JP2009151468A - Print preview apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem of printing without an operator noticing when an output profile does not exist in a print preview. <P>SOLUTION: This print preview device is provided with a preview screen correcting means for correcting a preview screen, or a marker drawing plotting means for plotting a predetermined marker drawing on the preview screen. When printer output setting related to acquired print setting does not exist, the preview screen is corrected by the preview screen correcting means, or the marker drawing is plotted by the marker drawing plotting means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus and method for generating print data, and a recording medium, and more particularly to a print preview.

  When a document is created by application software running on a computer and printed by a printer, the operating system and printer driver allow the application to print in a common manner regardless of the type of printer.

  At this time, processing characteristic of the printer model is hidden in the printer driver.

  The preview function is important in preventing printing failure when printing. In particular, large-format printers do not print on large paper, and the cost of failure such as paper, ink, and time is high. Therefore, prevention of failure by accurate preview is very effective.

  The print preview function is generally a function of an application, and a preview is performed by drawing on a logical page set by the application.

  On the other hand, in the printer driver, not the preview using the actual image but the preview of the printing direction and the layout confirmation by the symbol or the illustration is performed, but the preview using the actual image is also proposed (see Patent Document 1).

  In addition, various processes can be performed as the functions of printer drivers increase. For example, Nin1, which combines a plurality of pages into one page, centering, left-right reversal, and the like.

  These are functions implemented in the driver after data is passed from the application, and are not reflected in the preview of the application. Therefore, depending on the setting of the printer driver, the actual printed result may not exactly match the application preview.

  For this reason, there is a printer that has a dedicated print preview function under the control of the printer driver and realizes a preview reflecting the settings of the printer driver (see Patent Document 2).

  In addition, recent printer drivers have a print color conversion table (so-called output profile) that takes into account the color development characteristics for each paper type to be printed, so that optimal output results can be obtained using this table. .

There is also an advanced color processing system that can check an output result from a printer to which the above output profile is applied on a screen in advance before printing. This is generally called soft proofing, and the operator can check whether the intended color is output before performing actual printing.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-40045 JP 2002-63000 A

  In general, even a printer that provides an output profile for each paper type may not provide an output profile for paper types such as plain paper that have poor color development characteristics.

  In the soft proof realized by the preview of the conventional application, even if the paper type does not provide an output profile in this way, the operator confirms it on the screen due to the difference in coloring principle between the printed matter and the screen. There was a problem that it was difficult.

  Also, in the preview on the printer driver side, it takes time to generate preview data, especially when it contains complex vector data or large photo data instead of simple vector data or character data, until the preview data is generated. It took a long time to deteriorate the operability.

  The present invention that solves the above problems and achieves a print preview that can easily confirm that an intended print cannot be performed because there is no output profile is characterized by the following configuration.

  That is, the printer includes a print setting acquisition unit that acquires print settings and a printer output setting acquisition unit that acquires printer output settings based on the acquired print settings, and performs a preview using the acquired printer output settings.

  In addition, there is provided a preview screen modifying means for modifying the preview screen or a marker drawing drawing means for drawing a predetermined marker drawing on the preview screen, and there is no printer output setting associated with the acquired print setting Further, the preview screen is modified by the preview screen modifying means, or the marker drawing is drawn by the marker drawing drawing means.

  By rendering a print preview so that the output profile is clearly communicated to the operator in a printer setting state in which no output profile is provided, an effect of avoiding an error in printer setting in advance can be obtained.

  By displaying the preview at high speed when the print dialog is displayed on the application side, it is possible to prevent a failure due to a print setting error.

Example 1
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described below as a function of image printing application software.

  FIG. 4 shows a system configuration diagram in this embodiment.

In FIG.
401 is a printer,
402 is a host computer,
403 is a local area network (LAN),
It is.

  The output destination printer 401 represented by a large format printer and the host computer 402 represented by a personal computer (PC) are directly connected by a general communication interface such as parallel connection or USB connection (not shown), Alternatively, it is indirectly connected via a local area network (LAN) 403 connection or the like.

  The host computer 402 includes general computer components (not shown) such as a central processing unit (CPU), a primary storage device, a secondary storage device, an internal bus, an input / output control device, an input device, and an output device. .

  An operating system (OS) is installed on the secondary storage device in the host computer 402, and a printer driver and image printing application software, which are software for controlling the printer 401, are also installed.

  The printer 401 includes a roll paper feeding unit and can print a document of an arbitrary length within a range allowed by the printer driver. Further, by providing a paper feed port for cut paper, it is possible to print on cut paper as well as roll paper.

  An operator (not shown) starts an image printing application stored on a storage device on the host computer 402, inputs a desired image taken by a digital camera or the like, and outputs it by the printer 401.

