JPH10329382A - Information-processing apparatus, printing system, printing apparatus, and method for controlling them - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To set a method for effectively simplifying setting related to a printing control, particularly a printing control method proper to a selected paper size, by managing the paper size together with data showing characteristics, nature of papers. SOLUTION: In an information-processing apparatus for providing print data to a connected printing apparatus, a paper size management data stores a paper size and at least one printing control state correspondingly to each other. When the paper size for printing is designated, the printing control state corresponding to the designated paper size is obtained from the paper size management data, so that printing control information is generated (steps S7-S9). The print data including the thus-generated printing control information are transmitted to the printing apparatus.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a printing system, a printing apparatus, and a control method thereof. In particular, the present invention relates to a printing system that prints print data existing in a host computer or the like by an output device such as a printer, an information processing device, a printing device, and a control method thereof in the system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a printing system including a host computer and a printer, print information is output to a printer by a printer driver executed by a CPU of the host computer. In such a printing system, when rendering data is to be output by a printer, a printer driver that sends an output control command to the printer displays a dialog or the like before the application outputs the rendering data and prints the paper to be printed. The user sets the size, print job, printer operation control method, and the like.

[0003] Regarding the setting of the paper size, the printer driver performs A / B output that can be performed by a printer that performs print control.
In general, a standard paper size of a series paper is displayed on a screen as a menu item, and the user is allowed to select one.
For paper of a non-standard size and not prepared in the printer driver in advance, a new paper size is registered in the printer driver as user-defined paper. In this case, the user inputs the vertical and horizontal sizes of the paper into a dialog provided by the printer driver, and registers these as a user-defined paper size.

[0004] Regarding the setting of a print job, the dialog has setting items relating to a range of page numbers to be printed, the number of copies, and the like, and allows the user to select or input numerical values. Regarding the operation control method of the printer,
In the dialog, setting items such as print quality and paper feeding method are displayed, and the user is allowed to make a selection.

[0005] In particular, in a printer that supports cut paper and continuous paper as a type of paper as a recording medium, the paper feeding method for feeding paper is either cut paper or continuous paper. Because of the mechanical differences, a paper feed mechanism and a paper feed mechanism for each paper type are provided. Therefore, in such a printer, the printing paper must be set in a different paper feed port when printing on cut paper and when printing on continuous paper. In addition, since the paper feed mechanism and the paper feed mechanism are physically different, the printer must recognize whether to perform printing on cut paper or continuous paper before printing before printing.
For this reason, a printer driver executed on the host computer to control the printer issues a print control command for distinguishing a paper feeding method to the printer.

In a printer driver for controlling a printer, a menu for selecting a paper feeding method is provided in a dialog.
Let the user choose. The printer driver transmits a command relating to the specification of the paper feeding method to the printer based on the result of the selection of this menu. That is, if the cut sheet feeding method is selected in the menu, a command for feeding paper from the sheet feeder, which is a cut sheet feeding device, is sent to the printer, and the continuous sheet feeding method is set. If it is selected, a command for feeding paper from a tractor, which is a continuous paper feeding device, is transmitted to the printer.

[0007]

As described above, in the conventional printer driver, the user selects the sheet feeder or the tractor from the menu relating to the paper feeding method of the printer, and switches the paper feeding command to be sent to the printing apparatus.
Therefore, when printing on cut paper or continuous paper of a certain size, it is necessary for the user to select an appropriate paper size and an appropriate paper feeding method using a dialog of the printer driver. In other words, according to the paper size menu,
When a cut sheet such as A4 or A5 is selected, the sheet feeder, which is the cut sheet feeding method, must be selected in the sheet feeding method menu. Also, when a continuous paper of, for example, 15 × 11 inches is selected from the paper size menu, the tractor must be selected as the paper feeding method in the paper feeding method menu of the printer driver. That is, since the user is required to individually set the paper size and the operation control method suitable for the paper size, the operation becomes complicated.
Further, for example, an erroneous setting such as setting only the paper size and forgetting to set the paper feeding method is likely to occur.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide an information processing apparatus, a printing system, a printing apparatus, and a method of controlling the information processing apparatus, which effectively and easily makes settings relating to print control. And

