JPH03105685A - Picture display method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To display an area, which cannot be displayed at a time with less scrolling operations by displaying a reduction area into which all of the area to be displayed is reduced in a prescribed position and moving a display part which indicates the displayable rang of a display means on the reduction area to display the area. CONSTITUTION:When a rectangular area 6 is all of the area (for example, one page) to be displayed, a reduction area 7 reduced to a prescribed position on a CRT is displayed and an area corresponding to a part 6A actually displayed on the CRT is displayed as a white part 7A in the reduction area 7. Consequently, the range where an oblique-line part 6B is not displayed at present, but what part in the whole area 6 the part is confirmed with the reduction area 7 at a glance. When the displayable range 7A is moved by a mouse or the like, the actual display area on the CRT is changed in accordance with the movement, and the corresponding part is always displayed as the displayable range 7A in the reduction area 7. Thus, the display area is quickly designated with a small number of scrolling operations.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] Purpose of the Invention: (Industrial Application Field) The present invention provides an image processing system that reads a character image and a picture image of a layout board, and then layouts and outputs the image. An image display method in which the entire area to be displayed is reduced and displayed separately, the displayable range is displayed within the reduced display area, and the necessary display is performed by instructing to move the displayable range. Regarding. (Prior technology) As an image processing system for printing companies that demand high quality, conventional WS
There is no system to collect information, or even if there is, the capacity is so low that it is not practical. In particular, the desktop publishing field is becoming possible with page description languages such as BostScript, but the capabilities and performance in the image field are low. Although there are systems for printing companies,
It is not sufficient to handle large amounts of data at high speed. The reason for this is that there is too much data to process for processing by a description language and CPU (software) for integrated processing of text and images, resulting in a lack of performance. be. When outputting only code data to create a print version, it is necessary to convert each character to a bitmap and also develop each raster into a bitmap in advance, and when outputting only a bitmap. is designed to temporarily store all or part of the output image in a buffer and send it to the output device, and in order to reduce the memory capacity of the buffer, the output device waits while the output image is stored in the buffer. It looks like this.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, with the above-mentioned device, it is not possible to layout and output text and pictures at the same time, and even if a character bitmap is laid out in advance on the buffer that outputs the bitmap, The drawback was that it took a lot of time to implement. Alternatively, the characters and pictures are output on separate sheets of paper or film, and the operator cuts the paper on the paper or film. For this reason, repeated operations such as exposure and printing are many and time consuming, and the intermediately produced photosensitive material is wasted.

By the way, there is a WYSIWYG (hat You
When laying out the page displayed in See IsWl+at You Get, scrolling is performed to display the portion that cannot be displayed once. However, conventionally, the scroll bar was scrolled in one direction either vertically or horizontally by pointing it with a mouse or the like. This has the drawback that, for example, when switching from the upper left corner to the lower right corner at once, the operation becomes complicated and efficient display cannot be performed.

This invention was made due to the circumstances mentioned above,
An object of the present invention is to use an image processing system that electronically and interactively edits a large amount of image data of characters and pictures at high speed. An object of the present invention is to provide an image display method that allows images to be displayed.

Structure of the Invention; (Means for Solving the Problems) This invention halftones and compresses density data of an image read by an input device, and temporarily stores this compressed image data in a buffer. a human-powered controller, a workstation configured to edit the code information and the image data edited by an editing input device on a screen using input operation means and display means, and the human-powered controller and workstation. The image data is connected via a bus line. A file server for storing the code information and edited data collected on the screen WA at the workstation in a storage means, and reading out the ILIA collection data stored in the storage means, performing necessary data processing, and outputting an image. The present invention relates to an image display method in an image processing system equipped with an imagesetter configured to output an image to a device, and the above object of the present invention is to display a reduced area by reducing the entire area to be displayed by the display means. This is achieved by displaying the image at a predetermined position and moving a display section indicating a displayable range by the display means on the reduced area.

