JP2009104532A - Information processing device, information processing method, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processing device capable of creating a physical print preview image that coincides with an actual print output result. <P>SOLUTION: The information processing device that outputs print data for a material to be printed to a printer and makes the printer perform printing comprises: an initial setting acquisition means for acquiring an initial print setting for the material to be printed; a setting update means for acquiring information on a document style with which the material to be printed is actually printed, and updating the initial print setting based on the acquired information on the document style; and a print preview creation means for creating a print preview image for the material to be printed by reflecting the print setting updated by the setting update means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a program, and a recording medium having a print preview function.

  When printing a document in an information processing apparatus such as a computer, printing is a function for confirming the print finish by displaying a print output image on a display after a print instruction by a user and before actual printing is performed. The preview function is often used. By using the print preview function, the user can imagine the print finish without actually printing.

  In the conventional information processing apparatus, it is possible to create a logical print preview image that allows a document creation application to view a logical page that does not consider print settings without actually printing. Since the image viewing result does not match the actual printing result, it is insufficient as a print preview function.

  In order to solve the above problems and improve the print preview function, a technique has been proposed in which an intermediate file is created by performing an actual print process and a physical print preview image that matches the actual print result is created. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

Furthermore, in order to improve the point where the creation of the intermediate file takes time and the operability is deteriorated, the time until the print preview is displayed is shortened by creating the physical print preview image without creating the intermediate file. A technique has been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 2004-005241 A JP 2006-202112 A

  However, in the conventionally proposed technology, since the physical print preview image is created based on the values set in the printer driver for the document size and the print direction, depending on the document creation application to be used, the physical print preview image to be created However, there is a problem that it does not match the actual print output result.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a program, and a recording medium that can create a physical print preview image that matches an actual print output result.

  In order to achieve the above object, a first invention is an information processing apparatus that outputs print data of a print object to a printing apparatus and causes the printing apparatus to print, and obtains an initial print setting of the print object. An initial setting acquisition unit, a setting update unit that acquires original form information that is actually printed on the print object, and updates the initial print setting based on the acquired original form information, and the setting update unit. Print preview creation means for creating a print preview image of the print object reflecting the updated print settings.

  According to a second invention, in the information processing apparatus according to the first invention, a print setting input means for inputting the print setting of the print object on a print setting screen, the print setting screen, and the print preview image Display means for displaying the same on the same screen, and the print preview creation means creates a print preview image of the print object reflecting the print settings input by the print setting input means. Features.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus according to the first or second aspect, the print preview creation unit can create the print preview images of the plurality of print objects displayed on the same screen. It is characterized by.

  4th invention is the information processing method which outputs the printing data of a printing target object to a printing apparatus, and makes the said printing apparatus print, Comprising: The initial setting acquisition step which acquires the initial printing setting of the said printing target object, A setting update step of acquiring original form information to be actually printed on the print object and updating the initial print setting based on the acquired original form information, and reflecting the print setting updated in the setting update step A print preview creation step of creating a print preview image of the printed object.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the information processing method according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, a print setting input step of inputting the print settings of the print object on a print setting screen, the print setting screen, and the print preview image Displaying on the same screen, and the print preview creating step creates a print preview image of the print object reflecting the print settings input in the print setting input step. Features.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the information processing method according to the fourth or fifth aspect, the print preview creation step can create the print preview images of the plurality of print objects displayed on the same screen. It is characterized by.

  A seventh invention is a program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method according to any one of the fourth to sixth inventions.

  The eighth invention is a computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to the seventh invention is recorded.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a program, and a recording medium that can create a physical print preview image that matches an actual print output result.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

<First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration example of an information processing apparatus 110 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of the print control system 100 including the information processing apparatus 110 and the printer apparatus 120 according to the first embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the information processing apparatus 110 and the printer apparatus 120 are connected by a network such as a LAN, for example, and constitute a print control system 100. The information processing apparatus 110 has a function of outputting print data of a print target to the printer apparatus 120 via a network such as a LAN and causing the printer apparatus 120 to print the print data.

  The information processing apparatus 110 shown in FIG. 1 includes general computer components such as a central processing unit (CPU), a primary storage device, a secondary storage device, an internal bus, an input / output control device, an input device, and an output device (not shown). It is configured. In addition, an operating system (OS) (not shown) is installed in the information processing apparatus 110, and further, a printer driver 111, a printer driver extension API 112, document creation application software 113, document management application software 114, and a print setting UI 115. Is installed. In addition, the information processing apparatus 110 includes a display unit 116.

