JP2012240213A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To facilitate the layout confirmation of a photo book or an electronic album.SOLUTION: In the layout screen of the double page spread of the photo book or the electronic album, when a user touches a photographed image, the photographed image is enlarged and displayed on a display device such as a liquid crystal display device and when the user touches a paper part, the touched page is enlarged and displayed on the display device.

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing apparatus such as a printer capable of producing a photo book called a photo book / electronic album from a digital photograph.

  Some conventional printing apparatuses can realize a function of creating an album by a simple operation so that a plurality of images can be printed on a sheet in an appropriate arrangement relationship (see Patent Document 1).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-19213

  In a conventional printing apparatus such as a printer, the layout of the created photobook / electronic album can be confirmed on a liquid crystal display or the like. However, since a display device such as a liquid crystal mounted on the printer is small, there is a problem that it is difficult to confirm the layout of an album or a photo book in which a plurality of images are arranged.

  In addition, since a plurality of images are arranged on one page of the album, each image is displayed in a small size, which makes it difficult to confirm the details of the image.

The printing apparatus of the present invention includes:
Layout arrangement means for arranging the images of the album print;
Display means for displaying an image;
Detecting means for detecting a position touched by the display means;
Layout display means for displaying the images arranged by the layout arrangement means on the display means in a spread page;
Determining whether the position touched by the detection means is a captured image or a paper portion;
When it is determined as a captured image, the touched captured image is enlarged and displayed on the display means.
Layout determining means for enlarging and displaying the touched page on the display means when it is determined that the sheet portion is a paper portion
It is characterized by having.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing apparatus in which the layout of a photo book / album or an image to be printed can be easily confirmed.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an entire printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an appearance of an operation unit of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a layout display process of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 3 is an example of a spread page of the printing apparatus according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 2 is an example of an enlarged image display of the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. 3 is an example of a page enlargement display by the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. It is an example of a spread page of the printing apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the menu displayed at the time of the enlarged image display of the printing apparatus which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the menu displayed at the time of the page expansion display of the printing apparatus which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention.

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

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a printing apparatus such as a sublimation printer.

  10 is a thermal head, 12 is a printing paper, and 14 is an ink ribbon.

  20 is a head control unit that performs thermal control of a thermal head that performs printing, 22 is a paper feed control unit that transports a sheet for printing, and 24 controls the feeding of an ink ribbon that is sublimated to the sheet for printing. An ink ribbon control unit.

  An operation unit 40 includes various buttons and a touch panel, and includes a power button, a print button, a cross key, a menu button, and a determination button.

  A system control circuit 50 controls the entire printing apparatus 100, and a memory 52 stores variables, programs, and the like used when the system control circuit 50 operates. This memory does not retain the recorded contents when the power is turned off. For example, SDRAM is used.

  Reference numeral 54 denotes a display unit composed of an LCD or the like for displaying characters and images in accordance with execution of a program in the system control circuit 50. It is also possible to display an image recorded on the recording medium 200 and a menu on the display unit 54. It is also possible to configure the touch panel so that image feed, printing, menu display, reset, etc. can be performed by operating the buttons displayed on the display unit 54.

  Reference numeral 58 denotes an electrically erasable / recordable non-volatile memory that retains recorded contents even when the power is turned off. For example, a flash ROM is used. The nonvolatile memory stores a program body, constants used by the program, and the like. For example, the number of cut paper pieces accumulated in the collection box 30 is stored.

  Reference numeral 60 denotes an interface with a recording medium such as a memory card or a hard disk, and 62 denotes a recording medium attachment / detachment detecting means for detecting whether or not the recording medium 200 is attached.

  An image memory 80 temporarily stores image data read from the memory card 200 and image data from the compression / decompression circuit 82.

  A compression / decompression circuit 82 decompresses image data compressed in the JPEG format read from the memory card 200 and writes the decompressed image data to the image memory 80.

  Reference numeral 200 denotes a recording medium such as a memory card such as SD, CF (compact flash), or memory stick, or a hard disk.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the operation unit 40 and the display unit 54 in the embodiment of the present invention.

