JPH11235845A - Image forming system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming system capable of forming high quality images having no color dislocation nor density irregularities on silver halide color sensitive material, moreover, incuring no complexity of constitution or increase of costs. SOLUTION: The image forming method is to form images such that exposure is done to silver halide sensitive material that moves relatively with respect to a recording part by a recording part comprising shutter elements 14 disposed in one array or a plurality of row arrays for the control of a light source and light from the light source, a filter 11 of a switching over method to switching over light from a light source into plural colors for their spectra, and recording part comprising an image forming optical system, a plurality of correction quantities for the correction of density irregularity of each recorded images by each shutter element 14 are given to each shutter element 14, thereby making constitution that can correct positively.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for forming an image by exposing a silver halide color light-sensitive material which moves relatively to a recording section by a recording section arranged in an array. It is.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Among image recording apparatuses that output image data, those that use a light control type recording section having one or a plurality of rows have advantages that the structure is simple, the whole is compact, and the apparatus can be manufactured at low cost. There is.

As a recording head used in the light quantity control type recording section, for example, a light source such as an LED array or a fluorescent display tube array (VFPH) which is a light emitting element array is used as a backlight, and an optical shutter array is provided thereon. There are heads combined. Examples of the optical shutter array include a PLZT shutter array and a liquid crystal shutter array.

[0004] Since the recording elements constituting these arrays have variations in control characteristics, if they are used as they are, there is a problem that even in an output image based on uniform data, stripe-like unevenness of shading occurs. Therefore, as a technique for correcting the above-mentioned variation, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 7-2744 is used.
No. 3, JP-A-2-276655.

In Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-27443, an image is recorded by driving each recording element with the same signal, a variation in density of a recorded image is measured, and a correction amount is calculated. A method of correcting is described. Also,
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-276655 describes a method in which the correction is repeated until the shading unevenness is within an allowable range.

On the other hand, when an image is formed on a silver halide color light-sensitive material, exposure is performed in a plurality of colors. That is, the red, green, and blue photosensitive layers of the silver halide color photosensitive material are exposed to light of three colors of R, G, and B, respectively. In this case, as shown in FIG.
A separate recording head 61a, 61b, 61c is arranged in parallel for exposure of each color of R, G, B, and the photosensitive material 63 sent in the direction of the arrow by the conveying means 62 passes under these recording heads in order. Therefore, at least the arrangement space S of each of the recording heads 61a, 61b, 61c
Therefore, if the recording timing of each head and the transport timing of the photosensitive material are not precisely controlled, a deviation occurs in the recording position of each head, and there is a risk of image deterioration due to a color deviation.

In order to suppress the color misregistration, it is necessary to improve the conveyance accuracy of the photosensitive material and to synchronize the conveyance and the recording with good timing accuracy. However, such means makes the apparatus complicated and increases the cost. It became.

FIG. 7 shows a desirable means for suppressing color misregistration. This means that under the exposure unit formed by combining the shutter array 71, the light source 72, and the switching filter 73,
Since the exposure of a plurality of colors is performed at substantially the same position on the photosensitive material 75 fed in the direction of the arrow by the conveying means 74, there is almost no color shift. In addition, the characteristic variation of each recording element is determined by measuring the variation of each element of the shutter array 71, calculating the correction amount, and correcting according to this value.

[0009]

However, since the optical system (especially, the imaging optical system) has aberration for each color and the image structure of each recording element such as the degree of overlap of each recording element differs for each color, Correction could not be completed with only the variation correction amount, resulting in streak-like shading unevenness, resulting in image quality deterioration.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and there is no color shift in a silver halide color light-sensitive material.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of forming a high-quality image without shading, and without causing a complicated structure or an increase in cost.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a light source, a shutter element arranged in an array of one or more rows for controlling light from the light source, and
A recording unit including a switching type filter that switches the light from the light source into a plurality of colors and splits the light, and an imaging optical system, exposes a silver halide color photosensitive material that moves relatively to the recording unit. In an image forming apparatus for forming an image to be formed, a plurality of correction amounts are provided for each shutter element for correcting the shading of each recorded image by each of the shutter elements, so that the correction can be reliably performed.

Further, the invention according to claim 2 is characterized in that the imaging optical system is a self-occurring lens array, and is configured so that the cost of the entire apparatus can be reduced.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the shutter element is PLZT, and is configured to achieve high-speed image formation.

Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the correction amount for correcting the shading variation is at least an exposure color for emitting magenta and an exposure color for emitting cyan, and is inexpensive. Thus, a high-quality image can be formed.

[0015]

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an image printer to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing an enlarged optical recording head unit, and FIG. 3 is a first example of a flowchart of an image output control system. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a second example of the flowchart of the image output control system, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the cell hoc lens array with a part thereof omitted.

Image printer body 1 to which the present invention is applied
As shown in FIG. 1, image information taken in by a scanner 5 is recorded by an optical recording head 6 on a photographic paper 4 which is a color silver halide photographic material pulled out from a photographic paper magazine 2 by a conveying means 3 and then developed. It is configured to be transported to the processing unit 7 for development processing, cut into a predetermined size by the cutter 8 and discharged onto the paper discharge tray 9. Needless to say, the cutting may be performed before the sheet is conveyed to the developing unit 7.

As shown in FIG. 2, the optical recording head 6 applies light K from a light source (white light source) 10 to the rotary switching filter 1.
1 and irradiates the input section 13 of the optical fiber 12 with
Thereby, the photographic paper 4 is introduced into the optical fiber 12 and is exposed to a predetermined position of the photographic paper 4 through the PLZT shutter array 14.

The exposure is performed on photographic paper 4 which is a color silver halide photographic material which is conveyed in the direction of the arrow by conveying rollers 3a and 3b which rotate in connection with a driving source (not shown).
The exposure of the PLZT shutter array 14 and the rotary switching filter 11 is controlled in accordance with the image data R, G, and B by commands from the image output control unit 15 and the filter switching control unit 16. After such an exposure process,
The photographic paper 4 is conveyed to the development processing section 7 as described above, and undergoes a predetermined development processing to obtain an output image.

The PLZT shutter array (simply "P
The LZT array 14) includes a plurality of PLZT shutter elements arranged in a row (or a plurality of rows) at 300 dpi in an array, and a cell-hoc lens array as an image forming optical system. The photographic paper 4 is exposed to light through a light source 17. Although the photographic paper 4 has been described as a roll, it may be cut paper.

The transport means 3 for the photographic paper 4 is not limited to the transport rollers 3a and 3b shown in FIGS. Further, a method in which the photographic paper 4 is fixed and the print head moves, or a method in which the photographic paper and the PLZT move together may be used.

As the image forming optical system of the PLZT array 14, a roof mirror lens array or the like may be used.
When the cell hook lens array 17 is used as in this example, there is an advantage that it is possible to contribute to the realization of reduction in size and cost of the entire apparatus. Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the cell hook lens array 17 is composed of two staggered rod lenses 18, but is also effective in that a bright and high resolution can be obtained.

Although the recording operation has been described as an example of an array in which the PLZT shutter elements are arranged in a line, the recording position on a photographic paper can also be determined in an array in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged or in a two-dimensional panel. By appropriately setting the timing and performing exposure control, a color image can be recorded.

Further, as another embodiment of the present invention, the same effect can be obtained even when performing image recording by combining a shutter array such as a liquid crystal shutter array.

Next, the recording operation will be described based on a first example of the control system shown in FIG. First, the image data R, G, and B for each color are subjected to appropriate image processing such as gradation, color, and sharpness, and are sent to the image output control unit 15 line by line.

In the image output control section 15, the image data is corrected using the density variation correction data r, g, b in the density variation correction sections 15a, 15a ', 15a ".

The corrected image data is sent to the PLZT control unit 15c for each color through the color switching control unit 15b, and drives the filter switching control unit 16 for controlling the rotary switching filter 11 in a timely manner. Acts to be.

The corrected image data is converted into control data of each shutter element in the PLZT control section 15c, and drives the PLZT array 14. That is, the image output control unit 15 uses the plurality of correction amounts obtained by the density variation correction units 15a, 15a ', and 15a "to correct the variation in density of the shutter elements of the PLZT array 14. And variations in light and shade caused by the degree of overlap of the shutter elements and the like can be accurately corrected.

