JPH0787302A - Document processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce the document of high quality that undergone the desired gradation processing by selection the existing documents written on the paper, etc., based on a position instruction and a display message. CONSTITUTION:A gradation vector instructing means 12 sends a subject area pointed by a user for gradation and the direction information on the subject area to a subject area circumscribed rectangule means 13 and extracts a circumscribed rectangle area out of a document screen in regard of the original document image held by a document image holding means 11. Meanwhile, a gradation contents instructing means 14 sends the information on the colors of both reference start and end points, the number of gradation stages, the patterns, etc., pointed by the user to a gradation image generating means 15. Then the means 14 applies the gradation processing to the circumscribed rectangle area of the subject area based on those information. A subject area segmenting means 16 segments the subject area part out of a generated radiation image. An output image generating means 17 synthesizes the gradation image with the document image sent from the means 11. This synthetic image is visualized by a visualizing means 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a document processing apparatus having a function of receiving a simple instruction from a user and applying a desired gradation to an arbitrary area of a document and outputting the gradation.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a copying machine as a device corresponding to the function of reading a paper document, processing it, and outputting it. The basic function of the copying machine is to output a document that faithfully reproduces the original, but with the spread of the digital copying machine, for example, the processing of a document like the copying machine disclosed in JP-A-2-223275. Some have functions as well. In particular, with the spread of color copying machines in recent years, there are increasing opportunities to convert the colors of such documents and to color black and white documents.

Coloring instruction methods on a copying machine include a method of placing an original on an editing pad and instructing with an editing pen, and a method of using a marker pen. The designation of the area is achieved by designating the closed area by plotting in the closed area, or by drawing a free-form curve and painting the inside thereof. With respect to the closed area filling, the closed area blanking, and the like, the filling can be performed, for example, by the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-189878.

[0004]

However, according to the coloring function of the conventional copying machine, basically, the same area can be filled with only one color. If you want to paint by all means, you have to take the next best measure, such as dividing the areas with thin lines and painting each one separately, or lining up the free-curved lines in the areas. In particular, when applying gradation, it is not possible to insert a thin line between different colors, and it takes too much time to change the density in order with a free curve, which is not easy to do. It was Furthermore, even if you do not have to spare the trouble of separately painting by changing the density, it is possible to manually specify each color if it is a gradation of the same system color, but a gradation that gradually changes from yellow to blue etc. Was very difficult to tell.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide various patterns in an arbitrary closed area on a paper surface by an easy operation in a document processing apparatus. It is to provide the function to apply the gradation of.

[0006]

The present invention (Claim 1) includes:
A document image holding unit 11 (211 in FIG. 2, 10 in FIG. 10) for holding the original document input as a digital image.
11, 1511 in FIG. 15, 1711 in FIG. 17, and a gradation vector designating means 12 (22 in FIG. 2, 102 in FIG. 10, and FIG. 15 in FIG. 2) for designating an area to be gradation and a gradation direction for the original document. 15
2, 172 in FIG. 17) and a target area circumscribing rectangle extracting means 13 (for extracting a rectangle circumscribing the target area from the document image held in the document image holding means in accordance with the instruction from the gradation vector instruction means). 23 in FIG.
(103 in FIG. 10, 153 in FIG. 15, 173 in FIG. 17)
And a gradation content instructing means 14 for instructing the content of the gradation (color of starting and ending points as a reference, number of gradation steps, gradation pattern, etc.)
(24 in FIG. 2, 104 and 109 in FIG. 10, 15 in FIG. 15)
4, 159, and 174 in FIG. 17) and the gradation content information instructed by the gradation content instructing means, a gradation image is generated by processing the area image extracted by the target area circumscribing rectangle extracting means to generate a gradation image. Means 15 (25 in FIG. 2, 105 in FIG. 10, 155 in FIG. 15, 175 in FIG. 17);
Target area cutout means 16 (26 in FIG. 2, 106 in FIG. 10, 1 in FIG. 15) that cuts out only the necessary target area from the image generated by the gradation image generating means.
56, 176 in FIG. 17, the gradation image cut out by the target area cutout unit, and the document image held by the document image holding unit are combined to generate an output image. 27, FIG. 1
0 of 107, 157 of FIG. 15, 177 of FIG. 17) and visualization means 18 (28 of FIG. 2, FIG. 10) for visualizing the document image generated by the output image generation means on the visualization medium.
108, 158 in FIG. 15, and 178 in FIG. 17).

