JP2640591B2 - How to create a border image - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention
In an integrated image including at least two image elements of
A method for generating an image representing a boundary of a first image element.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As image elements constituting an image, there are a character, a figure, and a picture element. Among these image elements, characters and figures have relatively high resolution (for example, 150
(0 lines / inch) image data, and picture elements are often represented by relatively low resolution (for example, 300 lines / inch) image data.

FIG. 1 shows a tint element (referred to as an image element having a uniform color tone) M0 as a background and two picture elements M
1, M2 and images containing character elements A, B, and C (hereinafter, referred to as
Called "integrated image". FIG. As in this example, in the integrated image in which the two picture elements M1 and M2 overlap each other, the boundary BP of the picture elements M1 and M2
Is reproduced at low resolution, the rattling of the boundary BP may be conspicuous. For example, if there is a yellow image portion and a black image portion adjacent to the boundary, the rattling of the boundary is likely to be noticeable.

[0004] As a method of reducing the backlash at the boundary between two image elements, Japanese Patent Publication No.
There is a method described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. In this method, the image data of the pixel at the boundary is replaced with a specific code for identifying the boundary. This specific code is
For each high-resolution pixel obtained by dividing a low-resolution pixel into high-resolution pixels, it is data in which one of two picture elements belongs is designated by “0” and “1”. The image data of the boundary portion to which the specific code is assigned is synthesized based on the image data of the pixel adjacent to the boundary and the specific code.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned method, when a large number of low-resolution pixels to which a specific code is assigned are collected, an image of a boundary portion may not be reproduced clearly. For example, if a specific code is assigned to a certain first low-resolution pixel and all of the surrounding low-resolution pixels are also assigned a specific code, the image of the first low-resolution pixel is reproduced. In this case, the specific code of the surrounding pixels is used as image data. Therefore, in the reproduced image, the first
In some cases, the low-resolution pixel does not have a desired color.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem in the prior art, and is capable of faithfully reproducing a boundary between two image elements and reducing rattling at the boundary. It is intended to provide a method for creating an image.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, a method according to the present invention provides a method for producing a first image element in an integrated image comprising at least two first image elements of a first resolution. A method of creating an image of a border,
(A) preparing first image data representing each of the first image elements and contour data representing each contour of the first image element at a second resolution higher than the first resolution; (B) extracting a first resolution pixel forming the boundary portion based on the contour data; and (c) converting each of the first resolution pixels forming the boundary portion to the first resolution pixel. Dividing the second resolution pixels, which are pixels corresponding to a resolution of 2, into a second resolution pixel based on the contour data, and determining a boundary of the second resolution pixel within the boundary portion; (d) configuring the boundary portion For each of the first resolution pixels, the first image data representing the image at the first resolution pixel is separated from the first image data by a boundary of the second resolution within the first resolution pixel. Wherein each of the second resolution pixels is first
And (e) generating an image of the boundary portion for each of the second resolution pixels based on the pair data. Creating a boundary image by reproducing.

[0008]

According to the present invention, contour data representing the contour of an image element having a first resolution at a second resolution higher than the first resolution is prepared, and a first resolution pixel constituting a boundary portion is determined based on the contour data. In addition to the extraction, the boundary of the second resolution inside the first resolution pixel forming the boundary can be obtained. As a result, as pair data, the image data of the first image element for each first resolution pixel constituting the boundary portion, and each second resolution pixel inside the first resolution pixel corresponds to the first resolution pixel. The data can be created so as to include data that classifies the data. Then, by using the pair data, an image reproduced for each second resolution pixel can be obtained as an image of the boundary portion.

[0009]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an image processing system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. This image processing system includes an image data memory 1, a boundary image data generation device 2, and a recording scanner 3.

The boundary image data generation device 2 includes a character / line drawing processing circuit 21, an image primary processing circuit 22, a boundary data generation circuit 23, a resolution conversion circuit 24, a pre-mask synthesis circuit 25, and a mask synthesis circuit 26. , A recording pixel developing circuit 27 and a halftone dot data generating circuit 28.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the image primary processing circuit 22 and the boundary data creation circuit 23. The image primary processing circuit 22 includes an image layout processing unit 221
, A mask data transfer processing unit 222, two mask memories 223 and 224, and two multi-level image frame memories 225 and 226. Boundary data creation circuit 2
3 is a contour image developing unit 231 and a contour intersection calculating unit 232
, Boundary data extraction unit 233, and pair data creation unit 23
4, the area division data memory 235, and the temporary memory 23
6 and a pair data memory 237.

