Support program and printing system

Abstract

To provide a technique to perform notification based on information acquired from a printer, while preventing a delay in the start of printing in an information processing apparatus having an OS standard general purpose print program built therein.SOLUTION: When a print instruction for causing a printer 2 to print an image is output by an auxiliary program 42 from an editing application 43 to a general purpose print program 41, a PC 1 acquires printer state information from the printer 2 through a communication IF 14, and passes screen information based on the acquired printer state information to a guide display application 44. The guide display application 44 can operate as a different process from the editing application 43 and display a notification screen corresponding to the received screen information on the user IF 13. The auxiliary program 42 continues processing for transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer 2 without waiting for the completion of display of the notification screen by the guide display application 44.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 and a printing system. [Background technology]

[0002] In recent years, a technology has been put into practical use in which a printer is controlled by a general-purpose printing program that is built into an operating system (OS) as standard, without using a printer driver. With this technology, when the OS detects a printer, it associates it with the OS's standard general-purpose printing program, and thereafter, when a print instruction is received for that printer, printing can be performed using the OS's standard general-purpose printing program without using a printer driver.

[0003] Also, a technique is known in which, when a print instruction is input to an information processing device, the information processing device acquires the printer status and issues a notification based on the acquired status. An example of a technique for notifying the printer status in an information processing device incorporating the above-mentioned general-purpose print program is Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which, when a print instruction is input to the general-purpose print program, the general-purpose print program starts an auxiliary program, which acquires current status information from the printer and displays a message based on the acquired current status information. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2020-160989 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In the above-mentioned configuration where the auxiliary program displays a message, the program waits until the message has finished before returning control to the general-purpose printing program, which then transmits the print data, which can easily cause delays in the start of printing.

[0006] This specification discloses a technique for suppressing delays in the start of printing and for issuing a notification based on information obtained from a printer in an information processing apparatus incorporating a general-purpose print program that is standard for an OS. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] A support program devised for solving 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 supports a general-purpose print program pre-installed in an operating system of the information processing device. When a print instruction is output from an editing application program installed in the information processing device, causing the general-purpose print program to print an image on the printer, the support program executes an acquisition process to acquire current status information of the printer from the printer via a communication interface of the information processing device, and a display request process to request the display application program to display a notification screen that provides a notification corresponding to the current status information by passing parameters based on the current status information acquired in the acquisition process to a display application program installed in the information processing device, the display application program operating as a process separate from the editing application program and capable of displaying the notification screen corresponding to the parameters on a user interface of the information processing device. When the print instruction is received by the computer, the support program continues a process for transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer without waiting for the display application program to finish displaying the notification screen.

[0008] According to the support program disclosed in this specification, when a print instruction is received from an editing application program, an information processing device acquires current status information from a printer and requests a display application program, which is a process separate from the editing application program, to display a notification screen corresponding to the acquired current status information. The display application program operates independently of the support program as a process separate from the editing application program, and displays the notification screen on a user interface based on the request. This eliminates the need for the support program and the editing application program to wait for the display to end before continuing processing, and the support program and the editing application program continue processing to send print data based on the print instruction to the printer without waiting for the display of the notification screen to end. Therefore, even if a notification based on information acquired from the printer is performed, a delay in the start of printing can be suppressed.

[0009] A printing system including the above support program, an information processing device having the support program built therein, 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] According to the technology disclosed in this specification, in an information processing device incorporating an OS-standard general-purpose printing program, a technology is realized that suppresses delays in the start of printing while providing notifications based on information obtained from a printer. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the electrical configuration of the printing system. [Diagram 2] FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a correspondence table. [Diagram 3] 10 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a procedure of operations performed by each program when a print instruction is received. FIG. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a notification screen. [Diagram 5] 10 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a procedure of operations performed by each program when an instruction for detailed print settings is received. FIG. [Figure 6] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the electrical configuration of the printing system. [Figure 7] 10 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a procedure of operations performed by each program when a print instruction is received. FIG. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] A first embodiment of the support program will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in Fig. 1, this embodiment discloses a printing system 100 including a personal computer (hereinafter, "PC") 1 that uses the support program and a printer 2 that has 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, 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, an editing application 43, and a guide display application 44. The auxiliary program 42 includes a correspondence table 45. The auxiliary program 42 is an example of a support program. The editing application 43 is an example of an editing application program. The guide display application 44 is an example of a display application program.

