JP4144574B2 - Print data preview method and apparatus, and recording medium - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a preview method for enabling print data based on a print request to be visually confirmed and edited immediately before printing in a device having a spool function, and a preview device and a preview method suitable for implementing this preview method. The present invention relates to a recording medium for causing a computer device to execute.

  Recently, it has become common for a host computer to perform a part of processing associated with printing control to be performed in a printing apparatus such as a printer. For example, data based on a print request input from an application (hereinafter referred to as “AP”) is converted into a print control code having a structure that can be read by the printing apparatus, or the converted print control code is spooled and printed. The despooled (reverse spool) print control data is sent to the apparatus on the host computer side.

  The spooling is mainly performed in order to eliminate a wasteful waiting time of the print control process due to the difference between the speed at which the print control code is sent to the printing apparatus and the actual printing speed by the printing apparatus. Specifically, the print control code is once written in the spool file, and the written print control code is read asynchronously with the writing and sent to the printing apparatus. Since writing and reading are executed by independent tasks, various value-added information for giving variety to the printing form, for example, template data such as watermark characters and stamp marks, is overlaid while spooling. Added value information such as a control code for printing and a control code for performing layout printing is also added to an actual print control code (actual print information) based on a print request. The “watermark character” is a character that is overprinted on the background of a print character or the like that the AP has instructed to print in a color or expression different from the print character or the like, and the “stamp mark” is the same as a normal stamp Mark.

  Conventionally, after a print request is issued from an AP or after value-added information is added by a host computer, the user checks the actual print finish until printing is actually performed by the printing apparatus. I can't. Some APs or host computers display an image when printed on a display device, but this is not based on data sent to the printing device, but only displays content known to the AP. Become. In other words, regarding added value information such as watermark characters and assignments, the AP or the like cannot know the contents, and thus does not accurately reflect the actual print finish.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a print data preview method in which a user visually confirms the actual print finish in advance and can arbitrarily edit added value information and the like.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a preview apparatus suitable for carrying out the preview method of the present invention.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium for realizing the preview method or preview apparatus with a general-purpose computer apparatus.

The preview method of the present invention that solves the above-described problems includes a step of acquiring print data that can be printed by a printing apparatus and spooling the print data to a predetermined memory, and converting the spooled print data into display data having a predetermined structure for display. A step of displaying on the apparatus; a step of editing the display data being displayed based on edit data input at the time of display; and a step of inversely converting the edited display data into a structure of the spooled print data It is characterized by including.
Specifically, the step of editing the display data includes a process of correcting a color component included in the display data being displayed. In addition, when the print data includes actual print information based on a print request and added value information added afterwards, only the added value information being displayed is an object to be edited.

  The value-added information is, for example, template data to be overprinted on a plurality of layout pages allocated to one print sheet. In this case, when the position of one template data on the allocation page is changed, the change of the position is reflected on the other allocation pages. Specifically, when the position of the template data on each assigned page is moved, the position is linked to the movement of the position on another assigned page. When this value-added information is used as template data to be overprinted on a plurality of assigned pages assigned to one printing paper, the position of the template data on each assigned page is an odd page and an even page. To be different.

  A print control apparatus of the present invention that solves the above-mentioned other problems includes a spool unit that spools print data that can be printed by the printing apparatus, a data conversion unit that converts the spooled print data into display data having a predetermined structure, Display control means for displaying the converted display data on a display device, data editing means for editing the display data being displayed based on edit data input when the display device is displayed, and the edited display Data reverse conversion means for reversely converting the data into the spooled print data structure is provided, and the print data based on the print request is visually edited immediately before printing.

  The data editing means includes, for example, an object detection means for detecting an object in a region designated in the display data being displayed, and an object editing means for editing the content of the detected object based on a command, The display data is configured to be edited. The display data spooled and converted during a predetermined period is edited.

A recording medium of the present invention that solves the above-mentioned other problems is a recording medium that includes a data input means and a display device, and records a program code that is read and executed by a computer device connected to the printing device. The program code causes the computer apparatus to execute the following processing.
(1-1) Spool processing for spooling print data that can be printed by the printing apparatus;
(1-2) Data conversion processing for converting the spooled print data into display data having a predetermined structure;
(1-3) Display control processing for causing the display device to display the converted display data;
(1-4) a data editing process for editing the display data being displayed based on the editing data input from the input means at the time of display on the display device;
(1-5) Data reverse conversion processing for reversely converting the edited display data into the structure of the spooled print data.

