JP2012168750A - Print control program, information processor, recording medium, print system, and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce consumption of a toner, ink and the like and/or reduce the number of print sheets when a part unnecessary for printing is included in a document of print object.SOLUTION: A computer terminal to which document data to be printed is specified and the execution of the printing is commanded determines whether there is a specification of a print object or not (S11), when there is the specification, extracts objects of the specified type from the document data (S12), after determining the printing positions of the extracted print objects based on the arrangement relation of respective print objects indicated by the document data (S13), generates the print data for causing a printer to print based on the determined printing positions of the print objects (S14), and outputs the print data to a spooler (S18).

Description

  The present invention relates to a print control program for causing a computer to operate as an apparatus for generating print data for causing the printing apparatus to execute printing, and information having a function for generating print data for causing the printing apparatus to execute printing. PROCESSING DEVICE, COMPUTER-READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM CONTAINING THE PRINT CONTROL PROGRAM, AND PRINTING SYSTEM COMPRISING THE PRINT CONTROL PROGRAM AND PRINT DEVICE, AND PRINTING DEVICE FOR STORING THE PRINT CONTROL PROGRAM About.

Conventionally, using an image forming apparatus such as a printer or a multifunction peripheral, printing a document created by a user or a document downloaded from a Web server or the like as a communication partner using a communication software such as a Web browser via a network. Is widely practiced. This document is composed of text, images, line drawings (graphs, etc.), and is often printed in full color using all toners of YMCK (yellow, magenta, cyan, black) as well as monochrome printing.
However, this toner is required to reduce consumption from the viewpoint of running cost reduction and resource saving.

Therefore, printing using a toner saving function has been widely performed in order to reduce toner consumption.
As a technique related to the toner saving function, Patent Document 1 discloses a toner saving process in which a character, a photograph, and a line drawing area are discriminated and the maximum density is lowered or dots are thinned out every other dot for each discriminated area. An image forming apparatus that performs the above is disclosed.
Patent Document 2 discloses a printing apparatus that can obtain a print result desired by a user by recognizing each part of data consisting of text and an image and performing image correction using a method different depending on the part. Is disclosed.

  By the way, a document created by a user using various application software (document creation software, spreadsheet software, drawing software, etc.) installed on a PC (personal computer), or a document downloaded via a network using a Web browser When a printer is instructed to start printing, a printer driver such as a print control program installed on the PC converts the entire document data received from the application into print data in a format that can be processed by the printer as a print target, and prints the data to the printer. Send data. Even when the user instructs to save the toner and is instructed to start printing the document, the printer driver converts the entire document data into print data as a print target.

  That is, when the user instructs the PC to start printing for a document, basically the entire document is to be printed. In particular, when printing a web page displayed on a web browser on a PC, even if there is an image such as a banner advertisement that does not need to be printed in particular, it cannot be deleted in advance by editing unlike a self-made document. Therefore, printing is performed while including a useless image. Even if the user can specify the target page to be printed for the print target document in units of pages before starting printing, if there is an unnecessary image or the like on the page, it has to be printed.

  In this regard, even if the conventional toner saving function and the inventions described in Patent Documents 1 and 2 are used, the entire document remains the same as the print target, and there are portions in the document that the user feels unnecessary. Even if they print together. In other words, even if the amount of toner consumed for printing the entire document can be reduced, useless toner will be used if the document does not need to be printed in the first place. In addition, an unnecessary printing space is used by printing an unnecessary part. For this reason, if there is a portion that does not need to be printed in the document, there is a problem that the extra number of toner is used, and the number of prints increases due to wasteful use of paper space. It was.

  The present invention solves such a problem, and can reduce the consumption of toner, ink, etc. and / or the number of printing sheets when a document to be printed contains a portion that does not need to be printed. The purpose is to do.

  In order to achieve the above object, a print control program of the present invention causes a computer to print out of an acquisition unit that acquires document data to be printed and a plurality of objects included in the document data acquired by the acquisition unit. Extraction means for extracting the print target object to be used, print position determination means for determining the print position of the print target object extracted by the extraction means based on the layout relationship of each print target object indicated by the document data, and the printing Print data generation means for generating print data for causing the printing apparatus to execute printing based on the print position of the object to be printed determined by the position determination means, and output means for outputting the print data generated by the print data generation means It is for functioning.

