Support program and printing system

Abstract

To obtain desired print quality while suppressing increase in cost, even when driverless printing is executed based on a general-purpose printing program.SOLUTION: An auxiliary program 123 which can be executed by a CPU 110 of a PC 100 and to be used for printing on a connected printer 200 includes: a procedure of STST 10 for acquiring printing capability information from the printer 200; a procedure of ST135 for receiving an input of print quality settings corresponding to the printing capability information and the determining a corresponding data correction mode on the basis of a result of the reception; a procedure of ST165 for acquiring intermediate print data from a general-purpose printing program 122 embedded in advance in an OS 121 of the PC 100; procedures of ST170, ST180 for generating print output data corrected based on the data correction mode, from the intermediate print data; and a procedure of ST185 for outputting the print output data to the printer 200.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a support program for supporting a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in an operating system of an information processing device, and a printing system including the information processing device. [Background technology]

[0002] 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as described in Patent Document 1, for example, a technique is known in which a printer driver installed in an information processing device connected to a printer executes processing related to the resolution of the printer, which is related to the image quality of the printer. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0003] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-180721 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0004] In recent years, driverless technology has been proposed for information processing devices, which enables printing without using a printer driver for each printer model. In such a driverless environment, the operating system (hereinafter simply referred to as "OS") of the information processing device has a general-purpose printing program, and data generated using this general-purpose printing program is sent to the printer for printing.

[0005] However, when printing using data generated simply using a general-purpose printing program as described above, it may be difficult to achieve the desired print quality because the printer cannot obtain print data that is suitable for each printer. Although some improvement is possible if the printer is equipped with advanced functions that achieve the desired print quality based on print data generated by a general-purpose printing program, this increases the processing load on the printer, leading to increased costs.

[0006] An object of the present invention is to provide a support program and a printing system that can obtain desired print quality while suppressing increases in costs, even when performing driverless printing based on a general-purpose printing program. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is a support program that can be executed by a computer of an information processing device and is used for printing on a printing device connected to the information processing device, and causes the computer to execute a printing capability information acquisition process that acquires printing capability information of the printing device from the printing device, a setting input acceptance process that accepts input of print quality settings corresponding to the printing capability information, a correction mode determination process that determines a corresponding data correction mode based on the acceptance result of the setting input acceptance process, an intermediate print data acquisition process that acquires intermediate print data from a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device, a print output data generation process that generates print output data from the intermediate print data that has been corrected based on the data correction mode and is to be output to the printing device, and an output process that outputs the print output data so that it is sent from the information processing device to the printing device as a destination.

[0008] The support program of the present invention executes a printing capability information acquisition process, a setting input acceptance process, a correction mode determination process, an intermediate print data acquisition process, a data correction process, a print output data generation process, and an output process. The printing capability information acquisition process acquires printing capability information, which is capability information of the printing device actually connected to the information processing device. The setting input acceptance process accepts print quality settings corresponding to the printing capability information from the user. The correction mode determination process determines the corresponding data correction mode based on the acceptance result.

[0009] Then, in an intermediate print data acquisition process, the support program acquires intermediate print data from a general-purpose print program that has been pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device, generates print output data for outputting this intermediate print data to the printing device based on the data correction mode determined in the data correction process, and outputs the print output data to the printing device in an output process.

[0010] As a result, when performing driverless printing based on a general-purpose printing program, the support program of the present invention can execute its original process of generating print output data that the printing device can process directly from the intermediate print data acquired from the general-purpose printing program according to the print quality settings. Then, before generating the print output data, the support program determines the data correction mode by reflecting the printing device's model-specific printing capability information and the input received regarding the user's desired print quality, and generates the print output data based on this. Since all of the above processing is executed on the information processing device side, there is no processing burden on the printing device side, and costs can be reduced.

[0011] According to the present invention, even when driverless printing based on a general-purpose printing program is performed, desired print quality can be obtained while suppressing increases in costs.

