JPH05336351A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the operations and time for selecting the methods of a multi-valuing processing at the time of outputting image data. CONSTITUTION:A printer 101 is characterized by having plural multi-valuing means 103 performing multi-valued processings, a division means 102 dividing an image into plural proper blocks and a selection control means 104 of the multi-valued means selecting the multi-valued means at the time of performing multi-valued processing for each of plural divided blocks from plural multi- valued means 103 and performing the control of the multi-valued processing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device for outputting characters and images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When selecting an optimum multi-value conversion means for a printing device or image data and outputting the image data to the printing device, conventionally, only one multi-value conversion process is performed on one image data at a time. Could not be applied.

[0003]

However, if only one multi-value process can be performed on one piece of image data at the same time, an image of the processing result is displayed on a display device such as a display and the image is viewed. When the multi-value quantization process is selected by using a plurality of processed images, it takes a lot of time to select the optimum multi-value quantization means that matches the characteristics of the printing apparatus, because a plurality of processed images cannot be compared.

Further, when only one multi-value conversion process can be performed on one conventional image data, one multi-value conversion means is selected (N10) as shown in the flow chart of FIG.
Image data is input (N11), multi-value quantization processing is executed by the multi-value quantization means (N12), the multi-value quantization processing result is output (N13), and it is determined whether the output is desired. (N14) If it is not the desired print output, return to (N10) until the desired print output is obtained (N
It is necessary to repeat a series of operations 10) to (N14) to finally determine an optimum multi-value quantization means (N15). Therefore, much operation time is required until the optimum multi-value quantization means is selected. The present invention has been conceived in order to solve such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus capable of selecting an optimum multi-value quantization unit in a short time.

[0005]

In order to solve such a problem, the printing apparatus of the present invention uses a plurality of multi-value converting means for simultaneously performing multi-value processing and one image data. The present invention is characterized by having a dividing means for dividing into blocks and a selection control means for selecting different multivalued means for each divided block and performing the processing.

[0006]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in detail below based on examples.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a printing apparatus according to the present invention.

The printing apparatus 101 of the present invention has an input means 10
5, a dividing means 102, a plurality of multi-value quantization means 103, a selection control means 104 for selecting the multi-value quantization means, an output buffer 106, and a print output means 107.

The image data 120 is inputted through the input means 105, divided into four blocks by the dividing means 102, and inputted into the selection control means 104. The selection control means 104 individually selects the binarization means to be performed on each of the image data divided into four blocks, and
The binarization processing is performed and the processing result is output to the output buffer 106. The processing result output to the output buffer 106 is printed by the print output unit 107 to output the output image 121.
Is obtained.

As an example, it is considered that image data having gradation as shown in FIG. 2 is input to 120, the image data is divided into four, and the following processing is applied to the four image data.

No processing.

A fixed density value (hereinafter referred to as a threshold value) is determined, the density value of each pixel of the input image data is compared with the threshold value, and the density value of the pixel data is determined by the threshold value. A simple binary process in which if it is above, it is black, and if it is smaller than the threshold, it is white.

The threshold value is randomly changed to n
The xm (n and m are positive numbers) matrixes are provided with appropriately arranged patterns (hereinafter referred to as dither patterns), the threshold value of each matrix is compared with the density value of the pixel corresponding to the threshold value, and Systematic dithering binarization processing that determines black and white like simple binary processing.

The difference between the pixel of interest and the binarized value of that pixel is distributed to the density values of the surrounding pixels, the error of the entire image is reduced, the grayscale information is saved, and the gradation is reproduced. Average error minimum processing.

As a result, an output image 121 obtained by the above four processes is obtained.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the dividing means 102 in the printing apparatus. The dividing unit 102 has an address map 301 for dividing the image data 120 into an appropriate block shape, and holds therein information for storing the image data 120 in the image storage memory 302. .. By storing the image data 120 in the image storage memory 302 according to the information written in the address map, the image data 120 is divided into appropriate blocks and stored in the image storage memory 302. In this embodiment, it is divided into four square blocks.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the selection control means 104 in the printing apparatus. The selection control means 104 selects a multi-value quantization means to be performed on the image data of each divided block from the plurality of multi-value quantization means 103, and then multi-values the image data of each block. Is what you do. In the embodiment, the binarization processing 110 by the simple binary processing as the multi-valued means, and the binarization means 11 by the systematic dither processing using the dither pattern a shown in FIG.
1, there are four binarizing means 112 by systematic dither processing using the dither pattern b shown in FIG. 7B, and binarizing means 113 by the minimum mean error method. Block A has simple binary processing, The selector 401 is set so that the systematic dither processing is performed on the block B, the different systematic dither processing is performed on the block C, and the average error minimum processing is performed on the block D.

The selection control means 104 includes the image storage memory 3
02, the image data of each block stored in No. 02 is read, each image data is transferred to each binarization unit according to the setting of the selector 401, the binarization process is performed there, and the processing result is stored in the output buffer 106. To do. After the binarization process is completed by the selection control unit, the print output unit 107 prints the binarization process result stored in the output buffer 106. By such a series of operations, one image as shown in FIG. 2 is divided into four, and an output image 121 obtained by performing different binarization processing on each of the divided blocks can be obtained.

In this embodiment, the simple binary processing, the systematic dither processing, and the minimum average error method are used as the binarizing method, but the binarizing method is not limited to this. Moreover, the number of divisions and the block shape at the time of division can be set to an appropriate number of divisions and block shapes.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the flow from the input of image data to the selection of the multi-value quantization means. After inputting the image data (N1), the image data is divided into appropriate blocks (N2), a multi-value quantization means to be executed for each block is selected (N3), and the selected multi-value quantization means is selected. Thus, different multi-value processing is performed for each block (N4), and the result of the multi-value processing is printed out (N5). Since the processing results of the plurality of multi-value quantization means are obtained by the print output, it is possible to select the multi-value quantization means for obtaining the desired print output in one printing (N6).

[0021]

As described above, the printing apparatus according to the present invention divides one image into appropriate blocks, and performs different multi-value processing on each divided block once. It is possible to select the optimum multi-value quantization means in a short time because it can be obtained by the print output of.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing image data and an output image when the printing apparatus of the present invention is used.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a dividing unit that constitutes the printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a selection control unit that constitutes the printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for obtaining a print output of a multi-valued processing result by the printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flow of processing until a print output of a multi-valued processing result by a conventional printing apparatus is obtained.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a dither pattern.

[Explanation of symbols]

Reference Signs List 101 Printing device 102 Dividing means 103 Multiple multivalued means 104 Selection control means 105 Input means 106 Output buffer 107 Print output means 110 Binarization means by simple binary processing 111 By systematic dither processing using dither pattern a Binarization means 112 Binarization means by systematic dither processing using dither pattern b 113 Binarization means by average error minimum method 120 Image data 121 consisting of gradation data 121 Output image 130 Binarization processing by simple binary processing Result 131 Binarization processing result by systematic dither processing using dither pattern a 132 Binarization processing result by systematic dither processing using dither pattern b 133 Binarization processing result by average error minimum method 301 Address map 302 Image storage memory 303 Block for dividing into four Information 310 for storing the image data of the block A in the image storage memory 311 information for storing the image data of the block B in the image storage memory 312 for storing the image data of the block C in the image storage memory Information 313 Information for storing image data of block D in image storage memory 401 Selector

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of multi-value conversion means for simultaneously performing multi-value conversion processing, a division means for dividing one image data into appropriate blocks, and different multi-value conversion for each divided block. A printing apparatus having selection control means for selecting a means and performing the processing.