JP2013041472A - Information processor, driver program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable generation of a new kind of drawing command.SOLUTION: A drawing section 162 includes a preprocessing section 180 and post-processing sections 190-1 to 190-2. A storage section 140 stores a printing instruction conversion table in which type information showing each type of the post-processing sections is associated with conversion method information showing a conversion method for a printing instruction. A change section 156 adds a post-processing section 190-3 to the drawing section 162, and adds type information on the post-processing section 190-3 and its conversion method information to the printing instruction conversion table upon associating both information with each other. When accepting the printing instruction, the preprocessing section selects a post-processing section 190 shown by the type information included in the printing instruction, refers to the printing instruction conversion table, converts the printing instruction by the conversion method shown by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information, and outputs the converted printing instruction to the selected post-processing section. When the preprocessing section outputs the converted printing instruction, the selected post-processing section generates a drawing command corresponding to the post-processing section 190 from the printing instruction, and outputs the generated drawing command to a printer 20.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a driver program, and a storage medium.

  Conventionally, a printer driver (information processing apparatus) that can generate a plurality of types of drawing commands, generates a drawing command supported by the image forming apparatus to be connected from a print command, and outputs the drawing command to the image forming apparatus is known. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

  However, with the conventional technology as described above, it has been difficult to generate a new type of drawing command.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an information processing apparatus, a driver program, and a storage medium that can generate a new type of drawing command.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, an information processing apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes a first drawing unit having a pre-processing unit and a post-processing unit, and a type indicating a type of the post-processing unit. A storage unit for storing a print command conversion table in which information and a conversion method information indicating a conversion method of a print command are associated; a new post-processing unit added to the first drawing unit; and the added post-processing unit An adding unit that associates the type information and the conversion method information with each other and adds them to the print command conversion table, and when the preprocessing unit receives the print command, post-processing indicated by the type information included in the print command Select the copy unit, refer to the print command conversion table, convert the print command by the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information, and output the selected print processing unit to the selected post-processing unit. The post-processing unit When the print instruction after conversion from the processing unit is outputted, it generates a drawing command corresponding to the post-processing unit from the print instruction, and outputs to the image forming apparatus.

  A driver program according to another aspect of the present invention causes a computer to function as a first drawing unit having a pre-processing unit and a post-processing unit, and the pre-processing unit stores type information indicating a type of the post-processing unit. When receiving a print command including, from among a plurality of types of post-processing units including a new post-processing unit added to the first drawing unit, select a post-processing unit indicated by the type information, from the storage unit, The conversion method information corresponding to the type information included in the print command is obtained by referring to the print command conversion table in which the type information of the plurality of types of post-processing units is associated with the conversion method information indicating the conversion method of the print command. The print command is converted by the conversion method shown and output to the selected post-processing unit. When the converted print command is output from the pre-processing unit, the selected post-processing unit outputs the print command. To the post-processing department Generating the drawing command, and is characterized in that the output to the image forming apparatus.

  A storage medium according to another aspect of the present invention is a computer-readable medium storing the driver program.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to generate a new type of drawing command.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a printing system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the PC according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the drawing unit of the present embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the print command conversion table of the present embodiment. FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the drawing unit after the post-processing unit is added in the present embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the print command conversion table after the post-processing unit is added in the present embodiment. FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of processing steps performed by the drawing unit of the present embodiment. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a drawing operation when the post-processing unit of this embodiment is used. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a drawing operation when the post-processing unit of this embodiment is used. FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a drawing operation when the drawing unit of the present embodiment is used.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of an information processing apparatus, a driver program, and a storage medium according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  In the present embodiment, a PC (Personal Computer) is described as an example of the information processing apparatus, but the present invention is not limited to this. Similarly, a printing apparatus will be described as an example of the image forming apparatus. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be a copier or a multifunction machine. Note that a multifunction peripheral is a device having at least two functions among a printing function, a copying function, a scanner function, and a facsimile function.

