JPH07203185A - Image edit device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the image edit device in which an original edit instruction series is transformed into an edit instruction series with high processing efficiency so as to process the image in a short time. CONSTITUTION:The device is provided with an instruction storage section 6 storing an edit instruction series comprising plural edit instructions with respect to image data, an instruction series transform means transforming the edit instruction series stored in the instruction storage section 6 into an edit instruction series providing a similar processing result, an instruction execution section 7 executing the edit instruction series transformed by the instruction series transform means into the image data, an output image storage section 9 storing the image data after edit from the instruction execution section 7, and an image output means outputting the image data stored in the output image storage section 9.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

The present invention relates to a workstation,
The present invention relates to an image editing device used in a computer, a printing device, etc.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in an image editing apparatus for printing, an image of an original is read by an image input device such as a TV (television) camera or an image scanner, converted into digital image data, and then an image is displayed in screen units. It is stored in the storage unit. Then, the image stored in the image storage unit is subjected to image editing such as enlargement, reduction, extraction, deletion, movement, rotation and color conversion, and the edited result is displayed on a display device such as a CRT (cathode ray tube) display. After checking, the printing device prints the edited image.

At the time of image editing, edit commands for performing image processing such as enlargement, reduction, extraction, deletion, movement, rotation and color conversion are used, and a plurality of edit commands are combined to form an edit command sequence. To do. Then, when outputting the edited image, each editing instruction included in the editing instruction sequence is sequentially executed to obtain the target image.

[0004]

As described above, in editing an image, it is necessary to combine a plurality of editing commands to form an editing command sequence. How to edit a command to obtain a desired image It is up to the operator to combine the above. An operator often combines editing commands so that a desired image can be obtained by trial and error while looking at the original image.

In this case, a target image can be obtained by executing the finally completed edit command sequence, but this edit command sequence does not always have an optimum structure for the editing process. . For example, an edit command "double the size" is applied to a certain image, some edit commands of another type are applied after that, and then an "double size" is applied. There is a case where an edit command “doubled” is applied to an image to which the edit command is applied.

When the image editing apparatus executes an edit command sequence, it takes out the edit commands from the beginning and executes them one by one. Therefore, if the number of editing commands is large, the time required for image processing will be correspondingly long. The two edit commands “enlarge to twice” included in the above-described edit command sequence can be replaced with one edit command “enlarge to four”, and originally, an image can be displayed in a shorter time. It can be processed. However, since the creation of the edit command sequence depends on the skill of the operator, it is not always possible to create the optimum edit command sequence, and there is a problem that the image processing requires a long time.

The present invention has been devised in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and converts an original edit instruction sequence into an edit instruction sequence having a high processing efficiency to perform image processing in a short time. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image editing apparatus capable of performing the following.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, an instruction storage means for storing an edit instruction sequence composed of a plurality of edit instructions for image data, and the instruction storage means. A command sequence conversion means for converting the edited command sequence into an edit command sequence having an equivalent processing result,
Command execution means for executing the edit command sequence converted by the command sequence conversion means on image data, output image storage means for storing the edited image data from the command execution means, and the output image storage means Image output means for outputting the image data stored in.

[0009]

The command storage means stores an edit command sequence composed of a plurality of edit commands for image data. When the edit command sequence is executed, the plurality of edit commands in the edit command sequence are stored. Is converted into another edit command sequence having the same processing result. For example, when the instruction sequence includes two instructions "doubled", it is converted into a single instruction "doubled". Then, the edit process is executed based on the converted edit command sequence.
The edited image data is stored in the output image storage means and then output by the image output means.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The features of the present invention will be specifically described below based on embodiments with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the arrangement of an image processing apparatus according to the present invention.

The image data from the image input means 1 such as the first or second image input device 1a, 1b is supplied to the editing means 2 and subjected to predetermined image processing, and then the first or second printing device 3a. , 3b, the display device 3c, etc. are output to the image output means 3. For example, the first image input device 1a has 400
A flat bed type image scanner having a resolution of about dpi, a second image input device 1b is a TV camera having a resolution of about 350, and a first printing device 3a is 400d.
A laser printer having a resolution of about pi, a second printing device 3b is a thermal printer having a resolution of about 200 dpi, and a display device 3c is a CRT display having a resolution of about 100 dpi.

The editing means 2 is provided with a plurality of input image storage sections 4a to 4d for storing the image data from the image input means 1 in a state where the resolution of the image input means 1 is maintained. Corresponding to the storage units 4a to 4d, command storage units 6a to 6d for holding processing commands for each image from the editing instruction unit 5 are provided. The processing instructions include, for example, size change such as enlargement / reduction, color conversion, transformation, resolution conversion, and edge emphasis.

