JP4732542B2 - Printing apparatus, printing method, and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention, printing apparatus, a printing method, and a program and, more particularly, in a system configured with a printing device such as an information processing apparatus and a printer such as a personal computer, a background pattern image to restrain such as the use of copies The present invention relates to a process for printing an image including the image.

Conventionally, for the purpose of prohibiting or inhibiting copying of forms and resident's cards, papers with special printing called forgery prevention papers have been used. This anti-counterfeit paper is hard to be seen by humans in the original, but when it is copied using a copying machine or the like, it is a paper on which characters such as “COPY” appear on the copied sheet. As a result, a print sheet as an original and a copy of the original can be easily recognized visually. By using this anti-counterfeit paper, a person who makes a copy hesitates to use the copy. It also has a psychological check effect of suppressing the copying act itself. The reason why it is necessary to make the character string difficult to be seen by humans in the original of the anti-counterfeit paper is to make it possible to clearly distinguish the original from the copy. If a character string such as “COPY” is visible in the original so that it can be clearly identified by humans, there is a possibility that it will be identified as a copy, which does not make sense as anti-counterfeit paper.
Non-Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 2 disclose techniques for producing such anti-counterfeit paper.

  However, since such anti-counterfeit paper is produced using a special printing technique, there is a problem that the cost is higher than that of normal paper. In addition, only characters set at the time of producing the anti-counterfeit paper can be raised. For this reason, the usage of anti-counterfeit paper and the character string to be set are limited. In other words, conventional anti-counterfeit paper has a lack of flexibility in terms of use due to its production.

  On the other hand, as various contents are being digitalized, contents such as forms and resident's cards are also converted into digital data. However, the digitization of the handling of these forms and resident cards is still in a transitional period. As a result, the content of digital data created using a computer is often used by outputting it to paper using a printer or the like.

  Under such circumstances, due to the dramatic improvement in printer performance in recent years, attention has been paid to a technology for printing on-demand paper having the same effect as that of conventional anti-counterfeit paper using a computer and a printer. . Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 disclose a technique for superimposing and outputting an image called a background pattern on the background of content data when content data created using a computer is printed out using a printer. Yes. The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image looks like a simple pattern or background color to the human eye in the original (printed material output by the printer), but when the original is copied, predetermined characters and the like are raised on the copy. . As a result, it is possible to give the same effect to the copied person as the anti-counterfeit paper.

  When a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image created using a computer is output in an overlapping manner, it is natural to use normal printing paper or the like. Therefore, there is an advantage in terms of cost compared with the forgery prevention paper. Furthermore, a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image can be generated when the content is printed out. As a result, it is possible to freely set characters and the like that will be manifested during copying. Another advantage is that dynamic information such as the name of the user who executed printing and the output date and time can be highlighted as a character string.

  As described above, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is a copy of a copy of a predetermined character that has been unrecognizable before copying and becomes apparent in the copy and is not used. In other words, it realizes an effect that makes it easy to visually identify that it is not the original. In order to realize this effect, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is basically recognized at the time of copying when the image remains (appears) in the copy and when the image disappears in the copy or becomes thinner than the remaining region. It is composed of two areas that are difficult to perform. These two areas have almost the same density in a printed state, and it is not understood macroscopically that characters or the like that are manifested by copying such as “COPY” are hidden (embedded). However, microscopically, for example, the printing dot level has different characteristics as shown below.

  Hereinafter, an image that appears by copying is referred to as a “latent image”, and an image that disappears or becomes faded by copying is referred to as a “background” for convenience. The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image basically consists of the latent image and the background image. In some cases, the latent image is called a foreground as a term on the user interface.

  However, copy-forgery-inhibited pattern printing is not limited to the above-described configuration, and it may be configured such that a character string such as “COPY”, a logo, a pattern, or the like appears (visualizes) in a copy so that a human can recognize it. That is, even if a character string such as “COPY” is shown in white in the copied material, the purpose of the tint block printing is achieved. In this case, needless to say, the character string “COPY” is generated as a background image.

  In the case of a dot printer such as an electrophotographic or ink jet printer, an area where an image remains in a copy (latent image portion or foreground portion) is formed by a collection of concentrated dot clusters. In addition, a region (background portion) reproduced with a lighter density than the image density of the region where the image disappears or remains in the copy is configured by a set of dispersed dots. Furthermore, when the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed, it is possible to make the density of the entire copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image substantially uniform by configuring the respective areas to have substantially the same density.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing these two areas. As shown in the figure, a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is constituted by a background portion in which dots are dispersed and a latent image portion in which a cluster of concentrated dots is arranged. These two regions can be generated by different halftone dot processing and different dither processing. When a tint block image is generated using halftone dot processing, halftone dot processing with a low number of lines is suitable for the latent image portion and halftone dot processing with a high number of lines is suitable for the background portion. When a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is generated using dither processing, dither processing using a dot concentration type dither matrix is suitable for the latent image portion, and dither processing using a dot dispersion type dither matrix is suitable for the background portion.

  Generally, a copying machine has a limit of reproducibility depending on an input resolution for reading minute dots on an original and an output resolution for reproducing minute dots. If the background dots of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image are formed smaller than the limit point of the dots that can be reproduced by the copying machine, and the dot block of the latent image portion is formed to be larger than the limit point, the image of the large copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image by copying Is reproduced on the copy, and the image with small dots is not reproduced on the copy. As a result, the latent image is revealed. Even if the small dots dispersed by copying do not disappear completely, the latent image can be recognized more remarkably even when the density after copying is lower than that of the concentrated dot cluster.

  FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B are diagrams showing the actualization of the latent image. FIG. 2A corresponds to a state in which a tint block image is printed. FIG. 2B corresponds to a copy obtained when FIG. 2A is copied by a copying machine. 2 (a) and 2 (b), it will be understood that a latent image due to a collection of concentrated dot clusters appears and the background due to dispersed dots disappears.

  A color printer usually has a plurality of color processing modes, for example, a full color printing mode and a black and white printing mode. However, an automatic color processing mode switching function has become common in order to reduce costs such as toner saving. It's getting on. The color processing mode automatic switching function performs processing such as printing in the monochrome mode even when full color printing is designated when the page to be printed is composed of only monochrome data. This function is described in Patent Document 3, for example. In the case of the color processing mode at the time of printing, a charging process for each page for the print job is being used.

  FIG. 3 shows an example of a user interface of the color processing mode designation method. As shown in the menu 5101 in the figure, in this embodiment, in addition to “full color / monochrome automatic switching” that switches the color mode according to the contents of the output page, “full color” that always prints in the color mode, and always in the monochrome mode. Three types of “Monochrome” color processing modes for printing are provided.

As a method for specifying a color mode for a printer, a job command such as the following is generally added to the head of print data and used. For reference, commands for instructing the printer to perform automatic, color, and monochrome instructions are described.
JL SET COLOR-MODE = AUTO
JL SET COLOR-MODE = COLOR
JL SET COLOR-MODE = MONOCHROME

JP 2001-197297 A JP 2001-238075 A JP-A-5-019993

US Pat. No. 5,788,285 US Pat. No. 6,000,728

When the color designation of the tint block image is specified and the print mode is the monochrome mode, after generating the color tint block image, the color of the pure color pixel such as magenta or cyan in the tint block image of the color is changed to black ( If color / monochrome conversion processing is performed such that the image is converted to gray that is not 100% density (pure color), an inappropriate black-and-white tint block image is generated.

An object of the present invention is to obtain an appropriate black and white copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image when the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is specified and the print mode is the monochrome mode .

