JP5612882B2 - Printing control apparatus, printing program, and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique of a printing program, a printing control apparatus, and an image forming apparatus.

  Information processing apparatus, printing apparatus, print processing system, print processing method, program for performing print processing of document file (hereinafter referred to as document) created by different application program (hereinafter referred to as application) as one print job, and A technique relating to a storage medium is disclosed (for example, see Patent Document 1).

JP 2008-46792 A

  By the way, in a document created by a specific application such as a word processor or a spreadsheet application, there is a case where it is not desired to reduce the margin, but other than that, there is a case where it is desired to reduce the margin even between documents. In such a case, the technique of Patent Document 1 or the like has a problem that a desired image output cannot be obtained because one margin is filled with all the margins without distinguishing the original data.

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printing program, a printing control apparatus, and an image forming apparatus capable of setting a margin filling.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a print control apparatus that causes a printing apparatus to continuously print a plurality of documents composed of a plurality of pages, and is set for each document or each extension of the document. A storage unit that stores setting information indicating permission or prohibition of margin filling performed, and whether or not margin filling is performed for each page constituting the document, based on the setting information , and the setting information is permitted A page reconstructing unit that performs margin filling on the margin of the last page of the immediately preceding document, and a print output unit that outputs a result of a margin filling function by the page reconstructing unit to the printing apparatus, and the page reconstructing unit , said in the setting information, the document has been set in the margin justified ban, or the extension of the document that has been set in the margin justified ban, For a margin justified prohibited document, the first page of the margins filling prohibited document, the setting information of the immediately preceding document does not margin justified margin of the last page of the immediately preceding document even margin justified permitted, and the The margin of the last page of the margin- prohibited document is not padded on the first page of the immediately following document even if the setting information of the immediately following document indicates that margin filling is permitted .
Other solutions will be described as appropriate in the embodiments.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing program, a printing control apparatus, and an image forming apparatus capable of setting margin filling.

1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printing system according to a first embodiment. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of print data generation processing according to the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a margin printing setting screen concerning 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of an application margin setting screen which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of margin filling execution of 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the result of the margin filling by another example. It is a figure which shows the example which grouped page data into the process unit which performs a margin process. It is a table | surface which shows the actual grouping. It is a figure which shows the outline | summary of the margin layout information which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the breakable position table which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the margin table which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the page analysis process which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of correction of a partitionable position table (the 1). It is a figure which shows the example of a correction of a partitionable position table (the 2). It is a figure which shows the example of a division | segmentation position table. It is a figure for demonstrating the page reconstruction process which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a margin printing setting screen concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of an application margin setting screen which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example which stuffs only the last margin of the document which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. This is an example in which pages according to the second embodiment are grouped into processing units for performing margin processing.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
In the present embodiment, “document” refers to “document file”.

[First Embodiment]
First, a first embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
"System configuration"
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a printing system according to the first embodiment.
In the printing system 10, a printing control apparatus 1 and a printing apparatus 2 such as a printer are connected to each other via a network 5.
The print control apparatus 1 includes a keyboard, an input unit 3 such as a mouse, and a display unit 4 such as a display, and a control unit 100 such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) and a storage unit such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive). 200, a memory 300 such as a RAM (Random Access Memory), and a communication unit 400 such as a NIC (Network Interface Card). The control unit 100, the storage unit 200, the memory 300, the communication unit 400, the input unit 3, and the display unit 4 are connected to each other via a bus 500.
The control unit 100 expands a program in the HDD to the memory 300, and executes the expanded program, thereby creating an application having a function of a general software program for creating or printing a document (document 201) or an image. 101 and a printer driver 102 having a function of creating print data.

  The application 101 has unique identification information. Here, the identification information is, for example, the name of an execution file of the application 101 itself or specific information included in the execution file.

  Note that the extension of the document 201 is associated with the specific application 101 by the operating system, and the printer driver 102 can acquire the identification information of the specific application 101 that displays or edits the document 201 by the extension. The application 101 also has a function of opening each document 201 such as “Document A” or “Document B” from the storage unit 200 and instructing printing to pass the document name and print job to the printer driver 102. Here, the document name is a file name in each document 201 such as “document A” or “document B”.

The printer driver 102 includes a page data acquisition unit 103, an identification information acquisition unit 104, a group determination unit 105, a margin print setting unit 106, a margin layout information acquisition unit (separable position detection unit, margin detection unit) 111, a page analysis unit ( It includes a delimiter position detection unit 107, a page reconstruction unit (margin filling unit) 108, a print data generation unit 109, and a print data output unit (print output unit) 110.
The page data acquisition unit 103 has a function of acquiring data of each page in the document 201 specified via the input unit 3.
The identification information acquisition unit 104 has a function of acquiring application identification information from the application 101 and acquiring document information from the document 201 to be printed.
The group determination unit 105 has a function of grouping pages and documents 201.
The margin printing setting unit 106 has a function of setting margin printing for the document 201 for each application 101 based on information input via the input unit 3.

The page analysis unit 107 has a function of determining a dividing line for a portion to move to the previous page and a portion to be left when performing margin filling.
The page reconstruction unit 108 has a function of reconstructing pages in the document 201 by performing actual margin filling.
The print data generation unit 109 has a function of generating print data based on the processing result by the page reconstruction unit 108.
The print data output unit 110 has a function of outputting the print data generated by the print data generation unit 109 to the printing apparatus 2.
The margin layout information acquisition unit 111 generates a delimitable position table 203 and a margin table 205 by detecting the demarcatable position where the page can be divided from the page data and the margin height at the bottom of the page. It has a function.

The storage unit 200 stores a plurality of documents (document A, document B) 201, margin printing setting information 202, a delimitable position table 203, a delimiter position table 204, and a margin table 205.
In each document 201, an object such as a text or an image is embedded.
The margin print setting information 202 stores information including text conditions such as “no margin setting” and how many lines or more the margin of the previous page should be reduced.
The delimitable position table 203 is a table in which delimitable positions detected by the page analysis process performed by the page analysis unit 107 are stored.
The delimiter position table 204 is a table that stores delimiter positions, which are positions indicating the boundary between a part that moves to the previous page and a part that remains in the original page when actually performing margin filling. .
The margin table 205 is a table that stores the height of the lower margin of each page in the document 201.
The delimitable position table 203, delimiter position table 204, and margin table 205 will be described later.

  The communication unit 400 has a function of transmitting print data and the like to the printing apparatus 2 via the network 5.

<Overall processing>
Next, the print data generation process according to the present embodiment will be described along FIG. 2 with reference to FIG.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of print data generation processing according to the first embodiment.
First, before executing printing, the margin print setting unit 106 displays the margin print setting screen 301 (FIG. 3) on the display unit 4, and based on the information input via the input unit 3, Further, the margin printing setting process of the document 201 for each application 101 is performed (S101), and the margin printing setting information 202 as a setting result is stored in the storage unit 200. Details of the processing in step S101 will be described later.
Next, a print execution request is input to the printer driver 102 via the application 101 (S102).

Next, the page data acquisition unit 103 performs page data acquisition processing for acquiring page data of the designated document 201 (to be printed) (S103).
Then, the identification information acquisition unit 104 acquires application identification information from the application 101, and further performs an identification information acquisition process for acquiring document information such as document identification information from the document 201 to be printed (S104).
Subsequently, the group determination unit 105 performs group determination processing for grouping pages (S105). Details of the processing in step S105 will be described later.
Next, the margin layout information acquisition unit 111 generates a margin table 205 by detecting the lower margin of the page, detects a delimitable position where the page can be delimited, and generates a delimitable position table 203. Layout information acquisition processing is performed (S106). Details of the processing in step S106 will be described later.

Then, the page analysis unit 107 performs page analysis processing for performing analysis such as detection of a breakable position for each group classified in step S105 (S107). Details of the processing in step S107 will be described later.
Subsequently, the page analysis unit 107 determines whether or not the process of step S107 has been performed for all groups (S108).
As a result of step S108, when the process of step S107 is not performed for all groups (S108 → No), the page analysis unit 107 performs the process of step S107 for the next group.

