JP2019093559A - Image formation apparatus, control method and program thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a technique which properly controls whether or not to use image data generated in rendering processing before a printing instruction for printing when the printing setting of accumulated printing jobs are changed.SOLUTION: A printer 101 generates image data by performing preceding rendering processing of a specific page in a printing job before receiving an execution instruction of the printing job received and stored from a PC 104 from a user. The printer 101 specifies the type of the page subjected to the preceding rendering processing in the printing job when the printing setting is changed by the log-in user. The printer 101 executes the printing job in accordance with the changed printing setting when receiving the printing instruction from the user. The printer 101 decides whether or not to use the image data generated in the preceding rendering processing for the printing of the page subjected to the preceding rendering processing on the basis of the changed printing setting and the specified page type.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, a control method therefor, and a program, and more particularly to a technology for shortening the time required for rendering processing performed by a printing apparatus when a print job is executed.

  In an environment where multiple users share and use multiple image forming devices (printing devices), “print and hold” as a technology to prevent other users from seeing the printed matter when outputting highly confidential printed matter "Printing" is known. In the hold printing, print jobs transmitted from a host computer (PC) are temporarily stored in a print server or in a printing apparatus having a server function. The accumulated print job is executed after user authentication in the printing apparatus (e.g., Patent Document 1).

  In the above-mentioned reserved printing, the execution of the print job is started according to the print instruction from the user after the user authentication. For this reason, if it takes time for rendering processing to generate image data (drawing data) from print data such as PDL data, the user's waiting time until print completion becomes long. In order to reduce such a waiting time, a technique for performing a rendering process on a part of pages of a print job that has been stored prior to a print instruction from the user has been considered.

Patent No. 4033857

  In the above-described prior art, when the print setting of the print job stored in the printing apparatus is changed by the user, according to the changed print setting, the image generated by the rendering process (preceding rendering process) before the print instruction Printing can be done. However, in this case, depending on the combination of the print settings and the contents of the page, the print quality may be lower than in the case where the print processing of print data is performed to print an image after print instruction using the changed print settings. There is sex. In addition, there is a possibility that print quality may be different between the page on which the advance rendering process has been performed and the page on which the advance rendering process has not been performed.

  On the other hand, when the print setting of the print job is changed, if rendering processing is executed or re-executed after print instruction for all pages included in the print job, even if deterioration of print quality can be prevented, printing is completed User's waiting time may be long.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. The present invention provides a technique for appropriately controlling whether to use image data generated in a rendering process before a print instruction for printing when print settings of an accumulated print job are changed. To aim.

An image forming apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes a storage unit for storing a print job received from an external apparatus, and an instruction for executing the print job stored by the storage unit in the print job before receiving the instruction from the user Processing means for performing rendering processing of a specific page, generating means for generating image data, receiving means for receiving input of print settings to be applied to the print job from a user, and specifying a page type of the specific page in the print job And an execution unit that executes the print job according to the input print setting when receiving the execution instruction from the user, the input print setting and the page type specified by the identification unit Image data generated by the processing means for printing the particular page based on Determining whether or not to use, with said executing means,
And the like.

  According to the present invention, when the print settings of the stored print job are changed, it is possible to appropriately control whether or not the image data generated in the rendering process before the print instruction is used for printing. Become.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a printing system and the hardware configuration of the printing apparatus, and an example of the software configuration of the printing apparatus. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram showing an example of print processing when a print job is to be stored in the printing apparatus. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the procedure of print job retention processing, an example of the configuration of a print job, and an example of a bibliographic information list. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the procedure of an advance process for a print job, and an example of processing result information. The figure which shows the example of PDL command statistical information. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the procedure of print processing, and a diagram showing an example of an operation screen including a print job list. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of rendering processing after a print instruction. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure of application determination (S705) of the preceding process result in the first embodiment. FIG. 8 is a view showing an example of a result of preceding processing and a result of rendering processing after a print instruction when page layout settings are changed. The flowchart which shows the procedure of application decision (S705) of the precedence processing result in a 2nd embodiment. The flowchart which shows the procedure of application decision (S705) of the precedence processing result in a 3rd embodiment. The flowchart which shows the procedure of application decision of the precedence processing result (S705) in a 4th embodiment. A figure showing an example of object attribute information on 1 pixel in a 5th embodiment.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following embodiments do not limit the present invention according to the claims, and all combinations of the features described in the embodiments are not necessarily essential to the solution means of the present invention. .

<Printing system>
FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a printing system and a hardware configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1A, in the printing system, a plurality of printing apparatuses 101 to 103 (image forming apparatuses) and a personal computer (PC) 104 can communicate with each other via a LAN (Local Area Network) 105. It is connected to the. Although FIG. 1A shows a configuration in which three printing apparatuses are connected to the LAN 105, any number of printing apparatuses may be connected to the LAN 105. Also, the PC 104 can be configured by a general-purpose computer.

  In the present embodiment, the printing apparatuses 101 to 103 are MFPs (Multi Function Printers), but may be SFPs (Single Function Printers). The printing apparatuses 101 to 103 are MFPs that perform image formation (printing) by the electrophotographic method, but may be MFPs that print by a printing method (for example, an inkjet method) other than the electrophotographic method. When the printing apparatuses 101 to 103 receive a print instruction (print job) from the PC 104 or another printing apparatus, the printing apparatuses 101 to 103 execute print processing according to the print instruction. Although the configuration of the printing apparatus 101 will be described below, the printing apparatuses 102 and 103 also have the same configuration as the printing apparatus 101.

<Hardware Configuration of Printing Device>
An example of the hardware configuration of the printing apparatus 101 will be described with reference to FIG. The printing apparatus 101 includes a controller 110, a print mechanism 111 (image forming unit), a card reader 112, and an operation panel 113 connected to the controller. The controller 110 includes a network I / F 120, a reader I / F 121, a panel I / F 122, a CPU 123, an HDD (hard disk drive) 124, a RAM 125, a ROM 126, a device I / F 127, a RIP (raster image processor) 128, and an image processing circuit 129. Equipped with Each device disposed in the controller 110 is connected to the system bus 130.

  The CPU 123 controls the entire printing apparatus 101 by reading and executing a program stored in a storage device (storage medium) such as the HDD 124 or the ROM 126. The RAM 125 is a system work memory for the CPU 123 to operate, and is used as a work area of the CPU 123. The RAM 125 is also used as an image memory for temporarily storing input print jobs and image data. The ROM 126 is a boot ROM, which stores a boot program of the system. The HDD 124 is a non-volatile storage device, and is used to store system software for various processes and various data such as print jobs, print data, and image data.

  The network I / F 120 is realized by, for example, a LAN card, and communicates with an external device via the LAN 105. The reader I / F 121 is an interface unit to the card reader 112, and transmits, for example, information (authentication information and the like) received from the card reader 112 to the CPU 123. The panel I / F 122 is an interface unit to the operation panel 113. The operation panel 113 includes an operation key and a display unit (LCD) having a touch panel function, and displays an operation screen on the display unit and receives input of information from the user. The panel I / F 122 outputs operation screen data to the operation panel 113. The operation panel 113 displays an operation screen based on the operation screen data. The panel I / F 122 also transmits information input by the user via the operation panel 113 to the CPU 123.

  The device I / F 127 connects the print mechanism 111 and the controller 110 and performs synchronous / asynchronous conversion of image data. The RIP 128 analyzes intermediate data (display list) and develops the intermediate data into image data. The image processing circuit 129 performs processing such as correction, resolution conversion, and the like according to the characteristics of the print mechanism 111 on image data generated by analyzing a print job.

