JP2008276745A - Printer controller, and method of printing print document - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To print information to be printed, within a printable area, without bulging out the information to be printed from the printable area, when carrying out printing based on a print request issued by a GDI application, using an XPS driver. <P>SOLUTION: This printer controller/method has a step (S11) for receiving an XPS document, a step (S12) for analyzing the received XPS document, a step (S13) for determining whether an print instruction to an outside of the printable area in a print paper sheet is included in the XPS document or not, based on a result of the analysis, a step (S16) for composing a reduced print image with a print image composed according to the XPS document size-reduced at a scale factor of bringing the whole area of the print paper sheet within the printable area, when the print instruction to the outside of the printable area is included in the XPS document, as a result of the determination, and a step (S17) for outputting a data of the composed reduced print image to the printer to execute the printing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing technique using an XPS driver, and more particularly to a technique for appropriately printing a printing request from a GDI application.

  Microsoft Windows XP (trademark or registered trademark) has a specification called GDI (Graphic Device Interface) for controlling a printer or a display.

  On the other hand, Microsoft Windows Vista (trademark or registered trademark) employs a specification called XPS (XML Paper Specification).

By the way, Patent Document 1 describes (1) a printing process flow from the Win32 application to the GDI driver, (2) a printing process flow from the WinFx application to the XPS printer driver, and (3) a printing process from the Win32 application to the XPS printer driver. Four print processing flows are described: a flow, and (4) a print processing flow from the WinFx application to the GDI driver. In addition, this patent document 1 is unpublished as of the filing date (April 2, 2007) of the basic application of the present application.
JP 2007-249854 A

  By the way, a GDI application that performs GDI output processing uses a GetDeviceCaps () function for a GDI-compatible printer driver (hereinafter referred to as a GDI driver) in order to grasp the printable area R2 (see FIG. 2) of printing paper. Issued and obtains the size of the printable area R2.

  On the other hand, the XPS driver, which is an XPS specification printer driver, has a specification that returns the size of the printing paper region R1 to the GetDeviceCaps () function. In other words, a conventional GDI application that does not know this issues a GetDeviceCaps () function and, when receiving a size from the XPS driver, understands that printing is possible in the region R1 of the entire printing paper in FIG. The printable area is R2).

  Therefore, the GDI application issues a print request in which a print image is assigned to an area that protrudes from the actual printable area R2 to the XPS driver. If the XPS driver prints this as it is, the image assigned to the margin M area (the difference area between the print paper area R1 and the printable area R2) is not printed.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to print information in a printable area without printing out of the printable area when printing based on a print request issued by a GDI application using an XPS driver. Is to do.

  A print control apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is a print control apparatus including an XPS driver that causes a printer to execute printing based on an XPS (XML Paper Specification) standard. The XPS driver includes a means for receiving a print document, a means for analyzing the received print document, and a print instruction for printing the print paper outside the printable area based on the result of the analysis. And means for determining whether or not the print document includes a print instruction outside the printable area as a result of the determination, the print image synthesized according to the print document is displayed on the print paper. Means for synthesizing a reduced print image reduced at a magnification such that the entire area fits in the printable area; and means for outputting data of the synthesized reduced print image and causing the printer to execute printing. Print control device.

  In a preferred embodiment, it may further comprise a GDI application that issues a print request using GDI (Graphic Device Interface), and means for converting the print request issued by the GDI application into the print document.

  In a preferred embodiment, the apparatus further comprises means for determining whether or not an issuer of the printed document is based on the XPS standard, and when determining that the issuer is based on the XPS standard, the determination Alternatively, printing may be performed without combining the reduced print image.

  Hereinafter, a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the system includes a print control apparatus 1 and a printer 3.

  The print control apparatus 1 is configured by, for example, a general-purpose computer system, and individual components or functions in the print control apparatus 1 described below are realized by, for example, executing a computer program.

  The print control apparatus 1 includes an XPS driver 10, an XPS application (hereinafter referred to as XPS application) 50, a GDI application (hereinafter referred to as GDI application) 60, and an XPS converter 70.

  The XPS application 50 is an application that generates and outputs an XPS document described in XML. For example, when a print request is sent to the XPS driver 10, the content to be printed is output as an XPS document.

