Program set and support program

Abstract

To provide a technique for allowing a print job stored in a printer to be controlled when an OS-standard general-purpose printing program causes the printer to perform accumulated printing.SOLUTION: In response to a print instruction, which is output from an editing application 43, issued to a general-purpose printing program 41 to cause a printer 2 to print an image, the general-purpose printing program 41 issues a request for processing. When a print job indicated by the print instruction is an accumulated job, an auxiliary program 42 compatible with the printer 2 having a function of accumulated printing registers a job ID of the accumulated job in a status monitor 44. The status monitor 44 determines whether each of accumulated jobs whose job IDs have been registered satisfies a predetermined execution condition, and causes the printer 2 to delete a job or start printing, as a process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition, for the accumulated jobs determined to satisfy the predetermined execution condition.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The technical field disclosed in this specification relates to a program set having a support program for supporting the control of a printer and a cooperation program that operates in cooperation with the support program.

Background Art

[0002] In recent years, a technology for controlling a printer by a general-purpose printing program compliant with an operating system (OS) that is a part of the OS without using a printer driver provided by a printer vendor has been put into practical use. In this technology, when the OS detects a printer, it associates the printer with the general-purpose printing program compliant with the OS. Thereafter, when a print instruction for the printer is received, the general-purpose printing program compliant with the OS generates print data without using the printer driver provided by the printer vendor, enabling printing by the general-purpose printing program compliant with the OS.

[0003] As a technology related to a general-purpose printing program compliant with the OS, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a personal computer (PC) incorporating a general-purpose printing program compliant with the OS and an auxiliary program for supporting the general-purpose printing program. The PC acquires setting information indicating whether to execute accumulated printing from the printer. When the acquired setting information indicates that accumulated printing is to be executed, the PC sets the accumulated printing for a print job based on a print instruction and transmits the print job to the printer in association with the identification information of the print job.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0004]

Patent Document 1

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0005] As disclosed in Patent Document 1, there is known a printer capable of accumulation printing in which, without immediately starting printing based on a received print job, the print job is temporarily stored in memory and printing based on the print job is started by a user operation via a user interface. Since an accumulation job, which is a print job for performing accumulation printing, remains in the printer until printing is completed, it is desirable to be able to control the accumulation job stored in the printer from a PC. Even in Patent Document 1, a technique for controlling the accumulation job stored in the printer is not disclosed, and there is room for improvement.

Means for Solving the Problems

[0006] A program set made for solving the above-described problems is executable by a computer of an information processing apparatus, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing apparatus, and supports a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing apparatus. The program set includes a support program and a cooperation program that operates in cooperation with the support program. The printer has a function of performing stored printing. When receiving a stored job, which is a print job for performing stored printing, the printer does not immediately start printing, but stores the received stored job in the memory of the printer, and then starts printing based on the stored job when a predetermined printing condition is satisfied. The support program causes the computer to execute a registration process of registering identification information of the stored job in the cooperation program when a print instruction output from an application program incorporated in the information processing apparatus, which causes the general-purpose printing program to perform image printing on the printer, requires processing from the general-purpose printing program and the print job according to the print instruction is the stored job. The cooperation program causes the computer to execute a determination process of determining whether a predetermined execution condition is satisfied for each stored job in which the identification information is registered, and execute a corresponding process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition for the stored job determined to satisfy the predetermined execution condition in the determination process.

[0007] The program set disclosed in this specification, when there is a print instruction for a stored job, causes the support program to register the identification information of the stored job in the cooperation program. Thereafter, the cooperation program determines whether a predetermined execution condition is satisfied for each registered stored job. Further, the cooperation program executes a process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition for the stored job determined to satisfy the predetermined execution condition. As a result, for example, deletion or forced execution of a stored job becomes possible, and a situation where stored jobs continue to remain in Printer 2 can be controlled.

[0008] The support program included in the above program set, the information processing apparatus in which the support program is incorporated, the computer-readable storage medium storing the support program, the control method for realizing the functions of the support program, and the printing system including the support program and the printer are also novel and useful.

Effects of the Invention

[0009] According to the technology disclosed in this specification, when causing a printer to perform accumulated printing from a general-purpose printing program conforming to an OS standard, a technology capable of controlling the print jobs stored in the printer is realized.

Brief Description of the Drawings

[0010]

Figure 1

Figure 2

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Embodiments for Carrying Out the Invention

[0011] Hereinafter, a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as "PC") using the program set of the first embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. This specification discloses a program set including a support program and a status monitor executed on a PC.

[0012] As shown in FIG. 1, the PC1 of this embodiment includes a controller 10 that includes a CPU 11 and a memory 12. The PC1 is an example of an information processing apparatus. The CPU 11 is an example of a computer. Further, the PC1 includes a user interface (hereinafter referred to as "user IF") 13 and a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as "communication IF") 14, and these are electrically connected to the controller 10. Note that the controller 10 in FIG. 1 is a general term for the hardware and software used for the control of the PC1, and does not necessarily represent a single piece of hardware actually existing in the PC1.

[0013] The CPU 11 of the PC1 executes various processes according to the program read from the memory 12 and based on the user's operations. The memory 12 stores various programs and various data. The memory 12 is also used as a work area when various processes are executed. The buffer included 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, a RAM, an HDD, etc. built in the PC1, and may be a storage medium that can be read and written by the CPU 11, for example, a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, or a USB memory.

[0014] The user IF 13 includes a display 13a that is hardware for displaying a screen for notifying the user of information, and hardware for receiving operations by the user. Note that the user IF 13 may be a combination of a display 13a capable of displaying information and a mouse, a keyboard, etc. having an input reception function, or may be a touch panel having the function of the display 13a and the input reception function.

[0015] The communication IF 14 includes hardware for communicating with an external device such as a printer 2. The communication standard of the communication IF 14 is Ethernet (registered trademark), Wi-Fi (registered trademark), USB, etc. The PC1 may be connectable to the Internet via the communication IF 14. The PC1 may include a plurality of communication IFs 14 corresponding to a plurality of communication standards.

[0016] As shown in FIG. 1, the memory 12 of the PC1 stores various programs and various data, including an operating system (hereinafter referred to as "OS") 21 that includes a general-purpose printing program 41, an auxiliary program 42, an editing application 43, a status monitor 44, and processing information 45. The auxiliary program 42 is an example of a support program. The status monitor 44 is a program that operates in cooperation with the auxiliary program 42 and is an example of a cooperation program. The combination of the auxiliary program 42 and the status monitor 44 is an example of a program set. The editing application 43 is an example of an application program.

