JPH10164356A - Image processing unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To print out only an image of an optional part of an optional page with a simple method without needing a much handling time for a user in an image processing unit such as a copying machine. SOLUTION: In the case of copying images only from a midway of a 2nd page P2 of an original to a midway of a 4th page P4, a user uses color marker to put marks M1, M2 to the midway of the 2nd page P2 of the original and to the midway of the 4th page P4 and instructs that images between the marks M1 and M2 should be printed out. Thus, the image processing unit extracts image data of an image part from the midway of the 2nd page P2 to the midway of the 4th page P4 as the output image data to send out the extracted data to an image output device and the images from the midway of the 2nd page P2 to the midway of the 4th page P4 are printed to 1st to 3rd pages Q1 to Q3 of output paper sheets.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for a printing system (image forming system) such as a copying machine or a printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Copiers or printers that copy or print a document based on image data for each page are:
Conventionally, copying or printing is performed in page units.

Therefore, for example, when a copying machine intends to copy only a part of a document consisting of a large number of pages, all parts of the page to which the part belongs are copied. For example, even if it is necessary to copy and output a portion from the beginning of the first page to the middle of the fifth page of a 10-page document, all the portions from the first page to the fifth page are copied. Even when copying and outputting a portion from the middle of the fourth page to the middle of the sixth page of the document consisting of 10 pages is required, the fourth to sixth pages are required.
Copy everything up to the page.

[0004]

However, in the case where only a part of a document composed of a large number of pages is to be copied, if all the parts of the page to which the part belongs are copied, it is advantageous. The copy that is not printed becomes unnecessary in the first or last page, and the appearance of the document becomes poor.

For example, in a document consisting of 10 pages, the first
"Chapter 1" is described from the beginning of the page to the middle of the fourth page, "Chapter 2" is described from the middle of the fourth page to the middle of the sixth page, and the tenth chapter is described from the middle of the sixth page.
If “Chapter 3” is written by the end of the page and pages 4 to 6 are copied to copy “Chapter 2”, the resulting copy is Part of "Chapter 1" is printed from the beginning to the middle of one page, and part of "Chapter 3" is printed from the middle to the end of the third page.

Further, not only the appearance of the document is deteriorated as described above, but also, for example, in the above example, if it is desired to keep “Chapter 1” and “Chapter 3” confidential, some I can not do it.

However, for example, in the above-described example, blank portions are inserted into the portion from the beginning to the middle of the fourth page of the document and the portion from the middle to the end of the sixth page in order to prevent copying of the respective portions. Paste and copy pages 4-6 of the manuscript, the resulting copy will be
All of "Chapter 1" and "Chapter 3" are not printed, the appearance is improved, and the part to be confidential can be completely confidential. However, doing so is troublesome and troublesome.

Therefore, the present invention provides an image processing apparatus of a printing system such as a copying machine or a printer which copies or prints a document based on image data of each page by a simple method which does not require a user. It is possible to print only an image of an arbitrary part of an arbitrary page, to improve the appearance of the obtained copy or printed matter, and to make the part to be confidential completely confidential. .

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, as an image processing apparatus, input image data for each page and one or a plurality of division positions indicating image division positions inserted into the input image data are provided. Image data acquisition means for acquiring information, and instruction information acquisition means for acquiring divided print instruction information for instructing whether to print an image portion before or after the image division position indicated by the division position information, According to the content of the divided print instruction information obtained by the instruction information obtaining means, an image portion of the input image data obtained by the image data obtaining means before or after the image division position indicated by the division position information And image processing means for extracting the image data as output image data of another job and sending the extracted image data to an image output device.

In this case, the division position information is obtained by reading the mark of a document having a mark indicating the image division position by an image reading device, and the division print instruction information is used by a user interface. Can be obtained by the instruction of the person.

In this case, the input image data, the division position information, and the division print instruction information are taken into the image processing apparatus by the image data acquisition unit and the instruction information acquisition unit via a communication network. be able to.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, as the image processing apparatus, input image data for each page, print start position information indicating a print start position of an image inserted into the input image data, and print end position are displayed. Image data acquisition means for acquiring print end position information, and the input image data obtained by the image data acquisition means, from the image print start position indicated by the print start position information, indicated by the print end position information Image processing means for extracting image data of an image portion up to the image printing end position to be output as output image data and sending the extracted image data to an image output device.

In this case, the print start position information and the print end position information include a mark indicating a print start position and a mark indicating a print end position of a document.
The mark indicating the print start position and the mark indicating the print end position can be obtained by being read by the image reading device.

In this case, the input image data, the print start position information, and the print end position information can be taken into the image processing apparatus by the image data acquisition means via a communication network.

[0015]

In the image processing apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, when a user intends to print only an image portion from a certain position on a certain page to a certain position on a certain page, Then, the user attaches a mark at the image division position on the document by means of a color marking, a mirror-like sticker or a bar code, which can be read by the image reading device as the image division position, and reads the image of the document. The apparatus reads the image data, supplies the image data from the image reading apparatus to the image processing apparatus, and gives divided print instruction information to the image processing apparatus by a user interface, or divides the image data into image division positions of image data for each page. Position information is inserted, divided print instruction information is added to the image data, and the image data is And it sends to the processing unit.

Thus, in the image processing apparatus,
Output image data is generated for an image portion from a predetermined position on a predetermined page to a predetermined position on the predetermined page, and the output image data is sent to the image output device. Therefore, in the image output device, only the image portion from the predetermined position of the predetermined page to the predetermined position of the predetermined page is printed.

For example, when copying an original, when one mark is added in the middle of the third page of the five-page original and an instruction to print the image before the mark is given, the start of the first page is To the middle of the third page are printed.

When a mark is added in the middle of the third page of the same document and an instruction to print the image before the mark and the image after the mark is given, the first job is started as the first job. To the middle of the third page are printed, and as a second job, the images from the middle of the third page to the end of the fifth page are printed.

In the same manner, when a document is copied, marks are respectively provided in the middle of the second page and the middle of the fourth page of the five-page document, and an image between the first mark and the second mark is provided. Is printed, the images from the middle of the second page to the middle of the fourth page are printed.

Therefore, the appearance of the obtained copy or printed matter is improved, and the portion to be confidential can be completely confidential. In addition, for this purpose, the user only needs to mark the original or insert the division position information into the image data, and instruct the user to perform division printing in relation to the mark or division position information. It does not take time and effort.

In the image processing apparatus according to the fourth aspect of the present invention, when a user wants to print only an image portion from a certain position on a certain page to a certain position on a certain page, The user sets the print start position and the print end position of the image at the print start position and the print end position of the image on the document due to a difference in the color of the color marking and a difference in the content of the barcode, respectively. The document is read by an image reading device with two types of marks that can be read as an image, and the image data from the image reading device is supplied to the image processing device, or the image of the image of the image data of each page is supplied. The print start position information and the print end position information are inserted into the print start position and the print end position, and the image data is transmitted through a communication network or the like. And it sends to the image processing apparatus.

Thus, in the image processing apparatus,
Output image data is generated for an image portion from a predetermined position on a predetermined page to a predetermined position on the predetermined page, and the output image data is sent to the image output device. Therefore, in the image output device, only the image portion from the predetermined position of the predetermined page to the predetermined position of the predetermined page is printed.

For example, when a document is copied, a mark indicating a print start position is added at the beginning of the first page of a five-page document, and a mark indicating a print end position is added in the middle of the third page. The image from the beginning of the first page to the middle of the third page is printed.

A mark indicating the print start position is added at the beginning of the first page of the same document, and a mark indicating the print end position is provided in the middle of the third page. When a mark indicating the print start position is added after the mark indicating the position, and a mark indicating the print end position is added at the end of the fifth page,
Images from the beginning of the first page to the middle of the third page are printed as the first job, and images from the middle of the third page to the end of the fifth page are printed as the second job.

In the same manner, when copying a document, a mark indicating a print start position is provided in the middle of the second page of the five-page document, and a mark indicating a print end position is provided in the middle of the fourth page. At times, the images from the middle of the second page to the middle of the fourth page are printed.

