JP7548040B2 - Support Programs - Google Patents

Description

The technical field disclosed in this specification relates to a support program that supports the control of a printer.

Conventionally, there is known a technique for printing using a printer based on a print job in which character information is set. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a tint block printing device analyzes the language of an input document, obtains a character string that matches the language of the document, and applies the obtained character string as a tint block to an image to be printed, and the printing device prints based on print data that shows the image after the tint block has been applied. Patent Document 1 also discloses that a printer driver applies a tint block to an image to be printed and outputs the image to a printer.

JP 2008-153912 A

In recent years, a technology has been put into practical use that controls a printer without using a printer driver, but instead uses a print program that is built into the operating system (OS). With this technology, the OS associates the printer with the OS's standard print program, and thereafter, when a print command is received for that printer, printing can be performed using the OS's standard print program, without using a printer driver.

When using a printer from an information processing device, the language used by the OS may differ from the language used by the printer. The OS-standard general-purpose printing program described above does not perform processing according to differences in language. Therefore, when a print job output to the OS-standard general-purpose printing program is input to the printer, the printer may not be able to handle the print job appropriately.

This specification discloses a technology that allows an information processing device incorporating an OS-standard general-purpose printing program to properly handle print jobs even if the language differs from that supported by the printer.

The support program developed to solve the above-mentioned problems is executable by a computer of an information processing device, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing device, and is executed by the operating system when an instruction is given to a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device. The support program causes the computer to execute an acquisition process to acquire language information indicating a language supported by the printer, and a setting process to set specific character information corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process for a print job based on the general-purpose printing program.

According to the support program disclosed in this specification, the information processing device sets specific character information corresponding to a language supported by the printer for a print job based on a general-purpose print program, so that information in a language supported by the printer is sent to the printer. This reduces the possibility that difficult-to-decipher character information is displayed on the printer or difficult-to-decipher character information is printed.

The information processing device incorporating the above support program, the computer-readable storage medium storing the support program, and the control method for realizing the functions of the support program are also novel and useful.

The technology disclosed in this specification realizes a technology that allows an information processing device incorporating an OS-standard general-purpose printing program to properly handle print jobs even if the language differs from that supported by the printer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the electrical configuration of a PC. 10 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a procedure for accepting print settings by each program. FIG. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a setting screen. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a setting screen. FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a group of options after replacement. FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a group of options after replacement. 5 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a procedure of a printing operation by each program. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a procedure for character conversion processing. FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a correspondence table.

A personal computer (hereinafter, "PC") that uses the support program of this embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. This specification discloses a support program that is executed on a PC that is connected to a printer with a printing function.

As shown in FIG. 1, the PC 1 of this embodiment is equipped with a controller 10 including a CPU 11 and a memory 12. The PC 1 is an example of an information processing device. The CPU 11 is an example of a computer. The PC 1 also has a user interface (hereinafter referred to as "user IF") 13 and a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as "communication IF") 14, which are electrically connected to the controller 10. Note that the controller 10 in FIG. 1 is a general term for the hardware and software used to control the PC 1, and does not necessarily represent a single piece of hardware that actually exists in the PC 1.

The CPU 11 executes various processes according to the programs read from the memory 12 and based on the user's operations. The memory 12 stores various programs, including various application programs (hereinafter referred to as "apps"), and various data. The memory 12 is also used as a working area when various processes are executed. The buffer provided in the CPU 11 is also an example of a memory. Note that an example of the memory 12 is not limited to a ROM, RAM, HDD, etc. built into the PC 1, but may also be a storage medium that can be read and written by the CPU 11, such as a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

User IF 13 includes hardware that displays a screen for notifying the user of information, and hardware that accepts operations by the user. User IF 13 may be a combination of a display capable of displaying information and a mouse or keyboard having an input reception function, or may be a touch panel having a display function and an input reception function.

The communication IF 14 includes hardware for communicating with an external device such as the printer 2. The communication standards of the communication IF 14 include Ethernet (registered trademark), Wi-Fi (registered trademark), USB, etc. The PC 1 may be equipped with multiple communication IFs 14 that support multiple communication standards. Note that the PC 1 in this embodiment can be connected to the Internet 200 via the communication IFs 14.

As shown in FIG. 1, the memory 12 of the PC 1 stores an operating system (hereinafter referred to as "OS") 21 including a general-purpose print program 41, an auxiliary program 42, and an editing application 43. The auxiliary program 42 is an example of a support program. The editing application 43 is an example of an application program. The OS 21 is, for example, Windows (registered trademark), MacOS (registered trademark), Linux (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), or Android (registered trademark).

