JPH09314915A - Printing control device, control method for printer, printing system and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reproduce a color information of high picture quality at a high speed and at a low cost. SOLUTION: Rendering is constituted of a physically high speed computable logic drawing arithmetic circuit. To be concrete, the arithmetic circuit comprises a mask formation circuit 42 for forming mask patterns based on the color input information, a background information circuit 43 for forming background patterns based on the mask patterns and a destination storage circuit 44 for computing destination patterns based on the mask patterns and storing rendering results. The above-said circuits are so started as to operate in parallel by a micro-execution circuit 45, and respective patters are controlled in a rendering execution circuit 47, and the rendering in compliance with the logic drawing mode is performed. The logic drawing mode can be switched over to the highly detailed mode and to the high speed mode.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing control device, a printing device control method, and a printing system, and more particularly, in CAD (Computer Aided Design), computer graphics (CG), design, business, presentation, etc. The present invention relates to a print control device for printing / recording color data with high definition and high gradation, a control method for the print device, and a print system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the advent of host computers such as high-performance workstations and personal computers, it has become possible to easily handle full-color characters, figures, and image data.
(Over Head Projector), color information can be obtained in a wide range of fields such as slides, art, and design.

Conventionally, however, when the color information is processed by the host computer, when the color information created by the host computer is recorded in the printing apparatus, the CPU incorporated in the host computer is used and the inside of the host computer is used. After developing characters, images, and graphics into images according to the resolution of the printing apparatus, color information was output to a color printer as the printing apparatus.

Such a method is called a dumb printer method or a video printer method, and is a method for simplifying the mechanism on the printing apparatus side so that many processes are executed on the host computer side. In the case of handling, a large amount of data requires a long time for communication, so that the processing capacity is often extremely reduced, and there is a drawback that satisfactory efficiency cannot be obtained as compared with a monochrome printing apparatus.

Therefore, a page description language (page description language:
Page printer type color printers using PDL) have become widespread in recent years. Here, in the page printer method, PDL data in which characters, figures, and images are encoded is sent from a host computer to a print control apparatus, the PDL data is interpreted by the print control apparatus, and various information is set to the resolution of the printing apparatus. Scan conversion is performed in the corresponding page band buffer and output to the printing device.

In this type of color printer, conventionally, the following two types have been adopted as methods for reproducing the color gradation of an image.

In the first method, the page memory holds one bit for each of the four colors of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and K (black). This is basically a method for reproducing color gradations at the expense of resolution by means of error diffusion, etc. when pursuing color accuracy by dithering, or when pursuing color accuracy. It is mainly used in inkjet printers and thermal transfer printers. It's being used.

The second method is YMC for one pixel.
K multiple gradations / density for each color (eg 16 to 256 for each color)
This is a method of expressing a gradation and holding a designated color as it is in a memory and sending it to a printer, which is mainly used in a color laser beam printer.

[0009]

However, although the first method can realize a low cost printer,
Since the pseudo gradation process is performed, there is a problem in that there is a limit in performing high-definition printing.

The second method requires a large-capacity memory for storing color information of four colors of YMCK. For example, when the resolution is 600 DPI, the gradation is 8 bits for each color, and the maximum paper size is A4, the page memory is 4
A memory capacity of M × 4 (color) × 8 (bit) = 128 MB is required. In other words, the second method does not require the pseudo gradation processing as in the first method and directly outputs the gradation / density stored in the memory to the printer.
High-definition image printing is possible compared to the first method,
There is a problem that the cost becomes expensive.

Further, in recent OSs (operating systems) in host computers, graphics processing has been incorporated in advance, and an application program uses the library of this OS to perform on-screen display and printing on a printer. ing. In Windows (Windows) which is OS of Microsoft Corporation in the United States,
GDI (Graphics Device Interface) is provided, and DIB (Devi) as a function for executing color processing is provided.
ce Independent Bitmap) command and ROP (Raster Operation) 2, ROP that controls color superposition (logical drawing)
3 instructions supported. Therefore, it has become an important issue to realize the DIB, ROP2, and ROP3 instructions described above at high speed and faithfully in a color printer. Especially for ROP3, it is necessary to support color mixture of three color information of R (red), G (green), and B (blue), and it is very difficult to realize highly efficient and appropriate color reproduction at a low price. It is difficult and there is an urgent need to resolve these issues.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is a print control apparatus capable of reproducing color information at high speed with high image quality and at low cost, a control method for the printing apparatus, and printing. The purpose is to provide a system.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, a print control apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention comprises an input information analyzing means for analyzing color input information, and the above-mentioned based on an analysis result of the input information analyzing means. Rendering means for converting color input information into bitmap data, storage means for storing print information converted into bitmap data by the rendering means, execution of the rendering means, and printing information stored in the storage means. In a print control apparatus including a banding unit that performs a sending process to a printing apparatus in parallel, the rendering unit is physically configured by a logical drawing operation circuit capable of high-speed operation.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of controlling a printing apparatus, which comprises an input information analyzing step of analyzing color input information, and a rendering step of converting the color input information into bitmap data based on a result of analysis of the input information. The storing step of storing the print information converted into the bitmap data by the rendering step in the storing means, the execution of the rendering step and the sending processing of the print information stored in the storing means to the printing device are performed in parallel. A method of controlling a printing apparatus including a banding step to perform, wherein the rendering step is executed by using a logical drawing arithmetic circuit capable of physically high-speed arithmetic operation.