[0017] The OS 21 is a multitasking OS that can manage and switch a plurality of tasks to process the plurality of tasks in parallel. The OS 21 is, for example, Windows (registered trademark), macOS (registered trademark), Linux (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), Android (registered trademark).

[0018] The OS 21 includes a general-purpose printing program 41. The general-purpose printing program 41 is an OS-standard program prepared by the vendor of the OS 21 and provided as a part of the OS 21. That is, the PC1 is equipped with the OS 21 having the general-purpose printing program 41. The general-purpose printing program 41 is not configured to use a printer driver specific to each printer.

[0019] The general-purpose printing program 41 is a program having a function for causing printers of a plurality of models provided by a plurality of vendors to execute printing based on a user's instruction. The general-purpose printing program 41 supports general functions that can execute printing on many printers. Unlike a printer driver specific to each printer, the general-purpose printing program 41 does not support functions specific to each printer or printer driver, particularly functions that require complex processing.

[0020] The general-purpose printing program 41 is a program that includes a function of receiving image data specified as a printing target by a printing instruction output from various applications based on a user's instruction and generating intermediate data based on the image data. The intermediate data is, for example, XPS data. The general-purpose printing program 41 further has a function of generating printing data in a format that can be used for printing by various printers based on the intermediate data. The printing data is, for example, PWGRaster data or PDF data. Also, the general-purpose printing program 41 has a function of transmitting the generated printing data to a printer designated as a device for executing printing via the communication function by the OS 21.

[0021] The auxiliary program 42 is a program or a group of programs that execute processing based on an instruction from the OS 21 accompanying the processing of the general-purpose printing program 41, and is a program that supports the control of the target hardware. The auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment corresponds to the model of the printer 2 connected to the PC 1 and is provided, for example, by the vendor of the printer 2. When the printer 2 is selected as a device for executing printing, when a detailed printing setting instruction is received in a state where the printer 2 is selected, when an instruction to execute printing on the printer 2 is received, etc., the general-purpose printing program 41 starts the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2. The auxiliary program 42 is, for example, what is called a printing support application (abbreviation, PSA) or a hardware support application (abbreviation, HSA).

[0022] Note that the auxiliary program 42 may be a combination of a plurality of programs each of which receives an execution instruction, or may be a single program that can execute different processes according to instructions. Further, 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 respectively. Not limited to each type of printer, there may be an auxiliary program prepared for each printer model or each series of printer models.

[0023] When a new printer is connected to the PC1, for example, the OS 21 of the PC1 can download an appropriate auxiliary program from the server of the printer vendor or the like according to the type and model of the connected printer and incorporate it into the PC1. The OS 21 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.

[0024] The editing application 43 is, for example, a program for creating and editing image data or document data. The editing application 43 may be, for example, Word (registered trademark) or PowerPoint (registered trademark) manufactured by Microsoft (registered trademark), or may be a program provided by the vendor of the printer 2. The editing application 43 can receive an instruction to execute printing on the printer 2, for example, via the user IF 13. Note that the editing application 43 is not limited to a program for creating and editing data, and may be a program having a function of receiving display instructions and printing instructions for various types of information such as map information and web pages according to user requests.

[0025] The status monitor 44 corresponds to the model of the printer 2 connected to the PC1 and is provided, for example, by the vendor of the printer 2. The status monitor 44 resides in the PC1 when the PC1 is started and the printer 2 is connected, and can periodically obtain information from the printer 2. The information obtained by the status monitor 44 from the printer 2 is, for example, information indicating the status of the printer 2 and the remaining amount of consumables.

[0026] The processing information 45 is information regarding the processing results of print jobs stored in the printer 2. Details of the processing information 45 will be described later.

[0027] In this embodiment, the PC1 is connected to the printer 2 via the communication IF14 as shown in FIG. 1. The printer 2 is a device having at least a printing function and a communication function. When the printer 2 receives a print job from an external device such as the PC1, for example, it can execute printing based on the received print job. The printer 2 may be a device capable of color printing or a device capable of executing only monochrome printing.

[0028] The printer 2 in this embodiment has a function of performing stored printing. When the print job received from an external device such as the PC1 includes a setting for performing stored printing, the printer 2 does not immediately start printing. Instead, as shown in FIG. 1, for example, it stores the print job as a stored job 201 in its own memory 200. On the other hand, when receiving a print job that does not include a setting for performing stored printing, the printer 2 does not store the print job and starts the processing for printing. Hereinafter, a print job that does not include a setting for performing stored printing may sometimes be referred to as a "normal job".

[0029] When there are stored jobs stored in the memory 200, the printer 2 can, for example, receive an instruction to select a stored job, execute, or delete the selected job through an operation by the user via the operation panel provided in the printer 2. When the printer 2 receives an instruction to select and execute a stored job, for example, it can read the selected stored job from the memory 200 and execute printing based on the print data included in the stored job. An instruction to execute a stored job via the operation panel is an example of a predetermined printing condition.

[0030] The printer 2 may be able to receive a secure job as a stored job. A secure job is a job that can receive an instruction to execute the job or perform an operation related to the job when the printer 2 satisfies secure conditions such as successful login authentication by the user and acceptance of input of a password set at the time of job reception. In this case, the secure conditions are included as an example of a predetermined printing condition.

[0031] Next, a procedure for causing the printer 2 to print using the PC 1 of this embodiment having the general-purpose printing program 41 will be described. Each process in this embodiment basically shows the process of the CPU 11 according to instructions described in programs such as the auxiliary program 42 and the status monitor 44. The process by the CPU 11 also includes control of hardware using the API of the OS 21. In this specification, the detailed description of the OS 21 is omitted and the operations of each program are described. Also, "acquisition" is used as a concept that does not require a request to be essential.

[0032] The printing procedure will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG. 2. After the user determines the image to be printed and the print settings, the user inputs an instruction to execute printing in the editing application 43 (A01). When the general-purpose printing program 41 is included in the OS 21, the editing application 43 can receive an instruction to execute printing indicating that the general-purpose printing program 41 causes the printer 2 to print the currently selected image.

[0033] The editing application 43 passes the received instruction information to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A02). The general-purpose printing program 41 acquires, from the editing application 43, as the information on the print instruction output from the editing application 43, image data indicating the image to be printed and information indicating the print settings.

