JP2003271327A - Print controller, print control method, print control program and medium with print control program recorded - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that it is necessary to prepare an exclusive media profile even when the base color of media is a little different. <P>SOLUTION: This print controller is provided with a color measurement data acquiring means for measuring the ground color of media (printing medium) to be printed, and for acquiring base color measurement data corresponding the ground color and an image converting means for converting image data based on various detecting information included in profile information by reflecting the base color measurement data acquired by the color measurement data acquiring means for color conversion information associated with color conversion in the setting information. Thus, it is possible to print an image on which the base color of the media is reflected by using profile information corresponding to reference media without preparing any profile information corresponding to the media to be printed. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control device, a print control method, a print control program, and a print control program for controlling a print device that prints on a print medium to print an image based on image data. Regarding the recorded medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, this type of print control apparatus prints an image based on image data in which the image is expressed by a large number of pixel gradation data to a printer that prints on a medium (print medium). The control is performed. At that time, printing is performed after converting the image data by referring to profile information such as a print profile and a media profile so that the image quality becomes appropriate according to the characteristics of the print head of the printer and the characteristics of the medium. . here,
The print profile has color conversion information that defines the correspondence between the gradation data forming the input image data and each Lab value in the Lab space in correspondence with the printer, and the media profile has the Lab conversion in the Lab space. Values and multiple element colors used by the printer, eg C (cyan), M
It has color conversion information that defines the correspondence relationship with the gradation data consisting of (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black) corresponding to the medium. Then, different media profiles are prepared for each type of media, and printing is executed while selecting the media profile each time the media is changed.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional print control apparatus, it is necessary to prepare a dedicated media profile even if the recording characteristics of ink are the same and the background color of the medium is slightly different. Each time it is changed, it takes time and effort to select the media profile, and the capacity of the storage medium for storing the media profile becomes large. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a print control device, a print control method, and a print control program capable of eliminating dedicated profile information when printing on a print medium having a slightly different background color. It is also intended to provide a medium on which a print control program is recorded.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 selects one of a plurality of profile information corresponding to each of a plurality of reference print media, and selects an image with a large number of pixels. Image data represented by different gradation data is input, the gradation data of each pixel is converted based on various setting information included in the same profile information, and converted into image data composed of the converted gradation data. A print control device that controls a printing device to print an image based on the profile information, and selects profile information according to a print medium to be printed by the printing device from the plurality of profile information. Means, colorimetric data acquisition means for measuring the ground color of the print medium to be printed, and acquiring ground color measurement data corresponding to the same ground color; and the profile When converting the gradation data constituting the image data based on various setting information included in the profile information selected by the selecting means, the color measurement information regarding the color conversion in the setting information is obtained as the color measurement data acquisition. Image conversion means for converting the same gradation data by reflecting the ground color measurement data acquired by the means, and printing for controlling an image based on the image data composed of the converted gradation data And a control means.

The print control device inputs image data representing an image with a large number of gradation data for each pixel, and converts the gradation data of each pixel based on various setting information included in the profile information. , Causing the printing apparatus to print an image based on the image data composed of the converted gradation data. The profile selection means selects profile information corresponding to the print medium to be printed by the printing device from the plurality of profile information corresponding to each of the plurality of reference print media. The ground color of the print medium is measured, and the ground color measurement data corresponding to the ground color is acquired. The image converting means converts the gradation data forming the image data based on various setting information included in the selected profile information. Here, for the color conversion information regarding the color conversion in the setting information, the ground color measurement data is reflected to convert the same gradation data. And
The print control unit controls the printing apparatus to print an image based on the image data composed of the converted gradation data. Then, the printing apparatus prints on the print medium an image based on the image data converted by reflecting the background color of the print medium to be printed.

That is, by utilizing the profile information corresponding to the reference print medium, an image in which the background color of the print medium is reflected can be printed without preparing the profile information corresponding to the print medium to be printed. be able to. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the need for dedicated profile information when printing on a print medium having a slightly different background color. There are various conceivable configurations for converting the ground color measurement data when the gradation data is converted. For example, referring to the profile information and converting the gradation data,
Grayscale data after conversion based on the ground color measurement data so as to correct the difference in the ground color components appearing in the image printed on the print medium to be printed when compared with the image printed on the reference print medium May be corrected. Of course,
The gradation data may be converted with reference to the profile information, and at the same time, the gradation data may be corrected based on the ground color measurement data.

Here, the profile selecting means may have various configurations. For example, the profile information according to the print medium may be read from a plurality of profile information stored in a predetermined storage medium into a predetermined memory, or a pointer indicating the position where the profile information is stored may be read. It may be one that can be acquired by the image conversion means. The image conversion means may have various configurations.
As an example thereof, in the invention according to claim 2, the image conversion means sets the ground color corresponding to the ground color measurement data to the reference print medium corresponding to the selected profile information based on the color conversion information. It is configured to determine whether the color gamut can be expressed by the above, and perform conversion according to the determination result on the gradation data. That is, since the gradation data conversion differs depending on whether the ground color of the print medium to be printed can be expressed by the reference print medium, it is possible to improve the image quality of the image to be printed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the image conversion means is a reference print medium in which the ground color corresponding to the ground color measurement data corresponds to the selected profile information based on the color conversion information. When it is determined that the color is within the color gamut that can be expressed by, and it is determined that the same ground color cannot be expressed by the same reference print medium, the reflection of the ground color measurement data is stopped and the gradation data Is configured to be converted. When the ground color of the print medium to be printed cannot be expressed by the reference print medium, the ground color component of the image cannot be corrected sufficiently.In such a case, the ground color measurement data is not reflected and the gradation is not reflected. Data can be converted.

The colorimetric data acquisition means may have various configurations. As an example thereof, in the invention according to claim 4, the colorimetric data acquisition unit measures the ground color of the print medium to be printed and obtains each component amount of a predetermined color space corresponding to the ground color. The background color detection unit for detecting the background color is provided, and the background color measurement data corresponding to each component amount of the detected color space is acquired. That is, it is possible to acquire the ground color measurement data by using the ground color detection means.