[0018] OS21 is a multitasking OS that can process multiple tasks in parallel by managing and switching between multiple tasks, and is, for example, any one of Windows (registered trademark), macOS (registered trademark), Linux (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), and Android (registered trademark).

[0019] 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.

[0020] 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.

[0021] 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).

[0022] 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.

[0023] The auxiliary program may be a program prepared by the printer vendor for each printer type. 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 the printer vendor's server or the like according to the type of the connected printer and installs it in the PC1. Then, the OS21 associates the identification information of the installed 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 printer type, but also for each printer model or series of printer models.

[0024] 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's Word (registered trademark) or PowerPoint (registered trademark), or may be an application provided by the vendor of the printer 2. The editing application 43 is capable of receiving, via the user IF 13, for example, a print execution instruction for causing the printer 2 to execute printing.

[0025] The guide display application 44 is a program capable of displaying a predetermined notification screen on the user IF 13 based on an instruction from the auxiliary program 42. The guide display application 44 of this embodiment is a program capable of supporting a plurality of models including the model of the printer 2, and is provided with a plurality of notification screens for each model to be displayed on the user IF 13. Note that the guide display application 44 of this embodiment only needs to be compatible with at least the model of the printer 2, and may be a program prepared for each series of printer models, for example.

[0026] 2, the correspondence table 45 is information in which printer status information including the printer status, model information indicating the printer model, and screen information specifying a notification screen to be displayed in the guide display application 44 are correlated with each other. The auxiliary program 42 can obtain the screen information from the printer status information and model information based on the correspondence table 45. The guide display application 44 and the correspondence table 45 will be described in detail later.

[0027] The printer 2 in this embodiment is a device having a printing function. The PC 1 can communicate with the printer 2 via the communication IF 14. For example, when the printer 2 receives print data from the PC 1 or the like, it can execute printing based on the received print data.

[0028] The printer 2 of this embodiment has a function of generating printer status information based on the status of the printer 2 and transmitting the printer status information in response to a request from an external device. The status of the printer 2 is, for example, printing in progress, waiting for print data, printing stopped, and an error occurring. If the status is printing stopped or an error occurring, the printer status information also includes information indicating the cause of the error.

[0029] The printer 2 of this embodiment may further have a function of generating consumable goods information indicating the status of consumable goods stored in the printer 2 and transmitting the consumable goods information in response to a request from an external device. The consumable goods are, for example, paper for printing, and coloring materials such as ink and toner. The consumable goods information is, specifically, information indicating the remaining amount of each color of coloring materials stored in the printer 2, the presence and size of paper stored in each paper feed tray, etc.

[0030] Next, a printing procedure including the operation of the auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of Fig. 3. Fig. 3 shows the operation of each program when the editing application 43 accepts a print instruction from a user to the general-purpose printing program 41 to cause the printer 2 to print.

[0031] 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.

[0032] The editing application 43 accepts creation and editing of text, charts, etc. based on user instructions. Then, when the editing application 43 accepts a print execution instruction for causing the printer 2 to print an image based on the text, etc. selected by the general-purpose printing program 41 (A11), the editing application 43 passes the print instruction to the general-purpose printing program 41 via the OS 21 (A12). 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.

[0033] 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 (A13), and generates a print job including the intermediate image data. Image data passed from the editing application 43 can be 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.

[0034] The general-purpose printing program 41 further outputs an execution instruction to the auxiliary program 42, which is a program corresponding to the printer 2 (A14), to operate the auxiliary program 42. In the execution instruction, the intermediate image data generated in A13 and information indicating the print settings are passed to the auxiliary program 42.

[0035] The auxiliary program 42 communicates with the printer 2 via the communication IF 14, and acquires printer status information indicating the current situation from the printer 2 (A21). A21 is an example of an acquisition process. That is, the auxiliary program 42 requests the printer status information from the printer 2, and the printer 2 returns printer status information based on the status of the printer 2 to the auxiliary program 42 in response to the request from the auxiliary program 42. Note that in this embodiment, the auxiliary program 42 requests the printer status information and consumables information in A21, and acquires this information from the printer 2. The printer status information and consumables information are examples of current status information.

[0036] 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).

[0037] The auxiliary program 42 determines whether display is necessary based on the printer status information received from the printer 2 and the print settings included in the execution instruction received in A14 (A22). Specifically, the auxiliary program 42 determines that display is necessary when a user operation on the printer 2 is required to start printing based on the print data received by the printer 2, in other words, when printing cannot start without receiving a user operation.

