Support program

Abstract

To provide a technique for causing a printer to print an appropriate number of copies according to print settings in an information processing apparatus in which an OS standard print program is incorporated.SOLUTION: The auxiliary program 42 corresponds to the printer 2 and supports the general-purpose print program 41 of the OS21 in PC1. When printing of a plurality of copies is designated, the auxiliary program 42 automatically sets collation printing or uncollation printing based on predetermined parameters included in the print settings, for example, parameters related to accumulation printing, stapling processing, or sorting processing. Then, the transmission of the print data to the printer 2 is controlled according to the setting.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

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

[0002] 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 a general-purpose printing program is Patent Document 1. Patent Document 1 discloses a configuration in which, when a job to print multiple copies of a multi-page document is output on a personal computer (PC) incorporating a general-purpose printing program, a support program that supports the general-purpose printing program is used to realize collated printing, which prints a specified number of copies one by one, and uncollated printing, which prints each page from the first page to the last page consecutively for the specified number of copies. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Patent Publication No. 2021-56756 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] As disclosed in Patent Document 1, there is a technology that enables both collated printing and uncollated printing. However, some parameters that can be set in the print settings are not suitable for collated printing, and some are not suitable for uncollated printing, so there is room for improvement. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] The support program aimed at solving the above-mentioned problems is as follows: A support program that can be executed by a computer of an information processing device, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing device, and supports a general-purpose printing program included in an operating system of the information processing device, The computer, When printing multiple copies is specified, an automatic setting process automatically sets whether to use collate printing, which prints the specified number of copies one by one in order, or uncollate printing, which prints each page from the first page to the last page consecutively for the specified number of copies, based on predetermined parameters included in the print settings; and an output control process that controls, when the collate printing is set in the automatic setting process, to send print data to the printer for printing the specified number of copies one by one, and, when the uncollate printing is set in the automatic setting process, to send print data to the printer for printing the specified number of copies of each page from the first page to the last page consecutively; Execute It is configured as follows.

[0007] When printing multiple copies is specified, the support program disclosed in this specification automatically sets whether to perform collated printing or uncollated printing based on predetermined parameters included in the print settings, and controls the transmission of print data to the printer according to that setting, which is expected to allow the printer to print the appropriate number of copies.

[0008] An information processing device incorporating the above support program, a computer-readable storage medium storing the support program, a control method for realizing the functions of the support program, and a printing system including the support program and a printer are also novel and useful. [Effects of the Invention]

[0009] The technology disclosed in this specification realizes a technology that allows a printer to print an appropriate number of copies according to print settings in an information processing device that has an OS-standard print 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 showing the procedure for printer selection and detailed setting in the first embodiment. [Figure 3] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print setting screen. [Figure 4] FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure when an auxiliary program acquires capability information. [Figure 5] FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a detailed setting screen. [Figure 6] FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure for executing printing in the first embodiment. [Figure 7] 10 is a flowchart showing the procedure of a first automatic setting process in the first embodiment. [Figure 8] FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing an example of a procedure for a printing process in the first embodiment. [Figure 9] FIG. 10 is a sequence diagram showing the procedure for printer selection and detailed setting in the second embodiment. [Figure 10] 10 is a flowchart showing the procedure of a second automatic setting process in a second embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0011] Hereinafter, a printing system including a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as "PC") that uses the support program of the present embodiment and a printer connected to the PC will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. This specification discloses the support program executed on the PC.

[0012] [PC configuration] As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system 100 of this embodiment includes a PC 1 and a printer 2. The PC 1 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 "user IF") 13 and a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as "communication IF") 14, which are electrically connected to the controller 10. Note that the controller 10 in FIG. 1 is a general 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, for example, as a work area when executing various programs. A buffer provided in the CPU 11 is also an example of the memory 12. Note that the example of 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, for example, a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, etc.

[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 include 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 include 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 stores various programs and data, including an operating system (hereinafter referred to as "OS") 21 including a general-purpose print 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 with 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 enable 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 the print target in a print instruction output from various application programs based on a user's 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 an application 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, PC 1 is connected to printer 2 via communication IF 14, as shown in FIG. 1. Printer 2 is a device having at least a printing mechanism 22, a paper transport mechanism 23, and a communication IF 24. For example, when printer 2 receives print data from PC 1 or the like via communication IF 24, it transports paper as a print medium using paper transport mechanism 23 and can execute printing based on the print data using printing mechanism 22. Printer 2 may be a device capable of color printing, or a device capable of executing only monochrome printing. Printer 2 may also be a device with a printing function, such as a multifunction device, copier, or fax machine.

