JPH03166592A - Image processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To identify the character parts of color images from the other parts by correcting the lightness of the color information of the respective items and converting the monochromatic image data and outputting so as to vary according to the items at the time of converting the color image information to the image data. CONSTITUTION:This processor has a 1st converting means which converts the color of the character parts of the document information in the color image information to the color darker than the colors of the other parts and a 2nd converting means which converts the colors of the parts exclusive of the characters of the document information and the colors of the image information to the colors paler than the color of the character parts. The color of the character parts 21 of the document information in the color image information is converted to the color paler than the colors of the other parts 22, 23 and the colors of the parts 22 exclusive of the characters of the document information and the image information are converted to the colors paler than the color of the character parts and are converted to the black and white image information which is then outputted. Thus, the discrimination and identification of the characters and the other parts are possible even when the color images are reproduced in black and white.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image processing device that displays and outputs a color image including document information and image information in a single color.

[Prior Art] A color image processing device that can create color image information including document information and color images such as photographs usually outputs the created color image data to a color display or color printer to reproduce the color image. ing. but,
If you do not have a color output device such as a color printer or color display that can output color images in multiple colors, convert the color document image into monochrome image data according to its pixel density, and then output it to a monochrome output device. was.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention J] However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, each pixel of a color image is converted into black and white information according to its brightness information, so for example, characters or symbols that are distinguished by different colors on a color original image are Furthermore, areas where the background color and image data displayed overlapping text on the back shadow have the same level of brightness will have the same density (brightness) when converted to monochrome image information. It becomes data. Therefore, if such monochrome image data is output to a monochrome output device and reproduced, it becomes impossible to distinguish between characters, tables, image data, etc.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and when converting color image information into monochrome image data, the brightness of the color information of each item of the image data is corrected to be different depending on the item. By converting the image data into an image signal and outputting it, the image processing device can display and output the image data so that, for example, the character part of the color image can be distinguished from other items even if the image data is output to a monochrome output device. The purpose is to provide.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, an image processing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, an image processing device that transforms color image information including document information and image information into monochrome image information and outputs the same, which converts the color of the text portion of the document information in the color image information to another portion of the color image information. and a second conversion means that converts the color of the non-text portion of the document information and the image information to a color lighter than the text portion. .

[Operation] In the above configuration, the color of the text part of the document information in the color image information is converted to a darker color than other parts, and the color of the part other than the text of the document information and the image information is Converts to a lighter color than the text part, converts it to black and white image information, and outputs it.

As a result, even if a color image is reproduced in black and white, it is possible to distinguish between characters and other parts.

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

[Description of Word Processor (Fig. 1)] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a document processing device (word processor) of this embodiment.

In the figure, 11 is a CPU that controls the entire device, and a program memory 12 is shown in the flowchart of FIG.
Various control operations are executed according to control programs stored in the controller. A document processing program stored on the magnetic disk 16 is loaded into the program memory 12 . A working memory 13 is used as a work area for the CPUI 1. An image memory 14 temporarily stores document images as image data. The image data stored in the image memory 14 is represented by a set of pixels (for example, 400 pixels per inch), and each image has n gradations (in this example, 8 bits per pixel (256 gradations)). It is represented by multivalued image data of (key) and ). 15 is document memory;
Document data read from the magnetic disk 16 is stored in code. A magnetic disk 16 stores various control programs, data, document data, etc. as described above. A keyboard 17 is used for inputting document information, inputting various function instructions, and inputting various information necessary for executing various programs. 18 is an output unit of a monochrome CRT display, printer, etc., which outputs the image data stored in the image memory l4.
It is possible to output a monochromatic image with n pixel gradations (in this embodiment, 256 gradations as described above) of gradation.

[Description of Document Data (FIGS. 2 to 4)] FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of document data processed by the word processor of this embodiment.

In the figure, dotted lines surrounding text portions 21 and 22 and image data portions 23 such as images in document data are for explanation purposes and are not included as actual image data. 20 indicates the entire page. In the text portion 21, the character color is d, and the background is colored d, the color of snow. Also, text part 22
So the color of the letters is d. It is written in Furthermore, this image data portion 23 partially overlaps the area of the text portion 22. This image data has 4 pixels per inch.
It is represented by 00 pixels.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the structure of document data processed by the word processor of this embodiment, and shows the data structure of the document data stored in the document buffer 15. As shown in FIG.

