JPH03296869A - Method for inputting ellipse in image processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To form and input an ellipse to be just superposed to an ellipse plotted on an allocated board on the same position with the same size by specifying four upper, lower, right, and left contact points of an ellipse to input four tangents and forming and inputting the ellipse inscribed with a rectangle formed by the four tangents. CONSTITUTION:An ellipse forming command is specified and inputted from a menu screen, a contact point A on the ellipse plotted on the allocated board is clicked with a mouse button to input the 1st tangent 21, the 2nd tangent 22 which is the opposite side of the 1st tangent 21 is inputted by clicking a contact point B with the mouse button. The 3rd tangent 23 is inputted by clicking a contact point C with the mouse button and the 4th tangent to be the opposite side of the line 23 is inputted by clicking a contact point D. The rectangle 20 formed by the four tangents 21 to 24 is formed and the ellipse 20A inscribed with the rectangle 20 is formed.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Purpose of the Invention: (Industrial Application Field) This invention reads a character image and a picture image of a layout mount (block mount rough designation paper, etc.), and then layouts and outputs the image. The present invention relates to an ellipse input method for creating and inputting an ellipse having the same size and exact shape at one position as an ellipse drawn on a layout board in an image processing system.

(Prior art) As an image processing system for printing companies that demand high quality, conventionally there is no system that comprehensively integrates and edits images such as characters and designs, or even if it exists, the ability is low and it is not practical. It wasn't on point. In particular, the field of desktop publishing is becoming possible with page description languages such as Bossflift, but the capabilities and performance in the field of images are low. Systems for printing companies also exist, but they are not sufficient to handle large amounts of data at high speeds. The reason for this is that there is too much data to process for processing by CPU (software), a description language for integrated processing of a single character image, resulting in a lack of performance. . To create a printing block, if you want to output only code data, you must convert each character to a bitmap and also develop it into a bitmap every few rasks in advance. All or part of the image is stored in a temporary buffer and sent to the output device, and in order to reduce the memory capacity of the buffer, the output device waits while the image is stored in the output image buffer. It has become.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, with the device described above, it is not possible to layout and output text and pictures at the same time, and even if a character bitmap is laid out in advance on the buffer that outputs the bitmap, this cannot be realized. The drawback was that it took a lot of time. Alternatively, text and pictures are output on separate vapor or film, and an operator cuts out the paper on the vapor or film. For this reason, repeated operations such as exposure and printing are many and time consuming, and the photosensitive deposits produced intermediately are wasted.

Furthermore, when inputting an ellipse using a pointing device such as a mouse, the conventional method is to input the center, major axis, and minor axis of the ellipse, or to input the circumscribed rectangle of the ellipse using two diagonal points. It is. However, when inputting the same size and position as an ellipse already drawn on the block mount, the former method makes it difficult to accurately input the center of the ellipse, while the latter method It was difficult to input the vertices accurately.

This invention was made due to the above-mentioned circumstances.
An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing system that electronically interactively edits a large amount of character and picture image data at high speed, so that the image data can be shaped exactly at one position and the same size as an ellipse drawn on a layout board. An object of the present invention is to provide an ellipse input method for creating and inputting an ellipse.

