JP2007183974A - Information processing apparatus and information processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processing apparatus and a method which easily designates a range of a print target during preparing a document and improves a usability and a productivity thereby. <P>SOLUTION: A setting user interface screen 1500 is displayed by a print setting menu, a desired unit is selected from a print target column 1502, and the range is designated with the selected unit. The designated range is printed including an original page within the designated range and another original page to be printed on the same paper as that of the original page together thereby. The designation can be achieved in the units of a whole, a chapter, a page, and a brochure. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method for providing an editing function for document data generated by, for example, a document processing program.

  Different types of data such as characters, tables, and images have different structures for defining the data and editing operations on the data. Therefore, various application programs corresponding to the types of data are provided. The user uses different applications depending on the type of data, such as a character processing program for editing characters, a spreadsheet program for editing tables, and an image editing program for editing images.

  As described above, the user generally uses different application programs for each type of data. However, as a document to be created by the user, for example, a plurality of types of data such as characters and tables, characters and images, rather than a document composed of only one type of data such as characters only, tables only, and images only. Documents consisting of are more common. Therefore, in order to create a target document including a plurality of types of data, the user needs to print data for each application by using a printing function included in various applications and combine the printed materials in a desired order.

Alternatively, there are programs called so-called office suites that form a single integrated application by various applications, and provide a function that combines data generated by each application to form a single document. When using this integrated application, the user can collect the data created by each application into one target document by a specific application included in the integrated application. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-151561 describes that a setting screen that allows a page to be specified as a print range is displayed.
JP 2001-195220 A

  However, when a user creates a single target document by combining printed materials from various applications, for example, in order to assign page numbers to each page, all necessary data should be printed once and put together as a document. The page number needs to be determined. Each application then writes the determined page number for each page of the document created by that application (this is called a logical page or a document page). Even if the application program has a function of assigning page numbers, if there is a discontinuous part, the user must still specify the page number for that part. When the target document page is rearranged, the page number must be reassigned accordingly. Or, it is not a change related to the contents of the data, such as combining a plurality of manuscript pages into one page as a printed matter (this is called a physical page or a print page), or changing from single-sided printing to double-sided printing. Even if it is changed, editing and printing must be performed again by the application.

  As described above, since the application that can manage the data is different for each type of data, the user must provide an interface between the applications manually. This means that a great deal of labor is required for the user, resulting in a decrease in productivity. Furthermore, since many people are involved, errors are likely to occur.

  On the other hand, when a target document is created using an integrated application, various data can be arranged in a data state without printing out. For this reason, labor is not required as much as when a target document is created by combining printed materials. However, applications for editing and creating various data are limited to those included in the integrated application, and an application desired by the user cannot always be used. The target document created by the integrated application is a single document file, and management such as editing / output is performed in file units. Therefore, there are many restrictions due to the function of the application even when trying to set the format for a part of the document file. For example, it is necessary to change the format for each part where the format changes and to reprint. For this reason, in the point that much labor is required and productivity is low, it was not different from the method mentioned above.

  Further, even when a document is corrected and then reprinted, conventionally, it has been necessary to reprint the entire document or specify a range in units of original pages and perform printing. Reprinting the entire document in spite of partial correction is not only a waste of resources, but also reduces the productivity of all users sharing the printing device. In addition, in order to specify a range to be printed in units of original pages for a document having a layout in which a plurality of original pages are arranged on a single sheet, the user sets the print portion within the original page range. It had to be converted, and it was cumbersome and prone to errors, resulting in a decrease in productivity.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus and method in which a range of a print target in a document can be easily specified, thereby improving usability and productivity.

  Furthermore, there is provided an information processing apparatus and method capable of creating and editing a document in which data created by an application program desired by a user is collected and improving the operability and improving the productivity of document editing. For other purposes.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises the following arrangement. That is, in an information processing apparatus that performs print settings including print format settings of a printed material that is printed by a printing apparatus, on document data including a plurality of document pages.
A print setting means for setting a print style setting of a print layout indicating how many original pages are to be arranged on one print sheet when document data generated by an application is printed;
Management means for assigning print format settings set by the print setting means to document data consisting of a plurality of document pages, and storing and managing them in a memory;
A selection means for selecting whether to designate a range to be printed by using a manuscript page which is a page generated by an application or by using a serial number of a printing paper to be printed by the printing device;
When it is selected by the selecting means to specify using the serial number of the printing paper, the range to be printed is specified by the serial number of the printing paper to be printed by the printing device, while the selection means A designation means for designating a range to be printed on the manuscript page when designation using the manuscript page is selected;
Based on the print style setting given to the document data stored in the memory, the print paper is printed on the print paper with the serial number designated by the designation means among the print papers to be printed by the printing apparatus. A determination means for determining a manuscript page;
Obtaining means for obtaining document data corresponding to all the manuscript pages determined by the determining means from the managing means;
Conversion means for receiving a document corresponding to the original page acquired by the acquisition means as drawing data and converting the received drawing data into print data to be printed by the printing apparatus.

  According to the present invention, it is easy to specify a range to be printed in a document, thereby improving usability and productivity.

  In addition, when a range to be printed is designated, a manuscript page that is printed on the same sheet as the designated range is also printed, so that the replacement work of the printed sheet can be facilitated. .

[First Embodiment]
<System overview>
An outline of a document processing system according to the first embodiment suitable for the information processing system of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. In this document processing system, a data file created by a general application is converted into an electronic document file by an electronic document writer. The bookbinding application provides a function for editing the electronic manuscript file. Details will be described below.

<System configuration and operation>
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a software configuration of the document processing system according to the present embodiment. The document processing system is realized by a digital computer 101 (hereinafter also referred to as a host computer) which is a preferred embodiment of the information processing apparatus of the present invention. The general application 101 is an application program that provides functions such as word processing, spreadsheet, photo retouching, drawing or painting, presentation, and text editing, and has a printing function for the OS. These applications use a predetermined interface (generally called GDI) provided by an operating system (OS) when printing application data such as created document data and image data. That is, in order to print the created data, the application 101 transmits an OS-dependent output command (referred to as a GDI function) to the OS output module that provides the interface. Upon receiving the output command, the output module converts the command into a format that can be processed by an output device such as a printer, and outputs the converted command (called a DDI function). Since the format that can be processed by the output device varies depending on the device type, manufacturer, model, etc., a device driver is provided for each device. The OS uses the device driver to convert commands and print data. A print job is generated by generating and enclosing in JL (Job Language). When using Microsoft Windows as the OS, a module called GDI corresponds to the output module described above.

  The electronic manuscript writer 102 is an improvement of the above-described device driver and is a software module provided for realizing the document processing system. However, the electronic document writer 102 is not intended for a specific output device, and converts the output command into a format that can be processed by the bookbinding application 104 and the printer driver 106 described later. The format after conversion by the electronic document writer 102 (hereinafter referred to as an electronic document format) is not particularly limited as long as a document in units of pages can be expressed in a detailed format. Among substantial standard formats, for example, a PDF format by Adobe Systems, an SVG format, or the like can be adopted as an electronic document format. When the application 101 uses the electronic document writer 102, the electronic document writer 102 is designated as a device driver used for output, and printing is executed. However, the electronic document file as created by the electronic document writer 102 does not have a complete format as the electronic document file. Therefore, the bookbinding application 104 designates the electronic document writer 102 as a device driver, and conversion of application data into an electronic document file is executed under the management of the bookbinding application 104. The bookbinding application 104 completes the new incomplete electronic document file generated by the electronic document writer 102 as an electronic document file having a format to be described later. Hereinafter, when it is necessary to clearly identify this point, a file created by the electronic manuscript writer 102 is called an electronic manuscript file, and an electronic manuscript file given a structure by the bookbinding application is called a book file. If there is no need to distinguish between them, a document file, an electronic manuscript file, and a book file generated by an application are all referred to as a document file (or document data).

