JP2015005923A - Image processing apparatus and image processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To minimize an adverse effect of correction processing even when color shift has occurred.SOLUTION: An image processing apparatus of the present invention includes: an image data input unit that receives the input of image data having a plurality of areas; a background setting unit that sets a background color; a correction processing unit that performs correction processing in consideration of a color of a first area and a color of a second area of the image data input to the image data input unit and the background color set by the background color setting unit; and an image output unit that outputs image data corrected by the correction processing unit. An image processing system uses the image processing apparatus.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and an image processing system having a correction processing function in consideration of a background color.

  In general printers and multifunction devices, color plates are formed with each of the four color materials of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K), and the plates are superimposed. Print processing. In this printing process, since a plurality of color materials are overlaid on the recording medium, color misregistration is likely to occur. When color misregistration occurs, the underlying color of the recording medium is exposed at the boundary between different colors, leading to a reduction in the quality of the printed matter. This exposure is hereinafter referred to as “white spot”.

  In order to solve this problem, a correction process called a trapping process is performed to suppress the occurrence of white spots even if color misregistration occurs by superimposing each color at the boundary between different colors to be printed. Various methods have been proposed as the trapping process. Among them, there is a technique in which correction processing is not performed for a portion where there is no color misregistration due to color misregistration information.

  As an example of an apparatus having such a correction processing function, there is a color image processing apparatus described in Patent Document 1.

JP 2008-72670 A

  However, in the conventional trapping process, there is a problem that the quality of the printed matter may be deteriorated because the correction process in consideration of the background color is not performed.

  An image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes an image data input unit that inputs image data having a plurality of regions, a background color setting unit that sets a background color, and a first of the image data input to the image data input unit. A correction processing unit that performs correction processing in consideration of the color of the second region, the color of the second region, and the background color set by the background color setting unit, and outputs the image data corrected by the correction processing unit And an image output unit.

  The image processing system of the present invention uses the image processing apparatus.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to perform correction processing in consideration of the background color, and it is possible to prevent the quality of printed matter from being deteriorated.

1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a printer and an image processing system according to a first embodiment. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of PC concerning 1st Embodiment. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a setting screen for setting color information of a recording medium in print settings. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the correction | amendment process part which concerns on 1st Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the image data containing the area | region 1 which has a value only in C. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of a smoothing filter. It is a schematic diagram which shows the image data which smoothed the image data of FIG. It is a schematic diagram showing image data including a region 5 having a pixel value only in C, a region 6 having a pixel value only in M, and a region 7 having a pixel value only in Y. FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example in which a plurality of edge regions are detected in the regions a to j of the image data in FIG. 8. FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example in which a region 8 and a region 9 are added to the image data in FIG. 8. FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example in which color misregistration occurs in C and Y color materials when FIG. 10 is printed. FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example in which color misregistration does not occur when printing FIG. 10. FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example in which color correction does not occur when printing is performed by performing the correction process of FIG. 8 without performing the process of step S9. It is a functional block diagram which shows the printer and image processing system which concern on 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart explaining operation | movement of PC concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a schematic diagram which shows the example of a setting screen which sets a base color by print setting.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described.

(1-1) First Embodiment Hereinafter, an image processing apparatus and an image processing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described.

(1-1-1) Configuration FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image processing system according to the first embodiment. The image processing system according to this embodiment includes a PC 10 such as a personal computer connected via a network and a printer 14 as an image processing apparatus.

  The PC 10 is used for transmitting print data to the printer 14. The PC 10 includes an image data input unit 11, a paper color setting unit 12, and a print data transmission unit 13.

  The image data input unit 11 inputs image data having a plurality of areas. In the image data input unit 11, a user operates a keyboard or a mouse (not shown) to output image data instructed to be printed by an application (not shown) to the print data transmission unit 13. In the present embodiment, the image data is image data represented by four colors of CMYK, and each CMYK pixel value is normalized to a value of 0 to 255.

