JPH0581402A - Picture processing system with overall view display function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quickly display a picture with an arbitrary mag-nification by providing the function which not only indicates the overall view display to display the overall view of a document in a specific color but also sets the mode to wait for designation of an editing work part after indicating the start of editing on a work station. CONSTITUTION:A picture processing system consists of an input controller 100, a file server 200, an image setter 400, and a work station 300. Since they are provided with CPUs independent of one another, respective parts are operated in parallel independently of one another. Information of a layout board, patterns, characters, etc., are synthetically interactively edited to reduce the memory capacity, and a picture of high quality is obtained as a hard copy from a picture output device. Further, the whole of the picture is quickly displayed in a specific color during the editing work, and the whole of the picture is displayed with the display magnification also, and two diagonal points of an area to be displayed are inputted in this state to display the picture with an arbitrary display magnification.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image processing system for reading a manuscript, that is, a character image and an image of a design of a layout mount (a block mount paper, a rough designation paper, etc.) and then laying it out and outputting it. The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus having a function capable of performing the above-mentioned editing by displaying a full view of a document and then inputting an instruction (two-point instruction) in an editing work portion thereafter.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an image processing system for a printing company requiring high quality, there is no system for comprehensively integrating and editing images of characters, patterns, etc. It was not the target. In particular, the desktop publishing field is becoming possible by the page description language such as Postscript.
Performance is low. There are systems for printers, but they are not enough to handle large amounts of data at high speed. The reason for this is that there is too much data to be processed in order to support processing by a descriptive language for collectively processing characters and images, and processing by a CPU (software), resulting in lack of performance. is there.
When only code data is output to create a block for printing, it must be converted into a bitmap for each character and must be expanded into a bitmap for every few rasters in advance, and only the bitmap is output. Stores all or part of the output image in a temporary buffer and sends it to the output device, and waits while the output device accumulates in the output image buffer to reduce the memory capacity of the buffer. It is supposed to do.

[0003]

However, in the above-described device, characters and pictures cannot be laid out and output at the same time, and even if the character bitmap is laid out in advance on the buffer for outputting the bitmap, the error will occur. It has a drawback that it takes a lot of time to realize. Alternatively, characters and pictures are output on different papers or films, and the operator cuts the papers or films. For this reason, repeated operations such as exposure and printing take a lot of time, and intermediately generated photosensitive materials are wasted.

Further, the display magnification is changed by inputting two diagonal points on the currently displayed screen, obtaining a magnification that includes a rectangle such that the two points are diagonal lines, and displaying the magnification. It is designed to switch to. FIG. 13 shows an example of the operation, in which the original size is displayed on the screen by an edit start instruction (step S100) (step S101), and when scrolling is necessary, a scroll instruction is given (step S102). Then, the enlarged display of the desired portion is instructed (step S103), and then two points of the portion to be edited are instructed (step S104), whereby the enlarged display is performed (step S105). Editing work is performed on the enlarged screen (step S106), a full-scale display instruction is given (step S107), and the above step S1 is performed.
It returns to 01. However, with this method, even if the display magnification can be enlarged, the display magnification cannot be changed to a display magnification (reduction) that includes a range larger than the current display area (for example, from 8 times to 4 times), There is a problem in that it is troublesome to once again display the image in full size and then to instruct enlargement, and it takes time as a whole.

That is, in the conventional enlarged display, the current display area b becomes like the current enlarged display c with respect to the whole a in FIG. 14, and in the case of further enlargement, within the range displayed in the display c. Only two points, for example, the points indicated by P1-P2, could be specified. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 15A, it is impossible to reduce the display magnification to a range larger than the desired display area d, that is, the display can be made smaller than the current display area b. As shown in FIG. 15B, the desired display area is smaller than the current display area b, but is not currently displayed. Therefore, the desired display area e cannot be directly specified. For example, if an area including the display area e such as f is displayed once and then two diagonal points of the area e are not designated, the area e cannot be displayed at a desired display magnification.

The present invention has been made under the circumstances described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image processing system for interactively editing a large amount of character and picture image data electronically at high speed. An object of the present invention is to provide an image processing apparatus having a panoramic image display function capable of rapidly displaying a desired arbitrary magnification regardless of the display magnification.

