JP2010005793A - Image processor, image forming system, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To rasterize print data and pre-registration data in parallel when printing the print data described by a page description language such as PDF having descriptions (commands of job start and job end, for example) recognized as jobs in the print data with the pre-registration data previously registered. <P>SOLUTION: In a pre-registration data storage part, pre-registration data described by PLW is stored. When processing a print job described by PDF, a PLW decomposer 41 and PDF decomposers 51 and 52 are activated, the pre-registration data described by PLW is rasterized by the PLW decomposer 41, and an image data of each page described by PDF is rasterized by the PDF decomposers 51 and 52. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image forming system, and a program.

  In order to draw print information at a high speed, pre-registration information (for example, form data) registered before print information is printed out of print information that has been drawn in advance is used.

  In Patent Document 1, pre-registration information on which drawing processing has been performed is stored in a temporary storage unit (for example, a cache memory), and when this pre-registration information is used, instead of newly performing drawing processing, A technique for realizing high-speed drawing processing by using pre-registered information that has been subjected to drawing processing stored in a temporary storage unit is disclosed.

  In order to perform printing processing of print information at high speed, drawing processing is performed in parallel by using a plurality of drawing processing means for performing drawing processing.

  In Patent Document 2, printing is performed by activating a plurality of drawing processing units and performing parallel processing in software, or configuring a plurality of drawing processing units as independent circuits and performing parallel processing in hardware. A technique for realizing high-speed rasterization processing of data is disclosed.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-288639 JP-A-11-275276

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus, an image forming system, and a program capable of performing print processing and print registration information in parallel using different drawing processing means.

[Image processing device]
The present invention according to claim 1 includes a first drawing processing means for performing drawing processing of a first page description language;
Second drawing processing means for performing drawing processing of a second page description language different from the first page description language;
Receiving means including pre-registration information described in the second page description language and receiving print information described in the first page description language;
When the print information received by the reception unit is in a page description language different between the print information and the pre-registration information included in the print information, the print information is subjected to a drawing process by the first drawing processing unit. Control means for controlling the pre-registration information to perform drawing processing by the second drawing processing means,
An image processing apparatus comprising: combining means for combining pre-registration information that has been subjected to drawing processing by the second drawing processing means; and print information that has been subjected to drawing processing by the first drawing processing means.

  The present invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that when the print information received by the receiving means is the same page description language for the print information and pre-registration information included in the print information, The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print information and the pre-registration information are controlled to be drawn by the second drawing processing unit.

  The present invention according to claim 3 is the image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the print information is described in a page description language having a description recognized as one job.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the control method according to any one of the first to third aspects, the control unit performs control so that at least one of the second drawing processing unit is activated before the print information is input. The image processing apparatus according to item 1.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, when the control means finishes drawing processing of print information described in the second page description language, at least one of the plurality of second drawing processing means. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second drawing process is stopped and the first drawing processing unit is changed to the first drawing processing unit.

[Image forming system]
According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a first drawing processing means for performing a drawing process of a first page description language, and a drawing process of a second page description language different from the first page description language. Second drawing processing means for performing, receiving means including pre-registration information described in the second page description language, and receiving print information described in the first page description language; and the receiving means When the print information received in step 1 is a page description language different between the print information and the pre-registration information included in the print information, the print information is rendered by the first rendering processing means. Control means for controlling the pre-registration information to perform drawing processing by the second drawing processing means, pre-registration information subjected to drawing processing by the second drawing processing means, And print information drawn processed by one of the drawing processing means, and combining means for combining an image processing apparatus having,
An image forming system comprising: an image output device that outputs an image based on image data processed by the image processing device.

[program]
The present invention according to claim 7 is a receiving step for receiving print information including pre-registration information;
When the print information received in the receiving step is a page description language different between the print information and the pre-registered information included in the print information, the print information is rendered in the first page description language. And a second drawing processing unit for performing a drawing process in a second page description language different from the first page description language. A control step for controlling the drawing processing means to perform drawing processing;
The computer executes a combining step of combining the pre-registration information that has been subjected to the drawing process by the second drawing processing unit by the control step and the print information that has been subjected to the drawing process by the first drawing processing unit. It is a program to make it.

