JP2001205854A - Address printer, address printing system and recording medium having address printing program recorded thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a handwriting style address printer capable of taking a balance of thicknesses of characters by detecting the thickness of the character written an a handwriting original in the case of printing an address and a sender on a postcard, an envelope or the like by handwriting and automatically regulating the thickness. SOLUTION: The address printer comprises a reader for reading image information recorded on the original, a memory for storing the read image information and an output unit for outputting the stored image information to a printing sheet. The stored information has first image information and second image information. A line width of the first information and a line width of the second information are obtained. If the width of the first information is thinner than that of the second information, the first information is thinned or the second information is thickened, and the thinned or thickened information is output to the sheet.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an address printing technique for printing an address or sender written by hand on a postcard or an envelope, and more particularly, to a well-balanced adjustment of the thickness of characters to be printed. The present invention relates to an address printing device, an address printing system, and a recording medium on which an address printing program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, it is difficult to write an address and a sender on a postcard, especially a New Year's postcard or the like by hand if the number of copies is large. Therefore, various printing means have been developed.

For example, a method of drawing using a digital font by using an address printing application of a personal computer is generally used.

[0004] On the other hand, there are many users who write hundreds of addresses each year by hand, even though they are troublesome, because they want to make use of the warmth of handwritten touch instead of type. In order to respond to such a user request, a method of printing a handwritten address manuscript on a postcard or the like,
For example, a method is conceivable in which a handwritten address document is input by an image input device such as a scanner, and the read handwritten image is printed on a postcard or the like by using a printing device. Can create a new year's card with a human touch. For example, as shown in FIG. 15, a manuscript (address card 22) in which address information including the address and the like of the other party is entered and a manuscript (sender card 23) in which sender information including the own address and the like are entered are prepared. In this method, these originals are read by an image input device, the read address information image and the sender information image are laid out, and printed on a postcard 24 using a printing device.

[0005]

However, when address printing is performed in such a manner, the balance between the characters of the address information printed on the postcard 24 and the characters of the sender information may be deteriorated. . For example, if the characters of the sender information are thicker or larger than the characters of the address information, the result will be contrary to the desire to respect the other person and humble yourself. In particular, as described above, the sender information is the sender card 2
3 only needs to be entered, but the address information needs to be entered on a number of address cards 22, and while writing many, the hand becomes tired and the writing pressure becomes weak, It is conceivable that characters become gradually thinner due to a decrease in the amount of ink. Then, there may be a case where the characters of the sender information are thick and fine, and the characters of the address information are thin and poor.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the above-described situation, and when printing an address or sender by hand on a postcard or an envelope, the thickness of a character written on a handwritten manuscript is determined. An address printing device that can balance the thickness of characters by detecting and automatically adjusting the thickness,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an address printing system and a recording medium on which an address printing program is recorded.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a reading section for reading image information described in a document, a storage section for storing the read image information, and a storage section for storing the stored image. An output unit for outputting information to a print sheet, wherein the stored image information comprises first image information and second image information, and the line width of the first image information and the second image When the line width of the second image information is smaller than the line width of the first image information, the line width of the first image information is reduced, or the line width of the second image information is reduced. It is characterized in that the information is thickened and output on the printing paper.

The line width of the image information and the line width of the second image information may be respectively determined from the projection of the first image information and the projection of the second image information. It is characterized by obtaining a line width.

Further, the projection is generated by scanning the image information in a vertical or horizontal direction and counting black pixels.

Further, when there are a plurality of projections for obtaining the line width, a projection having a minimum area of a histogram formed by the projection is selected, and the line width is obtained from the selected projection.

According to the present invention, when printing an address or sender by hand on a postcard or an envelope, the thickness of a character written on a handwritten document is detected, and the thickness is automatically adjusted. You can balance the thickness of the characters.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 14, an address printing apparatus 100 according to the present invention includes a processing unit 20 composed of a personal computer or the like, and a paper feeder for feeding various cards such as postcards 24 for printing addresses to a transport path. Unit 11, a reading unit 12 for reading the contents of various cards, a printing unit 13 for printing on postcards 24, etc., a paper discharging unit 15 for discharging the read cards and printed cards, and repelling cards under predetermined conditions. And a repelling unit 14 for separating the components.

Further, the processing unit 20 is equipped with a recording medium (not shown) that records an address printing program in which the procedure of the address printing process according to the present invention is described. A series of processing control of the address printing apparatus is performed according to a prescribed procedure.

