JP2000043346A - Printing method and printer equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To shorten a time required for edit processing and to shorten also a time required for image display. SOLUTION: On the occasion when first digital image data are inputted for the first time from an image data input part 1 to an image processing part 6 and subjected to edit processing in the image processing part 6 to be made an edited image, the contents of the edit processing such as each processing content, parameters in each processing and the sequence of the processing are stored in an edit processing storage part. The second input of the first digital image data is conducted, the data are made second digital image data by executing the edit processing on the basis of the storage and these are outputted by printing in an image printing part 3. On the occasion of the aforesaid first input of the first digital image data, the data are made first reduced image data by reducing and/or thinning-out processing, and on the occasion of making them the edited image, the contents of the edit processing are stored. The second input being conducted normally or by executing reducing and/or thinning-out processing different from the aforesaid reducing and/or thinning-out processing, the edit processing is applied to these first image data on the basis of the aforesaid storage and thereby the data are made the second digital image data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing method and a printer. More specifically, the present invention relates to a printing method and a printing apparatus capable of reducing the time required for editing processing and the time required for printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, the following method has been frequently used as a method for printing image data represented by a natural image.

First, as a first method, an input device for inputting image data is connected to a general-purpose computer to which a printer device is connected, and image data read from each input device to the computer is specified on the computer. And print data is input to a printer device and printed. The input devices include a removable media drive, which is a recording / reproducing device for a removable medium, and an NTSC (N
national Television System
(Committee) video signal input substrate, film scanner for silver halide photography, digital still image camera, and the like.

As a second method, input devices such as a digital still image camera and a document reading scanner are directly connected to a printer without using a general-purpose computer, and print data is input from each input device to the printer. Printing.

[0005] The first method will be specifically described.
In this case, as shown in FIG. 18, it mainly comprises a host computer (hereinafter, referred to as a computer) 1001, a printer 1002, and an input device 1003.

As the input device 1003, the above-mentioned removable media (read-only optical disc,
For example, a so-called CD-ROM, a rewritable magneto-optical disk, for example, a so-called MD-DATA drive, a video signal (NTSC, PAL (Phase Alt))
input device, digital still picture camera, silver halide photographic film (35 mm film, so-called APS film etc. which also has magnetic information related to the image), scanner, document reading scanner, etc. No.

The printer 1002 includes a print head 1004 for actually performing printing and a head drive circuit 1005 for driving the print head.

The computer 1001 includes an interface 1006 for inputting image data from the input device 1003, a data processing unit 1007 for processing the image data as print data, and a printer 1002 for printing the print data 1007. The printer is mainly constituted by a bidirectional printer interface 1008 for outputting to a printer. The data processing unit 1007 controls a variety of input devices 1003, and includes a device driver and a printer 1002 suitable for these input devices.
And a printer driver suitable for the printer device 1002 for controlling image data, and application software for controlling input, processing, and print output of image data.
Is used to execute data processing.

The computer 1001 has a display device 100 as a man-machine interface.
9. An instruction device 1010, which is an input unit for inputting an external instruction such as a mouse or a keyboard, is also provided. Further, the computer 1001 has an image memory 101 such as a hard disk for storing image data input from the input device 1003.
1 is also provided.

By connecting the input device 1003 to the interface 1006 in the computer 1001 and connecting the bidirectional printer interface 1008 in the computer 1001 to the printer 1002, these are connected.

When printing is actually performed, the following operation is performed. That is, the computer 1001
By operating the application software and the device driver corresponding to the image data input device 1003, each input device 1003 is driven via the interface 1006 for inputting image data, and under the control of the computer 1001. , And causes each input device 1003 to read the image data. The image data is input to the computer 1001 via the interface 1006.

Next, based on an instruction externally input by the instruction device 1010, application software of the data processing unit 1007
Performs image editing processing desired by the user with respect to the image data input to. When image data processing is involved, the data processing unit 1007 in the computer 1001
, The required data processing is performed.

When the image editing process desired by the user is performed as described above and the image to be printed is determined, the printing operation is started. That is, the application software controls the printer driver, executes data processing for printing in the data processing unit 1007, and converts the data into print data that can be output to the printer device 1002. At this time, the computer 1001 communicates with the printer 100 via the bidirectional printer interface 1008.
I understand the state of 2.

The print data converted and generated as described above is configured as a printer control command, and sent to the printer 1002 via the bidirectional printer interface 1008. Next, the printer 100
On the second side, the print head 1004 is driven by the head drive circuit 1005 based on the print data included in the received printer control command, and a print image is formed on a recording medium to perform printing.

As a specific example of the data processing in the above operation, there is a processing method as shown in FIG. In FIG. 19, the hatched line attached to the line indicating the data flow is 8
Indicates that the data is bit / color. Computer 1
001 RGB input to the image data input unit 1012
Is sent to the image data processing unit 1013,
Processing is performed as needed. At this time, it is held as an image file 1011a in the image memory 1011 as needed. The RGB image data is sent from the image data processing unit 1013 to the printer driver 1014 that controls the printer device 1002.

The printer driver 1014 is an RGB printer driver.
RGB-C for converting image data of CMY into CMY print data
A MY conversion unit 1015, a color correction unit 1016 for performing color correction as necessary, a black extraction under color removal unit 1017 for extracting black in addition to CMY, an output gamma correction and gradation for correcting characteristics unique to a printer device It mainly includes a correction unit 1018 and a sharpness correction unit 1019 that performs edge processing and the like.

That is, the RGB image data sent from the image data processing unit 1013 to the printer driver 1014 is first converted into CMY print data, color-corrected, and then converted into print data including black (see FIG. 19). In the above, black print data is indicated as K.) In a state where characteristics unique to the printer device are corrected and edge processing is performed,
The data is sent to the printer device 1002. At this time, when a binary printer such as an inkjet printer that reproduces an image with or without print dots is used as the printer 1002, the printer driver 101 is used.
It is necessary to insert a binarization unit after the sharpness correction unit 1019 of No. 4 and is unnecessary when a printer device such as a sublimation type printer device that expresses gradations in print dots is used as the printer device 1002. .

In the printer device 1002, output characteristics are corrected in accordance with the state of the printer device.
An output characteristic conversion unit 1020 for suppressing variations due to the printer device, the above-described head drive circuit 1005, and a print head 1004 are provided.

Accordingly, the print data of CMYK transmitted from the printer driver 1014 to the printer 1002 is sequentially transmitted to the above-described head drive circuit 1005 and print head 1004 via the output characteristic conversion unit 1020 to perform printing. You.

The second method will be described. In the second method, as shown in FIG. 20, it is mainly constituted by a digital still image camera 1021 as an input device and a printer device 1022.

The digital still image camera 1021 includes an image photographing unit 1023 for photographing a subject, an instruction device 1024 such as a shutter for inputting an external instruction, an image memory 1025 for temporarily storing the photographed image, and necessary data. It mainly comprises an image data processing unit 1026 for performing processing, a display device 1027 for displaying a captured image, and the like.

One printer device 1022 includes an output characteristic conversion circuit 1028 for correcting output characteristics in accordance with the state of the printer device, a head drive circuit 1029 for driving the print head 1030, and a print head 1030 for actually performing printing. It is mainly composed of

The digital still image camera 102
As a method of transferring data from the printer 1 to the printer device 1022, these are connected by wire, and the image data generated by the digital still image camera 1021 or the image data is converted into print data, and then the digital signal is used as it is. Is converted into an analog video signal and transferred by a wire, or a method of wirelessly transferring the signal by using Ir-DA or the like.

When printing is actually performed, the following operation is performed. The digital still image camera 102
In FIG. 1, the image capturing unit 10 is ready for photography, that is, before the user presses the shutter to start capturing.
23, an image signal of the subject is input.
Correction processing is performed on the characteristics of 023 and shooting conditions. Then, the image corrected in this way is displayed on the display device 1027, and the user can confirm the range of the subject, the composition, and the like. In the case where an optical finder is provided instead of or together with the display device 1027, the user can perform the above-described confirmation by using the finder.

Subsequently, when the user operates an instruction device 1024 such as a shutter, a photographing operation is started. By issuing an instruction to start photographing with a shutter or the like, the image data is inputted from the image photographing unit 1023,
The image data subjected to the correction processing for the characteristics and the photographing conditions of the image photographing unit 1023 by the
Is stored in At the time of storage, data compression is performed as needed, but this may be performed by the image data processing unit 1026.

Next, when printing an image stored in the image memory 1025, the user operates a pointing device 1024 such as a key to start a printing operation. When the print operation is started, the image data processing unit 1026 reads out predetermined image data from the image memory 1025, decompresses the image data if necessary, and performs conversion for output to the printer device 1022.

Then, in accordance with the interface system between the digital still image camera 1021 and the printer device 1022, data is transferred to the printer device 1022 as digital image data or an analog video signal by wire or wireless connection.

On the printer device 1022 side, each correction and conversion according to the print output conditions at the time of printing is performed by an output characteristic conversion circuit 1028, and a print head 1030 driven by a head drive circuit 1029 based on this data. Printing is performed on the recording medium.

When the user performs editing, processing, and synthesis processing on image data, the digital still image camera 1021
Display device 1027 in the image data processing unit 1026 in the
Pointing device 1024 while checking the image displayed on
Thus, the desired process may be executed by inputting an instruction, and the processing of the image data is performed in the digital still image camera 1021.

As a specific example of the data processing in the above operation, there is a processing method as shown in FIG. In FIG. 21, the hatched line attached to the line indicating the data flow is 8
Indicates that the data is bit / color. RGB obtained by the image capturing unit 1023 of the digital still image camera 1021
Is sent to the image data processing unit 1026,
Processing is performed as needed. At this time, it is held in the image memory 1025 as needed. Then, the RGB image data is sent from the image data processing unit 1026 to the printer device 1022 via the image data output unit 1031.

The printer device 1022 has the same mechanism as the printer driver 1014 previously shown in FIG. 19, in addition to the output characteristic conversion circuit 1028, the head drive circuit 1029, and the print head 1030.

That is, the printer device 1022
An image data input unit 1032 to which image data from the digital still image camera 1021 is input is connected to the image data input unit 1032 to convert RGB image data into CMY print data.
A GB-CMY conversion unit 1033, a color correction unit 1034 for correcting colors as required, a black extraction under color removal unit 1035 for extracting black in addition to CMY, output gamma correction for correcting characteristics unique to the printer device, It also has a tone correction unit 1036 and a sharpness correction unit 1037 that performs edge processing and the like.

That is, the RGB image data input to the image data input unit 1032 is first converted to CMY print data, color-corrected, and then converted to print data including black (in FIG. 21, black data is used). Is shown as K.), the characteristic peculiar to the printer device is corrected, and is sent to the output characteristic conversion circuit 1028 in a state where edge processing is performed. At this time, the printer device 1022
When using a binary printer such as an ink jet printer that reproduces an image with or without print dots, it is necessary to insert a binarization unit after the sharpness correction unit 1037. This is not necessary when using a printer device such as a sublimation type printer device that expresses gradation by using.

Therefore, the print data of CMYK is output to the above-described head drive circuit 1 through the output characteristic conversion circuit 1028.
029, the prints are sequentially sent to the print head 1030, and printing is performed.

[0035]

However, when printing is performed by the above-described method, the following inconveniences occur.

First, in the first method, it is necessary to arrange peripheral devices, connect them to a computer, and then install a device driver suitable for each peripheral device in the computer, which is very complicated. In addition, it is necessary to install application software suitable for processing such as image input, editing, processing, synthesis, correction, and printing desired by a user on a computer, and further, control peripheral devices by the above application software. It is necessary to set application software and device drivers as much as possible, which is very complicated. Furthermore, for peripheral devices that cannot be controlled by application software, application software for controlling these peripheral devices is required separately, and users can handle multiple application software and transfer image data between them. The operation is very complicated.

When a so-called desktop or tower computer is used as the computer, a large installation area is required for connection with peripheral devices, and handling is complicated.

Further, the application software has a general-purpose input / output function in order to correspond to a general image input device and a printer device, and does not specify image data to be handled with respect to a processing function to be executed. Since it has a general-purpose function for handling general images in general, it is extremely difficult to use the function, the contents of the function, and the operation method, and it has been difficult for a general user to master it.

In the above-described application software, processes such as editing, processing, synthesizing, and correcting are sequentially performed on the entire image data input in the computer. are doing. For this reason, after executing a certain process, the only way to change the contents of the preceding process is to perform an inverse conversion process on the entire image data that has already changed or to start over from the beginning. In addition to the complexity, the time required for processing is long, and the operability cannot be said to be good.

Further, depending on the contents of the inverse conversion processing, the arithmetic processing is repeated for each piece of image data, so that the number of effective bits of each piece of image data decreases, and the image quality represented by the entire image data is adversely affected. There was something.

Further, in the above-mentioned application software, the target image data is inputted as it is, and desired processing is sequentially executed on the entire image data in accordance with a user's instruction. At this time, the entire image data is displayed in the same size on the monitor device connected to the general-purpose computer, or if the image data is larger than can be displayed on the monitor device, the image data is reduced according to a user instruction. Is displayed. However, processing such as editing, processing, synthesis, and correction is performed on image data of the original size. If the original size is larger than the size that can be displayed on the monitor device, reduction processing is performed each time. Is displayed on the monitor.

That is, in the above application software, it is necessary to execute processing such as editing, processing, combining, and correcting image data of the original size, and to execute reduction processing each time the image data is displayed on the monitor device. When the size of the image data is large and each process is complicated, the time required for the process and the display on the monitor device becomes long, and the operability cannot be said to be good.

On the other hand, in the second method, processes such as image input, editing, processing, synthesizing, correcting, and printing depend on the functions of the input device, and the processing capability is limited. In addition, the input device requires a function that is directly connected to the printer device, and the processing that can be performed differs greatly depending on the input device, and the operation procedure and the like are also changed. Has occurred. Also, at present, it is not possible to use a film scanner for silver halide photography as an input device,
There is a demand for printing images on silver halide photographic films. Furthermore, at present, the input device and the printer are connected in a one-to-one relationship, and it is impossible to process and print image data from a plurality of input devices.

In the above-mentioned method, processing such as editing, processing, synthesis, and correction is sequentially performed on the entire predetermined image data in the input device, and changes every time the entire image data is processed. I have. For this reason, after executing a certain process, the only way to change the contents of the preceding process is to perform an inverse conversion process on the entire image data that has already changed or to start over from the beginning. In addition to the complexity, the time required for processing is long, and the operability cannot be said to be good.

Furthermore, depending on the contents of the inverse conversion processing, the arithmetic processing is repeated for each image data, so that the number of effective bits of each image data is reduced, and the image quality represented by the entire image data is adversely affected. There was something.

