JP3221361B2 - Color data converter - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color data conversion device, and more particularly to a color data conversion device for converting RGB (red, green, blue) data into CMY (cyan, magenta, yellow) data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When printing image data created by a higher-level device as RGB data with a color printing device, the R
GB data must be converted to CMY data.
As a first conventional example, there is one in which this color conversion is programmed in a host device. Further, as a second conventional example, there has been one that performs color conversion inside a printing apparatus. As the latter literature, JP-A-63-278850 and JP-A-63-15
No. 4351 and the like.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION However, RGB
Since the conversion process from data to CMY data involves a large amount of data to be processed, the first conventional example has the disadvantages that some of the processing functions of the host device are restricted and a large amount of memory area is occupied. . When a color printing system includes a plurality of higher-level devices, each higher-level device must have a color conversion function. Further, in the second conventional example, when a plurality of color printing apparatuses are connected, each printing apparatus must have a color conversion function, which is uneconomical.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to improve the disadvantages of the prior art, and in particular, to provide a color data converter for realizing an economical color printing system.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a data receiving unit having a plurality of input ports connected to a plurality of higher-level devices and receiving print data from each of the higher-level devices, and the data receiving unit Of the print data received from the printer, a color conversion unit for converting RGB data into CMY data, and a data output unit having a plurality of output ports connected to a plurality of printing apparatuses. Then, the data receiving unit,
It is checked whether or not the print data contains RGB data. If the print data contains RGB data,
The B data is extracted and transferred to the color conversion unit, and the remaining data is directly transferred to the data output unit. Further, the data output unit transmits the other data transferred from the data reception unit and the CMY data transferred from the color conversion unit to the printing device via an output port set as valid among the output ports. It is configured to output.

[0006] In the present invention, the data receiving unit receives the RGB data, and transfers it to the color conversion unit. The color conversion unit converts the received RGB data into CMY data using a conventional general conversion algorithm and transfers the CMY data to a data output unit. The data output unit responds to a designated printing device .
The CMY data is output via the corresponding output port .

[0007] In the present invention, the data receiving unit is directly transfer upon receiving the other data than RGB data from a host apparatus the other data to the data output unit.

That is, in the present invention, the data receiving unit
The contents of the data received from the host device are inspected, and if the data includes RGB data, the data is transferred to the color conversion unit. If other data is included, the other data is output to the data output unit. Transfer directly to. The data output unit outputs both the CMY data received from the color conversion unit and other data received from the data reception unit to an output port set as valid.
You .

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the data output unit
Outputs the other data when receiving the other data
Determine whether an instruction specifying the destination printing device is included.
CMY data if the specified instruction is included
And the output destination of other data specified by the designated command
The output port corresponding to the printing apparatus is set to be valid .

In the present invention, the data output unit that has received other data from the data receiving unit checks whether or not the other data includes a designation command for designating the output destination printing apparatus. Then, if the designation command is included, the printing device that outputs data is switched as specified, and then CMY data and other data are output to the printing device.

Accordingly, the above-mentioned object is to be achieved.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.
It will be described based on.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a color printing system including a color data conversion device 10 according to the present invention. The color data conversion device 10 includes a plurality of host devices COMa, COM
b, a data receiving unit 1 for selectively receiving RGB data from the COMc, and an RGB signal received by the data receiving unit 1.
A color conversion unit 2 for converting data into CMY data, and a plurality of printing devices PR
a, PRb, PRc, and a data output unit 3 for outputting to a printing device designated in advance.

In the present embodiment, the data receiving unit 1 transmits the RG from the higher-level devices COMa, COMb, and COMc.
When data other than the B data is received, the other data is directly transferred to the data output unit 3, and when the other data is received, the data output unit 3 outputs the other data to a printing device designated in advance. Has functions. Further, when receiving the other data, the data output unit 3 determines whether or not the other data includes a command for specifying a printing apparatus to which the data is to be output. A function is provided for switching the output destination of data and other data to the printing device specified by the designation command.