In particular, by managing the paper size together with data representing the characteristics and properties of the paper, it is possible to set an appropriate print control method for the selected paper size, thereby effectively preventing erroneous operations by the user. The purpose is to:

[0010]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus for providing print data to a connected printing apparatus. A storage unit that stores the print control form in association with the storage unit, a designation unit that designates a paper size for printing, and a print control form corresponding to the paper size designated by the designation unit is obtained from the storage unit. The printing apparatus includes: a generating unit that generates print control information; and a transmitting unit that transmits printing data including the generated print control information to the printing apparatus.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing system, comprising: an information processing apparatus configured as described above; and a print processing apparatus connected to the information processing apparatus, receiving print data transmitted by the transmitting unit, and performing printing processing. And a printing device for performing the following.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus that stores a sheet size and at least one print control form in association with each other, and a designation unit that designates a sheet size for printing. Generating means for obtaining print control form corresponding to the paper size specified by the specifying means from the storage means and generating print control information; printing means for performing printing based on print data; and the printing means And control means for determining a control mode of the printing means based on the print control information generated by the generating means when printing the print data by the printing means.

Further, a method for controlling an information processing apparatus according to the present invention, which achieves the above object, is an information processing method for providing print data to a connected printing apparatus. A designation step of designating a size and a print control form corresponding to the paper size designated by the designation step are obtained from storage means for storing the paper size and at least one print control form in association with each other; And a transmission step of transmitting print data including the generated print control information to the printing apparatus.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a printing apparatus, comprising the steps of: specifying a paper size for printing; and a print control mode corresponding to the paper size specified by the specifying process. A generating step of generating print control information obtained from a storage unit that stores a sheet size and at least one print control form in association with each other, a printing step of performing printing based on print data, A control step of determining a control mode of the printing step based on the print control information generated in the generation step when printing the printing data.

[0015]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, HC is a host computer,
Printing devices PR1 and PR2 are connected via a communication bus 7 such as Ethernet or SCSI. The printing devices PR1 and PR2 are connected to the printer controller 8,
An engine 9 (for example, a laser printer engine or an inkjet engine) is provided, and outputs images, characters, graphics, and the like to recording media of various sizes. The printing devices PR1 and PR2 have a function of performing printing on cut paper and printing on continuous paper, and include a paper feeding mechanism for cut paper, a paper feeding mechanism, a paper feeding mechanism for continuous paper, and paper. It has a feed mechanism, and receives a designation of which paper to print on from a printer driver described later as a command.

In the host computer HC, 1 is C
In the PU, the system operation is controlled by an operating system (OS) stored in the ROM 2. Reference numeral 4 denotes a display unit which performs various displays on a CRT or LCD under the control of the CPU 1. 5 is an input unit, which is a CPU
Various inputs to 1 are made. In the host computer HC as described above, the CPU 1 executes various application programs read from a not-shown FD drive, HD drive, or the like, and printer drivers (print control programs) corresponding to the printing devices RP1 and PR2, and the application programs Printer PR based on printer driver based on output information created based on printer driver
CPU 1 converts the print control commands into print control commands corresponding to PR1 and PR2, and outputs the print control commands to the respective printing devices PR1 and PR2.

The printer driver executed by the CPU 1 of the host computer HC displays a dialog shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. The printer driver performs setting of a print range, control of a print job, and generation of a control command for a printing apparatus according to the setting states of the items in these dialogs. Usually, the CP of the host computer HC
Before printing, the application executed by U1
A function for displaying these dialogs of the printer driver is called via S, and the user sets a print job and control conditions of the printing apparatus using the dialogs. After that, a function of the printer driver for executing printing is called.

