JPH08207382A - Printing system, printer, printing method and information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To eliminate the necessity of selecting a sheet size by a user or correcting a font size or a layout and to improve the operability by responding to the sheet size by sheet size responding means in the case of request, and printing data from print means on the sheet of the selected size. CONSTITUTION: A central processing unit 22 refers to a header of print data stored in a memory 25, and acquires detailed information of a font used for the data from an operating system. Then, the lengths of the lateral and the vertical of a printing part necessary in the actual case of printing, i.e., the print size is calculated from the value of a font attribute and the obtained detailed information of the font, and a message for inquiring the present used size is transmitted to a printer side system. Subsequently, whether the information of all the printer sheets is acquired or not is discriminated. When the information is acquired, the smallest sheet and a printer 29 having the sheet are decided from the sheet data stored in the memory 25 when the information is acquired, and the printing is started.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing system in a personal computer (PC) or workstation (WS) connected to a network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of printing system, the user has adjusted the font size in the screen or changed the layout of the screen according to the size of the paper to be printed.

[0003]

However, since there are no different types and sizes of fonts on the screen, it is necessary to change the font size according to the paper after changing the layout of the screen after selecting an appropriate paper size. Was a troublesome operation for the user.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a printing system which can improve the operability of the user.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, a printing system according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises an information processing device and a printing device, and prints data sent from the information processing device by the printing. In the printing system in which the apparatus prints, the information processing apparatus includes a data storage unit that stores edited data, a font attribute storage unit that editably stores a font attribute according to the stored data, and the storage unit. Print size calculation means for calculating a print size in accordance with the generated data and font attributes, paper size request means for requesting a plurality of paper sizes to the printing device, and in response to the request based on the calculated print size. Selecting means for selecting the obtained paper size, and a sending hand for sending the data to the printing device having the selected paper size And a printing means for printing the sent data on a paper of the selected paper size, the printing device responding to the request with the paper size to the information processing device. With.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing device for printing data sent from an information processing device, a request judging means for judging a request sent from the information processing device, and a request judging means for judging the request. A paper size response unit that responds with a paper size is provided, and a printing unit that prints data received following the determined request.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing method in which data sent from an information processing device via a communication means is printed by the printing device.
Storing the edited data, editing the font attribute according to the stored data, storing the edited font attribute, calculating the print size according to the stored data and font attribute, The plurality of printing devices are requested to acquire a plurality of paper sizes via a communication unit, and the printing device responds to the information processing device with the paper sizes in response to the request to acquire the paper sizes. The processing device selects the paper size obtained from the response from the calculated print size, sends the data to the printing device having the selected paper size, and the printing device sends the sent data. Is printed on the paper of the selected paper size.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing device for transmitting data to a printing device via a communication device to print the data, and a data storage device for storing edited data, and the stored data. A font attribute editing means for editing the font attribute according to the above, a font attribute storing means for storing the edited font attribute, and a print size calculating means for calculating a print size according to the stored data and the font attribute. A paper size requesting means for requesting the plurality of printing devices to acquire a plurality of paper sizes via the communication means; a selecting means for selecting the acquired paper size from the calculated print sizes; And a sending unit that sends the data to the printing apparatus having the specified paper size.

[0009]

In the printing system according to the first aspect of the present invention, when the printing device prints the data sent from the information processing device, the information processing device stores the data edited by the data storage means. Then, the font attribute storage unit editably stores the font attribute corresponding to the stored data, and the print size calculation unit calculates the print size according to the stored data and font attribute, and the paper size request unit. Request a plurality of paper sizes to the printing device, select the paper size acquired in response to the request based on the print size calculated by the selecting means, and have the selected paper size by the sending means. The data is sent to the printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus sets the paper size in response to the request by a paper size response unit. In response to the serial information processing apparatus to print the delivery data by the printing unit on a sheet of the selected paper size.

[0010]

EXAMPLE An example of the printing system of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an information processing system to which the printing system of the embodiment is applied. The information processing system is composed of a PC / WS side system and a printer side system.

The PC / WS system has a display device 20,
Input device 21, central processing unit 22, network means 2
3, an external storage device 24 and a memory 25. The printer side system includes a memory 26 and a network unit 2.
7. It has a central processing unit 28 and a printing unit 29. P
The C / WS side system and the printer side system are connected via network means 23 and 27.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing the screen display and the printing result in the printing system. In the figure, the display device 20
A print result 32 is shown in which a document created in an area having a size of H1 in the vertical direction and L1 in the horizontal direction is printed on the printer paper of H2 in the horizontal direction and L2 in a horizontal direction to include all the contents. .

FIG. 3 shows a memory 25 or an external storage device 24.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a data format of data stored in the. The data format 41 includes a header portion 42, a text portion 43 and a font attribute portion 44. The header section 42 has a file name of a file stored in the external storage device 24, a screen size, N font names and numbers used in the file, and the end of the header. The text portion 43 has a text character string and a text end stored in the file.

