JP2014032436A - Image processing device, image processing method, image forming device, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To set an optimum toner saving rate according to a character size.SOLUTION: In toner-saving mode, a character size analyzing part 3 analyzes a character size on the basis of specifications on lumped printing and variable magnification printing. A toner-saving ratio deciding part 4 sets a toner saving ratio at 20% when a minute character is determined, at 30% when the character size is 6-11, at 40% when the character size is 11-15, and at 50% when the character size is 16 or larger, respectively.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus having an toner save mode, an image processing method, an image forming apparatus, a program, and a recording medium.

  In the toner save mode in which printing is performed while saving toner consumption compared to normal, the gamma table is set so that the density is lower than normal, thereby reducing the density of the image and suppressing the printing cost. However, when toner save is performed, the visibility of the character is remarkably reduced. In particular, for a small character having a small font size, the character may not be decipherable due to a decrease in density and interference with the shaded portion.

  Therefore, in order to maintain the readability of characters, there is a technique for suppressing the toner save amount for characters and increasing the toner save amount for images and graphic objects (for example, see Patent Document 1).

  However, the method of changing the toner save mode for the picture and the character part has a problem that the toner consumption cannot be reduced even for characters having a relatively large font size that can be sufficiently identified after toner save. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems,
An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, an image forming apparatus, a program, and a recording medium that set an optimal toner save rate according to the character size.

  The present invention provides a designation unit that designates a printing method for input document image data, a character size analysis unit that analyzes a character size in the document image data based on the designated printing method, and the character size analysis. The main feature is that it includes a toner save rate determining means for setting an optimum toner save rate for the character object in the original image data based on the character size analyzed by the means.

  According to the present invention, an optimal toner save rate can be set according to the character size.

1 shows a configuration of an image processing apparatus of the present invention. 3 is a flowchart of color material amount reduction processing according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. 1 shows an image output system (image forming apparatus) including an image processing apparatus of the present invention. Indicates input / output image data in a page description language. Indicates the toner save rate corresponding to the character size. A toner save rate and a corresponding gamma table are shown. 7 is a flowchart of color material amount reduction processing according to the second embodiment. A specific example of the setting value of the toner save rate for the background object is shown. An example of an image in which toner save processing is applied to a background object is shown.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the present invention, the toner save amount is made variable according to the font size of the character, the print document aggregation rate, and the scaling factor, so that the optimum toner save rate is obtained according to the character size. Also, the toner save rate of the character background object is changed according to the toner save rate set for the character.

  FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, 1 is a color conversion unit, 2 is a printing method designation unit, 3 is a character size analysis unit, 4 is a toner save rate determination unit, 5 is a γ conversion unit, and 6 is an image forming unit.

  The color conversion unit 1 rasterizes input data and converts it into data for image formation, usually CMYK data. The printing method designation unit 2 is generally an input device such as a computer display device and a mouse, or a touch panel type operation unit provided in the MFP, and determines whether or not to perform toner saving and whether or not to perform aggregate printing. Specify the number of consolidations, presence / absence of scaling printing, scaling ratio, etc. The character size analysis unit 3 determines the size of the character based on the designation of the printing method such as the font size of the characters, the number of aggregations, and variable magnification printing. The toner save rate determination unit 4 determines the toner save rate for each object (character, graphics, etc.) in the input image based on the information determined by the character size analysis unit 3. The γ conversion unit 5 can perform printing at an optimum density for each object by performing γ conversion for each object (character, graphics, etc.) in the input image based on the γ table selected by the toner save rate determination unit 4. Adjust the density of C, M, Y, and K. The image forming unit 6 forms an image using a color material on a recording medium such as paper based on the image forming data converted by the color converting unit 1.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the color material amount reduction (toner save) process according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 shows an image output system (image forming apparatus) including the image processing apparatus of the present invention, and is a device generally called a multi-function peripheral or MFP (Multi Function Peripheral). Such an image output system generally includes an operation button 201, an operation panel 202 using a touch panel type liquid crystal panel, or the like in an operation unit used by a user. The user designates a printing method using a GUI (Graphical User Interface) displayed on the operation panel (S10). The user can select an aggregation rate indicating how many pages of image data are to be printed on one sheet of paper, a scaling factor that determines a scaling factor of the image, and whether or not to perform toner save on the operation unit. In addition to the operation unit on the multifunction peripheral, a printer method installed on the PC host can specify the same printing method.

  In the present invention, the following description will be given on the assumption that the aggregation rate is set to 1/2, the scaling factor is set to 50%, and the toner save mode is set to ON in the printing method designation unit 2. After the print information is set by the user, the toner save rate determination unit 4 determines from the designated print information whether the toner save mode is set (S11). When not in the toner save mode, normal printing processing is performed.

  On the other hand, in the toner save mode, the character size analysis unit 3 determines whether or not the aggregate printing (S12) and the variable magnification printing (S14) are performed, and analyzes the character size together with information such as the font size of the character. (S16) is performed. The aggregation process (S13) and the scaling process (S15) are executed in the image processing apparatus.

  The character size analysis unit 3 searches the input image data for a portion in which an instruction for specifying the character size, such as FontSize, is described. Then, the character size is calculated based on the font size, the aggregation rate, and the scaling factor.

FIG. 4 shows input / output image data in a page description language. FIG. 5 shows the toner save rate corresponding to the character size. For example, C101 in FIG. 4 indicates that 16 points are designated as the character size. If the character size is 16 points, the number of aggregations is 1/2, and the scaling factor is 0.5,
1/2 * 0.5 * 16 = 4
And the character size is 4.