[0007]

According to the present invention, an input controller adapted to compress density data of a document read by an input device and temporarily store the compressed image data in a buffer, A work station adapted to edit the screen of the code information and the image data edited by an edit input device by using an input operation and display means, and a work station having a storage unit, connected to the input controller and the work station, A file server for storing the image data, the code information, and the edit data screen-edited by the workstation in the storage means, and the edit data stored in the storage means is read out and subjected to necessary data processing to obtain an image. An image processing system equipped with an imagesetter adapted to output images to an output device. That relates to an image processing apparatus, the object of the present invention, by an instruction of the panoramic display after editing start instruction on the workstation, which displays a particular color on the display means a full view of the document,
This is achieved by setting the mode for waiting for specification of the editing work part.

[0008]

The image processing system of the present invention comprises an input controller, a file server, an imagesetter and a workstation, each of which is an independent CPU.
Since it is equipped with (microprocessor, microcomputer, etc.), each part can be operated independently and in parallel, and high-speed and efficient image processing can be realized, as well as information on the layout mount and pictures and characters. Interactively edit etc. to minimize the memory capacity,
A high quality image can be obtained as a hard copy or a printing block from the image output device. In addition, the entire image (original) can be displayed in a specific color quickly during editing work, the entire image is displayed from any display magnification, and two diagonal points of the area to be displayed in that state are input. Thus, it is possible to display an arbitrary display magnification.

[0009]

1 to 3 are block diagrams of an image processing system which is a premise of the present invention, in which an input device 1 such as a scanner is used for a document such as a picture, a character, a figure, and a layout mount.
The density data DD of the image obtained by reading the input density data DD is input to the input controller 100, and the input controller 100 inputs the density data DD via the built-in CPU 101.
Is converted into a halftone dot by the halftoning circuit 102, and the compression circuit 103
After it is compressed in the buffer 104, it is temporarily stored in the buffer 104, and then transferred via the SCSI bus to the magnetic tape 210 of the file server 200 or the hard disks 220, 221, ...
Store in ... The input controller 100 has a local disk (hard disk) 105 for temporarily storing data. The file server 200 has a CPU 201, and is connected to other devices via interfaces 202 to 205. The code information CD such as characters obtained by the edit input device 2 such as a word processor or a typesetting machine is once stored in the floppy disk 3 and then read out and input to the workstation 300. The workstation 300 includes a CRT 301 as a display unit, a keyboard 302, a mouse 306 and a digitizer 303 as an input operation unit, and a hard disk 3 as a storage unit.
04, a floppy disk 305 and a plurality of terminal devices, each workstation 300 is an ET.
It is mutually connected to the file server 200 via HERNET. CR obtained by the input controller 100
The image data thinned out for T display, the frame data and the image data for contour display are stored in the magnetic tape 210 or the hard disks 220, 221, ... Together with the unthinned high density data for image output. The written data is read out via the SCSI bus to interface 204.
And 202 to the workstation 300, and control commands and the like with the input controller 100 are transferred via the auxiliary data line 4 via the interface 200 of the file server 200.
Further, an imagesetter 400 is connected to the. The image setter 400 is provided with a CPU 401, and the file server 20 is connected via an interface 402.
0 connected to auxiliary data line 5 and interface 4
It is connected to the SCSI bus via 03. The imagesetter 400 further has a sequencer 410 and a buffer 411 for storing necessary data, and the imagesetter 400 outputs a high-quality image to the high-quality output device 1
A laser beam printer 11 that outputs 0 and a relatively low image quality is connected. In addition, hard disk 2
20, 221 ... Prestores fixed data (bitmap data) such as logos, coats of arms, meshes, etc. and vector font data for character output.

In the input device 1, a pattern (halftone image), a line drawing, and a character image (binary image) are digitized by density data (8 bits / pixel). The signal input at 8 bits / pixel is converted into a dot pattern by the input controller 100,
Information of 4 bits / pixel is generated. The binary image is converted into 1-bit / pixel information. Further, although characters are input as codes from the workstation 300, they may be input as images from the input device 1. Therefore, when input as an image, even a character is treated as an image (bitmap data). Although all images are output by the imagesetter 400, since all the code and vector information are converted to bitmap data in the imagesetter 400, use it in the sense of outputting bitmap data when speaking of image output. become.

