PRINT CONTROL DEVICE AND CONTROLLING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20110069341A1
• Filed: 05/26/2010
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/24/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: S-Printing Solution Co., Ltd. (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: KIM, Young-ju, Lee, Sang-hyup
• Application Number:
  US12/787,513
• Publication Number:
  US 20110069341A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1204 resulting in reduced user or operator actions, e.g. presetting, automatic actions, using hardware token storing data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1228 Printing driverless or using generic drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1254 Automatic configuration, e.g. by driver
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration

Abstract

A method to control a print control device having a universal printer driver is provided. The present method comprises searching a plurality of image forming apparatuses, displaying the first list including the searched image forming apparatuses, if the first image forming apparatus is selected from the first list, displaying a driver user interface (UI) corresponding to the selected first image forming apparatus, displaying the second list including at least one image forming apparatus while the driver UI is maintained, and if the second image forming apparatus is selected from the second list, displaying a driver UI corresponding to the selected second image forming apparatus. Accordingly, a user may use the universal printer driver more conveniently.

Claims

1. A method of controlling a print control device having a universal printer driver capable of controlling a plurality of image forming apparatuses, the method comprising:

searching the plurality of image forming apparatuses to print a document to be printed;

displaying a first list including at least one image forming apparatus according to the search result;

if a first image forming apparatus is selected from the first list, displaying a driver user interface (UI) corresponding to the selected first image forming apparatus;

displaying a second list including at least one image forming apparatus while the driver UI is maintained; and

if a second image forming apparatus is selected from the second list, displaying a driver UI corresponding to the selected second image forming apparatus.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a print data for a document to be printed using a driver UI of the second image forming apparatus and transmitting the generated print data to the second image forming apparatus.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second list includes a first image forming apparatus corresponding to a currently displayed driver UI.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein displaying the second list includes generating the second list according to at least one of pre-stored information in the print control device and search result information of newly connected image forming apparatus.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

if the second image forming apparatus is selected from the second list, confirming whether the selected second image forming apparatus is currently operated.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second list is selected by a user or an administrator.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second list is included in the driver UI or is displayed in a separate pop-up window.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the second list displays at least one of information regarding at least one image forming apparatus and its setting information.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing at least one of information regarding a first image forming apparatus selected from the first list and a second image forming apparatus selected from the second list as historical information.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein displaying the second list includes displaying an image forming apparatus included in the stored historical information distinctively from other image forming apparatuses in the second list, or in a separate application UI.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the first list.

12. A print control device having a universal printer driver to control a plurality of image forming apparatuses, comprising:

an interface unit connectable to a plurality of image forming apparatuses, each image forming apparatus having a separate driver;

a search unit to search the plurality of image forming apparatuses;

a user interface unit to display a first list including a first image forming apparatus of the searched image forming apparatuses;

a UI generation unit to generate a driver UI corresponding to the first image forming apparatus when the first image forming apparatus is selected from the first list, and to display the driver UI via the user interface unit; and

a control unit to display a second list including at least one second image forming apparatus while the driver UI is displayed and, if the second image forming apparatus is selected from the second list, to control the UI generation unit to generate a driver UI corresponding to the selected second image forming apparatus.

13. The print control device of claim 12, further comprising:

a first storage unit to store the universal printer driver,

wherein the control unit drives the search unit and the UI generation unit by executing the universal printer driver, generates a print data for a document to be printed using a driver UI of the second image forming apparatus, and transmits the generated print data to the second image forming apparatus.

14. The print control device of claim 12, wherein the control unit identifies a current state of the selected second image forming apparatus and displays a driver UI or an alert message corresponding to the second image forming apparatus according to the identified information if the second image forming apparatus is selected from the second list.

15. The print control device of claim 12, wherein the second list is included in the driver UI or is displayed in a separate pop-up window.

16. The print control device of claim 12, wherein the second list displays information regarding at least one image forming apparatus and its setting.

17. The print control device of claim 12, further comprising:

a second storage unit to store at least one of information regarding a first image forming apparatus selected from the fist list and a second image forming apparatus selected from the second list as historical information.

18. The print control device of claim 17, wherein the control unit controls the user interface unit to display an image forming apparatus included in the stored historical information distinctively from other image forming apparatuses in the second list, or in a separate application UI.

19. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a first universal image-forming apparatus driver to control an image-forming apparatus control device to perform a method, the method comprising:

displaying a user interface including a plurality of image-forming apparatuses connected to the image-forming apparatus control device, each displayed image-forming apparatus corresponding to a separate second driver to control in image-forming operation of the respective image-forming apparatus; and

performing an image-forming operation on at least one of the plurality of image-forming apparatuses using the first universal image-forming apparatus driver.