  The paper color setting unit 12 is a background color setting unit that sets a background color. In this embodiment, the color of the recording medium is used as the background color. The paper color setting unit 12 outputs color information of a designated recording medium to the print data transmission unit 13 by a printer driver (not shown) by a user operating a keyboard, a mouse, or the like.

  The print data transmission unit 13 transmits the input image data and the color information of the recording medium to the printer 14 as print data.

  Each operation performed in the PC 10 is executed according to a program installed in the PC 10. This program may be stored in a non-illustrated non-volatile memory or volatile memory of the PC 10 or a magnetic medium such as a hard disk. Also, image data generated by each process of the PC 10, color information of the recording medium, print data, etc. are stored in a non-illustrated nonvolatile memory, volatile memory, magnetic medium such as a hard disk, etc., which the PC 10 has, and all processes are performed. It may be deleted after completion.

  The printer 14 is a device that performs predetermined processing on image data in input print data to perform printing. The printer 14 includes a correction processing unit 15, an output image processing unit 16, and an image output unit 17.

  The correction processing unit 15 includes the color of the first area and the color of the second area of the image data input to the image data input unit 11 and the recording medium set by the paper color setting unit 12 as a background color setting unit. Correction processing is performed in consideration of colors. The correction processing unit 15 performs correction processing on the image data of the input print data, and transmits the image data subjected to the correction processing to the output image processing unit 16. The correction processing unit 15 stores the processing functions of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  The output image processing unit 16 outputs, to the image output unit 17, image data obtained by performing processing such as gradation correction on the input image data and reduction of values by a dither method or error diffusion.

  The image output unit 17 forms an image using the input image data. The image output unit 17 is, for example, an electrophotographic printer. The image output unit 17 forms a toner image on the surface of the recording medium in accordance with the input image data, and forms the image by fixing the toner image.

  Each operation performed by the printer 14 is executed according to a program installed in the printer 14. The program may be stored in a non-volatile memory or volatile memory (not shown) of the printer 14 or a magnetic medium such as a hard disk. Image data, recording medium color information, print data, threshold values, etc. generated in each process of the printer 14 are stored in a non-illustrated non-volatile memory or volatile memory, a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, etc., and the processing is completed. It may be deleted later.

(1-1-2) Operation Next, the operation of the image processing system configured as described above will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the PC 10 in this embodiment. Each step will be described.

[Step S1]
A user instructs printing of image data by an application. When there is a print instruction for the image data, the printer driver is executed, and the image data input unit 11 acquires the image data by the application.

[Step S2]
The user performs print settings using the printer driver. In this print setting, various settings such as the size of the recording medium to be printed and the presence / absence of double-sided printing are performed.

[Step S3]
In addition to the print setting in step S2, color information of the recording medium is further set. FIG. 3 shows an example of a setting screen for setting the color information of the recording medium in the print setting. In the print setting 18 in FIG. 3, a paper color selection area 19, a selection color display area 20, a selection color pixel value display area 21, an OK button 22, and a cancel button 23 are arranged. Various colors are displayed in the paper color selection area 19, and the same color as the recording medium is selected with a mouse or the like. The selected color is displayed in the selected color display area 20, and it is possible to confirm that the selected color matches the color of the recording medium. The pixel value of the selected color is displayed in the selected color pixel value display area 21. The color may be set by inputting the pixel value directly into the selected color pixel value display area 21. The color information of the recording medium selected by the print setting 18 is replaced with a CMYK pixel value stored in advance. The paper color setting unit 12 acquires the color information of the recording medium as CMYK pixel values.

  Next, when the OK button 22 is pressed, the image data input unit 11 transmits the image data acquired in step S1 to the print data transmission unit 13 to set the paper color in order to perform printing according to the settings made in the printer driver. The unit 12 transmits the CMYK pixel value, which is color information of the recording medium, to the print data transmission unit 13.

  If the cancel button 23 is pressed, the printer driver cancels printing.

[Step S4]
The print data transmission unit 13 converts the input image data and the color information of the recording medium into print data interpretable by the printer 14 and transmits the print data to the printer 14.

