JP2002132758A - Device and method for processing document - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable processing of an HTML document containing contents to appear only at the time of printing. SOLUTION: At the time of printing, first of all, a tag is read out of a document (step 402) and when there is the tag of <PCONTENTS>, that tag is acquired from a URL designated by that tag. Then, an acquired file is rendered (step 411), a master document is rendered as well (steps 404-406) and they are coupled and printed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of printing a document described in a markup language, and is for differentiating a display on a screen from a printed content.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the recent development of the Internet, the network protocol TCP / IP (Trans
Mission Control Protocol / I
2. Description of the Related Art WWW (World Wide Web) -based information sharing formed on an Internet Protocol (network) network is in progress.

[0003] In the WWW, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Lan) stored on a Web server is used.
document) is described in HTTP (H
hyper Text Transfer Protocol
Distribute and publish information according to 1). The viewer of the document can use an HT called a Web browser prepared on a personal computer or a mobile terminal connected to the Internet.
Use ML browsing software to access the URL (Uniform R
resource Locator), connect to the Web server, and obtain a desired HTML document.

[0004] HTML is a text document, and its structure is described by a document structure information specifier called a tag in addition to the description content of the document. For this reason, if a Web browser is provided in the browsing environment, documents can be shared in a form independent of a platform such as a personal computer and a workstation. In general, defining a sentence structure by a tag is referred to as markup, and such a description language is referred to as a markup language.

[0005] HTML is the World Wide Web.
Standardization is underway by Consortium (W3C). Also, a new markup language, Extensions
ible Markup Language (XML)
Has also been devised. Since XML allows a user to define and use a tag for an arbitrary purpose, XML has attracted attention because it can share not only Web documents but also various documents and data.

[0006]

While Web pages are exploding, the printing of Web pages is not as focused as on screen display technology. For example, current markup languages such as HTML and XML cannot describe contents that appear only at the time of printing. Current ink jet printers / laser beam printers have advanced to very high resolution, and can generally provide more character / image information than paper on paper used for printing. On the screen, it has been difficult to provide print-only services such as providing as simplified information as possible and outputting to a printer in order to read in detail, and providing more information.

As another problem, there is a problem of image deterioration due to the difference between the resolution of the screen and the resolution of the printing press.
With the spread of outline fonts having variable font sizes such as TrueType fonts, character information can be printed on a high-resolution printer with the same quality as the screen quality even in a Web page. However, JPE
At present, with regard to bitmap image files such as G, at the time of printing, low-resolution images used for screen display are enlarged and printed by an enlargement algorithm. In general, a display system used for screen display has a resolution of 100 dpi or less, whereas an ink jet printer and a laser beam printer used for printing have a resolution of about 300 to 1500 dpi in many cases. As described above, when a bitmap image is enlarged in an environment having completely different resolutions, the image generally deteriorates.
For this reason, there is a problem that an image viewed on the screen as a low-resolution image for screen display becomes unclear when printed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and when printing of a document is designated, a description of a content created for print processing from the designated document is identified, and the description is made based on the description. An object of the present invention is to provide a document processing apparatus and method capable of clear printing by printing designated content.

[0009]

To achieve the above object, the present invention has the following arrangement.

A document processing apparatus for printing a document based on document data described in a markup language, comprising: identification means for identifying a specific code for identifying print data; Acquisition means for acquiring the print data specified by the specified specific code, and means for causing the print means to print the print data acquired by the acquisition means together with other document data.

[0011] More preferably, there is further provided a display means for displaying document data not including the print data specified by the specific code.

[0012] More preferably, the specific code includes identification data for identifying the print data.

More preferably, the specific code is further connected to a communication network, and the specific code further includes data for specifying a position of the print data in the communication network.

[0014] More preferably, the specific code is attached to a code indicating image data, and the obtaining means obtains the image data with the specific code attached at the time of printing, and causes the printing means to print the image data.

[0015] More preferably, the specific code is attached to a code indicating image data, and the obtaining means obtains image data without the specific code at the time of display and displays the image data on the display means.

More preferably, the apparatus further comprises the printing means.

More preferably, it is connected to the printing means.

