JP2001347704A - Print data forming system and medium recorded with its program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print data forming system in which the time required for determining a data length being delivered to a printer can be shortened by shortening the dithering time, and a recording medium stored with its program. SOLUTION: The print image forming system comprises a print driver program 2 receiving an instruction from an OS 1, and a storage device 3 and delivers specified print data to an output unit 4, i.e., a printer. The print driver program 2 comprises means 21 for analyzing an instruction, means 22 for writing, means 23 for dithering and means 24 for outputting print data. The storage device 3 comprises a section 31 for developing a print image, a section 32 for developing dithered image and a section 33 for storing raster image.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print data creation method and a recording medium recording the program, and more particularly to a print image creation method for a printer for drawing in raster units and a recording medium recording the program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional technique relating to a printer is disclosed in, for example, "Serial Printer" of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-20006. In a print data creation method in a conventional printer driver, a range in which a drawing process and a drawing are performed is managed using information on a drawing range included in a drawing command passed from an OS (operating system) controlling the printer driver. I was In the conventional print data creation method, a rectangular area including a character pattern is specified as a drawing range in character drawing or the like. However, when a drawn print image is viewed as a group of horizontal dots (raster), a character May include a blank portion in which no point is drawn in the raster.

For example, as shown in FIG. 8, a drawing range D2 is designated by a drawing command from the OS to a memory D1 for drawing a print image. In this case, what is actually drawn is the image range D3. However, in the conventional data creation method, the drawing range D4 in the memory D1 is determined as a processing range, that is, a range in which processing is performed. Also,
Based on the drawing range information based on the drawing command, for a plurality of drawing, a rectangular area including the drawing range of each drawing command is recognized as a drawing range. The range in which the printer driver performs the process in the data output process is wider than the actual print range. Further, after dither processing is performed on a range wider than the actual print range, a raster in which print data actually exists is determined, and then a data length to be sent to the output device is determined.

[0004]

The prior art as described above has several problems as follows. First, the dither processing takes time. The reason is that the dither processing is performed in units of one pixel of the drawn image, so that if the range in which the image is drawn is large, the processing time is correspondingly long. Next, it takes time to determine the data length to be sent to the printer. The reason is that the presence or absence of data on the raster is determined from the result of the dither processing, and the determination is made to send the raster to the printer.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of creating print data for a printer driver which overcomes or reduces the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, ie, shortens the processing time, and a storage medium for storing the program. It is in.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a print data generating method comprising a printer driver program which operates under the control of an operating system (OS), a storage device, and a printing device in which an output device is processed into a predetermined data format. The printer driver program outputs command data. The printer driver program includes command analysis means for analyzing a command from the OS, drawing means for drawing based on the output of the command analysis means, and print data output means for outputting print data to an output device. The storage device includes a raster information storage unit that stores the start point and the end point of the raster position based on the output of the drawing unit.

According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, in the case of color (multi-color) printing, the raster information storage section has a plurality of raster information storage sections corresponding to colors to be printed. The printer driver program includes dither processing means for performing dither processing, and the storage device includes a print image developing unit for developing a print image for each drawing command based on the output of the drawing means, and a dither processing image developing unit. At the stage of drawing on the print image developing unit from the drawing command, the presence or absence of drawing in raster units is determined. Further, a recording medium for recording the program of the print data creation method of the present invention records the above-described program of the print data creation method.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The construction and operation of a preferred embodiment of a print data creation method and a storage medium storing the program according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a first embodiment of a print data creation system according to the present invention. The first embodiment of the print data creation method illustrated in FIG. 1 includes an operating system (hereinafter referred to as an OS) 1,
Printer driver program (hereinafter referred to as program)
2, a storage device 3 and an output device 4. The program 2 includes an instruction analyzing unit 21 and a drawing unit 2
2, dither processing means 23 and print data output means 24
Contains. On the other hand, the storage device 3 includes a print image developing unit 31, a dither processing image developing unit 32, and a raster information storage unit 33.