The user 60 fills in blanks on the address card 22 and the sender card 23 in advance. For example, an address, a name, a telephone number, and the like are written as individual sender information in the sender column 231 of “sender 1” of the sender card 23 as shown in FIG. And enter “I” in the classification name 233. In addition, for example, in the case of using company-related sender information or using a joint name with a family member, the "sender 2" and "sender 3" fields can also be entered as the sender. Thus, one sender card 23 as shown in FIG. 15A is created.

Further, a zip code 222, an address and the like 221 of a person to whom a new year's card is sent are written on an address card 22 as shown in FIG. 15 (b), and a plurality of sender patterns are created with the sender card 23. In such a case, which pattern is to be used is marked in a corresponding part of the sender selection column 223. These operations are repeated to create address cards 22 for the number of people sending the New Year's card this time.

The address card 22 and the sender card 23, which have been filled in in advance in this manner, are sent to the address printing device 1
The card set in the sheet feeder 11 is transported to the reading unit 12 in order, and the information written on the card by the reading unit 12 is read as an image.

After the card has been read, the card is delivered to the paper output unit 15.
The read image information is sent to a storage unit such as a memory of the processing unit 20 and stored.

When the reading of all of the address card 22 and the sender card 23 is completed, the processing unit 20 performs a process of creating print data, and stores address information such as a postal code and an address name stored in the memory. And sender information are laid out.

After the print data is created, the postcard 24 is set in the paper feed unit 11, and the address and the sender are printed on the postcard 24. The printed card is sent to the paper output unit 15.
When printing of all the addresses is completed, the process is completed.

The processing described in the present embodiment detects the thickness (line width) of characters of address information and sender information in the above-described printing data creation processing, and automatically adjusts the thickness (thinning to thin lines). / Bold lines). FIG. 1 shows the flow of this line width detection and thinning / thickening processing.

First, an image area in which sender information is written is extracted from the image stored in the memory of the processing unit 20 (Step 11), and the extracted image data is converted into a binary image composed of black pixels and white pixels. (Step 12).

Similarly, an image area in which address information is written is extracted from the image stored in the memory of the processing unit 20 (Step 13), and the extracted image data is converted into a binary image composed of black pixels and white pixels. (Step 14).

Next, in order to detect the thickness (line width) of characters of the address information and the sender information, the projection of the binary image is generated.

Here, a simple example of generating a projection of a binary image is shown in FIG.

FIG. 2A shows binary image data, where the horizontal size is represented by m and the vertical size is represented by n. For example, to generate a horizontal projection,
For y = 1, black pixels are counted from X = 1 to m pixels. Similarly, for y = 2,... Y = n, X =
Black pixels among the pixels 1 to m are counted. By scanning the image data shown in this manner, the projection functions Proj (Y = 1) = 0 and Proj (Y = 2) =
, And a histogram formed by horizontal projection as shown in FIG. 2B can be obtained.

Similarly, in the vertical direction, FIG.
A histogram formed by vertical projection as shown in (c) can be obtained.

Returning to FIG. 1, a process for detecting the thickness (line width) of a character in address information or sender information will be described.
Note that, in the present embodiment, a character that describes each name is extracted from the address information and the sender information, and a character that is estimated to have a small number of strokes is specified from among the characters related to the extracted name. An example of detecting a line width of a specified character will be described.

First, a vertical projection is generated for each of the binary image data of the address information and the binary image data of the address information (Step 15). FIG. 3 illustrates a generation result of the projection 229 of the address information 221, and FIG. 4 illustrates a generation result of the projection 239 of the sender information 231.

Next, the projection 2 obtained in Step 15
An area corresponding to the leftmost one of the peaks 29 and the projection 239 (the hatched portion in FIGS. 3 to 5) is extracted (Step 16). Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, the separation coordinates between the peaks are determined from the peak of the leftmost peak, and the range corresponding to the leftmost peak is determined. The image areas extracted here correspond to portions where names are respectively written.

Next, a horizontal projection is generated for each of the image of the name part of the address information and the image of the name part of the sender information obtained in Step 16 (Step 17).
FIG. 7 illustrates the generation result of the projection 229 of the name portion of the address information 221, and FIG. 6 illustrates the generation result of the projection 239 of the name portion of the sender information 231.

Next, from the projections obtained in Step 17, one character corresponding to the peak having the smallest area of the histogram formed by the projection is extracted (Step 1).
8) Generate a vertical projection of the extracted character (Step 19). FIG. 8 shows characters extracted from the name part of the address information 221, and FIG. 9 shows characters extracted from the name part of the sender information 231. Here, the characters corresponding to the peaks with the smallest area were respectively extracted because the smaller the area of the histogram, the smaller the number of strokes of the corresponding characters, and the smaller the number of strokes, the smaller the character thickness. Can be detected accurately.

