JP2004110739A - Print instruction device and print instruction method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print instruction device and a print instruction method of which the operability is enhanced by making re-selection unnecessary regarding a part in which the display contents set before setting change is duplicated after the setting change. <P>SOLUTION: In the print instruction device, print conditions are displayed as a display picture 44 on one side of a display picture by a tree-structured folder display part 72 and low-order hierarchies to a selected folder(black and white) in the folder display part are successively displayed by tree structure whenever they are selected. When a "layout" is changed from "catalog" to "100% (unmagnification)" in process of selection, the display picture 44 made into a state where the contents (black and white) developed below a folder of "catalog" is replaced with a "100% (unmagnification)" folder is displayed on the display part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a print instruction device and a print instruction method, and more particularly, to a print instruction device for setting and instructing a print condition for causing a printing device such as a printer to print print data, and a print instruction device based on the set print condition. The present invention relates to a print instruction method for causing a printing device to execute printing.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when printing is performed by a printing device such as a printer, print data is generally transmitted from a host device such as a personal computer (PC) connected to the printing device via a printer driver included in the host device. It is being done. In this case, for example, when the user instructs the host device to print the print data created on a desired application, a printer driver corresponding to an arbitrary printer to be output by the user is called and the printer can interpret the printer. The print data is converted into a predetermined control code such as a PDL (Page Description Language) language and output to a printer. Further, the user can specify printing conditions such as the paper size of the print data, the number of output sheets, the number of copies, double-sided / single-sided printing, and the presence / absence of sorting by the printer driver. Thus, the print data can be output in a desired format.
[0003]
However, on a UI (User Interface) screen at the time of setting printing conditions in the printer driver as described above, it is common to set printing conditions by switching a plurality of screens using tabs or the like. It is very difficult to know where the setting location for setting the desired function is located on the UI screen of the printer driver. Further, since the configuration of the UI screen of the printer driver differs for each printer maker, it is even more necessary to operate a printer driver that is not usually used. In addition, when a printer driver used in a conventional PC or the like is directly applied to a mobile terminal device such as a mobile phone or a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) device, the display screen of the mobile phone or the mobile terminal device is much smaller than that of the PC. Therefore, the entire UI screen of the printer driver cannot be appropriately displayed in the display screen area, and the operability may be extremely deteriorated. Therefore, it is conceivable to divide the screen configuration more finely than the printer driver for PC so that it can be displayed on a mobile phone or a portable terminal device. However, the screen configuration becomes too fine, and in this case, too, it is very difficult. In some cases, the operability becomes poor.
[0004]
In view of such circumstances, the present applicant can apply the present invention not only to a PC but also to a case where a print instruction is issued from a mobile phone or a portable terminal device with a small display screen, etc. A printing apparatus, a printing instruction method, and a printing instruction apparatus including the above are proposed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-053218. According to the present invention, when a print data print instruction is issued, a folder in which a plurality of print condition items are set in a hierarchical manner in advance by a file operation of the print data is hierarchically designated in a desired combination. Is set. This eliminates the need to switch between a plurality of tabs to find a place where desired print conditions are set, unlike a UI screen in a normal printer driver, so that even a first-time user can easily perform a print instruction. Become like Also, when the folder of the lowest layer is selected, the icon of the print data is dragged and dropped (drag and drop) to this folder, so that the print data and the print condition set from the print instruction device side to the print device side are set. Information can be sent. This also improves the operability of the print instruction.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, according to the conventional print instruction apparatus and the conventional print instruction method, there are cases where many operations are required when the user attempts to print with desired settings. For example, in a state where many setting items are already selected, if it is desired to change the setting of any of the already set items, the contents of the lower hierarchical structure connected to the folder (setting item) before the change Even if the contents of the lower hierarchical structure connected to the desired changed folder are the same, the settings for the lower hierarchical structure in the actually changed folder are returned to the unset state, and the user However, in order to obtain a desired selection state, it was necessary to repeat the same selection operation again.