[0034] Based on the information acquired from the editing application 43, the general-purpose printing program 41 generates intermediate data by converting the format of the image data of the image to be printed into the format of intermediate data (A03). The image data included in the editing application 43 are of various types, and the general-purpose printing program 41 converts the image data of the image to be printed into intermediate data suitable for generating print data. If the image data of the image to be printed is data suitable for generating print data, the generation of intermediate data may be omitted and it may be used as intermediate data as it is.

[0035] Note that the general-purpose printing program 41 may be able to receive an instruction for print settings by a user operation before generating the intermediate data. Also, the general-purpose printing program 41 may start the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2 before generating the intermediate data and notify that the processing of the print job corresponding to the print instruction output from the editing application 43 has started.

[0036] Further, the general-purpose printing program 41 may be able to receive an instruction from a user who performs detailed print settings, and when receiving an instruction for detailed print settings, starts the auxiliary program 42. When the auxiliary program 42 is started from the general-purpose printing program 41, it can receive an instruction for print settings by a user operation and pass the received various types of information to the general-purpose printing program 41. For example, when the general-purpose printing program 41 does not support the setting for performing accumulation printing, by receiving it in the auxiliary program 42, the print settings can include information for causing the printer 2 to perform accumulation printing.

[0037] Then, after generating the intermediate data, the general-purpose printing program 41 activates the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2, passes an instruction to execute printing, and requests processing (A05). By requesting the general-purpose printing program 41, the auxiliary program 42 can obtain information on intermediate data and printing settings related to the current job (A06).

[0038] When the auxiliary program 42 is activated from the general-purpose printing program 41 and receives an instruction for printing settings or an instruction to execute printing, it may obtain the capability information of the printer 2. For example, the auxiliary program 42 may request the general-purpose printing program 41 to obtain the capability information and obtain the capability information from the printer 2 via the general-purpose printing program 41. Note that the general-purpose printing program 41 communicates with the printer 2 via the OS 21, for example, by communication conforming to IPP (abbreviation for Internet Printing Protocol). Instead of requesting the general-purpose printing program 41, the auxiliary program 42 may directly obtain the capability information from the printer 2 using, for example, MIB (abbreviation for Management Information Base).

[0039] The capability information obtained from the printer 2 may include information related to accumulated printing. The information related to accumulated printing is, for example, information related to individual accumulated printing jobs, the number of accumulated printing jobs, the total number of printed sheets of the accumulated printing jobs, and the free capacity of the memory that can be additionally accumulated. The capability information may further include, for example, information on parameters that can be set as printing settings, remaining amount information of consumables, information on selectable trays, paper information of the paper set in each tray, and information on printable resolutions that can be supported. Also, the printer 2 may pass capability information including information indicating its own status.

[0040] Then, based on the printing settings obtained from the general-purpose printing program 41, the auxiliary program 42 determines whether the current printing job is an accumulation job that includes the accumulation printing setting. If it is determined to be an accumulation job (alt: [accumulation job]), the auxiliary program 42 starts the accumulation job procedure for the current accumulation job (A11). The accumulation job procedure will be described with reference to the sequence diagram in FIG. 3.

[0041] The auxiliary program 42 can register the job ID in the status monitor 44 by passing the job ID to the status monitor 44 as information of the accumulation job (B01). B01 is an example of the registration process. The job ID is identification information for identifying the printing job. The status monitor 44 stores the job ID passed from the auxiliary program 42, the file size of the job, and the registration date and time when the registration instruction was received, in association with each other (B02).

[0042] If the status monitor 44 is not started, the auxiliary program 42 starts the status monitor 44 as a process separate from the editing application 43 in B01. In this way, if the status monitor 44 is started as needed, the processing load on the PC1 is reduced. The status monitor 44 stores the information of the registered job and starts the process of monitoring that job (B03). Details of the monitoring process by the status monitor 44 will be described later.

[0043] The auxiliary program 42 instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to perform rasterization of the intermediate data and transmission of the printing data, which is the data after rasterization, for the printing job registered in the status monitor 44 (B11). Note that the auxiliary program 42 may adjust the intermediate data and printing settings as needed, and in that case, the adjusted data may be passed to the general-purpose printing program 41 in B11.

[0044] The general-purpose printing program 41 rasterizes the intermediate data to generate print data (B12), and transmits the generated print data to the printer 2 (B13). As a result, the printer 2 acquires the print data. Since this print data is the print data of the accumulation job including the setting for performing accumulation printing, instead of starting printing, the printer 2 stores the accumulation job 201 including the print data in the memory 200 as shown in FIG. 1 (B14). Note that the printer 2 stores the accumulation job 201 in association with the job ID and the information indicating the PC1 which is its transmission source.

[0045] Note that the auxiliary program 42 may perform rasterization instead of the general-purpose printing program 41. In that case, the auxiliary program 42 executes rasterization based on the intermediate data to generate print data, and passes the generated print data and the print settings to the general-purpose printing program 41 to instruct transmission to the printer 2. Note that the print data transmitted to the printer 2 may be data in a format printable by the printer 2.

[0046] If rasterization is performed by the auxiliary program 42, the degree of freedom is greater compared to the case of performing rasterization by the general-purpose printing program 41, and there is a high possibility that raster data suitable for printing by the printer 2 is generated. On the other hand, if rasterization is performed by the general-purpose printing program 41, the processing of the auxiliary program 42 is less, and the program size of the auxiliary program 42 can be reduced.

[0047] Also, instead of causing the general-purpose printing program 41 to transmit the print data to the printer 2, the auxiliary program 42 may transmit a print command instructing execution of printing and the print data to the printer 2. For example, when the print settings include settings regarding image processing executable by the printer 2, the auxiliary program 42 may generate a print command including the information of the processing.

[0048] When the printer 2 stores the received accumulation job, it sends a completion notice indicating that the accumulation job has been stored to the general-purpose printing program 41 (B15). The general-purpose printing program 41 passes the completion notice received from the printer 2 to the auxiliary program (B16). The auxiliary program 42 causes the user IF 13 to display information indicating that the accumulation job has been accumulated based on the acquired completion notice (B17).

[0049] Next, regarding the monitoring process started by the status monitor 44 in B03 in response to the registration instruction in B01, it will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4. This monitoring process is executed by the CPU 11 of the PC 1 for each individual accumulation job based on the status monitor 44. In FIG. 4 and the following description, the processing for one accumulation job will be described, but the printer 2 can store a plurality of accumulation jobs, and the status monitor 44 can accept registrations from a plurality of processes. And the status monitor 44 is a program resident in the PC 1 and can execute the acceptance of registration of a new accumulation job and the monitoring process for each accumulation job in parallel.

