Patent Application
20150036187
This application claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-161078 filed on Aug. 2, 2013. The entire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No. 2013-161078 is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus, a printing control method and a printing control program.
2. Related Art
There has been known printing processing which is called “frameless (marginless) printing” or the like, and which allows recording on the whole face of a recording medium without providing no margin at a vicinity of an edge of the recording medium. In such frameless printing, in order to remove margins with certainty even when there exist a tilt of a recording medium in the state of being transported, error in the size of the recording medium, and the like, inks are ejected onto a range larger than the size of the recording medium. That is, inks are ejected onto an outer area than the edge of the recording medium. Such ejection of inks onto an outer area than the edge of the recording medium is expressed by “throwing away”. Basically, thrown-away inks land on an ink absorber provided in a printer, but part of the thrown-away inks flies inside the printer as fine ink mist, and, sometimes, brings pollution to the inside of the printer. For this reason, in frameless printing, although throwing away of inks is necessary, it has been desired to reduce an amount of thrown-away inks as much as possible.
As a related technology, there has been known an ink jet recording method which, when performing recording by ejecting inks from a recording head onto an area on a recording medium as well as an area extending outward from an edge of the recording medium, performs thinning out of recording data corresponding to the area extending outward from the edge of the recording medium, and performs recording on the basis of the thinned-out recording data (refer to JP-A-2007-152791).
Further, in a liquid ejecting apparatus which ejects liquid droplets, which have been subjected to thinning-out processing, onto a vicinity of an edge of a recording medium on the basis of a thinning-out pattern which prescribes a way of thinning out of liquid droplets to be ejected onto the recording medium, there has been known a configuration for determining the thinning-out pattern in accordance with a printing mode (refer to JP-A-2005-225194).
In frameless printing, there occurs a case where part of inks to be thrown away is not actually thrown away but lands on a recording medium due to a tilt of the recording medium in the state of being transported, error in the size of the recording medium, and the like. For this reason, there has been a problem that, when thinning-out processing is performed on data which prescribes inks to be ejected onto an outer area than an edge of a recording medium, portions each having been thinned out (i.e., portions each having been inhibited from ejecting corresponding inks in the thinning-out processing) are likely to appear on the printing medium as margins, thereby, as a result, causing an image quality as frameless printing to degrade.
Meanwhile, there has been known a technology which provides a user with a three-dimensionally viewed printing result by performing printing of an image resulting from combining a plurality of viewpoint images (hereinafter, this image being also referred to as a lenticular image) on a recording medium provided with a lenticular lens. In the case where frameless printing is performed when performing printing of such a lenticular image, there also occurs a problem of the degradation of an image quality due to thinning-out processing, such as described above. Further, there has been required a method for preventing the occurrence of a degradation of an image quality, which is particularly likely to occur under a situation where a lenticular image is frameless-printed on a recording medium provided with a lenticular lens.
An advantage of some aspects of the invention is to provide a printing control apparatus, a printing control method and a printing control program which enable reduction of an amount of ink thrown away and, simultaneously therewith, suppression of the degradation of an image quality.
According to an aspect of the invention, a printing control apparatus for controlling printing on a lenticular sheet includes a printing control section that generates, from image data for use in the printing on the lenticular sheet, printing data corresponding to an area included in the lenticular sheet as well as another printing data corresponding to at least one area extending outward from an edge of the lenticular sheet, and that performs printing by using the printing data and the another printing data. Further, the printing data and the another printing data are composed of a plurality of pixels, and for the another printing data corresponding to the outer area than the edge, when a row of pixels being included in the plurality of pixels and aligning so as to correspond to a long-direction of a lenticular lens is defined as a pixel row, the printing control apparatus performs thinning-out processing by handling a predetermined number of the pixel row as unit of the thinning-out processing.
According to this configuration, the printing control section becomes capable of reducing an amount of an ink thrown away when frameless printing is performed by thinning out the another printing data corresponding to the outer area than the edge of the lenticular sheet. Additionally, since thinning-out processing is performed by handling a predetermined number of the pixel row as unit of the thinning-out processing, even in the case where, supposedly, any thinned-out portion results in landing on the lenticular sheet, the degradation of a printing result can be suppressed as much as possible.