The document data consists of a header section 30, a body section 31, a page management table section 32, and a page data section 33.

First, to explain the contents of the header section 30, the format data 3
4 stores format information such as the vertical and horizontal sizes of the page when outputting document data, the top and bottom, left and right margins of the page when drawing character strings of text data, and information about columns. It has been done. The total number of pages 35 stores text data 38 (the format shown in FIG. 4) and the total number of pages according to the format 34. 36a and 36b
The start address of the text data and the length (number of bytes) of the text data are stored in each of the fields. 37a and 37
b contains the start address of the page management table, and
Stores the length (number of bytes) of the page management table.

The body part 31 stores data related to character strings of the body (body data 38), and its contents are described in the fourth section.
This will be explained in detail with reference to the figures.

The page management table section 32 is composed of a number of records corresponding to the total number of pages, and each record has a start address (3 9
a) and the length of the page data (39b) (in bytes)
is memorized. Note that if an invalid address (for example, O) is stored in the first address 39a, it is assumed that the base data of that page does not exist.

The page data section 33 stores image data and the like that are drawn on each page in an overlapping manner with the text data. For example, this page data may include image data, tables,
Although various data such as graphs can be considered, in this example, in order to simplify the explanation, only image data is used.
It is assumed that the page data section 310a stores the display position of the image data within the page and the name of the image data file (310b) in which the image data is actually stored. The image data 310b is color image data in which each pixel is represented using red, green, and blue color signals of n gradations (256 gradations in this embodiment).

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the structure of the text data 38.

The main text data 38 is composed of a plurality of areas 40,
Each area is composed of attribute data 41 and text data 42. The attribute data 4l stores the color information 43 of the base color when drawing the text data of the area, the color information 44 of the drawn characters, and the type of drawn characters (character size, Mincho, Gothic, etc.) 45. Text data 42
Character strings constituting document data are stored in, for example, JIS codes.

Next, in the word processor of this embodiment, based on the document data shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, for example, a second
A description will be given of how the document data shown in the figure is reproduced as a black and white image.

The data regarding the character strings in the text portions 21 and 22 in FIG. It is stored in the format data 34. Therefore, for example, the background color, character color, and character type of the text portion 2l are included in the attributes 41, and the text portion 2l
The color of the characters 2 and the like are stored in the attribute 41a, the character string of the text portion 21 is stored in the text data 42, and the character string of the text portion 22 is stored in the text data 42a. In addition, the image data 23 is the output page 20
It is defined by page data 3lOa corresponding to .

Next, dark color correction for displaying color data darker and light color correction for displaying color data lighter will be explained.

Currently, color data is represented by three color signals: red (r), green (g), and blue (b), and each color signal is
It is assumed that there are 256 gradations of 255 to 255 (O is the darkest and 255 is the brightest). At this time, the color data (r+g+b) is dark-corrected (ra, g
a, b. ) can be obtained, for example, using the following equation.

... (1) However, C, C2 is a constant, C1≧1, Cz≧ It is O.

Also, color data (r, g1 b) Light color correction color (r+ g + s b,) teeth, For example, use the following formula to find I can't stand it.

however, D, D2 is a constant and D1 ≧1, D2　≧O It is.

color data ( r + g-meeting b) Output in single color The brightness h at the time is For example, it can be calculated using the following formula.

Therefore, when outputting color data (r + g, b) to an output device that can draw in a single color with gradation according to brightness (brightness), (r + g, b) according to equation (3)
Find the brightness of the image and output that value.

In addition, in the above equations (1) and (2), each constant C1
, C-, D1, and Da, the brightness of the darkest color that has been subjected to light color correction can be made brighter than the brightness of the lightest color that has been subjected to dark color correction. In this way, each part of the document data can be output so that it can be clearly distinguished and identified only by the brightness.

[Conversion processing to monochromatic image data (Figure 5) 1. Based on the explanation of the structure of document data, dark color correction, light color correction, and brightness of color information described above, this embodiment is carried out according to the flowchart in Figure 5. The monochromatic gradation output of a color image in a word processor will be explained.

