JP3406915B2 - Print data generation apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print data generating apparatus and method for generating print data from a document to be printed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a document is printed in a document processing apparatus having a printer built-in or connected, an output image is output for each page on a paper of a size defined as an attribute of the document. It is expanded and the document is output in page units.

[0003]

However, such printing requires as many sheets as the number of pages of the document. That is, when printing is performed once and then the document is modified and printed again, paper for the number of pages is required again.
Therefore, a large amount of paper is required when the number of copies is large,
There are drawbacks such as waste of paper and resource saving.

[0004]

The present invention SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION has been made in view of the above problems, to perform printing the number of pages to be desired on a recording medium such as a sheet of recording paper when printing, even
This eliminates the waste of recording media, and at the same time
An object of the present invention is to provide a print data generating apparatus and method that can be simplified .

In order to solve this problem, the print data generating apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, multiple
A document that consists of
A display unit that displays the bets window plurality by plurality of pages of the document to output the print data that is laid out on one page, the printing apparatus prints on a recording medium
A print data generation device as a document processing device that prints pages , manages a plurality of documents, and
The sentence to be displayed in the cabinet window as a con
Document management means and documents managed by the document management means
Mark when selecting the document icon of the
A printing process window is displayed, and using the printing process window, a designating unit that designates how many pages of the document are to be printed for each recording medium, and how many pages of the document are printed by the designating unit. According to the layout corresponding to the designation as to whether or not to perform, from the document composed of the plurality of pages, a generation unit that generates layout print data for a plurality of pages to be printed on one recording medium, and a printing device that prints the print data. Therefore, the output device that outputs the layout-completed print data generated by the generating device to the printing device is provided , and when a plurality of documents are selected and printing is instructed,
The generating unit collectively generates a plurality of selected documents.
The feature is that page printing is performed.

Further, the print data generating method of the present invention includes the following steps.

A document composed of a plurality of pages is converted into a document icon.
Display unit to display in the cabinet window
A document processing device for printing a plurality of pages by outputting print data in which a plurality of pages of the document are laid out into one page to a printing device that prints out on a recording medium.
A print data generation method of Te, manage multiple documents
Each document as a document icon.
Document management step to be displayed on the window and the document management means
Select the document icon of the document managed by
Displays the print processing window when instructing printing, using the indicia <br/> printing processing window, a designation step of designating whether to print what pages of the document for each one of the recording medium, the Consists of the multiple pages according to the layout corresponding to the specification of how many pages of the document are printed in the specification process
From a document to be printed, a generation step of generating layout print data for a plurality of pages printed on one recording medium, and a layout print data generated in the generation step so as to be printed by the printing device. An output step of outputting to the printing device, and selecting and printing a plurality of documents.
If the printing instruction is given,
Multiple pages can be printed at once for all documents
It

[0008]

In the configuration or process of the present invention, the printing apparatus prints using the print processing window displayed when instructing the printing of the document including a plurality of pages.
Specify how many pages of the document are printed for each recording medium. Then, according to the layout corresponding to the designation of how many pages of the document are printed on one recording medium,
Consists of multiple pages generated by the application
From the document to be made for a plurality of pages to be printed on one recording medium, generates print data that has been laid,
The generated print data that has been laid out is output to the printing apparatus.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to the document processing apparatus itself will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the document processing apparatus of this embodiment. In the figure, 1 is a CPU that controls the entire apparatus, and 2 is an operation processing procedure of the CPU 1 (a program based on the flowchart of FIG. 6 described later).
Is a program memory (hereinafter, PMEM) that stores The PMEM 2 is composed of ROM and RAM, and the former also stores character font patterns and the like. Reference numeral 3 denotes a communication I / F (interface) that enables a transmission / reception procedure such as RS-232C. Document information can be transmitted / received to / from other external devices via the communication I / F. Reference numeral 4 is a keyboard, 5 is a pointing device (for example, a mouse) with a switch (button), and 6 is a KEY I / F (keyboard interface) that enables connection between the keyboard 4 and the pointing device 5. Reference numeral 7 denotes a system bus composed of address signals, data and control signals inside the device. 8
Is a CRT which is one of the display devices, and 9 is a VRAM for developing a bit image to be displayed on the CRT 8. Therefore,
In order to display characters, VRA
Achieved by deploying on M9. 10 is a floppy disk drive used for storing documents, and 11 is a system program (OS, application program, etc.)
It is a hard disk drive that stores documents such as. Reference numeral 12 denotes a DISK I / F (disk interface) that enables the floppy disk drive 10 or the hard disk drive 11 to be connected to the system bus 7. Reference numeral 13 denotes an image memory (hereinafter referred to as IMEM) which develops an image to be printed, and has a capacity of storing image data having one pixel of 8 bits (256 gradations) and a resolution of 400 dpi, for example. 14
Is a page printer and has a resolution of 400 dpi, for example.
Laser beam printer.

