Patent Application
20150172475
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system for printing digital images comprising a control unit and a user interface screen for displaying a digital image having an extreme aspect ratio.
2. Description of Background Art
An aspect ratio of a digital image may be defined as the proportion between a width and a length of the digital image. An extreme aspect ratio of a digital image may be defined as an aspect ratio of 1:2 or a higher ratio, 1:3 or a higher ratio, 1:4 or a higher ratio, in order to discern the images of an extreme ratio from the images in the well-known range of A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5 etc. or B0, B1, B2, B3, B4, B5, etc. The digital image may be in a PDF, BMP, JPEG or any other two-dimensional motionless format. Such an image having an extreme aspect ratio may be read from a storage device by a reading device, which is present in the control unit of the printing system. The storage device may be part of the printing system, but the storage device may also be an external storage device connected via a network to the printing system. A memory of the printing system may be used to partially read the digital image from the external storage into the memory of the printing system. The digital image may be displayed on a user interface screen of the printing system by only showing a part of the digital image, for example a mid-section. Displaying the whole digital image is not acceptable, since the details of the digital image are not visible any more due to an extreme aspect ratio of the digital image. A disadvantage of showing only a part of the digital image is that the user does not have the impression that the image is an image having an extreme aspect ratio. Another disadvantage is that the user may miss crucial information, which is not present in the shown part of the digital image, like a legend or title block of the digital image.
The printing system according to the present invention obviates these disadvantages wherein the control unit further comprises a first determining unit configured to determine a first part of the digital image, the first part comprising one end of the digital image in a longitudinal direction; and a second determination unit configured to determine a second part of the digital image, the second part comprising the other end of the digital image in the longitudinal direction, wherein the control unit is configured to control the user interface screen to simultaneously display the first part and the second part and to further display a remaining part of the digital image in a compressed manner in-between the first part and the second part or to suppress the remaining part of the digital image.
The first part of the digital image is determined by the first determining unit to comprise one end of the digital image in a longitudinal direction. The second part of the digital image is determined by the second determining unit to comprise the other end of the digital image in the longitudinal direction. By displaying the first part and second part on the user interface screen, both ends of the digital image in the longitudinal direction are displayed. The non-empty remaining part of the digital image is suppressed or displayed in a compressed manner in-between the first part and the second part. By doing so, the user immediately receives an intuitive visualization of the entire image. The inventors have also recognized that the legend or title block of an image is usually at one of the corners, and therefore at one of the ends of the digital image in the longitudinal direction. Since both ends of the digital image are visible, the legend or title block, if present at one end, is also visible. The remaining part may be suppressed in order to show only the first part and second part at a certain predetermined distance from each other. In another embodiment, the remaining part is compressed in-between the first part and the second part in order to give the user an impression that there is still a remaining part with image information. The degree of compression may be determined by the area size at which the first part, the second part and the remaining part have to be displayed on the user interface screen.
According to an embodiment of the printing system, the control unit is configured to control the user interface screen to simultaneously display the first part and the second part in a same order as in the digital image with respect to the longitudinal direction. The user still sees the first and second part of the original image in the same orientation as in the original image with respect to each other.
According to an embodiment of the printing system, the control unit is configured to replace the remaining part by a separation image. The user recognizes the separation image as the border area between the first part and second part.
The present invention also relates to a method of displaying a digital image having an extreme aspect ratio on a user interface screen, the method comprising the steps of determining a first part of the digital image, the first part comprising one end of the digital image in a longitudinal direction; determining a second part of the digital image, the second part comprising the other end of the digital image in the longitudinal direction; simultaneously displaying on the user interface screen the first part and the second part; and further displaying a remaining part of the digital image in a compressed manner in-between the first part and the second part or suppressing the remaining part of the digital image.
According to an embodiment of the method, the first part and the second part are displayed in a same order as in the digital image with respect to the longitudinal direction. The user still sees the first and second part of the original image in the same orientation as in the original image with respect to each other.
According to an embodiment of the method, the method further comprises the step of replacing the remaining part by a separation image. The user recognizes the separation image as the border area between the first part and the second part.
According to an embodiment of the method, the method further comprises the steps of dragging a border area between the first part and the second part displayed on the user interface screen towards one end of the first part, if the one end is farthest away from the border area, or towards the other end of the second part, if the other end is farthest away from the border area; re-determining the first part and the second part based on the amount of dragging, leaving a total size of the first part and the second part invariable; and displaying the re-determined first part and second part on the user interface screen, wherein the re-determined first part comprises the one end of the digital image in the longitudinal direction and the re-determined second part comprises the other end of the digital image in the longitudinal direction. A tangible object like a mouse, a stylus or a human finger in case of a touch screen may be used for dragging. By dragging the mouse pointer, the stylus or the human finger from the first part in the direction of the second part, the first part is extended in the longitudinal direction. At the same time, the second part is shrunk in the longitudinal direction. By dragging the tangible object from the second part in the direction of the first part, the second part is extended in the longitudinal direction. At the same time, the first part is shrunk in the longitudinal direction. By doing so, the area on the user interface screen, at which the first part and the second part are displayed, remains equal in size.
