirm the changed contents of the setting. When the check box 15 is not checked, the setting is automatically changed according to the setting contents of the setting screen 11 in FIG.

As described above, in this embodiment, the print setting can be automatically changed so that the total number of pages is integrated into a predetermined number of pages according to the total number of pages of the document to be printed. There is no need to change the printer aggregation settings for each print. For this reason, user operability can be improved.

In the present embodiment, the automatic aggregation setting is performed by the printer driver installed in the PC. However, the program for the aggregation setting is installed in the firmware of the printing apparatus 4 and the printing apparatus 4 side The above-described aggregation setting may be performed.

Further, in the present embodiment, a printer has been described as an image forming apparatus. However, the present invention is not limited to the printer, and can be applied to general apparatuses for forming an image based on data.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, the total number of pages of a document to be printed is acquired, and the print settings are aggregated into a predetermined number of pages based on the acquired number of pages. By changing the print settings,
The document can be printed without interruption due to running out of paper, so that the user does not need to perform a printer setting operation for each printing. Also,
It has features such as eliminating the need for the user to perform the printer aggregation setting operation for each print.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

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

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a function setting screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printer Driver 2 Spooler 3 Language / Port Monitor 4 Printer

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image forming method comprising: obtaining a total number of pages of a document forming an image; and changing settings for image formation according to the obtained number of pages. 2. The image forming method according to claim 1, wherein the setting for forming the image is performed by integrating the total number of pages into a predetermined number of pages. 3. A total page number acquisition unit for acquiring the total number of pages of a document forming an image, and an image formation setting unit for changing settings for image formation according to the total page number acquired by the acquisition unit. An image forming apparatus comprising: 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the setting for forming the image is such that the total number of pages is consolidated into a predetermined number of pages. 5. A program for causing a computer to acquire the total number of pages of a document forming an image, and to change a setting for forming the image based on the acquired number of pages. 6. A computer-readable storage medium in which a computer acquires a total number of pages of a document forming an image and records a program for changing a setting for forming the image based on the acquired number of pages.