  In this way, by specifying the electronic document writer 102 as a device driver and printing the data by the general application 101, the application data is in units of pages defined by the application 101 (hereinafter referred to as logical pages or document pages). It is converted into an electronic document format and stored as an electronic document file 103 in a storage medium such as a hard disk. The hard disk may be a local drive included in a computer that implements the document processing system of the present embodiment, or may be a drive provided on the network when connected to the network. .

  The bookbinding application 104 reads the electronic document file or book file 103 and provides a user with a function for editing the file. However, the bookbinding application 104 does not provide a function for editing the contents of each page, but provides a function for editing the structure of a chapter or book, which will be described later, configured with a page as a minimum unit.

  When the book file 103 edited by the bookbinding application 104 is printed, the bookbinding application 104 activates the electronic document despooler 105. The electronic document despooler 105 is a program module installed in the computer together with the bookbinding application, and is a module used to output drawing data to the printer driver when printing a document (book file) used in the bookbinding application. It is. The electronic manuscript despooler 105 reads out a designated book file from the hard disk and generates an output command suitable for the OS output module described above to print each page in the format described in the book file. Output to the output module. At that time, the driver 106 of the printer 107 used as an output device is designated as a device driver. The output module converts the output command received using the device driver 106 of the designated printer 107 into a device command that can be interpreted and executed by the printer 107. The device command is transmitted to the printer 107, and an image corresponding to the command is printed by the printer 107.

  FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of the computer 100. In FIG. 2, a CPU 201 executes programs such as an OS, a general application, and a bookbinding application that are stored in a program ROM of a ROM 203 or loaded from a hard disk 211 to a RAM 202, and the software configuration shown in FIG. The procedure of the flowchart is realized. The RAM 202 functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 201. A keyboard controller (KBC) 205 controls key input from a keyboard 209 or a pointing device (not shown). A CRT controller (CRTC) 206 controls display on the CRT display 210. A disk controller (DKC) 207 controls access to a hard disk (HD) 211, a floppy (registered trademark) disk (FD), and the like that store a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, edit files (to be described later), and the like. To do. The PRTC 208 controls the exchange of signals with the connected printer 107. The NC 212 is connected to the network and executes communication control processing with other devices connected to the network.

<Electronic manuscript data format>
Before referring to details of the editing application 104, the data format of the book file will be described. The book file has a three-layer structure imitating a paper medium book. The upper layer is called a “book”, imitating one book, and attributes related to the whole book are defined. The middle layer below it corresponds to the chapter in the book and is also called “chapter”. For each chapter, attributes for each chapter can be defined. The lower layer is a “page” and corresponds to each page defined by the application program. You can define attributes for each page. A book may contain multiple chapters, and a chapter may contain multiple pages.

  FIG. 3A is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a book file format. In the book file of this example, a book, a chapter, and a page are indicated by corresponding nodes. One book file contains one book. Since the book and chapter are concepts for defining the structure of the book, they include defined attribute values and links to lower layers as entities. The page has data for each page output by the application program as an entity. Therefore, the page includes an original page entity (original page data) and a link to each original page data in addition to the attribute value. Note that a print page when outputting to a paper medium or the like may include a plurality of document pages. This structure is not displayed by a link, but is displayed as an attribute in each hierarchy of a book, chapter, and page.

  In FIG. 3, a book 301 has a book attribute defined therein, and two chapters 302A and 302B are linked. By this link, it is displayed that chapters 302A and 302B are included in book 301. The chapter 302A is linked to pages 303A and 303B, indicating that these pages are included. Each page 303A, 303B has an attribute value defined, and includes links to the original document page data (1), (2). These links indicate the data (1) and (2) of the original page data 304 shown in FIG. 3B, and indicate that the realities of the pages 303A and 303B are the original page data (1) and (2). To do.

  FIG. 4 is a list of book attributes. For items that can be defined overlapping with the lower layer, the attribute value of the lower layer is preferentially adopted. Therefore, for items included only in the book attribute, the value defined in the book attribute becomes a valid value throughout the book. However, items that overlap the lower layer have meanings as default values when they are not defined in the lower layer. Each item illustrated does not specifically correspond to one item, but may include a plurality of related items.

  5 is a list of chapter attributes, and FIG. 6 is a list of page attributes. The relationship between chapter attributes and page attributes is the same as the relationship between book attributes and lower layer attributes.

  Items unique to the book attributes are six items: printing method, bookbinding details, front / back cover, index paper, slip sheet, and chapter break. These are items defined throughout the book. As the printing method attribute, three values of single-sided printing, double-sided printing, and bookbinding printing can be designated. Bookbinding printing is a method of printing in a format that enables bookbinding by bundling a separately designated number of sheets into two and folding the bundle. As the bookbinding details attribute, when bookbinding printing is designated, the spread direction, the number of sheets to be bundled, and the like can be designated.

  The front cover / back cover attribute includes designation of adding sheets to be a front cover and a back cover when printing an electronic document file to be collected as a book, and designation of print contents on the added sheet. The index sheet attribute includes designation of insertion of index sheets with ears separately prepared in the printing apparatus as chapter breaks and designation of print contents in the index (ear) portion. This attribute can be used when a printing device used by an inserter having an insert function for inserting a sheet prepared separately from the printing sheet into a desired position, or a plurality of paper cassettes can be used. Effective in some cases. The same applies to the slip sheet attribute.

  The slip sheet attribute includes designation of insertion of a sheet supplied from an inserter or a sheet feed cassette as a chapter break, and designation of a sheet feed source when a slip sheet is inserted.

  The chapter break attribute includes designation of whether to use a new sheet, use a new print page, or do nothing in particular at the chapter break. During single-sided printing, the use of new paper and the use of a new print page have the same meaning. In double-sided printing, if “use new paper” is specified, consecutive chapters will not be printed on one sheet, but if “use new print page” is specified, consecutive chapters will be 1 It may be printed on the front and back of a sheet of paper.

  As for chapter attributes, there are no items specific to chapters, and all items overlap with book attributes. Therefore, if the definition in the chapter attribute is different from the definition in the book attribute, the value defined in the chapter attribute has priority. Items common only to the book attribute and chapter attribute are five items: paper size, paper orientation, N-up printing designation, enlargement / reduction, and paper discharge method. Among these, the N-up print designation attribute is an item for designating the number of document pages included in one print page. Examples of arrangements that can be specified include 1 × 1, 1 × 2, 2 × 2, 3 × 3, and 4 × 4. The paper discharge method attribute is an item for designating whether or not stapling is performed on the discharged paper, and the validity of this attribute depends on whether the printing apparatus to be used has a stapling function.

  Items unique to the page attribute include a page rotation attribute, zoom, layout designation, annotation, and page division. The page rotation attribute is an item for designating a rotation angle when placing an original page on a print page. The zoom attribute is an item for designating the scaling factor of the original page. The scaling factor is specified with the size of the virtual logical page area as 100%. The virtual logical page area is an area occupied by one original page when the original page is arranged in accordance with designation of Nup or the like. For example, if it is 1 × 1, the virtual logical page area is an area corresponding to one print page, and if it is 1 × 2, each side of one print page is an area reduced to about 70%.

  Attributes common to the book, chapter, and page include a watermark attribute and a header / footer attribute. A watermark is a separately designated image or character string that is printed over data created by an application. The header and footer are watermarks printed on the upper margin and the lower margin of each page, respectively. However, items that can be specified by variables, such as page numbers and date / time, are prepared in the header / footer. The contents that can be specified in the watermark attribute and the header / footer attribute are common to the chapter and the page, but the book is different from them. In the book, the contents of the watermark and header / footer can be set, and how the watermark, header and footer are printed throughout the book can be specified. On the other hand, for a chapter or page, whether or not to print a watermark or header / footer set in the book can be specified for the chapter or page.

<Book file generation procedure>
The book file has the structure and contents as described above. Next, a procedure for creating a book file by the bookbinding application 104 and the electronic document writer 102 will be described. Creation of the book file is realized as part of the book file editing operation by the bookbinding application 104. FIG. 7 shows a procedure when the bookbinding application 104 opens a book file.