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flowcharts showing the processing procedure in the embodiment. The procedure for processing the integrated image of FIG. 1 will be described below. In the following description, the first resolution is expressed as low resolution, and the second resolution is expressed as high resolution. In step S1,
Prepare the following data. (1) Low-resolution image data DL representing tint element M0
0: In this embodiment, the tint element M0 is an image element obtained by filling the entire screen of FIG. 1 with a uniform color tone. (2) Low-resolution image data DL1, DL2 representing each of the picture elements M1, M2:
1. The original image of M2 is created by reading with a scanner. (3) Contour mask data CV1, CV2 representing each mask area of picture elements M1, M2:
For example, it is created by designating a contour drawn on a block copy with a digitizer. Contour mask data CV1, CV
V2 includes two types of data: a) vector data representing the position of each node of the contour by pixel coordinates of a resolution for a character image, and b) data designating use of an image portion inside the contours C1 and C2. Data. (4) Character image data DH3 representing character elements A, B, C and graphics: This data is used, for example, for arranging characters A, B, C on a screen in a line drawing processing device for processing characters and graphics, It is created by reading the characters drawn on the mount with a scanner. The character image data representing the character elements A, B, and C include, for example, character codes representing the fonts and sizes of the characters A, B, and C, and position data representing the position of the character in the integrated image.

In this embodiment, the resolution of the low-resolution image data is 375 lines / inch, and the resolution of the high-resolution image data is 1500 lines / inch. That is, the high-resolution image data has a resolution that is an integral multiple (four times in this example) of the low-resolution image data.

The integrated image is a color image, and low-resolution image data DL0, DL0 of three elements M0, M1, M2.
DL1 and DL2 have four color separation image components corresponding to four color inks of Y, M, C, and K, respectively.

Further, three image elements M0, M1, M2
Are assigned priorities in this order. That is, in the integrated image, the first picture element M1 is opaquely superimposed on the tint element M0, and the second picture element M2 is opaquely superimposed on the first picture element M1. . The data indicating the priority of the image is included in the image data of each image element and the outline mask data, respectively.

In step S2, the contour mask data CV
1, the contours C1 and C2 of the mask area are bit-mapped at a low resolution based on CV2. In this processing, the image layout processing unit 221 (FIG. 3) in the image primary processing circuit 22 sends the outline mask data CV
1 and CV2, and read out the contour mask data CV1 and CV2.
Is developed into a bitmap with low resolution (375 lines / inch) in the mask memory 223,
224 stores bitmap data. FIG.
FIG. 7 and FIG. 7 are conceptual diagrams showing bitmap data stored in the mask memories 223 and 224, respectively.

In step S3, the contour intersection calculation unit 232
Thus, the coordinates of the intersection points Pa and Pb of the two contours C1 and C2 are calculated. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the processing content of step S3. The contour intersection calculation unit 232 obtains the logical product (AND) of the bitmap data stored in the two mask memories 223 and 224 for each pixel, and calculates the coordinates of the pixel whose result is “1” at the intersections Pa and Pb. Are extracted as coordinates. The intersection coordinates are stored in the temporary memory 236.

In step S4, the boundary data extraction unit 23
3, the boundary BP between the intersections Pa and Pb is extracted. FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the processing content of step S4. In this step S4, first, in the mask memory 223 for the low-priority picture element M1, the contour C
The mask data MD1 is created by setting the value of each pixel in the inner region of “1” to “1” and the value of each pixel in the outer region including the contour C1 to “0”. This mask data MD1
And the logical product of the pixel data and the bitmap data of the contour C2 stored in the mask memory 224 is obtained for each pixel, and the pixel whose result is “1” is extracted to form the boundary BP. The boundary data extraction unit 233 extracts each pixel of the boundary BP in this manner, and stores the coordinates of each pixel in the temporary memory 236.
To be stored.

In step S5, the image primary processing circuit 22
As a result, the two low-resolution image data DL1 and DL2 are read from the image data memory 1, developed into raster data by the image layout processing unit 221 and stored in the multi-value image frame memories 225 and 226, respectively.

In step S6, the boundary data extraction unit 23
3, the image data BD1 and BD2 of the pixels forming the boundary BP are extracted from the image data DL1 and DL2, respectively. Extracted image data BD1, BD
2 is hereinafter referred to as “boundary image data”. The boundary image data BD1 and BD2 are stored in the temporary memory 236.

