JP3400861B2 - Digital copier - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a digital copying machine capable of trimming and masking, and more particularly to an improvement of an original image area designating function for trimming and masking.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when copying an original image using a digital copying machine, only a part of the original is taken out,
A model has been developed that is capable of performing functions such as trimming for printing on a paper of a desired size and masking for printing while leaving only a partial image of the original document and erasing images of other parts.

To perform the above trimming and masking,
Although it is necessary to specify a desired area in the original image as the cut area, as a method of specifying this area,
It is common practice to use a edit board or trimming sheet to designate a fixedly fixed specific area as a frame. However, such a method is applied to, for example, A2-A.
When applied to a wide copier capable of copying large size A such as 0, a large size edit board or trimming sheet is required, but such large size is difficult to procure and handling Is also troublesome, and also
It is difficult to achieve area designation as desired.

For this reason, conventionally, it is possible to realize trimming of a large-sized document, etc., and there is a method of designating an area by computer processing using a digitizer,
A method is used in which an image is once read by a scanner, the read image is displayed on a display device, and an area of the image on the display device is designated using a touch panel or a mouse.

[0005]

However, in the case of performing area designation of a copying machine capable of image copying of wide and large area as described above, the digitizer uses the original document itself when designating the area. However, there is a problem that a desired area cannot be accurately specified due to a shift or the like when setting the original. Further, in terms of hardware, it is necessary to newly prepare an interface for digitizer input / output, which results in high cost and dissatisfaction with operability.

On the other hand, when the original image read by the scanner is displayed on the display device and the area is designated, the original image cannot be expressed in detail unless the display device having a high resolution is used. Therefore, the area can be designated as desired. There are many things I can't do well. In addition, when a high-resolution display device is used to improve this inconvenience, the display device naturally becomes expensive, and a memory for storing image data or the like also corresponds to the performance of the display device. However, the cost is increased because it is required extra.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and has excellent operability in designating the area of a wide and large area copying machine, and the hardware configuration can be realized at a low cost. It is an object of the present invention to provide a possible digital copying machine.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a digital copying machine of the present invention comprises a document image reading means and a boundary for setting a plurality of boundary lines for dividing the document image into a plurality of areas. The line is formed by the line setting means and the boundary line based on the setting data of the line setting means.
And border output means for outputting data representing each divided area that the output boundary line and each minute from the boundary line output means
An image synthesizing means for outputting to the printer section overlaid on the original image data read by said reading means data representative of a split area, the data representing the output document image from the printer unit to the boundary line and each divided area Based on
And an area designating unit for designating a cut portion area of the original image based on the composite copy image of the following image, and the boundary line setting unit changes the interval between the boundary lines.
This allows you to set the size of the divided area to any size.
It is characterized by having a settable function.

[0009]

Further, the boundary line setting means has a function capable of arbitrarily setting the size of the divided area,
It is possible to increase the ease of area designation. Further, in the above configuration, a scaling means may be provided for scaling the original image data and outputting it to the image synthesizing means in order to be able to specify the area down to the details of the original image.

[0011]

According to the above construction, a plurality of boundary lines for dividing the original image into a plurality of areas are set by the boundary line setting means, and the boundary line output means outputs the boundary lines based on the setting data of the boundary lines. And the day that represents the divided area
Then, the image synthesizing means overlays the boundary line data and the divided area data on the original image data and outputs it to the printer section. Further, the cut portion area determined based on the data- containing copy image representing the boundary line and the divided area printed by the printer unit is the composite image data output from the image composition means by operating the area designating means. Specified above.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a digital color electronic copying machine will be described below with reference to the drawings. As shown in the block diagram of FIG. 1, the digital copying machine of the present embodiment is composed of a scanner unit 1 as a document image reading unit, an image processing unit 2 and a printer unit 3.

The scanner unit 1 reads an original image and
The image data is converted into a digital signal and output, and has a document size detection function. Further, the image processing unit 2 processes the image data of the document sent from the scanner unit 1 into an image according to the set function and sends it to the printer unit 3. Will be described later. Further, the printer unit 3 is a component for printing the data output from the image processing unit 2 on a sheet.

