JP2002163664A - Device and method for image processing and storage medium with recorded image processing program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To conduct fast ROP processing even in the case of image data composed of a plurality of color separation components. SOLUTION: This image processor comprises a judging means 12 for judging a color separation component that needs logical operation processing in the case of needing the logical operation processing in making image formation data composed of the plurality of color separation components raster and a logic operation means 13 for applying logical operation processing only to the color separation component judged to be needed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for performing processing necessary for outputting an image, in particular, an ROP (Raster Operation) processing, an image processing method, and a storage medium storing an image processing program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, printers have been widely used in general offices and homes, and performances such as print speed and print image quality have been remarkably improved. The use of color, the use of many color photographs at higher resolution without color reduction processing, and the introduction of more sophisticated deformation processing are becoming more complicated. When printing such a complicated document, a process of superimposing drawing elements (drawing objects) such as characters to be drawn, graphics (graphics), and bitmap images (photographs, etc.) The use of logical operations has become indispensable. To give a specific example, for example, in a part where a rectangle is overlaid on a photo, the rectangle is regarded as transparent, and processing is performed so that the photo that is originally overwritten by the rectangle can be seen through. Corresponds to.

[0003] Such logical operation processing for superposition is generally known as so-called ROP processing. ROP processing is usually performed in a page description language (Page Descr).
After rendering the data of each drawing element described in iptionLanguage (hereinafter abbreviated as “PDL”), the PD
It is executed according to a logical operation expression specified in the form of a code in L. Therefore, a device driver such as a printer driver, that is, a device driver for controlling a graphics device such as a printer or a display, interprets these logical operation codes and executes ROP processing according to the method indicated by the codes. Need to do it.

[0004]

By the way, conventionally, RO
When the P processing is performed, all the color separation components of the rasterized raster image data are subjected to the processing regardless of the processing content. This is because, in accordance with the complexity of a document, it is almost always required that its printout be compatible with full color. Therefore, for example, if the raster image data is composed of each color separation component of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (sian), and K (black), the drawing element to be subjected to the ROP processing is drawn in black and white. Even if the color separation components are Y, M, and C, which do not need ROP processing.
OP processing will be performed.

That is, conventionally, when performing the ROP processing, all the color separation components are to be processed, so that there is a difficulty in the speed of the processing. In particular, when processing a complicated document as described above, the amount of data to be processed becomes enormous, and it is necessary to execute ROP processing between various drawing elements. This may cause a reduction in print speed (image output speed) as a result.

Accordingly, the present invention provides an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a storage medium on which an image processing program is recorded, which enables rapid ROP processing even for image data composed of a plurality of color separation components. The purpose is to:

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is directed to an image processing apparatus devised to achieve the above object, wherein a logical operation process is required for rasterizing image forming data comprising a plurality of color separation components. Determining means for determining a color separation component requiring the logical operation processing, and logic operation means for executing the logical operation processing only on the color separation component determined to be necessary by the determination means. It is characterized by the following.

Further, the image processing method according to the present invention, when a logical operation process is required for rasterizing image forming data composed of a plurality of color separation components, converts the color separation component requiring the logical operation process. And a logic operation step of executing the logic operation process only on the color separation component determined to be necessary by the determination means.

A storage medium storing an image processing program according to the present invention is a storage medium storing an image processing program which can be read by a computer, and is a logical medium for converting image forming data comprising a plurality of color separation components into a raster. When arithmetic processing is required, a color separation component requiring the logical operation processing is determined, and the logical operation processing is performed only on the color separation component determined to be necessary.

According to the image processing apparatus having the above configuration, the image processing method having the above procedure, or the storage medium on which the image processing program having the above procedure is recorded, logical operation processing required for rasterizing image forming data, that is, ROP processing Is executed, the color separation components that require the ROP processing are determined. Here, examples of the color separation components include components according to the BGR color system and components according to the YMCK color system. Then, after determining the necessary color separation components, the ROP processing is performed only on the necessary color separation components. Therefore, if the image forming data is, for example, a monochrome image, the ROP process is not performed on all the color separation components constituting the image forming data.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a storage medium storing an image processing program according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, a system configuration in which the image processing apparatus according to the present invention is used will be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a schematic configuration of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration in which the image processing apparatus is used.

