JP2002273969A - Printer and printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer, capable of printing an image of a desired size by a simple operation without using a personal computer. SOLUTION: Images of different sizes can be printed on a sheet of a printed matter 100. Therefore, a user can select and use an image of a desired size out of the images of a plurality of sizes in the printed matter 100. The images printed on the printed matter 100 are images of sizes approximate to the image sizes frequently used such as a passport size 103, a driving license size 104 and a curriculum vitae size 105. Therefore, since the size of the background surrounding a photographed person included in the image is changed, for example even in the case the size of the photographed person included in the image is specified as in a photograph image used for the passport, an image according to the specification can be produced easily.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a printer and a printing method, and more particularly to a printer and a printing method capable of printing an image based on image data stored in storage means separable from a printer housing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, when electronic data is printed by a printer, it is necessary to use a processing device such as a personal computer (hereinafter, a personal computer is referred to as a "personal computer") to control the printer.

For example, when an image photographed by a digital still camera (hereinafter, a digital still camera is referred to as a “digital camera”) is printed by a printer, image data stored in a storage unit provided in the digital camera is temporarily stored. Downloaded to PC. On a PC,
Print data to be printed by the printer is created from the downloaded image data, and the print data is output to the printer. In the personal computer, the downloaded image data can be corrected or subjected to image processing.

[0004]

However, as described above, when an image taken by a digital camera is printed by a printer, it is necessary to use a personal computer.
It is difficult for a user who is not accustomed to handling a personal computer to print an image photographed by a digital camera. In particular, operations such as matching a captured image to the size of a print medium such as paper or changing the size of an image to be printed require complicated processing using a personal computer.

[0005] In recent years, in accordance with the improvement in the performance of digital cameras, the chances of printing images taken by the digital cameras and using them as ID photographs have been increasing. The size of the ID photo is defined depending on the use. Therefore, the user must print an image of a size corresponding to the application.

However, in ID photos, conditions required for the subject, such as the position or size of the subject, are severely restricted. Therefore, when creating an ID photo using an image taken by a digital camera, it is necessary to perform trial and error by adjusting the image using a personal computer and repeating the printing process.

[0007] As described above, the work of changing the size of the image requires the use of a personal computer. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult for a user who is unfamiliar with handling a personal computer to create an ID photo using an image taken by a digital camera.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printer capable of printing an image of a desired size by a simple operation without using a personal computer.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer, a printing method according to the fifth aspect, or a recording medium according to the seventh aspect, wherein image data is obtained from storage means separable from the printer housing. Then, specific image data is selected from the acquired image data. The specific image data is allocated to a plurality of different print sizes set in advance and printed. Therefore, the image is printed in a plurality of different print sizes, and the user can arbitrarily select an image of a desired size from the printed image.

That is, the image data is obtained from the storage means, a specific image data can be selected from the image data, and the selected image data can be allocated to a predetermined print size and printed. Therefore, the user can print an image of a desired size only by performing a simple operation of selecting image data without operating the personal computer.

According to the printer according to the second aspect of the present invention, the printing method according to the sixth aspect, or the recording medium according to the eighth aspect, images of different print sizes are printed on one print medium, for example, when the print medium is paper. Is printed on one sheet of paper. Therefore, the user does not need to prepare a plurality of print media for printing images of a plurality of sizes, can easily perform printing, and can reduce printing cost.

According to the printer of the third aspect of the present invention, the printed images have different sizes. Therefore, the user can obtain an image of a desired size without repeating trial and error. According to the printer of the fourth aspect of the present invention, the storage means includes image data of an image taken by the digital camera. Therefore, when an image is taken by a digital camera, the image can be printed without passing through a personal computer.

[0013]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention; FIGS. 2 and 3 show a printer 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the printer 1 includes a printing unit 20, a control unit 30, a display unit 40, an input unit 50, a guide unit 60, and a data acquisition unit 7.
0 is provided. Printing unit 20, control unit 30, display unit 4
0, input unit 50, guide unit 60, and data acquisition unit 70
Are provided in a box-shaped printer housing 2 as shown in FIG. The printer 1 prints the electronic data acquired from the data acquisition unit 70 by the printing unit 20 driven by the control unit 30.

