JP2002240367A - Printer unit, printing processing program, and memory medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer unit for multi-value printing capable of printing at all times by an optimum image quality without the need of setting by a user. SOLUTION: Before development of image data on a memory unit 5, the paper size and the loaded memory of the printing job are recognized so that the maximum number of gradations is set to be (i) (step S1). Whether or not a printing operation can be executed by the (i) value is judged (step S2). In the case the printing operation cannot be executed, it is revised to i=i/2 (step S3). Accordingly, the number of gradations is lowered until the printing operation can be executed. In the case the printing operation is judged to be feasible by the number of gradations (i) in the step S2, an image is produced by the image quality (number of gradations i) (step S4).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, a print processing program in the printer, and a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional printer device capable of multi-value printing, if the printer is capable of printing 256 gradations, 4-level dither printing, and 2-level dither printing, for example, a user prints on a printer or printer driver. Previously, a gradation expression unit corresponding to a desired printing method was selected and printing was performed.

However, in a conventional printer device capable of multi-value printing, a user must manually determine the number of gradations before printing.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and a printer capable of always printing with optimum image quality without setting by a user in a printer capable of multi-value printing. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus, a print processing program in the apparatus, and a recording medium.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer apparatus having a plurality of gradation print modes and capable of multi-value printing, wherein an amount of image memory of the printer apparatus and an amount of data transmitted from a host are determined. A gradation selection unit that selects the maximum gradation that can be printed by the printer device from the paper size of the received print data, and prints the print data at the gradation selected by the gradation selection unit It is characterized by the following.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the image processing apparatus further includes a gradation switching unit capable of switching gradations within the same page, and the gradation selection unit includes a character area of the print data. Image area discriminating means for discriminating between the image area and the photograph area, and area-specific gradation setting means for setting the gradation of each area so that the gradation of the character area is reduced and the photograph area has a larger number of gradations. The gradation is switched by the gradation switching means in accordance with the gradation set by the area-specific gradation setting means, and printing of each area is performed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the invention, the area-by-area gradation setting means has means for recognizing the size of a photograph area and a character area over all pages in one print job. The image quality of other pages is adjusted to the page having the largest photo area, and the gradation of each area is set so that the gradation does not differ for each page in one document.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print processing program for a printer apparatus having a plurality of gradation print modes and capable of multi-value printing, wherein the amount of image memory of the printer apparatus and the number of received image data are received from a host. The printing apparatus selects the maximum gradation that can be printed by the printer device from the paper size of the printing data, and prints the printing data at the selected gradation.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect of the present invention, a character area and a photograph area of the print data are discriminated, the gradation of the character area is reduced, and the photograph area has a larger number of gradations. The gradation of each area is set, the gradation is switched even in the same page according to the set gradation, and printing of each area is performed.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the invention, the gradation setting for each area is performed by recognizing the sizes of the photograph area and the character area of all pages in one print job. The feature is that the image quality of other pages is matched to a page having a large photo area, and the gradation of each area is set so that the gradation does not differ for each page in one document.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording medium storing the print processing program according to any one of the fourth to sixth aspects.

[0012]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process at the time of gradation determination in the printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart for explaining. The configuration of a printer capable of multi-value printing according to an embodiment of the present invention is equivalent to a conventional printer capable of multi-value printing, and includes a host I / F device 1, an operation panel 2, a printer engine 3, and a control It is assumed that a controller 4 and an image storage device 5 are provided. The host I / F device 1 is an interface for connecting a host and a printer. The operation panel 2 is a panel for performing various setting operations of the printer. The printer engine 3 includes an image forming device and a paper supply / discharge device.
The control controller 4 includes a ROM for storing a program for controlling the entire printer, a printer language processing program (emulation program), a facsimile control program, a RAM used for a work area of each program, a CPU, and the like. . Image storage device 5
Is a storage device (RAM) for storing image data.

The printing operation of the printer capable of multi-value printing according to the present embodiment is almost the same as that of a conventional printer capable of multi-value printing, and print data transmitted from the host is transmitted to the host I / F device. The data is sent to the controller 4 via the controller 1 and is developed as image data on the storage device 5 in accordance with the printer language processing program stored in the controller 4.