  The print mechanism 111 forms (prints) an image on a sheet (recording material) based on image data in accordance with an instruction from the controller 110 (CPU 123). The card reader 112 acquires information by reading user authentication information (authentication information) from an ID card or the like owned by the user, and notifies the controller 110 of the acquired information.

<Software Configuration of Printing Device>
An example of the software configuration of the printing apparatus 101 (controller 110) will be described with reference to FIG. 1 (B). The controller 110 includes an authentication unit 131, a setting unit 132, a bibliographic management unit 133, a print control unit 134, a job analysis unit 135, a preceding processing unit 136, a storage control unit 137, a print execution unit 138, a PDL analysis unit 139, and intermediate data. The generation unit 140 is provided. Each functional unit illustrated in FIG. 1B is realized on the printing apparatus 101 (the controller 110) by the CPU 123 reading and executing a program stored in the HDD 124 or the ROM 126.

  The authentication unit 131 acquires authentication information through the reader I / F 121, and notifies the storage control unit 137 of the acquired authentication information. The setting unit 132 controls input / output of information with the operation panel 113 through the panel I / F 122.

  The bibliographic management unit 133 manages the print job received by the retention control unit 137 and information on the print job. The print control unit 134 acquires a print instruction or print job input (received) through the network I / F 120, and instructs the retention control unit 137 or the print execution unit 138 to execute processing for the print job.

  The job analysis unit 135 analyzes the print job received by the retention control unit 137. The preceding processing unit 136 performs rendering processing of the print job according to the analysis result by the job analysis unit 135. The retention control unit 137 controls analysis of the print job received from the print control unit 134 by the job analysis unit 135, management by the bibliographic management unit 133, and preceding processing by the preceding processing unit 136. In addition, the retention control unit 137 instructs the print execution unit 138 to print.

  The print execution unit 138 executes print processing in accordance with the print job received from the print control unit 134 or the retention control unit 137. Specifically, the print execution unit 138 generates image data by controlling the PDL analysis unit 139, the intermediate data generation unit 140, the RIP 128, and the image processing circuit 129 according to the print job. Furthermore, the print execution unit 138 causes the print mechanism 111 to execute printing based on the image data by outputting the generated image data to the print mechanism 111 through the device I / F 127.

  The PDL analysis unit 139 performs PDL (Page Description Language) analysis on a print job according to an instruction from the print execution unit 138. The intermediate data generation unit 140 generates intermediate data based on the information obtained by the PDL analysis by the PDL analysis unit 139.

<Overview of printing process>
The printing apparatuses 101 to 103 store (store) the print job received from the external apparatus such as the PC 104 in the HDD 124 to hold the print job. At this time, as necessary, an advance process to be described later is performed on the print job. When the user logs in to the printing apparatuses 101 to 103 and instructs execution of the print job held in the printing apparatus, the held print job is executed. In the present embodiment, an example in which the print setting is changed by the user via the operation panel 113 before the execution instruction (print instruction) is performed for the print job held in the printing apparatuses 101 to 103 is performed. explain.

  FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing an example of print processing in the case where a print job is held in the printing apparatus in the printing system according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 shows a sequence from when the print job is transmitted from the PC 104 to the printing apparatus 101 among the printing apparatuses 101 to 103 and until the printing job is executed by the printing apparatus 101.

  In S201, the user logs in to the PC 104, and in S202, the user operates the PC 104 to request printing of data from any application. In response to the user's request, the PC 104 acquires the user information of the user in S203, and generates a print job to which the acquired user information is added in S204. The user information is information that can identify the user who made the print request, such as a user name or a user ID. After that, in step S205, the PC 104 transmits the generated print job to the printing apparatus 101.

  When the printing apparatus 101 receives a print job from the PC 104, the printing apparatus 101 stores the received print job in the HDD 124 in S206. Next, in step S207, the printing apparatus 101 extracts user information included in the print job, and generates bibliographic information of the print job. In step S208, the printing apparatus 101 stores the generated bibliographic information in the HDD 124. After saving the bibliographic information, in step S209, the printing apparatus 101 starts an advance process described later with reference to FIG. 4 for the received print job. In this prior processing, rendering processing (preceding rendering processing) is performed at least partially on the print job prior to an execution instruction (print instruction) from the user for the received print job. After the start of the preceding process, the printing apparatus 101 sequentially stores the result of the preceding process in the HDD 124 in S210. Furthermore, when the preceding process is completed, the printing apparatus 101 updates the bibliographic information stored in the HDD 124 in order to reflect the result of the preceding process in the bibliographic information.

  Then, in step S211, the user operates the operation panel 113 of the printing apparatus 101 to log in to the printing apparatus 101. When the user logs in to the printing apparatus 101 by succeeding in the authentication of the user by the authentication unit 131, in step S212, the printing apparatus 101 acquires user information of the logged-in user (authentication user). Furthermore, in step S213, a list of print jobs for the authenticated user is displayed on the operation panel 113 using the acquired user information. When the printing apparatus 101 receives a print setting change instruction from the user for the print job displayed on the operation panel 113 in S214, the print setting in the bibliographical information stored in the HDD 124 according to the change instruction in S215. Update. Thereafter, when the printing apparatus 101 receives a print instruction from the user in S216, (S217) using the print job stored and the preceding processing result related to the print job in S217 (finishing) Perform rendering process. When the rendering process is completed, in step S218, the printing apparatus 101 performs printing based on the image data (drawing data) obtained by the rendering process.

  Although the example of the process performed by the printing apparatus 101 will be described more specifically below, the printing apparatuses 102 and 103 can also execute the same process. Also, each processing described below is executed on the printing apparatus 101 (controller 110) as processing by each functional unit illustrated in FIG. 1B by the CPU 123 reading and executing a program stored in the HDD 124 or the ROM 126. Is realized by

<Retention processing of print job>
Next, with reference to FIG. 3, a print job retention process performed by the printing apparatus 101 will be described. FIG. 3A is a flowchart showing the procedure of print job retention processing, and shows the processing procedure corresponding to S205 to S208 in FIG.

  First, in step S301, the print control unit 134 receives a print job transmitted from an external device such as the PC 104 via the network I / F 120. FIG. 3B illustrates a configuration example of a print job received by the printing apparatus 101. As exemplified in FIG. 3B, the print job includes a header portion including various setting information disposed at the top and data (PDL data) of each page disposed after the header information. And a data portion including. In the present embodiment, PDL data includes a drawing command of each page between a BeginSession command that means the start of a print job and an EndSession command that means the end of the print job. The PLD data of each page is composed of a BeginPage command, an EndPage command, and a drawing command group disposed between the commands. Examples of drawing commands include commands such as Line, Text, Rect, and Image, as in the example of FIG. 3 (B).

  Next, in step S302, the print control unit 134 determines whether the print job received in step S301 is to be retained in the printing apparatus 101 or not executed until the print instruction is received from the user. The determination as to whether or not to retain may be performed, for example, based on whether or not a predetermined parameter stored in the printing apparatus 101 indicates a retention, or based on information in the header portion of the print job. It may be done. If the print control unit 134 executes the received print job without holding it, the process advances to step S303. If the print job is held, the process advances to step S305.