The printing unit 20 includes a print head unit 21 for executing printing, and a transport unit 22 for feeding paper as a print medium to the print head unit 21. Also,
The data acquisition unit 70 includes the first data acquisition unit 71 and the second
It comprises a data acquisition unit 72.

As shown in FIG. 3, the printer housing 2
A display unit 40 and an input unit 50 are arranged on the upper surface of the device. Further, a first data acquisition unit 71, a power switch 11, and a guide unit 60 are arranged on the front surface, and a second data acquisition unit 72 is arranged on the back surface. The display unit 4
0 and the input unit 50 are integrally arranged on the panel 14.

A printing section 20 and a control section 30 are arranged inside the printer housing 2. A paper supply port 12 is formed above the back surface of the printer housing 2, and a paper discharge port 13 is formed below the front surface. A paper tray 121 is separably locked to the paper supply port 12, and a paper tray 131 is separably locked to the paper discharge port 13.

The print head unit 21 is disposed adjacent to the transport unit 22. The print head unit 21 has a carriage on which an ink tank and a nozzle head (not shown) are mounted, a step motor for driving the carriage, and a rail for movably supporting the carriage in a direction perpendicular to the paper transport direction. The print head unit 21 performs printing by a known inkjet method. Print head unit 21
The method is not limited to the ink jet method, and a dot impact method or a thermal sublimation method can be used.

The transport section 22 is disposed inside the printer housing 2 between the paper supply port 12 and the paper discharge port 13. The transport unit 22 includes a transport roller driven by a motor (not shown), and a driven roller that contacts the transport roller and transports the sheet by friction. The transport roller and the driven roller are formed of a non-slip high friction material such as rubber. The conveyance unit 22 is configured to rotate the conveyance roller and the driven roller to rotate the paper supply port 12 to the paper discharge port 1.
3 is conveyed.

The control unit 30 includes a CPU (not shown) and a ROM (not shown).
And a RAM. In the ROM, a program for controlling processing in each section of the printer 1 and an allocation frame described later are recorded. The RAM temporarily stores electronic data for performing printing and the like. The control unit 30 provides a user interface by driving the display unit 40 or the guide unit 60 based on information extracted from the electronic data acquired by the first data acquisition unit 71 or the second data acquisition unit 72. The control unit 30 controls the entire printer 1 such as determining input from the input unit 50 and controlling printing performed by the printing unit 20. Further, the control unit 30 also functions as an allocating unit for allocating the specific image data to the allocated frame.

The input unit 50 is arranged on the upper surface of the printer housing 2 and has a plurality of buttons on the panel 14 as shown in FIG. The print start button 51 as the input unit 50 is arranged on the front side of the panel 14, that is, on the front side, and has a button stand on the panel 14 which is most noticeable. The print start button 51 is made of a translucent material, and has an LED (Light Emitting Device) not shown inside.
Is arranged. This LED is controlled so as to blink when the printing becomes possible.

When the print start button 51 on the panel 14 is pressed, a print setting signal corresponding to the print setting displayed on the display unit 40 is transmitted to the control unit 30. Also, L
When the print start button 51 is pressed in a state in which printing in which the ED is blinking is possible, printing is started in the printing unit 20.

The upper button 52 and the lower button 53 are arranged vertically, and the prompt P displayed on the display unit 40 is displayed.
To move. The section in which the prompt P is blinking is the active section. The right button 54 and the left button 55 change details of printing conditions in each section of the display unit 40.

The display section 40 is disposed on the panel 14 on the upper surface of the printer housing 2. The display unit 40
It is a segment type liquid crystal panel, selection section 4
1, a paper type section 42, a paper size section 43, a layout section 44, a number section 45, and a photograph number section 46 for displaying details of printing conditions. FIG. 4 shows a state in which all the segments of the liquid crystal panel are turned on. Display unit 4
The print condition corresponding to the display content selected at 0 is set by the control unit 30 by pressing the print start button 51.
Link to the print settings.

In the selection section 41, the display of the prompt P selectively pointing to the active section is moved by the upper button 52 and the lower button 53 of the input section 50. In the case shown in FIG. 4, the active section is the number section 45. In the active section,
With the right button 54 and the left button 55, it is possible to switch the display of options in the details of the printing conditions.

