JPH05210716A - Graphic processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To select various area filling patterns and to easily obtain a shadow effect for data whose coordinates are transformed by expansion/contraction to a size wider than original data and various deformation and development methods by applying coordinate transformation processing to coordinate informa tion expressing graphics in accordance with plural kinds of set editing processing. CONSTITUTION:The set conditions of plural kinds of editing processing for graphics are displayed as a table and coordinate transformation processing is applied to coordinate information expressing graphics in accordance with the plural kinds of set editing processing. The set conditions displayed as the table include information expressing graphic size. A parameter set included in the image processing system is specified by a parameter definition screen shown by graphics in a graphic editing program. Respective parameters (f) to (i) are used for specifying coordinate transformation for the deformation of original data previously stored in an auxiliary storage device or the like.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention displays a list of setting statuses of a plurality of types of editing processing for a figure, and performs coordinate conversion processing for coordinate information representing the figure according to the plurality of types of editing processing to be set. The present invention relates to a graphic processing method that can be performed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, with respect to character generation, a method of transferring a dot pattern previously stored in an auxiliary storage device or a ROM (Read Only Memory) to a display unit or an output unit, or a contour data stored similarly is used. It is a method of displaying or outputting by simply filling the inside of the outline on the image memory after reading and transforming the coordinates, and then scaling, transforming, and expanding the coordinates to various sizes, then filling, whitening, and It is not possible to form with various hatching (line shadows or regular patterns) patterns, etc., or to realize the shadow effect (adding a thick shadow to an originally flat character to give depth or a three-dimensional appearance). It was possible. On the other hand, with regard to figure generation, conventionally, relatively simple figures such as polygons and circles are filled in, whitened,
It is a method that occurs in the hatching pattern, etc., and the combination with the character generation (overlaying, blanking, etc.) was limited to an extremely simple one.

For this reason, when it is desired to express a particularly complicated effect, the necessary characters or figures are created by photo processing or the like, which is completely separate from the document creation and the figure editing by a computer, and the characters or figures are attached to a desired hatching pattern film. If you want to get a shadow effect, make two copies of figures or letters by photo processing, etc.
It was very time-consuming to make additional corrections.

(Object) The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional example, to display a list of the setting statuses of a plurality of types of edit processing for a graphic, and to display the graphic according to the edit processing of the plurality of kinds to be set. It is an object of the present invention to provide a graphic processing method capable of performing coordinate conversion processing for coordinate information representing a.

[0005]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an external connection diagram of an image processing system (capable of handling figures and characters) to which the present invention is applied. It is needless to say that the system is not limited to this, and the present invention can be applied even if it is a single device or a part of the system is changed. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to the case where it can be achieved by supplying a program having these functions to a system or a device. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 31 denotes a system control microcomputer, an internal memory composed of RAM, ROM, etc., a floppy disk or a cartridge.
It is a control unit (referred to as a workstation) that includes an external memory including a disk or the like. Reference numeral 32 is an input unit of the digital copying machine, and CC of document information of a document placed on a document table.
The document reader 33 converts the signal into an electric signal by an image pickup device such as D, and the output unit 33 of the digital copying machine is a high-speed printer such as a laser beam printer that records an image on a recording material based on the information converted into the electric signal. An image file 34 has a recording medium such as an optical disk or a magneto-optical disk and can write and read a large amount of image information. 35
Is equipped with a microfilm retrieval section for a microfilm file and a microfilm reader section for converting image information on the retrieved microfilm into an electric signal by an image sensor. Reference numeral 37 denotes a printer device such as a laser beam printer similar to the printer 33, which is smaller and slower than the printer 33 and is installed as necessary. Reference numeral 38 is a CRT device for displaying image information photoelectrically read by a digital copying machine and a microfilm input scanner (reader), system control information, or the like, and is a display unit for performing the document and image processing of the present invention. Reference numeral 39 is a switching device for switching the connection between the respective input devices by a signal from the control unit 31. Reference numerals 40 to 48 are cables for electrically connecting the input devices. Reference numeral 50 denotes a keyboard provided in the control unit 31. By operating the keyboard 50, a system operation command or the like is issued. 61 is C
This is a pointing device for instructing image information processing on the RT 38, and the cursor on the CRT 38 is arbitrarily moved in the X and Y directions to select a command image on the command menu and give the instruction. Reference numeral 51 denotes an operation panel for issuing an operation command of the digital copying machine, which is a setting key for the number of copies, copying magnification, etc., and a copy key 5 for instructing the start of copying.
5 and a numerical display and the like. Reference numeral 52 is a mode changeover switch for deciding whether to take the initiative to start the digital copying machine, which is the copy machine or the control unit. It is a display device.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the image editing apparatus.
In the present application, image editing is referred to as including image editing.
The same parts as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. H4 is a VRAM that expands the data to be displayed on the display unit 38 on a bitmap. For example, in the case of character data, the character corresponding to the code is expanded in the VRAM, and the cursor can be directly generated and displayed in the display area of the VRAM by software control.

