JPH06162161A - Document edition device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a function which outputs a color document with superior readability by automatically performing a coloring process for negative-positive inversion of an inputted black-and-white document without receiving detailed indications by a user. CONSTITUTION:This device is equipped with an area dividing means 12 which divides a gathering of pixels of a document image into plural meaningfull gatherings as constituent elements of the document, a color parameter determining means 13 which determine color parameter values by the divided areas as to the coloring process of the output document accompanied by the negative- positive inversion by referring to the result outputted by the area dividing means 12, and an output image generating means 14 which cuts respective images by the areas divided by the area dividing means 12 from the document image held in a document image holding means 11, performs the coloring process of each area image by the negative-positive inversion according to the color parameter values by the areas determined by the color pattern determining means 13, and generates the output image.

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention automatically applies a coloring process involving negative / positive inversion to an input monochrome document,
The present invention relates to a document editing device having a function of outputting a color document with excellent readability. Many documents used in offices or the like have a positive polarity. A document of positive polarity is a document in which the density of the color (foreground color) of characters or figures corresponding to the figure is higher than the density of the background color (background color) corresponding to the ground, An example is a black and white document in which characters and figures are printed on white paper with black ink. On the other hand, with the development of various presentation techniques and document processing techniques, the number of documents of negative polarity with a dark background color and a light foreground color has also increased. Some slides and OHP sheets have white characters printed on a cyan background or figures printed in light yellow, but these are examples of documents with negative polarity. It is excellent in readability and fatigue. In some documents, only a part of the document (for example, the title character part) is given a negative polarity to emphasize that part or to distinguish it from other parts. There is a digital copying machine as an apparatus for producing a document having such a negative polarity. For example, the digital copying machine disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-223275 has a processing function relating to coloring of a document. By using this, a black-and-white original document having a positive polarity is changed to a document having a negative polarity. You can make color copy documents. However, in the above-mentioned example of the digital copying machine, the user had to make detailed instructions as to which part of the original document should be processed with what kind of color. . Not only is the operation of the edit pen, edit pad, control panel, etc. complicated and difficult to remember, but it takes time even for experienced users to operate.
There were quite a few redoes due to operation mistakes. Further, in order to create a highly readable negative polarity color document, various knowledge about colorization is required. Since such knowledge is not sufficient for general office workers, even if they completely learn how to operate a digital copying machine, they cannot always produce high-quality color documents that are easy to read. The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and automatically performs a coloring process involving negative / positive inversion on an input black and white document without receiving detailed instructions from the user. The purpose is to provide a function to output as a color document with excellent readability. In order to solve the above problems, the document editing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, a document image holding unit 11 for holding an original document input as a monochrome digital image, and a document image on the document image held by the document image holding unit 11. With reference to the area dividing unit 12 that divides a group of pixels into a plurality of meaningful groups as constituent elements of a document, and the result output by the area dividing unit 12, the color relating to the coloring process of the output document with negative / positive inversion. A color parameter determining unit 13 that determines a parameter value for each divided area, and a document image holding unit 11
Each area image for each area divided by the area dividing means 12 is cut out from the document image held in the area, and a negative / positive image is formed on each area image according to the area-specific color parameter value determined by the color parameter determining means 13. And an output image generation means 14 for generating an output image by performing a coloring process involving inversion. The area dividing means 12 divides a group of pixels on a document image into a plurality of groups which are meaningful as constituent elements of a document, for example, an area such as a character block, a ruled line block, a figure block, or the like within the figure block. It is divided into areas such as the graphic element (see FIG. 13). The color parameter determination unit 13 has predetermined color parameter information regarding coloring for each divided area including negative / positive inversion,
Based on this information, the color parameter value of each divided area is determined (for example, the areas shown in FIGS. 18 and 19 and the foreground color and background color for each graphic element are designated). The output image generation means 14 performs a coloring process on each area image according to the determined color parameter value for each area to generate an output image. According to the present invention, the color determination is automatically performed by the color parameter determination means 13, so that a user who does not have a specialized knowledge about the coloring of the document should know which part of the original document should be processed. It is possible to easily create a color document excellent in readability including a negative / positive inverted portion based on an existing black-and-white document written on paper or the like without giving a troublesome instruction. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a document editing apparatus according to an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a copying machine. This document editing apparatus includes a document image input module 21 and an area dividing module 2
2, a color parameter determination module 23, an output image generation module 24, and a printout module 25 as a visualization means. The original image input module 21 is the mechanism of the image scanner itself, irradiating a slender area in the main scanning direction with the light source while shifting the reading section consisting of the light source and the image sensor in the sub-scanning direction, and reflecting the reflected light into a lens. It is condensed by a CCD image sensor and converted into an electric signal by a CCD image sensor or the like, and the input image memory 21 is converted into a binary digital image.
