JP3595705B2 - Image editing apparatus, control method therefor, and storage medium - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to data management and screen display in an image editing apparatus that performs image editing such as synthesis processing of a design template and an input image and outputs the result.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, a service for synthesizing and outputting images recorded on various media to a frame (design template) in which colors and images are designed in advance and a space (image slot) for inserting image data is prepared, and a photo print. Services such as enlargement of images from images, output of images with special effects such as color conversion, etc. are provided. In an image editing apparatus that performs such processing, a service menu, a template, image data to be edited, and the like are displayed on a display device, and a processing instruction to the image editing apparatus is given by selecting a predetermined area on a screen. It has a configuration.
[0003]
After printing is completed, the editing work performed by the customer is displayed as an order list that lists the order number, service name, work status, work start time, data size, etc. issued at the same time as accepting work is started Characters were displayed on the device. Further, the image editing work has been processed in the steps of service selection, image input, editing work, and printing.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In such a conventional image editing apparatus, although information such as the number of sheets and file size can be known on an order list indicating an editing / printing operation history, it is possible to visually check what kind of image was printed in the order. Can not understand. For this reason, it is difficult to find necessary orders from a large order list and execute reprinting. Further, once the editing operation is completed, even if the image is the same as the one used immediately before, the image must be input from the beginning when starting a new editing operation.
[0005]
An object of the present invention is to provide an image editing apparatus capable of performing a plurality of editing operations on the same input image without re-inputting an image.And its control methodIs to provide.
[0006]
Another object of the present invention is to provide an image editing apparatus which solves the above-described problems and allows a user to visually understand what kind of printing has been performed in an order on an order list.And its control methodIs to provide.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
A first gist of the present invention is that image dataEditing withAn image editing apparatus that performs processing and outputs the result as processed image data, wherein image data satisfying a predetermined condition is defined as an image data group.MemoryI,Image data included in the image data groupMultiple editsStorage means for managing common use between processes;A setting unit that allows the user to set an editing process using the image data included in the image data group; information indicating the editing process set by the setting unit; and image data representing a result image of the editing process. Recording means for recording as image data different from the image data used forAn image editing apparatus characterized in that:
[0008]
Another aspect of the present invention is a control method of an image editing apparatus that performs an editing process using image data and outputs the result as processed image data. A storage step of storing the image data included in the image data group as a group and managing the image data included in the image data group so as to be commonly usable among a plurality of editing processes, and an editing process using the image data included in the image data group. A setting step of setting, information indicating the editing processing set in the setting step, and image data representing an image resulting from the editing processing in a storage device as different data from the image data used in the editing processing And a control method for the image editing apparatus.
[0009]
Another aspect of the present invention is a storage medium that stores a program that can be executed by an apparatus.Editing withAn apparatus for performing processing and outputting the result as processed image data, wherein image data satisfying a predetermined condition is defined as an image data group.MemoryI,Image data included in the image data groupMultiple editsStorage means for managing common use between processes;A setting unit that allows the user to set an editing process using the image data included in the image data group; information indicating the editing process set by the setting unit; and image data representing a result image of the editing process. Recording means for recording as image data different from the image data used forThe present invention resides in a storage medium operated as an apparatus.
[0010]
In the image editing apparatus according to the present invention, a customer number and an input image group issued when newly registering are paired, and this unit is defined as a customer. The customer has a data structure capable of generating a plurality of orders, which are execution units of the conventional service for the input images. This makes it possible to execute a plurality of image editing services without re-inputting an image if the order is for the same customer even if the orders are different.
[0011]
Further, before executing the final printing, the image data representing the print image output on the display device for the main purpose of confirmation is converted into an image (thumbnail) having a size and resolution such that the outline of the image can be determined. The file is output as a file that has been converted into a file, and is used when displaying an order history list (order list) and / or a print queue list. However, if the edited template is composed of a plurality of pages, a thumbnail is created from print image data for the first printable page.
[0012]
On the display device, a list of customer numbers (customer list) and a list of orders belonging to the customer number are displayed. In the customer list, in addition to the customer number, attributes such as the number of input images, the number of orders, the work start time, and the data size are displayed in text. In the order list, a thumbnail of each order in the customer selected in the customer list is displayed along with the name of the service executed in the order, so that you can visually understand what kind of edit was performed. .