  In this embodiment, the image printing application realizes a preview with soft proofing by transmitting information to the printer driver.

  FIG. 5 is a system configuration diagram showing the relationship between the image printing application and the printer main body.

In FIG.
501 is an image printing application,
502 is an interface module,
503 is a roll width sensor,
504 is a memory,
505 is an interface control device,
It is.

  The same elements as those in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  The printer 401 includes a roll width sensor 503 that acquires length information in the width direction of the loaded roll paper, and stores the roll width length acquired by the roll width sensor 503 in the printer memory 504.

  By using the interface module 502 installed together with the application on the host computer 402, the roll width length stored in the in-printer memory 504 can be acquired via the interface control device 505.

  FIG. 6 is a system configuration diagram showing the relationship between the image printing application and the printer driver.

In FIG.
601 is a printer driver software development kit (SDK) module,
602 is a printer driver,
It is.

  Among various settings of the printer driver 602, standard setting items independent of vendors can be obtained and set by directly accessing the printer driver 602 from the application 501 side.

  The vendor-specific setting value of the printer driver 602 can be acquired and set via the printer driver software development kit 601 (SDK module) installed together with the application.

  Now, an image printing procedure using the image printing application will be described in accordance with the operation procedure of the operator.

  First, the operator starts an image printing application stored in a storage device on the host computer 402 by using an input device represented by a mouse (not shown).

  In the startup process, the application loads the interface module 502 and the printer driver software development kit 601 into the process memory space used by the application.

  An example of the main screen of the activated application is shown in FIG.

In FIG.
301 is a menu bar,
302 is a page size combo box,
303 is a page direction radio button,
304 is an image pool,
305 is an edit pane,
306 is an input image thumbnail;
307 is a page display area,
It is.

  An operator can use an image file previously captured by an imaging device such as a digital camera via a storage medium represented by a CompactFlash (registered trademark) card, directly with a digital camera via a USB connection, or other indirect Input images by connection.

  The input image is displayed as a thumbnail group 306 in the image pool 304 on the left side of the main screen.

  The operator can change the page size at an arbitrary timing in the page size combo box 302 at the upper left of the screen. Here, it is assumed that the A4 (210 mm × 297 mm) size is designated, and the vertical direction is set as the page direction with the page direction radio button 303.

  The operator selects a thumbnail of an image to be actually used from the input image thumbnail group 306 displayed in the image pool 304 with a mouse or the like, and drags and drops the desired image on the editing pane 305 on the right side of the screen. It is displayed on the page.

  Furthermore, the operator can perform various operations on the editing pane 305 as necessary, such as putting characters on the image, adjusting the color of the image, and performing trimming. In this embodiment, since it is not related to the gist of the invention, detailed description is omitted.

  When the page editing operation on the editing pane 305 is completed and printing is possible, the operator activates a print dialog by selecting “print” on the menu bar 301.

  The print dialog is shown in FIG.

In FIG.
101 is a printer combo box,
102 is a property button,
103 is a preview area,
104 is a paper feed method combo box,
105 is the number of copies,
106 is a print button,
107 is a setting only button,
108 is a cancel button,
109 is a paper type combo box,
110 is a page preview,
It is.

  This print dialog arranges items that are likely to be used frequently among the setting items of the selected printer driver, so that normal printing can be performed without setting with a printer driver that is difficult for the user to understand. It is what I did.

  In FIG. 1, a preview area 103 displays a soft proof state to which the output profile of the printer driver is applied.

  Here, it is assumed that “same size” printing mode is set as the driver setting. The “same size” printing mode is to print at the same size as the document size, and in this embodiment, the setting is such that an A4 size output can be obtained.

  The driver settings displayed on the print dialog can be checked or changed together with other setting items by pressing the property button 102.

  An example of the user interface of the printer driver displayed by pressing the property button 102 is shown in FIG.

In FIG.
Reference numeral 701 denotes a document size combo box,
702 is a drawing scale mode,
703 is an auto cut check box,
704 is an OK button,
705 is a cancel button,
It is.

  FIG. 8 shows a procedure for acquiring various printer settings necessary for preview drawing in FIG.

  Now, with reference to FIG. 8, the various setting acquisition step and the preview drawing process will be described.

  The printer setting acquisition step and the preview drawing process are started when the print dialog is activated by a user operation.

  First, in step S801, the paper type selected by the printer driver is acquired using the printer driver software development kit 601. Here, it is assumed that glossy paper is selected.

  In step S802, the printer driver software development kit 601 is similarly used to obtain whether the output profile associated with the paper type obtained in the above step is provided by the printer vendor.

  Here, since an output profile corresponding to the paper type glossy paper is provided, the process advances to step S803, and the page preview 110 is rendered in the preview area 103 in a form in which the output profile is applied to the print preview, that is, in a soft proof state.

  On the other hand, when a paper type for which an output profile is not provided is selected, this step operates as follows. Here, a case where plain paper is selected as such a paper type will be described.

  First, in step S801, the paper type selected by the printer driver is acquired using the printer driver software development kit 601, and plain paper is obtained here.

  Next, in step S802, it is determined whether an output profile is provided. In order to obtain a result that the output profile is not provided, the process proceeds to step S804.

  In step S804, a print preview is drawn in a conventional format without applying an output profile.

  Next, in step S805, since no output profile is provided, a default marker indicating that a print output without color matching is obtained is drawn on the preview drawn in the above step.

  Here, a marker is stored in the application program on the page preview and is used.

  The drawing result is shown in FIG.

In FIG.
201 is a printer combo box,
202 is a property button,
203 is a preview area,
204 is a paper feed method combo box,
205 is the number of copies,
206 is a print button,
207 is a setting only button,
208 is a cancel button,
209 is a paper type combo box,
210 is a page preview,
211 is a marker,
It is.

  This state is for notifying the operator that the output profile does not exist. When the print button 206 is pressed, normal printing is executed except that the output profile is not applied.

  The marker can be arbitrarily changed according to application specifications.

  Furthermore, as another embodiment of the present invention, there is a method that proceeds from step S804 to step S806, and that the page preview image prepared in the above step is subjected to some kind of image modification and displayed on the screen.

  Here, the entire preview area is expressed as a result of combining with the gray image, and the result is shown in FIG.

  Further, the image modification here is not limited to the above, and various modifications such as a modification for reducing only the saturation of the preview image are performed according to the application specification.

  As described above, when the operator visually confirms the preview drawn in the steps described above, it is possible to easily confirm whether the printing intended by the operator is performed.

  Finally, by pressing the print button 106 (206) on the print dialog, page rendering of the print data is actually started and the print data is sent to the printer 401.

  Note that the preview drawing opportunity is not limited to that described here, but can be arbitrarily set according to application specifications, such as when the output destination printer 101 (201) is changed or when the paper feed method 104 (204) is changed. .

7 is a print dialog (soft proof) in the first embodiment. Print dialog (when there is no profile) and page area in the first embodiment. 6 is an image printing application main screen in the first embodiment. 1 is a system configuration diagram in Embodiment 1. FIG. FIG. 3 is an application configuration diagram according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is an application configuration diagram according to the first embodiment. 6 is a printer driver user interface according to the first exemplary embodiment. The preview drawing step in Example 1. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

101 Printer combo box 102 Property button 103 Preview area 104 Paper feed method combo box 105 Number of copies 106 Print button 107 Setting only button 108 Cancel button 109 Paper type combo box 110 Page preview 201 Printer combo box 202 Property button 203 Preview area 204 Paper feed Method combo box 205 Number of copies 206 Print button 207 Setting only button 208 Cancel button 209 Paper type combo box 210 Page preview 211 Marker 301 Menu bar 302 Page size combo box 303 Page direction radio button 304 Image pool 305 Editing pane 306 Input image thumbnail 307 Page display area 401 Printer 402 E DOO computer 403 local area network (LAN)
501 Image printing application 502 Interface module 503 Roll width sensor 504 Memory 505 Interface controller 601 Printer driver software development kit (SDK)
602 Printer driver 701 Document size combo box 702 Drawing scale mode 703 Auto cut check box 704 OK button 705 Cancel button

Claims (4)

An information processing device for previewing printing to a printer,
Print setting acquisition means for acquiring print settings;
Printer output setting acquisition means for acquiring printer output settings based on the acquired print settings;
Comprising
An information processing apparatus that performs a preview using the acquired printer output setting. A preview screen modifying means for modifying the preview screen, or a marker drawing drawing means for drawing a predetermined marker drawing on the preview screen;
2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein when there is no printer output setting associated with the acquired print setting, the preview screen is modified by the preview screen modifying unit, or the marker drawing is rendered by the marker drawing rendering unit. The information processing apparatus described in 1. An information processing method for previewing printing to a printer.
A print setting acquisition step for acquiring print settings;
A printer output setting acquisition step for acquiring a printer output setting based on the acquired print setting,
An information processing method, comprising: performing a preview applying the acquired printer output setting. A preview screen modifying step for modifying the preview screen, or a marker drawing drawing step for drawing a predetermined marker drawing on the preview screen;
4. The printer according to claim 3, wherein when there is no printer output setting associated with the acquired print setting, the preview screen is modified by the preview screen modifying step or the marker drawing is rendered by the marker drawing rendering step. Information processing method described in 1.

Images