A printing system according to a fifteenth aspect of the present invention is an information processing apparatus for converting color print information into a predetermined data format,
An input information analysis unit that includes a printing device that outputs the print information and a print control device that is interposed between the printing device and the information processing device, and the print control device analyzes the color input information. A rendering means for converting the color input information into bitmap data based on an analysis result of the input information analyzing means; a storage means for storing print information converted into bitmap data by the rendering means; and the rendering In a printing system including a banding unit that performs the execution of the unit and the process of sending the print information stored in the storage unit to a printing apparatus in parallel, the rendering unit is a logical drawing capable of physically high-speed operation. It is characterized by being composed of an arithmetic circuit.

A storage medium according to a twenty-second aspect is used in a print control device, and an input information analysis module for analyzing color input information, and a logical drawing operation circuit capable of physically high-speed operation based on an analysis result of the input information. A banding module for executing a rendering process for converting color input information into bitmap data by using the printer and sending the print information stored in the storage means to a printing device in parallel; and the bitmap by the rendering process. A program including a storage module that stores the print information converted into data in the storage means is stored.

[0017]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an internal structure of an ink jet printer as a printing apparatus which constitutes a printing system according to the present invention.

In the ink jet printer 1, the carriage 2 has an ink jet cartridge 3 mounted thereon and is engaged with a spiral groove 5 of a lead screw 4 via a pin (not shown). The lead screw 4 is connected to the drive motor 7 via an appropriate number of sprockets 6. The carriage 2 can be moved in the arrow a direction or the arrow b direction by the rotational movement of the drive motor 7 in the forward or reverse direction. That is, the lever 8 is disposed below the carriage 2, and the photo coupler 9
By detecting the position of the lever 8 via 10, the home position of the carriage 2 is detected. Then, the rotation direction of the drive motor 7 is switched by detecting the home position of the carriage 2.

A transport motor 12 is connected to the platen 11, and the recording paper 13 wound around the platen 11 is transported in the direction of arrow c via the drive of the transport motor 12. Also, 1
A paper pressing plate 4 presses the recording paper 13 toward the platen 11 over the entire moving area of the carriage 2.

The cap member 15 caps the entire surface of the recording head and is supported by a support member 16. Reference numeral 17 is a suction means for sucking the recording head through the opening 18 in the cap. Reference numeral 19 denotes a suction lever for starting suction, which moves in accordance with the movement of the cam 20 that engages with the carriage 2, and the driving force from the drive motor 7 is movement-controlled by a known transmission means such as clutch switching. It
The cleaning blade 21 is movable in the front-rear direction via the member 22, and the main body support plate 23 supports the cleaning blade 21 and the member 22.

In the ink jet printer 1 thus constructed, when the input information is supplied from the print controller, the MP built in the ink jet printer 1 is supplied.
The input information is converted into output information under the control of U (not shown). Then, the transport motor 12 and the drive motor 7
Is driven via a motor driver (not shown), output information is sent to a head driver (not shown), a recording head (not shown) is driven, and printing is executed.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a print control apparatus according to the present invention. The print control apparatus 24 is a host computer 2 such as a workstation.
5 and the ink jet printer 1, the print information from the host computer 25 is transferred to the print control device 2
4 to the printer controller 5 of the inkjet printer 1.

That is, the host computer 25 creates color information as an application and sets the data as P
It is converted to a DL format (hereinafter referred to as PDL data) and sent to the print control device 24. The host computer 25
The connection form between the print control device 24 and the print control device 24, that is, the communication form may be serial, network, bus connection, or the like, and from the viewpoint of efficiency, a high-speed communication path is desirable.

In the print control device 24, 2
An input buffer 6 stores the PDL data sent from the host computer 25 to the print control device 24.

Reference numeral 27 denotes a font ROM, which is character glyph information such as a bit pattern or outline of a character,
And stores character base line and character metric information,
It is used when printing characters. Reference numeral 28 denotes a panel IOP which controls detection of a switch input of an operation panel (not shown) mounted on the printer body and display on a liquid crystal display (LCD). Reference numeral 29 denotes an expansion I / F, which controls interface operations with expansion modules (font ROM, program ROM, RAM, hard disk) of the inkjet printer 1.

Reference numeral 30 is a program ROM in which a control program executed by the CPU 37 and shown in the flow charts of FIGS. 8, 11, 14, and 16 to be described later is stored, and 31 is a management RAM, which is an input. P
The intermediate data (page object) converted based on the analysis result of the DL data, global information, and the like are stored.

A color conversion processing unit 32 converts RGB (additive color mixture) of the color system used in the host computer 25 to YMCK (subtractive color mixture) as color ink used in the ink jet printer 1. Do. The color conversion processing unit 32 is speeded up by a table look-up process, and color. When the management system makes a request for changing the color conversion method from the host computer 25, the table value of the lookup table can be changed.

Reference numeral 33 denotes a rendering processing unit, which is a GD
A high-speed arithmetic processing circuit compatible with I logic drawing is built in.
Then, in the rendering processing unit 33, the rendering processing is executed by an ASIC (application specific IC) in real time in synchronism with the video transfer to the inkjet printer 1, thereby realizing banding processing with a small memory capacity.

A page band buffer 34 stores an image rasterized by PDL, and has a memory of at least two bands (for example, page width × band height 256, 512 or 1) for performing the banding process.
(024 × bit depth) memory capacity is required. Also, in the case of print processing with a color printer that needs to transfer images in synchronism with the engine, if banding processing is not possible, as described below, a full-color bitmap memory in which at least one of resolution and color gradation is lowered. Must be secured.

A dither processing unit 35 reproduces color accuracy with a small number of bits when the color depth of the page band buffer 34 for rendering is smaller than the color depth (the number of bits) of the original image to be rendered. Used for.

Reference numeral 36 denotes a printer interface (I /
F), the memory information stored in the page band buffer 34 is transferred as video information to the inkjet printer 1 in accordance with head control of the inkjet printer 1 and head sizes of a plurality of lines, and to the inkjet printer 1. Control command transmission and status reception from the inkjet printer 1.

In this embodiment, the case where the ink jet printer 1 is used as the printing apparatus is described. However, when the laser beam printer is used, the memory information is synchronized with the horizontal / vertical synchronizing signals of the laser beam printer. Transfer.

Reference numeral 37 denotes a CPU, which is connected to each of the above-mentioned components and controls the operation of each of these components.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing an outline of a rendering process executed by the rendering processing unit 33. As an element of the rendering process, geometric information of various rendering data, that is, which part is rendered. Mask information 38 capable of expressing a signal of "0" or "1" indicating 1 bit by 1 bit, and background information 39 indicating in what pattern the mask information 38 is periodically applied.
And logical drawing information 40 (SET, OR, XOR, BLE
ND (blend), ADD, GDIROP2, GDIR
There are three elements (OP3, etc.), and 41 is the corresponding rendering result in the figure. That is, when clipping (cutting out) in an arbitrary shape is performed, the mask information 38 that is shape data is clipped, and only the remaining area after clipping is used as a mask, and as a result, the rendering result that is an image rendered in the SET mode is used. Four
1 is acquired.

Further, the background information 39 indicates at which position the color or shade is added to the mask. As the type of the background information 39, the background and the background which stick to the mask without repeating the image are displayed. It is possible to specify a pattern and a tile pattern to repeat the pattern in the vertical direction and the horizontal direction and attach it to the mask information 38. In this embodiment, since the inkjet printer 1 capable of color printing is used, the image and tile are designated as color information.

Further, in the present embodiment, the mask information 38 is high-speed as run length (one scan line in the X direction), trapezoid (convex polygon without edges intersecting), bit map image, bitmap font, etc. The structure is suitable for various rendering processing units. For example, when the mask information 38 is a pentagon as shown in FIG. 4A, it is divided into five triangles whose edges do not intersect as shown in FIG. 4B. In addition, for the connection processing of the apex portions of the lines as shown in FIG. 5, after applying the DDA algorithm and expanding the work area in the management RAM 31 in consideration of the line connection information (round, miter, triangle), The final external shape is min x for each Y scan line.
, Max x are held as pair information in the run length method to prepare for high-speed rendering to be described later.

Further, each mask object to be finally generated is rendered in a memory capacity smaller than the full page memory, that is, a banding process is performed. Band 2 ... Band 5) is divided, each mask object is classified into each band, and a linked list as shown in FIG. 6 is created in each band.

The band height is preferably a factorial of 2, and the optimum height is about 512 dots. Further, regarding mask information (for example, a pentagon shown in FIG. 4B) across a plurality of bands, pentagon information is shared by each band.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram schematically showing the circuit configuration of the rendering processing unit 33, and each component is composed of a physical arithmetic circuit.

The mask generation circuit 42 uses the mask information 3 from the input buffer 26, which is geometric information of various drawing data.
8 is received by FIFO (First-In First-Out),
The X-coordinate value and Y of the pixel of interest are analyzed according to information such as run length, trapezoid, and bitmap image.
Generate coordinate values.

The background generation circuit 43 is supplied with the X coordinate value and the Y coordinate value of the input mask information 38, and generates a background pattern corresponding to each of the X coordinate value and the Y coordinate value. That is, the X coordinate value and the Y coordinate value of the upper left end drawn in each band are calculated based on the acquired mask information 38, and the multivalued background information corresponding to these X coordinate value and Y coordinate value is calculated. Then, a background pattern for the specified X coordinate value and Y coordinate value is generated. For example, in the case of a tile having a size of 32 × 32 and a depth of n bits and a pixel depth, the memory address is calculated based on Expression (1), and the background pattern for the specified X and Y positions is generated. To do.

Memory address = start address of tile (C, orM, orY, orK) + (Y pos mod 32) × width of tile (byte boundary) + (X mod 32) × n bits-pixel (tile) / 8 (1) Further, in the destination storage circuit 44, the memory address of the mask pattern is calculated as in the background generation circuit 37.

The micro execution circuit 45 uses the microcode 4
6 is read, and the necessary background information 39, mask information 38, and destination information are clipped according to the intermediate information generated by analyzing the PDL data, and the necessary information is masked by the mask generation circuit 42 and the background. Generation circuit 43 and destination storage circuit 44
And start it to perform processing in parallel.

The rendering execution circuit 47 collects each pattern from the mask generation circuit 42, the background generation circuit 43, and the destination storage circuit 44, executes the rendering according to the logical drawing information 40, and outputs the rendering result to the destination. It is stored in the memory circuit 44. For example, when the rendering mode is the GDI rendering mode (high speed 1-bit rendering), the rendering execution unit 4
1 is a 1-bit mask, background pattern,
FIG. 13 which will be described later collects the destination patterns.
Finally, the 1-bit information to be written in the page band buffer 34 is determined in comparison with the pattern. Note that the rendering processing speed is the same as those of the above-mentioned three generation circuits 42, 43,
It is determined depending on the circuit of 4 which has the slowest operation processing speed, and the processing is continued until the rendering processing is completed over the entire area of one mask.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the print control procedure executed by the print control device 24.