As a result of step S108, when the processing of step S107 has been completed for all groups (S108 → Yes), the page reconstruction unit 108 performs page blanking based on the analysis result by the page analysis unit 107 to generate page data. A page reconstruction process is performed to reconstruct (S109). Details of the processing in step S109 will be described later.
Next, the print data generation unit 109 performs print data generation processing for generating print data based on the processing result of step S109 (S110), and the print data output unit 110 sends the generated print data to the printing apparatus 2. A print data output process is performed (S111), and the process ends.

  Next, details of steps S101, S105, S106, S107, and S109 of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.

<< Margin Print Setting Process (S101) >>
First, details of the margin print setting process in step S101 of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.
(Margin print setting screen)
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a margin print setting screen according to the first embodiment.
A margin print setting screen 301 for setting margins for each document 201 includes a document designation field 302 for designating a document 201 to be printed, a margin setting field 303 for performing settings related to margins, an add button 304, a delete button 305, and application margin settings. The button 306 includes a confirmation button 307 and a close button 308.
The margin print setting screen 301 is displayed on the display unit 4 in the following procedure. It is assumed that the application 101 currently editing “Document A” is activated. The margin printing setting screen 301 is displayed, for example, when the user selects and inputs a margin printing setting button displayed on the property screen of the printer driver 102 displayed when the “print” menu is designated from the application 101. .

The document designation field 302 displays a document name that is the file name of the document 201 to be printed, an application name associated with the document 201, a page number (page) to be printed, margin settings, and the like.
When the margin print setting screen 301 is opened from the “print” menu of the document A, it is desirable that “document A” is automatically registered in the document designation field 302. In other words, when the margin print setting screen 301 is opened, the document name of the document 201 whose “print” menu is opened is preferably displayed in the document designation field 302. In this way, the user can easily simplify the process without performing any additional process for the document 201 that is surely the print target.
The page number to be printed is a page number to be printed in the corresponding document 201 and is input using, for example, a numeric keypad. When specifying multiple pages, for example, separate them with commas. Further, by rearranging the order of the documents 201 displayed in the document designation field 302, the printing order of the documents 201 can be designated.

  In the margin setting column 303, the margin setting of the document 201 (the document 201 with dots) designated in the document designation column 302 is displayed. The user can set margins by inputting information in the margin setting field. Here, “filling the previous page with three or more lines of text” means filling a margin only when three or more lines can be packed on the previous page. That is, it means that the text or image of the next page is packed only when the lower margin of the previous page has a margin of 3 lines or more. The margin setting can be performed for each document 201. The contents set in the margin setting field are described as text conditions.

Further, no margin setting (no text condition: state in which “none” is selected in the margin setting field 303 in FIG. 3) indicates that no margin setting is performed for the corresponding document 201. In other words, the margin stuffed to the front of the document 201, the margin justified from the post of the document 201 is also carried out such not.

In “with margin setting” (with text condition), only when the previous document 201 is set to “with margin setting”, the top page of itself is packed into the last page of the previous document. Here, if the previous document 201 is “no margin setting”, even if it is “with margin setting”, its own top page is not stuffed into the previous document 201.
Similarly, in “with margin setting”, only when the next document 201 is set to “with margin setting”, the first page of the next document 201 is stuffed into its last page. Here, if the next document 201 is “no margin setting”, even if it is “with margin setting”, the first page of the next document 201 is not stuffed into its own document 201.

  In the case of “with margin setting”, margins are narrowed between pages of the corresponding document 201.

When the user selects and inputs an add button 304, the document 201 to be printed can be added. The method for specifying the document 201 to be added may be a selection screen specific to the operating system, for example, or may be added by drag and drop.
When the user selects one of the documents 201 displayed in the document designation field 302 (the document 201 with dots) and presses the delete button 305, the margin print setting unit 106 is selected. The document 201 can be deleted from the print target.
Further, when the user selects and inputs the application margin setting button 306, an application margin setting screen (FIG. 4) 401 is displayed on the display unit 4.
When the user selects and inputs the confirm button 307, the margin print setting unit 106 stores the margin setting content including the text condition in the storage unit 200 as the margin print setting information 202.
When the user selects and inputs a close button 308, the margin print setting unit 106 closes the margin print setting screen 301.

