Support program

Abstract

To reduce duration until completion of a display of a preview screen, in an information processor with an OS standard general-purpose printing program installed.SOLUTION: To a PC 1, an OS standard general-purpose printing program 41 and an auxiliary program 42 corresponding to a printer 2 are installed. Upon receiving a print instruction of printing an image of a print object from an editing application 43 to the general-purpose printing program 41, the auxiliary program 42 obtains first intermediate data generated designating a compression with a compression condition for preview, and displays a preview screen 70. When executing printing, the auxiliary program 42 obtains second intermediate data generated with a compression condition for printing, and processes such that printing data based on the second intermediate data is transmitted to the printer 2.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical Field]

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

[0002] In recent years, a technology has been put into practical use that controls a printer using a standard general-purpose print program that is part of the operating system (OS) and does not use a printer driver provided by the printer vendor. With this technology, when the OS detects a printer, it associates it with the OS's standard general-purpose print program, and then when a print instruction for that printer is received, the OS's standard general-purpose print program generates print data, making it possible to print using the OS's standard general-purpose print program, without using a printer driver provided by the printer vendor.

[0003] An example of a document disclosing technology related to an OS-standard general-purpose print program is Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which a support program that supports the general-purpose print program displays a preview screen. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Publication No. 2020-166350 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] In the configuration disclosed in Patent Document 1, the support program receives intermediate data regardless of whether the preview screen is displayed or printing is executed. In this case, if the same intermediate data as that used for printing is used when displaying the preview screen, which does not need to be high resolution, the processing load of the support program becomes excessive, and it may take longer than expected for the preview screen display of the support program to be completed. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] A support program made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems is executable by a computer of an information processing device, and is a support program corresponding to a printer connected to the information processing device, wherein the information processing device is equipped with an operating system having a general-purpose printing program, and the support program is configured to cause the computer to execute the following when a print instruction is output from an application program built into the information processing device, the print instruction being to cause the general-purpose printing program to print an image on the printer: a first instruction process to instruct the general-purpose printing program to compress data using preview compression conditions; a first acquisition process to acquire from the general-purpose printing program first intermediate data compressed using the preview compression conditions instructed in the first instruction process; a preview screen display process to display a preview screen using the first intermediate data acquired in the first acquisition process; a second acquisition process to acquire from the general-purpose printing program second intermediate data according to print compression conditions; and a print process to perform processing to cause the printer to print based on print data generated from the second intermediate data acquired in the second acquisition process.

[0007] The support program having the above configuration displays a preview screen using first intermediate data compressed under preview compression conditions, and causes the printer to print based on print data generated from second intermediate data compressed under print compression conditions. This support program simplifies the processing of the support program when displaying the preview screen, thereby reducing the time required to complete display of the preview screen.

[0008] An apparatus for realizing the functions of the support program, a control method, and a computer-readable storage medium storing the support program are also novel and useful. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] The technology disclosed in this specification realizes a technology that reduces the time it takes to complete display of a preview screen in an information processing device that has an OS-standard general-purpose printing program installed. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the electrical configuration of a PC. [Figure 2] FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a print setting procedure. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a procedure for displaying a preview screen and printing. [Figure 4] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a display of a preview screen. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a preview screen. [Figure 6] FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram illustrating another example of a procedure for displaying a preview screen and printing. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process for determining a compression rate. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] A personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a "PC") that uses the support program of the first embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. This specification discloses a support program executed on a PC.

[0012] As shown in FIG. 1, the PC 1 of this embodiment includes a controller 10 including a CPU 11 and a memory 12. The PC 1 is an example of an "information processing device." The CPU 11 is an example of a "computer." The PC 1 also includes a user interface (hereinafter referred to as a "user IF") 13 and a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as a "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 PC 1, and does not necessarily represent a single piece of hardware that actually exists in the PC 1.

[0013] The CPU 11 of the PC 1 executes various processes in accordance with programs read from the memory 12 and based on user 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 provided in the CPU 11 is also an example of memory. Note that the memory 12 is not limited to a ROM, RAM, HDD, etc. built into the PC 1, but may also be a storage medium readable and writable by the CPU 11, such as a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

[0014] The user IF 13 includes a display 13a, which is hardware that displays a screen for notifying the user of information, and hardware that accepts operations by the user. Note that the user IF 13 may be a combination of the display 13a capable of displaying information and a mouse, keyboard, or the like that has an input acceptance function, or may be a touch panel that has the functions of the display 13a and an input acceptance function.

[0015] The communication IF 14 includes hardware for communicating with an external device such as the printer 2. The communication IF 14 is compatible with a communication standard such as Ethernet (registered trademark), Wi-Fi (registered trademark), or USB. The PC 1 may be connectable to the Internet via the communication IF 14. The PC 1 may be equipped with multiple communication IFs 14 compatible with multiple communication standards.

[0016] 1, the memory 12 of the PC 1 stores various programs and data, including an operating system (hereinafter referred to as "OS") 21 including a general-purpose printing program 41, an auxiliary program 42, and an editing application 43. The auxiliary program 42 is an example of a "support program." The editing application 43 is an example of an "application program."

[0017] OS21 is a multitasking OS that can process multiple tasks in parallel by managing and switching between them. Examples of OS21 include Windows (registered trademark), macOS (registered trademark), Linux (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), and Android (registered trademark).

[0018] The OS 21 includes a general-purpose printing program 41. The general-purpose printing program 41 is a standard OS program prepared by the OS 21 vendor and provided as part of the OS 21. In other words, the PC 1 is equipped with the OS 21 that includes the general-purpose printing program 41. The general-purpose printing program 41 is not configured to use printer drivers specific to each printer.

[0019] The generic printing program 41 is a program that has the function of printing on multiple models of printers provided by multiple vendors based on user instructions. The generic printing program 41 supports generic functions that allow printing on many printers. Unlike printer drivers specific to each printer, the generic printing program 41 does not support functions specific to each printer or printer driver, especially functions that require complex processing.

[0020] The general-purpose printing program 41 is a program that includes a function to receive image data designated as a print target in a print instruction output from various applications based on a user instruction and generate intermediate data based on that image data. The intermediate data is, for example, XPS data. The general-purpose printing program 41 also has a function to generate print data in a format that can be used for printing on various printers based on the intermediate data. The print data is, for example, PWGRaster data or PDF data. The general-purpose printing program 41 also has a function to send the generated print data to the printer designated as the device to execute printing via a communication function provided by the OS 21.

[0021] The auxiliary program 42 is a program or 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 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. The general-purpose printing program 41 launches the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2 when the printer 2 is selected as the device to execute printing, when an instruction for detailed print settings is received while the printer 2 is selected, when an instruction to execute printing on the printer 2 is received, etc. The auxiliary program 42 is, for example, called a print support app (abbreviated as PSA) or a hardware support app (abbreviated as HSA).

[0022] The auxiliary program 42 may be a combination of multiple programs that each accept an execution command, or a single program that can execute different processes depending on the command. The auxiliary program may also be a program prepared by a printer vendor for each printer type. For example, an auxiliary program for inkjet printers and an auxiliary program for laser printers may be prepared. A separate auxiliary program may be prepared not only for each printer type, but also for each printer model or series of printer models.

[0023] For example, when a new printer is connected to the PC 1, the OS 21 of the PC 1 can download an appropriate auxiliary program according to the type and model of the connected printer from a server of the printer vendor or storage designated by the OS 21, and install it in the PC 1. The OS 21 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.

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

[0025] In this embodiment, the PC 1 is connected to the printer 2 via the communication IF 14 as shown in FIG. 1. The printer 2 is a device that has at least a printing function and a communication function. 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. The printer 2 may be a device capable of color printing, or may be a device capable of only monochrome printing.

