JPH1083266A - Printer driver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a state wherein a difference between both colors can not be recognized owing to the printing of different color image with the same gray density from being caused. SOLUTION: The printer driver 3 displays and controls a menu for print condition settings when printing data generated by application, and outputs set values of printing and print data to a printer 5 at the time of print execution. Further, the printer driver has a function which investigates the colors used by the application and converts them into a gray scale to display the correspondence between the colors and density on the display of a host computer. When density confirmation is selected from a print condition dialog on the display of the host computer, the print result of the colors on the screen, i.e., the correspondence to the density converted into the gray scale is displayed. Consequently, a user can confirm with what density and in which color a print is made on the display on the display screen.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer driver for printing a color image as a monochrome image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, most of application software such as word processors and spreadsheet software operating on a host computer correspond to a color image, and almost all displays of the host computer for displaying the image are color display devices. I have. However, monochrome printers are still the mainstream printers, and in the current system, the host computer simply transmits a value obtained by converting a color image to grayscale or color color information as it is to the printer. .

[0003]

As described above, at present,
Although the application and display are color, the printer is often monochrome, and even if a color image is created on the application, most users can print only with a monochrome printer. In such a case, the color portion of the application will be converted to grayscale by the printer, and the user will not know the actual printing status, that is, the printing density status until printing is performed. Met. Therefore, even if different colors are used on the application, different colors may be printed as gray with the same density in the print result, and the color difference cannot be recognized in the print result. Had also occurred.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such a situation of the prior art, and an object thereof is to print different color images at the same gray density so that the difference between the two colors cannot be recognized. An object of the present invention is to provide a printer driver that does not cause a state.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a first means is to generate monochrome printer data from data transferred from an application, and transfer the generated data to a printer for printing. In the printer driver to be executed, means for converting the color used in the application to grayscale and displaying the correspondence between the color used in the application and the density of black actually printed by the monochrome printer on the display device of the host computer And means for causing it to be. The second means is a result of the first means comparing a density value when a plurality of colors used on the application are converted to gray scale, and a means comparing the density values. In the case where the colors are different on the application, but have the same density when printed, a means for displaying an alert on the display device is provided.

A third means is the first means, wherein a plurality of colors used on the application are compared with each other when a plurality of colors are converted to a gray scale, and a density value is compared with the color used on the application side. As a result of comparison between the means for changing the number of lines and / or the angle of dither at the time of printing and the means for comparing the density values, the colors are different on the application, but have the same density when printed. In the case where the number of dither lines and / or the angle of the dither is changed by the changing unit, a printing unit is provided.

The fourth means is characterized in that the changing means in the third means automatically changes the number of dither lines and / or the angle when the density becomes the same.

Means for converting to gray scale in the first to fourth means, means for displaying the correspondence between the color used in the application and the density of black actually printed by the monochrome printer on the display device of the host computer. Means for comparing density values, means for displaying an alert on a display device, means for changing the number of lines and / or the angle of dither when printing according to the color used on the application side, and the number of lines and / or the angle of the dither Each unit such as a unit for changing and printing is constituted by a printer driver program.

[0009]

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

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a module configuration including a printer driver according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, the module configuration from the application to the execution of the printer is such that data is transferred from the application 1 to the graphical device interface (GDI) 2, the printer driver 3, and the print manager 4, and is printed from the print manager 4 to the printer 5. Data is transmitted and printing is performed. In this case, the application issues a function of the graphical device interface 2, converts the transferred function into a function of the device drive interface (DDI) in the graphical device interface 2, and the printer driver 3 converts the function of the device drive interface into a function for the printer. Generate data. The print manager 4 transmits data transferred from the printer driver 3 and manages jobs. In addition, the printer driver 3 transmits information of the printer 5 and the printer driver 4 to the graphical device interface or the application 1, provides an interface so that a user can change the setting of the driver, or outputs a value set by the user. It has a function to hold. All of these functions are executed based on programs set in the application 1, the printer driver 3, the pudding and the manager 4.

More specifically, the printer driver 3 performs menu display and menu control of print condition setting when printing data created by an application, and prints set values and print data when executing printing. Output to Further, it has a function of examining the colors used on the application, converting these colors to gray scale, and displaying the correspondence between the colors and the density on the display of the host computer. The other functions in the same manner as the conventional printer driver. Reference numeral 6 indicates a user, and reference numeral 7
Indicates a kernel.