Therefore, the appearance of the obtained copy or printed matter is improved, and the part to be confidential can be completely confidential. In addition, for this purpose, the user only has to attach two types of marks to the document or insert the print start position information and the print end position information into the image data, which requires little labor.

[0027]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[First Embodiment] FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a printing system provided with an example of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention, wherein the printing system comprises a printer arranged on a communication network,
This is a case where it is configured as a so-called network printer and has a copying function.

That is, the printing system of this embodiment includes an image reading device 10, an image processing device 20, a user interface 30, a disk storage device 40, and an image output device 50, and the image processing device 20 is connected to a communication network 60. It is composed.

The image reading device 10 corresponds to an image input unit of a digital copying machine, and optically reads a document and outputs image data for each page. The image data for each page from the image reading device 10 is taken into the image processing device 20 as input image data for each page.

In the case where a document is copied by the image reading apparatus 10, when only an image portion from a certain position of a certain page to a certain position of a certain page is to be printed, the user needs to divide the image on the document. A mark is added to the position to indicate that the position is an image division position. If the mark can be read by the image reading device 10 in distinction from an image such as a character or a figure on the document, and if the image processing device 20 can recognize that the mark indicates the image division position,
It may be of any form.

Specifically, for example, marking of a specific color by a color marker may be performed over a certain size. In this case, the image processing apparatus 20 can recognize and separate the mark as division position information from the input image data of each page from the image reading apparatus 10 without using a special configuration.

A mirror-like sticker such as aluminum foil is attached to the image dividing position on the original, and the reflected light from the seal is reflected from the image portion such as characters and figures on the original and the original. From the difference from the reflected light from the white background,
The image division position to which the sticker is attached may be detected.

Further, a sticker on which a bar code having a simple content that can be distinguished from characters or figures on the document may be attached at an image dividing position on the document. If the document may be damaged, a cut may be made at the image division position on the document, and the cut portion may be used as a mark.

The image processing apparatus 20 constitutes an image processing section of a digital copying machine and a printer. In this example, a CPU 22 and a RAM 23 are connected to a system bus 21, and an IIT interface 24 which is an interface to the image reading apparatus 10. , Communication network 60
Network interface 25, IIT interface 24, input / output port 26 for network interface 25, and interface U for user interface 30
An I interface 27, a disk interface 28 that is an interface to the disk storage device 40, and an I interface that is an interface to the image output device 50.
An OT interface 29 is provided.

In the RAM 23, a print control program to be executed by the CPU 22, including a print processing routine to be described later, is written in advance, and as described later, divided print instruction information, print attribute information, divided position information, , And input image data for each page are written. However, the disk storage device 40 is appropriately used for storing image data due to the limitation of the capacity of the RAM 23.

The user interface 30 is used by a user to make settings for copying and to give instructions for the above-described divided printing when copying an original by the image reading apparatus 10. For example, a touch panel as an operation unit When,
It has a bit map display as a display unit, and displays a print setting screen 31 as shown in FIG. 2 at the time of copying.

That is, in this example, a mark indicating the image division position is attached at a maximum of four on the original, and the image on the original can be divided into five at the maximum.
Has the division position indicated by each mark as 1,
Indicated as the second, third, and fourth division positions, and from the beginning of the document to the first division position, the second division position
From the second division position to the third division position, from the third division position to the fourth division position, and from the fourth division position to the end of the document. Keys 1N, 2N, 3N, 4N, and 5 indicating that each image portion is to be printed
N and keys 1F, 2F, 3F, 4F and 5F indicating that printing of the respective image portions should be prevented are displayed.

The print setting screen 31 has a size designation key 6 for designating an output paper size, a numeric keypad 7 for inputting the number of print copies, a copy number display portion 8 for displaying the number of print copies designated by the numeric keypad 7, and A start key 9 for instructing the start of copying is displayed.

For example, when copying only the image from the beginning of the first page to the middle of the third page of a five-page document, one mark is added to the middle of the third page and the print setting is set. The keys 1N and 2F are pressed on the screen 31.

When only the image from the middle of the third page to the end of the fifth page of a five-page document is to be copied, one mark is added to the middle of the third page and the print setting screen 31 Keys 1F and 2N are pressed.