  Next, the operation of the correction processing unit 15 on the printer 14 side will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the correction processing unit 15 in the present embodiment. Each step will be described.

[Step S5]
The correction processing unit 15 corrects the input image data using the color information of the recording medium. If the color of the recording medium is white, the input image correction process is not necessary.If the color of the recording medium is other than white, the input image data is converted using the CMYK pixel value, which is the color information of the recording medium. to correct. The correction of the image data is performed for each color component of CMYK, and is performed for all the pixels constituting the image data. For example, X is the pixel value of the image data, Y is the pixel value of the recording medium, X ′ is the pixel value of the corrected image data, and X ′ = [(255−Y) / 255] × X May be. Note that the input image data may be used as it is in the next process without performing the process of step S5.

[Step S6]
The correction processing unit 15 performs edge detection for detecting a boundary region from the input image data. In edge detection, for example, image data is smoothed, and if the absolute value of the difference between pixel values before and after smoothing is larger than a threshold, it is determined as an edge. The edge detection is performed for each CMYK color component of the image data, and is performed for all the pixels constituting the image data.

  An example of edge detection will be described with reference to FIGS. Image data 1 in FIG. 5 is image data including a region 1 having a value only in C. The smoothing process uses, for example, a smoothing filter having a shape as shown in FIG. 6 that calculates an average value of five pixel values in the vertical and horizontal directions around the target pixel. FIG. 7 shows image data obtained by smoothing the image data of FIG. A region 2 with a diagonal line rising to the right in FIG. 7 represents a region where the C pixel value of region 1 in FIG. In FIG. 7, four regions 2 are created on the top, bottom, left, and right of the region 1 in FIG. A region 3 with a downward slanting diagonal line is a region having a pixel value smaller than that of region 1 due to the influence of the pixels outside region 1 in FIG. The region 4 is a region having the same pixel value as the region 1 in FIG. 5 and is not affected by the pixel values of other regions due to the smoothing process. In edge detection, the difference between pixel values before and after smoothing is calculated.

  In region 2 of FIG. 7, the pixel value of C before smoothing is 0, the pixel value of C after smoothing is greater than 0, and the difference value between the pixel values before and after smoothing is Negative value. On the other hand, in the region 3, since the C pixel value after smoothing is smaller than that before smoothing, the difference value is a positive value. In the region 4, since the pixel value does not change before and after smoothing, the difference value is zero.

  As described above, the absolute value of the difference between pixel values is calculated and determined based on a threshold value. In the example of FIG. 7, the pixels in the region 2 and the region 3 where the absolute value of the difference is large are determined as the pixels in the edge region.

[Step S7]
The correction processing unit 15 confirms whether or not the target pixel is a pixel in the boundary region (hereinafter referred to as “boundary pixel”). If the target pixel is a boundary pixel, the process proceeds to step S8, and if not, the process proceeds to step S11. Move.

The boundary pixel is determined using the edge region determination result obtained in step S6. An example of boundary pixel determination will be described with reference to FIGS. Image data 2 in FIG. 8 is image data including a region 5 having a pixel value only in C, a region 6 having a pixel value only in M, and a region 7 having a pixel value only in Y. When the edge detection of step S6 is performed on this image data 2, a plurality of edge regions are detected in the regions a to j surrounded by the thick lines shown in FIG. Table 1 shows the results of edge detection in the areas a to j.

  Table 1 shows whether the edge difference value detected in the regions a to j is positive or negative. An edge with a positive difference value is an inner edge of the region, and an edge with a negative difference value is an outer edge of the region.