[0038] The auxiliary program 42 determines that display is necessary, for example, if the printer 2 status is an error occurring or printing has stopped. An error occurring or printing has stopped is an example of a status that satisfies a specified display condition. If the printer 2 status is an error occurring or printing has stopped, the printer 2 cannot start printing until the cause of the error is resolved. Examples of errors that can occur in the printer 2 include paper jams and full memory. The printer 2 status will also be an error if parts of the printer 2, such as the print head or photoconductor, need replacing. Further, the causes of printing being stopped include, for example, running out of paper or coloring material during printing, the cover of the printer 2 being open, or the paper output tray being full.

[0039] The auxiliary program 42 also determines that display is necessary when the relationship between the consumable goods information and the print settings satisfies a predetermined relationship that requires resolution by the user, even if the printer status information indicates that an error is not occurring or printing is not stopped. For example, if the printer 2 is out of color colorants and color printing is specified as the print settings, the printer 2 cannot start printing until the colorants are replenished. In this case, the auxiliary program 42 determines that display is necessary. On the other hand, even if the printer 2 is out of color colorants, if grayscale printing is specified as the print settings, the printer 2 can start printing. In this case, the auxiliary program 42 determines that display is not necessary. The auxiliary program 42 may also determine that display is necessary when the size of the paper specified in the print settings is different from the size of the paper stored in the printer 2.

[0040] If the auxiliary program 42 determines that display is necessary (alt: [Necessary]), it uses the correspondence table 45 based on the printer status information acquired in A21 and the model information of the printer 2 to determine screen information indicating a notification screen to be displayed on the user IF 13 (A23). For example, if the status of the "xxx series" printer 2 is "printing stopped" and the cause is "out of paper," the auxiliary program 42 determines that the screen information is "001-xxx."

[0041] Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 passes the determined screen information to the guide display application 44, thereby instructing the guide display application 44 to display the notification screen indicated by the screen information (A24). A24 is an example of a display request process. The screen information is an example of a parameter. The screen information is information for identifying a notification screen to be displayed from among multiple notification screens provided by the guide display application 44. The screen information may be a single piece of information that specifies the entire notification screen, or may be a combination of partial information that specifies information to be displayed in each part of the notification screen. Note that in A24, the auxiliary program 42 may also pass consumable product information acquired from the printer 2 to the guide display application 44.

[0042] When the guide display application 44 is not running, the auxiliary program 42 starts the guide display application 44 at A24 and passes the above-mentioned determined screen information to the guide display application 44. By having the auxiliary program 42 start the guide display application 44, the notification screen can be reliably displayed.

[0043] The guide display application 44 displays a notification screen corresponding to the received screen information from a plurality of prepared notification screens on the user IF 13 (A25). If the notification screen corresponding to the screen information includes a consumable product remaining amount display field and the consumable product information has also been received from the auxiliary program 42, the guide display application 44 generates a remaining amount display image using the received consumable product information, and displays the image by combining it with the notification screen.

[0044] 4 shows an example of a notification screen displayed by the guide display application 44 when "001-xxx" is received as the screen information. The notification screen 51 of the example shown in FIG. 4 includes a model name 511 of the printer 2, printer status information 512 indicating the status of the printer 2 and its cause, a button 513 for receiving an instruction to display a web Q&A page, a remaining coloring material amount display 514, a button 515 for receiving an instruction to display a genuine consumables site, and an image 516 indicating the appearance of the printer 2. The guide display application 44 selects a notification screen including the model name 511, the printer status information 512, and the image 516 based on the screen information "001-xxx", and generates a remaining amount display 514 in the selected notification screen based on the consumables information.

[0045] 4 displays a message indicating the status "printing stopped" and a message indicating the cause "out of paper" as information indicating that the status of the printer 2 is printing stopped due to being out of paper. The notification screen 51 may further include information indicating the paper feed tray that is out of paper and an image showing how to store paper. The remaining amount display 514 displays, for example, the remaining amount of coloring material of each color as a color bar.

[0046] The buttons 513 and 515 are buttons that accept an instruction to display a specific page of a website provided by the vendor of the printer 2. The guide display application 44 stores information indicating a URL corresponding to each button, and when an operation on the button 513 or the button 515 is accepted, the guide display application 44 starts a browser and passes a specific URL to the browser based on the stored information, thereby causing the corresponding page to be displayed on the user IF 13. The information stored in the guide display application 44 may be information for each printer model. The information may be the URL itself, or may be information indicating the storage location where the URL is stored.

