JP2019053515A - Print system, print control unit, program for print control - Google Patents

Abstract

To carry out print processing, for cases when a plurality of page description languages is available, by taking advantage of characteristics for each of the page description languages.SOLUTION: A print system comprises: a print control unit having a conversion section which specifies any of a plurality of page description languages against each object within a document to be printed and converts them into the specified page description language, and an output section which outputs print data in which the plurality of converted page description languages are included; and a printer having an interpretation section which inputs the print data and generates a page image for each of the page description languages, a composition section which generates a composite page image in which the page images for each of the page description languages are composited, and a print execution section which prints the composite page image.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a printing system, and more particularly to a technique for mixing different page description languages in the same page of print data.

  A page description language (PDL) is a program language for controlling a printing apparatus. For example, when a document created on a PC is printed on a printing apparatus, the PC converts the print image of the document into a page description language and outputs the print data to the printing apparatus. In this case, the PC functions as a print control device. Then, the printing apparatus interprets the page description language, develops the page image in a raster format, and executes printing.

  Several types of page description languages have been developed, such as general-purpose languages and those designed by manufacturers for their products. As described in Patent Document 1, conventionally, a plurality of page description languages can be interpreted, and when a page description language of a regular form such as a letterhead is different from a page description language of a body text, etc. An image processing apparatus for synthesizing respective page images obtained from different page description languages has been proposed.

JP 2007-60263 A

  Each page description language has its own characteristics depending on development background and purpose. For example, a page description language with excellent coloring, a page description language for obtaining high-definition images, a page description language with a small data size, a page description language with a small processing load, and the like.

  For this reason, if the printing process corresponding to the characteristics of the page description language can be performed for each object of the page in which the image object and the text object are mixed, the flexibility of the printing process is increased. For example, color image objects such as logos and photographs can be processed in a page description language with good coloring, and other parts such as text objects can be processed in a page description language with a small data size.

  In view of the above, an object of the present invention is to perform a printing process utilizing the characteristics of each page description language when a plurality of page description languages can be used.

  In order to solve the above problems, a printing system according to an aspect of the present invention designates one of a plurality of page description languages for each object in a document to be printed, and converts the object into a designated page description language. A print control device comprising: a conversion unit; and an output unit that outputs print data including a plurality of converted page description languages; and an interpretation unit that inputs the print data and generates a page image for each page description language And a printing apparatus comprising: a combining unit that generates a combined page image by combining the page images for each page description language; and a print execution unit that prints the combined page image.

  According to the present invention, when a plurality of page description languages can be used, it is possible to perform print processing utilizing the characteristics of each page description language.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the specification rule of a page description language. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of generating print data by a print control unit of the information processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of a preview image. It is a figure which shows the structural example of print data. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a printing operation of the printing apparatus. It is a figure explaining the synthesis | combination of the page image by a different page description language.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printing system 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the printing system 10 includes an information processing apparatus 100 and a printing apparatus 200 that are communicably connected. The information processing apparatus 100 and the printing apparatus may be directly connected or may be connected via a computer network such as a LAN.

  The information processing apparatus 100 can be configured using a PC or the like in which a printer driver corresponding to the printing apparatus 200 is installed. The printer driver forms a print control unit 120 in the information processing apparatus 100, and the information processing apparatus 100 can function as a print control apparatus.

  In addition to the print control unit 120, the information processing apparatus 100 includes a communication unit 150 that performs communication with the print document generation unit 110 and the printing apparatus 200.

  The print document generation unit 110 is formed by executing a word processor, graphic software, or the like installed in the information processing apparatus 100, and generates a document to be printed based on a user operation. A document to be printed includes a page including various objects such as text, bitmap images, vector images, and the like.

  The print control unit 120 includes a PDL conversion unit 130 and an output unit 140. The PDL conversion unit 130 converts the document to be printed into a page description language that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 200. The PDL conversion unit 130 of the present embodiment can convert to a plurality of page description languages, and can mix different page description languages in the same page.

  Here, the different page description languages are the first PDL, the second PDL,. (2) is provided.

  The PDL conversion unit 130 includes a PDL specification unit 131 and a preview creation unit 132. The PDL designation unit 131 designates a page description language used for conversion for each object in the page. In this embodiment, there are three modes for specifying the page description language: “automatic”, “semi-automatic”, and “user designation”.

  In “automatic”, the PDL designating unit 131 designates a page description language used for conversion in accordance with a designation rule predetermined for each object attribute (text, bitmap, etc.) as shown in FIG. In the example of this figure, the attributes are classified based on the bitmap image, the vector image, the text image, and the color. However, the attributes may be classified based on the resolution, the creation software, and the like.