  The boundary area is an area where different color areas contact. The condition for determining whether or not different color areas are in contact is that edges of different color components are determined, and the difference values are different in sign. In a region a in FIG. 9, a region 5 having a pixel value only in C and a region 7 having a pixel value only in Y are in contact with each other. Here, since the difference value of the C edge is positive and the difference value of the Y edge is negative, the boundary region condition is satisfied. For this reason, the pixels in the region a are determined as boundary pixels. In the region i, different color regions are not in contact and an edge is detected, but both edge difference values are negative, so the boundary region condition is not satisfied. For this reason, the pixel of the area | region i is not determined as a boundary pixel. Therefore, when it is determined whether the target pixel is a pixel in the boundary region with respect to the image data 2 in FIG. 8, the pixels in the regions a to h in FIG. 9 are determined to be pixels in the boundary region.

  Thereby, it is determined whether or not the target pixel is a boundary pixel.

[Step S8]
The correction processing unit 15 checks whether the color of the recording medium is white using the input color information of the recording medium. If it is determined that the color is white, the process proceeds to step S10. If it is determined that the color is not white, the process proceeds to step S9.

  Since the white pixel values are C = 0, M = 0, Y = 0, and K = 0, the color of the recording medium is determined to be white when each CMYK pixel value of the recording medium is 0. Further, a threshold value may be provided, and the determination may be made on the condition that each pixel value of CMYK is less than the threshold value.

[Step S9]
The correction processing unit 15 determines whether the pixel value of the boundary pixel is close to the pixel value of the color of the recording medium. Here, if the boundary pixel having a value close to the pixel value as the color information of the recording medium is adjacent, the process proceeds to step S11, and if not, the process proceeds to step S10. Note that whether or not the pixel value of the boundary pixel is close to the pixel value of the color of the recording medium is determined based on whether or not one or both of the two adjacent regions are close. The case where the values are not close is a case where the colors of both the two areas are not close to the pixel values of the recording medium.

  When the pixel value of the recording medium is V1, the pixel value of the boundary pixel is V2, the threshold value is TH, and V2 satisfies the condition of V1-TH <V2 <V1 + TH, the pixel value of the boundary pixel is close to the pixel value of the recording medium It is determined that In the example of FIG. 8, the pixel value of the region 5 of the image data 2 is C = 25, M = 0, Y = 0, K = 0, the pixel value of the region 6 is C = 0, M = 30, Y = 0, K = 0, pixel value of area 7 is C = 0, M = 0, Y = 40, K = 0, pixel value of recording medium is C = 30, M = 0, Y = 0, K = 0, threshold TH = 10, since each CMYK pixel value in the region 5 satisfies the condition of V1−TH <V2 <V1 + TH, the region 5 is determined to have a color close to the pixel value of the recording medium. The boundary pixels in FIG. 8 are the regions a to h in FIG. 9 and the region 5 belongs to the region a and the region b. Therefore, the correction process is not performed on the boundary adjacent to the region a and the region b. Therefore, the correction process is not performed at the boundary between the region a and the region c, the region a and the region d, the region b and the region e, and the region b and the region f. On the other hand, correction processing is performed at the boundary between the region d and the region e that are not adjacent to the region 5 and between the region g and the region h. The threshold value may be set for each color component.

[Step S10]
The correction processing unit 15 performs correction processing on the pixels in the boundary area. The correction process is performed by expanding the color of the area in contact with the target pixel area to the target pixel area. Specifically, a pixel value of an edge color component having a negative difference value as a result of edge detection of the target pixel is searched around the target pixel and replaced with the pixel value of the target pixel. For example, the maximum pixel value of the color component to be searched for within the 3 × 3 pixel range centering on the target pixel is set as the pixel value of the target pixel.

  In the example of the area g in FIG. 9, the area g is an area 7 and a boundary area in contact with the area 6. Since the edge of M is a negative difference value as shown in Table 1, the region g pixel sets the maximum pixel value of M within the 3 × 3 pixel range centered on the target pixel as the M pixel value of the target pixel. To do. FIG. 10 shows the result of performing the process of step S10 on the image data 2 in FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram in which regions 8 and 9 are added to the image data 2 of FIG. The region 8 is a region formed by spreading the color of the region 7, and the region 9 is a region formed by spreading the color of the region 6. Further, the correction process is not performed at the boundary of the region 5 by the process of step S8.