[0047] The notification screen 51 may further include a remaining amount display showing the amount of paper remaining in each paper feed tray, images and messages about how to use the printer 2, advertisements and the latest information on related products, etc. For example, if the status of the printer 2 is cover open, the guide display application 44 may display an image showing the position of the open cover.

[0048] Even if the guide display application 44 is compatible with multiple models, it is possible to display an appropriate notification screen that differs for each printer model through simple processing by receiving screen information that corresponds to the printer model. In other words, the guide display application 44 can provide more detailed information that is suitable for the model, and can display a more easily understandable notification screen.

[0049] The guide display application 44 is a program that runs as a separate process from the editing application 43. Meanwhile, the general-purpose printing program 41 and the auxiliary program 42 are programs that run within the process of the editing application 43. That is, the guide display application 44 and the auxiliary program 42 can run in parallel, and even after the auxiliary program 42 determines that display is necessary and passes a display instruction to the guide display application 44 at A24, it can continue to execute the next process regardless of the progress of the process by the guide display application 44. For example, even if the guide display application 44 accepts an operation on button 513 or button 515 and starts displaying a webpage, the process by the auxiliary program 42 continues to be executed.

[0050] When the auxiliary program 42 outputs a display instruction to the guide display application 44 in A24, it generates print data based on the intermediate image data and print settings received in A14 (A31), and transmits the generated print data to the printer 2 together with a print command instructing execution of printing (A32). On the other hand, if the auxiliary program 42 determines in A22 that display is not necessary, it executes processes A31 and A32 without executing processes A23 and A24. A31 and A32 are an example of a process for transmitting print data based on a print instruction to the printer. As a result, a printed matter is formed by the printer 2. Note that if the printer 2 is in the middle of a printing stop when it receives the print data transmitted in A32, it waits for the cause of the stop to be resolved before executing printing.

[0051] The auxiliary program 42 judges whether or not display is necessary based on the printer status information or based on the relationship between the consumables information and the print settings. If the auxiliary program 42 judges that display is necessary, it instructs to display the notification screen, and if it judges that display is not necessary, it does not instruct to display the notification screen. For example, if the status of the printer 2 is printing or waiting for print data, the auxiliary program 42 judges that display is not necessary in A22 and does not start the guide display application 44. This reduces the frequency of displaying the notification screen, and can reduce the annoyance caused by displaying a notification screen with low importance. Note that the auxiliary program 42 may pass a display instruction to the guide display application 44 to display the remaining amount of coloring material and the progress of printing, even if display is not necessary.

[0052] 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, print setting information, and print execution information to the general-purpose printing program 41. The general-purpose printing program 41 may generate print data based on the intermediate image data and print settings received from the auxiliary program 42, and pass the generated print data to the auxiliary program 42.

[0053] 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.

[0054] On the other hand, the print data generated by the auxiliary program 42 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. By generating print data by the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2, the degree of freedom of processing of the printer 2 can be increased, or the processing load of the printer 2 can be reduced, compared to when print data is generated by the general-purpose print program 41.

[0055] Furthermore, the general-purpose printing program 41 may transmit the print data 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 transmitted from the PC 1 to the printer 2 as the transmission destination. In this case, the general-purpose printing program 41 transmits the print data received from the auxiliary program 42 to the printer 2 via the OS 21.

[0056] 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 and the print settings to the printer 2 without generating print data of the image to be printed.

[0057] The process of generating print data and the process of transmitting print data or intermediate image data to the printer 2 are examples of processes for transmitting print data based on a print instruction to the printer, regardless of whether the execution subject is the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose printing program 41, or the printer 2. The auxiliary program 42 and the general-purpose printing program 41 in this embodiment can continue each process regardless of the progress of the process by the guide display application 44.

[0058] When the transmission of the print data is completed, the auxiliary program 42 notifies the general-purpose printing program 41 of the end of processing (A33). As a result, the general-purpose printing program 41 ends the processing of the print instruction accepted in A12, and notifies the editing application 43 of the end of processing (A34). By receiving a termination notification from the general-purpose printing program 41, the editing application 43 becomes capable of accepting the next instruction from the user, for example, an instruction to edit or print another document, even if the guide display application 44 is continuing processing.

