Patent Publication Number: US-2007097417-A1

Title: Print control process device

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
      This invention relates to a print control process device; in particular, it relates to a print control process device that enables a desired printing by selecting any of a plurality of printers.  
     BACKGROUND INFORMATION  
      In recent years, with the spread of network devices, multiple personal computers (hereinafter abbreviated as PC) and printers are connected over a network. When a user prints the desired information using any PC, the user specifies a predetermined printer to carry out the printing, taking into account whether the document is a monochrome document or a color document, which printer is free, and the like.  
      Print instruction devices are known in prior art, which allow print setting to be carried out easily according to the nature of the information source.  
      When an application screen is launched on a PC screen, a symbol for the printer is displayed on the toolbar to simplify the setting for printing with the printer, which is set up in such a way that the data of the application currently open on the PC is printed immediately when this display is clicked with a mouse. However, the printer displayed on the toolbar is set up in such a way that the printer model and the number of copies are set beforehand, and only one printer can be set.  
      However, printers with different applications such as color printers and high speed printers are connected on the network in addition to monochrome printers, and for instance, while monochrome printing is immediately possible if printing with a monochrome printer has been set and the toolbar is clicked, there is a complication when attempting to print with a color printer, as a print setting screen must be called and a keyboard and a mouse be operated to redo the printer setting, each time.  
      In addition, for instance, if the printer that is to print cannot print due to a difference in the size of the paper, it is difficult for the user to know this fact, giving rise to inconveniences such as having to call the print setting screen again to redo the setting.  
      Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a print control process device that enables printing by selecting from a plurality of printers with a simple operation.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      This invention is a print control process device for enabling printing by selecting from at least two kinds of printing means, comprising a display means and a control means having built therein driving programs corresponding to each of the at least two kinds of printing means, for displaying on a display screen of the display means identification labels that specify each of the at least two kinds of printing means, and in response to one of the identification labels having been designated, controling the corresponding printing means with the corresponding driving program.  
      Preferably, the control means verifies whether printing by the at least two kinds of printing means is possible, and displays only the identification label corresponding to the printing means that has been verified to be able to print. A more specific example is to display a print icon on the toolbar of the display screen of the display means as an identification label.  
      Preferably, the at least two kinds of printing means include printing means enabling color printing and monochrome printing, or printing means with different printing speeds.  
      In this invention, identification labels for specifying each of at least two kinds of printing means are displayed on the display screen, and in response to one of the identification labels having been designated, the corresponding printing means is controlled with the corresponding driving program; thus, printing of the desired data is possible by selecting any printing means with a simple operation, for instance, when carrying out monochrome printing, color printing and the like. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a print control process device according to one embodiment of this invention.  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a PC shown in  FIG. 1 .  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart to explain the working of one embodiment of this invention.  
       FIG. 4  is a view showing a display screen of a display unit shown in  FIG. 2 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       FIG. 1  is a block diagram of a print control process device according to one embodiment of this invention, and  FIG. 2  is a block diagram of a PC shown in  FIG. 1 . In  FIG. 1 , for instance, two PCs  2  and  3 , and two printers  4  and  5  as printing means, are connected to a LAN (Local Area Network)  1 . It is assumed, for instance, that either one of the printers  4  and  5  is a monochrome printer and the other is a color printer. As shown in  FIG. 2 , the PC  2  contains a keyboard  22 , a mouse  23 , a hard disk  24 , a display unit  25  and a LAN communication unit  26 , connected to a control unit  21  as a control means.  
      Data entered via the keyboard  22 , or data entered via the LAN communication unit  26 , is memorized on hard disk  24  as necessary. Driving programs (drivers) for driving each of the two printers  4  and  5  are built into the control unit  21 . As shown in  FIG. 3 , a toolbar  30  is displayed on the display screen of the display unit  25 , and an icon  31  corresponding to printer  4  and an icon  32  corresponding to printer  5  are displayed as identification labels on this toolbar  30 . The model of the printers  4  and  5 , the number of copies, the size of the printing sheet, and the like are pre-set, with correspondence to each of the icons  31  and  32 . Note that the icons  31  and  32  may also be displayed on the desktop screen of the display unit  25 , and instead of displaying it on the toolbar  30 .  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart to explain the working of one embodiment of this invention, and  FIG. 4  is a view showing a display screen of a display unit shown in  FIG. 2 .  
      First, when an electric power source is supplied, the control unit  21  of the PC  2  verifies in step (abbreviated as SP in the figure) SP 1  that the printers  4  and  5  are connected via the LAN  1 . The user operates the keyboard  22  and the mouse  23  to launch an application such as, for instance, Word, to display data on the screen of the display unit  25 .  
      The control unit  21  verifies in step SP 2  that an application is running, and verifies in step SP 3  whether the data in the application is printable on the printers  4  and  5 . If printable, in step SP 4 , icons  31  and  32  corresponding to each of the printers  4  and  5  are displayed on the toolbar  30  of the display unit  25  shown in  FIG. 4 . If printing is not possible for one of the printers  4  and  5 , due to, for instance, being out of printing paper or the like, one of the corresponding icons  31  and  32  is not displayed.  
      The user operates the mouse  23  to click either of the icons  31  and  32 , depending on whether it is monochrome printing or color printing. When the control unit  21  has verified that that one of the icons  31  and  32  has been clicked, it supplies the data to the corresponding printer through the LAN  1  and prints, in step SP 6 .  
      Consequently, in this embodiment, since the icons  31  and  32  corresponding to the two printers  4  and  5  are displayed on the toolbar  30  of the display screen, for instance when an application is launched, the user looks at the display and can select any printer to print the data, printing in monochrome or printing in color.  
      In addition, since the corresponding icon is not displayed for a printer that cannot print, the availability of each printer can be verified easily.  
      Note that, in addition to a monochrome printer and a color printer as printers  4  and  5 , the scope of the application can be widened, such as to a high-speed printer and a low-speed printer, and a printer set to print all the pages of a file displayed on the display unit  25  and a printer set to print the cover only.  
      In addition, although two icons  31  and  32  are displayed on the toolbar  30  in the above embodiment, the number thereof can be increased according to the number of printers.  
      In the foregoing, an embodiment of this invention was described with reference to figures; however, this invention is not limited to the illustrated embodiment. Various modifications and variations can be applied to the illustrated embodiment within the same scope as, or an equivalent scope to, this invention.