JP2010171709A - Image output apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To delete a page that is determined not to have a fixed volume of information, from print image data. <P>SOLUTION: The image output apparatus includes: a means to classify drawing objects of print image data in units of pages; a differential drawing object extracting means to extract a differential drawing object that is not commonly used between the pages from among the classified objects; a page information volume determination means to determine whether each of the page is in the print image data has a fixed volume of information, on the basis of the differential drawing object; and a page erasure means to erase such a page that is determined not to have a fixed volume of information by the page information volume determination means, from the print image data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image output apparatus and an image output method that can automatically determine a page with a small amount of information.

  General paper materials include presentation materials and reports using forms. These materials may contain blank pages or the same page due to the editing mistakes of the author.

  Conventionally, with respect to the mixture of blank pages as described above, unnecessary pages can be printed by automatically deleting such pages from the print data by a technique such as blank page removal installed in the image processing apparatus controller. In addition to preventing this, unnecessary printing costs were reduced.

  For example, in the technology such as blank page removal disclosed in Patent Document 1, when the image processing apparatus reads a plurality of documents, the feature amount is extracted from each document, and the feature amount is compared for each document. Judged as a blank page or the same page. By such processing, it is possible to automatically remove a blank page or the same page in the material from the print data.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-26883 discloses a technique in which each image data after rasterization is equally divided into a plurality of areas, the same part is detected as a common area, and the same part is shared by each page during printing. It is disclosed. According to this technique, image processing is only required once for the same part portion to be shared and used, and the processing cost when the same page exists can be reduced.

JP-A-8-263636 JP 2008-79208 A

  However, in recent years, with the widespread use of video projectors and presentation applications, pages containing only matters that are not directly related to the presentation content, such as greetings to the audience and humor in the introduction, are also included in the materials. Became. For this reason, there are cases where expressions that have meaning only at the time of presentation remain in the manuscript used as presentation material. An example of such a document is as follows.

  A page that contains only the greetings to the audience, “Thank you for listening.” “End” to indicate the end of the presentation, “Memo” to indicate that the audience is taking notes.

  A page that describes only the background image common to all pages.

  A page that contains only the report form.

  Such a page is not a blank page, but is a page with extremely small amount of information useful to the user. In particular, a page on which only a background image or a form is described is synonymous with a blank page in that there is no useful information on the page. However, in the related art, unless the print target page is adjusted in advance by print settings or the like, the print output is performed as it is for the page as described above.

  That is, in the blank page removal function according to the prior art, the above-described page is not a target for removal because the information amount is not zero and does not correspond to a blank page, and the above problem cannot be avoided.

  The technique described in Patent Document 1 also detects the blank page / the same page by comparing the feature values of each page, so that only a background image page or a page with poor print value is one page in all originals. If it was only, it was not excluded and printed.

  Further, even in Patent Document 2, since the non-common area information is not used to determine whether or not printing is possible, when only the background image page or the page with poor print value is only one page in all the originals. Could not find a common area, and could not share the processing.

  Further, in order not to print an unnecessary page in the first place, the user may determine whether or not printing is necessary and specify a print page before output, but this is a troublesome operation for the user.

  An image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes a unit that classifies drawing objects of print image data, and a differential drawing object extraction unit that extracts, among the classified drawing objects, differential drawing objects that are not used on a plurality of pages. A page information amount determination unit that determines an information amount of the differential drawing object; and a page deletion unit that determines a page to be deleted from the print image data based on a result of the page information amount determination unit. Features.

  Further, the image processing apparatus according to the present invention includes means for classifying drawing objects of print image data, and differential drawing object extraction for extracting differential drawing objects that are not used on a plurality of pages from the classified drawing objects. The user determines whether to print the page constituting the print image data based on the results of the means, the page information amount determining means for determining the information amount of the differential drawing object, and the page information amount determining means. Means for generating to display deletion instruction information for instructing, and page deletion means for deleting a specified page from the print image data when receiving a page deletion instruction from the user. It is characterized by.

  An image processing method according to the present invention includes: a step of classifying drawing objects of print image data; and a step of extracting a differential drawing object that extracts differential drawing objects that are not used in a plurality of pages from the classified drawing objects. A page information amount determination step for determining the information amount of the differential drawing object; and a page deletion step for determining a page to be deleted from the print image data based on a result of the page information amount determination step. Features.

  The image processing method according to the present invention includes a step of classifying drawing objects of print image data, and a differential drawing object extraction for extracting differential drawing objects that are not used in a plurality of pages from the classified drawing objects. The user determines whether to print the pages constituting the print image data based on the results of the step, the page information amount determination means for determining the information amount of the differential drawing object, and the page information amount determination means. A step of generating to display deletion instruction information for instructing, and a page deletion step of deleting a specified page from the print image data when receiving a page deletion instruction from the user. It is characterized by.

  According to the present invention, a page with a small amount of information can be automatically determined.

  Further, since the printing process is performed after the page with a small amount of information is excluded from the printing target, the output cost and the printing process cost can be reduced.

Example 1
The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image output apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, the image output apparatus 10 includes an operation unit 30, an HDD 40, a controller unit 50, and a printer unit 60.

