JP2009033541A - Image processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain an image processing apparatus which does not cause a difference (color shift) between a color of paper data of an original, and a color on an image of internal data processed in the image processing apparatus. <P>SOLUTION: An image processing apparatus comprises a means for registering beforehand image data not to cause the color shift and a color, a means for retrieving specific image data, and a means for replacing a color of the retrieved image with the color registered beforehand, wherein a color of an image of which the color or the shape is similar to that of the image not to cause the color shift is replaced with a color of the image registered beforehand. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus that requires color reproducibility, and more particularly to a color scanner and a color MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) that digitize a paper document.

  FIG. 12 shows an MFP controller 100 for explaining a conventional example of the present invention. The controller 100 is connected to a CPU 102, a memory controller (MC) 103, a general-purpose bus 105, an image processing unit 110, and an image data development unit (RIP) 113 by a system bus bridge (SBB) 101.

  A hard disk controller (HDDCont) 106 and a LAN I / F 109 are connected to the general-purpose bus 105, and image data in a page vector format (PDL (page description language), PDF, SVG, etc.) is transferred from the network 108.

  An HDD 107 is connected to the end of the HDDCont 106 and is used as a storage medium for image data. Similarly, a system memory (Memory) 104 is connected to the tip of the MC 103, and is used as a medium for temporarily storing image data. Generally, a DIMM is used for the system memory 104.

  A scanner 111 and a printer 112 are connected to the image processing unit 110. The image data input from the scanner is subjected to predetermined image processing by the image processing unit 110 and then input to the controller, and the image data stored in the controller is subjected to predetermined image processing by the image processing unit 108. And output to the printer 112.

  The image data handled by the controller 100 is interfaced with a page vector (PDL, PDF, SVG, etc.) for input / output with an external device via a network, and with a raster data format for input / output with a scanner or printer. A page vector input from an external device is interpreted into a primitive object by the CPU 102, converted into intermediate data called DL (DisplayList), and input to the RIP.

  Since these image data are temporarily stored in the system memory 104 inside the controller 100, there are various types of data such as raster data, page vector data (PDL, etc.), DL data, etc. on the system memory 104.

The HDD 105 stores image data input from the scanner as image data and raster image data rendered by the RIP 113. See US Pat.
JP 2006-309671 A

  However, if you scan a document that includes an image printed with a special color ink such as PANTONE, such as a company logo or mark color, the image data stored in the MFP is in a narrower color space than the special color ink. In some cases, there is a problem that color deviation may occur and the original color may not be accurately reproduced.

  In order to solve the above problems, the MFP of the present invention is configured with the following requirements.

Means for pre-registering image data and color that does not cause color misregistration Means for retrieving specific image data Means for replacing the color of the searched image that does not cause color misregistration with a pre-registered color

  By replacing the color of the image data similar to the pre-registered image data with the color of the pre-registered image data, an image processing apparatus with little color misregistration can be realized. At that time, the images are preliminarily squeezed with similar colors and then compared to reduce the number of images to be compared, and the search time is shortened to enable high-speed color correction processing.

Next, details of the present invention will be described in accordance with the description of the embodiments.
[First Embodiment]
The system configuration of the first embodiment of the present invention is the same as that of the conventional example of FIG. 12, but an image processing function for reducing color misregistration is added to a part of the image processing unit 110 of FIG. Image data input from the scanner 111 in FIG. 12 is subjected to predetermined image processing in the image processing unit 110 and then stored in the memory 104 or the HDD 107 of the controller. Thereafter, image data is read from the memory 104 or the HDD 107, image processing for reducing color misregistration is performed in the image processing unit 110, and the image data is stored in the memory 104 or the HDD 107 again.

  Image processing for reducing color misregistration according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

1402 Block selection The raster image data read from the memory 104 or the HDD 107 is divided into a character / line drawing area including characters or line drawings, a halftone photo area, an irregular image area, and the like. Further, with respect to the character / line drawing area, a character area mainly including characters and a line drawing area mainly including tables and figures are separated, and the line drawing area is separated into a table area and a graphic area. In the present embodiment, connected pixels are detected and separated into regions for each attribute using the shape, size, pixel density, etc. of the circumscribed rectangular region of the connected pixels.

  The character area is segmented into rectangular blocks (character area rectangular blocks) using a cluster of each character paragraph as a block. In the line drawing area, each object (table area rectangular block, line drawing area rectangular block) such as a table or a figure is segmented into rectangular blocks.

  A photo area expressed in halftone is segmented into rectangular blocks for each object such as an image area rectangular block and a background area rectangular block.

1403 Extraction of candidate image candidate to be noticed At 1402, attention is paid to one of a line drawing, a character, or a photograph area segmented into rectangular blocks. For example, when processing of the same overlapping rectangular block is completed in the order of the uppermost rectangular block of the overlap, in particular, the upper left rectangular block and the lower right rectangular block in this order, further to the lower rectangular block of the overlapping Switch the target rectangular block in this order.

1404 Enlargement / reduction of pre-registered image to image size of image candidate Enlargement / reduction of pre-registered image data that does not cause color misregistration so that it is approximately the same size as the image candidate of interest To do.

1405 Image comparison Binarization or contour extraction is performed on an image obtained by enlarging or reducing a pre-registered image and a focused image candidate.

1406 Image comparison Compares binarized or contour extracted images. If the binary images or contours match at a rate equal to or greater than the threshold value, the process proceeds to the “Y” branch, ie, 1407. If the binary image or the outline does not match, the branch of “N”, that is, 1407 is skipped and the process proceeds to 1408.

