JP5549880B2 - Printer driver selection program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for restricting printing of data to be printed.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image processing system that displays a list of image processing devices and allows a user to select one of the image processing devices, for an image processing device having a data protection function, a key mark indicating data protection function and data There is known a technique for displaying a security level that expresses the strength for protecting the image with numerals (for example, see Patent Document 1).

JP 2004-264889 A

  However, in the conventional image processing system, the user himself / herself determines whether the data is to be protected and what security level is to be used when the data is protected. Had to choose. In other words, the conventional image processing system does not add data protection or security level to the data itself.

  In the present specification, a technique is disclosed in which, when printing data to which printing restriction information indicating a form for restricting printing is added, an appropriate printer driver can be selected according to the added printing restriction information.

  The printer driver selection program disclosed in this specification is a printer driver selection program executed by an information processing apparatus in which one or more printer drivers are installed, and print restriction information indicating a form for restricting printing is added. The restriction information acquisition process for acquiring the printing restriction information from the print target data that has been performed, and the printing restriction information acquired by the restriction information acquisition process from among the printer drivers installed in the information processing apparatus A list-up process for listing printer drivers having a function for restricting printing in the above-described form, and a printer driver used for printing the data to be printed are selected from among the printer drivers listed in the list-up process. Driver selection processing, and To be executed by the processor.

  Further, according to the printer driver selection program disclosed in this specification, the print target data is composed of one or more objects, and the print restriction information is added to each object. Causes the information processing apparatus to execute an object selection process that causes the user to select the object to be printed from among the objects that constitute the print target data, and is selected in the list selection process by the object selection process. A printer driver having a function of restricting printing in the form indicated by the print restriction information added to the object is listed.

  Further, according to the printer driver selection program disclosed in this specification, the print target data is composed of one or more objects, and the print restriction information is added to each object. In the list-up process, a printer driver having a function of restricting printing for all the forms among the one or more forms indicated by the print restriction information added to each object, and one or more of them A printer driver having a function of restricting printing only for some of the forms is listed, and a printer driver having a function of restricting printing for all the forms in the driver selection process, and the one A function that restricts printing only for the And a printer driver to be identifiably displayed on the display device the information processing apparatus.

  In addition, the printer driver selection program disclosed in the present specification can be used in the driver selection process when a plurality of printer drivers having a function of restricting printing only for a part of the forms are listed in the list processing. The plurality of listed printer drivers are displayed side by side in descending order of the number of objects that can be restricted from printing.

  Further, the printer driver selection program disclosed in the present specification causes the information processing apparatus to execute an output process of outputting a print command of the print target data to the printer driver selected in the driver selection process, and the driver selection When a printer driver having a function of restricting printing only for the part of the forms is selected in the process, the print restriction information indicating the form in which the selected printer driver cannot restrict printing in the output process. The print command is output so that the added object is invisible.

  Further, the printer driver selection program disclosed in this specification can be executed by the selected printer driver when a printer driver having a function of restricting printing only for the partial form is selected in the driver selection process. The information processing apparatus is caused to execute guidance processing for guiding the object to which the printing restriction information indicating the form in which printing cannot be restricted is added to a user.

  The printer driver selection program disclosed in this specification is such that the information processing apparatus is communicably connected to an external server via an electric communication line, and the printer driver selection program includes the list-up program. In the process, at least one of the forms indicated by the print restriction information transmitted by the transmission process from the server, the transmission process transmitting all the print restriction information added to the print target data to the server A reception process for receiving a list of printer drivers having a function of restricting printing for some of the forms, and causing the information processing apparatus to execute the reception process from among the printer drivers installed in the information processing apparatus Restore the printer driver included in the list received during processing We are backing up.

  Also, the printer driver selection program disclosed in the present specification may be configured such that, in the list-up process, the print target is printed in a printing system that prints by limiting the printing in the form in which the print target data is added to the print target data. If a printer driver having a print request function for requesting data printing is installed in the information processing apparatus, the printer driver is also listed.

According to the device control program described above, the user selects a printer driver to be used for printing the print target data from among the listed printer drivers, so that the user can select an appropriate one according to the print restriction information added to the print target data. The printer driver can be selected. The present invention can be realized in various modes such as a printer driver selection program, a printer driver selection device, a printer driver selection method, and a recording medium on which the printer driver selection program is recorded.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a simplified electrical configuration of the PC according to the first embodiment. The schematic diagram which shows an example of an electronic magazine viewer. A table showing an example of a print license. The schematic diagram which shows the data structure for 1 page of an electronic magazine. The flowchart which shows the flow of the printing process of the electronic magazine by a viewer. The schematic diagram which shows an example of a driver selection screen. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a print preview image. The flowchart which shows the flow of a reply process. The flowchart (first half) which shows the flow of a printing process. The flowchart (latter half) which shows the flow of a printing process. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a PC and a printing system according to a second embodiment. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of viewer print processing. 5 is a flowchart showing a process flow of a convenience store printer driver. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of printing processing according to the third embodiment.