Further, also in the above-described method, desired processing is sequentially performed on the entire target image data in accordance with a user's instruction. At this time, when an image display output unit such as a liquid crystal display (hereinafter, referred to as an LCD) is provided, if the entire image data on this LCD is larger than can be displayed on the LCD, a reduction process is performed. Is displayed. However, processing such as editing, processing, synthesis, and correction is performed on image data of the original size, and when the original size is larger than the size that can be displayed on the LCD, reduction processing is performed for each processing. LCD
Is displayed.

That is, also in the above method, it is necessary to execute processing such as editing, processing, synthesis, and correction on image data of the original size, and to execute reduction processing each time the image data is displayed on the LCD. Is large and each process is complicated, the time required for the process and the display on the monitor device becomes long, and the operability cannot be said to be good.

Therefore, the present invention has been proposed in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and a printing method and a printing method which can easily execute a desired editing process and reduce the time required for the process. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device, and to shorten the time required for image display in the printer device.

[0049]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a printing method according to the present invention performs a first input of image data, executes a predetermined editing process on the image data, and generates an edited image. During the execution of the predetermined editing process, the contents of each process, the parameters in each process, and the processing order are stored, the second input of the image data is performed, and a predetermined editing is performed on the image data based on the storage. It is characterized in that at least a part of the editing process is executed to produce edited image data, and a print image is formed by performing print output based on the edited image data.

That is, in the printing method of the present invention, various editing processes are attempted on the first input image data, and each processing content, parameters in each process, and a processing order are stored. Since the editing process is performed on the original image data input the second time based on the above storage, only a part of the editing process attempted on the image data input the first time is performed. It becomes possible.

Conventionally, the input image data is edited and the image data itself is changed.
After executing a certain process, the only way to change the contents of the previous process is to perform an inverse conversion process on the entire image data that has already changed or to start over from the beginning. In addition, the processing time was long, and the operability was not good.

Further, depending on the contents of the inverse conversion processing, the arithmetic processing is repeated for each image data, so that the number of effective bits of each image data is reduced, and the image quality represented by the entire image data is adversely affected. There was something.

On the other hand, in the present invention, it is possible to perform only a part of the editing process attempted on the first input image data with respect to the second input image data. When the same processing as described above is performed, the processing up to the necessary portion may be performed based on the storage, and the processing time is greatly reduced.

Since unnecessary calculation processing is not repeated for each piece of image data, it is possible to avoid a reduction in the number of effective bits of each piece of image data. It is possible to prevent deterioration.

Further, in the printing method of the present invention, when the first image data is input, the image data is reduced and / or thinned to obtain reduced image data, and the reduced image data is subjected to a predetermined editing process. Is executed, the contents of each process, parameters in each process, and the processing order are stored during execution of the predetermined editing process. When the second image data is input, the normal image data is stored. The image data is left as it is, and at least a part of a predetermined editing process is executed on the image data based on the above-mentioned storage to obtain edited image data.

As described above, when the first input image data is reduced image data, the time required for the editing process is significantly shorter than the time required for the editing process for image data of the original size.

Further, the printing method of the present invention is characterized in that:
When the image data is input for the second time, the image data is reduced and / or thinned out by a predetermined process to reduce the image data. During the editing process, the content of each process,
The parameters and the processing order in each processing are stored, and
At the time of the input of the image data for the second time, reduced image data subjected to reduction and / or thinning processing different from the predetermined reduction and / or thinning processing is input, and the reduced image data is subjected to predetermined editing based on the storage. It is characterized in that at least a part of the processing is executed to produce edited image data.

As described above, if the first input image data is set as reduced image data, the time required for the editing process is small, for example, the ratio of reduction is small, and the image data of a size that is not reduced much is used for the editing process. It is significantly shorter than the time required.

Conventionally, editing processing is performed on image data of the original size, and reduction processing is performed each time image data is displayed on a display device.
When each process is complicated, the time required for the editing process and the display on the display device becomes long, and the operability cannot be said to be good.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, since the editing process is performed on the image data of the reduced size, not only the time required for the editing process is shortened, but also the display device is operated during the editing process. There is no need to perform a reduction process when displaying an image, and even if the size of the image data is large and each process is complicated, the time required for the editing process and the display on the display device is greatly reduced.

Further, the printer device of the present invention comprises: an image data input section for converting digital image data and / or an analog image signal inputted from the outside into first digital image data by analog / digital conversion; An editing processing unit that performs at least one editing process on the digital image data to generate second digital image data that is the edited image data; And a print output process for performing a print output process for converting the first digital image data or the second digital image data into print data for printing in the image print unit. And an image printing unit that prints out on a recording medium based on the printing data.

In the printer device of the present invention, the first input of the first digital image data is performed from the image data input section to the editing processing section, and the editing processing section performs predetermined conversion to the first digital image data. When the editing process is performed and the edited image data is processed, during the execution of the predetermined editing process, in the editing process storage unit, each process content, a parameter in each process, and a process order editing process content are stored,
The second input of the first digital image data is performed to the editing processing unit, and at least a part of the predetermined editing processing of the predetermined editing processing is performed on the first digital image data based on the storage of the editing processing storage unit. The second digital image data is converted into second digital image data by the execution, and the second digital image data is converted into print data by the print output processing unit. The image print unit prints out and prints on a recording medium based on the print data. An image is formed.

That is, in the printer device of the present invention, the editing processing unit attempts various editing processes on the digital image data input first time, and each processing content, parameters in each process, and processing order. Is stored in the editing processing storage unit, and the editing processing unit performs the editing processing on the original first digital image data input second time based on the storage in the editing processing storage unit. Therefore, it is possible to perform only a part of the editing process attempted on the image data input first time, and the processing time is greatly reduced.

In the printer of the present invention, the editing processing storage unit stores the editing processing contents as information relating to the image data, or stores the editing processing contents as information relating to an identification code added to the image data. It is preferable to store as

In particular, in the latter case, it is preferable to provide a nonvolatile memory in the editing processing storage section, and to store the editing processing content as information related to the identification code added to the image data in the nonvolatile memory.

In the former case, it is preferable that the digital image data and / or the analog image signal be stored in an externally connected device.

In the printer of the present invention, when the same editing process is performed twice or more on predetermined image data, the editing process may be performed based on the storage of the editing process storage unit. .

Further, in the above-described printer apparatus of the present invention, in addition to the above-described configuration, the first digital image data is reduced and / or thinned out to reduce the first digital image data.
An image data reduction processing unit for converting the first digital image data converted by the image data input unit into first digital image data reduced by the image data reduction processing unit; When the reduced first digital image data is input to the editing processing unit and a predetermined editing process is performed on the reduced first digital image data in the editing processing unit to obtain edited image data, During the execution of a predetermined editing process, the contents of each process, the parameters in each process, and the contents of the editing process in the processing order are stored in the editing process storage unit. The first digital image data is subjected to at least a part of a predetermined editing process based on the storage of the editing process storage unit. An editing process is executed to generate second digital image data, the second digital image data is converted into print data in the print output processing section, and the image print section outputs a print on a recording medium based on the print data. Thus, a print image is formed.

That is, in the printer device of the present invention, the first digital image data input for the first time is the reduced first digital image data, so that the time required for the editing process is reduced to the original size. The time required for editing the first digital image data is greatly reduced.

Further, in the above-described printer apparatus of the present invention, in addition to the above-described configuration, the first digital image data is reduced and / or thinned out to obtain reduced first digital image data. The image processing apparatus further includes a reduction processing unit, and converts the first digital image data converted in the image data input unit into first digital image data reduced by performing predetermined processing in the image data reduction processing unit. When the reduced first digital image data is input to the unit and the editing processing unit performs a predetermined editing process on the reduced first digital image data to obtain edited image data, During the execution of the predetermined editing process, the editing process storage unit stores the content of each process, the parameters in each process, and the content of the editing process in the processing order. The second input of the first digital image data to the processing unit is performed as reduced first digital image data obtained by performing a process different from the above-described predetermined process. Based on the storage, at least a part of the predetermined editing process is executed to be second digital image data, and the second digital image data is converted into print data in the print output processing unit, and the image print process is performed. And printing a print image on a recording medium on the basis of the print data to form a print image.

That is, in the printer device of the present invention, the first digital image data input for the first time is the reduced first digital image data. Is much smaller than the time required for the editing process for image data of a size that is not so reduced.

However, when the reduction and / or thinning processing is performed on the first digital image data as described above, the ratio of reduction to the first digital image data is determined by performing the editing processing when performing the editing processing. It is necessary to display the edited image data on an image display output unit to be described later so that the effect of the editing process can be visually recognized. Also, the processing time is reduced when the first digital image data is edited as it is, and when the first digital image data is edited as reduced first digital image data by performing reduction and / or thinning-out processing. If no difference occurs and the entire image data can be displayed on the image display output unit without performing the reduction and / or thinning processing, the first digital image data is not subjected to the reduction and / or thinning processing. Is also good.

The printer apparatus of the present invention has an image display output section for displaying and outputting the first digital image data and / or the second digital image data. If the data has a size that cannot be displayed by the image display output unit, the first digital image reduced by performing reduction and / or thinning processing on the first digital image data in the image data reduction processing unit It is preferably data.

When the first digital image data is reduced in this way, there is no need to perform a reduction process each time the first digital image data is displayed on the image display output unit, and an editing process is performed on the reduced first digital image data. Therefore, even if the first digital image data is large and each process is complicated, the time required for the editing process and the display on the display device is greatly reduced.

Further, in the above-described printer apparatus of the present invention, when the first digital image data is data having a size that cannot be printed on a recording medium by the image printing unit, the image data reduction processing unit By reducing and / or thinning out the first digital image data to obtain reduced first digital image data, the entire image data can be printed and output on a recording medium, which is preferable.

In the printing method and the printer according to the present invention, when the first input of image data is performed and a predetermined editing process is performed on the image data to obtain an edited image,
During the execution of the predetermined editing process, each process content, parameters in each process, and a processing order are stored, a second input of the image data is performed, and at least a predetermined editing process of the image data is performed based on the storage. A part of the editing process is executed to generate edited image data, and a print output is performed based on the edited image data to form a print image.

That is, in the printing method and the printing apparatus of the present invention, various editing processes are attempted on the first digital image data input first time, and the contents of each process, parameters in each process, and parameters of the process are performed. Since the order is stored and the editing process is performed on the original image data input for the second time based on the storage, the editing process for the image data input for the first time is performed. Only a part of the processing can be performed, and the processing time is greatly reduced.

In the printing method and the printer according to the present invention, when the first image data is input,
When the image data is reduced and / or thinned to obtain reduced image data, and a predetermined editing process is performed on the reduced image data to obtain an edited image, during execution of the predetermined editing process, The parameters and the processing order in the processing are stored, and the image data is input as the normal image data at the time of the second input of the image data, or is subjected to a different reduction and / or thinning process from the input of the first image data. The image data is input as reduced image data, and at least a part of a predetermined editing process is executed on the image data based on the storage to obtain edited image data.

That is, in the printing method and the printer of the present invention, the first input image data is used as the reduced image data, and the time required for the editing process is reduced to the original size of the image data or, for example, the reduction ratio is reduced. small,
The time required for the editing process for image data of a size that has not been reduced so much is significantly reduced, and there is no need to perform the reduction process when displaying an image on a display device during the editing process, and the size of the image data is reduced. Even if the processing is large and each processing is complicated, the time required for the editing processing and the display on the display device is greatly reduced.

[0080]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The printing method according to the present invention uses one of the image data.
When performing a predetermined input process and performing a predetermined editing process on the image data to obtain an edited image, during the execution of the predetermined editing process, each processing content, a parameter in each process, and a processing order are stored. A second input of data is performed, and at least a part of a predetermined editing process is performed on the image data based on the storage to obtain edited image data.
A print image is formed by performing print output based on the edited image data.

That is, in the printing method of the present invention, various editing processes are attempted on the first input image data, and each processing content, parameters in each process, and a processing order are stored. Since the editing process is performed on the original image data input the second time based on the above storage, only a part of the editing process attempted on the image data input the first time is performed. It becomes possible.

Conventionally, editing processing is performed on input image data to change the image data itself.
After executing a certain process, the only way to change the contents of the previous process is to perform an inverse conversion process on the entire image data that has already changed or to start over from the beginning. In addition, the processing time was long, and the operability was not good.

Further, depending on the contents of the inverse conversion processing, the arithmetic processing is repeated for each piece of image data, so that the number of effective bits of each piece of image data decreases, and the image quality represented by the entire image data is adversely affected. There was something.

On the other hand, in the present invention, it is possible to perform only a part of the editing process attempted on the first input image data with respect to the second input image data. In the case of performing the same processing as described above, it is only necessary to perform the editing processing again after performing the processing up to the necessary part based on the memory, the processing time is significantly short, and for each image data, Since unnecessary calculation processing is not repeated, it is possible to avoid a reduction in the number of effective bits of each piece of image data, thereby preventing the image quality represented by the entire image data from deteriorating.

In the printing method of the present invention, when performing the reverse conversion process, the reverse conversion can be performed based on the stored processing contents, processing order, and processing parameters.

In the printing method of the present invention, one of the two methods described above, which is preferable in terms of calculation accuracy and processing time, may be selected.

Further, in the printing method of the present invention, when the editing process is performed again on the image data input for the second time, the contents of the editing process are examined again to make the editing process content as small as possible. Can be shortened.

Further, the printing method of the present invention is characterized in that:
When the image data is input for the second time, the image data is reduced and / or thinned out to obtain reduced image data, and when the reduced image data is subjected to a predetermined editing process to obtain an edited image, the predetermined editing process is performed. During execution, each processing content, parameters in each processing, and processing order are stored, and when the second image data is input, the image data is kept as normal image data. It is characterized in that at least a part of the editing process is executed to generate edited image data.

When the first input image data is reduced image data, the time required for the editing process is greatly reduced compared to the time required for the editing process for image data of the original size.

Further, the printing method of the present invention is characterized in that
When the image data is input for the second time, the image data is reduced and / or thinned out by a predetermined process to reduce the image data. During the editing process, the content of each process,
The parameters and the processing order in each processing are stored, and
At the time of the input of the image data for the second time, reduced image data subjected to reduction and / or thinning processing different from the predetermined reduction and / or thinning processing is input, and the reduced image data is subjected to predetermined editing based on the storage. It is characterized in that at least a part of the processing is executed to produce edited image data.

As described above, if the first-time input image data is reduced image data, the time required for the editing process is small, for example, the reduction ratio is small, and the image data of a size that is not reduced much is used for the editing process. It is significantly shorter than the time required.

