Patent Application
20100157366
This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2008-0133041, filed on Dec. 24, 2008 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a host apparatus to connect with an image forming apparatus and a web page printing method thereof, and more particularly, to a host apparatus to connect with an image forming apparatus and a web page printing method thereof, which can edit and print a predetermined area selected from a web page.
2. Description of the Related Art
With widespread high-speed Internet service, various web environments are provided and thus a user can view a lot of information through web pages.
Under such various web environments, a user can collect plenty of information through the web pages and print the information for practical use.
To print a web page, a user generally selects a print menu on a web browser and enters printing with respect to the web page.
However, most of the web pages are designed without regard to completeness when printed, so that when using the foregoing printing function provided by the web browser, information desired by a user may be omitted due to a partial printing cut on the page, or an undesired page may be printed.
Although the web browser provides an edit function for allowing a user to edit a margin, an orientation, a head, a tail, etc. when selecting page settings to thereby prevent the information from being omitted or the undesired page from being printed, a user has difficulty in ascertaining whether the printing is performed as desired through a preview, and so on.
In the meantime, there have recently been provided applications for selecting a portion the web page to be printed or storing the web page to have a file format such as a portable document format (PDF).
However, such applications cause the selected portions of the web page to be printed as a unit of hyper text markup language (HTML) object having a stack structure, and therefore not only an undesired portion may be selected to be printed but also restrictions are imposed on the selected portion.
Accordingly, exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept provide a host apparatus to connect with an image forming apparatus, which is convenient for a user to select a desired area from a web page to edit and print it, and a web page printing method thereof.
Additional aspects and utilities of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept.
Exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept also provide a host apparatus to connect with an image forming apparatus, which is convenient for a user to ascertain an edited state of a web page through a screen division without a separate operation such as selecting a preview or the like, and edit the web page as desired, and a web page printing method thereof.
Exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept can be achieved by providing a method of printing a displayed web page, the method including capturing at least one area on the displayed web page being, displaying the at least one captured area a first area displayed adjacent to the displayed web page, editing the at least one captured area displayed in the first area, and executing the at least one captured and edited area.
The capturing the at least one area may include adding the captured area to the first area by dragging and dropping or by selecting a content menu of moving the captured area to the first area.
The first area may also include a page area including the at least one captured area, and a menu area including at least one selectable menu item for editing the captured area. The first area may be hidable from view.
The method may further include displaying a printing page including the captured and edited area as a full screen.
The executing the at least one captured and edited area may include performing at least one of printing, saving, transmitting to e-mail, sending to fax, sending to a communication network, and sending to a file transfer protocol (FTP) host.
Also, the executing the at least one captured and edited area may include selecting at least one printing page among printing pages including the at least one captured area.
The method may further include selecting the captured area displayed in the first area and displaying a web site corresponding to the selected captured area.
Exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept also provide a host apparatus connectable with an image forming apparatus, including a communication unit to communicate with the image forming apparatus, a display unit to display a web page, a user interface to receive a selection of at least one area to be captured on the displayed web page, and to edit the captured area, and a controller to control the display unit to display the at least one captured area boarding a first area, and the communication unit to transmit printing data including the at least one captured and edited area to the image forming apparatus.
The user interface may receive a selection to add the captured area to the first area by dragging and dropping or by receiving a selection of a content menu item to move to the first area.
The first area may include a page area having the at least one captured area, and a menu area including at least one menu item to edit the captured area. The scrap board may be hidable from view.
The display unit may display a printing page including the captured and edited area as a full screen.
The host apparatus may further include a storage unit, wherein the controller may store the captured area in the storage unit or may control the communication unit to communicate at least one of a print operation, a save operation, a transmit operation, a send to email operation, a send to fax operation, a send operation to a communication network, and a send operation to a file transfer protocol (FTP) host.
The user interface may also receive a selection of at least one printing page among printing pages including the at least one captured area.
The user interface may also receive a selection of the captured area displayed in the first area, and the display unit may display a web site corresponding to the selected captured area.
Exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept may also provide a method of printing at least a portion of a displayed web page, the method including receiving a selection of at least one area of the displayed web page, displaying the at least one selected area in a first area of a display, editing the at least one selected area displayed in the first area, and printing the at least one edited selected area that is displayed in the first area.
Exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept may also provide a web page printing system, including a host apparatus having a communication unit to transmit printing data, a display unit to display a web page, a user interface to receive a selection of at least one area to be captured on the displayed web page, and to edit the captured area, and a controller to control the display unit to display the at least one captured area in a first area, and to control the communication unit to transmit printing data comprising the at least one captured and edited area to the image forming apparatus, and an image forming apparatus to receive the printing data from the host apparatus, and to print the printing data.
