JP3404610B2 - Method and apparatus for framing character figures - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention, in a computer such as a personal computer or a workstation, edits character data, graphic data and image data to generate page data, and a portion where characters and graphics overlap an image. The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for framing a character or figure for edging a character or figure to separate a character or figure from an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When page data including character graphic data and image data is generated by a computer, character data is generated by FEP (front end processor) input, word processor input, etc., and graphic data is generated by a design drawing system or the like. , Image data is generated by reading an image original with an image scanner, creating it in an image design system, etc., and after converting the character graphic data and image data into a predetermined data format,
The layout data is edited and page data is generated.

[0003]

If there is an overlapping portion when laying out the character / graphics data and the image data, it is difficult to distinguish the character / graphics from the image by simply synthesizing the character / graphics data on the image data. Therefore, a border is added to the character graphic for the overlapping portion. For example, in the case where a black character is bordered in white on an image having a background density to clearly distinguish the character from the image, a work of adding white border to a rasterized character has been conventionally performed. That is, after the character data and the image data are combined and rasterized, the pixel data around the outline of the character data is replaced with white. However, in order to perform this work, it is necessary to convert the data type such as rasterizing in advance, which causes a problem that the work time is long. Further, since the image with the white edging is rasterized, it is impossible to change the characters and the image after the white edging is applied. Therefore, the object of the present invention is to frame non-rasterized data by
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for framing a character / figure in which the processing time is short and the image and the character after the processing can be easily changed.

[0004]

The above object can be achieved by the present invention described below. That is, according to the present invention, a character / graphics data extracting process for extracting character / graphics data included in a range of image data, and a thick contour line data generating process for generating thick contour line data in which the contour line of the character / figure data is thickened. And a character / graphics edge data generation process for extracting a portion of the thick contour data included in the image data to generate character / graphics edge data, and the order of the image data, the character / graphics edge data, and the character / graphics data. A method of framing a character graphic having a combining process of overwriting data.

Further, the present invention is the method for framing a character figure, wherein the contour line is an outline of an outline font character, and the thick contour line data is thick outline data.

Further, the present invention is a character graphic framing device comprising character graphic data extracting means, thick contour line data generating means, character graphic edge data extracting means, and synthesizing means. The extracting means extracts the character / graphics data included in the range of the image data, and the thick contour line data generating means generates the thick contour line data in which the contour line of the character / graphic data is thickened to generate the character / graphic edge data. The means extracts a portion of the thick contour line data included in the image data to generate character graphic edge data, and the synthesizing means overwrites the data in the order of the image data, the character graphic edge data, and the character graphic data. Is a framing device for character graphics.

[0007]

According to the method for framing a character / graphics of the present invention, the character / graphics data included in the range of image data is extracted by the character / graphics data extraction process, and the outline of the character / graphics data is extracted by the thick outline data generation process. Thickened thick contour line data is generated, a portion included in the image data of the thick contour line data is extracted by the character / graphics edge data generation process to generate character / graphics edge data, and the image data, the The data is overwritten in the order of the character graphic edge data and the character graphic data.

Further, according to the framing method of a character figure of the present invention, the contour line is an outline of an outline font character, and the thick contour line data is thick outline data.

Further, according to the character / graphics framing device of the present invention, the character / graphics data extracting means, the thick outline data generating means, the character / graphics edge data extracting means, and the synthesizing means are provided. The character extraction data included in the range of the image data is extracted by the data extraction means, the thick outline data in which the outline of the character / graphic data is thickened is generated by the thick outline data generation means, and the character / graphic edge data is generated. A portion included in the image data of the thick contour line data is extracted by the generation means to generate character / graphic edge data, and the synthesizing means converts the data in the order of the image data, the character / graphic edge data, and the character / graphic data. Overwriting is performed.

[0010]

The present invention will be described below with reference to preferred embodiments. FIG. 1 is a view showing the arrangement of an apparatus for carrying out the method for framing a character graphic according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, a portion surrounded by a solid line frame 1 is a character / figure edging device for carrying out the character / figure edging method of the present invention, 2 is a LAN (Local Area Network) such as Ethernet, and 3 is various terminal devices. Data store system that manages and stores character and graphic data, image data, layout data, etc.
Is an input device such as a keyboard and mouse, and 5 is an output device such as a display and a printer.

In FIG. 1, the character / figure framing device 1 is further composed of details, 6 is a storage means, and 7 is a calculation means, which is a main body of a computer such as a personal computer or an engineering workstation. In the storage means 6, 8 and 9 are character and graphic data and image data which are read from the data store system 3 or stored originally, and 10 is page data obtained by data processing in the character and graphic framing device 1. is there.

Further, in the arithmetic means 7, 11 is a character / graphics data extraction processing routine for extracting the character / graphics data included in the range of the image data, and 12 is thick outline data in which the outline of the character / graphics data is thickened. A thick contour line data generation processing routine, 13 is a character / figure edge data generation routine for extracting a portion of the thick contour data included in the image data to generate character / figure edge data, and 14 is image data, character / figure edge data, and a character / figure It is a composition processing routine for overwriting data in the order of data.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing in the character graphic framing device of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing data obtained in the process of processing in the character graphic edging device of the present invention. The present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 and FIG. In FIG. 2, first, target image data is selected. What is the target image data?
This refers to image data for framing overlapping character graphics, and if there are a plurality of such image data to be processed, one of them is selected (S1). Next, the character / graphic data extraction processing routine 11 extracts a set of character / graphic data that overlaps the target image data. Since one set of character / graphic data that overlaps the target image data is not limited to one, if there are a plurality of sets, one of them is extracted. Single character graphic data or character string plural graphic data is extracted depending on whether the unit of a set of data handled as a processing target is a single character or graphic, or a character string or plural graphic. Figure 3 (A)
Shows a diagram of overlapping image data and character data. (S2).

Next, a thick contour data generation processing routine 12
The thick contour data is generated by thickening the contour line of the character graphic extracted by. Characters are in outline font (outl
inefont) and the character data is outline data, that data is used as it is as outline data, the outline is thickened and thickened, and thick outline data (thick outline data) is generated. It If the character data is a dot font, the pixels adjacent to the character data are expanded into the character data and expanded, and the original character data or the original character is expanded from the expanded character data. The thick contour line data is generated by subtracting the data obtained by performing the data thinning process (contraction process), and the like (S3). On the other hand, range data of the image is generated from the target image data (S4).

Next, a character / graphics edge data generation processing routine 1
3, the portion of the thick outline data included in the target image data is extracted based on the range data of the image, and the character graphic edge data is generated. FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the relationship between the character data, the character edge data, and the image data, and their positional relationship. There is character edge data having the same range as the image data on the image data, and character data on the character edge data (S5). Next, the composition processing routine 14 overwrites the data in the order of the image data, the character graphic edge data, and the character graphic data. That is, as shown in FIG. 3B, the character edge data is overwritten on the image data, and as a result, the edge portion of the character is replaced with the image edge data, and the character data is overwritten. Is replaced with character data from character edge data. As a result, character framing processing is performed and the data shown in FIG. 3C is obtained (S
6).

The color of the character / graphics data and the character / graphics edge data is, for example, if the character / graphics data is input,
The color is designated in the synthesizing process or the like, and if it is the character graphic edge data, the color is designated in the character graphic rim data generating process, the synthesizing process, or the like. If there is a plurality of such image data or character / graphic data to be processed, the process returns to S1 to continue the process, and if not, the process ends (S7). When the layout process including the above process is completed, page data 10 is generated, and the data is transmitted to the data store system 3 via the LAN.
The data can be transferred and stored through the storage device 2 or output to an output device (not shown) to obtain a hard copy.

FIG. 4 shows an example in which character data of "Mt.Fuji" which is superimposed on image data of "Mt. Fuji" is subjected to character framing processing. As shown in FIG. 4, the character data in the image data is framed, and the character data outside the image data is not framed. Since the character edge data exists only in the image data as described above, when the color attribute is added to the character edge data, the color of the image data is the edged color, and the outside of the image data is specified separately. It becomes a color. In this way, it is possible to add an appropriate color attribute to the character edge data, and by doing so, the overlapping portion of the character data and the image data can be clearly expressed without giving a sense of discomfort. You can direct.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments and can be implemented in various modes in the technical idea of the present invention. Needless to say, it is included in the invention. For example, character graphic data directly refers to character data or graphic data, but it is obvious that the present invention can be applied to all data having a contour or capable of extracting a contour, and therefore character graphic data is Contains all data that has or can be contoured. Image data directly refers to rasterized data that is represented by a set of pixel values, but is not limited to such data, and may be line drawing data, graphic data, character data, or illustration data. The good news is clear. That is, the image data may be any background data, and the image data in the present invention is broadly defined.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, by framing non-rasterized data, the processing time is short, and the image and characters after processing can be easily changed. And a device is provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for carrying out a method for framing a character graphic of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in the character / graphics framing device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing data obtained in the process of processing in the character graphic framing device of the present invention.

[Fig. 4] "Mt.F" superimposed on image data of "Mt. Fuji"
7 shows an example in which the character data of “uji” is subjected to the character framing process.

[Explanation of symbols]

One-character framing device 2 LAN 3 data store system 4 input device 5 Output device 6 storage means 7 arithmetic unit 8-character data 9 image data 10 page data 11 Character data extraction routine 12 Thick contour data generation processing routine 13 Character border data generation processing routine 14 Synthesis processing routine

Continuation of front page (56) Reference JP-A-1-302417 (JP, A) JP-A-5-301351 (JP, A) JP-A-6-27933 (JP, A) JP-A-6-110442 (JP , A) (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G09G 5/00-5/40

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A character / graphics data extracting process for extracting character / graphics data included in a range of image data, and a thick contour line data generating process for generating thick contour line data obtained by thickening the contour line of the character / graphics data. A character graphic edge data generation process of extracting a portion of the thick contour line data included in the image data to generate character graphic edge data; and data in the order of the image data, the character graphic edge data, and the character graphic data. A method for framing a character or figure, comprising: 2. The character edging method according to claim 1, wherein the contour line is an outline of an outline font character, and the thick contour line data is thick outline data. 3. A character / figure edging device comprising character / graphic data extracting means, thick outline data generating means, character / graphic edge data extracting means, and synthesizing means, wherein the character / graphic data extracting means is The character / graphics data included in the range of the image data is extracted, the thick outline data generating means generates thick outline data by thickening the outline of the character / graphic data, and the character / graphic edge data generating means is A portion included in the image data of the thick outline data is extracted to generate character graphic edge data, and the combining unit overwrites the data in the order of the image data, the character graphic edge data, and the character graphic data. A framing device for character graphics, which is characterized in that