Information processing apparatus, program, and control method

Abstract

To prevent a thin line from becoming unclear and to easily identify the type of a broken line or a dotted line when generating print data from data including a line object such as a broken line or a dotted line with a thin line width.SOLUTION: When generating print data from data including a line object, the information processing device of the present disclosure updates the line width of a line object having a line width that does not satisfy a predetermined value so as to satisfy the predetermined value, updates the length of the solid line portion and the length of the blank portion included in the broken line pattern of the line object based on the updated line width and the line width before the update, and generates print data from data including the updated line object.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a program, and a control method for generating print data from data including line objects. [Background technology]

[0002] There are printing services that provide printing of document data and drawing data stored in cloud storage such as Google Drive and One Drive (registered trademark). In response to a request from a client device such as a smartphone, the printing service converts the document data or drawing data obtained from the cloud storage into print data and sends the converted print data to a printer.

[0003] Furthermore, drawing data created using computer-aided design (CAD) software and the like often contains thin lines one dot wide, but depending on the printer, the printed result of the thin lines may become blurred and unclear. This is particularly noticeable when printing in color with a laser printer. For this reason, there is a technique for thickening thin lines when converting drawing data into print data. Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for correcting the thickness of thin lines by manipulating print rendering commands. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-105827 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] However, when thickening thin, intermittent lines such as dashed or dotted lines, the ratio of the width and line direction changes for the solid line and blank areas, resulting in dashed and dotted lines with different designs. For example, when the line width of the solid line part of a dashed line is thickened, the length of the blank areas of the dashed line does not change, so the blank areas appear to be narrower than the original dashed line. [Means for solving the problem]

[0006] In order to solve the above problem, the information processing device of the present invention is an information processing device that generates print data from data including line objects, and is characterized by comprising: a first update means that updates the line width of a line object having a line width that does not satisfy a default value so that it satisfies the default value; a second update means that updates the length of the solid line portion and the length of the blank portion included in the dashed line pattern of the line object based on the line width after updating by the first update means and the line width before updating; and a generation means that generates print data from data including the line object after updating by the first update means and the second update means. [Effects of the Invention]

[0007] According to this invention, thin, discontinuous lines such as dashed and dotted lines are thickened in the line width direction, and the lengths of the solid line portions (dash portions) and blank portions (blank portions) are also updated. This prevents thin lines from becoming blurred or unclear when printed, and the printed result is similar to the original dashed or dotted line, making it easy for users to distinguish the type of dashed or dotted line. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0008] [Figure 1] FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the overall configuration of a printing service. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a hardware configuration. [Figure 3] FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a software configuration. [Figure 4]FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of information included in a line object. [Figure 5] 10 is an example of a screen transition when selecting print target data from a desired storage service on a client terminal. [Figure 6] 10 is a process flow of each device when performing printing processing. [Figure 7] 10 is a processing flow showing the details of thin line processing. [Figure 8] 10A to 10C are enlarged views of drawing examples showing the differences between the processes when performing thin line thickening processing. [Figure 9] 10A and 10B are diagrams illustrating the difference between the print result when only the line width of a dashed or dotted line is increased and the print result when the line width is adjusted as well as the lengths of the solid line portions and blank portions. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings, etc. Note that the embodiments do not limit the present invention, and all of the configurations described in the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the means for solving the problems of the present invention. [Example]

[0010] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a print service according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a print server 101 provides a print service for drawing data and the like stored in a cloud storage 102. The print server 101 has a function of generating print data from drawing data acquired from the cloud storage 102 in response to a request from a client terminal 103. The drawing data (or document data) is vector data and includes characters and graphics as objects. The print server 101 then provides the generated print data to a printer (printing device) 104, which acquires the print data and performs printing. The cloud storage 102 stores various files such as drawing data and document data. Note that the cloud storage 102 is not limited to one storage service, and may include multiple storage services. The client terminal 103 is a mobile terminal such as a smartphone, a PC, or the like. In response to a user operation, the client terminal 103 requests the print server 101 to print the drawing data, document data, and the like stored in the cloud storage 102. A print server 101 , a cloud storage 102 , a client terminal 103 , and a printer 104 are connected via the Internet 100 .

[0011] FIG. 2A is a block diagram showing an example of the basic hardware configuration of an information processing apparatus that can be used as the print server 101 or the client terminal 103. As shown in FIG.