Take in 1. Of course, the intensity of reflected light may be input as a multi-valued image through an AD converter and binarized by digital image processing. The area dividing module 22 includes a character-graphic dividing module 221 and a graphic element extracting module 222.
And an edited image memory 223. The character-graphics dividing module 221 receives the document image captured by the original image input module 21 as an input, and extracts a meaningful group such as a character area, a ruled line area, and a graphic area from the document image. This is performed by the area division processing in the document recognition technology. This processing is carried out by a known technique, for example, JP-A-64-15889 or JP-B-61-32712.
It is realized by the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication. The character-graphics dividing module 221 divides the document image into a plurality of rectangles (blocks), divides each block into area types (characters, ruled lines, figures, etc.) and coordinate values, and between the areas. Output information such as inclusive relations. Needless to say, preprocessing such as inclination correction and noise removal may be performed before performing this processing. The graphic element extraction module 222 uses character-
By referring to the area type and coordinate value of each block output by the figure dividing module 221, and further receiving a simple instruction regarding the figure type from the user, a part of the document image captured by the document image input module 21 It is a process for extracting graphic elements such as bar graph elements and pie chart elements. This process corresponds to the closed loop extraction process in the document recognition technology. This processing is realized by a known technique, for example, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 1-282685 and 62-248080. The graphic element extraction module 222 here first causes the user to specify the graphic type (line graph, bar graph, pie graph, etc.) of each extracted graphic block. Next, from the document image captured by the document image input module 21, only the image of the graphic block designated by the user as a “bar graph” or a “pie graph” is taken as an input and a closed loop which is a graphic element is extracted.
The type (bar chart element, pie chart element, etc.) of each extracted graphic element and the coordinate value are output. The color parameter determination module 23 refers to the color parameter table 231 registered in advance, and for each area and each graphic element extracted by the area division module 22, the color required for the coloring process involving negative / positive inversion. Parameter data is added and passed to the output image generation module 24. The color parameter table 231 is stored in a ROM (Read Only Memory). The color parameter table 231 is a table showing the foreground color, background color, etc. to be output for each type of area and graphic element. However, the "foreground color" here means a color such as "a line of a character or a figure" in a black-and-white original document (that is, a black pixel portion on a black-and-white image) or a color copy document to be output. Refers to the color of "character or graphic line".
On the other hand, the “background color” means the color of the “ground” portion in the input black-and-white original document or the color copy document to be output. These represent how each area and graphic element should be finally subjected to the negative-positive reversal processing, or how to be colored without the negative-positive reversal. These data held in the color parameter table 231 are, for example, subjective evaluations such as those described in the 1991 42nd Information Processing Society National Convention Proceedings 7Q-7 "About Evaluation Scale for Document Representation Quality". Data obtained by the method of "Fuji Xerox," Presentation & Documentation ", Fuji Xerox, 1989", "Fuji Xerox D Promotion Group, Core Design Production Department," Business Document Rendering Techniques -II colorization ", Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 1992", etc., to determine the coloring of the document, such as qualitative or quantitative data, or data representing decisions made by internal rules. It is determined on the basis of various knowledge necessary for the output image generation. The module 21 receives from the color parameter determination module 23 the data of the color parameters necessary for the coloring process involving negative / positive inversion, receives from the area division module 22 the coordinate values of each area and each graphic element, the inclusion relation between areas, and the like. The image of the original document input from the original input module 21 is received, and the partial image of the original document corresponding to each area and graphic element is converted according to the color parameter received from the color parameter determination module 23, and the output image is output. Finally, a color document image that has been subjected to a coloring process involving negative / positive inversion is generated .. In the print-out module 25, the output image in the output image memory (image memory) 251 is converted into a laser beam. It is transferred onto paper using printing technology and then ejected. In the example, a laser beam printer capable of printing in full color is used.The actual operation will be described with an example in which a monochrome original document is input and a color copy document is output as shown in FIG. In the color copy document, for example, in FIG. 4, the ground part is cyan, the outline part and characters of the line graph and bar graph are white, the inside of the bar of the bar graph, the inside of the circle of the pie chart is yellow, and the inside of the circle of the pie graph. 5 is a flow chart of the process shown in Fig. 5. When "coordinates" is referred to hereafter, as shown in Fig. 3, the upper left corner of the document is the origin and the direction toward the right of the page. Is the X coordinate, and the direction toward the bottom of the page is the Y coordinate.First, the user turns the black and white original document shown in Fig. 3 upside down and places it on a platen such as an image scanner. In Suyo operation panel, selected by pressing the button or "as is" or "negative-positive inversion". Here, "as it is" means faithful reproduction copying without coloring processing. "Negative / positive reversal"
When the "start button" is pressed in the state where is selected, the document image input module 21 starts scanning, and the document image of the document is stored in the input image memory 211, which is an image memory. Next, the character-graphic division module 221
Performs a region division process by accessing the document image stored in the input image memory 211. As a result, as shown in FIG. 7, the document image of the original document shown in FIG. 3 has an area (character block) where characters are grouped together and an area where ruled lines exist (ruled line block) on the input image memory 211. ), A region where a graphic exists (graphic block), and the other (margin). Each of the divided areas is a rectangular area. The data representing each area (rectangular block) is “area number” as shown in the table of FIG.