  In step S303, the print execution unit 138 controls the PDL analysis unit 139 and the intermediate data generation unit 140 to analyze the print job, and causes the RIP 128 to execute rendering processing on the intermediate data generated by the analysis. The rendering process performed by the RIP 128 generates image data. In step S304, the print execution unit 138 transfers the image data generated in step S303 to the print mechanism 111 through the device I / F 127 after the image processing circuit 129 performs image correction. The print mechanism 111 prints an image of each page on a sheet based on image data of each page to be printed. Thus, the process according to the procedure illustrated in FIG. 3A ends.

  On the other hand, in step S305, the retention control unit 137 acquires user information included in the print job. In the example of FIG. 3B, the user information is included in the header portion of the print job as "user name: user A". The user information may be transmitted to the printing apparatus 101 separately from the print job from the apparatus (PC 104) that is the transmission source of the print job.

  Next, in step S306, the job analysis unit 135 acquires, from the received print job, information indicating the print setting, the document name, and the PDL type. These pieces of information can be included in the header portion of the print job, as in the example of FIG. 3 (B). The print settings include, for example, a print mode indicating single-sided printing or double-sided printing, a color mode indicating color printing or monochrome printing, and a sheet size (paper size) used for printing. Note that for print settings not included in the print job, initial setting values stored in advance in HDD 124 or ROM 126 may be used, or settings by the user may be accepted when the print job is executed.

  After that, in S307, the retention control unit 137 sets the information in which the user information acquired in S305 and the information acquired in S306 are associated as bibliographic information corresponding to one print job (as bibliographic information of one record). Generate Further, in S308, the bibliographic information management unit 133 stores the bibliographic information by adding the bibliographic information generated in S307 to the bibliographic information list stored in the HDD 124.

  Specifically, the bibliographic management unit 133 adds the information to the bibliographic information list of the user indicated by the user information included in the generated bibliographic information. When the bibliographic information list of the user is not stored in the HDD 124, the bibliographic management unit 133 newly generates the bibliographic information list of the user and stores the bibliographic information list in the HDD 124.

  FIG. 3C is a diagram showing an example of the bibliographic information list stored in the HDD 124, and shows an example of the bibliographic information list of the user A corresponding to the print job shown in FIG. 3B. . As shown in FIG. 3C, in the bibliographic information list, corresponding bibliographic information is stored as one record for each print job (job ID). If the print settings are changed via the operation panel 113 (S 214 in FIG. 2) before the print instruction is received from the user, the print settings in the bibliographic information are updated to the print settings after the change (see FIG. 2 S215). As a result, the changed print setting is reflected on the print result when the print job is executed.

  In step S308, the bibliographic manager 133 saves the print job received from the external apparatus (PC 104) in step S301 in the HDD 124 as a print job corresponding to the saved bibliographic information. Thus, the process according to the procedure illustrated in FIG. 3A ends.

<Preceding process for print job>
Next, with reference to FIG. 4, an advance process for a print job performed in the printing apparatus 101 will be described. FIG. 4A is a flowchart showing the procedure of the preceding process, and shows the procedure corresponding to S209 and S210 in FIG. The preceding process is executed after the print job is held in the HDD 124 by the print job holding process (FIG. 3). In the pre-processing, the job analysis unit 135 predicts the time required to render each page of the held print job. Further, the preceding processing unit 136 performs a rendering process on a page whose time predicted by the job analysis unit 135 exceeds a predetermined threshold before receiving a print instruction from the user.

  First, in step S <b> 401, the job analysis unit 135 predicts the time (rendering time) required for the rendering process of each page included in the print job for the print job to be processed, which is retained in the HDD 124. The prediction of the rendering time is performed based on, for example, the size of each page, the number of drawing objects of each page, and the content of the PDL command of each page. Further, the processing capacity (processing speed) of the RIP 128 or the like may be used for the prediction.

  Further, in step S402, the job analysis unit 135 obtains statistical information of the PDL command by counting the number of appearances for each type of PDL command for each page for which the rendering time has been predicted. The job analysis unit 135 may execute the prediction of the rendering time (S401) and the acquisition of the statistical information of the PDL command (S402) in order as shown in FIG. You may

  Next, in step S403, based on the prediction result in step S401, the precedent processing unit 136 specifies a page requiring a rendering process (preceding rendering process) before the print instruction for the print job to be processed. Specifically, a page predicted to take a long time for the rendering process is identified as a page requiring the preceding rendering process. For example, for the print job of “job ID: 1” in the example shown in FIG. 3C, pages (first and ninth pages) in which the predicted rendering time exceeds a predetermined threshold (for example, 10 seconds) precedes It is identified as a page that requires rendering processing. The threshold may be, for example, a predetermined threshold or may be a threshold corresponding to the printing speed of the printing apparatus 101. Note that the advance processing unit 136 may specify all pages included in the print job as pages requiring advance rendering processing.

  When the processing of S403 is completed, the preceding processing unit 136 determines in S404 whether or not there is a page for which the preceding rendering processing is necessary. If there is a page, the processing proceeds to S405. The process advances to step S409. If there is no page requiring the preceding rendering process, the preceding processing unit 136 updates the bibliographic information (the predicted rendering time shown in FIG. 3B) in S409, and ends the preceding process.

  On the other hand, in step S405, the preceding processing unit 136 generates image data by performing rendering processing of the page (target page) specified as the page requiring the preceding rendering processing in step S403. If a plurality of pages are specified in S403, the preceding processing unit 136 may perform rendering processing of each target page in the page order of the print job. Alternatively, the pre-processing unit 136 may perform the rendering process of each target page in the descending order of predicted rendering time or in the ascending order. As described above, prior to receiving an instruction to execute a print job stored in the HDD 124 from the user, the preceding processing unit 136 performs rendering processing of a specific page (target page) in the print job to generate image data.

  When the rendering process of the target page is completed, in step S406, the preceding processing unit 136 sets the image data generated by the rendering process and the process result information indicating the result of the rendering process to the result of the preceding process (preceding process result And save in the HDD 124 as FIG. 4B shows an example of the processing result information stored in S406. The processing result information 400 includes a job ID 401, a header portion 402, and image data information 403. The job ID 401 is, for example, a job ID included in the bibliographic information (FIG. 3C), and is an identifier for identifying a print job. The header portion 402 includes PDL command statistical information 404 in addition to the data size of the preceding process result, the number of pages on which the preceding rendering process has been performed, and the print setting at the time of the preceding rendering process. The image data information 403 includes a page number and a file path indicating the location of image data corresponding to the page number as information indicating the image data generated by the preceding rendering process. The processing result information 400 may be any information as long as the preceding processing result can be specified, and is not limited to the one shown in FIG.

  Note that, when a plurality of pages are specified in S403, the data size and the total number of pages included in the header portion 402 of the processing result information 400 and the image data information 403 each time the preceding rendering processing of each target page is completed. , S406.

  In step S407, the preceding processing unit 136 determines whether the rendering process for all target pages identified in step S403 is complete. If not, the process proceeds to step S408. If it is complete, the process proceeds to step S409. Advance. In step S408, the advance processing unit 136 determines whether an execution instruction (print instruction) has been issued by the user for the print job to be processed. If the print instruction has not been issued, the antecedent processing unit 136 returns the process to S405 and performs an ad hoc rendering process of the next target page. On the other hand, when the print instruction is issued, the advance processing unit 136 interrupts the advance rendering process and advances the process to S409.