1407 Replace with pre-registered image color Replace the color of the image candidate with the pre-registered image color.

1408 Have you compared all blocks?
It is determined whether the processing of 1403 to 1407 has been performed on all rectangular blocks in the page. If all rectangular blocks have been processed, the process proceeds to the “Y” branch, that is, 1409. If there is a rectangular block that has not been processed, the process proceeds to the “N” branch, that is, 1403.

1409 End The color correction processing is ended, and the color-corrected image data is stored in the memory 104 or the HDD 107 again.

  As described above, by replacing the color of image data similar to the image data registered in advance with the color of the image data registered in advance, an image processing apparatus with little color misregistration can be realized.

  Here, for the sake of explanation, the image data input from the scanner 111 in FIG. 12 is subjected to predetermined image processing in the image processing unit 110, and is then used using the image data stored in the memory 104 or the HDD 107 of the controller. Although the image processing for reducing color misregistration has been described, image processing for reducing color misregistration may be performed when the image data input from the scanner 111 passes through the image processing unit 110.

  Here, in 1403, it has been described that an image candidate to be noticed is selected in the order from the top to the bottom of the overlap. However, the present invention does not depend on this order and applies to all rectangular blocks that have been block-selected. Needless to say, the processing of FIG. 14 may be performed.

Here, although it has been described that the pre-registered image data is enlarged / reduced in 1404, the rectangular block extracted in 1403 may be enlarged / reduced without enlarging / reducing the pre-registered image data.
[Second Embodiment]
However, in the first embodiment, it is difficult to completely match the enlargement / reduction ratio of the image data of the mark candidates extracted from the pre-registered image data and the scanned image data, and a certain amount of error is allowed at the time of comparison. There was a need. Therefore, an image that is not pre-registered image data may be erroneously recognized.

  The configuration of the second embodiment of the present invention for solving the above problem will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

1702 Block selection The raster image data read from the memory 104 or the HDD 107 is divided into rectangular blocks in the same manner as the block selection 1402.

1703 Image candidate extraction to be noticed Similar to 1403, one of the evaluation targets is selected from the rectangular blocks divided by 1702.

1704: Vectorizing candidate image of interest The candidate image of interest selected in 1703 is converted from raster data to vector data.

  Details of vectorization will be described later (S52) in the vectorization step.

1705 Image Comparison The previously registered image is a raster image in the first embodiment, but is stored as a vector image in this embodiment. The pre-registered vector image and the image vectorized by 1703 are compared in size. Since it is a vector image, no error occurs due to resolution conversion. As a result of the comparison, if the image vectors match at a rate equal to or greater than the threshold, the process proceeds to the “Y” branch, that is, 1706. If the image vectors do not match at a rate equal to or greater than the threshold, then the “N” branch, that is, 1706 is skipped and the process proceeds to 1707.

1706 Replace with Pre-registered Image Color Similar to 1407, replace the image candidate color with the pre-registered image color.

1707 Have you compared all blocks?
As in 1408, it is determined whether the processing of 1703 to 1706 has been performed for all rectangular blocks in the page. If all rectangular blocks have been processed, the process proceeds to the “Y” branch, that is, 1708. If there is a rectangular block that has not been processed, the process proceeds to the “N” branch, that is, 1703.

1708 End The color correction process ends, and the color-corrected image data is stored in the memory 104 or the HDD 107 again.

  As described above, by replacing the color of image data similar to the image data registered in advance with the color of the image data registered in advance, an image processing apparatus with little color misregistration can be realized. At that time, by comparing the images after vectorizing them, it is possible to eliminate the error caused by the resolution conversion, and it is possible to compare the images with high accuracy.

[Outline of MFP equipment]
Hereinafter, the apparatus of the present invention and its operation will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the MFP controller according to the present invention.

  The MFP controller 1 is connected to the CPU 3, the memory controller (MC) 4, the general-purpose bus 6, the tile tile page vector conversion unit 13, the raster → tile vector conversion unit 14, and the tile vector development unit (RIP) 18 through a system bus bridge (SBB) 2. Has been. The RIP 18 is composed of a plurality of small development parts (μRIPa to d).

  A system memory (Memory) 5 is connected to the tip of the MC 4 and is used as a medium for temporarily storing image data.

  The general-purpose bus 6 includes a hard disk controller (HDDCont) 7 that controls the HDD 8 for storing image data, an operation unit controller (LCDC) 9 that controls the operation unit (LCD) 10, and a network 12 to which the MFP is connected. The LAN I / F 11 serving as an interface for transferring image data between external devices is connected.

  An image processing unit 15 is connected to the tip of the raster → tile vector conversion unit 14, and a scanner 16 and a printer 17 are connected to the image processing unit 15.

  In addition, a RIP 18 is connected to the SBB2, and a local memory (LocalMemory) 19 for storing data output from the RIP 18 is connected to the SBB2.

  The image data handled by the controller 1 is interfaced with page vectors (PDL, PDF, SVG, etc.) for input / output with an external device, and raster data for input / output with a scanner or printer. In the controller 1, unlike a conventional MFP, the scanned image is converted into a tile vector by a tile vector / raster raster → tile vector conversion unit 14. The DL data is stored in the local memory 18 connected to the RIP 18. Accordingly, only two types of images of page vector and tile vector data are stored on the system memory 103. That is, since it is not necessary to store raster data and DL data having a large image size in the system memory 5, it is possible to reduce an image data area that must be secured on the system memory.

