JPH04359281A - Printing system for map information drawing or the like - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the representing ability of print output by reduce the data initial input cost and employing gradational representation printing of a raster. CONSTITUTION:Map information data has data in a background-like layer for which a recognizing process is not necessary as raster data and data in other layers as vector data 31. A raster processing part 42 performs a thinning- out process or interpolating process for the raster data 30 according to printing specification data inputted from an input part 33 and when raster processing is performed by the raster printing part 51 of a printing part 50, density variation is enabled. Further, the vector data 31 are processed by a vector processing part 45 and overprinted in the area of the raster printing by the vector printing part 52 of the printing part 50.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing method for printing drawings of a map information system, and more particularly to a printing method useful for improving printing expressive ability.

0002

[Prior art] Conventional example 1. FIG. 4 shows how map information data having a hierarchical structure is printed out with the data of each layer superimposed. In the figure, numeral 1 represents each hierarchical data in vector format, and numeral 3 represents a drawing printout in which these data are superimposed.

[0003] All print data is vector format data, and all data to be printed, such as roads, houses, administrative division lines, etc., is vectorized. When printing vectorized data, it is possible to express a hierarchical structure by printing out a different color for each layer of data, but the printing ability is limited by the number of colors that can be output by the printing device. limited. In addition, it is very costly and time-consuming to vectorize the data of all layers to be printed from the input source map.

Conventional example 2. In order to compensate for such drawbacks of conventional printing methods, there is a technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-231176. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the map information retrieval device, which includes a first storage unit 17 that stores map information as a raster image, and a second storage unit 15 that stores attribute information corresponding to the map information as vector information. and,
a display means 18 for displaying display information; a designation means 19 for designating the display information displayed on the display means; and a display means 19 for displaying search information on the display means and responding to the search information specified by the designation means. The present invention is characterized by comprising: a control means 16 for searching the map information and the attribute information and displaying it on the display means; and an output means 20 for printing out the map information and attribute information displayed on the display means. A map information retrieval device is shown. In this device, a raster image and vector information are displayed on the display means, and when "double-sided copy" is specified in this display state, the entire displayed image information is transferred to the control means 1.
6, the image is detected from the image memory in the control means, is supplied to the printer device 20 via the interface circuit, and is printed. The overlapping printing in this prior art is a hard copy of the display screen, and is ultimately a raster image printout. That is, although the original data is vector + raster, it will be treated as raster data during printing.

[0005]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] The problem with conventional example 1 of printing map information drawings is that all data in a hierarchical structure must be vectorized, and a large amount of cost is incurred even for data that has only the meaning of the background. There was a point. Further, there is a problem in that the print expression capability is limited by the number of colors that can be output by the output device.

Furthermore, in the printing method of the map information retrieval device of Conventional Example 2, since the raster image displayed on the screen is printed as a hard copy, the beauty of the output result of vector data is lost, and the amount of data for one screen is lost. The drawback was that it could only print .

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to use the original data separated into vector and raster data as print data in print output, and to print the data in a low-cost manner. Another object of the present invention is to provide a method that allows the printed output to express gradations.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides at least one piece of hierarchical structure data.
It is characterized in that data in two layers is in raster format, and processing such as thinning of the raster is performed during printing, and it has the following elements. (a) A storage section that stores data to be printed as raster data and vector data, (b) An input section that specifies print specifications such as print range and scale, (c) Based on the print specifications specified in the input section, (d) a raster processing unit that selects raster data stored in the storage unit and creates raster data for printing; (d) selects vector data stored in the storage unit based on print specifications specified in the input unit; , a vector processing unit that creates vector data for printing, and (e) a printing unit that inputs and prints the raster data and vector data for printing created by the raster processing unit and the vector processing unit, respectively.

[0009]

[Function] In the present invention, for example, when printing, it is possible to rasterize hierarchical data that has only background meaning to reduce input costs, and when printing in raster,
Gradation expression can be achieved by specifying the number of raster data to be thinned out by the raster processing unit.

0010

【Example】

Example 1. An embodiment of this invention will be described below. Figure 1
, 30 is raster data stored in a storage device, etc., 31 is vector data, also stored in a storage device, etc., 32 is a scanner for reading data as an image, and 33 is a keyboard, etc. for inputting printing specifications. 40 is a processing unit for printing raster data 30 and vector data 31; 41 is a processing unit for printing raster data 30;
and a range specifying section for specifying and extracting a range from the vector data 31; 42 a raster processing section for processing the raster data 30 and creating raster data for printing;
3 is a thinning unit that thins out the raster data 30;
44 is an interpolation unit that interpolates between each raster of the raster data 30; 45 is a vector processing unit that enlarges or reduces the vector data 31 to create vector data for printing; 46
50 is a printing section; 51 is a raster printing section that inputs and prints raster data; 52 is a vector printing unit that inputs vector data and prints it.

Next, the operation will be explained. Data to be printed is read by a scanner 32 and stored in advance as raster data 30 or vector data 31. Here, to make the explanation easier to understand, we will use the background of the map,
It is assumed that roads, houses, administrative division lines, etc. are stored in advance as raster data 30, and equipment such as water and sewerage pipe layouts and telephone line layouts are stored as vector data. Using the input unit 33, the user inputs the print specifications of the data he or she needs. Here, the printing specifications include the following. (1) Print range Specify the print range by specifying the latitude and longitude of the map, town name, and ward name. (2) Specify the scale for printing, such as 1/50,000 or 1/100,000. (3) What to print For example, specify printing of only the map and water and sewage pipe layout, or printing of only the map, water and sewage pipe layout, and telephone line layout. (4) Specifying density and color Specify the print density and print color of the object specified in the print object above. For example, specify that maps be printed in light color, water lines in light blue, sewer lines in brown, and telephone lines printed in thick dotted lines.

