Support program

Abstract

To provide a technique to reduce time and effort to perform a compulsory print setting when performing printing with a predetermined printer, in an information processing apparatus that has an OS-standard general purpose printing program incorporated therein.SOLUTION: According to an auxiliary program 42, a PC 1 acquires automatic setting information 51 stored by a printer 2 connected with the PC 1. The automatic setting information 51 stores information indicating whether to perform predetermined image processing on an image to be printed. Upon receiving a print instruction output from an editing application 43, the print instruction for a general purpose printing program 41 incorporated in advance in an OS 21 to cause the printer 2 to print an image, and when the acquired automatic setting information 51 indicates performing the predetermined image processing, the PC 1 changes a print setting concerning the print instruction to a setting for performing the predetermined image processing.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The technical field disclosed in this specification relates to a support program that supports control of a printer. [Background technology]

[0002] A configuration for forcibly setting print settings using a printer driver is known as a technology for controlling a printer from an information processing device such as a personal computer. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technology in which a system administrator describes print settings to be forced in an installation setting file, provides an installation package containing the installation setting file to a user, and the user installs a printer driver using the installation package, thereby generating a print queue corresponding to the printer driver reflecting the print settings to be forced in the information processing device. Patent Document 1 also discloses a technology for accepting input of print settings to be forced from a user while an installation program is running, instead of using an installation setting file. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] JP 2016-110519 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In recent years, a technology has been put into practical use that controls a printer using a print program built into the operating system (OS) as standard, without using the printer driver mentioned above. With this technology, the OS associates the printer with the OS's standard print program, and after that, when a print instruction is received for that printer, printing can be performed using the OS's standard print program, without using a printer driver.

[0005] As mentioned above, there is a technology that allows forced print settings to be made by the printer driver. In this case, it is necessary to prepare an installation setting file to make such print settings, or to input such print settings during installation, which is troublesome for the system administrator or user. Even if such forced settings are made when printing using the OS-standard general-purpose printing program mentioned above, such setup work is troublesome and there is room for improvement.

[0006] This specification discloses a technique for reducing the effort required for forced print settings when printing on a specific printer in an information processing device incorporating a general-purpose print program that is standard for the OS. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The support program made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems is executable by a computer of an information processing device, and is a support program corresponding to a printer connected to the information processing device, and causes the computer to execute an acquisition process to acquire automatic setting information, which is information stored by an external device and is information indicating whether or not a specified image processing is to be performed on an image to be printed, among the print settings for causing the printer to print, and further causes the computer to execute an automatic setting process to change the print settings for the print instruction to a setting that performs the specified image processing when a print instruction is output from an application program built into the information processing device and is a print instruction to cause the printer to print an image to a general-purpose print program pre-built into the operating system of the information processing device, and when the automatic setting information acquired in the acquisition process indicates that the specified image processing is to be performed.

[0008] According to the support program disclosed in this specification, the information processing device acquires automatic setting information indicating whether or not to perform a predetermined image processing when printing on the printer, and if it is indicated that the predetermined image processing is to be performed, sets the print settings to a setting that performs the predetermined image processing. In other words, the print settings of the print instruction are automatically set to a setting that performs the predetermined image processing by the support program, reducing the user's effort in forcibly setting the print settings. In addition, since the automatic setting information is stored in an external device, the predetermined image processing on the printer can be managed by the external device.

[0009] An information processing device incorporating the support program, a computer-readable storage medium storing the support program, and a control method for realizing the functions of the support program are also novel and useful. Effect of the Invention

[0010] The technology disclosed in this specification realizes a technology that reduces the effort required to make forced print settings when printing on a specified printer on an information processing device that has a general-purpose printing program built into it that is standard for the OS. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the electrical configuration of a PC. [Diagram 2] FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of the first half of a procedure of a printing operation by each program. [Diagram 3] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a setting screen. [Figure 4] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of automatic setting information. [Diagram 5] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a setting screen. [Figure 6] 11 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a latter half of the procedure of the printing operation by each program. FIG. [Figure 7] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a preview screen. [Figure 8] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the electrical configuration of a PC. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] A personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as a "PC") using the support program of the present embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. This specification discloses a support program executed by a PC connected to a printer having a printing function.

