JP2009009306A - Printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the following problem: there are a method for judging whether or not any color is present in a page by rendering data units and a method for judging whether or not any color element is present for a bit map for pages after rendering as a color/monochrome automatic discrimination processing in a conventional manner, however the methods have problem with accuracy. <P>SOLUTION: This printing system is configured to judge whether or not any CMY element is present in a CMYK bit map for pages created by using the color conversion of base color removal in which any CMY element is not generated as for input gray plotting data, and to, when any CMY element is not present, perform monochrome printing by using K elements, and to, when the CMY element is present, recreate a CMYK bit map for pages using color conversion based on UI designation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly to a control method and apparatus for automatically determining a color processing mode to be output by a printing apparatus.

  Conventionally, when a user prints with a printing apparatus, an automatic switching function between color printing and monochrome printing has been realized, which eliminates the need to be aware of printer driver settings and whether the printed matter is color or monochrome.

  This function is used to achieve the optimal running cost and print speed for print data. There are two main methods.

One is to determine whether each drawing object is color data (chromatic color) or monochrome data (achromatic color). If only monochrome drawing data exists in the page, monochrome printing is performed. If there is any color drawing data, color printing is performed. (For example, Patent Document 1)
The other is to create a bitmap by rendering the input drawing data, search for the presence or absence of color information (chromatic color) in the bitmap for one page, and if there is color information Color printing is performed. This method is represented by color / monochrome automatic discrimination (ACS: auto color selection) for bitmap data scanned by a copying machine, but is also used for a bitmap after rendering in a printing apparatus.
JP 2001-084245 A

  In general, a printing apparatus generates printed matter using CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) ink or toner. Here, monochrome printing means output expressed only by K (black) color, but both of the two methods have problems in accuracy. The accuracy is particularly important when the charge amount differs between color printing and monochrome printing.

  In the case of the method of determining whether color printing or monochrome printing is performed for each drawing object input in the former, and specifying color printing or monochrome printing depending on whether at least one color data exists in the page, it is only on top of the color drawing data. If the monochrome drawing data is obscured, it is regarded as color printing regardless of whether it is output only in K color.

  The above problem can be solved by scanning the rendered bitmap data, which is the latter technique, and determining whether color information exists. However, input drawing data is generally expressed in RGB (red, green, blue), and monochrome drawing data is expressed by taking the value of R = G = B. However, when printing with a printing device, CMYK Converted to a CMYK bitmap. Furthermore, for high-quality color printing, bitmap data is created using all CMYK data, even monochrome drawing data. Even if only K (black) is used for such a bitmap, color information such as CMY is found and color printing is performed. In other words, even if there is only monochrome drawing data for the page, there is a case where color printing is performed, which reduces the accuracy of color / monochrome discrimination.

  The printing system according to the present invention is a printing system including a printing device and a host device that generates print data and transmits the print data to the printing device. The host device receives drawing data from an application or an OS, and In a driver process that creates a monochrome bitmap or creates a CMYK bitmap and sends it to the printing device, spool means for storing the drawing data as intermediate spool data for one page, and a CMYK bitmap from the intermediate spool data A first CMYK bitmap creating means to create, a color data scanning means for scanning the CMYK bitmap created by the first CMYK bitmap creating means for an element in CMY, and the color data scanning If the CMY element does not exist, the monochrome bit from the K element A monochrome bitmap extraction means for extracting a map, and a CMYK bitmap creation means for creating a CMYK bitmap from the intermediate spool data when a CMY element is present in the color data scanning means; The first CMYK bitmap creation means performs complete undercolor removal, and the second CMYK bitmap creation means creates a CMYK bitmap by color processing according to user settings.

  Further, the complete undercolor removal is a CMYK bitmap in which no CMY element is generated when RGB drawing data shows an achromatic color.

  According to the present invention, the accuracy of color / monochrome automatic switching can be improved, and color / monochrome automatic switching can be realized by slight changes to the color printing system.

Example 1
Embodiment 1 according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  1 and 2 are block diagrams showing an example of the configuration of an information processing system to which a printing system according to the present invention is applied. Unless otherwise specified, as long as the functions of the present invention are executed, a single function or a system composed of a plurality of devices can be connected via a network such as a LAN or WAN. The present invention can be applied even to a system in which processing is performed.

  FIG. 1 shows a block configuration diagram of a system using a general computer. The CPU 101 controls the entire apparatus according to a program stored in the ROM 102, the RAM 103, or the storage device 105. The RAM 103 is also used as a work area when the CPU 101 performs various processes. The storage device 105 records an operating system (OS) 115, application software 112, and the like. In addition, a printing related program 113 and a printer driver 114 for performing printing processing are also stored here. Input devices such as a keyboard and a mouse are devices for the user to give various instructions to the computer through the input I / F 104. The output I / F 106 is an interface for outputting data to the outside, and outputs data to a monitor or a printer. The printing apparatus 111 may be connected not only through local I / O but also through a network. Reference numeral 107 denotes a common data bus for exchanging data.

  FIG. 2 shows a print processing system using a general computer. The user uses the input I / F 104 such as a keyboard or a mouse to execute a printing process for the document 201 created using the application program 112 displayed on the monitor 110 connected to the output I / F 106. The printing process is executed by sequentially performing three processes: printer selection, print setting creation, drawing data conversion, and so on. First, as a printer selection, the printer driver 114 corresponding to the printer that executes printing is selected. Next, print settings are created. The print setting 204 of the document is initially created by the user interface processing unit 206 of the printer driver, and the print setting is changed to the final print result desired by the user using the application or the user interface processing unit 206 of the printer driver. To set. For example, the print mode is set to color or monochrome / color / monochrome automatic switching setting. There are two types of data formats for storing print settings, one is a data structure in binary data format called DEVMODE, and the other is text data in markup language XML format using tags called print tickets. is there. This form differs depending on the specifications of the printer driver and operating system. Finally, the drawing data 203 is converted. When the creation of the print setting 204 is completed, the print process is executed by the user, and the print process is notified to the operating system. The operating system performs drawing on the designated printer driver 114 through the graphics engine 205. The printer driver 114 to which the drawing data is sent is converted by the drawing data processing unit 207 into a data language that can be understood by the printer, that is, a printer control language. In the first embodiment, a color CMYK bitmap or a monochrome bitmap is created by the drawing data processing unit, and a printer control language is created based on the bitmap. At this time, the print setting 204 is also converted as a printer control language. Both the user interface processing unit 205 and the drawing data processing unit 207 are often modules that are common to a plurality of types of printing apparatuses 111, and differences between models are described in the model-dependent data file 208. The user interface processing unit 206 and the drawing data processing unit 207 refer to the model-dependent data file 208 as appropriate. The converted data is transferred to a print manager 209 that performs print job schedule management, and is sequentially stored as a spool file. When the printer is ready for printing, the print manager 209 transmits print job data to the printing apparatus 111 via the I / O module 210. In this way, the print data from the application is converted into the printer control language and printing is performed.

  FIG. 3 shows processing and data transition when creating a CMYK bitmap in the drawing data processing unit 207 constituting the present invention.

  The page intermediate data generation unit 301 converts the drawing data 203 delivered from the application or OS to intermediate data as needed and stores it as page intermediate data 302. At this time, since normal drawing data 203 is transferred in RGB (red, green, blue), in the first embodiment, page intermediate data is also converted as RGB data. When all the drawing data 203 existing in the page is stored in the page intermediate data (RGB) 302, the processing of the page intermediate data generation unit 301 is completed, and the rendering processing unit 303 is called to perform bitmap expansion processing. In the first embodiment, there are three types of bitmaps generated by the rendering processing unit 303. They are RGB multilevel bitmap, CMYK multilevel bitmap, and CMYK halftone bitmap. Which of these is generated is determined according to the designation of the user interface processing unit 206 of the printer driver 114.

  Here, the multi-level bitmap means a bitmap composed of data having a depth of 8 bits or 16 bits for each color, for example, and the halftone bitmap is a dithering or error for multi-level data. There are 1-bit, 2-bit, and 4-bit colors for each color in a bitmap composed of halftone data subjected to halftone processing such as diffusion.

  In a mode for generating an RGB multilevel bitmap, the color conversion processing unit 304 converts the RGB multilevel data into CMYK multilevel data and creates a CMYK multilevel bitmap, and then a halftone processing unit 305. Generates a CMYK halftone bitmap by performing halftone processing at.

  In the mode for generating a CMYK multilevel bitmap, the rendering processing unit 303 creates a CMYK multilevel bitmap while converting the RGB multilevel data of the page intermediate data 302 into CMYK multilevel data, and the bitmap is halftone. The processing unit 306 performs halftone processing to generate a CMYK halftone bitmap.

  In the mode for generating a CMYK halftone bitmap, the rendering processing unit 303 converts the RGB multilevel data of the page intermediate data 302 into CMYK multilevel data, and generates a CMYK halftone bitmap while performing halftone processing.

