JP2006252024A - Print setting control program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print setting control program verifying print setting of each printer driver every time the printer driver is changed to properly and automatically perform the setting to a new printer driver. <P>SOLUTION: When image forming devices GK1-GKn used by applications 11a-11n for document data are changed and when the printer drivers 13a-13n are changed, the application 11a-11n installed with this print setting control program takes out a print setting item from print setting data by the printer driver 13a-13n before the change imparted to the document data, and automatically distinguishes possibility/impossibility of application as the print setting item by the printer driver 13a-13n after the change. Accordingly, the print setting once set in accordance with the document data can be automatically reused as much as possible. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a print setting control program, and more specifically, a print setting control program for verifying print settings for each printer driver each time the printer driver is changed and appropriately and automatically setting for a new printer driver. About.

  Application software (hereinafter referred to as an application) installed on an operating system (OS) of a computer, for example, Microsoft Windows (registered trademark), prints various types of document data that have been created, edited, changed, etc. By selecting an image forming apparatus such as a printer to be printed from the application, print setting data can be acquired from the printer driver for the image forming apparatus installed on the OS and set by the print setting data. Arbitrary print settings can be made within a certain range.

  Such print setting data can be stored in the document data of the application.

  However, the print setting data has settings that allow the application to be identified because the data format is disclosed, and settings that are different for each driver because the data format is not disclosed, so the application can refer to and edit the print setting data. It was difficult to do.

  Therefore, when the document data is read next time on a computer in which the printer driver selected when the document data is saved is not installed, the print setting data saved with the document data is installed on the computer. Since it is not possible to determine whether the other printer driver is valid, the user needs to discard the previous print setting data and perform print settings again.

  The present applicant has previously proposed a document printing processing system that facilitates setting of printing conditions by displaying a setting dialog for setting the printing conditions sequentially for each setting item (see Patent Document 1). ).

  Recently, documents written in a structured description language that does not depend on a specific application such as XML (Extensible Markup Language), HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language), etc. have appeared. The data structure is such that the layout information for determining the content and the like and the content that is the data in the document are separated. Accordingly, it is possible to change the print setting of the document without changing the content only by changing the layout information.

  Conventionally, an image output system has been proposed in which layout information and content data are separately controlled to easily select a plurality of layout outputs (see Patent Document 2).

JP 2002-149365 A JP 2002-215361 A

  However, in the above prior art, there is a need for improvement in improving the usability by effectively utilizing the print settings once set.

  That is, in the prior art described in Patent Document 1, the print setting is facilitated. However, when a change occurs in the image forming apparatus to be printed, the print setting needs to be performed again. The settings could not be used effectively and had to be improved.

  The prior art described in Patent Document 2 can output the same document contents with various layout changes. However, the correspondence to different printer drivers has not been studied and needs to be improved.

  Therefore, the present invention automatically determines whether or not the printer driver after the change is suitable for the print setting even when the printer driver is changed due to a change in the image output apparatus of the document data printout destination, Print settings control that improves the usability by automatically reusing the print settings once set according to the document data as much as possible, making the print settings easy when changing the output image forming device The purpose is to provide a program.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print setting control program that is mounted on an information processing apparatus and sets various settings when document data created by an application installed in the information processing apparatus is printed on a predetermined image forming apparatus. Printing that can be added to the document data as data and reflected in the editing contents of the document data on the application, and can read the print setting data of the printer driver that makes a print request to the image forming apparatus with the print settings A setting control program, wherein an image forming apparatus used by the application of the document data is changed and the printer driver is changed in accordance with the change of the image forming apparatus; Take out the print setting items from the print setting data by the printer driver before the change By automatically determining whether the application as the print setting items by the printer driver after the change, have achieved the above objects.

  In this case, for example, as described in claim 2, the print setting control program adds the changed printer to the print setting item acquired from the print setting data obtained by the printer driver before the change of the document data. If there is a setting item that is not applicable as a print setting item by the driver, a notification to that effect may be output.

  Further, for example, as described in claim 3, the print setting program includes the print setting item acquired from the print setting data obtained by the printer driver before the change of the document data by the printer driver after the change. If there is a setting item that is not applicable as a print setting item, a selection setting screen that displays a selectable setting item that can be selected by the printer driver after the change is displayed for the setting item. May be.

  Further, for example, as described in claim 4, the print setting program includes the print setting item acquired from the print setting data acquired by the printer driver before the change of the document data by the printer driver after the change. If there is a setting item that cannot be applied as a print setting item, a setting screen on which all the setting items of the changed printer driver can be set may be displayed and set.

  Further, for example, as described in claim 5, the print setting program stores the document data to the editing content corresponding to the print setting selected or set on the selection setting screen or / and the setting screen. The change may be requested from the application, and the application may change the editing content of the document data.