"Area type""Graphictype""Upper left point X coordinate""Upper left point Y
It is expressed by a set of "coordinates", "rectangle width", "rectangle height", "upper area number", and "lower area number". However, since the "graphic type" of the graphic block is not determined in the processing at this stage, all the values are "unknown". This data is passed to the next graphic element extraction module 222, color parameter determination module 23, and output image generation module 24. While the document image input module 21 and the character-graphic division module 221 are processing,
The display of the operation panel of FIG. 6 may be switched to the display of the operation panel as shown in FIG. By looking at the message displayed on this panel, the user can know that he or she must wait for a while until the next operation. The graphic element extraction module 222 first refers to the data in the table shown in FIG.
The operation panel is displayed as shown in 0, and the user is requested to input an instruction regarding the “graphic type”. The operation panel of FIG. 10 shows a rough configuration diagram for informing the user of the number and size of graphic blocks at which position in the original document and the graphic type of each graphic block. A button for inputting is displayed. The block diagram showing the position of this graphic block is as follows: "area type""upper left point X coordinate""upper left point Y" of the table shown in FIG.
It is drawn based on the "coordinates", "rectangle width", and "rectangle height", and is a diagram that is reduced or enlarged at an appropriate magnification according to the size of the operation panel. The user inputs the type (graphic type) of the graphic block (corresponding to N2 in the table of FIG. 8) labeled "graphic 1" in accordance with the message on the operation panel shown in FIG. , Press the button labeled “Line Chart” and then the button labeled “Confirm”. Graphic element extraction module 222
Receives the input of this user, and rewrites the data regarding the "graphic type" in the table shown in FIG. That is,
In the figure, a value of "line graph" is entered in the figure type column of N2 in which the value of "unknown" is entered. Then, the display of the operation panel is switched as shown in FIG. The user follows the display on the operation panel as shown in FIG. 11 and FIG. 12, and in the same procedure, the graphic type of “figure 2” (N5) (bar graph) and the graphic type of “figure 3” (N6) (circle). (Graph) is input sequentially. The graphic element extraction module 222 receives the user's input and similarly rewrites the data on the “graphic type” to complete the table as shown in FIG. At the end of this process,
The display of the operation panel as shown in FIG. 12 may be switched again to the display of the operation panel as shown in FIG. 9 to notify the user that the user should wait. Next, the graphic element extraction module 222
Referring to the data in the table shown in FIG. 13, a part of the document image stored in the input image memory 211 is accessed to extract the graphic element (closed loop) included in the image of each graphic block. However, a graphic block whose graphic type is "line graph" (in this example, N
This process is not performed on the image of 2). The procedure for extracting graphic elements (closed loop) is as follows.
The case of "bar graph" will be described as an example. First, access the "upper left point X coordinate", "upper left point Y coordinate", "rectangle width", and "rectangle height" of the figure block (N5 in this example) where the figure type is "bar graph" from the table shown in FIG. Then, only the image (part) of this area is cut out from the document image (entire) stored in the input image memory and stored in the edited image memory 223 which is the image memory. Next, from the table shown in FIG. 13, the "lower area number" of this figure block (N51, N5 in this example)
2, N53) and the respective "lower left point X coordinate", "upper left point Y coordinate", "rectangle width", and "rectangle height" of these lower areas (in this example, a character block) are accessed. And
Of the images of this figure block stored in the edited image memory 223, all the binarized values of the images of the parts corresponding to these lower areas are rewritten to zero. That is,
By removing the character or graphic image of the lower block contained in this graphic block, extraction of a closed loop that is not a graphic element (bar graph element in this example) is prevented. By performing such processing, the edited image as shown in FIG. 14 remains in the edited image memory 223. The graphic element extraction module 222 uses the edited image memory 223.
