JPH1148586A - Image processor and processing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To realize a color matching process easily and accurately by providing means for generating a plurality of pattern images, means for outputting a plurality of images while arranging in a specified direction, or the like, thereby generating a patch pattern corresponding to a variety of patterns automatically. SOLUTION: A pallet pattern is printed prior to printing a print pattern for main production. A unit pattern reduced according to reduction parameters received from an external unit 301, e.g. a display/operating section 301 or a host computer, is printed repeatedly lengthwise and crosswise according to pattern arrangement parameters received simultaneously with the reduction parameters. In this regard, a pallet memory is switched simultaneously in order to form a patch pattern for color matching process having a pattern structure. According to the arrangement, an optimal pallet having color representation most faithful to an original image can be selected with reference to a patch pattern.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to an image processing apparatus and method for forming a color image by discharging ink droplets.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an example of a printing apparatus for performing printing on a recording medium by using a recording head having a plurality of recording elements, ink is ejected from a nozzle of the recording head to a recording medium from a nozzle of the recording head. An ink jet printing apparatus using a recording head provided with a plurality of ink ejection ports is known. In particular, when this ink jet printing apparatus is applied as a textile printing apparatus that forms a pattern by performing printing by sequentially operating the recording head having a nozzle array of a predetermined width relative to a cloth as a recording medium in the vertical and horizontal axes. Attention has been paid to its advantages over conventional screen printing in terms of its apparatus configuration and running cost.

However, in such a printing apparatus, the color arrangement is determined by a combination of minute ink droplets typified by yellow, magenta, cyan and the like, that is, a so-called process color, so that the intended color arrangement is reproduced on a product to be printed. As described above, it is desirable to carry out a so-called color matching step of collecting a patch on which a color pattern is arranged and performing color matching before the production print.

As described above, in a printing apparatus using an ink-jet printing apparatus, a printed image is obtained by directly jetting ink droplets onto a print medium. And has a large characteristic that an intended image can be stably obtained. Ink-jet technology is an image processing technology such as an error diffusion method, the gradation expression power by combining this with a multi-value printing technology, and the ink-jet in a wide color limit range by printing 6 to 10 colors of four or more primary colors. The image expression ability by the recording technology has reached the technical level approaching offset printing.

[0005]

However, the fabric products printed with the myriad of custom color dyes used in the conventional screen printing are used for the fine ink discharged from the discharge nozzles of the ink jet head of 4 to 8 colors. If an attempt is made to reproduce a process color using a combination of droplets, a granular feeling due to the arrangement of ink droplets by the above-described error diffusion method and a color difference due to the order of ink superposition occur. For this reason, a color matching process of printing a plurality of patches in which color patterns are arranged based on a plurality of color palettes in advance and determining the optimal palette data while comparing with the intended target color is inevitable for inkjet printing. A new process is required.

Further, even if the optimum value of the pallet data of each of the color arrangements constituting the picture is obtained, the granular error by the above-mentioned error diffusion method becomes surfaced depending on the structure of the picture, causing the color of the entire picture to be modulated. In addition, it is more difficult to reproduce the pattern.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to realize a color matching process easily and accurately by automatically generating patch patterns corresponding to various patterns. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing apparatus suitable as an ink jet printing machine or an ink jet printing machine for printing and a method therefor.

[0008]

As one means for achieving the above object, the image processing apparatus of the present invention has the following arrangement.

That is, a plurality of allocating means for allocating a color scheme to a color image, a unit image generating means for generating a unit image based on the color image, and a color scheme for the unit image generated by the unit image generating means. The image processing apparatus further includes a pattern creating unit that assigns the plurality of pattern images to create a plurality of pattern images, and an output unit that arranges and outputs the plurality of pattern images in a predetermined direction.

For example, the unit image creating means creates a unit image by reducing a predetermined range of the color image.

For example, the unit image creating means creates a unit image by extracting a predetermined range of the color image.

Further, there is provided instruction input means for inputting an instruction to the apparatus, and the unit image creating means creates the unit image in accordance with the instruction input inputted from the instruction input means. .

For example, the output means arranges and outputs the plurality of pattern images in accordance with a pattern arrangement instruction input from the instruction input means.

For example, the instruction input means performs an input from an external device.

For example, the output means has a recording head including a plurality of unit recording elements.

For example, the recording head is an ink jet recording head which performs recording by discharging ink.