(Function) The image processing system of the present invention uses a human controller. file server. It consists of an imagesetter and a workstation, each of which is equipped with an independent CPU (microprocessor, microcomputer, etc.), so each part can operate independently and in parallel.
It is possible to realize high-speed and efficient image processing, as well as to perform comprehensive interactive editing of patterns, characters, etc., to minimize memory capacity, and to obtain high-quality images as eight-dimensional copies or printing blocks. be able to. Furthermore, in the present invention, a reduced area that is the entire area to be displayed by the display means is displayed at a predetermined position, and a display section indicating a range that can be displayed by the display means is moved on the reduced area. This allows you to quickly specify the display area with fewer scroll operations. (Example) FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an image processing system that is the premise of this invention. When a document containing characters, figures, etc. is read by an input device 1 such as a scanner, density data DD of an image obtained is input to an input controller 100, which is built-in. ．． = The input density data I is converted into dots by the dot conversion circuit 102 via the cPU 101,
Furthermore, after being compressed by the compression circuit 103, it is temporarily stored in the buffer 104, and then transferred via the CSCSI bus to the magnetic tape 210 of the file server 200 or the hard disks 220, 221. (Storage) The input controller 100 has a local disk (hard disk) 105 for temporary storage of data.The file server 200 has a CPtl 201, and connects other Connected to the device.
Further, the code information CD of characters etc. obtained by the editing input device 2 such as a word processor or typesetting machine is once stored in the floppy disk 3 and then read out and sent to the workstation 3.
Input to 0G. The workstation 30G has a plurality of terminal devices each having a CRT 301 as a display means, a keyboard 302, a mouse 308, and a digitizer 303 as input operation means, and a hard disk 304 and a floppy disk 305 as storage means. Each workstation 300 is interconnected with the file server 200 via Ethernet. The image data thinned out for CRT display and the image data for outline display obtained by the input controller 100 are stored on a magnetic tape 210 or hard disks 220, 221. ..., are read out via the SCSI bus and transferred to the workstation 300 via the interfaces 204 and 202, and control commands and the like sent to the input controller 100 are sent to the file server via the auxiliary data line 4. 200, and an imagesetter 400 is further connected to the file server 200. The imagesetter 400 has a CPU 401
is connected to the auxiliary data line 5 of the file server 200 via an interface 402 and to the SCSI bus via an interface 403. Imagesetter 40G also has sequencer 410
and a buffer 411 for storing necessary data, and the imagesetter 400 is connected to a high-quality output device 10 that outputs high-quality images and a laser beam printer 11 that outputs relatively low-quality images. ．． In addition, the hard disks 220, 221-... have a logo. Fixed data (bitmap data) such as coats of arms and vector font data for character output are stored in advance. Input device 1 inputs a picture (halftone image), line drawing, 6 character drawings (2
Both value images) are digitized as density data (8 bits/pixel). The input controller 100 converts the input signal of 8 bits/pixel into halftone dots to generate information of 4 bits/pixel.

Binary images are converted to 1 bit/pixel information. Furthermore, although characters are input as codes from the workstation 300, they may also be input as images from the input device 1. Therefore, when input as an image, even characters are treated as images (bitmap data).

All image output is performed by the imagesetter 400, but since the imagesetter 400 converts all code and vector information into bitmap data, the term image output is used to mean outputting bitmap data. (The above image processing system does not require manual pasting of drawings, photographs, etc., and also eliminates manual phototypesetting, so it is effective in terms of labor and material savings.Here, the details of the input controller 100 are explained below. To explain this with reference to FIG. 2, the input controller 100 converts the density data DD input from the input device 1 into high-density data for the high-quality output device IO, data for the laser beam printer 1L, and data for the workstation 300. It is designed to generate and process five sets of data at the same time: two types of data for display on the CRT 301 and rough graphic data sufficient to show the outline.By performing parallel processing, overall speed is increased. This is because the data generation calculation load on the CPUIOI can be reduced by the hardware.In other words, high-density data for the high-quality output device 10 is converted into dots by the dot conversion circuit 1021, and data is compressed by the compression circuit 1031. The compressed data is temporarily stored in the buffer 1041.In addition, data for outputting an image by the laser beam printer 11 of relatively low image quality is obtained by thinning the density data DD at predetermined intervals (for example, 1/3) (110 ), the rough data is converted into a point by a circuit 1022.
The data are halftone-ized and compressed by a compression circuit 1032, and then each is temporarily stored in a buffer 1042. Furthermore, C
Two types of coarser data to be displayed on the RT301 are obtained by thinning the density data DD at predetermined intervals, halftone-forming them in halftone-forming circuits 1023 and 1024, and temporarily storing them in buffers l043 and l044, respectively. In the case of a line drawing for which a cutout mask is created from a toned image, the image data after Lavraian processing or unsharp mask processing that indicates contour data is thinned out (113), and then binarized by a binarization circuit 1025 and sent to a puffer 104.
5 is temporarily saved.