By inputting the edited image as shown in FIG. 14 left above, the closed loop which is a graphic element is extracted. In this example, as shown in FIG. 15, three bar graph elements (P5
1, P52, P53) are extracted. The extracted coordinate values of each graphic element (bar graph element) are passed to the color parameter determination module 23 and the output image generation module 24. Since the same processing is performed on the graphic block (N6 in this example) whose graphic type is "pie chart", the edited image as shown in FIG. 16 is stored in the edited image memory. Based on this, the output result (P61, P62) as shown in FIG. 17 is obtained. The coordinate values of the extracted graphic elements (pie chart elements) are also passed to the color parameter determination module 23 and the output image generation module 24. Here, the generation of the edited image on the edited image memory 223 and the extraction of the graphic elements are performed for each graphic block. However, as long as the storage capacity of the edited image memory 223 permits, a plurality or all graphic blocks can be created. It is desirable to process them collectively. The color parameter determining module 23 outputs the output results of the area dividing module 22, that is, the character-graphic dividing module 221 and the graphic element extracting module 222, and the color parameter table 231 on the akajime ROM.
By taking out the color parameters stored in, each divided area (character block, ruled line block, figure block, etc.) and each figure element (bar graph element, pie chart element, etc.) can be colored with negative / positive inversion. Outputs necessary color parameter values Image generation module 24
Send to. The individual color parameter table sent to the output image generation module 24 is, as shown in FIGS. 18 and 19,
This is an indication of the color combination pattern of the foreground color and the background color.
The table of FIG. 18 indicates the color arrangement pattern of each area, and the “area number” and “area type” of each block divided by the character-graphic division module 221
“Graphic type” of each block specified by the user,
Also, the “Cyan amount” and “Magen” of each of the “foreground color” and the “background color” determined for each of the area type and the figure type.
It is expressed by a set of “ta amount”, “Yellow amount”, and “Black amount”. The table in FIG. 19 indicates the color arrangement pattern of each graphic element, and the “graphic element number” and “graphic element type” of each closed loop area extracted by the graphic element extraction module, and for each of these graphic element types "Cyan" for each of the determined "foreground color" and "background color"
"Amount""Magnentaamount""Yellowamount""Bla
ck amount ”. The output image generation module 24 receives from the area division module 22 data such as coordinate values of the divided or extracted areas and graphic elements, and the inclusion relation between the areas, and based on this data. The partial images of the original document are sequentially accessed from the input image memory 211, and the partial image corresponding to each area and each graphic element is colored in accordance with the color parameters received from the color parameter determination module 23. The resulting color document image is stored in the output image memory 251 which is an image memory. In this embodiment, since full-color output is performed, the output image memory 25
1, in each pixel, Cyan, Agent
Gradation value information for four colors of a, Yellow, and Black is held. The output image generation module 24 first accesses the coordinate values of each graphic element from the area division module 22, and from the image of the entire original document held in the input image memory 211, as shown in FIG. Cut out only the image of the graphic element. In this example, three closed loop regions (P51, P52, P53) extracted as bar graph elements
And two closed loop regions (P61, P62) extracted as pie chart elements are cut out. And FIG.
According to the instruction of the color arrangement pattern shown in 9, the gradation value information of each pixel is generated for each graphic element. FIG. 21 shows an image of the graphic element stored in the output image memory 251 as a result of this processing. In the image of the three bar graph elements, since there is no foreground such as lines of characters and figures and there is only the background, each pixel inside these three closed loop areas is “Yellow amount 20%, all others are 0%”. The value corresponding to "is given. On the other hand, in the image of the two pie chart elements, a group of pixels representing a character, that is, a foreground exists in both images, so that each pixel in that portion is “Bl
A value corresponding to "ack amount 100%, all other 0%" is given, and each pixel of the background portion other than them is given a value corresponding to "Yellow amount 20%, all other 0%". Next, the output image generation module 24 performs the coloring processing of the area excluding the above-mentioned graphic elements First, the area division module 22 accesses the data in the table shown in FIG. Each area (block) from the image of the entire original document
The partial image of is cut out. However, in this image,
It does not include images of graphic elements that have already been colored.
