JP2002268838A - Printing system, computer readable medium and printer driver program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing system which includes a printer that needs the designation of a printable area in printing data and enables a user to obtain unclipped printed matter in the form of sufficiently exhibiting system capability without performing a special setting. SOLUTION: This printing system, including a printer that receives printing data in which the printable area is designated and operates and the computer that utilizes the printer, uses a computer, in which a printer driver that decides whether a printing object document can be plotted within a printable area where all of it is set at the time of preparing a spool file (step S101), changes the printable area into a wider one in the case of needing plotting other than the set printable area (step S102; yes) and subsequently generates printing data about the document to be printed (step S104) is installed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a printing system, a computer-readable medium for realizing such a printing system, and a printer driver program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As is well known, when printing is performed in a printing system including a computer and a printer, a document (electronic data) is created using some kind of application software in the computer. The created document is converted into print data of a predetermined format by a printer driver.

Some printers require that a printable area be specified in print data. Specifically, as the printer driver, the user can specify whether the printable area is a “standard” area or a “maximum” area including the “standard” area, and is set by the user. There is a printer which includes control data indicating a printable area, and a printer which generates print data not including drawing data for a portion exceeding the printable area.

[0004]

That is, in a system including the above-described printer and a computer in which the printer driver is installed, a document to be printed is drawn outside a "standard" area. If the user designates the “standard” area as the printable area at the time, a part of the document is clipped by the printable area. In addition, when the document to be printed is to be drawn only in the “standard” area and the user has specified the “maximum” area as the printable area, the system is clipped. Although unprinted matter is obtained, the host computer and printer perform useless processing during printing.

[0005] In short, in the above-mentioned conventional system, the "maximum" area should always be designated in order to prevent the document from being clipped by the printable area. Therefore, the user has to set a printable area in accordance with the contents of the document to be printed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printing system including a printer that requires a printable area to be designated in print data, without requiring a user to make special settings, and It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system capable of obtaining a printed material without clipping in a form where the capability is sufficiently exhibited. Another object of the present invention is to provide a computer readable medium and a printer driver program that can be used to construct such a printing system.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a printing system according to a first aspect of the present invention provides a printable area designation information for designating any of a plurality of types of printable areas from a host computer. Receiving a supply of print data including, a printer having print execution means for generating a printed matter corresponding to the print data, and a host computer connected to the printer, based on a document to be printed to be printed, A printable area specifying unit that specifies the smallest printable area in which all the contents specified by the print target document can be drawn from a plurality of types of printable areas, and a printable area specifying unit based on the print target document. Printing that generates print data including printable area designation information indicating the specified printable area and supplies the print data to the printer It is intended to include a host computer and a chromatography data generating and supplying means.

That is, in the printing system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the setting (designation) of the printable area is performed not by the user but by the host computer (printable area specifying means) interpreting the contents of the document to be printed. It has a configuration that is performed automatically. Therefore, according to the printing system of the present invention, it is possible for a user to obtain a non-clipped printed matter without making any special settings, in a state where the printer and the host computer fully utilize their capabilities. become.

In realizing the printing system of the first aspect of the present invention, any printer having the above-mentioned functions can be used as the printer. It is also possible to use a printer whose area includes a printable area whose size matches the paper size.

A printing system according to a second aspect of the present invention is a printing system including a printer and a host computer using the printer, wherein a size of paper to be printed is specified as the host computer. Printable area specifying means for specifying the smallest printable area in which all the contents specified by the print target document can be drawn from a plurality of types of printable areas that can be set for the paper based on the print target document And print data including, based on the print target document, size information indicating the size of the sheet specified in the print target document and printable area designation information indicating the printable area specified by the printable area specifying means. Print data generation / supply means for generating and supplying the print data to the printer. In addition, when the print system is supplied with print data from a host computer as a printer,
By performing processing on the print data in accordance with the printable area designation information included in the print data, the print target document is printed on a sheet of the size indicated by the size information included in the print data. It includes those having a printing execution means for performing the printing.

In other words, when a printing system corresponding to several types of paper sizes is constructed by utilizing the present invention, the printable area specification information is set so that the information for specifying the paper size is included. Although the printing system of the first embodiment may be modified, a configuration like the printing system of the second embodiment may be adopted.

Further, the printer driver program of the present invention receives supply of print data including printable area designation information for designating one of a plurality of types of printable areas,
A computer connected to a printer that generates prints according to the print data can draw all contents specified by the print target document from multiple types of printable areas based on the print target document to be printed Generating print data including printable area specifying information indicating the printable area specified by the printable area specifying means based on the print target document; Is created so as to operate as an apparatus including print data generation / supply means for supplying the print data to the printer.

[0013] The computer readable medium of the present invention stores the printer driver program (corresponding program) of the present invention.

Therefore, the printer driver program of the present invention or the program recorded on the computer readable medium of the present invention is installed in a computer connected to a printer which needs to designate a printable area in print data. For example, the user can obtain a non-clipped printed material without making special settings in a form that makes full use of the system including the computer and the printer.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system according to the present embodiment includes a host computer 10 and a printer 50 connected to the host computer 10.

The host computer 10 includes a printer 50
Is a computer in which a printer driver 12 which is a program for generating print data for a printer is installed from a CD-ROM 20. The printer driver 12 according to the present embodiment is a Mac OS (Apple Compute
r Inc. trademark).

The printer 50 has a paper setting dialog box 6 displayed by the printer driver 12 shown in FIG.
Configuration of 0 (existence of "Borderless" checkbox)
As is clear from the above, the inkjet printer is capable of performing "borderless printing".

Here, the operation of the printing system at the time of “four-sided borderless printing” will be briefly described. At the time of “four-sided borderless printing”, based on the document to be printed (usually a document whose contents are indicated by image data), the host computer 10 draws drawing data of a size slightly larger than the paper size to be used for printing. Is generated by enlarging the original data, and print data including the drawing data together with a paper size designation command indicating a paper size, a command indicating four-sided borderless printing, and the like are generated. Then, based on the print data, the printer 50 performs drawing on a sheet having the sheet size designated by the sheet size designation command. That is, “four-sided borderless printing” is printing in which drawing is performed on a portion where paper is not present.
The apparatus has a configuration in which the platen is not stained even when performing “four-sided borderless printing”. For details of the configuration, refer to Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-274876.

The printer 50 includes a paper size designation command for designating a paper size as print data for instructing normal printing (printing that is not “four-sided borderless printing”).
A printable area designation command for designating whether the printable area is a “standard” area, a “maximum” area, or a “no margin” area, etc., and a paper size designation command and a printable area designation command It is configured to be able to process print data including drawing data of a size (drawing data of a printable area size). Here, the “standard” area, the “maximum” area, and the “margin-free” area are, as schematically shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C, respectively. Paper of the paper size specified by the size specification command (indicated by a solid line frame in FIG. 3)
Is a region whose position and size are relatively determined (in FIG. 3, indicated by a dotted frame). In other words, the printable area designation command is not a command that directly indicates the position and size of the printable area, but the top, bottom, left, and right margins of the printable area with respect to the paper size specified by the paper size designation command. The command indicates which of the three types of combinations is predetermined.

As described above, the printer 50 is an apparatus capable of processing three types of print data having different designated printable areas as print data for instructing printing on paper of various paper sizes. . The processing function for the print data in which the “standard” area or the “maximum” area is specified is a function that the printer described in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-274876 also has. Is a function that the printer did not have.

Therefore, for a document that can be printed in the "standard" area, no matter what printable area is specified by the host computer 10, the printer 50 prints the document. Can be performed. However, if the host computer 10 causes the host computer 10 to generate print data in which a “maximum” area or “no margin” area is designated for printing such a document, the host computer 10 and the printer 50 generate “standard” print data. Unnecessary processing is performed on the portion outside the area. Accordingly, the printer 50 is an apparatus that desirably causes the host computer 10 to generate print data specifying a “standard” area for such a document. The printer 50 also generates print data specifying the “maximum” area in the host computer 10 for a document that does not fit in the “standard” area but can be entirely printed in the “maximum” area. This is a device that is desirable.

On the premise of the above, the operation of the printing system will be specifically described below.

When printing a certain document (hereinafter referred to as a print target document) using the printing system, a user uses an input device (mouse and keyboard, usually a mouse) of the host computer 10. ,
The document to be printed is displayed on the host computer 10. Then, the user selects the “paper setting ...” menu under the file menu, and causes the printer driver 12 to display the paper setting dialog box 60.
(FIG. 2) is displayed.

Thereafter, the user operates the input device to display the displayed paper setting dialog box 60.
, Settings such as paper size and printing direction are made. However, the user selects the "standard" area as the printable area regardless of the content of the document to be printed (the radio button 61 is turned on). Then, the user closes the paper setting dialog box 60 by pressing an “OK” button 62.

Next, the user selects the "Print ..." menu under the file menu. When there is no need to change the paper size or the like, the user does not need to perform the work related to the paper setting dialog box 60, and
Perform this work (selection of the "Print ..." menu).

When the "Print ..." menu is selected, a print dialog box is displayed by the printer driver 12, so that the user can make necessary settings (number of copies and print) in the displayed print dialog box. Is performed, the OK button on the print dialog box is pressed. Note that the print dialog box displayed by the printer driver 12 is not particularly different from the print dialog box displayed by a general printer driver, and hence illustration and detailed description thereof are omitted.

When the OK button on the print dialog box is pressed, the host computer 10 executes the printing process of the procedure shown in FIG.

That is, in the host computer 10,
Print data (QuickD) of a document to be printed by QuickDraw (a program for graphics drawing included in Mac OS; a trademark of Apple Computer Inc.)
Print data consisting of a raw code) is created, and a spool file, which is a file of the print data, is created in the HDD provided in the host computer 10 by the printer driver 12 (step S101). The process in step S101 is performed with reference to the set paper size. When creating a spool file, the printer driver 12
By knowing the drawing position of each QuickDraw code, the smallest printable area where the document to be printed can fit is "standard" area, "maximum" area, "no margin"
A process of grasping which of the regions is also performed.
In the printing system according to the present embodiment, the part performing the processing in this step corresponds to a printable area specifying unit, and the processing in steps S102 to S104 described later is performed.
Is equivalent to print data generation / supply means.

If the document to be printed is a document that can be entirely drawn in the set printable area (step S102; NO), the printer driver 12 changes the printable area without changing the printable area. From the spool file, drawing data for the printable area is created, and the drawing data (including an ESC / P raster code) for the printer 50 including the drawing data together with a group of commands for specifying a paper size, a printable area, and the like. Print data) is generated and supplied to the printer 50 (step S
103). Then, the printer driver 12 ends the illustrated processing.

On the other hand, if the document to be printed requires drawing outside the set printable area (step S102; YES), the printer driver 1
In step S101, the designated printable area is set in step S101.
Assuming that the printable area has been grasped, print data for the printable area is created from the spool file, and the drawing data is included together with a group of commands for specifying the paper size, the grasped printable area, and the like. The data is generated and supplied to the printer 50 (step S104).
After that, the printer driver 12 ends the illustrated processing.

As described above, in the printing system according to the present embodiment, the printable area is the minimum printable area (“maximum”) in which all the documents to be printed can be drawn.
Area or “no margin” area)
Print data is created. Therefore, according to the present printing system, even if the user does not perform the work of setting the printable area according to the document to be printed, the unclipped print of the document can reduce the capacity of the printer 50 and the host computer 10. It can be generated in a fully exploited form (without causing the printer 50 and the host computer 10 to perform useless processing). The printer 50 provided in the printing system includes:
Since the function to print outside the "maximum" area without enlarging the original data is provided, this printing system can print a document slightly outside the "maximum" area which could not be done conventionally. Will also work.

<Modifications> The printing system according to the embodiment can perform various modifications. For example, the host computer 10 configuring the printing system according to the embodiment uses MacOS. However, as the host computer 10, Windows
Another OS such as s95 / 98 / Me / 2000 (trademark of Microsoft Corporation) may be used. Also, the recording medium on which the printer driver 12 is recorded is set to a CD-RO
That it may be a recording medium of a type different from M20,
The printer 50 may be a device other than an ink jet printer, such as a laser beam printer, and the contents (layout) of a print setting dialog box 60 and the like.
May be different from those described as the embodiment.

[0034]

According to the printing system, the computer-readable medium, and the printer driver program of the present invention, useless processing is performed by a simpler operation (without performing special settings) and in the printer and the computer. In this way, it is possible to generate a non-clipped print of a document to be printed by a printer that needs to specify a printable area.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a print setting dialog box displayed on a host computer configuring the printing system according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a printable area of a printer constituting the printing system according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a printing process executed by a host computer configuring the printing system according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 Host computer 12 Printer driver 20 CD-ROM 50 Printer 60 Print setting dialog box

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A printing system including a printer and a host computer using the printer, wherein the printer transmits printable area designation information for designating any one of a plurality of types of printable areas from the host computer. A print execution unit that receives a supply of the print data including the print data and generates a printed matter corresponding to the print data, wherein the host computer is configured to select one of the plurality of types of printable areas based on a document to be printed. A printable area specifying unit that specifies the smallest printable area in which all the contents specified by the print target document can be drawn; and a printable area specified by the printable area specifying unit based on the print target document. Print data including the printable area designation information shown and supplied to the printer Printing system; and a printing data generation and supply means. 2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of types of printable areas include a printable area whose size matches the size of a sheet. 3. A printing system including a printer and a host computer using the printer, wherein the host computer performs printing on a sheet to be printed based on a designated document size based on a designated document to be printed. A printable area specifying unit that specifies the smallest printable area in which all the contents defined by the print target document can be drawn from a plurality of types of printable areas that can be set; and Generates print data including size information indicating the size of the paper specified in the target document and printable area specification information indicating the printable area specified by the printable area specifying means, and supplies the print data to the printer A print data generation / supply unit, wherein the printer is the host computer When the print data is supplied, by processing the print data according to the printable area designation information included in the print data, the size information indicated by the print data is indicated. A printing system, comprising: printing execution means for printing the document to be printed on paper of a size. 4. A computer connected to a printer that receives print data including printable area designation information for designating any of a plurality of types of printable areas and generates a printed matter according to the print data. A printable area specifying unit that specifies a smallest printable area in which all the contents defined by the print target document can be drawn from the plurality of types of printable areas based on a print target document to be printed; A print data generating / supplying unit that generates print data including printable area designation information indicating the printable area specified by the printable area specifying unit based on a document to be printed and supplies the print data to the printer; A computer-readable medium having recorded thereon a program to be operated. 5. A computer connected to a printer that receives print data including printable area designation information for designating one of a plurality of types of printable areas and generates a printed matter according to the print data. A printable area specifying unit that specifies a smallest printable area in which all the contents defined by the print target document can be drawn from the plurality of types of printable areas based on a print target document to be printed; A print data generating / supplying unit that generates print data including printable area designation information indicating the printable area specified by the printable area specifying unit based on a document to be printed and supplies the print data to the printer; Printer driver program to run.