Support Program

Abstract

To provide a technology, for an information processing apparatus with an OS-standard general-purpose print program embedded therein, configured to print an appropriate image even if using the OS-standard general-purpose print program.SOLUTION: Using an auxiliary program 42, when a print instruction is made to a general-purpose print program 41 to cause a printer 2 to print an image, a PC 1 acquires intermediate image data representing an image to be printed from the general-purpose print program 41. The PC 1 determines necessity of conversion from color to monochrome, and executes processing, when the necessity of the conversion is determined, for causing the printer 2 to print a conversion image obtained by converting the image represented by the acquired intermediate image data from color to monochrome.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The technical field disclosed in this specification relates to a support program for supporting the control of a printer.

Background Art

[0002] Conventionally, a technique for converting a color image into a monochrome image is known. For example, in Patent Document 1, in the V4 printer driver of Windows (registered trademark), as a process for extending the processing of the printer driver, a technique in which an extension plug-in converts an image shown in print data from color to monochrome is disclosed.

Prior Art Documents

Patent Documents

[0003]

Patent Document 1

[0238] .

Summary of the Invention

Problems to be Solved by the Invention

[0004] In recent years, a technique for controlling a printer by a printing program incorporated as a standard in an operating system (OS) without using a printer driver has been put into practical use. In this technique, the OS associates a printer with a printing program standard to the OS, and thereafter, when receiving a print instruction for that printer, printing by the printing program standard to the OS becomes possible without using a printer driver.

[0005] However, in the above-described general-purpose printing program standard to the OS, there are cases where some of the functions implemented in the conventional printer driver are not supported, and there are cases where an appropriate image cannot be printed by the printer. For example, in the general-purpose printing program standard to the OS, there may be cases where it does not have a function of converting an image from color to monochrome as disclosed in Patent Document 1, which is inconvenient.

[0006] This specification discloses a technology that enables the printing of appropriate images even when using an information processing device that incorporates an OS standard general-purpose printing program, even when the printing is done via the OS standard general-purpose printing program. [Means for solving the problem]

[0007] The support program designed to address the aforementioned issues is: A support program that is executable by the computer of an information processing device, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing device, and supports a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device, To the aforementioned computer, A print instruction output from an application program incorporated in the information processing device, in which the general-purpose printing program is instructed to print to the printer, An acquisition process for acquiring intermediate image data corresponding to the print instruction from the operating system, A decision process to determine whether or not a conversion from color to monochrome is necessary, The process is executed, and if the judgment process determines that a conversion is necessary, The process is executed to cause the printer to print a converted image, which is an image obtained by converting the image shown in the intermediate image data acquired from the operating system through the acquisition process from color to monochrome. It is characterized by the following.

[0008] According to the support program disclosed herein, when an information processing device receives a print instruction for a general-purpose printing program and the image to be printed needs to be converted from color to monochrome, the support program executes a process to cause the printer to print the converted image after the conversion to monochrome. Therefore, even if the general-purpose printing program of the operating system does not support the color-to-monochrome conversion function, a monochrome image can be printed when the image to be printed needs to be converted from color to monochrome.

[0009] The control method for implementing the above program and the storage medium readable by the computer that stores the program are also novel and useful. [Effects of the Invention]

[0010] According to the technology disclosed herein, a technology is realized that enables the printing of appropriate images even when using an information processing device that incorporates an OS standard general-purpose printing program, even when the printing is done via the OS standard general-purpose printing program. [Brief explanation of the drawing]

[0011] [Figure 1] This block diagram shows an overview of the electrical configuration of a PC. [Figure 2] This is a sequence diagram showing an example of the printing procedure for each program in the first form. [Figure 3] This is a sequence diagram showing an example of the printing procedure for each program in the second form. [Figure 4] This is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a settings screen. [Modes for carrying out the invention]

[0012] The personal computer (hereinafter referred to as "PC") that utilizes the support program of this embodiment will be described in detail below with reference to the attached drawings. This specification discloses a support program that runs on a PC connected to a printer with printing capabilities.

[0013] [Overall structure] As shown in Figure 1, the PC1 of this embodiment includes a CPU 11 and a controller 10 which includes memory 12. The PC1 is an example of an information processing device. The CPU 11 is an example of a computer. The PC1 also includes a user interface (hereinafter referred to as "user IF") 13 and a communication interface (hereinafter referred to as "communication IF") 14, which are electrically connected to the controller 10. Note that the controller 10 in Figure 1 is a general term for the hardware and software used to control the PC1, and does not necessarily represent a single piece of hardware actually present in the PC1.