H7, H8, and H9 are disks for data files, for example, H8 is a hard disk (HD), and H7 is a 5 inch floppy disk (FD).
Is.

The BMU H5 is a BMU (bit manipulation unit), which transfers word units between input / output devices such as video RAM H4, main memory, disks (H7, H8, H9), printers, etc. DM without going through
AC (Direct Memory Access C)
16), and the following 16 types of logical operations are possible as functional functions. Assuming that the data transfer source is A (source side) and the data transfer destination is B (destination side), for example, A (reverse), AB, A + B, Logical 1
(Paint black), A + B, B, A + B, A + B, A
B, A + B, B, A + B, Logical 0 (clear), AB, AB, A and the like.

MPU Next, the H6 is an MPU (Micro Processor).
Unit) section. Also, the MPU section is HD / FD-IF
(Interface) and has the above-mentioned disk H
7, H8, H9 and PMEM, IMEM described below are controlled.

Printer and Reader H10 in FIG.
H12 is a printer with different pixel density,
Is a reader for reading a document. Further, H11 and H14 are a printer H10, a printer H13 and a reader H, respectively.
It is an interface provided corresponding to 12.

PMEM, IMEM H15 and H16 are program memories (PMEM),
A program for editing processing is installed on the hard disk H as appropriate.
Select from 8 and execute. Further, the data input from the keyboard 50 is stored as code information in the main memory which is also a text memory. Further, the data stored in the main memory, the data stored in the disk, and the data read from the reader are stored in the image memory IM.
Can be expanded to EM as bit data, and PM
The same applies to the data stored in the EM, but the DMAC is possible via the BMU described above. In addition, PM
Figure 3 shows a simple memory map in EM, H15 or H16.
Shown in.

Next, an embodiment using the system having the above-mentioned configuration will be described in detail step by step. This embodiment relates to graphic processing for representing characters and the like.

First, the parameter definition prepared in advance will be described. FIG. 6 shows a parameter set of the image processing system, which is shown in FIG.
It is specified in the parameter definition screen shown by.

Parameter Type << a >> in FIG. 7 is a font designating parameter, which designates the type of data (hereinafter referred to as original data) stored in advance in the auxiliary storage device or the like. It should be noted that the original data in this embodiment is a system having characteristic points or sample points on the contour of a figure as coordinate values. << b >> is a character standard output size designation parameter. In principle, the output size can be expanded or reduced to any size. << c >> is a designation regarding the expansion method, and relates to how to determine the output direction of the character string. As an example of the expansion method, horizontal expansion, oblique expansion, circumferential expansion, etc. can be specified. << d >> is a rotation angle, and the rotation angle of each character can be specified by any of the expansion methods in << c >>. << e >> is the designation of duplicate output, and designates the number of times of duplicate output according to the parameter set designated at the output position of each character determined by the arithmetic processing of Step 2 of FIG. 8 described later. <<
f >>, << g >>, << h >>, and << i >> designate coordinate conversion for the purpose of transforming the original data stored in advance in the auxiliary storage device or the like. The presence / absence thereof and the amount of deformation thereof are designated with respect to a rectangular parallelepiped, a mirror image inversion, an italic (italic), and a thickening and thinning of the contour, respectively. For << j >>, the above <<f>
>, <<< g >>>, << h >>, and << i >>> for specifying the presence / absence of a shadow effect and the amount of shadow for the transformed data. With regard to << k >>, the presence or absence of the contour line of the transformed data and the thickness thereof are designated. With regard to << l >>, the pattern forming the inside of the outline of the output graphic is designated, and no pattern, white background, black background and various other hatchings can be designated.

Parameter Set As shown in FIG. 6, this parameter set can have a series of parameters as the number of records designated by << e >> in the above parameter definition. This parameter set is stored in the shared area on the PMEM (H16) and referred to by the control unit of the image processing system.

Image Storage Area The present invention is characterized by having a plurality of storage means capable of storing graphic information as a dot pattern. FIG. 4 shows, for example, an internal storage area (image storage area 1 and
Image storage area 2) for IMEM and output area for VRAM
(CRT display area) and IMEM (printer output area)
It was secured in. The internal storage area can be dynamically managed by the control unit of the image processing system as follows.

