JP4334399B2 - Printing control apparatus and printing control method - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus, in which relates to a printing control method.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a printing system is known in which a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “personal computer”) is a host computer, and printing is performed by connecting a printer to the host computer. In such a conventional printing system, in order to obtain an optimum printing result, the setting of the printer is appropriately changed.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for notifying an application of optimum print setting information of a printer when a printer driver in a computer cannot secure a memory area necessary for print processing.
Further, Patent Document 2 includes a setting unit that sets a setting value set by the information processing unit to a predetermined value after a predetermined time has elapsed, thereby setting a desired printing state and reducing printing errors. A technique for efficiently outputting a normal print result is disclosed.
JP 2001-350610 A JP 2002-268844 A

By the way, in the conventional printing system described in Patent Document 1, in order to realize the printing requested by the user, the printing setting is changed in the printer driver.
For example, when the user changes the setting to increase the printing speed, if the resolution of the image included in the print data is 300 dpi, the image is converted from 300 dpi to 150 dpi and output to the printer.
However, in this case, since the image resolution conversion process is performed in the printer driver, there is a drawback that the printing speed is inevitably slowed down by the time required for the image conversion process.
Therefore, as one means for solving the above-described drawbacks, for example, in the printer driver, the image data of the input print data is not subjected to image conversion processing, but before the input to the printer driver, the print data itself is not converted. It is conceivable to reduce the image resolution.
For example, if the print data is created using an application program such as general spreadsheet software or word processor software, the image resolution is set low in the application program. Then, since it is not necessary to perform image conversion in the printer driver, the printing speed can be increased accordingly.
However, there is a drawback that it is difficult for the user who uses the application to know which part of the document is changed and how the image resolution can be changed.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described points, and an object thereof is to provide a print control apparatus and a print control method that can perform printing with a print result requested by a user.

In order to achieve the above object, the print control apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention is the print control apparatus for controlling the printing apparatus, wherein the print data is printed when the input print data is printed by the printing apparatus. Data analysis means for analyzing whether the resolution of the image included in the image is equal to or lower than the predetermined resolution, and analyzing whether the font used for printing is a device font, and a hint screen related to print quality Hint condition setting screen for setting whether to display a hint condition setting screen for setting whether to display a hint condition screen for setting whether or not to display a hint screen related to printing speed, and the hint condition setting screen based on the setting, and tips screen generating means for generating a hint screen corresponding to the analysis result of the data analysis means, for displaying the hint screen on the display device Characterized in that it and a display control means for performing display control.
The print control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the hint screen generation unit is configured to analyze the data analysis unit when the hint condition setting screen is set to display a hint screen related to the print quality. The printing according to claim 1, wherein a hint screen in which a resolution of an image included in the print data is lower than a predetermined resolution or a hint screen in which a font used for printing is a device font is generated according to a result. Features a control device.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the hint condition setting screen is set to display a hint screen related to the printing speed, the hint screen generation unit is configured to analyze the data analysis unit. 2. The print control according to claim 1, wherein a hint screen in which a resolution of an image included in the print data is higher than a predetermined resolution or a hint screen in which a font used for printing is not a device font is generated according to a result. Features the device.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing control method for controlling a printing apparatus, wherein when input printing data is printed by the printing apparatus, an image included in the printing data is recorded. Set whether to display the hint screen related to print quality and the step of analyzing whether the resolution is less than the predetermined resolution, and whether the font used for printing is a device font. A step of generating a hint condition setting screen for setting whether to display a hint condition setting screen and a hint screen related to the printing speed, and a hint screen corresponding to the analysis result based on the setting of the hint condition setting screen. And a step of performing display control for causing the display device to display the hint screen .
The print control method of the present invention described in claim 5 is included in the print data according to the analysis result when the hint condition setting screen is set to display the hint screen related to the print quality. The print control method according to claim 4, wherein a hint screen in which a resolution of an image is lower than a predetermined resolution or a hint screen in which a font used for printing is a device font is generated.
The print control method of the present invention described in claim 6 is included in the print data according to the analysis result when the hint condition setting screen is set to display the hint screen related to the printing speed. The print control method according to claim 4, wherein a hint screen in which a resolution of an image is higher than a predetermined resolution or a hint screen in which a font used for printing is not a device font is generated.

