JP2006235933A - Image processor and print job generating device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processor providing a simple and high-level printing function even in an environment where a printer driver can not be provided altering a layout with high flexibility in a direct print, holding down the consumption of hardware resource of a client designating the print output to the minimum, and having high convenience without requiring time and trouble of a user. <P>SOLUTION: In a driver-less environment, this image processor is provided with: a means for connecting document data on the device side; a means for editing layout to the connected pages; and a means for unifying the character attributes such as a font typeface name, a character size and a pitch, and the character attribute conformable to a specified condition is excluded from the typeface unifying object. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a program for executing an image processing method for outputting a page image from document data instructed to be output. The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a print job generation apparatus that process as jobs.

  In recent years, with the development of computer-related technologies, compared to personal computers (hereinafter referred to as PCs) used in general office environments such as electronic notebooks (Personal Digital Assistants, PDAs), various portable terminals, and thin clients. In response to the widespread use of powerless computer environments with scarce hardware resources, there is a growing need for printing output from environments where printer drivers cannot be prepared. Documents created by users without using printer drivers (documents) There is a need for a so-called direct print function that directly outputs data to a printing apparatus.

  

  Furthermore, for direct print functions in such a printer driver-less environment, it will become more important in the future to differentiate not only by outputting to paper but also by adding additional functions.

  On the other hand, in an operating system environment typified by MS-Windows (registered trademark) that is widely used in the office environment or the like, a plurality of print jobs are combined by editing functions of various application software or printer drivers. Layout change designation such as double-sided printing is possible for the combined print job. As a typical example of such a layout function, there is layout printing (or multiple page printing) in which a plurality of pages divided in sheet units are allocated to one page with a predetermined number of pages, for example, per page. A case where n sheets are assigned and printed is referred to as “n page printing”, NUp printing, Nin1 printing, or the like (hereinafter referred to as NUp printing). For example, in the case of 4up printing, the layout order of each sheet is enhanced so that it can be changed such as “upper left → upper right → lower left → lower right” or “upper left → lower left → upper right → lower right”. As a result, it has become possible to obtain quality exceeding the range of simple printing.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an output example of the NUp printing. FIG. 4A shows 2Up printing in which 2 pages are allocated per page, and FIG. 4B allocates 4 pages per page. An example of the output result of 4Up printing is shown. As shown in FIG. 4A, the contents of two pages are allocated so as to flow from the left to the right in the effective print area 402 excluding a predetermined margin from the sheet 401.

  Further, as one of the editing functions for document data, there is a document combining function for combining a plurality of document data and processing them as one document. Patent Document 1 is cited as a conventional technique for combining a plurality of documents. Can do.

The invention according to Patent Document 1 manages print jobs input in a print control apparatus individually in units of jobs and pages, thereby sharing common print data among a plurality of print jobs, combining print jobs, This invention realizes job management such as page addition / deletion.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-27076

  As described above in the background art, it will become increasingly important to provide a simple and advanced printing function without using a printer driver.

  Also, a more flexible function is required for the layout change function for direct printing. For example, the invention shown in Patent Document 1 is an invention that combines document data, but mentions the combination in units of pages, but does not mention a finer editing function, and the degree of freedom. Was low.

  Furthermore, when a plurality of document data are simply combined, there is a problem that the typeface designated in each document is not unified, and the whole document is not uniform.

  The present invention has been made paying attention to the above points, and an image processing apparatus and a print job generation apparatus that are useful for a case where a plurality of users proceed with document creation simultaneously by division of labor, or for a totaling work of documents. The purpose is to provide.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the present invention is an image processing apparatus that outputs a page image after combining a plurality of document data input from the outside, processing the print data as a single print job, and having predetermined conditions The specifying means for specifying the document data to be combined according to the specification, the holding means for holding the document data conforming to the predetermined condition, and the timing for combining and outputting the plurality of document data held in the holding means Output timing setting means, typeface unifying means for unifying the typeface attributes of the combined documents, combining means for combining the plurality of document data in a page or with page breaks according to the result of the typeface unifying means, A drawing object generation means for converting a plurality of combined document data into an intermediate format drawing object, and a page image based on the drawing object. The document data, in addition to the document to be printed, the respective document data are combined without any page separation, or are combined in a state where the page separation is performed as independent pages. And a means for designating a combination order of the respective document data as a combination attribute.