When only the images from the middle of the second page to the middle of the fourth page of the five-page document are to be copied, the first mark is added to the middle of the second page and the fourth page is marked. A second mark is added in the middle of the operation, and keys 1F, 2N and 3F are pressed on the print setting screen 31.

As shown in FIG. 3, the information on the instruction for divided printing obtained by operating the keys 1N to 5N and 1F to 5F is stored in the storage area A1 of the print control program and various information in the RAM 23 as shown in FIG. Written. Further, the output paper size indicated by the size designation key 6 and the number of print copies displayed on the copy number display section 8 are also written in the storage area A1 as print attribute information.

The storage area A1 further stores the above-mentioned mark read data from the image reading device 10 into the CPU.
The division position information obtained by the analysis of step 22, that is, information indicating at which position on which page the image is divided is written.

The input image data for each page from the image reading device 10 is written to another storage area A2 of the RAM 23. However, as described above, the disk storage device 40 is appropriately used for storing image data. Further, a pointer to the input image data is written in the storage area A1.

The image output device 50 constitutes an image output unit of a digital copying machine and a printer. The image output device 50 forms an image on paper or another image forming medium by using output image data from the image processing device 20. The image forming apparatus is a photographic type or another type.

In the communication network 60, a print job in which print attribute information such as an output paper size and the number of copies is added to image information from a job issuing device 70 including a personal computer and a work station to the above-described printing system. Is issued. However, in this case, the image information is not expressed in a page description language or the like and is developed into image data for each page in the image processing apparatus 20, but is image data itself for each page.

When an image is printed by a print job from the job issuing apparatus 70, and only an image portion from a certain position on a certain page to a certain position on a certain page is to be printed, the job issuer Then, it inserts division position information at the image division position of the image data for each page, adds information on an instruction for division printing to the image data into which the division position information has been inserted, and issues a job.

The division position information may be the same data as the above-mentioned mark read data when the image reading apparatus 10 copies a document, and the division printing instruction information may be the above-described mark reading data when the image reading apparatus 10 copies a document. It may be the same as that obtained by operating the keys 1N to 5N and 1F to 5F on the print setting screen 31 of the user interface 30 described above.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a print processing routine executed by the CPU 22 of the image processing apparatus 20 when a document is copied by the image reading apparatus 10. The print processing routine 100 is executed by the user as described above. The original with the mark is set on the image reading apparatus 10 and the user interface 3
The print process is started by operating the start key 9 after specifying the instruction for divided printing, specifying the output paper size and the number of copies on the print setting screen 31 of 0 as described above.

After the processing is started, first, at step 101
, The divided print instruction information is fetched from the user interface 30 and the input image data and mark read data for each page are fetched from the image reading device
The division print instruction information is written into the RAM 23, the input image data is written into the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 40, and the mark read data is converted into division position information indicating which image is divided at which position on which page. Then, the division position information is written into the RAM 23.

Next, the process proceeds to step 102, where the count value i of the division position is set to 1, and further proceeds to step 103, where the divided print instruction information written in the RAM 23 is
It is determined whether to print an image from the (i-1) th division position to the ith division position. (i when i = 1
The -1) th, that is, the 0th division position is the beginning of the document as shown in FIG.

That is, as shown in FIG.
When one mark M is added in the middle of the third page P3 of the document covering five pages from the page P1 to the fifth page P5, the mark M indicates the first division position.
When i = 1, in step 103, it is determined whether to print an image from the beginning of the first page P1 to the middle of the third page P3.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6A, marks M1 and M2 are provided in the middle of the second page P2 and the middle of the fourth page P4 of the original covering five pages from the first page P1 to the fifth page P5. If attached, mark M1
Indicates the first division position, and when i = 1, in step 103, the second page P1 from the beginning of the first page P1
It is determined whether to print an image up to the middle of Step 2.

When it is determined in step 103 that an image from the (i-1) th division position to the i-th division position is to be printed, the process proceeds from step 103 to step 104, where the image is written in the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 40. Based on the input image data and the division position information written in the RAM 23, the (i-1) th division position to i
Output image data for printing an image up to the th division position is generated, that is, (i-
1) The image data of the image portion from the i-th division position to the i-th division position is extracted as the output image data of one job, written into the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 40, and then proceeds to step 105.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5A, while one mark M is added in the middle of the third page P3,
When it is instructed to print only the image before the mark M, or when it is instructed to print the image before the mark M and the image after the mark M, i = 1 In step 104, output image data for printing an image from the beginning of the first page P1 to the middle of the third page P3 is generated and written to the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 40.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the mark M1 is located in the middle of the second page P2 and the middle of the fourth page P4.
And M2, and when it is instructed to print the image before the mark M1 and the image after the mark M2, when i = 1, in step 104, start the first page P1. , Output image data for printing an image up to the middle of the second page P2 is generated,
The data is written to the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 40.

When it is determined in step 103 that the image from the (i-1) th division position to the i-th division position is not to be printed, the process directly proceeds from step 103 to step 1
Go to 05.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5A, while one mark M is added in the middle of the third page P3,
When it is instructed that only the image after the mark M should be printed, when i = 1, the process proceeds directly from step 103 to step 105.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the mark M1 is located in the middle of the second page P2 and the middle of the fourth page P4.
And M2, and mark M1 and mark M
When it is instructed to print only the image between the two, when i = 1, the process proceeds directly from step 103 to step 105.

In step 105, i is incremented by one, and the process further proceeds to step 106 to determine whether or not the incremented i exceeds K, which is the number obtained by adding 1 to the number of marks on the document. Judge. When i does not exceed K, the process returns from step 106 to step 103, and repeats steps 103 to 106. When i exceeds K, the process proceeds from step 106 to step 107.

When one mark M is provided on the document as shown in FIG. 5A, K = 2, and two marks M1 and M2 are formed on the document as shown in FIG. In this case, K = 3. In any case, after i is incremented from 1 to 2 in step 105, it is determined in step 106 that i does not exceed K, and Steps 103 to 106 are repeated.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5A, one mark M is added in the middle of the third page P3, and it is instructed to print only the image after the mark M, or When it is instructed to print the image before M and the image after mark M, when i = 2, based on the determination in step 103, step 10
In the fourth page, from the middle of the third page P3 to the fifth page P5
Is generated and printed in the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 40.

As shown in FIG. 5A, the third page P3
A mark M is added in the middle of
If it is instructed to print only the image before, the process proceeds from step 103 directly to step 105 when i = 2.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the second page P2
When marks M1 and M2 are added in the middle of the fourth page P4 and when it is instructed to print only the image between the marks M1 and M2, i
When = 2, based on the determination in step 103, in step 104, output image data for printing images from the middle of the second page P2 to the middle of the fourth page P4 is generated, and stored in the RAM 23 or the disk storage. Device 4
Written to 0.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6A, the second page P
When marks M1 and M2 are added in the middle of the second page and the fourth page P4, and it is instructed to print the image before the mark M1 and the image after the mark M2, i = 2 In this case, the process proceeds directly from step 103 to step 105.

As described above, when i = 2, step 1
03 and 104 or after the processing in step 103, i is incremented from 2 to 3 in step 105, and it is determined in step 106 whether or not i after the increment exceeds the above K. .

Then, when one mark M is added to the original as shown in FIG. 5A, i exceeds K by incrementing i from 2 to 3. Proceeding to step 107, printing is performed as described below. When two marks M1 and M2 are added to the original as shown in FIG.
Is incremented from 2 to 3, i still does not exceed K, so steps 103 to 106 are repeated.

That is, as shown in FIG. 6A, marks M1 and M2 are added in the middle of the second page P2 and the middle of the fourth page P4, and the image before the mark M1 and the image after the mark M2 are added. Is printed, when i = 3, the image is printed from the middle of the fourth page P4 to the end of the fifth page P5 in step 104 based on the determination in step 103. Is generated and written to the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 40.

As shown in FIG. 6A, the second page P2
When marks M1 and M2 are added in the middle of the fourth page P4 and when it is instructed to print only the image between the marks M1 and M2, i
= 3 directly from step 103 to step 105
Proceed to.