[0014] The CPU 11 executes various processes according to the program read from memory 12 and based on user operations. Memory 12 stores various programs and data, including various application programs (hereinafter referred to as "apps"). Memory 12 is also used as a workspace when various processes are executed. The buffer provided by the CPU 11 is also an example of memory. Note that the example of memory 12 is not limited to ROM, RAM, HDD, etc., built into the PC 1, but may also be a storage medium that the CPU 11 can read and write to, such as a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM.

[0015] User IF13 includes hardware that displays a screen for informing the user of information and hardware that accepts user operations. User IF13 may be a combination of a display capable of displaying information and a mouse or keyboard with input acceptance functionality, or it may be a touch panel equipped with both display and input acceptance functionality.

[0016] The communication interface 14 includes hardware for communicating with external devices such as printer 2. The communication standards for the communication interface 14 include Ethernet (registered trademark), Wi-Fi (registered trademark), and USB. PC1 may have multiple communication interfaces 14 that support multiple communication standards.

[0017] As shown in FIG. 1, the memory 12 of the PC1 stores an operating system (hereinafter referred to as "OS") 21 including a general-purpose printing program 41, an auxiliary program 42, and an editing application 43. The auxiliary program 42 is an example of a support program. The editing application 43 is an example of an application program. The OS 21 is, for example, Windows (registered trademark), macOS (registered trademark), Linux (registered trademark), iOS (registered trademark), Android (registered trademark).

[0018] The general-purpose printing program 41 is an OS standard program for causing various printers such as a printer 2 to execute printing based on a user's instruction. The general-purpose printing program 41 of the present embodiment is a program including a function of generating intermediate image data based on the image data to be printed.

[0019] The general-purpose printing program 41 supports functions that can be commonly used by a plurality of types of printers models provided by various printer vendors. The general-purpose printing program 41 does not support all the functions that each type of printer has uniquely, and the supported functions are limited to general-purpose ones.

[0020] The auxiliary program 42 is a program or a group of programs that execute processing based on an instruction from the OS 21 following the processing of the general-purpose printing program 41, and is an application that supports the control of the target hardware. The auxiliary program 42 of the present embodiment corresponds to the model of the printer 2 connected to the PC1, and is started from the general-purpose printing program 41, for example, when receiving an instruction to execute printing on the printer 2 using the general-purpose printing program 41. The auxiliary program 42 is, for example, called a print support application (abbreviation, PSA).

[0021] The auxiliary program 42 can receive multiple types of commands from the general-purpose printing program 41 and executes various processes based on the received commands. The auxiliary program 42 may be a combination of multiple programs, each of which accepts execution commands, or it may be a single program capable of executing different processes depending on the command.

[0022] The auxiliary programs may be programs provided by the printer vendor for each type of printer. For example, separate auxiliary programs may be provided for inkjet printers and laser printers. When a new printer is connected to PC1, for example, the OS21 of PC1 downloads the appropriate auxiliary program from a server or other source and installs it into the device, depending on the type of connected printer. Then, the OS21 associates the identification information of the installed auxiliary program with the printer information of the newly connected printer and stores it in memory 12. Note that auxiliary programs may be provided not only for each type of printer, but also for each printer model or series of printer models.

[0023] The editing application 43 is, for example, an application for creating and editing image data and document data. The editing application 43 may be, for example, Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, or it may be an application provided by the printer 2 vendor. The editing application 43 accepts user operations, including instructions to cause the printer 2 to perform a predetermined action. Specifically, the editing application 43 accepts, for example, a print execution instruction to cause the printer 2 to perform printing, via the user interface 13.

[0024] In this embodiment, printer 2 is a device that has a printing function. PC1 can communicate with printer 2 via communication IF14. Printer 2 receives print data from, for example, PC1, and performs printing based on the received print data.

[0025] [Printing Instructions] Next, the printing procedure including the operation of the auxiliary program 42 of this embodiment will be described. The procedure described below is a procedure for causing the printer 2 to print via the general-purpose printing program 41, and the procedure includes a process for converting the image to be printed from color to monochrome.

[0026] The general-purpose printing program 41 in this embodiment does not support the function of converting an image from color to monochrome. Therefore, the conversion must be performed using something other than the general-purpose printing program 41. In this embodiment, there are two methods for converting an image from color to monochrome: one is to convert the image using the auxiliary program 42, and the other is to convert the image using the printer 2.

[0027] In this specification, the conversion from color to monochrome will be described as follows: firstly, using the auxiliary program 42, with reference to the sequence diagram in Figure 2; and secondly, using the printer 2, with reference to the sequence diagram in Figure 3. Figures 2 and 3 show the operation when an application that accepts print commands, such as the editing application 43, receives a print execution command to print to the printer 2 using the general-purpose print program 41, and when the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to the printer 2 is installed in the PC 1.

[0028] In this embodiment, each processing step basically represents the processing of the CPU 11 according to instructions written in a program such as the auxiliary program 42. The processing by the CPU 11 also includes hardware control using the OS 21 API. In this specification, a detailed description of the OS 21 is omitted and the operation of each program is explained. Also, "acquisition" is used as a concept that does not necessarily require a request.

[0029] [First form] First, we will explain the first form of converting an image from color to monochrome using auxiliary program 42, with reference to the sequence diagram in Figure 2.

[0030] The editing application 43 accepts the creation and editing of text, diagrams, etc., based on user instructions. When the editing application 43 receives instructions regarding printing of selected text, etc. (A01), it displays a print screen for accepting user instructions on the user interface 13 (A02). On the print screen, the editing application 43 accepts instructions such as a print execution instruction, a basic print settings instruction, and an instruction to start accepting detailed print settings.

[0031] When the editing application 43 receives an instruction to start accepting detailed print settings while printer 2 is selected on the currently displayed print screen (A03), it passes the information of the received detailed setting instruction to the OS 21. When the OS 21 receives an instruction for detailed settings related to printing using the general-purpose printing program 41, it executes the general-purpose printing program 41 and passes an instruction to start accepting detailed print settings to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A04). When the general-purpose printing program 41 receives an instruction to start accepting detailed print settings, it passes an instruction to execute the acceptance of detailed print settings to the auxiliary program 42 corresponding to printer 2, which is the selected printer (A05).

[0032] The auxiliary program 42 starts operating based on an execution instruction from the general-purpose printing program 41 and displays a settings screen to the user interface 13 for accepting input operations for detailed print settings (A06). For example, based on the model information of printer 2, the auxiliary program 42 displays a settings screen that accepts compatible detailed settings and accepts user operations.

[0033] Figure 4 shows a setting screen 100, which is an example of the settings screen displayed in A06. The setting screen 100 has multiple tabs. In Figure 4, the basic tab 101, which accepts basic print settings, is selected. The setting items of the basic tab 101 include color settings for output images, and the user interface 13 displays a color option 102 for setting the output of color images and a monochrome option 103 for setting the output of monochrome images.

[0034] Furthermore, after the auxiliary program 42 starts displaying the settings screen 100 in A06, it requests function information from the printer 2 via the communication IF 14 (A11) and receives function information from the printer 2 (A12). The function information includes information indicating the model of the printer 2 and information indicating whether the printer 2 has any functions. For example, information indicating whether the printer 2 has a function to convert images from color to monochrome. Also, for example, information indicating whether it has a function to decompress compressed data, in which case it also includes information indicating the types of compression methods that can be supported as decompression. The auxiliary program 42 stores the function information of the printer 2 in the memory 12.

[0035] Communication between the auxiliary program 42 and the printer 2 may, for example, be conducted via the OS 21, or the auxiliary program 42 may communicate directly with the printer 2 using the MIB (Management Information Base). If communication is conducted via the OS 21, the auxiliary program 42 and the printer 2 will communicate according to the OS 21's communication protocol, such as IPP (Internet Printing Protocol).

[0036] Subsequently, if the user receives an instruction to exit the detailed settings 100 by pressing the OK button shown in Figure 4, the auxiliary program 42 exits the display of the settings screen 100 and passes the selected print settings and exit notification to the general-purpose printing program 41. Upon receiving the exit notification from the auxiliary program 42, the general-purpose printing program 41 passes the exit notification to the editing application 43.

[0037] Next, when the editing application 43 receives a print command from the user on the print screen (A31), it passes the print command to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A32). The general-purpose printing program 41 obtains information indicating the image data to be printed and information indicating the print settings from the print command.