[0012] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a printing system having a printing device and an information processing device including a control unit and a communication I / F capable of communicating with the printing device, wherein the control unit of the information processing device executes a printing capability information request process for transmitting to the printing device a printing capability information request requesting printing capability information of the printing device, and the printing device executes a printing capability information transmission process for transmitting the printing capability information of the printing device to the information processing device in response to the printing capability information request, and the control unit of the information processing device further executes a printing capability information transmission process for receiving and acquiring the printing capability information transmitted by the printing capability information transmission process. the information processing device executes a force information receiving process, a setting input receiving process for receiving input of print quality settings corresponding to the printing capability information, a correction mode determination process for determining a corresponding data correction mode based on the reception result of the setting input receiving process, an intermediate print data acquisition process for acquiring intermediate print data from a general-purpose print program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device, a print output data generation process for generating print output data from the intermediate print data that has been corrected based on the data correction mode and is to be output to the printing device, and a print output data transmission process for transmitting the print output data to the printing device. [Effects of the Invention]

[0013] According to the present invention, even when driverless printing based on a general-purpose printing program is performed, desired print quality can be obtained while suppressing increases in costs. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0014] [Figure 1] 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating an overall schematic configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Figure 2] 3A and 3B are diagrams illustrating data handled by various programs and print quality settings. [Figure 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a plurality of ability setting correlation tables stored in a storage device. [Figure 4]1 is a sequence flow illustrating processes executed by a user, an editing application, a general-purpose print program, an auxiliary program, and a printer in an embodiment. [Figure 5] This is a flow showing the internal procedure of ST170 when image processing is also included as a correction mode in addition to print resolution. [Figure 6] 10 is a sequence flow for acquiring bitmap data from a general-purpose print program. [Figure 7] 10 is a sequence flow when the processing capacity information of the general-purpose print program is reflected. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0015] An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0016] A printing system to which a support program according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied is shown in Fig. 1. This embodiment is an embodiment of a printing system 1 in which edited data edited by a user using an editing application on a general-purpose personal computer is printed by a printer.

[0017] <1: Printing system overview> 1, the printing system 1 includes a general-purpose personal computer 100 and a printer 200. The general-purpose personal computer 100 and the printer 200 are connected via a cable 300 and are capable of communicating with each other.

[0018] <1-1: General-purpose personal computer> A general-purpose personal computer 100 (hereinafter referred to as PC 100) has a CPU 110, a storage device 120, a display unit 140, an operation unit 150, and a communication interface 160 (abbreviated as "communication IF" in the figure). The CPU 110, storage device 120, display unit 140, operation unit 150, and communication interface 160 are connected to one another via a bus 190. The general-purpose personal computer 100 is an example of an information processing device.

[0019] The storage device 120 includes, for example, a ROM, a RAM, and a non-volatile memory, and stores an OS 121 including a general-purpose printing program 122, an auxiliary program 123, and an editing application 124. The auxiliary program 123 is an example of a support program, and the editing application 124 is an example of an editing application program. The OS 121 is system software that controls the operation of the PC 100, such as Microsoft Windows (registered trademark), MacOS (registered trademark), or Linux (registered trademark). In addition to the components shown in the figure, the storage device 120 also stores various data including edited data edited by the editing application 124 and information about the connected printer 200, as well as various programs such as a browser. The storage device 120 may be, for example, a computer-readable storage medium (tangible or non-tangible). The general-purpose printing program 122, auxiliary program 123, editing application 124, and the data handled by these programs will be described in detail below.

[0020] The CPU 110 is a device that executes programs and processes data. By executing various programs stored in the storage device 120, the CPU 110 performs various processes shown in FIG. 4 (described later) and the like, including data communication with the printer 200 connected via the cable 300. The auxiliary program 123 and the like in the storage device 120 and the CPU 110 that executes these programs are an example of a control unit of an information processing device. The CPU 110 is also an example of a computer and an example of a processor.

[0021] The display unit 140 and the operation unit 150 are hardware that displays various types of information and accepts user input instructions, and may be, for example, a touch panel that has both a display function and an input acceptance function, or may be a combination of a display that has a display function and a keyboard or mouse that has an input acceptance function.

[0022] The communication interface 160 is, for example, a wired LAN interface, a wireless LAN interface, or a USB interface for communicating with the printer 200 via the cable 300. The communication interface 160 is an example of a communication I / F.

[0023] <1-2: Printer> Printer 200 is equipped with a CPU, memory, printing unit, and communication interface (not shown). Of these, the CPU sends and receives various information to and from PC 100 via cable 300, and causes the printing unit to print an image on paper in a predetermined format based on print output data received from PC 100. Printer 200 is an example of a printing device.

[0024] <2: Details about the data handled by various programs and print quality settings> Next, with reference to FIG. 2, details of the data handled by the various programs and print quality settings in this embodiment will be described.

[0025] First, in this embodiment, the editing application 124 is an application program for editing and printing out document data, image data, spreadsheet data, etc. Specific examples of the editing application 124 include Microsoft Word (registered trademark), Excel (registered trademark), and PowerPoint (registered trademark), as well as other vendor-manufactured applications for outputting data. In addition to displaying data on the display unit 140, these editing applications 124 also accept editing operations for data content from the user via the operation unit 150 and print instructions for causing the printer 200 to print the edited data content.

[0026] The general-purpose print program 122 in this embodiment is a print program that is included as standard in the OS 121, which is the operating system of the PC 100, and is used by all printer vendors. The general-purpose print program 122 can generate print output data and output it to the printer 200 without using a printer vendor's proprietary printer driver that is specialized for print control of the printer 200 connected to the PC 100, creating a so-called driverless environment. However, when processing is performed using only the general-purpose print program 122, printing with unique quality settings cannot be performed.

[0027] In this embodiment, as shown in Figure 2, an auxiliary program 123 compatible with the printer 200 is installed on the PC 100 and used before printing begins. The auxiliary program 123 acquires PDL data in vector format (XPS format, for example) from the general-purpose printing program 122 as intermediate print data, and converts the entire print page into raster-format bitmap data by rasterizing it based on the commands and parameters contained therein and in accordance with a unique quality setting compatible with the printer 200 or the printer vendor. Header information including appropriate supplemental information is then added to this bitmap data to generate raster-format PDL data (for example, data conforming to the PWGRaster standard) as print output data, which is then output to the printer 200.

[0028] Printing capabilities such as print resolution vary depending on the model of printer 200 used connected to PC 100, or even if the same model is used, depending on whether optional memory is installed. For this reason, in this embodiment, auxiliary program 123 acquires printing capability information including the resolution from the connected printer 200 in advance, and executes the above-mentioned rasterization process based on a setting value selected from selectable resolutions, etc., based on the printing capability information to generate raster-format PDL data, which is print output data. Note that the resolution information included in the printing capability information is an example of resolution information.

[0029] However, resolution is difficult for users to understand, and some users have difficulty determining which resolution to select. Furthermore, print quality is not determined solely by resolution. In contrast, the auxiliary program 123 of this embodiment allows the user to arbitrarily select and set the print quality at which paper printing will be performed based on printing capability information acquired from the printer 200. As a specific example, for multiple models of printer 200 supported by the auxiliary program 123, assume that each model can print at one of the following resolutions as part of the printing capability information: 1200, 600, 400, 300, 200, or 150 dpi. As shown in FIG. 3 , the auxiliary program 123 associates a capability setting correlation table with the printer 200 and stores it in the storage device 120. The capability setting correlation table is an example of a correlation between printing capability information and print quality settings accepted in the setting input acceptance process, and the storage device 120 is an example of a storage unit.

[0030] When the auxiliary program 123 prompts the user to select a print quality setting, it displays the level name of the print quality setting instead of the numerical value of the resolution based on the stored capability setting correlation table and prompts the user to select. Then, during the rasterization process by the auxiliary program 123, the resolution etc. for the print quality corresponding to the level name selected by the user is determined as the data correction mode, and the rasterization process of the bitmap data is performed so as to correct to that resolution. Note that the resolution determined as the data correction mode is an example of the data resolution and the print resolution.

[0031] <3: Control procedure> An example of a control procedure for realizing the processing method of the auxiliary program 123 in this embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence chart in Fig. 4. Note that this example of the control procedure will be described assuming the driverless environment and paper printing by the printer 200. The description will also assume a case where a user instructs the printer 200 to print paper with print quality set arbitrarily with respect to resolution, etc. Furthermore, the processing of the editing application 124, general-purpose printing program 122, and auxiliary program 123 shown in the diagram is executed in parallel by the CPU 110 of the PC 100 using appropriate time-sharing interrupts or appropriate core allocation.

