JPS62206553A - Image processing method for forming block copy - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To considerably decrease image memory capacity by subjecting dot images such as characters and symbols and line drawing such as illustrations and patterns to image development on the image memory at the picture element density smaller than the picture element density of an output image. CONSTITUTION:The prescribed dot image is outputted from a character memory 21 in accordance with the reproduction data on the dot image and is written together with the information on a layout at 16 pieces/mm picture element density into the image memory 20. The image data such as dot image and line drawing written into the image memory 20 is inputted to a display controller 17 where the picture element density is thinned to 1/4 and is made from 16 pieces/mm to 4 pieces/mm. The block copy image to be developed on the image memory 20 is projected on the display screen of a CRT15. The image is inputted to a picture element density conversion circuit 14 via a transfer control circuit 19 in the stage of outputting the image. The picture element density thereof is then converted from 16 pieces/mm to 32 pieces/mm and the image data is inputted to an image recorder 12 for the block copy, where the image is recorded as the block copy image of 32 pieces/mm.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image processing method used in the printing field, and more specifically, the present invention relates to an image processing method used in the printing field. This invention relates to an image processing method for creating images.

[Prior Art] In such an image processing method for creating a block copy, a display device such as a CRT is used, and a block image to be written on the block is projected on the display screen of the display device, and the operator can Editing operations such as trimming, cropping, compositing, negative/positive inversion, erasing, rotation, scaling, etc. are performed on the draft image on the display screen through manual means such as a keyboard or tablet, and after the editing work, the draft image becomes an image. It is converted into a hard copy using a recording device and is used as a copy. The draft images displayed on the CRT display screen include line drawings such as illustrations read from the manuscript by an image reading device using COD, etc., and drawn from the character memory built into the image processing unit itself by operating a keyboard or tablet. These include dot images of characters and symbols that are displayed, line drawings such as figures that are obtained by operating a keyboard or tablet, and images that are being edited, for example, that are recalled from a magnetic disk such as a floppy disk by operating a keyboard or tablet.

As is well known, in the above-described image processing method for creating a draft, editing work and associated image processing are performed using a microcomputer, and image development of the draft image is performed on an image memory. Instructions to the microcomputer are given by an operator via a keyboard or tablet. In this case, in order to perform editing work efficiently, if the maximum size of the manuscript is A4, an image memory capacity equivalent to two pages of A4 size is required; It depends on the pixel density (dot density) at which the lower image is output.

Incidentally, the pixel density required for printing dot images, line drawings, etc. is generally about 32 lines/+n+a, and is sufficient. Therefore, 32 pieces/mt
If an image recording device having a pixel density of a is used, a sufficiently clear draft image will be output.

Now, in the conventional image processing method for creating a draft, image input and image processing are performed at the same pixel density as the pixel density of the draft image, that is, the output image. As described above, the capacity of the image memory used for image development of the master image is determined by the pixel density of the output image, that is, the master image. For example, A
When attempting to output four sizes of draft images at a pixel density of 32 lines/ml, the required image memory capacity is at least 8 Mbytes. As mentioned above, in order to perform editing work efficiently and smoothly, an image memory capacity equivalent to two A4 size pages, that is, 16 Mbytes is required. If such a large-capacity image memory is to be implemented using a semiconductor memory, the cost will naturally be extremely high and the processing speed will also be slow. Furthermore, when a large-capacity semiconductor memory is used, the probability of occurrence of circuit defects increases, which also poses a problem in terms of reliability.

On the other hand, if part of the image memory is implemented using semiconductor memory and the majority of it is implemented using magnetic disks, etc., there will be a problem of a significant drop in processing speed, and there will also be problems with control such as memory mapping for magnetic disks. But a problem arises.

[Object and structure of the invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and
The purpose of this is to create an image memory capacity that is smaller than the image memory capacity conventionally required when creating a block copy containing dot images such as characters and symbols and line drawings such as illustrations and figures at a predetermined pixel density. It is image processing based on capacity.

According to the present invention, there is provided an image processing method for electronically creating a block copy including dot images such as characters and symbols, and line drawings such as illustrations and figures, which comprises storing the block image in an image memory. In the above-described image processing method for creating a printing plate, there is provided an image processing method for preparing a printing plate, which is characterized in that image processing is performed according to the procedure shown in FIG.

As shown in Figure 1, dot images, line drawings, etc. are developed in image memory at a pixel density smaller than that of the output image, and pixel density conversion is performed on the dot images, line drawings, etc. at the time of image output. The pixel density is made to match the pixel density of the output image.

[Example] Next, an example of the image processing method for creating a block copy according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown a block diagram of an image processing apparatus configured to carry out the image processing method for creating a printing plate according to the present invention.

In addition, in the following examples, dot images such as characters and symbols and line drawings such as illustrations and figures are 16 lines/III.
A case will be described in which image processing is performed at a pixel density of +, and dot images, line drawings, etc. are recorded at a pixel density of 32 lines/I1m at the time of image output.

As shown in FIG. 2, this image processing apparatus basically includes a control section 11, an operation section 2, an image input section 3, an image output section 4, an image display section 5, and an image processing section 6.

The control section 1 is provided with a CPU 7, which controls the entire image processing apparatus.

The operating unit 2 is provided with a keyboard 8 that is operated by an operator, and a serial interface 9 connected to the output side of the keyboard 8. The serial interface 9 is connected to the CPU 7 via a control bus 10, which allows the operator to
The entire image processing apparatus is controlled by giving various instructions to the image processing apparatus.

On the other hand, in the operation section 2, the operator operates the keyboard 8 to create a line drawing such as a figure, and inputs it to the image processing section 6. Dot images of predetermined characters, symbols, etc. are called up from the built-in character memory based on manually entered code information. This point will be discussed in detail later in the description. Although the keyboard 8 is used in this embodiment, it goes without saying that another input means such as a tablet may be used.

The image input section 3 is provided with an image reading device 11, and the image reading device 11 includes a reading scanning means using, for example, COD. Line drawings such as illustrations are read from a document as image data by such a reading and scanning means. As mentioned above, in this embodiment, line drawings such as illustrations are image-processed at a pixel density of 16 lines/sm, so 16 lines/+a
A reading scanning means configured to read image data at a pixel density of m may be used. However, if necessary, it is also possible to use a reading scanning means configured to read image data at a pixel density of 32 lines/nun, for example, but in this case, image data read from line drawings such as illustrations Then, the pixel density is set to 16 lines/1I11. The image data read by the image input section 3 is manually input to the image processing section 6, which will be explained in detail later.

The image output section 4 is provided with a printing device 12 and an image recording device 13 for galley printing. Image recording bag for block copy ff
It will be clear that 12 can be constructed, for example, as a laser film printer, and in this example the laser film printer is adapted to record a draft image with a pixel density of 32 lines/m11. Further, the image recording device 13 for galley printing can be constituted by, for example, a plain paper laser printer or the like, and this plain paper laser printer is designed to record the draft image at a low pixel density, for example, 16 lines/aI11.

Needless to say, since the image recording device for galley printing is used to check the layout of a draft image, dot images, line drawings, etc. are recorded at a low pixel density.

The image output unit 4 is also provided with a pixel density conversion circuit 14 connected to the input side of the printing image recording device 12. The pixel density conversion circuit 14 converts the image data such as dot images and line drawings obtained from the image processing section 6 from a pixel density of 16 lines/IIm to a pixel density of 32 lines/-1, and the pixel density is converted in this way. Image data is image recording device 1 for block printing.
2 is input. In addition, when converting the pixel density from 16 lines/1ll1 to 32 lines/1lll,
It is preferable to smooth the sawtooth contour of the diagonally shaded portion, which is characteristic of digital images, by image processing as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 58-141076. On the other hand, the image data from the image processing section 6 is input to the image recording device 13 for galley printing as it is (that is, at a pixel density of 16 lines/111).

The image display unit 5 is provided with a CRTI 5 as a display device for displaying a draft image to be edited. The image display ffK5 also includes a display controller 17 that controls image display on the CRT 15.
and a frame memory 1g (ie, refresh memory) connected to the display controller 17. The display controller 17 transfers the image data obtained from the image processing section 6 to the frame memory 18 in accordance with the resolution of the CRT 15, and based on the image data written in the frame memory 18, the CRT
The layout of the draft image (including the draft image being edited) is displayed on the display screen of Is. Assuming that the pixel density of the image projected by the CRT 15 is, for example, 4 lines/mm, the image data (16 lines/nm) such as dot images and line drawings obtained from the image processing section 6 by the display controller 16 is reduced to 1/4. As a result, dot images, line drawings, etc. are displayed on the display screen of the CRT 15 at a pixel density of 4 lines/mn+.

The CRT 15 also displays various commands and the like that are input by the operator from the operation unit 2 during the editing work of the draft image.

Furthermore, if the frame memory 18 is given a capacity equivalent to two display screens of the CRT 15, one of which is used for overall display and the remaining one is used for enlarged display, editing work becomes easier. Needless to say.

The image processing section 6 includes an image calculation circuit 18 and a transfer control circuit 19.
, image memory 20, character memory 21 and compression/
An expansion circuit 22 is provided, and these components and the display controller 17 of the image display section 5 are connected to each other by an image bus 23 and to the CPU 7 via the control bus 10.