  The central processing unit (CPU) controls the entire print control system 100, and the primary storage device and / or secondary storage device stores programs executed by the central processing unit (CPU), other fixed data, and the like. The program executed by the information processing apparatus 110 according to the present invention may be pre-installed in a primary storage device and / or a secondary storage device, and may be an installable or executable file. The information repair apparatus 110 according to the present invention may be provided by being recorded on a recording medium that can be read by a recording apparatus (not shown) such as an HDD, CD-ROM, FD, or DVD that is built in or externally attached. Absent.

  In FIG. 1, a printer driver 111 is software for controlling the printer device 120 shown in FIG. 2, and print data sent from an application is sent to the printer device 120 via the printer driver 111. The printer driver 111 can acquire print setting value information (print setting information) such as image quality and paper selection, and set print setting values.

  The printer driver extension API 112 is an application program interface, and is generally installed from a printer driver 111 provided by a vendor, an installation package accompanying the printer driver 111, or an application. When there is a setting value that cannot be acquired from the printer driver 111 such as a vendor-specific setting value, information on the print setting value (print setting information) can be acquired and the print setting value can be set from the printer driver extension API 112.

  The document creation application software 113 is application software that creates a document. Information such as the number of pages to be printed, print preview image, size, and direction can be acquired from the outside. The document management application software 114 is software that integrally manages document files and image files created by the document creation application software 113. The print setting UI 115 is a user interface for performing print settings that defines a display format of information for the user and a data input method of the user. The display unit 116 is a display that displays, for example, a print preview.

  In the first embodiment of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus 110 shown in FIG. 1, the document management application software 114 actually prints the logical print preview image of the print object and the print object from the document creation application software 113. The original print information is acquired, the initial print settings are updated based on the acquired original form information, and a physical print preview image of the print target is created by reflecting the updated print settings in the logical print preview image. This is an example of processing in which the created physical print preview image is displayed on the display unit 116.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart of the document management application software 114 when a target document is selected and a print preview execution instruction is received. In step 100, the document management application software 114 acquires the total page number P from the document creation application software 113 (S100).

  In step 110, the document management application software 114 acquires from the document creation application software 113 a print preview image of the page p that is a print target created by the document creation application software 113 (S110). What can be acquired here is a logical print preview image that does not reflect print settings. In step 120, the document management application software 114 acquires document format information such as the size and direction of the page p that is the print target from the document creation application software 113 (S120).

  In step 130, it is determined whether or not the page p is less than or equal to the total page number P (S130). If the page p is less than or equal to the total page number P, the processing of step 110 and step 120 is repeated. If the page p is not less than or equal to the total page number P, the process of step 140 is executed. In step 140, the document management application software 114 sets document format information such as the size of the page p and the page direction acquired in step 120 to the printer driver 111 or the printer driver extension API 112 (S140).

  In step 150, the printer driver 111 performs exclusive processing on the print setting value (S150). Here, the exclusive processing means that the options that can be set are limited depending on the page size and the page direction. For example, for a document whose page direction is vertical, 2in1 aggregation is usually arranged from left to right and not from top to bottom. Therefore, in this case, the arrangement from the top to the bottom cannot be set. In step 160, the document management application 114 acquires the print setting information subjected to the exclusive processing in step 150 from the printer driver 111 or the printer driver extension API 112 (S160).

  In step 170, the document management application 114 uses the logical print preview image acquired in step 110 to create a physical print preview image that reflects the print setting information acquired in step 160, and the created physical print preview image is Is displayed on the display unit 116 (S170). This completes the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  Here, an example of a physical print preview image will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a physical print preview image. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of print setting information. The print setting information shown in FIG. 5 can be acquired by the document management application software 114 from the printer driver 111 or the printer driver extension API 112. It is assumed that the logical print preview image acquired by the document management application software 114 from the document creation application software 113 in step 110 includes a logical print preview image 131 and a logical print preview image 132.

