JP2003196648A - Image processing method and device, its storage medium and program product - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform color processing classified by object attribute at high speed by using a small quantity of memory, and to output the result on a printer device. <P>SOLUTION: A multivalued bitmap is generated following a drawing instruction (S3), and an attribute bitplane having a plane for drawing area determination corresponding to the attribute of an object included in the multivalued bitmap and having a flag bit set on an address corresponding to a coordinate value where the object of the multivalued bitmap of the plane exists is generated. Each attribute bitplane is scanned, and multivalued data corresponding to the multivalued bitmap are stored in an address of the attribute bitplane where the flag bit is set, and the color processing is performed to the stored multivalued data, and each attribute bitplane corresponding to each object subjected to the color processing is composed and transferred to a printer device. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to image processing for developing multi-valued bitmap information included in a print command when a print command is issued from operating system to software for controlling a printer device. The present invention relates to an image processing method and apparatus to be executed, a storage medium therefor, and a program product.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a computer device such as a personal computer, a program such as a printer driver for converting a print command suitable for a connected printer device and outputting the print command is stored in a hard disk or the like. When a print command is issued by the application program, data is received from the application program, converted into a print command for the printer device, and output to the printer device for printing. In such a process by the printer driver, bit data is expanded in the multi-valued bitmap area by a drawing command, and when the processing of all drawing commands is completed, color processing (color correction, color Conversion (2 (n) value conversion). For this reason,
The color processing for each attribute of each object included in the drawing command could not be performed. In addition, recently, it has its own logical operation processing function, and after performing color processing using such an operation processing function, by directly writing the density data to the device, color processing is performed for each object by attribute. There is a driver that does.

Further, by using a 3-plane 1-bit driver, a bitmap is developed for each color plane, each created color plane is scanned, and which object is determined from the bit sequence to determine the object by attribute. There is a driver that performs color processing.

[0004]

The conventional driver for performing color processing for each attribute of an object has its own logical operation processing, but the portion output using UCR (Under Color Removal) is used. When logical operation processing is performed,
The output result may be incorrect. Further, if the UCR function is disabled in order to avoid such a problem, there is a drawback that high-quality image output cannot be obtained.

Further, due to recent improvements in the performance of printers, there are printers that can make the minimum output unit multivalued.
In the conventional printer driver that performs color processing for each object attribute, it is necessary to create a brush object for each drawing command in order to handle intermediate colors, but the load on the n-valued portion of the brush for creating multivalued data is high. The processing speed is significantly reduced. In the n-value conversion process,
When the value of n becomes large, many source codes need to be modified in order to cope with it, which results in a lot of development man-hours.

Color information in a drawing command is set to RGB (Red, Green Blue) for each attribute of an object, a 3-plane 1-bit driver is used to develop a bitmap for each color plane, and each created color plane is scanned. Then, there is also proposed a method of determining which object from the arrangement of bits in each color plane and applying color processing suitable for the attribute of the object to the multi-valued bitmap. However, in such a method, a large amount of memory capacity is required to store the image data for three planes, and further, it is necessary to scan all the RGB color planes (three planes). However, there is a drawback that the processing speed is remarkably reduced due to the load.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an image processing method and apparatus for facilitating color processing for each object attribute and obtaining a high-quality output result by optimal color processing for all objects. And its storage medium and program product.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing method and apparatus, a storage medium therefor and a program product which can prevent a decrease in the processing speed of creating print data to be output to a printer.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an image processing method and apparatus, a storage medium therefor and a program product, which are capable of performing high-speed color processing for each object attribute using a small amount of memory.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the image processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration.
That is, when a print command is issued from the operating system to the software for controlling the printer device, the image processing device expands the bitmap information included in the print command in multi-values, and multi-valued according to the drawing command. Bit map generating means for generating a bit map, and a drawing area determination plane corresponding to the attributes of the objects included in the multi-valued bitmap, the coordinate value of the object of the multi-valued bitmap of the plane exists. Attribute bit plane generating means for generating an attribute bit plane in which a flag bit is set to a corresponding address,
A storage unit that scans each of the attribute bit planes and stores multi-valued data corresponding to the multi-valued bitmap at an address of the attribute bit plane in which the flag bit is set; and a storage unit that stores the multi-valued data. Color processing means for performing color processing on the multi-valued data,
A transfer unit configured to combine the attribute bit planes corresponding to the respective objects color-processed by the color processing unit and transfer the combined attribute bit planes to the printer device.