  For example, when printing a presentation material on a paper medium using the print function of the image output device 10 according to the present invention, the host computer 20 transmits print image data (print job) related to the presentation material to the image output device 10. To do. The host computer 20 and the image output apparatus 10 are connected by a network such as a wired LAN or a wireless LAN.

  The operation unit 30 includes an image display unit (not shown) and a key input unit, and has a function of accepting user operation instructions. Also, it has a function of displaying information of the image output device 10 to the user.

  The HDD 40 is a hard disk drive for storing print image data to be input / output. The HDD 40 includes an object information storage unit 45 and a wasted page determination table 47.

  The object information storage unit 45 stores object information of each page.

  The useless page determination table 47 is a table used when determining whether or not the page has a small amount of information and is not necessary to be printed (hereinafter referred to as “useless page”). It is a table in which threshold values are set. This table is created in advance by a user or the like and stored in the HDD 40.

  The controller unit 50 performs overall control of the image output apparatus 10.

  The printer unit 60 prints out the raster data rasterized by the image output device 10 on a recording medium such as paper.

  Next, details of the controller unit 50 will be described.

  The host I / F 100 is a data interface with the host computer 20 and includes a connector and a data buffer.

  The operation unit I / F 200 is an interface for taking in and out key information input by the user via the operation unit 30 and information presented to the user via the image display unit. The operation unit I / F 200 includes a connector and a data buffer.

  The HDD I / F 300 is an interface with the HDD 40 and includes a connector and a data buffer.

  The CPU 400 is a central processing unit, is connected to other blocks via the bus 2000, and transmits data and commands between the blocks to control the image processing apparatus 10.

  The ROM 500 stores various data such as programs executed by the CPU 400 and character fonts.

  The RAM 600 is a work area that temporarily stores various data and images.

  The page memory 700 is a memory in which print image data to be input / output can be expanded as a bitmap.

  A printer I / F 800 is an interface for exchanging print image data in the printer unit 60, and includes a connector and a data buffer.

  The intermediate data generation unit 900 generates intermediate data from PDL (Page Description Language) data of a print job.

  The print determination processing unit 1100 performs processing such as removing useless pages included in print image data (print job) received from the host computer 20.

  The rasterization processing unit 1200 rasterizes the print image data and generates raster data.

  FIG. 2 is an image diagram visually showing an outline of processing in the image output apparatus 10 according to the present invention. Hereinafter, description will be made in time series in the order of processing.

  First, each content indicated by reference numerals A201 to A206 will be described.

  A201 shows an example of print image data of a presentation material composed of all four pages. A202 is intermediate data obtained by classifying the drawing objects of the print image data A201 in units of pages. A203 is a drawing object (common drawing object) commonly used between pages in the intermediate data A202, and a background is shown here. A204 indicates a drawing object (difference drawing object) as a difference obtained by excluding the common drawing object from the intermediate data A202. A205 is a useless page determination table. A206 shows a state in which the useless page is excluded from the intermediate data A202.

  A rough flow of processing in the image output apparatus 10 is as follows.

  First, in step S201, the image output apparatus 10 receives print image data (print job) A201 transmitted from the host computer 20, and performs processing for classifying drawing objects of the received print image data. This classification process is performed in units of pages, and the above-described intermediate data A202 is generated. For example, for page 1, intermediate data classified into two drawing objects of “Title” and background is generated. The generated intermediate data A202 is stored in the HDD 40.

  Next, in S202, the image output apparatus 10 compares the drawing objects on each page classified in S201, and extracts a common drawing object used in common on other pages as A203.

  In step S <b> 203, the image output apparatus 10 extracts a differential drawing object A <b> 204 that excludes the common drawing object A <b> 203 from the intermediate data A <b> 202.

  In step S204, the differential drawing object A204 is checked against the useless page determination table A205 to determine whether the page of the differential drawing object has a certain amount of information.

  Finally, in S205, the third page and the fourth page that are determined not to have a certain amount of information from the intermediate data A202 are deleted, print image data (raster data) A206 is generated, and printing processing is performed. .

  Next, details of processing in the print determination processing unit 1100, which is a feature of the present invention, will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a main flowchart showing details of processing centered on the print determination processing unit 1100 in the image output apparatus 10. In FIG. 11, each unit configuring the print determination processing unit 1100 is illustrated. That is, the print determination processing unit 1100 includes a drawing object classification processing unit 1110, a differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120, a page information amount determination processing unit 1130, and a page deletion processing unit 1140.

  It is assumed that the processing of each unit described below is performed under the control of the controller 50. As a matter of course, the function of each unit in the image output apparatus 10 can be implemented as software processing executed by the CPU 400.

  Hereinafter, the flow of processing in the print determination processing unit 1100 will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, in step S <b> 301, the image output apparatus 10 receives print image data (PDL data) as a print job from the host computer 20 via the host I / F 100.

  Next, in S302, the intermediate data generation unit 900 converts the PDL data into intermediate data in order to obtain print image data suitable for the processing in S303 and subsequent steps. That is, in this specification, “intermediate data” refers to print image data converted from PDL data, and has not yet been subjected to rasterization processing for final printing. As will be described later, it is not essential to generate intermediate data in the present invention, and it can be omitted.

  Next, in S303, the drawing object classification processing unit 1110 extracts drawing objects from the generated intermediate data, classifies them in units of pages, and generates object information for each page. Object information includes the attribute information (characters or graphics) of the drawing object in the page, the configuration of each drawing object (number of characters for characters, drawing area for graphics, etc.), page information (of the total number of pages) Information). When the drawing object classification process ends, the generated object information is stored in the object information storage unit 45 in the HDD 40.

  Next, in steps S304 and S305, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 reads out the object information stored in the object information storage unit 45, and selects a differential drawing object that is not used in common among a plurality of pages among the drawing objects. Extract. That is, first, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 compares drawing objects on different pages based on the object information (S304). Then, after extracting common drawing objects that are commonly used on other pages from the comparison result, differential drawing objects that are not commonly used on other pages are extracted (S305). The extracted common drawing object and differential drawing object are stored in the object information storage unit 45 again. In this way, the drawing objects of the print image data are classified on a page basis.

(Difference drawing object extraction process)
Here, the processing in the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the details of S303 to S305, focusing on the processing of the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120.

  S401 is the same as S303 in FIG. That is, the drawing object classification processing unit 1110 classifies the drawing objects in units of pages from the intermediate data generated by the intermediate data generation unit 900, and generates object information for each page.

  In step S <b> 402, the drawing object classification processing unit 1110 sets an uncompared flag for all drawing objects in each object information. Here, the uncompared flag is a flag indicating that a drawing object in which the flag is set (hereinafter referred to as “uncompared object”) needs to perform the comparison process of S404 as a comparison source object. After the uncompared flag is set, each object information is stored in the object storage unit 45.

  In step S <b> 403, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 sets one drawing object to be compared with drawing objects on other pages as a comparison source object. At the stage of starting the differential drawing object extraction process, an uncompared flag is set for all drawing objects in all object information. Therefore, among the uncompared objects, for example, the uncompared object with the earliest drawing order on the first page is set as the comparison source object. However, which uncompared object is initially set as the comparison source object is arbitrary. For example, contrary to this embodiment, the uncompared object with the slowest drawing order on the last page is set as the first comparison source object. May be.

  In step S <b> 404, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 compares one drawing object set as the comparison source object with all uncompared objects included in other pages. Specifically, the comparison source object and uncompared objects on other pages are sequentially compared in drawing pixel units (pixel units) constituting the drawing object.

  In step S405, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 determines whether an uncompared object having the same content as the comparison source object exists in another page in step S404. That is, it is determined whether there is a drawing object having the same information as the comparison source object on a page different from the page to which the comparison source object belongs. As a specific process, as a result of the comparison in S404, it is checked whether there is an uncompared object in which all of the drawing pixels completely match with the comparison source object. To do.

  If it is determined in S405 that the same drawing object exists on another page, the process proceeds to S406.

  In step S406, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 sets a common flag for each drawing object determined to be the same. The common flag is a flag indicating that drawing objects having the same content exist in different pages. After setting the common flag, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 deletes the uncompared flag for both drawing objects and stores both pieces of object information in the object information storage unit 45.

  If it is determined in S405 that there is no same drawing object on another page, the process proceeds to S411. In step S411, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 sets a differential flag for the comparison source object. The difference flag is a flag indicating that the drawing object is a difference drawing object in which the same drawing object does not exist on another page. This differential drawing object is used in S503 of the page information amount determination process described later. After setting the difference flag, the difference drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 deletes the uncompared flag for the comparison source object, and stores the object information in the object information storage unit 45.

  In step S407, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 determines whether an uncompared object exists in the same page.

  If an uncompared object still exists in the same page, the process proceeds to S412 and the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 sets the remaining uncompared object as the next comparison source object and returns to S404. If there are a plurality of remaining uncompared objects, for example, the earlier drawing order may be set as the next comparison source object.

  If it is determined in S407 that there is no uncompared object in the same page, the process proceeds to S408.

  In step S <b> 408, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 determines whether the next page exists with reference to the object information. If it is determined that the current page is the last page and there is no next page, the process ends.

  If it is determined in S408 that there is a next page, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 updates the processing page to the next page (for example, the second page) in S409.

  In step S410, the differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1120 determines whether there is an uncompared object among the drawing objects belonging to the page (that is, the second page).

  In S410, when it is determined that there is no uncompared object in the page (that is, the second page), the process returns to S408, and a determination process is performed to determine whether there is a next page (for example, the third page). .

  If it is determined in S410 that there is an uncompared object on the page (that is, the third page), the process returns to S403, and the next comparison among the uncompared objects included in the page (that is, the third page) is performed. Set the original object.

  The above processing is repeated until reaching the final page, and a difference flag is assigned to a drawing object that is not common among a plurality of pages from drawing objects classified in units of pages to extract a difference drawing object.

  Note that the differential drawing object can be extracted directly from the PDL data that is a print job received from the host computer 20. In this case, it is possible to extract the common drawing object from the common part of the object drawing command in the PDL data and extract the portion represented by the remaining object command as a differential drawing object. Then, similarly to the case where the differential drawing object is extracted after being converted into the intermediate data, the object information in which the differential flag is added to the extracted differential drawing object may be generated in units of pages.

  Returning to the flow of FIG. 3, the continuation will be described.

  In step S306, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 determines whether each page of the intermediate data has a certain amount of information. This page information amount determination process is performed by collating the difference rendering object to which the difference flag is assigned with the wasted page determination table 47. That is, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 first reads out the object information of the differential drawing object from the object information storage unit 45 and reads out the wasted page determination table 47 from the HDD 40. Then, the threshold provided for each item in the useless page determination table 47 is collated with the numerical value of the differential drawing object corresponding to the item. When the numerical value of the differential drawing object has not reached the threshold, it is determined that the page to which the differential drawing object belongs does not have a certain amount of information. In this way, it is determined whether the page has a small amount of information and is not worth printing, that is, a so-called wasted page.

  An example of the wasted page determination table 47 is shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 8, the number of characters and the drawing area are provided as items for determination, and threshold values are set in units of sets for each item. In Set 1, five characters are set as the threshold value for the number of characters, and 1000 pxl is set as the threshold value for the drawing area. In Set 2, 15 characters are set as the threshold for the number of characters, and 2000 pxl is set as the threshold for the drawing area. In Set 3, 30 characters are set as the threshold value for the number of characters, and 3000 pxl is set as the threshold value for the drawing area. In other words, a total of three types, a set 1 with a low level of waste page elimination, a set 2 with a medium level of exclusion, and a set 3 with a high level of exclusion, are prepared in advance as criteria for determining whether or not the page is a waste page. Yes.

  Here, regarding the number of characters, it is desirable to treat all characters equally if they are one character regardless of full-width / half-width or uppercase / lowercase. This is because the amount of information depends on the number of characters. For example, in the example of set 1 with a low exclusion level, the threshold for the number of characters is “5”. In this case, if the attribute of the drawing object is a character and the number of characters is less than 5, the page is determined to be a useless page regardless of whether the character is full-width or half-width. The number of sentences may be used as an item instead of the number of characters. In this case, for example, by setting the threshold value to “2”, the number of characters is more than a certain level (for example, 10 characters or more), but only “1 Thank you for your attention.” A page that does not exist can be determined as a wasted page. The number of sentences in this case may be determined based on the number of punctuation marks. Of course, it may be an item for determining both the number of characters and the number of sentences, and there may be a certain amount of information when both threshold values are cleared.

  The drawing area is the sum of the drawing areas of all drawing objects included in one page, and in this embodiment, the number of drawing pixels when converted to the printing resolution is used. The unit is pixel (pxl). In this case, the sum of the drawing areas of the drawing objects included in one page is compared with a set threshold value, and if the sum of the drawing areas is less than the threshold value, it is determined as a useless page. .

  The number of characters, the number of sentences, and the drawing area described above are examples of items for determining whether or not the page is a waste page. In addition to these, the use of style settings such as characters, the number of colors used for graphics, and the use of gradation Various items such as presence or absence may be freely combined.

  Then, as to which of a plurality of sets prepared in the useless page determination table is to be applied, it may be applied uniformly, for example, by an administrator setting a predetermined set in advance. In addition, each user may be able to select an optimum set according to the characteristics of the print job. These settings and selections are made by the administrator or individual users via the operation unit I / F in FIG.

  Note that the contents of the useless page determination table can be arbitrarily changed by the administrator or the user. When the administrator or user edits the useless page determination table, first, the useless page determination table 47 stored in the HDD 40 is taken into the host computer 20 through the host I / F 100. Thereafter, the user adds or deletes a new item in the useless page determination table, changes the threshold value to an arbitrary value, or the like, and sends the edited useless page determination table 47 to the HDD 40 through the host I / F 100. Store. At this time, the old wasted page determination table 47 is overwritten by the newly edited wasted page determination table 47, and the wasted page determination table 47 in the HDD 40 is updated.

Here, a specific processing operation in the page information amount determination processing will be described by taking the difference drawing object shown in A204 of FIG. 2 and the useless page determination table shown in A205 as an example. First, in A204 of FIG. 2, it is assumed that the configuration of the image object of each page, that is, the differential drawing object is as follows.
First page differential drawing object: 5 characters, 900 pxl pixels
Difference drawing object on the second page: 0 characters and 2500 pixels in total
3rd page differential drawing object: 3 characters and 500 pixels
Difference drawing object on the fourth page: 4 characters, 700 pixels
In the useless page determination table, as shown in A205, the number of characters and the drawing area are set as items for determination, five characters are set as the threshold for the number of characters, and 1000 pxl is set as the threshold for the drawing area.

  In this case, first, for page 1, the drawing area is “900 pxl”, which is less than the threshold “1000 pxl”, but the number of characters is “5”, so that the number of characters exceeds the threshold “5”. For this reason, it is determined that the page is not a useless page.

  Next, for the second page, since there is no character, it cannot be determined whether it is a waste page depending on the number of characters. However, since the drawing area is “total 2500 pxl”, the threshold value “1000 pxl” is exceeded. . For this reason, it is determined that the page is not a useless page.

  Next, for the third page, the number of characters is “3”, which is less than the threshold value “5”, and the drawing area is also “500 pxl”, which is less than the threshold value “1000 pxl”. Therefore, since any item is less than the threshold value, it is determined as a wasted page.

  Next, for the fourth page, the number of characters is “4”, which is less than the threshold value “5”, and the drawing area is also “700 pxl”, which is less than the threshold value “1000 pxl”. Therefore, since any item is less than the threshold value, it is determined as a wasted page.

  As described above, the third page and the fourth page are determined to be useless pages, and the pages are not to be printed.

(Page information determination processing)
FIG. 5 and FIG. 12 are flowcharts illustrating details of processing in the case of determining whether or not a page is a waste page in the page information amount determination processing in S306. First, FIG. 5 will be described.

  In step S501, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 first sets an unmatched flag for all of the differential drawing objects for which the difference flag is set. The unmatched flag is a flag indicating that the differential drawing object has not been matched with the waste determination table. Note that the differential drawing object in which the unmatched flag is set is hereinafter referred to as an “unmatched object”.

  In step S <b> 502, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 sets one of the unmatched objects as a matching source object as a difference rendering object to be matched with the useless page determination table 47.

  At the stage of starting the page information amount determination process, the unmatched flag is set for all the differential drawing objects. Therefore, among all the unmatched objects, for example, the unmatched object with the earliest drawing order on the first page is set as the matching source object. However, which unmatched object is set as the first matching source object is arbitrary. For example, contrary to this embodiment, the unmatched object with the slowest drawing order on the last page is set as the comparison source object first. May be.

  In step S <b> 503, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 first reads the useless page determination table 47. Next, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 collates the threshold value of the previously selected set in the wasted page determination table 47 with the numerical value of one difference drawing object set in the collation source object. That is, the threshold set in each item of the set selected in advance by the administrator or the like is compared with the corresponding numerical value of the verification source object.

  In step S <b> 504, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 determines whether each numerical value of the collation source object has reached each threshold in the useless page determination table 47. If each numerical value of the collation source object has not reached the threshold value of any item in S504, the process proceeds to S505.

  In step S <b> 505, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 deletes the unmatched flag set for the matching source object, and stores the corresponding object information in the object information storage unit 45.

  Thereafter, in step S506, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 determines whether there is an unmatched object in the same processing page. As a result, if it is determined that there is an unmatched object, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 sets the unmatched object as the next matching source object in S507, and returns to S502.

  In S504, if each numerical value of the collation source object has reached the threshold value of any item, the process proceeds to S509. That is, in step S509, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 determines that there is a page to be processed next after determining that the processing page is not a useless page.

  When it is determined in S509 that there is a page to be processed next, in S510, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 sets the next page as a new processing page.

  After a new processing page is set, in step S511, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 determines whether there is an unmatched object on the processing page. If it is determined that there is an unmatched object, the process returns to S502. If it is determined that there is no unmatched object, the process returns to S509 to determine whether there is a page to be processed next.

  In the process of S506, if it is determined that there is no unmatched object in the process page, the process proceeds to S508.

  The process proceeding to S508 means that all the numerical values of the differential drawing objects of the processing page have not reached the threshold value of any item. Therefore, in step S508, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 sets a useless page flag for the processing page, and stores the object information of the page in the object information storage unit 45. When the useless page flag is set, the process advances to step S509 to determine whether there is a page to be processed next.

  If it is determined in S509 that there is no page to be processed next, the page information amount determination process ends.

  As described above, whether each page of the print image data has a certain amount of information or a useless page that does not have a certain amount of information is determined from the number of characters constituting the drawing object.

  When the number of sentences and the drawing area are used as a reference, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 12, the threshold value of each item is collated with the total value of the corresponding numerical values of all drawing objects in the page. To determine whether it is a useless page. Hereinafter, the flow of FIG. 12 will be described.

  First, S1201 is the same as S501, and an unmatched flag is set for all the differential drawing objects.

  In step S1202, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 sets all unmatched objects included in the first process page as matching source objects.

  In step S1203, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 calculates the total value of the numerical values corresponding to the items to be verified from each verification source object. For example, when the item to be collated is the number of sentences, all the collation source objects included in the page are checked, and the total value of the numbers in sentence units is calculated. When the collation item is the drawing area, all the collation source objects included in the page are checked, and the total value of the drawing areas of all the objects existing in the page is calculated.

  In step S1204, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 collates the calculated total value with the threshold value of the corresponding item in the useless page determination table.

  In step S1205, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 determines whether the total value has reached a threshold value. If it is determined that the page has been reached, the process page is determined to be a page having a certain amount of information, and the process advances to step S1208 to determine whether there is a page to be processed next. If there is a page to be processed next, the next page is set as a processing page, and the process returns to S1202. If there is no next page, the process ends.

  If it is determined in S1205 that the threshold value has not been reached, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 deletes the unmatched flag set for the matching source object in S1206, and the process proceeds to S1207.

  In step S <b> 1207, the page information amount determination processing unit 1130 sets a waste page flag for the processing page, and stores the object information of the page in the object information storage unit 45.

  As described above, when the number of sentences constituting the drawing object and the drawing area are used as a reference, whether or not the page is a waste page is checked by comparing with the total value of all the drawing objects included in one page instead of the numerical value for each drawing object. judge. Whether to collate for each drawing object or the total value of all the drawing objects included in one page may be selected and used as appropriate from the viewpoint of the properties of the reference items and the convenience of the user. It is not limited. For example, the drawing area may be determined by comparing with the numerical value for each drawing object, contrary to the present embodiment. In this case, it is difficult to determine that the page is a useless page.

  Returning to the flow of FIG. 3, the continuation will be described.