  In addition, since the DL data output from the RIP 18 is stored as DL data divided into tile units, it can be stored with a very small memory capacity compared to conventional DL data in page units. Therefore, the local memory 19 can be mounted on-chip, and the memory latency can be reduced. As a result, the tile data development speed can be increased. In addition, since only the tiled data needs to be stored on the HDD 8 as image data, the bottleneck of the access speed to the HDD is alleviated and the data processing can be speeded up. At the same time, the cost of RIP can be reduced by tiling.

  When a higher processing capability is required, the processing capability can be varied by mounting a plurality of μRIPs provided in the RIP in parallel. That is, since the processing capacity of the controller can be simply adjusted, a system that can easily ensure scalability can be constructed.

  Hereinafter, each image processing flow when the MFP according to the present invention is operated will be described.

[copy]
FIG. 2 shows a data flow in the MFP when the copy operation is performed. The arrows drawn in FIG. 2 represent the flow of data. An arrow drawn with a solid line means a raster image, an arrow drawn with a broken line means a tiled vector image, and an arrow drawn with an alternate long and short dash line means that a vector image describing the entire page flows. The page vector and tile vector image will be described in detail in a tile-page vector conversion unit described later.

(S21):
When the user gives an instruction to start copying from the operation unit (LCD) 10, the scanner 14 starts a document image reading operation.

  The image (R, G, B) input from the scanner 14 to the image processing unit 13 is subjected to the following processing after being frequency-converted to the clock synchronization of the image processing block.

  -Correction of scanner characteristics such as CCD sensor line pitch and chromatic aberration.

  -Image quality correction of input image data such as color space correction and sharpness.

  ・ Image processing such as erasing input image data and erasing book frames.

(S22):
When the image processing is completed, the image data output from the image processing unit 13 is input to the raster-to-tile vector conversion unit 12 to perform tile vector conversion processing. That is, the image data is divided into blocks of a predetermined size, and a vectorization process is performed on the raster image in each block to generate a vector image in units of blocks.

The generated vector image is subjected to bus arbitration by the SBB 2, acquires the bus right to the system memory 5, and stores the tile vector in the system memory 5 through the MC 4. (Note that when a data path is connected via SBB2, the procedure for acquiring the bus right is basically received after bus arbitration, but this is omitted in the subsequent flow description.)
(S23):
The tile vector image stored in the system memory 5 is stored in the HDD 8 via the SBB 2 via the HDDCont 7 and the MC 4. By storing image data in the HDD 8, sorting can be performed when copying a plurality of originals, and the pages can be output in a different order or stored as a saved document in the MFP.

(S24):
The tile vector image stored in the HDD 8 is read out by the HDDCont 7 in accordance with the printer ready timing sent from the CPU (not shown) in the printer 15 and temporarily stored in the system memory 5 via the SBB 2 and MC 4. Is done.

  If the read image data is directly read from the HDD 8 to the printer, it cannot be guaranteed that the access speed of the HDD 8 becomes regular, or that it is output in synchronization with the printer due to the degree of congestion of the general-purpose bus 6. Therefore, spooling page data in the system memory 5 before data transfer in synchronization with the printer guarantees real-time throughput.

(S25):
The tile vector image stored in the system memory 5 is read by the MC 4 in accordance with an activation signal sent from the printer 15 to the controller 1 and transferred to the RIP 18 via the SBB 2.

  First, the RIP 18 analyzes a tile vector and generates (interprets) a drawing object (tile DL data) in units of tiles. The generated tile DL data is temporarily stored in the local memory 18.

  The RIP 18 reads the tile DL data from the local memory, develops it into a raster image in units of tiles, and outputs it.

  In this embodiment, as described above, the RIP 18 includes four μRIPa to μRIPd. The controller 1 operates μRIPa to μRIPd in parallel, thereby expanding the tile vector at high speed. The system performance is dominated by the vector expansion time, and the performance can be improved by increasing the μRIP. Therefore, it is possible to easily construct a scalable system by using the configuration of the present invention.

(S26):
The image data rasterized in tile units by the RIP 18 is transferred to the image processing unit, and the following processing is executed.

  Conversion processing from a tile unit raster image to a page unit raster image.

  Output color and density correction processing that matches the printer characteristics.

  Halftone processing that quantizes image data and performs tone conversion of the output image.

Frequency conversion processing to output images in synchronization with the printer I / F clock.
The raster image data subjected to the image processing by the image processing unit 15 is transferred to the printer 15, printed on a recording medium, and output.

[Print]
FIG. 3 shows a data flow in the MFP when the printing operation is performed.

(S31):
The LAN I / F 11 connected to the general-purpose bus 6 receives page vector format image data from an external device connected to the network 12. Then, the data is transferred to the system memory 5 via the MC 4 connected to the end of the SBB 2.

(S32):
The page vector image stored in the system memory 5 is read out from the tile / page vector conversion unit 13 and performs tile vector conversion processing. That is, an object existing in a page vector is divided into objects that can be contained in a block (tile) having a predetermined size, and a vector image in units of tiles is generated.

(S33):
The generated vector image is stored again in the system memory 5 via the SBB 2.

(S33):
The tile vector image stored in the system memory 5 is stored in the HDD 8 via the SBB 2 via the HDDCont 7 and the MC 4. By storing image data in the HDD 8, sorting can be performed when copying a plurality of originals, and the pages can be output in a different order or stored as a saved document in the MFP.

(S34):
The tile vector image stored in the HDD 8 is read out by the HDDCont 7 in accordance with the printer ready timing sent from the CPU (not shown) in the printer 15 and temporarily stored in the system memory 5 via the SBB 2 and MC 4. Is done.

  When the read image data is read directly from the HDD 8 to the printer, it cannot be guaranteed that the access speed of the HDD 8 becomes regular, or that the output is synchronized with the printer due to the degree of congestion of the general-purpose bus 6. Therefore, before transferring data in synchronization with the printer, the tile vector data for one page is spooled in the system memory 5 to guarantee real-time throughput.

(S35):
The tile vector image stored in the system memory 5 is read by the MC 4 in accordance with an activation signal sent from the printer 15 to the controller 1 and transferred to the RIP 18 via the SBB 2.

(S36):
First, the RIP 18 analyzes a tile vector and generates (interprets) a drawing object (tile DL data) in units of tiles. The generated tile DL data is temporarily stored in the local memory 18.

  The RIP 18 reads the tile DL data from the local memory, develops it into a raster image in units of tiles, and outputs it. In the present embodiment, the RIP 18 includes four small development portions μRIPa to μRIPd.

  The tile vectors are developed at high speed by operating the μRIPa to μRIPd in parallel. The system performance is dominated by the vector expansion time, and the performance can be improved by increasing the μRIP. Therefore, it is possible to easily construct a scalable system by using the configuration of the present invention.

(S37):
The image data rasterized in tile units by the RIP 18 is transferred to the image processing unit, and the following processing is executed.

  Conversion processing from a tile unit raster image to a page unit raster image.

  Output color and density correction processing that matches the printer characteristics.

Halftone processing for quantizing image data and converting the gradation of the output image Frequency conversion processing for outputting the image in synchronization with the printer I / F clock.

  The raster image data subjected to the image processing by the image processing unit 15 is transferred to the printer 15, printed on a recording medium, and output.

[Send]
FIG. 4 shows the data flow in the MFP when it is transmitted over the network. The flow until image data is stored in the HDD 8 is omitted because it is the same as [Copy] for a scanned image and [Print] for an image input from an external device on the network.

(S41):
The tile vector image stored in the HDD 8 is read from the HDDCont 7 connected to the general-purpose bus 6 via the SBB 2 and temporarily stored in the system memory 5.

(S42):
The tile vector image stored in the system memory 5 is read from the tile / page vector conversion unit 11 and performs tile vector conversion processing. That is, the objects divided into blocks are combined to generate a page vector image describing the object in the entire page.

(S43):
The generated page vector image is stored again in the system memory 5 via the SBB 2.

(S44):
The page vector image stored in the system memory 5 is read from the LAN I / F 11 connected to the general-purpose bus 6 and transferred to an external device connected to the network 12.

  As in the present invention, when transmitting to an external device, the tile vector image is returned to the page vector image and the number of objects is reduced, so that the amount of transmission data can be reduced. In addition, it can be easily converted to general-purpose formats such as PDF and SVG.

[Raster-Tile Vector Converter]
Details of the raster-to-tile vector conversion unit 14 in the controller 1 will be described. FIG. 5 shows an internal processing flow of the raster tile conversion unit 14.

  The raster → tile vector conversion unit 14 is executed by the following steps.

(S51) BS (block selection):
The raster image data input from the image processing unit 15 is divided into a character / line drawing area including characters or line drawings, a halftone photo area, an irregular image area, and the like. Further, with respect to the character / line drawing area, a character area mainly including characters and a line drawing area mainly including tables and figures are separated, and the line drawing area is separated into a table area and a graphic area. In the present embodiment, connected pixels are detected and separated into regions for each attribute using the shape, size, pixel density, etc. of the circumscribed rectangular region of the connected pixels.

  The character area is segmented into rectangular blocks (character area rectangular blocks) using a cluster of each character paragraph as a block. In the line drawing area, each object (table area rectangular block, line drawing area rectangular block) such as a table or a figure is segmented into rectangular blocks.

  A photo area expressed in halftone is segmented into rectangular blocks for each object such as an image area rectangular block and a background area rectangular block.

  Each separated region is further divided into regions (tiles) of a predetermined size, and vectorized in the next vectorization step in units of tiles.

(S52) Vectorization step:
Image data of each attribute area is converted into vector data by vectorization processing. The vectorization methods include the following (a) to (f).

  (A) When the attribute area is a character area, the character image code conversion is further performed by OCR, or the character size, style and font are recognized, and the character obtained by scanning the document is visually faithful. Convert to font data.

  (B) When the attribute area is a character area and cannot be recognized by OCR, the outline of the character is traced, and the outline information (outline) is converted into a format that represents the connection of line segments.

  (C) When the attribute region is a graphic region, the contour of the graphic object is tracked and converted into a format in which the contour information is expressed as a connection of line segments.

  (D) Fitting the outline information in the line segment format of b and c with a Bezier function or the like to convert it into function information.

  (E) The shape of the figure is recognized from the contour information of the figure object of c, and converted into figure definition information such as a circle, a rectangle, and a polygon.

  (F) When the attribute area is a graphic area and the object is a tabular object in the specific area, the ruled line and the frame line are recognized and converted into form format information of a predetermined format.

(S53) Tile vector generation:
A vector type for determining whether a page vector or a tile vector in the controller 1 is used for the data converted into command definition information such as format code information, graphic information, function information such as a to f in S52, and the page of the tile. The header information for discriminating the coordinate position is added. In this way, tile vector data packed in units of tiles is output to SBB2.

