JPH09233117A - Mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To send data with high quality by matching redundant data with a size of a facsimile image automatically when the redundant data are in existence to avoid a monotonous sentence or redundancy in the case of transmission of an electronic mail to a facsimile equipment. SOLUTION: At first, a maximum digit number and a maximum line number of an image of a facsimile equipment are obtained in advance and data of a text of an electronic mail are read one by one line each. The number of digits of the data is obtained and the read data by a maximum digit number of the image of the facsimile equipment are converted into facsimile image. Text data whose digit is overflowed are connected before text data of a succeeding line and only the maximum digit, number of the facsimile image is converted into the facsimile image. When the facsimile image of the succeeding line exceeds a maximum line, the image is converted into a first line of the facsimile image of a succeeding page through a conversion means.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image conversion method, and more particularly to an image conversion method for converting an electronic mail into a facsimile image in a mail system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, personal computers have become widespread, and due to the fact that computers can be easily networked and the network infrastructure has been improved, messages are distributed to specific personal computers using the network. On the receiving side, so-called e-mail, which receives a message sent from a computer connected to a network, has been actively introduced. On the other hand, even in the case of facsimile transmission, which has been conventionally performed by a dedicated facsimile machine, it is also popular that the personal computer is provided with the function and the data of the personal computer is directly transmitted by facsimile without outputting the output to be transmitted to a sheet or the like. Has been done in. Conventionally, in an electronic mail system, as a method of transmitting a received storage message by facsimile, there is one described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-290033, which reads out a designated storage message in a subscriber's mailbox and sends it by FAX. By transmitting the mail / bulletin board service means to the FAX machine, the personal communication and distribution service is enhanced. As a means thereof, an electronic mail service control unit is provided in the personal computer communication center, the electronic mail bulletin board service control unit provided in the personal computer communication center is used while controlling the electronic mail transmission / reception control relating to the transmission / reception service and the sent / receive list. Registers / reads electronic bulletin boards, controls and manages management information. Then, send and receive e-mail, delete the bulletin board / broadcast message list registration, and inquire using a computer, read the sender name / affiliation corresponding to the sender from the subscriber / system data management file, and convert the text information to media. It is converted into an image by the department and the e-mail is sent as a facsimile.

[0003]

However, in the above-described conventional linked mail system for electronic mail and facsimile transmission, if redundant data exists in the electronic mail, it will be out of the image frame of the facsimile, and it will certainly occur. There is a problem that the contents of the electronic mail cannot be transmitted by facsimile. That is, the above-mentioned conventional technology considers only the transmission of an electronic mail to the FAX machine, and the data length of the electronic mail and the F
It does not consider the relationship with the image frame that the AX device can receive. Therefore, in the conventional linked mail system, the user has to create a message while paying attention to the size of the image of the facsimile and send it to the facsimile machine, and there is redundant data in the email. To avoid this, it is necessary to intentionally divide the message that should be written in one line into multiple lines and prepare the data to be sent by e-mail, and the composition of the message must be different from what the sender intended. There was a problem. Furthermore, when the data transmitted by e-mail is an image read by a scanner or the like, and the image of the electronic message is larger than the frame of the FAX image, only the size of the FAX image is converted, and therefore, The user has to reduce and enlarge the data to be transmitted as a telegram while paying attention to the size of the FAX image, and the work is complicated.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and when a user has redundant data without being aware of the image frame of a facsimile, the data is automatically It is to provide a mail system capable of transmitting high-quality data by eliminating the monotonousness and redundancy of a sentence when transmitting an electronic mail to a FAX machine by adjusting the size of a facsimile image. If the data to be sent by e-mail is image data, the image data is automatically reduced / enlarged according to the image frame of the FAX machine, and the user is aware of the image frame of the FAX machine. It is to provide a mail system that can be sent without doing. Further, when the image data and the text data are mixed as the data to be transmitted, a mail system capable of performing high-quality facsimile transmission without being aware of the arrangement balance of the text data and the image data is provided. Especially.