[0010] Since the program 2 operates under the control of the OS 1, the output from the OS 1 is input to the instruction analysis means 21 of the program 2. The output of the instruction analyzing unit 21 is input to the drawing unit 22, the dither processing unit 23, and the print data output unit 24. The output of the drawing unit 22 is output to the print image developing unit 31 and the raster information storage unit 3 of the storage device 3.
3 is input. The dither processing unit 23 further receives outputs from the print image developing unit 31 and the raster information storage unit 33, and inputs the output to the dither processing image developing unit 32. The print data output unit 24 is further configured to receive outputs from the dither processing image developing unit 32 and the raster information storage unit 33 and input the output to the output device 4.

Each component or means shown in FIG. 1 operates as follows. The command analysis unit 21 in the program 2 receives a control command and a drawing command related to printing from the OS 1. When receiving the drawing command from the OS 1, the command analyzing unit 21 analyzes the command. When drawing is performed based on the analysis result, the printing unit 22 uses the drawing unit 22 to develop the print image for each drawing command in the print image developing unit 31. At the same time as the development of the print image, the values of the starting point and the ending point stored in the corresponding raster position in the raster information storage unit 33 are compared in units of the raster in which the drawing is performed. When the drawing range is widened, the start point, the end point, or both values are updated. The command analysis unit 21 receives all the drawing commands from the OS 1 and, when instructed to output the drawn portion from the OS 1, sequentially executes the dither processing unit 23 and the print data output unit 24.

The dither processing means 23 sequentially checks the raster information storage unit 33, reads out a raster in which the value of the drawing start point is set from the print image developing unit 31, and executes dither processing. The raster image subjected to the dither processing is stored at the same raster position in the dither processing image developing unit 32. This processing by the dither processing means 23 is repeated up to the number of rasters constituting the print image developing unit 31.

The print data output unit 24 checks the raster information storage unit 33 of the storage device 3 in order. The range from the first raster to the last raster in which the value of the drawing start point is set is determined as an image range to be actually printed by the output device 4, and output is performed in a data format suitable for the output device 4.

Next, the operation of the print data creation method shown in FIG. 1 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when printing is started by the OS 1, the program 2 is initialized, sets information indicating that no drawing is performed in the raster information storage unit 33 (step A 1), and issues a command from the OS 1. wait. The instruction analysis means 21 analyzes what the instruction from the OS 1 indicates (step A2). If the command is a drawing command, the drawing unit 22 performs image drawing for each command. Next, it is determined whether it is a drawing end command (step A).
3). If the drawing is completed (step A3: Y), the process proceeds to the dither processing unit 23 and the print data output unit 24 (steps A19 to A25) as described later.

The drawing means 22 performs drawing by dividing the drawing command into an image drawing command such as bitmap data or a drawing command such as a character or graphic (steps A4 to A18). That is, it is determined whether it is a character or a graphic (step A4). In the case of an image drawing command (step A4: N), since the image data to be drawn is rectangular, a raster position for drawing the upper end of the image is obtained (step A5). Then, from the raster position to the lower end of the image in order,
If the values at the left and right ends of the image rectangle are to be drawn in a wider range than the values stored in the corresponding raster in the raster information storage unit 33, the values are updated (steps A6 to A10).

When the object to be drawn is a figure or a character (step A)
4: Y), the actual print pattern may be smaller than the drawing range specified by the drawing command. Therefore, the drawing process is different from the case of the image drawing. A raster located at the upper end of the drawing range specified by the drawing command is obtained (step A
11) The character or figure pattern is actually drawn on the raster. When the drawing is actually performed on the raster for which the drawing process is being performed, the drawing position is compared with the value stored in the corresponding raster in the raster information storage unit 33 to determine the drawing start point or the end point. Update is performed (steps A12 to A15). When the rendering process for one raster is completed, the process moves to the next raster (step A17), and the same process is repeated. This process is repeated for the drawing range specified by the drawing command (step A18).

