JP4759848B2 - Information extraction device from printing plate making data - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an information extracting apparatus for extracting necessary information from printing plate making data, particularly, lower plate data, all produced with digital data.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In some cases, it is desired to extract necessary information from lower version data created using so-called DTP layout software and reuse it as Web page data to be published on a CD-ROM or WWW. In such a case, conventionally, in order to create a database necessary for the production of those items, there is only a method for creating the database by displaying the lower version data with DTP layout software and manually inputting necessary items into the database. It was.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The conventional method has a problem that it is time consuming and expensive due to manual work, and an operator's mistake is likely to occur when the amount of data is large. The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and if necessary items are set in advance, information on necessary items is automatically picked up from the completed printing plate making data, or a database file or It is an object of the present invention to provide an information extraction device that generates a text data file having a certain structure that can be converted into a database file.
[0004]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing plate making that stores an image of an entire section in a printed matter configured as a set of small section portions that are images of partial sections in a printed matter as character graphic objects and layout data thereof. An information extraction device for extracting character information from a data under a specified condition for each small section to create one record data of a specified field configuration and finally creating a database file. An extraction item setting means for defining items of character information to be extracted from the part, setting correspondences with fields constituting the database records to be created, and setting conditions for extracting those character information items from the printing plate making data; , the part number of small sections each partial as the attribute value for the character graphic objects that make up each small compartment By constant, in order to create a record data of the database to be created, and the extraction component registration means for determining as an extraction component that can be identified and extracted by the part number, based on the setting of the extraction item setting means And information extraction recording means for specifying character information to be extracted from the printing plate making data and recording it in the database file as data of the corresponding field item. Here, the database file includes not only the database file itself but also a text file having a certain structure that can be converted into the database file by being read by the database creation software.
[0005]
In a more preferred second aspect of the first invention, in the information extraction apparatus according to the first aspect, the extraction item setting means is a type of the character / graphic object, and includes a box position, a box size, and a link image file name. defines a link image file name set in the image box object contained in the small compartment within the picture box object and its attribute value as one of the character information to be the extraction, the information extraction recording means the box position and an information extraction device for determining the link image file name that is specified to set the picture box object corresponding from the box size.
[0006]
In a more preferable third aspect of the first invention, in the information extraction apparatus according to the first aspect, the extraction item setting means is an attribute used for the appearance of the character string in the plate-making print data of the character information to be extracted. "Macro definition" that specifies formatting attributes including font, character size, and character color for each item of character information, and the character information extraction range using this "macro definition" is specified by a character string that includes clues for extraction Character information items are extracted with three types of settings: “extraction range” and “development contents” that specify a character string to be actually recorded in the database file from the character string including the clue extracted by “extraction range” This is an information extraction device for setting conditions.
[0007]
Here, the composition attributes are attributes related to the appearance of the character string such as the font used, character size, character color, character deformation / decoration, character type (such as Japanese or English characters), and the number of characters. Since the character information of the printed matter usually changes its appearance according to the meaning content of the displayed character string, the typesetting attribute is used as a clue for character extraction.
[0008]
According to a fourth preferred embodiment of the first invention, in the information extraction device according to the third aspect, the extraction item setting means may specify the target character data if necessary in the designation of the “extraction range”. Either the character string to be used as the “start condition” for starting the determination process for the character string to be extracted under the condition set in “extraction range” in the above, or the character string to be used as the “end condition” for ending the determination process. An information extraction device to be set.
[0009]
It is possible to set the above “start condition” and “end condition” because it may not be possible or difficult to set the desired character data correctly by simply specifying the “extraction range”. Better.
[0010]
In a more preferable fifth aspect of the first invention, in the information extraction apparatus according to the first aspect, the information extraction and recording means, in order to inform the location where the information could not be extracted, This is an information extraction device capable of recording the number of pages on the printing plate making data, the record number that should have been recorded, the character information item name, and the reason why it cannot be extracted in a log file.
[0011]
In an actual plate making operation, various manual operations are performed according to a correction instruction from a print orderer, and therefore it may be difficult for the information extraction device to perform perfect extraction on the lower plate data. In such a case, it may be more reasonable to manually correct only the portion where extraction has failed, rather than re-extracting the extraction condition setting. Since the log file points out the points where the extraction failed, it allows such flexible operation.
[0012]
According to a sixth preferred aspect of the first invention, in the information extraction apparatus according to the first aspect, the extracted component registration means selects a character / graphic object to be included in one extracted component from an editing layout of the printing plate making data. This is an information extraction device that is determined by interactively designating and selecting an area on the screen.
[0013]
Since the extraction component is interactively specified on the printing plate making data display screen, the information extraction apparatus of the present invention can be applied without problems to printed materials in which the positional relationship between the small sections is not fixed on the plate making data. is there.
[0014]
A second invention for solving the above problem is a computer program for realizing the information extraction apparatus of the first invention by being mounted on a computer.
[0015]
According to a second aspect of the second invention, in the computer provided with the editing layout software , each module of the extraction item setting means, the extraction part registration means, and the information extraction recording means of the information extraction device is the editing layout. It is a computer program that is incorporated in software and realizes the information extraction device of the first invention by being called up and operated from the menu of the editing layout software .
[0016]
Since the information extraction apparatus of the present invention has to display the printing plate making data and handle the character / graphic objects constituting the printing plate making data, the condition setting for extraction and the execution of the extraction can be performed by the menu command of the editing layout software. For example, it can be used as a program integrated with editing layout software that creates printing prepress data.
[0017]
A third invention for solving the above problem is a computer-readable storage medium recording the program of the second invention.
[0018]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an information extraction apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 10 denotes a computer main body to which a graphic display 11, a keyboard and mouse 12, a printer 13, and a hard disk 20 are connected. The computer main body 10 includes software programs of editing layout software 100, extraction item setting means 110, extraction part registration means 120, and information extraction recording means 130. Each module of the extraction item setting unit 110, the extracted part registration unit 120, and the information extraction recording unit 130 is installed in a form incorporated in the editing layout software 100, and operates by being called from the menu of the editing layout software 100. To do. Reference numeral 200 on the hard disk 20 denotes a lower plate data file which is a completed printing plate making data file. 201 is an extraction setting value file, 300 is a text database, and 301 is a log file.
[0019]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a work flow for extracting information from the lower plate data by the apparatus of the present invention. The following is a description along this flow. First, in step S1, the operator determines which information of the lower version data is to be extracted as a database field. FIG. 3 is an example of lower plate data. FIG. 3A shows an image of the entire lower plate data, and FIG. 3B shows a small section. As an example, the worker will proceed with the explanation by deciding to extract portions of “product number”, “product name”, “price”, “description”, and “image name (file name of link image)”. Next, in step S2, the editing layout software 100 is activated to display the lower version data, and a range that becomes one record of the database created after that is registered. As shown in FIG. 3C, the processing in step S2 is performed by selecting a character / graphic object that constitutes a small section for each small section by an interactive operation on the display screen, and then executing an extraction component registration command. This is done by specifying. By this operation, several character / graphic objects constituting one small section are grouped as one extracted part. The small section is also called a frame.
[0020]
The printing plate making data created by the editing layout software 100 is composed of various character / graphic objects. Among these objects, typical ones are a character box and an image box. The character box object has position information on the plate, box size, character string data to be displayed, typesetting attribute, etc. as its properties (attribute values). The image box object has position information on the plate, box size, link image file name, and the like as its properties.
[0021]
Next, a phase (steps S3 to S6) for setting extraction conditions for information to be extracted is entered. First, the extraction condition regarding “image name” is set in step S3 by setting position information and size information of an image box to be logically linked to “image name” in one extraction component. When extracting character information not related to the image box, the formatting attribute of the character string to be extracted is set by “macro definition” in step S4. In step S5, an “extraction range” of character information to be extracted is set.
[0022]
FIG. 4A shows an extraction range setting window 500 used in step S4. The position of the target image box is designated by the relative positional relationship in the frame in one frame (FIG. 4B) on the lower version data display, and the content is set in the setting window 500. First, “image name” is designated as the item name. The extracted data is stored in the “image name” field of the database. Since the image box linked to the item “image name” is the second element from the upper left in the frame, it is set in the setting window 500 as such. Depending on the object, the position in the frame may not be fixed. In such a case, the box position is set to “ignore” and the component of the part to be extracted is specified by specifying the box size at the bottom of the setting window 500. In any case, when there are a plurality of image boxes in the extraction part, it must be set so that the image box linked to the item “image name” can be appropriately specified. Specifying both is usually sufficient.
[0023]
FIG. 4C shows a setting dialog 600 used for the macro setting performed in step S4 in setting conditions for specifying character information not related to the image box. Since a character object has a formatting attribute (used font, character size, character color, etc.) applied to the character string, the macro name ("extracted item name" in this case) and the formatting attribute set for that item Is set in the setting window 600. FIG. 9 is a detailed view of the setting window 600 shown in FIG. If necessary, it is also possible to set character deformation and character decoration attributes.
[0024]
FIG. 5A shows an “extraction range” setting dialog 501 for extracting character information. An item name setting field 510, a development content setting field 511, and an extraction range setting field 512 are provided. First, one of “product number”, “product name”, “price”, and “description” is specified in the item name setting field 510 (“product number” is specified in the figure). In the extraction range setting column 512, a designation that gives a clue of a character string to be extracted as a character string extraction condition and a macro name that gives a formatting attribute of the character information are described. For example, in the case of the lower version data, if a tab is always included before “product number”, “@tab” and “* product number” are connected and specified in the extraction range in FIG. “@Tab” is a specification of a clue at the beginning of the character string to be extracted. Since it is not necessary to include a tab in the character string to be output, “* product number” is set in the expanded content setting field 511. Here, it should be noted that a certain rule for passing a specific character or character sequence as an argument to the information extraction / recording means 130 is used for setting the extraction range and development content. For example, in the case where the item “price” always has “space” immediately before and “yen” immediately after in the lower version data, “@ blank * sell price% (yen)” is specified in the extraction range setting field 512. Then, a character string that matches the formatting attribute of the macro name “* price” having a space character immediately before and “yen” immediately after the extracted part is extracted.
[0025]
Returning to the flow of FIG. In step S6, the extraction order of items to be database fields is set. This completes all the settings necessary for extraction, and creates an extraction setting value file in which the extraction setting values shown in FIG. 6 are recorded. In step S7, the range to be extracted is selected from only the selected range, only the specified page, or all the documents in the folder, and the extraction recording process by the information extraction recording means 130 is executed to have the database structure. A text data file 300 is created. FIG. 7 shows the output of the text data file 300 created in this way. The number in the row direction corresponds to the number registered as extracted parts. This text data file 300 can be read into commercially available database creation software to form a database file. The number of records in the database thus created matches the number of extracted parts, and the number of fields matches the number of extracted items. If there is a portion that could not be extracted in step S7, the log file 301 indicates the number of pages, the line number in the written text, the item name, and the reason that the extraction could not be performed (due to setting mismatch or NULL). Output as. FIG. 8 shows an output example of the log file 301. If necessary, the operations in steps S3 to S7 can be repeated until the text data is normally output. Finally, in step S8, the lower version data is compared with the output text data file 300 and log file 301, and the database file is corrected.
[0026]
The extraction range setting dialogs 500 (FIG. 4A) and 501 (FIG. 5A) are simplified for ease of explanation, and the actual information extraction apparatus 1 has the dialog 502 shown in FIG. Is used. The dialog 502 corresponds to both the extraction item related to the character box and the extraction item (link image file name) related to the image box, and the extraction type 519 selects which one of them is selected. When there are a plurality of character boxes in the extracted part, it can be set to select an appropriate box at the Box position 518 and Box size 517 as in the case of the image box.
[0027]
Since only the setting in the extraction range setting column 512 cannot set a condition for correctly extracting a character string or it may be difficult to perform a correct setting, the dialog 502 has a detailed specification column for the character extraction condition 520 and a check. By checking the boxes 521 and 522, the start condition and end condition for starting the search for the character string to be extracted can be specified in detail. For example, in FIG. 10, by setting the start conditions 524 and 526, the extraction range from the next character string in which two tabs are arranged and the character string “START” appears next from the top of the third line in the character box. Extraction of a character string that satisfies the conditions set in the setting field 512 is started. Further, by setting the end condition 534, the extraction of the character string is terminated when the character string “END” appears. FIG. 11A illustrates the start position extracted by setting the conditions 524 and 526, and FIG. 11B illustrates the end position extracted by setting the condition 534. Setting the start condition and end condition is optional and may not be used if not necessary. Even in the case of using, it is possible to select check boxes 523, 525, 533, and 535 as necessary, and use only necessary conditions.
[0028]
The work flow and extraction condition setting of the information extraction apparatus 1 have been described above. Next, how the operation of the information extracting apparatus 1 described so far is realized will be described. As described above, the extraction item setting unit 110, the extracted component registration unit 120, and the information extraction recording unit 130 are installed in the editing body software 100 in the computer main body 10 of the information extraction apparatus 1. Each of these means is called and operated from a menu command or the like by an interactive operation on the editing layout software 100, thereby realizing each step in FIG. That is, the extracted part registration unit 120 is called in step S2, the extraction item setting unit 110 is called in steps S3 to S6, and the information extraction recording unit 130 is called and executed in step S7.
[0029]
In step S2, the extracted part registration unit 120 selects a character / graphic object by an interactive operation on the display screen, and then designates an extracted part registration command. Then, the extracted part registration unit 120 assigns a part number to each selected character / graphic object. Set the meaning attribute value. In the subsequent processing, it is possible to determine which extracted part the object belongs to or which does not belong to any one by inspecting an attribute value that means a part number set in the character / graphic object.
[0030]
FIG. 12 is a flowchart of the information extraction / recording process executed when the information extraction / recording means 130 is called. When called, the information extraction / recording means 130 first reads the extraction setting value file 201 created by the extraction item setting means to obtain an extraction setting value (S100). Next, a counter for specifying an extracted part and a counter for specifying an item are initialized (S102, 104). Next, target items to be extracted are set (S106). Next, a character box or an image box object corresponding to the target item is selected based on the setting in the extracted part specified by the part number (S108). Next, the character information of the target item is extracted from the properties of the object in the selected box (S110). If the selected box is a character box, first, if the start condition is set, the character string up to the position where the condition is satisfied (this is also one of the properties; hereinafter referred to as the target character string) And from the start position of the target character string, it is checked whether the character at that position matches the condition set in the extraction range 512, immediately before the condition of the extraction range 512 is satisfied and the end condition is reached Until then, the characters of the target character string are copied and stored in the temporary storage buffer. If the extraction is successful, the process proceeds to step S112. Log when extraction fails (when a character or partial character string that satisfies the start condition is not found, the link image file name is not set in the image box, or the formatting attributes do not match) (Part number, item name, reason for failure) is recorded in the buffer (S114), and the process proceeds to step S116. If the extraction is successful, a portion corresponding to the expanded content is cut out from the character string stored in the temporary storage buffer at the position of (part number, item number) in the text buffer and recorded (S112). If the item number is incremented by 1 and all items are not over, the process returns to step S106 (S116, 118). When all items are finished, the part number is incremented by 1 (S120), and if there is still an extracted part to be processed, the process returns to step S104 to process the next extracted part. Finally, the portion corresponding to the expanded contents of the text buffer is output as the text file 300, and the contents of the log buffer are output as the log file 301 (S124).
[0031]
Heretofore, the information extraction apparatus 1 that is an embodiment of the present invention has been described. In the information extraction apparatus 1, each module of the extraction item setting unit 110, the extracted part registration unit 120, and the information extraction recording unit 130 is installed in a form incorporated in the editing layout software 100. Although it operates by being called, the gist of the present invention is not limited to such a form. As long as a means for appropriately accessing the information of the character graphic object constituting the lower version data can be provided, it may be configured as an information extracting device independent of the editing layout software 100 that created the lower version data.
[0032]
The information extraction apparatus 1 may directly create a database file instead of the text data file 300. In that case, the information extraction apparatus 1 needs to include a database creation module.
[0033]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, by using the information extraction device of the present invention, it is possible to automatically pick up necessary item information from completed printing plate making data and obtain a text data file that can be registered in a database. It is possible to obtain a remarkable effect that another printed matter having another purpose can be easily created from the prepared lower-layer data. Regarding the setting of extraction conditions for character information items, the setting fields of “macro definition”, “extraction range”, “start condition”, “end condition” and “development contents” are prepared, so the operator can set the exact extraction condition. It can be easily set. In addition, since a log file that informs the location where extraction has failed can be obtained, there is a remarkable effect that efficient operation can be achieved by a combination of automatic extraction and manual correction. Since the extraction part is interactively set on the display screen of the lower plate data, it can be applied to plate making data having various layouts configured as a set of small sections.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of an information extraction apparatus 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a work flow for extracting information from lower plate data by the information extracting apparatus 1;
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining extraction part registration;
4 is an explanatory diagram of an extraction range setting dialog 500 and a macro definition dialog 600. FIG.
FIG. 5 is an “extraction range” setting dialog 501;
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of an extraction setting value file.
7 is a text data file generated by the information extraction / recording means 130. FIG.
FIG. 8 is a log file generated by the information extraction / recording unit 130.
9 is a macro definition setting dialog 600. FIG.
FIG. 10 is an extraction range setting dialog 502;
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a setting method and meaning of a start condition and an end condition.
12 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information extraction / recording means 130. FIG.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Information extraction apparatus 10 Computer main body 11 Graphic display 12 Keyboard and mouse 13 Printer 20 Hard disk 100 Editing layout software 110 Extraction item setting means 120 Extraction part registration means 130 Information extraction recording means 200 Lower version data file 201 Extraction setting value file 300 Text data File 301 Log file 500 Extraction range setting dialog 501 Extraction range setting dialog 502 Extraction range setting dialog 600 Macro definition setting dialog

Claims (9)

Specified conditions for each subdivision part from the printing plate making data that holds the image of the whole section in the printed matter configured as a set of subdivision parts that are images of the subdivision part in the printed matter as the character graphic object and its layout data An information extraction device that extracts character information and creates one record data of a specified field configuration and finally creates a database file,
Extraction item setting that defines the items of character information to be extracted from the subsection, sets the correspondence with the fields that make up the database record to be created, and sets the conditions for extracting those character information items from the printing plate making data Means,
By specifying the part number of each subdivision part as an attribute value for the character / graphic object constituting each subdivision part, the record number of the database to be created is specified and extracted by the part number. Extraction component registration means defined as extraction components that can be performed ,
Information extraction recording means for identifying character information to be extracted from the printing plate making data based on the setting of the extraction item setting means and recording it in a database file as data of the corresponding field item;
An information extraction device comprising: The extraction item setting means is a kind of the character graphic object, and is set to an image box object included in a small section of the image box object having the box position, the box size, and the link image file name as attribute values. link image file name is defined as one of the text information to be the extraction, the information extraction recording means the image identifies the box object and that have been set linked image file name from the box size and the box position information extraction apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that determining the. The extraction item setting means is an attribute related to the appearance of the character string in the plate-making print data of the character information to be extracted, and specifies a typesetting attribute including a used font, a character size, and a character color for each character information item. ”Definition”, “Extraction range” that specifies the extraction range of character information using this “macro definition” by the character string including the clue of extraction and the character string including the clue extracted by “Extraction range”. 2. The information extracting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a condition for extracting a character information item is set by three types of “development contents” for designating a character string to be recorded in a file. In the designation of the “extraction range”, the extraction item setting means starts a process for determining a character string to be extracted under the conditions set in the “extraction range” on the target character data, if necessary. 4. The information extraction apparatus according to claim 3, wherein either or both of a character string that is a “condition” and a character string that is an “end condition” for ending the determination process are set.   For the item that could not be extracted, the information extraction / recording means, in order to notify the location that could not be extracted, the number of pages on the printing plate making data of the location, the record number that should have been recorded, the character information item name The information extraction apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reason why the extraction could not be performed can be recorded in a log file.   The extracted part registration means determines a character / graphic object to be included in one extracted part by interactively designating and selecting an area on an editing layout screen of the printing plate making data. 1. The information extraction device according to 1.   A computer program for realizing the information extraction device according to any one of claims 1 to 6 by being mounted on a computer. In the computer provided with the editing layout software , each module of the extraction item setting means, the extracted component registration means, and the information extraction recording means of the information extracting device is incorporated in the editing layout software, and the editing layout software The computer program which implement | achieves the information extraction apparatus in any one of Claims 1-6 by calling and operating from the menu of software .   A computer-readable recording medium in which the computer program according to claim 7 or 8 is recorded.

Images