The image storage area 1 and the image storage area 2 have the same size, and the size is determined by the type and output size of the output area. For each area, the horizontal and vertical sizes are set in the image storage area management table, and the area designation (pointer of the image storage area management table) and the area start address are set as coordinates ( The address in the actual memory is calculated by designating the offset coordinates (x, y) to be 0, 0). Similarly, regarding the memory transfer amount, by specifying the dot size (w, h), it is converted into the byte size on the actual memory. Data transfer between individual image storage areas can be performed at high speed by the BMU (H5) by setting these values in the register. FIG. 5 shows an image storage area management table.

Control Unit FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart of the control unit of the image processing system stored in the PMEM (H16). Step
1 is the definition of the parameter described above, and is stored in the parameter set shown in FIG. Step 2 is the determination of the character string start position, and C in the figure editing program.
The RT 38 and the pointing device 61 capable of designating an arbitrary point on the screen are used, and are determined as follows, for example. In the case of horizontal expansion and diagonal expansion, two points, that is, the expansion start point and the expansion direction point are specified. In the case of circumferential expansion, the expansion start point and two points for determining the desired circumference are designated.
Step 3 is an output character string specification, for example, kana-kanji conversion,
It can be specified by entering the character type required for output once, such as when entering a code. Step 4 and Step 5 are parts for outputting the above character string according to the defined parameter set.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart regarding the output of individual characters in the above Step 4. The data designated in Step 5-1 is read by the auxiliary storage device or the like.
Step5-2, Step5-5, and Step5-6
Is the management of the parameter records that make up the parameter set, and sequentially decodes and processes the parameter records shown in FIG. Step 5-4 is a part for processing the read original data according to the individual parameter records shown in FIG. Specifically, the corresponding dots between the image storage areas are determined, logical operations are selected, and transfer to the output area is performed.

FIG. 10 is a detailed flowchart showing the character output in Step 5-4. In Step 6-1, the parameter record is analyzed and those values are set in the internal memory of the control unit. Step 6-2 is a coordinate transformation process, in which the original data read in Step 5-1 in FIG. 9 << f >> in FIG.
Coordinate conversion is performed according to the transformations designated by << g >>, << h >>, and << i >>. In Step 6-3, the output area is determined, and the output area in the output area (CRT display area or printer output area) is determined from the expansion position and the output size specified in Step 2 of FIG. 8 and all the deformation parameters.

Regarding the designation of the intermediate coating pattern, it is first classified into two types, "absent" and "present", and they are processed separately. When the middle coat pattern is specified as "None", Ste
In p6-4, only the contour line of the data is generated, and the image storage area 1 is selected as the expansion destination. If the designation of the intermediate coating pattern is "present", in Step 6-7, the inside of the outline of the character data is filled and developed as a dot pattern on the image storage area 1.

Shadow Generation Processing Step 6-5 and Step 6-8 are parameters <<
This is a shadow generation process when a shadow is designated in j >>. The shadow generation processing is performed by repeating the transfer to the image storage area 2 while sequentially shifting the transfer destination coordinate values (x, y) using the logical function [A + B] of the BMU (H5). The transfer destination coordinate values (x, y) are calculated by calculating the number of dots (sx, sy) to be moved on the image storage area from the parameters << b >> and <<j>, and calculating the DDA algorithm (symmetric digital differentiation). Analytical method), for example, in the case of 0 ≦ sx and 0 ≦ sy, 0 ≦ x ≦
Transfer destination coordinate values (x, y) satisfying sx and 0 ≦ y ≦ sy are sequentially calculated.

When the intermediate coating pattern designated by the transfer parameter <<< l >>> to the output area is "none", the dots developed in the image storage area 2 or the image storage area 1 are determined depending on the presence or absence of the shadow designation in Step 6-6. The pattern is transferred to the output area determined in Step 6-3 using the BMU logical function [A + B]. When the middle coat pattern specification is "black",
In Step 6-9, the dot pattern stored in the image storage area 2 or the image storage area 1 is transferred to the output area determined in Step 6-3 by using the logical function [A + B] of the BMU depending on the presence / absence of shadow designation. When the designated middle coating pattern is "white", Step6-
Image storage area 2 depending on presence / absence of shadow designation in 10
Alternatively, the dot pattern stored in the image storage area 1 is transferred to the output area determined in Step 6-3 using the BMU logical function [AB]. When the hatching pattern is designated as the intermediate coating pattern, first, Step 6
In -11, the same processing as in Step 6-10 described above is performed (the output pattern portion on the output area is blanked in advance). After that, in Step 6-12, the dot pattern stored in the image storage area 2 or the image storage area 1 is subjected to the hatching pattern mask specified by the logical function [AB] of the BMU depending on the presence / absence of shadow designation, and then in Step 6-3. Is transferred to the output area determined by using the logical function [A + B] of BMU.

