JP2003326793A - Printing method and printer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printing method and a printer capable of flexible layout printing. <P>SOLUTION: Layout data 101 has the same data format as that of edition data 103 having layout information, and an editing section 102 can edit both the layout data 101 and the edition data 103 through the same function because both data have the same data format. When layout print of the edition data 103 is performed, a layout selecting section 104 selects a layout being used in the printing. A writing section 105 performs writing to an output device using the edition data 103 and the layout data 101 selected at the layout selecting section 104. Flexible layout print can be carried out through easy operation and print service can be diversified. <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 printing method and a printing apparatus, and more particularly to a printing method and a printing apparatus for laying out page data for printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of digital cameras in recent years,
A digital processing output environment using a personal computer and a printer has been developed. Even in lab shops and print shops, there are value-added print services that take advantage of the immediacy unique to digital processing, such as simple simultaneous print services, large-scale expansion, and value-added printing using templates, ID photo printing, business card printing services, etc. It is spreading.

The output service by digital processing is expected to increase in the future, and even in a minilab store which has conventionally provided a silver halide photography service, the equipment is replaced with a device compatible with digital processing to provide a digital output service. Is changing rapidly.

Under such a background, layouts such as business cards and card list printing can be easily printed by digital processing. For example, in the business card list printing, printing is performed in a layout of 2 columns × 5 rows on an A4 paper size, and 10 business cards are cut using a dedicated business card cutter. In this case, the layout for layout printing is adapted to the special cutter.

Such a conventional layout for printing is
It is built into the application in advance,
It was difficult to change the layout at print shops. For this reason, layouts other than the services provided as a system in advance, for example, it is not possible to insert advertisement image data of the store as needed, and the flexibility of utilizing the unique characteristics of digital processing, such as stores and chain stores. It was not possible to provide flexible layout printing services flexibly.

[0006]

As described above, in the conventional printing environment using layout printing, when printing is to be performed using various layouts, a layout addition request is made to a device maker or the like, which is troublesome. However, it was difficult to implement in terms of efficiency and cost.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object thereof is to provide a printing method and a printing apparatus capable of performing flexible layout printing.

[0008]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides a printing method for laying out and printing page data according to a first aspect of the invention.
An edit step of editing the edit data and editing layout data having the same data format as the edit data; a layout selecting step of selecting the layout data edited by the edit step; and an edit edited by the edit step. Using the data and the layout data selected in the layout selection step,
When inserting the edit data into the selected layout, a drawing step of setting an insertion method based on the determination by the insertion method determination step and generating print data is included.

The invention described in claim 2 is the same as claim 1.
In the invention described in above, the insertion method determination step,
It is characterized by having a function of determining an insertion method depending on the type of a drawing destination device.

The invention described in claim 3 is the same as claim 1
In the invention described in above, the insertion method determination step,
It is characterized by having a function of determining an insertion method according to the data attribute of the layout destination.

The invention described in claim 4 is the same as claim 1.
In the invention described in above, the drawing step includes a step of expanding the edit data as an image by the set insertion method, and a step of performing rotation correction and inserting the edit data expanded as the image into layout data,
Drawing the layout data with the image data inserted in an output device.

The invention described in claim 5 is the same as claim 1.
In the invention described in above, in the drawing step, when the edited data is developed as an image by the set insertion method, a step of automatically changing the resolution when the edited data is developed as an image according to the resolution of the output device. It is characterized by having.

The invention according to claim 6 is the same as claim 1.
In the invention described in (3), the drawing step includes a step of performing rotation correction of the editing data and inserting the layout data into the layout destination data by the set insertion method, and a step of drawing the layout data on an output device. Is characterized by.

The invention described in claim 7 is the same as claim 1.
The invention according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is characterized in that the printing method is executed by a host computer.

The invention described in claim 8 is the same as claim 1.
In the invention described in claim 5, the output device according to claim 5 is a printer and a display or a file device.

The invention according to claim 9 is a printing program for laying out and printing page data, which edits edit data and edits layout data having the same data format as the edit data. An editing step, a layout selecting step of selecting layout data edited by the editing step, an editing data edited by the editing step, and layout data selected by the layout selecting step are used to edit the editing data. When inserting into the selected layout, the insertion method is set based on the determination by the insertion method determination step, and the computer is caused to execute a drawing step for generating print data.

According to a tenth aspect of the invention, there is provided a computer-readable recording medium in which a print program for laying out and printing page data is stored. An editing step of editing the layout data having the same data format as the above, a layout selecting step of selecting the layout data edited by the editing step, an editing data edited by the editing step, and a selection by the layout selecting step. When the edit data is inserted into the selected layout using the layout data, the insertion method is set based on the determination by the insertion method determination step, and the computer is caused to execute a drawing step for generating print data. And

The invention described in claim 11 is a printing device for laying out and printing page data,
Editing means for editing the editing data and editing layout data having the same data format as the editing data, layout selecting means for selecting the layout data edited by the editing means, and editing edited by the editing means Data and layout data selected by the layout selection unit are used, and when the edit data is inserted into the selected layout, the insertion method is set based on the judgment by the insertion method judgment unit, and the drawing is performed to generate print data. And means.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing system including a host computer for executing a program for laying out page data for printing and a printing device, and editing the edited data. Editing means for editing layout data having the same data format as the editing data, and layout selecting means for selecting the layout data edited by the editing means,
When the editing data edited by the editing unit and the layout data selected by the layout selecting unit are used to insert the editing data into the selected layout, an insertion method is set based on the determination made by the insertion method determining unit. And a drawing means for generating print data.

[0020]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram for explaining an embodiment of the printing apparatus of the present invention. Reference numeral 101 in the figure denotes edit data 1 having layout information.
03 is the layout data of the same data format, 102 is the layout data 101, since the editing data 103 has the same data format, the editing unit that can edit both data with the same function, 104 is the case of performing the layout printing of printing the editing data 103 Further, a layout selection unit 105 selects which layout is to be used for printing, and a drawing unit 105 performs a drawing process on the output device 106 by using the edit data 103 and the layout data 101 selected by the layout selection unit 104. The output device 106 has an output form such as a printer, a display, or a file.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the hardware configuration of the printing system of the present invention. Reference numeral 201 in the figure is
It is a central processing unit (CPU) for calculation and control. Two
A ROM 02 stores programs for image input, data editing, layout selection, and drawing. 203 is
This is a RAM in which an execution area into which a program is loaded and a work area of the program are secured when a program for image input, data editing, layout selection, and drawing is executed. Reference numeral 204 is a keyboard having keys for the operator to perform operations and data input.

Reference numeral 205 is a pointing device such as a mouse for clicking an instruction icon displayed on the display 206 or moving a cursor to instruct an operation. Reference numeral 207 denotes a storage device (hard disk) in which expanded image data of image data and edited data, a program, or spool data for printing is stored.

Reference numeral 208 denotes a floppy (registered trademark) disk or a magneto-optical disk (M) for exchanging data with an external image processing apparatus and storing image data and programs.
O) and other removable media. Reference numeral 209 denotes a printing device (printer). Reference numeral 210 is a digital image input device such as a film scanner or a digital camera that inputs a digital image. A bus 211 is connected to each device in the printing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of edited data of this embodiment. Reference numeral 301 in the figure indicates the entire document, and 3
Reference numeral 02 indicates information on the first page and reference numeral 303 indicates information on the second page.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a data format when the display data shown in FIG. 3 is stored as file data.

Reference numeral 301 in the figure indicates a document [documen
From t to] document, pages 302 and 303 correspond to [page to] page. Data in the page is described by [from slot] to [slot], and may be character string data (type = TEXT) or image data (type = IMAGE). The details of each data are described by [data to] data. The character data of the first page is "abc
defg ", image data is filename: 001, character data of the second page is" hijklmn ", and image data is filename: 002.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of layout data in this embodiment. In the figure, reference numeral 701 indicates the entire layout document, and 702 indicates an area in which edit data is laid out. The layout document 701 is
The layout page has one page, and each layout area in the page has 2 columns × 5 rows.

FIGS. 6A and 6B are views showing an example of the data format of the layout document shown in FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 801 indicates that each layout area indicated by 702 is in the image format (type = IMAGE), and 802 indicates that each layout area indicated by 702 is the grouped data format (type = GROUP). An example is shown. FIG. 8 shows a method of processing separation in the case of the image format or the grouping format.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a flow chart for explaining the layout printing process of this embodiment. First,
In step 901, the edit data shown in FIG. 3 and the layout data shown in FIG. 5 are edited. Step 902
Then, when printing the edit data, the layout to be used is selected. In step 903, it is determined whether to perform layout printing. When performing layout printing, edit data for layout drawing is generated (step 904).

Steps 904 and 905 are shown in FIG.
Through FIG. 10, a more detailed flowchart will be described. When the edit data for layout drawing is generated in step 904, the generated data is set in each data area of the layout (step 905), and the laid-out data is drawn on the output device (step 9).
06). When the edit data generated in step 904 is set in the layout destination rectangle, the data is set in consideration of the rotational position correction. For example, if the original data is created in portrait size and the layout destination data is 7
In the case of the horizontal orientation as indicated by 02, the image is rotated 90 degrees to the left and set as layout destination data.

If the output device is a printer (step 908), it is output on paper (step 90).
9) If the output device is not a printer, it is further determined whether the output device is a display (step 9).
10) If it is a display, it is displayed on the screen as a print preview (step 911), and if it is not a display, it is output as a file (step 912).

8 to 10 are flowcharts for explaining generation of edit data for layout drawing. When the generation of the layout drawing edit data is started (1001), it is determined whether the data format indicated by 702 in the layout data is an image type (step 1002). If the data type is an image type (type = IMAGE),
The edit data is developed as image data for each page (step 1003).

The expanded image data is inserted as an image in the layout. If the data format shown in 702 is grouped data (type = GROUP) (step 1
004), the edited data is used as it is as the original data (step 1005).

Further, FIG. 9 shows an example of the case where the edited data is generated as an image. When generation of edit data for layout drawing is started (step 110)
1) It is determined whether the output device is a printer (step 1102), and in the case of a printer, a high resolution, for example,
The edited data is developed as an image at 300 dpi (step 1103). If it is not a printer, for example, it is a display (step 1104), the edited data is expanded as an image at low resolution, for example, 120 dpi (step 1105), and if it is a file output, it is expanded at the specified resolution (step 1106). The process ends (step 1107).

Further, FIG. 10 shows another example in the case of generating edit data. When generation of edit data for layout drawing is started (step 1201), it is determined whether the output device is a printer (step 120).
2) In the case of a printer, original data is used (step 1203). If it is not a printer, for example, it is a display (step 1204), the edited data is expanded as an image at low resolution, for example, 120 dpi (step 1205), and if it is a file output, it is expanded at the specified resolution (step 1206), The process ends (step 1207).

The flow charts shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 can be used as follows depending on the purpose of layout printing the edit page. If you want to perform high-speed printing mainly with images, use the layout template of the image type shown in 801. If you want to perform detailed printing using the drawing function of the output device with mainly text, use the group shown in 802. A slot type layout template can be selected. In the case of the image type shown in 801, since one image data developed as an image can be used for each area in the same manner, high-speed processing is possible. On the other hand, the layout of the group slot type shown in 802 requires a similar development for each slot, so that it takes time to draw.

Further, the flow chart shown in FIG.
The operation is different depending on the output device, and the original data is always used especially for printing (step 12).
03) Printing quality such as character quality can be maintained. Alternatively, development at a designated resolution is possible (step 120).
6).

11 to 13 are diagrams showing an example of the layout of the edit page in the layout when the layout printing is actually performed. FIGS. 11A and 11B are diagrams showing an example of an embodiment in which the edit data 1301 having a two-page structure is expanded in the layout document 1302 of 701. In this embodiment, each page of edit data is linked to each page of the layout page.

FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagrams showing another embodiment in which the edit data 1401 having a two-page structure is expanded in the layout document 1502 of 701. In this example, each page of edited data is
It is sequentially set in each area in the layout.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are diagrams showing another embodiment in which the edit data 1501 having a two-page structure is expanded in the layout document 1502 of 701. In this embodiment, when the edit data is designated to be printed in two copies, each page of the edit data is sequentially set in each area in the layout, and the edit data setting is completed at the time when it becomes two parts.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. For example, the image editing / printing application executed on the PC may have a digital lab system editing / printing function for digital printing or a self-printing machine's editing / printing function for digital self-printing.

It goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. In this case, the storage medium that stores the program represented by the software for achieving the present invention is read into the system or the device, so that the system or the device can enjoy the effects of the present invention.

In this embodiment, the program module having the functions shown in the flow charts of FIGS. 7 to 10 is stored in the ROM 202 of FIG. The storage medium for supplying the program is not limited to the ROM, but may be, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD.
-R, DVD, magnetic tape, non-volatile memory card, etc. can be used.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention, a printing apparatus that lays out page data and prints it, edits edit data, and creates layout data having the same data format as the edit data. The editing data is selected by using editing means for editing, layout selecting means for selecting layout data edited by the editing means, editing data edited by the editing means, and layout data selected by the layout selecting step. When the layout is inserted in the specified layout, the insertion method is set based on the judgment by the insertion method judgment means, and the drawing means for generating print data is provided. Diversification is possible. Further, by changing the layout attribute, it is possible to speed up the printing process depending on the printing application.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration block diagram for explaining an embodiment of a printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a printing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of edited data according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a data format when the display data shown in FIG. 3 is stored as file data.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of layout data of the present embodiment.

6A and 6B are views showing an example of a data format of the layout document shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a layout printing process according to the present exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining generation of edit data for layout drawing in the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a flowchart in the case of generating layout drawing edit data as an image according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a flowchart for explaining generation of edit data for layout drawing according to another embodiment.

11A and 11B are diagrams showing a state of layout printing having a plurality of pages of edit data according to the present embodiment.

12A and 12B are diagrams showing a state of another layout printing having a plurality of pages of edit data according to the present embodiment.

13A and 13B are diagrams showing a state of another layout printing having edit data of a plurality of pages according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 layout data 102 editorial department 104 Layout selection section 105 Drawing unit 106 Printers and displays 201 Central processing unit (CPU) 202 ROM 203 RAM 204 keyboard 205 Pointing device 207 Storage device (hard disk) 208 removable media 209 Printing device (printer) 210 input device 211 bus

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A printing method for laying out page data for printing, comprising: editing data, and editing layout data having the same data format as the editing data; and editing by the editing step. A layout selecting step of selecting the selected layout data, editing data edited by the editing step, and using the layout data selected by the layout selecting step, when inserting the editing data into the selected layout, And a drawing step for generating print data by setting the insertion method based on the judgment by the insertion method judgment step. 2. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein the inserting method determining step has a function of determining an inserting method according to a type of a drawing destination device. 3. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein the inserting method determining step has a function of determining an inserting method according to a data attribute of the layout destination. 4. The drawing step includes a step of developing the edited data as an image by the set insertion method, a step of performing rotation correction and inserting the edited data developed as the image into layout data, The printing method according to claim 1, further comprising: drawing layout data having image data inserted therein on an output device. 5. The drawing step includes a step of automatically changing the resolution when the edited data is developed as an image according to the resolution of an output device when the edited data is developed as an image by the set insertion method. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein: 6. The drawing step includes a step of inserting the edited original data into layout destination data by performing position and rotation correction by the set insertion method, and drawing the layout data in an output device. The printing method according to claim 1, further comprising: 7. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein the printing method is executed by a host computer. 8. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein the output device according to claim 5 is a printer and a display or a file device. 9. A print program for laying out and printing page data, comprising editing step of editing edit data, and editing layout data having the same data format as the edit data, and editing by the edit step. A layout selecting step of selecting the selected layout data, editing data edited by the editing step, and using the layout data selected by the layout selecting step, when inserting the editing data into the selected layout, A printing program which sets an insertion method based on the judgment by the insertion method judgment step and causes a computer to execute a drawing step for generating print data. 10. A computer-readable recording medium that stores a print program for laying out and printing page data, edits edit data, and creates layout data in the same data format as the edit data. An editing step of editing, a layout selecting step of selecting layout data edited by the editing step, an editing data edited by the editing step, and layout data selected by the layout selecting step are used to edit the editing data. And a drawing step for generating print data when the computer is inserted into the selected layout, the insertion method is set based on the determination by the insertion method determination step, and the computer executes the drawing step. 11. A printing apparatus for laying out and printing page data, comprising: editing means for editing edit data, and editing layout data having the same data format as the edit data; and editing by the edit means. Layout selecting means for selecting the selected layout data, edit data edited by the editing means, and layout data selected by the layout selecting means, and when inserting the edit data into the selected layout, A printing apparatus comprising: a drawing unit that sets an insertion method based on a determination made by the insertion method determination unit and generates print data. 12. A printing system comprising a host computer for executing a program for laying out page data and performing printing, and a printing device, wherein editing data is edited, and the layout is the same data format as the editing data. Editing means for editing data, layout selecting means for selecting layout data edited by the editing means, editing data edited by the editing means, and layout data selected by the layout selecting means, A printing system comprising: a drawing unit configured to set an insertion method based on a determination made by the insertion method determination unit when the edit data is inserted into the selected layout, and to generate print data.