[0013]
On the display device, there is also provided an area for displaying information on orders that are performing printing and orders that are accumulated as a print queue. At this time, thumbnails used on the order list are displayed. The print queue is displayed in a list for each order, and a thumbnail of an order selected by a mouse operation or the like can be displayed. Also, thumbnails are displayed to visually understand the order currently being printed or the order stored in the print queue. However, since there is no guarantee that the first page is designated depending on the print designation, a thumbnail of the page is created for each queue when the queue is created, and the thumbnail is displayed as necessary.
[0014]
If the cue is canceled, the thumbnail is discarded along with the cue. In each service, using the input image group, an image can be pasted to an image slot on a design template, and image processing can be performed on the pasted image. At this time, there are provided two types of image processing, one effective only for the pasted image and the other once applied to all orders in the customer. The former refers to processing that gives effects to the entire image such as sepia, monochrome, relief, cropping, and rotation, and the latter refers to processing that corrects a part of the image such as red-eye, dust, and scratch removal. Also, a process combining these can be performed.
[0015]
It also provides a function of converting data stored in an external storage device in a conventional order unit into a structure in a customer unit and adding / incorporating the data into a customer list. By realizing these, it is possible to visually understand what printing has been performed in the order on the order list of the image editing apparatus.
[0016]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a portion necessary for explaining the present embodiment in an image editing apparatus for performing a synthesis process of a design template and an input image according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0017]
In FIG. 1, 1 is an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, 2 is a central processing unit for performing system management control / synthesizing processing of an input image and a design template, 3 is a terminal used for display, 4 is a printing device, Reference numeral 5 denotes an image input device, and reference numeral 6 denotes an external storage device such as a magnetic disk drive or an optical disk drive. In the following description, the image input device 5 is a scanner.
[0018]
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a data management system according to the present embodiment. That is, the data is based on a set of data (referred to as a customer) 7 classified by customer unit, and each customer uses a set of image data (input image group) 8 used by the customer in the past and uses this image data. From the plurality of orders 9 which are execution units of the image composition service and the edited result thumbnail images 10 which are image data for visually recognizing the processing contents (results) corresponding to each order. It is configured.
[0019]
By adopting such a data management structure, if the order is for the same customer, the image data included in the input image group can be shared between different orders and services, and it is troublesome to input the same image many times. Can be omitted. Also, information such as a number indicating the used image data can be used for the data indicating the order content, and it is not necessary to include the actually used image data in the order data.
[0020]
The editing result thumbnail image 10 can be easily created, for example, by using output image data to be displayed on a screen to make a customer or the like confirm the editing result image prior to the actual output processing. . That is, processing is easily performed by creating a thumbnail image from output image data for display, which is sufficiently low-resolution data, without directly creating a thumbnail image from high-resolution image data used for output processing. be able to.
[0021]
A customer is created each time an order is received from a new customer. Further, it is also possible to input an additional image or generate an order for an existing customer. Since there is no dependency between each customer and each order, it is possible to delete each customer and each order.
[0022]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing handling of new customer data in the processing of the image editing apparatus.
First, after the image editing apparatus is activated, the initial screen is a screen on which a list of customers, such as customer numbers, for existing customers is displayed on the terminal, and the input device 1 such as a mouse or a keyboard is displayed. Thus, detailed information below the customer number selected on the screen can be displayed.
[0023]
When the operator of the image editing apparatus receives a new order from the customer, the processing is started from this screen. At this time, if the customer is not on the existing customer list, the central processing unit 2 issues a customer number (step S11). The central processing unit 2 reads an image that the user desires to combine from the image input device 5 (step S12). At this time, a unique number is assigned to the read image data within the same customer. The user is allowed to select one of the services prepared for performing the composition with the design template. At this time, an order number is issued (step S13).
