JP5112223B2 - Image processing apparatus and image processing program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus such as a print processing apparatus that processes a print request for data composed of text, images, and path graphics, and an image processing program.

  Conventionally, for example, with respect to drawing of a gradation fill figure, the start point and the end point are used by the gradation generation unit that is called when the generation of the gradation is instructed, using the passed color change direction vector and the start and end point color information. A plurality of adjacent band-like areas that are perpendicular to the straight line connecting the lines and in which the color values are uniform are set, and the intersection between the band-like area and the scanning line is obtained as a color change point, and this change is made for each scanning line. A color between a dot and a conversion point is sequentially obtained to generate a gradation pattern in the scanning line direction (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Also, in an image forming apparatus having a printing function such as a printer, a copier, a facsimile machine, or a multifunction machine of these, once a print job for one page is divided into a plurality of bands and then converted into an intermediate code and stored in a memory. There is known a configuration that saves a memory area by accumulating in an area, rasterizing the accumulated intermediate code into a bit image, and printing an image in units of pages.

  For example, with respect to drawing of a gradation fill figure, a technique has been proposed in which pixel information of one line is copied to pixels of the next line when gradation is detected. This technique is a high-speed target for objects that are newly drawn by graphics drawing commands (intermediate code), and creates gradient patterns by calculating the color of pixels and drawing gradients by duplicating them. (See, for example, Patent Document 2).

  In the image processing apparatus described in Patent Document 2, in the gradient object drawing process, the image processing object detects how many gradations there are in the horizontal direction or the vertical direction, and only the detected first layer of the gradation is detected. By calculating and copying and using the first layer below the second layer, it is possible to shorten the generation time of an object having a plurality of gradations of a constant pattern in the vertical and horizontal directions, and to perform high-speed image processing.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-25282 JP 2001-101413 A

  By the way, in the conventional gradation drawing method, when the color change in the band direction is large, it is necessary to change the color of the gradation pattern every time the color changes, so the processing speed may be reduced. there were. That is, in the replacement with the gradation pattern in the band direction, depending on the combination of the direction in which the color changes and the direction of the band, a large number of colors change in the replacement with a large number of gradation patterns. In the replacement process, it is necessary to calculate the position where the color for replacement with the pattern changes every time the gradation color changes, which causes a reduction in processing speed.

  In view of the above-described conventional problems, the object of the present invention is to perform image processing capable of processing a simple gradation at high speed without reducing the processing speed even for a complicated gradation color change. An apparatus and an image processing program are provided.

  Other objects of the present invention and specific advantages obtained by the present invention will become more apparent from the description of embodiments described below.

The image processing apparatus according to the present invention provides a communication means for communicating with an external apparatus, and a ratio of a color change in a band direction when a request from the external apparatus received by the communication means is a gradation drawing process. A gradation processing method determining means for determining based on a comparison result with a threshold, a gradation image generating means for generating a designated gradation image, a fill processing means for performing a path filling process, and a path with a specified width. comprising a stroke processing means, based on a determination result by the gradation process determining unit, when the rate of change of the color of the band direction is large, the fill process by creating a line image of the gradient by the gradient image creation unit The path is filled by means to create a line image By drawing the pass area, and based on the determination result by the gradation processing method determination means, when the rate of color change in the band direction is small, the path is painted with the specified width by the stroke processing means, It is characterized by drawing an area of the same color with a path.

  In the image processing apparatus, for example, the gradation image creating means creates a gradation line image based on a designated gradation start position and end position, a circumscribed rectangular area to be drawn, and color information designated by gradation. Can be.

  In the image processing apparatus, for example, the gradation image creating means creates a line image including the region when the circumscribed rectangle to be drawn does not match the designated gradation start position and end position. Can be.

  Further, in the image processing apparatus, for example, the gradation image creating unit creates a line image having a length that allows drawing of the circumscribed rectangle when the start position and end position of the gradation are outside the circumscribed rectangle of the drawing target area. Can be.

The present invention is an image processing program executed by a computer provided in an image processing apparatus that performs drawing in response to a request from the external apparatus received by a communication means for communicating with the external apparatus. When the request from the apparatus is a gradation drawing process, the ratio of the color change in the band direction is determined based on the comparison result with the threshold value, and the ratio of the color change in the band direction is large based on the determination result. In this case, a gradation line image is created, the path is filled, the path area is drawn by the line image, and the color change rate in the band direction is small based on the determination result. Executes the process of drawing the same color area with a pass by painting with the specified width by the computer equipped in the above image processing device And characterized in that.

In the present invention, when the received request from the external device is a gradation drawing process, the ratio of the color change in the band direction is determined based on the comparison result with the threshold value, and the band direction is determined based on the determination result. If the rate of color change is large, create a line image of the gradation and fill the path, draw the area of the path with the line image, and based on the above judgment result, When the rate of change is small, the same color area is drawn with a path by painting with the specified width. Therefore, by creating a one-line image for gradation drawing, it is possible to change complicated gradation color changes. However, the processing speed does not decrease, and simple gradation can be processed at high speed by filling.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the following examples, and can be arbitrarily changed without departing from the gist of the present invention.

  The present invention is applied to, for example, an image processing apparatus 20 in a printing system 1 in which a host computer 10 and an image processing apparatus 20 are connected to each other via a network 15 such as a LAN as shown in FIG.

  In the printing system 1, the image processing apparatus 20 is a printer apparatus having a function of printing print data supplied from the host computer 10, and includes a computer (CPU) 30 that controls the entire apparatus and performs various arithmetic processes. A read only memory (ROM) 40 for storing programs and data, a random access memory (RAM) 50 for temporarily storing programs and data as a work area, used for displaying various information and inputting various instructions. Communication using an operation panel unit 60, a printing unit 70 for printing various data on a recording medium such as paper using a known image forming process such as an electrophotographic process, and a LAN card for connection to the network 15 An interface 80 and the like are connected to each other via a bus 90.

  The functional structure of the image processing apparatus 20 is shown in the block diagram of FIG. 2. The data receiving unit 31 receives data via the communication interface 80 and analyzes the data received by the data receiving unit 31. A data analysis unit 32, a drawing data processing unit 33 that processes drawing data in accordance with an instruction from the data analysis unit 32, a drawing unit 34 that creates a bitmap on a video RAM from a display list created by the drawing data processing unit 33, and a system A memory management unit 35 that manages the memory of the system, a system control unit 36 that manages system common information and controls the system, and the like are mounted as processing functions by the CPU 30, and according to the bitmap created by the drawing unit 34 The printing unit 70 actually prints on the recording medium.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the drawing data processing unit 33 performs processing of image data, a drawing environment management unit 331 that manages setting information related to drawing, such as an enlargement / reduction setting matrix and a currently valid screen. Based on the information processed by the image processing unit 332, the vector processing unit 333 that processes vector data, the character processing unit 334 that processes character data, the clip processing unit 335 that performs clip processing, and the processing units 332 to 335 A display list creation unit 336 for creating a display list is included.

  Further, the vector processing unit 333 creates a specified gradation image, a gradation processing method determination unit 3331 that determines whether gradation processing is performed by filling a vector object such as a rectangle of the same color or drawing by an image. A gradation image creation unit 3332, a fill processing unit 3333 that performs path painting processing, a stroke processing unit 3334 that paints a path with a specified width, and the like.

  In the printing system 1, the CPU 30 provided in the image processing apparatus 20 executes image processing as follows in accordance with an image processing program read from the ROM 40, for example.

  That is, the control unit 30 of the image processing apparatus 20 receives data sent from the host computer 1 via the communication interface 80 by the data receiving unit 31 and analyzes the received data by the data analyzing unit 32.

  The drawing command obtained by analyzing the data by the data analysis unit 32 is processed by the drawing data processing unit 33, and the drawing data related to gradation is passed to the vector processing unit 333.

  When the gradation processed by the vector processing unit 333 is replaced with a one-line image, the gradation is processed by the image processing unit 332, and a display list is generated by the display list creation unit 336. If the image is not replaced with a one-line image, the vector processing unit 333 processes it as a path of a band-like area such as a rectangle, and the display list creation unit 336 creates a display list. The display list created by the display list creation unit 336 is transferred to the drawing unit 34 and written as a bitmap in the video RAM. The printing unit 70 outputs the bitmap to the recording medium.

  Here, as an example of the direction of gradation, FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C show a horizontal gradation 101, an oblique gradation 102, and a vertical gradation 103, respectively. In this example, gradation is applied to the entire page. In the horizontal gradation 101 shown in FIG. 4A, the upper band is drawn in black, and the lower band is drawn in white. The band direction in FIG. 4 represents a scanning direction when drawing a gradation. When processing is performed along this direction, high-speed processing can be performed because the memory access efficiency is good.

  In the conventional method, in the case of the oblique gradation 102 shown in FIG. 4B, a plurality of strip-like regions that are perpendicular to the straight line connecting the start point and the end point of the gradation and are formed of the same color are each a scanning line ( (One line image in the band direction) How to intersect one by one was determined, and a gradation pattern for each scanning line was generated. In such a conventional method, as in the horizontal gradation 101 shown in FIG. 4A, when there is no change in the color in the band direction or when there is little, a point where the scanning line and the band-like region intersect is obtained. However, in the diagonal gradation 102 shown in FIG. 4B and the vertical gradation 103 shown in FIG. 4C, the color change in the band direction increases, so it is necessary to obtain a large number of intersections. Calculation cost is required.

  In this image processing device 20, when the color change in the band direction is large in the diagonal gradation shown in FIG. 4A or the vertical gradation shown in FIG. 4C, the gradation pattern for each scanning line is not created. Instead, the gradation drawing process is performed according to the procedure shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, and the vector processing unit 333 creates an image of one line in the gradation direction and enlarges it in the direction perpendicular to the gradation direction. To draw gradation. In addition, it is determined whether processing is performed based on such an image or whether processing is performed by filling a band-like region for each same color.

  That is, when a gradation drawing command is input to the vector processing unit 333 (step S1), first, the gradation processing method determination unit 3331 performs a determination process as to whether or not the rate of color change in the band direction is large ( Step S2). Here, the gradation processing method determination unit 3331 determines whether or not the change in color is larger than a threshold value when drawing the target scanning line. Specifically, the gradation processing method determination unit 3331 analyzes how many dots of the same color continue for the image data of the target scanning line, and compares it with a predetermined threshold value. The gradation processing method determination unit 3331 determines that the rate of color change is large if the number of dots of the same color arranged in succession is smaller than the threshold value.

  Here, an example in which the result of analyzing the image of the scanning line by the gradation processing method determination unit 3331 is recorded is shown in Table 1 below.

  Table 1 shows the number of dots in which dots of the same color are continuously arranged on the scanning line. In the example of Table 1, the average number of dots of the same color arranged in succession is 7.5. If the threshold value is 10, the number of dots of the same color arranged in succession is smaller than the threshold value, so the gradation processing method determination unit 3331 determines that the rate of color change of the target scanning line is large.

  The threshold value is a numerical value set in advance in the image processing apparatus 30 and can be set as appropriate by the manufacturer or the apparatus manager.

  If the determination result in step S2 is YES, that is, if the rate of color change is large, the gradation image creation unit 3332 creates a designated gradation image (step S3), and draws a path area based on the image. (Step S4). Details of the drawing process performed by the gradation image creating unit 3332 will be described later.

  If the determination result in step S2 is NO, that is, if the rate of color change is smaller than the threshold value, the stroke processing unit 3334 performs a process of painting a path with a specified width, and draws an area of the same color with the path. (Step S5). In this case, the stroke processing unit 3334 creates a path for a band-like region in which the same color continues while the color changes by gradation, and performs a path filling process with that color. The entire gradation is drawn by performing this for each color that changes in the gradation.

  That is, in the image processing apparatus 20, when the request from the host computer 30 received by the data receiving unit 31 is gradation drawing processing (step S1), the gradation processing method determining unit 3331 changes the color in the band direction. It is determined whether gradation processing is performed by filling a vector object of the same color or drawing is performed by an image depending on whether the ratio is large (step S2). Based on the determination result, the color change in the band direction is determined. Is large, a gradation line image is created by the gradation image creation unit 3332 (step S3), the path is filled, a path area is drawn by the line image (step S4), and Based on the determination result, the color in the band direction If the rate of change is small, the stroke processing unit 3334, by painting with a specified width, to draw the region of the same color in the path (step S5).

  The gradation image creation unit 3332 creates a gradation line image based on the designated gradation start position and end position, the circumscribed rectangular area to be drawn, and the color information designated by the gradation.

  For example, when gradation is drawn in the circumscribed rectangular region 100 to be drawn shown in FIG. 6, a gradation line image 110 as shown in FIG. 7 is created. In FIG. 6, arrows A and B indicate the start position and end position of gradation, respectively.

  FIG. 8 shows an example in which the circumscribed rectangle 100 to be drawn does not match the start position and end position of the designated gradation. 8 represents a circumscribed rectangle 100 'to be drawn. In FIG. 8, A 'and B' represent the start position and end position of gradation, respectively. In this case, the black triangular area C and the white triangular area D are outside the area designated for gradation. In this example, the start position is represented by black and the end position is represented by white. In addition to this, a method of repeating gradation is specified from the drawing data. Even in such a case, the entire drawing target area can be drawn with gradation by creating a line image 111 including the areas C and D as shown in FIG. If the start and end positions of the gradation are outside the circumscribed rectangle of the drawing target area, a line image having a length capable of drawing the circumscribed rectangle may be created.

  In this way, in the vector processing unit 333, a line image of the circumscribed rectangle 100 to be drawn is created by the gradation image creation unit 3332 in step S3, and a path region is created by drawing in the next step S5. The gradation line image is passed to the image processing unit 332.

  If the area to be drawn is specified by the path, the clip processing unit 335 performs clip processing on the area to which gradation is applied.