According to another aspect of the invention, the image data for use in the printing on the lenticular sheet may be arranged so as to cause a plurality of partial image areas to correspond to a short-direction of the lenticular lens, and the predetermined number may be a total number of a plurality of the pixel rows which is associated with a corresponding one of the partial image areas.
According to this configuration, since thinning-out processing on data is performed by handling, as unit of the thinning-out processing, the plurality of pixel rows each associated with a corresponding one of the partial image areas, even in the case where, supposedly, any thinned-out portion results in landing on the lenticular sheet, only a three-dimensional appearance at an edge of the image is slightly lost in a printing result, and the degradation of an image quality viewed by a user can be suppressed as much as possible.
According to another aspect of the invention, the printing control section may be configured to, for the another printing data corresponding to the outer area than the edge, make a thinning-out ratio higher as being further distanced from the edge.
According to this configuration, a possibility that the thinned-out portion results in landing on the lenticular sheet is significantly decreased, and as a result, the degradation of an image quality can be suppressed.
According to another aspect of the invention, the printing control section may be configured to, for the another printing data corresponding to the outer area than the edge, perform dividing into a first area near the edge and a second area distanced from the edge, and perform the thinning-out processing on only the second area.
According to this configuration, a possibility that the thinned-out portion results in landing on the lenticular sheet is significantly decreased, and as a result, the degradation of an image quality can be suppressed.
According to another aspect of the invention, the printing control section may be configured to, when a first printing mode for use in performing printing of a lenticular image by ejecting an ink onto an inner area and an outer area than an edge of the lenticular sheet is directed, perform thinning out of data on printing data corresponding to the outer area than the edge by handling the predetermined number of the pixel row as unit of the thinning out of data, and when a second printing mode, which is different from the first printing mode and which is for use in performing printing of an image by ejecting an ink onto an inner area and an outer area than the edge of a given recording medium other than the lenticular sheet, is directed, perform thinning out of pixels at regular or irregular intervals in each of two mutually orthogonal directions on printing data corresponding to the outer area than the edge.
According to this configuration, depending on whether printing is frameless printing of a lenticular image on a lenticular sheet or frameless printing other than the frameless printing of a lenticular image on a lenticular sheet, an optimum thinning-out method for each of the two kinds of frameless printing is selected, and in each of the two kinds of frameless printing, it is possible to reduce an amount of an ink thrown away and suppress the degradation of an image quality.
A technical concept associated with the invention is not only realized from the aspect of the printing control apparatus, but also may be embodied from other aspects. Further, it is possible to recognize an invention of a method (a printing control method) including processes corresponding to the features of the aforementioned printing control apparatus according to any of the above aspects; an invention of a printing control program which causes given hardware (a computer) to execute the above method; and an invention of a recording medium recording the above program therein and being readable from a computer. Further, the printing control apparatus may be realized by a single apparatus, or may be realized by a combination of a plurality of apparatuses.
The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein like numbers reference like elements.
Hereinafter, embodiments according to the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
The first apparatus 10 corresponds to an example of a printing control apparatus. Alternatively, a system 100 including the first apparatus 10 and the second apparatus 50 may be regarded as a printing control apparatus, or only the second apparatus 50 can be regarded as a printing control apparatus. Further, the first apparatus 10 and the second apparatus 50 are not based on only the assumption that these are mutually different apparatuses. The first apparatus 10 and the second apparatus 50 may correspond to their respective associated portions inside an integrally formed single product (a printer), and a configuration in which a portion of the relevant product functions as the first apparatus 10 and the other portion thereof functions as the second apparatus 50 is also included in this embodiment.
In the first apparatus 10, a printing control section 13 (a printing control program, such as a printer driver) for controlling the second apparatus 50 is executed by causing a CPU 11 to write program data 21 stored in a hard disc drive (HDD) 20 or the like into a RAM 12 and perform an arithmetic operation in accordance with the program data 21 under an OS. The printing control section 13 causes a CPU 11 to execute individual functions of an image acquisition section 13a, an image processing section 13b, a thinning-out processing section 13c, a transferring section 13d and the like. These individual functions will be described below. In the case where the apparatus 10 and the second apparatus 50 are integrally formed as a printer, the printing control section 13 may be configured as firmware FW, and the HDD 20 may be configured as a memory, such as a ROM 53.