As described above, when i = 3, step 1
03 and 104, or after the processing in step 103, i is incremented from 3 to 4 in step 105, and it is determined in step 106 whether i after the increment exceeds the above K. .

When two marks M1 and M2 are added to the original as shown in FIG. 6A, i exceeds K by incrementing i from 3 to 4. From 106 to step 107,
Printing is performed as follows.

At step 107, the RAM 2
The output image data written in the storage device 3 or the disk storage device 40 is sequentially stored in the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 40.
And is sent to the image output device 50 together with print attribute information indicating the output paper size and the number of copies to be printed, and the image output device 50 executes printing.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5A, one mark M is added in the middle of the third page P3 of the original document covering five pages, and only the image before the mark M should be printed. When instructed, the first page Q1 of the output sheet and the first page Q1 of the output sheet as shown in FIG. Second page Q2
First page P1 and second page P of the manuscript, respectively.
2 is printed as it is, and the third page Q of the output paper
3, an image portion up to the middle of the third page P3 of the document is printed.

When it is instructed to print only the image after the mark M, the output image data of the image from the middle of the third page P3 to the end of the fifth page P5 of the original is As shown in FIG. 3C, an image portion from the middle of the third page P3 of the document is printed on the first page Q1 of the output sheet, and the second page Q2 of the output sheet is printed.
And the third page Q3, the fourth page P of the manuscript, respectively.
The images of the fourth and fifth pages P5 are printed as they are.

Further, when an instruction to print the image before the mark M and the image after the mark M is given,
Based on the output image data of the first job for the images from the beginning of the first page P1 of the document to the middle of the third page P3, as shown in the upper part of FIG. On pages Q1 to Q3, the same print output as that shown in FIG.
3D based on the output image data of the second job for the images from the middle of the third page to the end of the fifth page P5.
As shown in the lower part of FIG.
In Q6, the same print output as that shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 6A, marks M1 and M2 are added in the middle of the second page P2 and the middle of the fourth page P4 of the original document covering five pages, and the mark M1 and the mark M2 are placed between the marks M1 and M2. When it is instructed to print only the image, the output image data of the image from the middle of the second page P2 to the middle of the fourth page P4 of the document as shown in FIG. The image portion from the middle of the second page P2 of the document is printed on the first page Q1 of the output sheet, the image of the third page P3 of the document is printed as it is on the second page Q2 of the output sheet, An image portion up to the middle of the fourth page P4 of the document is printed on the third page Q3.

When it is instructed to print the image before the mark M1 and the image after the mark M2, the image from the beginning of the first page P1 of the document to the middle of the second page P2 is printed. The image of the first page P1 of the document is directly printed on the first page Q1 of the output sheet by the output image data of the first job as shown on the left side of FIG. An image portion up to the middle of the second page P2 of the document is printed on the page Q2, and a fifth page P5 from the middle of the fourth page P4 of the document.
The output image data of the second job for the images up to the end of the image, as shown on the right side of FIG. 10C, the image portion from the middle of the fourth page P4 of the document on the third page Q3 of the output sheet. Is printed, and the fourth page Q4 of the output sheet is printed.
Then, the image of the fifth page P5 of the document is printed as it is.

As described above, the marks M1 and M4 are placed in the middle of the second page P2 and the fourth page P4 of the document.
2 and when pressing the keys 1N, 2F and 3F on the print setting screen 31 of FIG. 2 to instruct that only the image before the mark M1 is to be printed, FIG. As shown, the first and second output sheets
On pages Q1 and Q2, the same print output as shown on the left side of FIG.

Similarly, marks M1 and M2 are added, and keys 1N, 2N and 3
When the user presses F to instruct that the image before the mark M1 and the image between the mark M1 and the mark M2 should be printed, the printout as shown in FIG. A print output as shown in FIG.

Similarly, when marks M1 and M2 are added and keys 1F, 2F and 3N are depressed on print setting screen 31, it is instructed to print only the image after mark M2. , FIG.
As shown in (E), the first and second pages Q of the output paper
At 1 and Q2, the same print output as shown on the right side of FIG.