[0013] As shown in Fig. 1, the PC1 of this embodiment includes a controller 10 including a CPU 11 and a memory 12. The PC1 is an example of an information processing device. The CPU 11 is an example of a computer. The PC1 also includes 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 collective term for hardware and software used to control the PC1, and does not necessarily represent a single piece of hardware actually present in the PC1.

[0014] The CPU 11 executes various processes according to the programs read from the memory 12 and based on the user's operation. 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 work 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 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.

[0015] The user IF 13 includes hardware for displaying a screen for notifying the user of information and hardware for accepting operations by the user. The user IF 13 may be a combination of a display capable of displaying information and a mouse or keyboard having an input acceptance function, or may be a touch panel having a display function and an input acceptance function.

[0016] 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 provided with a plurality of communication IFs 14 compatible with a plurality of communication standards.

[0017] 1, an operating system (hereinafter, referred to as "OS") 21 including a general-purpose printing program 41, an auxiliary program 42, and an editing application 43 are stored in the memory 12 of the PC 1. 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).

[0018] The general-purpose printing program 41 is an OS standard program for causing various printers, such as the printer 2, to execute printing based on a user's instruction. The general-purpose printing program 41 in this embodiment is a program that includes a function for generating intermediate image data based on the image data to be printed. The intermediate image data is, for example, XPS data.

[0019] The generic print program 41 supports functions that can be used in common by multiple models of printers provided by various printer vendors. The generic print program 41 does not support all of the unique functions of various printers, and the functions it supports are limited to generic ones.

[0020] The auxiliary program 42 is a program or a group of programs that executes processing based on instructions from the OS 21 in conjunction with the processing of the general-purpose printing program 41, and is an application that supports the control of the target hardware. The auxiliary program 42 in this embodiment corresponds to the model of the printer 2 connected to the PC 1, and is started from the general-purpose printing program 41 when, for example, an instruction to cause the printer 2 to execute printing using the general-purpose printing program 41 is received. The auxiliary program 42 is called, for example, a hardware support application (abbreviated as HSA).

[0021] The auxiliary program 42 can receive a variety of commands from the general-purpose printing program 41 and executes various processes based on the received commands. The auxiliary program 42 may be a combination of a number of programs each of which receives an execution command, or may be a single program that can execute different processes according to commands.

[0022] The auxiliary program may be a program prepared by the printer vendor for each type of printer. For example, an auxiliary program for an inkjet printer and an auxiliary program for a laser printer may be prepared. For example, when a new printer is connected to the PC1, the OS21 of the 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, the OS21 associates the identification information of the incorporated auxiliary program with the printer information of the newly connected printer and stores it in the 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.

[0023] 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 predetermined 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.

[0024] The printer 2 of this embodiment is a device having a printing function. The PC 1 can communicate with the printer 2 via the communication IF 14. The printer 2 receives print data from the PC 1 or the like, and executes printing based on the received print data. The printer 2 of this embodiment stores automatic setting information 51 in the memory of the printer 2. The automatic setting information 51 will be described later.

[0025] Next, the first half of the printing procedure including the operation of the auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of Fig. 2. Fig. 2 shows the operation when an application that accepts a print instruction, such as an editing application 43, causes the printer 2 to print using a general-purpose print program 41, and when the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2 is installed in the PC 1.

[0026] Note that the processes and each processing step of the flowchart in this embodiment basically indicate the processes of the CPU 11 according to the instructions written in a program such as the auxiliary program 42. The processes by the CPU 11 also include hardware control using the API of the OS 21. In this specification, the operation of each program will be explained without a detailed description of the OS 21. Also, "obtain" is used as a concept that does not necessarily require a request.

[0027] The editing application 43 accepts creation and editing of text, charts, etc. based on user instructions. When the editing application 43 accepts an instruction to print selected text, etc. (A01), it displays a print screen for accepting instructions from the user on the user IF 13 (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.

[0028] When the editing application 43 receives an instruction to start accepting detailed print settings while the 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 the printer 2, which is the selected printer (A05).

