JPH0816804A - Picture processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To permit an operator to execute the retrieval processing of only a graphic having a desired attribute among plural graphics without the need of recognizing the graphics one by one in the editing of graphic data by retrieving graphic data having attribute information inputted among stored graphic data and outputting graphic data of a retrieval result. CONSTITUTION:Graphic data including plural pieces of attribute information which are set for drawing the graphics are stored for the respective graphics. Graphic data having attribute information inputted among stored graphic data are retrieved and outputted in accordance with the input of attribute information which the operator desires as a retrieval object. In such a case, the attribute which is set to be the retrieval object is set and a retrieval key 44 in a line types window 41 is selected by a mouse. An area where the graphic to be retrieved is drawn is designated by the mouse. When the termination of range designation is indicated, the graphic having the attribute which is set in the line types window 41 is retrieved for the graphic positioned within the range, and it is displayed so that it can be identified from the other graphics.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing method capable of editing a document including characters and figures.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional device capable of drawing not only text but also graphic data, graphic data is
Generally, it is possible to draw a combination of several graphic elements such as straight lines and circles. In addition, each graphic element may be configured to be able to set attributes such as line width, type such as dotted line and solid line, and surface type.

Here, for example, when the graphic element is a straight line, the straight line is drawn by the designation of the line width, the dotted line / solid line type, and the designation of the surface type is invalid. When the graphic element is a circle, the circumference of the circle is drawn according to the designation of the line width, the dotted line / solid line type, and the inside of the circle is filled by the designation of the face type.

When a graphic element having a certain attribute is to be changed to another attribute with respect to the graphic data drawn in this way, in the conventional method, the operator checks each graphic element one by one and Had been changed.

[0005]

However, the conventional method is very inconvenient because the operator has to confirm each of the graphic elements one by one and perform the changing process one by one.

Further, in the conventional method, since the operator confirms the attribute, it is necessary to display the attribute window for each item which is difficult to understand in the image on the display, and the operation is complicated.

Further, in the conventional method, since the operator looks at the image on the display and confirms it, it is difficult to see the overlapping figures, and there is a risk of oversight.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the conventional problems, graphic data including a plurality of attribute information necessary for drawing the graphic is stored as a search target. An image processing method comprising inputting attribute information, searching for graphic data having the input attribute information from the stored graphic data, and outputting the graphic data of the search result.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably provides an image processing method in which a plurality of the graphic data are stored, and the search processing is executed for one selected from the plurality of graphic data. provide.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably provides an image processing method in which the stored graphic data is graphic data corresponding to a plurality of graphics selected and instructed to be searched. .

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably provides an image processing method for generating and displaying a graphic according to the stored graphic data.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably provides an image processing method for generating and displaying a graphic according to the graphic data of the output search result.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably displays the graphic corresponding to the graphic data for which selection is instructed so as to be distinguishable from the graphic corresponding to other graphic data not for selection. An image processing method is provided.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably provides an image processing method for changing the graphic data selected and instructed.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably provides an image processing method for retrieving graphic data having all of a plurality of attribute information when there are a plurality of attribute information input as the retrieval target. provide.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably generates and displays a graphic according to the stored graphic data, and selects the graphic to be searched from the displayed graphic. An image processing method for performing is provided.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably responds to an instruction to select a figure to be searched,
Provided is an image processing method for creating a table for managing graphic data corresponding to a selected graphic.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably provides an image processing method for changing the created table in response to a change instruction for the figure instructed to select the figure.

In order to solve the conventional problems, the present invention preferably provides an image processing method capable of setting the entire graphic data as the graphic data selection instruction.

According to the present invention, in order to solve the conventional charge, it is preferable to input attribute information to be newly set, and to set the inputted attribute information to be newly set to the searched graphic data. Provide a processing method.