[Tile tile page vector conversion part]
Details of the tile tile page vector conversion unit 13 in the controller 1 will be described.

  FIG. 8 shows a document created by an application of an external device on the network. For convenience, the short direction of the document is defined as the 'X' direction, and the long direction is defined as the 'Y' direction.

  FIG. 9 is a description example of a page vector (PDL command) that instructs printer output of the document of FIG.

  In FIG. 9, reference numeral 901 denotes a document setting command relating to setting of the entire document, 902 denotes a character drawing command, and 903 denotes a graphic drawing command.

  Details of the drawing commands 901 to 903 will be described.

  C1 to C5 are commands related to the entire document. Therefore, these commands C1 to C5 have only one place for one document. These commands related to the entire document include, for example, character set commands (font specification commands), scalable font commands (commands that specify whether or not to use scalable fonts), and hard reset commands (reset the previous printer environment) Command), etc. C1 is a document setting start command. C2 is a command representing the output paper size of the document, and in this case, A4 is set. The next C3 indicates the direction of the document. There are portrait and landscape, but in this case, portrait (PORT) is shown. C4 is a command representing a document type, which indicates whether the document is a page vector or a tile vector. In this case, it is a page (PAGE). C5 is a document setting end command.

  C6 to C21 are commands for outputting the document 801. C6 is for indicating the start of a page. C7 is a command for selecting the font type of the character, and in this case, the font set numbered "1" is selected. C8 sets the font size, and the size of “10 points” is selected. C9 is a command for setting the color of the character, and indicates the brightness of each color component of R (red), G (green), and B (blue) in order. It is assumed that this luminance is quantized in 256 steps from 0 to 255. C10 indicates the coordinates of the start position for drawing the character. The coordinate position is specified with the upper left corner of the page as the origin. In this case, the character drawing is set to start from the position {10, 5}. C11 indicates a character string (XXXX ...) to be actually drawn.

  C12 indicates the fill color of the surface at the time of drawing the figure. The color specification is the same as the character color. C13 designates the line color of the graphic drawing. C14 indicates the coordinates of the position where the figure is drawn. C15 is a command for designating a radius for drawing an arc, and in this case, represents a "10" coordinate unit. C16 is for drawing a closed arc. Two parameters in the command indicate a drawing start angle and an end angle when drawing an arc. The vertical information is assumed to be 0 degree, and in this case, an arc of 0 degree to 90 degrees is drawn. C17 to C21 specify the surface and line color, the position, etc., as in the commands from C12 to C16. C22 specifies the end of the command.

  FIG. 11 shows an example in which the document of FIG. 8 is described by a tile vector in block units as shown in FIG. Two arrows in FIG. 10 indicate the short direction “X” and the long direction “Y” of the document. In the drawing, the number sequence arranged in the X direction represents the tile ID in the X direction, and the number sequence arranged in the Y direction represents the tile ID in the Y direction. A, B, C, and D represent tile vectors at the positions of tile IDs (0, 0), (0, 1), (2, 4), and (1, 5), respectively.

  In FIG. 11, reference numeral 1101 denotes a document setting command relating to setting of the entire document, 1102 denotes the entire drawing command, and 1103 to 1106 denote drawing commands for tiles A, B, C, and D. Reference numerals 1107 and 1108 denote a character drawing command and a graphic drawing command for the tile D, respectively.

  Details of the rendering commands 1101 to 1108 will be described below.

  C1 to C5 are commands related to the entire document. Therefore, these commands C1 to C5 have only one place for one document. These commands related to the entire document include, for example, character set commands (font specification commands), scalable font commands (commands that specify whether or not to use scalable fonts), and hard reset commands (reset the previous printer environment) Command), etc. C1 is a document setting start command. C2 is a command representing the output paper size of the document, and in this case, A4 is set. The next C3 indicates the direction of the document. There are portrait and landscape, but in this case, portrait (PORT) is shown. C4 is a command representing a document type, which indicates whether the document is a page vector or a tile vector. In this case, it is a tile (TILE). C5 is a document setting end command.

  C6 to C500 are commands for outputting the document 1001. C6 is for indicating the start of a page. C7 indicates the start of the drawing command for tile A in FIG. Two parameters indicate the ID of the tile in the page. C8 represents the end of the tile A drawing command. When there is no object as in tile A, only the start and end of the tile are described.

  C9 indicates the start of the drawing command for tile B in FIG. C10 is a command for selecting the font type of the character. In this case, the font set numbered “1” is selected. C11 sets the font size, and the size of “10 points” is selected. C12 is a command for setting the character color, and indicates the luminance of each color component of R (red), G (green), and B (blue) in order. It is assumed that this luminance is quantized in 256 steps from 0 to 255. C13 indicates the coordinates of the start position for drawing the character. C14 indicates a character string (XXXX) to be actually drawn. The coordinate position is specified with the upper left corner of the tile as the origin. In this case, the character drawing is set to start from the position {0, 5}. C15 indicates the end of the drawing command for tile B.

  C100 indicates the start of the drawing command for tile C in FIG. C101 indicates the fill color of the surface when drawing a figure. The color specification is the same as the character color. C102 designates the line color of the figure drawing. C103 indicates the coordinates of the position where the figure is drawn. C104 is a command for designating a radius for drawing an arc, and in this case represents "10" coordinate unit. C105 is for drawing a closed arc. Two parameters in the command indicate a drawing start angle and an end angle when drawing an arc. The vertical information is assumed to be 0 degree, and in this case, an arc of 0 degree to 90 degrees is drawn. C106 indicates the end of the drawing command for tile C.

  C120 to C131, like the commands C9 to C15, specify the font type, color, size, etc. for character drawing, and specify the drawing surface, line color, position, etc., as in C100 to C106. ing. C500 designates the end of the page, that is, the end of the command.

The tile tile page vector conversion unit 13 converts the page vector and the tile vector as described above. FIG. 6 shows an internal processing flow of tile-page vector conversion.
The tile-page vector conversion is executed in the following steps.

(S601):
First, a command sequence corresponding to the header portion is read from the vector image stored in the system memory 5, and the command portion relating to the entire document is analyzed. This corresponds to C1 to C5 in FIG. 9 or FIG.

(S602):
As a result of the analysis, if the document type is a page vector (PAGE), the process proceeds to step S603 and subsequent steps, and page vector → tile vector conversion is executed. If the document type is (TILE), the process proceeds to step S610 and subsequent steps, and tile vector → page vector conversion is executed.

(S603):
Read a command sequence that describes an object.

(S604):
The command sequence read in S603 is analyzed, and it is determined whether or not the size of the described object exceeds the tile size to be divided. If the object is not divided, step S605 is skipped and the process proceeds to step S606. If the object is divided, the process proceeds to step S605.

(S605):
In this step, the input object is divided.

  For example, in FIG. 9, drawing commands for all character strings including “XXXX” are described at 902, but when tiled as shown in FIG. 10, only “XXXX” can be contained in tile B. Therefore, in the tile vector, the character string is divided in the middle, and the divided subsequent character string is described in the next tile as another character string. If the description does not fit in the next tile, it is similarly divided into character strings included in the tile, and the process is repeated until all the divided character strings fit within the tile size. To determine where to cut the character string, the number of characters that fit in the tile is calculated from the type and size of the font, and that many characters are extracted. In 902, the number of characters is four, and the character string of C10 in FIG. 9 is converted into a description like C13 in FIG.

  Further, although the drawing of the figure is described in 903, the figure described in C17 to C21 of 903 has a tile D because the three-quarter circle in FIG. 8 does not fit in one tile in FIG. Divided into multiple tiles. To divide a figure, calculate the part that touches the boundary area of the tile from the drawing position of the figure, the shape and size of the figure, and create a new closed area consisting of the boundary and the partial area of the figure that is contained in the tile. Rewrite as. In FIG. 11, the three-quarter circle described in 903 in FIG. 9 is converted into a description of a quarter circle such as C126 from C126 to C130 in the lower left partial region. The remaining area is also converted into a quarter-circle description of the same shape.

(S606)
In order to change the drawing description in the tile vector for the command description of the input object, the coordinate position is converted. The page vector describes the position from the upper left of the page, whereas the tile vector rewrites the position from the upper left of the tile. By describing the drawing position with the coordinates in the tile, the data length required for coordinate calculation can be reduced.

(S607)
When the command description conversion for one object is completed, it is determined whether or not the command description conversion for all objects in the page is completed. If not, the process returns to S603 and the next command is processed. The processing of S603 to S607 is repeated. When the command processing for one object is completed, the process proceeds to S608.

(S608)
When the description conversion of all the drawing commands is completed, the tile areas divided as shown in FIG. 10 are written to the system memory 5 as tile vectors in order from the upper left of the page. The tile vector is described in a format in which commands indicating the start and end of tiles are added to the commands described in S605 and S606 described above.

  First, at the time of writing the first command of the page, a tile vector in which no object is present in the system memory 5 is generated. A tile vector having no object, for example, tile A in FIG. 11 is described as C7 to C8 with only the start and end commands as shown in 1103. Next, a description of the object is added to the tile of the coordinate where the command processed in S603 to S607 exists. In the case of the tile B, the description is as C9 to C15 of 1104 in FIG. When a plurality of objects exist in the same tile as in the tile D, the object description 1107 and the object description 1108 are listed as 1106.

(S609)
When the writing of one object to the tile vector is completed, it is determined whether or not the description of all the objects on the page has been completed. If it is determined that the process has not ended, the process returns to S603. When all the processes in the page are finished, the page → vector tile conversion is finished.

  A process when it is determined in S602 that the document type is a tile (TILE) will be described.

(S610):
Read a command sequence that describes an object.

(S611)
The command sequence read in S610 is analyzed, and it is determined whether or not the described object can be combined with tiles read before that time. If the objects are not to be combined, S612 is skipped and the process proceeds to S613. If the objects are to be divided, the process proceeds to S612.

(S612)
Whether or not the objects can be combined is determined based on the coordinate position of the read command, the type of figure, and the like. In the case of a character string, the determination is made based on the font size and font type. Basically, the connection is performed in a manner that the flow of S605 is reversed.

(S613)
In order to change the drawing description in the tile vector for the command description of the input object, the coordinate position is converted. In the tile vector, the position from the upper left of the tile is described, whereas in the page vector, the position is described from the upper left of the page.

(S614)
When the command description conversion for one object is completed, it is determined whether or not the command description conversion for all the objects in the tile is completed. If not, the process returns to S610 and the next command is processed. The processes of S610 to S613 are repeated. When the command processing for one object is completed, the process proceeds to S615.

(S615)
When the drawing command description conversion is completed, the page vector is written to the system memory 5. The tile vector is described in a format in which commands indicating the start and end of tiles are deleted from the commands described in S605 and S606.

  First, when a command written in the first tile in the page is written, a page vector in which no object is present in the system memory 5 is generated. In FIG. 9, the page is described only by C1 to C6 and C22. Next, a description of the object processed in S610 to S613 is added. In FIG. 9, the description portion of C7 to C11 in 902 corresponds to it. The object in this case represents a character string {XXXX... YY..., Which is a description of the object in which the character strings of the tiles described in 1104 and 1107 in FIG. has been edited.

(S616)
When the writing of one command to the page vector is completed, it is determined whether or not the description of all the objects of the tile has been completed. If it is determined that the process has not ended, the process returns to S610. When all the processes in the tile are completed, the process proceeds to S617.

(S609)
When the writing of one tile vector is finished, it is determined whether or not all the tile descriptions on the page are finished. If it is determined that the process has not ended, the process returns to S610. When the processing of all tiles in the page is completed, the tile → page vector conversion ends.

[Tile vector development (RIP)]
Details of the RIP 18 in the controller 1 will be described.

  First, before starting image data processing such as copying, printing, and transmission, the local memory 19 is initialized and the resolution of a drawing object to be created is set. In this embodiment, the generation resolution is 600 dpi, and a print command specified in a unit system such as a point size or mm is converted into the number of dots using this value.

  Expansion of tile vectors is performed in the following steps.

(S71):
Tile vectors input from the system memory 5 to the RIP 18 through the SBB 2 by a certain size are temporarily stored in the tile vector area of the local memory 19.

(S72):
When the tile vector is taken into the local memory 19, μRIPa to d determine whether or not the tile development process has been completed. If μRIP is developing vector data, it waits in the state of S72 until it can be developed.

(S73):
If any of μRIPa to d can develop the vector data, the command analysis of the tile vector stored in the local memory 19 is performed according to a predetermined grammar.

(S74):
It is determined whether the interpreted command is a drawing command or a paper discharge command. If it is determined that the command is a drawing command, the process branches to S75, and if it is determined that the command is a paper discharge command, the process branches to S76.

(S75):
If it is determined in S74 that the data is a drawing command, a drawing object (DL) is generated. If the command in the tile vector is a character drawing command, a font object is generated based on the font type, character size, and character code specified by the command. If the command is a drawing command other than characters, the command is used. A drawing object of the generated figure (line, circle, polygon, etc.) is generated and stored in the DL area of the local memory 19.

  If it is determined that the print data is not designated by the drawing command, the print position is moved and the print environment is set according to the print data, and the command interpretation for one unit is terminated.

  The above process is repeated until interpretation of all commands in the tile vector is completed.

(S76):
If it is determined that the command is a paper discharge command, μRIP determines whether there is an empty area in the tile raster memory area on the local memory 19. If there is no free space, wait until the other RIP process is completed and free space is available.

(S77)
If there is an empty area in the tile raster memory, the drawing object generated in S75 is read out and drawn (rasterized) in the tile raster area. At this time, if the generation resolution is 600 dpi, the tile raster area is rasterized as a 600 dpi image. Then, the tile raster image that has been drawn is output to the image output unit 15 via the SBB 2.

(S78)
When the command analysis or drawing process for one tile vector is completed in S75 or S77, it is determined whether or not all of the read tile vector memory has been completed. Return and continue processing the next tile vector. If completed, the process proceeds to S79.

(S79)
It is determined whether or not all the processes have been completed for one page of tile vectors. If unprocessed data still remains, the process returns to S71 to read the tile vectors from the system memory and continue the process.

  When all the processes for one page are finished, the tile vector development is finished.

As described above, the image data registered in advance and the compared portion of the scanned image data are converted into vector data, and then the image data converted into vector data are compared with each other, thereby making an erroneous determination associated with enlargement / reduction. Can be reduced.
[Third Embodiment]
However, as in the second embodiment of the present invention, in the MFP having the function of searching for an image and replacing it with the color of a pre-registered image, the second embodiment of the present invention searches all the images. There is a problem that processing time is required because the number of loops 1703 to 1706 is large.

  In order to solve the above problem, an intermediate image in which only similar colors are extracted is created, the image is searched with respect to the intermediate image, and the color correction is performed only on the matching object. Details of the third embodiment of the present invention Is described below.

  The configuration of the third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

1802 Similar Color Extraction Only similar colors of pre-registered images are extracted from raster image data read from the memory 104 or HDD 107.

1803 Binarization The similar color image extracted in 1802 is binarized. By performing this binarization process, the processing load after 1804 is reduced, but the binarization process is not essential.

1804 Block selection The raster image data binarized in 1803 is divided into rectangular blocks.

1805 Extraction of candidate image candidate to be noticed Similar to 1703, one of the evaluation targets is selected from the rectangular blocks divided by 1804.

1806 Vectorization of attention image candidate The attention image candidate selected in 1805 is converted from raster data to vector data.

  The details of vectorization are the same as in the (S52) vectorization step.

1807 Image comparison The image size of the vector image registered in advance and the image vectorized in 1703 are compared and compared. Since it is a vector image, no error occurs due to resolution conversion. As a result of the comparison, if the image vectors match at a rate equal to or greater than the threshold value, the process proceeds to the “Y” branch, that is, 1808. If the image vectors do not match at a rate equal to or greater than the threshold, then the “N” branch, that is, 1808 is skipped, and the process proceeds to 1809.

1808 Replace with pre-registered image color Similar to 1706, replace the image candidate color with the pre-registered image color.

1809 Have you compared all blocks?
As in 1707, it is determined whether the processing of 1805 to 1808 has been performed on all rectangular blocks in the page. If all rectangular blocks have been processed, the process proceeds to the “Y” branch, that is, 1810. If there is a rectangular block that has not been processed, the process proceeds to the “N” branch, that is, 1805.