The scanner unit 1, the components in the image processing unit, and the printer unit 3 are C provided in the image processing unit 2.
It is controlled by the PU4, and the CPU
4 are connected by various signal lines for communicating with each other by means such as communication and for obtaining timing.

FIG. 2 shows the mechanical construction of the copying machine main body A in which the scanner section 1, the image processing section 2 and the printer section 3 are integrally provided. In this figure, reference numeral 5 is a casing that constitutes the outer shell of the copying machine main body 1, 6 is an original table, 7 is a photosensitive drum disposed in the casing 5, and 8 is an exposure optical system of the photosensitive drum 7. It is a laser scanner unit.

Around the photosensitive drum 7, a main charger 9 including a corona discharger and the like, and a developing unit 1 are provided.
0, the transfer drum 11, and the cleaning unit 12 are arranged in this order in the rotation direction of the photosensitive drum 7. Further, 13 is a paper feeding unit, and 14 is a fixing unit, and the printer unit 3 is configured by the respective configurations of the laser scanner unit 8 to the fixing unit 14.

The document table 6 is provided with a contact glass 15 arranged on the upper surface of the housing 5 and a document holder 16 provided on the contact glass 15 so as to be openable and closable. Reference numeral 17 is a scanning optical system for scanning an original image, 18 is a condenser lens,
Reference numeral 19 denotes a CCD line sensor which functions as a light receiving element, and these constitute the scanner unit 1.

Now, the document M placed on the contact glass 15 so as to be pressed by the document retainer 16.
Image is scanned by the scanning optical system 17 of the scanner unit 1, and the image information is obtained by using the light as a medium and the condensing lens 1
The signal is guided from 8 to the CCD line sensor 19, where it is converted into an electric signal, and then the image processing unit 2 performs signal processing. Then, the image processing unit 2 supplies the image data of the document M to the laser scanner unit 8.

On the other hand, while the photosensitive drum 7 is rotating, its surface is charged by the corona discharge operation of the main charger 9, and then the original image is statically placed on the charged surface of the photosensitive drum 7 by the laser scanner unit 8. It is drawn as an electrostatic latent image, and then the developing unit 10 attaches charged toner to the electrostatic latent image to form a toner image.

The developing unit 10 has a magenta toner and an M developing device 20M that develops with the toner, and a C developing device 20 that has a cyan toner and develops with the toner.
A Y developing device 20Y having C and yellow toners for developing with the toner, and a BK developing device 20BK having black toner for developing with the toner move vertically on a moving body 21. Laser beams LB emitted from the laser scanner unit 8 that are sequentially attached to the
In accordance with the latent image writing color image data, the image data is selectively placed at the developing position facing the photoconductor drum 7.

To form a full-color image during this development, first, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 7 by the laser beam LB emitted from the laser scanner unit 8 based on the magenta color image data. Then, the latent image is developed by the M developing device 20M.

By the way, the paper feed section 13 is loaded with a plurality of paper feed cassettes 22 containing paper of various sizes, and a single-leaf paper is fed from the alternatively selected paper feed cassette 22. It is supplied to the transfer drum 11 through the paper path 23. Then, the image on the surface of the photoconductor drum 7 developed with the magenta toner is transferred onto a sheet wound around the surface of the transfer drum 11. Even after the magenta image is transferred, this sheet is held in a state of being wound around the surface of the transfer drum 11, and is used for the next image transfer.

Photoreceptor drum 7 that has completed the transfer of magenta
The toner remaining on the surface of the cleaning unit 12 is wiped off by the cleaning unit 12 along with dust and the like adhering to the surface of the drum, and further passes through a charge eliminating portion (not shown) arranged between the cleaning unit 12 and the main charger 9. At this time, the surface of the photoconductor drum 7 is exposed by the laser beam LB that is charged by the main charger 9 again after being neutralized and then performs the latent image writing operation based on the cyan color image data.

The electrostatic latent image corresponding to the cyan image formed by this exposure is also developed by the C developing device 20C in the same manner as when forming the magenta image. At this time C
The developing device 20C is provided at a position facing the photoconductor drum 7 instead of the M developing device 20M. The magenta image is first transferred and formed on the image on the photoconductor drum 7 developed with the cyan toner, and is transferred onto the paper held on the surface of the transfer drum 11.

