Printing apparatus and controller therefor

Abstract

A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium, said computer program configured to control a controller to: output, to a display driver, data for causing the display driver to drive a display of a printing apparatus to display, in a first area of the display, a plurality of images including a first image, wherein the plurality of images are representative of a plurality of respective different types of label data field, and to display a second image representative of the appearance of a label medium occupying a second area of the display that is different from the first area; and in response to receiving, from a selector, information comprising data representative of an operation of the selector by a user to select the first image and data representative of a position within the second area, output, to the display driver, data for causing the display driver to drive the display to display a revised version of the second image representative of the appearance of the label medium; wherein the revised version of the second image comprises a label data field of the type of label data field of which the first image is representative, and wherein the label data field comprised in the revised version of the second image is located at a location determined in dependence on said position within the second area.

1 - 19 . (canceled) 
     
     
         20 . A method, comprising: outputting, from a controller to a display driver, data for causing the display driver to drive a display of a printing apparatus to display, in a first area of the display, a plurality of first images representative of the appearance of a plurality of respective labels that have previously been edited by a user using the printing apparatus, and to display, in a second area of the display that is different from the first area, a label design workspace; and in response to receiving, at the controller from a selector, information representative of an operation of the selector by a user to select one of the respective labels, outputting, from the controller to the display driver, data for causing the display driver to drive the display to display a revised version of the label design workspace; wherein the revised version of the label design workspace comprises a second image representative of the appearance of the label selected. 
     
     
         21 . A method as claimed in  claim 20 , wherein the plurality of first images are displayed in an order determined in dependence on the time since each of the respective labels was last edited. 
     
     
         22 . A method as claimed in  claim 20 , wherein each of the first images is representative of the appearance of a respective label that is saved as a file in a memory location. 
     
     
         23 . A method as claimed in  claim 22 , wherein the plurality of first images are displayed in an order determined in dependence on the time since each of the respective labels was saved. 
     
     
         24 . A method as claimed in  claim 20 , wherein each of the first images is representative of the appearance of a respective label for which print instructions have been generated. 
     
     
         25 . A method as claimed in  claim 24 , wherein the plurality of first images are displayed in an order determined in dependence on the time since print instructions were generated for each of the respective labels. 
     
     
         26 . A method as claimed in  claim 20 , wherein the selected first image is representative of the appearance of a label comprising first label data arranged according to a first template, and wherein the second image representative of the appearance of the label selected comprises the first label data arranged according to the first template. 
     
     
         27 . A method as set forth in  claim 26 , wherein the first label data is arranged in one or more types of label data field. 
     
     
         28 . A method as set forth in  claim 27 , wherein the one or more types of label data field comprise one or more of: a text data field, a barcode data field and an image data field. 
     
     
         29 . A method as set forth in  claim 20 , wherein the plurality of first images are representative of the appearance of labels with label data arranged according to respective templates that have previously been applied to labels edited using the printing apparatus. 
     
     
         30 . A method as set forth in  claim 20 , wherein the plurality of first images are representative of the appearance of labels with label data arranged according to respective templates that have previously been applied to labels printed using a print head of the printing apparatus. 
     
     
         31 . A method as set forth in  claim 20 , wherein the plurality of first images are representative of the appearance of labels with label data arranged according to different templates. 
     
     
         32 . A method as set forth in  claim 20 , further comprising: (a) receiving, at the controller from a selector, information representative of an insertion and/or edit to label data in the second image representative of the appearance of the label selected; and (b) outputting, from the controller to the display driver, data for causing the display driver to drive the display to display a second revised version of the label design workspace; wherein the second revised version of the label design workspace comprises a third image representative of the appearance of the image representative of the appearance of the label having the inserted and/or edited label data. 
     
     
         33 . An apparatus, comprising: a controller configured: to output, to a display driver, data for causing the display driver to drive a display of a printing apparatus to display, in a first area of the display, a plurality of first images representative of the appearance of a plurality of respective labels that have previously been edited by a user using the printing apparatus, and to display, in a second area of the display that is different from the first area, a label design workspace; and in response to receiving, from a selector, information representative of an operation of the selector by a user to select one of the respective labels, to output, to the display driver, data for causing the display driver to drive the display to display a revised version of the label design workspace; wherein the revised version of the label design workspace comprises a second image representative of the appearance of the label selected. 
     
     
         34 . A computer program embodied on a computer readable medium, said computer program configured to control a controller to carry out the steps of  claim 20 .