It should be noted that the data created so far and stored in the temporary memory 236 (ie, the intersections Pa, Pb
, The coordinate data of the boundary portion BP, and the boundary image data BD1 and BD2) are all low-resolution data.

In step S7, the pair data creation unit 23
4 divides the low-resolution pixels constituting the boundary BP into high-resolution pixels. FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 are explanatory diagrams illustrating a method of dividing a low-resolution pixel. In FIG. 10, a square indicates a low-resolution pixel Ps, and a boundary BP is drawn as a set of low-resolution pixels Ps. The nodes P1 to P9 indicate the nodes of the vector of the boundary line represented by the contour mask data CV2.
Is represented by the coordinates of the high-resolution pixel.
In the process of step S7, the pair data creation unit 2
34 obtains a high-resolution boundary line passing through the area of the low-resolution boundary portion BP based on the outline mask data CV2. As a result, as shown in FIG. 11, each of the low-resolution pixels Ps forming the boundary portion BP is divided into high-resolution pixels Ph, and a boundary line HBP for these high-resolution pixels is obtained.
(Hereinafter, referred to as “high-resolution boundary line”). FIG. 11 is an enlarged view of a region indicated by a broken line in FIG. In FIG. 11, one low-resolution pixel Ps is 4 ×
It is divided into four high-resolution pixels Ph.

In step S8, as shown in FIG.
For each of the high resolution pixels Ph in the area of the boundary BP, 1-bit data for indicating the area division is assigned. For example, as shown in FIG. 11, “0” is assigned to the high-resolution pixel Ph belonging to the low-priority picture element M1, and the high-resolution pixel P belonging to the high-priority picture element M2.
“1” is assigned to h. Thus, the high resolution pixel P
The data to which the value indicating the area division is assigned to each of h is stored in the area division data memory 235 as the area division data Lab (i, j). here,
(I, j) is an internal coordinate for each low resolution pixel.

In step S9, the pair data creation unit 23
4 creates pair data for each low-resolution pixel Ps constituting the boundary BP. The pair data is data representing a high-resolution image of the low-resolution pixel Ps that forms the boundary BP. FIG. 12 shows one low-resolution pixel P in FIG.
FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram for describing pair data regarding s (x, y). The pair data includes, for example, the following data.

(A) Pair data PD1: relating to first picture element M1 a) Image data DL1 of first picture element M1 at low resolution pixel Ps (x, y). This is the temporary memory 236
Of the boundary image data BD1 (x, y) stored in
The data at the pixel position (x, y) is used. b) Data obtained by inverting the area division data Lab (i, j) relating to the low resolution pixel Ps (x, y). Here, the reason for inverting the area division data Lab (i, j) is to set the value of the data of the high-resolution pixel belonging to the first picture element M1 to “1”.

(B) Pair data PD2 concerning the second picture element M2: a) Image data DL2 of the second picture element M2 at the low resolution pixel Ps (x, y). b) Area division data Lab (i, j) relating to the low resolution pixel Ps (x, y).

In the following, the above two pair data PD
1, PD2 are collectively referred to as boundary pair data PDb.
The boundary pair data PDb created for each low-resolution pixel on the boundary BP in this way is stored in the pair data memory 237.

In step S10, pair data for the intersections Pa and Pb (FIG. 8) is created by the pair data creation unit 234. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating the division of image elements within the low-resolution pixel at the position of the intersection Pa. FIG.
(A) shows a state in which the first picture element M1 is overlaid on the tint element M0, and FIG.
This shows a state in which the second picture element M2 is overlaid on 0. FIG. 13C shows which of the high-resolution pixels belongs to the tint element M0 and the two picture elements M1 and M2.

In step S10, first, FIG.
Area division data Lac for the image of FIG.
And the area segmentation data Lbc for the image of. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing these area division data Lac and Lbc. Then, the next pair data in the low resolution pixel at the position of the intersection is created. (A) Pair data related to first picture element M1 (FIG. 15)
(See (A)): a) Image data DL1 (x, y) of the first picture element M1 for the low resolution pixel Ps (x, y) at the intersection. b) The following area division data for the low-resolution pixel Ps (x, y) at the intersection: ｛Lac (i, j) AND In [Lbc (i,
j)]｝ Here, In [d] indicates inverted data of data d, and A
ND indicates a logical product. The value of this area division data is shown in FIG.
In the image shown in FIG. 3A, “1” is set for the high-resolution pixel belonging to the first picture element M1, and “0” is set for the high-resolution pixel belonging to the tint element M0.

