JP2003283822A - Color image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To apply image processing to a character area regardless of respective separated areas in printing with a print adding function in a color image forming device in a color image forming device for separating an image into a character area and a photograph area and performing processing different for each of the separated areas. <P>SOLUTION: In an image area separation information acquiring part 2, a colorless memory plane for one page provided corresponding to a memory plane for each color is created and when printing is performed, such printing is forcibly set to the colorless memory plane as a character area by an image area separation information adding part 5. Then, a plotter 6 performs image processing different for each of the character area and the photograph area with the colorless memory plane. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus that separates an image into a character area and a photograph area and performs different image processing for each separated area.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In digital color copying machines,
A method is known in which an image area separation process for separating a character area and a photo area is performed, and image processing is performed for each of the separated character area and photo area (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-265287). In this method, an image is scanned, and a global discrimination CPU and a local discrimination CPU discriminate an output image from a character area and a photo area, and a global discrimination C
The PU further discriminates between a monochrome image area and a color image area. The output image is converted into Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and B (black) signals,
The converted signal has its sharpness and gradation corrected and is output to the modulation circuit. In the modulation circuit, together with the conversion signals of Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and B (black), the signal for maximizing the density in the photo area and the density in the character area sent from the global discrimination CPU. Pulse width modulation is performed by each transparent signal to be 0, and the result is output to the laser writing unit. As a result, a solid transparent toner layer was formed in the photographic area, and the photographic area was formed as a glossy image.

By the way, in a color image forming apparatus that separates an image into a character area and a photograph area, and performs different processing such as edge enhancement processing for the character area and processing for adding transparent toner to the photograph area, image formation is performed later. Page printing, stamp printing, or date printing may be performed by the input means of the apparatus. In such a case, when the printing is performed on the photographic area, the transparent toner is added even to the printed portion, which may rather deteriorate the image quality.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, according to the present invention, in a color image forming apparatus which separates such a character area and a photographic area and performs different processing for each separated area, a print additional function of the color image forming apparatus is provided. The purpose is to make the character area independent of each separated area for printing by.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a color image forming apparatus for separating an image into a character area and a photographic area and performing different image processing for each separated area. A color image forming apparatus is provided with means for setting a character area irrespective of the separated areas for printing by an additional function.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the color image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the means for setting the character area is provided in accordance with a memory plane for each color which is image data for one page for each color. A color image forming apparatus is characterized in that a character area is set regardless of a character area and a photo area set in a colorless memory plane for one page.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the color image forming apparatus according to the second aspect, the colorless memory plane is
In the color image forming apparatus, the same print additional function as that of the memory plane for each color is set.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a color image forming method in which an image is separated into a character area and a photograph area, and different image processing is performed for each separated area. Of creating a colorless memory plane for one page, which is provided so as to match the memory plane of the above, and when printing is performed by the print addition function of the color image forming apparatus, the step of forming the print on the memory plane for each color And a step of setting the printing as a character area in a colorless memory plane independently of a character area and a photograph area, and a step of performing different image processing in the character area and the photograph area by the colorless memory plane. Is the way.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a color copying machine as an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. The color copying machine of this example has an ADF (automatic document feeder) section 11 and an optical writing section (scanner / IPU) 1 above the copying machine body.
2, the operation unit 14, the optical reading unit 22, the image forming unit 23 is arranged substantially in the center, and the paper feeding unit 24 is arranged below the image forming unit 23. The paper feed unit 24 includes a paper feed cassette 241 for recording sheets of different types or sizes in each stage.
If necessary, another sheet feeding device (for example, a device for feeding a large amount of sheets) 242 can be added.

