JPH0844855A - Image filing device and image data transfer method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the processing load on a CPU in a plate making processing work station and to improve the utilization efficiency of a main memory in the plate making processing work station when performing image conversion to image data read from a disk device. CONSTITUTION:A disk device 50 stores plural pieces of image data in a state of tile division. A CPU 32 reads the image data from the disk device 50 through an interface 44 one by one tile. The read image data are rotated or mirror inverted 90 deg. as unit for every tile by a DMA controller 40, and written in a tile line buffer and then read out. The CPU 32 transfers the read image data through an interface 46 to a plate making processing work station 52.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to image filing for reading desired image data from an image data storage device such as a disk device storing a plurality of image data and transferring it to a plate making processing device such as a plate making processing workstation. It relates to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing a main part of a conventional plate making processing system. In general, the plate-making processing system is composed of a central plate-making processing workstation 500 as shown in FIG. 28 and various peripheral devices connected thereto.

The plate-making processing workstation 500 is a CPU that operates according to image processing application software.
A central processing unit 502, a main memory 504 for temporarily storing image data and the like, and various interfaces including a network interface 506 are provided.

Further, among various peripheral devices, a CRT (cathode ray tube) 520 is connected to a CRT interface 508 and displays an image in accordance with an image signal output from the plate-making processing workstation 500. A keyboard / mouse 522 is connected to the input interface 510 and transmits instructions from the operator to the plate-making processing workstation 500. The disk device 524 is connected to the disk interface 512 and stores a plurality of image data used for plate making processing.

The input scanner 526 is connected to the image input interface 514 and inputs an image on a photograph or the like as image data to the plate-making processing workstation 500. The output scanner 528 is the image output interface 51.
6, which is connected to the plate making processing workstation 50.
The image data output from 0 is output as an image on the plate-making film (or printing plate). Accelerator 53
0 is connected to the bus expansion interface 518,
A predetermined image conversion is performed on the image data in place of the CPU 502.

The network 532 is connected to the network interface 506, and exchanges various data between the plate-making processing workstation 500 and other systems.

By the way, when image data is written in the disk device 524, it is performed as follows. That is,
For example, when writing the image data from the input scanner 526, the CPU 502 temporarily stores the image data for one image input from the input scanner 526 via the image input interface 514 in the main memory 504, and then stores the image data. Format information to the disk device 524 via the disk interface 512.
Write in. The format information will be described later. When writing image data from another system, the CPU 502 sends the image data for one image transferred from another system to the main memory 50 via the network 532 and the network interface 506.
4 and then disk interface 512
Is written to the disk device 524 via.

On the other hand, when the image data is read from the disk device 524 and the image data is subjected to image conversion,
Do the following: Here, the image conversion means a rotation that requires rotation of the image by 90 °, mirror reversal of the image, cutout of a designated area of the image, and conversion that requires image calculation such as local calculation. Note that conversions that require image calculation include, for example, spatial filtering processing such as blurring and edge enhancement, image enlargement / reduction, rotation other than 90 ° units, and color conversion (conversion between RGB and YMCK). and so on.

For example, when performing image conversion such as rotation of an image in 90 ° units, mirror reversal of an image, and clipping of a designated area of an image, the CPU 502 first switches the disk device 524 to the disk interface 512. The image data for one image is read out via the and stored in the main memory 504 once. Then, the CPU 502 executes the above image conversion processing on the stored image data according to the application software. After that, the image data stored in the main memory 504 is output as an image on the plate-making film from the output scanner 528 through the image output interface 516, or transferred to another system through the network interface 506 and the network 532. Alternatively, it may be returned to the disk device 524 via the disk interface 512.

Further, when performing image conversion requiring image calculation, especially when performing image conversion requiring a heavy load on the CPU 502, CP
The accelerator 530 performs image conversion on behalf of U502. That is, first, the CPU 502 reads out image data for one image from the disk device 524 via the disk interface 512 and temporarily stores it in the main memory 504. Next, the CPU 502 causes the main memory 504 to
The image data stored in the bus expansion interface 51
8 to the accelerator 530 via
An image calculation command is issued to the accelerator 530. As a result, the accelerator 530 performs image calculation,
The image data is subjected to desired image conversion and output to the bus expansion interface 518. Further, the CPU 502 stores the image data obtained via the bus expansion interface 518 in the main memory 504 again. After that, the image data stored in the main memory 504 is output as an image on the plate-making film from the output scanner 528 through the image output interface 516, or transferred to another system through the network interface 506 and the network 532. Alternatively, it may be returned to the disk device 524 via the disk interface 512.

[0011]

As described above,
Conventionally, when performing image conversion such as rotation of an image in units of 90 °, mirror reversal of an image, and clipping of a designated area of an image, such image conversion processing is performed by CP.
Since it was executed by U502 itself, there was a problem that the processing load on the CPU 502 in the plate-making processing workstation 500 increases.

Further, when performing image conversion such as rotation of the image in 90 ° units, mirror reversal of the image, and clipping of a designated area of the image as image conversion, the image data for one image is read from the disk device 524, The image data is temporarily stored in the main memory 504, and the image conversion is performed on the stored image data. Therefore, in the meantime, the memory area of the main memory 504 in which the image data is stored cannot be used for other purposes, so that the utilization efficiency of the main memory 504 of the plate-making processing workstation 500 is reduced accordingly. There was a problem. In addition, since the image (color image) in plate making usually has about 400 lines / inch (1 pixel 4 bytes), the capacity of the image data for one image becomes very large. For example, 30 cm
A square image has an image data capacity of about 85 Mbytes, and a 1 m square image has a 1 G image data capacity.
It will be close to part-time job. Therefore, 1 in the main memory 504
When the image data for the image is stored, the main memory 504
Of that, a significant portion of the memory area becomes unavailable for other purposes.

Further, when performing image conversion such as rotation of the image in units of 90 °, mirror reversal of the image, and clipping of a designated area of the image, the image conversion process and the main memory 504 of the image data are performed. Since the process of writing or reading to and from the process was performed independently of each other, there was a problem that the entire process took time.

Therefore, the first object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art and to perform the processing of the CPU in the plate-making processing device when the image data read from the image data storage device is subjected to the image conversion. An object of the present invention is to provide an image filing device and an image data transfer method which can reduce the load and can improve the utilization efficiency of the main memory in the plate making processing device.

A second object of the present invention is, in addition to the above-mentioned first object, further, as an image conversion, an image conversion of 90
An object of the present invention is to provide an image filing apparatus and an image data transfer method capable of shortening the overall processing time when rotating in units of °, mirror reversing an image, cutting out a designated area of an image, and the like.

[0016]

Means for Solving the Problem and Its Action In order to achieve the above-mentioned first object, the invention according to claim 1 is
In an image filing device that reads out desired image data from an image data storage device that stores a plurality of image data and transfers it to a plate making processing device, the image making device specifies from among the plurality of stored image data. Means for reading the image data thus read out from the image data storage device, means for performing image conversion on the read image data instructed by the plate-making processing device, and the plate-making operation for the image data having undergone image conversion. Means for transferring to the processing device.

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention,
Since the image filing device is provided with each of the above means, the plate making processing device specifies the image data to be read,
Simply by instructing the image conversion to be performed, the image data subjected to the instructed image conversion is transferred from the image filing device to the plate making processing device.

Further, in order to achieve the above second object,
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in an image filing apparatus that reads desired image data from an image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transfers the desired image data to a plate making processing device, a control means, a storage means, and And a second interface unit, wherein the control unit controls the image data specified by the plate making processing device from the plurality of stored image data from the image data storage device to the image data specified by the image data storage device. The read image data is read through the interface means No. 1 and the stored image data is stored in accordance with an instruction from the plate making processing device so that the image of the image data is rotated by 90 ° or mirror-inverted. Means for writing the image data to the plate making processing device. It is characterized in that is transferred via the second interface means.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image filing apparatus for reading desired image data from the image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transferring it to the plate making processing device, a control means is provided. Storage means,
A first interface unit and a second interface unit, and the control unit stores the image data designated by the plate making processing device from the plurality of stored image data from the image data storage device. Of the image data written and written in the storage unit through the first interface unit, data of a portion corresponding to an area designated by the plate making processing device is read from the storage unit and the plate making process is performed. It is characterized in that the device is transferred via the second interface means.

As described above, in the invention described in claim 2 or 3, the image filing apparatus is provided with the above-mentioned means in addition to the control means, and the control means operates as described above, whereby the plate-making processing apparatus reads out. Image data to be designated, and as the image conversion to be performed, rotation of the image in 90 ° units, mirror inversion, or execution of clipping of the designated area is simply instructed. The image data subjected to is transferred.