Structure of the Invention: (Means for Solving the Problems) This invention halftones and compresses the density data of an image read by a human-powered device, and temporarily stores the compressed image data in a buffer. an input controller, a workstation configured to edit code information edited by an editing input device and the image data on a screen using an input operation means and a display means; A file server connected by a bus line for storing the image data, the code information, and the edited data screen-edited at the workstation in a storage means, and a file server for reading out the edited data stored in the storage means and necessary The present invention relates to an ellipse input method in an image processing system equipped with an imagesetter that performs data processing and outputs the image to an image output device. When the print image is manually stored in the storage means and outputted to the image output device by fitting the print image into an ellipse drawn on a layout board for printing or by covering it inside the ellipse, the print image is output to the image output device. When the ellipse is manually drawn at the station, the input operation means is used to specify four contact points on the top, bottom, left, and right of the ellipse to manually draw the four tangents, and an ellipse inscribed in the rectangle formed by the four tangents is created manually. This is achieved by Further, a print image is inputted using the input device and stored in the storage means, and the print image is inserted into an ellipse drawn on a layout board for printing, or the print image is shaded inside the ellipse, and the print image is When outputting to an output device, when the ellipse is manually generated at the workstation, the input operation means is used to specify two contact points on the top and bottom or left and right sides of the ellipse, and one of the remaining two contact points is used to specify the ellipse. This can also be achieved by automatically calculating one contact point that has not been calculated, and creating an ellipse that passes through the specified three contact points and the automatically calculated contact point.

(Function) The image processing system of the present invention consists of a human controller, a file server, an imagesetter, and a workstation, each of which is equipped with an independent CPII (microprocessor, microcomputer, etc.), so each part can be operated independently. It is possible to realize high-speed and efficient image processing, and to perform comprehensive interactive editing of the information on the layout board, as well as patterns and characters, to minimize the memory capacity and image processing. From the output device, a high quality image or halftone can be fitted into the elliptical shape of the layout mount and obtained as a hard copy or printing plate. In addition, when inputting an ellipse drawn on a layout mount from a workstation, the circumscribed rectangle of the ellipse can be accurately input by sequentially inputting 4 or 3 contact points, and the ellipse drawn on the layout mount can be input based on this circumscribed rectangle. We created an ellipse with the same size and shape as the ellipse in the same position, so that it could be done manually.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an image processing system that is the premise of this invention, in which one character, nine figures, and a manuscript such as a layout board are read with an input device 1 such as a scanner. The density data DD of the obtained image is input to the input controller 100.
The human controller 100 uses the built-in CPI
The human power density data DD is halftone-ized by a halftone-dotting circuit 102 via the IIOI, further compressed by a compression circuit 103, and then temporarily stored in a buffer 104, and then transferred via a 5csr lotus to the magnetic field of the file server 200. tape 2
10 or hard disks 220, 221, -...
・Stored in. The input controller 100 has a local disk (hard disk) 1o5 for temporarily storing data. The file server 200 has a CPU 201 and is connected to other devices via interfaces 202-205.

Further, the code information CD of characters etc. obtained by the editing input device 2 such as a word processor or typesetting machine is stored on the floppy disk 3 and then read out and sent to the workstation 3.
00 is input. The workstation 300 has a CRT 301 as a display means and a keyboard 3o2 as a manual operation means. Mouse 306 and digitizer 303
and a hard disk 304 as a storage means. The workstation 300 has multiple sets of terminal devices each having a floppy disk 305, and each workstation 300 has an Ethernet connection.
It is mutually connected to the file server 200 via. The image data thinned out for CR7 display (for example, 100 dpi) obtained by the input controller 100, the stylish data, and the image data for outline display are stored on a magnetic tape 210 or hard disks 220, 221. ... are stored together with unthinned high-density data for image output, and the thinned data is read out via the 5C5I bus and transferred to the workstation 300 via the interfaces 204 and 202@. Control commands and the like between the human controller 100 and the like are transferred via the auxiliary data line 4 to the interface 200 of the file server 200.
The file server 200 further includes an imagesetter 400.
is connected. Imagesetter 400 has a CPU
401 is provided and is connected to the auxiliary data line 5 of the file server 200 via an interface 402 and to the 5C5I bus via an interface 403. The imagesetter 400 further includes a sequencer 410 and a buffer 411 for storing necessary data, and the imagesetter 400 has a high-quality output device 10 that outputs high-quality images (for example, 120 HPi) and a relatively low-quality image pressure. Laser beam printer 1 that performs
1 is connected. In addition, the hard disk 220,2
Fixed data (bitmap data) such as a logo, aperture amount, etc., and vector font data for character output are stored in advance in 21-.

Input device @1 allows for pictures (halftone images), line drawings, character drawings (2
Both value images) are digitized as density data (8 bits/pixel). The input controller 100 converts the input signal of 8 bits/pixel into halftone dots to generate information of 4 bits/pixel.

A binary image is converted to 1 bit/pixel information. Furthermore, although characters are input as codes from the workstation 300, they may also be input as images from the input device 1. Therefore, when input as an image, even characters are treated as an image (bitmap data).

All image output is performed by the imagesetter 400, but since the imagesetter 400 converts all code and vector information into bitmap data, the term image output is used to mean outputting bitmap data. become.

The image processing system described above does not require manual pasting of drawings, photographs, etc., and also eliminates manual phototypesetting, so it is effective in terms of labor and material savings.

Here, details of the input controller 100 will be explained with reference to FIG. 2. The input controller 100 converts the density data DD inputted from the input device 1 into high-density data for the high-quality output device 10 and the laser beam printer+1. Five sets of data are simultaneously generated and processed: data for the image, two types of data for display on the CRT 301 of the workstation 300, and image data coarse enough to show the outline. This is because the overall speed can be increased by performing simultaneous and parallel processing, and the data generation calculation load of the CPt 1101 can be reduced by hardware. That is, high-density data for the high-quality output device 10 is halftone-ized by a halftone-dotting circuit 1021, compressed by a compression circuit 1031, and the compressed data is temporarily stored in a buffer 1041. In addition, data for outputting an image by the laser beam printer 11, which has a relatively low image quality, is obtained by thinning the density data DD at a predetermined interval (for example, 1/3) (110), and converting the coarse data into halftone dots by a halftone dot forming circuit 1022. compression circuit 103
2 and then temporarily stored in a buffer 1042. Further, two types of coarser data to be displayed on the CRT 301 are obtained by thinning the density data DD at predetermined intervals and then using the dot forming circuits 1023 and 10, respectively.
24 and temporarily stored in buffers 1043 and 1044, respectively. In the case of a line drawing for which a cutout mask is created from the halftone image, the image data is thinned out after Laplacian processing or unsharp mask processing that shows contour data. (113), and then the binarization circuit 1025
The data is converted into a value and temporarily stored in a buffer 1045.

In such a configuration, the CPUl0I communicates with the input device 1 via a data line (not shown) and
It communicates with the file server 200 via auxiliary data line 4 and dual port RAM (not shown).

When there is a data transmission request from input device 1, C
PU10I sets necessary data for each circuit shown in FIG. 2, stores the setting data in the local disk 05, and further sets setting values related to sub-scanning.・Concentration data DO from the human-powered device 1 is input line by line,
Each circuit shown in Figure 2 is synchronized with the buffer +04 (
1041-+045). During this time, CPU10
I switches the 5csr bus, switches the data compression output buffer 1041, and checks the presence or absence of error information from various circuits. The data stored in the -degree buffer 104 and local disk 105 is sorted by the command of CPLIIOI and output to the external 5C5I bus.

The configuration of the file server 200 is as shown in FIG. 1, and this file server 200 has common file management functions such as file management and file sharing, and communication control functions for network communication and inter-unit communication. ing. In other words, the file server 200 is 5C5I
Hard disks (220, 221...
), performs file management of the magnetic tape 210,
Workstation 300 via Ethernet
It also has a software interface function with the input controller 100 and imagesetter 400, and also performs a utility function for file management via the 5C5I bus based on the service of file management information for the input controller 100 and imagesetter 400. Examples include font registration and 5C5I disk garbage removal processing.

There are two types of font registration here. One is the registration of fonts owned by the system, and this registration involves storing vector fonts created with other font creation systems in the form of magnetic tape on the hard disk of this image processing system.