  Further, for example, as described in claim 6, the print setting control program may be incorporated in the application.

  According to the print setting control program of the present invention, when an image forming apparatus used by an application of document data is changed and a printer driver is changed along with the change of the image forming apparatus, the print data is given to the document data. The print setting items are extracted from the print setting data by the printer driver before the change, and the applicability as the print setting items by the printer driver after the change is automatically determined, so the print setting once set according to the document data It can be reused automatically as much as possible to facilitate the print setting accompanying the change of the image forming apparatus of the output destination, and the usability can be improved.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, since the Example described below is a suitable Example of this invention, various technically preferable restrictions are attached | subjected, However, The scope of the present invention limits this invention especially in the following description. As long as there is no description of the effect, it is not restricted to these aspects.

  1 to 4 are diagrams showing an embodiment of a print setting control program of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a network system 1 to which an embodiment of the print setting control program of the present invention is applied. is there.

  In FIG. 1, a network system 1 has a plurality of personal computers PC1 to PCn and a plurality of image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn connected to a network NW. The network NW is a LAN (Local Area Network), but is not limited to the LAN, and may be, for example, the Internet, a WAN (Wide Area Network), or the like.

  Each of the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn is an image forming apparatus of a different model, and the printing request is made by a printing method such as an electrophotographic method or an ink jetting method when a printing request is made by a different dedicated printer driver. The document data is printed out on paper with the print settings according to.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the personal computers PC1 to PCn have applications 11a and 11b operating on an OS (not shown) installed on the personal computer PC1 and personal computer PC2, respectively. Printer drivers 13a and 13b, driver UIs (driver user interfaces) 14a and 14b, and port monitors 15a and 15b are installed, and printer drivers 13a and 13b, driver UIs 14a and 14b, and port monitors 15a and 15b for printing are installed. Operation control is performed under the print systems 12a and 12b. Each personal computer PC1 to PCn includes displays Dp1 to Dpn, respectively.

  The applications 11a to 11n can read the print setting data by the printer drivers 13a to 13n assigned to the document data, and the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn used by the applications 11a to 11n of the document data change. When the printer drivers 13a to 13n are changed in accordance with the change of the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn, the print setting items are determined from the print setting data by the printer drivers 13a to 13n before the change given to the document data. Is incorporated, and a print setting control program for automatically determining whether or not application as a print setting item by the changed printer drivers 13a to 13n is incorporated.

  The personal computer PC 1 includes a hard disk (HDD) 16, stores document data in the hard disk 16, and reads out document data stored in the hard disk 16.

  The personal computer PC1 starts and operates the application 11a, performs document processing such as document creation, editing, and correction, and stores the document data subjected to document processing in the hard disk 16, and The document data is read from the hard disk 16 and the document is re-edited.

  Although the personal computer PC2 does not include a hard disk, the personal computer PC2 can access the hard disk 16 of the personal computer PC1 via the network NW, and the application 11b of the personal computer PC2 can read document data from the hard disk 16 via the network NW. , And document data subjected to document processing such as creation / editing can be written to the hard disk 16.

  The port monitors 15a and 15b monitor the ports to which the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn are connected.

  The printer drivers 13a and 13b are software specific to the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn, respectively, and perform print settings for the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn corresponding to the printer drivers 13a and 13b.

  The driver UIs 14a and 14b display the print setting screen on the displays Dp1 to Dpn of the personal computers PC1 to PCn, and pass various print setting contents set on the print setting screen to the printer drivers 13a and 13b.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. In the network system 1, when the personal computers PC1 to PCn perform document processing such as document creation by the applications 11a to 11n and the document processed document data is temporarily stored in the hard disk 16 or the like, the document data is stored in the personal computers PC1 to PCn. The printer driver 13a to 13n installed in the PCn and saved with the print setting data of the setting contents set by the printer driver 13a to 13n selected by the application 11a to 11n used for the document processing added. Is done.

  Thereafter, when the document data on the hard disk 16 is read by the personal computers PC1 to PCn different from the personal computers PC1 to PCn that processed the document data, the printer drivers 13a to 13n installed in the personal computers PC1 to PCn The printer drivers 13a to 13n of the print setting data of the document data may be different.

  Therefore, in the network system 1 of the present embodiment, the personal computers PC1 to PCn that store the document in this way are different from the personal computers PC1 to PCn that read and print the document, and the installed printer drivers 13a to 13n. Even if they are different, the print settings set by the original printer drivers 13a to 13n are used as effectively as possible to automatically reset the print settings.

  That is, now, as indicated by an arrow in FIG. 2, it is assumed that a document is created using the application 11 a in the personal computer PC 1 and the document data is stored in the hard disk 16. A printer driver 13a of the image forming apparatus GK1 connected to the network NW is installed in the personal computer PC1, and the application 11a prints the created document using the printer driver 13a, and the personal computer The document data is stored with the print setting data added to the hard disk 16 of the PC 1.

  Then, the document in the hard disk 16 is read out via the network NW by the application 11b of the personal computer PC2, and necessary editing or the like is performed. Now, it is assumed that only the printer driver 13b of the image forming apparatus GK2 connected to the network NW is installed in the personal computer PC2.

  In the above case, the print setting control program incorporated in the application 11b of the personal computer PC2 performs print setting processing corresponding to the printer driver 13b as shown in FIG. The print setting process is executed by the print setting control program incorporated in the printer driver 13b. However, in the following description, the process will be described as the process of the printer driver 13b in order to simplify the description.

  That is, when the application 11b of the personal computer PC2 reads the document data from the hard disk 16 of the personal computer PC1 (step S101), the printer driver 13a designated by the print setting data of the document data is installed in the personal computer PC2. If the printer driver 13a specified by the print setting data of the document data is installed in the personal computer PC2, it is not necessary to reset the print settings, and the process is terminated as it is. .

  If the printer driver 13a specified by the print setting data of the document data is not installed in the personal computer PC2 in step S102, the application 11b displays the default printer driver (currently, in the personal computer PC2, the printer driver 13b is the default). Print item / setting information is acquired from the printer driver and preparation for comparing the setting contents is made (step S103).

  Next, the application 11b selects one setting item from the print setting data of the document data (step S104), and the selected setting item is included in the options of the print item / setting information acquired from the printer driver 13b. It is checked whether it can be set by the printer driver 13b (step S105).

  In step S105, if the selected setting item is not included in the print item / setting information options of the printer driver 13b and cannot be set, the application 11b indicates that the user cannot set it. Is generated (step S106), and it is checked whether setting items to be compared with the print setting data of the document data remain (step S107).

  In step S105, if the selected setting item is included in the print item / setting information options of the printer driver 13b and can be set, the application 11b has a setting item to be compared with the print setting data of the document data. It is checked whether it remains (step S107).

  If setting items to be compared with the print setting data of the document data remain in step S107, the application 11b returns to step S104, selects one next setting item, and selects the next setting item for the selected setting item. Similarly, it is checked whether setting is possible (steps S104 to S107).

  When the comparison is completed for all the setting items of the print setting data of the document data in step S107, the application 11b determines whether there is a setting item that cannot be set in the setting items of the print setting data of the document data in the comparison process. Check is made (step S108), and if there is no setting item that cannot be set, it is not necessary to reset the print setting, and the process is ended as it is.

  If there are setting items that cannot be set in step S108, the application 11b displays a notification screen DG as shown in FIG. 4 on the display Dp2 of the personal computer PC2 (step S109), and the user performs an operation to change the print settings. It is checked whether it has been performed (step S110).

  In this notification screen DG, an item that cannot be set by the printer driver 13b installed in the personal computer PC2 (“discharge tray” in FIG. 4) is notified at the top of the screen, and can be set instead below. A combo box is provided for selecting the paper discharge tray.

  Therefore, the user only needs to change the items that need to be changed on the notification screen DG. When the selection is completed, the user can reflect the changes to the document data by pressing the “OK” button. The notification screen DG includes a “print setting” button for displaying the print setting screen of the printer driver 13b. By pressing the “print setting” button, all setting items of the printer driver 13b are set. It is also possible to display all possible setting screens and change all print setting items. The print setting screen reflects the print setting of the document data and the selection of the combo box on the user notification screen DG.

  In step S110, if the user changes the print setting in step S110, the application 11b reflects the changed print setting in the document data and the print setting data, and ends the process (step S111). If it is determined in step S110 that there is no change in print settings by the user, the process ends.

  In the above description, the print setting control program is described as being incorporated in the applications 11a to 11n. However, the print setting control program is not limited to that incorporated in the applications 11a to 11n. It is installed on the OS of the computers PC1 to PCn and is started in conjunction with the start of the applications 11a to 11n or the selection of the print menu to execute the print setting control process. May be.

  In the above description, when document data stored in the personal computer PC1 is read and started by the personal computer PC2, that is, when the installed printer drivers 13a to 13n are different in different personal computers PC1 to PCn. However, a plurality of printer drivers 13a to 13n are installed on one personal computer PC1 to PCn, and the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn used in the applications 11a to 11n are changed. The same applies when the printer drivers 13a to 13n to be used are changed.

  As described above, the applications 11a to 11n to which the print setting control program of the present embodiment is applied are changed in the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn used by the application 11a to 11n of the document data, and the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn. When the printer drivers 13a to 13n are changed along with the change, print setting items are extracted from the print setting data by the printer drivers 13a to 13n before the change given to the document data, and the printer driver 13a after the change is changed. To 13n are automatically determined as applicability as print setting items.

  Accordingly, the print settings once set in accordance with the document data are automatically reused as much as possible, and the print settings associated with the change of the output destination image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn can be facilitated. Usability can be improved.

  In addition, the applications 11a to 11n to which the print setting control program of the present embodiment is applied have the printer drivers 13a to 13n after the change to the print setting items acquired from the print setting data by the printer drivers 13a to 13n before the change of the document data. If there is a setting item that cannot be applied as a print setting item by, a notification to that effect is output.

  Therefore, when the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn to be printed are changed, it is possible to easily know the difference in print settings, that is, the print function, and the usability can be further improved.

  Further, the applications 11a to 11n to which the print setting control program of the present embodiment is applied have the printer drivers 13a to 13n after the change to the print setting items acquired from the print setting data by the printer drivers 13a to 13n before the change of the document data. If there is a setting item that is not applicable as a print setting item by the, a selection setting screen DG that displays selectable setting items that can be selected by the printer drivers 13a to 13n after the change is displayed. Selectable.

  Therefore, even when the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn to be printed are changed, the user can appropriately print out using the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn with only a minimum necessary change.

  In addition, the applications 11a to 11n to which the print setting control program of the present embodiment is applied have the printer drivers 13a to 13n after the change to the print setting items acquired from the print setting data by the printer drivers 13a to 13n before the change of the document data. If there is a setting item that cannot be applied as a print setting item, the setting screen on which all the setting items of the changed printer drivers 13a to 13n can be set is displayed and set.

  Accordingly, it is possible to review the print settings after knowing the difference in the print function due to the change of the image forming apparatuses GK1 to GKn, and the print setting of the document data is selected in advance. Settings can be changed with the minimum necessary operations.

  Further, the applications 11a to 11n to which the print setting control program of the present embodiment is applied change the document data to edit contents corresponding to the print setting selected or set on the selection setting screen DG or / and the setting screen. Yes.

  Accordingly, the print setting can be reflected in the document data with only a minimum operation by the user, and the work efficiency can be improved.

  Also, since the applications 11a to 11n of the present embodiment incorporate a print setting control program, the above-described print setting control can be performed only by using the applications 11a to 11n without being aware of the print setting control program. Can do.

  The invention made by the present inventor has been specifically described based on the preferred embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the above, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Needless to say.

  The present invention can be applied to a print setting control program or application installed in a computer or the like when printing data with a print setting suitable for each image forming apparatus using a plurality of image forming apparatuses by sharing document data.

1 is a system configuration diagram of a network system to which an embodiment of a print setting control program of the present invention is applied. FIG. The software block diagram of the personal computer of FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing print setting control processing by a print setting control program incorporated in the application of the personal computer of FIG. The figure which shows an example of the notification screen displayed on the display of a personal computer by the print setting control process of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Network system NW network PC1-PCn Personal computer GK1-GKn Image formation apparatus DG Notification screen 11a, 11b Application 12a, 12b Print system 13a, 13b Printer driver 14a, 14b Driver UI
15a, 15b Port monitor 16 Hard disk

Claims (6)

  Various settings for printing document data that is installed in the information processing apparatus and created by an application installed in the information processing apparatus with a predetermined image forming apparatus are assigned to the document data as print setting data, and And a print setting control program capable of reading the print setting data of a printer driver that makes a print request to the image forming apparatus with the print settings, and that reflects the edit contents of the document data. When the printer driver is changed along with the change of the image forming apparatus used by the printer, the print setting is set from the print setting data by the printer driver before the change attached to the document data. Take out the item and set the print settings by the printer driver after the change. Print setting control program, characterized by automatically determining whether the application as.   In the print setting control program, in the print setting items acquired from the print setting data by the printer driver before the change of the document data, there are setting items that cannot be applied as print setting items by the printer driver after the change. The print setting control program according to claim 1, wherein a notification to that effect is output.   In the print setting program, the print setting item acquired from the print setting data by the printer driver before the change of the document data includes a setting item that is not applicable as a print setting item by the printer driver after the change. 3. A selection setting screen that displays selectable setting items that can be selected by the printer driver after the change is displayed for the setting items to enable selection. Print setting control program. In the print setting program, the print setting item acquired from the print setting data by the printer driver before the change of the document data includes a setting item that is not applicable as a print setting item by the printer driver after the change. The print setting control program according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a setting screen on which all setting items of the changed printer driver can be set is displayed and set.   The print setting program requests the application to change the document data to edit contents corresponding to the print setting selected or set on the selection setting screen or / and the setting screen. 5. The print setting control program according to claim 3, wherein the editing contents of the document data are changed. The print setting control program according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the print setting control program is incorporated in the application.

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