JP2000099286A - System comprising host computer and printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To recognize the current state of a printer device which is connected without installing a new printer driver in a host computer. SOLUTION: The host computer 1 and printer device 2 are connected in a bilaterally communicable state. The host computer 1 is equipped with a means which inquires the state of the printer device 2, which is equipped with a means 22 sending out information regarding the current state of the printer device to the host computer in response to the inquiry from the host computer 1. The information includes usable font information and machine constitution information and a PPD(postscript printer description) file is recommended.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a host computer and a printer for printing out data created or obtained by the host computer, and more particularly to a host computer and a printer capable of two-way communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Personal computers (hereinafter, abbreviated as "PCs") have been developed due to the low price, the OS has been developed in a policy oriented to the public, and the expansion of communication media.
It is widely used not only in offices but also in households. For this personal computer, the printer device is very important as an output device after the display. Therefore, the printer is generally used as a system in which a printer is connected to a personal computer as a host computer.

Here, the personal computer communicates with the printer using a printer driver (printer control program) provided for each printer. But,
Although this printer driver stores the configuration of the printer device at the time of sale, there was no way to recognize changes made to the printer device after purchase.

[0004] For example, a printer device disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-34656 discloses a PPD (PostS
It has been proposed that printer information by a cript printer description (cript printer description) file can be taken into a host computer. That is, a PPD file is stored in a printer in advance, and when the printer driver is installed in a host computer, the PPD file is read from the printer and used.

However, when an optional device is mounted on the printer device later or a new font is downloaded, such information cannot be reflected.

[0006]

As described above, depending on the conventional host computer and printer, new fonts may be installed in the printer after purchase,
Even when an optional device is attached, the host computer cannot recognize the change, and cannot perform printing utilizing the change.

Furthermore, a host computer that cannot communicate bidirectionally with the printer has no means of knowing the status of the printer, and cannot respond to changes in the printer other than re-installing the printer driver.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and in a system including a host computer such as a personal computer and a printer, the host computer recognizes a change in the printer connected thereto without installing a new printer driver. The purpose is to make it available for printing.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention comprises means for connecting a host computer and a printer so as to enable two-way communication and inquiring the host computer about the status of the printer. In response to an inquiry from the host computer,
The apparatus is provided with means for transmitting information on the state of the printer at that time to the host computer.

It is desirable that the information on the status of the printer device include usable font information and machine configuration information. The information on the status of the printer device may be a PPD (PostScript PrinterDescription) file.

Further, it is preferable that the host computer is provided with a means for generating print data reflecting the information when the information regarding the state of the printer at that time is received from the printer. Further, when the host computer receives the information on the status of the printer device from the printer device by the PPD file, the host computer generates a PPD file for use in a printer driver of another operation system (OS). Can be provided.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a connection relationship between a host computer and a printer according to the present invention. The personal computer 1 as a host computer and the printer device 2 are connected by a bidirectional communication path 3 and can communicate with each other.

The personal computer 1 is a personal computer controlled by an OS supporting bidirectional communication with a printer such as a Macintosh.
Components required for configuring a known personal computer such as an M, a ROM, and an HDD are provided.

The printer device 2 is a printer device capable of transmitting and receiving data to and from the personal computer 1 via the bidirectional communication path 3. Other components necessary for constituting a known printer device such as a printer engine are included. Have. Further, the printer control circuit in the printer device 2 has a function of monitoring its own font information, machine configuration information, and the like, and creating a PPD file according to the information. The bidirectional communication path 3 is a bidirectional communication path such as AppleTalk, and connects the personal computer 1 and the printer device 2.

Next, FIG. 1 shows a functional configuration of the personal computer 1 and the printer device 2 in this embodiment. PC 1
Has a printer driver 11 including a PostScript creating unit, a PPD creating unit 12, a user I / F 13 and a printer I / F 14. A display 15 and a keyboard 16 are connected to the user I / F 13.

The postscript creating means of the printer driver 11 includes an inquiry means 1 for the printer device 2.
1a and the print data creating means 11b. The printing apparatus 2 includes a printing unit 21 including a printer engine and a sequence control circuit thereof, and the like.
The host I / F 23 is provided with a postscript transmission unit that transmits the state of the machine and the type of the downloaded font as a PPD file. The functions of these units are realized by a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, and the like of each unit, and the respective components are publicly known.

Hereinafter, the PPD update processing by the printer driver 11 of the personal computer 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. After changing the configuration of the printer device, the user performs a PPD update process of the printer driver. This may be performed automatically at fixed time intervals, or may be performed before printing.

At the time of updating the PPD, the process of the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 is started, and in step 1, the operator determines whether or not to use the existing PPD file prepared by the printer maker. This is because the existing PPD file may have specifications that are not in the PostScript language, and if such specifications exist, the specifications are not considered from the communication content with the printer device 2. Cannot be reproduced.

If an existing PPD file is to be used, the selection of an existing PPD is specified in step 2, and the process proceeds to step 3; otherwise, the process proceeds to step 3. At this time, the personal computer 1 selects an existing PPD file and checks whether a specification that is not in the PostScript language is described. If so, save the special specification. This is added after the PPD is created in step 5.