The font attribute section 44 has attribute data corresponding to text characters. In the attribute data, a 1-byte font name number and a 1-byte font size, which is a total of 2 bytes, correspond to 1 byte of normal text.
The control data and 2 bytes of data having no meaning at the end of the text are added to the attribute data. In this way, the font attribute section 44 uniquely determines the font name and font size for all text data.

FIG. 4 shows a printer paper data format 5
It is explanatory drawing which shows 1. The printer paper data format 51 stores, in the memory 25, information about printers that can be printed by a PC / WS system connected to the network.
This is the format for storing in. The sheet number is a number for recognizing a plurality of sheets that can be printed in the same printer. The horizontal and vertical lengths are stored as the size of the paper.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a format of a message performed between the PC / WS side system and the printer side system. Format 61 of the message requested from the PC / WS side system to the printer side system
Consists of request type, printer number and request data. Request types include "print" and "get paper size"
There is. The printer number is a number that uniquely identifies the printer on the network. The request data indicates “paper number” and “print data” when the request type is “print”.

The format 62 of the message returned from the printer side system to the PC / WS side system is composed of the type of response, the printer number and the response data. The type of response includes “paper size response”. The printer number is a number that uniquely identifies the printer connected on the network. The response data indicates “paper number” and “paper size”.

Next, the operation of the printing system of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an edit area creation processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system. First, the user inputs the input device 21
Is used to create a work area of the designated size on the screen (step S701). Data corresponding to the work area, that is, the header portion 42, the text portion 43, and the font attribute portion 44 are created in the memory 25 (step S702).
This routine ends.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing a file open processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system. First, the external storage device 2
The corresponding data from the files stored in No. 4, namely the header section 42, the text section 43 and the font attribute section 4
4 is read and stored in the memory 25 (step S80
1). According to the read memory contents, the data is displayed on the edit screen in the display device 20 and the process ends (step S802).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a file storage processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system. The central processing unit 22 stores the header section 42, the text section 43, and the font attribute section 44 in the memory 25 in the corresponding file in the external storage device 24 (step S901), and ends the process.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the input / deletion / insertion processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system. First, the edit screen of the display device 20 is drawn again with the font designated according to the processing input using the input device 21 (step S110).
1), the text portion 43 in the memory 25 is edited (step S1102), the font attribute portion 44 in the memory 25 is edited (step S1103), and this routine ends.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a font change processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system. The central processing unit 22 draws the edit screen in the display screen 20 again with the selected font (step S1101). It is determined whether or not the selected font is registered in the header section 42 in the data of the memory 25 (step S1102). When it is determined that the font name is not registered, the font name is registered (step S
1103) The process moves to step S1104. If it has been registered, the font attribute portion 44 in the data of the memory 25 is edited (step S1104), and this routine ends.

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing printer-side processing executed by the central processing unit 28 of the printer-side system. The central processing unit 28 receives the request from the PC / WS side system through the network means 27 (step S1201). When the request content is determined (step S1202) and the request content is “print processing”,
The sheet number and print data are received and stored in the memory 26 (step S1203). Subsequently, the data in the memory 26 is printed by the printing device 29 (step S120).
4). The data in the memory 26 is erased (step S1
205) This routine ends.

On the other hand, when the request content is "acquire paper size" in step S1202, the current paper size of the printing device 29 is acquired (step S1206), and the paper size is transmitted to the PC through the network means 27. In response to the / WS side system (step S1207), this routine ends.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart showing a print processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system. The central processing unit 22 refers to the header portion 42 of the print data stored in the memory 25, and acquires detailed information of the font used in the print data from the operating system or font subsystem (step S101). The detailed font information is the actual (physical) size in the vertical and horizontal directions with respect to the logical size of the font.

The value of the font attribute section 44 and step S10
The horizontal and vertical lengths of the print portion necessary for actually printing the data, that is, the print size is calculated from the detailed font information acquired in step 1 (step S102). A message asking the printer system for the current paper size is transmitted to the printer system via the network means 27 (step S103), and a message notifying the paper size is received from the printer system via the network means 23 (step S104).

The data is converted into the printer paper data format 51 and stored in the memory 25 (step S105). It is determined whether or not the information of all the printer papers has been acquired (step S106), and the smallest paper from the paper data stored in the memory 25 at the time of acquisition and the printer 29 (printer) having the paper are determined. Determine (Step S
107). Here, the smallest sheet is determined based on the area of the sheet by calculating the product of the horizontal and vertical directions. If there are multiple sheets of the same size, select the one found first. The network means 2 while referring to the contents of the font attribute
Data and font attributes are transmitted to the printer system selected in step S107 through step 3 (step S107).
108) This routine is finished.

In this embodiment, the smallest paper is determined based on the area, but a paper having a shorter length in either length or width may be regarded as the smallest paper. At this time, when there are a plurality of sheets of the same length, the area may be further examined, or the sheet found first may be selected.

