JP2010124051A - Image processing apparatus and method, and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent banding due to screen processing of image data while efficiently achieving further speedup of image processing. <P>SOLUTION: The image processing apparatus includes: a band data generating section 33a for dividing the image data to generate band data; a first screen processing section 35e<SB>1</SB>for receiving input line data of the band data and applying screen processing to the input line data; a second screen processing section for receiving input line data of the band data and applying screen processing to the input line data; and a screen-applied line generating section 33c for generating screen data to be applied to the screen processing performed by the first screen processing section or the second screen processing section. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus that screens input image data, a method for image processing of image data, and image formation in which an electrostatic latent image is formed on a latent image carrier by an exposure head having aligned light emitting elements. It relates to the technical field of equipment.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an image forming apparatus such as a printer, an image forming apparatus that forms an electrostatic latent image on a photosensitive member that is a latent image carrier using a line head having light emitting elements such as aligned organic EL elements is known ( For example, see Patent Document 1). In the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 2, image data is included in an image formation command and image processing is performed by an image processing controller to form video data. The head controller controls the lighting of the light emitting elements of the line head based on the video data, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image on the latent image carrier.

Conventionally, as an image forming apparatus such as a printer, an image forming apparatus in which image data is improved by performing screen processing such as halftone on the image data when printing the image data (for example, Patent Document 2). In the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 1, high-quality images can be printed by performing N-value processing (halftone processing) on image data using a dither matrix of screen pattern threshold values. Specifically, it is possible to form dots of multiple types of sizes by associating each threshold value of the screen pattern with the input pixel and comparing the size to determine whether the dot corresponding to the pixel value is on or off. ing.
JP 2008-137237 A. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-153914.

  By the way, in an image forming apparatus using a line head, in recent years, higher speed and higher resolution are increasingly demanded. For this reason, high-speed processing is also required in image processing. However, the amount of image processing data associated with higher resolution and the like is increasing, which is an impediment to increasing the speed of image processing. In addition, the image forming apparatus is also required to have versatility so as to flexibly cope with various high resolutions.

  However, the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 1 does not have versatility, and it is difficult to flexibly cope with various high resolutions. In addition, since data is communicated on a one-to-one basis between the image processing controller and the head controller, it is difficult to further increase the speed of image processing. Further, when developing an image forming apparatus for speeding up such image processing, when screen processing is performed on an input image as described in Patent Document 2, the divided image data is divided by dividing the image data. It is conceivable to perform screen processing every time. That is, the screen processing is performed for each piece of divided image data by associating the threshold value of the screen pattern with the pixels of the divided image data for each piece of divided image data.

  However, when screen processing is simply performed for each divided image data by associating the threshold value of the screen pattern with the pixel of the divided image data, the correspondence between the threshold value of the screen pattern and the pixel of the divided image data at the boundary of the divided image data It is possible that the attachment will be reset. In this way, even if the above association is reset, there is no problem if the association does not change, but if it changes, banding occurs and the formed image is disturbed.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to make it possible to prevent banding due to screen processing of image data while effectively increasing the speed of image processing. A processing apparatus, an image processing method, and an image forming apparatus are provided.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, in the image processing apparatus, the image processing method, and the image forming apparatus according to the present invention, the input image data is divided into divided image data by the image data dividing unit. The image processing apparatus includes a first image processing unit and a second image processing unit. Therefore, the parallel and distributed processing of the screen processing can be independently performed on the divided image data by the first image processing unit and the second image processing unit. As a result, it is possible to execute image processing of high-resolution and large-capacity image data even more quickly.

  In addition, for each line image data of the divided image data, screen data that is applied to the screen processing performed on the line image data in the first image processing unit or the second image unit is provided. The line image data is transferred together with the screen data to the first image processing unit or the second image processing unit. In that case, the line image data is transferred to an image processing unit corresponding to the screen data and screen-processed by the image processing unit. Therefore, even if the association between the threshold value of the screen pattern and the pixel of the divided image data is reset at the boundary of the band data, the association does not change. Therefore, banding at the band boundary in the screen processing of the image data can be avoided, and a high-quality image can be obtained.

The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically and partially showing an example of an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 1, the image forming apparatus 1 of this example includes a housing body 2. In the housing body 2, an image forming unit 3, a transfer unit 4, a transfer material supply unit 5 that accommodates a transfer material such as transfer paper, a fixing unit 6, an engine control unit 7, and a paper discharge tray 8 are disposed. ing.