  In this case, in step 170, the “print paper size”, “margin”, “aggregation”, “aggregation divider”, “double-sided / bookbinding”, The physical print preview image 130 shown in FIG. 4 is created reflecting the print setting information of “sort”, “punch”, “staple”, “color / monochrome”, and “number of copies”. Specifically, the logical print preview image 131 is arranged 5 mm inside the right half of the area A3, and the logical print preview image 132 is arranged 5 mm inside the left half of the area A3. A partition line 133 is drawn with a dotted line at the center of the left and right of the area A3. In this way, the physical print preview image 130 is created in which the print setting information is reflected in the logical print preview image (not shown).

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart when printing is performed. In step 200, the document management application software 114 sets an intermediate file creation mode for the printer driver 111 (S200). In step 210, the document management application software 114 makes a print request to the document creation application software 113 (S210).

  In step 220, an intermediate file is created (S220). In step 230, the document management application software 114 transmits the intermediate file and the print settings acquired in the flowchart (S160) shown in FIG. 3 to the printer driver 111 (S230). In step 240, printing is executed with the transmitted print settings (S240). This completes the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  The physical print preview image shown in FIG. 4 can be printed by the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the document management application software 114 obtains the original form information to be actually printed on the print object, and stores the obtained original form information in the obtained original form information. Based on this, the initial print settings are updated, and the physical print preview image that matches the actual print output result is created by creating a physical print preview image of the print target that reflects the updated print settings in the logical print preview image. Can be created.

<Second Embodiment>
In the second embodiment of the present invention, in the information processing apparatus 110 shown in FIG. 1, the physical print preview image and the print setting screen are simultaneously displayed on the display unit 116, and the display unit 116 is based on the acquired information. This is an example of processing for improving the operability of the information processing apparatus 110 by updating the displayed physical print preview image so that print settings can be performed while checking the print output result.

  After the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, the document management application software 114 further executes the processing shown in the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing another example of a flowchart of the document management application software 114 when a target document is selected and a print preview execution instruction is received.

  In step 300, the document management application software 114 acquires the print setting capability from the printer driver 111 or the printer driver extended API 112 (S300). Here, the print setting capability refers to a settable option that takes into account the document direction and size, or other print settings. For example, when the original orientation is set to horizontal as a staple setting in a printer driver, there are five types: “upper left”, “upper right”, “upper two”, “two left”, and “two right”. It can be set, and when the document orientation is set to vertical, “top 2” cannot be set functionally, and four types of “top left”, “top right”, “two left”, and “two right” can be set. Suppose that This information is an option that can be set for stapling in consideration of the document direction and is a print setting capability.

  In step 310, the document management application software 114 acquires the print setting information set by the user in the print setting UI 115 (S310). In step 320, the document management application software 114 creates only the physical print created in step 170 shown in FIG. 3 from the print setting information acquired in step 310, which does not exceed the range of the print setting capability acquired in step 300. The physical print preview image is updated by being reflected in the preview image and displayed on the display unit 116. This completes the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display of the print preview displayed on the display unit 116. In FIG. 8, the physical print preview image and the print setting screen are displayed on the same screen. The physical print preview image is displayed on the upper left, and the print setting screen is displayed around the physical print preview image.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a job management list. As shown in FIG. 9, the document name, number of pages, page information list, print settings, and drawing data list information for each page are managed for each job (job Nos. 1 to 3) by the document management application software 114. The Here, the document name is the name of the document, the number of pages is the number of pages constituting the document, the page information list is a list of size / direction information for each page, and the print setting is a print setting for the target document (for example, FIG. The drawing data list for each page is a logical print preview image list created by the document creation application software 113. As described above, since the document management application software 114 manages each piece of information shown in FIG. 9 for each job, the physical print preview image and the print setting screen are displayed on the same screen as shown in FIG. Can do. Note that each piece of information shown in FIG. 9 may be managed as XML data.

  As shown in FIG. 8, by displaying the physical print preview image and the print setting screen on the same screen, the user changes the print settings while checking the physical print preview image displayed on the display unit 116. The physical print preview image reflecting the setting change information can be confirmed.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, a physical print preview image that matches the actual print output result is created, and print setting capability and print setting information set by the user are acquired. The physical print preview image and the print setting screen are simultaneously displayed on the display unit 116, and the physical print preview image displayed on the display unit 116 is updated based on the acquired information, thereby confirming the print output result. Print settings can be made, and the operability of the information processing apparatus 110 can be improved.

<Third Embodiment>
The third embodiment of the present invention is an example of processing when the information processing apparatus 110 shown in FIG. 1 receives a print preview execution instruction by selecting a plurality of documents as target documents. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart of the document management application software 114 when a plurality of documents are selected as target documents and a print preview execution instruction is received.

