JPH07282283A - Character image editing processing - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To widen the row spacing of characters and output a character image document image which is narrow in row spacing. CONSTITUTION:This processor is equipped with a scanner 103 which reads an image in the form of a digital signal, a row lower-end line detection part 105 which detects a line at a row lower end of character images arranged in the main scanning direction of the image, a line insertion part 107 which widens the row spacing by repeatedly inserting a line following the line at the row lower end, a 2nd image data temporary storage part 108 which stores image data widened in row spacing by the line insertion part 107, and a recording part 19 which records and outputs the image data recorded in the 2nd image data temporary storage part 108.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character image edit processing apparatus for recognizing a line of characters on a document read by a scanner and inserting a blank line between the lines for output.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when reading a sentence such as English, it is often done to assist in reading the whole sentence by adding a translation of the word under a word that is not particularly understood or difficult. ing. In this case, when the line spacing of the sentence is narrow, the line spacing is expanded by pulling it out to other parts to add translations or annotations, or enlarging and copying the entire image.

[0003]

However, in the case as shown above, as shown in FIG. 5 (a), since the line spacing is clogged, the line of the word for which the translation is to be written is written. There are problems that it is difficult to write the translation because the space below is small, a part of the image is missing in the case of enlarged copying, or the paper size must be increased.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to output an image by widening the line spacing of characters in a character image original image with a narrow line spacing.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, in a character image editing processing apparatus according to claim 1, an image input means for reading an image as a digital signal and a main scanning direction of the image. Line lower end line detecting means for detecting the line lower end line of the character images aligned with, line inserting means for repeatedly inserting the line next to the line lower end line to widen the line spacing, and the line inserting means for widening the line spacing. Image data storage means for storing the image data, and image forming means for recording and outputting the image data stored in the image data storage means.

Further, in the character image editing processing apparatus according to the second aspect, the image input means for reading the image as a digital signal and the line for detecting the line at the lower end of the line of the character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the image. A lower end line detection means, a line spacing setting means for setting a line spacing of the character image, and a line insertion means for repeatedly inserting a line next to the line at the bottom end of the line based on a set value of the line spacing setting means to widen the line spacing. An image data storage means for storing the image data whose line spacing is widened by the line insertion means, and an image forming means for recording and outputting the image data stored in the image data storage means.

Further, in the character image editing processing apparatus according to the third aspect, the image input means for reading the image as a digital signal and the line for detecting the line at the lower end of the line of the character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the image. A lower end line detection means, a line insertion means for repeatedly inserting a line next to the lower end line to widen the line spacing, and an image data storage means for storing the image data in which the line spacing is widened by the line insertion means, 2 When processing more than one document, the page grouping unit for storing the lines of the next document from the last line of the document processed before being stored in the image data storage unit, and the image data storage unit. And an image forming means for recording and outputting the stored image data.

Further, in the character image editing processing apparatus according to the fourth aspect, the image inputting means for reading the image as a digital signal and the first image data inputted to the line bottom end line detecting means are rotated by 90 degrees. Image rotating means, line lower end line detecting means for detecting the line lower end line of the character image aligned in the main scanning direction of the 90 ° rotated image, and the line next to the line lower end line is repeatedly inserted. Line insertion means for expanding the line spacing, image data storage means for storing the image data with the line spacing expanded by the line insertion means, and image data output from the image data storage means is rotated by the first image rotation means. 9 in the opposite direction to
It is provided with a second image rotating means for rotating it by 0 degree, and an image forming means for recording and outputting the image data outputted from the second image rotating means.

Further, in the character image editing processing apparatus according to the fifth aspect, the image input means for reading the image as a digital signal and the character portion and the pattern portion in the image are separated and the pattern portion is removed. The pattern area removing means, the line bottom edge line detecting means for detecting the line bottom edge line of the character images arranged in the main scanning direction of the image output from the pattern area removing means, and the line next to the line bottom edge line are repeated. Line inserting means for inserting and expanding the line spacing, image data storing means for storing the image data whose line spacing is widened by the line inserting means, and image forming means for recording and outputting the image data stored in the image data storing means And is equipped with.

Further, in the character image editing processing apparatus according to the sixth aspect, the line inserting means sets the average value of the pixels extracted from the line next to the line at the bottom of the line as the pixel value of the insertion line. Is repeatedly inserted between lines to widen the line spacing.