In such a configuration, cputot communicates with the input device 1 via a data line (not shown) and with the file server 200 via an auxiliary data line 4 and dual port RAM (not shown). Then, when there is a data transmission request from the human-powered device l, CP[I
l01 sets the necessary data for each circuit shown in FIG. 2, stores the setting data in the local disk 105,
Furthermore, set the settings related to sub-scanning. Input device 1
The density data DD from DD is input line by line, and each circuit shown in FIG.
41N1045). During this time, the CPUIOI is used to switch the SCSI bus and output buffer 10 for data compression.
4L switching and check for error information from various circuits. once buffer 104 and local disk 1
The data stored in 05 is sorted according to CPUIOI commands and output to an external SCSI path.

The configuration of the file server 200 is shown in FIG. 1, and this file server 200 has common file management functions such as file management and file sharing, and communication control functions for network communication and inter-unit communication. There is. That is, the file server 200 is a SCSI
The hard disk (220, 221...
), performs file management of the magnetic tape 210,
Workstation 300 via Ethernet
It also serves the input controller 100 and the imagesetter 400 with file management information, and performs utility functions for file management via the SCSI bus. For example, font registration and S(;51 disk garbage collection).There are two types of font registration.One is the registration of fonts that the system has. In green, vector fonts created with other font creation systems are stored in the hard disk of this image processing system in the form of magnetic tape.

The other is the registration of external character fonts. External character fonts are characters that do not exist within the system. In this case, fonts created in other systems are registered in this system from a floppy or magnetic tape.

The file server 200 provides services for transferring data between the workstation 300, the input controller 100, and the imagesetter 400, and stores data. Necessary information is obtained from the file server 200 regarding securing and deleting the area. To register the data once entered in the buffer 104 in the input controller 10G as a file in the image processing system, information such as the file name and file capacity is transferred to the file server 200, and the data is transferred to the hard disks 220, 221, . . . on the SCSI bus. Access... This allows the file server 200 to communicate with the directory. Manages disk areas, etc. The file server 200 also transfers file data to the workstation 30G via Ethernet and receives data from the workstation. At this time, in accordance with the instructions from the workstation 30G, the file server 20G sends the hard disk (220
．． ) and magnetic tape 210, and update necessary information such as directories. Also, imagesetter 4
It obtains a command for 0G and a command for the magnetic tape 210, and performs services accordingly. Furthermore, a predetermined command is sent to the imagesetter 400 via the auxiliary data line 5 and the dual port RAM, file management information is sent in response to a request from the imagesetter 400, and the disk data on the scs r bus is sent. The imagesetter 400 directly accesses the imagesetter. Furthermore, utility information related to the entire image processing system is stored in the hard disks 220, 221, . . . on the SCSI bus, and font information. Common files on the system correspond to such information.

Next, the operation of the workstation 300 will be explained with reference to the flow shown in FIG. 3. Document data edited and stored on the editing input device 2 is read out from the floppy disk 3 (step 5310), The code information CD is subjected to data format conversion (step 5311). And 1 to CRT301
The contents of the document for each page are displayed by scrolling as will be described later (step 5312), and the image data output position is moved using the mouse 30.
6. Keyboard 302. Instruct with the digitizer 303 (
Step 5313), Create page description data for each page (Step 5314), Perform such data creation for all pages (Step 5315),
After that, input the imposition instructions for creating the printing version using the keyboard 3.
02 (step S31B), and creates imposed page description data (step 5317).

