JP2006019931A - Apparatus and method for image processing, computer program, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize an image processing apparatus that enables drawing processing in which binding positions of the whole printing job are unified and is easy for a user to use. <P>SOLUTION: The image processing apparatus of the present invention is an image processing apparatus equipped with a printer driver which generates print data while arranging the print data on a form after rotating them clockwise by 90° to the direction of longitudinal printing when the direction of printing is lateral, and is equipped with a receiving means of receiving input of the position and width of a binding margin for the print data, an area calculating means of calculating a printable area from the area of the received binding margin part, a reduction rate calculating means of calculating a reduction rate of the print data in the presence of the binding margin from a printable area in the absence of the binding margin and the calculated printable area in the presence of the binding margin, a binding position setting means of setting a binding position of a specific page as the binding position of the whole printing job when data of the printing job includes longitudinal and lateral printing directions mixedly, a coordinate information changing means of changing coordinate information included in an issued drawing instruction, and a drawing means of performing drawing processing based upon the coordinate-converted drawing instruction. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method for processing drawing commands passed from application software or an operating system, and more particularly to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method having a binding margin function.

Conventionally, when an image is recorded on a recording sheet and stored, a punch is used to punch a hole in order to file a plurality of recording sheets. Therefore, in order to secure an area for making a hole on the recording paper, an image is recorded on the recording paper with a binding margin.
The binding margin function for setting the binding margin is to record an image by shifting the image in a specific direction with respect to the recording paper, or to shift the image in a specific direction with respect to the recording paper after reducing the image. Point to.
In the case of double-sided printing, it is necessary to determine the binding position corresponding to the front and back surfaces. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-125352 discloses that the front side or the back side, upper side or lower side when printing on both sides. It is described that the printing process is performed by shifting the printing position directly.
JP-A-63-125352

  However, in the drawing processing apparatus or the drawing processing method in which the print orientation is horizontal and the print orientation is 90 degrees clockwise relative to the vertical orientation and is arranged on the paper, the relationship between the print orientation and the binding position. When the conventional binding process is performed when the print direction is mixed in the vertical and horizontal directions in one print job, as shown in FIG. In some cases, the binding position differs between a vertical page and a horizontal page.

  In this case, the print data cannot be closed immediately after printing, and the user must rearrange the print data again, which is not convenient for the user. Also, it is not possible to perform the drawing process with the same binding position of the entire print job.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention determines a physical binding position based on a specific page, and adds a binding margin for another page according to the binding position. And a method thereof.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, an image processing apparatus according to the present invention performs image processing that rotates 90 degrees clockwise and arranges on a sheet when the printing direction is horizontal and the printing direction is vertical. A receiving unit that receives an input of a binding margin position and width with respect to print data; an area calculation unit that calculates a printable area from the received binding margin area; and a printable area without a binding margin; In the case of the reduction ratio calculation means for calculating the reduction ratio of the print data with the binding margin from the calculated printable area with the binding margin, and in the case of data in which the print orientation is mixed vertically and horizontally in one print job The binding position setting means for setting the binding position on a specific page as the binding position of the entire print job, the coordinate information changing means for changing the coordinate information included in the issued drawing command, It characterized by having a a drawing means for performing drawing processing based on the converted drawing command.

  The image processing method according to the present invention is an image processing method in which the print data is rotated 90 degrees clockwise relative to the print direction when the print direction is horizontal, and the print data is arranged on the paper. A receiving step for receiving an input of a binding margin position and a width, a region calculating step for calculating a printable region from the received binding margin region, a printable region without a binding margin, and the calculated binding margin A reduction ratio calculation process for calculating a reduction ratio with a binding margin from the printable area, and in the case of data in which the print orientation is mixed vertically and horizontally in one print job, the binding position on a specific page is set to the entire print job. A binding position setting step, a coordinate information changing step for changing coordinate information included in the issued drawing command, and a drawing process based on the drawing command whose coordinate has been changed And having a drawing step of performing, the.

  Other features of the present invention will become more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following description of the best mode for carrying out the invention.