  In such a print control program, the program further includes a program for causing the computer to function as a reception unit that receives designation of the type of an object used for printing, and the extraction unit prints the type of print that the reception unit has received the designation. The target object may be extracted as a print target object used for printing from the document data acquired by the acquisition unit.

Further, in such a print control program, the print position determining means may include the print target object extracted by the extraction means at a position where an object not extracted by the extraction means is to be placed in the document data. The print positions of the print target objects may be determined by arranging them so as to be packed.
Further, the print position determining means may determine the print position of the print target object based on a predetermined code or character string included in the text when arranging the print target object of the text.
In such a print control program, the computer may be caused to function as a preview display unit that causes the display unit to display a preview of the print data generated by the print data generation unit.

  An information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an acquisition unit that acquires document data to be printed, an extraction unit that extracts a print target object used for printing from a plurality of objects included in the document data acquired by the acquisition unit, A printing position determining unit that determines a printing position of the printing target object extracted by the extracting unit based on an arrangement relation of each printing target object indicated by the document data, and printing of the printing target object determined by the printing position determining unit. The printer includes a print data generation unit that generates print data for causing the printing apparatus to execute printing based on the position, and an output unit that outputs the print data generated by the print data generation unit.

The recording medium of the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium storing any one of the above print control programs.
A printing system according to the present invention includes the printing control program and a printing apparatus.
Further, a printing apparatus of the present invention comprises a storage means for storing any one of the above print control programs.

According to the print control program and the recording medium of the present invention as described above, when a part to be printed is included in the document to be printed by causing the computer to read and execute the print control program. In addition, consumption of toner and ink and / or the number of print sheets can be reduced.
Further, according to the information processing apparatus and the printing system of the present invention, the same effects as described above can be obtained. Furthermore, according to another printing apparatus of the present invention, the same effect can be obtained by transmitting the above program to an information processing apparatus capable of executing the received program.

It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of a computer terminal. It is a block diagram which shows the software structure of the computer terminal shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of functional blocks of the printer driver shown in FIG. 2. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print setting screen. FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating processing executed by a CPU of a computer terminal when a user issues a print start instruction after performing print settings on the print setting screen illustrated in FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a diagram for describing print position adjustment processing executed by the printer driver shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a first example of a printing result when a document is printed using the printer driver. It is a figure which similarly shows the 2nd example of a printing result. It is a figure which similarly shows the 3rd example of a printing result. It is a figure which similarly shows the 4th example of a printing result. It is a figure which shows the example of the printing result at the time of printing a document, setting a folding condition similarly.

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a computer terminal which is an embodiment of an information processing apparatus of the present invention and is also an example of a computer that executes a print control program of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the computer terminal 10 includes a CPU 11, ROM 12, RAM 13, I / O port 14, communication I / F 15, HDD (hard disk drive) 16, and storage medium drive 17, which are a system bus 19. Connected by.

The CPU 11 is a central processing unit that manages and controls the entire computer terminal 10 by executing various programs stored in the ROM 12 or the HDD 16.
The ROM 12 is a non-volatile storage unit that stores a program to be executed by the CPU 11.
The RAM 13 is a readable / writable storage means used as a work area when the program executed by the CPU 11 is expanded and various processes are performed.

The I / O port 14 is an interface for connecting to external input means such as a keyboard and a mouse and display means such as a display.
The communication I / F 15 is an interface for the computer terminal 10 to communicate with another computer terminal or a printing apparatus via a network or a USB cable.
Note that an appropriate communication I / F 15 is prepared in accordance with a network standard, a communication protocol to be used, and the like. It is also possible to provide a plurality of communication I / Fs 15 corresponding to a plurality of standards.
The HDD 16 is a large-capacity storage unit that stores programs to be executed by the CPU 11 and various data.

The storage medium drive 17 is a recording / reproduction unit that performs recording or reproduction on the storage medium 18, and an appropriate drive is used according to the type of the storage medium 18.
The storage medium 18 is a computer-readable recording medium such as an optical disk such as a CD or DVD, a magneto-optical disk such as MO, or a flexible disk such as FD. A recording medium on which a program for realizing various functions including a print data generation and output function described later is recorded is set in the storage medium drive 17 so that the computer terminal 10 reads the program, and the HDD 16 Or can be executed by the CPU 11.

