JP4821645B2 - Image processing system, image processing apparatus, and image processing program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing system, an image processing apparatus, and an image processing program.

  There is known an image processing apparatus that causes a printing mechanism to perform gradation drawing in which a set color is smoothly changed to a desired coloring region for drawing. For example, in Patent Document 1, in an output control apparatus that performs gradation drawing on a coloring area surrounded by two or three points, an interval for calculating the color of pixels in the coloring area is determined, and the determined thinning is performed. It is disclosed that gradation drawing is performed according to the level, thereby reducing the calculation time of the color of the drawing area and reducing the memory usage while avoiding the deterioration of the image quality of the output image. .

In recent years, in markup languages that can describe sophisticated drawing commands such as SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) and XPS (XML Paper Specification), the transparency of each point can also be specified in addition to the set color. It is known that the transparency with respect to the coloring area can be changed smoothly together with the smooth change of the color.
JP 2002-366951 A

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus that suppresses a decrease in calculation time associated with the addition of transparency to gradation drawing while avoiding a decrease in image quality.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the coloring area relating to the density information and the transparency attaching area relating to the transparency information are colored from the area surrounded by the plurality of points where the density information relating to the color density and the transparency information relating to the transparency are respectively set . The generation means for generating so that the start and the start of transparency are common, and the end of coloring and the end of transparency are common, and the period of the synthesis result of the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area are synthesized with a shift. dividing means for dividing at different dividing ratio respectively the coloring region and transparency adhered area as, between the respective plurality of points of the colored area and transparency attachment area, stepwise by complementing the density information and the transparency information Adhering means that attaches corresponding to each region with a change, and a combining means that combines the colored region and the attached transparency adhering region An image processing system, characterized in that it comprises a printing unit for printing an image corresponding to the synthesis result.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the coloring area relating to the density information and the transparency attaching area relating to the transparency information are colored from the area surrounded by the plurality of points where the density information relating to the color density and the transparency information relating to the transparency are respectively set . The generation means for generating so that the start and the start of transparency are common, and the end of coloring and the end of transparency are common, and the period of the synthesis result of the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area are synthesized with a shift. dividing means for dividing at different dividing ratio respectively the coloring region and transparency adhered area as, between the respective plurality of points of the colored area and transparency attachment area, stepwise by complementing the density information and the transparency information Adhering means that attaches corresponding to each region with a change, and a combining means that combines the colored region and the attached transparency adhering region An image processing apparatus characterized by having a.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the second aspect, the dividing means includes the coloring region and the coloring region so that the combined result of the coloring region and the transparency adhesion region is synthesized with a half-cycle shift. It is characterized by dividing the transparency adhesion region.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the invention according to the third aspect, the dividing means is arranged so that the result of combining the regions at both ends for adhesion of transparency corresponds to the size of one region of the coloring region. It is characterized by dividing.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the computer includes a region for coloring regarding density information and a region for attaching transparency regarding transparency information from a region surrounded by a plurality of points where density information regarding color density and transparency information regarding transparency are respectively set. Generating means for generating the color so that the start of coloring and the start of transparency are common, and the end of coloring and the end of transparency are common, and the cycle of the synthesis result of the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area is shifted. dividing means for dividing being synthesized as the coloring area and transparency adhered area at different dividing ratio respectively, between the respective plurality of points of the colored area and transparency attachment area, by complementing the density information and the transparency information Adhering means that attaches corresponding to each region with stepwise change, a colored region for coloring and a region for attaching transparency that has already been adhered An image processing program for causing to function as a composite means for forming.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to suppress a decrease in calculation time due to the addition of transparency to gradation drawing while avoiding a decrease in image quality.

  According to the invention which concerns on Claim 2, the fall of the calculation time accompanying the transparency was attached to gradation drawing can be suppressed, avoiding the fall of an image quality.

  According to the third aspect of the invention, the gradation-processed result becomes smoother than when the present configuration is not provided.

  According to the invention of claim 4, the transparency adhesion region and the coloring region are shifted by half a cycle, and the gradation processing result becomes smoother.

  According to the invention which concerns on Claim 5, the fall of the calculation time accompanying the transparency was attached to gradation drawing can be suppressed, avoiding the fall of an image quality.

(First embodiment)
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an image processing system to which the image processing apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention can be applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the image processing system includes a PC 100, a printing apparatus 200, and the like. The PC 100, the printing apparatus 200, and the like are connected to each other via a network 300 that includes cables, network devices, and the like. The network 300 may be communicated by wireless communication or the like.

  The PC 100 includes a display device 110 such as a liquid crystal display and a CRT display, an input device 120 such as a keyboard and a mouse, a computer 130 that controls these operations, and the like. The computer 130 generates document information, image information, or the like in response to a user operation on the input device 120. Further, when there is a print instruction from the input device 120 for the document information, etc., the computer 130 responds to the instruction. Print information such as PDL data is generated. The print information may be compressed print information such as XPS data. The print information is transmitted to the printing apparatus 200 via the network 300. In FIG. 1, one PC 100 is shown, but a plurality of PCs may be used.

  The printing apparatus 200 is an example of a printing unit of the present invention, and performs a predetermined image processing and a printing mechanism including a laser light source, a charger, a reflection mirror, a toner cartridge, and the like, and controls the printing mechanism. An image processing apparatus and the like are included. When receiving the print information, the image processing apparatus forms an image according to the content of the print information, and the printing mechanism prints the image on a recording sheet or the like. Further, when the print information is compressed, the image is formed after being decompressed as necessary.

  Note that the printing apparatus 200 is not limited to that described in the drawings, and includes, for example, a printing function, a copying function, a facsimile function, a scanner function, a transmission / reception function such as image information and electronic mail, a noise removal function, and an OCR (Optical Character). Reader) A multifunction device or the like having at least one function may be used. The OCR function is a process for optically reading characters. Further, the number of printing apparatuses to be used is not limited to the number described in the drawings.

Next, an image processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating the main configuration of the image processing apparatus described above, FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating the hardware configuration of the image processing apparatus, FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a coloring area, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a transparency adhesion region, and FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of combining a coloring region and a transparency deposition region.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the image processing apparatus includes a drawing command analysis unit 201, a coloring region generation unit 202, a region composition unit 203, an image drawing unit 204, a transparency adhesion region generation unit 205, and the like. Incidentally, the coloring area generation unit 202, the transparency adhesion area generation unit 205, and the like constitute the generation means, the division means, and the adhesion means of the present invention.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3, each functional block of the image processing apparatus shown in FIG. A hardware configuration in which a ROM (Read Only Memory) 200c such as a flash memory and an I / F (interface) 200d for inputting / outputting with an external device are connected by a bus 200e.

  Therefore, each function in the CPU 200a is realized by the CPU 200a reading a required program stored in the ROM 200c and performing calculations according to the program.

Hereinafter, each functional block in FIG. 2 will be described in detail.
The drawing command analysis unit 201 analyzes a drawing command included in the print information. Specifically, since the drawing command is expressed in the XML format, the command is read and image information to be printed on a recording sheet or the like is generated.

  The coloring region generation unit 202 generates a coloring region corresponding to the region from a region surrounded by a plurality of points in which density information related to color density and transparency information related to transparency are set in accordance with the analysis result of the drawing command. To do. Further, the coloring area is divided at a desired division ratio, and coloring is performed with a stepwise change by complementing density information between a plurality of points in the coloring area.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, for a coloring region configured by a rectangle, the rectangle is divided into four with the left side as the start point of gradation drawing and the right side as the end point of gradation drawing. In the case where the density information is colored with a step change by complementation, the color is changed stepwise from the left region to the right region, and the coloring region is colored. When the density information is complemented, when the number of divisions of the area is represented by n and the position of the divided area is represented by i, the R, G, and B values of the density information of each area are obtained from (1) of FIG. It is expressed as the calculation formula shown in (3). Here, the position i of the divided region is larger as it is closer to the left side, and decreases as it approaches the right side. Therefore, the larger the numerical value, the darker the color.

  The transparency adhesion area generation unit 203 generates a transparency adhesion area corresponding to the area from an area surrounded by a plurality of points in which density information regarding color density and transparency information regarding transparency are set. Furthermore, the transparency adhesion area is divided at a desired division ratio different from the division ratio of the coloring area, and the transparency information is interpolated between the plurality of points of the transparency adhesion area to add a stepwise change. Adhere to.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 6, for a transparency attachment region composed of rectangles, the left side is the start point of transparency gradation drawing and the right side is the end point of transparency gradation drawing, and the rectangle is divided into five parts. In the case of coloring with a step change by complementing, transparency changes step by step from the left region to the right region, and the transparency information is attached to the transparency attachment region. When complementing the transparency information, as described above, when the number of divisions of the area is n and the position of the division area is i, the transparency information α value of each area is shown in (4) of FIG. It is expressed as a formula. Here, the α value is opaque when it is 1, and the transparency increases as it approaches 0. Therefore, the closer the numerical value is to 1, the more the color based on the density information described above appears.

  The area synthesis unit 204 synthesizes the colored area described above and the transparency adhesion area with transparency information attached. As a result, since the division ratios are different from each other, the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area are combined with each other shifted to obtain a gradation drawing with transparency in which the rectangle is expressed by 8 divisions as shown in FIG. .

In this case, the region on the left side of the rectangle is the starting point for the color rendering and transparency gradation drawing, and the region on the right side is the end point for the color rendering and transparency gradation drawing. In this way, in gradation drawing that attaches transparency, by combining after dividing the division ratio of the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area, the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area without changing the respective division ratios. Compared with the case where the gradation drawing is performed and the resulting region is synthesized, the amount of calculation related to the gradation processing is reduced.
The image drawing unit 205 is configured by a printing mechanism or the like, and draws the synthesis result of each area described above.

Next, the operation of the image processing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of gradation processing in the image processing apparatus.
First, the image processing apparatus analyzes a drawing command included in the received print information (step S1), and generates a coloring area. In the coloring area generation process, the generated coloring area is divided according to a desired division ratio included in the print information, and density information complementing processing is performed according to the number of divisions. Color it. As a result, the color drawn by gradation appears in the coloring area.

  Next, the image processing apparatus determines whether to perform gradation drawing with transparency information attached based on the analysis result of the drawing command (step S2). If the image processing apparatus determines to perform gradation drawing to which the transparency information is attached, the image processing apparatus generates a transparency attachment region (step S3). In addition, in the generation process of the transparency adhesion area, the generated transparency adhesion area is divided according to a desired division ratio that is included in the print information and is different from the division ratio of the coloring area, and according to the number of divisions. Transparency information is complemented to add transparency to the transparency adhesion area. As a result, the transparency drawn in the gradation appears in the transparency adhesion region.

  Next, the image processing apparatus synthesizes the area in which the gradation-drawn density information is colored and the area in which the gradation-drawn transparency is attached (step S5). Then, the image processing apparatus performs a drawing process based on the synthesis result (step S6), and ends the process. If there is no information indicating that transparency is attached to the analysis result in the process of step S3, gradation drawing without attaching transparency is performed in the process of step S6.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, an image processing apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram as an example of the dividing / combining process in the second embodiment, FIG. 10 is an example of a combining result according to the second embodiment, FIG. 11 is a comparative example of the combining result, and FIG. It is a comparative example.

  In the first embodiment, gradation drawing of both the density information and the transparency information is performed by combining the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area with different division ratios. In the present embodiment, In other than the regions at both ends of the rectangle described above, the division ratio of the coloring area and the division ratio of the transparency adhesion area are the same.

  For example, with respect to the coloring region, the rectangle is divided into 16 as shown in FIG. Therefore, one rectangular area is 1/16 of the entire area. In addition, the transparency adhesion region is divided into 17 rectangles as shown in FIG. 9B. However, at this time, the combined region obtained by combining the regions at both ends is equally divided so as to be the same as one region of the coloring region. Further, the areas other than both ends are equally divided so that one area is the same as one area of the coloring area. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9B, for example, the division at both ends is 1/32 and the other divided areas are 1/16.

  Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 9C, the synthesis result obtained by synthesizing the coloring region shown in FIG. 9A and the transparency adhesion region shown in FIG. 9B is used. A gradation drawing that is divided into 32 equal parts by half is obtained.

  Specifically, as shown in FIG. 10, it can be seen that the above-described synthesis result shows that the color changes in steps from the left side to the right side of the rectangle. In this case, the calculation for obtaining density information and transparency information requires 65 calculations. On the other hand, when the gradation drawing with transparency is calculated by dividing it into 32 equal parts by the conventional method, four calculations of R, G, B, and α are required per area, and 128 calculations are performed for the entire rectangle. Necessary.

  Further, the synthesis result shown in FIG. 11 is a comparative example, in which the above-described division ratio is made as large as possible, and the color and transparency are simultaneously specified in the divided area, and gradation drawing is performed. Compared to the rectangle shown in FIG. 10, the color changes more finely stepwise from the left side to the right side of the rectangle, but the amount of calculation associated with image processing increases.

  On the other hand, the synthesis result shown in FIG. 12 is another comparative example, in which both the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area are synthesized at the same division ratio. More specifically, the synthesis result shown in FIG. 12 is obtained by synthesizing both the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area into 16 equal parts, and as a result, the stepwise change is finer than the synthesis result shown in FIG. Can be seen to be rough. In this manner, by combining the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area with different division ratios, the color and the transparency are finely changed step by step while reducing the amount of calculation associated with the gradation process.

  Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the program of the present invention can be provided not only by communication means but also stored in a recording medium such as a CD-ROM. For example, each unit constituting the image processing system may be integrated into one device or distributed to a plurality of devices.

  In the above-described embodiment, the coloring area is divided into 16 areas and the transparency adhesion area is divided into 17 areas. However, even if the transparency adhesion area is divided into 16 areas and the coloring area is divided into 17 areas, the color and transparency are gradually reduced. Gradation drawing with changing can be obtained. In addition, the number of divisions of the transparency information is simply shifted with respect to the division of the coloring area, for example, the coloring area is divided into 16 divisions and the transparency information is divided into 19 divisions. The result is equivalent to that of the color of.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to suppress a decrease in calculation time due to the addition of transparency to gradation drawing while avoiding a decrease in image quality, and the industrial applicability is high.

1 is a configuration diagram of an image processing system. It is a functional block diagram which shows the principal part structure of an image processing apparatus. It is a functional block diagram which shows the hardware constitutions of an image processing apparatus. It is a conceptual diagram which shows an example of the area | region for coloring. It is an example of the calculation formula of density information and transparency information. It is a conceptual diagram which shows an example of the area | region for transparency attachment. It is a calculation formula which shows an example of density information and transparency information. It is a conceptual diagram which shows an example which synthesize | combined the area | region for coloring and the area | region for transparency adhesion. It is a conceptual diagram which becomes an example of a division | segmentation / synthetic | combination process. It is an example of the synthetic result which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a comparative example of a synthesis result. It is another comparative example of a synthetic result.

Explanation of symbols

100 PC
110 Display device 120 Input device 130 Computer 200 Printing device 200a CPU
200b RAM
200c ROM
200d I / F
200e Bus 201 Drawing command analysis unit 202 Coloring region generation unit 203 Transparency adhesion region generation unit 204 Region composition unit 205 Image drawing unit 300 Network

Claims (5)

From the region surrounded by a plurality of points where the density information related to the color density and the transparency information related to the transparency are respectively set, the coloring start and the transparency start are common to the coloring region related to the density information and the transparency adhering region related to the transparency information. And generating means for generating the end of coloring and the end of transparency in common ,
Dividing means for dividing the said colored area and transparency adhered area as the period of the combined result of the coloring region and transparency adhesion area is synthesized displaced at different split ratio, respectively,
Attaching means for attaching the density information and the transparency information in a stepwise manner by complementing the density information and the transparency information between the plurality of points of the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area, respectively,
A synthesis means for synthesizing the colored coloring area and the attached transparency adhesion area;
Printing means for printing an image according to the synthesis result;
An image processing system comprising: From the region surrounded by a plurality of points where the density information related to the color density and the transparency information related to the transparency are respectively set, the coloring start and the transparency start are common to the coloring region related to the density information and the transparency adhering region related to the transparency information. And generating means for generating the end of coloring and the end of transparency in common ,
Dividing means for dividing the said colored area and transparency adhered area as the period of the combined result of the coloring region and transparency adhesion area is synthesized displaced at different split ratio, respectively,
Attaching means for attaching the density information and the transparency information in a stepwise manner by complementing the density information and the transparency information between the plurality of points of the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area, respectively,
A synthesis means for synthesizing the colored coloring area and the attached transparency adhesion area;
An image processing apparatus comprising:   The division unit divides the coloring region and the transparency adhesion region so that the synthesis result of the coloring region and the transparency adhesion region is synthesized with a half-cycle shift. An image processing apparatus according to 1.   4. The image processing according to claim 3, wherein the dividing unit equally divides the transparency adhesion end regions so that a combined result of the regions corresponds to a size of one of the coloring regions. apparatus. Computer
From the region surrounded by a plurality of points where the density information related to the color density and the transparency information related to the transparency are respectively set, the coloring start and the transparency start are common to the coloring region related to the density information and the transparency adhering region related to the transparency information. And generating means for generating the end of coloring and the end of transparency in common ,
Dividing means for dividing the said colored area and transparency adhered area as the period of the combined result of the coloring region and transparency adhesion area is synthesized displaced at different split ratio, respectively,
Attaching means for attaching the density information and the transparency information in a stepwise manner by complementing the density information and the transparency information between the plurality of points of the coloring area and the transparency adhesion area, respectively,
An image processing program that functions as a synthesis unit that synthesizes a colored coloring area and an attached transparency adhesion area.

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