Conventionally, editing processing is performed on image data of the original size, and reduction processing is performed each time image data is displayed on a display device.
When each process is complicated, the time required for the editing process and the display on the display device becomes long, and the operability cannot be said to be good.

On the other hand, according to the present invention, since the editing process is performed on the image data of the reduced size, not only the time required for the editing process is shortened, but also the display device is displayed during the editing process. There is no need to perform a reduction process when displaying an image, and even if the size of the image data is large and each process is complicated, the time required for the editing process and the display on the display device is greatly reduced.

Further, if the image data is reduced in this manner, after executing a certain process, in order to change the content of the process before the process, the reduced image data is reduced to a necessary portion based on the storage. After the processing is performed, the editing processing may be performed again, and the processing time is greatly reduced. Furthermore, even in the case of performing the above-described inverse conversion processing, the processing is quick if the image data is reduced.

The printer apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, has an image data input for converting digital image data and / or an analog image signal inputted from the outside into first digital image data by analog / digital conversion. A unit 1 that performs at least one editing process on the first digital image data to generate a second digital image data
A data processing unit 5 which is an editing processing unit for converting digital image data into a digital image data; an editing processing storage unit which stores processing contents, parameters in each processing, and a processing order during at least one execution of the editing processing; And a print output processing unit 24 that performs print output processing for converting the digital image data or the second digital image data into print data for printing in the image print unit, and prints out on a recording medium based on the print data. And an image printing unit 3.

In the printer of the present invention, the first input of the first digital image data from the image data input unit 1 to the data processing unit 5 is performed, and the first digital image data is input to the data processing unit 5. When a predetermined editing process is executed on the data to be edited image data, during the execution of the predetermined editing process, the contents of each process, parameters in each process, and the contents of the editing process in the processing order are stored in the editing process storage unit. A second input of the first digital image data is performed to the data processing unit 5, and at least a part of a predetermined editing process is edited in the first digital image data based on the storage of the editing process storage unit. The processing is executed to produce the second digital image data, and the print output processing unit 2
In step 4, the second digital image data is converted into print data, and the image print unit 3 prints out a print image on a recording medium based on the print data to form a print image.

That is, in the printer device of the present invention, the data processing section 5 tries various editing processes on the first digital image data input first time, and each processing content and each processing content at that time are tried. The parameters and the processing order are stored in the editing processing storage unit, and the data processing unit 5 performs the editing processing on the original first digital image data input second time based on the storage in the editing processing storage unit. The first input from the first
, Only a part of the editing process attempted on the digital image data is performed, and the processing time is greatly reduced.

Further, as described above, the contents of each processing, the parameters in each processing, and the processing order are stored in the editing processing storage unit, and the first image data itself is not changed. It is easy to try the editing process and find the optimal editing process.

Further, in the printer device of the present invention, after executing a certain process in the data processing unit 5,
In order to change the contents of the processing before that, the processing may be performed on the first digital image data up to the necessary portion based on the storage, and then the editing processing may be performed again. Time is greatly reduced.

As described above, unnecessary calculation processing is not repeated for each image data.
It is possible to avoid a reduction in the number of effective bits of each piece of image data due to this, and it is possible to prevent the image quality represented by the entire image data from deteriorating.

Further, in the case of performing the reverse conversion processing in the printer of the present invention, it is possible to perform the reverse conversion based on the stored processing contents, processing order, and processing parameters.

In the printer of the present invention,
Of the two methods described above, a method that is preferable in terms of calculation accuracy and processing time may be selected.

Further, in the printer device of the present invention, when the data processing section 5 edits the first digital image data input second time again, the contents of the editing processing can be examined again. It is possible to reduce the time required for the editing process by using only a few editing processes.

In the printer apparatus of the present invention, the data processing section 5 stores the contents of the editing process as information related to the image data, or stores the contents of the editing process in the information related to the identification code added to the image data. It is preferable to store as

In particular, in the latter case, it is preferable to provide a nonvolatile memory in the editing processing storage unit and to store the editing processing contents as information related to the identification code added to the image data in the nonvolatile memory.

In the former case, it is preferable to store the digital image data and / or the analog image signal in an external connection device 13 to be described later.

In the printer of the present invention, when the same editing process is performed twice or more on predetermined image data, the editing process may be performed based on the storage of the editing process storage unit. . That is, in the printer device of the present invention, without changing the image itself,
Since the parameters and processing order in each processing are stored in the editing processing storage unit, the same processing can be performed quickly and repeatedly, and the original image data is stored without being changed. .

Further, in the above-described printer apparatus of the present invention, in addition to the above-described configuration, the first digital image data is reduced and / or thinned out to reduce the first digital image data.
Having an image data reduction processing unit for digital image data, and converting the first digital image data converted in the image data input unit 1 into first digital image data reduced in the image data reduction processing unit, The reduced first digital image data is input to the data processing unit 5, and the reduced first digital image data is input to the data processing unit 5.
When a predetermined editing process is performed on the digital image data to be edited image data, the processing contents, parameters in each process, and editing processes of the processing order are stored in the editing process storage unit during the execution of the predetermined editing process. Is stored in the data processing unit 5, and a second input of the first digital image data reduced as it is or by performing a reduction and / or thinning process different from that at the time of the first input is performed. One digital image data is subjected to at least a part of a predetermined editing process based on the storage of the editing process storage unit to be processed into second digital image data, and the print output processing unit 24 outputs the second digital image data. The digital image data is converted into print data, and the image print unit 3 prints out a print image on a recording medium based on the print data to form a print image.

That is, in the printer device of the present invention, the first digital image data input for the first time is the reduced first digital image data, so that the number of data to be edited is greatly reduced. The time required for the editing process is significantly shorter than the time required for the editing process for the first digital image data of the original size and, for example, a small reduction ratio, and the size of which is not so reduced. Operability is also greatly improved.

However, in the case where the first digital image data is reduced and / or thinned out as described above, the ratio of the reduction to the first digital image data is determined by the editing performed when the editing is performed. It is necessary to display the image data on the image display output unit 2 to be described later, and to make the effect of the editing process visually recognizable. Also, the processing time is reduced when the first digital image data is edited as it is, and when the first digital image data is edited as reduced first digital image data by performing reduction and / or thinning-out processing. If there is no difference and the entire image data can be displayed on the image display output unit 2 without reduction and / or thinning processing, it is necessary to perform reduction and / or thinning processing on the first digital image data. There is no.

The printer apparatus of the present invention has an image display output unit 2 for displaying and outputting the first digital image data and / or the second digital image data, and the first digital image data Is the image display output unit 2
If the data is too large to be displayed,
It is preferable that the first digital image data is reduced and / or thinned out in the image data reduction processing section to obtain reduced first digital image data.

When the first digital image data is reduced in this way, there is no need to perform a reduction process each time the first digital image data is displayed on the image display output unit 2, and an editing process is performed on the reduced first digital image data. Will be performed,
Even if the number of data to be edited is greatly reduced, the first digital image data is large, and each process is complicated, the time required for the editing process and the display on the display device is greatly reduced.

When the first digital image data is reduced in this way, the processing result and the whole image can be displayed on the image display output unit 2 at a time, and the operability of the user is greatly improved.

However, even when the size of the first digital image data is large enough to be displayed by the image display output unit 2, the image data reduction processing unit reduces the size of the first digital image data to the first digital image data. If the first digital image data is reduced by performing the thinning process and / or, the time required for the editing process and the display on the image display output unit 2 is greatly reduced, and the result of the editing process is easily confirmed. preferable.

Further, in the above-mentioned printer apparatus of the present invention, when the first digital image data is data having a size that cannot be printed on a recording medium by the image printing section, the image data reduction processing section By reducing and / or thinning out the first digital image data to obtain reduced first digital image data, the entire image data can be printed and output on a recording medium,
preferable.

In this way, the processing time is shortened and the operability is improved, and it is not necessary to perform the reduction process again at the time of printing in the image printing unit 3, and the time required until printing is shortened. .

As shown in FIG. 1, the printer device according to the present invention has the above-described image data input unit 1, data processing unit 5, editing processing storage unit, print output processing unit 24, image print unit 3, image display unit 3. In addition to the output unit 2, a characteristic correction unit 4 for correcting the display output characteristic setting for defining the display image quality in the image display output unit 2 and / or correcting the print characteristic setting for defining the print image quality in the image printing unit 3 Also have. The data processing unit 5 and the characteristic correction unit 4 are connected to the image processing unit 6
It is arranged within.

Further, in this printer device, in the image data input section 1, image input means 7 serving as analog image signal input means for inputting analog image signals and / or digital image data input means for inputting digital image data. Having.

Further, the printer has an instruction device 8 as input means for inputting an instruction from outside.

That is, in the above printer,
Digital image data and / or an analog image signal is input by the image input means 7 in the image data input unit 1, and is converted into first digital image data by analog-to-digital conversion in the image input means 7. Output to the processing unit 6. At this time, in the printer device of the present invention, the first digital image data is reduced and / or thinned out as necessary in the image data reduction processing section in the image data input section 1 or the image processing section 6 as required. This is the first digital image data obtained.

The data processing unit 5 in the image processing unit 6 edits, processes, combines, and corrects the first digital image data as necessary to obtain second digital image data. At this time, in the printer device of the present invention, the editing process storage unit stores the content of each process, the parameters in each process, and the content of the editing process in the processing order.

Subsequently, the first digital image data is output to the image processing section 6 again, and the first digital image data is edited based on the storage of the editing processing storage section. As the second digital image data, the second digital image data is output to the image display output unit 2 and the image printing unit 3 via the characteristic correction unit 4 to display and print an image.

In the above example, the example in which the second digital image data is displayed and printed has been described. However, it is needless to say that the first digital image data can be displayed and printed as it is. That is, in this case, digital image data and / or an analog image signal are input by the image input unit 7 in the image data input unit 1,
This is converted into first digital image data by analog-to-digital conversion in the image input means 7 and
Output to Then, the image is output to the image display output unit 2 and the image printing unit 3 via the characteristic correction unit 4 to display and print the image.

In the printer device, the display output characteristic setting for defining the display image quality in the image display output unit 2 is corrected in accordance with the print characteristic setting for defining the image quality in the image printing unit 3. Alternatively, the printing characteristic setting for defining the image quality in the image printing unit 3 is corrected in accordance with the display output characteristic setting for defining the display quality in the image display output unit 2. As a result, the display image on the image display output unit 2 and the print image by the image print unit 3 are expressed as visually equivalent image quality.

Next, individual components will be described in detail.

In this printer, the image input means 7 includes an image data interface section 9 functioning as an analog image signal input port or a digital image data input port, a removable media drive section 10 which is a disk drive or a memory drive,
The camera includes a film reading unit 11 which is a scanner having a photoelectric conversion element, and a computer interface unit 12 functioning as a digital image data input port.

The image data interface unit 9
An interface unit for connecting an image data input / output unit 27 to a device or device for processing a subject or a document, such as a digital still image camera 14, a digital video camera, a document reading scanner, or the like, shown as an external connection device 13 in FIG. It is.

The image data interface unit 9 functions as a physical connection unit, and the external connection device 1
3 and also functions as a digital image data input port (digital image data input port).
Examples of a method for connecting to the external connection device 13 include a wire connection and a wireless connection using infrared rays, electromagnetic waves, or the like.

In the image data interface section 9, the NTSC video signal, PAL video signal, R
An analog video signal such as a GB video signal and an S terminal video signal may be input (functioning as an analog image signal input port), and the digitalized signal may be generated as image data.

When a continuous image such as a digital video camera or an analog video signal, that is, a moving image is input, the moving image is sent to a display device 15 shown as the image display output unit 2 or an external monitor connected to the output port 16. When the user outputs an image signal and gives an instruction to select a desired image using the instruction device 8, the moving image selected by the image data interface unit 9 is digitally controlled by the human interface unit 28 described later. It is also possible to take in as image data which is a converted still image.

The image data captured in this way is sent to the data processing section 5 via the image data input / output section 27. The data may be sequentially transmitted in units of blocks each composed of an amount, or may be transmitted in units of one complete image data.

The removable media drive section 10
Is a portion for reading and writing image data by driving a removable medium 17 or the like shown as the external connection device 13 in FIG.

The removable medium 17 includes:
Examples include a magnetic card, a magnetic disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, an IC memory card including a flash memory, a ROM, and a RAM.

The removable media drive section 10
With regard to a medium that requires driving of a physical mechanism, drive control of the mechanism is also performed.

The image data captured in this way is sent to the data processing unit 5 via the image data input / output unit 27.
The image data may be sent sequentially in the order of capture, may be sent sequentially in units of blocks each having a fixed data amount, or may be sent in units of one complete image data. .

When there are a plurality of image data in the medium, the video signal is sent to the monitor connected to the display device 15 or the output port 16 shown as the image display output unit 2 sequentially or in a state where each image data is reduced. When the user issues an instruction to select a desired image using the instruction device 8, the removable media drive unit 10 stores the selected image data into image data under the control of the human interface unit 28 described later. The data can be sent to the output unit 27 and the data processing unit 5 can perform a predetermined process. On the contrary, the image data subjected to the predetermined processing by the data processing unit 5 is controlled by the human interface unit 28 so that the image data input / output unit 2
7, the removable media drive unit 10
, And the removable medium drive unit 10 can write and save the data in the removable medium 17.

The film reading section 11 includes, for example, a so-called APS (Advanced Pho) having magnetic information related to a so-called ordinary 35 mm film or image.
This is a part that reads a photographic film 18 shown as the external connection device 13 in FIG. 1 such as a film, a large roll type film, and a sheet type film, and converts it into image data.

That is, the film reading unit 11
Is a CCD line sensor that reads the image in the film, photodiode, phototransistor, CCD
A photoelectric conversion element such as an image sensor or a C-MOS image sensor, a photoelectric conversion element driving unit that drives and controls the photoelectric conversion element, and a drive control unit that drives and controls a film so that a target image corresponds to the photoelectric conversion element. It is mainly configured, and the image in the film is read by the photoelectric conversion element and converted into digital image data.

The image data captured in this way is sent to the data processing unit 5 via the image data input / output unit 27.
The image data may be sent sequentially in the order of capture, may be sent sequentially in units of blocks each having a fixed data amount, or may be sent in units of one complete image data. .

In the case where a plurality of images are recorded in the film, the read image may be left as it is, or each image may be reduced, or the pitch at the time of reading may be reduced. Display device 15 shown as image display output unit 2 as a read image
Alternatively, when the user outputs an image signal to a monitor connected to the output port 16 and gives an instruction to select a desired image by the instruction device 8, the film reading unit is controlled by the human interface unit 28 described later. It is also possible to send the selected image data to the image data input / output unit 27 so that the data processing unit 5 performs a predetermined process. When the sparse reading is performed as described above, the reading is performed again at the normal pitch.

In the film reading section 11,
The film tilts with respect to the reading range of the photoelectric conversion element,
Or if the composition of the image on the film is not suitable,
Under the control of the human interface unit 28, the setting position of the film and the reading position of the photoelectric conversion element can be automatically corrected and read again by a user's instruction or software processing.

The film reading section 11 may have a function of correcting the characteristics of the photoelectric conversion element and a function of correcting the characteristics of the illumination at the time of photoelectric conversion. However, when the processing for these corrections can be performed as digital processing, the processing may be performed by the data processing unit 5 instead of the film reading unit 11.

Of the photographic films 18, especially APS
When the film is read by the photoelectric conversion element, a magnetic head is also provided in the film reading unit 11, and the reading operation is performed, and at the same time, the magnetic data relating to photographing recorded on the APS film is read. This magnetic data is displayed by the image display output unit 2 under the control of the human interface unit 28 as photographing data related to the image data, and is used when the data processing unit 5 processes data.
Stored together with the image data.

Conventionally, when printing the photographic film 18 as described above, a system mainly using a general-purpose computer has been used. However, if the printer of the present embodiment is used, it is possible to print without using a general-purpose computer. It is possible to easily perform printing.

The computer interface unit 12
Is an interface for connecting the host computer 19 shown as the external connection device 13 in FIG. 1 and the image data input / output unit 27, and is a Bi-Centronic.
s, IEEE-1394, USB, SCSI, and other high-speed interfaces are used. The computer interface unit 12 controls each interface and controls various protocols including commands and responses for bidirectionally transmitting and receiving image data using each interface. The transmitted and received image data is handled in line units, block units, or plane units.

Until now, when an image of a computer was printed out by a printer, various processes for printing out had to be performed by a printer driver on the computer. On the other hand, in the printer device, the data processing unit 5 and the characteristic correction unit 4
Therefore, the processing by the printer driver of the host computer 19 is greatly reduced. That is, the time required for processing by the host computer 19 is reduced, the host computer 19 can immediately execute operations other than printing, and the CPU occupation time of the host computer 19 can be reduced. .

Further, in this printer, the result of performing various processes by the data processing section 5 on the image data input from the various image input means 7 described above is sent to the host computer 19.
It is also possible to perform various processes with other software and store it in the host computer 19.

Here, four types of means have been described as the image input means 7, but the present invention is not limited to this. The image input means 7 may be provided as necessary without departing from the gist of the present invention. Good.

Next, regarding the image data input / output unit 27, the image input means 7 and the data processing unit 5 in the image processing unit 6 will be described.
This is a part that controls the transfer of image data between the image data. That is, it is a portion for transferring the first digital image data obtained by converting the digital image data and / or the analog image signal inputted from outside in the image input means 7 from analog to digital to the data processing section 5.

The image data input / output unit 27
It also has a function of adjusting the transfer timing of the image data, the transfer source and the transfer destination, and preventing collision or the like of the image data. Further, it may have a function of adjusting image data input from various types of image input means so that the image data can be handled similarly.

In the image data input / output unit 27,
The image input unit 7 receives image data from the image data interface unit 9 and the film reading unit 11, and sends and receives image data to and from the removable media drive unit 10 and the computer interface unit 12. That is, the image data input unit 1
Functions as a data input / output unit. Timing of transmission and reception of image data in the image data input unit 1;
Control such as selection of image data is executed based on an instruction from a human interface unit 28 described later when following an instruction from the user, and based on control from the data processing unit 5 when automatically performed. Be executed.

The input part of the image data has been described above. A characteristic part of the printer of the present invention is the image data reduction processing unit described above.
The digital image data input from the image data interface unit 9 and the removable media drive unit 10 is converted into first digital image data, and the reduced digital image data is reduced and / or thinned out by the reduction processing unit. 1 digital image data is generated. That is, the image data interface unit 9 and the removable media drive unit 10 function as an image data reduction processing unit.

When an analog image signal obtained by photoelectrically converting a photographic film from the film reading unit 11 is converted from analog to digital and taken in as first digital image data, the sampling clock or photoelectric conversion element is used. The scan speed is changed to generate reduced first digital image data. That is, the film reading unit 11 functions as an image data reduction processing unit.

Further, when image data is transferred from an external host computer 19 via the computer interface unit 12, command / response information is transmitted and received between the host computer 19 and the computer interface unit 12, and the required reduced size is transmitted. The transferred image data or the original image data is transferred and reduced by the computer interface unit 12. That is,
The computer interface unit 12 functions as an image data reduction processing unit.

On the other hand, in the image input means 7, the first
There is first digital image data reduced by performing reduction and / or thinning-out processing on the digital image data of the first digital image data, and this is used as additional information or related information of the original first digital image data. If there is, the reduced first digital image data is read.

In the above example, the image input means 7 generates the reduced first digital image data or inputs the already generated reduced first digital image data. Although the example that functions as the image data reduction processing unit has been described, besides this,
These image input means 7 may not perform the reduction and / or thinning-out processing, but may perform the reduction and / or thinning-out processing in the image processing section 6 to be described later, and the image processing section 6 may function as an image data reduction processing section. .

Note that the above-described reduction and / or thinning-out processing is performed when the first digital image data is data having a size that cannot be displayed by the image display output unit 2 as described above. You can do it.

In the image display output unit 2, the maximum displayable range of the image display output unit 2 is indicated as the image displayable range, and a specific image display area is controlled by the human interface unit 28 described later. Provided in some cases, indicating the maximum range that can be displayed in the image display area.

Further, when a plurality of image data can be inputted, and the image sizes of the respective images are different, and the image data of the maximum image size among the image data exceeds the image displayable range, all the image data can be input. The image data is subjected to reduction and / or thinning-out processing at the same reduction ratio with respect to the image data, and the difference in image size between the respective image data is determined by the image display output unit 2
You may make it easily recognizable by the display above.

In the above-described reduction and / or thinning-out processing, as described above, when the reduction ratio with respect to the first digital image data is changed, each processing and processing parameters are changed when the editing processing is performed. It is necessary to display and output the edited image data that has been subjected to the editing processing within the image displayable range on the image display output unit 2 so that the effect of the editing processing is visually recognizable.

Since the reduction ratio in this case differs depending on the processing content, an appropriate reduction ratio may be determined depending on the content of the processing to be executed. Further, when a plurality of processes are sequentially and sequentially executed, if an appropriate reduction ratio is set for each process, the smallest reduction ratio among them may be applied to the entire process. .

Further, as described above, the above-described reduction and / or thinning processing is performed when the first digital image data is edited as it is, and when the first digital image data is reduced and / or thinned. First reduced
A difference occurs in the processing time when the editing processing is performed as the digital image data of, that is, the processing required by the user for the reduced first digital image data is performed and the time required for displaying the processing is displayed. This is faster than the case where the same processing is performed on the normal first digital image data, and is preferably performed when the user can sufficiently recognize the processing.

This is particularly the case when there is a process having a variable processing parameter among the processes to be executed, and it is necessary to find the optimum value of the processing parameter by changing the processing parameter and executing the editing process. This is effective for shortening the processing time and improving operability.

Further, in the printer apparatus of the present invention, when the first digital image data is data having a size that cannot be printed on the recording medium by the image printing section 3, the image data reduction processing is performed. It is preferable that the first digital image data is reduced and / or thinned out in the section to obtain reduced first digital image data, so that the entire image data can be printed and output on a recording medium.

In the image printing section 3, the image printing section 3 indicates the maximum area that can be printed on a recording medium as the image printing section 3, and the image printing section 3 has a specific area within the maximum printing area of the image printing section 3. There is a case where an image printing area is provided to indicate a maximum range in which the image printing area can be printed.

For image data having an image size slightly exceeding the image printable range, the image data of the slightly exceeded portion is deleted without executing reduction and / or thinning-out processing. In some cases, the image data may be changed to the image data in accordance with the printable range and input. This is advantageous in that the reduction and / or thinning-out processing is not required.
Normally, all input image data should be valid, which is not preferable.

In the case where the above-mentioned conditions are satisfied alone or a plurality of conditions are satisfied, reduction and / or thinning-out processing may be performed.

It has been described above that the above-described reduction and / or thinning-out processing may be performed in the image processing unit 6. In this case, the image data input unit 1 sends the image data to the image processing unit 6, In the case where the above condition is satisfied singly or plurally in the image processing section 6, reduction and / or thinning processing may be performed.

When the editing process desired by the user is performed on the reduced first digital image data in the image processing unit 6 and the printing operation is started by the user, the printer device When there is no first digital image data read in the second digital image data or second digital image data for printing, the first digital image data
Is read and input to the image processing unit 6.

The printer of the present embodiment has a display device 15 and an output port 16 which is an analog image signal output port and / or a digital image data output port as the image display output section 2. The output port 16 is connected to an external monitor for external connection.

The display device 15 is mainly composed of a full-color display for displaying image data and a human interface 28 to be described later, and a drive unit thereof. As such a display device, a flat panel display represented by a liquid crystal panel is preferable. Further, one or more status indicators including LEDs or the like indicating the operation status may be provided.

The pointing device 8 which is an input means for inputting the external instruction includes a mouse, a trackball, a keyboard, a touch panel provided on the display device 15, a pen touch input panel for inputting with a pen point, and the like. Is exemplified. This is where the user's instructions are input in accordance with the control of the human interface unit 28 described later. In the touch panel or the pen touch input panel provided on the display device 15, the display of the operation key image on the display device and the input operation range for the displayed key image of the touch panel or the pen touch input panel are the same or related. Position.

When chattering may occur due to keys or the like, a process for preventing malfunction due to chattering is performed by an electric circuit or control software. The pointing device 8 can be used by controlling the human interface unit 28 while displaying a pointer indicating the display position of the pointing device 8 on an external monitor display screen displayed by the video signal output from the output port 16. It is also possible to display the instruction acceptance range on the external monitor, move the pointer by the instruction device 8 within the range, and input a user instruction by selecting the pointer.

The function of the human interface unit 28 for outputting image data output from the image processing unit 6 to be described later to the display device 15 and the image display output unit 2 of the output port 16 and the instruction device 8 A function for selecting an image and reading image data in response to an input instruction from a user of the image processing unit, and setting various parameters for editing, processing, synthesizing, and correcting image data in the data processing unit 5 in the image processing unit 6. Function to be performed, characteristic correction unit 4
A function to correct the display output characteristic setting for defining the display image quality in the image display output unit 2 and / or the setting for correcting the print characteristic setting for defining the print image quality in the image printing unit 3 according to And a portion having a function of controlling the printer device according to a user's instruction.

The human interface unit 28
Is a display device that combines image data for the display device 15 and output port 16 of the image display output unit 2 processed by the image processing unit 6 with a key display, a slide volume display, a menu screen display, and the like necessary for the operation. 15 and output from an output port 16 to an external monitor.

With such a configuration, the content displayed on the display device 15 and the content displayed on the external monitor can be made different. For example, the image synthesized with the image data and the human interface unit 28 may be displayed on the display device 15, and only the image signal may be output to the output port 16 to display only the image data on the external monitor. Specifically, the display device 15 displays the entire printing range of the recording medium, and the external monitor displays only the selected image data.

The image processing section 6 is mainly constituted by the data processing section 5 and the characteristic correction section 4 as described above.

The image processing section 6 includes the image data input section 1
If the image data input from the printer does not have the ideal image quality characteristics, in order to improve the image quality of the display image on the display device 15 or the external monitor, and the print image printed by the image print unit 3, The data processing unit 5 corrects the input image data.

The data processing unit 5 receives a user's instruction from the instruction device 8 via the human interface unit 28 and, based on the instruction, receives the first digital image data from the image data input unit 1. Then, predetermined editing, processing, synthesis, correction and conversion are performed to obtain second digital image data.

The data processing unit 5 also controls access to the image memory 20. Image data is written and read under the control of the data processing unit 5 as needed. The image data to be stored has been edited, processed, synthesized and corrected by the data processing unit 5 in the image processing unit 6, and if there is information related to this image data, the related information is also held. You.

The data held in the image memory 20 includes a compressed format, a reversible compressed format, a lossy compressed format, and the like.
The format to be used depends on whether the format is easy to handle by the image processing unit 6, whether or not the image quality is degraded by repeating the compression / decompression, the maximum number of image data and the capacity of the image data stored in the image memory 20. , The read / write speed of the image memory 20, and the like. Processing speed, image quality degradation,
In consideration of handling of data and the like, it is preferable that the data is stored in the image memory 20 in a non-compressed format. Further, it is preferable that the image memory 20 has a capacity capable of holding a plurality of uncompressed image data. Further, a part of the image memory 20 may be used as a working memory for image data in the process of processing in the image processing unit 6.

When accessing the image data in the image memory 20, the image data is stored in a compressed form.
When the image data is to be stored inside, when the image data is written to the image memory 20, the data processing unit 5 performs the compression processing of the image data before writing. As a matter of course,
At the time of reading, the data processing unit 5 performs the decompression processing.

Since the data processing unit 5 also controls access to the image memory 20,
Control such as performing time-division access when the timing of writing image data to the image memory 20 and the timing of reading image data from the image memory 20 are likely to collide, or delaying either timing is performed. By adopting a structure in which the capacity of the image memory 20 can be increased or decreased,
By detecting the effective capacity, address control for the image memory 20 can be performed normally.

In the data processing unit 5, when the image data interface unit 9 and the film reading unit 11 do not execute the characteristic correction processing for each input unit when taking or reading each image data, Digital processing may be performed.

In the data processing section 5,
Mainly, image data is digitized and handled. With respect to the digitized image data read from the image data input unit 1, if each process is continued while the number of bits of the operation of each data is the same as the number of input image data, the operation accuracy gradually deteriorates. Therefore, in the process of calculation, it is important to increase the number of bits of each data by 2 to 4 bits and to prevent the deterioration of the calculation accuracy as much as possible in order to secure the image quality of the printed image to be printed.

When the user performs desired editing, processing, combining, or correcting the first digital image data input from the image data input unit 1, the first digital image data is input based on an instruction from the instruction device 8. Thus, an output is displayed on the image display output unit 2 under the control of the human interface unit 28, and a process desired by the user is confirmed.

When the user performs a desired process on the first digital image data to generate second digital image data and gives an instruction to print the second digital image data, the second digital image data will be described later. Is sent to the image printing unit 3 via the printing output processing unit 24.

The processing such as editing, processing, combining, and correction executed in the data processing unit 5 in the image processing unit 6 is used later in the respective processes from the removable media drive unit 10 and the computer interface unit 12. It is also possible to provide a configuration in which parameters and software for each process can be newly added or updated, and a new function can be added to the printer device.

The image data edited, processed, synthesized, corrected and converted in the image processing section 6 can be written and stored in the removable medium 17 via the removable medium drive section 10. In addition, by sending image data to a host computer 19 connected to the outside via the computer interface unit 12, various uses can be made by using image processing software and software for handling images in the host computer 19.

In the printer device of the present invention, the data processing unit 5 performs the reduction and / or thinning-out processing on the first digital image data as described above to convert the reduced first digital image data into data. It may be formed. In this case, the first digital image data is directly input from the image data input unit 1 to the data processing unit 5 of the image processing unit 6 without changing the image size, and the above-described conditions are used alone or in plural. If the condition is satisfied, reduction and / or thinning processing may be performed.

In this case, if the capacity of the image memory 20 is sufficiently large, the input first digital image data is held in the image memory 20 as it is, and the user performs a desired process. The first digital image data held for execution is read out from the image memory 20 to the data processing unit 5, and after executing the above-described reduction and / or thinning-out processing in the data processing unit 5, the desired editing processing is sequentially performed. What should I do?

On the other hand, if the capacity of the image memory 20 is not so large, the above-mentioned reduction and / or thinning-out processing is first executed on the input first digital image data by the data processing section 5, and this is processed. The reduced first digital image data held when the user performs a desired process is read out from the image memory 20 to the data processing unit 5, and is stored in the image memory 20. The editing process may be performed sequentially.

As described above, in the case where the sequential editing process is executed, when the processing contents are variable and the processing parameters are variable, the first parameter which sequentially targets the parameters and the processing order in the above processing is used. The information is stored and held as digital image data or information related to reduced first digital image data. In the process of finally determining the processing parameter desired by the user while trying various processing parameters as described above, the determined processing parameter is stored and held instead of the trial stage.

The processing contents, the parameters in the processing, and the processing order stored and held as the information related to the reduced first digital image data are as follows: the original image is stored in a removable medium, for example. If the data can be rewritten, updated, or added, it may be stored as information related to the original image data. Specifically, when the image data has header information, the content of the processing item in the header information is updated or recorded as a new information file indicating the image data.

That is, when the externally connected device 13 that reads out digital image data and / or an analog image signal by the image data input unit 1 is provided with the ability to store information, it is stored and held as information related to the image data. .

If the externally connected device 13 that reads out digital image data and / or an analog image signal at the image data input unit 1 has no function of storing new information or is prohibited, the image data May be stored in the image memory 20 together with information for specifying the image data, for example, an identification code such as a serial number of the image data or a combination of the generation date and time of the image data. At this time, if the image memory 20 is a non-volatile memory such as a flash memory, information is stored and held even when the power is turned off, which is preferable.

Processing is sequentially performed in the data processing unit 5 to determine an image to be printed, and when the user instructs activation of a printing operation from a pointing device, if there is no image data to be printed, The second digital image data obtained by editing the reduced first digital image data as described above is also in a reduced state, and is not suitable for conversion to print data as it is.

Therefore, if there is the original first digital image data in the image memory 20, this is used, and if there is no original first digital image data in the image memory 20,
The original first digital image data is read out from the image data input unit 1, and information relating to the first digital image data stored and held in the image memory 20 is added to the first digital image data. In the case where the processing contents, processing order, and variable processing parameters are provided, each processing is sequentially performed according to the processing parameters to obtain second digital image data for printing processing.

If image data for the printing process already exists, the printing process is performed using the image data for the printing process as it is.

In the case of the printer of the present invention, when a series of processing such as inputting image data, desired editing processing, and printing is completed, the same processing or a partially changed processing is performed again. Since the related information, each processing content, the processing order, and the processing parameters corresponding to the original first digital image data are stored and held in the image memory 20, the image data is read as necessary, and based on the storage. It is possible to perform the editing process and print again in order, and the time required for the editing process and print output is greatly reduced.

The image processing section 6 is provided with the data processing section 5 described above.
In addition, a characteristic correction unit 4 is also provided. The characteristic correction unit 4 includes a display device processing unit 22, a video signal processing unit 23, and a print output processing unit 24.

The display device processing section 22 displays the first digital image data or the processed second digital image data on the display device 15 via the human interface section 28 as necessary. This is a portion for performing a correction process according to the characteristics of the device 15.

Further, the video signal processing section 23 transmits the first digital image data or the processed second digital image data as necessary to an externally connected display device such as an external monitor via the human interface section 28. This is a section for performing correction processing according to the characteristics of the display device and the characteristics of a standard video signal output to the display device.

The image data output from the display device processing section 22 and the video signal processing section 23 to the human interface section 28 are combined with other data in the human interface section 28 and are combined. Image data may be displayed on the display device 15 or an external monitor. In this case, it is often combined with a display or a character for requesting a user's instruction, a pattern generated in the data processing unit 5, or the like.

Further, the printing output processing section 24 is a section which performs each conversion and correction processing for printing in the image printing section 3 and sends it to the image printing section 3. Normally, the first digital image data or the second digital image data processed as necessary is data of 8 bits or more for each color in RGB signals. However, since the ink used in the print head 25 used in the image printing unit 3 is three colors of CMY or four colors of CMYK, the printing output processing unit 2
4, the print head 25, which converts the RGB signals into these colors, and corrects the color shift of the print output due to the non-ideal spectral sensitivity characteristics of the recording ink or toner of each color. A conversion correction process is performed based on environmental conditions at the time of printing, such as ink, toner, and coloring characteristics of a printing medium.

In the print output processing section 24, the image data to be transferred to the print head 25 is rearranged in the print order actually used by the print head 25 and output. For this reason, the print output processing unit 24 may have a RAM for temporarily buffering print data. Alternatively, when the data processing unit 5 reads image data from the image memory 20, the read address may be controlled so as to conform to the printing order of the print head 25.

Then, in the printer of this embodiment,
In particular, each conversion and correction process for printing in the image printing unit 3 performed in the printing output processing unit 24 is also described.
In addition to the related information stored and held in the image memory 20 by the data processing unit 5, each processing content, processing order, and processing parameter may be stored and held. By doing so, by reading the data in the image memory 20,
This is preferable because the processing contents in the print output processing unit 24 can be confirmed.

Then, in the printer of this embodiment,
As described above, the display image on the image display output unit 2 and the print image by the image print unit 3 are expressed as visually equivalent image quality.

For this reason, in the printer of the present embodiment, the display output characteristic setting for defining the display image quality in the image display output unit 2 is made corresponding to the print characteristic setting for defining the image quality in the image printing unit 3. The correction is performed by the display device processing unit 22 and / or the video signal processing unit 23. Or, conversely, the print output setting unit 24 corrects the print characteristic setting that defines the print image quality in the image print unit 3 in accordance with the display output characteristic setting that defines the display image quality in the image display output unit 2. ing.

Next, the image printing section 3 mainly includes a print head driving section 26 and a print head 25. When an image to be printed is selected in the human interface unit 28 and an instruction to print is given,
The print data subjected to the conversion correction processing required for printing in the print output processing unit 24 in the image processing unit 6 is sent to the print head drive unit 26. The print head drive unit 26 converts the print data into a drive voltage, a drive current, and a drive waveform sufficient to drive the print head 25 in accordance with the drive timing of the print head 25, and Output to

That is, the print head driver 26
Are performed in synchronization with the operation of the printing mechanism accompanying the printing of the print head 25, the movement of the print head 25, the movement of the recording medium, the maintenance processing of the print head 25, the supply of ink, and the like. In addition, in order to perform optimal printing in accordance with the environmental condition at the time of printing, there is a case where correction suitable for the analog electrical circuit configuration is executed based on an input from a detecting element such as a temperature sensor. If this correction process can be executed by digital processing, it can be executed in the print output processing unit 24 in the image processing unit 6. The print head drive unit 26 is configured and operates according to the type and number of the print heads 25 to be used, the configuration of the print mechanism unit, and the like.

The print head 25 is a portion for actually printing recording ink on a recording medium to print an image, or for printing by attaching recording toner to a recording medium. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
An ink jet print head as disclosed in JP-A-164656 or JP-A-8-336990, in particular, a recording material flying print head and a two-liquid mixed print head are exemplified. In addition, a dye diffusion type thermal head, an image forming unit of a laser beam printer, and a recording head of another type may be used.

Of these, a recording material flying print head and a two-liquid mixed print head capable of full-color halftone printing can realize high-quality full-color printing and are preferably used. Further, a line print head and a serial print head can be configured according to the width of the print head. In the case of a line print head, the printing time is reduced because the recording medium needs to move in only one direction with respect to the line print head. In the case of a serial print head, the recording medium and the serial print head need to move relatively in two directions.

In the present example, the image data input unit 1, the image processing unit 6, the image memory 20, the pointing device 8,
Although the example in which the image display output unit 2 and the image printing unit 3 are integrally formed to form the main body 21 has been described, the image input unit 7 of the image data input unit 1 is divided and disposed. May be. For example, the film reading unit 11 may be connected to the main body 21 through a bidirectional interface. By bidirectionally transmitting and receiving a signal from a photoelectric conversion element, a control signal of a reading mechanism, and the like, the film reading unit 11 Can be provided with a function equivalent to that in the case where is incorporated in the main body 21. In this case, IEEE-1394 is used as the interface.
A general-purpose interface such as the above may be used. By using the general-purpose interface in this way, if a software configuration is adopted in which another image input means 7 is connected instead of the film reading unit 11 and communication between them is controlled, this interface is used. Thus, transmission / reception with other image input means 7 is also possible.

If the image input means 7 is divided from the main body 21 and is separable as described above, only the required type of the image input means 7 can be connected to the main body, and This is preferable because the size is reduced and the required installation area is reduced.

Although the display device 15 is incorporated in the main body 21, it is preferable that the display device 15 be movable on the main body 21. For example, it is preferable that it is held on a housing-shaped main body 21 via a support portion and has a structure in which rotation or the like can be performed in a predetermined range, so that the user can easily see the image. Further, it may be arranged separately from the main body 21, and preferably has a physical or electrical coupling mechanism with the main body 21, so that the user can visually recognize even a place away from the main body 21. Become. That is, the image characteristics such as the color tone of the display image by the display device 15 are easily affected by the surrounding environment. However, as described above, the display device 15 is made movable on the main body 21 or is divided and arranged. This is preferable because it facilitates visual recognition in a state that is hardly affected by the surrounding environment.

The pointing device 8 may be arranged separately from the main body 21. This allows the user to remotely control the printer device.

When printing is actually performed by using such a print head, the following operation is performed, for example. That is, first, in order to prompt the user to input an image, the human interface unit 28 causes the display device 15 and / or the external monitor to perform display so that the user can select which image input unit 7 to input an image. . In accordance with this, the user selects the image input unit 7 to be accessed from the various image input units 7 using the pointing device 8 in order to take out the image desired to be printed.
When the computer interface unit 12 is selected, the host computer 1 is used instead of the pointing device 8.
It is also possible to select using 9.

Next, the selected image input means 7 converts the accessible digital image data and / or analog image signal input from the outside into first digital image data by analog-to-digital conversion, and outputs the image data input / output unit 27.
To the image processing unit 6 via

The first digital image data is input to the data processing unit 5 in the image processing unit 6, where the image data is stored in the image memory 20 as needed, and the ideal image quality characteristics are obtained. If the first digital image data is not provided, the correction is performed to improve the image quality of the display image on the display device 15 or the external monitor, or the image printed by the image printing unit 3. If there is a characteristic, a process for correcting and improving the image quality is performed.

Then, the image data corrected as described above is output to the display device 15 or an external monitor to display an image. When there are a plurality of image data accessible to the image data input unit 1, each image data is transferred to the display device 1 via the image data input unit 1 and the image processing unit 6.
5 or an external monitor so that the image data targeted for the user can be displayed on the human interface unit 28.
May be urged to make a selection under the control of. When an image is selected, if the selected image data is not input to the image memory 20, the image data input unit 1
Accesses the external connection device 13 again to read the image data, and generates the reduced first digital image data by performing reduction and / or thinning-out processing when the above-described condition is satisfied alone or in combination. Is sent to the image processing unit 6.

[0223] Next, the human interface unit 28 asks the user whether or not to perform an editing process or the like on the selected image. If the user desires the process, the user selects execution of the process. Execute the process. Thereafter, when the user instructs print output under the control of the human interface unit 28, print output is performed. At this time, in the printer device of the present invention, as described above, each processing content, processing order, and processing parameters are stored and held in the editing processing storage unit.

However, at this time, the first digital image data input from the image data input unit 1 is stored in the image memory 2.
0 is not stored and stored, or the image memory 2
When the second digital image data is stored and held in a state reduced to 0, the first digital image data is read from the image data input unit 1 again, and based on the edited contents stored and held. An editing process is performed to generate second digital image data, which is converted into print data in a print output processing unit 24, and a print head 25 is driven by a print head driving unit 26 of the image print unit 3 to convert the print data into the print data. Print an image based on it. During the printing operation, the recording operation of the print head 25 and the operation of the recording medium are performed in synchronization.

At this time, in the printer of this embodiment, the characteristic is set such that the display image on the image display output unit 2 and the print image by the image print unit 3 are expressed as visually equivalent image quality as described above. The correction unit 4 corrects the display output characteristic setting for defining the display image quality in the image display output unit 2 in accordance with the print characteristic setting for defining the image quality in the image printing unit 3, or the image display output unit. In accordance with the display output characteristic setting that defines the display image quality in Step 2, the print characteristic setting that defines the print image quality in the image printing unit 3 is corrected.

The processing according to the characteristics of the input image data and the processing contents, processing order, variable parameters, and the like for displaying the image on the image display output unit with the image quality visually equivalent to the print image by the image print unit are as follows. Is set and held in advance or every time it is changed.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a circuit configuration of the printer of this embodiment. The configuration of the circuit is also substantially the same as that shown in FIG. 1, and the external connection device 13, the image input unit 7, the image data input / output unit 27, the image processing unit 6, the image display output unit 2, the instruction device 8, It has a circuit corresponding to the image printing unit 3. That is, the image data input / output circuit 27 includes an image data interface circuit 39, a removable media drive device 40, a film reading device 41, and a computer interface circuit 42 corresponding to the image input / output unit 27. 31.

A data processing circuit 36 is provided as a circuit corresponding to the image processing section 6, and has a data processing section, a display device processing section, a video signal processing section, and a print output processing section therein.

Further, the pointing device 8 is formed on a plurality of keys 38a arranged on the printer device of the present example to enable a user to perform an input operation, and on a liquid crystal monitor 45a arranged as the display device 15, It has a pen touch input device 38b that enables a user to perform an input operation with a pen-shaped tapered input device, and has an instruction device interface circuit 38c for inputting to a circuit corresponding to the human interface unit 28 described later. The pointing device interface circuit 38c prevents erroneous input due to chattering phenomenon or the like. When the same part of the key 38a or the pen touch input device 38b is continuously pressed for a certain period of time, the operation is performed a plurality of times. The input is transmitted to a circuit corresponding to the human interface unit 28 described later by the number of times.

Further, as a device corresponding to the display device 15 of the image display output unit 2,
5a, the image data in the image memory 20 is transferred, and a menu screen or a menu screen to be displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 45a based on the transferred image data and a display control signal from a circuit corresponding to the human interface unit 28 described later. There is also a display device output circuit 45b for synthesizing the pen touch input device operation display screen and converting it into a drive signal that can be displayed on the liquid crystal monitor 45a.

Further, based on the image data transferred from the image memory 20 and a display control signal from a circuit corresponding to the human interface unit 28 described later, a menu screen and an operation display screen for pen touch input device displayed on an external monitor are displayed. There is also provided a video signal output circuit 46 for synthesizing and converting to a standard video signal, for example, an NTSC signal, which can be displayed on an external monitor. In this case, the liquid crystal monitor 45
a and the image displayed on the external monitor may be the same or different.

Further, a print head drive circuit 56 and a print head 25 are provided corresponding to the image printing section 3.
Then, when the print head 25 is used to control a mechanical unit necessary for forming a print image on a recording medium such as a recording paper, software control by a system control CPU 61, which will be described later, performs overall control of the mechanical unit. Based on the mechanical control signal from the controller, various motors, clutches, a head maintenance mechanism, and the like are driven, and at the same time, inputs from various sensors for detecting the movement of the recording medium and the movement of the print head are received.
A print output mechanism control circuit 47 for driving a mechanism required for printing such as notifying the printer 1 and detecting a state thereof is provided.

The printer has a system control CPU 61 using a working RAM 64 by control software in a system ROM 62 and a flash memory 63. The system control CPU 61 controls the entire printer. Part 2
8 also functions as a circuit.

Therefore, they are connected by the system control bus 65, and the system control bus 65 includes
The above-described image data input / output circuit 31 and data processing circuit 3
6, the instruction device interface circuit 38c, the display device output circuit 45b, the video signal output circuit 46, the print output mechanism control circuit 47, and the image print section 3 are also connected.
The image data input / output circuit 31, the data processing circuit 36, the display device output circuit 45b, the video signal output circuit 46, and the image printing unit 3 are also connected to the image data bus 66 of the image memory 20.

The control software in the flash memory 63 may be replaceable from the removable media drive device 40 or the computer interface circuit 42 via the image data input / output circuit 31. In addition, the operation of the data processing circuit 36 requires its own control software.
When there is no ROM or non-volatile RAM therein, a configuration may be adopted in which software required in the data processing circuit 36 is transferred from the system ROM 62 or the flash memory 63 to the data processing circuit 36. In this case, software required in the data processing circuit 36 is input from the removable media drive device 40 and the computer interface circuit 42,
Once the flash memory 63 or working RAM
It is preferable that the data can be stored in the data processing circuit 36 and then transferred to the data processing circuit 36.

When the above system control CPU 61
The control executed by the control software in the OM 62 or the flash memory 63 includes the following. First, control of the entire printer device can be mentioned. In addition,
Drive control of the image data interface circuit 39, the removable media drive device 40, the film reading device 41, and the computer interface circuit 42 via the image data input / output circuit 31, handling of image data input by each control, and data processing Editing / synthesis processing correction control of the image data in the circuit 36,
Image display control on the liquid crystal monitor 45a and an external monitor,
Human interface control for controlling input of operation instructions from the keys 38a and the pen touch input device 38b and output to the liquid crystal monitor 45a and an external monitor, and control of the print drive circuit 56, the print head 25, and the print output mechanism control circuit 47. Control of the entire image printing unit 3 based on the above.

From this, the above system control CPU 6
When the shape and operation method of the print head 25 such as a line head or a serial head and the operation method of the recording medium change, the contents of the software and the circuit contents of the mechanism unit control software and the print output mechanism control circuit 47 change. . In other words, the control software and control circuit are determined by the mechanism structure of the print head 25.

When printing is actually performed, the following processing is performed. That is, the external connection device 1 in FIG.
The digital image data or the video signal and the digital data input from 3 are converted into a first digital image by an image data interface circuit 39, a removable media drive device 40, a film reading device 41, and a computer interface circuit 42 corresponding to the image input means 7. The data is converted into data and input to the image data input / output circuit 31 corresponding to the image data input / output unit 27.

Next, the first digital image data is
The image data is sent to the data processing circuit 36 via the image data bus 66 under the control of the input / output control signal from the system control bus 65. At this time, it goes without saying that the system control CPU 61 controls the timing and the like.

Then, predetermined processing is performed by the data processing circuit 36, and second digital image data is stored in the image memory 20 if necessary. In this case, the predetermined processing is sent from the key 38a or the pen touch input device 38b to the data processing circuit 36 via the pointing device interface circuit 38c, but it is needless to say that the system control CPU 61 also controls the timing and the like. No.

The second digital image data, which has been subjected to predetermined processing by the data processing circuit 36, is sent to the display device output circuit 45b, the video signal output circuit 46, and the print head drive circuit 56, where image display and image display are performed. A print is made. Also in this case, needless to say, the system control CPU 61 controls the timing and the like, and it goes without saying that the respective devices described above fulfill their respective functions.

Next, a specific example of the data processing circuit 36 will be described. First, a first example is shown in FIG. That is, this data processing circuit has a data processing control system 74 mainly constituted by a data processing CPU 71, a data processing program RAM 72, and a data processing working RAM 73.
It also has a plurality of arithmetic circuits 75 having the same function, and has a data router circuit 76 for sending data to these arithmetic circuits 75 and controlling the destination of data output from the arithmetic circuit 75. The data processing circuit 74 controls the data router circuit 76. Further, the system control bus interface 77 receives control from the system control CPU 61 shown in FIG. The data processing control system 74, data router circuit 76, and system control bus interface 77 are connected to a data processing bus 79.
Connected by Further, it has an image data bus interface 78 for controlling each arithmetic circuit 75 to input and output image data.

That is, the control from the system control CPU 61 is accepted by the system control bus interface 77,
In addition to transmitting the information to the data processing CPU 71, the system control CPU
Send to 61.

In such a data processing circuit, data processing is executed in the following procedure. Here, an operation of performing data processing on image data held in the image memory 20 and holding the image data again in the image memory 20 will be described.

First, data processing software to be executed is transferred from the flash memory 63 or the system ROM 62 of the system control CPU 61 to the data processing program RAM 72 via the system control bus interface 77. Next, the system control CPU 61 instructs the data processing CPU 71 via the system control bus interface 77 to start executing data processing. The data processing CPU 71 reads out image data to be processed in the image memory 20 via the image data bus interface 78 based on the transferred data processing software, and furthermore, a plurality of arithmetic circuits 75 for processing by the data router circuit 76. Is input to a specific arithmetic circuit. Each arithmetic circuit 75 performs data processing on the input image data based on the data processing software, and transmits the processed image data to the image memory via the data router circuit 76 and the image data bus interface 78. 20 is written as image data.

When the next operation is subsequently performed, the data is input to the next specific operation circuit 75 via the data router circuit 76. As described above, the image data in the image memory 20 is sequentially read out, the arithmetic processing is executed, and the image data is written in the image memory 20 again as the image data, thereby executing the data processing according to the data processing software.

During the processing of the image data or after the completion of the processing of all the image data, the data processing CPU 71 notifies the system control CPU 61 of the processing state or the result state via the system control bus interface 77, thereby controlling the system control. The CPU 61 can know the process and the result of the data processing being executed. The data processing working RAM 73 includes a system control CPU 61.
Data processing parameters and data processing CP sent from
It is used for maintaining the state during operation of U71.

The plurality of arithmetic circuits 75 are set so as to execute the same processing, and each arithmetic circuit 75 can be selectively used depending on a data position in an image. That is, for example, the data in the first column in the image is processed by the arithmetic circuit A of the arithmetic circuit 75, and the data in the second column is processed by the arithmetic circuit B in the arithmetic circuit 75. Further, a row unit may be used instead of a column.

The plurality of arithmetic circuits 75 may be set to execute different processing,
The data processed by the specific arithmetic circuit 75 may be input to another arithmetic circuit 75 that performs another process by the data router circuit 76. In this way, when there are a plurality of processes to be executed, it is possible to sequentially perform necessary processing on the image data read from the image memory 20 and then write the processed data to the image memory 20. This is preferable because it is possible to reduce the number of times of access.

The method of using the plurality of arithmetic circuits 75 is as follows.
It may be fixed in advance, or may be variable by setting by a data processing program. The number of arithmetic circuits 75 connected in parallel is selected and determined according to the required processing speed, the scale of the circuits constituting each arithmetic circuit, and the like.

As the data processing circuit, there is one as shown in FIG. The data processing circuit shown in FIG. 4 has the same configuration as that of the data processing circuit shown in FIG. 3 except that the arithmetic circuit 75 and the data router circuit 76 are omitted. Description is omitted. However, a processor capable of high-speed processing is used as the data processing CPU 71, and a DSP, a RISC CPU, or a dedicated data processing CPU is used.

As the data processing circuit, there is one as shown in FIG. That is, a plurality of data processing circuits 80 are arranged in parallel, and each data processing circuit 80 is connected to the control system of the entire apparatus by the system control CPU 61 via the system control bus interface 77 and further via the image data bus interface 78. And connected to the image data bus 66. Each data processing circuit 80 may be composed of a dedicated arithmetic circuit, or may be composed of a general-purpose arithmetic control circuit and a general-purpose arithmetic control circuit. System control CPU
Control software 61 controls each data processing circuit 80 via the system control bus interface 77 to execute data processing on image data in the image memory 20. Each data processing circuit 80 may perform the same processing or different processing according to the arrangement of data as in the arithmetic circuit 75 shown in FIG. 3 earlier.

Next, the flow of data processing in the printer of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. In FIGS. 6 and 7, a hatched line attached to the line indicating the flow of data indicates that the data is 8 bits or more / color data. As described above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, of the image input means 7 shown in FIG. 6, the computer interface circuit 42 outputs RGB image data input from the outside to the image data input / output circuit 31. In the image input means 7, the image data interface circuit 39, the removable media drive device 40 and the film reading device 41 output the read image data or video signal to the image data input / output circuit 31. And output as RGB image data.

Next, the image data input / output circuit 31 processes the image data input from each image input means 7 so that they can be handled in the same column, and outputs the processed data to the data processing section 5.

As shown in FIG. 7, the data processing section 5 comprises a compression / decompression section 81, an enlargement / reduction section 82, a gradation correction section 8
3. Color tone correction section 84, contour enhancement correction section 85, other correction section 8
6. It is composed of an image synthesis / editing section 87 and an image processing section 88. If the image data input from the image data input / output circuit 31 does not have ideal image quality characteristics, the display device 45a In order to improve the image quality of the image displayed on the external monitor and the image printed by the image printing unit 3, the image data is corrected. If the image data has characteristic characteristics, the correction and the image quality are improved. This is the part that performs the processing for causing

The compression / decompression unit 81 is required when image data is stored in the image memory 20 in a reversibly or irreversibly compressed form. The RGB image data input to the data processing unit 5, the RGB image data after each processing, and the RGB image data between each processing are compressed as needed, and the compressed image data is stored in the image memory 20. . In addition, it has a function of reading out and expanding image data compressed and held in the image memory 20, executing various processes as uncompressed RGB image data, and outputting it to each unit in the data processing unit 5. .

[0257] When the RGB image data is input to the data processing section 5, it is input to the scaling section 82. The enlargement / reduction unit 82 is a unit that performs enlargement or reduction processing on the image data when the input image data is outside the size range that can be handled by the data processing unit 5 of the printer device of the present embodiment. .

[0258] The RGB image data is stored in the enlarging / reducing unit 82.
Is input to the tone correction unit 83 next to. The tone correction unit 8
Reference numeral 3 denotes a portion for correcting the gradation characteristics of the input image data so that the image quality is improved when the image is printed out when the gradation characteristic histogram of the input image data is extremely deviated. In particular, when the exposure amount is not appropriate when the subject is photographed, the entire image becomes too dark or too bright, and this is corrected to improve the gradation characteristics of the entire image. If the gamma characteristic of the input image data can be similarly improved, the gamma characteristic is corrected.

The RGB image data is stored in the tone correcting section 83.
Is input to the color tone correcting unit 84 after the above. The color tone correction unit 8
Reference numeral 4 denotes a color tone of the input image data such that the image quality of the image is improved when the printout is output, for example, when the tone characteristics of the input image data are extremely deviated, as in the above-described tone correction unit 83. This is the part that corrects the characteristics. In addition to general color tone correction, when a specific color tone, particularly skin tone or gray color tone, is out of an appropriate range, it is also possible to make correction so that the portion falls within an appropriate range.

The RGB image data is stored in the color tone correcting section 84.
Is input to the contour emphasis correction unit 85 next to. The outline emphasis correction unit 85 is a part that corrects the outline of the image by performing outline emphasis correction processing when the outline of the image of the input image data is not clear or emphasized too much. .

The RGB image data is input to the other correction unit 86 after the outline enhancement correction unit 85. Other correction section 8
Reference numeral 6 denotes a portion to be executed when a process for improving the image quality of an input image is added in addition to the processes described above.

In the example described above, an example has been described in which the input image data is sequentially processed in each processing unit. However, unnecessary processing may be omitted from these processings, and the processing order may be reduced. It is needless to say that also can be changed.

The RGB image data which has been subjected to each processing as described above is then sent to the image synthesis / editing section 87 and the image processing section 8.
8 is input. These are images for performing various processing on the input screen based on the user's instruction from the human interface unit, and combining and editing a plurality of input images to finally print. Is the part that generates

In these parts, it is also possible to combine an image pattern prepared in advance with the input image data. Further, under the control of the human interface unit during the editing operation, the user can input a desired image pattern from an instruction device such as a pen touch input device or the like, and combine this image pattern with the input image pattern. .

Control software for executing such composition, editing, and processing of image data and image patterns prepared in advance are configured to be newly input from the removable media drive device 40, the computer interface circuit 42, and the like. It is possible.

The RGB signals output from the data processing unit 5 are output to the display device processing unit 22 and the video signal processing unit 23,
Each is input to the print output processing unit 24.

The display device processing section 22 has a configuration in which the display device 45a has a characteristic display output characteristic. Even if the image data output from the data processing section 5 is displayed by the display device 45a as it is, the display device 45a The display device 45a is used when the display output characteristic of the display device 45a
This is a part for executing processing for correcting the display output characteristic characteristic of. The display device processing unit 22 includes a print compatibility correction unit 91, an output characteristic correction unit 92, and an output gamma conversion unit 93, which will be described later.

The video signal processing section 23 is a section for executing processing for converting the image data output from the data processing section 5 into a standard video signal represented by an NTSC signal and outputting the standard video signal. The video signal processing unit 23 includes a print adaptation correction unit 94, an output characteristic conversion unit 95, and an output gamma conversion unit 96, which will be described later. Further, in the video signal processing unit 23, when the expressible characteristic range of the image data is different from the expression range defined by the standard video signal, the expression range of the image data is converted into the standard video signal expression range. Processing. It should be noted that the video signal processing unit 23 can use a video signal according to a standard video signal instead of the standard video signal. In particular, enlarging (brilliantly) the saturation from a standard video signal is performed to display an image more clearly.

The print output processing section 24 records the image data output from the data processing section 5 from the print head 25 onto a recording medium. Print data). The processing in the printing output processing unit 24 is realized by conversion processing using an LUT (look-up table), an arithmetic processing using an arithmetic circuit capable of executing a product-sum operation at a high speed, or software having a high-speed arithmetic processing algorithm. This is realized by arithmetic processing, processing by a dedicated conversion circuit, or the like. In the case where the arithmetic processing is sequentially performed, the effective precision of each data often deteriorates if the same number of bits as the number of bits of each data in the input image data is always used. In this case, by increasing the number of bits of each data in the middle of the calculation with respect to the number of bits of the first image data and reducing the number of bits increased in the last processing, it is possible to avoid a decrease in effective accuracy. It is possible.

The print output processing section 24 is a RGB-CM
Y conversion section 98, color correction section 99, black extraction under color removal section 10
0, an output gamma correction and gradation correction unit 101, a sharpness correction unit 102, and an output characteristic conversion unit 103 are sequentially arranged.

The RGB-CMY conversion section 98 converts the RGB
C (Cya) that uses image data in the print head 25
n), M (Magenta), and Y (Yellow) are portions that are converted into data of each color of ink or toner. It is realized by density Log conversion, complementary color conversion, or linear masking conversion.

The image data converted into the CMY image data as described above is input to the color corrector 99. After being converted into CMY image data, the color correction unit 99
This is a portion for correcting a shift in the color tone (particularly hue and saturation) of the printed image by the image printing unit 3 caused by the fact that the spectral absorption characteristics of each CMY ink or toner are different from the ideal characteristics due to subtractive color mixture.

The color correction section 99 is realized by conversion using an LUT (look-up table) and an operation, or a linear masking operation, a nonlinear masking operation, or the like. Also,
Printable maximum characteristic range of image data and print head 2
In many cases, the maximum expressible range of the print image on the recording medium by the image data 5 is different. Therefore, when the maximum range by the image data is wider than the maximum range by the print, the printable range of the image data Cannot reproduce the part beyond the expression range. For this reason, in the color correction unit 99, in order to express the surpassed portion on a print, it is necessary to perform compression conversion or clip conversion of the entire image data. Further, a conversion method may be employed in which a color tone does not shift with the compression conversion and the clip conversion.

Next, the CMY image data is input to the black extraction / under color removal unit 100. This black extraction under color removal unit 100
Means that if there is black (hereinafter referred to as BK) ink or toner in the print head 25 and if each of the CMY data has a BK component,
A process for replacing the BK component with BK ink or BK toner is performed. Thereafter, each BK component in the CMY image data replaced with the BK is removed from the data value of the CMY image data.

There are various methods for replacing the BK component in CMY with BK ink or toner, including a method of replacing all components, a method of replacing only a predetermined ratio, and a method of replacing the BK component in a region having a predetermined density or more. There are various methods. By expressing the BK component of the CMY data with BK ink or toner in this way, it is possible to realize a black expression in an image that cannot be sufficiently reproduced with the respective CMY inks or toners at a sufficient level. Can be. The data of the BK component is shown as K in FIG.

Subsequently, the CMYK image data is input to the output gamma correction and gradation correction unit 101. The output gamma correction and gradation correction unit 101 outputs the print output when the printhead 25 has a characteristic print output characteristic by the recording ink or toner and the halftone reproduction method in the image reproduction characteristic on the recording medium. This portion performs output gamma correction and gradation correction suitable for characteristics. In the output gamma correction and tone correction unit 101, conversion is performed on the original image data so that the tone reproduction when printed is the best.

Next, the CMYK image data is input to the sharpness correction unit 102. The sharpness correction unit 102 is a part that performs contour enhancement and smoothing processing to improve the image quality of a printed image.

Further, the CMYK image data is input to the output characteristic conversion unit 103. This output characteristic converter 1
Numeral 03 denotes a portion for improving the print image quality by executing characteristic correction based on the type of the print head 25, the driving method of the print head 25, the type of recording medium, the type of ink or toner, and the like. Specifically, environmental temperature correction at the time of printing,
Thermal history correction, variation correction of each element of the print head 25, and the like can be given. Among these correction processes, those which are suitable to be corrected by the print head drive circuit 56 may be corrected by the print head drive circuit 56.

Then, in the printer of this example,
In order to visually match the image quality of the image displayed by the display device 45a and the image displayed by the external monitor with the image quality of the image printed by the image printing unit 3, the image printing unit 3 corresponds to the printing characteristic setting for defining the image printing quality. Thus, the display output characteristic setting for defining the display image quality in the image display output unit 2 is corrected.

Specifically, the display device processing unit 22 and the video signal processing unit 22 change the printing characteristics of the printing output processing unit 24, specifically, to visually match the image quality in accordance with the processing contents and the like. The correction parameter indicating the content of the correction to be performed by the unit 23 is stored in the print matching correction unit 9
1 and the print signal corrector 94 of the video signal processor 23.

That is, in the display device processing section 22, the RGB image data is brought into a state having the correction parameters in the print adaptation correction section 91 which is inputted first, and the processing proceeds in this state, and the display device 45
a.

The same applies to the video signal processing unit 23. The RGB image data has a correction parameter in the print adaptation correction unit 94 which is input first, and the processing proceeds in this state, and the data is sent to the external monitor. Is displayed.

As a result, the image quality of the image displayed by the display device 45a and the image displayed by the external monitor is visually equivalent to the image quality of the image printed by the image printing unit 3.

In the above example, the display output characteristics of the display device processing section 22 and the video signal processing section 23 are corrected in accordance with the printing characteristics of the image printing section 3, specifically, the processing contents of the printing output processing section 24. Thus, the image quality of the image displayed by the image display output unit 2 and that of the image printed by the image printing unit 3 are visually equivalent. However, the image printing unit 3
The printing device processing unit 22 and the video signal processing unit 23
It is also possible to match with the display output characteristics of.

That is, the flow of data processing can be as shown in FIG. FIG. 8 shows a print adaptation correction unit 91 and a video signal processing unit 2 of the display device processing unit 22.
The only difference from FIG. 6 is the absence of the print adaptation correction unit 94 of No. 3 and the absence of the line indicating the correction parameter from the print output processing unit 24. The description is omitted.

However, when the flow of the data processing is the method as shown in FIG. 8, printing is performed in order to make the image quality visually equivalent, for example, in response to a change in the display output characteristic of the display device processing section 22 or the like. A correction parameter indicating the content of the correction to be performed by the output processing unit 24 is input to the color correction unit 99 and the output gamma correction and gradation correction unit 101 of the print output processing unit 24.

That is, in the print output processing unit 24, the RGB image data is converted into a color correction unit 99 and an output gamma correction and gradation correction unit 101 which substantially determine the characteristics of the image.
, A state having correction parameters is obtained. In this state, the process proceeds, and the image is printed by the image printing unit 3.

As a result, the image quality of the image displayed by the display device 45a is visually equivalent to the image quality of the image printed by the image printing unit 3.

The display device processing unit 2 as described above
2 and the video signal processing unit 23 and the print output processing unit 24 are provided with a non-volatile memory, and if correction parameters are stored in a rewritable state, processing can always be performed using the optimum correction parameters. preferable.

The display of the menu screen or the like on the display device 15 or the external monitor has been described above. A specific display example will be described along the operation procedure. Among these images, the first screen includes, for example, a screen 110 showing a menu as shown in FIG. Here, a screen on which input processing is performed by directly touching a predetermined portion of the screen is assumed. This screen 110
As shown in FIG. 9, a plurality of selection keys 111 displaying respective names for selecting an external connection device and an image input unit are displayed, and an image display area 112 is displayed.
Is mainly displayed. In the image display area 112, when an external connection device and an image input unit are selected by the selection key 111, an image 113 accessible by the selected unit is displayed as a reduced image in the area.

Further, on this screen 110, a detailed setting key 114 used when the image 113 is selected under specific conditions, and an edit processing correction key used when editing or processing the selected image 113 are displayed. 115, a cancel key 116 for canceling the process is also displayed.

[0292] First, the user, on the display screen,
When one of the externally connected device and the image input means is selected and designated by the selection key 111, a plurality of images 113 which can be read by this are displayed in the image display area 112 in a reduced state. At this time, the image 11
When there is information accompanying the information of No. 3, for example, header information, the information is displayed in association with each image 113.

Next, when the user selects a desired image 113 from the displayed plurality of images 113, a display indicating that the selected image 113 has been selected is displayed.

When the detailed setting key 114 is selected, conditions can be input so that the user can select the image 113 under specific conditions such as the order of photographing date and time. Just do it.

Further, when the above-mentioned editing and processing correction key 115 is selected, processing such as predetermined editing, processing, synthesis and correction is performed, and the image 113 selected by the user is selected.
The desired processing can be performed for

Next, it is preferable that a screen for processing the image selected as described above be displayed. That is, as shown in FIG. 10A, an image 117 selected on the screen 110, a plurality of process selection keys 118 indicating process A, process B, process C. A print key 119 for instructing start and a cancel key 120 for canceling the process are displayed.

That is, the user selects the processing selection key 118
To perform a desired process on the image 117. In this case, in the image 117, the fact that the processing is being performed and the image of the processing result are displayed.

If the processing can be started from a specific portion in the image 117, the display in the range where the processing is completed is gradually changed to the display after the processing, so that the processing in the image 117 can be started. Is checked to what extent
preferable.

In the case of performing the above processing, as the processing, processing having a variable parameter and processing not having such a variable parameter are assumed.

Thus, for example, assume that the process A is a process having a variable parameter. When such a process is selected, for example, as shown in FIG.
, A process display section 121 showing the process currently being performed, a selection key 122 for displaying that the previous screen (the screen shown in FIG. 10A) is to be returned and selecting this, and a cancel key for canceling the process Screen 1 having a variable parameter selection part 126 and a decision key 127 for fixing the process
10 may be displayed.

As shown in FIG. 10 (b), the variable parameter selection section 126 has a slide volume display section 125 for displaying the level of the variable parameter, and adjustment keys 124a and 124b for raising and lowering the variable parameter. Here, when the left adjustment key 124a in FIG. 10B is pressed, the level of the variable parameter shifts to the left, and when the right adjustment key 124b in FIG. 10B is pressed, the level of the variable parameter is changed. Move to the right. For example, assuming that the variable parameter is the brightness of the image, the left adjustment key 124a in FIG. 10B is a key to decrease brightness, and the right adjustment key 124b in FIG. 10A is a key to increase brightness. , These adjustment keys 124a,
By adjusting 124b to change the level of the slide volume display unit 125, the image brightness is also changed and displayed.

On the other hand, it is assumed that, for example, process B has no variable parameters. When such a process is selected, for example, as shown in FIG.
, A process display section 121 showing the process currently being performed, a selection key 122 for displaying that the previous screen (the screen shown in FIG. 10A) is to be returned and selecting this, and a cancel key for canceling the process What is necessary is just to display the screen 110 which has 123 and has the determination key 126 which fixes processing.

Each process is performed on the screen as shown in FIGS. 10B and 10C, and when the user confirms that this process can be ended, the enter key 127 is selected. I do. Then, when printing is performed, FIG.
Return to the screen as shown in Fig. 7 and select the print key 119 to print.

When displaying an image as shown in FIG. 10 (b) or 10 (c), a plurality of reduced images are displayed instead of displaying one image as in image 117. Alternatively, the entire displayed image may be easily confirmed by scrolling the image according to an instruction from the human interface unit.

In this way, the original image and the edited image can be displayed side by side, and the degree of change in the image data in each process, the effect of each process, and the like can be easily confirmed.

Also, when processing is performed on a plurality of image data, when the processing is performed on each of them, they can be displayed side by side, so that confirmation is easy.

When printing is performed as described above, it is preferable to correct the luminance. That is, for example, when an image as shown in FIG. 11 is to be printed, if the luminance histogram is distributed averagely as shown in FIG. 12, it is possible to form a print with sufficient image quality. is there. In FIG. 12, the horizontal axis indicates the luminance level of the pixel, and the vertical axis indicates the pixel amount. However, when the luminance distribution is distributed entirely on the high luminance (highlight) side as shown in FIG. 13, or the luminance distribution is entirely distributed on the low luminance (shadow) side as shown in FIG. If they are distributed, sufficient image quality cannot be obtained if printing is performed as it is. 13 and 14, the horizontal axis indicates the luminance level, and the vertical axis indicates the pixel amount. Therefore, it is preferable to perform the correction to correct the image as shown in FIG.

Next, the general operation of the printer of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS.

First, as shown in FIG. 15, step S1
, The power is turned on. Thereby, step S2
, A processing menu as shown in FIG. 9 is displayed. Subsequently, in step S3, it is determined whether or not an instruction to select image input means for inputting image data or an externally connected device is performed. When the instruction is performed, a designated desired one is selected. Drive the data interface unit. Since there are a plurality of types of image input means or externally connected devices for inputting the image data as described above, the removable media drive unit is driven in step S5, and the film reading unit is driven in step S6. ,
In step S7, the computer interface unit is driven. That is, the process proceeds to any of steps S4 to S7 according to the selection of step S3.

On the other hand, if the instruction to select the image input means for inputting the image data or the externally connected device is not issued in step S3, the instruction for selecting the image input means or the externally connected device for inputting the image data is returned in step S3. Is determined.

[0311] As described above, the image data output from the selected image input means or the externally connected device in steps S4 to S7 is displayed as an image on the display device or the external monitor in step S8. At this time, when a plurality of image data is output from the selected image input unit or the externally connected device, the output plurality of image data is displayed as a plurality of reduced images on a display device or an external monitor.

