JP2009146362A - Information processor, information processing method, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem of reduction in processing speed of XML in a print system using a print ticket, in which, although an application obtains XML data called print capability (which is similar to a print ticket) also in acquisition of device capability, the data size of the print capability generally tends to be enlarged. <P>SOLUTION: A print ticket and a print capability scope are input, and the print capability is generated based on the input print ticket and print capability scope, and returned to the application. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a program, and a storage medium, and particularly relates to print settings.

  The printing system has been greatly changed in Microsoft Windows (registered trademark) Vista, which is an operating system (OS) of Microsoft Corporation. A new printing system based on XPS (XML Paper Specification) was introduced (http://www.microsoft.com/japan/whdc/) while maintaining compatibility with the conventional GDI (Graphic Device Interface) based printing system. device / print / default.mspx).

XPS is one of electronic document formats. The contents are made up of various parts such as XML that holds information such as document structure, drawing information, and print settings, and binary resources such as bitmaps and fonts. Particularly important parts constituting the XPS are shown in FIG. It may be understood that FixedDocumentSequence 101 is a job, FixedDocument 102 is a document, and FixedPage 103 is a page. There is always only one FixedDocumentSequence part 201, and it holds a plurality of FixedDocument parts 202. Further, each FixedDocument part 202 holds a plurality of FixedPage parts 203. Furthermore, print settings can be associated with these arbitrary FixedDocumentSequence part 201, FixedDocument part 202, and FixedPage part 203, respectively (FIG. 2). This print setting is called a print ticket. In order for an application to generate this print ticket, it is necessary to know the capabilities of the device. A document format representing the device capability is referred to as print capability (PrintCapabilities). Details of the print capability are also described in Patent Document 1.
Since this print capability enumerates device functions and describes them in XML, the amount of description tends to be enormous. A major feature of the print capability is that it can describe not only enumeration and description of static device capabilities but also dynamic device capabilities according to print tickets. Specifically, the print capability holds information such as the effective print area corresponding to the paper type and paper orientation described in the print ticket.
JP 2006-155611 A

  Since the amount of description of the print capability is large, an appropriate processing time is required when an application or the like acquires the print capability. The application will try to reuse the acquired print capability by reducing the number of acquisitions of the print capability as much as possible so as not to let the user feel the waiting time. However, the print capability holds data that may be changed for each page according to the type of paper, such as an effective print area, and the orientation of the paper. Therefore, it is not possible to simply reuse the print capability once acquired. Worst, the application needs to re-acquire the print capability for each page.

  As described above, the new XPS printing system has a structural problem that causes performance deterioration in the print capability as a foundation.

In order to solve the problems described above, the present invention provides:
An input means for inputting a print ticket and a scope of print capability;
Means for generating a print capability based on the print ticket inputted by the input means and a scope of the print capability;
And a return means for returning the generated print capability to the application.

  The present invention makes it possible to obtain necessary information without stress when an application obtains device capabilities from a printer driver. As a result, user convenience can be improved.

[Example 1]
A computer as an embodiment of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer control system including a computer according to the present embodiment. Unless otherwise specified, if the function of the present invention is executed, a single device or a system composed of a plurality of devices can be connected via a network such as a LAN or WAN. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a system in which processing is performed.

  In the figure, reference numeral 300 denotes a host computer. The host computer includes a CPU 1 that executes document processing in which graphics, images, characters, tables (including spreadsheets) and the like are mixed based on a document processing program stored in the ROM 3 program ROM or the external memory 11. The CPU 1 comprehensively controls each device connected to the system bus 4.

  Further, an operating system program (hereinafter referred to as OS) which is a control program of the CPU 1 is stored in the program ROM of the ROM 3 or the external memory 11. The font ROM or the external memory 11 of the ROM 3 stores font data used for the document processing, and the ROM 3 data ROM or the external memory 11 stores various data used for the document processing. Store the data.

  Reference numeral 2 denotes a RAM which functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 1. A keyboard I / F 5 controls key input from a keyboard 9 or a pointing device (not shown). Reference numeral 6 denotes a display I / F, which controls display on the display 10. An external memory I / F 7 is an external memory 11 such as a hard disk (HD) or floppy (registered trademark) disk (FD) that stores a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, edit files, printer drivers, and the like. And control access. The external memory functions as a computer-readable storage medium that stores various processing programs such as a printer driver.

  A printer I / F 8 is connected to the printer 150 via a predetermined bidirectional interface 21 and executes communication control processing with the printer 150. The CPU 1 executes, for example, an outline font rasterization process on the display information RAM set on the RAM 2 to enable WYSIWYG on the display 10.

  The CPU 1 opens various windows registered based on commands instructed by a mouse cursor (not shown) on the CRT 10 and executes various data processing. When executing printing, the user opens a window relating to print settings, and can set the print processing method for the printer driver including printer settings and print mode selection.

  In the printer 150, reference numeral 12 denotes a printer CPU, which is a printing unit (printer engine) 17 connected to the system bus 15 based on a control program stored in the program ROM of the ROM 13 or a control program stored in the external memory 14. An image signal is output as output information.

  Further, a control program for the CPU 12 is stored in the program ROM of the ROM 13. The font ROM of the ROM 13 stores font data used when generating the output information, and the ROM 13 data ROM is used on the host computer in the case of a printer without the external memory 14 such as a hard disk. Information to be stored is stored.

  The CPU 12 can communicate with the host computer via the input unit 18 and is configured to notify the host computer 3000 of information in the printer. Reference numeral 19 denotes a RAM that functions as a main memory, a work area, and the like of the CPU 12, and is configured such that the memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown). The RAM 19 is used as an output information expansion area, environment data storage area, NVRAM, and the like. Access to the above-described external memory 14 such as a hard disk (HD) or IC card is controlled by a memory controller (MC) 20.

  The external memory 14 is connected as an option and stores font data, an emulation program, form data, and the like. Reference numeral 18 denotes an operation panel described above, on which switches for operation, LED indicators, and the like are arranged. Further, the number of external memories is not limited to one, and at least one external memory is provided so that an optional font card and a plurality of external memories storing programs for interpreting printer control languages with different language systems can be connected in addition to built-in fonts. It may be configured. Furthermore, an NVRAM (not shown) may be provided to store printer mode setting information from the operation panel 20.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a typical print data generation method in the host computer.

  The application 401, the graphic engine 402, the printer driver 403, and the system spooler 404 are program modules that exist as files stored in the external memory 11, and are loaded into the RAM 2 and executed by the OS and modules using the modules. The application 401 and the printer driver 403 can be added to the HD of the external disk 11 via the FD of the external memory 11, a CD-ROM (not shown), or a network (not shown).

  The application 401 stored in the external memory 11 is loaded into the RAM 2 and executed. When printing from the application 401 to the printer 1500, the graphic that is similarly loaded into the RAM 2 and executable. Output (drawing) is performed using the engine 402. The graphic engine 402 loads a printer driver 403 prepared for each printing apparatus from the external memory 11 to the RAM 2, and converts the output of the application 210 into a printer control command using the printer driver 403. The converted printer control command is output to the printer 1500 via the interface 21 via the system spooler 404 loaded in the RAM 2 by the OS.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the application 504 and the printer drivers 501 and 502 for each printer.

  The application 504 performs processing by calling various functions (Application Program Interface, commonly called API) provided by the operating system 503.

  The operating system 503 performs processing by calling a function (Device Driver Interface, commonly referred to as DDI) provided by the printer drivers 501 and 502 of the printer selected for processing related to printing.

  In this way, printing to a printer selected from the application is possible.

  At this time, printer print setting data is exchanged between the printer drivers 501 and 502, the operating system 503, and the application 504. This is shown in FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship with the printer driver when print settings are made from the print ticket compatible application 601 or the application 604 corresponding to the driver expansion interface which is the point of the present invention. Reference numeral 602 denotes a print ticket / print capability API. That is, it is a part of the OS. A DDI having substantially the same function as this API is also prepared in the printer driver 603. That is, when the application 601 calls an API such as PTGetPrintCapabilities, a print ticket as input data is passed to the driver main body 603 through the API layer 602. The driver main body 603 generates a print capability corresponding to the passed print ticket, and returns the generated print capability to the application 601 through the API layer 602. This is a conventional example. When the application 604 corresponding to the driver extension interface calls an extension interface unique to the printer driver as shown in FIG. 7, a print ticket or the like as input data is directly passed to the extension 605 of the printer driver. An extension unit 605 of the printer driver generates a print capability according to information such as a passed print ticket and directly returns the generated print capability to the application 604.

FIG. 7 is a part of a unique interface published by the printer driver.
FIG. 7 is defined as a C language function. The name is different from the printer driver interface function PTGetPrintCapabilities defined by the OS, and the second argument LPCWSTR pScope is added. Since the function specifications in other places are almost the same, the explanation is omitted here. For details of the PTGetPrintCapabilities function, refer to http: // msdn2. Microsoft. com / en-us / library / ms536107. It can be confirmed by aspx.

  FIG. 8 shows a processing flow of the function of FIG. In step 801, a scope character string is acquired from the second argument. In step 802, a print ticket is acquired from the third argument. In step 803, the device-specific information of the device held by the printer driver is accessed. In general, the data accessed in 803 is often a local file. In step 804, it is determined whether pScope is NULL. In the case of NULL, the same operation as that of the conventional PTGetPrintCapabilities is performed. That is, in step 805, a full set of print capabilities is generated, and in step 806, the print capabilities are returned as a fourth argument. If it is determined in step 804 that pScope is other than NULL, the process proceeds to step 807. In step 807, it is determined whether or not the character string pointed to by pScope is “PageImageableSize”. If “PageImageableSize”, a small print capability that retains only the PageImageableSize property is generated. Then, the process proceeds to Step 806. If the character string pointed to by pScope is other than “PageImageableSize” in step 807, error processing is performed in step 809.

  FIG. 9 shows an example of the print capability generated in step 808 of FIG.

  In this embodiment, the new interface compatible application 604 is realized by directly calling the print ticket input / output unit 605 of the printer driver. Although not described here, an interface equivalent to 602 may be prepared in the OS layer, the application may call the OS layer, and the printer driver may implement the interface.

It is an overview using the main parts that make up XPS. FIG. 3 is a relationship diagram between main parts and a print ticket constituting an XPS. It is a block diagram explaining the structure of the system containing the computer as one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram explaining the typical print data generation method in the computer as one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between an application and a printer driver for each printer in a computer as an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a relationship diagram illustrating how a print ticket and print capabilities from an application layer to an OS layer and a driver layer are handled in a computer as an embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a diagram illustrating an interface (C language function) unique to the printer driver in the printer driver as one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart of user interface initialization processing in the printer driver as one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the example of print capability in the printer driver as one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

150 Printer 300 Host Computer 401 Application 403 Printer Driver

Claims (7)

An input means for inputting a print ticket and a scope of print capability;
Means for generating a print capability based on the print ticket inputted by the input means and a scope of the print capability;
An information processing apparatus comprising return means for returning the generated print capability to an application.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input unit inputs a print ticket and a scope of print capability through an interface directly input from an application. An input step for entering the scope of the print ticket and print capability;
Generating a print capability based on the print ticket input by the input means and a scope of the print capability;
A return step for returning the generated print capability to the application.   4. The information processing method according to claim 3, wherein in the input step, a print ticket and a scope of print capability are input through an interface directly input from an application. An input step for entering the scope of the print ticket and print capability;
Generating a print capability based on the print ticket input by the input means and a scope of the print capability;
A program for causing a computer to execute a return step of returning the generated print capability to an application.   6. The program according to claim 5, wherein the input step inputs a print ticket and a scope of print capability through an interface directly input from an application.   A computer-readable storage medium storing the program according to claim 5.

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