  According to the present invention, a physical binding position is determined based on a specific page, and a binding margin for other pages is added according to the binding position, so that an image processing apparatus that is easy to use for the user can be realized. it can. Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to perform drawing processing by unifying the binding position of the entire print job.

  Hereinafter, a drawing processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a drawing processing apparatus commonly applied to the first and second embodiments.

  In FIG. 3, a host computer 100 is connected to a printer 105 such as an inkjet printer and a monitor 106.

  The host computer 100 has application software 101 such as a word processor, spreadsheet, and internet browser. Various drawing processing command groups (image drawing commands, text drawing commands, and graphics drawing commands) indicating output images issued by the application software 101 are input to the monitor driver 104 via the operating system (OS) 102.

  When printing is performed, the drawing command group is also input to the printer driver 103 via the OS 102. The printer driver 103 and the monitor driver 104 are software for processing these drawing command groups to create print data and causing the printer 105 to print, and for causing the monitor 106 to display an image.

  The host computer 100 includes hardware such as a CPU 108, a hard disk (HD) 107, a RAM 109, and a ROM 110 in order to store and function the above software.

  Note that it is conceivable to use an IBM AT compatible personal computer generally used as the host computer 100 shown in FIG. 3 and Microsoft Windows (registered trademark) 98 as the OS 102. A form in which arbitrary application software having a printing function is installed in such a personal computer and the monitor 106 and the printer 105 are connected is conceivable.

  In the host computer 100, based on the image displayed on the monitor 106, the application software 101 classifies text data classified as text such as characters, graphics data classified as graphics such as graphics, and images classified as photographic images. Output image data is created using image data or the like. When printing an image based on the output image data, the application software 101 issues a print output request to the OS 102, the text data portion is a text drawing command, the graphics data portion is a graphics drawing command, and the image image data portion is an image drawing command. Is issued to the OS 102.

  When the OS 102 receives a print output request from the application software 101, it passes a drawing command group to the printer driver 103 corresponding to the printer 105. The printer driver 103 processes a print output request and a drawing command group passed from the OS 102, creates print data that can be printed by the printer 105, and sends the print data to the printer 105.

  When the printer 105 is a raster printer, the printer driver 103 sequentially rasterizes the drawing command group into, for example, a band memory having a depth of 8 bits for each of RGB. Then, after rasterizing all drawing commands, the contents of the page memory are converted into a data format printable by the printer 105, for example, CMYK data, and sent to the printer 105. The band memory is assigned to the RAM 109, for example.

<First Embodiment>
The flow of image processing in the first embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. The print data to be image-processed has the following relationship as shown in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 1, in the case of vertically long paper, as the first pattern, the print data is printed with a page in which the printing direction is vertical and the binding margin position (also referred to as the binding direction, hereinafter the same) is left. And the page with the binding margin position at the top when the orientation is set to horizontal. As the second pattern, the print data includes a page whose printing direction is vertical and the binding direction is right, and a page whose binding direction is downward when the printing direction is set to horizontal. As the third pattern, the print data includes a page in which the printing direction is vertical and the binding direction is up, and a page in which the binding direction is left when the printing direction is set to horizontal. As the fourth pattern, the print data includes a page in which the printing direction is vertical and the binding direction is down, and a page in which the binding direction is right when the printing direction is set to horizontal.

  In the case of landscape paper, as the first pattern, the print data includes the page with the printing orientation set to the vertical and the binding margin position at the top, and the binding margin position to the left when the printing orientation is set to landscape. And the page. As the second pattern, the print data includes a page in which the printing direction is vertical and the binding direction is down, and a page in which the binding direction is right when the printing direction is set to horizontal. As the third pattern, the print data includes a page whose printing direction is vertical and the binding direction is left, and a page whose binding direction is up when the printing direction is set to horizontal. As a fourth pattern, the print data includes a page in which the printing direction is vertical and the binding direction is right, and a page in which the binding direction is downward when the printing direction is set to horizontal.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing printable areas in the case where there is no binding margin and in the case where there is no binding margin. As shown in FIG. 4, when a binding margin is added to the left side of the sheet, an area having the same aspect ratio as the printable area without the binding margin is added to the area excluding the binding margin. The printable area in this case. That is, an area obtained by reducing the printable area when there is no binding margin at a specific reduction rate is the printable area when there is a binding margin. In this embodiment, the printable area in the case where there is a binding margin is arranged so that there is a uniform margin in the vertical direction.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a drawing command storing process. First, in step S101, the printable area excluding the top, bottom, left, and right margins and the binding margin in the output sheet is calculated. It should be noted that the binding margin section is set by the printer in print setting on the printer driver setting screen shown in FIGS.

  Next, in step S102, the reduction rate of the print data when the binding margin is added is calculated from the printable area calculated in step S101.

  When the reduction ratio is calculated, the process proceeds to step S103, and the binding position of the entire current print job is determined from the set value of the print direction in one item in step S103. For example, in the case of the print data and print settings shown in FIG. 2, the binding position of one item and the binding position of two items are set to the same position, so that the binding position of two items is binding on the long side as shown in FIG. (Bottom).

  Then, in step S104, a rendering command for the entire page is requested from the OS using the reduction ratio calculated in step S102. In step S105, the value set on the setting screen shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 is used, and is included in the drawing command passed from the application via the OS in order to change the position on the output paper. Change the coordinate information. In step S105, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, in the case of long-edge binding (left), the coordinate information in the X direction included in the drawing command is changed by the value specified on the binding margin setting screen. . For the Y direction, the coordinate information in the Y direction is also changed so that uniform margins exist above and below the printable area.

  In step S106, the drawing command whose coordinate information has been changed is stored in a temporary storage device such as a hard disk. Thereafter, in step S107, it is determined whether or not all drawing commands corresponding to the current page have been saved. If all drawing commands have not been saved, the processing from step S105 to step S106 is performed. repeat.

  If it is determined in step S107 that all drawing commands have been stored, it is determined in step S108 whether all pages have been processed, and all pages have not been processed. Repeats the processing from step S104 to step S107, and when the processing for all pages is completed, the drawing command storage processing is ended.

  Next, the flow of a process for performing a drawing process using a saved drawing command will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S201, the band memory is acquired and initialized. In step S202, the drawing command stored in the temporary storage device is read. In step S203, the drawing object designated by the drawing command is bitmap-developed in the band memory. I do.

  Next, in step S204, it is determined whether all drawing commands existing in the current band have been processed. If processing of all drawing commands existing in the current band has not been completed, step S202 is performed. To S203 are repeated.

  If it is determined in step S204 that the processing of all drawing commands existing in the current band has been completed, the bitmap data indicated by Red, Green, and Blue is stored in the band memory in step S205. After color conversion to Magenta / Black, color processing for printers, such as quantizing multi-valued bitmap data, is performed.

  In step S206, the data created in step S205 is transferred to the printer.

In step S207, it is determined whether or not the processing for all bands has been completed. If the processing for all bands has not been completed, the processing from steps S202 to S206 is repeated. If it is determined in step S207 that all the bands have been processed, it is determined in step S208 whether all pages have been processed. If all pages have not been processed, The processing from step S202 to S207 is repeated, and when the processing for all the bands is completed, the drawing processing is ended.
<Second Embodiment>
In the first embodiment, the coordinate information included in the drawing command passed from the application software or the operating system is converted, and then the drawing command is stored in a temporary storage device such as a hard disk. However, the coordinate information is not converted. The present invention can also be applied to a method in which after a drawing command is saved in a temporary storage device such as a hard disk in a state, coordinate information conversion processing is performed when drawing processing is performed based on the saved drawing command.

  Hereinafter, the flow of image processing in the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 10 and 11. Note that the print data to be subjected to image processing has the relationship shown in FIG. 1, and the description thereof is the same as that in the first embodiment, and is omitted here.

  First, in step S301, the printable area excluding the top, bottom, left and right margins and the binding margin in the output sheet is calculated. It should be noted that the binding margin section is set by the printer in print setting on the printer driver setting screen shown in FIGS.

  Next, in step S302, the reduction rate of the print data when the binding margin is added is calculated from the printable area calculated in step S301.

  Further, in step S303, the binding position of the entire current print job is determined from the setting value of the print direction in one item, and is stored in a temporary storage device such as a hard disk.

  In step S304, the OS requests the OS for a drawing command for the entire page using the reduction ratio calculated in step S302. In step S305, the drawing command is stored in a temporary storage device such as a hard disk.

  Thereafter, in step S306, it is determined whether or not all drawing commands corresponding to the current page have been saved. If the saving processing for all drawing commands has not ended, the processing in step S305 is repeated.

  If it is determined in step S306 that all drawing commands have been stored, it is determined in step S307 whether all pages have been processed, and all pages have not been processed. In this case, the processing from step S304 to S306 is repeated, and when the processing for all pages is completed, the drawing command storage processing is ended.

  Next, the flow of a process for performing a drawing process using a saved drawing command will be described with reference to FIG.

  In step S401, the band memory is acquired and initialized.

  In step S402, the binding position information stored in the temporary storage device is read. Thereafter, in step S403, the drawing command stored in the temporary storage device is read, and in step S404, the coordinate information included in the drawing command is changed.

  Then, in step S405, a drawing process is performed in which the drawing object designated by the drawing command is bitmap-developed in the band memory. Thereafter, in step S406, it is determined whether or not all drawing commands existing in the current band have been processed. If processing of all drawing commands existing in the current band has not been completed, the process starts from step S403. The processing up to S405 is repeated.

  If it is determined in step S406 that the processing of all drawing commands existing in the current band has been completed, the bitmap data indicated by Red, Green, and Blue is stored in the band memory in step S407. After color conversion to Magenta / Black, color processing for printers, such as quantizing multi-valued bitmap data, is performed.

  In step S408, the data created in step S407 is transferred to the printer. In step S409, it is determined whether or not the processing for all bands has been completed. If the processing for all bands has not been completed, the processing from steps S403 to S408 is repeated.

If the processing for all the bands is completed in step S409, it is determined in step S410 whether or not the processing for all pages is completed. If the processing for all pages has not been completed, the processing from step S403 to S409 is repeated, and if the processing for all bands has been completed, the drawing processing is terminated.
Note that the present invention can be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.) or an apparatus composed of a single device (for example, a copier, a facsimile machine, etc.). May be.

<Third Embodiment>
In the first and second embodiments, the binding position of the entire current print job is determined from the print direction of one item, but the print direction of each item in the entire print job is determined, and the print direction is vertical. The present invention can also be applied to a method in which a binding position of the entire current print job is determined by comparing a term and a term having a horizontal printing direction and using the printing direction of more terms as a reference.

  In addition, the present invention provides a system or apparatus with a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the embodiments, and the computer of the system or apparatus (or CPU or MPU) is stored in the storage medium. It is also achieved by reading and executing the program code. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. As a storage medium for supplying such a program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM Etc. can be used.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code Includes a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing.

  Furthermore, after the program code read from the storage medium is written to the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function is based on the instruction of the program code. This includes the case where the CPU of the expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  Further, the program code of the software that realizes the functions of the above embodiments is distributed via a network, so that it can be stored in a storage means such as a hard disk or memory of a system or apparatus or a storage medium such as a CD-RW or CD-R Needless to say, this can also be achieved by the computer (or CPU or MPU) stored in the system or apparatus reading and executing the program code stored in the storage means or the storage medium.

  When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the flowcharts described above (shown in FIGS. 5, 9, 10, and 11).