The general-purpose printing program 41 is an OS standard program that causes various printers, such as printer 2, to execute printing based on user instructions. In this embodiment, the general-purpose printing program 41 is a program that includes a function for generating intermediate image data based on the image data to be printed.

The generic printing program 41 supports functions that can be used by multiple models of printers provided by various printer vendors. The generic printing program 41 does not support all of the functions that are unique to each printer, and the functions it supports are limited to generic ones.

The auxiliary program 42 is a program or group of programs that executes processing based on instructions from the OS 21 in conjunction with the processing of the generic printing program 41, and is an application that supports the control of the target hardware. In this embodiment, the auxiliary program 42 corresponds to the model of the printer 2 connected to the PC 1, and is launched from the generic printing program 41 when, for example, an instruction to cause the printer 2 to execute printing using the generic printing program 41 is received. The auxiliary program 42 is called, for example, a hardware support application (abbreviated as HSA).

The auxiliary program 42 can receive multiple types of commands from the general-purpose printing program 41 and executes various processes based on the received commands. Note that the auxiliary program 42 may be a combination of multiple programs that each receive execution commands, or it may be a single program that can execute different processes depending on the commands.

The auxiliary program may be a program prepared by the printer vendor for each type of printer. For example, an auxiliary program for inkjet printers and an auxiliary program for laser printers may be prepared separately. For example, when a new printer is connected to PC1, OS21 of PC1 downloads an appropriate auxiliary program from a server or the like according to the type of the connected printer and incorporates it into its own device. Then, OS21 associates the identification information of the incorporated auxiliary program with the printer information of the newly connected printer and stores it in memory 12. Note that there may be auxiliary programs prepared not only for each type of printer, but also for each model of printer or each series of printer models.

The editing application 43 is, for example, an application for creating and editing image data and document data. The editing application 43 may be, for example, Microsoft (registered trademark) Word or PowerPoint, or may be an application provided by the vendor of the printer 2. The editing application 43 accepts user operations including instructions to cause the printer 2 to perform a specified operation. Specifically, the editing application 43 accepts, for example, a print execution instruction to cause the printer 2 to execute printing via the user IF 13.

The printer 2 in this embodiment is a device with a printing function. The PC 1 can communicate with the printer 2 via the communication IF 14. The printer 2 receives print data from, for example, the PC 1, and executes printing based on the received print data.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printer 2 of this embodiment includes a controller 31 including a CPU and memory, a user IF 33, a communication IF 34, and a printing unit 35. The user IF 33 includes hardware for displaying a screen for notifying the user of information, and hardware for accepting operations by the user. The user IF 33 may be a combination of a display capable of displaying information and buttons or the like having an input acceptance function, or may be a touch panel having a display function and an input acceptance function. The communication IF 34 includes hardware for communicating with an external device such as a PC 1. The printing unit 35 includes a configuration for printing an image based on print data onto a sheet or the like.

Printer 2 supports one or more predetermined languages, and is provided with image data of character images corresponding to character information, which is information indicating each character in the supported languages. Printer 2 can convert character information in a supported language into an appropriate character image, but cannot convert character information in an unsupported language into an appropriate character image.

The printer 2 stores language information 51, which is information indicating one language used by the printer 2, in a memory included in the controller 31. The language indicated by the language information 51 is a language supported by the printer 2. The printer 2 stores the language information 51 in advance in the memory, and the language information 51 may be changeable based on, for example, a user operation.

Printer 2 converts character information contained in the received data into a character image based on language information 51. Printer 2 performs conversion based on language information 51, for example, when character information is included in the information displayed on user IF 33, when character information is included in the image data to be printed, or when an instruction to print by synthesizing an image based on the character information with the image data to be printed is included. Printer 2 may not be able to convert the received data into an appropriate character image if the language of the data differs from the language of language information 51.

Next, the procedure for accepting print settings, including the operation of the auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment, will be described with reference to the sequence diagram in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 shows the operation when an application that accepts print instructions, such as the editing application 43, accepts an instruction for print settings related to printing to be performed on the printer 2 using the general-purpose print program 41.

Note that the processes and each processing step of the flowchart in this embodiment basically indicate processing by the CPU 11 according to instructions written in a program such as the auxiliary program 42. The processing by the CPU 11 also includes hardware control using the API of the OS 21. In this specification, a detailed description of the OS 21 will be omitted and the operation of each program will be explained. Also, "obtain" is used as a concept that does not necessarily require a request.