[0021]

1 is a block diagram of the entire document processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a display unit for displaying characters, figures, etc. of a document edited in this system, which may be a liquid crystal display or the like in addition to a CRT.
The VRAM 12 stores display contents to be displayed on the display unit 11, and 13 is a high-resolution printer such as a laser beam printer or an inkjet printer, which outputs a document edited in this system. Reference numeral 14 is a keyboard for inputting characters such as letters and numbers, and 1
Reference numeral 5 is a mouse which is a pointing device for inputting position information and commands on the display unit 11, and 16 is an MPU which controls the entire document processing system.
Various controls are performed according to the control program stored in 7. Reference numeral 17 denotes a main memory used as a work area for storing a control program of processing shown in a flowchart described later and for storing data during the processing,
Reference numeral 18 is a hard disk device for storing various data used in this system, 19 is a system bus including an address bus, a control bus, and a data bus, 20 is a floppy disk drive (FD drive), and 21 is a floppy disk (FD).

FIG. 2 is an external view of a document processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. 22 is a system bus 19 or M
It is the main body of the document processing system that incorporates the PU 16 and the main memory 17. The same configurations as those in FIG.
Reference numeral 1 is a CRT, 14 is a keyboard, 15 is a pointing device, 20 is an FD drive, and an FD 21 is set to write image data, graphic data, character data, and numerical data to the FD 21, and graphics recorded on the FD 21. Read data, character data, and numerical data. Further, the present invention is, of course, realized in the document processing system, but the FD 21 storing a program capable of realizing the present invention is installed in another document processing apparatus.
By setting the program in the D drive 20, loading the program into the hard disk 18, and executing the loaded program, the present invention can be realized in other document processing systems in which the program according to the present invention is not stored in the hard disk in advance. can do.

"Search and Replace Operation Procedure" FIGS. 3 to 7 are views for explaining the operation procedure of the search and replace processing according to this embodiment.

First, it is assumed that graphic data as shown in FIG. 3 is drawn. In the case of this figure data, 31, 32, 33
It is composed of seven graphic elements a, 34a, 35, 36, and 37. As for the figure, as will be described later, the line type and face type can be selected, and the line type can be selected in the line type selection window as shown in FIG. Etc.), "Line width" (4, 8 etc.), "
There are various settable attributes such as "line color" (black, gray, etc.), "arrow" (none, end point side, start point side, etc.), "arrow angle" (small, medium, large, etc.). , 33a, 34a, 36
Is a straight line of arrows, 32 is a solid line with a line width of 20, 33a is a dotted line with a thickness of 4, and 34a and 36 are
The thickness is the four solid lines. In addition, all other figures are drawn with four solid lines.

In the figure data shown in FIG. 3, 3
3 arrows extending from 5 to 31 (32, 33a, 3
In 4a), the search and replace process will be described by exemplifying a case where the line width is four main lines and only the line width is changed to 20 main lines without changing the line types such as dotted lines and solid lines.

In this case, the line width of 4 lines may be set to be searched and the line width of 20 lines may be replaced.

First, the line type command (38
A) is selected by the mouse 15. In response to the input of the line type command, the line type window 41 is displayed as shown in FIG. Set the line type attribute you want to search in this window. The setting of the search target attribute in the line type window will be described later in detail with reference to FIG. 8. However, here, only the line width is set as the search target, and only the line width of four lines is set to be searched. explain. In order to set this attribute, the mouse 15 is used to designate a square item change designation button next to the line width for designating the line width. FIG. 4 shows an example in which the line width setting is displayed in a distinguishable manner by highlighting the item change designation button. After setting the attributes to be searched, the search button 44 in the line type window is selected with the mouse 15, and the area (search target area) in which the figure to be searched is drawn (the search target area) is specified with the mouse 15 (FIG. 5).
39). When the end of the range designation is instructed, a figure having an attribute set in the line type window is searched for a figure located within the range, and as shown in FIG.
The figure retrieved is brought into a selected state and displayed so as to be distinguishable from other figures. The dotted box 40 in the figure indicates that the figure enclosed by it is in the selected state. next,
Select the attribute you want to change for the selected line type. In this case, since it is desired to have 20 line types, the line type window is displayed by the same operation as above, and the line type is set to 20 (41 in FIG. 7)). When the replace button (45) is selected with the mouse 15 after setting the attributes to be changed, the screen shown in FIG.
The line width of the figure selected in step 20 is changed to 20, and the changed figure is displayed as 33b and 34b in FIG.

