JPH08305867A - Method and device for displaying and printing character image composite data - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a method and device for displaying and printing character image composite data on a display medium such as a display and paper adaptively to its resolution and size. CONSTITUTION: Composite information represented with a relative position in an integrated display area is stored in an actual data base 1 and a layout data base 2. Character information is given priority of display in at least two levels. According to the kind of the display medium, a character area calculation part 4 calculates the size of the display area of characters and the number of pixels. Consequently, the maximum number of characters that can be displayed is calculated and a character determination part 6 selects a character string which can be displayed within the maximum number of characters according to the priority. According to the kind of the display medium, an image area calculation part 5 calculates the size of the display area of an image and the number of pixels and the image to be displayed is enlarged or reduced to the size. The selected character string and enlarged or reduced image are arranged as composite information by an output data generation part 7 and displayed on a display device 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system such as a database for storing, retrieving and outputting complex information such as characters and images, and outputs different amounts of information that can be displayed at one time because of different resolutions and sizes. The present invention relates to an output method and apparatus for changing the amount of information provided in a device according to the amount of information that can be displayed at one time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional system for handling complex information consisting of characters and images, when the information output on a computer display is to be printed on paper, a method of printing the screen of the computer display as it is is adopted. It was being done.

On the other hand, in the conventional system for expressing complex information on paper, when displaying the information on the screen of the display, there is a certain limit on the paper surface according to the size of the screen. Only the information of the designated area is displayed, or the characters and images are uniformly shrunk and displayed.

As another conventional means for displaying complex information on paper on a screen, information is displayed on the screen at the same resolution as the paper, and information protruding from the screen is displayed by a scroll window. There is an example of looking at it while shifting it partially.

[0005]

Generally, computer displays and papers have a resolution of 6 to 10 times higher than papers. Therefore, the information on the computer display is printed as it is and displayed on the paper. With, the amount of information was small, and it was not possible to take advantage of the resolution of paper, the size of the paper surface, and the listability of paper.

On the other hand, if the information created for printing on paper is displayed as it is on the computer display, the amount of information is too large, so that only the information in a limited area on the paper is adjusted to the size of the screen. There is a problem that information is lost because it is necessary to display or to shrink and display characters and images uniformly.

Further, in the example in which the information is displayed on the screen at the same resolution as the paper and the information that is out of the screen is viewed while partially shifting the information by the scroll window, the listability due to the layout is lost. There was a problem of being broken.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is not to change the general information amount of information already displayed on display media having different resolutions and sizes. Another object of the present invention is to provide a character image composite data display printing method and apparatus capable of displaying individual characters and the amount of information of an image in conformity with the characteristics of the display medium.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above object, the first invention of the present invention provides a method for storing composite data consisting of character information and image information and displaying or printing the data. , At least 2 for text information
A step of storing with addition of the degree of importance or more; a step of storing a condition of an image size or a resolution for displaying or printing the composite data; and a number of displayable or printable pixels determined by the condition. Calculating the number of pixels in the area in which the character information can be displayed or printed from the size of the area in which the character information in the data to be displayed or printed is to be displayed or printed; and calculating the number of pixels in the area. With the step of calculating the number of characters that can be displayed or printed, the calculated number of characters and the number of characters of the character information for each importance are compared, and a character string to be displayed or printed in the area with the calculated number of characters or less is displayed. The step of selecting and determining in the order of importance, the number of pixels that can be displayed or printed and the size of image information in the data to be displayed or printed, which are determined by the above conditions Calculating the number of pixels in the area where image information can be displayed or printed, and the vertical and horizontal pixels of the image information for displaying or printing the image information in the data to be displayed or printed in the area. A step of calculating the ratio of the number of pixels to the number of pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions of the calculated area, expanding and contracting the image information in the data according to the calculated ratio, and the determined character And a step of generating an image for display or printing from the column and the expanded or contracted image information.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the step of expanding and contracting the image information, a step of storing a contraction rate which is maximum allowable for expressing the image information in advance, and a display or print target. In order to display or print the image information in the data in the area, the ratio of the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image information and the ratio calculated in the step of calculating the ratio of the vertical and horizontal pixels of the area. Comparing the stored contraction rates, and as a result of the comparison, if the ratio value is larger than the contraction rate, contracting and outputting the image information using the ratio value. As a result of the comparison, if the value of the ratio is smaller than the contraction rate, the image information is contracted at the contraction rate, and the contracted image information is arranged in the area. Contracted around the area And outputting the image information cut out vertical and horizontal area for the number of pixels that can be represented in the region, the character image composite data display method of printing comprising: a a unit.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in a display / printing apparatus of a composite database which stores composite data composed of character information and image information and outputs the data by a display or a printing machine, Means for storing at least two levels of importance, means for storing conditions of image size and resolution for expressing the composite data on a display or paper, and display or paper determined by the conditions Means for calculating the number of pixels in the area in which the character information can be expressed from the number of pixels that can be expressed in the area and the size of the area in which the character information in the data to be expressed is expressed; Is calculated by comparing the calculated number of characters with the number of characters of the character information for each importance level. Means for determining to select a character string in the order of importance of expressing in the region in characters or less, the size of the image information of the display or in a data representation target number of pixels that can be expressed on paper determined by the condition,
Means for calculating the number of pixels in a region capable of expressing image information,
Means for calculating a ratio between the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image data and the calculated number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the area in order to express the image information in the expression target data in the expression area. A means for expanding and contracting image information in the data according to the calculated ratio, a means for generating an image for output from the determined character string and the expanded and contracted image information, And a character image composite data display printing device characterized by having.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the means for expanding and contracting the image information described above stores the contraction rate that is the maximum allowable for expressing the image information and the image information in the data. The value of the ratio calculated by the means for calculating the ratio of the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image information and the ratio of the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the region for displaying in the display area, and If the value of the ratio is smaller than the contraction rate, the stored contraction rate is determined as the contraction rate, and if the value of the ratio is larger, the contraction rate is larger. Means for determining the value of the ratio as a contraction rate, means for contracting the image information at the determined contraction rate, and arranging an image in the region when the value of the ratio is smaller than the contraction rate. Image information shrunk by the value of the ratio centered on a predetermined area in order to Character image composite data display printing, characterized by comprising: means for cutting out an area corresponding to the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the area, and outputting the image information contracted by the value of the ratio or the cut out image information. The device is the means.

[0013]

In the character image composite data display printing method and apparatus according to the first and third inventions, the arrangement for displaying information such as characters and images (including display by printing) on display media having different resolutions and sizes. , The complex data that is expressed by the relative position in a predetermined unified display area is stored, and the size of the character area that can be used for display depends on the type of medium to be displayed. The number of pixels is calculated from this, then the maximum number of characters that can be displayed is calculated from the size of the area for displaying the character string and the number of pixels, and priority is given to the display given in at least two steps from the character information. Select the strings in descending order,
Select the character string to be displayed within the maximum number of characters that can be displayed. On the other hand, the size of the image area and the number of pixels that can be used for display are calculated according to the type of medium to be displayed, and the image is expanded or contracted according to the result of comparison between the size of the image area and the size of the stored image information. By arranging and displaying with the above character strings, while maintaining the same layout on display media having different resolutions and sizes,
Character information and image information can be expressed with an amount of information suitable for expression, and the amount of information of individual characters and images can be applied to another display medium without changing the amount of information of the already displayed information. Let

In the character image composite data display printing method and apparatus according to the second and fourth aspects of the invention, image information given at a high resolution as in the case of data created using paper as a standard display medium can be displayed in a high resolution. When displaying on a low display medium, the shrinkage rate allowed for visual recognition is added to the image information and stored, and the calculated shrinkage rate is compared with the allowable shrinkage rate. If the shrinkage ratio is smaller than the allowable value, the image is shrunk using the allowable shrinkage ratio, and if the image is shrunk using the allowable shrinkage ratio, Since the image data does not fit in, the image is cut out according to the number of pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions of the area centered on a predetermined area, so that it is important even if the calculated shrinkage rate is extremely small. Information can be displayed on a low-resolution display medium, and when the image information given at a high resolution is displayed on a low-resolution display medium, the loss of important information that occurs because the shrinkage rate becomes extremely small is avoided. .

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

<< Embodiment 1 >> A first embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. The character / image composite data display / printing apparatus according to the present embodiment includes an actual data database 1 for storing data including characters and images, and a layout database 2 for storing layout data to be displayed on a display medium such as a display or paper. , A display condition input unit 3 that accepts input of the size and resolution of the display medium, and a character region calculation that determines the number of characters that can be output in the display region from the data of the character region in the input display condition and layout data Unit 4, an image area calculation unit 5 that determines the size of an image that can be output in the display area from the data of the image area in the input display condition and layout data, and the character to be displayed in the character area as actual data. A character data determination unit 6 that selects from the character data in the database 1 and a layout of the selected character data and image data According to the layout rules in database 2, the output data generating unit 7 to be relocated in accordance with the display area, and the display of the final information from the display device 8 for the display 8-1 or printing machine 8-2.

