JPH0244397A - Picture data communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the picture quality from being deteriorated even if a size of picture data is reduced and to always send a distinct image by determining a character interval in accordance with a transmitting picture data size, and also, selecting a classification of a character font and executing a bit map developing control. CONSTITUTION:A size of picture data transmitted by a facsimile is determined in accordance with a prescribed facsimile communication procedure in a control means 5, a character interval is determined, based on this determined transmitting picture data size by a bit map developing control part 7, and a character font conforming with said character interval is selected from among character fonts of plural kinds of sizes. Subsequently, by bringing a text file to bit map development by using the character interval and the selected character font, picture data conforming with the transmitting picture data size is generated. Accordingly, at the time of executing a reduction, etc., of the picture data size, it is unnecessary to execute an image processing, deterioration of an image caused by executing an image processing can be avoided, and a distinct image can always be sent.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention develops a text file consisting of a character code string into a bitmap and converts it into a facsimile signal.
The present invention relates to an image data communication device for facsimile transmission.

(Prior art) Recently, documents are often created using personal computers or word processors, but when sending a document created using such a personal computer or word processor by facsimile, the created document must first be recorded and output on a printer. After that, I sent this from a facsimile machine. However, if the information is first recorded and output in this way and then transmitted by a facsimile machine, it is time-consuming and the image quality is undeniably degraded when read by the facsimile machine.

Therefore, there is a growing desire to directly transmit a document created on a personal computer or the like without first recording and outputting it, and to transmit it simply and clearly. In order to meet this demand, something called a facsimile emulator has been developed.

This facsimile φ emulator develops a text file consisting of a character code string, which is document data handled by a personal computer, into a bit map, converts it into a facsimile signal, and transmits the signal by facsimile.

By the way, when the image to be transmitted by this facsimile emulator is larger than the size that the communication partner terminal can receive, conventionally, image processing such as thinning is performed to reduce the image. That is, for example, when sending a B4 size document, if the communication partner terminal can only receive up to A4 size, [2048: 1728
], reduce the image data to A4 size, and send it.

However, when images are reduced through such image processing such as thinning, problems occur such as characters whose fonts are partially compressed (so-called distorted characters) or where strokes are missing. .

Figure 2 is a diagram showing a specific example where a part of the font is compressed, and Figure 2 (b) is an example of the character shown in Figure 2 (a) reduced to 90% by thinning. show. In this case, the width of the part indicated by A2 of the character shown in FIG. 2(b) is 90 mm
It is narrower than when scaled to %.

Further, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a specific example of missing strokes, and FIG. 3(b) shows an example of the characters shown in FIG. 3(a) reduced to 90% by thinning. In this case,
The character shown in FIG. 3(b) has the stroke shown by B of the character shown in FIG. 3(a) missing.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As mentioned above, in conventional image data communication devices, the size of the image data to be transmitted is reduced by image processing such as thinning, and therefore characters whose fonts are partially compressed are There were problems in which the image quality would deteriorate, such as characters being displayed as , or missing strokes.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an image data communication device that can always send clear images without deteriorating the image quality even when the size of image data is reduced.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) An image data communication device according to the present invention includes means for bitmap development of a text file consisting of a character code string, control means for controlling the bitmap development, and bitmap development. the control means determines the size of image data to be transmitted by facsimile according to a predetermined facsimile communication procedure, and develops a bitmap according to the determined transmission image data size. The present invention is characterized in that the font that defines the character spacing and character size of the character string to be displayed is selected from among character fonts of a plurality of sizes.

(Operation) By taking such measures, the character spacing is determined based on the size of the transmitted image data, a character font that matches this character spacing is selected from character fonts of multiple sizes, and the above-mentioned By bitmap-developing the text file using the character spacing and the selected character font, image data suitable for the transmitted image data size is created, so when reducing the image data size as in the past, There is no need to perform any processing, and image deterioration caused by image processing can be avoided.

(Embodiment) An image data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile machine to which the same device is applied. This device converts a text file consisting of a character code string manually entered via an interface unit 1 into bit data of character fonts of different sizes stored in a first font memory 2a or a second font memory 2b. The bitmap selected by the selector 3 is developed into a bitmap memory 4 to obtain facsimile image data, and after this facsimile image data is encoded, modulated, etc. by the facsimile main body 5, it is transmitted via a four-wire 6. It is sent to the communication partner terminal.

Incidentally, in this apparatus, bitmap expansion of an input text file is performed as follows.

