Print Control Software for General-Purpose Driver Printer Switching
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing print systems using general-purpose printer drivers are limited in their ability to facilitate printing with printers other than the one specified by the terminal device, necessitating a technique to enable printing with alternative printers.
Innovation Solution
A print control program that acquires print data from a general-purpose printer driver and transmits control data to a first printer, allowing the management program to send print data to a second printer in response to a control-data-based request, thereby enabling printing on a different printer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a general-purpose printer driver is installed in a terminal device, then printing with the specified printer is supported, but printing with other printers is not enabled
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a print management server as an intermediary between the terminal device and multiple printers. The server receives print data from the terminal device via a general-purpose driver, manages the print queue, and distributes print jobs to appropriate printers. This mediator enables printing with multiple printers without requiring the terminal device to have multiple vendor-specific drivers installed.
2Reliability
If a printer vendor-specific driver is used, then printing functionality is reliable, but compatibility with other printers is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The print management server is designed to handle multiple printer types and protocols through a single universal interface. It can receive print data from various sources using general-purpose drivers and translate/distribute to different printer types (laser, inkjet, plotter, etc.), making the system universally compatible while maintaining reliable printing functionality for each printer type.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple printer drivers are installed to enable printing with different printers, then printer versatility is improved, but system complexity and security risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The print management server acts as a centralized intermediary that manages all printer connections and drivers on the server side rather than requiring multiple drivers on each terminal device. This reduces client-side complexity and security risks while maintaining the ability to print to multiple printers through a single general-purpose driver installation.
Data Source
AI summary
A print control program according to one aspect of the present disclosure causes a computer to execute acquisition processing, first transmission processing, and second transmission processing. The acquisition processing acquires print data from a general-purpose printer driver 16. When the print data is acquired in the acquisition processing, control data is transmitted to the first printer in the first transmission processing. In the second transmission processing, the print data is transmitted to a management program for transmitting, in response to a control-data-based request from a second printer, the print data to the second printer to cause the second printer to perform printing.