According to the present invention, even a user who does not have sufficient knowledge about printing can perform printing with appropriate print settings, and can display a hint screen of conditions desired by the user.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
In the present embodiment, a case where the print control apparatus of the present invention is applied to a printing system including a host computer and a printing apparatus will be described as an example.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
A printing system 1 according to the present embodiment shown in FIG. 1 includes a host computer 2 composed of a personal computer and a printer 6, for example.
The host computer 2 is connected with a keyboard 3 a and a mouse 3 b as an input device 3 and a display device 4. The input device 3 performs an input operation from the user, and an image corresponding to the input operation is displayed on the display device 4.
Inside the host computer 2, a printer driver 5 which is a print control device is provided. The printer driver 5 will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration in the host computer 2.
In FIG. 2, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 11 manages control processing of the entire host computer 2.
A ROM (Read Only Memory) 12 stores program data and the like, and the CPU 11 reads the data via the bus 10 as necessary, thereby executing processing according to the stored program. It can be done.
A RAM (Random Access Memory) 13 appropriately stores data, programs, and the like necessary for the CPU 11 to execute various processes.
The modem 14 controls wired communication using a telephone line or a cable. For example, when the program data is updated, the program data is downloaded from a server on the Internet via the modem 14.
The hard disk drive (HDD) 15 includes a hard disk as a storage medium, and the CPU 11 can record or read data, programs, and the like on the hard disk. In this case, the CPU 11 reads out an application program stored in the hard disk of the HDD 15 and develops it in the RAM 13 to execute various processes according to the application program.
The drive device 16 can be loaded with various recording media such as an optical disc, a CD (Compact Disc) type disc, a mini disc, or a memory card such as a flash memory. The application program recorded on the medium can be read and recorded on the HDD 15.
The input device 3 is connected to the internal bus 10 via an input interface (I / F) 17 and the display device 4 is connected via a display I / F 18. A printer 6 is connected to the internal bus 10 via a printer I / F 19.
In such a printing system 1, the CPU 11 in the host computer 2 develops the program stored in the ROM 12 or the hard disk of the HDD 15 in the work area of the RAM 13 and executes the process, thereby controlling the printer 6. It is assumed that the printer driver 5 functions.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing functions of the printer driver 5 provided in the host computer 2 of the present embodiment.
In FIG. 3, a data storage block 21 temporarily stores print data (original data) sent from an application program such as spreadsheet software or word processor software capable of executing print processing, for example. .
In this case, the print data from the application includes drawing data, character data, image data, and the like.
In this embodiment, the print data is described as being sent from an application. However, this is merely an example, and data obtained by reading a document with a reading device (scanner) can be used as print data. It is.
A PDL (Page Description Language) conversion block 22 converts print data sent from the data storage block 21 into a command for controlling the printer 6 serving as a page printer and outputs the command.
The analysis block 23 serving as data analysis means analyzes the print data stored in the data storage block 21 described above, and provides information necessary for obtaining an appropriate print result on the paper surface to the hint screen generation block 24, for example. On the other hand, it is made to output.
For example, analysis is performed to determine whether the print data includes image data (image data) in a bitmap format having a relatively large resolution. Then, for example, when the image resolution of the image data included in the print data is higher than the image resolution of the printer 6 that is the output destination, the print data includes an image with a high resolution for the hint screen generation block 24. The analysis information indicating that the data is displayed is output.
At this time, the analysis information output from the analysis block 23 to the hint screen generation block 24 is information related to the image resolution or information related to the page number in which an image with a high resolution is included.
The analysis block 23 includes an image with a high resolution in the print data when the resolution of the image included in the print data is set to be twice or more the image resolution of the printer 6 in consideration of, for example, the printing speed. It may be judged that
Further, when the resolution of the image included in the print data is equal to or lower than the predetermined resolution, analysis information indicating that the print data includes an image with a low resolution is output to the hint screen generation block 24. To be.
At this time, the analysis information output from the analysis block 23 to the hint screen generation block 24 is, as described above, information related to the image resolution, information related to the page number in which an image with a low resolution is included, and the like.
In this case, the image resolution can be arbitrarily set within a range where the user does not feel the roughness of the image quality when the user looks at the print result in consideration of the print quality and the like.