[0018]

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 is an external view showing features of an embodiment of an information processing system in which a printer 102 is connected to a host computer according to the present invention. Further, the host computer 101 is connected via the Internet 104 to a Web server 103 that supplies Web pages.

<Structure of Host Computer> 101 is a host computer (information processing device), and 102 is a printer device. In the embodiment of the present invention, the host computer 101 and the printer 102 are connected by a USB (Universal Serial Bus) cable.
The connection form includes a parallel interface and IEEE
A 1284 interface or the like may be used.
Not limited to It should be noted that the USB standard and IEEE1284
Since the standards and the like are not related to the present invention, detailed description will be omitted.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the host computer 101 in the present embodiment.

An AC adapter (rated voltage 2
0 [V], 54 [W]) 201 and a nickel-hydrogen secondary battery (rated voltage 12 [V], 2700 [mA / h]) 202
There is. The built-in functions include a power supply unit 203 for supplying power required by the host computer to each unit, a power management IC 204 for switching between driving power and standby power, and a host for executing an operating system. CPU 20 that manages the entire computer and executes an application such as a browser described later
5. Basic input / output system (BIOS) which is a program for controlling various devices connected to the computer
206, an LCD 207 for displaying an image, a video controller (VGAC) 208 for controlling the display of the image, and a video memory (VRAM) 20 for storing image data to be displayed
9, a hard disk drive (HDD) 210 for storing programs and data such as an operating system and applications, a hard disk controller (HDC) 211 for controlling a hard disk,
DMA controller (DMAC) 212 for controlling DMA between devices, a port such as USB (POR
T) 213, a floating point processor (FPU) 214 for performing a floating point operation, a real time clock (RTC) 215 for managing real time, a keyboard 217 for a user to input, and a keyboard controller for controlling the keyboard ( KBC) 216, a system main memory 218 in which data and programs are stored and accessed by the CPU 205, a floppy disk drive (FDD) 220 for writing and reading data to and from a floppy disk medium, and a floppy disk drive for controlling the FDD 220. Disk controller (FDC) 219,
An interrupt controller (IRQC) 221 for managing interrupts from devices and the like, a serial interface (SIO) 222 for connecting peripheral devices, and the like are provided.

The USB interface is provided via a USB port included in the port 213. FIG.
NIC 223 is a network interface card, through which the host PC is connected to the Internet.

The configuration of the host computer according to the present embodiment has been described above. However, if the host computer can be connected to the Internet, connected to a printer, and can execute a program of a procedure described later, the configuration will be different from that of FIG. It may be different.

<Configuration of Printer> FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the printer 102 of FIG. 1 embodying the present invention. In the present embodiment, the printer 102 is an ink jet serial printer.

In FIG. 3, by turning on / off the power switch 301, the power of the printer is switched on / off. When the cartridge replacement switch 302 is turned on, the carriage is moved to a predetermined position where the ink cartridge can be replaced. Reset switch 303
Is a switch for resetting an error state or the like and returning to a state at power-on.

The LED 304 is an LED which lights up in green when the power is turned on, and the LED 305 is an LED which lights up in orange when an error occurs. If an LED that lights up in two colors, green and orange, is used alone, one LED can serve as both.

The signal line 310 is a signal line for transmitting the operation of the power switch 301 to the MPU 317. This signal line 3
Since 10 is transmitted to the MPU 317 as an interrupt signal 313, the MPU 317 is processed with priority.

The buses 311 and 312 are an address bus and an address / data bus for connecting the printer control gate array 314, the MPU 317 and the ROM 316, respectively. The ROM 316 stores a program describing the operation and processing of the MPU 317.

The printer control gate array 314 has control functions such as switches, LEDs, interfaces, and memories. The printer control gate array 314 also manages the speakers of the microphones 339 and 340.

The RAM 315 is a RAM that provides a storage area for temporarily storing data and the like when the MPU 317 performs processing.

The signal line 318 is a carriage motor 3 for moving a carriage which is a support for the ink cartridge.
19 and feed motor 320 for feeding printing paper
Is a signal line for transmitting a signal for performing the above control.

The ink cartridge 322 has a structure in which the ink itself and a head for discharging the ink are integrated. An ID indicating the type of the ink cartridge itself is also recorded.

The control line 321 is connected to the ink cartridge 32
2 is a control line for controlling the head and reading the ID.

The commercial power supply 306 is a commercial power supply provided to ordinary households.

The adapter 307 is an AC adapter that converts the commercial power supply 306 into a DC 5 volt power supply 308 and a DC 24 volt power supply 309. DC 5 volt power supply 308 is M
The electronic components such as the PU 317 are used to operate, and the DC 24 V power supply 309 is used to drive the motors 319 and 320 and the head 322 in the ink cartridge.

Interface control signal 323
Connects the interface controller 327 to the printer control gate array 324. This is used for the printer control gate array 314 to detect the operation mode of the interface.

The data bus 324 is a data bus for sending data received from the PC by the interface controller 327 to the printer control gate array 314. The interface controller 327 switches between data from the Centronics connector 329 and data from the USB MPU 338. This switching is performed by the analog switch 325. The interface controller 327 is designed to always give priority to the data from the USB MPU 338. That is, when print data is sent to both the Centronics connector 329 and the USB B type connector 335, the USB side is always given priority and data from the Centronics side is not received. This switching is performed using the status of the signal line from the Centronics interface 326 and the status of the signal line 330.

Data signal 328 is a signal from the Centronics interface. Flash memory 331
Is a USB MPU3 that controls the USB interface
38 programs are stored. The USB has A type and B type connectors, and a B type connector 335 is connected to a PC or an upstream device. An A type connector 334 is connected to the downstream device. The signal lines 336 and 337 are A-type connectors 334, respectively.
And a signal line to the B type connector 335.

The configuration of the printer according to the present embodiment has been described above. The configuration of the printer device in FIG. 3 is that of a serial printer, but may be of an electrophotographic type or the like. In the electrophotographic method, the print head 322 is used.
Instead of the carriage motor 319, a semiconductor laser that outputs a laser beam modulated with an image signal, a rotating polygon mirror for scanning a medium with the laser beam, and an electrostatic latent image for forming and developing an electrostatic latent image A developing unit and the like are provided.

<Printing of WWW Page Described in HTML> Next, the host computer having the above configuration is connected to a printer, and the host computer is connected to the Internet to refer to the WWW page and print it. The print control method will be described. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the contents of each unit in the system of FIG. 1 for a configuration for printing a WWW page.

In the host computer 101, browser software 1011 for browsing Web pages operates under the control of the operating system 1012.

The browser 1011 executes the UR of the Web page.
When L is specified, Web is performed according to the HTTP protocol.
Connects to the server (document server) 103 and
A desired HTML file provided by the P server 1031 is downloaded. Downloaded HTML
The file is parsed by the browser 1011 and
Displayed according to the contents of the file.

Printing from an application including a browser follows the printing environment of the operating system 1012 that executes the application. The print data sent to the printer 1012 is printed by the printer engine 1021 under the control of the controller 1022.

The configuration of the software according to the present embodiment has been described above. However, in another embodiment, if the configuration allows browsing of a markup language and print processing, the configuration of the software according to the present embodiment is not limited. And may be different.

In the present embodiment, a method for providing print-only content and a browser process for the method are provided.

First, a content provider describes ordinary screen display content in HTML. In addition to the screen display content, the print content to be provided at the time of printing is described as a separate file as shown in FIG. In order to refer to this file, as shown in FIG. 6, a newly expanded <PC
ONTENTS> tag, U of print content
A link is established by specifying the RL. <PCONTEN
As shown in the HTML document 601 of FIG. 6, the contents of the TS> tag are, for example, as follows.

<PCONTENTS SRC = "http: //WWW.ganon.co.j
p / image.jpg "></PCONTENTS> In the above example," http://WWW.ganon.co.jp/image.jpg "is the link that specifies the print content. "Image. jpg ”is stored as the print-only content 602, then <PCON
The HTML document 601 including the TENTS> tag is imported. In the example of FIG.
A character string "store discount ticket" is described.

