JPH0451668A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the efficiency of the designation of a background color and the color of a character to be stored there by printing and outputting the remarked pattern of the color obtained in conformity to inputted selection information with each inputted area for a background. CONSTITUTION:Information to designate the areas capable of being superimposed to each other and the background color of each of these areas is inputted, and simultaneously, the information to select one background color of the area to be superimposed at a position where the pattern is to be printed as the color of the prescribed pattern to be recorded is inputted as well. Then, it is analyzed what background color of the area superimposed at the position of the remarked pattern the printing color of that pattern is made in conformity to the selection information inputted before. Further, the remarked pattern of the color obtained based on the this analyzed result is printed and outputted with each area inputted before for the background. Thus, the background color and the color of the character to be recorded there can be efficiently designated.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a printing device, and particularly to a printing device that inputs printing information and prints out a color image based on the printing information.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional devices of this kind, when there are multiple background colors and you want to print cutout characters on those, you specify the background color that will be reflected inside the cutout characters each time. Ta.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the conventional example, the background to be extracted must be checked every time a character is extracted, and a command for specifying a color must be issued, which increases the amount of work and data. This also applies when printing characters etc. on a background of different colors. The present invention has been made in view of such prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing device that can efficiently designate the background color and the color of characters recorded therein.

[Means for Solving the Problem] A printing apparatus of the present invention that solves this problem has the configuration shown below. That is, in a printing device that inputs printing information and prints a color image based on the printing information, a first input means that inputs information for specifying areas that can be superimposed on each other and the background color of each area. and a second step of inputting information for selecting, as the color of the predetermined pattern to be recorded, the background color of one of the areas superimposed on the position where the pattern is printed.
an input means, and an analysis means for analyzing and determining which background color of the area superimposed on the position of the pattern of interest should be used as the printing color of the pattern itself according to selection information input from the second input means. and an output means for printing out the color pattern of interest obtained by the analysis means with each region input by the first input means as a background. Alternatively, in a printing device that inputs printing information and prints a color image based on the printing information, a first input means that inputs a background color and color combination data of a pattern for the background color; a second input means for inputting an area that can be superimposed on each other and a background color of the area, and a printing color of a pattern to be printed obtained based on the printing information,
Said 1st. an analysis means for analyzing and obtaining information based on the information inputted from the second input means; and a printing color obtained by the analysis means for the pattern to be printed obtained based on the printing information; and output means for printing and outputting so as to be superimposed on each area having an individual background color inputted from the means. [Operation] In the configuration of the present invention, for example, the first invention first inputs information specifying areas that can be superimposed on each other and the background color of each area, and then inputs information specifying the color of the predetermined pattern to be recorded. Information such as selecting the background color of one of the areas to be superimposed on the position where the pattern is printed is also entered. Then, it is analyzed which background color of the area superimposed on the position of the pattern of interest should be used as the print color of the pattern, according to the selection information input earlier. Then, the color pattern of interest obtained based on this analysis result is printed out using each of the previously input regions as a background.

【Example】

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printing apparatus in an embodiment. In the figure, 100 is a data source such as a host computer that outputs the printing device. 101 is the main body of the printing device in this embodiment, which includes the following components. 102 is a data source from the data source 100. 103 is an input buffer for receiving print data and temporarily storing the received data, and 103 is a CPU for calculating and analyzing input data and controlling the entire device.
It is. 104 is a ROM that stores the operating procedure of the CPU 103 (flowchart in FIG. 6 or FIG. 13).
, 105 is a RAM that serves as a work area for the CPU 103 during processing such as arithmetic operations. Reference numerals 106 to 108 are image memories, each for developing an image of one color component of the three primary colors (Y, M, C). 109 is a pattern memory that stores character patterns for each color; 11
0 is a printer interface for outputting the image data of each color component developed in the image memories 106 to 108 to the printer engine 111. The printer engine 111 may be one that prints images of Y, M, and C color components so as to be superimposed on the same recording paper (in this embodiment, a laser beam printer is used. The figure shows the format of the information sent from the data source 100 in order to specify the color for the area. Identification code BX indicating that there is, 203, 205, 207. 209, 211
are separators each indicating a parameter delimiter, 20
4 is the color number of the background color (inside the rectangle), 206 is the starting horizontal position coordinate of the rectangular area, 208 is the starting vertical position coordinate, 210
is the end horizontal position coordinate, 212 is the end vertical position coordinate, 21
3 is a delimiter indicating the end of the instruction. FIG. 3 shows a management table (indicated by reference numeral 30 in the figure) created by the CPU 103 on the RAM 105 in response to sequentially receiving data specifying print colors for the rectangular area described above. In the illustrated management table 30, “
"Registration order" indicates the order in which the area was set, and the smaller the number, the earlier it is set. Code 3
The coordinate position of the upper left point of the rectangle is stored in the "rectangle start position" 02, and the coordinate position of the lower right point is stored in the "rectangle end position" 303 as (X, Y) format data. A color code for specifying the print color within the rectangle is stored in "color" 304. In addition, “0” is set in “Registration order” in column 301 of management table 30.
