JP2022018711A - Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

To generate data for fault analysis from which classified information is less likely to be leaked when generating the data for fault analysis based on document data, compared with a case in which the data for fault analysis is generated by merely replacing character codes included in the document data with other character codes.SOLUTION: When image output processing is not normally executed, which is based on document data, such as PDF data in which character codes of characters to be displayed and glyph data being typeface data of the characters are described in a PDL, a RIP processing unit 44 replaces the character codes described in the document data with other character codes and deletes the glyph data described in the document to generate data for fault analysis.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

The present invention relates to an image processing device, an image forming device and a program.

In Patent Document 1, the hidden information part is specified in the application, the hidden character attribute is set in the specified target range, and the hidden character attribute is set only when the authentication is performed by inputting the password or the like. A hidden character processing device that enables printing of a range of characters is disclosed.

Patent Document 2 discloses a print control method for preventing information leakage during trial printing and reusing the trial print document when concealed printing is performed to prevent leakage of confidential information. Has been done.

In Patent Document 3, when a printing failure occurs when printing print data, the print data is processed based on the processing condition information corresponding to the data type of the data included in the print data to generate alternative print data. However, when a print failure is reproduced with the alternative print data, by outputting the alternative print data as failure data, failure data in which confidential information is concealed is generated and output so that the print failure can be reproduced. An image output device that makes it possible to do so is disclosed.

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2005-173720 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2007-313662 Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2010-269448

An object of the present invention is to compare with the case where the data for failure analysis is generated only by replacing the character code included in the document data with another character code when the data for failure analysis is generated based on the document data. Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing device, an image forming device, and a program capable of generating data for failure analysis in which confidential information is less likely to be leaked.

[Image processing device]
The present invention according to claim 1 comprises a memory and a processor.
When the image output process based on the document data in which the character shape data of the character is described by the page description language together with the character code of the character to be displayed is not normally executed, the processor describes the character code in the document data. Is an image processing device that generates data for failure analysis by replacing the character code with another character code and deleting the described character shape data.

The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor generates failure analysis data by replacing a plurality of character codes included in the document data with different character codes. Is.

The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the processor deletes the typeface designation data for designating the character shape of the typeface from the document data when the processor generates the failure analysis data. Is.

The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processor changes the name information of the typeface of characters used when generating the failure analysis data to a general-purpose typeface name. Is.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, when the processor generates the failure analysis data, the character map information indicating the correspondence between the character code and the character shape identification information is deleted from the document data. The image processing apparatus according to any one of 4.

The present invention according to claim 6, wherein when the processor includes image data in the document data, the processor replaces the image data with an image displaying information indicating an attribute of the image data. It is an image processing device.

The present invention according to claim 7 is the image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image in which the processor displays information indicating an attribute of image data is an image including identification information of the image data.

The present invention according to claim 8 is the image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image in which the processor displays information indicating an attribute of image data is an image showing information regarding a position where the image data is arranged. be.

[Image forming device]
The present invention according to claim 9 includes an image output unit that executes image output processing based on document data, and an image output unit.
Equipped with memory and processor
The processor describes the character shape data of the character together with the character code of the character to be displayed in the document data when the image output process based on the document data described by the page description language is not normally executed in the image output unit. It is an image forming apparatus that replaces the character code described with another character code and deletes the described character shape data to generate data for failure analysis.

[program]
The present invention according to claim 10 describes in the document data when the image output process based on the document data in which the character code of the character to be displayed is described by the page description language together with the character code of the character to be displayed is not normally executed. The step of replacing the character code that has been written with another character code and deleting the described character shape data to generate data for failure analysis,
It is a program to be executed by a computer.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the failure analysis data is generated based on the document data, the failure analysis data is generated only by replacing the character code included in the document data with another character code. It is possible to provide an image processing device capable of generating failure analysis data in which confidential information is less likely to be leaked.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an image processing apparatus capable of improving the reproducibility of obstacles as compared with the case where a plurality of character codes are replaced with the same character code.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an image processing apparatus capable of preventing the occurrence of an error due to the deletion of the glyph data.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an image processing apparatus capable of generating failure analysis data that can be displayed by general-purpose display software.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an image processing device capable of preventing the secret information from being inferred from the character map information.

According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to provide an image processing apparatus capable of preventing leakage of confidential information from image data contained in document data.