[0059] After transmitting the print data, the auxiliary program 42 may obtain printer status information from the printer 2 before notifying the general-purpose print program 41 of the end, and may pass a display instruction to the guide display application 44 according to the obtained status. For example, if authentication information is added to the transmitted print data, the printer 2 enters a state of waiting for input of the authentication information. Therefore, the auxiliary program 42 may cause the guide display application 44 to display an image showing a method for inputting the authentication information. When the printer 2 receives the print data with the authentication information added thereto, the printer 2 temporarily stores the print data in a memory and does not start printing until it receives input of the authentication information added to the print data.

[0060] Furthermore, the editing application 43 can display a print screen for receiving instructions related to printing on the user IF 13 before issuing an instruction to execute printing, and can also receive an instruction to start receiving detailed print settings. The detailed print settings are, for example, print settings that use functions specific to the printer 2, and also include print settings that cannot be accepted by the editing application 43. Even when an instruction for detailed print settings is accepted, the editing application 43 executes the general-purpose print program 41 and the auxiliary program 42. And, even when an instruction for detailed print settings is accepted, the auxiliary program 42 may acquire printer status information from the printer 2.

[0061] The procedure of operations by each program when an instruction for detailed print settings is received will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of Fig. 5. The procedure shown in the sequence diagram of Fig. 5 is executed prior to the procedure shown in Fig. 3. Note that, in the following, the same steps as those in the sequence diagram of Fig. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description will be simplified.

[0062] When the editing application 43 receives an instruction to start a procedure related to printing with the printer 2 selected (A01), it displays a screen for receiving instructions related to printing on the user IF 13 (A02). When an instruction to start receiving detailed print settings is received on this screen (A03), the editing application 43 passes information on the received instruction to the general-purpose print program 41 (A04). The general-purpose print program 41 executes the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2, and passes an execution instruction to receive detailed print settings (A05).

[0063] The auxiliary program 42 starts operation based on an execution instruction from the general-purpose printing program 41, and causes the user IF 13 to display a setting screen for accepting detailed print settings (A06). A06 is an example of a screen display process. Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 queries the printer 2 via the communication IF 14, and acquires printer status information and consumables information from the printer 2 (A21). In this case, A21 is an example of an acquisition process, and an example of a pre-print acquisition process.

[0064] The auxiliary program 42 determines whether display is necessary based on the acquired printer status information (A07). For example, if the status of the printer 2 is an error occurring or printing has stopped, the auxiliary program 42 determines that display is necessary. Since the print settings have not been determined in A07, the auxiliary program 42 does not determine the necessity of display based on the consumable goods information and the print settings, unlike the determination in A22.

[0065] If the auxiliary program 42 determines that display is necessary (alt: [Necessary]), it uses the correspondence table 45 to determine screen information indicating the notification screen to be displayed based on the printer status information that needs to be displayed and the model information of the printer 2 (A23). Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 passes a display instruction including the determined screen information to the guide display application 44 (A24). In this case, A24 is an example of a display request process and an example of a pre-print display request process. The screen information is an example of a parameter. Based on the received screen information, the guide display application 44 causes the user IF 13 to display the notification screen to be displayed (A25).

[0066] If a notification screen is displayed before a print instruction is received, the user can determine whether or not to proceed with the print instruction based on the notification screen, and it is expected that the user's operation or work will be completed sooner. For example, if the printer 2 status is out of paper, it is expected that paper will be inserted sooner. Also, depending on the printer 2 status and consumables information, it is expected that printing will be completed sooner by receiving, for example, an instruction to change the printer or an instruction to change the print setting from color printing to grayscale printing.

[0067] When the auxiliary program 42 determines in A07 that display is not necessary, or after outputting a display instruction to the guide display application 44 in A24, the auxiliary program 42 performs subsequent processing (not shown). Specifically, the auxiliary program 42 accepts a user operation on the setting screen displayed in A06, and sets print settings based on the accepted operation. Furthermore, when an instruction to end the detailed print settings by the user is accepted, the auxiliary program 42 notifies the general-purpose printing program 41 of the end of processing. As a result, the general-purpose printing program 41 notifies the editing application 43 of the end of the detailed setting instruction accepted in A04. By receiving the end notification from the general-purpose printing program 41, the editing application 43 becomes ready to accept the next instruction from the user, for example, an instruction to execute printing.