  When the page information amount determination process in S306 ends, the process proceeds to S307.

  In step S307, the page deletion processing unit 1140 determines whether there is a useless page that does not have a certain amount of information. That is, the page deletion processing unit 1140 reads the object information of all pages from the object information storage unit 45, and confirms whether or not a useless page flag exists in the object information of any page. If it is determined that there is a useless page, the process proceeds to S308, and if it is determined that there is no useless page, the process proceeds to S309.

  In step S308, the page deletion processing unit 1140 deletes the page for which the useless page flag is set from the intermediate data generated in step S302. Thus, the page determined not to have a certain amount of information by the page information determination processing unit 1130 is deleted from the intermediate data. When the process of deleting useless pages ends, the process proceeds to S309.

  In step S <b> 309, the rasterization processing unit 1200 rasterizes the intermediate data from which useless pages have been deleted as necessary, and finally generates raster data to be printed by the printer unit 60.

  Finally, in S310, the printer unit 60 performs a printing process based on the raster data.

  As described above, in the image output apparatus according to the present embodiment, rasterization processing is performed on print image data obtained by removing useless pages from initial print image data received from the host computer 20. A page with a small amount of information can be determined before the rasterization process is performed on the print image data, and such a useless page can be automatically removed from the print target.

Note that the host computer 20 may determine the useless page and transmit it to the print image data image output apparatus 10 that has been removed from the print target.
In this case, the host computer 20 has a wasted page determination table 47 and a print determination processing unit 1100 that are used to omit the wasted pages from the print image data.

(Example 2)
In the first embodiment, pages that are determined to be useless pages are simply excluded from the final print image data. Next, an embodiment will be described in which a list for grasping the outline of the deleted useless page is attached.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of adding a page in which a list of pages deleted from print image data is added as a waste page with a small amount of information. This process replaces S308 and S309 in the flowchart of FIG. 3 described in the first embodiment. Therefore, since the processing in other steps is the same as that in the first embodiment, the description will focus on the alternative portion.

  Hereinafter, the flow of this process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  If it is determined in S307 in FIG. 3 that there is a useless page, the rasterization processing unit 1200 performs rasterization processing on all pages of the intermediate data to generate raster data in S601.

  In step S <b> 602, the page deletion processing unit 1140 performs processing on the raster data of the wasted page among the generated raster data. Specifically, the image is converted to a resolution sufficiently lower than the print output resolution of a page that is not a waste page, and the image size is reduced to a sufficiently small size. For example, assuming that the print output resolution of a page that is not a waste page is 600 dpi, the resolution is converted to 72 dpi and the image size is further reduced to 1/16 for the waste page. Here, the conversion resolution and the reduction ratio of the image size may be determined based on the extent to which the outline of the waste page can be grasped, and may be arbitrarily changed according to the user's desire. The actual change work may be performed via the operation unit I / F 200, for example. Note that the resolution conversion method and the image size change method are not particularly limited, and any known technique applicable to those skilled in the art may be used. Since the specific contents are not the point of the present invention, the description is omitted. The processed waste page raster data is separately stored in the HDD 40.

  Next, in step S603, the page deletion processing unit 1140 deletes unnecessary pages from the raster data of all pages rasterized in step S601.

  In step S <b> 604, the page deletion processing unit 1140 first reads raster data of processed waste pages stored in the HDD 40. Then, a blank page is added to the end of the raster data from which the wasted page has been deleted, and the raster data of the processed wasted page is arranged on the blank page to create a new page that lists the deleted wasted pages. .

  In step S605, the rasterization processing unit 1200 rasterizes the created new page.

  In step S <b> 606, the page deletion processing unit 1140 generates raster data for final printing by combining raster data of a new page describing a list of deleted pages with raster data from which useless pages have been deleted.

  FIG. 7 is an image diagram visually showing an example of the present embodiment.

  Reference numeral 701 corresponds to A206 in FIG. 2 and shows a state where a page determined to be a waste page is included in the initial print image data. Reference numerals 703 and 704 denote the third page and the fourth page that are determined to be useless pages. Reference numeral 705 denotes a page in which a list of pages deleted as useless pages created in the present embodiment is described. The reduced data of the third page and the fourth page corresponding to 703 and 704 are arranged at equal intervals, and an overview of pages deleted as wasted pages can be grasped from this list.

  According to the image output apparatus according to the present embodiment, a list page obtained by reducing and processing pages deleted as useless pages is attached, so that an overview of the deleted pages can be grasped while suppressing output costs.

(Example 3)
Next, an embodiment in which the user can determine whether or not to print a page determined to be a waste page will be described.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a process of determining whether to include a page determined to be a waste page in accordance with a user instruction when creating final print image data. This process replaces S308 in the flowchart of FIG. 3 described in the first embodiment. Therefore, processing in other steps of the flowchart shown in FIG. 3 is the same as that in the first embodiment, and therefore, description will be made mainly on alternative portions.

  Hereinafter, the flow of this process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S <b> 901, the rasterization processing unit 1200 performs rasterization processing on a page determined to be a waste page among the intermediate data to generate raster data.