<Embodiment 1>
A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
(1) Electrical Configuration of PC FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a simplified electrical configuration of a personal computer 1 (an example of an information processing apparatus) according to the first embodiment. The personal computer (PC) 1 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, a display unit 14, an operation unit 15, a network interface 16 (NW I / F), a storage unit 17, and the like.

  The CPU 11 controls each unit of the PC 1 by executing various programs stored in the ROM 12 and the storage unit 17. The ROM 12 stores various programs executed by the CPU 11 and data. The RAM 13 is used as a main storage device for the CPU 11 to execute various processes.

The display unit 14 includes a display device such as a CRT or a liquid crystal display, a drive circuit that drives the display device, and the like.
The operation unit 15 includes a pointing device such as a mouse, a keyboard, and the like.
The network interface 16 is communicably connected to an external device via a communication network 3 (an example of a telecommunication line) such as a LAN or the Internet.

  The storage unit 17 is a device that stores various programs and data using a nonvolatile memory such as a hard disk or a flash memory. The storage unit 17 stores an operating system (OS) 21, an electronic magazine viewer 22 (an example of a printer driver selection program), an electronic magazine 23 (an example of print target data), and the like. One or more printer drivers 24 are installed in the storage unit 17.

In the present embodiment, the WINDOWS (registered trademark) of Microsoft Corporation will be described as an example of the OS 21. The OS 21 is not limited to WINDOWS (registered trademark).
Programs such as the electronic magazine viewer 22 and the printer driver 24 are connected to an external server (a server of a publisher that publishes an electronic magazine 23 described later, a server of a service company that provides a printing service described later, and the printer 2 via the communication network 3. From the manufacturer's server).

(2) Printers The plurality of printers 2 (printers 2a to 2d) are devices that form an image on a recording medium such as paper by an electrophotographic method, an inkjet method, or the like. The plurality of printers may be different models or the same model. In the following description, the printer 2 is simply one of the printers 2a to 2d.

(3) Printer Driver In the plurality of printer drivers 24, different printers 2 are set as “printers to be used”. The CPU 11 that executes each printer driver 24 controls the printer 2 that is set as “printer to be used” by the printer driver 24 that is executing the printer driver 24 to execute printing.
Note that the same printer may be set as a “printer to be used” in different printer drivers 24.

(4) Electronic Magazine FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of the electronic magazine viewer 22 in a state where the electronic magazine 23 is displayed. Publishers who publish the electronic magazine 23 are provided with articles and advertisements (hereinafter simply referred to as “articles”) from various providers, and the electronic magazine 23 is created by the publisher allocating these articles on the page. The
A print license (an example of “print restriction information”) indicating a form for restricting printing can be added to each article.

FIG. 3 is a table showing an example of a print license that can be added to an article.
For example, “billing” is a print license indicating a form in which printing is permitted on condition that a printing fee is paid.
“One Time” is a print license indicating that printing is permitted only once.

“Monochrome Only” is a print license indicating that printing is permitted on the condition of monochrome printing.
“Watermark” is a print license indicating that printing is permitted on condition that a predetermined watermark image (watermark) is synthesized and printed on an article. As the watermark, an image or the like representing the characters “copy prohibited” can be used. The watermark may be added to the electronic magazine 23 as image data, or an address of a server for downloading the watermark may be added to the electronic magazine 23.

  “Data spool prohibition” is a print license indicating that printing is permitted on condition that the print command is not held in the print spooler after printing. Here, the print spooler refers to a queue that temporarily holds a print command output from the printer driver 24. The print spooler can continue to hold the print command for reprinting after outputting the print command to the printer 2. By prohibiting this data spooling, it is possible to prevent the print command from being copied in a situation that is not managed by the electronic magazine viewer 22 or the printer driver 24.

  As shown in the figure, there are other print licenses, but description of other print licenses is omitted here.

  Since the electronic magazine 23 according to the first embodiment can add a print license for each article, even an article on the same page can be printed in a different form for each article.

Each printer driver 24 installed in the PC 1 does not necessarily have a function of restricting printing in a form indicated by the print license for all print licenses.
Further, for example, a certain printer driver 24 has a function of restricting printing only for any three printing licenses, and another printer driver has a function of restricting printing only for any one printing license. For example, the printer driver 24 has a function for restricting printing.

