JP2008065366A - Image forming apparatus and print control program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus for printing characters whose visibility is satisfactory on a tab sheet. <P>SOLUTION: Setting of a character color to be printed on a tab sheet is set on the screen of a printer driver (S305). Also, the background color of characters is set (S307). Whether or not the character color and a base are an approximate color (or same color) is decided on the basis of the character color, the background color, and the presently set color of the tab sheet (S309). If YES, it is decided that the visibility of characters deteriorates, and the corrected color is determined (S313), and a message showing that the color is to be changed is displayed (S315). Thereafter, the color selected by the user is changed to the corrected color (S317). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a print control program, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a tab sheet and a print control program.

Patent Document 1 below describes a laser beam printer that performs printing on a tab sheet. The laser beam printer performs character printing on the tab sheet heading portion and decoration processing (fill, hatch, stroke) on the tab heading portion. By performing test printing on plain paper in advance, printing failure on tab paper can be prevented and printing cost can be reduced.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-22176

  The heading portion of the tab sheet is provided so that the viewer can easily find a desired chapter or page from a large number of pages of the document. The color of character printing for a conventional headline has been fixed to black.

  However, there are various types of tab paper, and when black characters are printed on the color paper, the visibility may be deteriorated depending on the color of the tab paper.

  In addition, when printing a color character on the heading portion of a white tab sheet, it is possible to print by specifying the background color of the color character separately in order to improve the character visibility of the heading portion.

  However, depending on the combination of the color of the tab paper, the background color of the heading part, and the character color printed on the heading part, the visibility of the information on the heading part may be lowered, making it difficult to distinguish the contents.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus and a print control program capable of printing characters with good visibility on a tab sheet.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet includes a first input unit that inputs color information of a tab sheet to be printed, a tab A second input means for inputting information on the color of a character to be printed on paper, and a changing means for changing the color of the character when the visibility of the character is deteriorated based on the color of the tab paper and the character; Is provided.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet includes a first input unit that inputs color information of a tab sheet to be printed, and characters to be printed on the tab sheet. Second input means for inputting the color information, and warning means for giving a warning when the visibility of the character deteriorates based on the color of the tab sheet and the color of the character.

  Preferably, the second input means inputs the character information of the heading portion of the tab sheet from the printer driver.

  Preferably, the second input unit inputs information on the background color of the character, and the changing unit determines the visibility of the character in consideration of the background color of the character.

  Preferably, the tab sheet is a set of a plurality of tab sheets, and the first input unit inputs designation of the colors of all of the plurality of tab sheets included in the tab sheet set.

  Preferably, the image forming apparatus further includes communication means for transmitting tab sheet information to the printer driver.

  According to still another aspect of the present invention, an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet is based on input means for inputting tab sheet color information to be printed, and the tab sheet color. Determining means for determining a color that does not deteriorate the visibility of the character with respect to the color of the character printed on the tab paper;

  According to still another aspect of the present invention, a print control program used for controlling an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet has a first input for inputting color information of the tab sheet to be printed. Based on the step, the second input step for inputting the information of the color of the character to be printed on the tab paper, and the color of the tab paper and the character color, the character color is changed when the character visibility is deteriorated. The computer executes the change step to be changed.

  According to still another aspect of the present invention, a print control program used for controlling an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet has a first input for inputting color information of the tab sheet to be printed. And a second input step for inputting character color information to be printed on the tab sheet, and a warning step for giving a warning when the character visibility is deteriorated based on the tab sheet color and the character color. And let the computer run.

  According to still another aspect of the present invention, a print control program used for controlling an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet includes an input step of inputting information on the color of the tab sheet to be printed, Based on the color of the tab sheet, the computer is caused to execute a determination step for determining a color that does not deteriorate the visibility of the character with respect to the color of the character printed on the tab sheet.

  According to these inventions, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus and a print control program that can print characters with good visibility on a tab sheet.

[First Embodiment]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image printing system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

  Referring to the figure, an image printing system includes MFPs 100a and 100b as image forming apparatuses connected to a LAN, User A's PC (Personal Computer) 200a, User B's PC 200b, and MFP administrator's PC 200c. , An E-mail server 300 and an image data database (DB) 500.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of one MFP.
The MFP 100a includes a CPU 101, a RAM 103, a ROM 105, a touch panel type operation panel 107, a scanner unit 109, a printer unit 111, a storage device 113, and a network interface card (NIC) 115 as main components.