[0006]
A specific example will be described with reference to FIGS. For example, it is assumed that the print condition setting screen has the contents as shown in FIG. On the left side of this screen 71, a folder display section 72 of PRINTER1 (60) is shown. In this folder display section 72, folders of categories (color mode, layout, print mode, print range, number of copies, paper size, paper size) A type 62 and a double-sided folder 61 and a folder 62 of printing condition items belonging to the type 61 are shown, and the right side of the folder (print mode, print range, number of copies, four types of paper type) is shown on the right side. . The user can intuitively grasp the selection items by looking at the folder structure on the left side of the screen. Here, for the folder structure displayed on the left side of the screen by the user, “color mode”, “black and white”, “layout”, “catalog (booklet)”, “paper size”, “A4”, “double-sided”, When each item is selected in the order of "No", the contents of the folder opened in each process are displayed in a list format on the left side of the screen. On the right side of the screen, folders (print mode, print range, number of copies, paper type) lower than “NO” are displayed.
[0007]
Here, it is assumed that the user wants to change the setting after making the selection up to not “double-sided” in FIG. 7 (that is, “single-sided”). For example, if the setting is changed to “100% (1: 1)” after “No”, the screen changes to a screen 74 in FIG. At this time, as for the printing conditions, since the content of the “layout” is changed from “catalog” to “100% (actual size)” and the printing conditions at lower levels are not changed, It is necessary to select "size", "A4", "double-sided", and "no", which places a burden on the user. Also, as shown in FIG. 8, the set items 73 of "print mode", "print range", "number of copies", "paper type", and "double-sided" regarding "A4" are displayed as they are, making them difficult to see. Has become. In addition, when it is desired to hide “A4” or less, an operation for non-display is required.
[0008]
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a print instruction apparatus and a print instruction method that improve operability by eliminating the need for reselection of a portion where display contents set before setting change overlap after setting change. .
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a display means for displaying a plurality of printing condition items as a plurality of folders on a screen in a tree structure, and a selection for selecting a folder from the plurality of folders displayed on the screen, to achieve the above object. Means, when a folder is selected from an upper layer to a lower layer by the selection means, the selection process is displayed, and when the selection is changed to another folder, the selection process before the change is regarded as valid. And a control unit for controlling the display unit to set print conditions and display the selection process before the change in a lower layer of the another folder.
[0010]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, a first step of displaying a plurality of printing condition items as a plurality of folders in a tree structure, and when a folder is selected from an upper layer to a lower layer by a selection operation, A second step of displaying the selection process, and when the selection is changed to another folder, the printing conditions are set as the selection process before the change is effective, and the selection process before the change is performed. And a third step of displaying on a lower layer side of another folder.
[0011]
According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, operability can be improved because, of the content set before the setting change, a portion that is duplicated after the setting change does not need to be reset.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a print instruction device according to the present invention and a configuration of a printing device connected to the print instruction device.
The print instruction devices 10A, 10B, 10C, and 10D (here, ten, but an arbitrary number) as a host device or a host device are, for example, a personal computer (PC), a PDA device, a mobile phone, or the like. These are information terminal devices, which are connected to printing devices 20A, 20B, and 20C (here, three devices, but an arbitrary number of devices) via a network such as a LAN (Local Area Network) 30 or the like. The printing devices 20A to 20C (PRINTER1 to PRINTER3) are printers such as optical printers and electrophotographic printers. Here, it is assumed that the print instruction devices 10A to 10D (HOST1 to 10) have the same configuration and the printing devices 20A to 20C have the same configuration. However, if they have compatibility and can exchange data on the system. , Regardless of make and model.
[0013]
The print instruction device 10A mainly includes a print instruction control unit 11 by a CPU. The print instruction control unit 11 includes a program storage unit 12, a data storage unit 13, an operation unit 14, an operation detection unit 15, a communication interface 16, and a display unit 17. The print instruction devices 10B, 10C, and 10D have the same configuration as the print instruction device 10A, and a description thereof will be omitted.
