JP2011138341A - Method, device and program for controlling color pallet display and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To print such that consumption of toner or ink becomes equal while reducing trouble of a user. <P>SOLUTION: A color pallet display control method in an application of an information processing apparatus which can be connected with a print control process allowing confirmation of residual amounts of recording materials of a plurality of colors of a printer includes: a recording material residual amount acquisition process of acquiring the residual amounts of the recording materials of the plurality of colors of the printer from the print control process; a small residual amount recording material specification process of specifying a color of the recording material decided that the residual amount is small when there is the recording material decided that the residual amount is smaller than a prescribed value out of the residual amounts of the recording materials of the plurality of colors obtained by the recording material residual amount acquisition process; and a color pallet display control process of lowering propriety order of the color of the recording material specified by the small residual amount recording material specification process in display order on a color pallet of the application and displaying the color. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a color palette display control method on an application by an information processing apparatus connected to a printing apparatus.

  There is an increasing need for color printing using a color printing apparatus such as a color laser printing apparatus or an inkjet printing apparatus. In such a color printing apparatus, only one color may be consumed extremely depending on the image to be printed and the print data.

  If only one color is extremely consumed, some apparatuses may not start printing unless the remaining amount of all toner or ink exceeds a predetermined amount. In addition, there is a mechanism in which when the toner runs out even with one color, the toner itself must be discarded. For this reason, there is a problem that even if the remaining amount of other toner is sufficient, it cannot be used.

  On the other hand, in recent years, when a color scheme that uses toner or ink with a low remaining amount is specified, the user is pointed out that the remaining amount is low, and recommending a color scheme with a large amount of toner or ink is effective. A system that supports efficient consumption is considered.

JP2007-292877

  However, in Patent Document 1, it is not possible to know the remaining amount of toner or ink unless printing is performed, and there is an increased possibility of specifying a color scheme different from the color scheme specified when creating print data by the application.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to enable printing so that toner or ink consumption is equal while reducing the user's trouble.

  The present invention relates to a color pallet display control method for controlling the display order of an application color pallet in an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with a printing apparatus capable of confirming the remaining amount of recording materials of a plurality of colors. A remaining amount acquisition unit acquires a remaining amount of recording materials of a plurality of colors of the printing device, and a low remaining amount recording material identification unit of the information processing device includes the remaining recording material acquisition step. A low remaining amount recording material specifying step for specifying a color using a recording material whose remaining amount is less than a predetermined value among the remaining amounts of the recording materials of a plurality of colors acquired by the method, and a color palette display control unit of the information processing apparatus A color pallet display control step for lowering the priority of the display order on the color pallet of the application for the color of the color pallet that uses the recording material specified by the low remaining amount recording material specifying step; And wherein the Mukoto.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to perform printing as specified by the color scheme of toner and ink when creating print data by an application, and it is possible to create print data without using as little toner color as possible.

1 is a software block diagram of a printing system illustrating an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware block diagram of the information processing apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows the hardware block diagram of the printing apparatus of this invention. It is a sequence chart which shows an example of the process at the time of the application starting in the system of embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process at the time of the application starting in the information processing apparatus 100 of embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic diagram which showed the example of a display of the color palette of the drawing software in embodiment of this invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between a color palette and the amount of toner applied in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between a color palette and a toner application amount when it is not desired to use cyan in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between a color palette and a toner application amount when it is not desired to use magenta in the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating a relationship between a color palette and a toner coating amount when yellow is not desired in the embodiment of the present invention. It is the schematic diagram which showed the example of a display of the color palette of the drawing software in embodiment of this invention. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of print color confirmation processing in an application in the information processing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of this invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining a print color change of print data in the embodiment of the present invention.

[First Embodiment]
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  1 to 3, reference numeral 100 denotes an information processing apparatus, 300 denotes a printing apparatus, and 600 denotes a network.

  FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a printing system to which an information processing apparatus 100 and a printing apparatus 300 according to the present invention can be applied.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system of the present embodiment is configured such that an information processing apparatus 100 and a printing apparatus 300 are connected via a network 600 to transmit and receive information. Note that the information processing apparatus 100 and the printing apparatus 300 may be integrated to form a print control apparatus. Hereinafter, the case where the information processing apparatus and the printing apparatus are separated will be described.