Further, in the invention described in claim 2, the processing of rotating or mirror-reversing the image in 90 ° units and the processing of writing the image data to the storage means are simultaneously performed, and the invention of claim 3 is also applicable. Also in the described invention, the process of cutting out the designated area and the process of reading the image data from the storage unit are simultaneously performed.

Further, the invention according to claim 4 is the same as claim 2
In the image filing device according to, the plurality of the image data stored in the image data storage device,
Each of the images related to the image data is stored in a state of being divided into a plurality of tiles, and the control means controls the designated image data from the image data storage device in units corresponding to the tiles. Read with
It is characterized in that the data is written in the storage means so that each tile is rotated by 90 ° or mirror-inverted.

As described above, according to the invention of claim 4,
Rotation or mirror flip of the image in 90 ° increments is performed tile by tile.

The invention described in claim 5 is the same as claim 3
In the image filing device according to, the plurality of the image data stored in the image data storage device,
Each of the images related to the image data is stored in a state of being divided into a plurality of tiles, and the control unit corresponds to a tile including the designated area in the designated image data. Reading data from the image data storage device and writing it in the storage means;
Among the written data, the data of the portion corresponding to the designated area is read from the storage means.

As described above, according to the invention of claim 5,
Only the data corresponding to the tile including the designated area is read from the image data storage device and written in the storage means.

Further, in the invention described in claim 6, in the image filing device according to claim 4 or 5, the control means stores the image data of a desired number of tiles in the storage means in advance. It is characterized in that a possible area is secured as a tile line buffer, and when the image data is written in the storage means, it is written in the secured tile line buffer.

As described above, according to the invention of claim 6,
A memory area of a desired size is secured in the storage means in advance as a tile line buffer, and image data is written in the tile line buffer.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the image filing apparatus according to the second aspect, the control means controls the write address when writing the image data in the storage means, It is characterized in that the image related to the image data is rotated by 90 ° or mirror-inverted. As described above, in the invention according to claim 7, 9
Rotation in 0 ° and mirror inversion are not image operations,
This is realized by controlling the write address when writing to the storage means.

In order to achieve the above-mentioned first object, the invention described in claim 8 reads desired image data from an image data storage device in which a plurality of image data is stored and transfers it to a plate-making processing device. In the image data reading and transferring method, the step of designating the image data to be read out by the plate making processing device and instructing the image conversion to be performed on the image data, and designating from the plurality of stored image data. A step of reading the image data from the image data storage device, a step of performing the image conversion instructed on the read image data, a step of transferring the image data subjected to the image conversion to the plate making processing device, Included. Thus, claim 8
In the invention described in (1), by including the above steps, the plate-making processing apparatus only specifies the image data to be read out and instructs the image conversion to be performed, and the image data subjected to the instructed image conversion is transferred. come.

In order to achieve the above second object,
In the invention according to claim 9, in the image data transfer method for reading desired image data from an image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transferring it to the plate-making processing device, the plate-making processing device should read the image data. A step of designating image data and instructing to perform rotation or mirror inversion of an image of the image data in 90 ° units as image conversion to be performed on the image data; Reading out image data specified from the image data storage device,
According to an instruction from the plate making processing device, a step of writing the read image data in a storage unit so that an image related to the image data is rotated by 90 ° or mirror-inverted, and the written pixel Reading data from the storage means and transferring the data to the plate-making processing apparatus.

According to the tenth aspect of the invention, in the image data transfer method of reading desired image data from the image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transferring the image data to the plate-making processing device, the plate-making process is performed. A step of designating image data to be read out by the device, instructing execution of cutout as image conversion to be applied to the image data, and designating an area to be cut out; Reading the specified image data from the image data storage device;
A step of writing the read-out image data in a storage means, and a step of reading out data of a portion of the written image data corresponding to a designated area from the storage means and transferring it to the plate-making processing apparatus. Is characterized by.

As described above, according to the ninth and tenth aspects of the present invention, the plate making processing apparatus specifies the image data to be read out by including each of the above steps, and the image conversion is performed in 90 ° units of the image. By simply instructing to rotate, mirror invert, or cut out a designated area, the image data subjected to the instructed image conversion is transferred.

Further, in the invention described in claim 9, the processing of rotating or mirror reversing the image in 90 ° units and the processing of writing the image data to the storage means are simultaneously performed, and the invention of claim 10 is also applicable. Also in the described invention, the process of cutting out the designated area and the process of reading the image data from the storage unit are simultaneously performed.

[0034]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image filing apparatus as an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the image filing device 30 of the present embodiment includes a CPU 3
2, a CPU memory 34, an image calculation unit 36, a memory 38, a DMA (direct memory access) controller 40, interfaces 42, 44 and 46,
It has.

The other components are connected to the CPU 32 via a CPU bus. In addition, the memory 38 is connected to the interface 44, and the DMA controller 40 is connected to the memory 38 and the interface 44.

A system disk device 48 and a disk device 50 are arranged around the image filing device 30 and are connected to the interfaces 42 and 44, respectively. Further, the image filing device 30 is connected to the plate making processing workstation 52 by an interface 46.

In the image filing apparatus 30 of this embodiment, when writing the image data transferred from the plate-making processing workstation 52 to the disk device 50, the image data is divided into tiles and written.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an operation procedure at the time of writing the image data in FIG. First, the plate making processing workstation 52 is the image filing apparatus 3
A write command and an image file name to be added to the written image data are sent to 0 (step 1 in FIG. 2). In the image filing device 30, the CPU 32
When the CPU 32 receives the write command and the image file name via the interface 46, the CPU 32 searches the management file stored in the system disk device 48 via the interface 42, and the same image file name as the received image file name. Check if there is (Fig. 2
Step 2). Then, the check result is transmitted to the plate-making processing workstation 52 via the interface 46. The management file stored in the system disk device 48 will be described later.

If the same image file name exists,
The plate-making processing workstation 52 sends again an image file name different from the previous one to the image filing device 30, for example. On the contrary, if the same file name does not exist, the plate-making processing workstation 52 starts transferring the image data to be written to the image filing device 30 (step 3 in FIG. 2).

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view schematically showing the structure of image data transferred from the plate-making processing workstation 52 of FIG. 1 to the image filing device 30. If there is an image 100 as shown in FIG. 3A, the image data 10
As shown in FIG. 3B, 2 is a format information section 104 including format information of the image 100, and an image 1
Pixel data section 106 composed of pixel data of each pixel of 00
It consists of and. Here, the format information includes, for example, the image size of the image 100, the number of scan lines (for example, 400 lines / inch, etc.), the pixel form (resolution and color configuration of one pixel, for example, RGB, YMCK, etc.), orientation ( Direction).

The order of transferring the image data 102 is as follows.
First, the format information is transferred, and then the pixel data is transferred. In the image filing device 30, when the format information of the image data 102 is transferred from the plate-making processing workstation 52, the CPU 32 writes the format information in the CPU memory 34 (step 4 in FIG. 2). Then, the image size, pixel form, orientation, etc. are detected from the written format information to recognize the scale and state of the transferred image data.

Next, the CPU 32 secures an area corresponding to the scale and state of the image data as an area for operating as a tile line buffer from the memory area in the memory 38 (step 5 in FIG. 2). . That is, for example, when the scale of the image data is large, the area to be operated as the tile line buffer is wide, and when it is small, the area is narrow. The tile line buffer will be described later. Furthermore, the CPU 32
Searches for a use flag stored in the CPU memory 34 to obtain an unused block in the disk device 50, and secures a block for storing image data from the unused block (FIG. 2). Step 5).

Here, the blocks in the disk device 50 and the usage flags stored in the CPU memory 34 will be described. The disk device 50 is composed of, for example, a disk array having four disks which are storage media, and each of the four disks can store, for example, 512 bytes of data per sector.
Therefore, if four disks are virtually replaced by one disk, the virtual disk can store 2 kbytes of data per sector.

On the other hand, the interface 44 can perform continuous data writing and reading on the virtual disk of the disk device 50 in units of 512 sectors, for example. The 512 sector unit is 1 Mbyte (2 k
This is a unit of (byte × 512), and the storage location of data in units of 1 Mbyte is referred to as a “block”. FIG.
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence relationship between blocks and sectors in the disk device 50 of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 4, for example, the block with the number “0” has the numbers “0” to “511”.
No. "1" blocks are composed of sectors "512" to "1023".

