JPH02173744A - Screen tint film forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate image display operation by displaying the position relation between division lines and the entire image according to set magnification. CONSTITUTION:When the entire image of specified magnification can not be displayed on a display 12, an area display generating means 19 displays an area on the display 12. This area display shows the position relation between the entire image and division lines which divide the image and an operator how the entire image is divided and displayed clearly at a glance over a lock at the area display. Further, when the operator specifies a desired area, the specified area is displayed on the display 12 by the function of a display area setting means 24. Thus, the operator can grasp the area to be displayed as part of the entire image visually and the operation for the image display is made extremely easy.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an apparatus for producing a plain mesh film, and more particularly to an apparatus for making plates for plain mesh portions of printed matter using a computer.

[Conventional technology]

In a color printed matter, there are many portions with a constant color, so-called plain mesh portions. The plate-making process for such plain mesh portions is performed by a special process different from the general plate-making process for blank portions. Each plain mesh part has yellow (Y
), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K). This mixed color is expressed as a percentage of the halftone area ratio in the separation plate used for each color during printing. It is determined by the expressed value (hereinafter referred to as mesh percentage). Conventionally, a mask for extracting the same halftone percentage area and several types of transparent film (flat halftone dots) provided with halftone dots at a desired halftone percentage are prepared, and the exposed film is repeatedly exposed to light. I was working on creating plain mesh film.

Recently, a technique has been proposed in which a computer is used to create such a plain mesh film. for example,
Specification of Japanese Patent Application No. 60-213259, Japanese Patent Application No. 80-27
No. 0501 and Japanese Patent Application No. 62-231365 disclose an apparatus for producing a plain mesh film using a computer. In these devices, an outline image drawn on a draft manuscript is read with a scanner or the like, and a computer performs coloring based on the read image data, thereby directly creating a plain mesh film for each color.

[Invention or problem to be solved]

However, the above plain mesh film producing apparatus has a problem of poor operability when displaying a desired image on a display. Generally, since the resolution of a display is limited, coloring is performed for each displayed portion while displaying a portion of the image on the display. For this reason, the operator has to select an area to be colored and display it on the display, but conventional devices cannot smoothly perform this display task.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a plain mesh film producing device that can easily display a desired image on a display.

[Means to solve the problem]

A first feature of the present invention is that, in a plain mesh film producing apparatus, there is provided an image data input means for inputting image data forming the outline of a pattern, and image data for storing the image data inputted by the image data input means. a storage means, an image display section for displaying image data, and, when a partial area of the image data is displayed on the image display section, information indicating a relationship between this partial area and the entire image. an area display section; an image data extraction means having a function of extracting necessary image data from the image data storage means and displaying it on the image display section; and an image display section. A magnification setting means for setting the magnification of the image to be displayed on the image data, a size of the image data, a size of the image display section, and a magnification set by the magnification setting means. It recognizes whether or not it is necessary to divide and display the image, and if it is necessary, calculates the position of the dividing line based on these three data, and displays this dividing line and the entire image in the area display section. area display generation means for presenting a plurality of partial areas by displaying the positional relationship between the areas; specified area recognition means; display area setting means for instructing the image data extraction means to extract necessary image data for the specified area recognized by the specified area recognition means; so that a given area is colored with a given color.
A coloring means for coloring image data in the image data storage means, and an original plate creation means for creating a color separation plate for printing plate making based on the image data colored by the coloring means. At the point.

A second feature of the present invention is that the plain mesh film producing apparatus includes an image data input means for inputting image data forming the outline of a pattern, and image data for storing the image data input by the image data input means. a storage means, a display for displaying image data, a display area setting means for setting a predetermined partial area of the entire image as a display area to be displayed on the display, and a display area setting means from the image data storage means. an image data extraction means having a function of extracting image data corresponding to a display area set in and displaying it on a display; and an image data extraction means having a function of extracting image data corresponding to a display area set in Display area modification means for instructing the display area setting means to set a new display area so that the point recognized by the point recognition means and the intra-image point recognition means becomes the center point of the area. a coloring means for coloring the image data in the image data storage means so that a predetermined area within the image displayed on the display is colored with a predetermined color; and an image colored by the coloring means. The present invention is characterized in that it is provided with an original plate creation means for creating color separation plates for printing plate making based on the data.