[0012] In FIG. 2A, a central processing unit (CPU) 201 executes various programs and realizes various functions. A random access memory (RAM) 202 stores various types of information. The RAM 202 is also used as a temporary working memory area for the CPU 201. A read-only memory (ROM) 203 stores various programs and the like. For example, the CPU 201 functions as a processing unit for executing each process described below by loading a program stored in the ROM 203 into the RAM 202 and executing it. In other words, the program causes the computer (CPU) to function as a means for executing each process in the flowcharts described below. This realizes the processing of each processing unit (see FIG. 3, etc.) of the print server 101 and the client terminal 103 and each step in the processing flow (FIGS. 6 and 7) described below. The program may be stored in an external storage device (not shown) such as a flash memory, a hard disk drive (HDD), or a solid state disk (SSD).

[0013] Note that all or part of the functions of the print server 101 and the client terminal 103 and the processing related to the processing flow described below may be realized using dedicated hardware.

[0014] The input / output interface 204 is a unit that provides an interface with an output device such as a display device, or an input device such as a keyboard or mouse, or an input / output device such as a touch panel. The NIC (Network Interface Card) 205 is a unit that connects the print server 101 and the client terminal 103 to a network (not shown). The above-mentioned units 201 to 205 are configured to be able to send and receive data via a bus 206.

[0015] In this embodiment, the print server 101 is described as being realized using the information processing device described above, but is not limited to this and may be a virtual server in cloud computing.

[0016] In this embodiment, the cloud storage 102 is a storage service provided by cloud computing, but is not limited to this. For example, the cloud storage 102 can be realized by a server device having a data storage function. In this case, the server device may be realized by an information processing device having a hardware configuration similar to that shown in FIG. 2(a).

[0017] 2(b) is a block diagram showing an example of the basic hardware configuration of the printer (printing device) 104. The CPU 211 loads a program stored in the ROM 213 into the RAM 212 and executes it, thereby controlling the operations of the printer engine 215 and operation panel 216 and communication via the NIC 214. The printer engine 215 is an output unit that prints print data. The operation panel 216 is an input unit that accepts operations from the user. The above-mentioned units 211 to 216 are configured to be able to send and receive data via a bus 217.

[0018] An example of the software configuration of the print server 101, the client terminal 103, and the printer 104 will be described using Fig. 3. In this embodiment, an example will be described in which the CPU of each device executes a program to function as each processing unit shown in Fig. 3, but some or all of this may be realized using dedicated hardware such as an ASIC.

[0019] FIG. 3(a) shows an example of the software configuration of the print server 101. A print request receiving unit 301 receives a print request from the client terminal 103 via the NIC 205. A drawing data acquisition unit 302 acquires drawing data from the cloud storage 102. A drawing data analysis unit 303 analyzes the drawing data and converts it into a drawing command. A thinning line processing unit 304 updates the information of line objects included in the drawing command and performs thin line thickening processing. A print data generation unit 305 generates print data in accordance with the drawing command. The print server 101 saves the drawing data acquired from the cloud storage 102 as a drawing data file 310 in a storage unit (ROM, RAM, etc.) within the print server, and deletes it when printing is completed by the printer 104.

[0020] 3(b) shows an example of the software configuration of the client terminal 103. The client terminal 103 includes a UI unit 311 that displays an operation screen on the display and controls the reception of input from the user via the input / output interface 204. It also includes a print server communication unit 312 that controls communication with the print server.

[0021] 3C shows an example of the software configuration of the printer 104. A print data acquisition unit 321 acquires print data from the print server 101 via the NIC 214. A printing unit 322 controls the printer engine 215 to perform printing based on the print data.

[0022] 5 to 7, the processing flow in the print service of the present invention will be described. FIG. 5 shows a screen displayed on the client terminal 103. Reference numeral 501 denotes a cloud storage list display screen acquired by the client terminal 103 via the print server 101. Here, a list of multiple storage services accessible via the print server 101 is displayed. When the user selects a desired cloud storage on the cloud storage list display screen 501, the screen transitions to a drawing data list display screen 502. On the drawing data list display screen 502, a list of drawing data acquired by the client terminal 103 via the print server 101 is displayed. When the user selects desired drawing data on the drawing data list display screen 502, the screen transitions to a print instruction screen 503. When the user presses a print button 504 on the print instruction screen 503, a print request for the selected drawing data is sent to the print server 101.