According to the present invention according to claim 7, when the cause of the failure is caused by the image data, the cause can be easily identified at the time of failure analysis as compared with the case where the image data is replaced with other image data. It is possible to provide an image processing device capable of this.

According to the present invention according to claim 8, when the cause of the failure is caused by the image data, the cause can be easily identified at the time of failure analysis as compared with the case where the image data is replaced with other image data. It is possible to provide an image processing device capable of this.

According to the present invention according to claim 9, when the failure analysis data is generated based on the document data, the failure analysis data is generated only by replacing the character code included in the document data with another character code. It is possible to provide an image forming apparatus capable of generating failure analysis data in which confidential information is less likely to be leaked.

According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, when the failure analysis data is generated based on the document data, the failure analysis data is generated only by replacing the character code included in the document data with another character code. It is possible to provide a program capable of generating failure analysis data in which confidential information is less likely to be leaked.

It is a figure which shows the system structure of the printing system of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware composition of the image forming apparatus 10 in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of the image forming apparatus 10 in one Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation of the processing process for deleting the secret information included in a print job, and generating the failure analysis data, which is executed in the image forming apparatus 10 of one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of PDF data before conversion before processing. It is a figure which shows the form data example used when generating the document data shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structural example of PDL which described the document data shown in FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation of the character processing processing which RIP processing unit 44 performed on the document data of such a structure shown in step S103 of FIG. It is a figure which shows an example of the font data to delete. It is a figure which shows the specific example of changing a font name. It is a figure which shows an example of CMap data to delete. It is a figure which shows the example of changing the character code in a character description part. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation of the image processing processing by the RIP processing unit 44 shown in step S105 of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of the image data in the image designation part before processing. It is a figure which shows the example of the image data in the image designation part after processing. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the PDF data after processing. It is a figure which shows an example of the case where the image is displayed or printed based on the PDF data of the degree of change shown in FIG.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system of one embodiment of the present invention includes an image forming apparatus 10 interconnected by a network 30 and a client terminal 20. The image forming apparatus 10 is, for example, a printer for business use, receives document data transmitted from the client terminal 20 as a print job, and outputs an image corresponding to the received print job on paper. The client terminal 20 generates a print job and transmits it to the image forming apparatus 10 via the network 30.

The document data transmitted from the client terminal 20 to the image forming apparatus 10 is described in a page description language (hereinafter abbreviated as PDL (Page Description Language)). Then, by describing the document data in PDL, it is possible to generate document data having a complicated structure and configure it as a print job.

However, when such a print job described by the PDL is executed by the image forming apparatus 10 to perform printing, a failure due to the structure of the PDL occurs due to the complexity of the print job, the speeding up of the processing speed, and the like. May be done.

In such a case, in order to analyze the cause of the failure that has occurred, the engineer of the manufacturer who manufactured the image forming apparatus 10 wants to take the print job in which the failure has occurred to the outside for analysis or execution of a reproduction test. In some cases.

However, when the image forming apparatus 10 is performing printing processing for business use, the print job may include various confidential information such as personal information, and the print job is used as it is from the viewpoint of leakage of the confidential information. In many cases, it is not allowed to take it out.

Therefore, when the print job is taken out, it is necessary to delete the confidential information contained in the print job and generate the failure analysis data.

However, PDF data such as PDF (abbreviation of Portable Document Format) is embedded in fonts to display and print characters in the original font without being affected by the type of font prepared on the display device or printing device. A technique called is used.

If the PDF data is embedded with this font, it is possible to display and print Japanese even on a device that does not have a Japanese font.

However, in document data such as PDF with font embedding, glyph data, which is the character shape data of the characters used, is embedded in other information embedded inside, so it is included in the document data. Even if the data for failure analysis is generated only by replacing the character code with another character code, it may be possible to infer the confidential information described.

Therefore, in the image forming apparatus 10 of the present embodiment, by generating the failure analysis data by the method as shown below, when the failure analysis data is generated based on the document data described by the PDL, it is a secret. We are trying to generate failure analysis data that is difficult for information to be leaked.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus 10 in the printing system of the present embodiment.

As shown in FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 10 is a communication interface (communication interface) for transmitting and receiving data to and from an external device and the like via a CPU 11, a memory 12, a storage device 13 such as a hard disk drive, and a network 30. It is abbreviated as IF.) It has 14, a display device 15 such as a touch panel and a liquid crystal display, an operation input device 16, and a print engine 17. These components are connected to each other via a control bus 18.