For browsers that do not support the <PCONTENTS> tag, <PCONTENTS> is determined as an unsupported tag according to the HTML specifications. Also, since <PCENTENTS> itself is an empty tag containing no content, it does not affect the display result or the print result. Therefore, the benefit of the present invention is <P
CONTENTS> Only a dedicated browser that has been extended for tags.

FIG. 4 shows a flow of processing of the extended browser for supporting a new tag. FIG. 4 shows a processing procedure when the extended browser receives a print request. To simply display, <PCONENTS>
No processing for tags is performed.

Upon receiving the print request, the extended browser 1011 analyzes the HTML file that is the target of the print request.

First, a tag is searched (step 402), and it is determined whether or not the tag is of standard HTML (step 403). As a result, if the tag is a standard tag, standard rendering processing is performed in step 404 and subsequent steps. If the result of step 403 is that it is not a standard tag, that is, if it is a newly defined tag <PCONENTS>,
The process moves to step 410.

In step 410, <PCONT
In the form of a tag such as ENTS SRC = URL>,
Download and acquire the print content from the URL specified by the SRC. In step 411, the HTML rendering process of FIG. 4 is recursively performed on the downloaded HTML file. This rendered result is placed at the position defined in the original document.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step 403 that the tag is a standard tag, an image is formed according to the tag in steps 404 to 407.

The image rendered in this manner is printed out by the printer 103.

FIG. 8 shows an example of HTML document data using the <PCONTENTS> tag. FIG.
Is an example of the print result of the document data shown in FIG.

According to the above-described procedure, the browser according to the present embodiment makes it possible to capture HTML document data described as print-only content into a document only during printing and print it.

The use of the print content has an advantage that a service that occurs only when printing is provided, such as issuance of a discount ticket, for example.

For browsers that do not support print-only tags, tags that are not supported are ignored according to the HTML specifications, so there is no effect such as display of the surface being disturbed by the content display to which the present invention is applied.

In this embodiment, HTML is taken as an example, but the present invention can be easily applied to other markup languages.
In particular, XML is not well developed in browser technology, so that the present invention can be easily applied.

[Second Embodiment] In the present embodiment, the browser 1011 uses a low-resolution image for display and a high-resolution image for printing by using an image of a resolution prepared for display and printing. Use

Generally, the image displayed on the screen by the <IMG> tag is a low resolution image for display display. This is because, in consideration of access from a line with a narrow bandwidth such as a dial-up environment, an image which is normally displayed preferably has a small file size.

However, if a low-resolution image is used as it is for printing a Web page, the enlargement factor becomes large at the time of printing, and the image quality of the print result becomes low. In order to solve this, this embodiment proposes a mechanism for downloading a high-resolution image at the time of printing.

Usually, for displaying an image, <IMG>
Use tags. The usual use of this tag is
When the RL is http://www.ganon.co.jp/image.jpg, use the SRC attribute of the <IMG> tag and <IMG SRC = "http://www.ganon.co.jp/image.jpg "><
/ IMG>.

In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG.
> Add a new attribute PSRC to the tag. As the value of the PSRC attribute, a URL to a high-resolution image is given.

The content provider facilitates a low-resolution image for screen display and a high-resolution image for printing on the Web server. img, here
s. img. The content writer writes <IMG SRC = "lowres.img" PSRC = "hires.img"> in the HTML document.
>

FIG. 5 shows a browser 101 according to this embodiment.
1 is a processing procedure when an HTML document print request is issued.

When there is a print request, the browser 1011 starts rendering as usual. First, the tag is extracted (step 502). When the <IMG> tag is found (step 503-Y), the link destination specified as the value of the PSRC attribute is changed from the link destination specified as the value of the normal SRC attribute. To give priority access, first
It is determined whether the SRC attribute is specified (step 50)
8). If the PSRC attribute is specified, the file is downloaded from the URL specified as the value of the PSRC attribute and rendering is performed (step 510). on the other hand,
For tags other than <IMG> tag, or <IMG>
If a PSRC attribute is not specified even for a tag, a conventional process is performed according to the tag. That is, in the case of the <IMG> tag, the file of the URL specified as the value of the SRC attribute is read and rendered. Thereafter, rendering is performed until an end tag is found (steps 505 and 506).

The image rendered in this way is printed out by the printer 103.