As shown in FIG. 2, the image processing apparatus described in the present embodiment includes a plurality of client devices 1a, 1b,.
And the print server device 2 and the printer device 3 communicate with each other via a network 4 such as a LAN (Local Area Network).
Used in network systems connected via

Each of the client devices 1a, 1b... Is composed of, for example, a personal computer or a workstation, and creates documents such as documents and images electronically, and issues a print output job for printing out the documents. Is what you do. At this time, in each of the client devices 1a, 1b,..., The contents of the document to be printed out are represented by, for example, PDL format data (hereinafter, referred to as “PDL data”).

The print server device 2 has a function as a computer device.
When the print output jobs from a, 1b,... are received, the printer 3 sequentially executes the print output jobs while managing the execution order and the like.

The printer device 3 sequentially executes print output jobs issued by the respective client devices 1a, 1b,... Using a well-known electrophotographic technology or a printing technology of an ink jet system.

The image processing apparatus described in the present embodiment is mounted on any of these apparatuses 1a, 1b... Alternatively, the image processing program may be realized by installing an image processing program recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a CD-ROM in each of the client devices 1a, 1b,.

Next, a schematic configuration of an image processing apparatus used in the above network system will be described. The image processing apparatus described here uses P which is image forming data for printing out a document.
A predetermined image processing is performed on the DL data. As the predetermined image processing, there is a logical operation processing required when rasterizing the PDL data, that is, a ROP processing for superimposing each drawing element specified to be drawn by the PDL data.

In order to execute such ROP processing,
In the image processing apparatus, as shown in FIG. 1, an input interface (hereinafter, referred to as “input end”) A for receiving PDL data to be processed, and an output interface (hereinafter, “output end”) for outputting image data after image processing. ), A rasterizing unit 11, a determining unit 12, and a logical operation unit 13.

The rasterizing unit 11 has a PDL
When data is input, rasterization is performed in accordance with the contents to generate raster image data, and a logical operation according to the contents of the PDL data is specified to the logical operation unit 13. However, the rasterizing unit 11 generates raster image data for each drawing element.

The judging section 12 determines whether the PD input to the input terminal A is
The contents of the drawing command related to the logical operation are examined from the L data, and from the result, it is determined whether or not the logical operation can be performed only on a specific color separation component. Here, examples of the color separation components include components according to the BGR color system and components according to the YMCK color system.

The logical operation unit 13 determines the raster image data output from the rasterizing unit 11
The logical operation specified by the rasterizing unit 11 is executed in accordance with the result of the determination as to whether or not the logical operation can be performed on a specific color separation component, and the result is output to the output terminal B. Note that the image data output from the output terminal B may be PDL data obtained by rasterizing only an area requiring a logical operation, or raster image data obtained by rasterizing all PDL data. Good.

Next, the image processing apparatus described above is used for ROP
An example of a processing operation when executing the processing will be described. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of PDL data processed by the image processing apparatus, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the meaning of a drawing command included in the PDL data, and FIG. 5 is a diagram shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing result by a DrawRectangle command in PDL data. FIG. 6 shows the PDL shown in FIG.
FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing result by only the DrawCircle command in the data and a partially enlarged result thereof. FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a drawing result by the PDL data shown in FIG. 2 and a partially enlarged result thereof.

For example, the input terminal A of the image processing apparatus
Let us consider a case where the PDL data shown in FIG. At this time, the rasterizing unit 11 sequentially interprets the input PDL data in the input order, and generates and outputs the corresponding raster image data for each color separation component in a frame-sequential manner. If there is a drawing command specifying the content of the logical operation in the PDL data, the content is output to the logical operation unit 13.

The drawing commands included in the PDL data include, for example, those shown in FIG. The meaning of each of these drawing commands is uniquely defined.

Since the drawing command related to the logical operation in the PDL data shown in FIG. 3 is a drawing command within the range of the “logical operation related command” shown in the figure,
Hereinafter, only the drawing commands within the range will be described. Of the drawing commands, commands that specify drawing attributes, such as a logical operation mode specification and a drawing color specification, must be executed within the range from the start page command to the end page command, that is, within the same page. Unless specified, the contents of the command are assumed to be valid.

In the range of "logical operation related command", first, a logical operation mode is designated by an InsertMode command. Next InsertMode of StartLogicalPage command
Since the command argument is "Overwrite", the logical operation mode is "Overwrite", that is, the drawing result by the subsequent drawing command is output as it is.

SetPenColo following this InsertMode command
In each command of rSpace, SetPenColor, and SetPaintMode, the drawing color space is BGR color system, that is, B (blue), G
(Green), R (red) color space composed of color separation components, and the drawing color is B = 255, G = 128, R = 128 (hereinafter referred to as “light blue”).
), And the drawing method is designated as “Fill”, that is, “fill”. Each color component value is 8 bit /
It is assumed to be pixel (that is, the value range is 0 to 255). As a result, drawing by a drawing command following each of these commands is performed in accordance with the designation of each command.

Also, SetPoint following each of these commands
In the command, the drawing start position is specified as (100,100). (100,100) is a coordinate expression format,
The numerical value on the left side in parentheses indicates the coordinate position in the main scanning direction, and the numerical value on the right side indicates the coordinate position in the sub-scanning direction. The unit of coordinates is Resolu
Determined by the resolution specified by the tion command. The coordinate origin is the upper left corner of the sheet, and the main scanning and sub-scanning directions are the horizontal and vertical directions of the sheet, respectively. In other words, (100,100) is 100 in the main scanning direction from the upper left corner of the paper.
The coordinate position is shifted by 100 pixels in the sub-scanning direction.

Then, a rectangle is drawn by the next DrawRectangle command. At this time, the drawing color space is BGR, the drawing color is light blue, the drawing method is solid, and the drawing start position is (10
0,100), the length of the rectangle in both the main scanning and sub-scanning directions is set to 4760 pixels and 6816 pixels, respectively.
From 0) to (4860,6916), a rectangle whose inside is painted in light blue is drawn.

FIGS. 5A, 5B and 5C show Draw
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating states of B, G, and R components after a rectangle is drawn by a Rectangle command.
For the pixel values, see the legend in the figure.

Subsequently, within the range of the "logical operation related command" of the PDL data shown in FIG. 3, the logical operation mode is set to "Transparen" by the second InsertMode command.
t ", that is," transparent ". In this logical operation mode, the values of pixels at the same coordinates of two superimposed raster images are compared and one of them is selected. It is assumed that a pixel value having a small value in the color space is selected for each color component.

SetPenColo following this InsertMode command
In each of the r, SetPaintMode, and SetPoint commands, the drawing color is B = 255, G = 0, R = 128 (hereinafter referred to as “purple”), the drawing method is “Pattern1,” and the drawing start position is (2000, 3500). “Pattern1”
Is a drawing method for drawing a pattern in which the pixels of the drawing color and the white color specified by the SetPenColor command are arranged in a staggered pattern for each pixel. Then, a circle is drawn by the next DrawCircle command. At this time, the drawing color is purple, the drawing method is the pattern drawing described above, and the drawing start position is (200
Since the radius of the circle is specified to be 1000 pixels, a circle having a radius of 1000 pixels centered at (2000, 3500) is drawn by the above-described pattern drawing method.

FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C show Draw
B and G when only a circle is drawn by the Circle command
It is a figure showing the state of R component, respectively. Also,
FIGS. 6D and 6E are enlarged views of portions surrounded by a thick line frame in FIGS. 6B and 6C. For the pixel values, see the legend in the figure.

Accordingly, the rasterizing unit 11 sequentially interprets the PDL data shown in FIG. 3 to generate raster image data, and when there is a drawing command for designating logical operation contents, outputs the contents to the logical operation unit 13. When this is printed out by the printer device 3 after the ROP process in the logical operation unit 13, a printout as shown in FIG. 7A is obtained from the printer device 3. The contents of the hatched portions in the figure are shown in FIG.
It is shown in the legend in (a). A point in FIG. 7A designated by an arrow and a coordinate value indicates a coordinate origin and a coordinate position designated by a SetPoint command in the PDL data shown in FIG. FIG. 7B is an enlarged view of a portion surrounded by a thick line frame in FIG. 7A.

However, in the image processing apparatus of this embodiment,
When obtaining the printout shown in FIG. 7A from the PDL data shown in FIG. 3, the determination unit 12 examines the contents of the drawing command related to the logical operation from the PDL data, and from the result, the respective color separation components of BGR. It is determined whether or not a logical operation can be performed only on a specific color separation component among the above.

Here, the necessity of the logical operation for each color separation component of BGR will be considered with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. First, a purple pixel in a pattern drawing portion is superimposed by 2 The B component and the R component of the color component values of the pixels at the same coordinates of the two raster images have the same value, and there is no need to compare. In other words, the pixel value of the light blue rectangle drawn earlier may be stored as it is.
As for the G component, the rectangle has a pixel value of “128”, which is different from the circular pixel value of “0”, so that a small pixel value of “0” is selected by comparing the two.