  At this time, it is not always necessary to generate or convert the bitmap of the entire page at once. For example, bitmap generation or conversion processing is performed for each band, or bitmap generation or conversion processing is performed for each scan line. You can also

  FIG. 4 shows an example of the page intermediate data 302 generated by the page intermediate data generation unit 301 of FIG. 3 constituting the present invention. The page intermediate data 302 may be stored in the RAM 103 or may be stored in a storage device 105 such as an HD drive in a file format. In FIG. 4, [character command], [rectangular drawing command], and the like are described, but these are marks for easy understanding of internal data, and are actually stored in a binary format. . The page intermediate data 307 is updated every time the page intermediate data generation unit 301 receives the drawing data 203, and is deleted after the rendering processing unit (303) generates a bitmap for the page from the page intermediate data 302. The

  FIG. 5 is a diagram that best represents the configuration including the present invention, and illustrates a configuration diagram of the drawing data processing unit 207 of the printer driver 114 according to the first exemplary embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2, when the drawing data 203 is transferred from the application 112 to the drawing data processing unit 207 of the printer driver 114, the page intermediate data generation unit 301 changes the page intermediate data 302 to the page intermediate data 302. Repeat the conversion until everything is stored.

  Next, the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502 generates a CMYK bitmap from the page intermediate data 302. As shown in FIG. 3, the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502 includes a rendering processing unit 303, a color conversion processing unit 304, a halftone processing unit 305/306, and the like. As described with reference to FIG. Although a flow exists, the result is a CMYK halftone bitmap. Since the difference in processing flow does not affect the present invention, the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502 is used here.

  Regarding color processing for converting RGB multilevel data into CMYK multilevel data in the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502, the color processing specification unit 501 specifies the processing content. Although the processing content designated by the user in the user interface processing unit 206 of the printer driver 114 is transmitted to the drawing data processing unit 207, the processing designated by the color processing designation unit 501 is completely undercolor removal. It is processing to do. Specifically, when converting RGB multi-value data to CMYK multi-value data, if the RGB value represents Gray such as R = G = B, only K multi-value data after color conversion It represents something like Gray. This process is generally called UCR (Under Color Removal) or GCR (Gray-Component Replacement). The former removes the CMY component from the black part, and the latter removes the CMY component from the gray part. Here, K (black) is substituted, but here, when the input is Gray, the representation with only the K component is the undercolor removal.

  The color data scan processing unit 503 determines whether a CMY element exists even in one pixel while scanning the bitmap with respect to the bitmap from which the undercolor is removed generated by the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502. This scanning method will be described later.

  When there is no CMY element in the CMYK bitmap for the page in the color data scan processing unit 503, the monochrome bitmap extraction unit 504 creates a monochrome bitmap from the CMYK bitmap. A method for generating this monochrome bitmap will be described later.

  If even one CMY element exists in the CMYK bitmap for the page in the color data scan processing unit 503, the CMYK bitmap generated earlier is deleted, and the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502 again converts the CMYK bitmap into a CMYK bitmap. Generate. Regarding color processing for converting RGB multi-value data into CMYK multi-value data in the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502 at this time, the color processing designation unit 501 designates the processing contents. The user interface processing unit 206 of the driver 114 specifies color conversion processing based on the processing content specified by the user, and generates a CMYK bitmap.

  As described above, a color bitmap or a monochrome bitmap is generated by the determination in the color data scan processing unit 503. These bitmaps are suitable for the printer control language of the printing apparatus in the device command generation unit 505. In this way, compression of the bitmap, addition of a command header and the like are performed, and the printer control language data is passed to the print manager 209 described with reference to FIG. .

  If there are a plurality of print data pages, the above process is repeated for each page.

  FIG. 6 clearly shows the flow of each processing unit and the data generated by each processing unit in order to make the configuration diagram of the drawing data processing unit 207 of FIG. 5 easier to understand.

  Here, the CMYK bitmap generation unit (under color removal) 601 designates the color conversion processing that the color processing designation unit 501 in FIG. 5 removes under color, and the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502 removes the under color based on it. It combines the process of generating a bitmap. The CMYK bitmap generated there is set as a CMYK bitmap (under color removal) 602.

  Also, the CMYK bitmap generation unit (user-set color processing) 604 is a color processing specification unit 501 in FIG. 5 that specifies color conversion processing based on the processing content specified by the user in the user interface processing unit 206 of the printer driver 114. Based on this, processing for generating a CMYK bitmap by the CMYK bitmap generation unit 502 is combined. The CMYK bitmap generated there is set as a CMYK bitmap (color processing setting) 605.