  In step S <b> 902, the page deletion processing unit 1140 generates deletion instruction information by using the generated waste page raster data. For this purpose, the page deletion processing unit 1140 first converts the raster data of the wasted page to a resolution sufficiently lower than the print output resolution of the page that is not the wasted page, and reduces the image size to a sufficiently small size. For example, the resolution is converted to 72 dpi and the image size is reduced to 1/20. The conversion resolution and the reduction ratio of the image size here may be determined based on the extent to which the outline of the wasted page can be grasped as in the second embodiment. That is, the resolution and the image size may be sufficient as long as the user can determine whether printing is necessary. Note that the resolution conversion method and the image size change method are not particularly limited, and any known technique applicable to those skilled in the art may be used. Since the specific contents are not the point of the present invention, the description is omitted. Then, deletion instruction information including the processed wasted page image, the page number for identifying the wasted page, the reason for being judged as the wasted page (item of the judgment table), and the like is generated. The deletion instruction information may be information useful for the user to determine whether printing is necessary for a page determined to be a waste page, and is not limited to the above content. That is, in addition to the above, information such as the author's name and the number of colors used on the page may be included.

  In step S <b> 903, the communication unit (not illustrated) transmits the generated deletion instruction information to the host computer 20 via the host I / F 100.

  In the host computer 20, a dialog screen is generated based on the received deletion instruction information by a deletion instruction utility installed in advance, and displayed on a display or the like. The deletion instruction utility is a utility used by the user to select whether or not to print a page determined to be a waste page.

  FIG. 10 is an example of a dialog screen presented to the user by the delete instruction utility in the host computer 20.

  Reference numeral 1000 denotes the entire dialog screen.

  Reference numeral 1001 denotes an item indicating a page number, which indicates a page number for specifying a page determined to be a waste page.

  An item 1002 indicates an image image of a waste page, and a reduced image indicating the content of the waste page is displayed. The reduced image displayed here is the image processed in S902.

  Reference numeral 1003 denotes an item indicating the reason why the page is determined to be a useless page. As a result of collation with the useless page determination table 47, an item content of a threshold that is not satisfied is displayed.

  Reference numeral 1004 denotes an item for the user to display the intention to delete, and a check box that can be checked by the user is displayed.

  The user determines whether or not to print from the image of the waste page displayed on the dialog screen and the determination reason, and adds a check to the check box of the page that is determined not to be printed. Reference numeral 1006 denotes a state in which the user gives a check.

  Reference numeral 1005 denotes a transmission button. This button is pressed when the user decides whether or not to print a page determined to be a waste page, checks the necessary check, and transmits the contents of the dialog screen to the image output apparatus 10. The data corresponding to the content of the dialog screen transmitted in this case may be any data format that the image output apparatus 10 can recognize, and is not particularly limited.

  In S904, when a receiving unit (not shown) receives data representing the contents of the dialog screen via the host I / F 100, in S905, the page deletion processing unit 1140 refers to the received data, and a page for which deletion is designated is displayed. Determine if it exists. That is, the presence / absence of a page whose check box is checked is confirmed.

  If it is determined in S905 that there is no page designated to be deleted, this process ends, and the process continues to S309 in FIG.

  If it is determined in S905 that there is a page designated for deletion, the process proceeds to S906.

  In step S <b> 906, the page deletion processing unit 1140 deletes the wasted page designated for deletion from the intermediate data. When the deletion is completed, this process is terminated, and the process continues to S309 in FIG.

  In step S309 in FIG. 3, the rasterization processing unit 1200 performs rasterization processing on the intermediate data from which pages that are not required to be printed by the user are deleted, and final raster data for printing is generated.

Note that after the deletion instruction information is transmitted to the host computer 20, the image output apparatus may be in a standby state until an instruction from the user is received. In this case, confirmation of whether or not the instruction has been received may be repeated at an arbitrary time interval (for example, every 1 second). The user can set the reception confirmation interval via the operation unit 30. And what is necessary is just to make it transfer to a normal state from a standby state at the timing which this process is complete | finished.
Of course, the entire image output apparatus is not placed in a standby state, but is placed in a standby state only in relation to the print image data to which the deletion instruction information has been transmitted, and normal processing can be performed in relation to other print image data. It may be.

(Other embodiments)
In the present invention, a software program (in the embodiment, a program corresponding to the flowchart shown in the drawing) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is directly or remotely supplied to a system or apparatus. In addition, this includes a case where the system or the computer of the apparatus is also achieved by reading and executing the supplied program code.

  Accordingly, since the functions of the present invention are implemented by computer, the program code installed in the computer also implements the present invention. In other words, the present invention includes a computer program itself for realizing the functional processing of the present invention.

  In that case, as long as it has the function of a program, it may be in the form of object code, a program executed by an interpreter, script data supplied to the OS, or the like.

  Examples of the recording medium for supplying the program include a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a hard disk, and an optical disk. Further, as a recording medium, magneto-optical disk, MO, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM, DVD (DVD-ROM, DVD-R), etc. is there.

  As another program supply method, a browser on a client computer is used to connect to an Internet home page. Then, the computer program of the present invention itself or a compressed file including an automatic installation function can be downloaded from a homepage of the connection destination to a recording medium such as a hard disk. It can also be realized by dividing the program code constituting the program of the present invention into a plurality of files and downloading each file from a different homepage. That is, the present invention includes a WWW server that allows a plurality of users to download a program file for realizing the functional processing of the present invention on a computer.

