JP2003110831A - Image recording system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image recording system with high productivity in image recording operation. SOLUTION: Master data (1 and 2) and exchange component data (1 and 2) of a plurality of kinds are previously transferred from a host PC to a printer, and the respective data are distinguished and stored in the prescribed areas of a buffer (S1-S4). Next, layout instruction information is transferred from the host PC to the printer. When there are additional data except for data stored in the buffer, such data are transmitted to the printer. In such a case, instruction information on the additional data is contained in the layout instruction information. Further, by transmitting print instruction information instructing the execution of the image recording operation in the printer, output data are prepared by using the respective data stored in the buffer on the basis of the layout instruction information (S5), and print-out (S6) is executed for recording these output data.

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus for recording an image based on image information, and at least the image information and the image information for the image recording apparatus. And an image recording instruction means for instructing execution of image recording based on the same network. Conventionally, a predetermined recording medium (for example, paper, film, photographic paper,
An image recording apparatus that records an image on a printing plate)
Image data to be recorded and recording conditions of the image data, which are connected via a network to a plurality of general personal computers (host PCs) as a host for instructing image recording, and are sequentially transmitted from each host PC Receive job information that instructs image recording including information, etc.
It is often used as an image recording system that performs an image recording operation in accordance with received job information. In such an image recording system,
The host PC creates image data to be recorded and performs image editing operations such as combining multiple created image data or replacing part of the image data with another image data. The final output data is transmitted to the image recording apparatus via the network, and the image recording apparatus that has received the output data performs predetermined recording such as bitmap development / resolution conversion as necessary. Pre-processing is performed and recording output is performed as an image. Therefore, in this image recording system, even when only a part of the image data to be recorded is changed, the entire image data to be recorded is recreated on the host PC side, and the entire image data is transmitted via the network. Then, transfer to the image recording apparatus has been performed again. In particular, 1
In so-called variable printing, in which image data with different layout contents is recorded and output for each sheet, master data composed of basic layout portions common to the output image data and replacement composed of layout portions different between the image data. Data (variable data) and data are transferred to the image recording apparatus after a merge process is executed on the host PC side. However, in such an image recording system that exchanges a large amount of image data via a network, data transfer, data merging processing, etc. take a very long processing time and are heavy processing. The productivity of the entire system may be greatly reduced. In particular, when the merge processing is performed by the host PC, the same master data is transmitted to the image recording apparatus many times, which may cause a large load on data transfer. The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object thereof is to provide an image recording system having high productivity in an image recording operation. The invention described in claim 1 comprises an image recording means for recording an image on a predetermined recording medium, and
Information input means for inputting at least image information to be recorded, recording condition information for recording the image information as an image on the recording medium, and execution control information for instructing execution of image recording by the image recording means And corresponding to the image information stored in the storage unit based on the recording condition information input by the information input unit, and a storage unit that stores at least the image information input by the information input unit Editing that includes at least addition of the image information stored in the storage means or replacement with a part of the image information while constructing predetermined output image data for image recording by the image recording means When image information to be edited is newly input by the information input means, the image information to be edited is included. Output image construction means for constructing predetermined output image data for performing image recording by the image recording means corresponding to the image information stored in the storage means, and the output constructed by the output image construction means An image output control unit that executes image recording by the image recording unit based on image data, and an information input unit of the image recording device, the image information, the recording condition information, And an image recording instruction means for transmitting the execution control information on the same network. According to the first aspect of the present invention, the image recording instruction means is provided on the same network, and the information input means is provided for the image recording apparatus having the image recording means for recording an image on a predetermined recording medium. The image information to be recorded, recording condition information for recording the image information as an image on the recording medium, and execution control information for instructing execution of image recording by the image recording unit are transmitted. The storage means stores at least image information among image information, recording condition information, and execution control information input by the information input means. Further, the output image construction unit constructs predetermined output image data for performing image recording by the image recording unit corresponding to the image information stored in the storage unit, based on the recording condition information. In addition, when image information to be edited is newly input by the information input unit so as to perform editing including at least addition to the image information stored in the storage unit or replacement with a part of the image information. In this case, predetermined output image data for image recording by the image recording unit corresponding to the image information stored in the storage unit, including the image information to be edited, is constructed. In the construction of the output image data here, based on the recording condition information from the image recording instruction means, an operation of combining and editing each image information is performed using the image information already stored in the storage means. . Further, for example, a bitmap development process of image data to be recorded and output by the image recording means, a resolution conversion process to match the resolution of the image data to the resolution of the image recording means, and the like are finally performed. Built. Further, the image output control means executes image recording by the image recording means based on the output image data constructed by the output image construction means. As described above, for example, an image editing operation such as combining a plurality of image data with an image to be recorded or replacing a part of the image data with another image data is performed on the recording means. Since the stored image information is used and executed on the image recording apparatus side, it is possible to suppress the transfer of each necessary large-capacity image information via the network each time. As a result, the overall processing time of the image recording operation can be greatly shortened, and the productivity can be improved. In the storage means of the image recording apparatus,
By storing a plurality of pieces of image information in advance, when image recording is performed using the stored image information, re-transmission from the image recording instruction unit to the image recording apparatus is further reduced. The transfer load can be suppressed, and as a result, the processing time required for the image recording operation can be shortened. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. As shown in FIG. 1, the image recording system 10 according to the present embodiment is such that a user creates image data,
The first host PC 12A, the second host PC 12B, and the third host P instructing to record and output the created image data (print image data) according to the designated recording condition.