  First, it is determined whether the book file to be opened is to be newly created or is an existing one (step S701). In the case of new creation, a new book file not including a chapter is created (step S702). In the example of FIG. 3, the newly created book file is a book node that has only the book node 301 and does not have a link to the chapter node. As the book attribute, a set of attributes prepared in advance for new creation is applied. Then, a user interface (UI) screen for editing the new book file is displayed (step S704). FIG. 11 shows an example of a UI screen when a book file is newly created. In this case, since the book file has no substantial content, nothing is displayed on the UI screen 1100.

  On the other hand, if there is an existing book file, the designated book file is opened (step S703), and a user interface (UI) screen is displayed according to the structure, attributes, and contents of the book file. FIG. 10 shows an example of this UI screen. The UI screen 1100 includes a tree portion 1101 that shows a book structure, and a preview portion 1102 that displays a printed state. In the tree portion 1101, chapters included in the book and pages included in each chapter are displayed in a tree structure as shown in FIG. A page displayed in the tree portion 1101 is a manuscript page. In the preview section 1102, the contents of the print page are reduced and displayed. The display order reflects the structure of the book.

  Now, application data converted into an electronic manuscript file by the electronic manuscript writer can be added to the opened book file as a new chapter. This function is called an electronic document import function. By importing an electronic manuscript into a book file newly created by the procedure of FIG. 7, an entity is given to the book file. This function is activated by dragging and dropping application data on the screen of FIG. FIG. 8 shows an electronic document import procedure.

  First, the application program that generated the specified application data is activated, the electronic document writer 102 is specified as a device driver, and the application data is printed out to be converted into electronic document data (step S801). When the conversion is completed, it is determined whether or not the converted data is image data (step S802). This determination can be performed based on the file extension of the application data under the Windows (registered trademark) OS. For example, if the extension is “bmp”, it can be determined that Windows (registered trademark bitmap data, if “jpg”, jpeg-compressed image data, and if “tiff”, it is determined to be tif format image data. In the case of such image data, since it is possible to generate an electronic document file directly from image data without starting an application as in S8010, the processing in S8010 can be omitted. .

  If it is not image data, the electronic document file generated in step S801 is added as a new chapter to the book of the currently opened book file (step S803). As the chapter attribute, the value of the book attribute is copied for those that are common to the book attribute, and for those that are not, the preset value is set in advance.

  In the case of image data, in principle, no new chapter is added, and each original page included in the electronic original file generated in step S801 is added to the designated chapter (step S804). However, if the book file is a newly created file, a new chapter is created, and each page of the electronic document file is added as a page belonging to the chapter. As the page attribute, the attribute value is given to the attribute common to the upper layer attribute, and the value is given to the attribute that is defined in the application data in the electronic manuscript file. For example, when Nup designation or the like is made in the application data, the attribute value is inherited. In this way, a new book file is created or a new chapter is added.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a procedure for generating an electronic document file by the electronic document writer 102 in step S801 of FIG. First, a new electronic document file is created and opened (step S901). An application corresponding to the designated application data is activated, and an output command is transmitted to the output module of the OS using the electronic document writer as a device driver. The output module converts the received output command into electronic document format data by the electronic document writer and outputs the converted data (step S902). The output destination is the electronic document file opened in step S901. It is determined whether or not conversion has been completed for all designated data (step S903), and if completed, the electronic document file is closed (step S904). The electronic manuscript file generated by the electronic manuscript writer 102 is a file including manuscript page data entities shown in FIG.

<Edit book file>
As described above, a book file can be created from application data. With respect to the generated book file, the following editing operations are possible for chapters and pages.
(1) New addition (2) Delete (3) Copy (4) Cut (5) Paste (6) Move (7) Rename chapter (8) Rename page number (9) Insert cover (10) Insert paper Insert (11) Insert index paper (12) Page layout for each document page.

  In addition, an operation for canceling an editing operation once performed and an operation for redoing the canceled operation are possible. Using these editing functions, for example, integration of multiple book files, rearrangement of chapters and pages in the book file, deletion of chapters and pages in the book file, layout change of manuscript pages, insertion of slip sheets and index sheets, etc. Operation becomes possible. When these operations are performed, the operation results are reflected in the attributes shown in FIGS. 4 to 5 or in the book file structure. For example, if a blank page new addition operation is performed, a blank page is inserted at a specified location. This blank page is treated as a manuscript page. If the layout of the original page is changed, the changed content is reflected in attributes such as a printing method, N-up printing, front / back cover, index paper, slip sheet, and chapter break.

<Output book file>
The book file created and edited as described above has the final purpose of print output. When the user selects a file menu from the UI screen 1100 of the bookbinding application shown in FIG. 10 and selects printing from the file menu, printing is output by the designated output device. At this time, the bookbinding application 104 first creates a job ticket from the currently opened book file and passes it to the electronic document despooler 105. The electronic document despooler 105 converts the job ticket into an OS output command, for example, a Windows (registered trademark GDI command), and transmits it to an output module, for example, GDI. The output module is sent to the device by the designated printer driver 106. Generate a suitable command and send it to the device.

  The job ticket is data having a structure with a manuscript page as a minimum unit. The structure in the job ticket defines the layout of the manuscript page on the paper. One job ticket is issued per job. For this reason, there is a document node at the top, and attributes of the entire document, such as double-sided printing / single-sided printing, are defined. Below that, a paper node belongs, and includes attributes such as a paper identifier to be used and designation of a paper feed port in the printer. Each paper node includes a node of a sheet printed on the paper. One sheet corresponds to one sheet. A print page (physical page) belongs to each sheet. For single-sided printing, one physical page belongs to one sheet, and for double-sided printing, two physical pages belong to one sheet. Each physical page has an original page arranged thereon. The physical page attribute includes the layout of the original page.

  The electronic document despooler 105 converts the above-described job ticket into an output command to the output module.

<Other system configurations>
The outline of the document processing system of this embodiment is as described above. Although this is a stand-alone system, a book file is created and edited in almost the same configuration and procedure even in a server client system that is an extension of this system. However, the book file and print processing are managed by the server.

  FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the server client type document processing system. The client document processing system has a configuration in which a DOMS (Document Output Management Service) driver 109, a DOMS print service module 110, and a DS (Document Service) client module 108, which are client modules, are added to a stand-alone system. . To this client document processing system 1200, a document management server 1201, a centralized print management server 1202, and a print server 1203 are connected. These servers are normally connected to the client document processing system via a network, but are connected by inter-process communication that simulates communication between networks when the server also functions as a client at the same time. In FIG. 12, both the document management server 1201 and the print central management server 1202 are connected to the client, but only one of them may exist on the network. If the connected server is a document management server, the document management server client system 1201SC including the client module is the stand-alone print management server client system 1202SC including the client module. Added to document management system.

  The document management server 1201 is a server that stores book files created and edited by the bookbinding application 104. When a book file is managed by the document management server 1201, the book file is stored in the database 1211 of the document management server 1201 instead of or in addition to the local HD of the client PC. Saving and reading of book files between the bookbinding application 104 and the document management server 1201 are performed via the DS client 108 and the DS core 1212.

  The print central management server 1202 is a server that manages printing of book files stored in the client document management system 1200 or stored in the document management server 1201. The print request in the client is transmitted to the DOMSWG server module 1221 of the print central management server 1202 via the DOMS driver 109 and the DOMS print service module 110. The centralized print management server 1202 passes the electronic document data to the electronic document despooler 105 via the client's DOMS print service module 110 when printing with the client printer, and when printing with the print server 1203, the print server 1203. To the DOMS print service module 1203. For example, the centralized print management server performs a security check on the qualification of the user who issued the print request to the saved book file, and saves a print processing log. As described above, the document processing system can be realized as a stand-alone or a client-server system.

<Print setting UI and procedure>
In the document processing system described above, when printing a document file, it is possible to set a range to be printed in units corresponding to the setting of the printing method of the document file. In the present embodiment, when bookbinding printing is designated as the printing method, a printing range can be designated for each bookbinding unit (bundle), and when one side or both sides are designated, a chapter unit or a print page unit Alternatively, the range can be specified in units of original pages. Of course, the entire document can be designated as a print target regardless of the printing method.

  FIG. 13 shows an example of a UI screen by a bookbinding application when a book file in which single-sided printing is used as a printing method and layout is specified so that one original page is arranged on one printed page is opened. In this example, a book file named “WORD-A4” is opened, and this file is composed of a chapter named word-1 and a chapter named word-2. To specify single-sided printing, select the detailed setting of the book from the “print style” menu on the UI screen 1300, and select the radio button “single-sided printing” in the printing method specification field 1401 on the screen 1400 shown in FIG. You can do that. A layout in which N document pages are arranged on one print page is referred to as N-up. The example of FIG. 13 shows a 1-up layout.

  In the UI screen 1300 of FIG. 13, the tree portion 1301 displays the structure of the currently opened book file. The preview portion 1302 displays a preview indicating the printing state. There are three preview display modes: a print view mode that displays a reduced print page, a simple view mode that displays only the print page layout, and a document view mode that displays the contents of the original page. In FIG. 13, the print view is selected. Has been. In the preview portion 1302, a page image 1303 showing a print page is displayed, a document page number is shown in the lower part, and a sheet number showing the number of prints is shown in the upper right part. When single-sided printing is designated as the printing method and 1up is designated as the layout, one sheet (paper) and the original page correspond one-to-one. Accordingly, in FIG. 13, a sheet number is assigned to each print page, and the page number of the original page is also assigned.

  In order to perform print settings for the book file, the user selects a file menu from the screen 1300 and designates “print settings” from the menu. Thereby, the print setting screen 1500 of FIG. 15 is displayed. The print setting screen includes a copy number column 1501 and a print target column 1502. The number of copies column 1501 can be specified without depending on the printing method, but the items that can be specified for the printing target column 1502 differ depending on the setting of the printing method. FIG. 15 shows an example when single-sided printing or double-sided printing is designated as the printing method. In this case, as shown in FIG. 15, “book (all)” for printing the entire book file, “chapter” for printing the designated chapter, “page” for printing the designated page, and bookbinding as print targets. One of “bundles (booklets)” that are bookbinding units designated for printing can be designated. The designation of “bundle (booklet)” is meaningful only when bookbinding printing is designated as the printing method, and may be an item that can be selected only when bookbinding printing is designated.

(1) Designation of the entire range When “book (all)” is designated from the print target field 1502, there is no range to be designated, and printing is performed according to the setting by pressing the OK button 1503 following the designation. Processing begins. The printing process referred to in the present embodiment is not the printing process in the printer, but the bookbinding application 104 causes the electronic document despooler to generate drawing data, and the printer driver generates print data (print job) via the OS. This corresponds to the processing to be performed.

(2) Designation by Chapter Number When “Chapter” is designated, as shown in FIG. 16, a chapter designation column 1602 is displayed in the print target column 1502, and a chapter to be printed can be designated in this column. is there. In the case of single-sided 1-up printing, chapter breaks always correspond to sheet breaks as shown in the preview portion of FIG. Therefore, the bookbinding application creates a job ticket including a sheet corresponding to the designated chapter and passes it to the electronic document despooler 105 in FIG.

  When double-sided printing is designated as the printing method, chapter breaks do not always coincide with sheet breaks. FIG. 19 is an example of a preview screen when double-sided 1up printing is designated for the same book file as FIG. Since double-sided printing is used, two document pages are printed on both sides of one sheet. Therefore, the page number is displayed for each document page as in FIG. 18, but the sheet number is assigned every two pages. The preview portion 1902 displays the print pages on both sides of the sheet with a slight shift so that it can be visually confirmed that double-sided printing is being performed. Also in this case, the UI screen for designating the print range by chapter number is the same as that shown in FIG. However, the first or last sheet in the specified range may span two chapters. In the example of FIG. 19, the third page of the first chapter and the first page of the second chapter are printed on the sheet 2. In such a case, all pages on the sheet including the designated chapter are to be printed. That is, when Chapter 2 is designated as a print target in FIG. 19, page 1-3 is also printed together with page 2-1. This is because partial printing is usually performed for partial replacement.

  The same applies to a book file for which Nup designation is made to arrange a plurality of document pages on one print page. FIG. 21 shows an example of a UI screen when 2up is specified for the same book file as FIG. The preview unit 2102 displays an image in which the second page of the first chapter and the first page of the second chapter are arranged as print pages of the sheet 2. For example, when Chapter 2 is designated as the print target, page 1-3 is also printed together with page 2-1.

  When bookbinding printing is designated as the printing method, when a print range is designated by a chapter number, all pages placed on a sheet including the designated chapter are targeted for printing. FIG. 22 shows a screen for specifying bookbinding printing. A screen 2201 in FIG. 22 is displayed by the same procedure as the screen in FIG. However, since bookbinding printing is designated in the printing method column 2202, the items that can be designated are the opening direction 2203 and the number of sheets 2204 as a unit (bundle) of bookbinding printing. In this example, the bookbinding unit is designated as two sheets. In addition, it is specified not to divide into chapters, and no page breaks or form breaks are made between successive chapters.

  A bookbinding unit is a booklet created by overlapping a specified number of sheets into two. If the booklet is bound, it becomes one book. For this reason, the layout is formally similar to double-sided 2up, but the original pages are arranged so that the page spread order is the original page order after bookbinding.

  When bookbinding printing is designated in this way, the UI screen when a book file is opened by the bookbinding application is as shown in FIG. The opened book file includes a first chapter named chapter1 and a second chapter named chapter2. The first chapter contains 15 manuscript pages, and the second chapter contains at least 14 manuscript pages. In preview portion 2302, preview images of document pages are displayed in a spread order, one bundle per line. Also, the display format is similar to the spread. In the case of FIG. 23, since the bookbinding unit is two sheets, each booklet is composed of two sheets. Since two document pages are laid out on one side of each sheet, one booklet is composed of eight document pages.

  In such bookbinding printing, when a range to be printed is designated by a chapter number, all booklets including the designated chapter are printed. In the example of FIG. 23, in the first booklet, pages 1-4 and 1-5 are printed on the front surface of the inner sheet, and 1-3 and 1-6 are printed on the back surface. On the outer sheet, pages 1-2 and 1-7 are printed on the front surface, and pages 1-2 and 1-8 are printed on the back surface. In the second booklet, pages 1-12 and 1-13 are printed on the front surface of the inner sheet, and 1-11 and 1-14 are printed on the back surface. On the outer sheet, pages 1-10 and 1-15 are printed on the front surface, and pages 1-9 and 2-1 are printed on the back surface. Therefore, if Chapter 2 is designated as the print range, the second booklet contains the first page of Chapter 2, so the third and fourth pages, including the second booklet, are included. In this way, all booklets including Chapter 2 are printed.

  Thus, when a chapter number is specified, all printing units that include the specified chapter, that is, all sheets that include the specified chapter in single-sided and double-sided printing, All the booklets that contain the specified chapter are included in the print range and printed.

(3) Designation by page number When “page” is designated from the print target column, the print target column 1502 includes a column 1702 for designating a range on the print page, as shown in FIG. 17 or FIG. And a field 1703 for designating a range on the manuscript page is displayed. When the user selects a radio button 1704, one of the fields can be set. FIG. 17 shows an example of range designation by print page number, and FIG. 18 shows an example of range designation by document page number.

  When the range is specified by the manuscript page number, the page number is displayed on the preview screen as a number obtained by connecting the chapter number and the manuscript page in each chapter with a hyphen. . Of course, this is a specification related to the system of the present embodiment, and the range can be designated by the page number itself displayed in the preview. However, it is necessary to take measures to prevent confusion regarding notation, such as redefining symbols representing ranges as symbols other than hyphens.

  Even when the range is specified by the print page number, the range is specified by the serial number of the print page number.

  When specifying the range on the manuscript page or specifying the range on the print page, in both cases, as with the specification by chapter number, all printing units including the specified page, that is, single-sided printing and double-sided printing In the case of bookbinding printing, all sheets including the designated page are printed in the printing range, and all booklets including the designated page are printed.

