JPH0895964A - Printing method for word processor document - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To select any printer suitable for a document printing format without being concious of the hardware specification of a printer in the case of printing a word processor document by registering the printing characteristic information of the printer on a computer and comparing inputted output format information with the printing characteristic information when printing the document. CONSTITUTION: A personal computer 10 and a general-purpose computer 10a are connected by communication control equipment 14 and 14a. Then, the printing characteristic information of printers 15 and 15a connected to the computers 10 and 10a is registered on the personal computer 10, the output format information such as the number of pages to be printed, and the quality and printing cost, etc., of document characters are inputted when printing the document prepared by a word processor, the output format information is compared with the printing characteristic information, and the document is printed by selecting any printer 15 or 15a suitable for the output format information of that document. In this case, when the general-purpose computer 10a is selected, printing processing is performed after document transforming processing is executed to transform the format of the document.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for printing a word processor document in a business of creating a document using a personal computer or a general-purpose computer,
In particular, the present invention relates to a technique effective when applied to a printing method of a word processor document that automatically selects an optimum printing device according to the characteristics of a document to be printed and automatically converts it into a format that can be output by an output destination printing device. Is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method for routinely creating a document with a word processor program on a personal computer, if the number of copies to print the document is small, the document is directly output from a printing device connected to the personal computer. Then, if the number of copies of the document is large, a copy is created based on the printed document.

Alternatively, there is a method of outputting the required number of copies from the printing device over time. With this method, when the number of copies to be printed is small, it is possible to output without problems.

In the method of making a copy when there are a large number of documents, the print quality of the document deteriorates due to the copy.

Further, when printing a larger amount than the printing device connected to the personal computer, the printing time becomes long and the cost required for printing becomes high.

[0006] Conventionally, in order to solve such a problem, measures for improving the performance of the printing apparatus for personal computers, measures for improving the printing quality, etc. have been devised, but the time and cost for printing are contradictory.

Further, there is a problem that the printing can always be output only to the same printing apparatus. In order to avoid such a problem, a method of outputting a document with a printing apparatus for a general-purpose computer is conceivable. To realize it,
The format of a document stored in a personal computer must be converted into a format that can be output to a general-purpose computer printing device.

Conventionally, this document conversion process has been performed by the operator while taking into consideration the difference between the use of the personal computer printing device and the use of the general computer printing device.

After the document format conversion processing, the converted document is transferred from the personal computer to the general-purpose computer and printed.

[0010]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present inventors have found the following problems as a result of examining the above prior art.

In the above-mentioned prior art method, the operator who outputs the document must always know the hardware specifications of the personal computer printing device and the general computer printing device, and therefore the operator is limited. There was a problem that it would end up.

Further, if an error is made in selecting a printing device that outputs a document, a large amount of documents will be output to a printing device with a slow printing speed, and it will take longer than necessary. There is a problem that the quality is output to a printing device and the printing cost is unnecessarily high.

An object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of selecting a printing device suitable for a document printing form when printing a word processor document without paying attention to the hardware specifications of the printing device. Especially.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[0015]

Of the inventions disclosed in the present application, a representative one will be briefly described below.
It is as follows.

In a word processor document printing method for printing a document created by a word processor operating on a computer, print characteristic information of a printing device connected to the computer is registered in the computer, and the document created by the word processor. When printing, the output form information of the document such as the number of prints, the quality of the document characters, and the printing cost is input, the input output form information is compared with the print characteristic information, and the output form information of the document is suitable. Select the printing device that you want to print.

[0017]

According to the above-described means, in a word processor document printing method for printing a document created by a word processor operating on a computer, print characteristic information of a printing device connected to the computer is registered in the computer. When the document created by the word processor is printed, the output form information of the document such as the number of printed sheets, the quality of the document characters, and the printing cost is input, and the input output form information and the print characteristic information are compared, By determining and printing the printing device suitable for the output form information of the document, the creator of the document does not need to select the printing device that outputs the document by himself. Therefore, when printing the word processor document, the printing device It is possible to select a printing device suitable for the document printing mode without being conscious of the hardware specifications of each The ability.

The structure of the present invention will be described below together with embodiments.

In all the drawings for explaining the embodiments, parts having the same function are designated by the same reference numerals, and the repeated description thereof will be omitted.

[0020]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the configurations of a personal computer and a general-purpose computer to which a word processor document printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, 10 is a personal computer, 10a is a general-purpose computer, and 11 and 11a.
Is a CPU, 12 and 12a are storage devices, 13 and 13a are external storage devices, 14 and 14a are communication control devices, and 15 and 15
Reference characters a denote printing devices.

As shown in FIG. 1, the personal computer 10 and the general-purpose computer 10a of this embodiment are connected by communication control devices 14 and 14a.

In this embodiment, the personal computer 10 and the general-purpose computer 10a are connected one by one, but a plurality of printers may be connected to each other, or a plurality of printers may be connected. It does not matter if it is done.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a work flow in a method of printing a word processor document created by a personal computer.

In the method of printing a word processor document according to the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, first, a printing operation for setting printing characteristics peculiar to a printing apparatus, such as printing speed, printing unit price, printing quality, and number of printable sheets, is performed. A characteristic information setting process is performed (step 100), and then a document creation process is performed (step 200).

When printing is performed after the creation,
A printing device determination process for determining which printing device is to be used for printing is performed (step 300), and if the personal computer 10 is selected, the document printing process is performed (step 700), and the general-purpose computer 10a is selected. In this case, a document conversion process of converting the document format is performed (step 400), a document transfer process of transferring the document of which the format is converted from a personal computer to a general-purpose computer (step 500), and a document printing process of printing the document. (Step 600) is performed and the process ends.

Next, the print characteristic information setting process, the printing device determination process, the document conversion process, and the document transfer process in the above-described word processor document printing method of the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First, the print characteristic information setting process will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the work procedure of the print characteristic information setting processing in the word processor document printing method of the present embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a diagram for specifically explaining it.

The print characteristic setting process in this embodiment is performed by the print characteristic information input screen 2 displayed on the CRT device 50 by the program on the personal computer shown in FIG.
0, the keyboard 30 and the mouse 40 are used to input printing characteristic information 60a (printing device name, printing speed, printing unit price, printing quality, number of printable sheets, etc.) which is information relating to printing characteristics of the printing device of the output destination ( Step 101),
It is checked whether or not the input print characteristic information 60a is correctly input (step 102, step 103), and when it is not correct, the input is repeated.

If it is correct, it is stored in the storage device 12 of the personal computer 10 as the print characteristic file 60 (step 104).

Next, the printing device determination process will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the work procedure of the printing device determination process in the word processor document printing method of the present embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a diagram for specifically explaining it.

The printing device determination process in this embodiment is performed by the print information input screen 7 displayed on the CRT device 50 by the program on the personal computer 10 shown in FIG.
0, the print information 80a such as print quality, the number of copies, and the urgency of printing is input by the keyboard 30 and the mouse 40 when printing is performed. The input print information 80
a is stored in the personal computer 10 as the print information file 80 (step 301, step 30).
2).

Then, the above-mentioned print characteristic file 60 stored in advance is read (step 30).
3), the print characteristic file 60 and the print information file 8
The program on the personal computer 10 compares 0 with the following (step 304 to step 31).
0).

It is compared whether or not the designated number of printed sheets is within the range of the highest and lowest number of printed sheets (step 304, step 305).

It is compared whether or not the print request time is within the print required time range (step 306, step 30).
7) It is compared whether the designated print quality is within the print quality range (step 308).

It is compared whether or not the designated printing unit price is within the printing unit price range (steps 309 to 31).
0).

Then, the printing apparatus is determined from the printing characteristic information 60a satisfying all the comparisons in the printing characteristic information file 60 (step 311), and the processing is ended.

Next, the document format conversion process will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the work procedure of the document conversion process in the word processor document printing method of this embodiment, and FIG. 8 is a diagram for specifically explaining it.

First, a print work file is created (step 401). If the selected printing device is other than the personal computer printing device, a print work file is created (step 401) and the created document is created. Is output to a spool (step 402), it is output to a work file (step 403), and the data of the output work file is converted into a bit format (step 40).
4) The compressed bit format data is compressed (step 405), transferred to a general-purpose computer, and then the compression is restored (step 406).

As described above, the post-conversion document 90a in a format in which the pre-conversion document 90 shown in FIG. 8 can be output to the output destination printing apparatus.
Convert to.

In this conversion, the document is divided into a character data section, character modification information (character font, character decoration information, character size) and information such as ruled line information, figures and images, and the print characteristic file 60 is referred to. , Each information is printed in a format that can be printed by the output destination printing device. The conversion of information other than the character data part is performed according to the printing characteristics of the printing device that outputs the document.

Next, the document transfer process will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for specifically explaining the document transfer process in the word processor document printing method of the present embodiment.

The converted document 90a converted by the above-described document conversion process is transferred to the computer to which the output destination printing apparatus is connected by the transfer program together with the print copy number information held in the print information file 80.

The transferred post-conversion document 90a is printed by the printing device by the number of prints required by the output program.

Therefore, as described above, in this embodiment, the creator of the document does not need to select the printing device that outputs the document by himself, and it is not necessary to convert it into a form that can be printed out. Therefore, when printing a word processor document, it is possible to select a printing device suitable for the document printing mode without paying attention to the hardware specifications of the printing device.

In this embodiment, the printing method of the word processor document created on the personal computer is described, but the printing method of the word processor document created on the general purpose computer is the same.

The inventions made by the present inventors are as follows.
Although the present invention has been specifically described based on the above-mentioned embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

[0052]

The effects obtained by the typical ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.

Since the creator of the document does not need to select the printing device that outputs the document by himself and does not need to convert the printing device into a form that can be used for the printing output, when printing the word processor document, the printing device is used. It becomes possible to select a printing apparatus suitable for the document printing mode without paying attention to the hardware specifications of the above.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining configurations of a personal computer and a general-purpose computer to which a word processor document printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a work flow in a method of printing a word processor document created by a personal computer.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a work procedure of print characteristic information setting processing in the word processor document printing method according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for specifically explaining print characteristic information setting processing in the method for printing a word processor document according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a work procedure of a printing apparatus determination process in the word processing document printing method according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for specifically explaining a printing device determination process in the method for printing a word processor document according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a work procedure of a document conversion process in the word processor document printing method according to the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for specifically explaining the document conversion process in the method for printing a word processor document according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for specifically explaining the document transfer process in the method for printing a word processor document according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Personal computer, 20 ... Printing device information input screen, 30 ... Keyboard, 40 ... Mouse, 50 ... CR
T device, 60 ... Print characteristic file, 70 ... Print information input screen, 80 ... Print information file, 90 ... Document before conversion, 9
0a ... Document after conversion.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method for printing a word processor document for printing a document created by a word processor operating on a computer, wherein print characteristic information of a printing device connected to the computer is registered in the computer and created by the word processor. When the printed document is printed, the output form information of the document such as the number of prints, the quality of the document characters, and the printing cost is input, the input output form information is compared with the print characteristic information, and the output form information of the document is input. A method for printing a word processor document, which comprises determining a printing device suitable for printing and printing.