  First, the configuration of a printing system including a PC according to the present embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a printing system 1 according to the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the printing system 1 includes a PC 10 that is a print request source, and a printing apparatus 20 that performs printing in accordance with a print request from the PC 10. Note that the printing system 1 may include a plurality of PCs 10 or a plurality of printing apparatuses 20.

  The PC 10 and the printing apparatus 20 are connected via the network 5. The network 5 can be realized by, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network). The PC 10 and the printing apparatus 20 may be directly connected by a serial port such as a USB (Universal Serial Bus).

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the PC 10 according to the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the PC 10 includes a communication unit 110, an operation unit 120, a display unit 130, a storage unit 140, and a control unit 150.

  The communication unit 110 communicates with an external device such as the printing device 20 via the network 5 and can be realized by an existing communication device such as a communication interface.

  The operation unit 120 inputs various operations, and can be realized by at least one of existing input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touch pad, and a touch panel.

  The display unit 130 displays various screens, and can be realized by an existing display device such as a liquid crystal display or a touch panel display.

  The storage unit 140 stores various programs and libraries executed by the PC 10, data used for various processes performed by the PC 10, and the like. For example, the storage unit 140 stores a print command conversion table. Details of the print command conversion table will be described later.

  The storage unit 140 is, for example, a magnetic, optical, or electrical device such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), a memory card, an optical disk, a read only memory (ROM), and a random access memory (RAM). This can be realized by at least one of existing storage devices that can be stored.

  The control unit 150 controls the entire PC 10 and can be realized by an existing control device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit). The control unit 150 includes an OS 152, an application 154, a change unit 156, a printer driver 160, and a printer driver 170. Note that the control unit 150 implements each unit of the control unit 150 by starting (executing) each program (including a library) stored in the storage unit 140.

  The OS 152 controls each part of the PC 10 (specifically, hardware and software of the PC 10), and is realized by basic software. In the present embodiment, the OS 152 is realized by Windows (registered trademark), but is not limited to this, and may be realized by, for example, UNIX (registered trademark).

  The application 154 is for performing predetermined work such as document creation, document browsing, or numerical calculation on the PC 10, for example, using document creation software, browsing software, or spreadsheet software that operates on basic software. realizable.

  When the application 154 receives an operation input for instructing display of the print setting screen from the operation unit 120, the application 154 notifies the selected printer driver of the printer driver 160 and the printer driver 170 via the OS 152.

  When the application 154 receives an operation input for instructing printing from the operation unit 120, the application 154 generates a print command including print settings in cooperation with the OS 152, and sends it to the printer driver selected from the printer driver 160 and the printer driver 170. Notice.

  The printer drivers 160 and 170 are for operating the printing apparatus 20 from the PC 10 and can be realized by software for absorbing a difference between the OS 152 and the printing apparatus 20. The printer driver 160 includes a drawing unit 162 (an example of a first drawing unit) and a print setting unit 164, and the printer driver 170 includes a drawing unit 172 (an example of a second drawing unit) and a print setting unit 174.

  When the drawing unit 162 receives a print command from the OS 152, the drawing unit 162 generates a drawing command and a job command that can be interpreted by the printing device 20 from the print command, and transmits the drawing command and the job command to the printing device 20 via the communication unit 110.

  The drawing command is a command in which drawing contents are described. The drawing unit 162 generates (describes) a drawing command using PDL (Page Description Language). Examples of PDL include PCL (Printer Control Language) and PostScript. The printing apparatus 20 prints images, characters, graphics, and the like on recording paper according to the drawing command.

  A job command is a command that describes print settings that apply to the entire print job. The drawing unit 162 generates (describes) a job command using, for example, PJL (Printer Job Language) or JDF (Job Definition Format). The printing apparatus 20 performs double-sided printing or performs stapling or punching on recording paper in accordance with the job command.