In the above configuration, in the embodiment, when the operator of the printing process, a plurality of pages, and instructs example 4 page units of <br/> to print on a sheet of printing paper, on one printing paper 4 The document for pages is printed. The outline will be described below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 shows one of the display states of the CRT 8 in this apparatus (8a is the display screen of the CRT 8).

In the figure, a system menu window 24 that manages application programs for executing various processes and a cabinet window 22 that manages a plurality of document files are displayed. In the case shown in the figure, four document icons (graphics representing the document file as a symbol) are displayed in the cabinet window 22 (for example, reference numeral 20). Further, the cabinet window 22 has an instruction item for causing each document icon of the cabinet window 22 to perform a predetermined process,
After the target document is selected by the graphic cursor 23 linked with the pointing device 5, the desired process is designated and the corresponding process is executed. However, since the processing contents of each of these items are not related to the present invention, the description thereof will be omitted.

In the embodiment, the graphic cursor 23 is designated for the document icon to be printed, and the "print" item 21 shown in the figure is designated to execute the print processing of the document. . It should be noted that the designation or instruction here means an operation of operating the pointing device 5 to move the graphic cursor to a target position and then pressing a switch (button) provided on the pointing device. .

When the item 21 is designated by the graphic cursor 23, a window 30 for designating a printing process is displayed as shown in FIG.

The operator inputs parameters relating to printing in the window 30 to each input item from the keyboard 4 or the like, or selects the graphic cursor 23. When the input of each parameter is completed, the item 32 is designated to execute the actual print processing.

In the figure, the input item 33 is the paper size set in the printer. Further, when the "special designation" of the input item 31 is selected by the graphic cursor 23, a special designation window 40 for special printing relating to printing is displayed as shown in FIG. 4 (note that only the item "plural page printing"). showed that).

Here, the operator selects 41 "plural page printing" to determine how many pages are to be printed on one sheet.
Numerical values are input to the input item 42 from the keyboard 4. The figure shows that two pages, that is, two pages are printed on one sheet. However, the maximum number of pages that can be printed on one sheet of paper depends on the resolution of the printer, the size of the character font pattern, the specified paper size, and the format information of the specified document, and is within a legible range. . In the case of FIG. 4, the maximum number of pages is "9" (between item 41 and item 42).

Now, when the input of the parameter relating to the special designation is completed, the item 4 of "end" of the special window 40
Point 3 with the graphics cursor. This returns the display screen to the state shown in FIG. 3, where item 3
The printing process is executed by instructing the printing of No. 2.

FIGS. 5A to 5D show examples printed by the "plural page printing" described above. In the figure, A4 size document is specified with A4
5A and 5B show a layout of a sheet to be actually printed on a size sheet. The sheet 50 of FIG. 5A has a print layout of two pages, and the sheet 51 of FIG. 5B has four pages (or three pages). ) In the case of the print layout in the case of the paper 52 of FIG. 6C (or page 5), and the paper layout of the case of the paper 53 in the figure (D) in the case of page 9 (or page 8) The print layout is shown. The page numbers are added and printed as reference numerals 54 and 55. The layout to be printed is stored in advance in the hard disk 11 or the like according to the number of pages to be printed on one sheet, and when the number of pages is specified by the operator, the corresponding layout information is read.

Next, the overall flow of processing of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
It will be described in accordance with the flowchart of. It should be noted that in the following description, a case will be described in which the parameters related to “plural page printing” have already been set and the item 32 in FIG. 3 is designated.

First, in step S1, the required number of sheets is calculated by dividing the number of pages of the designated document by the number of pages per sheet designated by the item 42 in FIG.
In addition, here, the reduction ratio at the time of printing is also determined by referring to the instructed page number and the instructed document format information. In step S2, it is determined whether printing has been completed for all pages of the document. If not completed, the process proceeds to step S3, and the output image of the corresponding page is developed on the IMEM 13 so as to have the layout shown in FIG. At this time, the page numbers are also expanded as shown by 54 and 55. In step S4, it is determined whether the development of the designated page on one sheet is completed. If not completed, the process returns to step S3 to develop the next page. That is, the operations of steps S3 and S4 are repeated for the designated page. When the development of one sheet is completed, IMEM is selected in step S5.
The output image developed in 13 is output to the printer 14.

This process is repeated until the output of all pages of the document is completed, and when it is completed, the printing process is completed.

In this embodiment, one document is selected. However, even when a plurality of documents are selected, it is possible to print a plurality of pages at once in the same manner.