C12C (hereinafter collectively referred to as the host PC 12), a first printer 16A for printing out print image data on a predetermined recording medium, and a second printer 16
B (hereinafter collectively referred to as printer 16)
And a first that constantly monitors the operating status of the first printer 16A.
The printer monitor server 14A and the second printer monitor server 14 that constantly monitors the operation status of the second printer 16A
B. Further, the first host PC 12 described above
A, the second host PC 12B, the third host PC 12C, the first printer monitor server 14A, and the second printer monitor server 14B are connected to each other via a bus 18 so that various data can be exchanged between them. A bus network is formed as a whole. The first printer 16A is connected to the first printer monitor server 14A, and the second printer 16B is connected to the second printer monitor server 1.
4B, and the first printer 16A and the second printer 16B are connected to the first printer monitor server 1 respectively.
Various data such as image data to be recorded can be exchanged between the host PC and the bus 18 via the 4A and the second printer monitor server 14B. The first printer monitor server 14A
As the second printer monitor server 14B, a general PC (personal computer) can be used, and an Ethernet cable, an optical fiber cable, or the like is used as a connection medium for connecting the devices to each other. can do. The first printer 16A and the second printer 16B are composed of color printers that can print out color images in addition to black and white images. For image data, a plate for each color of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) is sequentially formed, and finally they are accurately positioned (registered) and printed. A color plate making process for reproducing image data to be output is performed by superimposing them. The first printer 16A and the second printer 16B are of the same type, and the recording medium used for image recording is not limited to the printing plate such as PS plate, thermal plate plate, photopolymer plate, Any material can be used as long as it can record an image, such as paper, film, and photographic paper. FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of the printer 16. In the printer 16, the CPU 20, ROM 2
2 and the RAM 24 are connected to each other via a CPU bus 26 so that various data can be exchanged between them. An external interface (I / F) 28 is connected to the CPU bus 26. As a result, the printer 16 is connected to the host PC 12 via the external I / F 28.
The print image data and other various data can be transmitted to and received from the printer. This external I
/ F28 corresponds to the information input means of the present invention. The external I / F 28 has an image bus 3.
8 is connected to a buffer control unit 30, and a buffer 36 is also connected to the buffer control unit 30 through an image bus 38. In the printer 16, print image data transmitted from the host PC 12 and received via the external I / F 28 is stored in the buffer 36 by the buffer control unit 30 and can be read at any time. In the buffer 36, master data 36A, replacement part data 36B, and additional data 36C, which will be described later, are distinguished as print image data by the buffer control unit 30, and a plurality of them are stored. ing. The buffer 36 corresponds to the storage means of the present invention. From the host PC 12 corresponding to the image recording instruction means of the present invention, print image data is output as image information to be recorded by a user operation. This print image data includes an image identifier such as a data file name and ID number for individually identifying the image data, an image size, layout information indicating the layout content in the image, color information indicating the color arrangement of each color of CMYK, and the like. Includes feature data. The print image data is classified into the master data, replacement part data, and additional data. The master data is image data that forms a basic layout portion that is common among the images to be recorded, and the replacement part data is image data that forms a layout portion that is different between the master data of the images. Also,
For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the master data has the size and position information as the layout information for areas A1 and A2 in which the image of the replacement part data can be replaced in the image. Further, the additional data is image data used as a newly created additional image other than the image based on the existing replacement part data with respect to the image based on the master data. The data layout information includes area size and position information for the insertion area (A3 in FIG. 3). The host PC 12 has a master data DB 13A that holds a plurality of master data as a database, a replacement part data DB 13B that holds a plurality of replacement part data as a database, and an additional image data DB 1 that holds a plurality of additional data as a database.
3C, and each DB can be read and written as desired. The host PC 12 outputs layout instruction information as recording condition information for designating layout contents in an image to be recorded, and print instruction information as execution control information for instructing execution of an image recording operation. . Here, specifically, the layout instruction information means which master data is used from the master data 36A, the replacement part data 36B, and the additional data 36C stored in the buffer 36, and which replacement for the master data. It includes instruction information for specifying the insertion position or the like in the image based on the master data of the image based on the replacement data. The buffer control unit 30 includes an image processing unit 32 and a printer engine 34, and an image bus 38.