[0026] Next, the print setting procedure in the PC 1 of this embodiment will be described based on the sequence in FIG. 2. Note that in this embodiment, each process other than user operation basically indicates processing by the CPU 11 in accordance with instructions written in a program such as the auxiliary program 42. In this specification, various processes performed by the controller 10 or the CPU 11 in accordance with programs such as the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose print program 41, and the OS 21 may be described, for convenience, as if each program were independently performing the various processes. Processing by the CPU 11 also includes hardware control using the API of the OS 21. In this specification, the operation of each program will be described without a detailed description of the OS 21. Also, the term "acquire" is used as a concept that does not necessarily require a request.

[0027] When the print setting screen is displayed on the user IF 13 and a selection instruction to select printer 2 as the device to execute printing is received (A11), or when the print setting screen is displayed by receiving a print selection while printer 2 is selected as the device to execute printing, the editing application 43 passes information indicating that printer 2 has been selected to the general-purpose print program 41 (A12). The general-purpose print program 41 starts the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to printer 2 and passes information indicating that printer 2 has been selected (A13).

[0028] When the auxiliary program 42 is started in response to the instruction in A13, it acquires the capability information of the printer 2. Specifically, the auxiliary program 42 requests the general-purpose printing program 41 to acquire the capability information (A21). The general-purpose printing program 41 sends a command requesting the capability information to the printer 2 and acquires the capability information from the printer 2 (A22). The general-purpose printing program 41 passes the acquired capability information to the auxiliary program 42 (A23). This allows the auxiliary program 42 to acquire the capability information of the printer 2.

[0029] The general-purpose printing program 41 communicates with the printer 2 in A22 via the OS 21, for example, by communication according to IPP (abbreviation for Internet Printing Protocol). The auxiliary program 42 may obtain capability information directly from the printer 2, for example, by using MIB (abbreviation for Management Information Base), instead of making a request to the general-purpose printing program 41. The capability information that the auxiliary program 42 can obtain from the printer 2 may include more information than the capability information obtained via the OS 21.

[0030] The capability information acquired from the printer 2 includes information on setting items that can be set as print settings and parameters that can be set for each setting item. The capability information includes, for example, information indicating the three print quality levels that the printer 2 can support: draft, normal, and fine. The capability information also includes information on the types of content that the printer 2 can process, such as text, graphics, and photos. The capability information also includes information on items related to the paper feed trays and output trays available to the printer 2, such as information on selectable paper feed trays and output trays, and paper information such as the size and type of paper loaded in each paper feed tray. The capability information may also include information on print resolutions supported by the printer 2, information on image processing functions that the printer 2 can execute, information on the status of the printer 2, such as remaining amounts of consumables, information on exclusion settings and how to resolve them, and information on default print settings. The capability information is used, for example, by the general-purpose printing program 41 or the editing application 43 when displaying a print setting screen or determining exclusion errors in the print settings.

[0031] The auxiliary program 42 associates the compression rate corresponding to the print quality based on the acquired capability information and stores it in the memory 12 (A30). At this time, the compression rate corresponding to the type of content may also be stored in the memory 12. The auxiliary program 42 also passes the acquired capability information to the general-purpose printing program 41 and ends the process for printer selection (A35).

[0032] The capability information passed to the general-purpose printing program 41 or the editing application 43 in A23 may be information including all of the capability information acquired from the printer 2, or may be information including only part of the capability information acquired from the printer 2. For example, the capability information passed to the general-purpose printing program 41 or the editing application 43 may be only information related to print settings that the general-purpose printing program 41 or the editing application 43 can accept.

[0033] When an instruction for detailed print settings is received through a user operation (B01), the editing application 43 outputs the instruction for detailed settings, i.e., an instruction to display a setting screen for receiving detailed print settings, to the general-purpose printing program 41 (B02). The general-purpose printing program 41 starts the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2 and passes an instruction to start receiving the detailed print settings (B03). In B03, the general-purpose printing program 41 passes information on the currently set print settings to the auxiliary program 42 along with the instruction to start receiving. When the auxiliary program 42 is started based on the instruction for detailed print settings, it displays a detailed setting screen on the user IF 13 (B05) and becomes able to receive user operations.

[0034] The advanced settings screen includes an object for accepting the selection of print quality (draft, normal, fine) stored in memory 12 in A30. The advanced settings screen also includes an object for accepting the selection of whether to preview. The advanced settings screen may also include an object for accepting the selection of the type of content to be printed. The auxiliary program 42 accepts the selection of print quality (B10) and the selection of whether to preview (B15), and then saves the selected settings in memory 12 (B20). The auxiliary program 42 may also accept the selection of the type of content to be printed and save the selected settings in memory 12. When the settings are complete, the advanced settings process ends (B25). The process of accepting the selection of print quality in B10 is an example of print quality acceptance processing.

[0035] Next, the procedure for displaying the preview screen and printing will be described with reference to the sequence diagram in Fig. 3. After the user decides on the image to be printed and the print settings for printer 2, the user inputs a print instruction into editing application 43 (C01). When the editing application 43 receives the user's print instruction, it determines that it has received an execution instruction from the general-purpose printing program 41 to cause printer 2 to print the selected image, since the general-purpose printing program 41 is incorporated into OS 21 of PC 1.

[0036] The editing application 43 outputs the received print instruction information to the general-purpose printing program 41 (C02). The general-purpose printing program 41 acquires, as the print instruction information, image data indicating the image to be printed and information indicating print settings from the editing application 43. Upon receiving the print instruction from the editing application 43, the general-purpose printing program 41 starts the auxiliary program 42 and outputs an instruction to display a preview or print to the auxiliary program 42 (C03).

[0037] The auxiliary program 42 acquires the selected print quality setting and the selected setting for whether to display a preview, both of which are stored in the memory 12 in B20 (C04). If the selected setting for whether to display a preview is "Preview" (opt:[Preview]), the auxiliary program 42 instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to generate intermediate data with an instruction for a high compression ratio as the compression condition for the preview, regardless of the print quality selected in B10 (C10). The processing in C10 is an example of a first instruction processing. The reason for using a constant compression ratio regardless of the print quality is to simplify the control for displaying the preview screen 70, thereby reducing the time until display and making it approximately constant.

[0038] Based on the information acquired from the editing application 43, the general-purpose printing program 41 converts the format of the image data of the image to be printed into the format of intermediate data compressed at the high compression rate instructed by the auxiliary program 42 in C10, thereby generating intermediate data for preview (C11). The intermediate data for preview is, for example, XPS data. The intermediate data for preview is an example of first intermediate data.

[0039] When the general-purpose printing program 41 generates the preview intermediate data, it passes the generated preview intermediate data to the auxiliary program 42 together with the print settings accepted by the general-purpose printing program 41 (C12). The auxiliary program 42 displays the preview screen 70 using the preview intermediate data accepted from the general-purpose printing program 41 (C13). The process in which the auxiliary program 42 acquires the preview intermediate data in C12 is an example of a first acquisition process. The process in which the auxiliary program 42 displays the preview screen 70 in C13 is an example of a preview screen display process.

[0040] FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a preview screen display. In step S1, the auxiliary program 42 performs necessary editing on the preview intermediate image data compressed at a high compression rate. For example, if a print setting is set to add a header or footer or to superimpose a watermark, the auxiliary program 42 edits the preview intermediate image data to reflect the header, footer, or watermark on the preview screen 70. Next, in step S2, the auxiliary program 42 converts the edited intermediate image data into bitmap data. Next, in step S3, the auxiliary program 42 performs necessary editing on the bitmap data. For example, if a print setting is set that requires color conversion, the auxiliary program 42 performs color conversion on the bitmap data. In step S4, the auxiliary program 42 uses the edited bitmap data to generate a preview screen 70 including necessary operation buttons, etc., and then displays the generated preview screen 70 on the display 13a in step S5.

[0041] The editing of the intermediate image data in step S1, the conversion to bitmap data in step S2, and the editing of the bitmap data in step S3 can be completed in a shorter time because the preview intermediate image data is compressed at a high compression rate. This is because the amount of data in the preview intermediate image data is small, and the number of pixels in the converted bitmap data is also small. This means that the time required to complete displaying the preview screen 70 can be reduced.

[0042] FIG. 5 shows an example of a preview screen. The preview screen 70 includes a preview image 71, a print button 72, and a cancel print button 73. The preview image 71 is an image showing the image to be printed. The print button 72 is a button that accepts an instruction to continue processing for printing the image being displayed. The print button 72 is an example of a continue button. The cancel print button 73 is a button that accepts an instruction to cancel printing. The preview image 71 may display an image that reflects print settings accepted by the general-purpose printing program 41 or specific settings accepted by the auxiliary program 42. For example, if the auxiliary program 42 has accepted a setting to combine a watermark, the preview image 71 may display an image combined with the watermark. The auxiliary program 42 displays the preview screen 70 including the preview image 71, allowing the user to check the print image and instruct to continue the printing process.

[0043] Note that it is not essential to accept a preview instruction from the user (B15). That is, the auxiliary program 42 may automatically display the preview screen 70 without accepting a preview instruction.

[0044] When the user operates the print button 72 on the preview screen 70 to receive an instruction to continue printing (C14), the auxiliary program ends the display of the preview screen 70 (C15). On the other hand, when the user operates the print cancel button 73, the auxiliary program 42 ends the display of the preview screen 70 and instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to cancel printing.

[0045] After the auxiliary program 42 has finished displaying the preview screen 70 in C15, or if the selected print quality setting and the selected preview display setting stored in memory 12 in B20 acquired in C04 are not "Preview," the auxiliary program 42 executes a process for printing. Specifically, the auxiliary program first determines the compression rate as the print compression condition (C20). As an example, the auxiliary program instructs the general-purpose print program 41 to generate intermediate data with an instruction for a low compression rate as the print compression condition, regardless of the print quality selected in B10 (C21). The process of C21 is an example of a second instruction process. Note that the print compression condition may be set to "no compression" regardless of the print quality selected in B10. In this case, the process of C21 may be omitted. In other words, the second instruction process is optional.

[0046] Based on the information acquired from the editing application 43, the general-purpose printing program 41 generates printing intermediate data (C22) by converting the format of the image data of the image to be printed into the format of intermediate data compressed at a low compression rate instructed by the auxiliary program 42 in C21. The printing intermediate data is, for example, XPS data. The printing intermediate data is an example of second intermediate data.

[0047] After generating the printing intermediate data, the general-purpose printing program 41 passes the generated printing intermediate data to the auxiliary program 42 along with the print settings accepted by the general-purpose printing program 41 (C23). The auxiliary program 42 edits the printing intermediate data received from the general-purpose printing program 41 as needed (C24). This editing includes, for example, adding a header or footer, combining a watermark, adjusting colors, and performing other image processing according to the print settings. Then, the auxiliary program 42 generates print data using the edited or unedited printing intermediate data (C25). The print data is, for example, PWG Raster data or PDF data. The generated print data is then sent as a print instruction to the printer 2 via the general-purpose printing program 41 (C26, C27), and the printer 2 executes printing based on the received print data (C28). The process in which the auxiliary program 42 acquires the printing intermediate data in C23 is an example of a second acquisition process. The processes in C25 and C26 are examples of a print process.

[0048] Note that instead of sending the print data to the printer via the general-purpose print program 41 as in C26 and C27, the print data may be sent directly from the auxiliary program 42 to the printer 2. Also, instead of the auxiliary program 42 generating the print data in C25, the auxiliary program 42 may pass edited intermediate data together with print settings to the general-purpose print program 41, and the general-purpose print program 41 may generate and send the print data to the printer 2. Furthermore, when the printer 2 executes printing in C28, image processing and print processing may be performed based on the selected print quality and type of print content included in the print settings received together with the print data.

[0049] As described above in detail, the auxiliary program 42 of the first embodiment instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to perform compression under the preview compression conditions, acquires from the general-purpose printing program 41 first intermediate data compressed under the instructed preview compression conditions, and displays the preview screen 70 using the acquired first intermediate data. The auxiliary program 42 is configured to acquire second intermediate data conforming to the print compression conditions from the general-purpose printing program 41, and cause the printer 2 to print based on print data generated from the acquired second intermediate data. This simplifies the processing of the auxiliary program 42 when displaying the preview screen 70 of the auxiliary program 42, and reduces the time required for the preview screen 70 to be displayed.

[0050] Next, a PC 1 using the auxiliary program 42 of the second embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the sequence diagram of Fig. 6. The second embodiment differs from the first embodiment in that processing proceeds up to the generation of print data in the background while the preview screen 70 is displayed. The same components and procedures as those of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals as those of the first embodiment, and their description will be omitted.

[0051] 6, when the preview screen 70 is displayed at C13, the auxiliary program 42 proceeds with the process from C21 to C25 to generate print data while keeping the preview screen 70 displayed. When the user operates the print button 72 on the preview screen 70 to accept an instruction to continue printing (D14), the auxiliary program ends the display of the preview screen 70 (D15) and executes processes (C26, C27) to send the generated print data to the printer 2, and the printer 2, having received the print data, executes printing (C28). Therefore, the time from accepting the instruction to continue printing to executing printing can be shortened compared to the first embodiment.

[0052] Note that the processing executed in the background while the preview screen 70 is displayed does not have to be all of C20 to C25. For example, it may be up to the acquisition of the intermediate data for printing in C23. Or it may be up to the editing of the intermediate data for printing in C24. In either case, the time from receiving an instruction to continue printing to the execution of printing can be shortened compared to the first embodiment by the amount of time spent processing in the background.

[0053] As described above in detail, the auxiliary program 42 of the second embodiment instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to perform compression under preview compression conditions, acquires from the general-purpose printing program 41 first intermediate data compressed under the instructed preview compression conditions, and displays the preview screen 70 using the acquired first intermediate data. The auxiliary program 42 is then configured to instruct the general-purpose printing program 41 to perform compression under print compression conditions, acquires from the general-purpose printing program 41 second intermediate data conforming to the instructed print compression conditions, and causes the printer 2 to print based on print data generated from the acquired second intermediate data. This simplifies the processing of the auxiliary program 42 when displaying the preview screen 70 of the auxiliary program 42, thereby reducing the time required for the preview screen 70 to be displayed.

[0054] Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 performs processes such as obtaining second intermediate data conforming to the printing compression conditions from the general-purpose printing program 41 while the preview screen 70 is still displayed, thereby shortening the time from receiving an instruction to continue printing to when printing is actually performed.

[0055] Next, modified examples of the first and second embodiments will be described using Fig. 7. In both the first and second embodiments, in determining the compression ratio for printing (C20), a low compression ratio is determined as the compression condition for printing regardless of the print quality selected in B10, but in the modified examples, a compression ratio is determined as the compression condition for printing according to the selected print quality.

[0056] The auxiliary program 42 first reads the print quality selected in B10 from the memory 12 in step S10. Then, in step S20, it determines whether the read print quality is "draft," "normal," or "fine." If the read print setting is "draft," it determines a medium compression rate (S31). If the read print setting is "normal," it determines a low compression rate (S32). If the read print setting is "fine," it determines no compression (S33). Here, the printing compression conditions may be configured such that the first condition is whether to compress and the second condition is the compression rate, and the auxiliary program 42 determines the compression rate for the second condition in C21 only if the first condition is "compress."

[0057] In addition, the auxiliary program 42 may read the type of print content described above from the memory 12 and use it to determine the printing compression conditions. For example, if the type of print content is "text," it may decide not to compress it regardless of the read print quality so that the characters are not difficult to recognize.

[0058] 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 naturally be improved and modified in various ways without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. For example, the device connected to PC1 is not limited to a printer, but may be any device with a printing function, such as a multifunction device, copier, or fax machine. Furthermore, the number of printers connected to PC1 is not limited to the illustrated example, and may be two or more.

[0059] Furthermore, the execution timing of the auxiliary program 42 is not limited to the examples of each form. For example, the auxiliary program 42 may be executed in response to an execution instruction directly from the OS 21, or may be a resident auxiliary program 42. If the auxiliary program 42 is resident, it may receive an execution command and perform the above-described operation.

[0060] Furthermore, in any sequence diagram disclosed in each embodiment, the execution order of multiple processes in any multiple steps can be arbitrarily changed or can be executed in parallel as long as no contradiction occurs in the process content.

[0061] The processes disclosed in each aspect may be executed by hardware such as a single CPU, multiple CPUs, or ASIC, or a combination thereof. The processes disclosed in each aspect may be realized in various ways, such as a recording medium on which a program for executing the processes is recorded, or a method. [Explanation of symbols]

[0062] 1 PC 2. Printer 11 CPU 12 Memory

Claims

1. A support program executable by a computer of an information processing device, the support program corresponding to a printer connected to the information processing device, the information processing device being equipped with an operating system having a general-purpose printing program; The support program is installed on the computer. When a print instruction is output from an application program installed in the information processing device, the print instruction instructing the general-purpose print program to print an image on the printer, a first instruction process for instructing the general-purpose printing program to perform compression under preview compression conditions; a first acquisition process for acquiring, from the general-purpose printing program, first intermediate data compressed under the preview compression conditions instructed in the first instruction process; a preview screen display process for displaying a preview screen using the first intermediate data acquired in the first acquisition process; a second acquisition process for acquiring second intermediate data conforming to the printing compression conditions from the general-purpose printing program; a printing process for causing the printer to perform printing based on print data generated from the second intermediate data acquired in the second acquisition process; Execute A support program configured to:

2. 2. The support program according to claim 1, The support program is installed on the computer. a second instruction process for instructing the general-purpose printing program to perform compression under the printing compression conditions; Execute In the second acquisition process, the second intermediate data that has been compressed or not compressed according to the printing compression conditions instructed in the second instruction process is acquired from the general-purpose printing program. A support program configured to:

3. 3. The support program according to claim 1, The compression ratio of the compression conditions for preview is higher than the compression ratio of the compression conditions for printing, A support program configured to:

4. 4. The support program according to claim 3, The printing compression conditions include a first condition indicating whether or not to compress, In the second acquisition process, if the first condition indicates that compression is to be performed, the second intermediate data compressed by the general-purpose printing program is acquired, and if the first condition indicates that compression is not to be performed, the second intermediate data that has not been compressed is acquired. A support program configured to:

5. 4. The support program according to claim 3, The support program is installed on the computer. Execute a print quality reception process to receive a print quality specification; the printing compression conditions are compression conditions corresponding to the print quality accepted in the print quality acceptance process; A support program configured to:

6. 4. The support program according to claim 3, The compression ratio of the preview compression conditions is constant regardless of the compression ratio of the print compression conditions. A support program configured to:

7. 4. The support program according to claim 3, The compression ratio of the printing compression conditions is constant. A support program configured to:

8. 3. The support program according to claim 1, a continuation button is displayed on the preview screen, and the second acquisition process is executed in response to an operation of the continuation button. A support program configured to:

9. 3. The support program according to claim 1, a continuation button is displayed on the preview screen, and the second acquisition process is executed before the continuation button is operated. A support program configured to:

10. 10. The support program according to claim 9, before the continue button is operated, generation of the print data based on the second intermediate data acquired in the second acquisition process is further executed. A support program configured to:

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