[0011]

The character image edit processing device according to the present invention (claim 1) detects the line at the lower end of the line of the character image lined up in the main scanning direction of the input image, and then detects the line next to the line at the lower end of the line. Is repeatedly inserted to widen the space between lines to store data, and the stored image data is recorded as an image on a recording paper to obtain a character image with a wide space between lines.

Further, the character image editing processing apparatus according to the present invention (claim 2) detects the line at the bottom of the line of the character image lined up in the main scanning direction of the input image, and then, based on the setting of the line spacing setting means. A line next to the line at the bottom of the line is repeatedly inserted to widen the space between the lines to store the data, and the stored image data is recorded as an image on a recording paper to obtain a character image with a wide space between the lines.

Further, the character image edit processing apparatus according to the present invention (claim 3), when processing two or more originals,
After detecting the line at the lower end of the line of the character images arranged in the main scanning direction of the input image, the line next to the line at the lower end of the line is repeatedly inserted based on the setting of the line spacing setting means to widen the line spacing and to obtain the data. A blank space existing in a document is stored by storing the next line from the last line of the document that has been stored and processed before, and recording the stored image data as an image on a recording sheet. A wide character image in which lines are removed from the part is packed and output in page order.

Further, the character image editing processing apparatus according to the present invention (claim 4), in the case of a document in which the character image is written in the vertical direction, after rotating the input image signal of the lower end detecting means by 90 degrees,
The line at the lower end of the line of the character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the input image is detected, the line next to the line at the lower end of the line is repeatedly inserted to store the data by widening the line, and the stored image data Is rotated 90 degrees in the opposite direction to the above-mentioned rotating direction, and then recorded as an image on recording paper,
Get a wide character image between lines.

Further, the character image editing processing apparatus according to the present invention (claim 5) separates the character part and the picture part in the input image and removes the picture part, and then the line next to the line at the bottom end of the line. Is repeatedly inserted to widen the space between lines to store data, and the stored image data is recorded as an image on a recording paper to obtain a character image with a wide space between lines.

Further, the character image editing processing apparatus according to the present invention (claim 6) repeatedly inserts a line in which the average value of the pixels extracted from the line next to the line at the lower end of the line is used as the pixel value of the insertion line between the lines. Then, the space between the lines is widened to remove the noise image in the case where a pixel having a high density exists on the repeated line.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. [Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the system configuration of a character image edit processing apparatus according to Embodiment 1. In the figure, in the present system, the following functional units are connected to the bus 100 via each interface. That is, a main control unit 101 that controls the entire system, an operation unit 102 in which keys and the like are arranged to perform operation inputs such as line spacing settings, and a scanner that reads an image as a digital signal in which a main scanning line continues in the sub scanning direction. 103, and an image processing unit 1 for performing image processing such as MTF correction and γ correction on image data
04, a line lower end line detection unit 105 for detecting a lower end line of a line of a character image lined up in the main scanning direction of the image, and first image data for storing one page of image data passing through the line lower end line detection unit 105. The temporary storage unit 106 and the line insertion unit 1 for repeatedly inserting the line next to the lower end line of the character line
07 and a second image data temporary storage unit 10 for temporarily storing the image in which the line spacing is widened by the line insertion unit 107.
8 and a recording unit 109 for recording the image stored in the second image data temporary storage unit 108 are connected to the bus 100. The broken line arrows in the figure indicate data, and the solid line arrows indicate control signals.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a key configuration of the operation unit 102 according to the first embodiment. In the figure, 201 is a start key, 202 is a numeric keypad, 203 and 204 are line spacing setting keys, 203 is a "wide" and 204 is a "normal" line spacing setting key.

Next, the operation of the character image editing processing device configured as described above will be described. Before pressing the start key 201 of the operation unit 102, the line spacing setting key 203
Alternatively, by pressing 204, the line insertion mode is set. After that, when the start key 201 is pressed, the scanner 103 reads the image data as a digital signal, the image processing unit 104 performs a process such as gamma conversion, and then the line lower end line detection unit 105 detects each line of the character image. As shown in FIG. 3A, the lower end line is detected as the row lower end line 1, the row lower end line 2, the row lower end line 3, and so on.