The image forming unit 3 includes a first image forming station 9Y that is a yellow (Y) image forming station, a second image forming station 9M that is a magenta (M) image forming station, and a cyan (C) image forming station. And a fourth image forming station 9K which is a black (K) image forming station. The first to fourth image forming stations 9Y, 9M, 9C, 9K are arranged in tandem in this order. The arrangement order of the first to fourth image forming stations 9Y, 9M, 9C, 9K is arbitrary. Hereinafter, the first to fourth image forming stations 9Y, 9M, 9C, and 9K shown in FIG.

The first to fourth image forming stations 9Y, 9M, 9C, 9K are all configured identically. Therefore, the first image forming station 9Y of yellow (Y) will be described, and detailed descriptions of the second to fourth image forming stations 9M, 9C, 9K of other colors will be omitted. Note that the constituent elements of the second to fourth image forming stations 9M, 9C, and 9K have the same reference numerals and subscripts of M, C, and K as the corresponding constituent elements of the yellow (Y) image forming station 4Y. Attached is shown.

The first image forming station 9Y has a first photoconductor 10Y which is a latent image carrier. The first image forming station 9Y includes a first charging unit 11Y, a first line head 12Y that is an exposure head of an image writing unit, a first developing unit 13Y, around the first photoconductor 10Y. And a first photoconductor cleaner 14Y.
The first charging unit 11Y includes a conventionally known first charging roller 15Y. The first charging roller 15Y charges the surface of the first photoconductor 10Y to a preset surface potential.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the first line head 12Y includes a first base substrate 16Y, a first LED array 17Y, a first driver IC 18Y, and a first rod lens array 19Y. The first LED array 17Y includes LED elements that are light emitting elements. In this case, the LED elements are arranged on the first base substrate 16Y along a first direction α (so-called main scanning direction) that is orthogonal or substantially orthogonal to the transfer material conveyance direction (movement direction).

  The first driver IC 18Y is adjacent to the first base substrate 16Y adjacent to the LED element along a second direction β (so-called sub-scanning direction) β that is the same or substantially the same direction as the transfer material conveyance direction. And arranged along the first direction α. At this time, a preset number of LED elements are connected to one first driver IC 18Y. Accordingly, one first driver IC 18Y drives the connected LED element. In that case, when a video signal is given from the head controller 36 described later, the LED element emits light by driving the first driver IC 18Y based on the video signal.

  Furthermore, the first rod lens array 19Y has a first gradient index rod lens 20Y. The first gradient index rod lenses 20Y are arranged in a zigzag pattern in two rows along the first direction α, and are arranged facing the LED elements. The first gradient index rod lens 20Y optically forms an image of the light from the LED element to expose the first photoconductor 10Y, and a yellow (Y) static light is applied to the first photoconductor 10Y. An electrostatic latent image is formed. The first gradient index rod lens 20Y is not limited to two rows, and can be arbitrarily arranged in three or more rows.

The first developing unit 13Y has a first developing roller 21Y. The first developing roller 21Y supplies yellow (Y) toner to the first photoconductor 10Y. With this toner, the electrostatic latent image on the first photoconductor 10Y is developed, and a yellow (Y) toner image is formed on the first photoconductor 10Y.
The first photoconductor cleaner 14Y cleans the first photoconductor 10Y to which the toner image is transferred.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the transfer unit 4 includes a yellow (Y) first transfer unit 22Y, a magenta (M) second transfer unit 22M, a cyan (C) third transfer unit 22C, and a black ( B) a fourth transfer portion 22K, an endless transfer belt 23 as a transfer medium, a fifth transfer portion 24, and a transfer belt cleaner 25.

The first transfer portion 22Y has a first transfer roller 26Y. The second transfer portion 22M has a second transfer roller 26M. Further, the third transfer portion 22C has a third transfer roller 26C. Further, the fourth transfer portion 22K has a fourth transfer roller 26K. The first transfer roller to the fourth transfer rollers 26Y, 26M, 26C, and 26K press the transfer belt 23 to the corresponding first to fourth photoconductors 10Y, 10M, 10C, and 10K and The toner images of the first to fourth photoreceptors 10Y, 10M, 10C, and 10K are transferred to the transfer belt 23 by the transfer bias or the fourth transfer bias.

