KR20050077834A - Printer driver and auto arrangement method of printing data thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

A printer driver and a method of aligning print data thereof are disclosed. The printer driver determines whether the print data is classified as a line or page of print data by identifying a paper grasping part that grasps the specification of the print paper on which the print data is to be printed, and the type of application in which the print data is created or viewed. A data arranging unit for dividing the rows of print data to have a predetermined length in accordance with the specification of the printing paper grasped by the paper grasping unit, and aligning the starting position of each divided row to and from the data judging unit; And a control unit for controlling the print data to be aligned by operating the data alignment unit according to the user's selection when the print data is not divided into lines or pages according to the determination. As a result, the print data provided through the explorer or the navigator can be prevented from being cut, so that waste of the print paper generated when printing by placing the print sheet horizontally in order to prevent the print data from being cut in the past can be prevented. In addition, it is possible to prevent waste of time caused by conventionally copying and editing print data to a word processor.

Description

Printer driver and automatic print data alignment method {PRINTER DRIVER AND AUTO ARRANGEMENT METHOD OF PRINTING DATA THEREOF}

The present invention relates to a printer driver and a method for automatically arranging print data thereof, and more particularly, to automatically sorting rows of print data when printing a document created by an application program having no distinction between rows and pages. The present invention relates to a printer driver and a method of automatically arranging print data thereof, which can prevent waste of waste and facilitate user convenience.

In general, the printer is connected to a computer, receives the print data created or read by the application of the computer, converts it into a language for controlling the printer suitable for the set printing conditions, and prints the result on paper using colored dyes such as ink or toner. It is a device that outputs.

These printers are connected to a computer so that they can be interfaced with each other, and the input / output interface for the printer has been used in parallel with a census census interface with a 36-pin plug, but recently, a serial interface such as USB or fireware is used. .

On the other hand, a printer driver is installed in the computer so that the printer can interface with the printer for printing. The printer driver is referred to as a printer language (hereinafter referred to as a printer control language) that can interpret print data created by an application program on the computer. It converts to). The language for printer control is commands that a computer sends to a printer to indicate how to construct a document to be printed. These commands manage font size, graphics, compression of print data sent to the printer, and color. Commonly used languages for printer control include PostScript and PCL.

On the other hand, an application program installed on a computer and used for a specific task by a user is generally used for a user to create a document or a picture, or to collect information by accessing a network such as the Internet or a LAN. have. Representative applications include: Hanga Hangul, Microsoft Word, Word Processors such as Hunminjeongeum, Excel for accounting calculations, Photoshop for creating pictures, Notepad for creating HTML documents or viewing sources, and information on the Internet. There is an explorer, navigator, etc. to support the display.

The printer driver converts print data composed of documents or pictures created or viewed by such an application into a language for controlling the printer. The application program has a function of aligning the print data according to the specification and printing form of the printing paper. In some cases, there is no separate sorting function, and there is no distinction between pages or rows of print data, so that printing may be performed as shown on the monitor regardless of the size of the printing paper.

Application programs that align the print data include mainly word processors such as Haa Hangul, Microsoft Word, and Hunminjeongeum. The document is created. That is, in the word processor, print forms such as left and right, top and bottom margins, headers, and footers of printing paper are set in advance or can be set arbitrarily by the user, and the document is created not only in accordance with the printing paper and printing forms thus set. Printed as it is created.

On the other hand, applications such as Photoshop or Excel support the function of converting the size of the print data according to the size of the print paper. In general, in case of a table created in Photoshop or Excel, the size and contents of the table are different only. Therefore, when printing paper is selected in Photoshop or Excel, the size of the figure or table is automatically enlarged or reduced or the user It allows you to set.

On the other hand, as an application program which does not have a sorting function of print data, an Explorer and a navigator are mentioned. In general, Internet data viewed through Explorer or Navigator is often written in Notepad or Notepad, an application with no line or page separation. Therefore, if the original document author creates a document without considering the specifications of the paper, the length of the line may be long, and most Internet documents that can be viewed through the explorer or the navigator are the most commonly used printing papers. The length of the row is longer than the width of A4. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 1, when a document prepared without considering the standard of printing paper is printed while being browsed through an explorer or a navigator, as shown in FIG. The right side is cut off.

In order to solve this problem, users generally use the following two methods.

In the first method, when the length of a line of print data is long, printing is performed by setting the direction of the print paper horizontally. No matter how long most of the print data is, the print paper rarely exceeds the width of the print paper, so it is a good way to prevent the print data from being cut off. However, when printing with horizontal printing paper, fewer lines are printed on one page than when printing with vertical printing. Therefore, several sheets of printing paper are used than when printing with vertical printing. . Therefore, printing paper is not only wasted, but in general, it is inconvenient to see when printing horizontally.

In the second method, a copy is made to an application program that provides an alignment function of print data, such as a word processor, and then printed. However, when the print data browsed in the explorer or the navigator as shown in FIG. 1 is copied to a lower word, which is a word processor, a portion longer than the width of the print paper is moved down to the next row, or as shown in FIG. There is a phenomenon that is not visible on the screen at all. In the previous case, the longer part of the first row goes down to the second row, the original second row goes down to the third row, and the longer part of the second row goes down to the fourth row. That is, the number of lines of print data is doubled as the part of the cutout to be cut off when printing directly from the explorer or the navigator goes to the next line.

In both cases, the user must edit and sort the rows manually, pulling up the next row at the end of each row, splitting up the remaining parts into the next row, and so on, to better organize the print data. This method has the advantage that the print data can be aligned and printed in accordance with the standard of the printing paper, but there is a problem that the user has to spend a lot of time to align the print data.

In addition, since the right side of the print data is not known until the user prints, the user prints. Then, when the print data is cut off, the printing is performed again by applying one of the above methods, resulting in waste of printing paper and prolonging the printing time.

Accordingly, when printing a document created by an application that does not distinguish line and page of the document, such as Explorer or Navigator, the printing paper specification can be printed even if the paper is set horizontally or edited by another application. You will need to find a way to print in a form that is aligned to the.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to cut a part of print data by automatically aligning a line of a document in accordance with a standard of printing paper when printing a document created by an application program in which a line of a document and a page are not distinguished. It is to provide a printer driver and a method of automatically arranging print data thereof, which can prevent the waste of printing paper and prevent user's convenience.

The configuration of the present invention for achieving this object is a printer driver installed in a computer and supporting for printing print data created or read by an application program, the paper for grasping the specification of the print paper on which the print data is to be printed. Grasping unit; A data determination unit which determines a type of an application program in which the print data is created or viewed and determines whether a line or page of the print data is divided; A data arranging unit for dividing the rows of print data to have a predetermined length according to the specification of the printing paper grasped by the paper grasping unit, and aligning the starting position of each divided row, and judging from the data determination unit And a control unit for controlling the print data to be aligned by operating the data alignment unit according to a user's selection when the print data is not divided into rows or pages.

It is preferable that the paper catching unit grasps the size and margin of the print paper set in the application program in which the print data is created.

The data determination unit may determine whether the application program providing the print data is at least one of an explorer and a navigator.

The data aligning unit is configured to print the print data on the printing paper in consideration of at least one of information such as the size of the top and bottom and left and right margins, the position of the start point of the line, and the position of the end point of the line provided from the application program. It is desirable to determine the dividing length of.

When the indentation is set at the beginning of the paragraph of the print data, the data alignment unit preferably arranges the rows so that the indentation is not applied from the second row.

A print data alignment method using the printer driver to achieve the above object comprises the steps of: identifying a specification of a print paper on which the print data is to be printed; Determining whether a line or page of the print data is divided by identifying a type of an application program in which the print data is created or viewed; Dividing each row of the print data into a predetermined length according to a standard of the printing paper when the row of the print data or the page is not divided; and And aligning a start position of each row of the print data divided into a predetermined length.

The step of determining the standard of the print paper is preferably a step of determining the size and margin of the print paper set in the application program in which the print data is created or viewed.

The determining of the type of the application program may include determining whether the application program providing the print data is at least one of an explorer and a navigator.

The dividing each row of the print data into a predetermined length may include printing the print data in consideration of at least one of information such as the size of the top and bottom and left and right margins of the print paper, the position of the start point of the line, and the position of the end point of the line. Preferably, the dividing length of the row is calculated and divided so as to be printed on the printing paper.