If is stored, it indicates that there is no valid data after that point. Therefore, in the case shown,
This means that the background colors for three rectangular areas have now been specified. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a command sent from the data source 100 for cutting out characters. In the illustration, 401 is an ESC code indicating that this command is a control command, 402 is an identification code BK indicating that this command is an extraction character specification command, 403 is a separator indicating a parameter division, and 404 is a background level A layer number 405 designating whether to remove the command is a delimiter indicating the end of the command. FIG. 5 shows an example of an actual output image based on the table of FIG. 3. Area 501 is the most basic part and corresponds to the actual paper surface, and according to table 30, it is filled with data of color code "O". The area 502 is the area specified by the second registration order, and the background color is the color code "8". and,
Area 503 is the area specified by registration number 3, and the background color is color code "4". 504 shows an example in which cutout characters are output in the area 503. The color of the characters depends on the values stored in the hierarchy column indicated by reference numeral 404 in FIG. In other words, if this value is "1", the character is printed with the background color of the area 502, which is the previous background color, and if it is "2", the character is printed with the background color of the area 501, which is the two previous background color. be done. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in this embodiment. The details of the processing will be explained below.
When data is sent from CPU 1 in the embodiment,
It is assumed that an interrupt signal occurs at 03. It is assumed that the CPUIO 3 performs a process of loading the received data into the power buffer 102 using an interrupt routine (not shown) activated by receiving this interrupt signal. Now, when the process starts, the process advances from step S1 to step S2, where data is input from the input buffer 102, and
In the next step S3, it is determined whether the input data is a control command. If it is determined that it is a control command, step S
Proceeding to step 5, it is determined whether the command is a control command related to background color setting for a rectangular area. If this judgment is "YES", the process advances to step S6 to create a table 30 related to the background color setting, and also perform processing to create a table 30 related to the setting rectangular area.
The area within 108 is painted with data that becomes the set color. For example, in the management table 30 of FIG.
If you create a table with "3" as the "registration order", the coordinates of each of image memories 106 to 108 (60
, 60) and coordinates (1350, 100) with specified data, the color code "4" is set.
”. Furthermore, if the judgment in step S5 is “No”, that is, if it is judged that the input control command does not set the background color for the rectangular area, the process proceeds to step S7, and if it is It is determined whether the command is related to designation. If it is determined that the command is an extraction character designation, the process proceeds to step S8 and compares the coordinate position of the pointer indicating the current character expansion position with the management table 30. The character color obtained as a result is stored in a predetermined address location of the RAM 105.However, in case the extraction character designation is canceled, the character color that has been specified by the data source 100 until just before is stored. The color of the character entered is also saved at a predetermined address location on the RAM 105. If it is not a character extraction command, it is determined in step S9 whether or not it is a page break command. If it is determined that it is a command other than a control command (for example, a text color specification command or a command related to formatting, etc.), the command is analyzed in step SIO and the corresponding processing is executed. If it is determined that it is a page break command , the process advances to step S12, and the images developed in the image memories 106 to 108 are output to the printer engine 111 to execute color printing.On the other hand, if the data input from the input buffer 102 is not a control command, that is, , a character code, etc., the process proceeds to step S4.Here, a character pattern that results in the print color set at that time is read from the pattern memory 109, and the character pattern is read from the image memory 106 to 1.