The outputs of the input image storage units 4a to 4d and the output of the command storage units 6a to 6d are supplied to the command execution unit 7 to generate an output image according to the input image and the command.
When the output image is generated, output medium characteristics, that is, the first or second printing device 3a or 3b and the display device 3c are used.
The information such as the output resolution and the color correction coefficient, which are different for each of the above, is supplied from the output medium characteristic storage unit 8 to the instruction execution unit 7, and the processing according to each output medium is performed. The output medium characteristic is stored in advance in the output medium characteristic storage unit 8, and the image output means 3 (3a, 3b, 3c) in FIG.
The broken line between the output medium characteristic storage unit 8 and the output medium characteristic storage unit 8 shows not the actual flow of signals but the correspondence.

The output image after the command is executed is stored in the plurality of output image storage units 9a to 9d. These output image storage units 9a to 9d store not only the output image used for display, but also layout information indicating the position of the image on the output destination medium, the effective area, and the like.

The output images created by the command execution unit 7 and stored in the output image storage units 9a to 9d are stored in the output image storage units 9a to 9d in the superposition processing execution unit 10. The synthesizing process is performed based on In the process of this composition, the images are overlaid in a priority order of top and bottom, or are overlaid in a semitransparent state. The image after the superposition processing is supplied to the image output means 3 such as the printing devices 3a and 3b and the display device 3c, and is printed or displayed.

Next, regarding the document editing processing operation in the above-described image editing apparatus, the images of the first and second originals are read from the first image input apparatus 1a, and the third image is read from the second image input apparatus 1b. The image of the original is read, the images of the three originals are superimposed and displayed on the display device 3c, and then,
A case will be described as an example in which the combined image is printed by the first printing device 3a after the adjustment to move the combined position of the images of the second document is performed.

It is assumed that the first image input device 1a is designated as the image input means and the input image storage section 4a and the output image storage section 9a are designated as the storage means. Further, during editing work, the display device 3c is designated as the output medium.

When the image of the first original is read by the first image input device 1a, the image P of the first original is written in the input image storage section 4a as shown in FIG. 2 (a). That is, the contents of the input image storage unit 4a are updated. Further, the command storage unit 6 corresponding to the input image storage unit 4a
Default data is written in a. The default data is resolution data that matches the resolution of the first image input apparatus 1a and data for matching the color of the original.

The command execution unit 7 applies the command stored in the command storage unit 6a to the image P stored in the input image storage unit 4a to generate the output image p, and the output image storage unit 9 is generated.
It is stored in a (see FIG. 2D). In this case, since the command is default data, an output image in which the apparent size, color, etc. match the original is generated.

The superposition processing execution section 10 outputs the output image p stored in the output image storage section 9a to the display device 3c. In this case, the output medium is a CR with a relatively low resolution.
Since it is the display device 3c such as a T display, the output medium characteristic storage unit 8 provides the instruction execution unit 7 with information instructing the low resolution processing. In the case of low resolution processing, since the amount of image data to be processed is small, it is possible to generate an output image in a short time.

Through the above-described processing, the output image corresponding to the image P of the original read by the first image input device 1a is displayed on the display device 3c.

Next, from the editing instruction section 5 to the input image storage section 4
When an editing instruction is given to the image stored in a,
The contents of the instruction storage unit 6a are updated. After that, the command execution unit 7 updates the content of the output image storage unit 9a according to the command stored in the updated command storage unit 6a, and the superposition processing execution unit 10 outputs the updated output to the display device 3c. The image p is displayed.

Next, when the image of the second original is read from the first image input device 1a, the image Q of the second original is read.
Is stored in the input image storage unit 4b (see FIG. 2B), and default data is written in the corresponding command storage unit 6b. The command execution unit 7 updates the contents of the output image storage unit 9b and outputs the output image q as in the case of the first original.
(See (e) in the figure), the overlay processing execution unit 10
However, the display device 3 combines the images of the first and second originals.
It is displayed on c (see the same (g)). The information on the reference position and the effective area for combination is temporarily stored in the instruction storage unit 6b in units of mm, for example, according to the editing instruction from the editing instruction unit 5. Next, these pieces of information are sent to the output image storage unit 9b by the instruction execution unit 7 and converted into a dot unit representation. In this way, the reference positions X1 and Y1, the effective areas H1 and V1 indicating the composite position of the image Q of the second document.
Is converted into the number of dots on the output destination medium and is superimposed on a predetermined position.