The other is the registration of external character fonts. External character fonts are characters that do not exist within the system. In this case, fonts created in other systems are registered in this system from a floppy or magnetic tape.

The file server 200 provides services for data transfer and data storage between the workstation 300, manual controller 100, and imagesetter 400, and the input controller 100 transfers various files via the auxiliary data line 4 and dual port RAM. Necessary information regarding area reservation and deletion is obtained from the file server 200. Buffer 1 in input controller 100
To register data that has been around for a while as a file in the image processing system, information such as the file name and file capacity is transferred to the file server 200, and the data is stored on the hard disks 220, 221. ... to access. This allows the file server 200 to
communication, disk area management, etc. The file server 200 also transfers file data to the workstation 300 and receives data from the workstation via Ethernet.

At this time, according to the command from the workstation 300, the file server 200 operates the hard disk (
220,...) and the magnetic tape 210, and updates necessary information such as directories. It also obtains commands to the imagesetter 400 and commands to the magnetic tape 210, and performs services accordingly. Furthermore, a predetermined command is sent to the imagesetter 400 via the auxiliary data line 5 and the dual baud 1-RAM, file management information is sent in response to a request from the imagesetter 400, and the disk data on the 5C5I bus is sent. The imagesetter 400 accesses directly. Furthermore, utility information related to the entire image processing system is stored on the hard disks 220, 221 . Manage and font information with...

Common files on the system correspond to such information.

Next, the operation of the workstation 300 will be explained with reference to the flow shown in FIG. 3. Document data edited and stored on the editing input device 2 is read out from the floppy disk 3 (step 5310), The code information CD is subjected to data format conversion (step 5311). And 1 to CRT301
Display the document contents for one page (step 5312),
The image data output position of the image read from the layout board etc. is set to the mouse 30B and the keyboard 302. The digitizer 303 (Step 5313) creates page description data for each page together with the layout frame (Step 531).
4).

Such data creation is performed for all pages (step 5315), and then an imposition instruction for creating a printing block is given using the keyboard 302 (step 5316).
, creates imposed page description data (step 5317). Then, the created data is transferred to the file server 200 (step 5318), and the image setter 400 is instructed to output an image, thereby terminating the operation (step 5319).

Next, an example of the imposition operation will be explained with reference to FIG.

The workstation 300 reads the interrupted image data from the hard disks 220, 221, . . . of the file server 200 (step 5330),
Read the document data from the floppy disk 3 (step 5331) and transfer it to the CRT 3 of the workstation 300.
Necessary information is displayed on the mouse 306. Keyboard 302. Operate the digitizer 303 to layout the frame for each image per page (step 5)
332). Then, in step 5333), the type of imposition registered in advance is specified using the keyboard 302, and each page of the specified imposition is displayed as a layout on the CRT 301 together with the page number. (Step 5334.

Here, registration of imposition is, for example, 4 layers of stratification or A
The number of pages is pre-marked and stored in consideration of folding when binding multiple pages, such as the 8th page of the 5th edition, and by selecting and specifying from the registered pages, A
~As in D, the imposition status is the number of pages (in B, “1”
”, “8”°゛5”, “4”). In this way, contents such as images and characters are not displayed, and the imagesetter 400 generates and outputs a bitmap according to the page description data (step 5335).

FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of an imagesetter 400, in which a sequencer 410 is connected to a CPυhas4]2 and an image data bus 413, and a logic operation circuit 4
20 and a first memory 421 are connected. Also, C.P.
The U bus 412 has a main memory 430 for the CPU 401.
is connected, and the common memory 424 is connected to the image data bus 4.
13, interfaces 402 and 40
3 is input to the CPIJ bus 412. C.P.
Between the II bus 412 and the image data bus 413 is a buffer 433 . Decompressor 440 and third memory 423 are connected, and buffers 434 . A raster image converter 431 and a second memory 422 are connected, and a buffer 435 and an output control circuit 436 are connected. C
A hector font memory 432 is connected to the PU bus 412, and an output buffer 436A is connected to the output control circuit 436.
through a high-quality output device 10 and a laser beam printer 1
1 is connected. Vector font memory 432 stores vector fonts necessary for generating character bitmaps by raster image converter 431. Usually vector fonts are disk (220, 22
1,...), but reading out vector fonts via the 5CSI bus every time a character bitmap is generated is inefficient, so all necessary vector fonts are read into the vector font memory 432 in advance. This improves the speed of character bitmap generation.

