JP2001092820A - Device and method for processing document - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the layout of a document from being destroyed even when the expression of the document is changed or the element of the document is replaced with another element. SOLUTION: An expression changing section 120 changes the expressing format of a document in accordance with a designated document type. A cross inspection section 121 inspects objects plotted in the document for their overlapping relation and generates a cross table. The cross table is table-type data describing the ID codes of other objects overlapping each plotted object in the layout arrangement. The cross table of an original document is preserved in a first storing section 122 and the cross table of a changed document is preserved in a second storing section 123. A coincidence comparing section 124 compares both cross tables with each other for inspection. The compared results are notified to the expression changing section 120 and, when both cross tables do not coincide with each other, the section 120 again changes the expressing format of the document.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a document processing technique for performing a document layout conversion process. In particular, the present invention relates to a personalized document technology for adjusting the impression of a document by changing the type and size of the typeface to be displayed and the style expression.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the progress of DTP (Desktop Publishing) technology and the spread of digital printing devices,
A variable information printing system for customizing and outputting a document for each user has been developed. As one of the means for this, various kinds of software for automating the creation of print copies are provided as plug-in modules for DTP software. HARERUPAT manufactured by Nihon Cytex Co., Ltd.
(Trademark) is a plug-in module provided for QuarkXpress (trademark) DTP software manufactured by Quark Japan. This plug-in module automatically flows text data in a database into a designated area in a document.

As a further development of the automatic document layout technology, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-305598 discloses a document layout editing apparatus, a document layout editing method, and a storage medium. A method for setting a value and automatically laying out a standard document according to the sensitivity of a document user is disclosed.

A personal document reconstructing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-27175 stores and saves a standard document together with information on a changeable portion in the document, and can change the standard document according to the personal information of the document user. Beyond the parts, a method for reconstructing a document composed of expressions preferable for each user is disclosed.

[0005] Japanese Patent Application No. 11-49722 discloses a "document processing device and recording medium" that replaces words in a sentence by inputting an impression and changes the stylistic expression to provide a desired impression. Is disclosed.

[0006]

When a custom document is created using the automatic document layout technology and the document component conversion technology described above, the following problems occur.

The above-described conventional document conversion method has the following problem when changing document elements. The display area of a certain document element is enlarged and covers another document element. An unnatural space is generated due to the reduction of the display area. Elements that originally overlap as a design intent are separated from each other due to reduction.

For example, FIG. 17 shows a design in which a graphics object is superimposed on a character object.
Here, if the character object is changed (size reduction, typeface change), the overlapping design may be lost. FIG. 18 shows an example in which characters are arranged very close to each other. Each character is placed at a distance that invades the individual typeface bounding box, and any further repositioning or enlargement of the size will result in overlapping characters. The above problem can be corrected manually if the layout processing is performed under the editor's proofing work as the editing support processing. Is an unavoidable obstacle.

[0009] Expression conversion of sentence contents often involves a change in the number of characters, causing the layout destruction problem described above. For example, the replacement of proper nouns (personal name, address, etc.) in the text, style changes such as endings such as "da", "da", "daiwa", conversion of Kanji / Hiragana notation such as "easy"-"easy", etc. Causes a change in the number of characters. In addition, changes in the number of lines, paragraphs, and pages due to sentence deformation indicate the reference location in the document, such as "I described it on the next page" or "As shown at the bottom." Occasionally, there is a problem that the reference relation of the description is inconsistent with the description of the original document.

The situations in which the text conversion process (customization process) is required as described above include a case where a viewer uses an electronic document by a viewer or a pager via a network, and a case where a printed material is used by a user for contents or style. In this case, it is created and printed out as a hard copy paper. Specifically, when displaying e-mails with mailers or displaying electronic documents on the Web with a browser, customizing a large number of product catalogs, insurance plan proposals, New Year's cards, etc. for each customer by variable printing Printing. In such a field of use, it is preferable that the customization processing of the document is automatically performed at the time of image formation for display and printing, not at the time of document creation or editing. For this purpose, the change processing is performed not in the data format of various application software, but in a data format for image formation, for example, Pod by Adobe Systems.
Various P such as stscript level2 (trademark)
DL language (page description language) or Microsoft
ft's wmf format, Fuji Xerox's DocuWo
It is desirable to be able to execute on the rks ™ file format. However, since these data formats do not presuppose re-editing and do not have information on a document (sentence) structure, it is difficult to readjust the layout by automatic conversion processing.

As described above, when converting a document layout, it is necessary to preserve the spatial arrangement of document components. It is not preferable that elements overlap or occur due to layout change.
For this purpose, it is necessary to precisely determine the overlapping relationship between components, especially characters, but this cannot be realized by the conventional document layout technology. Further, it is difficult to actually inspect all the overlapping relations since it is costly to inspect all the overlapping relations of the document elements in proportion to the square of the number of the document elements.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in consideration of the above problems, and has as its object to carry out document expression conversion without destroying a document layout.

[0013]

In order to achieve the above object, a document processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an expression changing means for changing at least one of an expression style and an expression content of a document component; Intersection inspection means for inspecting the position overlap relationship; first storage means for storing a result of inspection of the original document by the intersection inspection means; and intersection inspection of the changed document subjected to the expression change processing by the expression changing means. A second storage unit that stores the result of the inspection by the unit, and a comparison unit that compares the storage content of the first storage unit with the storage content of the second storage unit to check for consistency,
The expression changing means repeats the expression changing process when the comparison result of the comparing means does not match.

In this configuration, even when the expression style of the component of the document is changed or the component is replaced, the position overlap of the component in the text is automatically made the same as the original one. In addition, the lack of the original design can be easily avoided.

In this configuration, the intersection inspection means includes:
Coarse resolution drawing means for drawing the drawing object at a resolution lower than the output resolution, an inspection plane for storing and holding the ID code of the drawing object as each pixel value, and an intersection relationship between the drawing objects determined by the coarse resolution drawing means are stored. And an intersection table to be held.

Further, the intersection inspection means includes image processing means for expanding or reducing the outer peripheral contour of the rough image by one pixel, and the resolution of the coarse drawing in the intersection inspection processing is set to the minimum proximity distance ε or the minimum distance between drawing elements. Intersection distance ε '
May be set to the reciprocal of.

The intersection inspection means includes: a geometric calculation means for calculating a circumscribed rectangle of the drawing object; and an intersection / inclusion / positional relation between the circumscribed rectangles determined by the geometric calculation means.
It may be configured to include a position comparison unit that calculates any state of separation and an intersection (separation) distance between each other, and an intersection table that stores and holds the positional relationship of the drawing objects.

Further, the expression changing means is a sentence changing means for converting the contents or style of the text; a sentence adjusting means for changing at least one of the character feed width, line spacing, font size, font type and font style; Or a graphics adjustment unit that changes the size and shape of the display area by affine transformation; and an image adjustment unit that executes a raster image enlargement / reduction process.

Further, the document processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises type designation means for deciding the format value of the document element from the impression request of the document, and the sentence changing means, sentence adjusting means, and graphics adjusting means included in the expression changing means. Each of the image adjustment means may execute the change processing according to the format value of the document determined by the type designation means.

Further, the expression changing means includes an expression correction list storing a predetermined correction direction of the expression element, and is notified by the comparing means that the intersection relationship between the original document and the changed document does not match. In such a case, various format values of the document may be corrected and changed in the direction stored in the expression correction list by the set value of the expression element.

A preferred apparatus according to the present invention is a variable printing apparatus including a document processing apparatus, which generates a document configuration based on individual information such as a customer type and performs variable printing output.

A preferred apparatus according to the present invention is an electronic document conversion apparatus, which constructs an electronic document by using predetermined viewer information or user information obtained at the time of viewing a document, and converts the electronic document into a Web document on a client.・ Provided to the browser.

A preferred apparatus according to the present invention is a custom book creating apparatus for creating a custom book by incorporating customer-specific information such as name, place name, and product name into document content.

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, in a document processing method for changing the expression style of a document, an expression changing step of converting at least one of an expression style and an expression content of a document component. When,
A cross-checking step for checking the position overlapping relationship of the components of the document, a first storage step for storing a result of checking the original document in the cross-checking step, and a changed state subjected to the expression changing process in the expression changing step A second storage step of storing the result of inspecting the document in the intersection inspection step, and comparing the storage content stored in the first storage step with the storage content stored in the second storage step to determine consistency. And performing a comparison step of inspecting, wherein the expression changing process repeatedly executes the expression changing process when the result of the comparison process does not match.

Further, the present invention can be realized as a recording medium on which a computer program is recorded, or as an image inspection apparatus.

[0026]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First Embodiment <Overall Configuration> A variable printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a variable printing apparatus having a document conversion function. In FIG. 1, a variable printing apparatus 10, a document database 20, a customer database 21, and a client 22 are connected to a network 23 such as a LAN or a WAN. Client 2
Reference numeral 2 denotes a command PC or a command workstation from which the user of the printing apparatus 10 instructs variable printing. The client 22 is connected to the printing device 10 via a network 23. The document database 20 is a file server connected on the network 23.
Of course, the document data can be transmitted directly from the client 22 such as a command workstation.
The customer database 21 is a database that stores profile information of customers who send printouts. Customer profile information can also be stored on the client 22.

The variable printing apparatus 10 includes a job forming unit 11, a document converting unit 12, an image forming unit 13, a print engine 14, and the like. The job composition unit 11
In response to a print instruction from the client 22, an actual print job is arranged from the document database 20 and the customer database 21 and transferred to the document conversion unit 12. The document conversion unit 12 receives the document data and the specification of the document conversion type, and converts each document into an appropriate content and format. Since the document processing unit 12 plays a central function of the present invention, it will be described later in detail. The image forming unit 13 is a processing unit that receives document data that has undergone document conversion, and executes data interpretation and raster image formation. The print image generated here is the print engine 1
4 is transferred. The print engine 14 is a digital printing machine such as a xerography engine or a liquid developing device, and prints out the image data received from the image forming unit 13 on a paper surface and outputs a hard copy.

<Operation of Overall Apparatus> The operation of the variable printing apparatus 10 will be described below. The print request of the client 22 is job information including a document designation code and a customer list, or an individual customer ID code. Here, the document designation code is a document ID number uniquely attached to each document in the document database 20, whereby the printing user designates a standard fixed-form document such as a guide letter, a greeting card, or an advertisement pamphlet. be able to. The customer list is a set of customer data stored in the customer database 21. Each customer data is composed of customer ID, name, address, gender, age, product tendency, and subcategory information. The sub-category indicates a specific product category code, and usually, a customer list can be formed by specifying this category. In addition, a customer list can be formed by directly specifying a customer ID or by specifying an age and a gender.

The job forming unit 11 receives a print request from the client 22 and actually generates a plurality of print jobs (for the number of customers). That is, the document type is specified from each customer data, and the document data is sent to the document conversion unit 12 together with the document type code. Normally, customer name and customer address data are also attached to document data and used for address printing.

The document conversion unit 12 is a processing unit that actually generates custom document data based on the document data arranged by the job composition unit 11.

