JP2734471B2 - Image editing device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a workstation,
The present invention relates to an image editing device used in a computer, a printing device, and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in an image editing apparatus for printing, an image of a document is read by an image input device such as a TV (television) camera or an image scanner, and is converted into digital image data. It is stored in the storage unit. Then, image editing such as enlargement, reduction, extraction, deletion, movement, rotation, and color conversion is performed on the image stored in the image storage unit, and the edited result is displayed on a display device such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) display. After the confirmation, the edited image is printed by the printing device.

At the time of image editing, an editing instruction for performing image processing such as enlargement, reduction, extraction, deletion, movement, rotation, color conversion and the like is used, and an editing instruction sequence is constructed by combining a plurality of editing instructions. I do. Then, when outputting the edited image, each editing instruction included in the editing instruction sequence is sequentially executed to obtain a target image.

[0004]

As described above, when editing an image, it is necessary to construct an editing instruction sequence by combining a plurality of editing instructions. Is optional for the operator. Workers often combine editing commands so as to obtain a target image by trial and error while viewing the original image.

In this case, a target image can be obtained by executing the finally completed editing instruction sequence, but this editing instruction sequence does not always have an optimal structure for editing processing. . For example, an editing instruction of "double enlargement" is applied to a certain image, then some other types of edit instructions are applied, and thereafter, "double enlargement" is first performed. There is a case where an editing command of “double enlargement” is applied to an image to which the editing command is applied.

When the image editing apparatus executes an editing instruction sequence, the editing instructions are taken out from the head and executed one by one. Therefore, the longer the number of editing commands, the longer the time required for image processing. The two editing commands “enlarged twice” included in the above-described editing instruction sequence can be replaced by one editing command “enlarged four times”. It can be processed. However, since the creation of the editing instruction sequence depends on the skill of the operator, an optimum editing instruction sequence cannot always be created, and there is a problem that it takes a long time for image processing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been devised to solve the above-mentioned problem. It is an object of the present invention to convert an original editing instruction sequence into an editing instruction sequence having high processing efficiency and perform image processing in a short time. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image editing apparatus capable of performing the following.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, an instruction storage means for storing an edit instruction sequence composed of a plurality of edit instructions for image data, and an instruction storage means for storing an instruction instruction sequence stored in the instruction storage means. more of of which editing instruction sequence
An instruction sequence converting means for converting the editing instruction into an editing instruction sequence including another editing instruction having an equivalent processing result, and an editing instruction sequence converted from image data by the instruction sequence converting device. An instruction executing means for executing, an output image storing means for storing the edited image data from the instruction executing means, and an image outputting means for outputting the image data stored in the output image storing means. It is characterized by.

[0009]

The command storage means stores an editing command sequence composed of a plurality of editing commands for image data. When this editing command sequence is executed, a plurality of editing commands in the editing command sequence are executed. Another edition that gives equivalent processing results
It is converted into an edit instruction sequence including a set instruction. For example, if the instruction sequence includes two instructions "enlarged twice", the instruction is converted into another instruction different from the original instruction "enlarged four times". Then, an editing process is executed based on the converted editing instruction sequence. The edited image data is stored in the output image storage unit and then output by the image output unit.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The features of the present invention will be specifically described below based on embodiments with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

The image data from the image input means 1 such as the first or second image input apparatus 1a, 1b is supplied to the editing means 2 and subjected to a predetermined image processing, and thereafter, the first or second printing apparatus 3a. , 3b, and a display device 3c. For example, the first image input device 1a is 400
A flatbed type image scanner having a resolution of about dpi, a second image input device 1b is a TV camera having a resolution of about 350 lines, and a first printing device 3a is 400d.
The second printer 3b is a thermal printer having a resolution of about 200 dpi, and the display 3c is a CRT display having a resolution of about 100 dpi.

The editing means 2 is provided with a plurality of input image storage sections 4a to 4d for storing the image data from the image input means 1 while maintaining the resolution of the image input means 1, and includes a plurality of input image storage sections. Corresponding to the storage units 4a to 4d, instruction storage units 6a to 6d for holding processing instructions for each image from the editing instruction unit 5 are provided. Processing instructions include, for example, size changes such as enlargement / reduction, color conversion, deformation, resolution conversion, edge enhancement, and the like.