  A recording material remaining amount acquisition unit 101 acquires the remaining amount of toner or ink of the printing apparatus from the printing apparatus 300.

  Reference numeral 102 denotes a low remaining amount recording material specifying unit, which specifies toner or ink in which the remaining amount of toner or ink acquired by the recording material remaining amount acquisition unit 101 is less than a certain value.

  A color palette display control unit 103 displays a color palette display on the application 109 so that the display priority of the color palette using the toner or ink specified by the low remaining amount recording material specifying unit 102 is lowered. Pass the order.

  The information processing apparatus 100 can execute an arbitrary application 109, and the application 109 includes a print data generation unit 107 for printing on a printing apparatus.

  In addition, the information processing apparatus 100 is installed with a printer driver 108, accumulates the generated print data in an internal memory, and transmits the print data to the printing apparatus via the printer driver 108.

  A print object attribute acquisition unit 104 acquires attribute information of the print object of the print data generated by the print data generation unit 107.

  A print color specifying unit 105 acquires color information from the attribute information of the print object acquired by the print object attribute acquisition unit, and specifies a color used in the printing apparatus.

  Reference numeral 106 denotes a print color changing unit. When the color specified by the print color specifying unit is a low remaining amount recording material specifying unit, the color palette display control unit is used to prompt the user to change the print color.

  Reference numeral 110 denotes an application area calculation unit that calculates an application area designated by a print object.

  Reference numeral 111 denotes a recording material application amount storage unit for each color pallet, which is a storage unit that stores the amount of toner or ink used for each color pallet, and has values such as the table data shown in FIG.

  Note that all the components other than the storage unit described above are implemented by the CPU 201 in FIG.

  Hereinafter, the hardware configuration of the information processing apparatus applicable to the information processing apparatus 100 illustrated in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus applicable to the information processing apparatus 100 illustrated in FIG.

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a CPU that comprehensively controls each device and controller connected to the system bus 204. Further, the ROM 202 or the external memory 211 is necessary to realize a BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) or an operating system program (hereinafter referred to as an OS), which is a control program of the CPU 201, or a function executed by each server or each PC. Various programs to be described later are stored.

  A RAM 203 functions as a main memory, work area, and the like for the CPU 201. The CPU 201 implements various operations by loading a program or the like necessary for execution of processing from the ROM 202 or the external memory 211 into the RAM 203 and executing the loaded program.

  An input controller 205 controls input from a keyboard (KB) 209 or a pointing device such as a mouse (not shown). A video controller 206 controls display on a display device such as the display 210.

  A memory controller 207 is connected to the hard disk (HD), flexible disk (FD), or PCMCIA card slot for storing a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, editing files, various data, etc. via an adapter. The access to the external memory 211 such as a compact flash (registered trademark) memory is controlled.

  A communication I / F controller 208 is connected to and communicates with an external device via the network 600, and executes communication control processing in the network. For example, communication using TCP / IP is possible.

  Note that the CPU 201 enables display on the display 210 by executing outline font rasterization processing on a display information area in the RAM 203, for example. Further, the CPU 201 enables a user instruction with a mouse cursor (not shown) on the display 210.

  Various programs to be described later for realizing the present invention are recorded in the external memory 211, and are executed by the CPU 201 by being loaded into the RAM 203 as necessary. Furthermore, definition files and various information tables used when executing the program are also stored in the external memory 211, and a detailed description thereof will be described later.

  Next, the hardware configuration of the printing apparatus 300 shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of the printing apparatus 300 illustrated in FIG.

  In FIG. 3, reference numeral 316 denotes a print control unit, which is connected to a scanner 314 functioning as an image input device and a printer unit 312 functioning as an image output device, while being connected to a network 600 (for example, a local area network: LAN) or a public line ( By connecting to a wide area network (WAN) (for example, PSTN or ISDN), input / output of image data and device information is performed.

  In the print control unit 316, reference numeral 301 denotes a CPU, which is a processor that controls the entire system. A RAM 302 is a system work memory for the CPU 301 to operate, and is also a program memory for recording a program and an image memory for temporarily recording image data.

  A ROM 303 stores a system boot program and various control programs. A hard disk drive (HDD) 304 stores various programs for controlling the system, image data, and the like.