  In addition, the program of the present invention is encrypted, stored in a storage medium such as a CD-ROM, distributed to users, and key information for decryption is downloaded from a homepage via the Internet to users who have cleared predetermined conditions. Let It is also possible to execute the encrypted program by using the key information and install the program on a computer.

  Further, the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the computer executing the read program. Further, based on the instructions of the program, an OS or the like running on the computer performs part or all of the actual processing, and the functions of the above-described embodiments can be realized by the processing.

  Further, the program read from the recording medium is written in a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer. Thereafter, the CPU of the function expansion board or function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing based on the instructions of the program, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the image output device which concerns on this invention. It is the image figure which showed the outline | summary of the process in the image output device based on this invention visually. 4 is a main flowchart showing details of processing performed in a print determination processing unit in the image output apparatus according to the present invention. It is the flowchart explaining the detail of S303 thru | or S305 centering on the process in a difference image object extraction process part. It is the flowchart explaining the detail of page information amount determination processing. It is the flowchart explaining the process which adds the page which described the list of the pages deleted as a useless page. 10 is an image diagram visually illustrating an example of Example 2. FIG. It is an example of a useless page determination table. It is the flowchart explaining the process which determines whether it prints about the page determined to be a useless page by a user's instruction | indication. 4 is an example of a dialog screen presented to the user by a deletion instruction utility in the host computer 20. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a print determination processing unit 1100 of the image output apparatus 10 according to the present invention. FIG. It is the flowchart explaining the detail of the process in the case of determining whether it is a useless page in a page information amount determination process.

10 image output device 20 host computer 30 operation unit 40 HDD
45 Object information storage unit 47 Waste page determination table 50 Controller unit 60 Printer unit 100 Host I / F
200 Operation part I / F
300 HDD I / F
400 CPU
500 ROM
600 RAM
700 Page memory 800 Printer I / F
1100 Print determination processing unit 1110 Intermediate data generation unit 1120 Drawing object classification processing unit 1130 Differential drawing object extraction processing unit 1140 Page information amount determination processing unit 1150 Page deletion processing unit 1160 Rasterization processing unit 2000 Bus

Claims (16)

Means for classifying drawing objects of print image data;
Differential drawing object extraction means for extracting differential drawing objects that are not used in a plurality of pages among the classified drawing objects;
Page information amount determination means for determining the information amount of the differential drawing object;
An image output apparatus comprising: a page deletion unit that determines a page to be deleted from the print image data based on a result of the page information amount determination unit.   The image output apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the page deletion unit further creates a page describing a list of deleted pages. Means for classifying drawing objects of print image data;
Differential drawing object extraction means for extracting differential drawing objects that are not used in a plurality of pages among the classified drawing objects;
Page information amount determination means for determining the information amount of the differential drawing object;
Means for generating, based on the result of the page information amount determination means, to display deletion instruction information for the user to instruct whether or not to print the pages constituting the print image data;
Page deletion means for deleting a specified page from the print image data when receiving a page deletion instruction from the user;
An image output apparatus comprising:   4. The differential drawing object extraction unit compares drawing objects in units of drawing pixels, and extracts differential drawing objects that are not used in a plurality of pages from the comparison result. The image output apparatus according to item 1.   The page information amount determination means collates a determination table in which a threshold is set for each item with a numerical value corresponding to the item of the information amount of the differential drawing object, so that each page of the print image data is constant. The image output apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image output apparatus determines whether the information amount is present.   6. The image output apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the item is the number of characters and / or the number of drawing pixels.   The image output apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the print image data is PDL data or intermediate data before rasterization processing. Categorizing drawing objects of print image data;
A differential drawing object extraction step for extracting a differential drawing object that is not used in a plurality of pages among the classified drawing objects;
A page information amount determination step for determining an information amount of the differential drawing object;
An image output method comprising: a page deletion step of determining a page to be deleted from the print image data based on a result of the page information amount determination step.   9. The image output method according to claim 8, wherein the page deletion step further includes a step of creating a page in which a list of deleted pages is described. Categorizing drawing objects of print image data;
A differential drawing object extraction step for extracting a differential drawing object that is not used in a plurality of pages among the classified drawing objects;
Page information amount determination means for determining the information amount of the differential drawing object;
Generating, based on the result of the page information amount determination means, to display deletion instruction information for the user to instruct whether or not to print the pages constituting the print image data;
A page deletion step of deleting a specified page from the print image data when receiving an instruction to delete the page from the user;
An image output method comprising:   The difference drawing object extraction step compares drawing objects in units of drawing pixels, and extracts difference drawing objects that are not used in a plurality of pages from the comparison result. 2. The image output method according to item 1.   In the page information amount determination step, each page of the print image data is fixed by comparing a determination table in which a threshold is set for each item with a numerical value corresponding to the item of the information amount of the differential drawing object. The image output method according to claim 8, wherein it is determined whether the information amount is present.   13. The image output method according to claim 12, wherein the item is the number of characters and / or the number of drawing pixels.   11. The image output method according to claim 8, wherein the print image data is PDL data or intermediate data before rasterization processing.   The computer program for making a computer perform the image output method of any one of Claims 8 thru | or 14.   A storage medium storing a computer-readable program, wherein the computer program according to claim 15 is stored.