Here, the document conversion section 12 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 shows a configuration diagram of the document conversion unit 12.
2, the document conversion unit 12 includes an expression change unit 120,
Intersection inspection unit 121, first storage unit 122, second storage unit 12
3. It is configured to include the coincidence comparison unit 124. The expression changing unit 120 is a processing unit that changes the document expression style according to the specified document type. The document style is specified by the type and size and style of the character typeface, and the size of the inserted figure (illustration) or photograph (raster image). Of course, other various modes may be designated. The intersection checking unit 121 is a processing unit that checks the overlapping relationship between objects drawn in a document. Here, the overlapping relationship of the drawing objects to be inspected is expressed as an intersection table. The intersection table is tabular data that describes, for each drawing object, ID codes of other objects that overlap in the layout arrangement. The result of inspection of the original document by the intersection inspection unit 121 is stored in the first storage unit 122 as an intersection table, and the result of the inspection of the modified document by the intersection inspection unit 121 is stored in the second storage unit 123 as a separate intersection table. . The match comparison unit 124 compares the inspection result of the changed document, that is, the intersection table stored in the second storage unit 123 with the first storage unit 1
A processing unit that compares and inspects the original intersection state stored in the storage unit 22. This result is notified to the expression changing unit 120, and if they do not match, the expression changing unit changes the document format again.

<Expression Changing Unit> FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of FIG. The expression changing unit 120 is a processing unit that changes the format of an input document according to a specified document style. The output result is document data at the same expression level as the input document, and is not a rasterized bitmap image or intermediate image expression. In FIG. 3, the expression changing unit 120 includes a parser 125, a style interpreting unit 126, a replacement processing unit 127, and an expression resource 128. The parser 125 generates a drawing object in an internal intermediate format by lexical interpretation and syntax interpretation of the document data. Of the drawing objects generated from the input document, only those designated by the replacement processing unit 127 are converted into another format. This conversion is defined by the style interpretation unit 126 converting the style specification of the document into a physical format and instructing it. For example, if the document style specification is “young woman”, the font type specification is “maru Gothic” and the font size is “1 size up”. Or, if the document style specification is “sales greeting card”, the font type specification is “Sho Mincho”
Specifies the font size for "standard (no change)" graphics. For these designations, the expression resource 128 is referred to, and only the executable resources are selected. The expression resource 128 only stores a list of resource names, and a resource entity (mainly a font file) is stored in the image forming unit 13 in FIG. In addition, in addition to the typeface conversion, the expression changing unit 120 converts colors (including monochrome conversion),
It performs document conversion processing such as replacement of graphics and raster images (replacement of the same size). However, since the central function of the present invention is to maintain the layout relationship of drawing objects, these functions are included in the configuration of the invention. It does not affect. Hereinafter, the description will be limited to the character change and the intersection check.

<Cross Inspection Unit> The document whose format has been changed by the expression changing unit 120 is checked by the intersection inspection unit 121 for a crossing relationship. The crossing relationship is a mutual overlapping relationship in the page coordinate space. Intersection inspection unit 1 shown in FIG.
The operation will be described with reference to the configuration of FIG. The intersection checking unit 121 receives the input document data (the original document or the document whose format has been changed), draws the document data with a coarse resolution, detects an intersection relationship between drawing objects, and crosses the result. It is recorded as a table. 4, the intersection inspection unit 121 includes a rough drawing control unit 130, a font rasterizer 131, a graphics rasterization 132, an inspection plane 133, and an intersection table 134. The rough drawing control unit 130 includes a font rasterizer 131 and a graphics rasterizer 132 according to a drawing object.
Is used to write the bitmap image of the drawing object into the inspection plane 133. The font rasterizer 131 outputs a bitmap image by giving a font name, a font size, a character code, and a drawing position (coordinate origin). Here, since the output of the character outline shape (what is called a CharacterPath) is not required, all of them are output in a raster uncompressed format. The graphics rasterizer 132 interprets the graphics drawing object, performs graphic processing, and outputs it as a bitmap image. Graphic processing is linear approximation of Bezier curve,
Executes linear approximation of an arc curve, filling of a straight line closed area, and width setting of a straight path. The output format is a bitmap format like the font rasterizer 131. In addition,
In the raster image, only the outline figure (usually a rectangle) is passed to the graphics rasterizer 132, and the outline shape is painted out. The clip graphic is also passed to the graphics rasterizer 132. Since character string drawing is usually clipped in a rectangular area, each character and the clipped figure intersect. Conversely, when a character object that has intersected a certain clip graphic in the original document loses the intersecting relationship due to the document conversion, the character has been clipped out (lost). The purpose of the intersection inspection unit 121 is to detect such a failure.

In this embodiment, as a method of intersection inspection,
An intersection inspection by a rough drawing method and an intersection inspection by a circumscribed rectangle method described below are used. These will be described in detail later, but will be briefly described here. FIG. 5 shows an intersection inspection by the rough drawing method, in which a rasterized image having a lower resolution than the actual one is generated for each object to be drawn and written on a predetermined inspection plane. In the figure, "X" is rasterized and written. When the pixels of the raster image are written, if there is already a raster image value of another object, it is determined that the objects intersect. As will be described later in detail, in this embodiment, the writing of the raster image is performed not by using the pixel value but by using the ID of the object.

FIG. 6 shows an outline of the intersection inspection by the circumscribed rectangle method. As shown in FIG. 6, a circumscribed rectangle of each object is defined, and when they intersect, it is approximated that the objects intersect. This judgment is defined by geometric conditions.