[0029] The auxiliary program 42 starts operation based on an execution instruction from the general-purpose printing program 41, and displays a setting screen for receiving input operations of detailed print settings on the user IF 13 (A06). A06 is an example of a setting screen display process. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the auxiliary program 42 displays a setting screen 100 for receiving compatible detailed settings based on the model information of the printer 2, and receives operations from the user.

[0030] Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 acquires a user ID indicating a user currently logged in to the PC 1 (A07). The user ID is, for example, a user name, and is identification information for identifying a user. A07 is an example of an identification information acquisition process. The auxiliary program 42 may acquire the user ID from, for example, the OS 21, or may inquire of the user in A07 and accept input of the user ID.

[0031] When the auxiliary program 42 displays the setting screen 100 in A06, it transmits an acquisition request for requesting function information to the printer 2 via the communication IF 14 (A11). The auxiliary program 42 adds the user ID information acquired in A07 to the acquisition request of A11. Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 receives the function information from the printer 2 (A12).

[0032] 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, 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 a communication protocol of the OS 21, such as IPP (short for internet printing protocol).

[0033] The printer 2 of this embodiment stores in the memory of the printer 2 automatic setting information 51 that specifies the type of processing that is automatically set in accordance with the user ID, for example, as shown in FIG. The printer 2 is an example of an external device. The automatic setting information 51 is information on a process (hereinafter, "forced process") that is forcibly set for a print job printed by the printer 2, regardless of the intention of the user who submits the print job. The forced process may be a process that can be executed by the printer 2, or a process that cannot be executed by the printer 2. Furthermore, the print setting by the forced process may be a setting that can be supported by the general-purpose printing program 41, or a setting that cannot be supported by the general-purpose printing program 41.

[0034] The forced process is a process that does not accept changes made by a user who issues a print instruction, and is set in advance by, for example, an administrator of the printer 2. The printer 2 of this embodiment accepts in advance the input of the automatic setting information 51, for example, by an administrator inputting the information into an operation panel, and stores the information in the memory of the printer 2. For example, the printer 2 accepts the designation of the automatic setting information 51 in combination with an administrator password or the like, and does not accept changes to the automatic setting information 51 unless the password is entered. If the forced process is set in the automatic setting information 51, the auxiliary program 42 does not accept changes to the forced process by an instruction input from a user who issues a print instruction. Since a different forced process can be set for each user as the automatic setting information 51, an image that has been subjected to appropriate image processing for each user can be printed.

[0035] Examples of forced processes set in the automatic setting information 51 include watermark addition, consolidated printing such as 2-in-1, grayscale printing, and double-sided printing. The forced watermark addition process is a process in which an image of image data included in a print job is composited with a pre-specified watermark image, and the composite image is used as the image to be printed. For example, by setting the watermark addition setting for printing with printer 2 to automatic setting, a watermark is automatically added by selecting printer 2. This eliminates the need to set the watermark addition when issuing a print instruction, significantly reducing the user's effort and preventing forgetting to add a watermark.

[0036] In addition, forced aggregate printing is a process for a print job that includes images of multiple pages, where images of a predetermined number of pages, such as two pages, are reduced and included on one sheet of paper, and the aggregated image is the image to be printed. By setting the image to be automatically aggregated, resources can be used more effectively than when printing one page at a time.

[0037] The forced grayscale printing process is a process in which, when the print settings include a color print setting, the color print setting is changed to a grayscale print setting or a monochrome print setting and then the print processing is executed.The forced double-sided printing process is a process in which, when the image to be printed includes an image of multiple pages and the print settings are set to single-sided printing, the print settings are changed to double-sided printing and then the print processing is executed.

[0038] In response to the acquisition request of A11, the printer 2 reads out information on the forced processing corresponding to the user ID added to the acquisition request from the automatic setting information 51, and transmits function information including the read information on the forced processing to the PC 1 at A12. The auxiliary program 42 obtains information on the forced processing set for the logged-in user from the function information received at A12 (A21). A21 is an example of an acquisition process.

