KR100514740B1 - Printer driver capable of printing multiple page numbers and method for printing multiple page numbers - Google Patents

Abstract

There is provided a printer driver that can print multiple page numbers. According to an aspect of the present invention, a printer driver is called by a user interface module for setting a multipage printing environment according to a user input, a printer driving module for performing a print job according to a multipage printing environment, and a printer driving module. A multi-page processing module for processing the pages so that they can be printed on one physical page, and in particular, a multi-page number generation module for generating a page number for each of the plurality of pages processed by the multi-page processing module. It is characterized by including. By the printer driver according to the present invention, by printing the page numbers of the multiple pages output on a single physical page, it is possible to easily grasp in which direction the multiple pages are output, and the readability of the document is improved.

Description

Printer driver capable of printing multiple page numbers and method for printing multiple page numbers}

The present invention relates to a printer apparatus, and more particularly, to a printer apparatus capable of printing multiple page numbers on a single page.

In general, computers and printers are essential and essential devices of office automation equipment, and when a computer created document is printed on the printer, the computer needs a printer driver to drive the printer. The printer driver converts page data created by an application program of a computer into data that can be interpreted by the printer. That is, when a print command for print data created by an application program of a computer is received, the printer driver divides the print data into page units, processes the data and control codes included in the one-page print data appropriately, and then prints the printer. Convert the data into interpretable data and send it to the printer through the communication interface.

In particular, with the development of electronic technology, printer drivers have also evolved to include functions for processing printed materials in accordance with various user needs. For example, it is possible to improve the readability of the document by changing various options in the printing environment as well as the paper setting of the output data.

A useful option in this printing environment is the multi-page printing option. This function allows the user to reduce multiple sheets of documents and output them on one sheet of paper. The multi-page printing function can be very useful when the layout of a large amount of documents needs to be inspected and when the amount of documents to be output is large and the amount of documents to be reduced is desired.

By the way, setting of such a printing environment may be provided by the application software which a user uses. For example, when using a word processing program, the user can click the print setting menu and directly select various options such as the number of copies, paper margins, print range, enlargement and reduction magnification.

However, if the printing environment is directly changed in the application program, the changed printing environment setting is maintained only in the used application program. For example, the printing environment set by the user in the Hunminjeongeum word processor does not apply to other applications such as Internet Explorer. Therefore, the user must change the printing environment for each application program in order to keep the printing environment desired by the user. However, this process is very inconvenient because the printing environment provided by each application is different and the terminology is different. Therefore, in addition to the printing environment changing function provided by the application, the printing environment changing function directly provided by the printer driver is of course useful.

However, the multi-page printing function according to the related art has a disadvantage in that the page numbers of the outputted multiple pages are not separately printed and the user must remember the order of the outputted multiple pages. Of course, when printing a multi-page number by an application, the option of printing the page number on each of the output multiple pages could be set. However, the multi-page printing function provided by the printer driver has a function of printing the page number separately. Did not provide.

1 is a view showing a multi-page printed by a multi-page printing method according to the prior art.

As shown in Fig. 1, when four pages are reduced and output on one sheet, the order of the four pages a, b, c and d to be output becomes a problem. In general, to print multiple pages,

1) Left to Right, then Down

2) Top to Bottom, then Right

3) Right to Left, then Down

4) Top to Bottom, then Left

There are four ways to do this. The order of the multiple pages output by the method 1) is a-> b-> c-> d in FIG. On the other hand, if it is printed by the method 2), the order of the printed multiple pages is a-> c-> b-> d. As such, the order in which the multipage outputs are produced is not readily apparent to the user.

Therefore, there is an urgent need for a technique for informing a user of the order of outputting multiple pages.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printer driver that allows a user to easily determine in what order the multipages are printed in the multipage printing function.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a printing method capable of printing page numbers of multiple pages output on a single sheet of paper.

One aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object relates to a printer driver capable of printing a plurality of pages on one physical page according to the printing environment set by the user. According to an aspect of the present invention, a printer driver is called by a user interface module for setting a multipage printing environment according to a user input, a printer driving module for performing a print job according to a multipage printing environment, and a printer driving module. A multi-page processing module for processing the pages so that they can be printed on one physical page, and in particular, a multi-page number generation module for generating a page number for each of the plurality of pages processed by the multi-page processing module. It is characterized by including. Preferably, the printer driver according to one aspect of the present invention is characterized in that it further comprises a text module for generating a multi-page printing file for printing the multi-page number generated by the multi-page number generation module. In addition, the multi-page printing environment set by the printer driver according to one aspect of the present invention is characterized in that it includes at least one or more of a printing position, a printing order, and a printing option of the multi-page number at least. .