As described above, when printing specifications are input from the input section 33, each section of the processing section 40 operates as follows. (1) Operation of range specifying unit 41. The range specifying unit 41 receives data regarding the print range from the input unit 33, selects and extracts raster data 30 and vector data 31 within the specified print range, and selects and extracts raster data 30 and vector data 31 within the specified print range.
Raster data 30 is output to a raster processing section 42, and vector data 31 is output to a vector processing section 45. (2) Operation of the raster processing unit 42. The raster processing unit 42 determines the raster processing operation based on the following points. First, it is determined whether the scale specified by the input unit 33 matches that of the current raster data, and if reduction is required, the raster data is thinned out by the thinning unit 43. For example, to reduce data from 1/50,000 to 1/100,000, select every other piece of raster data and create reduced raster data for printing. On the other hand, when it is necessary to enlarge, the rasters of the raster data are interpolated to create enlarged raster data for printing. Next, the raster processing unit 42 determines the density of the print target inputted by the input unit 33, and performs thinning or interpolation depending on the density. For example, if there are three types of density: light, medium, and dark, if light is specified, every other density will be thinned out. If inside is specified, print normally. If dark is specified, interpolation will be performed if possible, and if interpolation is not possible,
Specify to perform double striking when printing. (3) Operation of the vector processing unit 45. The vector processing section 45 corrects the vector data based on the scale specified by the input section 33. Specifically, the coordinate positions of the start point, end point, etc. are changed to match the specified scale. In addition, control codes such as thickness, line type, color specification, etc. of each vector are added and changed to match the density and color specification of the printing target, and vector data for printing is created. (4) Operation of the overlap processing unit 46. The overlapping processing unit 46 specifies that the raster data for printing from the raster processing 42 and the vector data for printing from the vector processing unit 45 can be printed in the same area in an overlapping manner, and also sends these data to the printing unit 50. Output.

The printing section 50 is composed of a color plotter or the like that has both an interface for drawing vector data and an interface for drawing raster data, and includes a raster printing section 51 that prints raster data and a vector printing section 52 that prints vector data. We are prepared. Here, based on the designation of the overlapping processing section 46 of the processing section 40, the raster data and vector data are printed in the same area in an overlapping manner by the raster printing section 51 and the vector printing section 52, respectively.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific example, where 1 is hierarchical data in vector format, and 2 is hierarchical data in raster format. 3 is a printed output of these overlaid.

[0015] The raster format data 2 is hierarchical data such as a topographic map that requires only the positional relationship with other data to be known when printing out and does not require vectorization for recognition processing or the like. be. By using these in raster format, it is possible to reduce the input cost during data generation.

In print output 3, by changing the number of lines to be thinned out when printing raster format data,
It becomes possible to express gradations even with one color. Furthermore, with this feature, by lowering the gradation of raster data, important vector data can be highlighted and printed.

As described above, in this embodiment, in printing a plurality of data based on a map, the printing of vector data and the printing of raster data are superimposed, and the printing of raster data is performed by thinning processing or We have explained a printing method for map information drawings that enables density expression through interpolation processing, etc.

As described above, according to this embodiment, there is no need to process vector data and raster data into raster data as shown in Conventional Example 2 before printing. Therefore, the original data, which is divided into vector and raster data, can be used as print data as is. Also, since it is not a hard copy of the screen, the area displayed on the screen,
Printing can be done regardless of the scale, and there is no need to display anything just for printing.

Example 2. In the first embodiment, the background of the map, roads, houses, administrative division lines, etc. are stored as one raster data 30, but the raster data does not have to be limited to only one layer; The layers may be composed of raster data. FIG. 4 shows a case in which road raster data 2a and house raster data 2b are input separately using the scanner 32 and stored separately as raster data, and the data is printed overlappingly. This shows the case of overprinting. To make the road darker, as described above, when inputting the print specifications in the input section 33, it is sufficient to designate the road printing as dark as the density specification of the print target, and the raster processing section 42 performs the process of increasing the density. . For example, the density can be changed by double striking, interpolation processing, etc.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, data input costs are reduced by rasterizing some data, and gradation can be expressed by changing the density of raster.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a printing method in the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram of a print data format of a map information drawing in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a print data format of a map information drawing in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram of a print data format of a conventional map information drawing.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a conventional map information search device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Vector format data 2 Raster format data 3 Overlay print output 30 Raster data 31 Vector data 32 Scanner 33 Input section 40 Processing section 41 Range specification part 42 Raster processing section 43 Thinning part 44 Interpolation section 45 Vector processing section 46 Overlap processing section 50 Printing Department 51 Raster printing department 52 Vector printing department

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: A printing method for map information drawings, etc., having the following elements: (a) a storage unit that stores data to be printed as raster data and vector data; (b) input for specifying print specifications such as print range and scale; (c) a raster processing unit that selects the raster data stored in the storage unit and creates raster data for printing based on the print specifications specified in the input unit; (d) a raster processing unit that selects the raster data stored in the storage unit based on the print specifications specified in the input unit; a vector processing unit that selects vector data stored in the storage unit and creates vector data for printing based on printing specifications; (e) a raster processing unit; and raster data for printing created by the vector processing unit. Print section that inputs and prints vector data.