JP2013197736A - Information processing device and data processing method and program in information processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information processing device which improves efficiency in a printing process including spooling.SOLUTION: Image data to be printed and information on a color space in which the image data is defined are acquired, and determination of whether the color space in which the image data is defined can be processed by a printing device is made. When the color space is determined not to be the one processable by the printing device, the image data is converted to image data defined in a color space processable by the printing device, and the converted image data is spooled in a storage unit. When the color space is determined to be the one processable by the printing device, print data processable by the printing device is generated from the acquired image data, and the generated image data is sent to the printing device.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus that spools print data that can be processed by a printing apparatus, and a data processing method and program in the information processing apparatus.

  With the recent increase in the speed of printing apparatuses, the printing apparatus may not be able to supply the printing data in time to the printing apparatus, and the printing apparatus may repeatedly pause while waiting for the printing data. In such a case, the performance of the printing apparatus cannot be utilized, and the printing apparatus is occupied exclusively.

  Therefore, spool processing is known as a technique for supplying print data from a host device to a printing device without temporarily stopping the printing device. Spool processing is a process of generating print data while performing image processing for all of a plurality of pages on the host device side, and when spooling of print data for all pages is completed, all the spooled data is transferred from the host device to the printing device. Sending print data for a page. By such spooling processing, the host device suspends the printing device by separating image processing and print data generation processing that cause a delay in supplying print data to the printing device from transmission processing to the print data. Can be prevented.

  Patent Document 1 describes that a spool mode or a non-spool mode is selected based on environment information (CPU capability, RAM mounting amount, RAM speed, HDD speed, interface speed) regarding the host device. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-151561 describes that the print processing time from the start of printing in the host device to the end of printing in the printing device is shortened by selecting the configuration for whether or not to perform spool processing.

Japanese Patent No. 3907484

  However, in Patent Document 1, when performing spool processing, the spool processing is uniformly executed regardless of the type of data. Therefore, print data is generated and spooled for all pages even if the data does not require spooling. That is, spool processing is also performed for data that originally does not require spool processing, and as a result, unnecessary processing time occurs.

  An object of the present invention is to solve such conventional problems. In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide an information processing apparatus that improves efficiency in print processing including spool processing, and a data processing method and program in the information processing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, an information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an acquisition unit that acquires image data to be printed and information on a color space in which the image data is defined, and the information is acquired by the acquisition unit. As a result of the acquisition, a determination unit that determines whether the color space in which the image data is defined is a color space that can be processed by the printing apparatus, and a color space that is not processable by the printing apparatus by the determination unit A conversion unit that converts the image data into image data defined in a color space that can be processed by the printing apparatus, and a spool that spools the image data converted by the conversion unit in a storage unit And the printing device can process the image data acquired by the acquisition device when the determination device determines that the color space can be processed by the printing device. Data generating means for generating Do print data, characterized by comprising a transmitting means for transmitting the print data generated by said data generating means to the printing apparatus.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to improve efficiency in print processing including spool processing.

It is a block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of information processing apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of information processing apparatus. It is a block diagram which shows the other function structure of information processing apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which prints image data. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of an image process.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the following embodiments do not limit the present invention according to the claims, and all combinations of features described in the present embodiments are not necessarily essential to the solution means of the present invention. . The same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof is omitted.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As the information processing apparatus 100, for example, a general-purpose personal computer or the like is used. An operating system (OS), a printer driver for controlling the printing apparatus 200, and an application for creating various documents are installed in the hard disk (HDD) 102 of the information processing apparatus 100. The information processing apparatus 100 further includes the following units. The CPU 101 controls each unit connected to the system bus 103 based on a control program stored in the HDD 102, and starts and executes an OS, an application, a printer driver, and the like. The RAM 104 is mainly used as a work area for the CPU 101. In the RAM 104, an OS as a system program, a device driver such as a printer driver, and the like reside. The external memory 105 is a recording medium such as an FD (flexible disk), CD-ROM, or MO. The input unit 106 is a user command input device including, for example, a pointing device, a keyboard, and the like, and accepts commands from the user. The display unit 107 is a CRT display, a liquid crystal display, or the like, and displays a user interface such as an OS, an application, and a printer driver. The display unit 107 receives instructions from the user via icons and buttons on various windows. The communication unit 108 transmits / receives data to / from the printing apparatus 200 via a parallel interface conforming to the IEEE1284 standard, a serial interface conforming to the IEEE1394 standard or the USB standard, or a network such as a LAN.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the information processing apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. The information processing apparatus 100 includes a color space acquisition unit 120, a color conversion determination unit 130, an image processing unit 140, a print data generation unit 150, a print data output unit 160, and a first spool processing unit 170. In this embodiment, the color space acquisition unit 120, the color conversion determination unit 130, the image processing unit 140, the print data generation unit 150, the print data output unit 160, and the first spool processing unit 170 are software. Realized. 2 is realized by the CPU 101 executing a program stored in the HDD 102.