In this way, on the paper on which the magenta and cyan toner images have been formed, the yellow and black images are further processed in the same manner as the magenta and cyan image forming and transfer processes. Is transferred, and finally a full-color duplicate image that is faithful to the original image is formed. After that, the paper on which the full-color image is formed is separated from the transfer drum 11, and then is conveyed to the fixing unit 14 by the paper conveying unit 24 and is heated and pressed by the fixing unit 14, whereby the toner image is fixed on the paper. Then, it is finally discharged from the housing 5.

Returning to FIG. 1, the image processing unit 2 reads the image data of the original M read by the scanner unit 1, a line memory 25, a scaling processing circuit 26, and an image quality processing circuit 2.
7, the ruled line output processing circuit 28, the character output processing circuit 29, the timing processing circuit 30, the area processing circuit 31, the image composition processing circuit 32, and the image data processed by the image composition processing circuit 32 are stored and stored in the printer unit 3. The output line memory 33 is provided. Further, 34 is a ROM which is a program memory of the CPU 4, and 35 is a work RAM. Further, reference numeral 36 is an operation panel arranged on the front portion of the upper surface of the copying machine main body A or the like.

The scaling processing circuit 26 scales the image data (input image) of the document M read by the scanner unit 1 in accordance with the set scaling ratio, and enlarges the document image, and makes it the same size. Perform reduction. The image quality processing circuit 27 processes the input image according to the set image quality mode, that is, the character mode, the photo mode, and the character / photo mode.
In the character mode, the image data is binarized, in the photograph mode, the image data is multivalued, and in the character / photo mode, the binarization and multivalued processing are mixed.

The ruled line output processing circuit 28 and the character output processing circuit 29 constitute a boundary line output means. The ruled line output processing circuit 28 outputs vertical and horizontal ruled lines as a plurality of boundary lines for dividing the document image into a plurality of areas, and it is necessary to output the ruled line data according to the timing signal of the timing processing circuit 30. At that time, it is transferred to the image composition processing circuit 32. Further, the character output processing circuit 29 outputs data for printing the character data on the output image to the timing processing circuit 3.
It is generated according to the timing signal of 0 and the data is transferred to the image synthesis processing circuit 32.

The timing processing circuit 30 processes each image data processing circuit to generate a timing signal, that is, a signal indicating at what timing the processing should be performed. The area processing circuit 31 generates an area timing signal of the cut portion area (trimming and / or masking processing) of the image in accordance with the timing data sent from the timing processing circuit 30, and sends it to the synthesizing processing circuit 32.

The image synthesizing processing circuit 32 synthesizes the image data generated by each processing circuit, and converts the ruled line data output from the ruled line output processing circuit 28 into original image data (output image).
The image is overlaid and cuts an image according to the area timing signal generated by the area processing circuit 31.

The operation panel 36 constitutes a boundary line setting means and an area designating means together with the CPU 4, and is provided with a ten-key pad for inputting numerical values. The user operates the keys on the operation panel 36 to draw ruled lines. The setting and the area designation for designating the cut portion area of the document image based on the composite copy image of the document image and the boundary image output from the printer unit 3 can be arbitrarily performed.

In this embodiment, ruled line setting and area designation by operating the operation panel 36 are performed as follows. First, the vertical and horizontal ruled line intervals can be arbitrarily set by inputting desired numerical values using the ten keys on the operation panel 36. The ruled line output processing circuit 2
The output of 8 is controlled by the CPU 4 which operates based on the key input of the operation panel 36. Therefore, it is possible to arbitrarily set the size of the rectangular divided area which is output by being overlaid on the original image.

The reason why the divided area size can be arbitrarily set and changed in this way is to allow the user to arbitrarily specify from coarse area designation to precise area designation. When designating the cut portion area, there is also an advantage that an image other than the desired image can be prevented from partially entering the designated area.