  According to the present invention, since the user can visually check the data immediately before printing and edit it arbitrarily, there is no need to perform editing considering the performance of the printing apparatus on the AP side. In addition, since the editing contents performed on the AP side can be corrected afterwards, for example, in units of pages, it is possible to print in a form that is more suitable for the user's preference.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a printing system to which the preview apparatus is applied. This printing system is configured by connecting a host computer 1 and a printing apparatus 2 via a printer cable. When the printing apparatus 2 receives a print control code (hereinafter “print data”) from the host computer 1, the printing apparatus 2 executes a predetermined printing process to form an image on printing paper. The printing apparatus 2 may be any of a serial printer, a page printer, and other electronic copying printers, and the connection form with the host computer 1 may be either a stand-alone state or a network connection state.

  The host computer 1 includes a central processing unit (CPU), a random access memory (RAM), a read only memory (ROM), and a built-in or external hard disk (HD) 3 arranged on a system board (not shown). The program loaded from the recording medium by the CPU is read from the HD 3 as appropriate, and the required processing is executed. The HD 3 stores an application program (hereinafter “AP”), a control program for realizing the preview apparatus of the present invention, and the like.

  Also connected to the host computer 1 are a display device 4 having a monitor screen, a data input device 5, a media reading device 6 including a CD-ROM drive and an FDD, and a communication control device 7 serving as a connection interface with a local network. Has been. The display device 4 is configured to display a predetermined dialog window in response to an instruction from the system program, AP, or the like. The data input device 5 is a keyboard, mouse, or other pointing device.

  The control program for realizing the preview device can be read by the host computer 1 on a portable recording medium such as a flexible disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD, or magnetic tape. And is installed in the HD 3 through the media reader 6. Alternatively, it is installed in the HD 3 from a program server accessible through the communication control device 7. By executing only the control program, a function as a preview device is formed, and an operating system running on the host computer 1 based on an instruction of the control program performs an actual process. The function as the preview device may be formed through the processing.

  Next, functions of the preview apparatus realized by the host computer 1 reading and executing the control program will be described. As shown in FIG. 2, the preview device 10 includes a print management unit 11, a spooler 12, a data conversion unit 14, a data editing unit 15, a data reverse conversion unit 16, a functional block of a despooler 17, and a spool file 13. is doing. FIG. 2 shows only the components necessary for carrying out the present invention.

  For example, the print management unit 11 converts data based on a print request from the AP or the data input device 5 into a print control code having a structure that can be read by the printing device 2. It also has a function of adding value-added information, such as template data such as watermark characters and stamp marks, designation of layout printing, and designation of overlapping printing of template data during layout printing, to the print control code. “Allocation printing” refers to a process of allocating a plurality of logical pages to a physical print page. This is realized by a print page reduction process and a print position coordinate designation process after the page reduction.

  The spooler 12 temporarily stores the print control code output from the print management unit 11 in the spool file 13, and the despooler 18 reads and outputs the data stored in the spool file 13. (Spool processing). Data output from the despooler 17 is transmitted to the printing apparatus 2 through transfer control means (not shown).

  The data conversion unit 14 converts the print control code stored in the spool file 16 into display data having a structure that can be displayed on the display device 4, and displays the display data on the display device 4 through display control means (not shown). . The data conversion unit 14 also sends display data addressed to the display device 4 to the data editing unit 15.

  The data editing unit 15 edits data that is being displayed, that is, data that is substantially the same as data stored in the spool file 16 based on editing instruction data input by the user when the display device 4 is displayed. is there. What is to be edited is the template data of the added value information added by the print management unit 11, and the editing contents are the type, color, darkness, position, size, etc. of the template data. In order to realize this editing function, the data editing unit 15 manages each template data as an object, and edits the contents of this object based on the editing instruction data. Also, as shown in FIG. 3, functional blocks of an input data analysis unit 151, an object management unit 152, an object storage unit 153, and an attribute information storage unit 154 are prepared.

The input data analysis unit 151 analyzes the contents of the instruction data input by the user through the data input device 5 and transmits it to the object management unit 152. The object management unit 152 has the following functions.
(1) The template data (object) input from the data conversion unit 14 is stored in the object storage unit 153, and the object stored in the object storage unit 153 is output to the data reverse conversion unit 16.
(2) A corresponding object is detected based on the analysis result of the input data analysis unit 151, and the detected object is read from the object storage unit 153. Also, the corresponding attribute information is read from the attribute information storage unit 154 to edit the object.
(3) The position of an object to be overprinted on each layout page when layout printing is designated is determined. Normally, when the position of an object on one allocation page is changed, the objects on all other allocation pages are linked to the same position, but depending on the user instruction data, the position of the object on each allocation page is an odd number. Different for pages and even pages. This is realized by coordinate processing during layout printing.
(4) The edited object is stored again in the object storage unit 153 and displayed on the display device 4 through the data conversion unit 14.
(5) During editing, a read stop signal is output to stop the operation of the despooler 17 in print units, for example, page units, and after the editing is completed, a release signal is output to restart the operation of the despooler 17. For example, an object spooled in print units may be edited during a certain period. In this case, it is preferable that editing is possible after prior confirmation for editing.