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, a print control apparatus according to the present invention includes: a receiving unit that receives an automatic switching mode selection or a monochrome mode selection from among print mode selections; A print control apparatus having an original color determination unit for determining whether there is a monochrome or a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern and a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern color determination unit for determining whether the color designation of a tint block image is color or monochrome, If accepted, control is performed so that the combined result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome only when it is determined that the original is a monochrome page and the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be monochrome. In other cases, control is performed so that the combined result of the original and the tint block image is printed in color, and when the monochrome mode selection is accepted, Is determined to be monochrome, the composition of the original and the tint block image is controlled to be printed in monochrome, and if the tint block image color is determined to be color, the print mode is changed. Control means for controlling whether or not to make an inquiry.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the print control apparatus according to the present invention includes: a receiving unit that receives, from a user, an automatic switching mode selection or a monochrome mode selection among print mode selections; A print control apparatus having an original color determination unit for determining whether there is a monochrome or a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern, and a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern color determination unit for determining whether the color designation of a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is color or monochrome. If accepted, control is performed so that the combined result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome only when it is determined that the original is a monochrome page and the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be monochrome. In other cases, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is controlled so that the combined result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in the color mode, and selection of the monochrome mode is accepted. When the color designation is determined to be monochrome, control is performed so that the combined result of the original and the tint block image is printed in monochrome. When the color designation of the tint block image is determined to be color, the tint block image is There is a control means for notifying the user that printing is performed in monochrome.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method according to the present invention comprising: a receiving step of receiving, from a user, an automatic switching mode selection or a monochrome mode selection among print mode selections by a print control device; A method having a document color determination step for determining whether the color is monochrome or monochrome, and a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern color determination step for determining whether the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is color or monochrome. When the document is accepted, only when it is determined that the document is a monochrome page and the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be monochrome, the combined result of the document and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome. Control, otherwise, control is performed so that the combined result of the original and copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in color, and monochrome mode selection is accepted When it is determined that the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is monochrome, control is performed so that the synthesis result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome, and when the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be color, A control step for controlling to inquire whether or not to change the print mode;
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method according to the present invention, comprising: a receiving step of receiving, from a user, a selection of an automatic switching mode or a selection of a monochrome mode among a print mode selected by a print control device; A method having a document color determination step for determining whether the color is monochrome or monochrome, and a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern color determination step for determining whether the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is color or monochrome. When the document is accepted, only when it is determined that the document is a monochrome page and the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be monochrome, the combined result of the document and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome. Otherwise, control is performed so that the combined result of the original and the tint block image is printed in the color mode, and the selection of the monochrome mode is accepted. In this case, when it is determined that the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is monochrome, the synthesis result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is controlled to be printed in monochrome, and when the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be color. Has a control step of notifying the user that the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a program according to the present invention is for causing a print control apparatus to execute the above method.

It is a figure which shows two area | regions of the image of a forgery check pattern. It is a figure which shows the visible image of a forgery check ground pattern. It is a figure which shows an example of the user interface of the color processing mode designation | designated method. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a print control system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a typical print system of a host computer to which a printer is connected. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a print system that once spools a spool file before converting a print command from an application into a printer control command. 6 is a flowchart illustrating spooling of print data in a spooler. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print setting input dialog. FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of print control and physical page number determination processing by a spool file manager. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the process in a despooler. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data format that is passed when a spool page manager issues a physical page print request to a despooler. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of job setting information illustrated in FIG. 11. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data format that is passed when a spool page manager issues a physical page print request to a despooler. It is a figure which shows an example of the physical page setting information in FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of a data format that is passed when a spool page manager issues a physical page print request to a despooler. It is a figure which shows an example of the setting screen of a tint block print function. It is a figure which shows an example of the dialog for editing each detailed setting of a tint block print. It is a figure which shows an example of the data format of the additional printing information of FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of manuscript and tint block color control when automatic color processing mode is selected. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of manuscript and tint block color control when a color processing mode monochrome is selected. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of document and tint block color control when a color processing mode color is selected. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a tint block pattern drawing process. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a tint block pattern drawing process. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a tint block pattern drawing process.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  4 to 24 show basic drawing data of a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image associated with printing processing in a system including a host computer that is an information processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention and a printer that is a printing apparatus. It is a figure explaining the structure regarding the production | generation of.

  In the present embodiment, a portion that appears in a copy at the time of copying is referred to as a latent image portion or a foreground portion. Further, when copying, a portion that disappears or becomes thinner than the latent image portion in the copy is referred to as a background portion. Then, text information such as “COPY” and “VOID” is input to the latent image portion. However, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image in the present invention is not limited to this, and in a copy, the text information may be expressed (exposed) like a white character with respect to surrounding images. In this case, it is a matter of course that the above-described dot concentration and dispersion relationship between the latent image portion and the background portion is opposite to that which is not white. The present invention is not defined by the type of tint block image, generation processing, color, shape, size, or the like.

Configuration of Printing System FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printing system according to the embodiment of the present invention. As long as the function of the present invention is executed, a system in which processing is performed by being connected via a network such as a LAN or WAN, whether it is a single device or a system composed of a plurality of devices. Even so, the present invention can be applied.

  In the figure, the host computer 3000 includes a graphic, image, character, including processing according to an embodiment of the present invention to be described later, based on a document processing program stored in the program ROM of the ROM 3 or the external memory 11. A CPU 1 is provided for controlling the execution of a document process including a table (including a spreadsheet) and the like and a print process based on the document process. The CPU 1 summarizes the control of each device connected to the system bus 4. Further, the program ROM of the ROM 3 or the external memory 11 stores an operating system program (hereinafter referred to as OS) which is a control program of the CPU 1. The font ROM of the ROM 3 or the external memory 11 stores font data used for the document processing. The data ROM of the ROM 3 or the external memory 11 stores various data used when performing the document processing or the like. The RAM 2 functions as a main memory and work area for the CPU 1.

  A keyboard controller (KBC) 5 controls key input from a keyboard 9 or a pointing device (not shown). A CRT controller (CRTC) 6 controls display by a CRT display (CRT) 10 including display of a tint block image. The disk controller (DKC) 7 includes a hard disk (HD), floppy (registered trademark) disk (which stores a boot program, various applications, font data, user files, edit files, a printer control command generation program (hereinafter referred to as a printer driver), and the like. FD) or the like is controlled. The printer controller (PRTC) 8 is connected to the printer 1500 via the bidirectional interface (interface) 21 and executes communication control processing with the printer 1500.

  The CPU 1 executes an outline font development (rasterization) process on the display information RAM set on the RAM 2, for example. And WYSIWYG on CRT10 is enabled. Further, the CPU 1 opens various windows registered based on commands instructed by a mouse cursor (not shown) on the CRT 10 and executes various data processing. When executing printing, the user can open a window related to print settings and set the print processing method for the printer driver, including printer settings and print mode selection.

  The printer 1500 is controlled by the CPU 12 provided in the printer 1500. The printer CPU 12 is a printing unit (printer) connected to the system bus 15 via the printing unit I / F 16 based on a control program stored in the program ROM of the ROM 13 or a control program stored in the external memory 14. The engine) outputs an image signal as print output information. The program ROM of the ROM 13 stores a control program for the CPU 12 and the like. The font ROM of the ROM 13 stores font data used when generating the print output information. The data ROM of the ROM 13 stores information used on the host computer in the case of a printer that does not have the external memory 14 such as a hard disk.

  The CPU 12 can communicate with the host computer via the input unit 18 and can notify the host computer 3000 of information in the printer. The RAM 19 functions as a main memory of the CPU 12, a work area, or the like, and is configured to be able to expand the memory capacity by an optional RAM connected to an expansion port (not shown). The RAM 19 is used as an output information expansion area, environment data storage area, NVRAM, and the like. Access to the above-described external memory 14 such as a hard disk (HD) or IC card is controlled by a memory controller (MC) 20. The external memory 14 is connected as an option and stores font data, an emulation program, form data, and the like. The operation panel 1501 is provided with switches for operation, LED indicators, and the like.

  The external memory 14 described above is not limited to one, and a plurality of external memories 14 are provided. In addition to the built-in font, a plurality of external memories storing an option card and a program for interpreting a printer control language having a different language system can be connected. May be. Further, an NVRAM (not shown) may be provided to store printer mode setting information from the operation panel 1501.

  In the present embodiment, the printing unit 17 includes an electrophotographic engine. Accordingly, the image printing and the accompanying copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image are printed by toner dots formed according to the print data. Of course, for the application of the present invention, the printing method is not limited to such an electrophotographic method. For example, the printing method may be applied to any type of printing apparatus that performs printing by forming dots, such as an inkjet method. The present invention can be applied.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration for print processing in the host computer 3000 shown in FIG. The application 201, the graphic engine 202, the printer driver 203, and the system spooler 204 exist as files stored in the external memory 11, and when executed, are loaded into the RAM 2 and executed by the OS and modules using the modules. It is a program module. Further, the application 201 and the printer driver 203 can be added to the HD of the external memory 11 via the FD of the external memory 11, a CD-ROM (not shown), or a network (not shown). The application 201 stored in the external memory 11 is loaded into the RAM 2 and executed. When printing is performed from the application 201 to the printer 1500, output (rendering) is similarly performed using the graphic engine 202 loaded into the RAM 2 and executable.

  The graphic engine 202 similarly loads the printer driver 203 prepared for each printing apparatus such as a printer from the external memory 11 to the RAM 2 and sets the output of the application 201 in the printer driver 203. Then, the GDI (Graphic Device Interface) function received from the application 201 is converted into a DDI (Device Driver Interface) function, and the DDI function is output to the printer driver 203.

  Based on the DDI function received from the graphic engine 202, the printer driver 203 converts it into a control command that can be recognized by the printer, for example, PDL (Page Description Language). The converted printer control command is output as print data to the printer 1500 via the interface 21 via the system spooler 204 loaded into the RAM 2 by the OS.

  The printing system according to the present embodiment includes a tint block processing unit 205. The background pattern processing unit 205 performs processing such as generation of a background pattern image command, which will be described later, regarding printing of a background pattern image.

Software Module Figure 6 print-related relates to a another example of the configuration for print processing in a host computer 3000, is a block diagram showing the configuration an extension of the configuration shown in FIG. In this configuration, when a print command is sent from the graphic engine 202 to the printer driver 203, a spool file 303 composed of an intermediate code is once generated. In the configuration of FIG. 5, the application 201 is released from the printing process when the printer driver 203 has converted all print commands from the graphic engine 202 into printer control commands. On the other hand, in the configuration of FIG. 6, the spooler 302 converts all print commands into intermediate code data and outputs the intermediate code data to the spool file 303. The latter usually requires less time. In the configuration shown in FIG. 6, the contents of the spool file 303 can be processed. As a result, it is possible to realize functions that the application does not have, such as enlargement / reduction or printing by reducing a plurality of pages into one page with respect to print data from the application.

  For these purposes, the system has been expanded to spool with intermediate code data as shown in FIG. In order to process the print data, settings are normally made from a window provided by the printer driver 203, and the printer driver 203 stores the setting contents on the RAM 2 or the external memory 11.

  Details of the configuration shown in FIG. 6 will be described below. As shown in the figure, in this expanded processing method, the dispatcher 301 receives a DDI function that is a print command from the graphic engine 202. When the print command (DDI function) received by the dispatcher 301 from the graphic engine 202 is based on the print command (GDI function) issued from the application 201 to the graphic engine 202, the dispatcher 301 stores it in the external memory 11. The spooler 302 is loaded into the RAM 2 and a print command (DDI function) is sent to the spooler 302 instead of the printer driver 203.

  The spooler 302 analyzes the received print command, converts it into an intermediate code for each page, and outputs it to the spool file 303. The spool file of intermediate code stored in units of pages is called a page drawing file (PDF). Further, the spooler 302 acquires processing settings (Nup, double-sided, staple, color / monochrome designation, etc.) relating to print data set for the printer driver 203 from the printer driver 203, and creates a spool file 303 as a job unit file. Save to. This setting file stored in units of jobs is called a job setting file (sometimes simply called SDF: Spool Description File). This job setting file will be described later. The spool file 303 is generated as a file on the external memory 11, but may be generated on the RAM 2. Further, the spooler 302 loads the spool file manager 304 stored in the external memory 11 into the RAM 2 and notifies the spool file manager 304 of the generation status of the spool file 303. Thereafter, the spool file manager 304 determines whether printing can be performed in accordance with the contents of the processing settings relating to the print data stored in the spool file 303.

  When the spool file manager 304 determines that printing can be performed using the graphic engine 202, the despooler 305 stored in the external memory 11 is loaded into the RAM 2. Then, the spool file manager 304 instructs the despooler 305 to perform control command generation processing based on the intermediate code page drawing file described in the spool file 303.

  The despooler 305 processes the page drawing file of the intermediate code included in the spool file 303 according to the job setting file including the processing setting information included in the spool file 303, regenerates the GDI function, and converts the GDI function again via the graphic engine 202. Output. At this time, the command generation relating to the printing of the tint block image is performed by loading the tint block processing unit 205.

  The printing system according to the present embodiment also includes the tint block processing unit 205 similar to that shown in FIG. The tint block processing unit 205, together with the despooler 305, the spool file manager 304, etc., performs processing such as generation of a tint block image command, which will be described later, regarding printing of a tint block image.

  The copy-forgery-inhibited pattern processing unit 205 may be a built-in module of the printer driver 203 or a library module added by an individual installation.

  If the print command (DDI function) received by the dispatcher 301 from the graphic engine 202 is based on the print command (GDI function) issued from the despooler 305 to the graphic engine 202, the dispatcher 301 is not the spooler 302. A print command is sent to the printer driver 203. The printer driver 203 generates a printer control command including a page description language based on the DDI function acquired from the graphic engine 202 and outputs the printer control command to the printer 1500 via the system spooler 204.

  Further, FIG. 6 shows an example in which a previewer 306 and a setting change editor 307 are arranged in addition to the above-described extended system so that a preview including a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image preview, a print setting change, and a combination of a plurality of jobs can be performed. ing.

  The contents set in the properties of the printer driver are stored as a setting file in a structure provided by the OS (called DEVMODE in the Windows (registered trademark) OS). The structure includes, for example, a setting for whether to store in the spool file manager 304 during processing settings included in the spool file 303. When the spool file manager 304 reads processing settings via the printer driver and stores are specified, a page drawing file and a job setting file are generated and stored in the spool file 303 as described above. Further, a window screen of the spool file manager is popped up, and a list of jobs spooled in the spool file 303 is displayed.

  When a preview of a single job or a combined job is designated on the window screen of the spool file manager, the previewer 306 stored in the external memory 11 is loaded into the RAM 2, and the spool file 303 is sent to the previewer 306. Is instructed to perform a preview process of the intermediate code job described in (1).

Processing for Saving Print Intermediate Data FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the processing of the page unit saving step in the generation of the spool file 303 in the spooler 302.

  In the figure, first, in step S501, the spooler 302 receives a print request from the application via the graphic engine 202. In the application, a dialog for inputting print settings as shown in FIG. 8 is displayed, and the print settings input from this dialog are passed to the spooler 303 from the printer driver. The setting input dialog shown in FIG. 8 includes setting items for determining the number of logical pages to be laid out in one physical page, such as a list box 801.

  In step S502, the spooler 302 determines whether the received print request is a job start request. If it is determined in step S502 that the request is a job start request, the process advances to step S503, and the spooler 302 creates a spool file 303 for temporarily storing intermediate data.

  In step S504, the spooler 302 notifies the spool file manager 304 of the progress of the printing process. In step S505, the page number counter of the spooler 302 is initialized to 1. Here, the spool file manager 304 reads job information, processing settings, and the like for the job for which printing has started from the spool file 303 and stores it.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S502 that the request is not a job start request, the process proceeds to step S506. In step S506, the spooler 302 determines whether the received request is a job end request. If it is determined that the request is not a job end request, the process advances to step S507 to determine whether a page break has occurred. If it is determined in step S507 that the page is a page break, the process advances to step S508 to notify the spool file manager 304 of the progress of the printing process. Then, the page number counter is incremented, the page drawing file storing the intermediate code is closed, and the next page drawing file is generated. If it is determined in step S507 that the received print request is not a page break, the process advances to step S509, and the spooler 302 prepares to write the intermediate code to the page drawing file.