For example, the recording head is a recording head for discharging ink by using thermal energy, and is characterized in that it has a thermal energy converter for generating thermal energy to be applied to the ink.

[0018]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

<First Embodiment> This embodiment shows an example in which the image processing apparatus of the present invention is applied to an ink jet printing machine. FIG. 1 shows the ink jet printing machine (hereinafter referred to as a printing machine). FIG. 2 is a side view showing a schematic configuration diagram of FIG.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 denotes a transport unit for transporting a recording medium 101; 102, a printer unit for recording; 103, a paper discharge unit for stocking the printed recording medium 101; Dispensing rollers, 105 and 106 are holding rollers, 107
Denotes a driving roller, 108 and 109 denote platen portions for maintaining the flatness of the printing unit, 110 denotes a pressing roller, 111 denotes a driving roller, 112 denotes a cutting unit for cutting the recording medium 101,
Reference numeral 113 denotes a pressing roller of the cutting unit 112, and reference numeral 114 denotes a support for mounting and supporting the carriage unit 116 thereon.
The drive rollers 107 and 111 are driven by a transport motor 115. The carriage unit 116 is moved horizontally on the column 114 by a carriage motor 117. The front recording head group 1 of the front head unit 118
19 and the back side recording head group 1 of the back side head unit 120
By 21, printing on the recording medium 101 is performed.

FIG. 2 shows the relationship between the feed direction of the print medium 101 and the scan direction of the print heads (118, 120). In the figure, the direction Y in which the recording medium 101 is sent is shown.
The (transport direction Y) is the sub-scanning direction, and the direction X (scan direction X) in which the carriage unit 116 is sent is the main scanning direction. Recording head group 1 of front head unit 118
19 and the recording head group 121 of the rear head unit 120
Is separated by an inter-unit gap D. The inter-unit gap D is one band width of each recording head,
That is, assuming that one recording width of the recording head is H, the following is expressed.

D = (2n + 1) × H / 2 (n is an integer) In addition, there is an interval corresponding to a head gap d between the recording heads.

Next, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing main components of the printing apparatus according to the present embodiment, and will be described.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 301 denotes an external device such as a host computer.
2 outputs image data, various commands, and parameters.

The main components of the printing apparatus 302 include an interface unit 303 for controlling communication of image data, commands, parameters, and the like with the external device 301, and analysis of image data, commands, parameters, and the like received from the external device 301. And a display / operation unit 3 including a control unit 304 for controlling the entire printing apparatus 302, a display unit including an LCD or the like, and an operation unit including key switches or the like for interfacing with an operator.
05, an image processing unit 306 that stores image data and converts the image data into image data that matches the characteristics of the printing apparatus 302,
A front recording head group 119 for ejecting various recording inks in the front head unit 118, and a front recording head group 1
19, a front head driving unit 308 that drives each recording head in accordance with an image signal, and a rear recording head group 121 that discharges various recording inks in the rear head unit 120.
And a carriage unit 1 on which a front side head unit 118 and a rear side head unit 120 are mounted, which drive each recording head according to an image signal.
The carriage motor 1 is a driving source for moving the carriage 16
17 for controlling the drive of the carriage 17
And a transport motor 115 as a drive source for moving the recording medium 101, and a transport motor drive unit 312 for controlling the drive of the transport motor 115.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the main components of the image processing unit 306. 4, reference numeral 401 denotes an image memory unit that stores and outputs image data, and 402 denotes luminance / density conversion, masking processing, and under color removal for input luminance data R, G, B or input code data P. (UCR), black generation, special color generation, and the like, and a multi-value / binary conversion unit 403 for binarizing the multi-value image data. Reference numeral 403 denotes binary image data C1 to C8 from the multi-value / binary conversion unit 402.
Alternatively, the binary image data B1 to B1 from the image memory unit 401
For B8, a sequential multi-scan unit (hereinafter referred to as an SMS unit) for distributing image data F1 to F8 and R1 to R8 to the front head unit 118 and the rear head unit 120, respectively. A registration adjustment unit that temporarily stores and performs registration adjustment in the main scanning direction X and the sub-scanning direction Y at the actual print timing;
Reference numeral 405 denotes registration-adjusted image data FC1 to FC8, R
An output control unit for allocating C1 to RC8 to each recording head.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the main components of the image memory unit 401. The image memory unit 401
A CPU interface unit 501 that communicates with a control unit 304 including a CPU (Central Processing Unit) that controls the entire printing apparatus 302, and a direct memory access unit (hereinafter, referred to as image data and the like transmitted from the host computer 301) DMA unit) 502, a real memory unit 503 for storing image data, an image data bus control unit 504 for controlling the direction of the image data bus, and a real memory unit 50
Address control unit 505 for performing addressing of address 3
Consists of