(Application margin setting screen example)
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an application margin setting screen according to the first embodiment.
The application margin setting screen 401 is a screen that the margin printing setting unit 106 displays on the display unit 4 when the user selects and inputs the application margin setting button 306 in FIG. is there. 4 is reflected in the setting column of FIG. 3. The application margin setting screen 401 includes an application setting column 402, a margin setting registration column 403, a confirm button 404, a delete button 405, and a close button 406. Yes.
In the application setting column 401, margin settings for each application 101 associated with the document 201 are displayed.
In the margin setting registration field 403, the user inputs information, and the margin setting (text condition setting) of the application 101 specified in the application setting field 402 (with a dot) can be performed. The contents of the margin setting are the same as the contents of FIG.

When the user selects and inputs the confirm button 404, the margin setting content (text condition) is stored in the storage unit 200 as the margin print setting information 202.
Further, after the user designates one of the applications 101 displayed in the application setting column 402, the margin setting related to the selected application 101 can be deleted by selecting and inputting the delete button 405.
When the user selects and inputs a close button 406, the margin print setting unit 106 closes the application margin setting screen 401.

  Note that the condition set on the margin print setting screen 301 in FIG. 3 has priority over the condition set on the application margin setting screen 401 in FIG. When the document 201 to be printed is added on the margin print setting screen 301 in FIG. 3, the margin setting condition of the application 101 set in FIG. 4 is set as the default margin setting condition of the added document 201. . That is, the margin setting condition of the application 101 corresponding to the added document 201 is set as a default.

Next, an example of margin filling in the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an execution example of margin filling according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5A shows an example of margin filling when there is no text condition, and FIG. 5B and FIG. 5C show examples of margin filling when the text condition is “3 lines or more”. Here, the text condition is a condition set in the margin setting column in FIG. 3 and the margin setting registration column 403 in FIG. 4 as described above. Further, “3 or more lines” is a condition for “filling the previous page with 3 or more lines of text” in the margin setting column of FIG.
In FIG. 5, pages in the same document 201 are shown.

In FIGS. 5A to 5C, the left side shows before blanking execution and the right side shows after blanking execution.
FIG. 5A shows a case where “None” is set as the text condition. In this case, the printer driver 102 fills the previous page with text or an image (here, text) of its own page regardless of the size of the margin. FIG. 5B shows a case where the text condition is set to “fill the previous page with 3 or more lines of text”, but the lower margin of the previous page has only 2 lines or less. In this case, the printer driver 102 does not pack the text of the next page.
FIG. 5C shows a case where, as in FIG. 5B, the text condition is set to “fill the previous page with three or more lines of text”, and the lower margin of the previous page has three lines. Yes. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5C, the printer driver 102 performs a process of filling the previous page with three lines of text on the next page.

  In this way, by setting the text to be packed on the previous page with three or more lines of text, it is possible to prevent the layout from being difficult to read due to the fact that only one line is packed across the pages.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a result of margin filling according to another example.
In order to make the original page easier to understand when the margins are reduced as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B in the print data generation process of step S110 in FIG. 2, FIG. It is also possible to enclose all the parts corresponding to the divided page or the original next page with a frame line.
Also, as shown in FIG. 6B, a separator line may be displayed at the boundary between the original previous page and the next page.

  Furthermore, here, the text condition is set to fill the previous page with a set number of lines, but not limited to this, settings such as processing images and image titles together, and settings such as not changing the layout of images May be added.

<< Group Discrimination Process (S105) >>
Next, with reference to FIG. 7 and FIG. 8, the details of the group determination processing in step S105 of FIG. 2 will be described.
FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example in which page data is grouped into processing units for performing margin processing. FIG. 7A shows a state before execution of margin filling, and FIG. 7B shows a state after execution of margin filling.
Here, the pages A ₁ and A ₂ indicate the first page and the second page of the document A, and the pages C ₁ and C ₂ indicate the first page and the second page of the document C. Documents B and D are one-page documents 201, respectively. Documents A, B, C, and D are different documents 201.