The above and/or other features and utilities of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Reference will now be made in detail to the exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures.
The host apparatus 100 connects with an image forming apparatus 200 through a wired/wireless network or a local proximity network and communicates data with at least one image forming apparatus 200. The host apparatus 100 may be a personal computer (PC), a server, etc. The image forming apparatus 200 may be achieved by a printer, a copying machine, a multifunction peripheral having two or more functions, etc.
As illustrated in
The user interface 110 may provide and receive one or more input selections from a user. Specifically, a user selects at least one capture area 22 (refer to
The user interface 110 may include a keyboard, a mouse, a touch panel, etc. or any other suitable input device provided as an input unit of the host apparatus 100, and may include a graphic user interface (GUI) generated by execution of a driver or a separate application and displayed to be selectable by a user on the display unit 120. Selections made by a user via the GUI may be received by the user interface 110. For example, as illustrated in
The display unit 120 displays the web page screen 20 including the scrap board 30 (or a scrap book).
Referring to
The scrap board (30) may be hidden according to a user's selection. Also, the display unit 120 may change a pointer shape of the mouse into “+,” or any other suitable symbol, thereby informing a user that a web page printing mode is selected.
The display unit 120 may display the selected capture area 22 as distinguished from a background area of the web page screen 20 excluding the capture area 22 if at least one capture area 22 is selected on the web page screen 20 through the user interface 110.
That is, a user may select the capture area 20 by selecting a point on the web page screen 20 and dragging it to another point using the user interface 110 (e.g., a mouse or the like). The selected capture area 22 may be surrounded with a boundary line such as a dotted line or the like, so that a user can recognize the area as the selected area from the other images in the web page screen 20. Thus, a user can designate the selected capture area 22 and adjust the size thereof using the user interface 110 (e.g., a mouse, etc.).
The display unit 120 may shade the background area of the web page screen 20 such that the web page screen is shaded with the exception of the selected capture area 22, so that a user can easily recognize the selected capture area 22. For example, the display unit 120 may make the background area dim, darker, or transparent, or distinctively change the capture area 22 or the background area in color, so as to distinguish the selected capture area 22 from the other areas of the web page screen 20.
Referring to
As illustrated in
Referring to
The host apparatus 100 may capture the capture area selected by a user. The captured image area may capture image data, rather than a unit of a hyper text markup language (HTML) object having a stack structure. As the capture area is captured as an image or image data, there is no restriction on selecting the capture area 22. For example, the selection can be performed across a HTML tag or even a portion of an image, a flash animation, a moving picture, or any other text, image, icon, or data displayed in the in the web page screen 20 as illustrated in
Referring to
The menu area 31 includes at least one button (e.g., menu item button 31a) that corresponds to a check box, radio button, or other selectable item to select one or more printing pages, adding a page, deleting a page, print settings, open, save (including save as), and printing. The page area 32 may include a plurality of capture areas 22 and 23 as illustrated in
A user may select one or more of the buttons of the menu area 31, and may edit the printing page including at least one capture area 22.
In more detail, a user may edit the printing page so as to change a title of the printing page. That is, the name of the web site corresponding to the capture areas 22 and 23 initially added to the corresponding printing page may be designated as the title of the printing page, and the title of the printing page may be selectively changed by a user.
A user may select the corresponding button of the menu area 31 to thereby perform one or more editing functions such as: adding or deleting a printing page; changing a printing order; changing a margin; adding, modifying or deleting a head/tail; adjusting the size of the capture areas 22 and 23; adding or deleting the capture area 22 and 23; adding, modifying or deleting a text; drawing a line; drawing a figure; filling at least a portion of the printing page 22 with a color; canceling a color, deleting an image; reordering (bring forward, bring to front, send backward, send to back) an image; rotating an image (e.g., rotating the image in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction), etc.
The display unit 120 may display the margin in each printing page according to a user's selection. The user may edit the margin of the printing page to increase or decrease the margin size with the user interface 110.
The menu area 31 may include an undo-button to cancel or reverse an editing job to one step before, and a redo-button to cancel the undoing job, i.e., do the editing job again, to provide increased convenience and editing functionality to the user.
The display unit 120 may include a liquid crystal display (LCD), a driver (not illustrated) to drive the LCD, etc.
At least one printing page edited as described above may be stored in the storage unit 130 as a file having a predetermined format. The file stored in the storage unit 130 may be an image file having a format such as bmp, tiff, jpg, etc. or a job file having a predetermined format (e.g., w2p).
