JP2006107155A - Device and method for document structural processing, and program for making computer execute same method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document structural processing method capable of changing a layout of document data at the side of a display device which understands structural documents of electronic papers and the like and displaying images on the surface screen of the display device at the best suitable condition. <P>SOLUTION: In structural information in which a string of characters organized by a plurality of characters disposed at one direction is set to be a minimum unit in the document data, the structure of the document data is determined, and the determined structure is showed; a document structural processor 220 producing structural documents for showing structures of the document data is arranged on a printer driver 215 which handles intermediate document data produced in the process of image processing of the document data including character codes. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a document structuring processing apparatus, a document structuring processing method, and a program for causing a computer to execute the method.

  Currently, PCs are widely used as word processors or as communication means such as mail. Although PCs tend to be smaller and lighter in recent years, there are still problems in terms of battery life and weight for carrying them on a daily basis. For this reason, data such as documents created on a PC is often carried in a state of being printed on a medium such as paper. For this reason, the PC transfers the created data to the printer and causes the printer to print on a paper medium.

  Data transfer from the PC to the printer is performed using a storage medium such as a memory card or an input / output interface such as a USB. In order to associate many data formats used on a PC with a printer, an OS that controls application software in the PC provides a print function for the application software. For this reason, by installing the printer driver, the PC side can pass data to be printed to the OS according to a certain rule regardless of the type of printer.

Even on the printer side, data can be printed regardless of the application software on the PC side. It is also possible to create a printer driver so that facsimile communication is possible by transferring data to the facsimile apparatus.
Such a printer driver receives application software data from the OS, converts it into image data, and transfers it to the printer side. At this time, data composed of character strings is transferred to the printer driver for each character line. As a conventional technology of such a printer driver, Post Script (registered trademark) is cited as Non-patent document 1, and ESC / Page (registered trademark) is named as Non-patent document 2.
Internet <URL: http://www.adobe.co.jp/print/postscript/main.html> <URL: http://edrj.i-love-epson.co.jp/>

  By the way, there is a thin display medium currently used instead of paper or the like. Such a display medium is referred to as electronic paper in this specification. Among electronic papers, a memory type can hold data once displayed without receiving power. Further, it is possible to rewrite data repeatedly. Due to such advantages, it is considered that electronic paper is used for displaying data created by a PC in the same manner as a paper medium and is carried.

  The electronic paper has a display screen and a control unit that controls an image displayed on the display screen. Some control units can understand structured documents such as XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) and XML (eXtensible Markup Language), and if the data displayed on the display screen is a character string, it can be a line or paragraph. The layout of the character string can be changed in consideration of the structure of the character string.

However, the prior art assumes that data is printed on a paper medium, and as described above, the data is transferred to the printer as an image. For this reason, only information on the size and shape of the characters constituting the data is transferred to the printer side, and information such as document lines and paragraphs is lost.
According to such a conventional technique, the layout of document data cannot be changed even though the electronic paper has a function of understanding a structured document. Therefore, when the conventional technique is applied to a configuration in which character string data is transferred from the PC to the electronic paper, the entire character string is used to match the size of the image created on the PC side with the size of the display screen of the electronic paper. There is a problem that there is no means other than enlarging or reducing the image as an image. Further, when it is not preferable to reduce the image, it is necessary to scroll the display screen of the electronic paper in order to view the entire image, and this operation is troublesome.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points. The layout of document data is changed on the side of a display device that can understand a structured document such as electronic paper, and an image is displayed in a state optimal for the display screen of the display device. An object is to provide a document structuring processing apparatus, a document structuring processing method, and a program for causing a computer to execute the method.

  In order to solve the above problems, a document structuring apparatus of the present invention is a document structuring apparatus that handles intermediate document data generated in the process of imaging document data including character codes. Based on the structure determination means for determining the structure of the document data, and the structured information indicating the structure determined by the structure determination means, with a character string composed of a plurality of characters arranged in one direction as a minimum unit And structured document generation means for generating a structured document indicating the structure of the document data.

  According to such an invention, the structure of the document data can be determined in the process of imaging the document data including the character code. Then, a document showing the structure obtained as a result of the determination can be created. According to such processing, the structure of the document data can be transmitted to other devices to be notified. Therefore, if another device can understand a structured document, it is possible to provide a document structuring apparatus that can change the layout of received document data and display an image in an optimal state on the display screen on the device side. it can.

In the document structuring apparatus according to the present invention, the structure determining unit includes a paragraph determining unit that determines a structure of a paragraph constituting the document indicated by the document data based on the character string. .
According to such an invention, document data can be structured more easily and at a higher speed than conventional techniques such as OCR that extracts and interprets characters one by one.

In the document structuring processing apparatus according to the present invention, the paragraph determination unit may use one line of characters of the document represented by the document data as a character string, and indent the line according to the position of the first character string in the character string. In addition to the detection, the character string from which the indentation is detected to the character string immediately before the next character string from which the indentation is detected is determined as one paragraph.
According to such an invention, the beginning of a paragraph can be detected relatively easily and accurately.