[0039] Note that the printer 2 may not perform forced processing if information on forced processing corresponding to the user ID added to the acquisition request is not included in the automatic setting information 51. Alternatively, information on forced processing corresponding to an unregistered user may be included in the automatic setting information 51. In this case, the printer 2 responds with information on forced processing corresponding to an unregistered user if information corresponding to the user ID added to the acquisition request is not included in the automatic setting information 51.

[0040] Then, if some forced processing corresponding to this user is set in the automatic setting information 51, the auxiliary program 42 automatically sets the print settings to a setting that performs the forced processing (A22). A22 is an example of an automatic setting process. In other words, the auxiliary program 42 reflects the automatic setting information 51 in the print settings without going through the general-purpose printing program 41. Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 changes and displays the setting screen 100 displayed in A06 based on the automatically set forced processing (A23).

[0041] For example, in the example shown in FIG. 4, if the logged-in user is user A, forced processing of grayscale printing is set as forced processing. Therefore, the auxiliary program 42 changes the color printing setting included in the print settings to the grayscale printing setting, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, and displays the changed setting screen 100 on the user IF 13. Furthermore, in this case, the auxiliary program 42 does not accept a change to color printing on the setting screen 100. Also, for example, if 2in1 is set as forced processing, the auxiliary program 42 changes the layout setting of the print settings to the 2in1 setting, displays the setting screen 100, and does not accept a change to the layout setting. By restricting the change of the print settings related to forced processing, the user can know that forced processing will be performed.

[0042] Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 stores information on the forced process set corresponding to the logged-in user in an area of ​​the memory 12 that can be used by the auxiliary program 42 (A24). If no forced process corresponding to the user is set, that is, if the function information received in A12 does not include information on the forced process, the auxiliary program 42 does not execute A21 to A23. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 4, if the logged-in user is user E, no forced process is set, so the auxiliary program 42 does not change the print settings and does not change the setting screen 100. In this case, the auxiliary program 42 may store in A24 that no forced process is set, or may not store the forced process.

[0043] The auxiliary program 42 accepts user instruction input for print settings other than forced processing on the displayed setting screen 100. When the auxiliary program 42 accepts an instruction to end detailed settings on the setting screen 100, it ends the display of the setting screen 100 and passes a termination notice to the general-purpose printing program 41. Note that before terminating, the auxiliary program 42 may store information about the print settings instructed by the user in an area of ​​the memory 12 that can be used by the auxiliary program 42. Upon receiving the termination notice from the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose printing program 41 passes a termination notice to the editing application 43.

[0044] Next, the latter half of the printing procedure including the operation of the auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of Fig. 6. The procedure shown in Fig. 6 is a procedure that is performed after the procedure shown in Fig. 2 is executed. In other words, at the start of the procedure shown in Fig. 6, information on forced processing is stored in the memory 12.

[0045] When the editing application 43 receives a print execution instruction from the user on the print screen (A31), it passes the print instruction to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A32). The general-purpose printing program 41 obtains information indicating image data of the image to be printed and information indicating print settings from the print instruction. The print settings included in the information passed from the editing application 43 to the general-purpose printing program 41 include print settings specified by the user issuing the print instruction and print settings for which the above-mentioned forced processing has been automatically set.

[0046] 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 intermediate image data may be used as is.

[0047] The general-purpose printing program 41 further outputs an execution instruction to the auxiliary program 42 (A34), and operates the auxiliary program 42. In the execution instruction, the generated intermediate image data and print setting information are passed to the auxiliary program 42. That is, the auxiliary program 42 obtains the intermediate image data from the OS 21 in A34.

[0048] Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 judges whether or not a forced process corresponding to the logged-in user is set (A35). The auxiliary program 42 makes the judgment in A35 based on the information on the forced process stored in the memory 12 in A24 of FIG. 2. If the auxiliary program 42 has not yet executed A11 to A12 of FIG. 2, it communicates with the printer 2 after starting execution in A34 to acquire function information from the printer 2. If the auxiliary program 42 communicates with the printer 2 while the setting screen 100 for accepting detailed settings is displayed and stores the information on the automatic setting in the memory 12, and reads the information on the automatic setting from the memory 12 based on a print instruction, it is possible to finish the process after the print instruction is accepted earlier than when the auxiliary program 42 communicates with the printer 2 at the timing of accepting the print instruction. On the other hand, if the auxiliary program 42 communicates with the printer 2 based on a print instruction and acquires the information on the automatic setting, it is possible to perform the forced process based on the latest automatic setting information 51.