Then, the created data is transferred to the file server 200 (step 53111), and the imagesetter 4
00 &: Instruct image output and end the operation (step 5319) Next, an example of the operation at the time of imposition will be described with reference to FIG.

The workstation 300 has hard disks 220, 221 . ... is read (step 5330), and document data is read from the floppy disk 3 (step 53).
31) Display necessary information on the CRT 301 of the workstation 300, and operate the mouse 306, keyboard 302, and digitizer 303 to create an image. The layout of the document is performed page by page (step S332).

Then, the pre-registered imposition type is specified using the keyboard 302 (step S333), and each page is displayed on the CRT 301 in the specified imposition state (for example, A to D in the figure).
The layout will be displayed with the number of pages at the top (Step 5)
334), here, the imposition registration is, for example, ^4
Page numbers are stored in advance, such as 4 sides of a version or 8 sides of an A5 version, in consideration of folding when binding multiple pages, and by selecting and specifying from among the registered pages. As shown in A-D in Figure 4, the imposition status is displayed along with the page number (in B, "1", "8", "'5'""4"}. In this way, images, characters, etc. The contents of Imagesetter 4 are not displayed and according to the page description data.
00 to generate and output a bitmap (step S3
35).

FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of an imagesetter 400, in which a CPU bus 412 and an image data bus 413 are connected to a sequencer 410, and a logic operation circuit 4
20 and a first memory 421 are connected. Also, C.P.
U Has412 D is CPU4011. : A main memory 430 is connected to the image data path 413, a common memory 424 is connected to the image data path 413, and an interface 402
The outputs of 403 and 403 are input to CP Robus 412. A buffer 433, a decompressor 440 and a third memory 42 are provided between the CPU bus 412 and the image data bus 413.
3 are connected, and buffers 434 . A rask image converter 431 and a second memory 422 are connected, and a buffer 435 and an output control circuit 436 are connected.
The CPU bus 412 has a vector font memory 432.
is connected to the output control circuit 436, and the output buffer 43 is connected to the output control circuit 436.
A high-quality output device IO and a laser beam printer 11 are connected via 6^. Vector font memory 43
2 stores vector fonts necessary for generating a character bitmap by the rask image converter 431. Vector fonts are usually disks (220,
221,...), but it is inefficient to read the vector fonts via the SCSI bus every time a character bitmap is generated, so all the necessary vector fonts are stored in the vector font memory 432. By loading it into , the speed of character bitmap generation is improved.

In such a configuration, the operation is as shown in FIG.
An output instruction request is output from 00 to the imagesetter 400 using the file names in the hard disks 220, 221, . . . as parameters. The specifications to be output from now on are written in that file, and the specifications are sequentially decoded to calculate the address of the code data and compressed data for each unit image, and the overlapping process using logical operations is repeated on the addresses. The processing results are stored in the first memory 421. Imagesetter 400 calls the parameter file via the scsr bus and repeats this operation. For example, for code data, character code and position. Typeface. Instruction information such as size is input via the SCSI interface 403 (step 5400). The rask image is converted by the rask image converter 431 via the buffer 434 (step S401), and the rask image data is stored in the second memory 422 (step S402). Further, the compressed image data is inputted manually via the interface 403 via the SCSI bus (step 5403), and is decompressed and restored by the decompressor 440 via the buffer 433 (step 54).
04) The restored image data is stored in the third memory 42.
Further, bitmap data such as logos stored in the hard disks 220, 221, . . . are manually inputted via the interface 403 (step S406) and the common memory
4 (step 5407). Second memory 42
All data stored in the common memory 424 is bitmap data, and these stored data are stored in the CPU 4.
01 in the logic operation circuit 420 (step 5410), pictures, documents, etc. ! The Jil collection or data subjected to logical operations for image processing are stored in the first memory 421 (step S411). After the data is stored in the first memory 421, it is determined whether the data is finished, that is, whether there are any modifications or additions (step S412).
), the above operation continues until logical operations such as correction are completed. This logical operation circuit 420 generates bitmap data generated from character code data. CP040 performs logical operations such as sum, product, difference, and exclusive OR of bitmap data and bitmap data expanded from compressed image data.
1 to generate image information to be outputted to the output device 10 or laser beam printer 11.