In step S1, the print processing mode is a high-definition print mode for printing an image in high-definition, or G
The hardware of the rendering processing unit 33 analyzes the DI logical drawing at a high speed to analyze whether or not it is in the GDI mode, and the memory area of the page buffer memory 34 is dynamically secured for each job according to the analysis result. Specifically, when rendering with 2-bit or 4-bit precision, it is determined to be a high-definition print mode, and when rendering with 1-bit precision, it is determined to be a GDI mode. These high-definition print mode or GDI mode is determined by the operation panel ( It is determined by an input to the panel IOP 28 by a changeover switch (not shown) or a utility program on the host computer 25. As a result, in the high-definition mode, color gradation can be printed with a high image quality centering on the image, and in the GDI logical drawing mode, the GDIROP of YMCK 1-bit depth for each color is provided by the hardware.
By realizing the command, high-speed printing is possible while sacrificing a certain color gradation. In this way, the print mode is selectable because the highest resolution is 600D.
This is because it is considered that there is not a significant difference in the quality of a 1-bit image and the quality of a 2-bit or 4-bit image in PI.

After the color accuracy to be printed is determined in this way, the PDL data is input from the host computer 25 to the input buffer 26.

That is, in step S2, the print control device 24 is operated by the host computer 2 by interrupt processing or the like.
The PDL data transmitted from No. 5 is taken into the input buffer 26.

Next, in step S3, the PDL data is analyzed according to the specifications of the PDL language. In addition, a plurality of P
In order to execute the emulation of DL data, it is necessary to automatically determine the leading hundreds of bytes of PDL data by using a predetermined keyword.

Next, in step S4, the result of analyzing the command of the PDL data is a drawing command, for example, a character,
It is determined whether the drawing is a vector or image. And P
When the DL data is a drawing command, the process proceeds to step S5, the page data is converted into the page object format supported by the rendering processing unit 33, and the converted data is stored in the management RAM 31 as intermediate information.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the data format of the analysis result of the intermediate information. The intermediate information has a state flag 48 indicating whether or not hard rendering is possible, and the state flag 48 is "1". When the state flag 48 is "0", soft rendering is executed when the state flag 48 is "0".

Further, each intermediate information is mask pointer 49.
The mask information 38 is stored in the address designated by the, the background information 39 is stored in the address designated by the background (BG) pointer 50, and the logical drawing information 40 is stored in the logical drawing mode area 51.

The next pointer 52 is a pointer indicating whether or not there is a next drawing object. When the next pointer 50 is "0", it indicates the end of the intermediate data, and when it is other than "0", it indicates the next. Indicates the address of the data.

The intermediate information is basically mask information 3
8 is created each time it is input, and logical drawing information 40 and BG are created.
The information 43 holds the latest state and is combined with the mask information 38 to specify the painting method of the mask information 38 and the logical drawing information 40.

In this case, in the above-described rendering processing unit 33, when the rendering of one object is completed, the data of the next pointer 52 is input and the rendering is attempted as the next object. When the state flag 48 is set to "0" and it is determined that the hard rendering of the input data is impossible, an interrupt signal is sent to the CPU 37 and the start address of the intermediate data which cannot be processed is set. Notice.
As a result, the CPU 37 activates the soft rendering and executes the rendering processing by the software.

Next, in step S5, the decoding time pred decode (m) and the rendering time pred ren required for rendering the mask divided into each band.
der (m) is calculated and added every time a page object is created in each band (m).

The decode time pred decode (m) and the rendering time pred render (m) are for each color plane (YMC
K) for each band (m).

Here, the rendering time pred render
(M) is calculated based on Equation (2).

Pred render (m) = mask area in band × background color depth × computation factor depending on the type of logical drawing (2) Note that the decoding time pred decode (m) is the same as that of the created object. Although it is almost proportional to the amount of data,
The decoding time of triangles tri1 and tri4 in band 3 in (b) requires extra time to find the offset of the starting point of the polygon in band 3 from the starting point of band 2.

Generally, the K plane is likely to be included in any object, but since each plane of YMC is not used for black characters and the like, the addition of the predicted time is not executed for that object.

Next, when it is determined in step S4 that the PDL data is not a drawing command, the process proceeds to step S7, and it is determined whether or not the PDL data is various attribute (background, logical drawing) setting commands. When the answer is negative (No), the corresponding process is executed in step S8, and then the process returns to step S3 to repeat the above process. That is, dump processing is performed on the current state for the purpose of, for example, debugging processing.

The answer to step S7 is affirmative (Yes).
If so, the process proceeds to step S9, the corresponding state storage process is executed, and the process proceeds to step S10.

In this case, the rendering by banding cannot be executed, for example, when the "point designation fill" is designated, so the full paint flag is set to "1".

In the color processing mode of this embodiment, the high definition mode (2 or 4 bits) and GDI are used.
In any case of the logical drawing mode (1 bit), the original color depth, for example, 8 at the time of creating the intermediate data.
Bits are converted from RGB data to Y through the color conversion processing unit 32.
It is converted into MCK data and stored in the management RAM 31.