  In step S409, the preceding processing unit 136 updates bibliographic information of the print job to be processed, which is stored in the HDD 124, based on the processing results in steps S401 to S408. Specifically, the advance processing unit 136 updates the predicted rendering time included in the bibliographic information, and adds information related to the result of the advance processing generated in S406 to the bibliographic information as advance processing information. In the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3C, the preceding process information includes information indicating whether or not the preceding process has been executed for the print job, and the preceding process result (image data and process result And a file path indicating the location of the information 400).

  When the update of the bibliographic information is completed, the advance processing unit 136 ends the advance process. When the preceding rendering process is interrupted as described above ("YES" in S408), the printing process described later is executed based on the result of the preceding rendering process completed up to the point of interruption. Ru.

<PDL command statistical information>
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of PDL command statistical information 404 generated by the job analysis unit 135. As shown in FIG. FIG. 5A shows PDL command statistical information on all pages included in a print job, and shows information acquired in step S402. FIG. 5B shows PDL command statistical information including, as an entry, only information on a target page specified as a page requiring advance rendering processing, and shows information stored in the processing result information 400 in S406. ing. If PDL command statistical information is acquired after specifying the target page of the preceding rendering process in the preceding process, it is necessary to generate the PDL command statistical information for all pages as shown in FIG. 5A. There is no. However, when there is room in the storage area of the HDD 124, PDL command statistical information on a page which is not a target of the advance rendering process may also be stored in the process result information 400 in S406.

  As shown in FIG. 5, according to the PDL command statistical information of the present embodiment, the total number of PDL commands included in each page, the number of appearances of PDL commands for each type of drawing object classified in advance, and other print environment settings And the number of appearances of the PDL command. As types of drawing objects, lines, graphics (fill figures), texts (scalable fonts), texts (bitmap fonts), and images are used, but are not limited thereto.

  Here, it is determined whether or not the target page includes a line (thin line) thinner than a predetermined line width in the target page. It may be done based on In order to enable such determination, in S402, the number of PDL commands for drawing a line drawing object may be separately counted for each line width as shown in FIG. This is because in the scaling process using the image data that is the result of the preceding process (especially the scaling process with reduction), the smaller the line width of the line, the higher the possibility of the line disappearing. Specifically, the difference between the result obtained by the scaling process using the preceding process result and the result obtained by the scaling process using PDL data can be large. The threshold value (2 in FIG. 5) for classifying the drawing object by the line width may be changed as appropriate, or may be changed based on, for example, color information designated for the drawing object.

  Also, PDL commands for drawing graphics (fill figures) and text may be classified and counted based on the size of the drawing object. For a PDL command for drawing text, as shown in FIG. 5, for example, if the text to be printed is a font composed of glyphs of TrueType vector format, the PDL corresponding to “text (scalable font)” Count as a command. If the text to be printed is a font of bitmap format, it is counted as a PDL command corresponding to "text (bitmap font)".

<Printing process>
Next, printing processing performed by the printing apparatus 101 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6A is a flowchart showing the procedure of the printing process, and shows the procedure corresponding to S211 to S218 in FIG.

  When the ID card held by the user is held over the card reader 112, the card reader 112 reads authentication information including user information from the ID card, and transmits the read information to the controller 110 through the reader I / F 121. Thus, in step S601, the authentication unit 131 performs user authentication based on the authentication information received from the card reader 112. The user authentication may be, for example, a method using user information and a password input by the user through the operation panel 113, in addition to the method using the ID card.

  If the user authentication is successful, the setting unit 132 displays the print job list of the authentication user on the operation panel 113 in S602. Specifically, the setting unit 132 acquires a bibliographic information list corresponding to the user information acquired in S601 and managed in the state stored in the HDD 124 by the bibliographic management unit 133, and the acquired bibliographic information list Display the print job list based on it.

  FIG. 6B is a view showing an example of the operation screen including the print job list displayed on the operation panel 113 in S602. The operation screen 601 illustrated in FIG. 6B includes a print job list 602, a start button 603, a setting button 604, and a logout button 605. The start button 603 is used to instruct start of execution of the print job displayed in the print job list 602. The setting button 604 is used to instruct input of print settings of the print job displayed in the print job list 602. The logout button 605 is used to instruct logout of the user from the printing apparatus 101 without instructing execution of the print job.

  When any print job in the print job list 602 is selected on the operation screen 601 and the setting button 604 is pressed, the setting unit 132 operates a setting screen for performing print setting of the selected print job. Displayed on the panel 113. The setting unit 132 can receive input of print settings to be applied to a print job from the user via the displayed setting screen. Thus, the user can instruct to change the print settings already included in the print job, and can input the print settings not included in the print job. The changeable print setting items include, for example, a color mode, a print mode, the number of copies, a page layout setting (N-Up setting), and a page range.

  In step S603, the setting unit 132 receives an input of print settings to be applied to a print job from the user via the operation panel 113, and acquires the input print settings through the panel I / F 122. The setting unit 132 updates the print setting included in the bibliographic information corresponding to the target print job based on the acquired print setting. Note that the setting unit 132 may hold the updated print setting in the RAM 125 as a temporary print setting so as to make it possible to refer to the rendering process in step S607.

  After that, in step S604, the setting unit 132 determines whether an execution instruction (print instruction) for the print job in the print job list 602 has been received from the user. The user can issue a print instruction by selecting any print job in the print job list 602 and pressing the start button 603. When the user logs out (cancels the authentication state) without the print instruction being issued, the setting unit 132 ends the process according to the procedure of FIG. On the other hand, if the setting unit 132 receives a print instruction, the process proceeds to step S605.

  In step S605, the retention control unit 137 refers to the bibliographic information of the print job for which the print instruction has been issued, and the preceding process (S209 in FIG. 2 and FIG. 4A) for the print job is not completed (execution Medium) is determined. If the preceding process has not been completed, the storage control unit 137 advances the process to step S606, interrupts the preceding process being executed, and then proceeds to the process of step S607. Specifically, the retention control unit 137 causes the preceding processing unit 136 to interrupt the preceding process for the print job by notifying the preceding process unit 136 of information related to the print job for which the print instruction has been issued. Based on the notification from the retention control unit 137, the preceding processing unit 136 determines that a print instruction has been issued for the print job to be executed (“YES” in S408), and interrupts the preceding process (preceding rendering process). become. In that case, the preceding processing unit 136 updates the bibliographic information based on the result of the preceding rendering process obtained up to the point of interruption (S409).

  On the other hand, when the preceding process has been completed, the retention control unit 137 advances the process from S605 to S607. In step S607, the print execution unit 138 performs rendering processing after the print instruction according to the procedure described later with reference to FIG. In S607, if the advance rendering process is not performed on the print job to be executed (if the advance process information includes information indicating that the advance process is not executed), as in S303. Results in the processing of When the rendering process of step S607 is completed, the print execution unit 138 causes the print mechanism 111 to print in the same manner as in step S304 based on the image data generated in step S607 in step S608. Thus, the process according to the procedure illustrated in FIG. 6 ends.

  In S <b> 607 and S <b> 608 described above, the print execution unit 138 specifies the page type of the page (specific page) on which the advance rendering process has been performed in the print job to be executed. Further, the print execution unit 138 executes the print job according to the print setting input in S603. At that time, the print execution unit 138 is generated by the preceding processing unit 136 to print the page (specific page) on which the advance rendering process has been performed based on the input print setting and the specified page type. It is determined whether to use the image data.

  Specifically, when using the image data generated by the preceding processing unit 136, the print execution unit 138 prints an image of a specific page based on the image data. On the other hand, when the print execution unit 138 does not use the image data generated by the preceding processing unit 136, the print execution unit 138 performs a rendering process of a specific page using the print data included in the print job, and generates the generated image data. Print the image of the specific page based on that.