[0023] 6 is triggered by the user pressing the print button 504 on the print instruction screen 503 displayed on the client terminal 103. That is, when the print button 504 is pressed, in step S601, the print server communication unit 312 of the client terminal 103 sends a print request to the print server.

[0024] In step S602, the drawing data acquisition unit 302 of the print server 101 acquires the drawing data selected by the user from the cloud storage 102, and temporarily stores it as a drawing data file 310 in the print server.

[0025] In step S603, the drawing data analysis unit 303 of the print server 101 analyzes the drawing data and generates drawing commands for drawing objects (drawing objects) to be drawn. The drawing commands include the drawing objects to be drawn. For example, drawing objects include line objects for drawing lines, surface objects for drawing filled surfaces, and character objects for drawing characters.

[0026] FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of a line object. The line object includes color information indicating the drawing color, coordinate information of the drawing position, line width information, dashed line pattern information, and so on. Note that FIG. 4 illustrates information necessary for explaining this embodiment (line width information and dashed line pattern information), and omits other information. The dashed line pattern is information included when the line object is an intermittent line such as a dotted line or a dashed line, and includes information on the length of the solid line portion (dash) and the length of the blank portion (blank). The dashed line pattern includes the length of the minimum number of repeated dashes and the length of the blank. For example, dotted and dashed lines are drawn by repeatedly drawing dashes of the same length, so the dash length and blank length included in the dashed line pattern are each one of a single length. In addition, in the case of a dash-dotted line, two dashes of different lengths are repeated, so the dashed line pattern includes the lengths of two dashes and two blank spaces. In addition, in the case of a two-dot-dash line, the lengths of three dashes and three blank spaces are included in the dashed line pattern.

[0027] In step S604, if the drawing command includes a line object, the thinning line processing unit 304 of the print server 101 determines whether to execute thickening processing. If thickening processing is executed, the thinning line processing unit 304 updates the information of the line object and passes the drawing command after thickening processing to the print data generation unit 305. Details of the processing of S604 will be described later using FIG. 7.

[0028] In step S605, the print data generation unit 305 of the print server 101 performs drawing processing of the drawing objects (line objects, plane objects, character objects, etc.) included in the drawing command to generate print data. In the case of line objects, the line drawing processing is performed based on information such as the line width information included in the line object and information on the length of dashes and blanks in the broken line pattern.

[0029] In step S606, the print data acquisition unit 321 of the printer 104 acquires the print data from the print server 101. In step S607, the printing unit 322 of the printer 104 controls the printer engine based on the print data to execute printing. In step S608, the drawing data file saved in S602 and the print data generated in S605 are deleted, and the flow ends.

[0030] Fig. 7 shows a detailed flow of the thin line processing (thickening process of thin lines) executed in step S604 of Fig. 6. The thin line processing unit 304 executes the process of Fig. 7 by processing each of the drawing objects included in the drawing command in order.

[0031] In step S701, the thin line processing unit 304 determines whether the drawing object to be processed included in the drawing command is a line object, and if it is determined that it is not a line object, the process ends without performing thickening processing.

[0032] If the thin line processing unit 304 determines in step S701 that the object is a line object, it determines in step S702 whether the line width satisfies a predetermined value. The predetermined line width is the minimum width that does not become unclear when printed by a printer. If it determines that the line width satisfies the predetermined value, the process ends without performing line thickening processing. For example, if the default line width for the printer is 2 dots, thickening processing will not be performed on line objects with a line width of 2 dots or more. Note that the default value is not limited to 2 dots, and a value may be preset depending on the model and printing method of the printer to be used for printing. Furthermore, in this embodiment, dots are used as the unit for expressing line width and line length, but they are not limited to dots and may be expressed in other units.

[0033] If it is determined in step S702 that the line width does not satisfy the predetermined value, then in step S703, the thin line processing unit 304 updates the line width of the line object to the predetermined value (changes the line width), and proceeds to step S704. Note that the updated line width is not limited to the predetermined value itself, and may be a value that satisfies the predetermined value and is close to the predetermined value (i.e., a value that is not too thick).