According to an embodiment of the method, the method further comprises the steps of touching one of the first part and the second part displayed on the user interface screen; re-determining the first part and the second part based on the part touched by increasing in size the touched part and decreasing in size the other part, leaving a total size of the first part and the second part invariable; and displaying the re-determined first part and second part on the user interface screen, wherein the re-determined first part comprises the one end of the digital image in the longitudinal direction and the re-determined second part comprises the other end of the digital image in the longitudinal direction. According to this embodiment, a touch of the first or second part is sufficient to increase the size of the touched part and decrease in size the non-touched part. The increase in size may be realized by extending the touched part in the longitudinal direction and at the same time the decrease in size may be realized by reducing the non-touched part in the longitudinal direction.
According to another embodiment, the touched part may also be zoomed in, gradually or directly to 100 percent of the original size of the digital image. The non-touched part may also be re-determined in a same zooming amount as the touched part or may be left unaltered. This embodiment may be realized by a touch gesture, a de-pinch gesture touch, a single click or a double click in order to distinguish the corresponding action from other actions like a longitudinal enlargement when combined with the previous embodiment.
According to an embodiment, the first part and the second part are determined such that facing sides of the first part and the second part on the user interface screen have counterpart shapes. By doing so, the space on the user interface screen between the first part and the second part is reduced to a minimum. The shapes are determined as to express the fact that there is a remaining part of the image between the first part and the second part.
The present invention also relates to a computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium that when executed on a processor executes the method according to any of the previous embodiments.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
The present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same reference numerals have been used to identify the same or similar elements throughout the several views.
In
The reproduction apparatus 5 comprises a user interface 2 suitable for displaying and selecting print jobs and their settings.
In an embodiment, each of the workstations 8A-8C is a personal computer provided with a processor unit, a display unit, a keyboard and a mouse or any other input device in order to let a user, who is logged in on a workstation, dispatch one or more print jobs to the reproduction apparatus 5. The dispatching may be done by means of a printer driver installed on one of the workstations 8A-8C. Such a printer driver may also be adapted to display print settings, to enter print settings and to display a preview of the image. The reproduction apparatus may be a printer for small and/or wide format documents.
In an embodiment, the reproduction apparatus 5 comprises a local user interface 2 for displaying print settings or a queue of print jobs and a control unit 3 comprising a storage device 7, such as a hard disk. The local user interface may be realized in the form of a touch screen. Alternatively, the local user interface may be a screen with a mouse and keyboard for enabling a user to enter commands in order to execute printing of digital documents. The reproduction apparatus 5 may comprise the local user interface 2 mounted on top of the reproduction apparatus 5 or integrated in a front panel of the reproduction apparatus 5. How the reproduction apparatus 5 is used in relation to the invention will be elucidated further on.
The control unit 3 is suited to store a queue of print jobs, to check whether or not the queue is empty and to submit a document from a queued print job to the print engine of the reproduction apparatus 5 in order to be printed. Documents of a print job are stored in the storage device 7 contained in the control unit 3 at least for the time period that the document is printed by the print engine and finished by a finisher.
The reproduction apparatus according to the present invention may be an electro-photographical printer, an inkjet printer, or any other kind of reproduction apparatus. According to an embodiment of the reproduction apparatus, sheets of receiving material are worked up by the reproduction apparatus. According to another embodiment, rolls of receiving material are worked up by the reproduction apparatus. Receiving material may be paper, textile, metal plates, printed circuit plates, solar cell plates, overhead sheet material, plastic or any other kind of suitable receiving material or substrate. The reproduction apparatus may comprise finishing options. However, finishing options of external finishing equipment may be arranged at the production system to finish a printed job and to deliver the printed job according to the wishes of a sender or a user of the print job.
The present invention relates to a method for displaying an image with an extreme aspect ratio on the local user interface 2 or the display unit of one of the workstations 8A-8C. A job to be printed may be displayed as a preview on one of the workstations 8A-8C, for example when a driver for the reproduction apparatus 5 is opened on the workstation. A job to be printed may also be displayed as a preview on the local user interface 2 of the reproduction apparatus 5 after the print job is sent from one of the workstations 8A-8C to the reproduction apparatus 5. In case of another kind of printing system, the image may be displayed at a display of the printing system. The display may be a touch screen or a multi-touch screen.
The digital image may be in a TIFF format, a JPEG format or any other suitable two-dimensional motionless image file format. The digital image may comprise m×n image pixels suitable for display on the user interface screen 2 or a display unit, e.g. a touch screen. It is assumed that the integer n is very much larger than the integer m. The digital image may be stored in the storage device in a compressed way in order to save memory.