The printer capable of multi-value printing has a print mode of a plurality of gradations, and recognizes the paper size of the print job and the amount of memory installed in the printer before developing the image data on the storage device 5. Then, the number of gradations that can be printed is determined and selected by gradation selection means, and then developed into an image. This point is different from the conventional printer device. That is, the gradation selecting means first recognizes the paper size and the mounted memory, and sets the maximum number of gradations to i (step S1). Next, it is determined whether printing is possible with the i value (step S2). If printing is not possible, i = i / 2 (step S3), and the number of gradations is reduced until printing is possible. Of course, the method of reducing the number of gradations in one step does not have to be halved. If it is determined in step S2 that printing is possible with the number of tones i, an image is created in a print mode of the image quality (number of tones i) (step S2).
4). For example, in the case of an A3 color document, the installed memory is 32
2 values for MB, 4 values for 64 MB, 25 for 256 MB
It is determined that printing is performed in six values. The maximum number of gradations is determined from the on-board memory, and image development is performed using the number of gradations.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining a process at the time of saving an image in a printer device according to another embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of a printer according to another embodiment of the present invention is the same as the printer of the above-described embodiment described with reference to FIGS. However, the difference from the printer device of the above-described embodiment is that the controller 4 includes a gradation switching unit capable of switching the gradation even within the same page, and the gradation selection unit includes a character area of the print data. Image area discriminating means for discriminating between the image area and the photograph area, and area-specific gradation setting means for setting the gradation of each area so that the gradation of the character area is reduced and the photograph area has a larger number of gradations That is, the gradation is switched by the gradation switching means in accordance with the gradation set by the area-specific gradation setting means, and printing of each area is performed. That is, the size of the photo area is determined from the received print job, and the image quality is set so that the photo portion can be printed with the maximum number of gradations as much as possible. Even if the character area has a low number of gradations, the overall image quality is not so affected and does not matter.

For example, in the case of a printer device capable of printing at 256 gradations, if the photograph area cannot be printed at 256 gradations, and if other character areas cannot be printed at 256 gradations, printing is performed with the gradation of the character area lowered. Do. By doing so, even with a small memory amount, the image quality of the photographic area is improved, and high-quality printing can be performed as a whole.

In the processing of the printer according to the present embodiment, first, the paper size and the mounted memory are recognized, and the maximum resolution is set to i (step S11). Next, it is determined whether printing is possible by setting the i value in the photograph area and the i value in the character area (step S12). If printing is not possible, only i = i / 2 in the character area (step S13), and printing is performed. Reduce the number of tones in the character area until it becomes possible. Of course, 1
The method of reducing the number of gradations in the step does not need to be halved. In step S12, an image is created with the image quality for which the number of gradations in the photograph area and character area is determined to be printable (step S14). It should be noted that even when the number of gradations in the character area has been reduced to a certain value, if it is determined that printing is not possible, the processing may be such that the number of gradations in the photographic area is reduced.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining processing in a printer device according to another embodiment of the present invention. The configuration of a printer according to another embodiment of the present invention is the same as that of the above-described embodiment described with reference to FIG. However, the difference from the printer apparatus of the above-described embodiment is that the gradation setting unit for each area which determines the image quality determines the image quality of all pages of the corresponding job before starting printing, and the photograph area and the character area of all the pages are printed over all pages. Recognizing the size, the largest photo area (large memory consumption)
The point is that printing is performed by matching the image quality of all pages with the image quality of the page. That is, the image quality determination in the above embodiment is performed for all pages in one job, and the image quality of all pages is adjusted to the page with the smallest number of gradations. By doing so, it is possible to avoid the phenomenon that the print gradation is different for each page of one document.

