JP3247284B2 - Recording data creation method and recording data creation device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print data creating method and a print data creating apparatus used in a printing apparatus and the like, and more particularly to a memory capacity for creating print data for gradation printing including color printing. The present invention relates to a recording data creation method and a recording data creation device capable of compressing data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a stencil sheet (stencil sheet) to be used for plate-making printing is prepared by forming an image (perforated image) by perforation through which ink can pass through such a stencil sheet as a stencil sheet. 2. Description of the Related Art A printing method is known in which an ink is transferred onto paper to perform recording.

In recent years, image information of a document is read by image reading means such as a color image scanner and the like to obtain image data, and this image data is used as recording data for recording. A stencil sheet used for printing (recording) paper, such as a postcard used to create a New Year's card, for example, by gradationally recording a perforated image as a recording image on stencil paper by selectively causing the heating elements of the thermal head to generate heat. There has been proposed a recording apparatus capable of forming the image.

When printing on paper using the stencil sheet formed in this way, one stencil sheet is required for one color printing, and when performing color printing on paper, At least three primary colors of Y (yellow: yellow), C (cyan: blue-green), and M (magenta: magenta)
Three stencil sheets corresponding to each color are formed, and the three stencil sheets and the three color inks of Y, C, and M are used to form the Y color ink and the C color ink. Overprinting is performed using stencil paper with C color ink and M stencil paper with M color ink.

Therefore, conventionally, print data read by a color image scanner as image reading means is separated into at least three colors of Y, C, and M to create print data for each color. The recording data for each color is gradation recording data using a dither pattern so that the color of the image information of the document can be reproduced when performing overprinting for color printing.

[0006] Such a dither pattern has a shape and
The arrangement of the gradation values is composed of a repetition of the same plurality of gradation values matrix, the dither pattern, a plurality of floors
34 × 34 as an example constituted by a tone value matrix
The minimum repetition pattern of dots is configured to be repeated. For printing, it is necessary to use a minimum repetition pattern of 34 × 34 dots as table information. For this reason, in a conventional recording data creation apparatus, the minimum repetition pattern is stored in the ROM as it is. Was.

[0007]

However, as described above, if the minimum repetition pattern is stored in the ROM as it is, a ROM having a storage area of 34.times.34 and a total of 1156 bytes is required. R
It must be OM, and the recording data creation device has become expensive.

[0008] The present invention aims to overcome the problems of the prior art described above, to provide a recording data generation method and a recording data generation apparatus can cope with Dizapata emissions be a memory storage capacity of the small-capacity And

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a recording data creating method for achieving the above object.
The point is that a basic pattern of only the first row of gradation values is prepared, and a pattern of each other row is formed by using an extended pattern obtained by expanding the basic pattern twice. By adopting such a configuration, patterns of all rows can be created using an extended pattern obtained by expanding the basic pattern twice.

A feature of the recording data generating apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is that a basic pattern of only the first row of gradation values is stored and an extended pattern obtained by expanding the basic pattern by a factor of two is used. And a memory for forming a pattern of each other row, and a control unit for controlling the memory. By employing such a configuration, even with a small capacity memory, it is possible to form a pattern of all rows.

Further, a feature of the recording data creating apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention is that the memory is constituted by a ROM and a RAM. By adopting such a configuration, the basic pattern 2 stored in the ROM can be used.
The pattern of each row can be formed by expanding the double extension pattern in the RAM.

[0012]

FIG. 2 shows a minimum repetition pattern of a dither pattern used in the recording data forming apparatus of the present invention, and shows one embodiment of the minimum repetition pattern. The minimum repetition pattern 1 is
It is composed of 34 rows × 34 columns. The minimum repetition pattern 1 is a first gradation value matrix 2 of 5 × 5 dots.
a and a total of 34 dots of the tone value matrix 2 composed of the first tone value matrix 2a and the adjacent 3 × 3 dot second tone value matrix 2b are two-dimensionally provided with a screen angle. It is composed of a plurality of links.

[0013] each gradation value matrix 2 is configured capable of displaying a gradient of 32 gradations by the three numbers 31 each individual number (the gradation values) to 0-30 . That is, all the numerical values are not used for recording at all.
From 32 to the maximum gradient for recording all numerical values
The gradation is achieved by sequentially increasing the numerical values to be used for recording, such as only 0, only 0 and 1, and only 0, 1 and 2.

Incidentally, in the minimum repetition pattern 1, the pattern 3 of the first row consisting of 34 dots each.
On the other hand, the pattern 3b of the second row starts from the 14th digit gradation value of the pattern 3a of the first row,
The gradation value next to the 34th digit of the pattern 3a in the first row is regarded as the first digit of the pattern 3a in the first row, and a gradation value of 34 dots is configured. Similarly, the pattern 3n of the n-th row starts from the gradation value of the 14th digit of the pattern of the (n-1) -th row.

Therefore, if the pattern 3a in the first row is used as a basic pattern, and the basic pattern 3a is expanded twice to obtain an expanded pattern of a total of 68 digits, the pattern 3b in the second row becomes This corresponds to a gradation value of 34 digits from the 14th digit.

Next, the pattern 3c in the third row is
The process starts from the 14th digit of the pattern 3b in the row, that is, the 27th digit in the ( 13 + 14) th digit of the basic pattern 3a in the first row, and ends at the 60th digit in the extended pattern. In this case, the pattern 3d in the fourth row starts from the 40th digit of the basic pattern 3a. However, since the extended pattern of the basic pattern 3a is expanded only twice and has only 68 digits, The gradation value from the 69th digit does not become normal, and inconvenience occurs. However,
Since the tone value of the 36th digit in the extended pattern is equal to the tone value of the second digit of the basic pattern 3a, the start is the 35th digit value.
By subtracting 34 digits from the pattern starting from the digit, the pattern starts from any digit in the basic pattern 3a.

From this, it is possible to form a pattern of each row by using this extended pattern as long as an extended pattern which is twice as large as the basic pattern 3a is prepared. The entire minimum repetition pattern 1 can be formed only by the above.

As described above, since the minimum repetition pattern 1 of the dither pattern can be formed by an extended pattern obtained by expanding the basic pattern 3a by a factor of two, as shown in FIG. 10)
ROM 11 that is a memory for storing the basic pattern 3a of the first row of the minimum repetitive pattern 1, and RAM 12 that is a memory for forming a pattern of each other row using an extended pattern obtained by expanding the basic pattern 3a twice. Is provided, the entire minimum repeating pattern 1 can be developed only by the basic pattern 3a.

Therefore, the basic pattern 3a of the first row stored in the ROM 11 and the basic pattern 3a
And a RAM 12 that forms a pattern of each other row using an extended pattern obtained by expanding the CPU by a factor of two,
Since the pattern 3 of each row can be sequentially formed from the print data input from the print data generating means (not shown) at 10, the print data can be generated using the ROM 11 having a small capacity.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to form the gradation recording data of the entire minimum repetition pattern 1 even if the ROM 11 having a small capacity is used.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but can be modified as needed.

[0022]

As described above, according to the recording data generating method and the recording data generating apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to stably generate gradation recording data while reducing the storage capacity of the memory. Therefore, the recording data creation device can be formed at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a main part of an embodiment of a recording data creation apparatus according to the present invention for executing a recording data creating method according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing a minimum repetition pattern of a dither pattern used in the recording data creating apparatus of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Minimum repetition pattern 2 gradation value matrix 2a 1st gradation value matrix 2b 2nd gradation value matrix 3 pattern 3a basic pattern 10 CPU 11 ROM 12 RAM

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-60-207972 (JP, A) JP-A-1-171365 (JP, A) JP-A-62-261278 (JP, A) (58) Field (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 2/52 H04N 1/405

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A form-like and gradation value arranged a plurality of identical
Dither pattern consisting of repetition of gradation value matrix
A basic pattern of only the first row having a predetermined digit number of gradation values is prepared, and a pattern of each row from the second row is formed using an extended pattern obtained by expanding the basic pattern by a factor of two. Characterized recording data creation method. Wherein the shape and the gradation value arranged a plurality of identical
An image processing apparatus for creating print data for gradation recording using a dither pattern composed of repetition of gradation values matrix, only the first line of the predetermined number of digits the tone values have you said dither pattern The basic pattern is memorized and this basic pattern is extended twice to
A recording data creation device, comprising: a memory for forming a pattern of each row from the second row onward, and a control unit for controlling the memory. 3. A ROM for storing a basic pattern of only the first row of the gradation value and a pattern of each other row formed by using an extended pattern obtained by expanding the basic pattern twice. 3. The recording data creation device according to claim 2, wherein the recording data creation device is configured by a RAM.