In the present embodiment, the image data format is described as being in the bitmap format. However, this is merely an example, and the image data is not necessarily in the bitmap format.
For example, when print data includes character data and a so-called device font installed in the printer 6 is designated as a font used for printing, the analysis information is sent to the hint screen generation block 24. Is output.
The hint screen generation block 24 which is a display screen generation means is based on various analysis information sent from the analysis block 23 and detailed information corresponding to the analysis information stored in the ROM 12 or HDD 15 in advance. Information display screen) is generated. The screen data of the hint screen generated in the hint screen generation block 24 is sent to the display control block 25.
In the display control block 25 which is a display control means, display control for displaying the screen data from the hint screen generation block 24 on the screen of the display device 4 is performed.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hint screen displayed on the display device 4.
Note that such a hint screen is displayed on the screen of the display device 4 before the printer 6 prints the print data.
The window 30 shown in FIG. 4 is provided with an analysis information display area 31 for displaying analysis information obtained by analyzing print data, and a detailed information display area 32 for displaying detailed information corresponding to the analysis information. It has been.
For example, in the analysis information display area 31 of the hint screen shown in FIG. 4, the print data of the third page includes high-resolution image data as print data analysis information, and the print data of the fourth page. Indicates that the device font is being used.
In the detailed information display area 32, as detailed information corresponding to the analysis information, it is displayed that the printing time is shortened when the resolution is lowered.
In addition to the display areas 31 and 32, the window 30 of the hint screen shown in FIG. 4 is provided with an end button 33, an OK button 34, a cancel button 35, and a scroll bar 36 for scrolling the display area.
As described above, in the printing system 1 according to the present embodiment, when printing of print data is executed in the printer 6, the print data is analyzed in the printer driver 5, and as a result, proper printing cannot be performed. If it is determined, the analysis information and the corresponding detailed information are displayed. That is, the user is presented with the reason why proper printing is not performed with the current print settings and information (detailed information) that serves as a hint for the user to resolve it.
For example, in the conventional printing system, even if the print data includes a bitmap format image having a resolution higher than that of the printer 6, the image can be printed only at the resolution of the printer 6. In addition, a high-resolution bitmap format image has a large data capacity, and resolution conversion processing is required for the large data, so the printing speed is inevitably slowed. However, in the conventional printing system, since it is impossible to notify the user that the printing speed is reduced by the bitmap image included in the print data, a general user does not know why the printing speed is reduced. was there.
On the other hand, according to the printing system 1 of the present embodiment, when a high-resolution bitmap image is included in the print data, the high-resolution image is included in the user through the hint screen, and printing is performed. It can be shown that it takes time.
Further, even a user who does not have sufficient knowledge about printing can perform printing with optimum print settings by changing application settings based on information on the hint screen.

In the conventional printing system, if the resolution of the bitmap image included in the print data is too low, the printing result may be rough. However, since the resolution of the display device 4 is not high, the image of the document displayed on the screen of the display device 4 does not look so rough, and a general user does not know why the image is roughly printed. there were. Even in such a case, in the printing system 1 of the present embodiment, the reason why the original is printed roughly can be presented to the user through the hint screen.
Further, in the conventional printing system, when the device font installed on the printer side is used, the font is different from the font used for the screen display of the display device 4, so the screen display may not match the print result. is there.
However, since it is very time-consuming for a general user to check a font used for printing, it may be difficult to notice why the screen display does not match the print result.
Even in such a case, according to the printing system 1 of the present embodiment, the reason why the screen display and the print result do not match can be presented, so that the user can notice the reason why the screen display and the print result do not match. become able to.