  The NIC 115 is an interface for receiving print job data from a PC via a LAN, and transmitting / receiving image data in scanning and FAX transmission.

  The scanner unit 109 is a known device that scans a set document and obtains image data of the document.

  The printer unit 111 converts the image data created by the scanner unit 109 into data for printing as print data by a known electrophotographic method, and prints an image such as a document based on the converted data. It is a device to do.

  The operation panel 107 is a liquid crystal display device on which a touch panel is laminated on the surface for performing image quality of copying, paper setting, registration / selection of a scan transmission destination, and the like.

  The CPU 101 reads a necessary program from the ROM 105 and controls functions of the entire system. The ROM 105 stores a program for controlling the entire MFP. The RAM 103 serves as a work area when the CPU 101 executes a program. The RAM 103 temporarily stores image data read by the scanner unit 109 and the like.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of one PC or one server in FIG.
Referring to the figure, a PC (or server) includes a CPU 601 for controlling the entire apparatus, a display 605, and a LAN (local area network) card 607 (or a modem card) for connecting to a network or communicating with the outside. ), An input device 609 configured by a keyboard, a mouse, and the like, a flexible disk drive 611, a CD-ROM drive 613, a hard disk drive 615, a RAM 617, and a ROM 619.

  Data such as programs and images recorded on the flexible disk F can be read by the flexible disk drive 611, and data such as programs and images recorded on the CD-ROM 613a can be read by the CD-ROM drive 613. Is possible.

  FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of the insertion sheet information processing unit included in the printer driver installed in the PC.

  Referring to the figure, the printer driver includes an insertion sheet information processing unit 200 and a print data generation unit 300. The insertion sheet information processing unit 200 sets and stores information related to insertion sheets (such as tab sheets that are index sheets). The print data generation unit 300 generates print data according to the stored insertion sheet setting information.

  The inserted sheet information processing unit 200 includes an inserted sheet information setting / display unit 201 that performs settings and displays related to the entire inserted sheet, a tab sheet information processing unit 203, a character information processing unit 205, and an inserted sheet information storage unit 207. It has.

  The tab sheet information processing unit 203 includes a tab sheet information setting / display unit 251 that displays setting contents that can be set by a GUI (graphical user interface), a device information acquisition unit 253 that acquires tab sheet information from a device such as an MFP, A tab sheet information storage unit 255 for storing the set contents.

  The character information processing unit 205 displays a character information setting / display unit 261 that displays setting contents that can be set by the GUI, a same color / approximate color determination unit 263 that determines whether two colors are approximate colors, and a warning message. It includes a warning message display unit 265, a color correction processing unit 267 that changes the character to be printed on the tab sheet to a color that does not become the approximate color of the tab sheet, and a character information storage unit 269 that stores the set contents. .

  The inserted sheet information storage unit 207 stores the contents set by the tab sheet information processing unit 203 and the character information processing unit 205.

  The user can print by specifying a color character and a character background in the tab heading portion. Some tab papers have white paper or pastel colors, and when color characters and background colors are printed on the heading portion, it may be difficult to see the characters in combination with the tab paper colors. The insertion sheet information processing unit 200 prevents a drop in the visibility of the headline portion caused by a combination of the tab paper color, the background color of the headline portion, and the character color printed on the headline portion, and prevents tab sheet printing failure. .

  FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of the tab sheet insertion processing unit of the print processing apparatus provided in the MFP.

  Referring to the figure, the print processing apparatus 400 includes a print data processing unit 401, a tab sheet information processing unit 403, and a tab sheet print processing unit 405.

  The print data processing unit 401 includes a print data receiving unit 451 that receives print data from the host computer, a print data storage unit 453 that stores the received print data, and a print data analysis unit 455 that analyzes the stored print data. Prepare.

  The tab sheet information processing unit 403 displays a tab sheet information setting / display unit 461 that displays a GUI for setting tab sheets, a tab sheet information storage unit 463 that stores set tab sheet information, and the stored tab sheet information. And a tab sheet information bidirectional communication unit 465 for transmitting to the host computer.

  The tab sheet print processing unit 405 prints the tab sheet, a tab sheet print determination unit 471 that determines whether or not the tab sheet is printed, a tab headline drawing processing unit 473 that prints on the headline portion of the tab sheet, and the tab sheet. A tab sheet printing unit 475.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing tab sheet setting processing executed by the print processing apparatus of the MFP.

  Referring to the drawing, in step S101, the tab sheet information setting / display unit 461 is used to set the tab sheet paper size, the number of tab headings (number of tabs = number of tab sheets in the tab sheet set), and the user setting of tab tab size. Accept. In step S103, tab sheet color settings for the number of headings are accepted as tab sheet color settings. When the user presses the OK button, the setting is stored in the tab sheet information storage unit 463 in step S105.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the tab sheet setting process executed by the printer driver installed in the PC.

  When the index sheet setting button is pressed on the driver screen, an index sheet setting dialog is displayed on the driver screen. When the device information button in the index sheet setting dialog is pressed, the tab sheet information storage unit 463 stores the information from the tab sheet information interactive communication unit 465 of the MFP using the device information acquisition unit 253 according to the flowchart of FIG. The tab sheet information being read is read (S201). The read tab sheet information is reflected in the GUI (S203). Specifically, each setting information (tab sheet, number of tab headings, color for each tab sheet, etc.) is displayed on the dialog screen. When the OK button is pressed, the dialog is closed.

The tab sheet information is stored in the tab sheet information storage unit 255.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart of tab sheet insertion setting processing executed by the printer driver.

  In step S301, the tab sheet insertion page number, print type, paper feed tray, staple, and punch hole insertion page are set on the driver screen. In addition, the item “Use index sheet” on the driver screen is checked, and the heading character and heading position are set. Here, the heading character indicates a character string to be printed on the ear portion (heading portion) of the tab sheet, and the heading position indicates a position at which the heading character is printed.

  When the “Details” button on the driver screen is pressed, a heading character detail setting dialog is displayed. In step S303, the character setting, the character position, the font name, the style, and the size of the tab portion are set in the detailed setting dialog.

  In step S305, the character color is set on the driver screen. In step S307, the background color of the character is set.

  In step S309, based on the character color, the background color, and the currently set tab sheet color, it is determined whether the character color and the background color are approximate (or the same color). If YES, it is determined that the visibility of the character is deteriorated, a corrected color is determined in step S313, and a message to change the color is displayed in step S315. Thereafter, in step S317, the color selected by the user is changed to a correction color. Note that the processing after step S309 is also performed when automatic is selected as the color (when automatic color setting is performed).

  In step S311, the setting state is displayed as a sample image. Thereafter, when the OK button is pressed, the setting is saved.

  Note that it is assumed that the color is an approximate color using a general L * a * b * color system. A color difference between two colors is taken, and if it is equal to or less than a threshold value, it is determined as an approximate color.

  FIG. 9 is a view showing a user interface screen for setting tab sheet information displayed on the operation panel 107 of the MFP.

  This screen is a screen displayed by the processing in the flowchart of FIG. In the screen, (1) is a part for setting the paper size, and (2) is a part for setting the number of tab headings. (3) is a part for setting the color of the tab sheet for each heading position (that is, tab sheet). Here, the selected color is displayed. Instead of displaying the color itself, the color may be expressed by a numerical value.

  (4) is a portion for displaying the colors of all currently set tab sheets. Here, the tab number is also displayed. Here, instead of displaying the color itself, the color may be expressed by a numerical value. In FIG. 9, tab sheets having 12 tab headings are set to be used, and the color of each 12 tab sheet is set.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a user interface screen for setting a printer driver insertion page, a heading character, and a heading position.

In the screen, (1) is a part for confirming information of setting contents in a list.
When the “add” or “edit” button of (2) is pressed, the user interface screen of FIG. 12 is displayed.

  When the “index sheet setting” button of (3) is pressed, the user interface screen of FIG. 11 is displayed.