  The GDI application 60 outputs a conventional GDI print request. That is, the GDI application 60 allocates an image to be printed in the area acquired by the GetDeviceCaps () function and generates a print request.

  The XPS converter 70 converts the print request output by the GDI application 60 using GDI into an XPS document.

  When the XPS driver 10 receives a call to the GetDeviceCaps () function from the XPS application 50 or the GDI application 60, the XPS driver 10 returns the size of the printing paper. The XPS driver 10 also receives an XPS document and analyzes an XML sentence included in the XPS document, a print image composition unit 13 that develops a print image according to the XPS document, and a printable area determination unit 15. With.

  The XML analysis unit 11 receives an XPS document created by the XPS application 50 or an XPS document obtained by converting the output of the GDI application 60 by the XPS converter 70. Then, the XML analysis unit 11 reads an XML sentence from the received XPS document and analyzes the XML. For example, in the XPS document, the print paper size, the contents of a plurality of drawing elements, their position coordinates, and the like are specified by an XML sentence. The XML analysis unit 11 interprets an XML sentence for each drawing element. The drawing element refers to an object to be printed such as a character, an image, or a line drawing.

  The printable area determination unit 15 determines whether each drawing element described in the XPS document is within an area that can be printed by the printer.

  FIG. 2 shows the print paper area and the printable area.

  A printing paper region R1 indicating the entire printing paper is determined according to the size of the printing paper. Further, for each print paper size, there is a margin M that cannot be printed by the printer, and the area inside the margin M is the printable area R2. For example, when O in the drawing is the origin, the printable region R2 is specified by the XY coordinates of A and B.

  The printable area determination unit 15 determines the presence / absence of a drawing element protruding from the printable area R <b> 2 according to the analysis result of the XML analysis unit 11. For example, this determination is made based on whether or not the coordinates of the position to which the drawing element is assigned are within the range of the XY coordinates of A and B that are the range of the printable region R2.

  The print image synthesis unit 13 develops the drawing elements according to the analysis result of the XML analysis unit 11 and synthesizes the print image to be printed. For example, the print image synthesis unit 13 assigns each drawing element such as a character, an image, or a line drawing to the drawing position of each drawing element analyzed by the XML analysis unit 11 and synthesizes the print image.

  When the printable area determination unit 15 determines that there is a drawing element that protrudes from the printable area R2, the print image combining unit 13 combines the reduced print images. For example, the print image composition unit 13 may compose the print image in which the XML sentence of the XPS document is developed as it is, and then reduce the entire print image at a predetermined reduction ratio, or develop the XML sentence of the XPS document. Sometimes, the reduced print image may be synthesized in consideration of the reduction magnification. Note that this reduction magnification is, for example, a magnification for reducing the print paper region R1 so that the entire range of the print paper region R1 falls within the printable region R2. This reduction ratio is determined for each paper size, and is stored in advance by the printable area determination unit 15.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when printing is performed in the printing system having the above-described configuration.

  First, the XML analysis unit 11 receives an XPS document (S11). Then, the XML analysis unit 11 acquires an XML sentence for one drawing element from the received XPS document, and analyzes the drawing position of this drawing element in the XML sentence (S12). The printable area determination unit 15 determines whether the coordinates of the drawing start position and the end position of the drawing element are both within the printable area R2 based on the analysis result of the XML analysis unit 11 (S13). ).

  If the drawing element is outside the printable area R2 (S13: No), the print image composition unit 13 interprets the XML text of all the drawing elements of the XPS document and reduces the print image according to the XML statement. The images are synthesized (S16).

  On the other hand, if this drawing element is in the printable area R2 (S13: Yes), it is determined whether or not this drawing element is the last drawing element among the drawing elements described in the XPS document (S14). ). Then, while it is not the last drawing element (S14: No), the processing from step S12 onward is repeated for all the drawing elements.

  If all the drawing elements are within the printable area R2 (S14: Yes), the print image composition unit 13 interprets the XML statements of all the drawing elements of the XPS document and composes a print image according to the interpretation. S15).

  Then, the print image synthesized by the print image synthesis unit 13 is output to the printer 3 to execute printing (S17).