In the above-mentioned configuration of the invention, the gradation vector designating means, as a specific embodiment, is a gradation vector designating input module 22, 102 for performing processing for inputting a region and a direction to which a gradation is applied according to a user's designation. 152 or a gradation vector extraction module 172 that reads a marker color plotted on a document and indicates a gradation area and its direction. Further, the gradation content instruction means can be realized in the following specific modes. (1) Gradation parameter instruction input module (24 of the first embodiment) that performs processing for determining the color of the start point, the color of the end point, and the number of areas for each gradation area according to the user's instruction (2) In addition to such a gradation parameter instruction input module, a gradation pattern instruction input module that determines the gradation interval by selecting the interval of each gradation step from several patterns, or that absolutely indicates the gradation interval and the rate of color change (104, 109 of the second embodiment) (3) In addition to the gradation parameter instruction input module, by calculating the lightness of the color assigned to each area of the gradation, the area width suitable for the brightness of that area can be calculated. A means for determining the gradation interval for making the determination.

[0008]

With respect to the original document image held in the document image holding means 11, the gradation vector designating means 12 passes the information indicating the target area to be gradation-designated by the user and the direction thereof to the target area circumscribing rectangular means 13. The target area circumscribed rectangle extraction means 13 extracts a rectangular area circumscribing the target area from the document image. Further, the gradation content instructing means 14 transfers to the gradation image generating means 15 the content of the gradation instructed by the user, that is, the information such as the reference starting and ending colors, the number of gradation steps, and the gradation pattern. The gradation image generation means 15 performs gradation processing on the circumscribed rectangular area of the target area according to the specified gradation content. The target area portion of the generated gradation image is cut out by the target area cutout unit 16, is combined with the document image, and is visualized by the visualization unit. According to the present invention, the user can easily carry out his or her intention by performing a simple operation such as a position instruction and a selection according to a display message on an existing document written on paper or the like. High quality documents with gradation can be created.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS (First Embodiment) <Description of Configuration of First Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a document processing apparatus according to the first embodiment. The document processing apparatus includes a document image input module 21, a gradation vector instruction input module 22, a target area circumscribing rectangle extraction module 23, a gradation parameter instruction input module 24, a gradation image generation module 25, a target area cutout module 26, and an output image generation module. 27 and a printout module 28 which is a visualization means.

The original image input module 21 is a means for inputting an original document such as an image scanner as a digital image, and has an input image memory 211 for holding a binary digital image that has been taken in.

The gradation vector instruction input module 22 is a processing for instructing the area and direction to which the gradation is applied. Place the manuscript on the editing pad and point the two points in the area with the editing instruction pen, or display the document image held in the input image memory on the liquid crystal display etc. and give an instruction with a pointing device such as an electronic pen. It is realized by the method of performing. As shown in FIG. 3, assuming that the first plotted point is the A point and the other is the B point, the vector can be specified by drawing a solid line in addition to the method of plotting the two points in order. is there.
When a solid line is drawn, it is determined that the drawn point is the A point and the drawn point is the B point.

The target area circumscribed rectangle extraction module 23 is
This is a process of extracting the smallest rectangle that surrounds the specified closed region. First, the outline coordinates of the target area are calculated, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-1
Extracted by the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 89878,
It is held in a work memory different from the input image memory. And, having a side parallel to the main scanning direction and the sub-scanning direction of the image,
Find the smallest rectangle that encloses the closed region that contains the specified point of interest.
This is achieved by the area division processing technique disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-15889 or Japanese Patent Publication No. 61-32712. It goes without saying that preprocessing such as inclination correction may be performed before this processing.

The gradation parameter instruction input module 24 is a processing for instructing the color of the start point, the color of the end point, and the number of areas for each gradation area.
For example, as shown in FIG. 4, in order to specify a color, the start point and the end point are sequentially selected in the color palette, and the selected color is magenta, cyan, or
Make fine adjustments with the up and down buttons for each color of yellow. Of course, it does not matter if you select the color palette from the beginning without selecting the color palette. In addition to this, the color can be specified by reading the color on the platen. Similarly, the number of areas is designated by the up / down buttons. The color of the start point is the color of the end area on the A point side when the circumscribing rectangle is evenly divided by the number of areas, and the color of the end point is the area color on the end point B side. There are two types of gradation directions, free direction vector designation and horizontal direction vector designation. When the free direction vector is specified, gradation is applied vertically in the specified vector direction, and when the horizontal direction vector is specified, the gradation is always applied in parallel to the main scanning direction or the sub scanning direction. The directions of the free direction vector and the horizontal direction vector are as follows for each gradation area.
This is performed by using buttons displayed on a liquid crystal display as shown in FIG.