Next, in step S10, P for one page is
It is judged whether or not the DL analysis is completed, and the answer is negative (N
In the case of o), it returns to step S3 and repeats the above-mentioned processing.

In this way, the PDL data analysis (PD
After performing the L analysis task), the rendering task from step S11 is executed to perform raster drawing on the page band buffer 34. In both tasks,
In particular, since the rendering task requires real-time processing, it is implemented as a separate task on the real-time OS, and the rendering task of the latter is set with a higher operation priority than the former, and is operated with priority.

The rendering task will be described below.

When the answer to step S11 is affirmative (Yes), it is determined whether the banding process can be executed.
Here, it is determined that the banding process cannot be executed in the following cases.

(1) In the case where the above-mentioned "point designation fill" command exists in the page. In this case, the rendering result is required for all pages, so it is determined that banding processing is impossible.

(2) Management R for holding intermediate analysis data
When the memory capacity of AM31 overflows due to a large number of image inputs and the memory deteriorates.

When a laser beam printer is used instead of the ink jet printer 1, once recording paper is fed and recording is started in the banding process, video signal transfer to the laser beam printer and transfer to each band are performed. Since it is necessary to process the rendering in parallel, the decoding time pred decorde (m) and the rendering time pred rende for each band m calculated in step S6.
Regarding r (m), it is determined that the banding process is not possible even when the time degradation occurs because any band of the specific color plane exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

If it is determined in step S11 that banding is possible, the process proceeds to step S12 to execute the banding process, while if it is determined that banding is not possible, the process proceeds to step S13 to execute the degrading rendering. The process ends.

FIG. 10 is an architecture diagram showing the flow of color information.

In the banding process, first, RGB
The information 53 is subjected to color conversion processing by the color conversion processing unit 32, then the YMCK page object is stored in the management RAM 31, then the rendering processing unit 33 executes the rendering processing together with the mask information 38, and the YMCK color print information. Is generated and the color print information is stored in the band buffer memory 34 for each band, and the rendered color print information is output to the inkjet printer 1 through the printer I / F 36 in parallel with the rendering process.

On the other hand, in the degraded rendering processing, the resolution conversion 54 is performed on the mask information 38 to reduce the resolution, and the rendering processing unit 33 reduces the resolution of the mask information 38 and the YMCK page object, and if necessary. Read the dither table of the dither processing unit 35 to perform rendering processing, and
The color print information of K is generated, the color print information is stored in the band buffer memory 34 for each band, and then the color print information is output to the inkjet printer 1 via the printer I / F 36.

The banding process and the degrading rendering will be described in detail below.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the banding processing.

In step S21, the color plane to be rendered is determined according to the specifications of the recording order of the ink jet printer 1.

Then, in step S22, the band 1 is first rendered according to the mask information 38, the background information 39, and the logical drawing information 40.

Next, the page object of band m is rendered and synchronized with the horizontal synchronizing signal sent from the ink jet printer 1, and the band (m-1) already rendered through the printer I / F 36. The band information of is sent to the inkjet printer 1 as a color video signal (step S23).

Then, it is judged whether or not the rendering is completed for all the bands of the current color plane and the rendered color plane is sent to the ink jet printer 1 as a color video signal (step S25). When the answer is negative (No), the band number is incremented by "1" (step S26), and the process returns to step S23 to repeat the above-described processing.

On the other hand, the answer in step S25 is affirmative (Yes
In the case of s), the process proceeds to step S27, and it is determined whether the rendering is completed for all color planes. Then, when the answer is negative (No), the process returns to step S21 to execute the rendering process for the remaining color planes, and the above-described processes are repeated. When the answer is affirmative (Yes), the process ends.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram showing the banding process. The banding process is performed by the PDL analysis task 55.
The rendering processing unit 33 activated by the rendering task 56 reads the page object information stored in the management RAM 31 according to, and the scan line information (x min, x max) at the Y coordinate from the mask information 38.
Is extracted and the corresponding background information 39 is referenced by referring to the latest background information 39 and logical drawing information 40.
Is written in the page band buffer 34. Then, the height information of the Y coordinate is changed so as to correspond to all the mask information 38, and the rendering is executed.

Here, as the logical drawing information 40 supported by the arithmetic circuit of the rendering processing unit 33 in the high-definition print mode, the source object is S, the mask information is M, and the destination which is rendered plane information is D. Then, there are generally the following three types.

(1) Overwrite, SET (D = S and M) (2) Transparent, do not draw on D, TRANSP ifM = 1 then D = S and M; else D = D (3) White, WHITE (D = 0) Note that these are logical drawing information that requires a large arithmetic processing capability, such as inputting both information between the source object S and the destination D, performing an operation between them and setting the destination D. Is not supported. This is because the data calculation time becomes long when each plane has 2 bits or 4 bits.

On the other hand, as a logical drawing command capable of high-speed rendering by hardware in GDI mode, GDI
There are ROP2 and ROP3 instructions. Note that in GDIROP3, for the mask information, the source object S, and the destination D, these NOT logics alone, AND logics between any two terms, OR logics, XOR logics, and combination logics thereof are possible. ing.

In this logical drawing, GDIROP3 is basically an additive color mixture calculation in the RGB space. Therefore, in order to convert it into the subtractive color mixture into YMCK in the ink jet printer 1, in the state setting process of step S9 (FIG. 8) described above. From AND logic to OR logic, OR
It is necessary to convert from logic to AND logic.