[0050] In the monitoring process, the CPU 11 receives a registration instruction in B01 of FIG. 3 and starts measuring the elapsed time since registration for the job that stored the job information in B02 (S101). Then, the CPU 11 determines whether or not a predetermined execution condition is satisfied (S102). S102 is an example of a determination process. The predetermined execution condition includes a start condition and a type condition, which are stored in association with each other. In S102, the CPU 11 determines whether or not the condition for starting the execution of the process is satisfied based on the start condition included in the execution condition.

[0051] The start condition is information indicating the condition for starting the processing of the type condition included in the execution condition. For example, it is information indicating the timing to start, such as when a predetermined time has elapsed since the registration date or when a specified date and time has been reached. In addition to these, the start condition may be, for example, a condition such as when the number of registered jobs has reached a predetermined number or when the total file size of all registered jobs has reached a predetermined size. The type condition is information indicating the type of processing to be executed when the start condition is satisfied. For example, it is information indicating deletion, deletion notice, execution start, etc. Here, the condition of the elapsed time from the registration date is an example of the elapsed time condition. The condition of reaching the specified date and time is an example of the date and time arrival condition.

[0052] The predetermined execution condition is set, for example, by the auxiliary program 42. The auxiliary program 42 can receive, for example, user setting instructions for the default print settings used for printing by the printer 2 and the detailed print settings for each job. The auxiliary program 42 receives the setting of the execution condition regarding the accumulated jobs as print settings and passes the information of the received execution condition to the status monitor 44 by the registration instruction of the accumulated jobs in B01 of FIG. 3, so that the execution condition can be specified to the status monitor 44. The status monitor 44 makes a determination in S102 based on the information passed at the time of registration.

[0053] Note that the predetermined execution condition may be a condition common to each job. In that case, the auxiliary program 42 may receive, for example, the setting of the execution condition by an administrator or the like in advance and store it in a memory area shared with the status monitor 44. In this case, the status monitor 44 reads the execution condition from the shared memory and makes a determination in S102.

[0054] When it is determined that the start condition of the execution condition is satisfied (S102: YES), the CPU 11 determines the type of the processing to be executed based on the type condition set in the execution condition that satisfies the start condition (S105).

[0055] Regarding the execution condition where the type of process is deletion, when it is determined that the start condition is satisfied (S105: Deletion), the CPU 11 transmits the job ID of the accumulation job to be monitored and a deletion command for instructing the deletion of the job to the printer 2 (S111). S111 is an example of the corresponding process and an example of the deletion process. The execution condition where the type condition indicates the deletion of the job is an example of the deletion condition.

[0056] S111 is an example of the command transmission (B21) in FIG. 3. The printer 2 that has received the command responds based on the received command (B22). If the received command is a deletion command, the printer 2 deletes the accumulation job specified by the job ID. When the printer 2 deletes the stored accumulation job, it can notify the PC 1, which is the job source, of a deletion notice indicating the end of deletion as result information indicating the processing result (B23). Note that the result information indicating the processing result includes, for example, printing completion, deletion completion, and error occurrence.

[0057] The risk of the accumulation jobs left in the memory 200 of the printer 2 being stolen by a third party increases over a long period. Also, the continuous presence of the accumulation jobs in the printer 2 places a load on the memory 200 of the printer 2. The PC 1 in this embodiment, as a predetermined execution condition, for example, if a predetermined timing, or the total number of jobs or the total file size of the accumulation jobs and deletion are set, instructs the deletion of the accumulation jobs that satisfy the start condition, so the security can be enhanced, and further, the load on the memory 200 of the printer 2 can be reduced.

[0058] Also, when the job to be accumulated is a secure job, the auxiliary program 42 may include secure conditions such as authentication information and password information in the information of the accumulation job and register it in the status monitor 44. When the status monitor 44 satisfies the execution condition for the secure job, it may transmit information for satisfying the secure conditions such as authentication information and password information to the printer 2 together with the command.

[0059] Return to the description of the monitoring process in FIG. 4. After sending the deletion command, the CPU 11 waits until it receives a deletion notification indicating the end of deletion (S112). Since the status monitor 44 resides in the PC 1, it can receive the notification sent from the printer 2. Note that instead of the printer 2 notifying the result information, the status monitor 44 may inquire of the printer 2 to obtain information indicating the status of the stored jobs stored in the printer 2.

[0060] When it is determined that the deletion notification has been received (S112: YES), the CPU 11 causes the user IF 13 to notify that the stored job has been deleted (S113). S113 is an example of the deletion notification process. The CPU 11 notifies, for example, the job ID and registration date and time received in the registration instruction of B01 in FIG. 3 and a message indicating that the deletion has been performed. After S113, the CPU 11 ends the monitoring process and returns to the stored job procedure in FIG. 3.

[0061] That is, when the execution conditions are satisfied, the stored job is automatically deleted according to the instruction from the status monitor 44. Since the status monitor 44 notifies the user of the information when it receives the deletion notification, the user can recognize that the stored job has been deleted. Note that the auxiliary program 42 may pass information indicating the image to be printed, the user name, etc. to the status monitor 44 as job information when registering the stored job. If the status monitor 44 has information stored as job information other than the job ID and registration date and time, it may also notify the information together in S113.

[0062] When the start condition of the execution conditions is satisfied and it is determined that the type of process is a deletion notice (S105: deletion notice), the CPU 11 causes the user IF 13 to notify that the stored job will be deleted soon (S121). S121 is an example of the corresponding process and an example of the deletion notice process. The execution condition in which the type condition indicates the deletion notice of the job is an example of the pre-deletion condition. After S121, the CPU 11 proceeds to S102 and further determines whether or not other execution conditions are satisfied.

[0063] There is a possibility that the user has forgotten to send an accumulated job. By giving a notice before the accumulated job is automatically deleted, the user can be expected to execute the accumulated job. The start condition of the deletion notice may be after the registration of the accumulated job and before the deletion timing. For example, when notifying that the accumulated job has been stored (A33 in FIG. 2), it may be notified together. Also, the auxiliary program 42 may be able to accept a setting as to whether or not to give a deletion notice.

[0064] Note that the deletion notice is a condition inseparable from deletion and is not set unless the execution condition of deletion is set. Also, the execution condition of the deletion notice is preferably set to be executed at a timing earlier than the execution condition of deletion. The start condition of the deletion notice may be not only the elapsed time from the registration date and time or the arrival date and time, but also a condition indicating a predetermined time before the start condition of deletion. Also, regarding the total number of accumulated jobs or the total file size, a value smaller than the start condition of deletion may be used as the start condition of the deletion notice.