[0014]
The program storage unit 12 and the data storage unit 13 are secured in a part of a storage medium such as a hard disk and a semiconductor memory, and an OS (operating system) and application programs are stored in the program storage unit 12 and generated during processing. Data and data such as input contents and setting contents are stored in the data storage unit 13. The data storage unit 13 has an area for storing a file created by an application program in the program storage unit 12 and print data created by PDL. The files stored in the data storage unit 13 include, in addition to those created by the application program of the print instruction apparatus 10A, for example, those transmitted as e-mail attachments from another host print instruction apparatus, and those transmitted from the file server. Includes downloaded items.
[0015]
The operation unit 14 is a mouse, a keyboard, and the like. In the present invention, a mouse is mainly used. The operation detection unit 15 detects the coordinates of the mouse cursor. The communication interface 16 communicates with a selected one of the printing apparatuses 20A to 20C via the LAN 30. The display unit 17 is a display device using a liquid crystal display (LCD), a CRT, or the like, and is built in the body or connected externally.
[0016]
The print instructing devices 10A to 10D transmit a file designated by the user among the files stored in the data storage unit 13 to one of the other designated printing devices 20A to 20C via the LAN 30. In this transmission, a general file transfer protocol (FTP), a hyper text transfer protocol (HTTP), or the like can be used as a file transfer protocol.
[0017]
Further, the print instruction devices 10A to 10D receive information on the folder configuration of the print conditions of the data storage unit 23 in the printing devices 20A to 20C from the printing device sides 20A to 20C via the communication interface 16, and display the information on the display unit. 17 is displayed. On the display unit 17, the folder configuration of the data storage unit 23 of the printing apparatuses 20A to 20C is displayed as an icon, and the printing condition items corresponding to the folder are displayed as the folder names. Thereby, the user can visually recognize and grasp the folder configuration related to the printing conditions in the data storage unit 23 of the printing apparatuses 20A to 20C.
[0018]
The display on the display unit 17 is performed by file operation software (software for operating folders and files) provided in advance by the OS. In addition, for example, a Web server is provided on the printing apparatuses 20A to 20C, and the Internet is provided. It is also possible to display information on the printing conditions that can be set in the printing devices 20A to 20C in a list on the display unit 17 via the display unit 17. In this case, the print instruction apparatuses 10A to 10D perform the display via the browser software for browsing the Web site.
[0019]
Next, the configuration of the printing apparatuses 20A to 20C will be described. Here, since the printing apparatuses 20A to 20C have the same configuration, only the printing apparatus 20A will be described. The printing apparatus 20A mainly includes a print control unit 21 configured using a CPU and performing overall control of the printing apparatuses 20A to 20C. The print control unit 21 is connected to a data receiving unit 22, a data storage unit 23, a parser unit 24, a PDL processing unit 25, a drawing processing unit 26, and a printing unit 27.
[0020]
The data receiving unit 22 has a communication interface function with the LAN 30, and receives print data transmitted from the print instruction devices 10A to 10D. Further, the data receiving unit 22 can identify the file type of the print data received from the print instruction devices 10A to 10D, and determines whether the received print data is PDL data represented by a predetermined PDL, It has a function that can automatically determine whether it is a file. Instead of the automatic determination, the user may manually specify the file type of the print data.
[0021]
The data storage unit 23 stores the print data received by the data reception unit 22 and a plurality of print condition items necessary for printing the print data in a folder. The parser unit 24 interprets the file data created by the application as it is, and processes the data so that the printing unit 27 can print the data. The PDL processing unit 25 interprets and processes the print data represented by PDL. The drawing processing unit 26 expands the print data acquired via the data receiving unit 22 into image data. The printing unit 27 prints the print data on a sheet of a specified size based on the image data generated by the drawing processing unit 26.