A display 30 functioning as a display unit is connected to the first apparatus 10, and user interface (UI) screens necessary for individual processes are displayed on the display 30. Further, the first apparatus 10 is provided with an operation unit 40, which may be realized by any one or more of components, such as a keyboard, a mouse device, various buttons, a touch pad and a touch panel, in a sensible way, and directions necessary for individual processes are inputted by a user via this operation unit 40. In addition, the display 30 and the operation unit 40 may be incorporated in the first apparatus, or may be externally connected thereto. The first apparatus 10 is connected to the second apparatus 50 via a transfer path 70 so as to be communicable therewith. The transfer path 70 is a collective term of a wired communication path and a wireless communication path. As described above, in the case where the first apparatus 10 and the second apparatus 50 are included in an integrally formed product, the transfer 70 is a communication path inside the relevant product.
In the second apparatus 50, firmware for controlling the second apparatus 50 itself is executed by causing a CPU 51 to write program data 54 stored in a ROM 53 or the like into a RAM 52 and perform an arithmetic operation in accordance with the program data 54 under an OS. The firmware FW is capable of causing an ASIC 56 to perform printing based on printing data having been transmitted from the first apparatus 10.
The ASIC 56 acquires the printing data, and generates driving signals for driving a transporting mechanism 57, a carriage motor 58 and a print head 62. The second apparatus 50 is provided with, for example, a carriage 60, and this carriage 60 includes ink cartridges 61 each associated with a corresponding one of a plurality of kinds of inks. In an example shown in
The carriage 60 includes a print head 62 for ejecting inks, each supplied from a corresponding one of the cartridges 61, through a large number of ink ejecting holes (hereinafter, referred to as nozzles). The print head 62 is provided, for each of the nozzles, with a piezoelectric element for ejecting ink droplets (dots) through the nozzle. Upon supply of the driving signal, the piezoelectric element is deformed, thereby causing a dot to be ejected through a corresponding one of the nozzles. The transporting mechanism 57, which includes a paper feeding motor and a paper feeding roller (which are not illustrated), transports a recording medium along a predetermined transportation direction by being drive-controlled by the ASIC 56. This recording medium is a material for retaining printed images thereon.
The carriage motor 58 is drive-controlled by the ASIC 56, so that the carriage 60 (including the print head 62) moves along a direction intersecting with the transportation direction (hereinafter, this direction being referred to as a main-scanning direction), and the ASIC 56 causes the print head 62 to eject inks through the nozzles in conjunction with the movement of the carriage 60. Through this operation, dots are adhered onto the recording medium and images based on printing data are reproduced on the recording medium. In addition, the expression “intersecting with” means an expression “orthogonal to”. In this regard, however, the expression “orthogonal to” does not mean a rigorous orthogonal state (i.e., 90 degrees), but means an orthogonal state including a degree of angular error, which is allowable from a viewpoint of a product quality.
The second apparatus 50 further includes an operation panel 59. This operation panel 59, which includes a display unit (for example, a liquid crystal panel), a touch panel formed inside this display unit, and various buttons and keys, receives inputs from a user, and displays necessary UI screens on the display unit.
The second apparatus 50 is not limited to a so-called serial printer in which the print head 62 moves along the main-scanning direction as described above. For example, the second apparatus 50 may be a so-called line printer including a line-printer head provided with a plurality of nozzle rows, each of which includes nozzles aligning along a main-scanning direction and is associated with a corresponding one of ink kinds, and which are arranged in parallel with each other in the transportation direction. Further, a means for ejecting dots through a nozzle is not limited to the aforementioned piezoelectric element, and a means for causing a heat generation element to heat an ink and eject a dot thereof through a nozzle may be employed. Moreover, a printing method employed in a printer is not necessarily limited to such an ink jet method as described below, but may be a laser method or a thermal method.