  When the power is turned on, the CPU 11 reads various programs including a print control program installed from the OS (operating system), the application, and the recording medium in the HDD 16 according to a boot loader (boot program) in the ROM 12, and expands them in the RAM 13. The CPU 11 controls the device including the ROM 12, the I / O port 14, the communication I / F 15, and the HDD 16 by operating according to the various programs (selectively executing the various programs as necessary). Various functions including functions as related functions, that is, an acquisition unit, a reception unit, an extraction unit, a print position determination unit, a print data generation unit, and an output unit can be realized.

Next, details of the software configuration of the computer terminal 10 and the functional blocks of the printer driver will be specifically described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a software configuration example of the computer terminal 10 illustrated in FIG. 1. However, in FIG. 2, the OS (operating system) is not shown.
In the computer terminal 10, an OS, for example, Windows (registered trademark) of Microsoft Corporation operates, and an application 20, a printer driver 30, and a spooler 40 operate as modules that perform operations related to the features of this embodiment.

  Here, the application 20 is an application that can edit document data such as word processing software, spreadsheet software, and drawing software, or a publicly known application that can acquire document data by communicating with an external Web server or the like via a network such as a Web browser. The user can use this application 20 to edit or view a document and issue a print instruction.

The printer driver 30 is a module for controlling the printing apparatus, and is prepared according to the model of the printer 50 that is the printing apparatus. In addition, as the printer 50, what forms an image by any method, such as an electrophotographic method and an inkjet method, can be used. Further, a document data acquisition unit 31 and a UI (user interface) unit 32 are provided.
Among these, the document data acquisition unit 31 has a function of acquiring document data output from the application 20 and indicating the contents of text, images, line drawings (graphs, etc.) to be printed.
The UI unit 32 accepts settings specific to the printer to be controlled, which cannot be accepted by the application 20, or prints from the types of objects such as text, images, and line drawings constituting the print target document. It has a function of providing a GUI (Graphical User Interface) for accepting selection of a print target object to be used. An example of this GUI will be described later.
The spooler 40 is a module provided by the OS, and has a function of temporarily storing and transmitting print data to be transmitted to the printer 50.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing details of functional blocks of the printer driver shown in FIG.
In addition to the document data acquisition unit 31 and the UI unit 32 illustrated in FIG. 2, the printer driver 30 includes a print target object extraction unit 33, a print target object placement unit 34, a print data generation unit 35, a preview display unit 36, and print data. An output unit 37 is provided.

When the UI unit 32 accepts designation of a type to be printed from among the types of objects such as text, images, and line drawings constituting the print target document, the print target object extraction unit 33 follows the designation. It has a function of extracting the object to be printed from the document data acquired by the document data acquisition unit 31.
The print target object arranging unit 34 has a function of determining the arrangement when printing the print target object extracted by the print target object extracting unit 33 after adjusting so as to reduce the use space of paper as necessary. How to determine this arrangement will be described in detail later.

The print data generation unit 35 is a printer language in a format that can be processed by the printer, based on the arrangement of the print target object determined by the print target object arrangement unit 34, for causing the printer to be controlled to execute printing based on the arrangement. The function of generating print data (print data in print language format) described in (1).
The preview display unit 36 has a function of causing a display unit such as a display connected to the computer terminal 10 to display a preview screen indicating how the print result will be based on the print data generated by the print data generation unit 35. Have.
The print data output unit 37 has a function of outputting the print data generated by the print data generation unit 35 to the spooler 40.

In the computer terminal having the above-described software configuration and printer driver function, a characteristic point is that when a user instructs to start printing for a document created using the application 20 or a document being viewed, it is used for printing from the document data. The object to be extracted is extracted, and the extracted object is printed. Therefore, the operation executed by each software and the procedure for executing the printing will be described below with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5 in relation to this point.
Note that processing and control related to each software such as an application and a printer driver, which will be described later, are performed by the CPU operating according to the program of the software. However, for the sake of convenience of explanation, it is assumed that each software executes the processing.

First, when the user instructs to start printing for a document created or acquired by the application 20, for example, a document to be printed is selected or a document being edited or displayed is automatically selected as a print target. In this state, a print property screen (not shown) is opened and printing is instructed. On this print property screen, the user can specify the minimum required for printing, such as the printer used for printing and the number of copies, and then press the print start button to instruct the start of printing of the selected document. it can.
When the user performs printer-specific print settings, the user can either shift from the print property screen (not shown) to the print setting screen of the currently used printer, or change the printer settings screen to be used without using an application. Do this by opening directly. This print setting screen is provided by the UI unit 32 provided in the printer driver 30.