[0065] On the other hand, when the start condition of the execution condition is satisfied and it is determined that the type of processing is execution start (S105: execution start), the CPU 11 transmits the job ID of the accumulated job to be monitored and an execution command for instructing the start of job execution to the printer 2 (S131). S131 is an example of corresponding processing and an example of print start processing. The execution condition in which the type condition indicates the start of job printing execution is an example of a print start condition.

[0066] S131 is an example of command transmission (B21) in FIG. 3. The printer 2 that has received the execution command starts printing execution of the accumulated job specified by the job ID (B22). After the printer 2 has completed printing the stored accumulated job, it can notify the PC 1, which is the job transmission source, of a print completion notice indicating print completion as result information indicating the processing result (B23).

[0067] For example, if the execution start date and time of the accumulation job is set as the start condition of the execution condition, and the start of job execution is set as the type condition, the status monitor 44 automatically instructs the start of the execution of the accumulation job when the set date and time is reached. Therefore, the status monitor 44 can manage the start condition for executing the print of the accumulation job. Note that it is preferable that the conditions for starting the print execution of the accumulation job can be set for each job. The PC 1 may receive the setting of the start condition via, for example, the screen provided by the auxiliary program 42 or the screen provided by the status monitor 44.

[0068] Returning to the description of the monitoring process in FIG. 4. After sending the execution command, the CPU 11 causes the user IF 13 to notify the start of the print execution of the accumulation job (S132). S132 is an example of the start notification process. Then, the CPU 11 waits until it receives a completion notification indicating the completion of printing (S133). When a completion notification indicating the completion of printing is received (S133: YES), the CPU 11 notifies the completion of printing (S134). After S134, the CPU 11 ends the monitoring process and returns to the accumulation job procedure in FIG. 3. Note that the CPU 11 may perform only one of the notifications in S132 and S134.

[0069] When automatically executed by the status monitor 44, there is a possibility that the user may not notice that the printing has been done. By notifying the start of execution or the completion of printing, the possibility that the printed material is left in the printer 2 can be reduced. Note that when an error occurs in which the printer 2 cannot complete the printing after starting the execution, the printer 2 notifies the error. When the status monitor 44 receives a notification indicating an error from the printer 2, it is preferable to notify the error.

[0070] On the other hand, when it is determined that the start condition of the execution condition is not satisfied (S102: NO), the CPU 11 determines whether it has received a notification from the printer 2 (S141). The printer 2 can receive, for example, an execution instruction or a deletion instruction for the stored jobs by a user operation via the operation panel. Then, when the printer 2 executes the printing of the stored jobs it stores, it transmits a print completion notification, and when it deletes them, it transmits a deletion notification, in association with the job ID of the stored jobs, to the PC 1.

[0071] Note that the status monitor 44 periodically acquires information from the printer 2, and as information acquired from the printer 2, for example, information indicating the status of the stored jobs stored in the printer 2 may be acquirable. In that case, instead of determining whether a notification has been received from the printer 2 in S141, the status monitor 44 may determine whether the stored jobs to be monitored are stored in the printer 2.

[0072] When it is determined that a notification has been received from the printer 2 (S141: YES), the CPU 11 determines whether the received notification is a print completion notification or a deletion notification (S142). When it is determined that a print completion notification has been received (S142: print completion notification), the CPU 11 proceeds to S134 and notifies of the print completion. On the other hand, when it is determined that a deletion notification has been received (S142: deletion notification), the CPU 11 proceeds to S113 and notifies of the job deletion. Note that in this case, since printing or deletion is being executed by a user operation on the printer 2, the user is aware that the process has been performed. Therefore, the notification on the PC 1 (S113 or S134) may be omitted.

[0073] Returning to the explanation of the stored job procedure in FIG. 3. After the monitoring process in FIG. 4, the status monitor 44 stores information about the stored jobs for which a result notification has been received in the processing information 45 (see FIG. 1) (B25). B25 is an example of a storage process.

[0074] The processing information 45 includes, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, a job ID 451, a status 452, and a processing date and time 453. When the stored job is deleted, the status monitor 44 stores, as the status 452, "Cancel", which is information indicating that the execution of the job has been canceled. Also, when the printing of the stored job is completed, the status monitor 44 stores, as the status 452, "End", which is information indicating that the execution of the job has ended. Note that the processing information 45 is information used by the auxiliary program 42 in the procedure described later, and is stored in a storage area in the memory 12 that can be shared by the status monitor 44 and the auxiliary program 42.

[0075] Then, the status monitor 44 deletes the information of this stored job from the information of the jobs to be monitored (B26). There is no need to monitor stored jobs that have been deleted or stored jobs for which printing has been completed. B26 is an example of a registration deletion process. When the stored job becomes non - stored due to being executed or deleted, there is no need for monitoring. For stored jobs that are no longer stored in the printer 2, by deleting the registration and not performing subsequent monitoring, it is possible to avoid executing unnecessary processes. Note that when all the jobs to be monitored are deleted, the status monitor 44 may terminate itself.

[0076] Returning to the description of the printing procedure in FIG. 2. If it is determined that the current printing job is not a stored job (alt: [Normal job]), the auxiliary program 42 instructs the general - purpose printing program 41 to perform rasterization of the intermediate data and transmission of the printing data, which is the data after rasterization (A21). The general - purpose printing program 41 rasterizes the intermediate data to generate printing data (A22), and transmits the generated printing data to the printer 2 (A23). Since the printer 2 determines that the acquired printing job is not a stored job, it executes printing based on the received printing data (A25).

[0077] When the printing of the received print job is completed, the printer 2 transmits a completion notice indicating the completion of printing to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A27). The general-purpose printing program 41 passes the completion notice received from the printer 2 to the auxiliary program (A28). Based on the obtained completion notice, the auxiliary program 42 causes the user IF13 to display information indicating that the printing has been completed (A29).

[0078] Next, the history display procedure by the auxiliary program 42 will be described. The auxiliary program 42 can display the information on the processing results of the jobs stored in the processing information 45 according to the user's instructions. The auxiliary program 42 can be started not only when it receives an execution instruction from the general-purpose printing program 41 along with a print instruction output from the editing application 43 (A05 in FIG. 2), but also from the general-purpose printing program 41 or the OS 21. For example, when the general-purpose printing program 41 receives a user's instruction to perform detailed print settings, the general-purpose printing program 41 starts the auxiliary program 42. In response to being started, the auxiliary program 42 can cause the user IF13 to display an information screen that can receive instructions from the user.