Now, the details of the input controller 100 will be described with reference to FIG. 4, in which the input controller 100 converts the density data DD input from the input device 1 into high density data for the high image quality output machine 10 and a laser beam printer. 11
For CRT3 on workstation 300
Two sets of data for displaying 01 and five sets of rough image data sufficient to show the contour are simultaneously generated. Overall parallel processing speed can be achieved by hardware
This is because the data generation calculation load of 101 can be reduced.
That is, the high-density data for the high-quality image output device 10 is halftoned by the halftoning circuit 1021, compressed by the compression circuit 1031, and the compressed data is temporarily stored in the buffer 1041. Further, as data for outputting an image by the laser beam printer 11 having a relatively low image quality, the density data DD is thinned out (110) at a predetermined interval (for example, 1/3), and the rough data is halftone-dotted by a halftone dot circuit 1022. And compresses them in the compression circuit 1032, and then the buffers 1042
It is temporarily stored in. Furthermore, two types of coarser data to be displayed on the CRT 301 are thinned by the halftone dot conversion circuits 1023 and 1024 after thinning out the density data DD at predetermined intervals, respectively, and the buffers 1043 and 1044 are recorded.
In the case of a line drawing in which a clipping mask is created from a halftone image, the image data after the Laplacian processing or the unsharp mask processing showing the contour data is thinned out (113), and then the binarization circuit. 102
5 is binarized and temporarily stored in the buffer 1045.

In such a configuration, the CPU 101 communicates with the input device 1 via a data line (not shown), and also the auxiliary data line 4 and the dual port RA.
It communicates with the file server 200 via M (not shown). When there is a data transmission request from the input device 1, the COU 101 sets necessary data in each circuit shown in FIG. 4, stores the setting data in the local disk 105, and further sets the setting values related to the sub-scanning. set. The density data DD from the input device 1 is input line by line, and the circuits shown in FIG.
It is stored in (1041 to 1045). CPU1 during this period
01 checks the SCSI bus switching, the data compression output buffer 1041 switching, and the presence or absence of error information from various circuits. The data once stored in the buffer 104 and the local disk 105 is sorted by a command from the CPU 101 and output to an external SCSI bus.

The configuration of the file server 200 is as shown in FIG. 2. The file server 200 has a common file management function such as file management and file sharing, and a communication control function for network communication and unit communication. is doing. That is, the file server 200
Via the SCSI bus to the hard disk (220, 2,
21 ...), manages files on the magnetic tape 210, and connects to the workstation 3 via ETHERNET.
00 and a software interface function, and further includes an input controller 100 and an image setter 400.
File management information service to the PC and utility function for file management via the SCSI bus. For example, font registration and SCSI disk garbage collection (dust removal processing). There are two types of font registration. One is registration of fonts possessed by the system. This registration stores vector fonts created by another font creation system in the form of magnetic tape in the hard disk of the image processing system. The other is the registration of external character fonts. Gaiji font is a character that does not exist in the system. In this case, the font created in another system is registered in this system from a floppy or magnetic tape.

The file server 200 performs service and data storage for data transfer between the workstation 300, the input controller 100 and the imagesetter 400, and the input controller 100 receives the auxiliary data line 4 and the dual port RMA. Then, necessary information is obtained from the file server 200 for securing and deleting areas of various files. Input controller 100
In order to register the data once stored in the internal buffer 104 as a file of the image processing system, information such as the file name and file capacity is transferred to the file server 200, and S
Access the hard disks 220, 221, ... On the CSI bus. As a result, the file server 200 manages directory communication and disk area management. Further, the file server 200 transfers file data to the workstation 300 via ETHERNET,
Receive data from workstations. At this time, according to the instruction from the workstation 300, the file server 200 causes the hard disk (2
20, ...) and the magnetic tape 210 are managed, and necessary information such as a directory is updated. Also, imagesetter 4
The command for 00 and the command for the magnetic tape 210 are obtained, and the service according to the command is performed. Furthermore, a predetermined command is sent to the imagesetter 400 via the auxiliary data line 5 and the dual port RAM, file management information is sent in response to a request from the imagesetter 400, and disk data on the SCSI bus is sent. As a result, the imagesetter 400 is directly accessed. Furthermore, the utility information related to the entire image processing system is managed by the hard disks 220, 221, ... On the SCSI bus, and the font information,
Common files on the system correspond to such information.

