JPS6116692A - Image forming method of thermal color printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce gloss automatically and form an easy-to-see image on recording paper by erasing data of specific color on the basis of the specific color position detection result of color image data and decreasing the number of print dots of a specific color automatically. CONSTITUTION:Dot positions of a color to be left in image data D0 on every line are detected to generate data on a dot position pattern D1 in which the color to be left is ''1'' and thinned-out color is ''0''; in case there are plural colors to be left, position patterns D1 of respective colors are ORed to generate a data position pattern D2 of the thinned-out color. Then, data on thinned-out patterns D3 and D3' for thinning out colors, dot by dot, and the thinned-out pattern D2 are ORed to generate a mask pattern D4 as a specific-color thinned- out pattern, which is ANDed with the image data D0 to generate print data D5. Then, only dot positions of the data where ''1'' is set are printed to record data while every other dot of the specific color is thinned out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal color printer, specifically a CRT.
Thermal color is configured to record the color image on the CRT screen onto recording paper by converting each of the three primary color components of light that make up the color image on the screen into each of the three primary color components of hue and thermally transferring them onto recording paper. The present invention relates to an image forming method for a printer.

(Prior Art) In this type of thermal color printer described above, CR
In order to faithfully reproduce the color image on the T-screen, it was configured to print a so-called hard copy by printing in a color that directly corresponds to the dot position in each row and column of the color image.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

However, since the above-mentioned conventional thermal color printer uses a method of forming images by thermal transfer, the image formed on the recording paper becomes glossy, and when the color area of the image becomes large, light The problem was that the reflection made it difficult to see.

Also, if a color image with poor contrast, such as black text, is formed on recording paper, it will be very difficult to see.
There were some inconveniences.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an image forming method for a thermal color printer that can automatically reduce gloss and form an easily visible image on recording paper.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to achieve the above object, the image forming method for a thermal color printer according to the present invention erases the data of the specific color according to a predetermined rule based on the detection result of the specific color position of color image data. The feature is that the number of printed dots is automatically reduced.

[For production]

That is, it detects the position of a specific color in a color image whose gloss is to be reduced or the print density is to be reduced, that is, which dot position on the image the specific color is located.
By erasing dots of a specific color from the image data according to a predetermined rule, the number of printed dots of the specific color is thinned out to reduce gloss or expression density.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, embodiments of the method of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 2, the host computer (1) transfers color image data (DO) displayed on the screen of the CRT (2) to the thermal color printer (3),
In this printer (3), basically the three primary color components (B)', (
G), (R) are the three primary color components of hue (Y), (M
).

(C) and print each hue component three times to sequentially transfer the three primary color components (Y), (M), ((:) onto the same recording paper, thereby creating a hard copy of the color image. It is configured to be done.

Furthermore, the printer (3) is provided with a thinning color designation switch (4) having the configuration shown in FIGS. It is configured to automatically thin out and print.

The data of the thinning color (CM) specified by the thinning color specifying switch (4) is set to "O" for the color to be thinned out and "1" for the color not to be thinned out, and is set in a control device (not shown) installed in the printer (3). The three primary colors of light that make up the color are transferred to the A register (RA) via the I10 port (6) of It is configured to store components (B), (G), and (R).

Then, as shown in Fig. 1, the dot position of the color to be left (color not thinned out) in the image data (DO) of that line is detected for each line, and the color to be left is 11111, and the color to be thinned out is ``0''. '', and if there are multiple colors to leave, create the position pattern (a) for each color.
t) to calculate the logical sum of the thinned-out color data position pattern (
D2).

Next, a logical sum is calculated between the data of the thinning patterns (D3) and (D3') for thinning out colors every other dot and the thinning color data position pattern (D2), and a mask pattern as a designated color thinning pattern is calculated. (D,), create print data (D5) by calculating the AND of this mask pattern (D4) and the image data (00), and create print data (D5) that is "1" in this print data (D,). By printing only the dot positions in the designated color, the number of printed dots of the designated color is decreased every other dot, that is, the number of dots is thinned out. Hereinafter, based on the explanatory diagrams shown in FIGS. 5 to 13, a means for thinning out and printing blue and green will be described, taking as an example a case where blue and green are designated as thinning colors <CS).