[0026] The printer 2 also performs various processes on the printed sheets, which are sheets of paper, based on output mode parameters included in the print settings or parameters set in the printer 2 itself. Specifically, the printer 2 can be equipped with a finisher 25 and a sorter 26, and as a process for the printed sheets, for example, the finisher 25 can perform a staple process to staple multiple printed sheets together for each set of printed sheets when printing multiple copies. Also, for example, the sorter 26 can perform a sort process to sort the printed sheets into separate trays when printing multiple copies.

[0027] The printer 2 may be capable of performing other processes on printed materials, such as punching, bookleting, etc., in addition to stapling and sorting. The finisher 25 and sorter 26 for performing processes on printed materials may be integrated with the printer 2 or may be separate entities. The sorter 26 may also function as a mailbox.

[0028] [PC printing process] Next, the procedure for processing related to printing on the printer 2 in the PC 1 of this embodiment will be described. 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 printing program 41, and the OS 21 may be described, for convenience, as if each program were independently performing 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.

[0029] [Printer selection and print settings (first form)] First, a first mode of the selection and setting procedure for accepting the selection of the printer to be used for printing and the print settings in the PC 1 will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG.

[0030] The editing application 43 can create and edit text and images based on user instructions. When the user wants to print the text or image being displayed, the user selects print in the editing application 43 (A01). The user can select print, for example, from a menu of operation items provided in the editing application 43. Because the general-purpose printing program 41 is incorporated into the OS 21 of the PC 1, when the editing application 43 accepts the selection of print, it requests the general-purpose printing program 41 of the OS 21 to display a screen for accepting instructions related to printing (A02).

[0031] In response to the request, the general-purpose printing program 41 causes the user IF 13 to display a print setting screen 50 as shown in Fig. 3 (A03). The print setting screen 50 is a screen that accepts user specifications for various print settings that can be accepted by the general-purpose printing program 41. The print setting screen 50 shown in Fig. 3 includes, for example, a printer information field 51, an information display field 52, a setting information field 53, a detailed settings button 54, and a print button 55. Note that the print setting screen 50 may be displayed by the editing application 43.

[0032] The printer information field 51 displays information about the printer selected as the device to perform printing, and is a field that can accept device selection in a list box format. The selectable devices correspond to print queues managed by the OS 21, and Printer 2 is also included in the selectable devices.

[0033] The information display field 52 is a field that displays information specified by an auxiliary program corresponding to the device displayed in the printer information field 51. The setting information field 53 is a field that displays the currently set setting values ​​for some of the print setting items. In the example of FIG. 3, the information display field 52 includes a layout image 521 for the Nin1 items, and the setting information field 53 includes a field that displays the print orientation, a number of copies setting field that displays the setting value for the number of copies, and an Nin1 setting field that displays the setting values ​​for the Nin1 items.

[0034] The advanced settings button 54 is a button for receiving an instruction to display a screen for making detailed print settings. The print button 55 is a button for receiving an instruction to execute printing using the selected device and print settings.

[0035] After displaying the print setting screen 50 on the user IF 13, the general-purpose printing program 41 can accept device selection through an operation in the printer information field 51. When an operation by the user to select printer 2 is accepted (opt:[printer selection], A11), the general-purpose printing program 41 requests display data to be displayed on the display target screen from the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to printer 2 (A12).

[0036] When the auxiliary program 42 is started in response to the request at A12 from the general-purpose printing program 41, it executes a capability acquisition process for acquiring capability information indicating the capabilities of the selected printer 2 from the printer 2 (A13).

[0037] Specifically, in the capability acquisition process, the auxiliary program 42 first requests the general-purpose printing program 41 to acquire capability information (A21), as shown in Fig. 4. Upon receiving the request to acquire capability information from the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose printing program 41 sends a capability request command requesting capability information to the printer 2, and receives the capability information sent from the printer 2 in response to the capability request command (A22). The general-purpose printing program 41 passes the capability information received from the printer 2 to the auxiliary program 42 (A23). This allows the auxiliary program 42 to acquire the capability information of the printer 2.

[0038] In A22, the general-purpose printing program 41 communicates with the printer 2 via the OS 21, for example, by communication according to IPP (abbreviation for Internet Printing Protocol). Note that instead of making a request to the general-purpose printing program 41, the auxiliary program 42 may use, for example, MIB (abbreviation for Management Information Base) to send a capability request command to the printer 2 without going through the general-purpose printing program 41, and obtain capability information directly from the printer 2. Furthermore, the capability information that the auxiliary program 42 can obtain directly from the printer 2 may include more information than the capability information obtained via the OS 21.

[0039] The capability information acquired from the printer 2 includes information on setting items that can be set as print settings and values ​​that can be set for each setting item. For example, the capability information may include information on items related to the paper feed trays and output trays available in the printer 2, such as information indicating selectable paper feed trays and output trays, information on the paper size and paper type set in each paper feed tray, and information on the presence or absence of a finisher 25 or a sorter 26. Information on the output tray may include information on the sorter 26. The capability information may also include information on print formats that the printer 2 can support, information on print resolutions that the printer 2 can support, information on image processing functions that the printer 2 can execute, information on the status of the printer 2, such as information on the remaining amounts of consumables, information on default print settings, and information on whether accumulated printing is possible. The capability information may also include information on processes for printed materials that the printer 2 can support.

[0040] Returning to the explanation of Figure 2, the auxiliary program 42 creates display data based on the acquired capability information (A14) and passes it to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A15). The general-purpose printing program 41 updates the information display field 52 and the setting information field 53 of the print setting screen 50 based on the display data created by the auxiliary program 42 (A16). As a result, selectable options in the setting information field 53 on the print setting screen 50 are configured based on the capability information acquired in A13.

[0041] If the selection of printing in A01 is accepted with printer 2 selected as the device to execute printing, the editing application 43 passes information indicating that printer 2 has been selected to the general-purpose printing program 41. When displaying the print setting screen 50 in A03, the general-purpose printing program 41 selects printer 2 in the printer information field 51 as the initial value of the device to execute printing. In this case, just as when the user selects printer 2 in the printer information field 51, the general-purpose printing program 41 requests the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to printer 2 for display data to be displayed on the target screen (A12), and the auxiliary program 42 executes the processes from A13 to A16.

[0042] After the print setting screen 50 is displayed on the user IF 13, the general-purpose print program 41 can accept an instruction to perform detailed print settings by operating the detailed settings button 54. After the printer 2 is selected, if an operation on the detailed settings button 54 is accepted (opt:[detailed settings], A31), the general-purpose print program 41 passes a detailed settings instruction to the auxiliary program 42 to start accepting detailed print settings (A32).

[0043] When the auxiliary program 42 is started in response to a detailed setting instruction from the general-purpose printing program 41, it executes a capability acquisition process (A33), similar to when a printer is selected. A33 is the same process as A13 described above, and therefore a description thereof will be omitted.

[0044] The auxiliary program 42 causes the user IF 13 to display a detailed settings screen 60 (A34) as shown in Fig. 5, which accepts detailed print settings based on the acquired capability information. The detailed settings screen 60 of this embodiment includes a setting field 61 for accepting changes to various setting items of the print settings, a layout image 62 showing the page layout corresponding to the current setting values ​​for aggregate printing, and an OK button 63. Note that the detailed settings screen 60 may also include setting items that are not included in the print settings screen 50. Note that, because there are many setting items that can be accepted on the detailed settings screen 60, the auxiliary program 42 may be able to accept an instruction to switch between setting items to be set, for example, using multiple tabs.

[0045] The setting field 61 includes items such as paper type, paper size, paper tray, paper output destination, color, and staple. For example, in the paper output destination item, in addition to the "main tray" which is a tray of the printer 2, if the sorter 26 is available, "sorter" can be selected. If the sorter 26 is unavailable, "sorter" cannot be selected. Also, if the finisher 25 which has a stapling function is available, in the staple item, "no" corresponding to not performing stapling processing, as well as "yes" corresponding to performing stapling processing, can be selected. If the finisher 25 is unavailable, "yes" cannot be selected in the staple item.

[0046] The setting field 61 also includes items such as print orientation, layout, arrangement, and number of copies. When a value of 2 or greater is specified for the number of copies, i.e., when multiple copies are specified, the print order specification becomes effective. Options for specifying the print order include "collate printing" and "ancollate printing," and either one can be specified. "Collate printing" is an option for specifying collate printing, in which a specified number of copies are printed sequentially, with each copy containing one page from the first page to the last page. "Ancollate printing" is an option for specifying ancollate printing, in which a specified number of copies of each page from the first page to the last page are printed consecutively. For example, when printing three copies of a three-page image, the page print order is 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, and 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, in ancollate printing. In this specification, the setting of whether to perform collated printing or uncollated printing when printing multiple copies is referred to as "collated setting."

[0047] Furthermore, by switching tabs on the advanced settings screen 60, the auxiliary program 42 accepts settings for, for example, accumulated printing. Accumulated printing is a printing mode in which the printer 2 does not immediately start printing based on received print data, but temporarily stores data based on that print data in memory, and starts printing based on that data in response to a user operation via the user interface of the printer 2. When the user is prompted to enter a password as a user operation to start printing, the specification of that password is also accepted on the advanced settings screen 60.

[0048] The auxiliary program 42 can change the setting values ​​of various setting items by accepting user operations on the setting field 61 of the detailed setting screen 60. When the auxiliary program 42 accepts a change operation to one setting item in the setting field 61 (A41), it updates the display of the setting value of the setting item for which the change was accepted (A42).

[0049] Furthermore, when the auxiliary program 42 receives an instruction to confirm the print settings by operating the OK button 63 on the detailed setting screen 60 (A45), the auxiliary program 42 stores information about the confirmed print settings in the memory 12 (A46). The auxiliary program 42 passes the information about the confirmed print settings to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A47).

[0050] Upon receiving an operation on the OK button 63, the auxiliary program 42 closes the detailed settings screen 60. As a result, the print settings screen 50 (FIG. 3, etc.) described above is displayed. The auxiliary program 42 may generate new display data according to the print settings received on the detailed settings screen 60 and pass it to the general-purpose printing program 41. The auxiliary program 42 may pass the capability information acquired by A33 to the general-purpose printing program 41. The general-purpose printing program 41 may store the capability information passed from the auxiliary program 42 in the memory 12, or pass it to the editing application 43 and share it with the editing application 43.

[0051] The capability information that the auxiliary program 42 stores in the memory 12 and the capability information that it passes to the general-purpose printing program 41 and the editing application 43 may be information that includes all of the capability information acquired from the printer 2, or may be information that includes only part of the capability information acquired from the printer 2. For example, the capability information passed to the general-purpose printing program 41 and the editing application 43 may be only information related to print settings that can be accepted by the general-purpose printing program 41 and the editing application 43. By passing the capability information of the printer 2 to the general-purpose printing program 41 and the editing application 43 as well, options that match the capabilities of the printer 2 are displayed on the print setting screen 50 so that they can be selected.

[0052] [Print execution (first form)] Next, the procedure for executing printing will be described with reference to the sequence diagram in Fig. 6. After the user decides on the image to be printed and the print settings for printer 2, the user inputs a print execution instruction into editing application 43 (B01). When the editing application 43 receives the user's print execution instruction, it determines that it has received an execution instruction to cause printer 2 to print the selected image to the general-purpose printing program 41, since the general-purpose printing program 41 is incorporated into OS 21 of PC 1. The editing application 43 outputs information about the received print instruction to the general-purpose printing program 41 (B02).

[0053] The general-purpose printing program 41 acquires, as print instruction information, image data indicating the image to be printed and information indicating print settings from the editing application 43. 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 (B03). The image data included in the editing application 43 is of various types, and the general-purpose printing program 41 converts the image data to be printed into intermediate data suitable for generating print data. Note that if the image data to be printed is data suitable for generating print data, the generation of intermediate data may be omitted and the image data may be used as is as intermediate data.

[0054] Before generating the intermediate data, the general-purpose printing program 41 may start the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the selected device, printer 2, and notify the program that print job processing has begun. When started by the general-purpose printing program 41, the auxiliary program 42 can pass information indicating various instructions used when generating the intermediate data to the general-purpose printing program 41 as necessary.

[0055] After generating the intermediate data, the general-purpose printing program 41 outputs an execution instruction to the auxiliary program 42, thereby starting the auxiliary program 42 (B04). When started by the general-purpose printing program 41, the auxiliary program 42 executes a capability acquisition process (B05). B05 is the same process as A13 described above, and a description thereof will be omitted.