The print engine 17 prints an image on a recording medium such as printing paper through steps such as charging, exposure, development, transfer, and fixing.

The CPU 11 is a processor that controls the operation of the image forming apparatus 10 by executing a predetermined process based on a control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13. In the present embodiment, the CPU 11 is described as reading and executing a control program stored in the memory 12 or the storage device 13, but the program is stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM and stored in the CPU 11. It is also possible to provide.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus 10 realized by executing the above control program.

As shown in FIG. 3, the image forming apparatus 10 of the present embodiment includes a job receiving unit 31, a display unit 32, an operation input unit 33, a controller unit 34, and an image output unit 35. Further, the controller unit 34 is composed of a job management unit 41, a RIP (abbreviation of Raster Image Processing) control unit 42, a RIP processing unit 43, a RIP processing unit 44, and a print data management unit 45.

The controller unit 34 is a unit for controlling the printing process of the print job transmitted from the client terminal 20.

The display unit 32 is controlled by the UI control unit 46 and displays various information to the user. The operation input unit 33 is also controlled by the UI control unit 46, and inputs various operations performed by the user.

The job receiving unit 31 receives a print job from the client terminal 20 via the network 30. The print job received by the job receiving unit 31 is managed by the job management unit 41.

The RIP control unit 42 controls the operations of the RIP processing unit 43 and the RIP processing unit 44, and when the job management unit 41 requests the execution of the print processing of a print job, the type of PDL of the print job is changed. The corresponding RIP processing unit 43 is selected to start the RIP module, and the PDL file path and the RIP designated page information are passed to the selected RIP processing unit 43 to execute the RIP processing.

Here, in FIG. 3, only one RIP processing unit 43 is shown for the sake of simplicity, but in reality, there are a plurality of RIP processing units 43, and the processing content of the RIP processing to be executed is described. It is selected accordingly.

The RIP processing unit 43 converts the RIP processing of the print job of the PDL into raster data and outputs the data to the print data management unit 45.

The print data management unit 45 converts the raster data converted by the RIP processing unit 43 into print data, and transmits the raster data to the image output unit 35 according to the printing speed.

The image output unit 35 executes an image output process for outputting an image on a recording medium such as printing paper based on the print data transmitted from the print data management unit 45.

The RIP processing unit 43 may not directly convert the PDL print job into raster data, but may temporarily convert it into an intermediate data format for processing.

As described above, when a plurality of RIP processing units 43 exist, the RIP control unit 42 manages a plurality of RIP processing units 42. The plurality of RIP processing units 43 are equipped with RIP processing modules according to the type of PDF, such as CPSI (abbreviation of Configurable PostScript Interpreter) module and APPE (abbreviation of Adobe PDF Print Engine) module, respectively. , Select the module to be used according to the type of print job to be printed, and execute the RIP process.

Then, the RIP processing unit 44 has the same function as the RIP processing unit 43, and based on the instruction from the RIP control unit 42, performs RIP processing on the print job requested to delete the confidential information. , Generates failure analysis data with the contained confidential information deleted.

The failure analysis data generated by the RIP processing unit 44 is transferred to the job management 41 and transmitted to the client terminal 20 via the data transmission / reception unit 47. The data transmission / reception unit 47 can also output the generated failure analysis data to an external storage medium such as a USB (abbreviation of Universal Serial Bus) memory or to a connected external device. ..

Further, the PDL processing unit 44 is configured so that when the RIP processing unit 43 executes the RIP processing of a normal print job, the RIP processing can be executed in parallel at the same time.

Hereinafter, the process for generating the failure analysis data by the RIP processing unit 44 will be described more specifically.

When the image output process is not executed normally when a print job based on a certain document data is executed, the user who tries to generate the failure analysis data by deleting the confidential information contained in the document data is operated. Instructs the generation of failure analysis data via the input unit 33.

Then, the instruction to generate the failure analysis data is transmitted from the UI control unit 46 to the job management unit 41, and the job management unit 41 informs the RIP processing unit 44 via the RIP control unit 42 based on the document data. Instruct to generate data for failure analysis.

If the range containing the confidential information can be specified, the user should limit the range in which the confidential information deletion process is executed on a page-by-page basis when instructing the generation of failure analysis data. Is also possible.

Then, the RIP processing unit 44 executes a process of deleting confidential information from the instructed document data to generate failure analysis data.