Further, in the above description, the line is a line of pixels in the main scanning direction shown in FIG. 3, and an image is formed by continuing this line in the sub scanning direction. Various methods can be considered to detect the line at the bottom of the line, but in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG.
By adding the number of black pixels in the line direction, the sum of the number of black pixels for a certain line is smaller than the predetermined threshold,
The value obtained by adding the number of black pixels of the previous three lines is larger than the threshold value is determined as the line at the bottom of the line. Positions of lines detected by the line bottom line detection unit 105 (line bottom lines 1 to 3 shown in FIG. 3)
Is sent to the main control unit 101 as a determination result.

Next, the image data passed through the line bottom line detection unit 105 is stored in the first image data temporary storage unit 106. When one page of image is stored in the first image data temporary storage unit 106, the first image data temporary storage unit 1
06 outputs data line by line to the line insertion unit 107. In the line insertion unit 107, the line next to the line at the lower end of the line designated by the main control unit 101 is input to the operation unit 10
It is repeatedly inserted a number of times according to the mode set in 2.
Here, the number of line insertions is determined by the operation unit 102 in FIG.
When "Wide" 203 of the line spacing setting key is selected with,
128 lines, or 80 lines when the "normal" 204 of the line spacing setting key is selected. In addition, the line insertion unit 107 repeatedly executes the above operation for each line at the lower end of the line.

The first image data temporary storage unit 106 outputs the image data to the recording unit 109 when the image data for one page is stored. Then, in the recording unit 109, for example, an image image in which the line spacing is widened as shown in FIG. 5B is obtained with respect to the original character image as shown in FIG. 5A.

[Embodiment 2] By the way, it is conceivable that the image becomes one page or more because the line spacing is widened. Therefore, in consideration of such a situation, operation processing around the line insertion unit 107 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The other configurations and operations are common to those of the first embodiment, and only different parts will be described.

In FIG. 6, when this process is started, the line insertion unit 107 first sends the image data to the second image data temporary storage unit 108 line by line, and the main control unit 10
1, the number of lines is monitored and the line bottom line detection unit 10
It is determined whether or not the line is the bottom end line according to 5 (S60).
1). If it is determined in this determination that the line is not the bottom line of the line, it is output line by line to the line insertion unit 107 (S602), the process returns to step 601, and this process is repeated. When it is determined in step 601 that the line is the bottom line, it is further determined whether it is the end of the line bottom line (S).
603).

When it is determined in step 603 that the line is not the end of the bottom line, the next line is repeatedly output (S604), and one page of data is stored in the second image data temporary storage unit 108. It is determined whether or not (S605). If it is determined that the data for one page is not stored, the process returns to step 601 and the subsequent processing is repeated. on the other hand,
When it is determined in step 603 that the end of the line at the bottom of the line is reached, the next line is output until the data for one page is stored in the second image data temporary storage unit 108 (S608), and the image is recorded in the recording unit. This is output by 109 (S609), and this processing is terminated.

On the other hand, in step 605, the second
When it is determined that one page of data has been stored in the image data temporary storage unit 108, the image is output by the recording unit 109 (S606), and a blank line is inserted at the beginning of the next page (S607). Step 601 above
Return to and repeat the subsequent processing. Therefore,
By the above processing, the line space of the text image can be widened, and it becomes easy to write a translated sentence, a memo, or the like between the lines.

[Third Embodiment] By the way, in the above embodiment,
When all the lines at the bottom of the line are output for each original,
When a blank is processed by repeating the next line, when the number of originals is two or more, as shown in FIG. 7, a blank is generated for the previous original, which is wasted. For this reason, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 8, the above-mentioned useless blanks are eliminated by filling in the blanks produced by the previous document, that is, by filling the text with blanks. Hereinafter, such a processing function is referred to as a page grouping function. The page summarizing function will be described below. Since the other configurations and operations are the same as those in the first embodiment,
Only different parts will be described.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory view showing the structure of the operating section according to the third embodiment, which is different from the operating section shown in FIG.
Page grouping key 901 and page grouping end key 90
2 is added. When performing the page grouping function, first, the line spacing is set with the line spacing setting keys 203 and 204, and then the page grouping key 901 is pressed and the start key 201 is pressed. After reading the desired number of originals with the scanner 103, finally the page grouping end key 9
Pressing 02 ends the page grouping mode.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing line spacing processing to which the page grouping mode according to the third embodiment is added.
In the figure, when this process is started, the line insertion unit 107 first causes the second image data temporary storage unit 1 to operate line by line.
The image data is sent to 08, the main control unit 101 monitors the number of lines, and the line-bottom line detection unit 105 determines whether or not the line is the line-bottom line (S1001). In this determination, if it is determined that the line is not the bottom line of the line, it is output line by line to the line insertion unit 107 (S1).
002), the process returns to step 1001 to repeat this process. Then, in step 1001 above,
When it is determined that the line is the lower end line, it is further determined whether it is the end of the lower line of the line (S100).
3).