The outputs of the input image storage units 4a to 4d and the outputs of the instruction storage units 6a to 6d are supplied to an instruction execution unit 7, which generates an output image in accordance with the input image and the instruction.
When generating the output image, the output medium characteristics, that is, the first or second printing device 3a, 3b and the display device 3c are used.
The information such as the output resolution and the color correction coefficient that are different for each of the above is supplied from the output medium characteristic storage unit 8 to the command execution unit 7, and the processing according to each output medium is performed. The output medium characteristics are stored in advance in the output medium characteristic storage unit 8, and the image output means 3 (3a, 3b, 3c) in FIG.
The dashed line between the data and the output medium characteristic storage unit 8 indicates not the actual signal flow but the correspondence.

The output images after the execution of the command are stored in a plurality of output image storage units 9a to 9d. These output image storage units 9a to 9d store not only output images used for display but also arrangement information indicating the position of the image on the output destination medium, the effective area, and the like.

The output image created by the instruction execution unit 7 and stored in the output image storage units 9a to 9d is output by the superposition processing execution unit 10 to the position information stored in the output image storage units 9a to 9d. Is performed based on. At the time of this synthesis processing, the images are superimposed in a priority order in the upper and lower directions, or are superimposed in a translucent state. The image after the superposition processing is supplied to the image output means 3 such as the printing devices 3a and 3b and the display device 3c, and the image is printed or displayed.

Next, regarding the document editing processing operation in the above-described image editing apparatus, images of the first and second sheets are read from the first image input device 1a, and the third image is read from the second image input device 1b. The image of the original is read, and the images of the three originals are superimposed and displayed on the display device 3c.
A case in which the combined image is printed by the first printing device 3a after the adjustment for moving the combined position of the image of the second document is performed will be described as an example.

Now, it is assumed that the first image input device 1a is designated as the image input means, and the input image storage section 4a and the output image storage section 9a are designated as the storage means. At the time of editing work, the display device 3c is designated as an output medium.

When the image of the first document is read by the first image input device 1a, the image P of the first document is written into the input image storage section 4a as shown in FIG. That is, the content of the input image storage unit 4a is updated. The command storage unit 6 corresponding to the input image storage unit 4a
Default data is written in a. The default data is resolution data suitable for the resolution of the first image input device 1a or data for matching the color with the document.

The command execution unit 7 generates an output image p by applying the command stored in the command storage unit 6a to the image P stored in the input image storage unit 4a.
a (see FIG. 2D). In this case, since the command is default data, an output image whose apparent size, color, and the like match the original is generated.

The superposition processing execution section 10 outputs the output image p stored in the output image storage section 9a to the display device 3c. In this case, the output medium is a CR having a relatively low resolution.
Since the display device 3c is a display device such as a T display, information for instructing low-resolution processing is given from the output medium characteristic storage unit 8 to the instruction execution unit 7. In the case of low-resolution processing, the amount of image data to be processed is small, so that an output image can be generated in a short time.

In the above processing, an output image corresponding to the image P of the original read by the first image input device 1a is displayed on the display device 3c.

Next, from the editing instruction unit 5 to the input image storage unit 4
When an editing instruction is given to the image stored in a,
The contents of the instruction storage unit 6a are updated. Thereafter, the instruction execution unit 7 updates the content of the output image storage unit 9a according to the instruction stored in the updated instruction storage unit 6a, and the superposition processing execution unit 10 outputs the updated output to the display device 3c. The display image p is displayed.

Next, when the image of the second document is read from the first image input device 1a, the image Q of the second document is read.
Are stored in the input image storage unit 4b (see FIG. 2B), and default data is written in the corresponding instruction storage unit 6b. The instruction execution unit 7 updates the contents of the output image storage unit 9b and outputs the output image q as in the case of the first document.
(See FIG. 7E), the superposition processing execution unit 10
The image of the first and second originals is combined to display
c (see (g)). The information of the reference position and the effective area for the combination is temporarily stored in the instruction storage unit 6b, for example, in units of mm in accordance with the editing instruction from the editing instruction unit 5. Next, these pieces of information are sent to the output image storage unit 9b by the instruction execution unit 7, and are converted into a dot-unit expression. In this manner, the reference positions X1, Y1, the effective areas H1, V1 indicating the combined position of the image Q of the second document
Is converted into the number of dots on the output destination medium, and is superimposed on a predetermined position.