  Note that the drawing unit 162 can generate not only the types of drawing commands that it supports in advance, but also new types of drawing commands.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the drawing unit 162 of the present embodiment. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the drawing unit 162 includes a pre-processing unit 180 and post-processing units 190-1 to 190-2. However, the number of post-processing units is not limited to this, and may be any number. Hereinafter, when there is no need to distinguish each of the post-processing units, they may be simply referred to as post-processing units 190.

  In this embodiment, the pre-processing unit 180 and the post-processing unit 190 are realized by independent modules. In this embodiment, the module is a DLL (Dynamic Link Library), but is not limited to this. In the present embodiment, the post-processing unit 190-1 generates a drawing command using PCL6 as the PDL, and the post-processing unit 190-2 generates a drawing command using PostScript as the PDL.

  Here, the print command conversion table and change unit 156 will be described.

  The print command conversion table associates type information indicating the type of the post-processing unit with conversion method information indicating the conversion method of the print command. Also, the print command conversion table associates type information indicating conversion units other than the post-processing unit included in the drawing unit 162 with conversion method information.

  In the present embodiment, the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information is defined in the file, but is not limited to this. The print command conversion table and the file in which the conversion method is defined may be associated using, for example, a file identifier.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the print command conversion table of the present embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the PDL name used in the post-processing unit is used as the type information.

  “PCL6” is associated with conversion unnecessary indicating that conversion of a print command is not required.

  Also, “PostScript” is associated with a conversion requirement indicating that conversion of a print command is necessary. In this case, the print command conversion method is defined in an external file such as a setting file or a script file. Here, “deletion of PDL name” and “change the number of copies to“ Copies ”are defined. .

  Further, “other than the above” indicates other than the post-processing unit of the drawing unit 162, and may be, for example, an identifier of the drawing unit 172, and is associated with PT / PC or DEVMODE as conversion method information. . This indicates that a print command conversion method supported by the OS 152 such as PrintTicket / PrintCapabilities or DEVMODE is used.

  The changing unit 156 (an example of an adding unit) adds a new post-processing unit to the drawing unit 162 and associates the type information and conversion method information of the added post-processing unit with each other and adds them to the print command conversion table.

  FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the drawing unit 162 after the post-processing unit is added in the present embodiment, and FIG. 6 illustrates an example of the print command conversion table after the post-processing unit is added in the present embodiment. FIG.

  In the example illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, the changing unit 156 adds a new post-processing unit 190-3 that generates a drawing command using XPS (XML Paper Specification) as the PDL to the drawing unit 162. Specifically, the changing unit 156 adds the post-processing unit 190-3 to the drawing unit 162 by adding a DLL corresponding to the post-processing unit 190-3 to the storage unit 140.

  The changing unit 156 adds “XPS” and conversion unnecessary to the print command conversion table in association with each other.

  Although detailed description is omitted, the changing unit 156 not only adds a new post-processing unit to the drawing unit 162 but also deletes or changes the existing post-processing unit from the drawing unit 162. . At this time, the changing unit 156 also deletes or changes the type information and conversion method information of the deleted post-processing unit from the print command conversion table.

  The pre-processing unit 180 is implemented on the printer driver 160 by reading the DLL corresponding to the pre-processing unit 180 from the storage unit 140 when the printer driver 160 is activated. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the preprocessing unit 180 is also realized on the printer driver 160 while the printer driver 160 is activated.

  The pre-processing unit 180 receives a print command from the OS 152, selects the post-processing unit 190 or the drawing unit 172 that outputs the received print command from the post-processing units 190-1 to 190-3 and the drawing unit 172, and is necessary. The print command is converted in response to the output and output to the selected post-processing unit 190 or drawing unit 172. The preprocessing unit 180 includes a selection unit 181 and a print command conversion unit 183.

  The selection unit 181 selects the post-processing unit 190 indicated by the type information included in the print command from the post-processing units 190-1 to 190-3. Then, the selection unit 181 continues the selection of the post-processing unit 190 until printing is completed.