[Image processing device]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the print information and the pre-registration information are different page description languages, the print information and the pre-registration information are drawn in parallel using different drawing processing means. It is possible to provide an image processing apparatus that can

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect obtained by the first aspect of the invention, the print information and the pre-registered information can be drawn in parallel using the same drawing processing means. A processing device can be provided.

  According to the invention of claim 3, in addition to the effect obtained by the invention of claim 1, a page having a description (for example, job start and job end commands) recognized as one job in the print information It is possible to provide an image processing apparatus capable of performing drawing processing using pre-registration information without being recognized as a separate job even for print information described in a description language.

  According to the invention of claim 4, in addition to the effect obtained by the invention of claim 1, the second drawing processing means can be started up faster than when the present configuration is not provided. An image processing apparatus can be provided.

  According to the invention of claim 5, in addition to the effect obtained by the invention of claim 1, the processing efficiency of the first drawing processing means can be improved as compared with the case without this configuration. An image processing apparatus that can be provided can be provided.

[Image forming system]
According to the invention of claim 6, when the print information and the pre-registration information are in different page description languages, the print information and the pre-registration information are drawn in parallel using different drawing processing means. It is possible to provide an image forming system capable of performing the above.

[program]
According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, when the print information and the pre-registration information are different page description languages, the print information and the pre-registration information are drawn in parallel using different drawing processing means. Can be provided.

[background]
First, in order to help understanding of the present invention, its background and outline will be described.

  In order to output print data used as an example of print information including pre-registration information to a printer or the like, rasterization processing is performed as an example of rendering processing that converts print data into raster data. By operating a plurality of decomposers for performing the rasterization process in parallel, the rasterization process of the print data can be realized at high speed. The decomposer is used as an example of a drawing processing unit.

  However, since there are various PDLs (Page Description Language) for describing print data, a decomposer corresponding to the PDL in which the print data is described is required. For example, when the print data is described in PLW (Printer Language for Windows (registered trademark)), a PLW decomposer for rasterizing the PLW data is required, and the print data is described in PDF (Portable Document Format). In this case, a PDF decomposer for rasterizing the PDF data is required.

  Therefore, when pre-registration data (form data) is registered in advance and the print data and pre-registration data are overlaid and printed, the same file format is generally used for the print data and pre-registration data. The The pre-registration data is used as one of the pre-registration information.

  For example, when the print data is described in PLW such as TIFF (Tag Image File Format), the pre-registered data is also described in PLW.

  Therefore, when the print data is PDF data, it is conceivable to use the PDF data as the file format of the pre-registration data.

  However, PDF data includes a description for recognizing a job in the data. Specifically, the PDF data includes commands of job start indicating job start and job end indicating job end. The commands such as job start and job end are commands determined by the PDF specification and cannot be deleted.

  For these reasons, if PDF print data and PDF pre-registration data are to be processed in parallel by a plurality of decomposers, each is recognized as an independent job and cannot be printed on one sheet.

[Embodiment]
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming system includes a preprocessing device 3, a buffer device 4, a printing device 1 that performs printing on continuous paper, a buffer device 5, a post processing device 6, and a controller. 10 and a terminal device 20.

  The pre-processing device 3 is in a state in which continuous paper that has not been printed is wound in a roll shape, and performs pre-processing such as sending the continuous paper to the printing device 1. The post-processing device 6 receives the continuous paper that has been printed by the printing device 1 and performs post-processing such as winding the continuous paper into a roll. The buffer devices 4 and 5 are provided to absorb the difference between the continuous paper conveyance speed in the pre-processing device 3 or the post-processing device 6 and the continuous paper conveyance speed in the printing device 1. The tension is held constant.

  The terminal device 20 generates print data such as a print job and transmits it to the controller 10 via the network. The controller 10 functions as a print control apparatus that controls the printing operation of the printing apparatus 1 based on the print data transmitted from the terminal apparatus 20 and functions as an image processing apparatus that performs image processing on the print data from the terminal apparatus 20. And have. Based on the control by the controller 10, the printing apparatus 1 outputs an image corresponding to the print data image-processed by the controller 10 on continuous paper.