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing an example of the usage status of each block in the disk device of FIG. 1 and the usage flags at that time. FIG. 5A shows the usage status of each block.
(B) shows use flags, respectively. As shown in FIG. 5A, in the disk device 50, the numbers “0” and “1” are set.
The image data Da is stored in each block of 0 ”,“ 11 ”,“ 13 ”,“ 14 ”, and the numbers“ 2 ”,“ 15 ”,“ 1 ”are stored.
Image data D in each block of 7 ”,“ 18 ”, and“ 20 ”
When "b" is stored, the usage flag stored in the CPU memory 34 is "1" indicating that the flags corresponding to those numbers are in use, as shown in FIG. 5B. ing. Therefore, when writing the image data, the CPU 32 can obtain an unused block by searching for this usage flag and searching for a block whose flag is “0”.

In the disk device 50, as shown in FIG. 5A, each block is a block in the information area (for example, a block of numbers "0" to "9") and a block in the pixel data area (for example, a block). , Blocks after the number “10”), the format information of the image data and the storage position information added thereto are stored in the blocks of the information area, and the blocks of the pixel data area are stored. Stores the pixel data of the image data.
The storage location information will be described later.

When the area for operating the tile line buffer and the block for storing the image data have been reserved (step 5 in FIG. 2), the image filing apparatus 30 is next provided with a plate-making processing workstation. From 52, the pixel data of the image data 102 is transferred. When the transfer of pixel data is started, the CPU 32 issues a write / read instruction to the DMA controller 40. The DMA controller 40 sequentially writes the transferred pixel data in the tile line buffer in the memory 38, and sequentially reads the written pixel data by dividing it into tiles each having 1 Mbyte (step 6 in FIG. 2). .

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of writing and reading pixel data to and from the tile line buffer. In FIG. 6, (a) shows the pixel data transferred from the plate-making processing workstation 52, (b) shows the tile line buffer 39 secured in the memory 38,
(C) shows the pixel data read from the tile line buffer 39, respectively. In FIG. 6, the total capacity of pixel data to be transferred is about 4 Mbytes, and the reserved capacity of the tile line buffer 39 is about 2 Mbytes.
It is M bytes, and shows an example in which the read pixel data is divided into four tiles. Further, (d) shows the first writing order to the tile line buffer 39, (e) shows the first reading order from the tile line buffer 39, (f) shows the second writing order, and (g) ) Similarly indicates the second reading order.

When pixel data is transferred from the plate-making processing workstation 52 to the image filing device 30, each pixel data starts from the upper left corner as shown in FIG. 6A, and first, the scanning line (pixel line) L1. As shown in the above, the data is sequentially transferred from the top to the bottom, then from the top to the bottom like the scanning line L2 on the right side, and then in the order of each number of the scanning line L. In FIG. 6, the number of the scanning line L is up to “8” or “16” for easy understanding.

Of the transferred pixel data, FIG. 6 (b)
In the tile line buffer 39 shown in FIG.
As shown in, the pixel data of about 2 M bytes from the scanning line L1 to the scanning line L4 is written. Next, of the written pixel data, as shown in FIG.
1 Mbytes of pixel data from the scan line to the scan line L4 are read to form the tile T1 shown in FIG. 6C. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 6E, the remaining 1 Mbytes of pixel data from the scanning line L5 to the scanning line L8 are read to form the tile T2 shown in FIG. 6C.

Next, in the tile line buffer 39 shown in FIG. 6B, the next pixel data of about 2 M bytes from the scanning line L5 to the scanning line L8 is written as shown in FIG. 6F. Furthermore, among the written pixel data, FIG.
As shown in (g), 1-Mbyte pixel data from the scanning line L9 to the scanning line L12 is read to form the tile T3 shown in FIG. 6C. Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 6G, the remaining 1 Mbytes of pixel data from the scanning line L13 to the scanning line L16 are read to form the tile T4 shown in FIG. 6C.

When the memory 38 is constituted by a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) capable of so-called page mode, the DMA controller 40 realizes writing / reading of pixel data in page mode. You can

In this way, the pixel data read by dividing the tile so that each tile has 1 M bytes is transferred to the disk device 50 by the interface 44 in units of one tile, and the pixel data secured in the disk device 50 is transferred. The blocks in the area are sequentially written (step 7 in FIG. 2). At this time, since one tile and one block each have 1 Mbytes, one tile is written in each block.

For example, assuming that the blocks of the numbers "21" to "24" among the blocks of the pixel data area shown in FIG. 5A are reserved as the blocks for storing the pixel data. Of the pixel data shown in 6 (c), the tile T1 is in the block with the number “21”, the tile T2 is in the block with the number “22”, the tile T3 is in the block with the number “23”, and the tile T4 is the number “. 24 "blocks are written respectively.

When all the transferred pixel data are written in the disk device 50, the CPU 32 generates storage position information indicating the storage position of the written pixel data,
It is added to the format information previously stored in the CPU memory 34 (step 8 in FIG. 2). Here, the storage position of the pixel data is specifically the number of the block in which the pixel data of each tile is written. In the above example, the number "21" for the tile T1 and the number "21" for the tile T2. The storage position information is “22”, “23” for the tile T3, and “24” for the tile T4.

After that, the format information and the storage position information read from the CPU memory 34 are collectively treated as one tile, and the interface unit 44 causes the disk device 5 to store the format information and the storage position information.
It is written in the block of the information area secured in 0 (step 8 in FIG. 2). For example, if the block of the number "3" is secured among the blocks of the information area shown in FIG. 5A, the format information and the storage position information are written in the block of the number "3".

FIG. 7 shows the usage status of each block in the disk device 50 at this time and the storage contents of the blocks in the information area. That is, as shown in FIG. 7A, when the image data newly written in the disk device 50 by the above example is Dc, the pixel data of the image data Dc is the blocks of the numbers “21” to “24”. Further, the format information and the storage position information of the pixel data Dc are stored in the block of the number “3” as shown in FIG. 7B.

When the writing of the format information and the storage position information is completed in this way, the CPU 32 sets the flag corresponding to the block number in which the image data is newly written among the usage flags stored in the CPU memory 34. Rewrite as "1". That is, in the above example, the numbers “3” and “21” in the disk device 50 are set.
Since the image data Dc has been written in the blocks of “˜24”, among the usage flags shown in FIG.
The flags corresponding to the numbers “3” and “21” to “24” are rewritten to “1”.

Further, the CPU 32 stores the image file name received from the plate-making processing workstation 52 and the image data corresponding to the image file in the management file stored in the system disk device 48 via the interface 42. The number of the block in which the format information and the storage position information are stored (that is, the block in which the format information and the storage position information are stored among the blocks of the information area in the disk device 50) is written (FIG. 2). Step 9).

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a management file stored in the system disk device 48 of FIG. That is, for example, the plate making processing workstation 5
If "CZC" is received as the image file name from 2 and the image data corresponding to the image file is the image data Dc shown in FIG. 7A, the format information and the storage position information for the image data Dc are As shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the blocks are stored in the block with the number “3”. Therefore, in the management file, the block number corresponding to the image file name “CZC” as shown in FIG. "3" is described.

In addition, the image file name "AXA"
If the image data corresponding to the image data is the image data Da shown in FIG. 7A, the format information and the storage position information for the image data Da are shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B.
Since it is stored in the block with the number “0” as shown in FIG. 8, the block number “0” is described for the image file name “AXA” in the management file as shown in FIG. Further, if the image data corresponding to the image file name “BYB” is Db, the format information and storage position information for the image data Db are number “2”.
Since the image file name is "BYB", the block number "2" is stored in the management file.
Is described. In this way, when the writing to the management file is completed, the CPU 32 releases the tile line buffer secured in the memory 38 and ends the processing.

Next, the image filing apparatus 3 of this embodiment
In 0, when the image data is read from the disk device 50 and transferred to the plate making processing workstation 52, the image data is subjected to image conversion according to the contents of the image conversion instructed by the plate making processing workstation 52, and then the plate making process is performed. Transfer to workstation 52.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing the operation procedure at the time of reading the image data in FIG. First, the plate making processing workstation 52 is the image filing apparatus 3
A read command, an image file name to be read, and the contents of image conversion to be performed at the time of reading are sent to 0 (step 1 in FIG. 9).

In the image filing device 30, the CPU 3
2 receives the read command, the image file name, and the content of the image conversion via the interface 46, the CP
U32 searches the management file stored in the system disk device 48 through the interface 42, finds the image file name which is the same as the received image file name, and determines the block number of the information area corresponding to the image file name. (Step 2 in FIG. 9). For example, if the received image file name is “BYB” and the management file stored in the system disk device 48 is as shown in FIG. 8, the CPU 32 determines that the information area corresponding to the image file name “BYB”. "2" is obtained as the block number of.