  Reference numeral 201 denotes a power button. By depressing this button, the printing apparatus 100 can be activated and terminated.

  Reference numeral 202 denotes a menu button, which can be displayed by pressing this button. By selecting a predetermined item displayed in this menu, a photo book can be created and various print settings can be made.

  Reference numeral 203 denotes a print button. By pressing this button, an image displayed on the display unit 54 can be printed.

  The display unit 54 is an LCD that displays images recorded on the memory card 200. The LCD is in a touch panel format, and image feed can be performed by touching image feed icons 5401 and 5402 displayed on the display unit 54 with a finger or a touch pen.

[Example 1]
The operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 3 is a processing flow of the printing apparatus 100 in the first embodiment.

  First, when the user presses the power button 201, the system control circuit 50 performs initialization processing (S301) and starts up. In this initialization process, necessary power is turned on, variables used by the system control circuit 50 are initialized, and one of the images recorded on the memory card 200 is displayed on the display unit 54.

  Next, the system control circuit 50 determines the operation from the user (S301). As a result, when it is determined that the creation of the photo book is instructed, the process proceeds to S302, and the photo book creation process is performed. Then, the layout of the created photo book is displayed (S303). This layout display process will be described later with reference to FIG.

  When the system control circuit 50 determines in S301 that the print button 203 has been pressed, the system control circuit 50 performs print processing S304. On the other hand, when it is determined in S301 that the power button 201 has been pressed, a power-off process (S306) is performed, and all the processes are terminated. On the other hand, when another operation is performed in S301, processing corresponding to the operation is performed (S307).

  FIG. 4 is a process flow of the S303 layout display process.

  The system control circuit 50 displays the photobook / album layout created in S302 as a spread page (S401). An example of the spread page is shown in FIG. Reference numeral 501 denotes a third page paper, 502a / 502b denotes an image arranged on the third page, 503 denotes a fourth page paper, and 504a / 504b / 504c denotes an image arranged on the fourth page.

  Further, 505 and 506 are icons for page turning, and a page to be displayed can be sent by touching 505 with a finger or a touch pen. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, when the 3-5 page is displayed and the icon 505 is touched, a double-page spread page 1-2 is displayed.

  Next, the system control circuit 50 determines the touched area (S402). If the touched area is an image area, the touched image is enlarged and displayed (S403). The behavior from S402 to S403 is shown in FIG.

When the user touches the area where the image 502b is displayed with the finger 601 in FIG. 6A, the system control circuit 50 surrounds the image area with a frame 602 to indicate that the touch of the image 502b has been detected. Next, the system control circuit 50 enlarges and displays the image 502b on the display unit 54, as shown in FIG.
If the system control circuit 50 determines in S402 that the paper has been touched, the system control circuit 50 performs an enlarged display of the touched paper (S404). The behavior of S402 and S404 is shown in FIG.

  When the user touches the area where the paper 501 of the third page is displayed with the finger 601 in FIG. 7A, the system control circuit 50 sets the paper area to the frame to indicate that the touch of the paper 501 has been detected. 701 is enclosed. Next, the system control circuit 50 enlarges and displays the page 501 on the display unit 54 as shown in FIG.

  When the system control circuit 50 performs the enlarged display in S403 and S404, it next waits for the enlarged display to be released (S406). The present invention is configured to release when the user touches the display unit 54. That is, it is configured so that the enlarged display is continued until the user touches the screen.

  Next, the system control circuit 50 determines the end of the photobook screen (S407). In the present invention, when the user presses the menu button 202, the photobook screen is terminated. When it is determined in S407 that the photo book screen is terminated, the photo book screen is terminated. On the other hand, when the photobook screen is not terminated in S407, the screen is returned to S401, and when the enlarged screen is displayed, the enlarged screen is canceled and the spread page is displayed.

  If the system control circuit 50 determines in S402 that another area has been touched, it performs processing corresponding to the touch area (S405). In S405, for example, when the page feed icon 506 in FIG. 5 is touched by the user, there is a process of displaying the next double-page spread page 5-6.

[Example 2]
The operation of the second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 8A shows an example of a screen displayed on the image display unit 54 according to the second embodiment. The difference from the screen described in the first embodiment with reference to FIG. 5 is an image arranged in 801. This image 801a is a horizontally long image, and the image is arranged in an area narrower than the original layout area.

  FIG. 8B shows the relationship between the image area 801 actually arranged and the original layout area 802. At this time, when the knitting portion 803 in FIG. 8B is touched with the finger 601, the system control circuit 50 determines that the paper portion not including the image has been touched. As a result, the page enlargement display is performed in the same manner as the operation described in FIG.

[Example 3]
The operation of the third embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 9A is an example of an enlarged image display (S403 in FIG. 4) according to the third embodiment. The difference from the first embodiment described with reference to FIG. 6 is that there is an edit button 901. When the user touches the edit button 901, a menu shown in FIG. 9B is displayed on the display unit 54.

  The items displayed in (b) of FIG. 9 are “trimming” for cutting out an area for printing an image and “rotation” for rotating the image. These items are operations for the display image 502b.

  FIG. 10A is an example of a page enlargement display (S404 in FIG. 4) according to the third embodiment. The difference from the first embodiment described with reference to FIG. 7 is that there is an edit button 901. When the user touches this edit button 901, a menu shown in FIG. 10B is displayed on the display unit.

  The items to be displayed in FIG. 10B are “change layout” for changing the layout of the photo book, “add image” for adding an image to be printed in the photo book, and “image to be deleted from the layout”. Delete image, change image to be printed, change image, and replace two image positions to be printed. These items are items for changing the displayed page layout.

  In this way, it is possible to provide an easy-to-use print processing apparatus by displaying a menu for manipulating an image when enlarging an image and a menu for manipulating the page configuration when enlarging a page. it can.

  Although the present invention has been described in detail based on preferred embodiments thereof, the present invention is not limited to these specific embodiments, and various forms within the scope of the present invention are also included in the present invention. included. A part of the above-described embodiments may be appropriately combined. Also, when a software program that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied from a recording medium directly to a system or apparatus having a computer that can execute the program using wired / wireless communication, and the program is executed Are also included in the present invention. Accordingly, the program code itself supplied and installed in the computer in order to implement the functional processing of the present invention by the computer also realizes the present invention.

  That is, the computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention is also included in the present invention. In this case, the program may be in any form as long as it has a program function, such as an object code, a program executed by an interpreter, or script data supplied to the OS. As a recording medium for supplying the program, for example, a magnetic recording medium such as a hard disk or a magnetic tape, an optical / magneto-optical storage medium, or a nonvolatile semiconductor memory may be used. As a program supply method, a computer program that forms the present invention is stored in a server on a computer network, and a connected client computer downloads and programs the computer program.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Printing apparatus 10 Thermal head 12 Printing paper 14 Ink ribbon

Claims (7)

Layout arrangement means for arranging the images of the album print;
Display means for displaying an image;
Detecting means for detecting a position touched by the display means;
Layout display means for displaying the images arranged by the layout arrangement means on the display means in a spread page;
Determining whether the position touched by the detection means is a captured image or a paper portion;
When it is determined as a captured image, the touched captured image is enlarged and displayed on the display means.
Layout determining means for enlarging and displaying the touched page on the display means when it is determined that the sheet portion is a paper portion
And a printing apparatus. When the position touched by the detection means is a captured image,
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a frame surrounding the captured image touched by the display unit is surrounded by a frame. When the position touched by the detection means is a paper portion,
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the display unit surrounds the touched paper portion with a frame. A layout arranged by the layout arranging means;
If the placed images have different aspect ratios,
4. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit enlarges and displays a captured image when a region where the arranged image is displayed is touched. 5. When the captured image is enlarged on the display means, a menu for performing an operation on the image is displayed,
5. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the page is enlarged and displayed on the display unit, a menu for performing an operation on the page is displayed. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the operation on the image includes any one of trimming and rotation. The operation on the page includes any one of layout change, image addition, image deletion, image change, and image position replacement. The printing apparatus according to item.