If a printer driver 24 that does not have a function for restricting printing in the form indicated by the print license set in the article is selected, the printer driver 24 cannot restrict printing according to the print license, and the article Printing is performed regardless of whether the set print license is satisfied.
However, as will be described in detail later, in the present embodiment, for an article for which a print license for which the selected printer driver 24 cannot restrict printing is set, the article is not printed against the print license. Therefore, the electronic magazine viewer 22 processes the article invisible.

(5) Data structure of electronic magazine FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the data structure of one page of the electronic magazine 23. In the illustrated example, a case where a page is described in a markup language such as XML (Extensible Markup Language) is shown.

In the figure, “Article” to “/ Article” represent one article.
“Title” is a line in which the title of the article is described.
“Page” is a line in which the page number of the page to which the article is assigned is described.

“Position” is a line describing the coordinates of the four corners of the rectangular area to which the article is assigned.
“Type” is a line in which the data format of the article is described. For example, “TEXT” is described in the case of characters, and “RASTER” is described in the case of images.
“Font” is a line in which the font name of the character font is described.

“Print restriction” is a line in which a print license is described. A plurality of print licenses can be added to one article. For example, when both “One Time” and “Monochrome Only” are added, “Print restriction” is described for each.
“Data” is a line describing a character (an example of an object) or an image (an example of an object) displayed as an article.

(6) Printing Electronic Magazine The user instructs the printer 2 to display the electronic magazine 23 being browsed by instructing printing using a menu displayed by the CPU 11 that executes the electronic magazine viewer 22 (hereinafter simply referred to as “viewer 22”). Can be printed.
The printing of the electronic magazine 23 can be performed on all pages or can be performed on a page basis. It is also possible to select a part of articles in one page with the mouse (an example of object selection processing) and print only the selected article.

  For ease of understanding, it is assumed here that only one page is printed. Printing the entire page is called whole printing, and printing only a part of articles within the one page. This is called partial printing.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of printing processing of the electronic magazine 23 by the viewer 22. This process is started when the user selects full printing or partial printing with the viewer 22 and instructs printing.
In S101, the viewer 22 determines whether full printing or partial printing has been selected. If full printing has been selected, the process proceeds to S102, and if partial printing has been selected, the process proceeds to S103.

In S102, the viewer 22 acquires print licenses from all articles in the page to be printed (an example of restriction information acquisition processing), and creates a list of acquired print licenses.
In S103, the viewer 22 acquires a print license from each of the articles in the page to be printed selected by the user (an example of a restriction information acquisition process), and creates a list of acquired print licenses.

  In S <b> 104, the viewer 22 requests each printer driver 24 installed in the PC 1 to return print capability information (hereinafter referred to as “Print capabilities”) indicating the function of the printer driver 24. Each printer driver 24 that has requested “Print Capabilities” returns its “Print Capabilities” to the viewer 22.

  It is assumed that “Print Capabilities” according to the present embodiment includes information indicating a form in which the printer driver 24 can restrict printing. For example, if a certain printer driver 24 can restrict printing in the form of “One Time” and the form of “billing”, the “Print capabilities” of the printer driver 24 includes “One Time” as information on a function for restricting printing. ”And“ billing ”.

  In S105, the viewer 22 compares the list of print licenses created in S102 or S103 with the “Print Capabilities” returned from each printer driver 24, and determines all print licenses included in the list of print licenses. List of printer drivers 24 that can restrict printing in the form indicated by the print license (in other words, printer drivers 24 having a function that restricts printing in the form indicated by the print license) (an example of the listing process) ).

For example, if “One Time” and “Monochrome Only” are included in the list of print licenses, a printer driver in which both “One Time” and “Monochrome Only” are included in “Print Capabilities”. List 24.
For convenience, in the following description, the printer driver 24 listed in S105 is referred to as “group A printer driver 24”.

In S106, the viewer 22 displays a driver selection screen described below on the display unit 14, and displays a list of driver names of the printer drivers 24 (group A printer drivers 24) listed in S105 on the driver selection screen ( An example of driver selection processing).
FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a driver selection screen. The driver selection screen 31 is a screen for allowing the user to select the printer driver 24. In the illustrated example, the driver name of the B group printer driver 24 and the driver name of the C group printer driver 24 described later are also shown. The viewer 22 displays a list of driver names of the group A printer drivers 24, for example, in yellow characters.

  In S107, the viewer 22 compares the list of print licenses created in S102 or S103 with “Print Capabilities” returned from each printer driver 24, and out of all the print licenses included in the list of print licenses. For a part of the print licenses, the printer driver 24 that can restrict printing in a form indicated by the print license is listed (an example of a list-up process).