Here, an example of processing executed by the printer driver 5 of the printing system 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.
Note that the processing described below is executed by the CPU 11 of the host computer 2 based on the program of the printer driver 5.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing characteristic processing operations executed by the printer driver 5 of the printing system 1 according to the present embodiment. The processing operation described below is performed before the printing process is executed by the printer 6.
In this case, the CPU 11 first accumulates print data sent from an application program such as spreadsheet software or word processor software in the RAM 13 of the host computer 2, for example, in step S11.
Next, in step S12, analysis processing of the accumulated print data is started, and analysis processing is executed in step S13.
In the subsequent step S14, it is analyzed whether or not there is a corrected portion that cannot be properly printed in the print data. When a positive result is obtained, that is, when a corrected portion is found, the process proceeds to step S15. Further, the analysis information of the correction part and the detailed information of the correction part previously stored in the ROM 12 or the HDD 15 are held in the RAM 13.
On the other hand, when a negative result is obtained in step S14, the process of step S15 is skipped and the process proceeds to step S16. In step S16, it is determined whether or not all the print data analysis processes have been completed. If all the analysis processes are not completed, the process returns to step S13 to perform the process, and proceeds to step S17 when all the analysis processes are completed.
In step S17, for example, a hint screen as shown in FIG. 4 is generated on the basis of the page information of the correction portion and the detailed information held in the RAM 13, and in step S18, the hint screen is displayed on the display device 4. The display control for displaying on the screen is performed, and the process ends.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing operation when analyzing the resolution of print data as an example of a specific processing operation of the printer driver 5 provided in the printing system 1 of the present embodiment.
In this case, the CPU 11 first accumulates print data sent from an application program such as calculation software or word processor software in the RAM 13 in step S21, and starts analyzing the accumulated print data in step S22. The analysis process is executed at.
Next, in step S24, it is determined whether or not the image data in the bitmap format is included in the print data. If a positive result is obtained, the process proceeds to step S25.
In step S25, it is determined whether or not the resolution of the image data included in the print data is at least twice the image resolution of the printer 6. If an affirmative result is obtained, the process proceeds to step 26 for analysis. The page information including the bitmap image as information is held in the RAM 13.
On the other hand, if a negative result is obtained in each of steps S24 and S25, the process proceeds to step S27, and in step S27, it is determined whether or not all the analysis processing of the print data to be printed has been completed. If the analysis process has not ended, the process returns to step S23 to perform the process. Then, when all the analysis processes are completed, the process proceeds to step S28, a hint screen is generated based on the page information stored in the RAM 13, and the hint screen is displayed on the screen of the display device 4 in the subsequent step S29. Therefore, the display control is performed to finish the process.
By the way, the optimum printing result desired by the user varies depending on the user. For example, some users think that there is no problem if the print speed is high even if the print image quality is low, and some users think that the print image quality should be high even if the print speed is low. It would be meaningless to provide the former user with information about the printing environment that would increase the print quality but reduce the printing speed.
Therefore, in the printing system 1 according to the present embodiment, a hint condition selection screen that allows the user to select hint conditions is presented in advance so that the user can set display conditions to be displayed on the hint screen. For example, only hints related to print quality or only hints related to printing speed can be displayed on the hint screen. As a result, only the hint of the condition desired by the user can be displayed on the hint screen.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the hint condition selection screen displayed on the display device 4.
The same parts as those of the hint screen shown in FIG.
The window 40 shown in FIG. 7 is provided with a check box 42 for selecting a hint relating to the print quality and a check box 42 for selecting a hint relating to the printing speed. When the check box 41 is checked using 1), only the hint relating to the print quality can be displayed on the hint screen 30 shown in FIG. Conversely, when the user puts a check in the check box 42, only the hint relating to the printing speed can be displayed on the hint screen 30.
It should be noted that the selection items for the hint conditions displayed on the hint condition selection screen shown in FIG. 7 are merely examples, and it is needless to say that the selection items displayed on the hint condition selection screen can be arbitrarily set.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing processing executed by the printer driver 5 when the hint condition is selected on the hint condition selection screen as described above.
Also in this case, in step S31, the CPU 11 accumulates print data sent from an application program such as calculation software or word processing software in the RAM 13 of the host computer 2, for example, and starts analysis of the print data in step S32. In subsequent step S33, analysis is executed.
Next, in step S34, it is determined whether or not there is a corrected portion in the print data. If a positive result is obtained, the process proceeds to step S35, and the condition of the corrected portion matches the display condition selected on the display hint condition selection screen. If a positive result is obtained, the process proceeds to step 36, and the page information of the corrected part and the detailed information on the correction contents are held in the RAM 13.
On the other hand, when a negative result is obtained in step S34 and step S35, the process of step S36 is skipped and the process proceeds to step S37.
In step S37, it is determined whether or not all analysis processing of print data to be printed has been completed. If all analysis processing has not been completed, processing returns to step S33 and processing is performed. When all the analysis processes are completed, the process proceeds to step S38, where a hint screen is generated based on the page information of the corrected portion held in the RAM 13 and the detailed information on the correction contents, and the hint screen is displayed in the subsequent step S39. The display control for displaying on the screen of the apparatus 4 is performed, and the process ends. As a result, only the hint of the condition desired by the user can be displayed on the hint screen.
In this embodiment, the configuration of the print control apparatus suitable for the printing system, the print control method, and the specific processing procedure by the program have been described. However, this is merely an example, and the print control apparatus of the present invention The configuration, the print control method, and the program are not limited to the above examples.