[0079] When it is started due to receiving an instruction for detailed print settings in the general-purpose printing program 41, the information display procedure for displaying the processing information 45 will be described with reference to the sequence diagram in FIG. 6.

[0080] The editing application 43 receives the user's selection for printing (C01) and requests the general-purpose printing program 41 of the OS 21 to display a screen for receiving instructions regarding printing (C02). The general-purpose printing program 41, in response to the request, causes the user IF13 to display a print screen (C03). The print screen is a screen for receiving the user's instructions regarding various print settings that can be received by the general-purpose printing program 41.

[0081] For example, when a detailed print setting instruction is received (C11) with the printer 2 selected as the device for executing printing, the general-purpose print program 41 activates the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2 and passes an instruction to start receiving detailed print settings (C12). As a result, the auxiliary program 42 causes the user IF13 to display a detailed setting screen for receiving detailed print settings (C13).

[0082] When the auxiliary program 42 stores information regarding processed accumulated jobs as the processing information 45, it becomes possible to receive an instruction from the user to display the log information of the accumulated jobs, which is the information stored in the processing information 45. For example, the auxiliary program 42 displays a detailed setting screen including a button for receiving an instruction to display log information, and receives the instruction to display log information by operating the displayed detailed setting screen.

[0083] When an instruction to display log information is received (C14), the auxiliary program 42 acquires the processing information 45 from the status monitor 44 (C15), and based on the acquired processing information 45, causes the user IF13 to display the log information (C17). C17 is an example of display processing. The auxiliary program 42, for example, associates the job ID 451, status 452, and processing date and time 453 shown in FIG. 5 with each other and displays them as log information. Since the status monitor 44 stores the processing information 45 and the auxiliary program 42 can display the information, the user can grasp that the processing of the accumulated jobs has been performed.

[0084] After performing detailed print settings, the user gives an instruction to end the print settings (C22). As a result, the auxiliary program 42 ends the display of the detailed setting screen and stores the received print setting information (C23). When the auxiliary program 42 later receives an execution instruction associated with a print instruction (A05 in FIG. 2), it can use the stored print settings.

[0085] Then, the auxiliary program 42 notifies the general-purpose printing program 41 of the completion of receiving the detailed printing settings (C25). Based on the notification from the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose printing program 41 notifies the editing app 43 of the completion of the printing settings (C26). The auxiliary program 42 may also notify the editing app 43 of the completion of receiving the printing settings. As a result, the editing app 43 can receive an instruction to execute printing.

[0086] Note that the timing of displaying the log information by the auxiliary program 42 is not limited to the detailed printing settings reception screen, and any timing at which the auxiliary program 42 can display information is acceptable. For example, when the auxiliary program 42 is activated by an instruction to execute printing (A05 in FIG. 2), when it receives an instruction to set the printer 2 as the default printing device, or when it receives an instruction to change the printing device from another printer to the printer 2, the auxiliary program 42 may display the log information, or it may be able to receive an instruction to display the log information. If the status monitor 44 can display information, the status monitor 44 may display the log information.

[0087] As described in detail above, when there is a printing instruction for the accumulated job, the auxiliary program 42 of the first form registers the job ID of the accumulated job with the status monitor 44, and then the status monitor 44 determines whether a predetermined execution condition is satisfied for each registered accumulated job. Further, for the accumulated jobs that satisfy the predetermined execution condition, the status monitor 44 executes the process indicated by the type information included in the predetermined execution condition. Thereby, the situation where accumulated jobs continue to remain in the printer 2 can be controlled.

[0088] Subsequently, a program set of the second form will be described. In this form, a program set when the printer 2 makes a determination of the execution condition is disclosed. In this form, the printer 2 executes the monitoring process, which is different from the first form in which the status monitor 44 of the PC1 executes the monitoring process. Hereinafter, for the same procedures and processes as in the first form, the same reference numerals will be used and the description will be omitted.

[0089] Regarding the accumulation job procedure executed in the program set of this form, it will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG. 7. When the print job that has received a print instruction is an accumulation job including accumulation printing settings (alt: [accumulation job] (FIG. 2)), the auxiliary program 42 registers the job ID in the status monitor 44 (B01). The status monitor 44 stores the job ID passed from the auxiliary program 42 (B02).

[0090] The auxiliary program 42 instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to perform rasterization and transmission of print data (B11). The general-purpose printing program 41 generates print data (B12) and transmits the generated print data to the printer 2 (B13).

[0091] The printer 2 stores the accumulation job 201 in the memory 200 (B14) and transmits a completion notification to the general-purpose printing program 41 (B15). The general-purpose printing program 41 passes the completion notification received from the printer 2 to the auxiliary program (B16). Based on the obtained completion notification, the auxiliary program 42 causes the user IF13 to display information indicating that the accumulation job has been accumulated (B17).

[0092] Based on storing the accumulation job, the printer 2 starts printer-side monitoring processing (D01). Regarding the procedure of the printer-side monitoring processing executed in the printer 2, it will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 8. This printer-side monitoring processing is executed by the CPU of the printer 2 based on the monitoring program possessed by the printer 2. In this form, the status monitor 44 does not execute the monitoring processing. Then, the status monitor 44 waits until it receives a result notification from the printer 2.

[0093] Upon storing the accumulated job, the printer 2 starts timing (S201). Then, the printer 2 determines whether the execution conditions are satisfied (S202). The execution conditions are the same as those in the first embodiment. In this embodiment, the execution conditions may be set in the printer 2 in advance or may be included as part of the print settings.

[0094] If the execution conditions for the accumulated job are set, the printer 2 determines whether the start conditions of the execution conditions are satisfied for each stored job. For example, if the start condition is an elapsed time, the printer 2 starts timing when the job is received and determines whether the elapsed time specified by the start condition has elapsed.

[0095] When it is determined that the start conditions of the execution conditions are satisfied (S202: YES), the printer 2 determines the type of processing to be executed based on the type conditions set for the execution conditions that satisfy the start conditions (S205).

[0096] For the execution conditions where the type of processing is deletion, when it is determined that the start conditions are satisfied (S205: deletion), the printer 2 deletes the corresponding accumulated job from the memory 200 (S211). Then, after executing the deletion, the printer 2 sends a deletion notice to the PC1 (S212). S211 is an example of the printer-side corresponding processing. The deletion notice sent from the printer 2 in S212 is an example of the processing notice.