  The attribute information storage unit 154 stores attribute information having contents illustrated in FIG. That is, object editing information is held as index information, and attribute information of each object, for example, template number (watermark character / stamp mark identification information), color, density, size, position, etc. are linked to the index information. Yes. The color information may be fixedly prepared in advance as shown in the figure, but is not limited to such a form, and the user may be able to adjust the hue, brightness, etc. each time. The density information is arbitrarily selectable from 1 to 100% in terms of the number of dots. The size and position are determined in advance based on the coordinate information, but can be arbitrarily determined by the user.

  Examples of preview screens displayed on the display device 4 as a result of editing by the data editing unit 15 configured as described above are shown in FIGS.

  FIG. 5A shows an example of a preview screen 41 when the watermark character M1 is overprinted on the printing paper S, and FIG. 5B shows a preview when another watermark character M2 is overprinted on the two assigned pages. An example of the screen 41 is shown. The type, color, density, size, and position of these watermark characters M1 and M2 can be changed afterwards while the user confirms the preview screen 41.

  FIG. 6A shows an example of changing the position of a stamp mark overprinted on the printing paper S, and FIG. 6B shows a case of changing both the size and position of the watermark character overprinted on the printing paper S. It is the figure which showed the example of. G1 is a stamp mark before editing, G2 is a stamp mark after editing, W3 is a watermark character before editing, and W4 is a watermark character after editing.

  FIG. 7 shows that, for example, when stamp marks are overprinted on four assigned pages, when the position of the stamp mark on one assigned page is changed, the stamp marks on the other assigned pages are also linked together. It shows how the position is changed. In the illustrated example, when the stamp mark G11 of the first page is changed to the position of the stamp mark G12 indicated by a broken line, the stamp marks G21, G31, and G41 on the other allocated pages are interlocked with each other. , G32, G42.

  FIG. 8 shows a state in which the stamp marks G11, G21, G31, and G41 in the individual allocated pages are changed to the left stamp marks G12 and G32 for odd pages, and the right stamp marks G22 and G42 for even pages. 7 and 8 show examples of stamp marks, but the same processing can be performed for watermark characters. Note that changing the inclination angle of the watermark character between the odd-numbered page and the even-numbered page also corresponds to the above-described position change.

  Next, the operation of the preview apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 9 is an overall processing procedure diagram, and FIG. 10 is a processing procedure diagram of the data editing unit 15 when displaying the preview screen 41 as described above.

  In FIG. 9, when a print request is input from an AP or the like (step S101: Yes), the print management unit 11 converts the print target data into a print control code having a structure that can be read by the printing apparatus 2, and if necessary. Value-added information is inserted into this print control code (steps S102 and S103). The print control code is stored in the spool file 13 by the spooler 12 (step S104). Here, for example, when an editing instruction is input from the data input device 5 (step S105: Yes), the data conversion unit 14 reads the print control code from the spool file 13 and performs data conversion, which is then sent to the data editing unit 15. At the same time, the preview screen 41 is displayed on the display device 4 (step S106). At this time, the data editing unit 15 temporarily stops the operation of the despooler 18.

  The data editing unit 15 performs data editing according to the procedure shown in FIG. 10 (step 107). That is, when the user who has viewed the preview screen 21 instructs to change any of the template type, color, and density (step S201: Yes, S202: Yes, S203: Yes), the object storage unit 153 sets the corresponding object. The attribute information is acquired through the template editing information in the attribute information storage unit 154 (step S204). If an instruction to change the position or size is given, the information is also acquired or detected (step S205: Yes, S206: Yes), and the object is edited (step S207). After editing, the edited content is reflected in the display data of the preview screen 41 (step S208). As a result of editing, when there is no need to change or when there is no need to edit (step S201: No, S202: No, S203: No, S205: No, S206: No), the content of the confirmed object Is stored again in the object storage unit 153 (step S209), and an editing completion notification is notified to the data reverse conversion unit 16 and the despooler 17 (step S210).

  Returning to FIG. 9, the data reverse conversion unit converts the edited data or the data sent as it is into the original print control code structure and resaves it in the spool file 13 upon receipt of the editing completion notification. (Step S108). Further, the despooler 17 resumes operation, reads the print control code from the spool file 17 at a predetermined timing (step S109), and outputs it to a transfer control means (not shown). The transfer control means sequentially transfers this print control code to the printing apparatus 2 (step S110). When there is subsequent data for the print request, the processing after step S102 is repeated (step S111: Yes), and the processing is terminated when there is no subsequent data (step S111: No).

  As described above, the preview apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment can visually check and edit the stored contents of the spool file 13, so that the user can correctly grasp the image immediately before printing.