Next, the character line width of the character obtained in the previous process is detected (Step 20). Specifically, a value of a portion where the projection is most uniform is obtained from the vertical or horizontal projection, and the value is used as the character line width. T2 in FIG. 8 and t1 in FIG. 9 are character line width lengths.

Next, the character line width (t1, t
Compare 2). That is, the character line width of the sender information (t
1) is compared with the character line width (t2) of the address information (Step 2).
twenty one).

As a result of the comparison in Step 21, if t1 <t2,
That is, when the character line width of the address information is larger than the character line width of the sender information, the process is terminated and printing is performed as it is.

As a result of the comparison in Step 21, if t1 ≧ t2,
That is, if the character line width of the address information is not thicker than the character line width of the sender information, the character line width adjustment processing (Step 22) is performed so that t1 <t2.

Various methods can be considered for the character line width adjustment processing (Step 22).
An application of the thickening processing method for a binary image described in JP-A-313410 can be considered.

As shown in FIG.
A binary image area in which the size in the main scanning direction (horizontal direction) is m, the size in the sub-scanning direction (vertical direction) is n, the position in the main scanning direction is x, and the position in the sub-scanning direction is y By performing scanning using a 3 × 3 determination matrix as shown in FIG. 11, thick line processing is performed. In FIG. 11, the 3 × 3 determination matrix represents the positional relationship among the other pixels A, B, C, D, E, F, and G when the target pixel is I.

The binary image area is scanned in the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction, and the pixel value of the scanned pixel is made to correspond to the target pixel I in the determination matrix, and it is determined whether or not the target pixel I is "black". Then, if it is "black", the following processing is performed.

For example, if the upper right pixel C is “white”, the middle right pixel F is set to “black”. (FIG. 12 (a)).

If the upper left pixel A, the middle upper pixel B, and the middle left pixel D are all "white", the middle pixel E is set to "black". (FIG. 12 (b)).

If the lower left pixel G is "white", the lower middle pixel H
To “black”. (FIG. 12 (c)).

In this way, the binary image area is scanned in the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction, and the thick line processing is performed.

With this thickening process, the character line width adjusting process (Step 22) is performed, and the image described in the address information is thickened. After performing the thick line processing, the projection of the address information is generated again, the character line width (t2) is detected, and the character line width (t1) of the sender information and the character line width (t) of the address information are detected.
2) is compared (Step 21).

In the present embodiment, an example is shown in which the line width of the address information is made thicker by using the above-mentioned thickening process. On the contrary, the line width of the sender information may be made thinner. Various methods can be considered for the thinning processing.
It is also possible to divert the binary image thickening processing method described in 13410 as thinning processing.

After performing the character line width adjustment processing (Step 22),
FIG. 13 shows the result of printing on the postcard 24.

As described above, when printing an address or sender written by hand on a postcard or an envelope,
The character written as the address is analyzed to determine the line width, and the character written as the sender information is also analyzed to determine the line width, and both line widths are compared. Since the line width is adjusted so as to be thicker than the sender, it is possible to perform well-balanced and attractive address printing.

In this embodiment, the method of reading all the address documents first and then performing the output process on all the printing papers has been described. It is also applicable to a method of performing printing on a printer.

In the present embodiment, the thickening / thinning processing has been described as an example. However, for example, the image may be enlarged or reduced by applying image enlargement / reduction processing. You may balance the letters.

In this embodiment, an example is shown in which the name portion is extracted from the address information and the sender information. However, another area such as an address may be used.

In this embodiment, the relationship between the address information and the sender information has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the relationship between the address and the name in the address information may be used. Is also applicable. In other words, when the characters of the address are larger or thicker than the characters of the name, the present invention can make the characters of the name larger or thicker than the characters of the address. Can be better balanced. Similarly, the present invention can be applied to a relationship between a name and a title.

In addition to the relationship between items, if a character is thinner or smaller (thicker or larger) than a predetermined threshold, the character is made thicker or larger (thinner or smaller) than a predetermined threshold. Can also.
For example, characters that are dim and difficult to read can be made thick and easy to read.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments, and various improvements and modifications may be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. .

For example, in this embodiment, New Year's card printing is described as an example. However, the present invention can be applied not only to New Year's card printing, but also to address printing that is sent periodically or irregularly. Needless to say, it can be applied to address labels and the like.

Therefore, the present invention must be limited only by the matters specifying the invention according to the claims that are reasonable from this disclosure.

[0056]

According to the present invention, when printing an address or sender written by hand on a postcard or an envelope, etc., when printing an address or sender by hand on a postcard or an envelope,
By detecting the thickness of a character written in a handwritten document and automatically adjusting the thickness, the thickness of the character can be balanced. As a result, for example, even a handwritten manuscript in which the characters of the sender information are thick and fine and the characters of the address information are thin and poorly written can be provided with a good-looking printed matter.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing operation of an address printing program according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an image diagram showing a processing image of projection generation processing.

FIG. 3 is an image diagram showing an example in which a vertical projection of image data of address information is generated.

FIG. 4 is an image diagram showing an example in which a vertical projection of image data of sender information is generated.

FIG. 5 is an image diagram illustrating separation coordinates of a mountain of a histogram formed by projection.

FIG. 6 is an image diagram showing an example in which a horizontal projection is generated for image data of a name of sender information.

FIG. 7 is an image diagram showing an example in which a horizontal projection is generated for image data of a name of address information.

FIG. 8 is an image diagram showing an example of detecting a character width of a character extracted from a name of sender information.

FIG. 9 is an image diagram showing an example of detecting a character width of a character extracted from a name in address information.

FIG. 10 is an image diagram showing an area of a binary image on which a thick line processing is performed.

FIG. 11 is an image diagram showing a 3 × 3 matrix used in the thick line processing.

FIG. 12 is an image diagram showing a processing operation of the 3 × 3 matrix shown in FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is an image diagram showing an example of a print result of a postcard printed by an address printing device equipped with an address printing program according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration example of an address printing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 is an image diagram showing a sender card, an address card, and a postcard printed by a conventional technique.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11. Paper feeding unit 12. Reading unit 13. Printing unit 14. Repelling unit 15. Discharge unit 20. Processing unit 22. Address Card 23 ... Sender card 24.Postcard 100 .... Address printing device

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI theme coat ゛ (reference) G06F 15/66 415 9A001 F term (reference) 2C062 AA24 2C087 BA02 BA05 BB10 BC07 BD05 5B021 JJ09 5B047 AA01 AB01 CA14 CB09 CB12 CB22 DC09 5B057 AA11 BA02 CA02 CA06 CA12 CB02 CB06 CB12 CC03 CF01 CF02 CH11 CH18 DC19 9A001 JJ35 KK42

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An address printing apparatus comprising: a reading unit that reads image information written on a document; a storage unit that stores the read image information; and an output unit that outputs the stored image information to printing paper. Wherein the stored image information is composed of first image information and second image information, and a line width of the first image information and a line width of the second image information are obtained, respectively. When the line width of the second image information is smaller than the line width of the first image information, the first image information is thinned,
Alternatively, the second image information is converted to a thick line and output on the printing paper. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the line width of the first image information and the second
The line width of the image information is obtained by generating a projection of the first image information and a projection of the second image information, respectively, and calculating each line width from the generated projection. Address printing device as described. 3. The address printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the projection is generated by scanning the image information in a vertical direction or a horizontal direction and counting black pixels. 4. When there are a plurality of projections for obtaining the line width, a projection having a minimum area of a histogram formed by the projection is selected, and the line width is calculated from the selected projection. The address printing device according to claim 3. 5. A step of writing address information including an address and the like on an address card; a step of writing sender information on a sender card; and storing the address card and the sender card in any one of claims 1 to 4. A step of instructing the address printing apparatus to read, and when the line width of the address information is thinner than the line width of the sender information, instructing thinning of the sender information or thickening of the address information. Receiving a printed matter on which the address output from the address printing device is printed, the address printing system comprising: 6. A step of writing address information including an address on an address card, a step of reading the address card by the address printing apparatus according to claim 1, and a step of reading the address card. When the line width of the name information described in the address card is smaller than the line width of the address information described in the above, a step of instructing thinning of the address information or thickening of the name information; Receiving the printed matter printed with the address output from the address printing apparatus. 7. A method according to claim 1, wherein the first image information and the second
A reading step of reading image information consisting of the following image information; a storing step of storing the read image information; and a line width for obtaining a line width of the first image information and a line width of the second image information, respectively. A detecting step, when the line width of the second image information is smaller than the line width of the first image information, thinning the first image information;
Alternatively, the recording medium recording an address printing program, comprising: a line width adjusting step of making the second image information thicker; and an output step of outputting the image information to printing paper. 8. The line width detecting step is characterized in that a projection of the first image information and a projection of the second image information are respectively generated, and respective line widths are obtained from the generated projection. A recording medium on which the address printing program according to claim 7 is recorded. 9. The line width detecting step of generating a projection histogram of the image information by scanning the image information in a vertical or horizontal direction and counting black pixels. 9. The recording medium according to claim 8, wherein the address printing program is recorded. 10. The line width detecting step includes, when there are a plurality of projections for obtaining the line width, selecting a projection having a minimum area of a histogram formed by the projection, and calculating the line width from the selected projection. The recording medium storing the address printing program according to claim 9.