Print control device and print control method

A print control device comprising:

• a color plane image data acquisition unit configured to acquire a color plane image data used in an image forming apparatus and indicating a color developer amount indicating an amount of one or more color developers with a multi value larger than a binary, and a region where the color developer amount is used;
• an inverse image data generating unit configured to calculate a value obtained by subtracting a total amount of one or more color developers allocated to the region from a predetermined value based on the color plane image data, and, by using a calculated value as an amount of a transparent developer used in the image forming apparatus, to generate inverse image data indicating an transparent developer amount that indicates the amount of a transparent developer, and a region where the transparent developer amount is used;
• a halftone processing unit configured to binarize the transparent developer amount indicated with the multi value in the inverse image data by halftone processing;
• an expansion processing unit configured to expand an area of a region designated to use the transparent developer by the halftone processing unit;
• and
• a transparent developer plane image data generating unit configured to generate transparent developer plane image data for forming an image of a transparent developer in the image forming apparatus based on the inverse image data after expanded by the expansion processing unit.

A print control method executed in a print control device that generates transparent developer plane image data used for image formation of a transparent developer in an image forming apparatus, and

• the print control device including
• a storage unit storing a conversion table configured to convert a first transparent developer amount that is an amount of a transparent developer used for image formation into a second transparent developer amount determined based on the first transparent developer amount and larger than the first transparent developer amount,
• the method comprising:
• acquiring color plane image data used in the image forming apparatus and indicating a color developer amount that indicates an amount of one or more color developers, and a region where the color developer amount is used;
• calculating a value obtained by subtracting a total amount of the one or more color developers allocated to the region from a predetermined value based on the color plane image data, and, by using a calculated value as an amount of a transparent developer used in the image forming apparatus, generating inverse image data indicating a transparent developer amount that indicates the amount of a transparent developer, and a region where the transparent developer amount is used;
• converting the transparent developer amount of the inverse image data into the transparent developer amount larger than the transparent developer amount by referring to the conversion table;
• and
• generating transparent developer plane image data used in image formation of the transparent developer in the image forming apparatus based on the inverse image data indicating the transparent developer amount after conversion by a conversion unit using the conversion table.