FIG. 22 shows a partial image of the original document clipped by this processing. Next, the output image of each area included in this partial image is generated. However, since the areas overlap each other, the output image of the overlapping area is displayed by the area division module as "lower area". The coloring process for the area determined as "" is given priority. For example, in FIG.
2, the figure block N2 including the line graph is the lower two character blocks (N21, N2).
Since it is clear from the data of the table shown in FIG. 13 that it overlaps with 2), the coloring process of the overlapping area is performed according to the instruction of the color arrangement pattern for the character block. Therefore, according to the instruction of the color arrangement pattern shown in FIG. 18, each pixel representing a character corresponding to the foreground in the character block is given a value corresponding to “all 0%”, that is, “pure white”, and each pixel of the background portion is All pixels are given a value corresponding to "Cyan amount 5%, all others 0%". On the other hand, each pixel representing a straight line or a curve corresponding to the foreground inside the figure block except the character block is given a value corresponding to “all 0%”, that is, “pure white”, and each pixel in the background portion is “Cyan amount 5”. %, And others are given values corresponding to 0% ". Similar coloring processing is performed on each of the character blocks, ruled line blocks, and graphic blocks other than the above. As a result, the entire output image of the area excluding the graphic elements is as shown in FIG.
It becomes like 3. As a result of the series of processes in the output image generation module 24 described above, the image of the full-color output document in which the negative polarity and the positive polarity are mixed as shown in FIG. 4 is stored in the output image memory 251. Remembered. The output image in the output image memory 251 is scanned four times, and the color is superimposed on the plain paper by the laser beam printing technique from the gradation value information of each color to be visualized. It is output as a full-color copy document with mixed polarities (same as FIG. 4). As described above in detail, according to the present invention, a user who does not have specialized knowledge about coloring of a document gives a troublesome instruction as to which part of the original document should be processed. It is possible to easily create a color document with excellent readability including a negative / positive inverted portion based on an existing black-and-white document written on paper or the like without performing the above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of a document editing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an input document in the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an output document in an example. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of processing in an example. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an operation panel display in an example. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an output result of a character-graphic division module in an example. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of an output result of the character-graphic division module in the embodiment. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of an operation panel display in the embodiment. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an operation panel display in the embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of an operation panel display in the example. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of an operation panel display in the example. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an output result of a character-graphic division module in the example. An example FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of input to a graphic element extraction module in the embodiment. FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an example of an output result of the graphic element extraction module in the embodiment. FIG. 16 is a graphic element extraction in the embodiment. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of input to the module. FIG. 17 is a diagram showing an example of output result of the graphic element extraction module in the embodiment. FIG. 18 is a diagram showing example of output result of the color parameter determination module in the embodiment. FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of the output result of the color parameter determination module in the embodiment. FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of the input to the output image generation module in the embodiment. FIG. 21 is a diagram showing the output result of the output image generation module in the embodiment. FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example. FIG. 22 is a diagram showing an example of input to the output image generation module in the embodiment. FIG. 23 is a diagram showing an output image generation module in the embodiment. Over Figure [Description of Reference Numerals] 11 ... document image holding means illustrating an example of an output result of the Le, 12 ... region dividing unit, 13 ...
Color parameter determining means, 14 ... Output image generating means, 15
... Visualization means, 21 ... Manuscript image input module, 211
... input image memory, 22 ... area division module, 221
... character-graphic division module, 222 ... graphic element extraction module, 223 ... edited image memory, 23 ... color parameter determination module, 231 ... color parameter table, 2
4 ... Output image generation module, 25 ... Printout module, 251 ... Output image memory.

Claims (1)

What is claimed is: 1. A document image holding means for holding an original document input as a black and white digital image, and a set of pixels on the document image held by the document image holding means, By referring to the area dividing means for dividing into a plurality of meaningful groups and the result output by the area dividing means, the color parameter value relating to the coloring process of the output document accompanied by the negative-positive inversion is determined for each divided area. From the color parameter determining means and the document image held in the document image holding means,
Each area image of each area divided by the area dividing means is cut out, and subjected to coloring processing involving negative / positive inversion on each area image according to the color parameter value for each area determined by the color parameter determining means and output. A document editing apparatus comprising: an output image generating unit that generates an image.