[0022]
FIG. 2 shows a part of the storage area of the data storage unit 23. As shown in FIG. 2, in the data storage unit 23, printing condition storage areas (1) to (n) (n is a natural number) 23a are set, and a predetermined printing condition item 23b is stored in each area 23a in advance. Defined correspondingly. Each storage area 23a is defined as a folder, and a category of a predetermined printing condition such as a paper size, the number of copies, double-sided / single-sided printing, a color mode, a layout, and the like are assigned as the folder name. The paper size includes items such as B5, A4, B4, and A3, the number of copies includes an item indicating how many copies of the same print contents are to be printed, the color mode includes an item indicating whether to print in color or black and white, and a layout. There are N-UP designation of how many images of different contents are to be put on one sheet and a print format suitable for a catalog. When the data storage unit 23 is connected to any of the print instruction devices 10A to 10D, it is referred to by the print instruction devices 10A to 10D of the connection destination.
[0023]
FIG. 3 shows a display screen first displayed on the display unit 17 of the print instruction devices 10A to 10D when a print instruction is issued, and FIG. 4 is displayed when one of the print devices 20A to 20C is designated. 3 shows a display screen. Further, FIG. 5 shows a folder display screen when a folder 61 of one category (color mode) is selected on the screen of FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 shows a display screen after setting change. An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6 and FIG.
[0024]
For example, when the printing device 20A (PRINTER1) is designated by the printing instruction device 10A (HOST1) and print data is to be printed, the user operates the operation unit 14 to perform a predetermined input operation, as shown in FIG. A content display screen 41 is displayed on the display unit 17 of the print instruction device 10A. In the display screen 41, icons 41b and icon names 41a of a plurality of printing apparatuses (PRINTER1 to PRINTER3) are displayed as in the other printing instruction apparatuses (HOST2 to HOST) connected to the LAN 30.
[0025]
Here, the user operates the operation unit 14 (mouse) to double-click “PRINTER1” on the display screen 41 in FIG. 3 and select the printing device 20A. Then, the display screen on the display unit 17 switches from FIG. 3 to FIG. The display screen 42 of FIG. 4 includes folders such as “color mode”, “layout”, “print mode”, “print range”, “number of copies”, “paper size”, “paper type”, and “double-sided”. 61 is displayed together with the printing condition category 61a. Note that the category 61a shown in FIG. 4 is merely an example, and an arbitrary category can be set.
[0026]
When the “color mode” folder 61 is selected by operating the mouse on the operation unit 14 on the screen in FIG. 4, the screen is switched to the screen 43 in FIG. On the left side of the screen 43, the folder structure of PRINTER1 is shown, and on the right side of the screen, the contents of the currently selected folder are shown. More specifically, a setting screen when a “color mode” folder 61 is selected and a “black and white” folder 62 is selected from the folder 61 is shown. On the right side of the “Black and White” selection, on the right side, “Layout”, “Print Mode”, “Print Range”, “Number of Copies”, “Paper Size”, “Paper Type”, “ Folders 62 of each category of “double-sided” are displayed.
[0027]
On the screen 43 in FIG. 5, select the item “black and white”, and then select up to “double-sided” from “black and white”, “layout”, “catalog (booklet)”, “paper size”, “A4”, If the operation is performed in the order of “double-sided” and “not performed”, a screen 71 shown in FIG. 7 is obtained.
[0028]
It is assumed that the setting of “layout” is changed when the selection of “not performed” (= simplex printing) is performed. For example, if the “catalog” is changed to “100% (actual size)”, the screen is switched to the screen 44 in FIG. At this time, as is apparent from a comparison between the screen 44 of FIG. 6 and the screen 74 of FIG. 8, the setting completed which has been developed under the folder of “Catalog” immediately before the setting change is performed on the screen of FIG. The setting contents of “A4”, “Duplex”, and “No” are displayed so as to be automatically expanded in the folder of “100% (1 ×)”. In other words, the set contents of “A4”, “Duplex”, and “Never” that have been expanded under the “Catalog” folder are switched to the “100% (1 ×)” folder and below. Will be displayed.
[0029]
At the same time, as shown in FIG. 7, the items "print mode" to "duplex" which have been set in the lower hierarchy of "catalog" are deleted, so that the display contents of the folder structure are organized. Therefore, high operability can be obtained even if the print instruction devices 10A to 10D are portable terminal devices with small display screens, such as mobile phones and PDA devices.
