JP2003308189A - Printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate trouble in correction processing by discriminating that image data are divided within a printer driver and reconstructing the data into original image. <P>SOLUTION: A printer driver 3 for converting a printing request from an application 1 into a printer language to be used by a printer on a personal computer or workstation, is provided with a graphic processing module 11 for discriminating whether a received printing command is an image or not when it is designated that the image data are to be divided and plotted, an image discrimination module 14 for comparing image data with each other for the unit of a row (column) and judging whether the image data are overlapped or not, and an image coupling module 13 for coupling the image data to reconstruct them into image data before division while taking into account the number of overlapped rows. <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 printer driver that mediates between application software used on a personal computer or a workstation and a printing apparatus, and more particularly to an output control technique thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In Japanese Patent Application No. 11-291563, "Image processing apparatus and method thereof", there is provided a developing means for developing multivalued image data and bitmap data corresponding to the type of an object according to a drawing command, and Scan the bitmap data for each type of object,
Extraction means for extracting multi-valued image data corresponding to bitmap data, color processing means for performing color processing on the extracted multi-valued image data according to the type of object of the multi-valued image data, and color processing There has been proposed an image processing apparatus having an arithmetic means for performing a logical sum of the applied image data for each type of the object.

[0003]

When image data is printed, when the application or OS requests the printer to print the original image data, the image data may be divided into a plurality of pieces due to memory restrictions or the like. is there. When color correction processing or the like is performed on an image in the printer driver, if the correction processing depends on the content of the image data alone, the correction content may change for each image data. If the application or OS divides one image data into a plurality of images, the printer driver can only recognize as a plurality of images, so each image is corrected, and as a result, the completed image is partially divided. The image may have different colors in some areas.

When the image is divided and a print request is issued to the printer driver, when the driver changes parameters for each image data from the contents of the image and changes the color correction and the compression ratio, the divided first image is divided. The correction parameters and compression ratios of the first image data and the second image data may change, and as a result of output by the printer, the images may have different colors in some parts. Also, O
When S divides an image, the division process may be performed so that the images overlap each other so that no gap is opened.

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate defects in the correction process by identifying in the printer driver that image data is divided and reconstructing the original image.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is a printer driver for converting a print request from an application into a printer language used by a printer on a personal computer or a workstation. , If a designation is made to divide the image data and draw it, a graphic processing module that identifies whether the received print command is an image,
An image identification module that compares the image data row by row (column) to determine whether there is an overlap, and an image combination that combines the image data considering the number of overlapping rows and reconstructs the image data before dividing. The most main feature is a printer driver provided with a module.

A second aspect of the invention is characterized in that, in the printer driver of the first aspect, the printer driver having a function of designating the number of overlapping rows (columns) of drawing source images to be compared is a main feature.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the printer driver of the first aspect, when the size of the drawing destination is the same as the size of the original image (actual size drawing), the line of the drawing source image overlaps from the coordinates of the drawing destination. A printer driver having a function of acquiring a number is a main feature.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the printer driver according to the first aspect, when the size of the drawing destination is different from that of the original image (scaled drawing), the number of rows (columns) in the overlapping portion of the drawing destination is The main feature is a printer driver having a function of acquiring the number of overlapping lines of the drawing source image from the scaling ratio.

The fifth aspect of the invention is characterized in that, in the printer driver of the first aspect, the printer driver having a function of determining whether the images are continuous images from the palette information of the drawing source image data is a main feature.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the printer driver of the first aspect is characterized mainly in that the upper limit size of a drawing source image to be combined is designated.

A seventh aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the printer driver of the sixth aspect, the upper limit size is calculated from the remaining memory amount.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a printer driver (printer driver module) according to the embodiment of the present invention. In a printing system including a personal computer and a printer, the personal computer includes an application 1 that issues a print request, an OS 2, a printer driver 3,
Centro or U for sending / receiving print data to / from the printer
It has an input / output port 4 such as an SB and a network.

The printer driver 3 is a graphic processing module 11 for creating data to be transmitted to a printer.
A UI processing module 12 that displays a user interface, saves the set print conditions, and transfers the print conditions to the graphic processing module 11, an image combining module 13 that combines print data received by the graphic processing module 11, and an image combining module. An image identification module 14 is provided to determine whether the image data received by 13 can be combined.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing a first processing example of the present invention. Application 1 to OS by user
When a print request is issued to the OS 2, the OS 2 acquires print conditions from the UI processing module 12 and issues a print command to the graphic processing module 11 under the print conditions. When the print command is received from the OS 2, the graphic processing module 11 identifies whether the command is an image, and when it is an image, calls the image combining module 13.

The image combining module 13 determines whether the image previously received using the image identification module 14 and the bit configuration of the upper end and the lower end or the left end and the right end are the UI.
The processing module 12 checks whether the number of rows (columns) specified by the user matches, and the overlapping rows (columns) of the image
The number is calculated, and the image identification module 14 returns the number of overlapping rows (columns) to the image combination module 13.

The image merging module 13 merging the image data in consideration of the number of overlapping rows and storing it in the memory. After that, when there is a drawing request other than an image or when an image that cannot be combined is designated, the image data stored is transmitted from the input / output port 4 to the printer (S1 to S15).

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a second processing example of the present invention. Application 1 to OS by user
When a print request is issued to the OS 2, the OS 2 acquires print conditions from the UI processing module 12 and issues a print command to the graphic processing module 11 under the print conditions. When the print command is received from the OS 2, the graphic processing module 11 identifies whether the command is an image, and when it is an image, calls the image combining module 13.

The image combining module 13 uses the image identification module 14 to investigate the coordinates of the drawing destination and the scaling ratio of the image, and determine what is the top and bottom edges or the left and right edges of the previously received image and rendering destination. The number of overlapping rows (columns) is investigated, and the number of overlapping rows (columns) of the drawing source image is calculated from the number of overlapping rows (columns).
4 returns the number of overlapping rows (columns) to the image combination module 13.

The image combining module 13 combines the image data in consideration of the number of overlapping rows and stores the combined image data in the memory. After that, when there is a drawing request other than an image or when an image that cannot be combined is designated, the stored image data is transmitted from the input / output port 4 to the printer (S1 to S14).

In the present invention, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 2, the image identification module 14 is used to investigate two images to be combined, and if the palette information of both is different, it is determined that the images are not continuous. Do not perform join processing.

Further, in the present invention, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 3, when the size of the combined image becomes the size specified by the user in the UI processing module 12 or the size calculated from the remaining memory amount, The image identification module 14 notifies the image combination module 13 that the combination is impossible. Image combining module 1
The input / output port 4 sends the stored image data 3 to the printer.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram when the image data is divided and then reconstructed. It is shown that the image data is divided by the OS2, the overlapping portion is deleted, the divided image data is combined, and is output to the printer.

[0024]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the overlapping images are combined in the printer driver by a simple method, and even if the images are divided, the image before the division is reproduced. Therefore, the correction does not change depending on the image part.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, by specifying the number of rows (columns) to be compared in advance, it is possible to limit the time taken to determine whether the images can be combined, and the printing time becomes long. Can be suppressed.

According to the third and fourth aspects of the invention, the images can be surely combined by determining the number of combined rows (columns) from the coordinates of the drawing destination and the scaling factor.

According to the fifth aspect of the invention, it is possible to speed up the determination by previously determining whether or not to combine the images with the palette structure.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, by predetermining the upper limit size after the image combination, it is possible to suppress the memory consumption due to the image combination and prevent the deterioration of the printing performance.

According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, by calculating the upper limit size after the image combination from the remaining memory amount, it is possible to efficiently suppress the memory consumption due to the image combination and prevent the deterioration of the printing performance. be able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a first processing example of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a second processing example of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram when image data is divided and then reconstructed.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 application 3 Printer driver 11 Graphic processing module 13 Image combination module 14 Image identification module

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A printer driver for converting a print request from an application into a printer language used by a printer on a personal computer or a workstation, and when a designation to divide and draw image data is made, the received print command is A graphic processing module that identifies whether it is an image, an image identification module that compares image data row by row (column) to determine whether there is an overlap, and a division that combines image data by considering the number of overlapping rows A printer driver, comprising: an image combining module for reconstructing the image data before being processed. 2. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein
A printer driver having a function of specifying the number of overlapping rows (columns) of drawing source images to be compared. 3. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein
A printer driver having a function of acquiring the number of overlapping lines of the drawing source image from the coordinates of the drawing destination when the size of the drawing destination is the same as the size of the original image (actual size drawing). 4. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein
When the size of the drawing destination is different from that of the original image (variable size drawing), it has a function to obtain the number of rows (columns) in the overlapping part of the drawing destination and the number of overlapping rows of the drawing source image from the scaling factor. A printer driver characterized by. 5. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein
A printer driver having a function of determining whether or not images are continuous from palette information included in drawing source image data. 6. The printer driver according to claim 1, wherein
A printer driver, wherein an upper limit size of a drawing source image to be combined is specified. 7. The printer driver according to claim 6, wherein
A printer driver, wherein the upper limit size is calculated from the remaining memory amount.