(B) Pair data related to the second picture element M2 (see FIG. 15B): a) Image data DL2 () of the second picture element M2 at the low resolution pixel Ps (x, y) at the intersection position x, y). b) The following area division data on the low-resolution pixel Ps (x, y) at the intersection: Lbc (i, j) The value of this area division data is the second picture element in the image shown in FIG. The value is “1” for the high-resolution pixel belonging to M2 and “0” for the high-resolution pixel belonging to the tint element M0.

(C) Pair data relating to tint element M0 (see FIG. 15C): a) Low-resolution image data DL0 (x, y) of tint element M0 at low-resolution pixel Ps (x, y) at the intersection position . b) The following area division data regarding the low-resolution pixel Ps (x, y) at the intersection point: ｛In [Lac (i, j)] AND In [Lbc
(I, j)]｝ In the image shown in FIG. 13C, the value of the area division data is “1” only for the high-resolution pixels belonging to the tint element M0.

Hereinafter, the three pairs of data shown in FIG. 15 are collectively referred to as intersection pair data PDi. In this way,
The intersection pair data PDi created for each low-resolution pixel at each intersection position is stored in the pair data memory 237 together with the boundary pair data PDb. Note that these boundary pair data PDb include image elements M1 and
A priority higher than M2 is assigned, and the intersection pair data PDi is assigned a higher priority than the image elements M0, M1, and M2 forming the intersection.

Returning to FIG. 5, in step S11, the pre-mask synthesizing circuit 25 (FIG. 2) synthesizes an image representing the boundary BP with high resolution. At this time, the boundary data creation circuit 23 provides the pre-mask synthesis circuit 25 with the boundary pair data PDb and the intersection pair data PDi. on the other hand,
From the image primary processing circuit 22 to the resolution conversion circuit 24, the low resolution image data DL0, DL of the image elements M0, M1, M2
1, DL2, where the image data is converted from low resolution (375 lines / inch) to high resolution (1500 lines / inch), and the image data DL0a, D
L1a and DL2a are supplied to the pre-mask synthesis circuit 25. The conversion of the resolution is performed by commonly assigning the value of the low-resolution image data for one low-resolution pixel to 4 × 4 high-resolution pixels constituting the low-resolution pixel. Therefore, the high-resolution image data has image data for each high-resolution pixel, and the image represented by this image data has the same quality as the low-resolution image data.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing an image synthesized by the pre-mask synthesis circuit 25. Premask synthesis circuit 25
In FIG. 1, among the image elements of the integrated image shown in FIG. 1, image elements represented by low-resolution image data are integrated according to a predetermined priority, and are developed as high-resolution pixel-by-pixel raster data. Boundary part B of two picture elements M1 and M2
P is represented with substantially high resolution according to the pair data PDb and PDi given from the boundary data creation circuit 23. Even if pixels other than the boundary portion BP are also divided into high-resolution pixels, the same image data values are assigned to 4 × 4 high-resolution pixels as described above. It is the same as expressing. Note that the first raster data RD1 created by the pre-mask synthesis circuit 25 is temporarily stored in a multi-level frame memory (not shown) built in the pre-mask synthesis circuit 25.

In step S12, the mask synthesizing circuit 26
In step (1), the image synthesized by the pre-mask synthesis circuit 25 and image elements of characters and line drawings (in this embodiment, image elements of characters A, B, and C in FIG. 1) are synthesized. At this time,
The image data DH3 representing the characters A, B, and C is supplied from the image primary processing circuit 22 to the character / line drawing processing circuit 21, is developed into high-resolution raster data RD2, and is supplied to the mask synthesis circuit 26. The mask synthesizing circuit 26 synthesizes the raster data RD2 and the raster data RD1 generated by the pre-mask synthesizing circuit 25 to generate raster data RDt representing the integrated image shown in FIG. The raster data RDt is data representing the integrated image shown in FIG. 1 with high resolution, and is stored in a multi-level frame memory (not shown) in the mask synthesis circuit 26.

