JP2010146232A - Print setting application program, print control program, print setting application device, and print setting application method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that, as for a print job including a plurality of texts or images, it is not possible to automatically apply any desired print setting to each of texts or images. <P>SOLUTION: Print job data for printing a plurality of objects are obtained, and a specific object is retrieved based on the print job data, and when the specific object is retrieved, specific print setting preliminarily associated with the specific object is applied. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for applying print settings to an object.

Conventionally, when printing on text and images, the print settings to be applied to each print target are determined in advance at the time of submitting the print job, and printing of texts, images, and the like is performed based on the predetermined print settings. The object is printed.
A technique is known in which a desired image or the like is searched from a document including a large number of images and text, and the search result is laid out and printed (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2008-33812 A

In the above-described conventional technology, it has been impossible to automatically apply desired print settings suitable for each of the texts and images for a print job including a large number of texts and images.
In other words, when a configuration is adopted in which print settings are individually applied to each text and image when a print job is submitted by an application program, each print is applied in order to apply different print settings to each text and image. It is necessary to perform the print setting setting operation for each target. In such a configuration, it is extremely complicated and practically impossible to individually define print settings for a print job including a large amount of text and images. Further, even the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 does not disclose a technique for automatically changing a desired print setting for a desired text or image.
SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it automatically applies different print settings to text and images.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the present invention, a specific print setting previously associated with a specific object is applied. That is, a specific print setting is determined in advance to be applied to a specific object, and when the specific object is retrieved from the print job data, a specific print is performed on the retrieved specific object. Apply settings. Therefore, by determining the print setting to be applied to a specific object in advance, it is possible to automatically apply the specific print setting thereafter without defining the print setting again. For this reason, when it is desired to apply different print settings for each object, it is not necessary to define the print settings for each object every time printing is performed, and the print settings can be automatically applied.

  Here, the print job data acquisition function only needs to be able to acquire print job data for printing a plurality of objects. For example, the print job data may be data indicating a print target when a plurality of objects are specified to be printed in one print job, or a plurality of objects may be printed in a plurality of print jobs. It may be print data when specified. The objects need only be defined to conceptually distinguish the print targets. If the print targets can be conceptually distinguished, such as character strings, images, and graphics, the group after the distinction becomes an individual object. Therefore, the print target printed by the print job data is configured by a set of a plurality of objects, and the print content of each page is configured by one or more objects.

  The specific object search function only needs to be able to search for a predetermined specific object, and it is only necessary to search for an object that matches a specific definition from data indicating a print target. For example, a specific character string, a specific image, a specific figure, etc. may be searched. Here, a specific content of the object may be specified and searched, or an object whose content is classified into a specific classification may be searched, and various configurations can be employed. As the latter, for example, a configuration in which a character string indicating personal information is searched as a specific object, or a configuration in which an image including a human face is searched as a specific object can be employed.

  The print setting application function only needs to be able to apply a specific print setting previously associated with a specific object. That is, it is determined in advance that a specific object is printed by applying a specific print setting. When a specific object is detected, the predetermined print setting is applied. Since the specific print settings are information specifying the settings for various print settings applicable to the print settings, the print setting application function performs processing for applying the various print settings applicable to the print settings. Must be feasible. For this reason, the print setting application function is a function for performing print settings based on other print settings, for example, default print settings (print ticket or the like) included in the print job data, not limited to specific print settings. Also good.

Furthermore, the present invention may be applied to print job data in which a character string and a graphic to be printed are indicated by text data (for example, XML data). In the print job data, the character string and figure to be printed are indicated by the text data, so it is very easy to analyze whether the character string and figure to be printed are specific objects. It is. That is, in a configuration in which print job data in binary format is created by an application program, or in a configuration in which print job data in a special format that differs for each application program is created, a specific object is searched based on the print job data. It becomes extremely difficult. However, if a character string and a graphic to be printed are indicated by text data, a specific object can be searched very easily.
For the image, it is preferable to describe the image to be printed with image data of a format used for general purposes in order to facilitate the search of the image.

  Further, in the configuration in which the image processing to be applied to each print target is specified by the print setting, the print setting suitable for each of the character string and the image may be automatically applied. For example, in a configuration in which a printing target is rendered, dot matrix-shaped print data is generated and printing is performed, image processing is usually performed at the time of rendering. Also, character strings often satisfy users even when they are printed at low image quality compared to images such as photographs, and are often evaluated to be printed at higher speed than image quality. It is important to perform simple printing, and it is often preferred to print an image such as a photograph with high image quality even if the printing speed is lower than that of a character string.

  Therefore, a character string page composed only of character strings is searched as a specific object, and when a character string page is searched, image processing with a lower image quality and higher speed than that of an image page is performed. Further, an image page composed only of images is searched as a specific object, and when the image page is searched, image processing with higher image quality and lower speed than the character string page is performed. Note that there are various types of image processing in which image quality and speed (image processing speed and printing speed) are traded off, and examples include interpolation processing and halftone processing. According to the above configuration, an appropriate setting desired by many users can be automatically performed. Of course, intermediate image quality and speed image processing may be applied to pages including both character strings and images.

  Furthermore, an image having a specific content may be used as a specific object. For example, an image for searching for an image including a human face based on face detection processing for detecting a human face and correcting an image when the subject is a human with respect to the image including the human face. Apply processing. That is, for an image including a human face, it is possible to improve the image as many users desire by applying predetermined image processing. For example, even if the process for correcting the red eye and the process for improving the lightness and saturation of the skin color are automatically applied, a result desired by many users can be obtained. Therefore, if image processing for correcting when the subject is a human is applied to an image including a human face, an appropriate setting desired by many users can be automatically performed.

  Further, it may be configured not to print a specific character string. For example, if the configuration is such that a specific character string is searched and the specific character string is replaced with data for printing a print result different from the specific character string, a print setting that does not print the specific character string is realized. can do. Examples of the specific character string include a character string indicating highly confidential information, personal information, and the like. For the specific character string, the character string itself may be directly specified, or the content represented by the character string may be specified and searched by another information (for example, a tag in XML).

  Furthermore, a specific print setting to be applied to a specific object may be designated in advance by the user. For example, if specific print settings are configured with preset settings in which settings for a plurality of print settings are defined in advance, the settings for a desired plurality of print settings can be automatically applied.

  Furthermore, the method of applying a specific print setting to a specific object as in the present invention can also be applied as an apparatus or a method. Further, the above-described program, apparatus, and method may be realized as a single printing apparatus or may be realized by combining a plurality of apparatuses, and include various aspects. For example, it is possible to provide a program, an apparatus, and a method according to the present invention by cooperation between a computer and a printing apparatus. Further, some changes may be made as appropriate, such as a part of software and a part of hardware. Furthermore, the invention is also established as a recording medium for a program for controlling the printing apparatus. Of course, the software recording medium may be a magnetic recording medium, a magneto-optical recording medium, or any recording medium to be developed in the future.

Here, embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order.
(1) Configuration of print control apparatus:
(2) Print control processing:
(2-1) Filter processing:
(3) Other embodiments:

(1) Configuration of print control apparatus:
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a print control apparatus 10 according to the present invention. The print control apparatus 10 includes a control unit 20 including a RAM, a ROM, a CPU, and the like, and a storage medium 30, and the control unit 20 can execute a program recorded in the ROM or the storage medium 30. In the present embodiment, an XPS printer driver 21 or an application program as one of the programs can be executed, and the XPS printer driver 21 includes program modules for executing various functions. It has a function of printing by applying a specific print setting to a specific object.

  The print control apparatus 10 includes an interface (not shown), and the printer 50 is connected to the print control apparatus 10 via the interface. The printer 50 is a printing device that prints an image indicated by print data based on the print data output by the control unit 20, and in the present embodiment, various print settings including the specific print settings described above are set for a print target. Printing is executed based on print data for applying and printing.

