JP2008198091A - Print support system, program, and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a print support system, a print support program and a print support method for reproducing print finish appearance including page folding or the like. <P>SOLUTION: A host terminal 100 includes a content data acquiring part 1 for acquiring content data; a content data analyzing part 10; a print finish appearance estimating part 30; a print job definition data acquiring part 6; a print job definition data evaluating part 7; and a print job definition data generating part 91. The print job definition data evaluating part 7 decides the matching of print finish appearance estimated based on the content data by the print finish appearance estimating part 30 and print finish appearance acquired by the print job definition data acquiring part 6, and when they are not matched, a warning is output through a user interface part 8 to a user. Thus, it is possible to prevent content data from being printed with unproper print finish appearance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a print support system, a print support program, and a print support method that can obtain an appropriate print result according to content data.

  In recent years, it has become common to publish various catalogs and materials on the Internet as content data such as PDF (Portable Document Format) data. Along with this, print job definition data (JDF (Job) including information on the print finish is displayed in the content data creation / distribution department so that the user can print the content data in a print finish similar to that in the catalog or the like. (Definition Format) and the like are distributed to the user together with the content data.

In addition, as a technique for printing content data to which setting information used for printing is added, such as the print job definition data, the user is notified when the setting information does not match the printing conditions of the printing apparatus. A technique is known (see Patent Document 1). In this way, an appropriate printed matter can be obtained by notifying the user and requesting a change in setting or the like.
JP 2003-173252 A

  As described above, if the print job definition data is used, the user can reproduce the print finish. However, since the print job definition data is manually input in the content data creation / distribution department, errors are likely to occur. If there is an error in the print job definition data, unlike general documents, catalogs often have a complicated page structure such as tri-fold or kannon-fold. It is very difficult for the user to reproduce the data based on the page number of the data.

On the other hand, the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 detects a mismatch between the setting information added to the content data and the printing conditions of the printing apparatus, but cannot detect until the setting information is incorrect.
SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a print support system, a print support program, and a print support method that can appropriately reproduce a print finish.

[Mode 1] In order to solve the above problem, a printing support system according to mode 1 includes:
A print support system that supports printing of content data in a print finish according to the content data,
Based on content data acquisition means for acquiring the content data, print job definition data acquisition means for acquiring print job definition data including a print finish appearance of the content data, and content data acquired by the content data acquisition means, A print finish appearance estimation means for estimating a print finish appearance of the content data; a print finish appearance included in the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition means; and a print finish appearance estimated by the print finish appearance estimation means. And a print job definition data evaluation unit that outputs a warning via a user interface when it is determined that the two printed finishes are inconsistent.

In this way, the print finish appearance is estimated from the contents of the content data, the consistency with the print finish appearance included in the print job definition data is determined, and if there is a contradiction, the print job is notified to the user. Even if the definition data is incorrect, it is possible to reproduce an appropriate print finish.
Here, the content data acquisition unit may have any configuration as long as it can acquire content data. For example, the content data acquisition unit may input content data from an input device or the like, an external device, or the like. The content data may be acquired or received from the storage device, or the content data may be read from a storage device or a storage medium. Thus, acquisition includes at least input, acquisition, reception and reading. The print job definition data acquisition unit, the attribute information acquisition unit (to be described later), and other acquisition concepts are the same.

  Further, the print finish appearance refers to the appearance of a printed material that is output as a final product as a result of pre-printing processing (pre-press), printing processing (press), and post-printing processing (post-press). For example, the final size of the printed matter that is finally obtained through a series of printing processes such as prepress such as plate making, imposition, press which is printing in a narrow sense by a printing machine, post-press such as folding, cutting and binding of printed paper It is a form such as folding.

  Further, the print job definition data is data including information on the print job, and at least includes a print finish appearance in the present embodiment, and is used for print control when printing content data. The print job definition data is a concept that includes both print job specification data that describes the specifications of a desired print product as a final product by print processing and print job setting data that describes settings related to the printing apparatus. is there. As an example of the print job specification data describing the print finish appearance, there is data including information on the finish size (final print product finish size). Specifically, the print job setting data includes, for example, the size of a sheet used for imposition (printing by allocating and printing a plurality of pages on one side of the sheet so that a finished size is obtained after folding and cutting), Information on the imposition method, detailed coordinate information on imposition, the folding method, and the cutting position are included. Some of the setting data included in the print job setting data overlaps with the print job specification data.

In the description of the present specification, claims, and drawings, the user interface refers to an input / output device that outputs information to the user, such as a display, a speaker, and a keyboard, or receives input from the user. In the present embodiment, at least an output function is required, but in the second embodiment, an input function is required.
Note that this system may be realized as a single device, terminal, or other device, or may be realized as a network system in which a plurality of devices, terminals, or other devices are communicably connected. In the latter case, each component may belong to any one of a plurality of devices and the like as long as they are connected so as to communicate with each other.

[Mode 2] Furthermore, the printing support system according to mode 2 is the same as that in mode 1.
When the print job definition data evaluation unit determines that the two print finishes are inconsistent, the print job definition data evaluation unit outputs the two print finishes as selection candidates via the user interface;
A print job definition data generation unit that generates print job definition data including a print finish appearance of any of the selection candidates input as a selection result via the user interface is provided.

With this configuration, the user can select an appropriate print finish appearance described in the estimated print finish appearance and print job definition data, and print job definition data is generated based on this. By doing so, it is possible to print with an appropriate print finish.
The print job definition data generated in this embodiment is a concept including print job specification data and print job setting data, similar to the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition unit.

[Mode 3] Furthermore, the printing support system according to mode 3 is the same as in mode 1 or 2,
The print finish appearance estimation unit estimates a print finish appearance of the content data based on content continuity in the content data acquired by the content data acquisition unit.
By paying attention to the continuity of the content in this way, it is possible to estimate the page layout (page structure) in the printed matter of the content. As a result, it is possible to reproduce the page layout of a printed matter with complicated print finish including page folding etc. from the state of content data that is acquired one-dimensionally by page number etc. or not arranged at all. Can be estimated.

  In addition, “based on the continuity of content” means that the content is continuous, the continuous mode (for example, the continuous direction of the content within the page, and the content is continuous across pages). , Information on pages with continuous content and the continuous direction of content across the pages (continuous from left page to right page, continuous from right page to left page, or continuous vertically) Or the like)), and the print finish appearance is estimated.

[Mode 4] Furthermore, the printing support system according to mode 4 is the same as that in mode 3.
Attribute information acquisition means for acquiring attribute information of the content data including at least the number of pages of the content data based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition means;
The print finish appearance estimation unit further refers to the attribute information acquired by the attribute information acquisition unit, and includes at least the page layout of the printed material and the correspondence relationship between the page of the printed material and the page of the content data The print finish appearance is estimated.

If comprised in this way, the page arrangement | positioning of the whole printed matter will be estimated based on the attribute information about the whole content data, such as the number of pages of content data, and the information which shows the connection between each page or between specific pages.
As a result, it is possible to reproduce the page layout of a printed matter with complicated print finish including page folding etc. from the state of content data that is acquired one-dimensionally by page number etc. or not arranged at all. Prints can be obtained.

Here, the page layout of the printed material is a page configuration of the printed material that indicates how each page of the printed material is combined with other pages, and is determined by how the printed material is bound, how it is folded, the number of pages, and the like.
Here, the attribute information of the content data means, for example, the page size and direction of the content data (the direction of whether the longitudinal direction of the page size is up and down, left and right, or set at a certain angle) For example, when the page size is A4 size, information such as whether the longitudinal direction is up and down (so-called portrait placement) or left and right (so-called landscape placement) is used.

