JPH05236254A - Picture processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To synthesize a sharp character picture and a halftone picture by expanding a character code and image data from a 1st storage means storing them, storing them in a 2nd storage means and controlling independently position of data written in the 1st and 2nd storage means. CONSTITUTION:Character picture data 101 are stored in a character code buffer 10 by one pattern according to an external area information signal 102 designating an area of print-out. Then, the data are subjected to dot-conversion by a character generator 9 and written in an image memory 8 according to an external area designation signal 103. Moreover, color pictures R, G, B are respectively stored in image buffer memories 28-1, 2, 3 according to an external area designation signal 107. Then, a same picture element is read from each memory as Y, M, C components and stored in an intermediate picture image memory 21 according to an external area designation signal 108. A laser beam is modulated by dot data from the memories 8, 21.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus which has means for storing a halftone image and a line image such as a character and has improved reproducibility.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an image processing apparatus configured to reproduce a halftone by using a dot image, an apparatus based on an inkjet printer system, a thermal transfer printer system, a laser beam printer system or the like is known. In such an apparatus, in order to reproduce a halftone, a method of modulating a dot diameter, a dither method of reproducing a halftone by modulating dots in a small area, a density pattern method, or the like is used. In particular, with a color laser beam printer, it is difficult to change the spot diameter of the writing laser and it is not possible to actually modulate the dot diameter, so halftone reproduction is mainly performed using the dither method or the like. ing.

[0003]

However, in an image in which light and dark are clear such as characters and lines, the sharpness is lost due to the blurring of the edge portion or the decrease in the density of the solid portion due to the dither processing. There is a drawback.

On the other hand, since image data sent from a color video camera or an image file is once stored in a buffer memory in the color printer and then printed out, it has versatility in transfer speed.
Then, in order to print out with a dot image according to the density data of the transferred image, dither processing is performed, and the image is converted accordingly.

It is desirable to freely edit these characters and halftone images.

[0006] Regarding the character information, it is possible to simplify the structure for inputting by inputting it as a character code.

Therefore, in view of the above points, an object of the present invention is to
An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing device which is capable of freely editing characters and images and which has high versatility.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the image processing apparatus of the present invention comprises a first storage means for storing a character code to be expanded and image data (in the embodiment, 10, 28- 1)), a developing means for developing the character code and image data read from the first storage means (also 9, 24), and a dot image and image data corresponding to the character code developed by the developing means. Second storage means for storing and (also 8, 21)
A control means (similarly 19, 32, 15, 23) for independently controlling the positions in the first storage means and the second storage means to write data, and the dots read from the second storage means. Supply means for supplying the image and the image data to the image reproducing means (also 7, 6,
5) and are included.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an entire embodiment of the present invention. In the illustrated image processing apparatus, the character code string signal as shown in FIG. 2 is used as the character image data 101, and R, G, B as shown in FIG. 3 is used as the color image data.
Color identification signal 104 and vertical and horizontal synchronization signals 106
An image signal 105 accompanied by V and 106H is supplied from the outside. Further, the image trimming position designation signal 102,
103, 107, 108 are also supplied from the outside.

FIG. 2 shows a character image data string signal, which includes character string data C ₁₀ , C ₁₁ , C ₁₂ ... In the first row following the leading identification code ITOP of one image. Further, the RET code is inserted after the last character of each line. Therefore, the receiving side (that is, the color recording device side)
When the RET code is detected at, a line feed is performed. In FIG. 2, R ₁ is the RET code on the first line, R ₂
Is the RET code on the second line. The end code IEND of the one-character image is inserted next to the last line in the one-character image to end the one-character image data. In this color recording apparatus, the end of one character image is identified by receiving this IEND code.

Character image data 1 supplied as described above
01 is stored in the character code buffer 10 for one screen. At this time, the above-mentioned special code (for example, ITOP code, RET code, IEND code) is decoded by the character code decoder 11, and the storage start / line feed command signal 109 and the storage end signal 110 for storing the character image are transmitted. ..

FIG. 4 shows an example of the character screen thus stored. Here, each character A, B, ... A, b,
c, ... Are represented by an 8-bit ASCII code, for example. Since this color recording apparatus adopts the laser beam method using a dot image, it is necessary to convert the above-mentioned character code string into a dot shape. for that reason,
In this embodiment, the character generator 9 is used to perform such dot conversion. Character generator 9
Regarding the above, since it is the same as a well-known one, its explanation is omitted. At this time, the area information signal 1 indicating which area of the one-character image supplied from the outside should be printed out.
02 (that is, information designating the row and column of the character code image) is given from the external device.

For example, in the character code image shown in FIG. 4, the printout start character and the printout end character are (m ₁ ,
When given by n ₁ )-(m ₂ , n ₂ ), the area within the bold line shown in the figure is read from the character code buffer 10.
Then, in response to the printout designation information (m ₁ , n ₁ ) and (m ₂ , n ₂ ) included in the region information signal 102, the read position designation circuit 17 and the read address generator 18 output the read address of the designated region. Occur.

On the other hand, a designation signal 103 designates a region of the print image to which the character image region designated as described above should be printed out. The writing area for printout is the pixel number at the writing start position, the scanning line number (m ₁ ′, n ₁ ′),
The write end position is given with the same number (m ₂ ′, n ₂ ′), and the write address to the image memory 8 is generated by the image memory write position designation control circuit 15 and the image memory address generator 14.

The character code image in the specific area thus read out from the character code buffer 10 is converted into dot data by the character generator 9 and stored in the designated area in the image memory 8 to be printed out. .. This is shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B.