The intermediate data structure corresponding to this logical drawing is
The output result for all the bit pattern combinations of the source object S, the mask information M, and the destination D is designated. For example, as shown in FIG. 13, in the mode for rendering the mask information M, the portion where the mask is "1" is "1" as the rendering result, so the designated mode is 1111000.

Next, the degradation rendering executed in step S13 (FIG. 13) will be described.

The following logical drawing (blending) is an example of performing degraded rendering because high-speed rendering cannot be performed.

(1) Addition; D = D + S (2) Subtraction; D = DS (3) Blend; D = α × S + (1-α) × D (4) Maximum value; D = Max (S, D) (5) Maximum value; D = Min (S, D) This logical drawing is generally C in the host computer 25.
It is calculated on the RGB data used in RT. Therefore, in order to reproduce the same color information as that of the host computer 25, it is necessary to realize it on the RGB color model even inside the inkjet printer 1. That is, the page band buffer 34 and the management RAM 31
The intermediate information of is stored as a YMCK object, but since it is necessary to convert these information into RGB data once, the band height (256,
Alternatively, every 512) the YMCK band needs to be rendered.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the degraded rendering processing, and FIG.
It is a memory map of AM31.

The degraded rendering is shown in FIG.
This occurs when the page object cannot fill the storage area, as shown in FIG.

In step S31, as shown in FIG. 15B, thinning is performed to reduce the resolution of all mask information of the input object to 1/2. However, the resolution conversion is performed in the GDI logical drawing mode (1-bit rendering) or the high-definition logical drawing mode (2-bit rendering) as a full bit map memory in each YMC.
A memory equivalent to a K full bitmap, for example, if the paper size is A4 and the print resolution is 600 DPI, GDI
16 (= 4 (M) x 4 (color) x 1 (bit)) M bytes + α (α is a constant specified by the user) in the logical drawing mode,
High-definition logic drawing mode 32 (= 4 (M) x 4 (color) x 2
(Bit)) When the memory capacity of M bytes + α is held, the thinning out of the resolution is not necessary and this step can be omitted.

In the following step S32, a full bitmap is created in the degraded rendering process.
Utilizing the fact that the memory capacity of the object is reduced in the thinning processing, garbage collection (GC) of the object is executed, and as shown in FIG.
Create a free area. As a result, the page objects 53 are collected in a continuous address space on the side opposite to the memory area of the band raster 55.

Next, in step S33, the size thinned out for each plane of YMCK (300 in this embodiment).
Acquire a band raster (corresponding to DPI), and follow step S
At 34, as shown in FIG. 15D, the corresponding color Y
Rendering to the MCK band is performed for each YMCK color plane.

Then, in step S35, it is determined whether or not the rendering is completed for all the bands of the page. If the answer is negative (No), the rendered object is deleted (step S36), and then step S32. Then, the processing described above is executed again, and rendering is executed for the remaining bands (FIG. 15 (e)).

On the other hand, the answer in step S35 is affirmative (Yes
In the case of s), as shown in FIG. 15F, a full-page band raster is generated, and each band raster is video-transferred to the inkjet printer 1 via the printer I / F 36 at the time of shipping and processed. To finish.
The full-band raster is interleaved with each YMCK color plane.

Since the degraded processing cannot be rendered in real time, it is rendered on the page band buffer 34 corresponding to a full bitmap (bit depth is 1, 2 or 4 bits, etc.) with reduced resolution and / or gradation. .

Although the inkjet printer 1 is used as the printing apparatus in the present embodiment, when the laser beam printer is used, the rendering processing unit 33 is required to simplify and speed up the processing. Real-time run length and convex polygon information at the time of rendering,
The resolution conversion cannot be executed, and it is necessary to execute the following resolution conversion processing in step S31.

That is, when the resolution is reduced from 600 DPI to 300 DPI as the preprocessing of the degrading rendering, two lines are set as one run length, and the convex polygon is recalculated for the vertex coordinate value (reduced to 1/2). ) Is executed. Then, this is performed for all the mask information 38 in the page buffer. The run length is, for example, the start point of the X coordinate of two lines at 600 DPI, where j and j + 1 (where j and j + 1 represent Y coordinate values).
The end points are xl (j), xr (j), xl (j +
1) and xr (j + 1), the X coordinates of the start point and end point of one scan newly thinned by 330 DPI are as shown in equations (3) and (4).

New xl (j) = min (xl (j), xl (j + 1)) / 2 (3) new xr (j) = min (xr (j), xr (j + 1)) / 2 (4) Regarding the image, the scaling information in the x and y directions is multiplied by 1/2 without changing the image information itself of the page object.

On the other hand, even if the gradation of the page band buffer 34 is lowered, the rendering processing unit 33 still outputs 1 bit, 2 bits.
Since the 4-bit, 8-bit, and 8-bit rendering is supported by hardware or software, the background information 39 is different from the mask information 38, and the CPU 37 does not particularly need to perform the processing.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of the rendering process executed in step S34.

In step S41, the mask information 38 and the background information 39 whose resolution has been converted as described above are used.
Is input, and it is determined in step S42 whether the input object is a drawing command. If it is not a drawing command, the process proceeds to step S45 to set the current state. That is, after the background information 39 and the logic drawing information 40 are assigned to the global variables as the plurality of latest information, the process returns to the routine of FIG.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the command is a drawing command, the process proceeds to step S43, objects such as mask information 38, background information 39, and logical drawing information 40 are collected, and rendering is performed by hardware in step S44. Then, the process returns to the routine of FIG.

