1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of performing printing process using application software and outputting a print job, a printing process control method, and a printing process control program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In some conventional printing systems, a printing process control program executed on an information processing apparatus has a capability of halting a printing process (to allow off-line processing to be performed) to allow a user to confirm, before a print job is started, whether print data processed by application software has been correctly transmitted to a printer, a stack of paper is correctly set on a paper cassette and the cassette is correctly set in a paper feed slot, a double-sided printing apparatus is correctly coupled with the printer, a paper feed-out tray is correctly set, and so on. If the user issues a resume command after completion of confirmation, the printing process is resumed (refer to, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 11-316660 and 2000-255139).
In a case in which printing is performed in a network environment, in order to prevent a current print job from being interrupted by another print job, print data including a plurality of associated pages is generally treated as one print job.
However, in the conventional technique, off-line processing is allowed in units of print jobs. That is, off-line processing is allowed only before a print job is started, and is not allowed in the middle of the print job.
For example, let us assume that print data treated as one print job includes a set of pages and that the type of printing paper is required to be changed depending on the pages.
Let us further assume that each page of the print data has to be printed on a specific type of paper such as preprinted paper exactly corresponding to the page and that stacks of paper are stored on different paper cassettes depending on the type of paper.
If the print job, which is needed to be treated in the above-described manner, is preformed using a printer having paper feed slots whose number is smaller than the number of paper cassettes, it is necessary to exchange one or more paper cassettes in the middle of the print job. However, in the conventional printing system, the print job is not automatically halted when exchanging of paper cassettes is needed.
As a result, some pages are printed on paper whose type is different from the type desired by a user.
The above problem can be avoided if the print job is divided into a plurality of print jobs. However, dividing the print job creates new problems such as longer print time and that the print job can be interrupted by another print job.