JP5528016B2 - Information processing apparatus, information processing method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for displaying preview image data of print data for each printer.

  In order to perform a preview display for confirming in advance the print image of the content on the display, the user selects the content for each printer and generates and displays a preview image.

JP 2006-268541 A

  However, the conventional technique has a problem that the operation of previewing the print image of the content on the display is complicated, and it takes time to preview the print image of the content corresponding to a plurality of printers.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable easy preview of a list of print images corresponding to each printer without performing complicated operations.

The information processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a toner charging characteristic, an exposure characteristic, a developing characteristic, a transfer characteristic, a toner fixing characteristic, a drum number, a toner type and a remaining amount of toner, a print head characteristic, the number of ink colors, and an ink of an image forming apparatus. A first acquisition unit configured to acquire characteristic information indicating at least one of a seed and a remaining amount of ink; and a second acquisition unit configured to acquire setting information relating to a print output of the image forming apparatus that can be set by a user. Based on the acquisition unit, the characteristic information acquired by the first acquisition unit, and the setting information acquired by the second acquisition unit, the print data to be printed by the image forming apparatus And display control means for displaying preview image data on a display device.

According to the present invention , it is possible to display a preview image on a display screen based on not only setting information that can be set by a user but also characteristic information indicating characteristics of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, according to the present invention , it is possible to easily preview a list of print images corresponding to the characteristics of each image forming apparatus without performing complicated operations.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the image display apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of operation | movement of the image display apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of a preview image. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of printer characteristic information. FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of printer setting information.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments to which the invention is applied will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The configurations shown in the following embodiments are merely examples, and the present invention is not limited to the illustrated configurations.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image display apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes an image display apparatus according to this embodiment. Reference numeral 101 denotes print data. Reference numeral 102 denotes a print request receiving unit. The print request receiving unit 102 receives a print request for the print data 101 from the user. When receiving the print request, the print request reception unit 102 notifies the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103. Note that the image display apparatus 100 is configured as an application example of the information processing apparatus of the present invention.

  Reference numeral 103 denotes a printer characteristic acquisition unit. Upon receiving the notification from the print request reception unit 102, the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 acquires characteristic information of the printer 112 connected to the image display apparatus 100 and setting information of the printer 112 via the communication unit 104. An example of the printer 112 characteristic information acquired by the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 is shown in FIG. An example of setting information related to the print output of the printer 112 is shown in FIG. The printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 is configured as an application example of the first acquisition unit and the second acquisition unit of the present invention.

  In the characteristic information of the printer 112 shown in FIG. 4, if the printer is an electrophotographic printer, the characteristic information includes toner charging characteristics, exposure characteristics, development characteristics, transfer characteristics, toner fixing characteristics, the number of drums, and toner types. It is shown that the remaining amount of toner is included. In addition, in the case of an ink jet printer, the characteristic information includes print head characteristics, the number of ink colors, an ink type, and an ink remaining amount.

  The setting information of the printer 112 shown in FIG. 5 includes setting information of color / monochrome setting, paper size, paper type, printing direction, bordered / not bordered, border size, double-sided printing, 2in1, and print quality. It is shown. In the example of FIG. 5, “color” is set for the color / monochrome setting. “A4” is set for the paper size. “Plain paper” is set for the paper type. “Landscape” is set for the print direction. “Bordered” is set for bordered / non-bordered. As for the border size, “left and right 0.5 cm / up and down 0.5 cm” is set. “OFF” is set for duplex printing. “OFF” is set for 2in1. “Photo” is set for print quality.

  Reference numeral 104 denotes a communication unit. Reference numeral 105 denotes a preview generation unit. The preview generation unit 105 includes a printing process simulation unit 106 and an output correction unit 107. Note that the preview generation unit 105 is configured as an application example of the generation unit of the present invention.

