JP2006260136A - Printer controller and print control method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer controller allowing a user to print a watermark showing internal use only or the like unconsciously on a document entailing the watermark printed thereon, and capable of printing the watermark without setting the same watermark every time when he prints the same document. <P>SOLUTION: A driver in the present invention is provided with a function for determining the existence of a keyword for printing the watermark in a printing character data, and for issuing an indication for printing the watermark when existing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer control apparatus having a printer driver that always prints a watermark under a certain condition by setting watermark print control, and a print control method therefor.

  Conventionally, in order for a user to create a new mark with a printer driver, a mark creation operation by an application is required in addition to the printing process, which is complicated. Therefore, there is a known printer control device that reduces the time and effort of the user's operation when setting the watermark printing by the printer driver, and makes it easy for the user to select a desired watermark. The user determines whether the print document should be treated as confidential, and the watermark character, font, character color, and print added to the drawing data via the print setting screen of the printer driver of the printer control device Setting is performed by instructing the position and the like by the user's operation (see Patent Document 1).

In this way, when printing a document, the user determines whether the printed document should be kept confidential, and a watermark (such as confidentiality) is set in the printer driver. For this reason, the user must determine whether or not the printed document should be kept confidential, and if the determination standard is difficult or the document security awareness is low, the watermark is not set during printing.
JP 2004260852 A

  Therefore, the present invention defines the conditions for printing the watermark before the printer driver is installed by the administrator, so that a document that must be printed with a watermark such as confidential information can be printed without the user being aware of the watermark. Another object of the present invention is to provide a printer control device that can print a watermark without setting the same watermark every time the user prints the same document.

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 determines whether or not a keyword for printing a watermark exists in the character data to be printed, and if there is, the print instruction for the watermark is given. It has a printer driver.
The invention described in claim 2 is characterized in that the printer driver instructs to print a watermark using the keyword defined by an administrator.
The invention described in claim 3 is characterized in that the printer driver instructs the user to print the watermark.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, it is determined whether or not the user name requested by the printer driver for printing is a user name designated by an administrator. It is characterized by instructing printing.
In order to achieve the above object, the invention described in claim 5 includes a step of decoding a print document, a step of determining whether or not a keyword for printing a watermark exists in character data to be printed, And printing a document by printing the watermark registered by the keyword under the registered condition.

  By registering the watermark for each keyword, the administrator prints the watermark that the confidential information must be displayed without the user being aware of it, and the same document every time the user prints the same document. The watermark can be printed without setting the watermark. As a result, the confidentiality can be printed on a document that requires the printing of a watermark such as a confidentiality designated by the administrator, and the user's awareness of document security can be improved.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer control apparatus connected to a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a watermark print setting file that controls the printing of the watermark after installation and can be edited with text. FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of the printer driver before installation. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for reading a watermark print setting file and registering data at the time of installation.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for recognizing a keyword in a print document and instructing to print a watermark. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for switching watermark printing according to the user name. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a printer driver dialog for reporting that a watermark is automatically added. FIG. 8 shows a watermark print setting screen.

  A block diagram showing the configuration of a printer control apparatus connected to the printer of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The image processing apparatus 1 includes a server 2 that performs arithmetic processing, a monitor 4 that performs various displays, a measuring instrument 5 that colors the colors of patches on a color chart, and a printer control apparatus (client) that interfaces with a printer 6. (PC)) 3. The server 2 includes a CPU 7, a calculation unit 8, a data unit 9, and a data processing unit 10, and the printer control device 3 includes a CPU 11 and a printer driver 12.

  The printer driver 12 receives input color data (for example, data expressed in the RGB color system) from an application on the image processing apparatus 1, and is interpreted by the printer 6 based on the printer profile generated by the image processing apparatus 1. Data is converted into a possible format and sent to the printer 6. The CPUs of the server 2 and the printer control device 3 each have a ROM and a RAM, and perform necessary control by executing a program stored in the ROM while using the RAM as a work area.

  An image forming apparatus is formed by the image processing apparatus 1 and the printer 6. The printer 6 itself may be any printer having a known image forming function such as an electrophotographic system, an ink jet system, or a thermal transfer system. Since these printers themselves are not characteristic, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

  The watermark print setting file that controls the printing of the watermark after the installation shown in FIG. 2 and can be edited with text will be described. When the watermark print setting file 21 is included in the printer driver configuration file group before installation, and when printing is performed after installation, the printer driver 6 instructs to print a “copy prohibited” or “confidential” watermark. The printer 5 is controlled as follows.

  For example, if the description of “copy strictly prohibited printing document” matches in the printed document, a “copy strictly prohibited” watermark is printed. Further, when the description of “non-confidential print document” matches in the print document, the “non-confidential” watermark is printed. If the user name to be printed at the same time is Katoh, “Department 1 Employee Number ********* Katoh” is printed on the document.

  A configuration diagram of the printer driver before installation in FIG. 3 will be described. By installing a watermark print setting file in the printer driver configuration file group and installing it, the conditions relating to the watermark print settings can be taken into the driver 22, and when printing by the driver 22, the printing is performed. You can print according to the conditions.

  A flowchart showing the processing procedure for reading and registering the watermark print setting file at the time of installation in FIG. 4 will be described. The printer driver 22 is installed in the printer control apparatus 1 (S1), and it is determined whether or not a watermark print setting file exists in the printer driver configuration file group (S2). The watermark printing conditions are registered in the printer driver (S3).

  If it does not exist, watermark printing under the conditions specified by the administrator is not performed (S4), and the installation of the printer driver is terminated (S5). In this way, the printer driver 6 reads the watermark print setting file at the time of installation and registers it as internal data of the printer driver, so that the printer driver 6 can control the watermark print instruction at the time of printing. Become.

  A flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for recognizing a keyword in the print document of FIG. 5 and instructing to print a watermark will be described. The character data to be printed by the printer driver is decoded (S21), and it is determined whether or not a keyword for printing a watermark exists in the character data (S22). If it exists, the administrator instructs the user to display that the watermark is automatically printed according to the keyword defined by the administrator (S23), prints the watermark registered with the keyword under the registered conditions, and Is printed (S24).

  If it does not exist, normal printing is executed (S25), and the process is terminated. Thus, by determining whether or not it matches the keyword, it is possible to control watermark printing during document printing.

  A flowchart showing a processing procedure for switching the printing of the watermark according to the user name in FIG. 6 will be described. After the printer driver decodes the electronic data to be printed (S31), it is determined whether the user name requesting printing is the user name designated by the administrator (S32). When using the printer, the user inputs the user name or employee number from the user interface unit (operation unit) or terminal device of the printer, so the user name (employee number, etc.) is specified. It can be determined by the user name (employee number, etc.).

  If it exists, the administrator instructs the user to display that a watermark is automatically added for each user name (S33), and the watermark registered with the keyword is printed under the registered conditions. Then, the document is printed (S34). If it does not exist, normal printing is executed (S25), and the process is terminated. In this way, by determining whether or not the user names match, it is possible to control the watermark printing instruction during document printing.

  The figure which shows the dialog of a printer driver which reports that the watermark of FIG. 7 is added automatically is demonstrated. Users are likely to be wondering about printing watermarks that they have not set. Therefore, when a watermark is printed according to a keyword and a user name condition when the user prints, it is necessary to report the contents of the condition to the user at the time of printing. FIG. 7 shows an example of “stamping prohibited copying” and “department 1 employee number ***** stamp”. The user can print by pressing the “confirm button”.

  The figure which shows the screen of the watermark printing setting of FIG. 8 is demonstrated. When creating a watermark print setting file for controlling the printing of the watermark, various settings are required. Therefore, the watermark print setting screen is an application for assisting the watermark print setting and creating a watermark print setting file. On this screen, the watermark, its keyword, user name, etc. are set, and a watermark print setting file can be created.

  The present invention has the following effects according to the above-described embodiment. By specifying the conditions for printing the watermark by the administrator, the printer driver of the present invention has a function for instructing to print the watermark, so that the user is aware of the document that must display the watermark such as confidential. When the user prints the same document without printing, the watermark can be printed without setting the same watermark every time.

  When an administrator creates a document template for a user, by registering a keyword for printing a watermark in advance in the document template and registering a watermark for each keyword in the printer driver used by the user, When the user prints the document, the printer driver of the present invention can automatically recognize the keyword and print the target watermark. As a result, the confidentiality can be printed on a document that requires the printing of a watermark such as a confidentiality designated by the administrator, and the user's awareness of document security can be improved.

  When a user prints a document, a watermark is printed according to the conditions specified by the administrator, and the fact can be reported to the user when printing. Thereby, the user can know the reason why the watermark is added at the time of printing, and can be satisfied with the printing result.

  An administrator can set a watermark to be output for each user to print a watermark that identifies the user on a print document. As a result, the user can easily find his / her document without reprinting, and the cost and environment can be improved.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer control apparatus connected to a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. It is a figure which shows the watermark printing setting file which controls printing of the watermark after installation, and can be edited with a text. It is a block diagram of a printer driver before installation. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence of the watermark printing setting file reading and data registration at the time of installation. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence which recognizes a keyword in a printing document and instruct | indicates printing of a watermark. It is a flowchart which shows the process sequence which switches the printing of a watermark according to a user name. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a dialog of a printer driver that reports that a watermark is automatically added. It is a figure which shows the screen of a watermark printing setting.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image processing apparatus, 2 ... Server, 3 ... Printer control apparatus, 4 ... Monitor, 5 ... Measuring device, 6 ... Printer, 12 ... Printer driver.

Claims (5)

A printer control device having a printer driver for generating character data to be transferred to a printer,
A printer control apparatus comprising: the printer driver that determines whether or not a keyword for printing a watermark exists in character data to be printed, and instructs printing of the watermark if the keyword is present. The printer control device according to claim 1.
The printer control apparatus, wherein the printer driver instructs to print a watermark using the keyword defined by an administrator. In the printer control device according to claim 1 or 2,
The printer control apparatus, wherein the printer driver instructs a user to print the watermark. A printer control device having a printer driver for generating character data to be transferred to a printer,
The printer driver determines whether or not a user name requesting printing is a user name designated by an administrator, and instructs to print a watermark of the user name when they match. Printer control device. A print control method for instructing to print a watermark,
Decrypting the printed document;
Determining whether there is a keyword for printing a watermark in the character data to be printed;
Printing a watermark registered with the keyword under registered conditions and instructing to print the document.

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