  An operation unit interface (operation unit I / F) 307 is an interface unit with the operation unit (keyboard) 308. Further, the operation unit I / F 307 serves to transmit the key information (for example, pressing of the start button) input from the operation unit 308 to the CPU 301.

305 is a network interface (Network
I / F) is connected to a network (LAN) 600 to input / output data. A modem (MODEM) 306 is connected to a public line and inputs / outputs data such as FAX transmission / reception.

  Reference numeral 318 denotes an external interface (external I / F), which is an I / F unit that accepts external inputs such as USB, IEEE 1394, printing device port, RS-232C, etc. In this embodiment, an IC of a portable terminal required for authentication A card reader 319 for reading a card (storage medium) is connected to the external I / F unit 318. The CPU 301 can control reading of information from the IC card of the mobile terminal by the card reader 319 via the external I / F 318, and can acquire information read from the IC card of the mobile terminal. The above devices are arranged on the system bus 309.

320 is an image bus interface (IMAGE).
BUS I / F), which is a bus bridge that connects a system bus 309 and an image bus 315 that transfers image data at high speed and converts a data structure.

  The image bus 315 is configured by a PCI bus or IEEE1394. The following devices are arranged on the image bus 315.

  A raster image processor (RIP) 310 develops vector data such as a PDL code into a bitmap image. A printing apparatus interface (printing apparatus I / F) 311 connects the printer unit 312 and the printing control unit 316 and performs synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data. A scanner interface (scanner I / F) 313 connects the scanner 314 and the print control unit 316 to perform synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data.

  Reference numeral 317 denotes an image processing unit that corrects, processes, and edits input image data, and performs printing device correction, resolution conversion, and the like on print output image data. In addition to this, the image processing unit 317 performs image data rotation and compression / decompression processing such as JPEG for multi-valued image data and JBIG, MMR, MH for binary image data.

  Reference numeral 321 denotes a recording material amount acquisition unit that acquires the toner or ink remaining amount of the printer unit 312. The acquired recording material remaining amount is stored in the RAM 302 or the like through the system bus 309, and in response to a recording material remaining amount transmission request from the recording material remaining amount acquisition unit 101 of the information processing apparatus 100, the remaining recording material remaining amount. The value is transmitted to the information processing apparatus 100. Here, the remaining amount of the recording material is transmitted to the recording material remaining amount acquisition unit 101 as the remaining amount value, but the remaining amount of the recording material is larger or smaller than a certain value even if it is not a specific remaining amount value. Only such information may be transmitted.

  The scanner unit 314 illuminates an image on paper as a document and scans it with a CCD line sensor, thereby converting it into an electrical signal as raster image data. The original paper is set on the tray of the original feeder, and when the apparatus user gives a reading start instruction from the operation unit 308, the CPU 301 gives an instruction to the scanner 314, and the feeder feeds the original paper one by one to read the original image. I do.

  The printer unit 312 is a part that converts raster image data into an image on paper. The method is an electrophotographic method using a photosensitive drum or a photosensitive belt, and ink is ejected from a micro nozzle array directly on the paper. There is an inkjet method for printing an image, but any method may be used. The printing operation is started by an instruction from the CPU 301. The printer unit 312 has a plurality of paper feed stages so that different paper sizes or different paper orientations can be selected, and has a paper cassette corresponding thereto.

  The operation unit 308 has an LCD display unit, and a touch panel sheet is pasted on the LCD. The operation unit 308 displays an operation screen of the system. When a displayed key is pressed, the position information is displayed on the operation unit I / F 307. To the CPU 301 via The operation unit 308 includes, for example, a start key, a stop key, an ID key, a reset key, and the like as various operation keys.

  The display unit has a display performance that varies depending on the printing device. A printing device that can be operated via a touch panel, or a printing device that simply has a liquid crystal screen and displays a character string (displays the print status and the name of the file being printed). Thus, the present invention is constituted.

  Here, the start key of the operation unit 308 is used when starting a document image reading operation. At the center of the start key, there are two color LEDs, green and red, which indicate whether or not the start key can be used. Further, the stop key of the operation unit 308 functions to stop the operation in operation. The ID key of the operation unit 308 is used when inputting the user ID of the user. The reset key is used when initializing settings from the operation unit.

  The card reader 319 reads information stored in an IC card provided in the portable terminal under the control of the CPU 301 and notifies the CPU 301 of the read information via the external I / F 318.