<Cross inspection by coarse drawing method> Font rasterizer 131 and graphics rasterizer 132
In the two methods, the pixels of the inspection plane 133 are filled with the ID code value of each object, instead of filling the drawing area with the color code as in the normal drawing processing. This process is shown in FIG. In the drawing object bit-mapped by each of the rasterizers 131 and 132, first, one writing pixel is selected (S11). This pixel position is checked on the inspection plane, and it is inspected whether it is already written, that is, whether any object ID code is given (S12). Here, if the ID code exists, the intersection table 1
At 34, the ID code is written in the column of the drawing object (S13). The above processing is performed for all pixels (S14).

The state of the intersection table 134 is as shown in the lower section of FIG. The left column of the table is the drawing object code, and the right column is the drawing object code where the objects intersect (that is, overlap). If the same ID code already exists,
The code writing process is skipped. The upper part of FIG. 8 shows the data structure of the inspection plane 133. The inspection plane 133 is in the form of a pointer array, and the ID code of the drawing object written in each pixel is stored and accumulated in a list form, and is referred to from each cell in the pixel array. Thus, even if each pixel in the inspection plane 133 is overwritten by a plurality of drawing objects, all the drawing objects existing there can be stored and held. However, as a limited use, when designing the intersection inspection unit 121 under the condition that all drawing objects do not intersect each other, the inspection plane 1
33 need only determine the pixels that have been written.
In this case, the data structure of the inspection plane 133 is 1 bit
An array (indicating that data has been written) may be used.

FIG. 9 shows how the intersection inspection unit 121 inspects the overlapping relationship between drawing objects. Here, the result of writing the drawing object 2 after the drawing object 1 on the inspection plane 133 is shown. Since the area of the drawing object 2 does not enter even one pixel with respect to the area of the drawing object 1, the ID code of the drawing object 1 is not described in the column of the intersection table object 2. Here, the inspection plane 133 has an actual resolution of the image forming unit (400 spi or 600 spi: s
a coarser resolution than the dot perch, eg 7
It is preferable to perform drawing at 2 spi, 25 spi, or the like. However, drawing may be performed at the actual resolution, and the processing accuracy is higher at the actual resolution.

Extended Processing for Non-Cross Inspection Further, it will be described below that the cross-independence relationship can be quantitatively inspected by specifying such a coarse resolution. First, draw each drawing object at least by the distance ε
Just want to keep them apart. At this time, the resolution R of the rough drawing process is set to

[0040]

## EQU1 ## Set R = 1 / ε. The drawing object checked on the inspection plane is subjected to a process of thickening by one pixel in order to guarantee that the drawing object is separated by the distance ε. That is, one extra pixel is added around the output result image of the font rasterizer 131 and the graphics rasterizer 132.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing this extension processing. First, one pixel of interest is picked up from the rasterized drawing object (S21). The selection order of the pixels may be the scan line order. Next, the pixels near the target pixel 8 are inspected (S22), and if they are background pixels (pixels not drawn), they are turned on (drawn pixels) (S23, S24). For this rewriting, a different plane is used, or a value different from the original pixel value is set so that it can be distinguished from the original pixel during inspection. When this inspection and rewriting operation is performed for all drawing pixels (S25), an image in which one pixel around the original image is thickened can be generated.

This extended processing may be performed by the above-described raster scanning method. However, when a run-length code is generated by scan conversion processing as the final stage when rasterizing fonts or graphics, the start and end points of each run are determined. Can be easily implemented by extending pixel by pixel in the left-right direction.

Such an extension process generates an extension area of the object 2 in FIG. The fact that this extended area also does not violate the area of object 1 guarantees that the two objects are separated by at least ε, a separation distance of at most 3√2ε. Here, the two objects take the maximum distance from each other when the actual image area exists at a far end point of each lattice and is arranged diagonally to each other.

Reduction processing for intersection inspection In exactly the same way, by executing reduction processing for reducing the periphery of an image by one pixel, it is possible to guarantee the amount of intersection. FIG. 13 shows the procedure of the degeneration process.

First, one pixel of interest is picked up from the rasterized drawing object image (S31). The selection order may be the scan line order. Next, the pixels near the target pixel 8 are inspected (S32), and if they are background pixels (pixels not drawn), they are set as background pixels (S33, S34). For this rewriting, a different plane is used, or the background pixel value to be rewritten is set to a value different from the original background pixel value (normally 0) so that it can be distinguished from the original background pixel during inspection. When this inspection and rewriting operation is performed for all drawing pixels (S35), an image in which one pixel around the original image is degenerated is generated.

FIG. 10 shows a state in which the images thus degenerated intersect. Here, a solid line indicates a true image area, and a hatched portion indicates a reduced area of the object 1 and a reduced area of the object 2. In this example,
Since there is a common part of the degenerate areas of each other (that is, the degenerate area of the object 2 invades the degenerate area of the object 1), it indicates that these two objects 1 and 2 always intersect by ε ′ or more. . This is because this intersection area is always included in each object as a square shape with one side ε ′.

The above-described expansion and reduction processing is performed by setting the coarse resolution to 1 / ε, and also by executing the processing at the actual resolution (output resolution) or at an arbitrarily determined resolution.
There is a method of performing pixel expansion and reduction processing.
That is, the distance ε1 (unit: inches, 2.
54 cm) and the distance ε2 (unit: inch, 2.54 cm) to be overlapped is determined in advance, and based on the actual resolution or an arbitrary resolution R (1 / inch, inch is 2.54 cm) Then, the number of expanded poxels P1 and the number of reduced pixels P2 are calculated as follows.