In FIG. 5, instead of designating the area to be searched with the mouse 15, all the graphics can be designated as the search target by selecting the all graphics command 38b. In this case, all graphic elements are searched. In the present example, a graphic element with a line width of 4 is searched,
In addition to a and 34a, four figures 31, 35, 36 and 37 are also selected. When it is desired to change the attributes of all the figures drawn by the four main lines without being limited to 33a and 34a, it is convenient to specify by the all figure command.

At the time when the search as shown in FIG. 6 is completed and the selection display is made, a new selected figure is added or the selected figure is removed from the selection while designating each figure with the mouse 15. It may be possible to change the selected figure.

"Line Type Window" FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the line type window.

In the figure, numeral 42 designates an item change designation field, and the item for which the item change designation button (43) is highlighted in black is selected. The item is searched by the setting contents of this item. If multiple item change designation buttons are selected, AND of the search conditions set for each item
Search processing is performed as a condition.

Each item change designation button, for example, can be set to alternate black inversion and white inversion when designated with a pointing device.

Reference numeral 48 in the drawing is for setting the line type attribute for each item, and the black-reversed ones are set in the respective boxes 46. With regard to the line width, when 47 is selected, an arbitrary number can be input by directly inputting a number from the keyboard.

Note that each box of 46 is made so that only one black inversion is performed for one item.

In the figure, 44 is a button for instructing the start of the search process, and 45 is a button for instructing the start of the replacement process.

The meanings of the settings of 42 and 48 in the case of the search processing are as follows. The processing of each search condition is as follows.・ When “Line type” is the condition, the search result is the figure with the same line type.・ When the "line width" is the condition, the search results are figures with the same line width.・ When the "line color" is the condition, the search result is the figure with the same line color.・ When “Linear” is the condition, the search results are figures that have the same liner.・ When the "presence" of the arrow is a condition, the search result is a straight line that matches the presence or absence of the arrow (none / end point side / start point side / both sides).・ When the “angle” of the arrow is a condition, the search result is the figure with the same angle. However, if the “presence” of the arrow is “none” and the search condition is specified, this condition is ignored.・ When the "size" of the arrow is a condition, the search result is the figure with the same arrow size. However, if the “presence” of the arrow is “none” and the search condition is specified, this condition is ignored. When the “shape” of the arrow is a condition, the search result is a figure whose arrow shape matches. However, if the “presence” of the arrow is “none” and the search condition is specified, this condition is ignored.

"Graphic Data" FIG. 9 shows the structure of the graphic data stored in the main memory 17 in this embodiment.

Reference numeral 51 in the figure is the whole of the graphic data, which is composed of a header portion and a plurality of graphic element data. Graphic data is
It stores the data of all graphic elements such as straight lines, circles, rectangles, and polygons existing on the page. In the header section, the overall size of the graphic data, the total number of graphic elements, a pointer indicating the location where each graphic element data is stored, and the like are written.

As shown in 52, the detailed structure of each graphic element data is as follows:
Coordinate data, line type, arrow, face type, and other data are stored.

As the figure type, the distinction of a straight line, a circle, a rectangle, etc. is written. Further, in the coordinate data, if the line is a straight line, the coordinates of the start point and the end point are written, and if it is a circle, the coordinate data necessary for drawing the figure are written. Line types include line types (line type,
Line width and line color) information is written. This attribute is possessed by all figures with lines.

Since the attribute of an arrow can be set only to a straight line, the arrow information has meaning only for a figure whose line type is a straight line, and information indicating whether or not to draw the arrow is written at the end point of the straight line. There is. If the line type is other than straight, it becomes a dummy.

The surface type has a meaning in a figure having a closed area such as a circle or a rectangle, and information of a hatching pattern for filling the closed area is written. Other management information such as a pointer indicating the connection between the graphic element data is written in the other area.

In the example of the graphic data of FIG. 3, 31, 32,
Each of 33a, 34a, 35, 36, 37 is stored as seven graphic element data.

"Intermediate Table" The graphic elements located in the area (39, 38b in FIG. 5) selected as the search target are intermediate tables (FIG. 1) created prior to the search process.
0 and 61 show the configuration).

There are the following two methods for selecting a figure when searching for a line type. (1) A pointing device is used to specify a range in a rectangular area so as to include all figures. (2) Select all graphics with the All Graphics command. When a graphic is selected by the above two methods, a pointer to the graphic element data corresponding to the selected graphic element is detected from the header portion of the graphic data 51 and copied and stored in the intermediate table 61.

In the example of FIG. 5, when the search target area 39 is designated by the pointing device, three pointers pointing to the graphic element data 32, 33a, 34a are stored in the intermediate table.

In the search processing, the graphic element data at the position indicated by the stored pointer is sequentially accessed according to the intermediate table to determine whether or not the graphic element data has the graphic attribute set as the search condition. Judge sequentially.

As a result of the "selection table" search processing, a selection table in which pointers indicating the graphic element data determined to have the graphic attribute set as the search condition are collected (the structure is shown in 62 of FIG. 10). ) Is created.

The procedure for creating the selection table 62 is as follows.

It is determined whether or not the line type information of the graphic stored in the graphic element data pointed by the pointer of the intermediate table 61 matches the line type set in the line type window as a search target. When the line types match, the pointer is stored in the selection table 62 as shown in FIG. If the line types of the figure do not match, or if the figure does not have a line type, the pointer is not stored in the selection table.
This process is performed for all the items stored in the intermediate table.

When the search process is completed, a selected state (a broken-line rectangle displayed outside the figure) is displayed on the figure pointed by the pointer stored in the selection table, as shown by 40 in FIG.

Here, as described above, when a change process such as new addition or removal from the selection is performed on the selected figure, this selection table is changed according to the process.

The pointers stored in this selection table are stored until a new search process is performed.

The example of FIG. 6 is a display of the result of the pointers pointing to the graphic elements 33a and 34a being copied from the intermediate table in the selection table.

"Outline of Search-Replacement Processing" FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing the outline of the processing procedure of the search-replacement processing in this embodiment.

It is assumed that graphic data has already been created before executing this processing. It is assumed that a desired graphic element is searched for in this graphic data and the attribute of the searched graphic is changed to another attribute. In this case, in this embodiment, first, a graphic element having a desired attribute is searched (S701). By this process, the retrieved graphic element is selected.
When the input of the next processing is received in S702 and the replacement processing is selected (S703), the attribute of the figure in the selected state is replaced with another attribute. Further, in S702, another editing process such as deletion can be selected, but in that case, the corresponding editing process is executed.

"Search Processing" FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the detailed processing procedure of the search processing (S701) in this embodiment. The search processing in this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to this figure.

First, in step S801, a line type command is selected. Select this command to display the linetype window. In step S802, the item to be searched and the attribute to be searched are set in the line type window, and then the search button is selected in step S803. next,
The area to be searched is specified (S804). As a method for specifying the area, a pointing device is used to specify the area on the display screen and an all-figure command is selected to target all the figures. There is a way to do it. In S804,
When the input state is determined and it is the pointing device area designation, the process proceeds to step S805, the area is obtained, and the area is set as the search range. In the description of FIG. 5, the range is designated by the rectangular area, but any method may be used as long as it is an arbitrary closed area. Although the search area can be effectively specified by specifying the range in an arbitrary closed area, the process of determining whether or not a graphic element is included in the area becomes complicated as compared with the rectangular area. In S804,
If the input is selection of all figure commands, step S8
Proceeding to 06, the search range is set to all figures. Next, in step S807, a search is performed on the graphics within the search range, and the graphics that match as a result of the search are selected (S808).

"Replacement Processing" FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing the detailed processing procedure of the replacement processing (S703) in this embodiment. The replacement process according to the present embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

In step S901, the line type command is selected to display the line type motion. Immediately after the search process of FIG. 8 is executed, the line type window is already displayed, so that it is not necessary to execute S901. Step S9
In 02, set the item and attribute to be replaced. Next, when the replace button is selected (S903), the line type attribute of the graphic data selected as a result of the search is replaced with the attribute set in S902 (S904).

In this embodiment, the search / replacement process is performed with the line type attribute of the figure, but the present invention can be similarly performed with other attributes of the figure such as face type.

A case in which the present invention is applied to a face type search will be described with reference to FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 102 denotes a face type command, and when this command is selected, a face type setting window 101 for search and replace processing is displayed. When each face type 105 displayed in the face type setting window 101 is designated by the pointing device, the face type is displayed in a black frame and the face type is selected. In the case of FIG. 14, the second face type from the upper right is in the selected state. The search processing can be performed in exactly the same manner by replacing the designation of the line type in the above embodiment with the designation of the surface type. That is, in the process of FIG. 12, the face type command is selected in step S801, the face type to be searched is selected from the face type window 101 in step S802, and the face type is selected. After step S803, the same processing is performed, resulting in step S8.
At 08, the graphic element of the face type to be searched is selected. Further, the replacement process can be carried out in exactly the same manner by replacing the designation of the line type in the above-mentioned embodiment with the designation of the surface type. That is, in the process of FIG. 13, the face type command is selected in step S901, the replaced face type is selected from the face type window 101 in step S902, and the face type is selected. After step S903, the same process is performed, and as a result, the face type replacement is executed in step S904.

[0064]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By inputting a desired attribute to the graphic data, a search process for a graphic having the attribute can be performed without the operator's hand.

As described above, according to the present invention, by inputting the attribute information to be newly set, the processing of setting the attribute in the retrieved graphic data can be performed without the operator's hand. You can

As described above, according to the present invention, by selecting the figure to be searched, it is possible to efficiently search only the figure desired by the operator.

As described above, according to the present invention, since a graphic that can be a search target is displayed, it is possible to select a graphic to be searched while looking at the displayed graphic.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the figure for which selection is instructed is displayed, it is possible to confirm the displayed figure before proceeding to the next process.

As described above, according to the present invention, since it is possible to change the figure for which selection is instructed, it is not necessary to perform the operation of selection instruction again, and the selection instruction can be performed more reliably. It will be possible.

As described above, according to the present invention, when there are a plurality of input attribute information items to be searched, graphic data having all of the plurality of attributes are searched, so that the operator's intention It enables search instructions according to.

As described above, according to the present invention, the table for managing the graphic data for which the selection is instructed is created according to the selection instruction of the graphic to be searched, so that the search process is facilitated. The processing time can be shortened.

As described above, according to the present invention, the management table of the graphic data is also changed according to the change of the figure to be searched, which is instructed to be selected. can do.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an entire document processing system that represents an embodiment of the present invention.

[Figure 2] External view of the document processing system

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram 1 of a search / replace operation.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a search / replace operation.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a search / replace operation.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a search / replace operation.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of a search / replace operation.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a parameter setting screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the structure of graphic data.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing structures of an intermediate table and a selection table.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of an outline of a search and replace process.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of search processing.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of replacement processing.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of face type search.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI technical display location 9365-5H G06F 15/62 325 K

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A graphic data including a plurality of attribute information necessary for drawing the graphic is stored for each graphic, the attribute information to be searched is input, and the graphic data stored in the graphic data is stored. An image processing method, characterized in that graphic data having input attribute information is searched and the graphic data of the search result is output. 2. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of pieces of the graphic data are stored, and the search processing is executed for one of the plurality of graphic data selected and instructed. 3. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein the stored graphic data is graphic data corresponding to a plurality of graphics selected and instructed to be searched. 4. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein a graphic is generated and displayed according to the stored graphic data. 5. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein a graphic is generated and displayed according to the graphic data of the output search result. 6. The image processing according to claim 2, wherein the graphic corresponding to the graphic data instructed to be selected is displayed so as to be distinguishable from the graphic corresponding to the graphic data not instructed to be selected. Method. 7. The image processing method according to claim 2, wherein the graphic data instructed to be selected can be changed. 8. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein when there is a plurality of attribute information input as the search target, graphic data having all of the plurality of attribute information is searched. 9. The graphic according to claim 2, wherein a graphic is generated and displayed in accordance with the stored graphic data, and the graphic to be searched is selected from the displayed graphic. Image processing method. 10. The image processing method according to claim 2, wherein a table for managing graphic data corresponding to the selected graphic is created according to a selection instruction of the graphic to be searched. . 11. The image processing method according to claim 10, wherein the created table is changed in response to an instruction to change the figure instructed to select the figure. 12. The graphic data as a whole can be set as the graphic data selection instruction.
The image processing method described in the item. 13. The image processing method according to claim 1, further comprising inputting attribute information to be newly set, and setting the inputted attribute information to be newly set to the searched graphic data.