In the image forming section 23, two printer sections are provided with the intermediate transfer belt 25, which rotates as an endless belt, in between. The first is to develop a toner image on the photosensitive drum 28 and transfer the toner image to the intermediate transfer belt 25.
The printer unit 231 and the other one is the intermediate transfer belt 2
The second printer unit 232 includes a transfer device 27 that transfers the image on the recording sheet 5 onto the recording sheet. The first printer unit 231
Since the tandem system is used, the color components (4 colors)
Around each of the separately provided photosensitive drums 28, a charging device 29 for charging the surface of the photosensitive member, an optical writing unit (scanner unit) 12 for scanning the surface of the photosensitive member with a laser beam carrying image information, and a photosensitive member. A developing device 31 that visualizes the electrostatic latent image formed by exposing the surface of the drum 28, and a cleaning device 32 that removes and collects toner remaining on the photoconductor.
Are arranged.

In the image forming process, the intermediate transfer belt 25
One rotation forms one color image, that is, the yellow (Y) printer unit first develops the yellow (Y) toner and transfers it to the intermediate transfer belt 25. next,
The magenta (M) printer unit, the cyan (C) printer unit, and finally the black (BK) printer unit perform development using the toners of the respective colors, and transfer the toner images onto the intermediate transfer belt 25 in a superimposed manner. To do. Although not shown, the first printer unit 231 includes a developing device that accommodates transparent toner on the peripheral edge of the photosensitive drum 28.

On the intermediate transfer belt 25, the toner images which have been color-developed by superimposing four colors are transferred by a transfer device 27 onto a recording sheet. The toner remaining on the surface of the intermediate transfer belt 25 after the transfer is removed and collected by the cleaning device 30.

The transfer device 27 supplies the recording paper on which the image is transferred from the paper feed cassette 241 of the paper feed unit 24. Unused sheets are stacked and accommodated in the sheet feeding cassette 241, the bottom plate of the sheet feeding cassette 241 is raised, and the pickup roller comes into contact with the uppermost sheet, and the taken-out sheet is fed by the sheet feeding roller. It is sent out from the paper cassette and conveyed to the registration roller 33. The registration rollers 33 are controlled to temporarily stop the conveyance of the sheet, and start the rotation at a timing so that the positional relationship between the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 25 and the leading edge of the sheet becomes a predetermined position.

A fixing device 34 for fixing the toner on the recording paper on which a toner image has been obtained at a predetermined position by the transfer device 27 is arranged downstream of the conveyance path of the recording paper from the image forming section 23. The fixing device 34 ejects and stores the paper, on which the toner image has been fixed on the recording paper, in the paper ejection storage unit 36 by the paper ejection roller 35. The discharged sheet storage section 36 is provided on the left side of the image forming section 23 at an appropriate height from the floor on the side surface of the apparatus.

To explain the movement of the paper during the printing operation by the double-sided device 41, when printing is performed using both sides of the recording paper, after the front surface is printed, the paper is reversed and the transfer device 27 is again used.
Transfer to the back side with. When this reversal is performed, the recording sheet toward the discharge roller 35 is guided to the double-sided device 41 by the action of the branching claw at the branching section 42, the sheet is reversed there, and the sheet is skewed again by passing through the registration roller 33. After the correction, the back side image transfer operation is performed. The reversal of the recording paper is performed to align the pages when printing a plurality of originals. At this time, similar to the double-sided printing operation, the branching portion 42 guides the sheet to the double-sided device 41 by the action of the branching claws, reverses the sheet via the double-sided device 41, and discharges the sheet through the reverse sheet discharge roller 43. The sheets stacked in the discharged sheet storage section 36 with the image side facing down,
Eliminates the need to manually align pages.

To explain the operation of functioning as a copying machine, in the reading section 22, a reading traveling body 222 having a document illumination light source and a mirror is placed along a document (not shown) placed on the contact glass 221. 223 is reciprocally moved to read and scan the original image. The image information scanned by the reading traveling bodies 222 and 223 is photoelectrically converted by the CCD line image sensor 225 installed behind the lens 224 and read as an image signal. The read image signal is subjected to image processing as digital image data that can be reproduced as an image. The light emission of the laser diode LD (not shown) in the optical writing unit 12 is controlled based on the image-processed signal, and laser writing scanning is performed to form an electrostatic latent image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 28. For optical writing, a laser writing device that has already been put into practical use is used, which scans the surface of the photosensitive drum with an optical signal from the LD via a polygon mirror or a lens. In addition,
An automatic document feeder 11 for automatically feeding a document onto the contact glass is attached above the reading unit 22.

The color copying machine has a function as a so-called digital color copying machine, which scans and reads an original as described above, and reproduces (copies) a color image on a recording sheet based on digitized image data. In addition, it is a multi-function color copying machine having a facsimile function of exchanging image information of a document with a remote place by a control device (not shown) and a so-called printer function of printing image information handled by a computer on paper. Regardless of which function is used, the recording paper is operated as described above for all the input image data, and the image forming unit 1
Then, the printing operation is performed and the sheet is discharged and stored in one discharged sheet storage section 36.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a controller for performing image processing of the color copying machine. Scanner 1 in the figure
Corresponds to the optical writing unit 12 and the reading unit 22, and photoelectrically converts the original image by a CCD line image sensor and outputs it as an image signal. Image area separation information acquisition unit 2
Converts the R, G, and B image signals into a color space, and generates a memory plane and a separate memory plane for each color. The memory plane (hereinafter abbreviated as plane) will be described later. The image storage memory 3 stores color-based planes and separation planes. The image / image area separation information processing unit 4 aggregates, rotates, enlarges, reduces, prints pages on each plane,
Performs printing additional functions such as stamp printing and date printing. The image area separation information adding unit 5 adds the area printed on the plane for each color to the separation plane as a character area. The plotter 6 receives the separation plane from the image area separation information adding section 5, performs edge emphasis processing on the character area formed therein, and performs transparent toner processing for producing gloss on the photographic area, and outputs it. The hard disk 7 compresses and stores each plane as necessary. The operation display unit 8 is composed of a liquid crystal display unit and an operation unit, and can perform print addition functions such as aggregation, rotation, enlargement, reduction, page printing, stamp printing, and the like, and a print color by key touch. CPU9
Is an application stored in the ROM 10 in the RAM
11, and controls the entire controller 20 and controls related to image processing.

Next, the operation of the controller 20 will be described.
When the scanner 1 scans and reads an image, the R,
The image signals of G and B are color space converted by the image area separation acquisition unit 2, and Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan),
A plane for each color of B (black) and a colorless plane (separation plane) are generated. Here, the memory plane refers to a page image composed of one page of data stored in the page memory of the image. FIG. 3 is a diagram visually showing data for one page of an image for each color. For example, in an A4 vertical image, 1y is yellow, 1m is magenta, and 1m is 1.
c is cyan, 1k is data for one page of each black image, and 1t is data for one page of colorless image. These created data (planes) are once stored in the image storage memory 3, reduced if necessary, and stored in the hard disk 7.

When the operation display unit 8 is instructed to output the read A4 vertical image to the A4 horizontal recording paper, each plane stored in the image recording memory 3 or the hard disk 7 is processed with image and image area separation information. It is read by the unit 4, and the planes 1y, 1m, 1c, and 1b are rotated there by 90 degrees, and the separation plane is also rotated by 90 degrees. Figure 4
Indicates the state when the data for one page of the image is rotated by 90 degrees.

When an image repeat output instruction for outputting two A4 vertical images by sticking them on a horizontal A3 recording paper is output, the controller 20 causes the image / image area separation information processing unit 4 to have a memory area corresponding to A3. For each plane, and copy each plane there. FIG. 5 shows the state of this image repeat. In addition, here, although the same image is described as an image repeat function for placing a plurality of images on one recording sheet, aggregation, weekly magazine binding, mini bookbinding, etc., for placing a plurality of different images on one recording sheet, etc. May be a function of.

Each plane to which the print setting function is applied in this manner is sent to the image area separation information adding section 5, and when an instruction such as page printing is given from the operation display section 8, the plane for each color is sent. Is printed, the printed portion is added to the separation plane as a character area, and is sent to the plotter 6. The plotter 6 performs processing for putting transparent toner on the photographic area of the separation plane, except for the character area, for providing gloss. Then, the image obtained by this processing is output.

Image processing by image area separation will now be described by taking page printing and stamp printing as examples. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which page printing and stamp printing are performed on an image,
In this example, a confidential mark is printed (stamped) in red and P.I. A page number such as 1 is printed.
When an instruction for this is issued from the operation display unit 8, the CPU 9
Reads each plane from the image storage memory 3 to the image area separation information adding unit 5. And plane 1y and plane 1m
A confidential mark is added to the plane, and P. Give 1. With these additions, the confidential mark and P. 1 is copied and this is forcibly used as a character area. When the photo area is set to 0 and the character area is set to 0 on the separation plane 1k, the confidential mark and P. One to one
By setting, you can forcibly make a character area. These color-specific planes and separation planes are sent to the plotter 1. For the color-specific planes, the sharpness and the like are edited using filters for each color. Editing such as putting on.

The image plane and the separation plane may have the same format or different formats.
For example, the image plane may be 2-bit 4-value data and the separation plane may be 1-bit binary data, or the image plane and the separation plane may be the same 8-bit 256-value data. In the present embodiment, the data input from the scanner is described as an example of C / M / Y / K, but it may be R / G / B. Although the separation plane was created by the scanner 1, the controller 20
May be created by the side.

[0025]

The effects corresponding to the first to fourth aspects of the present invention are as follows: Excessive image processing is not performed on the character area of the print which is subsequently input by the input means of the image forming apparatus. Therefore, it is possible to prevent deterioration of image quality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a color copying machine as an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of a controller that performs image processing of a color copying machine.

FIG. 3 is a diagram visually showing data for one page of an image.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state in which data for one page of an image is rotated by 90 degrees.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a state of image repeat of data for one page of an image.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state in which stamp printing is performed.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... ADF (Automatic Document Feeder), 12 ... Scanner / IPU, 13 ... Main controller, 14 ... Operating unit, 22 ... Optical reading unit, 23 ... ..Image forming section, 2
5 ...- Intermediate transfer belt, 28 ... Photosensitive drum, 29 ...
..Charging device, 30 ... Cleaning device, 31 ... Developing device, 32 ... Cleaning device, 33 ... Registration roller, 36 ...

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04N 1/387 B41J 3/00 B 5C079 1/46 H04N 1/40 D 1/60 1/46 Z F term (Reference) 2C262 AB13 AC11 AC15 EA07 EA08 EA16 GA01 GA13 2H300 EA12 EB04 EB12 EC05 EH16 EJ49 FF10 FF11 FF13 FF14 GG04 GG30 RR21 RR30 SS02 SS04 SS07 TT04 5B0C16 CA77 CB16C07 CB04 CA01 CA08 CAT16 CA16 CB01 CA16 CA16 CB01 CA16 CA16 CB01 CA16 CA16 CB01 CA16 CA16 CB01 CA16 CA16 CA16 CB01 CA16 CA16 CB01 CA16 CA16 CB01 CA16 CAT01 PP19 PP27 PP28 PQ12 PQ25 SS02 TT02 5C079 HB01 HB03 HB11 LA06 MA02 MA11 MA19 NA02 NA06 PA03

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A color image forming apparatus that separates an image into a character area and a photographic area, and performs different image processing for each of the separated areas. Each of the separated areas for printing by a print addition function of the color image forming apparatus. A color image forming apparatus comprising means for setting a character area independently of the color image forming apparatus. 2. The color image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for setting the character area is for one page provided corresponding to a memory plane for each color which is image data for one page for each color. The color image forming apparatus characterized in that the character area is set independently of the character area set in the colorless memory plane and the photo area. 3. The color image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the colorless memory plane is set with the same print addition function as the memory plane for each color. 4. A color image forming method in which an image is separated into a character area and a photograph area, and different image processing is performed for each separated area, and the image data for one page of each color is matched with a memory plane for each color. A step of creating a colorless memory plane for one page provided by the above, a step of forming a print on the memory plane for each color when printing is performed by the print addition function of the color image forming apparatus, and the printing. A color image forming method comprising a step of setting a colorless memory plane as a character area independently of a character area and a photograph area, and a step of performing different image processing on the character area and the photograph area by the colorless memory plane.