  The toner save rate determination unit 4 determines the toner save rate according to the analysis result of the character size analysis unit 3 with reference to the table of FIG. 5 (S17). The character size 4 is determined as a minute character from the character size determination table of FIG. If the character is determined to be a minute character, it may become difficult to read if the toner consumption is greatly reduced, so the toner save rate is set to 20%. When the character size is determined to be 6 to 11, the toner save rate is 30%. When the character size is 11 to 15, the toner save rate is 40%. When the character size is 16 or more, the toner save rate is 50%. Thus, the toner save rate is increased as the character size increases. Here, it is assumed that a character having a character size of 16 or more has a toner save rate equivalent to that of a graphic object or an image object.

  FIG. 6 shows a gamma table corresponding to the toner save rate, and represents the relationship between the toner save rate and the γ table. It is assumed that the input / output characteristics are linear in the γ table and are selected when toner save is not executed. If the character size is determined to be very small, a γ table with a toner save rate of 20%. If the character size is determined to be small, the γ table with a toner save rate of 30%. If the character size is determined to be medium. When it is determined that the toner save rate is 40% and the character size is large, a γ table with a toner save rate of 50% is selected. In this way, the γ conversion unit 5 prints at a different toner save rate depending on the character size by switching the γ table for each character size so that the target toner save rate can be realized.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, not only the font size of characters but also the aggregation rate and scaling factor of the original document are taken into consideration, so that the character size when actually printed is accurately reflected in the toner save rate. It becomes possible. In addition, it is possible to prevent small characters from becoming unrecognizable by being thinned by toner save.

  The first embodiment described above is an embodiment in which the toner save rate is made variable according to the character size. However, a normal toner save rate is set for a document composed of relatively small characters. The toner consumption cannot be reduced more than the constant toner save mode.

  Therefore, in the second embodiment, not only the toner save rate is made variable according to the character size but also the toner save rate of the character background object is made variable so that the same toner save effect as that in the normal toner save can be obtained. To be obtained.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the color material amount reduction processing (processing for determining the toner save rate for the background object) according to the second embodiment. The configuration of the image processing apparatus of the second embodiment is the same as that of the first embodiment (FIG. 1).

  In S20 and S21, the character size analysis unit 3 analyzes the size of the character object, and the toner save rate determination unit 4 determines the toner save rate according to the character size. In S22, after the character toner save rate is determined, the character size analysis unit 3 searches for objects around the character object to determine whether there is an object as a background. The background object search method is determined based on whether there is an adjacent object based on the position information and size of the object of the printer command (PDL).

  FIG. 8 shows a specific example (table) of setting values of the toner save rate for the background object. The toner save rate determination unit 4 refers to the table of FIG. 8 and determines the toner save rate of the background object based on the size of the character size when the background object exists around the character object. FIG. 8 shows a specific example of the setting value of the toner save rate for the background object assuming that the default toner save rate of the graphic object and the image object is 50%.

  If it is determined that the character size is large, the reduction effect equivalent to that in the normal toner save mode is obtained, so that the toner save rate of the background object remains at 50% as in the default and is not changed. If it is determined that the character size is medium, the toner save rate of the background object is set to 60% instead of suppressing the character toner save rate to 40%. Similarly, if the character object is determined to be small or small, the overall toner save rate is increased (80%, 70%) instead of suppressing the character toner save rate (30%, 20%). As a result, it is possible to obtain the same effect as when a toner save rate of 50% is set for all objects.

  FIG. 9 shows an example of an image in which toner save processing is applied to the background object. As shown in FIG. 9, for minute characters (character size 4), printing is performed clearly without reducing the density and the background is printed lightly, thereby reducing toner consumption (coloring material amount) and character visibility. Can be ensured.

  As described above, in this embodiment, when the toner save rate for small-size characters is reduced, the toner consumption reduction effect is smaller than that in the normal toner save mode. The toner consumption rate can be reduced by increasing the toner save rate of the background object.

  According to the present invention, a storage medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or apparatus, and the computer (CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus is stored in the storage medium. It is also achieved by reading and executing the program code. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment. As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used. Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an OS (operating system) operating on the computer based on an instruction of the program code. A case where part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is also included. Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function expansion is performed based on the instruction of the program code. A case where the CPU or the like provided in the board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing is included. Further, the program for realizing the functions and the like of the embodiments of the present invention may be provided from a server by communication via a network.

1 Color conversion unit 2 Printing method designation unit 3 Character size analysis unit 4 Toner save rate determination unit 5 γ conversion unit 6 Image forming unit

JP 2008-78829 A

Claims (9)

  A specification unit for specifying a printing method of input document image data, a character size analysis unit for analyzing a character size in the document image data based on the specified printing method, and a character size analysis unit An image processing apparatus comprising: a toner save rate determining means for setting an optimum toner save rate for a character object in the document image data based on the character size.   2. The image according to claim 1, wherein the character size analyzing means determines the character size based on a font size of characters in the image data, a document aggregation rate designated by the designation means, and a scaling factor. Processing equipment.   The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the toner save rate determination unit decreases the toner save rate set for the character object as the character size determined by the character size analysis unit decreases.   2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the toner save rate determining unit changes the toner save rate of the character background object in accordance with the toner save rate set for the character object.   5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein when the toner save rate set for the character object is smaller than a default toner save rate, the toner save rate of the background object is made larger than the default.   An image forming apparatus comprising the image processing apparatus according to claim 1.   A specification process for specifying a printing method of input document image data, a character size analysis process for analyzing a character size in the document image data based on the specified printing method, and a character size analysis process. An image processing method comprising: a toner save rate determining step for setting an optimum toner save rate for a character object in the original image data based on the character size.   A program for causing a computer to realize the image processing method according to claim 7.   A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for causing a computer to implement the image processing method according to claim 7.