[Mode 5] Furthermore, the printing support system according to mode 5 is the mode 3 or 4,
Character composition direction information acquisition means for acquiring character composition direction information which is a continuous direction of characters in the content data page,
The print finish appearance estimation means estimates the print finish appearance of the content data including the binding position based on the character combination direction information acquired by the character combination direction information acquisition means.

  According to this configuration, the binding position between pages (the same meaning as the spread direction and the folding position) can be determined based on the character composition direction, and the print finish appearance of the content data is estimated. As a result, it is possible to reproduce the page layout of a printed matter with complicated print finish including page folding etc. from the state of content data that is acquired one-dimensionally by page number etc. or not arranged at all. Prints can be obtained.

[Mode 6] Furthermore, the printing support system according to mode 6 is the same as in mode 5,
Based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition means, comprising character combination direction determination means for determining the character combination direction from the relationship of arrangement positions of consecutive characters included in the content data;
The character combination direction information acquisition unit acquires a determination result by the character combination direction determination unit as the character combination direction information.
According to this configuration, even when there is no information indicating the character composition direction in the content data, it is possible to obtain information on the character composition direction by analyzing the content data, thereby estimating the print finish appearance. .

[Mode 7] Furthermore, the printing support system according to mode 7 is any one of modes 3 to 6,
A page continuity determining means for determining a page pair in which the content is continuous among the plurality of pages of the content data;
The print finish appearance estimation means estimates a print finish appearance that allows a page pair determined to be in a continuous relationship by the page continuity determination means to be continuously viewed in a printed matter as a print finish appearance of the content data It is characterized by doing.

With this configuration, it is possible to determine the continuity of the page of the printed matter, which cannot be determined from the page number or the like of the content data, and based on this, the print finish appearance that realizes this continuity is estimated.
As a result, it is possible to reproduce the page layout of a printed matter with complicated print finish including page folding etc. from the state of content data that is acquired one-dimensionally by page number etc. or not arranged at all. Prints can be obtained.

Here, as a state of “browsing continuously in the printed matter”, for example, when a pair of pages in which the content is continuous is arranged on the front and back pages of the page, or when the printed matter including page folds is unfolded, it is in the same plane. This is realized by arranging them on the represented page.
If there are a plurality of page pairs in a continuous relationship, a print finish appearance that realizes continuity in the printed matter of an appropriate page pair is estimated based on the combination of the page pairs.

[Mode 8] Furthermore, the print support system according to mode 8 is the same as in mode 7,
The page continuity determination means includes a context continuity determination unit that determines that the character strings described in a plurality of pages of the content data have a context-continuous relationship, and the contexts have a continuous relationship. The page pair is determined to be a page pair in which the contents are in a continuous relationship.

  With this configuration, when the content includes characters, continuous page pairs are created based on text included in the same paragraph described in a plurality of pages or character strings included in the same text. Can be judged. Accordingly, information on the page layout of the printed matter including page folding and the like, which lacks the appearance of the content data, can be reproduced, so that an appropriate print result can be obtained. Note that the page direction (spreading direction, binding position) between the page pairs can also be determined by the continuous direction of the context.

[Mode 9] Furthermore, the printing support system according to mode 9 is the printing system according to mode 7 or 8,
The page continuity determination unit includes an image continuity determination unit that determines that images described in a plurality of pages of the content data are images of a continuous region of the same image, and the image of the continuous region The page pair determined to be the page pair is determined to be a page pair in which the content is in a continuous relationship.

  With this configuration, when the content includes an image, it is possible to determine a continuous page pair by determining whether the image described in the plurality of pages is an image of a continuous region of the same image. Accordingly, information on the page layout of the printed matter including page folding and the like, which lacks the appearance of the content data, can be reproduced, so that an appropriate print result can be obtained. Note that the page direction (spreading direction, binding position) between the page pairs can also be determined based on the continuous direction of the images.

[Mode 10] Further, a printing support program according to mode 10
A print support program for supporting printing of content data in a print finish according to the content data,
Based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition step of acquiring the content data, the print job definition data acquiring step of acquiring the print job definition data including the print finish appearance of the content data, and the content data acquiring step, A print finish appearance estimation step for estimating a print finish appearance of the content data; a print finish appearance included in the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition step; and a print finish appearance estimated by the print finish appearance estimation step. A print job definition data evaluation step for outputting a warning via the user interface when it is determined that the two printed finishes are inconsistent. Characterized in that it comprises a program for causing a row.
If comprised in this way, when a computer reads a program and a computer performs a process according to the read program, the effect | action and effect equivalent to the printing assistance system of the form 1 will be acquired.

[Mode 11] Furthermore, a print support program according to mode 11 is the same as that in mode 10,
The print job definition data evaluation step outputs both the print finish appearances as selection candidates via the user interface when it is determined that the both print finish appearances are inconsistent,
A print job definition data generation step of generating print job definition data including a print finish appearance of any one of the selection candidates input as a selection result via the user interface is included.
With this configuration, when the program is read by the computer and the computer executes processing according to the read program, the same operations and effects as those of the printing support system according to mode 2 can be obtained.

[Mode 12] Furthermore, the print support program according to mode 12 is the same as in mode 10 or 11,
In the print finish appearance estimation step, the print finish appearance of the content data is estimated based on content continuity in the content data acquired by the content data acquisition means.
With this configuration, when the program is read by the computer and the computer executes processing according to the read program, the same operations and effects as those of the printing support system according to mode 3 can be obtained.

[Mode 13] Furthermore, the print support program according to mode 13 is the same as that in mode 12,
An attribute information acquisition step of acquiring attribute information of the content data including at least the number of pages of the content data based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition step;
The print finish appearance estimation step further refers to the attribute information acquired in the attribute information acquisition step, and includes at least the page layout of the printed material and the correspondence between the page of the printed material and the page of the content data The print finish appearance is estimated.
With this configuration, when the program is read by the computer and the computer executes processing according to the read program, the same operations and effects as those of the printing support system according to mode 4 are obtained.

[Form 14] Furthermore, the printing support program according to form 14 is the form 12 or 13,
Including a character combination direction information acquisition step of acquiring character combination direction information which is a continuous direction of characters in the page of the content data,
In the print finish appearance estimation step, the print finish appearance of the content data including the binding position is estimated based on the character combination direction information acquired in the character combination direction information acquisition step.
With this configuration, when the program is read by the computer and the computer executes processing according to the read program, the same operations and effects as those of the printing support system according to mode 5 are obtained.

[Mode 15] Furthermore, the printing support program according to mode 15 is the same as that in mode 14,
Based on the content data acquired in the content data acquisition step, including a character combination direction determination step of determining the character combination direction from the relationship between the arrangement positions of consecutive characters included in the content data;
The character combination direction information acquisition step acquires the determination result of the character combination direction determination step as the character combination direction information.
With such a configuration, when the program is read from the storage medium by the computer and the computer executes processing according to the read program, the same operations and effects as those of the printing support system according to mode 6 are obtained.

[Mode 16] Further, the print support program according to mode 16 is the program according to any one of modes 12 to 15,
A page continuity determining step of determining a pair of pages in which the content is continuous among a plurality of pages of the content data;
In the print finish appearance estimation step, a print finish appearance that allows a page pair determined to be in a continuous relationship in the page continuity determination step to be continuously browsed in a printed matter is estimated as a print finish appearance of the content data. It is characterized by doing.
With this configuration, when the program is read by the computer and the computer executes processing according to the read program, the same operations and effects as those of the printing support system according to mode 7 can be obtained.

[Mode 17] Furthermore, the print support program according to mode 17 is the same as that in mode 16,
The page continuity determining step includes a context continuity determining unit that determines that the character strings described in the plurality of pages of the content data have a context-continuous relationship, and the context has a continuous relationship. The page pair is determined to be a page pair in which the contents are in a continuous relationship.
With this configuration, when the program is read by the computer and the computer executes processing according to the read program, the same operations and effects as those of the printing support system according to mode 8 are obtained.

[Mode 18] Furthermore, the printing support program according to mode 18 is the same as in mode 16 or 17,
The page continuity determining step includes an image continuity determining step of determining that images described in a plurality of pages of the content data are images of a continuous region of the same one image, the image of the continuous region The page pair determined to be the page pair is determined to be a page pair in which the content is in a continuous relationship.
With this configuration, when the program is read by the computer and the computer executes processing according to the read program, the same operations and effects as those of the printing support system according to mode 9 are obtained.

[Mode 19] Further, a printing support method according to mode 19 includes:
A print support method for supporting printing of content data in a print finish according to the content data,
Based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition step of acquiring the content data, the print job definition data acquiring step of acquiring the print job definition data including the print finish appearance of the content data, and the content data acquiring step, A print finish appearance estimation step for estimating a print finish appearance of the content data; a print finish appearance included in the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition step; and a print finish appearance estimated by the print finish appearance estimation step. And a print job definition data evaluation step of outputting a warning via a user interface when it is determined that the two printed finishes are inconsistent.
Thereby, the same effect as that of the printing support system of mode 1 can be obtained.

[Mode 20] Furthermore, the printing support method according to mode 20 is the same as that in mode 19,
The print job definition data evaluation step outputs both the print finish appearances as selection candidates via the user interface when it is determined that the both print finish appearances are inconsistent,
A print job definition data generation step of generating print job definition data including a print finish appearance of any one of the selection candidates input as a selection result via the user interface is included.
Thereby, an effect equivalent to that of the printing support system according to mode 2 can be obtained.

[Mode 21] Furthermore, the printing support method according to mode 21 is the same as in mode 19 or 20,
In the print finish appearance estimation step, the print finish appearance of the content data is estimated based on content continuity in the content data acquired in the content data acquisition step.
Thereby, the same effect as that of the printing support system according to mode 3 can be obtained.

[Mode 22] Furthermore, a printing support method according to mode 22 is the same as that in mode 21,
An attribute information acquisition step of acquiring attribute information of the content data including at least the number of pages of the content data based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition step;
The print finish appearance estimation step further refers to the attribute information acquired in the attribute information acquisition step, and includes at least the page layout of the printed material and the correspondence between the page of the printed material and the page of the content data The print finish appearance is estimated.
Thereby, an effect equivalent to that of the printing support system according to mode 4 can be obtained.

[Mode 23] Furthermore, the printing support method according to mode 23 is as described in mode 21 or 22.
Including a character combination direction information acquisition step of acquiring character combination direction information which is a continuous direction of characters in the page of the content data,
In the print finish appearance estimation step, the print finish appearance of the content data including the binding position is estimated based on the character combination direction information acquired in the character combination direction information acquisition step.
Thereby, the same effect as that of the printing support system according to mode 5 can be obtained.

[Mode 24] Furthermore, the printing support method according to mode 24 is the same as that in mode 23.
Based on the content data acquired in the content data acquisition step, including a character combination direction determination step of determining the character combination direction from the relationship between the arrangement positions of consecutive characters included in the content data;
The character combination direction information acquisition step acquires the determination result of the character combination direction determination step as the character combination direction information.
Thereby, the same effect as that of the printing support system according to mode 6 can be obtained.

[Mode 25] Furthermore, the printing support method according to mode 25 is the same as any one of modes 21 to 24,
A page continuity determining step of determining a pair of pages in which the content is continuous among a plurality of pages of the content data,
In the print finish appearance estimation step, a print finish appearance that allows a page pair determined to be in a continuous relationship in the page continuity determination step to be continuously browsed in a printed matter is estimated as a print finish appearance of the content data. It is characterized by doing.
Thereby, the same effect as that of the printing support system according to mode 7 can be obtained.

[Mode 26] Furthermore, the printing support method according to mode 26 is the same as that in mode 25.
The page continuity determining step includes a context continuity determining step of determining that the character strings described in a plurality of pages of the content data have a context-continuous relationship, and the context has a continuous relationship. The page pair is determined to be a page pair in which the contents are in a continuous relationship.
Thereby, an effect equivalent to that of the printing support system according to mode 8 is obtained.

[Mode 27] Furthermore, the printing support method according to mode 27 is the same as in mode 25 or 26,
The page continuity determining step includes an image continuity determining step of determining that images described in a plurality of pages of the content data are images of a continuous region of the same one image, the image of the continuous region The page pair determined to be the page pair is determined to be a page pair in which the content is in a continuous relationship.
Thereby, an effect equivalent to that of the printing support system according to mode 9 is obtained.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[Example]
(overall structure)
FIG. 1A shows a configuration of a printing support system according to this embodiment, and FIG. 1B shows a configuration of a printing system including the printing support system.

The printing system in FIG. 1B is configured by connecting a printing apparatus 92 to a printing support system configured to include a host terminal 100.
The host terminal 100 includes a content data acquisition unit 1 that acquires content data, a content data analysis unit 10 that analyzes content data acquired by the content data acquisition unit 1, and a print finish that estimates a print finish appearance based on the content data. And an appearance estimation unit 30. In this embodiment, the content data is described in a page description language (PDL) such as a PDF file. This content data may be acquired via a network such as the Internet, or may be acquired from a storage device or the like.

  Further, the host terminal 100 includes a print job definition data acquisition unit 6 that acquires print job definition data including a print finish appearance of content data. The content data and the print job definition data are associated with each other, and the print finish appearance of the content data can be acquired based on the association. The association method is not particularly limited. For example, the print job definition data and the content data are combined into one unit, the link to the content data is included in the print job definition data, or the print job definition data is included in the content data. Or include a link. Details of the print job definition data will be described later.

  Further, the host terminal 100 determines the consistency of the print finish appearance included in the print job definition data and the print finish appearance estimated by the print finish appearance estimation unit 30, and determines that the two print finish appearances are inconsistent. In this case, a print job definition data evaluation unit 7 that outputs a warning via the user interface unit 8 is provided. The user interface unit 8 includes a display device 107 and an input device 105 of the host terminal 100 described later.

Further, the host terminal 100 includes a print job definition data generation unit 91 that generates print job definition data including the finally determined print finish appearance and outputs the print job definition data to the printing apparatus 92.
In the printing apparatus 92, the content data is printed in a finally determined print finish based on the print job definition data input from the print job definition data generation unit 91 and the content data input from the content data analysis unit 10. At this time, the printing apparatus 92 has a function of interpreting the print job definition data and executing printing.

(Configuration and processing of content data analysis section and print finish appearance estimation section)
Next, content data analysis processing and print finish appearance estimation processing performed by the content data analysis unit 10 and the print finish appearance estimation unit 30 will be described.
FIG. 2 shows functional blocks of the content data analysis unit 10 and the print finish appearance estimation unit 30, and FIG. 3 shows a process by the content data analysis unit 10 in a flowchart. As shown in FIG. 2, the content data analysis unit 10 includes a preprocessing unit 11, a content data holding unit 12 that holds content data converted by the preprocessing unit 11, an attribute information acquisition unit 13, and content continuity. And an analysis unit 20.

  The preprocessing unit 11 performs preprocessing for converting the content data acquired by the content data acquisition unit 1 into a format suitable for analyzing the continuity of the content. In the present embodiment, the processing shown in steps S101 to S103 of FIG. 3 is performed, and the page size of each page of the content data is made uniform. Details will be described below. In step S101 of FIG. 3, it is determined whether the page size of the content data is the same for each page. Specifically, when content data is input from the content data acquisition unit 1 to the preprocessing unit 11, information indicating the page size (horizontal size × vertical size) of each page is extracted from the content data, and the page is displayed on each page. Determine whether the sizes are the same. When a page with a different page size is included (step S101: No), the process proceeds to step S102, and a reference size (reference horizontal size × reference vertical size) is set. In the flow of FIG. 3, the minimum page size is set as the reference size. In subsequent step S103, content data normalization processing is performed, and processing for aligning the page size of each page of content data to the reference size set in step S102 is performed. If each page has the same page size (step S101: Yes), the content data is directly output to the content data holding unit 12 without performing the content data normalization process, and the process proceeds to step S104.

  FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the content data normalization process. In the content data normalization process, first, in step S201, the processing page is set as the first page of content data, and in the subsequent step S202, it is determined whether or not the processing page is the reference size. If the processing page is the reference size (step S202: Yes), it is not necessary to make adjustments, so the processing of steps S203 to S207 is skipped, and the process proceeds to step S208. When the processing page is not the reference size (step S202: No), the process proceeds to step S203.

  In step S203, it is determined whether or not the horizontal size of the processing page is an integral multiple of the reference horizontal size (hereinafter sometimes referred to as n times) and the vertical size of the processing page is the reference vertical size. If it is an integer multiple (step S203: Yes), the processing page can be considered as the contents of n pages sequentially allocated in the horizontal direction, and therefore the processing page is divided into n pages in the horizontal direction. At this time, since the assignment method differs depending on the character composition direction of each page constituting the n page, first, information indicating the character composition direction of each page is acquired from the content data (step S204). If the character composition direction is horizontal (characters are written horizontally) (step S204: horizontal), the binding direction is left, that is, pages are assigned in order of pages from left to right. To do. On the other hand, when the character composition direction is vertical (characters are written vertically) (step S204: vertical), the processing page is divided in order from the right because the binding direction is right. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S208.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S203 that the horizontal size of the processing page is not an integral multiple of the reference horizontal size and the vertical size of the processing page is the reference vertical size (step S203: No), the process proceeds to step S207. Perform page size adjustment processing. For example, when the horizontal size and vertical size of the processing page are in a range of a predetermined multiple (not an integer) of the reference size, the processing page is aligned with the reference size by enlarging or reducing in the vertical or horizontal direction. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S208.

  Note that the processing in steps S203 to S207 is merely an example, and in addition to this, a plurality of correspondences between the deviation from the reference size of the processing page and the adjustment method therefor are determined as content data normalization rules. Then, an optimal content data normalization rule is selected according to the state of the processing page, and the processing page is aligned with the reference size according to the selected content data normalization rule. For example, the process is not limited to an integer multiple of the reference horizontal size as in step S203, but when the vertical size of the processing page is an integer multiple of the reference vertical size, a process of dividing in the vertical direction is performed. In addition to the above-described division processing and page size enlargement / reduction processing, trimming processing can be performed, or these division processing, enlargement / reduction processing, trimming processing, and the like can be appropriately combined.

  In step S208, it is determined whether there is an unprocessed page. If there is no unprocessed page (step S208: No), the processed content data (normalized content data) is output to the content data holding unit 12. On the other hand, when the unprocessed page remains (step S208: Yes), the processes of step S202 to step S208 are repeated until there is no unprocessed page.

  As described above, the preprocessing unit 11 performs preprocessing for analyzing the continuity of the content data. As described above, when the content data normalization processing is performed, the normalized content data after conversion is It is output to the content data holding unit 12. When the content data normalization process is not performed, the content data acquired by the content data acquisition unit 1 is output to the content data holding unit 12 as it is.

  The attribute information acquisition unit 13 acquires the attribute information of the content data from the content data held in the content data holding unit 12. This attribute information is content data information that is different from the continuity of the content, and is necessary for estimating the print finish. In the present embodiment, the attribute information acquisition unit 13 acquires the number of pages of content data from the content data and outputs it to the print finish appearance estimation unit 30. The attribute information acquisition processing by the attribute information acquisition unit 13 is executed following the processing by the preprocessing unit 11 in step S104 of FIG.

  The content continuity analysis unit 20 includes a character composition direction information acquisition unit 22 and a page continuity determination unit 23, and analyzes content continuity in content data. The processing by the character composition direction information acquisition unit 22 is executed following the attribute information acquisition processing by the attribute information acquisition unit 13 in step S105 of FIG. The text composition direction information acquisition unit 22 refers to the content data held in the content data storage unit 12, acquires the text composition direction information for each page, and outputs it to the print finish appearance estimation unit 30. The content of this process is the same as the process of step S204 in the content data normalization process, except that it is performed for each page of content data.

  The page continuity determination process by the page continuity determination unit 23 is executed following the process by the character composition direction information acquisition unit 22 (step S106 in FIG. 3), and determines a page pair in which the contents are in a continuous relationship. Then, identification information (for example, page number) of each pair of pages in a continuous relationship, which is a determination result, is output to the print finish appearance estimation unit 30. The page continuity determination unit 23 includes a context continuity determination unit 23a and an image continuity determination unit 23b.

  The context continuity determination unit 23a determines that the character strings described in the plurality of pages of the content data have a context-continuous relationship, and the content has a continuous relationship between page pairs in which the context is continuous. It is determined as a page pair in And the identification information (for example, page number) of each page pair in the said continuous relationship is output. Specifically, for each page of content data, the character code is extracted from the character drawing command included in the page, the character string is extracted, and it is combined with the character string included in the other page for syntax analysis. When the syntax is satisfied, it is determined that the page pair is in a continuous relationship. By determining the continuity of the context for all combinations of pages, not just between pages with consecutive page numbers, all page pairs in a continuous relationship are extracted from the content data. The context continuity is determined for each corresponding line of each page, that is, the continuity of the context at the end of the line on one page and the same line on the other page (for example, the fifth line on both pages). The continuity of the context at the end of one page and the beginning of another page may be confirmed.

  The image continuity determination unit 23b determines that the images described in the plurality of pages of the content data are images of continuous regions of the same single image, and the page pairs determined to be images of the continuous regions. Are determined to be page pairs in which the contents are in a continuous relationship. And the identification information (for example, page number) of each page pair in the said continuous relationship is output. Specifically, for example, the density near the page edge of each page is detected, and it is determined that the edge where the change and position of the density match is continuous. In other words, a histogram of shading is taken along the vertical direction in the vicinity of the page edge, for example, in the vicinity of the horizontal edge of each page, compared between different pages, and the page pairs in which the histograms match are in continuous relations. Is determined. Similarly, when determining the continuity of the vertical end of each page, a histogram of shading along the horizontal direction is detected for the vicinity of the vertical end of each page and compared between different pages. Note that the density histogram near the edge in the horizontal direction may be compared with the density histogram near the edge in the vertical direction.

