JP2001209640A - Image information converter, image processor, method therefor and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently conduct reorganization in each plotting processing unit and to speed up plotting processing in an image information converter for reorganizing image information for plotting processing. SOLUTION: Image information conversion processing for reconstituting the plotting procedure of image information consisting of two or more plotting units is provided with a step S4 for checking whether the plotting areas of image information expressed by the plotting procedure are superposed to each other or not, a step S5 for dividing plotting processing data in each unit not overlapped when the plotting areas of the image information are superposed to each other and substituting a set of independent plotting areas for the superposed areas and a step S6 for newly writing plotting data in a plotting record (temporary storage area) when the plotting areas are not superposed. Since plotting can be optionally controlled in each plotting processing unit by the reconstituted plotting procedure when forming an image, the processing efficiency of the plotting processing can be improved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image information conversion apparatus which reconfigures a drawing processing method of image data before an image forming processing, and controls the drawing of the image data efficiently to speed up the image forming processing. An image processing apparatus, an image information conversion method, an image processing method, and a computer-readable storage medium, which are applicable to an image processing system including an image processing apparatus controller, an image processing driver, software, and the like mounted on a computer. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Normally, a drawing procedure is described in image data in a predetermined format in a page description language such as PDL. A feature of description of image data in a page description language or the like is that it is defined as a set of drawing data for each area. For example, the image data includes drawing data such as text, a graphics image created by a drawing function, and a natural image obtained by an input device such as a digital camera. In addition, each drawing data may be defined so as to overlap each other. A typical PDL is PostScript (registered trademark) of ADOBE.
The detailed contents of PostScript are described in documents such as the “PostScript Reference Manual” issued by ASCII Publishing Bureau. The PostScript language is generally designed to handle raster image output devices.Characters, graphics, and natural images are raster-expanded on page memory, and for print, color correction, UCR, and dither processing. The output is output to the output device.

By the way, image data drawing processing (expansion)
Can take a long time to develop the drawing procedure,
This is where everything must be developed in the order of the drawing procedure. In other words, even if the drawing process is divided into several processing units, they must be processed sequentially because the order of those processes cannot be changed or each can be processed independently and in parallel. However, this has been a hindrance in performing high-speed processing. In particular, in the ROP processing, there is a problem that the drawing result is different depending on the order of superposition, so that the processing must be performed in order.

[0004] A document processing apparatus and method for generating pixel information from print information described in a print control language such as a page description language. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-11481 discloses a device which is divided into as small units as possible to increase the processing speed and to make corrections in small units.
No. 3 is known.

[0005]

However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-1 / 1991
The document processing apparatus and method described in Japanese Patent No. 14813 divides a drawing process into a plurality of drawing units. However, since there is a dependency between the drawing processes of the divided drawing units, the document processing device and the method are not used in parallel. It does not mention that drawing processing is performed and processing is performed completely independently. That is, the problem is that the processing load for controlling the context of the processing in units of drawing cannot be eliminated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a means for efficiently performing conversion processing for each drawing processing unit in an image information conversion apparatus for reorganizing image information for drawing processing. And A second object of the present invention is to provide a high-speed drawing unit in an image processing apparatus for forming an image using image information. A third aspect of the present invention aims to enhance the user's satisfaction by performing high-speed reorganization of image information using the image information conversion device according to the first aspect. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, an image processing apparatus according to the second aspect performs drawing processing at a high speed, thereby enhancing user satisfaction. A fifth object of the present invention is to provide a computer-readable recording medium in which a program for causing each step of the image information converting method or the image processing method according to the third and fourth functions to function.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has the following arrangement as means for achieving the above object.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, in an image information conversion apparatus for reconstructing a drawing procedure of image information composed of two or more drawing units, the drawing areas of the image information represented by the drawing procedure overlap each other. Overlap determination means to determine whether the drawing area of the image information overlaps each other,
The image processing apparatus further includes a dividing unit that divides the drawing processing data for each non-overlapping unit and replaces the drawing processing data with a set of independent drawing areas.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in an image processing apparatus, an image is formed by using image information represented by a set of independent rendering procedures for each rendering area, which is replaced by the image information conversion apparatus according to the first aspect. It is characterized by having an image forming means for forming.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image information conversion method for reconstructing a drawing procedure of image information composed of two or more drawing units, the drawing areas of the image information represented by the drawing procedure overlap each other. Determining whether or not the drawing areas of the image information overlap each other, and dividing the drawing processing data for each non-overlapping unit and replacing it with a set of independent drawing areas.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image processing method, an image is formed using image information represented by a set of independent rendering procedures for each rendering area, which is replaced by the image information conversion apparatus according to the first aspect. It is characterized by forming.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer readable recording medium, wherein a program for executing the image information converting method or the image processing method according to the third or fourth aspect is recorded.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of an image information conversion apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the embodiments shown in FIGS. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a typical image processing system according to the present invention. The data in the data information source 1 is converted by the image information conversion device 2 via the network N, the converted data is stored in the converted data storage device 3, and the data stored in the converted data storage device 3 is converted. Output to the output device 4 or display on the display device 5. Hereinafter, displaying on the display device 5 is also expressed as outputting on the output device 4.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the concept of processing according to the image processing apparatus and the image processing method of the present invention. A description will be given using image data as shown in FIG. This image data is
An image is formed on an output device by executing drawing processing in order by a drawing sequence as shown in FIG. In the present invention, as shown in (c), five components A, B, C, D, and E are represented by A ', B', A'B ', C,', D ', E', D '. E '
An image is formed on an output device by dividing the drawing sequence into the seven components described above and executing each of the divided drawing processes. The feature is that each of the divided drawing processes can be processed independently of each other. In the example of FIG. 2, seven drawing processes can be executed independently of each other.