[Step S11]
The correction processing unit 15 confirms whether or not the processing of all pixels has been completed. If all pixels have not been processed, the process returns to step S7 to perform processing on unprocessed pixels. When the processing for all the pixels has been completed, the corrected image data is transmitted to the output image processing unit 16 and the processing is terminated.

  Thereafter, the output image processing unit 16 performs a process such as a reduction of the input image data and outputs the processed image data to the image output unit 17. The image output unit 17 forms an image using the input image data.

  In general, when forming an image using a plurality of color materials, if a color shift occurs, the background color is noticeable in a boundary area of different colors, and the quality of the printed matter is deteriorated. Depending on the color, even if the color shift occurs and the color of the recording medium is visible, it may not be noticeable and the quality of the printed matter may not be deteriorated.

  FIG. 11 shows an example in which color misregistration occurs in the C and Y color materials when FIG. 10 is printed. In the printing result 1, a region 10 in which the color of the recording medium can be directly seen at the boundary of the region 5 is generated due to the color shift.

  However, since the color of the recording medium of the printing result 1 is close to the region 5, the colors of the region 5 and the region 10 appear to be continuous. For this reason, even if the base of the printed material is visible, it is not conspicuous and the quality of the printed material is not deteriorated. In this embodiment, in such a case, unnecessary correction processing is not performed in the area including the color of the recording medium in step S9. Further, even if color misregistration occurs in the Y color material, the color of the recording medium cannot be seen by the areas 8 and 9 created by the correction process.

  FIG. 12 shows an example in which no color misregistration occurred when printing FIG. FIG. 13 shows an example in which the color misregistration does not occur when printing is performed by performing the correction process of FIG. 8 without performing the process of step S9. In FIG. 13, since the process of step S9 is not performed, the correction process is also performed on the boundary between the region 5 and the region 6 and the boundary between the region 5 and the region 7. Since the correction process is performed by superimposing the boundary colors, the color of the boundary region may be noticeable if no color shift occurs. In the example of FIG. 13, since the correction process is performed without considering the color of the recording medium, the correction process is performed even at the boundary of the region 5 where there is no problem even if the color of the recording medium is visible. As a result, there is an increased possibility of an adverse effect that the boundary portion becomes noticeable when no color misregistration occurs. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, since the correction process is performed in consideration of the color of the recording medium, adverse effects due to the correction process can be minimized.

(1-1-3) Effect As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the correction process is performed only on the boundary area where the color area close to the color of the recording medium is not adjacent. Even if color misregistration occurs, the color of the recording medium does not stand out at the color boundary, and the adverse effect of the correction process can be minimized.

  Further, the quality of the printed matter is prevented from being lowered, and the reliability of the printer 14 and the image processing system is improved.

(1-2) Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

(1-2-1) Configuration FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image processing system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The image processing system according to the present embodiment includes a PC 24 connected via a network and a printer 27 as an image processing apparatus.

  The PC 24 is provided with a base color setting unit 25 instead of the paper color setting unit 12 of the PC 10 in the first embodiment of the present invention. Further, a second print data transmission unit 26 is provided instead of the print data transmission unit 13. The overall configuration of the image processing system according to the present embodiment is substantially the same as that of the image processing system according to the first embodiment described above. Therefore, the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof is omitted.

  The background color setting unit 25 is a background color setting unit that sets a background color as a background color. In the background color setting unit 25, the user operates a keyboard or mouse (not shown) to output color information of the background color designated by a printer driver (not shown) to the second print data transmission unit 26.

  The second print data transmission unit 26 transmits the input image data and background color information to the printer 27 as print data.

  Each operation performed in the PC 24 is executed according to a program installed in the PC 24. The program may be stored in a non-illustrated non-volatile memory or volatile memory of the PC 24, a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, or the like. Also, image data, background color information, print data, etc. generated in each process of the PC 24 are stored in a non-illustrated non-volatile memory or volatile memory, a magnetic field medium such as a hard disk, etc. included in the PC 24, and all the processes are completed. It may be deleted later.