  The typeface unifying unit does not perform typeface unification on character attributes that meet a predetermined condition.

  In the present invention, the predetermined condition is specified by a print job name or a holding position in the holding unit.

  Furthermore, in order to solve the above-described problem, the holding means in the present invention includes management means for managing the document data as a file, and the previous holding position is specified by a folder name.

  Further, the output timing specifying means in the present invention is characterized in that the output timing is determined by the number of document data to be combined or the specified date and time.

  In the present invention, the combination order is any one of start / end / same as document data input order / absolute order designation.

  The combining means according to the present invention further comprises header adding means for adding and printing header information as a separator at a combining portion of the plurality of document data.

  According to the present invention, application software that operates on an operating system such as a host computer generates a print job in which a job attribute is added to each of at least one or more document data instructed by a user, and the image processing A print job generation apparatus is provided that outputs to the apparatus.

  The job attribute according to the present invention includes at least a document combination specification, and additionally includes a document combination method (merge attribute), a combination order, presence / absence and type of separator, layout specification, and finishing specification. To do.

  In the present invention, an image processing system including the image processing apparatus and the print job generation apparatus is configured.

  According to the present invention, it is not possible to provide a printer driver by preparing a document data combination within a page or a page unit on the device side, and preparing a means for performing layout editing such as NUp for a combined print job. Even in the environment, it is possible to provide a simple and advanced printing function, and a flexible layout change in direct printing can be performed. In addition, it is possible to provide a highly convenient image processing apparatus while minimizing the consumption of hardware resources of a client instructing the image processing apparatus to perform print output and without bothering the user. It becomes.

  In addition, by providing means to unify character attributes such as font typeface name, character size, and pitch for the combined document data, it is possible to easily output a combined document that is uniform as a whole document. Become. Furthermore, by configuring the character attributes that match the specific conditions so as to be excluded from the typeface unification target, it is possible to retain the typeface information of the original electronic data before combining.

  As a preferable effect of the present invention, for example, it is useful for a case where a plurality of users simultaneously create a document by division of labor, a document counting operation, or the like.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<Configuration example of image processing apparatus according to this embodiment>
First, the configuration of an image processing system according to the present embodiment suitable for applying the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of an image processing system according to the present embodiment, and shows a case of a laser beam printer, for example. Note that the image processing apparatus to which the present invention can be applied is not limited to the laser beam printer, but may be a printer apparatus of another printing method, and may be applied regardless of the difference in equipment configuration such as a monochrome / color printer. Is possible. Furthermore, as long as the functions of the present invention are executed, the present invention is not limited to a printer, and can be applied to control of an image recording apparatus, an image display apparatus, and an image communication apparatus that require similar image processing. .

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes an external device such as a host computer, and reference numeral 102 denotes a laser beam printer main body according to the present embodiment.

  The laser beam printer 102 receives document data (character code, graphic data, image data, etc.) instructed to be output by utility software operating on the external device 101, and interprets the format of the corresponding character pattern or graphic. A pattern or the like is created, and an image is formed on recording paper as a recording medium. In addition, the laser beam printer 102 is configured to be able to register fonts and form data in a data storage unit (not shown), and is desired by referring to the document data received from the host computer 101 for processing. The page image is generated.

  In the laser beam printer 102, reference numeral 103 denotes a printer control unit (controller unit) that controls the entire laser beam printer 102 and analyzes document data (such as character information) supplied from the host computer 101. The control unit 103 is connected to the printer engine unit 105, generates page information including dot data based on the print data, and sequentially transmits the dot data (video signal) to the printer engine unit 105.

  A printer engine unit 105 forms a latent image on the photosensitive drum in accordance with the dot data (video signal) and performs thermal printing on the paper to perform printing. Reference numeral 104 denotes an operation panel on which switches and LED indicators for operation are arranged. An operator (user) designates a predetermined operation to the laser beam printer 102 by operating the panel unit 104. Alternatively, the print environment can be set.

  Here, the laser beam printer 106 and the host computer 101 are connected by a network capable of communication by a predetermined protocol such as TCP / IP, and a plurality of host computers are connected to the network. It is common. In addition, as a connection form, you may connect one to one by other interfaces, such as Centronics and USB.

  FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of the laser beam printer 102 of the present embodiment, and mainly shows the configuration of the printer engine unit 105. Here, the same components as those in FIG.

  In the figure, a laser driver 201 is a circuit for driving a semiconductor laser 202 and switches on / off a laser beam 203 emitted from the semiconductor laser 202 in accordance with the video signal output from the control unit 103. The laser 203 is swung in the left-right direction by the rotary polygon mirror 204 and scans the electrostatic drum 205. Thereby, an electrostatic latent image such as a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 205 by the charged toner. This latent image is developed by the developing unit 206 around the electrostatic drum 205 and then transferred to the recording paper. A cut sheet is used as the recording paper, and the cut sheet recording paper is stored in a paper cassette 207 mounted on the laser beam printer 102, and is taken into the apparatus by a paper feed roller 208 and conveying rollers 209 and 210. It is supplied to the electrostatic drum 205.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram for explaining the basic components of the image processing system according to the present embodiment, and shows the internal configuration of the control unit 103 of the image processing apparatus of FIG. 1 and the main configuration of the print utility software 312. Yes. As long as the functions of the present invention are executed, a single device or a system in which processing is performed by a plurality of devices arranged via a network such as a LAN may be used.

  In the figure, a control unit 103 of a laser beam printer is connected to a host computer 101 which is an external device via a predetermined interface 308 (106), and is printed by the utility software operating on the host computer 101. A predetermined printing process is executed according to the job. Here, the print job received from the host computer 101 is first temporarily stored as received data in the reception buffer 305a.

  Reference numeral 301 denotes a printer CPU. Based on a control program stored in a program ROM 303 in a ROM 302 which is a read-only memory, an access to various devices connected to the system bus 306 and an ASIC 309 configured by a hardware circuit are installed. It has overall control. Here, the control program is composed of the following programs. That is, the print data stored in the reception buffer 305a is analyzed, and a DL generation unit 303a that generates at least one page of drawing objects (Display List: DL), and then one page (or a plurality of pages) based on the drawing objects. ON of a bit representing the page image to the printing unit (printer engine) 105 via the DL drawing unit 303b and the printing unit I / F 310 that generate a raster image, that is, a page image divided into one band). This is composed of an engine control unit 303d (video signal output is hereinafter referred to as “ship”) for performing various paper handling controls such as output of a video signal by / OFF and detection of no paper.

  In the banding method in which a plurality of (for example, two) band rasters obtained by dividing a page into bands are prepared and printing is performed, the page image generation (rendering operation) and the ship operation are simultaneously performed in synchronization with paper conveyance. The drawing object belonging to the other band raster is drawn while shipping one rendered band raster. In this embodiment, the band memory 305c is configured to perform printing by the banding method. However, the page memory 305c is configured as a page memory capable of holding a page image for one page, and is rendered / drawn by the full paint method. Ship operation may be performed. Further, the banding method and the full paint method may be switched by an instruction from the operation panel 104, or either one may be fixedly employed. In addition, the laser beam printer 102 is supplied with power from a power supply unit (not shown).

  In addition to the above configuration, the control program 303 includes a program for realizing the following functions. That is, for a plurality of input print jobs, it is determined whether or not a document data combination instruction is given to the print job attribute, and if there is a combination instruction, a combination attribute and layout setting content specified as the job attribute; In addition, in accordance with the setting value of the printing environment, a combination management unit 303c that combines target document data, an HD control unit 303e that controls R / W access of various data to the hard disk 311e, and font data stored in advance in a font ROM 304 described later A font scaler (not shown) for generating a desired character pattern from the printing environment, a printing environment control unit (not shown) for setting various printing environments in accordance with an input from the operation panel 104, and the like.

  Here, the layout setting is instructed as an attribute of the input print job. However, the layout setting may be prepared as a page printer operation menu and selectable from the operation panel 104.

  The ROM 302 is also used as a memory for storing font data composed of dot fonts used for character output and outline-type scalable fonts (font ROM 304).

  Reference numeral 305 denotes a RAM that functions as a main memory, a work memory, and the like of the CPU 301, and is configured such that the memory capacity can be expanded by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown). In addition to the reception buffer 305a and the band memory 305c, the RAM 305 includes a DL storage unit 305b that stores drawing objects generated by the DL generation unit 303a, and a work memory that is temporarily used in various drawing processes by the control program 303. 305d, used for a font cache memory (not shown) that caches a character pattern developed based on the scalable data in the font memory 304. Also, a combined document storage area 305e for storing document data to be combined output from the utility software is allocated from the work memory 305d.

  A hard disk 311 temporarily stores print jobs in addition to registration of resources such as font data and overlay data described in PDL format, various print logs generated in the image processing apparatus. It is used to temporarily store print data or page images in order to realize functions such as a stored job for performing re-output, an electronic sort function (printing a plurality of copies), and confidential printing. In addition, although the said save job etc. demonstrated that it was stored in the hard disk 311, you may store in non-volatile memories (not shown), such as flash memory, RAM305, or the memory | storage device by another structure.

  Conversely, the document data to be combined is stored in the RAM 305d, but it goes without saying that the document data may be stored and held in the hard disk 311.

  Further, the apparatus constituting the present invention has been described as being supplied as a program stored in the ROM. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the apparatus is supplied by a medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk or a hard disk and loaded into the RAM 305 before execution. It may be configured to be executed after being executed. In addition, the present invention can be implemented even if the control program is installed after control is installed from a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, CD-R, memory card, DVD, etc. via a drive (not shown). It is possible and the present invention includes this.

  Next, 312 is utility software that operates on the host computer, and outputs document data to the image processing apparatus 103. In this case, the utility software 312 applies the print job attribute designating unit 312a for setting various print attributes as job attributes to the document data to be output, the document data to be output instructed through the user interface (UI). The output control unit 312b is configured to generate a print job with the job attribute added, and to perform a print instruction to the printer and send-out control of the print job data.

  The print job attribute designating unit also performs UI control for allowing the user to select the print attribute and the output destination printer. Further, the print job attributes include the presence / absence of document combination, a job name for specifying a combination target when performing document combination, a combination attribute indicating whether or not to separate page units, a combination order, and a NUp print attribute. (Finished surface number N) and finishing instruction attributes such as stapling are included.

<Example of Print Job Operation in Image Processing System of Present Embodiment>
(Configuration example of print job)
Hereinafter, an example of the format of a print job output to the image processing apparatus in which the combination attribute is designated by the utility software will be described.

  First, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of document data to which the present invention is applicable. “Abcd” is expressed in a generally known rich text format (hereinafter referred to as rtf format). The example described as follows is shown. In the figure, reference numeral 501 denotes the internal structure of the rtf format document data, and reference numeral 502 denotes an output example displayed by application software corresponding to the rtf format and expected as a print result. As shown in the figure, in the rtf format, header information such as a font face name is first described according to a predetermined format (in the figure, the texts in the first and second lines surrounded by “{”} ”). ), Followed by a data portion that is the content of the document data itself. In this case, designation information for various character modifications is also included. For example, bold designation starts from the format “¥ b”, and “¥ b0” represents the end of the designated range. Similarly, in italic modification, a range surrounded by the formats “¥ i” and “¥ i0” is a modification target. The character size is specified by “¥ fs”, the line feed is specified by “¥ par”, and the end of the document data is described by “}”.

  Next, the configuration of the combined job in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in the figure, the print job is generated in a form in which document data is added following the job attribute. The print job attributes in the present embodiment are described in XML (extensible Markup Language) language, and include the following attribute parameters (instruction group) for designating various printing environments.

A job start command indicating the start of a print job (identifies the document data by a job ID specified as a parameter)
A job name for specifying a combination target (combination group) when combining document data ("Combination: 1112 meeting materials")
That is, a plurality of print jobs with the same job name specified are to be merged.

-Processing resolution when generating page images (1200 dpi)
-Print side attribute that specifies whether printing is performed on one side or both sides of the paper (both sides)
-Binding direction to specify the binding position of the paper (longitudinal)
-Binding width attribute (5 mm) that specifies the amount of margin for binding paper
-Finishing instruction attribute for output paper (staple)
Merge attribute: Specify one of the following three parameters.

(1) Do not combine: Output document data without combining as a normal job (2) Combine in page: Print the last page of the print job processed immediately before without pagination and without page break Combine jobs and start output processing (3) Page break combination: Start output processing of the print job after a page break ・ Combination order (1) First (2) Last (3) Same as input order of print jobs (4) Absolute number (in this case, a parameter indicating the order is additionally specified)
・ Typeface integration attribute: Specify whether to unify font attributes such as typeface name (1) Match the format of the first document data at the time of integration (2) Match the format of the specified document (3) Match the format of the specified (Specify further necessary parameters)
(4) No change Paper feed port selection command: Paper size selection command for selecting the paper size of each page (A4, not shown)
Document format attribute (rtf) that indicates the format of the document data for processing the print data
Up to this point is XML, and document data is written thereafter.

  If a print attribute (combination condition) equivalent to the content of the job attribute set by the XML can be set by the operation panel, the job attribute by the XML temporarily sets the print environment by the operation panel. Overwriting is effective only for the print job and the combined print job. On the other hand, if there is no designation in the job attribute, the designation on the operation panel is valid. If the attributes of a plurality of print jobs instructed to be combined are different, the output processing may be interrupted as an error, or processing may be performed with the print job attribute specified at the top in the order of combination. .

  The job attribute may be described in another job control language.

  In this embodiment, the timing for starting the combining process and the output process is controlled by the number of combined jobs set in advance on the operation panel. That is, when the number of input job to be combined reaches the predetermined number, the combination and output processing is started for a print job that has been input before the print job.

(Print job processing)
Next, the procedure for outputting a print job for which the printer controller has been instructed to combine will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When a print job is input from utility software, first, the job attribute of the received print job is read to obtain a combination attribute, and it is checked whether the print job is to be combined with another print job. If it is not to be combined, the output process is performed as a normal print job, and the process ends.

  On the other hand, when document merge is instructed, the print job is stored in the merged document storage area 305a.

  When performing the output process, the stored print jobs are sequentially read to obtain the job name. In step S701, it is checked whether the print job is a combination target print job. That is, the job name designated as the job attribute is compared with the job name designated in advance on the operation panel, and if they are the same, it is determined that the print job is the current combination target. If it is not a job to be combined, the process ends to read the remaining print job.

  On the other hand, if the job names match and it is determined that the job is a job to be combined, it is determined in step S702 that the combining process has ended. That is, when the combination processing start timing is a point in time when a predetermined number of jobs are input, the end determination is performed depending on whether or not the combination processing has been performed for the number of jobs. When there are no more print jobs to be combined, page break processing is performed on the page being processed (S703), and finishing such as stapling is performed and paper discharge processing is performed (S704).

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S702 that there is still an uncoupled print job, the document data in the print job is read and a drawing process is performed. That is, the layout designation is read and set from the job attribute (S705), and further the document data is read (S706). In subsequent S707, the print job attribute combination method is checked to determine whether to unify the typeface. If page separation is not performed, the print job DL is generated (S708), otherwise. In this case, a page break is performed (S709), and a DL is generated.

  The flowchart is described with emphasis on print job combination processing, but general drawing processing may be the same as that of a conventional printer, and thus description thereof is omitted in the drawing.

  The printer controller first checks whether or not unprocessed print data exists in the reception buffer 305a, and checks whether or not a page break is specified according to the format of the print data. If not, it follows a predetermined procedure. A corresponding DL (intermediate format drawing object) is generated by the DL generation unit 303a and stored in the DL storage unit 305b. As a specific example of DL, for example, if the print data is a character code to be printed, it is searched whether or not the corresponding character pattern has been created in the font cache storage unit, and the character pattern has been created. If the character is hit, drawing information necessary for drawing the character pattern is created.

