JPH0596812A - Print processing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform a high speed print processing by a method wherein image data are divided into pages by an image data dividing device, each page is checked for presence of image data by an image data recognition device, and only the pages containing image data undergo print processing. CONSTITUTION:Image data are divided into pages P1-P12 by an image data dividing device, and each page is checked for presence of the image data by an image data recognition device. And, only the pages containing the image data undergo print processing. As a result, when the image data are printed on two or more pages of printing paper of given size because the size of image data is larger than the size of printing paper, only the pages containing the image data are printed, so that a high speed print processing can be performed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print processing apparatus,
In particular, the present invention relates to a print processing apparatus used for an apparatus that creates, edits, and prints documents and drawings such as a word processor apparatus and a desktop publishing (hereinafter referred to as DTP) apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, when using a DTP device, D
In some cases, a printing plate or the like having a size larger than the printable size (maximum paper size) of the printer attached to the TP device is created. In this case, the image data for printing cannot be stored on one sheet, so the image data is divided into a plurality of pages and printed.

In such a case, in the conventional print processing device for the DTP device, the image data which has been subjected to the bit map expansion on the image memory is simply divided according to the printer paper size and output. But multiple printouts (pages)
If there is, it is unclear which side of which page is to be joined with how much margin, and it took time to join. Therefore, a print processing apparatus has been proposed in which each page is provided with a norishiro, a norishiro guideline, a norishiro mark, and the like, which enables easy connection (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-257212).
Publication).

[0004]

However, even if the print processing apparatus proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-257212 is used, when the image data is divided, a page having no image data (that is, There is also a blank sheet, and if this is directly subjected to the printing process (blank sheet printing), a large amount of time is wasted for the blank sheet printing process when printing a large image.

Therefore, the present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a print processing apparatus which increases the printing speed when printing is divided into a plurality of pages.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention develops image data for printing into a bitmap on a memory, outputs the image data, and a sheet of paper loaded in the apparatus. In the print processing apparatus, which compares the size with the output size and outputs the image data by dividing the image data into a plurality of pages of the sheet when the output size is larger than the sheet size, the image of each divided page. An image data presence determining unit that determines the presence of data and a print control unit that controls to print only the page determined to have image data by the image data presence determining unit are configured.

[0007]

According to the present invention, the image data is bitmap-expanded on the memory (bitmap image memory) by the bitmap expansion controller. When the output size is larger than the paper size, the image data division control unit divides the output data to fit the paper size. The image data existence determination unit determines whether or not there is "true image data" in which characters, figures, etc. exist in the divided image data. The print control unit controls to print only the page in which the true image data exists. Therefore, the print processing is not performed on the page where the true image data does not exist, and the print processing time of the entire image data can be shortened.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to illustrated embodiments. A DTP device 50 to which the embodiment of the present invention is applied in FIG.
The schematic configuration of is shown.

The DTP device 50 is mainly composed of a main CPU 1 for controlling the entire device and data processing, a keyboard 3 for data input and its control unit 2, a hard disk device 5 storing programs of the entire DTP device and its controller. 4, a computer system in which a display 7 indicating a printing state and the like, a control unit 6 thereof, a bitmap image memory 8 for storing image data for printing, a printer 10 and a control unit 9 thereof are connected by a bus 11. Main C
The PU 1 includes a bitmap expansion control unit 1a that controls the bitmap expansion of the image data, an image data division control unit 1b that divides the image data according to the paper size, and
An image data existence determining unit 1c that determines whether or not "real image data" in which characters / figures and the like exist in the divided image data, and control to print only the page in which the true image data exists The print control unit 1d and the like. The image data existence determination unit 1c and the print control unit 1d form the subject of the present invention.

Next, the operation of the DTP device 50 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In addition, this kind of D
Document creation / editing / filing using TP device
Since the basic operation of printing is well known, the description will focus on the characteristic part of the printing process according to the present invention.

First, the keyboard 3 is operated to create / edit a document on the display to complete the document (step S1). A print style including the output size of the completed document is set (step S2). Here, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, it is assumed that the capital letter "F" is printed over 12 pages (P1 to P12). The bitmap expansion control unit 1a expands the image data of the document on the image memory 8 in accordance with the print format (step S3).

Next, the output size of the image data is compared with the paper size of the printer. If the output size is larger than the paper size (step S4; YES), the process of the next step S5 is performed. Since the output size is larger than the paper size in this embodiment, the comparison result is "YES".

In step S5, the image data division control unit 1b divides the image data into a plurality of pages according to the printer paper size, and sets the page number Num.
In step S4, if the output size is smaller than the paper size (step S4; NO), the number of pages to be printed is one, so the page number Num is set to "1" (step S6).

Next, in step S7, the printing process in steps S8 and S9, which will be described next, is performed.
It is determined whether or not the number of pages (Num) has been processed. If the processing has been performed the number of times for the number of pages, the series of printing processing ends (step S7; YES).

When it is determined in step S7 that the print processing corresponding to the number of pages has not been performed (step S7; NO), the image data present determination unit 1c prints image data on the page to be printed (current page). If the image data exists (step S8; YES), the printer 10 via the printer control unit 9 under the control of the print control unit 1d performs the printing process of the current page. Is performed (step S9). The presence / absence of image data is determined as the absence of image data, for example, when all the bits of the page are “0”. If the page does not have image data (step S8; NO), the process ends without performing the printing process on the page (step S7; YE).
S).

Here, in this embodiment, step S
5, the page number Num becomes “12”, and step S7
And the process of step S8 is performed 12 times. The capital letter "F" is expanded into a bitmap as shown in FIG. 3, and the image data does not exist in each page of P2, P3, P5, P6, and P9. Therefore, the determination in step S8 is made. Is “NO”, and the print processing of these pages is not performed. That is, the print processing time for five sheets is shortened.

In the DTP device of this embodiment,
When the printed pages are joined together to form one printing plate, the following processing may be performed in order to simplify the joining operation (JP-A-2-257212).
That is, when determining the existence of image data in step S8, setting of a norishiro (overlapping margin) space for each page in which the image data exists, joining of a guide line, a norishiro mark (no. Data such as printing of a mark indicating which NORISHIRO is overlaid) is added to the image data, and the NORISHIRO mark and the like are printed together with the image data in step S9. That is, each printed page has a noishiro space, and norishiro guide lines and noshiro marks are printed.

Further, on the display 7, a layout showing how to connect the printed pages is displayed (see FIG. 3). It is also possible to print the layout displayed on the display 7. Therefore, according to the present invention, even if there is a page that is not printed because there is no image data, it is possible to accurately connect predetermined pages by referring to the display 7 on which the layout is displayed.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, among the divided pages, the printing process is not performed for the page in which the image data does not exist, so that the printing time can be shortened.
It is possible to speed up a series of printing processes.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a DTP device including a print processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of a printing process of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a state of being divided into 12 pages when a capital letter “F” is printed.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Main (CPU) 1a ... Bitmap expansion control unit 1b ... Image data division control unit 1c ... Image data existence determination control unit 1d ... Print control unit 3 ... Keyboard 7 ... Display 8 ... Bitmap image memory 10 ... Printer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. The image data for printing is expanded into a bit map on a memory, the output size of the image data is compared with the paper size of the paper loaded in the apparatus, and the output size is larger than the paper size. In this case, in the print processing apparatus configured to divide the image data into a plurality of pages of the paper and output the image data, an image data presence determination unit that determines the presence of the image data in each of the divided pages; A print processing apparatus, comprising: a print control unit that controls to print only a page that has been determined by the data presence determination unit to have image data.