Specifically, the RIP processing unit 44 does not normally execute the image output process based on the document data such as the PDF data in which the glyph data which is the character shape data of the character is described by the PDL together with the character code of the character to be displayed. If so, the character code described in the document data is replaced with another character code, and the described glyph data is deleted to generate failure analysis data.

The RIP processing unit 44 generates failure analysis data by replacing a plurality of character codes included in the document data with different character codes instead of replacing them with the same character code.

Further, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the typeface designation data that specifies the character shape of the typeface, that is, the data that specifies the font data, from the document data when the failure analysis data is generated.

Here, when taking out the failure analysis data generated by the RIP processing unit 44, it is required to prove to the user using the image forming apparatus 10 that the confidential information such as personal information has been deleted. May be done. Therefore, it is necessary to be able to display the failure analysis data even on a general-purpose personal computer or the like.

Therefore, the RIP processing unit 44 changes the name information of the typeface of the characters to be used when generating the failure analysis data to a general-purpose typeface name.

Further, when the failure analysis data is generated, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the CMap data, which is the character map information indicating the correspondence between the character code and the character shape identification information, from the document data. The details of this CMap data will be described later.

Further, the document data may include not only character information but also image information. In general, confidential information such as personal information is often described as textual information. However, the image information may also include confidential information that becomes a problem when leaked to the outside, such as a logo mark that can identify a company or an image of an individual's face photograph.

Therefore, when instructing the operation input unit 33 to generate the failure analysis data, it is possible to set whether to delete only the character information or both the character information and the image information.

Then, when an instruction to delete the image information is given together with the character information, the RIP processing unit 44 displays the image data and the information indicating the attribute of the image data when the document data includes the image data. Data for failure analysis is generated by replacing with the image to be used.

Here, as the image displaying the information indicating the attribute of the image data to be replaced, for example, an image including the identification information of the image data or an image showing the information regarding the position where the image data is arranged is used. Can be done.

That is, the RIP processing unit 44 replaces the image data included in the document data with image data including the identification information of the image data and image data indicating information regarding the position where the image data is arranged.

Here, for example, when each image is given a different identification number such as an object ID, the object ID corresponds to the identification information of the image data.

Further, the information regarding the position where the image data is arranged may be, for example, the information of the page where each image is arranged, or the information indicating the position where the image data is arranged in the page, for example, the coordinates in the page. It may be information or information indicating an approximate arrangement position on the page.

Here, the coordinate information in the page can be specifically composed of the coordinates of the upper left corner and the coordinates of the lower right corner, the coordinates of the upper left corner, and the information of the width and height of the image. Further, the information indicating the approximate arrangement position on the page can be specifically composed of information such as upper / middle / lower, left / center / right, and the like.

Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus 10 in the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

The specific processing contents differ slightly depending on the type of PDF, but in the following description, a case where failure analysis data is generated based on the most common PDF format print job will be described.

First, the flowchart of FIG. 4 shows the overall operation of the processing process for deleting the secret information included in the print job and generating the failure analysis data.

First, since the PDF data is usually encoded in the Flat format, the RIP processing unit 44 performs decoding processing in step S101. When the PDF data is encrypted with a password, the RIP processing unit 44 decodes the PDF data using the password input via the operation input unit 33.

Then, the RIP processing unit 44 determines whether or not the processing of character information is specified in step S102 when generating the failure analysis data. Then, when the RIP processing unit 44 determines that the character information processing process is specified in step S102, the RIP processing unit 44 executes the character processing process in step S103.

Further, the RIP processing unit 44 determines in step S104 whether or not the processing of image information is specified. Then, when it is determined in step S104 that the image information processing process is specified, the RIP processing unit 44 executes the character processing process in step S105.

Then, the RIP processing unit 44 executes the processing of steps S102 to S105 in page units, and determines in step S106 whether or not the processing of all the designated pages is completed. Then, when it is determined that the processing of all the pages specified in step S106 is completed, the RIP processing unit 44 executes the offset table processing on the PDF data in step S107.

This offset table processing is a processing necessary for displaying PDF data after character processing processing and image processing processing are performed by general-purpose viewer software.

The PDF data is provided with a cross-reference section, and an offset table for referring to an offset value indicating the position of each object in the PDF data is described. Since the viewer software accesses each object by referring to the offset value in this offset table, if this offset value shifts by changing the description contents in the text part or the image part, it will be applied to each object. It will not be possible to access normally, and an error will occur if you try to display it with the viewer software.