For example, if the original image is as shown in FIG.
If a relatively small dog image is drawn at the top and a large elephant image is drawn at the bottom, the combined vertical and horizontal ruled line spacing is divided as shown in FIG. If the area size is large, only the dog image is specified, so even if you try to specify the area of that part, as shown by the shaded area in the figure, a part of the elephant image is included with the dog image. There is an inconvenience that some areas will be lost.

In such a case, as shown in FIG. 3 (C), if the vertical and horizontal ruled line intervals are narrowed and the divided area size is reduced, the dog image shown by the bold line frame in the figure is displayed. Since the elephant image does not enter any existing area, it is possible to accurately specify the area by designating the thick frame area. In addition,
In the example of FIG. 3, the ruled line intervals are the same in both vertical and horizontal directions, but the vertical and horizontal intervals may be specified differently.

As shown in FIG. 4, the character output processing circuit 29 prints the block number of each divided area corresponding to the ruled line output of the ruled line output processing circuit 28. This block number is set in, for example, 1, 2, ... 98, 9 in both X and Y directions.
The numeral 9 is set, and the code in the Y direction is followed by the code in the X direction to make a serial number of 3 to 4 digits.
Then, when designating an area, looking at the ruled line copy image output from the printer unit 3, the point data at two positions in the diagonal direction of the desired area are confirmed, and the point data is displayed on the numeric keypad of the operation panel 36. Enter using.

For example, when it is desired to specify nine divided areas as shaded areas in FIG. 4 as cut area,
In the figure, point data of 350 at the upper left corner and point data of 552 at the lower right corner may be designated. Note that this area designating method is merely an example, and the present invention does not prevent the use of various well-known area designating methods that are performed in the same manner as area designating using a tablet sheet. Also, instead of the block number, the coordinate number for specifying the area is printed at each ruled line end, and when specifying the area, the numerical value of the coordinate is specified.
(X, Y) may be designated.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the function of scaling the input image by the scaling processing circuit 26 is used in addition to the above-described ruled line setting and area designating functions, and in particular, by performing enlargement / scaling, It is possible to perform precise area designation down to the image details. Therefore, if coarse area designation is sufficient, for example, when a ruled line composite copy image to be output for area designation is reduced and printed on paper of a size smaller than the original, or conversely, precise area designation is required. Can output an enlarged image of the document and dense ruled lines on a sheet of a size larger than the document.

Next, a case where trimming or masking is performed with the above configuration will be described. FIG. 5 shows the operation of the CPU 4 when outputting a combined copy image with ruled lines. In this figure, if the user recognizes that the user has operated the operation panel 36 to set the area designation function in step # 5, for example, for trimming, then in step # 10, the area designation paper, that is, the ruled line composite copy. A signal asking whether or not an image is required is output to the operation panel 36.

At this time, when a signal indicating that the area designation paper is unnecessary is transmitted from the operation panel 36 at the user's will, the operation for outputting the combined copy image with ruled lines is not performed and the normal copy mode is set. enter. When the signal indicating that the area designating paper is required is sent, the process proceeds to step # 15, the divided area size and the output paper size are set, and it is recognized that the user has set the original M. .

Then, in step # 20, the intervals of the ruled lines are set in the main scanning direction (X direction shown in FIG. 4) and the sub scanning direction (same Y) in accordance with the document size, the paper size and the divided area size.
Direction) Set the respective timing data in the ruled line output processing circuit 28, set the output contents and timing of the block number in the character output processing circuit 29, determine the scaling ratio according to the document size and the paper size, and perform the scaling process. Three types of calculation processing, that is, setting in the circuit 26, are performed, and in step # 25, after the calculation is completed, a command for scanning the document is output to the scanner section 1, and further, the printing section 3 is controlled so that the document is finally scanned. The image, ruled lines and block numbers are output on paper.

The copy image with ruled lines output on the sheet by overlaying the boundary image with the original image in this manner is used by the user for reference of the area designation operation. Then, after the user determines the area to be designated by using the ruled line copy image, when the ten key of the operation panel 36 is operated as described above, the processing based on the input data is transferred from the CPU 4 to the area processing circuit 31. Commanded against.

Based on the command from the CPU 4, the area processing circuit 31 generates an area timing signal of the cut portion area of the image in accordance with the timing data sent from the timing processing circuit 30, and sends it to the synthesizing processing circuit 32. As a result, the image trimmed or masked is output from the printer unit 3 onto the sheet.

