JPH07320041A - Color image printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the processing speed by eliminating repetitive processing in an image processing. CONSTITUTION:For image processing wherein a host computer 1 converts original color image data into printable color image data and transfers the converted data to a printer 2, image data which are processed by at least some of image processing means 11-13 are converted by an intermediate file generation part 15 into an intermediate file, which is stored in a file storage part 16. To print the same image data on plural sheets of paper, the intermediate file stored in the file storage part 16 is transferred to the printer. Conseqeuntly, the reprocessing of image processing means is eliminated to shorten the time up to printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color image printing system for converting original color image data generated by a host device into printable color image data and outputting the same from a print output means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art CAD data generated by a CAD system, image data read by an image scanner, etc. are a set of drawing commands for a plotter,
Since these are compressed raster data, it is necessary to convert the data format to a printable format when outputting them with a raster printer or the like. In particular, in the case of printing a color image, the color image data on the host computer is based on the three primary colors of RGB, and the image data output by the printer is CMYK ink colors. Image processing such as color correction is required. Further, when printing out a full-color image, gradation processing is required to obtain a pseudo full-color image.

[0003]

In the conventional color image printing system described above, when the same color image data as the color image data output through the image processing is printed again, it is necessary to take the same steps again. There is a problem in that processing takes time.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a color image printing system capable of improving the processing speed by omitting the overlapping processing of the image processing. To do.

[0005]

A color image printing system according to the present invention includes a host device having an image processing means for converting original color image data to be printed out into printing color image data for printing out. In the color image printing system including a print output unit that prints out the color image data for printing processed by the image processing unit of the host device, the host device performs at least a part of the processing of the image processing unit. A file generating means for converting the image data obtained through the above process into a file for storage and a file storing means for storing the file generated by the file generating means are provided, and the same image data is transferred to the print output means again. Directly or by processing the processed image data stored in the file storage means. Characterized in that it is intended to be transferred to the print output unit performs the rest of the image processing.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in the image processing for converting the original color image data into printable color image data which can be printed out and transferring it to the print processing means, an image in which at least a part of the processing of the image processing means is finished When data is saved in a file format and the same image data is printed, the saved file is transferred to print output means. As a result, reprocessing in the image processing means can be omitted, and the time until printing can be greatly shortened. Further, generally, the amount of data after image processing is smaller than the amount of data before processing, and therefore the amount of data to be stored and transferred can be reduced by storing and transferring the data after image processing.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a color image printing system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. This system is a host computer 1
And a printer 2 that receives image data from the host computer 1 via, for example, a SCSI interface and performs print processing. The host computer 1 generates original color image data to be printed out. The original color image data includes CAD data created on the system, RGB raster data read and processed by a color image scanner, and the like. In the host computer 1, as a part of the image processing means, for example, a pixel image generation unit 11,
A color matching unit 12 and a gradation processing unit are provided.

The pixel image generating section 11 bit map develops CAD data in the drawing command format, compressed raster data and the like on a memory (not shown) on the host computer 1 to generate a pixel image. The pixel image data is obtained by arranging the color information of each pixel of the image in order from the upper left to the lower right of the image. If one pixel is represented by 24 bits, it represents about 16.7 million kinds of colors. The color matching unit 12 corrects a difference between a numerical color expressed inside the computer and a color actually output by the printer, that is, a slight color shift caused by a characteristic difference between the two devices, and is prepared in advance. Replace the pixel color by referring to the created color matching table with the pixel image data. Gradation processing unit 13
Is for converting a pixel image expressed in full color into a pseudo full color image. For example, a pixel image that looks like a full color by combining eight colors of white, cyan, magenta, yellow, black, red, green and blue. Reconfigure. The gradation processing unit 23 uses a known pattern dither method, error diffusion method, or the like.

The image data obtained through these processes is transferred to the printer 2 via the interface 14 and converted into an intermediate file of a predetermined format by the intermediate file generator 15. This intermediate file is stored in the file storage unit 16. The file storage unit 16 may be an external storage device such as a hard disk device or a solid-state memory such as a semiconductor memory. There are various possible file formats, for example Macintos.
Saving in the PICT file format, which is widely used in h (trademark) graphics and page layout applications, has the advantage of facilitating exchanges and maintenance between applications. Interface 14
Selects either one of the image data subjected to gradation processing by the gradation processing unit 13 and the intermediate file stored in the file storage unit 16 according to the selection signal SEL and outputs it to the printer 2.

The image data transferred to the printer 2 is received by the receiving buffer 22 via the interface 21.
Once stored in the CMYK conversion unit 23, the CMYK conversion unit 23 is supplied. The CMYK conversion unit 23 converts the color of each pixel obtained by the gradation processing unit 13 into four ink colors, cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, which can be output by the printer.
The converted data is output in the form of bitmap data and stored in the bitmap memory 24. When the image data is stored in the bitmap memory 24, the drawing processing unit 25 is activated next, and the printer head such as the ink jet nozzle and the thermal head is driven according to the image data to obtain the print output.

