JPH0778620B2 - Layout scanner device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a layout scanner device used for plate making of an original such as a color photograph, and in particular, a layout scanner device is incorporated regardless of an area to be trimmed to form a database. A layout scanner device that can automatically extract only the trimming area required when using the image, and can reduce the memory usage amount and calculation amount during various image processing to the minimum. Is.

[Prior Art] Currently, in the field of plate making, a layout scanner device has been developed and put into practical use when making an original plate such as a color photograph. This layout scanner device has an editing function capable of outputting one or more images in a desired layout on one film. This type of layout scanner device is sold by many manufacturers, and is an epoch-making one as a plate making system.

Its general usage is, for example, a special process for eliminating acne, wrinkles, etc. of a person image, and a method for plate making (plate making). Also, printing color photos is generally
Although it is handled as a temporary process, catalogs, pamphlets, leaflets, etc. can be used by performing image processing such as enlarging / reducing / rotating photos that have been used once, or by changing the trimming (changing the part to be used). ， Often reused. Such work is generally called the former as a plate-making work and the latter as a plate-making work using a database.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, frequently used (diverted or reused) color photographs or the like can be stored in a recording medium such as a magnetic tape or a magnetic disk and reused. At this time, although processing such as enlargement / reduction / rotation can be performed, it takes time and productivity is low.

That is, as a cause of this, when a color photograph is used for printing, in general, there is almost no case where full trimming is performed, and 30% to 40% is cut in most cases.

However, in the current layout scanner device,
No measures have been taken against such a problem, and the entire area is simply accessed by the file name of the photograph or the like regardless of the size of the trimming size. For this reason, processing such as enlargement / reduction / rotation is generally performed by affine transformation, but it takes a very long processing time to process areas other than necessary areas.

As described above, in the conventional layout scanner device,
Since the image processing is performed up to the area other than the necessary area (trimming area), not only the capacity of the storage medium of the device is used more than necessary, but also the processing time is long and, as a result, the work efficiency is improved. There is a problem in improving the quality of plate making and shortening the delivery time, which has declined and is an important part of the printed matter production process.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and automatically captures only the trimming area required when using an image that is captured and databased regardless of the area to be trimmed. It is an object of the present invention to provide a layout scanner device that can be extracted and that can reduce the amount of memory used and the amount of calculation during various image processing to a minimum.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the layout scanner device of the present invention has an image input unit for inputting image information of a document and a trimming of image information input from the image input unit. Reference point input means for inputting the position information of at least one reference point regarding the reference point, and the position information of the reference point input by the reference point input means is added to the image information input from the image input means and stored as a database. Image storage means, a trimming area input means for inputting image reference points and position information of the trimming area, a magnification input means for inputting a magnification of a document in a finished state, and a reference stored in the image storage means. Point position information, reference point and trimming area position information input from trimming area input means, and magnification input from magnification input means Image processing means for calculating the coordinates of the trimming area of the image information of the image processing target based on the above, and for reading the trimmed image of the image information of the image processing target from the image storing means based on the coordinates.

Here, in particular, the image processing means arranges the trimmed image based on the position information of the trimming area input from the trimming area input means.

[Operation] Therefore, in the layout scanner device of the present invention, when storing the image information of a document as a database, in addition to various attributes such as a file name as in a normal database, at least one of By adding the position information of each reference point, the coordinates of the trimming area of the image information to be image-processed are automatically calculated, and the trimmed image of the image information to be image-processed is extracted and processed. be able to.

As a result, the image processing size can be significantly reduced, and the amount of memory used and the amount of calculation during various types of image processing can be minimized.

Example First, the concept of the present invention will be described.

In the layout scanner, which has an editing function that performs color separation of the color originals and at the same time the layout of the final finish, that is, a full-page plate collection function, the color originals are scanned on the scanner drum in order to operate as efficiently as possible. It is extremely important that the tape be attached at a predetermined and accurate angle. Further, in this case, an arbitrary point (referred to as a reference point or a singular point) for aligning the pattern of the color original can be designated, as shown in, for example, "Japanese Patent Application No. 58-217258".

What is important here is that the reference point on the digital signal color-separated by the color scanner is set to P as shown in FIG.
Then, the position (or address) of the reference point P and the capture origin O of the digital image can be easily calculated from the scanning line density and the magnification at the time of color separation even if the size is changed.

According to the present invention, when storing the image information of the color original document as a database of digital images in this way, the position of the reference point P (address ) Information is added.

Here, when creating a database of color document image information, full trimming (up to the black edge of the color photo)
It is necessary to create a database. This is because it is not possible to determine whether the entire color photograph is used or only a part of the color photograph is reused or reused.

On the other hand, in the case of reusing a color original (photograph) stored in a database, if a trimming area indicated by the broken line size in FIG. 3 is designated at the stage of creating a printed matter, a new trimming start point is set. S and end point E
(Required image area) is resolution, enlargement / reduction ratio,
From the positional relationship between the new trimming size (broken line size) and the reference point, it is possible to easily obtain and perform image processing.