In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to a full-color digital copying machine, but it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to a normal digital copying machine. Further, the present invention can be applied to a copying machine that does not include the image scaling processing circuit 26 and the character output processing circuit 29, and further to a model in which the function of the image quality processing circuit 27 is simplified.

[0045]

When according to the present invention described above, according to the present invention sets a plurality of boundary lines for dividing an original image into a plurality of areas, and outputs a boundary line on the basis of the setting data of the boundary line Output the data that represents the divided area,
By outputting the data representing the boundary line and the divided areas into the printer portion overlaid on the original manuscript image data, it is possible to obtain a copy image is an image representing the original image and border image and the divided areas are synthesized Since the desired cut portion area can be determined and the area can be designated while referring to the copied image, a display device such as a monitor display or a tablet, which is conventionally required in a wide and large area copying machine, can be specified. No extra hardware such as seats is needed, and the area designation function can be realized at low cost. Also, such as tablet sheets
With the conventional method that the divided area size is fixed like this
Could not specify the desired small area, but the book
According to the invention, the size of the divided area can be set arbitrarily
Noh, so when specifying a relatively rough area
Makes the specified area faster by increasing the size of the divided area
And, on the contrary, want to specify precise areas
Sometimes, it is necessary to strictly limit the desired image area
When dividing the area into smaller areas,
You can perform certain operations.

[0046] When due to a second aspect, the cut portion partial area is specified in correspondence with the border boundary output, using the input key, performs an input operation of cuts areas specified of the divided original image since it is possible, even if the area designation
For example, it can be performed accurately by entering numerical values without misalignment.

In the conventional method in which the divided area size is fixed, such as a tablet sheet, it is not possible to specify a desired fine area. However, according to claim 3, the divided area size can be arbitrarily set. Since it can be set, when specifying a relatively rough area, you can increase the divided area size to speed up the specifying operation, and conversely, when you want to specify a precise area or when you want to specify a desired area. When it is necessary to strictly limit the image area, the divided area size can be made smaller and a highly accurate designation operation can be performed.

In addition to this, according to the third aspect , since the original image data can be scaled, the above-mentioned composite copy image can be scaled and output on a sheet. It is possible to realize excellent operability such that the area to be designated can be specified more accurately.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a full-color digital electronic copying machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional front view schematically showing the internal structure.

FIG. 3 is a front view of a document image and a composite copy image illustrating an example of ruled line output.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a mode of block numbers.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the CPU when outputting a composite copy image.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Scanner section 2 Image processing unit 3 Printer section 4 CPU 26 Magnification processing circuit 27 Image quality processing circuit 28 Ruled line output processing circuit 29 Character output processing circuit 30 Timing processing circuit 31 area processing circuit 32 image composition processing circuit 36 Operation panel

Continued Front Page (72) Inventor Takao Ichihashi 1-2-2 Tamatsukuri, Chuo-ku, Osaka Mita Industry Co., Ltd. (56) Reference JP-A-63-300674 (JP, A) JP-A-5-48876 ( (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/04-1/207

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A document image reading means, a border line setting means for setting a plurality of border lines for dividing the document image into a plurality of areas, and a border line and its border based on setting data of the border line setting means. and border output means for outputting the <br/> data representing each divided area formed by a line, read by said reading means data representing the boundary line and the divided areas outputted from said boundary line output means an image synthesizing means for outputting to the printer section overlaid on the original image data is output from the printer unit original image and the boundary line 及
And an area designating means for designating a cut portion area of an original image based on a composite image of an image based on data representing each divided area, and the boundary line setting means.
By changing the interval of the boundary lines.
Equipped with a function to set the size of the
Digital copier, characterized in that there. Wherein the area specifying means includes an input key, the <br/> using the input key, the digital copying according to claim 1 and performs input operation cuts area designation of the document image Machine. Wherein serial to the original image according to claim 1, which comprises a zooming means for data scaling the output to the image synthesizing unit
Digital copier on board . 4. A digital copying machine according to claim 1, which is a wide copying machine capable of copying a large-sized original.