  The application program 24 is a module that causes the control unit 20 to realize a function of accepting an operation content by an input unit (not shown) and creating a sentence, an image, and the like including a plurality of objects. The XPS printer driver 21 is a module that causes the control unit 20 to realize a function of performing print setting application processing based on print job data indicating a print target for each page. That is, when a user issues a print execution instruction (print job input) based on the processing of the application program 24, the control unit 20 sets print job data indicating the print target for the print execution instruction for each page as a processing target. Processing by the XPS printer driver 21 is started.

  The XPS printer driver 21 prints as a program module for applying printing settings specified by an application program and specific printing settings associated with a specific object when print job data is created. A setting application program 22 and filters 1 to n (n is an integer of 1 or more) are provided.

  The print setting application program 22 includes a print job data acquisition unit 22a, a specific object search unit 22b, and a print setting application unit 22c. The control unit 20 stores the print job data indicating the print target in the storage medium 30 by the processing of the print job data acquisition unit 22a (print job data 31).

  Here, the print job data is data indicating a print target and print settings to be set for the print target. In the present embodiment, the print job data is XPS specification data. In other words, the print job data is indicated by XML data consisting of character strings and graphics to be printed, and the image to be printed is described in a general data format (such as jpeg) in the XML data. The image data is designated. A print setting to be applied to an object such as a character string, a figure, or an image is described as text data in a format called a print ticket. That is, in the present embodiment, the print target other than the image and the print setting are described as text data.

  The control unit 20 searches for a specific object based on the print job data by the processing of the specific object search unit 22b. In the present embodiment, the specific object is a specific character string, an image including a human face, or a specific figure, and the control unit 20 refers to the XML data included in the print job data and specifies the specific character string and the specific object. The image including the person's face is searched by performing a process of detecting the person's face with reference to the image data specified by the XML data included in the print job data. Various known techniques can be applied to the process of detecting a human face.

  Further, the control unit 20 performs a process for applying the print setting to the print target by the process of the print setting applying unit 22c. In the present embodiment, print settings include print settings designated in advance by a print ticket when a print job is input, and specific print settings associated with a specific object. In the present embodiment, the control unit 20 applies the print settings designated by the print ticket to the print target using the filters 1 to n. On the other hand, the control unit 20 implements the application of a specific print setting previously associated with a specific object by editing the XML data in addition to the processing by the filters 1 to n.

  Specifically, the specific print settings in this embodiment include a setting for performing printing by replacing a specific character string with another character string, and a setting for performing printing by replacing a specific graphic with another graphic. And a setting for applying specific image processing to a specific image. In the print job data, the character string and graphic indicating the object to be printed are described in XML data. Therefore, the process of replacing a specific character string or graphic with another character string or graphic is executed by editing the XML data. Is done. For example, the editing is realized by a process of replacing a specific character string indicated by XML data with another character string, or a process of replacing drawing data of a specific graphic indicated by XML data with drawing data of another graphic.

  On the other hand, in the print job data, the image processing to be applied to the image is specified by the print ticket, and the actual image processing is executed by the filter n described later, so that the specific image processing is applied to the specific image. The processing to be performed is realized by editing the print ticket and processing of the filter n. For example, data instructing to perform red-eye correction and skin color correction on specific image data in a print ticket is described, and image processing such as red-eye correction and skin color correction is performed in response to the instruction in the filter n. Is realized.

  In the print setting application unit 22c, it is possible to pass information indicating the setting contents of the print setting described in the print ticket for each page to the interface 22c1, and apply each print setting by the filters 1 to n. is there. Filters 1 to n are filters that perform processing for applying each of a plurality of print settings to a print target described by XPS print job data. These filters 1 to n are XPS print jobs. This is a filter provided in a normal XPS printer driver for handling data.

  Filters 1 to (n-1) apply print settings by editing XML-based data according to the print ticket. That is, in a print ticket, information indicating the type of print settings such as a stamp mark superimposing function, an enlargement / reduction function, and a Nup function, and information indicating print setting settings such as a stamp type, an enlargement / reduction ratio, and an Nup N value. And have been identified. Therefore, the filters 1 to (n−1) apply the change of the print setting by editing the XML data in accordance with the setting contents of the print setting corresponding to each filter.

