JP2000187725A - Image processor and image processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To save the memory capacity and reading time for storing a character as an image. SOLUTION: Text data 612 are stored in a memory 602 as the attribute of image data 611 of plural resolution values corresponding to an image together with the image data 611. At the time of outputting an image, the image data of a certain resolution matched with the resolution of a printer 631 are selected by a selector 621 and the text is rasterized by a rasterizer based on the resolution. The selected image data and the text are composited by an image composition module 624 and the composited image is outputted by the printer 631.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for outputting image data from a storage medium storing image data to an output device having various resolutions such as a display or a printer. And an image processing apparatus and method for synthesizing high-quality character and graphic data in an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 shows a conventional image format.
As shown in FIG. 2, the image file is divided into a header part and an image data part. Generally, the header section stores information necessary for reading data from the image file and additional information explaining the content of the image. In the example of FIG. 2, information such as an image format identifier indicating the image format name, file size, image width / height / depth, presence / absence of compression, color palette information, resolution, and offset to the image data storage position. Is stored. The image data section is a section that stores image data sequentially. As typical examples of such an image format, a BMP format by Microsoft and a GIF format by Compuserve are widely used.

[0003]

In the conventional image format, character string data, graphic data, and the like are also developed and stored as images. Therefore, a large storage capacity is required, and data transfer from the storage medium is required. Requires a large amount of bus capacity and transfer time, and further requires resolution conversion according to the output device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned prior art, and provides an image processing apparatus and method capable of reducing the storage capacity for storing data such as character strings and figures and shortening the time for reading data. The purpose is to provide.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention has the following arrangement. That is, storage means for storing image data having a plurality of resolutions and code data such as text for one image data, output means for outputting image data, and image data having a resolution which can be output by the output means. Selecting means for selecting from a plurality of resolutions of image data stored in the storage means; developing means for expanding the code data as image data having a resolution that can be output by the output means; Image data, and combining means for combining the image data selected by the selecting means,
The image data combined by the combining unit is output by the output unit.

Preferably, the storage means stores, as the code data, at least one of a character position, a character shape, and a character size, in addition to the character code.

Preferably, the output means can select one of a plurality of resolutions, and the selection means and the development means select and develop the image data according to the resolution selected by the output means.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One of the image formats is FlashPix (FlashPix is Eastman USA) which is an image data format having a plurality of resolutions for image data.
Kodak is a registered trademark, the same applies hereinafter) file format. In the present embodiment, a case where image data is stored in the FlashPix format will be described.

In the FlashPix file format, FIG.
, The image attribute information and the image data stored in the image header section are further structured and stored in a file. This structured image file is shown in FIGS.

[0010] Each property and data in the image file are stored in MS, an operating system of MicroSoft.
-Access by storage and stream corresponding to DOS directories and files. 3 and 4, the shadowed portions (reference numerals 301 to 305) are storages, and the non-shadowed portions (reference numerals 306 to 311) are streams. 3 and 4, image data and image attribute information are stored in a stream portion. Source Fla of Figure 4
shPix image object or Result FlashPiximage obj
ect has the structure shown in FIG.

In FIG. 3, image data is hierarchized at different resolutions.
ge, and Resolution 0, 1,... n (reference numerals 302 to 30)
This is indicated by 5). For each resolution image, information necessary to read the image is stored in the Subimage header 302b.
And the image data is stored in the Subimage data 302a.

FIG. 8 shows the configuration of the Subimage header 302b. As shown in FIG. 8, the Subimage header 302b includes a header length (Length of heasder stream header), an image width (Image width), an image height (Image height), and the number of tiles (Number of tiles; It stores the tile width (Tile width), the tile height (Tile height), and the like.

A property set is defined by classifying attribute information according to the purpose of use and the contents.
Info.Property Set306, Image Info.Property Set3
09, Image Content Property Set 308, Extension
There is a list property Set 310.

Next, each property set will be described.

[0015] Summary Info.Property Set 306 is Flash
It is not a Pix-specific property, but is a required property set in Microsoft's structured storage. It stores the title, title, author, thumbnail image, etc. of the file.

The Image Content Property Set 308 is an attribute that describes a method for storing image data (FIG. 7). This attribute contains the number of layers of the image data (Number of Resolutio
n), Highest Resolution widt
h), height (Highest Resolution height), and width (Subimage width) and height (Sub
image height), color configuration (Subimage color), definition of quantization table / Huffman table when JPEG compression is used (JPEG tables), etc. are described.