  In the part (4), the current setting state is displayed. Here, the print type, paper feed tray, staple, punch hole, heading text, heading position, and color settings (tab paper color, heading text color, and background color) are set along with the page number. Is displayed.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a user interface screen for setting index sheet information of the printer driver.

  This screen is displayed by pressing (3) “Set index paper” in FIG. 10 and is a screen for setting the paper size, the number of tab headings, the heading position, and the paper color. Further, this screen is a screen for a printer driver for performing the same GUI setting as the setting content of FIG.

  When the “apparatus information” button in (1) is pressed, tab sheet information stored in the apparatus (MFP) is read.

  In the part (2), the user can set the paper size, the number of tab headings, the heading position, and the paper color. In addition, setting contents are displayed.

  In the part (3), the current tab sheet setting state (number of headings, color, etc.) is displayed as an image. Note that the color may be expressed by a numerical value.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a user interface screen for setting the page number of the paper to be inserted, the tab paper feed tray, the heading character, and the heading position.

This screen is displayed by the operation of the portion (2) in FIG.
The part (1) is a part for setting information of a sheet to be inserted, and a part for displaying the current set value. Here, the page number of the part into which the paper is inserted, the type of printing, the paper feed tray, the staple, and the punch hole are set.

  The part (2) is a part for setting a character to be printed on a headline, a heading position, and a part for displaying a current set value.

  When the “detail” button in (3) is pressed, the user interface screen of FIG. 13 is displayed.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a user interface screen for setting the heading character, the character direction, the character position, the font face name, the style, the size, the character color, and the character background color of the tab sheet to be inserted.

  The part (1) is a part for setting the color of characters to be printed on the headline. If “automatic” is selected, a color that is not close to the color of the selected tab sheet is automatically determined. When the color is arbitrarily selected and the selected color and the color of the tab sheet are approximate colors, the dialog message of FIG. 14 is displayed and the color is automatically changed to another color.

  The part (2) is a part for setting the background color of characters to be printed on the headline. The part (3) is a part for displaying the setting state of the current tab heading part as an image.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a specific example of the change message screen displayed in step S315 of FIG.

  Here, when the selected character color is an approximate color to the tab paper, printing with the character color selected for the user makes it difficult to distinguish the characters. The changed color is displayed.

  By such processing, it is possible to improve the visibility of characters at the heading portion of the tab sheet. In addition, since it is possible to notify the user of the problem of color overlap that occurs due to the combination of colors before execution of printing, it is possible to prevent printing failure on tab paper that is more expensive than normal paper. Thereby, the printing cost can be reduced. That is, a warning message can be displayed in advance when the color of the headline character arbitrarily selected by the user is the same color or approximate color as the color of the headline background.

[Modification]
Also, when selecting a color with good visibility as the color of characters to be printed on the tab paper, a color with good visibility for one tab paper may be selected, and printing may be performed by changing the color for each tab paper. Alternatively, a color with good visibility may be selected for all the tab sheet sets, and printing may be performed with the same color in all the tab sheet sets.

  For example, when the tab sheets I1 to I3 are inserted at predetermined positions in the document sets D1 to D6 in FIG. 15, if the tab sheets I1 to I3 are different colors, a color suitable for each color is selected. , “Ai”, “Up”, and “Kaki” may be printed in different colors, or a color suitable for the color of all tab sheets I1 to I3 may be selected. ”And“ Kaki ”may be printed in the same color.

  This is the same even when “automatic” is selected as the character color to be printed on the tab sheet.

  Furthermore, it is possible to configure the apparatus and the printer driver so as to determine the color and change at least one of the character color and the background color.

[Others]
The present invention can be implemented for an image forming apparatus such as an MFP, a facsimile machine, a copying machine, and a PC.

  Further, the processing in the above-described embodiment may be performed by software or by using a hardware circuit.

  In addition, a program for executing the processing in the above-described embodiment can be provided, and the program is recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, and a memory card and provided to the user. You may decide to do it. The program may be downloaded to the apparatus via a communication line such as the Internet.