  In the image processing unit 332, the line image 110 created by the gradation image creation unit 3332 of the vector processing unit 333 is painted with the shape designated by the path according to the position, orientation, and enlargement direction of the designated image, as follows. Draw an image.

  First, as shown in FIG. 10A, one point P1 of the shape 200 to be drawn is selected. Then, the position on the line image 110 corresponding to the point is calculated. Next, as shown in FIG. 10B, the color of the point D1 of the line image 110 is copied.

  If the designated one point P1 can be drawn, the process moves to the next point P2 as shown in FIG. Then, the same calculation is performed, and the color of the corresponding point D2 in the line image 110 is copied as shown in FIG.

  In this way, by calculating the positions on the line image 110 and copying the colors for all the points P1, P2,... Pn for the shape to be drawn, as shown in FIG. Can be drawn with gradation.

  In the image processing apparatus 20 configured as described above, when the received request from the external apparatus is the gradation drawing process, the gradation process is performed depending on whether the rate of color change in the band direction is large or not. Judgment is made by filling the object or drawing by image. Based on the result of the decision, if the rate of color change in the band direction is large, a line image of gradation is created and the path is filled. And draw the pass area with the line image, and if the rate of color change in the band direction is small based on the determination result, paint the area with the same color by painting with the specified width. Since drawing is done with a pass, creating a one-line image for gradation drawing makes it possible to change complex gradation colors. Have without also lowering the processing speed occurs and, also, for the simple gradient can be processed at high speed by the fill.

1 is a block diagram showing a printing system having an image processing apparatus and a host computer of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of the image processing apparatus of this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the functional structure of the drawing data process part in the image processing apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows typically the example about the direction of gradation. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the drawing process of the gradation in the image processing apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows typically the example of the gradation drawn with the image processing apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows typically the line image produced with the image processing apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows typically the example in case the starting position and end position of the designated gradation do not correspond with the circumscribed rectangle of drawing object. It is a figure which shows typically the line image including the area | region outside the designated point. It is a figure which shows typically the image drawing process by the image processing part of the image processing apparatus of this invention. It is a figure which shows typically the image which drawn the whole shape by gradation.

Explanation of symbols

1 printing system, 10 host computer, 15 network, 20 image processing device, 30 CPU, 40 ROM, 31 data receiving unit, 32 data analyzing unit, 33 drawing data processing unit, 34 drawing unit, 35 memory management unit, 36 system control Part, 50 RAM, 60 operation panel part, 70 printing part, 80 communication interface, 90 bus, 331 drawing environment management part, 332 image processing part, 333 vector processing part, 334 character processing part, 335 clip processing part, 336 display list Creation unit, 3331 Gradation processing determination unit, 3332 Gradation image processing unit, 3333 Fill processing unit, 3334 Stroke processing unit

Claims (6)

A communication means for communicating with an external device;
A gradation processing method determination unit that determines a rate of change in color in the band direction based on a comparison result with a threshold when the request from the external device received by the communication unit is a gradation drawing process;
A gradient image creation means for creating a specified gradient image;
Fill processing means for performing path filling processing;
It has stroke processing means to paint the path with specified width,
Based on the determination result by the gradation process determining unit, when the rate of change of the color of the band direction is large, the path through the fill processing means to create a line image of the gradient by the gradient image creation means filling process , Draw the path area with the line image,
Based on the determination result by the gradation processing method determining means, when the rate of color change in the band direction is small, the same color area is drawn with the pass by painting the path with the specified width by the stroke processing means. An image processing apparatus.   2. The gradation image creating means creates a gradation line image based on a designated gradation start position and end position, a circumscribed rectangular area to be drawn, and color information designated by gradation. The image processing apparatus described.   3. The gradation image creating means creates a line image including the area when a circumscribed rectangle to be drawn does not coincide with a designated gradation start position and end position. Image processing device.   3. The gradation image creating means creates a line image having a length capable of drawing the circumscribed rectangle when the start position and the end position of the gradation are outside the circumscribed rectangle of the drawing target area. Image processing device. The gradation processing method determining means analyzes how many dots of the same color continue for the image data of the target scanning line, compares it with a predetermined threshold value, and continuously arranges dots of the same color The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if the number is smaller than a threshold value, it is determined that the color change rate is large. An image processing program executed by a computer provided in an image processing apparatus that performs drawing in response to a request from the external apparatus received by a communication unit for communicating with an external apparatus,
When the received request from the external device is a gradation drawing process, the rate of color change in the band direction is determined based on the comparison result with the threshold ,
Based on the determination result, if the rate of color change in the band direction is large, create a gradation line image, fill the path, draw the path area with the line image,
In addition, based on the determination result, when the rate of color change in the band direction is small, the image processing apparatus is provided with a process of drawing an area of the same color with a pass by painting with a specified width. An image processing program that is executed by a computer.

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