The editing application 43 accepts creation and editing of text, charts, etc. based on instructions from the user. When the editing application 43 accepts an instruction to print the selected text, etc. (A01), it displays a print screen on the user IF 13 for accepting instructions from the user (A02). On the print screen, the editing application 43 accepts, for example, an instruction to execute printing, an instruction for basic print settings, and an instruction to start accepting detailed print settings.

When the editing application 43 receives an instruction to start accepting detailed print settings while printer 2 is selected on the displayed print screen (A03), it passes information about the received detailed setting instruction to the OS 21. When the OS 21 receives an instruction for detailed settings related to printing using the general-purpose printing program 41, it executes the general-purpose printing program 41 and passes an instruction to start accepting detailed print settings to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A04). When the general-purpose printing program 41 receives the instruction to start accepting detailed print settings, it passes an instruction to execute accepting detailed print settings to the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to printer 2, which is the selected printer (A05).

The auxiliary program 42 starts operation based on an execution instruction from the general-purpose print program 41, and acquires system language information, which is information about the language (hereinafter, "OS language") being used by the OS 21 (A06). The auxiliary program 42 may, for example, query the OS 21 to acquire the OS language information.

Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 requests function information from the printer 2 via the communication IF 14 (A11) and receives the function information from the printer 2 (A12). The function information includes language information 51, which is information about the language set in the printer 2. A12 is an example of an acquisition process.

The communication between the auxiliary program 42 and the printer 2 may be performed by the auxiliary program 42 directly communicating with the printer 2 using, for example, an MIB (short for Management Information Base), or may be performed via the OS 21. When performing communication via the OS 21, the auxiliary program 42 and the printer 2 communicate according to the communication protocol of the OS 21, such as IPP (short for internet printing protocol).

Then, the auxiliary program 42 stores the language information 51 acquired from the printer 2 in an area of the memory 12 that is available to the auxiliary program 42 (A13). Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 determines whether the language indicated in the language information 51 matches the OS language (A14).

If it is determined that there is a match (alt: [match]), the auxiliary program 42 displays a setting screen for accepting input operations for detailed print settings, written in the OS language, on the user IF 13 (A16). A16 is an example of a setting screen display process. Note that if the auxiliary program 42 is unable to support the OS language, it displays a setting screen written in a default language, for example, English.

In A16, the auxiliary program 42 displays a setting screen that accepts various acceptable detailed settings based on, for example, the model information of the printer 2, and accepts user operations. For example, if the printer 2 has a compositing function that combines and prints a composite image based on the user's specification with the image of the print job, the auxiliary program 42 can accept settings related to the compositing function as detailed settings. For example, when the auxiliary program 42 accepts an instruction to combine a composite image including a character image, it can generate a compositing command that includes character information indicating the specified characters and position information indicating the placement of the composite image, and add it to the print job. Examples of composite images that include a character image include a header or footer that includes characters indicating the date, time, etc., and a watermark that includes text.

When the printer 2 of this embodiment receives a print job to which a composition command including character information is added, it has the function of compositing a character image corresponding to the character information onto the image of the print job and printing it. However, as described above, while the printer 2 can compose an appropriate character image if the character information is in a language it supports, it may not be able to compose an appropriate character image if the character information is in an unsupported language.

The auxiliary program 42 can display, for example, a setting screen 100 as shown in FIG. 3 as a setting screen that can accept settings related to the composition function. Note that the setting screen 100 shown in FIG. 3 is an example of a screen that is displayed when the OS language is Japanese, and for example, the default options 101, 102 that can be selected as composite images for date and time contain Japanese text information. Then, for example, when an operation on the date option 101 is accepted, the auxiliary program 42 displays a group of date options 111 as shown in FIG. 4. The group of options 111 includes options that contain Japanese characters.

On the other hand, if it is determined in A14 of FIG. 2 that the language indicated in the language information 51 does not match the OS language (alt: [mismatch]), the auxiliary program 42 replaces the option group (A17). For example, if the OS language is Japanese and the language indicated in the language information 51 is English, the auxiliary program 42 replaces the date option group from option group 111 shown in FIG. 4 to option group 112 shown in FIG. 5. The option group 112 is an option group in which each option including Japanese characters in the option group 111 is replaced with an option that can be expressed by English characters. The option group 111 is an example of a first option group, and the option group 112 is an example of a second option group. The auxiliary program 42 may store option groups for each language in advance, or may request and obtain them from a server or the like in the event of a mismatch.