  1810 Synthesizes color-corrected image data and original data.

  The color of the color-corrected image data is overwritten on the original data, and the synthesized image is stored in the memory 104 or the HDD 107 again.

1811 End Color correction processing is ended.

  Next, an example of a screen for registering in advance an image that is not desired to be color-shifted will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 15 shows an example of a screen displayed on a display device such as a liquid crystal display or CRT when an image that is not desired to be color-shifted is registered in advance. Operation buttons that can be selected or changed by touching. The operation when each button is pressed will be described below.

1501 Image update button Stores image data that is not desired to be color-shifted. Image data that is not to be color-shifted is stored in advance in the file system of the HDD of the MFP, and an image file that is not to be color-shifted is set on a file selection screen that is switched after this button is pressed.

1502 Uploaded image preview window This window displays the image file specified in 1501. The user confirms that the uploaded file is correct. In this screen example, a mark “ABCD” of a certain company is displayed. Of course, the graphic displayed here differs depending on the image file specified in 1501.

1503 Enlargement / reduction ratio range In 1404, an upper limit of enlargement / reduction performed is set. For example, in this embodiment, the enlargement / reduction range is set to 25% to 400% by moving the knob 1503. When the image size is different from the range set in 1503, color misregistration correction is not performed. For example, when 100% is set, color misregistration correction is performed only for the same image size as the image data registered in 1501, and when it is set to 50-100%, the size is in the range of 50% -100%. Corrects color misregistration only for images.

1504 Shape determination error range setting button 1406 A threshold value for image comparison performed by 1406 is set.

1505 OK button Reflects the setting contents and ends the setting.

1507 Cancel button Ends the setting without reflecting the setting contents.

1508 Similar color determination range setting button Moves to a screen for setting a similar color determination range described below.

  FIG. 16 shows an example of a screen displayed on a display device such as a liquid crystal or a CRT when setting a similar color determination range.

1601 Color space chart 1606 is a color space chart visually representing the range of similar colors, with the central circle being the color of the image registered as 1501, and the surrounding lines representing the range of similar colors. The color range shown in this chart is a color comparison target as a similar color.

1603, 1604, 1605 R, G, B error setting bars 1603, 1604, 1605 are setting bars for setting respective RGB (red, green, and blue) errors. When each bar is moved to the right, a color different from the color of the image set in 1501 is also regarded as a similar color and is subject to color shift processing. When each bar is moved to the left side, color misregistration processing is performed using a color similar to the color of the image set in 1501 as a similar color.

1606 OK button Reflects the setting contents and ends the similar color determination range setting.

1607 Cancel button Ends the similar color determination range setting without reflecting the setting contents.

  As described above, by replacing the color of image data similar to the image data registered in advance with the color of the image data registered in advance, an image processing apparatus with little color misregistration can be realized. At that time, the images are preliminarily squeezed with similar colors and then compared to reduce the number of images to be compared, and the search time is shortened to enable high-speed color correction processing.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the flow of the RIP (vector expansion unit) of the present invention.

It is a system configuration diagram of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the copy operation | movement flow of the system of this invention. It is a figure explaining the operation flow of printing of the system of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining an operation flow of transmission of the system in the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining the flow of the raster-> tile vector conversion part of this invention. It is a figure explaining the flow of the tile tile page vector conversion part of this invention. It is a figure explaining the flow of RIP (vector expansion | deployment part) of this invention. It is a figure showing the example of the image data handled by this invention. It is a figure showing the example of the page vector data handled by this invention. It is a figure showing the tile area | region of the tile vector handled by this invention. It is a figure showing the example of the tile vector data handled by this invention. It is a figure showing the example of the conventional MFP system. It is a figure explaining the operation | movement flow of the transmission of the system in the conventional MFP system. It is a figure showing the example of the flowchart of Example 1 of this invention. It is a figure showing the example of the screen which registers the image previously of Example 3 of this invention. It is a figure showing the example of the setting screen of the similar color range of Example 3 of this invention. It is a figure showing the example of the flowchart of Example 2 of this invention. It is a figure showing the example of the flowchart of Example 3 of this invention.

Claims (5)

Means for pre-registering image data and color that do not want to cause color misregistration;
Means for comparing specific image data;
Means for replacing the color of the searched image with a color registered in advance;
The image data control means is a storage means, a control means for controlling the storage means, a CPU, a means for pre-registering image data and color that do not cause color shift, a means for comparing the specific image data, an image processing means An image processing system comprising: means for replacing a color of a searched image with a color registered in advance; general-purpose bus means; and the bus arbitration means to which the general-purpose bus means is connected.   The general-purpose bus means is network I / F means, control means for large capacity storage means for storing image data, display section control means is connected, image data transmitted / received from the network, control means for the large capacity storage means The image data transmitted / received from the mass storage means connected to the other end of the image and the image data transmitted / received from the display section connected to the other end of the display unit controlling means are transferred by arbitrating with the bus arbitrating means. The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein: Means for comparing said specific image data;
Means for replacing the color of the searched image with a color registered in advance,
The image processing system according to claim 1, wherein image processing within a page is performed.   2. The image processing system according to claim 1, further comprising means for comparing specific image data for comparing vectorized data.   It has a means for comparing specific image data for comparing an image generated based on an image of a similar color of an image registered in advance with an image generated based on an image registered in advance. The image processing system according to claim 1.

Images