If the drawing is completed in the instruction analysis (step A2) (step A3: Y), the procedure proceeds to the dither processing procedure by the dither processing means 23 (steps A19 to A25).
In the dither processing, it is checked whether or not the drawing start point is set in order from the position on the raster information storage unit 33 corresponding to the leading raster of the print image developing unit 31 (step A1).
9). Then, it is determined whether or not there is a drawing start point (step A20). If the drawing start point is set (step A20: Y), the drawing image is read from the corresponding raster on the print image developing unit 31, and dither processing is performed.
The image subjected to the dither processing is drawn on the corresponding raster position of the dither processing image developing unit 32 (step A21). This processing is repeated until the last raster position of the print image developing unit 31 (steps A22 and A22).
23). If there is no drawing start point (step A20: N), the process proceeds to step A22 and shifts to the next raster.

Next, the print data output means 24 obtains a raster in which the drawing start position is recorded first and a raster in which the drawing start position is recorded last from the information in the raster information storage unit 33. The raster in the range is set as data to be sent to the output device 4 (step A24). Next, the determined data range is output after performing processing such as data format and compression suitable for the output device 4 (step A25).

In the first embodiment described above, at the time of performing drawing from a drawing command, the presence or absence of drawing in raster units is determined.
For a raster to be drawn, information indicating a drawing start point and an end point is stored. In the dither processing and the print data output processing after the drawing is completed, the processing is performed based on the stored raster information, so that the dither processing can be performed in the minimum range for the raster on which the print image is actually drawn. In addition, by performing print data output processing in the minimum range, the print image creation processing time can be reduced.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a specific example of the present invention. As shown in FIG.
1. It is assumed that a drawing command for drawing the line segment B3 has been received. In this case, since only the drawing range specification B2 for the character B1 and the drawing range specification B4 for the line segment B3 are known from the drawing command, the minimum range to be drawn is directly changed to a rectangle including the drawing range included in the two drawing commands. It is determined that the area is B5.

Therefore, in the print image creation method according to the present invention, when the character B1 is drawn on the print image developing unit 31 shown on the left side of FIG. The values of the start point and the end point are stored in the corresponding raster positions of the raster information storage unit 33 shown on the right side of FIG. In the case of the line segment B3, the drawing height is the same as that of the drawing range designation B4, but the width is actually drawn in a small range. Like the character B1, each raster is actually drawn. The drawn width (start point and end point) is stored in the raster information storage unit 33. The dither processing unit 23 and the print data output unit 24 determine the range (B6, B
7) A dither process and a print data output process are performed on the values of the start point and the end point.

Next, a second embodiment of the print data creation method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. Note that, for convenience, the same reference numerals are used for components corresponding to the first embodiment shown in FIG. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of the embodiment. The second embodiment shown in FIG. 4 also includes an OS 1, a program 2, and a storage device 3.
And an output device 4. The program 2 includes a command analysis unit 21, a drawing unit 22, a dither processing unit 23, and a print data output unit 24. Further, the storage device 3 includes a print image developing unit 31, a dither processing image developing unit 32, and a raster information storage unit 33 '. The difference from the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is that a plurality of raster information storage units 33 'are provided in accordance with the number of colors for color (multi-color) printing.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The overall operation of the print data creation method shown in FIG. 4 will be described in detail. In the flowchart in FIG.
The operation of A21 and the operations of A22 to A25 are the operations of steps A1 to A21 and A22 in the first embodiment.
Since the operation is the same as that of A25, duplicate description is omitted. The dither processing unit 23 in the first embodiment sequentially checks the raster information recording unit 33, performs dither processing on the raster on which the start point information is recorded, and
The value of 3 was also used for the print data output means 24 as it was. When the dither processing is performed, the image may disappear even in a portion where the image originally exists, or may become a pixel to be drawn. Particularly in the case of color printing, by performing dither processing, the drawing range (start point and end point) of each color data is different even for the same raster.