Then, the auxiliary program 42 displays the setting screen 100 based on the replaced option group on the user IF 13 (A18). In this case, the options 101 and 102 on the setting screen 100 display the top option of the replaced option group 112, etc., and options containing Japanese characters are not displayed even if an instruction to display options is received. Character information of an option containing Japanese characters is an example of non-compatible character information, and character information of an option written only in English characters is an example of compatible character information and specific character information. A18 is an example of a setting process and a second replacement process. Note that the auxiliary program 42 only replaces the notation of the option, and it is not necessary to change the notation of items other than the options, such as item names and descriptions.

As a result, among the character information options selectable on the setting screen 100, character information in a language that is not supported by the printer 2 is replaced with character information in a language that is supported by the printer 2, so that character information in a language supported by the printer 2 is added to the print job sent to the printer 2. This reduces the possibility that a character image that is difficult to decipher will be printed as a character image synthesized by the printer.

In A17, the auxiliary program 42 may, instead of replacing the set of options selectable as the text information of the date, create a set of options 113 that is limited to only the options that can be displayed in the language indicated in the language information 51 from the original set of options 111, as shown in FIG. 6. Set of options 113 is a set of options 111 excluding options that include Japanese characters. In this case, A17 is an example of a limiting process.

Even in this way, the text information of the selectable options is limited to text information in languages that are compatible with the printer 2, so text information in a language supported by the printer 2 is added to the print job sent to the printer 2. Note that the configuration is not limited to not displaying Japanese options, and it may be configured to make the displayed Japanese options unselectable.

The auxiliary program 42 accepts instruction input by user operation on the displayed setting screen 100 (A21). For example, when a group of options for characters to be used for compositing, such as dates, is displayed as described above, the auxiliary program 42 accepts instruction input to select an option. The auxiliary program 42 also accepts, as instruction input to the setting screen 100, for example, selection of a compositing position for a composite image, and operation of the help button 110 shown in FIG. 3.

For example, when the auxiliary program 42 receives an operation on the help button 110 on the currently displayed setting screen 100 (alt: [help instruction]), the auxiliary program 42 displays information on a specific web page on the user IF 13. The specific web page is, for example, a web page published on the Internet 200 by the vendor of the printer 2, and is a web page that contains information about the printer 2. The operation on the help button 110 is an example of an instruction to access a web page that contains the specified information.

The auxiliary program 42 acquires access information indicating the address of a specific web page based on an operation on the help button 110 (A23). The auxiliary program 42 then accesses the web page using the acquired access information and displays the web page on the user IF 13 (A24). A23 and A24 are an example of a web display process.

When the printer 2 supports multiple languages, multiple pages written in different languages may be prepared as a specific web page corresponding to the printer 2. When multiple pages written in different languages are prepared as a web page corresponding to the printer 2, the auxiliary program 42 stores information indicating the language of writing in association with access information for the web page. If the OS language matches the language indicated in the language information 51, the auxiliary program 42 acquires access information indicating the web page written in the OS language in A23. On the other hand, if the OS language does not match the language indicated in the language information 51, the auxiliary program 42 acquires access information indicating the web page written in the language indicated in the language information 51 in A23.

By changing the web page reference destination according to the language used by printer 2, a web page suited to the user of printer 2 is displayed. This makes it easier for the user of printer 2 to use the web page. Note that if the auxiliary program 42 does not have access information indicating a web page written in the language indicated in the language information 51, it may display, for example, a default web page.

When the auxiliary program 42 receives a user instruction to end the detailed settings by operating the OK button or the cancel button as an instruction input of A21 (alt: [end instruction]), it ends the display of the setting screen 100. When an operation of the OK button is received, the auxiliary program 42 stores the received print settings in an area of the memory 12 that can be used by the auxiliary program 42 (A26). The auxiliary program 42 may store the language information 51 of the printer 2 in A26 instead of A13. Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 passes a termination notification to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A27). Upon receiving the termination notification from the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose printing program 41 passes a termination notification to the editing application 43 (A28).

Next, the procedure of operation of each program after receiving a print instruction will be described with reference to the sequence diagram in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 shows the operation when a print instruction is received from an application that receives a print instruction, such as the editing application 43, to cause the printer 2 to print using the general-purpose print program 41.

When the editing application 43 receives a print command from the user on the print screen (A31), it passes the print command to the general-purpose print program 41 (A32). The general-purpose print program 41 obtains, from the print command, information indicating the image data to be printed and information indicating the print settings.

The general-purpose printing program 41 generates intermediate image data by converting the format of the image data included in the received print instruction into the format of intermediate image data (A33), and generates a print job including the intermediate image data. The image data included in the editing application 43 is of various types, and the general-purpose printing program 41 converts the received image data into intermediate image data suitable for generating print data. Note that if the image data included in the print instruction is suitable for generating print data, the generation of the intermediate image data may be omitted and the image data may be used as is as intermediate image data. The intermediate image data is, for example, XPS data.

The general-purpose printing program 41 further outputs an execution instruction to the auxiliary program 42 (A34), causing the auxiliary program 42 to operate. In the execution instruction, the generated intermediate image data and print setting information are passed to the auxiliary program 42.

The print setting information passed from the general-purpose printing program 41 does not need to include information on print settings that are not supported by the general-purpose printing program 41. For example, the print setting information stored in memory 12 by the auxiliary program 42 in A26 may not be included in the print setting information passed from the general-purpose printing program 41. The auxiliary program 42 determines the print settings for the print job based on the print setting information received from the general-purpose printing program 41 and the information stored in A26.

The auxiliary program 42 determines whether or not language information 51 is stored in the memory 12 (A35). If it is determined that the language information 51 is stored (alt: [Yes]), the auxiliary program 42 reads the language information 51 from the memory 12 (A36). If it is determined that the language information is not stored (alt: [No]), the auxiliary program 42 requests the language information 51 from the printer 2 (A37) and acquires the language information 51 from the printer 2 (A38). A38 is an example of an acquisition process. The auxiliary program 42 may store the language information 51 acquired in A38 in the memory 12.

The auxiliary program 42 then determines whether the language indicated by the acquired language information 51 matches the OS language (A39). If it is determined that they match (alt: [match]), the auxiliary program 42 generates print data based on the intermediate image data and generates a print job including print data indicating the image to be printed (A41). The print data of the print job generated in A41 is data in a format that can be used for printing by the printer 2, for example, PDL data dedicated to the model of the printer 2.

On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no match (alt: [Mismatch]), the auxiliary program 42 executes a character conversion process (A42). The character conversion process is a process executed by the CPU 11 of the PC 1 by the auxiliary program 42, and is a process for generating a print job that does not include character information of characters that cannot be handled by the printer 2. The steps of the character conversion process will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 8.

In the character conversion process, the CPU 11 determines whether the job name or user name contains character information of characters that do not correspond to the language indicated in the language information 51 of the printer 2 (S101). For example, if the OS language is Japanese, the job name or user name may contain character information indicating Japanese characters.

For example, when the printer 2 receives a print job for accumulated printing from the PC 1 or the like, the printer 2 stores the print job in the memory of the printer 2. Then, in response to a user operation, the printer 2 displays, for example, a list of the job names and user names of the accumulated print jobs, and accepts the selection of the print job to be printed via the user IF 33. The job name and user name of the print job are an example of information set in the print job by a print instruction, and are an example of character information displayed by the printer's user interface. If the job name or user name contains characters in a language other than the language indicated in the language information 51 of the printer 2, the job name or user name may not be displayed properly due to garbled characters, etc.

If it is determined that the character information contains characters that do not correspond to the language indicated in the language information 51 of the printer 2 (S101: YES), the CPU 11 determines whether or not a correspondence table between the language of the language information 51 and the OS language is provided (S102). The correspondence table is a table that shows a unique correspondence from characters of one language to characters of a different language, such as table 61 shown in FIG. 9 that shows the correspondence between Japanese kana characters and roman characters using English characters, or a table that shows the correspondence between Chinese characters and pinyin. Table 61 is an example of a first table. Japanese is an example of a first language, and English is an example of a second language. Kana characters are an example of first language data, and roman characters are an example of second language data.

If it is determined that there is a correspondence table (S102: YES), the CPU 11 uses the correspondence table to convert the job name and user name (S103). For example, the CPU 11 replaces Japanese characters included in the job name and user name with Roman characters indicating their reading. Alternatively, the CPU 11 replaces full-width numbers with half-width numbers. S103 is an example of a setting process and a first replacement process. The Japanese characters included in the job name and user name are an example of first character information, and the Roman characters indicating their reading are an example of second character information and specific character information.

When the job name or user name includes date information or time information, the CPU 11 may, for example, replace characters by replacing option groups as described above. For example, the CPU 11 may convert the date information "April 1, 2021" to "2021/04/01" or the time information "12:30:45" to "12:30:45".

By replacing characters included in the information added to the print job with characters in a language compatible with the printer 2, the printer 2 can properly display the characters based on the received print job. For example, if the text is written in Roman characters, the printer 2 can properly display a list of the characters, reducing the possibility that difficult-to-decipher character information will be displayed on the user IF 33 of the printer 2. Furthermore, automatic replacement using a correspondence table can reduce the user's effort compared to manual replacement. Note that the replacement performed by the CPU 11 in S103 is simply a replacement of characters, and is not a translation.

On the other hand, if it is determined that there is no correspondence table (S102: NO), the CPU 11 displays a message on the user IF 13 informing the user that the job name and user name are characters that the printer 2 cannot handle (S104). Furthermore, the CPU 11 accepts conversion input of the job name and user name via the user IF 13 (S105), and changes the job name and user name of the print job to the new name input by the user's operation. S105 is an example of a setting process. The changed job name and user name are examples of specific character information. The auxiliary program 42 displays a message on the user IF 13 indicating that the printer 2 is not compatible with the OS language, for example, and accepts the name change. The auxiliary program 42 may also display information on the language indicated in the language information 51 of the printer 2.

Even if there is a correspondence table, the auxiliary program 42 may, for example, display the replaced job name or user name on the user IF 13 and accept the user's approval or change instruction. Furthermore, when accepting a name change by a user operation, the auxiliary program 42 may only accept character information in the language indicated in the language information 51.

If it is determined that the job name or user name does not contain character information of characters that do not correspond to the language indicated in the language information 51 of the printer 2 (S101: NO), or after S103 or S105, the CPU 11 determines whether the print settings stored in A26 of FIG. 2 include a setting for image synthesis (S111).

If it is determined that the image synthesis settings are included (S111: YES), the CPU 11 determines whether or not at least one of the intermediate image data received from the general-purpose printing program 41 or the specified image for synthesis includes character information of characters that do not correspond to the language indicated in the language information 51 of the printer 2 (S112). If it is determined that the image synthesis settings are not included (S111: NO), the CPU 11 determines whether or not the intermediate image data received from the general-purpose printing program 41 includes character information of characters that do not correspond to the language indicated in the language information 51 of the printer 2 (S113).

If it is determined that none of the images contain incompatible characters (S112: NO or S113: NO), the CPU 11 generates vector print data representing the image to be printed based on the intermediate image data received from the general-purpose print program 41 in A34 of FIG. 7 (S115). The print data generated in S115 is data in a format that can be used for printing by the printer 2, for example, PDL data dedicated to the model of the printer 2. If the print data of the print job to be printed is vector data, the printer 2, for example, converts the character information specified in the print data into a character image and prints it.

By generating print data using the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2, there is a greater degree of freedom compared to generating print data using the general-purpose print program 41, and it is more likely that print data suitable for printing on the printer 2 will be generated. Note that the print data generated by the auxiliary program 42 may be in a format that can also be used for printing on printers other than the model of the printer 2.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the image data does not include a composition setting but does include incompatible characters (S113: YES), the CPU 11 generates print data of raster data representing the image to be printed based on the intermediate image data received from the general-purpose printing program 41 in A34 of FIG. 7 (S116).

If it is determined that the image data or the composite image includes a composition setting and that the image data or the composite image includes incompatible characters (S112: YES), the CPU 11 composes the images based on the composition setting (S118). The CPU 11 then generates print data of raster data based on the composite image data (S119). S119 is an example of the setting process. For example, if the composite image includes character information in the OS language and the printer 2 does not support the OS language, the auxiliary program 42 performs the composition and generates the raster data.

Raster data is print data in a format that can be used for printing on various printers, such as PWGRaster data or PCLm data. When the print data of the print job to be executed is raster data, Printer 2 executes printing based on the print data without converting or compositing characters.

Even without replacing the characters with those in a language corresponding to the language information 51 of the printer 2, the PC 1 performs synthesis and conversion to raster data, and sends the converted print data to the printer 2, allowing the printer 2 to print an appropriate image. On the other hand, if the character information corresponds to the language of the printer, an image based on that character information can be reproduced even if it is synthesized by the printer 2, so that an appropriate image can be printed by having the printer 2 perform synthesis rather than synthesis in the auxiliary program 42.

After generating the print data in S115, S116, or S119, the CPU 11 generates a print job by adding a job name, a user name, and a print command to instruct printing (S121), and ends the character conversion process.

In addition, instead of the auxiliary program 42 generating the print data, the general-purpose printing program 41 may generate the print data. In other words, the auxiliary program 42 may pass print execution information to the general-purpose printing program 41. In that case, the auxiliary program 42 passes intermediate image data and print execution information to the general-purpose printing program 41. The general-purpose printing program 41 generates print data based on the intermediate image data received from the auxiliary program 42. The general-purpose printing program 41 may then pass the generated print data to the auxiliary program 42. Even when the CPU 11 receives print data from the general-purpose printing program 41, the CPU 11 generates a print job by adding a print command that instructs the execution of printing to the received print data.

The print data generated by the general-purpose print program 41 is print data in a format that can be used for printing on various printers, such as PWGRaster data or PDF data. If the print data is generated by the general-purpose print program 41, the processing of the auxiliary program 42 is reduced, which is expected to prevent an increase in processing time and reduce the program size of the auxiliary program 42.

Returning to the explanation of FIG. 7, the auxiliary program 42 generates a print job in A41 or A42, and then transmits the generated print job to the printer 2 (A51). The printer 2 prints an image of the print data based on the received print job (A52). This results in the generation of a printed document. The auxiliary program 42 further notifies the general-purpose print program 41 that transmission of the print job has been completed (A53).

The general-purpose printing program 41 may send print data, etc. to the printer 2. In other words, the auxiliary program 42 may pass the generated print data to the general-purpose printing program 41 so that the data is sent from the PC 1 to the printer 2 as the destination. The general-purpose printing program 41 sends the print data received from the auxiliary program 42 to the printer 2. Alternatively, the general-purpose printing program 41 may send print data that it has generated itself based on the intermediate image data to the printer 2.

As described above in detail, according to the auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment, the PC 1 sets characters corresponding to a language supported by the printer 2 for a print job based on the general-purpose print program 41, so that character information in a language that the printer 2 can handle is sent to the printer 2. This reduces the possibility that a character image that is difficult to decipher will be displayed or printed on the printer 2.

Note that the embodiments disclosed in this specification are merely examples and do not limit the present invention in any way. Naturally, the technology disclosed in this specification can be improved and modified in various ways without departing from the spirit of the technology. For example, the device connected to PC1 is not limited to a printer, but may be any device with a printing function, such as a multifunction device, copier, or fax machine. Furthermore, the number of printers connected to PC1 is not limited to the example shown in the figure, and may be two or more.

Also, for example, the auxiliary program 42 may obtain the language information 51 from a device other than the printer 2 based on information obtained from the printer 2. For example, the auxiliary program 42 may obtain the language information 51 by querying a manufacturer's server or a server managed by the user based on model information or device-identifying information obtained from the printer 2.

In addition, in this embodiment, the language information 51 of the printer 2 is set in advance to information of one language, but it may be information including information of multiple languages. For example, the print job may include language information, and the printer 2 may be configured to convert text information into a text image based on the language information included in the print job, as long as the language information indicates a compatible language. In that case, the auxiliary program 42 may determine whether the OS language is included in the languages of the language information 51, instead of determining whether the OS language matches the language of the language information 51 at A14 in FIG. 2 or A39 in FIG. 7.

The display screen and options shown in the figure are both examples and are not limited to these. For example, the layout of each image and button in the setting screen 100, the expression of the item names, etc. are not limited to the examples shown in the figures. For example, the setting screen 100 may further include a management report print button that accepts instructions to print a management report. When a user operation on the management report print button is accepted, the auxiliary program 42 may generate a management report print job that displays the number of pages printed by the user this month, etc., in text information corresponding to the language information 51, and send the generated management report print job to the printer 2.

In addition, in this embodiment, the auxiliary program 42 performs various processes as a process when the OS language of the PC 1 and the language indicated in the language information 51 of the printer 2 do not match, but this is not limited to this. The auxiliary program 42 may perform at least one process among A17 and A23 in FIG. 2 and A42 in FIG. 7, for example.

In addition, in A11 of FIG. 2, the auxiliary program 42 may request not only function information and language information, but also, for example, information regarding the capabilities of the printer 2. In this case, the printer 2 responds with various information in response to the request. The auxiliary program 42 may display a screen for accepting user settings based on the various information acquired from the printer 2.

In the embodiment, only the printing operation is described in detail as the operation of the auxiliary program 42, but the auxiliary program 42 may have other roles as well. The program that executes the process of this embodiment is not limited to the auxiliary program 42, but may be any program that receives instructions from the OS 21 or the generic print program 41 when printing using the generic print program 41. For example, it may be a print workflow application (Print workflow) whose specifications have been published by Microsoft.

The execution timing of the auxiliary program 42 is not limited to that of the embodiment. For example, the auxiliary program 42 may be executed in response to a direct execution instruction from the OS 21, or the auxiliary program 42 may be resident. If the auxiliary program 42 is resident, it may receive an execution command and perform the above-mentioned operation.

In addition, in any of the flowcharts disclosed in the embodiments, the execution order of multiple processes in any of the steps can be changed or they can be executed in parallel as desired, as long as no inconsistencies occur in the process content.

The processes disclosed in the embodiments may be executed by a single CPU, multiple CPUs, hardware such as an ASIC, or a combination of these. The processes disclosed in the embodiments may be realized in various ways, such as a recording medium on which a program for executing the processes is recorded, or a method.

1 PC
2 Printer 11 CPU
13, 33 User IF

Claims (12)

A support program that can be executed by a computer of an information processing device, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing device, and is executed from an operating system of the information processing device when an instruction is given to a general-purpose printing program that is pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device,
The computer includes:
an acquisition process for acquiring language information indicative of languages supported by the printer;
a setting process for setting specific character information corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process for a print job based on the general-purpose print program;
Execute the
A support program characterized by: 2. A support program as claimed in claim 1,
The computer includes:
executing the setting process when a print instruction is output from an application program installed in the information processing device, the print instruction being for causing the general-purpose print program to print an image on the printer;
In the setting process,
When first character information set in the print job by the print instruction does not correspond to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, a first replacement process is executed to replace the first character information with second character information, which is the specific character information corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, thereby setting the specific character information in the print job.
A support program characterized by: A support program according to claim 2,
a first table that associates first language data in a first language with second language data in a second language different from the first language;
In the first replacement process,
replacing the first character information in the first language with the second character information in the second language corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, by using the first table;
A support program characterized by: 2. A support program as claimed in claim 1,
The computer includes:
executing a setting screen display process for displaying a setting screen for receiving an input operation of print settings of the print job based on the general-purpose print program using a user interface of the information processing device;
In the setting process,
a second replacement process is executed to replace non-compatible character information, which is among character information options on the setting screen and does not correspond to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, with compatible character information, which is the specific character information corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, thereby setting the specific character information for the print job.
A support program characterized by: A support program according to claim 4,
a first set of options in a first language and a second set of options in a second language different from the first language;
In the second replacement process,
replacing the options selectable on the setting screen from the first option group in the first language with the second option group in the second language corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process;
A support program characterized by: 2. A support program as claimed in claim 1,
The computer includes:
executing a setting screen display process for displaying a setting screen for receiving an input operation of print settings of the print job based on the general-purpose print program using a user interface of the information processing device;
In the setting process,
a limiting process is executed to limit character information available as options on the setting screen to the specific character information corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, thereby setting the specific character information for the print job;
A support program characterized by: A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
In the setting process,
setting the specific character information corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process for character information displayed by a user interface of the printer for the print job based on the general-purpose print program;
A support program characterized by: A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 6,
In the setting process,
For the print job based on the general-purpose print program, the specific character information corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process is set for character information indicated in an image to be combined with an image to be printed by the printer.
A support program characterized by: 2. A support program as claimed in claim 1,
In the setting process,
for the print job based on the general-purpose print program, if character information shown in an image to be combined with an image to be printed does not correspond to a language shown in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, the character information is replaced with the specific character information corresponding to the language shown in the language information acquired in the acquisition process;
A support program characterized by: 2. A support program as claimed in claim 1,
In the setting process,
For the print job based on the general-purpose print program, if character information shown in an image to be combined with an image to be printed does not correspond to the language shown in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, an image based on the character information is combined with the image to be printed and converted into raster data, and the converted image data is included in the print job sent to the printer, and the printer does not combine the images and performs printing based on the image data included in the print job.
For the print job based on the general-purpose print program, when the character information shown in the image to be composited with the image to be printed corresponds to the language shown in the language information acquired in the acquisition process, the process of compositely combining the image based on the specific character information with the image to be printed is not performed, and the character information included in the print job is set to the specific character information, and image data without the specific character information composited is included in the print job sent to the printer, and the printer composites the image based on the specific character information with the image to be printed, and performs printing based on the composite image data.
A support program characterized by: A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 10,
The computer includes:
acquiring system language information set in the operating system, and executing the setting process when the language indicated in the acquired system language information does not correspond to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process;
A support program characterized by: A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 11,
The computer includes:
execute a web display process for, when receiving an instruction to access a web page having predetermined information related to the printer, acquiring access information for the web page corresponding to the language indicated in the language information acquired in the acquisition process among the web pages having different pages for each language, accessing the web page using the acquired access information, and performing a process for displaying the web page.
A support program characterized by:

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