JPH01294041A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form the image corresponding to inputted image data, by altering an image processing method for image data inputted as multivalent and binary data corresponding to said image data. CONSTITUTION:The input of binary data is indicated from a host computer 101 in such a state that a change-over switch 12 is on an a-side, a CPU 10 connects the switch 12 toward a contact (c) and a switch 13 toward a contact (b) and converts inputted binary data to multivalent data by a data converting part 11 and stores the multivalent data in a memory 14 while applies a judge bit signal thereto. At the time of multivalent data, switches 34, 38 are connected to a contact (a) to output the multivalent data to a gradation converting part 15 and, at the time of binary data, the switches 34, 38 become a contact (b) and the converted multivalent image data delayed by a delay circuit 33 is outputted to the gradation converting part 15 without being corrected in density. By this method, the image corresponding to inputted image data can be formed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that inputs binary or multi-value recording data and records gradations on a recording medium.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, there has been a recording device that inputs multivalued data in which one pixel is composed of a plurality of bits, such as image data with shading, and outputs gradations. Such recording devices input image data that is a mixture of binary data, such as character data, in which each pixel consists of one bit, and multi-value data, which is gradation data. It was not possible to output an image. That is, for example, in a page printer whose recording device outputs images page by page, image data within the same page is processed as binary data or multivalue data, and in printers whose recording device outputs images line by line. , all the same rows were processed as binary data or multivalued data.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] For this reason, in the conventional example described above, recorded data is fixedly processed as binary data or multi-value data on the same page or in the same line. If binary data is mixed in a page or row that is being processed, the binary data part will not be output properly, and conversely, multivalued data will be mixed in the page or row that is being processed as binary data. If these are mixed, there is a problem such as the multivalued data part not being recorded.

It is also possible to perform image formation processing as multi-value image data by simply converting binary data into multi-value image data, but it is possible to perform image formation processing as multi-value image data by simply converting binary data into multi-value image data. If smoothing processing, density correction, etc. are performed in the same way as certain 111m image data, 2
There is a problem that the characteristic of the value image disappears, and for example, the boundary portion of the binary image data becomes unclear.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and by converting the binary data portion into multi-value data, recording data in which binary data and multi-value data are mixed can be recorded. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording device capable of forming an image by performing image processing corresponding to each of multivalued image data converted from binary data and multivalued data originally multivalued.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the recording device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, it is a recording device that inputs multivalued or binary image data from an external device and forms a multivalued image on a recording medium, and includes a determining means for determining a portion of the binary image data based on an instruction from the external device. and converting means for converting the binary image data portion into multivalued image data; and determining the converted multivalued image data and the inputted multivalued image data, and converting the multivalued image data based on the discrimination result. It includes an image processing means that performs image processing corresponding to each piece of data, and a recording means that performs gradation recording based on the image-processed multivalued data.

[Operation] In the above configuration, a binary image data portion is determined based on an instruction from an external device, and the binary image data portion is converted into multivalued image data. Multi-value image data thus converted and image data input as a multi-value image are discriminated, and image processing corresponding to each of the multi-value image data is performed based on the discrimination results. Based on the multivalued data image-processed in this manner, the recording section operates to perform gradation recording.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[Description of Printer (FIG. 1)] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a printer according to an embodiment and a connection to a host computer 101, which is an external device.

In the figure, 10 is a CPU that controls the entire printer, and when print data sent from a host computer 101 is input, it controls each part to form an image on recording paper. In addition, this CPU10 determines whether the data is binary data in which one pixel consists of one bit or multi-value data in which one pixel consists of multiple bits, based on instructions from the host computer 101. is the input 2
The value data is input to the data converter 11 and converted into multi-value data. Reference numeral 101 denotes a host computer that outputs print data to the printer of the embodiment via a signal line 19. The print data is usually composed of multivalued data, and when transmitting binary data, the host computer 101 outputs print data to the printer via the signal line 19 in advance. shall be instructed by.

When the data converter 11 receives binary data, it sets "1" of the binary data to the maximum value of the multi-value data processed by this printer, and sets "0" of the binary data to the minimum value of the multi-value data (usually is converted to “O”).

12 is a switch that switches the terminal to be connected to (a) to (C) according to the switching signal 17 from CPU10, and 13 is a switch that switches the terminal to be connected to (a) to (b) by the switching signal 18 from CPU10. This is a switch that changes to

30 inputs multi-value image data from the host computer 101 and multi-value data obtained by converting binary data from the data converter 11, and adds discrimination bits to the original multi-value image data by an instruction signal 39 from cputo. This is a discrimination bit adding section which adds "0" to the image data converted into multi-value data by the data conversion section 11 and adds the discrimination bit to "O". 14 is multi-valued data converted by the data converter 11 and added with a judgment bit "0", or multi-value data inputted from the host computer 101 with a judgment bit "1".
This is a memory that stores multi-valued image data, etc. that have been added with .