<Effect of embodiment>
As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, when the printing direction is horizontal, the drawing processing apparatus rotates 90 degrees clockwise relative to the vertical printing direction and is arranged on the paper. In the drawing processing method, even when the relationship between the printing direction and the binding position is as shown in FIG. 1, the physical binding position is determined based on a specific page (first page), and the binding is performed according to the binding position. By adding the allowance, it is possible to perform the drawing process by unifying the binding position of the entire print job.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a correspondence relationship between a printing direction and a binding direction. In a prior art, it is a figure which shows the example from which the binding position of 1 item differs from 2 items. It is a block diagram which shows the structural example of the image processing apparatus in this embodiment. It is a figure which shows the printable area | region in this embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the preservation | save process of a drawing command in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example at the time of determining the binding position of 2 items on the basis of the binding position of 1 item in 1st Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the screen which inputs a binding direction in 1st Embodiment. In 1st Embodiment, it is a figure which shows the example of the screen which inputs the width | variety of a binding margin. It is a flowchart which shows the drawing process using the preserve | saved drawing command in the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the preservation | save process of a drawing command in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the drawing process using the preserve | saved drawing command in the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

Claims (14)

An image processing apparatus including a printer driver that generates print data by rotating 90 degrees clockwise with respect to a vertical print orientation when the print orientation is horizontal and arranging the print data on paper.
Receiving means for accepting input of a binding margin position and width for print data;
Area calculating means for calculating a printable area from the received binding margin area;
A reduction ratio calculating means for calculating a reduction ratio of the print data with a binding margin from a printable area without a binding margin and a printable area with the calculated binding margin;
A binding position setting means for setting the binding position on a specific page as the binding position of the entire print job in the case of data in which the printing orientation is mixed vertically and horizontally in one print job;
Coordinate information changing means for changing the coordinate information included in the issued drawing command;
A drawing means for performing a drawing process based on the coordinate-converted drawing command;
An image processing apparatus comprising:   The print data received by the receiving unit includes a page in which the printing orientation is vertical and the binding margin position is set to the left, and a page in which the binding margin position is set upward when the printing orientation is set to horizontal. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:   The print data received by the receiving unit includes a page in which the printing direction is vertical and the binding margin position is on the right, and a page in which the binding margin position is downward when the printing direction is set to horizontal. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:   The print data received by the receiving unit includes a page in which the printing direction is vertical and the binding margin position is at the top, and a page in which the binding margin position is set to the left when the printing direction is set to horizontal. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:   The print data received by the receiving unit includes a page in which the printing orientation is vertical and the binding margin position is below, and a page in which the binding margin position is on the right when the printing orientation is set to horizontal. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the binding position setting unit sets a binding position on the first page as a binding position of the entire print job. An image processing method for generating print data by rotating 90 degrees clockwise with respect to a vertical print orientation when the print orientation is horizontal and arranging the print data on paper,
A receiving step for accepting input of a binding margin position and width for print data;
An area calculation step of calculating a printable area from the accepted binding margin area;
A reduction ratio calculating step of calculating a reduction ratio with a binding margin from a printable area without a binding margin and the calculated printable area with a binding margin;
In the case of data in which the orientation of printing is mixed vertically and horizontally in one print job, the binding position setting step for setting the binding position on a specific page as the binding position of the entire print job,
A coordinate information changing step for changing the coordinate information included in the issued drawing command;
A drawing step of performing a drawing process based on the drawing command whose coordinates have been changed;
An image processing method comprising:   The print data received in the receiving step includes a page in which the printing orientation is vertical and the binding margin position is on the left, and a page in which the binding margin position is on the top when the printing orientation is set to horizontal. The image processing method according to claim 7.   The print data received in the receiving step includes a page in which the printing orientation is vertical and the binding margin position is on the right, and a page in which the binding margin position is on the bottom when the printing orientation is set to horizontal. The image processing method according to claim 7.   The print data received in the receiving step includes a page in which the printing orientation is vertical and the binding margin position is on the top, and a page in which the binding margin position is left when the printing orientation is set to horizontal. The image processing method according to claim 7.   The print data received in the receiving step includes a page in which the printing orientation is vertical and the binding margin position is below, and a page that has the binding margin position on the right when the printing orientation is set to horizontal. The image processing method according to claim 7.   12. The image processing method according to claim 7, wherein in the binding position setting step, the binding position on the first page is set as the binding position of the entire print job.   A computer program for executing the image processing method according to any one of claims 7 to 12. A computer-readable storage medium storing the computer program according to claim 13.

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