According to a second step S120 of the method, a first part of the digital image, the first part comprising one end of the digital image in a longitudinal direction, is determined. The total size of the first part and the second part is determined by the available user interface display area on the user interface screen. A size of the first part is assumed approximately m×n1, where n1 is smaller than n, for example n1 is smaller than or equals m.
The digital image may be organized in strips or bands. Each strip consists of a number of rows of pixels or columns of pixels depending on an orientation of the digital image. This is advantageous for determining a part of the digital image, since it enables a fast random access and efficient I/O buffering. The first part may be determined to be a predetermined number of strips. For low-resolution to medium-resolution images, the method of breaking the image into strips is adequate.
The digital image may be organized in tiles instead of strips. This is advantageous for high-resolution images, which can be accessed more efficiently—and compression tends to work better—if the image is broken into roughly square tiles. It is also advantageous to optimize the reading of the image file when rotation of the image is applied before displaying the image in a user interface display area. By rotating the image, consecutive tiles or strips may be read to obtain the first part of the digital image and consecutive tiles or strips may be read to obtain the second part of the digital image. The first part may be determined to be a predetermined number of tiles. A file format that supports the organization of strips and tiles is a TIFF image file format or a JPEG image file format.
According to a third step S130 of the method, a second part of the digital image, the second part comprising the other end of the digital image in the longitudinal direction, is determined. The total size of the first and second part is determined by the available user interface display area on the user interface screen. A size of the second part is assumed approximately m×n2, where n2 is smaller than n, for example n2 is smaller than or equals m. The second part may be determined to be a predetermined number of strips or a predetermined number of tiles.
According to a fourth step S140, the first part and the second part are displayed simultaneously on the user interface screen together with a non-empty remaining part of the digital image in a suppressed manner or a compressed manner in-between the first part and the second part. The first part is showing the one end of the digital image on the display screen in its entire lateral width. The second part is showing the other end of the digital image on the display screen in its entire lateral width. The orientation of the first part and the second part corresponds to the orientation of the first part and the second part in the original digital image. At the end point B, the first and second part are displayed on the user interface screen as a preview.
According to an additional fifth step S150 of the method, a border area between the first part and the second part displayed on the user interface screen is dragged towards one end of the first part, which one end is farthest away from the second part, or is dragged towards one end of the second part, which one end is farthest away from the first part. The border area may comprise the space in-between the first part and the second part. The border area may partly overlap the first part and the second part at their facing sides. This is advantageous, since the user does not have to place the mouse pointer, the stylus or a human finger on the user interface screen very accurately. A border area 25 and a direction X of dragging is shown in
According to an additional sixth step S160 of the method, the first part and the second part are re-determined based on the amount of dragging, leaving a total size of the first part and the second part unaltered. In case of dragging in the direction X as shown in
According to an additional seventh step S170, the re-determined first part 52 and the re-determined second part 53 are displayed on the user interface screen 20 as shown in
According to an additional fifth step S150A of the method, one of the first part and the second part is touched or clicked at on the user interface screen.
According to an additional sixth step S160A, the first part and the second part are re-determined based on the part touched by increasing in size the touched part and decreasing in size the other part, leaving a total size of the first part and the second part invariable. The amount of increase and decrease may be predetermined per touch or click. In another embodiment, the amount of increase and decrease may depend on the duration of a touch on the respective part.
According to an additional seventh step 170A, the re-determined first and second part are displayed on the user interface screen. Then, the end point C of the method is reached.
According to an additional fifth step S150B of the method, one of the first part and the second part displayed on the user interface screen is touched. According to an additional sixth step S160B, the touched part is re-determined by zooming in at the touched part. Due to the zooming in, the lateral width does not fit any more in the preview area. According to an additional seventh step S170B, the non-touched part is re-determined by zooming in at the non-touched part in a same amount as zooming in at the touched part or by leaving the non-touched part unaltered. According to an additional seventh step S180B, the re-determined touched part and the re-determined or unaltered non-touched part are displayed on the user interface screen. Then, the method reaches its end point C. In another embodiment, the zooming step is implemented by enlarging the preview area 21. The touched part as well as the non-touched part are then extended in a same degree of extension.
In another embodiment, a zoom icon is provided at the user interface display area 21 for zooming in at the first or second part, when the zoom icon is positioned at the first or second part respectively.
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12182430.4 | Aug 2012 | EP | regional |
This application is a Continuation of International Application No. PCT/EP2013/067081, filed on Aug. 15, 2013, and for which priority is claimed under 35 U.S.C. §120. PCT/EP2013/067081 claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to Application No. 12182430.4, filed in Europe on Aug. 30, 2012. The entire contents of each of the above-identified applications are hereby incorporated by reference into the present application.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | PCT/EP2013/067081 | Aug 2013 | US |
| Child | 14631474 | US |