  With the above configuration, the printing apparatus 300 can transmit the image data read from the scanner 314 to the network 600 and print out the print data received from the network 600 by the printer unit 312.

  Further, the image data read from the scanner 314 can be faxed to the public line by the modem 306, and the image data received by fax from the public line can be output by the printer unit 312.

  Next, an example of application startup processing from the information processing apparatus 100 to the printing apparatus 300 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence chart of FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a sequence chart illustrating an example of processing at the time of application activation in the system according to the embodiment of this invention.

  The processing of the sequence chart in FIG. 4 is realized by the CPU of each of the information processing apparatus 100 and the printing apparatus 300 executing a program stored in the external memory or ROM on the RAM.

  When the user executes the application of the information processing apparatus 100, the processing of this sequence chart is started. In the following examples, the toner is described as an example of the recording material, but it goes without saying that ink and other recording materials may be used.

  In step S301, when the application 109 is activated in the information processing apparatus 100, in step S302, the information processing apparatus 100 performs a remaining toner amount acquisition process 101 in order to acquire the remaining toner amount of the printing apparatus 300, and the printing apparatus. A toner remaining amount value is requested to 300.

  Upon receiving the request, the printing apparatus 300 transmits the remaining amount of toner to the information processing apparatus 100 in step S303.

The information processing apparatus 100 that has received the remaining amount of toner identifies a toner with a small remaining amount among the remaining amounts of toner received in step S304 (low remaining amount recording material identifying unit 102), and performs color designation in the application. In this case, the display order of the color palette for displaying the toner with a small remaining amount at a lower priority is stored (step S305).
Here, the concept of the color palette will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a display example of the color palette of the drawing software in the embodiment of the present invention.

  Reference numeral 601 in FIG. 6 denotes a display screen when the color application button 602 is designated by a pointer such as a mouse in the drawing software.

  In the case of 601, since the default color scheme is used, the colors are displayed in the color scheme of FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the detailed processing of the information processing apparatus 100 in FIG.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing at the time of application activation in the information processing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of this invention. S401 to S410 indicate each step.

  Note that the processing of each step in the flowchart of FIG. 5 is also realized by the CPU of each of the information processing apparatus 100 and the printing apparatus 300 executing a program stored in the external memory or ROM on the RAM.

  First, when the user starts an application, in step S401, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 performs a toner remaining value acquisition request process in order to acquire the remaining amount of toner of the plurality of colors of the printing apparatus 300. This corresponds to step S302 in the sequence chart of FIG.

  Subsequently, in step S <b> 402, the CPU 301 of the printing apparatus 300 acquires the remaining amount of toner of each of a plurality of colors from the printer unit 312 and transmits the obtained remaining toner amount to the information processing apparatus 100. This corresponds to step S303 in the sequence chart of FIG.

  Next, in step S403, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 acquires the remaining amount of toner obtained from the printing apparatus 300, and in step S404, the remaining amount is constant with respect to the remaining amount of toner. Determine if it is less than the value. If the remaining amount of the toner is greater than a certain value, the process proceeds to step S409, and if there is a toner that has not been confirmed, the process returns to step S404. Step S404 corresponds to S304 of FIG.

  On the other hand, if the remaining amount of the toner is smaller than the predetermined value in step S404, the process proceeds to step S405.

  In steps S <b> 405 to S <b> 409, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 avoids using the color of the toner with a small amount of toner as much as possible based on the data of the amount of applied toner necessary to obtain the default color palette color scheme. Create a color palette to Using the default color ink application amount data shown in FIG. 7, the priority order for displaying the color palette is determined.

  FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the color palette and the amount of toner applied in the embodiment of the present invention.

  “C”, “M”, “Y”, and “B” on the left in FIG. 7 indicate “cyan”, “magenta”, “yellow”, and “black”, respectively. Shows the difference. The numerical values over the four lines in the table indicate the amount of color toner applied for each of the “cyan”, “magenta”, “yellow”, and “black” inks in order from the top. Returning to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S405 in FIG. 5, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 calculates the total value of the columns of toner values (for example, 702 in the case of cyan) determined to be less than the predetermined amount in step S404 in the color palette in FIG. 7. (701 in the case of cyan) is calculated, and in step S406, the color palette of FIG. 7 is rearranged in order from the smallest total value of the columns. As a result of the rearrangement, the values are arranged at values such as 801 in FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the color palette and the toner coating amount when it is not desired to use cyan in the embodiment of the present invention. Returning to the flowchart of FIG.