  As in the processing flow, the drawing data 203 is converted into the page intermediate data 302 by the page intermediate data generation unit 301 as in FIG. The page intermediate data 302 is converted into a CMYK bitmap (under color removal) 602 by a CMYK bitmap generation unit (under color removal) 601. The CMYK bitmap (under color removal) 602 is scanned by the color data scan processing unit 503, and when no CMY element exists, the monochrome bitmap extraction unit 504 generates the monochrome bitmap 603.

  If the CMYK bitmap (under color removal) 602 is scanned by the color data scan processing unit 503 and there is even one CMY element, the CMYK bitmap generation unit (user setting color processing) 604 performs the CMYK bitmap (color setting). Processing setting) 605 is generated.

  The monochrome bitmap 603 and the CMYK bitmap (color processing setting) 605 generated here are generated by the device command generation unit 505 as a device bitmap command 606 and printed by the printing apparatus 111.

  FIG. 7 shows an example of a CMYK bitmap in the first embodiment, a CMY element, and a method for extracting a monochrome bitmap from the CMYK bitmap.

  Reference numeral 701 denotes the format of one scan line of the CMYK bitmap. Since each color is handled as 2 bits, one of the colors 0, 1, 2, and 3 is taken, 0 is no color element, and 1 to 3 are darker as they become larger. As other printing modes, there are modes that handle 1 bit or 4 bits per pixel for each color, and the same applies even if each color (0 to 1) and (0 to 15) is taken.

  In addition, this time, the memory arrangement (plane) that is continuous for one scan line for each color in the memory will be described, but each color element is in units of pixels such as CMYK, CMYK, CMYK, etc. for each pixel. Even if it exists, it can be regarded as in the case of the plane.

  Scanning of the CMY element in the color data scan processing unit 503 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is to check whether the C plane, M plane, and Y plane are all 0. Is to do. Specifically, the scan line 701 has a CMY element, and the scan line 702 has no CMY element.

  The method for extracting the monochrome bitmap 603 from the CMYK bitmap 602 in the monochrome bitmap extraction unit 504 shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 may use only the bitmap of the K plane.

  The fact that there is no CMY element in the page in the color data scan processing unit 503 means that the C plane, the M plane, and the Y plane are 0 so that all the scan lines in the page are 702, and the K plane Means that only the colors are used for printing. That is, by using the K plane values for the scan lines of the monochrome bitmap for each scan line and collecting them for the pages, the monochrome bitmap 703 for the pages is established.

  The printing system according to the present invention is programmed based on the flowchart shown in FIG. Hereinafter, a description will be given with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  When a print start is issued from the application 112 or the OS, and a page start instruction is transmitted to the drawing data processing unit 207 of the printer driver 114, the drawing data processing unit 207 initializes page intermediate data (S801). Specifically, the memory is secured based on the page size, or is deleted when the page intermediate data of the previous page remains in the memory. Thereafter, input drawing data issued from the application 112 or the OS is acquired (S802), converted into intermediate data sequentially, and stored in the page intermediate data (S803). When all the input drawing data in the page has been stored in the intermediate page data (S804), bitmap development is performed based on the intermediate page data, but the input data RGB is converted to the print output format CMYK. If the color processing setting for this is background removal and the input is Gray data, only the K element is generated as the output (S805). Thereafter, bitmap development, RGB → CMYK color conversion processing, halftone processing, etc. are performed to create a CMYK bitmap (S806).

  Next, the CMYK bitmap of the created CMYK bitmap is searched (S807), and it is determined whether a CMY element exists in the CMYK bitmap of the entire page (S808). If no CMY element exists, a monochrome bitmap is created from the K element of the CMYK bitmap (S809). If a CMY element exists, the searched CMYK bitmap is deleted (S810), and the middle of the page created in S803 Data is acquired (S811), and bitmap expansion is performed again based on the page intermediate data. Here, the color processing setting for converting the input data RGB into the print output format CMYK is set by the user in the user interface processing unit 206 of the printer driver 114 (S812). A CMYK bitmap is generated from the intermediate data (S813).

  The monochrome bitmap created in S809 and the CMYK bitmap created in S813 are converted into a device bitmap in a form suitable for the printing description language of the printing apparatus (S814), and data is sent to the printing apparatus together with the printer command.

  Thus, the processing of the printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention is completed.