  On the other hand, if the corresponding character pattern is not found in the font cache, the font scaler is called to generate the character pattern corresponding to the character code in the typeface specified by the document data or the unified typeface. A drawing object as a character pattern is generated. In this embodiment, the DL representing a character pattern is a bitmap pattern. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and a character having a prescribed pattern size or less may be subjected to processing such as compression in a predetermined compression format. good. Subsequently, drawing information is created in the same manner as in the case of a hit at the time of search, and the processing for one character is completed.

  When the document data is a discharge instruction, the printer engine is notified of activation, and the generated drawing object for one page is developed (rendered) to sequentially draw page images in the band memory. . Further, after the rendering and shipping process for one page is completed, the above-described process is repeated until there is no remaining data.

  In this embodiment, for the sake of simplicity, the configuration is such that after one page is rendered, the subsequent print data is analyzed. However, in an image processing apparatus such as a laser beam printer, rendering is performed by multitask processing. The document data is usually configured to be analyzed simultaneously.

  According to the processing procedure described above, the print job is analyzed and a desired page image is output.

(Configuration example of drawing object and drawing information)
A configuration of a drawing object and drawing information generated by the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 8, 9, and 10. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a memory map of the DL storage unit 305a for one page in the present embodiment, FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a drawing object, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration example of drawing information.

  First, in FIG. 8, reference numeral 801 denotes a page information header portion for storing various drawing information for each page, and the print resolution, paper size, color mode, number of bands, and total capacity of drawing objects belonging to the page. It consists of information to be managed for each page, such as (memory usage), page status (drawn / shipped, etc.), page number for counting the page sequentially and identifying the page. The print resolution and the like are determined from the current graphic state at the time of starting the processing of each page, and the number of bands is obtained from the paper size and the print resolution with the height of each band fixed. Reference numeral 802 denotes a band table (902 in FIG. 9), in which areas corresponding to the number of bands are prepared, and a drawing information group 803 is linked for each band (see FIG. 9). As will be described below, each piece of drawing information indicates how and where each drawing object is printed in each band.

  The drawing information 901 is referred to as “appl” (abbreviation) in FIG. In this embodiment, each drawing information 901 and drawing object 904 are divided into a drawing information group 803 (903 in FIG. 9) and a drawing object group 804 (905 in FIG. 9) in the DL storage unit 305b. However, it may be configured to be held together in the same area.

  FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of one piece of drawing information, and is configured to include the following information as information for drawing a drawing object. That is, the print position in the band (bit offset value from the upper left end of the band) 1001, the drawing height 1002 of the drawing object, the drawing logic (AND / OR, etc.) 1003 with the band raster, and background information indicating the background of the drawing object (BG information) 1004, start address 1005 of the corresponding drawing object, offset (number of lines) 1006 indicating how much the drawing object should be skipped when the drawing object is drawn from the middle of the bunt, next drawing information The first address (the last link is NULL) 1007 and the like are included. Here, it is assumed that the BG information is composed of gray levels, and at the time of drawing, a dither pattern corresponding to the gray level is pasted as the background of each drawing object.

  Here, when a drawing object is drawn across a plurality of bands, the drawing object has a plurality of drawing information. When the same character is printed by the font object, a plurality of drawing information corresponds to one font object. That is, the drawing information is assigned by the number of times of drawing. In the example of FIG. 9, the character “A” is drawn across band 0 and band 1 by appl 1 and appl 3, and further drawn in band n by appl 5.

  It should be noted that each piece of information in the above-described drawing information only needs to have at least the number of bits that can express the designated paper with the designated resolution, and the link between the drawing information and the drawing object is not limited to the address in the RAM. The link may be based on an ID (in this case, it is converted into an address via an ID table prepared in advance).

  With the above configuration, in order to draw each drawing object for each band and generate a band image, each drawing information linked from the band table is sequentially read, and printing position information stored in each drawing information The drawing object may be drawn according to the above. By repeating this process until the next drawing information address becomes NULL, the rendering process for one band is completed.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the result of the combination obtained by the present embodiment. Of the three document data, two are combined within the page, and one is specified to be combined after a page break. This indicates that the joining process is started when 3 becomes 3. Here, the first and third document data are created with a typeface = Gothic type and a character size = 9 points, and the second document data is created with a typeface = Mincho type and a character size = 12 points. However, since the type attribute that matches the type of the document data to be combined first is specified in the job attribute of the second document data, all the combined results are type = gothic, character size = The character size is unified to 9 points.

  In this embodiment, the typeface integration attribute is designated as the job attribute of each document data. However, a similar printing environment may be designated from the operation panel of the image processing apparatus.

<Example of Print Job Combination of Image Processing Apparatus According to Second Embodiment>
In the first embodiment, the combination processing is started when each document data to be combined reaches a predetermined number, and double-sided printing and stapling are specified as the layout specification for the combined pages. The present invention can also be applied to a configuration in which the output start timing is set so as to start output at a predetermined date and time, and NUp (2Up in the following diagram) is specified as the output layout.

  As shown in FIG. 12, in the present invention, layout processing (allocation printing) is performed on the page after the merged document data are merged.

<Example of Print Job Combination of Image Processing Apparatus According to Third Embodiment>
Further, in the first embodiment, when a combination instruction is given in a page, each document data is only combined continuously following the document data that has been combined immediately before. A configuration is possible in which a print attribute is configured to indicate a separator attribute for printing, and various accompanying information is printed at a position where document data is combined.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 13, when the printing attribute for the separator setting can be instructed from the operation panel, and the content to be printed as the separator is designated as “straight line + date and time”, as shown in FIG. Immediately before combining the document data, a straight line for separation and the date and time when each document data is input are printed. The date and time can be realized by acquiring the date and time with a timer or the like when storing each document data and storing them together or by describing them as print job attributes with utility software.

  Further, the content to be printed as a separator may be designated as an attribute of each print job.

  In the first to third embodiments described above, a common job name is designated in order to determine whether each document data is a print job to be combined. A (folder) may be prepared, and a job input by designating the box name may be combined in the page.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an outline of the operation panel of the image processing apparatus configured as described above. A print job stored in a predetermined box on the hard disk by the combined job function is a file based on the storage date and time. A name is assigned, and the file name, storage date, and the like can be displayed in a list on the liquid crystal display or the like provided in the image output device in response to an operation from the operation panel.

  This figure shows an example of a list display of such job to be combined, and shows a case of a multifunction machine equipped with a scanner. In the figure, reference numeral 1401 denotes a liquid crystal display provided in the image output apparatus, and an operation panel as a so-called touch panel is realized by a sensitive liquid crystal device and controller software. Reference numeral 1402 denotes a list box that displays a list of print jobs stored in the combination box “01” of the multifunction peripheral. Here, for each of the stored six data, a file name and a paper size are displayed on the list 1402. , Paper orientation (icon display), number of pages, storage date and time are displayed.

  In this embodiment, it is assumed that the file name is composed of a character string combining the storage date and time and a predetermined number, and based on the time when the image output apparatus stores the print job in the box, The document name is determined without specification. The user operates the up / down key 1403 (software key) as necessary to scroll up and down the list displayed in the list 1402 to display / select a desired plurality of print jobs, and then the “combine” key 1404. The combination instruction can be performed by. Further, after selecting a print job, by operating a “print” key 1405, a “delete” key, a “move / duplicate” key, a “detailed information” key, or the like (symbol number is omitted), combined output and Various operations can be executed on the print job selected by the same operation.

  In the above embodiment, the combined output instruction of the print job is performed by the utility software operating on the host computer. However, the image processing apparatus includes a server function corresponding to the http protocol and homepage data in the HTML language. By designating a homepage address in the image processing apparatus from browser software running on a computer, the browser may provide a function equivalent to the utility software.