  Next, in step S407, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 determines the toner value determined to be less than the predetermined amount in step S404 from the pallet rearranged as in 801 in FIG. 8 (for example, 703 for cyan). ) Is calculated (704 in the case of cyan), and in step S408, the color pallet is rearranged in the order from the smallest total value of the rows as indicated by reference numeral 802 in FIG. FIG. 8 shows an example of a color palette in which the cyan total values are rearranged in columns and rows.

  When the process of step S408 ends, the process proceeds to step S409, and in step S409, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 determines whether the remaining amount of remaining toner has also been confirmed. If the remaining amount of toner has been confirmed for all toners, the process proceeds to step S410. If there is a toner that has not been confirmed, the process returns to step S404.

  Similarly, FIG. 9 and FIG. 10 show color palettes when magenta and yellow are not desired.

  FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the color palette and the toner application amount when it is not desired to use magenta in the embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the color palette and the toner application amount when it is not desired to use yellow in the embodiment of the present invention. Returning to the flowchart of FIG.

  In step S410, when the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 is instructed to display a color palette by the user, for example, if the amount of cyan toner is low and is not desired to be used, cyan is used as indicated by 1101 in FIG. Change the order of the color palettes in order not to display.

  FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a display example of the color palette of the drawing software in the embodiment of the present invention.

As described above, the present invention is advantageous in that it can print as specified by the color scheme of toner and ink when creating print data by an application, and can create print data without using as little toner color as possible. .
[Second Embodiment]
The second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
In the second embodiment, the components described in FIGS. 1 to 3 are used.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of print color confirmation processing in the application in the information processing apparatus 100 according to the embodiment of this invention. S1201 to S1208 indicate each step.

  The flowchart of FIG. 12 is started when the pre-print color confirmation button 1301 is instructed with a pointer such as a mouse in a state where print data has already been described as shown in FIG. 13 (step S1201).

  FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram for explaining the print color change of the print data in the embodiment of the present invention.

  In step S1202, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 acquires the object attributes of the data to be printed (1303 in FIG. 13) and grasps the color of the toner to be used.

  Next, in step S1203, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 calculates the distribution of the color toner used in units of objects. In order to calculate the distribution of the toner of the color used, the application area of the print data is calculated (110 in FIG. 1), and the usage ratio of the toner (the ratio for each color in FIG. 7) is multiplied by the application area.

  Next, in step S <b> 1204, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 skips a command for acquiring the remaining amount of toner to the printing apparatus 300.

  In step S1205, the CPU 201 of the printing apparatus 300 transmits the remaining toner amount corresponding to the remaining toner amount acquisition command.

  In step S1206, the CPU 201 of the information processing apparatus 100 checks objects that use a large amount of toner with a small amount of toner, and in step S1207, among objects that use a large amount of toner with a small amount of toner, the color being used. A screen that recommends changing the color as shown in 1302 of FIG. 13 (the color that uses a lot of magenta is often used in 1304 copies) as shown in 1302 of FIG. Is displayed. Note that the object to be focused may be one, or a plurality of objects may be focused.

  In S1206, the user can change the designation of the color toner with a small remaining amount of toner, so that the toner of each color can be used up in a balanced manner.

  As described above, the present invention has an effect that print data that uses as little toner and ink as possible can be created when printing print data created by an application.

  As described above, although two embodiments have been described, the present invention can take an embodiment as a system, apparatus, method, program, storage medium, or the like. Specifically, the information processing apparatus is a client. The printing apparatus may have the function of the information processing apparatus.

  Although not shown in particular, information for managing a program group stored in the recording medium, for example, version information, creator, etc. is also stored, and information depending on the OS on the program reading side, for example, a program is identified and displayed. Icons may also be stored.

  Further, data depending on various programs is also managed in the directory. In addition, when a program or data to be installed is compressed, a program to be decompressed may be stored.

  The functions shown in FIGS. 5 and 12 in this embodiment may be performed by a host computer by a program installed from the outside. In this case, the present invention is applied even when an information group including a program is supplied to the output device from a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a flash memory, or an FD, or from an external recording medium via a network. Is.