[0056] Note that even if a print setting is compatible at the time of print setup, the capabilities may change, for example, if an optional tray is removed between print instructions, and the settings may no longer be compatible when printing is executed. For this reason, the auxiliary program 42 can obtain capability information even when a print instruction is issued, thereby determining, for example, whether the print settings of a print job are compatible with the current capabilities of the printer 2.

[0057] After acquiring the capability information, the auxiliary program 42 requests the general-purpose printing program 41 to acquire the intermediate data and print setting information generated by the general-purpose printing program 41 (B06). The intermediate data acquired in B06 is image data representing the image to be printed, and is intermediate data generated by the general-purpose printing program 41 based on the image data acquired from the editing application 43 in B02.

[0058] The auxiliary program 42 edits the intermediate data and print settings acquired from the general-purpose print program 41 as necessary. Editing by the auxiliary program 42 includes, for example, a first automatic setting process that automatically sets collation settings among the print settings (B07). The first automatic setting process is an example of an automatic setting process. The first automatic setting process executed by the auxiliary program 42 will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. 7.

[0059] In the first automatic setting process, the auxiliary program 42 first determines whether multiple copies have been specified (S00). If multiple copies have not been specified (S00: NO), one copy is printed in page order whether the collation setting is collate printing or uncollate printing, and the first automatic setting process ends without changing the collation setting.

[0060] If multiple copies are specified (S00: YES), the auxiliary program 42 determines whether the print settings include parameters for causing the printer to perform accumulated printing (S01). For example, if accumulated printing is set or a password for starting printing is set, it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer to perform accumulated printing.

[0061] If it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer to perform accumulated printing (S01: YES), the auxiliary program 42 forcibly sets the collate settings to collate printing (S11). That is, if uncollated printing is set in the collate settings, it is overwritten with collated printing. In the case of accumulated printing, it may take some time for the user to operate the printer 2 after issuing an instruction on the PC 1. In such cases, the user is more likely to forget whether they instructed collated printing or uncollated printing. If uncollated printing is used to output documents together on one tray, a user who sees consecutive printouts of the same pages may mistakenly believe that unintended printing has been performed, so outputting documents using collated printing is preferable.

[0062] If it is determined that the print settings do not include parameters for causing the printer 2 to perform accumulated printing (S01: NO), the auxiliary program 42 determines whether the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to perform stapling after printing (S02). In this embodiment, if "Yes" is specified for the staple item in the print settings, it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to perform stapling after printing.

[0063] If it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to perform stapling after printing (S02: YES), the auxiliary program 42 forcibly sets the collation setting to collate printing (S11). When performing stapling, it is necessary to assemble a set of printed materials and pass each set of printed materials to the finisher 25, so collate printing is required for output. S11 is an example of the second setting process.

[0064] If it is determined that the print settings do not include parameters for causing the printer 2 to execute a staple process after printing (S02: NO), the auxiliary program 42 determines whether the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to execute a sort process after printing (S03). In this embodiment, if "sorter" is specified as the paper output destination item in the print settings, it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to execute a sort process after printing.

[0065] If it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to execute a sorting process after printing (S03: YES), the auxiliary program 42 forcibly sets the collation settings to uncollated printing (S12). That is, if collated printing is set in the collation settings, it is overwritten with uncollated printing. When sorting is executed, the sorter 26 sequentially discharges the printed materials to different trays, so uncollated printing is required for output. S12 is an example of a first setting process.

[0066] The order of the determination of storage printing in S01, the determination of stapling processing in S02, and the determination of sorting processing in S03 is not limited to the order described above. For example, the determination of stapling processing may be performed first, or the determination of sorting processing may be performed first.

[0067] After S11 or S12, the auxiliary program 42 determines whether the collation settings have been forcibly changed by S11 or S12 (S21). If it is determined that the collation settings have been forcibly changed (S21: YES), the auxiliary program 42 notifies the user that the collation settings have been changed (S22). By forcibly changing the collation settings by S11 or S12, the auxiliary program 42 can prevent the printer 2 from printing an inappropriate number of copies. As used herein, "forcibly" means that the auxiliary program 42 changes the settings without requesting user confirmation. However, because the settings are forcibly changed, the user may end up with unintended printing, which may cause distrust. Therefore, if the settings are forcibly changed, by notifying the user that the settings have been changed, the user can understand that the settings have been changed, thereby reducing the possibility that the user will feel distrust. Note that the notification may be made, for example, by displaying a pop-up on the user IF 13 or by outputting a sound. S22 is an example of notification processing. After S22, or if it is determined that the collate setting has not been forcibly changed (S21: NO), the first automatic setting process ends.