In order to achieve the above object, the image processing method of the present invention comprises the following steps. That is, when a print command is issued from the operating system to the software for controlling the printer device, it is an image processing method in an image processing device that expands the bitmap information included in the print command in multi-values. A bitmap generation step of generating a multi-valued bitmap according to the instruction,
An attribute bit having a drawing area determination plane corresponding to an attribute of an object included in the multi-valued bitmap, and a flag bit set to an address corresponding to a coordinate value of the object of the multi-valued bitmap of the plane. A step of generating an attribute bit plane for generating a plane, scanning each of the attribute bit planes, and storing multi-valued data corresponding to the multi-valued bit map in a memory at an address of the attribute bit plane in which the flag bit is set. A storing step of storing, a color processing step of performing color processing on the multi-valued data stored in the memory, and a synthesis of the attribute bit planes corresponding to the respective objects subjected to color processing in the color processing step are combined. And a transfer step of transferring to the printer device.

[0012]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an information processing system to which an image print processing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 is a central processing unit, and a storage medium such as an FD, a CD-ROM, an IC memory card in which the control program according to the present embodiment and its related data are stored is provided in this system. It can be read from the connected medium reading device 6, stored in the main storage device 2, and executed. Further, the system program and the application program loaded from the auxiliary storage device 3 to the main storage device 2 can process the information input from the input device 4 and output it to the output device 5 or the printer 7. In the present embodiment, the output device 5 is a liquid crystal or C
It is used as a display device such as a display such as an RT. The input device 4 has a keyboard and a pointing device such as a mouse. The auxiliary storage device 3 may be a hard disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a combination thereof. Further, these devices described above may be connected via a network. The ROM 8 stores various data such as control data unique to computer equipment including the central processing unit 1 and the main storage device 2.

In FIG. 2, the central processing unit 1 stores the program code and various data related to the control program for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment, which is stored in the medium reading device 6 or the auxiliary storage device 3. Loaded into
FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram of a process in which a print command is input from the input device 4, recording data is output to the printer 7, and printing is performed. In this embodiment, the application 201 and the driver 200 function under the control of the OS 202.

FIG. 3 shows a driver 20 according to this embodiment.
It is a figure explaining the process in 0 in detail.

When a drawing command is sent from the OS 202, color correction is performed on the multivalued color data in the drawing command (step S1). Then in step S2,
The color data subjected to color correction in step S1 is used to develop into a multi-valued bitmap 210. Here, at the same time as expanding to a bitmap, a flag bit is set in the object attribute determination plane 211 for each attribute of the drawing command. Next, referring to the flag bits of the object attribute determination plane, the created multi-valued bitmap 210 is divided into object attribute-specific processing areas for each corresponding object attribute (eg, text, frame, image, etc.). , Perform proper color conversion for each object attribute (step S3), and in step S4, 2
(N) The value is converted into the device bitmap 212.

When the processing for all the objects is completed in this way, the process proceeds to step S6, the device bitmaps 212 in the object attribute-specific processing areas are combined, and the combined device bitmaps are transmitted to the printer 7.

The timing of color correction in step S1 may be before or after development into a bitmap.

FIGS. 4A to 4E are views showing the drawing area discrimination plane in a simplified form as a data format based on the multi-valued bitmap thus obtained.

On each of these planes, a flag bit is set for each object attribute at the same coordinate position as the multi-valued bitmap. In this embodiment, the attribute of the text object is represented by "1", the attribute of the graphics object is represented by "2", the attribute of the image object is represented by "4", and the other areas are initialized by "0". It is assumed that

FIG. 4A is a diagram showing an example of the obtained multi-valued image, and FIG. 4B is a diagram for explaining the discrimination area flag bit of each drawing area. In addition, FIGS. 4C to 4E are diagrams illustrating data examples of the plain areas 1 to 3 of the text, graphics, and image.

FIG. 4C shows the plain area shown by area 1 in FIG. 4A, in which the text flag bit corresponding to the text "character" in FIG. 4A is set. . In other words, in this drawing area determination plane, a flag bit indicating a text object is displayed at the portion corresponding to the coordinates where the text of the multi-valued bitmap is drawn.
1 "is set.

Similarly, FIG. 4D shows the area 2 of FIG.
4A, the graphics flag bit corresponding to the graphics 401 in FIG. 4A is set, and the area corresponding to the coordinates where the graphics of the multi-valued bitmap is drawn is shown. , Flag bit "2" indicating the graphics object attribute is set.