In step S105, the group determination unit 105 performs processing for grouping pages. Here, a group is a page where the first line does not fill the previous page (fixed), and the next page is the group where the first line is fixed next. Grouping is performed for each document 201 or each page. In this example, the pages A ₁ , A ₂ , C ₁ , C ₂ , and D are set to be filled with margins, and the document B page is set to be not filled with margins. Therefore, the pages A ₁ , B, and C _{1 are such} that the _first line does not fill the previous page. Therefore, a group is formed from these pages to the page before the page in which the next top line is not filled with the previous page. That is, the processing unit for performing the margin processing is grouped as {A ₁ , A ₂ }, {B}, {C ₁ , C ₂ , D}. The page analysis process in step S107 in FIG. 2 is performed for each group unit.

FIG. 8 is a table showing the actual grouping.
The group determination unit 105 performs group determination based on the margin setting (margin print setting information 202) as shown in FIG. Here, “fill only the trailing margin” is a setting for filling only the trailing margin of the document 201, which will be described later in the second embodiment.

<< Margin Layout Information Acquisition Process (S106) >>
Next, details of the margin layout information acquisition processing in step S106 of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an outline of the margin layout information according to the first embodiment, FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a demarcatable position table according to the first embodiment, and FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the margin table which concerns on a form.
Here, the margin layout information is information of the partitionable position table 203 and the margin table 205.
The demarcatable position is a position where a page can be divided without dividing an object such as a text or an image. In order to check the demarcatable position, the margin layout information acquisition unit 111 converts the page into a raster image by the raster image processor, detects a position where white pixels continue in the horizontal direction from the right end to the left end of the page, and detects this position. Is a delimitable position. The detected breakable position is represented by the distance from the top edge of the page, with the top (upper edge) of the page being “0” (reference), and is stored in the breakable position table 203 shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 10, in the delimitable position table 203, the detected delimitable position and the corresponding object type (text, image, etc.) are associated with each page of the document 201 to be processed. Stored. This delimitable position table 203 is a table created for each document 201.

Further, the margin layout information acquisition unit 111 detects how much of the margin is detected by detecting how many consecutive white pixels in the horizontal direction from the bottom of the page in the raster image converted from the document 201. Detect height. That is, the margin height is the height of the margin from the bottom of the page until the object appears. The detected margin height is stored in the margin table 205 shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 11, the margin table 205 stores the detected margin height for each page.
The delimitable position is a distance from the upper end of the page. In addition, it is desirable that the demarcatable position and the margin height be in units of cm, inch, pixel, etc., but they may be expressed by the number of lines.
In this example, a raster image is created as an intermediate file, and the demarcatable positions and margins are detected. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and an intermediate file using PDL (Process Design Language) such as PDF (Portable Document Format) is used. A method may be used in which conversion is performed, an object area is determined from the attribute information in the intermediate file, and a demarcatable position or a margin is detected.

<< Page Analysis Processing (S107) >>
Next, the details of the page analysis processing in step S107 of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the flow of page analysis processing according to the first embodiment, FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 are diagrams showing a modification example of the breakable position table, and FIG. 15 is an example of the break position table. FIG.
First, the page analysis unit 107 initializes a variable n representing the page number to be processed with 1 (S201). Note that the page number in FIG. 12 is the number of pages in the group divided in step S105 in FIG.
Then, the page analysis unit 107 determines whether or not the (n + 1) th page exists in the processing target group (S202). That is, the page analysis unit 107 determines whether there is a next page in the group.
If the (n + 1) th sheet does not exist as a result of step S202 (S202 → No), the page analysis unit 107 returns the process to step S108 of FIG.

As a result of step S202, when the (n + 1) th sheet exists (S202 → Yes), the page analysis unit 107 acquires the margin height an from the _nth page from the margin table 205 (S203).
Next, the page analysis unit 107 refers to the margin print setting information 202 and determines whether or not a text condition is set in the corresponding document 201 (S204).
If the text condition is not set as a result of step S204 (S204 → No), that is, if “none” is set in the margin setting field 303 of FIG. 3, the page analysis unit 107 proceeds to step S206. Proceed.
If the text condition is set as a result of step S204 (S204 → Yes), the page analysis unit 107 corrects the breakable position according to the text condition (S205).