The transfer belt 23 is stretched between a driving roller 27 and a driven roller 28 and is rotated by the driving roller 27 in the arrow γ direction.
The fifth transfer unit 24 has a fifth transfer roller 29. The fifth transfer roller 29 brings the transfer material into pressure contact with the transfer belt 23 and transfers the toner image on the transfer belt 23 to the transfer material with a fifth transfer bias.
The transfer belt cleaner 25 cleans the transfer belt to which the toner image is transferred.

  The transfer material supply unit 5 includes a transfer material storage unit 5 a that stores a transfer material such as transfer paper, and a transfer material supply unit 5 b that supplies the transfer material from the transfer material storage unit 5 a to the fifth transfer unit 24. is doing. The transfer material supply unit 5 supplies transfer materials one by one from the transfer material storage unit 5a to the fifth transfer unit 24 during image formation.

  The fixing unit 6 includes a heating roller 30 and a pressure belt 31. The pressure belt 31 presses the transfer material on which the toner image is transferred by the fifth transfer unit 24 to the heating roller 30. The heating roller 30 heats the toner image transfer surface of the transfer material. As a result, the toner image is fixed on the transfer material, and an image is formed on the transfer material.

The image forming unit 3, the transfer unit 4, the transfer material supply unit 5, and the fixing unit 6 constitute an engine unit 32 of the image forming apparatus 1.
The engine control unit 7 controls the engine unit 32. As shown in FIG. 3, the engine control unit 7 includes a power circuit board (not shown), a main controller 33, an engine controller 34, an image processing controller 35, and a head controller 36. The main controller 33 and the image processing controller 35 constitute an image processing apparatus.

When an image formation command is given from an external device (not shown) such as a host computer, the main controller 33 sends a control signal for starting the engine unit 32 to the engine controller 34 via a UART (general purpose asynchronous transmission / reception) communication line. Send.
When the engine controller 34 receives a control signal from the main controller 33, the engine controller 34 starts initialization and warm-up of the engine unit 32. When initialization and warm-up are completed and the image forming operation is ready, the engine controller 34 outputs a synchronization signal that triggers the start of the image forming operation to the head controller 36 via the UART communication line. To do. Further, in the communication between the engine controller 34 and the head controller 36, in addition to the transmission of the synchronization signal, the line heads 11Y, 11M, 11C, 11K
(Transmission and reception of signals of these control parameters is the same as that of the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 1 described above, and therefore, details thereof will be described.) Will be omitted).

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4, the main controller 33 includes a band data generation unit 33a and a data transfer unit 33b which are image data division units. The band data generation unit 33a is divided image data obtained by dividing the image data included in the image formation command into first line image data or m-th line image data of m (m ≧ 1) lines in the second direction. Certain band data is generated (divided image data generation step).

The band data generation unit 33a has a screen application line generation unit 33c. As shown in FIG. 6, the screen application line generation unit 33c has a fixed-length first screen application line parameter area or mth line image data at the head of the first line image data or mth line image data of band data. A screen application line parameter area is provided (screen application parameter generation step). These screen application line parameter areas specify a screen table used when screen processing is performed by a _first image processing unit 35b1 to an _nth image processing unit 35bn described later. Thus, the band data generation unit 33a generates line image data having a screen application line parameter area at the head.

The divided image data used in the image forming apparatus 1 of this example is image data in an interleave format. For example, if the image data is YMCK image data of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) as shown in FIG. This is image data in which YMCK image data is color-expanded into four YMCK toner colors for each pixel. The divided image data is composed of several pixels of data per line. Furthermore, one page of image data is divided into several lines in the second direction (sub-scanning direction) and configured as band data, or several pages of image data are divided into one page as page data. Composed. Therefore, the divided image data is not data in a format divided for each color of yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K).

  The data transfer unit 33b transfers the band data to the image processing controller 35. When transferring the band data, the line image data of one line is transferred to the image processing controller 35 together with the screen application line parameter area of the line image data. Forward.

The image processing controller 35 includes n (n ≧ 2) first image processing controllers 35a _1.
To have an image processing controller 35a _n of the n. The first image processing controller 35a ₁ includes a first image processing unit 35b ₁ and a first image processing side communication module 35c ₁ . Further, the first image processing unit 35b ₁ includes a first screen application line holding unit 35d ₁ and a first screen processing unit 35e ₁ which are _first image processing units. Other image processing controller is also similar, for example, the image processing controller 35a _n of the n is an image processing section of the n-th chromatic image processing side communication module 35c _n of the image processing unit 35b _n and the n of the n is doing. Furthermore, the image processing unit 35b _n of the n includes a screen applied line holding portion 35d _n of the n screen processing unit 35e _n of the n. In that case, the image processing controller 35a _n of the first image processing controller 35a ₁ to the n are driven independently. 1st screen application line holding part 35d ₁ thru | or nth screen application line holding part 3
The 5d _n, so that one of the screen applied line parameter area of the first screen application line parameter area to the m shown in FIG. 6 above transferred is held in a line unit.