(Example 2)
The bitmap generated by the CMYK bitmap generation unit in the present invention does not need to be a CMYK bitmap of the entire page at a time, and is processed at a certain height unit using banding to increase the speed. Can be planned.

  Specifically, the CMYK bitmap generation unit (under color removal) 601 in FIG. 6 generates a band CMYK bitmap (under color removal) 602 for a certain height from the page intermediate data 302, and the color data scan processing unit 503. The CMY element of the band CMYK bitmap 602 is scanned at. If the CMY element does not exist, the monochrome bitmap extraction unit 504 creates and stores the band monochrome bitmap 603, and then the CMYK bit generation unit (under color removal) 601 for the next band uses the next band CMYK bitmap ( Under color removal) 602 is generated.

  If there is a CMY element in the band CMYK bitmap 602, the monochrome bitmap 603 of the previous band created and stored by the CMYK bitmap (under color removal) or the monochrome bitmap extraction unit 504 at that time is deleted. The CMYK bitmap generation unit (user-set color processing) 604 is created up to the end of the page in units of bands, so that the description in the first embodiment is similarly established.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a system using a general computer of an information processing system to which a printing system according to the present invention is applied. FIG. 2 shows a print processing system using a general computer. FIG. 3 shows processing and data transition when creating a CMYK bitmap in the drawing data processing unit constituting the present invention. FIG. 4 shows an example of page intermediate data generated by the page intermediate data generation unit of FIG. 3 constituting the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram illustrating a drawing data processing unit of the printer driver according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 clearly shows the flow of each processing unit and the data generated by each processing unit in order to make the configuration diagram of the drawing data processing unit of FIG. 5 easier to understand. FIG. 7 shows an example of a CMYK bitmap in the first embodiment, a CMY element, and a method for extracting a monochrome bitmap from the CMYK bitmap. FIG. 8 shows a flowchart in which the printing system according to the present invention is programmed.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 111 Printing apparatus 112 Application 114 Printer driver 203 Input drawing data 206 User interface processing part 207 Drawing data processing part 301 Page intermediate data generation part 302 Page intermediate data 303 Rendering processing part 304 Color conversion processing part 501 Color processing designation part 502 CMYK bitmap Generation unit 503 Color data scan processing unit 504 Monochrome bitmap extraction unit 601 CMYK bitmap generation unit (under color removal)
604 CMYK bitmap generation unit (user-set color processing)

Claims (3)

A printing system comprising a printing device and a host device that generates print data and transmits it to the printing device,
In the driver process where the host device receives drawing data from an application or OS, creates a monochrome bitmap for each page or creates a CMYK bitmap and sends it to the printing device,
Spool means for storing the drawing data as intermediate spool data for one page;
First CMYK bitmap creation means for creating a CMYK bitmap from the intermediate spool data;
Color data scanning means for scanning the CMYK bitmap created by the first CMYK bitmap creating means for an element in CMY; and
When no CMY element exists in the color data scanning means, a monochrome bitmap extraction means for extracting a monochrome bitmap from the K element;
In the case where a CMY element is present in the color data scanning means, it has a second CMYK bitmap creating means for creating a CMYK bitmap from the intermediate spool data,
The first CMYK bitmap creation means performs complete undercolor removal, and the second CMYK bitmap creation means creates a CMYK bitmap by color processing according to user settings. system.   2. The printing system according to claim 1, wherein the complete undercolor removal is a CMYK bitmap in which no CMY element is generated when RGB drawing data indicates an achromatic color. A printing system comprising a printing device and a host device that generates print data and transmits it to the printing device,
In the driver process where the host device receives drawing data from an application or OS, creates a monochrome bitmap for each page or creates a CMYK bitmap and sends it to the printing device,
Spool means for storing the drawing data as intermediate spool data for one page;
A first band CMYK bitmap creating means for creating a band-unit CMYK bitmap from the intermediate spool data;
Color data scanning means for scanning the CMYK bitmap in band units created by the first band CMYK bitmap creating means for the presence of elements in CMY,
When there is no CMY element in the color data scanning means, a band monochrome bitmap extraction and storage means for extracting and storing a monochrome bitmap in band units from the K element; and
In the case where a CMY element is present in the color data scanning means, it has a second CMYK bitmap creating means for creating a CMYK bitmap from the intermediate spool data,
The first band CMYK bitmap creation means performs complete undercolor removal, and the second CMYK bitmap creation means creates a CMYK bitmap by color processing according to user settings. Printing system.

Images