Here, with reference to FIG. 13, the correction of the delimitable position in step S205 will be described.
FIG. 13A shows the position before the breakable position is corrected, and FIG. 13B shows the position after the breakable position is corrected.
If the text condition is set to m lines or more and packed to the previous page, all the top (m−1) delimitable positions of continuous text in the page are deleted in the delimitable position table 203. Here, there may be a plurality of continuous texts in the page by including types (images, etc.) other than text, and the first (m−1) delimiters of each continuous text are deleted. To do. The same applies even if the continuous text is one line. Further, if there are less than (m−1) continuous text breaks, all the continuous text breaks are deleted.

For example, if the text condition is set to “fill the previous page with three or more lines”, the first line and the second line are not padded to the previous page. In other words, since the position where the first row and the second row can be separated is not used under the setting of “fill the previous page with three or more rows”, the page analysis unit 107 does not use the first row, the second row, and so on. The (m−1) -th segmentable positions are deleted from the segmentable position table 203.
In the example of FIG. 13, the setting is “fill the previous page with 3 or more lines”, but the breakable positions of y ₁₁ and y ₁₂ are not used for the reason described above. These breakable positions are deleted from the breakable position table 203.

  Also, as shown in FIG. 14, when an image is included between the texts, the two delimitable positions y11 and y13 of the text excluding the image are deleted.

After step S205 in FIG. 12, the page analysis unit 107 checks whether or not the (n + 1) th document 201 has a delimitable position that can be filled with a margin, so that a _n ≧ y _{n + 1} is satisfied. It is determined whether or not y _{n + 1} exists (S206 in FIG. 12). Here, the maximum y _{n + 1} is set because it is assumed that there are a plurality of candidates for y _{n + 1} .
If there is no such yn _{+ 1} as a result of step S206 (S206 → No), the page analysis unit 107 forcibly sets the n + 1st page break position to “0” and stores it in the break position table 204. (S207), and the process proceeds to step S209. Here, the delimiter position is a position that becomes a boundary between the part to be stuffed to the previous page and the part to be left on the current page when actually stuffing to the previous page. In step S207, the delimiter position is forcibly set to “0” to indicate that there is no portion to be packed on the previous page.

As a result of step S206 in FIG. 12, when such yn _{+ 1} exists (S206 → Yes), the page analysis unit 107 stores the n + first page separation position yn _{+ 1} in the separation position table 204 (S208). ).

  As shown in FIG. 15, the break positions set in steps S207 and S208 are stored in the break position table 204 in association with pages (pages in a group).

After step S207 or step S208, the page analysis unit 107 obtains the margins that put the (n + 1) th page height a _{n + 1} from the blank table 205 (S209).
Then, since the upper part of the page divided by yn _{+ 1} is stuffed with the previous page, the remaining part of the (n + 1) th page slides upward, so that the page analysis unit 107 has _{ann + 1} = an _{+ 1} + y _{n + 1} is calculated, and the margin table 205 is updated with this as the new margin height in the (n + 1) th document 201 (S210).
Subsequently, the page analysis unit 107 sets n = n + 1 (S211), and returns the process to S202.

<< Page Restructuring Process (S109) >>
Next, the details of the page restructuring process in step S109 of FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 16 is a diagram for explaining the page restructuring process according to the first embodiment. FIG. 16A shows a document before reconstruction, and FIG. 16B shows a document after reconstruction.
The page reconstruction unit 108 divides the page based on the break position in the break position table 204 and arranges it so as to fill in the margins.
FIG. 16A shows the delimiter positions on the page before reconstruction. The delimiter position is information that is detected and registered in step S207 and step S208 in FIG.
FIG. 16B shows an example in which the page reconstructing unit 108 fills the upper part of each separation position with the previous page to perform margin filling and reconstruct the document 201.
In each page, the page reconstruction unit 108 combines the divided data above the dividing position with the lower margin area of the previous page, and slides the divided data below the dividing position to the top of the page. If there is no portion to be packed in the previous page, the delimiter position is 0 (see step S207 in FIG. 12). If one or more completely blank pages are finally created as a result of filling the margins, the page reconstruction unit 108 deletes these pages.

<Summary>
According to the first embodiment, a document 201 created by a different type of application 101, or a document 201 created by the same application 101 but stored as a different document 201, can be a unit of application 101 or a unit of document 201. By performing the margin filling in accordance with the margin filling conditions, the specific document 201 is not changed, and printing can be performed with the margins filled under the designated conditions even between different documents 201 other than that.

[Second Embodiment]
Next, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
In the second embodiment, in addition to the conditions of the first embodiment, it is possible to set the margin to be filled only on the last page in the document 201 without changing the layout of the document 201. It is a different point.
In the second embodiment, only the setting conditions are different, and the system configuration and processing are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted.
In the second embodiment, the same components as those in the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

(Margin print setting screen)
FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of a margin print setting screen according to the second embodiment. 17 and 18 are displayed and set in the process corresponding to step S101 in FIG.
In the margin print setting screen 301a of FIG. 17, the difference from FIG. 3 is that the margin setting column 303a can be set to “fill only the last margin”, which is a setting for filling the margin only on the last page in the document 201. It is a point.

(Application margin setting screen)
FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating an example of an application margin setting screen according to the second embodiment.
The application margin setting screen 401a in FIG. 18 is different from that in FIG. 4 in the margin setting registration field 403a in the setting of “fill only the last margin”, which is a setting for filling the margin only on the last page of the document 201 in the application 101. It is a point that can be selected.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example in which only the trailing margin of the document according to the second embodiment is filled. FIG. 19A shows a state before the margin filling is executed, and FIG. 19B shows a state after the margin filling is executed.
In the example of FIG. 19, in document A (first page is page A ₁ , second page is page A ₂ ) and document B (page B), setting “fill only the last margin of the document” is set in document A. It is assumed that the document B is set to fill in the margins. Even though there is a sufficient margin at the bottom of the page A ₁ , the text of the page A ₂ is not filled in this margin, and the text of the page B is added to the page A ₂ at the end of the document 201. Packed. It should be noted that no margin filling is performed between pages of the document 201 set to “fill the trailing margin”. In other words, in the document 201 set to “fill the trailing margin”, no change is made except that the last page is blanked.

  In the example of FIG. 19, if the document B is “no margin setting”, the document B is not stuffed into the document A, so the state of FIG. Similarly, if the document B is set to “fill only the last margin”, the document B is not packed into the document A, and thus the state of FIG.

In order to make the original page easier to understand when the margins are filled, at the stage of the print data generation process in step S110, the page divided as shown in FIG. 6A or all the original pages are framed. You may make it surround with a line. Further, as shown in FIG. 6B, a dividing line may be displayed at the boundary of the original page.
Furthermore, here, the text condition is set to fill the previous page with a set number of lines, but not limited to this, settings such as processing images and image titles together, and settings such as not changing the layout of images You may go.

<< Group Discrimination Process (S105) >>
Next, a process corresponding to the group determination process in step S105 in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 20 is an example in which pages according to the second embodiment are grouped into processing units for performing margin processing. FIG. 20A shows a state before margin filling is performed, and FIG. 20B shows a state after margin filling is executed.
The group determination unit 105 determines a group of pages that need to be subjected to margin processing according to the margin setting set by the margin print setting unit 106.
Here, in the example of FIG. 20, there are four documents 201 of documents A, B, C, and D. Is the first page is page _{A 1} of document A, 2 page is a page _{A 2.} Similarly, a first page is page B ₁ of document B, 2 page is a page B _2, 3 page is page B _3. In addition, the first page of the document C is a page _{C 1,} 2 page is a page _{C 2.}
Only the document B is set to “fill only the last margin of the document”.
For this reason, the pages B ₁ and B ₂ are not blank-padded even though there is a sufficient blank at the bottom. Then, the page _{B 3} is a last document 201 has been filled the page _{C 1.}

In FIG. 20, if grouping is performed in units of documents 201, the groups are {A ₁ , A ₂ }, {B ₁ , B ₂ , B ₃ , C ₁ , C ₂ , D}. If grouping is performed, the groups are {A ₁ , A ₂ }, {B ₁ }, {B ₂ }, {B ₃ , C ₁ , C ₂ , D}.
The page analysis process in step S107 in FIG. 2 is performed for each group.

<Summary>
According to the second embodiment, in addition to the effects of the first embodiment, by setting only the last margin of the document 201, the layout of the document 201 that does not want to be changed is maintained, and the print resources are reduced. Can be achieved.