[For production]

According to the first feature of the present invention, when the entire image cannot be displayed on the display at the specified magnification, the area display generation means displays the area on the display. This area display shows the positional relationship between the planned image and the dividing line that divides it. Therefore, while looking at this area display, the operator can clearly understand at a glance how the entire image will be divided and displayed at the currently specified magnification. Moreover, when the operator specifies a desired area while viewing this area display, the specified area is displayed on the display by the function of the display area setting means. In this way, the operator can visually grasp the area to be displayed as a part of the entire image, and the task of displaying the image becomes very simple.

Further, according to the second feature of the present invention, when the operator specifies a point on the displayed image while a portion of the entire image is displayed on the display, the intra-image point recognition means detects the specified point. The position of the specified point is recognized, and the display area correction means newly displays a partial area in which the specified point becomes the center point of the display. Therefore, the operator can correct the display position with a simple operation, which greatly simplifies the image display work.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described below based on illustrated embodiments. 1st
The figure is a block diagram of a plain mesh film producing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Here, the portion surrounded by a dashed line shown on the left side of the figure is the layout scanner 1. This layout scanner 1 includes an input drum 2, an output drum 3, an interface 4.5, a layout computer 6, and a magnetic disk 7. A draft original F is set on the input drum 2, and the outline image drawn on the draft manuscript F is read by a scanning head (not shown) and imported into the layout computer 6 via the interface 4 as image data. It will be done. Further, this image data is stored on the magnetic disk 7. The layout computer 6 has a function of editing various image data stored on the magnetic disk 7, and the edited image data is
The image is output via the interface 5 to an exposed film set on the output drum 3. If the image data is edited and output for each color, then Y.

Color separation plates P of four colors M, C, and K are created. Note that this layout scanner 1 is well known as a commercially available device, so a detailed explanation will be omitted here.

Draft manuscript F captured by layout scanner 1
The image data can be written to the floppy disk 9 by the disk drive 8. The image data written on this floppy disk 9 is read out by another disk drive 10 and taken into a computer 11 connected thereto. In this embodiment, data is transferred between the layout scanner 1 and the computer 11 via the floppy disk 9 as described above, but it is also possible to connect the two directly and transfer data online. . The computer 11 is configured by the part surrounded by the broken line in the figure, and includes a display 1.
2 and an input device 13 are connected. computer 11
Each component within is actually implemented by memory and software within a general-purpose computer. Further, as the input device 13, a pointing device such as a mouse, a keyboard, or the like is used.

Next, each component within the computer 11 will be explained. The image data read out by the disk drive 10 is sent to the image memory 15 via the image data output means 14.
be taken in. A part or all of the image data in the image memory 15 is extracted by the image data extraction means 16 and taken into the display memory 17, as will be described later. The image data stored in the display memory 17 will be displayed on the display 12. The display screen of the display 12 is provided with three display sections: an image display section 121, a control display section 122, and an area display section 123. The image display section 121 displays an image based on the image data extracted by the image data extraction means 16, the control display section 122 displays a control display generated by the control display generation means 18, and the area display section 123 displays an image based on the image data extracted by the image data extraction means 16. The area displays generated by the area display generation means 19 are displayed. Here, the control display is a display of various instructions necessary for controlling this system, and specifically, a display of a command menu for the system. The operator selects a desired command from this command menu to control the system. Note that the area display is one of the features of the present invention, and will be described in detail later. The coloring means 20 is connected to the input device 13
Coloring processing is performed on the image data in the image memory 15 based on the coloring instruction given from the image memory 15. The color at this time is selected from the color table memory 21.