Processing Concept Diagram FIG. 11 shows the above Steps 6-8 and 6-6 as an example.
The conceptual diagram is shown about 11, Step 6-12, and Step 6-13 (when a shadow “present” and a hatching pattern are designated as parameters). F-1 is St
It is a dot pattern on the image storage area 1 which is internally filled in ep6-7. F-2 is the result of repeating the transfer by sequentially changing the transfer destination coordinate value in the Step 6-8 shadow processing (F-2, F-3, F-4, F-5, and F-5).
-6 shows a large shift interval for the sake of explanation, but it can actually be changed in the unit of the minimum dot existing in the memory). In F-3, the output pattern portion on the output area is blanked in advance by Step 6-11. Then, the hatching pattern mask F-4 designated by Step 6-12 is applied to obtain F-5. F-
Reference numeral 6 denotes the F-5 transferred to the output area at Step 6-13.

FIG. 12 conceptually shows a process of decoding a plurality of parameter records existing in a parameter set and duplicating and outputting characters with different deformation designations at the same position.
As an example, the existing pattern on the output area is trimmed along the outline of the desired output character, and then the shadow character is output. In this case, for example, "the number of overlapping characters = 3" is specified in the parameter definition << e >> of FIG. 7, and the first sheet: [thickness amount = 2%, shadow amount = (x,
y), hatching pattern = “white”], second sheet: [thickness amount = 1%, shadow amount = (x, y), hatching pattern = “black”] third sheet: [thickness amount = 0%, Shadow = none, hatching pattern = “white”]. By this definition, the designation of the first sheet is set in the parameter record 1, the designation of the second sheet is set in the parameter record 2, and the designation of the third sheet is set in the parameter record 3. F8-1 shows a pattern already existing in the output area. F8-2 shows the result of decoding and outputting the parameter record 1. F8-3
And F8-4 show the results of decoding and outputting the parameter record 2 and the parameter record 3, respectively. F8-4
Is the result of outputting one character for all parameter records set by the parameter definition.

Although the general shadow character output has been described above, the parameter definition in FIG. 7 is transformation designation (<< f >>>><<<<>>>><<<< h >>>> and <<<< i >>).
>), Shadows, outlines, and intermediate coating can be specified independently, so various outputs other than the example of FIG. 12 can be obtained. In principle, there is no limit on the number of parameter records included in the parameter set.

As described above, various fill patterns can be selected for the data that has been coordinate-transformed by scaling to a wider range of sizes than the original data, various transformations, and various expansion methods, and shadows can be easily created. The effect can be obtained.

As described above, it is possible to give a design element to the document creation and the graphic editing by outputting the duplicated characters. Further, it can be combined with any pattern on the existing image memory. Moreover, these effects result in a beautifully finished output by the connected high resolution digital printer. Further, it is possible to provide a system capable of performing high-speed processing with higher quality than before even for the production of headline characters, publication of leaflets, and other printing departments with strong design elements, which has been extremely troublesome in the past.

[0029]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the setting status of a plurality of types of editing processing for a graphic is displayed in a list, and coordinate information representing the graphic is displayed according to the plurality of types of editing processing to be set. It has become possible to provide a graphic processing method capable of performing coordinate conversion processing for.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system overview connection diagram.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram.

FIG. 3 is a memory map diagram.

FIG. 4 is a memory map diagram (VRAM, IMEM).

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an image storage area management table.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a parameter set.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a parameter definition screen.

FIG. 8 is a schematic flowchart.

FIG. 9 is a detailed flowchart.

FIG. 10 is a detailed flowchart.

FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram.

FIG. 12 is a conceptual diagram.

[Explanation of symbols]

 31 system control unit 38 CRT H4 VRAM H5 BMU H6 MPU H7, H8 disk H15, H16 PMEM H17, H18 IMEM

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Yukari Taniguchi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A method for displaying a list of setting states of a plurality of types of editing processing for a figure, and performing coordinate conversion processing for coordinate information representing the figure according to the plurality of types of editing processing to be set. Figure processing method. 2. The graphic processing method according to claim 1, wherein the setting status displayed in a list includes information indicating a size of a graphic. 3. The graphic processing method according to claim 1, wherein the coordinate conversion processing is coordinate transformation processing.