[0038] The general-purpose printing program 41 generates intermediate image data (A33) by converting the format of the image data included in the received print instruction into an intermediate image data format, and then generates a print job including the intermediate image data. The image data included in the editing application 43 is of various types, and the general-purpose printing program 41 converts the received image data into intermediate image data suitable for generating print data. If the image data included in the print instruction is suitable for generating print data, the generation of intermediate image data can be omitted, and the intermediate image data can be used as is. The intermediate image data is, for example, XPS data.

[0039] The general-purpose printing program 41 further outputs an execution instruction (A34) to the auxiliary program 42, causing the auxiliary program 42 to operate. The execution instruction passes the generated intermediate image data and print setting information to the auxiliary program 42. A34 is an example of an acquisition process, as it causes the auxiliary program 42 to acquire intermediate image data indicating the image to be printed from the general-purpose printing program 41 included in the OS21.

[0040] The auxiliary program 42 edits the intermediate image data based on the print settings (A35). For example, if the print settings include a compositing instruction, it generates a composite image by compositing the content indicated in the compositing information with the image indicated in the intermediate image data, based on the intermediate image data and compositing information received in A34. The content to be composited can be an image, a graphic, or text. Also, if the print settings include a compositing setting, also known as Nin1, which combines images from multiple pages onto a single sheet, it generates a composited image by reducing the size of each page indicated in the intermediate image data and arranging the N pages' images so that they fit on a single sheet, i.e., compositing the N pages' images into a single page's image. The process of generating a composited image in A35 is just one example of the compositing process.

[0041] The auxiliary program 42 further determines whether or not conversion from color to monochrome is necessary for the image shown in the intermediate image data (A36). Specifically, the determination of whether or not conversion is necessary is made based on the capabilities of the printer and the print settings. For example, if printer 2 is a monochrome-only printer, it is determined that conversion is necessary. Also, if the setting to output monochrome images is enabled in the print settings, for example, if the monochrome option 103 is selected on the settings screen 100, it is determined that conversion is necessary. Of course, if the image shown in the intermediate image data is monochrome and not color, it is sufficient to determine that conversion is not necessary, regardless of the capabilities of the printer or the print settings. A36 is an example of the determination process. Note that if the capabilities of printer 2 have not been obtained at the stage of executing A36, the capabilities of printer 2 may be obtained before executing A36.

[0042] If it is determined that a conversion from color to monochrome is necessary (Alt: Monochrome conversion required), the auxiliary program 42 performs rasterization based on the intermediate image data edited in A35 to generate raster data (A41). Rasterization using the auxiliary program 42 offers greater flexibility compared to rasterization using the general-purpose printing program 41, and increases the likelihood of generating print data suitable for printing on printer 2.

[0043] The auxiliary program 42 further selects a conversion table to use for converting the image shown in the raster data from color to monochrome (A42). The auxiliary program 42 has several types of conversion tables. For example, it selects the appropriate conversion table depending on whether the coloring agent used for printing is toner or ink. The type of coloring agent can be determined, for example, based on functional information obtained from printer 2, specifically information indicating the printer model and information indicating the cartridge. Alternatively, the functional information may also directly include information indicating the type of coloring agent. Since the color tone differs to some extent depending on the coloring agent, high-quality printing can be expected by using different conversion tables depending on the type of coloring agent. In addition, for example, the appropriate conversion table is selected depending on whether the eco setting included in the print settings is enabled or not. The eco setting is a setting to reduce the consumption of coloring agents and is an example of a specific setting. When the eco setting is enabled, the consumption of coloring agents can be reduced by using a conversion table that results in a lower density than when it is disabled.

[0044] Subsequently, the auxiliary program 42 uses the selected conversion table to convert the image shown in the raster data from color to monochrome (A43). A43 is an example of the conversion process. Note that the raster data to be converted is based on edited intermediate image data based on print settings, and the converted raster data will also be data showing a monochrome image that reflects print settings such as aggregation and compositing.

[0045] Subsequently, the auxiliary program 42 generates print data (A44) based on the raster data converted in A43. The print data generated in A44 is in a format that can be used for printing on printer 2, for example, it is PDL data specific to the printer 2 model. Note that the print data generated by the auxiliary program 42 may also be in a format that can be used for printing on printers other than printer 2.

