KR20070055659A - Image forming driver and method providing clear images - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an image forming driver and an image forming method for providing a clear image. The present invention relates to converting a color of an image into a representative color having the most similar color among a plurality of representative colors, and outputting color data of the converted color. A color conversion unit; And a half toning unit for binarizing the color data.

According to the present invention, the color of the image is converted into a representative color having the most similar color among a plurality of representative colors to generate color data, or if the brightness value of the color of the image is larger than a set threshold value, the image is less than or equal to the threshold value. By generating color data by converting the color into a color having a brightness of, the color data having a more vivid color is provided to the image forming apparatus. Therefore, when printing a clear image such as printing a graphic document using light characters or lines, especially a map using a thin line, a CAD document, or the like, the image to be printed is printed in a vivid color. Can prevent errors that misrecognize images printed on paper.

Description

Image forming driver and method providing clear images

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of processing color images in various ways through a color option menu in a user interface of a conventional driver.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image forming driver for providing a clear image according to the present invention.

3A and 3B show an example of a user interface unit of the image forming driver according to the present invention.

4A and 4B illustrate an example of adding a representative color through the user interface of the image forming driver according to the present invention.

5 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of an image forming method for providing a clear image according to the present invention.

 6 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of an image forming method for providing a clear image according to the present invention.

The present invention relates to an image forming driver, and more particularly, to an image forming driver and an image forming method for providing a clear image.

In general, an image forming apparatus such as a color printer should output not only text, business graphic documents, color drawings, but also various kinds of documents such as photo images with the best image quality.

These various documents are largely composed of three objects: text, graphics, and photographic images. These objects generate data through color image processing such as rendering, color matching, and half-toning, and the data is printed on paper through a print engine. Is output. As such, there are several stages of image processing, and each stage has different selection criteria.

By changing this selection condition, an optimal image processing method suitable for the objects needs to be selected, and an optimal processing method suitable for the contents or characteristics of the document needs to be performed.

FIG. 1 is a method of processing color images in various ways through a color option menu in a user interface of a conventional driver.

As shown in FIG. 1, a user can select a gray process and a half toning process for three objects of text, graphics, and photographs. For gray processing, it is possible to select a method of mixing multiple toners and a method of using pure black toner. As a half-toning process, a soft processing method and a fine processing method can be selected.

However, these adjustments are disadvantageous in that they are complicated for the general user and difficult to predict the state of the output. In addition, in color printers, light text or graphics such as yellow tones may be difficult to recognize because the color is blurred when normal half-toning processing is performed through such adjustment.

This is because the gradation level is expressed by the number of dots per unit area due to the characteristics of a general printer which performs color matching and half-toning processing, because the number of dots to be expressed in a small space is very difficult to identify by the human eye. In particular, there are many difficulties in processing thin text, graphic documents using thin lines, and CAD documents using thin lines. If important lines are broken in these graphic documents or CAD documents, the intention of the creator of the document may not be accurately communicated, which may cause a big problem. The problem is even worse if these outputs are not general office documents but electrical wiring of the main circuit diagrams used in industrial sites.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to generate the color data by converting the color of the image to the representative color having the most similar color among the plurality of representative colors, or if the brightness value of the color of the image is larger than the set threshold value By generating color data by converting the color into a color having a brightness below the threshold value, by providing color data having a more vivid color to the image forming apparatus, a user is prevented from erroneously recognizing an image printed on printing paper. An image forming driver and an image forming method for providing a clear image are provided.

The image forming driver for providing a clear image according to the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, converts the color of the image to a representative color having the most similar color among a plurality of representative colors, and converts the color data for the converted color An output color conversion unit; And a half toning unit for binarizing the color data. The color conversion unit may convert the color of the image into a representative color having the closest distance among the color distances between the plurality of representative colors.

The image forming driver for providing a clear image according to the present invention for achieving the technical problem, if the brightness value of the color of the image is larger than the set threshold value, converts the image to a color having the same brightness as the threshold value, A color conversion unit outputting color data for the converted color; And a half toning unit for binarizing the color data.

The image forming method for providing a clear image according to the present invention for achieving the above technical problem, converts the color of the image to a representative color having the most similar color among a plurality of representative colors, and the color data for the converted color Outputting; Binarizing the color data; And forming an image of the binarized color data.

The image forming method for providing a clear image according to the present invention for achieving the technical problem, if the brightness value of the color of the image is larger than the set threshold value, converts the image to a color having the same brightness as the threshold value, Outputting color data for the converted color; And binarizing the color data; Forming an image of said binarized color data.