Reference numeral 31 is a differential circuit that performs edge emphasis on image data, and reference numeral 32 is an integration circuit that performs smoothing processing on the image data. 33 is a delay circuit that delays the multilevel image data and the discrimination bit signal 40 by the time required for data processing in the differentiating circuit 31 or the integrating circuit 32; image data that does not
This is for synchronizing with the image data that has passed through the circuit 31 or 32. 34, the determination bit signal 40 is “1”
When the signal 40 is "0°," the switch is connected to the (a) side, and when the signal 40 is "0°," the switch is connected to the (b) side. 35 is the differentiated image data from the differentiating circuit 31 and the integrating circuit 32
This is a synthesizer that synthesizes the integrated image data.

Reference numeral 36 denotes a density correction unit that corrects the image data so that the value of the input multivalued image data and the recording density in the recording unit 16 are linearly proportional. Similar to the delay circuit 33 described above, 37 is a delay circuit that delays the discrimination bit signal 40 by the time required for the density correction of the multivalued image data in the density correction section 36.

38 is a switch 1 that is connected to the (a) side when the discrimination bit signal 40 is "1" and connected to the (b) side when it is "O".
5 is the gradation (
16 is a recording section that forms an image on a recording medium such as recording paper in accordance with the tone-converted image data.

Next, the operation of the printer according to the embodiment with the above configuration will be explained.

When the power to the printer is turned on, the switch 12 is set to the (a) side according to the instruction from CPU, and the CPU
l0 can now input data sent from the host computer 101. Here, before transmitting the recording data, the host computer 101 sends an identification signal indicating whether the data to be transmitted is multilevel data or binary data, the amount of recording data (for example, the number of bytes, etc.), etc. to the signal line.
9 to output to the printer.

As a result, CPU10 connects the switch 12 to the (b) side and the switch 13 to the (a) side according to the input identification signal and, in the case of multilevel data, the switch 12 and the switch 13 to the (a) side, respectively, and outputs the received recording data as is. It is output to the discrimination bit adding section 30.

In this way, when the specified amount of image data with the determination bit added is stored in the memory 14, the switch 12 is turned on again (
a) It is returned to the side.

On the other hand, in the case of binary data, the CPU 10 uses the switching signal 17 to switch the switch 12 to the (C) side, and the switching signal 18 to switch the switch 13 to the (b) side. The binary data thus input is input to the data converter 11, which converts the binary data into multi-value data as shown in FIG. 2A, which will be described later. is added and output to the memory 14 for storage. Note that the write timing to the memory 14 at this time is performed at the falling edge of the clock 24. In this case too,
When the number of data specified by the host computer 101 has been processed, the switch 12 is switched to the (a) side, and the switch 13 is switched to the (a) side.
is switched to the (a) side.

The discrimination bit addition unit 30 adds "1" to the discrimination bit for image data whose originally inputted image data is multivalued data, based on the discrimination bit signal 39 from the CPU 10.
For image data that was originally binary data, "O" is added to the discrimination bit. The state of this discrimination bit is output as a discrimination bit signal 40. The image data to which the discrimination bits have been added in this way is stored in the memory 14.

Next, the output processing of image data in the memory 14 will be explained. The image data read out from the memory 14 is edge-emphasized by a differentiation circuit 31, and smoothed by an integration circuit 32. The switch 34 is the discrimination bit signal 4.
When 0 is "1", that is, the image data from the host computer 101 is multivalued data, it is connected to the (a) side, and the edge-enhanced image data and the smoothed image data are synthesized by the synthesizer 35. The image data is outputted, and image modification ti processing corresponding to the multivalued data is executed.

On the other hand, when the discrimination bit signal 40 is "O", that is, the image data from the host computer 101 is binary data,
The switch 34 is connected to the (b) side. As a result, multi-value image data that has been converted from binary to multi-value delayed by the delay circuit 33 is output as is.

Similarly, the switch 38 is configured so that the discrimination bit signal 40 is "1".
”, it is connected to the (a) side, and when it is 'O', it is connected to the (b) side.
connected to the side. Therefore, the image data output from the host computer 101 as multivalued image data is subjected to density correction by the density correction unit 36 so as to be proportional to the recording density, and is output to the gradation conversion unit 15.
The image data output as binary data is directly output to the gradation conversion section 15 without being subjected to density correction.

In this way, according to the configuration of this embodiment, image data that was originally multivalued and image data that was originally binary data are subjected to density correction and smoothing in accordance with their respective image characteristics. etc. will be done.

[Description of Data Conversion Section (FIGS. 2 and 3)] FIG. 2A is a block diagram showing the circuit configuration of the data conversion section 11 of the embodiment.

21 is a parallel-in/serial-out shift register composed of n stages. 22 is a conversion circuit that converts 1-bit data into m-bit data. 23 is a clock circuit that outputs a shift clock for the shift register 21;

FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing data conversion processing in the data conversion section 11.

27 is image data consisting of binary data for 0 pixels, 28
is a strobe signal supplied from the host computer 101 to the printer through the signal line 19. When binary data is input by this signal 28, the shift register 2
At the same time, n-bit data is latched to 1, and clock output from the clock circuit 23 is started. In addition, this strobe signal 28 becomes a write signal to the memory 14 when multi-value data is input. In FIG. Value data is latched into shift register 21.

As a result, binary data 1)n-1 is outputted to the output 25 of the shift register 21. Also, this timing T
1, the clock circuit 23 is reset and its driving is started, and the binary data of the shift clock 24 is sequentially shifted and output. That is, each rising edge of the shift clock 24 shifts the contents of the shift register 21 one bit at a time, and the output 25 receives two bits in synchronization with the clock 24.
Each 1-bit data from value data b n-2 to bo is sequentially output. Here, if the input data is "O", the conversion circuit 22 outputs m bits of "0" and "1".
”, m-bit data (2”-1) is output.

In this way, binary data is converted into m-bit multi-value data.

In FIG. 2A, 2 input to the shift register 21
When the number of value data is plural, when the shift clock 24 is supplied from the clock circuit 23 to the shift register 21, the data of Qn-2 is output to the output Qn-r of the shift register 21, and the data of Qn-2 is output to the output Qn-z of the shift register 21. The data of Qn-s is shifted sequentially in the same manner. Thus, Qn
The binary data shifted to -1 is transferred to the conversion circuit 2 in the same way.
m bits (bo-b-+)
The configuration is converted into multivalued data. Therefore, the data conversion circuit 22 can be constructed of simply m buffers 22-1 to 22-m, as shown in FIG. 2B, for example.

Now, if the signal line 19 is composed of n bits and the multivalued print data to be recorded is composed of m (m≧2) bits per pixel, the host computer 101 will print one pixel at a time if the distance is 12 m. It is possible to send multivalued data with n<
If it is m, the multi-value data for one pixel is transmitted in two or more times. Furthermore, if the recording data is binary data consisting of 1 bit per pixel, n pixels of binary data can be transmitted every -degree.

Note that, depending on the recording method of the recording unit 16, the gradation conversion unit 15
For example, when the recording unit 16 performs recording based on whether or not it forms printed dots on the recording medium, conversion is performed so that gradation is expressed by the number of printed dots per unit area, such as the dither method or error diffusion method. Alternatively, the image data is converted to express gradation by continuously changing the size of the print dots.

[Explanation of configuration example of recording section (FIGS. 4 to 5)] FIG. 4 shows a case where the recording section 16 performs recording by an inkjet method.
This shows an example in which gradation recording is performed by continuously changing the size of recording dots.

41 is a D/A converter that converts multi-value data 55 composed of m bits from digital to analog signal; 42 is a drive circuit that generates a voltage in response to the converted analog signal and drives piezoelectric element 43; , 43 is a piezoelectric element that converts voltage into mechanical motion, and 44 is an ink ejection opening (nozzle).

When multi-value data 55 is input to the D/A converter 41, an analog voltage signal 45 proportional to the value is output. This voltage signal 45 is input to the drive circuit 42, and the piezoelectric element 4
3 is driven in response to multi-value data 55. thus,
The piezoelectric element 43 is vibrated in response to the voltage of the voltage signal 45, and an ink droplet is ejected from the nozzle 44 with a size proportional to the vibration. In this way, the multivalued data 55
It is possible to perform gradation recording corresponding to

FIG. 5 shows another example in which gradation recording is performed by continuously changing the size of the print dots, 51 is an m-bit down counter, 52 is a set/reset flip-flop, 5
3 is a transistor, and 54 is a heating element that converts current into heat.