The display on the display of the host computer is, for example, a print condition dialog shown in FIG. 2, and the correspondence between color and density is as shown in FIG. That is, the print condition dialog of the printer driver 3 includes the display of the paper size 11, the paper feeding method 12, the scaling 13, and the print (paper) direction 14 relating to the print conditions, the print 15 relating to the print instruction, the cancel 16, the density check 1
7 and option 18 are displayed. When the density check 17 is selected from these displays with, for example, a pointer or the density check key is pressed, the display screen is changed to the display screen of FIG. 3, and the color 21 and the print result 22 on the screen, in other words, the gray scale The correspondence with the changed density is displayed. Thereby, the user can confirm on the display screen which color is to be printed at what density on the display.

The correspondence between the colors printed in this way and the colors on the display screen can be checked on the display screen by selecting the density check key 17, but the colors printed at the same density are If there is, a warning can be automatically issued. The processing procedure at this time is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

In this processing procedure, when the density confirmation key 17 is pressed (step 401), the colors used in the application are checked (step 402), and these colors are converted to gray scale (step 403). A density correspondence table as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed on the display (step 404). Then, it is checked whether or not there are different colors having the same density (step 4).
05) If there is the same one, an alert (warning) is displayed (step 406). If not, the input of the dialog close is waited for (step 407). With this configuration, the printer driver 3 can automatically confirm the difference in density without having to pay attention to the correspondence between the color and the density on the gray scale on the display screen.

If the color on the display screen is the same as the print density, the color different from the application will be indicated by the same print density. Therefore,
Set so that dither can be changed for each color. FIG. 5 shows the display of the setting dialog at this time. In this example, for example, a key for changing dither is added to the dialog of the density correspondence table of FIG. 3, and when this key is depressed (selected), a menu for changing dither as shown in FIG. 5 is displayed. From this menu, the user can specify dither for each color. The dither is specified by the frequency 51 and the angle 52. By inputting these values, the user can freely specify the dither.

In this example, the user inputs and changes the dither pattern. However, the dither can be automatically changed. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for automatically changing the dither.

That is, in this processing procedure, when print execution is instructed (step 601), the colors used are enumerated, and those colors are converted to a gray scale (step 602). Check if there is something identical on the scale (Step 6
03). If not, the print data is transmitted as it is (step 604). If there is, the dither pattern is changed for one color having the same density (step 605), and the print data is transmitted (step 604).

With this configuration, different colors are not displayed at the same density on the gray scale.
Those that are represented by different colors on the display screen when printed in monochrome can be reliably distinguished.

[0019]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the user confirms on the display screen of the host computer how much density the colors used on the application are printed by the monochrome printer. be able to. In addition, since printing of different colors at the same density can be checked in advance, printing errors can be prevented.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the printer driver detects the case where images displayed in different colors are printed with the same density and automatically displays an alert. Such a situation can be automatically known, thereby making it possible to prevent a printing error.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in the case where images displayed in different colors are printed in the same density, the dither pattern is changed for one of the colors so that different colors are obtained even if the density is the same. Can be obtained.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, the dither pattern can be changed automatically, and the same effect as the third aspect of the invention can be obtained without imposing a burden on the user.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a system configuration of a print control device including a printer driver according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a view showing a display example of a print condition dialog of the printer driver according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a color-density correspondence table of the printer driver according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of a warning process for displaying at the same density by the printer driver according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a display example of a dither setting dialog of the printer driver according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of a dither pattern changing process of the printer driver according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 application 2 graphical device interface 3 printer driver 4 print manager 5 printer 17 density check (key)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A printer driver for generating monochrome printer data from data transferred from an application and transferring the generated data to a printer to execute printing, wherein a color used in the application is converted to gray scale. A printer driver comprising: means for converting; and means for displaying, on a display device of a host computer, a correspondence between a color used in an application and a density of black actually printed by a monochrome printer. 2. A means for comparing density values when a plurality of colors used on the application are converted to gray scale, and a result of comparing the density values by the means for comparing the density values, as a result, different colors are obtained on the application. 2. The printer driver according to claim 1, further comprising: means for displaying an alert on the display device when the density becomes the same when printed. 3. A means for comparing density values when a plurality of colors used on the application are converted to gray scale; and a dither line number and / or a dithering number when printing is performed using the colors used on the application side. Or, as a result of comparison by the means for changing the angle and the means for comparing the density values, if the colors are different on the application, but become the same density when printed, the means for changing 2. The printer driver according to claim 1, further comprising: means for changing a dither line number and / or an angle for printing. 4. The printer driver according to claim 3, wherein said changing means automatically changes the number of dither lines and / or the angle when the density becomes the same.