JP3509625B2 - Printing apparatus and photographic processing apparatus provided with the same - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus which transmits light to an image display means such as a liquid crystal display device and irradiates the light on a photographic paper for exposure, and a photographic processing apparatus having the printing apparatus. It is a thing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, research and development of a printing apparatus as a so-called digital exposure device using, for example, a liquid crystal display apparatus as an image display apparatus have been actively pursued.
This type of printing device drives each pixel of the liquid crystal display device in accordance with image information, controls transmission of light from the light source for each pixel, and irradiates the transmitted light to the photographic paper to obtain the image information. The image corresponding to is printed on photographic paper.

By the way, in such a digital exposure device, the light transmission control performance in the display area of the liquid crystal display device as the image display means may be non-uniform in the plane. In such a case, there is a problem in that the non-uniformity of the light transmission control performance causes variations in the exposure amount on the printing paper, and eventually causes image deterioration such as unevenness in the printed image. There are various causes for the in-plane nonuniformity of the light transmission control performance of the liquid crystal display device.

For example, non-uniformity may occur in the voltage applied to the liquid crystal layer due to variations in electrical characteristics such as the resistance value in the liquid crystal cell or in the signal wiring of the control substrate and the inclusion of noise. In such a case, in the display area of the liquid crystal display device, the display gradation of the portion of the signal wiring in which the applied voltage is shifted is different from that of the surrounding area. Vertical line-shaped (horizontal line-shaped when the applied voltage of the signal wiring in the horizontal direction is shifted, dot-shaped when the applied voltage is shifted in pixel units) is generated. Hereinafter, this unevenness is called streak unevenness.

Further, when the cell thickness, that is, the thickness of the liquid crystal layer in the liquid crystal cell varies in the display area of the liquid crystal display device, the light transmission control performance of the liquid crystal display device depends on the variation distribution. It may become non-uniform in the plane.
In that case, for example, in FIG.
The irregular shape irregularity appears as shown in.

Further, the characteristics of the liquid crystal material may partially change within the display area of the liquid crystal display device due to the fact that the liquid crystal material contains impurity ions due to contamination during manufacturing or deterioration over time. Since the light transmission control performance of the changed portion is not uniform with that of the other portions, unevenness of an irregular shape as shown in FIG. 15B may occur in the printed image. Such irregular-shaped irregularities are hereinafter referred to as irregular-shaped irregularities.

The occurrence of unevenness as shown in FIGS. 15 (a) and 15 (b) cannot be completely avoided from the viewpoint of manufacturing control of the liquid crystal display device, so that the light transmission control performance of the liquid crystal display device is high. It is technically and costly to obtain the in-plane uniformity.

Further, even if the liquid crystal display device has sufficient in-plane uniformity of the light transmission control performance, due to the structure of the printing apparatus,
The amount of exposure on the photographic paper is not uniform in the plane and the printed image is shown in Fig. 1.
5 (c) may cause unevenness. This is a liquid crystal display device normally used for printing devices (for example,
This is because a TN (Twisted Nematic) type liquid crystal display device) has a large viewing angle characteristic, that is, a dependency of transmitted light intensity on an entrance / exit angle.

Specifically, when the printing apparatus uses a diffused light source, the intensity distribution of the emitted light is generated according to the incident angle of the diffused light from the light source to each portion in the display area plane of the liquid crystal display device. This is because the exposure amount is not uniform on the printing paper surface even after the image is formed by the lens. Hereinafter, the unevenness of the burned image due to the viewing angle characteristics of the liquid crystal display device as shown in FIG. 15C is referred to as the viewing angle characteristics unevenness.

Conventionally, various methods have been proposed in order to suppress such unevenness of the printed image.

First, there are the following methods. First, printing paper is printed with a uniform gradation image, a so-called solid image, displayed on the entire surface of the liquid crystal display device. afterwards,
Analyzes the color development state of photographic paper with a solid image printed on it,
Corrected image data for compensating the non-uniformity of the exposure amount is created. Then, the corrected image data is added to all the image data to be printed, and the input signal to the liquid crystal display device is adjusted to suppress the unevenness of the printed image.

Secondly, there is the following method. First, similarly to the first method, a solid image is displayed on the liquid crystal display device, the exposed paper is printed, and the color development state of the printing paper on which the solid image is printed is analyzed. Then, in order to compensate for the coloring unevenness obtained by analysis, instead of processing the image data, the voltage applied to the liquid crystal layer by the signal wiring in the liquid crystal cell is controlled by adjusting the control substrate. Specifically, optimization is performed by confirming and analyzing the occurrence of unevenness on the printed printing paper and repeating the voltage adjustment of the uneven portion for each signal wiring unit.

Thirdly, the following technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
-175328. The printing apparatus is provided with a liquid crystal display device or the like as the correction image display means separately from the liquid crystal display device as the printing image display means. And
This is a method of suppressing unevenness of a printed image by exposing light from a light source through both means.

Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-175328 discloses a method of correcting the corrected image data while measuring the transmitted light of both means with a CCD and automatically creating the optimum corrected image data by sequential calculation. .

[0015]

However, in the first and second methods, it is necessary to create the correction image data and adjust the voltage of the control board for each individual liquid crystal display device, which complicates the processing. It has the disadvantage of increasing the processing time. Further, when the in-plane uniformity of the light transmission control performance of the liquid crystal display device changes due to temperature change or aging, it is necessary to readjust the corrected image data and voltage. Further, in the second method, since the voltage applied to the liquid crystal layer is controlled for each signal wiring in the liquid crystal cell, it is easy to suppress streak unevenness, but it is difficult to suppress irregular shape unevenness and viewing angle characteristic unevenness.

According to the third method, since the corrected image data can be automatically created, it is possible to avoid the complication of dealing with individual liquid crystal display elements, and to compensate for the temperature and aging of the liquid crystal display device. It is also relatively easy to modify the image data. Further, the principle of unevenness correction is similar to the first method, and it is possible to deal with any of stripe unevenness, irregular shape unevenness, and viewing angle characteristic unevenness.

On the other hand, as compared with the first and second methods, the number of liquid crystal display devices provided in the printing apparatus increases, so that the device cost increases and the light transmittance of the entire optical system decreases. However, there is a disadvantage that the utilization efficiency of light from the light source is greatly deteriorated. As a countermeasure, it is necessary to lengthen the exposure time and strengthen the light source, which may cause problems such as lengthening the processing time, shortening the life of the light source, increasing cost, and heat generation of members such as liquid crystal display devices. To be

Further, as a disadvantage common to the first to third methods, the light transmission control performance is caused by optical factors other than the variation of the voltage applied to the liquid crystal such as nonuniform cell thickness in the display area of the liquid crystal display device. When the nonuniformity occurs, it is difficult to suppress the unevenness due to the nonuniformity.

This is common to all three methods in that the applied voltage applied to the liquid crystal layer in any one of the liquid crystal display devices is finally adjusted in order to suppress unevenness, but cell thickness defects, etc. This is because the optimum corrected image data and the optimum adjustment voltage for compensating for the unevenness caused by the optical factor due to the above largely depend on the gradation of the solid image used in the adjustment.

That is, in the liquid crystal display device, the applied voltage to the liquid crystal layer is not proportional to the transmittance, and has a correlation represented by a curve that greatly changes near the threshold voltage of the liquid crystal material. If the grayscale voltage of the solid screen displayed on the liquid crystal display device is close to the threshold value at this time, the unevenness due to the optical factors can be suppressed by the relatively small value of the corrected image data and the small voltage adjustment of the control board. can do.

However, when the applied voltage to the liquid crystal corresponding to the gradation of the image data to be printed is largely apart from the threshold value, the gradation obtained near the threshold value is relatively small. When the value correction image data or the voltage is adjusted, the gradation change of the liquid crystal is small, and the unevenness due to the optical factors cannot be sufficiently suppressed.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the conventional methods as described above, and its purpose is to provide a method that does not depend on the unevenness characteristics of individual liquid crystal display elements, their temperatures, and changes over time. An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus capable of easily compensating the uniformity of the light transmission control performance at a low cost and thereby printing a high quality image, and a photographic processing apparatus including the printing apparatus.

[0023]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a printing apparatus according to claim 1 is a printing apparatus for printing an image by irradiating a light-sensitive material with light.
A light source, a light modulation unit that modulates the polarization state of light from the light source for each pixel according to image information, and first and second light distribution units on the light incident side and the light emission side of the light modulation unit.
An exposure mode in which a polarizing plate and the first polarizing plate are arranged such that the polarization axis of the first polarizing plate is orthogonal to the polarizing axis of the second polarizing plate, and the polarizing axis of the first polarizing plate is the first polarizing plate. And an exposure mode switching means for switching to an exposure mode arranged so as to be parallel to the polarization axis of the two polarizing plates, and image information sent to the light modulation means is mutually inverted between the two exposure modes. The printing in the two exposure modes is performed in duplicate.

According to the above arrangement, printing is performed in duplicate in two exposure modes in which the amounts of transmitted light are mutually inverted,
Further, the image information is printed on the light-sensitive material by sending the image information which is mutually inverted between the two exposure modes to the light modulation means. As a result, the unevenness of light modulation due to various factors that the light modulator itself has is offset by overlapping printing with two exposure modes in which the amounts of light transmission are reversed. On the other hand, the image information to be sent to the light modulator is inverted between the two exposure modes, so that even if printing is performed in duplicate in the two exposure modes, they do not cancel each other out. That is, it is possible to provide a high-quality printed image that is not affected by the uneven light modulation of the light modulating means itself.

As for the uneven light modulation caused by various factors of the light modulating means itself, the two exposure modes are switched by the exposure mode switching means as described above, and the exposure is performed in duplicate in these exposure modes. Since it can be compensated by, it is not necessary to perform complicated and precise processing such as fine adjustment of the circuit in the optical modulation means or the wiring for supplying a signal to the optical modulation means. Also,
Even if the unevenness of light modulation changes due to a change in the environment, it is possible to accurately correct the unevenness.

Further, if printing is performed as described above, even if different light modulating means are used, it is possible to accurately compensate the unevenness of light modulation of the respective light modulating means, so that the respective light modulating means can be used. Accordingly, it is possible to eliminate the troublesome work of correcting unevenness each time.

Further, since the image printed on the photosensitive material is printed by at least two exposures, the number of gradations of each pixel can be increased. Therefore, it is possible to provide a high-quality printed image that more faithfully represents the original image.

A printing apparatus according to a second aspect is characterized in that, in the structure according to the first aspect, the light modulating means is a liquid crystal display device having no polarizing plate.

According to the above arrangement, the polarization state of the light in each pixel is modulated by the liquid crystal display device which is technically highly complete, so that the reliability is high and the image information is faithfully reflected. Image light can be irradiated onto the photosensitive material.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the printing apparatus according to the second aspect, the exposure mode switching means is the first
Further, the exposure mode is switched by rotating at least one of the second polarizing plate and changing the direction of the polarization axis thereof.

According to the above construction, the exposure mode is switched by rotating at least one of the polarizing plates and changing the direction of the polarization axis by the exposure mode switching means. Therefore, the switching of the exposure mode is simple. It can be carried out. Therefore, the cost of the device can be reduced and the reliability can be improved.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the second or third aspect, a printing angle characteristic reducing means for reducing the viewing angle characteristic of the liquid crystal display device is further provided.

According to the above arrangement, the viewing angle characteristics of the liquid crystal display device can be reduced, so that the unevenness of image sticking due to the viewing angle characteristics can be reduced. Therefore, even if the printing unevenness due to the viewing angle characteristics and the printing unevenness due to other factors coexist, it is only necessary to compensate for the printing unevenness due to other factors without considering the compensation of the printing unevenness due to the viewing angle characteristics. Then, the exposure can be set. Therefore, even in such a case, it is possible to provide a high-quality printed image in which various printing unevenness does not occur.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the fourth aspect, the viewing angle characteristic reducing means is a telecentric lens disposed between the liquid crystal display device and the photosensitive material. I am trying.

With the above arrangement, the photosensitive material is irradiated with the light from the liquid crystal display device through the telecentric lens, so that the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristics can be suppressed to be low for the following reasons. The telecentric lens is a lens used for image formation only when the light incident on the lens and the light emitted from the lens are substantially parallel to the normal line direction at the center of the lens. If this telecentric lens is used, the light irradiated onto the photosensitive material will be emitted almost vertically from the liquid crystal display device at any position on the liquid crystal display device. In other words, the image printed on the photosensitive material has a substantially constant angle of exit from the liquid crystal display device at any position, so that the viewing angle characteristic is less affected.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the photographic processing apparatus of the first aspect.
5 to 5, a developing section for developing the photosensitive material baked by the baking apparatus by using a developing solution, and a photosensitive section developed in the developing section. And a drying unit for drying the material.

According to the above construction, the printing, development and drying of the light-sensitive material can be carried out continuously under a unified control, so that a large amount can be processed without imposing an operational burden on the user. Can be continuously printed.

[0038]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 14.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the outline of the photographic processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. The photographic processor is
A printing unit (printing device) 1, a paper magazine 2, a developing unit 3, and a drying unit 4 are provided.

The printing unit 1 exposes photographic printing paper, which is a photosensitive material, conveyed from the paper magazine 2 by irradiating light according to image information. The developing unit 3 performs the developing process by conveying the photographic paper that has been exposed in the printing unit 1 while spraying the developing solution. The drying unit 4 performs the final process of printing by drying the photographic printing paper that has been subjected to the developing process in the developing unit 3.

As described above, the photographic processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is configured to continuously perform the exposure, the development processing, and the drying processing of the printing paper under the unified management. Therefore, it is possible to continuously print a large number of photographs without imposing an operational burden on the user.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a schematic structure of the printing unit 1. Above the printing unit 1, two paper magazines 2, 2 in which printing paper is stored in a roll form are arranged. The paper magazines 2 and 2 store printing papers of different sizes, and by switching these papers to be conveyed, it is possible to deal with print photographs of two sizes.

The printing paper conveyed from the paper magazine 2 is conveyed below the printing unit 1 by the conveying rollers, and then again conveyed upward, and then discharged from the printing unit 1 toward the next developing unit 3. . And paper magazine 2
The photographic paper that is being conveyed from below to the printing unit 1,
Exposure is performed by the exposure unit 5.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic structure of the exposure section 5. The exposure unit 5 includes a light source 6, a mirror tunnel 7,
A first polarizing plate ASSY (exposure mode switching means) 8, a liquid crystal display device (hereinafter referred to as LCD) 9, a second polarizing plate 10,
A printing lens 11 and a BGR rotary filter 12 are provided. Further, a photographic printing paper (not shown) is arranged on the extension of the optical axis of the light emitted from the light source 6.

The light source 6 includes, for example, a lamp portion composed of a halogen lamp, a reflector (not shown) for reflecting the light emitted from the lamp portion in the direction in which the mirror tunnel 7 is arranged, the lamp portion and the reflector. It is composed of a socket portion (not shown) for supporting the lamp portion at a predetermined position and supplying electric power to the lamp portion. The light emitted from the lamp portion is light that includes all the light components of the blue, green, and red color components, and is a slightly reddish white light. The slightly reddish white light is used to compensate for the fact that the color development characteristics of red are weaker than those of other colors in photographic printing paper. The shape of the reflecting surface of the reflector is designed so that the light emitted from the lamp unit is applied to the light incident surface of the mirror tunnel 7.

The mirror tunnel 7 is composed of a cylindrical portion having an inner peripheral surface on which a light reflecting surface is formed, and a diffusion plate provided on the light incident side and the light emitting side of the cylindrical portion. The diffusion plate may be, for example, ground glass or PMMA (Poly-methyl).
(methacrylate: methacrylic resin) or the like containing a milky white pigment. The light that has entered the mirror tunnel 7 is slightly diffused by the diffusion plate on the incident side, repeatedly reflected inside the mirror tunnel 7, and emitted from the diffusion plate on the emission side. In this way, the light emitted from the light source 6 passes through the mirror tunnel 7, whereby the unevenness of the light amount of the light emitted from the light source 6 is removed, and uniform light is applied to the optical system after the mirror tunnel 7. become.

The first polarizing plate ASSY8 is the first polarizing plate 1.
3, a belt 14, and a motor 15. The first polarizing plate 13 is a disc-shaped polarizing plate whose polarization axis is set in a fixed direction, and is provided so as to be rotatable around its center. The motor 15 is a power source for rotating the first polarizing plate 13, and transmits the power to the first polarizing plate 13 via the belt 14.

The LCD 9 has a plurality of pixels formed in a matrix, and a desired image is displayed by controlling the voltage applied to the liquid crystal for each pixel. Since the LCD 9 itself is not provided with a polarizing plate, the light incident on the LCD 9 is emitted as light whose polarization state is modulated for each pixel.

The second polarizing plate 10 is a polarizing plate whose polarization axis is set in a fixed direction, and is installed on the optical axis in a fixed state. The second polarizing plate 10 and the first polarizing plate 13 described above.
By these, polarizing plates on the emitting side and the incident side with respect to the LCD 9 are formed.

The printing lens 11 temporarily collects the light emitted from the second polarizing plate 10 and then projects it on a printing paper. In addition, the BGR rotary filter 12 includes blue, green,
With a filter corresponding to each red,
It has a rotatable structure. Then, by selectively disposing a filter corresponding to each color on the optical path, the light of the color component is irradiated onto the photographic paper.

The exposure operation in the exposure unit 5 having the above-described structure is as follows. In the light source 6, a part of the light emitted from the halogen lamp is reflected by the reflector and enters the mirror tunnel 7. The light incident on the mirror tunnel 7 is irregularly reflected inside the mirror tunnel 7 to eliminate unevenness in the amount of light, and enters the first polarizing plate 13 as uniform light. First polarizing plate 13
Of light having a constant polarization direction is transmitted through the liquid crystal layer of the LCD 9, whereby the polarization direction of each pixel is modulated. Then, the light whose polarization direction is modulated for each pixel is transmitted only through the component parallel to the polarization axis of the second polarizing plate 10, and the printing lens 11 and the BGR rotary filter 1 are provided.
It is irradiated onto the photographic paper through the beam line 2.

Next, the light modulation operation by the first polarizing plate 13, LCD 9 and second polarizing plate 10 will be described.
FIG. 4 is a side view of the exposure unit 5 shown in FIG.
In FIG. 4, the mirror tunnel 7 and the BGR rotary filter 12 are omitted for simplification of the drawing. As shown in FIG. 4, the light emitted from the light source 6 passes through the first polarizing plate 13, the LCD 9, and the second polarizing plate 10 in this order, and is irradiated onto the photographic paper 16 via the printing lens 11. That is, the first polarizing plate 13, the LCD 9, and the second
The state of the image light radiated on the photographic printing paper 16 changes depending on the setting of the polarizing plate 10.

A general liquid crystal display device comprises two substrates having electrodes formed thereon, a liquid crystal layer sandwiched between the substrates, and two polarizing plates arranged on the light incident side and the light emitting side. The two polarizing plates are installed in a fixed state. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the first polarization plate 13 as the polarization plate on the incident side has a configuration capable of changing the direction of the polarization axis thereof as described above. 5 (a) and 5 (b) are perspective views showing a state in which the direction of the polarization axis of the first polarizing plate 13 is changed, and FIG. 5 (a) shows the polarization of the first polarizing plate 13. The angle formed by the direction of the axis and the direction of the polarization axis of the second polarizing plate 10 is 90
When the angle is set to 0 °, the angle is 0 in the figure (b).
Each case is set to °.

First, the case shown in FIG. 5A will be described. When the LCD 9 uses a TN (Twisted Nematic) liquid crystal, the liquid crystal molecules spread from one substrate to the other substrate in a state where no voltage is applied to the liquid crystal.
Oriented in a 0 ° twisted state. By this, LC
The light incident on D9 is rotated by 90 ° and then exits from the LCD 9. Therefore, the light that has become linearly polarized light by passing through the first polarizing plate 13 becomes parallel to the transmission axis of the second polarizing plate 10 by being rotated by 90 ° in the LCD 9, and can be transmitted through the second polarizing plate 10 as it is. become.

On the other hand, when a voltage is applied to the liquid crystal, the liquid crystal molecules are aligned in the direction of the electric field, so that the polarization state of the transmitted light is hardly changed.
Therefore, most of the light that has become linearly polarized light by passing through the first polarizing plate 13 cannot pass through the second polarizing plate because there is almost no optical rotation when passing through the LCD 9.

As described above, when the first polarizing plate 13 is arranged in the state as shown in FIG. 5A, light is transmitted and voltage is applied to the liquid crystal without applying voltage. The light is blocked while being applied. Such a display mode is called a normally white mode.

On the other hand, in the case shown in FIG. 5B, the characteristics are opposite to those in the case shown in FIG. 5A, and the light is blocked in the state where no voltage is applied to the liquid crystal. However, light is transmitted while the voltage is applied. Such a display mode is called a normally black mode.

In this embodiment, the first polarizing plate 13 is set to 90 °.
Utilizing the characteristics of normally white mode and normally black mode obtained by rotating,
By overlapping the exposure in the normally white mode and the exposure in the normally black mode, the uneven printing due to the display performance of the LCD 9 is corrected. Hereinafter, the operation of correcting the unevenness of image sticking in the present embodiment will be described in detail.

First, the principle of occurrence of streak unevenness described in the prior art will be described. FIG. 12A shows LC
D9, LCD controller 17 for driving LCD 9, and PC (Personal Compute) for sending out image data.
It is a schematic diagram which shows the connection with r) 18. LCD9 and LC
The D controller 17 is connected by a connection wiring 19, and the connection wiring 19 is composed of 12 layers of data lines. FIG. 12B is an enlarged view of the connection wiring 19.

The data output from the PC 18 to the LCD controller 17 is an analog BGR signal, and the data is transmitted by one data line. The data sent from the LCD controller 17 to the LCD 9 is the analog BGR signal 12 It is expanded on the data line of the book and transmitted. Such a data transmission method is generally called 12-phase expansion. In the present embodiment, the data is transmitted to the LCD 9 by 12-phase expansion, but it is also possible to transmit the data by 8-phase expansion, 4-phase expansion, or the like.

13A to 13D show how the image data is written in the LCD 9 by the 12-phase expansion.
Is. As described above, according to the data transmission by the 12-phase expansion, the data of 12 pixels can be written in one data transmission. When image data is written in the first row of the LCD 9 in the order of FIG. 13A, FIG. 13B and FIG. As shown, the writing of the image data of the second line is started. By repeating such a writing operation, data is written to the pixels of the entire LCD 9. This speeds up the data writing operation to the LCD 9.

Generally, in order to suppress the flickering of the screen in a liquid crystal display device, it is necessary to refresh the screen 60 times or more per second. However, when the number of pixels of the liquid crystal display device increases, it becomes necessary to perform high-speed processing,
The driving circuit is burdened. In this respect,
If the data is written by the 12-phase expansion, the data writing operation becomes faster as described above. Therefore, even if the number of pixels increases, the required refresh rate can be realized without burdening the driving circuit. be able to.

Here, 12 forming the connection wiring 19 is described.
It is assumed that a particular one of the two data lines has noise. This occurs, for example, when the characteristics such as the resistance value of the data line are defective, or when the voltage applied from the data line to the liquid crystal is deviated due to the circuit characteristics. In such a case, the display of the pixel corresponding to the noisy data line on the LCD 9 becomes abnormal, and streak unevenness occurs.

For example, of the data lines shown in FIG. 12B, when noise is present on the second data line from the left or a voltage level shift occurs, as shown in FIG. 2nd pixel, 14th pixel, ..., (12n +
2) Vertical streak unevenness occurs at the pixel (n = 0, 1, 2, 3 ...).

In order to correct such streak unevenness, the following exposure operation is performed in this embodiment. First, the first
As shown in FIG. 5A, the polarizing plate 13 is arranged so that its polarization axis is orthogonal to the polarization axis of the second polarizing plate 10, and the image is printed on the photographic paper 16 in the normally white mode. FIG. 6A shows a state of an image on the photographic printing paper 16 when a solid image having a gray gradation is printed in the normally white mode.

Next, with the same image displayed on the LCD 9, the first polarizing plate 13 is rotated by 90 °. That is,
As shown in FIG. 5B, the first polarizing plate 13 is arranged so that its polarization axis is parallel to the polarization axis of the second polarizing plate 10, and the photographic paper 16 is exposed in the normally black mode. FIG. 6B shows a state of the image on the photographic printing paper 16 when a solid image having a gray gradation is printed in the normally black mode.

When negative image data is transferred to the LCD 9 when printing in the normally white mode, the image irradiated on the photographic printing paper 16 is a negative image. In this state,
When the first polarizing plate 13 is rotated by 90 ° to switch to the normally black mode, the display characteristics are inverted, so that the image irradiated on the photographic printing paper 16 becomes a positive image. Therefore, if continuous exposure is performed in the normally white mode and the normally black mode in this state, the image is offset and disappears at the same time as streak unevenness. Therefore, when exposing in the normally black mode, L
By transferring the positive image data to the CD 9, the photographic paper 16 is irradiated with a negative image. As a result, only the streak unevenness is reversed between the exposure in the normally white mode and the exposure in the normally black mode, so that the streak unevenness is canceled and the erased image is printed on the photographic paper 1.
6 can be baked on. For example, when a solid image of gray gradation is printed by the continuous exposure as described above, the light amount of each pixel becomes constant in the image printed on the photographic paper 16 as shown in FIG. A uniform image without unevenness can be obtained.

The ratio of the amount of light during exposure in the normally white mode to the amount of light during exposure in the normally black mode is
It is necessary to set appropriately so that the stripe unevenness is eliminated.
The ratio of the amount of light changes depending on the color development characteristics of the photographic printing paper 16 and the display characteristics of the LCD 9. As a method of controlling the amount of light, the voltage applied to the liquid crystal is changed by changing the setting of the liquid crystal controller that drives the LCD 9.

Further, in the above, the exposure in the normally black mode is performed after the exposure in the normally white mode, but the same effect can be obtained even if the order is reversed. Further, the printing in each exposure mode may be performed plural times.

In the present embodiment, the first polarizing plate 13 is rotatable and the rotation angle is adjusted to switch between the normally white mode and the normally black mode. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the above switching may be performed by exchanging two polarizing plates whose polarization axes are different from each other.

Next, correction of unevenness (unevenness in viewing angle characteristics) caused by the viewing angle characteristics in the LCD 9 will be described. FIG. 7C is an explanatory diagram showing viewing angle characteristics in a general liquid crystal panel LCD. Further, FIG. 2B is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the viewing angle direction in FIG. 2C and the alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal panel LCD. Further, FIG. 9A is an explanatory diagram showing the directions of the viewing angles in FIGS. The liquid crystal panel L
It is assumed that the CD is set to the normally white mode.

FIG. 7C shows the directions of four viewing angles with respect to the liquid crystal panel LCD and the liquid crystal panel L when viewed from each direction.
The display density of CD is shown. As described above, the liquid crystal panel LCD is in a state in which the densities differ depending on the viewing direction when the halftone display is performed. For example, in the figure, it is brightest at the viewing angle a and darkest at the viewing angle c. In this regard, as shown in FIG. 7B, for example, the viewing angle a is larger than the alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules. As a result, the light in the viewing angle a direction has a large amount of phase difference generated by the liquid crystal molecules.
A large amount of light is transmitted through one polarizing plate. Further, for example, the viewing angle c is smaller than the alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecules. Therefore, the light in the direction of the visual angle c has a small amount of phase difference generated by the liquid crystal molecules, and has a small amount of transmission through the two polarizing plates. For this reason, the liquid crystal panel LCD has a viewing angle characteristic as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 11A, in the exposure unit 5 of this embodiment, the printing lens 11 is the varifocal lens 11
The configuration in the case of being configured by A is shown. In FIG. 11A, the mirror tunnel 7, the first and second polarizing plates 13 and 10, and the BGR rotary filter 12 are omitted for simplification of the drawing. The varifocal lens 11A is an ordinary variable focus lens,
By moving a part of the constituent lenses along the optical axis and changing the interval between the constituent lenses, the focal length can be continuously changed. This varifocal lens 11A has a diaphragm 20 as shown in FIG.
A is provided.

As shown in FIG. 11A, the light emitted near the center of the LCD 9 and irradiated on the photographic printing paper 16 is LC.
LCD9 is emitted almost vertically from D9.
The light that is emitted near the end of the
It is emitted obliquely from the LCD 9. That is, the image printed on the photographic printing paper 16 is affected by the viewing angle characteristics as described above, because the angle of emission from the LCD 9 differs depending on the position of the image. That is, when printing is performed with the configuration as shown in FIG. 11A, the image on the photographic printing paper 16 has unevenness in the viewing angle characteristics.

Even when such unevenness of the viewing angle characteristic occurs, it can be corrected by exposing as in the case of the streak unevenness correction described above. That is, first,
The rotation position of the first polarizing plate 13 is appropriately set, and the image is printed on the printing paper 16 in the normally white mode. FIG. 8A shows the state of the image on the photographic printing paper 16 when a solid image of gray gradation is printed in the normally white mode.

Next, the image data to be transmitted to the LCD 9 is inverted and the first polarizing plate 13 is rotated by 90 °,
The photographic printing paper 16 is exposed in the normally black mode. FIG. 8B shows the state of the image on the photographic paper 16 when a solid image of gray gradation is printed in the normally black mode.

By the exposure operation as described above, the image in which only the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristic is erased can be printed on the photographic printing paper 16. For example, when a solid image of gray gradation is printed by continuous exposure as described above, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6, in the image printed on the photographic printing paper 16, the light amount of each pixel is constant, and a uniform image without unevenness due to the viewing angle characteristic can be obtained.

In addition, variations in cell thickness, that is, the thickness of the liquid crystal layer in the liquid crystal cell, contamination of the manufacturing process, contamination of impurity ions into the liquid crystal due to deterioration over time, differences in the transmittance of each pixel of the liquid crystal, etc. Irregularly shaped irregularities (irregularly shaped irregularities) caused by the above can be corrected by performing exposure in the same manner as in the case where streak irregularities and irregularities in viewing angle characteristics occur.

That is, first, the rotation position of the first polarizing plate 13 is appropriately set, and the image is printed on the printing paper 16 in the normally white mode. FIG. 9A shows a state of an image on the photographic printing paper 16 when a solid image having a gray gradation is printed in the normally white mode.

Next, the image data to be transmitted to the LCD 9 is inverted and the first polarizing plate 13 is rotated by 90 °,
The photographic printing paper 16 is exposed in the normally black mode. FIG. 9B shows the state of the image on the photographic printing paper 16 when a solid image of gray gradation is printed in the normally black mode.

By the exposure operation as described above, the image in which only the irregular irregularity is erased can be printed on the photographic printing paper 16. For example, when a solid image of gray gradation is printed by the continuous exposure as described above, as shown in FIG. 9C, in the image printed on the photographic printing paper 16, the light amount of each pixel becomes constant, and the non-uniformity occurs. It is possible to obtain a uniform image without irregularity in the fixed form.

Further, even when streak unevenness and viewing angle characteristic unevenness are mixed, it is possible to correct them by performing printing by the continuous exposure as described above. However,
When the difference in density due to stripe unevenness and the difference in density due to unevenness in viewing angle characteristics are significantly different, it may not be possible to erase one of the unevennesses even with the continuous exposure as described above.

For example, when the above-described continuous exposure was performed in the case where the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristic had a density difference of about 5 times the unevenness of the streaks, the unevenness of the image remained after the continuous exposure.
FIG. 10A shows a state of the image on the photographic paper 16 when a solid image of gray gradation is printed in the normally white mode, and FIG. 10B shows a gray state in the normally black mode. The state of the image on the photographic printing paper 16 when a solid image with gradation is printed is shown in FIG. 6C, when the exposure in the normally white mode and the exposure in the normally black mode are continuously performed. The state of the image on the photographic printing paper 16 is shown.

As shown in FIG. 10 (c), in the above case, the areas on the photographic printing paper 16 where the stripe unevenness does not disappear remain in the lower left and upper right corners of the image. This is because the difference in the density of unevenness due to the viewing angle characteristics is large, and the exposure ratio differs between the vicinity of the center and the vicinity of the edge of the image between the normally white mode and the normally black mode.

Therefore, when the density difference in the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristic is significantly larger than the density difference in the streak unevenness, it is necessary to reduce at least the unevenness caused by the viewing angle characteristic.

As a method for reducing the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristics,
One side telecentric lens 11 as the printing lens 11
There is a method of using B. What is a telecentric lens?
The lens is used for image formation only when the light incident on the lens and the light emitted from the lens are substantially parallel to the normal line direction at the center of the lens.

FIG. 11B shows a structure in the exposure unit 5 of this embodiment in which the printing lens 11 is composed of the one-sided telecentric lens 11B. In addition, in FIG. 11B, for simplification of the drawing, the mirror tunnel 7, the first and second polarizing plates 13.1.
0 and the BGR rotary filter 12 are omitted. The one-sided telecentric lens 11B is a lens used for image formation only when the incident light on the lens is substantially parallel to the normal line direction at the center of the lens. A diaphragm 20B is provided between the one-sided telecentric lens 11B and the photographic printing paper 16 as shown in FIG.