First, a call is made from the facsimile device main body 5 to the communication partner terminal, and when the line is connected, various control information is sent and received between the facsimile device main body 5 and the communication partner terminal according to a predetermined communication procedure. Here, the facsimile main body 5 determines the reception capability (receivable document size) of the communication partner terminal from the capability information of the communication partner terminal that is sent, determines the size of the image data to be transmitted, and uses the determined transmission The image data size is given to the bitmap expansion control section 7.

On the other hand, the interface unit 1 temporarily stores a text file input manually from an external device (not shown) such as a microcomputer in a built-in buffer, and reads one line from the format information of the text file sent along with the text file. The number of characters is detected and the number of characters per line is provided to the bitmap expansion control section 7.

The bitmap expansion control section 7 calculates the number of effective pixels in the horizontal direction of the transmitted image from the transmitted image data size given from the facsimile main body 5. Then, the character pitch of the transmitted image data is calculated from the number of horizontal effective pixels of the transmitted image and the number of characters per line of the text file given from the interface section 1.

This character pitch Px is determined by the following equation, where Dx is the number of effective pixels in the horizontal direction of the transmitted image data, and Cx is the number of characters in one line of the text file.

P x −D x / Cx Next, the bitmap development control unit 7 changes the character font to [
) The selection machine 3 selects the largest character font that satisfies the condition of the number of pixels in the yellow direction Fx<Pxl, and selects the font memory in which this determined two-character font is stored.
Switch. That is, for example, the first font memory 2
a l:: When a character font with a horizontal pixel count Fx of 24 dots is set and a character font with a horizontal pixel count Fx of 16 dots is set in the second font memory 2b, for example, if the character pitch Px is If it is 19 dots, the second font memory 2b is selected. Further, for example, if the character pitch Px is 28 dots, the first font memory 2a is selected.

In this state, the interface section 1 outputs character codes to the first font memory 2a and the second font memory 2b. At the same time, the bitmap expansion control section 7 outputs respective scan addresses to the first font memory 2a and the second font memory 2b. As a result, the bit data of the character corresponding to the character code is read from the first font memory 2a and the second font memory 2b. Then, the first font memory 2a
Or, the bit data output from the one selected by the selector 3 of the second font memory 2b is transferred to the bitmap memory 4.
and is stored in the storage area designated by the interface unit 1.

By sequentially performing the above processing on each character code of the input text file while maintaining the previously determined character pitch, a text file consisting of character code strings is stored in the bitmap memory 4 with the size of the image data to be sent. The bitmap is expanded.

According to this embodiment, the number of pixels (character pitch) that can be allocated to one character is calculated based on the transmitted image data size, and the largest character font that can fit within this character pitch is selected. Since the text file is developed into a bitmap, the size of the image data can be made equal to the size of the transmitted image data without performing image processing. Therefore, since there is no need to perform image processing, the characters do not become distorted. Furthermore, since the image data size is reduced by adjusting the character spacing as much as possible and a character font of the largest possible size is used, an image that is easier to see can be obtained.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

For example, in the above embodiment, the character pitch is set according to the transmission image data size, and the character font is selected according to the transmission image data size. The character spacing may be determined from the data size, the size of the selected character font, and the number of characters per line. Further, in the above embodiment, two types of character fonts are set, but three or more types may be set. Furthermore, the character font type and character pitch when the transmitted image data size is a frequently used size such as B5 size, A4 size, or B4 size are set in advance, and the image data of the size with these settings is Bitmap development for transmission may be performed using the set character font type and character pitch. In addition, various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, a text file consisting of a character code string is developed into a bitmap, and when the bitmap-developed data is converted into a facsimile signal and transmitted, character spacing is determined according to the transmission image data size, and Bitmap group 1 from character fonts of multiple sizes
Since the type of character font to be used for 511 is selected and bitmap development is controlled using this character spacing and character font, the image quality of the character image deteriorates even when the size of the image data is reduced. You can always send clear images without any problems.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration when an image data communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied to a facsimile machine. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are diagrams each explaining the prior art. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Interface part, 2a... First font memory, 2b... Second font memory, 3... Selection machine, 4... Bitmap memory, 5... Facsimile machine main body, 6... ...Line, 7...Bitmap expansion control section. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue

Claims (1)

[Claims] The apparatus comprises means for bitmap-developing a text file consisting of a character code string, a control means for controlling the bitmap-development, and a means for converting the bitmap-developed data into a facsimile signal and transmitting the facsimile signal. A means for determining the size of image data to be transmitted by facsimile according to a predetermined facsimile communication procedure, determining character spacing according to the determined transmission image data size, and developing a bitmap from among character fonts of multiple sizes. 1. An image data communication device comprising means for selecting and determining a type of character font.