JP2015146125A - Information processing apparatus and information processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem in which: since a conventional ruler is provided fixed to the upper end or left end of an edition screen, in an application editing a number of images, a user has difficulty intuitively understanding the size of each of the images.SOLUTION: An information processing apparatus acquires the size of each of a plurality of print objects, displays a ruler on each of the corresponding images, and displays a guide of a fixed size on each ruler. When a user performs an operation to enlarge or reduce the print objects, the information processing apparatus updates the display of the size guide according to the change in the size.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and an information processing method.

  For example, in a large-format printer using a recording medium (such as recording paper) having a large size such as A0 or more, when printing an image having a size smaller than the paper size, the images of a plurality of print jobs are collected in order to save paper. May be printed on a single sheet.

  In such a case, a document editing apparatus that freely arranges images on the layout editing screen is used. For example, Patent Document 1 describes displaying an actual size display unit together with a print image.

JP-A-9-050358

  However, in the above conventional example, the actual size display section is only displayed in a fixed manner, and it is not described that the actual size display section is changed depending on the editing content.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described conventional example, and an object thereof is to provide an information processing apparatus and an information processing method capable of intuitively easily grasping the size of an object on a display screen for object editing. To do.

  In order to achieve the above object, the information processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration.

  That is, there are display means for displaying a plurality of objects to be edited on the screen, and display control means for controlling to display a ruler and a size guide for at least one of the displayed objects. The display control means changes at least one of the ruler and the size guide according to an editing operation on the at least one object.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, there is an effect that the object size can be easily grasped.

1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printing system as an example of an embodiment. It is a figure which shows the edit screen of a layout application. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure when a print application is edited by executing a layout application. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen during the edit of a layout application. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen during operation of a layout application. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen during operation of a layout application. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a change process that accompanies print object size enlargement / reduction. It is a figure which shows an example of the screen during operation of a layout application.

  Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described more specifically and in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printing system which is an example of an embodiment.

  The printing system includes an information processing apparatus 10 that is equipped with a CPU such as a personal computer (PC) and can execute a computer program, and a printer 60 connected to the information processing apparatus 10. The printer (printing apparatus) 2 performs recording on a recording medium such as a large size recording sheet such as A0 or B0.

  In addition, although the printer 60 in this embodiment is an inkjet printer, other printers that employ an electrophotographic method, a sublimation method, or the like may be used.

  In addition, the information processing apparatus 10 of this embodiment is a personal computer having a general configuration, but can be widely applied to any device having functions of data input / output and data calculation / storage / display. . For example, if it is a printer, camera, or tablet terminal having a data calculation / storage function / display function, the same processing as the information processing apparatus 10 can be realized. In such a case, the information processing apparatus 10 can be replaced with a part of a printer, a camera, or a tablet terminal. Accordingly, a configuration in which the printer 60 includes the information processing apparatus 10 is also possible.

  In FIG. 1, the CPU 20 built in the information processing apparatus 10 executes various applications 50 to 52 stored in the ROM 30 using the RAM 25 as a work area to generate document data. In executing the application, the user creates and edits a document using the display 40, the keyboard (KB) 45, a pointing device (not shown), and the like. The created and edited document data is stored in a mass storage device such as a hard disk (HDD) / semiconductor disk (SSD) 35.

  Further, as described below, the information processing apparatus 10 converts the document data generated by the printer 60 into printable print data, controls the printer 60, and lays out a plurality of images based on the print data. Software for editing is installed. The following description relates to such software.

  As shown in FIG. 1, document data is generated by the applications 50 to 52. The document data is temporarily spooled in an EMF spool file 55 as EMF (Enhanced Meta File) data through a graphics device interface (GDI) 53. The GDI 53 notifies the user interface driver (printer driver UI) 54 of the start and end events of printing. For example, the user interface driver 54 activates the layout application 57 at the start timing of printing.

  When the spool to the EMF spool file is completed, the GDI 53 notifies the user interface driver 54 of the end of printing and simultaneously requests the print processor 56 to print. The print processor 56 generates page data 58 based on the EMF spool file, deletes the EMF spool file 55, and performs pseudo completion processing for the print request. This makes it possible to accept print requests from other applications. The layout application 57 monitors the page data 58, displays a print page on the screen of the display 40, and waits for a layout operation from the user.

  Although a print page based on document data is described here as an example, when the photo editing software is executed to perform layout editing, the target data is image data. Therefore, in the following description, a print page edited by the layout application 57 is referred to as a print object.

  The user completes print layout editing in the layout application 57 and instructs printing. In response to this, the layout application 57 requests the print processor 56 to print so that the editing content received by the layout application 57 is reflected in the page data 58. The print processor 56 receives a print request from the layout application 57 and instructs the printer graphic driver 59 to print via the GDI 53. The printer graphic driver 59 converts the EMF data into a command interpretable by the printer 60 and outputs the command to the printer 60.

