Patent Application
20110096355
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to printer drivers and more particularly to printer drivers accessing image metadata when printing images.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the increase in popularity over the past several years of digital photography and printing digital images, there has been a call by consumers for the ability to modify digital photos so the digital photos contain identifying information when printed.
In response to this demand, numerous digital photo editing software applications have provided a feature allowing a user to add captions, dates, etc. to digital photos prior to the user printing the digital photos. The information being added to the digital photo is typically obtained from the digital photo's metadata.
Once the digital photo has been modified to the user's liking, the modified digital photo is then saved as an application dependent file. In another case, the modified digital photo can be saved where the metadata has been embedded into the digital photo itself, thus permanently altering the original digital photo.
With the above-described approach of modifying a digital photo, a user is bound to a particular editing software application if the user wishes to use the specific features provided by that editing software application. For example, user A adds a date and caption to a digital photo using editing software application A and then provides the edited digital photo to user B. In this scenario, in order for user B to print the edited digital photo, user B would need to have the same exact editing software application that user A used to edit the digital photo.
In another example, user A adds a date and caption to a digital photo using editing software application A and then provides the edited digital photo to user B. If user B wishes to further modify the edited digital photo, e.g., move a previously added date from one location in the digital photo to a different location, user B would need to have the same exact editing software application that user A used to add the date to the digital photo.
In light of the above, what is needed is a way to add information to a digital photo for printing in an application independent manner.
To solve the aforementioned issues, the present invention provides a method for adding information to a digital photo for printing in an application independent manner.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a method for printing an image includes selecting data to be printed, wherein the data includes image data, setting printing preferences associated with a print job to print the data, submitting the print job, receiving the print job, detecting whether metadata associated with the data to be printed exists in the print job, determining whether any detected metadata is to be printed along with the data to be printed, creating a file to be printed, wherein the file includes the data to be printed and metadata determined to be printed, and printing the file.
Further aspects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments (with reference to the attached drawings).
The print option of the generic application 1-1 typically provides the user with several options. One option is to set the print parameters, e.g., paper type, page size, double-sided, etc. associated with the particular print job. If the user chooses to modify the print parameters, the changes are made via the print driver UI 1-2. The print driver of the present invention includes a feature to print metadata associated with the print job as described below with respect to
If the user chooses not to modify any of the print parameters, then the user initiates the print process. The print process according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes sending the print data to the printer driver filter 1-3 of the present invention. The processing associated with the printer driver filter 1-3 is described below with respect to
Read only memory (ROM) 31 stores invariant computer-executable process steps for basic system functions such as basic I/O, start-up, or reception of keystrokes from a keyboard. Main random access memory (RAM) 32 provides CPU 20 with memory storage that can be accessed quickly.
Also shown in
In more detail, in step S1, job printing preferences for a particular print job are set via a printer driver user interface (UI) of a printer selected to print out the print job.
User interface 4-1 includes a number of tabs, including Advanced tab 4-2. Upon selection of Advanced tab 4-2, UI 4-3 is displayed. User interface 4-3 includes Enable Metadata Print 4-4, Location 4-5, and Font 4-5.
If a user wishes to print metadata present in the selected print job, then the checkbox of Enable Metadata Print 4-4 is selected as illustrated in
Next, in step S2, the print job is submitted to the selected printer. The step of submitting a print job to a selected printer is known in the art and thus, a detailed description thereof is omitted herein.
In step S3, the printer driver filter, upon receipt of the submitted print job, extracts the printing preferences from the PrintTicket(s) associated with the print job.
In step S4, the printer driver filter obtains image resources, e.g., JPEG images, from the pages of the print job. The method of obtaining the image resources from the pages of a print job is known in the art, and thus a detailed description is omitted herein.
Next, in step S5, a check is made to determine whether the print job includes metadata. For example, a page of the print job is initially examined to determine if any images are present on the page. This can be accomplished by analyzing various elements, e.g., text, image, etc., present on the page. If an image is determined to be present on the page, then the header of the image is examined to determine if a metadata field is present in the header.
If it is determined that the print job includes metadata, flow proceeds to step S6, where a check is made whether the metadata is to be printed. This determination is based on the setting in the Enable Metadata Print 4-4 checkbox of
In step S7, the printer driver filter extracts information from the image header. For example, data such as user comments, data, time, date, etc. is extracted from the image, e.g., JPEG, header.
Next, in step S8, the extracted metadata is rasterized on the location determined by the printing preferences. Then, in step S9, the remainder of the print job is rasterized and then printed.
Returning to step S5, if there is no metadata present in the print job, the flow proceeds directly to step S9 and the print job is rasterized. Returning to step S6, if it is determined that the existing metadata is not to be printed, flow proceeds directly to step S9, where the print job is rasterized.
It is to be understood that the above described features can be achieved by a method in which a storage medium is supplied to a system or device, the storage medium having computer-executable process steps for realizing the above described functions, and a computer (CPU or MPU) for the system or device that reads the computer-executable process steps stored in the storage medium and executes them.
In this case, the computer-executable process steps read from the storage medium executes the functions of the above described embodiments. Thus, the computer-executable process steps or the storage medium storing the computer-executable process steps therein constitute the present invention.
As a storage medium for supplying the computer-executable process steps, for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a non-volatile memory card, a ROM, any other applicable computer-readable storage medium can be employed.
When the computer-executable process steps read by the computer are executed, not only are the above described functions of the embodiments realized, but also an operating system working on the computer may carry out part or all of the actual processing that realizes the functions of the above described embodiments.
The computer-executable process steps read from the computer-readable storage medium may be written to a memory provided on a function-extension board inserted into the computer, of a function-extension unit connected to the computer, and a CPU provided on the function-extension board or unit carries out part of all of the actual processing that realizes the functions of the above described embodiments.
While the invention is described above with respect to what is currently its exemplary embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to that described above. To the contrary, the invention is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