  Specifically, the selection unit 181 reads the DLL corresponding to the post-processing unit 190 indicated by the type information included in the print command among the post-processing units 190-1 to 190-3 by reading from the storage unit 140. A post-processing unit 190 corresponding to the DLL is realized on the printer driver 160. The selection unit 181 reads the DLL until printing is completed, so that the post-processing unit 190 is realized on the printer driver 160 until printing is completed.

  The selection unit 181 selects the drawing unit 172 when the post-processing unit 190 indicated by the type information included in the print command does not exist in the drawing unit 162.

  The print command conversion unit 183 refers to the print command conversion table, converts the print command by the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information included in the print command, and performs post-processing selected by the selection unit 181 To the unit 190 or the drawing unit 172. Thereby, the post-processing unit 190 or the drawing unit 172 selected by the selection unit 181 can interpret the print command.

  Note that when the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information included in the print command indicates no conversion, the print command conversion unit 183 sends the print command to the post-processing unit 190 or the drawing unit 172 selected by the selection unit 181. Is output as is. This is because the post-processing unit 190 or the drawing unit 172 selected by the selection unit 181 can interpret the print command without converting it.

  When the post-conversion unit 190 selected by the selection unit 181 outputs the converted print command from the pre-processing unit 180 or outputs the print command as it is from the pre-processing unit 180, the post-processing unit 190 A drawing command corresponding to the above is generated and output to the printing apparatus 20.

  Specifically, the post-processing unit 190 selected by the selection unit 181 interprets the print command, and performs processing such as enlargement / reduction, rotation, and color reduction on the drawing object, for example. Then, the post-processing unit 190 generates a job command and a drawing command.

  The post-processing unit 190-1 generates a drawing command using PCL6, the post-processing unit 190-2 generates a drawing command using PostScript, and the post-processing unit 190-3 uses XPS. Generate drawing commands.

  When the print setting unit 164 receives a print setting screen display instruction from the application 154 via the OS 152, the print setting unit 164 prints the post-processing unit 190 used for printing among the post-processing units 190-1 to 190-3 included in the drawing unit 162. A print setting screen for setting is displayed on the display unit 130. When the print setting screen is displayed on the display unit 130, the user confirms or changes the print setting.

  When the drawing unit 172 receives a print command from the OS 152, the drawing unit 172 generates a drawing command and a job command that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 20 from the print command, and transmits the drawing command and the job command to the printing apparatus 20 via the communication unit 110. In addition, when the converted print command is output from the preprocessing unit 180 or the print command is output from the preprocessing unit 180 as it is, the drawing unit 172 generates a drawing command corresponding to the drawing unit 172 from the print command. And output to the printing apparatus 20.

  The drawing unit 172 can generate a type of drawing command that it corresponds to in advance, but cannot generate a new type of drawing command.

  Upon receiving a print setting screen display instruction from the application 154 via the OS 152, the print setting unit 174 causes the display unit 130 to display the print setting screen of the drawing unit 172. When the print setting screen is displayed on the display unit 130, the user confirms or changes the print setting.

  Next, the operation of the drawing unit 162 of this embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure flow of processing performed by the drawing unit 162 of the present embodiment.

  First, the preprocessing unit 180 receives a print command from the OS 152 (step S100).

  Subsequently, the selection unit 181 selects the post-processing unit 190 or the drawing unit 172 indicated by the type information included in the print command from the post-processing units 190-1 to 190-3 and the drawing unit 172 (step S102). Then, the selection unit 181 continues the selection of the post-processing unit 190 until printing is completed.

  Subsequently, the print command conversion unit 183 refers to the print command conversion table and checks whether or not conversion of the print command is necessary (step S104). If conversion of the print command is unnecessary (No in step S104), the process proceeds to step S112.

  On the other hand, if conversion of the print command is necessary (Yes in step S104), the print command conversion unit 183 refers to the print command conversion table to check whether the print command can be directly converted (step S106).

