Patent attributes
A method of applying a control strip having an appropriate size in accordance with the size of a print image is provided. Print image data is rasterized or RIP-processed in Step S1. Image layout data is acquired from the print image data in Step S2. The size of control strip image data is adjusted based on the image layout data in Step S3. The size of the control strip is determined to be a positive integral multiple of an ink key size, based on a previously established equation. Based on the size of the control strip image data, a previously prepared control strip having a maximum size is cut. The adjusted control strip image data and the print image data are combined together in Step S4. In Step S4, blank data are added to the left and right of the print image to extend the size of the print image to the size of the control strip.