JPH03107153A - Layout and plate making system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the efficiency of design simulation (DS) and design operations and to improve the quality and accuracy of design pictures by using the highly accurate image information registered in a data base at the time of execution of the DS. CONSTITUTION:The image information on the color photograph subjected to color sepn. by a color scanner 1 is once stored in a magnetic disk 2. Position information is read by a digitizer 3 and is stored on a magnetic disk 5 or floppy disk 6 and is displayed on a display 4. The magnification of the original in a finished form and the angle of inclination thereof are measured by a magnification and angle reader 7 and are stored on a disk 8. The image information outputted from the scanner 1 is stored as the data base on an optical disk 10. On the other hand, the image information stored on the disk 10 is subjected to trimming processing in a computer 11 and is outputted as a film for plate making by an output machine 12.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention is used for plate making of manuscripts such as color photographs, and is particularly applicable to layout scanner systems that have an image database function. Using image information, we aim to significantly reduce the burden of design simulation and design drawing creation when producing the next printed matter, and to improve the quality of the design drawings.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a planning/plate-making system that can streamline and save labor in the plate-making process.

[Prior Art] Currently, in the field of plate making, layout scanner systems have been developed and put into practical use when making plates of manuscripts such as color photographs. This layout scanner system has an editing function that can output one or more images in a desired layout on one film. This type of layout scanner system is sold by many manufacturers.
This is an extremely innovative plate-making system.

Its common use is in special processing such as erasing acne, wrinkles, etc. from human images, and in plate-making (block collection). In addition, printing color photographs is treated as a temporary process for boat fishing, but catalogs, pamphlets, leaflets, etc.
Perform image processing such as reduction, rotation, etc., or reuse by changing cropping.

Often reused. Such work is called a collection work, and the latter is a database-based prepress work, and is a major function of the layout scanner system.

On the other hand, in the design department, which is located in the pre-plate-making process, designers use Tresco to enlarge or reduce manuscripts such as color photographs to create trace diagrams, or use colored pencils or crayons to color them. We create design simulation images called thumbnails and canvases.

Recently, computers have also entered these design departments, and computer-based design simulation systems (usually Design Workstation D
(referred to as WS) is gradually being adopted.

However, at present, these systems are used independently of each other, do not have a system that allows efficient information exchange, and are standalone computer systems, so the digital data that has been created is not effective. Because it was not used, the overall benefits were not fully utilized.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] As mentioned above, catalogs and pamphlets.

For leaflets, etc., use photos that have been used twice or reuse them.
+i is often used, and in that case, it takes a lot of time to start over from the beginning (inefficient work), and the quality and accuracy of coloring is poor (design work 4). There was a problem that the various plate-making control information determined at the time of printing could not be efficiently linked with the layout scanner system.

The present invention was added to solve the above-mentioned problems, and by centralizing the management of high-definition image information registered in a database and relatively rough image information for design, it is possible to print printed matter. Design simulation and design work during production can be made more efficient (shorter time), quality and accuracy can be significantly improved, and the plate-making process can be significantly streamlined and labor-saving. The purpose is to provide an innovative planning and prepress system.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the first invention includes an image input means for inputting an image of a document, color-separating the image information and outputting the image information; a first storage means for storing image information to be output; a second storage means for storing image information output from the image input means as a database; an input means for inputting character information and basic layout information; a third storage means for storing each information inputted by the means; and an image display means;
A function for displaying a layout on the image display means according to the basic layout information stored in the third storage means; and image processing means having a function of displaying image information stored in the third storage means and character information stored in the third storage means, simulating the layout thereof, and determining a desired layout design.

Further, in the second invention, an image input means inputs an image of a document, separates the image information and outputs the image information, and a first storage means stores the image information output from the image input means;
a first image display means, a second storage means for storing image information output from the image input means as a database, and reading out the image information stored in the second storage means;
a first image processing means having a function of displaying the image information on the first image display means based on the position information, magnification information and tilt angle information, and a function of trimming the image information based on the trimming information; A layout scanner system comprising: an input means for inputting character information and basic layout information; a third storage means for storing each information manually entered by the input means; and a second image display means;
A function for displaying a layout on the second image display means according to the basic layout information stored in the third storage means, a second a function of simulating a design by displaying image information stored in a storage means and character information stored in a third storage means and determining a desired layout design, and a position determined by the design simulation; The design simulation system includes a second image processing means having a function of providing information, magnification information, tilt angle information, and trimming information to the layout scanner system as plate-making control information.

[Operation] Therefore, in the planning and prepress system of the first invention,
When performing design simulation, by using high-definition image information registered in the database,
It is possible to improve the efficiency (time reduction) of design simulation and design work when producing printed matter, and to significantly improve the quality and accuracy of design drawings.