The paper type section 42 is a section in which a display for selecting a paper type, which is one of the options of the printing conditions, is displayed. The paper size section 43 is
This is a section in which a display for selecting a paper size, which is one of the print condition options, is displayed.

The layout section 44 is a section in which a display for selecting a print position, which is one of the print condition options, is displayed. The photograph number section 46 is a section in which a display for selecting an image which is one of the options of the printing condition is displayed. For example, a number from 0 to 199, which is an image identification code included in the header of the image data, is displayed.

As shown in FIG. 2, the guide section 60 is disposed on the front surface of the printer housing 2. Guide part 60
Has a speaker (not shown) driven by the control unit 30 and outputs audio data read from the ROM as audio.

The first data acquisition section 71 is arranged on the front of the printer housing 2 as shown in FIG. The first data acquisition unit 71 has a card slot 711 and a reader (not shown) that reads electronic data stored in the memory card 80 as a storage unit and transmits the electronic data to the control unit 30. In the card slot 711, a memory means such as a PCMCIA standard memory card or a compact flash (registered trademark) card generally used for a digital camera (not shown) is inserted together with an adapter as the memory card 80.

The second data acquisition section 72 has a plurality of connectors (not shown) provided on the back of the printer housing 2. The second data acquisition unit 72 is an interface for connecting to a digital camera (not shown) or the like, and transmits electronic data extracted from an externally connected device such as a digital camera to the control unit 30.

Next, the operation of the printer 1 according to this embodiment will be described. 1. When the power switch 11 is turned on, R
The control program recorded in the OM is activated, and a voice such as “Please insert a card.” Is issued from the guide unit 60 to prompt the user to insert the memory card 80 storing the image data.

2. When the user inserts the memory card 80 into the card slot 711 of the first data acquisition unit 71, a voice such as “Please select a desired image.” Is emitted from the guide unit 60 and stored in the memory card 80. Prompt for selection of image data.

3. The user selects the upper button 52 on the panel 14.
And the down button 53 matches the active section with the photo number section 46. Then, the user operates the right button 54 and the left button 55 to display the photograph number 461 of the desired image while referring to the photograph number 461 which is the identification code of the image displayed in the photograph number section 46. The identification code which is the basis of the photograph number 461 is stored in the header of the image data corresponding to the image data stored in the memory card 80. For example,
These are stored in the header portion of the image data, such as “001” and “002” in the order of photographing.

4. When the photograph number 461 of the desired image data is displayed in the photograph number section 46, the user operates the up button 52 and the down button 53 and the right button 54 and the left button 55 to change the paper size and the print layout. select. 5. When the input is completed in all the selection sections and the blinking print start button 51 is pressed, printing of an image based on desired image data is executed.

6. The execution of printing is executed in the following steps. The selected image data is trimmed in accordance with a preset print frame 90 as shown in FIG. The print frame 90 is set according to the size of the paper to be printed, and the RO of the control unit 30 is set according to the size of the paper such as A4, B5 or A5.
M. The print frame 90 is set so that the size of the printed image is a passport size 901, a license size 902, a resume size 903, and the like. By trimming the image data, the control unit 30 creates print data for obtaining a print result as shown in FIG. That is, the control unit 30
Calculates based on the selected specific image data, trims the specific image data, and allocates it to the print frame 90.
Then, the printing unit 20 executes printing based on the created print data.

Next, the printed matter 100 obtained as a result of printing will be described. Here, as options for printing conditions,
Paper size "A4" and layout "center"
An example in which is set to is described. As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of images of different print sizes are printed on a printed material 100.

As for the print size, images of a plurality of print sizes are printed from the smallest print size (2 cm × 1.5 cm) 101 to the largest print size (6 cm × 4 cm) 102. Some of these print sizes include a passport size (4.5 cm x 3.5 cm).
03 、 License size (3cm × 2.4cm) 104 、
Also, a resume size (4 cm × 3 cm) 105 is included. In this specification, the print size is indicated by (length × width).

As for the passport size, the face of the subject included in the photographic image is 2.7 ± 0.2 c in the vertical direction.
m. Therefore, if only the passport size 103 is strictly printed, the subject's face may not be included in the range.

