JPH0890843A - Color printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] When color printing is performed, the use state of colors is stored in a memory and the printing process for unnecessary colors is skipped, thereby enabling faster color printing. [Structure] Pixel data creation unit for printing, means for dividing pixel data for each output color, means for storing a usage state for each output color in pixel data, and usage state for each output color in pixel data If it is determined that the output color is not used, the print processing by the output color is skipped.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color printing apparatus used as an output device such as a word processor and a personal computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the technology of performing color printing based on four color inks of red, green, blue, and black, a print request color is decomposed into the above-mentioned ink colors at the time of creating pixel data, and one color The pixel data of only the portion used in the page for each ink color is created, and the pixel data is printed according to a predetermined order.
All four colors were unconditionally performed.

[0003]

However, in the above technique, it is not possible to determine the presence or absence of pixel data for each ink color during printing, so the printing process is performed even for ink colors that do not have pixel data, which is a waste. This caused an increase in printing time.

The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks and providing a color printing apparatus which realizes higher-speed color printing.

[0005]

An object of the present invention is to provide a memory for storing pixel data to be output, a printing unit for outputting the pixel data on a sheet, and a unit for dividing the pixel data for each output color. This is achieved by providing a memory for storing the usage state of the used color and a means for discriminating the usage state of the used color in the color printing apparatus having.

[0006]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, referring to the usage state of each ink color stored in the memory,
By skipping printing with ink colors that are not used, higher-speed color printing can be realized.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a Japanese word processor which is an embodiment of the configuration of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the apparatus main body 1 mainly comprises an input control section 3, a document edit processing section 4, a display control section 5, and a print control section 6. When performing print processing, a print request input from the keyboard 2 is sent to the print control unit 6 via the input control unit 3, and the print control unit 6 prints the document data created by the document edit processing unit 4 into print pixels. Convert it to data,
The data is output to the printer 10 via the print pixel data memory 8. FIG. 2 shows the configuration of the print control unit 6.

When a print request is sent from the input control section 3, first, the output color use state storage means 12 determines how the use colors in the development request data are red, green, blue and black (hereinafter abbreviated as RGBK). It is determined by referring to the color division table 11 whether it can be expressed by combining. At the same time, the usage status of RGB when outputting the corresponding color is stored in the color usage status memory 7.

FIG. 4 is a structural example of the color division table 11, FIG.
Is an example of the internal configuration of the color use state memory. For example, it is assumed that the color of color number 3 exists in the development request data. The output color use state storage means 12 refers to the area of color number 3 of the color division table 11 shown in FIG. 4 to determine the use state of RGBK. In FIG. 4, assuming that the color represented by "1" is the color used and the color represented by "0" is the color not used, G and B are used for the color of color number 3, and R and K are used for the color. Since it is understood that this is not the case, information (here, "1") that G and B are used in the expansion request data is set in the G and B parts of the color use state memory 7 shown in FIG.
By performing this process for all of the colors used in the development request data, the RG in the development request data is stored in the color use state memory 7.
The usage state of B is stored.

Next, the pixel data output color dividing means 13 determines how to combine the output colors (red, green, blue, black) to use the colors used in the print pixel data. Then, the output color use state determining means 14 determines whether the output color is used in the output data at the time of printing by referring to the color use state memory 7. Here, if the output color is not used in the output data, the same determination is performed for the next output color. When the output color is used in the output data, the print pixel data creation unit 15 creates the print pixel data, and the printing unit 16 prints with the output color.

Next, the flow of processing in this embodiment will be described according to the flow shown in FIG.

First, in step S301, the print pixel data creation unit 15 creates the print pixel data for the black portion, and at the same time, the output color use status storage unit 12 causes the color use status memory 7 to store the colors required for printing each expanded element data. Memorize the usage status of. Details of this processing will be described later.

Next, in S302, the printing unit 16 prints the black portion in the print page based on the print pixel data created in S301. Next, in S303 and S304, the output color use state determination means 14 refers to the color use state memory 7 to determine whether or not red color is used in the print page, and if it is used, S305, it is used. If not, the process of S307 is performed. In S305, the print pixel data creation unit 15 creates print pixel data for the red portion, and in S306, the print unit 16 prints the red portion in the print page based on the print pixel data created in S305.

S307 to S310 are S303 to S306.
The same process as in the above is performed for green. Also S311
In steps S314 to S314, the same processing as steps S303 to S306 is performed on blue.

Next, the processing in S301 will be described according to the flow shown in FIG. First, in S601, the color number is acquired from the development request data, and in S602, the area of the acquired color number in the color division table 11 is referred to. Next, in S603, the color use state memory 7 is referred to, and if all the colors are already used, the process of S610 is performed. As a result of referring to the color use state memory 7, if there is an unused color, the process of S604 is performed. In S604, S60
It is determined whether or not there is information that R is used in the color division table 11 referred to in step 2, and if it is used, the R part of the color use state memory 7 is set in step S605 and S is set.
The processing of 612 is performed. If R is not used here, the process of S606 is performed. S606 and S607 are S60
4, the same processing as S605 is performed for G, S608, S
609 performs processing similar to S604 and S605 on B.

Next, in S610, it is determined whether K is used, and if K is used, black pixel print pixel data is created in S611. If K is not used, S
The processing of 612 is performed. In S612, it is determined whether or not the processing has been completed for all the color information in the development request data. If not, the same processing is performed from S601 for the next color information.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, a memory for storing pixel data to be output, a printing unit for outputting the pixel data on a sheet, and a color having means for dividing the pixel data for each output color. Since the printing device is equipped with a memory that stores the usage status of the used colors and a means that determines the usage status of the used colors, it is possible to skip the printing process for the unused printing colors, and to perform high-speed color printing. It is possible to provide a color printing device that can perform printing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a main part of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a color division table.

FIG. 5 shows an internal configuration example of a color use state memory.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of a color use state storage unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Device body, 2 ... Keyboard, 3 ... Input control unit, 4 ...
Document edit processing unit, 5 ... Display control unit, 6 ... Print control unit, 7
... color usage memory, 8 ... print pixel data memory, 9 ...
CRT, 10 ... Printer, 11 ... Color division table, 12
Output color use state storage means, 13 Pixel data output color dividing means, 14 output color use state determining means, 15 print pixel data creation section, 16 print section.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Internal reference number FI Technical indication location H04N 1/46 (72) Inventor Muneaki Watanabe 1-1-1 Higashitaga-cho, Hitachi City, Ibaraki Prefecture Hitachi, Ltd. Electric Appliances Division Taga Headquarters

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A memory for storing pixel data to be output,
In a color printing device having a printing unit for outputting the pixel data on a sheet and a unit for dividing the pixel data for each output color, a memory for storing the usage state of the used color and a usage state of the used color are determined. Color printing device with means. 2. The color printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a means for skipping printing of the color when it is determined that the requested color is not used within the printing range. .