FIG. 2 shows print control variables managed by the printer driver. These print control variables are stored in the RAM 3 as a temporary storage device on the host computer, and save the setting values and the like in the dialog of the printer driver. The printer driver refers to the print control variable when performing a print job or when generating a control command for the printing apparatus. In this way, the contents set by the user using the dialog are reflected in the print control. In Figure 2, for example, paperSiz
In e10, a constant corresponding to the paper size to be printed is set. This serves as a reference for referring to the paper size selected in the paper size menu of the paper setting dialog described below.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a display example of a paper setting dialog. Using the paper setting dialog, the user performs settings related to the print range such as the paper size. Reference numeral 13 denotes a paper menu for making a selection based on the paper size, and the printer driver controls a printing range according to the paper selected in the paper menu. Reference numeral 14 denotes a paper type menu for selecting the type of paper, and selects the type of paper to be printed from plain paper, coated paper, OHP film, or the like. In response to this menu, the printer driver notifies the printing device of the type of print medium as a command. Reference numeral 15 denotes an enlargement / reduction ratio setting field, and the printer driver controls the enlargement / reduction ratio of the drawing data according to the input value. Reference numerals 16 and 17 denote printing direction setting icons. The printer driver controls the printing direction according to the selected icon. Then, the printer driver displays a diagram showing the relationship between the paper size, the printing direction, and the image in the area 18.

FIG. 4 is a view showing a paper size selection menu. The paper menu 13 has selection items as shown in FIG. 4, for example. In this figure, from "A2" to "postcard side"
Is the standard paper size of the cut paper supported by the printing apparatus. “Continuous paper 15 × 11in” to “Continuous paper 10
Up to × 12 in ”is a standard paper size of continuous paper supported by the printing apparatus. In addition, from "user-defined paper 1" to "user-defined paper 3", the user can select a paper size other than the standard paper size.

When a user-defined paper size is selected in the paper menu 13, the printer driver enables a paper design button 21 in the dialog shown in FIG. When the paper design button 21 is pressed (generally, a click operation using a pointing device), the printer driver displays a dialog shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a view showing a display example of the paper design dialog. Through this dialog, the user registers a paper size other than the standard size in the printer driver.

In FIG. 5, the printer driver registers the text entered in the paper name 22 in the internal data as the name of the paper size to be defined. In response to the operation of the button 23 or the button 24, the printer driver controls a unit system (mm or inch) for inputting the paper size. The printer driver registers the vertical and horizontal dimensions of the paper size according to the input values in boxes 27 and 28. Reference numeral 29 denotes a printer driver that calculates and displays a margin size in consideration of the printing range of the printing apparatus from the input vertical and horizontal dimensions of the paper. After performing the above settings, click the registration button 3
When 0 is pressed, the dialog is closed, and the paper size is registered in the position of the item of the paper size menu (one of the user-defined papers 1 to 3) selected before opening this dialog. When the cancel button 31 is pressed, the printer driver closes the paper design dialog and invalidates the registration regarding the paper size.

FIG. 6 shows the data structure of the paper size management data used by the printer driver to manage the paper size. The name 32 indicates the name of the paper size, and stores the name of the paper size as shown in FIG. A default33 is a flag indicating whether the paper size is the default paper size of the printer driver. paperLeft34, paperTop35, paperRight3
6. The paperBottom 37 represents the coordinates of the paper size in pixel units. pageLeft38, pageTop39, pageRight
Reference numeral 40 and pageBottom 41 represent the print area by coordinate values in pixel units. width42 is the width of the paper, hei
The ght 43 indicates the height of the sheet, and corresponds to the numerical values set in the boxes 27 and 28 in FIG. Of course, if the size is a standard size such as “A4”, a value defined by the standard is stored. unit44 represents the unit of width42 and height43,
FIG. 5 corresponds to the one selected by the buttons 25 and 26. The type 45 is a variable indicating the type or characteristic of the sheet. In the present embodiment, a flag indicating whether the sheet is a cut sheet or a continuous sheet is stored. In FIG. 5, the flag is set or reset in accordance with the paper feed mode selected by the buttons 23 and 24. In the case of a standard size such as “A4”, cut paper is set by default, and in the case of “continuous paper 15 × 11 in”, continuous paper is set by default.