  Next, in step S510, in order to store the print request in the spool file 303, the spooler 302 converts the print request into an intermediate code of the DDI function. In step S <b> 511, the spooler 302 writes the print request (intermediate code) converted into a storable form in step S <b> 510 to the page drawing file of the spool file 303. Thereafter, the process returns to step S501 to accept a print request from the application again. The series of processing from step S501 to step S511 is continued until a job end request is received from the application. Further, the spooler 302 simultaneously acquires information such as processing settings stored in the DEVMODE structure from the printer driver 203 and stores the information in the spool file 303 as a job setting file.

  On the other hand, if the spooler 302 determines in step S506 that the print request from the application is the end of the job, all the print requests from the application are complete, and the process advances to step S512 to print to the spool file manager 304. Notify the progress of the process and finish the process.

Spool File Generation FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing details of control between the spool file 303 generation process and the print data generation process in the spool file manager 304.

  In step S <b> 601, the spool file manager 304 receives a print processing progress notification from the spooler 302 or the despooler 305. In step S602, the spool file manager 304 determines whether the progress notification is a print start notification from the spooler 302 notified in step S504 described above. If it is a print start notification, the process advances to step S603 to read print processing settings from the spool file 303 and start job management.

  On the other hand, if the print start notification is not received from the spooler 302 in step S602, the process proceeds to step S604. In step S604, the spool file manager 304 determines whether or not the progress notification is a print end notification of one logical page from the spooler 302 notified in step S508 described above. If it is a print end notification for one logical page, the process advances to step S605 to store logical page information for this logical page. In subsequent step S606, the spool file manager 304 determines whether printing of one physical page can be started for the n logical pages for which spooling has been completed at this time. If printing is possible, the process advances to step S607 to determine the physical page number from the logical number assigned to one physical page to be printed.

  Regarding the calculation of the physical page, for example, when the processing setting is such that four logical pages are arranged in one physical page, the first physical page can be printed when the fourth logical page is spooled, and the first physical page is printed. It becomes a page. Subsequently, the second physical page can be printed when the eighth logical page is spooled. Even if the total number of logical pages is not a multiple of the number of logical pages allocated to one physical page, the logical page to be allocated to one physical page can be determined by the spool end notification in step S512.

  In step S608, the logical page number constituting the printable physical page and information such as the physical page number are stored in a job output setting file (a file including physical page information). The storage format is shown in FIG. The despooler 305 is notified that the physical page information has been added for one physical page. Thereafter, the process returns to step S601 and waits for the next notification. In the present embodiment, print processing can be performed even if all the print jobs are not spooled when one page of print data, that is, a logical page constituting one physical page is spooled.

  On the other hand, if the progress notification is not a print end notification of one logical page from the spooler 302 in step S604, the process advances to step S609, and the spool file manager 304 notifies the job end from the spooler 302 notified in step S512 described above. It is determined whether or not. If it is a job end notification, the process proceeds to step S606 described above. On the other hand, if it is not a job end notification, the process advances to step S610, and the spool file manager 304 determines whether or not the received notification is a print end notification of one physical page from the despooler 305. Here, if it is a print end notification of one physical page, the process proceeds to step S612, and it is determined whether all the processing setting processes have been completed. When the process is completed, the process advances to step S612 to notify the despooler 305 of the process end. On the other hand, if it is determined that the processing for the processing setting has not yet been completed, the process proceeds to 606 described above. The despooler 305 in this embodiment assumes the number of one physical page as a unit for performing print processing. In step S608, information necessary to perform printing processing of one physical page is sequentially stored in a file so that it can be reused. If reuse is not necessary, a high-speed medium such as a shared memory is used. May be implemented in such a manner that one physical page is overwritten one after another to save speed and resources. Further, when the spool progress is faster than the despooling progress, or when despooling is started after the spooling of all the pages is completed, it is not notified in step S608 that page printing is possible for each physical page. Depending on the progress on the despooling side, it is possible to save the number of notifications by setting the notification contents that a plurality of physical pages or all physical pages can be printed.

  If it is determined in step S610 that the notification is not a print end notification of one physical page from the despooler 305, the process advances to step S613, and the spool file manager 304 determines whether it is a print end notification from the despooler 305. If it is determined that the notification is a print end notification from the despooler 305, the process advances to step S614, and the spool file manager 304 deletes the corresponding page drawing file in the spool file 303 and ends the process. However, if the print end notification is not received from the despooler 305, the process advances to step S615 to perform other normal processing and wait for the next notification.

Output of Spool File FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing details of the print data generation process in the despooler 305.

  In response to a print request from the spool file manager 304, the despooler 305 reads necessary information (page drawing file and job setting file) from the spool file 303 and generates print data. The method of transferring the generated print data to the printer is as described above with reference to FIG. As described above, the print data is PDL.

  In generating print data, first, in step S701, a notification from the spool file manager 304 is input. In subsequent step S702, the despooler 305 determines whether or not the input notification is a job end notification, and if it is a job end notification, the process proceeds to step S703, sets an end flag, and proceeds to step S705. On the other hand, if it is not a job end notification in step S702, the process proceeds to step S704, and it is determined whether a print start request for one physical page in step S608 is notified. If it is not determined to be a start request in step S704, the process proceeds to step S710 to perform other error processing, and returns to step S701 to wait for the next notification.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S704 that the request for starting printing of one physical page is made, the process advances to step S705, and the despooler 305 stores the ID of the physical page that can be printed, which is notified in step S704. In the subsequent step S706, the despooler 305 determines whether or not the printing process has been completed for all pages of the physical page ID stored in step S705. If all physical pages have been processed, the process advances to step S707 to determine whether the end flag is set in step S703. If the end flag is set, it is considered that the printing of the job has been completed, the processing end notification of the despooler 305 is notified to the spool file manager 304, and the processing ends. If it is determined in step S707 that the end flag is not set, the process returns to step S701 to wait for the next notification.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S706 that a printable physical page remains, the process advances to step S708, and the despooler 305 sequentially reads and reads the unprocessed physical page ID from the stored physical page ID. The information necessary for generating the print data of the physical page corresponding to the physical page ID is read and printing processing is performed. In the printing process, the print request command stored in the spool file 303 is converted into a format (GDI function) that can be recognized by the graphic engine 202 in the despooler 305 and transferred. For the processing setting (hereinafter, N-page printing) for laying out a plurality of logical pages into one physical page as in the present embodiment, conversion is performed while taking the reduced arrangement into consideration in this step.

  When the necessary print processing is completed, the despooler 305 notifies the spool file manager 304 of the end of print data generation for one physical page in the subsequent step S709. Then, the process returns to step S706 again, and is repeated until the print processing is performed for all printable physical page IDs stored in step S705.

  The above is the flow of print processing using the dispatcher 301, the spooler 302, the spool file manager 304, and the despooler 305. By performing the processing as described above, the application 201 is released from the printing process at the timing when the spooler 302 generates the intermediate code and stores it in the spool file 303. Therefore, it is shorter than outputting the print data directly to the printer driver 203. Processing can be completed in time. Further, since intermediate files (page drawing file, job setting file) based on the print settings of the printer driver are temporarily stored in the spool file 303, the user can recognize the print preview to be actually printed. it can. In addition, by holding the intermediate file, it is possible to combine and rearrange print jobs generated by multiple applications. Even when changing the print settings, you do not have to start the application again and print. It is feasible.

  Here, in the printing process using the spooler 302, a job output setting file is generated when a print request is made to the graphic engine 202. However, a job output setting file is also generated when previewing or combining jobs. The job output setting file is equivalent to the job setting file in the case of a single job, and is generated based on a plurality of job setting information in the case of a combined job. Here, the job output setting file will be described.

