JP2002044465A - Image data generating apparatus, image outputting apparatus, image output control unit, image outputting system, image data generating method and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve generating speed of data of image. SOLUTION: A color/monochrome judging part 132 judges whether each of the plurality of partial images (bands) obtained by dividing the image is a color image or a monochrome image. A lender 133 forms image data of color for a partial image which is judged as being color, and generate monochrome image data for a partial image which is judged as being monochrome.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an image data generating device, an image output device (for example, a printer), an image output control device (for example, a print control device, more specifically, a personal computer, etc.), an image output system, The present invention relates to a method for generating image data and a recording medium. It should be noted that an image in the present specification is a concept including characters such as characters and numbers, in addition to a so-called narrow image such as a figure, a picture (illustration), and a photograph. And images composed of illustrations.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image output apparatus (for example, a laser printer) using a printer engine which outputs an image at a constant speed, a method for reliably outputting an image based on image data sent from an image output control apparatus. There is a method of preparing a memory having a capacity necessary for storing image data of the entire image. In this method, image data of the entire image is obtained from the image data, stored in a memory, and then output.

However, an image output apparatus using this method needs to prepare a large-capacity memory for storing image data of the entire image, which results in an increase in the price and size of the apparatus.

To avoid this, banding is performed by dividing the entire image into a plurality of bands, sequentially creating image data for each band, storing the image data in a band memory, and sequentially transferring them to a printer engine. There is a method called. Here, the band memory is a memory area for storing image data of a band. Generally, an area capable of storing image data of a plurality of bands is prepared and used sequentially. With banding,
After transferring the image data to the printer engine, the memory area where the image data was stored can be used to store the image data of the next band,
The amount of memory required for the image output device can be reduced.

FIG. 1 shows an image in K bands (partial images).
It is a figure showing the example divided into. Image data generation processing (render processing) is performed in order from the first band (first band) of the image 1. Based on the generated image data, the printer engine performs image output processing in parallel with the rendering processing.

Further, in the conventional image output apparatus, switching between color and monochrome image processing is performed on a job-by-job basis.
Image processing (such as generation of image data) is generally faster in monochrome than in color.

[0007]

An image handled by an image output device is often composed of a monochrome portion and a color portion. Among such image bands, some bands include only objects (primitives) drawn in monochrome, some bands include objects drawn in monochrome and color, and some bands include color. Some bands contain only a group of objects.

However, in the conventional image output apparatus, color image processing or monochrome image processing is uniformly performed on all bands. For example, even if an image of one page is composed of a text and a picture, only the picture is color, and there is a band including only an object (text) drawn in monochrome, the entire page, that is, Color image processing was performed uniformly for all bands. Generating color image data for all bands takes a long time to generate.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to generate color image data for a color partial image (band) and generate monochrome image data for a monochrome partial image, thereby reducing the generation speed of the image data. It is to improve.

[0010]

To achieve the above object, an image data generating apparatus according to the present invention is an image data generating apparatus for generating image data of a partial image obtained by dividing an image, A determination unit that determines whether the partial image is color or monochrome, and generates color image data for the partial image determined to be color by the determination unit, and determines that the partial image is monochrome by the determination unit. Generating means for generating monochrome image data for the determined partial image;

Here, when the partial image includes an object to be drawn in color, the determining means determines that the partial image is in color, and the object to be drawn in color in the partial image. Is not included, it can be determined that the partial image is monochrome.

An image output device according to the present invention includes the image data generation device.

An image output control device according to the present invention includes the image data generation device.

An image output system according to the present invention is an image output system including an image output control device and an image output device, wherein the image output control device converts a partial image obtained by dividing an image into a color image. The image output device generates color image data for the partial image determined to be color by the determination unit, and determines whether the partial image is monochrome by the determination unit. For the partial image determined as, there is provided generating means for generating monochrome image data.

An image data generating method according to the present invention is an image data generating method for generating image data of a partial image obtained by dividing an image, and determines whether the partial image is color or monochrome. A determining step of
Generating a color image data for the partial image determined to be color by the determination step, and generating monochrome image data for the partial image determined to be monochrome by the determination step .

A computer-readable recording medium according to the present invention stores a program for causing a computer to execute the image data generating method.

According to the above configuration, the speed of generating image data of an image can be improved.