Gradation image generation module 25
Is a gradation parameter instruction input module 24
The YMC value of the color of each area is determined in accordance with the color of the start point and the end point and the number of areas designated by, and processing for generating a gradation image in the circumscribed rectangle is performed. However, the YMC value is the three primary colors that determine the color of the ink or copy toner, and the values of each color of yellow, magenta, and cyan are 0-10.
It is expressed as 0%. FIG. 5 shows an example in which colors are applied. When the colors of the start point and the end point are determined, each YMC value is equally divided to determine the color of each area. However, if it is not divisible and has a decimal point, it is rounded off and converted to an integer.
As shown in FIG. 6, the circumscribing rectangle of the target area held in the work memory is painted with the designated color in the equally divided areas.

The target area cutout module 26 is a processing for cutting out a closed area in the circumscribed rectangle and generating a designated image with gradation. JP-A-3-189878
This is realized by transferring the color information of only the target area portion on the work memory to the output image memory using the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No.

The output image generation module 27 is a process of synthesizing the gradation image extracted by the target area clipping module 26 on the output image memory and the document image on the input image memory. The synthesized image is stored on the output image memory. It can be stored.

The printout module 28 is means for visualizing the document image generated by the output image generating module 27 on a visualizing medium, and realizes the output image on the output image memory by using a laser beam printing technique or the like. Of course, a marking technique such as thermal transfer of plain paper may be used instead of the laser beam.

<Explanation of Operation of First Embodiment> An actual operation will be described with reference to an arrow figure as shown in FIG. A flowchart of the processing is shown in FIG. In a digital copying machine, here, for example, Fuji Xerox's A-Color
The case where the invention is incorporated into a full-color digital copying machine such as (trade name) will be described. For example, a manuscript is placed on the editing pad, and the target area is designated using the editing instruction pen. For example, assume that point A in FIG. 3 is selected. Of course, the original image input module 21 may read an image into the input image memory 211 first, display it on a liquid crystal display or the like, and give an instruction with an electronic pen or the like.

When the target area is designated, the color selection mode is entered, and "gradation" is selected there (in the case of YES in step S802). Then, a screen for determining the gradation color and the number of regions as shown in FIG. 4 is displayed on the liquid crystal display, and the color of the starting point is first determined from the color palette or using the up and down buttons. Then, a message such as "Please specify the end point of gradation" is displayed, so that the desired point of the original on the editing pad, that is, FIG.
In the example, point B is selected. Then, when the color of the end point is determined, the number of areas is selected with the up / down buttons, the direction of gradation is selected from free direction and horizontal direction, and the end button is pressed, the mode returns to the editing instruction input mode.

Here, each area color is determined as shown in FIG. 5, which is obtained from the following equation. The starting point color is (Y ₁ , M ₁ ,
C ₁ ) end point color (Y _N , M _N , C _N ), intermediate point color (Y _N
n, M _n, C _{n) is, Y n = Y 1 + (} Y N -Y 1) * (n-
1) / (N-1) , M n = M 1 + (M N -M 1) * (n-
1) / (N-1) , C n = C 1 + (C N -C 1) * (n-
1) / (N-1)

When the horizontal vector designating mode is selected, the end point position need not be input by the editing pad.
The gradation direction can be determined by selecting the main scanning direction or the sub scanning direction. in this case,
Color designation is achieved by specifying the right and left colors or the top and bottom colors, not the start and end points.

The editing instruction is completed (YES in step S801).
In the case of S), the manuscript image input module 21
, And press the copy start button. Then, the original image is read into the input image memory 211. It is determined whether there is a gradation instruction (step S806). If there is a gradation instruction, the gradation target area is extracted (step S807), and if not, normal copying is performed (step S812).

The gradation area is a closed area including the first plotted point, and the gradation end point instruction may be out of the area. That is, in FIG. 3, even if the point B is outside the arrow picture, the target area is A
It is inside the picture of the arrow that contains the dots. The extracted gradation target area and the start and end points are moved to the working memory. Then, on the working memory, as shown in FIG. 3, a side has straight lines parallel to the main scanning direction and the sub scanning direction,
The smallest rectangle including the target area is obtained by the area extraction technique.

Next, the color is determined according to the number of areas based on the designated color of the start point and the end point (step S808). For that purpose, first, the area circumscribed rectangle on the working memory is divided into gradation intervals. This division method is different between the horizontal gradation and the free gradation. First, in the horizontal gradation, the inclination of the straight line connecting the points A and B is examined. Let each coordinate be A (x _a ,
y _a ), B (x _b , y _b ), the absolute slope value | (y _b −
If y _a ) / (x _b −x _a ,) | <1, horizontal gradation is applied as shown in FIG. 6, and vertical gradation is applied if the absolute value of the inclination is greater than that. The width of the circumscribed rectangle is W,
If the height is H and the number of designated areas is N, and the upper left of the circumscribed rectangle is the reference point O (x _o , y _o ) as shown in FIG. 6, the point O and the point (x _o + W / N, y _o + H) ) Is a diagonal line area number 1
Is read from the color table of FIG. 5 and poured (step S809). In this way, colors are sequentially added to create a gradation rectangle.

Further, in the case of free direction gradation, if points A and B are plotted as shown in FIG. 7A,
A boundary line is taken perpendicularly to the straight line m passing through the points A and B. In this case, the intersection of the equation of the straight line m and the circumscribed rectangle is obtained, and the point A side of the intersection is the start point S and the point B side is the end point E. Subsequently, the line segment SE is divided by the number N of designated areas, and the internally dividing points are M ₁ , M ₂ , M ₃ , ..., M _N-1 . Then, the intersection point of the circumscribed rectangle and the straight line perpendicular to the straight line m passing through Mn is obtained.
After that, according to the coordinates of each area thus obtained, the color is poured according to the color table of FIG. That is, FIG. 7 (b)
As shown in FIG. ₃ , the start point and the end point are obtained in the vertical direction in each region of the diagonal strip-shaped figures surrounded by the straight lines F _{1 to} F ₄ and the circumscribing rectangle, and the specified start point and end point are connected. Pour the color by filling it with a straight line of color. In addition,
As shown in FIG. 7C, the start point and the end point are obtained in the vertical direction in each region of the oblique strip-shaped figure surrounded by the straight lines F _{1 to} F ₄ perpendicular to each straight line m and the contour of the target region, and The color may be poured by filling a straight line of a designated color connecting the end points.

The output image generation module 27 extracts only the color information of the target area on the working memory (step S810), reads the original image from the input image memory, synthesizes these, and outputs the output image on the output image memory. Is generated (step S811). FIG. 9A shows a gradation image on the working memory, and FIG.
A smaller value is selected for each dot such as an image in which the area is filled (all CMY in the area is 100% and all CMY outside the area are 0%) (minimum is set).
By doing so, an in-region gradation image as shown in FIG. 9C is generated. By marking and outputting this with a visualization module such as a laser beam printing technique, an output document with a desired gradation can be obtained.

(Second Embodiment) <Description of Structure of Second Embodiment> FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing the structure of the second embodiment. The difference from the first embodiment is that the gradation interval is determined by selecting the interval of each gradation step from several patterns, or the gradation pattern instruction input module 109 for absolutely instructing the gradation interval or the rate of color change. Is provided. Specifically, in the gradation parameter instruction input module 104, as shown in FIG.
As in the case of 1, a button called the gradation step instruction method is added, and the buttons "number of areas" and "interval" are selected. In response to this, the gradation pattern instruction input module 109 provides two instruction displays.

As shown in FIG. 12, the gradation pattern instruction input module 109 uses a setting section 121 for setting the number of gradation areas and three buttons of "longer as start point", "equal" and "longer as end point" to set the gradation interval. And a setting unit 122 for setting. If "Equal" is selected, the boundary intervals of the gradation interval graph will be equal. If you choose to "longer start", w ₁ the width of the region 1 in FIG. 6, a region 2 w _2, the regions n w _n, the number of areas N, if the entire region width W, spacing ratio omega _n = Log1
0 (10 / (N−n + 1)), and w _n = W (ω _n / Σω
_{Determine the} width of each region by _n ). On the contrary, "the end is longer"
Is selected, the width of each region is obtained from w _n = W (ω _n / Σω _n ) with the interval ratio ω _n = log10 (10 / n). On the other hand, if the “interval” is selected by the gradation parameter instruction input module 104, the gradation pattern instruction input module 109 determines the gradation pattern by inputting the distance between the gradation areas and the color difference between the areas. To do.

<Explanation of Operation of Second Embodiment> FIG. 14 shows a processing flow of the second embodiment. The difference from the first embodiment is the processing of a part of the gradation parameter instruction input module 104 and the newly added gradation pattern instruction input module 109. That is, in FIG.
In, the processing of steps S1405 to S1408 is different from the processing of the first embodiment.

The gradation parameter instruction input module 104 has a display display 104 as shown in FIG.
The gradation pattern instruction method is determined by the button selection of "number of areas" and "interval" using the button 113 called Gradation step instruction method. When the "end" button 114 is pressed, the gradation pattern instruction input module 109 receives the instruction and provides two instruction displays. Gradation parameter instruction input module 1
When the gradation step instruction method is selected as “number of areas” in 04, the gradation pattern instruction input module 109, as shown in FIG.
The gradation region number setting unit 121 and the gradation interval setting unit 122 that sets the width of gradation by three buttons of “longer as start point”, “equal”, and “longer as end point” are provided. The number of areas is designated by an integer of 1 or more, and the upper limit is determined by the area width. Therefore, when the value exceeding the limit value is input, the maximum number of areas that can be displayed is taken. Regarding the gradation interval, "equal" means that the boundary intervals of the gradation interval graph are made equal, and the same behavior as in the first embodiment is exhibited.
If you choose to "longer start", w ₁ the width of the region 1 in FIG. 6, a region 2 w _2, the regions n w _n, the number of areas N, if the entire region width W, spacing ratio omega _n = log10 (10 / (N
−n + 1)), and the width of each region is calculated by w _n = W (ω _n / Σω _n ). On the contrary, if you select "Longer as the end point",
With an interval ratio ω _n = log10 (10 / n), w _n = W
Each area width is calculated by (ω _n / Σω _n ). By doing so, a higher quality gradation effect can be expressed.

On the other hand, if the "interval" is selected by the gradation parameter instruction input module 104, the gradation pattern instruction input module 109 inputs the interval distance of each area of the gradation and the color difference of each area. The pattern can be determined. As shown in FIG. 13, increase / decrease in color of each area,
Furthermore, the area interval can be specified. The color increase / decrease of each area is, for example, magenta = 0, cyan = 1 as shown in FIG.
If 0 and yellow = 10, each value is added to the YMC value of the color of the area 1, and the color of the second area is magenta = M + 0, cyan = C + 10, and yellow = Y + 10. Naturally, the number of regions is the number obtained by dividing the entire region width by the gradation interval.

(Third Embodiment) <Description of Configuration of Third Embodiment> FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the third embodiment. The difference from the first embodiment is that a gradation interval determination module 159 is added. The gradation interval determination module 059 is a process for changing the brightness of each area according to the width of the gradation. To obtain the brightness, YMC
The value and the L * a * b * value are converted. The L * a * b * color system is a color system in which L * represents lightness and a * b * represents saturation and hue. After conversion of YMC value and L * a * b * value, L *
Each area width is determined so that the value and the area width maintain a linear relationship such as an inverse proportion. The area width is determined by the YMC value-L * a
It is realized by the * b * value conversion palette and the area width determination formula.

<Description of Operation of Third Embodiment> FIG. 16 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing of the third embodiment.
In this processing flow, steps S1601 to S1601
4, steps S1608 to 1609, step S161
Each processing of 2 to 1615 is the same as the processing of the corresponding step of the flowchart of the first embodiment shown in FIG.
The differences are the processes of steps S1605 to 1607 and steps S1610 to 1611, and thus the differences will be mainly described. When the color and the number of areas at the start and end points of the gradation are determined by the gradation parameter designating display as shown in FIG. 4 (steps S1605 to 1607), the same as in the first embodiment, as shown in FIG.
The YMC value of each area is determined as follows (step S16)
10). For each region color, if the starting point color is (Y ₁ , M ₁ , C ₁ ) and the end point color (Y _N , M _N , C _N ), the intermediate point color (Y _n , M _n ,
C _{n) is, Y n = Y 1 + (} Y N -Y 1) * (n-1) / (N
−1), M _n = M ₁ + (M _N −M ₁ ) * (n−1) / (N−
_{1), C n = C 1} + (C N -C 1) * (n-1) / (N-
It is obtained by 1).