In particular, in the memory address control unit 505,
At the time of reading image data at the time of printing, an enlargement / reduction processing unit 506 that can change the increment of the address and realizes enlargement and reduction of the print image is provided. Further, a pallet counter 507 for determining the arrangement of the pallet pattern in the present invention, and a real memory unit 503
Read start address position (X, Y) register 508
And an X-direction read end position register 509 and a Y-direction read end position register 510. Further, the pallet selection signal (PSEL) is multi-valued / 2 according to the pallet switching timing by the pallet counter 507.
The value is sent to the value converter 402.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the main components of the multi-level / binary conversion section 402. Reference numeral 601 denotes a luminance / value for input luminance data R, G, B or input code data P.
A luminance / density conversion unit 602 for performing density conversion, a masking processing unit 602 for performing under color removal (UCR) and black component generation and special color generation, and a reference numeral 603 refers to the pallet memory 604 to input data (PLT) which is code data. A pallet conversion unit for converting into ink color data P1 to P8, a gamma characteristic conversion unit 605, and a head density correction unit 606. In the present embodiment, in particular, by having a plurality of pallet memories 604, pallets used for printing pallet patterns can be switched at any time according to the pallet selection signal (PSEL) described above.

FIG. 7 shows a pallet pattern print example in which image data is reduced in this embodiment.

An example of printing a pallet pattern shown at 702 prior to printing the production print pattern 701 will be described. The unit pallet pattern 703 reduced according to the reduction parameter input from the display / operation unit 305 or the external device 301 such as a host computer is repeatedly printed vertically and horizontally according to the pattern arrangement parameter input simultaneously with the reduction parameter. At this time, the above-mentioned palette memory 604 is simultaneously switched to form a patch pattern having a picture structure for a color matching process.

Therefore, by referring to the patch pattern, it is possible to select an optimum pallet which is determined to reproduce the color most faithful to the original image.

<Second Embodiment> Hereinafter, a second embodiment according to the present invention will be described.
An embodiment will be described. Note that the configuration of the device according to the second embodiment is the same as that of the above-described first embodiment, and a description thereof will not be repeated.

In the first embodiment, an example in which a pallet pattern print in which image data is reduced has been described. In the second embodiment, an example in which a pallet pattern print in which image data is partially cut out is shown.

Referring to FIG. 8, an example in which a pallet pattern 802 is printed prior to printing of the production print pattern 801 will be described. External device 3 such as display / operation unit 305 or host computer
The unit pallet pattern 803 whose range is specified according to the range parameter input from 01 is repeatedly printed vertically and horizontally according to the pattern arrangement parameter input simultaneously with the range parameter. At this time, the above-mentioned pallet memory 604 is also switched at the same time to form a patch pattern for the color matching step which has undergone the same error diffusion processing as that of the actual production print pattern.

Therefore, even when the error diffusion method, which is particularly susceptible to a pattern, is applied, an optimal palette which is determined to be most faithfully reproduced in the original image by referring to the patch pattern. You can choose.

<Other Embodiments> In practicing the present invention, among those employing an ink jet recording method, there is provided means for generating thermal energy as energy used for discharging ink, and the thermal energy The present invention brings about an excellent effect in a print head or a printing apparatus of a type that causes a state change. Means for generating thermal energy include, for example, an electrothermal converter, a laser beam, and the like. By adopting such a method, higher density and higher definition can be achieved.

The present invention can be widely applied to various types of ink jet recording apparatuses, and is particularly preferably applied to industrial ink jet recording apparatuses, for example, ink jet textile printing apparatuses. ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the image quality improvement and productivity improvement of an inkjet printing apparatus are achieved.

Next, the entire process of ink-jet textile printing performed by applying the present invention will be described. After the inkjet printing step, the fabric is dried (including natural drying) using the above-described inkjet recording apparatus. And
Subsequently, a step of diffusing the dye on the fiber with a cloth and reacting and fixing the dye to the fiber is performed. By this step, it is possible to obtain a sufficient color developing property and fastness due to fixing of the dye.

