JP2012018581A - Printing program, printing data output device, and printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing program that prevents printing with low image quality when a form and printing data have resolution different from each other in form overlay printing.SOLUTION: A printing program causes a computer to execute processing including the steps (S1 through S4) of acquiring information of a form having the same resolution as printing data has, and a step (S6) of displaying the information of the form having the same resolution as the printing data has.

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing program, a printing data output device, and a printing system for performing printing by superimposing printing data to be transmitted on a form registered in a printing device.

  One form of printing is using form data registered in advance in a printer (printing device) and printing the print data transmitted from the computer in an overlapping manner. This is called form overlay printing.

  In this form overlay printing, when the print data transmitted from the computer and the form data registered in the printer have different resolutions, if printing is performed as it is, the positions of characters and images of the print data are shifted from the form. . Therefore, conventionally, the image size of the registered form data is converted to fit the image size of the received print data and printed (for example, Patent Document 1).

  However, if the image size of such registered form data is converted, the original resolution of the registered form data will be different. For this reason, there has been a problem in that the print image quality deteriorates due to the occurrence of jaggies or thin lines in the image of the printed matter, particularly the form portion.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-286860

  It is an object of the present invention to prevent print quality from being deteriorated when form data registered in a printing device and print data to be superimposed on the form have different resolutions in form overlay printing. A printing program, a print data output device, and a printing system are provided.

  The above object of the present invention is achieved by the following means.

  (1) A printing program for performing printing by superimposing print data to be transmitted on a form registered in a printing device, and acquiring form information including the resolution of the form registered in the printing device A printing program that causes a computer to execute a process having a procedure (a) to perform and a procedure (b) to display information on the form having the same resolution as the resolution of the print data.

  (2) The procedure (a) receives a procedure for requesting information on a form having a designated resolution from the printing device, and information on the form transmitted as a response from the printing device to the request. A printing program according to (1), characterized by a procedure.

  (3) The procedure (a) includes a procedure for requesting form information including a resolution of a designated page in the form, and a response of the designated page of the form as a response from the printing device to the request. And a procedure for receiving form information including resolution.

  (4) When there is no form having a resolution that matches the resolution of the print data in the form information acquired in the step (a), it is displayed that the resolution of the print data does not match the resolution of the form The printing program according to any one of (1) to (3), further including:

  (5) A computer-readable recording medium on which the printing program according to any one of (1) to (4) is recorded.

  (6) A print data output device that outputs to the printing device print data when printing is performed by superimposing print data on the form registered in the printing device, the form registered in the printing device A print data output apparatus comprising: a calculation unit that acquires information on a form including the resolution of the print data and displays information on the form having the same resolution as the resolution of the print data.

  (7) The calculation unit requests information on a form having a designated resolution from the printing device, and receives the information on the form transmitted as a response from the printing device to the request. The print data output device according to (6).

  (8) The calculation unit requests the printing device for form information including the resolution of the specified page in the form, and the specified form of the form transmitted as a response from the printing device to the request. The print data output device according to (6), wherein the print data output device receives the resolution of the page.

  (9) The calculation unit displays that the resolution of the print data does not match the resolution of the form when there is no form having a resolution that matches the resolution of the print data in the acquired form information. (6) The print data output device according to any one of (6) to (9).

  (10) A printing system in which a computer and a printing device are connected, print data is transmitted from the computer, and printing is performed by superimposing the print data on a form registered in the printing device. A printing system that acquires form information including a resolution of a form registered in the printing device from the printing device and displays the information of the form having the same resolution as the resolution of the print data.

  (11) The computer requests information on a form having a designated resolution from the printing device, and the printing device transmits information on a form having the requested resolution to the request to the computer. (10) The printing system according to (10).

  (12) The computer requests the printing device for form information including the resolution of the designated page of the form, and the printing device determines the resolution of the designated page of the requested form. The printing system according to (10), which is transmitted to a computer.

  (13) The computer may display that the resolution of the print data does not match the resolution of the form when there is no form having a resolution that matches the resolution of the print data in the form information. The printing system according to any one of (10) to (12).

  According to the present invention, whether or not there is a form having the same resolution as the resolution of data to be printed can be known before printing. For this reason, when the resolution of the data to be printed and the resolution of the form are different, it is possible to prevent the printed matter from being output with the position of the form and the print data being shifted or the print image quality being lowered.