[0005]

In order to solve the above problems, the invention according to claim 1 of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is such that the maximum number of digits and the maximum number of lines of the image of the facsimile are set in advance in the mail system. Then, the data of the electronic mail of the e-mail is read line by line, the number of digits of the data is calculated, the read data is converted into the facsimile image by the maximum number of digits of the facsimile image, and the overflowed electronic data is , Connect to the front of the next line message data, convert only the maximum number of digits of the image of the facsimile of the next line into a facsimile image, and if the facsimile image of the next line exceeds the maximum line, Its main feature is that it is a mail system equipped with a means for converting the first line of an image. According to the invention of claim 2 of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, in the mail system, the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image of the facsimile is obtained in advance, the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the image of the electronic message is obtained, and this is designated by the user. The main feature is that the mail system is provided with means for obtaining a scaling factor for enlarging / reducing conversion of a facsimile image and converting a telegram image into a facsimile image by enlarging or reducing the scaling factor. To do. According to the invention of claim 3 of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, in the mail system, the vertical and horizontal pixel numbers of the image of the facsimile are obtained in advance, the data is read line by line, and the data is distinguished from the character / image. While referring to the distinction database, the character and image data is decomposed, this is additionally stored in the character area and the image area, and the above division is repeated until the next data becomes only character data. Determine the number of characters and the number of vertical and horizontal pixels in the image area and the image area respectively, refer to the maximum number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the facsimile image, and convert the data stored in the image area to a facsimile image by enlarging / reducing the image.
Data of the character area is read by reading the data of each line of the facsimile image, calculating the number of digits in the image part of the read facsimile image, and subtracting the number of digits in the image part from the maximum number of digits in the facsimile image. The main feature is that it is a mail system equipped with means for borrowing only the maximum number of digits and reading it and converting the data in the character area into a facsimile image by text / image conversion.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on an embodiment shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the concept of a mail system according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is an image character distinguishing unit, 2 is an image enlarging / reducing unit, 3 is a text / image converting unit, 4 is a LAN such as Ethernet. A terminal device such as a workstation connected to the device, 5 is an electronic mail receiving unit, 6 is an image / character distinction database means, 7 is a FAX transmitting unit, 8 is a public network, and 9 is a public network.
Is a fax machine, and 11 is an OCR. The functional unit A of the mail system includes an image character distinguishing unit 1 for determining whether the received data is an image or a text, and an image enlarging / reducing unit 2 for enlarging / reducing the received image data. , A text / image converting means 3 for converting the received text data into image data, and an e-mail receiving section 5 which is connected to a LAN such as Ethernet and receives data from another terminal device 4.
In order to determine whether the received data is an image or a text, an image / character distinction database 6 in which a character pattern of a text is stored in advance, a FAX transmission unit 7 for transmitting the received data by facsimile, and the above-mentioned image. The OCR 11 is used by the character distinguishing means 1 to judge the attribute of the received data. The operation of the mail system configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. 2 when the received data is only text data.

When the electronic mail receiving section 5 receives a message from the terminal device 4 such as a workstation, the message is sent to the text / image converting means 3. The text / image conversion means 3 obtains the maximum number of digits and the maximum number of lines of the FAX image (S1), then reads the received electronic message line by line (S2), and converts this into the FAX image by the maximum number of digits of the FAX image. Convert. When the reading of the received electronic message is completed (S3, YES), the data converted into the FAX image is transmitted from the FAX transmission unit 7 to the desired FAX device 9 via the public network 8 (S4). On the other hand, if the reading of the electronic message is not completed (S3, N
O), it is determined whether or not the read one-line telegram is more than the maximum number of digits of the FAX image, that is, whether or not there is a digit overflow (S5). If there is no digit overflow (S5, N
O), the process proceeds to step 7 (S7).

If there is a digit overflow in step 5 (S5) (S5, YES), a process of connecting the digit overflow data to the beginning of the message of the next line is performed after reading the message of the next line (S6). ). After that, it is determined whether or not the number of lines of message data to be converted into the FAX image exceeds a predetermined maximum number of lines of the FAX image (S7). Is (S7, N
O), of the read one-line message, the maximum number of digits of the FAX image is converted into a FAX image (S9). Also,
If the total number of lines of the electronic message data to be converted into the FAX image exceeds the predetermined maximum number of lines of the FAX image (S7, YES), after switching to the FAX image of the next page, one line of the read electronic messages is read. , The maximum number of digits of the FAX image is converted into the FAX image (S9). After that, the process returns to S2 again to read the data of the next line of the received electronic message, and if the above step 5 (S5),
If there is a digit overflow, the data of the message that has not been converted into a FAX image as a digit overflow is set at the beginning, and the message data of the next line is connected after that, and all the above message data is faxed. Converted to an image, and the desired FAX is transmitted from the FAX transmission unit 7 via the public network 8.
Send to device 9.

FIG. 3A shows the received electronic message data and FAX.
Conceptual diagram showing the relationship between the maximum number of digits and the maximum number of lines
(B) is a figure which shows the concept of the electronic message data converted into the FAX image. In (a), the frame indicated by the broken line is F.
The maximum number of digits and the maximum number of lines of the AX image are shown. Since the electronic message data of the line A exceeds the maximum number of digits of the FAX image, only the part A is FA as shown in the first line of (b).
The data A ′ of the part which has been converted from the X image and exceeds the maximum number of digits of the FAX image is connected to the beginning of the next line B, and as shown in the second line of (b), A ′ and B The data is combined and converted into a FAX image. Similarly,
With regard to the C line, the D line, and the E line, the data that overflows the maximum number of digits of the FAX image is connected to the head of the next line and converted as described in lines 3 to 6 of (b).
On the other hand, in the case of the nth line in (b), that is, when the electronic message data exceeds the maximum number of lines of the FAX image, the page is switched to convert to the FAX image. As described above, when the received electronic message data exceeds the maximum number of digits of the FAX image, the user converts the data length of the electronic message into the FAX image in order to convert it into the FAX image according to the size of the FAX image. Do not consider it as a premise. In addition, redundant message data that exceeds the FAX image frame can be surely converted as a FAX image, and the monotony of the minutes can be eliminated and high-quality facsimile transmission can be performed.

Next, a case where the received electronic message data is image data will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, a terminal device 4 such as a workstation
When the image data is received by the electronic mail receiving unit 6 from the LAN via the LAN, the electronic mail receiving unit 6 outputs the image data to the image enlarging / reducing means 2. The image enlarging / reducing means 2 obtains the maximum vertical and horizontal pixel numbers of the FAX image designated by the user in advance (S11), and further obtains the vertical and horizontal pixel numbers of the electronic message of the received image (S1).
2). After that, the vertical scaling factor is obtained by the maximum vertical pixel number of the FAX image / the vertical pixel number of the image message (S13), and similarly, the horizontal scaling factor is calculated by the maximum horizontal pixel number of the FAX image / horizontal pixel number of the image message. (S14). Thereafter, the image enlarging / reducing means 2 performs enlarging / reducing processing on the received telegram image data according to the scaling ratios obtained in steps 13 and 14 (S15), and enlarging the image to fit within the image frame of the FAX image. The reduced telegram image data is transmitted from the FAX transmission unit 7 to the FAX device 9 via the public network 8. Therefore, the user has conventionally performed the enlargement / reduction processing of the image of the electronic message while being aware of the size of the FAX image, but the user does not need to consider the FAX image frame, and the user does not need to consider the FAX image size. By specifying, it becomes possible to enlarge and convert the electronic image, prevent the characters from being filled, and perform high-quality facsimile transmission.

Next, a case where the received electronic message includes image data and text data will be described. When image data and text data are mixed in the received data, if the text data is converted into a FAX image as in the case where the text data is received, the arrangement balance between the text and the image is lost, and the image data is received. If you convert it to a FAX image by the same process as above, the image and text will be filled,
In addition, text and images are overlaid, and FA
X image quality is degraded. In addition, enlarge and convert to FAX image to prevent text filling,
When transmitted to the FAX machine 9, there is a problem that the amount of information to be transmitted increases and the cost increases. Therefore,
It is necessary to convert the image and the text into the FAX image while managing them separately, and this will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 5 and the explanatory view of the image / character distinction database shown in FIG.

First, when the electronic mail receiving section 5 receives a telegram containing a mixture of characters and images from the terminal 4 such as a workstation, the electronic mail receiving section 5 outputs the received telegram to the image / character discriminating means 1. The image / character distinguishing unit 1 obtains the maximum number of digits and the maximum number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the FAX image designated by the user in advance (S21), reads the received electronic message line by line, and (S22) reads the electronic message line by line. , It is determined whether or not the reading is completed (S23). If the reading is not completed in step 23 (S23) (S23, NO), it is determined whether the read electronic message data contains an image in the OCR 11 (S24, S25), and the image data is mixed. If YES (S25, YES), the OCR 11 is used to divide the image data and the character data (S2).
6) The image data is additionally stored in the image area and the character data is additionally stored in the character area (S27, S28). To distinguish between the character data and the image data, the OCR 11 refers to the contents of the image / character distinction database 6 storing the data as shown in FIG. It is performed by judging.