FIG. 2 shows the process steps in this embodiment. First, in step 11, the resolution and size of the display medium and the identifier of the data in the database are stored in the display condition input unit 3 in response to a request from the user. In step 12, the value of the identifier of the data in the display condition input unit 3 is compared with the value of the identifier of each data in the layout database 2, layout data having the same value is extracted, and the character area calculation unit 4 and the image area calculation are performed. The data is stored in the layout buffer of the unit 5.

In step 13, the character area calculation unit 4 extracts a size value of one character area storage unit from the layout data. In step 14, the size of the character data display area on the display area is calculated from the vertical and horizontal values in the display area input unit 3, and the character data display is calculated from the resolution value in the display condition input unit 3. Calculate the size of the area in dots. For example, when the condition of a display having a resolution of 75 dpi and a width of 341 mm and a height of 256 mm is input, a region having a ratio of 0.7 in the horizontal direction and 0.3 in the vertical direction has 717 horizontal dots and 230 vertical dots. . Next, in step 15, the character area calculation unit 4 calculates the number of characters that can be displayed in the display area from the size required to output one character. In the case of the above area, if the value of the size necessary for displaying the characters included in the actual data database 1 is, for example, 14 mm,
717 ÷ (14 × 75 ÷ 25.4) in the horizontal row,
Approximately 17 characters can be entered in the vertical direction, and 3 columns of characters can be entered, and a maximum of 51 characters can be entered.

In step 16, the character string data is retrieved from the actual data database 1 by the identifier of the data, and the characters corresponding to the number of displayable characters are selected as displayable characters and sent to the output data generating section 7. Steps 13 to 16 are repeated until the processing of all the areas of the character area storage unit included in the layout data is completed.

In step 17, the image area calculation unit 5 extracts the size value of one image area storage unit from the layout data. In step 18, the size of the image data display area on the display area is calculated from the vertical and horizontal values in the display area input unit 3, and the image data display is calculated from the resolution value in the display area input unit 3. Calculate the size of the area in dots. The process of step 18 is similar to the process of step 14 and can be easily analogized, and thus the details thereof will be omitted. Next, in step 19, the image area calculation unit 5
In, the vertical and horizontal sizes of the image data are extracted from the actual data database 1 by the data identifier, the ratio of the vertical and horizontal sizes by the number of dots of the image data display area is calculated, and the image data is displayed in the display area. Calculate the stretch rate and shrinkage rate for. For example, if the size of the image area is 35
Image data is 40 dots wide in an area of 8 dots vertically 230 dots
In the case of 0 dots and 300 dots vertically, the shrinkage rate is 0.8
It becomes 95 vertical 0.767. In step 20, the image data is extracted from the actual data database 1 by the data identifier, and the image is expanded / contracted so as to match the size of the displayable area, and is sent to the output data generator 7. Steps 17 to 20 are repeated until the processing of all the areas of the character area storage unit included in the layout data is completed.

In step 21, the output data generation unit 7 converts the selected character string into image data and arranges it according to the layout data together with the image data sent from the image area calculation unit 5 to generate an image for output. To do.
In step 22, the output image data is displayed on the display device 8.
And display it on the display 8-1 or print it on the printing machine 8-2.

As another embodiment of step 16, the process in step 16 is prioritized by previously adding to the character data in the actual data database 1 priority data for displaying at least two stages or more. By selecting in descending order of frequency value, when the number of characters that can be selected is exceeded, the character string will not be cut off in the middle of the sentence.

A process for preventing the character string from being cut off in the middle is shown in FIG. First, as step 16-1,
The priority values of the priority-added character strings are sequentially examined, and the priority values used in descending order of priority are stored in the priority buffer 6-1 in the character data determination unit 6. Step 16
In the character data determination unit 6, the character data is rearranged in the order of high priority and stored in the character string buffer 6-2. At this time, in the case of data having the same priority, the priority is assigned in descending order of priority so that the character string with the smaller sequence number added to the character string data is placed in the front of the buffer. The priority value in the buffer 6-1 is taken out, character strings having the same value as the priority value are selected in ascending order number, and are sequentially stored in the character string buffer 6-2. As a result, the order of meaning of the character strings in the actual data database 1 can be saved. Step 16
-3, the character strings in the character string buffer 6-2 are sequentially taken out in descending order of priority, the number of characters in each character string is counted,
Compare with the number of characters that can be displayed. When the number of characters of the character string selected in step 16-4 exceeds the number of characters that can be displayed, the character string is not selected and only the already selected character string is set as the display target character string. The output data generation unit 7 outputs the character string data sequentially from the smallest sequence number given to each character string in the display target character string as step 16-5.
Send to.

In the present embodiment, the output of information to media having different resolutions results in the result shown in FIG. 4, for example. Although the data values in the actual data database 1 and the layout database 2 are the same, the display results are the same on the display and on the paper, but the output information is different. it can. FIG.
In the above, the data in the actual data database 1 and the data in the layout database 2 are not the data in the storage form, and the data will be illustrated and illustrated for the sake of simplicity. In FIG. 4, the character area 2 displays information in small characters, but when the information is displayed on paper with high resolution, all the information in the character area 2 is displayed, but the resolution is about 1/8. On the display, the priority buffer 6
In the case of -2, the character strings having only the character string order 2 having a high priority are selected and displayed. As a result, in both display media, the loss of information is reduced in order from the important information,
The necessary information can be transmitted. In the image data, the loss of information due to the contraction of the image is small like the character data. Therefore, the same contracted image information is displayed by expanding and contracting according to the resolution as shown in FIG.

Actual data database 1 in this embodiment
An example of data stored therein is shown in FIG. The data stored in the actual data database 1 of this example includes at least a data identifier for identifying each data, digital image data in the case of image data, number of dots in vertical and horizontal sizes, and character data. Contains at least one or more character string data to be displayed in the area. Further, the character string data has at least a sequence number indicating the order of displaying in the area, a priority for controlling the display priority according to the type of the display medium, and real character data to be displayed.

An example of data stored in the layout database 2 in this embodiment is shown in FIG. The data stored in the layout database 2 of this example is at least the identifier of the layout data to be displayed and the horizontal and vertical values from the origin indicating the positions where the character area and the image area are displayed. Value expressed as a ratio when the vertical and horizontal lengths are set to 1.0, and expressed as a ratio when the vertical and horizontal lengths of the region are set to the horizontal and vertical lengths, respectively. In the case of the displayed value and the character data, the value of the character size data when displayed on the display device 8 is expressed in mm, and the data in the actual data database 1 to be displayed in the area are searched. It is composed of data of a data identifier for. For the character size data, 0 is stored in the case of the image information area.

Second Embodiment Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. The method of displaying and printing the character image composite data and the system configuration and processing steps of the apparatus in the second embodiment are almost the same as the method described in the first embodiment, and the same parts can be easily analogized. Will be omitted, and only the portions different from the first embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

The system configuration of the character / image composite data display / printing apparatus in the second embodiment is different from that of FIG. 1 only in the image area calculation section 5, and has a configuration as shown in FIG. Here, the image area calculation unit 5 calculates the expansion / contraction ratio calculation unit 5-1 that calculates the contraction ratios in the vertical and horizontal directions, the value of the allowable contraction ratio stored in the actual data database 1, and the expansion / contraction ratio calculation. The shrinkage rate determining unit 5-2, which determines the shrinkage rate to be used by comparing the value calculated by the unit 5-1 with the value calculated by the stretching shrinkage rate calculating unit 5-1 performs stretching and shrinking of the image. From the simple expansion / contraction unit 5-3, the permissible contraction unit 5-4 that contracts an image according to the permissible contraction rate value, and the permissible contraction unit based on the image center coordinate value included in the data in the actual data database 1. A center area calculation unit 5-5 that calculates the center of the image created in 5-4 and the number of vertical and horizontal dots of the image area that can be displayed in the expansion / contraction ratio calculation unit 5-1 and the center coordinates are used for output. The image cutout unit 5-6 cuts out an image.

The process of the character image combined data display printing method and apparatus in the second embodiment is almost the same as the process of FIG. 2, but step 20 is different. The process of step 20 in this embodiment is shown in FIG.
Shown in

First, in step 20-1, in the contraction rate determining unit 5-2, if the value calculated by the expansion / contraction rate calculating unit 5-1 is equal to or larger than the allowable contraction rate in both length and width, step 20-2 as a simple extension / contraction section 5-
In 3, the stretching and shrinking of the image is performed using the calculated stretching and shrinking rate. For example, the vertical and horizontal contraction rates are 1.0,
When the size of the image area is 385 dots horizontally and 230 dots vertically, and the image value of the image data is 500 dots horizontally and 300 dots vertically, the calculated shrinkage ratio is 0.
77 vertical 0.767, both smaller than 1.0.
As a result of step 20-1, if the calculated shrinkage ratio is smaller than the allowable value, the allowable shrinkage unit 5-4 performs shrinkage using the shrinkage ratio allowed in step 20-3. For example, the allowable shrinkage ratio is 1.0 as in the above example.
Then, when the calculated value is smaller than that, the shrinkage is performed at the shrinkage rate of 1.0.