[0048]

## EQU2 ## P1 = round (R × ε1) P2 = trunc (R × ε2) where round is a rounded-up integer operation, trun
c is a truncation integer operation.

The above-described pixel expansion process is repeated only P1 times and the reduction process is repeated P2 times, thereby performing the intersection determination process.

When the above-described rough drawing method is applied to an original document for inspection, the inspection is performed with a sufficiently high resolution of about half to １ ／ of the output resolution. This is because the purpose of the original document inspection is not to inspect the intersection relationship under the intersection distance ε, but to precisely measure whether or not the intersection is true regardless of the mutual distance. If the inspection is performed with an excessively coarse resolution during the inspection of the original document, an error occurs in which a separation relationship is not extracted when the objects are very close.

<Cross Inspection Using the Circumscribed Rectangle Method> The inspection of the intersection relationship described above can be more easily performed using the circumscribed rectangle of the drawing object. In the case of a linear figure, the circumscribed rectangle of a certain object can be obtained by recording the minimum value and the maximum value of the coordinate series of the path point. That is, the circumscribed rectangle is two points

[0052]

(3) (min Xi, max Yi), (max
Xi, min Yi) as an upper left point and a lower right point. Where min Xi, min Yi, max X
i and min Yi indicate the minimum value and the maximum value of the coordinate value series Xi and Yi.

Although it is difficult to analytically determine the circumscribed rectangle of a closed curve formed by a Bezier curve or a conic curve, these are all converted to a bitmap after a linearization process. 2 above for point lists
Find the points. Also, the font information often has circumscribed rectangle information (bounding box size) in the font file. In that case, the data may be used directly.

In order to explain the intersection inspection using the circumscribed rectangle, a circumscribed rectangle BB1 is divided into the above-mentioned two points LU1 (LX1, HY).
1), RD1 (HX1, LY1). here,
The four points are an upper left point, a lower left point, a lower right point, and an upper right point, respectively. Similarly, BB2 is replaced with LU2 (LX2, HY2), RD2
(HX2, HY2). Two circumscribed rectangles can have three relationships: crossing each other, being included, or sparse from each other. The conditions under which two circumscribed rectangles fall into one of these three relationships are shown.

Intersection condition of circumscribed rectangle 1) Intersection with each other At least one point of BB2 is within the BB1 area, and at least one point is outside the BB1 area.

[0056]

That is, LX1 <LX2 <HX1 OR LX
1 <HX2 <HX1 and LY1 <LY2 <HY1 OR LY1 <HY2 <
HY1 2) Inclusion All four points of BB2 are in the BB1 area. That is,

[0057]

LX1 <LX2 AND HX2 <HX1 A
ND LY1 <LY2 AND HY2 <HY1 3) Sparse from each other All four points of BB2 are outside the BB1 area.

[0058]

That is, HX1 <LX2 OR HX2 <
LX1 or HY1 <LY2 OR HY2 <LY1 The positional relationship between the two circumscribed rectangles can be determined by simple condition determination as described above. And the distance between the two rectangles or the distance at which they intersect is: 1) When they intersect each other

[0059]

DX = (HX1-LX2): When LX1 <LX2 <HX1 (HX2-LX1): When LX1 <HX2 <HX1 DY = (HY1-LY2): When LY1 <LY2 <HY1 (HY2- LY1): When LY1 <HY2 <HY1, max (DX, DY) can be defined as the intersection distance ε ′. 2) When sparse

[0060]

(Equation 8) Then, min (DX, DY) can be defined as the separation distance ε.

The present invention can be implemented by using the above intersection inspection method instead of the rough drawing method. However, when this intersection detection method is used, there is an error that the actual drawing elements do not overlap even if the circumscribed rectangles overlap, and an error that the distance is larger than the separation distance ε.

FIG. 11 shows a simple example in which the circumscribed rectangles of the drawing objects are arranged in a sparse positional relationship with the intersection. FIG. 15 shows an example in which the mutual distance between a character and a clip graphic is obtained by the circumscribed rectangle method.

FIG. 16 shows an example of an intersection table when the circumscribed rectangle method is used. In the circumscribed rectangle method, with respect to each object, the object ID of the object that intersects the object and the included object and the intersection distance are stored. At the time of the intersection inspection, it is determined whether the distance is greater than or equal to the set value ε, or whether the distance is equal to or greater than the set value ε ′. The circumscribed rectangle method has a particularly useful function.
This is the inspection of the clip object. That is, since the character object usually has a clip frame, the "inclusion relation" with the clip object must be maintained even after the document change processing. For example, since each page of a document has a rectangular clip object called a page clip which represents the entire page, all objects included in the page clip must be included even after the document is changed. Such an inclusive relation is completely guaranteed by the circumscribed rectangle method.

<Inspection of Entire Object> When any one of the two types of intersection inspection processing described above is used, it is determined how far (or overlapping) a certain drawing object is from another drawing object. . This check is performed for all drawing objects. This procedure is shown in the flowchart of FIG. The procedure will be described with reference to the drawings.

Procedure for inspecting all objects First, an object N to be inspected is selected (S41).
This may be the order in which the drawing data is generated (that is, the drawing order). Next, the intersection of the object N is determined on the inspection plane (S42). If no intersection is found (S
43), NULL is described in the object N column of the intersection table, and the next object is inspected. If an intersection is found, the object N is subjected to a one-pixel reduction process (S44). This is because the original image before the degeneration may have approached the grid size ε or less even though it does not actually intersect. The crossing relationship with the drawing object group on the inspection plane is checked by the object N that has been subjected to the reduction processing, and the result is described in the crossing table (S45, S46). The above processing is repeated for all objects (S
47).