Here, as in the invention according to claim 5,
The ground color detecting means is a color calorimeter that measures the ground color of the print medium to be printed and detects the amount of each component in the CIE Lab space or the CIE XYZ space corresponding to the ground color. The colorimetric data acquisition means is a CIE Lab space or CIEX detected by the colorimeter.
The lightness data and chromaticity data corresponding to each component amount in the YZ space may be acquired. That is, the ground color measurement data can be acquired using a general-purpose color measurement device. Of course, the ground color detecting means may have various configurations. For example, a color scanner or a lightness measuring device capable of detecting only lightness may be used as the ground color detecting means in addition to the colorimeter. . Further, the color space for detecting the component amount may be, for example, a wide area RGB color space or the like in addition to the CIE Lab space and the CIE XYZ space.

Various positions can be considered for providing the ground color detecting means. As one example thereof, the printing apparatus includes a print head that ejects ink onto the print medium, and the ground color detection unit is provided in the print head and detects the ground color of the print medium to be printed. The colorimetry may be performed to detect a colorimetric amount corresponding to the same background color, and the colorimetric data acquisition unit may acquire the background colorimetric data corresponding to the detected colorimetric amount. Since the print head is near the print medium to which the paper is fed, it is possible to easily detect the colorimetric amount corresponding to the ground color of the print medium from the vicinity of the print medium.

Further, the printing apparatus includes a paper feed mechanism for feeding the print medium to a predetermined reference position, and the ground color detecting means is installed near the reference position to feed the paper. The ground color of the print medium fed by the mechanism is measured to detect a colorimetric amount corresponding to the same ground color, and the colorimetric data acquisition means is configured to measure the ground color corresponding to the detected colorimetric amount. The color data may be acquired. That is, since the print medium is fed to the reference position, the colorimetric amount corresponding to the ground color of the print medium can be easily detected from the vicinity of the print medium by the ground color detection unit installed near the reference position. be able to.

By the way, various information can be included in the color conversion information included in the profile information. As an example thereof, in the invention according to claim 6, in the color conversion information, a correspondence relationship between each component value of the color space and gradation data composed of a plurality of element colors used by the printing device is set as the reference printing. Media color conversion information defined corresponding to the medium is included, and the image conversion means refers to the media color conversion information to obtain gradation data composed of the plurality of element colors corresponding to the ground color measurement data. It is configured to acquire and reflect the gradation data to convert the gradation data forming the image data. That is, since the gradation data corresponding to the background color of the print medium to be printed is obtained based on the media color conversion information, the background color of the print medium is reflected to convert the gradation data forming the image data, The printing apparatus prints on the print medium an image based on the image data converted by reflecting the background color of the print medium to be printed. There are various possible configurations for converting the gradation data by reflecting the gradation data acquired by referring to the media color conversion information. For example, referring to the color conversion information, the converted gradation data composed of the plurality of element colors corresponding to the gradation data composed of a predetermined gradation value is acquired, and the gradation data is converted into the ground color measurement data. A correction value is calculated by subtracting the gradation data consisting of the same plurality of corresponding element colors, and the gradation data forming the image data is converted based on various setting information included in the selected profile information, The gradation data after conversion may be corrected by subtracting the same correction value. Since the ground color measurement data is reflected in the calculated correction value, the printing apparatus prints an image in which the ground color of the print medium to be printed is reflected.

Further, in the invention according to claim 8, the image conversion means acquires the converted gradation data corresponding to the gradation data having a predetermined gradation value by referring to the color conversion information, When the suitability of reflection of the ground color measurement data is judged based on the gradation data and the gradation data composed of the plurality of element colors corresponding to the ground color measurement data, and the judgment result is NO. The gradation data is converted by stopping the reflection of the ground color measurement data. That is, when it is desirable not to reflect the ground color measurement data when converting the gradation data, the gradation data can be converted without reflecting the ground color measurement data.

It should be noted that any one of a plurality of profile information corresponding to each of a plurality of reference print media is selected, image data in which an image is expressed in gradation by a large number of pixels is input, and the same image is based on the same profile information. The above-mentioned various means can be configured as the invention according to claim 9 as long as it is a print control device for converting data and controlling the printing device to print an image based on the converted image data. is there. In this configuration, the profile selection means selects the profile information according to the print medium to be printed by the printing device from the plurality of profile information. The colorimetric data acquisition unit measures the ground color of the print medium to be printed and acquires the ground color measurement data corresponding to the ground color. When converting the image data based on the profile information selected by the profile selecting means, the image converting means acquires the color conversion information regarding the color conversion included in the profile information by the colorimetric data acquiring means. The image data is converted by reflecting the background color measurement data. Then, the print control unit controls the printing apparatus to print an image based on the converted image data. Then, the printing apparatus prints on the print medium an image based on the image data converted by reflecting the background color of the print medium to be printed. That is,
By using the profile information corresponding to the reference print medium, it is possible to print an image in which the background color of the print medium is reflected without preparing the profile information corresponding to the print medium to be printed. It is possible to eliminate the need for dedicated profile information when printing on a print medium having a slightly different background color.

By the way, the print control apparatus described above may be implemented independently, or may be implemented together with another method in a state where it is incorporated in a certain device. Including, where appropriate
It can be changed. In addition, it is natural that the method for performing the print control described above has an invention in the procedure at the base of the process in order to proceed the processing in accordance with a predetermined procedure. Therefore, the present invention can be applied as a method, and the invention according to claim 10 has basically the same operation.

In implementing the present invention, the print control device may execute a predetermined program. Therefore, the program can be applied, and the invention according to claim 11 has basically the same operation. Further, when implementing the present invention, it is conceivable that a medium in which the above program is recorded is distributed and the program is appropriately read from the recording medium into a computer. Therefore, it can be applied as a medium in which the program is recorded, and the invention according to claim 12 basically has the same operation. Of course, it goes without saying that the configurations described in claims 1 to 8 can be applied to the method, the program, or the medium recording the program.

Here, the recording medium may be a magnetic recording medium or a magneto-optical recording medium, and any recording medium developed in the future can be considered in exactly the same manner. Further, even when a part is software and a part is realized by hardware, the idea of the present invention does not differ at all, and a part of the software is recorded on a recording medium and is appropriately changed as necessary. It also includes a read form. Furthermore, the duplication stage of the primary duplication product, the secondary duplication product, and the like is absolutely the same.