The printer driver manages the paper size with the data structure shown in FIG. 6 as described above. In particular, the printer driver treats the types of cut paper and continuous paper as follows. "A2" on the menu in Fig. 4 to "Postcard side"
Is a cut sheet, a flag representing the cut sheet is set in the type 45 field of the sheet size management data. In the menu of FIG.
Since "11 in" to "10 x 12 in continuous paper" is continuous paper, a flag indicating continuous paper is set in the type45 field. Regarding “user-defined paper 1” to “user-defined paper 3” in the menu of FIG. 4, the flag of the field of type 45 is set based on the information selected by the user with the button 23 or 24 in the dialog of FIG.

As described above, the paper size information and the information of the paper type such as cut paper or continuous paper are managed in association with each other, and the paper sizes are displayed as a list on the paper menu 13 to be selected by the user.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the control procedure of the printer driver regarding the paper setting dialog.
With this control procedure, the printer driver automatically sets an appropriate paper feeding method for the paper size selected by the user.

First, in step S1, an original copy of the print control variables of FIG. 2 managed by the printer driver for print control is created. Next, in step S2,
Each item is set with reference to the print control variables in FIG. 2, and the paper setting dialog in FIG. 3 is displayed. Step S3, S
In step 4, it is checked whether the cancel button 20 or the OK button 19 of the dialog has been pressed. When these buttons are not pressed, the user is setting each item of the dialog, and the display of the items of the dialog is controlled in step S5 according to the input by the user. Then, the contents set in step S6 are saved in a copy of the print control variables created in step S1.

On the other hand, when the cancel button 20 is pressed, the process proceeds from step S3 to step S11, and the dialog is closed. At this time, the value set in the dialog becomes invalid.

When the OK button 19 is pressed, the process proceeds from step S4 to step S7. In step S7, the value of the type45 field of the paper size management data (FIG. 6) corresponding to the paper size selected in the dialog is checked to determine whether the paper is a cut paper or a continuous paper. In the case of a cut sheet, the process proceeds to step S8, and the paper feed method field of the print control variable (paperLoad12 in FIG. 2).
Field) is set to the auto sheet feeder. On the other hand, if it is determined that the paper is continuous paper, the process proceeds to step S9, and the paper feed method field (paperLoa
d12) is set to the tractor.

Subsequently, in step S10, the setting values of the dialog are reflected on the original print control variables. In step S11, the paper setting dialog is closed.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a display example of a print dialog displayed by the printer driver. The printer driver controls the number of copies according to the input value in the box 46 of the dialog. When the all pages button 47 is selected, the printer driver prints all pages of the document. When the button 48 is selected, the printer driver prints the range of the first page and the last page number specified in the boxes 49 and 50. The printer driver controls the print quality of the printing apparatus according to the image quality set in the image quality menu 51. In accordance with the color type set in the color type menu 52, the printer driver controls whether to perform monochrome printing or color printing. In accordance with the paper feeding method set in the paper feeding method menu 53, the printer driver controls a paper feeding method command to be sent to the printing apparatus.
In accordance with the output destination set in the output destination menu 54, the printer driver controls whether to output the data of the application to the printing apparatus, perform printing, output to a file, or display as a preview. Color button 57
When the user presses the button, the printer driver displays a dialog for performing detailed settings relating to color processing.

When the cancel button 56 is pressed, the printer driver invalidates the settings of the dialog and closes the dialog. When the print button 55 is pressed, the printer driver validates the settings of the dialog and closes the dialog. At this time, the printer driver updates the values of the print control variables of FIG. 2 managed by itself according to the settings in the dialog.