The data transfer unit 33b of the main controller 33 is connected to the first transfer line 37a _1.
Or to transfer any of the line image data of the first line image data through m-th to the image processing unit 35b _n of the first image processing section 35b ₁ through n-th through transfer lines 37a _n of the n. In that case, the screen processing unit 35e _n of the first screen processing unit 35e ₁ to the n have the transferred line image data of the first line image data to the m, these first screen application line parameter area or first with reference to the screen parameters of the screen applied line holding portion 35d ₁ to screen applicable line holding portion 35d _n of the n, forwarded came line image data screen applies line parameter area of the m was retained Are subjected to screen processing (first screen processing step and second screen processing step).

A specific example of this screen processing will be described.
For example, as shown in FIG. 7, 6 × 6 screen tables having 6 threshold values in the first direction and 6 threshold values in the second direction are repeatedly given in the first direction. It is assumed that a screen pattern is formed by being repeatedly applied in the second direction. In that case, the screen table in the second direction is displaced by a shift amount 4 in the first direction. The image data is band data divided into 18-line divided image data in the second direction. In FIG. 7, the image data is partially shown in both the first direction and the second direction. The first band data is set as the first band data. In addition, the second direction line of the band data is referred to as the 0th line, the first line,..., The 17th line in order from the top.

When the 0th line of the first band data is processed, the applied line of the screen is the threshold value “15,
40, 35, 22, 34, 19 ". The line image data of the 0th line (line image data along the first direction) is applied to the screen along with the threshold “15, 40, 35, 22, 34, 19”, and the main controller 33 to the image processing controller. 35. Further, at the time of processing the first line of the first band data, the applied line of the screen is the threshold “55, 125, 150, 142, 85, 69”. The line image data of the first line is transferred from the main controller 33 to the image processing controller 35 together with the threshold value “55, 125, 150, 142, 85, 69” for the screen application line. Thereafter, line image data in the same screen table is transferred in the same manner.

Next, at the time of processing the sixth line of the first band data whose screen table has changed, the screen application line is the threshold value “34, 19, 15, 40, 35, 22”. And the sixth
The line image data of the line is transferred from the main controller 33 to the image processing controller 35 together with the threshold value “34, 19, 15, 40, 35, 22” for the screen application line. Further, when the seventh line of the first band data is processed, the applied line of the screen is the threshold value “85, 69, 55, 125, 150, 142”. Then, the line image data of the seventh line is transferred from the main controller 33 to the image processing controller 35 together with the threshold value “85, 69, 55, 125, 150, 142” for the screen application line. Thereafter, line image data in the same screen table is transferred in the same manner.

Next, at the time of processing the 12th line of the first band data whose screen table has changed, the screen application line has the threshold value “35, 22, 34, 19, 15, 40”. The line image data of the 12th line is the threshold “35, 22, 34, 1
9, 15, 40 ”is transferred from the main controller 33 to the image processing controller 35. Further, at the time of processing the 13th line of the first band data, the screen application line is the threshold value “150, 142, 85, 69, 55, 125”. The line image data of the 13th line is the threshold “150, 142, 85, 69, 55, 12” for the screen application line.
5 ”and transferred to the image processing controller 35 from the main controller 33. Thereafter, line image data in the same screen table is transferred in the same manner. Thus, the first band data is transferred from the main controller 33 to the image processing controller 35.

Thus, in the image forming apparatus 1 of this embodiment, the image processing controller 35 to the n (n ≧ 2) pieces first image processing section to the image processing unit 35b ₁ of the first n, ......, 35b _n is distribution Established. Since n image processing units are arranged, the image data to be printed is divided into a number equal to or greater than the number of image processing units, and these divided image data are distributed in parallel in each image processing unit. Screen processed.

8 and 9 are diagrams illustrating an example of a flow for generating and transferring band data.
As shown in FIG. 8, first, band data is generated in step S1. As shown in FIG. 9, in the band data generation process, a screen application line is first generated in step S11. Next, line image data is generated in step S12. Next, in step S13, one line of data is generated from the generated screen application line and line image data. Next, the line is updated in step S14, and the next one line of data is generated in the same manner. Finally, in step S15, screen application lines and line image data are generated for all lines belonging to one band data, and it is determined whether the generation of the band data is completed. If it is determined that the generation of the band data has not been completed, the process returns to step S11, and the processes from step S11 to step S15 are repeated. If it is determined in step S15 that the generation of band data has been completed, the generation of band data ends. Other band data is similarly generated.