In addition, in the planning/plate-making system of the second invention, when performing design simulation with the design simulation system, high-definition image information registered in the database of the layout scanner system is used to create printed matter. This makes it possible to improve the efficiency (time reduction) of design simulation and design work, and to significantly improve the quality and accuracy of design drawings. Furthermore, when performing plate making with the layout scanner system, position information, magnification information, tilt angle information, and trimming information determined by design simulation in the design simulation system are used as plate-making control information, allowing various types of plate-making to be performed. There is no need to input control information, making it possible to significantly streamline and save labor in plate-making work. This allows everything from design simulation to plate making to be performed inline.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a planning/prepress system according to the present invention. The planning and prepress system of this embodiment is as shown in FIG. 3, a graphic display 4, a magnetic disk 5 or a floppy disk 6 as a second storage means, a magnification angle adjustment device 7 and a floppy disk 8 as a magnification angle adjustment means, and a first image display means. A layout scanner system comprising a color display 9, an optical disk 10 as a third storage means, a computer 11 as a first image processing means, an output device 12 as an output means, and a second interactive scanner system. Keyboard 13 as input means
The design simulation system includes a digitizer 14, a floppy disk 15 as a fourth storage means, a color display 16 as a second image display means, and a computer 17 as a second image processing means. ing.

Here, the color scanner 1 inputs an image of a color photograph as a document, separates this image information into colors, and outputs it. Further, the magnetic disk 2 is used to store image information output from the color scanner 1. On the other hand, the digitizer 3 reads positional information such as plate making size and mask information shown on the layout designation sheet or the master copy, and displays this on the graphic display 4. Further, the magnetic disk 5 or floppy disk 6 is used to store position information output from the digitizer 3. Further, the magnification angle determining device 7 measures the magnification and tilt angle of the finished document and stores them on the floppy disk 8.

On the other hand, the optical disc 10 stores image information output from the color scanner 1 as a database. The computer 11 also reads the image information stored on the magnetic disk 2 and converts this image information into position information stored on the magnetic disk 5 (or floppy disk 6) and magnification information stored on the floppy disk 8.・Has a function to display on the color display 9 based on tilt angle information or position information, magnification information, and tilt angle information given from the design simulation system, and a function to trim image information based on trimming information. It is. moreover,
The output device 12 outputs information processed by the computer 11 as a plate-making film.

On the other hand, the keyboard 13 is used to input character information. Further, the digitizer 14 is used to input basic layout information. In addition, 15 floppy disks
is for storing each piece of information input using the keyboard 13 and digitizer 14. Furthermore, the computer 17 has a function of displaying a layout according to the basic layout information stored in the floppy disk 15 on the color display 16, and a function of displaying a layout corresponding to the basic layout information stored on the floppy disk 15 in a desired part of the layout displayed on the color display 16. A function for simulating a design by displaying image information stored on the optical disk 1o and character information stored on the floppy disk 15 to determine a desired layout design, and position information and It has the function of providing magnification information, tilt angle information, and trimming information to the layout scanner system as plate-making control information.

Next, the operation of the planning/prepress system configured as described above will be explained using the flow diagram shown in FIG.

First, a case will be described in which the layout scanner system performs plate making independently without using the plate making control information provided by the design simulation system.

Image information of a color photograph color-separated by the color scanner 1 is once stored on the magnetic disk 2. Also,
Positional information such as the plate making size and mask information shown on the layout designation paper or the block copy is read by an appropriate means such as the digitizer 3 and stored on the magnetic disk 5 or floppy disk 6, and is also displayed on the graphic display 4. displayed above. Furthermore, the magnification and inclination angle of the original in the finished state are measured by the magnification angle measuring device 7 and stored on the floppy disk 8. Furthermore, the image information output from the color scanner 1 is stored on the optical disc 10 as a database.

On the other hand, the computer 11 performs a trimming process on the image information to be image processed stored on the optical disc 10 based on the trimming information. That is, the image information and position information stored on the magnetic disk 2 are read out, and this information is displayed on the color display 9 based on the magnification and tilt angle information stored on the floppy disk 8. In this case, the computer 11 adjusts the relative position between the line indicating the mask displayed on the color display 9 and the color-separated image information, and the color-separated image information is automatically placed at a predetermined position. The image, image information, and position information are combined. By performing such image processing on each color-separated image, the positions of all images to be output on -sheets of film are determined, and the output device 12 outputs the images as a plate-making film. Furthermore, if necessary, a color hard copy may be output using a color hard copy machine (not shown).

Next, a case will be described in which plate making is performed in the layout scanner system using plate making control information from the design simulation system.

First, a design simulation is performed in the design simulation system.

That is, desired image information is read out from the optical disk 10 of the layout scanner system through the computer 11 using the keyboard 13.

In this case, the image information for printing stored on the optical disk 10 has a resolution of -12 lines/+nm or more for boat fishing;
Each pixel has 8 bits of depth information for one color. However, when performing a design simulation, this amount of information is not required, so when reading the image information from the optical disk 10, the resolution is reduced to 5 to 6 lines/mm and the information is reduced to 4 to 6 bits, that is, it is thinned out and read out. As a result, the amount of image information can be compressed to about 1/10 to 1/30, and the processing speed of the computer 17 can be improved.