  The print finish appearance estimation unit 30 estimates the print finish appearance of the content data based on the analysis result output from the content continuity analysis unit 20 and the attribute information of the content data output from the attribute information acquisition unit 13. . This print finish estimation process is executed following the page continuity determination process (step S107 in FIG. 3). The print finish appearance estimation unit 30 includes an estimation rule storage unit 31 that stores a plurality of print finish appearance estimation rules, and an estimation rule selection unit 32.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a data structure of a print appearance appearance estimation rule. The print finish appearance estimation rule is data that describes information indicating the continuity of the content data and the print finish appearance estimation rule according to the attribute information of the content data. As shown in FIG. 5, a predetermined start tag is used. (For example, <DocumentFinishingRule>) and an end tag (for example, </ DocumentFinishingRule>), information and content indicating the continuity of content data by nesting a tag set of a start tag and an end tag Defines the print finish according to the attribute information of the data. For example, it can be described in a markup language such as XML.

The tag sets 500 and 502 define the analysis result and attribute information of the content continuity analysis unit 20 as conditions. Further, the tag sets 504 and 506 define the print finish appearance applied when the conditions of the tag sets 500 and 502 are satisfied. In the example of FIG. 5, when the number of pages of content data is 4 pages (tag 507) and the text composition direction is from top to bottom, that is, vertically (tag 508), the applied print finish is 2 This shows that the folding position is on the right (tag 509).
The estimation rule selection unit 32 selects the print finish appearance estimation rule from a plurality of print finish appearance estimation rules stored in the estimation rule storage unit 31 based on the analysis result and attribute information of the content continuity analysis unit 20. Based on this, the printed appearance is estimated. Then, the estimated print finish appearance is output to the print job definition data evaluation unit 7.

(About print job definition data)
FIG. 6 shows an example of print finish information included in the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition unit 6. The print job definition data is a concept that includes print job specification data that describes the specifications of the printed material and print job setting data that describes settings related to the printing apparatus. For example, the print job definition data is expressed in a markup language such as XML. Can be described. In the example of FIG. 6, a finished form such as a finished size and a fold is described as a printed finish appearance.
Note that the print job definition data may include information other than the print finish appearance.

(Hardware configuration of host terminal)
The host terminal 100 is configured by a computer having a hardware configuration as shown in FIG. 7, and the processing of each unit by the host terminal 100 is realized by causing a computer to execute a printing support control program. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 7, the CPU 101 that controls the operation and the entire system based on the control program, the ROM 102 that stores the control program of the CPU 101 in a predetermined area, and the data read from the ROM 102 or the like And a RAM 104 for storing calculation results required in the calculation process of the CPU 101, and an I / F 108 for mediating input / output of data to / from an external device. These are signals for transferring data. The buses 109 are connected to each other so as to be able to exchange data.
The I / F 108 includes, as external devices, an input device 105 such as a keyboard and a mouse that can input data as a human interface, a storage device 106 that stores data, tables, and the like as files, and a screen based on image signals. Is connected to a signal line for connecting to the network 199.

(About the overall print support system flow)
Next, the overall flow of the printing support system configured as described above will be described.
FIG. 8 shows a flow of the entire printing support system. This flow is realized by causing the host terminal 100 to execute the print support program according to the present embodiment.
As shown in FIG. 8, first, in step S <b> 301, the print finish appearance is estimated based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition unit 1. In subsequent step S302, the print job definition data acquisition unit 6 acquires the print job definition data associated with the content data, and extracts the print finish of the content data from the print job definition data. In the following step S303, the print appearance estimated in step S301 is compared with the print finish in the print job definition data extracted in step S302, and the consistency between the two is determined. In the case of matching (step S303: matching), the process proceeds to step S306 described later. In the case of inconsistency (step S303: inconsistency), both print finished appearances are output as selection candidates via the user interface unit 8 as a warning (step S304), and the user selection result is finalized through the user interface unit 8. Is obtained as the print finish appearance determined automatically (step S305), and the process proceeds to step S306.

  In step S 306, print job definition data including the finally determined print finish is generated and output to the printing apparatus 92. At this time, for example, if the user's selection result acquired in step S305 is the estimated print finish, the part describing the print finish in the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition unit 6 is displayed. Change to the estimated content and output. Based on the print job definition data, the printing apparatus 92 prints the content data in a final print appearance.

(Concrete example)
Next, specific examples of content data and print job definition data will be given, and the flow of the print support system when the data is acquired will be described.
FIG. 9A shows an example of content data, and FIG. 6 shows an example of print job definition specification data. The content data in FIG. 9A is composed of three pages, and the page size of one page is A4, the second page is A3, and the third page is A4. In addition, the character composition direction of each page is vertical. In the figure, numerical values such as “210” and “297” shown on each page are page sizes (units are omitted). The content data is associated with print job definition data shown in FIG. According to the print job definition data, the print finish appearance of the content data is the final folding size 210 mm × vertical length 297 mm, that is, A4 size, with the folding position at the left half.

  When the content data is acquired, a print finish appearance is estimated based on the content data (FIG. 8: Step S301). Specifically, since the content data in FIG. 9A includes pages with different page sizes, first, the content data normalization process (step S103 in FIG. 3) is performed by the pre-processing unit 11, and FIG. As shown in b), it is converted into content data consisting of four pages of A4 size. Then, the content data analysis unit 10 sequentially performs attribute information acquisition processing (step S104 in FIG. 3), character composition direction information acquisition processing (step S105 in FIG. 3), and page continuity determination processing (step S106 in FIG. 3). The information that the number of pages is 4 and the text composition direction is vertical is acquired. Since there is no page pair in which the contents are in a continuous relationship, it is not detected in the page continuity determination process. Based on these pieces of information, a print finish appearance estimation process (step S107 in FIG. 3) is performed. In this case, since it matches the conditions of the print finish appearance estimation rule shown in FIG. 5, the print finish appearance is estimated to be folded in two, the folding position is right, and the finish size is A4 as shown in FIG.

  FIG. 11 shows a printed material to which the print finish appearance estimated as described above is applied. The printed matter shown in FIG. 11 is a sheet of A3 size folded in the center in the longitudinal direction and finished in A4 size and printed on both sides. The first page of the content data on the cover, the second and third pages on the spread page, The fourth page is printed on the back cover. The spread pages are continuous from the right page to the left page.

  Next, in step S302 of FIG. 8, the print job definition data acquisition unit 6 acquires the print job definition data, and extracts the print finish appearance shown in FIG. In the following step S303, the consistency between the print appearance estimated in step S301 and the print finish extracted from the print job definition data in step S302 is determined. In this case, since the folding positions are different between right and left, it is determined that they are inconsistent (step S303: inconsistency), and two print finished appearances are output as selection candidates via the user interface unit 8. (Step S304).

  FIG. 12 shows an output example on the screen of the display device 107. The screen G1 in FIG. 12 displays the estimated print finish appearance and the print finish appearance specified by the print job definition data side by side. In addition, selection buttons B1 to B3 are displayed to allow the user to select whether to print in one of these print finishes or to cancel printing, and the user inputs the selection result via the input device 105. It is possible.