  On the other hand, the filter n to be executed last is a filter for rendering. That is, in the filter n, the printer 50 performs printing by performing processing for generating a rasterized image based on the XML data processed by the filter before the filter n, color conversion processing, halftone processing, and rearrangement processing. Generate executable print data. Further, the filter n can perform image processing on image data, and the image processing is executed in the course of processing for generating a rasterized image, color conversion processing, and halftone processing.

  Since this embodiment handles XPS-specific print job data, the print job has a hierarchical structure including job, document, and page layers. That is, one print job is composed of one or more documents, and one document is composed of one or more pages. The print target can be arbitrarily selected from the pages constituting the job and the document.

  When the control unit 20 performs processing for applying the print settings by the print setting application unit 22c, the print settings described in the print ticket and the specific print settings previously associated with the specific object are applied. Print data is created. Therefore, the control unit 20 outputs the print data to the printer 50 to execute printing.

  In the above processing, a specific print setting is determined in advance to be applied to a specific object, and when the specific object is searched from print job data, the specific object is searched for. Apply specific print settings. Accordingly, it is possible to automatically determine the print setting to be applied to a specific object.

(2) Print control processing:
Next, the print control process in the above configuration will be described. The control unit 20 activates the XPS printer driver 21 in response to a print execution instruction from the application program 24, and executes the processes shown in FIGS. In this process, the control unit 20 causes the print job data acquisition unit 22a to store the print job data 31 in the storage medium 30 (step S100).

  Next, the control unit 20 searches for specific objects from the print job data in steps S105 to S125 by the processing of the specific object search unit 22b. In the present embodiment, a process of analyzing the XML data indicating the print target in the print job data for each block is employed. First, the control unit 20 acquires one block of XML data (step S105).

  Next, the control unit 20 determines whether the print target of the block is a character string, a graphic, or an image based on the acquired XML data (step S110). That is, when a character string indicating the contents to be printed is described in the XML data, it is determined that the object in the block is a character string object. Further, when graphic drawing data is described in the XML data, it is determined that the object in the block is a graphic object. When there is a description specifying image data in the XML data, the object in the block is determined. Is an image object.

  In step S110, when it is determined that the print target of the block is a character string object, the control unit 20 searches for a specific character string from the character string object. When it is determined in step S110 that the printing target of the block is a graphic object, the control unit 20 searches for a specific graphic from the graphic object. In step S110, when it is determined that the printing target of the block is an image object, an image including a human face is searched from the image. That is, when a process of detecting a human face is performed on an image and a human face is detected, it is assumed that the detected image is a specific image.

  Next, the control unit 20 determines whether or not a specific object has been searched in steps S115, S120, and S125 by the processing of the print setting application unit 22c (step S130). That is, in each of steps S115, S120, and S125, it is determined whether or not a specific character string, a specific figure, and a specific image have been searched.

  If it is not determined in step S130 that the specific object has been searched, step S135 is skipped. When it is determined in step S130 that the specific object has been searched, the control unit 20 performs processing of the print setting application unit 22c to apply the XML data or the print ticket to apply the specific print setting corresponding to the specific object. Is edited (step S135). That is, when the specific object is a specific character string or a specific graphic, the specific character string or graphic is replaced with another character string or graphic in the XML data. FIG. 4A is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example in which a specific character string is replaced. In FIG. 4A, the print target before replacement is shown on the left side and the print target after replacement is shown on the right side. That is, according to the XML data indicating the character string object, the character string to be printed on the page is specified as shown on the left side of FIG. 4A. Here, it is assumed that a character string combining a character string “membership number” and a numerical value is a specific character string, and the numerical value in the specific character string is replaced with “*”. In this case, the character string “membership number 01234” shown on the left side of FIG. 4A is searched as a specific character string in step S115, and XML data in which the numerical value is replaced with “*” is created in step S135. In the replacement of a specific figure, a configuration in which a stamp in which a character “circulation” is described in a rectangle is replaced with a larger stamp in which a character “urgent” is described in the rectangle can be adopted.