[0049] If it is determined that a forced process has been set (alt: [Yes]), the auxiliary program 42 generates a preview image based on the print setting information including the set forced process (A41). For example, if the forced process is to add a watermark, the auxiliary program 42 performs image processing to combine the specified watermark image with the intermediate image data acquired in A34. Note that information on the watermark image is included in the automatic setting information 51, which the auxiliary program 42 can acquire from the printer 2 in A12.

[0050] The auxiliary program 42 then displays the generated preview image on the user IF 13, thereby performing a preview display (A42). A42 is an example of a preview process. The auxiliary program 42 displays, for example, a preview screen 60 as shown in FIG. 7. The preview screen 60 shown in FIG. 7 is an example in which forced processing of adding a watermark is set. The preview screen 60 includes a preview image 61 which is an image in which a specified watermark image is combined with an image of the intermediate image data, a print button 62, and a print cancel button 63. By displaying the preview image 61 after the forced processing, the user can check the print image on the user IF 13 of the PC 1.

[0051] The auxiliary program 42 then accepts operation of the print button 62 or the print cancel button 63 on the displayed preview screen 60. If it determines that an operation of the print button 62 has been accepted (alt: [print]), the auxiliary program 42 generates print data based on the intermediate image data of the previewed image (A43). The print data generated in A43 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.

[0052] 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 printer 2 model.

[0053] Note that the general-purpose printing program 41 may generate the print data instead of the auxiliary program 42. In other words, the auxiliary program 42 may pass intermediate image data after image processing based on the forced processing information and information on print execution to the general-purpose printing program 41. The general-purpose printing program 41 may generate print data based on the intermediate image data received from the auxiliary program 42, and pass the generated print data to the auxiliary program 42.

[0054] The print data generated by the general-purpose print program 41 is print data in a format that can be used for printing by 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 small, which is expected to prevent an increase in processing time and also suppresses the program size of the auxiliary program 42.

[0055] Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 sends the generated print data to the printer 2 together with a print command that instructs the printer 2 to execute printing (A44). The printer 2, which has received the print data and the print command, executes printing of the image of the print data based on the received print command (A45). As a result, a printed matter is generated.

[0056] The printing data and printing commands may be sent to the printer 2 by the general-purpose printing program 41. In other words, the auxiliary program 42 may pass the generated printing 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 printing data received from the auxiliary program 42 to the printer 2.

[0057] On the other hand, if it is determined that an operation on the print cancel button 63 has been accepted on the preview screen 60 being displayed (alt: [Cancel]), the auxiliary program 42 passes a notification to cancel the print job to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A46). A46 is an example of a cancellation process. As a result, the general-purpose printing program 41 cancels the print job based on the print instruction received in A32, and ends the print processing. By accepting the cancellation of the print job while the preview image 61 is being displayed, printing unintended by the user can be avoided.

[0058] Furthermore, if it is determined that forced processing is not set (alt: [None]), the auxiliary program 42 generates print data based on the intermediate image data and print setting information received from the general-purpose printing program 41 in A34 (A47), and sends the generated print data to the printer 2 (A48). The printer 2 executes printing based on the received print data (A49). The procedures of A47 and A48 may also be performed by the general-purpose printing program 41 instead of the auxiliary program 42.

[0059] After sending the print data to the printer 2 in A44 or A48, the auxiliary program 42 notifies the general-purpose printing program 41 that sending of the print data has been completed. As a result, the general-purpose printing program 41 ends the processing of the print job based on the print instruction received in A32.

[0060] Furthermore, the printer 2 may have a function of rasterizing the intermediate image data. If the printer 2 has the rasterization function, the auxiliary program 42 may send a print command including the intermediate image data of the image to be printed to the printer 2 without generating print data of the image to be printed.