  In the first embodiment, when the typeface integration attribute is specified, it has been forcibly integrated into the typeface specified by the parameter. However, in this embodiment, the job does not include a condition that is not included in the integration target. It can be specified from the attribute or the operation panel of the image processing apparatus. In the present embodiment, as for the typeface information holding attribute, for the characters that are boldly modified, the other typeface attributes are unified under a predetermined condition while the boldness modification attribute is retained. Similarly, when the character size is designated as the typeface information holding attribute, the original information of each document data is inherited only for the character size, and other typeface attributes are unified.

  An object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or recording medium) in which a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded to a system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or CPU) of the system or apparatus. Needless to say, this can also be achieved by the MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. 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. Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included.

  Furthermore, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function is based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the CPU or the like provided in the expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the flowchart described above (shown in FIG. 7).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a host computer on which a laser beam printer and utility software to which the present invention can be applied operates. It is sectional drawing which shows the internal structure of the laser beam printer shown to this Embodiment. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a basic configuration of a control unit (controller unit) of the image processing apparatus shown in the present embodiment and a basic configuration of utility software. It is the figure which showed the example of an output result of layout printing (NUp printing), and is a figure which shows 2Up printing which allocated 2 pages per sheet. It is the figure which showed the example of the output result of layout printing (NUp printing), and is a figure which shows 4Up printing which allocated 4 pages per sheet. It is the figure which showed an example of the structure of the document data which can apply this invention. It is a figure explaining the structure of the combined job in a present Example. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an output processing procedure of a print job for which a combination instruction is given in the embodiment. It is the figure which showed the memory map of DL storage part 305a for 1 page in a present Example. It is a block diagram which shows the outline of the link structure between drawing information / drawing object. It is a figure which shows the structure of drawing information. It is the figure which showed the mode of the coupling result obtained by a present Example. It is the figure which showed the mode of the coupling result obtained by the 2nd Example. It is the figure which showed the mode of the coupling | bonding result obtained by the 3rd Example. It is the figure which showed the outline | summary of the operation panel in a 4th Example. It is the figure which showed the outline | summary of the operation panel in a 6th Example.

Explanation of symbols

101 Host computer 102 Image processing apparatus 103 Printer controller unit 105 Printer engine unit 301 CPU
303 Program ROM
303a DL generation unit 303c Connection management unit 305 RAM
305b DL storage unit 312 Utility software 312a Print job attribute specifying unit 312b Output control unit 801 Page information header unit 901 Drawing information (appl)
902 Band table 904 Drawing object (DL) group

Claims (10)

An image processing apparatus that outputs a page image after combining a plurality of document data input from the outside and processing as one print job,
Specifying means for specifying the document data to be combined according to a predetermined condition;
Holding means for holding document data conforming to the predetermined condition;
Output timing setting means for designating timing for combining and outputting a plurality of document data held in the holding means;
Typeface unifying means to unify the typeface attributes of the combined documents,
A combining means for combining the plurality of document data with a page or page break depending on the result of the typeface unifying means,
A drawing object generating means for converting the combined plurality of document data into an intermediate format drawing object;
Drawing means for generating a page image based on the drawing object;
And
Means for designating whether the document data is to be combined with each document data without being separated into pages in addition to a document to be printed, or combined with page separation as independent pages;
A means for specifying the order of combining each document data,
An image processing apparatus comprising:   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the typeface unifying unit does not perform typeface unification on character attributes that meet a predetermined condition.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined condition is specified by a print job name or a holding position in the holding unit.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the holding unit includes a management unit that manages the document data as a file, and the previous holding position is specified by a folder name.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output timing designating unit determines the output timing based on the number of document data to be combined or a designated date and time.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the combination order is any one of a head / end / same as document data input order / absolute order designation.   2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the combining unit further includes a header adding unit that adds header information as a separator to a combined portion of the plurality of document data and prints the header information.   A print job generation apparatus including application software that operates on an operating system such as a host computer, and generates a print job in which a job attribute is added to each of at least one or more document data instructed by a user, and the image A print job generation apparatus that outputs to a processing apparatus.   9. The job attribute includes at least a document merge specification, and additionally includes a document merge method (merge attribute), a merge order, presence / absence and type of a separator, layout designation, and finishing designation. The print job generation device described in 1.   An image processing system including the image processing apparatus and the print job generation apparatus.