In the image calculation circuit 18, the address and image data of the image data stored in the image memory 20 are calculated, and editing work of the draft image, such as affine transformation such as rotation, movement, scaling, etc., is developed on the image memory 2o. be done. As mentioned above, since the master image is displayed on the display screen of the CRT 15 based on the image data in the image memory 20, the operator can edit the master image while checking the master image on the display screen of the CRT 15. I can do it. In addition, when a line drawing such as a figure is manually entered into the image processing section 6 by the operation of the keyboard 8 by the operator, the image calculation port
In 8, line drawings (16
book/+aa+) is calculated.

The transfer control circuit 19 includes an image memory 20 and an image input section 3.
Transfer of image data to and from the image recording unit 4 is controlled. To explain in detail, the image reading device 1 of the image input section 3
The output side of 1 is connected to a transfer control circuit 19, and image data read by the image reading device 11 is written to the image memory 20 via the transfer control circuit 19. On the other hand, the image data after editing is transferred to the pixel density conversion circuit 14 of the image output unit 4 from the image memory 20 to the transfer control circuit 19.
where the pixel density is 16 lines/l.
It is converted from l1m to 32 lines/■. On the other hand, as described above, the image data directly input from the image memory 20 to the image processing device 13 for galley printing via the transfer control circuit 19 is not subjected to pixel density conversion.

As is clear from the above description, the image memory 20 includes:
The image data of line drawings such as illustrations read by the image reading device 11 of the image input unit 3 and the image data of line drawings such as figures obtained by operating the keyboard are written together with layout information after undergoing predetermined image processing. ,
Such writing is under the control of the CPU 7.

The character memory 21 stores various dot images of characters such as kanji, alphanumeric characters, symbols, etc., and these dot images are transferred from the character memory 21 based on code information sent to the CPU 7 by the operator's operation of the keyboard 8. The data is called and written as image data into the image memory 20 together with layout information. The dot image written in the image memory 20 is developed at a pixel density of 16 lines/III+, similar to the case of line drawings. Needless to say, such writing of characters, symbols, etc. into the image memory 20 is performed during the editing work of the draft image according to the operator's instructions and typesetting rules. Note that another font may be prepared in the character memory 21 and the font of the dot image may be changed.

In the compression/expansion circuit 22, the image data developed on the image memory 20, that is, image data being edited and image data after editing, is compressed in order to be stored on a magnetic disk. Also, in order to reproduce compressed image data stored on a magnetic disk, the compressed image data is expanded. There are various methods for compressing and storing image data on a magnetic disk, but in this embodiment, part of the image memory 20 stores character code information, size (number of points) information, position information,
Since layout information such as deformation (italics, rotation) information is secured, the data to be compressed and saved on a magnetic disk is code information and layout information for dot images such as characters and symbols, and for illustrations and figures. For line drawings such as, compressed image data and layout information are used. By doing so, it is expected that the amount of data in the dot image portion will be significantly reduced. In this embodiment, a floppy disk 24 is used as the magnetic disk.

Next, the operation of the above-described image processing apparatus for creating a block copy will be explained in detail using the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, the CPU 7 determines in what manner image data to be written to the image memory 20 of the image processing section 6 is input (F-1). If the image data to be written to the image memory 20 is based on compressed data stored on the floppy disk 24, the compressed data is expanded and reproduced into the original data (F-2).

Determine whether the playback data is based on a dot image such as a character or symbol (F-3). If it is playback data for a dot image, that is, a character code, the playback data is determined based on the character code. A predetermined dot image is output from the memory 21 (F-
4) is written to the image memory 20 at a pixel density of 16 lines/III together with layout information (P-5). If the playback data is not based on a dot image,
Since this is line drawing image data, the image data is immediately written into the image memory 20 together with layout information at a pixel density of 16 lines/mIn (F-5).

If the image data to be written to the image memory 20 is not based on the floppy disk 24 (F-
1) It is determined whether the image data is a line drawing such as an illustration read by the image reading device 11 (F-6). Since the image read by the image reading device 11 is a line drawing such as an illustration, the image data is written to the image memory 20 together with layout information at a pixel density of 16 lines/ll after undergoing predetermined image processing (F-5).
.