The Image Info.Property Set 309 stores various information that can be used when using an image, for example, information on how the image is captured and how it can be used. The information includes the following.・ Information on how to import and / or generate digital data (File Source) ・ Information on copyright (Intellectural property) ・ Information on the content of the image (person, location, etc. in the image)
(Content description) ・ Information about the camera used for shooting (Camera informat
information on camera settings (exposure, shutter speed, focal length, use of flash, etc.)
(Per Picture camera settings) ・ Information on resolution and mosaic filter specific to digital camera (Digital camera characterization) ・ Information such as film manufacturer name, product name, type (negative / positive, color / black and white) (Film description) ・ Original Information about the type and size when the document is a book or print (Original document scan description) ・ For scanned images, information about the scanner and software used and the person who operated it (Scandevice) Extension list property Set 310 is the FlashPix
This area is used when adding information that is not included in the basic specifications.

FlashPix Image View Object 401 in FIG.
Is an image file that stores viewing parameters and image data used when displaying an image. The viewing parameter is a set of processing coefficients stored for adapting the processing of image rotation, enlargement / reduction, movement, color conversion, and filtering when displaying an image.

Source / Result FlashPix Image Object
Is an entity of FlashPix image data, and Source FlashPi
x Image Object 402 is required, Result FlashPix Image
Object 403 is optional. Source FlashPix Im
age Object 402 is the original image data, Result
The FlashPix Image Object 403 stores an image obtained as a result of image processing using viewing parameters.

Source / Result desc. Property set 40
8, 409 are property sets for identifying image data, including an image ID, a property set for which change is prohibited,
Stores the last update date and time.

Transform property set 410 includes rotation,
Affine conversion coefficients for enlargement / reduction and movement, a color conversion matrix, contrast adjustment values, and filtering coefficients are stored.

Next, the handling of image data will be described.

FIG. 5 shows an example of an image file composed of a plurality of images having different resolutions. In FIG. 5, the image of the maximum resolution has a column × row composed of X0 × Y0, the next largest image is X0 / 2 × Y0 / 2, and thereafter,
The size of each column and row is reduced by 繰 り 返, and the process is repeated until both columns and rows are equal to or less than 64 pixels.

As a result of the hierarchization as described above, “the number of layers in one image file” as the attribute information of the image, and the header information and the image described in the section of the conventional image format for the image of each layer Data is needed. The number of layers in one image file, the width of the image with the highest resolution,
Information on the height or the width, height, color configuration, compression method, and the like of the image at each resolution is described in the Image Contents Property Set 308 as shown in FIG.

Further, the image of each resolution layer is divided into tiles as shown in FIG. One tile is 6
It has a spread of 4 × 64 pixels. If the image is divided into 64 × 64 tiles sequentially from the upper left corner, blanks may occur in some of the right and lower end tiles depending on the image. In this case, 64 × 64 pixels are constructed by repeatedly inserting the rightmost image or the lowermost image.
In FlashPix, the image in each tile is stored by any of JPEG compression, single color, and non-compression. JPEG compression is based on ISO / IEC JTC1 / SC
This is an image compression method internationally standardized by the standard 29, and the description of the method itself is omitted here.

The image data divided in this way is
The total number of tiles, the size of each tile, the starting position of data, and the compression method are stored in the subimage data stream (FIG. 8).

The single color is a method of expressing the color of a tile in one color without recording the value of each pixel only when all the tiles are composed of the same color. . This method is particularly useful for images generated by computer graphics.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show the extension list pro.
Has a perty set. In the apparatus of the present embodiment, text data and text position data indicating the position, text font information indicating a font type, text size information indicating a text size, and text are modified in the Extension list property Set. Fields such as text qualification information that represent information for storing. In this case, a code or the like indicating that text data is stored is added to the head of the Extension list property Set. Further, each field may be fixed length or variable length.

This text data is, for example, text inserted at the time of photographing or editing using a superimposing function of the photographing device or the editing device. However, it is necessary to perform the input using a code or to recognize characters after inputting by handwriting. The text entered in this way is the extension list prope
Stored in rty Set.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 601 denotes the entire apparatus, 602 denotes a memory for storing image data based on the FlashPix file format, text information, and text attribute information, 603 denotes an output control unit for controlling output, and 604 denotes an output control unit. Reference numeral 605 denotes an output device, and 605 denotes an external control unit. FIG. 9 shows a control procedure by the output control unit 603.

Hereinafter, the output procedure of the image data will be described with reference to FIGS.

When the output control unit 603 receives a signal of an output request from the external control unit 605, first, the output device 604
The selector 621 selects image data having a resolution corresponding to the output resolution of the printer 631 from the image data 1 to the image data 611 (step S901). Next, the text-related information is read by the text decoder 622 (step S902). This allows
The text decoder 622 loads the text data 1, the text position data 1, the text font information 1, the text size information 1, and the text modification information 1 from the memory 602, and combines the resolution information according to the output resolution of the printer 631 with The text information is sent to the rasterizer 623.