For example, if “One Time” and “Monochrome Only” are included in the list of print licenses, a printer that includes “One Time” but does not include “Monochrome Only” in “Print Capabilities”. The driver 24 and the printer driver 24 that does not include “One Time” but includes “Monochrome Only” are listed.
For convenience, in the following description, the printer driver 24 listed in S107 is referred to as “group B printer driver 24”.

In S108, as shown in FIG. 6, the viewer 22 displays the driver name of the printer driver 24 (group B printer driver 24) listed in step S107 in black characters below the driver name of the group A printer driver 24. To display a list (an example of driver selection processing).
In this display, when a plurality of group B printer drivers 24 are listed, the viewer 22 uses the driver names of the listed printer drivers 24 as the printer driver having a large number of articles that can restrict printing. They are displayed side by side from the top in the order of 24.

  For example, it is assumed that one printer driver 24 has only a function for restricting printing in the form of “One Time”, and another printer driver 24 has only a function for restricting printing in the form of “Monochrome Only”. . Then, it is assumed that the page to be printed has three articles with a print license “One Time” and one article with a print license “Monochrome Only”.

  In this case, the number of articles that the printer driver 24 that can restrict printing in the form of “One Time” can restrict printing is 3, and the article that the printer driver 24 that can restrict printing in the form of “Monochrome Only” can restrict printing. Therefore, the driver name of the printer driver 24 capable of restricting printing in the form of “One Time” is displayed above the driver name of the printer driver 24 capable of restricting printing in the form of “Monochrome Only”.

In S109, as shown in FIG. 6, the viewer 22 displays the driver names of the remaining printer drivers 24 installed in the PC 1 in gray letters under the driver names of the B group printer drivers 24 in an unselectable manner. To do.
For convenience, in the following description, the remaining printer drivers 24 installed in the PC 1 are referred to as “group C printer drivers 24”.

In S110, the viewer 22 waits until the printer driver 24 is selected on the driver selection screen 31.
In S111, the viewer 22 determines whether the selected printer driver 24 is the A group printer driver 24 or the B group printer driver 24. If the selected printer driver 24 is the B group, the process proceeds to S112. Advances to S115.

In S112, the viewer 22 displays a print preview image of the page to be printed (an example of guidance processing).
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram conceptually illustrating an example of a print preview image. The viewer 22 generates a print preview image so that an article to which a print license indicating a form in which the printer driver 24 selected by the user cannot restrict printing is added becomes invisible.

  For example, if “One Time” and “Monochrome Only” are included in the list of print licenses, printing can be restricted in the form of “One Time”, but printing can be restricted in the form of “Monochrome Only”. Assume that a printer driver 24 that cannot be used is selected.

  In that case, the viewer 22 makes the content of the article to which the print license indicating the form of “Monochrome Only” is added invisible and generates a print preview image.

  As a method of making an article invisible, for example, when the data format of the article is “TEXT”, all characters may be replaced with “*”, and when the data format is “RASTER”, the same as the original article The image may be replaced with an image filled with black in size (or an image representing a message indicating that printing cannot be restricted in the form indicated by the print license attached to the article).

  The print preview image indicates whether the selected printer driver 24 can restrict printing in the form indicated by the print license attached to which article, and cannot indicate the print restriction in the form indicated by the print license attached to which article. This is an image for the user to check before printing, and does not necessarily represent the printing result. That is, the print preview image and the print result can be different.

  The user can select whether to execute printing or cancel printing by looking at the displayed print preview image.

In S113, the viewer 22 proceeds to S114 when the user selects execution of printing, and ends the process when canceling printing is selected.
In S <b> 114, the viewer 22 processes the article so that the article for which the selected printer driver 24 cannot restrict printing becomes invisible (an example of output processing). Specifically, for example, the viewer 22 processes the article so that an article that cannot be printed is blank-printed.
In S115, the viewer 22 outputs the page to be printed as a print command to the selected printer driver 24 (an example of output processing).

(7) Processing of Printer Driver 24 Here, a Print Capabilities return process executed when a reply of “Print Capabilities” is requested from the viewer 22 in S104 described above, and a print command is output from the viewer 22 in S115 described above. The printing process that is executed when it is performed will be described.
Here, description will be made assuming that the printer driver 24 having the function of restricting printing is selected for the four forms of “billing”, “One Time”, “watermark”, and “data spool prohibition”.

(7-1) Print Capabilities Reply Processing The contents of “Print Capabilities” sent back from the printer driver 24 to the viewer 22 are the cases where the PC 1 can communicate with an external device via the communication network 3 and cannot communicate (for example, And when not connected to the communication network 3).
The reason is that when the PC 1 cannot communicate with an external device, the transfer process (S303) for transferring the printing fee to the publisher (or the article provider) cannot be executed via the communication network 3. This is because information indicating that the function of restricting printing in the form of “charging” is not included in “Print Capabilities”.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of a reply process of the printer driver 24 having a function of restricting printing for four forms of “billing”, “One Time”, “watermark”, and “data spool prohibition”. .
In step S201, the printer driver 24 determines whether the PC 1 can communicate with an external device. If communication is possible, the process proceeds to step S202. If communication is not possible, the process proceeds to step S203.
In S <b> 202, the printer driver 24 returns “Print Capabilities” including information indicating that the printer driver 24 has a function of restricting printing in the form of “charging” to the viewer 22. That is, “billing”, “One Time”, “watermark”, and “data spool prohibition” are returned as “Print Capabilities”.

  In step S <b> 203, the printer driver 24 returns “Print Capabilities” that does not include information indicating that it has a function of restricting printing in a form of “charging” to the viewer 22. That is, “One Time”, “Watermark”, and “Data Spool Prohibition” are returned as “Print Capabilities”.

(7-2) Print Processing FIGS. 9 and 10 are flowcharts showing the flow of print processing. This process is started when a page to be printed is output as a print command from the viewer 22 to the printer driver 24. Here, the printer driver 24 will be described as having the function of restricting printing in four forms of “billing”, “One Time”, “watermark”, and “data spool prohibition”.
Here, the printer driver 24 may be selected as the A group printer driver 24 or may be selected as the B group printer driver 24. The same processing is executed when the printer driver 24 is selected as any group of printer drivers 24.

In step S <b> 301, the printer driver 24 acquires one article from the print target page output from the viewer 22.
In S302, the printer driver 24 determines whether or not a print license “charging” has been added to the article acquired in S301. If it has been added, the process proceeds to S303, and if not, the process proceeds to S304.

In step S <b> 303, the printer driver 24 executes a transfer process for transferring the print price of the acquired article to the bank account of the publisher (or article provider) via the communication network 3.
In S304, the printer driver 24 determines whether or not a print license “One Time” is added to the acquired article. If it has been added, the process proceeds to S305. If not, the process proceeds to S307.

In step S305, the printer driver 24 determines whether the acquired article has been printed.
This determination can be made by various methods. For example, information indicating “unprinted” is added to an article of the original electronic magazine 23 (an article with “One Time” added), and the printer driver 24 prints the information after printing. It may be rewritten to “printed”. In this way, it is possible to determine whether or not printing has been completed by referring to the information. The information may be encrypted so that it cannot be manually rewritten by the user, and may not be printed if the encrypted information is invalid.
The printer driver 24 proceeds to S306 if the acquired article is “printed”, and proceeds to S307 if it is “unprinted”.

In S306, the printer driver 24 makes the acquired article invisible (blank printing).
Here, when a print license “One Time” is added to the article, the printer driver 24 has a function of restricting printing in the form of “One Time”, so that the article can be visually recognized in the print preview image. Is displayed. However, if the article has already been printed, the result is printed invisible (blank printing). As described above, even if the print preview image is visible, the print result may not be visible.

In step S307, the printer driver 24 determines whether a print license “watermark” is added to the acquired article. If the print license is added, the process proceeds to step S308. If not, the process proceeds to step S309.
In step S308, the printer driver 24 adds a watermark designated by the print license to the acquired article. Specifically, the printer driver 24 synthesizes the acquired image representing the article and the image representing the watermark so that the watermark is displayed so as to cover the article.

In step S309, the printer driver 24 determines whether a print license “data spool prohibited” is added to the acquired article. If the print license has been added, the process proceeds to step S310. If not, the process proceeds to step S311.
In step S310, the printer driver 24 performs setting so that the print command is not held in the print spooler even after printing.

In step S <b> 311, the printer driver 24 generates a print command for printing the acquired article (a composite image obtained by combining an image representing an article and a watermark image when a “watermark” is added to the article).
In step S312, the printer driver 24 determines whether or not all articles have been acquired. If all articles have been acquired, the process proceeds to step S313. If there are articles that have not yet been acquired, acquisition of all articles ends. The process returns to S301 until the process is repeated.

  In step S313, the printer driver 24 outputs the generated print command to the print spooler. The output print command is transmitted from the print spooler to the printer 2.

  If the print command is set not to be held in the print spooler in S310, the printer driver 24 instructs the print spooler to delete the print command after the print command is transmitted to the printer 2.

(8) Effects of the Embodiment According to the electronic magazine viewer 22 according to the first embodiment of the present invention described above, the printer driver 24 installed in the PC 1 indicates the print license attached to the electronic magazine 23. The printer driver 24 capable of restricting printing in a form is listed, and the user selects a printer driver 24 to be used for printing the electronic magazine 23 from the listed printer drivers 24. Thus, the user can select an appropriate printer driver 24 (printer driver 24 that can restrict printing in the form indicated by the print license attached to the electronic magazine 23) according to the print license attached to the electronic magazine 23. .

  Further, according to the electronic magazine viewer 22, when the user selects partial printing, a printer driver 24 having a function of restricting printing in a form indicated by a printing license added to the selected article is listed. As a result, the user can select an appropriate printer driver 24 according to the print license added to the selected article (printer driver 24 having a function of restricting printing in the form indicated by the print license added to the selected article). Can be selected.

  Furthermore, according to the electronic magazine viewer 22, the printer driver 24 (group A) capable of restricting printing for all forms and the printer driver 24 (group B) capable of restricting printing for only some forms are displayed in different colors. Therefore, the user can identify the A group printer driver 24 and the B group printer driver 24.

Here, when the printer driver 24 (group A) capable of restricting printing for all forms is installed, the printer driver 24 (group B) capable of restricting printing only for some forms is not necessarily displayed. Good.
However, if the printer driver 24 (group A) capable of restricting printing for all forms is not installed, the printer driver 24 (group B) capable of restricting printing only for some forms is installed. The user may tentatively want to print using the printer driver 24.
According to the electronic magazine viewer 22, the B group printer driver 24 is also displayed, so that the user can print using the B group printer driver 24 when the A group printer driver 24 is not installed.

  Furthermore, according to the electronic magazine viewer 22, the group B printer drivers 24 are displayed side by side in descending order of the number of articles whose printing can be restricted, so that the user can select an appropriate printer driver 24 (a printer that can restrict printing of more articles). Driver 24) can be selected more easily

  Further, according to the electronic magazine viewer 22, the electronic magazine 23 is processed and output to the printer driver 24 so that an article to which a printing license indicating a form in which printing cannot be restricted by the selected printer driver 24 is added becomes invisible. . As a result, the printer driver 24 only generates a print command in accordance with the output electronic magazine 23, so that an article to which a print license indicating a form in which the printer driver 24 cannot restrict printing is not printed. it can.

  Furthermore, the electronic magazine viewer 22 displays a print preview image in which an article to which a print license indicating a form in which printing cannot be restricted by the selected printer driver 24 is added is invisible, so that the user can select the printer driver 24 selected by the user. Can be confirmed before printing an article to which a printing license indicating a form in which printing cannot be restricted, that is, an article that is printed blank.

<Embodiment 2>
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
In the second embodiment, a printer driver 24 having a function (print request function) for requesting printing of an electronic magazine 23 to a printing system that restricts printing in a form indicated by a print license attached to the electronic magazine 23. If it is installed in the PC 1, its printer driver 24 is also listed.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of the PC 1 and the printing system 50. The PC 1 according to the second embodiment is connected to the printing system 50 via the Internet 51 so as to be communicable.
The printing system 50 is a system that provides a service for printing the electronic magazine 23, and includes a cloud server 50a and a plurality of printers 50b.

The cloud server 50a has a function of restricting printing in the form indicated by the print license for all the print licenses shown in FIG.
Each of the plurality of printers 50b is installed in a store such as a convenience store. The user can request the cloud server 50a to print the electronic magazine 23 on the home PC 1 and receive the print result at the store.

  The printer driver 24 having the print request function (hereinafter referred to as “convenience printer driver 24”) has the above-described “print request function” when a reply of “Print Capabilities” is requested from the viewer according to the second embodiment. “Print Capabilities” including the indicated information is returned to the viewer.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of the printing process of the viewer according to the second embodiment. Here, processes substantially the same as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.
In S401, the viewer refers to “Print Capabilities” returned from each printer driver 24, and lists the printer drivers 24 (convenience printer driver 24) having the “print request function”.

In S <b> 402, the viewer displays a list of driver names of the convenience printer driver 24 listed in S <b> 401 in green letters under the driver name of the A group printer driver 24.
In step S403, the viewer displays a list of driver names of the printer driver 24 (group B printer driver 24) listed in step S107 in black characters under the driver name of the convenience store printer driver 24.
The processing after S403 is the same as the flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the processing flow of the convenience store printer driver 24.
In step S <b> 501, the convenience store printer driver 24 displays a print request screen for allowing the user to input various information such as the name of the user and a store that receives the print result, and causes the user to input information.

In S502, the convenience store printer driver 24 inquires of the user whether or not to agree to the billing. This inquiry is not made if the page to be printed does not contain an article to which a print license “charging” is added.
In step S503, the convenience store printer driver 24 proceeds to step S504 if the user agrees to the billing, and ends the process if the user does not agree to the billing.