In the normal screen display, the SRC attribute has priority. That is, for the <IMG> tag,
When displaying, the PSRC attribute is ignored.

FIG. 9 shows the case where <PSIM attribute is designated <IM
9 is an example of an HTML document including a G> tag. <IMG>
In the tag, “lowr” specified as the value of the SRC attribute
es. img "and" hires.ims "specified as the value of the PSRC attribute. img "is included.

As a result, a low-resolution image with a small file can be used for display and a clear high-resolution image can be used for printing, and the print quality can be improved without lowering the display speed.

In this embodiment, HTML is taken as an example, but the present invention can be easily applied to other markup languages. In particular, XML is not well developed in browser technology, so that the present invention can be easily applied.

[0073]

As described above, according to the present invention, contents described for printing can be used for printing. This provides the following benefits to the browser user. (1) When content for printing is prepared, a document including the content is printed, so that a more detailed document can be viewed as compared with the time of display. (2) A beautiful image with little deterioration during printing can be seen. (3) Also, if the print content is used, there is an advantage that a service that becomes effective only at the time of printing, such as issuance of a discount ticket, can be provided. (4) For browsers that do not support print-only tags, tags that are not supported are ignored according to the HTML specification, so that there is no effect such as display of the surface being disturbed by content display according to the present invention.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of an information processing system in which a printer is connected to a host computer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of a host computer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating an internal configuration of the printer device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for displaying print-only content.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for printing a high-resolution image.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a description example of print-only content.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example of print-only content.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a description example of a print-only content.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a description example of a high-resolution image for printing.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of an information processing system according to an embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 is a host computer (information processing device) 102 is a printer device 103 is a Web server 104 is an Internet connection network 205 is a CPU 210 is a hard disk drive (HDD) 211 is a hard disk controller ( HDC 213, USB port 216, keyboard controller (KBC) 217, keyboard 218, system main memory 219, floppy disk controller (FDC) 220, floppy disk drive (FDD) 223, a network interface card 315, RAM 316, ROM 317, MPU 331, flash memory 334, USB connector A 335, USB connector B

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. A document processing apparatus for printing a document based on document data described in a markup language, comprising: identification means for identifying a specific code for specifying print data; Acquisition means for acquiring the print data specified by the specific code identified by, and means for causing the print means to print the print data acquired by the acquisition means together with other document data. Document processing device. 2. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising display means for displaying document data not including print data specified by the specific code. 3. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specific code includes identification data for identifying the print data. 4. The document processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the specific code is further connected to a communication network, and the specific code further includes data for specifying a position of the print data in the communication network. . 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the specific code is attached to a code indicating image data, and the acquisition unit acquires the image data with the specific code attached at the time of printing, and causes the printing unit to print the image data. Item 2. The document processing device according to Item 1. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specific code is attached to a code indicating image data, and the display unit obtains image data not accompanied by the specific code at the time of display and displays the image data on the display unit. Item 3. The document processing device according to Item 2. 7. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a printing unit. 8. A document processing system comprising a printing unit and the document processing apparatus according to claim 1. 9. A document processing method for printing a document based on document data described in a markup language, comprising: an identification step of identifying a specific code for specifying print data; and the identification step. Acquiring the print data specified by the specific code identified by the above, and printing the print data acquired by the acquisition step together with other document data by a printing unit. Document processing method to be performed. 10. The document processing method according to claim 9, further comprising a display step of displaying document data that does not include the print data specified by the specific code. 11. The document processing method according to claim 9, wherein the specific code includes identification data for identifying the print data. 12. The document processing method according to claim 11, wherein the specific code further includes data for specifying a position where the print data is located in a communication network. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the specific code is attached to a code indicating image data, and the obtaining step obtains the image data added with the specific code at the time of printing, and causes the printing unit to print the image data. Item 10. The document processing method according to Item 9. 14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the specific code is attached to a code indicating image data, and the acquiring step acquires image data not accompanied by the specific code at the time of display and displays the acquired image data by the display unit. Item 10. The document processing method according to Item 10. 15. A computer according to claim 9, wherein
A computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program for executing each step in the document processing method according to 4.