[0312] Next, in step S9, it is determined whether or not the selection of image input means for inputting image data or the selection of an externally connected device is to be changed. If the instruction to change the selection of the image input means or the externally connected device for inputting the image data is not issued, it is determined in step S10 whether the instruction to select the image to be processed is issued. The processing referred to here indicates processing such as editing processing correction by the image processing unit, printing processing by the image printing unit, and each processing executed therefor.

On the other hand, if an instruction to change image input means or an externally connected device for inputting image data again is given without selecting an image to be processed from the displayed plurality of images, step S9 In the selection of the image input means or external connection device to input the image data again,
The process proceeds to any of steps S4 to S7 according to the selection.

[0314] As described above, the image selected in step S10 is subjected to image selection processing in step S11 so that the user can see that the image has been selected. indicate.

Then, in step S13, it is determined whether or not an instruction is issued as to whether or not to perform editing processing correction or the like on the image selected as described above. In S14, the image data of the target image is read.

In the present invention, reduction and / or thinning processing may be performed in step S4 to step S7 or step S14 as necessary.

On the other hand, if no image to be processed is selected in step S10, the process proceeds to step S1.
3 will be sent.

If no instruction to execute the processing such as editing processing correction is made in step S13, it is determined again in step S9 whether to select image input means for inputting image data or an externally connected device. Is done.

As described above, steps S9, S10, S1
By sequentially judging step 4, it waits for an instruction to change the selection of the image input means or the externally connected device, an instruction to select an image to be processed, and an instruction to execute processing such as editing and processing correction.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG.
In 5, the target image data read in step S14 is displayed. Next, in step S16, it is determined whether or not an instruction as to whether to print (print) is made.

Here, in the case where an instruction for printing (printing) is not made, it is determined whether or not an instruction to execute various processes is made. That is, in step S17, processing A
Is determined, and when the instruction is given, the input of the variable parameter related to the process A is prompted in step S18. When variable parameters are entered,
Processing A is executed in step S19, and step S19 is executed.
In step 20, an image as a result of executing the process A is displayed by the image display output unit. At this time, if the image is corrected based on the display output characteristic setting and the printing characteristic setting corrected by the characteristic correction unit, and the corrected image is displayed by the image display output unit, the display image Is preferably visually equivalent to the image printed by the image printing unit, and is preferable. If the input of the variable parameter related to the process A is prompted in step S18 and the input is not performed, the process waits until the variable parameter related to the process A is input again.

If the execution instruction of the processing A is not issued in the step S17, it is determined whether or not the processing B is to be executed in the step S21. When the instruction is issued, the input of the variable parameter relating to the processing B is prompted in the step S22. . When the input of the variable parameter is performed, the process B is executed in step S23, and the process B is executed in step S2.
In step 4, the image resulting from the execution of process B is displayed by the image display output unit. The image is corrected based on the display output characteristic setting and the printing characteristic setting corrected by the characteristic correcting unit, and the corrected image is displayed by the image display output unit. It is visually equivalent to the image and is preferred. If the input of the variable parameter related to the process B is prompted in step S22 and the input is not performed, the process waits until the input of the variable parameter related to the process B is performed.

The same applies to other processes. Finally, it is determined whether or not to perform the process X in step S25, and when the instruction is given, the input of a variable parameter relating to the process X is prompted in step S26. When the input of the variable parameter is performed, the process X is executed in step S27, and the process X is executed in step S28.
Is displayed by the image display output unit. If the image is corrected based on the display output characteristic setting and the printing characteristic setting corrected by the characteristic correction unit, and the corrected image is displayed by the image display output unit,
This display image is visually equivalent to the image printed by the image printing unit, and is preferable. If the input of the variable parameter related to the process X is prompted in step S26 and the input is not performed, the process waits until the input of the variable parameter related to the process X is performed.

[0324] It is sequentially determined whether a print instruction, a start instruction of process A, a start instruction of process B, and a start instruction of process X are given to the image data selected in this manner.

Then, in step S16, it is determined again whether or not a print (print) instruction is given to the image data selected or processed as described above. When a plurality of types of processing are performed, for example, the image data on which the processing A has been executed is returned, and in step S16, printing (printing) is not instructed.
In step 17, the process A is not instructed to start, and the process proceeds to step S21.
, The process of performing the process B as it is, and returning the image data on which the process B has been performed are sequentially performed. When all processes desired by the user have been performed, in step S16,
What is necessary is just to instruct printing (printing).

At this time, in the printer of the present invention, the contents of each processing, parameters in the processing, and the editing contents of the processing order are stored.

If it is determined in step S16 that an instruction to execute printing (printing) has been issued, it is determined in step S29 in FIG. 17 whether or not there is image data that can be printed out in the image memory. If there is no image data that can be subjected to print output processing, step S30
Reads the target image data for which processing such as editing processing correction is performed. At this time, if the entire image data cannot be printed on a recording medium if the size of the read image data is large, the image data is reduced to a printable size and / or
Alternatively, a thinning process may be performed.

Subsequently, in step S31, the image data is again subjected to editing processing correction processing and the like based on the storage to generate image data that can be printed.

If it is determined in step S29 that there is image data that can be printed out in the image memory, the process may proceed to step S31.

Further, print (print) output processing is performed in step S32, and printout (print) is performed in step S33 to form a print image. To continue printing the image, the processing menu is displayed again in step S2 shown in FIG. 15, and the operation described above may be repeated.

As described above, in the printer of this embodiment, various operations can be easily performed, and handling is easy. Further, since the work is performed by the same operation regardless of the type of the image input means, the user is not bothered by the work procedure.

[0332]

As described above, in the printing method and the printing apparatus according to the present invention, when the first input of image data is performed and a predetermined editing process is performed on the image data to obtain an edited image, During the execution of the predetermined editing process, each process content, a parameter in each process, and a process order are stored,
A second input of the image data is performed, and at least a part of a predetermined editing process is performed on the image data based on the storage to obtain edited image data, and a print output is performed based on the edited image data. To form a print image.

That is, in the printing method and the printer of the present invention, various editing processes are attempted on the first input digital image data, and the contents of each process, parameters in each process, Since the order is stored and the editing process is performed on the original image data input for the second time based on the storage, the editing process for the image data input for the first time is performed. Only a part of the processing can be performed, and the processing time is greatly reduced.

In the printing method and the printer according to the present invention, when the first image data is inputted,
When the image data is reduced and / or thinned to obtain reduced image data, and a predetermined editing process is performed on the reduced image data to obtain an edited image, during execution of the predetermined editing process, The parameters and the processing order in the processing are stored, and the image data is input as the normal image data at the time of the second input of the image data, or is subjected to a reduction and / or thinning process different from that at the time of the input of the first image data. The image data is input as reduced image data, and at least a part of a predetermined editing process is executed on the normal image data or the reduced image data based on the storage to obtain edited image data.

That is, in the printing method and the printer of the present invention, the first input image data is used as reduced image data, and the time required for the editing process is reduced to the original size of image data or, for example, the reduction ratio is reduced. small,
The time required for the editing process for image data of a size that has not been reduced so much is significantly reduced, and there is no need to perform the reduction process when displaying an image on a display device during the editing process, and the size of the image data is reduced. Even if the processing is large and each processing is complicated, the time required for the editing processing and the display on the display device is greatly reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram showing a configuration of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram illustrating an example of a data processing circuit of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing another example of the data processing circuit of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram showing still another example of the data processing circuit of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a circuit diagram showing an example of a data processing flow of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram showing a flow of data processing in a data processing unit of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a circuit diagram showing another example of the flow of data processing of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of an image displayed on a display device or an external monitor of the printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing another example of an image displayed on a display device or an external monitor of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing still another example of an image displayed on a display device or an external monitor of the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram illustrating an example of a luminance histogram of an image.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram illustrating another example of a luminance histogram of an image.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing still another example of a luminance histogram of an image.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a part of a schematic operation in the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing a part of a schematic operation in the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart showing a part of a schematic operation in the printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a conventional image data printing method.

FIG. 19 is a circuit diagram showing a data flow of an example of a conventional image data printing method.

FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram showing another example of a conventional image data printing method.

FIG. 21 is a circuit diagram showing a data flow of another example of the conventional image data printing method.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 image data input section, 2 image display output section, 3 image printing section, 4 characteristic correction section, 5 data processing section, 6 image processing section, 7 image input means, 8 pointing device, 15
Display device, 16 output ports, 20 image memory,
21 main body, 22 display device processing section, 23 video signal processing section, 24 print output processing section, 25 print head, 26 print head drive section, 27 image data input / output section, 28 human interface section

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (reference) G06F 15/66 355A F-term (reference) 2C062 AA04 AA27 AB15 AB17 2C087 AA13 AB01 BA03 BB16 BD06 BD24 BD53 CA03 CB20 5B057 BA29 CA01 CA16 CA18 CB01 CB16 CB18 CD07 CE11 CE17 5C076 AA22 BB06

Claims (14)

[Claims] 1. When inputting image data for the first time, and executing a predetermined editing process on the image data to obtain an edited image, during execution of the predetermined editing process, details of each process and parameters in each process Storing a processing order, performing a second input of the image data, and executing at least a part of a predetermined editing process based on the storage on the image data to obtain edited image data; A printing method, wherein a printing image is formed by performing printing output based on data. 2. At the time of the first input of image data, the image data is reduced and / or thinned out to obtain reduced image data, and a predetermined editing process is performed on the reduced image data to obtain an edited image. At this time, during execution of the predetermined editing process, the contents of each process, parameters in each process, and the processing order are stored. When the second image data is input, the image data is kept as normal image data. 2. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein at least a part of the predetermined editing process is executed based on the storage to generate edited image data. 3. At the time of inputting the first image data, the image data is reduced and / or thinned out by a predetermined process to obtain reduced image data, and a predetermined editing process is performed on the reduced image data to edit the image data. During execution of the predetermined editing processing, each processing content, parameters in each processing, and processing order are stored. When the second image data is input, the predetermined reduction and / or thinning processing is performed. Reduced image data that has been subjected to different reduction and / or thinning processing is input, and at least a part of a predetermined editing process is executed on the reduced image data based on the storage to obtain edited image data. The printing method according to claim 1, wherein 4. An image data input unit for converting externally input digital image data and / or an analog image signal into first digital image data by analog-to-digital conversion; An editing processing unit that performs at least one editing process to generate second digital image data that is edited image data; and a content of each process during execution of the at least one editing process.
An edit processing storage unit for storing parameters and a processing order in each process; and a print for performing print output processing for converting the first digital image data or the second digital image data into print data for printing in the image print unit. An output processing unit, and an image printing unit that prints out on a recording medium based on the printing data, wherein the first input of the first digital image data is performed from the image data input unit to the editing processing unit. When a predetermined editing process is performed on the first digital image data to be edited image data in the editing processing unit, during the execution of the predetermined editing process,
The contents of each processing, the parameters in each processing, and the contents of editing processing in the processing order are stored. The second input of the first digital image data is performed in the editing processing unit, and the image data is stored in the editing processing storage unit. Based on the above, at least a part of the predetermined editing process is executed to be second digital image data, and the second digital image data is converted into print data by the print output processing unit, and the image print unit A printing apparatus for printing on a recording medium based on the printing data to form a printing image. 5. The printer according to claim 4, wherein the editing processing storage unit stores the contents of the editing processing as information related to the image data. 6. The printer according to claim 4, wherein the editing processing storage unit stores the contents of the editing processing as information relating to an identification code added to the image data. 7. The editing processing storage unit has a non-volatile memory, and the contents of the editing processing are stored in the non-volatile memory as information relating to an identification code added to the image data. The printer device according to the above. 8. A similar editing process is performed on predetermined image data.
5. The printer device according to claim 4, wherein, when the editing process is performed more than once, the editing process is performed based on the storage of the editing process storage unit. 9. An image data reduction processing unit for performing reduction and / or thinning-out processing on the first digital image data to obtain reduced first digital image data, wherein the first digital image data is converted by the image data input unit. The reduced first digital image data is used as the first digital image data reduced by the image data reduction processing unit, and the reduced first digital image data is input to the editing processing unit. When a predetermined editing process is performed on the reduced first digital image data to be edited image data, the editing process storage unit executes the predetermined editing process,
The contents of each processing, the parameters in each processing, and the contents of editing processing of the processing order are stored. The second input of the first digital image data is performed in the editing processing unit as normal image data. At least a part of the predetermined editing process is executed based on the storage of the editing process storage unit to generate second digital image data, and the second digital image data is converted into print data in the print output processing unit. 5. The printer device according to claim 4, wherein the image printing section prints and outputs a print image on a recording medium based on the print data. 10. The first digital image data and / or
Or an image display output unit for displaying and outputting the second digital image data. When the first digital image data has a size that cannot be displayed by the image display output unit, the image data is reduced. 10. The printer device according to claim 9, wherein the processing unit performs reduction and / or thinning-out processing on the first digital image data to obtain reduced first digital image data. 11. When the first digital image data has a size that cannot be printed and output on a recording medium by an image printing unit, the image data reduction processing unit converts the first digital image data into first digital image data. 10. The printer device according to claim 9, wherein the first digital image data is reduced by performing reduction and / or thinning processing. 12. An image data reduction processing unit for performing reduction and / or thinning-out processing on the first digital image data to obtain reduced first digital image data, wherein the first digital image data is converted by the image data input unit. The first digital image data is subjected to predetermined processing in the image data reduction processing unit as reduced first digital image data, and the reduced first digital image data is input to the editing processing unit. When a predetermined editing process is performed on the reduced first digital image data to be edited image data in the editing processing unit, the editing process storage unit performs the predetermined editing process during the execution of the predetermined editing process.
Each processing content, parameters in each processing, and editing processing contents of the processing order are stored, and the second input of the first digital image data is reduced in the editing processing unit by performing processing different from the predetermined processing. This is performed as the first digital image data, and at least a part of the predetermined editing process is performed on the reduced image data based on the storage of the editing process storage unit, and the second digital image data is processed.
The second digital image data is converted into print data in the print output processing section, and the print section is printed out on a recording medium based on the print data in the image print section to form a print image. 5. The printer according to claim 4, wherein: 13. The first digital image data and / or
Or an image display output unit for displaying and outputting the second digital image data. When the first digital image data has a size that cannot be displayed by the image display output unit, the image data is reduced. 13. The printer device according to claim 12, wherein the processing unit performs reduction and / or thinning-out processing on the first digital image data to obtain reduced first digital image data. 14. When the first digital image data has a size that cannot be printed and output on a recording medium by an image printing unit, the image data reduction processing unit converts the first digital image data into first digital image data. 13. The printer device according to claim 12, wherein the first digital image data is reduced by performing reduction and / or thinning processing.