  In step 400, the document management application software 114 acquires the total number N of documents from the document creation application software 113 (S400). In step 410, the document management application software 114 executes all processes in the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 or all processes in the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 and 7 (S410). In step 420, it is determined whether or not the document n is less than or equal to the total number of documents N (S420). If the document n is less than or equal to the total number of documents N, the processing in step 410 is repeated. If the document n is not less than the total number N of documents, the process of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart at the time of executing printing when a plurality of documents are selected as target documents. In step 500, the document management application software 114 acquires the total number N of documents from the document creation application software 113 (S500). In step 510, the document management application software 114 executes all the processes in the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 (S510). In step 520, it is determined whether or not the document n is less than or equal to the total number of documents N (S520). If the document n is less than or equal to the total number of documents N, the processing in step 510 is repeated. If the document n is not less than the total number of documents N, the process of the flowchart shown in FIG. 11 ends.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of a physical print preview image when a plurality of documents are selected as target documents. When a plurality of documents are selected, the number of selected documents is acquired, and the processing in the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 or the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 and 7 is performed for each document. The physical print previews are arranged in order. When printing is performed, a plurality of documents can be printed by performing the processing in the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 for each document.

  As described above, according to the third embodiment of the present invention, for example, when a document created by different applications is to be printed at a time, the process of confirming the print preview and printing is performed for the number of documents. Therefore, the operability of the information processing apparatus 110 can be improved.

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made to the above-described embodiment without departing from the scope of the present invention. And substitutions can be added.

It is a block diagram which shows the example of a schematic structure of the information processing apparatus 110 which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration example of a print control system 100 including an information processing apparatus 110 and a printer apparatus 120 according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart of the document management application software 114 when a target document is selected and a print preview execution instruction is received. It is a figure which shows the example of a physical printing preview image. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of default print setting information. FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the flowchart at the time of printing execution. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating another example of a flowchart of the document management application software 114 when a target document is selected and a print preview execution instruction is received. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen display of a print preview displayed on the display unit 116. FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a job management list. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart of document management application software 114 when a plurality of documents are selected as target documents and an instruction to execute print preview is received. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a flowchart at the time of executing printing when a plurality of documents are selected as target documents. It is a figure which shows the example of the physical printing preview image at the time of selecting a some document as an object document.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Print control system 110 Information processing apparatus 111 Printer driver 112 Printer driver expansion API
113 Document creation application software 114 Document management application software 115 Print setting UI
116 Display Unit 120 Printer Device 130 Physical Print Preview Image 131 Logical Print Preview Image 132 Logical Print Preview Image 133 Partition Line

Claims (8)

An information processing apparatus that outputs print data of an object to be printed to a printing apparatus and causes the printing apparatus to print the print data,
Initial setting acquisition means for acquiring an initial print setting of the print object;
Setting update means for acquiring document format information to be actually printed on the print object, and updating the initial print settings based on the acquired document format information;
An information processing apparatus comprising: a print preview creation unit that creates a print preview image of the print object that reflects the print settings updated by the setting update unit. And print setting input means for inputting the print settings of the print object on a print setting screen;
Display means for displaying the print setting screen and the print preview image on the same screen,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print preview creation unit creates a print preview image of the print object that reflects the print settings input by the print setting input unit.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print preview creation unit is capable of creating the print preview images of a plurality of the print objects displayed on the same screen. An information processing method for outputting print data of a print object to a printing apparatus and causing the printing apparatus to print the print data,
An initial setting acquisition step of acquiring an initial print setting of the print object;
A setting update step of acquiring original form information to be actually printed on the print object, and updating the initial print setting based on the acquired original form information;
An information processing method comprising: a print preview creation step of creating a print preview image of the print object that reflects the print settings updated in the setting update step. A print setting input step for inputting the print setting of the print object on a print setting screen;
Displaying the print setting screen and the print preview image on the same screen, and
The information processing method according to claim 4, wherein the print preview creation step creates a print preview image of the print object reflecting the print settings input in the print setting input step.   6. The information processing method according to claim 4, wherein the print preview creation step can create the print preview images of a plurality of print objects displayed on the same screen.   A program for causing a computer to execute the information processing method according to any one of claims 4 to 6.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 7 is recorded.