Next, when the image of the third document is read from the second image input device 1b, the image R of the third document is stored in the input image storage unit 4c (see FIG. 2C). The default data is written to the corresponding instruction storage unit 6c. The instruction execution unit 7 updates the contents of the output image storage unit 9c to an output image r (see (f)), and the superposition processing execution unit 10 sends the first, second, and third originals. Are superimposed and displayed on the display device 3c (FIG. 2).
(H)). At this time, the output image r of the third document is
Are determined based on the arrangement information corresponding to the reference positions X2, Y2, effective areas H2, V2 of the image on the output destination medium stored in the output image storage unit 9c.

The superimposition processing execution unit 10 executes a synthesis process for a plurality of valid output images for the second and subsequent sheets. For example, the hatched portions in FIGS. 2E and 2F indicate the valid portions of the output images q and r specified by the editing instruction unit 5, and are based on the image of the first document. Then, partial images cut out from the second and subsequent originals are sequentially superimposed. When the second and third sheets are overlapped, the third sheet is displayed with the upper side. The third sheet may be displayed translucently.

Next, a description will be given of a case where the combining position of the output image q of the second document is moved. When a movement instruction is given from the editing instruction unit 5, the arrangement information indicating the reference position and the effective area stored in the instruction storage unit 6c is changed, and based on the information, the output of the second document in the output image storage unit 9c is performed. The arrangement information of the dot number expression for the image for use q is also updated. Then, based on the arrangement information corresponding to the updated reference positions X3, Y3, effective areas H3, V3, the superposition processing execution unit 10 newly performs superposition processing. Since the arrangement information has a smaller amount of data than the image data, the update process is executed in a short time, and the updated image (see FIG. 2 (i)) is immediately displayed on the display device 3c. Therefore, the editing operation can be efficiently performed while confirming the result of the editing on the screen of the display device 3c in real time.

As described above, by separating the execution of the processing instruction for the image and the processing instruction for the relation between the images, when changing the synthesis position of the image, only the arrangement information having a small data amount is changed. Since it is good, the processing can be performed at high speed.

Further, for example, when the image Q of the second document is re-edited, the command only needs to be executed for the image data stored in the input image storage section 4b.
Processing can be performed in a shorter time than in a case where an instruction is executed for all image data.

After the editing operation, the printing device 3a or 3b
Printing, but since each printer has different output characteristics,
Output medium characteristic information of the printing device 3a or 3b is given from the output medium characteristic storage unit 8 to the command execution unit 7. The command execution unit 7 matches the image stored in the input image storage units 4a to 4d with the command storage units 6a to 6d in accordance with the output medium characteristics.
An output image corresponding to the printing device 3a or 3b is generated from the command stored in d, and the contents of the output image storage units 9a to 9d are updated. Then, the superposition processing execution unit 10
Performs a process of superimposing output images to generate a final output image, and outputs it to the printing device 3a or 3b.

When an image is output to the printing device 3a or 3b, a higher resolution is required than when the image is output to the display device 3c, but the input image storage units 4a to 4d require
Since the image data input from the image input devices 1a and 1b are stored while maintaining the highest resolution, an output image for printing can be generated without deteriorating the resolution.

In this case, the time required for processing the image data is longer than when outputting to the display device 3c.
In the printing device 3a or 3b, the printing speed itself is slower than that of the display device 3c, so that no problem occurs even if the processing speed is reduced.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, two types of image input devices, two types of printing devices, and one type of display device are used, but the number is not limited to these. In addition, four input image storage units and four output image storage units are provided, but the number is not limited to these, and the number of input image storage units and output image storage units may be different. . Although the input image storage unit and the command storage unit are provided in a one-to-one relationship, when a plurality of the same input images are used, no change is made to the input images. It is also possible to share parts.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment in which the image editing apparatus of the present invention is applied to remote printing means such as a print server. In addition,
Members and the like corresponding to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

In the embodiment shown in FIG.
c, the input image storage units 4a and 4b, the instruction storage unit 6
a, 6b, an instruction execution unit 7a, an output medium characteristic storage unit 8a,
Output image storage units 9a and 9b and superposition processing execution unit 1
An editing means 2a comprising 0a is provided. A first printing device 3a provided apart from the editing means 2a
As in the editing unit 2a, the remote printing unit 11 includes an instruction execution unit 7b, an output medium characteristic storage unit 8b, output image storage units 9e and 9f, and a superposition processing execution unit 10b.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, reading of a document image, execution of an instruction, and superposition processing are performed, and the editing result is displayed on the display device 3c. At this time, information indicating the output medium characteristic corresponding to the display device 3c is supplied to the superposition processing execution unit 10a, and high-speed and low-resolution processing is performed in accordance with the characteristic of the display device 3c. When the editing operation is completed, the image data of the input image storage units 4a and 4b and the instruction of the instruction storage units 6a and 6b are supplied to the instruction execution unit 7b in the remote printing unit 11 for printing, and Processing corresponding to the instruction is performed for the instruction. At this time, the instruction execution unit 7b includes the first
Information representing output medium characteristics corresponding to the printing device 3a is supplied, and high-resolution low-speed processing is performed in accordance with the characteristics of the first printing device 3a.