[0018]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

(First Embodiment) FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an image output apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. The image output device 102 according to the present embodiment includes a CPU
121, memory 122, printer engine 117, printer engine controller 123, interface 12
5 and a band memory 127. CPU121
Can take the form of a microprocessor, and performs various controls. The memory 122 has an interpreter 113
A program for performing the above processing is stored. The printer engine 117 includes the printer engine controller 12
Under the control of 3, an image is output based on the image data stored in the band memory 127. Image output control device 1
The image data from 01 is input via the interface 125.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing each function and data flow of the image output apparatus according to this embodiment.

The interpreter 113 includes a parser 131,
It comprises a color / monochrome determination unit 132, a render 133, and a color conversion unit 134. In the present embodiment, the parser 131, the color / monochrome determination unit 132,
The render 133 and the color conversion unit 134 are realized by software, and are stored in the memory 122 in the form of program codes.
, But all or a part thereof may be realized by hardware.

The parser 131 includes the image output control device 10
The PDL (Page Description Language) command, which is the image data transmitted from the server 1, is analyzed, classified for each drawing object, and a display list is generated. The display list describes objects to be drawn (displayed) and their attributes (coordinates, colors, etc.).

In the present embodiment, the image is divided by the parser 131.

The color / monochrome determination section 132 determines, for each band, whether the band is color or monochrome and generates determination information. In the present embodiment, when a band includes an object to be drawn in color, the color / monochrome determination unit 132 determines that the band is in color, and the band includes an object to be drawn in color. If not, it is determined that the band is monochrome.

The render 133 generates image data for each band based on the display list.
At this time, it is determined based on the determination information whether the target band is a color band or a monochrome band.

If the target band is color, color image data is generated. In the present embodiment, the color image data generated by the render 133 is such that each pixel of the image is represented by R (red) and G (green).
And B (blue) density (multi-valued) image data.

On the other hand, if the target band is monochrome, monochrome image data is generated. In the present embodiment, the monochrome image data generated by the render 133 is image data in which each pixel of the image is represented by a density (multi-valued) of only K (black), and is generated faster than color image data. be able to.
In addition, monochrome image data requires less memory than storage of color image data.

The color conversion unit 134 performs color model conversion and conversion from multi-valued color density to binary value for each band.

When the input image data is color image data, the color conversion unit 134 converts the RGB color model into a C (cyan) M (magenta) Y (yellow) K (black) color model. That is, image data represented by RGB multi-values is converted into image data represented by CMYK multi-values. Even when the input image data is monochrome image data, the CM
The image data is converted into image data represented by YK multi-values. In this case, the data of K may be used as it is, and the densities of C, M and Y may be omitted. Therefore, the conversion processing speed is faster in the case of monochrome than in the case of color.

Next, the color conversion unit 134 converts the image data expressed by CMYK multi-values into a CM using, for example, a dither method.
The image data is converted into image data represented by the YK2 value. If the target band is monochrome, the conversion process only needs to be performed on the K data. Therefore, the conversion processing speed is faster in the case of monochrome than in the case of color.

The image data represented by CMYK2 values output from the color conversion unit 134 is sent to the printer engine 117 via the band memory 127. The printer engine 117 outputs an image based on the image data.

In the present embodiment, the image is divided into bands at the stage of the display list, and it is determined whether the band is color or monochrome based on the display list of each band. The band may be divided, and whether the band is color or monochrome may be determined based on the PDL command of each band.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an image output control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. Image output control device 201 according to the present embodiment
Is a CPU 221, a memory 222, an interface 2
25, an input means 226 and a display 227, and can take the form of, for example, a personal computer. The memory 222 stores programs for processing the interpreter 213, the application software 211, and the printer driver 212. These programs are stored in the memory 222,
The information may be stored in a hard disk or the like, or may be stored in a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a CD-ROM, or the like, and may be read into the memory 222 or the hard disk before execution. Image output device 202
Is output via the interface 225. The input means 226 is, for example, a keyboard and a mouse. The display 227 is for displaying information related to image output and the like.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing each function and data flow of the image output control device according to this embodiment.

The application software 211 is
A computer program (for example, a word processor) designed to assist the user in performing some work, such as processing text and graphics. When a print request is issued, drawing such as "draw a straight line" or "draw a character" Command (for example, Microsoft Windows GDI
Command).