The grounds for performing the above procedure utilize the situation that in a real document, most objects are spatially independent and intersections do not occur frequently. That is, in practice, the frequency of passing through the S4-S5 path including the costly degeneration processing is extremely low, so that the processing can be advanced efficiently. Further, as described above, the determination of intersection between all objects increases the computational cost in the case of the circumscribed rectangle method, so that the inspection may be performed only on the objects before and after (or N before and after) in the drawing object sequence. . this is,
This is an efficient processing configuration for character objects drawn in a spatially continuous sequence.

<Matching Comparison Unit> By the above procedure, the crossing relationship for all the drawing objects in the document is expressed in the crossing table. Next, the match comparison unit 124 compares the intersection table of the original document and the intersection table of the changed document in the order of the drawing object IDs, so that the intersection (independent) state of the objects is the same in each of the two documents. Inspect That is, in this comparative test,
The contents of each column of the intersection table of the original document and the intersection table of the changed document are collated in the order of the drawing object ID.
If the two tables match, the original document and the modified document have a "crossing (overlap)" relationship in the intersection relationship of each drawing object, and a "separation" relationship It is perfectly assured that it remains "separated". Further, when the intersection determination is based on the rough drawing method, it is guaranteed that they are at least ε apart and at least ε ′ overlap.

As a criterion for the comparative inspection, the number of inconsistencies E is stored and set in advance even if such complete matching is not performed. If the frequency of occurrence of inconsistency in the intersection table between the original document and the modified document is equal to or less than E, For example, the result can be output as "match". Still further, by limiting the drawing object, it is possible to set a rule that, for example, only characters are not allowed to cross. For example, in FIG. 8, object 3 intersects object 4 and object 5. Here, in the intersection table of the original document, object 3
Column is 0 (no intersection). At this time, the object types of the object 4 and the object 5 are checked, and if they are not characters, the result is not a mismatch. This object type check can be performed by attaching a type attribute to each object column of the intersection table. Object type is character
Four types of graphics raster clips are suitable setting examples.

Alternatively, the permissible frequency E
May be provided so as to allow less than that, while the occurrence of a new intersection is never allowed. As described above, the matching criterion of the comparison unit can be set variously according to the purpose of the apparatus, and does not limit the scope of the invention to the described configuration.

<Re-change processing based on correction list> Comparison unit 1
If the check result of 24 is “match”, the conversion process of the expression change 120 is adopted. If the inspection result is “mismatch”, the expression changing unit 120 converts the document format again by changing the font and size operation. At this time, the document change attribute held by the expression change unit 120 includes reference information of the change direction. Specifically, the expression changing unit 120
In the format value selection table, the format value changing direction in the case of intersection disappearance and in the case of intersection occurrence is stored as follows.

[0071]

[Table 1] The expression changing unit 120 specifies an object type in which a difference has occurred by comparing the intersection tables. Next, referring to the above table, when an intersection occurs, the format value is shifted to the left side of the table, and when the existing intersection (overlap) is lost, the format value is shifted to the right side of the table. To try to resolve the discrepancy in the intersection test results. For example, if the drawing object is a character and an intersection that does not exist in the original document occurs, the font size is reduced by one point, and in the case of bold style, this is changed to a standard typeface. If the intersection between the raster and the graphics object has disappeared, an attempt is made to restore the intersection by increasing both sizes by 5%. The size of the graphics object can be easily changed by changing the coordinate transformation matrix.

At this time, the change may be controlled by changing all the operations of the related format to the correction side, or by changing one format item and repeating the inspection in order to avoid unnecessary operations. Can also. If the intersection change table does not match even if the expression change unit 120 repeats the processing loop a predetermined number of times L, the expression change unit 120 stops the change and outputs the original original document data.

In the above description, all the drawing object types are treated the same, but in practice, the inspection of the intersecting relationship may be limited to only characters. Alternatively, one of the preferred embodiments is to allow characters to overwrite graphics and rasters, and to prohibit the reverse. This can be implemented by adding an object type column to the intersection table and limiting the drawing objects by including the object type in the comparison condition when the match comparison unit compares the intersection table.

According to the above-described procedure, the document data for which the document format change processing and the intersecting relationship have been confirmed are transmitted to the image forming unit 13 (FIG. 1) and rasterized at the actual resolution of the print engine 14. The generated bitmap image is sent to the print engine as a video signal. The print engine outputs a paper sheet (letter) customized for each customer.

[Second Embodiment] FIG. 17 shows the configuration of a custom browsing system 50 according to a second embodiment of the present invention. The client 51 is a PC or a workstation provided with a Web browser, and sends an electronic document (H on a HomePage) via a network 52.
TML file). The management unit 53 analyzes the transmission request from the client 51 and the user information, and transmits the HTML file 54 stored and accumulated. The management unit 53 collates the user list 56 with the transmission request source address to determine an appropriate user type, that is, a document type. The document conversion unit 55 is a document format changing device having the configuration shown in FIG. 2 and has an intersecting relationship inspection unit. Here, the expression changing unit 120 uses the HTML
Change the typeface, character size, and expression by parsing the file. The changed HTML file is transmitted to the client 51 that has requested transmission, and the client 51
Can browse an electronic document whose expression style is customized for each user. According to the configuration of the present invention, the creator of an electronic document (HTML file) can create a user-specific document format without preparing a special control procedure and calling an external command resource in the HTML sequence for changing the document format. Can be provided. Or,
By storing a ready-made HTML document in the browsing system 50 according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a document suitable for the needs of the user, and thus it is possible to effectively utilize the document assets accumulated so far.