Hereinafter, the configuration and operation of an image forming driver for providing a clear image according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an image forming driver 200 for providing a clear image according to the present invention. The image forming driver 200 includes a user interface unit 210, a rendering unit 220, a color matching unit 230, a half toning unit 240, and a color conversion unit 250. 3A and 3B illustrate an example of the user interface 210, and FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate an example of adding a representative color through the user interface 210.

As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the user interface unit 210 has a check box labeled "Clear output" to allow the user to select it. In addition, the user interface unit 210 includes a portion for inputting the number of representative colors and addition of the representative colors as shown in FIG. 3A, or a portion for inputting a threshold value as shown in "200" in FIG. 3B. .

4A and 4B, the user interface unit 210 may provide a display screen for allowing a user to add a representative color. 4A illustrates a method of adding a representative color by directly viewing and selecting a color, and FIG. 4B illustrates a method of adding a representative color by inputting R, G, and B values, respectively.

The renderer 220 performs a rendering operation of converting image data to be printed into bitmap data including RGB color values.

The color matching unit 230 generates color data by performing color matching on the bitmap data to convert an RGB color model to a CMY color model. That is, the rendering unit 220 maps the RGB color values of the bitmap data converted to the CMY color values to generate color data.

For reference, the RGB color system is a color system used in display devices such as a monitor and a television. The red, green, and blue colors are mixed to express various colors on the display device. That's the way. The CMY color system, on the other hand, is a color system mainly used for printing purposes, and expresses colors by mixing cyan, purple (Magenta), and yellow (yellow).

In one embodiment of the present invention, the color conversion unit 250 is the C'M of the representative color having the most similar color among the plurality of representative colors of the color data having the CMY color value mapped by the color matching unit 230 Converts to color data having a 'Y' color value. In this case, the representative color is a color input by the user through the user interface unit 210 by inputting the number of representative colors or by adding a representative color. The representative color is preferably a vivid color that is well represented during printing. In addition, the representative color includes at least Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow.

 In this case, the method of converting the representative color is as follows. If the CMY color values mapped by the color matching unit 230 are referred to as C, M, and Y, and the CMY color values of representative colors are referred to as C ', M', and Y ', the distance d between the colors is

It can be calculated as In this case, the color matching unit 230 calculates the distance d with the C'M'Y 'color values of all representative colors with respect to the matched CMY color values, and has the shortest distance among the CMY color values. Convert to C'M'Y 'color value.

However, when this calculation is made in real time, the processing speed is delayed, so it is preferable to process the table. That is, a method of determining C ', M', and Y 'values of the corresponding representative colors may be used according to a range of C, M, and Y values.

In addition, as another embodiment of the present invention, the color conversion unit 250 when the brightness value obtained from the RGB color value of the bitmap data generated by the rendering unit 220 is greater than the threshold set by the user (that is, Brighter), and converts the RGB color values into R'G'B 'color values having brightness below the threshold.

At this time, the method of obtaining the R'G'B 'color value from the RGB color value is as follows. If the brightness value obtained from the RGB color value to the bitmap data is M and the threshold value set by the user is N, M / N is used to obtain a constant K, and each of R, G, and B is the constant K. We can get R ', G', B 'by dividing by.

The half toning unit 250 binarizes the color data having the CMY color value. For reference, half toning is a technique of making a black and white binary image from an image having several levels of brightness values. Halftoned images are represented only in black and white. When a person sees a half-toned image, the integration occurs spatially by the action of vision and the brain, and it is recognized as an image of continuous gradation because it has the effect of going through a low pass filter.

5 is a flowchart showing a first embodiment of an image forming method for providing a clear image according to the present invention. 2 and 5 will be described in detail the operation of the image forming driver 200 for providing a clear image according to the present invention.

The user interface unit 210 selects a "sharp output" from the user and receives the number of representative colors or the addition of the representative colors.

When a user issues a print command for an image in an application program, the application program provides the print command and image data for the image to the image forming driver 200 (step 510).

The rendering unit 220 of the image forming driver 200 receives the image data and performs a rendering operation of converting the received image data into bitmap data including an RGB color value (step 520).

The color matching unit 230 generates color data by performing color matching to convert the RGB color values of the bitmap data into CMY color values. That is, the color data is generated by mapping the RGB color values of the bitmap data converted in step 520 to the CMY color values (step 530).

The color conversion unit 250 converts the CMY color value of the color data into the C'M'Y 'color value of the representative color having the most similar color among the plurality of representative colors input through the user interface unit 210 in step 500. The branch is converted into color data (step 540).