  In “semi-automatic”, the user creates attribute registration information in which an object attribute is associated with a page description language, and the PDL designation unit 131 designates a page description language to be used for conversion according to the attribute registration information. For object attributes for which the user has not specified a page description language, for example, the page description language can be specified according to a specification rule. The attribute registration information can have the same structure as the designation rule shown in FIG.

  In “user designation”, the PDL designation unit 131 causes the preview creation unit 132 to create a preview image of a document to be printed, and accepts designation of a page description language used for conversion for each object from the user. Therefore, the preview creation unit 132 identifies an object, not a simple bitmap format preview image, and generates a preview screen that can be specified in units of objects.

  For an object for which the user has not specified a page description language, the page description language can be specified according to, for example, a specification rule or attribute registration information. Alternatively, a default page description language may be determined, and an object for which the user wants to change the page description language may be designated.

  The page description language mode can be arbitrarily selected by the user. Note that the page description language designation mode is not limited to the three modes of "automatic", "semi-automatic", and "user designation". For example, any one or two may be used, and other designation modes may be adopted.

  The output unit 140 collectively outputs different page description languages converted by the first PDL conversion unit 133 (1), the second PDL 133 (2),... As print data. The print data output by the output unit 140 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 200 via the communication unit 150.

  The printing apparatus 200 includes a communication unit 210 that performs communication with the information processing apparatus 100, a PDL interpretation unit 220, a synthesis unit 230, and a print execution unit 240.

  The PDL interpretation unit 220 inputs print data in which different page description languages are mixed in the same page, and develops raster data for each page description language to generate a page image. The PDL interpretation unit 220 includes a first PDL interpretation unit 221 (1) capable of interpreting the first PDL, a second PDL interpretation unit 221 (2) capable of interpreting the second PDL, and so on.

  The synthesizing unit 230 synthesizes the page images for each page description language generated by the first PDL interpreting unit 221, the second PDL interpreting unit, and so on to generate a synthesized page image. The composite page image is raster data corresponding to the document to be printed.

  The print execution unit 240 executes printing of the composite page image. The printing method of the print execution unit 240 does not matter. For example, an electrophotographic method, an inkjet method, or the like can be used.

  Next, the operation of the printing system 10 having the above configuration will be described. First, an operation in which the print control unit 120 of the information processing apparatus 100 generates print data will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. It is assumed that the document to be printed has already been generated by the print document generation unit 110. As described above, the document to be printed includes pages including various objects such as text, bitmap images, vector images, and the like.

  When the user designates a print target document and issues a print instruction, the PDL conversion unit 130 reads the print target document (S101).

  When the user selects “automatic” as the PDL designation mode (S102: automatic), a predetermined designation rule is referred to (S103), and a page description language is designated for each object according to the designation rule (S105). ).

  Considering the case where the page description language that can be converted by the PDL conversion unit 130 and the page description language that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 200 do not match, the printing control unit 120 communicates with the printing apparatus 200 and interprets it by the printing apparatus 200 A list of possible page description languages may be acquired to match the specified rules. Further, the list may include features of each page description language, for example, information of an object suitable for conversion, and the designation rule may be updated based on the features.

  When the user selects “semi-automatic” as the PDL designation mode (S102: semi-automatic), the attribute registration information set by the user is referred to (S104), and the page description language is designated for each object according to the attribute registration information. (S105).

  When accepting the setting of the attribute registration information from the user, communication with the printing apparatus 200 may be performed, a list of page description languages that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 200 may be acquired and presented to the user. In addition, the features of each page description language may be included in this list, and the features may be presented to the user.

  When the user selects “user designation” as the PDL designation mode (S102: user designation), the preview creation unit 132 creates a preview image and displays it (S106).

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the preview image 300. In the example of this figure, a logo mark, a vector image, a bitmap image, and a text object are displayed on the page image 310 so that they can be identified. The user can designate a page description language for each object by selecting an object and operating the PDL designation button 321 (S107).

  Further, by operating the “acquire from printing apparatus” button 322, a list of page description languages that can be interpreted by the printing apparatus 200 can be acquired and displayed from the printing apparatus 200. By operating the “PDL feature display” button 323, the features of each page description language can be displayed. For example, when the “PDL feature display” button 323 is operated, ““ first PDL color development good ”,“ second PDL data amount reduction ”, etc., is displayed near the display portion of the“ PDL feature display ”button 323. It is.

  In any PDL designation mode, when a page description language is designated for each object, the first PDL conversion unit 133 (1), the second PDL conversion unit 133 (2), ... are page descriptions according to the designated page description language. The language is converted (S108).