  As described above, a recording medium in which a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded is supplied to the system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus is stored in the recording medium. It goes without saying that the object of the present invention can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the recording medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the recording medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As a recording medium for supplying the program code, for example, a flexible disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD-ROM, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, EEPROM, A silicon disk or the like can be used.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) or the like running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included.

  Furthermore, after the program code read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted in the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the case where the CPU or the like provided in the board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  Further, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device. Needless to say, the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or apparatus. In this case, by reading a recording medium storing a program represented by software for achieving the present invention into the system or apparatus, the system or apparatus can enjoy the effects of the present invention.

  Furthermore, by downloading and reading out a program represented by software for achieving the present invention from a server, database, etc. on a network using a communication program, the system or apparatus can enjoy the effects of the present invention. It becomes.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Information processing apparatus 101 Recording material remaining amount acquisition part 102 Low remaining amount recording material specification part 103 Color palette display control part 104 Print object attribute acquisition part 105 Print color specification part 106 Print color change part 107 Print data generation part 108 Printer driver 109 Application 110 Application area calculation unit 111 Color palette-specific recording material application amount storage unit 300 Printing device 316 Print control unit 600 Network

Claims (6)

In a color palette display control method for controlling the display order of an application color palette in an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with a printing apparatus capable of checking the remaining amount of recording materials of a plurality of colors,
A recording material remaining amount acquisition unit for acquiring a remaining amount of recording materials of a plurality of colors of the printing apparatus;
The low remaining amount recording material specifying unit of the information processing device specifies a color that uses a recording material having a remaining amount less than a predetermined value among the remaining amounts of the recording materials of a plurality of colors acquired by the recording material remaining amount acquisition step. A low remaining recording material identification process to be performed,
The color pallet display control means of the information processing apparatus lowers the priority of the display order on the color pallet of the application for the color pallet that uses the recording material specified in the low remaining amount recording material specifying step. Color pallet display control process to display,
A color pallet display control method comprising: A print object attribute acquisition unit of the information processing apparatus for acquiring attribute information of a print object of print data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus;
A print color specifying step of specifying a color used in the print data from the attribute information acquired by the print object attribute acquiring step;
When the color specified in the print color specifying step is a color that uses the recording material specified in the low remaining amount recording material specifying step, the print color specifying step of the information processing apparatus A print color change process that prompts the user to change the color specified in
The color palette display control method according to claim 1, further comprising: The application area calculation unit of the information processing apparatus calculates an application area for each print object, and the recording material application amount management unit for each color pallet of the information processing apparatus applies the recording material for each color pallet. A color pallet recording material application amount management step for reading out the recording material application amount for each color pallet from the color pallet recording material application amount storage means of the information processing apparatus storing the amount;
In the case of a color recording material in which the recording material application amount is greater than a certain value and the recording material specified in the low remaining amount recording material specifying step is used, the printing color changing step is urged to change the color. The color palette display control method according to claim 2, wherein: An information processing apparatus capable of communicating with a printing apparatus capable of confirming the remaining amount of recording materials of a plurality of colors and controlling the display order of an application color palette,
Recording material remaining amount acquisition means for acquiring the remaining amount of recording materials of a plurality of colors of the printing apparatus;
Among the remaining amounts of the recording materials of a plurality of colors acquired by the recording material remaining amount acquisition unit, the remaining amount recording material specifying unit for specifying a color that uses a recording material whose remaining amount is less than a certain value;
Color pallet display control means for lowering the priority of the display order on the color pallet of the application for the color of the color pallet using the recording material specified by the low remaining amount recording material specifying means;
An information processing apparatus comprising: A program that is communicable with a printing device that can check the remaining amount of recording materials of multiple colors, and that is read and executed by an information processing device that controls the display order of the color palette of the application,
The information processing apparatus;
Recording material remaining amount acquisition means for acquiring the remaining amount of recording materials of a plurality of colors of the printing apparatus;
Among the remaining amounts of the recording materials of a plurality of colors acquired by the recording material remaining amount acquisition unit, the remaining amount recording material specifying unit for specifying a color that uses a recording material whose remaining amount is less than a certain value;
Color pallet display control means for lowering the priority of the display order on the color pallet of the application for the color of the color pallet using the recording material specified by the low remaining amount recording material specifying means;
A program characterized by functioning as   A storage medium storing the program according to claim 5 in a computer-readable manner.

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