The contents of the color table memory 21 are set in advance by the input device 13. The magnification setting means 22 sets the magnification k of the displayed image based on an instruction from the input device 13. The area display generating means 19 generates an area display as described later based on this magnification k. The specified area recognition means 23 recognizes the area specified by the operator based on the instruction from the input device 13, and the display head setting means 24 controls the image data extraction means 16 so that the specified area is displayed on the display 12. instructions are given to. Further, the intra-image point recognition means 25 recognizes a point in the image display section 121 designated by the operator based on an instruction from the input device 13, and the display area correction means 26 determines that this designated point is at the center of the display 12. An instruction is issued to the image data extracting means 16 so that the image data is displayed as shown in FIG.

The operation of this computer 11 is as follows. The image data provided to the image memory 15 via the image data input/output means 14 is originally an outline image drawn on the draft manuscript F, and is a line drawing as shown in FIG. 2(a). Generally, the resolution of the display 12 is insufficient to display all of the image data input by the layout scanner 1. Therefore, in order to display the entire image as shown in FIG. 2(a) on the display 12, a process of thinning out pixels is required. Image data extraction means 16
One of its functions is to perform this thinning process. In this case, image data with thinned out pixels is provided to the display memory 17, and an image is displayed on the display 12 based on this image data. Image data extraction means 16
Another function is to extract only a partial area of the image data in the image memory 15. For example, the second
As shown in Figure (b), the entire image is converted into partial images B1 to B12.
It is possible to extract only the data for one of the partial images and provide it to the display memory 17. In this case, the image data extraction means 16 can interpolate another pixel between the pixels forming the extracted image data, and as a result, an enlarged partial image is displayed on the display 12. .

As mentioned above, since the image imported from the layout scanner 1 is a contour image, the pixels (
This is a monochrome image composed of two types of pixels: black, for example, and other pixels (white, for example). This monochrome image is colored by the coloring means 20. The colors used for coloring are defined in advance in the color table memory 21 as a color table. The color table is composed of color numbers and dot percentage data of Y, M, C, and K that constitute the corresponding colors. For example, for the color with color number n, the halftone percentage data of each color is Yn, Mn.

Cn and Kn are defined. The operator uses the input device 13 to give an instruction to color a desired closed area (area surrounded by an outline) of the image with a desired color number. Upon receiving this instruction, the coloring means 20 moves to the image memory 15.
Gives a color value corresponding to the specified color number to the corresponding pixel of the image data within. This allows the operator to confirm the coloring status specified by the operator on the display 12. In reality, the color values of each pixel for display are three colors: red (R), green (G), and blue (B), so the color values are calculated from the four color components of Y, M, C, and K. R,G
, B into three color components.

Since various methods are known for the coloring process by the coloring means 20, the description thereof will be omitted here.

When all coloring is completed, the colored image data is
The image data is transferred from the image memory 15 to the disk drive 10 via the image data input/output means 14. Then, via the disk drive 8 via the floppy disk 9,
It is given to the layout computer 6. The layout computer 6 outputs this colored image data to the output drum 3 by color via the interface 5. In this way, color separation plates for printing plate making are created.

An example of the actual display on the display 12 is shown in FIG. 3(a).
Shown in (b). FIG. 5(a) is an example in which the entire image is displayed, and FIG. 4(b) is an example in which a partial image is displayed in an enlarged manner. The display screen of the display includes an image display area 121,
Control display areas 122a, b, c and area display area 123
It is composed of

The image display area 121 displays the image data extracted by the image data extracting means 16 (thinned or interpolated as the case may be), and the control display area 122 displays the image data extracted by the image data extracting means 16. The control display will be displayed. In this example, a color palette is displayed in the control display area 122a. This color palette displays colors (16 colors in this example) that approximate the actual colors defined in the color table memory 21. Further, a magnification designation menu to be described later is displayed in the control display area 122b, and various commands used for operator operations are displayed in the control display area 122C. If a pointing device such as a mouse is used as the input device 13, the operator can input the color palette 1.
You can specify one color in 22a or use magnification specification menu 1.
It is possible to specify a desired magnification of 22b.