Another aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object relates to a method for printing a plurality of pages on one physical page according to the printing environment set by the user. The multi-page number printing method according to another aspect of the present invention is a multi-page printing environment setting step of setting a multi-page printing environment from a user, and processing to print a plurality of pages on one page according to the multi-page printing environment. A multi page processing step, a multi page number generation step of generating page numbers of each of the plurality of pages processed in the multi page processing step, and printing the generated page numbers on one physical page corresponding to the multi page printing environment And a multipage printing step of printing the plurality of pages processed by the multipage number printing step and the multipage processing step on one physical page. Preferably, the multi-page number printing step further includes a multi-page printing file generating step of generating a multi-page number printing file for printing the generated multi-page number, and reading the generated multi-page number printing file and And printing a page number. In addition, the multi-page printing environment set by the multi-page number printing method set by the other side of the present invention may include at least one or more of a position at which the multi-page number is printed, a printing order, and a printing option of the multi-page number. It is characterized by including.

In order to fully understand the present invention, the operational advantages of the present invention, and the objects achieved by the practice of the present invention, reference should be made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate preferred embodiments of the present invention and the contents described in the accompanying drawings.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. For each figure, like reference numerals denote like elements.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing a printer driver according to one aspect of the present invention.

The printer driver shown in FIG. 2 includes a user interface module 210, a printer driving module 220, a multipage processing module 230, a multipage number generation module 240, and a text module 260. The user interface module 210 allows a user to set up various printing environments. The printing environment set by the user includes printing options such as the size and type of paper to be printed, the printing range, the enlargement and reduction ratio, the number of copies, the margins provided per printed paper, and whether the multi-page printing mode is selected, multiple Includes whether the page number is printed, the order of multiple page numbers to be printed, and the output options. The user interface module 210 may provide a Graphic User Interface (GUI) so that a user may easily set a printing environment. The printing environment set by the user interface module 210 is provided to the printer driving module 220. The printer driving module 220 drives the printer in accordance with the received print setting to perform a print job. At this time, the printer driving module 220 reads the printing environment received from the user interface module 210 and checks whether the multi-page printing mode is set. If the user has set the multi-page printing mode, the order and output options of the multi-page number determined by the user are read. Then, the printer driving module 220 transmits the order and output options of the multipage number set by the user to the multipage processing module 230. The multi page processing module 230 processes the print data accordingly when the multi page printing mode is set. That is, according to the number of multiple pages printed on a single physical sheet, the print data of the multiple pages to be output is reduced and output in the output order set by the user. Configuration and operation of the multi-page processing module 230 is clear to those skilled in the art, so detailed description is omitted herein for the sake of brevity.

The multiple page processing module 230 calls the multiple page number generation module 240 to generate multiple page numbers corresponding to the output multiple pages. The multiple page number generation module 240 generates a page number corresponding to each of the multiple pages output on a single physical page and returns it to the multiple page processing module 230. Then, the printer driving module 220 receives the generated multipage number from the multipage processing module 230 and calls the text module 260. The text module 260 then generates a printer command file for outputting the generated multipage number. For example, if four multipages are printed on a single physical page, the physical page number actually printed is 1, and the multipage number output is 1, 2, 3, 4, so 1, 2, 3, 4 Print each printer command to print to four files. Then, the printer driving module 220 reads each output file, and outputs a page number corresponding to each of the files on a single physical page. In this case, various effects such as size, position, and transparency may be applied to the output multipage number, and it is apparent that such a printing option may be set in the user interface module 210 by the user.

After outputting the multipage number in this manner, the multipage print data processed by the multipage processing module 230 is output by the printer driving module 220.

The printer driver shown in FIG. 2 generates output files corresponding to each of the generated multiple pages. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and of course, the multi-page number returned by the multi-page number generation module 240 may be directly output from the printer driving module 220 itself.

According to the printer driver shown in Fig. 2, since the page numbers of the multiple sheets outputted on a single physical page can be confirmed, the order of the outputted multiple pages can be easily known, thereby improving the readability of the document.

3 is a flowchart showing a multi-page number printing method according to another aspect of the present invention.

First, various printing environments are set by receiving a user input (S300). It is desirable that a graphical user interface be provided to allow the user to easily set up the printing environment. The printing environment set by the user includes printing options such as the size and type of paper to be printed, the printing range, the enlargement and reduction ratio, the number of prints, and the margins provided per printed paper. Then, the environment for multi-page printing is set (S310). The multipage printing environment includes whether to select a multipage print mode, whether to output the multipage number, and the order and output options of the multipage numbers to be output. The printer driver then reads the print environment selected by the user and verifies that the multipage print mode is set. When the user sets the multi-page print mode, the user reads the order and output options of the multi-page number determined by the user, and accordingly, reduces the print data corresponding to the plurality of pages so that they can be output on a single physical page. (S320). All methods according to the prior art can be used for the multi-page processing technique. Therefore, the multi-page processing technique itself is not included in the technical idea of the present invention.

After the print data is processed in multiple pages, multipage numbers corresponding to the processed multipages are generated (S330). The printer driver then generates a printer command file for outputting the generated multipage number. For example, if four multipages are printed on a single physical page, the physical page number actually printed is 1, and the multipage number output is 1, 2, 3, 4, so 1, 2, 3, 4 After outputting the printer command to output to each of the four files, each of the output file is read, and the corresponding page number is output on a single physical page (S350). As such, when the generated multipage number is printed, multipage data to be originally printed is printed (S360). In this case, various effects such as size, position, and transparency may be applied to the output multipage number, and the printing option may be set by the user as described above.

In the printing method shown in Fig. 3, after generating a multi-page number printing file for outputting each of the multi-page numbers generated in the multi-page number generation step (S330), the multi-page number printing file is read and the multi-page is read. The number was printed. However, the technical idea of the present invention is not limited thereto, and it is also possible to directly print the generated multi-page number without generating a file for printing the multi-page number in the printer driver.

According to the multi-page number printing method shown in Fig. 3, since the page numbers of the multiple sheets output on a single physical page can be confirmed, the order of the output multiple pages can be easily known, thereby improving the readability of the document.

4A, 4B and 4C are diagrams showing the multiple page numbers output by the present invention.

4A, four multiple pages 411, 412, 413, 414, 425, 426, 427, and 428 are printed on each of the two physical pages 410 and 420, respectively. In addition, since each of the physical pages each includes a multi-page number, the user can see that the documents shown in FIG. 4A are output in a Left to Right, then Bottom manner by reading the multi-page number. In addition, since each of the first physical page 410 and the second physical page 420 includes unique physical page numbers 415 and 417, the order between the physical page numbers can be easily determined.

It can be seen that the multiple page numbers shown in Fig. 4A are continuously assigned even if the physical page is changed.

4B, four multiple pages are printed on each of the two physical pages 430 and 440, respectively. The physical pages shown in FIG. 4B differ from the pages shown in FIG. 4A only in that multiple page numbers are initialized rather than contiguous. Accordingly, repeated descriptions are omitted for simplicity of the specification. As can be seen in Figure 4b, the user can also set whether the printed page number is newly initialized for each physical page.

4C shows multiple pages 451, 452, 453, 454 printed on physical page 450 with physical page number 455. The multiple pages shown in Fig. 4C, unlike the multiple pages shown in Figs. 4A and 4B, include a large multiple page number in the background of each of the multiple pages. Such multi-page numbers may be printed with faint shadowing, and multi-page data may be printed thereon to improve readability. As described above, such a multi-page number printing environment can be set by a user.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, this is merely exemplary, and it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications and equivalent other embodiments are possible. For example, although the multipage number has been described as being output before the multipage data is output, the technical idea of the present invention is not limited thereto, and the multipage number may be output after the multipage data is output. It is also obvious.

Therefore, the true technical protection scope of the present invention will be defined by the technical spirit of the appended claims.

According to the present invention, a printer driver is provided that enables a user to easily determine in what order the multiple pages are printed by outputting the multiple page numbers.

Also, the present invention provides a printing method capable of printing page numbers of multiple pages output on a single sheet of paper.

1 is a view showing a multi-page printed by a multi-page printing method according to the prior art.

Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing a printer driver according to one aspect of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart showing a multi-page number printing method according to another aspect of the present invention.

4A, 4B and 4C are diagrams showing the multiple page numbers output by the present invention.

Claims (6)

A printer driver capable of printing a plurality of pages on one physical page according to a printing environment set by a user, A user interface module for setting a multi-page printing environment according to a user input; A printer driving module configured to perform a print job according to the multi-page printing environment; A multi-page processing module, called by the printer driving module, for processing a plurality of pages and page numbers of the pages to be printed on one physical page; And And a multi-page number generation module for generating a page number of each of the plurality of pages processed by the multi-page processing module. The method of claim 1, wherein the printer driver, And a text module for generating a multipage printing file for printing the multipage number generated by the multipage number generation module. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the multi-page printing environment includes at least one or more of at least one of a position at which the multi-page number is printed, a printing order, and a printing option of the multi-page number. A method for printing a plurality of pages on one physical page according to a printing environment set by a user, the method comprising: A multi-page printing environment setting step of setting a multi-page printing environment from a user; A multipage processing step of processing a plurality of pages to be printed on one page according to the multipage printing environment; A multipage number generation step of generating a page number of each of the plurality of pages processed in the multipage processing step; A multi-page number printing step of printing the generated page numbers on one physical page corresponding to the multi-page printing environment; and And a multi-page printing step of printing the plurality of pages processed by the multi-page processing step on the one physical page. The method of claim 4, wherein the multi-page number printing step, A multipage printing file generating step of generating a multipage number printing file for printing the generated multipage number, And reading the generated multi-page number printing file and printing the multi-page number. The method according to claim 4 or 5, And wherein the multi-page printing environment comprises at least one of at least one of a location at which the multipage number is printed, a print order, and a printing option of the multipage number.