[0019]

As described above, according to the first and ninth to twelfth aspects of the invention, it is possible to eliminate the need for dedicated profile information when printing on a print medium having a slightly different background color. It is possible to provide a possible print control device, a print control method, a print control program, and a medium recording the print control program. Further, according to the invention of claim 2, it is possible to improve the image quality of the image to be printed, and according to the invention of claim 3, when the ground color component of the image cannot be sufficiently corrected. Since the ground color measurement data is not reflected in and the gradation data is converted, the convenience can be improved. Further, according to the invention of claim 4, it is possible to provide an example of a configuration for acquiring colorimetric data, and according to the invention of claim 5,
The ground color measurement data can be acquired using a general-purpose measuring device.

Furthermore, according to the sixth and seventh aspects of the present invention, it is possible to provide an example of the structure of the color conversion information included in the profile information, and to reflect the ground color of the print medium to obtain the gradation data. Can be converted. Further, according to the invention of claim 8, when it is desirable not to reflect the ground color measurement data when converting the gray scale data, the gray scale data is converted without reflecting the ground color measurement data, which is convenient. It is possible to improve the sex.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in the following order. (1) Configuration of print system: (2) Schematic configuration of print control device: (3) Operation of the print control device: (4) Second embodiment:

(1) Configuration of Printing System: FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a printing system including a printing control apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The printing system includes a personal computer (PC) 10, an inkjet printer 20 that is a printing device capable of color printing, and the like. The PC 10 is a CPU that is the center of arithmetic processing.
11, the CPU 11 is a system bus 10
The entire PC 10 is controlled via a. The bus 10a includes a ROM 12, a RAM 13, and a CD-ROM drive 1
5, a flexible disk (FD) drive 16, various interfaces (I / F) 17a to 17e, etc. are connected. A hard disk (HD) 14 is also connected via a hard disk drive. A so-called desktop PC is adopted as the computer of this embodiment, but a computer having a general configuration can be adopted.

The HD 14 stores, as software, an operating system (OS), an application program (APL) capable of creating image information, etc., and these software are appropriately transferred to the RAM 13 by the CPU 11 at the time of execution. And CPU1
1 executes various programs while appropriately accessing the RAM 13 as a temporary work area. The peripheral device I / F (PIF) 17a includes a digital camera 40,
A color scanner or the like (not shown) can be connected. CRT
A display 18a that displays an image based on image data is connected to the I / F 17b, and a keyboard 18b and a mouse 18c are connected to the input I / F 17c as operation input devices. The printer 20 is connected to the printer I / F 17e via a parallel I / F cable. Of course, various connection modes such as serial I / F, SCSI, and USB connection can be adopted for connection with the printer 20.

A printer 20 for printing an image based on image data is equipped with a colorimeter 30 as a background color detecting means, and can detect the background color of a medium (print medium). The printer 20 prints on the medium using the four color inks of CMYK. Of course, CMY
In addition to the K ink, a printer having inks such as Lc (light cyan), Lm (light magenta), and Lk (light black) may be adopted, and the printer can use inks other than four colors. The present invention can also be applied to. Further, various printing devices such as a bubble type printer that generates bubbles in the ink passages to eject the ink can be adopted.

As shown in FIG. 2, in the printer 20, C
PU21, ROM22, RAM23, communication I / O24,
The ASIC 26 and the I / F 27 are connected via the bus 20a. The communication I / O 24 is the printer I / F of the PC 10.
The printer 20 is connected to the communication I / O2.
A print job composed of CMYK-converted data, a page description language, and the like, which is transmitted from the PC 10 via the PC 4, is received. The printer 20 has a bus 20a and an I / F for a color measuring device.
A color measurement device 30 is also connected to the I / F 31 for color measurement device. Same color colorimeter 30
The color measurement device I / F 31 is a part of the print control device of the present invention, and constitutes color measurement means. When the printer 20 receives the acquisition request for the color measurement data from the PC 10 via the communication I / O 24, the printer 20 transmits the color measurement data to the PC 10 via the communication I / O 24.

The ASIC 26 outputs applied voltage data based on CMYK data to the head drive section 26a while transmitting / receiving a predetermined signal to / from the CPU 21. The head drive unit 26a uses the applied voltage data to output the print head 2
A voltage pattern applied to the piezoelectric element built in 6b is generated. Then, the print head 26b is supplied with ink from the ink cartridge 26d mounted in the cartridge holder 26c, and ejects four colors of ink in dot units based on the applied voltage pattern. On the ink ejection surface of the print head 26b, four sets of nozzle rows for ejecting four colors of ink are formed side by side in the main scanning direction of the print head, and each nozzle row has a plurality of nozzles fixed in the sub scanning direction. They are arranged linearly at intervals of. The carriage mechanism 27a and the paper feed mechanism 27b connected to the I / F 27 cause the print head to perform main scanning, or sequentially eject media while performing page break operation as appropriate to perform sub scanning. Then, the CPU 21 controls each unit according to the program written in the ROM 22 while using the RAM 23 as a work area.

The color calorimeter 30 detects the reflected light while illuminating the color measurement target with the built-in light source by directing the color detection unit 30a to the color measurement target, and the Lab color system in the CIE standard. It is possible to measure a colorimetric value based on, that is, an L value representing lightness, and an a value and a b value representing hue and saturation. The color meter 30 is provided in the print head 26b, measures the ground color of the medium 50 to be printed, and corresponds to the CIE Lab space (predetermined color space; hereinafter referred to as Lab space). ) The amount of each component is detected. The amount of each component in the Lab space detected by the colorimeter 30 is measured by the colorimeter I / F 31 to obtain a digital L value, a
Since it is converted into the value and the b value, the CPU 21 can read the L value, the a value, and the b value via the bus 20a.
Then, the read Lab value (ground color measurement data) is displayed on the PC.
It is transmitted in response to the request from 10. A program for performing such processing is written in the ROM 22. Also, instead of the colorimeter for detecting each component amount in the Lab space, the CIE XYZ space (XY in the CIE standard is used).
A colorimeter that detects the amount of each component in the Z space) may be used. A well-known color measuring device can be adopted. Of course, in addition to using a colorimeter such as a colorimeter, it is also possible to use a lightness meter capable of measuring only brightness, a measuring instrument capable of measuring only a predetermined single color, or the like.