This process is started when document data is stored in the document buffer 15 and an instruction to output a color image in a single color is input from the keyboard 17. First, in step S1, the header section 30 of the document data is read. Next, the process advances to step S2 to read the page management table section 32, and in step S3, the main text data 38 is read.

Next, in step S4, a counter CNT representing the output page is
is set to an initial value "1".Next, in step S5, it is determined whether the value of the counter CNT is less than or equal to the total number of pages n of the header section 30. If it is less than or equal to the total number of pages n, the process proceeds to step S6, and the image memory l4 is clear.

In step S7, the color of the text is darkened, for example, according to the attributes of each text data (in this embodiment, the background color and text color of each area) of the main text data 38 of the page indicated by the counter CNT. , correct the background color to make it lighter and create color image data. From the color image data thus obtained, bright and dark image data obtained from the brightness of each pixel is created and stored in the image memory 14.

Next, in step S8, the presence or absence of page data of the page indicated by CNT is determined by the value of the page data start address 39a (whether it is 0 or not), and if it is 0, the process advances to step Sll, which will be described later. If there is page data, the process advances to step S9 and the page data of that page is read. Next, in step S10, image data is created in which the color information is corrected for lightening according to the data items. From the color information thus obtained, the brightness of each pixel is determined, and bright and dark (monochromatic) image data is superimposed on the image memory l4 in which image data has already been written.

Note that in this embodiment, only image data is considered as page data, so the entire image data can be treated as one item and light color correction can be performed. Next step Sl
Proceeding to l, the output unit 18 is capable of outputting the gradation image data stored in the image system 14 in monochromatic gradation.
Output to.

Thereafter, in step SL2, the number of output pages CNT is increased by 1, and the process returns to step S5. Thereafter, steps S6 to S12 are repeatedly executed until the value of CNT exceeds the total number of pages (n). Then, if the value of CNT exceeds the final page, the process is terminated as determined in step S5. In addition, as mentioned above, in the dark color correction and light color correction using equations (1) and (2), the constants C1C= , D+ , D-
By appropriately selecting the value of , even if the character data is the faintest (brightest) drawn on the color original image, the darkest part of the image data or background color can be corrected by applying dark color correction. Since the image is converted to be darker (darkened) and outputted from the output unit 5, the character data can be clearly identified in the reproduced black and white image.

[Other Embodiments (FIGS. 6 and 7)] In the above embodiment, an explanation was given of the case where an output section capable of representing one pixel in a monochromatic color with gradations was used as the output section l8. 2, which can only be played in two gradations, light and dark.
The present invention can also be applied to a value output device (hereinafter referred to as a monochrome binary output unit).

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a word processor according to another embodiment, in which parts common to those of the previous embodiment are indicated by the same symbols.

Here, the difference from the word processor of the above-described embodiment is that in addition to the image memory 14, an image memory 14a for storing binary image data is employed, and an output section 18a reproduces and outputs the binary image. A binarization circuit 19 converts the monochrome gradation image data stored in the image memory 14 into monochrome binary image data by, for example, a dither method.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a processing procedure when the present invention is implemented using a monochrome binary output section, and a control program for executing this processing is stored in the program memory 12a.

In FIG. 7, steps 321 to S24 are
This is the same as step S1 to step S4 in the embodiment. Next, in step S25, it is determined whether the value of CNT exceeds the total number of pages n, and if it does not, the process advances to step S26. In step S26, the image memories 14 and 14a are cleared.

Next, in step S27, color image data is created in which the text portions of each item of the text data 38 of the page designated by the counter CNT are corrected with a dark color, and the background portion, for example, is corrected with a light color. Furthermore, from the resulting color image data, multivalued image data (
A monochrome image is created and stored in the image memory 14.

Next, in step 528, it is determined whether there is page data for the current page, and if there is no page data, the process advances to step S31, which will be described later.

If there is page data, the page data of the current page is read in step S29, and in the next step S30, the item to be corrected in light color is extracted, and the color information of the item is corrected in light color to create color image (multi-value) data. do. Then, the brightness of each pixel is determined from the resulting color image data, and the obtained brightness and darkness image data is stored in the image memory l4.
memorize it over and over again.

