JPH05199411A - Setup support system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] It is an object to provide a setup support system so that setup can be easily performed in an image processing apparatus. [Arrangement] The arithmetic processing unit 16 inputs B, G, and R signals, and based on the setup information, Y, which is suitable for dot output,
Convert to M, C, K signals. In the database section 30, the previously set up information is "soft",
It is stored with a designated term such as "brightly".
When performing the setup, the setup information in the database unit 30 is searched for by the designated term. Create the required setup information based on the retrieved setup information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a setup for converting a read image signal read by a scanner or the like into a recorded image signal, and more particularly to a support system for facilitating the setup.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a general image input / output system (input / output scanner for plate making). A document 4 is placed on the transparent input cylinder 2. A light source (not shown) is provided inside the input cylinder 2. The reading head 6 receives the light emitted from the light source and transmitted through the original 4, and converts the light into an electric signal corresponding to the shading of the image. The electric signal representing the light and shade is converted into a digital signal in the A / D conversion circuit 12. This digital signal is log-converted by the log conversion circuit 14 and output as a read image signal. This read image signal is generated for each of the blue component (B), the green component (G), and the red component (R).

The input cylinder 2 is rotated by a motor 8 and the read head 6 is moved by a motor 10. As a result, the original 4 is scanned and a read image signal is obtained. The arithmetic processing unit 16 inputs the read image signals of B, G, and R and converts them to yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) signals.

The Y, M, C, and K signals are converted by the dot generator 18 into halftone dot signals which are recording image signals, and given to the recording head 20. The recording head 20 performs exposure recording on the recording film 24 on the output cylinder 22 based on the halftone dot signal. The output cylinder 22 is rotated by the motor 26 in synchronization with the input cylinder 2, and the recording head 20 is driven by the motor.
28 moves in synchronization with the read head 6. Therefore, a duplicate image of the original 4 is obtained on the recording film 24.

In the arithmetic processing unit 16, B, G,
Not only is the conversion from R to Y, M, C, and K performed, but the following processing is also performed.

There is no Y, M, C, K ink that produces ideal color. That is, since unnecessary components are mixed in the ink, it is necessary to correct them and determine the values of Y, M, C, and K. In addition, it may be necessary to correct the values of Y, M, C, and K in order to make the finished color the desired color. Such an operation is called a color correction.

The Y, M, C and K signals are converted into halftone dot signals and exposed on the recording film 24 as halftone dots. That is, the density is expressed by the area% of the halftone dots. There is a limit to the gradation of light and shade that can be expressed by such halftone dots. Therefore, in order to maximize the use of gradation that can be expressed by halftone dots, it is necessary to make the highlight points of the document correspond to the minimum% of the halftone dots and the shadow points to the maximum% of the halftone dots. This kind of setting, highlight point setting,
This is called setting the shadow point.

Further, each density of Y, M, C and K and halftone dot%
It is necessary to set the relationship with (gradation curve). By changing the gradation curve, the finish tone of the final printed matter can be changed.

The operator of the scanner adjusts the printed matter to a desired finish by making various settings (setup) as described above. On the other hand, the designer or the client "provides a three-dimensional effect" and "provides a volume" when expressing the desired finish.
The designated terms such as “bright”, “dark”, “to see through” are used. The operator who performs the operation receives the instruction by the designated term and performs the above various setups. How to change the setting for each designated term is performed based on the experience of the operator.

[0010]

However, the conventional device as described above has the following problems. For each designated term, how to change the settings and perform the setup in order to obtain a finish corresponding to the designated term depends on the intuition based on the experience of the operator.
Therefore, there is a problem that only a skilled operator can perform the setup. Even a skilled operator has difficulty in obtaining a stable finish due to individual differences.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and to provide a setup support system capable of easily performing setup.

[0012]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a setup support system, wherein a setup used in an apparatus for inputting a read image signal indicating a density of each pixel of a document and calculating a print image signal based on the setup information. The support system is characterized in that a set of setup information is provided with a designated term indicating a finishing condition, and the setup information is searched based on the designated term.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, a setup support system stores a recorded image signal corresponding to each setup information, and adds a pointer indicating a storage location of the corresponding recorded image signal to the setup information. It has a feature.

[0014]

In the setup support system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the set term is attached to a set of setup information, and the setup information is searched by the designated term. Therefore,
By giving the designated term, the setup information corresponding to the designated term can be easily obtained.