Next, the CPU 32 reads the stored format information and storage position information from the block of the information area corresponding to the number in the disk device 50 by the interface 44 based on the obtained block number. (Step 3 in FIG. 9). For example, when the number of the obtained block is “2”, from the block of the number “2” shown in FIG. 7A, the storage position information as shown in FIG. , Tile T
The number “15” for 1 and the number “1” for tile T2
7 ”, for tile T3,“ 18 ”is for tile T4
Is read out as "20". The read format information and storage position information are written in the CPU memory 34.

The CPU 32 detects the format information such as the image size, the number of scan lines, the pixel form, and the orientation from the CPU memory 34, and the detection result and the contents of the image conversion received from the plate-making processing workstation 52. Consider. Then, based on the examination result, an area for operating as a tile line buffer is secured from the memory area in the memory 38 (step 4 in FIG. 9).

Further, the CPU 32 newly creates the format information of the image data to be transferred to the plate-making processing workstation 52 based on the above examination result. Then, the created format information is transferred to the interface 46.
First, it is transferred to the plate making processing workstation 52 via (step 5 in FIG. 9). That is, of the image data to be transferred to the plate-making processing workstation 52, only the format information is transferred first, and then the pixel data is transferred as described later.

Next, the CPU 32 detects the storage position information from the CPU memory 34, and the interface 44
Pixel data is sequentially read from the block of the pixel data area indicated by the storage position information in the disk device 50 one tile at a time (step 6 in FIG. 9). For example, in the above-mentioned example, the storage position information is “15” for the tile T1, “17” for the tile T2, “18” for the tile T3, and “2” for the tile T4.
Since "0" is given, the number "1" in the disk device 50 shown in FIG.
1 from the blocks of "5", "17", "18", and "20"
Pixel data of tiles T1, T2, T3, T4 are sequentially read for each tile.

At this time, the CPU 32 also issues a write / read instruction to the DMA controller 40. DM
The A controller 40 sequentially writes the pixel data read from the disk device 50 tile by tile into the tile line buffer in the memory 38, and also sequentially reads the written pixel data (step 7 in FIG. 9). The read pixel data is transferred to the plate-making processing workstation 52 via the interface 46 (step 8 in FIG. 9).

Thus, the plate-making processing workstation 5
Pixel data of the image data to be transferred to 2 is transferred until it is read from the plate-making processing workstation 52 and transferred to the plate-making processing workstation 52 (from step 6 to step 8 in FIG. 9). Between,
Image conversion is performed on the pixel data as follows.

That is, the plate-making processing workstation 5
When the contents of the image conversion received from 2 are the rotation of the image in 90 ° units and the mirror inversion, those image conversions are performed when the pixel data is written in the tile line buffer. Further, in the case of cutting out a designated area of an image, the image conversion is performed at the time of writing and reading the pixel data in the tile line buffer. Furthermore, if the conversion requires image calculation, the image conversion is performed by the image calculation unit 36.

Therefore, first, as the image conversion, 90
Description will be made regarding the case where rotation is performed in units of ° or mirror inversion is performed. When rotating in 90 ° increments or mirror inversion,
An orientation (direction) of an image to be obtained is designated in advance by the plate-making processing workstation 52, and rotation or inversion is performed according to the orientation information. This orientation information is included in the contents of the image conversion received from the platemaking processing workstation 52.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart showing the operation procedure when the image is rotated in 90 ° units and the mirror is inverted. Each step shown in FIG. 10 is step 7 in FIG.
Used instead of.

When pixel data is read from the disk device 50 tile by tile (step 6 in FIG. 10), DMA is performed.
The controller 40 sets the pixel data to 9
The data is written in the tile line buffer in the memory 38 while being rotated or mirror-inverted in units of 0 ° (step 7a in FIG. 10). Then, the pixel data written in the tile line buffer is sequentially read (step 7b in FIG. 10) and transferred to the plate-making processing workstation 52 (step 8 in FIG. 10).

FIG. 11 is an explanatory view showing an image obtained by rotating a certain image by 90 ° or mirror-inverting it. When a certain image (original image) shown in FIG. 11A is rotated by 0 °, it becomes as shown in FIG. 11B, and when that image is mirror-inverted, it becomes as shown in FIG. 11C. When the original image is rotated 90 ° to the right, it becomes as shown in FIG. 11 (d), and when the rotated image is mirror-inverted, it becomes as shown in FIG. 11 (e).
It becomes as shown in. Further, when the original image is rotated 180 °, it becomes as shown in FIG. 11 (f), and when the rotated image is mirror-inverted, it becomes as shown in FIG. 11 (g). Furthermore, when the original image is rotated 90 ° to the left, it becomes as shown in FIG. 11 (h).
As shown in (i).

12 to 19 are explanatory views for explaining the operation of writing and reading the pixel data to and from the tile line buffer when the image is rotated by 90 ° or mirror inversion is performed. Of these, FIG. 12 shows the case where the original image is rotated by 0 ° (corresponding to FIG. 11B), and FIG. 13 shows the case where the original image is rotated by 0 ° and the mirror is inverted (corresponding to FIG. 11C). FIG. 14 shows the case where the original image is rotated 90 ° to the right (corresponding to FIG. 11D), and FIG. 15 is the case where the original image is rotated 90 ° to the right and mirror-inverted (corresponding to FIG. 11E).
Fig. 16 shows the case where the original image is rotated 180 ° (Fig. 1
1 (f)), FIG. 17 shows the case where the original image is rotated 180 ° and mirror-inverted (corresponds to FIG. 11 (g)), and FIG. 18 shows the case where the original image is rotated 90 ° to the left (FIG. 11
19 corresponds to (h) and FIG. 19 shows a case where the original image is rotated 90 ° to the left and mirror-inverted (corresponding to FIG. 11 (i)).

Further, in these figures, (a) shows the reading order of the pixel data read from the disk device 50. Further, (b) shows the tile line buffer 39 secured in the memory 38, and (c) shows the pixel data read from the tile line buffer 39. In these figures, pixel data read from the disk device 50 has four tiles (tile T).
1, T2, T3, T4). Further, (d) shows the first writing order to the tile line buffer 39, (e) shows the first reading order from the tile line buffer 39, (f) shows the second writing order, and (g) ) Similarly indicates the second reading order.

With respect to the rotation of the image in units of 90 °, the case where the image is rotated 90 ° to the left (the case of FIG. 18) is taken as a typical example, and with respect to the mirror inversion, the image is rotated 180 ° and the mirror is inverted. A case (case of FIG. 17) will be described as a typical example. In addition, in other cases, since it can be easily inferred from the above two representative examples, description thereof will be omitted.

When rotating 90 ° to the left, the disk device 5
From 0, as shown in FIG. 18A, first, pixel data of two tiles is read in the order of tile T3 and tile T1. At this time, the pixel data of each tile is sequentially read from the upper left corner as a scanning line L1 from the top to the bottom, then moves to the scanning line L2 on the right side, and then each number of the scanning line L. Are read in the order of. In FIG. 18, the number of the scanning line L is up to “8” or “16” for easy understanding.

Of the read pixel data, the DMA controller 40 first puts the tile portion 39a on the tile line buffer 39 shown in FIG. 18B into the tile portion 39a as shown in FIG. 18D. Starting from the lower left corner of the line, data is written in order from left to right in the direction of the scanning line L1, then moves to the upper scanning line L2, and then the scanning line L
Pixel data is written in the order of 3, L4. As a result, the pixel data of the tile T3 is rotated 90 ° to the left and written. Subsequently, the tile portion 39b below the tile line buffer 39 shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 8 (d), starting from the lower left corner of the tile portion 39b, the data is sequentially written from left to right in the direction of the scanning line L5, then moves to the upper scanning line L6, and then the scanning line L7,
Pixel data is written in the order of L8. As a result, the pixel data of the tile T1 is also rotated 90 ° to the left and written.

Next, the written pixel data is DMA
As shown in FIG. 18E, the controller 40 sequentially reads from the top left corner in the direction of the scanning line L1 from top to bottom, then moves to the scanning line L2 on the right side, and then scans. The lines L3 and L4 are read out in this order. Further, as shown in FIG. 18A, pixel data of two tiles is read from the disk device 50 in the order of tile T4 and tile T2.

Of the read pixel data, as shown in FIG. 18F by the DMA controller 40,
Starting from the lower left corner of the tile portion 39a of the tile line buffer 39, data is sequentially written from left to right in the direction of the scanning line L9, then moves to the upper scanning line L10, and then the scanning lines L11 and L12 are arranged in order. Data is written. As a result, the pixel data of the tile T4 is also rotated 90 ° to the left and written. Then, the tile portion 39b
Starting from the lower left corner of, the pixel data is written sequentially from left to right in the direction of the scanning line L13, then moves to the upper scanning line L14, and then the scanning lines L15 and L16 are written in this order. As a result, the pixel data of the tile T2 is also left 9
It will be written by rotating 0 °.

Next, the written pixel data is DMA
As shown in FIG. 18G, the controller 40 sequentially reads from the top left corner in the direction of the scanning line L5 from top to bottom, then moves to the scanning line L6 on the right side, and then scans. The lines L7 and L8 are read out in this order. Thus, as shown in FIG. 18C, an image obtained by rotating the original image by 90 ° to the left can be read.

In the case of rotating by 180 ° and mirror inversion, pixel data of two tiles are first read from the disk device 50 in the order of tile T2 and tile T1 as shown in FIG. 17 (a).

Of the read pixel data, the DMA controller 40 first puts the tile portion 39a on the tile line buffer 39 shown in FIG. 17B into the tile portion 39a as shown in FIG. 17D. Starting from the lower left corner of the line, data is sequentially written from the bottom to the top in the direction of the scanning line L1, then moves to the scanning line L2 on the right side, and then the scanning line L
Pixel data is written in the order of 3, L4. As a result, the pixel data of the tile T2 is rotated 180 ° and mirror-inverted and written. Then, in FIG.
In the tile portion 39b below the tile line buffer 39 shown in (b), as shown in FIG.
Starting from the lower left corner of b, writing is performed from bottom to top in the direction of the scanning line L5, then to the scanning line L6 on the right side, and then the pixel data is written in the order of scanning lines L7 and L8. As a result, the pixel data of the tile T1 is also rotated 180 ° and mirror-inverted and written.

Next, the written pixel data is DMA
As shown in FIG. 17E, the controller 40 sequentially reads from the top left corner in the direction of the scanning line L1 from top to bottom, then moves to the scanning line L2 on the right side, and then scans. The lines L3 and L4 are read out in this order.

Further, as shown in FIG. 17A, the pixel data of two tiles is read from the disk device 50 in the order of tile T4 and tile T3.

Of the read pixel data, as shown in FIG. 17F by the DMA controller 40,
Starting from the lower left corner of the tile portion 39a of the tile line buffer 39, data is sequentially written from bottom to top in the direction of the scanning line L9, then moves to the scanning line L10 on the right side, and then the scanning lines L11 and L12 in order. Pixel data is written.
As a result, the pixel data of the tile T4 is also rotated 180 ° and mirror-inverted and written. continue,
Starting from the lower left corner of the tile portion 39b, the scanning line L13
Is sequentially written from the bottom to the top in the direction of, and then to the scanning line L14 on the right side, and then the pixel data is written in the order of the scanning lines L15 and L16. As a result, the pixel data of the tile T3 is also rotated 180 ° and mirror-inverted and written.

Next, the written pixel data is DMA
As shown in FIG. 17G, the controller 40 sequentially reads from the top left corner in the direction of the scanning line L5 from top to bottom, then moves to the scanning line L6 on the right side, and then scans. The lines L7 and L8 are read out in this order. Thus, as shown in FIG. 17C, the original image can be read out by rotating the original image by 180 ° and inverting the mirror.

As described above, the DMA controller 40
Writes the pixel data to the tile line buffer in the memory 38 while rotating or mirror-reversing the pixel data in units of 90 ° for each tile. At this time, how is the DMA controller 40 processing the pixel data of one tile? A description will be given of whether to rotate or invert the mirror in 90 ° units.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing an array of pixel data for one tile and a write address when writing to the tile line buffer. For example, one tile is now in FIG.
Vertical 512 pixels as shown in (a) (2 ⁹ pixels), horizontal 51
It is assumed that the pixel array consists of 2 pixels (2 ⁹ pixels).
20A, P indicates pixel data of each pixel.

If the DMA controller 40 writes such pixel data in the tile line buffer in the memory 38 in the order shown in FIG.
The controller 40 uses the write address as shown in FIG.
It suffices to generate an address as shown in (c). That is, the write address is made up of a total of 18 bits including the upper 9 bits and the lower 9 bits, of which the upper 9 bits correspond to the column address of FIG. 20A and the lower 9 bits correspond to the row address. It will be. For example, in the write address for the pixel data P ₁ and ₅₁₂ , the upper 9 bits are all “1” and the lower 9 bits are all “0”.

To generate such a write address, an address counter as shown in FIG. 20 (c) may be used. In this address counter, all “0” is set as an initial value to an upper bit address counter 60 that generates an upper 9-bit address and a lower bit address counter 62 that generates a lower 9-bit address. Clock (C
LK) is given to count up, and a carry (CARRY) of the lower bit address counter 62 is given to the higher bit address counter 60 to count up.

Now, based on the above, in order to rotate or mirror-invert the pixel data of one tile in 90 ° units and write it in the tile line buffer in the memory 38, the following is performed in the DMA controller 40. A write address may be generated using an address counter as described below.

FIG. 21 and FIG. 22 are configuration diagrams showing an example of the configuration of the address counter used when writing the pixel data of one tile in units of 90 ° or mirror inversion and writing it in the tile line buffer. Of these, FIG.
(A) shows the address counter in the case of writing the pixel data of one tile by rotating it by 0 ° (corresponding to (d) and (f) of FIG. 12), and FIG. 21 (b) shows the writing order at that time. ing.

For the sake of easy understanding of the writing order, only the "4" column is shown. The numbers in the high-order bit address counter 60 and the low-order bit address counter 62 represent initial values. These are shown in FIGS. 21 (c) to (h) and FIG.
The same applies to (a) to (h).

Since the address counter shown in FIG. 21A has the same structure as the address counter shown in FIG. 20C, description thereof will be omitted. FIG. 21C shows an address counter in the case where one tile of pixel data is written by being rotated by 0 ° and mirror-inverted (corresponding to (d) and (f) in FIG. 13), and FIG. The write order is shown. In this address counter, all "1" is set as the initial value in the high-order bit address counter 60,
All "0" is set in the lower bit address counter 62 as an initial value. A clock (CLK) is given to the lower bit address counter 62 to count up, and a carry (CARRY) of the lower bit address counter 62 is given to the upper bit address counter 60 to count down.

By generating a write address by using such an address counter, the pixel data starts from the upper right corner as shown in FIG.
Writing is performed sequentially from the top to the bottom in the direction of 1, then to the scanning line L2 on the left side, and then the scanning lines L3 and L4 are written in that order.

FIG. 21E shows the case where the pixel data for one tile is rotated 90 ° to the right for writing ((d) in FIG. 14,
21 shows an address counter (corresponding to (f)).
(F) shows the writing order at that time. In this address counter, the high-order bit address counter 60
Are all set to "1" as initial values, and the lower bit address counter 62 is set to all "0" as initial values. Then, a clock (CLK) is given to the upper bit address counter 60 to count down, and a borrow (BORROW) of the higher bit address counter 60 is given to the lower bit address counter 62 to count up.

By generating a write address using such an address counter, the pixel data starts from the upper right corner as shown in FIG.
Data is sequentially written from right to left in the direction of 1, then to the lower scanning line L2, and then the scanning lines L3 and L4 are written in this order.

FIG. 21 (g) shows the address counter in the case where the pixel data for one tile is rotated 90 ° to the right and mirror-inverted and written (corresponding to (d) and (f) in FIG. 15). (H) shows the writing order at that time. In this address counter, the upper bit address counter 60 and the lower bit address counter 62 are all set to "0" as initial values. And
Clock (CLK) in the upper bit address counter 60
To carry out up-counting, and the lower-bit address counter 62 is given a carry of the upper-bit address counter 60 (CARRY) to up-count.

By generating a write address by using such an address counter, the pixel data starts from the upper left corner as shown in FIG.
Writing is performed sequentially from left to right in the direction of 1, then to the lower scanning line L2, and then writing is performed in the order of scanning lines L3 and L4.

In FIG. 22A, pixel data for one tile is set to 1
When writing by rotating 80 degrees ((d) of FIG. 16,
22 shows an address counter (corresponding to (f)).
(B) shows the writing order at that time. In this address counter, the high-order bit address counter 60
And all the lower bit address counters 62 are set to "1" as initial values. Then, a clock (CLK) is applied to the lower bit address counter 62 to down-count, and the upper bit address counter 60 has a borrow (BORRO) of the lower bit address counter 62.
W) is given to down count.

By generating a write address by using such an address counter, the pixel data starts from the lower right corner as shown in FIG.
Writing is performed sequentially from the bottom to the top in the direction of 1, then to the scanning line L2 on the left side, and then the scanning lines L3 and L4 are written in this order.

In FIG. 22C, pixel data for one tile is set to 1
The address counter in the case of writing by rotating by 80 ° and mirror inversion (corresponding to (d) and (f) in FIG. 17) is shown, and FIG. 22 (d) shows the writing order at that time. In this address counter, the upper bit address counter 60 is set to all "0" as an initial value, and the lower bit address counter 62 is set to all "1" as an initial value. Then, a clock (CLK) is given to the lower bit address counter 62 to count down, and a borrow (BORROW) of the lower bit address counter 62 is given to the higher bit address counter 60 to count up.

By generating a write address by using such an address counter, the pixel data starts from the lower left corner as shown in FIG.
Data is sequentially written from the bottom to the top in the direction of 1, then to the scanning line L2 on the right side, and then the scanning lines L3 and L4 are written in this order.

FIG. 22E shows the case where the pixel data of one tile is written by rotating it 90 degrees to the left ((d) of FIG. 18,
22 shows an address counter (corresponding to (f)).
(F) shows the writing order at that time. In this address counter, the high-order bit address counter 60
Are all set to "0" as initial values, and the lower bit address counter 62 is set to all "1" as initial values. A clock (CLK) is given to the upper bit address counter 60 to count up, and a carry (CARRY) of the upper bit address counter 60 is given to the lower bit address counter 62 to down count.

By generating the write address by using such an address counter, the pixel data starts from the lower left corner as shown in FIG.
Writing is performed sequentially from left to right in the direction of 1, then to the upper scanning line L2, and then writing is performed in the order of scanning lines L3 and L4.

FIG. 22G shows the address counter in the case where the pixel data of one tile is rotated 90 ° to the left and mirror-inverted and written (corresponding to (d) and (f) in FIG. 19). (H) shows the writing order at that time. In this address counter, the upper bit address counter 60 and the lower bit address counter 62 are all set to "1" as initial values. And
Clock (CLK) in the upper bit address counter 60
Is given to down count, and the lower bit address counter 62 is given a borrow of the upper bit address counter 60 (BORROW) to down count.

By generating a write address using such an address counter, the pixel data starts from the lower right corner as shown in FIG.
The data is sequentially written from right to left in the direction of 1, then moves to the upper scanning line L2, and then is written in the order of the scanning lines L3 and L4.

By using the address counter as described above in the DMA controller 40,
The pixel data of one tile can be rotated or mirror-inverted in 90 ° units and written in the tile line buffer in the memory 38.

Next, the case where the specified area of the image is cut out as the image conversion will be described. When cutting out a designated area, that is, when cutting out pixel data in the designated area, the plate-making processing workstation 5
The position of the area to be cut out is designated in advance by 2 and cutting is performed according to the position information (cutout position information). This cut-out position information is included in the contents of the image conversion received from the plate-making processing workstation 52.

FIG. 23 is a flow chart showing an operation procedure for cutting out a designated area of an image. FIG. 23
9 are used in place of steps 6 and 7 in FIG.

When the newly created format information is transferred to the plate-making processing workstation 52 (step 5 in FIG. 23), the CPU 32 determines the cut-out position information included in the content of the image conversion received from the plate-making processing workstation 52. , Based on the storage position information detected from the CPU memory 34, the pixel data of all tiles including the area to be cut out is sequentially read from the disk device 50 (step 6a in FIG. 23).

At this time, the CPU 32 writes / writes in the DMA controller 40 based on the cut-out position information.
Issue a read instruction. The DMA controller 40 sequentially writes the pixel data read from the disk device 50 into the tile line buffer in the memory 38 (step 7a in FIG. 23). Then, of the written pixel data,
Only the pixel data of the area to be cut out is sequentially read (step 7b in FIG. 23) and transferred to the plate-making processing workstation 52 (step 8 in FIG. 23).

Here, how the CPU 32 obtains pixel data of a tile including an area to be cut out based on the cut-out position information received from the plate-making processing workstation 52 will be described.

FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram for explaining how to obtain pixel data of a tile including an area to be cut out.
For example, as shown in FIG. 24A, the pixel data G of one image is composed of a pixel array of 2560 pixels in the vertical direction and 2560 pixels in the horizontal direction, and an area A (shaded portion) to be cut out is Consider a case where the pixel P1, P2, P3, P4 is a rectangle having four corner points. In addition,
The position of a pixel is represented as (x, y) when the pixel is located at the x-th pixel downward and the y-th pixel rightward with the upper left corner as the origin.

Now, the four corner points of the area A to be cut out, that is, the positions of the pixels P1, P2, P3, and P4 are (600, 700), (1200, 700), and (6), respectively.
00, 1700) and (1200, 1700).

On the other hand, if one tile is composed of a pixel array of 512 pixels in the vertical direction and 512 pixels in the horizontal direction as shown in FIG. 24A, the pixel data G is composed of 5 tiles in the vertical direction and 5 tiles in the horizontal direction. , The tiles are arranged as shown in FIG.

Here, the tile T (X, Y) including the pixel located at (x, y) can be obtained by the following equation. X = INT (x / 512 + 1), Y = INT (y / 512 + 1) ... Equation 1 However, INT shows the value of the integer part in ().

Therefore, since the pixel P1 is located at (600,700), the tile containing the pixel P1 is T (2,2), and the pixel P2 is located at (1200,700), so the tile containing the pixel P2 is T (3,2). Since the pixel P3 is located at (600,1700), the tile including the pixel P3 is T (2,4), and the pixel P4 is (120
The tile containing pixel P4 is T (3,4) since it is located at 0,1700).

The tiles including the area A include the four tiles obtained as described above, the tiles T (2,2) and the tiles T (2,4), and the tile T (3,3). The tiles existing between 2) and the tile T (3, 4) are also included.

Here, the tile between the tile T (X1, Y1) and the tile T (X1, Y2) can be expressed as T (X1, Y3) [where Y3 is an integer from Y1 + 1 to Y2-1]. Yes, tile T (X1, Y1) and tile T
The tile between (X2, Y1) can be represented as T (X3, Y1) [where X3 is an integer from X1 + 1 to X2-1].

Therefore, the tile T (2,2) and the tile T
The tile between (2,4) is T (2,3) and the tile between tiles T (3,2) and T (3,4) is T.
(3,3).

Therefore, the tiles including the area A to be cut out are T (2,2), T (3,2), T (2,3), T.
The six tiles are (3,3), T (2,4), and T (3,4).

If the tiles shown in FIG. 24 (b) are represented as tiles with serial numbers, the tiles shown in FIG.
As shown in (c). That is, tile T (X,
With respect to Y), since the number of tiles in the vertical direction is 5, the tiles TZ with consecutive numbers are obtained by the following formula. Z = X + (Y-1) × 5 Equation 2

Therefore, the tiles including the above-mentioned area A to be cut out are numbered consecutively (see FIG. 24).
(Tile shown in (c)), T7, T8, T
12, T13, T17, T18.

On the other hand, from the storage position information detected from the CPU memory 34, as shown in FIG. 7, for tiles with consecutive numbers, the block number in which the pixel data of the tile is written is obtained. Therefore, tile T
With respect to the pixel data of 7, T8, T12, T13, T17, and T18, the number of the written block can be obtained, respectively, and as a result, the pixel data can be read from the disk device 50.

In this way, the pixel data read from the disk device 50 is transferred to the DMA controller 4 as described above.
0 writes to the tile line buffer in memory 38. Then, of the written pixel data, only the pixel data of the area A to be cut out is read out.

Next, how the DMA controller 40 reads out only the pixel data of the area A to be cut out from the tile line buffer will be described.

FIG. 25 is an explanatory diagram showing an array of pixel data of the tile T (2,2) and a read address when reading from the tile line buffer. For example, now memory 3
If the pixel data of the tile T (2,2) shown in FIG. 24B is written in the tile line buffer in FIG. 8, the pixel data array becomes as shown in FIG. There is. Note that, in FIG. 25A, P indicates pixel data of each pixel.

At this time, the pixel P1 shown in FIG.
The position of is (600, 70) in the pixel data G of one image.
Although it was 0), it becomes (88,188) in the pixel data of tile T (2,2). That is, the pixel located at (x, y) in the pixel data G of one image shown in FIG. 24A has the following position (α, β) in the pixel data of the tile T (X, Y). This is because it is expressed as an equation. α = x− (X−1) × 512, β = y− (Y−1) × 512 ...

Therefore, the pixel data of the pixel P1 located at (88, 188) is P ₈₈ , as shown in FIG.
It will be ₁₈₈ . The pixel data corresponding to the area A to be cut out shown in FIG. 24A is tile T (2, 2).
Then, as shown in FIG. 25A, pixel data P ₈₈ ,
_This corresponds to the pixel data in the shaded area including ₁₈₈ .

Therefore, DM the pixel data of the shaded area.
When the A controller 40 reads from the tile line buffer in the memory 38, the DMA controller 40 operates as shown in FIG.
An address counter as shown in FIG. 5 (b) is used to generate an address as shown in the figure as a read address. The read address is composed of upper 9 bits and lower 9 bits, ie, 18 bits in total. Of these, the upper 9 bits correspond to the column address in FIG. 25A and the lower 9 bits correspond to the row address. . The upper 9-bit address is the upper bit address counter 64, and the lower 9-bit address is the lower bit address counter 6
6 occurs respectively.

That is, in the address counter shown in FIG. 25B, first, in order to read the pixel data P ₈₈ , ₁₈₈ , the value J corresponding to the row address "88" is set as the initial value in the upper bit address counter 64. The value K corresponding to the column address “188” is set in the lower bit address counter 66 as an initial value. Then, in order to read the pixel data in the order of P ₈₉ , ₁₈₈ , P ₉₀ , ₁₈₈ , ...
Give K) to count up.

After that, the pixel data P ₅₁₂ and ₁₈₈ are read out and stored in the lower bit address counter 66 (CAR).
When RY) occurs, the carry is given to the upper bit address counter 64 to count up. At the same time when this carry occurs, the low-order bit address counter 66 is again initialized with the column address "188".
The value K corresponding to is set. As a result, the pixel data P
_{Following 512} and ₁₈₈ , pixel data P ₈₈ and ₁₅₉ are read.

Thereafter, similarly, the lower bit address counter 66 is up-counted by the clock (CLK), and every time a carry occurs in the lower bit address counter 66, the carry is given to the upper bit address counter 64 to count up. At the same time, the lower bit address counter 66 is set to the value K as an initial value.

In this way, by generating the read address as shown in FIG. 25B, the DMA controller 40 causes the pixel data of the area A to be cut out of the pixel data written in the tile line buffer. Only can be read.

Next, a brief description will be given of the case where image conversion is required as image conversion. When performing a conversion that requires image calculation, the disk device 50 to 1
The pixel data read out tile by tile is written in the tile line buffer in the memory 38 by the DMA controller 40, read out, and transferred to the image calculation unit 36 by the CPU 32. The transferred pixel data is subjected to a desired image calculation such as local calculation in the image calculation unit 36, and then the CPU 4 executes the interface 4 operation.
6 to the plate making processing workstation 52.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
The plate-making processing workstation 52 simply gives the image filing apparatus 30 a read command, an image file name to be read, and the contents of image conversion to be performed at the time of reading. From 30, the image data corresponding to the image file name is subjected to the designated image conversion and transferred. Therefore, since all the image conversion processing is performed in the image filing apparatus 30, the CPU in the plate-making processing workstation 52 does not have to execute the image conversion processing by itself, and the CP in the plate-making processing workstation 52 does not need to be executed.
The processing load on U can be reduced. In particular, the image 9
Conventionally, the CPU in the plate-making processing workstation 52 has performed all the image conversion processing such as rotation in 0 ° units, mirror reversal of the image, and clipping of the designated area of the image. The image filing device 30 will do this.

Further, since all the image conversion processing is performed in the image filing apparatus 30 as described above, it is not necessary for the main memory in the plate-making processing workstation 52 to store image data at the time of image conversion. During the conversion, the main memory in the plate-making processing workstation 52 can be used for other purposes, and the utilization efficiency of the main memory can be improved.

In the present embodiment, when the image is rotated by 90 ° or mirror inversion is performed as the image conversion, when the pixel data is written in the tile line buffer in the memory 38, the image is rotated in 90 ° units. Since the mirror inversion is performed and the processing of rotating the image in 90 ° units or mirror inversion and the processing of writing the pixel data to the tile line buffer are performed at the same time, the overall processing time is reduced compared to the conventional case. It can be shortened. In addition, since the image is rotated in 90 ° units or mirror-inverted for each tile, the image data of one image stored in the main memory of the plate-making processing workstation can be displayed as in the conventional image processing. Rotation or mirror reversal of an image in 90 ° units can be performed by a simpler process compared to the case of rotating or mirror reversal in 90 ° units.

Further, in the present embodiment, when cutting out the designated area as the image conversion, when the pixel data is read out mainly from the tile line buffer in the memory 38, the pixel data in the designated area is cut out. Since the process of cutting out the designated area and the process of reading the pixel data from the tile line buffer are performed at the same time, the overall processing time can be shortened as compared with the related art. Further, since only the data corresponding to the tile including the designated area is read from the disk device 50 and written in the tile line buffer in the memory 38, image data for one image is transferred from the disk device as in the conventional case. Compared with the case of reading and writing to the main memory in the plate-making processing workstation, the time required for writing / reading is shorter, and the area of the tile line buffer secured in the memory 38 is smaller.

Further, in this embodiment, a memory area of a desired size is secured in advance as a tile line buffer in the memory 38, and tile-divided pixel data is written in the tile line buffer. , The memory area other than the tile line buffer in the memory 38 can be effectively used for other purposes.

By the way, when writing image data, the form of pixel data transferred from the plate-making processing workstation 52 includes a pack form and an unpack form. FIG. 26 is an explanatory diagram showing packed pixel data and unpacked pixel data. FIG. 26
Each of the pixel data shown in (a) and (b) is pixel data in which one pixel is composed of 8-bit R, B, and G data. Here, when the pixel data of one pixel is not separated at the boundary of a longword (4 bytes = 32 bits), the packed pixel data is packed so that there is no gap as shown in FIG. Pixel data. Further, the unpacked pixel data means, as shown in FIG.
Pixel data in which pixel data of one pixel is separated by a boundary that is an integral multiple of a longword.

As described above, there are two types of pixel data transferred from the plate-making processing workstation 52. To tile the pixel data in the tile line buffer in the memory 38, one pixel is used. The unpacked pixel data in which the pixel data in (1) are separated by a boundary that is an integer multiple of the longword is more suitable. Therefore, when it is desired that the pixel data written in the tile line buffer always be the unpacked pixel data, a data form conversion circuit is provided between the CPU bus and the memory 38.

FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing a specific example of the data form conversion circuit provided between the CPU bus and the memory 38. As shown in FIG. 27, the data form conversion circuit 70
Includes a selector 72, two buffers 74 and 76, and a barrel shifter 78.

The data form conversion circuit 70 is controlled by the DMA controller 40, and when packed form pixel data is input from the plate-making processing workstation 52 through the CPU bus, the pixel form data is converted into unpacked form pixel data. The data is converted and output to the tile line buffer in the memory 38.

That is, 32 as shown in FIG.
When bit-packed pixel data is input from the CPU bus, the selector 72 stores the pixel data in the buffer 7
Alternate to 4 and 76. Then, the buffers 74 and 76 temporarily store the sorted pixel data and then transfer the pixel data to the barrel shifter 78. The barrel shifter 78 is a shift register capable of cyclically shifting data, and stores 64-bit total pixel data transferred from the buffers 74 and 76 in 64-bit unpacked form as shown in FIG. Shift to pixel data,
Output to the tile line buffer in the memory 38. In this way, the pixel data written in the tile line buffer can always be the unpacked pixel data.

In the embodiment described above, the tile line buffer secured in the memory 38 has a single buffer structure. However, this has a double buffer structure, and writing to the tile line buffer and writing from the tile line buffer are performed. It is also possible to be able to read the data at the same time.

The processing for writing / reading the pixel data to / from the memory 38 is performed by the DMA controller 40. However, if the processing load is not so heavy, the CPU 32 may perform the processing itself.

[0152]

As described above, according to claim 1 or 8,
According to the invention described in (1), the plate-making processing device only specifies the image data to be read and instructs the image conversion to be performed. Will be transferred.
Therefore, since the CPU in the plate-making processing apparatus does not have to execute the image conversion processing by itself, the processing load on the CPU in the plate-making processing apparatus can be reduced. Further, since the main memory in the plate-making processing apparatus does not need to store image data when converting the image, it is possible to improve the utilization efficiency of the main memory in the plate-making processing apparatus.

According to the invention described in claim 2, 3, 7, 9 or 10, the plate making processing device designates the image data to be read, and the image conversion to be performed is performed by rotating the image in 90 ° units or By simply instructing to perform mirror inversion or cutting out of a designated area, the image filing device transfers the image data subjected to the instructed image conversion to the plate making processing device. Therefore, the CPU in the plate-making processing apparatus does not have to execute image conversion processing such as rotation of the image in 90 ° units, mirror reversal, or clipping of the designated area by itself.
The processing load of can be reduced. Further, since the main memory in the plate-making processing apparatus does not need to store image data in the image conversion, it is possible to improve the utilization efficiency of the main memory in the plate-making processing apparatus.

Further, in the invention described in claim 2, 7 or 9, since the processing of rotating or mirror reversing the image in units of 90 ° and the processing of writing the image data in the storage means are simultaneously performed, The overall processing time can be shortened compared to. Also in the invention according to claim 3 or 10, since the process of cutting out the designated area and the process of reading the image data from the storage means are performed at the same time, the overall processing time can be shortened as compared with the conventional case. You can

Further, in the invention described in claim 4, in addition to the same effect as in the invention described in claim 2, rotation of the image in 90 ° units or mirror inversion is executed for each tile. Therefore, as compared with the conventional case where the image data for one image stored in the main memory in the plate making apparatus is rotated in 90 ° units or mirror-inverted, a simpler process is performed. The image can be rotated by 90 ° or mirror-inverted.

In addition, according to the invention described in claim 5, in addition to the effect similar to that of the invention described in claim 3, only the data corresponding to the tile including the designated area is stored in the image data storage device. The time required for writing / reading is greater than that in the case of reading the image data for one image from the image data storage device and writing the image data in the main memory in the plate-making processing device, as is the case with the prior art. And a memory area for storing image data in the storage means is small.

According to the invention described in claim 6, in addition to the same effect as in the invention described in claim 4 or 5, a memory area of a desired size is secured in the storage means in advance as a tile line buffer. Since the image data is written in the tile line buffer, the memory area other than the tile line buffer in the storage means can be effectively used for other purposes.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image filing device as an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure at the time of writing image data in FIG.

3 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing a configuration of image data transferred from the plate-making processing workstation 52 of FIG. 1 to an image filing device 30. FIG.

4 is an explanatory diagram showing a correspondence relationship between blocks and sectors in the disk device 50 of FIG. 1. FIG.

5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a usage status of each block in the disk device of FIG. 1 and a usage flag at that time.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data with respect to a tile line buffer.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a usage status of each block in the disk device 50 and an outline of storage contents of a block of an information area.

8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a management file stored in the system disk device 48 of FIG. 1. FIG.

9 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure at the time of reading the image data in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure in the case of rotating an image in 90 ° units and mirror inversion.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an image obtained by rotating a certain image in units of 90 ° or mirror inversion.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data with respect to a tile line buffer when an image is rotated by 0 °.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data with respect to a tile line buffer when an image is rotated by 0 ° and mirror-inverted.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data with respect to a tile line buffer when an image is rotated 90 ° to the right.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data to and from a tile line buffer when an image is rotated 90 ° to the right and mirror-inverted.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data with respect to a tile line buffer when an image is rotated by 180 °.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data with respect to a tile line buffer when an image is rotated 180 ° and mirror-inverted.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data with respect to a tile line buffer when an image is rotated 90 ° to the left.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an operation of writing and reading pixel data with respect to a tile line buffer when an image is rotated 90 ° to the left and mirror-inverted.

FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing an array of pixel data of one tile and a write address when writing to a tile line buffer.

FIG. 21 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration example of an address counter used when writing pixel data of one tile in units of 90 ° or mirror inversion and writing the tile data in a tile line buffer;

FIG. 22 is a configuration diagram showing a configuration example of an address counter used for writing pixel data of one tile in 90 ° units or mirror-inverted data in a tile line buffer.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure for cutting out a designated area of an image.

FIG. 24 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a method of obtaining pixel data of a tile including an area to be cut out.

25 is an explanatory diagram showing an array of pixel data of the tile T (2,2) of FIG. 24 and a read address when reading from the tile line buffer.

FIG. 26 is an explanatory diagram showing pixel data in a packed form and pixel data in an unpacked form.

27 is a block diagram showing a specific example of a data form conversion circuit provided between the CPU bus and the memory 38. FIG.

FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing a main part of a conventional plate making processing system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 30 ... Image filing device 32 ... CPU 34 ... CPU memory 36 ... Image calculation unit 38 ... Memory 39 ... Tile line buffer 40 ... DMA controller 42, 44, 46 ... Interface 48 ... System disk device 50 ... Disk device 52 ... Plate making work Station 60 ... High-order bit address counter 62 ... Low-order bit address counter 64 ... High-order bit address counter 66 ... Low-order bit address counter 70 ... Data form conversion circuit 72 ... Selector 74, 76 ... Buffer 78 ... Barrel shifter 100 ... Image 102 ... Image data 104 Format information section 106 Pixel data section 500 Prepress processing workstation 502 CPU 504 Main memory 506 Network interface 508 CRT interface Scan 510 ... input interface 512 ... disk interface 514 ... image input interface 516 ... image output interface 518 ... bus expansion interface 522 ... keyboard and mouse 524 ... disk device 526 ... input scanner 528 ... output scanner 530 ... Accelerator 532 ... network

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Office reference number FI Technical display location G06T 3/00 G06F 15/64 450 E 15/66 345

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An image filing device for reading desired image data from an image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transferring the image data to a plate making processing device, the image filing device including a plurality of stored image data. Means for reading the image data designated by the plate-making processing device from the image data storage device, means for applying the image conversion instructed by the plate-making processing device to the read image data, and image conversion An image filing apparatus comprising: a unit that transfers the image data to the plate making processing apparatus. 2. An image filing device for reading desired image data from an image data storage device in which a plurality of image data is stored and transferring the image data to a plate making processing device, the control device comprising: a control device, a storage device; A second interface unit is provided, and the control unit stores image data designated by the plate making processing device from the plurality of stored image data from the image data storage device as the first image data. The image data read out through the interface means is stored in the storage means so that the image related to the image data is rotated by 90 ° or mirror-inverted according to an instruction from the plate making processing device. The written image data is read out from the storage means and is transferred to the plate-making processing apparatus by the second input. Image filing apparatus for causing transferred through face means. 3. An image filing device for reading desired image data from an image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transferring the image data to a plate making processing device, the control device comprising: a control means, a storage means; A second interface unit is provided, and the control unit stores image data designated by the plate making processing device from the plurality of stored image data from the image data storage device as the first image data. Of the image data read out through the interface means, written in the storage means, and written, data of a portion corresponding to an area designated by the plate making processing device is read from the storage means and is made to the plate making processing device. An image filing device, characterized in that it is transferred via a second interface means. 4. The image filing device according to claim 2, wherein each of the plurality of image data stored in the image data storage device has an image related to the image data divided into a plurality of tiles. In addition to being stored in a state, the control means reads out the designated image data from the image data storage device in a unit corresponding to the tile, and rotates in a unit of 90 ° for each tile or a mirror. An image filing device, characterized in that writing is performed in the storage means so as to be in an inverted state. 5. The image filing device according to claim 3, wherein each of the plurality of image data stored in the image data storage device has an image related to the image data divided into a plurality of tiles. While being stored in a state, the control unit reads, from the image data storage device, data corresponding to a tile including the designated area in the designated image data, and writes the data in the storage unit, An image filing apparatus, characterized in that, of the written data, data of a portion corresponding to the designated area is read from the storage means. 6. The image filing device according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the control unit preliminarily stores an area in the storage unit in which a desired number of tiles of image data can be stored in a tile line buffer. And writing the image data in the storage means, the image filing apparatus is written in the secured tile line buffer. 7. The image filing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the control unit controls a write address when the image data is written in the storage unit, so that an image related to the image data is in units of 90 °. An image filing device characterized in that the image filing device is adapted to be rotated or mirror-inverted. 8. An image data transfer method for reading desired image data from an image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transferring the image data to a plate making processing device, wherein the image data to be read by the plate making processing device. And instructing the image conversion to be performed on the image data, reading the specified image data from the plurality of stored image data from the image data storage device, An image data transfer method comprising: a step of performing the image conversion instructed on the image data; and a step of transferring the image data subjected to the image conversion to the plate making processing apparatus. 9. An image data transfer method for reading desired image data from an image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transferring the read image data to a plate making processing device, wherein the image data to be read by the plate making processing device. And instructing the execution of rotation or mirror inversion of the image of the image data in 90 ° units as image conversion to be performed on the image data, among the plurality of stored image data. A step of reading the designated image data from the image data storage device, and a state in which the read image data is rotated in 90 ° units or mirror-inverted according to an instruction from the plate making processing device. So that the written pixel data is written in the storage means from the storage means. Image data transfer method characterized by comprising the steps of: transferring the plate-making process unit out look, a. 10. An image data transfer method for reading desired image data from an image data storage device storing a plurality of image data and transferring the read image data to a plate making processing device, wherein the image data to be read by the plate making processing device. And instructing execution of clipping as image conversion to be performed on the image data, and designating an area to be clipped, the image data designated from a plurality of stored image data A step of reading the image data from the image data storage device; a step of writing the read image data into a storage means; and a step of reading the data of a portion of the written image data corresponding to a designated area from the storage means And a step of transferring the image data to the image data transfer method.