Next, when the image of the third original is read from the second image input device 1b, the image R of the third original is stored in the input image storage section 4c (see FIG. 2 (c)). , Default data is written in the corresponding instruction storage unit 6c. The instruction execution unit 7 updates the contents of the output image storage unit 9c to obtain the output image r (see (f) in FIG. 4), and the superimposition processing execution unit 10 causes the first, second, and third originals to copy. Images are superimposed and displayed on the display device 3c (FIG. 2).
(See (h)). At this time, the output image r of the third document
The composite position of is determined based on the arrangement information corresponding to the reference positions X2, Y2, the effective areas H2, V2 of the image on the output medium stored in the output image storage unit 9c.

The superimposing process executing section 10 executes a process of combining a plurality of effective output images for the second and subsequent sheets. For example, the hatched portions in FIGS. 2 (e) and 2 (f) indicate the effective portions of the output images q and r designated by the editing instruction unit 5, and the image of the first original is used as a base. Then, partial images cut out from the second and subsequent originals are sequentially overlapped. When the second and third sheets overlap, the third sheet is displayed on top. The third sheet may be displayed semi-transparently.

Next, the case of moving the composite position of the output image q of the second original will be described. When a movement instruction is given from the editing instruction unit 5, the arrangement information indicating the reference position and the effective area stored in the instruction storage unit 6c is changed, and based on this, the output of the second document in the output image storage unit 9c is output. The arrangement information of the number-of-dots expression for the working image q is also updated. Then, the superposition processing execution unit 10 newly performs superposition processing based on the layout information corresponding to the updated reference positions X3, Y3, effective areas H3, V3. Since the arrangement information has a smaller amount of data than the image data, the update process is executed in a short time, and the updated image (see FIG. 2 (i)) is immediately displayed on the display device 3c. Therefore, the editing work can be efficiently performed while confirming the editing result on the screen of the display device 3c in real time.

In this way, by separating the execution of the processing instruction for the image and the execution of the processing instruction for the relationship between the images, if the combination position of the images is changed, only the arrangement information having a small amount of data is changed. Since it is good, the processing can be performed at high speed.

Further, for example, when the image Q of the second original is re-edited, the command only needs to be executed for the image data stored in the input image storage section 4b.
The processing can be performed in a shorter time than the case where the command is executed for all the image data.

After the editing work is completed, the printer 3a or 3b
Printing is done with each printer, but each printer has different output characteristics.
From the output medium characteristic storage unit 8, the output medium characteristic information of the printing device 3a or 3b is given to the command execution unit 7. The command execution unit 7 matches the output medium characteristics with the images stored in the input image storage units 4a to 4d, and the command storage units 6a to 6d.
An output image corresponding to the printing device 3a or 3b is generated from the command stored in d, and the contents of the output image storage units 9a to 9d are updated. Then, the superposition processing execution unit 10
However, the output images are superposed to generate a final output image and output to the printing device 3a or 3b.

When an image is output to the printing device 3a or 3b, a higher resolution is required than when it is output to the display device 3c, but the input image storage units 4a-4d have
Since the image data input from the image input devices 1a and 1b is stored while maintaining the highest resolution, it is possible to generate an output image for printing without degrading the resolution.

In this case, the time required for processing the image data is longer than that in the case of outputting to the display device 3c,
In the printing device 3a or 3b, the printing speed itself is slower than that of the display device 3c, so no problem occurs even if the processing speed becomes slow.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, there are two types of image input devices, two types of printing devices, and one type of display device, but the number is not limited to these numbers. Further, although four input image storage units and four output image storage units are provided, the number of input image storage units and output image storage units may be different, and the number of input image storage units and output image storage units may be different. . Further, although the input image storage unit and the instruction storage unit are provided in a one-to-one relationship, when the same input image is used for a plurality of sheets, the input image is not changed, so that the same input image storage unit is stored. It is also possible to share the department.

FIG. 3 shows an embodiment in which the image editing apparatus of the present invention is applied to remote printing means such as a print server. In addition,
Members corresponding to those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the display device 3
c, the input image storage units 4a and 4b, the command storage unit 6
a, 6b, instruction execution unit 7a, output medium characteristic storage unit 8a,
Output image storage units 9a and 9b and overlay processing execution unit 1
Editing means 2a consisting of 0a is provided. Further, the first printing device 3a provided apart from the editing means 2a
Similar to the editing means 2a, the remote printing means 11 for use is provided with a command execution section 7b, an output medium characteristic storage section 8b, output image storage sections 9e and 9f, and an overlay processing execution section 10b.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, as in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, reading of original images, command execution, and superimposing processing are performed, and the edited result is displayed on the display device 3c. At this time, the superimposition processing execution unit 10a is supplied with the information indicating the output medium characteristic corresponding to the display device 3c, and the high-speed low-resolution processing is performed according to the characteristic of the display device 3c. When the editing work is completed, the image data of the input image storage units 4a and 4b and the commands of the command storage units 6a and 6b are supplied to the command execution unit 7b in the remote printing unit 11 to print the image data in order to perform printing. On the other hand, processing according to the instruction is performed. At this time, the instruction execution unit 7b is
Information indicating the output medium characteristics corresponding to the printing apparatus 3a is supplied, and high-resolution low-speed processing is performed according to the characteristics of the first printing apparatus 3a.