FIG. 9 is a view showing a menu item display example of the paper feeding method menu shown in FIG. Item. In the figure, the auto sheet feeder is checked, indicating that the auto sheet feeder is selected as the current setting.

When manual feed is selected in the paper feeding method menu, the printer driver sets the cut paper to one.
The printing device is controlled so that pages can be inserted into the paper feed port of the printing device one by one and printed manually. When the tractor is selected, the printer driver specifies the tractor with a paper supply designation command of the printing apparatus in order to perform printing by attaching continuous paper to the tractor of the printing apparatus. Further, when the auto sheet feeder is selected, the printer driver designates the auto sheet feeder by a sheet feeding designation command of the printing apparatus so that the cut sheet is automatically fed and printed by the sheet feeder of the printing apparatus.

As described above, in this dialog, the user needs to appropriately select the paper feeding method menu in consideration of the paper feeding method performed by the printing apparatus according to the properties of the paper to be printed. However, such an operation is very troublesome, and is likely to cause a situation in which the user forgets to set.

Here, the relationship between the selection of the paper size menu in the paper setting dialog and the paper feeding method menu in the print dialog will be described. First, in the paper setting dialog, as described in the flowchart of FIG. 7, depending on whether the paper size selected in the paper size menu is for cut paper or continuous paper, the print control variable The paper feeding method (paperLoad) is set. Then, when opening the print dialog, each item value of the dialog is initialized by referring to this print control variable, so that the appropriate paper feeding method is set with the initial value according to the currently selected paper size. Become. That is, when the paper size of the cut paper is selected, the auto sheet feeder is selected as the paper feeding method, and when the paper size for continuous paper is selected, the tractor is selected.

As described above, the printer driver sets an appropriate paper feeding method for the paper size and presents it to the user as a set value of the paper feeding method menu. This eliminates the need to select a method, and also prevents malfunction due to forgetting to set the paper feeding method.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the printing process by the printer driver. First, in step S12, processing for preparation for printing, such as securing a working memory and initializing variables, is performed. In step S13,
Based on the print control variables, the printer driver generates a setting command for the printing device and issues the command to the printing device. At this time, a paper feed command is also generated according to the paper feed method selected in the print dialog (or the paper feed method set in paper load 12 of the print control variable along with the paper setting in the paper setting dialog). The data is transferred from the printer driver to the printing device. Then, step S1
By the processing after 4, the data of the designated number of pages is printed for the designated number of copies.

First, in step S14, the counter of the number of pages printed of the document is reset. Step S15
To check the value of the page number counter to check whether the print data for all pages has been transferred to the printing apparatus. if,
If the printing process has not been performed for all the pages, the process proceeds to step S16, and the printing process of the page specified by the page number counter is started. In step S16, a copy number counter is initialized. Next, in step S17, the copy number counter is checked to determine whether the drawing data of all the specified copy numbers has been transferred to the printing apparatus. If the data for the designated number of copies has not yet been sent to the printing apparatus, the drawing data is converted into a command for the printing apparatus in step S18, and sent to the printing apparatus in step S19. In step S20, the copy counter is incremented, and the process returns to step S17.

If it is determined in step S17 that the data of all the number of copies has been sent to the printing apparatus, the process proceeds to step S17.
At 21, the page number counter is incremented, and the process returns to step S15. If the print data for all pages has been sent to the printing apparatus in step S15, the process proceeds to step S22. In step S22, the printer driver performs print end processing such as work memory release processing, and the print processing ends.

As described above, according to each of the above-described embodiments, the user is forced to select the correct paper feeding method in accordance with the paper size selected in the paper size in the dialog of the printer driver. The problem is solved. That is, when a sheet of a certain size is selected in the sheet size menu, it is possible to set a sheet feeding method suitable for the sheet size in the internal processing of the printer driver, and the setting of the sheet feeding method is simplified, In addition, the tractor is selected by the paper feeding method even though the cut paper is selected by the paper size, or the sheet feeder is selected by the paper feeding method even though the continuous paper is selected by the paper size. An erroneous operation such as erroneous operation is prevented.

<Second Embodiment> The first embodiment focuses on the paper size and the form of the paper related to the paper size, that is, whether the paper is a cut paper or a continuous paper, and selects an appropriate paper feeding method for the printing apparatus. Is set. However, the present invention can also be applied to a case where the paper size is closely related to the type and properties of the paper and the control of the printing apparatus is required accordingly. For example, in the case of a printing apparatus capable of printing on a postcard, the control of the initial drawing amount of the paper into the paper feeding mechanism and the discharge of ink are controlled by other papers such as plain paper due to the thickness of the paper as the postcard. May need to be replaced with paper. In the second embodiment, a case will be described in which these print control settings are automatically performed according to the size of paper.

In the first embodiment, it is necessary to control the type of paper using the paper type menu 14 of the paper setting dialog shown in FIG. On the other hand, in the second embodiment, by setting the postcard size using the paper menu 13, "postcard" is automatically set as the paper type.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining a paper type automatic setting procedure according to the second embodiment. In the figure, steps S23, S24, S25, S26,
Steps S27 and S28 are the same as steps S1 to S6 in FIG.

In step S29, it is checked whether the paper size has been changed by the user operating the paper setting dialog. If the paper size has been changed, it is checked in step S30 whether the changed paper size is a postcard. Here, whether or not the paper size is for a postcard is determined by the paper size management data in FIG. 6, as in the first embodiment. Here, type field 45
Is used as a flag indicating “postcard”, and if this bit is set, it is assumed that the postcard size is used. That is, in the paper size menu as shown in FIG. 4, the bits representing the "postcard" of the type field 45 are set for the standard "postcard" and "postcard width". Then, in step S30 of FIG. 11, the “postcard” bit in the type field 45 of the selected paper size is checked to determine whether or not it is a postcard paper size.

If it is determined in step S30 that the selected paper size is a postcard, in step S31 a field representing the paper type of the print control variable (pa in FIG. 2).
A constant representing a postcard is set in perType11). Thereby, when the paper size of the postcard is selected, the trouble of setting the paper type to postcard afterwards can be omitted.

Thereafter, the flow returns to step S25, and the OK button 19 and the cancel button 20 of the paper setting dialog are set.
The processes from S27 to S31 are repeated until is pressed.

When the OK button 19 has been pressed, the flow advances from step S26 to step S32, in which the set values are saved in the original print control variables, and the flow advances to step S33. When the cancel button 20 is pressed, the process proceeds from step S25 to step S33. In step S33, a process of closing the dialog is performed, and the process of the dialog is ended.

As described above, according to the second embodiment,
By specifying the paper size, the properties and the like of the paper are automatically and appropriately set, so that the settings relating to the printing process are simplified.

As described above, according to each of the above embodiments, the paper size and the information representing the characteristics and properties of the paper are managed in association with each other, so that the paper size can be selected in the dialog of the printer driver. This makes it possible to present an appropriate print control method for the paper size that has been set, thereby preventing a user's erroneous operation of performing printing with an inappropriate print control method on paper to be printed.

Further, according to each of the above-described embodiments, it is possible to save the user from having to set the paper size and the printing control method corresponding to the paper size appropriately.

In the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a printer driver in a printing system including a host computer and a printing apparatus has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it is apparent that the present invention is applicable to a case where the paper size and paper feeding method can be set by the printing apparatus itself. Of course, the present invention is also applicable to the case where the setting based on the properties of the paper according to the second embodiment is performed.

Even if the present invention is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus (for example, a copier, a facsimile) composed of one device Device).