[0068] Furthermore, if it is determined that the print settings do not include parameters for causing the printer 2 to execute a sorting process after printing (S03: NO), there is no need to forcibly change the collation settings, and the first automatic setting process is terminated.

[0069] After the first automatic setting process of B07, the auxiliary program 42 performs a print process to send the print data to the printer 2 based on the edited intermediate data and the print settings (B08). The print process of B08 is an example of an output control process. When multiple copies are specified, the print process to send the print data to the printer 2 differs depending on whether the collation setting is collated printing or uncollated printing. The print process of B08 will be described with reference to FIG. 8. Note that a description of the case where multiple copies are not specified will be omitted.

[0070] If multiple copies are specified and the collation setting is collate printing ([Collate Printing]), the auxiliary program 42 generates print data for all pages (B11) based on the intermediate data acquired from the general-purpose printing program 41. Then, the print data for all pages, i.e., one copy of the print data, is temporarily stored in the memory 12.

[0071] To generate print data, for example, the auxiliary program 42 passes the edited intermediate data and print settings to the general-purpose printing program 41 and instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to generate print data. The general-purpose printing program 41 then performs necessary processing, such as rasterizing the intermediate data, to generate print data, and the auxiliary program 42 receives the generated print data. Alternatively, the auxiliary program 42 may perform rasterization instead of the general-purpose printing program 41 to generate print data. Rasterization by the auxiliary program 42 allows for greater flexibility than rasterization by the general-purpose printing program 41, and is more likely to generate print data suitable for printing on the printer 2. On the other hand, rasterization by the general-purpose printing program 41 reduces the processing required by the auxiliary program 42, allowing the program size of the auxiliary program 42 to be reduced. Note that the print data may be in any format that can be printed by the printer 2.

[0072] After generating the print data, the auxiliary program 42 passes the generated print data and print settings for all pages to the general-purpose printing program 41 and instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to send the print data to the printer 2 (B12). As a result, the general-purpose printing program 41 sends a print job including the passed print data and print settings for all pages to the printer 2 (B13). The printer 2 executes printing based on the received print job (B14). Collate printing can be achieved by repeating the processes from B12 to B14 for the number of copies.

[0073] Instead of sending the print data from the general-purpose print program 41 to the printer 2, the auxiliary program 42 may send a print command instructing the printer 2 to execute printing and the print data. For example, if the print settings include settings related to image processing that can be executed by the printer 2, the auxiliary program 42 may generate a print command that also includes information about that processing.

[0074] Furthermore, if the general-purpose printing program 41 supports collate printing, the auxiliary program 42 may request transmission of B12 only once, and the general-purpose printing program 41 may repeat transmission of the print job of B13 for the number of copies.

[0075] Furthermore, if the printer 2 supports collate printing, the request to send B12 by the auxiliary program 42 and the transmission of the print job B13 by the general-purpose printing program 41 are made only once, and the specified number of copies is included in the print job and sent to the printer 2, and the printer 2 may repeatedly print the specified number of copies from that one portion of print data.

[0076] On the other hand, if multiple copies are specified and the collation setting is uncollate printing ([Uncollate Printing]), the auxiliary program 42 generates print data for the first page based on the intermediate data obtained from the general-purpose printing program 41 (B21).

[0077] After generating the print data, the auxiliary program 42 passes the generated print data and print settings for the first page to the general-purpose printing program 41, and instructs the general-purpose printing program 41 to send the print data to the printer 2 (B22). As a result, the general-purpose printing program 41 sends a print job including the passed print data and print settings for the first page to the printer 2 (B23). The printer 2 executes printing based on the received print job (B24). By repeating the processes from B22 to B24 for the number of copies, the printer 2 can print the first page continuously. Furthermore, by repeating this process for one page for the number of pages from the next page onwards, uncollated printing can be achieved.

[0078] If the general-purpose printing program 41 supports anchor printing, the auxiliary program 42 may request transmission of B22 only once, and the general-purpose printing program 41 may repeat transmission of the print job of B33 for the number of copies.

[0079] Furthermore, if printer 2 supports anchor printing, the auxiliary program 42 may request transmission of B22 and the general-purpose printing program 41 may send the print job of B23 only once for processing one page, and the specified number of copies may be included in the print job and sent to printer 2, and printer 2 may then repeatedly print the specified number of copies from the print data for one page.

[0080] As explained in detail above, when printing multiple copies is specified at the time of printing, the auxiliary program 42 of the first embodiment automatically sets the collation setting to either collated printing or uncollated printing based on predetermined parameters included in the print settings, such as parameters related to accumulation printing, stapling, or sorting, and controls the transmission of print data to the printer 2 according to that setting. This is expected to cause the printer 2 to print an appropriate number of copies. Furthermore, by forcibly setting the collation setting based on the print settings corresponding to the print instruction before printing is executed, the auxiliary program 42 of the first embodiment is expected to cause the printer 2 to print appropriately for that print instruction.

[0081] [Printer selection and print settings (second form)] Next, the selection and setting procedure in the second embodiment, in which PC 1 accepts the selection of the printer to be used for printing and the print settings, will be described with reference to the sequence diagram in FIG. 9. In the second embodiment, collation settings are automatically set when print settings are made. This differs from the first embodiment, in which collation settings are automatically set when printing is executed. Note that, among the selection and setting procedures in the second embodiment, the same processes as those in the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2 are assigned the same reference numerals and descriptions thereof will be omitted.

[0082] After displaying the detailed setting screen 60 on the user IF 13 in A34, when the auxiliary program 42 receives a change to one of the setting items in the setting field 61 (A41), it updates the display of the setting value of the setting item for which the change was received (A42). Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 executes a second automatic setting process that automatically sets the collation settings based on the changed print settings (A43). The second automatic setting process is an example of an automatic setting process.

[0083] The second automatic setting process executed by the auxiliary program 42 will be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 10. Note that, among the second automatic setting processes, the same processes as those in the first automatic setting process shown in Fig. 7 are denoted by the same reference numerals and will not be described again.

[0084] In the second automatic setting process, as in the first automatic setting process, if a multiple number of copies is not specified (S00: NO), the auxiliary program 42 ends the first automatic setting process without changing the collation setting. Then, if it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to perform accumulated printing (S01: YES), the auxiliary program 42 forcibly sets the collation setting to collated printing (S11). If it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to perform stapling after printing (S02: YES), the auxiliary program 42 forcibly sets the collation setting to collated printing (S11). If it is determined that the print settings include parameters for causing the printer 2 to perform sorting after printing (S03: YES), the auxiliary program 42 forcibly sets the collation setting to uncollated printing (S12). The collation setting is forcibly changed by S11 or S12 in accordance with the operation on the detailed setting screen 60.

[0085] After S11 or S12, the auxiliary program 42 determines whether the collate settings have been forcibly changed by S11 or S12 (S21). If it is determined that the collate settings have been forcibly changed (S21: YES), the auxiliary program 42 forcibly changes the selection state of the collate settings displayed in the setting field 61 to match the changed content (S32). This causes the display of the detailed settings screen 60 to change in conjunction with the change in S11 or S12. By changing the selection state on the detailed settings screen 60 in conjunction with the forcible change of the collate settings, the user can understand that the collate settings have been changed.

[0086] In the second embodiment, since collation settings are automatically configured at the time of print settings, the auxiliary program 42 may omit the execution of the first automatic setting process B07 shown in FIG. 6 in the print execution procedure.

[0087] As explained in detail above, even the auxiliary program 42 of the second embodiment automatically sets whether to perform collated printing or uncollated printing based on predetermined parameters included in the print settings when printing multiple copies is specified during print settings. This makes it possible to expect the printer 2 to print the appropriate number of copies. Furthermore, by automatically setting whether to perform collated printing or uncollated printing based on specified parameters during print settings, the auxiliary program 42 of the second embodiment can be expected to perform appropriate printing on the printer 2 for the print settings set via the detailed settings screen 60.

[0088] 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 gist of the technology.

[0089] Furthermore, for example, the screens displayed on the user IF 13 are merely examples and are not limited to the examples shown in the drawings. Furthermore, the text, object shapes, backgrounds, etc. displayed on each of the illustrated screens may be of any type. Furthermore, the number of printers connected to the PC 1 is not limited to the illustrated examples and may be two or more.

[0090] Furthermore, if the user changes the default printer from another printer to printer 2 via the OS 21 after the print setting screen is displayed by the general-purpose print program 41, the general-purpose print program 41 may also start the auxiliary program 42. Furthermore, the auxiliary program 42 may be started not only when printing is selected, but also when printer 2 is selected as device settings, for example. Even in these cases, the auxiliary program 42 may be able to execute a procedure for updating the capability information.