[Third Embodiment] FIG. 18 shows the configuration of a custom book creation system 60 according to a third embodiment of the present invention. The client 61 is connected to the network 66
Via a book creation system. The client 61 specifies the unique information of the book, that is, the character, the place name, the style feature, the typeface feature, and the illustration type. The customization inspection unit 62 inspects the spatial positional relationship of the drawing objects constituting the paper surface of the custom book, and inspects that there is no difference from the standard book. The customization management unit 63 selects a standard book from the book file 65 according to the request of the client 61, drives the document conversion unit 64 to perform the book customization processing, and the customization inspection unit 62 performs the standard book and the customization book Inspect for differences. Document conversion unit 64
Implements not only changes in typeface and graphics, but also changes in document content and stylistic expression. When the inspection is successful, the customization management unit 63 transmits the customized book description file to the client 61. Alternatively, the description file is transferred to a printing device (for example, the printer 67) in accordance with an instruction from the client 61, and the hard page of the book is printed out.

This embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the input data to the document conversion section 64 is not drawing data for printing,
The application file format describes a standard book. Therefore, the constituent elements of each document are character strings having attribute values such as line spacing and character spacing information, rather than fine granularity such as character units. Therefore, in the document conversion of the custom book generation system 60, the text content can be changed. This is "I""I""I"
Or a personal expression such as
Ending expressions such as
It is implemented by switching the kanji notation such as kana. Therefore, the document change unit 64 includes a personal expression database, a sentence end expression database, and a kana-kanji notation dictionary. These stylistic attribute values are specified by the customization management unit 63. The customization management unit 63 determines these attribute values by estimating from the individual (specific) specification of the user, from the age and gender of the user group, or from the impression specification of the custom book. "Soft"
Specifying these stylistic features from an impression designation such as "manly" is performed by a known kansei engineering technique. This technique is described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. 11-049722. Of course, other similar techniques can be employed. The customization management unit 63 selects and specifies an appropriate style feature value by using a multiple regression prediction formula between the impression value and the style feature. When the stylistic features are specified, the text of the standard book, for example, "I thought I sat down because there was a large stump." So I thought and sat down. " Alternatively, the personal expression may be replaced with a designated proper noun (person name).

In this example, the number of characters in the sentence is increased by four characters due to the conversion of the sentence expression. This has the potential to expand the text clipping box. When these character objects have clipping objects, the enlarged clipper covers other drawing objects, for example, a raster object of an illustration. Alternatively, if the character is not clipped and directly overwrites the undercolor, some characters are overwritten on the raster object of the illustration. The customization inspection unit 62 detects the occurrence of such a new crossing relationship by the procedure described in the first embodiment. The difference in the intersecting relationship between the standard book and the customized book is notified to the customization management unit 63. Upon receiving the notification result, the customizing management unit 63 receives
4 is again instructed for customization processing. Document conversion unit 64
Avoids the enlargement of the clipper or the occurrence of overlapping characters by reducing the character size, reducing the character feed width, and reducing the raster object. As a result of this change process again,
When the customization inspection unit 62 confirms the coincidence of the two, the expression-converted custom book is transferred to the client or a printing device (not shown). On the paper of this custom book, it is assured that no overlapping of characters and no crossing interference of unintended graphics occurs.

[0079]

As described above, according to the document processing apparatus of the present invention, when a custom document in which the type and size of the typeface constituting the document, the style of sentence expression, and the like are changed is created, the overlap of characters is reduced. Obstacles in the document layout design, such as loss of overlap, can be avoided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a custom printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a basic configuration diagram of a document conversion unit 12 according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of an expression changing unit 120 of the document conversion unit 12.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an intersection inspection unit 121 of the document conversion unit 12.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of a determination process by a rough drawing method.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram of a determination process based on a circumscribed rectangle method.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the intersection inspection unit 121.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an inspection plane 133 and an intersection table 134 of the intersection inspection unit 121.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of non-intersection.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of intersection.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining intersection by a general rectangle.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an enlargement of an image.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating image degeneration.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart showing a procedure for determining intersection of drawing objects.

FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining an inspection state of an inter-object distance based on a circumscribed rectangle.

FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an intersection table of the circumscribed rectangle method.

FIG. 17 is a configuration diagram of a custom browser according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a configuration diagram of a custom book according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an example of an intended overlapping design of a character object and graphics.

FIG. 20 is a diagram showing a design example of a character object arranged very close.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Variable printing apparatus 11 Job composition part 12 Document conversion part 13 Image formation part 14 Print engine 20 Document database 21 Customer database 22 Client 23 Network 50 Custom browsing system 51 Client 52 Network 53 Management part 54 HTML file 56 User list 55 Document conversion part Reference Signs List 60 Custom book creation system 61 Client 62 Customization inspection unit 63 Customization management unit 64 Document conversion unit 65 Book file 66 Network 67 Printer 120 Expression change unit 121 Intersection inspection unit 122 First storage unit 123 Second storage unit 124 Matching comparison unit 125 Parser 126 Style interpreter 127 Replacement processor 128 Expression resource 130 Intersection checker 131 Font / raster writing 132 graphics rasterization 133 inspection plane 134 intersects table

Claims (18)