In the second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 4, raster information recording sections 33 'are provided for the number of colors created by dither processing. Then, the raster information recording unit 3
It is checked whether or not the drawing start point is set in order from the position on 3 ′. Performs dither processing on the raster for which the drawing start point is set. At the time of dither processing, the starting point and the ending point are obtained for each color data, and the value of the storage location for each color in the raster information recording unit 33 'is updated and added (step A).
A1). This process is repeated up to the lowermost raster position of the print image developing unit 31. The print data output processing 24
Using the raster information recording unit 33 ′ in which the value is updated and additionally written by the dither processing unit 23, the output range for each color constituting the raster is obtained, and the print data to be sent to the output device 4 is output.

In the above-described second embodiment, since the raster information storage units 33 'are provided for the number of colors generated by the dither processing, the minimum range of the data for each color can be known in the print data output processing. The print data output processing time can be reduced as compared with the mode.

Next, a specific example of the present invention will be described. As shown in FIG. 6, the print image developing unit 31 outputs four colors (C, M, Y).
This is a specific example in a case where a graphic C1 painted with different colors is drawn. At the end of the drawing command,
The raster information storage unit 33 'uses only the size of one color, and the values of the start point and end point store the values indicating the left and right ends of the graphic C1. In the second embodiment of the present invention, when the dither processing is performed, as shown in FIG.
The size of the color is used, and the values of the start point and the end point for each color data are individually stored. In this specific example, the minimum range of the print image after the dither processing can be known for each color by providing the raster information storage unit 33 'for the print colors of the output device 4. Therefore, the processing time in the print data output unit 24 can be reduced even in monochrome (black) printing or color printing.

The configuration and operation of the preferred embodiment of the print data creation system according to the present invention have been described above in detail. However, such an embodiment is merely an example of the present invention and does not limit the present invention in any way. It will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and changes can be made in accordance with the particular application without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[0028]

As will be understood from the above description, the present invention has the following practically significant effects. First
In addition, the time required for dither processing can be reduced. The reason for this is to provide a raster information storage unit that records the processing range in raster units when the original image to be dithered is created. Second, the processing time of print data sent to the output device can be reduced. The reason for this is to provide a plurality of raster information storage units for recording the processing range in raster units for each color subjected to dither processing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a first embodiment of a print data creation method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of the print data creation method shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the print data creation method shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a second embodiment of a print data creation method according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the print data creation method shown in FIG.

6 is a diagram illustrating a raster information storage unit before dither processing in the print data creation method illustrated in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a raster information storage unit after dither processing according to the print data creation method illustrated in FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a drawing processing range according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Operating system (OS) 2 Printer driver program 3 Storage device 4 Output device 21 Command analysis means 22 Drawing means 23 Dither processing means 24 Print data output means 31 Print image development part 32 Dither processing image development part 33, 33 'Raster information storage Department

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A print data creation method comprising: a printer driver program that operates under the control of an operating system (OS); and a storage device, and outputs print data processed in a predetermined data format to an output device. The program comprises: command analysis means for analyzing a command from the OS; drawing means for drawing based on an output of the command analysis means; and print data output means for outputting print data to the output device. A print data creation method, comprising: a raster information storage unit that stores a start point and an end point of a raster position based on an output of a drawing unit. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said raster information storage unit has a plurality of raster information storage units corresponding to colors to be printed in color (or multicolor) printing. Print data creation method. 3. The printer driver program includes dither processing means for performing dither processing.
3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a print image developing unit that develops a print image for each drawing command based on an output of the drawing unit.
Print data creation method described in. 4. The print data according to claim 1, wherein the presence / absence of rendering in raster units is determined at the stage of rendering on the print image developing unit of the storage device from a rendering command. Creation method. 5. A recording medium for storing a print data creation method program according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4.