JP2003150344A - Printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a printing result targeted by a user when print data of a single page is printed by separating it into a plurality of sheets. SOLUTION: In an image formation system consisting of a host PC 1 and a printer 2, when a separate printing function for printing the print data of a single page by separating it into a plurality of the sheets is set, a function for acquiring pieces of data to be printed by every sheet from the print data of a single page and for performing preview display based on the piece of data is provided and a function for setting layout in the sheet to be printed is further provided to a printer driver introduced in the host PC 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is applied to an image forming system including a host terminal such as a personal computer and a printer for printing print data from the host terminal. The printer driver as a program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional image forming system, as in the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-135831,
There is a method in which print data of a plurality of pages is collectively printed on one sheet by automatically scaling the print data to a selected print sheet size.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-134408 discloses that a printer driver is used to confirm that print data fits within a print image paper size. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-136528 describes that a preview display reflecting the setting of the print purpose is performed.

[0004]

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 000-135831 does not disclose printing of single-page print data divided into a plurality of pieces. Here, when the print data of a single page is divided into a plurality of pieces and printed, the print result of each page may be different from what the user intended. For example, although print data intended to be printed on A2 size paper is intended to be printed on four A4 size papers, it is actually printed on five or more papers because of the margins. There is a risk. Regarding this point, it is possible to confirm to some extent how printing is performed by performing a print preview before executing printing. However, JP-A-11-1365
Although the preview may be performed based on the sample image as in the technique described in Japanese Patent No. 28, the confirmation cannot be performed based on the actual print data.

The present invention solves such a problem, and when a single-page print data is divided into a plurality of pieces and printed, a user can accurately grasp a desired print result before printing. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer driver that realizes.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is used in an image forming system comprising a host terminal and a printer device for printing on paper based on print data from the host terminal, A printer driver that converts print data created using application software that causes a host terminal to function as print data editing means into data that can be interpreted by a printer device, and transmits the data while observing the state of the printer device. Dividing means for dividing the print data for one sheet size into a plurality of print data and printing on a plurality of sheets having a size smaller than the sheet size on the printer side, and a layout for each of the plurality of small sheets. It is characterized in that the host terminal functions as a layout setting means for setting. With this configuration, when performing divided printing, the layout of the print image corresponding to each print sheet can be set, so that the user can obtain the desired print result.

According to the present invention, there is provided means for outputting a request signal from the host terminal requesting the printer device to return setting information, and divided printing in the printer device based on the setting information before executing divided printing. And a means for notifying the presence / absence of a sheet of a size applicable to. With this configuration, whether or not divided printing can be executed can be grasped before printing is executed.

The present invention is characterized by having a scaling means for automatically setting a layout so that print data fits within a set paper size. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce large size print data and print it on a small size paper.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a host computer (hereinafter referred to as host PC), 2 is a printer, and 3 is a display device.

The host PC 1 includes a CPU 4, RAM 5,
Hard disk drive (hereinafter referred to as HDD) 6,
An input / output interface (hereinafter referred to as input / output I / F) 7 and the like are provided. The printer 2 has a CPU
8, a RAM 9 serving as a page buffer, an image recording unit 10 for recording an image on a sheet, and an input / output I / F 11 are provided.

An image forming system is constructed by connecting the host PC 1 and the printer 2 via the input / output I / F 7 and the input / output I / F 11 via a cable or wirelessly.

The hard disk of the HDD 6 converts the operating system and application software for graphic design (hereinafter, simply referred to as an application) and print data into data that can be interpreted by the printer device. A printer driver to send is installed.

When creating print data using an application for graphic design, while watching the display device 3, an input device such as a keyboard or a mouse connected to the input / output I / F 7 is operated to obtain a desired print. Create the data. When the application instructs to execute printing, the created print data is converted by the printer driver into data that can be interpreted by the printer 2, and the printer driver transfers the data to the printer 2.
Sent while watching the status of.

In the printer 2, the print data is stored in the RAM.
Then, the image is recorded on a sheet by the image recording unit 10. In addition, bidirectional communication is performed between the printer driver and the printer 2, the progress of printing, information about paper shortage and jam occurrence, etc. are sent to the host PC 1, and the user is notified via the display device 3.

The printer driver according to the image forming system of this embodiment has a division printing function for dividing a single page of print data into a plurality of print data and printing the print data on a plurality of sheets. The division printing function will be described below.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a flow up to printing execution in normal single-page printing, and FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a flow up to printing execution in divided printing.

First, print data is created using an application. When creating print data, the style of the document such as the paper size and the size of the margin is set on the assumption that the print is performed in advance. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the document style is set assuming A2 size paper.

In FIG. 2, when print data is created from an application, print preview is performed if necessary, and print execution is designated, the number of pages to be printed is designated,
A print setting menu for specifying the printer to use is displayed. At this time, a request signal is generated to the printer currently set as the transmission destination of the print data, and the information regarding the paper size set in the printer is acquired.
Check if 2 size paper is loaded (S
1). If it is set, printing is started by selecting the print execution key, and an image is recorded on A2 size paper. If it is not set, the fact is displayed on the display device 3 to notify the user. Here, if it is desired to set the paper size, the paper size selection key is operated from the print setting menu to select the desired paper size. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that only A4 size paper is set.

Next, when it is desired to change the layout setting, the layout setting key in the print setting menu is selected (Y in S2). When you select the layout setting key,
The layout setting menu is displayed. Here, for example, if the OK key is selected and the print execution key is selected without changing the layout setting, if the size and orientation of the paper in the basic settings of the printer is vertical A4 size, it is indicated by the dotted line in FIG. The range will be printed.

The layout setting menu is provided with an automatic setting mode and a manual setting mode. When the automatic setting mode is selected (Y in S3), the print data is reduced to fit within the set size. Here, when the preview display is performed (S4), the print state on the vertical A4 size paper is displayed as shown in FIG. If this setting is acceptable, by selecting the OK key and the print execution key, the print data of A2 size is reduced to fit in A4 size, and the image shown in FIG. 5 is printed on A4 size paper. .

If the user wants to change the layout setting in detail by looking at the preview display, the layout setting menu is returned to (N in S5) and the manual setting mode is selected (N in S3). When the manual setting mode is selected, it is possible to select, in the layout setting menu, aggregate printing for printing a plurality of pages on one sheet of paper or divided printing for printing a single page on a plurality of sheets of paper.

Next, division printing will be described with reference to FIG.

When division printing is selected, a division printing menu is displayed. In the divided print menu, the number of divided sheets, the size of the printing paper, the margin, and the like are set.
Here, when the number of divided sheets is set to 1 (N in S6) and printing is executed without changing the layout (N in S7),
As shown in FIG. 4, a part of the print data is printed. When the layout is changed (Y in S7), the preview display (S8) is performed to display the image of the print data and the area frame corresponding to the print area of the printing paper on the image for the number of divided sheets. . At this time, the area frames are automatically arranged so that the image of the print data is covered as much as possible. Then, the range to be printed on each print sheet in the print data is set by moving the position in units of area frames or changing the vertical and horizontal directions by operating the cursor keys or dragging the mouse (S).
9). If necessary, a preview display corresponding to the printing paper is displayed to confirm the actual printing state. When the setting is completed, the OK key is selected to determine the setting change, and the printing is executed.

For example, if the number of divided sheets for A2 size print data is one vertical A4 size sheet,
One area frame corresponding to the area obtained by removing the margin from the size is displayed on the preview display screen. By locating the area frame horizontally at the center, as shown in FIG. 6, only the image at the center of the print data is printed.

By the way, in order to cover the print data of A2 size, it is most efficient to divide it into four A4 size sheets. However, when a margin is set on the printing paper, the image area that can be actually printed is A as shown in FIG.
It may be smaller than 4 sizes, and it may not be possible to cover all print data. Therefore, when it is desired to fit the image within the rectangular range, the print data can be covered by dividing the number of divided sheets into nine, for example, as shown in FIG. At this time, the print area may be appropriately changed by increasing / deleting the area frame. For example, as shown in FIG. 8B, the area frame may be reduced by one and the area frame may be changed in the horizontal direction to increase the number of printed sheets to eight, and further, three area frames may be increased to reduce the number of printed sheets to 12. It may be a piece.

Also, print data of A2 size is printed on four A
If you want to make sure that it fits on 4 size paper, you can reduce the print data to the size of 4 area frames corresponding to the area from A4 size with blanks removed, and
Can fit on size paper. Or 1/4 of the size of the margin set in the application,
By setting it as the size of the margin of printing paper, 4
It can fit on a sheet of A4 size paper.

With this configuration, it is possible to print the print data for a single page separately on a plurality of sheets, and before sending the print data to the printer as page data when performing the split printing. In addition, since it is possible to preview the actual print result on the host side and change the layout as needed, it is possible to prevent printing errors and waste of paper.

Further, since the printer status can be grasped by the host terminal before the printing is executed, whether or not the intended printing can be carried out by the user can be carried out more quickly and accurately. Further, even in a printer that cannot set a large size paper such as A1 size, it is possible to perform division printing using the paper set in the printer.

In this embodiment, printing of A2 size print data to A4 size has been described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, A2 size print data You may divide and print on one sheet of A3 size or two sheets of B4 size.

[0031]

As described above, according to the present invention configured as described above, it is possible to print single-page print data separately on a plurality of sheets, and page data can be printed when split printing is performed. As described above, before sending the print data to the printer, the actual print result can be previewed on the host side and the layout can be changed as necessary, so that it is possible to prevent printing errors and waste of paper.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of an image forming system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow up to printing execution in normal single-page printing.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow up to printing execution in divided printing.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which A2 size print data is printed on A4 size paper.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which A2 size print data is reduced and printed on A4 size paper.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example in which a part of the A2 size print data is printed on a horizontal A4 size paper.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an area that is actually printed on the printing paper.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a case in which print data of A2 size is divided by using a plurality of area frames including areas in which a margin is removed from A4 size.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Host computer (host PC) 2 printer 3 display devices 4,8 CPU 5,9 RAM 6 hard disk drive (HDD) 7, 11 Input / output interface (input / output I / F) 10 Image recording section

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 2C061 AP01 HH03 HJ06 HJ08 HK07                       HL01 HN05 HN15 HN27 HP08                 2C087 AB05 BD01 BD41 CA03 CB13                 5B014 EB03 FA05                 5B021 AA01 AA02 BB09 BB10 KK02                       LB07

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. Application software for use in an image forming system comprising a host terminal and a printer device for printing on a sheet based on print data from the host terminal, for causing the host terminal to function as a print data editing means. A printer driver that converts the print data created by the printer device into data that can be interpreted by the printer device, and sends the data while checking the status of the printer device. It is possible to cause the host terminal to function as a dividing unit that divides and prints on a plurality of sheets of a size smaller than the sheet size on the printer side, and a layout setting unit that sets a layout for each of a plurality of sheets of a smaller size. Characteristic printer driver. 2. A means for outputting a request signal for requesting the printer device to return setting information from the host terminal, and applying to divided printing in the printer device based on the setting information before executing divided printing. 2. The printer driver according to claim 1, further comprising means for notifying the presence / absence of a sheet of a desired size. 3. A printer driver, comprising: a scaling unit that automatically sets layout so that print data fits within a set paper size.