Patent Publication Number: US-2005144559-A1

Title: Method and system to selectively print a file

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
      This application claims the priority of Korean Patent Application No. 2003-97804, filed on Dec. 26, 2003, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety and by reference.  
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of the Invention  
      The present general inventive concept relates to a method and system to selectively print a file after editing a specific region of the file, and more particularly, to a method and system to selectively print a file, which transmits a file from a terminal to a printer, displays and edits the file by pages, and prints the edited files.  
      2. Description of the Related Art  
       FIG. 1  shows a flowchart illustrating a conventional method of selectively printing a specific region of a file.  
      As shown in the flowchart of  FIG. 1 , the conventional method comprises an application program loading step S 100 , a file opening step S 101 , an editing step S 102 , a print instruction performing step S 103 , and a printing step S 104 .  
      In the application program loading step S 100 , a user loads an application program such as a word processor to print a specific region of a file by editing the file.  
      In the file opening step S 101 , the user opens the file to edit the file in the application program.  
      In the editing step S 102 , the user edits the opened file. For example, the user deletes an unnecessary region or selects a desire region to print only the desire region of the opened file.  
      In the print instruction performing step S 103 , the user designates a printer server, sets an option such as the number of copies and the like, and presses a printing button to print the edited file.  
      In the printing step S 104 , the edited file is transmitted to the printer, and the printer converts the edited file into printable data and prints the edited file on a printing paper by driving a laser diode using an on/off method.  
      In the above-described conventional art, the user can print out the file by pages. That is, the user can designate a desired page to be printed. When the user focuses on only a specific region of a page, the user edits the specific region of the page and prints the specific region. However, this process is a troublesome for the user, and deteriorates the work efficiency.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      The present general inventive concept provides a method and system, which transmits a file from a terminal to a printer, displays and edits the file by pages, and prints the edited files.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept can be achieved by providing a printing system of selectively printing a file, comprising: a storage to store an input file, page information extracted from the input file, and a file edited by pages; an operating panel equipment to display the page information by pages to allow the input file stored in the storage to be selectively edited and editing the input file by pages; a control unit to store the input file, the page information and the edited file in the storage and perform control commands inputted through the operating panel equipment; and a printer to convert the edited file into printable data and printing the printable data.  
      Additional aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the general inventive concept.  
      The storage may be one of a hard disk drive and a RAM disk drive.  
      The operating panel equipment may comprise a touch screen liquid crystal display.  
      The foregoing and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept may also be achieved by providing a method of selectively printing a file, comprising: extracting page information from an input file loaded and storing the extracting page information; selecting a specific region to be printed after displaying the page information and a page selected in accordance with the page information; and printing the selected specific region after converting the selected specific region into printable data.  
      The method may further comprise displaying the specific region when there is a user&#39;s request.  
      The page information may comprise a page number, the number of lines per page, and the number of words per page. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      These and/or other aspects and advantages of the present general inventive concept will become apparent and more readily appreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings of which:  
       FIG. 1  is a flowchart illustrating a conventional method for selectively printing a specific region of a file;  
       FIG. 2  is a block diagram illustrating a printing system to selectively print a specific region of a file according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 3  is a flowchart illustrating a method of selectively printing a specific region of a file according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept;  
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating operation S 300  of  FIG. 3  in more detail;  
       FIGS. 5 and 6  are flowcharts illustrating operation S 301  of  FIG. 3  in more detail; and  
       FIG. 7  is a view of an LCD of an operating panel equipment according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      Reference will now be made in detail to the embodiments of the present general inventive concept, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. The embodiments are described below in order to explain the present general inventive concept by referring to the figures.  
       FIG. 2  shows a printing system to selectively print a specific region of a file according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept.  
      Referring to  FIG. 2 , a printing system  260  of this embodiment comprises a control unit  200 , a storage  210 , an operating panel equipment  220 , a video data generating unit  230 , a printer engine  240 , and an input/output (I/O) interface  250 .  
      The control unit  200  stores an input file transmitted from a computer, page information on each page of the input file, and a file edited by the user based on the page information in the storage  210 . The control unit  200  also performs a variety of control commands such as a printing command, an undo command, an editing mode command, and the like that will be inputted through the operating panel equipment by the user.  
      The storage  210  stores the input file, the page information extracted from the input file, and the file edited by pages in the operating panel equipment  220 . The storage  210  may be a hard disk drive or a RAM disk drive. In addition, the storage  210  comprises a first region storing the input file transmitted from the computer, a second region storing the page information extracted by scanning the input file by pages, and a third region storing the edited file.  
      The operating panel equipment  220  displays the page information and contents of the input file by pages so that the user can edit the input file stored in the storage  210 , thereby making it possible to print a specific region of the displayed page, which designated by the user, or to continuously print a plurality of specific regions of the displayed page, which is also designated by the user. The operating panel equipment  220  may employ a touch screen liquid crystal display (LCD) as a display unit.  
      The video data generating unit  230  receives the file from the control unit  200  and converts the file into printable data. The printable data is transmitted to the printer engine  240 .  
      The printer engine  240  operates a laser scanning unit (not shown) therein using an on/off method to transfer the printable data to a photoconductive drum (not shown) and to print an image on a printing paper through developing and fixing processes.  
      The I/O interface  250  interfaces the printing system  260  of the embodiment of  FIG. 2  with an external device such as the computer.  
       FIG. 3  shows a flow chart illustrating a method of selectively printing a specific region of a file according to an embodiment of the present general inventive concept, comprising a page information extracting/storing operation S 300 , a file editing operation S 301 , and a printing operation S 302 .  
      Referring to  FIG. 3 , in the page information extracting/storing operation S 300 , a file edited in an application program of the computer is received, page information is extracted by scanning the edited file by pages, and the page information is stored. Here, the page information means information on each page of the file transmitted from the computer. The information may include a page number, the number of lines of each page, the number of words of each line, the number of words of each page, and the like.  
      In the file editing operation S 301 , a page selected by the user is displayed in accordance with the page information extracted in the page information extracting/storing operation S 300 , a specific region to be printed is set, and an edited file is made by designating the specific region.  
      In the printing operation S 302 , the file to be printed is received from the control unit  200 , converted into the printable data, and printed on a printing paper through developing and fixing processes by operating the laser scanning unit in the printer engine  240  using an on/off method and transferring the printable data to the photoconductive drum.  
       FIG. 4  shows a flow chart illustrating operation S 300  of  FIG. 3  in more detail. In  FIG. 4 , operation S 300  comprises a file loading operation S 401  and a page information extracting/storing operation S 402 .  
      In the filing loading operation S 401 , the input file transmitted from the computer is loaded in a first predetermined region (the first region) of the storage  200 .  
      In the page information extracting/storing operation S 402 , the input file loaded in the first predetermined region is read to extract the page information, and then the extracted page information is stored in a second predetermined region (the second region) of the storage  210 .  
       FIGS. 5 and 6  show a flow chart illustrating operation S 300  of  FIG. 3  in more detail.  
      Referring to  FIGS. 5 and 6 , in operation S 500 , when a user selects an editing mode, the file information on the input file stored in the first predetermined region (the first region) of the storage  210  is displayed. That is, the first predetermined region is divided into a file information storing region and a file contents storing region. Here, the file information may include a file name, a user name, a file size, and the like. That is, the user can read only the file information among a variety of information contained in the storage and quickly identify the file.  
      The file information is displayed on the touch screen LCD  221  (see  FIG. 7 ) of the operating panel equipment  220 . The user selectively touches a specific file to be edited to enter into the editing mode.  
      In operation S 501 , the user selects the specific file to be edited from the file information displayed on the touch screen LCD  221  of the operating panel equipment  220 .  
      In operation S 502 , when the user selects the specific file, the page information on the selected file is displayed on the touch screen LCD  221  of the operating panel equipment  220  by pages.  
      In operation S 503 , the control unit  200  determines if the user selects a specific page based on the displayed page information. When the user does not select the specific page, the process returns to operation S 502 .  
      In operation S 504 , when the user selects the specific page, the contents of the specific page are displayed on a right section of the touch screen LCD  221  of the operating panel equipment  220 .  
      In operation S 505 , the control unit  200  determines if the user designates a specific region of the specific page displayed on the right section of the touch screen LCD of the operating panel equipment  220 . When the user does not designate the specific region, the process returns to operation S 504 .  
      In operation S 506 , the specific region designated by the user is stored in a third predetermined region (the third region) of the storage  210 .  
      In operation S 507 , it is determined whether the user intends to print the specific region. When the user presses the printing button to print the specific region, the specific region is converted into the printable data in operation S 302  and is printed on the printing paper. If required by the user, the specific region may be displayed on the operating panel equipment before printing.  
      When the user intends to further print a specific region of another page, operation S 509  is performed.  
      In operation S 509 , it is determined whether the user intends to further print a specific region of another page. When it is determined that the user intends to further print the specific region of another page, the process returns to operation S 503  to perform operations S 503 , S 504 , S 505 , and S 506 .  
      In operation S 510 , the controller  200  generates an edited filed formed by connecting the specific regions of the specific pages selected by the user based on location information on the specific regions designated by the user and stores the edited file in the storage.  
      In operation S 511 , the controller  200  determines whether the user intends to print.  
      When it is determined that the user intends to print, the process returns to operation S 302  to print the edited file. However, when it is determined that the user intends not to print the edited file, the process is ended.  
       FIG. 7  shows the touch screen LCD  221  of the operating panel equipment  220  of the present invention. The touch screen LCD  221  comprises a button section  600 , a page information display section  610 , a print button section  630 , an undo button section  640 , and a page contents display section  622  to display the contents of the page selected by the user.  
       FIG. 7  shows an example image displaying an editing mode  600  selected by the user, page information  610  displayed when the file to be edited is selected, and contents  620  of the specific page selected by the user.  
      The reference numerals  621  and  622  indicate specific regions designated by the user. The specific regions are represented by, for example, an inversed block.  
      The present general inventive concept can be realized as a method, an apparatus, and a system. When the present general inventive concept is manifested in computer software, components of the present general inventive concept may be replaced with code segments that are necessary to perform the required action. Programs or code segments may be stored in media readable by a processor, and transmitted as computer data that is combined with carrier waves via a transmission media or a communication network.  
      The media readable by a processor include anything that can store and transmit information, such as, electronic circuits, semiconductor memory devices, ROM, flash memory, EEPROM, floppy discs, optical discs, hard discs, optical fiber, radio frequency (RF) networks, etc. The computer data also includes any data that can be transmitted via an electric network channel, optical fiber, air, electro-magnetic field, RF network, etc.  
      Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents.