JP4924990B2 - Document processing apparatus and document processing program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus and a document processing program.

  In recent years, a searchable electronic document is generated from a scanned paper document. As a searchable electronic document, what is called a searchable XPS (XML Paper Specification), what is called a searchable PDF (Portable Document Format), or a PDF with text is known. These electronic documents are configured so that the image layer and text layer overlap, so that the background document image is displayed on the image layer, and transparent search characters are laid out on the upper text layer. It has become.

  For scanned character data, it is suggested to prepare an outline font for replacement characters and replace it with an outline font that has been scaled to the same size as the scanned character based on the judgment and operation of the operator. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1).

JP-A-5-12402

  By the way, in the above-described searchable electronic document, since the image layer and the text layer overlap each other, the position of the character in the document image displayed on the image layer and the search character arranged on the text layer. If they do not match, when a search is performed on the electronic document, it may occur that the character string extracted by the search cannot be correctly specified in the document. In particular, depending on the type of font data used in the text layer, even if the number of points is the same, the character width, distance between characters, etc. may be different, so it was not assumed between the image layer and the text layer. It is conceivable that character misalignment occurs.

  Here, a character string “Abc Def” shown in FIG. Regarding the character string “Abc Def”, as shown in FIG. 5B, a character in the image layer (see black characters in the figure) and a character in the text layer (see gray characters in the figure) are respectively It is conceivable that the positions of do not necessarily match, and a shift occurs between them. Then, for example, if there is a shift that causes the characters in the text layer to be larger than the characters in the image layer, depending on the viewer that outputs the document, as shown in FIG. There is a possibility that a so-called character covering, in which the display part covers the highlight display part of “Def”, may occur. In other words, if there is a character misalignment between the image layer and the text layer, even if text search is possible, it is difficult to select characters for the search results, and it is difficult to specify the character position. There is a risk.

  Regarding this point, even if the size is changed for each character at the time of font replacement as disclosed in Patent Document 1, it is not always possible to eliminate this problem. This is because each character constituting the character string has a fixed pitch in the size scaling for each character, so that even if the position of the beginning and the end of the character string match, a positional shift for each character may occur. This is because there is a possibility that the font type and the number of points in the column are different, and as a result, the balance of the entire character string may be lost and the appearance may deteriorate. Furthermore, since the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 requires the operator's judgment and operation, the operator, that is, the user of the electronic document may feel annoyed.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a document processing device that suppresses character positional deviation between an image layer and a text layer when generating or outputting an electronic document having a configuration in which an image layer and a text layer overlap. And a document processing program.

The invention according to claim 1 acquires, for an electronic document having a configuration in which an image layer and a text layer overlap, for each character string of a predetermined unit in the electronic document, positional information regarding the drawing area in the image layer of the character string. The area information acquisition means, the font information acquisition means for acquiring the metric information of the font used in the text layer for each character constituting the character string, and the information acquisition result by the area information acquisition means The drawing calculation means for calculating the ratio between the size of the drawing area of the character string and the font size of the character string specified from the information acquisition result in the font information acquisition means, and the calculation result in the drawing calculation means Based on the size of the drawing area of the character string and the font size of the character string. A document processing apparatus characterized by comprising a drawing processing means to scale the size for drawing the said text layer.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, for an electronic document having a configuration in which an image layer and a text layer overlap each other, for each character string of a predetermined unit in the electronic document, positional information regarding a drawing area in the image layer of the character string From the information acquisition result in the area information acquisition means, the font information acquisition means for acquiring the metric information of the font used in the text layer for each character constituting the character string, and the information acquisition result in the area information acquisition means A drawing calculation unit that calculates a ratio between the size of the drawing area of the specified character string and the font size of the character string specified from the information acquisition result in the font information acquisition unit; Based on the calculation result, the size of the drawing area of the character string matches the font size of the character string. A document processing program for causing to function as drawing processing means to scale the size of the font for drawing for the text layer.

  According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, an image layer is used for character strings in a predetermined unit without requiring user judgment or operation, and without depending on the font type used in the text layer. The drawing position and size of characters in the text layer and characters in the text layer can be matched, contributing to improved convenience for users who browse and search electronic documents with the image layer and text layer overlapping. It becomes possible to do. Furthermore, for example, when using fonts (proportional fonts) with different character widths and distances between characters, such as foreign language sentences (particularly English written in alphabets), the positional deviation of each character is adjusted. Compared to the case, it is possible to improve the appearance without breaking the balance of the character string.

  Hereinafter, a document processing apparatus and a document processing program according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  First, a functional configuration example of the document processing apparatus will be described. The document processing apparatus described as an example here generates a searchable electronic document, that is, an electronic document having a configuration in which an image layer and a text layer overlap from a scanned paper document. Such a document processing apparatus includes a digital copying machine having a scanning function and a data processing function, a function in which the function as the copying machine is integrated with a function as another device (printer device, facsimile device, etc.), and a scanner device. For example, a computer device that is used in connection.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration example of a document processing apparatus according to the present invention.
The document processing apparatus shown in the figure includes an image input unit 1, a setting unit 2, an image processing unit 3, a storage unit 4, a drawing processing unit 5, and a data transfer unit 6.

  The image input unit 1 is realized by, for example, a function as a scanner device, and scans a paper document that is a document and reads image data from the paper document.

  The setting unit 2 is realized by, for example, a user interface panel operated by a user of the document processing apparatus. The user can read image data with the image input unit 1 or read image data with the image processing unit 3. This is for setting parameters necessary for processing.

The image processing unit 3 is realized by a function as a computer device that executes a predetermined program, and performs predetermined image processing on the image data read by the image input unit 1.
Image processing performed by the image processing unit 3 includes character recognition (Optical Character Reader, hereinafter abbreviated as “OCR”) processing for image data. That is, the image processing unit 3 has a function as the character recognition means 3a. The character recognition means 3a is realized by the image processing unit 3 executing a predetermined program (for example, OCR software).
The OCR processing method performed by the character recognition unit 3a may be a known technique, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted here.
Further, the image processing other than the OCR processing performed by the image processing unit 3 may be any one using a known technique, and detailed description thereof is omitted here.

The storage unit 4 is realized by a storage device such as a hard disk device, and stores various types of information.
Examples of various information stored and accumulated by the accumulation unit 4 include image data read by the image input unit 1 or image data after image processing by the image processing unit 3. Information relating to the character recognition result by the character recognition means 3a is also included in the various types of information referred to herein.
Furthermore, it is assumed that a predetermined program necessary for causing the document processing apparatus to function, font data 4a necessary for creating a document image, and the like are also included in the various types of information herein. That is, the storage unit 4 stores and stores font data 4a.
Here, the font data 4a includes metric information of the font in addition to data specifying the font itself. Metric information is information that defines the amount of space occupied by a font, and includes kerning information.

The drawing processing unit 5 is realized by a function as a computer device that executes a predetermined program, and uses an image reading result in the image input unit 1, an image processing result in the image processing unit 3, etc. An electronic document having a configuration overlapping with a text layer is generated.
However, the drawing processing unit 5 has functions as a region information acquisition unit 5a, a font information acquisition unit 5b, a drawing calculation unit 5c, and a drawing processing unit 5d in order to generate an electronic document.
The area information acquisition unit 5a acquires position information regarding a drawing area in the image layer of the character string for each character string of a predetermined unit in the electronic document to be generated. It is conceivable that the position information is acquired from the character recognition means 3a of the image processing unit 3 as will be described in detail later. Further, the predetermined unit of the character string may be a word unit specified from the character recognition result in the character recognition unit 3a, but is not necessarily a word unit, and the character recognition in the character recognition unit 3a is not necessarily performed. Other units such as a phrase unit or a line unit specified from the result may be used.
The font information acquisition means 5b acquires the metric information of the font used in the text layer for each character constituting a predetermined unit character string. It is conceivable that the metrics information is acquired by accessing the font data 4a of the storage unit 4.
The drawing calculation unit 5c determines the size of the drawing region of the character string specified from the information acquisition result in the region information acquisition unit 5a and the font size of the character string specified from the information acquisition result in the font information acquisition unit 5b. For Sato, these ratios are calculated.
The drawing processing unit 5d performs drawing processing for generating an electronic document. However, in the drawing processing means 5d, the size of the font is adjusted so that the size of the drawing area of the character string in a predetermined unit matches the font size of the character string based on the calculation result in the drawing calculation means 5c. Scaling to draw on the text layer.
The electronic document generated by the drawing processing unit 5 is not particularly limited as long as the image layer and the text layer overlap each other. For example, the electronic document conforms to the searchable XPS. Alternatively, it may be compliant with the searchable PDF, or may be compliant with other data formats.

  The data transfer unit 6 transfers the electronic document generated by the drawing processing unit 5 to an external device that is the output destination. Examples of the external device include a display device that displays and outputs an electronic document, a printing device that prints and outputs the electronic document, and a file server display device that stores and stores the electronic document, but is not particularly limited. . In addition, since a known data transfer technique may be used for transferring the electronic document to the external apparatus, detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  In the document processing apparatus having the above-described configuration, each of the units 5a to 5d included in the drawing processing unit 5 is assumed to be realized by executing a predetermined program as a computer function in the document processing apparatus. That is, the document processing apparatus includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that executes a predetermined program, a storage device that stores the predetermined program, and the like, and is configured to realize various functions by executing the predetermined program. The above-described means 5a to 5d realized on such a document processing apparatus are realized by a predetermined program (document processing program) installed in the document processing apparatus. The document processing program may be provided by being stored in a computer-readable storage medium prior to installation in the document processing apparatus, or distributed from the outside via a communication line. May be.

Next, an example of processing operation in the document processing apparatus configured as described above will be described.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of processing operation of the document processing apparatus according to the present invention.

  In the document processing apparatus having the above-described configuration, when generating an electronic document, first, a user of the document processing apparatus prepares a paper document as a base (original) of the electronic document and inputs the paper document as an image. In addition to setting in the unit 1, parameter setting is performed in the setting unit 2, and then an operation start instruction is issued by pressing the start button or the like (step 01, step is hereinafter abbreviated as “S”). When the user gives an operation start instruction, the document processing apparatus follows the parameters set by the setting unit 2 (color / black and white, resolution designation, etc.), and from the paper document in which the image input unit 1 is set. The image data is read for each page of the paper document (S02), the image processing unit 3 performs predetermined image processing (resolution conversion, color correction, etc.) on the image data for each page (S03), and further The storage unit 4 stores and stores the image data after image processing (S04). Then, the above-described series of processing is repeated (S02 to S05) until the processing for all the pages of the paper document as the manuscript is completed (S05).

Thereafter, in the document processing apparatus, for the image data stored and accumulated in the accumulation unit 4 (that is, image data specifying a document image displayed on the image layer), the image data includes a text (character) portion and an image ( Since there are cases where both the (image) portion is included, the image processing unit 3 separates the text portion and the image portion for each page as OCR processing. And about the text part, the character recognition means 3a performs an OCR process (S06). Any known technique may be used for the text / image separation process and the OCR process.
By this OCR processing, the character recognition means 3a extracts the character string constituting the text portion in units of words that are predetermined units. Here, a case where the predetermined unit is a word unit will be described as an example. However, as long as the predetermined unit is set in advance, it may be a phrase unit or a line unit as described above. . The “words” mentioned here are each one of the words that make up a phrase with meaning.
Furthermore, by this OCR process, the character recognition means 3a extracts the position information regarding the drawing area of the character string in conjunction with the extraction of the character string in units of words. The position information related to the drawing area of the character string refers to information for specifying the size of the area in which the character string is to be drawn on one page of the image, specifically, the rectangle to which the character string belongs. Information including the upper left coordinate value and the lower right coordinate value of the region is given. However, as long as the size of the drawing area of the character string can be specified, the information is not necessarily limited to the information including the upper left coordinate value and the lower right coordinate value of the rectangular area, and other information (for example, lower left Information consisting of coordinate values and area width values) may be used.

  When a character string constituting the text part is extracted as a result of the OCR process in the character recognition means 3a (S07), the document processing apparatus subsequently generates a part to be a text layer constituting the electronic document. Therefore, the drawing processing unit 5 performs drawing processing for the character string using the font data 4 a stored and accumulated in the accumulation unit 4. At this time, the drawing processing unit 5 performs processing as described below for each character string in units of words.

That is, in the drawing processing unit 5, for a character string in units of words (hereinafter simply referred to as “processing target character string”) to be drawn, the region information acquisition unit 5 a obtains position information regarding the drawing region as character recognition unit 3 a. And the font information acquisition means 5b accesses the font data 4a of the storage unit 4 to acquire the metric information of the font used for each character constituting the processing target character string. Then, when the area information acquisition unit 5a acquires the position information regarding the drawing area and the font information acquisition unit 5b acquires the metrics information of the font, the drawing calculation unit 5c is identified from the information acquisition result by the area information acquisition unit 5a. These ratios are calculated for the size of the drawing area of the processing target character string and the font size of each character constituting the processing target character string specified from the information acquisition result in the font information acquisition means 5b ( S08).
When the drawing calculation unit 5c calculates such a ratio, in the drawing processing unit 5, the drawing processing unit 5d performs drawing processing of each character constituting the processing target character string. However, at this time, the drawing processing unit 5d determines the size of the drawing area of the processing target character string and the size of the font of each character constituting the processing target character string based on the calculation result of the drawing calculation unit 5c. The size of the font is changed so as to match, and the characters are drawn (S09).
The drawing processing unit 5 repeatedly performs the drawing process for the processing target character string as described above until all the character strings extracted by the character recognition unit 3a are finished (S07 to S09). It should be noted that the drawing result of each character (font character image development result) by the drawing processing unit 5 may be stored in a buffer area secured in the storage unit 4, for example.

  When the drawing processing for all the character strings is completed, the drawing processing unit 5 thereafter performs an image layer and a text layer on the result of the drawing processing and the image data stored and accumulated in the storage unit 4 in the document processing apparatus. Is formatted as an electronic document having an overlapping structure (S10). That is, the drawing processing unit 5 generates an electronic document having a configuration in which the image layer and the text layer overlap based on the result of the drawing process and the image data. Specifically, for example, when conforming to the searchable XPS, the document image data as the background displayed in the image layer, the search characters displayed in the upper text layer, and the search characters The font data itself is formatted to generate an electronic document. For example, when conforming to the searchable PDF, the document image data as the background displayed in the image layer and the search characters displayed in the text layer on the upper layer are respectively formatted to form an electronic document. Generate. It should be noted that the formatting method and the format itself at this time may be those utilizing a known technique, and detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  When the drawing processing unit 5 generates an electronic document, in the document processing apparatus, the data transfer unit 6 transfers the electronic document to the external device that is the output destination (S11). That is, the data transfer unit 6 continuously performs data transfer for the electronic document until there is no more data to be transferred, and completes the data transfer when there is no more data to be transferred.

Next, among the above-described series of processing operation examples, the processing operation examples performed by the drawing processing unit 5 will be described in more detail with specific examples.
3 and 4 are explanatory diagrams showing a specific example of the character drawing process.

For example, consider the character string “Abc” shown in FIG. For the character string “Abc”, the drawing processing unit 5 uses the upper left coordinate value of the rectangular area in which the character string “Abc” should be drawn as position information related to the drawing area, as shown in FIG. Get (X ₀ , Y ₀ ) and lower right coordinate (X ₁ , Y ₁ ). Furthermore, as the metric information of the font used for each of the characters “A”, “b” and “c” constituting the character string, the height direction dimension value H and the width direction dimension value of each character Get Wa, Wb, Wc.

  Here, as for the font for each character, if there is only one type of font data 4a stored and stored in the storage unit 4, the font based on the font data 4a is used. If the storage unit 4 stores and stores a plurality of types of font data 4a, the type of font data 4a selected based on a predetermined standard is used. Note that, as the predetermined standard, it is conceivable to use the one based on the similarity to the character shape of the original image, or one based on the preset priority for each type, but is not particularly limited. It may be based on a known technique.

  By the way, it is known that, depending on the type of font data 4a, the character width, the distance between characters, and the like are different even with the same number of points. Therefore, when the fonts used for the characters “A”, “b”, and “c” are drawn as they are, as shown in FIG. It is conceivable that an unforeseen character misalignment occurs.

Therefore, in the drawing processing unit 5, if the character string “Abc” shown in FIG. 4A is used, the upper left coordinate value (X ₀ , Y _{0) of the} rectangular area in which the character string “Abc” is to be drawn. ) And the lower right coordinate value (X ₁ , Y ₁ ), the absolute value of the difference between the coordinate value X ₀ and the coordinate value X ₁ is calculated to determine the size of the rectangular area in the width direction. Furthermore, the sum of these from the width direction dimension values Wa, Wb, Wc of each character of “A”, “b” and “c” is calculated, and the size of the font group of each character in the width direction is calculated. Ask. Then, as shown in FIG. 4B, the size [Wa + Wb + Wc] of the font group of each character is divided by the size | X ₁ −X ₀ | of the width direction of the rectangular area, The ratio Mag between these is calculated.

