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AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsAmanda Nguyen, Ganesh Pandey, Alvin Scholten, Zhanbing Wu, Eigo Shimizu, Peter Wong
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A modular Universal Printer Driver is provided which dramatically improves the extensibility of the driver architecture and the support for printer features. This driver operates in conjunction with OEM developed minidrivers which utilize the text based Generic Printer Description (GPD) format of the instant invention. The universal driver allows the GPD text based minidrivers to add and define new features introduced by the printer OEM. The universal driver also allows the GPD minidriver to modify, add, or replace the standard user interface provided by the universal driver. The universal driver and the text based GPD minidrivers are included in a computer system for outputting data to an output device, such as a printer. This system includes an application program which invokes a plurality of graphics device interface functions to control the sending of data to the printer. Within the system, a graphics device interface invokes device driver functions for controlling the outputting of data. The text based minidriver contains a characterization of the output device, and an implementation of device specific device driver functions invoked by the graphic device interface. This text based minidriver outputs this data to the universal driver. This universal driver incorporates the text based characterization passed by the minidriver. The universal driver implements the device specific driver functions and controls the outputting of data to the printer in accordance with the incorporated text based characterization.
A computer system for outputting data to an output device, comprising:
A computer system for outputting data to an output device, comprising:
A computer-readable medium having computer-executable modules comprising:
A method of characterizing a printer device to allow its inclusion in a computer system having an application program which invokes graphic device interface functions to control the outputting of printable data, and an universal driver for implementing device specific functions based on characterization information for the particular printer device, the device specific functions controlling the outputting of data in accordance with the characterization information to allow proper printing and control of the printer device, the method comprising the steps of:
A method of modifying a printer minidriver characterizing a printer device to allow its inclusion in a computer system having an application program which invokes graphic device interface functions to control the outputting of printable data, and an universal driver for implementing device specific functions based on characterization information for the particular printer device provided by the minidriver, the device specific functions controlling the outputting of data in accordance with the characterization information to allow proper printing and control of the printer device, the method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.