[0029]

According to the printing system of the first aspect of the present invention, when the data sent from the information processing device is printed by the printing device, the information processing device edits the data by the data storage means. The stored data, the font attribute storage means editably stores the font attribute corresponding to the stored data, and the print size calculation means calculates the print size according to the stored data and font attribute, The paper size requesting unit requests a plurality of paper sizes to the printing device, the selecting unit selects the paper size acquired in response to the request based on the calculated print size, and the sending unit selects the selected paper size. The data is sent to the printer having a paper size, and the printer responds to the request by the paper size response unit. Since the size of the information is sent to the information processing apparatus and the printing unit prints the transmitted data on the paper of the selected paper size, the user may bother to select the paper size or to change the font size and the font size according to the paper size. It is not necessary to modify the layout, etc., and user operability can be improved.

According to the printing apparatus of the second aspect, in the printing apparatus for printing the data sent from the information processing apparatus, the request judging means for judging the request sent from the information processing apparatus, and the judgment. Since the paper size response means for responding the paper size in response to the request and the printing means for printing the data received following the judged request are provided, the operability for the user can be improved.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the printing method in which the printing device prints the data sent from the information processing device through the communication means, the information processing device stores the edited data. A font attribute is edited according to the stored data, the edited font attribute is stored, a print size is calculated according to the stored data and font attribute, and a plurality of print sizes are calculated via the communication means. Request the printing device to acquire multiple paper sizes,
The printing device responds to the request for acquisition of the paper size,
Responding the paper size to the information processing device, the information processing device selects the paper size acquired by the response from the calculated print size, and causes the printing device having the selected paper size to perform Since the data is sent and the printing device prints the sent data on the paper of the selected paper size, the operability for the user can be improved.

According to the information processing apparatus of the fourth aspect, in the information processing apparatus for sending the data to the printing apparatus via the communication means to print the data, the data storage section for storing the edited data and the stored data are stored. Font attribute editing means for editing the font attribute according to the stored data, font attribute storage means for storing the edited font attribute, and print size calculation for calculating the print size according to the stored data and font attribute Means, a paper size requesting means for requesting the plurality of printing devices to acquire a plurality of paper sizes via the communication means, and a selecting means for selecting the acquired paper size from the calculated print size, The operability for the user can be improved by including the sending unit that sends the data to the printing apparatus having the selected paper size.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information processing system to which a printing system according to an embodiment is applied.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a screen display and a printing result in the printing system.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a data format of data stored in a memory 25 or an external storage device 24.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a printer paper data format 51.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a format of a message performed between the PC / WS side system and the printer side system.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an edit area creation processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a file open processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a file storage processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an input / deletion / insertion processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing a font change processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing printer-side processing executed by the central processing unit of the printer-side system.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing a print processing routine executed by the central processing unit 22 of the PC / WS side system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 21 Input Device 22, 28 Central Processing Unit 23, 27 Network Means 24 External Storage Device 25, 26 Memory 29 Printing Device 44 Font Attribute Section

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A printing system comprising an information processing device and a printing device, wherein the printing device prints data sent from the information processing device, wherein the information processing device stores data that has been edited. A font attribute storage unit that editably stores a font attribute corresponding to the stored data; a print size calculation unit that calculates a print size according to the stored data and font attribute; Paper size requesting means for requesting a plurality of paper sizes, selecting means for selecting the paper size acquired in response to the request based on the calculated print size, and the printing device having the selected paper size And a sending unit for sending the data to the printing device, wherein the printing device processes the paper size in response to the request. Printing system comprising: the paper size response means responsive to the location, and printing means for printing the sent data on paper of the selected paper size. 2. A printing device for printing data sent from an information processing device, and a request judging means for judging a request sent from the information processing device, and a paper size response in response to the judged request. A printing apparatus comprising: a paper size response unit; and a printing unit that prints data received following the determined request. 3. A printing method for printing data sent from an information processing device via a communication means by a printing device, wherein the information processing device stores edited data, and stores the edited data in accordance with the stored data. A font attribute is edited, the edited font attribute is stored, a print size is calculated according to the stored data and the font attribute, and a plurality of paper sizes of a plurality of paper sizes are stored in a plurality of printing devices via the communication unit. Requesting acquisition, the printing device, in response to the request for acquisition of the paper size,
Responding the paper size to the information processing apparatus, the information processing apparatus selects the paper size acquired by the response from the calculated print size, and causes the printing apparatus having the selected paper size to A printing method, wherein data is transmitted, and the printing device prints the transmitted data on a sheet of the selected sheet size. 4. An information processing apparatus for transmitting data to a printing apparatus via a communication means for printing, and a data storage means for storing edited data, and a font attribute is edited according to the stored data. A font attribute editing means, a font attribute storing means for storing the edited font attribute, a print size calculating means for calculating a print size according to the stored data and the font attribute, and a plurality of print size calculating means via the communication means. Paper size requesting means for requesting the printing apparatus to acquire a plurality of paper sizes, selecting means for selecting the acquired paper size from the calculated print sizes, and the printing having the selected paper size An information processing apparatus comprising: a sending unit that sends the data to the apparatus.