Next, in step S31, the black and white multi-value image data (represented by bright and dark gradations) stored in the image memory 14 is converted into a bright and dark binary image by dither conversion, for example, by the binarization circuit l9. In step S32,
The image data is stored in the image memory 14a. Next, in steps 833 to S34, the image data of the current page is processed for dark color correction, but in this embodiment, the pixels of the image data to be dark color corrected are always It shall be converted to “dark” (
In the dark color correction of equation (1), if C is set to a sufficiently large value, such a conversion is achieved).

In step S32, an item for dark color correction is extracted from the main text data 38 of the current page, and as described above, this item is set to a binary value so that if each pixel is colored, it becomes "dark". In step S31, the image data is superimposed and stored in the image memory 14a in which the data is already stored.

Next, in step 333, it is determined whether there is page data for the current page, and if there is no page data, the process proceeds to step S35, which will be described later.
If there is page data (at this time, the page data has already been read in step S29), step S34
Extract the items to be corrected for dark colors in the page data, and if each pixel of this image has a color, it is "dark".
Binary image data is created so as to be superimposed on the image memory 14a and output.

In step S35, the contents of the image memory 14a are outputted by the monochrome binary output section 18a. Next, step S36
The page counter CNT is incremented by one, and the processes of steps S26 to S36 are repeated until all pages (n) have been output. If the value of CNT exceeds the total number of pages, the process is terminated as determined in step S25.

Here, in order to more clearly distinguish between the text part, the background color, and the image part, the text part is simply binarized using a threshold value, and other image data and the background part are processed using the dither method. Binarization processing may be performed.

In the above embodiment, the image memory 14, the image memory 1
4a each stores image data for one page, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, if the output section can output images half a page at a time, the capacity of these image memories will be reduced by half. It is sufficient to be able to store images for each page, and instead of processing each page in the processing procedure of the above embodiment (Figures 5 and 6), it is necessary to change the process to process each half of each page. Bye.

Further, the items to be subjected to dark color correction are not limited to character data. For example, if a table or a line graph exists in the document data, and the ruled lines of the table or the line of the graph are specified in color, these may be corrected in dark colors. This allows tables, graphs, etc. to be clearly distinguished from other items when reproduced using the monochrome output section.

Further, the output section in this embodiment may be any device capable of outputting an image in a single color, such as a printer or a CRT.

As explained above, according to this embodiment, each item of a color original image is corrected for density according to the item, and when the image data is converted into monochrome image data and reproduced on the monochrome output unit, for example, Characters and front portions of the original image can be distinguished from the background color and image data portions.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, when converting color image information into monochrome image data, the brightness of color information of each item of the image data is corrected to be different depending on the item. By converting the image data into a monochrome image signal and outputting it, even if the image data is output to a monochrome output device,
For example, it has the effect of displaying and outputting the text portion of a color image so that it can be distinguished from other items.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the word processor of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of document data processed by the word processor of this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of document data processed by the word processor of this embodiment. Fig. 4 is a diagram showing the data structure of text data; Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of conversion from a color image to a monochrome image in the word processor of the embodiment; Fig. 6 is a diagram showing the structure of the text data; FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a word processor according to an embodiment, and FIG.
12 is a flowchart showing an example of conversion to binary image data). In the figure, l1... CPU, 12... program memory, l3... working memory, 14, 14a... image memory, l5... document buffer, 16... magnetic disk, l7... keyboard, l 8, l
8 a... Output section, 30... Header section, 31...
Body part, 32... Page management table, 33... Page data part, 34... Format data, 38... Body data, 41... Attribute, 42... Text data. Fig. 3 Fig. 6

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) An image processing device that converts color image information including document information and image information into monochromatic image information and outputs the same, the color of the text portion of the document information being determined from the color of other portions of the color image information. a first conversion means for converting the color of the non-text portion of the document information and the image information into a color lighter than the color of the text portion; An image processing device characterized by: (2) Claim characterized in that the darkest color information converted by the second conversion means is brighter than the lightest color information converted by the first conversion means. The image processing device according to item 1.