  When the selection result input by the user is acquired (step S305), in step S306, print job definition data including the selected print finish appearance is generated and output from the print job definition data generation unit 91. Instead of generating the print job definition data by the print job definition data generation unit 91 and outputting the print job definition data to the printing apparatus 92, the print job definition data including the finally determined print finish appearance is stored in the storage device, or the network You may distribute via. Thereby, it can utilize at the time of subsequent printing.

(Examples for estimating the print finish of various content data)
Note that the print finishing appearance estimation process is not limited to the content data as described above. In the following, estimation examples of various printed finish appearances will be described.
FIG. 13 and FIG. 14 show an example of the print finish appearance estimation rule that defines the print finish appearance estimated based on the number of pages and the text composition direction information. According to the print finish appearance estimation rule shown in FIG. 13, when the number of pages is 4 and the text composition direction is from left to right, that is, horizontal (tag 510), the applied print finish is folded in two. The folding position is on the left (tag 511). Further, according to the print finish appearance estimation rule of FIG. 14, the number of pages of the content data is a multiple of 4 (n in the figure is a natural number) and is not 4 (that is, a multiple of 4 of 8 or more). When the character composition direction is horizontal, the applied print finish is saddle stitching and the folding position is on the left. As described above, the page layout, the number of folds, the folding position, and the like can be estimated from only the page number and the character set information.

Next, an estimation example of the print finish appearance of content data in which content continues across pages will be described.
FIG. 15 shows an example of content data. The content data shown in FIG. 15 has 6 pages, and the page size is A4 size. When such content data is acquired, page number information (6 pages) is acquired in the attribute information acquisition process (step S104 in FIG. 3), and character combination direction information is acquired in the character combination direction acquisition process (step S104 in FIG. 3). (Horizontal) is acquired, and then a page continuity determination process (step S106 in FIG. 3) is performed. In the content data of FIG. 15, the context continuity determination unit 23 a determines that “Ao” on page 2 is continuous with “Eo” on page 3 and “Eo” on page 4. Further, it is determined that “Kaki” on page 4 and “Kukeko” on page 5 are continuous. As a result, combinations of page numbers (2 and 3, 2 and 4, 4 and 5) of three page pairs in a continuous relationship are obtained.

  First, FIG. 16 shows a printed matter to which the print finish appearance of the estimation result is applied. The printed matter in FIG. 16 has a finishing size A4 that can be obtained by folding a sheet having a vertical size the same as the longitudinal size of A4 and three times the lateral size of A4 in the short direction. Then, the title is displayed on the cover, and with the cover open, a character string constituting one context consisting of “aiueo” included in pages 2 and 3 of the content data is continuously displayed as a spread page, With all the page folds expanded, each character string of “Aiueo” included in pages 2 and 3 of the content data and “Kakikukeko” included in pages 4 and 5 is the middle page formed by combining 3 pages. It is represented on one side and can be browsed continuously. When considering only the page size and the number of pages, A4 size prints of 6 pages can also be printed on both sides of 3 sheets of A4 size paper and then stitched into a finished size of A4. Can be considered. However, this is limited to a print appearance that allows the three page pairs in the above-described continuous relationship to be continuously viewed in the printed matter.

  FIG. 17 shows a print appearance estimation rule that defines a 6-page and three-fold print finish as shown in FIG. In the print finish appearance estimation rule in FIG. 17, the number of pages (tag 520) and the text composition direction (tag 21) are defined as conditions, and page pairs that are continuously viewed in the printed matter are defined. (DocumentPageConnection tags 517 to 519). In other words, by comparing a page pair in the content data that has a continuous relationship with the content and a page pair in a relationship that is continuously browsed in the printed material, the page pair in the continuous relationship of the content can be It is possible to determine whether it is realized as a page pair to be browsed. In the example of FIG. 17, three page pairs of b and c (tag 517), b and d (tag 518), and d and e (tag 519) are defined as page pairs to be browsed successively. ing.

  Here, FIG. 18 shows the relationship between the identification symbol of each page and the page layout when the page is folded in three and the character composition direction is horizontal. In FIG. 18, alphabets are assigned in advance in the order of b, d, e from the leftmost page on the inside of the signature, and c, f, a from the leftmost page on the outer surface. Allocation of identification symbols for the page layout is basically free, but in this embodiment, alphabets are allocated so that the continuity in browsing the printed material and the alphabetical order match as much as possible. That is, when the character composition direction is horizontal, the page advances from the left to the right. Therefore, in the state of browsing in FIG. 18, a higher-order alphabet is assigned to the page located on the left than the page located on the right.

  When the estimation rule selection unit 32 reads the DocumentPageConnection tag, the estimation rule selection unit 32 performs matching between the condition defined by the DocumentPageConnection tag and the determination result by the page continuity determination unit 23, and a combination of page pairs in a continuity relationship of contents is printed on the printed matter. It is determined whether the combination diagrams of the page pairs that are continuously browsed match. As a result, b = 2, c = 3, d = 4, and e = 5 satisfy the conditions of the print finish appearance estimation rule. Therefore, the content data in FIG. 15 has six pages shown in FIG. Trifold appearance is presumed. At the same time, for the 2 to 5 pages of the content data, the page arrangement in the printed matter is determined by the above correspondence.

  Note that, for pages with continuity, the page layout is determined by matching with the print finish appearance estimation rule as described above, but the remaining pages are undefined. Here, as described above, the continuity on browsing and the alphabetical order are set to match as much as possible. Therefore, the page of content data whose page layout is not determined is assigned to the upper alphabet in order from the page with the smallest page number. It will be applied to the empty page. In this embodiment, with this processing, page layout is determined for a page 1 and page 6 in correspondence with a = 1 and f = 6.

FIG. 19 shows an output example of the print finish appearance estimated as described above. This information is output from the print finish appearance estimation unit 30 to the print job definition data evaluation unit 7. Includes information that the finished size width is 210 mm, the finished size length is 297 mm, the finished form is tri-fold, and the page layout is a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, d = 4, e = 5, f = 6 .
In this way, for content data in which content continues across pages, the page pairs in a continuous relationship are determined based on the continuity of the content (here, context), and based on this, the content is in a continuous relationship. It is possible to estimate a print appearance that allows a page pair to be browsed continuously.

Next, an estimation example of the print finish appearance of content data in which images are continuous across pages will be described.
FIG. 20 shows an example of content data. The content data shown in FIG. 20 is content data with 6 pages and a page size of A4 as in FIG. 19, and is different from the content data in FIG. Hereinafter, the same processing will be omitted, and different points will be mainly described.

  When the host terminal 100 acquires the content data in FIG. 20, the page number information (page 6) is acquired in the attribute information acquisition process (step S104 in FIG. 3), and the character composition direction acquisition process (step S104 in FIG. 3). In this way, character composition direction information (horizontal) is acquired, and then a page continuity determination process (step S106 in FIG. 3) is performed. In the content data of FIG. 20, the image continuity determination unit 23b compares the combination of the page numbers of the three consecutive page pairs (2 and 3, 2 and 2) by comparing the density histograms in the vicinity of the edge in the horizontal direction of the page. 4, 4 and 5) are detected. Accordingly, the determination result by the page continuity determination unit 23 is the same as the content data shown in FIG. 15, and the character combination direction information and attribute information are also the same. Therefore, the print finish appearance estimation rule of FIG. The finished appearance is estimated to be a six-page appearance with three folds. Then, the page layout is determined in correspondence with a = 1, b = 2, c = 3, d = 4, e = 5, and f = 6.

