JPH04165757A - Method and device for processing image - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To synthesize character image data and photographic image data to print out a synthesized image by reading out only the character image data in a 1st processing, and while reading out only the photographic image data in a 2nd processing, synthesizing both the data. CONSTITUTION:The coordinates of a photographic image area are inputted to an original 53 by a digitizer 64, only a character image area excluding the photographic area is read out as a binary image at the 1st image reading based upon a scanner 50. Proper image processing is applied to the character image and the processed image is stored. Then, the original 53 is read out again by the scanner 50. In the 2nd reading, only the photographing area is read out, and during the reading of the photographic area, the already processed and stored character image data are synchronously read out. Thereby, the photographic image area corresponding to a blank area in the character reading can be read out in the 2nd scanning and both the data are synthesized and printed out.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an image processing method in which a document containing character images and photographic images is read with a scanner, subjected to appropriate image processing, and outputted to a printer, and this method. The present invention relates to an image processing device that is used directly to implement the method.

(Technical background of the invention) A manuscript is read by a scanner, and an image is colored based on the read image, a part of the image is cut out and edited, a part of the image is cut out, and a part of the image is combined with other images, and various image processing is performed. An image processing apparatus has been proposed that outputs the image data to a printer. Here, a manuscript may contain a mixture of images consisting only of binary images such as characters and drawings (hereinafter referred to as character images) and multivalued images with halftone density such as photographs (hereinafter referred to as photographic images). be. For text images, it is sufficient to binarize with emphasis on resolution rather than gradation expression, but for photographic images, gradation expression is more important than resolution. Therefore, it is conceivable to read this character image as a multivalued image in the same way as a photographic image, but in this case, the memory capacity would be excessive and the image processing would be extremely complicated. Although it is conceivable to convert a photographic image into binary image information using a dither method, a density pattern method, or the like, there is a limit to the reproducibility of the photographic image with this method, and image deterioration is unavoidable.

Therefore, it has been considered to store text images and photographic images in separate memories (binary memory and multi-value memory) and to combine and output the two (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 15896-1589).
8). However, this method also requires a multilevel memory for storing photographic images, and there is a problem in that the memory capacity becomes considerably large.

(Objective of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is possible to perform desired image processing on a character image and to combine the two without deteriorating the image quality of a photographic image. A first object of the present invention is to provide an image processing method that can be printed out.

A second object of the present invention is to provide an image processing device that can be used directly to implement this method.

(Structure of the Invention) According to the present invention, a first object is to provide an image processing method for reading and printing out a manuscript including character image data and photographic image data, in which only character image data is read by the -th image reading; The image processing apparatus is characterized in that, while the image is processed and stored in memory as necessary, by a second image reading, only the photographic image data is read and combined with the character image data, and an image including the character image and the photographic image is printed out. This is achieved by an image processing method.

Here, the text image and photo image areas can be configured to be input using a digitizer prior to the first image reading.

A second object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus that reads a document including text images and photographic images, performs image processing, and prints out the document. a digitizer for specifying an image processing area; a processing command means for commanding image processing contents for the character image; and a memory for performing the commanded image processing on the character image read by the scanner for the first time. This is achieved by an image processing apparatus characterized in that it is equipped with a processing means for processing the stored image data, and a printer for combining the stored image data with a photographic image read by the scanner for the second time and printing it out.

Here is the character image read for the first time by the scanner,
An image monitor may be provided for displaying at least one of the image processing contents commanded by the processing command means and the image processing area input by the digitizer (the display on this monitor is such that the coordinates specified by the digitizer are displayed on the monitor). It is desirable to move the coordinates to approximately the center of the image so that the displayed image can be enlarged and displayed.

(Operation) The original is converted into a photographic image area by a digitizer.
coordinates are input, and when the image is read by the scanner for the -th time, this photo area is excluded and the text image area (text area) is read.
only is read as a binary image. This character image is subjected to appropriate image processing, such as coloring and editing, and then stored in memory.

Next, the original is read by the scanner again. In this second reading, only the photo area is read, and character image data that has already been processed and stored in memory at this time of reading is read out synchronously. As a result, the blank photographic image area in the character image data is read by this second scan, and both data are combined and printed out.

(Example) Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing its internal structure, Fig. 3 is a side perspective view, Fig. 4 is a front perspective view, and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention. The figure shows the upper surface of the scanner presser cover, FIG. 6 is a block diagram, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the operation.

First, the arrangement structure of each part will be explained based on FIGS. 1 to 4. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a horizontally elongated casing, and this casing 1
0 is kept horizontal by a pair of left and right feet 12.12. The upper surface of the casing 10 has a shape m14 that can be opened and closed upward. The lower portions of the legs 12.12 are connected by a member 16, and a rack 18 for receiving printed sheets is hooked onto this member 16.

A printer 20 is housed inside the housing 10, as shown in FIG. 2.3. This printer 20 includes a paper feed roll 22 and a platen 24, which are arranged laterally in parallel. This platen 24 is located in front of the paper feed roll 22, and the paper 26 pulled out from the lower edge of the paper feed roll 22 is hooked onto the platen 24, rotated, and guided downward from the front edge of the platen 24. The platen 24 is belt driven by a feed motor 28.

The printer 20 includes a print head 30 that runs left and right along the front surface of the platen 24. This print head 30 is guided by a guide rod 32 and is driven by a carriage motor 34.
It is sent left and right by a belt 36 wrapped around the. In this embodiment, the print head 30 is of an inkjet type, and at its return position (home position), the ink ejection nozzle is closed by a capping portion 38 to prevent the ink ejection nozzle from drying out and to clean it.

Reference numeral 40 denotes a waste liquid tank that collects waste liquid (waste ink) ejected into the cabin portion 38 for cleaning. The print head 30 is equipped with ink tanks and nozzles for four colors: yellow, magenta, cyan, and black. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 42 indicates a printing area by this print head 30.

A cutter 44 is located below the platen 24 and cuts the print paper 26. That is, a fixed blade and a movable blade face each other with the printing paper 26 in between, and when the movable blade is moved by a motor, it moves toward the fixed blade and cuts the paper 26.

A scanner 50 is located on the right side of the top surface of the lid 14. The scanner 50 includes a presser cover 52 placed on the cover 14 from above, a conveyance mechanism that sandwiches the document 53 between the presser m52 and the cover 14 of the casing 10 from right to left, and a casing 1.
The CCD line sensor 54 housed in the 0 and the original 53
The image on the main scanning line perpendicular to the conveyance direction is guided to this line sensor 54 (includes an optical system).
As shown in the figure, it is composed of four feed rollers 56 that sandwich the original 53 from above and below and feed it from right to left, and the two rollers 56 of the casing 10 are rotationally driven by a motor (not shown). The optical system is composed of an appropriate number of mirrors 58 and lenses 60. Note that 62 is a light source.

64 is a digitizer, and the document 53 of this scanner 50 is
It is provided on the upper surface of the lid 14 adjacent to the discharge side, that is, the left side. This digitizer 64 includes a coordinate detection plate 66 and a stylus pen 68. The detection plate 66 has a resistor extending over the entire surface, and exclusion is detected from the change in resistance when the detection plate 66 is pressed with the tip of the stylus pen 68. For example, the upper right corner of the detection plate 66 is determined as a reference position, and the upper right corner of the document 26 is aligned and fixed to this reference position.

Reference numeral 70 denotes an image monitor consisting of a liquid crystal panel, and 72 a keyboard serving as a processing instruction means for instructing the content of image processing, which are attached to the upper surface of the presser cover 52 of the scanner 50. That is, as shown in FIG.
2 are arranged. The operation of this keyboard 72 will be described later. On the front side of the scanner 50, as shown in FIG. 1, a confirmation key 74, a start key 76, a print number entry key 78, and a mode switching key 90 are provided.

The mode switching key 9o is used to switch between a text mode and a photo mode depending on whether the document 53 includes only text images or photo images.

A printer 20, a scanner 50, a digitizer 64,
A monitor 70, a keyboard 72, and even keys 74.
76, 78, 90, etc. are connected to bus 82 via interfaces 80a-e, respectively (FIG. 6).

The ROM 86 stores an operating program for the CPU 84 as a processing means, various constants, and the like. bus 82
A CPL 184, ROM 86, RAM 88, etc. are also connected to. It may also be connected to another CPU or the like via this bus 82 to mutually transmit and receive image information.

(Operation) Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained using FIG. 5.7 and the like.

First, select the photo mode using the mode switching key 90 (FIG. 7, step 100), and place the document 53 containing a mixture of text and photos on the digitizer 6 with its front side (image side) facing up.
4 on the detection plate 66. Then, the reference position is aligned and fixed to the clip (step 102). In this state, the area of the photograph is specified using the stylus pen 68 (steps 104 and 106). This designation is performed by inputting the coordinates of the diagonal position of the area using the "2-point designation" method, and a display lamp indicating this manual method lights up (step 104), and when the designation is completed, this lamp goes out. A plurality of photo areas may be specified.

When the photo area is designated by the digitizer 64 in this way, the original 53 is set in the scanner 50 (step 2
00). That is, the original 53 is set in the right insertion slot of the scanner 50 with its front side (image side) facing down and its back side facing up. Then press the start key 76 to start the scanner 5.
0 starts, and while feeding the original 26 to the left, its lower surface (front surface)
The image is read by the line sensor 54 (step 202). In this case, only the area except the photo area manually entered by the digitizer 64, that is, the text area, is read. The read image data is image-processed by the CPU 84 and stored in the RAM 88, and is also sent to the monitor 70, where the image is displayed. This image consists only of a text area with a blank photo area.

The original 53 that has passed through the scanner 50 and is ejected to the left side of the presser cover 52 is placed face up on the detection plate 66 of the digitizer 64 adjacent to this ejection port, and the original 53 is placed at the reference position (upper right corner). The upper right corner of is set (step 204
).

Next, coloring is edited using the keyboard 72 or the like (step 206). First, the work contents for the image displayed on the monitor 70 are in modes 208A, 210A, and 2.
Choose from 12A. Mode 208A is selected when filling the area surrounded by lines in the image with a predetermined color (
Step 208). To fill in the area, press the one point designation key 214A (Step 21'4) and specify one point within the area to be filled in using the stylus pen 68 of the digitizer 64, and this area to be filled in will be input (Step 2).
16).

Mode 210A is selected when converting the color of a desired area (step 210), and two-point specification and multi-point specification can be selected as the method of specifying this area. The two-point designation is to designate the coordinates of the diagonal position of the area, and is designated using the two-point designation key 218A (step 218). Multi-point specification is to sequentially specify the corners of an area, and the multi-point specification key 22 is used.
Specify with OA (step 220). After inputting the area designation method using the keys 218A or 22OA in this manner, coordinates may be input from the digitizer 64 (step 216).

Mode 212A is for selecting a background painting operation that colors the background in an area including images and text (step 2).
12) The area specification method for this work is the 2-point specification key 222.
After designation is made using A or the multi-point designation key 224A (steps 222 and 224), coordinates are input from the digitizer 64 (step 216).

After the work area is input in this way, a pattern is specified (step 226). This designation is performed by pressing one of the standard pattern designation key group 226A or the registered pattern designation key group 226B. After designating the pattern, the color is designated (step 228). This color specification is performed by pressing one of the standard color key group 228A and the registered color key group 228B. When specifying the density of a color, specify it using the density key group 226C and then press the color specification key.

The work content and work area have been entered as described above, and if there is a correction to the input content, press the correction key 23OA to input it again, and if there is no correction, press the confirmation key 74 (Fig. 1) (step 230). .

The work data input through the above operations are stored in the RAM 88.

Although coloring has been described above as an editing task, it may also be used to perform other tasks such as enlarging/reducing images, cutting and pasting images, compositing photographic manuscripts and text manuscripts, etc. Of course.

Furthermore, in order to facilitate input operations such as editing, it is preferable that the display on the monitor 70 can be enlarged, for example, by three times. By specifying the enlarged position using the digitizer 64, it is desirable to automatically move the coordinates so that the specified position is located near the center of the monitor 70.

After setting the work content and work area, set the original 53 on the scanner 50 again (step 232), input the number of prints using the number input key 78, and then press the start key 7.
If 6 is pressed again, the scanner 50 and printer 20 are activated (step 234). Then, the scanner 50 reads the original 53
Only the photographic area is read as a multivalued image, and the printing paper 26 is fed. Here, the feeding of the original 53 and the feeding of the printing paper 26 are synchronized. The CPU 84 as a processing means combines the multi-valued image data of the photo area read by the scanner 50 into the blank photo area of the image-processed binary image data stored in the RAM 88, and creates this composite image. is printed on print 20. That is, the print head 30 moves left and right to perform color printing, and the printed paper 26 is collected in the rack 18 below the housing 10.

(Effect of the invention) As described above, the invention of claim (1) reads only the character area as a binary image by the -th image reading with the scanner, performs image processing as necessary, and stores it in memory. By reading the image with the scanner for the second time, only the photo image data is read as a multi-value image, and it is sequentially combined with the memorized character image and printed out, so there is no need for a multi-value memory to store the photo image data. , memory capacity can be significantly reduced. Furthermore, the image quality of the photographic area when read and printed as a multivalued image does not deteriorate.

The configuration can be simplified by manually inputting the photo area from the digitizer before reading the image for the first time (
Claim (2)).

Moreover, according to the invention of claim (3), an apparatus can be obtained that is directly used for carrying out this method.

Set up an image monitor here, and read it here for the second time.
When displaying a character image that has been scanned, the same number will be displayed.If at least one of the image processing range and processing content is displayed overlapping, work efficiency will be improved and accurate work will be easier.
Claim (4)).

It also allows you to enlarge the image displayed on this monitor,
If the position specified with the digitizer is placed in the center of the monitor, the work will be more accurate and easier (Claim (5))
.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing its internal structure, Fig. 3 is a side perspective view, the fourth section is a front perspective view, and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the scanner. FIG. 6 is a block diagram, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a typical operation. FIG. 4A is a front perspective view of another embodiment. 20...Printer, 50...Scanner, 54...Line sensor. 64... Digitizer, 70... Image monitor, 72... Keyboard as processing command means, 84...
・CPU as processing means, 88...RAM as memory.

Claims (5)

[Claims] (1) In an image processing method that reads and prints out a document containing text image data and photographic image data, only the text image data is read in the first image reading, processed as necessary and stored in memory; An image processing method characterized in that in the second image reading, only photographic image data is read and combined with the character image data, and an image including a character image and a photographic image is printed out. (2) Claim (1) in which the text image and photographic image areas are input by a digitizer prior to the first image reading.
image processing method. (3) An image processing device that reads a document including a text image and a photo image, performs image processing, and prints out the document, which includes a scanner that reads the document, a text image area, a photo image area, and an image processing area of the document. a digitizer for specifying a digitizer, a processing command means for commanding image processing contents for the character image, and a processing means for performing the commanded image processing on the character image read by the scanner for the first time and storing it in memory; , and a printer that combines the stored image data with a photographic image read by the scanner for the second time and prints out the combined image data. (4) In the image processing apparatus according to claim (3), a character image read for the first time by the scanner, and at least one of the image processing content instructed by the processing command means and the image processing area input by the digitizer. An image processing device including an image monitor for displaying images. (5) The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the displayed image can be enlarged by moving the coordinates specified by the digitizer to approximately the center of the monitor.