Further, in the document structuring apparatus of the present invention, the paragraph determining means uses a character of one line of the document represented by the document data as a character string, and an interval between the character string of the first line or the immediately preceding character string is immediately after From a character string wider than the character string to a character string to a character string whose distance from the immediately following character string is wider than the distance from the immediately preceding character string is determined as one paragraph.
According to such an invention, the beginning of a paragraph can be detected relatively easily and accurately.

In the document structuring apparatus of the present invention, the structure determination unit detects a plurality of blank areas in contact with the paragraph from different directions, and a positional relationship and a relative size between the detected blank areas. The structure relating to the layout of the document data is determined on the basis of the difference.
According to such an invention, it is possible to easily and accurately determine whether the document data is shifted to the left, right, center, or up and down. For this reason, the structure concerning the shift of the document data can be included in the structured document.

In the document structuring apparatus according to the present invention, when the structure determination unit includes a drawing in the document data, a plurality of blank areas that are in contact with the display area from different directions are displayed with respect to the display area of the drawing. The structure relating to the layout of the drawing is determined based on the detected positional relationship and the relative size difference between the plurality of blank areas.
According to such an invention, it is possible to easily and accurately determine whether the display area of the drawing included in the document data is shifted to the left, right, center, or up and down. For this reason, the structure related to the shift of the graphic display area can be included in the structured document.

In the document structuring apparatus according to the present invention, the structure determination unit determines the attribute of the paragraph based on a size of a character included in the character string.
According to such an invention, whether or not a paragraph is a paragraph other than that constituting the text, such as a headline or ruby, can be determined relatively easily and accurately. Thus, more detailed attributes of the paragraph can be included in the structured document.

In the document structuring apparatus of the present invention, the structure determination unit detects a keyword included in the character string, and determines a structure related to the layout of the document data based on the meaning of the keyword. To do.
According to such an invention, the attribute of the character string can be determined in more detail, and the special character string can be appropriately structured.

The document structuring apparatus of the present invention is provided in a printer driver that receives document data including a character code and converts it into an image.
According to such an invention, the intermediate document obtained in the process of converting the document data into an image can be processed in an appropriate process, and the structured document creation process can be performed smoothly.
The document structuring method of the present invention is a document structuring method for handling intermediate document data generated in the process of imaging document data including character codes, and a plurality of document structuring methods are arranged in one direction in the document data. A structure determination step for determining a structure of the document data, and a structured information indicating the structure determined in the structure determination means step. And a structured document generation step of generating a structured document indicating the structure.

  According to such an invention, the structure of the document data can be determined in the process of imaging the document data including the character code. Then, a document indicating the structure obtained as a result of the determination can be created. According to such processing, the structure of the document data can be transmitted to other devices to be notified. Therefore, if another device can understand the structured document, it is possible to provide a document structuring processing method that can change the layout of received document data and display an image in an optimal state on the display screen on the device side. it can.

  A program for causing a computer to execute the document structuring processing method of the present invention causes the computer to execute a document structuring processing method that handles intermediate document data generated in the process of imaging document data including character codes. A structure determination step for determining the structure of the document data using a character string composed of a plurality of characters arranged in one direction in the document data as a minimum unit, and the structure determination step And a structured document generation step of generating a structured document indicating the structure of the document data based on the structured information indicating the structured.

  According to such an invention, the structure of the document data can be determined in the process of imaging the document data including the character code. Then, a document indicating the structure obtained as a result of the determination can be created. According to such processing, the structure of the document data can be transmitted to other devices to be notified. Therefore, if the other device can understand the structured document, the layout of the received document data is changed, and the computer executes a document structuring method that can display an image in an optimal state on the display screen on the device side. A program can be provided.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a document structuring apparatus, a document structuring method, and a program for causing a computer to execute the method will be described with reference to the drawings. The document structuring referred to in this specification means that a machine including a character type (character code, font, size), a line feed position, a headline, a paragraph, and a figure position for a document composed of a plurality of characters. To convert to a recognizable description format. A document described in such a format is called a structured document.

Common structured document description methods include HTML (HyperText Markup Language), XML (eXtensible Markup Language), SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language), TeX, PoD (Plain Old Documentation), reStructured Text, and the like.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a hardware configuration of a document structuring apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The document structuring apparatus shown in FIG. 1 includes a PC (Personal Computer) 1, a printer 103 connected to the PC 1, and an electronic paper 101. The electronic paper 101 referred to in the present embodiment is a portable information display device in which a thin display and a control unit of the display are integrally configured. The printer 103 and the electronic paper 101 are connected to the external input / output I / O 115 of the PC 1. As an electronic paper display, for example, a liquid crystal display using the characteristics of liquid crystal can be used.

  The PC 1 includes a CPU 109 that performs overall control, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 105 that is used for control by the CPU 109, a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 107 that is driven by the control of the CPU 109, a display device 111 such as a display screen, a display A display controller 113 that controls an image displayed on the device 111 is provided. Further, the PC 1 has an input device 121 for inputting an operator's instruction, and a mouse 117 and a keyboard 119 are connected to the input device 121. The operator operates the mouse 117 and the keyboard 119 to instruct the PC 1 of processing contents.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the document structuring apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a hierarchical structure of the software shown in FIG. Of the configurations shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, components similar to those illustrated above are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is partially omitted.
The document structuring apparatus according to the present embodiment is operated by software 2. The software 2 includes an OS (Operating System) 200 and other application software group 201. The OS 200 provides the print service 211 and operates the installed printer driver 215.

The application software group 201 includes a plurality of application software other than the OS 200 operating on the PC 1.
The print service 211 receives a print request from the application software group 201 and passes document data to be printed (referred to as print data) to the printer driver 215. The print data is document data including a character code, and also includes data (referred to as attribute information) such as font attributes such as the font and size of characters and coordinates indicating the drawing position of the characters. For example, Post Script (registered trademark) or ESC / Page (registered trademark) is used for the description of the print data.

  The print service 211 has a character string output function 213. According to the character string output function 213, print data can be transferred to the printer driver 215 in units of character strings made up of characters arranged in a line. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that the printer driver 215 processes the received print data in units of character strings and outputs the processed data to the electronic paper 101.

  The printer driver 215 according to the present embodiment includes a document structuring unit 220. The printer driver 215 originally receives print data, and generates data (for example, bitmap data) for converting the print data into an image. The document structuring processing unit 220 functions as a document structuring processing apparatus that handles intermediate document data generated during the imaging process in the printer driver 215.

  Such a document structuring processing unit 220 processes print data in a unit that minimizes a character string, and determines the structure of the print data. The print data structure is determined by the paragraph determining unit 219, the layout structure determining unit 221, and the keyword monitoring unit 223 provided in the document structuring unit 220. The processing performed by each of the above configurations will be described in detail later.

  In addition, the document structuring processing unit 220 generates a structured document indicating the structure of print data based on the structured information obtained by the determination. In the present embodiment, the structured document is generated by the tagging processing unit 217 included in the layout structure determination unit 221. The tagging processing unit 217 generates a structured document by adding a tag indicating structured information to print data.

The structured information referred to in the present embodiment is information indicating a paragraph of document data and a document layout structure based on the paragraph. Note that the structured information of the present embodiment is described in a general description format such as XHTML (eXtensible HTML) format.
FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating print data in units of character strings. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the characters for one line of the document printed by the print data are set as one character string. The illustrated print data includes the coordinates of the points p1, p2, and p3 of the rectangular areas 401, 402, and 403 on which the first, second, and third lines of the document are printed (character strings in the figure). And coordinates of the points p′1, p′2, and p′3 of the rectangular regions 401, 402, and 403 (the size and description of the character string in the figure). .

Note that an interface (not shown) between the print service 211 and the printer driver 215 generally sends print data to the printer driver 215 in a state where all characters and images are rasterized and converted into a bitmap. Alternatively, character data may be sent to the printer driver 215 separately from the image.
The OS 200 also includes a display control unit 203 that controls the display device 111, an input device control unit 205 that controls input devices such as a keyboard 119 and a mouse 117, and an external input / output control unit that controls output devices such as the electronic paper 101 and the printer 103. 207, a file management function 209 for managing data files created on the PC 1 or input to the PC 1 from the outside. The document structured by the printer driver 215 is managed by the file management function 209.

  As illustrated in FIG. 3, the OS 200 provides a display control unit 203, an external input / output control unit 207, a file management function 209, and a printer driver 215. Further, although not shown in FIG. 3, the OS 200 provides the input device control unit 205 and the print service 211 shown in FIG. Each function provided by the OS 200 is commonly used by a plurality of application software included in the application software group 201.

  The plurality of application software includes a screen drawing routine for drawing an image on the display screen of the display device 111 or the electronic paper 101, and a print output routine for printing an image on a paper medium. . In many cases, a screen drawing routine is read first in response to a call to the OS 200, and a bitmap representing a character string is generated in accordance with information such as a character code, a character size, and a typeface. The generated bitmap is displayed on the display screen of the display device 111, and the operator can check the data generated by the application software.

Further, when a print request is made after the operator confirms the displayed data, a print output routine is read out. The print output routine executes printing in accordance with the resolution of the printer 103 and the paper size.
In addition, when the operator confirms the displayed data and makes an output request to the electronic paper 101, the character string that becomes the print data is structured by the printer driver 215 and electronically via the external input / output control unit 207. It is output to the paper 101.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the outline of the document structuring process performed by the document structuring apparatus described above. Note that the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 is processing performed in the printer driver 215 shown in FIG. The document structuring processing unit 220 according to the present embodiment first acquires a character string (represented by a character code) of print data received from the print service 211, and coordinates, size, and attributes illustrated in FIG. To do. The attribute includes information such as a character size and a typeface, a layout such as alignment of the left edge of the document and an arrangement of graphics, ruby, a headline, and the like (S501).

  Next, in the document structuring unit 220, the paragraph determining unit 219 determines a paragraph of a document composed of character strings based on the information obtained in step S501 (S502). Subsequently, in the document structuring unit 220, the layout structure determination unit 221 determines the layout structure for each paragraph for the document whose paragraph is determined in step S502 (S503). Further, the keyword monitoring unit 223 of the document structuring processing unit 220 detects a keyword included in the character string included in the paragraph, and determines the content of the character string (S504).