The printer driver 212 converts a drawing command into a PDL command. PDL is an interpreted programming language for integrally describing data such as text and graphics in page units. P
Examples of the DL include WPL of Tokyo Denki Sekkei, Post Script of Adobe Systems, and PCL of Hewlett-Packard.

The interpreter 213 includes a parser 231,
It comprises a color / monochrome determination section 232, a render 233, and a color conversion section 234. In the present embodiment, a parser 231, a color / monochrome determination unit 232,
The render 233 and the color converter 234 are realized by software, and are stored in the memory 222 in the form of program codes.
, But all or a part thereof may be realized by hardware.

In this embodiment, as in the first embodiment, an image is divided by a parser 231 and a color / monochrome determination unit 232 determines whether each band is color or monochrome. The determination is performed, and based on the determination result (determination information), the render 233 generates color image data or monochrome image data for each band. The image data output by the color conversion unit 234 is transmitted to the image output device 202.

Also in the present embodiment, the image is divided into bands at the stage of the display list, and it is determined whether the band is color or monochrome based on the display list of each band. May be used to divide the image into bands and determine whether the band is color or monochrome based on the drawing command or PDL command for each band.

(Others) Various embodiments other than the above-described embodiment are conceivable. For example, the image data transmitted from the image output control device to the image output device need not be at the stage of the PDL command or the image data, but can be at the stage of the display list, for example.

It is conceivable that the image output control device determines whether each band is color or monochrome, and the image output device performs image data generation processing based on the determination result. More specifically, for example, the image is divided by a parser of the image output control device, and
After the monochrome determination unit determines whether each band is color or monochrome, the display list is transmitted to the image output device, and the image output device performs color image data or monochrome image based on the determination result. It is possible to generate data.

Further, the method of dividing the image is not limited to the horizontal division as shown in FIG.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The speed of generating image data of an image can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example in which an image is divided into K bands (partial images).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image output device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating functions and data flows of the image output apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image output control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing functions and data flows of an image output control device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Image 101, 201 Image output control device 102, 202 Image output device 113, 213 Interpreter 117 Printer engine 121, 221 CPU 122, 222 Memory 123 Printer engine control device 125, 225 Interface 127 Band memory 131, 231 Parser 132, 232 Color・ Monochrome determination unit 133, 233 Render 134, 234 Color conversion unit 211 Application software 212 Printer driver 226 Input unit 227 Display

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI theme coat ゛ (reference) H04N 1/60 H04N 1/40 D 5C079 F term (reference) 2C262 AA24 AB19 EA04 EA06 EA17 GA14 5B021 AA01 LG07 5B057 AA11 BA24 BA25 BA29 CB01 CB02 CC03 CE11 CH11 DA08 DA16 DB05 DB06 DB09 5C076 AA26 AA36 BA03 CA10 5C077 LL18 MP08 PP21 PP27 PP28 PP31 PP32 PP33 PP38 PP43 PP66 PQ08 PQ22 5C079 HA13 LA03 LA36 LA39 NA11 PA03

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An image data generating apparatus for generating image data of a partial image obtained by dividing an image, wherein the determining unit determines whether the partial image is color or monochrome, and the determining unit And generating means for generating color image data for the partial image determined to be color by the above, and generating monochrome image data for the partial image determined to be monochrome by the determining means. An image data generation device characterized by the following. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit determines that the partial image is color when the partial image includes an object to be rendered in color, and determines that the object to be rendered in color is in the partial image. The image data generating apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when not included, the partial image is determined to be monochrome. 3. An image output device comprising the image data generation device according to claim 1. 4. An image output control device comprising the image data generation device according to claim 1. 5. An image output system comprising an image output control device and an image output device, wherein the image output control device determines whether a partial image obtained by dividing an image is color or monochrome. The image output device generates color image data for the partial image determined to be color by the determination unit, and outputs the color image data for the partial image determined to be monochrome by the determination unit. An image output system comprising a generating means for generating monochrome image data. 6. An image data generation method for generating image data of a partial image obtained by dividing an image, wherein: a determination step of determining whether the partial image is color or monochrome; and the determination step And generating a color image data for the partial image determined to be color, and generating monochrome image data for the partial image determined to be monochrome by the determination step. Image data generation method. 7. A computer-readable recording medium in which a program for causing a computer to execute the image data generating method according to claim 6 is recorded.