  The color space acquisition unit 120 acquires information about the color space defining the image data from the image data input as the print target. For example, the color space acquisition unit 120 acquires color space information described in a page description language (PDL: PageDescription Language). Based on the color space information acquired by the color space acquisition unit 120, the color conversion determination unit 130 defines a color space in which image data is defined and print data that can be processed by the printing apparatus 200. It is determined whether or not. The image processing unit 140 performs various image processing on the image data. Image processing will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the present embodiment, the image data image-processed by the image processing unit 140 is directly supplied to the print data generation unit 150 according to the determination result by the color conversion determination unit 130, or the first spool processing unit The data is supplied to the print data generation unit 150 via 170. When supplied to the print data generation unit 150 via the first spool processing unit 170, the image data processed by the image processing unit 140 is spooled to the spool data storage unit 180 by the first spool processing unit 170. The Thereafter, the first spool processing unit 170 supplies the image data spooled in the spool data storage unit 180 to the print data generation unit 150. The spool data storage unit 180 may be configured in the HDD 102, for example.

  The print data generation unit 150 generates print data that can be printed by the printing apparatus 200 from the supplied image processed image data. The print data output unit 160 outputs the print data generated by the print data generation unit 150 to the printing apparatus 200 via the communication unit 108 of the information processing apparatus 100.

  FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating another functional configuration of the information processing apparatus according to the present embodiment. The information processing apparatus 100 includes a color space acquisition unit 120, a color conversion determination unit 130, an image processing unit 140, a print data generation unit 150, a print data output unit 160, and a second spool processing unit 190. In this embodiment, the color space acquisition unit 120, the color conversion determination unit 130, the image processing unit 140, the print data generation unit 150, the print data output unit 160, and the second spool processing unit 190 are software. Realized. 3 is realized by the CPU 101 executing a program stored in the HDD 102.

  The color space acquisition unit 120 acquires information about the color space defining the image data from the image data input as the print target. For example, the color space acquisition unit 120 acquires color space information described in a page description language. Based on the color space information acquired by the color space acquisition unit 120, the color conversion determination unit 130 defines a color space in which image data is defined and print data that can be processed by the printing apparatus 200. It is determined whether or not. The image processing unit 140 performs various image processing on the image data. Image processing will be described with reference to FIG.

  The print data generation unit 150 generates print data that can be printed by the printing apparatus 200 from the image data that has been subjected to image processing by the image processing unit 140. The print data generated by the print data generation unit 150 is directly supplied to the print data output unit 160 or printed via the second spool processing unit 190 depending on the determination result by the color conversion determination unit 130. The data is supplied to the data output unit 160.

  When the print data is supplied to the print data output unit 160 via the second spool processing unit 190, the print data generated by the print data generation unit 150 is spooled to the spool data storage unit 180 by the second spool processing unit 190. Is done. Thereafter, the second spool processing unit 190 supplies the print data spooled in the spool data storage unit 180 to the print data output unit 160. The spool data storage unit 180 may be configured in the HDD 102, for example. The print data output unit 160 outputs the supplied print data to the printing apparatus 200 via the communication unit 108 of the information processing apparatus 100.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a data processing procedure executed in the information processing apparatus 100. The process illustrated in FIG. 4 is executed by the CPU 101 of the information processing apparatus 100, for example. Hereinafter, a case where the information processing apparatus 100 has the functional configuration illustrated in FIG. 3 will be described. In the process shown in FIG. 4, when an image represented by image data is composed of a plurality of pages, image processing and print data generation processing are executed for each page from the first page to the last page. . The CPU 101 uses the color space acquisition unit 120 to acquire information about the color space defining the image data from the image data input as a print target (S401). Next, based on the color space information of the image data, the CPU 101 causes the color space defining the image data to define the print data that can be processed by the printing apparatus 200 based on the color space information of the image data. It is determined whether or not it is a space (S402).