Next, the operation of the workstation 300 will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 5. The document data edited by the edit input device 2 and stored is read from the floppy disk 3 (step S310).
The code information CD of the document data is converted in data format (step S311). And CRT
One page of document content is displayed on 301 (step S3
12) The image data output position of the image read from the layout mount or the like is designated by the mouse 306, keyboard 302, and digitizer 303 (step S313), and page description data for each page is created together with the frame of the layout mount (step S314). ). Such data creation is performed for all pages (step S315), and then an imposition instruction for creating a printing block is issued using the keyboard 302 (step S316), and impositioned page description data is created (step S317). ). Then, the file server 20
The created data is transferred to 0 (step S318).
, The image setter 400 is instructed to output an image, and the operation ends (step S319).

Next, with reference to FIG. 6, an operation example at the time of imposition will be described. The workstation 300 reads the image data thinned out from the hard disks 220, 221, ... Of the file server 200 (step S33).
0), read the document data from the floppy disk 3 (step S331), C of the workstation 300
Display necessary information on RT301 and mouse 30
6, the keyboard 302 and the digitizer 303 are operated to lay out images, documents and frames page by page (step S332). Then, the type of imposition registered in advance is designated by the keyboard 302 (step S33).
3) Each page is laid out and displayed together with the number of pages on the CRT 301 in the instructed imposition state (for example, A to D in the figure) (step S334). Here, the imposition registration is stored with the number of pages pre-assigned in consideration of folding during binding of a plurality of pages, for example, A4 version 4 pages or A5 version 8 pages. 6A to 6D, the imposition state is determined by the number of pages (“1”, “8”, “5” in B,
It is displayed together with "4". As described above, the contents such as images and characters are not displayed, and the image setter 400 generates and outputs a bitmap according to the page description data (step S335).

FIG. 7 shows an example of the configuration of the imagesetter 400. The sequencer 410 is connected to a CPU bus 412 and an image data bus 413, and is also connected to a logical operation circuit 420 and a first memory 421. The main memory 430 for the COU 401 is connected to the CPU bus 412, the common memory 424 is connected between the CPU memory 412 and the image data bus 413, and the interface 4
The outputs of 02 and 403 are input to the CPU bus 412. CPU bus 412 and image data bus 413
A buffer 433, a decompressor 440, and a third memory 423 are connected between the two, and a buffer 434, a raster image converter 431, and a second memory 422 are connected.
The buffer 435 and the output control circuit 436 are connected. The vector font memory 43 is stored in the cpu bus 412.
2 is connected to the output control circuit 436 and the output buffer 4
The high image quality output device 10 and the laser beam printer 11 are connected via 36A. Vector font memory 4
In 32, a vector font necessary for the raster image converter 431 to generate a character bitmap is stored. Usually vector font is disk (22
0,221, ...), but since it is inefficient to read the vector font via the SCSI bus every time the character bitmap is generated, all the necessary vector fonts are stored in the vector font memory 432 in advance. By reading it in, the speed of character bitmap generation is improved.

In such a structure, the operation is as shown in FIG.
As shown by, first, an output instruction request is output from the file server 200 to the imagesetter 400 via the auxiliary data line 5 with the file name in the hard disks 220, 221, ... As a parameter. Specifications to be output from that file are written in the file, and the specifications are sequentially decoded to calculate the address of the code data and the compressed data for each unit image, and the overlapping process by the logical operation is repeated for the address, The processing result is stored in the first memory 421. The imagesetter 400 calls the parameter file via the SCSI bus and repeats this operation. For the code data, for example, character code and instruction information such as position, typeface, size, etc. are input via the SCSI interface 403 (step S400), and converted into a raster image by the raster image converter 431 via the buffer 434 (step S401). ), The raster image data is stored in the second memory 422 (step S402). The data-compressed image data is input via the interface 403 via the SCSI bus (step S403), decompressed by the decompressor 440 via the buffer 433 and restored (step S40).
4), the restored image data is stored in the third memory 423 (step S405). Further, the bitmap data such as logos stored in the hard disks 220, 221, ... Is input via the interface 403 (step S406) and stored in the common memory 424 (step S407). The data stored in the second memory 422 to the common memory 424 are all bitmap data, and these stored data are logically operated by the logical operation circuit 420 via the CPU 401 (step S410).
Data that has been logically operated to synthesize, edit, or image-process a picture, a document, or the like is stored in the first memory 421 (step S411). After the data is stored in the first memory 421, it is judged whether or not it is finished, that is, whether there is no correction or addition (step S412), and the above operation is continued until the logical operation such as correction is finished. This logical operation circuit 420 performs logical operations such as sum, product, difference, exclusive OR of bit map data generated from code data such as characters, bit map data obtained by expanding compressed image data, and bit map data with the CPU 401. The image information to be output to the high-quality image output device 10 or the laser beam printer 11 is generated in cooperation with each other.