On the other hand, for the white pixels in the pattern drawing portion, the B components are both "255" and have the same value, while the G component has a rectangular pixel value of "128" and a circular " For the R component, the rectangular pixel value is “128” and the circular shape is “255” for the R component. Therefore, it is necessary to compare the pixel values of the G component and the R component. However, if one of the pixel values is “255” or “0”, it is not necessary to compare the pixel values. This corresponds to the G of the purple pixel in the pattern drawing part.
The same applies to the components.

In other words, to summarize the above, the purple pixels in the pattern drawing portion, which are within the light blue rectangle drawn first and within the circle drawn later, are the same. The G component value of the pixel within the light blue rectangle of the coordinates may be replaced with the purple G component value “0”. On the other hand, for both the B and R components, it is not necessary to rewrite the pixel value of the light blue rectangle previously drawn in any part of the pattern drawing portion. That is, only the G component needs to be subjected to the logical operation.

The determination section 12 determines whether or not the above-described logical operation is necessary for each color separation component, and outputs the result to the logical operation section 13. Of course, in the determination of the necessity of the logical operation, the necessity of the drawing area may be further added. That is, by analyzing each drawing command, the color separation component to be drawn and its area can be known, and based on this, it is determined whether a logical operation is necessary.

Thus, the logical operation unit 13 performs the logical operation on the raster image data output from the rasterizing unit 11 only for the color separation components requiring the logical operation in accordance with the judgment result of the judgment unit 12. I do. In the case of the above-described example, the logical operation unit 13 performs the logical operation only on the G component. For the color separation components or areas that do not require a logical operation, the logical operation unit 1
No. 3 makes no change to the raster image data output from the rasterizing unit 11.

As described above, in the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment, the determination unit 12 performs the logical operation on the raster image data generated by the rasterizing unit 11 in accordance with the contents of the PDL data input to the input terminal A. A logical operation is performed by the logical operation unit 13 only on the color separation components determined to require the operation, and the resulting raster image data,
That is, raster image data generated from the input PDL data and subjected to necessary ROP processing is output from the output terminal B
Is output from Then, the raster image data output from the output terminal B is used for printing out by the printer device 3 as it is or after performing necessary color conversion processing.

Therefore, if the image processing apparatus of the present embodiment or the image processing method performed by the image processing apparatus is used, the logical operation processing required for rasterizing the PDL data, that is, the ROP processing is executed. ,
The color separation components that require the ROP process are determined, and the ROP process is executed only for the necessary color separation components. ROP processing is not performed on the decomposition component. As a result,
Reduction of execution time of logical operation, CPU (Central Procedures)
Thus, it is possible to reduce the calculation load of the calculation means such as a sing unit, and to reduce the amount of access to the memory and the like used by the CPU.

This is particularly suitable when processing a complicated document, that is, when the amount of data to be processed is enormous and it is necessary to execute ROP processing between various drawing elements. Becomes That is, RO
Due to the speeding up of the P processing, even for a complicated document, it is possible to print out PDL data relating to the document at a higher speed than before.

Further, even if the ROP processing is speeded up, processing for unnecessary color separation components can be omitted, so that the processed image, that is, the printout result is no different from the conventional case, and image quality degradation and the like are not caused. It does not happen.

In this embodiment, the processing for each color separation component in the BGR color system has been described as an example.
It is needless to say that the same processing can be applied to other color spaces such as the YMCK color system and the L ^* a ^* b ^* color system specified by the CIE (International Commission on Illumination). When applying to other color spaces, setPenColorSpace and
The drawing color space specified by both SetPenColor commands,
The judgment criterion may be changed based on the color space at the time of the output of the raster image data from the output end B. In particular, when the two color spaces are different, the execution of the logical operation is performed before or after the color space conversion is performed. After that, the criterion may be changed depending on whether it is.

For example, when the color space at the time of output of raster image data from the output end B is YMCK and the color space conversion is performed before execution of a logical operation, a rectangle drawn in light blue will be briefly described. Is Y = 127, M = 127, C = 0,
Pixels which are drawn with K = 0 and whose purple color is drawn in the circular pattern are Y = 127, M = 255, C = 0, K = 0, and pixels where white is drawn are Y = M = C = Drawing is performed with K = 0. here,
In the BGR space, the pixel value usually represents a luminance value, but YMC
Note that the K space represents a density value, and the criterion of “take the smaller one of the color component values of the pixels at the same coordinates” is based on the criterion that “the value of the color component values of the pixels at the same coordinates is smaller. Take the larger one. " Looking at the necessity of the logical operation for each of the YMCK color components according to this determination criterion, it is found that only the pixels in the circular portion of the M component need to be subjected to the logical operation, and further, are compared with the rectangular M component value “127”. The value of the M component of the power circle is “255”
Alternatively, the value is “0”, and the M component value of a rectangular pixel having the same coordinates as the pixel having the circular M component value of “255” may be replaced with “255” without performing the comparison. That is, in the above-described embodiment, only the G component is targeted for the logical operation, but in the example described here, only the M component is targeted.

In this embodiment, the case where the raster image data output from the output terminal B is used for printout in the printer device 3 has been described as an example. It can also be used for screen display on a device such as a public line, transmission to a remote place via wireless communication or the Internet, or storage in a storage medium such as a semiconductor memory or a hard disk. This means that the present invention is applicable not only to the network system for printing out documents described in the present embodiment, but also to a device driver for controlling a graphics device such as a display.

[0049]

As described above, according to the image processing apparatus, the image processing method, and the storage medium storing the image processing program according to the present invention, the rasterization of the image forming data composed of a plurality of color separation components is performed. Even in the case of performing the ROP processing, since the logical operation is performed only on the necessary color separation components, the ROP processing can be sped up by shortening the processing execution time and reducing the calculation load. Therefore, it is particularly suitable for processing a complicated document, that is, when the amount of data to be processed is enormous and it is necessary to execute ROP processing between various drawing elements. In addition, this does not cause deterioration in image quality after processing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration in which an image processing apparatus is used.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of PDL data.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the meaning of a drawing command included in PDL data.

FIG. 5 shows DrawRectangl in the PDL data shown in FIG.
It is explanatory drawing which shows the drawing result by an e command, (a)
FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating a state of a B component after drawing, FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating a state of a G component after drawing, and FIG. 3C is a diagram illustrating a state of an R component after drawing.

6A and 6B are explanatory diagrams showing a drawing result and a partially enlarged result of only the DrawCircle command in the PDL data shown in FIG. 3, wherein FIG. 6A is a diagram showing a state of a B component after drawing, and FIG. A diagram showing the state of the G component after drawing, (c) a diagram showing the state of the R component after drawing, (d) a diagram showing a partial enlarged result of the G component, and (e).
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a partial expansion result of an R component.

7A and 7B are explanatory diagrams showing a drawing result and a partially enlarged result of the PDL data shown in FIG. 2, wherein FIG. 7A is a diagram showing a drawing result, and FIG. 7B is a diagram showing a partially enlarged result thereof.

[Explanation of symbols]

11: rasterizing unit, 12: determining unit, 13: logical operation unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme Court ゛ (Reference) 5C079 (72) Inventor Takanobu Otsubo 2274 Hongo, Ebina-shi, Kanagawa Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. Ebina Office (72) Invention Person Shigeru Tsukimura 2274 Hongo, Ebina-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture F-term in the Ebina Office of Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. GA25 5C074 DD24 FF15 5C079 HB03 LA02 NA03 PA03

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A determination means for determining, when rasterization of image forming data composed of a plurality of color separation components requires a logical operation process, a color separation component requiring the logical operation process, the determination means And a logical operation means for executing the logical operation process only on the color separation component determined to be necessary. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a conversion unit configured to convert the image forming data into raster image data in a frame sequence, wherein the logical operation unit performs a logical operation process on the raster image data converted by the conversion unit. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image processing apparatus executes the processing. 3. A determination step for determining, when rasterization of image forming data composed of a plurality of color separation components requires a logical operation process, a color separation component requiring the logical operation process, A logical operation step of executing the logical operation process only on the color separation component determined to be necessary. 4. A conversion step for converting the image forming data into raster image data in a frame sequence, and in the logical operation step, a logical operation process is performed on the raster image data converted in the conversion step. 4. The image processing method according to claim 3, wherein 5. A storage medium on which a computer-readable image processing program is recorded, wherein a logical operation process is required when rasterizing image forming data composed of a plurality of color separation components. A storage medium storing an image processing program, wherein a required color separation component is determined, and the logical operation process is performed only on the color separation component determined to be necessary. 6. The image processing program according to claim 5, wherein said image forming data is converted into frame-sequential raster image data, and a logical operation process is performed on the converted raster image data. Storage media.