[0024]
When a service is selected, the central processing unit 2 reads out high-resolution image data for printing of a design template usable for the selected service, which is stored in the storage device 6 in advance, and has a size suitable for display on a display device. And convert it to display on the screen. The central processing unit 2 creates low-resolution screen display image data (thumbnail image data of the input image) for each of the image data read by the image input device 5 and reduces the design data to a predetermined size. Is displayed on the same screen.
[0025]
The user is made to select them and timely combining processing is performed (step S14). The synthesizing process is performed using, for example, the high-resolution data of the template and the input image data, the resolution is converted from the resulting data, and low-resolution data for displaying the synthesized result image is created and displayed on the display device. Also, if necessary, the size of the image slot of the design template and the size of the input image data are adjusted during the synthesis processing.
[0026]
When displaying the synthesis result of the design template and the input image, the central processing unit 2 saves the synthesis result image display image data in the storage device 6 as a thumbnail image file (step S15). At this time, if there is already a file for the same service, such as a file created by user trial and error during template selection, the existing file is overwritten. The file for the same service can be specified by giving a file name using an order number issued when the service is selected. Each design template has a unique number. If a template consisting of multiple pages is used, create a file for the first page.
[0027]
The central processing unit prints the final high-resolution composite result one page at a time, and sets the generated order number, the number of the selected template, and the name of the service executed in the order information in text format (step S16). ). After the completion of the printing process, the user is asked whether to repeat the combining process (step S17). If continuation is specified, the process returns to the service selection step and the service can be continued for the same input image group (step S18). If continuation is not specified, all processing is completed. After updating the customer history information, return to the existing customer list display screen. At this time, the customer who has been editing is displayed on the customer list in a selected state, and thumbnail groups of orders in the customer are displayed on the order list (step S19).
[0028]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a new order generation process for an existing customer in the present embodiment. From the customer list, a customer who wants to add an input image or perform a new service is selected, and thereafter, the same processing as that of accepting a new order shown in FIG. 3 is performed.
[0029]
In the present embodiment, the input image used for the same customer can be stored and shared between services or orders. However, since the image data has a very large data amount, the external storage device 6 The required capacity will inevitably increase. Therefore, it is also possible to set a certain limit on the image data to be stored. For example, any condition (single or combination) such as time, number, data capacity, etc., such as those used within the last month, recent 10 orders, or data amount up to 1 GB can be used.
[0030]
Further, by saving the customer information in a removable storage medium and restoring the information when a new order is placed, the customer information can be commonly used in any place where the image editing apparatus according to the present invention is located. Therefore, if the order uses the image stored in the customer information, it is not necessary to read the image data again even if the editing device changes.
Furthermore, by deleting the customer information from the storage device used by the image editing device after saving, the capacity of the storage device on the image editing device side can be used effectively. Since the high-resolution image data has a very large data amount, the effect is particularly large in the case of an image editing apparatus corresponding to many customers.
[0031]
Next, the saving process and the restoring process of the customer information will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a customer information storage process according to the present embodiment. An arbitrary number of customers to be stored are selected on the customer list (step S31), and designation of customer storage is performed (step S32). The external storage device 6 to be the storage destination is designated (step S33), and if the storage processing is possible, the customer storage is executed (step S38). If the save process is not possible, the user is asked whether to retry (step S35). If retry is selected (step S36), the external storage device is specified again and retry is not selected. In this case, the saving process is canceled (step S37).
[0032]
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of restoring customer information from an external storage device in the present embodiment. When the customer restoration process is selected (step S41), the user is prompted to specify an external storage device to be restored (step S42). The state of the designated external storage device is checked (step S43). If restoration processing is possible, a customer list / order list on the storage medium is displayed (step S47), and an arbitrary number to be restored from the list is displayed. Is selected (step S48), and restoration processing is designated (step S49). When the restoration process is designated, the restoration process is performed on the selected customer (step S50). When the restoration processing is completed, the customer list is updated and displayed (step S51).
[0033]
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of deleting customer information according to the present embodiment. An arbitrary number of customers to be deleted are selected on the customer list, and a number is designated (step S61). Next, the selected customer (group) is acquired (step S62). Then, the statuses of all the orders belonging to the selected customers are checked (steps S63, 64, 65, 67). If there is no print order, the customer is deleted (step S70). If there is at least one print order, the customer is not deleted. When the check is completed for all the customers, the customer list / order list is updated (step S72).