If the image data to be written into the image memory 20 is not generated by the image reading device 11 (F-6), it is determined whether the image data was obtained by operating the keyboard 8 (F-7). Next, it is determined whether the data obtained by operating the keyboard 8 is a character code of a dot image or a line drawing such as a figure (F-8).
), if it is a character code, a predetermined dot image is output from the character memory 21 based on the character code (P-4), and layout information is stored in the image memory 20 at a pixel density of 16 lines/III. (F-5'). On the other hand, if the data obtained by operating the keyboard 8 is image data of line drawings such as figures (F-8), the image data is stored in the image memory 20 at 16 lines/I1m after undergoing predetermined image processing. The pixel density is written together with the layout information (F-5).

Image data such as dot images and line drawings written in the image memory 20 is input to the display controller 17, where the pixel density is thinned out to 1/4, from 16 pixels, /+r* to 4 pixels/IIm. Ru. This thinned image data is transferred to the frame memory 18 (F-9), and as a result, the draft image to be developed on the image memory 20 is CR
This will be displayed on the display screen of T15.

Next, the operator decides whether or not to perform editing work on the draft image displayed on the display screen of the CRT 15 (F-10). A predetermined editing task is selected from among the various editing tasks, and the associated processing is instructed by operating the keyboard 8 (F-11). Subsequently, the image data processed in this manner is written to the image memory 20 together with layout information (F-5). When stopping such editing work midway, or when editing work is completed, the operator decides whether to compress and store the draft image being edited or the completed draft image on the floppy disk 24. (F-12), the associated processing is instructed by operating the keyboard 8. When storing the original image, that is, the image data developed on the image memory 20, on the floppy disk 24, the necessary data to be compressed is transferred from the image memory 20 to the compression/expansion circuit 22, and the compressed data is stored on the floppy disk. The data is stored on the disk 24 (F-13).

If the master image is not to be stored on the floppy disk 24 (F-12), the operator must decide whether or not to output the master image (F-14), and when outputting the master image, operate the keyboard 8. By manually inputting a predetermined instruction, image data such as dot images and line drawings are sequentially called out from the image memory 20 (F-15), which is input to the pixel density conversion circuit 14 via the transfer control circuit 19, and the pixel Density is 16/llll11 to 32/r
are converted to are (F-16). The image data such as dot images and line drawings that have been converted in pixel density in this way are input to the image recording device 12 for printing, where they are recorded at 32 lines/r.
It is recorded as a master image of am (F-17).

The dot images, line drawings, etc. contained in the block diagram created in this way have a pixel density of 32 lines/mm. In addition, before creating a draft using the image recording device 12 for drafting, a galley printing draft image can be obtained using the image recording device 13 for galley printing in order to confirm the layout of the draft image. It is clear that dot images, line drawings, etc. are recorded at a pixel density of 16 lines/vats.

Referring to FIG. 4, there is shown a block diagram of another image processing apparatus configured to carry out the image processing method for creating a printing plate according to the present invention. This image processing apparatus is the same as the one shown in FIG. 2 except that all the calculation processing performed by the image calculation circuit 18 of the image processing apparatus shown in FIG. 2 is performed by the CPU 7. In the image processing device shown in FIG. 4, all the components are directly connected by the bus of the CPU 7, so the configuration is simple. However, since the load placed on the CPU 7 increases, the processing time becomes longer.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, dot images such as characters and symbols and line drawings such as illustrations and figures can be processed at a pixel density smaller than that of the output image. Since the image will be developed on the image memory, the image memory capacity required when creating the same size of the image using the conventional image prescription method for creating the image can be greatly reduced. . For example, when creating 4 sizes of blocks using the conventional image processing method for creating blocks, 16MB (
Previously, the image memory capacity was required to be equivalent to 2 pages of an A4-sized manuscript, but if an A4-sized manuscript is created using the image processing method for creating a manuscript according to the present invention, the image memory capacity will be approximately 4 MB. be able to. Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a lower cost image processing device for creating a printing plate than in the conventional case.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the procedure for implementing the image processing method for creating a block according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an illustration of an image processing apparatus configured to implement the image processing method for creating a block according to the present invention. A block diagram of the embodiment, FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the image processing apparatus shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of another embodiment of the image processing device. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Control part, 2... Operation part, 3... Image input part, 4... Image output part, 5... Image display part, 6...
Image processing section. Patent applicant Konishiroku Photo Industry Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Hiroshi Suzuki Male 1112fI! J, 12 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) An image processing method for electronically creating a block copy that includes dot images such as characters and symbols and line drawings such as illustrations and figures, which converts the block image into an image on an image memory. In an image processing method for creating a block that is developed, dot images, line drawings, etc. are developed on the image memory at a pixel density smaller than the pixel density of the output image, and the dot images, line drawings, etc. are processed at the time of image output. 1. An image processing method for creating a block copy, characterized by performing pixel density conversion to match the pixel density with the pixel density of an output image.