JP2003305926A - Method of preparing chart for output color feature inspection - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily inspect output color features of a printer. <P>SOLUTION: Ten square-shape patches each are arranged vertically and crosswise to form a chart. Each patch has three kinds of rectangular inspection areas printed in inspection colors in a background area printed in 'K' black ink. The original chart data to be printed are prepared so that the three kinds of inspection color areas of patches in the i line indicating regular output color features of a printer 2 are printed in 10% concentration/net of the i line. The original data on the chart are printed in 'K black' so that the background area of patches in the i line exhibits the brightness equal to that of the inspection color in the inspection area of the patches in the i line. When the printer 2 shows the regular output color features in its operation, the patch whose background brightness equals to that of the inspection color area appears on a diagonal line that links the right upper angle with the left lower angle of the chart. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for inspecting output color characteristics of a print output device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an output color characteristic of a print output device is inspected by printing a color chart composed of predetermined color data from the print output device, as described in JP 2001-313849 A, for example. This has been done by measuring the printed color chart with a colorimeter and determining the relationship between the color data of the color chart and the measured values of the colorimeter.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technique, it is necessary to use a relatively expensive colorimeter, and in general, the user's work for color measurement and the color chart Complex processing is required to find the relationship between the color data and the measured value of the colorimeter. For this reason, the output color characteristics of a simple print output device are unsuitable for inspection.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable a user to easily inspect the output color characteristics of a printout device.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] To achieve the above objects,
The present invention is a method for generating an output color characteristic inspection chart for printing an output color characteristic inspection chart for inspecting the output color characteristic of a print output device, wherein print data for the output color characteristic inspection chart is generated. And a step of causing the print output device to perform printing according to the generated print data. In the print data, the patch in which the inspection color area is provided in the background area has the first direction and the second direction. The inspection color areas of each patch arranged in the first direction and arranged in the first direction have the inspection color of the same lightness, and the lightness of the inspection color of the inspection color area of each patch is in the second direction of the patch. The brightness of the background color of each patch is larger than the brightness of the inspection color of the adjacent patch and arranged in the second direction, and the background color of the background color region of each patch has the same brightness. Next to the patch in the first direction Greater than the brightness of the background color of the patch background area and between the maximum and minimum values of the background color brightness of the patch background area and the maximum and minimum values of the inspection color of the patch inspection color area. The range provides a method for generating an output color characteristic inspection chart, which is characterized by defining images at least partially overlapping with each other.

According to such a method for generating the output color characteristic inspection chart, the printed output color characteristic inspection chart has the background color when the print output device operates with the regular output color characteristic. The patches having the same brightness as the inspection color are arranged in a specific pattern on the output color characteristic inspection chart. When the print output device does not operate with the regular output color characteristic, the patch array pattern in which the background color and the inspection color have the same brightness has the regular output color characteristic from the specific pattern. It will collapse according to the deviation from.

Therefore, the user can immediately determine that the print output device has the normal output color from the pattern of the array of patches in which the background color and the inspection color of the output color characteristic inspection chart printed by this method have similar brightness. You will be able to understand whether or not you are operating with the characteristics.

Here, the print data is stored in at least part of the patches in the i-th direction (where i
Is the natural number), and the lightness of the background color of the background area of the th patch is
If the brightness of the inspection color in the inspection color area of the n-th (where n is a natural number) patch in the second direction and the normal output color characteristic of the printout device are defined as an image, The printed output color characteristic inspection chart is
When the print output device operates with the regular output color characteristics, the patches in which the background color and the inspection color have the same brightness are linearly arranged on the output color characteristic inspection chart, and the user can It becomes possible to more intuitively grasp whether or not the print output device operates with the regular output color characteristic.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The embodiments of the present invention are applied to the inspection of output color characteristics of a printer using four color inks of S: cyan, Y: yellow, M: magenta, and K: black for output. Will be described as an example. First, FIG. 1 shows a chart used in this embodiment for inspection of output color characteristics in this embodiment. In this embodiment, the output color characteristics are inspected using S: cyan, Y: yellow, and M: magenta as inspection colors. Further, the chart shown is provided for each inspection color. As shown in FIG. 2, the chart shown in FIG.
Each patch is arranged one by one, and each patch has a shape in which three rectangular inspection color areas 22 to be printed in an inspection color are provided in a background area 21 to be printed in K: black ink.

Returning to FIG. 1, on the chart, all the three inspection color areas of the patch in the same row are printed in the same lightness with the inspection color, and the three inspection color areas of the patch in the same column have the lightness in the lower row. It is printed in the inspection color so that it becomes lower. Also, in the regular output color characteristics of the printer, the print data of this chart is created so that the three inspection color areas of the patch on the i-th row are printed at a density of 10% I / dot area ratio. To be done.

On the other hand, on the chart, the background areas of the patches in the same row are all printed in K: black with the same lightness,
The background area of the patch in the same row is printed in K: black with lower brightness in the left column. Also, in the regular output color characteristic of the printer, the background area of the patch in the i-th column is printed in K: black so that it has the same brightness as the brightness of the inspection color in the inspection color area of the i-th row patch. The print data of this chart is created.

As can be seen from FIG. 1, when the printer has the correct output color characteristics, when the print data of this chart is printed by the printer, a patch in which the lightness of the three inspection color areas and the background area are equal is obtained. Exists on the diagonal line connecting the upper right corner and the lower left corner of the printed chart.

On the other hand, if the printer is printing with output color characteristics different from the regular output color characteristics,
When the print data of this chart is printed by a printer, for example, as shown by a broken line in FIG. 3, a patch in which the three test color areas and the background area have the same brightness connects the upper right corner and the lower left corner of the printed chart. It will exist off the diagonal.

Therefore, the user prints the print data of the chart for each inspection color of S: cyan, Y: yellow, and M: magenta by the printer, and the lightness of the background area and the inspection color area is equal on the printed chart. Whether the patch is located on the diagonal line that connects the upper right corner and the lower left corner of the chart, and where the brightness of the background area and the inspection color area are equal By identifying whether or not the output color characteristic of the printer is currently the normal output color characteristic, and what percentage of which ink has a certain density and what degree of abnormality can be determined. . Then, according to the determination result using this chart, processing necessary for setting the current output color characteristic of the printer to the regular output color characteristic such as cleaning the print head of the printer and adjusting the output gamma characteristic of the printer. Will be able to do.

Here, the human visual characteristics are particularly sensitive to lightness, and since the inspection color area is provided on the background area, even an unskilled person can detect the inspection color area and the background area. This can be easily done to determine the equality of brightness. Hereinafter, a printing system using such a chart will be described. FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the printing system according to this embodiment. As shown in the figure, this printing system is configured using an electronic computer system, and has a host computer 1 and a printer 2. The host computer 1 is an electronic computer having a general configuration including a CPU, a memory, an external storage device, a display device, an input device, and the like in terms of hardware. On the other hand, the host computer 1 functionally has an operating system 11 incorporating the printer driver 10 and an application 12 running on the operating system 11. The operating system 11 also has a print interface 13 that mediates between the application 12 and the printer driver 10.

The printer driver 10 has a main controller 101, a print data generator 102, an output color characteristic information database 103, and a chart print processor 104. The output color characteristic information database 103 stores chart data defining a chart corresponding to the regular output color characteristic of the printer 2 for each type of the printer 2. The chart data may be the image of the chart itself, may describe data of each color included in the chart, or may be a profile that describes the output color characteristics of the printer 2. good.

However, the printer driver 10 may be implemented as a program in an electronic computer and operate as a process on the electronic computer system. Further, this program may be stored in a general-purpose storage medium or supplied to the electronic computer via a communication path.

The operation of this printer driver will be described below. When the print interface 13 of the operating system 11 receives a print instruction from the application 12, a print dialog window is displayed,
A chart printing instruction and a printing instruction are received on the print dialog window. Then, when printing is instructed, this is notified to the main control unit 101 of the printer driver 10. Then, in order, application 1
The drawing data of the document page sent from the printer 2 is delivered to the printer driver 10.

The main control unit 10 which has received the printing instruction
1 is a print data generation unit 102 of the printer driver 10.
To convert the drawing data of each document page sent from the print interface 13 into a printer language expression,
Print data is generated for each document page. The generated print data is output to the printer 2, and the printer 2 prints each document page.

On the other hand, when the print interface 13 of the operating system 11 receives a chart print instruction on the print dialog window, it notifies the main control unit 101 of the printer driver 10 of this. Upon receiving the notification, the main control unit 101 instructs the chart print processing unit 104 to print the chart.

Upon receiving the chart printing instruction, the chart printing section reads out chart data corresponding to the type of the connected printer 2 from the output color characteristic information database 103, and based on this, S: cyan, Y: yellow. , M:
Chart drawing data for each magenta inspection color is generated and output to the print data generating unit 102.
The print data generation unit 102 converts the drawing data of each chart into a printer language expression to generate print data of each chart and outputs the print data to the printer 2. Then, each chart is printed by the printer 2.

The embodiments of the present invention have been described above. Note that, in the above, the print output of the chart is realized by the printer driver 10. However, such print output of the chart is performed based on the chart data that is held in advance and that matches the regular output color characteristics of the printer 2 in use. The drawing data may be generated and the printing may be realized as the application 12 that requests the printer driver 10 via the operating system 11. Alternatively, the printer 2 itself may be provided with a function of printing a chart based on the chart data that matches the regular output color characteristics of its own.

Further, in the above embodiment, the shape of the patch is such that three rectangular inspection color areas are provided in the square background color area, but the shape of the patch is other than this, for example, The shape of the patch may be a square background color area in which one square inspection color area is provided. Further, the arrangement of the background color and the inspection color in each patch may be reversed from the above, and the background color area may be provided in the inspection color area.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, the user can easily inspect the output color characteristic of the print output device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a chart according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing components of a chart according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an output example of a chart according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: host computer, 2: printer, 10: printer driver, 11: operating system, 12:
Application, 13: print interface, 10
1: main control unit, 102 print data generation unit: 10
3: Output color characteristic information database, 104: Chart print processing unit.

Continued front page    F term (reference) 2C061 AR01 KK04 KK18 KK25 KK26                 2C262 AA24 AB11 BA16 CA04 FA13                 5C062 AA02 AA05 AB05 AB22 AC04                       AC55 AE03 BA00                 5C077 LL12 MP08 PP33 TT02                 5C079 HA18 HB03 KA20 LA02 LA23                       LA24 LB02 MA10 NA03 NA27                       PA01 PA03

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A method of generating an output color characteristic inspection chart for printing an output color characteristic inspection chart for inspecting the output color characteristic of a print output device, wherein print data of the output color characteristic inspection chart is generated. And a step of causing a print output device to perform printing according to the generated print data, wherein the print data includes a patch in which an inspection color area is provided in a background area in a first direction and a second direction. A plurality of inspection color regions arranged in the first direction have inspection colors of the same lightness, and the lightness of the inspection color of the inspection color region of each patch is the same as the second color of the patch. Direction is larger than the brightness of the inspection color of the patch adjacent to the inspection color region, the background region of each patch arranged in the second direction has a background color of the same brightness, the background color of the background color region of each patch The brightness is Is larger than the background color brightness of the patch background area adjacent in the first direction, and the range between the maximum and minimum values of the background color brightness of the patch background area and the inspection color of the patch inspection color area. The range between the maximum value and the minimum value defines an image that at least partially overlaps, and is a method for generating an output color characteristic inspection chart. 2. The method of generating an output color characteristic inspection chart according to claim 1, wherein the print data is the i-th (where i is a natural number) in the first direction for at least some patches. The lightness of the background color of the background area of the th patch is n-th (where n
Is a natural number), and defines an image in which the lightness of the inspection color of the inspection color area of the (third) th patch is equal to the regular output color characteristics of the printout device. 3. The method for generating an output color characteristic inspection chart according to claim 1, wherein the background color and the inspection color are each only one ink used by the print output device and different from each other. A method for generating an output color inspection chart characterized by being expressed by. 4. The method of generating an output color characteristic inspection chart according to claim 1, wherein either one of the background color and the inspection color is expressed only by a black ink used by the print output device. Method for generating an output color inspection chart, characterized in that the output color inspection chart is generated. 5. The patch has a rectangular shape and the second
Is a direction perpendicular to the first direction, the method for generating an output color inspection chart. 6. An output color characteristic inspection chart produced by the method of producing an output color inspection chart according to claim 1. Description: 7. A computer program read and executed by a computer, wherein the program prints an output color characteristic inspection chart for inspecting the output color characteristic of a print output device on the computer. A step of generating print data of the inspection chart and a step of causing a print output device to perform printing according to the generated print data are performed. The print data is a patch in which an inspection color area is provided in a background area. Are arrayed in each of the first direction and the second direction, and the inspection color areas of the patches arranged in the first direction have the inspection color of the same lightness, and the lightness of the inspection color of the inspection color area of each patch is Is larger than the brightness of the inspection color of the inspection color area of the patch adjacent to the patch in the second direction, and is the background area of each patch arranged in the second direction. The background color of each patch has the same brightness, and the brightness of the background color of the background color area of each patch is larger than the brightness of the background color of the background area of the patch adjacent to the patch in the first direction. A computer characterized in that the range between the maximum value and the minimum value of the brightness of the background color and the range between the maximum value and the minimum value of the inspection color in the inspection color area of the patch define at least partially overlapping images. program. 8. A printout device for performing printing based on print data, comprising: storage means for holding chart data defining an output color characteristic inspection chart; and an output color characteristic inspection chart based on the chart data. The chart data includes a plurality of patches each having an inspection color area in the background area arranged in each of the first direction and the second direction and arranged in the first direction. The inspection color areas of the patches have the same inspection lightness, and the inspection color brightness of the inspection color area of each patch is higher than that of the inspection color area of the patch adjacent to the patch in the second direction. The background area of each patch arranged in the second direction has a background color having the same lightness, and the lightness of the background color of the background color area of each patch is the same as that of a patch adjacent to the patch in the first direction. Background area Greater than the brightness of the background color, the range between the maximum and minimum values of the background color of the patch background area and the range between the maximum and minimum values of the inspection color of the patch inspection color area must be at least one. A printout device, characterized by defining overlapping output color characteristic inspection charts.