Next, the document structuring processing unit 220 structures the document by attaching information (tag) indicating the determination result to the document whose paragraph or layout structure is determined by the above processing (S505). Tagging is performed in the tagging processing unit 217 shown in FIG.
After the above processing, the document structuring processing unit 220 outputs the structured document to the electronic paper 101 via the external input / output control unit 207 (S506). The electronic paper 101 interprets the structured document based on the tag and displays the document on a display (not shown). The document displayed on the electronic paper 101 side is attached with information on the paragraph and layout of the document.

For this reason, the operator can change the number of characters in one line of the displayed document, the number of lines and the number of columns included in one page, and the like. Even when the document format is changed as described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to prevent the paragraphs and layout of the document from being corrupted. Hereinafter, each of the plurality of document structuring processes shown in FIG. 5 will be described in more detail.
(1) Paragraph Determination A paragraph determination method performed by the document structuring apparatus according to this embodiment will be described below. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the paragraph determination processing of the present embodiment. 7 and 8 are schematic diagrams showing a method for determining a paragraph. FIG. 7 shows a method for determining a paragraph based on indentation of a line, and FIG. 8 shows a length between lines. A method for determining a paragraph based on (line spacing) will be described.

  The paragraph determination unit 219 shown in FIG. 2 acquires the font size of the character to be printed from the print data 211 from the print service 211 as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 6 (S601). Then, it is determined whether or not there is an indentation at the head of each line composed of character strings (S602). If indentation is detected as a result of the determination (S602: Yes), it is determined that the character string in which indentation is detected is the start line of the paragraph (S605).

  FIG. 7 shows a document composed of a plurality of character strings 6. Although not shown, each character string 6 is configured by arranging a plurality of characters in a line. In the present embodiment, one line of the document is defined as one character string 6. The paragraph determination unit 219 detects the indentation by checking whether or not there is a space of one or more character widths at the beginning of the line in the illustrated character string 6. Note that the character width is detected from the font size acquired in the process of step S601.

  If the indentation at the beginning of the line is not detected in step S602 (S602: No), the paragraph determination unit 219 acquires the character string interval as the line interval. The line spacing can be obtained, for example, from the coordinates of each character string 6 shown in FIG. 4 in the print data. Then, it is determined whether or not the acquired line interval is wider than the previously acquired line interval (S603). As a result of the determination in step S603, when the acquired line interval is wider than the previously acquired line (denoted as a normal line interval) (S603: Yes), the character string corresponding to the immediately preceding line and the normal line interval It is determined that the character string positioned with a wide interval is the start line of the next paragraph (S605).

  FIG. 8 shows a document composed of a plurality of character strings 6 as in FIG. The paragraph determination unit 219 detects the character spacing from the coordinates of the immediately preceding character string and the coordinates of the character string to be processed this time. In the illustrated example, the line spacing of the character string 6 from the first line to the third line is a constant value a, but the line between the character string 6 corresponding to the third line and the character string 6 corresponding to the fourth line. The interval is a value b longer than the value a. In such a case, the paragraph determination unit 219 determines that the line interval between the character string 6 corresponding to the third line and the character string 6 corresponding to the fourth line is longer than usual.

  The printer driver 215 sequentially receives print data for each row from the print service 211 and executes the above processing. Then, it is determined whether or not the process of detecting indentation or obtaining the line interval is completed for the character string corresponding to the last line in the document (S604). As a result of the determination, if the process has reached the last line (S604: Yes), the paragraph determination unit 219 ends the paragraph determination process.

If the process has not reached the last line (S604: No), the font size of the next line is acquired, and the process is continued for the character string corresponding to the next line.
Through the above processing, in the example shown in FIG. 7, the indent 601 a is detected at the head of the character string 6 corresponding to the first line of the character string 6. Further, an indent 602a is detected at the head of the character string 6 corresponding to the fourth line of the character string 6. The paragraph determination unit 219 determines that the character string 6 corresponding to the first line is the start line of the paragraph, and determines that the character string 6a corresponding to the fourth line is the start line of the next paragraph. Therefore, the paragraph determination unit 219 determines that the line immediately before the first to fourth lines (third line) of the document is one paragraph 601.

Further, according to the example shown in FIG. 7, an indent 603 a is detected at the head of the character string 6 corresponding to the seventh line of the character string 6. Therefore, the paragraph determining unit 219 determines that the character string 6 corresponding to the seventh line is the start line of the paragraph, and the line immediately preceding the fourth to seventh lines (the sixth line) of the document is one paragraph 602. Judge that there is.
Further, with the above processing, in the example shown in FIG. 8, in the character string 6, a character string positioned with a line spacing wider than the character string 6 corresponding to the immediately preceding line is the start line of the paragraph. to decide. For this reason, the paragraph determination unit 219 determines that the line immediately before the first line to the fourth line (third line) of the document is one paragraph 701. Furthermore, when the line interval between the character string 6 corresponding to the sixth line of the document and the character string corresponding to the immediately following line (not shown) is longer than the normal value a, the paragraph determining unit 219 causes the character string 6 corresponding to the seventh line. Is the start line of the paragraph, and the line immediately before the fourth to seventh lines (the sixth line) of the document is determined to be one paragraph 702.