Next, the text is rasterized by the rasterizer 623 at a pixel density corresponding to the resolution of the output device 604 (step S903). Thus, the rasterizer 623 converts the text information into bitmap information.

Finally, the image data and the text are combined by the image combining module 624 (step S90).
4). As a result, the bitmap information converted from the text data and the image data selected by the selector 621 are transmitted to the image synthesizing module 624, and the image synthesizing module 624 converts the image data selected by the selector 621 from the rasterizer 623. Based on the text position information sent from the text decoder 622, a synthesized image is created from the sent bitmap image of the text.

The created composite image is output to a printer 631, and an image having a resolution suitable for the resolution of the printer and text are printed out.

As described above, according to the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment, since the characters are stored in the memory as the text data, the required memory requirement can be reduced. Further, the time required for reading data can be reduced.

Further, optimal image data can be provided for output devices having various resolutions.

Note that not only characters can be synthesized,
It can be applied to straight lines, curves, and various graphic data. In addition, as for the method of synthesizing a text, not only a simple overwriting synthesis but also a method of designating various synthesis modes such as a watermark synthesis and a blur synthesis can be applied.

In recent years, a display used in a personal computer or the like is mainly a multi-scan type which supports several kinds of resolutions. For such an output device, the resolution information obtained from the output device is transmitted to the selector 621 of the output control 603 and the text decoder 622, so that the output device that supports several types of resolutions is optimized. It is possible to provide an output image obtained by combining image data and text data.

[0040]

[Other Embodiments] Even if the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus (for example, a copying machine) Machine, facsimile machine, etc.).

Another object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium storing the program code of the procedure shown in FIG. 9 for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiment to a system or apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus. Or MPU) reads and executes the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium implements the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) Performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

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, based on the instructions of the program code, The case where the CPU of the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by the processing.

When the present invention is applied to the storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the above-described flowcharts. Each module shown will be stored in a storage medium.

[0047]

As described above, characters, figures, etc.
By storing the attribute information of the image as a code, the required storage capacity can be reduced, and the time required for reading data can be reduced. Further, optimal image data can be provided to output devices having various resolutions.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a conventional image format.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structured image file structure of FlashPix ™.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a structured image file structure of FlashPix ™.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a FlashPix ™ multi-resolution image structure.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating tile division of an image in layers of each resolution.

[Figure 7] Image Content related to FlashPix ™ image attributes
It is a figure showing s Property Set.

Fig. 8: Subiimage hea related to FlashPix ™ image attributes
It is a figure showing der.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a control procedure of the image processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A storage unit for storing image data of a plurality of resolutions and code data such as text for one image data, an output unit for outputting image data, and a resolution which can be output by the output unit. Image data
Selecting means for selecting from a plurality of resolutions of image data stored in the storage means; developing means for developing the code data as image data having a resolution that can be output by the output means; An image processing apparatus, comprising: synthesizing means for synthesizing image data and image data selected by the selecting means, wherein the image data synthesized by the synthesizing means is output by the output means. 2. The storage means as code data
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information on at least one of a character position, a character shape, and a character size is stored in addition to the character code. 3. The output means can select one of a plurality of resolutions, and the selection means and development means select and develop image data according to the resolution selected by the output means. The image processing device according to claim 1. 4. An image processing method for outputting image data read from storage means for storing image data of a plurality of resolutions and code data such as text for one image data by an output means, Image data of a resolution that can be output by means
A selection step of selecting from a plurality of resolutions of image data stored in the storage means; a development step of developing the code data as image data of a resolution that can be output by the output means; An image processing method, comprising: a synthesizing step of synthesizing image data and image data selected by the selecting means, wherein the image data synthesized by the synthesizing step is output by the output means. 5. The storage means as code data,
5. The image processing method according to claim 4, wherein information on at least one of a character position, a character shape, and a character size is stored in addition to the character code. 6. The output unit can select one of a plurality of resolutions, and the selecting step and the expanding step select and expand image data according to the resolution selected by the output unit. The image processing method according to claim 4. 7. A computer-readable program for storing a program for outputting image data read from storage means for storing image data of a plurality of resolutions and code data such as text for one image data by an output means. A storage medium, wherein the program is configured to output image data having a resolution that can be output by the output unit.
A selection step of selecting from a plurality of resolutions of image data stored in the storage means; a development step of developing the code data as image data of a resolution that can be output by the output means; A storage medium, comprising: a combining step of combining image data and image data selected by the selection unit.