In the setup support system according to a second aspect of the present invention, the recorded image signal corresponding to each set-up information is stored, and a pointer indicating a storage location of the corresponding recorded image signal is added to the set-up information. It has a feature. Therefore, it is possible to easily obtain the finished image by displaying the finished recorded image signal corresponding to each designated term.

[0016]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image input / output device using a setup support system according to an embodiment of the present invention. A document 4 is placed on the transparent input cylinder 2. A light source (not shown) is provided inside the input cylinder 2. The reading head 6 receives the light emitted from the light source and transmitted through the original 4, and converts the light into an electric signal corresponding to the shading of the image. The electric signal representing the light and shade is converted into a digital signal in the A / D conversion circuit 12. This digital signal is log-converted by the log conversion circuit 14 and output as a read image signal. This read image signal has a blue component (B), a green component (G), and a red component (R).
Is generated for each of.

The input cylinder 2 is rotated by a motor 8 and the read head 6 is moved by a motor 10. As a result, the original 4 is scanned and a read image signal is obtained. The arithmetic processing unit 16 inputs the read image signals of B, G, and R and converts them to yellow (Y), magenta (M), cyan (C), and black (K) signals.

The Y, M, C and K signals are converted by the dot generator 18 into halftone dot signals which are recording image signals, and given to the recording head 20. The recording head 20 performs exposure recording on the recording film 24 on the output cylinder 22 based on the halftone dot signal. The output cylinder 22 is rotated by the motor 26 in synchronization with the input cylinder 2, and the recording head 20 is driven by the motor.
28 moves in synchronization with the read head 6. Therefore, a duplicate image of the original 4 is obtained on the recording film 24.

A database unit 30 is connected to the arithmetic processing unit 16. The database unit 30 stores a plurality of pieces of setup information, and each setup information is given a designated term indicating the finish condition. The operator searches for the specified term, retrieves the desired setup information, makes some corrections, and uses it.

The arithmetic processing unit 16 outputs the B, G, and R read image signals to Y, M, C, and K according to the setup information.
Signal is converted to. In order to confirm the finish, the Y, M, C and K signals are reproduced by the monitor 34 via the BGR conversion circuit 32. FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of the database unit 30. The CPU 36 is connected to the internal memory 38, the keyboard 40, the interface 42, the external storage device 44, the monitor 46, and the mouse 48 via the bus line 50. The interface 42 exchanges data with the arithmetic processing unit 16. In the external storage device 44,
Setup information is stored together with designated terms.
The CPU 36 controls each unit according to the program stored in the internal memory 38.

FIG. 3 shows the data structure of the setup information stored in the external storage device 44. One set of setup information, gradation curve data 56, color correction data 58, and highlight setup data 6
0, shadow setup data 62 is stored.
Further, in this embodiment, a reference image file pointer 64 and an original image file pointer 66 are also added. Designated term 5 for these setup information
4, file name 52 is stored.

As the designated terms, those as shown in FIG. 4 are used (see Kenichi Tamura, "Color Prescriptive Designation Rule Book", pages 53 to 72, Printing Society Press). These designated terms are used as words to express the finish condition sensuously. The setup information corresponding to this designated term, for example, "soft" is stored as one file. A large number of such files are stored to form a database.

Data is stored as follows. First, a setup device (not shown) is used to make settings according to given designated terms based on experience, as in the conventional case. The setup information finally obtained is taken in through the interface 42 and stored in the external storage device 44. At this time, the operator
Enter the corresponding designated term from 40 and add it to the setup information for storage.

At this time, the reference image data and the original image data obtained by the setup are stored in another file. Along with this, file pointers 64 and 66 indicating where the reference image and the original image are stored are stored in the setup information file. The original image data is complete image data, and the reference image data is image data in which the number of pixels is scattered. As described above, the data is accumulated and the database is constructed.

Next, the data structure of the setup information thus stored will be described. The overall data structure is as shown in FIG. The gradation curve data 56 represents a gradation curve that determines the relationship between the document density and the halftone dot%, and is composed of shadow separation data SS, middle separation data MS, and highlight separation data HS as shown in FIG. 5A. It Shadow separation data S
S is data for adjusting the gradation curve in the shadow separation, as shown in FIG. 5B.
Similarly, the middle separation data MS is data for adjusting the gradation curve in the middle separation (FIG. 5C), and the highlight separation data HS is data for adjusting the gradation curve in the highlight separation (FIG. 5D). The gradation curve is adjusted by these gradation curve data. The above-mentioned separation data SS, MS, HS are prepared for each R, G, B color.

Returning to FIG. 3, next to the gradation curve data 56, color correction data 58 is stored. The color correction data 58 is data for adjusting a delicate finish color. In this embodiment, for each color of C, M, Y and K, each color of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), red (R), green (G) and blue violet (Bv) is used. It is adjusted according to the component. FIG. 6 shows the adjustment by a mathematical expression. C ₁ , M ₁ , Y ₁ and K ₁ are the color signals before adjustment, and C ₂ , M ₂ , Y ₂ and K ₂ are the color signals after adjustment. That is, as the color correction data 58,
b ₁₁ ~b ₄₆ is stored.

Returning to FIG. 3, color correction data
Next to 58, highlight setup data 60 is stored. The highlight setup data 60 is data that determines a highlight point. That is, in order to effectively use the shades that can be expressed by halftone dots, it is necessary to appropriately match the document density with the halftone dot density. The density adapted to the halftone dot density in this way is called a normalized density. In Figure 7,
The curve showing the relationship between original density and normalized density is shown. In this curve, data α and β indicating the highlight point H are stored as highlight setup data.

Returning to FIG. 3, next to the highlight setup data 60, shadow setup data 62 is stored. The shadow setup data 62 is data that determines a shadow point. That is, the data γ and ε representing the shadow point S shown in FIG. 7 are stored as shadow setup data.

Returning to FIG. 3, next to the shadow setup data 62, a reference image file pointer 64 and an original image file pointer 66 are stored. These are data indicating at which position the reference image data and the original image data as the recording image signal are stored.

Next, the operation for setting up using the database device of FIG. 2 in which the above setup information is stored will be described.

First, as a designated term from the keyboard 40,
For example, enter "hard". In response to this, the CPU 36 selects the setup information to which the designated term “hard” is added from the setup information of the external storage device 44, and displays it on the monitor 46. The operator uses the mouse 48 and keyboard 40 to select 1 from the displayed setup information.
Choose one. At this time, the reference image file pointer,
With the original image pointer, the reference image data and the original image data can be pulled out and displayed on the monitor 46 for reference in selection. The selected setup information is displayed on the monitor 46. Based on this setup information, the operator obtains necessary setup information with some modifications. The obtained setup information is transmitted to the arithmetic processing unit 16 via the interface 42. The arithmetic processing unit 16 converts the R, G, B signals into Y, M, C, K signals based on the setup data.

Further, this setup information is newly stored in the external storage device 44 with a designated term added.

In the above embodiment, the database device 30 and the arithmetic processing unit 16 are connected online, but data may be exchanged by a floppy disk or the like.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the invention is applied to the transmissive cylindrical scanner has been described, but the invention can be similarly applied to the reflective cylindrical scanner, the flat scanner and the like.

[0035]

The setup support system according to the first aspect of the present invention is characterized in that a set of setup information is provided with a designated term indicating a finishing condition, and the setup information is searched based on the designated term. .. Therefore, the setup information close to the desired setup information can be obtained from the given designated term, and the setup can be easily performed. Also, the burden on the operator is reduced.

The setup support system according to claim 2 is
A recorded image signal corresponding to each set-up information is stored, and a pointer indicating a storage location of the corresponding recorded image signal is added to the set-up information. Therefore, at the time of setup, it is possible to confirm the finish condition from the recorded image.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an image processing apparatus using a setup support system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a database unit 30.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a structure of setup information stored in an external storage device 44.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing types of designated terms.

FIG. 5A is a diagram showing the structure of gradation curve data, and FIGS. 5B, 5C, and 5D are diagrams showing changes in the gradation curve.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing formulas for color correction.

FIG. 7 is a graph showing highlight points and shadow points.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a conventional image processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 16 ... Arithmetic processing unit 30 ... Database unit 36 ... CPU 38 ... Internal memory 40 ... Keyboard 42 ... Interface 44 ... External storage device 46 ... Monitor 48 ... mouse

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A setup support system used in an apparatus for inputting a read image signal indicating the density of each pixel of a document and calculating a recorded image signal based on the setup information, wherein a set of setup information indicates the finish condition. The setup support system is characterized in that the setup information is searched based on the designated term. 2. The setup support system according to claim 1, wherein recorded image signals corresponding to each set-up information are stored, and a pointer indicating a storage location of the corresponding recorded image signal is added to the set-up information. Characterized by.