  For example, when four objects A, B, C, and D are included in the same page, if the first PDL is designated for A and B and the second PDL is designated for C and D, the first PDL conversion unit 133 is assumed. (1) creates a page description language for drawing A and B in the first PDL, and the second PDL conversion unit 133 (2) creates a page description language for drawing C and D in the second PDL.

  Then, the output unit 140 collectively outputs different page description languages as print data. Accordingly, different page description languages are processed by the printing apparatus 200 as one print job. The print data output by the output unit 140 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 200 via the communication unit 150.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of print data. In the example in this figure, the header information indicating the page description language and the information included in the page description language is linked to the code in each page technology language, but the structure of the print data is limited to the example in this figure. Absent.

  Next, the printing operation of the printing apparatus 200 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When print data in which different page description languages are mixed in the same page is input from the information processing apparatus 100 (S201), the PDL interpretation unit 220 expands the raster data for each page description language and generates a page image (S202). ). Specifically, the first PDL interpretation unit 221 (1) generates a page image based on the first PDL, and the second PDL interpretation unit 221 (2) generates a page image based on the second PDL.

  The synthesizing unit 230 then synthesizes the page images for each page description language to generate a synthesized page image (S203). FIG. 7 schematically shows a process of generating a combined page image by combining a page image based on the first PDL and a page image based on the second PDL.

  The print execution unit 240 prints the composite page image (S204), and the printing of the document to be printed is completed.

As described above, the printing system according to the first aspect of the present invention designates one of a plurality of page description languages for each object in the document to be printed, and converts it into the designated page description language. A printing control device comprising: a conversion unit that outputs the output data including a plurality of converted page description languages; and an interpretation that inputs the print data and generates a page image for each page description language A printing apparatus comprising: a copy unit; a combining unit that generates a combined page image by combining the page images for each page description language; and a print execution unit that prints the combined page image;
It is characterized by providing.
As a result, when a plurality of page description languages can be used, it is possible to perform print processing utilizing the characteristics of each page description language.

A printing control apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention includes: a conversion unit that designates one of a plurality of page description languages for each object in a document to be printed, and converts the object into a designated page description language; And an output unit that outputs print data including a plurality of converted page description languages.
As a result, when a plurality of page description languages can be used, it is possible to perform print processing utilizing the characteristics of each page description language.

  Here, the conversion unit can designate one of a plurality of page description languages for each object according to a predetermined rule of correspondence between the object and the page description language.

  Further, the conversion unit displays a preview image that can identify the object, and receives an instruction from the user with the preview image, so that one of a plurality of page description languages can be specified for each object. .

A printing control program according to a second aspect of the present invention includes: a conversion unit that designates one of a plurality of page description languages for each object in a document to be printed, and converts the object into a designated page description language; An information processing apparatus is caused to function as an output unit that outputs print data including a plurality of converted page description languages.
As a result, when a plurality of page description languages can be used, it is possible to perform print processing utilizing the characteristics of each page description language.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Printing system, 100 ... Information processing apparatus, 110 ... Print document production | generation part, 120 ... Print control part, 130 ... PDL conversion part, 131 ... PDL designation | designated part, 132 ... Preview creation part, 133 ... NPDL conversion part, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 140 ... Output part, 150 ... Communication part, 200 ... Printing apparatus, 210 ... Communication part, 220 ... PDL interpretation part, 221 ... NPDL interpretation part, 230 ... Composition part, 240 ... Print execution part

Claims (5)

A conversion unit that specifies one of a plurality of page description languages for each object in the document to be printed, and converts the object into a specified page description language;
An output unit that outputs print data including a plurality of converted page description languages;
An interpreter that inputs the print data and generates a page image for each page description language;
A combining unit that generates a combined page image by combining page images for each page description language;
A printing apparatus comprising: a print execution unit that prints the composite page image;
A printing system comprising: A conversion unit that specifies one of a plurality of page description languages for each object in the document to be printed, and converts the object into a specified page description language;
An output unit for outputting print data including a plurality of converted page description languages;
A printing control apparatus comprising: The converter is
The print control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein any one of a plurality of page description languages is designated for each object in accordance with a predetermined rule for correspondence between the object and the page description language. The converter is
The preview image which can identify an object is displayed, and one of a plurality of page description languages is designated for each object by receiving an instruction from a user using the preview image. Print control device. A conversion unit that designates one of a plurality of page description languages for each object in the document to be printed, and converts it into the designated page description language.
An output unit for outputting print data including a plurality of converted page description languages;
Program for causing the information processing apparatus to function.