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a host computer of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating functions of a printer driver of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is the figure which showed an example of the hint screen displayed on a display apparatus. 5 is a flowchart showing processing operations of a printer driver of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a flowchart showing processing operations of a printer driver of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is the figure which showed an example of the hint condition selection screen displayed on a display apparatus. 5 is a flowchart showing processing operations of a printer driver of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of symbols

  1 printing system, 2 host computer, 3 input device, 3a keyboard, 3b mouse, 4 display device, 5 printer driver, 6 printer, 10 bus, 11 CPU, 12 ROM, 13 RAM, 14 modem, 15 HDD, 16 drive device , 21 Data storage block, 22 PDL conversion block, 23 Data analysis block, 24 Hint screen generation block, 25 Display control block

Claims (6)

In the print control device that controls the printing device,
When the input print data is printed by the printing apparatus, an analysis is made as to whether or not the resolution of an image included in the print data is equal to or lower than a predetermined resolution, and the font used for printing is a device font. Data analysis means for analyzing whether or not,
A hint condition setting screen generating means for generating a hint condition setting screen for setting whether or not to display a hint screen related to print quality, and a hint condition setting screen for setting whether or not to display a hint screen related to printing speed; and ,
Based on the setting of the hint condition setting screen, a hint screen generating means for generating a hint screen according to the analysis result of the data analyzing means,
Display control means for performing display control for displaying the hint screen on a display device;
A printing control apparatus comprising: When the hint condition setting screen is set to display a hint screen related to the print quality, the hint screen generation unit is configured to display an image included in the print data according to an analysis result of the data analysis unit. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a hint screen in which the resolution of the image is lower than a predetermined resolution or a hint screen in which a font used for printing is a device font is generated. When the hint condition setting screen is set to display a hint screen related to the printing speed, the hint screen generation unit is configured to display an image included in the print data according to an analysis result of the data analysis unit. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a hint screen in which the resolution of the image is higher than a predetermined resolution or a hint screen in which a font used for printing is not a device font is generated.   In a print control method for controlling a printing apparatus,
  When the input print data is printed by the printing apparatus, an analysis is made as to whether or not the resolution of an image included in the print data is equal to or lower than a predetermined resolution, and the font used for printing is a device font. Analyzing whether or not,
  Generating a hint condition setting screen for setting whether to display a hint screen related to print quality, and a hint condition setting screen for setting whether to display a hint screen related to printing speed;
  Generating a hint screen according to the analysis result based on the setting of the hint condition setting screen;
  Performing display control for displaying the hint screen on a display device;
A printing control method characterized by comprising: If the hint condition setting screen is set to display a hint screen related to the print quality, a hint screen that the resolution of the image included in the print data is lower than a predetermined resolution according to the analysis result, The print control method according to claim 4, further comprising: generating a hint screen indicating that a font used for printing is a device font. When the hint condition setting screen is set to display a hint screen related to the printing speed, a hint screen that the resolution of the image included in the print data is higher than a predetermined resolution according to the analysis result, The print control method according to claim 4, wherein a hint screen in which a font used for printing is not a device font is generated.

Images