Here, in this invention, the CR of the workstation 300
In the display of T301, the following scrolling operation is performed. That is, when the rectangular area 6 in FIG. 7(8) is the entire area to be displayed (for example, one page), the present invention displays the reduced area 7 at a predetermined position on the CRT 301, and also displays the area actually displayed on the CRT 301. The displayable range is displayed as a white portion 7A in the reduced area 7, which corresponds to the portion 6A shown in FIG. Therefore, although the shaded area 6B is not currently displayed on the CIIT3θl, it is possible to confirm at a glance in the reduced area 7 which area of the entire area 6 this area is. And Fig. 7 (B
) When the displayable range 7A is moved using the mouse 306 or the like, the actual display area of the CRT 301 changes accordingly, so that the corresponding part is always displayed as the displayable range 78 in the reduced area 7. It has become.

Next, concrete operation examples are shown in the flowchart of Fig. 8 and Fig. 9.
The explanation will be given according to the screen diagrams in Figures (8) to (E). First, a page designation command is issued using the page menu as shown in Figure 9 (A) (Step Sl), and a page designation sheet is displayed on the CRT 301 (Step 52). Then, input the page number to be laid out in the page number input field as shown in FIG. 9(B) using the keyboard 302 (step S3), and enter the page contents in the upper left corner as shown in the right diagram of FIG. 9(C). It is displayed in the page display area in the original size as a reference (step S4). At the same time, a rectangle indicating the entire page area and a rectangle indicating the actual original size displayable area (both are used as page scrollers) are displayed in reduced size as shown in the left diagram of FIG. 9(C) (step S5). Figure (D
), move the cursor within the rectangle of the page scroller's original size displayable area (step S6), and press the mouse 3
Move the cursor to an arbitrary position while holding down the button 06 (step 5B). The rectangle of the area that can be displayed in the original size is displayed so as to follow the sol (step S8), and the rectangle of the area that can be displayed in the original size has come to the position in the entire page area where it is desired to be displayed in the original size, as shown in the left diagram of FIG. 9(E). Mouse 30
Release button 6 (step S9). This will temporarily erase the page contents displayed in the page display area,
The page contents within the rectangular area that can be displayed in the original size for the entire page area are displayed in the page display area in the original size as shown in FIG. is displayed in its original size (step 511).

Effects of the Invention: As described above, according to the image display method of the present invention, a large amount of text and picture image data can be edited at high speed, and a high-quality printing image in a format specified by the layout can be output. In an image processing system that can lay out and output text and pictures, a reduced area is displayed at a predetermined position by reducing the entire area to be displayed by a display means, and the display is performed on the reduced area. Since the display is performed by moving the display section indicating the displayable range, it is possible to specify and display an area that cannot be displayed at one time with a few scroll operations.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of the image processing system, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the input controller, Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the workstation, and Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the input controller. 5 is a block diagram showing the detailed configuration of the imagesetter, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of its operation, and FIGS. 7(A) and (B) are diagrams showing the display method of the present invention. FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing an example of the operation of the present invention, and FIGS. 9 (^) to (E) are diagrams showing examples of the screen.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An input controller that halftones and compresses the density data of the image read by the input device and temporarily stores this compressed image data in a buffer, and an input controller that halftones and compresses the density data of the image read by the input device, and A workstation is connected to the input controller and the workstation by a balance line, the workstation is configured to edit the screen of the code information and the image data using an input operation means and the display means, and the workstation is connected to the input controller and the workstation by a balance line, a file server for storing edited data screen-edited on a workstation in a storage means; a file server for reading out the edited data stored in the storage means and performing necessary data processing;
In an image display method for an image processing system equipped with an imagesetter configured to output an image to an image output device, a reduced area obtained by reducing the entire area to be displayed by the display means is displayed at a predetermined position. . An image display method, characterized in that display is performed by moving a display section indicating a displayable range by the display means on the reduced area.