  FIG. 2 is a view showing an editing screen of the layout application 57.

  The layout application 57 receives a plurality of print objects 101, 102, 103, 104 and the like from a plurality of applications such as the applications 50 to 52 via the GDI 53. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, a plurality of print objects received on the display screen of the display 40 are displayed while being laid out. The user executes the layout application 57 to perform various edits such as enlarging or reducing the print object 101 or changing the arrangement positions of the print objects 102 and 103, for example.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure when the print application is edited by executing the layout application. When the layout application 57 is executed to display the editing screen, an initial layout is first arranged. Although there are various methods for the initial arrangement, it is assumed that the arrangement is performed as shown in FIG. 2 in this embodiment. This flowchart is realized by the CPU 20 reading and executing a program related to the flowchart.

  After the initial arrangement as shown in FIG. 2, the layout application first acquires the print object size in step S101. Next, in step S102, the layout application determines, based on the acquired size of each print object, a minimum standard size that is larger than the print object size, and smaller than the print object size and that is the maximum standard size. For example, if the size of the print object 104 is 310 mm (horizontal) × 440 mm (vertical), the smallest standard size larger than the print object size is A2 (420 mm × 594 mm). On the other hand, the maximum standard size smaller than the print object size is A3 (297 mm × 420 mm).

  In step S103, the layout application displays a ruler having a size corresponding to the print object size acquired for each print object, and displays the standard size guide determined in step S102 on the ruler.

  Here, the standard size displayed by the standard size guide may be two, the minimum standard size obtained in step S102 and the minimum standard size and the maximum standard size smaller than the print object size. A fixed size may be displayed. However, when the display becomes complicated, the display range such as “display ISO standard A4 or higher” may be set in advance by the user.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example when one print object is displayed on the screen being edited by executing the layout application. This screen is a result obtained by executing the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the ruler 201 is displayed for the print object 104 and the standard size guide 202 is displayed. Here, the unit of length is not displayed on the ruler, but units such as mm and cm may be displayed.

  In the display of the ruler 201 and the standard size guide 202, the upper left corner of FIG. 4 is the coordinate origin, and the display of “A4”, “A3”, “A2” in the vertical and horizontal directions is the size from the coordinate origin. Refers to the vertical and horizontal sizes of

  Note that the ruler may be displayed for all print objects displayed on the screen of the display 40 by executing the layout application 57, but the ruler can be controlled to be displayed only in the following cases. That is, (1) the cursor of the pointing device overlaps with the print object, (2) the print object is selected by the user, and (3) the print object is dragged by the user.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the ruler 201 and the standard size guide 202 are displayed on the print object on which the cursor of the pointing device overlaps.

  The example shown in FIG. 5 shows a display when the cursor 301 of the pointing device is overlaid on the print object 104.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example in which the ruler 201 and the standard size guide 202 are displayed on the print object selected by the user and the print object dragged by the user.

  FIG. 6A shows that the print object 104 is selected by the user and the outline of the print object 104 becomes a thick line display 401, indicating that the print object 104 is being selected, and the ruler 201 and the standard size guide 202 are displayed on the print object 104. It is shown. FIG. 6B shows a cursor 501 indicating that the print object 104 is dragged by the user and the arrangement position is being changed, and the ruler 201 and the standard size guide 202 are displayed on the print object 104. It is shown.

  Next, consider a case where the user performs a size enlargement / reduction operation of the print object.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing display change processing of the ruler and the standard size guide accompanying the enlargement / reduction of the size of the print object.

  First, in step S201, the layout application checks whether the size of the print object to be edited has been changed. Note that this size change can be realized by the user positioning the cursor of the pointing device at the four corners and the four sides around the target print object and dragging the cursor as it is.

  If it is determined that the size change operation of the print object to be edited is not performed, the process ends as it is. However, if it is determined that the size change operation is performed, the process proceeds to step S202. In step S202, the layout application executes redisplay of the ruler. Since the content of step S202 corresponds to step S101 to step S104 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 3, the description thereof is omitted.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example in which a ruler 201 and a standard size guide 202 are displayed in association with a print object size enlargement / reduction operation.

  FIG. 8A shows an example in which the print object 104 is enlarged. In FIG. 8A, 601 represents the size of the print object 104 before enlargement, 602 represents the display of a standard size guide before enlargement, and 605 is an icon on the screen indicating that the print object 104 is being enlarged. is there. In the example of FIG. 8A, the size 602 before enlargement of the print object 104 is 250 mm (horizontal) × 300 mm (vertical). That is, A4 and A3 are displayed as the standard size guide before the enlargement operation by the user.

  It is assumed that the print object 104 is enlarged to the solid line frame 603 as a result of the enlargement operation by the user. As a result, the size of the enlarged print object is 300 mm (horizontal) × 500 mm (vertical). In this case, the ruler 201 and the standard size guide 604 are updated and drawn according to the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. At this time, the A4 standard size guide displayed before the enlargement operation is deleted.