[Claims] 1. A document processing apparatus for changing an expression style of a document, comprising: an expression changing means for changing at least one of an expression style and an expression content of a document component; and a position overlapping relationship between the components of the document. Intersection inspection means, first storage means for storing a result of inspection of the original document by the intersection inspection means, and a result of the intersection inspection means inspecting the changed document subjected to expression change processing by the expression changing means. A second storage unit for storing, and a comparing unit for comparing the storage contents of the first storage unit and the storage contents of the second storage unit to check for a match, wherein the expression changing unit performs the comparison. If the determination results of the means do not match, the expression changing process is repeatedly executed. 2. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:
The intersection inspection means includes: a coarse resolution drawing means for drawing a drawing object at an output resolution or a resolution lower than the output resolution; an inspection plane for storing and holding an ID code of the drawing object as each pixel value; And an intersection table for storing and maintaining the determined intersection of the drawing objects. 3. The document processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein
The intersection inspection unit further includes an image processing unit that expands or reduces the outer contour of the rough image by one pixel, and sets the resolution of the coarse drawing in the intersection inspection process to a minimum proximity distance ε or a minimum intersection distance ε between drawing elements. Set the reciprocal of '. 4. The document processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein
The intersection inspection means further comprises an image processing means for expanding or reducing the outer contour of the rough image by a predetermined n pixels. 5. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:
The intersection inspection means includes: a geometric calculation means for calculating a circumscribed rectangle of the drawing object; and a positional relationship between the circumscribed rectangles obtained by the geometric calculation means in any one of the states of intersection / inclusive / separation and intersection distance or separation between each other. A configuration including a position comparison unit that calculates a distance and an intersection table that stores and holds the positional relationship of the drawing objects. 6. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:
The expression changing means is a sentence changing means for changing the contents or style of the text; a sentence adjusting means for changing at least one of the character feed width, line spacing, font size, font type and font style; and displayed by affine transformation of graphic elements One that includes at least one of a graphics adjustment unit that changes the size and shape of the region; and an image adjustment unit that executes a raster image scaling process. 7. The document processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein:
Further, a type designating means for determining a format value of a document element from a document impression request is provided, and each of the sentence changing means, sentence adjusting means, graphics adjusting means and image adjusting means included in the expression changing means is provided with the type designating means Executes the change process according to the format value of the document determined in. 8. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:
The expression changing means includes an expression correction list that stores a predetermined correction direction of the expression element, and when notified by the comparing means that the intersection relationship between the original document and the changed document is inconsistent, the expression modification list is stored. A device for modifying and changing various format values of a document in a direction in which a set value is stored in the expression correction list. 9. A variable printing apparatus including the document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the variable printing apparatus generates a document configuration based on individual information such as a customer type and performs variable print output. 10. An electronic document conversion apparatus including the document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electronic document conversion apparatus uses predetermined viewer information or user information obtained at the time of viewing the document. What constitutes a document and provides it to a web browser on the client. 11. A custom book creation device including the document processing device according to claim 1, wherein customer-specific information such as a name, a place name, and a product name is taken into document content to create a custom book. What to create. 12. A document processing method for changing the expression style of a document, comprising: an expression changing step of converting an expression style or an expression content of a document component; and a cross-checking step of inspecting a positional overlap relationship between the document components. When,
A first storage step of storing a result of inspection of the original document in the intersection inspection step, and a second storage of the result of inspection in the intersection inspection step of the changed document subjected to the expression change processing in the expression change step. A storing step, and a comparing step of comparing the stored content stored in the first storing step with the stored content stored in the second storing step to check for consistency,
When the comparison result in the comparing step does not match, the expression changing step processing is repeatedly executed. 13. A computer-readable recording medium on which a computer program for document processing for changing the expression style of a document is recorded, wherein an expression changing step of converting an expression style or expression content of a document component; A cross-checking step for checking the positional overlapping relationship of the components, a first storage step for storing a result of checking the original document in the cross-checking step, and a changed document subjected to the expression changing process in the expression changing step. A second storage step for storing the result of the inspection in the intersection inspection step, and comparing the storage content stored in the first storage step with the storage content stored in the second storage step to check for consistency. If the comparison result in the comparison step and the comparison step do not match, change the expression A computer-readable recording medium used to cause a computer to execute a control step of repeatedly executing step processing. 14. A document processing apparatus for changing an expression style of a document, comprising: an expression changing means for changing at least one of an expression style and an expression content of a document component;
Intersecting means for inspecting the position overlapping relationship of the components of the document in at least a part of the area, first storage means for storing the result of the original document being inspected by the intersecting means, and expression changing means A second storage unit that stores the result of the intersection inspection unit inspecting the modified document subjected to the modification processing, and compares the storage contents of the first storage unit and the storage contents of the second storage unit. A comparing unit, wherein the expression changing unit repeats the expression changing process when the comparison result of the comparing unit indicates that the consistency of the stored contents is insufficient. 15. A document processing apparatus for changing an expression style of a document, comprising: an expression changing means for changing at least one of an expression style and an expression content of a document component.
Cross-checking means for checking the positional overlap relationship of the components of the document in at least a part of the area; and means for comparing the inspection result with a target positional overlap relationship. When the result of the comparison indicates that the consistency with the position overlapping relationship is insufficient, the expression changing means repeats the expression changing process. 16. The document processing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the target position overlap relationship is such that predetermined components of the document are separated by a predetermined rule. 17. The document processing apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the target position overlapping relationship is that predetermined components of the document overlap with each other according to a predetermined rule. 18. An image inspection apparatus for inspecting an image display of a document, comprising: an intersection inspection unit for inspecting a positional overlap relationship between components of the document; and an intersection inspection unit for storing a result of inspection of the original document by the intersection inspection unit. One storage means, a second storage means for storing the result of the intersection inspection means inspecting the changed document subjected to the expression change processing by the expression change means, and the storage contents of the first storage means and A comparing means for comparing the stored contents of the second storage means with each other to check the coincidence, and outputting a comparison result of the comparing means as a test result of the document image.