Information processing apparatus having a capability of halting a printing process for off-line processing, and method and program for controlling printing process including halting the printing process for off-ling processing

• US 20040093596A1
• Filed: 10/24/2003
• Published: 05/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Koyano, Hiroki
• Granted Patent: US 7,528,969 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/171
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1207 resulting in the user being informed about print result after a job submission
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1208 resulting in improved quality of the output result, e.g. print layout, colours, workflows, print preview
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1229 Printer resources management or printer maintenance, e.g. device status, power levels
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1259 Print job monitoring, e.g. job status
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1284 Local printer device

Abstract

A printing process is preset for each page of a print job such that the printing process is halted when a page needs off-line processing, and the printing process is resumed in response to an operation to resume the printing process. After the print job is started, a CPU determines for each page whether off-line processing is specified to be performed. If the current page is specified to be subjected to off-line processing, the printing process is halted. If an operation to resume the print processing is detected, the printing process is resumed. Thus, after the print job is started, a user can make a confirmation in terms of the printing state of the printer before printing for the particular page is started.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus that processes document data including a plurality of pages as one print job and transfers the print job to a printer, comprising:

setting means for setting whether to halt the printing process of the printer, for each page of the print job;

command generation means for generating an off-line command for each page at which to halt the printing process of the printer after starting the print job, in accordance with the setting made by the setting means;

determination means for, when the off-line processing is set to be performed at the current page, determining whether an operation for resuming the printing process has been performed on the printer; and

resuming means for resuming the printing process of the printer for the document data including the pages at which the off-line processing is set to be performed, in accordance with the result of the determination made by the determination means.

2. An information processing apparatus that processes document data including a plurality of pages as one print job and outputs the print job to a printer to print the print job, comprising:

setting means for setting whether to halt the printing process of the printer, for each page of the print job;

command generation means for generating an off-line command for each page at which to halt the printing process of the printer, in accordance with the setting made by the setting means;

job generation means for generating the print job on the basis of the document data such that the off-line command generated by the command generation means is inserted in each specified page; and

job output means for outputting the print job, including the off-line command generated by the job generation means and inserted in each specified page, to the printer to print the print job.

3. An information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the document data includes page print data and a composite form including form information assigned to each page.

4. An information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the setting means is capable of making setting so as to halt the printing process of the printer to perform off-line processing for the print job as a whole.

5. An information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the setting means is capable of making setting for each page such that the setting in terms of offline processing accords with setting made for the print job as a whole.

6. An information processing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising storage means for storing, in a specific file, data associated with the setting in terms of off-line processing made by the setting means for each page,

wherein in response to a print command, the command generation means generates the off-line command in accordance with the data stored in the specific file by the storage means.

7. A printing process control method of, in an information processing apparatus, processing document data including a plurality of pages as one print job and transferring the print job to a printer, comprising the steps of:

setting whether to halt the printing process of the printer, for each page of the print job;

generating an off-line command for each page at which to halt the printing process of the printer after starting the print job, in accordance with the setting made in the setting step;

when the off-line processing is set to be performed at the current page, determining whether an operation for resuming the printing process has been performed on the printer; and

resuming the printing process of the printer for the document data including the pages at which the off-line processing is set to be performed, in accordance with the result of the determination made in the determination step.

8. A printing process control method of, in an information processing apparatus, processing document data including a plurality of pages as one print job and outputting the print job to a printer to print the print job, comprising the steps of:

setting whether to halt the printing process of the printer, for each page of the print job;

generating an off-line command for each page at which to halt the printing process of the printer, in accordance with the setting made in the setting step;

generating the print job on the basis of the document data such that the off-line command generated in the command generation step is inserted in each specified page; and

outputting the print job, including the off-line command generated in the job generation step and inserted in each specified page, to the printer to print the print job.

9. A printing process control method according to claim 8, wherein the document data includes page print data and a composite form including form information assigned to each page.

10. A printing process control method according to claim 8, wherein in the setting step, setting can be made so as to halt the printing process of the printer to perform off-line processing for the print job as a whole.

11. A printing process control method according to claim 10, wherein in the setting step, setting can be made for each page such that the setting in terms of off-line processing accords with setting made for the print job as a whole.

12. A printing process control method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of storing, in a specific file, data associated with the setting in terms of off-line processing made in the setting step for each page,

wherein in the command generation step, in response to a print command, the off-line command is generated in accordance with the data stored in the specific file in the storage step.

13. A printing process control program executed in an information processing apparatus to process document data including a plurality of pages as one print job and transfer the print job to a printer, comprising the steps of:

setting whether to halt the printing process of the printer, for each page of the print job;

generating an off-line command for each page at which to halt the printing process of the printer after starting the print job, in accordance with the setting made in the setting step;

when the off-line processing is set to be performed at the current page, determining whether an operation for resuming the printing process has been performed on the printer; and

resuming the printing process of the printer for the document data including the pages at which the off-line processing is set to be performed, in accordance with the result of the determination made in the determination step.

14. A printing process control program executed in an information processing apparatus to process document data including a plurality of pages as one print job and output the print job to a printer to print the print job, comprising the steps of:

setting whether to halt the printing process of the printer, for each page of the print job;

generating an off-line command for each page at which to halt the printing process of the printer, in accordance with the setting made in the setting step;

generating the print job on the basis of the document data such that the off-line command generated in the command generation step is inserted in each specified page; and

outputting the print job, including the off-line command generated in the job generation step and inserted in each specified page, to the printer to print the print job.

15. A printing process control program according to claim 14, wherein the document data includes page print data and a composite form including form information assigned to each page.

16. A printing process control program according to claim 14, wherein in the setting step, setting can be made so as to halt the printing process of the printer to perform off-line processing for the print job as a whole.

17. A printing process control program according to claim 16, wherein in the setting step, setting can be made for each page such that the setting in terms of off-line processing accords with setting made for the print job as a whole.

18. A printing process control program according to claim 14, further comprising the step of storing, in a specific file, data associated with the setting in terms of off-line processing made in the setting step for each page,

wherein in the command generation step, in response to a print command, the off-line command is generated in accordance with the data stored in the specific file in the storage step.