As shown in FIG. 11B, the light radiated on the photographic printing paper 16 will be emitted at any position on the LCD 9.
The light is emitted almost vertically from the LCD 9. That is, the image printed on the photographic paper 16 has a substantially constant angle of exiting from the LCD 9 at any position, so that the viewing angle characteristic is less affected. That is, when printing is performed with the configuration as shown in FIG. 11B, the image on the photographic printing paper 16 has a low unevenness in the viewing angle characteristics. Also, the aperture 20B
With a smaller aperture, the light emitted from the LCD 9 onto the photographic printing paper 16 becomes closer to parallel light, and it is possible to further reduce the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristics.

Therefore, when the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristics is large, the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristics is reduced by the configuration shown in FIG. 11B, and then the exposure in the normally white mode as described above is performed. By continuously performing the exposure in the normally black mode, it is possible to correct streak unevenness and irregular shape unevenness. As a result, it is possible to provide a uniform print image without unevenness in viewing angle characteristics, stripes, and irregular shape.

As a method of reducing the unevenness of the viewing angle characteristics, in addition to the above, a structure in which a visual field expanding film is attached to the LCD 9 or the first and second polarizing plates 13 and 10 can be considered.

As described above, the exposure unit 5 included in the photographic processing apparatus according to the present embodiment is capable of transmitting the amount of light by the first and second polarizing plates 13 and 10 according to the modulation of the polarization direction of light in the LCD 9. Is controlled, and printing by two exposure modes of a normally white mode and a normally black mode is performed in an overlapping manner, and image information inverted between the two exposure modes is sent to the LCD 9. The image is printed on the printing paper 16. As a result, the unevenness of the LCD 9 itself due to various factors is offset by overlapping printing in two exposure modes. On the other hand, LCD9
Since the image information to be sent to is reversed between the two exposure modes, even if the printing is performed in duplicate in the two exposure modes, they are not offset from each other. That is, the LCD 9
It is possible to provide a high-quality printed image that is not affected by various irregularities that the printer itself has.

Further, since the unevenness of the LCD 9 itself due to various factors can be compensated by the exposure as described above, for example, it is complicated and precise to finely adjust the circuit in the LCD or the LCD controller. There is no need to perform any kind of processing. Further, even if the occurrence state of various unevenness changes due to changes in the environment, it is possible to accurately perform unevenness correction.

Further, if the printing is performed as described above, various unevenness of each LCD 9 can be accurately compensated even if different LCDs 9 are used. Therefore, the unevenness is corrected according to each LCD 9. It is possible to eliminate the troublesome work such as performing each time.

Furthermore, since the image printed on the photographic printing paper 16 is printed by at least two exposures, the number of gradations of each pixel can be increased. Therefore, it is possible to provide a high-quality printed image that more faithfully represents the original image.

[0095]

As described above, the printing device according to the invention of claim 1 is a printing device for printing an image by irradiating a light-sensitive material with light, in accordance with a light source and image information. Light modulating means for modulating the polarization state of light from the light source for each pixel, first and second polarizing plates arranged on the light incident side and the light emitting side of the light modulating means, and the first polarizing plate. And an exposure mode in which the polarization axis of the first polarizing plate is orthogonal to the polarization axis of the second polarizing plate, and the polarization axis of the first polarizing plate is parallel to the polarization axis of the second polarizing plate. And an exposure mode switching means for switching the exposure mode so that the image information to be sent to the light modulating means is reversed between the two exposure modes, and printing by the two exposure modes is performed. This is a configuration that is duplicated.

As a result, the uneven light modulation caused by various factors of the light modulating means itself is offset by overlapping the printing in the two exposure modes in which the amounts of transmitted light are mutually inverted, while the light is uneven. Since the image information sent to the modulation means is inverted between the two exposure modes, even if the printing in the two exposure modes is duplicated, they are not offset from each other. That is, there is an effect that it is possible to provide a high-quality printed image that is not affected by the unevenness of light modulation that the light modulation means itself has.

Further, since unevenness of light modulation due to various factors which the light modulating means itself has can be compensated by the exposure as described above, for example, a signal is supplied to the light modulating means or the light modulating means. This has the effect of eliminating the need for complicated and precise processing such as fine adjustment of the circuit in the wiring. Moreover, even if the modulation unevenness of the light changes due to a change in the environment, the effect that the unevenness correction can be accurately performed is achieved.

Further, even when different light modulating means are used, it is possible to eliminate the troublesome work of correcting unevenness each time depending on the respective light modulating means.

Furthermore, since the number of gradations of each pixel can be increased, it is possible to provide a high-quality printed image that more faithfully represents the original image.

The printing apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention is such that the light modulating means is a liquid crystal display device in which no polarizing plate is provided.

As a result, in addition to the effect of the structure of claim 1, since the liquid crystal display device having a high degree of technical perfection is used, the image light having high reliability and faithfully reflecting the image information can be obtained. It is possible to irradiate the photosensitive material.

In the printing apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention, the exposure mode switching means rotates the at least one of the first and second polarizing plates to change the direction of the polarization axis of the exposure mode. This is a configuration for switching.

Thus, in addition to the effect of the second aspect, the exposure mode can be switched by a simple structure, so that the cost of the apparatus can be reduced and the reliability can be improved. Play.

The printing apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the present invention further comprises a viewing angle characteristic reducing means for reducing the viewing angle characteristic of the liquid crystal display device.

Thus, in addition to the effect of the second or third aspect, even when the unevenness of image sticking due to the viewing angle characteristic and the unevenness of image sticking due to other factors are mixed, the compensation of the image unevenness due to the viewing angle characteristic is considered. The exposure setting can be made without taking into consideration only the compensation of printing unevenness due to other factors. Therefore, even in such a case, there is an effect that it is possible to provide a high-quality printed image in which various printing unevenness does not occur.