(4) Specification by bundle (booklet) Specification by bundle is effective for bookbinding printing. When bookbinding printing is designated as the printing method as shown in FIG. 22, when the “File” menu is selected from the screen of FIG. 23 and the “Print” item is further selected from the menu, the print setting UI screen shown in FIG. 2400 is displayed. When “bundle (booklet)” is selected from the print target column 2301, a bundle number designation column 2402 is displayed. The user designates a booklet to be printed in this field. In the preview area 2302 in FIG. 23, one bundle is displayed as a group of one horizontal row of original pages. The bundle numbers on the preview screen are given in the order of the bundles displayed on the preview section 2302.

  When a print target is designated in booklet units, all pages constituting the designated booklet are printed according to the bookbinding printing procedure.

<Print setting procedure>
The printing range setting procedure described with reference to the UI screens of FIGS. 13 to 24 will be described from the side of the processing procedure by the bookbinding application with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The procedure shown in FIG. 25 is performed after the screen shown in FIG. 15 is displayed when the user selects the “print setting” item from the “file menu” on the screen shown in FIG. 13, FIG. 19, FIG. Starts from.

  First, in step S2501, selection of a print target column is determined. If the selected target is “book”, the process waits for input. In step S2505, input is awaited. If the input is an OK button, the process proceeds to step S2506 to generate a job ticket including the entire book as a print target. As already described, the job ticket defines the layout of the original page on the sheet. In the job ticket structure, there is a document node at the top, and attributes of the entire document, such as double-sided printing / single-sided printing, are defined. Below that, a paper (sheet) node belongs, and includes attributes such as an identifier of a paper to be used and a designation of a paper feed port in the printer. A print page node belongs to each paper node. For single-sided printing, one printed page belongs to one sheet, and for double-sided printing, two printed pages belong to one sheet. Each print page node includes a document page arranged thereon as a leaf node. For example, if 2up is designated, two document pages belong to one print page. The print page attributes include the position and size of the original page. Thus, the job ticket has a tree structure. In step S2506, a job ticket is generated from the entire book file according to the structure of the book file and the attributes at each node.

  In step S2510, the generated job ticket is transmitted to the electronic document despooler.

  On the other hand, if the print target is changed while waiting for input in step S2505, the process returns to step S2501 to repeatedly determine the print target.

  If it is determined in step S2501 that the print target is “chapter”, the screen in FIG. 16 is displayed in step S2502, and input waits. If the print target is changed while waiting for input in step S2505, the process returns to step S2501 to repeatedly determine the print target.

  If a chapter number is specified in the chapter number specification field 1602 and the OK button is pressed, the process proceeds to step S2505 to generate a job ticket for outputting all sheets including the specified chapter. For this purpose, the print method, N-up designation, and book file structure included in the book attributes of the book file shown in FIG. 3 are referred to, and a job ticket is generated for printing a sheet including a manuscript page of the designated chapter. To do.

  One method is to generate a job ticket for the entire book file once, and then leave only the subtree whose vertex is the sheet node that contains the manuscript page included in the specified chapter as a leaf node, and other sheets. There is a method of deleting a subtree having nodes as vertices. However, in the case of bookbinding printing, even if the specified range is a chapter, printing is done in booklet units, so even if a sheet does not contain the specified chapter at all, it may be part of the booklet that contains the specified chapter. It becomes a print target. Therefore, the sheet node of the job ticket is divided for each designated number of sheets as a printing unit, and a job ticket is generated as a print target for all the sheets in the category including the manuscript page belonging to the designated chapter. Note that the job ticket for the entire book file can be created by placing N pages of original pages on each print page in accordance with N-up designation in the case of single-sided or double-sided printing. In the case of bookbinding printing, the manuscript page is divided into (bookbinding unit × 4) pages, and the manuscript pages are arranged in a frame for (bookbinding unit × 4) pages in the spread order for each delimiter (this is a bundle). You can create it by following.

  In step S2510, the generated job ticket is transmitted to the electronic document despooler.

  If the print target is “page” in step S2501, the screen of FIG. 17 is displayed in step S2503, and input is awaited. If the print target is changed while waiting for input in step S2505, the process returns to step S2501 to repeatedly determine the print target.

  It is designated by the button 1704 in FIG. 17 whether a print page or an original page is to be processed. If the page is a print page, if the OK button whose number is entered in the print page number field 1702 is pressed, the process advances to step S2508. move on. In the case of a manuscript page, the screen of FIG. 18 is displayed again. If a page number is designated in the manuscript page number field 1703 and the OK button is pressed, the process advances to step S2508.

  If a print page number is designated in the print page number designation field 1702 and the OK button is pressed, the process advances to step S2508 to generate a job ticket for outputting all sheets including the designated print page. For this purpose, the printing method, N-up designation, and book file structure included in the book attributes of the book file shown in FIG. 3 are referred to, and a job ticket is generated with a sheet including the designated print page as a printing target.

  One method is to generate a job ticket for the entire book file once, and then leave only the subtree whose vertex is the sheet node containing the specified print page, and the subtree whose vertex is the other sheet node. There is a method of deleting. However, in the case of bookbinding printing, even if the specified range is a print page, printing is performed in booklet units. Therefore, even for a sheet that does not include the specified print page, a booklet that includes the specified print page is used. If it is a copy, it becomes a print target. Therefore, the sheet node of the job ticket is divided for each number designated as a printing unit, and the job ticket is generated as a print target for all the sheets in the classification including the print pages belonging to the designated chapter.

  When the print target is designated by a manuscript page, a job ticket can be generated by replacing the aforementioned “print page” with “manuscript page”. Since the manuscript page number is designated by a serial number, it must be converted into a chapter number and a manuscript page number in each chapter. A manuscript page can be specified by conversion.

  A job ticket is generated as a print target by the above procedure. In step S2510, the generated job ticket is transmitted to the electronic document despooler.

  If it is determined in step S2501 that the print target is “bundle”, the screen of FIG. If the print target is changed while waiting for input in step S2505, the process returns to step S2501 to repeatedly determine the print target.

  If a bundle number is designated in the chapter number designation field 2402 and the OK button is pressed, the process proceeds to step S2505 to generate a job ticket for outputting all sheets included in the designated bundle. The bundle designation is limited to the case where the printing method is bookbinding printing.

  As one method, there is a method in which a job ticket for the entire book file is generated once in the form of bookbinding printing in which the order of the original pages is arranged on the print page in the spread order for each booklet (bundle). In the job ticket generated in this way, a bundle can be expressed by sheet nodes divided by the number of bookbinding units. For example, when the number of bookbinding units is two, if two sheet nodes are separated from the front in the order of printing, each separation becomes a bundle. Therefore, by deleting sheet nodes that are not included in the specified bundle from the job ticket, a job ticket including the specified bundle is generated. In bookbinding printing, it is a matter of course that the order of document pages is arranged in a spread order for each booklet when a job ticket is generated.

  In step S2510, the generated job ticket is transmitted to the electronic document despooler.

  With the above procedure, a job ticket including a designated portion can be generated. When receiving the job ticket, the electronic document despooler converts the job ticket into a command suitable for the output module of the operating system, and transmits the command to the output module. The output module generates a print command in a format suitable for the printer using a device driver such as a printer that actually performs printing, and transmits the print command to the printer for printing.

<Other configurations>
In the above embodiment, in the case of bookbinding printing, a sheet including a specified range is printed in booklet units. However, when the number of bookbinding units is large, or when the entire book file is designated as the bookbinding unit, the advantage that the required number of sheets is small is lost. Therefore, when the print range is specified for a chapter, a print page, or a manuscript page, a sheet including the specified range can be printed. In this case, printing can be performed in substantially the same procedure as described above, but the processing procedure is simplified to the extent that it is not necessary to determine a bundle including the designated range. Of course, the number of sheets to be printed can be reduced.

  In addition, as a method of specifying a range, specification of a paper unit may be added. Since a sheet is one of job ticket nodes, and specification of a sheet unit is always completed within a specified range, it is easy to create a partial job ticket including the specified range. Further, since the sheet number is displayed on the right shoulder of each sheet in the preview part, it is easy for the user to specify the sheet from the preview screen. When a sheet is specified as a print range, a job ticket for printing the specified range can be generated by deleting a sheet node outside the specified range from the job ticket for the entire book file. . Since the designated sheet number corresponds to the order of the sheet nodes in the job ticket, this processing is easy.