  In addition, it should be thought that the said embodiment is an illustration and restrictive at no points. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the image printing system in one of the embodiment of this invention. 2 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of one MFP. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of 1 PC or server of FIG. FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of an insertion sheet information processing unit included in a printer driver installed in a PC. 3 is a functional block diagram of a tab sheet insertion processing unit of a print processing apparatus provided in the MFP. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a tab sheet setting process executed by a print processing apparatus of the MFP. 10 is a flowchart of tab sheet setting processing executed by a printer driver installed in a PC. 10 is a flowchart of tab sheet insertion setting processing executed by the printer driver. 6 is a diagram showing a user interface screen for setting tab sheet information displayed on the operation panel 107 of the MFP. FIG. It is a figure which shows the user interface screen for setting the insertion page of a printer driver, a heading character, and a heading position. 6 is a diagram illustrating a user interface screen for setting index sheet information of a printer driver. FIG. It is a figure which shows the user interface screen for setting the page number of the paper to insert, a tab paper feed tray, a heading character, and a heading position. It is a figure which shows the user interface screen for setting the heading character of the tab sheet to insert, a character direction, a character position, the font type name of a font, a style, a size, a character color, and a character background color. It is a figure which shows the specific example of the change message screen displayed by step S315 of FIG. It is a figure which shows the process at the time of inserting tab paper I1-I3 in the predetermined position in the document sets D1-D6.

Explanation of symbols

  107 Operation Panel, 200 Insert Sheet Information Processing Unit, 201 Insert Sheet Information Setting / Display Unit, 203 Tab Sheet Information Processing Unit, 205 Character Information Processing Unit, 207 Insert Sheet Information Storage Unit, 251 Tab Sheet Information Setting / Display Unit, 253 Device information acquisition unit, 255 tab sheet information storage unit, 261 character information setting / display unit, 263 same color / approximate color determination unit, 265 warning message display unit, 267 color correction processing unit, 269 character information storage unit, 401 print data processing 403 tab sheet information processing section 405 tab sheet print processing section 451 print data receiving section 453 print data storage section 455 print data analysis section 461 tab sheet information setting / display section 463 tab sheet information storage section 465 Tab paper information interactive communication unit, 471 Tab paper print determination unit, 473 Tab headline drawing processing unit, 475 Paper printing department.

Claims (10)

An image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet,
First input means for inputting color information of a tab sheet to be printed;
A second input means for inputting color information of characters to be printed on the tab sheet;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a changing unit configured to change a color of the character when visibility of the character is deteriorated based on a color of the tab sheet and a color of the character. An image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet,
First input means for inputting color information of a tab sheet to be printed;
A second input means for inputting color information of characters to be printed on the tab sheet;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a warning unit that issues a warning when the visibility of the character is deteriorated based on the color of the tab sheet and the color of the character.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second input unit inputs character information of a heading portion of a tab sheet from a printer driver. The second input means inputs information on the background color of the character,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the changing unit determines the visibility of the character in consideration of a background color of the character. The tab sheet is a set of a plurality of tab sheets,
5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first input unit inputs designation of colors of a plurality of tab sheets included in a set of tab sheets.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a communication unit that transmits information on the tab sheet to a printer driver. An image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet,
An input means for inputting color information of the tab sheet to be printed;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a determining unit configured to determine a color that does not deteriorate the visibility of the character with respect to the color of the character printed on the tab paper based on the color of the tab paper. A print control program used for controlling an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet,
A first input step for inputting color information of a tab sheet to be printed;
A second input step of inputting information on the color of characters to be printed on the tab sheet;
A printing control program for causing a computer to execute a changing step of changing the color of the character when the visibility of the character is deteriorated based on the color of the tab sheet and the color of the character. A print control program used for controlling an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet,
A first input step for inputting color information of a tab sheet to be printed;
A second input step of inputting information on the color of characters to be printed on the tab sheet;
A printing control program for causing a computer to execute a warning step of giving a warning when the visibility of the character is deteriorated based on the color of the tab sheet and the color of the character. A print control program used for controlling an image forming apparatus capable of printing characters on a heading portion of a tab sheet,
An input step for inputting color information of the tab sheet to be printed;
A print control program for causing a computer to execute a determination step of determining a color that does not deteriorate the visibility of the character with respect to the color of the character printed on the tab paper based on the color of the tab paper.

Images