Configuration of Job Output Setting File FIG. 11 shows an example of a job output setting file that stores information constituting the printable physical page generated by the spool file manager 304 in step S608. A field 1001 is an ID for identifying a job, and can be held in the form of the name of a file storing this information or the name of a shared memory. A field 1002 is job setting information. The job setting information includes a structure necessary for starting printing of a job to the graphic engine 202, designation of N page printing, designation of additional drawing such as a page frame, number of copies, finishing designation such as stapling, etc. Information that can only be set for one job is included. The job setting information 1002 stores as much information as necessary according to the function for the job. A field 1003 is the number of physical pages of the job, and indicates that the physical page information corresponding to this number is stored after this field. In this embodiment, since the number of printable physical pages is notified, the operation is possible even without this field. Thereafter, the physical page information is stored in the number of fields 1003 from the field 1004 to the end. The physical page information will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of job setting information shown in the field 1002 of FIG. A field 1101 is the total number of physical pages. A field 1102 is the total number of logical pages. The fields 1101 and 1102 are used when printing the number of pages as additional information in addition to the print data. When printing continues, both fields are provisional values, or the spool file manager 304 postpones the creation of printable physical page information until printing ends. A field 1103 is copy number information for designating how many copies of the print job are to be printed. A field 1104 is used to specify whether or not printing is performed in units of copies when the field 1103 is set to print a plurality of copies. A field 1105 is finishing information such as stapling, punching, Z-folding, and the like, and is designated when a finisher is provided in the printer main body or outside. A field 1106 is additional print information, which stores information to be added to a job, such as a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print of the present invention, decorations such as page frames, additional information such as date, user name, number of pages, watermark printing, and the like. . As the number of functions increases, the number of fields included in the job setting information also increases. For example, when double-sided printing is possible, a field for storing designation of double-sided printing is added.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of physical page information shown in the field 1004 of FIG. The first field 1201 is a physical page number, which is a value used when managing the printing order and additionally printing the physical page number. A field 1202 is physical page setting information. When the layout and color / monochrome can be designated for each physical page, the layout and color / monochrome settings are stored. A field 1203 is the number of logical pages allocated to this physical page. When four pages are allocated to one physical page, an ID indicating 4 or 4-page printing is stored. From the field 1204 onward, logical page information is stored for the number specified in the field 1203. Depending on the number of pages printed from the application 201, the actual number of page data may be smaller than the number of pages specified in 1203. In that case, special data indicating an empty page is stored in the logical page information.

  FIG. 14 is an example of physical page setting information in the field 1202. A field 1301 stores the designation of the order in which the logical pages are arranged on the physical page by printing N pages in the order of arrangement of the logical pages on the physical page (from top left to side, top left to bottom, etc.). Depending on the system, the setting of the field 1301 may be substituted by arranging the logical page information after the field 1204 in the order corresponding to the arrangement order instead of the page number order instead of the arrangement order. A field 1302 is front / back information for double-sided printing, and is used, for example, when aligning binding margins on the front and back. A field 1303 indicates whether the page is a color page or a monochrome page. Using this field, a color / monochrome mode can be specified for each physical page. A field 1304 is additional print information, and is used when additional information such as the number of pages and date is printed on a physical page. In the physical page setting information, a field is added according to the function of the system.

  In the present embodiment, since the tint block image printing described with reference to FIG. 16 and subsequent figures is information added to the physical page, each physical pattern is printed based on the information regarding the tint block printing held in the field 1106 shown in FIG. It is also stored in the field 1304 as setting information for the page. An example of a data format for storing setting information regarding copy-forgery-inhibited pattern printing in the additional print information 1106 and additional print information 1304 for the job will be described later with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 15 is a diagram illustrating an example of the logical page information indicated in the field 1204. A field 1401 is an ID of a logical page, and an intermediate code of a page drawing file corresponding to the logical page is referred to from the spool file 303 using this ID. It is only necessary that the intermediate code of the logical page can be accessed using this ID, and the intermediate code itself constituting the logical page may be included even if it is a file or a memory pointer. A field 1402 is a logical page number, and is used for printing the logical page number as additional information or for auxiliary information of the logical page ID. The format information in the field 1403 stores various setting items that can be specified in units of logical pages. For example, additional print information such as a page frame and various setting information designated for each logical page such as an enlargement / reduction ratio are stored. If necessary, attribute information for a logical page such as color / monochrome information for each logical page can be stored. On the other hand, the field 1403 is unnecessary in a system in which the setting is switched in units of logical pages or attribute information in units of logical pages is unnecessary.

  The job output setting file is configured as described above. The job setting file is almost the same as the print format (single side, double side, bookbinding printing), print layout (Nup, poster print), additional information (background print information, watermark, date, user name, etc.), number of copies, The paper size information has as a job, and is configured for each physical page from the logical page layout order, the front or back side of double-sided printing, the color mode, and the like.

  Further, FIG. 6 shows an example in which a setting change editor 307 having a job setting change function is arranged in addition to the extended system described so far. The setting change editor 307 is an editor that can interactively change the contents of the above-described job setting file or job output setting file. Since the setting change editor 307 is not directly related to the present invention, the description thereof is omitted.

Description of Copy-forgery-inhibited Pattern Image Print Data Generation Processing One embodiment of the present invention relates to a configuration in which a user arbitrarily selects watermark printing or overprinting of a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image. Specifically, when the user selects either watermark printing or overprinting via a user interface having a radio button 2210 for selecting watermark printing or overprinting shown in FIG. The final overlapping order with the print output image data (original data) is determined. In accordance with this, watermark printing of the tint block image described with reference to FIG. 22 or overprinting of the tint block image described with reference to FIG. 23 is performed. The specific contents of watermark printing and overprinting will be described later.

  FIG. 16 to FIG. 17 are diagrams illustrating an example of a user interface for performing settings relating to the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image printing.

  FIG. 16 shows an example of an initial screen of a user interface related to copy-forgery-inhibited pattern printing arranged in the printer driver 203. In this example, a setting related to copy-forgery-inhibited pattern printing can be performed on the property sheet 2101 in the dialog.

  A check box 2102 is used when designating whether to perform a tint block print (printing including a tint block image, the same applies hereinafter) for a print job. This designation is stored in the additional print information 1106 in FIG. A list box 2103 shows style information for making it possible to specify a plurality of pieces of setting information for a tint block print with one identifier (style). The printer driver 203 can select a plurality of styles, and the relationship between each style and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print information shown in FIG. 18 is registered in the registry. When the user presses a button 2104, a style editing dialog 2201 shown in FIG. 17 is displayed. A check box 2105 is used to adjust the foreground and background contrast in the tint block print. When the user presses a button 2106, a contrast adjustment screen (not shown) is displayed.

  FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of a dialog for editing individual detailed settings of a tint block print.

  In the same figure, in the tint block image information editing dialog 2201, the result of the tint block image generated by individual tint block image information, which will be described later, is displayed for preview in the same area. A list box 2202 is an area for displaying a list of styles that can be selected in 2103 of FIG. The user can use the buttons 2203 and 2204 to newly add and delete styles. In the area 2205, the currently designated style name is displayed.

  A radio button 2206 is used to select the type of drawing object used for tint block printing. When the user operates the radio button 2206 to select “character string”, a text object is used, and when “image” is selected, image data represented by BMP or the like is used. In FIG. 17, since “character string” is selected, setting information related to the text object indicated by the list boxes 2207 to 2209 is displayed in the dialog 2201 and can be edited. On the other hand, when “image” is selected in the radio button 2206, the information 2207 to 2209 is not displayed, and a file selection dialog (not shown) is displayed instead.

  A list box 2207 indicates an area for displaying and editing a character string used as a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image. A list box 2208 indicates an area for displaying and editing font information of a character string. In the present embodiment, only the font name selection screen is used, but the typeface family information (bold, italic, etc.), decorative character information, etc. may be expanded to be selectable. A list box 2209 is an area for displaying and setting a font size of a character string used as a tint block pattern. In this embodiment, a format that can be designated in three stages of “large”, “medium”, and “small” is assumed, but a commonly used font size designation method such as direct input of the number of points may be adopted. . Reference numeral 2210 denotes a radio button for setting the printing order of the tint block pattern and the document data. When “watermark printing” is designated, a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is first drawn on the bitmap memory of the printer, and then document data is drawn so as to overwrite the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image. On the other hand, when “overlapping printing” is designated, the original pattern data is first drawn, and then the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is drawn so as to overwrite the original data. Detailed drawing processing will be described later.

  The radio button 2211 is for designating the arrangement angle of the tint block pattern. In this embodiment, “rising right”, “decreasing right”, and “horizontal” can be selected. However, a numerical value input area in which an angle can be arbitrarily specified, a slider bar that can be intuitively specified, and the like are arranged. However, the angle designation method may be expanded. The list box 2212 shows an area for displaying and specifying the color used for the tint block pattern (foreground pattern, background pattern). As options, full intent colors such as magenta and cyan can be selected in addition to black exemplified in the drawing. A check box 2213 is for exchanging the foreground pattern and the background pattern. If the check box is not checked, the foreground pattern will appear in the copy when copying, whereas if the check box is not checked, the background pattern will appear in the copy so that the foreground pattern is printed in white. Done.

  A list box 2214 indicates an area for designating a camouflage image for making it difficult to recognize a tint block pattern embedded in a document, and can be selected from a plurality of patterns. An option of not using camouflage images is also provided.

Data format of copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print setting information Next, the data format stored in the additional information 1106 and 1304 related to the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print setting information described with reference to FIG. 17 will be described with reference to FIG.

  In the figure, a field 2001 stores a value indicating a drawing object type (text format or image) generated by a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print specified in an area 2206 in FIG. A field 2002 stores setting information for the drawing object specified by the information in the field 2001, which is specified in the areas 2207 to 2209 in FIG. When text is selected, a character string, font name, and size information are stored. When an image is selected, the location of an input image file is stored. The field 2003 stores information for designating whether the background pattern is drawn first or later (drawing order) for the document data, which is designated in the area 2210 of FIG. The field 2004 stores the angle information for arranging the drawing object specified in the area 2211 of FIG. A field 2005 stores color information used for the tint block pattern (foreground pattern, background pattern) specified in the area 2212 of FIG. A field 2006 stores information about whether or not to replace the foreground pattern and the background pattern specified by the check box 2213 in FIG. A field 2007 stores camouflage image pattern addition information specified in an area 2214 in FIG. A field 2008 stores foreground pattern density information. A field 2009 stores background pattern density information.

Following the drawing process of the background pattern, 19, 20, with reference to FIG. 21, the color processing mode determination means for performing color monochrome determination for the original data to be printed on a background pattern color handling when selected Description I do. These processes are performed as a pre-process of step S708 after step S706 of FIG.

  FIG. 19 shows processing when “full color / monochrome automatic switching” is selected in the color printing mode 5101 in FIG. In this case, the color mode for printing the physical page is determined based on the color information of the logical page included in each physical page. If either the document color determination result or the tint block color setting is color, the color mode is basically selected.

  In step S5201, a color processing mode 1303 for a physical page to be printed is read. In step S5202, if the color processing mode of the physical page to be rendered is a monochrome page, the process proceeds to step S5203. If the color page is a color page, the process proceeds to step S5210. In step S5203, if the designated tint block setting is for color, the process proceeds to step S5210. If the designated tint block setting is monochrome, the process proceeds to step S5211. In step S5210, print processing is performed in the color mode using the designated tint block setting, and the flow advances to step S708. In step S5211, print processing is performed in the monochrome mode using the designated tint block setting, and the process advances to step S708.

  FIG. 20 shows processing when “monochrome” is selected in the menu 5101 of FIG. In this case, the color of the original is converted into monochrome, and the final printed matter is printed in monochrome. The tint block is output after changing the color to monochrome (black) even if the user's tint block setting is color. This control of the tint block is different from the flow of FIG.

  In step S5303, if the designated tint block setting is for color, the process proceeds to step S5305, and if the designated tint block setting is monochrome, the process proceeds to step S5311. In step S5305, the designated copy-forgery-inhibited pattern setting is changed to monochrome monochrome copy-forgery-inhibited pattern setting (re-designated to monochrome monochrome copy-forgery-inhibited pattern color) before executing the drawing process, and the flow advances to step S5311. In step S5311, printing processing is performed in the monochrome mode using the designated tint block setting, and the process advances to step S708.

  Here, the reason for changing the background pattern setting designated in color to the monochrome background pattern setting before executing the drawing process in step S5305 will be described. Here, according to the embodiment, description will be made on the assumption that a color image is expressed by four colors of CMYK. Of course, the color expression color is not limited to the combination of CMYK.

  When converting a color image into a monochrome image, pure colors such as magenta and cyan are not converted to black (pure color with a density of 100%), but are converted to gray (a black density is greater than 0% and less than 100%).

  In addition, since the tint block image includes many isolated dots, when an isolated dot image expressed in magenta or cyan is subjected to monochrome conversion, a gray isolated dot is obtained. When the binarization process is performed on the gray isolated dots, the dots that should be originally formed may disappear depending on the position of the dots and the gray density.

  If the isolated dots disappear in the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image, there arises a problem that the density of the isolated dot (small dot) region is not uniform. This is not limited to small dots, but the same problem occurs for large dots.

  In other words, when the color-designated copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is converted into a monochrome image after the drawing process, the density of the small and large dot areas cannot be kept uniform, and the density of the large and small dot areas of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image cannot be maintained. It will change, making it meaningless as a tint block image.

  Furthermore, since each color of CMYK has unique characteristics (color tone, toner density, printer engine output characteristics), simply replacing magenta or cyan dots with black dots will result in the above unique characteristics. Accordingly, since the setting of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image optimized for each color is not taken into consideration, an optimal monochrome copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image cannot be output.

  Hereinafter, the reason will be described by comparing with a watermark printing function which is a conventionally known technique.

  The watermark printing function is a function for printing a page in which a watermark drawing object such as “Confidential” is added to the original output image, similarly to the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern printing function. Color watermarks can also be specified in watermark printing. Further, there may be a case where the watermark is designated in color and the printer driver performs printing in the monochrome mode.

  In the case of watermark printing, it is important to reproduce the watermark object with a specified color. In other words, when a watermark object is specified in a predetermined color and printing is performed in monochrome mode, the watermark object that is finally added to the original output image is replaced with a monochrome image from the predetermined color image by the printer driver. To be controlled.

  An example of a color / monochrome conversion process of a watermark object when executing monochrome printing when a color watermark object is designated will be briefly described with reference to FIG.

  For the color watermark object, the despooler 305 passes the color information designated on the watermark print designation screen (not shown) to the graphic engine 202, dispatcher 301, and printer driver 203 as RGB commands. The printer driver 203 converts the received color information into a gray scale value (black density greater than 0% and less than 100%) that is optimal for monochrome printing on the target printer. For example, when the watermark color is designated as red (R = 255, G = 0, B = 0), the printer driver converts it to gray with a density of 50% based on a predetermined calculation. The watermark object will have a gray value of 50%.

  Finally, the watermark object is converted into a PDL command by the printer driver 203 and output to the printer 1500 via the system spooler 204 as a printer control command. The printer 1500 receives the above command, performs binarization processing specified separately, and forms an image on the print medium.

  Note that the above is an example. In the case where the binarization process is performed in the printer driver 203 and the printer control command is sent to the printer 1500, the printer driver 203 generates the printer control command while retaining the color information. For example, a case where color / monochrome conversion and binarization processing is performed in the printer 1500 that has received the data can be considered. As described above, the color watermark object is printed as a monochrome watermark object.