First Feature of the Present Invention Next, operations on the operator side for displaying a desired image, which is the first feature of the present invention, will be explained.

FIG. 4 shows the magnification designation menu 122b and the area display section 1.
23 is an enlarged view of FIG. The magnification specification menu 122b includes
The magnification is displayed as shown in the figure. Here, each number indicates the magnification k of the image to be displayed on the image display section 121, and in this embodiment, 1/4.1/3.1/2, 2, 4.
Six fixed magnifications k of 8 are available. In addition, "original size" means a magnification of -1, and "whole" means an appropriate magnification such that the entire image captured in the image memory 15 (hereinafter referred to as the entire image) is displayed on the image display section 121. means. Here, the magnification is a magnification when the display in which the pixels of all images and the pixels of the image displayed on the image display section 121 have a one-to-one correspondence is defined as 1 times.

Therefore, when the magnification is set to 1 1/2, the image data extraction means 16 thins out every other pixel, and when the magnification is set to -2, one pixel is interpolated between each pixel. Processing takes place. Such magnification setting is performed by pointing a point in the magnification designation menu 122b with a pointing device such as a mouse. For example, in the example of FIG. 4, by specifying point P1, the magnification is set to -2.

Setting the magnification k determines how the entire image should be divided. For example, if the entire image is composed of 100 x 100 pixels, and the resolution of the image display section 121 is 200 x 2
00 pixels, if you set the magnification to -4, the size of the entire image after interpolation will be 400 x 400 pixels, so
It can be seen that it is necessary to divide the image into a total of four partial images (two vertically and horizontally) and display each partial image separately. Such a division pattern differs depending on the magnification k. In the device of this embodiment, such a division pattern is displayed on the area display section 123. In this example, the outline of the area display section 123 corresponds to the size of the entire image, and the broken lines indicate dividing lines for dividing this.

Since the positional relationship between the dividing line and the entire image is clearly shown in this way, the operator can easily grasp what kind of dividing pattern will be obtained at the currently specified magnification.

In this example, a total of 3x4-12 partial areas are formed by the dividing lines, and the operator can indicate which partial area to actually display by pointing a point within the desired partial area while looking at this dividing pattern. It can be selected by For example, if you specify point P2 with the mouse, the hatched partial area in the figure will be selected.
Partial image B5 in FIG. 2(b) is displayed on the image display section 121.
will be displayed. Moreover, on the area display section 123, the area corresponding to the currently displayed partial area is displayed in a specific color, so the operator can recognize which part of the entire image is currently displayed. can do.

For example, when partial image B5 is displayed, the hatched area in FIG. 4 is displayed in color.

If you want to display the partial image 1188 below, point P3
All you have to do is instruct. Furthermore, if you want to change the magnification setting, specify the desired magnification field in the magnification specification menu 122b, and the display of the division pattern on the area display section 123 will be updated immediately. A desired partial area can be specified.

Now, although the above is an operation on the operator side, the corresponding operation of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

When the operator sets the magnification using the input device 13,
The magnification k is set by the magnification setting means 22. In the above embodiment, a mouse is used as the input device 13,
The magnification setting means 22 has a function of determining a predetermined magnification k from the coordinate values of the point designated by the mouse. This magnification is given to one area display generating means. The area display generating means 19 generates the area display unit 1 by the following procedure.
A region display (division pattern) to be displayed in 23 is generated. Assume now that the entire image is composed of mxn pixels, as shown in FIG. 5(a), and that the resolution of the image display section 121 is aXb pixels, as shown in FIG. 5(b).