Therefore, the RIP processing unit 44 executes the offset table processing and re-creates the offset table after the character processing processing and the image processing processing are completed.

Finally, in step S108, the RIP processing unit 44 outputs the processed data as failure analysis data.

Next, the character processing and the image processing described above will be described in detail using specific document data examples.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of PDF data before conversion before processing, which is used in the following description.

With reference to FIG. 5, a usage fee statement issued by a credit card company to each user as PDF data is shown. This usage bill includes information such as the user's name and address, customer number, billing amount, and bank account number. These information are personal information and correspond to confidential information that is prohibited from being leaked to the outside. In addition, this PDF data includes a company name and a logo mark of "ABC Card Co., Ltd.". Information that is not personal information, such as a company name, also falls under confidential information.

Generally, when generating such document data, the part commonly used by multiple customers is generated in advance as form data, and the final document data is combined with the personal data of each customer. Is configured. FIG. 6 shows an example of form data used when generating the document data shown in FIG. With reference to FIG. 6, it can be seen that the form data is composed of various information such as characters, figures, and images of common parts whose contents do not change depending on the customer. In the form data shown in FIG. 6, the company name and logo mark "ABC Card Co., Ltd." are configured as image information 50.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the structure of the PDL in which such document data is described.

With reference to FIG. 7, it can be seen that the structure of the PDL of this document data includes a font name, a character description unit, a font dictionary, font data, CMap data, and an image designation unit.

Then, the flowchart of FIG. 8 shows the overall operation of the character processing process performed by the RIP processing unit 44 on the document data having such a structure, which is shown in step S103 of FIG.

In this character processing, the RIP processing unit 44 first deletes the font data in step S201.

Here, an example of the font data to be deleted is shown in FIG. Referring to FIG. 9, the font data includes glyph data 52, which is glyph data of characters to be used, together with information of an identifier 51 of font data. That is, the PDF data in which the font is embedded includes not only the character code of the character to be displayed but also the glyph data indicating the character shape of the character to be actually expressed.

In the font data example shown in FIG. 9, by extracting the glyph data 52 of the characters used, the character string "Kyo-ku Chiiwamoto Higashidachoto ..." can be extracted. If such a character string can be extracted, it can be easily inferred that this character string is an address and is "Iwamotocho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo ...". Therefore, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes such font data during the character processing process.

Then, in step S202, the RIP processing unit 44 changes the embedded font name to a general-purpose font name that can be externally referenced in order to be able to display the failure analysis data in a general-purpose personal computer. do.

Specifically, as shown in FIG. 10, the RIP processing unit 44 changes the font name "XFTQGE + MSPMincho" to the font name "MSPMincho". Here, the font "MSP Mincho" is the "MSP Mincho" font provided in the OS (abbreviation of Operating System) of a general-purpose personal computer. The font "XFTQGE + MSPMincho" is the name of the font embedded in the document data, and is a font that cannot be referred to after the font data is deleted in step S201.

Further, since the font data is deleted in step S201, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the designation of the font data in the font dictionary in step S203. Specifically, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the description that specifies the font data "/ FontFile2 390 R" specified in the font dictionary shown in FIG. 7. This is because, in step S201, the font data specified by the identifier "390 obj" is deleted, so that an error occurs if a description specifying this font data remains.

Here, in the PDF data, the font is represented by a font dictionary (also referred to as a FontDescription dictionary). This font dictionary defines fonts and includes various information such as font types and encoding information. When embedding a font in PDF data, a font file is specified in the font dictionary. More accurately, in the present embodiment, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the description "/ FontFile2 390 R" that specifies the object ID that is the reference place of the font data that is the glyph data from the font dictionary. Here, the character string "FontFile2" means that the data is a TrueType font.

Next, in step S204, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the CMap data from the document data and also deletes the designation of the CMap data in the font dictionary. FIG. 11 shows an example of CMap data to be deleted. Here, the CMap data is character map information indicating a correspondence relationship between a character code such as Unicode and a glyph ID which is character shape identification information. The character code used in this CMap data is also described, and the character used can be specified. Therefore, the RIP processing unit 44 also deletes such CMap data during the character processing processing.