[0061] As described above in detail, according to the auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment, the PC 1 acquires information on forced processing included in the automatic setting information 51 from the printer 2, and if forced processing is set, automatically sets the print settings to forced processing. This reduces the user's effort in setting forced print settings because the print settings are automatically set to forced processing even if the user does not operate the print settings when issuing a print instruction.

[0062] It should be noted that the embodiments disclosed in this specification are merely examples and do not limit the present invention in any way. Therefore, the technology disclosed in this specification can be naturally improved and modified in various ways without departing from the gist of the technology. For example, the device connected to PC1 is not limited to a printer, but may be any device having a printing function, such as a multifunction device, a copier, or a fax machine. Furthermore, the number of printers connected to PC1 is not limited to the illustrated example, and may be two or more.

[0063] Also, for example, the auxiliary program 42 may obtain the information on the forced process in A11 and A12 in FIG. 2 not only from the printer 2 but also from an external device such as a server that can communicate with the PC 1. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, the printer 2 and the server 3 may be connected to the PC 1, and the server 3 may have the automatic setting information 51. In this configuration, the auxiliary program 42 makes an acquisition request of A11 in FIG. 2 to the server 3. In response to the request from the PC 1, the server 3 responds with A12 based on the stored automatic setting information 51. The auxiliary program 42 may perform the process from A21 onward based on the information obtained from the server 3. If the server 3 manages the automatic setting information 51, the memory load of the printer 2 is small. On the other hand, if the printer 2 manages the automatic setting information 51, the forced process can be set and managed for printing on each printer. In addition, when the server 3 manages the automatic setting information 51 and multiple printers are connected to the server 3, the server 3 may store the automatic setting information 51 in association with the printer information. The PC 1 adds information about the printer to be used to execute printing to the acquisition request of A11 in FIG. 2, and the server 3 responds with the corresponding information based on the information added to the request.

[0064] Moreover, the display screens shown in the figures are merely examples and are not limited thereto. For example, the arrangement and number of each image and each button displayed on the display screen are not limited to the examples shown in the figures. Moreover, the forced processes exemplified in the embodiment are merely examples and are not limited thereto. Only a part of the exemplified processes may be settable, or there may be other processes that can be set as forced processes. Moreover, the types of processes that can be set as forced processes may be previously possessed by the auxiliary program 42, or may be able to accept designation by the user.

[0065] In the embodiment, the automatic setting information 51 stores information on forced processing in association with a user ID, but this is not limited to the above. For example, the setting may be such that forced processing is performed uniformly for all users. In this case, user information is not required to determine forced processing, and the auxiliary program 42 does not need to acquire a user ID. Also, in A25 of FIG. 2, the auxiliary program 42 may store the acquired automatic setting information 51 information directly in the memory 12, not for each user. In this way, common print settings can be applied to all printing using the printer 2. Also, there is no need to set information on forced processing for each user as the automatic setting information 51, which is easy to use.

[0066] Also, for example, when information for each user is stored as the automatic setting information 51, the auxiliary program 42 transmits an acquisition request with user ID information added, and the printer 2 responds with the information of that user, but this is not limited to the above. For example, the printer 2 may respond with automatic setting information 51 for all users, and the auxiliary program 42 may extract information on the logged-in user from the received automatic setting information 51. In this case, it is not necessary to add user ID information to the acquisition request, and the auxiliary program 42 may acquire the user ID after receiving the automatic setting information 51.

[0067] In addition, in the embodiment, the auxiliary program 42 displays a preview when forced processing is set, but this need not be the case. However, by displaying a preview, the user can easily notice that forced processing is set. Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 may display a preview even when forced processing is not set. In addition, in the embodiment, the preview display accepts a cancel instruction, but this need not be the case.

[0068] Furthermore, the function information acquired by the auxiliary program 42 at A11 may include not only the automatic setting information 51 but also, for example, information regarding the capabilities of the printer 2. Then, the auxiliary program 42 may display a screen for accepting user settings based on the various information acquired from the printer 2.

[0069] 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. The program that executes the process of the present embodiment is not limited to the auxiliary program 42, but may be any program that receives instructions from the OS 21 or the general-purpose print program 41 when printing is performed using the general-purpose print program 41. For example, it may be a print workflow application (Print workflow) whose specifications have been made public by Microsoft.

[0070] Furthermore, 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 is sufficient that the auxiliary program 42 performs the above-mentioned operation upon receiving an execution command.

[0071] In addition, in any of the flowcharts disclosed in the embodiments, the order of execution of multiple processes in any of the steps can be arbitrarily changed or the processes can be executed in parallel as long as no contradiction occurs in the process content.

[0072] The processes disclosed in the embodiments may be executed by a single CPU, multiple CPUs, hardware such as ASIC, or a combination of these. The processes disclosed in the embodiments may be realized in various forms, such as a recording medium having a program for executing the processes recorded thereon, or a method. [Explanation of symbols]

[0073] 1 PC 2. Printer 3 Server 11 CPU 12. Memory 13 User Interface

Claims

1. A support program executable by a computer of an information processing device and corresponding to a printer connected to the information processing device, The computer includes: executing an acquisition process for acquiring automatic setting information, which is information stored by an external device and is information indicating whether or not a predetermined image processing is to be performed on an image to be printed, among print settings for causing the printer to perform printing; The computer further comprises: When a print instruction is output from an application program installed in the information processing device, the print instruction is for causing the printer to print an image to a general-purpose print program installed in advance in an operating system of the information processing device, executing an automatic setting process for changing a print setting for the print instruction to a setting for performing the predetermined image processing when the automatic setting information acquired in the acquisition process indicates that the predetermined image processing is to be performed; A support program characterized by:

2. 2. A support program as claimed in claim 1, the external device is the printer, The printer stores the automatic configuration information; In the acquisition process, a request for acquiring the automatic setting information is transmitted to the printer, and the automatic setting information is acquired by receiving the automatic setting information from the printer, the printer stores the automatic setting information, and transmits the automatic setting information to the information processing device in response to receiving the acquisition request from the information processing device; A support program characterized by:

3. A support program according to claim 1 or 2, The computer includes: When the print instruction is given, executing a preview process for displaying, using a user interface of the information processing device, a preview image showing an image to be printed based on the changed print settings when the settings for performing the predetermined image processing are changed in the automatic setting process; A support program characterized by:

4. A support program according to claim 3, The computer includes: accepting, via the user interface, a selection of whether or not to cancel a print job based on the print instruction during a period in which the preview image is being displayed in the preview process, and, when a selection of cancellation is accepted, executing a cancellation process for canceling the print job. A support program characterized by:

5. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The computer includes: executing a setting screen display process for displaying a setting screen for receiving an input operation of print settings using a user interface of the information processing device; The computer further comprises: The acquisition process is executed based on the display of the setting screen by the setting screen display process, and the automatic setting information acquired by the acquisition process is stored in a memory of the information processing device, When the automatic setting information stored in the memory indicates that the predetermined image processing is to be performed, the print setting for the print instruction is set to a setting for performing the predetermined image processing. A support program characterized by:

6. A support program according to claim 5, In the setting screen display process, when the automatic setting information acquired in the acquisition process indicates that the predetermined image processing is to be performed, restricting a change of settings for the predetermined image processing. A support program characterized by:

7. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The computer includes: Executing the acquisition process based on the printing instruction. A support program characterized by:

8. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 7, The computer includes: Executing an identification information acquisition process for acquiring user identification information, the automatic setting information being provided for each of the identification information and being associated with the identification information; In the acquisition process, acquiring the automatic setting information corresponding to the identification information acquired in the identification information acquisition process; A support program characterized by:

9. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 8, In the acquisition process, obtaining the automatic setting information indicating whether or not to perform image processing for synthesizing a watermark as the predetermined image processing; A support program characterized by:

10. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 8, In the acquisition process, acquiring the automatic setting information indicating whether or not to perform image processing for reducing a plurality of pages and consolidating them onto one sheet of paper as the predetermined image processing; A support program characterized by:

Images