The correction amount for correcting the variation in shading is not limited to all the exposure colors, but is effective even when, for example, there are two exposure colors of magenta and cyan. It is. This is because magenta coloring and cyan coloring are highly visible and unevenness is easily noticeable. That is, if the correction of shading can be realized with a small number of correction amounts, the cost can be reduced accordingly.

Next, the recording operation will be described based on a second example of the control system shown in FIG. This is an example in which image output control is performed only by one density variation correction unit 15a. Image data R, G, and B for each color are subjected to appropriate image processing such as gradation, color, sharpness, Image output control unit 1 for each line
Sent to 5.

In the image output control section 15, the image data R, G, B are first switched through the color switching control section 15b and sent to one density variation correction section 15a. 11
Is driven by the filter switching control unit 16 that controls

The one density variation correction unit 15a
The image data switched through the color switching control unit 15b is corrected by using one of the corresponding density variation correction data r, g, and b extracted from the data table 15d holding the density variation correction data r, g, and b. I do. The image data corrected for each color in this manner is converted into control data of each shutter element in the PLZT control section 15c, and the PLZT array 14 is driven.

As described above, in the second example of the control system shown in FIG. 4, similarly to the first example, the correction of the shading variation with respect to the shutter elements of the PLZT array 14 is performed by the plurality of image outputs obtained by the image output control unit 15. Is common in that it is possible to correct the shading variation for each color using the correction amount described above, but there is an advantage that it is possible to contribute to downsizing and cost reduction by using a single (single) shading variation correcting unit 15a.

[0033]

As described above, the present invention provides a light source, shutter elements arranged in an array of one or more rows for controlling the light from the light source, and a plurality of colors of light from the light source. A switching filter that switches the spectrum to
In an image forming apparatus that forms an image by exposing a silver halide color photosensitive material that moves relatively to the recording unit by a recording unit that includes an imaging optical system, an image forming apparatus includes: The feature is that each shutter element has a plurality of correction amounts for correcting shading variations, which enables not only high-quality image formation without shading unevenness and color shift, but also halogenation. This provides an excellent effect that the relative movement structure between the silver color photosensitive material and the recording section is not complicated, and the cost and the size of the apparatus are not increased.

Further, the invention described in claim 2 is characterized in that the imaging optical system is a self-occurring lens array, and thus has the effect of reducing the cost of the entire apparatus.

Further, the invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the shutter element is made of PLZT, so that an effect of achieving high-speed image formation can be achieved.

Further, the invention according to claim 4 is characterized in that the correction amount for correcting the density variation is at least an exposure color for emitting magenta and an exposure color for emitting cyan. This provides an excellent effect that an inexpensive and high-quality image can be formed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an image printer to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing an optical recording head section in an enlarged manner.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a first example of a flowchart of an image output control system.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a second example of the flowchart of the image output control system.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the cell hook lens array with a part thereof omitted;

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view showing a conventional example in which separate optical recording heads are arranged in parallel for exposure of each color of R, G, and B.

FIG. 7 is a schematic perspective view showing a conventional example of a desirable optical recording head unit for suppressing color misregistration.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image printer main body 2 Printing paper magazine 3 Conveying means 3a, 3b, conveying roller 4 Printing paper (silver halide color photosensitive material) 5 Scanner 6 Optical recording head 7 Development processing unit 8 Cutter 9 Discharge tray 10 Light source (white light source) REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 11 rotary switching filter 12 optical fiber 13 optical fiber input unit 14 PLZT shutter array 15 image output control unit 15 a, 15 a ′, 15 a ″ density variation correction unit 15 b color switching control unit 15 c PLZT control unit 15 d data table 16 filter switching control unit 17 Cell hoc lens array (imaging optical system) 18 Rod lens K Light from light source R, G, B Image data r, g, b Data for correcting unevenness in density

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A light source, and shutter elements arranged in an array of one or more rows for controlling light from the light source;
A recording unit including a switching type filter that switches the light from the light source into a plurality of colors and splits the light, and an imaging optical system, exposes a silver halide color photosensitive material that moves relatively to the recording unit. An image forming apparatus for forming an image to be formed, wherein a plurality of correction amounts for correcting shading of each recorded image by each shutter element are provided for each shutter element. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image forming optical system is a cell hook lens array. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shutter element is PLZT. 4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the correction amount for correcting the shading variation is at least an exposure color for developing magenta and an exposure color for developing cyan.
2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: