JP3241842B2 - Printer selection method and information processing apparatus using the method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for selecting a printer and an information processing apparatus using the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an information processing system (hereinafter, referred to as a system) such as a personal computer, when a plurality of application programs (hereinafter, referred to as an application) are executed and a plurality of printers are available,
The optimum printer for printing for each application is not always the same. The optimum printer for an application changes depending on the output information from the application, the performance of the printer, the installation position of the printer, and the like.

For this reason, when performing print processing from a plurality of applications, it is necessary for the user himself to select a printer to be used in order to obtain the best print result.

In some systems, an optimum printer is automatically selected in consideration of the attributes of an application and the printing capability of a printer driver.

[0005]

However, in the above conventional example, depending on each application to be executed,
The problem is that the user must have in-depth knowledge of the characteristics of the application to be used and the performance of the connected printer because the user must select the printer by recognizing what the optimum printer is. was there.

On the other hand, when the system automatically selects the optimum printer, the user's intention is not considered at all, and the optimum printer is not always selected from the viewpoint of the user. There was a point.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and enables selection of an optimum printer without requiring deep knowledge of a user and selection of an optimum printer reflecting a user's intention. It is an object to provide a simple printer selection method and an information processing apparatus using the method.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a method for selecting a printer according to the present invention comprises the following steps. That is, the plurality of printers connected to an information processing apparatus capable of accessing a storage medium storing information indicating print capabilities of the plurality of printers and application attributes indicating what output data the application program outputs. A selecting method for selecting one of the plurality of printers based on the information indicating the print capability stored in the storage medium and the application attribute. And a printer selecting method.

According to still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information processing apparatus connected to a plurality of printers, wherein the first storage means for storing information indicating a printing capability of each of the plurality of printers, and A second storage unit that stores an application attribute indicating whether to output such output data, information indicating the print capability stored in the first storage unit, and a storage unit that stores the application attribute. Selecting means for selecting any one of the plurality of printers based on the application attribute.

[0010]

[0011]

[0012]

With the above arrangement, the present invention provides information indicating the printing capability of each of a plurality of printers stored in a storage medium;
Based on application attributes indicating what output data the application program outputs,
Operate to select one of the plurality of printers.

[0013]

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information processing system (hereinafter, referred to as a system) in which a plurality of printers are connected, which is a typical embodiment of the present invention. The system according to the present embodiment includes a main unit 1 for processing information, giving instructions for information processing, and displaying its output, a printer 2 and a printer 3 connected to the main unit 1, a hard disk, a floppy disk, and the like. Of the external auxiliary storage unit 4.

FIG. 2 shows an application executed by the main unit 1 shown in FIG. 1 and a printer driver (PRTD).
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between R) and a printer connected to the main unit 1. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2, it is assumed that the application A and the application B are executed in the main body 1, and the printer driver 21 for driving the printer 2 and the printer driver 21 for driving the printer 3 It is assumed that the printer driver 31 is executed in the main unit 1.

Since the printer driver is software that depends on the hardware characteristics and performance of each printer, there is a unique logical connection between the printer driver and the printer. In the case of this embodiment, the printer 2
The printer driver 21 is connected to the printer 3 and the printer driver 31 is connected to the printer 3. Such a logical connection is established by a printer ID (hereinafter, i.
d) and are stored in the system in a printer management table as shown in FIG. The printer management table is stored in the external auxiliary storage unit 4. When the system is operating, the information of the table is loaded into a memory (not shown) of the main unit 1, and the CPU (not shown) of the main unit 1 ).
FIG. 3 shows that there are two printers whose ids are printer 2 and printer 3 as printers that can be used by the system.

The system further has an available printer attribute table as shown in FIG. 4 for the printers that can be used in this way, and by referring to this table, how the printing capability of each printer is determined. Recognize what is.

On the other hand, between the printer driver and the application, it is not necessary for one application to correspond to one printer driver, as long as the two observe a certain data interface. And eventually a printer)
Can be selected. However, since the type and nature of data output by an application affect the selection of a printer, the system according to the present embodiment uses the application output data attribute management table as shown in FIG. Manages whether to output data.

Next, the procedure of the automatic printer selection process executed by the system having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step S10, the ids of the printers 2 and 3 that can be used in the main body 1 are registered as available printers in the printer management table shown in FIG. 3, and the result is stored in the external auxiliary storage. It is stored in the device 4. Next, in step S20, for each of the printers registered in the printer management table, the printing capability of the printer is comprehensively determined together with the capability of the printer driver, the printer capability is quantified, and the numerical values are shown in FIG. It is registered as a printing capability index in the available printer attribute table, and the result is registered in the external auxiliary storage device 4.
To save. Here, it is assumed that the larger the numerical value is, the higher the printing capability of the printer is.

In step S30, it is checked whether there is a print request during execution of the application. This print request may be automatically issued by the application according to the execution status, or the system user may issue a print instruction from the main unit 1 according to the application execution status. Here, if there is no print request, it is regarded that only the setup for automatic selection of the printer has been completed, and the processing is terminated. In the next process, the information of the printer management table and the available printer attribute table stored in the external auxiliary storage device 4 is read and referred to. Therefore, unless a new printer is connected, in the next process, steps S10 and S20 are performed. No procedure is required, and the process starts from step S30. On the other hand, if there is a print request, the process proceeds to step S40.

In step S40, information relating to printing is obtained from the application which has requested printing.
This information includes information such as whether or not the output information includes color information, whether the type of output data is text only, and whether or not image or line drawing data is included. This information is automatically available to the application based on its execution status,
The output shown in FIG. 5 may be input, or the user of the system may input from the main unit 1. The information thus obtained is registered as an application attribute in the application output data attribute management table, and the result is stored in the external auxiliary storage device 4.

In step S50, an optimal printer for executing printing is determined with reference to the data registered in the printer management table, the available printer attribute table, and the application output data attribute management table.
As a result of the processing in step S50, for example, when the printer 2 is selected as the optimal printer for the application A that has issued the print processing request, the application A and the printer driver 21 are logically connected, and the application A From the printer 2 to the printer 2.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, when a print request is issued, the attributes of the printer connected to the system and the attributes of the output data of the application are comprehensively determined, and the optimum printer is automatically selected. be able to.

In the above-described embodiment, a case has been described in which, when a print request is made, an optimum printer is automatically selected based on information held by the system, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the intention of the system user may be directly reflected in the printer selection process.

FIG. 7 shows steps S21 and S22 in the processing procedure of the flowchart shown in FIG. 6 so that the intention of the system user is reflected in the printer selection processing.
Is added. In the process shown in FIG.
In step S21, it is checked whether or not the priority setting mode of the printer is set. The priority setting mode is a processing mode for reflecting the user's intention in the printer selection process. If the priority setting mode has not been set, the process proceeds to step S30, and the process described with reference to FIG. 6 is executed.
On the other hand, when the priority setting mode is set, the process proceeds to step S22.

In step S22, the user inputs, as a priority parameter, which printer is to be given priority in performing the printing process. This input is performed from the main unit 1. The priority parameter input by this input is registered as one data item of the available printer attribute table, for example, as shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the smaller the numerical value (positive integer value) of the priority parameter, the higher the priority. Here, when the user designates a printer having a low printing ability as a high priority, that is, when a parameter is specified that has seemingly contradictory logic, the user's will is always given priority, Alternatively, it is needless to say that processing is performed so that logical contradiction does not occur, for example, by determining the opposite. In this way, when a print request is issued, a printer can be selected by adding the user's intention in addition to the attributes of the printer connected to the system and the attributes of the output data of the application.

The present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices, or may be applied to an apparatus constituted by a single device. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, the selection of a printer from among a plurality of printers depends on the printing capability of each printer stored in the storage medium and the type of output data output by the application. Is automatically performed based on the information of the application attribute indicating
Even if the user does not have deep knowledge of the features of the application, the information processing apparatus can select a printer suitable for the application without analyzing the contents of the output data itself.

[0031]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information processing system that connects a plurality of printers according to a representative embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relationship among an application, a printer driver, and a printer in the information processing system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the contents of a printer management table.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of an available printer attribute table.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of an application output data attribute management table.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic printer selection process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a printer automatic selection process according to another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an available printer attribute table according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main body part 2, 3 Printer 4 External auxiliary storage device 21, 31 Printer driver

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An information processing apparatus connected to an information processing apparatus capable of accessing a storage medium storing information indicating print capabilities of each of a plurality of printers and an application attribute indicating what output data the application program outputs. A printer selection method for selecting one of a plurality of printers, the method further comprising selecting one of the plurality of printers based on information indicating the print capability stored in the storage medium and the application attribute. A printer selecting method, comprising: 2. An information processing apparatus connected to a plurality of printers, a first storage unit for storing information indicating a printing capability of each of the plurality of printers, and what output data is output by an application program. Second to store the application attribute indicating whether to perform
A storage unit, and selects one of the plurality of printers based on the information indicating the print capability stored in the first storage unit and the application attribute stored in the second storage unit. An information processing apparatus comprising: a selection unit.