In such a configuration, the operation is as shown in FIG.
00 sends an output instruction request to the imagesetter 400, and the hard disks 220, 221 . The file name in ... is output as a parameter. The specifications to be output from now on are written in that file, and the specifications are sequentially decoded to calculate the address of the code data and compressed data for each vehicle position image, and the overlapping process using logical operations is repeated on the addresses. The processing results are stored in the first memory 421. The imagesetter 400 calls the parameter file via the 5C5I bus and returns this operation. For example, for code data, character meaning and position,
Instruction information such as font, size, etc. is 5C5I interface 4
03 (step 5400), is converted into a raster image by the raster image converter 431 via the buffer 434 (step 5401), and the rask image data is stored in the second memory 422 (step 5402). Also, the compressed image data is 5
The data is input via the interface 403 via the C5I bus (step 5403), and is decompressed and restored by the decompressor 440 via the buffer 433 (step 540).
4) The restored image data is stored in the third memory 423.
(Step 5405). Further, bitmap data such as logos stored in the hard disks 220221, . . . are input via the interface 403 (step 5405) and stored in the common memory 424 (step 5407). The data stored in the second memory 422 to the common memory 424 are all human map data, and these stored data are logically operated by the logical operation circuit 420 via the CPU 401 (step 5).
410), data that has been logically operated to perform compositing, editing, or image processing of pictures, documents, etc. is stored in the first memory 421 (step 5411). After the data is stored in the first memory 421, it is determined whether or not it is finished, that is, whether there is any modification, addition, etc. (step 5412), and the above operation is continued until the logical operation such as modification is completed. This logical operation circuit 420 performs logical operations such as sum, product, exclusive OR of bitmap data generated from character code data, hitmap data expanded from compressed image data, and bitmap data with CPL 1401 and 1h. It works to generate image information to be outputted to the output device 10 or laser beam printer 11.

In the above-mentioned image processing system, an ellipse is manually created to have the same size and the same position as the ellipse drawn on the layout board, and an input device is used to read the ellipse inside the created ellipse. If you want to insert or hide an image, please refer to the seventh
Workstation 3 according to the flowchart shown in the figure.
Enter the ellipse with 00.

That is, by inputting an ellipse creation command from the menu screen displayed on the CRT screen using a keyboard, mouse, etc. (step 51), the ellipse drawn on the layout board is
Input the first tangent line 21 by clicking the mouse button on the contact point A in FIG. 8 (Δ) (step S2),
The second tangent 22 on the opposite side of the input first tangent 21 is
This is done manually by clicking contact point B in Figure (8) with a mouse button (step S3). Furthermore, a third tangent line 23 is inputted by clicking the mouse button on the contact point C of FIG. 4th of
The tangent line 2+e is input by clicking the contact point in FIG. Form a rectangle as shown in figure (E),
An ellipse 2OA inscribed in this quadrangle 20 is created (step S6), and the read image is fitted into the created ellipse or shaded (step 57). The quality of this result is determined (step 58); if it is OK, the operation ends; if it is not, the process returns to step S2 and the above operation is repeated.

On the other hand, FIG. 9 shows an example of manually creating an ellipse using three points. First, use the keyboard, mouse, etc. to manually enter the ellipse creation command from the menu screen displayed on the CRT screen (Step 510), %l tangent 31 manually by clicking the mouse button on the contact point a in Figure 10 (8).
11), Figure 1O (B) is placed on the opposite side of the input first contact a.
The second tangent line 32 is manually drawn by specifying the second contact point as shown in (step 512).