Thereafter, the drawing processing unit 5 uses the calculated ratio Mag as a scaling factor for each of the fonts used for the characters “A”, “b”, and “c”. Any one) to draw the font. That is, as shown in FIG. 4C, the drawing processing unit 5 determines the drawing area size | X ₁ −X ₀ | of the character string “Abc” and “A” and “b” after scaling. And the size of each font so that it matches the size of the font group [Wa * Mag + Wb * Mag + Wc * Mag] of each character of “c”, and the “A”, “b” and “c” "Is drawn.

Here, only the width direction dimension of each character is the object of scaling, and the height direction dimension value H of each character is not subject to scaling, but the height direction dimension value H is also subject to scaling. It does not matter as the target. That is, the height direction dimension value H is divided by the height direction size | Y ₀ −Y ₁ | of the rectangular area to obtain a scaling factor between them, and the scaling factor is reflected in the font drawing. Is also possible.

  The electronic document generated through the processing procedure described above does not require judgment or operation for character scaling by the user of the document processing apparatus, and the font type used in the text layer. Regardless, for the character string in units of words, which is an example of the predetermined unit, the drawing positions and sizes of the characters in the image layer and the characters in the text layer match. Therefore, for example, when using fonts (proportional fonts) with different character widths and distances between characters, such as foreign language sentences (English, French, German, etc., especially English written in alphabets). However, as compared with the case of adjusting the positional deviation for each character, the character string unit can be displayed in a balanced manner.

  In addition, although this embodiment demonstrated the suitable Example of this invention, this invention is not limited to the content.

  For example, in the present embodiment, the case of generating an electronic document has been described as an example. However, the present invention can be applied to the case of outputting an image of an electronic document in exactly the same manner. That is, for an electronic document having a configuration in which an image layer and a text layer overlap, a document processing apparatus or document processing program that performs display output or print output generates output data for the display output or print output. If the font scaling is performed in the same procedure as in this embodiment, the character position shifts between the image layer and the text layer regardless of the type of font data held by the output device. It is possible to perform display output or print output without any problem.

  Thus, the present invention is not limited to the contents described in the present embodiment, and can be changed without departing from the gist thereof.

It is a block diagram which shows the function structural example of the document processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the processing operation example of the document processing apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is explanatory drawing (the 1) which shows a specific example of the character drawing process which the document processing apparatus concerning this invention performs. It is explanatory drawing (the 2) which shows a specific example of the character drawing process which the document processing apparatus concerning this invention performs. It is explanatory drawing which shows a specific example of the electronic document which can be searched.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image input part, 2 ... Setting part, 3 ... Image processing part, 3a ... Character recognition means, 4 ... Accumulation part, 4a ... Font data, 5 ... Drawing process part, 5a ... Area information acquisition means, 5b ... Font information Acquisition means, 5c... Drawing calculation means, 5d... Drawing processing means, 6.

Claims (2)

Position information including a first value indicating a size in a width direction of a drawing area in which a character string of a predetermined unit is drawn in the image layer of an electronic document configured by superimposing an image layer and a text layer. Area information acquisition means to acquire;
Font information acquisition means for acquiring metric information including a second value indicating the size in the width direction of each font of the characters constituting the character string in the text layer;
The first value is obtained by dividing the sum of the second values of the fonts of the characters constituting the character string included in the acquired metrics information by the first value included in the acquired position information. And a drawing calculation means for calculating a ratio of the total of the second values,
By multiplying the size in the width direction of each font of the characters constituting the character string in the text layer by the calculated ratio, the size in the width direction between the drawing area of the character string and the character string And a drawing processing unit for drawing the character string on the text layer . Computer
Position information including a first value indicating a size in a width direction of a drawing area in which a character string of a predetermined unit is drawn in the image layer of an electronic document configured by superimposing an image layer and a text layer. Area information acquisition means to acquire;
Font information acquisition means for acquiring metric information including a second value indicating the size in the width direction of each font of the characters constituting the character string in the text layer;
The first value is obtained by dividing the sum of the second values of the fonts of the characters constituting the character string included in the acquired metrics information by the first value included in the acquired position information. And a drawing calculation means for calculating a ratio of the total of the second values,
By multiplying the size in the width direction of each font of the characters constituting the character string in the text layer by the calculated ratio, the size in the width direction between the drawing area of the character string and the character string And a document processing program that functions as a drawing processing means for drawing the character string on the text layer .

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