JPH089137A - Image editing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the edit job efficiency by adding information to identify picture elements to each picture element in addition to picture element data and storing the resulting information to a display image memory to use the content of the memory for the write to an image device. CONSTITUTION:Image data read by an image reader 1 are stored in an image storage device 2 while being stored in three different areas based on three elements of one picture element such as three primary colors R, G, B or lightness, saturation and color difference. Part of data are received from the device 2 is stored in a display memory 4 to edit the image data of the device 2. The operator uses an image editing device 6 to edit the content of the memory 4 and writes the result to the device 2 and used a printer 3 to print out the data. The memory 4 has three cells per one picture element corresponding to the three areas of the device 2 and has a flag as a 4th cell. When the content of the memory 4 is written in the device 2, the content of the flag is checked and image data as to picture elements subject to change as the result of edit are transferred.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image editing apparatus capable of shortening the transfer / write time of image edited image data to a memory.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional image editing apparatus, a part or all of an image once read into an image storage device is read into a display image memory device or a device in which a display image memory device and an editing device are combined, After the contents are displayed and edited on the device, the entire contents of the display memory device are again transferred to the storage device and written out, and then the image data is subjected to processing such as printing. In the invention of JP-A-2-295343, the following method is considered. That is, only the thinned information is transferred to the display device, and the display device side collects only the editing instruction as a result of editing using the thinned image. After that, only this editing instruction is transferred to the image storage device side, and after editing the actual image for the first time,
Processing such as printing is performed.

[0003]

In the conventional image editing apparatus, there is no means for distinguishing the edited image from the image data not read out of the image data read into the display image memory device, so that the editing operation is completed. Then, when the image data is written from the display image memory to the image storage device, it is necessary to write all the image data stored in the display image memory device. Therefore, it takes a considerable amount of time to finish editing and return the result to the original storage device. This is a more significant drawback when the display image memory device and the storage device are independent devices and are operating remotely, because the data transfer speed between the two devices is limited. In addition, even when the capacity of the display image memory device is smaller than the capacity of the storage device and the entire image is divided into a plurality of times for editing, a time-consuming transfer is performed by the number of divisions. Therefore, the operability as an editing device is adversely affected. On the other hand, the above-mentioned JP-A-2
According to the method of the invention of -295343, it is difficult to realize different color conversion for each pixel because only the editing instruction for a certain grouped area can be given. Even if the inefficiency is ignored, the transfer time is exactly the same as when editing the entire image by dividing it into multiple times as described above, but no method has been proposed to reduce this. . The present invention is intended to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image editing / recording apparatus capable of improving the efficiency of editing work.

[0004]

In the conventional image editing apparatus, the present invention stores the image data in the display image memory device when the image data is written from the display image memory to the image storage device after the editing work is completed. All of the image data that has to be written must be written, and it took a considerable amount of time to finish editing and return the result to the original storage device. A storage device, and a display image memory for reading a part or all of the image data stored in the image storage device and sending it to a display device,
An editing device for editing the contents of the display image memory is provided, and in addition to the pixel data, information for identifying the pixel changed by the editing device is added to the display image memory for each pixel and edited. The writing of the contents of the display image memory to the image storage device is performed by using the added information.

[0005]

According to the present invention, additional information of 1 bit or more is added to each pixel of the image data read into the display image memory,
It is used as a flag to clearly indicate whether or not the pixel has been changed as an object to be edited. The display image memory device includes a storage cell necessary for storing the image data read from the image storage device, and means for storing at least 1 bit of additional information for each pixel. When the content of the image memory is edited, if the data representing the original pixel is converted as a result of the editing, the fact that it has changed by using this additional information is stored. And
When the content of the display image memory device in which a part of the image data is edited is written again in the image storage device, the additional information is used. As the transfer / writing method in this case, only the pixels judged to have been changed by the image editing are carried out, or the image editing is usually carried out on a certain area, so that the pixels judged to have been changed by the image editing. A certain area including
Alternatively, such an area may be divided into several parts. By such transfer / writing, the number of times of data transfer and the amount of data transfer between the display image memory device and the image storage device can be reduced, so that the time required for writing can be shortened.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. In the example of FIG. 1, the image data read by the image reading device 1 has three elements per pixel in the image storage device 2, for example, values of three primary colors of R, G, B, or brightness, saturation, It is assumed that the color difference values are divided and stored in three different areas. In order to edit the image data in this storage device, it is assumed that a part of the data is read from the storage device 2 and read into the display image memory 4.
The display device 5 displays the contents of this image memory so that it can be seen by the operator. The operator edits the contents of the display image memory 4 using the image editing device 6, and writes the contents into the storage device 2 when the editing is completed. This is repeated until the target image is completely edited, and then the printing device 3 prints.

The display image memory 4 has not only three cells per pixel corresponding to the three areas of the image storage device 2, but also an edit flag as a fourth cell, as shown in FIG. Shall have. The information stored in the edit flag is not sent to the display device, but is used to store the change when the image data of the corresponding pixel is changed by the edit device. When the content of the display image memory 4 is written in the storage device 2, the content of the edit flag is inspected and the image data is transferred only to the pixel changed as a result of the edit. If a large number of pixels that have changed as a result of editing are isolated, the number of transfers will increase if they are transferred in pixel units. In such a case, the pixels that have changed as a result of editing are transferred together. To do so. Further, since image editing is usually performed on a certain area in many cases, a certain area including pixels changed as a result of editing may be collectively transferred / written. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, if the hatched area E shown in the figure is edited with respect to the image edit data 10, the data of the rectangular area R including the area E is transferred. Alternatively, the region R may be divided into bands in units of 10 dots and transferred sequentially.

[0008]

As described above, according to the present invention, the amount of data to be written from the display image memory to the image storage device can be reduced, so that the time required for transfer can be shortened, and as a result, the image can be displayed. The working efficiency of the entire editing device can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a display image memory.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a method of transferring edited pixels.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Image reading device, 2 ... Image storage device, 3 ... Printing device, 4 ... Display image memory, 5 ... Display device, 6 ... Editing device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image storage device for storing image data, a display image memory for reading a part or all of the image data stored in the image storage device and sending it to a display device, and contents of the display image memory. The content of the display image memory edited by adding an editing device for editing, and for each pixel, information for identifying the pixel changed by the editing device is added to the display image memory in addition to the pixel data. The image editing apparatus is characterized in that the writing to the image storage device is performed using the added information.