  On the other hand, in the case of copy-forgery-inhibited pattern printing, as described above, in addition to the designated color, the reproducibility of large and small dots and the uniformity of the density of the small and large dot areas are important. Therefore, simply converting the background pattern image to color / monochrome or replacing it with another color does not match the density and dot reproducibility appropriately set as a gray background pattern image, and the optimal monochrome background pattern image. Can not get.

  When monochrome printing is instructed in the printer driver 203 and a color tint block such as YMC is set, information indicating that monochrome printing is designated from the printer driver 203 is input to the tint block processing unit 205 when printing is performed. The Upon receiving this information, the background pattern processing unit 205 replaces the color background pattern setting with the monochrome background pattern setting. Specifically, the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is set to monochrome designation, and various related settings such as the density parameter values of the latent image portion and the background portion held in advance according to the monochrome copy-forgery-inhibited pattern are replaced with those for the monochrome tint block.

  Thereafter, based on the replaced information, the background pattern processing unit 205 generates a monochrome background pattern image. This monochrome copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is passed in the order of despooler 305, graphic engine 202, dispatcher 301, printer driver 203, system spooler 204, and printer 1500, and is controlled to be printed as a monochrome copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image. The binarization process is executed in the printer 1500 or the printer driver 203, and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is a bitmap expressed by binary values of white (black density is 0%) and black (black density is 100%). Therefore, it is not affected by binarization processing (pseudo halftone processing), and is expressed by white pixels and black pixels even after binarization, so that the dot reproducibility and the density of the small and large dot regions are uniform. Sex is preserved.

  As described above, when a tint block image designated with colors such as magenta and cyan is converted into monochrome and printed, it is necessary to make sure that each dot can be expressed with pure black toner (black ink). For this reason, before the drawing process is performed, the setting of the color-designated tint block image is changed to the setting for outputting a monochrome tint block image. Thus, even when a color-designated tint block image is automatically converted into a monochrome tint block image, a document on which an appropriate tint block image is printed can be obtained without wasteful output.

  Needless to say, in this process, if the background pattern setting item has an incidental attribute related to the color mode, the setting is also changed.

  Further, when printing in the monochrome mode is set and the user selects the color tint block image output, a step of notifying the user that “the tint block image is printed in monochrome (gray)” May be provided. In this step, it is possible to provide a configuration for inquiring the user whether or not to change the color processing mode.

  In addition, when the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image printing and watermark printing are selectively executed, in the case of watermark printing, color conversion processing is performed by the printer driver 203. In the case of copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image printing, color conversion by the printer driver 203 is performed. The control can be switched so that the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image generated by changing the color copy-forgery-inhibited pattern setting to the monochrome copy-forgery-inhibited pattern setting is transmitted to the printer driver 203 so as not to execute the processing.

  FIG. 21 shows processing when “full color” is selected in the color menu 5101 in FIG. Regardless of the color setting of the original and the background pattern, the color mode is selected and the color mode background pattern setting is used unconditionally. In step S5410, the printing process is performed in the color mode using the specified background pattern setting. And proceed to step S708.

Print Data Generation Processing for Copy-forgery-inhibited Pattern Image FIGS. 22 and 23 are flowcharts showing the flow of print data generation processing for the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image in the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern print. These figures correspond to “watermark printing” and “overlapping printing” described with reference to FIG. Further, these processes are performed in the course of the printing process in step S708 of FIG. 10, that is, the print data generation process.

  First, “watermark printing”, that is, a case where print data of a tint block image is generated first will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As described above, “watermark printing” is a process of rasterizing document data on copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data in the bitmap memory of the printer. For this reason, as the print data generation order, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image print data is generated prior to the print data generation corresponding to the document data.

  In step S1901, the background pattern processing unit 205 generates a background pattern image in accordance with the information regarding the background pattern shown in FIG. The detailed processing will be described later with reference to FIG. Thereafter, print data generation processing of document data is performed. In step S1902, the counter is initialized. In step S1903, it is determined whether or not the counter has reached the preset number of logical pages per physical page. If the counter is equal to the number of logical pages, the process ends. If not, the process proceeds to step S1904. In step S1904, the counter is incremented by one. In step S1905, based on the number of logical pages per page and the counter, an effective print area for the logical page to be subjected to print data generation processing is calculated. In step S1906, the current logical page number is read from the information related to the physical page notified in the form shown in FIG. 13 using the counter as an index, and the logical page is reduced so as to be within the effective print area. However, if N-page printing is not designated, of course, there is no need for reduction.

  Next, “overlapping printing”, that is, a case where print data of document data is first generated will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. As described above, “overlay printing” is a process of rasterizing a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image on document data in the bitmap memory of the printer. For this reason, as the print data generation order, the print data corresponding to the document data is generated before the print data corresponding to the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is generated.

  In step S1902, the counter is initialized. Next, in step S1903, it is determined whether or not the counter has reached a preset number of logical pages per physical page. If the counter is equal to the number of logical pages, the process proceeds to step S1908. If not, the process proceeds to step S1904. . In step S1904, the counter is incremented by one. In step S1905, the effective print area for the logical page to be generated is calculated based on the number of logical pages per page and the counter. In step S1906, the current logical page number is read from the information related to the physical page notified in the form shown in FIG. 13 using the counter as an index, and the logical page is reduced so as to be within the effective print area. However, if N-page printing is not designated, of course, there is no need for reduction. If the generation of print data corresponding to a predetermined number of logical pages as one physical page has been completed, the process advances to step S1908. In step S1908, based on the effective print area of the physical page acquired from the application, the background pattern processing unit 205 generates a background pattern image in accordance with the information on the background pattern shown in FIG. The detailed processing will be described later with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 24 is a flowchart showing details of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image generation processing in step S1901 shown in FIG. 22 and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image generation processing in step S1908 shown in FIG. 23 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, the tint block image generation processing will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, a tint block image generation process is started in step S2701. Specifically, the tint block image generation instruction and the above-described tint block print setting information are input to the tint block processing unit 205. In step S2702, the tint block processing unit 205 reads the background threshold pattern, the foreground threshold pattern, the basic image, and the camouflage image. The basic image is image data serving as a basis for generating a tint block image. This is an image generated by the despooler 305 based on the various setting information shown in FIG.

  In step S2703, the tint block processing unit 205 determines initial pixels for generating the tint block image. For example, when a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is generated by performing image processing on the entire printable area of A4 paper in the raster scan order from the upper left to the lower right, the upper left of the printable area is set as the initial position. In this case, the printable area and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image area are equal.

  In step S2704, the tint block processing unit 205 executes a process of arranging the background threshold pattern, the foreground threshold pattern, the basic image, and the camouflage image on the tile from the upper left of the tint block image area by calculation based on the following equation (1). By this calculation, it is determined whether or not the pixel value corresponding to the dot at the time of printing is written in the pixel position. At this time, the pixel value corresponds to the input color information. Here, the background threshold pattern and the foreground threshold pattern are image data composed of “1” and “0” corresponding to dot writing / non-writing, and these images are foreground (latent image) images and background images. The data is binarized by each dither matrix suitable for creating the.

The components of the formula are shown below.
nComouflage: 0 if the target pixel is a pixel constituting a camouflage pattern in the camouflage image, 1 otherwise.
nSmallDotOn: 1 if the pixel value of the background threshold pattern is black, 0 if white (color is not limited to this)
nLargeDotOn: 1 if the pixel value of the foreground threshold pattern is black, 0 if white (color is not limited to this)
nHiddenMark: 1 if the target pixel is a pixel constituting the latent image in the basic image, and 0 if the pixel constituting the background image.
¬nHiddenMark: Denial of nHiddenMark. 0 in the foreground part and 1 in the background part.

  Note that it is not necessary to calculate using all the elements of Expression (1) for each processing target pixel. The processing can be speeded up by eliminating unnecessary calculations.

  For example, if nHiddenMark = 1, ¬nHiddenMark = 0, and if nHiddenMark = 0, ¬nHiddenmark = 1. Therefore, if nHiddenMark = 1, the value of the following equation (2) may be the value of nLargeDotOn, and if nHiddenMark = 0, the value of equation (2) may be the value of nSmallDotOn.

