PRINT CONTROL DEVICE, PRINTING SYSTEM, AND PRINT CONTROL METHOD

• US 20190004746A1
• Filed: 07/06/2018
• Published: 01/03/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 03/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Original Assignee: Seiko Epson Corporation (Seiko Group)
• Inventors: NAKAMURA, Hideo
• Granted Patent: US 10,459,668 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1205 resulting in increased flexibility in print job configuration, e.g. job settings, print requirements, job tickets
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1206 resulting in increased flexibility in input data format or job format or job type
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1207 resulting in the user being informed about print result after a job submission
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1209 resulting in adapted or bridged legacy communication protocols, e.g. emulation, protocol extension
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1215 achieving increased printing speed, i.e. reducing the time between printing start and printing end
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1228 Printing driverless or using generic drivers
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/124 Parallel printing or parallel ripping
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1246 by handling markup languages, e.g. XSL, XML, HTML
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1247 by conversion to printer ready format
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1254 Automatic configuration, e.g. by driver
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1259 Print job monitoring, e.g. job status
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1288 in client-server-printer device configuration

Abstract

A print control device 31 connected to a host 20 and a printer 32 has a print data receiving unit 81 that receives print data written in markup language from the host 20, a command generating unit 82 that adds an initialization command before the print data and generates a print instruction command, and a command transmission unit 83 that transmits the generated print instruction command to the printer 32.

Claims

1-18. -18. (canceled)

19. A method of controlling a printer, the method comprising:

receiving print data including at least one element written in markup language, the print data including image data for an image, and attributes of the image that include a color mode of the image and an image size of the image;

determining whether the image data is proper based on the color mode and image size attributes, wherein the image data is determined to be proper when a data size of the image data equals a product of (i) the data size per pixel corresponding to the color mode and (ii) the image size; and

generating an image print command according to the color mode, when the image data is proper.

20. The method of controlling a printer described in claim 19, further comprising:

not generating the image print command according to the color mode, when the image data is not proper.

21. The method of controlling a printer described in claim 19, wherein:

the print data includes at least one of (i) information indicating a width or a height of the image and the color mode as content of the at least one element written in the markup language, or (ii) the image data as content of the element written in the markup language.

22. The method of controlling a printer described in claim 19, wherein:

the color mode includes 2-level monochrome or gray scale.

23. The method of controlling a printer described in claim 19, wherein:

the color mode of the image is set to 2-level monochrome when the color mode is not specified.

24. The method of controlling a printer described in claim 19, wherein:

the image print command includes a color command and an image format command; and

the color command includes at least one of a monochrome print command, a gray scale print command, or a color image print command.

25. The method of controlling a printer described in claim 24, further comprising:

printing by the printer based on the image print command when the printer supports the color command of the image print command; and

not printing when the printer does not support the color command of the image print command.

26. The method of controlling a printer described in claim 19, further comprising:

adding an initialization command before the image print command when a data length of the image print command does not exceed a predetermined length.

27. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program that, when executed, causes a computer to execute steps including:

receiving print data including at least one element written in markup language, the print data including image data for an image, and attributes of the image that include a color mode of the image and an image size of the image;

determining whether the image data is proper based on the color mode and image size attributes, wherein the image data is determined to be proper when a data size of the image data equals a product of (i) the data size per pixel corresponding to the color mode and (ii) the image size; and

generating an image print command according to the color mode, when the image data is proper.