After the above processing, the result of the paragraph determination is passed from the paragraph determination unit 219 to the tagging processing unit 217 as structured information. The print data is later tagged with a paragraph based on the structured information.
(2) Determination of layout structure Determination of layout structure based on margins Next, processing for determining a layout structure of a document based on margins will be described.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for explaining a method for determining the layout structure of a document based on margins. 10 to 12 are diagrams for explaining a method for determining the layout structure of the document shown in the flowchart of FIG.
As shown in FIG. 9, the layout structure determination unit 221 receives the document sent from the paragraph determination unit 219 and detects blank areas (margins) at both ends of the character string. The margin is detected for each paragraph determined by the paragraph determination unit 219 (S901). Hereinafter, in the present embodiment, first, the size of the margin on the left side (left margin) of the character string included in one paragraph is compared with the size of the margin on the right side (right margin) (S902).

  FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining the comparison method performed in step S902. In the present embodiment, the size of the margin is set to the lengths a, b, c, d from the left of the paragraph 1000 to the left end of the paper P, and the lengths a ′, b from the right of the paragraph 1000 to the right end of the paper P. ', C', and d 'are compared with the corresponding lengths. The corresponding lengths are, for example, the length d from the left end of a specific character string (for example, the character string 60) to the left end of the paper P among the character strings included in the paragraph, and the paper from the right end of the same character string 60 to the paper. It means comparing with the length d ′ up to the right end of P.

  That is, the layout structure determination unit 221 has lengths a, b, c, d from the left end of each character string 6 included in the paragraph 1000 to the left end of the paper P substantially equal to 0, and from the right end of each character string 6. It is determined whether or not the lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, d ′ to the right end of the paper P are greater than zero. As a result of this determination, if the values of the lengths a, b, c, d are substantially equal to 0 and the lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, d ′ are greater than 0 (S902: Yes), the paragraph 1000 is determined to be a left-aligned layout structure (S908).

  On the other hand, if “NO” is determined in step S902 (S902: NO), the lengths a, b, c, d are greater than 0, and the lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, d ′. Is determined to be substantially equal to 0 (S903). As a result, when the lengths a, b, c, and d are greater than 0 and the lengths a ′ to d ′ are substantially equal to 0 (S903: Yes), the paragraph 1000 has a right-aligned layout structure. (S909).

  If it is determined “No” in step S903 (S903: No), the layout structure determination unit 221 determines the lengths a, b, c, and d and the lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, and d ′. Are all substantially equal to 0 (S904). If the lengths a, b, c, d and the lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, d ′ are all substantially equal to 0 as a result of this determination (S904: Yes), the layout structure determination unit 221 , It is determined that the paragraph 1000 has a normal layout (no margins are provided at either the left end or the right end) (S907).

  Furthermore, when the layout structure determination unit 221 determines “No” in step S904 (S904: No), the length a and the length a ′, the length b and the length b ′, and the length c and the length It is determined whether or not the length c ′ and the length d ′ are substantially equal (S905). As a result of this determination, when the length a and the length a ′, the length b and the length b ′, the length c and the length c ′, the length d and the length d ′ are approximately equal (S905: Yes), It is determined that the paragraph 1000 has a centered layout structure (S906). FIG. 11 shows the relationship between the lengths a, b, c, d and the lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, d ′ when the character string 6 is centered.

If the layout structure determination unit 221 determines “No” in step S905 (S905: No), the layout structure determination unit 221 determines that the paragraph 1000 has a normal layout structure (S907).
Further, the determination of the layout structure of the present embodiment is not limited to the configuration described above. That is, in the determination of the layout structure described above, the layout structure is determined by comparing the left margin and the right margin of the paragraph. However, the vertical layout of a paragraph can be determined by comparing the upper margin of the paragraph (upper margin) with the lower margin of the paragraph (lower margin).

  FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining a method for determining the vertical layout of the paragraph 1000. In the example shown in FIG. 12, the size of the upper and lower margins of the paragraph 1000 is set to the lengths a, b, c, d from the upper end of the paragraph 1000 to the upper end of the paper P, and from the lower end of the paragraph 1000 to the lower end of the paper P. The lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, and d ′ up to are compared with corresponding lengths. As a result of the comparison, for example, the lengths a, b, c, and d are substantially the same, and the corresponding ones of the lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, and d ′ (for example, the length a is If the length a ′ is shorter than the corresponding length), the layout structure determination unit 221 determines that the paragraph 1000 is aligned at the upper end.

In the present embodiment, such processing is shown in parentheses in the flowchart of FIG. That is, the flowchart of FIG. 9 is a flowchart for determining the vertical layout of a paragraph by replacing the left character in the figure above the parentheses and the right character below the parentheses.
Further, according to the layout structure determination method for comparing the left and right margins of the paragraph described above, it is determined that a so-called indent is set to indent the document for each unit such as a paragraph. it can. FIG. 13 shows a state where the document is indented for each of the paragraphs 1301, 1302, and 1303.

In addition, the layout structure determination unit 221 according to the present embodiment can apply the above-described method to determine the position of a graphic in the document and to structure the document. Such processing is illustrated in FIGS. 14 and 15.
That is, the graphic 141 and the graphic 151 in the document shown in FIG. 14 and FIG. 15 are all handled in the same manner as other characters having different sizes. Therefore, in the process shown in FIG. 14, the layout structure determining unit 221 includes lengths a, b, c, d, e, and f indicating the left margin of the paragraph 140 including the graphic, and a length indicating the right margin. The lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, d ′, e ′, and f ′ are compared with each other.

  As a result, in the example shown in FIG. 14, the lengths a, b, c, d, and e are substantially equal to the lengths a ′, b ′, c ′, d ′, and e ′. And f <f ′ holds for the length f ′. In such a case, the layout structure determination unit 221 determines that the paragraph 140 including the graphic 141 has a left-aligned layout structure. In the case of the layout structure shown in FIG. 14, there is also a character string 6 around the figure 141 in the paragraph 140. Such a state is also described as text wraparound in this embodiment.

  Further, in the process shown in FIG. 15, the length a indicating the left margin of the paragraph 150 including the figure is substantially equal to a ′ indicating the right margin. In such a case, the layout structure determination unit 221 determines that the paragraph 150 including the graphic 151 has a layout structure with both ends aligned. In the case of the layout structure shown in FIG. 15, the character string 6 does not exist around the graphic 151 in the paragraph 150. In this embodiment, such a state is also described as having no text wraparound.

Determination of layout structure based on character size Next, processing for determining the layout structure of a document based on character size will be described.
FIG. 16 is a flowchart for explaining a method of determining the layout structure of a document based on the character size. FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining a method of determining the layout structure of the document shown in the flowchart of FIG.

As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 16, the layout structure determination unit 221 acquires the character size of the character string included in the determined paragraph (S161). Note that the character size is included in the print data passed to the document structuring processing unit 220 and can be easily obtained.
Next, the layout structure determination unit 221 extracts the character size of the character string included in the paragraph based on the print data. From this result, it is determined whether or not 9 to 12 point characters, which are generally regarded as having a high appearance frequency in the document, appear at a frequency higher than a predetermined value in the paragraph (S162). As a result of the determination, if the appearance frequency of characters of 9 to 12 points in the paragraph is lower than a predetermined value (S162: No), whether or not characters of points of 9 points or less exist between character strings (line intervals). Judgment is made (S163).

  As a result of the determination in step S163, if there is a character of 9 points or less between the lines (S163: Yes), the layout structure determination unit 221 determines that this character is ruby (S166). If the result of determination in step S163 is that there are no characters of 9 points or less between lines (S163: No), characters of 10 points or more exist as bold or underlined, center-aligned characters (emphasized characters) It is determined whether or not (S164). As a result of this determination, if there is an emphasized character of 10 points or more (S164: Yes), this paragraph is determined as a headline (S167).

  If there is no emphasized character of 10 points or more in step S164 (S164: No), it is determined that the character included in the character string is a character constituting the main body of the document (S165). If it is determined in step S162 that the character size of this paragraph is 9 to 12 points (S162: Yes), it is determined that this paragraph is a document body (S165).

  FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining such processing, and shows a document including ruby and emphasized characters. The document shown in FIG. 17 is determined by the layout structure determination unit 221 to include the three paragraphs of the paragraph 174a, the paragraph 174b, and the paragraph 174c. The paragraph 174a includes a character string for one line, and the character string is entirely composed of emphasized characters 172. Therefore, this paragraph is determined to be a heading.

The paragraph 174b includes characters 173 having 9 to 12 points and characters 171 having 9 points or less. In such a paragraph, the appearance frequency of the character 173 is lower than that of a paragraph composed of all the characters 173. Therefore, the layout structure determination unit 221 can detect that the appearance frequency of the character 173 in the paragraph 174b is lower than a predetermined value.
Also, in the paragraph 174b, there are 171 characters with a point smaller than 9 points between character strings composed of the characters 173. The layout structure determination unit 221 determines that the character string composed of the characters 171 is ruby. Similarly, in the later paragraph 174c, a character string composed of characters 171 exists between character strings composed of characters 173. Also for this character string, the layout structure determination unit 221 determines that it is ruby.

After the above processing, the determination result by the layout structure determination unit 221 is passed to the tagging processing unit 217 as structured information. Based on the determination result, the print data is structured with tags indicating information such as ruby, headline, and document body later.
(3) Determination of layout structure based on keyword Next, the determination of the layout structure based on the keyword of the present embodiment will be described. The determination of the layout structure based on the keyword is performed by the keyword monitoring unit 223 of the document structuring processing unit 220. The keyword monitoring unit 223 detects a keyword included in the character string, and determines the structure related to the layout of the print data based on the meaning of the keyword.

  In the present embodiment, “·”, “http: //”, “mailto:”, “@”, and consecutive numbers “1, 2, 3,. The keyword monitoring unit 223 includes a storage unit (not shown) that stores such a keyword, and compares the character string with the keyword stored in the storage unit for each character string. If any of the keywords is included in the character string, the layout structure of the character string or the paragraph composed of the character string is determined according to the keyword.

  FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing a layout structure determination process based on keywords. The keyword monitoring unit 223 takes in the printer data for each paragraph, and determines whether this paragraph is a headline paragraph (S181). This determination is made based on the determination result by the layout structure determination unit 221 described above. If it is determined by this determination that the paragraph does not indicate a headline (S181: No), it is determined whether or not the heads of a plurality of character strings corresponding to the respective lines of this paragraph are aligned (S182).

