METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DRIVING PRINTER DRIVER ACCORDING TO A DETERMINED APPLICATION AND METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INSTALLING THE PRINTER DRIVER

• US 20090100445A1
• Filed: 08/07/2008
• Published: 04/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HP Printing Korea Co., Ltd. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: EOM, Yong-In, Han, Young-soo
• Granted Patent: US 8,407,727 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/327
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1297 Printer code translation, conversion, emulation, compression; Configuration of printer parameters
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4411 Configuring for operating with peripheral devices; Loading of device drivers

Abstract

A method and apparatus for driving a printer driver according to a determined type of application and a method and apparatus for installing a printer driver. The method includes determining the type of application; and driving one of an extensible markup language (XML) paper specification (XPS) driver and a legacy driver in accordance with the determined type of application. The most appropriate printer driver is automatically selected in accordance with the determined type of application. Thus, a user does not have to inconveniently select a printer driver whenever the user prints data and the data may be printed using the most appropriate printer driver. Furthermore, in consideration of various types of applications, such as, a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) type application and a conventional Win32 type application, an optimized printing operation may be performed even when a user does not check whether an application to be used is a WPF type application or a Win32 type application, or whether a printer driver corresponding to the application is an XPS driver or a legacy driver, such as a printer control language (PCL), graphical device interface (GDI), or postscript (PS) driver.

Claims

1. A method of driving a printer driver according to a type of application, the method comprising:

determining the type of application; and

driving one of an extensible markup language (XML) paper specification (XPS) driver and a legacy driver in accordance with the determined type of application.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the type of application comprises determining whether the application is a Win32 type application or a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) type application.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining of the type of application comprises using a function requested by the application in order to drive the printer driver.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting an automatic driving mode for automatically driving the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

checking whether the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application is installed; and

installing the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application if the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application is not installed.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising checking whether an execution instruction of the application or a printing instruction is given.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating printing data by using one of the extensible markup language (XML) paper specification (XPS) driver and a legacy driver.

8. A method of installing a printer driver, the method comprising:

selecting an automatic driving mode for automatically driving a printer driver according to a type of application; and

installing an XML paper specification (XPS) driver or a legacy driver.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the automatic driving mode includes one of an option for turning on or off the automatic driving mode, and an option for executing the automatic driving mode after a printer driver is installed.

10. The method of claim 8, further comprising checking a type of an operating system (OS) and setting the printer driver corresponding to the type of OS.

11. An apparatus for driving a printer driver according to a determined type of application, the apparatus comprising:

a memory for storing at least one of an XML paper specification (XPS) driver and a legacy driver;

a type determination unit for determining the type of application; and

a driving control unit for driving one of the XPS driver and the legacy driver in accordance with the determined type of application.

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the type determination unit determines whether the type of application is a Win32 type application or a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) type application.

13. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the type determination unit determines the type of application by using a function requested by the application in order to drive the printer driver.

14. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a user interface for selecting an automatic driving mode for automatically driving the printer driver corresponding to the type of application.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the user interface comprises a user interface of the printer driver and a user interface of the application.

16. The apparatus of claim 11, further comprising a driver installation control unit for checking whether the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application is installed and installing the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application if the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application is not installed.

17. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the apparatus generates printing data by using one of the extensible markup language (XML) paper specification (XPS) driver and a legacy driver.

18. An apparatus for installing a printer driver, the apparatus comprising:

a user interface for selecting an automatic driving mode for automatically driving a printer driver according to a determined type of application; and

a driver installation control unit for installing an XML paper specification (XPS) driver or a legacy driver.

19. The apparatus of claim 18, further comprising an OS checking unit for checking a type of operating system (OS),

wherein the driver installation control unit sets the printer driver corresponding to the type of OS.

20. The apparatus of claim 18, wherein the user interface receives one of an option for turning on or off the automatic driving mode, and an option for executing the automatic driving mode after a printer driver is installed.

21. An apparatus for installing a printer driver, comprising:

a user interface for selecting an automatic driving mode for automatically driving a printer driver according to a determined type of application used for printing data on a printable medium;

a determination type unit for determining the type of application required for printing the data by checking a specified function performed by the application;

a driver installation control unit for installing the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application required for printing the data on the printable medium; and

a memory for storing the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application.

22. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the printer driver includes an XML paper specification (XPS) driver or a legacy driver.

23. The apparatus according to claim 21, wherein the type of application includes at least one of a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) type application and a Win32 type application.

24. A method of installing a printer driver, the method comprising:

selecting an automatic driving mode for automatically driving a printer driver according to a determined type of application used for printing data;

determining the type of application by checking a specified function performed by the application;

determining whether the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application is installed; and

installing the printer driver corresponding to the determined type of application.