FIG. 21 shows a printed matter to which the print finish appearance of the estimation result is applied. The printed matter in FIG. 21 has a finish size of A4, a three-fold, six-page print finish, and the images shown on pages 2 and 3 of the content data are continuously spread as spread pages with the cover open. It can be viewed, and with all page folds expanded, the images on pages 2, 4 and 4 and 5 of the content data are displayed on the inner surface formed by combining 3 pages and can be browsed continuously. .
In this way, continuous page pairs of content can be determined not only by continuity of context but also by continuity of images, and based on this, page pairs in which the content is continuous are continuously browsed. It is possible to estimate the print appearance that can be made.

Next, a description will be given of an estimation example of a print finish appearance of content data in which a pair of pages in which content continues across pages when content data normalization processing is performed.
FIG. 22A shows an example of content data. The content data in FIG. 22A has four pages, and pages with different page sizes are mixed.
When the host terminal 100 acquires the content data, since pages of different sizes are mixed, the preprocessing unit 11 performs a process of aligning all pages to the reference size. Since the minimum page is A4 size, this is set as a reference size (step S102 in FIG. 3), and content data normalization processing is performed. The third page has a horizontal size that is three times the reference horizontal size (step S203 in FIG. 4: Yes), and the character composition direction on the third page is horizontal (step S204 in FIG. 4: horizontal). The direction is divided into three, and the third, fourth, and fifth pages are set in order from the left (step S206 in FIG. 4). After normalization, as shown in FIG. 22 (b), the content data has a page size of A4 for all six pages.

  When the processing by the preprocessing unit 11 is completed, the attribute information acquisition process (step S104 in FIG. 3) and the character combination direction information acquisition process (step S105 in FIG. 3) are performed in order, and the number of pages is six pages and the character combination direction is horizontal. And get information. Next, the page continuity determination unit 23 performs a page continuity determination process (step S106 in FIG. 3). For this content data, the context continuity determination unit 23a determines that two pages and three pages, and four pages and five pages are continuous based on the continuity of the contexts (the continuous directions match). Therefore, 2-3-4 is output.)

  FIG. 23 shows a print appearance appearance estimation rule applied to the content data of FIG. In the print finish appearance estimation rule of FIG. 23, the condition is that the number of pages is 6 (tag 531), the text composition direction is horizontal (tag 532), and the printed material is continuously viewed. It is defined that a certain page pair is bde (tag 533).

  The estimation rule selection unit 32 reads the DocumentPageConnection tag after determining that the number of pages and the character composition direction match, and performs matching between the determination result by the page continuity determination unit 23 and the condition defined by the DocumentPageConnection tag. As a result, the condition is satisfied by the combination of b = 3, d = 4, and e = 5, and it is determined that the tri-fold print finish defined by the tag 534 is applicable, and the page layout of 3 to 5 pages is determined. Is done. For the remaining pages, as described above, empty pages are fitted in alphabetical order from the top of the page number of the content data. As a result, the page layout is determined for the pages 1, 2, and 6 in correspondence with a = 1, c = 2, and f = 6.

The print finish appearance estimation unit 30 has a finish size width of 210 mm, a finish size length of 297 mm, a finish form of three folds, and a page layout of a = 1, b = 3, c = 2, d = 4, and e = 5. , F = 6 including the information of f = 6 is output to the print job definition data evaluation unit 7.
FIG. 24 shows a printed matter to which the print finish appearance as an estimation result is applied. The printed matter shown in FIG. 24 has a final size A4 with three folds and a total of six pages. The title is displayed on the cover page, and the page fold is fully expanded. The character string “Aiueo” included in pages 3 and 4 of the content data and the characters “Kakikakeko” included in pages 4 and 5 are displayed. The column is displayed on the inner surface formed by connecting three pages, and can be browsed continuously.

  As described above, if configured as in the present embodiment, the content data acquired by the content data acquisition unit 1 is analyzed by the content data analysis unit 10, and the print finish appearance is estimated based on the analysis result. Judgment of consistency with the print finish specified by the print job definition data, and in case of inconsistency, a warning is output to the user and an appropriate print finish is selected to ensure the correct print finish Content data can be printed in style. Further, in the analysis of content data, by analyzing the continuity of the content, it is possible to reproduce the print finish appearance including page folding based on the content data arranged in a centralized manner.

  In the above embodiment, the content data acquisition unit 1 corresponds to the content data acquisition unit of form 1, and the print finish appearance estimation unit 30 corresponds to the print finish appearance estimation unit of forms 1 to 5 and forms 7 to 9. The print job definition data acquisition unit 6 corresponds to the print job definition data acquisition unit of the form 1, the print job definition data evaluation unit 7 corresponds to the print job definition data evaluation unit of the form 2, and the print job definition data generation unit 91. Corresponds to the print job definition data generation means of form 2. In addition, the attribute information acquisition unit 13 corresponds to the attribute information acquisition unit of the form 4, the character combination direction information acquisition unit 22 corresponds to the character combination direction information acquisition unit of the form 5, and the page continuity determination unit 23 includes the forms 7 to 7. 9, the context continuity determination unit 23 a corresponds to a context continuity determination unit of form 8, and the image continuity determination unit 23 b corresponds to an image continuity determination unit of form 9.

  Further, the content data acquisition process by the content data acquisition unit 1 corresponds to the content data acquisition step of modes 10 and 19, and the processing by the print finish appearance estimation unit 30 is mode 10 to mode 14, mode 16 to mode 18, and mode. The processing by the print job definition data acquisition unit 6 corresponds to the print job definition data acquisition step of modes 10 and 19, and corresponds to the print job definition data acquisition step of modes 10 and 19. The process by the evaluation unit 7 corresponds to the print job definition data evaluation step of the form 11 and form 20, and the process by the print job definition data generation part 91 corresponds to the print job definition data generation process of the form 11 and form 20. Also, the attribute information acquisition process of step S104 shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 corresponds to the attribute information acquisition step of form 13 and form 22, and the character combination direction information acquisition process of step S105 of FIG. 3 is the character of form 14 and form 23. The page continuity determination process in step S106 corresponds to the page continuity determination step in forms 16 to 18 and forms 25 to 27, and the process by the context continuity determination unit 23a corresponds to the form 17 and form. 26 corresponds to the context continuity determination step 26, and the processing by the image continuity determination unit 23b corresponds to the image continuity determination step of the form 18 and form 27.

(Modification)
The application of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment.
FIG. 25 shows another output example on the screen of the display device 107. A screen G2 in FIG. 25 displays the estimated print finish appearance and the print finish appearance designated by the print job definition data side by side, and displays that printing is to be stopped. In this case, the process ends without printing the content data. As a result, it is possible to prevent printing from being executed with an inappropriate print finish. Alternatively, after displaying the warning, the host terminal 100 may forcibly set one of the two print finishes or another appropriate print finish to execute printing. In addition, in FIG. 12 and FIG. 25, only the print finish appearance is displayed on the screen as characters, but the print finish appearance may be displayed as an image so that the user can easily understand. Further, when there are a plurality of estimated print finishes, a plurality may be displayed as selection candidates. The user interface for outputting the warning is not limited to the display device 107, and the warning may be output by voice using a speaker or the like.