  Whether the image data generated by the preceding rendering process before the print instruction is used for printing when the print setting of the print job stored (stored) in the printing apparatus 101 is changed by such processing It becomes possible to control whether or not it is appropriate.

<Rendering process after print instruction (S607)>
Next, with reference to FIG. 7, the rendering process after the print instruction (S 607) executed in the printing apparatus 101 will be described more specifically. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the rendering process after the print instruction according to the present embodiment, and shows the procedure corresponding to S217 of FIG.

  In step S701, the print execution unit 138 acquires the print setting after updating by the setting unit 132 in step S603 from the RAM 125, and advances the processing to step S702. In the print settings, the print settings changed via the operation panel 113 are reflected after the retention process (FIG. 3A) for the print job to be executed.

  In step S702, the print execution unit 138 analyzes the print job to be executed received from the print control unit 134 or the retention control unit 137, and determines whether the print job is a print job for which advance processing has been performed. judge. This determination is performed based on information indicating whether or not the preceding process has been executed, which is included in the preceding process information in the bibliographic information of the print job. If the analyzed print job is a print job for which the preceding process has been performed, the print execution unit 138 proceeds to S703. If the print job is a print job for which the preceding process has not been performed, the process proceeds to S713. Advance.

  In S703 to S715, data of all pages included in the print job to be executed is determined as a processing target in order one page at a time, and the processing of each step is executed. In step S703, the print execution unit 138 determines whether the target page is a page on which the preceding process has been performed. This determination refers to the image data information 403 included in the processing result information 400 using the preceding process information in the bibliographic information of the print job, and determines whether the information of the target page exists in the image data information 403 or not. It is done by judging.

  In S703, when the information of the target page exists in the image data information 403, the print execution unit 138 determines that the target page is a page on which the preceding process has been performed, and advances the process to S704. On the other hand, when the information on the target page does not exist in the image data information 403, the print execution unit 138 determines that the target page is a page on which the preceding process has not been performed, and advances the process to S713. In the example of FIG. 4B, it is determined that the first and ninth pages are pages for which the preceding process has been performed.

  In step S704, the print execution unit 138 compares the print setting (changed after the preceding process) obtained in step S701 with the print setting at the time of execution of the preceding process included in the processing result information 400. Thereby, the print execution unit 138 determines whether or not the change of the print setting to which the preceding process can not be applied is performed. The print execution unit 138 advances the process to step S705 if the change of the print setting to which the preceding process can not be applied is not performed, and advances the process to step S713 if the change is not performed.

  Here, the print setting to which the preceding process can not be applied corresponds to the print setting which is referred to in the process of the process performed on the image data before the rendering process and applied to the image data. In the present embodiment, for example, the line width correction setting for correcting the line width of the text or line, and the setting of the color mode (when changing to color printing when monochrome printing is designated as the color mode) are described above. It corresponds to print setting. Note that the color mode settings as described above are included in the print settings to which the preceding process can not be applied because the intermediate data generation unit 140 has already converted to gray scale when monochrome printing is specified. Due to the configuration to generate data. For this reason, when the image processing circuit 129 performs color mode processing after rendering processing, the color mode settings as described above may not be included in print settings to which the preceding process can not be applied.

  In step S705, the print execution unit 138 performs processing to determine whether to use (apply) the preceding processing result in the print processing of the target page (specific page). Specifically, the print execution unit 138 specifies the page type of the target page based on the drawing command included in the print data of the target page in the print job. In particular, FIGS. 8A and 8B below show an example in which the page type is specified based on the number of predetermined drawing commands included in the print data of the target page in the print job. The predetermined drawing command includes at least one of a PDL command for drawing a line thinner than a predetermined line width and a PDL command for drawing a text in the scalable font format, as described later. Furthermore, the print execution unit 138 determines whether to use the image data generated in the preceding rendering process to print the target page, based on the print setting acquired in S701 and the specified page type. .

  Here, with reference to FIG. 8A, the details of the determination in step S705 will be described. In the determination procedure shown in FIG. 8A, it is determined based on the PDL command statistical information 404 whether or not the preceding process result is to be applied. In this embodiment, this determination is made by comparing the print setting obtained in S701 (changed after the preceding process) with the print setting at the time of executing the preceding process, and the PDL command statistical information included in the processing result information 400. It is performed based on 404 and. Specifically, it is determined whether or not thin line or text in the scalable font format is included as a parameter indicating the vector characteristic of the PDL command.

  After initializing the parameter value indicating the determination result to “NO” in S801, the print execution unit 138 determines in S802 whether or not the predetermined print setting has been changed after the preceding process. This determination is performed by comparing the print setting acquired in S701 (changed after the preceding process) with the print setting at the time of execution of the preceding process included in the processing result information 400.

  Here, the change of the above-mentioned predetermined print setting is a change of the print setting which needs to perform the scaling process of the image. In the present embodiment, the print execution unit 138 determines whether or not the page layout setting (N-Up setting) for performing printing by laying out a plurality of pages (N pages) on one sheet is changed. In addition to the change in the N-Up setting, for example, it may be determined whether a change in paper size, a change in conditions for bookbinding printing, or the like has been performed.

  If the N-Up setting has not been changed after the preceding process, the print execution unit 138 advances the process from S802 to S805, sets the parameter value indicating the determination result to “YES”, and ends the process. As described above, the print setting change (in this example, the N-Up setting change in this example) that requires the image scaling processing to be performed is not performed (the print setting that does not require the scaling processing to be performed) For pages where a change has been made, a determination result is obtained indicating that the result of the pre-processing is applied. This is because, even if the pre-processing result is applied, the change of the print setting after the pre-processing has less influence on the quality (print quality) of the formed (printed) image.

  On the other hand, when the N-Up setting is changed after the preceding process, the print execution unit 138 advances the process from step S802 to step S803. In S803 and S804, determination based on the PDL command statistical information 404 is performed.

  Specifically, the print execution unit 138 displays the number of appearances of a PDL command for drawing a line (thin line) having a line width of less than 2 and the appearance of a PDL command for drawing text in the scalable font format in the PDL data of the target page. Refer to the number. If the number of appearances of the command corresponding to the thin line is greater than 0 ("YES" in S803), or the number of appearances of the command corresponding to the text in the scalable font format is greater than 0 In step S803, the process ends. In this manner, if the PDL data of the target page includes the PDL command corresponding to the thin line or the text in the scalable font format, the print execution unit 138 generates a determination result indicating that the preceding processing result is not to be applied. Do.

  On the other hand, if both the appearance number of the PDL command corresponding to the thin line and the appearance number of the PDL command corresponding to the text in the scalable font format are 0 ("NO" in S803 and "NO in S804) “), The process proceeds to S 805. In step S805, the print execution unit 138 sets the parameter value indicating the determination result to "YES", and ends the processing. In this way, the print execution unit 138 generates a determination result indicating that the result of the preceding process is to be applied if neither the PDL command corresponding to the thin line nor the PDL command corresponding to the text in the scalable font format is included. Do.

  As described above, the print execution unit 138 does not use the image data generated by the preceding processing unit 136 when the target page is a page of a type in which the image data is generated using a predetermined drawing command. The predetermined drawing command includes at least one of a PDL command corresponding to a thin line and a PDL command corresponding to text in the scalable font format. On the other hand, when the target page is a page of a type in which image data is generated without using a predetermined drawing command, the image data generated by the preceding processing unit 136 is used.

  In the determination of FIG. 8A, if the PDL data of the target page includes at least one of the PDL commands, a process of generating a determination result indicating that the preceding process result is not applied is performed. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 8B, if the number of appearances of the PDL command in the PDL data of the target page is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold n, a determination result indicating application of the preceding processing result is generated. Processing may be performed. In FIG. 8B, the threshold value n is set to 10 by way of example, but the threshold value may be set to a value other than 10.

  Hereinafter, returning to FIG. 7, the process after S706 will be described. In step S706, the print execution unit 138 advances the process to step S707 when applying the preceding process result according to the determination result obtained in step S705, and advances the process to step S713 when not applying the preceding process result.

<< When applying pre-processing result >>
In step S 707, the print execution unit 138 notifies the PDL analysis unit 139 that page analysis should be skipped. The PDL analysis unit 139 prepares for analysis processing of the next page without executing analysis processing of the target page (without notifying the intermediate data generation unit 140) according to the received notification. Such processing makes it possible to prevent the PDL analysis unit 139 from redundantly executing the analysis processing of the target page executed in the preceding processing by the preceding processing unit 136. This leads to shortening of processing time in the printing process.

Next, in step S708, the print execution unit 138 provides the intermediate data generation unit 140 with the result of the preceding process on the target page. At S708, the following data is provided to the intermediate data generation unit 140 as the result of the pre-processing.
The image data obtained by the preceding process indicated by the image data information 403 included in the process result information 400 The print setting at the time of execution of the preceding process included in the header portion 402 of the process result information 400 acquired in S701 Print Setting Changed After Preceding Process When processing result information 400 shown in FIG. 4B is used, the print execution unit 138 displays the image data information 403 when the target page is the first and ninth pages. The image data stored in the included file path is provided to the intermediate data generation unit 140.

  As described above, the print execution unit 138 provides the result of the preceding process to the intermediate data generation unit 140 without passing through the PDL analysis unit 139, so that the PDL analysis by the PDL analysis unit 139 is not performed. It leads to the improvement of speed.

  In step S709, the intermediate data generation unit 140 determines parameters (generation parameters) for generating the intermediate data from the image data obtained by the preceding process. The generation parameters are determined by comparing the print setting provided by the print execution unit 138 at the time of execution of the preceding process with the print setting changed after the preceding process.

  For example, when the N-Up setting is changed from the 1-Up setting to the 2-Up setting after the preceding process, the intermediate data generation unit 140 rotates, reduces, and origins the image data obtained by the preceding process. Determine coordinate transformation parameters for moving. Further, when the color mode is changed from color printing to monochrome printing after the preceding process, the intermediate data generation unit 140 changes the output color space parameter of the image data obtained by the preceding process from RGB to gray. , Determine the generation parameters.

  Here, FIG. 9A shows an example in which an image 902 to be laid out with the 1-Up setting is arranged with margins in the page 901 when the preceding process is performed. FIG. 9B shows an example in which the image 903 laid out with the 2-Up setting is arranged in the left half of the page 904 by the (finishing) rendering process after the print instruction. In the right half of the page 904, an image 905 of the next page is placed. A coordinate conversion matrix based on the size and margin size of each of the image 902 and the image 903 after layout by 2-Up setting is calculated as coordinate conversion parameters when generating intermediate data.

  In this embodiment, when the page layout is changed, the generation parameter of the intermediate data is changed, and the scaling processing is performed by the RIP 128. However, the scaling processing is performed in advance when the intermediate data is generated. The generation parameter may be set to a value of 1 ×. In addition, as to the image 905 of the page next to the target page, in the case of applying the preceding processing result similarly to the target page, intermediate data is generated by the processing of S707 to S710. When the preceding process result is not applied, intermediate data is generated by interpreting the PDL data based on the changed print setting in the process of S713 to S315 described later.

  Thereafter, in step S710, the intermediate data generation unit 140 generates intermediate data based on the preceding process result provided from the print execution unit 138 and the generation parameter determined in step S709.

<< When not applying pre-processing result >>
If the process proceeds from step S702, step S703, step S704, or step S706 to step S713, the print execution unit 138 notifies the PDL analysis unit 139 that the target page analysis process should be performed in step S713. The PDL analysis unit 139 executes analysis processing of the target page according to the received notification. When the analysis processing is completed, the PDL analysis unit 139 provides the intermediate data generation unit 140 with the analysis result of the target page in S714. Thereafter, in step S715, the intermediate data generation unit 140 generates intermediate data based on the analysis result by the PDL analysis unit 139.

  When intermediate data is generated by the intermediate data generation unit 140 in step S710 or S715, in step S711, the print execution unit 138 controls the RIP 128 to render the generated intermediate data. This rendering process generates print image data (drawing data) for the target page. After that, in step S712, the print execution unit 138 determines whether or not processing of all pages included in the print job is completed. If completed, the processing ends. On the other hand, when the processing of all the pages is not completed, the print execution unit 138 returns the processing to S702, and executes the processing of the next page, until the processing of all pages is completed. repeat.

  FIG. 9C is a diagram illustrating an example of an image of text in scalable font format, which is generated with the 1-Up setting in the preceding process (preceding rendering process). FIGS. 9D and 9E are diagrams showing examples of an image generated when the page layout setting is changed from the 1-Up setting to the 2-Up setting. In particular, FIG. 9D is generated at a 2-Up setting by reducing the image of FIG. 9C generated by the advance rendering process using a known complementation method such as area averaging. The image is shown. That is, the image of FIG. 9C corresponds to the image obtained by the processing of S707 to S711. FIG. 9E illustrates an image generated with the 2-Up setting by the rendering processing based on the PDL command corresponding to the text in the scalable font format. That is, the image of FIG. 9E corresponds to the image obtained by the processing of S713 to S715.

  When FIG. 9D and FIG. 9E are compared, the image data after the change of the print setting is generated again from the PDL data (PDL command) and the case of generating based on the result of the preceding process (image data). In some cases, different print quality images are being generated. Further, in the image of FIG. 9D, the print quality is lower than that of the image of FIG. 9E.

  In the present embodiment, when the target page is a page of a type in which image data is generated using a PDL command (predetermined drawing command) corresponding to text in the scalable font format, the image data generated by the preceding rendering process Is not used for printing. In this case, rendering of the target page is performed again using the PDL data included in the print job, and the generated image data is used for printing. That is, in the above example, not the image of FIG. 9D but the image of FIG. 9E is obtained as the printing result. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of the above-described reduction in print quality. In addition, it is possible to prevent the print quality from being different between the page on which the advance rendering process has been performed and the page on which the advance rendering process has not been performed.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the printing apparatus 101 saves the print job received from the external apparatus for reservation printing. The printing apparatus 101 performs an advance rendering process of a specific page in the print job to generate image data, before receiving an execution instruction (print instruction) of the stored print job from the user. When the printing apparatus 101 receives, from the user who has logged in, an input of print settings to be applied to the print job from the user, the printing apparatus 101 identifies the type of page on which the advance rendering process has been performed in the print job. Furthermore, when receiving a print instruction from the user, the printing apparatus 101 executes a print job according to the input print setting. At this time, the printing apparatus 101 does not use the image data generated by the preceding rendering process to print the page on which the preceding rendering process has been performed, based on the input print setting and the specified page type. Decide.