The editing work is performed by the workstation 3 here.
Keyboard 3 while watching the display of CRT 301 on 00
02, mouse 306, and digitizer 303. In the present invention, this is performed according to the flow shown in FIG. That is, when the editing start is instructed with the mouse 306 or the like (step S1), a full size image as shown in FIG. 10A is displayed (step S2). Next, when the panoramic view icon on the screen is selected to instruct the panoramic display (step S3), the panoramic view of the document shown in FIG. 10B is displayed in a specific color (for example, orange). In this case, if the image data of the panoramic display is stored, the panoramic display is performed at high speed using the image data, and if the image data of the panoramic display is not stored, the panoramic display image is created faster than the original image. To store the data. When a panoramic display image is created from the original image, for example, Q1 and Q of 3 × 3 pixels are applied to the original image data in the XY directions as shown in FIG.
, Are converted into, for example, 1 × 1 pixel P1, P2, ... Of the panoramic display data as shown in FIG. Therefore, FIG.
The conversion tables in the X and Y directions as shown in 2A and 2B are created, and each original data is replaced with the converted data position for each effective data unit while referring to each table. As a result, it is possible to realize a faster data conversion than processing one pixel at a time. By thinning out the original images at high speed as described above, a reduced panoramic display image can be obtained, and the panoramic display image data is stored. The original image is converted to the panoramic display image only once when there is an instruction to display the panoramic data of the original image for the first time. Use the data.

The above-mentioned panoramic display is a CRT 3 with a specific color.
01, the editing operation portion designation waiting mode is automatically entered, and two portions are designated with the mouse 306 as shown in FIG. 10C (step S).
4) Then, the display magnification is calculated from the designated two diagonal points, and the obtained magnification is enlarged and displayed as shown in FIG.
5) Then, the editing work is enabled (step S6). Then, the process returns to step S3 to repeat the above operation.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention, a large amount of character and picture image data can be edited at high speed, and a high-quality printing image with a layout-designated appearance can be output. An image processing system capable of easily bitmapping vector information by hardware, performing image processing, processing, and editing, and laying out characters and pictures and outputting the images can display the entire document at high speed. Since it is possible to give an instruction to display an arbitrary place with an arbitrary display magnification, it is possible to display a desired display magnification without stopping the operation flow.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram (workstation, input controller) showing a configuration example of an image processing system.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram (file server) showing an example configuration of an image processing system.

FIG. 3 is a block configuration diagram (image setter) showing an example configuration of an image processing system.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an input controller.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation example of a workstation.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an imposition operation.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of an imagesetter.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation example thereof.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining a display screen of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the table used in the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a conventional operation example.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining a conventional operation.

FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining a conventional operation.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Input Device 2 Editing Input Device 3 Floppy Disk 10 High Quality Output Device 100 Input Controller 200 File Server 300 Workstation 301 CRT 302 Keyboard 303 Digitizer 306 Mouse 400 Imagesetter 101 CPU 201 CPU 401 CPU

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A screen unit for editing the density information of an original read by an input device, the code information edited by an editing input device, and the image data by using an input operation unit and a display unit, and a storage unit. In an image processing system including a workstation having, a panoramic view is instructed after an editing start instruction on the workstation, thereby displaying the panoramic view of the original document in a specific color on the display means, and An image processing apparatus having a panoramic view display function, which is provided with a function of entering a designated waiting mode.