JPH01114889A - Image processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To shorten processing time by processing image data without passing them through an image data conversion processing circuit. CONSTITUTION: Although image data are applied to image data conversion processing, the image data are processed without being applied to unnecessary image data conversion processing. A data stream inputted to a receiving circuit 2 is sorted to character data and image data by an edition circuit 3 and the character data are edited by image data conversion processing or the like by a conventional method, the edited data are inputted to a printing circuit 5, converted into a printing signal and printed out. The image data are edited without being applied to image data conversion processing and then printed out similarly to the character data. Consequently the processing time can be shortened.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an image processing method in an electrophotographic printing device.

(Prior Art) Data handled by an electrophotographic printing device includes character data and image data.

Conventionally, image processing for printing based on both of these data has been performed using the same method regardless of the type of data.

FIG. 2 is a configuration block diagram of such a conventional image processing method, in which 12 is data related to characters or images, 13 is a receiving circuit for a data stream containing characters or images, and 14 is an editing circuit for the data stream. (
an editing circuit (including image data conversion processing); 1;
5 is a printing circuit for converting edited characters or images into print signals; 16 is a RAM for receiving a data stream; 1;
7 indicates a RAM for editing characters and images. In the conventional image processing method, the data stream stored in the receiving RAM 16 via the receiving circuit is sent to the editing circuit 1, regardless of whether it is character data or image data.
4, the data was converted into image data through the same processing steps, and then converted into a print signal and printed.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such conventional image processing methods, image data that does not need to be converted into image data is also subjected to the same processing process as character data, resulting in unnecessary The problem was that it took a long time to process.

As electrophotographic printing devices become more widespread and the amount of image processing, especially image data, increases,
The existence of such extra processing time has come under scrutiny.

(Means for Solving the Problems) Under these circumstances, the present inventor has developed the present invention as a result of various studies in order to eliminate the extra time required for image processing and to achieve more rational operation of the printing apparatus. completed.

That is, the present invention provides an image processing method for an electrophotographic printing apparatus having an editing circuit for converting image data and character data into images, in which editing of character data includes image data conversion processing, and editing of image data includes image data conversion processing. This is an image processing method characterized by not including conversion processing.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained with reference to drawings showing embodiments.

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of the image processing method of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is data related to characters or images, 2 is a receiving circuit for a data stream containing characters or images, and 3 is a classification of data streams, characters An editing circuit for editing data (including image data conversion processing) and requesting image editing of image data; 4 is an image data editing circuit; 5 is an image data editing circuit;
5 is a printing circuit for converting edited characters or images into print signals; 6 is a RAM for receiving a data stream; 7 is a RAM for editing character data; and 8 is a RAM for editing image data.

In the image processing method of the present invention, character data is subjected to image data conversion processing, but image data is subjected to data processing without being subjected to unnecessary image data conversion processing. That is, the data stream input to the receiving circuit 2 is classified into character data and image data in the editing circuit 3, and the character data is further edited by image data conversion processing etc. in the same manner as in the conventional method. The signal is input to the printing circuit 5, converted into a printing signal, and then subjected to printing. On the other hand, image data is subjected to image editing without being subjected to image data conversion processing, and then subjected to printing in the same manner as character data.

Figure 3 shows the storage format of the data stream.
In the figure, 9 is i d (i
dentification) % 10 indicates the data size, and 11 indicates the data. Classification in the editing circuit 3 is performed according to id9.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the configuration of data streams stored in the receiving RAM 6, and each of the data streams classified and shown in the diagram is stored in the format shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a drawing showing an execution flowchart of the image processing method of the present invention, in which 21 is a flowchart showing the editing procedure in the editing circuit 3 (hereinafter referred to as editing flowchart), 22 is the image editing circuit 4 is a flowchart (hereinafter referred to as an image editing flowchart) showing the editing procedure in Step 4. In the editing flowchart 21, first, data stream types are classified,
Next, after performing image data conversion processing for character data, and performing only image editing processing for image data without performing image data conversion processing, a process of requesting print signal conversion processing in the next stage printing circuit 5. will be carried out. The circuit that only performs image editing in this case is the image editing circuit 4, and the image editing flowchart 22 shows the editing procedure.

Next, the data editing procedure according to the method of the present invention will be explained in more detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 5.

If the data stream is stored in the receiving RAM 6, the editing circuit 2 extracts id9 from the data stream and investigates it. If id9 is a character stream type, the character data is taken out and edited in the editing RAM7. If the character indicates the end of page editing, it is determined whether or not the image editing circuit 4 is requested to edit the image data, and if so, it waits until the image editing is completed. When no editing request has been made or when image editing has been completed, the next step is to determine whether or not it is necessary to combine image data and character data, and send the printing circuit 5 to combine the data in the editing RAM 7 and image editing RAM 8. Notify whether it is possible or not. When the request to the printing circuit 5 is completed or the edited character data does not indicate the end of page editing, the next data of the data stream stored in the receiving RAM 6 is taken out. If the next data exists, the extracted character will be edited. If the next data does not exist, it will be checked whether there is the next data stream in the receiving RAMB, and if there is a data stream, it will continue editing. If the editing process is performed and there is no data stream, the data stream is not received until the data stream is received.
Wait until the data stream is accumulated in AM6.

Further, if id9 in the data stream is an image stream type, the image editing circuit 4 is notified of the position and size of the image data, and a request is made to edit the image data. After making an editing request, it is checked whether the next data stream exists in the receiving RAM.

Note that if id9 in the data stream is neither a character stream type nor an image stream type, error processing is performed.

Editing request for image data from editing circuit 3 (in Fig. 5)
-----) The image editing circuit 4 which has received (indicated by a)
Image data editing information is extracted from the notified position and size of the image data. Based on the extracted editing information, image data is expanded directly from the data stream in the receiving RAM 5 to the image editing RAM 8. After all the data has been processed, the editing circuit 3 is notified of the completion of editing (indicated by ---->b in Figure 5). After being notified of the end of editing, the image editing circuit 4 waits until the next editing request arrives.

(Effects of the Invention) As shown above, the image processing method of the present invention differs from the conventional method in that when handling image data, it passes through a processing circuit (image data conversion processing circuit) for editing character data. Since this method does not require image processing, unnecessary processing can be omitted, and processing time can be shortened by the extra time required for image processing.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the configuration of the image processing method of the present invention.
Figure 2 is a configuration block diagram of a conventional image processing method, Figure 3 is a data stream storage format, and Figure 4 is a receiving R.
FIG. 5, which is a configuration diagram of the data stream stored in AM6, is an execution flowchart of the image processing method of the present invention. 2... Receiving circuit, 3... Editing circuit, 4... Image editing circuit, 5... Printing circuit, 6... RAM for reception
, 7... RAM for editing. 8...RAM for image editing. Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the structure of the image processing method of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the structure of the conventional image processing method.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In an image processing method for an electrophotographic printing device having an editing circuit for printing image data and character data, the editing of the character data includes an image data conversion process, and the editing of the image data includes an image data conversion process. An image processing method characterized by not including image conversion processing.