In the step of aligning the start position of each line of the print data, when the indentation is set at the beginning of the paragraph of the print data, the second line may be arranged such that the indentation is not applied.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a system provided on the computer side for printing. In general, a computer is provided with a CPU 10, a ROM 16, a RAM 17, an interface 15, and the like in a main body, and a monitor 11 for displaying data input to and output from a computer and input / output of data. A mouse 13 or keyboard 12 for selecting is connected.

Here, the interface 15 connects the computer and the printer 20, transmits the converted data converted by the printer driver 30 to the printer 20, and displays the state of the printer 20 transmitted from the printer 20. It serves to provide to the CPU (10).

In the RAM 17, an application program for performing a specific task by a user, an operation program and a general control program for operating a computer, and various documents and image files created by the application program under the control of the CPU 10 are printed. The printer driver 30 for converting into a printer control language interpretable at 20 and controlling the operation state of the printer 20 is stored.

Common applications installed on the computer include: Hangul Hangul, Microsoft Word, Word Processors such as Hunminjeongeum, Excel for accounting calculations, Photoshop for creating pictures, Notes for creating HTML documents, or notes for viewing the source. There are pads, explorers, and navigators that let you view information on the World Wide Web.

The printer driver 30 provides a function to align the print data with the print paper, and for this purpose, as illustrated in FIG. 5, the data conversion unit 37, the memory 32, and the data determination unit ( 34), a paper catching part 33, a data sorting part 35, and a control part 31 are provided.

The data conversion unit 37 converts the print data into a command that is a language for printer control. In other words, the data conversion unit 37 converts printing data such as various document files and image files created through an application program of a computer into a printer control language such as PostScript and PLC that can be interpreted by the printer 20. The process of converting the printing data into the language for printer control is a process of generating a command by calling a GDI function supported by Windows.

The memory 32 temporarily stores data to be converted in the data conversion unit 37, or temporarily stores data to be or is to be aligned in the data alignment unit 35.

The data determination unit 34 determines the type of the application program in which the print data is written and determines whether the print data alignment function is present. In other words, the data determination unit 34 is an application in which print data is created, edited or viewed, and provides an application for arranging print data according to a print form or print paper size determined in advance or by a user's selection. Determine whether it is a program or an application that does not have a function to align print data.

In general, most applications such as word processors and Excel support the function of aligning print data to the size of the print paper. In contrast, Internet-enabled programs such as Explorer and Navigator do not support the ability to sort print data. In addition, when viewing the data by accessing the World Wide Web through an explorer or a navigator, the size of the data displayed on the monitor 11 is different depending on the size or resolution of the monitor 11. Not only whether the content is printed on the printing paper is not known, but in actual printing, a large part of the data is often printed in a state of being cut off.

Accordingly, the data determining unit 34 determines whether the application program in which the print data to be printed is created or provided is an explorer or a navigator, thereby controlling whether or not the print data needs to be aligned by operating the data aligning unit 35. 31).

The paper detection unit 33 grasps the standard of the printing paper to which the print data is to be printed, for example, a standard indicated by A4, A3, B4, B5, envelopes, or the like. Generally, depending on the application program, word processors such as Hanga Hangul, Hunminjeongeum, and Microsoft Word are set up to create A4 paper based on the document. That is, since the margins of the paper and the like are set so as to meet the A4 paper standard unless the paper is set to another paper by the user, the A4 paper is used as the basis for creating the document and printing. Accordingly, the paper detection unit 33 detects the paper standard that is initially set as a standard in the application program, grasps the paper standard to be printed, and updates the changed content when the paper standard is changed by the user. Determine the standard of printing paper to be used for printing. In addition, when print data is provided from the explorer or the navigator 33, the paper detecting unit 33 provides the positions of the start and end points of each line of the print data from the explorer or the navigator, the top and bottom, left and right margins of the print data set for printing, and the like. Get information. The control unit 31 temporarily stores information such as the size and margin of the printing paper grasped by the paper detecting unit 33 in the memory 32 temporarily.

On the other hand, if it is necessary to align the print data as a result of the determination by the data determination unit 34, the data alignment unit 35 is operated. The data aligning unit 35 includes information on the print data from the paper catching unit 33, for example, the position of the start point and the end point of each row of the print data, the top and bottom, left and right margins of the print data set for printing, and the like. Get information. The data aligning unit 35 calculates the length of each row through the collected print data, and compares the calculated length of each row with the specifications of the printing paper determined by the paper catching unit 33, thereby printing at the time of printing. Determine if each row of data does not have to be truncated. If it is determined that the row of print data may be cut off, the data alignment unit 35 divides the length of each row of print data into appropriate lengths in accordance with the standard of the printing paper. At this time, the data aligning unit 35 calculates the maximum length that each row of print data can be printed on the printing paper in consideration of the size and margin of the printing paper, and divides the length of each row according to the calculated length. Done.

When dividing the length of each row of print data in this way, the data alignment unit 35 divides the rows sequentially from the first row. That is, to include the snippet from the first line in the second line, divide the remaining slit including the snippet from the first line to the size of the printing paper, and then include the split snippet in the third line, and again Each row is aligned by dividing the third row according to the size of the printing paper. And while sorting each row, if a new paragraph is encountered, the rows are sorted again based on the first row of the paragraph. This is to prevent paragraphs from being merged due to the alignment from the data alignment unit 35.

On the other hand, the controller 31 determines whether to operate the data alignment unit 35 according to the type of application program provided by the data determination unit 34, and if it is necessary to operate the data alignment unit 35, the CPU It is informed to (10) that the print data needs to be aligned. Then, the CPU 10 notifies the user that alignment is necessary through the monitor 11, so that the user can select whether or not to align the print data. At this time, if the user selects the alignment of the print data, the control unit 31 operates the data alignment unit 35 to align the print data stored in the memory 32. In addition, when the alignment of the print data is completed, the control unit 31 provides the aligned print data to the data conversion unit 37 to convert the print data into a language for controlling the printer, and then to the spooler, and the spooler sequentially supplies the print data. To the printer 20 to be printed.

An arrangement process of print data using the printer driver 30 having such a configuration will be described below with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.

When a user creates a document or a picture using an application program or accesses the Internet using an explorer or a navigator and selects a print button to print data (S510, S520), the user selects a print button with the print data. Information is provided to the printer driver 30 (S530). Here, the predetermined information is somewhat different depending on the application program, but mainly includes information related to printing such as printing paper size and printing margin, and in the case of the explorer or the navigator, the position of the starting point of the line in the document included in the print data Information about the location of the endpoint is further included.

When the print information is provided together with the print data, the control unit 31 of the printer driver 30 temporarily stores the print data in the memory 32, operates the data determination unit 34, and the data determination unit 34. Identifies the application in which the print data was created or viewed. At this time, the data determination unit 34 is an application program that provides the print data is an application having a function of sorting the print data, such as a word processor, Excel, Photoshop, etc., or an application that does not have a print data sorting function such as an explorer or a navigator. Whether the program is classified or not is provided to the control unit 31 (S540).

When the type of application is determined, the control unit 31 operates the paper catching unit 33 to determine the size and printing margin of the print paper from the print information provided with the print data, and in the case of the Explorer or Navigator, To collect more information such as the end point and the starting point (S560).

On the other hand, in the control unit 31, as a result of the determination by the data determination unit 34, when the application program providing the print data is a word processor, Excel, Photoshop, etc., the print data is provided to the data conversion unit 37 to control the printer language. After conversion to (S620), it is provided to the spooler to be printed (S630, S640).

However, when the print data is provided in the explorer or the navigator (S550), the controller 31 provides the print data stored in the memory 32 to the data aligning unit 35 to align the print data (S570). The data aligning unit 35 first calculates the length of each row using the positions of the start and end points of the rows of the print information provided from the explorer or the navigator (S580). Then, the data alignment unit 35 compares the calculated length of each row with the size and margin of printing paper grasped from the paper catching unit 33 (S590), and the length of the comparison line is the width of the printing paper. If longer, the rows are divided according to the width of the printing paper (S600). At this time, the data sorting unit 35 may sort the first row of the document, or, if the length of some rows is long, may sort the first row of the longest row. In addition, when the paragraph is changed, the data sorting unit 35 starts sorting again based on the first line of the paragraph, thereby preventing the paragraphs from being merged and adjusting the second line to not be indented when the first line is indented. By aligning the starting point of the row (S610).

When the alignment is completed from the data alignment unit 35 in this way, the control unit 31 provides the completed print data to the data conversion unit 37 and converts it into a printer control language (S620). Then, the print data converted in the printer control language is provided to the spooler (S630), and the print data is provided to the printer 20 through the interface 15 to the spooler so that printing is performed (S640). Print data printed through such a process is shown in FIG. 7. 7 is a screen printed after aligning print data browsed to the explorer of FIG. 1 using the printer driver 30 of the present invention.

As described above, when the printer driver 30 prints print data created by an application having no distinction between rows or pages of data, such as an explorer or a navigator, a sentence included in the print data in accordance with the standard and margin of the print paper. Split each row in order and sort them.

Accordingly, even when the length of each row of print data provided through the explorer or the navigator does not meet the print paper standard, the print data can be prevented from being cut off during printing. By aligning the print data using the printer driver 30 as described above, it is possible to prevent waste of the print paper caused by printing by arranging the print paper horizontally in order to prevent the print data from being cut conventionally. In addition, it is possible to prevent the consumption of editing time caused by conventionally copying and editing the print data to a word processor.

As described above, in the detailed description of the present invention, specific embodiments have been described, but it should be taken as exemplary, and various modifications may be made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be defined not only by the claims below, but also by the equivalents of the claims.

As described above, according to the present invention, the print data can be prevented from being cut by aligning the print data provided through the explorer or the navigator according to the specification of the print paper. Accordingly, in order to prevent the printing data from being cut in the past, waste of the printing paper generated when printing by placing the printing paper horizontally can be prevented, and the printing data can be generated by copying and editing the printing data into a word processor. You can prevent wasting time.

1 is a screen showing a state in which a document is read in the explorer,

2 is a screen in a state in which the document of FIG. 1 is printed;

3 is a screen showing a state of copying the document of FIG.

4 is a configuration block diagram of a system provided on the computer side for a printing operation;

5 is a block diagram illustrating a printer driver according to the present invention;

6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of aligning print data in the printer driver of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a state in which documents browsed in the explorer of FIG. 1 are printed by being aligned with the printer driver of FIG. 5.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

30: printer driver 31: control unit

32: memory 33: paper detection unit

34: data determination unit 35: data alignment unit

37: data conversion unit

Claims (9)

A printer driver installed on a computer and supported for printing print data created or viewed by an application, A data determination unit that determines a type of an application program in which the print data is created or viewed; A paper grasping unit which grasps a specification of a printing sheet on which the print data is to be printed; A data alignment unit for dividing the rows of print data to have a predetermined length according to the specification of the print paper determined by the paper catching unit, and aligning the starting positions of the divided rows; And a control unit for controlling the print data to be aligned by operating the data aligning unit according to a user's selection when the print data is not divided into rows or pages according to the determination by the data determining unit. Printer driver. The method of claim 1, The data determination unit determines whether the application program providing the print data is at least one of an explorer and a navigator, And the paper detector further collects information about a start point and an end point of each line of the print data when the application program in which the print data is written is one of an explorer and a navigator. The method of claim 1, The data aligning unit is configured to print the print data on the printing paper in consideration of at least one of information such as the size of the top and bottom and left and right margins, the position of the start point of the line, and the position of the end point of the line provided from the application program. A printer driver, characterized in that for determining the length of division. The method of claim 1, And the data aligning unit aligns lines so that indentation is not applied from the second line when indentation is set at the beginning of the paragraph of the print data. In the print data sorting method of a printer driver that is installed on a computer and supports to print the print data created or viewed by an application program, Determining a type of an application in which the print data is created or viewed; Determining a standard of a print paper on which the print data is to be printed; Dividing each row of the print data into a predetermined length according to a standard of the printing paper when the row of the print data or the page is not divided; and And aligning a start position of each row of the print data divided into predetermined lengths. The method of claim 5, The determining of the type of the application program may include determining whether the application program providing the print data is at least one of an explorer and a navigator. The method of claim 5, The step of determining the specification of the printing paper, when the application program in which the print data is written is one of the explorer and the navigator, the step of collecting information on the starting point and the end point of each row of the print data further comprising: How to sort print data in the printer driver. The method of claim 5, The dividing each row of the print data into a predetermined length may include printing the print data in consideration of at least one of information such as the size of the top and bottom and left and right margins of the print paper, the position of the start point of the line, and the position of the end point of the line. And calculating and dividing the dividing length of the rows so as to print all of the printing paper. The method of claim 5, The step of aligning the start position of each line of the print data, if the indentation is set at the beginning of the paragraph of the print data, the line is arranged so that the indentation is not applied to the second line. How to sort print data.