  Reference numeral 106 denotes a printing process simulation unit. In accordance with the characteristic information and setting information of each printer 112 acquired by the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103, the preview image data (hereinafter referred to as a preview image) of the print data 101 received by the print request reception unit 102 is printed for each printer 112. Is generated by simulation. Note that the printing process simulation unit 106 is an application example of the simulation means of the present invention.

  The printing process simulated by the printing process simulation unit 106 differs depending on the type of the printer 112. When the printer 112 is an ink jet printer, as shown in FIG. 4, the ejection of ink droplets is simulated based on the print head characteristics, the number of ink colors, the ink type, and the remaining amount of ink, and the setting shown in FIG. A preview image corresponding to the information is generated. If the printer 112 is an electrophotographic printer, as shown in FIG. 4, the toner charging characteristics, exposure characteristics, development characteristics, transfer characteristics, toner fixing characteristics, the number of drums, the toner type, and the remaining amount of toner Thus, each process is simulated, and a preview image corresponding to the setting information shown in FIG. 5 is generated. The generated preview image is sent to the output correction unit 107.

  Reference numeral 107 denotes an output correction unit. The output correction unit 107 performs color correction processing on each preview image generated by the printing process simulation unit 106 to perform color matching in order to reproduce the color developed by each printer 112 in the display device 111. That is, the output correction unit 107 corrects an output difference between the display device 111 and each printer 112 (a difference in color and texture at the time of output). The corrected preview image is held in the preview image holding unit 108. The output correction unit 107 is a configuration serving as an application example of the correction unit of the present invention.

  Reference numeral 108 denotes a preview image holding unit. The preview image generated by the preview generation unit 105 is held.

  Reference numeral 109 denotes a display control unit. A preview image is displayed on the display device 111. Reference numeral 111 denotes a display device. The display device 111 displays, for example, a preview image shown in FIG. Reference numeral 112 denotes a printer. The display control unit 109 is a configuration serving as an application example of the display control unit of the present invention.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a preview image. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 300 denotes a preview screen displayed on the display device 111. The type of the printer 112 connected to the image display device 100 is displayed at the positions of the preview screens 301a and 301b. Further, preview images corresponding to the printer types indicated by 301a and 301b are displayed at positions 302a and 302b adjacent to 301a and 301b. At a position 302a adjacent to 301a, a preview image corresponding to setting information in which “no border” is set for the presence / absence of a border in FIG. 5 is displayed. At a position 302b adjacent to 302b, a preview image corresponding to the setting information in which “with border” is set for the presence / absence of a border in FIG. 5 is displayed.

  Hereinafter, the operation of the image display apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment will be described using the flowchart shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation flow of the image display apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment.

  When the user selects the print data 101 and makes a print request, the print request reception unit 102 receives the print request and notifies the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 (step S201).

  The printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 detects the printer 112 connected to the image display device 100 via the communication unit 104 (step S202).

  The printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 acquires the detected characteristic information and setting information of the printer 112 (step S203). For example, the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 acquires the characteristic information shown in FIG. 4 and the setting information shown in FIG.

  The preview generation unit 105 receives a notification from the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 and generates a preview image for the print data 101. Here, the preview generation unit 105 generates a preview image based on the characteristic information and setting information of the printer 112 acquired by the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103. That is, the preview generation unit 105 simulates the printing process of the printer 112 by the printing process simulation unit 106 (step S204). Then, the preview generation unit 105 corrects the output difference between the display device 111 and the printer 112 by the output correction unit 107 (step S205). The preview generation unit 105 generates a preview image based on the printing process simulation result in step S204 and the correction result in step S205 (step S206).

  Subsequently, the printer characteristic acquisition unit 103 determines whether characteristic information and setting information have been acquired for all the printers 112 detected in step S202 (step S207). If there is a printer 112 that has not yet acquired characteristic information and setting information, the process returns to step S203, and characteristic information and setting information acquisition processing is performed. On the other hand, when the characteristic information and the setting information are acquired from all the printers 112, the process proceeds to step S208.

  When preview images for all the printers 112 are generated, the display control unit 109 configures a preview screen including a list of preview images for all the printers 112 (step S208).

  Subsequently, the display control unit 109 displays the configured preview screen on the display device 111 (step S209).

  As described above, the present embodiment is configured to generate a preview image of the print data 101 corresponding to each printer 112 based on the characteristic information of the plurality of printers 112 and display a list of preview images. Yes. Therefore, it is possible to easily preview a list of print images corresponding to each printer 112 without performing a complicated operation.

  In this embodiment, the printing process in each printer 112 for the print data 101 is simulated, and a preview image in which an output difference between the display device 111 and the printer 112 is corrected is generated. Accordingly, it is possible to display a preview image having an image quality that further considers the final printing result of each printer 112.

  Each process of the present invention can also be realized by executing software (program) acquired via a network or various storage media by a processing device (CPU, processor) such as a personal computer.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Image display apparatus, 101 Print data, 102 Print request reception part, 103 Printer characteristic acquisition part, 104 Communication part, 105 Preview production | generation part, 106 Printing process simulation part, 107 Output correction part, 108 Preview image holding part, 109 Display control Part, 111 display device, 112 printer

Claims (9)

Among the charging characteristics, exposure characteristics, development characteristics, transfer characteristics, toner fixing characteristics, number of drums, toner type and remaining amount of toner, print head characteristics, number of ink colors, ink type and remaining ink level of the image forming apparatus First acquisition means for acquiring characteristic information indicating at least one of them;
A second acquisition unit configured to acquire setting information relating to print output of the image forming apparatus, which can be set by a user;
Based on the characteristic information acquired by the first acquisition unit and the setting information acquired by the second acquisition unit, preview image data of print data to be printed by the image forming apparatus is obtained. An information processing apparatus comprising: display control means for displaying on a display device. The first acquisition unit and the second acquisition unit acquire the characteristic information and the setting information of a plurality of the image forming apparatuses, respectively.
The display control unit prints each of the plurality of image forming apparatuses based on the characteristic information acquired by the first acquisition unit and the setting information acquired by the second acquisition unit. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a list of preview image data of print data to be processed is displayed on the display device.   The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first acquisition unit acquires the characteristic information indicating a characteristic of the image forming apparatus that prints the print data by an electrophotographic method.   4. The information according to claim 1, wherein the first acquisition unit acquires the characteristic information indicating a characteristic of the image forming apparatus that prints the print data by an inkjet method. 5. Processing equipment. The second acquisition means is at least one of color / monochrome settings, paper size, paper type, printing direction, border presence, border size, duplex printing, and page aggregation information set by the user. The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the setting information indicating one is acquired . Simulation means for simulating a printing process of print data by the image forming apparatus based on the characteristic information acquired by the first acquisition means ;
Generating means for generating preview image data corresponding to each of the image forming apparatuses based on a simulation result by the simulation means;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: The generating means includes
A correction unit that corrects a difference between the output of each of the image forming apparatuses and the output of the display apparatus;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising: generating preview image data corresponding to the image forming apparatus based on a correction result by the correction unit . Among the charging characteristics, exposure characteristics, development characteristics, transfer characteristics, toner fixing characteristics, number of drums, toner type and remaining amount of toner, print head characteristics, number of ink colors, ink type and remaining ink level of the image forming apparatus A first acquisition step of acquiring characteristic information indicating at least one of the following:
A second acquisition step of acquiring setting information relating to the print output of the image forming apparatus, which can be set by a user;
Based on the characteristic information acquired in the first acquisition step and the setting information acquired in the second acquisition step, preview image data of print data to be printed by the image forming apparatus is obtained. Display control steps to be displayed on the display device;
An information processing method comprising: The program for functioning a computer as each means of the information processing apparatus of any one of Claims 1 thru | or 7 .

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