  If the print command can be directly converted (Yes in step S106), that is, if the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information included in the print command requires conversion, the print command conversion unit 183 displays the conversion method. In step S108, the print command is converted.

  On the other hand, if the print command cannot be directly converted (No in step S106), that is, if the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information included in the print command is PT / PC or DEVMODE, the print command conversion unit 183 Converts the print command using a print command conversion method supported by the OS 152, such as PrintCapabilities or DEVMODE (step S110).

  Subsequently, when the post-conversion unit 190 or the drawing unit 172 selected by the selection unit 181 outputs the converted print command from the pre-processing unit 180 or the pre-processing unit 180 outputs the print command as it is, A drawing command corresponding to the post-processing unit is generated from the print command and is output to the printing apparatus 20 (step S112).

  Next, a specific example of the operation of the drawing unit 162 of this embodiment will be described.

  When the OS 152 is realized by Windows as in the present embodiment (in a normal Windows Printing scenario), when the application 154 and the OS 152 cooperate to generate a print command including print settings, the settings are set on the print setting screen. Hold the current print settings in the DEVMODE structure.

  The DEVMODE structure includes a public area for holding a general print setting member and a private area for holding a print setting member unique to the vendor that created the printer driver. The print setting member in the Public area can be directly changed by the user, but the print setting member in the Private area can be changed only by the vendor who created the printer driver who knows the access method.

  FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a drawing operation when the post-processing unit 190-1 of the present embodiment is used. Here, it is assumed that the vendors that created the pre-processing unit 180 and the post-processing unit 190-1 are the same, and the post-processing unit 190-1 can interpret the print command notified from the OS 152 as it is.

  First, the preprocessing unit 180 receives a print command 201 from the OS 152. In the print command 211, “PDL name is PCL6” and “Number of copies is 5”.

  Subsequently, since the PDL name included in the print command 201 indicates PCL6, the selection unit 181 reads the DLL corresponding to the post-processing unit 190-1 from the storage unit 140, and thereby selects the post-processing unit 190-1. This is realized on the drawing unit 162. Note that the selection unit 181 reads the DLL until printing is completed, so that the post-processing unit 190-1 is realized on the drawing unit 162 until printing is completed.

  Subsequently, the print command conversion unit 183 refers to the print command conversion table and confirms that the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the PCL 6 is not converted. In this case, the print command conversion unit 183 outputs the print command 201 as it is to the post-processing unit 190-1 selected by the selection unit 181.

  Subsequently, when the print command 201 is output as it is from the preprocessing unit 180, the post-processing unit 190-1 generates a drawing command from the print command 201 using the PCL 6 and outputs the drawing command to the printing apparatus 20.

  FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a drawing operation when the post-processing unit 190-2 of the present embodiment is used. Here, the vendor that created the pre-processing unit 180 and the post-processing unit 190-1 is the same, and the pre-processing unit 180 can interpret the print command notified from the OS 152 as it is, but the post-processing unit 190-1 remains as it is. It cannot be interpreted.

  First, the preprocessing unit 180 receives a print command 211 from the OS 152. In the print command 201, “PDL name is PCL6” and “Number of copies is 5”.

  Subsequently, since the PDL name included in the print command 211 indicates PostScript, the selection unit 181 reads the DLL corresponding to the post-processing unit 190-2 from the storage unit 140, thereby causing the post-processing unit 190-2 to This is realized on the drawing unit 162. Note that the selection unit 181 reads the DLL until printing is completed, so that the post-processing unit 190-2 is realized on the drawing unit 162 until printing is completed.

  Subsequently, the print command conversion unit 183 refers to the print command conversion table and confirms that the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to PostScript is for conversion. In this case, the print command conversion unit 183 converts the print command 211 into the print command 212 using the conversion method, and outputs the print command 212 to the post-processing unit 190-2 selected by the selection unit 181. In the print command 212, “Copies is 5”.