In step S13, the raster data RDt
, A halftone image of the integrated image is recorded. In the step S13, first, the raster data RDt is developed into data of the resolution of the recording pixels in the recording scanner 3 by the recording pixel developing circuit 27. The resolution of a recording pixel is even higher than the resolution of a character or a line drawing.
Set to double. The raster data RD thus developed
t is stored in a multi-valued frame memory (not shown) in the recording pixel developing circuit 27, and is applied to a halftone dot data generating circuit (dot generator) 28 in scanning line order.
The dot data generating circuit 28 reads out raster data stored in the multi-level frame memory in the recording pixel expanding circuit 27 for each recording pixel, and
The threshold for halftone generation is read from a screen pattern memory (threshold pattern memory) stored in advance in the memory. Then, by comparing the raster data with the threshold value, halftone dot data representing 1/0 whether or not exposure has occurred is generated for each recording pixel. The halftone data is supplied from the halftone data generation circuit 28 to the recording scanner 3, and a halftone image of the integrated image is recorded on the film. When the integrated image is printed with four colors of inks of Y, M, C, and K, a halftone image for each plate is recorded.

In the above embodiment, the two picture elements M1, M
Since the pair data representing the image of the boundary portion BP 2 in high resolution is created, and the image of the boundary portion BP is reproduced using the pair data, the boundary portion BP can be faithfully reproduced.
There is an advantage that rattling at the boundary can be reduced.

Further, since similar pair data is created for a pixel position where three or more image elements exist, such as the intersections Pa and Pb, there is an advantage that an image at the pixel position can be faithfully reproduced. is there.

When one of the plurality of image elements at the intersection is a background portion, there is no image data representing the background portion. In this case, if the intersection pair data in which the image data DL0 of the tint element M0 shown in FIG. 15C is zero is created, the image of the intersection position can be faithfully reproduced in the same manner as described above.

For each low-resolution pixel at the intersection where three or more image elements are present, generally, a plurality of low-resolution image data representing an image at the low-resolution pixel and a high-resolution image within the low-resolution pixel In this case, it is sufficient to create pair data including area division data for distinguishing which of the plurality of low-resolution image elements each high-resolution pixel divided by the boundary belongs to.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be implemented in various modes without departing from the gist thereof. For example, the following modifications are possible.

(1) In the above embodiment, the case where the resolution of high-resolution image data (1500 lines / inch) is an integer multiple of the resolution of low-resolution image data (375 lines / inch) has been described. In many cases, the latter is not an integral multiple of the former. FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between high-resolution pixels and low-resolution pixels when the resolution is not a multiple of an integer. In this example, the length of one side of the low-resolution pixel Ps is about 3.3 times the length of one side of the high-resolution pixel Ph.
It has tripled.

In the case shown in FIG. 17, low-resolution pixels constituting the boundary BP are determined, for example, as follows:
First, a high-resolution boundary line HBP 2
Area division data Lab in which “0” and “1” are assigned to the two image elements M1 and M2, respectively, is created. Then, the low-resolution pixels forming the boundary portion BP are referred to as “at least a part of the high-resolution pixel Ph whose value of the area division data Lab is“ 0 ”and the high-resolution pixel Ph whose value of the area division data Lab is“ 1 ”. And a low-resolution pixel Ps including at least a part thereof. In other words, the boundary portion BP is constituted by low-resolution pixels including both high-resolution pixels belonging to two different image elements, at least in part. In FIG. 17, the range of the low-resolution pixels forming the boundary portion BP is indicated by a dashed line. If the low-resolution pixels constituting the boundary BP are determined in this way, even if the resolution of the high-resolution image data is not an integral multiple of the resolution of the low-resolution image data, it is possible to completely extract the boundary line portion. it can. Then, if the pair data is created for the low-resolution pixels constituting the boundary, the boundary can be reproduced with high resolution.

When the resolution is not an integral multiple as described above, the pixel dividing process in step S7 (FIG. 4) is performed with reference to a predetermined origin on the screen.

(2) The boundary pair data PDb in the above embodiment includes the pair data PD1 and PD2 for each of the two image elements M1 and M2. The pair data PD1 relating to the image element M1 is data having image data DL1 of a low-resolution pixel and area division data for specifying a high-resolution pixel belonging to the image element M1 in the low-resolution pixel. The same applies to the pair data relating to the image element M2. With these pair data, there is an advantage that an image of the boundary can be reproduced for each of the image elements M1 and M2.

Instead of such pair data, image data DL1 (x, y) and DL2 of the first and second picture elements
Pair data may be constituted by (x, y) and the area division data Lab (i, j) for the low-resolution pixel Ps (x, y). This is the same for the intersection pair data. Since such pair data only needs to include one area division Lab, there is an advantage that the data amount of the pair data can be reduced.