When it is determined in step 1003 that the end of the line is not the end of the line, the next line is repeatedly output (S1004), and one page of data is stored in the second image data temporary storage unit 108. It is determined whether or not (S1005). When it is determined that the data for one page is not stored, the process returns to step 1001 and the subsequent processes are repeated.

On the other hand, when it is determined in step 1005 that one page of data has been stored in the second image data temporary storage unit 108, the image is recorded in the recording unit 109.
Is output (S1006), a blank line is inserted at the beginning of the next page (S1007), the process returns to step 1001 and the subsequent processes are repeated.

If it is determined in step 1003 that the end of the bottom line of the line has been reached, it is further determined whether the page grouping end key 902 has been pressed (S1009). At this time, when it is determined that the page grouping end key 902 is not pressed, the next original is read (S1008), and the above step 100 is performed.
The process returns to 1 and the subsequent processing is repeated. On the other hand, in step 1009, the page grouping end key 90
When it is determined that 2 is pressed, the next line is output until the data for one page is stored in the second image data temporary storage unit 108 (S1010), and the image is recorded in the recording unit 1.
The output is made in step S09 (S1011), and this processing ends.

[Embodiment 4] By the way, when the line next to the line at the lower end of the line is repeated when the line spacing is widened, if a pixel with a high density as shown in FIG. By repeating
A line as shown in FIG. 12 is generated. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the line repeated by the line inserting unit 107 is calculated not only by using the line next to the line lower end line but also by calculation. A method of obtaining the repeated line will be described with reference to FIG. The other configurations and operations are common to those of the first embodiment, and only different parts will be described.

The first 100 of the line following the bottom line
The average value of pixels is taken, and the line in which the average value is the pixel value is the line that is repeatedly inserted between rows. By performing the processing in this way, even if the pixel includes a portion having a high density as shown in FIG. 13, the pixel is averaged, so that noise as shown in FIG. 12 does not appear.

[Embodiment 5] In this embodiment, the manuscript is shown in FIG.
If the line is in the sub-scanning direction, as shown in,
The processing in the case of the portrait orientation will be described. The line spacing process cannot be executed in this vertical orientation. Therefore, the image is rotated by 90 degrees, and processing is performed so that the direction in which the image is treated as a line and the direction in which the line is aligned match.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing the system arrangement of a character image edit processing apparatus according to the fifth embodiment. In addition,
Other configurations and operations are common to those of the first embodiment, and only different parts will be described.

In the figure, this system has a configuration in which a first image rotation unit 1501 is provided at the input of the line bottom edge line detection unit 105 of the system shown in FIG. 1 and a second image rotation unit 1502 is provided at the input of the recording unit 109. The other configuration is the same as that of FIG. In addition, FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of the operation unit 102 according to the fifth embodiment, and a vertical mode key 1701 is added to the configuration of FIG.

Next, the operation of the character image edit processing device configured as described above will be described. Here, the image is first input in a portrait orientation as shown in FIG. 16A, and is rotated 90 degrees to the left by the first image rotation unit 1501 as shown in FIG. 16B. After that, since the line direction and the line direction coincide with each other, the processing is normally executed.
Increase the line spacing as shown in (c). The image processed in this way is rotated 90 degrees to the right by the second image rotation unit 1502, and is output in the direction that matches the original document. The first image rotation unit 1501 and the second image rotation unit 1502 are shown in FIG.
When the vertical mode key 1701 is pressed before pressing the start key 201 of the operation unit, the image rotation process is executed as described above, and no other process is executed. By rotating and processing the vertically oriented image in this manner, it is possible to execute processing for widening the line spacing even when the line is in the sub-scanning direction.