In addition, character information is input from the keyboard 13 and basic layout information is input from the digitizer 14, and these pieces of information are stored on the floppy disk 15. On the other hand, the computer 17 displays on the color display 16 a layout according to the basic layout information stored on the floppy disk 15. Then, the design is simulated by displaying the image information stored on the optical disk 10 and the character information stored on the floppy disk 15 at a desired part of the layout displayed on the color display 16,
A desired layout design is determined. Furthermore, the location information determined during this design simulation
The magnification information, tilt angle information, and trimming information are stored on the floppy disk 15 as prepress control information. Or stored in the magnetic disk 5 of the layout scanner system.

Note that image information that is not stored in a database on the optical disc 10 can be newly input from the color scanner 1 to perform design simulation in the same way.

Next, plate making is performed in the layout scanner system. That is, the computer 11 reads the image information stored on the optical disc 10, and also reads the position information, magnification information, tilt angle information, and trimming information determined during the design simulation.
The information is read from the floppy disk 15. Then, this image information is displayed on the color display 9 based on the position information, magnification information, and tilt angle information, and the image information is further trimmed based on the trimming information. As a result, the positions of all the images to be output on the -sheet of film are determined, and the output device 12 outputs the images as a plate-making film.

In the above, the information determined during the design simulation is transferred to a block drafting machine, or converted and transferred to a CTS (computer typesetting machine) as necessary.

As mentioned above, in the planning and prepress system of this embodiment,
When performing design simulation with the design simulation system, high-definition image information registered in the optical disk 10 (database) of the layout scanner system is used, so that design simulation and design work when producing printed matter are made easier. It is possible to significantly improve efficiency (time reduction) and to significantly improve the quality and accuracy of design images.

Furthermore, when performing plate making with the layout scanner system, position information, magnification information, tilt angle information, and trimming information determined by design simulation are used as plate making control information, so various control information during plate making can be used. No input is required, making it possible to significantly streamline and save labor in plate-making work. This results in
Everything from design simulation to plate making can be done inline.

In the above embodiments, the case where the original is a color photograph has been described, but it goes without saying that other types may be used.

Further, in the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a combination of a design simulation system and a layout scanner system, but the present invention is not limited to this.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, when performing a design simulation, high-definition image information registered in the database of the layout scanner system is used, and when performing plate making, the information determined by the design simulation is used. Position information, magnification information, tilt angle information,
Trimming information is now used as plate-making control information, which improves design simulation and design work efficiency (time reduction) and quality control when producing printed matter.
It is possible to provide an extremely innovative planning and plate-making system that can significantly improve accuracy and further streamline and save labor in the plate-making process.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the planning/prepress system according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flow diagram for explaining the present invention in detail. 1...Color scanner 2...Magnetic disk, 3
... Digitizer 4... Graphic display, 5... Magnetic disk, 6... Floppy disk, 7... Magnification angle setting device, 8... Floppy disk, 9... Color display, 10... Optical disk, 11... Computer, 12... Output device,
13... Keyboard, 14... Digitizer 15
...Floppy disk, 16...Color display, 17...Computer.

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) An image input means for inputting an image of a document, color-separating the image information, and outputting the image information; a first storage means for storing the image information output from the image input means; and a first storage means for storing the image information output from the image input means. a second storage means for storing outputted image information as a database; an input means for inputting character information and basic layout information; a third storage means for storing each information inputted by the input means; a display means; a function for causing the image display means to display a layout according to the basic layout information stored in the third storage means; displaying the image information stored in the second storage means and the character information stored in the third storage means to simulate the layout;
A planning and prepress system comprising: an image processing means having a function of determining a desired layout design; (2) The image processing means according to claim 1, wherein the image processing means thins out the image information stored in the second storage means and displays the thinned image information on the image display means. Prepress system. (3) an image input means for inputting an image of a manuscript, color-separating the image information and outputting the image information; a first storage means for storing the image information output from the image input means; and a first image display. means, a second storage means for storing image information outputted from the image input means as a database, and reading out image information stored in the second storage means and converting the image information into position information and magnification information. - A layout scanner system comprising a first image processing means having a function of displaying on the first image display means based on tilt angle information and a function of trimming the image information based on trimming information, and character information , an input means for inputting basic layout information, a third storage means for storing each information inputted by the input means, a second image display means, and a basic layout stored in the third storage means. A function for displaying a layout in accordance with layout information on the second image display means, the function being stored in the second storage means at a desired part of the layout displayed on the second image display means. A function of displaying image information and character information stored in a third storage means to simulate a design and determining a desired layout design, and position information, magnification information, and tilt angle determined by the design simulation. A design simulation system comprising: a second image processing means having a function of providing information/trimming information as plate-making control information to the layout scanner system. (4) Claim (3) characterized in that the second image processing means thins out the second image information stored in the second storage means and causes the image display means to display the thinned out second image information.
) The planning and prepress system described in section 2.