Next, printing of a lenticular image performed in this embodiment will be briefly described on the basis of
The lenticular sheet S is a kind of a recording medium, and is provided with a lenticular lens L on one of faces thereof. The lenticular lens L includes a plurality of lenses (unit lenses La) each having a long shape and a hemispherical-shaped cross section. In a middle portion of
The lenticular image IM includes long-shaped image areas IMa each having a total number equivalent to that of the unit lens La, and having a size substantially the same as that of the unit lens. A single image area IMa is an image resulting from collecting up the aforementioned strip-shaped images. That is, as described above, when the number of the viewpoint images is eight, a single image area IMa is composed of a bundle of eight kinds of strip-shaped images resulting from carving up their respective corresponding eight viewpoint images. In a lower portion of
Based on the configuration described above, printing control processing performed in this embodiment will be described.
In step S100, the printing control section 13 receives a user's various settings on printing via UI screens the user has displayed on the display 30 by operating the operation unit 40. Particularly, the printing control section 13 receives a direction of a printing mode. There is a plurality of printing modes which can be directed by a user, and it is supposed, here, that a first printing mode has been directed. The first printing mode is a printing mode for allowing the lenticular image IM to be frameless-printed on the lenticular sheet S.
In step S110, the image acquisition section 13a acquires image data 22 (bit-map data) a user has selected as an image to be printed on a recording medium. This image data 22, which represents the lenticular image IM, is generated in advance by, for example, given application software, and is stored in the HDD 20 or the like. That is, the image data 22 is a kind of image data for use in performing printing on a lenticular sheet. Alternatively, the image acquisition section 13a may be configured so as to acquire (download) the image data 22 representing the lenticular image IM, which is already generated by a different person, from an external server or the like connected to a network (which are not illustrated).
In step S120, the image processing section 13b magnifies the image data 22. A currently directed printing mode is the first printing mode and this mode is a mode which allows frameless printing, and thus, in order to realize the frameless printing, the image processing section 13b converts the number of pixels so as to make the size of the image data 22 larger than that of the lenticular sheet S.
In step S130, the image processing section 13b performs various necessary image processes on the image data 22 having been subjected to the processing in step S120. Specifically, the image processing section 13b performs color conversion processing for converting a color display system of the image data 22 into a color display system employed in a printer (the second apparatus 50). For example, in the case where the image data 22 is RGB data which includes, for each pixel, gray-scale values each associated with a corresponding one of red (R), green (G) and blue (B), the image processing section 13b converts the RGB values per pixel for the image data 22 into CMYK values corresponding to a combination of ink amounts each associated with a corresponding one of C, M, Y and K (each of the ink amounts corresponding to, for example, one of 256 gray-scale levels from “0” to “255”). This color conversion processing can be performed by referring to a lookup table predetermining a correspondence relation between the RGB and the CMYK. Further, the image processing section 13b performs halftone (HT) processing on the image data 22 having been subjected to the color conversion processing. Through this halftone processing, the image data 22 is converted into printing data 22′ (halftone data) which prescribes, for each pixel, the ejection (dot-on) or non-ejection (dot-off) of each of CMYK dots. This halftone processing can be realized by means of a dither method, an error dispersion method or the like.
In step S140, the thinning-out processing section 13c performs processing for thinning out data with respect to the printing data 22′ having been obtained through the processing in step S130. The printing data 22′ represents the lenticular image IM, and further corresponds to an example of printing data corresponding to an inner area than each of edges of the lenticular sheet S (i.e., an area included in the lenticular sheet S), and another printing data corresponding to an outer area than each of the edges of the lenticular sheet S (i.e., an area extending outward from each of the edges of the lenticular sheet S).
In step S140, among the pieces of printing data 22′, pieces of data, which correspond to an outer area than each of the edges of the lenticular sheet S, and further, do not include pieces of data located on extended lines of the long-shaped unit lenses La, are made pieces of data targeted for thinning-out processing. Here, the expression “pieces of data which correspond to an outer area than each of the edges of the lenticular sheet S” means pieces of data which prescribe inks to be ejected (thrown away) to the outside of each of the edges of the lenticular sheet S. In the above description, a reason why the expression “to be ejected” is used is that, in an actual situation, there is a case where part of inks to be thrown away lands on the lenticular sheet S due to a tilt of the lenticular sheet S in the state of being transported, error in the size the lenticular sheet S, and the like. Further, the expression “pieces of data located on extended lines of the long-shaped unit lenses La” means pieces of data corresponding to an outer area than each of the edges of the lenticular sheet S in a direction corresponding to the long-direction side of the lenticular lens L.