On the other hand, when the received data is only character (text) data (S25, YES),
Character data is additionally stored in the character area (S29), and the number of vertical and horizontal pixels is obtained from the image area (S30). When the reading is completed in step 23 (S23) (S
23, YES) also obtains the number of vertical and horizontal pixels from the image area (S30). After that, the number of digits is obtained from the character area (S31), the image data stored in the image area is converted into a FAX image using the image enlarging / reducing means 2 (S32), and the FAX image is read line by line (S33). , It is determined whether the reading is completed (S34). If the reading is not completed in step 34 (S34) (S34, NO), the digit number of the image portion is obtained (S35), the digit number of the image is subtracted from the maximum digit number of the FAX image, and the temporary maximum digit is obtained. The number is calculated (S36), the data for the temporary maximum number of digits is read from the character area, and this is converted into a FAX image (S3).
7). After that, step 33 (S33) to step 37 (S37) is repeated, and when the reading is completed (S34, YES), the FAX image is sent to the FAX transmitting unit 7, and the FAX image is sent via the public network 8. It is transmitted to the device 9 (S38, S39). When character (text) data and image data are mixed as in this embodiment, OCR is used to separate the image data and the character data, and then the image data stored in the image area is faxed. Converted to, and subtracting the maximum number of digits of the converted FAX image from the maximum number of digits of the image, obtaining the remaining maximum number of digits, assigning character (text) data to this part, and converting to a FAX image The person can use the e-mail without being aware of the arrangement balance of the sentence (text) and the image in the e-mail.

[0014]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, even if the user is not aware of the redundant data FA
The size of the X image can be adapted, and when sending from an e-mail to the FAX machine, the monotonousness and redundancy of the sentence can be eliminated, and high-quality facsimile transmission can be performed. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the user can adapt to the size of the FAX image without being aware of the size of the image of the electronic message, and further, the user specifies the size of the FAX image, whereby the electronic message is displayed. The image of can be enlarged and converted, and it is possible to prevent the filling of characters. According to the third aspect of the invention, the user can automatically adapt the image and character data to the size of the FAX image without paying attention to the balance of arrangement of the sentence and the image in the electronic mail. Also, when sending from an e-mail to a fax machine, it is possible to eliminate the monotonousness and redundancy of the sentence and further enlarge the image.
Since it is possible to prevent characters from being filled in and to perform high-quality facsimile transmission, and because it is possible to convert emails into fax images of the same size, the amount of information is small and therefore low-cost transmission is possible. You can

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a concept of a mail system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation when the received data is only text data in the mail system according to the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a conceptual diagram showing the relationship between the received electronic message data and the maximum digit number and maximum line number of the FAX image, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing the concept of the electronic message data converted into the FAX image. .

FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram for explaining an operation when the received data is only image data in the mail system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart diagram for explaining an operation in the mail system according to the present invention when the received data is a mixture of character (text) data and image data.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an image / character distinction database in the mail system according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Image character distinguishing means, 2 ... Image enlarging / reducing means, 3 ... Text / image converting means, 4
... Terminal device, 5 ... E-mail receiving unit, 6 ...
Image / character distinction database means, 7 ... FAX
Sending unit, 8 ... Public network, 9 ... FAX device, 11 ...
..OCR.

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In a mail system, the maximum number of digits and the maximum number of lines of a facsimile image are obtained in advance, the data of an electronic mail is read line by line, the number of digits of the data is obtained, and the read data is used as a facsimile image. Only the maximum number of digits of the message is converted into a facsimile image, and the overflowing electronic message data is connected before the message data of the next line, and only the maximum number of sentences of the image of the facsimile of the next line is converted to the facsimile image. A mail system comprising a means for converting and converting the facsimile image of the next line to the first line of the facsimile image of the next page when the maximum line exceeds the maximum line. 2. In a mail system, the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of a facsimile image is calculated in advance, the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of a message image is calculated, and this is enlarged / reduced for conversion into a facsimile image designated by a user. And a means for converting a telegram image into a facsimile image and performing image conversion for enlarging or reducing the magnification. 3. In a mail system, the number of vertical and horizontal pixels of a facsimile image is obtained in advance, the data is read line by line, and the character and image are referred to by referring to a database that distinguishes the character from the image. Disassemble the image data, store it in the character area and the image area additionally, repeat the above division until the next data becomes the data of only character, and set the number of characters and the number of vertical and horizontal pixels in the character area and the image area respectively. Determine the maximum number of vertical and horizontal pixels of the facsimile image, convert the data stored in the image area to a facsimile image by enlarging / reducing the image, read the line-by-line data of the facsimile image, and image the read facsimile image. Calculate the number of digits in the part, and A method to obtain the temporary maximum number of lines by subtracting the number of digits in the image part from the maximum number of digits, borrow the data in the character area and read only the sentence with the maximum number of digits, and convert the data in the character area into a facsimile image by text / image conversion. A mail system characterized by having.