Further, FIG. 4 (E) shows the plane area shown by the area 3 in FIG. 4 (A), in which the image flag bit corresponding to the photographic image 402 in FIG. 4 (A) is set. The image flag bit "4" is set in the portion corresponding to the coordinates where the photographic image is drawn.

FIGS. 5A and 5B are diagrams showing the flag bits of the drawing determination area for each line in a simplified data format based on the image of the multi-valued bitmap shown in FIG.

FIG. 5A shows an example of a multi-valued image in which text data representing a text "character", graphics data representing a graphic 401, and image data representing a photographic image 402 are stored. There is. FIG. 5B shows the flags of the drawing determination area for each line obtained from this multi-valued image. Here, the memory for the line of one page is initialized to "0" in advance, and the flag bit of the drawn object attribute is set in the area corresponding to the line drawn by the drawing command. Then, when all drawing commands are completed, the flag bit of the drawing determination area for each line is checked, and for the lines for which the object attribute flag bit is not set, the scanning of the drawing area determination plane of FIG. 4 is skipped. Incidentally, FIG. 5 (B)
In, the flag bit "5" indicates a line in which both the image flag bit "4" and the text flag bit "1" (logical sum of two flag bits) are set.

In FIGS. 6A to 6D, based on the drawing area determination plane, color processing is applied to a copy of the data from the multi-valued bitmap to the work area for each object attribute, and the data is copied to the transfer destination. It is a figure explaining the method to do.

As shown in FIG. 6 (A), the height 1 shown in the multi-valued bit map including text data representing "characters" and graphic data representing graphics 403.
For the processing area 404 (corresponding to one line width), data is copied from the multi-valued bitmap to the object attribute-specific work area based on the drawing area determination plane. After performing color processing for each object attribute (text and graphics) on each object attribute work area, the drawn work area data for each object attribute is logically calculated based on the value of the flag bit of the line drawing determination area. Combine in Japanese and copy to destination.

FIG. 6B shows a work area (text) for each object attribute, and FIG. 6C shows a work area (graphics) for each object attribute. 6D shows the data in the work area transferred to the transfer destination, and the logical sum of the data in FIGS. 6B and 6C is taken here.

FIG. 7 shows a computer (PC) 7 in which a control program for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment and its related data are transmitted via an FD 701 which is a storage medium.
00 shows the state of being loaded. This FD701
Is set in the medium reading device 6, a control program for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment and its related data are generated based on the control of the OS 202 and the basic I / O program read in the main storage device 2. By being read from the FD 701 and installed in the main storage device 2, the program becomes executable and operable.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state of the memory map in which the control program for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment is stored in the FD 701.

FIG. 9 shows a case where the control program stored in the FD 701 for executing the image processing method according to this embodiment is loaded from the auxiliary storage device 3 to the main storage device 2 via the medium reading device 6. 3 is a diagram illustrating a memory map of the main storage device 2. FIG.

In FIG. 9, the basic I / O program (B
IOS), the OS 202, the image processing method control program 901 according to the present embodiment, and its related data 90.
2 is stored in the main storage device 2 (RAM).

In the present embodiment, the control program 9 for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment from the FD 701.
Although the example in which 01 is directly read into the main storage device 2 via the auxiliary storage device 3 and executed is shown, the control program 901 for executing this image processing method is stored in the auxiliary storage device 3 such as an HD from a storage medium such as the FD 701. It may be installed in advance and loaded into the main storage device 2 and executed when the execution is instructed.

Further, as a storage medium for recording the control program 701 for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment, in addition to FD and HD, for example, a magneto-optical disk or a CD.
It may be a ROM, an IC memory card or the like. Also,
The control program 901 for executing the image processing method according to this embodiment can be stored in the ROM in advance.

FIG. 10 is a schematic flowchart of a program 901 for executing the image processing method according to this embodiment. The control program for executing this process may be read from the medium reading device 6 or stored in the auxiliary storage device 3, as described above.

In this process, first, when a command to execute printing is input from the input device 4, of the OS 202, the driver 200 and the application (FIG. 2) read from the auxiliary storage device 3 into the main storage device 2. , OS20
2 receives the message. The OS 202 sends a print execution message to the currently active application. The application 201 sends the message O
It is converted into a command that can be recognized in S202, and print data or a command message is sent. Then, the OS 202 converts the command into a command that the driver 200 can recognize and sends the message.

When the initialization message is sent to the driver 200 in this way, the process proceeds to step S1 and the drawing area discrimination plane, the multi-valued bit map development plane, the object attribute work area, and the line drawing decision area are set. Allocate to the main memory 2 and clear each content with "0".