  Next, the hardware configuration of the controller 10 in the image forming system of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 2, the controller 10 according to the present embodiment transmits and receives data to and from the CPU 11, the memory 12, the storage device 13 such as a hard disk drive (HDD), and the terminal device 20 via the network. A communication interface (IF) unit 24, a user interface (UI) device 15 configured by a touch panel and a liquid crystal display, and an engine IF unit 16 that transmits and receives data to and from the printing apparatus 1 are included. These components are connected to each other via a control bus 17.

  The CPU 11 controls the operation of the controller 10 by executing predetermined processing based on a control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13. The control program can be stored in a transportable storage medium such as a CD-ROM and provided to the CPU 11.

  A storage device 13 such as a memory 12 or a hard disk drive (HDD) stores a program for operating the controller 10 to be described later. This program can be stored in a portable medium such as a CD or DVD, and the program can be provided by this medium.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the controller 10 realized by executing the control program.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the controller 10 includes a data input unit 31, a pre-registered data storage unit 32, a decomposer control unit 34, an input image storage unit 35, an output image storage unit 36, and a screen processing unit 37. And a spool data storage unit 38, PLW decomposers 41 and 42, and PDF decomposers 51 and 52. The PLW decomposers 41 and 42 are used as an example of a second drawing processing unit, and the PDF decomposers 51 and 52 are used as an example of a first drawing processing unit.

  In the present embodiment, in order to simplify the description, a case where only two PLW decomposers 41 and 42 and two PDF decomposers 51 and 52 are present will be described. However, the present invention is limited to such a configuration. Is not to be done.

  The data input unit 31 performs processing for receiving print data in a format conforming to PDL input from the terminal device 20 that is a client device.

  The pre-registration data storage unit 32 stores pre-registration data described by PLW. This pre-registration data is data before rasterization processing, that is, multi-value data.

  The input image storage unit 35 inputs and stores print data received by the data input unit 31 and pre-registration data stored in the pre-registration data storage unit 32. When the print data includes pre-registration data, the input image storage unit 35 inputs and stores the pre-registration data. The input image storage unit 35 stores the pre-registration data in advance by another means, and includes only the designation data for designating the pre-registration data in the print data. Alternatively, the pre-registration data corresponding to the designated data may be read from 35 and input to the input image storage unit 35.

  The PLW decomposers 41 and 42 perform rasterization processing (image development processing) of print data described in PLW. The PDF decomposers 51 and 52 function as rasterization processing means for performing rasterization processing of print data described in PDF. Raster image processing (RIP) means processing for converting print data described in a page description language such as PLW or PDF into image data in a raster format. In raster format image data, an image is divided into many fine points (pixels) in a grid pattern, and the color and density of the points are expressed numerically using a color system such as RGB or YMCK. Say what you did.

  The decomposer control unit 34 analyzes the print data input to the data input unit 31, and controls the start and stop of the PLW decomposers 41 and 42 and the PDF decomposers 51 and 52 based on the analysis result, thereby saving the input image. Data conversion processing of print data stored in the unit 35 is executed. The decomposer control unit 34 controls the print data to be rasterized by the PDF decomposers 51 and 52 and controls the pre-registered data to be rasterized by the PLW decomposers 41 and 42.

  Since the decomposer uses hardware resources such as a memory, if the number of activations that simultaneously activate the decomposer is increased, there is a problem that the memory capacity or the like is not sufficient and the processing speed is reduced. For this reason, the decomposer control unit 34 determines the type of decomposer to be activated and the number of activations of the decomposer according to the processing load of the print job, the amount of pre-registered data, the memory capacity, the time margin for which the rasterizing process must be completed, To decide.

  The output image storage unit 36 stores print data and preprint form data after data conversion by the PLW decomposers 41 and 42 and the PDF decomposers 51 and 52. The output image storage unit 36 is used as an example of a synthesis unit. In the present embodiment, the preprint form data rasterized by the PLW decomposers 41 and 42 is temporarily stored in the cache memory in the output image storage unit 36, and the temporarily stored preprint form is stored in the output image storage unit 36. By reusing it for other pages, the rasterizing process is omitted, and this speeding up of the rasterizing process is achieved.