Then, as shown in FIG. 10 (C1), find the midpoint C of the line segment connecting the first contact point a and the second contact point S, and set this midpoint C as the center of the newly created ellipse (step 513).Next Then, draw a horizontal line and a vertical line passing through the center C obtained as above as shown in Figure 10 (D), correct the input contact points a and b in the horizontal and vertical directions, and find the point a on this orthogonal line. " and b" (step 514). Then, manually select one contact d from the remaining two contacts as shown in FIG. Correct it in the vertical direction to a point d° on the orthogonal line passing through the center C (
step 516). Corrected third contact point d° and center point C
Then, find the fourth contact point e (step S] 7), convert the input and corrected four contact points to 8°, an ellipse 30 passing through b', d', and e.
(Step 518), insert the read image into the created ellipse or hide it (Step 5)
19). To judge the quality of this result, step 520),
If the value is 0, the operation ends, and if not, the process returns to step 511 and the above operation is repeated.

Effects of the Invention: As described above, according to the ellipse manual method of the present invention, when inputting at the same size and position as the ellipse drawn on the layout board, it is possible to input efficiently and accurately.

A lock diagram, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of its operation,
7 and 589 are flowcharts showing the elliptical manual method of the present invention, and FIGS.
FIGS. 0(^) to 0(E) are diagrams for explaining the operations of FIGS. 7 and 9, respectively.

1...Human power device, 2...Editing input machine, 3...Floppy disk, lO...High quality output machine, 100...
・Human controller, 200...File server, 3
00...Workstation, 301...CRT
, 302...keyboard, 303...digitizer, 306...mouse, 400...image setter, 101,201.401...cpu.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An input controller configured to halftone and compress density data of an image read by an input device and temporarily store the compressed image data in a buffer; A workstation is configured to edit the code information and the image data edited by the input device on the screen using an input operation means and a display means, and the workstation is connected to the input controller and the workstation by a bus line, and the image data is , a file server for storing the code information and the edited data screen-edited at the workstation in a storage means; and an image output device that reads the edited data stored in the storage means and performs necessary data processing. In an image processing system comprising an imagesetter configured to output an image, the input device inputs a print image and stores it in the storage means, and the image setter outputs an image within an ellipse drawn on a layout sheet for printing. When inputting the ellipse at the workstation when outputting the printed image to the image output device by fitting the print image into the ellipse or by covering it inside the ellipse, the input operation means selects four contact points on the top, bottom, left and right of the ellipse. 1. An ellipse input method for an image processing system, characterized in that four tangents are manually created by instructing , and an ellipse inscribed in a rectangle formed by the four tangents is created and input. 2. An input controller that halftones and compresses the density data of the image read by the input device and temporarily stores this compressed image data in a buffer, and A workstation is connected to the input controller and the workstation by a bus line, and the workstation is configured to edit the screen of the code information and the image data using an input operation means and display means, and the workstation is connected to the input controller and the workstation by a bus line, A file server for storing edited data screen-edited on a workstation in a storage means, and a file server for reading out the edited data stored in the storage means, performing necessary data processing, and outputting an image to an image output device. In an image processing system equipped with an imagesetter, the input device inputs a print image, stores it in the storage means, and fits the print image into an ellipse drawn on a layout board for printing. or when inputting the ellipse at the workstation when outputting the ellipse to the image output device with halftone dots inside the ellipse, specifying two contact points on the upper and lower or left and right sides of the ellipse with the input operation means, By specifying one of the remaining two contact points, the one contact point that is not specified is automatically calculated, and an ellipse that passes through the three specified contact points and the automatically calculated one contact point is created and input. An ellipse input method in an image processing system characterized by: