JP2006050298A - Image processing system and method for image processing - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an optimum output image for a color/monochrome mixed document specially using a gray background image, etc. by performing processing system which shows the same property even if a job changes between full-color/monochrome. <P>SOLUTION: In a case that an automatic discrimination mode is set by printing mode information, even if monochrome processing and full-color processing is suitably changed for each page in the document with a plurality of pages mixing full-color/monochrome, difference of density property is eliminated when especially the background data are gray scale, the optimum data processing is realizable for data processing, it call effectively realize both image quality and performance. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a color image printing apparatus and method for sequentially transferring a plurality of color visible images sequentially formed on an image carrier onto a transfer material, and a method thereof, and more particularly to a color capable of reproducing image characteristics of input image data. The present invention relates to an image printing apparatus and a method thereof.

  As computer output devices, information recording devices using an electrophotographic method such as a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as “LBP”) are widely used. These information recording apparatuses are a factor that rapidly expands the field of desktop publishing due to many advantages such as high-quality printing results, quietness and high speed. In addition, the high performance of the host computer and the image generation unit of the printer makes it possible to easily handle color images, and electrophotographic color printers have also been developed, not only printing on conventional monochrome images, Color image printing is also gaining popularity.

  Furthermore, with recent advances in image forming apparatuses, the level of market needs has increased, and electrophotographic image forming apparatuses that increase the number of developer colors compared to conventional four-color image forming apparatuses have been proposed and partially realized. Yes. In addition to the conventional four colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, they correspond to special colors such as red, blue, green, gold, silver, and fluorescent colors, and are generally light in inkjet systems. There are various things such as adding cyan and light magenta, but the purpose is to differentiate each in terms of image quality.

  In addition, there is a conspicuous case where performance is required as well as differentiation in terms of image quality, especially when color documents and monochrome documents are mixed across multiple pages, and there is a demand for printing to a color image output device with optimal image quality and performance. Is growing.

For example, when printing a document as shown in FIG. 9a, the first page is processed as a monochrome page because it is a monochrome document, and the second page is processed as a color page because it is a color document. Can be deleted and printed (see Patent Document 1).
JP 2003-330661 A

  As mentioned above, performance and image quality differentiation are important to optimally print a compound document that is a mixture of monochrome and color documents across multiple pages. Monochrome image processing is performed to improve the quality as a monochrome image, and color image processing is performed on a color document to improve the quality as a color image. However, when the above processing is automatically performed by a printer driver or the like to determine whether each page is a full color document or a monochrome document, a color page processing instruction and a monochrome page processing instruction are executed for each page, as shown in FIG. 9a. If the background is the same grayscale data and the text is printed in monochrome on the first page, the second page is printed in full color, the monochrome page is printed more clearly as shown in FIG. 11a. In order to solve the problem that the density difference of the same background appears clearly because processing that emphasizes gradation is performed on the color page, as shown in FIG. 11b. The print mode is set to the full color fixed mode and all pages are processed as full color processing, or the print mode is set as shown in FIG. In the mode of black-and-white it was solved by carrying out the whole page as a monochrome process.

  The present invention has the following configuration as one means for achieving the above object.

  (1) At least an automatic determination mode for performing predetermined image processing based on image data input from a host computer and automatically determining whether the image data is full color information or monochrome information, and a plurality of printers from a printer engine. An image processing system of a color printing apparatus that controls the output of print data for each color using the color material, and a setting unit for setting the automatic discrimination mode, and the input image data in a plurality of colors Color conversion means for converting to and outputting a plurality of color component data corresponding to the number of colors of the material, and a plurality of linear colors that maintain a certain linearity for the plurality of color component data output by the color conversion processing means Density correction processing means for converting to density data; and output density setting for setting output density characteristics stored in advance based on the result set by the setting means. Means, output density correction processing means for correcting a plurality of linear color density data obtained by the density correction means according to density characteristics set by the output density setting means, and a plurality of values obtained by the output density correction processing means. A pseudo gradation processing means for converting the linear color density data into pseudo gradation data, a forming means for forming latent image data of the pseudo gradation data obtained by the pseudo gradation processing means, and the forming means. Output means for printing out the formed latent image data as an output image.

  (2) In the color image processing system of (1), the output density setting means includes full color density setting means for setting the output density of full color data, and monochrome density setting means for setting the output density of monochrome data. It is characterized by that.

  (3) In the color image processing system according to (1) or (2), the output density characteristic has at least a full color density characteristic in consideration of reproducibility of full color data and a monochrome density characteristic in consideration of reproducibility of monochrome data. It is characterized by that.

  (4) In the color image processing system according to (1), the setting unit includes a UI operation unit that can be arbitrarily set by a user, and a determination unit that determines a print mode using the UI operation unit. To do.

  (5) In the color image processing system according to the above (1) or (4), the determining means determines at least three types of printing modes of an automatic discrimination mode, a full color mode, and a monochrome mode with respect to information of input image data. When the automatic discrimination mode is set, the output density characteristic having the same density characteristic is automatically set in the full color density setting means and the monochrome density setting means.

  According to the present embodiment, when the automatic determination mode is set by the print mode information, the background data is grayscale particularly when monochrome processing and full color processing are switched appropriately for each page in a full-color / monochrome mixed multi-page document. In this case, it is possible to eliminate the difference in density characteristics and to realize optimum data processing in terms of data processing, and it is possible to efficiently achieve both image quality and performance.

  A color image printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the present invention is applied to a color LBP having 600 dpi and four color developers having C (cyan), M (magenta), Y (yellow), and K (black). However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to an image printing apparatus such as a color printer or a color facsimile apparatus having an arbitrary recording density without departing from the gist of the present invention.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of a color LBP according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In the figure, the image processing system of this embodiment is configured by connecting a host computer 101 and a color LBP 102 via a network 100.

  More specifically, 100 is a network, and a system generally called Ethernet (registered trademark) is known, and a physical cable such as 10BaseT is used to connect by a protocol such as TCP / IP. The units can exchange information and transfer data. Reference numeral 101 denotes a host computer which sends print information for performing print processing such as color information, characters, graphics, image images, and the number of copies to the color LBP 102. Reference numeral 102 denotes a color LBP which has the same function as each other.

  Next, the configuration of the color LBP 102 shown in FIG. 1 will be further described.

  The color LBP 102 of this embodiment includes an image processing unit 104 and a control unit 105 which are connected to each other via a bus (not shown) and via a network interface (hereinafter referred to as “network I / F”) 103. It is connected to the network 100. A printer engine 106 that performs actual image formation based on the image signal sent from the image processing unit 104 is connected to the image processing unit 104. The control unit 105 controls the operation of the entire system, and this is made possible by the CPU 107 sending a control signal for determining and controlling various processes to the control unit 105 in accordance with the control program 108a stored in the ROM 108. . The RAM 109 is used as a work area 109a for storing data for the CPU 107 to perform each control.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration example of the image processing unit 104 in the color LBP 102. The operation of the image processing unit 104 will be described with reference to these drawings.

  In FIG. 2, reference numeral 141 denotes a reception buffer, which holds input print information. A color conversion mode setting unit 142 selects a color conversion parameter corresponding to a color conversion mode set by resolution information input from the host computer 101 from the color conversion parameter holding unit 143, and the color conversion table generation unit 145 selects it. Create and store a color conversion table. Reference numeral 143 denotes a color conversion parameter holding unit which holds a plurality of color conversion parameters corresponding to the color conversion mode. Reference numeral 144 denotes a color conversion unit which prints RGB data of image data input from the host computer 101. The information is converted into CMYK format print information by performing an interpolation process with reference to the color conversion table created by the color conversion table generation unit 145. A density correction processing unit 146 performs correction processing on the CMYK format print information converted by the color conversion unit 144 using the density correction table 147 so as to preserve the linearity of the density characteristics. A dither matrix setting unit 148 selects a dither parameter corresponding to a dither mode such as 4-bit dither, 2-bit dither, or 1-bit dither input from the host computer 101 from the dither parameter holding unit 149, and creates and stores a dither table 151. To do. A dither processing unit 150 refers to the CMYK format print information corrected by the density correction processing unit 146, compares the print information with reference to the dither table 151, and converts the print information to the number of gradations corresponding to the dither mode. . Details of the dither processing unit will be described later. An object generation unit 152 converts information such as image data (page description language) input from the host computer 101 into an object. At this time, the image data is converted into an object in the CMYK format converted by the color conversion unit 144, the density correction processing unit 146, and the dither processing unit 150. 153 is an object buffer that stores one page of objects converted by the object generation unit 152. A rendering unit 154 performs rendering processing based on the object for one page stored in the object buffer 153, and converts the rendering into a bitmap to be rendered. A band buffer 155 stores the bitmap generated by the rendering unit 154 and sends data to the PWM processing unit 156. A PWM processing unit 156 performs modulation processing with a pulse width corresponding to the irradiation time of laser exposure based on the pulse width modulation table set in the PWM pattern table 157 with respect to the bitmap data generated by the rendering unit 154. And send it to the printer engine 106.

  Next, the operation of the image processing unit 104 in the color LBP 102 of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the first data processing procedure in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, and corresponds to the operation procedure of the image processing unit 104. S301 to S323 represent each step. Further, the control program for realizing the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 is stored in the ROM 108 as described above, and is executed by the CPU 107. First, as initialization processing for the color LBP 102, printer status initialization and buffer initialization are performed (S301). Next, print data is received from the host computer 101 (S302) and held in the reception buffer 141 (S303). Then, data for one processing unit is extracted from the reception buffer 141 (S304), and it is determined whether all data has been extracted (S305). If it is determined in S305 that the processing has not been completed, it is determined whether or not the data processing for one page has been completed (S306). If it is determined in step S306 that the print data has not ended, it is determined whether the print data is color-related data such as color information or a color image image (S307). The conversion unit 144 refers to the color conversion table for the RGB format color data and performs interpolation to convert the color data to the CMYK format (S308), and the density correction processing unit 146 converts the density to the density level. Density correction is performed using the correction table 147 (S309). Next, the dither processing unit 150 performs a comparison operation with the dither table 151 to convert it into dithered color data (S310), the object generation unit 152 generates an object (S311), and stores it in the object buffer 153 (S312). ), The process returns to S304.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S307 that the print data is not color-related data, it is determined whether the print data is color conversion mode data (S313). If the print data is color conversion mode data, the color conversion mode setting is determined. In the unit 142, the color conversion generation unit 144 creates the color conversion table 145 using the color conversion parameters corresponding to the color conversion mode (S314), and the process returns to S304. On the other hand, if it is determined in S313 that the data is not color conversion mode data, it is determined whether the print data is dither mode data (S315). If the print data is dither mode data, the matrix setting unit 148 determines. The dither table 151 is created with the dither parameters corresponding to the dither mode (S316), and the process returns to S304. On the other hand, if it is determined in S315 that the data is not dither mode data, it is determined whether the data is print data PWM mode data (S317). If the data is PWM mode data, the PWM pattern table 157 stores the PWM pattern. A table is created (S318), and the process returns to S304. On the other hand, if it is determined in S317 that the data is not PWM mode data, it is determined whether the print data is mask data such as characters and graphics (S319). If the print data is mask data, the mask data object is determined. Is created (S311), stored in the object buffer 153 (S312), and the process returns to S304. On the other hand, if it is determined in S319 that the data is not mask data, print data processing is performed according to the type of data (S320), and the process returns to S304.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S306 that the data for one page has been completed, rendering processing is performed by the rendering unit 154 based on the object held in the object buffer 153 (S321), and the bitmap image is subjected to PWM processing. The pulse width modulation process is performed by the unit 156 (S322), and the print process is performed to transmit to the printer engine 106 and print on the paper (S323). On the other hand, if it is determined in S305 that all data has been completed, the printing process is terminated.

  FIG. 4 is a detailed block diagram illustrating the configuration of the dither processing unit 150 shown in FIG. 2, and the same components in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  In FIG. 4, reference numeral 1501 denotes a γ table setting unit for setting a γ table for a dither table, which is controlled by the dither parameter and print mode specified by the UI operation unit 201, and each object has a γ for color documents. Set the table and γ table for monochrome documents. A color characteristic table holding unit 1502 stores γ table parameters 1502a, 1502b, and 1502c for all the dither parameters held in the dither table 151. A monochrome characteristic table holding unit 1503 stores γ table parameters 1503a, 1503b, and 1503c for all the dither parameters held in the dither table 151. Reference numeral 1504 denotes a γ conversion unit, which performs an optimal γ conversion process on each object using the γ table set by the γ table setting unit 1501. Reference numeral 1505 denotes a dither processing execution unit that executes dither processing by comparison operation using the dither parameters held in the dither table 151 for the data converted by the γ conversion unit 1504.

  FIG. 5 is an example of input / output characteristics based on the color characteristic table and monochrome characteristic table shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 5a corresponds to the input / output characteristic diagram for the monochrome characteristic table holding unit 1503, and FIG. This corresponds to an input / output characteristic diagram for the holding unit 1502.

  FIG. 6 is an example showing actual data when each of the input / output characteristics shown in FIG. 5 is applied by the γ converter 1504. FIG. 6a corresponds to the converted data when the monochrome characteristic table holding unit 1503 is applied. FIG. 6B corresponds to the conversion data when the color characteristic table holding unit 1502 is applied.

  Next, the operation of the dither processing unit 150 in the color LBP 102 of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 7 and FIGS. 8 and 9.

  In the present embodiment, the following operation will be described assuming that the print mode is an automatic determination mode, a full color mode, and a monochrome mode.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of a second data processing procedure in the image processing apparatus according to the present invention, and corresponds to the operation procedure of the dither processing 150 shown in FIG. S701 to S715 indicate each step. Further, the control program for realizing the processing shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7 is stored in the ROM 108 as described above, and is executed by the CPU 107.

  First, when a print job for actual printing is started in S701, first, the color characteristic γ table is selected and set from the color characteristic table holding unit 1502 in the color density correction table as an initialization process of the γ table setting unit 1501. (S702) In the monochrome density correction table, the monochrome characteristic γ table is selected and set from the monochrome characteristic table holding unit 1503 (S703). Next, print mode information designated from the UI operation unit 201 as shown in FIG. 8 to be described later is acquired, and it is determined whether or not the current setting is the automatic determination mode (S704). If it is determined, the color characteristic γ table is selected and set from the color characteristic table holding unit 1502 in the monochrome density correction table of the γ table setting 1501 (S705). Next, it is determined whether or not the monochrome halftone characteristic has been changed by the UI operation unit (S706). If it is determined that the monochrome halftone characteristic has been changed, the monochrome characteristic γ table is added to the monochrome density correction table of the γ table setting 1501. Selection setting is performed from the table holding unit 1503 (S707). Next, it is determined whether or not the processing page is color data (S708). If it is determined that the processing page is color data, a full color page is generated (S709), and it is determined whether or not the job has been completed (S709). S710), if it is determined that the printing has been completed, printing is started (S711), and the process is terminated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S710 that the job has not ended, the process returns to S708. On the other hand, if it is determined in S708 that the processing page is not color data, it is determined as monochrome data, a monochrome page is generated (S712), and the process returns to S710. On the other hand, if it is determined in S706 that the monochrome halftone characteristic has not been changed, the process of S708 is performed without performing the process of S707.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in S704 that the current print setting is not in the automatic determination mode, it is determined whether or not it is in the full color mode (S713). Process. On the other hand, if it is determined in S713 that the current print setting is not the full color mode, it is determined that the monochrome mode is selected, and it is determined whether the monochrome halftone characteristic is changed (S714). The monochrome characteristic γ table is selected and set from the monochrome characteristic table holding unit 1503 in the monochrome density correction table of the γ table setting 1501 (S715), and the processes after S712 are performed. On the other hand, if it is determined in S714 that the monochrome halftone characteristic has not been changed, the process of S715 is not performed.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a print mode setting screen and a monochrome halftone characteristic setting screen by the UI setting unit 201 shown in FIG. 4, and the user can make settings on this dialog.

  FIG. 9 shows the result printed according to the setting of FIG.

  Here, FIG. 8A is a UI setting screen assuming that the print mode is set to the automatic determination mode (full color / monochrome automatic switching on the display). By this setting, “monochrome density characteristics” is initially set to “match color characteristics”. Thus, even if the background gray data as shown in FIG. 9B is determined as a monochrome page or a full color page, it is possible to show the same density characteristic. FIG. 8B is a UI setting screen assuming that the print mode is set to the full color mode. In this setting, the document is processed as a full color document without performing full color / monochrome determination on the driver. Characteristics are not displayed. The actual print result shows density characteristics as shown in FIG. 9c as in the automatic determination mode. However, since the data amount is all full color data, there is redundancy and affects performance. FIG. 8C is a UI setting screen assuming that the print mode is set to the monochrome mode. In this setting, the document is processed as a monochrome document on the driver, and the monochrome density characteristic is “monochrome emphasis”. Is initially set, and shows density characteristics peculiar to monochrome as shown in FIG. 9d.

  Further, since the setting of the UI operation unit 201 can be set for the conventional method, the monochrome density characteristics can be manually set when the print mode is the automatic determination mode and the monochrome mode. Even when full-color / monochrome processing similar to the conventional one is realized, it can be easily set.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, when the automatic determination mode is set by the print mode information, when monochrome processing and full color processing are switched appropriately for each page in a full-color / monochrome mixed multi-page document. In particular, it eliminates the difference in density characteristics when the background data is grayscale, makes it possible to realize optimal data processing in terms of data processing, and efficiently achieve both image quality and performance. .

(Other embodiments)
In the above embodiment, the present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of a single device.

  In the above embodiment, the input data is RGB data and the output is CMYK data. However, the present invention can be used in all color space representations such as L * a * b * and XYZ.

  In the present invention, the print mode setting has been described as the driver UI operation unit. However, the present invention can also be operated by using a panel UI attached to the image processing apparatus itself.

  The configuration of a data processing program that can be read by the image processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the memory map shown in FIG.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a memory map of a storage medium for storing various data processing programs that can be read by the image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

  Although not particularly illustrated, information for managing a program group stored in the storage medium, for example, version information, creator, etc. is also stored, and information depending on the OS on the program reading side, for example, a program is identified and displayed. Icons may also be stored.

  Further, data depending on various programs is also managed in the directory. In addition, a program for installing various programs in the computer, and a program for decompressing when the program to be installed is compressed may be stored.

  The functions shown in FIGS. 3 and 7 in this embodiment may be performed by a host computer by a program installed from the outside. In this case, the present invention is applied even when an information group including a program is supplied to the output device from a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, a flash memory, or an FD, or from an external storage medium via a network. Is.

  As described above, a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus is stored in the storage medium. It goes without saying that the object of the present invention can also be achieved by reading and executing the program code.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

  As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a flexible disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, an EEPROM, or the like is used. it can.

  Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included.

  Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written to a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the case where the CPU or the like provided in the board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications (including organic combinations of the embodiments) are possible based on the spirit of the present invention, and these are not excluded from the scope of the present invention. Absent.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of the image processing system which can apply the image recording device which can apply this invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a detailed configuration example of an image processing unit in the color LBP illustrated in FIG. 1. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the 1st data processing procedure in the image processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram illustrating a configuration of a dither processing unit illustrated in FIG. 2. FIG. 5 is an input / output characteristic diagram based on a color conversion table corresponding to the monochrome characteristic table and the color characteristic table shown in FIG. 4. FIG. 5 is a print example in which the monochrome characteristic table and the color characteristic table shown in FIG. 4 are applied. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the 2nd data processing procedure in the image processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print mode setting screen by a UI setting unit illustrated in FIG. 4. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a print result corresponding to a print mode set by a UI setting unit illustrated in FIG. 4. It is a figure explaining the memory map of the storage medium which stores the various data processing program which can be read by the image processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the printing result of a prior art example.

Explanation of symbols

100 Network 101 Host Computer 102 Color Laser Beam Printer (Color LBP)
103 Network interface (network I / F)
104 Image processing unit 105 Control unit 106 Printer engine 107 Central processing unit (CPU)
108 Read-only memory (ROM)
109 Random access memory (RAM)
141 Reception Buffer 142 Color Conversion Mode Setting Unit 143 Color Conversion Parameter Holding Unit 144 Color Conversion Unit 145 Color Conversion Table 146 Density Correction Processing Unit 147 Density Correction Table 148 Matrix Setting Unit 149 Dither Parameter Holding Unit 150 Dither Processing Unit 151 Dither Table 152 Object Generation unit 153 Object buffer 154 Rendering unit 155 Band buffer 156 PWM processing unit 157 PWM pattern table 201 UI operation unit 1501 γ table setting unit 1502 Color characteristic table holding unit 1503 Monochrome characteristic table holding unit 1504 γ conversion unit 1505 Dither processing execution unit

Claims (10)

At least an automatic determination mode for performing predetermined image processing based on image data input from a host computer and automatically determining whether the image data is full-color information or monochrome information; An image processing system of a color printing apparatus that controls output of print data for each color using
Setting means for setting the automatic discrimination mode;
Color conversion means for converting the input image data into a plurality of color component data corresponding to the number of colors of a plurality of color materials and outputting the data,
Density correction processing means for converting a plurality of color component data output by the color conversion processing means into a plurality of linear color density data having a certain linearity;
Output density setting means for setting output density characteristics stored in advance based on the result set by the setting means;
Output density correction processing means for correcting a plurality of linear color density data obtained by the density correction means in accordance with density characteristics set by the output density setting means;
Pseudo gradation processing means for converting a plurality of linear color density data obtained by the output density correction processing means into pseudo gradation data;
Forming means for forming latent image data of pseudo gradation data obtained by the pseudo gradation processing means;
An image processing system comprising: output means for printing out the latent image data formed by the forming means as an output image. The output density setting means includes full color density setting means for setting the output density of full color data;
2. The image processing system according to claim 1, further comprising monochrome density setting means for setting an output density of monochrome data.   3. The image processing according to claim 1, wherein the output density characteristics include at least a full color density characteristic considering reproducibility of full color data and a monochrome density characteristic considering reproducibility of monochrome data. system. The setting means includes UI operation means that can be arbitrarily set by a user;
The image processing system according to claim 1, further comprising a determination unit that determines a print mode by the UI operation unit.   The determining means determines at least three types of printing modes of automatic discrimination mode, full color mode, and monochrome mode for the input image data information, and automatically sets full color density when the automatic discrimination mode is set. 5. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein output density characteristics having the same density characteristics are set in said means and monochrome density setting means. At least an automatic determination mode for performing predetermined image processing based on image data input from a host computer and automatically determining whether the image data is full-color information or monochrome information; An image processing method for a color printing apparatus for controlling output of print data for each color using
A setting step for setting the automatic discrimination mode;
A color conversion step of converting the input image data into a plurality of color component data corresponding to the number of colors of a plurality of color materials and outputting the data,
A density correction processing step of converting a plurality of color component data output by the color conversion processing step into a plurality of linear color density data having a certain linearity;
An output density setting step for setting output density characteristics stored in advance based on the result set in the setting step;
An output density correction processing step of correcting a plurality of linear color density data obtained by the density correction step according to the density characteristic set in the output density setting step;
A pseudo gradation processing step of converting a plurality of linear color density data obtained by the output density correction processing step into pseudo gradation data;
Forming a latent image data of the pseudo gradation data obtained by the pseudo gradation processing step;
An image processing method for an image processing system, comprising: an output step of printing out the latent image data formed in the forming step as an output image. The output density setting step includes a full color density setting step for setting the output density of full color data;
7. An image processing method for an image processing system according to claim 6, further comprising a monochrome density setting step for setting an output density of monochrome data.   8. The image processing according to claim 1, wherein the output density characteristics include at least a full color density characteristic considering reproducibility of full color data and a monochrome density characteristic considering reproducibility of monochrome data. System image processing method. The setting step includes a UI operation step that can be arbitrarily set by the user;
The image processing method of the image processing system according to claim 6, further comprising a determination step of determining a print mode by the UI operation step.   The determination step determines at least three types of print modes, ie, an automatic discrimination mode, a full color mode, and a monochrome mode, for the input image data information, and automatically sets the full color density when the automatic discrimination mode is set. 10. The image processing method for an image processing system according to claim 6, wherein output density characteristics having the same density characteristics are set in the step and the monochrome density setting step.