Now, given the magnification k, the entire image has a size of km×kn pixels. If k>1, the entire image is enlarged by pixel interpolation as shown in figure (C), and if k<1, the entire image is reduced by pixel thinning as shown in figure (d). Ru. In any case, an image with a size of kmXkn will be displayed on a display with a size of aXb. Strictly speaking, in this embodiment, the resolution of the image display section 121 is aXb, but the effective area for displaying a partial area of the image is as shown in FIG. , (a-δ)X(b-δ). The reason for this will be explained using FIG. 6. FIG. 6 shows an actual display screen in which the partial image 11B5 is displayed on the image display section 121. In this way, partial images 1 & B5 will be displayed large in the center of the screen, but there will be border areas with a width of δ/2 on the top, bottom, left and right, and parts of other partial images adjacent to partial image B5 will be displayed slightly. is displayed. In this way, displaying even a small portion of adjacent partial images has a great advantage in improving operability. For example, if the operator colors the partial pictures (flB2.B5),
If it is possible to check a part of the coloring status of the partial image B2, which has already been colored, on the same screen when coloring the partial image flB5, it will be very convenient for selecting colors and the like. In order to take advantage of these advantages, the effective area for displaying a partial area of one image is (a - δ) x (b
−δ). Now, the area display generation means 19 compares km and (a-δ), and if km>(a-δ), it determines that it is necessary to divide and display the entire image in the vertical direction. . Similarly, kn and (b-δ) are compared, and if kn>(b-δ), it is determined that the entire image needs to be divided and displayed in the horizontal direction. If there is no need to divide and display, there is no particular need to generate area display. In other words, in the magnification specification menu 122b, select "Whole"
If the magnification k is specified or the magnification k is set low, the entire image will be displayed on the image display section 121 at once, so area display is not necessary. If it is necessary to display it separately, the length (a-6) in the vertical direction is km.
In the horizontal direction, kn is divided by the length (b-δ) to generate dividing lines as shown by broken lines in FIG. The above is the operation when setting the magnification.

Next, when the operator specifies an area, the operation is as follows. When the operator specifies an area using the input device 13, the specified area recognition means 23 recognizes which area has been specified.

In the embodiment described above, a mouse is used as the input device 13, and the specified area recognition means 23 has a function of selecting a predetermined area from the coordinate values of a point specified by the mouse. For example, if point P2 is specified in FIG. 4, the area corresponding to partial image B5 can be recognized as the specified area from its coordinate values. The display area setting means 24 instructs the image data extraction means 16 to extract image data corresponding to this designated area from the image memory 15. In this example, the image data extraction means 16
Image data corresponding to the partial image B5 is extracted from the image memory 15, subjected to thinning or interpolation processing based on the set magnification k, and the processed data is provided to the display memory 17. In this way, the area desired by the operator is displayed on the display 12. Furthermore, the display area setting means 24 provides the area display generating means 19 with information indicating that the currently displayed area corresponds to, for example, partial image B5. Area display generation means 1 that receives this information
9 applies coloring processing with a specific color to a portion corresponding to B5 (the portion to which one tweezing has been applied in FIG. 4) in the area display of the area display section 123.

The above is the operation of the apparatus related to the first feature of the present invention.

Second Feature of the Present Invention Next, operations on the operator side for displaying a desired image, which is the second feature of the present invention, will be explained.

For example, assume that an arbitrary partial image is displayed on the image display section 121, as shown in FIG. 7(a), and that the operator is performing coloring processing on this partial image. Here, when the operator wants to perform coloring work near point P4, if the image display is switched to one in which the vicinity of point P4 becomes the center of the screen, as shown in FIG. The work efficiency is greatly improved because it moves from the edge to the center. With this device, by simply pointing the point P4 on the display screen as shown in Figure (a) using a pointing device such as a mouse, an image such as point P4 that is placed in the center of the screen as shown in Figure (b) is immediately displayed. The display can be switched. The operator's operation is extremely simple since it is only necessary to indicate one arbitrary point. Moreover, when the image display in the image display section 121 is switched in this way, the area display in the area display section 123 is also switched. That is, the fourth
The hatched area in the figure (indicating the position of the currently displayed partial image relative to the entire image) moves to a position corresponding to the new display screen (which does not match the division by the dividing line). Therefore, the operator can confirm which part of the entire image the new display screen corresponds to.