  That is, in this embodiment, it is determined in S402 whether or not color space conversion occurs. For example, if it is determined in S402 that the color space defining the image data is not a color space defining print data that can be processed by the printing apparatus 200, it is determined that color space conversion occurs. If it is determined in S402 that the color space defining the image data is not a color space defining print data that can be processed by the printing apparatus 200, the spool mode is set (S403). Here, the spool mode refers to a form of processing in which print data that can be processed by the printing apparatus 200 is spooled in the spool data storage unit 180 and then transmitted to the printing apparatus 200. The setting as the spool mode may be configured such that a flag indicating the spool mode is temporarily stored in a storage area such as the RAM 104, for example. Next, the CPU 101 determines whether or not the processing for the last page of the image represented by the image data is completed for the current page to be processed (S404). Here, the case where it is determined that the processing has been completed for the last page is a case where the image processing and the print data generation processing have been completed for all pages of the image represented by the input image data.

  If it is determined in S404 that the page is not the last page, the CPU 101 causes the image processing unit 140 to perform image processing corresponding to the color space defining the image data on the current processing target page (S405). ). Next, the CPU 101 uses the print data generation unit 150 to generate print data that can be printed by the printing apparatus 200 from the image data that has been subjected to image processing by the image processing unit 140 (S406).

  Next, the CPU 101 determines whether or not the image data has been set to the spool mode in S403 (S407). The CPU 101 determines whether the image data is set to the spool mode based on the setting result in S403. If it is determined that the spool mode is set, the CPU 101 spools the print data generated by the print data generation unit 150 by the second spool processing unit 190 (S408). On the other hand, when it is determined that the spool mode is not set, the CPU 101 outputs the print data generated by the print data generation unit 150 to the printing apparatus 200 by the print data output unit 160. Next, the CPU 101 advances (increments) the page to be processed by one page, and repeats the processing from S404 (S410).

  If it is determined in S404 that the process has been completed for the last page of the image represented by the image data, it is determined whether the image data has been set to the spool mode (S411). If it is determined that the spool mode is set, the CPU 101 supplies the print data spooled in the spool data storage unit 180 by the second spool processing unit 190 to the print data output unit 160 (S412). ). The print data output unit 160 outputs the print data to the printing apparatus 200 and ends the process shown in FIG. On the other hand, if it is determined in S411 that the spool mode has not been set, the processing shown in FIG. 4 ends.

  The processing shown in FIG. 4 has been described for the case where the information processing apparatus 100 has the functional configuration shown in FIG. Here, the case where the information processing apparatus 100 has the functional configuration shown in FIG. 2 will be described. As described in FIG. 2, the image data processed by the image processing unit 140 is directly supplied to the print data generation unit 150 or the first spool according to the determination result by the color conversion determination unit 130. The data is supplied to the print data generation unit 150 via the processing unit 170. When supplied to the print data generation unit 150 via the first spool processing unit 170, the image data processed by the image processing unit 140 is spooled to the spool data storage unit 180 by the first spool processing unit 170. The Thereafter, the first spool processing unit 170 supplies the image data spooled in the spool data storage unit 180 to the print data generation unit 150. The print data generation unit 150 generates print data that can be printed by the printing apparatus 200 from the supplied image processed image data.

  Therefore, when the information processing apparatus 100 has the functional configuration shown in FIG. 2 and when the spool mode is determined in S407, the print data generation processing in S406 in FIG. 4 is performed from the spool data storage unit 180 in S412. The data is read and print data is generated. If the information processing apparatus 100 has the functional configuration shown in FIG. 2 and if it is determined in S407 that the information processing apparatus 100 is not in the spool mode, the print data generation process in S406 in FIG. 4 is preceded by the print data output process in S409. (Between S407 and S409).

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of image processing performed by the image processing unit 140 of the information processing apparatus 100. The process illustrated in FIG. 5 is executed by the CPU 101 of the information processing apparatus 100, for example. Hereinafter, the input image data is data defined in the RGB color space, and the print data is data defined in the CMYK color space.