  The screen processing unit 37 binarizes the multi-value image data for each color of CMYK stored in the output image storage unit 36 to convert it into CMYK binary image data and store it in the spool data storage unit 38.

  The spool data storage unit 38 is a storage unit for spooling print image data to be transmitted to the printing apparatus 1 until necessary timing. The print image data stored in the spool data storage unit 38 is sequentially transmitted to the printing apparatus 1.

  Next, the operation of the controller 10 in the image forming system of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  Before that, the structure of PDF data will be described with reference to FIG. The PDF data used as print information includes a job start command 81 and a job end command 82 for recognizing the beginning and end of a print job, as well as print data for each page to be printed.

  When the PDF decomposers 51 and 52 recognize the job start command 81, the PDF decomposers 51 and 52 execute various processes for rasterizing the PDF data, and when the job end command 82 is recognized, the PDF decomposers 51 and 52 determine that the print job is finished.

  In the following description, a case where an image as shown in FIG. 5 is printed using PDF data as shown in FIG. 4 will be described. The image shown in FIG. 5 shows the image of the first page of a print job composed of a plurality of pages. As shown in FIG. 6B, the PDF data shown in FIG. It is composed by overlaying various background images. The background image of FIG. 6B is generated by arranging pre-registration data as shown in FIG. 6C in a plurality of images. The pre-registration data is used as an example of pre-registration information.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the controller 10 in the image forming system of the present embodiment.
When the data input unit 31 receives a print job from the terminal device 20, the decomposer control unit 34 analyzes the input print job (step S101). Then, it is determined whether or not the attribute of the print job is PDF (step S102).

  If it is determined in step S102 that the print job attribute is not PDF, that is, if the print job attribute is determined to be PLW, the decomposer control unit 34 activates the PLW decomposers 41 and 42 ( In step S103, a pre-registered sheet and print data of each page are rasterized (step S104). As an example of the case where the page description language of the print information and the page description language of the pre-registration information are the same, a case where it is determined that the attribute of the print job is not PDF is used.

  If it is determined in step S102 that the attribute of the print job is PDF, the decomposer control unit 34 activates the PLW decomposer and the PDF decomposer (steps S105 and S106). Here, as shown in FIG. 8, the decomposer control unit 34 activates the PLW decomposer 41 to rasterize the pre-registered data, and activates the PDF decomposers 51 and 52 to rasterize the print data of each page. It shall be. As an example of the case where the page description language of the print information is different from the page description language of the pre-registration information, a case where the print job attribute is determined to be PDF is used.

  Then, the pre-registration data stored in the input image storage unit 35 and the print data of each page are distributed to the PLW decomposer 41 or the PDF decomposers 51 and 52 according to the page attributes (step S107), and the PLW decomposer 41, PDF. Rasterization processing is executed by the decomposers 51 and 52, respectively, and stored in the output image storage unit 36 (step S108).

  In the example shown in FIG. 8, the blank image data and the pre-registered data are rasterized by the PLW decomposer 41, the odd page PDF data is rasterized by the PDF decomposer 51, and the even page PDF data is PDF. A case where rasterization processing is executed by the decomposer 52 is shown.

  Here, the blank image data refers to image data used to fill an area to which a print image has not been allocated when performing double-sided printing or printing that consolidates images for a plurality of pages into one page. It is.

  In the above description, the decomposer control unit 34 activates the PLW decomposers 41 and 42 after the print data to be processed is input. However, the decomposer control unit 34 receives the print data data to be processed. At least one of the PLW decomposers 41 and 42 may be activated in advance.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the decomposer control unit 34 may activate at least one PLW decomposer 41 in advance and make it resident.

  Further, when the number of starters of the decomposer is limited, the decomposer control unit 34 may stop the PLW decomposer and increase the number of starts of the PDF decomposer when the rasterizing process by the PLW decomposer is completed. Good.

  For example, when the number of starters of the decomposer is limited to two, as shown in FIG. 10, the PLW decomposer 41 and the PDF decomposer 51 are started and rasterization processing of blank paper and pre-registered data is executed by the PLW decomposer 41. The case where the print data of each page is executed by the PDF decomposer 51 will be described.

  In such a case, when the rasterizing process of blank paper or pre-registered data ends, the decomposer control unit 34 causes the PLW decomposer 41 to stop and newly activates the PDF decomposer 52, as shown in FIG. The rasterizing process for each page may be executed by the two decomposers 51 and 52.

[Modification]
In the above-described embodiment, the case where image processing is performed in the controller 10 has been described. However, a configuration in which similar image processing is performed in the printing apparatus 1 is also possible. Further, the present invention can be similarly applied to an image forming system in which the controller 10 and the printing apparatus 1 are integrated.
Further, the printing apparatus 1 may be configured with an ink jet printer or a xerographic printer.

1 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of an image forming system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a controller 10 in the image forming system 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a controller 10 in the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the structure of PDF data. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image using PDF data that is subjected to print processing by the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a configuration of an image shown in FIG. 5. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the controller 10 in the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an operation of starting a decomposer and executing rasterization processing in the image forming system according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the mode in the case of having PLW decomposer resident. It is a figure for demonstrating a mode in the case of starting a PLW decomposer and a PDF decomposer one each, and performing a rasterization process. It is a figure for demonstrating a mode at the time of stopping a PLW decomposer and starting a PDF decomposer.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Printing apparatus 3 Pre-processing apparatus 4, 5 Buffer apparatus 6 Post-processing apparatus 10 Controller 11 CPU
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 12 Memory 13 Memory | storage device 14 Communication interface (IF) part 15 User interface (UI) apparatus 16 Engine interface (IF) part 17 Control bus 20 Terminal device 31 Data input part 32 Pre-registration data storage part 34 Decomposer control part 35 Input image preservation | save Unit 36 Output image storage unit 37 Screen processing unit 38 Spool data storage unit 41, 42 PLW decomposer 51, 52 PDF decomposer 81 Job start command 82 Job end command S101 to S108 Steps

Claims (7)

First drawing processing means for performing drawing processing of a first page description language;
Second drawing processing means for performing drawing processing of a second page description language different from the first page description language;
Receiving means including pre-registration information described in the second page description language and receiving print information described in the first page description language;
When the print information received by the reception unit is a page description language different between the print information and the pre-registration information included in the print information, the print information is subjected to a drawing process by the first drawing processing unit. Control means for controlling the pre-registration information to perform drawing processing by the second drawing processing means,
An image processing apparatus comprising: combining means for combining pre-registration information that has been subjected to drawing processing by the second drawing processing means and print information that has been subjected to drawing processing by the first drawing processing means.   When the print information received by the receiving unit is in the same page description language between the print information and the pre-registration information included in the print information, the control unit displays the print information and the pre-registration information. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second drawing processing unit performs control so as to perform drawing processing.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print information is described in a page description language having a description recognized as one job.   4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control unit controls to activate at least one of the second drawing processing unit in a stage before the print information is input. 5.   The control unit stops at least one second drawing process among the plurality of second drawing processing units when the drawing process of the print information described in the second page description language is completed, The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing apparatus is changed to the first drawing processing unit. First drawing processing means for performing drawing processing in a first page description language, and second drawing processing means for performing drawing processing in a second page description language different from the first page description language Receiving means for receiving print information described in the first page description language, and print information received by the receiving means includes the print registration information including the pre-registration information described in the second page description language. When the page description language is different between the information and the pre-registration information included in the print information, the print information is controlled to be drawn by the first drawing processing unit, and the pre-registration information Control means for controlling the second drawing processing means to perform drawing processing, pre-registration information on which drawing processing has been performed by the second drawing processing means, and the first drawing processing means. And image processed print information, and combining means for combining an image processing apparatus having,
An image output device for outputting an image based on the image data processed by the image processing device;
An image forming system. A reception step for receiving print information including pre-registration information;
When the print information received in the receiving step is a page description language different between the print information and the pre-registered information included in the print information, the print information is rendered in the first page description language. And a second drawing processing unit for performing a drawing process in a second page description language different from the first page description language. A control step for controlling the drawing processing means to perform drawing processing;
The computer executes a combining step of combining the pre-registration information that has been subjected to the drawing process by the second drawing processing unit by the control step and the print information that has been subjected to the drawing process by the first drawing processing unit. Program to let you.

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