In step S182, when the heads of a plurality of character strings are aligned (S182: Yes), it is determined whether or not the heads of the character strings start with “·” (S186). When the head starts with “·” (S186: Yes), a paragraph composed of character strings corresponding to the plurality of lines is set as a list paragraph (S189).
FIG. 19 is a diagram for explaining the above processing, and shows a document displayed by print data. This document has four paragraphs: paragraph 191, paragraph 192, paragraph 193, and paragraph 194. The keyword monitoring unit 223 determines the layout structure in the order of paragraph 191, paragraph 192, paragraph 193, and paragraph 194.

The paragraph 191 is a character string composed of characters with points greater than 9 to 12 points, and is determined by the layout structure determination unit 221 to be a headline paragraph. In the paragraph 193, the beginnings of the character strings are aligned, and the beginnings begin with “·”. Such a paragraph is determined to be a paragraph indicating an item in the list.
If the keyword monitoring unit 223 determines in step S186 that a character “·” is not included at the beginning of the character string constituting the paragraph (S186: No), a number that continues at the beginning of the character string is displayed. It is determined whether it is included (S187). As a result, when a continuously increasing number is included at the beginning of the character string (S187: Yes), this paragraph is determined as an item paragraph of the numbered list (S190). FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an item paragraph 2001 of the numbered list.

  If it is determined in step S181 that the paragraph is a paragraph indicating a headline (S181: Yes), the keyword monitoring unit 223 further determines whether or not a continuously increasing number is included at the beginning of the paragraph. Is determined (S191). As a result, when continuously increasing numbers are included (S191: Yes), it is determined that a number indicating a chapter or a section is attached to this paragraph (S192). FIG. 21 is a diagram showing paragraphs 2101 and 2102 with numbers indicating chapters and sections.

  After the above processing, if it is determined that this paragraph is neither a paragraph indicating a list item, an item paragraph of a numbered list, a numbered paragraph indicating a chapter or a section, the keyword monitoring unit 223 It is determined whether or not there is a character string including ASCII characters beginning with the keyword “http: //” in the paragraph (S183). If such a character string is included in the paragraph (S183: Yes), it is determined that the character string is a URL (S184).

  Furthermore, when it is determined in step S183 that there is no character string including an ASCII character starting with “http: //” (S183: No), an ASCII character starting with “mailto:” or an ASCII character sandwiching “@” is inserted. It is determined whether or not the character string including the column is in the paragraph (S185). If it is determined that such a character string is included (S185: Yes), it is determined that this character string is a mail address (S188).

  FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a paragraph 2201 formed of a character string including a URL. The character string including the URL and the mail address is structured to realize a link function to the URL or the email address on the electronic paper 101 side as the output destination. That is, the URL is recognized to display the page indicated by the URL when the electronic paper 101 is clicked on the character string indicating the URL, or to create an e-mail addressed to the address specified by the URL. Is done.

After the above processing, the keyword monitoring unit 223 passes the determination result to the tagging processing unit 217 as structured information. The print data is structured so that meanings such as list items and chapter numbers of character strings are not lost in accordance with keyword determination results. With this structuring, for example, line breaks in character strings including items and chapter numbers can be prohibited.
(4) Structuring (Tagging) Processing The tagging processing unit 217 structures print data based on the determination results made by the paragraph determination unit 219, the layout structure determination unit 221, and the keyword monitoring unit 223. Hereinafter, print data (structured document) structured according to the present embodiment will be exemplified. In the following example, the structured document is described in the XHTML (eXtensible HTML) format. However, the present embodiment is not limited to describing structured documents in the XHTML format, and may be described using any format.

<? xml version = "1.0" encoding = "Shift_JIS"?>
<! DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-// W3C // DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict // EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml: lang = "en" lang = "en">
<body>
<h2> About structured documents </ h2>
<p> The following are well-known formats for structured documents. </ p>
<ul>
<li> SGML </ li>
<li> HTML </ li>
<li> XML </ li>
<li> XHTML </ li>
</ ul>
<p> SGML stands for Standard Generalized Markup Language,
Defined as a system-independent information description method.

While strict description is possible, the language specification is difficult.
It has many influences on XML such as DTD. </ p>
<p> HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language,
Used to describe so-called homepages.
He is a driving force in the explosive spread of the World Wide Web.

Realize text, images and hyperlinks.
Specification is developed at W3C. W3C URL is
<a href="http://www.w3.org/"> http://www.w3.org/ </a>
It is. </ p>
<p> XML stands for Extensible Markup Language.

HTML was only available for certain tags,
In XML, you can define tags yourself.
It is used in all fields from electronic commerce to data transfer headers. </ p>
<p> XHTML stands for Extensible Hyper Text Markup Language,
It can be said that HTML corresponds to the XML format. While tags can be freely defined in XML, tags and display methods are independent. For this reason, XSL-FO is used in the printing field.
XHTML was proposed. </ p>
</ body>
</ html>
The structured document described above is transmitted to the electronic paper 101. FIG. 23 is a document displayed on the electronic paper 101 side by the above-described structured document.

  The structured processing apparatus and structured processing method of the present embodiment described above can create a structured document from print data. Then, by sending the structured document to a device that can understand the structured document such as electronic paper, the device side can make the structure of the print data understood. Therefore, in this device, print data can be re-laid out according to the display screen of the device and the needs of the operator.

In this embodiment, it can be said that print data can be output to another device and an image can be displayed in an optimal state on the output display screen of the device.
Note that a program for causing a computer to execute the document structuring method shown in the flowchart of the present embodiment described above is an installable format or executable format file that is a CD-ROM, floppy (registered trademark) disk (FD). ) And recorded on a computer-readable recording medium such as a DVD. In addition, a program that causes a computer to execute the document structuring method according to the present embodiment may be provided by being stored on a computer connected to a network such as the Internet and downloaded via the network.

It is a block diagram of the hardware constitutions of the document structure processing apparatus of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the document structuring apparatus shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the hierarchical structure of the software shown in FIG. It is the figure which illustrated print data per character string of one embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the outline of the document structuring process performed with the document structuring processing apparatus of one Embodiment of this invention. It is the flowchart which showed the process of the paragraph determination of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the method to determine a paragraph based on the indentation of a line among the processes of the paragraph determination of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the method to determine a paragraph based on a line space | interval among the processes of the paragraph determination of one Embodiment of this invention. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a method for determining a layout structure of a document based on margins according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the method of a margin comparison among the flowcharts shown in FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a margin state during center alignment in the flowchart illustrated in FIG. 9. It is a figure for demonstrating the method to determine the layout of an up-down direction among the flowcharts shown in FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the indentation of the document of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for determining the position of the figure in the document of one Embodiment of this invention. It is another figure for determining the position of the figure in the document of one Embodiment of this invention. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a method of determining a layout structure of a document based on a character size according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining a method of determining the layout structure of a document shown in the flowchart of FIG. 16. It is the flowchart which showed the process of the layout structure determination based on the keyword of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the determination method of a list paragraph among the processes shown to the flowchart of FIG. It is a figure for showing the item paragraph of the numbered list of one embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure for showing the paragraph to which the number which shows the chapter and section of one Embodiment of this invention was attached | subjected. It is a figure for showing the paragraph which consists of a character string containing URL of one embodiment of the present invention. It is a document displayed by the structured document obtained by one Embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

2 software, 6 character string, 101 electronic paper, 103 printer,
111 display device, 113 display controller, 117 mouse, 119 keyboard 121 input device, 200 software, 201 application software group 203 display control unit, 205 input device control unit, 207 external input / output control unit 209 file management function, 211 print service, 213 Character string output function 215 Printer driver, 217 Tagging processing unit, 219 Paragraph determination unit 220 Document structure processing unit, 221 Layout structure determination unit, 223 Keyword monitoring unit

Claims (11)

A document structuring apparatus that handles intermediate document data generated in the process of imaging document data including character codes,
A structure determination means for determining a structure of the document data using a character string composed of a plurality of characters arranged in one direction in the document data as a minimum unit;
Structured document generating means for generating a structured document indicating the structure of the document data based on the structured information indicating the structure determined by the structure determining means;
A document structuring apparatus comprising:   2. The document structuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the structure determining unit includes a paragraph determining unit that determines a structure of a paragraph constituting the document indicated by the document data based on the character string.   The paragraph determination means uses one line of characters of the document represented by the document data as a character string, detects indentation of a line according to the position of the first character string in the character string, and character string in which indentation is detected 3. The document structuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first character string to the character string immediately before the character string in which indentation is detected is determined to be one paragraph.   The paragraph determination means uses one line of characters of the document represented by the document data as a character string, and a character string whose interval from the character string of the first line or the immediately preceding character string is wider than the interval from the immediately following character string. 3. The document structuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a character string whose interval between the immediately following character string and the character string wider than the immediately preceding character string is determined as one paragraph.   The structure determination unit detects a plurality of blank areas in contact with the paragraph from different directions, and determines the layout of the document data based on a positional relationship and a relative size difference between the detected blank areas. 5. The document structuring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the structure is determined.   When the document data includes a drawing, the structure determination unit detects a plurality of blank areas in contact with the display area from different directions with respect to the display area of the drawing, and detects a plurality of detected blank areas. 5. The document structuring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein a structure related to the drawing layout is determined based on a positional relationship and a relative size difference.   The document structuring apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the structure determination unit determines the attribute of the paragraph based on a size of a character included in the character string.   8. The structure determination unit according to claim 1, wherein the structure determination unit detects a keyword included in the character string and determines a structure related to a layout of the document data based on a meaning of the keyword. The document structuring apparatus described.   9. The document structuring apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document structuring apparatus is provided in a printer driver that receives and converts document data including a character code into an image. A document structuring method for handling intermediate document data generated in the process of imaging document data including character codes,
A structure determination step for determining a structure of the document data using a character string composed of a plurality of characters arranged in one direction in the document data as a minimum unit;
A structured document generating step for generating a structured document indicating the structure of the document data based on the structured information indicating the structure determined in the structure determining means step;
A document structuring method comprising: A program for causing a computer to execute a document structuring method that handles intermediate document data generated in the process of imaging document data including character codes.
A structure determination step for determining a structure of the document data using a character string composed of a plurality of characters arranged in one direction in the document data as a minimum unit;
A structured document generating step for generating a structured document indicating the structure of the document data based on the structured information indicating the structure determined in the structure determining means step;
A program for causing a computer to execute a document structuring method comprising:

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