This will be described in further detail.
Means a plurality of host devices (computers) COMa, COM
b, a plurality of input ports connected to COMc. A parallel interface or a network interface can be used for this input port. Further, the data output unit 3 includes a plurality of printing devices PRa, PRb,
It has a plurality of output ports connected to PRc. A parallel interface or a network interface can also be employed for this output port.

When print data is output from a plurality of higher-level devices, the data receiving unit 1 selectively receives print data from a predetermined higher-level device according to, for example, first-come-first-served order or priority order, and temporarily stores the print data in an internal buffer. Then, the data receiving unit 1 checks whether or not the received print data includes data indicating the RGB intensity (RGB data). As a result, if the RGB data is included,
The B data is extracted and transferred to the color conversion unit 2. The remaining data is directly transferred to the data output unit 3. on the other hand,
If the print data received from the host device does not include the RGB data, all the data is directly transferred to the data output unit 3.

The color conversion unit 2 converts the received RGB data into data indicating CMY intensity (CMY data) in accordance with a conventional general algorithm, and transfers the data to a data output unit 3.

The data output unit 3 checks whether or not other data transferred from the data receiving unit 1 includes a designation command for designating an output destination port. Enable the output port indicated in the instruction.
Then, from the output port that is set to be valid, other data and, if any, CMY data are output. Then, when the CMY data and other data are received by the printing device connected to the port, the printing device executes the printing process.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the data receiving unit can receive print data from a plurality of higher-level devices, and the RGB data included in the print data is sequentially converted into CMY data by a single color conversion unit. Since the data can be converted to data and selectively output to multiple printing devices, there is no need for higher-level devices and printing devices to have individual color conversion functions. Can be economical.

Further, even when data other than the RGB data is received, the data receiving unit outputs the data to a lower-level printing apparatus. Therefore, commands and information other than color printing are transmitted from the higher-level apparatus to the printing apparatus. In this case, the operation can be performed without interrupting the function of the system.

Further, the data output unit selects a printing device to output CMY data or the like in accordance with a designation command included in other data. It is possible to flexibly perform a designated color printing process.

[0022]

The present invention exhibits, so structured and functions as described above, according to this, RGB to the data receiving unit and can receive print data from a plurality of host systems, contained in those print data Data is sequentially converted to C by a single color converter.
MY data is converted to MY data and can be selectively output to a plurality of printing devices. Therefore, there is no need for a higher-level device or a printing device to individually have a color conversion function. The system can be made economical.

Further, the data receiving unit, even in the case of receiving the other data than RGB data, because it is output to the lower of the printing device, the printing device commands and information other than the color printing from the host device Can be operated without disturbing the function of the system.

[0024] Further, the data output unit, so selects the printing device to be output to CMY data or the like according to the specified instructions contained in the other data, the output destination as an instruction to be output from the host apparatus It is possible to provide an unprecedented excellent color data conversion device capable of flexibly specifying a printing device and realizing color printing processing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of a color printing system including a color data conversion device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 data receiving unit 2 color conversion unit 3 data output unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/46-1/64 G06T 1/00 510

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] [Claim 1, wherein a plurality of input ports connected to a plurality of host device and a data receiving unit that receives print data from the host device, printing de <br/> over received by the data receiving unit A color conversion unit for converting RGB data into CMY data among the data, and a data output unit having a plurality of output ports connected to a plurality of printing devices, wherein the data receiving unit is configured to output the RGB data to the print data. Is checked whether or not the data is included, and if the RGB data is included, the RGB data is extracted and transferred to the color conversion unit, and the remaining other data is directly transferred to the data output unit. The data output unit outputs the other data transferred from the data reception unit and the CMY data transferred from the color conversion unit to the printing device via an output port set as valid among the output ports. Do The color data conversion apparatus according to claim and. 2. When the data output unit receives the other data, the data output unit determines whether the other data includes a command for specifying a printing apparatus to which the data is to be output, and includes the specification command. claims, characterized in that to set the effective output port in response to the printing apparatus instructed to output destination of the CMY data and the other data in the designated instruction if
2. The color data conversion device according to 1.