Generally, the pair data has a boundary portion BP
For each of the low-resolution pixels constituting the (or intersection), low-resolution image data of a plurality of image elements present at the intersection and which of the plurality of image elements each high-resolution pixel in the low-resolution pixel belongs to And any data that includes

(3) Boundary image data generator 2 (FIG. 2)
May be configured as shown in FIG. The boundary image data generation device 2a in FIG. 18 has the same components as the device in FIG. 2, but differs in the way of image synthesis from the device in FIG. In the apparatus shown in FIG. 2, the pre-mask combining circuit 25 combines the tint element M0, the picture elements M1, M2, and the high-resolution image of the boundary. Then, in the mask combining circuit 26, a high-resolution image of the character element is combined with the image combined by the pre-mask combining circuit 25. On the other hand, in the apparatus of FIG. 18, the pre-mask synthesis circuit 25 synthesizes the high-resolution image of the character element and the high-resolution image of the boundary, and the mask synthesis circuit 26 forms the high-resolution image synthesized by the pre-mask synthesis circuit 25. Tint element M0 and picture element M
1, M2. As described above, if the image elements are combined with the highest resolution among the image elements while overlapping the image elements according to the predetermined priority, the image elements may be combined in any order. .

(4) In the above embodiment, the boundary between two picture elements is reproduced with high resolution. However, the boundary between tint elements and the boundary between tint elements and picture elements are set in the same manner as described above. May be reproduced with high resolution.

(5) In the above embodiment, the integrated image is a color image. However, the present invention can be applied to a monochrome multi-tone image. That is, in general, the present invention can be applied to a case where a boundary between two multi-tone image elements is reproduced with high resolution. (6) When the types of image elements are classified by resolution, in the above-described embodiment, two types of image elements exist in the integrated image. That is, there are two types of image elements having different resolutions. When there are three or more types of image elements, the boundary is divided at the highest resolution among them, and pair data including the area division data for the pixel with the highest resolution is created. This has the advantage that the boundary can be reproduced with the highest quality among the contours in the integrated image.

[0051]

As described above, according to the method of the present invention, image data of two first image elements corresponding to each low-resolution pixel (first resolution pixel) constituting a boundary portion as pair data. And each high-resolution pixel (second resolution pixel) in the low-resolution pixel is created so as to include which of the two low-resolution pixels belongs to, and by using the pair data, An image reproduced for each high-resolution pixel can be obtained as the image of the boundary. Therefore, there is an effect that the boundary portion between the two image elements can be faithfully reproduced with high resolution and rattling at the boundary portion can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an integrated image.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image processing system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is an image primary processing circuit 22 and a boundary data creation circuit 2
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of the third embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an image processed in the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing an image processed in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an image processed in the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an image processed in the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing a vector of a boundary portion and low-resolution pixels forming the boundary portion.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a high-resolution boundary in a low-resolution pixel at a boundary portion and area division by the high-resolution boundary.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing pair data of a boundary portion.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing overlap and boundaries of image elements at intersections.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing area division data at intersections.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing pair data at an intersection.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing an image synthesized by a pre-mask synthesis circuit 25.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing a range of low-resolution pixels forming a boundary portion when the resolution ratio is not an integer.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing a configuration of another embodiment of the image processing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 BP boundary C1 contour C2 contour Lab area division data Lbc area division data Lac area division data M0 tint element M1 picture element M2 picture element PDb pair data PDi pair data Ps low resolution pixel (first resolution pixel) Ph high resolution pixel ( (Second resolution pixel)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for creating an image of a boundary of a first image element in an integrated image including at least two first image elements of a first resolution, comprising: Preparing first image data representing each of said image elements and contour data representing respective contours of said first image element at a second resolution higher than said first resolution; and (b) A) extracting a first resolution pixel forming the boundary based on the contour data; and (c) each of the first resolution pixels forming the boundary corresponds to the second resolution. Dividing the pixel into second resolution pixels, and obtaining a boundary of the second resolution pixel within the boundary based on the outline data; and (d) a first resolution pixel constituting the boundary. Each of And each of the first image data representing the image at the first resolution pixel and each of the second resolution pixels partitioned by the boundary of the second resolution within the first resolution pixel. (E) generating an image of the boundary portion based on the paired data for each of the second resolution pixels based on the paired data. Generating a boundary image by reproducing the boundary image.