The diffusion and reactive fixing steps may be performed by a conventionally known method, for example, a steaming method. In addition,
In this case, the fabric may be subjected to an alkali treatment before the printing step.

Thereafter, in a post-treatment step, unreacted dye is removed and substances used for the pre-treatment are removed. Finally, the record is completed through an orderly finishing process such as defect correction and ironing.

In particular, as a fabric for ink-jet printing, (1) the ink can be colored to a sufficient concentration;
(2) the ink dyeing rate is high, (3) the ink dries quickly on the fabric, (4) the occurrence of irregular ink bleeding on the fabric is small, (5) the device And high performance such as excellent transportability. In order to satisfy these required performances, in the present invention, the fabric can be subjected to a pretreatment beforehand as required. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-53492 discloses cloths having an ink receiving layer, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-46589 proposes a cloth containing a reduction inhibitor or an alkaline substance. I have. Examples of such pre-treatment include adding an alkaline substance,
Examples of the treatment include a treatment for containing a substance selected from a water-soluble polymer, a synthetic polymer, a water-soluble metal salt, urea, and thiourea.

Examples of the alkaline substance include alkali metal hydroxides such as sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide;
Examples thereof include amines such as mono-, di- and triethanolamine, sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate bicarbonate and alkali metal bicarbonate.

Further, there are metal salts of organic acids such as calcium acetate and barium acetate, and ammonia and ammonia compounds. Further, sodium trichloroacetate which becomes an alkaline substance under steaming and dry heat may be used. Particularly preferred alkaline substances include sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate used for dyeing reactive dyes.

Examples of the water-soluble polymer include starch substances such as corn and wheat; cellulosic substances such as carboxymethylcellulose, methylcellulose and hydroxyethylcellulose; sodium alginate;
Locust peanut gum, tragacanth gum, quagum,
Examples include polysaccharides such as tamarind seeds, protein substances such as gelatin and casein, tannin oxide compounds, acrylic acid-based water-soluble polymers, and maleic anhydride-based water-soluble polymers. Among them, polysaccharide polymers and cellulose polymers are preferable.

Examples of the water-soluble metal salt include compounds which form typical ionic crystals and have a pH of 4 to 10, such as halides of alkali metals and alkaline earth metals. Representative examples of such compounds include, for example, NaCl, Na2S
O4, KCl and CH3COONa, and the like;
Among the alkaline earth metals, salts of Na, K and Ca are preferable among CaCl2 and MgCl2.

The method for incorporating the above substances and the like into the fabric in the pretreatment is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include a commonly used dipping method, pad method, coating method, spray method and the like.

Further, since the printing ink applied to the fabric for ink-jet printing simply adheres when applied to the fabric, it is necessary to carry out a fixing step of the dye or the like in the ink onto the fiber. Is preferred. Such a fixing step may be performed by a conventionally known method, for example, a steaming method, an HT steaming method, a thermofix method,
When a fabric which has been previously alkali-treated is not used, an alkali pad steam method, an alkali plot steam method, an alkali shock method, an alkali cold fix method, and the like can be used. The fixing step may or may not include a reaction process depending on the dye. As an example of the latter, there is a method in which fibers are impregnated and do not physically separate.
As the ink, any suitable ink can be used as long as it has a required pigment, and the ink is not limited to a dye and may include a pigment.

Further, the removal of unreacted dye and the substance used in the pretreatment can be carried out by washing after the above-mentioned reaction fixing step in accordance with a conventionally known method. In addition, it is preferable to use a conventional fixing process in combination with this cleaning.

The printed material subjected to the post-processing steps described above is then cut into a desired size, and the cut pieces are subjected to a process for obtaining a final processed product such as welding, bonding, welding, and the like. This gives clothes such as dresses, dresses, ties and swimwear, futon covers, sofa covers, handkerchiefs, curtains and the like. A method of processing a cloth by sewing or the like to produce clothing or other daily necessities is a known technique.

The printing medium may be cloth, wall cloth, thread used for embroidery, wallpaper, paper, OHP film, alumite or other plate-like material, or any other material capable of applying a predetermined liquid using ink jet technology. And the fabric includes any woven fabric, nonwoven fabric and other fabrics, regardless of the material, weave or knit.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described ink-jet printing method, and various printing methods can be adopted. In the case of using the ink-jet printing method, among them, heat is used as energy used for causing ink to be ejected. An excellent effect is provided by using a means for generating energy, and using a so-called bubble jet type print head or printing apparatus in which a state change of ink is caused by the thermal energy. According to such a method, it is possible to achieve high density and high definition of the print.