Similarly, marks M1 and M2 are added, and keys 1F, 2N and 3
When an instruction to print the image between the mark M1 and the mark M2 and the image after the mark M2 is issued by pressing N, the print output as shown in FIG. The print output as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 7A, two marks Ma and Mb can be added to the same page Pn of the document. In this case, when it is instructed that only the image between the mark Ma and the mark Mb should be printed, only the image between the mark Ma and the mark Mb can be printed as shown in FIG. Conversely, if it is instructed that printing of an image between the mark Ma and the mark Mb should be prevented, printing of an image between the mark Ma and the mark Mb is prevented, though not shown.

The above example is a case where a document is copied by the image reading device 10. However, when an image is printed by a print job from the job issuing device 70, the job issuer divides the image into image data for each page. This is exactly the same except that information is inserted, division print instruction information is added, and a job is issued.

According to the above-described first embodiment, the appearance of the obtained copy or print can be improved, and the portion to be confidential can be completely confidential. In addition, for this purpose, the user only needs to mark the original or insert the division position information into the image data, and instruct the user to perform division printing in relation to the mark or division position information. It does not take time and effort.

[Second Embodiment] In the first embodiment described above, one type of mark or division position information is used. However, the mark or division position information indicates the print start position of an image. It is also possible to use two types of marks or information and marks or information indicating the print end position of the image.

That is, when copying an original by the image reading apparatus 10, when only an image portion from a certain position on a certain page to a certain position on a certain page is to be printed, the user needs to copy the image on the original. At the print start position,
A mark indicating the print start position is added,
A mark indicating the print end position is attached to the image print end position on the document.

The mark indicating the print start position and the mark indicating the print end position can be read by the image reading device 10 in distinction from images such as characters and figures on a document, and can be read in distinction from each other. Any form may be used as long as it can recognize that the image processing device 20 indicates the print start position and the print end position.

For example, when marking is performed with a color marker, the color indicating the print start position and the mark indicating the print end position are changed. When marking is performed by attaching a sticker on which a barcode is printed, the contents of the barcode are changed between the mark indicating the print start position and the mark indicating the print end position.

In this case, the image processing device 20 determines the print start position and the print end position of the image from the input image data from the image reading device 10 including the read data of the mark indicating the print start position and the mark indicating the print end position. Must be able to be distinguished from each other,
There is no need to give an instruction for the split printing as described above on the user interface 30.

For example, in the case of printing only an image from the beginning of the first page P1 to the middle of the third page P3 of a document covering five pages as shown in FIG. A mark indicating the print start position is added at the beginning of P1, and a mark indicating the print end position is added in the middle of the third page P3. As a result, a print output as shown in FIG.

Further, an image from the beginning of the first page P1 to the middle of the third page P3 and an image from the middle of the third page P3 to the end of the fifth page P5 of the same original are separately printed. In this case, a mark indicating the print start position is added at the beginning of the first page P1, a mark indicating the print end position is provided in the middle of the third page P3, and the print end position is provided in the middle of the third page P3. The mark indicating the print start position after the mark indicating
At the end of the page P5, a mark indicating the print end position is attached. As a result, a print output as shown in FIG.

Further, in the case of printing only an image from the middle of the second page P2 to the middle of the fourth page P4 of a five-page original as shown in FIG. A mark indicating the print start position is provided in the middle of P2, and a mark indicating the print end position is provided in the middle of the fourth page P4. As a result, a print output as shown in FIG.

The print processing routine for printing in this way is, of course, different from the print processing routine 100 shown in FIG. 4 in that an image from the mark indicating the print start position to the mark indicating the print end position of the input image data is printed. The image data of the portion is sequentially extracted as output image data, and
Or writing to the disk storage device 40, and after extracting and writing all data, the RAM 23 or the disk storage device 4
It is assumed that it is read from 0 and sent to the image output device 50.

When printing an image using a print job from the job issuing apparatus 70, the job issuer inserts print start position information and print end position information into image data for each page and issues a job. , Exactly the same.

According to the second embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment, the appearance of the obtained copy or printed matter is improved, and the part to be confidential is completely confidential. Can be. In addition, for this purpose, the user only has to attach two types of marks to the document or insert the print start position information and the print end position information into the image data, which requires little labor.

