INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS AND PRINT CONTROL METHOD

Abstract

An apparatus and method for controlling printing including setting a print attribute to a specific page or a specific page range in a print job, permitting an application to produce print data, analyzing the print data and searching for a page break code in a case where the application is permitted to produce the print data and the print attribute in the print job is set, and inserting, into the print data, a print attribute command to specify the print attribute, wherein the print attribute command is inserted according to the result of the search for the page break code.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments, features, and aspects of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.

FIG. 1 illustrates a printing system according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates a property sheet of a printer driver according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 illustrates a page setting sheet of the printer driver according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 illustrates of a finishing sheet of the printer driver according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates a special setting sheet of the printer driver according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 illustrates a page exception detailed setting dialog of the printer driver according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 illustrates a device setting sheet of the printer driver according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 illustrates a configuration of an application, an OS, and the printer driver installed on a client computer according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart that illustrates a flow of processing by which a user sets print attributes through the printer driver according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flow of the printing according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 schematically illustrates a data flow of a pass-through application according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of printing at a time of producing a PDL code by the pass-through application according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 illustrates a configuration of an application, an OS, and a printer driver installed on a client computer according to a first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 illustrates an inner module of a graphic driver according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 illustrates a page break code table according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flow chart that illustrates an operation according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 illustrates a job in a conventional job ticket system.

FIG. 18 illustrates a job according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 illustrates the PDL code that includes a code “showpage” according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 20 illustrates the PDL code that includes a print attribute changing code according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 21 illustrates the PDL code that includes a code “sp” according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 illustrates the PDL code that includes the print attribute changing code according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 23 illustrates a configuration of an application, an OS, and a printer driver installed on a client computer according to a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 illustrates an inner module of a graphic driver according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 illustrates a pass-through application table according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a flow chart that illustrates an operation according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 27 illustrates the PDL code that includes the page break code according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 28 illustrates the PDL code that includes the print attribute changing code according to the second exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 illustrates a hardware configuration of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus configured to execute an application that issues a rendering command to print a document and produces print data that a printing apparatus can interpret and a print control program that produces a print job including print data based on the rendering command, the information apparatus comprising: a print attribute setting unit configured to set a print attribute to a specific page or a specific page range in the print job;a permission unit configured to permit the application to produce print data that the printing apparatus can interpret;an analysis unit configured to analyze the print data produced by the application and search for a page break code in a case where the application is permitted to produce the print data and the print attribute setting unit sets the print attribute for a specific page or a specific page range in the print job; anda command insertion unit configured to insert, into the print data, a print attribute command to specify the print attribute to provide the specific page or the specific page range with the print attribute, wherein the print attribute command is inserted according to a result of a search for the page break code by the analysis unit.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print attribute is set according to an instruction issued by a user.

3. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a determination unit configured to determine whether the application is capable of producing print data that the printing apparatus can interpret, andwherein the permission unit, when the determination unit determines that the application is capable of producing print data that the printing apparatus can interpret, permits the application to produce the print data.

4. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a page break code storage unit configured to store a plurality of page break codes for at least one application, andwherein the analysis unit searches the print data produced by the at least one application for a predetermined page break code of the at least one application stored by the page break code storage unit.

5. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the command insertion unit counts pages of the print data in accordance with the search for the page break code by the analysis unit, and wherein when the page count is equivalent to a first page of the specific page or the specific page range, the command insertion unit inserts, into the print data, the print attribute command to specify the print attribute.

6. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a print attribute determination unit configured to determine whether a print attribute, different than a print attribute for the entire print job, is set to the specific page or the specific page range by the print attribute setting unit, whereinwhen it is determined that the print attribute different than the print attribute for the entire print job is not set to the specific page or the specific page range, the print data is not analyzed and the print job including the print data is sent directly to the printing apparatus.

7. A method for controlling printing in an information processing apparatus configured to execute an application that issues a rendering command to print a document and produces print data that a printing apparatus can interpret and a print control program that produces a print job including print data based on the rendering command, the method comprising: setting a print attribute to a specific page or a specific page range in the print job;permitting the application to produce print data that the printing apparatus can interpret;analyzing the print data produced by the application and searching for a page break code in a case where the application is permitted to produce the print data and the print attribute for a specific page or a specific page range in the print job is set; andinserting, into the print data, a print attribute command to specify the print attribute to provide the specific page or the specific page range with the print attribute, wherein the print attribute command is inserted according to a result of a search for the page break code.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the print attribute is set according to an instruction issued by a user.

9. The method according to claim 7, further comprising: determining whether the application is capable of producing print data that the printing apparatus can interpret, andwherein permitting the application to produce the print data when it is determined that the application is capable of producing the print data.

10. The method according to claim 7, further comprising: reading a plurality of page break codes for at least one application stored in a memory of the information processing apparatus, andwherein the print data produced by the at least one application is searched for a predetermined page break code of the at least one application from among the plurality of read page break codes.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein inserting a print attribute command includes counting pages of the print data in accordance with searching for the page break code, and wherein when the page count is equivalent to a first page of the specific page or the specific page range, the print attribute command to specify the print attribute is inserted into the print data.

12. The method according to claim 7, further comprising: determining whether a print attribute different than a print attribute for the entire print job is set to the specific page or the specific page range, whereinwhen it is determined that the print attribute different than the print attribute for the entire print job is not set to the specific page or the specific page range, the print data is not analyzed and the print job including the print data is sent directly to the printing apparatus.

13. Computer-executable process steps stored on a computer-readable storage medium configured to produce a print job including print data that a printing apparatus can interpret based on a rendering command, which can be executed by an information processing apparatus that executes an application that issues the rendering command to print a document and produces print data, the computer-executable process steps comprising: setting a print attribute to a specific page or a specific page range in the print job;permitting the application to produce print data that the printing apparatus can interpret;analyzing the print data produced by the application and searching for a page break code in a case where the application is permitted to produce the print data and the print attribute for a specific page or a specific page range in the print job is set; andinserting, into the print data, a print attribute command to specify the print attribute to provide the specific page or the specific page range with the print attribute, wherein the print attribute command is inserted according to a result of a search for the page break code.

14. The computer-executable process steps according to claim 13, wherein the print attribute is set according to a user instruction.

15. The computer-executable process steps according to claim 13, further comprising: determining whether the application is capable of producing a print data that the printing apparatus can interpret,wherein permitting the application to produce the print data when it is determined that the application is capable of producing the print data.

16. The computer-executable process steps according to claim 13, further comprising: reading a plurality of page break codes for at least one application stored in a memory of the information processing apparatus, andwherein the print data produced by the at least one application is searched for a predetermined page break code of the at least one application from among the plurality of read page break codes.

17. The computer-executable process steps according to claim 13, wherein inserting a print attribute command includes counting pages of the print data according to searching for the page break code, and wherein when the page count is equivalent to a first page of the specific page or the specific page range, the print attribute command to specify the print attribute is inserted into the print data.

18. The computer-executable process steps according to claim 13, further comprising: determining whether a print attribute different than a print attribute for the entire print job is set to the specific page or the specific page range, whereinwhen it is determined that the print attribute different than the print attribute for the entire print job is not set to the specific page or the specific page range, the print data is not analyzed and the print job including the print data is sent directly to the printing apparatus.