  The XPS driver 10 may determine whether the received XPS document is sent from the XPS application 50 or sent from the XPS converter 70. This can be determined, for example, by the “hdc” parameter of the DrvDocumentEvent () function. That is, it is determined whether the XPS document is transmitted directly from the XPS application 50 or transmitted through the XPS converter 70 depending on whether the “hdc” parameter is “INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE”. can do. Therefore, when the XPS driver 10 determines that the print document is issued by the XPS application 50, the XPS driver 10 receives the XPS document without performing the determination in steps S12 to S14 when processing the received XPS document. It is also possible to interpret the XML sentence of the XPS document, and synthesize a print image of the same size without reducing it.

  Next, an example of printing in this embodiment shown in FIG. 4 will be described.

  In the XPS document generated by the XPS converter 70 by the output from the GDI application 60, for example, as shown on the left in FIG. 4A, information such as characters to be printed outside the printable area R2 may protrude. At this time, according to the above-described embodiment, a reduced print image (right of FIG. 4A) in which the print paper region R1 is reduced to the printable region R2 is synthesized. As a result, all the drawing elements are printed within the printable area R2.

  On the other hand, like the XPS document generated by the XPS application 50 shown on the left in FIG. 4B and the XPS document generated by the XPS converter 70 based on the print request for which an appropriate margin is set by the GDI application 60, the printable area R2 If the information such as characters to be printed does not protrude outside, printing is performed without reduction as it is, as shown on the right in FIG. 4B.

  As a result, the printing system according to the present embodiment can appropriately print even a print request from a conventional GDI application.

  The above-described embodiments of the present invention are examples for explaining the present invention, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those embodiments. Those skilled in the art can implement the present invention in various other modes without departing from the gist of the present invention.

1 shows a configuration diagram of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. A print paper area and a printable area will be described. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence when performing printing. The example of printing in this embodiment is shown.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Print control apparatus 3 Printer 10 XPS driver 11 XML analysis part 13 Print image composition part 15 Printable area determination part 50 XPS application 60 GDI application 70 XPS converter M Margin R1 Print paper area R2 Printable area

Claims (5)

A print control apparatus including an XPS driver that causes a printer to execute printing based on an XPS (XML Paper Specification) standard,
The XPS driver
Means for accepting printed documents;
Means for analyzing the received print document;
Means for determining whether the print document includes a print instruction outside the printable area of the print paper based on the result of the analysis;
As a result of the determination, when the print document includes a print instruction outside the printable area, a print image to be synthesized according to the print document is displayed so that the entire area of the print paper is within the printable area. Means for synthesizing a reduced print image reduced at such a magnification that can be accommodated;
Means for outputting the combined reduced print image data and causing the printer to execute printing. A GDI application that issues a print request using GDI (Graphic Device Interface);
The print control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a unit that converts a print request issued by the GDI application into the print document. Means for determining whether the publisher of the print document is based on the XPS standard;
The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if it is determined that the publisher is based on the XPS standard, printing is performed without combining the determination and the reduced print image. An XPS driver that causes a printer to execute printing based on an XPS (XML Paper Specification) document,
Receiving a printed document;
Analyzing the received print document;
Determining whether the print document includes a print instruction outside the printable area of the print paper based on the result of the analysis; and
As a result of the determination, when the print document includes a print instruction outside the printable area, a print image to be synthesized according to the print document is displayed so that the entire area of the print paper is within the printable area. Synthesizing a reduced print image reduced at a magnification that can be accommodated;
Outputting the combined reduced print image data to the printer to execute printing. A computer program for an XPS driver that causes a printer to execute printing based on an XPS (XML Paper Specification) document,
Receiving a printed document;
Analyzing the received print document;
Determining whether the print document includes a print instruction outside the printable area of the print paper based on the result of the analysis; and
As a result of the determination, when the print document includes a print instruction outside the printable area, a print image to be synthesized according to the print document is displayed so that the entire area of the print paper is within the printable area. Synthesizing a reduced print image reduced at a magnification that can be accommodated;
A computer program for causing a computer to execute the printing by outputting the combined reduced print image data to the printer.

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