  Subsequently, when the print command 212 is output from the preprocessing unit 180, the post-processing unit 190-2 generates a drawing command from the print command 212 using PostScript and outputs the drawing command to the printing apparatus 20.

  FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of a drawing operation when the drawing unit 172 of the present embodiment is used. Here, it is assumed that the vendors that created the preprocessing unit 180 and the drawing unit 172 are different and that the print command notified from the OS 152 can be interpreted as it is, but the drawing unit 172 cannot interpret it as it is.

  First, the preprocessing unit 180 receives a print command 221 from the OS 152. In the print command 221, “PDL name is“ Unknown ”and“ number of copies is 5 ”.

  Subsequently, since the PDL name included in the print command 221 indicates “Unknown”, the selection unit 181 selects the drawing unit 172.

  Subsequently, the print command conversion unit 183 refers to the print command conversion table and confirms that the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to “Unknown” (other than the above) is PT / PC or DEVMODE.

  In this case, the print command conversion unit 183 cooperates with the OS 152 to convert the print command 221 to the print command 222 using a print command conversion method supported by the OS 152 such as PrintTicket / PrintCapabilities and DEVMODE. The print command 222 is output to the selected drawing unit 172.

  As in the example illustrated in FIG. 10, when the vendors that created the preprocessing unit 180 and the drawing unit 172 are different, the preprocessing unit 180 cannot understand the structure of the print settings used in the drawing unit 172, and thus The print command is converted in such a way. However, the conversion method of the print command is not limited to this, and for example, only the print setting member in the Public area of the DEVMODE structure may be reflected.

  Subsequently, when the print command 222 is output from the preprocessing unit 180, the drawing unit 172 generates a drawing command corresponding to the drawing unit 172 from the print command 222 and outputs the drawing command to the printing apparatus 20.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, since a new post-processing unit can be added to the drawing unit, a new type of drawing command can be generated. In particular, in this embodiment, the pre-processing unit and the post-processing unit can be realized by independent modules, and the conversion method of the print command is defined in the file. Therefore, a new post-processing unit can be easily added to the drawing unit, It is possible to easily generate a new type of drawing command.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, for the same reason as described above, the existing post-processing unit can be easily deleted from the drawing unit or can be easily changed, so that it is possible to generate a necessary drawing command. It can correspond to.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, the post-processing unit is selected until the printing is completed, and it is not necessary to repeatedly select until the printing is completed.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, since the drawing unit of another printer driver can be used, the occurrence of a situation where printing cannot be performed can be suppressed.

(Modification)
In addition, this invention is not limited to the said embodiment, A various deformation | transformation is possible. For example, in the above embodiment, the pre-processing unit 180 may select the post-processing unit 190 in consideration of drawing commands that can be handled by the printing apparatus 20 in addition to the type information included in the print command.

  In this case, the storage unit 140 stores a table in which drawing commands that can be handled for each printing apparatus are associated. This table may be defined in an external file such as a setting file or a script file.

  The selection unit 181 refers to the table stored in the storage unit 140 and determines whether or not the drawing command generated by the post-processing unit 190 or the drawing unit 172 indicated by the type information corresponds to the output destination printing apparatus 20. To check. When the generated drawing command does not correspond to the output destination printing device 20, the selection unit 181 can generate the drawing command corresponding to the output destination printing device 20 or the post-processing unit 190 or the drawing The part 172 may be selected.

  In this way, it is possible to suppress the occurrence of a situation where printing cannot be performed.

(Hardware configuration)
The PC according to the embodiment and the modified example includes a control device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a storage device such as a ROM and a RAM, an external storage device such as an HDD and an SSD, a display device such as a display, and a mouse. And a communication device such as a communication I / F, and has a hardware configuration using a normal computer.

  The driver program executed on the PC according to the above-described embodiment and the above-described modification is a file in an installable format or an executable format, and is a computer such as a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a memory card, a DVD, and a flexible disk (FD). And stored in a readable storage medium.