The typical configuration and principle are described in, for example, US Pat. Nos. 4,723,129 and 4,740.
It is preferable to use the basic principle disclosed in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 796. This method is a so-called on-demand type,
It can be applied to any type of continuous type, but especially in the case of the on-demand type, the print information is printed on the sheet that holds the liquid (ink) or the electrothermal converter that is arranged corresponding to the liquid path. Applying at least one drive signal that provides a rapid temperature rise above nucleate boiling in response to generating heat energy in the electrothermal transducer and causing film boiling on the heat working surface of the printhead,
As a result, bubbles in the liquid (ink) corresponding to this drive signal one-to-one can be formed, which is effective. By discharging the liquid (ink) through the discharge opening by the growth and contraction of the bubble, at least one droplet is formed. When the driving signal is formed into a pulse shape, the growth and shrinkage of the bubble are immediately and appropriately performed.
Discharge can be achieved, which is more preferable. As the pulse-shaped drive signal, those described in US Pat. Nos. 4,463,359 and 4,345,262 are suitable. If the conditions described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,124 relating to the rate of temperature rise of the heat acting surface are adopted, more excellent printing can be performed.

The structure of the print head is not limited to the combination of the discharge port, the liquid path, and the electrothermal converter (linear liquid flow path or right-angle liquid flow path) as disclosed in the above-mentioned respective specifications. A configuration using U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,333 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,459,600, which discloses a configuration in which a heat acting portion is arranged in a bending region, is also included in the present invention. In addition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 59-123670 discloses a configuration in which a common slit is used as a discharge portion of an electrothermal converter for a plurality of electrothermal converters, and an opening for absorbing a pressure wave of thermal energy is provided. The effect of the present invention is effective even if the configuration is based on JP-A-59-138461, which discloses a configuration corresponding to a discharge unit. That is, according to the present invention, printing can be performed reliably and efficiently regardless of the form of the print head.

In addition, it goes without saying that the print head can be configured in accordance with the form of the printing apparatus. In the case of a so-called line printer, the discharge ports are arranged in a range corresponding to the width of the print medium. What should be done. In addition, as a serial type print head as in the above example, a print head fixed to the apparatus main body, or an ink supply from the apparatus main body or an ink supply from the apparatus main body by being attached to the apparatus main body. The present invention is also effective when a replaceable chip-type printhead that can be used or a cartridge-type printhead in which an ink tank is provided integrally with the printhead itself is used.

It is preferable to add a print head ejection recovery unit, a preliminary auxiliary unit, and the like as the configuration of the printing apparatus of the present invention since the effects of the present invention can be further stabilized. If you list these specifically,
Nominal heating means for heating using a capping means, a cleaning means, a pressure or suction means, an electrothermal transducer or another heating element or a combination thereof for the print head, and printing. Another example is a call discharge means for performing another discharge.

In addition, in the embodiments of the present invention described above, the ink is described as a liquid. However, an ink which solidifies at room temperature or lower and which softens or liquefies at room temperature may be used. In general, the ink jet method generally controls the temperature of the ink itself within a range of 30 degrees or more and 70 degrees or less to control the temperature so that the viscosity of the ink is in a stable ejection range. Sometimes, the ink may be in a liquid state. In addition, in order to positively prevent temperature rise due to thermal energy by using it as energy for changing the state of the ink from a solid state to a liquid state, or to prevent evaporation of the ink, the ink is solidified in a standing state and heated. May be used. In any case, the application of thermal energy, such as the one in which the ink liquefies and the liquid ink is ejected by applying the thermal energy according to the print signal, and the one in which the ink already starts to solidify when reaching the print medium, etc. The present invention can also be applied to a case where an ink that liquefies for the first time is used. In such a case, the ink is held in a state in which the ink is held as a liquid or a solid in the concave portion or through hole of the porous sheet as described in JP-A-54-56847 or JP-A-60-71260. Alternatively, it may be configured to face the electrothermal converter. In the present invention, the most effective one for each of the above-mentioned inks is to execute the above-mentioned film boiling method.

In addition, as an embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the one used as an image processing terminal of an information processing device such as a computer, a form of a copying apparatus combined with a reader or the like may be adopted.