According to the system configured as described above,
When the original color image data is an RGB full-color image having a data amount of 32 bits per pixel, the RGB pseudo full-color image data at the stage when the processing up to the gradation processing unit 13 is completed is the image data of 3 bits per pixel. Therefore, the data size is significantly reduced. Therefore, if the intermediate file generator 15 generates the intermediate file at this stage, the file capacity can be small. Also, the capacity of transfer data is reduced.

When the same image data is copied and printed on a plurality of sheets, the first first sheet is directly transferred to the printer 2 after being processed by the gradation processing 13. At this time,
At the same time, the intermediate file generation unit 15 generates an intermediate file after gradation processing and saves it in the file storage unit 16. Therefore, after the second sheet, the file stored in the file storage unit 16 is transferred to the printer 2. Since the second and subsequent sheets can be immediately transferred to the printer 2 without undergoing pixel image generation, color matching, and gradation processing, the transfer time is greatly shortened.

The switching of the data of the first and second and subsequent sheets can be performed by the selection signal SEL supplied to the interface 14. The selection signal SEL is supplied from the CPU (not shown) of the host computer 1 in the case of multiple copy printing. Further, when the image data once printed is printed again later, a list of files saved in the host computer 1 may be displayed and the file may be selected by the operator's selection operation. If the intermediate file is saved in a general format compatible with many application programs, such as TIFF format or PICT format,
With a general application program, there is an advantage that the contents can be checked, directly printed, and easily modified, for example, by adding characters.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the host computer 1 is also CMY.
The K conversion unit 17 is provided, and the first image data is CM
The image data, for which all the processes up to the YK conversion processing unit 17 have been completed, is transferred to the printer 2, and for the second and subsequent sheets, the intermediate file stored in the file storage unit 16 is transferred to the printer 2. The printer 2 is provided with a file identification unit 26, which directly stores the transferred data in the bitmap memory 24 when the transferred data is not a file. If the transferred data is a file, it is subjected to CMYK conversion inside the printer 2 and stored in the bitmap memory 24. This system includes a host computer 1 for CMYK conversion processing.
Is higher than that of the printer 2, there is an advantage that the processing speed is higher than that in the above-described embodiment and the amount of stored data is the same as that in the above-described embodiment with respect to normal one-by-one printing. is there.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the intermediate file stored in the file storage unit 16 is also CMYK converted on the host computer 1 side. Gradation processing unit 1
The data immediately after being processed in 3 and the intermediate file read from the file storage unit 16 are selected by the selector 18 and supplied to the CMYK conversion unit 17. This example
When the capacity of the host computer 1 for CMYK conversion exceeds that of the printer 2, the processing speed becomes faster than the previous two embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a fourth embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the image data after all the conversion processing up to the CMYK conversion unit 17 is completed is converted into a file by the conversion file generation unit 19 and saved. Since the image data after CMYK conversion has 4 bits per pixel, the file size is slightly increased as compared with the previous three embodiments. However, in this embodiment as well as in the embodiment of FIG. It has the advantage that no processing is required.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the printer 2 side performs CMYK conversion and file conversion. In this system, the CMYK converted image data on the printer 2 side is converted to a file format by the conversion file generation unit 27 and transferred to the host computer 1 via the interface 21. The host computer 1 stores the received file in the file storage unit 16. This system requires that interfaces 14 and 21 be bidirectional interfaces.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, in the image processing in which the original color image data is converted into the printable color image data which can be printed out by the host device and is transferred to the print output means. When the image data that has been processed by at least a part of the means is saved in a file format and the same image data is printed, the saved file is transferred to the print output means. It is possible to omit the re-processing in the processing means, and it is possible to significantly reduce the time until printing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a color image printing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a color image printing system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a color image printing system according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a color image printing system according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a color image printing system according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Host computer, 2 ... Printer, 11 ... Pixel image generation part, 12 ... Color matching part, 13 ...
Gradation processing unit, 14, 21 ... Interface, 15 ... Intermediate file generation unit, 16 ... File storage unit, 17, 23 ...
CMYK conversion section, 18 ... Selector, 19, 27 ... Conversion file generation section, 22 ... Reception buffer, 24 ... Bit map memory, 25 ... Output processing section, 26 ... File identification section.

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A host device having an image processing means for converting original color image data to be printed out into printing color image data for printout, and a printing device processed by the image processing means of the host device. In a color image printing system including a print output unit that prints out color image data, the host device converts the image data obtained through at least a part of the processing of the image processing unit into a file for storage. The file generation means and the file storage means for storing the file generated by the file generation means are provided, and the processed image stored in the file storage means when the same image data is transferred to the print output means again. Transfer the image data to the print output means directly or after performing the remaining image processing on it. Color image printing system, which is a shall.