Next, in step 3, PostScript data for communicating with the printer device 2 is created using the inquiry means 11a in FIG. More specifically, for example, when checking whether or not the printer device 2 has a duplex function, the following PostScript data is created and the printer device 2 is created.
Send to

%! (Duplex Support:) print currentpagedevice / Duplex known {(Yes \ n)} {(No \ n)} ifelse print flush

Next, in step 4, the PostScript data created in step 3 is transmitted to the printer device 2. The printer according to the present invention responds to this inquiry by Po
Returns the appropriate answer in stScript data.

In the case of the above example, if the printer device 2 has a duplex function, Duplex Support: Yes, and if it does not have a duplex function, data of Duplex Support: No is sent from the printer device 2 to the personal computer 1.

In step 5, a new PPD file is created from the data received from the printer device 2 in step 4 and the special specification section stored in step 2.
In S6, using the newly created PPD file,
Test data is created for each function to check whether printing can be performed normally. This test data is also PostSc
It is described in ript, and is the print data creation unit 11 of FIG.
b.

This test data is an output that can easily determine whether the function is working properly. If the data is for the above-described double-sided function, printing is attempted as shown in FIG. FIG. 4A shows the case of double-sided short side binding, and FIG.
Is an example of test data indicating the front and back binding positions in the case of double-sided long side binding.

In step 6, the test data is sent to the printer device 2 for test printing. In step 7, the result is determined. If the result is normal, the process proceeds to step 9, and if necessary, other data such as Windows is used. Create a model PPD file. Details of creation of the PPD file for other models will be described later.

If the test result is not normal, the PPD is corrected in step 8. In this case, the abnormal portion may be set to the same setting as the PPD file up to the present, or an appropriate change may be made with reference to the new PPD file.
In addition, when the user makes a new change in the printer device 2,
Since there is a possibility that appropriate processing may not be performed, the user may be informed of necessary processing expected from an abnormal part.

Then, after correcting the abnormality, the process proceeds to step 6 again, and the test data is sent to the printer device 2 for test printing. By this PPD file update process, printing corresponding to the change of the printer device can be performed only by a simple test process without the user having to install a new printer driver in the host computer.

Next, the creation of a PPD file for a printer driver dedicated to another OS will be described. A personal computer controlled by an operation system (OS) that cannot perform bidirectional communication with the printer device cannot receive the PPD file from the printer device, and cannot perform the PPD file update process according to the present invention.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
If the personal computer 1A controlled by the OS having the A and the personal computer 1B controlled by the OS having only the one-way communication path 3B share the same printer device 2, the personal computer 1A
If the PPD file obtained by A is used, the PPD file of the personal computer 1B can be updated.

The personal computer 1A according to the present invention creates a PPD file for the personal computer 1B by deleting the OS-dependent part of the PPD file in the PPD file transfer process. The PPD file transfer process preferably stores the specifications of the PPD file in another OS that cannot perform two-way communication. In this case, not only the OS-dependent part can be deleted but also replaced with a description corresponding to the destination OS.

With this operation, the OS that cannot perform two-way communication
Can perform a PPD file update process, and can perform printing corresponding to a change in the printer device 2 only by a simple moving process and a test process without installing a new printer driver. .

[0033]

According to the present invention, it is possible to perform printing corresponding to the change of the printer device only by a simple test process without a user having to install a new printer driver in the host computer.

Further, even in a personal computer controlled by an OS that cannot perform two-way communication, a PPD file update process can be performed, and a printer device can be simply subjected to a simple moving process and a test process without installing a new printer driver. Can be printed in response to the change of

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of a personal computer and a printer shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing a connection relationship between a personal computer, which is a host computer, and a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a PPD by the host computer shown in FIG.
It is a flowchart which shows a file update process.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print result by test printing performed in step 6 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram showing a connection relationship between two personal computers and a printer according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Personal computer (host computer) 1A: Personal computer controlled by OS having bidirectional communication path 1B: Personal computer controlled by OS having only one-way communication path 2: Printer 3, 3A: Bidirectional communication path 3B: One-way communication path 11: Printer driver 11a: Inquiry means 11b: Print data creation means 12: PPD creation means 13: User I / F 14: Printer I / F 15: Display 16: Keyboard 21: Printing means 22: Postscript transmission Means 23: Host I / F

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A host computer and a printer device are connected so as to be capable of two-way communication.
A host computer comprising: means for inquiring about the status of the printer device; and means for sending, to the printer device, information on the status of the printer device at that time in response to an inquiry from the host computer. And a printer device. 2. The system comprising a host computer and a printer according to claim 1, wherein the information on the status of the printer includes usable font information and machine configuration information. 3. The system comprising a host computer and a printer according to claim 1, wherein the information on the status of the printer is a PostScript Printer Description (PPD) file. 4. The printer according to claim 1, wherein said host computer is provided with means for generating print data reflecting said information when receiving information on the status of said printer device from said printer device. A system comprising the host computer and a printer device according to any one of the preceding claims. 5. A system comprising a host computer and a printer according to claim 3, wherein the host computer sends a PP to the host computer.
Upon receiving the information about the status of the printer device by the D file, the PPD for using the information for the printer driver of another operation system (OS) other than itself.
A system comprising a host computer and a printer, comprising a means for creating a file.