Now, when switching the image display like this, the first
The operation of the device shown in the figure is as follows.

When the operator specifies one point using the input device 13,
The intra-image point recognition means 25 recognizes the coordinates of the specified point, and recognizes the position of the specified point on the entire image.

In the above embodiment, a mouse is used as the input device 13, and the intra-image point recognition means 25 has a function of recognizing the position of a designated point from the coordinate values of the point designated by the mouse. Subsequently, the display area modifying means 24 instructs the display area setting means 24 to set a new display area such that this specified point becomes the center point of the area.

The display area setting means 24 sets a new display area based on this instruction. The image data extraction means 16 extracts image data corresponding to the newly set area from the image memory 15. In this case, since the magnification k does not change, only the extraction position of the image data shifts. Of course, it is also possible to input the specified point after inputting to change the magnification here. In this way, the image on the image display section 121 is switched to a new image. At the same time, the display area setting means 24 provides information regarding the position of the newly set area to the area display generating means 19. One area display generation means that receives this information colors a part of the area display of the area display section 123 that corresponds to the newly set area (which does not correspond to the division by the dividing line) with a specific color. administer. This allows the operator to be informed of which portion of the entire image the currently displayed image corresponds to. The above is the operation of the apparatus related to the second feature of the present invention.

Although the two features of the present invention have been explained above based on the device according to one embodiment, the present invention is not limited to the device of this embodiment, and various aspects such as input methods and display methods can be used. It is possible to implement.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, in the plain mesh film production device, the positional relationship between the dividing line and the entire image is displayed on the display based on the set magnification.
Image display work can now be performed easily. Furthermore, by adding a function to correct the display area so that one point specified on the display image becomes the center point, the operator's work efficiency can be improved.

・Control display section, 123...Area display section.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An image data input means for inputting image data forming the outline of a pattern; an image data storage means for storing the image data input by the image data input means; and an image display for displaying the image data. and an area display unit for displaying information indicating the relationship between this partial area and the entire image when displaying a partial area of image data on this image display unit. a display; an image data extracting means having a function of extracting necessary image data from the image data storage means and displaying it on the image display section; and a magnification for setting a magnification of the image to be displayed on the image display section. a setting means; a size of the image data stored in the image data storage means; a size of the image display section; and a magnification set by the magnification setting means. It is necessary to recognize whether or not it is necessary to divide and display each area, and if it is necessary, calculate the position of the dividing line based on the above three data, and display this dividing line and the area in the area display section. an area display generating means for presenting a plurality of partial areas by displaying a positional relationship with the entire image; and receiving an external input to designate one of the plurality of partial areas presented on the area display section. specified area recognition means for recognizing the specified area as a region; display area setting means for instructing the image data extraction means to extract necessary image data for the specified area recognized by the specified area recognition means; a coloring unit that performs coloring processing on the image data in the image data storage unit so that a predetermined area within the displayed image is colored in a predetermined color; and a coloring unit that performs coloring processing on the image data in the image data storage unit, based on the image data colored by the coloring unit A plain mesh film producing device comprising: an original plate producing means for producing color separation plates for printing plate making; and a plain mesh film producing device. (2) an image data input means for inputting image data forming the outline of a picture; an image data storage means for storing the image data input by the image data input means; and a display for displaying the image data. , display area setting means for setting a predetermined portion of the entire image as a display area to be displayed on the display; and an image corresponding to the display area set by the display area setting means from the image data storage means. an image data extraction means having a function of extracting data and displaying it on the display; an intra-image point recognition means for recognizing the position of a point designated on the image displayed on the display; display area modification means for instructing the display area setting means to set a new display area so that the one point recognized by the point recognition means becomes the center point of the area; and displaying on the display. coloring means for coloring the image data in the image data storage means so that a predetermined area within the image is colored in a predetermined color; A plain mesh film producing device comprising: 1, an original plate producing means for producing color separation plates for printing plate making;