  The printer 27 is provided with a second output image processing unit 28 instead of the output image processing unit 16 of the printer 14 in the first embodiment of the present invention. A second image output unit 29 is provided instead of the image output unit 17.

  The second output image processing unit 28 adds a background color component N to the input CMYK image data.

  The base color is white or the like, but is not limited thereto. The range of the value of N is 0 to 255 like CMYK. For example, if any pixel value of CMYK is greater than 0, N = 255, and if all CMYK pixels are 0, N = 0. When the background color is not used, N = 0 is always set so that printing using the background color is not performed. The second output image processing unit 28 outputs image data obtained by performing gradation correction, dithering, or reduction by error diffusion to the CMYKN image data to which the background color N is added. Output to the output unit 29.

  The second image output unit 29 forms an image using the input image data. When forming an image, first, an image of only the base color N is formed, and a CMYK image is formed on the base color N. The second image output unit 29 is, for example, an electrophotographic printer. The second image output unit 29 forms a toner image on the surface of the recording medium in accordance with the input image data, and forms the image by fixing the toner image.

  Each operation performed in the printer 27 is executed according to a program installed in the printer 27. The program may be stored in a non-illustrated non-volatile memory or volatile memory included in the printer 27, a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, or the like. Image data, background color information, print data, threshold values, etc. generated in each process of the printer 27 are stored in a non-illustrated non-volatile memory or volatile memory, a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, etc., and the processing is completed. It may be deleted later.

(1-2-2) Operation Next, the operation of the image processing system having the above-described configuration will be described. FIG. 15 shows a flowchart for explaining the operation of the PC 24 in the second embodiment of the present invention. Each step of this flowchart will be described. In addition, description is abbreviate | omitted about the operation | movement equivalent to the process of FIG. 2 which concerns on 1st Embodiment. Specifically, steps S1, S2, and S4 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and therefore only step S12 will be described below.

[Step S12]
FIG. 16 shows an example in which the background color is set in the print settings. The print setting 30 includes a background color setting area 31, an OK button 22, and a cancel button 23.

  In the background color setting area 31, it is selected whether to use a background color. When “use background color” is selected, the color information of the background color is replaced with a CMYK pixel value stored in advance. If “no background color is used” is selected, the color information of the recording medium is changed to the color information of the background color by the same operation as step S3 of the first embodiment of the present invention, and is replaced with the CMYK pixel value. When the OK button 22 is pressed, the image data input unit 11 transmits the image data acquired in step S <b> 1 to the second print data transmission unit 26 in order to perform printing in accordance with settings made by a printer driver (not shown). The background color setting unit 25 sets the pixel value of the background color when “use background color” is selected, and sets the pixel value of the recording medium when the “use no background color” is selected. 26.

  In the present embodiment, only one of the background colors is selected. However, the present invention is not limited to this. If there are a plurality of background colors, it may be selected which background color is used. If the apparatus can freely select the background color, the background color may be selected by the same method as in step S3. In this embodiment, since a color material other than CMYK is used as a background color, an image is formed with a background color on a recording medium, and an image is formed with CMYK on the background color. At the boundary, the background color is visible instead of the color of the recording medium. Therefore, when the background color is used, the color information of the background color is transmitted to the printer 27 in order to prevent the background color from being conspicuous at the color boundary even if a color shift occurs.

  In the correction processing unit 15 of the printer 27, the processing differs depending on whether or not a background color is selected. When “Use background color” is selected, correction processing is performed based on the color information of the background color. When “Do not use background color” is selected, correction processing is performed based on the color information of the recording medium. Is done.

(1-2-3) Effect As described above, according to the second embodiment of the present invention, even when the background color is used, the background color at the color boundary due to color misregistration is suppressed, It is possible to minimize the adverse effects of the correction process.

(1-3) Industrial Applicability In the embodiment of the present invention, a printer has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The present invention can be applied to any apparatus that processes an input image, such as an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) apparatus.