[0097] For the execution conditions where the type of processing is start of execution, when it is determined that the start conditions are satisfied (S205: start of execution), the printer 2 starts printing the corresponding accumulated job (S221). After executing the printing (S222: YES), the printer 2 sends a print completion notice to the PC1 (S223). S221 is an example of the printer-side corresponding processing. The print completion notice sent from the printer 2 in S223 is an example of the processing notice.

[0098] After S212 or S223, the printer 2 ends the printer-side monitoring process for this job. If there are other jobs stored, the printer 2 continues to monitor each job.

[0099] Return to the description of the stored job procedure in FIG. 7. When a countermeasure is taken by the monitoring process (D01) by the printer 2 (D02, S211 or S221 in FIG. 8) and the result notification from the printer 2 is received (D03, S212 or S223 in FIG. 8), the status monitor 44 notifies the result based on the received notification (D04). D04 is an example of a notification process. D04 is the same process as S113 or S134 in FIG. 4.

[0100] The status monitor 44 stores the information about the stored job that has received the result notification in the processing information 45 (see FIG. 1) (B25). Further, the status monitor 44 deletes the information of this stored job from the information of the job to be monitored (B26).

[0101] In this embodiment, the printer 2 executes the process for the stored job that satisfies the execution condition, and the status monitor 44 notifies that the process has been executed in response to receiving the process notification transmitted from the printer 2. Even in this way, the user can know that the process regarding the stored job remaining in the printer 2 has been performed, and the management of the stored job can be realized.

[0102] Also in this embodiment, the processing information 45 is stored in the memory 12 of the PC 1. Therefore, by the same history display procedure as in the first embodiment, the auxiliary program 42 can display the log information of the stored job, which is the information stored in the processing information 45.

[0103] As described in detail above, also by the program set of the second embodiment, the situation where the stored job continues to remain in the printer 2 can be controlled.

[0104] Note 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 naturally be improved and modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. For example, the device connected to PC1 may be not only a printer but also a multifunction device, a copier, a fax machine, etc., as long as it has a storage printing function. Also, two or more printers may be connected to PC1.

[0105] Also, for example, the display form of various information notified at user IF13 may be any form such as pop-up display, window display, etc.

[0106] Also, in this specification, it is assumed that the auxiliary program 42 registers the information of the stored jobs in the resident status monitor 44, but it may not be the status monitor 44. The registration destination program may be a dedicated program for monitoring the stored jobs, or may be a part of the auxiliary program 42 that can be executed independently of the general-purpose printing program 41.

[0107] Also, the status monitor 44 does not have to be resident. For example, the auxiliary program 42 may start the status monitor 44, and in that case, when the processing of all stored jobs is completed, the processing of the status monitor 44 may also end.

[0108] Also, it is assumed that the status monitor 44 deletes the information of the job (B26 in FIG. 3, B26 in FIG. 7) when the processing of the stored job to be monitored is completed, but it does not have to be deleted. The information of the stored job may be deleted when the status monitor 44 ends, or may be deleted when the power of PC1 is turned off.

[0109] Also, the predetermined execution conditions may be set in advance in the auxiliary program 42 by the administrator, may be set for each job, or may be set by the user of the stored job. Also, the configurable execution conditions may be only one type of condition common to each job.

[0110] In addition, in the embodiment, as start conditions, conditions of elapsed time, conditions of reaching a predetermined date and time, the number of accumulated jobs, and the total file size were exemplified, but there may be other conditions. For example, there may be execution conditions that satisfy the start conditions when the free capacity of the memory 200 of the printer 2 becomes equal to or less than a predetermined capacity, or when the power of the printer 2 is operated.

[0111] In addition, the information of the accumulated jobs may include a user ID indicating the user. And the status monitor 44 may store the process information 45 including the user ID. In that case, when receiving an instruction to display the log information, the auxiliary program 42 may display only the process information 45 including the user ID that matches the user ID of the user logged in to the PC1. Also, not only the processed information but also the information of the unprocessed accumulated jobs may be stored in the process information 45, and in that case, the information of the unprocessed accumulated jobs may also be displayable.

[0112] In addition, 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. Also, the program for executing the processing of this embodiment is not limited to the auxiliary program 42, and any program that receives an instruction from the OS 21 or the general-purpose printing program 41 when performing printing using the general-purpose printing program 41 may be used. For example, a print workflow app (Print workflow) whose specifications are disclosed by Microsoft may be used.

[0113] Also, the execution timing of the auxiliary program 42 is not limited to the example of the embodiment. For example, it may be directly executed from the OS 21, or it may be an auxiliary program 42 that is resident. In the case of being resident, the auxiliary program 42 may perform the above-described operation when receiving an execution instruction.

[0114] Also, in any flowchart disclosed in the embodiments, the plurality of processes in any plurality of steps can be arbitrarily changed in the execution order or executed in parallel as long as there is no conflict in the processing content.

[0115] Also, the processes disclosed in the embodiments may be executed by a single CPU, a plurality of CPUs, hardware such as an ASIC, or a combination thereof. Further, the processes disclosed in the embodiments can be realized in various forms such as a recording medium recording a program for executing the processes or a method.

Description of Reference Numerals

[0116] 1 PC 2 Printer 11 CPU 13 User IF

Claims

1. A program set including a support program that can be executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing apparatus, and supports a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing apparatus, and a cooperation program that operates in cooperation with the support program. The printer has a function of performing stored printing. When receiving a stored job that is a print job for performing stored printing, the printer does not immediately start printing, but stores the received stored job in the memory of the printer, and then starts printing based on the stored job when a predetermined printing condition is satisfied. The support program causes the computer to When there is a print instruction output from an application program incorporated in the information processing apparatus, and the general-purpose printing program is required to perform image printing on the printer due to the print instruction, and the print job according to the print instruction is the stored job, execute a registration process of registering the identification information of the stored job in the cooperation program. The cooperation program causes the computer to Execute a determination process of determining whether a predetermined execution condition is satisfied for each stored job in which the identification information is registered. For the stored job determined to satisfy the predetermined execution condition in the determination process, execute a corresponding process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition. A program set configured as described above.

2. The program set according to claim 1, wherein The predetermined execution condition includes a deletion condition for deleting a stored job. The cooperation program causes the computer to For the stored job determined to satisfy the deletion condition in the determination process, as the corresponding process, execute a deletion process of transmitting a deletion command for instructing deletion of the stored job to the printer. A program set configured as described above.

3. The program set according to claim 2, wherein The cooperation program causes the computer to After executing the deletion process, execute a deletion notification process of notifying deletion of the stored job that has satisfied the deletion condition. A program set configured as described above.