As described above, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, processing is performed independently for each device in accordance with the characteristics of each output medium, that is, the resolution and color correction coefficient of the display device 3c and the first printing device 3a. Is performed, the result of editing by the editing unit 2a is simply sent to the remote printing unit 11, and the first printing device 3a outputs an image optimal for the characteristics of the first printing device 3a.

FIG. 4 shows still another embodiment of the image editing apparatus of the present invention in which the display speed at the time of editing is improved. FIG.
The members and the like corresponding to the embodiment shown in FIG.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, thinned image storage sections 12a and 12b are newly provided. The thinned-out image storage units 12a and 12b thin out an output image generated by applying an instruction to an input image, and hold the thinned-out image together with an executed instruction sequence.

The operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, the input image storage unit 4
a and 4b are collectively indicated by the input image storage unit 4, the instruction storage units 6a and 6b are collectively indicated by the instruction storage unit 6, and the output image storage units 9a and 9b are collectively indicated by the output image storage unit 9.

At first, the output image switching unit 13 is switched to the a side, and the input image data from the input image storage unit 1 is supplied to the instruction execution unit 7 and provided in the instruction execution unit 7. After a predetermined image processing is performed in the processing execution unit 14, the image data is supplied to the output image storage unit 9 via the output image switching unit 13. Further, the image data after the image processing is also supplied to the thinned image generation unit 15, where the thinning processing is performed. That is, the pixels constituting the image are selected every predetermined number of pixels or every predetermined number of lines, and the remaining pixels are thinned out. The image data that has been thinned out and has a reduced data amount is stored in the thinned image storage unit 12.

For example, when displaying on the display device 3c, a high-speed output is required, so that it is desirable that the amount of image data is small. Therefore, in this case, the output image switching unit 13 is switched to the b side, and the thinned image data stored in the thinned image storage unit 12 is transmitted to the display device 3c via the output image switching unit 13 and the output image storage unit 9. By supplying, high-speed display becomes possible.

Next, when a new command is given, the command interpreter 16 determines the command based on the command stored in the command storage 6 and the output medium characteristic information stored in the output medium characteristic storage 8. Interpretation of the instruction is performed. Note that an instruction means data that can be read by a human, and the like.
These instructions are combined into an instruction sequence. The interpretation of a command means a task of converting a command given by a human into a description related to processing of an actual image. As a feature of this embodiment, at the time of this work, a plurality of instructions included in the instruction sequence are converted into instructions in a predetermined order suitable for actual image processing. . For example, if the instruction sequence includes two instructions “enlarged twice”, this is the same as one instruction “enlarged four times”, and thus is converted as such.
Further, as another example, when the order of instructions is different in the instruction sequence but the final result is the same, as one example, the instruction is arranged in the order of the most efficient processing. It can be fixed.

The result of the interpretation of this command is compared with the command stored in the thinned image storage unit 12, and if both are the same, the output image switching unit 13 is kept switched to the b side as shown in the figure. deep. Thereby, the thinned image storage unit 1
The output image held in 2 is the output of the instruction execution unit 7. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform the thinning process again in the thinned image storage / generation unit 15, and high-speed processing is possible. When the instruction interpretation result comparison unit 17 determines that the output image stored in the thinned image storage unit 12 is not appropriate, the instruction interpretation result comparison unit 17 moves the output image switching unit 13 to the a side. Switching and thinning image storage unit 1
2, an image obtained by applying the command interpretation result to the input image stored in the input image storage unit 4 is selected and output to the output image storage unit 9. . Whether or not the output image stored in the thinned image storage unit 12 is appropriate is determined based on whether or not the thinned images generated by the given instruction sequence can be regarded as the same. In this case, it is necessary to update the contents of the thinned-out image storage unit 12, so that the result of the instruction interpretation from the instruction interpretation unit 16 is applied to the input image on which the instruction from the processing execution unit 14 has been executed, and A new thinned image is generated in the image generating unit 15 and stored in the thinned image storage unit 12. Thus, the contents of the thinned image storage unit 12 are updated. Note that the generation of a thinned image involves a command interpretation result, but the command interpretation result generated during the image generation process can be used as it is, so that the processing is not complicated.