[0030]
As described above, according to the present invention, if the user performs the setting operation only once, a desired result can be obtained, so that the convenience is greatly improved. Further, since a portion that does not need to be expanded and displayed can be hidden, a limited display area can be effectively used.
[0031]
Further, in the above-described embodiment, the setting change for “layout” has been described, but it goes without saying that the setting change can be similarly performed at other hierarchical levels. For example, the present invention can be similarly applied to a case where items such as a print mode and a print range are selected. Further, the case where the printing apparatus 20A (PRINTER1) is selected has been described, but it goes without saying that the same applies to other printing apparatuses.
[0032]
In the present invention, the setting contents of the printing conditions performed for the printing device 20A can be directly applied to the other printing devices 20B to 20C. In this case, it is necessary that all the printing apparatuses conform to the unified standard.
[0033]
In the above embodiment, the print data is created by the print instruction devices 10A to 10D. However, the present invention prints the print data created by another device (for example, a dedicated word processor, another PC, or the like). Needless to say, the case where the data is read into the pointing devices 10A to 10D is also included. Sources for reading the print data include a network and a storage medium (magnetic disk, CD-ROM, CD-RW, memory card, etc.).
[0034]
【The invention's effect】
As is clear from the above, according to the print instruction apparatus and the print instruction method of the present invention, after setting the print conditions expressed in a tree structure to a lower hierarchy while selecting a desired folder, If you change the setting to another folder in, the same contents as the display of the lower tree structure that was expanded in the folder before the change will be displayed in the folder after the setting change. Since it is not necessary to reset the overlapping portions after the setting change, the operability in setting the printing conditions can be improved.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to the present invention and a print instruction apparatus connected to the printing apparatus.
FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of a data storage unit in the printing apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a screen diagram illustrating a display screen first displayed on a display unit of a print instruction device when a print instruction is issued.
FIG. 4 is a screen diagram showing a display screen displayed when one of the printing apparatuses is designated.
FIG. 5 is a screen diagram showing a folder display screen when a color mode item is selected on the screen of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a screen diagram showing a display screen when a setting change is made to the screen contents of FIG. 7;
FIG. 7 is a screen diagram illustrating an example of a print condition setting screen.
8 is a screen diagram showing a conventional display screen when a setting change is made to the screen contents of FIG. 7;
[Explanation of symbols]
10A, 10B, 10C, 10D Printing instruction device (HOST)
11 printing instruction control unit 12 program storage unit 13 data storage unit 14 operation unit 15 operation detection unit 16 communication interface 17 display unit 20A, 20B, 20C printing device (PRINTER)
21 printing control unit 22 file server unit 23 data storage unit 24 parser unit 25 PDL processing unit 26 drawing processing unit 27 printing unit 30 LAN
41, 42, 43, 44, 71, 74 Display screen 72 Folder display section 73 Set items

Claims (4)

Display means for displaying a plurality of print condition items as a plurality of folders on a screen in a tree structure;
Selecting means for selecting a folder from the plurality of folders displayed on the screen,
When a folder is selected from the upper layer to the lower layer by the selection means, the selection process is displayed, and then, when the selection is changed to another folder, the printing condition is determined by making the selection process before the change valid. Control means for controlling the display means so as to display the selection process before the setting and the change in a lower layer of the another folder. 2. The print instruction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit hides the selection process before the change when the folder is changed to the other folder. A first step of displaying a plurality of print condition items as a plurality of folders in a tree structure;
A second step of displaying a selection process when a folder is selected from an upper layer to a lower layer by a selection operation;
When the selection is changed to another folder, the printing condition is set as the validity of the selection process before the change, and the selection process before the change is displayed on the lower layer side of the other folder. And a printing instruction method. 4. The print instruction method according to claim 3, wherein in the third step, when the folder is changed to the other folder, the selection process before the change is hidden.

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