4. The program set according to claim 2, wherein The predetermined execution conditions include pre-deletion conditions that are satisfied before the deletion conditions are satisfied. The cooperation program causes the computer to For the accumulation job determined to satisfy the pre-deletion condition in the determination process, as the corresponding process, execute a deletion notice process for notifying the deletion of the accumulation job that has satisfied the pre-deletion condition. A program set configured as described above.

5. A program set according to claim 1, The predetermined execution conditions include printing start conditions for starting the printing execution of the accumulation job, and the cooperation program can specify the printing start conditions. The cooperation program causes the computer to For the accumulation job determined to satisfy the printing start condition in the determination process, as the corresponding process, execute a printing start process of sending an execution command for instructing the execution of the accumulation job to the printer. A program set configured as described above.

6. A program set according to claim 5, The cooperation program causes the computer to After executing the printing start process, execute a start notification process for notifying the start of the printing execution of the accumulation job that has satisfied the printing start condition. A program set configured as described above.

7. A program set according to claim 1, The predetermined execution conditions include an elapsed time condition that a predetermined time has elapsed since the registration of the identification information. The cooperation program causes the computer to In the determination process, for each accumulation job in which the identification information is registered, determine that the predetermined execution condition is satisfied when the predetermined time has elapsed since the registration of the identification information. A program set configured as described above.

8. A program set according to claim 1, The predetermined execution conditions include a date and time arrival condition that a specified date and time has been reached, and the cooperation program can specify the date and time of the date and time arrival condition. The cooperation program causes the computer to In the determination process, for each accumulation job in which the identification information is registered, determine that the predetermined execution condition is satisfied when the specified date and time has been reached. A program set configured as described above.

9. A program set according to claim 1, The cooperation program causes the computer to For the accumulation job determined to satisfy the predetermined execution condition in the determination process, when it is stored in the printer, the corresponding process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition is executed, and when it is not stored in the printer, the corresponding process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition is not executed. A program set configured as described above.

10. The program set according to claim 1, wherein when the information processing apparatus receives a print completion notification transmitted from the printer, the cooperation program causes the computer to execute a registration deletion process for deleting registration of the accumulation job corresponding to the identification information included in the print completion notification, and the printer, for the accumulation job stored therein, after completion of printing, transmits the print completion notification including the identification information of the accumulation job for which printing has been completed to the information processing apparatus. A program set configured as described above.

11. The program set according to claim 1, wherein the cooperation program resides in the information processing apparatus and is capable of receiving registration of the identification information, and in the registration process, the identification information of the accumulation job is registered in the cooperation program that is resident. A program set configured as described above.

12. The program set according to claim 1, wherein in the registration process, the cooperation program is started as a process separate from the application program, and the identification information of the accumulation job is registered in the started cooperation program. A program set configured as described above.

13. The program set according to claim 1, wherein when the cooperation program executes the corresponding process, the computer is caused to execute a storage process of storing process information indicating that the corresponding process has been executed in association with the identification information of the accumulation job for which the corresponding process has been executed, and the support program enables the computer to execute a display process of reading out the process information stored by the storage process and the identification information of the accumulation job associated with the process information, and displaying the read process information and the identification information of the accumulation job in association with each other on the user interface of the information processing apparatus. A program set configured as described above.

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19. A program set including a support program executable by a computer of an information processing apparatus, corresponding to a printer connected to the information processing apparatus, and supporting a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing apparatus, and a cooperation program operating in cooperation with the support program, wherein the printer has a function of performing accumulated printing, and when receiving an accumulation job which is a print job for performing the accumulated printing, the printer does not immediately start printing but stores the received accumulation job in the memory of the printer, and then starts printing based on the accumulation job when a predetermined printing condition is satisfied. The support program causes the computer to execute a registration process of registering identification information of the accumulation job in the cooperation program when, due to a print instruction output from an application program incorporated in the information processing apparatus, the general-purpose printing program is requested to perform processing for causing the printer to print an image, and the print job according to the print instruction is the accumulation job. The cooperation program causes the computer to execute a notification process of notifying that a process corresponding to the process notification has been executed when the information processing apparatus receives the process notification transmitted from the printer. The printer determines whether or not a predetermined execution condition is satisfied for each of the stored accumulation jobs, executes a printer-side corresponding process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition for the accumulation job that satisfies the predetermined execution condition, and transmits the process notification to the information processing apparatus after the execution of the printer-side corresponding process. The program set is configured as described above.

15. A support program that can be executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing apparatus, and supports a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing apparatus. The printer has a function of performing stored printing. When a stored job, which is a print job for performing stored printing, is received, the printer does not immediately start printing but stores the received stored job in the memory of the printer, and then starts printing based on the stored job when a predetermined printing condition is satisfied. The information processing apparatus stores a cooperation program that operates in cooperation with the support program. The cooperation program can register identification information of the stored job. The cooperation program causes the computer to determine whether a predetermined execution condition is satisfied for each stored job for which the identification information is registered, and for the stored job determined to satisfy the predetermined execution condition, it is possible to execute a corresponding process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition. The support program causes the computer to When there is a print instruction output from an application program incorporated in the information processing apparatus, and the print instruction causes the general-purpose printing program to cause the printer to print an image, the general-purpose printing program is requested to perform processing. When the print job based on the print instruction is the stored job, a registration process for registering the identification information of the stored job in the cooperation program is executed. A support program configured as described above.

16. A support program that can be executed by a computer of an information processing apparatus, supports a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing apparatus, and corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing apparatus. The printer has a function of performing stored printing. When receiving a stored job, which is a print job for performing stored printing, the printer does not immediately start printing but stores the received stored job in the memory of the printer, and then starts printing based on the stored job when a predetermined printing condition is satisfied. The information processing apparatus stores a cooperation program that operates in cooperation with the support program. The cooperation program can register identification information of the stored job. When the information processing apparatus receives a process notification transmitted from the printer, the cooperation program causes the computer to notify that the process corresponding to the process notification has been executed. The printer determines whether each stored job stored therein satisfies a predetermined execution condition, and for the stored job that satisfies the predetermined execution condition, executes a printer-side corresponding process corresponding to the predetermined execution condition, and after the execution of the printer-side corresponding process, can transmit the process notification to the information processing apparatus. The support program causes the computer to execute a registration process of registering identification information of the stored job in the cooperation program when the print instruction output from the application program incorporated in the information processing apparatus is a print instruction for causing the printer to print an image with respect to the general-purpose printing program, and as a result, processing is requested from the general-purpose printing program, and the print job according to the print instruction is the stored job. A support program configured as described above.

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