  In addition, the driver program executed on the PC according to the embodiment and the modification may be provided by being stored on a computer connected to a network such as the Internet and downloaded via the network. In addition, the driver program executed on the PC according to the embodiment and the modification may be provided or distributed via a network such as the Internet. In addition, the driver program executed on the PC according to the embodiment and the modified example may be provided by being incorporated in advance in a ROM or the like.

  The driver program executed by the PC according to the embodiment and the modification has a module configuration for realizing the above-described units on a computer. As actual hardware, for example, the CPU reads out a program from the HDD to the RAM and executes it, so that the above-described units are realized on the computer.

1 Printing system 5 Network 10 PC
20 Printing Device 110 Communication Unit 120 Operation Unit 130 Display Unit 140 Storage Unit 150 Control Unit 152 OS
154 Application 156 Changing unit 160 Printer driver 162 Drawing unit 164 Print setting unit 170 Printer driver 172 Drawing unit 174 Print setting unit 180 Pre-processing unit 190-1 to 190-3 Post-processing unit

JP 2009-53789 A

Claims (10)

A first drawing unit having a pre-processing unit and a post-processing unit;
A storage unit for storing a print command conversion table in which type information indicating the type of the post-processing unit and conversion method information indicating a conversion method of the print command are associated;
An additional unit that adds a new post-processing unit to the first drawing unit and adds the type information and conversion method information of the added post-processing unit to the print command conversion table in association with each other.
When receiving the print command, the pre-processing unit selects a post-processing unit indicated by the type information included in the print command, refers to the print command conversion table, and indicates the conversion method information corresponding to the type information. The print command is converted by the conversion method and output to the selected post-processing unit,
When the converted print command is output from the pre-processing unit, the selected post-processing unit generates a drawing command corresponding to the post-processing unit from the print command and outputs the drawing command to the image forming apparatus. An information processing apparatus characterized by the above. A second drawing unit;
The print command conversion table further associates type information and conversion method information indicating other than the post-processing unit included in the first drawing unit,
The pre-processing unit selects the second drawing unit when the post-processing unit indicated by the type information included in the print command does not exist in the first drawing unit, and refers to the print command conversion table, The print command is converted by the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information, and is output to the selected second drawing unit.
When the converted print command is output from the preprocessing unit, the second drawing unit generates a drawing command corresponding to the second drawing unit from the print command and outputs the drawing command to the image forming apparatus. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1.   The print setting unit for displaying a print setting screen for performing print setting for a post-processing unit used for printing among the post-processing units included in the first drawing unit is further provided. The information processing apparatus described in 1.   The pre-processing unit outputs the print command as it is to the selected post-processing unit when the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information included in the print command indicates no conversion. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the pre-processing unit and the post-processing unit are each realized by independent modules.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information is defined by a file.   The said pre-processing part continues the selection of the said post-processing part which the said classification information contained in the said printing command shows until printing is completed, It is any one of Claims 1-6 characterized by the above-mentioned. Information processing device.   8. The pre-processing unit selects a post-processing unit in consideration of a drawing command that can be handled by the image forming apparatus in addition to the type information included in the print command. The information processing apparatus according to any one of the above. Causing the computer to function as a first drawing unit having a pre-processing unit and a post-processing unit;
When the pre-processing unit receives a print command including type information indicating the type of the post-processing unit, the pre-processing unit includes a plurality of types of post-processing units including a new post-processing unit added to the first drawing unit. Select the post-processing unit indicated by the type information, and refer to the print command conversion table in which the type information of the plurality of types of post-processing units and the conversion method information indicating the conversion method of the print command are associated from the storage unit, The print command is converted by the conversion method indicated by the conversion method information corresponding to the type information included in the print command, and output to the selected post-processing unit,
When the converted print command is output from the pre-processing unit, the selected post-processing unit generates a drawing command corresponding to the post-processing unit from the print command and outputs the drawing command to the image forming apparatus. A driver program characterized by   A computer-readable storage medium storing the driver program according to claim 9.

Images