In the PC 10, the BIOS is executed on the basis of the above hardware, and the OS and APL are provided in the upper layer.
And are executed. The OS incorporates various drivers such as a printer driver for controlling the printer I / F 17e, and becomes a part of the OS to control the hardware. The printer driver is capable of bidirectionally communicating with the printer 20 via the printer I / F 17e, receives print data from the APL via an OS incorporating a GDI (Graphics Device Interface), etc., and executes a print job. Is created and sent to the printer 20. The print control program of the present invention is composed of the printer driver and the program written in the ROM 22 of the printer. Of course, it can be configured by APL. Further, the HD 14 and the ROM 22 are media in which the print control program according to the present invention is recorded, but the media may be, for example, a CD-ROM, an FD 16a, a magneto-optical disk, a non-volatile memory, or the like. Of course, it is also possible to connect the communication I / F 17d such as a modem to the Internet and access a predetermined server to download and execute the print control program.

(2) Schematic configuration of the print control device: FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a print control apparatus constructed by the hardware and the print control program in cooperation with each other. On the printer 20 side, a printer-side colorimetric data acquisition unit U1 is configured including the colorimeter 30 and the like. On the PC 10 side, the PC side colorimetric data acquisition unit U corresponds to a plurality of modules that constitute the printer driver
2. A color conversion engine unit U3, a color correction unit U4, and a print control unit U5 are configured. The printer-side colorimetric data acquisition unit U1 measures the ground color of the medium to be printed by the color colorimeter 30 to detect the colorimetric amount corresponding to the ground color, and also corresponds to the ground color. The ground color measurement data is read from the colorimeter I / F 31 and transmitted to the PC 10. The PC-side colorimetric data acquisition unit U2 acquires the transmitted ground colorimetric data. That is, the colorimetric data acquisition unit U
Reference numerals 1 and U2 form colorimetric data acquisition means.

The color conversion engine unit U3 includes a profile selection unit U31 and an image conversion unit U32. The profile selection unit U31, which constitutes the profile selection means,
The profile information corresponding to the medium to be printed by the printer 20 is selected from the plurality of profile information. The profile information includes a print profile P1 and a media profile P2. The print profile P1 is C when printed using an actual printing machine.
It has information such as ink ejection amount and color characteristics for each MYK. Among them, regarding the color conversion information regarding the color conversion, the gradation data and the L space of the Lab space forming the input image data are adjusted so that the actual printed matter has the optimum image quality.
The correspondence with the ab value is defined. The media profile P2 has various setting information according to the characteristics of the media, such as the printer model that can be used, the coloring properties and absorption characteristics of the ink. Among them, regarding the color conversion information (media color conversion information) regarding the color conversion, each Lab value in the Lab space and the gradation data (hereinafter referred to as CMYK data) composed of a plurality of element colors CMYK used by the printer are used. Correspondence is specified. In other words, it can be said that the print profile P1 describes the color characteristics of the actual printed matter to be printed, and the media profile P2 describes the color characteristics between the printer and the medium.

Here, the media profile P2 is information prepared corresponding to a reference medium (reference print medium) which is a reference, and is prepared corresponding to each of a plurality of reference media. Conventionally, a dedicated media profile has been prepared even if the media is derived from the reference media, that is, the media having the same color development characteristics of the ink but a slightly different ground color. In the print control apparatus of the present invention, the media profile prepared for the reference medium is used if the medium has the same color-developing characteristics of the ink as the reference medium but only the ground color is slightly different. In this embodiment, a plurality of media profiles are stored in the HD 14, and the selected media profile is read into the RAM 13 to convert the image data. Of course, the input of the media profile selected by the user of the printing system from the plurality of media profiles may be accepted, and the selected media profile may be used for the conversion of the image data.

The image conversion unit U32 converts the image data based on the selected profile information. The input image data is data in which an image is expressed by a large number of pixels in a dot matrix, and in the present embodiment, it is data of 256 gradations to which 8 bits of CMYK are allocated.
Therefore, the gradation value of each pixel forming the input image data can be represented by four-dimensional coordinates (C, M, Y, K) where C, M, Y, and K are integer values of 0 to 255, respectively. it can. Needless to say, the number of gradations may be various, and may be 1024 gradations or the like. There are various types of input image data, for example, RG defined in sRGB color space.
It may be image data composed of B, image data composed of YUV in the YUV color system, or the like.

When converting the input image data, it is converted based on various setting information included in the profile information. FIG. 4 schematically shows the situation. The CMYK data that constitutes the input image data is the same as the color conversion information of the print profile that defines the correspondence between the CMYK gradation data on the input side and each Lab value for a plurality of reference points on the premise of interpolation calculation. It is converted into output image data based on the color conversion information of the media profile that defines the correspondence between each Lab value and the CMYK gradation data on the output side for a plurality of reference points on the premise of the interpolation calculation. At that time, the gradation data of each pixel forming the input image data is converted while sequentially moving the target pixel with the gradation data of each pixel forming the image data as a conversion target.

The color correction unit U4 includes a correction value determination unit U41.
And a correction value application unit U42. Correction value determination unit U4
1 is for determining whether the correction of the image printed on the medium to be printed is appropriate based on the selected profile information and the ground color measurement data, and for correcting the gradation data forming the image data. A correction value (correction information) is calculated. The correction value application unit U42 uses the correction value calculated according to the determination result of the correction value determination unit U41, so that the color conversion information regarding the color conversion in the profile information is the ground color as shown in FIG. The image data is converted by reflecting the colorimetric data. The gradation data forming the converted image data is gradation data of 256 gradations for each CMYK. The image conversion unit U32, the correction value determination unit U41, and the correction value application unit U42 form an image conversion unit.

The print control unit U5 performs halftone processing by an error diffusion method or the like to convert CMYK data of 256 gradations into two gradations corresponding to print dots of the printer 20. After that, rasterization processing for rearranging the bit data of the CMYK data having two gradations based on the scanning width of the print head 26b of the printer is performed, and the CMYK after the processing is performed.
The data is output to the printer 20. Then, the printer 20 obtains the CMYK data, and prints on the same medium an image based on the converted image data that reflects the ground color of the medium to be printed. That is, the print control unit U5 constitutes print control means for performing control to print an image based on the image data composed of the converted gradation data. Note that when outputting CMYK data to a printer that can execute halftone processing or rasterization processing, it is possible to output CMYK data to the printer without performing these processing.

(3) Operation of the present print control device: The operation of the present print control device will be described below together with the process of printing an image in which the ground color of the medium is reflected by using the profile information corresponding to the reference medium. To do. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing performed by the various units U1 to U5, and the processing performed by the print control apparatus will be described with reference to the flowchart. An example of a display screen is also described in a part of the flow. When the print control program of the PC 10 is started, a media profile for a reference medium (hereinafter referred to as a reference media profile) corresponding to a medium to be printed by the printer is selected from the media profiles stored in the HD 14. Profile selection processing is performed (S105). At the same time, the print profile is also read from the HD 14 to the RAM 13 at this stage. The process of S105 constitutes a profile selection means. At that time, a media selection field displaying a list of media types as shown in the flow is displayed, and an operation input by the mouse 18c is accepted in this selection field, and a media profile corresponding to the operation input media type is displayed. The data is read from the HD 14 to the RAM 13. The media of the type displayed in the media selection field is the reference media, and media that differ only slightly in the background color from the reference media are not included. When the mouse 18c is not operated in the selection field, the previously selected media type or default media type is selected. Of course, information about the type of the media profile is stored in the HD 14, and when the selected media profile is not stored in the HD 14, the media profile is prompted to be installed, and after the media profile is installed, the image data is installed. You may make it use it for the conversion of.

Next, the correction value determination unit U41 performs a correction value determination process (S110). In addition, this process is S105.
May be performed only when the profile information is changed or the type of medium to be printed is changed. For example, when the profile information is not changed in S105, a screen asking whether or not the type of medium to be printed is changed is displayed, and when an operation input indicating that the type of medium is changed is performed, The correction value determination process may be performed, and by performing such a process, the processing speed can be increased. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the correction value determination process. When the correction value determination process is started, first, a request for obtaining colorimetric data is created and transmitted to the printer 20 (S20).
5). When the printer 20 receives the colorimetric data acquisition request, it starts the printer-side colorimetric data acquisition process shown in FIG. When the same process is started in the printer-side colorimetric data acquisition unit U1, first, the medium loaded in the paper tray (not shown) is fed to the predetermined reference position by the paper feeding mechanism 27b (S305). The reference position is the print head 26.
It suffices if b is set to a position where ink dots can be formed on the medium when ink is ejected, and for example, it can be a paper feed position corresponding to the print start position on the medium. Then, the colorimeter 30 easily measures the ground color of the medium to be printed and detects the Lab color corresponding to the ground color.
The amount of each component in the space can be detected. Therefore, the Lab detected by the colorimeter from the colorimeter I / F 31
Each digital Lab value corresponding to each spatial component amount is read (S310). Then, each Lab value read is set to P
The data is transmitted to C10 (S315), and this flow ends.

In the PC 10, in step S210, the printer 2
Get each Lab value from 0. The Lab value is ground color measurement data, and each acquired Lab value is represented by coordinates (Lt, at, bt) in the Lab space. In addition, CI
When using a color calorimeter that detects each component amount of the E XYZ space, the printer 20 outputs each digital XYZ value corresponding to each component amount of the CIE XYZ space to the colorimeter I / F 3
Since the data is read from No. 1 and transmitted to the PC 10, the PC 10 acquires the same XYZ values as the ground color measurement data. In this case, each XYZ value is converted into each La by a predetermined conversion formula.
When converted to the b value, the correction value determination process can be performed using the processes of S215 to S250 as they are. Of course, the print profile and media profile are XY
If the information is based on the Z value, the XYZ value is La.
The same process as S215 to S250 may be performed without converting to the b value. Then, based on the color conversion information of the selected media profile, Lab values (Lt, at,
It is determined whether or not the color corresponding to (bt) (ground color of the medium) is within the color gamut that can be expressed by the reference medium (S21).
5). When it is determined that the same color is within the color gamut that can be expressed by the reference medium, the process proceeds to S220, and when it is determined that the same color is not within the color gamut that can be expressed by the reference medium, S2.
In step 50, a predetermined correction flag provided in the RAM 13 is reset (for example, "0" is substituted), and this flow ends. Specifically, the Lab value (Lt, at, bt)
To the color conversion engine unit U3, and the color conversion engine unit U3 determines whether the Lab value (Lt, at, bt) is within the Lab value range in the color conversion information of the media profile. The range of each Lab value in the color conversion information of the media profile is set to L1 to L2, a1 to a
When expressed as 2, b1 and b2, for example, Lt <L1 or L
If 2 <Lt, it is determined to be outside the color gamut that can be expressed on the reference medium, and if at <a1 or a2 <at, it is determined to be outside the color gamut that can be expressed on the reference medium, and if bt <b1 or b2 <bt. If there is, it is determined to be outside the color gamut that can be expressed by the reference medium. In cases other than these cases, it is determined that the color gamut can be represented by the reference medium. In this way, by determining whether the background color corresponding to the background colorimetric data can be expressed by the reference medium corresponding to the media profile based on the color conversion information of the media profile, the determination result can be changed. This conversion is performed on the gradation data. As a result, it is possible to improve the quality of the printed image.

FIG. 8 schematically shows a flow of calculating a correction value at the time of converting image data, which will be described with reference to FIG. In S220, the Lab value (L) is referred to by referring to the color conversion information of the media profile corresponding to the reference medium.
Gradation data composed of gradation values for each of CMYK corresponding to (t, at, bt) is acquired. Specifically, the Lab value (L
t, at, bt) to the color conversion engine unit U3,
In the color conversion engine unit U3, Lab values (Lt, at,
bt) is converted into CMYK data based on the color conversion information of the media profile, and the converted gradation data is acquired. The converted gradation data is data corresponding to the ground color of the medium to be printed. The same grayscale data (C
a, Ma, Ya, Ka). Next, referring to the color conversion information of the print profile and the color conversion information of the media profile corresponding to the reference medium, each CMYK value (C, M, Y, K) on the input side is converted into a predetermined gradation value ( The CMYK data on the output side when 0, 0, 0, 0) is acquired (S225). Specifically, the tone value (0,0,0,0) on the input side is passed to the color conversion engine unit U3, and the color conversion engine unit U3 refers to the color conversion information of the print profile and the media profile and outputs it. Converted into tone data consisting of tone values for each CMYK side,
Acquire the converted gradation data. The converted gradation data becomes data corresponding to the ground color of the reference medium. The same gradation data is represented by (Cb, Mb, Yb, Kb).

Further, the gradation data (Ca, Ma, Ya, Ka) calculated in S225 and the gradation data (Cb, Mb, Yb, CMYK corresponding to the ground colorimetric data).
Kb) and a correction value for each CMYK are calculated (S230). If the correction value is represented by (Cd, Md, Yd, Kd), in the present embodiment, the correction value is calculated from the following equation. (Cd, Md, Yd, Kd) = (Cb-Ca, Mb-Ma, Yb-Ya, Kb-Ka) (1)

Then, the appropriateness of the calculated correction value is judged (S235). When it is determined that the correction value is appropriate, it means that the reflection of the ground color measurement data at the time of image data conversion is determined to be appropriate, and the process proceeds to S240. On the other hand, when it is determined that the correction value is not appropriate, it is determined that the reflection of the ground color measurement data at the time of image data conversion is not appropriate, the process proceeds to S250, the correction flag is set, and the present flow ends. Although various methods for determining the appropriateness of the correction value are conceivable, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG.
If any of the components (d, Md, Yd, Kd) has a negative value, it is determined that the correction value is not appropriate, and all components are set to 0.
If it is above, the correction value is determined to be appropriate. In S240, the correction flag is set (for example, "
1 ”is substituted), and the correction value is used as the correction information.
It is stored in a predetermined area of the HD 14 (S245), and this flow ends.

When the correction value determination process is completed, S1 in FIG.
Proceeding to 15, it is determined whether or not the correction value is applied. This determination process can be performed by referring to the correction flag. If the correction flag is set, it is determined that the correction value is to be applied, a correction value application process described later is performed (S120), and the process proceeds to S135. On the other hand, when the correction flag is not set, that is, when the correction flag is reset, it is determined that the correction value is not applied, the process proceeds to S125, and the conventional print control process is performed. In S125, the image conversion unit U32 inputs image data representing an image to be printed. The input image data may be image data captured by the digital camera 40, a scanner (not shown), a video camera, or the like, or the FD 16a.
It may be image data recorded in the same format. Further, when inputting image data from a digital camera or the like, it is not necessary to read the entire data at once, but it may be possible to read it in part, or to transfer the data when called from another APL. It may be only the passing of the pointer representing the buffer area used.

Next, based on the various setting information included in the print profile and the various setting information included in the reference media profile selected in S105, the gradation data forming the input image data is converted. Yes (S1
30). The color conversion of the image data is performed by converting the gradation data of each pixel while sequentially moving the target pixel with reference to the color conversion information of the print profile and the color conversion information of the reference media profile. The image data before and after the color conversion are both composed of CMYK gradation data. After that, the print control unit U5
The 256-gradation CMYK data is binarized by halftone processing (S135), and the 2-gradation CMYK data is rearranged by rasterization processing (S140). And
The CMYK data is output to the printer 20 (S14
5), this flow ends. Then, the printer 20
CMYK data representing an image is obtained, a print head is driven based on these data to eject ink onto a medium, and an image based on the image data is printed.

On the other hand, in S120, the correction value application processing is performed according to the flowchart shown in FIG. In the present embodiment, the background color of the medium to be printed can be expressed by the reference medium corresponding to the selected media profile, and the correction values (Cd, Md, Yd) calculated by the correction value determination process are calculated. , Kd) is appropriate, correction value application processing is performed. First, as in S125, the image conversion unit U
The image data representing the image to be printed is input by 32 (S405). Here, the gradation data forming the input image data is represented by (Ci, Mi, Yi, Ki). Next, as in S130, the image data is converted based on the profile information selected in S105 (S410). At the time of color conversion of image data, the gradation data of each pixel is converted by referring to the color conversion information of the print profile and the color conversion information of the reference media profile. Here, it is assumed that the gradation data (Ci, Mi, Yi, Ki) is converted into (Co, Mo, Yo, Ko).

Thereafter, the correction value applying unit U42 corrects the converted gradation data (Co, Mo, Yo, Ko) with the correction values (Cd, Md, Yd, Kd) (S41).
5), this flow ends. The corrected gradation data is (C
o2, Mo2, Yo2, Ko2), in the present embodiment, the gradation data is corrected by the following equation. (Co2, Mo2, Yo2, Ko2) = (Co-Cd, Mo-Md, Yo-Yd, Ko-Kd) (2) Here, the correction value (Cd, Md, Yd, Kd) is the value of the reference medium. Tone value (Cb, Mb, Yb, K) corresponding to the ground color
It is a value obtained by subtracting the gradation values (Ca, Ma, Ya, Ka) corresponding to the background color of the medium to be printed from b). Therefore, the gradation data after correction by the same correction value (Co
2, Mo2, Yo2, Ko2) is data that reflects the background color of the medium to be printed after removing the influence of the background color of the reference medium. In other words, the floor after conversion based on the ground color measurement data is corrected so that the difference in the ground color component appearing in the image printed on the medium to be printed when compared with the image printed on the reference medium is corrected. The key data will be corrected.

In this way, regarding the color conversion information relating to the color conversion in the various setting information included in the profile information, the ground color measurement data acquired by measuring the ground color of the medium to be printed is used. It is possible to reflect and convert the gradation data forming the image data. After that, the process proceeds to S135 in FIG. 5, where the CMYK data of 256 gradations is binarized by halftone processing, the CMYK data of 2 gradations is rearranged by rasterizing processing, and the CMYK data is output to the printer 20 (S
135-S145), the present flow ends. Then, the printer 20 obtains the CMYK data representing the image, drives the print head based on these data to eject ink onto the medium, and prints the image based on the image data.

As described above, by using the media profile corresponding to the reference medium, the image in which the ground color of the medium is reflected can be printed by the printer without preparing the media profile corresponding to the medium to be printed. Can be printed on. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the need for a dedicated media profile when printing on a medium having a slightly different background color.

When it is determined that the ground color corresponding to the ground color measurement data cannot be expressed by the reference medium corresponding to the selected media profile, the reflection of the ground color measurement data is stopped when converting the image data. Since the gradation data is converted by the gradation data, the gradation data is converted without reflecting the ground color measurement data when the ground color component of the image cannot be sufficiently corrected. Also, gradation data (0, 0,
(0,0) based on the color conversion information of the profile information and the gradation data converted from the ground color measurement data based on the reference media profile to reflect the ground color measurement data. Even if the judgment result of suitability is negative, the background color measurement data is not reflected at the time of image data conversion and the gradation data is converted, so if it is desirable not to reflect the background color measurement data, the background color The gradation data is converted without reflecting the colorimetric data. In this way, the print control apparatus is convenient because it automatically performs processing to maintain the image quality. Of course, even when the gradation data is converted by reflecting the ground color measurement data without performing the determination processing of S215 or S235 in the correction value determination processing, when printing on a medium having a slightly different ground color, It is possible to eliminate the need for a dedicated media profile.

(4) Second Embodiment: The print control device and the peripheral device of the present invention can have various configurations. For example,
The printer may be integrated with the computer or may be a dedicated product that prints only a single color image. The above-described flow may be entirely executed by the printer. Further, there are various possible positions for providing the color measuring device. FIG. 10 is a main part external view showing a main part of the printer 20 used with the print control apparatus according to the second embodiment. In addition, about the code | symbol, the same number as 1st Embodiment is attached | subjected.

A discharge tray 28b is attached to the main body 28a of the printer 20 (on the upper side of the main body 28a in the figure), and the medium 50 fed by the paper feeding mechanism 27b provided in the main body 28a is discharged. The paper is discharged onto the tray 28b. Here, as shown in the figure, the medium 50 is fed so that the left side edge portion is at the same position regardless of the size. The colorimeter (ground color detection means) 30 is attached to the main body 28a so that the color detection section faces the medium 50 and is located near the left edge of the medium 50 to which the paper is fed. When measuring the ground color of the medium 50 to be printed, the printer 20 uses the CP
Under the control of U, the medium is fed to the predetermined reference position Z by the paper feeding mechanism 27b. The reference position Z is the main body 28a.
It is set at a position (a portion indicated by a chain line in the figure) slightly protruding from the sheet ejection tray 28b in the direction from the above. Therefore, the colorimeter 30
Are installed close to the reference position Z.

In the printer 20, the printer-side colorimetric data acquisition unit performs the printer-side colorimetric data acquisition process shown in FIG. That is, when a request for obtaining colorimetric data is received from the PC 10, the medium loaded in the paper tray is fed to the reference position Z by the paper feeding mechanism 27b (S3).
05). Then, the colorimeter 30 can easily measure the ground color of the medium to be printed, and can detect each component amount (colorimetric amount) of the Lab space corresponding to the same ground color. Therefore, each La corresponding to each component amount of the Lab space detected by the colorimeter from the colorimeter I / F
The b value is read, each read Lab value is transmitted to the PC 10 (S310 to S315), and this flow ends.

Even with the above configuration, the colorimetric amount corresponding to the ground color of the medium can be easily detected, and the PC 1
When the correction value determination process shown in FIG. 6 is performed in 0, the ground color measurement data can be acquired in S210 and the correction value at the time of image data conversion can be calculated. As described above, according to the present invention, a print control apparatus, a print control program, and a print control method capable of eliminating the need for dedicated profile information when printing on a print medium having a slightly different background color according to various aspects A control program can be provided. It can also be applied as a print control method.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing system including a print control device.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram showing a block configuration of a printer together with a PC.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram schematically showing a schematic configuration of a print control device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing how input image data is converted.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process performed by the print control apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a correction value determination process.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a printer-side colorimetric data acquisition process.

FIG. 8 is a diagram schematically showing a flow of calculating a correction value when converting image data.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing correction value application processing.

FIG. 10 is a main part external view showing a main part of a printer used with the print control apparatus according to the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Personal computer 11 ... CPU 12 ... ROM 13 ... RAM 14 ... Hard disk 15 ... CD-ROM drive 16 ... Flexible disk drive 17a-e ... Interface 18a ... Display 18b ... keyboard 18c ... mouse 20 ... Inkjet printer 26b ... print head 27b ... Paper feeding mechanism 30 ... Color colorimeter 30a ... Color detection unit 31 ... Interface for colorimeter 50 ... Media U1 ... Colorimetric data acquisition unit on the printer side U2 ... PC side colorimetric data acquisition unit U3 ... Color conversion engine section U31 ... Profile selection section U32 ... Image converter U4 ... Color correction unit U41 ... Correction value determination unit U42 ... Correction value application unit U5 ... Print control unit P1 ... Printing profile P2 ... Media profile Z ... Reference position

Front page continuation (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04N 1/60 H04N 1/46 ZF term (reference) 2C262 AA24 AB13 BA01 BA09 BB03 BC17 EA04 EA11 GA01 5B021 AA01 BB04 BB09 LG07 LG08 5C077 LL01 LL12 LL19 MP08 NN02 PP15 PP32 PP33 PP36 PP37 PP44 PQ23 TT02 5C079 HB03 HB05 HB08 HB12 LA02 LA07 LB02 LC09 MA01 MA11

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. Select any one of a plurality of profile information corresponding to each of a plurality of reference print media, input image data in which an image is expressed by gradation data of a large number of pixels, and include it in the same profile information. Is a print control device that converts the gradation data of each pixel based on various setting information that is stored, and controls the printing device to print an image based on the image data that is composed of the converted gradation data. Profile selecting means for selecting profile information according to the print medium to be printed by the printing device from the plurality of profile information, and the ground color of the print medium to be printed is measured, Color measurement data acquisition means for acquiring the ground color measurement data corresponding to the ground color, and various setting information included in the profile information selected by the profile selection means. When converting the gradation data forming the image data based on the above, the color conversion information regarding the color conversion in the setting information is reflected by the ground color measurement data acquired by the color measurement data acquisition unit. A print control apparatus comprising: an image conversion unit that converts gradation data; and a print control unit that controls printing an image based on image data composed of the converted gradation data. 2. The image conversion means is within a color gamut in which a ground color corresponding to the ground colorimetric data based on the color conversion information can be represented on a reference print medium corresponding to the selected profile information. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not there is, and conversion is performed on the gradation data according to the determination result. 3. The image converting means is within a color gamut in which a background color corresponding to the background colorimetric data based on the color conversion information can be represented by a reference print medium corresponding to the selected profile information. If it is determined that the same background color cannot be represented by the same reference print medium, the reflection of the background color measurement data is stopped and the gradation data is converted. The print control apparatus according to claim 1. 4. The colorimetric data acquisition unit includes a ground color detection unit that measures the ground color of the print medium to be printed and detects the amount of each component in a predetermined color space corresponding to the ground color. 4. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the background colorimetric data corresponding to the respective component amounts of the detected color space is acquired. 5. The CIE corresponding to the ground color is obtained by measuring the ground color of the print medium to be printed by the ground color detecting means.
A color calorimeter for detecting the amount of each component in the Lab space or the CIE XYZ space, wherein the colorimetric data acquisition means is adapted to detect the amount of each component in the CIE Lab space or the CIE XYZ space detected by the color calorimeter. The print control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the corresponding lightness data and chromaticity data are acquired. 6. The color conversion information defines a correspondence relationship between each component value of the color space and gradation data composed of a plurality of element colors used by the printing apparatus, corresponding to the reference print medium. Media color conversion information is included, and the image conversion means refers to the media color conversion information to obtain gradation data composed of the plurality of element colors corresponding to the ground color measurement data, and the gradation data 6. The print control apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the gradation data forming the image data is converted by reflecting the above. 7. The image conversion means refers to the color conversion information to acquire the converted gradation data composed of the plurality of element colors corresponding to the gradation data composed of a predetermined gradation value,
The gradation data composed of the plurality of element colors corresponding to the ground color measurement data is subtracted from the gradation data to calculate the correction value for each of the plurality of element colors, and the correction value is included in the selected profile information. 7. The gradation data constituting the image data is converted on the basis of various setting information, and correction is performed by subtracting the calculated correction value from the converted gradation data. Print control device. 8. The image conversion means refers to the color conversion information to obtain converted gradation data corresponding to gradation data having a predetermined gradation value, and obtains the gradation data and the background data. The suitability of reflection of the ground color measurement data is determined based on the gradation data composed of the plurality of element colors corresponding to the color measurement data, and when the determination result is No, the ground color measurement data 8. The print control device according to claim 6, wherein the reflection is stopped and the gradation data is converted. 9. One of a plurality of profile information corresponding to each of a plurality of reference print media is selected, image data in which an image is expressed in gradation with a large number of pixels is input, and the same image is obtained based on the same profile information. A print control device for converting data and controlling a printing device to print an image based on the converted image data, wherein a printing medium to be printed by the printing device from among the plurality of profile information Profile selection means for selecting profile information according to the above, and colorimetric data acquisition means for measuring the background color of the print medium to be printed and acquiring background color measurement data corresponding to the same background color, When converting the image data based on the profile information selected by the profile selecting means, the color change related to the color conversion included in the profile information is converted. Regarding the replacement information, an image conversion unit for converting the same color image data by reflecting the ground color measurement data acquired by the color measurement data acquisition unit, and a control for printing an image based on the converted image data A print control apparatus comprising: a print control unit. 10. One of a plurality of profile information corresponding to each of a plurality of reference print media is selected, image data in which an image is expressed in gradation with a large number of pixels is input, and the same image is obtained based on the same profile information. What is claimed is: 1. A print control method for converting data, and controlling a printing apparatus to print an image based on the converted image data, wherein a printing medium to be printed by the printing apparatus from among the plurality of profile information. A profile selection step of selecting profile information according to the above, a color measurement data acquisition step of measuring the ground color of the print medium to be printed, and acquiring ground color measurement data corresponding to the same ground color, When converting the above-mentioned image data based on the profile information selected in the profile selection step, the color relating to the color conversion included in the profile information Regarding conversion information, an image conversion step of converting the same color image data by reflecting the ground color measurement data acquired in the color measurement data acquisition step, and a control to print an image based on the converted image data A print control method comprising: a print control step. 11. Select one of a plurality of profile information corresponding to each of a plurality of reference print media, input image data in which an image is expressed in gradation with a large number of pixels, and input the same image based on the same profile information. A printing control program for causing a computer to realize a function of converting data and controlling an image based on the converted image data to be printed by the printing device, wherein the printing device selects from among the plurality of profile information. Profile selection function that selects profile information according to the print medium to be printed, and the ground color measurement data corresponding to the same ground color by the color measurement unit that measures the ground color of the print medium to be printed. When converting the above image data based on the acquired color measurement data acquisition function and the profile information selected by the profile selection function For the color conversion information related to the color conversion included in the profile information, an image conversion function for converting the same image data by reflecting the ground color measurement data acquired by the above color measurement data acquisition function, and a post-conversion A print control program that realizes a print control function for performing control to print an image based on the image data. 12. One of a plurality of profile information corresponding to each of a plurality of reference print media is selected, image data in which an image is expressed in gradation with a large number of pixels is input, and the same image is obtained based on the same profile information. A medium for recording a print control program for causing a computer to realize a function of converting data and printing an image based on the converted image data to a printing apparatus, wherein A profile selection function that selects profile information according to the print medium to be printed by the printing device, and a ground color corresponding to the ground color by the color measurement unit that measures the ground color of the print medium to be printed. Based on the colorimetric data acquisition function that acquires colorimetric data and the profile information selected by the profile selection function, the image data is downloaded. At the time of conversion, regarding the color conversion information regarding the color conversion included in the profile information, an image conversion function for converting the same image data by reflecting the ground color measurement data acquired by the color measurement data acquisition function A medium having a print control program recorded thereon, which realizes a print control function for performing control of printing an image based on the image data described later.