  First, the CPU 101 performs color correction for matching the RGB values of the input image data into an area on a color space that can be reproduced by the printing apparatus 200 (S501). Here, it is assumed that the CPU 101 corrects the RGB value of the input data to the R′G′B ′ value by using a lookup table (LUT). Next, the corrected R′G′B ′ value is color space converted into a CMYK value that is an ink (toner) color of the printing apparatus 200 (S502). Here, the printing apparatus 200 may not be configured to use four-color inks of CMYK, but may be configured to use six-color inks of CMYKLcLm including light-colored cyan (Lc) and light-colored magenta (Lm), for example. Alternatively, the printing apparatus 200 may be configured to use special color inks such as gray, red, and green. That is, according to each configuration, the R′G′B ′ value is converted into data defined in a color space suitable for the ink color used by the printing apparatus 200.

  Next, the CPU 101 performs output γ correction for correcting the brightness characteristic of each ink (toner) of the printing apparatus 200 (S503), and dither processing or error diffusion processing is performed on the multi-value data for each ink (toner) color. And so on (S504). The halftone processed image data is then supplied to the print data generation unit 150 of the information processing apparatus 100. That is, after the image processing shown in FIG. 5 is completed, the image processed image data is supplied to the print data generation unit 150 of the information processing apparatus 100.

  In the above example, when the input image data is data defined in the CMYK color space and the print data is also data defined in the CMYK color space, at least the color conversion process of S502 does not occur. That is, in this example, the image data defined in the CMYK color space has a shorter processing time for the image processing shown in S501 to S504 than the image data defined in the RGB color space. Conventionally, the waiting time of the printing device has been reduced by separating the image processing and print data generation processing causing the delay in supplying the printing data to the printing device from the transmission processing to the printing data (spool processing). . Therefore, it is not necessary to perform spool processing for data that does not have color space conversion processing and shortens the image processing time. In this embodiment, such data is transmitted to the printing apparatus 200 after generating print data without performing spool processing, thereby reducing unnecessary waiting time of the printing apparatus 200.

  In this example, the process for determining whether or not the color space defining the input image data is the same as the color space defining the print data has been described. However, in the present embodiment, for example, when the input image data is defined in the gray color space and the print data is defined in the CMYK color space, it is regarded as the same and the spool processing is not performed. You may do it. In other words, if a reference value is provided at the time of color space conversion processing and the processing time is short enough to fit within the reference value, the color space is regarded as the same.

  In the present embodiment, the color space of print data that can be subjected to print processing by the printing apparatus 200 has been described as the CMYK color space. However, the configuration may be such that the printing apparatus 200 accepts RGB multi-value data as print data. In that case, when the color space defining the input image data is the RGB color space, the spool process is controlled not to be performed. Further, the input image data may be data defined in another color space such as an L * a * b * color space or an XYZ color space instead of the RGB color space or the CMYK color space.

100 Information processing apparatus 101 CPU
102 HDD
103 System bus 104 RAM
105 External Memory 106 Input Unit 107 Display Unit 108 Communication Unit 200 Printing Device

Claims (3)

Acquisition means for acquiring image data to be printed and information on a color space in which the image data is defined;
A determination unit that determines whether or not a color space in which the image data is defined is a color space that can be processed by a printing apparatus as a result of acquiring the information by the acquisition unit;
A conversion unit that converts the image data into image data defined in a color space that can be processed by the printing device when the determination unit determines that the color space cannot be processed by the printing device;
Spool means for spooling the image data converted by the conversion means in a storage unit;
A data generation unit that generates print data that can be processed by the printing apparatus from the image data acquired by the acquisition unit when the determination unit determines that the color space can be processed by the printing apparatus;
Transmitting means for transmitting print data generated by the data generating means to the printing apparatus;
An information processing apparatus comprising: A data processing method executed in an information processing apparatus,
An acquisition step in which an acquisition unit of the information processing apparatus acquires image data to be printed and information on a color space in which the image data is defined;
A determination step in which the determination unit of the information processing apparatus determines whether the color space in which the image data is defined is a color space that can be processed by a printing apparatus as a result of acquiring the information in the acquisition step. When,
Image data defined in a color space that can be processed by the printing apparatus when the conversion unit of the information processing apparatus determines that the color space is not processable by the printing apparatus in the determination step A conversion process for converting to
A spool step in which the spool means of the information processing apparatus spools the image data converted in the conversion step in a storage unit;
When the data generation unit of the information processing apparatus determines that the color space can be processed by the printing apparatus in the determination step, it can be processed by the printing apparatus from the image data acquired in the acquisition step. A data generation process for generating print data;
A transmission step in which the transmission unit of the information processing device transmits the print data generated in the data generation step to the printing device;
A data processing method characterized by comprising:   The program which makes a computer function as each means of the information processing apparatus of Claim 1.

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