If the printing page is stored as the job file, a user may select the open-button of the menu area 31 with the user interface 110 to load the stored job file and to edit the job file in the state that the display unit 120 displays the printing page corresponding to the job file.
Further, if a plurality of printing pages are displayed in the scrap board 30, a user may selectively store one or more printing pages in the storage unit 130.
The storage unit 130 may include an internal storage medium such as a hard disk drive (HDD), an external or portable storage medium such as a universal serial bus (USB) memory and a memory card (a memory stick, a compact flash (CF) card, a multimedia card (MMC)). The storage unit 130 may be any suitable internal or external digital storage device.
The host apparatus 100 includes the communication unit 140 to communicate via a wired and/or wireless communication link with one or more devices, including at least one image forming apparatus 200. Specifically, if the communication unit 140 receives a command of printing the printing page including at least one capture area from the controller 150 and/or the user interface 110, the communication unit 140 transmits printing data corresponding to the edited printing page (e.g., printing data from the storage unit 130) to the image forming apparatus 200. If the plurality of printing pages are displayed on the scrap board 30, a user may select one or more of the printing pages to be printed with the user interface 110.
The image forming apparatus 200 receives the printing data from the host apparatus 100 and prints based on the received printing data.
The communication unit 140 may include a wire/wireless communication module connectable with the image forming apparatus 200 locally or through a network based on a predetermined protocol, or a universal serial bus (USB) port connectable with a portable storage medium such as a USB memory.
The controller 150 controls the display unit 120, the communication unit 140, and the storage unit 130 of the host apparatus 100. For example, the controller 150 may receive input from the user interface 110, and control the display unit 120 the storage unit 130, and/or the communication unit 140 according to the received input from the user interface 110.
The controller 150 may control the display unit 120 to display the scrap board 30 including at least one printing page on an area of the web page screen 20 if the web-page print menu button 21 is selected through the user interface 110.
If at least one capture area 22 is selected on the web page screen 20 through the user interface 110, the controller 150 controls the display unit 120 to display the selected capture area 22 as distinguished from a background area of the web page screen 20 excluding the capture area 22. Also, the controller 150 controls the display unit 120 to display at least one selected capture area 22 on the scrap board 30.
If the controller 150 receives a command to edit the printing page displayed on the scrap board 30 through the user interface 110, and controls the display unit 120 to display the edited printing page on the scrap board 30.
A user may select to move to the corresponding web site by selecting the capture areas 22 and 23 on the scrap board 30. In more detail, if predetermined capture areas 22 and 23 are selected on the scrap board 30 through the user interface 110, the controller 150 controls the display unit 120 to display the web pages corresponding to the web sites linked to the corresponding capture areas 22 and 23. Here, the controller 150 may display the corresponding web site on a new window or the currently open window.
The controller 150 may control the display unit 120 to display the printing page edited by a user's selection as a full screen. For example, a user may select the full screen button 35 on the scrap board 30 of
As illustrated in
The menu item toolbar 41 includes at least one menu item button corresponding to adding a page, deleting a page, print settings, open, save, print, etc. The menu item toolbar 41 may include a drop-down list in which the number of pages to be displayed within one screen is selectable. In the host apparatus 100, a user may select the number of pages illustrated in
Through the full screen illustrated in
The controller 150 controls the display unit 120 to display the printing page edited corresponding to the received editing command input through the user interface 110 on the full screen 40 of
The host apparatus 100 in this embodiment employs the full screen 40 of
In the meantime, the controller 150 may control the display unit 120 to display the preview screen 50 providing a preview function with respect to the web page.
As illustrated in
The controller 150 controls the display unit 120 to display the preview screen 50 as illustrated in
Specifically, the preview screen 50 of
The menu item toolbar 51 includes at least one menu item button corresponding to page settings, a margin hide/view, a header hide/view, print, rate of extension/reduction, zoom in/out, etc. The menu item toolbar 51 may further include a check box for selecting all web pages 52 and 53. According to the host apparatus 100 in this embodiment, a user may select the number of pages illustrated within one window as one among one, two and three.
The controller 150 may perform a screen capture using scrolling the full screen with respect to the web pages 52 and 53 in response to a user's selection of the preview item 25 as illustrated in
Through the foregoing preview function, the host apparatus 100 may print the web page fully without omission.
According to exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept, the host apparatus 100 may select a layout with respect to the printing page, and print the printing page edited according to the selected layout. For example, a layout may be selected by the host apparatus 100 based at least in part from input received from the user interface 110.