In
In step S150, the transfer section 13d rearranges the printing data 22′ having been subjected to the processing in step S140 into order in accordance with which the printing data 22′ is to be transferred to the print head 62, and then, sequentially transfers the rearranged printing data 22′ to the second apparatus 50 side via the transfer path 70. Through such rearrangement processing, for each of dots prescribed by the printing data 22′, it is decided, in accordance with its pixel position and its ink kind, through which of the nozzles of the printing head 62 and at which of timing points, ejection is to be performed. As a result, at the second apparatus 50 side, the lenticular image IM is frameless-printed on the lenticular sheet S on the basis of the printing data 22′.
In
In the example shown in
Further, with respect to printing data corresponding to an outer area than an edge of the recording medium, when the outer area is divided into an area near the edge (a first area) and an area distanced from the edge (a second area), the thinning-out processing section 13c performs thinning-out processing on only a portion of the printing data, which corresponds to the second area. For example, as shown in
Meanwhile, in this embodiment, as exemplified in
In this embodiment, differing from the example shown in
In this embodiment, the thinning-out processing section 13c performs thinning-out processing on the pieces of data targeted for the thinning-out processing on the viewpoint unit basis described above, and thus, the following advantageous effects are brought about. That is, even in the case where, supposedly, ejection of inks based on pieces of data corresponding to areas (the areas Z3 and Z4) on which thinning-out processing has been performed results in inks landing on the lenticular sheet S, margins are merely generated on the viewpoint unit basis within the unit lenses La, that is, the number of viewpoints within the unit lenses La is merely reduced. According to this configuration, merely a three-dimensional appearance, as a printing result, at a vicinity of the edge of the lenticular image IM is slightly lost, and it can be said that the degradation of an image quality a user actually views is very little. In contrast thereto, as shown in
In addition, in the embodiment of thinning-out processing having been described in
The invention is not limited to the aforementioned embodiments. The invention can be practiced in various embodiments within a scope not departing from the gist of the invention, and, for example, can be practiced as modification examples described below. Configurations resulting from appropriately combining the aforementioned embodiments and modification examples are also included in the disclosure of the invention.
The aforementioned predetermined number of the pixel row PL, which is unit of thinning-out processing, have been made pixel rows corresponding to each of the aforementioned partial image areas (viewpoints), but these may not perfectly correspond to each other. For example, the predetermined number of the pixel row PL may be made pixel rows whose number is slightly smaller than the number of pixel rows corresponding to each of the aforementioned partial image areas (viewpoints) or, contrary, may be made pixel rows whose number is slightly larger than the number of pixel rows corresponding to each of the aforementioned partial image areas (viewpoints).
Further, in step S100, there is also a case where the printing control section 13 receives a user's direction for selecting a printing mode other than the first printing mode. For example, there is also a case where the printing control section 13 receives a direction for selecting a second printing mode for allowing frameless printing of a user's desired image (except a lenticular image) on a given recording medium other than the lenticular sheet S (for example, regular paper, glossy paper or the like). When such a direction for selecting the second printing mode has been received, image data representing the user's desired image is acquired in step S110, and then, in steps S120, S130 and S150, processes whose contents are similar to those described above are performed.
In step S140 in the case where the direction for selecting the second printing mode has been received, on all pieces of frame-shaped data corresponding to the outer area than the edge of the recording medium among pieces of printing data which have been subjected to the halftone processing and which are already received at the time, the thinning-out processing section 13c performs thinning-out processing for thinning out pixels at regular or irregular intervals in each of mutually orthogonal two axis directions. That is, in the second printing mode, for all pieces of frame-shaped data corresponding to the outer area than the edge of the recording medium, as described in
The second printing mode is a mode for frameless printing other than frameless printing on the lenticular sheet S. In the case where thinning-out processing is performed on a unit basis of a predetermined number of the pixel row PL, such as described in
The halftone processing in step S130 and the thinning-out processing in step S140 may be performed simultaneously. That is, in the halftone processing, when the dot-on or dot-off is determined for each pixel, simultaneously therewith, the mask for use in the thinning-out processing may be applied.
In addition, description has been made so far by way of an example in which processing shown in
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-161078 | Aug 2013 | JP | national |