Next, in step S2, the driver 200
Acquires a drawing command sent from the OS 202. Next, in step S3, a bitmap is generated on the multi-value bitmap expansion plane. Next, in step S4, it is determined which object the drawing command is based on from the drawing command, and the flag bit defined for each object attribute in the drawing area determination plane is set to the same as the coordinate drawn in the multi-value bitmap expansion plane. Stand at the coordinates of. Further, in step S5, when drawing is performed on the drawing area determination plane, a flag bit of an object attribute corresponding to a corresponding line position in the drawing determination area for each line is set based on the Y coordinate. In this way, the process proceeds to step S6, and it is checked whether or not the processes of all the drawing commands have been completed. If not completed, the process returns to step S2 to execute the above-mentioned processes.

On the other hand, if the processing of all drawing commands is completed in step S6, the process proceeds to step S7, and it is checked which object flag bit is set from the head of the drawing determination area for each line. If the flag bit of the drawing determination area for each line is set, the process advances to step S8 to scan the drawing area determination plane. Then, in step S9, the data of the multi-valued bitmap development area of the coordinates where the flag bit is set is copied from the value of the flag bit to the corresponding object attribute work area, and the process proceeds to step S10. On the other hand, when the object drawing flag is off in step S7, the process proceeds to step S10.

In step S10, after scanning all one line, the value of the corresponding line in the drawing determination area for each line is checked, and in step S11 the value is converted into the data of the drawn work area for each object attribute. Apply color processing. Then, the process proceeds to step S12, and the data of the object attribute-specific processing area subjected to the color processing is combined by logical sum, and is copied to the transfer destination in step S13. In this way, the process proceeds to step S14, and it is determined whether the processing of all the lines has been completed. If the processing of all the lines has not been completed, the process proceeds to step S15, in which the multi-value bitmap development area and the line-by-line drawing determination area The pointer is advanced to the next line and the process returns to step S7. On the other hand, in step S14, when the processing of all lines is completed, step S1
In step 6, the data of the transfer destination is transmitted to the printer 7, and the process is ended.

The printer 7 in the above embodiment may be a binding type printer which prints in units of bandwidth or an unbinding printer other than that.

In the above embodiment, the print data is transferred to the printer 7 in units of a plurality of lines.
The present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that data may be transferred to the printer in units of one line for printing.

Even when the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), a device including one device (for example, a copying machine, a facsimile device, etc.) ) May be applied.

Further, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or recording medium) recording a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or apparatus, and to supply a computer of the system or apparatus ( Alternatively, it can be achieved by the CPU or MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer is executed based on the instruction of the program code. This also includes a case where a part or all of the actual processing is performed and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Furthermore, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion card inserted in the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code. , The CPU provided in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs some or all of the actual processing,
The case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to discriminate the object attribute, and by performing the optimum color processing for each object attribute, a high quality image output can be obtained in a short time. it can.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, there is an effect that color processing for each object attribute is facilitated and a high-quality output result can be obtained by optimal color processing for all objects.

Further, according to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to prevent a reduction in the processing speed for creating print data to be output to the printer device.

Further, according to the present invention, there is an effect that color processing for each object attribute can be performed at high speed using a small amount of memory.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of an information processing system to which an image printing method according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram in which data related to a control program for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment is read from a medium reading device or a storage device into a central processing unit, a print command is input from an input device, and a printer is provided. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram until data is sent to and printed.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining in detail the driver part of FIG. 2 focusing on processing contents.

FIG. 4 is a diagram simply showing a drawing area discrimination plane as a data format based on a multivalued bitmap, (A) showing a multivalued bitmap, and (B) showing a drawing area attribute discrimination flag bit. FIGS. 6C to 6E are diagrams illustrating data examples of planes for discriminating each drawing area.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a simplified drawing area discrimination plane based on a multi-valued bitmap as a data format. (A) shows a multi-valued bitmap, and (B) shows drawing area attribute discrimination for each line. It is a figure which shows an example of a flag.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a method of performing color processing on a copy of data for each object attribute from a multivalued bitmap to a work area for each object attribute based on a drawing area determination plane, and copying the data to a transfer destination; (A) shows a multi-valued bit map, (B) thru | or (C) is a figure which shows the example of the flag of the work area for each object attribute, and its transfer destination data example, respectively.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a control program and related data of the image processing method according to the present embodiment are loaded into a computer via the FD.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a memory map in which a control program for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment is stored in the FD.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a memory map when a control program for executing the image processing method according to the present embodiment is loaded in the main storage device.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating processing by a control program of the image processing method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F term (reference) 5B021 AA01 DD01 DD09 LG07 LL05                 5B057 CA01 CA08 CA12 CA16 CB01                       CB08 CB12 CB16 CC01 CE17                 5C077 LL18 MP08 PP28 PP32 PP37                       PQ12 PQ24 TT02                 5C079 HB01 LA06 LB01 MA11 NA10                       NA11 PA03

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An image processing apparatus which, when a print command is issued from the operating system to software for controlling the printer device, expands the bitmap information included in the print command in multi-values. And a drawing area determination plane corresponding to an attribute of an object included in the multi-valued bitmap, and the object of the multi-valued bitmap of the plane exists. Attribute bit plane generation means for generating an attribute bit plane in which a flag bit is set to an address corresponding to a coordinate value, and scanning each of the attribute bit planes, and assigning an address to the attribute bit plane in which the flag bit is set Stores multi-valued data corresponding to the multi-valued bitmap Storing means, color processing means for performing color processing on the multi-valued data stored by the storing means, and the attribute bit planes corresponding to the respective objects color-processed by the color processing means are combined. And a transfer unit for transferring to the printer device. 2. The attribute bit plane generation means sets a flag bit for determining whether or not there is drawing data for each attribute of an object for each drawing line in the drawing determination area for each line, and the storage means. Checks the flag bit of the drawing determination area for each line before scanning the attribute bit plane, and if the flag bit of the object of the predetermined attribute is not set, the attribute bit is classified by the attribute of the object of the line. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein scanning of the flag bit in a plane is skipped. 3. The color processing means changes at least one of the content of color correction, color conversion coefficient, and binarization processing according to the attribute of the object. Image processing device. 4. The color processing means corrects colors according to attributes,
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least one of a color conversion coefficient and an n-value conversion process is changed. 5. An image processing method in an image processing apparatus, wherein when a print command is issued to software for controlling a printer device from an operating system, the bitmap information included in the print command is expanded in multivalue. A bitmap generation step of generating a multi-valued bitmap according to a drawing command, and a drawing area determination plane corresponding to the attribute of an object included in the multi-valued bitmap, and the multi-valued bitmap of the plane. An attribute bit plane generating step of generating an attribute bit plane in which a flag bit is set at an address corresponding to a coordinate value in which an object exists, and each of the attribute bit planes is scanned, and the attribute bit in which the flag bit is set The plane address corresponds to the multi-valued bitmap. Storing multi-valued data in a memory, a color processing step of performing color processing on the multi-valued data stored in the memory, and a color processing step corresponding to each object color-processed in the color processing step. And a transfer step of combining the attribute bit planes and transferring the attribute bit planes to the printer device. 6. In the attribute bit plane generation step, a flag bit for determining whether or not there is drawing data for each attribute of an object for each drawing line is set in the drawing determination area for each line, and the storage is performed. In the step, before scanning the attribute bit plane, the flag bit of the drawing determination area for each line is checked, and if the flag bit of the object of the predetermined attribute is not set, the attribute is classified by the attribute of the object of the line. The image processing method according to claim 5, wherein scanning of the flag bit in a bit plane is skipped. 7. The color processing step according to claim 5, wherein at least one of the content of the color correction, the color conversion coefficient, and the binarization processing is changed according to the attribute of the object. Image processing method. 8. The image according to claim 5, wherein in the color processing step, at least one of color correction, color conversion coefficient, and n-value conversion processing is changed according to an attribute. Processing method. 9. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program for executing the image processing method according to claim 5. Description: 10. A program product for executing image processing for multi-value expansion of bitmap information included in a print command when the print command is issued from the operating system to software for controlling the printer device. A multi-valued bit map generating module for generating a multi-valued bit map according to a drawing command, and a drawing area determination plane corresponding to an attribute of an object included in the multi-valued bit map, and the multi-valued bit map of the plane. An attribute bit plane generating step module for generating an attribute bit plane in which a flag bit is set to an address corresponding to a coordinate value in which the object exists, and scanning each of the attribute bit planes, wherein the flag bit is set Attribute bit plane address A storage process module that stores multivalued data corresponding to a value bitmap in a memory, a color processing process module that performs color processing on the multivalued data stored in the memory, and a color processing by the color processing process module. A transfer process module that combines the attribute bit planes corresponding to each of the generated objects and transfers the combined attribute bit planes to the printer device;
A program product characterized by having.