At this time, however, since the page band buffer 34 has 1, 2, or 4 bits, when an image corresponding to 8 bits is input as the background information 39 from the PDL data, 1, 2, or 4 bits are input. It is necessary to execute dither processing for gradation conversion into bits.

That is, when the color gradation of the input data is higher than the gradation of the page band buffer 34, the dither processing unit 3
It is necessary to execute the dither processing in No. 5, and the dither processing will be described below.

The principle of simple multi-value conversion for converting 8-bit (256 levels) input data as multi-value into 2 bits (4 values) will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 17A, the input value of the target pixel is 64.
Less than 0, 64 or more and less than 128 85, 1
If 28 or more and less than 192, 170 is output, and if 255 or more, 255 is output. Area 0
2, 64, 128, and 192 are provided as threshold values, respectively, and inside the area (area 0 to 2) to which the input belongs,
Binarization processing is performed so that the output is at both ends of the area.

Next, a case where the binarization process is applied to multi-value dither will be described with reference to FIGS. 17 (b) and 17 (c).

FIG. 17 (b) shows the input data, and the input pixels surrounded by □ show the target pixel data. Further, FIG. 17C shows a dither matrix for the target pixel.

First, the pixel of interest in the input data is read to determine which region it belongs to. in this case,
The pixel of interest is “180” and belongs to region 2.

Then, the corresponding dither matrix value is read and changed to a threshold value that matches this area. In this case, the corresponding dither matrix value is "74",
The threshold value is 244 (= 74 + (255-170) × 2).

Next, when the pixel data of interest is equal to or larger than the threshold value, the maximum value of the area is output, and when it is less than the threshold value, the minimum value of the area is output. In this case, since the pixel of interest is “188” and the threshold value is “244”, “170” which is the minimum value of the area 2 is output.

The above operation is sequentially executed for all pixels.

The dither processing can be performed at high speed by a look-up table in terms of hardware.
Also, the lookup table has input levels from 0 to 2
For each of the 55, it can be realized by storing in advance the dither-converted 2-bit output value at each position of the 4 × 4 dither matrix.

This table size is 2 for each YMCK.
56 × 4 × 4 × 2 bits = 1024 bytes are required, and every 2 bits are accessed from the dither table (FIG. 18B) indicated by the pointer shown in FIG. 18A.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the present embodiment, the dither processing is performed as the pseudo gradation processing for obtaining the color accuracy at the time of degrading. For example, an error diffusion method or a density diffusion method can be applied. It is also possible to render the input data as it is, or by truncating bits, as in the banding process, without performing the dither process during the degradation process. As a result, especially in the case of software processing, the printing quality is lowered, but the speed of the printing processing can be increased compared to the dither processing, and it can be positioned as a draft (low resolution) mode for the user.

Further, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a storage medium of a system or an apparatus. In this case, the system or the device can enjoy the effects of the present invention by the system or the device reading the storage medium storing the program represented by the software for achieving the present invention.

In the above embodiment, the program ROM 30 is used as a storage medium, and the program ROM 30 stores a program having an input information analysis module, a banding module and a storage module. FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing a memory map of a storage medium. The input information analysis module is a module that analyzes color input information. The banding module is stored in the storage means in parallel with the execution of the rendering process for converting the color input information into bitmap data by using the logical drawing operation circuit capable of physically performing high-speed operation based on the analysis result of the input information. It is a module that performs a process of sending the printed information to the printing device. The storage module is a module for storing the print information converted into the bitmap data by the rendering process in the storage means.

The program module itself read from this storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program module constitutes the present invention. Examples of the storage medium that supplies the program module include a floppy disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, and a non-volatile memory card.

[0124]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, since the rendering means uses the logical drawing arithmetic circuit capable of high-speed arithmetic, it is not necessary to use a multi-value full bitmap for color printing. Therefore, a low-priced printing system can be obtained.

In addition, printing of color input information is performed in a high definition mode, for example, rendering processing with a color accuracy of 2 bits or 4 bits, and high speed drawing mode, for example,
The user can appropriately select the rendering processing with 1-bit color accuracy, and if the user wants to print the image in pictorial color, the user can select the high-definition mode and perform high-quality printing. When the color presentation material is desired to be printed at high speed, the desired image can be quickly obtained by selecting the high speed drawing mode.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an inkjet printer as an embodiment of a printing apparatus used in a printing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing details of a print control apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing elements of rendering processing and rendering results.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of mask information.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a connection process of line apex portions of mask information.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a link list obtained based on mask information.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram schematically showing a circuit configuration of an arithmetic circuit in a rendering processing unit.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of a method for controlling a printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an analysis result of intermediate information.

FIG. 10 is an architecture diagram showing a flow of color information.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of banding processing.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram showing a banding process.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a setting method of logical drawing.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a degraded rendering.