Even if the present invention is applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), a single device (for example, a copying machine, a facsimile, etc.) Device).

An object of the present invention is to provide a storage medium storing a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments to a system or an apparatus, and to provide a computer (or CPU) of the system or apparatus.
And MPU) read and execute the program code stored in the storage medium.

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD
-R, a magnetic tape, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, or the like can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS (Operating System) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. ) May perform some or all of the actual processing, and the processing may realize the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided on a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instructions of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0065]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a color matching step in an image processing apparatus such as an industrial ink jet printing machine or an ink jet printing machine,
By automatically generating patch patterns corresponding to various patterns, a color pattern close to an actual image can be easily collected.

In particular, more accurate color reproduction can be realized even when performing print output using an error diffusion method that is easily affected by a picture.

[0067]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of an embodiment according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a feed direction of a print medium and a scan direction of a print head according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating main components of the printing apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating main components of an image processing unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating main components of an image memory unit according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating main components of a multi-level / binary converter according to the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a pallet pattern print example in which image data is reduced in the embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a pallet pattern print example in which image data is partially cut out according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 conveyance unit 101 recording medium 102 printer unit 103 paper discharge unit 104 unwind roller 105, 106, 110, 113 press roller 107, 111 drive roller 108, 109 platen unit 112 cut unit 114 column 115 drive source 116 carriage unit 117 carriage motor 118 Front head unit 119 Front side recording head group 120 Back side head unit 121 Back side recording head group 301 External device such as host computer 302 Printing device 303 Interface unit 304 Control unit 305 Display / operation unit 306 Image processing unit 307 Front recording head drive Unit 308 Back side recording head drive unit 309 Carriage motor drive unit 310 Conveyance motor drive unit 401 Image memory unit 402 Multi-value / binary conversion unit 403 S S unit 404 Register adjustment unit 405 Output control unit 501 CPU interface unit 502 DMA unit 503 Real memory unit 504 Image data bus control unit 505 Memory address control unit 506 Enlargement / reduction processing unit 507 Pallet counter 508 Read start position register 509 X-direction read End position register 510 Y direction read end position register 601 Brightness / density conversion unit 602 Masking processing unit 603 Palette conversion unit 604 Palette memory 605 Gamma characteristic conversion unit 606 Head density correction unit 607 Output selection unit

Claims (11)

[Claims] A plurality of allocating means for allocating a color scheme to a color image, a unit image generating means for generating a unit image based on the color image, and a color scheme for the unit image generated by the unit image generating means. An image processing apparatus, comprising: a pattern creating unit that creates a plurality of pattern images, each of which is assigned by the plurality of assigning units, and an output unit that arranges and outputs the plurality of pattern images in a predetermined direction. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the unit image creating unit creates the unit image by reducing a predetermined range of the color image. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the unit image creating unit creates a unit image by extracting a predetermined range of the color image. 4. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an instruction input unit for inputting an instruction to the apparatus, wherein the unit image generating unit generates the unit image in accordance with the instruction input input from the instruction input unit. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1. 5. The apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the output unit arranges and outputs the plurality of pattern images according to a pattern arrangement instruction input from the instruction input unit.
The image processing apparatus according to any one of the preceding claims. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the instruction input unit performs an input from an external device. 7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output unit has a print head including a plurality of unit print elements. 8. The image processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the recording head is an inkjet recording head that performs recording by discharging ink. 9. The recording head according to claim 1, wherein the recording head ejects ink by using thermal energy, and includes a thermal energy converter for generating thermal energy to be applied to the ink. Item 10. The image processing device according to Item 8. 10. An image processing method in an image processing apparatus having a plurality of color pallets for assigning a color arrangement to a color image, wherein: a unit image creating step of creating a unit image based on the color image; A pattern creation step of allocating a color scheme for the unit image created in the above-mentioned plurality of color palettes to create a plurality of pattern images, and an output step of arranging and outputting the plurality of pattern images in a predetermined direction. An image processing method comprising: 11. A computer-readable memory storing a program code for image processing in an image processing apparatus having a plurality of color palettes for assigning a color arrangement to a color image, wherein the unit image creates a unit image based on the color image. A code for a creating step, a color for the unit image created in the unit image creating step is assigned by the plurality of color palettes, and a code for a pattern creating step for creating a plurality of pattern images; and And a code for an output step of arranging and outputting in a direction.