  In each embodiment of the present invention, the setting of the color of the recording medium and the setting of the background color are performed by the PC, but may be performed by a printer. When using a printer, the color of the recording medium and the background color are set on the printer panel.

  If there are a plurality of paper trays, the color of the recording medium may be set for each tray. In other words, a plurality of paper trays may be provided as recording medium possessing units that possess a plurality of types of recording media used when outputting the image data. In this case, the paper color setting unit 12 sets a background color for each recording medium of the recording medium possessing unit.

  Further, the color of the recording medium may be set by a scanner as an image reading device. When setting the color of the recording medium with a scanner, the pixel value of the read color information is used. Also, instead of directly specifying the color of the recording medium, the recording medium identification number and the recording medium color information are stored in advance, and the user inputs the recording medium identification number to determine the input recording medium. The color information of the recording medium may be acquired from the number.

  Further, the color setting of the recording medium may be automatically performed. In this case, the color information reading unit reads the color information of the recording medium, and transmits the read color information of the recording medium to the second print data transmission unit 26. The automatic reading of the color information may be selectable by the user. Further, when “Do not use background color” is selected in the background color setting area 31 of the print setting 30, the color setting of the recording medium may be set to automatic reading. The user may be able to select both the background color setting and the recording medium color setting.

  The present invention is not limited to the embodiments and the like, and various modifications can be made based on the spirit of the present invention, and they are not excluded from the scope of the present invention. The effects of the present invention are not limited to the contents described above. Moreover, the content of the member which appears in the whole specification is an illustration to the last, Comprising: It is not limited to these description. Various additions, modifications, combinations, partial deletions, and the like can be made without departing from the concept and spirit of the present invention derived from the contents defined in the claims and equivalents thereof.

  10: PC, 11: Image data input unit, 12: Paper color setting unit, 13: Print data transmission unit, 14: Printer, 15: Correction processing unit, 16: Output image processing unit, 17: Image output unit, 18: Print setting 19: Paper color selection area 20: Selection color display area 21: Selection color pixel value display area 22: OK button 23: Cancel button 24: PC 25: Background color setting section 26: First 2 print data transmission unit, 27: printer, 28: second output image processing unit, 29: second image output unit.

Claims (11)

An image data input unit for inputting image data having a plurality of areas;
A background color setting section for setting a background color;
Correction processing unit that performs correction processing in consideration of the color of the first region, the color of the second region, and the background color set by the background color setting unit of the image data input to the image data input unit When,
An image processing apparatus comprising: an image output unit that outputs image data corrected by the correction processing unit. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1.
The background color set by the background color setting unit is a background color or a color of a recording medium. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2,
The image processing apparatus is further characterized in that the correction processing unit performs correction processing in a boundary region between the first region and the second region. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The image processing apparatus is further characterized in that the correction processing unit performs a correction process based on a determination as to whether a color of the first area or the second area is close to the background color. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4.
The image processing apparatus is further characterized in that the correction processing unit does not perform correction processing when the color of either the first region or the second region is close to the background color. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4 or 5,
The image processing apparatus is further characterized in that the correction processing unit performs correction processing when the colors of both the first area and the second area are not close to the background color. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 4 to 6,
The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the correction processing unit further determines that the pixel is close to the background color if the pixel value region is within a threshold range from the pixel value of the background color. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
The image processing apparatus further includes a recording medium possessing unit that possesses a plurality of types of recording media used when outputting the image data, and the background color setting unit sets a background color for each recording medium in the recording medium possessing unit An image processing apparatus further characterized by the above. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
An image processing apparatus further comprising an image reading unit for reading a recording medium, wherein the background color setting unit further sets a color of the recording medium based on color information read by the image reading unit. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 9,
The image processing apparatus is further characterized in that the image output unit forms an image with a color material of the base color and a color material other than the base color. In an image processing system including an image processing device and other devices,
An image processing system using the image processing apparatus according to claim 1 as the image processing apparatus.

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