Next, the processing of the color halftone image supplied as the density data of each color of R, G and B will be described. As shown in FIG. 3, this color halftone image has R, G and B color identification signals 104 and vertical and horizontal synchronization signals 106V and 106V.
H and density data (that is, an image signal) 105 for each pixel of the image. Each color image is R,
It is stored in the buffer memories 28-1, 28-2, 28-3 for each color according to the G and B color identification signals 104, respectively.

The synchronizing signals 106V and 106H are supplied to the storage address generator 32, and the address selector 30 supplies necessary addresses to the image buffer memories 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3. Thus, each color image is stored in the image buffer memory 28-1, 28.
It is stored in each of -2 and 28-3.

After that, similarly to the reading from the character code buffer 10, the area 107 for printing out the halftone image is specified by the signal 107 supplied from the outside. This is given with the printout start point, pixel number, and scan line number, and the corresponding image memory 28
Addresses -1, 28-2, 28-3 are generated from the read address generator 31.

At the time of reading, the image buffer memory for yellow (stores the B signal) 28-1, the image buffer memory for magenta (stores the G signal)
28-2, the same pixel from the image buffer memory for cyan (which stores the R signal) 28-3 is Y, M, C respectively.
It is read out simultaneously as a component. The color signal read out in this way is finally stored in the image memory 21 for halftone images, but the image area designated as described above is printed out at the designated position. As described above, the write start position is designated by the signal 108 supplied from the outside (not shown). In response to this, the image memory write position designation circuit 23 and the image memory address generator 22 generate an address of the image memory 21 corresponding to the designated position. This behavior is
This is similar to the case of the character image data described above.

The image buffer memory 28-1,
The color density data for each pixel read from 28-2 and 28-3 is subjected to gamma conversion (density conversion) matching the characteristics of the image processing apparatus in the gamma correction circuit 27, and further,
After undergoing masking processing (see 26) and UCR processing (see 25), which are well known in the printing art, and then dithering (see 24), a dot is placed at a specific position in the image memory 21 designated as described above. It is stored as data. Here, as is well known, the dither process is an electrical process for determining a print dot to be output by comparing density data of each pixel with a threshold value in order to reproduce a halftone.

The image processing apparatus sequentially prints out the yellow image first, the magenta image second, the cyan image third, and the black image fourth, and superimposes each color image. Since a full-color image is obtained, the storage capacity of the image memory 21 is sufficient for one image. Then, every time each color is printed, the above-described color processing and transfer to the image memory 21 are performed.

In order to read the data from the image memory 8 for character images and the image memory 21 for halftone images and send them to the laser light modulation circuit 5, these image data are stored as dot data in the image memories 8 and 21, respectively. Further, the same address is assigned to the same pixel. In the present embodiment, the addressing of both image memories 8 and 21 is controlled by the image memory address generator 14. That is, a read address is generated at the time when the image is stored in both the image memories 8 and 21, and the dot data of the character and the halftone image corresponding to the same pixel is transmitted.

The dot data read from the image memories 8 and 21 are superimposed by the OR gate 8 to modulate the laser light. The modulated laser light is the photosensitive drum 1.
Form an electrostatic latent image on top. The process of creating a print image is similar to that of a normal laser beam printer.
Four types of developing devices (none of which are shown) are selectively used for M, C and B _K (black). Also, signal 11
Reference numeral 3 denotes a horizontal synchronizing signal transmitted from the laser beam detector 0 when the laser beam detector 0 is irradiated with the laser beam, and synchronously reads out image data from the image memories 8 and 21.

The signal 112 is a signal for controlling the color of the character image, and the data is output from the image memory 8 only when the desired color is printed out. Similarly, when a halftone image is read from the image memory 21, it is possible to control so as to read only a desired color image and obtain an image of a single color or a composite color.

FIG. 5 shows an example in which the designated areas of the character image and the halftone image are individually moved and the two images are combined. That is, the area is moved for each of the input images A and C, and the obtained images B and D are combined to obtain the image B + D.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since it is possible to perform composition with a halftone image without impairing the sharpness of the character image, and to move the designated area separately for each of the character image and the halftone image, the character image and the halftone image can be moved. It is possible to combine images by rearranging them efficiently.

Further, according to the present invention, since the character image can be input using the code, it becomes possible to connect with other equipment, and a versatile image processing apparatus can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an entire embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of character image data.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of color image data.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a character screen stored in a character code buffer.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example in which designated areas of a character image and a halftone image are separately moved and both screens are combined.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Photosensitive Drum 2 Lens 3 Reflecting Mirror 4 Laser Light Source 5 Laser Light Modulating Circuit 6 Line Buffer 7 OR Gate 8 Character Image Memory 9 Character Generator 10 Character Code Buffer 11 Character Code Decoder 12 Interface 14 Image Memory / Address Generator 15 Image Memory Writing Position designation circuit 16 Control circuit 17 Read position designation circuit 18 Read address generator 19 Write address generator 20 Address selector 21 Image memory for halftone image 22 Image memory / address generator 23 Image memory write position designation circuit 24 Dither circuit 25 UCR circuit 26 Masking Circuit 27 Gamma correction circuit 28-1, 28-2, 28-3 Image buffer memory 29 in Interface 30 address selector 31 read address generator 32 write address generator 33 read position designation circuit 101-103 signal

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A first storage means for storing a character code and image data to be developed, a developing means for developing the character code and image data read from the first storage means, and a character developed by the developing means. Second storage means for storing a dot image and image data corresponding to the code; control means for independently controlling the positions in the first storage means and the second storage means to write the data; and the second storage means. An image processing apparatus comprising: a supply unit that supplies a dot image and image data read from the unit to the image reproduction unit.