Printer having a spell checking feature

• US 6,779,934 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2001
• Issued: 08/24/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/25/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Laughlin, John D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chau, Minh H
• Application Number:
  US10/061,418
• Publication Number:
  US 20030081973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,034 Days
• Field of Search: 400/61-63, 400/65, 400/70, 400/74, 400/76, 400/695, 715/531-533
• US Class Current: 400/63
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/00 Arrangements for producing a permanent visual presentation of the output data , e.g. computer output printersprinting or plotting combined with another operation, e.g. with conveying, G06K17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2215/0082 Architecture adapted for a particular function

Abstract

A print apparatus having a spell checking feature has a processor and a memory for storing a spell checking program. A computer coupled to the print apparatus may be used to instruct the print apparatus to spell check a document file before printing the document file. The print apparatus incorporates the results of the spell check into the printed document by highlighting, bolding or underlining the misspelled words. Alternatively, the print apparatus operates like a network server to provide spell checking services to the computer and/or to a plurality of computers coupled to the print apparatus via a computer network.

Claims

1. A print apparatus adapted to provide a spell checking feature, said print apparatus comprising:

a print engine for printing a document;

a processor connected to said print engine,

a memory connected to said processor;

a spell checking program stored on said memory; and

said processor operative to control said print engine and to receive and process an electronic representation of said document in a page description language including applying said spell checking program to said page description language electronic representation of said document.

2. The print apparatus of claim 1 wherein said spell checking program comprises instructions that when executed by said processor causes said processor to identify a set of words in said page description language electronic representation of said document that comprise spelling errors by comparing said set of words to words contained in a dictionary database stored on said memory.

3. The print apparatus of claim 2 wherein the apparatus further comprises a dictionary database of correctly spelled words stored in said memory, and wherein said spell checking program when executed by said processor identifies said set of words by comparing all words from said page description language electronic representation of said document with words in said dictionary database.

4. The print apparatus of claim 1 wherein said spell checking program is for use by a computer communicating with said print apparatus.

5. The print apparatus of claim 4 wherein said spell checking program comprises a distributed service to be implemented as an object as specified under one or more of the models from the group consisting of a distributed component object model and a common request broker architecture.

6. The print apparatus of claim 4 wherein the print apparatus may be connected to said computer over a communications network whereby said computer may be remotely located from the print apparatus.

7. The print apparatus of claim 4 wherein said computer is connected to the print apparatus by a wireless communications link.

8. A print apparatus adapted to provide a spell checking feature, said print apparatus comprising:

a print engine for printing a document;

a processor connected to said print engine, said print engine controlled by said processor; and

a memory connected to said processor;

a spell checking program stored on said memory, said spell checking program executable by said processor;

a page description language engine;

wherein said spell checking program comprises instructions that when executed by said processor causes said processor to identify a set of words in said document that comprise spelling errors by comparing said set of words to words contained in a dictionary database stored on said memory; and

wherein said spell checking program when executed by said processor generates information identifying said set of words and supplies said information to said page description language engine and wherein said page description language engine causes said print engine to print said document with said set of words marked to indicate misspelling.

9. The print apparatus of claim 8 wherein said page description language engine is integrated with said spell checking program.

10. The print apparatus of claim 8 wherein said marked words are marked using a format selected from the group consisting of:

bolded text, italicized text, colored text, and underlined text.

11. A print apparatus adapted to provide a spell checking feature, said print apparatus comprising:

a print engine for printing a document;

a processor connected to said print engine, said print engine controlled said processor;

a memory connected to said processor;

a spell checking program stored on said memory, said spell checking program executable by said processor;

wherein said spell checking program is for use by a computer communicating with said print apparatus; and

wherein said processor is for receiving and processing print job files from said computer communicating with the print apparatus, and wherein said processor executes said spell checking program when said print job file has a spell check flag activated.

12. The print apparatus of claim 11 wherein the print apparatus further comprises a printer driver program, said printer driver program for causing a dialog with a user, said dialog comprising an option for activating said spell check flag.

13. A print apparatus adapted to provide a spell checking feature, said print apparatus comprising:

a print engine for printing a document;

a processor connected to said print engine, said print engine controlled by said processor;

a memory connected to said processor;

a spell checking program stored on said memory, said spell checking program executable by said processor;

wherein said spell checking program is for use by a computer communicating with said print apparatus;

wherein the print apparatus may be connected to said computer over a communications network whereby said computer may be remotely located from the print apparatus; and

wherein said communications network supports internet protocol communications, and wherein said processor is for processing an internet protocol print job file, said job file comprising a spell check flag, said processor executing said spelling check program when said spell check flag is activated.

14. A print apparatus for connection to a computer over a network, the print apparatus adapted to provide a spell checking feature, the print apparatus comprising:

a print engine for printing a document file;

a processor connected to said print engine, said processor for processing a print job file, said print job files having a spell check flag and having a document file, said processor controlling said print engine;

a memory device connected to said processor, said memory device for storing a spell checking program, a page display language engine, and a dictionary database; and

wherein said processor is for executing said spell checking program stored in said memory device when said print job file spell check flag is activated, said spell checking program when executed operating to identify a set of misspelled words in said document file by comparing words in said document file with words from said dictionary database, and instructing said page display language engine to mark said set of misspelled words in a printed document.

15. A computer program product comprising a computer readable code stored on a computer readable medium, the computer readable code when executed causing a printer apparatus to:

accept a page description language input print job file;

process said print job file including executing a spelling check program for identifying a set of misspelled words in said print job file.

16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein said print job file includes a spell check flag, and wherein the code for causing a printer apparatus to process said print job file includes code for causing the printer apparatus to execute said spelling check program when said spell check flag is activated.

17. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein said spelling check program when executed identifies said set of misspelled words by comparing said words to a dictionary database stored on said printer apparatus memory.

18. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein said spelling check program comprises a model selected from the group consisting of:

a distributed component object model and a common request broker architecture.