[Embodiment 6] When the original includes a pattern portion as shown in FIG. 18A, it is difficult to determine the lower end line of the character. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the line image at the bottom end of the line is removed as shown in FIG. 18B, and a blank line is added to the line image, so that the line image shown in FIGS.
It is possible to obtain a character image in which the line spacing is widened as in. Since the other configurations and operations are the same as those in the first embodiment,
Only different parts will be described.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram showing the system arrangement of a character image edit processing apparatus according to the sixth embodiment. In the figure, the present system has a configuration in which an image area separation unit 1901 is provided at the input of the row bottom line detection unit 105 of the system shown in FIG. 1, and the other configurations are the same as those in FIG.

Next, the operation of the character image edit processing device configured as described above will be described. Image processing unit 104
An image area separation unit 1901 executes image area separation processing on the subsequent signal. More specifically, in the image area separating unit 1901, when the image is binarized, an area where no black image continuously exists is defined as a character image area. Therefore, the image area separation unit 1901 executes binarization of the image, checks each pixel of the image with respect to the pixel for 3 × 3 pixels as a black pixel or a white pixel, and further It is checked whether it is a pixel in the character area.

As shown in FIG. 20, when the central pixel is 5,
When examining the pixels of × 3, if all these pixels are white, the pixels of 5 are set as the character area candidates. After this process is completed for all pixels, next, as shown in FIG.
The x3 pixel block is examined, and if even one pixel is a character area candidate pixel, the pixels of the entire block are set as the character area pixel. In this way, if the character area pixels are determined, all pixels other than the character area pixels are white pixels,
By sending the image data to the line bottom edge line detection unit 105 in FIG. 19, the line spacing can be widened only to the character portion in the image from which the picture portion is removed.

[0043]

As described above, according to the character image editing processing apparatus (Claim 1) of the present invention, after the line at the lower end of the line of the character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the input image is detected. , The line next to the line at the bottom of the line is repeatedly inserted to widen the line spacing to store the data, and the stored image data is recorded as an image on a recording paper, so that the line spacing of the text image is widened. This makes it easier to write translations and memos between lines, which is convenient.

Further, according to the character image editing processing apparatus (Claim 2) of the present invention, the line spacing setting means is set after detecting the line at the bottom of the line of the character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the input image. The line next to the line at the lower end of the line is repeatedly inserted based on the above to expand the line spacing and store the data, and the stored image data is recorded as an image on a recording paper. Therefore, the line spacing can be arbitrarily changed. You can

Further, according to the character image editing processing apparatus (Claim 3) of the present invention, when processing two or more originals, the lower end of the line of the character images arranged in the main scanning direction of the input image Line is detected, the line next to the line at the lower end of the line is repeatedly inserted based on the setting of the line spacing setting means to expand the line spacing and store the data, and the last of the stored previously processed originals is stored. The next line is stored from the next line, and the stored image data is recorded as an image on a recording paper to fill a wide character image in which the blank portion existing in the manuscript is removed in page order. Since the output is performed, the margin of the last line generated in one document is filled, and the recording paper can be saved accordingly.

Further, according to the character image editing processing apparatus (Claim 4) of the present invention, in the case of a document in which a character image is written in the vertical direction, after rotating the input image signal of the lower end detecting means by 90 degrees, The line at the lower end of the line of the character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the input image is detected, the line next to the line at the lower end of the line is repeatedly inserted to store the data by widening the line, and the stored image data In the direction opposite to the direction of rotation
Since the image is recorded on the recording paper after being rotated by 0 degree, the space between the character lines in the sub-scanning direction can be widened without changing the orientation of the document.

Further, according to the character image edit processing apparatus (Claim 5) of the present invention, after the character portion and the picture portion in the input image are separated and the picture portion is removed, the line next to the line bottom end is removed. The lines are repeatedly inserted to expand the line spacing to store the data, and the stored image data is recorded as an image on the recording paper. Therefore, the line spacing of the characters is widened except for the pattern of the character image including the pattern. You can

Further, according to the character image editing processing apparatus (claim 6) of the present invention, the line between the lines is defined as the pixel value of the insertion line which is the average value of the pixels extracted from the line next to the line at the bottom of the line. Since the line spacing is increased by repeating the insertion, it is possible to remove the noise image in the case where a pixel with high density exists in the repeated line.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration of a character image edit processing device according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a key configuration of an operation unit according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of detecting a line bottom end line and an example of inserting the line according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of detecting a row bottom line according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a character original and an image after image processing according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating operation processing around a line insertion unit according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a blank portion according to the third embodiment.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an output example when the image processing according to the third embodiment is executed on the document of FIG.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of an operation unit according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing line spacing processing to which a page grouping mode according to a third embodiment is added.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of pixel density at a bottom end of a row according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a noise image generated in a line spacing portion before processing according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing the principle of line insertion according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing a vertical text original according to the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a system configuration of a character image edit processing device according to a fifth embodiment.