  Also, in this embodiment, when generating a partial print job ticket, processing is performed so that only necessary portions are left out of the entire job ticket, but only necessary portions are selected and job tickets are selected. It can also be reconfigured. Further, by generating a job ticket for the whole while performing processing for deleting unnecessary portions in parallel, resources necessary for generating the job ticket can be saved.

<Example of specific procedure for partial printing>
Also, as a partial printing method, instead of removing unnecessary parts from the job ticket, an instruction to specify the print range is added to the job ticket, and the part of the job ticket necessary for partial printing is added by the electronic document despooler. It is also possible to adopt a reading method. An example is shown below.

(Specify the entire document (book))
FIG. 26 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a job ticket format. In the job ticket of this example, information such as the contents of one document and instructions for printing is expressed in a hierarchical structure. The print instruction is included in the “ResourcePool” 2601 portion, and the print instruction for the document is described in “PrintParams” 2602 and below. Further, information on each sheet is described in “Sheet” 2603 and below, information on a print page (physical page) arranged on each sheet is described in “Surface” 2604 and below, and “Surface” 2604 includes a manuscript page. Is included on the print page.

In step S2506 of generating a job ticket for printing the entire book in the flowchart of FIG. 25, a print range instruction 2701 of “PrintSheetList =“ 1 to −1 ”” is generated as shown in FIG. In this example, the following format is used for the character string indicating the print range. In addition, although an underline is attached in the figure, this is for convenience of illustration.
A sheet number for designating a sheet is expressed as 1, 2, 3 in order from the first sheet of the document, or -1, -2, -3 in order from the last sheet.
・ Specify the sheet numbers to be printed, separated by spaces. For example, when the third and fifth sheets are designated, it is expressed as “35”.
When specifying consecutive sheets, it can be expressed in the format of “(first sheet number) to (last sheet number)”. For example, when specifying the first sheet to the third sheet, it is expressed as “1 to 3”.

  In the example of FIG. 27, the print range is designated in units of sheets (paper) by the description “PrintSheetList”. Therefore, in step S2506, “1 to −1”, that is, the specification from the first sheet to the last sheet is generated as the specification of the range in which the entire book is the output range, and is added immediately after “PrintSheetList”. Then, the generated description “PrintSheetList =“ 1 to −1 ”” for designating a range is inserted into the job ticket as one of the items included in “PrintParams” 2602.

(Chapter unit specification)
In step S2507 for generating a job ticket for printing the designated chapter, first, a document page included in the designated chapter is checked. This can be examined using the chapter attribute and page attribute hierarchy shown in FIG. Then, the print page on which the obtained document page is arranged is checked. For this purpose, it is possible to check based on information (printing method, N-up printing, etc.) related to the arrangement of the manuscript page among the book attributes and chapter attributes shown in FIGS.

The number of document pages arranged on one side of one sheet is N (N is the number of document pages arranged on one physical page in N-up printing designation). Accordingly, the number of document pages arranged on one sheet is N for single-sided printing designation and 2N for double-sided printing designation. Therefore, the relationship between the number of document pages and the number of sheets is the number of document pages / N (single-sided designation) or the number of document pages / 2N (double-sided designation). In addition, if there is a paper break specification between chapters, a new chapter is always printed after a new sheet. If a page break is specified between chapters, a new chapter is always printed after a new print page. Therefore, in view of these points, a sheet including the designated chapter is specified. Specifically, the following procedure can be adopted as an example that is performed in step S2507.
(1) Count the number of sheets (P) for the chapters before the specified chapter. For this purpose, the number of sheets in a chapter is calculated as the number of original pages included in a chapter / N (single side designation) or the number of original pages / 2N (double side designation). However, when double-sided printing is specified and page breaks between chapters are not specified, calculation is performed for successive chapters without calculating for each chapter. The number of document pages included in a chapter corresponds to the number of leaf nodes branched from the chapter nodes 302A and 302B in FIG.
(2) If a paper break is designated between chapters, the next chapter is printed from a new sheet (P + 1).
(3) If a page break is designated between chapters, in the case of duplex designation, the next chapter is printed from the back side of the same sheet (P) as the last page of the previous chapter. In the case of single-side printing designation, printing is started from a new sheet (P + 1).
(4) Steps (1) to (3) are repeated for all chapters before the designated chapter, and the sheet (Pstart) to which the first page belongs is obtained for the designated chapter.
(5) Count the number of sheets (P ′) for the designated chapter in the same manner as (1). (6) The printing range is determined as sheets Pstart to Pstart + P ′.

  With the above procedure, the range specified in units of chapters can be replaced with a sheet. Of course, when a plurality of chapters are designated, this procedure can be applied independently to each designated chapter.

  However, these procedures are also performed when a GUI screen as shown in FIG. 21 is displayed. Therefore, if the correspondence between the sheet, the manuscript page, and the chapter is determined when the GUI screen is displayed, the information is stored. When the print range is designated, the stored information is referred to by referring to the stored information. The range can also be determined.

  In the case of bookbinding printing designation, the chapter-unit printing range is designated in bundle units. Accordingly, the range of the sheet to be printed is determined by associating the bundle including the designated chapter with the range of the sheet. In the case of bookbinding printing designation, the number of sheets per bundle × 4 is the number of original pages printed per bundle. In addition, if there is a page break specification between chapters, if the last page number of the chapter is an odd number, the number of bundles to which only the chapters before the chapter designated as a blank page inserted immediately after that will be determined. The The number of bundles thus counted is converted to the number of sheets (P) by multiplying the number of sheets of one bundle.

  Then, the head sheet number (P + 1) of the bundle to which the designated chapter belongs becomes the head of the range to be printed. From the number of manuscript pages of the designated chapter, the number of bundles including the designated chapter is immediately obtained. At this time, the number of bundles including the number of document pages of chapters other than the designated chapter included in the top bundle is determined. Then, the last sheet of the last bundle including the designated chapter is the end of the range to be printed.

  The range determined as described above is added immediately after “PrintSheetList”, and this is inserted into “PrintParams” 2602.

  For example, when two chapters of the double-sided 1-up document shown in FIG. 19 are designated as print targets, the designated chapters before the second chapter, that is, the number of sheets of the first chapter are manuscript pages included in the two chapters. Are 5 pages from 2-1 to 2-5, and the sheets on which these document pages are arranged are three sheets from 2 to 4. Therefore, in this case, the print range is designated by the expression PrintSheetList = "2-4".

(Specify manuscript page unit)
In step S2508 of generating a job ticket for printing the designated page (original page), the print page on which the designated original page is arranged is checked. This process can be obtained in the same manner as the process when a chapter is designated. That is, in the above-described procedure for specifying a chapter unit, if the “chapter” in (1) to (6) is read as “original page”, the above procedure can be applied almost as it is. However, since the number of sheets per one manuscript page is obtained in step (1), it is necessary to multiply this value by the number of manuscript pages before the designated manuscript page and convert it to the number of sheets.

Furthermore, if the converted number of sheets is not an integer, the designated document page may be printed on the same sheet as the previous pages, so adjustment is required according to the chapter break designation.
(A) If neither chapter break page designation nor page break designation is specified, the integer part of the converted sheet number is set to the number of sheets before the sheet on which the designated document page is printed. Equivalent to.
(B) However, when page break is designated, the number of original pages obtained from the data in FIG. 3 is not adopted as the number of pages of the chapter of interest, and the smallest multiple of N larger than the number of pages of the chapter of interest is Adopted as the number of manuscript pages of the chapter of interest. Then, the number of original pages is converted into the number of sheets by the above procedure. The same applies to the case where a paper break is designated and single-sided printing is designated. In addition, when the paper break is designated and double-sided printing is designated, the smallest multiple of 2N that is larger than the number of pages of the chapter of interest is adopted as the number of pages of the chapter of interest. . However, N is the number of document pages arranged on one print page in N-up printing designation. This is because the blank generated by the chapter break is converted as a blank manuscript page.