When m-bit multi-value data 55 is input to down counter 51 and set by set signal 56, flip-flop 52 is also set at the same time. As a result, the transistor 53 is turned on and current flows through the heating element 54. The value set in the down counter 51 is counted down sequentially in synchronization with the clock signal 57, and the value is "
0”, a reset signal 58 is sent to the flip-flop 52.
is output. As a result, the transistor 53 is turned off, and the application of current to the heating element 54 is stopped. In this manner, the recording unit 16 generates a pulse with a width corresponding to the value of the multivalued data and controls the energization time to the heating element 54, thereby changing the temperature rise and printing the thermal paper, etc. Print dots corresponding to temperature can be formed on the recording medium. In this way, the recording section 16 is configured to perform gradation recording.

[Operation explanation (Fig. 1, Fig. 6)] Fig. 6 shows the data input f of the CPU10 of the printer of the embodiment.
In the flowchart showing the operation of lJi4, the control program for executing this principle is stored in the ROM portion of CPU10.

In step S1, the switch 12 is turned on by the switching signal 17 (a
) side and waits for data input from the host computer 1. In step s2, the host computer 101
When the data is inputted and the input of binary data is instructed, the process proceeds to step s3, and the switch 1 is turned on by the switching signal 17.
2 is connected to the (C) side, and the switch 13 is switched to the (b) side by the switching signal 18 in step S4. The binary image data thus input is input to the data conversion section 11 and converted into multi-value data as described above. Then, in step S5, the discrimination bit signal 40 is set to "0" and output. As a result, the discrimination bit "0" is added to the image data converted into multivalued data by the data conversion unit 11.

In step S6, wait until the input of the data instructed by the host computer 101 is completed, and then step S6
10, both switches 12 and 13 are switched to the (a) side by the switching signals 17 and 18, and the host computer 1
The process moves to wait for the next data input instruction from 01.

On the other hand, if it is not binary data in step S2, that is, if it is multi-value data, the process proceeds to step S7, where the switching signal 17 switches the switch 12 to the (b) side, and in step S8, the switching signal 18 switches the switch 13 to the (a) side. ) side.

As a result, the multi-value data is outputted to the discrimination bit addition section 30.Then, the process proceeds to step S9, where the discrimination bit signal 9 is set to "1" and the process proceeds to step S6. value image data,
A determination bit "'1" is added and output to the memory 14 for storage. In this way, the process proceeds to step S10, where the switches 12 and 13 are both switched to the (a) side as described above, and the image data input process is completed.

Note that the configuration of the data converter and the recording unit that convert binary data into multi-value data is not limited to the configuration of this embodiment, and may be any configuration that can achieve the purpose of the present application.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, by converting binary data into multi-value data, it is possible to form an image without any problem even with image data in which binary data and multi-value data are mixed. By changing the image processing of binary image data and originally multivalued image data to correspond to the binary or multivalued image, it is possible to perform image processing that corresponds to the characteristics of the image data.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, it is possible to form an image by processing image data in which binary data and multi-value data are mixed, and image data input as multi-value data, 2
By changing the image processing method for image data input as value data in accordance with the image data, it is possible to form an image corresponding to the input image data.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer of the embodiment, Fig. 2A is a block diagram showing the schematic structure of the data conversion section of the embodiment, Fig. 2B is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the conversion circuit, and Fig. 3 is the block diagram showing the schematic structure of the data conversion section of the embodiment. 4 and 5 are block diagrams showing an example of the configuration of the recording section. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing data input processing by the CPU of the printer of the embodiment. In the figure, 10...CPU, 11...Data converter, 1
2.13, 34.38... Switch, 14... Memory, 15... Gradation converter, 16... Recording unit, 17.
18... Switching signal, 19... Signal line, 21... Shift register, 22... Conversion circuit, 23... Clock circuit, 24... Shift clock, 27... Binary data, 28... Strobe signal, 30... Discrimination bit addition section, 31... Differentiating circuit, 32... Integrating circuit,
33.37...Delay circuit, 35...Synthesizer, 36.
. . . Density correction unit, 39 . . . Instruction signal, 40 . . . Discrimination bit signal, 55 . Figure 2A ink word fRy Figure 4] Figure 5 procedural amendment (voluntary) September 2, 1986

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A recording device that inputs multivalued or binary image data from an external device and forms a multivalued image on a recording medium, wherein the binary image data portion is formed based on instructions from the external device. a discriminating means for discriminating; a converting means for converting the binary image data portion into multi-value image data; and a discriminating means for discriminating the converted multi-value image data and input multi-value image data, and based on the discrimination result. 1. A recording apparatus comprising: an image processing unit that performs image processing corresponding to each piece of multivalued image data; and a recording unit that performs gradation recording based on the image-processed multivalued data.