JPS6356687A - Image processing - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an image processing method for supplying a digitized image signal to a printing unit of a printer or a screen of a display device via a bitmap memory.

``Prior art'' For example, in a word processor, a drawn image of a document or drawing is displayed on a display device such as a cathode ray tube display, and an operator applies various processing or manipulation to the image to display it on a recording device. Work is underway to have the documents printed out.

The signal processing inside this device uses code data that is a combination of codes corresponding to characters and figures.

Then, image data obtained by converting this code data is sent to a display device or a recording device.

Normally, the number of recording pixels of a recording device is several times or more the number of display pixels of a display device, so recording signals are created and processed separately from display signals. For example, for each line,
Image data for recording is formed from the code data corresponding to the characters, etc., and is sent to the recording section of the recording device. In this way, it has been common practice to form recording image data for each section of the image to be recorded and to repeatedly send it to the recording section.

However, in recent years, bitmap memories have come to be manufactured and sold at a practical price, and bitmap memories are prepared on the recording device side, and code data is received from the host side such as a word processor, and the recording device side receives code data from the host side such as a word processor. It has become possible to create image data. Furthermore, by making this bitmap memory large enough to accommodate one page of recorded images, it becomes possible to form and edit various complex images bit by bit over the entire screen.

However, in this case, in reality, complicated processing is required in which various image data are formed from a large amount of code data, and further processing and editing are performed on the data. Furthermore, while it is possible to provide many functions that could not be performed with conventional recording devices, it is not allowed to impair the high speed of its processing.

At present, individual specific methods of image processing using such a bitmap memory have not yet been sufficiently developed.

"Problems to be Solved by the Invention" Here, consider the case where an image of a document is formed on a bitmap memory.

As for the size of characters constituting a document, so-called full-width characters, half-width characters, double-width characters, etc. are usually used.

When creating this document, characters are keyed in after the full-width, half-width, or double-width writing mode is specified.

If there is a paragraph in the sentence, the next sentence is usually started by moving back one character from the beginning of the paragraph part l, as shown in FIG. In that case, the retreat width 2 is selected according to the character width 3 in the mode designated at that time. In the case of a 1.5 times angle, a retreat width 2' which is slightly wider than the retreat width 2 is selected, and in the case of a half angle, a retreat width 2' is selected.

However, in a document in which full-width characters, half-width characters, and double-width characters coexist, if the recession widths 2 of the paragraph portions 1 are varied in this way, the document becomes unsightly.

The present invention has been made with attention to the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing method that can obtain a constant retreat width in a paragraph section regardless of the type of specified mode. be.

"Means for Solving the Problems" The image processing method of the present invention is for forming an image corresponding to a recorded image by supplying an image signal to a bitmap memory. When writing an image of a document containing mixed characters,
The present invention is characterized in that the receding width at the beginning of the paragraph portion is always set to a constant width regardless of the setting conditions of the character widths of the characters composing the document.

As described above, according to the present invention, when creating a document in which characters with different character widths are mixed, the setback width at the beginning of the paragraph section is made constant, so that the document as a whole is easy to read and balanced. It becomes a perfect thing.

``Example'' (Schematic configuration of apparatus) A detailed explanation will be given below, taking as an example the case where the present invention is applied to a laser beam printer.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an outline of the laser beam printer.

This apparatus is comprised of an image supply device 21, a recording section 22, a power source 23 for driving these, and a panel 24 through which an operator inputs recording operation instructions.

The image supply device 21 includes a host interface (I/F) connection terminal 26 that receives a signal for recording a predetermined image from a host computer, etc., and a LAN connection terminal 27 that connects to a local area network or the like. and is provided.

The recording unit 22 is a device that records an image corresponding to an image signal on a recording paper 29, and receives an image signal 31 and an operation command 34 from the image supply device 21, and also receives a synchronization pulse 32 for recording operation. and a status signal 33 are output to the image supply device 21.

FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of essential parts of the recording section 22 shown in FIG. 2. As shown in FIG.