  For example, let us consider a case where the manuscript pages 2-1 and 2-5 of the document shown in FIG. Since printing is designated on both sides, the number of sheets per document page is ½. Since the chapter break is not specified, the number of sheets before the range-specified page 2-1 is 3 (number of original pages) × 1/2 (number of sheets / original page) = 3/2, an integer part. That is, P = 1. Accordingly, the sheet including the designated document page is P + 1 = 2. Similarly, the original page 2-5 is included in the fourth sheet. That is, the sheets including the designated document page are two sheets, sheets 2 and 4. In this case, the print range is designated by the expression “PrintSheetList =“ 2 4 ””.

  (Specifying a bundle (booklet) unit) In step S2509 for generating a job ticket for printing a bundle designated at the time of bookbinding printing, a sheet included in the designated bundle is obtained. For example, if a second booklet is printed when an instruction is given to separate a booklet every five sheets at the time of bookbinding printing, five sheets from 6 to 10 are to be printed, so the expression PrintSheetList = “6-10” The print range is specified with.

  The electronic manuscript despooler receives the job ticket created in the above processing, determines only the sheet designated in PrintSheetList to be printed, and changes the command to the output module of the operating system according to the instruction designated only for the corresponding sheet. Convert the job ticket and send the command to the output module. 28A and 28B show one job ticket. In the example of the job ticket shown in FIG. 28A and FIG. 28B, Print Sheet List = “1” (print the first sheet) of PrintParams is read, and the command generation is performed only for the sheets belonging to the designated Layout Signature. (Only the bold signature part in the figure).

  In this way, the print range specified by multiple print range specification methods is represented by a job ticket that specifies the sheet to be printed, and sheet information to be printed is added instead of removing unnecessary parts from the job ticket. The print range can be specified. In addition, it is possible to specify any part of the document as a print target by simply rewriting a part of the job ticket, so the job ticket creation process that specifies the print range is easy (high speed). The effect that it becomes possible to change is further obtained.

<Print processing in electronic document despooler>
The printing process in the electronic document despooler will be described in more detail. The electronic manuscript despooler converts manuscript page drawing data into OS output commands (for example, Windows (registered trademark) GDI command) according to the print instruction described in the job ticket, and transfers the drawing command to the printer via the printer driver. To do.

  In the job ticket, sheet information is described in order from the first sheet. When the Nth sheet is printed, the Nth “Sheet” portion from the beginning of the job ticket is read to obtain the sheet to be printed. Information can be acquired. Sheet includes one surface for single-sided printing and two surfaces for double-sided printing, and the surface describes information of a print page (physical page). Further, the Surface includes information regarding the document page drawn in the print page as a ContentObject.

  FIG. 29 shows a flowchart of the printing process in the electronic document despooler. In step S2901, information necessary for job initialization command output is acquired from the job ticket. The initialization command is a group of parameters specified for the entire print job, such as information for identifying a printer as a printing destination, a specified resolution, and the number of copies. The initialization command is specified in a PrintParams or Device portion below the ResourcePool of the job ticket. These values are acquired, an output destination printer is designated in accordance with the OS print processing method, and parameters to be designated for the entire job such as resolution and number of copies are output. Next, in step S2902, the value of PrintSheetList is acquired from the job ticket in order to acquire the print range. In step S2903, a list of sheet numbers to be actually printed is generated based on the contents of PrintSheetList. For example, if PrintSheetList = "1-3 6 8-10", a list of sheet numbers (1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10) to be printed is generated. In steps S2904 to S2907, the top sheet number of the list is extracted (step S2905), the printing process of the sheet (step S2906) is performed, the top sheet number of the list is deleted (step S2907), and the list is included in the list. The process is repeated until the printing process for all sheets is completed. When the printing range is all sheets, it is possible to print a list in order from the first sheet, omitting the process of creating a list and specifying the sheet to be printed.

  FIG. 30 is a flowchart of the sheet printing process in step S2906 of FIG. The signature 2605 in FIG. 26 includes the definition of sheet attributes (for example, paper size, paper feed slot, etc.), and is configured so that sheets having the same sheet attribute are included in the signature. In step S3001, the signature information including the sheet designated as the print target is read. If the sheet attribute is different from the previous state, a command (paper size) for changing the attribute in accordance with the OS print processing method. • Output paper feed change command).

  In step S3002, information of a print page (Surface) that is included in the print target sheet (Sheet) and has not yet output a print command is acquired. FIG. 31 shows a sample of Sheet 2603. This Sheet includes two Surfaces 3101 and 3102, which indicate printed pages on the front and back surfaces of one sheet. In step S3002, the print page information (Surfaces 3101 and 3102) on the front side is read, and the manuscript page information (ContentObject 3103) included in the print page is read, and the drawing information included in the manuscript page is converted into a command suitable for the output module of the OS. Convert and execute print processing. The Ord of the ContentObject indicates the original page number. The drawing object such as text, graphic, and image included in the original page pointed to is converted into a print command according to the OS, and the printer driver Is converted to a drawing command that can be interpreted, and printing is executed. In the example of FIG. 31, document page numbers 0, 1, 2, and 3 are shown as Ord.

  FIG. 32 shows an example of the structure of document data. A drawing object included in each original page is recorded in units of original pages. Text and graphic attributes (font attributes, line attributes, etc.) referenced by a drawing object are recorded in a portion other than each original page for common use by a plurality of drawing objects. By having only the link information to the attribute, it is possible to save the data efficiently. In step S3003, the drawing object group of the specified document is acquired from the document data from the document page number specified in the ContentObject Ord acquired in step S3002, and converted into a print command in accordance with the OS. .

  In the example of FIG. 31, two ContentObjects are included in one Surface, which means that 2-up printing is performed (two manuscript pages are arranged on one print page). . The designation of CTM included in the ContentObject in FIG. 31 indicates affine transformation, and indicates an instruction to place the drawing content of the original page on the print page by specifying the position, size, and rotation angle. Although details are omitted, it is possible to specify a drawing position, size, and rotation according to the OS, convert a drawing object included in the original page into a print command, and perform a drawing process on the print page. Is possible. By repeatedly executing Steps S3003 and S3004 for all document pages included in the print page, a print page drawing command is generated. In the case of duplex printing, since two print pages are included in one sheet, the processing from step S3002 to step S3005 is also performed on the back side. In this way, the printing process for one sheet can be executed.

  FIG. 33 shows an example of print data generated by the printer driver and transmitted to the printer. Reference numeral 3301 denotes a job initialization command portion output in step S2901 in FIG. Reference numerals 3302 and 3306 denote sheet initialization command portions output in step S3001 of FIG. Reference numerals 3303, 3304, 3305, and 3307 denote drawing commands for one print page output in steps S3002 to S3005 in FIG.

  In this way, it is possible to generate print data matching the print range specified in the job ticket and print only the print data of the specified sheet.

<Advantages of the system of the embodiment>
As described above, it is possible to designate printing of only a desired portion by the page number, chapter number, or bundle while viewing the preview image displayed in the preview portion. Since a preview image that faithfully represents the layout to be printed out is displayed on the preview screen, the user can accurately specify the print range by referring to the preview image.

  In addition, since range specification can be performed in various units such as chapters, print pages, manuscript pages, and booklets, the user can select units that make it easy to specify the range to be printed or the replacement part after printing. It is possible to select.

  In addition to the designated range, a portion outside the designated range that is printed on the same sheet as the range is also printed. For this reason, the user simply specifies the page or chapter whose contents have been changed, and the user can print on the paper or booklet unit to be replaced, which is very easy to operate and there are few errors in the designated printing range. Further, in the case of bookbinding printing, the replacement is very easy by printing in booklet units including the specified range. Further, in the case of bookbinding printing, printing is performed in units of sheets including the specified range, so that the required number of sheets is not increased unnecessarily.