[Other Embodiments] It is also possible to print by changing the printing attributes such as the output paper size and the number of copies for each image portion divided by the mark or the division position information.

Further, in combination with the so-called N-up printing of printing a plurality of pages of image data for each page on one side of one sheet, for example, as shown in FIG. When marks M1 and M2 are provided in the middle of the fourth page P4 and when it is instructed to print only the image between the marks M1 and M2, as shown in FIG. An image portion from the middle of the second page P2 of the document is printed in the upper left region R1 of the page, and the third page P3 of the document is printed in the upper right region R2.
Is printed as it is, an image portion up to the middle of the fourth page P4 of the document is printed in the lower left region R3, and a print output in which no image is printed in the lower right region R4 can be obtained.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the image data is taken into the image processing device 20 by the image reading device 10 or from the job issuing device 70 via the communication network 60. ,
Inserting the division position information and adding the division print instruction information,
Alternatively, the image data into which the print start position information and the print end position information are inserted is written into a storage device such as a floppy disk, and the image data read from the storage device is transferred to the image processing device 2 without passing through a communication network.
By taking in 0, the above-described printing can be performed.

[0099]

According to the present invention, in an image processing apparatus of a printing system such as a copying machine or a printer, which copies or prints a document based on image data of each page, a simple and inexpensive operation for a user. According to the method, only an image of an arbitrary portion of an arbitrary page can be printed, the appearance of the obtained copy or printed matter is improved, and a portion to be confidential can be completely confidential.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of a printing system including an example of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print setting screen of a user interface of the printing system in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of information written to a RAM of the image processing apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print processing routine executed by a CPU of the image processing apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a diagram provided for explanation of division printing.

FIG. 6 is a diagram provided for explanation of division printing.

FIG. 7 is a diagram provided for explanation of division printing.

FIG. 8 is a diagram provided for explanation of division printing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 image reading device 20 image processing device 30 user interface 31 print setting screen 40 disk storage device 50 image output device 60 communication network 70 job issuing device M, M1, M2 mark

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Toru Murai KSP R & D Business Park Building Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. 3-2-1, Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa In-house (72) Inventor Ki-Zaki ▼ Hideto Kawasaki, Kanagawa KSP R & D Business Park Building Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. 3-2-1, Sakado, Takatsu-ku, In-house (72) Inventor Kenji Okubo 3-2-1 Sakado, Takatsu-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa KSP R & D Business Park Building Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image data acquiring means for acquiring input image data for each page and one or more division position information indicating an image division position inserted in the input image data; Instruction information acquisition means for acquiring divided print instruction information for instructing whether to print an image portion before or after the indicated image division position, and contents of the divided print instruction information obtained by the instruction information acquisition means Extracting the image data of the image part before or after the image division position indicated by the division position information of the input image data obtained by the image data acquisition unit as output image data of another job. And an image processing means for sending the image to an image output device. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the division position information is obtained by reading the mark of an original on which a mark indicating an image division position is attached by an image reading device. An image processing apparatus, wherein the instruction information is obtained by an instruction of a user through a user interface. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input image data, the division position information, and the division print instruction information are transmitted by the image data acquisition unit and the instruction information acquisition unit via a communication network. An image processing apparatus characterized in that the image processing apparatus is loaded into a computer. 4. Image data for acquiring input image data for each page and print start position information indicating a print start position of an image and print end position information indicating a print end position inserted into the input image data. Acquiring means for the image portion of the input image data obtained by the image data acquiring means, from an image print start position indicated by the print start position information to an image print end position indicated by the print end position information An image processing device comprising: image processing means for extracting image data as output image data and sending the extracted image data to an image output device. 5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the print start position information and the print end position information are:
The image reading apparatus is characterized in that a mark indicating a print start position and a mark indicating a print end position of a document having a mark indicating a print start position and a mark indicating a print end position are obtained by being read by an image reading device. Image processing apparatus. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein said input image data, said print start position information and said print end position information are taken into said image processing device by said image data acquisition means via a communication network. Characteristic image processing device.