  Returning to the flow shown in FIG. 8, the generated band data is transferred to the image processing controller 35 in step S2. Then, the image processing controller 35 performs screen processing on the transferred band data. Next, in step S3, it is determined whether or not the transfer of all band data has been completed. If it is determined that the transfer of all band data has not been completed, the process returns to step S1, and the processes of steps S1 to S3 are repeated. If it is determined in step S3 that the transfer of all the band data has been completed, the transfer of the band data is completed.

4, the band data transferred to the first image processing section 35b ₁ the video data of the first in the image processing section 35b ₁ is screen processing as described above with each of the toner colors (Video Data) Generated. Then, the video data is transferred to the head controller 36 through the image processing side communication module 35c _n of the first image processing communication module 35c ₁ to the n.

As shown in FIG. 3, the head controller 36 includes a first head side communication module 36a ₁ , a second head side communication module 36a ₂ ,..., And an nth head side communication module c36a. The head controller 36 includes a head control module 36b and a page memory 36c.

The first image processing side communication module 35c ₁ and the first head side communication module 36a ₁ can communicate bidirectionally. Then, a page request signal Preq indicating the head of image data of one page and the first band data of the image data are sent from the first head side communication module 36a ₁ to the first image processing side communication module 35c _1. A line request signal Lreq indicating the screen application line parameter area of the line image data is transmitted to request video data for one line among the constituent lines.

Further, the first image processing side communication module 35c ₁ is a first head side communication module 36.
Upon receiving the page request signal Preq and line request signals Lreq from a _1, the first
The video data of the corresponding line image data is output from the screen processing unit 35e ₁ to the first head side communication module 36a ₁ . That is, the first image processing communication module c _1, after receiving a page request signal Preq from the first head-side communication module 36a _1, receives a line request signal Lreq from the first head-side communication module 36a ₁ Each time, the line image data in the corresponding parameter area is sequentially output to the _first head side communication module 36a1 as video data.

Head side communication module 36a _n of the image processing side communication module 35c _n and the n of the n is also capable of communicating bidirectionally. Similarly, the nth image processing side communication module c _n
After receiving the page request signal Preq from the head-side communication module 36a _n of the n, each time it receives a line request signal Lreq from the head-side communication module 36a _n of the n, the line image data of the corresponding parameter area The video data is sequentially output to the _nth head side communication module 36an.

In the head control module 36b, the interleaved divided image data transmitted to the _first head-side communication module 36a ₁ is stored in a first FIFO buffer in the head control module 36b (not shown). The divided image data stored in the first FIFO buffer is color-coded as shown in FIG. 5B, and sequentially, a yellow Y line buffer (not shown), a magenta M line buffer, a cyan color in the head control module 36b. The data are sorted and stored in the C line buffer and the black K line buffer. Similarly, the interleaved divided image data transmitted to the _nth head side communication module 36an is stored in a first FIFO buffer in the head control module 36b (not shown). The divided image data stored in the nth FIFO buffer is color-coded as shown in FIG. 5B, and sequentially, a yellow line buffer, a magenta line buffer, a cyan line buffer (not shown) in the head control module 36b, And sorted and stored in the black line buffer.

  When one line of yellow (Y) data is accumulated in the yellow line buffer, the line data is transferred to and stored in a yellow page data memory unit (not shown) of the page memory 36c. Similarly, when magenta (M) data, cyan (C) data, and black (K) data for one line are accumulated in the magenta line buffer, cyan line buffer, and black line buffer, these line data are stored. Are transferred to and stored in a magenta page data memory unit, a cyan page data memory unit, and a black page data memory unit (not shown) of the page memory 36c.

At this time, when the line data is transferred from the line buffer to the page data memory unit, the data necessary for the line head is rearranged into the line data of each color. The line data of each color after the rearrangement is transferred to the corresponding memory address of each page data memory unit and stored. Then, the head control module 36b takes out the line data of each color from the page memory 36c as required, and outputs it to the first line heads 12Y, 12M, 12C, 12K of the corresponding colors. As a result, the first to fourth line heads 12Y, 12M, 12C, 12
K writes the image of each color on the first to fourth photoreceptors 10Y, 10M, 10C, and 10K according to the supplied line data.

The image processing apparatus of this embodiment, an image processing method, and according to the image forming apparatus 1, the image processing controller 35, and an image processing controller 35a _n of the first image processing controller 35a ₁ to the n. Thus, possible parallel distributed processing of independently image processing by the image processing controller 35a _n of the first image processing controller 35a ₁ through n-th relative a divided image data obtained by dividing the input image data band data or line data It becomes. As a result, it is possible to execute image processing of high-resolution and large-capacity image data even more quickly.

  In addition, a parameter area of a screen application line is provided for each line image data of one line in the first direction of the band data. The line image data is transferred from the main controller 33 to the image processing controller 35 together with the screen application line. In this case, the line image data is transferred to the image processing unit of the image processing controller 35 corresponding to the parameter area of the screen application line, and screened by this image processing unit. Therefore, even if the association between the threshold value of the screen pattern and the pixel of the divided image data is reset at the boundary between the first band data and the second band data, the association does not change. Therefore, banding at the band boundary in the screen processing of the image data can be avoided, and a high-quality image can be obtained.

Note that other configurations and other image operations in the image forming apparatus 1 of this example are substantially the same as those of the image forming apparatus described in Patent Document 1, and thus the description thereof is omitted.
The present invention is not limited to the above-described examples, and various design changes can be made within the scope of the matters described in the claims.

1 is a diagram schematically and partially showing an example of an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. It is a fragmentary perspective view of the line head of the example shown in FIG. It is a block diagram of the engine control part and engine part of the example shown in FIG. 2 is a block diagram schematically showing a main controller and an image processing controller. FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of division | segmentation image data. It is a figure which shows the line image data which has a screen application line parameter area | region. It is a figure which shows an example of a screen pattern and band data. It is a figure which shows an example of the flow for the production | generation and transfer of band data. It is a figure which shows an example of the flow for the production | generation of band data.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image forming apparatus, 3 ... Image forming unit, 7 ... Engine control part, 10Y ... 1st photoreceptor, 10M ... 2nd photoreceptor, 10C ... 3rd photoreceptor, 10K ... 4th photoreceptor, 12Y: first line head, 12M: second line head, 12C: third line head, 12K: fourth line head, 32: engine unit, 33: main controller, 33a: band data generation unit, 33b Data transfer unit 33c Screen application line generation unit 34 Engine controller 35 Image processing controller 35a ₁ First image processing controller 35a ₂ Second image processing controller 35an _nth Image processing controller, 35b ₁ ... first image processing unit, 35b ₂ ... second image processing unit, 35b _n ... nth image processing unit,
35c ₁ ... 1st image processing side communication module, 35c ₂ ... 2nd image processing side communication module, 35c ... nth image processing side communication module, 35d ₁ ... 1st screen processing part, 35
d ₂ ... second screen processing unit, the screen processing unit 35d _n ... the n, 36 ... head controller, 35e ₁ ... the first screen data storage section, 35e ₂ ... second screen data storage section, 35e _n ... screen data storing unit of the n, 36 ... head controller, 36a ₁ ... first head-side communication module, 36a ₂ ... second head-side communication module, 36a _n ... head-side communication module of the n, 36b ... head control Module, 36c ... Page memory

Claims (4)

An image data dividing unit for dividing the image data to generate divided image data;
A first image processing unit that receives the divided image data and screen-processes the input divided image data;
A second image processing unit that receives the divided image data and screen-processes the input divided image data;
A screen application parameter generation unit that generates screen data to be applied to screen processing performed by the first image processing unit or the second image processing unit;
An image processing apparatus comprising:   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the screen application parameter is provided in one line of the divided image data. A divided image data generation step of dividing the image data to generate divided image data;
A first screen processing step of screen-processing the divided image data;
A second screen processing step for screen-processing the divided image data;
A screen application parameter generation step for generating screen data to be applied to the screen processing performed in the first screen processing step or the second screen processing step;
An image processing method comprising: A latent image carrier on which a latent image is formed;
An exposure head for forming a latent image based on image data on the latent image carrier;
An image data dividing unit for dividing the image data to generate divided image data;
A first image processing unit that screen-processes the input divided image data and the divided image data;
A second image processing unit that screen-processes the input divided image data and the divided image data;
A screen application parameter generation unit that generates screen data to be applied to screen processing performed by the first image processing unit or the second image processing unit;
An image forming apparatus comprising:

Images