[0068] As described above in detail, when a print instruction is received from the editing application 43, the auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment acquires printer status information from the printer 2 and displays a notification screen corresponding to the acquired printer status information in the guide display application 44, which is a process separate from the editing application 43. This eliminates the need for the auxiliary program 42 and the editing application 43 to wait for the display to end before continuing the process, and the auxiliary program 42 and the editing application 43 can continue the process of transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer without waiting for the display of the notification screen to end. This makes it possible to suppress delays in the start of printing.

[0069] Next, a second embodiment of the support program will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. As shown in Fig. 6, this embodiment is a printing system 100 including a PC 1 and a printer 2, and a guide display application 44 has a correspondence table 45. This embodiment differs from the first embodiment only in the program that uses the correspondence table 45, and the same configurations and processes as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals to simplify the description.

[0070] In the first embodiment, the auxiliary program 42 determines the screen information by using the correspondence table 45, whereas in this embodiment, the guide display application 44 determines the screen information by using the correspondence table 45. The contents of the correspondence table 45 in this embodiment are the same as those in the first embodiment. The procedure of each program in the second embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG. 7. In the procedure shown in FIG. 7, the processes A22 to A23 in the procedure shown in FIG. 3 are performed by the guide display application 44.

[0071] When the editing application 43 receives a print instruction from the user (A11), it passes the print instruction to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A12). The general-purpose printing program 41 generates intermediate image data based on the print instruction (A13) and passes an execution instruction to the auxiliary program 42 (A14). The auxiliary program 42 acquires printer status information and consumable product information from the printer 2 (A21).

[0072] The auxiliary program 42 passes the printer status information acquired from the printer 2 to the guide display application 44 (A41) and instructs the guide display application 44 to display it. A41 is an example of a display request process. In this embodiment, in A41, the auxiliary program 42 also passes the print settings received in the execution instruction in A14, the model information of the printer 2, and the consumable goods information acquired in A21 to the guide display application 44. The information including the printer status information and passed to the guide display application 44 in A41 is an example of a parameter. In addition, if the guide display application 44 is not running, the auxiliary program 42 starts the guide display application 44 in A41.

[0073] After instructing the guide display application 44 to perform display, the auxiliary program 42 continues to execute the next process. That is, the auxiliary program 42 generates print data (A31) and transmits the generated print data to the printer 2 (A32). Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 notifies the general-purpose printing program 41 of the end of processing (A33), and the general-purpose printing program 41 notifies the editing application 43 of the end of processing (A34). The general-purpose printing program 41 may generate and transmit the print data.

[0074] In this embodiment, the process of the auxiliary program 42 and the general-purpose printing program 41 after A31 is an example of a process for sending print data based on a print instruction to a printer. Even in the auxiliary program 42 and the general-purpose printing program 41 of this embodiment, each process can be continued regardless of the progress of the process by the guide display application 44.

[0075] On the other hand, the guide display application 44 judges whether display is necessary or not based on each information received from the auxiliary program 42 in A41 (A51). Since the received information does not include screen information, the guide display application 44 judges that the judgment of A51 is necessary. Alternatively, the auxiliary program 42 may also pass an instruction to judge the necessity of display to the guide display application 44 in A41.

[0076] 3 by the auxiliary program 42. In the present embodiment, the determination of A51 is executed by the guide display application 44 in a process separate from the editing application 43, and therefore the order of A51 and A32 is not limited. That is, A51 may be executed before or after A32, or may be executed in parallel.

[0077] When the guide display application 44 determines that display is necessary (alt: [Necessary]), it uses the correspondence table 45 included in the guide display application 44 based on the information received in A41 to determine screen information indicating a notification screen to be displayed (A52). The process of A52 by the guide display application 44 is the same as the process of A23 in FIG. 3 by the auxiliary program 42. Then, the guide display application 44 causes the user IF 13 to display the notification screen based on the determined screen information (A53). On the other hand, when the guide display application 44 determines that display is not necessary in A51, it does not execute A52 and A53, and does not display the notification screen.

[0078] By having the guide display application 44 determine the necessity of display, the auxiliary program 42 can generate and transmit print data early. On the other hand, if the auxiliary program 42 determines the necessity, the opportunities for the guide display application 44 to be executed are reduced, and the processing load of the guide display application 44 is small.