As described above, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, each device is processed independently according to the characteristics of each output medium, that is, the resolution, color correction coefficient, etc. of the display device 3c and the first printing device 3a. Therefore, only by sending the result edited by the editing unit 2a to the remote printing unit 11, the first printing device 3a outputs an optimum image suitable for the characteristics of the first printing device 3a.

FIG. 4 shows still another embodiment of the image editing apparatus of the present invention in which the display speed during editing is improved. Note that FIG.
The same reference numerals are given to members and the like corresponding to the embodiment shown in FIG.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, thinned-out image storage units 12a and 12b are newly provided. The thinned-out image storage units 12a and 12b thin out an output image generated by applying a command to an input image, and hold the thinned output image together with a executed command sequence.

The operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 4 will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, the input image storage unit 4
a and 4b are collectively shown as the input image storage unit 4, command storage units 6a and 6b are collectively shown as the command storage unit 6, and output image storage units 9a and 9b are collectively shown as the output image storage unit 9.

Initially, the output image switching unit 13 is switched to the side a, and the input image data from the input image storage unit 1 is supplied to the instruction executing unit 7 and provided in the instruction executing unit 7. After being subjected to predetermined image processing in the processing execution unit 14, it is supplied to the output image storage unit 9 via the output image switching unit 13. Further, the image data after the image processing is also supplied to the thinned-out image generation unit 15, and the thinning-out processing is performed here. That is, the pixels forming the image are selected every predetermined number of pixels or every predetermined number of lines, and the remaining pixels are thinned out. The image data that has been thinned out and has a reduced data amount is stored in the thinned-out image storage unit 12.

For example, when displaying on the display device 3c, high-speed output is required. Therefore, it is desirable that the amount of image data is small. Therefore, in this case, the output image switching unit 13 is switched to the b side, and the thinned image data stored in the thinned image storage unit 12 is displayed on the display device 3c via the output image switching unit 13 and the output image storage unit 9. By supplying it, high-speed display becomes possible.

Next, when a new command is given, the command interpreter 16 is based on the command stored in the command storage 6 and the output medium characteristic information stored in the output medium characteristic storage 8. Interpretation of the instructions takes place. An instruction means data or the like that can be read by humans,
These commands are combined to form a command string. In addition, the interpretation of a command means a process of converting a command given by a person into a description regarding processing of an actual image. Then, as a feature of the present embodiment, at the time of this work, it is possible to correct a plurality of commands included in the command sequence into commands in a predetermined order suitable for actual image processing. . For example, if the instruction sequence includes two instructions of "double enlargement", this is the same as one instruction of "fourfold enlargement", and thus the conversion is performed.
Further, as another example, when the order of instructions is different in the instruction sequence but the final result is the same, as an example, the instructions are arranged in the order of the most efficient processing. You can fix it.

The result of the interpretation of this command is compared with the command held in the thinned-out image storage unit 12, and if both are the same, the output image switching unit 13 is left switched to the b side as shown in the figure. deep. As a result, the thinned image storage unit 1
The output image held in 2 becomes the output of the instruction execution unit 7. Therefore, it is not necessary to perform the thinning-out process again in the thinned-out image storage generation unit 15, and high-speed processing is possible. When the instruction interpretation result comparison unit 17 determines that the output image stored in the thinned-out image storage unit 12 is not appropriate, the instruction interpretation result comparison unit 17 sets the output image switching unit 13 to the a side. Switching and thinning image storage unit 1
The image obtained by applying the instruction interpretation result to the input image stored in the input image storage unit 4 is selected and output to the output image storage unit 9 instead of the output image stored in 2. . Whether or not the output image stored in the thinned-out image storage unit 12 is appropriate is determined by whether or not the thinned-out images generated by the given instruction sequence can be regarded as the same. In this case, since it is necessary to update the content of the thinned-out image storage unit 12, the result of the instruction interpretation from the instruction interpretation unit 16 is applied to the input image on which the instruction from the processing execution unit 14 is executed, and the thinning-out is performed. The image generation unit 15 generates a new thinned image and stores it in the thinned image storage unit 12. As a result, the content of the thinned-out image storage unit 12 is updated. It should be noted that although the instruction interpretation result accompanies the generation of the thinned image, the instruction interpretation result generated in the image generation process can be used as it is, so that the processing is not complicated.