  On the other hand, when the specific object is a specific image, the print ticket is edited so that specific image processing is applied to the specific image. FIG. 4B is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example in the case where specific image processing (skin color correction and red-eye correction) is applied to a specific image. In FIG. 4B, the left side shows a print target before application of image processing and the right side after application of image processing. That is, it is assumed that a specific image including a human face is specified as a print target in the XML data. Here, as the processing that many users want, for human faces, skin color correction (processing to improve skin color and brightness) and red eye correction (red part of the human eye with human eye color (black, etc.) In step S135, information that designates the image and performs skin color correction and red-eye correction on the image is described in the print ticket.

  Next, the control unit 20 determines whether or not the process has been completed up to the final block of the XML data included in the print job data (step S140). If it is not determined in step S140 that the process has been completed up to the final block. Then, the process target block is switched to the next block, and the processes in and after step S105 are performed.

  When it is determined in step S140 that the processing has been completed up to the final block, the control unit 20 acquires the print job data 31 recorded in the storage medium 30 (step S145), and finally refers to the print ticket. Print settings to be applied to the print target are acquired (step S150). The print ticket is data included in the print job data 31. However, when the print ticket is edited through step S135, the setting contents after the editing are finally applied to the print target. It becomes contents.

  When the print setting to be applied to the print target is finally acquired, the control unit 20 executes the filter process by the process of the print setting application unit 22c (step S155), and the print data generated by the filter process is obtained. Printing is executed by outputting (step S160). As a result of such printing, printing is performed in a state where specific print settings are applied to a specific object. For example, in the example shown in FIG. 4A, the print data is created and printed based on the XML data after applying the print settings, so the numerical value corresponding to the “membership number” is as shown on the right side of FIG. 4A. The print target is printed in a concealed state. Therefore, leakage of secret information can be easily prevented. In the example shown in FIG. 4B, skin color correction and red-eye correction specified in the print ticket are executed in the process of the filter n. Therefore, by printing with the print data after the processing of the filter n, as shown on the right side of FIG. 4B, the skin tone of the human face is improved, and printing is performed in a state where no red eyes are generated.

(2-1) Filter processing:
Next, a flowchart of the filtering process in step S155 described above will be described with reference to FIG. In the filter processing shown in the figure, the control unit 20 acquires the setting contents of the print setting (step S200). In other words, the print ticket is analyzed to acquire the setting contents of the print setting applied to each object. In the filter processing shown in FIG. 3, the processing proceeds in the same processing order for each of the filters 1 to (n−1). For example, steps S205 to S215 are processes related to the filter 1, and steps S220 to S230 are processes related to the filter 2, and the processing order is the same. In FIG. 3, the processes in the filters 3 to (n-1) are omitted.

  Since the processing order is the same in each of the filters 1 to (n−1), the filter 1 will be described here. In order to perform the process of the filter 1, the control unit 20 first activates the filter 1 (step S205), and determines whether or not there is information that defines the setting contents for the print settings corresponding to the filter 1 (step S205). S210). In step S210, if it is determined that there is information defining the setting contents for the print setting corresponding to the filter 1, the print job data 31 is referred to extract data about the processing target page, The print setting of the setting contents is applied by performing processing by the filter 1 (step S215). If it is not determined in step S210 that there is information defining the setting contents for the print setting corresponding to the filter 1, step S215 is skipped.

  Also in the filters 2 to (n−1), when there is information defining the setting contents for the print settings corresponding to each filter, a process of applying the print settings of the setting contents is performed. Since the filter n is a filter that performs rendering, it is always executed in the present embodiment. That is, the control unit 20 activates the filter n (step S250) after performing the process relating to the filter (n-1), and the data after performing the process of applying the filter up to the filter (n-1). Then, processing by the filter n is performed to generate a print image for the page to be printed (step S255).

(3) Other embodiments:
The above embodiment is an example for carrying out the present invention, and various other embodiments can be adopted as long as a specific print setting can be applied to a specific object. For example, in the above-described processing, the print target may not be faithfully reproduced, and a part of the print target may be automatically changed. Therefore, when a specific print setting is applied to a specific object, this is indicated. It is good also as a structure which performs the display to show. Of course, the XPS printer driver 21 may be configured to be able to display a UI for changing print settings, confirming the print order, etc. In this case, a specific print that is applied while indicating a specific object by the UI. You may comprise so that a setting may be specified.

  Further, the specific object and the specific print setting are not limited to the above-described example, and various objects can be defined as the specific object, and various print settings can be set as the specific print setting. For example, when a specific character string is a specific object, when the entire page is composed of only the character string, not the specific contents of the character string itself, the configuration of the page object is a specific object. May be. Similarly, when the entire page is composed only of images, a configuration in which an object on the page is a specific object may be employed.

  For example, a character string page composed only of character strings is searched as a specific object, and an image page composed only of images is searched as a specific object. When a character string page is searched, image processing with a lower image quality and higher speed than the image page is performed, and when an image page is searched, image processing with a higher image quality and lower speed than the character string page is performed. In other words, character strings are often satisfied by users even if they are printed at low image quality compared to images such as photographs, and it is often evaluated that printing is performed faster than image quality. It is important to perform simple printing, and it is often preferred to print an image such as a photograph with high image quality even if the printing speed is lower than that of a character string. Therefore, according to the above-described configuration, it is possible to automatically apply print settings for obtaining results desired by many users.

  Furthermore, a specific print setting to be applied to a specific object may be designated in advance by the user. For example, it is configured such that the setting contents for a plurality of print settings can be registered as preset settings using the above-described UI, and a specific object to which the preset settings are to be applied is specified in advance. If the configuration is such that the preset setting is applied when the specific object is searched, the setting contents of a desired plurality of print settings can be automatically applied.

  Furthermore, the print setting for concealing a specific character string is not limited to character string replacement, and may be a setting for replacing a character string with another graphic (mosaic graphic) or a blank. Furthermore, various types of image processing can be assumed as specific image processing to be applied to a specific object. For example, parameters of the image processing are determined in advance for a plurality of image processing to be applied to an image of a human being. Alternatively, the image may be searched as a specific object, and each image processing may be applied with the parameter when the image is searched.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print control apparatus. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating print control processing. It is a flowchart which shows filter processing. It is a figure which shows the image before and after applying a specific print setting.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Print control apparatus, 20 ... Control part, 21 ... Printer driver, 22 ... Print setting application program, 22a ... Print job data acquisition part, 22b ... Specific object search part, 22c ... Print setting application part, 22c1 ... Interface, 24 ... Application program, 30 ... Storage medium, 31 ... Print job data, 50 ... Printer

Claims (9)

A print job data acquisition function for acquiring print job data for printing a plurality of objects;
A specific object search function for searching for a specific object based on the print job data;
A print setting application function that applies a specific print setting previously associated with the specific object when the specific object is searched;
A print setting application program that causes a computer to realize the above. In the print job data, character strings and figures to be printed are indicated by text data.
The print setting application program according to claim 1. The specific object search function searches a character string page composed of only a character string or an image page composed of only an image,
The print setting application function applies image processing for printing on the character string page at a lower image quality and higher speed than the image page.
The print setting application program according to claim 2. The specific object search function searches for an image including a human face,
The print setting application function applies image processing for performing correction when a subject is a human being on an image including the human face,
The print setting application program according to claim 3. The specific object search function searches for a specific character string,
The print setting application function replaces the specific character string with data for printing a print result different from the specific character string.
The print setting application program according to any one of claims 3 and 4. The specific print setting is a preset setting in which setting contents for a plurality of print settings are defined in advance.
The print setting application program according to any one of claims 1 to 4. Including the print setting application program according to claim 1,
A print control function for generating print data for printing the print target to which the print setting is applied, and controlling a printing apparatus based on the print data;
A print control program to be realized by a computer. Print job data acquisition means for acquiring print job data for printing a plurality of objects;
Specific object search means for searching for a specific object based on the print job data;
A print setting applying unit that applies a specific print setting previously associated with the specific object when the specific object is searched;
An apparatus for applying print settings. A print job data acquisition step for acquiring print job data for printing a plurality of objects;
A specific object search step of searching for a specific object based on the print job data;
A print setting applying step of applying a specific print setting previously associated with the specific object when the specific object is searched;
How to apply print settings including

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