In the first embodiment and the second embodiment, an example is shown in which each process is performed by the print control apparatus 1 that is a PC in order to arrange print data. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and is not limited to this. The same processing may be performed by an image forming apparatus such as a printer.
Also, the print data created by the printer driver 102 does not have a format such as the type of PDL such as PostScript, pit map image data, and preview screen.

  In the present embodiment, the print control apparatus 1 is realized by a PC or the like. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and may be an image forming apparatus such as a multifunction peripheral having each function of the print control apparatus 1.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Print control apparatus 2 Printing apparatus 3 Input part 4 Display part 10 Printing system 100 Control part (CPU)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Application 102 Printer driver 103 Page data acquisition part 104 Identification information acquisition part 105 Group discrimination | determination part 106 Margin print setting part 107 Page analysis part (separation position detection part)
108 Page reconstruction part (margin filling part)
109 Print Data Generation Unit 110 Print Data Output Unit (Print Output Unit)
111 Margin layout information acquisition unit (separable position detection unit, margin detection unit)
200 Storage Unit 201 Document 202 Margin Print Setting Information 203 Separable Position Table 204 Separation Position Table 205 Margin Table

Claims (3)

A printing control apparatus that causes a printing apparatus to print a plurality of documents composed of a plurality of pages continuously,
A storage unit for storing setting information indicating permission or prohibition of margin filling set for each document or for each extension of the document;
A page restructuring unit that determines whether or not to perform blank padding for each page constituting the document based on the setting information, and performs blank padding on a margin of the last page of the immediately preceding document when the setting information is permitted ; ,
A print output unit that outputs a result of the margin filling function by the page reconstruction unit to the printing apparatus;
The page reconstruction unit
In the setting information , with respect to the document set to prohibit margin filling, or the document with the extension set to prohibit margin filling ,
The first page of the margins filling prohibited document, no margin justified margin of the last page of the immediately preceding document also setting information of the previous document is a margin justified permitted, and the margin of the last page of the margins filling prohibited document The printing control apparatus is characterized in that even if the setting information of the immediately following document indicates that margin filling is permitted, the margin is not padded on the first page of the immediately following document . Prepare multiple documents with multiple pages,
A storage unit that stores setting information indicating permission or prohibition of margin filling set for each document or for each extension of the document;
A computer for continuously printing the plurality of documents on a printing device;
Whether or not to perform margin padding for each page constituting the document is determined based on the setting information, and when the setting information is permitted, the margin of the last page of the immediately preceding document is padded with margins. Page reconstruction means for reconstructing data, and
Print output means for outputting a result of the margin filling function by the page reconstruction unit to the printing apparatus;
The page reconstruction means
For the document with the margin information prohibited, the setting information is the document set to prohibit margin filling or the document with the extension set to prohibit margin filling .
The first page of the margins filling prohibited document, no margin justified margin of the last page of the immediately preceding document also setting information of the previous document is a margin justified permitted, and the margin of the last page of the margins filling prohibited document A printing program characterized in that, even if the setting information of the immediately following document is marginalization permission, the page data that is not marginalized on the first page of the immediately following document is reconstructed page data. An image forming apparatus that causes a printing apparatus to print a plurality of documents composed of a plurality of pages continuously,
A storage unit for storing setting information indicating permission or prohibition of margin filling set for each document or for each extension of the document;
A page restructuring unit that determines whether or not to perform blank padding for each page constituting the document based on the setting information, and performs blank padding on a margin of the last page of the immediately preceding document when the setting information is permitted ; ,
A print output unit that outputs a result of the margin filling function by the page reconstruction unit to the printing apparatus;
The page reconstruction unit
In the setting information , with respect to the document set to prohibit margin filling, or the document with the extension set to prohibit margin filling ,
The first page of the margins filling prohibited document, no margin justified margin of the last page of the immediately preceding document also setting information of the previous document is a margin justified permitted, and the margin of the last page of the margins filling prohibited document The image forming apparatus is characterized in that even if the setting information of the immediately following document indicates that margin filling is permitted, the margin is not padded on the first page of the immediately following document .

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