  Further, since the value of nCamouflage is an integration over the whole as shown in Expression (1), if nCamouflage = 0, nWriteDotOn = 0. Therefore, when nCamouflage = 0, the calculation of the following formula (2) can be omitted.

  In the generated tint block image, the background threshold pattern, the foreground threshold pattern, the basic image, and the image having the least common multiple of the vertical and horizontal lengths of the camouflage image are the smallest unit of repetition. If only a part of the tint block image that is the minimum unit of the pattern is generated, and a part of the tint block image is repeatedly arranged in a tile shape in the size of the tint block image area, the processing time required to generate the tint block image can be shortened.

  Next, in step S2705, the CPU 1 determines the calculation result (value of nWriteDotOn) in step S2704. That is, if nWriteDotOn = 1, the process proceeds to step S2706, and if nWriteDotOn = 0, the process proceeds to step S2707.

  In step S2706, a process of writing a pixel value corresponding to a dot at the time of printing is performed. Here, the pixel value can be changed depending on the color of the tint block image. In addition, a color copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image can also be created by setting according to the color of toner or ink of the printer. Further, a secondary color obtained by combining a plurality of colors of toner and ink can be used.

  In step S2707, it is determined whether all the pixels in the processing target area have been processed. If all the pixels in the processing target area have not been processed, the process proceeds to step S2708, an unprocessed pixel is selected, and the processes in steps S2704 to S2706 are executed again.

  According to this embodiment, the user can determine whether to perform watermark printing or overprinting according to the presence / absence of a blank area of document data or a region to be filled with a white image, the application that generated the document data, and the like. As a result, it is possible to provide an information processing apparatus that is easier for the user to use for tint block printing.

  The process for combining the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data and the document image data as a bitmap image is performed in the printer 1500. In the compositing process in the printer, when overlap printing is set, first, the original image data is rasterized on the bitmap memory, and then the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is rasterized so as to overwrite the original image data. Become. At this time, if the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is simply overwritten, the original image becomes invisible. Therefore, when the overprint setting is set, by using logical drawing such as AND / OR, it is possible to avoid overwriting the original image with the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image. For example, if the pixel of the bitmap image obtained by developing the document image data has a value corresponding to white, the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data corresponding to the pixel is overwritten on the bitmap memory corresponding to the pixel position, For a pixel having a value other than white, a process of not overwriting the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image data is performed.

(Other embodiments)
Even if the present invention is applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), it is applied to an apparatus (copier, printer, facsimile machine, etc.) comprising a single device. May be.

  In addition, the object of the present invention is that a computer (or CPU or MPU) of a system or apparatus stores a storage medium storing program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments and realizing the procedures of the flowcharts shown in the drawings. It is also achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, or the like is used. be able to.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. A case where part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.

  Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion board is based on the instruction of the program code. Also included is a case where the CPU or the like provided in the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

1 CPU
2 RAM
3 ROM
4 System bus 5 Keyboard controller (KBC)
6 CRT controller (CRTC)
7 Disk controller (DKC)
8 Printer controller (PRTC)
9 Keyboard (KB)
10 CRT
11 External memory 12 CPU
13 ROM
14 External memory 15 System bus 16 Printing section I / F
17 Printing unit 18 Input unit 19 RAM
20 Memory controller (MC)
1500 Printer 1501 Operation unit 3000 Host computer

Claims (9)

Among the print mode selections, there is a reception unit that accepts a selection of an automatic switching mode or a monochrome mode from a user, a document color determination unit that determines whether a document is color or monochrome, and color designation of a tint block image A print control apparatus having a tint block color determining means for determining whether the color is monochrome or monochrome;
When selection of the automatic switching mode is accepted, the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image are combined only when it is determined that the original is a monochrome page and the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be monochrome. The result is controlled to be printed in black and white, otherwise, the result of combining the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is controlled to be printed in color,
When selection of the monochrome mode is accepted, if it is determined that the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is monochrome, control is performed so that the composite result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome, and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image When it is determined that the color designation is color, a printing control apparatus comprising: control means for controlling to inquire whether or not to change the printing mode. Among the print mode selections, there is a reception unit that accepts a selection of an automatic switching mode or a monochrome mode from a user, a document color determination unit that determines whether a document is color or monochrome, and color designation of a tint block image A print control apparatus having a tint block color determining means for determining whether the color is monochrome or monochrome;
When selection of the automatic switching mode is accepted, the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image are combined only when it is determined that the original is a monochrome page and the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be monochrome. The result is controlled so that it is printed in monochrome. Otherwise, the composite result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is controlled to be printed in a color mode.
When selection of the monochrome mode is accepted, if it is determined that the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is monochrome, control is performed so that the composite result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome, and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image A printing control apparatus comprising: control means for notifying a user that the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome when it is determined that the color designation is color. The receiving means can further receive a selection of a color mode,
When the selection of the color mode is accepted, the control means prints the synthesized result of the original and the tint block image in color regardless of the original color of the original and the color designation of the tint block image. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the print control apparatus controls the print control apparatus. In a printed matter obtained by printing the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image, a lump of dots is arranged in a first region, and dots are arranged in a second region different from the first region, and the printed matter The difference between the density of the first area and the density of the second area in the copy obtained by copying is the difference between the density of the first area and the density of the second area in the printed material. The density parameter for generating a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image when the color designation is monochrome is stored in advance.
The control means accepts the monochrome mode selection by the accepting means and determines that the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is color, the density parameter is the monochrome designation as the color designation held in advance. The printing according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein a density parameter for generating a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is set, and a monochrome copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is generated using the set density parameter. Control device. An accepting step for accepting a selection of an automatic switching mode or a monochrome mode from a user by a print control device; an original color determining step for determining whether the original is color or monochrome; and a tint block A tint block color determination step for determining whether the color designation of the image is color or monochrome,
When selection of the automatic switching mode is accepted, the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image are combined only when it is determined that the original is a monochrome page and the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be monochrome. The result is controlled to be printed in black and white, otherwise, the result of combining the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is controlled to be printed in color,
When selection of the monochrome mode is accepted, if it is determined that the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is monochrome, control is performed so that the composite result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome, and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image And a control step of controlling to inquire whether or not to change the print mode when it is determined that the color designation is color. An accepting step for accepting a selection of an automatic switching mode or a monochrome mode from a user by a print control device; an original color determining step for determining whether the original is color or monochrome; and a tint block A tint block color determination step for determining whether the color designation of the image is color or monochrome,
When selection of the automatic switching mode is accepted, the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image are combined only when it is determined that the original is a monochrome page and the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is determined to be monochrome. The result is controlled so that it is printed in monochrome. Otherwise, the composite result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is controlled to be printed in a color mode.
When selection of the monochrome mode is accepted, if it is determined that the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is monochrome, control is performed so that the composite result of the original and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome, and the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image And a control step of notifying the user that the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is printed in monochrome when it is determined that the color designation is color. The accepting step can further accept a selection of a color mode,
In the control step, when the selection of the color mode is accepted, the synthesized result of the original and the tint block image is printed in color regardless of the original color of the original and the color designation of the tint block image. The method according to claim 5, wherein the method is controlled. In a printed matter obtained by printing the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image, a lump of dots is arranged in a first region, and dots are arranged in a second region different from the first region, and the printed matter The difference between the density of the first area and the density of the second area in the copy obtained by copying is the difference between the density of the first area and the density of the second area in the printed material. The density parameter for generating a copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image when the color designation is monochrome is stored in advance.
In the control step, when the selection of the monochrome mode is accepted by the accepting step and it is determined that the color designation of the copy-forgery-inhibited pattern image is color, the density parameter is set as the color designation held in advance, and the monochrome designation is designated. The method according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein a density parameter for generating a background tint block image is set, and a monochrome tint block image is generated using the set density parameter. .   A program for causing a print control apparatus to execute the method according to any one of claims 5 to 7.

Images