Then, as an example of the method of embedding the CMap data in the PDF data, a method of providing a description for specifying the CMap data in the font dictionary may be used. Therefore, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the designation of the CMap data in the font dictionary by deleting the CMap data. Specifically, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the description that specifies the CMap data "/ ToUnicode 31 0 R" specified in the font dictionary shown in FIG. 7. This is because the CMap data specified by the identifier "3 1 0 obj" has been deleted, and an error will occur if the description specifying this CMap data remains.

Finally, the RIP processing unit 44 changes the character code in the character description unit in step S205. When changing the character code, it is possible to replace it with another character code using a regular conversion rule, but once the regularity is specified, the original character code can be restored. There is a risk that it will end up. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the conversion method using such a regular conversion rule is not used.

It is also possible to use a conversion method that replaces all the original character codes with the same character code, but if such a conversion method is used, only one type of character will appear. .. However, if the number of character types such as insufficient capacity of the font cache memory that stores font data in a position is the cause of the failure, a conversion method was used to replace it with the same character code. In that case, the failure cannot be reproduced.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the RIP processing unit 44 replaces the plurality of character codes included in the document data with different character codes instead of replacing them with the same character code to obtain the failure analysis data. Generate.

FIG. 12 shows an example of changing the character code in such a character description unit. In the modification shown in FIG. 12, for example, the character code indicating one character "14BE" is changed to the character code "0101", and the character code indicating one character "1B8F" is changed to "0102". It is changed to the character code. FIG. 12 shows a case where the original character code is changed by replacing it with a character code composed of a combination of a page number and a character drawing order. That is, each character code means the character to be drawn first on the first page and the character to be drawn second on the first page.

By replacing it with a character code that represents the attributes of the character before replacement instead of replacing it with a random character code in this way, it is normal to draw the character on what page and which character during failure analysis. It will be possible to grasp what was done in the above, and it can be expected to help in failure analysis.

Further, for example, the document data to be executed for the above-mentioned processing may be a huge amount of data. In particular, in the case of a so-called production printer that prints data consisting of a large number of pages at high speed, the total number of pages of the document data to be analyzed may exceed 100,000 pages. In such a case, instead of performing character processing such as character code replacement or font data deletion for all character data, the form data that is fixedly used as the part corresponding to confidential information Can apply character processing only to parts that use different fonts. For example, specify the font name and character size used in the part where confidential information such as company name and user's name and address is printed, and apply character processing to the font and character size part. By doing so, it is possible to efficiently generate data that is concealed for characters that are not desired to be leaked to the outside. With such a configuration, it is possible to shorten the processing time for improving the efficiency of data that is not desired to be taken out. As another method, for example, specify the font name and size used for the part described in the form data, and perform character processing for the data part specified for a different font and size. It may be applied. For example, it is possible to identify the part where the commonly used form is used from the contents of the document data, and it is possible to execute the character processing process for the characters of the part other than the specified form. can. For example, in the case of PostScript, it is possible to specify that the form is reused in execform, and in the case of PDF, it is possible to specify that the form is used in the part described by Form X object.

Next, the overall operation of the image processing process by the RIP processing unit 44 shown in step S105 of FIG. 4 is shown in the flowchart of FIG.

First, the RIP processing unit 44 deletes the original image data in step S301. Then, the RIP processing unit 44 generates replacement image data in step S302. For example, the RIP processing unit 44 generates attribute information of the deleted data, specifically, an object ID which is identification information of the original image data, and image data including a page number as replacement image data.

Then, in step S303, the RIP processing unit 44 replaces the image data by storing the generated replacement image data in the place where the deleted image data is stored.

Finally, in step S304, the RIP processing unit 44 performs data compression in the compression format compressed in the original PDF data, and in step S305, the image designation unit changes the image dictionary indicating the attributes of the image data. Perform necessary processing such as.

Specific examples of such image processing will be described with reference to FIGS. 14 and 15. FIG. 14 is an example of image data in the image designation unit before processing, and FIG. 15 is an example of image data in the image designation unit after processing.

With reference to FIG. 14, it can be seen that the image data is attached with an object ID 61, which is an identifier for identifying the image data, "360 obj". The image data is described by binary binary data in the portion between the characters "stream" and "endstream". Here, in order to explain using the PDF data as shown in FIG. 5 as an example, the image data representing the characters "usage charge statement", "ABC Card Co., Ltd.", and "ABC GROUP" are used as binary data. Explain as described.

