US 5,566,278 AGranted

Object oriented printing system

AssigneeTaligent, Inc.

InventorsJayendra N. Patel, Ryoji Watanabe, Mark Peek, L. Bayles Holt, Mahinda K. de Silva

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Abstract

An object-oriented printing system includes objects that provide query, data transfer, and control methods. The inventive object-oriented printing system communicates with the remainder of the operating system by means of a standard interface such as a grafport and printer drivers are provided for each printer type within the operating system. Thus, an application not only need not worry about the particular printer/computer combination with which it is to operate, but also need not have a built in document formatting capability. The printing system includes objects that provide queries for device identification, optimized imaging, and printer status. Other objects are also provided for data transfer to bracket connections prior to sending and receiving information. Still other objects are provided for canceling a print job, pausing a job, and clearing out a job. Finally, an object is also provided for supporting multiple streams of communication to an imaging task.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer system for controlling a print device to generate a printed output, the computer system comprising:

(a) an application program for generating printable information;
(b) a storage device;
(c) a processor for executing the application program, for storing the printable information in the storage device and for retrieving the printable information from the storage device;
(d) an operating system stored in the storage device and cooperating with the processor for controlling the print device, the operating system comprising:
(1) a printing interface for formatting and paginating the printable information in response to commands generated by the application program;
(2) a printer handler for receiving formatted printable information from the printing interface, for converting the formatted printable information to a native imaging model of the print device, for modifying the printable information to include predetermined printer commands to control the print device and for providing an output data stream which includes the printable information modified to include the predetermined printer commands;
and
(3) means for transmitting the formatted, printable information from the printing interface to the printer handler;
and
(e) communication means for receiving the output data stream from the printer handler and for transmitting the output data stream including the modified printable information to the print device.

7 more elements

A method for controlling a computer to generate a printed output, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) generating printable information comprising at least one of textual data and graphics data using an application program running in a local computer;
(b) formatting the printable information in response to commands generated by the application program;
(c) paginating the printable information in response to commands generated by the application program;
(d) generating a document folio which includes the printable information which has been formatted and paginated by the application program;
(e) spooling the printable information onto a storage device of the local computer;
(f) connecting the local computer to a remote computer system having a print device coupled there to;
(g) converting the printable information to a native imaging model of the print device coupled to the remote computer system;
(h) modifying the printable information to include predetermined printer commands to control the print device of the remote computer system;
and
(i) transmitting the formatted, modified printable information to the print device of the remote computer system for printing.

7 more elements

A method of transmitting a document to a printer under control of an application program, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) generating a document folio containing textual and graphic data to be printed, the data being formatted and arranged in a predetermined manner specified by the application program;
(b) generating a print job description and a printer identification code for the printer;
(c) instantiating a print channel object using the printer identification code to transport the document folio to the printer;
(d) providing the document folio and the print job description to the print channel object as a print job;
(e) transporting the print job to the printer via the print channel object;
and
(f) removing the document folio from the print job and using the information therein to control the printer to print the textual and graphic data therein.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.