[0032] First, when OS 121 recognizes that printer 200 has been connected to PC 100, auxiliary program 123 requests printing capability information from printer 200 in ST5, and printer 200 returns the printing capability information to auxiliary program 123 in ST10. This allows auxiliary program 123 to obtain printing capability information related to print quality, such as resolution, before actually performing paper printing processing on printer 200. Note that the procedure in ST5 is an example of printing capability information request processing, the procedure in ST10 is an example of printing capability information sending processing and printing capability information receiving processing, and these procedures in ST5 and ST10 are an example of printing capability information acquisition processing.

[0033] When the user has edited the predetermined print content using the editing application 124, an operation to instruct printing (specifically, an operation to select the "Print" menu, etc.) is executed in ST105 on the editing application 124. As a result, in ST110, the editing application 124 displays on the display unit 140 a print screen that accepts a user's instruction operation regarding printing using general-purpose setting items that can be handled by the general-purpose printing program 122, such as selection of paper size, number of copies to print, and pages to print.

[0034] In response to this, when the user operates the advanced settings button on the print screen in ST115, the editing application 124 sends an advanced settings instruction to the general-purpose printing program 122 in ST120, and the general-purpose printing program 122 sends an advanced settings request to the auxiliary program 123 corresponding to the selected printer 200 in ST125.

[0035] As a result, in ST130, the auxiliary program 123 references a capability setting correlation table corresponding to the resolution, etc. included in the printing capability information acquired in ST10 above, and displays a print quality setting screen listing the print quality setting level names "High," "Normal," and "Draft" assigned to the capability setting correlation table as a detailed setting screen. The procedure in ST130 is an example of a print quality setting display process. Furthermore, the procedures in ST5 and ST10 above, which are used by the auxiliary program 123 to acquire the printing capability information of the printer 200, need not be performed immediately after the printer 200 is connected as described above, but may also be performed when the detailed setting request in ST125 is received.

[0036] This allows the user to set print quality settings related to the resolution for paper printing, etc., by selecting a print quality setting level name from "High," "Normal," or "Draft" via the print quality setting screen in ST135. The resolution, etc. corresponding to the level name selected by the user at this time is determined as the data correction mode when correcting bitmap data in the rasterization process described below. The procedure in ST135 is an example of a setting input reception process and a correction mode determination process.

[0037] The print quality setting information set in this way is relayed to the general-purpose printing program 122 in ST140 and transmitted to the editing application 124 in ST145, and the program enters a state of waiting for a final print instruction. The procedure in ST140 is an example of a setting acceptance result notification process. In this state of waiting for a print instruction, when the user performs an operation in ST150 to instruct the editing application 124 to execute printing (specifically, pressing the "Print" button, etc.), the editing application 124 transmits the print execution instruction information, edited data which is the print content edited by the editing application 124, and the print quality setting information to the general-purpose printing program 122 in ST155.

[0038] In response to this, the general-purpose printing program 122 generates intermediate print data in ST160. This intermediate print data is PDL data written in the vector-format page description language (XPS is one example) described above for the print content of the received edited data. Then, in ST165, the general-purpose printing program 122 transmits this intermediate print data and print quality setting information, which are acquired by the auxiliary program 123. The procedure in ST165 is an example of intermediate print data acquisition processing.

[0039] In response to this, the auxiliary program 123 performs a rasterization process on the intermediate print data, which is vector-format PDL data, in ST170, converting it into raster-format bitmap data. During this rasterization process, the data is corrected at a resolution corresponding to the contents of the received print quality setting information to generate corrected print intermediate data. Specifically, the ability setting correlation table selected in ST130 is referenced, and the bitmap data is rasterized so as to be corrected at a resolution corresponding to one of the level names selected by the user in ST135: "High," "Normal," or "Draft." The procedure in ST170 is an example of data correction processing.

[0040] The corrected intermediate print data obtained in this manner is still simply bitmap data. Therefore, in ST180, the auxiliary program 123 further adds header information including appropriate supplemental information to the corrected intermediate print data, thereby generating raster-format PDL data (PWGRaster data in this example) as print output data that can be directly processed by the printer 200. Then, in the next ST185, the auxiliary program 123 outputs the print output data to the printer 200, allowing page printing to be performed at a resolution selected by the user from the printing capabilities of the printer 200. Note that the procedures in ST170 and ST180 are an example of print output data generation processing, and the procedure in ST185 is an example of output processing and print output data transmission processing.