Further, for example, the content data is not limited to data described in a page description language. For example, when image data such as JPEG or TIFF format is input as content data, the page is determined from the size of the image data (vertical and horizontal pixel count) and resolution information (such as 300 dpi) described in the header section. A process of calculating the size may be included.
For example, the host terminal 100 may be configured to include only the page continuity determination unit 23 without including the character composition direction information acquisition unit 22 in the content continuity analysis unit 20. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 20, if the image data is content data described across a plurality of pages, the page continuity determination unit 23 determines the image continuity direction (left page to right page). Or the like, the folding position can also be determined. Similarly, the folding position (binding position) can be determined even without the page continuity determination unit 23 and only the text composition direction information acquisition unit 22, for example, content data as shown in FIG. Can be estimated. Further, the page continuity determination unit 23 may be configured by either the context continuity determination unit 23a or the image continuity determination unit 23b.

  In addition, in the case where the character combination direction information is not included in the content data, a character combination direction determination unit that determines the character combination direction based on the content data may be added to the host terminal 100. Specifically, as described above, the character combination direction determining unit acquires the character combination direction information when the content data includes character combination direction information, and sends the character combination direction information to the character combination direction information acquisition unit 22. Output. In addition, if the content data does not include character composition direction information and character codes and positions to be arranged are described in character units, character composition is determined from the positional relationship between characters that are continuously rendered by successive character rendering commands. Determine the direction. In addition, the character code drawn by the continuous character drawing command is further parsed and it is confirmed that these characters are continuous characters constituting the character string, thereby ensuring the determination of the character composition direction. be able to.

(A) is a figure which shows the structure of the printing assistance system concerning a present Example, (b) is a figure which shows the structure of a printing system. It is a figure which shows the functional block of a content data analysis part and a print finish appearance estimation part. It is a flowchart which shows the process of a content data analysis part. It is a flowchart of a content data normalization process. It is a figure which shows the data structure of a print finish appearance estimation rule. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of information included in print job definition data. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of a host terminal. It is a figure which shows the flow of the whole printing assistance system. (A) is a figure which shows an example of content data, (b) is a figure which shows normalized content data. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a print finish appearance of the content data in FIG. It is a figure which shows the printed matter of the content data of Fig.9 (a). It is a figure which shows the example of an output to the screen of a display apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of a print finish appearance estimation rule. It is a figure which shows an example of a print finish appearance estimation rule. It is a figure which shows an example of content data. It is a printed matter of the content data of FIG. It is a figure which shows the print finish appearance estimation rule which prescribes | regulates the print finish appearance of FIG. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the identification symbol of each page, and page arrangement | positioning. It is a figure which shows the example of an output of a printed finishing style. It is a figure which shows an example of content data. It is a figure which shows the printed matter of the content data of FIG. (A) A figure which shows an example of content data, (b) is a figure which shows normalized content data. It is a figure which shows the print finish appearance estimation rule applied to the content data of Fig.22 (a). It is a figure which shows the printed matter of the content data of Fig.22 (a). It is a figure which shows the other output example to the screen of a display apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Content data acquisition part, 6 Print job definition data acquisition part, 7 Print job definition data evaluation part, 8 User interface part, 10 Content data analysis part, 11 Pre-processing part, 12 Content data holding part, 13 Attribute information acquisition part, 20 content continuity analysis unit, 22 character composition direction information acquisition unit, 23 page continuity determination unit, 23a context continuity determination unit, 23b image continuity determination unit, 30 print finish appearance estimation unit, 31 estimation rule storage unit, 32 Estimated rule selection unit, 91 print job definition data generation unit, 92 printing device, 100 host terminal, 105 input device, 106 storage device, 107 display device, 109 bus, 199 network, B1-B3 selection button, G1-G2 Screen

Claims (11)

A print support system that supports printing of content data in a print finish according to the content data,
Based on content data acquisition means for acquiring the content data, print job definition data acquisition means for acquiring print job definition data including a print finish appearance of the content data, and content data acquired by the content data acquisition means, A print finish appearance estimation means for estimating a print finish appearance of the content data; a print finish appearance included in the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition means; and a print finish appearance estimated by the print finish appearance estimation means. And a print job definition data evaluation unit that outputs a warning via a user interface when it is determined that the two printed finishes are inconsistent. . When the print job definition data evaluation unit determines that the two print finishes are inconsistent, the print job definition data evaluation unit outputs the two print finishes as selection candidates via the user interface;
2. A print job definition data generation unit configured to generate print job definition data including a print finish appearance of any one of the selection candidates input as a selection result via the user interface. Printing support system described in 1.   3. The print finish appearance estimation unit according to claim 1, wherein the print finish appearance estimation unit estimates a print finish appearance of the content data based on content continuity in the content data acquired by the content data acquisition unit. Printing support system. Attribute information acquisition means for acquiring attribute information of the content data including at least the number of pages of the content data based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition means;
The print finish appearance estimation unit further refers to the attribute information acquired by the attribute information acquisition unit, and includes at least the page layout of the printed material and the correspondence relationship between the page of the printed material and the page of the content data The print support system according to claim 3, wherein the print finish appearance is estimated. Character composition direction information acquisition means for acquiring character composition direction information which is a continuous direction of characters in the content data page,
5. The print finish appearance estimation means estimates the print finish appearance of the content data including the binding position based on the character combination direction information acquired by the character combination direction information acquisition means. Printing support system described in 1. Based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition means, comprising character combination direction determination means for determining the character combination direction from the relationship of arrangement positions of consecutive characters included in the content data;
The printing support system according to claim 5, wherein the character combination direction information acquisition unit acquires a determination result by the character combination direction determination unit as the character combination direction information. A page continuity determining means for determining a page pair in which the content is continuous among the plurality of pages of the content data;
The print finish appearance estimation means estimates a print finish appearance that allows a page pair determined to be in a continuous relationship by the page continuity determination means to be continuously viewed in a printed matter as a print finish appearance of the content data The printing support system according to claim 3, wherein the printing support system is a printing support system.   The page continuity determination means includes a context continuity determination unit that determines that the character strings described in a plurality of pages of the content data have a context-continuous relationship, and the contexts have a continuous relationship. The print support system according to claim 7, wherein the page pair is determined as a page pair in which the content is continuous.   The page continuity determination unit includes an image continuity determination unit that determines that images described in a plurality of pages of the content data are images of a continuous region of the same image, and the image of the continuous region The print support system according to claim 7, wherein the page pair determined to be a page pair in which the content is in a continuous relationship is determined. A print support program for supporting printing of content data in a print finish according to the content data,
Based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition step of acquiring the content data, the print job definition data acquiring step of acquiring the print job definition data including the print finish appearance of the content data, and the content data acquiring step, A print finish appearance estimation step for estimating a print finish appearance of the content data; a print finish appearance included in the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition step; and a print finish appearance estimated by the print finish appearance estimation step. A print job definition data evaluation step for outputting a warning via the user interface when it is determined that the two printed finishes are inconsistent. Printing support program characterized by including a program for causing the row. A print support method for supporting printing of content data in a print finish according to the content data,
Based on the content data acquired by the content data acquisition step of acquiring the content data, the print job definition data acquiring step of acquiring the print job definition data including the print finish appearance of the content data, and the content data acquiring step, A print finish appearance estimation step for estimating a print finish appearance of the content data; a print finish appearance included in the print job definition data acquired by the print job definition data acquisition step; and a print finish appearance estimated by the print finish appearance estimation step. A print job definition data evaluation step for outputting a warning via a user interface when it is determined that the two printed finishes are inconsistent. Method.

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