Each YMC value thus obtained is set to L * a *
It is converted into a b * value (step S1611). The conversion is performed by a color palette stored in advance. The brightness L * of each area is obtained from the value of this color palette, and the width of each area is determined (step S1611). The width of each region is set to be inversely proportional to the brightness L *, for example. Alternatively, the width is determined so as to be proportional to the difference from the maximum L * value in the area. Besides, any linear conversion can be applied to the linear conversion rule of L * value and width.

(Fourth Embodiment) <Description of Structure of Fourth Embodiment> FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing the structure of a document processing apparatus according to the fourth embodiment. The feature of the fourth embodiment is that a gradation vector extraction module 172 is added instead of the gradation vector instruction input module, as compared with the first embodiment. Other original image input module 171, target area circumscribed rectangle extraction module 173, gradation parameter instruction input module 174, gradation image generation module 175, target area cutout module 176, output image generation module 177, printout module 1
The configuration of 78 etc. is the same as that of the first embodiment. The gradation vector extraction module 172, instead of the gradation vector instruction input module 22 (FIG. 2), reads the marker color plotted on the original and determines the area to be gradation and its direction. This is achieved by using a technique related to marker reading as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-201671.

<Description of Operation of Fourth Embodiment> FIG. 18 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing of the fourth embodiment.
This is a process in which the user places a mark on the document original with a marker pen in advance, and the machine reads the mark to add a desired color to a desired place. The gradation process is performed by marking the same color in the same area. For example, assume that the user marks a red marker at point A and a blue marker at point B in FIG. The user places the original on the original image input module 171, and reads it into the input image memory 1711. If you read the color of the marker and recognize that there are two colored marks in the same area, as shown in Fig. 19, "Please select the gradation color on the blue side" and "Select the gradation color on the red side". And input in order. Other processes are the same as those in the first embodiment.

[0037]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the user follows the position instruction and the display message with respect to the existing document written on the paper using the digital copying machine. It is possible to easily create a high-quality document with a gradation that suits one's intention simply by performing a simple operation such as selection.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a document processing device according to a first invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the first invention.

FIG. 3 Method for determining a rectangle circumscribing a target area

FIG. 4 is a gradation parameter indicating display according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5: Example of a color table with 5 gradations

FIG. 6 Example of circumscribed rectangle with gradation

[Figure 7] Example of free-direction gradation

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of processing according to the first embodiment.

[Fig. 9] Example of composition of gradation image

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram showing a second embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a gradation parameter designating display of the second embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a gradation pattern instruction display (1) for instructing a gradation step according to the number of areas in the second embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a gradation pattern instruction display (2) for instructing a gradation step according to the interval of the second embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of processing according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a configuration diagram showing a third embodiment.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of processing according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a configuration diagram showing a fourth embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart of processing according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a gradation parameter designating display of the fourth embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Document image holding means, 12 ... Gradient vector designating means, 13 ... Target area circumscribing rectangle extracting means, 14 ...
Gradation content instruction means, 15 ... Gradient image generation means, 16 ... Target area cutout means, 17 ... Output image generation means, 18 ... Visualization means

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI Technical indication H04N 1/46 4226-5C H04N 1/46 Z

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A document image holding means for holding an original document input as a digital image, a gradation vector instructing means for instructing and inputting a target area on which gradation is applied to the original document, and a gradation vector instructing means. Target area circumscribing rectangle extracting means for extracting a rectangle circumscribing the target area from the document image held in the document image holding means, and gradation content instructing means for instructing and inputting the contents of gradation And a gradation image generation unit that processes the region image extracted by the target region circumscribing rectangle extraction unit to generate a gradation image according to the gradation content information designated by the gradation content designation unit, and the gradation image generation unit. Generated A target area cutout unit that cuts out only a necessary target area from the image, a gradation image cut out by the target area cutout unit, and the document image held by the document image holding unit are combined to generate an output image. A document processing apparatus comprising: an output image generation unit; and a visualization unit that visualizes a document image generated by the output image generation unit on a visualization medium.