[0041] <4: Effects of this embodiment> As described above, in the printing system 1 of this embodiment, the auxiliary program 123 executes the steps ST5 and ST10, ST135, ST165, ST170, ST180, and ST 185. In the steps ST5 and ST10, printing capability information of the printer 200 actually connected to the PC 100 is acquired, and in the step ST135, print quality settings corresponding to the printing capability information are accepted from the user, and the corresponding data correction mode is determined based on the acceptance result.

[0042] Thereafter, in step ST165, the auxiliary program 123 acquires intermediate print data from the general-purpose print program 122 pre-installed in the OS 121 of the PC 100, generates print output data to be output to the printer 200 from this intermediate print data based on the data correction mode determined above in steps ST170 and ST180, and outputs the print output data to the printer 200 in step ST185.

[0043] As described above, when executing driverless printing based on the general-purpose printing program 122, the auxiliary program 123 of this embodiment can execute its original process of generating print output data that can be directly processed by the printer 200 from the intermediate print data acquired from the general-purpose printing program 122 in accordance with the print quality setting. Then, before generating the print output data, the auxiliary program 123 determines a data correction mode by reflecting the printing capability information specific to the printer 200 model and the input received regarding the print quality desired by the user, and generates the print output data based on this. Since all of the above processing is executed on the PC 100 side, there is no processing burden on the printer 200 side, and costs can be suppressed.

[0044] According to this embodiment, even when driverless printing based on the general-purpose printing program 122 is performed, it is possible to obtain desired print quality while suppressing increases in costs.

[0045] Furthermore, particularly in this embodiment, the CPU 110 and auxiliary program 123 further execute step ST170, in which the intermediate print data is corrected based on the data correction mode to generate corrected intermediate print data, and in step ST180, print output data is generated based on the corrected intermediate print data to be output to the printer 200. In this way, processing using a page description language makes it easier to process than raster data, and increases in processing time can be reduced.

[0046] Furthermore, particularly in this embodiment, the auxiliary program 123 executes the procedure ST130 to display the print quality setting corresponding to the printing capability information of the printer 200 on the display unit 140, and then accepts input of the print quality setting in the procedure ST135. Then, the auxiliary program 123 executes the procedure ST140 to notify the general-purpose printing program 122 of the acceptance result in the procedure ST135, and in the procedure ST165, the general-purpose printing program 122 acquires the intermediate print data generated in response to the acceptance result in the procedure ST135.

[0047] This allows the user to input print quality settings while visually checking the print quality settings corresponding to the printing capability information of the printer 200 actually connected to the PC 100. The auxiliary program 123 can then obtain intermediate print data corresponding to the result of acceptance in the procedure of ST135 from the general-purpose print program 122 and generate print output data based on that data, thereby meeting the user's print quality requirements.

[0048] Particularly in this embodiment, PC 100 includes storage device 120 that stores at least one capability setting correlation table that indicates the correlation between printing capability information of printer 200 and the print quality setting accepted in step ST135. Then, in step ST135, auxiliary program 123 refers to the capability setting correlation table stored in storage device 120 in response to the accepted result regarding the print quality setting from the user, and determines the corresponding data correction mode.

[0049] This allows general-purpose support even if multiple models of printers 200 with different printing capability information can be connected to the PC 100 by preparing in advance a correlation table of the printing capability information and the reception results of print quality settings for each of the multiple models.

[0050] Furthermore, particularly in this embodiment, the printing capability information is print resolution information of the printer 200, and in step ST135, the data resolution corresponding to the print resolution information is determined as the data correction mode based on the acceptance result of the print quality setting. Then, in step ST165, the general-purpose printing program 122 acquires intermediate print data generated in vector format in accordance with the acceptance result of the print quality setting notified in step ST140. In response to this, in step ST170, the auxiliary program 123 converts the acquired intermediate print data in vector format into raster format, correcting the print resolution to correspond to the data resolution, which is the data correction mode, to generate corrected intermediate print data.

[0051] This allows the data resolution arbitrarily set and input by the user to be determined as the data correction mode for the print resolution of the model of printer 200 actually connected to PC 100. When converting intermediate print data in vector format acquired from general-purpose print program 122 into a raster format suitable for processing by printer 200, auxiliary program 123 can correct the print resolution, etc. to reflect the printing capabilities of printer 200 and the user's settings.

[0052] Furthermore, particularly in this embodiment, the auxiliary program 123 acquires, as intermediate print data, data that has been converted into vector format by the general-purpose print program 122 from edited data edited by a predetermined edit application 124 pre-installed in the OS 121 of the PC 100. This makes it possible to generally apply edited data edited by the general edit application 124 as a print target, thereby improving the print quality.

[0053] <5: Variation> The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications are possible without departing from the spirit and technical concept of the present invention. Such modifications will be described in order. The same reference numerals will be used to designate parts equivalent to those in the above-described embodiment, and descriptions will be omitted or simplified as appropriate.

[0054] <Modification 1: When determining the data correction mode including the image processing mode> In the above embodiment, the auxiliary program 123 applies a data resolution corresponding to the print resolution as a data correction mode when rasterizing vector-format print intermediate data. However, other image processing modes such as blurring and edge emphasis may also be determined as data correction modes.

[0055] In this case, for example, correction may be performed at a print resolution corresponding to the print quality setting set by the user during rasterization, and image processing correction, which is particularly required only when the print quality setting is relatively high, such as "High," may also be performed. Furthermore, when performing such image processing correction, it is preferable to determine an image processing mode appropriate for each area with different print content. Specifically, when the print quality setting is "High," for example, blurring, which is particularly required for image areas, and edge emphasis, which is particularly required for text areas, may be determined as the image processing mode.

[0056] To realize the data correction method including the correction mode of the image processing described above, the auxiliary program 123 executes ST170 described above according to the internal procedure shown in FIG. 5. First, after ST165 in which the vector-format print intermediate data and print quality setting information are received from the general-purpose print program 122, the auxiliary program 123 rasterizes the print intermediate data into a raster format at a resolution corresponding to the print quality setting information in ST171. The auxiliary program 123 then determines in ST172 whether the content of the print quality setting information is “High.” If the content of the print quality setting information is “Normal” or “Draft” other than “High,” the determination in S172 is not satisfied (ST172: NO), and the procedure of ST170 ends without any change, and the process proceeds to the next step, ST180 (not shown). On the other hand, if the content of the print quality setting information is “High,” the determination in S172 is satisfied (ST172: YES), and the process proceeds to the next step, ST173.

[0057] In ST173, the range of the image area in the rasterized data is identified, and in ST174, a blurring process is performed on that image area. Next, in ST175, the range of the character area in the rasterized data is identified, and in ST176, an edge enhancement process is performed on that character area. Note that the above-mentioned image area and character area identification process, blurring process, and edge enhancement process can be performed using well-known techniques such as raster scanning and predetermined matrix processing, and details thereof will be omitted here. Then, the procedure in ST170 ends, and the process proceeds to the next ST180 (not shown).

[0058] In this modified example, the auxiliary program 123 also determines as the data correction mode the image processing mode corresponding to the result of acceptance in step ST135. This makes it possible to correct the data content of the intermediate print data acquired from the general-purpose print program 122 with image processing corresponding to the print quality setting accepted by the user, thereby enabling a variety of improvements in print quality.

[0059] Furthermore, in this modified example in particular, the auxiliary program 123 determines the image processing mode by switching between applying blurring processing (processing suitable for photographic images, etc.) and edge emphasis processing (processing suitable for character images, etc.) in accordance with the result of acceptance in the procedure of ST135. Specifically, if the acceptance result corresponds to a relatively high print quality setting, blurring processing is determined as the image processing mode for the image region in the intermediate print data, and edge emphasis processing is determined as the image processing mode for the character region in the intermediate print data.

[0060] As a result, if the intermediate print data has a relatively high resolution based on the print quality setting acceptance result, image areas such as photographs in the intermediate data are corrected using a blurring process, and character areas such as text data in the intermediate data are corrected using an edge emphasis process. As a result, correction can be automatically switched between appropriate image processing modes according to the acceptance result in the setting input acceptance process and the data content of the intermediate print data.