As illustrated in
If a user selects the layout to be applied to the printing page, the controller 150 controls the display unit 120 to display the layout selecting window 61 in which at least one layout is selectable.
When one of at least one layout is selected through the user interface 110, the controller 150 controls the display unit 120 to display the printing page 62 to which the selected layout is applied. Here, the layout provided to a user may be previously stored in the storage unit 130.
In addition to providing one or more layouts, the host apparatus 100 may provide selections to a user to directly design the layout.
A user may select with the user interface 110 at least one capture area 22 on the web page screen 20, and may add the selected capture area 22 to the printing page 62 to which the layout is applied, using the drag-and-drop or the context menu 24. A user may edit the printing page 62 to which the layout is applied through the menu item button of the menu area 31, and correspondingly the controller 150 controls the display unit 120 to display the edited printing page 62.
Thus, a user may edit the printing page through the one or more applied layouts.
The host apparatus 100 may display an application execution menu 70 on an area (e.g., a bottom as illustrated in
The application execution menu 70 includes buttons corresponding to at least one of send to E-mail, send to fax, send to web, send to FTP, save, print, etc., and a user selects the corresponding button with the user interface 110 to transmit the printing page 32, 33, 62 including at least one capture area 22, 23 as an attached file such as E-mail, fax, etc. to one or more communicatively coupled devices through the communication unit 140; or store it as a predetermined image file in a web, a file transfer protocol (FTP) server, the storage unit 130 provided in the host apparatus 100, etc. A user may select a print button of the application execution menu 70 to convert the printing page 32, 33, 62 into printing data of a predetermined printing language, so that the printing data can be transmitting to the image forming apparatus 200 through the communication unit 140.
The host apparatus 100 may provide a selectable button in the application execution menu 70 so as to be linked to an application such as an MS-word, Excel, PDF, MS Visio, Notepad, etc.
A user may select the application execution menu 70 and edit the printing page 32, 33, 62 on the executed application. If a button corresponding to the PDF is selected, the printing page 32, 33, 62 is converted into a file having a PDF format based on a text. The text may be searched through a text searching menu. The converted PDF file may be stored in the storage unit 130 by a user's selection via the user interface 110 or as a temporary file.
The host apparatus 100 may use the scrap board 30 to edit and print the web pages. The host apparatus 100 may provide selectable functions related to the full screen, the preview, the layout, the link to the application, etc., for a user to edit the printing page.
In the host apparatus 100 with the above-described configuration, a web page printing method according to exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to
As illustrated in
At operation S120 a user selects at least one capture area 22 on the web page screen 20 through the user interface 110. The controller 150 captures the selected capture area 22 as an image, and controls the display unit 120 to display the selected capture area 22 as distinguished from the background area.
At operation S130, the host apparatus 100 displays at least one capture area 22 selected in the operation S120 on the scrap board 30. A user may select the layout to be applied to the printing page 32, 33.
At operation S140, a user may edit the printing page displayed in the operation S130 on the scrap board 30. A user may edit the printing page by selecting the full screen 40, and may edit the whole web page screen 20 by selecting the preview screen 50. The edited printing page may be stored as a file having a predetermined format or transmitted to one or more devices communicatively coupled to the host apparatus 100. The edited printing page may be run by one or more linked compatible applications.
At operation S150 the host apparatus 100 prints the printing page edited in the operation S140.
The host apparatus 100 may edit the web page, and the image forming apparatus may print the edited web page, but exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept are not limited thereto. Alternatively, a web page editor may be provided in the image forming apparatus 200, and therefore the image forming apparatus 200 can edit and print the web site.
As described above, the present general inventive concept provides a host apparatus connecting with an image forming apparatus and a web page printing method thereof, for a user to select, edit and print a desired area from a web page.
Further, it is easy for a user to ascertain an edited state of a web page at a glance through a screen division without one or more separate operations such as selecting a preview or the like, and edit the web page as desired.
The present general inventive concept can also be embodied as computer-readable codes on a computer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium can include a computer-readable recording medium and a computer-readable transmission medium. The computer-readable recording medium is any data storage device that can store data as a program which can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of the computer-readable recording medium include read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks, and optical data storage devices. The computer-readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer-readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion. The computer-readable transmission medium can be transmitted through carrier waves or signals (e.g., wired or wireless data transmission through the Internet). Also, functional programs, codes, and code segments to accomplish the present general inventive concept can be easily construed by programmers skilled in the art to which the present general inventive concept pertains.
Although several exemplary embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been illustrated and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the present general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008-0133041 | Dec 2008 | KR | national |