  The present invention is as described above, but the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-described embodiment, and can be implemented in various forms. For example, in the above processing procedure, an example in which the operation of the despooler 17 is temporarily stopped upon input of an editing instruction from the data input device 5 to perform data conversion and data editing has been described. The content may be immediately displayed on the display device 4 when the file 13 is saved, and the operation of the despooler 17 may be temporarily stopped when the user designates the editing target area.

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a printing system to which the present invention is applied. The functional block block diagram of the preview apparatus of this embodiment. The detailed block diagram of the data editing part by this embodiment. The content explanatory view of the attribute information storage part which a data editing part has. (A) is an example of a preview screen when a watermark character is overprinted on a print sheet, and (b) is an example of a preview screen when another watermark character is overprinted on a two-page layout page. Figure. (A) shows an example of changing the position of a stamp mark that is overprinted on a printing paper, and (b) shows an example of changing both the size and position of a watermark character that is overprinted on a printing paper. Illustration. When overprinting stamp marks on four assigned pages, when the position of the stamp mark on one assigned page is changed, the stamp mark on the other assigned pages is also changed to the same position. Explanatory drawing which showed a mode. It is explanatory drawing which showed an example of the content of the data editing by this embodiment, and is explanatory drawing which showed a mode that the stamp mark in each allocation page was changed into the left side in odd pages, and the right side in even pages. Explanatory drawing of the whole process sequence in the preview apparatus of this embodiment. Explanatory drawing of the process sequence of the data editing part by this embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host computer 2 Printing apparatus 3 Hard disk 4 Display apparatus 5 Data input apparatus 6 Media reader 7 Communication control apparatus 10 Preview apparatus 11 Print management part 12 Spooler 13 Spool file 14 Data conversion part 15 Data editing part 16 Data reverse conversion part 17 Despooler 41 Preview screen 151 Input data analysis unit 152 Object management unit 153 Object storage unit 154 Attribute information storage unit

Claims (10)

Acquiring print data printable by the printing apparatus and spooling the print data to a predetermined memory;
Converting the spooled print data into display data having a predetermined structure and displaying it on a display device;
Editing the display data being displayed based on edit data input at the time of the display;
Look including the step of inverse transforming the display data to which the edited the structure of print data the spool,
When the print data comprises actual print information based on a print request and added value information added afterwards,
The value-added information is template data to be overprinted on a plurality of assigned pages assigned to one printing sheet, and the position of the template data on each assigned page is different between an odd page and an even page. A method for previewing print data.   2. The preview method according to claim 1, wherein the step of editing the display data includes a process of correcting a color component included in the display data being displayed.   In the step of editing the display data, when the print data includes actual print information based on a print request and added value information added afterwards, only the added value information being displayed is to be edited. The preview method according to claim 1, wherein: Spool means for spooling print data that can be printed by the printing device;
Data conversion means for converting the spooled print data into display data having a predetermined structure;
Display control means for displaying the converted display data on a display device;
Data editing means for editing the display data being displayed based on edit data input at the time of display of the display device;
Data reverse conversion means for reversely converting the edited display data into the structure of the spooled print data;
The print data includes actual print information based on a print request and added value information added afterwards, and the added value information is a target of overprinting on a plurality of assigned pages assigned to one print sheet. In the case of template data, the data editing means edits the display data so that the position of the template data in each allocated page is different between an odd page and an even page,
A print data preview device, wherein print data based on a print request can be edited before printing. The data editing means includes an object detection means for detecting an object in a region designated in the display data being displayed, and an object editing means for editing the content of the detected object based on a command. The preview apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the preview apparatus is configured to edit display data. 5. The preview apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the data editing means is configured to edit the spooled and converted display data during a predetermined period . A recording medium that includes a data input unit and a display device, and that records a program code that is read and executed by a computer device connected to a printing device, the program code performing the following processing: A computer-readable recording medium characterized by being executed by the computer.
(1) Spool processing for spooling print data that can be printed by the printing apparatus;
(2) a data conversion process for converting the spooled print data into display data having a predetermined structure;
(3) Display control processing for displaying the converted display data on the display device;
(4) While displaying the display device, the display data being displayed is edited based on the edit data input from the input means , and the print data is added afterwards with actual print information based on a print request. In the case where the value-added information is template data to be overprinted on a plurality of assigned pages assigned to one printing sheet, the position of the template data on each assigned page is an odd number. Data editing process that makes the page different from the even page
(5) Data reverse conversion processing for reversely converting the edited display data into the structure of the spooled print data. The recording medium according to claim 7 , wherein the data editing process is a process of detecting an object added to the print data and editing the content of the detected object based on a command. The recording medium according to claim 7 , wherein the data editing process includes a process of correcting a color component included in the display data being displayed. In the data editing process, when the print data includes actual print information based on a print request and added value information added afterwards, only the added value information being displayed is to be edited. The recording medium according to claim 7 .

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