In the embodiment, the example in which the present invention is applied to the document processing apparatus has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. This is because, for example, it may be inside the printing apparatus side or may be an independent apparatus located between the document processing apparatus and the printing apparatus. In the case of adapting to a printing device or an independent device, an operation panel may be provided on the device itself, and the multi-page printing mode and the number of pages may be designated from the operation panel. In particular, since multiple pages are printed on a single sheet of paper, when the image based on the received print information is expanded in its own memory, thinning processing is performed to expand the image of multiple pages and print the image. Should be output as

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

As described above, according to this embodiment, when a document is printed, it is possible to print a plurality of pages on one sheet within the legible range. Therefore, it is possible to efficiently use the paper especially for confirmation or for trial printing.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, when printing, a desired number of pages are printed on a recording medium such as one sheet of recording paper , thereby eliminating waste of the recording medium.
Both, and the operation can be simplified
become. Also, the printing device that prints the document has a special
There is no need to have a function.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a document processing apparatus according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state in which a print window is displayed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a special designation window.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an output layout of a sheet.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing in an example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 CPU 2 Program memory (PMEM) 3 Communication interface (I / F) 4 keyboard 5 pointing device 6 KEY I / F 7 system bus 8 CRT 9 VRAM 10 floppy disk drive 11 hard disk drive 12 disk interface 13 Image memory (IMEM) 14 Printer

Continuation of front page (56) Reference JP-A-2-194977 (JP, A) JP-A-3-80667 (JP, A) JP-A-63-8979 (JP, A) JP-A-2-4543 (JP , A) JP-A-2-143380 (JP, A) JP-A-3-161370 (JP, A) Actual development 1-113466 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB) Name) B41J 21/00 B41J 5/30 B41J 29/40 G06F 3/12

Claims (10)

(57) [Claims] 1. A document eye composed of a plurality of pages.
The display part displayed in the cabinet window as a console
And a document processing apparatus for performing multi-page printing by outputting print data in which a plurality of pages of the document are laid out into one page to a printing apparatus that prints out on a recording medium.
Is a new print data generation device that manages multiple documents
Each document as a document icon.
Document management means to be displayed on the window and document icons of documents managed by the document management means
When you select to instruct to print the document, the print processing window
C), and using the print processing window, designating means for designating how many pages of the document are printed for each recording medium, and how many pages of the document are printed by the designating means. in accordance with layout corresponding to the specified, configured by the plurality of pages
Generating means for generating laid-out print data for a plurality of pages printed on one recording medium from a generated document; and laid-out print data generated by the generating means for printing by the printing device. Output means for outputting to the printing device, and when a plurality of documents are selected and printing is instructed, the raw
The means of composition is to combine multiple pages of selected documents into multiple pages.
A print data generation device characterized by performing printing . 2. The designating means selects a printing parameter displayed in the print processing window for each input item with a graphic cursor linked to a pointing device, and can print on one recording medium. The print data generation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print data generation apparatus specifies the maximum number of pages. 3. The generating unit further includes a reading unit that reads out layout information indicating a print layout based on the number of pages of the document to be printed by the designating unit according to the designation by the designating unit. Is a print layout indicated by the layout information read from the reading unit according to the designation by the designation unit, and lays out document information of a plurality of pages to generate print data for one page. The print data generation device according to any one of 1 or 2. 4. The generating unit adds a page number when print information of a plurality of pages is laid out, and
The print data generation device according to claim 1, wherein the print data is generated for one recording medium. 5. The print data generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the generating unit generates print data expanded into image data for a plurality of pages. 6. A document having a plurality of pages is used as a document eye.
The display part displayed in the cabinet window as a console
And a document processing apparatus for performing multi-page printing by outputting print data in which a plurality of pages of the document are laid out into one page to a printing apparatus that prints out on a recording medium.
A method for generating print data, which manages a plurality of documents and uses each document as a document icon
Document management process to be displayed in the cabinet window and document icons of documents managed by the document management means
When you select to instruct to print the document, the print processing window
C), and using the print processing window, a designation step of designating how many pages of the document are printed for each recording medium, and how many pages of the document are printed by the designation step. in accordance with layout corresponding to the specified, configured by the plurality of pages
A generation step of generating layout print data for a plurality of pages to be printed on one recording medium from a generated document; and layout print data generated in the generation step so as to be printed by the printing device. And an output step of outputting to the printing device, and when a plurality of documents are selected and printing is instructed, the raw
The process consists of multiple pages of selected multiple documents at once.
A print data generation method characterized by performing printing . 7. The designating step is for selecting a printing parameter displayed in the print processing window for each input item with a graphic cursor linked with a pointing device, and printing can be performed on one recording medium. 7. The print data generating method according to claim 6, wherein the maximum number of pages is designated. 8. The method further comprises a reading step of reading layout information indicating a print layout based on a designation of how many pages of the document are to be printed in the designation step, in accordance with a designation by the designation means. , claim 6, characterized in that said layout information read by the reading process in the print layout illustrated, generates print data for one page to lay out the document information of a plurality of pages as specified by the specifying step Or the print data generating method according to any one of 7 above. 9. The generating step adds a page number when print information of a plurality of pages is laid out,
Print data generating method according to any one of claims 6 to 8, characterized in that to produce a One of the recording medium portion of the print data. Wherein said generating means, the print data generating method according to any one of claims 6 to 9, characterized in that to generate the print data developed in the image data for a plurality of pages.