Another object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus.
And MPU) read and execute the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided on a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0060]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Settings related to print control are effectively simplified.

In particular, by managing the paper size together with data representing the characteristics and properties of the paper, it becomes possible to automatically set an appropriate print control method for the selected paper size, and thus the user Erroneous operation can be effectively prevented.

[0062]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating print control variables managed by a printer driver.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a paper setting dialog.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a paper size selection menu.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a letter designation of a paper design dialog.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of paper size management data used by the printer driver to manage the paper size.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a control procedure of a printer driver regarding a paper setting dialog.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a print dialog displayed by a printer driver.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a menu item display example of a sheet feeding method menu shown in FIG. 8;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a printing process performed by a printer driver.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart illustrating a paper type automatic setting procedure according to the second embodiment.

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An information processing apparatus for providing print data to a connected printing apparatus, comprising: storage means for storing a paper size and at least one print control form in association with each other; Specifying means for specifying the paper size; generating means for obtaining print control form corresponding to the paper size specified by the specifying means from the storage means to generate print control information; and including the generated print control information. An information processing apparatus comprising: a transmission unit configured to transmit print data to the printing apparatus. 2. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the storage unit stores a paper size and a paper feeding mode corresponding to the paper size, and the print control information generated by the generation unit stores the paper size corresponding to the paper size specified by the specification unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising information for designating a form. 3. The paper feeding mode stored in the storage unit is
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the information is one of a cut sheet feed and a continuous sheet feed. 4. The storage unit stores characteristic information of a sheet corresponding to each sheet size, and the generation unit selects an appropriate print control form based on the characteristic information corresponding to a designated sheet. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein print control information is generated based on the selected print control mode. 5. The display device according to claim 1, wherein the designation unit includes a display unit that displays a dialog box including a selection item for setting a paper size, and an input unit that indicates a selection item in the dialog box displayed by the display unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second display unit that specifies the print control mode specified by the specifying unit in a print control mode setting dialog box. 7. An information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus is connected to the information processing apparatus, receives print data transmitted by the transmission unit, and performs print processing. And a printing apparatus. 8. A storage unit for storing a paper size and at least one print control form in association with each other, a specification unit for specifying a paper size for printing, and a paper size corresponding to the paper size specified by the specification unit. Generating means for obtaining print control form from the storage means and generating print control information; printing means for performing printing based on print data; generating means for printing the print data by the print means; And a control unit for determining a control mode of the printing unit based on the print control information. 9. An information processing method for providing print data to a connected printing apparatus, comprising: a designation step of designating a paper size for printing; and a paper size designated by the designation step. Generating print control information by obtaining a print control form corresponding to the paper size from the storage unit for storing the paper size and at least one print control form in association with each other; A transmission step of transmitting data to the printing apparatus. 10. A designating step of designating a paper size for printing, and a print control form corresponding to the paper size designated by the designating step is stored by associating the paper size with at least one print control form. Generating print control information obtained from a storage unit that performs printing, performing printing based on print data, and printing the print data generated in the generating step when printing the print data in the printing process. A control step of determining a control mode of the printing process based on the information. 11. A storage medium for storing a control program for providing print data to a connected printing apparatus, said control program causing a computer to determine a paper size and at least one print control form. Storage means for storing in association with each other; designation means for designating a paper size for printing; and a print control form corresponding to the paper size designated by the designation means is obtained from the storage means to generate print control information. And a transmission unit for transmitting print data including the generated print control information to the printing apparatus. 12. A storage medium for storing a control program for controlling a printing apparatus, wherein the control program stores a computer in association with a paper size and at least one print control mode. Specifying means for specifying a paper size for printing; generating means for obtaining print control form corresponding to the paper size specified by the specifying means from the storage means to generate print control information; A print unit that performs printing based on the print unit, and a control unit that determines a control mode of the print unit based on print control information generated by the generation unit when printing the print data by the print unit. Storage medium.