1. A printing apparatus having a standby mode and an energy saving mode, the standby mode being capable of receiving data to be printed and of starting printing processing for the received data without requiring warming-up and the energy saving mode being capable of receiving the data and of starting the printing processing for the received data after warming-up, the printing apparatus comprising:
a print data receiving section for receiving print data from outside as the data to be printed, the print data being provided with a degree of urgency;
a printing control section for changing modes between the standby mode and the energy saving mode for receiving the data and for performing control of the printing processing for the received data; and
a printing section for executing the printing processing;
wherein, upon the reception of the print data in the energy saving mode, the printing control section changes the mode to the standby mode for starting the printing processing for the received print data or keeps the energy saving mode for suspending the printing processing for the received print data based on the degree of urgency provided with the received print data.
2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:
a data storage section for holding the received data temporally; and
a holding-time monitoring section for measuring an elapsed time from the reception of the data;
wherein the print data is further provided with information about a designated holding time for designating a holding time after the reception of the print data,
when the print data being provided with a first degree of urgency is received in the energy saving mode, the printing control section changes the mode to the standby mode for starting the printing processing for the print data,
when the print data being provided with a second degree of urgency is received in the energy saving mode, the printing control section keeps the energy saving mode, performs control of holding the print data in the data storage section and, after the designated holding time elapses, performs control of the warming-up and of the succeeding printing processing for the held print data, and
when the print data being provided with a third degree of urgency is received in the energy saving mode, the printing control section keeps the energy saving mode, performs control of holding the print data in the data storage section and, upon reception of print data having the first or second degree of urgency thereafter, performs control of the warming-up and of succeeding printing processing for the held print data along with the received print data having the first or second degree of urgency.
3. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising an image data acquiring section for acquiring image data by reading an image on an original and for sending the acquired image data to the printing section as the data to be printed;
wherein when the print data having a third degree of urgency is held in the data storage section and when the image data is acquired thereafter, the printing control section performs control of the printing processing for the held print data along with the acquired-image data.
4. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the holding-time monitoring section monitors the elapsed time from the reception of the print data having the third degree of urgency; and
the printing control section performs control of printing processing of the held print data when the elapsed time exceeds a predetermined maximum holding time.
5. The printing apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a degree of urgency setting section for pre-setting any one of the first, second and third degrees of urgency as the degree of urgency of image data acquired by the image data acquiring section;
wherein, when the image data acquiring section acquires image data in the energy saving mode and the first degree of urgency is set as the degree of urgency for the acquired image data, the printing control section changes the mode to the standby mode for starting the printing processing of the image data,
when the image data acquiring section acquires image data in the energy saving mode and the second degree of urgency is set for the acquired image data, the printing control section keeps the energy saving mode, performs control of holding the image data in the data storage section and, after a predetermined holding time elapses from the reception of the image data, performs control of the warming-up and of the succeeding printing processing for the acquired image data along with held print data, if there is any, and
when the image data acquiring section acquires image data in the energy saving mode and the third degree of urgency is set for the acquired image data, the printing control section keeps the energy saving mode, performs control of holding the image data in the data storage section and, upon reception of print data having the first or second degree of urgency or image data having the first or second degree of urgency thereafter, performs control for of the warming-up and of the printing for the held image data and for held print data, if there is any, along with the received print data or the received image data having the first or second degree of urgency.
6. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing control section performs control of the warming-up and of succeeding printing processing for the held print data when free space of the print data storage section becomes smaller than a predetermined capacity.
7. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the print data receiving section receives a plurality of print data, the printing control section performs control of printing sequence for the received print data in such a manner that the received print data are printed out in the order of the first, second and third degrees of urgency.
8. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein when the printing control section performs control of printing processing for the held print data in the data storage section along with the subsequently received print data having the first or second degree of urgency, the printing control section performs control of printing sequence in such a manner that the received print data having the first or second degree of urgency is printed out firstly.
9. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the print data receiving section receives a plurality of print data which has the same degree of urgency with each other, the printing control section performs control of printing sequence for the received print data in such a manner that the received print data are printed out in the order of reception of each print data.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method of creating a document having a displayable area on which information is placed, the method comprising:
a. providing a plurality of content-items which contain information that it is possible to display on the displayable area;
b. dividing the displayable area into a set of sub-areas each capable of receiving one or more of the content-items;
c. generating at least one set of proposed arrangements in which the content-items have been arranged within the set of sub-areas;
d. selecting at least one of the proposed arrangements, according to predetermined criteria, as the layout of the content-items within the sub-areas of the displayable area to create the document; and
e. causing a printing means to print the created document.
2. A method according to claim 1 in which the steps are performed in the order shown.
3. A method according to claim 1 in which the content-items are generated from information that it is desired to display on the document.
4. A method according to claim 1 in which the content-items are provided as scalable items which are capable of being re-sized.
5. A method according to claim 1 in which steps c to e are performed iteratively until the method fails or until a layout of the content-items is selected.
6. A method according to claim 1 which is arranged to place information that should be placed at a predetermined location within the document before placing other information.
7. A method according to claim 1 in which the processing circuitry divides the displayable area into a set of sub-areas by any of the following: selecting a predetermined template; dividing the displayable area according to a one or more predetermined rules.
8. A method according to claim 1 which is arranged to place information that should be placed at a predetermined location within the document before placing other information in which the processing circuitry divides the displayable area into a set of sub-areas by any of the following: selecting a predetermined template; dividing the displayable area according to a one or more predetermined rules and in which the sub-areas are created after the information that is required to be placed at a predetermined location within the document has been placed.
9. A method according to claim 1 in which step e. of the method assigns a score according to predetermined scoring criteria to one or more of the proposed arrangements.
10. A method according to claim 9 which selects the proposed arrangement having the highest score as the layout of the content-items on the displayable area.
11. A method according to claim 1 in which step d. of the method adds proposed arrangements to the set of proposed arrangements if that proposed arrangement provides a possible solution to the layout of the information on the displayable area.
12. A method according to claim 11 in which the method does not generate further proposed arrangements once a single proposed arrangement has been generated and added to the set of proposed arrangements.
13. A method according to claim 1 in which the method further comprises the step of adjusting the appearance of one or more content-items in order to adjust the appearance of the document.
14. A method according to claim 13 in which the adjustment of the content-items occurs between steps d and e of the method.
15. A computer readable storage medium containing instructions which when read by a computer cause that computer to perform the method of claim 1.
16. A computer readable storage medium containing instructions which when read be a computer cause that computer to function as the document creation system of claim 1.
17. A document creation system arranged to create a document from displayable information, the system comprising a content-item supply means arranged to provide content items containing displayable information, a sub-area generation means arranged to divide a displayable area of the document into one or more sub-areas each capable of containing one or more content items to be displayed, a sub-area filling means arranged to place information within a sub-area to generate a plurality of proto-documents and a selection means arranged to select a proto-document as the layout for the document being created.
18. A system according to claim 17 in which the content-item supply means comprises a store of data in which the content items are stored such that they can subsequently be retrieved therefrom.
19. A system according to claim 17 in which the sub-area filling means is arranged to provide a plurality of proto-layouts from which the selection means is arranged to select a preferred layout.
20. A system according to claim 17 which further comprises an adjustment means arranged to alter parameters associated with a proto-document in order to adjust the appearance of the document provided by the proto-document.
21. A system according to claim 20 in which the adjustment means is arranged to adjust the proto-document selected by the selection means.
22. A program arranged to cause a computer to create a document from displayable information accessible thereby, the program being arranged to cause the computer to access a supply of content items containing displayable information, to generate a plurality of sub-areas from a displayable area, each of the sub-areas being capable of containing one or more content items, to place information within a sub area to generate a plurality of proto-documents and subsequently to cause the computer to select, according to predetermined criteria, a proto-document as the layout for the document being created.
23. A computer readable storage medium containing instructions providing the program of claim 22.