[0034]
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the order information deletion process according to the present embodiment. A customer having an order to be deleted is selected from the list (step S81), and an order to be deleted is selected from the order list for the customer (step S82). If the order is not being printed, the order is deleted and the order list is updated (steps S83, S84, S85).
[0035]
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a customer list / order list on an order management screen output on a display device in the present embodiment. Reference numeral 91 denotes an order list display area, and reference numeral 92 denotes a display example of a customer list display area. In the order list display area 91, the order below the customer selected in the customer list display area 92 is displayed as an edited result thumbnail image, an executed service name, and an icon indicating the status of the order. When not all orders can be displayed in the order list display area 91, the order list display area may be configured to be scrollable, and all orders may be displayed by scrolling the screen.
[0036]
FIG. 9 shows that the second customer is selected in the customer list display area 92, and the order placed by the customer number # 2 is displayed in the order list display area 91 together with a thumbnail image. . Further, by selecting a thumbnail on the order list, detailed information of the order can be displayed. In the order information display area 93, in addition to the customer number and the order number, the icon and name of the executed service, the total number of pages and the template number of the edited template, and the number of times of printing are displayed. Also, buttons for “delete”, “edit”, and “print” are provided, and when “delete” is selected, the delete processing of FIG. 8 is executed. When "Edit" is selected, the editing screen is displayed again. When "print" is selected, the printing process starts.
[0037]
FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a display example of a print queue list on a print management screen output on a display device in the present embodiment. The print management screen is switched and displayed at an arbitrary timing by, for example, selecting (instructing) a switch button between the customer / order management screen and the print management screen prepared on the screen. On the print management screen, the processing status of each order is displayed as a print queue list.
[0038]
In the order processing status display area 101, a thumbnail of the order selected in the print queue list displayed in the print queue list display area 102 is displayed together with a text display indicating the operation status of the printer. In the print queue list, the number of the order that generated the queue, the service name, the printing status, the start time, and the like are displayed in a list. It is printed in order from the first one on the list. The queue for which printing has been completed is deleted from the list, and all information about the queue is discarded. That is, in FIG. 10, the print queue list display area 102 indicates that the order number # 1 is the order being printed, and the other orders are in the print standby state.
[0039]
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an image processing operation within the customer in the present embodiment. On the edit screen for each order, any input image can be specified for the image slot on the selected template and synthesized, but at this time, various images can be Processing can be performed. There are two types of image processing: image correction and image correction. The former refers to processing that gives an effect to the entire image, such as sepia, monochrome, relief, cropping, and rotation. Refers to the process of correcting a section. Image correction is only valid for the embedded image. As for image correction, once correction is performed, common image processing is performed within the customer, and the processing is always applied to the image on the template on which the image is pasted.
[0040]
In the order indicated by 111, an example in which the specified 117 input images are pasted as they are to the image slots of the template is shown. On the other hand, the order of 112 shows an example in which two types of images are pasted on the template. The pasted images are obtained by adding the image correction # 1 of 114 to the image of 117, and 115 to the image of 118. Image correction # 1. In the order of 113, an image obtained by adding 116 image correction # 1 to the 118 image and further adding 115 image correction # 3 is pasted to the template.
[0041]
In FIG. 11, image modification # 1 (116) is a common image processing in the customer, and when the image 118 is used in another order thereafter, the image modification # 1 (116) is performed without any processing in that order. (116) is performed.
[0042]
[Other embodiments]
In the above-described embodiment, when storing and restoring the customer information, the storage medium is used.However, by incorporating a communication device such as a modem or a network card into the image editing device, and communicating between the image editing devices, Even if the customer does not have a storage medium, it may be configured to be able to edit and output with an image editing device at an arbitrary place.
[0043]
Further, as the display areas 91 to 93 in the above-described embodiment, a specific area on the screen may be fixedly used. For example, only the customer list display area 92 is displayed, and when a customer is selected, the order is displayed. The list display area 91 may be displayed in another window, and when an order is selected, the order information display area 93 may be displayed in another window. The display method is determined according to the size of the physical display area of the display device, the number and amount of data items to be displayed, and the like.
[0044]
In the above-described embodiment, image synthesis has been described as an example of image editing. However, the present invention can be applied to any processing such as not only synthesis but also deformation and color conversion.
[0045]
In the embodiment, the case where the scanner is used as the image input device and the image data is read is described. However, the image data prepared in the storage device 6 may be used as the input image data, It is also possible to read image data already in the form of electronic data, such as image data created or image data created by a computer. In this case, a recording medium for electronic data is arbitrary such as a flash memory, a magnetic recording medium, and an optical recording medium, and an input method may be any method.
[0046]
The editing (including resolution conversion and scaling) of the image data may be performed by the central processing unit as software or may be performed using dedicated hardware.
[0047]
The present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), but it can be applied to a device including one device (for example, a copier, a facsimile device, etc.). May be applied.
[0048]
Further, an object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus to store the storage medium. It is needless to say that the present invention can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code stored in the program.
[0049]
In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the function of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.
[0050]
As a storage medium for supplying the program code, 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 nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, and the like can be used.
[0051]
When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.
[0052]
Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a CPU or the like provided in the board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.
[0053]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, image data used for processing is commonly managed for each customer, so that image data can be commonly used among a plurality of orders for the same customer. In the case of the processing for, the trouble of rereading the image data is unnecessary even if the order is different.
Further, since data for each customer can be used in common by a plurality of devices, it is not necessary to re-input image data even if the device changes, as long as the image is edited using an image used in the past.
[0054]
In addition, by displaying image data representing a processing result on a management screen for displaying customer information and / or an order management screen during print processing, a necessary order can be easily determined from a large number of orders.
Furthermore, by managing the image data representing the result image of the editing process together with the order, the contents of the order managed separately from the image data can be easily and clearly confirmed.
Further, since the image data representing the result image of the editing process is generated based on the image data for display, it is possible to create an image representing the editing result image without excessively increasing the processing load of the apparatus.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a main part of an image editing apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a data management structure according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process for a new customer.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process for an existing customer.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process for saving existing customer information.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of restoring customer information on a storage device.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating a process of deleting existing customer information.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a process of deleting order information in existing customer information.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a display example of a customer list / order list.
FIG. 10 illustrates a display example of a print queue list.
FIG. 11 is a diagram showing the types of image processing operations within the customer and the effects thereof.

Claims (6)

An image editing device that performs an editing process using image data and outputs a result as processed image data,
The predetermined condition is satisfied the image data, storage means for storing the image data group, commonly available to manage image data included in the image data group among the plurality of editing processing,
Setting means for allowing the user to set the editing process using the image data included in the image data group,
Recording means for recording information indicating the editing processing set by the setting means and image data representing a result image of the editing processing as data different from the image data used for the editing processing. Image editing device. The image editing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the editing process is a process of combining the image data with another image data. 3. The image editing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image data representing the result image of the editing process is an image indicating the result of the combining process. 4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data representing a result image of the editing process is generated from display data for outputting the result of the editing process to a display device. 5. Image editing device. A control method of an image editing apparatus that performs an editing process using image data and outputs a result as processed image data,
  A storage step of storing the image data satisfying a predetermined condition in a storage device as an image data group, and managing the image data included in the image data group so as to be commonly usable among a plurality of the editing processes,
  A setting step of setting the editing process using the image data included in the image data group,
  A recording step of recording information indicating the editing process set in the setting process and image data representing a result image of the editing process in the storage device as data different from the image data used in the editing process. A method for controlling an image editing apparatus, comprising: A storage medium storing a program executable by the device, the device executing the program,
An apparatus for performing an editing process using image data and outputting the result as processed image data,
The predetermined condition is satisfied the image data, storage means for storing the image data group, commonly available to manage image data included in the image data group among the plurality of editing processing,
Setting means for setting the editing process using the image data included in the image data group,
Recording means for recording information indicating the editing processing set by the setting means and image data representing a result image of the editing processing as data different from the image data used for the editing processing. Storage medium that operates as a device that performs

Images