Here, the laser beam 52 emitted from the laser oscillator 51 passes through a polarizer 53 , a laser beam modulator 54 , and a polarizer 55 , is reflected by a polygon mirror 56 , passes through a lens 57 , and passes through the outer peripheral surface of a photosensitive drum 58 . reach. The image signal 31 (bit stream) from the image supply device 21 in FIG. 2 is input to the laser beam modulator 54 from the terminal 61, and the polarization plane of the laser beam passing through the modulator 54 is converted into an image by, for example, an electro-optic effect. Rotate according to the signal.

By this so-called electric shutter action, the black and white binary image signal is converted into an optical on/off signal of a laser beam, and the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 58 is irradiated with the signal. The polygon mirror 56 is rotated at a constant speed by a motor 62, and after reflecting the laser beam 52, it is caused to scan in the direction of an arrow 63 (this direction is referred to as the main scanning direction). That is, while the image signal for one line is converted into an optical bit string and irradiated in a direction parallel to the rotation axis 64 of the photosensitive drum 58, the photosensitive drum 58 is moved in the direction of the arrow 65 (this direction is referred to as the sub-scanning direction). Rotate to .

In this way, an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image to be recorded is formed on the outer peripheral surface of the photosensitive drum 58.

This electrostatic latent image passes through a developing device 66 as the photosensitive drum 58 rotates in the direction of an arrow 65. Here, toner is deposited in accordance with the electrostatic latent image. The recording paper 29 is fed in the direction of the arrow 68 by a recording paper transport mechanism (not shown), and the toner adhering to the outer periphery of the photosensitive drum 58 is transferred onto the recording paper 29 by the action of the transfer device 69. , and is further fed in the direction of arrow 68 and subjected to processing such as fixing to obtain a recorded matter.

Note that the laser beam 52 is scanned in the direction of an arrow 63 with a width that exceeds both ends of the photosensitive drum 58. Therefore, the transfer timing of the image signal 31 is determined by detection pulses that detect the passage of the laser beam from the scan start sensor 71 and the scan end sensor 72.

The specific configuration of the image supply device 21 shown in FIG. 2 is shown in a block diagram in FIG.

This circuit connects a microprocessor (CPU) 37 connected to a CPU bus 36 and various interfaces (I
/F) 38-40, memories 41-44, and control blocks 46-49.

The interface includes a control I/F38 and a panel I/F38.
There is an F39 and a recording unit I/F40.

The control I/F 38 is a circuit that receives code data input from a host computer (not shown) in accordance with, for example, the R3232C standard. Further, the panel I/F 39 is a circuit that relays an instruction signal 39a manually input from the panel 24 (FIG. 2) operated by the operator. Then, the recording section I/
F40 is a circuit that relays signals such as those explained in FIG. 2, which are exchanged between the image supply device 21 and the recording section 22.

The memories include a character button memory 41, a bitmap memory 42, and a random access memory (RA14).
43 and a program memory 44. The character stamp memory 41 is a so-called font memory, and is a circuit that, when a character code 41a is entered manually, outputs a corresponding character stamp or graphic stamp 41b. The bitmap memory 42 is a circuit that stores, for example, one page of an image to be recorded on the recording paper 29 in the recording section 22-(FIG. 2) in a bitmap format.

The random access memory 43 stores various data for the operation of the microprocessor 37 and the control I/F 38.
This circuit is used to store code data manually input from the computer. Furthermore, the program memory 44 is a circuit that stores programs for the operation of the microprocessor 37.

The control blocks include an image handler 46, a memory controller 47, and a parallel I/O controller (P
IO) 48, and DMA controller (DMAC) 4
There are 9. Image handler 46 is a circuit that generates an image to be written to bitmap memory 42.

The memory controller 47 is a circuit that controls access timing and addresses to the bitmap memory 42.

The PIO 48 is a circuit that performs IO control to send parallel data externally input from an input/output terminal (not shown) to the CPU bus 36. DMAC 49 is a known direct memory access control circuit, and is a circuit for controlling data transfer.

Note that the CPU 37, RAM 43, program memory 44, PIO 48, and DMAC 49 constitute a controller section 45, which outputs character stamps 411) from the character stamp memory 41 and generates and processes various images in the image handler 46. and controls their writing to the bitmap memory 42. The controller unit 45 also sends an image signal corresponding to the recorded image from the bitmap memory 42 to the recording unit 22 (second
A command is also given to transfer the data to (Fig.). image handler 4
6 receives this command and performs a transfer process.

(Writing of document image) First, code data is input manually from a host computer, word processor, etc. via the control 1/F 38 (FIG. 4). This code data also includes code data corresponding to the print format (page orientation). This code data is decoded by the CPU 37 (Fig. 4), an intermediate code suitable for image format processing is created, and R
AM43 (Figure 4). If this intermediate code is, for example, a character code, that is, text data, it is composed of codes indicating its writing position coordinates, character width, font memory address, presence or absence of decoration, and the like. and,
These include commands such as paragraph instructions.

The CPU 37 (FIG. 4) reads this intermediate code again, transfers it to the image handler 46 (FIG. 4), and stores the image of the document in the bitmap memory while controlling the write address using the memory controller 47 (FIG. 4). I'm going to write it down.

Here, in the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG.
When full-width characters 5 and half-width characters 6 are mixed on the bitmap memory 42, the receding width 2 at the beginning of the paragraph portion 1 is uniformly aligned with the character width of the full-width characters 5.

The method of the present invention is implemented in memory controller 47 of FIG. A block diagram of the main parts of the memory controller 47 is illustrated in FIG.

In the circuit shown in FIG. 5, a constant corresponding to the space width is supplied from the full-width space width addition circuit 12 or the half-width space width addition circuit 13 to the address counter 11 that specifies the address of the bitmap memory 42 (FIG. 4). This is a circuit that does this.

The outputs of the full-width space width adding circuit 12 and the half-width space width adding circuit 13 are connected to a selection switch 14 that selects one of them and supplies it to the address counter 11.

The selection operation of the selection switch 14 is performed by the AND gate 15.
is controlled by the output of That is, and gate 15
Only when the output of the half-width space width addition circuit 13 is at the 71-level "H", the selection circuit 14 becomes FF and connects the output of the half-width space width addition circuit 13 to the address counter 11. This AND gate 15 includes a microprocessor (CPU) 37 shown in FIG.
Therefore, a half-width instruction signal 16 that becomes high level "H" when the writing mode is specified as half-width, and a paragraph instruction signal 17 that becomes "H" when the writing mode is specified are manually generated.

Here, the output signal of the AND gate 15 is displayed as OUT, and the selection switch (SW) is set to the full-width space width addition circuit 12.
When the output is selected as ON, the circuit operation corresponding to each signal is as shown in the table below.

The above circuit operates so that the selection switch sends the output of the half-width space width addition circuit 13 to the address counter 11 only when the write mode is half-width instruction and there is no paragraph instruction. In other cases, the output of the full-width space width addition circuit 12 is always sent to the address counter IX.
sent to.

Therefore, even in the case of half-width instructions, if there is a paragraph instruction, a receding width 2 corresponding to the full-width space width is provided at the beginning of the paragraph part 1 (Figure 1), and the format of the sentence is adjusted. .

"Variation" The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments.

Exactly the same effect can be obtained for double-width characters using a similar circuit. Furthermore, if it is not necessary to keep the retreat width constant in this way, the operation of this circuit may be stopped.

"Effects of the Invention" As explained above, according to the image processing method of the present invention,
In a document in which characters with different character widths coexist, the recession width of the paragraph part can be made constant regardless of the character width, and an easy-to-read and well-balanced document can be created.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of the image processing method of the present invention,
Figure 2 is a block diagram showing an overview of a laser beam printer to which this is applied, Figure 3 is a perspective view of the main parts of its recording section, Figure 4 is a detailed block diagram of its image supply device, and Figure 5 is a main part of the printer. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a main part of a circuit suitable for carrying out the invention, and is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of a paragraph using a conventional general method. l...Paragraph part, 2...Retreat width. Applicant Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a device that supplies an image signal to a bitmap memory to form an image corresponding to a recorded image, when writing an image of a document containing a mixture of characters with different character widths on the bitmap memory, the beginning of the paragraph An image processing method characterized in that a receding width of is always set to a constant width regardless of setting conditions of character widths of characters forming the document.