As described above, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, by providing the thinned-out image storage units 12a and 12b, once an output image is generated, the image in the corresponding instruction storage unit 6a or 6b is stored. If there is no change in the processing command for, it is not necessary to regenerate the output image, so that the output can be obtained in a shorter time. In particular, when the same image is used in a plurality of documents such as a catalog or a flyer, a thinned image is generated for an image that is frequently used, and the thinned image is stored in the thinned image storage units 12a and 12b and made into a database. If this is the case, the image editing time can be greatly reduced. Further, in the case of an editing apparatus that handles many pages, it is often impossible to allocate all output image storage units on the main storage due to the limitation of storage capacity. In such a case, the thinned image storage unit 12 is used. Is used, the storage capacity of the main memory can be effectively utilized.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, when an editing instruction sequence is executed, a plurality of editing instructions in the editing instruction sequence are converted into another editing instruction sequence having an equivalent processing result. Then, an editing process is executed based on the converted editing instruction sequence. As a result, the number of executions of the edit command is reduced, and the image processing is speeded up.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIGS. 2A to 2C are explanatory diagrams showing storage states of an input image storage unit, FIGS. 2D to 2F are explanatory diagrams showing storage states of an output image storage unit, and FIGS. () Is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an output image after combination.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment in which the image editing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a remote printing unit.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of still another embodiment of the image editing apparatus of the present invention in which the display speed at the time of editing is improved.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining the operation of the image editing device shown in FIG. 4;

[Explanation of symbols]

1: Image input means, 1a, 1b: Image input device, 2, 2
a: editing means, 3: image output means, 3a, 3b: printing device, 3c: display device, 4, 4a to 4d: input image storage unit, 5: edit instruction unit, 6a to 6d: instruction storage unit, 7, 7
a, 7b: instruction execution unit, 8, 8a, 8b: output medium characteristic storage unit, 9, 9a to 9f: output image storage unit, 10, 10
a, 10b: superimposition processing execution unit, 11: remote printing unit, 12, 12a, 12b: thinned image storage unit, 13:
Output image switching unit, 14: processing execution unit, 15: thinned image generation unit, 16: instruction interpretation unit, 17: instruction interpretation result comparison unit

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A and instruction storage means for storing the edit command sequence is composed of a plurality of edit instructions to the image data, double in the edit command string stored in the instruction storage means
Number of edit instructions contain another
An instruction sequence converting means for converting the unedited instruction sequence, the instruction execution means for executing the editing instruction sequence converted by the instruction sequence converting means for the image data, the image data edited from said instruction execution means An image editing apparatus comprising: output image storage means for storing; and image output means for outputting image data stored in the output image storage means. 2. An instruction storage unit for storing an editing instruction sequence composed of one or a plurality of editing instructions for image data, and an instruction sequence converting unit for converting the editing instruction sequence stored in the instruction storage unit. An instruction execution unit that executes an editing instruction sequence converted by the instruction sequence conversion unit on image data; an output image storage unit that stores edited image data from the instruction execution unit; A plurality of image output units that output image data stored in a storage unit; and an output characteristic storage unit that stores output characteristics of each of the image output units. An image editing apparatus for converting an editing instruction sequence stored in the output characteristic storage unit based on an output characteristic stored in the output characteristic storage unit. 3. An instruction storage means for storing an editing instruction sequence composed of one or a plurality of editing instructions for image data, and executing an editing instruction sequence stored in the instruction storage means for the image data. A first output image storage unit that stores edited image data from the instruction execution unit; and a second output image storage unit that stores edited image data from the instruction execution unit. An execution result storage unit that stores an editing instruction sequence executed by the instruction execution unit in correspondence with the edited image data stored in the second output image storage unit; and the first output image. Image output means for outputting the image data stored in the storage means, an edit instruction string already stored in the execution result storage means, and an edit instruction string already stored in the instruction storage means If the images after the execution of the editing instruction sequence can be regarded as the same as the result of the comparison between the editing instruction sequence comparing means and the editing instruction sequence comparing means, the two are already stored in the second output image storage means. the image data are output to the first output image storage means is the same
If it cannot be considered, store the instruction for the image data.
Output image switching means for executing and outputting an editing instruction sequence stored in the means .