Then, the RIP processing unit 44 replaces the image data shown in FIG. 14 with the image data as shown in FIG. FIG. 15 shows a case where the image data described in the portion sandwiched between the characters “stream” and “endstream” is replaced with the image data representing the characters “01” and “36”. .. Here, "01" indicates a page number on which the image data is arranged, and "36" indicates an object ID which is an identifier of the image data before conversion.

By performing the character processing and the image processing as described above by the RIP processing unit 44, the structure of the PDL of the document data shown in FIG. 7 is converted into the structure as shown in FIG.

Referring to FIG. 16, the font name is changed by the character processing and the image processing by the RIP processing unit 44, the character code of the character description unit is replaced, the specified part of the font data of the font dictionary is deleted, and the font data is deleted. It can be seen that the CMap data is deleted and the image data in the image designation unit is replaced.

FIG. 17 shows an example of displaying or printing an image based on the PDF data of the degree of change shown in FIG. 16. With reference to FIG. 17, it can be seen that the characters before conversion have been changed to different characters, and it is impossible to grasp the confidential information. Further, it can be seen that the image information 50 in which the company name as shown in FIG. 6 represents the logo mark of the company is replaced with the image information 70 in which the page number and the object ID are represented in FIG.

In addition, instead of replacing the image data with a fixed pattern image in this way, by replacing each image with an image representing identifiable information, which is different for each image, the images are unintentionally replaced. Even when a failure occurs or a failure occurs in which the image arrangement is different from the intended location, it is possible to identify the cause of the failure.

In each of the above embodiments, the processor refers to a processor in a broad sense, such as a general-purpose processor (for example, CPU: Central Processing Unit, etc.) or a dedicated processor (for example, GPU: Graphics Processing Unit, ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit, etc.). FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array, programmable logic device, etc.).

Further, the operation of the processor in each of the above embodiments may be performed not only by one processor but also by a plurality of processors existing at physically separated positions in cooperation with each other. Further, the order of each operation of the processor is not limited to the order described in each of the above embodiments, and may be changed as appropriate.

[Modification example]
In the above embodiment, the case where the document data is processed by the image forming apparatus 10 has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the document data is processed by the image processing apparatus not provided with the printing function. The present invention can be similarly applied even when processing is performed to generate failure analysis data.

10 Image forming device 11 CPU
12 Memory 13 Storage device 14 Communication interface 15 Display device 16 Operation input device 17 Print engine 18 Control bus 20 Client terminal 30 Network 31 Job reception unit 32 Display unit 33 Operation input unit 34 Controller unit 35 Image output unit 41 Job management unit 42 RIP Control unit 43 RIP processing unit 44 RIP processing unit 45 Print data management unit 50 Image information 51 Font data identifier 52 Glyph data 61 Object ID
70 Image information

Claims (10)

Equipped with memory and processor
When the image output process based on the document data in which the glyph data of the character is described by the page description language together with the character code of the character to be displayed is not normally executed, the processor describes the character code in the document data. Is replaced with another character code, and the described glyph data is deleted to generate failure analysis data.
Image processing device. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the processor generates data for failure analysis by replacing a plurality of character codes included in the document data with different character codes. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the processor deletes the typeface designation data that specifies the character shape of the typeface from the document data when the failure analysis data is generated. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the processor changes the name information of the typeface of characters used when generating the failure analysis data to a general-purpose typeface name. The image processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the processor deletes character map information indicating a correspondence relationship between a character code and character shape identification information from the document data when generating the failure analysis data. .. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the document data includes image data, the processor replaces the image data with an image displaying information indicating an attribute of the image data. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the processor is an image in which an image displaying information indicating an attribute of image data includes identification information of the image data. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the processor is an image showing information about a position where the image data is arranged, in which an image displaying information indicating an attribute of image data is an image. An image output unit that executes image output processing based on document data,
Equipped with memory and processor
The processor describes the character shape data of the character together with the character code of the character to be displayed in the document data when the image output process based on the document data described by the page description language is not normally executed in the image output unit. While replacing the character code that has been written with another character code, the described character shape data is deleted to generate failure analysis data.
Image forming device. If the image output processing based on the document data in which the character data of the character is described by the page description language together with the character code of the character to be displayed is not executed normally, the character code described in the document data is changed to another character. The step of replacing with the code and deleting the written character data to generate the data for failure analysis,
A program to run on a computer.

Images