Are connected in order. Thus, the buffer 36
The print image data stored and held in (master data 36A, replacement part data 36B, and additional data 36)
C) is read as needed by the buffer control unit 30 and transmitted to the image processing unit 32. The image processing unit 32 performs a so-called rasterization process for converting each transmitted print image data into bitmap image data corresponding to the resolution of the printer 16 based on the layout instruction information. The processed image data is sent to the printer engine 34. The printer engine 34 includes, for example, a laser beam scanning mechanism that records an image by sequentially scanning a laser beam in a predetermined direction on a recording medium such as a printing plate, and the laser beam according to received processed image data. The image is recorded on the recording medium by performing the lighting control. The image processing unit 32 corresponds to the output image construction unit of the present invention, and the printer engine 34 corresponds to the image recording unit of the present invention. The buffer control unit 30 and the image processing unit 3
2 and the printer engine 34 are connected to the CPU bus 26, and the operation control described above is performed by the CPU 20 respectively.
Is performed according to the control signal from CPU 20
Corresponds to the image output control means of the present invention. Accordingly, in the printer 16, the host PC 1
2 according to the print instruction information transmitted from
Based on the layout instruction information, the print image data can be printed out on a predetermined recording medium with a designated layout. Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The user sends a plurality of types of master data (master data in FIG. 4) and replacement part data (part data in FIG. 4) from the host PC 12 to the printer 16.
To be transferred in advance. The printer 16 stores each transferred data in a predetermined area of the buffer 36 (S1 to S4). Next, the user transfers layout instruction information from the host PC 12 to the printer 16. In this layout instruction information, which master data and replacement part data among the data already stored in the buffer 36 is used, and the insertion position of the image based on the replacement part data in the image based on the master data are specified. Instruction information to be included. At this time, if there is additional data other than the data already stored in the buffer 36, it is transmitted to the printer 16, and in this case, the layout instruction information includes instruction information about the additional data. Further, print instruction information for instructing execution of an image recording operation is transmitted from the host PC 12, so that the printer 16 stores it in the buffer 36 based on the layout instruction information under the control of the CPU 20. The output data creation process (S5) is executed using each piece of data. In this output data creation processing, output image data is constructed by editing and synthesizing master data, replacement part data, and additional data in accordance with the received layout instruction information.
Also, here, rasterization processing for converting output image data from vector data to bitmap data corresponding to the resolution of the printer, registry setting processing for setting a specified position on the recording medium as an image recording position, and color of the recording image Color matching processing to match the standard color, magnification conversion processing to set the output size of the image data as desired,
In addition, image recording preprocessing such as halftone processing when an image is recorded by area gradation is performed. When the output image data is constructed by the output data creation processing, the printer engine 34 performs print output (S6) for recording an image, for example, by scanning a recording medium with a laser beam and exposing it. As described above, the image recording system according to the present embodiment records and outputs image data.
When editing and recording a part of the master data with another image data (replacement part data) or adding another image data (additional data), these image data Since the output data creation process is performed using the master data and replacement part data stored in the printer without transferring the data via the network, the load in the data transfer can be greatly suppressed. The overall processing time of the image recording operation can be greatly shortened, and the productivity of the entire system can be improved. As described above, according to the present invention,
By using multiple pieces of image information stored in advance in the storage means of the image recording device,
Since the output image data is constructed and the image is recorded and output without transferring the data via the network, the processing time of the image recording operation can be greatly shortened. An excellent effect is that an image recording system with high productivity can be provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an image recording system according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a recorded image layout based on master data. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a control sequence between the host PC and the printer according to the embodiment of the present invention. [Description of Symbols] 10 Image Recording System 12 Host PC (Image Recording Instruction Unit) 16 Printer (Image Recording Device) 20 CPU (Image Output Control Unit) 28 External I / F (Information Input Unit) 32 Image Processing Unit (Output Image) Construction means) 34 Printer engine (image recording means) 36 Buffer (storage means)

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Claims (1)

1. An image recording means for recording an image on a predetermined recording medium, at least image information to be recorded, and recording condition information for recording the image information as an image on the recording medium And information input means for inputting execution control information for instructing execution of image recording by the image recording means, storage means for storing at least the image information input by the information input means, and the information input means On the basis of the recording condition information input by the control unit, a predetermined output image data for performing image recording by the image recording unit corresponding to the image information stored in the storage unit is constructed, and the storage unit In order to perform editing including at least addition or replacement of a part of the image information with respect to the image information stored in When the image information to be edited is input in accordance with the above, the image recording means corresponding to the image information stored in the storage means, including the image information to be edited, is used for recording an image. Output image construction means for constructing the output image data, and image output control means for executing image recording by the image recording means based on the output image data constructed by the output image construction means An image recording system comprising: an apparatus; and an image recording instruction unit that transmits the image information, the recording condition information, and the execution control information to an information input unit of the image recording apparatus.