[0079] Note that the auxiliary program 42 may determine the necessity of display, and the guide display application 44 may determine screen information indicating the notification screen to be displayed. Specifically, in the process shown in Fig. 3, the auxiliary program 42 may determine A22, and if it determines that the notification screen is necessary, the auxiliary program 42 may pass information similar to A41 in Fig. 7 and a display instruction to the guide display application 44. In that case, the guide display application 44 does not perform A51 in Fig. 7, but executes A52 and A53 to display the notification screen.

[0080] As described above in detail, even in the printing system 100 of the second embodiment, delays in the start of printing can be suppressed, as in the first embodiment. If the guide display application 44 has the correspondence table 45 and determines and displays the notification screen to be displayed as in the second embodiment, the notification screen to be displayed can be flexibly changed by changing the guide display application 44. On the other hand, if the auxiliary program 42 determines the screen information as in the first embodiment, the guide display application 44 only displays the screen based on the received information, which is a simple process.

[0081] Furthermore, according to the printing system 100 of the first and second embodiments, the guide display application 44, which is separate from the auxiliary program 42, has information on the notification screen, and the auxiliary program 42 leaves the display of the notification screen to the guide display application 44. Therefore, when it is necessary to change the contents of the notification screen, for example, when updating a product advertisement or the latest information being displayed, the vendor of the printer 2 can do so by updating the guide display application 44 without changing the auxiliary program 42. Also, because the process for display is standardized in the auxiliary program 42, there is no need to develop multiple auxiliary programs 42 due to different notification screens, and the auxiliary program 42 can be standardized.

[0082] 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 spirit 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 devices included in the printing system 100 is not limited to the illustrated example, and may be two or more.

[0083] Also, the notification screen shown in the figure is an example, and is not limited thereto. For example, the arrangement and number of each message and each button displayed on the notification screen are not limited to the example shown in the figure. Also, in the embodiment, the notification screen is displayed when a user operation is required, but when a print instruction is received, the notification screen may be displayed regardless of the status.

[0084] Also, for example, the guide display application 44 may be capable of communicating with the printer 2. For example, when the auxiliary program 42 receives an execution instruction, the guide display application 44 may be operated, and the guide display application 44 may acquire printer status information from the printer 2. The guide display application 44 may also be capable of receiving an instruction to cancel printing from the user, and may transmit a cancel command to the printer 2 when the instruction to cancel printing is received.

[0085] In the first and second embodiments, the guide display application 44 has various notification screens, but part of the information on the notification screens may be obtained from an external device. For example, if the printer 2 has information on the external appearance of the printer 2, the guide display application 44 may obtain the information from the printer 2 and combine it with the notification screen to be displayed.

[0086] Furthermore, although the correspondence table 45 includes model information, for example, if the guide display application 44 is a program that supports only the model or model series of the printer 2, the model information does not need to be included in the correspondence table 45. Furthermore, the correspondence table 45 may be stored in an external device such as a server, and in that case, the auxiliary program 42 or the guide display application 44 may simply obtain the correspondence table 45 from the external device and use it.

[0087] The guide display application 44 is not limited to a program that is started in response to an instruction from the auxiliary program 42, but may be a program that resides in the PC 1. The guide display application 44 is not limited to the auxiliary program 42, but may be capable of receiving a display instruction from another program that causes the printer 2 to perform a specific operation, such as a printer driver. The guide display application 44 may have both the function of the first form and the function of the second form. In this case, the guide display application 44 may determine whether or not to judge the necessity of display, depending on the received parameters.

[0088] 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.

[0089] 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.

[0090] 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.

[0091] 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]

[0092] 1 PC 2. Printer 11 CPU 13 User Interface 14 Communication Interface 100 Printing System

Claims

1. A support program executable by a computer of an information processing device, corresponding to a printer connected to the information processing device, and supporting a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in an operating system of the information processing device, The computer includes: When a print instruction is output from an editing application program installed in the information processing device, the print instruction is for causing the general-purpose print program to print an image on the printer, an acquisition process for acquiring current status information of the printer from the printer via a communication interface of the information processing device; a display request process for requesting a display application program incorporated in the information processing device to display a notification screen for providing a notification corresponding to the current status information by passing parameters based on the current status information acquired in the acquisition process to the display application program; the display application program is a program that operates as a separate process from the editing application program and is capable of displaying the notification screen corresponding to the parameter on a user interface of the information processing device; The computer further comprises: when the print instruction is received, continuing a process for transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer without waiting for the display of the notification screen by the display application program to finish; A support program characterized by:

2. 2. The support program according to claim 1, The computer includes: if the display application program is not running when the print instruction is received, the display application program is started in association with the execution of the display request process; A support program characterized by:

3. The support program according to claim 1 or 2, In the display request process, causing the display application program to display the notification screen corresponding to the model of the printer, the display application program being compatible with a plurality of models and capable of displaying different notification screens for each model; A support program characterized by:

4. The support program according to claim 3, In the display request process, the display application program is caused to display the notification screen corresponding to the model of the printer by passing the parameters based on the current status information acquired in the acquisition process and model information indicating the model of the printer to the display application program, and the display application program determines the contents of the notification screen to be displayed using the parameters and model information passed from the support program. A support program characterized by:

5. The support program according to claim 3, In the display request process, determining the contents of the notification screen to be displayed by the display application program based on the current status information and the model of the printer acquired in the acquisition process, and passing screen information indicating the determined contents of the notification screen to the display application program as the parameter, thereby causing the display application program to display the notification screen corresponding to the model of the printer, and the display application program displays the notification screen corresponding to the screen information passed from the support program. A support program characterized by:

6. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 5, The computer includes: a screen display process for displaying, on the user interface, a setting screen for accepting print settings to be used for printing on the printer; a pre-printing acquisition process for inquiring of the printer via the communication interface based on the display of the setting screen by the screen display process and acquiring the current status information; a pre-print display request process for passing the parameters based on the current status information acquired in the pre-print acquisition process to the display application program and requesting the display application program to display the notification screen for providing a notification corresponding to the current status information; Execute the A support program characterized by:

7. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 6, The computer includes: When the print instruction is given, When the current status information acquired in the acquisition process satisfies a predetermined display condition, the display request process is executed, and further, without waiting for the display of the notification screen by the display application program to end, a process for transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer is continued; if the current status information acquired in the acquisition process does not satisfy the predetermined display condition, the display request process is not executed, and a process for transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer is continued. A support program characterized by:

8. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 6, The computer includes: When the print instruction is given, When the current status information acquired in the acquisition process and the print settings set in the print instruction satisfy a predetermined relationship, the display request process is executed, and further, without waiting for the display of the notification screen by the display application program to end, a process for transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer is continued; if the current status information acquired in the acquisition process and the print settings set in the print instruction do not satisfy the predetermined relationship, the display request process is not executed, and a process for transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer is continued. A support program characterized by:

9. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 6, In the display request process, the parameters based on the current status information acquired in the acquisition process are passed to the display application program, and a request is made to the display application program to display the notification screen, and if the passed parameters satisfy a predetermined display condition, the display application program causes the notification screen corresponding to the parameters to be displayed on the user interface, and if the passed parameters do not satisfy the predetermined display condition, the display application program does not cause the notification screen to be displayed on the user interface. A support program characterized by:

10. A support program according to any one of claims 1 to 6, In the display request process, the parameters based on the current status information acquired in the acquisition process and the print settings set in the print instruction are passed to the display application program, and a request is made to the display application program to display the notification screen, and if the passed parameters and the print settings satisfy a predetermined relationship, the display application program causes the notification screen corresponding to the parameters to be displayed on the user interface, and if the passed parameters and the print settings do not satisfy the predetermined relationship, the display application program does not cause the notification screen to be displayed on the user interface. A support program characterized by:

11. A printing system including a printer, a support program installed in an information processing device connected to the printer, and a display application program installed in the information processing device, The support program is a program that supports a general-purpose printing program that corresponds to the printer and is pre-installed in an operating system of the information processing device; The display application program a program capable of displaying a notification screen for providing a notification corresponding to current status information of the printer on a user interface of the information processing device; The support program further includes: an editing application program installed in the information processing device, the editing application program operating as a process separate from the display application program, and a print instruction output from the editing application program to the general-purpose print program for causing the printer to print an image; acquiring the current status information from the printer via a communication interface of the information processing device; a parameter based on the acquired current status information is passed to the display application program, thereby requesting the display application program to display the notification screen corresponding to the current status information; a process for transmitting print data based on the print instruction to the printer without waiting for the display of the notification screen by the display application program to end, the display application program causing the computer of the information processing apparatus to displaying, on the user interface, the notification screen corresponding to the parameter passed from the support program; A printing system comprising:

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