[0046] The auxiliary program 42 sends the print data generated in A44 to printer 2 along with a print command instructing it to print (A45). The processes from A41 to A45 are an example of the process for causing printer 2 to print the converted image.

[0047] Printer 2, having received print data and a print command from auxiliary program 42, executes the printing of the image indicated in the print data based on the received print command (A61), and the printing procedure ends. As a result, if a conversion from color to monochrome was necessary, a printout with a monochrome image will be produced.

[0048] Furthermore, when the auxiliary program 42 sends print data to the printer 2, it responds to the general-purpose printing program 41 with a transmitted code indicating that the transmission of print data has been completed. Upon receiving the transmitted code, the general-purpose printing program 41 does not perform any further processing to send the print data to the printer 2, and the printing procedure ends.

[0049] Furthermore, when generating print data, the auxiliary program 42 may, provided that printer 2 has a data decompression function, compress the converted raster data and generate print data based on the compressed data. By sending the compressed data to printer 2, the communication load can be reduced.

[0050] On the other hand, if it is determined that conversion from color to monochrome is unnecessary (Alt: no monochrome conversion required), the auxiliary program 42 passes the intermediate image data edited in A35 to the general-purpose printing program 41 (A51). The general-purpose printing program 41, having received the intermediate image data from the auxiliary program 42, performs rasterization based on the intermediate image data received from the auxiliary program 42 to generate raster data, and then generates print data based on that raster data (A52).

[0051] The print data generated by the general-purpose printing program 41 is in a format that can be used for printing on various printers, such as PWGRaster data or PDF data. If rasterization is performed by the general-purpose printing program 41, the processing of the auxiliary program 42 is reduced, and an increase in the processing time of the auxiliary program 42 can be avoided.

[0052] The general-purpose printing program 41 then sends the print data generated in A52 along with the print command to the printer 2 (A53). The printer 2, having received the print data and print command from the general-purpose printing program 41, prints the image indicated in the print data based on the received print command (A61). This completes the printing procedure.

[0053] In the first embodiment, when conversion from color to monochrome is required, the auxiliary program 42 performs rasterization based on the edited intermediate image data in A41 to generate raster data, and in A45 sends the print data generated from that raster data to the printer 2. However, even when conversion from color to monochrome is not required, that is, regardless of whether conversion from color to monochrome is required or not, the auxiliary program 42 may perform rasterization based on the edited intermediate image data to generate raster data, and send the print data generated from that raster data to the printer 2.

[0054] [Second form] Next, we will explain the second form, which converts an image from color to monochrome using printer 2, with reference to the sequence diagram in Figure 3. In Figure 3, the same processes as in the first form are given the same numbers and their explanations are omitted. Also, in the second form, the processing after determining whether or not monochrome conversion is necessary in auxiliary program 42 differs from that of the first form. Therefore, the explanation up to A36 is omitted.

[0055] If it is determined that a conversion from color to monochrome is necessary (Alt: Monochrome conversion required), the auxiliary program 42 generates raster data by performing rasterization based on the edited intermediate image data, similar to the first form (A41). Subsequently, the auxiliary program 42 generates print data without performing a monochrome conversion process on the raster data (A44).

[0056] The auxiliary program 42 then associates the generated print data with a print command that instructs the printer to perform printing and a conversion command that instructs the printer to convert to monochrome, and sends it to the printer 2 (A46). Note that the conversion command only needs to be sent in association with the print command and print data, and does not need to be sent at the same time as the print command and print data. For example, it may be sent before the print command and print data are sent. In the second form, the conversion command is sent to the printer 2 without performing the conversion from color to monochrome. The process of sending the conversion command to the printer 2 in association with the print data is an example of the process of causing the printer 2 to print the converted image.

[0057] If it is determined that conversion from color to monochrome is unnecessary (Alt: no monochrome conversion required), the auxiliary program 42 passes the edited intermediate image data from A35 to the general-purpose printing program 41, similar to the first form (A51). The general-purpose printing program 41, having received the intermediate image data from the auxiliary program 42, generates print data based on the intermediate image data received from the auxiliary program 42 (A52), and sends the generated print data to the printer 2 along with the print command (A53).

[0058] When printer 2 receives print data and a print command from auxiliary program 42, if a conversion command is associated with it (Alt: Conversion command present), it converts the image to be printed, as indicated in the received print data, from color to monochrome before printing (A60). Then, printer 2 prints the image indicated in the print data based on the received print command (A61). As a result, if a conversion from color to monochrome was necessary, a printout with a monochrome image is produced.

[0059] In the second configuration, the auxiliary program 42 does not perform the conversion to a monochrome image, but instead sends a conversion command to the printer 2, which then converts the image from color to monochrome and prints it, thus reducing the load on the auxiliary program 42. On the other hand, as in the first configuration, if the auxiliary program 42 converts to a monochrome image and sends print data based on that converted image to the printer 2, the printer 2 does not need to perform the conversion, reducing the load on the printer 2 and contributing to memory conservation. Furthermore, it can be used with printers that do not have a color-to-monochrome conversion function.

[0060] In the second embodiment, the auxiliary program 42 may determine whether or not the printer 2 has a function to convert to monochrome images. For example, if the printer 2 does not have a function to convert from color to monochrome, the auxiliary program 42 may not accept the monochrome option 103 as a print setting.

[0061] Furthermore, in the second embodiment, when it is determined that conversion from color to monochrome is necessary, the auxiliary program 42 converts it to raster data and sends the print data along with the conversion command to the printer 2. However, it is also possible to omit the conversion to raster data and the transmission of the print data, and only send the conversion command. In this case, the intermediate image data after editing on A35 is returned to the general-purpose printing program 41 without rasterizing, and the general-purpose printing program 41 rasterizes it to generate print data, similar to when it is determined that conversion from color to monochrome is unnecessary, and then sends that print data to the printer 2.

[0062] As explained in detail above, when the image to be printed needs to be converted from color to monochrome, PC1 uses the auxiliary program 42 to execute a process that causes the printer to print the converted image in monochrome. This allows monochrome images to be printed when conversion from color to monochrome is necessary, even if the general-purpose printing program 41 does not support the color-to-monochrome conversion function.

[0063] The embodiments disclosed herein are merely illustrative and do not limit the present invention in any way. Therefore, the technology disclosed herein can naturally be improved and modified in various ways without departing from its essence. For example, the device connected to PC1 is not limited to a printer; it can be a multifunction device, copier, fax machine, or any other device with printing capabilities. Furthermore, the number of printers connected to PC1 is not limited to the illustrated example; it may be two or more.

[0064] Furthermore, the illustrated display screens are merely examples and are not limited to these. For example, the arrangement and representation of each image and button are not limited to the illustrated examples. For instance, after performing the monochrome conversion on A43 in Figure 2, the auxiliary program 42 may display a preview of the converted monochrome image and allow the user to choose whether or not to continue with the printing procedure.

[0065] Furthermore, in this embodiment, the auxiliary program 42 has multiple conversion tables, and A42 selects and uses the appropriate conversion table. However, there may be only one conversion table, and that conversion table may always be used.

[0066] Furthermore, although this embodiment describes only the printing operation as the operation of the auxiliary program 42 in detail, the auxiliary program 42 may have other roles. Also, the program that executes the processing in this embodiment is not limited to the auxiliary program 42, but can be any program that receives instructions from the OS 21 or the general-purpose printing program 41 when printing using the general-purpose printing program 41. For example, the Print Workflow application whose specifications have been published by Microsoft may also be used.

[0067] Furthermore, the execution timing of the auxiliary program 42 is not limited to the examples of this embodiment. For example, it may be executed by direct execution instruction from the OS 21, or it may be a resident auxiliary program 42. In the case of a resident auxiliary program, the auxiliary program 42 should perform the operations described above upon receiving an execution instruction.

[0068] Furthermore, in any flowchart disclosed in the embodiments, the execution order of any multiple processes in any multiple steps can be arbitrarily changed or executed in parallel, as long as no inconsistencies arise in the processing content.

[0069] Furthermore, the processes disclosed in the embodiments may be executed by a single CPU, multiple CPUs, hardware such as an ASIC, or a combination thereof. Also, the processes disclosed in the embodiments can be implemented in various forms, such as a recording medium or method that stores a program for executing the process. [Explanation of symbols]

[0070] 1 PC 2 Printer 11 CPU 13 User Interface 41 General-purpose printing program 42 Support Programs

Claims

1. A support program that is executable by the computer of the information processing device, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing device, and supports a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device, wherein the information processing device has a conversion table used for converting from color to monochrome, To the aforementioned computer, A print instruction output from an application program incorporated in the information processing device, in which the general-purpose printing program is instructed to print to the printer, An acquisition process for acquiring intermediate image data corresponding to the print instruction from the operating system, A decision process to determine whether or not a conversion from color to monochrome is necessary, The process is executed, and if the judgment process determines that conversion is necessary, before the print data based on the intermediate image data is sent to the printer, As a process for causing the printer to print a converted image, which is an image obtained by converting the intermediate image data obtained from the operating system through the acquisition process from color to monochrome, a conversion process is performed to convert the image obtained from the operating system through the acquisition process from color to monochrome using the conversion table. A support program characterized by the following features.

2. In the support program described in claim 1, The information processing device has a plurality of conversion tables that differ depending on the type of colorant, and the plurality of conversion tables include a first conversion table, a second conversion table, and In the aforementioned conversion process, If the type of coloring agent used for printing is type 1, the first conversion table is used to convert from color to monochrome; if the type of coloring agent used for printing is type 2, the second conversion table is used to convert from color to monochrome. A support program characterized by the following features.

3. In the support program described in claim 1, The print settings specified in the print instructions include a specific setting indicating whether or not to reduce the consumption of colorants. In the aforementioned conversion process, When the specific setting included in the print settings by the print instruction indicates that the consumption of colorants should be reduced, the conversion from color to monochrome is performed using a specific table that results in a lower density after conversion compared to when the specific setting indicates that the consumption of colorants should not be reduced. A support program characterized by the following features.

4. In a support program described in any one of claims 1 to 3, In the aforementioned conversion process, The intermediate image data acquired from the operating system through the acquisition process is converted into raster data, and the image shown in the converted raster data is converted from color to monochrome. A support program characterized by the following features.

5. In a support program according to any one of claims 1 to 4, To the aforementioned computer, If the judgment process determines that conversion is unnecessary, the intermediate image data acquired from the operating system by the acquisition process is returned to the operating system, and the operating system, upon receiving the returned intermediate image data, sends print data based on the intermediate image data to the printer. A support program characterized by the following features.

6. In a support program according to any one of claims 1 to 5, To the aforementioned computer, When it is necessary to consolidate images from multiple pages into a single page, an aggregation process is executed to generate an aggregated image, which is an image obtained by consolidating the images from multiple pages shown in the intermediate image data obtained from the operating system through the acquisition process into a single page. After the aggregation process is executed, if the judgment process determines that conversion is necessary, the conversion process converts the aggregated image generated by the aggregation process from color to monochrome. A support program characterized by the following features.

7. A support program that is executable by the computer of an information processing device, corresponds to a printer connected to the information processing device, and supports a general-purpose printing program pre-installed in the operating system of the information processing device, To the aforementioned computer, In response to the receipt of a first instruction on the print screen displayed by the application program incorporated in the information processing device, the device requests function information indicating the printer's functions from the printer and executes a function information acquisition process to acquire the function information sent from the printer in response to that request. After the function information has been acquired, if a second instruction different from the first instruction has been received on the print screen, and there is a print instruction output from the application program that instructs the general-purpose print program to print to the printer, An acquisition process for acquiring intermediate image data corresponding to the print instruction from the operating system, A determination process is performed to determine whether or not a color-to-monochrome conversion is necessary, by determining whether or not the printer is monochrome-only based on the aforementioned functional information. The process is executed, and if the judgment process determines that a conversion is necessary, The process is executed to cause the printer to print the converted image, which is an image obtained by converting the image shown in the intermediate image data acquired from the operating system through the acquisition process from color to monochrome. A support program characterized by the following features.

8. In the support program described in claim 7, To the aforementioned computer, As the process for causing the printer to print the converted image, a command transmission process is executed to send a conversion command to the printer, the printer has a conversion function to convert an image from color to monochrome, and when the printer receives the conversion command and receives print data associated with the conversion command, it converts the image shown in the received print data from color to monochrome, and then prints the converted image. A support program characterized by the following features.

9. In the support program described in claim 8, To the aforementioned computer, After the judgment process, the intermediate image data acquired from the operating system by the acquisition process is returned to the operating system, and the operating system, upon receiving the returned intermediate image data, transmits the print data based on the intermediate image data to the printer. A support program characterized by the following features.

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