  On the other hand, the standard size guide 602 is displayed as a maximum standard size which is smaller than the print object size. Then, the new standard size guide 604 (A2) is displayed as a minimum standard size guide that is larger than the print object size. The size (or length) of the ruler 201 is also changed to a size (or length) corresponding to the enlarged print object size.

  FIG. 8B shows an example when the print object 104 is reduced. In FIG. 8B, 701 represents the size of the print object 104 before reduction, 702 shows the display of a standard size guide before enlargement, and 705 is an icon on the screen indicating that the print object 104 is being reduced. is there. In the example of FIG. 8B, the size 701 before reduction of the print object 104 is 450 mm (horizontal) × 650 mm (vertical). That is, A1 and A2 are displayed as the standard size guides before the reduction operation by the user.

  It is assumed that the print object 104 is reduced as shown by a solid line frame 703 as a result of the reduction operation by the user operation. As a result, the size of the reduced print object is 300 mm (horizontal) × 500 mm (vertical). In this case, the ruler 201 and the standard size guide 704 are updated and drawn according to the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. At this time, the standard size guide A1 displayed before the reduction operation is deleted. On the other hand, the standard size guide 702 (A2) is displayed as a minimum standard size guide which is larger than the print object size. Then, a new standard size guide 704 (A3) is displayed as the maximum standard size which is smaller than the print object size. The size (or length) of the ruler 201 is also changed to a size (or length) corresponding to the reduced print object size.

  In this embodiment, A size is displayed as the standard size, but naturally A size and B size may be displayed. In the present embodiment, both the ruler and the standard size guide are changed according to the editing of the print object, but at least one of them may be changed.

  Note that, as a result of the user's enlargement operation of the print object, when the maximum size of the displayed standard size guide is exceeded, control is performed to redisplay the minimum standard size that can accommodate the print object. Similarly, when the user performs a reduction operation of the print object and the size is smaller than the minimum size of the displayed standard size guide, control is performed to display the guide of the maximum standard size that can accommodate the print object.

  Therefore, according to the embodiment described above, display control can be performed so as to display rulers and size guides for all print objects displayed on the display screen or print objects that satisfy certain conditions. Also, a standard size guide that is a guide when the user enlarges / reduces the print object is displayed together with the ruler. Thereby, the change to the target size becomes easy.

  Further, it goes without saying that the embodiment of the present invention can be similarly applied to all the print objects arranged in the layout described above as long as they are objects to be printed such as documents and photographs.

  Note that the processing of the above embodiment is also realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus via a network or various storage media, and a computer (or CPU, MPU, or the like) of the system or apparatus reads the program. It is a process to be executed. At this time, processing may be performed by one computer, or processing may be performed while linking a plurality of computers. Further, a part or all of this processing may be realized by hardware such as ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit).

Claims (10)

Display means for displaying a plurality of objects to be edited on the screen;
Display control means for controlling to display a ruler and a size guide for at least one of the displayed objects;
The information processing apparatus, wherein the display control unit changes at least one of the ruler and the size guide according to an editing operation on the at least one object.   The display control means controls to display the ruler and the size guide for all of the plurality of objects or objects satisfying a predetermined condition, respectively. The information processing apparatus described in 1. Further comprising instruction means for instructing a position on the screen and instructing the object;
The display control means includes an object displayed at a position overlapping with a position designated by the user using the instruction means, an object selected by the user using the instruction means, or the user selects the instruction means. The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the ruler and the size guide are controlled to be displayed for an object selected and dragged.   The display control means is displayed on the object according to the enlargement or reduction operation when performing an operation of enlarging or reducing the size of the object selected by the user using the instruction means. The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein control is performed so that the ruler and the size guide are displayed again. The plurality of objects are a plurality of print objects to be printed on a printer;
5. The information according to claim 1, further comprising an editing unit that performs layout editing for performing layout editing when the plurality of print objects are printed on a recording medium on the screen. 6. Processing equipment. A determination unit configured to determine a size of a standard recording medium to be displayed as the size guide based on a print size of each of the plurality of print objects;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the display control unit controls the size determined by the determination unit to be displayed as a size guide at a corresponding position of the ruler.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the discrimination unit discriminates between a minimum standard size larger than the print size and a maximum standard size smaller than the print size.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display control unit performs control so that a unit of length is displayed on the ruler.   The program for functioning a computer as each means of the information processing apparatus of any one of Claims 1 thru | or 8. A display process for displaying a plurality of objects to be edited on the screen;
A display control step for controlling to display a ruler and a size guide for at least one of the plurality of objects displayed in the display step;
In the display control step, at least one of the ruler and the size guide is changed according to an editing operation on the at least one object.

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