Therefore, in this embodiment, enlarged images 106a to 106f, which are enlarged at a predetermined ratio in the vertical and horizontal directions around the passport size 103, are simultaneously printed. The user can select an image whose face size can be adjusted to a specified size from the images and cut out the image to obtain a passport size image. Similarly, for the license size 104 and the resume size 105, images enlarged at a predetermined ratio centering on images of those sizes are simultaneously printed. These printed images are trimmed to be an image of a predetermined print size by enlarging or reducing according to the size of the image after printing.

As described above, in one embodiment of the present invention, images of different sizes can be printed on one printed material 100. Therefore, the user can select and use an image of a desired size from a plurality of images of the printed matter 100. In addition, the user does not need to repeat trial and error to print an image of a desired size, and can reduce consumption of consumables such as paper to be printed. Therefore, printing cost can be reduced.

Further, even for an image photographed by a digital camera or the like, processing such as enlarging or reducing the image by a personal computer is not required, and a plurality of images of different sizes can be printed by one printing process. The user can execute printing by a simple operation.

In this embodiment, the size 1 for the passport is used.
03, license size 104 or resume size 10
Based on the size of a frequently used image such as 5, a plurality of images having similar sizes can be printed. Therefore, since the size of the background around the subject included in the image changes, even if the size of the subject included in the image is specified, such as a photographic image used for a passport, the image conforms to the specification. Can be easily created.

In this embodiment, A4 is used as the paper,
Also, an example in which a passport size or the like is used as the image size has been described, but the size of the paper size image is not limited thereto. In this embodiment, the color of the image is not described in detail, but may be either a color image or a monochrome image. Further, in the present embodiment, an example in which A4 paper is used as a print medium has been described, but cloth such as a T-shirt or resin such as an OHP sheet can be used.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a printed matter printed by a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view showing a printer according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing a panel of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a frame of a printed matter printed by a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printer 2 Printer housing 20 Printing part 30 Control part (allocation means) 40 Display part (selection means) 50 Input part (selection means) 70 Data acquisition part 80 Memory card (storage means)

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Tadashi Tanizaki No. 3-3-5 Yamato, Suwa-shi, Nagano Seiko Epson Corporation F-term (reference) 2C087 AC05 AC07 AC12 BA03 CA03 DA17 2C187 AC05 AC08 AC09 5C052 AA12 AB04 DD02 DD08 EE02 EE03 FA03 FA09 FC08 FD07 FE01 FE08 5C053 FA04 FA08 FA27 KA04 LA03 LA06

Claims (8)

[Claims] A data acquisition unit that is mechanically connectable to a storage unit that can be separated from a printer housing, and that acquires image data stored in the storage unit; Selecting means for selecting specific image data from image data, allocating means for allocating the specific image data to a plurality of different print sizes set in advance, and a printing unit capable of printing an image based on the allocated specific image data. A printer, comprising: 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit prints images of different print sizes based on the specific image data on one print medium. 3. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the image printed on the print medium has a different print size for each image. 4. The printer according to claim 1, wherein said storage means includes image data photographed by a digital still camera. 5. A printing method for printing, by a printing unit, an image based on image data stored in separable storage means, comprising: a data obtaining step for obtaining the image data stored in the storage means; A specific image data determination step of receiving an input of selection of specific image data from the image data; an allocation step of allocating the specific image data according to a plurality of preset print sizes; and an image based on the specific image data. A printing execution step of printing on a print medium in accordance with the print size. 6. The printing method according to claim 5, wherein in the printing process, a plurality of images based on the specific image data are printed on one print medium. 7. A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for causing a control unit provided in a printer for printing an image based on image data stored in a separable storage unit to be printed by a printing unit is recorded. A data acquisition procedure for acquiring the image data stored in the storage unit; a specific image data determination procedure for receiving an input for selecting specific image data from the image data; and the specific image data set in advance. A program for causing a control unit of a printer to execute an allocation procedure of allocating according to a plurality of print sizes and a print execution procedure of printing an image based on the specific image data on a print medium according to the print size. A computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded. 8. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 5, wherein in the printing procedure, a plurality of images based on the specific image data are printed on one print medium.