In the processing of the printer according to the present embodiment, the maximum number of gradations for both the character area and the photograph area is set for page 1 (step S21). next,
The gradation is set according to the flow described in FIG. 3 (step S22), and it is determined whether the gradation of the photograph area is smaller than the currently set gradation (step S24). If it is determined in step S24 that the gradation is small, the gradation of the entire photographic area is set to the gradation determined in step S22 (step S25), and the process proceeds to step S26. Conversely, if it is not determined that it is smaller, step S2
Skip 5 and proceed to step S26. In step S26, it is determined whether the page is the last page,
If it is the last page, the process ends. If it is not the last page, the process proceeds to step S23. In step S23, the processes in steps S22 to S25 are continued for the next page until the last page is reached.

While the embodiments of the printer apparatus of the present invention have been described above, the present invention provides a print processing program for executing each of the above-described processes, and a computer storing the program, for example, a printer apparatus. It can also be realized as a recording medium (such as the ROM described above) that can be read by the CPU.

[0021]

According to the present invention, by automatically setting the maximum number of gradations on the printer side, printing can always be performed with an optimum image quality even if the user does not set it by himself. Even in a state in which the memory mounted on the printer is small, high-quality printing can be performed on a small-sized document.

Further, according to the present invention, by giving priority to the resolution of a photographic area where continuous tone is considered necessary, 1
Even when it is not possible to print all pages at the maximum gradation, high-quality printing can be performed as a whole. In other words, by lowering the gradation in the character area and providing the highest possible number of gradations in the photographic area, high-quality printing can be performed as a whole.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to avoid the phenomenon that the print gradation differs for each page of one document, and it is possible to perform uniform printing as one document.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining processing at the time of gradation determination in a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining processing when an image is stored in a printer device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining processing in a printer device according to another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Host I / F apparatus, 2 ... Operation panel, 3 ... Printer engine, 4 ... Control controller, 5 ... Image storage device.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04N 1/40 103B F-term (Reference) 2C087 AB05 BA03 BA05 BA06 BA12 BC06 BC07 CA05 2C262 AC07 BB01 BB06 CA08 EA04 EA07 EA08 EA11 GA15 5B021 AA01 BB01 BB04 CC05 KK02 LG08 5B057 AA11 CA01 CA02 CA08 CA12 CA16 CB01 CB02 CB08 CB12 CB16 CC01 CH08 CH11 5C077 LL19 MP01 MP08 PP27 PP28 PP43 PP57 PQ08 PQ12 PQ25 RR06 SS02

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A printer device having a plurality of gradation printing modes and capable of multi-value printing, wherein the printer device determines the amount of image memory of the printer device and the paper size of print data received from a host. A printer device, comprising: a tone selection unit for selecting a maximum printable tone by the printer device, and printing the print data at a tone selected by the tone selection unit. 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein
The image processing apparatus further includes a gradation switching unit capable of switching gradation even within the same page, wherein the gradation selection unit includes an image area determining unit that determines a character area and a photograph area of the print data, and a floor of the character area. Tone setting means for setting the tone of each area so as to reduce the tone and give the photograph area a greater number of tones, wherein the tone is set in accordance with the tone set by the tone setting means for each area. A printer device, wherein a tone is switched by a tone switching unit to print each area. 3. The printer according to claim 2, wherein
The area gradation setting means has means for recognizing the size of the photograph area and the character area over all pages in one print job, and adjusts the image quality of the other page to the page having the largest photograph area. A printer device wherein the gradation of each area is set so that the gradation does not differ for each page in one document. 4. A print processing program for a printer device having a plurality of gradation print modes and capable of multi-value printing, comprising: an image memory amount of the printer device; and a paper size of print data received from a host. A print processing program which selects the maximum gray scale at which the printer apparatus can print, and prints the print data at the selected gray scale. 5. The print processing program according to claim 4, wherein a character area and a photograph area of the print data are discriminated, and the gradation of the character area is reduced so that each photograph area has a larger number of gradations. A print processing program for setting the grayscale of the same page, switching the grayscale within the same page in accordance with the set grayscale, and printing each area. 6. The print processing program according to claim 5, wherein the gradation setting for each area is performed by recognizing the size of the photo area and the character area of all pages in one print job, and A print processing program for setting the gradation of each area so as to match the image quality of another page to a page having a large size and not to vary the gradation for each page in one document. 7. A recording medium on which the print processing program according to claim 4 is recorded.