FIG. 16 is an explanatory diagram showing a process of processing a vertical text original according to the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 17 is an explanatory diagram showing a configuration of an operation unit according to the fifth embodiment.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing an image processing process of a character portion and a pattern portion according to the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration of a character image edit processing device according to a sixth embodiment.

FIG. 20 is a pixel matrix showing the principle of detecting a character image area according to the sixth embodiment.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram showing a pixel block according to Example 6.

[Explanation of symbols]

102 Operation Unit 103 Scanner 105 Line Lower End Line Detection Unit 107 Line Insertion Unit 108 Second Image Data Temporary Storage Unit 109 Recording Unit 203, 204 Line Setting Key 901 Page Collection Key 902 Page Collection End Key 1501 1st
Image rotation unit 1502 Second image rotation unit 1901 Image area separation unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An image input unit for reading an image as a digital signal, a line lower end line detecting unit for detecting a line lower end line of a character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the image, and a line next to the line lower end line. Line insertion means for repeatedly inserting the line spacing to expand the line spacing, image data storage means for storing the image data with the line spacing widened by the line insertion means, and an image for recording and outputting the image data stored in the image data storage means. A character image edit processing apparatus comprising: a forming unit. 2. An image inputting means for reading an image as a digital signal, a line lower end line detecting means for detecting a line at a lower end of a line of a character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the image, and a line spacing for setting a line spacing of the character image. Setting means, line inserting means for repeatedly inserting the line next to the line at the lower end of the line based on the set value of the line spacing setting means to expand the line spacing, and storing the image data in which the line spacing is widened by the line inserting means. A character image edit processing device, comprising: an image data storage unit for storing the image data; and an image forming unit for recording and outputting the image data stored in the image data storage unit. 3. An image input means for reading an image as a digital signal, a line bottom line detecting means for detecting a line bottom line of a character image arranged in the main scanning direction of the image, and a line next to the line bottom line. Line insertion means for repeatedly inserting lines to expand the line spacing, image data storage means for storing the image data with the line spacing expanded by the line insertion means, and the image data storage means for storing two or more originals. A page grouping unit for storing the next line of the document from the last line of the document processed before being processed, and an image forming unit for recording and outputting the image data stored in the image data storage unit. A character image edit processing device characterized by: 4. An image input means for reading an image as a digital signal, a first image rotating means for rotating the image data input to the line bottom end line detecting means by 90 degrees, and a main portion of the image rotated by 90 degrees. The line lower end line detecting means for detecting the line lower end line of the character images arranged in the scanning direction, the line inserting means for repeatedly inserting the line next to the line lower end line to widen the line spacing, and the line inserting means for reducing the line spacing. The image data storage means for storing the expanded image data and the image data output from the image data storage means in the opposite direction to the rotation by the first image rotation means 9
A character image edit processing apparatus comprising: a second image rotating unit that rotates 0 degree; and an image forming unit that records and outputs image data output from the second image rotating unit. 5. An image inputting means for reading an image as a digital signal, a picture area removing means for separating a character portion and a picture portion in the image and removing the picture portion, and an output from the picture area removing means. A line lower end line detecting means for detecting a line at the lower end of a line of a character image lined up in the main scanning direction of the image, a line inserting means for repeatedly inserting a line next to the line at the lower end of the line, and a line inserting means, A character image edit processing device, comprising: an image data storage means for storing image data whose line spacing is widened by the above; and an image forming means for recording and outputting the image data stored in the image data storage means. 6. The line inserting means widens the space between lines by repeatedly inserting lines having the average value of pixels extracted from the line next to the line at the bottom end of the line as the pixel value of the insertion line. The character image edit processing device according to claim 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5.