FIG. 15: Management R at the time of degraded rendering
It is a memory map of AM.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of rendering processing executed at the time of degraded rendering.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the principle of dither processing.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram for performing dither processing by hardware.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing a memory map of a storage medium.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Inkjet Printer (Printing Device) 25 Host Computer (Information Processing Device) 26 Input Buffer (Input Information Analysis Means) 33 Rendering Processing Unit (Rendering Means, Logical Drawing Operation Circuit) 34 Page Band Buffer (Storage Means) 37 CPU (Banding Means) ) 42 mask generation circuit 43 background generation circuit 44 destination storage circuit 45 micro execution circuit (starting circuit) 47 rendering execution circuit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Agency reference number FI Technical display location H04N 1/46 H04N 1/46 Z

Claims (22)

[Claims] 1. Input information analyzing means for analyzing color input information, rendering means for converting the color input information into bitmap data based on an analysis result of the input information analyzing means, and bitmap data by the rendering means. A printing control device comprising: storage means for storing the print information converted into the print information; and banding means for executing the rendering means and sending the print information stored in the storage means to the printing apparatus in parallel. In the printing control device, the rendering means is physically configured by a logical drawing operation circuit capable of high-speed operation. 2. A high-definition drawing setting mode for performing high-definition logical drawing, a high-speed drawing setting mode for performing high-speed logical drawing by reducing the number of gradations, the high-speed drawing setting mode and the high-definition drawing setting mode. 2. The print control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a changeover switch for changing over between the two, and the logical operation drawing circuit executes a rendering process according to a setting state of the changeover switch. 3. The print control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the changeover by the changeover switch is executed for each print job. 4. The print control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the high-speed drawing setting mode includes logical drawing with 1-bit precision. 5. The print control apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the high-definition drawing setting mode includes logical drawing with 2-bit or 4-bit precision. 6. The logic drawing arithmetic circuit calculates a mask pattern based on the color input information to generate a mask generation circuit, and generates a background pattern based on the mask pattern to generate a background pattern. A circuit, a destination storage circuit that calculates a destination pattern based on the mask pattern and stores a rendering result, and a startup circuit that activates each circuit so that they operate in parallel,
The print control apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a rendering execution circuit that collects each of the patterns and executes a rendering process according to a logical drawing setting mode. 7. The color input information is described in a page description language.
The print control device according to any one of 1. 8. An input information analyzing step of analyzing color input information, a rendering step of converting the color input information into bitmap data based on a result of analysis of the input information, and a bitmap data converted by the rendering step. A method of controlling a printing apparatus, including a storage step of storing the print information in a storage unit, and a banding step of performing the rendering step and a process of sending the print information stored in the storage unit to the printing apparatus in parallel. 3. The method for controlling a printing device according to claim 1, wherein the rendering step is executed by using a logical drawing arithmetic circuit capable of physically performing high speed arithmetic. 9. A high-definition drawing setting mode for performing a high-definition logical drawing and a high-speed drawing setting mode for performing a high-speed logical drawing by reducing the number of gradations. 9. The method for controlling a printing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the rendering process is switched between the drawing setting mode and the rendering process according to the drawing mode. 10. The method for controlling a printing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the changeover by the changeover switch is executed for each print job. 11. The method according to claim 9, wherein the high-speed drawing setting mode includes logical drawing with 1-bit precision. 12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the high-definition drawing setting mode includes logical drawing with 2-bit or 4-bit precision. 13. The logic drawing operation circuit includes a mask generation step of generating a mask pattern based on the color input information, a background generation step of generating a background pattern based on the mask pattern, and the mask pattern. And a destination storing step of storing a rendering result based on the above, each step operates in parallel, and each pattern is collected to perform rendering according to a setting mode of logical drawing. 13. The control method for a printing apparatus according to claim 8, which is executed. 14. The method for controlling a printing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the color input information is described in a page description language. 15. An information processing device for converting color print information into a predetermined data format, a printing device for outputting the print information, and a print control device interposed between the printing device and the information processing device. The print control device includes input information analysis means for analyzing color input information, rendering means for converting the color input information into bitmap data based on an analysis result of the input information analysis means, and the rendering Storage means for storing the print information converted into bitmap data by the means, and banding means for executing the rendering means and sending the print information stored in the storage means to the printing device in parallel. In the printing system, the rendering means is composed of a logical drawing arithmetic circuit capable of physically performing high-speed arithmetic operation. Printing system. 16. A high-definition drawing setting mode for performing high-definition logical drawing, a high-speed drawing setting mode for performing high-speed logical drawing by reducing the number of gradations, the high-speed drawing setting mode and the high-definition drawing setting mode. 16. The printing system according to claim 15, further comprising: a changeover switch for switching between and, wherein the logical operation drawing circuit executes a rendering process according to a setting state of the changeover switch. 17. The printing system according to claim 16, wherein the changeover by the changeover switch is executed for each print job. 18. The printing system according to claim 16, wherein the high-speed drawing mode includes logical drawing with 1-bit precision. 19. The printing system according to claim 16, wherein the high-definition drawing mode includes logical drawing with 2-bit or 4-bit precision. 20. The logic drawing operation circuit calculates a mask pattern based on the color input information to generate a mask pattern, and generates a background pattern based on the mask pattern to generate a background pattern. A circuit, a destination storage circuit that calculates a destination pattern based on the mask pattern and stores a rendering result, a startup circuit that activates each circuit so that the circuits operate in parallel, and collects each pattern 20. The printing system according to claim 15, further comprising a rendering execution circuit that executes a rendering process according to a logical drawing setting mode. 21. The printing system according to claim 15, wherein the color input information is described in a page description language. 22. An input information analysis module for analyzing color input information and a logical drawing operation circuit capable of physically high-speed operation are used to convert the color input information into bitmap data based on an analysis result of the input information. A banding module that executes a rendering process and sends the print information stored in the storage means to the printing device in parallel, and stores the print information converted into the bitmap data by the rendering process in the storage means. A storage medium used in a print control device in which a program including a storage module is stored.