1 is a block diagram of a stand-alone document processing system. FIG. And FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a computer that implements a document processing system. It is a figure which shows an example of the structure of a book file. It is a figure which shows the list of book attributes. It is a figure which shows the list of chapter attributes. It is a figure which shows the list of page attributes. It is a flowchart of the procedure of opening a book file. 10 is a flowchart of a procedure for importing an electronic document file into a book file. 10 is a flowchart of a procedure for converting application data into an electronic document file. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen at the time of opening the existing book file. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface screen at the time of opening a new book file. 1 is a block diagram of a client server type document processing system. FIG. It is a figure of an example of the preview screen at the time of single-sided 1up printing designation. It is a figure of an example of the designation | designated screen of the printing method (single-sided printing). It is a figure of an example of the screen for designation | designated of printing object. It is a figure of an example of a display screen when a chapter is designated as a printing target. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen when a print page is designated as a print target. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen when a document page is designated as a print target. It is a figure of an example of the preview screen at the time of duplexing 1up printing designation | designated. It is a figure of an example of the setting screen for Nup printing designation | designated. It is a figure of an example of the preview screen at the time of single side | surface 2up printing designation | designated. It is a figure of an example of the designation | designated screen of a printing method (bookbinding printing). FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a preview screen when bookbinding printing is specified. It is a figure of an example of the display screen in the case of specifying a booklet as a printing target. It is a flowchart of the procedure for designation | designated of a printing range and printing control of a designated range. It is a figure which shows an example of the format of a job ticket typically. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a job ticket in which a print range is specified for printing an entire book. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a job ticket in which a print range is designated. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a job ticket in which a print range is designated. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of print processing in an electronic document despooler. 6 is a flowchart of sheet printing processing. It is a figure explaining the example of Sheet which shows the contents of a sheet. It is a figure explaining the example of the structure of original data. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of print data generated by a printer driver and transmitted to a printer.

Claims (15)

In an information processing apparatus that performs print settings including print format settings for printed matter to be printed by a printing apparatus for document data including a plurality of manuscript pages.
A print setting means for setting a print style setting of a print layout indicating how many original pages are to be arranged on one print sheet when document data generated by an application is printed;
Management means for assigning print format settings set by the print setting means to document data consisting of a plurality of document pages, and storing and managing them in a memory;
A selection means for selecting whether to designate a range to be printed by using a manuscript page which is a page generated by an application or by using a serial number of a printing paper to be printed by the printing device;
When it is selected by the selecting means to specify using the serial number of the printing paper, the range to be printed is specified by the serial number of the printing paper to be printed by the printing device, while the selection means A designation means for designating a range to be printed on the manuscript page when designation using the manuscript page is selected;
Based on the print style setting given to the document data stored in the memory, the print paper is printed on the print paper with the serial number designated by the designation means among the print papers to be printed by the printing apparatus. A determination means for determining a manuscript page;
Obtaining means for obtaining document data corresponding to all document pages determined by the determining means from the managing means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a conversion unit that receives a document corresponding to a document page acquired by the acquisition unit as drawing data and converts the received drawing data into print data to be printed by the printing apparatus. .   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit acquires document data corresponding to the specified original page from the management unit when the original page is specified by the specifying unit.   2. The print preview display means for displaying a print preview image of each original page of the document data in accordance with a print style setting set by the print setting means before the start of print processing. Or the information processing apparatus according to 2; A generating unit configured to generate intermediate data from the document data output by the application;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conversion unit converts the intermediate data generated by the generation unit into print data. The selection means can select to specify using a chapter as a print range,
The determination unit belongs to a chapter designated by the designation unit among print sheets to be printed by the printing apparatus based on a print format setting set in the document data stored in the memory. Determine all manuscript pages placed on the paper on which manuscript pages are placed,
5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the acquisition unit acquires document data corresponding to all original pages determined by the determination unit from the management unit. 6. An information processing method in an information processing apparatus for performing print settings including print format settings of a printed matter to be printed by a printing apparatus on document data including a plurality of manuscript pages,
A print setting step for receiving an input of a print style setting of a print layout indicating how many manuscript pages are arranged on one print sheet when print processing of document data generated by an application;
A management step of assigning a print format setting set by the print setting step to document data including a plurality of manuscript pages and storing and managing in a memory;
A selection step of accepting a selection of whether to designate a range to be printed using a manuscript page that is a page generated by an application or a serial number of a print sheet to be printed by the printing apparatus; ,
When it is selected by the selection step that the designation is made using the serial number of the printing paper, the range to be printed is accepted by the designation of the printing paper serial number to be printed by the printing device, while the selection step A designation step for accepting designation by a manuscript page as a range to be printed when it is selected to designate by using a manuscript page;
Based on the print format setting given to the document data stored in the memory, the print paper is printed on the print paper with the serial number designated in the designation step among the print papers to be printed by the printing apparatus. A determination process for determining a manuscript page;
An acquisition step of acquiring document data corresponding to all document pages determined by the determination step from the memory;
An information processing method comprising: a conversion step of receiving a document corresponding to an original page acquired by the acquisition step as drawing data, and converting the received drawing data into print data to be printed by the printing apparatus. .   The information processing method according to claim 6, wherein in the obtaining step, when a document page is designated by the designation step, document data corresponding to the designated document page is obtained from the memory.   The print preview display step of displaying a print preview image of each original page of the document data in accordance with the print format setting set in the print setting step before the start of the printing process. Or the information processing method of 7. A generation step of generating intermediate data from the document data output by the application;
9. The information processing method according to claim 6, wherein in the conversion step, the intermediate data generated in the generation step is converted into print data. In the selection step, it can be selected to specify using a chapter as the print range,
The determination step belongs to a chapter designated in the designation step among print sheets to be printed by the printing device based on a print format setting set in the document data stored in the memory. Determine all manuscript pages placed on the paper on which manuscript pages are placed,
10. The information processing method according to claim 6, wherein in the obtaining step, document data corresponding to all original pages determined in the determining step is acquired from the memory. 11. A program that causes a computer to function as an information processing apparatus that performs print settings including print format settings of a printed material that is printed by a printing apparatus on document data including a plurality of original pages.
A print setting unit that accepts an input of a print style setting of a print layout indicating how many original pages are to be arranged on one printing paper when printing document data generated by an application;
Management means for assigning print format settings set by the print setting means to document data consisting of a plurality of document pages, and storing and managing them in a memory;
Selection means for accepting selection of whether to designate a range to be printed using a manuscript page which is a page generated by an application or a serial number of a printing paper to be printed by the printing apparatus; ,
When it is selected by the selection means to specify using the serial number of the printing paper, the range to be subjected to the printing process is designated by the serial number of the printing paper to be printed by the printing device, while the selection means A designation means for accepting designation by the manuscript page as a range to be printed when designation using the manuscript page is selected by:
Based on the print style setting given to the document data stored in the memory, the print paper is printed on the print paper with the serial number designated by the designation means among the print papers to be printed by the printing apparatus. A determination means for determining a manuscript page;
Obtaining means for obtaining document data corresponding to all the manuscript pages determined by the determining means from the managing means;
A program for receiving a document corresponding to an original page acquired by the acquisition unit as drawing data, and causing the computer to function as a conversion unit that converts the received drawing data into print data to be printed by the printing apparatus. .   12. The program according to claim 11, wherein when the original page is specified by the specifying unit, the acquiring unit acquires document data corresponding to the specified original page from the management unit.   Before starting the printing process, the computer is further caused to function as a print preview display unit that displays a print preview image of each document page of the document data in accordance with a print format setting set by the print setting unit. The program according to claim 11 or 12. Further causing the computer to function as generation means for generating intermediate data from the document data output by the application,
The program according to any one of claims 11 to 13, wherein the conversion unit converts the intermediate data generated by the generation unit into print data. The selection means can select to specify using a chapter as a print range,
The determination unit belongs to a chapter designated by the designation unit among print sheets to be printed by the printing apparatus based on a print format setting set in the document data stored in the memory. Determine all manuscript pages placed on the paper on which manuscript pages are placed,
15. The program according to claim 11, wherein the acquisition unit acquires document data corresponding to all document pages determined by the determination unit from the memory.

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