[0015] On the other hand, FIG.
This is a disassembled drawing process described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 114813. The fact that the drawing process is divided is the same as that of the present invention, but when the drawing regions overlap each other, the drawing process must be performed while maintaining the order relationship of the drawing sequence. In this example, it is necessary to control so that the drawing processing of B is executed after the drawing processing of A is completed, and the drawing processing of E is executed after the drawing processing of D is completed. Also, since the number of drawing processes that can be processed simultaneously is smaller than in the case of the present invention, there is a limit to speeding up.

FIG. 3 is an example of a block diagram showing the configuration of the image processing apparatus of the present invention. The image data is divided by the image data preprocessing unit 21 of the image information conversion device 2 as described with reference to FIG. 2C, and the divided data is converted into the converted data storage unit of the converted data storage device 3. 31 and an image is formed on the output device 4. That is, the data stored in the converted data storage unit 31 is output to the output device 4.
Is received by the image data receiving unit 41. Image output device 4
In the example, the divided image data received by the image data receiving unit 41 is divided into independent units by the division processing unit 42, and is independently rasterized by the rasterization processing units 43 to 45. It is written to the unit 46. The data written in the shared memory unit 46 is image-formed by the image forming unit 47 and output. Output device 4
Is processed by the processing control unit 40 according to the above flow.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a processing flow in the image data preprocessing section 21 according to the present invention. As described with reference to FIG. 2, the image data preprocessing unit 21 analyzes the drawing sequence of the image data and divides the drawing sequence into drawing processing units that can be processed independently of each other. Consists of steps. (Step 1) The drawing sequence is read. (Step 2) The drawing processing data is sequentially extracted. (Step 3) Check whether the drawing processing data is empty. (Step 4) If the drawing processing data is not empty in step 3, it is checked whether the drawing processing data overlaps the previous drawing data. (Step 5) In step 4, when they overlap, the drawing processing data is divided into non-overlapping units, and instead of deleting the overlapping drawing data from the drawing record, the drawing processing data is divided into processing units of non-overlapping drawing data to be used for drawing recording. Store. (Step 6) In Step 4, if they do not overlap,
New drawing data is added to the drawing record (temporary storage area), and the process returns to step S2. (Step 7) In step 3, when the drawing processing data is empty, that is, when all the drawing sequences have been completed, each of the expanded data obtained by expanding into the drawing unit stored in the drawing record is divided into divided data. The drawing processing data is set, and the processing ends.

A processing procedure for dividing the image data into non-overlapping drawing processing units will be specifically described with reference to the image data shown in FIG. The following is an analysis of (b) in FIG. 2 and a process when (c) is derived, which is sequentially divided into drawing units as follows. (0) Recording is performed in the drawing record while sequentially analyzing the drawing processing in the drawing sequence. However, no drawing record is initially drawn. The drawing record is expressed in parentheses.
The contents of the drawing process are recorded in parentheses. (1) Check the drawing process A. ⇒> Record A as it is.
A is added to the drawing record and becomes (A). (2) Check the drawing process B. ⇒ For> B, the recorded area overlaps with the recorded area A, so delete A from the rendered record and change the rendered record to (A and (not B), (not A) and B, Aand
B). Here, (not X) is a drawing process of not drawing the X portion. X and Y means that both processes are executed in the order of X and Y. At this time, a method of overlaying the rendering process Y with respect to the rendering process X, such as whether to render in the upper layer or in the lower layer, is applied at the time of executing and. (3) Check the drawing process C. ⇒> Record C as it is.
Drawing record C is added, (A and (not B), (not A) an
d B, A and B, C). (4) Check the drawing process D. ⇒> Record D as it is.
D is added to the drawing record, and (A and (not B), (not A) an
d B, A and B, C, D). (5) Check the drawing process E. ⇒ For> E, since the recorded D and the drawing area overlap, D is deleted from the drawing record, and the drawing record is (D and (not E), (not D) and E, Dand
E) is added, and the drawing record is (A and (not B), (not A)
and B, A and B, C, D and (not E), (not D) and E,
D and E). (6) Analyze the drawing record, execute A and (not B), and replace it with A '. Similarly, execute (not A) and B and replace with B ', execute A and B and replace with A'B', and D and (not E)
And replace it with D '. Similarly, execute (not D) and E and replace with E ', execute D and E and replace with D'E'.

Here, the division of the drawing process is performed as shown in FIG.
As shown in the drawing processing division example, when the drawing regions overlap each other, the region of the union of each other can be made into an independent unit.

[0020]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention has the following effects. (1) According to the first aspect of the present invention, in an image information conversion apparatus that reorganizes image information for drawing processing, it is possible to provide a means for efficiently performing drawing processing in units of drawing processing. That is, drawing control can be freely performed at the time of image formation in units of drawing processing, and processing efficiency can be improved. In addition, since the unit of the independent processing is fine, fine drawing control is possible. Such drawing control is particularly suitable when a plurality of processors perform parallel processing. Also, changes made to one independent processing unit
Since it does not reach the other independent processing units, it is possible to make changes at the source file level.

(2) According to the second aspect of the invention, it is possible to provide a means for performing a high-speed drawing process in an image processing apparatus for forming an image using image information.

(3) According to the third aspect of the invention, in an image information conversion method for reorganizing image information for drawing processing, drawing processing can be performed quickly and efficiently for each drawing processing unit. it can. That is, drawing control can be freely performed at the time of image formation in units of drawing processing, and processing efficiency can be improved.

(4) According to the invention of claim 4, in an image processing method for forming an image using image information, drawing processing can be performed quickly and efficiently.

(5) According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide a computer-readable recording medium in which a program for rapidly and efficiently reorganizing image information for drawing processing is recorded. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image processing system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a processing concept according to an image processing apparatus and an image processing method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a process in an image data pre-processing unit of the image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Data transmission source, 2 ... Image information conversion device, 3 ... Conversion data storage device, 4 ... Output device, 5 ... Display device, 21 ...
Image data pre-processing unit, 31... Converted data storage unit, 40
... Processing control unit 41, Image data receiving unit 42, Division processing unit 43, 44, 45 Rasterizing processing unit 46
Shared memory unit 47 image forming unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G06T 11/00 G06F 15/72 A 9A001

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An image information conversion apparatus for reconstructing a drawing procedure of image information comprising two or more drawing units, wherein an overlap determining means for checking whether or not drawing areas of the image information represented by the drawing procedure overlap with each other. And an image information conversion apparatus, wherein, when the drawing areas of the image information overlap with each other, the drawing processing data is divided for each non-overlapping unit and replaced with a set of independent drawing areas. 2. An image forming means for forming an image using image information represented by a set of independent drawing procedures for each drawing area, which is replaced by the image information conversion apparatus according to claim 1. Image processing device. 3. An image information conversion method for reconstructing a drawing procedure of image information composed of two or more drawing units, wherein a step of checking whether or not drawing areas of the image information represented by the drawing procedure overlap with each other; When the drawing areas of the image information overlap each other, the method further comprises a step of dividing the drawing processing data for each non-overlapping unit and replacing it with a set of independent drawing areas. 4. An image processing method for forming an image using image information represented by a set of independent drawing procedures for each drawing area, which is replaced by the image information conversion apparatus according to claim 1. 5. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for executing the image information conversion method or the image processing method according to claim 3 or 4 is recorded.