[0061] In the above-described embodiment and modified examples, individual level names are assigned to the multiple print resolution levels obtained from printer 200 as print quality settings, allowing the user to select one, and the presence or absence of image processing correction is also determined according to the selected print quality setting. Alternatively, image processing itself may be interpreted as a factor of print quality, and print quality settings may be set using a variety of combinations of multiple print resolution levels, image processing correction modes, and whether or not to apply them. Specifically, a capability setting correlation table may be created so that the "High" level name corresponds to "600 dpi + image processing applied" and the "Normal" level name corresponds to "600 dpi + no image processing," and this may be referenced during rasterization and correction.

[0062] <Variation 2: When acquiring bitmap data from a general-purpose printing program> In the above embodiment, the rasterization process executed by the auxiliary program 123 is performed only on the vector-format print intermediate data acquired from the general-purpose print program 122. However, this is not limiting, and the general-purpose print program 122 may also generate raster-format bitmap data based on the print quality settings previously received in ST 140, along with the vector-format print intermediate data. Then, the auxiliary program 123, having acquired both of these, may perform corrections on the print intermediate data using the bitmap data.

[0063] 6, the general-purpose printing program 122 sends vector-format print intermediate data to the auxiliary program 123 in ST165, and then sends raster-format bitmap data based on the print quality setting to the auxiliary program 123 in ST167. In response, the auxiliary program 123 corrects the print intermediate data using the received bitmap data in ST170. The procedure in ST167 is an example of bitmap data acquisition processing.

[0064] As described above, in this modified example, the auxiliary program 123 acquires bitmap data corresponding to the data resolution notified in step ST140 from the general-purpose printing program 122 in step ST167, and corrects the intermediate print data using the bitmap data in step ST170. As a result, when converting intermediate print data in vector format to raster format in the data correction in step ST170, correction can also be made using bitmap data corresponding to the data resolution, further improving print quality.

[0065] <Modification 3: When the processing capacity information of the general-purpose printing program is reflected> In the above embodiment, the print quality setting by the auxiliary program 123 is set based on the content selected by the user from the printing capability information acquired from the printer 200. However, this is not limiting, and the print quality setting may also reflect the processability information that can be handled and processed by the general-purpose printing program 122.

[0066] 7, the auxiliary program 123 acquires printing capability information from the printer 200 in steps ST5 and ST10, then requests process capability information from the general-purpose printing program 122 in step ST15, and acquires the process capability information returned from the general-purpose printing program 122 in step ST20. The auxiliary program 123 then converts the printing capability information into process capability information in step ST20, and then accepts print quality settings corresponding to the process capability information from the user in step ST135. Note that step ST20 is an example of information conversion processing.

[0067] As described above, in this modified example, the auxiliary program 123 converts the printing capability information into processable capability information that can be handled and processed by the general-purpose printing program 122 in step ST20, and accepts input of print quality settings corresponding to the processable capability information in step ST135. This allows the auxiliary program 123 to convert the printing capability information of the printer 200 so that it also reflects the processable capability information of the general-purpose printing program 122, and the user can input print quality settings corresponding to both the printing capability information and the processable capability information in step ST135.

[0068] Furthermore, in the above, the sequences shown in Figures 4, 6, 7, etc. do not limit the present invention to the procedures shown in those sequences, and steps may be added or deleted or the order may be changed within the scope that does not deviate from the spirit and technical idea of ​​the invention.

[0069] In addition to the above, the methods according to the above embodiments and modifications may be used in appropriate combination.

[0070] Although not specifically illustrated, the present invention can be implemented with various modifications within the scope of the invention. [Explanation of symbols]

[0071] 1 Printing System 100 General-purpose personal computer (an example of an information processing device) 110 CPU (an example of a computer processor) 120 storage device (an example of a storage unit) 121 OS (an example of an operating system) 122 General-purpose printing program 123 Subsidy Program (Example of Support Program) 124 Editing app (an example of an editing application) 140 Display section 150 Operation section 160 Communication Interface (Example of communication I / F) 200 Printer (an example of a printing device)

Claims

1. A support program executable by a computer of an information processing device and used for printing by a printing device connected to the information processing device, to the computer, a printing capability information acquisition process for acquiring printing capability information of the printing device from the printing device; a print quality setting display process for displaying selection setting information related to print quality setting corresponding to the printing capability information on a display unit of the information processing device; a setting input receiving process for receiving input of the selection setting information corresponding to the printing capability information, which corresponds to the display on the display unit by the print quality setting display process; a setting reception result notification process for notifying a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device of print quality settings based on the contents received in the setting input reception process; a correction mode determination process for determining a corresponding data correction mode based on the print quality setting received in the setting input reception process; an intermediate print data acquisition process for acquiring, from the general-purpose print program, intermediate print data generated in response to the print quality setting being accepted in the setting input acceptance process in the general-purpose print program; a print output data generation process for generating print output data from the intermediate print data, the print output data being corrected based on the data correction mode, for output to the printing device; an output process of outputting the print output data so that the print output data is transmitted from the information processing device to the printing device as a transmission destination; A support program that runs the

2. to the computer, a data correction process for correcting the intermediate print data based on the data correction mode to generate corrected intermediate print data; Then run In the print output data generation process, print output data to be output to the printing device is generated based on the corrected intermediate print data. The support program according to claim 1.

3. The computer a storage unit that stores at least one correlation between the printing capability information and the print quality setting received in the setting input receiving process; In the correction mode determination process, determining a corresponding data correction mode for a result of reception in the setting input reception process by referring to the correlation stored in the storage unit; The support program according to claim 1.

4. The printing capability information is Printing resolution information of the printing device, In the correction mode determination process, determining a data resolution corresponding to the print resolution information as the data correction mode based on a result of the setting input reception process; In the intermediate print data acquisition process, acquiring the intermediate print data generated in vector format by the general-purpose print program in response to the acceptance result of the setting input acceptance process notified by the setting acceptance result notification process; Furthermore, the computer In the data correction process, converting the intermediate print data in the vector format into a raster format, and correcting the data resolution to a print resolution corresponding to the data resolution to obtain the corrected intermediate print data; The support program according to claim 2.

5. In the correction mode determination process, An image processing mode corresponding to the reception result of the setting input reception process is determined as the data correction mode. The support program according to claim 4.

6. In the correction mode determination process, If the result of the setting input reception process corresponds to the print resolution information of a relatively high print resolution, determining a blurring process for the image area in the intermediate print data as the image processing mode; An edge enhancement process is determined as the image processing mode for the character area in the intermediate print data. The support program according to claim 5.

7. The intermediate print data acquired in the intermediate print data acquisition process is The data is data that has been edited by a predetermined editing application program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device and converted into the vector format by the general-purpose printing program.

7. The support program according to claim 4.

8. The computer further executing a bitmap data acquisition process for acquiring, from the general-purpose printing program, bitmap data corresponding to the data resolution notified by the setting acceptance result notification process; The data correction process includes: The intermediate print data is corrected using the bitmap data. The support program according to any one of claims 4 to 7.

9. The computer further executing an information conversion process for converting the printing capability information into processable capability information that can be handled and processed by the general-purpose printing program; The setting input reception process includes: Accepting input of print quality settings corresponding to the processing capacity information The support program according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. A printing system including a printing device and an information processing device including a control unit and a communication I / F capable of communicating with the printing device, The control unit of the information processing device executes a printing capability information request process for sending a printing capability information request to the printing device, the printing capability information being requested by the printing device; The printing device executes a printing capability information transmission process for transmitting the printing capability information of the printing device to the information processing device in response to the printing capability information request; The control unit of the information processing device further a printing capability information receiving process for receiving and acquiring the printing capability information transmitted by the printing capability information transmitting process; a print quality setting display process for displaying selection setting information related to print quality setting corresponding to the printing capability information on a display unit of the information processing device; a setting input receiving process for receiving input of the selection setting information corresponding to the printing capability information, which corresponds to the display on the display unit by the print quality setting display process; a setting reception result notification process for notifying a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device of print quality settings based on the contents received in the setting input reception process; a correction mode determination process for determining a corresponding data correction mode based on the print quality setting received in the setting input reception process; an intermediate print data acquisition process for acquiring, from the general-purpose print program, intermediate print data generated in response to the print quality setting being accepted in the setting input acceptance process in the general-purpose print program; a print output data generation process for generating print output data from the intermediate print data, the print output data being corrected based on the data correction mode, for output to the printing device; a print output data transmission process for transmitting the print output data to the printing device; The printing system that runs

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