FIG. 4 shows an example of this print setting screen (GUI).
As shown in FIG. 4, the print setting screen 100 includes a print object specifying unit 101, a folding condition setting unit 102, a preview display setting unit 104, an aggregate print setting unit 105, a duplex print setting unit 106, an OK button 107, A cancel button 108 is provided.

Among these, the print target object designating unit 101 is an operation unit for accepting selection of which type of object is used for printing among text, images, and line drawings constituting the document. The user can specify the type of object used for printing by checking the check box. In the state shown in the figure, the user designates only text in the document as a print target. Conversely, images and line drawings that are not checked in the print target object designating unit 101 are designated as object types that are not used for printing.
In addition to accepting designation from the user, for this type of selection, for example, only text may be set as a default object type to be used for printing in the printer driver in advance so that the user's selection can be omitted. .

The return condition setting unit 102 is an operation unit for accepting a setting for how to wrap a text string when printing text.
Specifically, the radio button can be used to select whether or not to wrap (break a line) when a certain condition is satisfied even if the text line does not reach the end of the paper. If the user chooses to start a new line, the user can set a new line at the position immediately before the entered character, symbol, etc. by entering a predetermined character, symbol, etc. in the text box 103. An example of the print result when this folding condition is set will be described later.
In the state shown in the figure, the folding condition is not set. If no text is designated as a print target object, the folding condition may be set to an invalid state by grayscale shading or the like.

  The preview display setting unit 104 has a check box for setting validity / invalidity of the “display print preview” function, and when a print start is instructed with this check box checked, the print target object is displayed. The print result executed according to the settings made in each unit including the designation unit 101 and the folding condition setting unit 102 can be confirmed on the preview screen before printing.

The consolidated print setting unit 105 is an operation unit that accepts a setting for whether or not to perform consolidated printing. The user opens a pull-down menu to display a menu such as “consolidate two pages into one page” or “consolidate four pages into one page”. Appropriate ones can be selected and printed.
The double-sided printing setting unit 106 is an operation unit that receives a setting as to whether or not to print using the front and back of the printing paper when the document to be printed consists of two or more pages. You can choose not to.

When the OK button 107 is pressed, the printer driver 30 sets parameters for reflecting the setting contents received in the above-described units in the printing operation, and closes the print setting screen 100.
In this way, the user can issue a print start instruction from a print property screen (not shown) based on the state after the settings specific to the printer.
On the other hand, when the cancel button 108 is pressed, the print setting screen 100 is simply closed without reflecting the setting contents.

  Next, FIG. 5 shows processing executed by the CPU 11 of the computer terminal 10 when the user makes a print setting on the print setting screen 100 shown in FIG. .

  In this process, the CPU 11 first determines whether or not an object to be used for printing is designated (S11), and if so, designates the designated type of object in the document data instructed for printing. The object to be printed is extracted from the inside (S12). Then, the print position of the extracted print target object is determined based on the arrangement relationship of each print target object indicated by the document data (S13), and the printer is caused to execute printing based on the determined print position of the print target object. Print data is generated (S14), and the process is sequentially performed.

  Here, the process of extracting the specified type of object from the document data in step S12 can be performed by using a drawing function of the document data output from the application 20, for example. This drawing function is used when drawing text, images, line drawings, and the like on an output device (display, printer, etc.), and is provided by GDI, which is a component of the OS. The drawing function includes a Textout function for outputting text, an ExtTextout function, a StretchDIBits function for outputting an image, a BitBlt function for outputting a line drawing, a LineTo function, a Rectangle function, and the like.

Here, for example, when text is specified as the type of object used for printing, other images and line drawings are printed by extracting only the Textout function and ExtTextout function necessary for drawing the text from the document data. Can be excluded from the target. Conversely, by removing the StretchDIBits function, BitBlt function, LineTo function, Rectangle function, and the like used to draw images and line drawings that are objects that are not used for printing, the object to be printed can be removed from the document data instructed to be printed. Can be extracted.
In this embodiment, a function for drawing a representative object is used among the drawing functions. Of course, similar processing is performed for other functions as needed.

  Further, regarding the determination of the print position in step S13, it may be possible to arrange the print position as it is in the coordinate position in the drawing function indicating the print position of the extracted print target object (in this case, no substantial adjustment is performed). Printing on the margin of the printing paper that results from the removal of objects that are not used for printing (for example, the position where the image was placed in the document data will be a margin if the image is not printed) A process of determining the coordinate position in the drawing function so as to arrange the target object in a packed manner is also conceivable. This point will be described in detail later.