Next, in step 20-4, the value of the center coordinate given to the image data in the actual data database 1 is designated in order to specify the area to be displayed without fail when only a part of the image is displayed. The value is taken out and multiplied by the value of the allowable contraction rate to calculate the center point of the image generated by the allowable contraction unit 5-4. This calculation is achieved by multiplying the central coordinates in the database given by the number of dots by the shrinkage rate. For example, when the center coordinates are 210 horizontal by 150 vertical, the horizontal 210 by vertical 150. As step 20-5, the number of dots in the vertical and horizontal directions of the image area which can be displayed in the expansion / contraction ratio calculation unit 5-1 is divided by 2 in each of the vertical and horizontal directions, and the value is allowed by the allowable contraction unit
The origin of the output image is calculated by subtracting from the coordinates of the center point of the image generated in 4. For example, in the case of the above example, the horizontal is 210- (385/2) = 18 vertical 150- (230 ÷
2) The point of 35 dots is the origin. Step 20-6
From the value of the center point, a region corresponding to the number of vertical and horizontal dots of the displayable image region in the expansion / contraction rate calculation unit 5-1 is cut out by the image cutout unit 5-6 as an output image region, and the data generation unit 7 send.

The results of the implementation according to the second embodiment are shown in FIG. According to the present embodiment, in the case of the display device in which the value of the shrinkage ratio is smaller than the allowable shrinkage ratio, the important image information is displayed with the center of the output image specified in advance at the center. To be done.

FIG. 10 shows image information data in the actual data database 1 in the second embodiment. The image information data in the actual data database 1 has the allowable shrinkage ratio and the value of the center coordinate added to the data of FIG.

As a result, even when the image information is displayed on the display device having an extremely low resolution, the data of the predetermined important image area is not lost, and the information is lost to any display device. Can be reduced.

[0035]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the character image composite data display printing method and apparatus according to the first and third aspects of the present invention, it is possible to display information on a display apparatus having a low resolution. Since the display is performed from the information with high priority, it is possible to display the important information while ensuring the listability by the layout intended by the creator. Even when a display device having a high resolution is used, it is possible to provide the user with more detailed information while ensuring the listability intended by the creator.

Further, according to the character image composite data display printing method and apparatus according to the second and fourth aspects of the present invention, when the image information given with high resolution is displayed on the display medium with low resolution, Compare the calculated shrinkage with the shrinkage allowed as a visible display, and if the calculated shrinkage is less than the allowed value shrink the image using the allowed shrinkage and Since the image is cut out around a predetermined area so that the image information is contained in the specified area, important image information can be visually recognized on the display medium with a low resolution even when the calculated shrinkage rate is extremely small. It is possible to prevent important information from being lost.

As a result of the above, when the user of the information sees the information on the display device having a low resolution and the information on the display device having a high resolution, the same information is missing important information from the same position. It is possible to obtain more information without using a device having a high information display capability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a character image composite data display printing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a process of a character image combined data display printing method and apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process of displayable character string selection processing in the character image combined data display printing method and apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of output of processing of a character image composite data display printing method and apparatus according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of data in an actual data database of a character image composite data display / printing method and apparatus according to the first embodiment, FIG.
(B) is a figure showing an example of image data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of data in a layout database of a character image combined data display printing method and apparatus in the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a system configuration diagram of an image area calculation unit in the character image combined data display printing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a process of expanding / contracting image information in the character image combined data display printing method and apparatus according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of output of processing of a character image composite data display printing method and apparatus in the second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of image information data in an actual data database of a character image combined data display printing method and apparatus in the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Actual data database 2 ... Layout database 3 ... Display condition input section 4 ... Character area calculation section 5 ... Image area calculation section 5-1 ... Expansion / contraction rate calculation section 5-2 ... Contraction rate determination section 5-3 ... Simple expansion Contraction unit 5-4 ... Allowable contraction unit 5-5 ... Central area calculation unit 5-6 ... Image cutout unit 6 ... Character data determination unit 6-1 ... Character string buffer 6-2 ... Priority buffer 7 ... Output data generation unit 8 ... Display device 8-1 ... Display 8-2 ... Printing machine