From the above viewpoint, according to the present invention, when the image information of the document is stored as a database, the image information is taken in together with the position information of the reference points, so that the image (entire) is irrelevant to the area to be trimmed. It is a function to read and process only the data in the required trimming area based on the reference points when using the image, simply by inputting the position information of the trimming area by loading the data into a database. is there.

An embodiment of the present invention based on the above concept will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a layout scanner device according to the present invention.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the layout scanner device of this embodiment has a color scanner 1, a magnetic disk 2, a digitizer 3 which is an interactive input means, a graphic display 4, a magnetic disk 5 or a floppy disk. A disk 6, a magnification angle setting device 7 and a floppy disk 8 which are magnification angle generating means, a color display 9 which is image displaying means, an optical disk 10 which is image storing means, and a computer 11 which is image processing means.
And an output device 12 which is an output means.

Here, the color scanner 1 is for inputting an image of a color photograph which is a document, and for color-separating this image information for output.

Further, the magnetic disk 2 stores image information output from the color scanner 1.

On the other hand, the digitizer 3 reads the positional information such as the plate-making size and the trimming area information shown on the layout-designated paper or the block copy and displays it on the graphic display 4.

Also, the magnetic disk 5 or the floppy disk 6 is
The position information output from the digitizer 3 is stored.

Further, the magnification angle calculating device 7 measures the magnification and the inclination angle of the document in the finished state and stores it in the floppy disk 8.

On the other hand, the optical disc 10 is for storing the image information output from the color scanner 1 as a database by adding the position information of at least one reference point relating to the trimming of the image information to the image information. .

Further, the computer 11 inputs a reference point input for inputting position information of at least one reference point relating to trimming of image information input from the image input function and image information input from the image input function from the color scanner 1. function,
The position information of the reference point input from the reference point input function is added to the image information input from the image input function, and the image storage function of storing in the optical disc 10 as a database, the position information of the reference point of the image and the trimming area are Trimming area input function to be input, magnification / angle input function to input the magnification and tilt angle of the original document from the magnification angle setting device 7, position information of reference points stored in the optical disk 10, and trimming area input Position information of reference point and trimming area input from the function, and magnification input /
The coordinates of the trimming area of the image information of the image processing target is calculated based on the magnification and the tilt angle input from the angle input function, and the trimming image of the image information of the image processing target is read from the optical disc 10 based on the coordinates. Output machine
The image processing function for outputting to 12 and the image information and position information stored in the magnetic disk 2 and the magnetic disk 5, respectively, are read out, and this information is color-coded based on the magnification and tilt angle information stored in the floppy disk 8. It has a function of displaying on the display 9.

Further, the output device 12 outputs the processing information from the computer 11 as a plate-making film.

Next, the operation of the layout scanner device of this embodiment configured as described above will be described.

First, the image information of a color photograph color-separated by the color scanner 1 is once stored in the magnetic disk 2.

Also, the position information such as the plate-making size and the trimming area information shown on the layout-designated paper or block copy is determined by the digitizer 3
It is read by an appropriate means such as the above, stored in the magnetic disk 5 or the floppy disk 6, and displayed on the graphic display 4.

Further, the magnification and the tilt angle of the original document in the finished state are measured by the magnification angle setting device 7 and stored in the floppy disk 8.

Furthermore, the image information output from the color scanner 1 is stored in the optical disc 10 as a database by adding position information of at least one reference point P regarding trimming of the image information to the image information.

On the other hand, when the image information of the original document stored in the optical disk 10 is reused, the computer 11 uses the optical disk 10
The coordinates of the region to be trimmed are calculated from the position information of the reference point P of the image information to be image-processed stored in the image information, and the image processing is performed by calculating the trimming start point S and end point E.

That is, the image information and the position information stored in the magnetic disk 2 and the magnetic disk 5 are respectively read out, and this information is displayed on the color display 9 based on the information of the magnification and the tilt angle stored in the floppy disk 8. To be done.

Further, by inputting the position information of the trimming area into the computer 11, the position information of the reference point P of the image information stored in the optical disk 10 which is the image processing target, and the input reference point and the magnetic disk 5 are read. The coordinates of the trimming area of the image information of the image processing target are calculated based on the position information of the trimming area and the magnification read from the floppy disk 8, and the trimming of the image information of the image processing target is performed based on the coordinates. Image is optical disc 10
Read out from and output to the computer 11 or the output device 12.

Here, in the case of outputting to the computer 11, the computer 11 adjusts the relative position of the line indicating the trimming area displayed on the color display 9 and the color-separated image information to perform color separation. The image information is automatically arranged at a predetermined position by a known method, and the image information and the position information are combined.

By performing such image processing on each color-separated image, the positions of all the images to be output on one film are determined and output as a plate-making film. If necessary, a color hard copy machine (not shown) may output a color hard copy.

As described above, in the layout scanner device according to the present embodiment, when storing the image information of the color photograph which is the original document as a database, in addition to various attributes such as a file name as in a normal database, at least the trimming-related information is stored. The coordinate information of one reference point P is added, and the coordinates of the trimming area (trimming start point S and end point E) are automatically calculated from the coordinate information of the reference point P of the image information to be image processed. Since image processing is performed, it is possible to automatically calculate and process a trimming area of image information to be subjected to image processing and a reference point for arrangement.

As a result, it is possible to significantly reduce the image processing size, to minimize the amount of memory used and the amount of calculation at the time of various types of image processing, and to automatically perform the arrangement after the image processing. .

In addition, when diverting the image information of the document, it is possible not only to easily respond to changes in the used part (trimming region) of the document, but also to increase the processing speed by targeting only the necessary parts. Becomes

That is, in FIG. 3, for example, when printing the size of a captured color photograph, the resolution is 12 lines / mm,
The sizes in the X and Y directions are 15 cm and 10 cm.
The trimming size (the size of the broken line in FIG. 3) when reusing the color photograph stored in the database is 10 cm and 6 cm in the X and Y directions.

Here, in the conventional image processing method, all images are accessed regardless of the size of the trimming size. The data amount in this case is calculated as (150 × 12) × (100 × 12) × 4 = 8640000 bytes. However, the depth of one pixel is 8 bits.

On the other hand, in the image processing method of the present embodiment, a really necessary (processing) area is automatically calculated in one color photograph, and only this area (broken line size in FIG. 3) is calculated. Are being accessed. When the data amount in this case is calculated, it becomes (100 × 12) × (60 × 12) × 4 = 3456000 bytes.

That is, the access size, which was 8.6 megabytes in the past, can be significantly reduced to 3.5 megabytes in this embodiment.

As described above, in the layout scanner device of the present embodiment, the image processing is performed only on the necessary area of the color photograph which is the original, and therefore the storage medium (magnetic disk) of the device is used.
(2, 5 etc.) will not be used more than necessary and the processing time will be short. As a result, work efficiency will improve and productivity will increase 3 to 5 times, It is possible to improve the quality of plate making, which occupies an important position, and shorten the delivery time. Further, it is possible to automatically perform the arrangement after the image processing.

In the above embodiment, the information of the reference point of the color photograph which is the original is fetched at the time of image input, but the information of the reference point is added on the color display 9 connected to the computer 11. It is also possible to give instructions.

Further, in the above embodiment, the reference point is the P point in the pattern of the color photograph, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it may be an arbitrary point on the color photograph or an arbitrary point outside the color photograph. Good. Of course, the point O, which is the input origin, may be used as the reference point. However, it is more efficient to arrange the reference point in the newly trimmed portion (broken line), and therefore it is usually important to design the pattern. It is preferable to use points.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the original is a color photograph has been described, but it goes without saying that it may be other than this.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, an image input unit for inputting image information of a document and a reference point for inputting position information of at least one reference point regarding trimming of image information input from the image input unit. Input means, image storage means for adding position information of the reference point input by the reference point input means to image information input from the image input means, and storing as a database, position of reference point of image and trimming area Trimming area input means for inputting information,
Magnification input means for inputting the magnification of the document in the finished state, position information of reference points stored in the image storage means, position information of reference points and trimming areas input from trimming area input means, and magnification input means Image processing means for calculating the coordinates of the trimming area of the image information of the image processing target on the basis of the magnification input from, and for reading the trimmed image of the image information of the image processing target from the image storage means on the basis of the coordinates. I prepared for it,
It is possible to automatically extract only the trimming area required when using the image that has been captured and databased regardless of the area to be trimmed, minimizing the amount of memory used and the amount of calculation for various image processing. It is possible to provide a layout scanner device that can be reduced to

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a layout scanner device according to the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are conceptual diagrams for explaining the concept of the present invention. 1 ... Color scanner, 2 ... Magnetic disk, 3 ...
Digitizer, 4 ... Graphic display, 5 ...
... magnetic disk, 6 ... floppy disk, 7 ... magnification angle setting device, 8 ... floppy disk, 9 ... color display, 10 ... optical disk, 11 ... computer, 12 ... output machine.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Noriyuki Mikata 1-5-1, Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo Within Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Shigetoshi Adachi 1-1-5, Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP 62-8151 (JP, A) JP 59-104854 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image input unit for inputting image information of a document, a reference point input unit for inputting position information of at least one reference point relating to trimming of image information input from the image input unit, By adding the position information of the reference point input from the reference point input means to the image information input from the image input means,
An image storage means for storing as a database; a trimming area input means for inputting the reference point of the image and position information of the trimming area; a magnification input means for inputting a magnification of a document in a finished state; Location information of stored reference points,
The coordinates of the trimming area of the image information to be image-processed are calculated based on the reference point and the position information of the trimming area input from the trimming area input means, and the magnification input from the magnification input means, and the coordinates are calculated. An image processing unit that reads out a trimmed image of image information to be image-processed from the image storage unit based on the above. 2. The image processing means arranges the trimming image based on the position information of the trimming area input from the trimming area inputting means.
Layout scanner device described in.