1 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a printing system. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of a computer. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen displayed by a printer driver for issuing a form data registration instruction. It is a flowchart which shows the form registration operation | movement procedure in a printer. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a printing procedure of form overlay printing in the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the form setting screen of Embodiment 1. This is a display example that warns that the printer does not have a form with a suitable resolution. It is a figure which shows an example of the form setting screen of Embodiment 2. It is a flowchart explaining the processing procedure of form overlay printing which checks and prints the resolution of all the pages. It is a flowchart explaining the processing procedure of form overlay printing which checks and prints the resolution of the first page. It is a flowchart explaining the processing procedure of form overlay printing which checks and prints the resolution of a designated page.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

[Embodiment 1]
(System configuration)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the printing system.

  The printing system shown in FIG. 1 includes at least one computer 10 connected by a network 50 and a printer (printing device) 20 that receives a print job including print data from the computer 10 and executes printing.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the computer.

  The computer 10 includes a CPU 11 (Central Processing Unit) for performing calculations, a memory 13 (RAM: Random Access Memory) for expanding necessary data, a hard disk 15 (HDD: Hard disk drive) for storing programs and various data, and A communication interface 16 (NIC: Network Interface Card) is included, and these are connected to each other via a bus 18 for exchanging signals.

  In the present embodiment, the CPU 11 is an arithmetic unit, and a program for form overlay printing described later is executed, and the computer 10 functions as a print data output device. Since the configuration of the computer 10 is general, detailed description thereof is omitted.

  The computer 10 is a general computer called a personal computer or a workstation. A display 19 is connected (or built in) to the computer 10. In addition, a communication interface, a pointing device such as a mouse, and a keyboard are provided. Since the function of this computer is normal, detailed description is omitted.

  The computer 10 is not limited to this, and can be connected to a printer via a network using a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile terminal called a smartphone, or other devices such as a game device or a home appliance. Including those that have Further, the configuration of each part in the computer 10 is not limited to that shown here as long as it is used in a normal computer.

  In this printing system, information on the degree of congestion is displayed on a display 19 connected (or built in) to the computer 10 by executing a program described later by the computer 10.

  The printer 20 is a printer having various functions. As a basic function, the printer 20 receives a print job and executes printing. The printer 20 has a form overlay function and can store form data. The form data is obtained by registering data in a print job sent from the computer 10 as a form data. The form registered here is stored according to the function of the printer such as raster data transmitted from the computer 10 or rasterized bitmap data. The printer 20 may have any form overlay function and is not limited to the one shown here.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the printer.

  The printer 20 includes a CPU 21, a printing unit 22, a memory 23 (RAM), an image forming unit 24, a hard disk 25 (HDD), and a communication interface 26, which are connected to each other via a bus 28 for exchanging signals. Has been.

  The CPU 21 controls the entire printer. Further, based on a form registration command from the computer 10, processing such as storing image data in the sent print job in the hard disk 25 is performed.

  The printing unit 22 prints the image created by the image forming unit 24 on a recording medium such as paper using a known image forming process such as an electrophotographic process.

  The memory 23 is a RAM for developing data necessary for the processing of the CPU 21 mainly.

  The image forming unit 24 forms an image based on the print data of the print job sent from the computer 10 and sends the formed image data to the printing unit 22. Also, based on a command from the CPU 21, form data is taken out from the hard disk 25 and image data combined with print data of a print job sent from the computer 10 is created.

  The hard disk 25 stores form data. It also stores programs necessary for printer operation.

  The communication interface 26 communicates with the computer 10 according to the standard of the connected network.

  The network 50 is, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network) in which computers 10 and network devices are connected according to standards such as Ethernet (registered trademark), Token Ring, and FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface), or LANs with dedicated lines. Various networks such as a connected WAN (Wide Area Network). In FIG. 1, one computer 10 and one printer 20 are connected to the network 50, but a plurality of them may be connected.

(Form registration)
Next, registration of form data to the printer in this system will be described.

  First, when registering form data, when the computer 10 issues a print instruction, a form data registration instruction is issued.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen for instructing registration of form data.

  This screen example is an output setting screen and is displayed by, for example, a printer driver. In this screen example, there are a resolution designation button 101 and an output designation button 102. A tab 103 for shifting to other settings is displayed.

  The form data registration instruction is performed by designating form registration with the output designation button 102 as shown in the figure. At this time, the resolution of the form data to be registered is also designated. The specified content is added to the print job.

  The print job data includes job information that is information of the entire job, page information that is information of each page, and data to be printed (print data). The job information includes job name, total number of pages, and resolution. Here, in the first embodiment, the resolution is premised on a printer that handles form data having the same resolution even when there are a plurality of pages. Note that the case of form data having different resolutions for each page is the same as in Embodiment 2 described later.

  The page information includes a page number, a page size (a size in the main scanning direction and a size in the sub scanning direction), a page resolution, and a paper size for each page. Job information and page information, for example, PJL (Printer Job Language) is described. The image data to be printed is raster data or bitmap data. For such a print job, various control languages are used as long as the printer driver and the printer are compatible.

  For data registered as a form, the job information and page information are registered as form information (hereinafter referred to as form information).

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a form registration operation procedure in the printer.

  The CPU 21 of the printer 20 determines whether there is a form registration command from the print job sent from the computer 10 (S101). This determination is made by processing the PJL in the print job. If there is no form registration command, normal printing is performed (S103). The description of the normal printing operation is omitted.

  On the other hand, if there is a form registration command, the CPU 21 of the printer 20 stores the print data of the print job sent from the computer 10 in the hard disk 25 together with the form information (job information and page information) (S102). At this time, when PDL (page description language) data is sent as print data, the data to be stored is rasterized by the image forming unit 24 into bitmap data and stored. As a result, when there is a print instruction to use form data from the next time, it is not necessary to rasterize the form data, and the printing process can be accelerated accordingly. Note that the PDL data sent without being rasterized at this stage may be stored as it is. On the other hand, if bitmap data has been sent, the bitmap data is stored as it is.

(Form overlay printing of Embodiment 1)
Next, form overlay printing in the first embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a printing procedure of form overlay printing according to the first embodiment. This procedure is provided as a program executed by a computer (referred to as a form overlay printing program).

  First, the computer 10 designates print data (data to be transmitted from the computer) to be printed by the form overlay by the user, and starts the form overlay printing program. In addition, the form setting screen is displayed simultaneously with the activation (an example screen will be described later).

  Here, the print data is specified by, for example, superimposing the print data file (icon) on the icon of the form overlay printing program prepared on the display 19 of the computer 10 and the form overlay together with the specification of the print data. The print program is activated (S1). Of course, in addition, after starting the form overlay printing program, select print data from that program, or install this form overlay printing program in the printer driver and open the data file to be printed. Then, various methods may be used such as once the printer driver is activated and the form overlay printing program is activated therefrom.

  When the form overlay printing program is activated, the form overlay printing program analyzes the print data and recognizes its resolution (S2). Then, information on a form having the same resolution as the recognized resolution is requested (S3). The resolution of the form requested in the first embodiment is the resolution of the entire form, and the form of a plurality of pages requires the resolution of the first page.

  The request for form information uses, for example, http (HyperText Transfer Protocol). Table 1 shows a description example and description of an http command for form information request.

  In the HTTP command description example of the form information request shown in Table 1, information about a 600 dpi form is requested. If the form information has a resolution of 1200 dpi, “? 1200” may be used.

  The form information request command is sent to the printer 20 with the resolution term in the command set from the recognized resolution of the print data.

  Upon receiving this form information request command, the printer 20 processes the command, temporarily lists form information whose resolution matches from the form information registered in the printer itself, from the resolution information in the parameter portion, on the memory 23. To the computer 10. Table 2 is an example of a list of form information.

  In this list, the first line is the number of forms in this list. Here, “3” is listed because three forms are listed. The second and subsequent lines are the form information itself, arranged in the order of form ID, form name, total number of pages, and first page paper size. Here, as shown in Table 3, when the first row is “0”, it indicates that there is no form with the requested resolution.

  Subsequently, the computer 10 receives the form list from the printer 20 (S4). Subsequently, the computer 10 determines whether or not form information exists in the received data (S5). Whether or not form information exists is determined from the first line of the received form list. That is, when the first line is “0”, it is determined that there is no form.

  Here, if there is form information, the computer 10 displays a form list on the form setting screen from the received form list (S6).

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the form setting screen according to the first embodiment. In this screen example, a form overlay command button 111 for instructing form overlay printing, a form list 112 for displaying a received form list, an overlay method designation button 113 for designating an overlay method, a preview 114 for simply displaying the overlaid state, The page information display unit 115 displays the previewed display page, the total number of pages of the print command for which printing is instructed, the document size, and the like. In addition, there is an execution button 116 for instructing execution of printing, and a cancel button 117 for canceling the instruction here. A tab 103 for moving to another setting is also displayed.

  The user issues a print command by form overlay by selecting “form overlay” with the form overlay command button 111. Then, the user selects one of the forms displayed in the form list.

  Receiving input from the user, the computer 10 acquires the thumbnail image and page information of the first page of the selected form from the printer 20 (S7).

  Subsequently, the computer 10 receives these pieces of information from the printer 20, displays the thumbnail image on the preview 114, and further displays the paper size and the total number of pages of the first page on the page information display unit 115 (S8). ).

  If there is no problem with the form confirmed in the preview, the user presses the execution button 115. In response to this execution input, the computer 10 transmits a print job for form overlay printing to the printer 20 (S9). Then, the process ends. If the in-process cancel button 117 is pressed, the entire process ends.

  In S5, when there is no form conforming to the resolution transmitted by the http command, that is, when the form list in which the first line shown in Table 3 is “0” is sent from the printer 20, the form setting screen is displayed. In the present embodiment, nothing is displayed on the form list 112, and in this embodiment, in order to show this to the user in an easy-to-understand manner, a warning is displayed that there is no suitable resolution form in the printer 20 (S10). Thereafter, the process ends.

  FIG. 8 is a display example for warning that the printer 20 does not have a form with a suitable resolution. As shown in FIG. 8, for example, the printer 20 is warned that there is no suitable resolution form, and a screen for selecting whether to change the resolution of the print data itself is displayed. As a result, when the resolution of the print data is changed by the user, it is preferable to return to S1 and request the form list again.

  As described above, according to the first embodiment, the resolution of the form registered in the printer is acquired and displayed before printing. This allows the user to know the resolution of the form registered in the printer before printing, so there is no warning if the resolution of the print data (images, text, graphics, etc.) printed with the form overlay differs from the resolution of the form. It can be prevented that the positions of the form and print data are shifted due to printing, or the print image quality is lowered due to forced enlargement or reduction.

  In particular, when obtaining the resolution of the form before executing printing, only the form information of the form having the resolution of the print data to be executed is requested and displayed. For this reason, the form information of the form with a resolution different from the resolution of the print data is not displayed, so the form information displayed for the user is also easy to see (if there is no form with the same resolution, the form information is blank and can be understood. Cheap).

  In addition, if the resolution of the print data and the form resolution are different, a warning is given and a change in the resolution of the print data is urged, so the print data that matches the form resolution registered in the printer is restored. You can also create and print.

  When requesting form information, information on all forms registered in the printer may be acquired. In this case, it is preferable to display only form information with the same resolution as the print data, or highlight the form information with the same resolution as the print data and gray out the other resolution information.

  The form overlay printing program described above may be provided as a single program for executing form overlay printing, or may be incorporated as a function of a normal printer driver and provided as a printer driver.

  In addition, the form overlay printing program is activated along with the specification of the print data to be printed with the form overlay, and requests the information of the form having the same resolution as that of the print data, but without specifying the print data Alternatively, the form overlay printing program may be activated to request form information by specifying an arbitrary resolution. In this case, for example, an input frame having the required resolution may be displayed. A display that prompts the user to specify print data may also be used.

[Embodiment 2]
In the second embodiment, a form page is specified and form information including the resolution is requested. Also in the second embodiment, since the system configuration and registration of form data to the printer are the same as those in the first embodiment, description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, the form overlay printing of the second embodiment will be described.

  Some printers support multiple resolutions. In general, a page including a large amount of characters (fonts), graphics (line images such as line art) and the like is output at a high resolution, so that a finer output result can be obtained. On the other hand, it is said that sufficient output results can be obtained for image data (photographs and pictures) even at a low resolution. When creating print data, create pages with more characters and graphics at a higher resolution, and pages with more image data at a lower resolution, reducing print data size and reducing print quality. Output is possible. When such print data is sent to the printer as one job, the resolution differs for each page.

  In addition, there is a direct print application in which print data such as PDF (Portable Document Format) and Postscript (Postscript) is directly transmitted to a printer and can be printed. Since this direct print application does not go through the printer driver, internal processing of the printer driver does not occur. Therefore, it can be output according to the print data created by the user.

  In the direct print application, post-processing such as a printer driver and form designation are possible.

  Therefore, in the second embodiment, a case will be described in which the present invention is applied as one of such direct print applications, and PDF data having different resolutions for each page is output by the direct print application.

  In the second embodiment, the printer holds form data with different resolutions in the HDD. This printer can change the printing resolution, and when there are a plurality of pages in one form, form data having different resolutions can be held for each page. Even for form data having different resolutions for each page, the registration operation itself is the same as in the first embodiment.

  Here, for example, it is assumed that print data (for example, a PDF file) having a different resolution for each page is created as print data to be superimposed on a form by a user. For example, the configuration shown in Table 4 is adopted.

  In the computer 10, a direct print application (hereinafter simply referred to as “application”) is started by the user, and the created PDF file is read by the application.

  When the application reads the PDF file, the application develops it on the memory in the computer 10 and acquires the resolution of all pages according to the configuration of the PDF. Here, if all the pages of the PDF have the same resolution, a form data acquisition request command based on the resolution may be transmitted to the printer 20 and processed in the same manner as in the first embodiment.

  On the other hand, when a plurality of resolutions are mixed for each PDF page as shown in Table 4, the form data acquisition request sends a request command without specifying the resolution as shown in Table 5. The difference from the http command example shown in Table 1 is that there is no “?” Or less. As a result, the command becomes a request command without specifying the resolution.

  Accordingly, the printer 20 responds by listing all the form information held in the printer 20.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a form setting screen according to the second embodiment. In this screen example, a resolution display frame 115a is added to the page information display section 115 of the form setting screen shown in FIG. The rest is the same as FIG.

  Here, of the acquired form data, for example, the form name “form 1” is composed of a plurality of pages and has different resolutions for each page as shown in Table 6 below.

  Hereinafter, the operation of form overlay printing according to the second embodiment will be described by taking the case of using the form of “form 1” as an example.

  There are three forms of form overlay printing in the second embodiment. The first is a form in which the resolution of all pages is confirmed and printed, the second is a form in which only the resolution of the first page is confirmed and printed, and the third is a form in which the resolution of a designated page is confirmed and printed.

(First form: Form in which the resolution of all pages is confirmed and printed)
This first form overlays each page of the PDF file on each page of the PDF file, such as the first page of the PDF file is the first page of the form page and the second page of the PDF file is the second page of the form page. It is an operation to do.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the processing procedure of form overlay printing in which the resolution of all pages is confirmed and printed. In accordance with this procedure, an application (print program) runs on the computer 10.

  In this first embodiment, when printing a 3-page PDF file using a 4-page form like the form in Table 6, the fourth page of form data is not printed.

  When the form is selected in the form list 112 on the form setting screen shown in FIG. 9 and “all pages” is selected as the overlay method from the overlay method designation button 113, the computer 10 sends the printer 20 to the printer 20. The information acquisition request command for each page is transmitted in order from the first page, and information on each page of the form, which is the response result, is acquired.

  For this purpose, first, the computer 10 designates a page number in order to acquire information on the first page (S11). Initially, page number = 1. Then, a request command for acquiring the form information of the designated page of the designated form is transmitted (S12).

  Table 8 shows examples of information acquisition request commands for each page and their descriptions.

  In the command example in Table 7, the resolution of the first page of the form having the form ID 1 is requested. If the request is for the second page, the last item is “? 2”.

  Upon receiving the request command, the printer 20 responds with information on the designated page of the form as shown in Table 8. The contents of Table 8 are as shown in Table 9.

  The computer 10 receives the form information of the designated page from the printer 20 (S13). Then, it is determined whether or not information on all pages of the form has been acquired (S14). If not acquired, the page number is incremented (S15), and the process returns to S11. In S11, an incremented page number (increase page number) is designated.

  After all the information of each page of the form is acquired, the page resolution of the PDF file data expanded in advance in the memory of the computer 10 is compared with the page resolution of the form.

  For this purpose, the computer 10 first designates a page number (S16). The first is page number 1.

  Subsequently, for the page number designated in S16 in the print data, the resolution of the page of the page number of the form designated in S16 is compared (S17). That is, the resolution of the same page number is compared between the data to be printed and the form.

  Then, it is determined whether or not the resolutions match (S18). If they match, the process proceeds to the next step and it is determined whether or not all the pages have been compared (S19). If all the pages have not been compared, the page number is incremented (S20), and the process returns to S16. In S16, the incremented page number (increase the page number) is designated. If it is determined in S19 that all pages have been compared, the process waits for a print execution command. When a print execution command is input (when the execution button 116 is pressed on the form setting screen), all page form overlay printing is performed. The designated print data is transmitted as a print job to the printer 20 (S21). Thereafter, the process ends.

  On the other hand, if the resolution of the page of the page number of the form specified in S16 does not match the page number specified in S16 of the print data in S18, the resolution of the print data and the form does not match at this time. Is displayed (S22). Thereafter, the process ends. At this time, it may be displayed that the resolution does not match and a screen for selecting whether or not to change the resolution of the page whose print data does not match (see FIG. 8).

  If the cancel button 117 is pressed during the above processing, the entire processing is completed.

  By the processing of the first form, printing is executed when the resolutions of all pages match between the print data and the form data. For this reason, there is no possibility that the resolution is different for each page, the form and print data are not shifted, or a page with reduced print image quality is not mixed due to forced enlargement or reduction.

(Second form: Form in which the resolution of only the first page is confirmed and printed)
In the second mode, only the resolution of the first page of the form is confirmed, and the overlay printing is performed on all the pages while adapting the form to all the print data.

  In this second form, the computer 10 makes a page information acquisition request for the first page of the form and acquires page information. Then, the page resolution of the PDF data is compared with the resolution of the first form page information, and if there is a page whose resolution does not match, an error message or the like informs the user that the resolution is different.

  FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the processing procedure of form overlay printing in which the resolution of the first page is confirmed and printed. In accordance with this procedure, an application (print program) runs on the computer 10.

  First, when a form is selected in the form list 112 on the form setting screen shown in FIG. 9 and “first page” is selected as the overlay method from the overlay method designation button 113, the computer 10 sends the printer 20 to the printer 20. The information acquisition request command for the first page is transmitted, and information on each page of the form, which is the response result, is acquired.

  For this purpose, first, the computer 10 designates “1” as the page number and transmits a request command in order to acquire information on the first page (S31). In the command example shown in Table 7, the requested command is transmitted with “? 1” as the last item and page number “1” specified.

  Then, the computer 10 receives the form information of the first page from the printer 20 (S32).

  Subsequently, the computer 10 designates the page number of the print data (S33). The first is page number 1.

  Subsequently, the resolution of the page with the page number designated in S33 in the print data is compared with the resolution of the first page of the form (S34).

  Then, it is determined whether or not the resolutions match (S35). If they match, the process proceeds to the next step as it is to determine whether or not all pages of the print data are compared (S36). If the comparison of all pages has not been completed, the page number of the print data is incremented (S37), and the process returns to S33. In S33, an incremented page number (increase page number) is designated. If it is determined in S36 that the comparison of all pages of the print data has been completed, the input of the print execution command is awaited. When the print execution command is input (when the execution button 116 is pressed on the form setting screen), the all page form The print data designated for overlay printing is transmitted to the printer 20 as a print job (S38). Thereafter, the process ends.

  On the other hand, if the resolution of the page of the print data and the first page of the form do not match in S35, a warning is displayed that the resolution of the print data and the form does not match at this time (S39). Thereafter, the process ends. At this time, a message indicating that the resolutions do not match may be displayed, and a screen for selecting whether to change the resolution of the page where the resolutions of the print data do not match may be displayed (see FIG. 8).

  If the in-process cancel button 117 is pressed, the entire process ends.

  Thus, by comparing only with the resolution of the first page of the form, high-speed processing becomes possible. When form data is used, the print data superimposed on the form data is often not adapted to the form to be used. Then, if the resolution of the first page is the same, it is considered that the resolution is often the same in the subsequent pages. Therefore, by processing as in the second mode, in many cases, the print image quality is not deteriorated and the processing is performed in a shorter time as compared with the first mode until the print result is received (printout). Total time) can be shortened.

(Third form: Form in which the resolution of a specified page is confirmed and printed)
In the third mode, the page designated by the form data is overlaid 1: 1 with the page designated by the print data. For example, when the page number “2” of the form data is designated with respect to the page number “1” of the print data, the second page of the form page is overlaid and printed on the first page of the print data.

  In this embodiment, the print page is designated by designating a page of print data to which the form is applied to the print page input frame 113a in the overlay method 113 on the form setting screen shown in FIG. This is done by designating the form page to be applied to 113b. For example, by specifying “1-3” in the print page input frame 113a, it is specified that the print data in that section (in this case, from the first page to the third page) is form overlay printed in the same form. become. In addition, if the pages are specified by separating them with commas such as “2, 4”, it is specified that these pages are printed with a form overlay. On the other hand, if “2” is entered in the form page input frame 113b, a form page that can be applied to the page designated in the print page input frame 113a is designated. If specified by commas, the pages are specified to be applied to the pages specified as print data in the specified order.

  Furthermore, specific specification examples are shown in Tables 10 to 13. In Tables 10 to 12, designation examples of the print data designation page and form designation page and output results thereof are shown as designation example 1 (table 10), designation example 2 (table 11), and designation example 3 (table 12). .

  In the third embodiment, the computer 10 analyzes the page number designated on the form page, associates it with the page number designated on the print page, and displays the table format data (hereinafter simply referred to as “table”) that can identify each resolution. And are expanded in the memory in the computer 10. Then, the form information at the designated page number of the form is acquired, and the resolution is added to the table. Then, by referring to the table, the resolution of the designated page of the print data is compared with the resolution of the acquired form page, and if there is a page whose resolution does not match, the user is warned that the resolution is different.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining the processing procedure of form overlay printing in which the resolution of a designated page is confirmed and printed. In accordance with this procedure, an application (print program) runs on the computer 10.

First, in the form setting screen shown in FIG. 9, a form is selected in the form list 112, “designated page” is selected as an overlay method from the overlay method designation button 113, and a print page input frame 113 a and form page input are selected. A page is designated for each frame 113b. These designations are made by the user. As a result, the computer 10 creates a table that associates the resolution of the print data designated page with the resolution of the form designated page in the memory in the computer 10 (S41).

  Then, the resolution of the designated page of the print data is entered in this table (S42). At this stage, the resolution of the form specification page is not included. This is because the form information has not yet been acquired at this stage. Table 13 shows an example of the table in this state. Table 13 shows the case of designation example 1 in Table 10 above.

  Information on the page designated to request form information from the printer 20 is acquired (S43). Here, first, the first page number of the form designation page is designated, and a request command is issued. In that case, the page number of the form designation page is set to the command to be requested after “?” In the last item. As a result, the form information of the designated page is returned from the printer 20, and the computer 10 receives and acquires it.

  Subsequently, the computer 10 determines whether or not form information has been acquired for all the designated pages of the form (S44). If the acquisition of form information has not been completed for all the designated pages of the form, the next page number is designated as the requesting page among the designated pages of the form (S45), and the process returns to S43. In S43, the form information of the next page number designated in S45 is acquired.

  On the other hand, if the acquisition of the form information is completed for all the form specification pages in S44, the form information of the acquired specification page of the form is analyzed, and the resolution of each page is put into the table created in S41 to complete the table. (S46).

  Table 14 shows an example of the completed table. This table example is continued from Table 13.

  Next, the computer 10 refers to the completed table to check whether the page resolution of the page number in the print data and the page resolution of the form page number match for each corresponding page (S47). . Since this determination is made by associating the print data designated page and the form designated page as a table as described above, it is only necessary to verify whether there is a resolution that does not match from the correspondence between them.

  Subsequently, the computer 10 determines whether or not the resolutions match as a result of the examination (S48). If there is no page whose resolution does not match, the printer waits for a print execution command. When the print execution command is input (when the execution button 116 is pressed on the form setting screen), the form overlay printing for the specified page is designated. The printed data is transmitted to the printer 20 as a print job (S49). Thereafter, the process ends.

  On the other hand, if there is even one page whose resolutions do not match, a warning to that effect is displayed (S50). At this time, a message indicating that the resolutions do not match may be displayed, and a screen for selecting whether to change the resolution of the page where the resolutions of the print data do not match may be displayed (see FIG. 8).

  If the in-process cancel button 117 is pressed, the entire process ends.

  Since the resolution is compared for the designated page of the form to be superimposed on the designated print page in this way, when form overlay printing is performed on a page basis, a printed matter with reduced print image quality may be output as it is. This can be prevented.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, form information including the resolution of the page is obtained for each designated page in the form, and the print data page has a page that does not match the resolution even at one page. A warning is displayed on the assumption that there is no form having the same resolution as the entire form for the print data. As a result, even if the resolution does not match on a page-by-page basis, the form and print data may be misaligned, or the image quality may be reduced due to forced enlargement or reduction. Can be prevented.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, the computer and the printer are connected via a network, but the computer and the printer may be directly connected. The request for form information is not limited to the http command, and a dedicated control signal for obtaining printer information from a computer may be used. For example, the form data itself is stored in a storage device other than the printer main body, such as a printer server on the network, not in the printer main body. If there is an instruction for form overlay printing, the form data is received from the printer server or the like. The form overlay printing may be executed after acquisition. In this case, the form information described in the embodiment is acquired from a storage device other than the printer main body such as a printer server, but the operation is the same as that acquired from the printer 20 described in the embodiment. Good.

  The means and method for performing various processes according to the present embodiment can be realized by either a dedicated hardware circuit or a programmed computer. The printing program may be provided by a computer-readable recording medium such as a flexible disk and a CD-ROM, or may be provided online via a network such as the Internet. In this case, the program recorded on the computer-readable recording medium is normally transferred to and stored in a storage unit such as a hard disk. The program may be provided as a single application software, or may be incorporated into the software of the apparatus as one function of the apparatus for selecting a printing device. In addition, the present invention can be variously modified within the scope of the claims.

10 computers,
11, 21 CPU,
13,23 memory,
15, 25 hard disk,
19 Display,
16, 26 Communication interface,
20 printer,
22 Printing Department,
24 Image forming unit,
50 network.

Claims (13)

A printing program for printing by superimposing print data to be transmitted on a form registered in a printing device,
A procedure (a) for acquiring form information including the resolution of the form registered in the printing device;
A printing program for causing a computer to execute a process having a procedure (b) for displaying information of the form having the same resolution as the resolution of the print data. The procedure (a) is a procedure for requesting information on a form having a designated resolution to the printing device;
The printing program according to claim 1, further comprising: a step of receiving information on the form transmitted as a response from the printing device to the request. The procedure (a) is a procedure for requesting information on a form including a resolution of a designated page in the form;
The printing program according to claim 1, further comprising: receiving form information including a resolution of the designated page of the form as a response from the printing device to the request.   A procedure for displaying that the resolution of the print data does not match the resolution of the form when there is no form having a resolution that matches the resolution of the print data in the information of the form acquired in the procedure (a) ( The printing program according to claim 1, further comprising: c).   The computer-readable recording medium which recorded the printing program as described in any one of Claims 1-4. A print data output device that outputs print data to the printing device when printing is performed by superimposing print data on the form registered in the printing device,
Print data output, comprising: a calculation unit that acquires form information including a resolution of a form registered in the printing device and displays the information of the form having the same resolution as the resolution of the print data apparatus. The calculation unit requests information on a form having a designated resolution from the printing device,
The print data output apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the print data output apparatus receives information on the form transmitted as a response from the printing device to the request. The computing unit requests the printing device for form information including the resolution of a specified page in the form,
The print data output apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the print data output apparatus receives the resolution of the designated page of the form transmitted as a response from the printing device to the request.   The arithmetic unit displays that the resolution of the print data does not match the resolution of the form when there is no form having a resolution that matches the resolution of the print data in the acquired form information. The print data output device according to any one of claims 6 to 9. A printing system in which a computer and a printing device are connected, print data is transmitted from the computer, and printing is performed by superimposing the print data on a form registered in the printing device,
The computer obtains form information including the resolution of the form registered in the printing device from the printing device,
A printing system for displaying information on the form having the same resolution as that of the print data. The computer requests the printing device for information on a form having a designated resolution,
The printing system according to claim 10, wherein the printing device transmits information on a form having a resolution requested for the request to the computer. The computer requests the printing device for form information including the resolution of a specified page in the form,
The printing system according to claim 10, wherein the printing device transmits the resolution of the designated page of the requested form to the computer.   The computer may display that the resolution of the print data does not match the resolution of the form when there is no form having a resolution that matches the resolution of the print data in the form information. The printing system according to any one of 10 to 12.