  According to the present embodiment, when print settings are changed after the print job is stored (stored) in the printing apparatus 101, whether to use the image data generated in the preceding rendering process before the print instruction for printing It becomes possible to control the As a result, the use of the image data generated by the prior rendering process causes deterioration in print quality due to the combination of the changed print settings and the content (page type) of the page on which the prior rendering process has been performed. Can be prevented. In addition, it is possible to prevent the print quality from being different between the page on which the advance rendering process has been performed and the page on which the advance rendering process has not been performed. Furthermore, when rendering processing after print instruction is performed, the user's waiting time until print completion can be reduced by applying the pre-processing result as much as possible.

Second Embodiment
In the printing apparatus according to the first embodiment, when the print setting for the held print job is changed, the pre-processing is performed based on the page type specified based on the number of predetermined PDL commands included in the print job. It is judged (decided) whether to apply the result. On the other hand, for example, in a printing apparatus capable of interpreting a plurality of different PDLs, it is determined whether or not to apply the pre-processing result using differences in PDL specifications (that is, according to the type of PDL). May be The printing apparatus 101 according to the second embodiment identifies the type (type) of the PDL used in the print job as the page type, and based on the identified page type and the changed print setting, the result of the advance processing It is determined whether to apply. In the following, description of parts in common with the first embodiment is omitted, and differences from the first embodiment are mainly described.

  In the present embodiment, the preceding process for the print job is executed in the same procedure (FIG. 4A) as the first embodiment. However, since PDL command statistical information is unnecessary, the processing of S402 for acquiring PDL command statistical information is omitted. Further, the processing result information 400 shown in FIG. 4B does not include the PDL command statistical information 404.

  In the present embodiment, the rendering process after the print instruction is performed in the same procedure (FIG. 7) as the first embodiment. However, in step S705, the print execution unit 138 performs a process of determining whether to use (apply) the result of the preceding process in the printing process of the target page in the procedure shown in FIG.

  In the determination procedure shown in FIG. 10, the processes of S1001 and S1002 are the same as the processes of S801 and S802. In the present embodiment, the print execution unit 138 advances the process from step S1002 to step S1003 when the N-Up setting is changed after the preceding process. In step S1003, the print execution unit 138 refers to the PDL type included in the bibliographic information of the print job to be executed, as shown in FIG. 3C, and the PDL type is a PDL type to which the preceding process result can be applied. It is determined whether the

  For example, as a PDL type, the print execution unit 138 results in advance processing of direct printing that processes an image such as PDL, JPEG, or TIFF that does not support the scalable font format, and host base printing that performs rendering processing on the PC 104 side. Is treated as an applicable PDL type. Note that the PDL type to which the preceding process result can be applied may be determined according to the setting by the user.

  If the PDL type included in the bibliographic information of the print job to be executed is the PDL type to which the preceding process result can be applied, the print execution unit 138 advances the process to S1004, and if the PDL type is not applicable. End the process. In step S1004, the print execution unit 138 sets the parameter value indicating the determination result to "YES", and ends the processing.

  According to the present embodiment, it is not necessary to acquire PDL command statistical information as in the first embodiment because it is determined based on the PDL type whether to apply the preceding processing result in the printing process of the target page. become. Therefore, it is possible to determine whether or not to apply the preceding process result more quickly and easily.

  Note that the criteria in the first embodiment and the criteria in the second embodiment may be combined as the criteria for determining whether to apply the preceding process result. For example, the determination (FIG. 8) in the first embodiment may be further executed for a print job in which a PDL of a type to which the preceding process result can not be applied is not used.

Third Embodiment
In the first embodiment, when the target page is a page of a type in which image data is generated using a PDL command corresponding to text in the scalable font format, the result of the pre-processing for the change of the N-Up setting It is judged (decided) not to apply. In this determination, for example, even if the page includes text in the scalable font format, if the text (character) whose size is smaller than the predetermined size is not included, it is determined to apply the pre-processing result. It may be changed. In the second embodiment, the page of the target page is included based on the PDL command for drawing text in the scalable font format included in the print data of the target page in the print job and the size of the text drawn by the PDL command. Identify the type. In the following, description of parts in common with the first embodiment is omitted, and differences from the first embodiment are mainly described.

  In the present embodiment, the rendering process after the print instruction is performed in the same procedure (FIG. 7) as the first embodiment. However, in step S705, the print execution unit 138 performs the process of determining whether to use (apply) the result of the preceding process in the printing process of the target page according to the procedure illustrated in FIG.

  In the determination procedure shown in FIG. 11, the processes of S1101 to S1105 are the same as the processes of S801 to S805. However, if the number of appearances of the PDL command corresponding to the text in the scalable font format in the PDL data of the target page exceeds 0 in S1104, the process proceeds to S1106.

  In step S1106, the print execution unit 138 displays, in the PDL data of the target page, a PDL command for drawing text (characters) in the scalable font format whose character size (point size) is less than a predetermined size (5 pt in this example). Determine the number. The predetermined size is not limited to 5 pt, and may be changed based on engine characteristics of the print mechanism 111 or the like. If the number of appearances of the PDL command is more than 0, the print execution unit 138 ends the process. If the number of appearances is 0, the print execution unit 138 advances the process to step S1105. In step S1105, the print execution unit 138 determines to apply the preceding process result.

  As described above, if the PDL command corresponding to the character size smaller than the predetermined size (5 pt in this example) in the PDL data of the target page is not included in the PDL data of the target page, the print execution unit 138 Decide to apply the result. In the present embodiment, when acquiring PDL command statistical information 404, the character size of text in the scalable font format is also checked, and the number of appearances of the PDL command corresponding to the character size smaller than the predetermined size is counted.

  According to the present embodiment, not only the number of appearances of a predetermined PDL command in the PDL data of the target page, but also the size of the object rendered by the PDL command is considered. As a result, even if the scaling process is performed on the image data that is the result of the preceding process, control is performed to apply the result of the preceding process in the printing process of the target page when the influence on the print quality is small. This can increase the frequency with which the pre-processing result is applied, and can further reduce the user's waiting time until the printing is completed.

Fourth Embodiment
In the third embodiment, as a modification of the first to third embodiments, is the result of the preceding process applied to the printing process of the target page in consideration of the scaling factor in the scaling process accompanying the change of the print setting? An example of determining whether or not it is determined will be described. Specifically, even if the target page is a page of a type in which image data is generated using a predetermined PDL command, the printing apparatus 101 has a predetermined scaling factor in the scaling process accompanying the change of the print setting. If it is within the range, it is determined to apply the pre-processing result. On the other hand, when the scaling factor exceeds the upper limit value of the predetermined range and falls below the lower limit value of the predetermined range, the printing apparatus 101 determines that the pre-processing result is not applied. Such application determination makes it possible to increase the frequency with which the pre-processing result is applied. The differences from the third embodiment are mainly described below.

  In the present embodiment, the rendering process after the print instruction is executed in the same procedure (FIG. 7) as the third embodiment. However, in step S705, the print execution unit 138 performs the process of determining whether to use (apply) the result of the preceding process in the printing process of the target page in the procedure shown in FIG.

  In the determination procedure shown in FIG. 12, the processes of S1201 to S1206 are the same as the processes of S1101 to S1106. However, if the number of appearances of the command corresponding to the thin line in the PDL data of the target page exceeds 0 in S1203, the process proceeds to S1207. Also, in step S1206, if the number of appearances of PDL commands corresponding to text in the scalable font format in which the character size is less than a predetermined size in the PDL data of the target page exceeds 0, the print execution unit 138 proceeds to S1207. Proceed with the process.

  In step S1207, the print execution unit 138 compares the print setting (changed after the preceding process) obtained in step S701 with the print setting at the time of execution of the preceding process included in the processing result information 400. Based on the comparison, the print execution unit 138 obtains the scaling factor of the scaling process accompanying the change of the print setting. For example, if the page layout setting at the time of execution of the preceding process is the 1-UP setting, and the setting is changed to the 4-Up setting after the preceding process, the scaling factor is calculated as 0.5. Although omitted for simplification of the explanation, the scaling factor slightly changes in consideration of the page margin.

  The print execution unit 138 further determines whether the calculated scaling factor is included in a predetermined range (in this example, a range of 0.5 or more and 2 or less). If the calculated scaling factor is not included in the predetermined range, the print execution unit 138 ends the process. On the other hand, if the calculated scaling factor falls within the predetermined range, the print execution unit 138 advances the process to step S1205 and determines to apply the result of the preceding process.

  According to this embodiment, control is performed to apply the result of the preceding process as much as possible in the printing process of the target page, in consideration of the scaling factor in the scaling process accompanying the change of the print setting. This can increase the frequency with which the pre-processing result is applied, and can further reduce the user's waiting time until the printing is completed.

Fifth Embodiment
In the fifth embodiment, as a modification of the first to fourth embodiments, using the object attribute information in pixel units in the image data generated by the preceding rendering process, the preceding process result in the printing process of the target page is An example of determining whether to apply will be described. Specifically, the RIP 128 generates object attribute information indicating object attributes in units of pixels in the image data generated by the preceding rendering process. The print execution unit 138 specifies the page type of the target page based on the generated object attribute information. In the following, description of parts in common with the first embodiment is omitted, and differences from the first embodiment are mainly described.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of object attribute information corresponding to one pixel of image data. The RIP 128 generates object attribute information as a plain image corresponding to each pixel of image data generated by rendering intermediate data. Object attribute information for one pixel is represented by one byte, and the type of the object is assigned to each bit. In this embodiment, six attributes of image (IMG), text 1 (TXT 1), text 2 (TXT 2), graphic (GRF), thin line (TLN), and small size character (STXT) are assigned sequentially from LSB (bit 0) It is done. Note that bit6 and bit7 are unused.

  The object attribute information is generated by the RIP 128 at the time of rendering based on the information of the drawing object included in the intermediate data generated by the intermediate data generation unit 140. The intermediate data generation unit 140 sets the TXT1 attribute when drawing text in the scalable font format and the TXT2 attribute when drawing text in the bitmap format in generation of intermediate data. Further, when drawing a line, the intermediate data generation unit 140 sets the TLN (Thin Line) attribute if the line width is less than 2, and sets the GRF attribute if the line width is 2 or more.

  The object attribute information is generated by the RIP 128 together with the image data at the time of rendering processing, and is referred to by the image processing circuit 129 in order to switch the image processing according to the object type. In step S705, the print execution unit 138 according to the present embodiment identifies the page type of the target page based on the object attribute information generated as described above, and determines whether or not to apply the preceding process result. The print execution unit 138 may scan a plain image including object attribute information, and determine whether there is a pixel whose bit indicating the TXT1 or TLN attribute is “1”.

  According to this embodiment, as in the first and third embodiments, it is possible to specify the page type of the target page without acquiring the PDL command statistical information. When image data is generated in a partial area divided into bands, the determination as to whether or not to apply the preceding processing result may be made in the area, and in this case, the determination of object attribute information Is also performed on an area basis.

Other Embodiments
In each of the above-described embodiments, the applicability of the preceding process result is determined based on the characteristics of PDL data and the PDL type, or difference information (magnification change factor) of print setting change, but a menu set from the operation panel 113 or the like It may be made selectable by the user according to the set value.

  The present invention supplies a program that implements one or more functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus via a network or storage medium, and one or more processors in a computer of the system or apparatus read and execute the program. Can also be realized. It can also be implemented by a circuit (eg, an ASIC) that implements one or more functions.

101 to 103: printing apparatus (image forming apparatus), 104: PC, 105: LAN
110: controller, 111: print mechanism, 112: card reader, 113: operation panel, 123: CPU, 124: HDD, 124: RAM, 126: ROM, 128: RIP, 129: image processing circuit, 131: authentication unit, 132: setting unit, 133: bibliographic management unit, 135: job analysis unit, 136: preceding processing unit, 137: storage control unit, 138: print execution unit, 139: PDL analysis unit, 140: intermediate data generation unit

Claims (13)

Storage means for storing a print job received from an external device;
A processing unit that performs rendering processing of a specific page in the print job to generate image data before receiving an instruction to execute the print job stored by the storage unit from the user;
Accepting means for accepting from the user an input of print settings to be applied to the print job;
Specifying means for specifying the page type of the specific page in the print job;
An execution unit that executes the print job according to the input print setting when receiving the execution instruction from the user, and based on the input print setting and the page type specified by the specifying unit. The execution unit determining whether to use the image data generated by the processing unit to print the specific page;
An image forming apparatus comprising: The execution means is
When using the image data generated by the processing means, the image of the specific page is printed based on the image data,
When the image data generated by the processing means is not used, rendering processing of the specific page is performed using print data included in the print job, and the specific page of the specific page is generated based on the generated image data. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is printed. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specifying unit specifies the page type based on a drawing command included in print data of the specific page in the print job. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the specifying unit specifies the page type based on a predetermined number of drawing commands included in print data of the specific page in the print job. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1. In the case where the print setting is a print setting that requires an image scaling process, the execution means may
When the specific page is a page of a type in which image data is generated using a predetermined drawing command, the image data generated by the processing means is not used.
The image data generated by the processing means is used when the specific page is a page of a type in which image data is generated without using the predetermined drawing command. The image forming apparatus according to any one of the above. The predetermined drawing command includes at least one of a command for drawing a line thinner than a predetermined line width and a command for drawing a text in a scalable font format. Image forming apparatus. The specifying unit specifies the page type based on a command for drawing text in a scalable font format included in print data of the specific page in the print job and the size of the text drawn by the command. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein: The execution means may be configured as long as a scaling factor in the scaling process is within a predetermined range even if the specific page is a page of a type in which image data is generated using the predetermined drawing command. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the image data generated by the processing means is used. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specifying unit specifies a page description language type used in the print job as the page type. The processing means further generates object attribute information indicating an object attribute of a pixel unit in the image data generated by the rendering process,
The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the specifying unit specifies the page type based on the object attribute information generated by the processing unit. The information processing apparatus further comprises prediction means for predicting the time required to render each page of the print job.
The image according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the processing means performs rendering processing on a page whose time predicted by the prediction means exceeds a threshold before receiving the execution instruction. Forming device. A control method of the image forming apparatus,
A storage step of storing a print job received from an external device;
A processing step of rendering a specific page in the print job before receiving an instruction to execute the print job stored in the storing step from the user;
An accepting step of accepting input of print settings to be applied to the print job from a user;
A specifying step of specifying a page type of the specific page in the print job;
It is an execution step of executing the print job according to the input print setting when receiving the execution instruction from the user, and based on the input print setting and the page type specified in the specifying step. The execution step of determining whether to use the image data generated in the processing step to print the specific page;
And controlling the image forming apparatus.   A program for causing a computer to execute the steps of the control method of the image forming apparatus according to claim 12.