In a printing apparatus according to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the viewing angle characteristic reducing means is a telecentric lens disposed between the liquid crystal display device and the photosensitive material.

As a result, in addition to the effect of the structure of claim 4, the image printed on the photosensitive material has a substantially constant angle of exit from the liquid crystal display device at any position. Thus, the effect of reducing the viewing angle characteristic can be reduced.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a photographic processing apparatus comprising: a printing apparatus according to any one of the first to fifth aspects; and a light-sensitive material printed by the printing apparatus using a developing solution. This is a configuration including a developing unit that performs a developing process and a drying unit that dries the photosensitive material that has undergone the developing process in the developing unit.

Thus, the printing process for the light-sensitive material,
Since the development processing and the drying processing can be continuously performed under a unified control, a large amount of photographs can be continuously printed without imposing a burden on the user in operation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an exposure unit included in a photographic processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of the photographic processing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a schematic configuration of a printing unit included in the photographic processing apparatus.

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view showing a schematic configuration of the exposure unit.

5 (a) and 5 (b) are perspective views showing a positional relationship between first and second polarizing plates and an LCD.

6 (a) to 6 (c) show a state of an image on photographic paper in which streak unevenness has occurred, and FIG.
Shows the exposure in the normally white mode, the figure (b) shows the exposure in the normally black mode, and the figure (c) shows the exposure in the normally white mode and the normally black mode. It shows the case of continuous operation.

7 (c) is an explanatory diagram showing viewing angle characteristics in the liquid crystal panel, and FIG. 7 (b) is a viewing angle direction in FIG. 7 (c) and an alignment direction of liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal panel. FIG. 4A is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship with FIG. 4A, and FIG. 4A is an explanatory diagram showing the directions of the viewing angles in FIGS.

FIGS. 8A to 8C show a state of an image on photographic paper in which unevenness of a viewing angle characteristic occurs, and FIG. 8A shows exposure in a normally white mode. 6B shows the case where the exposure in the normally black mode is performed, and FIG. 7C shows the case where the exposure in the normally white mode and the exposure in the normally black mode are continuously performed. .

9A to 9C show a state of an image on photographic paper in which irregular irregularity is generated, and FIG. 9A shows exposure in a normally white mode. In this case, FIG. 7B shows the case where the exposure in the normally black mode is performed, and FIG. 7C shows the case where the exposure in the normally white mode and the exposure in the normally black mode are continuously performed.

FIGS. 10 (a) to 10 (c) show a state of an image on photographic paper in which both streak unevenness and viewing angle characteristic unevenness occur, and FIG. 10 (a) shows a normally white image. When the exposure is performed in the mode, the figure (b) is shown in the figure (c) when the exposure is performed in the normally black mode.
Shows the case where exposure in the normally white mode and the normally black mode is continuously performed.

FIG. 11A is a side view showing a schematic configuration of an exposure unit when a varifocal lens is used as a printing lens, and FIG. 11B is a one side telecentric lens as a printing lens. It is a side view which shows the schematic structure of the exposure part when used.

FIG. 12A is an LCD, an LCD controller for driving the LCD, and P for sending image data.
It is a schematic diagram showing a connection with C (Personal Computer),
FIG. 2B is an enlarged view showing a part of the connection wiring that connects the LCD and the LCD controller.

13A to 13D are explanatory diagrams showing how data is sent to each pixel on an LCD by 12-phase expansion.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing a state where streak unevenness occurs on the LCD.

15 (a) to 15 (c) are schematic diagrams showing the state of an image on photographic paper in which various types of unevenness have occurred. FIG. 15 (a) is a streak unevenness, and FIG. The irregular shape irregularity and the figure (c) respectively show the irregularity of the viewing angle characteristic.

[Explanation of reference numerals] 1 printing section (printing apparatus) 2 paper magazine 3 developing section 4 drying section 5 exposure section 6 light source 7 mirror tunnel 8 first polarizing plate ASSY (exposure mode switching means) 9 LCD (liquid crystal display) 10th 2 polarizing plate 11 printing lens 11A varifocal lens 11B one side telecentric lens 12 BGR rotary filter 13 first polarizing plate 16 photographic paper (photosensitive material)

Front page continuation (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G03B 27/00-27/80 G02F 1/13 505

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing apparatus for printing an image by irradiating a light-sensitive material with light, comprising a light source and light for modulating the polarization state of the light from the light source for each pixel in accordance with image information. Modulating means, first and second polarizing plates arranged on the light incident side and the light emitting side of the light modulating means, the first polarizing plate, and the polarization axis of the first polarizing plate is the second polarizing plate. An exposure mode arranged to be orthogonal to the polarization axis of
Exposure mode switching means for switching to an exposure mode arranged so that the polarization axis of the first polarizing plate is parallel to the polarization axis of the second polarizing plate, and image information to be sent to the light modulating means, A printing apparatus, wherein the two printing modes are reversed to each other so that the two printing modes are duplicated. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the light modulating means is a liquid crystal display device having no polarizing plate. 3. The exposure mode switching means switches the exposure mode by rotating at least one of the first and second polarizing plates and changing the direction of the polarization axis thereof. The printing device described. 4. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising visual angle characteristic reducing means for reducing the visual angle characteristic of the liquid crystal display device. 5. The printing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the viewing angle characteristic reducing means is a telecentric lens disposed between the liquid crystal display device and the photosensitive material. 6. A printing apparatus according to claim 1, a developing section for developing the photosensitive material baked by the printing apparatus by using a developing solution, and the developing section. And a drying section for drying the light-sensitive material that has been subjected to development processing in the section.