Expanded on 08. Of course, at this time, the development position is developed according to the pointer indicating the character pattern development position at that time. However, when the expansion of one character pattern is completed, the value of the pointer is updated in preparation for the expansion of the next character pattern. In this way, the character pattern is sequentially developed into the image memory so that the print color specified at that time is obtained. This is repeated until one of them is determined to be full. If it is determined that there is no next data, the process advances to step S12 and printing is performed. In the embodiment, there is no processing when the hierarchy specification exceeds the actual hierarchy, but this can be set in advance. Also,
Although there is no particular explanation for specifying the end of character extraction, it is natural that the character color returns to the original color when a cancellation command is issued. Especially for white characters, this is possible by erasing the corresponding character pattern from the image memory. As explained above, according to this embodiment, the text color can be automatically determined by setting a hierarchy value in the text specification, making it possible to reduce both the amount of data and the amount of work. Description of Second Embodiment> Next, a second embodiment will be described. Note that the device configuration is the same as that of the first embodiment, so a detailed description thereof will not be given. The basic operating concept of the second embodiment is to first set a combination of a background color and a color of a character string to be recorded superimposed on the background color. In other words, after setting the color for a specific rectangular area,
The color of the characters developed in the rectangular area is automatically determined based on the initially set correlation. In other words, the color of a character depends on the background color on which the character develops. FIG. 7 shows a data format related to a command for setting a relationship between a background color and a character color (character color setting command) in the second embodiment. This data is sent from the data source 100 (
Ru. In the figure, 701 is an ESC code indicating that this is a control command, and 702 is an identification code BX indicating that this is a background color and text color setting command. 704,706,
708 is a separator for indicating the division of data. And 703 indicates one background color, 70
5 indicates the color of the characters relative to the background color (code 703). Similarly, for a background color of 707, the code 70
The characters in the color indicated by 9 are the settings. To explain briefly,
This indicates that the color of the characters for the background color specified by reference numeral 703 automatically becomes the color specified by reference numeral 705. Note that 710 is a delimiter indicating the end of the data related to the above-mentioned relationship setting between the background color and printed characters. In the second embodiment, a relationship table (not shown) between the background color and the font color in the received font color setting command is created at a predetermined address in the RAM 105. FIG. 8 is a format showing a command for setting the basic background color of one page (the entire recording paper). As shown in the figure (first, an ESC code 801 is followed by an identification code 802 for setting the basic background color, an actual background color 803, and finally a delimiter 804. In principle, the basic background color is for the entire recording paper. Therefore, coordinate data for specifying a rectangular area is not required. Figure 9 shows the format of an instruction to set the background color of a specific area within one page. First, indicate that it is a control instruction. After the ESC code 901, there is a BX code 902 indicating that it is a frame specification. After this, by separating it with a separator 904 etc., the coordinates of the upper left point and the lower right point of the rectangular area come, and then The color specification code for the rectangular area is ().The delimiter code 912 comes at the end, as in the previous explanation. The table 31 is added and created one after another. In the illustration, "1" as the printing type indicates the relationship between the character color and the basic background color set by the command shown in FIG. 8. However, As the coordinates (0, O), (
2700, 1880) indicates the printable range for the recording paper (A4 size in this case). The illustration shows that there is a relationship between the color code "0" as the background color for this effective range and the color code "8" as the character color for the background color. Further, "2" as "print type" is created when a command as shown in FIG. 9 is received. In the illustration, the color code "2" is set as the waveform color in the rectangular area specified by the coordinates (100, 100) and (2600, 300), and the color code "0" is set as the color of the characters recorded there. Which indicates that. To repeat, the relationship between the background color and the color of the characters recorded on the background color is based on the control command data shown in FIG. Note that, similarly to the first embodiment, if "O" is included in "print type", it indicates that there is no data after that. FIG. 11 shows an actual output example, and FIG. 12 shows the flow of data from the data source 100 to obtain the output result. The meaning of the data here in Figure 12 is the 7th
This is as explained in FIGS. However, “SO agenda”
"SO" in is a command for outputting kanji characters. In the figure, 1100 indicates the recordable range of the recording paper, in which the basic background color set by the control command shown in FIG. 8 is recorded. 1102 is a rectangular area designated by a frame designation command, and the background color within this region follows the color designation code included in the designation command. For the character string 1103 within the area 1102, a color corresponding to the background color within that range is automatically selected. Similarly, since the character string 1104 is drawn on the basic background color, the character color corresponding to the background color is automatically selected. The operation processing procedure in the second embodiment will be explained based on FIG. 13. When the process starts, steps S21 to S2
2, data is input from the power buffer 102, and in the next step S23 it is determined whether the input data is a control command. If it is determined that it is a control command, the process proceeds to step S26, where it is determined that it is a font color setting command (see Figure 7).
Determine whether If it is determined that it is a text color setting command, the process advances to step S27, and a relationship table between background colors and text colors relative to the background colors is created in the RAMIO3. If it is determined that the command is not a character color setting command but a frame designation command, the process advances from step 328 to step S29, and a management table 31 for specifying the page memory configuration as shown in FIG. 10 is created. Also, if it is determined that it is a basic background color setting command,
Proceeding from step S30 to step S31, "Print order"
A management table 31 of "1" is created as follows. Furthermore, if it is determined that it is a page break command, the process advances to step S35, and at that point the image memories 106 to 10 are
Printing is performed according to the image developed in 8. If it is determined that the command is another control command, the command is analyzed and processing is executed according to the result (step 5).
33). On the other hand, if it is determined that the data input from the power buffer 102 is not a control command, that is, it is a character code or the like, the process advances to step S24. Here, the printing color of the character is determined by comparing the development position of the character pattern corresponding to the character code with the management table 31 created up to that point. Then, in the next step S25, a character pattern corresponding to that color is developed in the image memories 106-108. Of course,
At this time, the development position is developed according to the pointer indicating the character pattern development position at that time. However, when the expansion of one character pattern is completed, the value of the pointer is updated in preparation for the expansion of the next character pattern. In this way, the ranked character pattern is stored in the image memories 106 to 108 according to the color based on the management table 31 at that time.
However, this process continues until it is determined in step S25 that there is no next data, or the image memory 1
This process is repeated until any one of 06 to 108 is determined to be full. If it is determined that there is no next data, the process advances to step S35 and printing is performed. In the second embodiment, a rectangular area is also set on the physical recording paper surface, but this is treated as a logical page, and multiple logical pages are defined for one physical page, and each Of course, it is also possible to have a background color. As explained above, according to the second embodiment, by registering the relationship between the background color and the font color in advance, it becomes possible to omit the instruction to specify the font color. As long as the background color and text color are set to be different, it is completely possible to prevent characters of the same color from being printed on different background colors and become illegible.[Effect of the invention] ] As explained above, according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, it becomes possible to efficiently (specify) the background color and the color of characters recorded therein.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of the printing device in the embodiment, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data format of the rectangular area designation command in the first embodiment, and FIG. 3 is created in the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the data format of the extraction character designation command in the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of actual image output. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the first embodiment. Flowchart showing the processing contents in the example. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the data format of the text color designation command in the second embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the data format of the basic background color designation command in the second embodiment. Figure 9 is a diagram showing the data format of a frame designation command in the second embodiment, Figure 10 is a diagram showing a management table created in the second embodiment, and Figure 11 is a diagram showing the data format of the frame designation command in the second embodiment. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of data transmission contents in the second embodiment. FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing processing contents in the second embodiment. In the figure, 30 and 31... management table, 100...
Data source, 101...printing device main body, 102...input buffer, 103...CPU 1104...ROM
, 105... RAM% 106-108... Image memory, 109... Pattern memory, 110...
Printer interface, 111: Printer engine. Figure 11 Figure 12

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a printing device that inputs printing information and prints out a color image based on the printing information, a first input means that inputs information for specifying areas that can be overlapped with each other and the background color of each area. a second input means for inputting information such as selecting a background color of one of the areas superimposed on the position where the pattern is printed as the color of the predetermined pattern to be recorded; and printing of the pattern itself. an analysis means for analyzing and determining which background color of the area superimposed on the position of the pattern of interest is to be used as the color according to selection information input from the second input means; and output means for printing out a pattern of interest in a different color with each region inputted by the first input means as a background. (2) in a printing device that inputs printing information and prints out a color image based on the printing information, a first input means that inputs a background color and color combination data of a pattern for the background color; a second input means for inputting an area that can be superimposed on each other and a background color of the area; and inputting a printing color of a pattern to be printed obtained based on the printing information from the first and second input means. an analysis means that analyzes and obtains the print color based on the information obtained by the analysis; and an analysis means that uses the pattern of the printing object obtained based on the print information as the print color obtained by the analysis means, and uses the individual background inputted from the second input means as the print color obtained by the analysis means. 1. A printing device comprising: output means for printing and outputting in a manner superimposed on each area having a color.