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Hamada 1-1-6 Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nihon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A method of storing composite data consisting of character information and image information, and displaying or printing the data, wherein the character information is added with at least two levels of importance and then stored. The step of storing the condition of image size and resolution for displaying or printing the composite data, the number of pixels that can be displayed or printed determined by the condition, and the character information in the data to be displayed or printed is displayed or printed. Calculating the number of pixels in the area where the character information can be displayed or printed from the size of the area to be displayed; calculating the number of characters that can be displayed or printed in the calculated number of pixels in the area; The number of characters that is displayed and the number of characters of the character information for each importance level are compared, and the text to be displayed or printed in the area is equal to or less than the calculated number of characters. Selecting columns in the order of importance, and determining the number of pixels that can be displayed or printed according to the above conditions, and the number of pixels in the area that can display or print image information based on the size of the image information in the data to be displayed or printed. To calculate the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image information in order to display or print the image information in the data to be displayed or printed in the area, and the calculated vertical and horizontal of the area. Calculating the ratio of the number of pixels of the image data, expanding and contracting the image information in the data according to the calculated ratio, and displaying the determined character string and the expanded and contracted image information. Alternatively, a method of displaying and printing character image composite data, comprising: generating an image for printing. 2. In the step of expanding and contracting the image information, a step of storing a contraction rate that is maximum allowable for expressing the image information in advance, and the step of storing the image information in the data to be displayed or printed within the area. The stored shrinkage ratio is compared with the ratio calculated in the step of calculating the ratio between the vertical and horizontal pixel numbers of the image information and the vertical and horizontal pixel numbers of the area for displaying or printing on the screen. And, as a result of the comparison, when the value of the ratio is greater than the contraction rate, contracting and outputting the image information using the value of the ratio, and the result of the comparison, of the ratio If the value is smaller than the contraction rate, the image information is contracted at the contraction rate, and the contracted image information is contracted around a predetermined area in order to arrange the contracted image information in the area. Display from the image information to the above area Vertical and horizontal phase and the character image composite data display printing method according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises outputting cut out area for the number of pixels that can be. 3. In a display / printing device of a composite database that stores composite data composed of character information and image information and outputs the data by a display or a printing machine, character information has at least two levels of importance. A means for storing the composite data, a means for storing conditions of image size and resolution for expressing the composite data on a display or paper, and a number of pixels expressible on the display or paper determined by the conditions, Means for calculating the number of pixels in the area in which the character information can be expressed from the size of the area in which the character information is expressed in the data to be expressed, and the number of characters that can be expressed in the calculated number of pixels in the area. Means for comparing the calculated number of characters with the number of characters of the character information for each importance level, and if the number of characters is less than or equal to the calculated number of characters, Image information can be expressed from means for selecting and deciding character strings to be expressed in the order of importance, and the number of pixels that can be expressed on the display or paper determined by the conditions and the size of image information in the data to be expressed. Means for calculating the number of pixels in the area, and for expressing the image information in the data to be expressed in the expression area, the number of pixels in each of the vertical and horizontal directions of the image data and the calculated vertical length of the area. Means for calculating the ratio of the number of horizontal pixels, means for expanding and contracting the image information in the data in accordance with the calculated ratio, from the determined character string and the expanded and contracted image information A character image composite data display / printing device comprising: a unit for generating an image for output. 4. A means for expanding / contracting image information, for storing a contraction rate that is maximum allowable for expressing the image information, and for displaying the image information in the data in the display area. In comparison, the stored shrinkage ratio is compared with the value of the ratio calculated by the means for calculating the ratio between the vertical and horizontal pixel numbers of the image information and the vertical and horizontal pixel numbers of the area, and When the value of the ratio is smaller than the contraction rate, the stored contraction rate is determined as the contraction rate, and when the value of the ratio is larger, the value of the ratio is determined as the contraction rate. Means, means for contracting the image information at the determined contraction rate, and a predetermined area for arranging an image in the area when the value of the ratio is smaller than the contraction rate. Pixels in the vertical and horizontal directions of the area centered on the image information contracted by the ratio value. And means for cutting the partial area, wherein the ratio of outputting the contracted image information or the image information cut out in value, characterized in claims 3 character image composite data display printing apparatus according.