[0091] In the embodiment, the collation setting is forcibly set for each of the cases of accumulation printing, stapling, and sorting by the automatic setting process, but it is not necessary to determine all of these cases; it is sufficient to determine at least one of them. In addition to these determinations, the collation setting may be forcibly set to collate printing or uncollated printing based on another parameter.

[0092] 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 as well. The program that executes the processing of this embodiment is not limited to the auxiliary program 42, and may be any program that receives instructions from the OS 21 or the general-purpose print program 41 when printing using the general-purpose print program 41. For example, it may be a print workflow application (Print workflow) whose specifications have been made public by Microsoft.

[0093] The processes disclosed in the embodiments may be executed by hardware such as a single CPU, multiple CPUs, or ASIC, or a combination thereof. The processes disclosed in the embodiments 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]

[0094] 1 PC 2. Printer 11 CPU 13 User Interface 21 OS 41 General-purpose printing program 42 Subsidy Programs

Claims

1. A support program that can be executed by a computer of an information processing device, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing device, and supports a general-purpose printing program included in an operating system of the information processing device, The computer, an automatic setting process that automatically sets, when printing multiple copies is specified, whether to use collate printing, which prints the specified number of copies one by one in order, or uncollate printing, which prints each page from the first page to the last page consecutively for the specified number of copies, based on predetermined parameters included in the print settings; an output control process that controls, when the collate printing is set in the automatic setting process, to send print data to the printer for printing the specified number of copies one by one, and, when the uncollate printing is set in the automatic setting process, to send print data to the printer for printing the specified number of copies of each page from the first page to the last page consecutively; Execute A support program configured to:

2. 2. The support program according to claim 1, In the automatic setting process, at least one of a first setting process for setting the predetermined parameters to the anchored printing when the predetermined parameters are not suitable for the anchored printing and a second setting process for setting the predetermined parameters to the anchored printing when the predetermined parameters are not suitable for the anchored printing is performed. A support program configured to:

3. 2. The support program according to claim 1, In the automatic setting process, if a parameter for causing the printer to perform accumulation printing is included in the print setting as the predetermined parameter, the setting is made to perform collate printing. A support program configured to:

4. 2. The support program according to claim 1, In the automatic setting process, if a parameter for executing a staple process after printing is included in the print settings as the predetermined parameter, the collate printing is set to be performed. A support program configured to:

5. 2. The support program according to claim 1, In the automatic setting process, if a parameter for executing a sorting process after printing is included in the print settings as the predetermined parameter, the setting is made so that the uncollate printing is performed. A support program configured to:

6. 2. The support program according to claim 1, the automatic setting process is executed when the general-purpose printing program is started from the operating system in response to a print instruction output from an application program included in the information processing device, the print instruction instructing the printer to print an image. A support program configured to:

7. 7. The support program according to claim 6, In the automatic setting process, the setting for performing the collated printing is forcibly changed to the setting for performing the ancollated printing, or the setting for performing the ancollated printing is forcibly changed to the setting for performing the collated printing, based on the predetermined parameters. A support program configured to:

8. 8. The support program according to claim 7, The computer, When the setting for performing the collated printing is forcibly changed to the setting for performing the uncollated printing or when the setting for performing the uncollated printing is forcibly changed to the setting for performing the collated printing in the automatic setting process, a notification process is executed to notify the user of the change via a user interface of the information processing device. A support program configured to:

9. 2. The support program according to claim 1, The computer, a display process is executed to display, using a user interface of the information processing device, a setting screen for accepting specification of parameters included in the print settings used for printing on the printer, and the setting screen is capable of accepting specification of the predetermined parameters; A support program configured to:

10. 10. The support program according to claim 9, When the designation of the predetermined parameters is accepted on the setting screen, the automatic setting process is executed. A support program configured to:

11. 11. The support program according to claim 10, In the display process, The setting screen including a designation of whether to perform collated printing or uncollated printing is displayed using the user interface, and further, when the collated printing is automatically set in the automatic setting process, the setting screen in a state where the collated printing is designated is displayed, and when the uncollated printing is automatically set in the automatic setting process, the setting screen in a state where the uncollated printing is designated is displayed. A support program configured to:

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