As described above, in the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, by providing the thinned-out image storage units 12a and 12b, once the output images are generated, the images in the corresponding instruction storage units 6a and 6b are generated. When there is no change in the processing instruction for, output image is not required to be regenerated, so that output can be obtained in a shorter time. In particular, when the same image is used in a plurality of documents such as a catalog or a leaflet, a thinned image may be generated for an image that is frequently used and stored in the thinned image storage units 12a and 12b to be stored in a database. In this case, the image editing time can be significantly reduced. In addition, in the case of an editing apparatus that handles many pages, it is often the case that all output image storage units cannot be allocated in the main memory due to the limited storage capacity. In such a case, the thinned-out image storage unit 12 is used. By using, the storage capacity of the main memory can be effectively utilized.

[0046]

As described above, according to the present invention, when an edit command sequence is executed, a plurality of edit commands in the edit command sequence are converted into another edit command sequence that produces equivalent processing results. Then, the edit processing is executed based on the converted edit instruction sequence. As a result, the number of times the edit command is executed is reduced, and the image processing is speeded up.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an image processing apparatus of the present invention.

2A to 2C are explanatory diagrams showing a storage state of an input image storage unit, FIGS. 2D to 2F are explanatory diagrams showing a storage state of an output image storage unit, and FIGS. 8A is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an output image after combining. FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an embodiment in which the image editing apparatus of the present invention is applied to remote printing means.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of still another embodiment of the image editing apparatus of the present invention in which the display speed during editing is improved.

5 is a schematic diagram for explaining the operation of the image editing apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: image input means, 1a, 1b: image input device, 2, 2
a: editing means, 3: image output means, 3a, 3b: printing device, 3c: display device, 4, 4a to 4d: input image storage unit, 5: edit instruction unit, 6a to 6d: command storage unit, 7, 7
a, 7b: instruction execution unit, 8, 8a, 8b: output medium characteristic storage unit, 9, 9a to 9f: output image storage unit, 10, 10
a, 10b: overlay processing execution unit, 11: remote printing means, 12, 12a, 12b: thinned image storage unit, 13:
Output image switching unit, 14: processing execution unit, 15: thinned-out image generation unit, 16: instruction interpretation unit, 17: instruction interpretation result comparison unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An instruction storage unit for storing an editing instruction sequence composed of a plurality of editing instructions for image data, and an editing instruction sequence for providing an equivalent processing result to the editing instruction sequence stored in the instruction storage unit. To the image data, an instruction execution unit that executes the edit instruction sequence converted by the instruction sequence conversion unit on the image data, and an output image that stores the edited image data from the instruction execution unit. An image editing apparatus comprising: storage means; and image output means for outputting the image data stored in the output image storage means. 2. A command storage unit for storing an edit command sequence composed of one or a plurality of edit commands for image data, and a command sequence conversion unit for converting the edit command sequence stored in the command storage unit. An instruction executing means for executing the edit instruction sequence converted by the instruction sequence converting means on the image data; an output image storage means for storing the edited image data from the instruction executing means; and the output image A plurality of image output means for outputting the image data stored in the storage means; and an output characteristic storage means for storing the output characteristic of each of the image output means. An image editing apparatus, characterized in that the edit command sequence stored in (1) is converted based on the output characteristics stored in the output characteristic storage means. 3. An instruction storage unit for storing an edit instruction sequence composed of one or a plurality of edit instructions for image data, and executing the edit instruction sequence stored in the instruction storage unit for image data. Command execution means, first output image storage means for storing the edited image data from the command execution means, and second output image storage means for storing the edited image data from the command execution means An execution result storage unit that stores an edit command sequence executed by the command execution unit in correspondence with the edited image data stored in the second output image storage unit, and the first output image Image output means for outputting the image data stored in the storage means, an edit instruction sequence already stored in the execution result storage means, and an edit instruction sequence stored in the instruction storage means When it can be considered that the images after the execution of the edit command sequence of both are the same as the comparison result of the edit command sequence comparison unit for comparing and the edit command sequence comparison unit, they are already stored in the second output image storage unit. And an output image switching means for outputting the image data stored therein to the first output image storage means.