After step S14, it is determined whether or not there is a designation for displaying a print preview (S15). If not, the print data generated in step S14 is output to the spooler (S18), and the process ends.
On the other hand, if there is an instruction to display the print preview, after displaying the print preview on the display (S16), the print data is output to the spooler (S18), and the process ends.

Note that after step S16, a selection as to whether or not to continue printing is accepted from the user via a pop-up screen or the like, and print data is output to the spooler when continue printing is selected, and printing is performed when suspension is selected. May be canceled.
By displaying this print preview, the user can know the state after printing in advance before printing. Also, by allowing the user to select whether or not to continue printing, if the user cannot obtain the desired printing result, it can be interrupted in advance, and unnecessary printing can be avoided.

  If no print target object is designated in the first step S11, print data is generated based on the acquired data (S17), and the process proceeds to step S15. The print data generation performed here may be the same as that of a conventional printer driver. Further, since the processing after step S15 is as described above, description thereof is omitted.

  In the above processing, the CPU 11 functions as an extraction unit in step S12, functions as a print position determination unit in step S13, functions as a print data generation unit in step S14, functions as a preview display unit in step S16, In S18, it functions as an output means.

  In such a computer terminal 10, the designated type of object is extracted as a print target object, and the print position of the extracted print target object is determined based on the arrangement relationship of the print target objects indicated by the document data. Since print data is generated to make the printer execute printing based on the determined print position of the object to be printed, it is easy to delete unnecessary data from the document data and print. It is possible to reduce the consumption of excess toner, ink, and the like. In particular, in the case where text and images are mixed, if an image is unnecessary and can be removed, the effect of reducing consumption is great. Further, when determining the printing position, if the objects to be printed are arranged in an empty space by removing unnecessary objects, the number of sheets required for printing can be reduced.

  In addition, since the object to be printed and the object not to be printed are distinguished by the type of object, the user can select an object to be printed with intuitive and simple settings. Also, the printer driver 30 can distinguish between objects that are actually used for printing and objects that are not actually used for printing from the print data instructed to be printed by simple processing. The processing load can be kept low.

Next, a method for adjusting the print position of the print target object will be specifically described with reference to FIGS.
First, FIG. 6 shows a basic concept of print position adjustment.
In the example of FIG. 6, as the Textout function, A4 characters with the printing position start point (X, Y) = (10, 10) and the printing position end point (X, Y) = (110, 110). A string and B4 character strings whose start point is (X, Y) = (10, 120) and end point is (X, Y) = (110, 220) are extracted from the document data as text print target objects. Suppose that The origin (0, 0) is the upper left corner of the document, the X axis indicates the amount of movement in the horizontal direction from the origin, the Y axis indicates the amount of movement in the vertical direction from the origin, and the unit is dot. A dotted line portion indicates a margin portion of the printing paper that is generated from an object that is not to be printed.

In this example, since an area for at least 100 dots in the horizontal direction is required as an area for drawing four characters, is there a width of 100 dots in the right direction from the end point (110, 110) of the A4 character string? If there is a width and there is no other object, the start point of the B4 character string is adjusted to the start point (110, 10) after the print position adjustment. Arrange.
On the other hand, even if there is a width, the position adjustment is not performed when other objects are arranged. For example, when there is no other object, but there is only a width of 50 dots, for example, two characters of the B4 character string may be packed and the remaining two characters may be changed.

  Next, FIG. 7 shows a first example of print position adjustment. In the following examples of FIGS. 7 to 11, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that up to 14 characters can be input per line to be printed, and that more characters are automatically folded to the next line.

In the example of FIG. 7, it is assumed that the document before printing is composed of text, an image, and a line drawing, and text is designated as the type of object used for printing. In addition, an arrow surrounded by a square in the figure means a line feed code (0x0A), and this symbol is not printed. However, if a line feed code is included, the print position is adjusted by changing the subsequent character string so that the character string does not immediately follow the character or symbol immediately before the line feed code is included.
When the user issues a print start instruction in this state, the process shown in FIG. 5 described above is performed to output a printed document from which images and line drawings have been removed. A characteristic point of this first example is that the print position of the text that is the print target object extracted in step S12 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 is placed as it is at the coordinate position in the drawing function representing the text. This is the point that I did. For example, a text object may be arranged in a region where an image or a line drawing is present, assuming that there is an object.
In this case, although the number of sheets cannot be reduced, the layout of the document data instructed to be printed is maintained, so that it is possible to easily grasp where the text on the sheet is in the original document.

Next, FIG. 8 shows a second example of print position adjustment.
A characteristic point of this second example is that the print position of the text that is the print target object extracted in step S12 of FIG. 5 is arranged in a margin of the print paper generated from the object that is not used for printing. This is the point.

In other words, the text that is the printing target object is arranged so as to be narrowed by performing the printing position adjustment described in FIG. 6 in the blank of the printing paper that is generated by removing the image and line drawing that are the printing non-target objects.
However, line breaks with line break codes are maintained. Also, since there is no line feed code at the end of the upper left text object, it is printed in connection with the lower right text object.
With such an arrangement, the number of sheets can be effectively reduced.

Next, FIG. 9 shows a third example of print position adjustment.
In this third example, it is assumed that text and an image are designated as print target objects.
In this case, the printer driver 30 performs position adjustment after extracting a function other than, for example, a BitBlt function indicating a line drawing from among the drawing functions as a function related to the print target object.
In this case, the area in which the upper half text and the image are written in parallel cannot be blank, and printing is performed according to the original document data.

However, in the area where the text in the lower half and the line drawing are written in parallel, a blank is generated when the line drawing is erased. For the text in the lower half, the print position is adjusted so that the blank is filled. Do. Specifically, the first line is arranged at the left end of the page, and the subsequent lines are arranged according to the print position adjustment described with reference to FIG.
As a result, the position adjustment is performed so that the text is printed on the portion where the line drawing is present, and a printing result as shown in FIG. 9 is obtained.
The concept is the same as in the example of FIG.

Next, FIG. 10 shows a fourth example of print position adjustment.
The fourth example is an example in which the original document data has a plurality of pages (two pages). It is assumed that text is specified as the type of object used for printing.
In this case, only the text object is extracted in the process of step S12 in FIG. 5, as in the case of the second example.

  As for the position adjustment, first, the position adjustment is performed so that the margin of the first page is filled with the text of the first page as in the case of the second example, and then the position adjustment of the text of the next second page is performed. I do. In this case, first, it is confirmed whether or not a blank portion remains on the first page which is the previous page. If there is a blank area on the first page, change the start point and end point of the text on the second page to the position of the text on the first page that is already placed in the margin part of the first page. So that they are packed together.

However, in this example, since there is a line feed code at the end of the last text object on the first page, the text on the second page is arranged from the beginning of the next line. If there is no margin on the first page, the text printing position is adjusted and arranged on the margin of the second page.
As described above, even if the document to be printed extends over two pages, the printed documents can be integrated into one page by adjusting the printing position as described above.

Next, object position adjustment when the folding condition is set by the folding condition setting unit 102 of the print setting screen 100 and printing is executed will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a printing result when a document is printed after setting a folding condition.
If text is specified as an object to be printed and the text is simply connected and arranged, it may be possible to save paper but make the print result difficult to read. For example, as in the upper left text in the print data shown in FIG. 11, it is natural to make a line break before “(1)”, but no line break occurs at this position as in the upper right example in FIG. Is the case.

However, in the computer terminal 10, the user selects “with wrapping” with the radio button of the wrapping condition setting unit 102, inputs “(1)” as a character string indicating the line feed position into the text box 103, and starts printing. In the process of step S13 in FIG. 5, among the texts included in the text object to be printed, the arrangement of objects that change lines before the character string “(1)” is automatically performed. Do.
Conversely, it is also conceivable to make a line break after the character entered in the text box 103.

As described above, when a print target object of text is arranged, if the arrangement position of the print target object is determined based on a predetermined code or character string included in the text, a print result easy to read for the user is obtained. be able to.
Note that the setting of the folding condition is not limited to characters and symbols, and some character strings may be expressed in one format using regular expressions. Further, the line feed position may be set based on the position of a code other than characters. In addition to the line feed position, it may be possible to set the arrangement of characters using tabs, indents, and the like.

Although the description of the embodiment is finished as described above, in the present invention, the configuration of the computer terminal, the specific processing content, and the content of the screen to be displayed are not limited to those described in the above-described embodiment.
For example, the print target may be selected not in units of text, images, line drawings, but in finer units. It is also conceivable that the print target can be selected based on not only the type but also the size of the object.
In addition, the present invention can be applied even when consolidated printing or double-sided printing is selected on the print setting screen 100. In this case, the number of print sheets can be further reduced.

In addition, the print control program according to the present invention may be stored in a storage means such as a ROM or an HDD provided in the computer from the beginning, but a CD-ROM or flexible disk as a recording medium, SRAM, EEPROM, memory card It can also be provided by being recorded in a non-volatile recording medium (memory). The above-described processing can be executed by installing a program recorded in the memory in a computer and causing the CPU to execute the program, or causing the CPU to read and execute the program from the memory.
Furthermore, it is also possible to download and execute an external device that is connected to a network and includes a recording medium that records the program, or an external device that stores the program in the storage unit.

  In particular, when such a print control program is stored in a nonvolatile storage means such as NVRAM of the printer 50 and it is detected that communication with the computer terminal 10 in which the print control program is not installed is possible. It is conceivable that the CPU of the printer 50 can send the print control program to the computer terminal 10 automatically or in response to a user instruction so that the computer terminal 10 can install it.

The present invention can also be implemented as the printer 50 in which the printer driver 30 generates print data and executes printing according to the print data supplied from the spooler 40. In this case, the present invention can also be implemented assuming that a printing system is formed by a print control program for realizing the functions of the printer driver 30 and the printer 50 controlled by the printer driver 30.
In addition, the embodiments and modifications described above can be combined as appropriate within a consistent range.

As described above, according to the printing control program, the information processing apparatus, the recording medium, the printing apparatus, and the printing system of the present invention, when a portion that does not need to be printed is included in the document to be printed, It is possible to reduce the consumption of toner, ink, etc. and / or the number of print sheets.
Therefore, by applying this invention, a printing system capable of saving resources can be provided.

10: Computer terminal 11: CPU 12: ROM 13: RAM
14: I / O port 15: Communication I / F 16: HDD
17: Storage medium drive 18: Storage medium 19: System bus 20: Application 30: Printer driver 31: Document data acquisition unit 32: UI unit 33: Print target object extraction unit
34: Print target object arrangement unit 35: Print data generation unit 36: Preview display unit 37: Print data output unit 40: Spooler 50: Printer 100: Print setting screen 101: Print target object specifying unit 102: Return condition setting unit 103: Text box 104: Preview display setting unit 105: Consolidated print setting unit 106: Duplex printing setting unit 107: OK button 108: Cancel button

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-151833 JP-A-5-344328

Claims (9)

Computer
Obtaining means for obtaining document data to be printed;
Extraction means for extracting a print target object to be used for printing from among a plurality of objects included in the document data acquired by the acquisition means;
A printing position determining unit that determines a printing position of the printing target object extracted by the extracting unit based on an arrangement relation of each printing target object indicated by the document data;
Print data generation means for generating print data for causing the printing apparatus to execute printing based on the print position of the print target object determined by the print position determination means;
A print control program for functioning as output means for outputting print data generated by the print data generation means. A print control program according to claim 1,
A program for causing the computer to function as an accepting unit that accepts designation of the type of object used for printing;
The printing control program, wherein the extracting unit extracts a print target object of a type specified by the receiving unit as a print target object used for printing from the document data acquired by the acquiring unit. . The print control program according to claim 1 or 2,
The print position determining means arranges the print target object extracted by the extraction means at a position where an object not extracted by the extraction means is to be placed in the document data, and arranges the print target object. A print control program for determining a print position of the print. A print control program according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The print position determining means determines a print position of the print target object based on a predetermined code or character string included in the text when arranging the print target object of the text. . A print control program according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A print control program further comprising a program for causing a computer to function as a preview display unit that causes a display unit to display a preview of print data generated by the print data generation unit. Obtaining means for obtaining document data to be printed;
Extraction means for extracting a print target object to be used for printing from among a plurality of objects included in the document data acquired by the acquisition means;
A printing position determining unit that determines a printing position of the printing target object extracted by the extracting unit based on an arrangement relation of each printing target object indicated by the document data;
Print data generation means for generating print data for causing the printing apparatus to execute printing based on the print position of the print target object determined by the print position determination means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: output means for outputting print data generated by the print data generation means.   A computer-readable recording medium storing the print control program according to any one of claims 1 to 5.   A printing system comprising the printing control program according to any one of claims 1 to 5 and a printing apparatus that can be executed by a computer.   A printing apparatus comprising storage means for storing the print control program according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

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