[0034] In step S704, the thin line processing unit 304 determines whether the line object to be processed is a dashed line. Specifically, it determines whether the line object to be processed includes information on the dash length and blank length as a dashed line pattern. If it is determined in step S704 that the line object is not a dashed line, the process ends. If it is determined in step S704 that the line object is a dashed line, the process proceeds to step S705.

[0035] In step S705, information relating to the lengths of dashes and blanks included in the dashed line pattern is updated. Specifically, the lengths of the dashes and blanks are updated by multiplying the original lengths of the dashes and blanks by the scaling factor used when the line width was updated in step S703 (the value obtained by dividing the updated line width by the line width before the update), and then updating the information with the calculated lengths.

[0036] For example, suppose the original dashed line has a line width of 1 dot, a dash length of 2 dots, and a blank length of 1 dot, and the printer's default line width is 2 dots. In this case, in S703, the line width of the dashed line is updated from 1 dot to 2 dots, so the magnification when changing from the line width before the update to the line width after the update is 2 times. Therefore, in S705, the length of the dash and the blank are each multiplied by a magnification of 2, so the length of the dash is updated to 4 dots and the length of the blank is updated to 2 dots.

[0037] It is also possible to configure the system so that whether to start the flow in Fig. 7 (the processing of S604 in Fig. 6) is determined based on the printing method of the destination printer. For example, if the printing method of the destination printer is laser, the flow in Fig. 7 is started, and if the printing method is inkjet, the processing in Fig. 7 (the processing of S604 in Fig. 6) may be skipped and the processing of S605 in Fig. 6 may be performed.

[0038] 7 may be determined based on the capabilities of the destination printer (e.g., whether the printer has a color printing capability). For example, when using a printer that tends to blur thin lines when printing in color, the flow of FIG. 7 may be started.

[0039] Furthermore, the configuration may be such that whether or not to start the flow of Fig. 7 is determined based on the color density of the line object. For example, if the color density of the line does not satisfy a default value, the flow of Fig. 7 is started. The default value for the color density of the line is the minimum value that does not cause the line to become unclear when printed by a printer.

[0040] 8A and 8B are enlarged views of the rendering result when the data at the time of applying the processes of S603, S703, and S705 of this embodiment to line objects such as thin dotted lines, dashed lines, and dashed-dot lines is rendered. FIG. 8A shows the rendering result when the line objects output by the drawing data analysis unit 303 of the print server 101 in step S603 of FIG. 6 are rendered as is. Reference numeral 801 denotes an example of a dotted line object, with a line width of 1, a dash length of 1, and a blank length of 1. Reference numeral 802 denotes an example of a dashed line object, with a line width of 1, a dash length of 2, and a blank length of 1. Reference numeral 803 denotes an example of a dashed-dot line object, with a line width of 1, a first dash length of 3, a first blank length of 1, a second dash length of 1, and a second blank length of 1. FIG. 8(b) shows the result of drawing line objects 811-813 as they are after updating only the line widths of line objects 801-803 in step S703 of FIG. 7. In other words, if only the line widths are thickened as in the prior art, the result would be as shown in FIG. 8(b), which would make the blank and solid line portions appear more congested than the drawing in FIG. 8(a). FIG. 8(c) shows the result of drawing line objects 811-823 as they are after updating the line widths of line objects 801-803 in step S703 of FIG. 7 and then updating the dash and blank lengths in step S705. For example, in the example above, if the line width was updated at a factor of 2, the dotted line object 821 after the thickening process would have a line width of 2, a dash length of 2, and a blank length of 2. Similarly, the dashed line object 822 after the thickening process would have a line width of 2, a dash length of 4, and a blank length of 2. Furthermore, the dot-dash line object 823 after the thickening process will have a line width of 2, a first dash length of 6, a first blank length of 2, a second dash length of 6, and a second blank length of 2. In other words, when the thickening process of this embodiment is applied to a thin dotted line object or dashed line object, it will be drawn as shown in Fig. 8(c), so the ratio of the solid line portion to the blank portion will be the same as the original dotted line or dashed line, and a drawing result with a similar design will be obtained.