Based on the thinning color setting information by the thinning color designation switch (4), storing in advance the configuration of B, G, and R components of the color, which is information of the color that will not be thinned out, in the memory (M7);
As shown in Figure 6, the image data (
DO) is separated into B, G, and H components into three color registers (RB) and (RG).

Store in (R+t).

Then, for each color, the contents of the color registers (Rs, RG, RR) whose B, G, and R components are 0'' are inverted, and the AND of all registers (lh), (RG), and (RR) is calculated. Then, dot position data (0+) for each color to be left is calculated based on the information on the remaining colors (colors that are not thinned out) stored in the remaining color memory (Mfi), and this position data (
Dl) By calculating all the logical sums, a thinned color data position pattern (Dl) in which the thinned color is "0" as shown in FIG. 9 is obtained.

Next, if the printing line is an odd number line, see Figure 10 (a).
If it is an even numbered row, calculate the logical sum of the thinning pattern (D3) shown in the same figure (b) and the thinning color data position pattern (Dl),
As shown in FIG. 11, a specified color thinning pattern, that is, a mask pattern (D4) is created. Incidentally, FIG. 11 shows a mask pattern in the case of an odd number of rows.

Then, for each of the B, G, and R components, the logical product of the mask pattern (D4) and the image data (DO) is calculated, one line of print data (D,) is created, and this print The contents of data (D5) are converted into hue components (Y, M,
By sequentially converting to C) and printing, the specified color (C
Only M) is printed by thinning out every other dot and so that the thinning rows of the vertically adjacent lines are not in the same row.

Therefore, as shown in Figure 13, every other dot of blue and green is erased from the original data (DO), and the data is automatically converted to white print data (D,) and printed. It is.

[Another example]

Next, another embodiment of the method of the present invention will be described.

Instead of thinning out the specific color every other dot, it may be thinned out every few dots or every other line, and the positions of the thinned out dots can be changed in various ways.

Then, the thinning dot positions are determined by the thinning pattern (
D3'), (D,°) can be rewritten according to the pattern of the dot positions to be thinned out, and the other processing can be carried out by the same processing as in the above-described embodiment.

Regarding character components, the above-mentioned thinning process may not be performed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Due to the features described above, the method of the present invention has achieved the following excellent effects.

That is, in cases where the printing area is large, such as on a background, and if printed as is, it would be difficult to see due to reflections caused by the gloss, the gloss will be reduced to make it easier to see.

Furthermore, since printing is not performed over the entire surface, there is also the effect that power consumption due to printing can be reduced.

Also, in the past, even if the image was printed directly on the recording paper, such as black letters on the background, it would be very difficult to see.
Since it is possible to print by automatically lowering the saturation of only the precious areas, it is now possible to convert image data that cannot be used in practical use into an easily viewable image and record it.

Furthermore, it has become possible to obtain images with so-called halftone tones, which are difficult to display on a CRT screen.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an embodiment of the method of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the operation of a thermal color printer to which the method of the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the overall configuration, and FIG. 3 is an explanation of the thinning color specifying switch. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the specified color detection means, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of data in the remaining color memory, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the arrangement of colors in one line of image data, and FIG. Figure 7 shows B, G at each door position.
Figure 8 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of each R component. Figure 8 is an explanatory diagram of the dot position pattern for each color. Figure 9 is an explanatory diagram of the thinned-out color data position pattern. Figure 10 (a) is an explanatory diagram of the thinned-out pattern of odd-numbered rows. 11 is an explanatory diagram of creating a specified color thinning pattern, FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of printing data creation, and FIG.
The figure is an explanatory diagram of image data after specified color thinning. (B), (G), (R)...Three primary colors of light, ('Y), (M), (C)...Three primary colors of hue, (DO)...・・Color image data,
(C+<)...Specific color.

Claims (1)

[Claims] The three primary colors of light (B
), (G), and (R) as the three primary colors of hue (Y), (
An image forming method for a thermal color printer configured to record a color image on a CRT screen on recording paper by converting the components M) and (C) and thermally transferring the converted components onto recording paper, the color image data being (D_O) specific color (
C_M) Based on the position detection result, the specific color (C_M
) according to a predetermined rule, thereby automatically reducing the number of printed dots of the specific color (C_M).