In S504, the convenience store printer driver 24 sends the information input by the user and the print target page to the cloud server 50a to request printing (an example of print request processing).
In S505, the cloud server 50a generates a print command for printing the cover page. The cover page is printed with information such as the name of the user who requested printing, the date and time when printing was requested, the price, and the name of the store receiving the printing result.

  In S506, the cloud server 50a generates a print command for each article included in the received page so that printing is restricted in a form indicated by the print license attached to the article. The generation of the print command is substantially the same as that of the first embodiment, but the cloud server 50a is different from the first embodiment in that printing can be limited in a form indicated by the print license for all print licenses.

In S507, the cloud server 50a transmits the print command for printing the cover page and the print command generated in S506 to the printer 50b installed in the store designated as the store that receives the print result.
In step S508, the printer 50b installed in the designated store (hereinafter referred to as “printer 50b”) prints an image on a recording medium in accordance with the received print command.
The user then goes to the store, pays the printing fee and receives the printing result.

In step S509, the printer 50b notifies the cloud server 50a that the printing fee has been received from the user.
In S <b> 510, the cloud server 50 a executes a transfer process in which the amount obtained by removing the printing fee from the received printing fee is transferred to the bank account of the publisher (or article provider).

According to the electronic magazine viewer according to the second embodiment of the present invention described above, even if the printer driver 24 itself cannot restrict printing in the form indicated by the print license, by sending the electronic magazine 23 to the printing system 50, As a result, it is possible to print the electronic magazine 23 in a form indicated by the print license with limited printing.
That is, it can be said that the printer driver 24 that requests the printing system 50 to print the electronic magazine 23 is one of the appropriate printer drivers 24.

<Embodiment 3>
Next, Embodiment 3 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
In the third embodiment, a list of printer drivers 24 having a function of restricting printing in a form indicated by a print license added to a page to be printed is received from an external server, and the printer driver 24 installed in the PC 1 is used. The printer driver 24 included in the list received from the server is listed.
It is assumed that the server stores a driver name of the printer driver 24 and a print license indicating a form in which the printer driver 24 has a function of restricting printing in association with each other.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of printing processing according to the third embodiment. Here, processes substantially the same as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted. In the printing process according to the third embodiment, the processes of S101 to S103 are executed before S601, but these processes are omitted in FIG.

In step S601, the viewer transmits all print licenses added to the page to be printed to the server (an example of transmission processing). Note that the page to be printed may be transmitted to the server as it is.
In step S602, the server generates a list of driver names of the printer driver 24 having a function of restricting printing for all the transmitted print licenses, and transmits the generated list to the PC 1. PC1 receives the transmitted list (an example of reception processing)
In step S <b> 603, the viewer lists the printer driver 24 having the driver name included in the list received in step S <b> 602 among the printer drivers 24 installed in the PC 1.

In step S <b> 604, the server generates a list of driver names of the printer driver 24 having a function of restricting printing only for some print licenses out of all the transmitted print licenses, and transmits the generated list to the PC 1. The PC 1 receives the transmitted list (an example of reception processing).
In step S605, the viewer lists the printer driver 24 having the driver name included in the list received in step S604 from the printer drivers 24 installed in the PC 1.
The processing after S605 is the same as the processing after S108 in FIG.

  According to the electronic magazine viewer according to the third embodiment of the present invention described above, a printer driver having a function of restricting printing of at least some of the forms indicated by all print licenses attached to the electronic magazine 23. A list of 24 is received from the server. Thereby, the following effects can be produced.

  For example, when requesting the printer driver 24 to return a “Print Capabilities”, the printer driver 24 must have a function of returning “Print Capabilities” in response to a request from the electronic magazine viewer. For this reason, when a printer driver 24 that has a function of restricting printing but does not have a function of returning “Print Capabilities” is installed, the printer driver 24 may not be listed. There is sex.

  According to the electronic magazine viewer according to the third embodiment, a list of printer drivers 24 having a function of restricting printing of at least some of the forms indicated by the print license added to the electronic magazine 23 is received from the server. Therefore, it is possible to list printer drivers 24 that do not have a function of returning “Print Capabilities”.

<Other embodiments>
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described with reference to the above description and drawings. For example, the following embodiments are also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

  (1) Although the case where a print license can be added in units of articles (objects) has been described as an example in the above embodiment, the unit for adding a print license can be selected as appropriate. For example, it may be added in units of chapters, may be added in units of pages, or may be added in units of the electronic magazine 23.

  (2) In the above embodiment, an example has been described in which an article to which a print license indicating a form in which printing cannot be restricted in displaying a print preview image is made invisible by making it invisible, but for example, printing is restricted Identification may be made possible by displaying a mark indicating that on an article to which a print license indicating an incapable form has been added.

(3) Although the electronic magazine viewer has been described as an example of the printer driver selection program in the above embodiment, the printer driver selection program may be a program added as an add-on to the viewer that browses the electronic magazine 23.
In that case, when the user selects full print / partial print in the viewer and instructs printing, the printer driver selection program is called, and the called printer driver selection program lists the printer driver 24 and allows the user to select it. The viewer may output the electronic magazine 23 to the selected printer driver 24.

(4) In the above embodiment, the case where the electronic magazine viewer 22 processes an article to which the selected printer driver 24 has added a print license indicating that printing cannot be restricted has been described as an example. If the article 22 does not have a function for processing an article invisibly, the printer driver 24 determines whether the article satisfies the print license for an article to which a print license indicating a form in which printing cannot be restricted is added. It is desirable to avoid printing.
For example, a print license “One Time” is set for an article, the printer driver 24 does not have a function of restricting printing in the form of “One Time”, and the electronic magazine viewer 22 makes the article invisible. If the printer driver 24 does not have a function to process, it is desirable that the printer driver 24 should not print even if the article is not printed. Thereby, it is possible to prevent the article from being printed against the print license.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Personal computer 2 (2a-2d) ... Printer 3 ... Communication network 11 ... CPU
12 ... ROM
13 ... RAM
14 ... Display unit 15 ... Operation unit 16 ... Network interface 17 ... Storage unit 22 ... Electronic magazine viewer 23 ... Electronic magazine 24 ... Printer driver 31 ... Driver selection screen 50 ... Printing system 50a ... Cloud server 50b ... Printer 51 ... Internet

Claims (7)

A printer driver selection program executed by an information processing apparatus in which one or more printer drivers are installed,
Restriction information acquisition processing for acquiring the print restriction information from print target data to which print restriction information indicating a form for restricting printing is added;
A listing process for listing printer drivers having a function of restricting printing in the form indicated by the printing restriction information acquired in the restriction information obtaining process from among printer drivers installed in the information processing apparatus; ,
A driver selection process for allowing a user to select a printer driver used for printing the print target data from among the printer drivers listed in the list-up process;
Is executed by the information processing apparatus,
The print target data is composed of one or more objects, and the print restriction information is added to each object.
The printer driver selection program is
In the list-up process, a printer driver having a function of restricting printing of all the forms among the one or more forms indicated by the print restriction information added to each object, and the one or more forms A printer driver having a function of restricting printing only for some of the above-described forms,
In the driver selection process, a display driver included in the information processing apparatus includes a printer driver having a function of restricting printing for all the forms and a printer driver having a function of restricting printing for only some of the forms. Printer driver selection program that displays in an identifiable manner . A printer driver selection program according to claim 1,
To execute the object selecting process of selecting the user the object to be printed from among the objects constituting the previous SL-printed data to the information processing apparatus,
In the list-up process, a printer driver selection program for listing a printer driver having a function of restricting printing in the form indicated by the print restriction information added to the object selected in the object selection process. A printer driver selection program according to claim 1 or 2 ,
When a plurality of printer drivers having a function of restricting printing for only a part of the forms are listed in the list-up process, printing is restricted for the plurality of printer drivers listed in the driver selection process. A printer driver selection program that displays the objects arranged in order from the largest number. A printer driver selection program according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Causing the information processing apparatus to execute an output process for outputting a print command of the print target data to the printer driver selected in the driver selection process;
When a printer driver having a function of restricting printing only for the part of the form is selected in the driver selecting process, the printing indicating the form in which printing cannot be restricted by the selected printer driver in the output process. A printer driver selection program for outputting the print command so that the object to which restriction information is added becomes invisible. A printer driver selection program according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
When a printer driver having a function of restricting printing for only some of the forms is selected in the driver selection process, the print restriction information indicating the form that cannot be restricted by the selected printer driver is added. A printer driver selection program that causes the information processing apparatus to execute guidance processing for guiding a user to the object. A printer driver selection program according to any one of claims 1 to 5 ,
The information processing apparatus is communicably connected to an external server via an electric communication line,
In the listing process, the printer driver selection program
A transmission process for transmitting all the print restriction information added to the print target data to the server;
A receiving process for receiving, from the server, a list of printer drivers having a function of restricting printing of at least some of the forms indicated by the print restriction information transmitted by the transmission process;
A printer driver selection program that lists the printer drivers included in the list received in the reception process from among the printer drivers installed in the information processing apparatus. A printer driver selection program according to any one of claims 1 to 6 ,
In the list-up process, a printer driver having a print request function for requesting printing of the print target data to a print system that restricts printing in the form in which the print target data is added to the print target data. A printer driver selection program that, when installed in the information processing apparatus, also lists the printer driver.

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