[0041] Because Figure 8(b) is an enlarged view, it appears as if the user can distinguish between the dotted and dashed line types of the line objects 811-813 even after only the line width has been increased in S703. However, the actual printout is not enlarged, so it appears as shown in Figure 9. Figure 9 shows an example of a printout of thin lines with various dashed line patterns, and Figure 9(a) shows the printout when only the line width of the line objects is updated, as in the prior art. In Figure 9(a), the blank and solid lines appear crowded, so that even different types of dashed and dotted lines appear similar to the user when viewed from a distance, making it difficult to clearly distinguish between the dotted and dashed line types. On the other hand, Figure 9(b) shows the printout when the processes of S703 and S705 of this embodiment are applied, i.e., the line width of the line objects is updated and the length of the dashes and blank spaces in the dashed line patterns is updated. Compared with FIG. 9(a), in the printout of FIG. 9(b), the user can clearly and easily distinguish that each thin line has a different type of dashed line pattern.

[0042] In this embodiment, the data obtained from cloud storage is drawing data, but it may also be document data created with word processing software (for example, data created with Microsoft (trademark) Word) as long as it contains thin lines.

[0043] As described above, when the thin lines included in the drawing data are dashed or dotted, the printing service not only thickens the line width, but also lengthens the lengths of the solid line portions (dashes) and blank spaces (blanks) of the dashed line pattern by a factor equal to the thickening of the line width. As a result, even when printing data that includes discontinuous thin lines such as dashed or dotted lines, it is possible to obtain print results that make it possible to distinguish between lines with different designs.

[0044] <Other Examples> The present invention can also be realized by supplying a program that realizes one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or device via a network or a storage medium, and having one or more processors in the computer of the system or device read and execute the program. It can also be realized by combining circuits (for example, ASICs or processors dedicated to image processing) that realize some or all of the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0045] Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and various modifications and changes are possible within the scope of the gist of the present invention.

Claims

1. An information processing apparatus that generates print data from data including a line object, a first updating means for updating the line width of a line object having a line width that does not satisfy a predetermined value so that the line width satisfies the predetermined value; a second updating means for updating the lengths of the solid line portions and the blank portions included in the dashed line pattern of the line object based on the line width after updating by the first updating means and the line width before updating; a generating means for generating print data from data including the line object after being updated by the first updating means and the second updating means; An information processing device comprising:

2. 2. The information processing device according to claim 1, wherein the second update means calculates a magnification based on the line width after update by the first update means and the line width before update, and updates the length of the solid line portion and the length of the blank portion included in the dashed line pattern of the line object according to the calculated magnification.

3. 2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined value is a predetermined value corresponding to a printing device that is a printing destination.

4. a determination unit that determines whether or not to execute processing by the first update unit and the second update unit based on the printing method of the printing device that is the printing destination; When the determination means determines that the process is to be executed, the first update means, the second update means, and the generation means execute the process; When the determining means determines not to execute the update, the generating means is controlled to generate print data from data including the line object that has not been processed by the first updating means and the second updating means.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

5. a determining unit that determines whether or not to execute the processes by the first updating unit and the second updating unit based on the capabilities of the printing device that is the printing destination; When the determination means determines that the process is to be executed, the first update means, the second update means, and the generation means execute the process; When the determining means determines not to execute the update, the generating means is controlled to generate print data from data including the line object that has not been processed by the first updating means and the second updating means.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

6. further comprising a determination unit that determines whether or not to execute processing by the first update unit and the second update unit based on the color density of the line object; When the determination means determines that the process is to be executed, the first update means, the second update means, and the generation means execute the process; When the determining means determines not to execute the update, the generating means is controlled to generate print data from data including the line object that has not been processed by the first updating means and the second updating means.

2. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:

7. The information processing device according to claim 1 , wherein the information processing device is a virtual server in cloud computing.

8. 7. A program causing a computer to function as each of the means of the information processing apparatus according to claim 1.

9. A method for controlling an apparatus for generating print data from data including line objects, comprising: a first updating step in which a first updating means of the device updates the line width of a line object having a line width that does not satisfy a predetermined value so that the line width satisfies the predetermined value; a second updating step in which a second updating means of the device updates the lengths of the solid line portions and the blank portions included in the dashed line pattern of the line object based on the line width after updating in the first updating step and the line width before updating; a generating step in which a generating means of the device generates print data from data including the line object after being updated by the first updating step and the second updating step; A control method comprising:

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