In this case, a method of determining the representative color having the most similar color among the representative colors is as follows. First, C'M'Y 'color values are extracted for each of the representative colors selected through the user interface 210. Thereafter, the distances between the extracted C'M'Y 'color values and the CMY color values of the color data generated in step 530 are respectively calculated, and the CMY color values are located at the shortest distance from the CMY color values. Convert to C'M'Y 'color value.

The half-toning unit 250 binarizes the color data having the converted C'M'Y 'color value (step 550), and outputs the binarized color data to an image forming apparatus (not shown) for the color data. An image is formed (step 560).

6 is a flowchart showing a second embodiment of an image forming method for providing a clear image according to the present invention. 2 and 6 will be described in detail the operation of the image forming driver 200 for providing a clear image according to the present invention.

The user interface 210 selects a "sharp output" from the user and receives a threshold value (step 600).

When a user issues a print command for an image in an application program, the application program provides the print command and image data for the image to the image forming driver 200 (step 610).

The rendering unit 220 of the image forming driver 200 receives the image data and performs a rendering operation of converting the received image data into bitmap data including an RGB color value (step 620).

The brightness value of the image is calculated from the RGB color value of the converted bitmap data (step 630).

In operation 600, it is determined whether the calculated brightness value is greater than a threshold value input to the user interface 210.

As a result of the determination, if the brightness value calculated in step 630 is not greater than the threshold value, the process proceeds to step 660 to print the image data without color conversion.

As a result of the determination, when the brightness value calculated in step 630 is greater than the threshold value, the color conversion unit 260 converts the RGB color value of the bitmap data into an R'G'B 'color value having brightness less than or equal to the threshold value. In this case, as an example of a method of obtaining the R'G'B 'color value, if the calculated brightness value is M and the threshold value is N, the constant K is obtained by dividing M by N. Each of R, G, and B is divided by a constant K to obtain R, G, and B values, respectively.

The color matching unit 240 generates color data by performing color matching to convert the R'G'B 'color value of the bitmap data into a CMY color value. That is, the color data is generated by mapping the R'G'B 'color value of the bitmap data converted in step 650 to the CMY color value (step 660).

The half-toning unit 250 binarizes the pixel color data (step 670), and outputs the binarized color data to an image forming apparatus (not shown) to form an image for the color data (step 680).

Meanwhile, the above-described embodiments of the present invention may be embodied as computer readable codes / instructions / programs, and the codes / instructions may be implemented using a medium, for example, a computer readable recording medium. / Can be implemented in a general-purpose digital computer for operating the program. The computer-readable recording medium may be a magnetic storage medium (eg, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, etc.), optical reading medium (eg, CD-ROM, DVD, etc.) and carrier wave (eg Storage media, such as through the Internet). In addition, embodiments of the present invention may be implemented as a medium (s) containing computer readable code, such that a plurality of computer systems connected through a network may be distributed and processed. Functional programs, codes and code segments for realizing the present invention can be easily inferred by programmers in the art to which the present invention belongs.

So far I looked at the center of the preferred embodiment for the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention can be implemented in a modified form without departing from the essential features of the present invention. Therefore, the disclosed embodiments should be considered in descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The scope of the present invention is shown in the claims rather than the foregoing description, and all differences within the scope will be construed as being included in the present invention.

As described above, according to the color image forming apparatus and method for providing a clear image according to the present invention, color data is generated by converting a color of an image into a representative color having the most similar color among a plurality of representative colors, When the brightness value of the color of the image is larger than the set threshold value, the image data is provided to the image forming apparatus by converting the image into a color having brightness below the threshold value and generating color data.

Therefore, when printing a clear image such as printing a graphic document using light characters or lines, particularly a CAD document using a thin line, or the like, printing the image to be printed in a vivid color, the user This can prevent the error of incorrectly recognizing the image printed on the print.

Claims (5)

A color conversion unit converting a color of an image into a representative color having the most similar color among a plurality of representative colors, and outputting color data of the converted color; And And a half-toning unit configured to binarize the color data. The method of claim 1, wherein the color conversion unit And convert the color of the image into a representative color having the closest distance among the color distances between the color of the image and the plurality of representative colors. A color conversion unit converting the image into a color having a brightness less than or equal to the threshold when the brightness value of the color of the image is greater than a predetermined threshold value, and outputting color data of the converted color; And And a half-toning unit configured to binarize the color data. Converting a color of an image into a representative color having the most similar color among a plurality of representative colors, and outputting color data about the converted color; Binarizing the color data; And And forming an image of the binarized color data. Converting the image into a color having a brightness less than or equal to the threshold if the brightness value for the color of the image is greater than a set threshold value, and outputting color data for the converted color; Binarizing the color data; And And forming an image of the binarized color data.

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