Image analysis – Image segmentation
Reexamination Certificate
1998-08-31
2003-01-07
Tran, Phuoc (Department: 2721)
Image analysis
Image segmentation
C382S174000, C382S178000, C382S199000, C382S226000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06504955
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a storage medium, and a printing system for transmitting print data to a printer and allowing the print data to be printed by the printer.
2. Related Background Art
Among the conventional printing systems, there is a printing system for processing a character train object by a method different from that of a graphics object and transferring the processed object to a printer.
FIG. 14
is a diagram showing an example of a printing system (hereinafter, simply referred to as a system) according to the conventional method.
<Description of Outline of System>
As shown in
FIG. 14
, a host computer (hereinafter, simply referred to as a host)
3000
and a printer
1500
are connected through some communication interface
21
such as a centronics or the like. A character train object
10001
is transferred as character train information
10003
to the printer
1500
. A graphics object
10002
is transferred as image bit map data serving as image information
10004
to the printer
1500
.
<Transferring Method which is Changed in Accordance with the Kind of Drawing Object>
In the above system, a case where only the character train object
10001
is printed as a drawing object of one page of a recording paper will now be considered.
In case of the general printing of only characters, an amount of data in which the character train objects of one page were developed in an image bit map is larger than a data amount of character train code information. Therefore, a transfer data amount can be more suppressed by the method of transferring the character train objects as character train code information to the printer rather than the method of developing all of the drawing objects to bit map image data and transferring the bit map image data from the host to the printer. Therefore, the transferring method is changed in accordance with the kind of drawing object, thereby realizing a high efficiency of the data transfer.
<Description of Processes Time from Data Input to Data Output>
According to the above system, one of subsystems which operate by the host
3000
, for example, a document processing subsystem inputs the character train object
10001
as a drawing object or the graphics object
10002
to a driver
101
which operates in the host
3000
, so that the processes are started.
The driver
101
to which the drawing object has been inputted executes the following processes in accordance with the kind of input drawing object until the input of the drawing objects of one page of the recording paper is finished.
(1) When the character train object
10001
is inputted, the driver
101
converts the character train object into character train code information by using a character train converter
1001
and transfers the converted information as character train information
10003
to the printer
1500
.
(2) When the graphics object
10002
is inputted, the input object is once developed as a bit map image
100001
into a memory
1003
serving as a virtual output medium by using a drawer
1002
. In this instance, no character information is included in the bit map image
100001
. When the drawing objects of one page of the recording paper are inputted, the bit map image
100001
drawn so far is transferred as image information
10004
to the printer
1500
.
When all of the drawing objects of one page of the recording paper are processed by the driver, the character train information
10003
corresponding to the character train objects
10001
of one page of the recording paper and/or the image information
10004
in which the graphics objects
10002
of one page of the recording paper were developed has been inputted in the printer
1500
.
The printer
1500
executes the following processes.
(1) A glyph generator
1004
develops the input character train information
10003
into bit map information
10005
(Glyph) of a character train by using font information
10006
stored in a built-in font memory (FONT)
1006
.
(2) A glyph synthesizer
1005
overwrites the developed glyph information
10005
onto the bit map image as image information
10004
of one page of the recording paper.
A bit map image
100002
which is obtained as a result of the above processes becomes a print result.
<Specification that is Common to the Conventional Art>
In the system mentioned in the above example, it is assumed that a possibility in which the other drawing objects are overlapped on the character train object is low so long as a general printed matter is printed. A drawing order of the character train is ignored. For example, a similar specification is also used in a case of annexed UniDriver as a general driver of MS-Windows as a typical operating system which is installed in the host. By using such a specification, the following advantages can be obtained.
(1) While the driver develops the graphics object into the bit map image, by developing the character train object into the glyph information in the printer driver, the printing time can be reduced.
(2) In the case where the drawing objects of one page of the recording paper are constructed by only the character train objects, there is no need to transfer the bit map image, so that a transfer data amount between the host and the printer is reduced.
However, in the system, information of the drawing order in the character train objects is consequently lost.
FIG. 2A
shows an example of an image obtained by overlaying a character train
202
(“ABCD”) onto a rectangle fill
201
, namely, an image obtained by drawing the character train
202
after the rectangle fill
201
.
FIG. 2B
shows an example of an image obtained by overlaying a character train
204
under a rectangle fill
203
, namely, an image obtained by drawing the character train
204
before the rectangle fill
203
. As mentioned above, even in the image in which the same object is arranged at the same position in the picture plane, the output results are different depending on a difference of the drawing order. From this reason, in case of the conventional printing system for performing processes while ignoring the drawing order, there exists a case where the character train objects in the printer are drawn in accordance with the drawing order different from the order which the user inherently wants to draw, so that the inherent print result and the print result actually obtained remarkably differ.
As a simplest method to solve the above problem, there is considered a method of drawing all of the drawing objects into a bit map image on the driver
101
side in accordance with the drawing order without distinguishing the character train objects from the other drawing objects. However, if the printing is performed by this method, even when the drawing objects of one page constructed by only the character train objects are outputted, it is necessary to transfer all of the objects to the printer by the bit map image and the formation of all of the bit map images has to be performed by the host apparatus. In other words, all of the advantages obtained in the apparatus of
FIG. 14
are lost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention is made in consideration of the above conventional techniques and it is an object of the invention to make it possible to print by a printer on the basis of a designated drawing result. Another object of the invention is that an overlap of character train objects and drawing objects is discriminated from attribute information and space information, and with respect to the character train objects which do not need to consider an overlap, by transmitting them as character train information to a printer, an amount of data to be transmitted is reduced, and by developing an image in parallel with the printer, a processing efficiency is improved, and an overlap extent of the drawing objects is preserved and the drawing objects are outputted from the printer as an inherent image to be formed.
Still another object of
Oomura Hiroshi
Shimura Akihiro
Alavi Amir
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Tran Phuoc
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