Image recording method and apparatus

Abstract: Disclosed are recording method and apparatus for inputting and recording information in page units, developing the recorded information into bit-map information and recording the bit-map information. The bit-map information is corrected, before it is compressed by a compressing circuit (6), in dependence upon the compression ratio of the compressing circuit. The corrected bit-map information is then compressed by the compressing circuit and stored in a pixel memory (5). Recording is performed upon expanding the bit-map information stored in the pixel memory. As a result, the blurring of characters and fine lines by compression can be prevented. Further, it is determined whether the recording information is text data or image data. By compressing the text data at a compression ratio smaller than that used to compress the image data, a decline in the image quality of the text data recorded is prevented.

Description: This invention relates to a recording method and apparatus, to which text data or image data is inputted, for forming an image on a recording medium by bit-map development. A printer apparatus according to the prior art is constructed as shown in Fig. 6. In this arrangement, printing information (character codes and the like) sent from a host computer 31 is stored in a page buffer memory 33 via an interface 32. A character code which enters from the host computer 31 undergoes pattern development on a following RAM 39 based upon a character font that has been stored in a character-font memory 34. A pixel memory 35 stores compressed image data comprising the character data thus subjected to pattern development, or image data and the like. A parallel-serial converter 36 converts parallel data (image data), expanded and read out of the pixel memory 35, into serial data and sends the serial data to a recording unit 37. A CPU 40 has a ROM 38 and a RAM 39 and controls page editing, recording processing, and the like, based upon a control program that has been stored in the ROM 38. The RAM 39 is used as a working area during execution of various programs. The recording unit 37, which comprises a laser-beam printer or the like, causes a light beam to irradiate and scan a photosensitive drum based upon inputted image information, thereby performing recording by forming an electrostatic latent image. Numeral 41 denotes a system bus, above-described units are connected to the CPU 40 via the system bus 41. In a case where image data is stored in the pixel memory 35 upon being compressed, the example of the prior art described above is so adapted that image data for text and image data for images are compressed with identical ratios. As a consequence, when use is made of a compression method which employs irreversible coding, the recording quality of the text data, namely of characters, symbols, and the like, is greatly diminished. Further, in a case where a bit-map image obtained by bit-map development of character or line-drawing data is compressed in the example of the prior art described above, the following problems arise depending upon the compression method: (1) When a fine or slender character is recorded, the recording quality of the character undergoes a pronounced decline. This is caused by character blurring or extinction of lines, and the like. (2) When a fine or slender line drawing is recorded, lines which should be recorded are not. Accordingly, a concern of the present invention is to provide a recording method and apparatus capable of the high-quality recording of text data and image data and of recording information in which the text data and image data are mixed. US Patent No. US-A-4204232 discloses a system for transmitting patterns or pictures in which an image is converted into a bit map and thinning algorithms are applied in accordance with the nature of the image. European Patent Application No. EP-A-0042981 discloses a method and apparatus for coding and compressing image data in dependency on the type of the data as represented by the image data. Text data and graphics data in particular are referred to. In accordance with a first aspect of the invention there is provided an output apparatus as set out in claim 1. In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention there is provided an output method as set out in claim 7. An embodiment of the present invention provides a recording method and apparatus in which the recording quality of fine characters and fine lines is improved. Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description given by way of example in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a printer control unit in a printer apparatus; Fig. 2 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser-beam printer in the embodiment of Figure 1; Fig. 3 is a flowchart showing bit-map development processing in the printer apparatus of Figure 1; Fig. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of a printer control unit in a printer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 5 is a flowchart showing bit-map development processing in the printer apparatus of the embodiment; and Fig. 6 is a block diagram showing the construction of a printer control unit in a printer apparatus according to the prior art. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Fig. 2 is a sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser-beam printer (LBP) 100. The LBP 100 is so adapted that a character code or image data enters from a data source (a host computer or the like), not shown, and is capable of being printed upon being subjected to pattern development. More specifically, the LBP 100 accepts an input of character information (character codes), form information or a macro instruction and the like supplied by an externally connected host computer or the like, stores the input, creates a character pattern or form pattern, and the like, corresponding to the input, and forms an image on recording paper, which is the recording medium. Numeral 300 denotes a control panel having various switches operated by the user, as well as an LED display and the like. Numeral 101 designates a printer control unit for controlling the overall LBP 100 and analyzing printing information and the like supplied by the host computer. The printer control unit 101 creates pattern information from a character code or graphic pattern, converts the pattern information into a video signal and delivers the video signal to a laser driver 102. The laser driver 102 is a circuit for driving a semiconductor laser 103 and is adapted to turn the semiconductor laser 103 on and off in dependence upon the video signal applied thereto. A laser beam 104 is made to scan an electrostatic drum 106 by being swept back and forth by a polygon mirror. As a result, an electrostatic latent image of a character pattern or graphic pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 106. The latent image is transferred to the recording paper after being developed by a developing unit 107 arrayed about the periphery of the electrostatic drum 106. Cut sheets of paper for use in a cassette 108 are employed as the recording paper. The cut sheets are accommodated in the paper cassette 108 loaded in the LBP 100 and is fed into the apparatus by a feed roller 109 and conveyor rollers 110, 111, whereby the paper is supplied to the electrostatic drum 106. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the construction of the printer control unit 101 of the printer apparatus. As shown in Fig. 1, recording information sent from a host computer 1 is stored in a page buffer memory 3 via an interface 2. A character-font memory 4 stores character-pattern data corresponding to character codes and is referred to when pattern development is applied to a character code inputted from the host computer 1 in the following image buffer lla of RAM 11. A pixel memory 5 stores the pattern information, which has been developed by making reference to the character-font memory 4, after the information has been compressed by a compressing circuit 6. An expanding circuit 7 expands the compressed pattern data that has been stored in the pixel memory 5. Numeral 8 denotes a parallel-serial converter for converting the parallel bit-map image data sent from the expanding circuit 7 into serial data and transmitting the serial data to a recording unit 9 as raster data. As described above with reference to Fig. 2, the recording unit 9 causes the light beam irradiating the photosensitive drum 106 to scan the drum 106 based upon the inputted raster data, thereby forming an electrostatic latent image to perform printing. Thus, the recording unit 9 employs a so-called electrophotographic process. Numeral 12 denotes a CPU having a ROM 10 and a RAM 11. The CPU 12 controls page editing, recording processing and the like in accordance with a control program, stored in the ROM 10, illustrated by the flowchart of Fig. 3. The RAM 11, which is employed as a working area during execution of various programs, is used to temporarily store various data. As will be explained later, the ROM 10 has a table 10a which stores data indicating whether it is necessary to correct a character pattern or graphic pattern in dependence upon the compression ratio. The RAM 11 has an image buffer lla for storing image data which has undergone pattern development. Those units are connected to the CPU 12 via the system bus 41. The operation of this printer apparatus will now be described with reference to the flowchart of Fig. 3. At step S1 of the flowchart, character-code information or graphics-control information is read out of the page buffer memory 3. The program then proceeds to step S2, at which it is determined whether there is a need to correct the character-code information or graphics information at the time of pattern development, namely whether it is necessary to thicken line portions. If correction is unnecessary, the program proceeds to step S4, at which a character code is developed into a pattern in the image buffer 11a of RAM 11 by referring to the character-font memory 4, and the graphics information is developed as is, in the form of image data, in the image buffer 11a of the RAM 11. Processing is then executed from step S5 onward. If it is decided at step S2 that the correction is required, i.e., line thickening is required, then the program proceeds to step S3, at which the character pattern developed by referring to the character-font memory 4 or the line-drawing data of the graphics information is corrected, so as to perform line thickening, in dependence upon the compression ratio of compression processing executed at step S5. The corrected character-pattern data and line-drawing data is developed and stored in the image buffer 11a of RAM 11. Next, the program proceeds to step S5, at which the character-pattern data and line-drawing data stored in the image buffer 11a is compressed by the compressing circuit 6, after which the compressed data is stored in the pixel memory 5 at step S6. The program then proceeds to step S7. The decision of step S2, namely the decision as to whether a correction for performing line thickening is required, is made upon taking into consideration the possibility that lines will disappear and the like as a result of compression. The decision is made based upon the relationship between the compression ratio of the compressing circuit 6 and the thickness of lines in the pattern data or line-image data. The data serving as the judgment criteria is stored in the ROM 10 as the table 10a, in which compression ratios and the corresponding character-code or line-drawing information are correlated. Accordingly, it is determined at step S2 whether a correction is necessary by referring to table 10a of ROM 10. It is determined at step S7 whether the processing of one page has been completed. If the answer is YES, the program returns to the original processing routine. If the answer is NO, on the other hand, the program returns to step S1, at which the processing set forth above is executed. In the apparatus described above, the processing for compression and expansion of the data is implemented by hardware using the compression circuit 6 and the expanding circuit 7. However, it is possible to implement the foregoing by software stored in the ROM 10. When the recording unit 9 performs compression and expansion of the image data in the case of a color printer, there are instances where lines cannot be seen depending upon the color recorded. In cases such as this, it will suffice to adopt an arrangement in which it is decided whether or not to correct the image data depending upon the recording color of this image data. In accordance with the apparatus as described above, the disappearance of fine characters or fine lines due to compression and expansion can be prevented by correcting the character or line-drawing data, i.e., by thickening fine-line portions, in dependence upon the data compression ratio when the bit-map information is developed. An embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to Figs. 4 and 5. Fig. 4 is a block diagram illustrating the construction of the printer control unit 101 according to an embodiment. Portions similar to those shown in Fig. 1 are designated by like reference characters and need not be described again. Numeral 18 denotes a pixel memory for text data. The memory 18 stores text image data as image data obtained by developing a character pattern from a character code and compressing the pattern data at a desired compression ratio by a compressing circuit 16. Numeral 19 designates a pixel memory for image data. Data read in from an image input unit (not shown) such as a scanner or the like is compressed at a desired compression ratio by a compressing circuit 17, after which the resulting data is stored in the memory 19 as image data. Numerals 20, 21 denote expanding circuits for expanding the image data read out of the text pixel memory 18 and image pixel memory 19, respectively. The text data and image data expanded and read out of the expanding circuits 20, 21 are applied to a parallel-serial converter 8a which takes the logical AND between these items of data and converts the parallel data to serial data. The serial data is sent to the recording unit 9 as raster data. Numeral 15 denotes a CPU having a ROM 13 and a RAM 14 for controlling page editing and recording processing in accordance with a control program, stored in the ROM 13, indicated by the flowchart of Fig. 5. The RAM 14 is used as a working area during execution of various programs. The operation of this embodiment will now be described with reference to the flowchart shown in Fig. 5. At step S11 of the flowchart, recording information (hereinafter referred to as recording data) inputted from the host computer 1 is read out of the page buffer memory 3. The recording data that has been stored in the page buffer memory 3 includes control data which indicates whether the recording data is text data or image data, as well as character codes and various control codes in case of text data and, in case of image data, the image data itself, which is represented by a bit map. On the basis of the control data, it is determined at step S12 whether the recording data that has been stored in the page buffer memory 3 is text data. If it is text data, the program proceeds to step S13, at which the text data is developed into a character pattern upon referring to the character-font memory 4. The data is then compressed by the compressing circuit 16 at step S14 at a compression ratio suited to the text data, namely a compression ratio which will not markedly detract from the recording quality. The program then proceeds to step S15, at which the image of the text data thus compressed is stored in the text pixel memory 18. In a case where it is determined that the data inputted at step S12 is not text data, the program proceeds to step S16, at which it is determined, based upon the aforementioned control data, whether the data is image data. In a case where the data is determined to be image data at step S16, the program proceeds to step S17, at which the image data is compressed by the compressing circuit 17 at a prescribed compression ratio suited to the image data. In general, a decline in picture quality of image data is small even when the image data is compressed at a compression ratio several tens of times that of text data. Consequently, the image data can be compressed at a compression ratio higher than that used in the case of text data. The program proceeds from step S17 to step S18, where the image data compressed at step S17 is stored in the image pixel memory 19. If it is determined at step S16 that the input data is not image data, then the program proceeds to step S19, at which it is determined whether one page of pattern-development processing has ended. If it has ended, the program returns to the original processing routine. If one page of processing has not ended, then the program returns to step S11 so that execution of the above-described procedure is repeated. In the foregoing embodiment, data compression/expansion is implemented by hardware. However, this does not impose a limitation upon the invention, for compression/expansion can be implemented by software. Further, it has been described in this embodiment that image data is compressed at a higher compression ratio than in the case of text data. However, by providing a plurality of image pixel memories, an image whose quality is desired to be maintained without any decline can be compressed at a low compression ratio and stored in another image pixel memory, then the compressed image can be read out of this memory, expanded and outputted. Thus, in accordance with the invention as described above, text data and image data are stored in a pixel memory for text data and a pixel memory for image data, respectively, upon being compressed at different compression ratios. This has the following advantages: (1) A decline in the recording quality of text data can be prevented. (2) When there is a large quantity of image data, as in a case where recording is performed using a color printer, the compression ratio of the image data is raised, thereby making it possible to reduce the memory capacity of the pixel memory. The present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of apparatus or to a single apparatus. Further, it goes without saying that the invention is applicable also to a case where a program for implementing the invention is supplied to a system or apparatus. Though use of a laser-beam printer is described in the foregoing embodiments, the invention is not limited to such a printer. The invention is applicable to printers which rely upon other recording methods, such as thermal-transfer printers and ink-jet printers.

Claims: An output apparatus which receives text or image information, the apparatus comprising: conversion means (S13) for converting the text information into bit-map information; compression means (16, 17) for compressing said bit-map information and said image information; and determination means (S12, S16) for determining whether text information or image information has been received; and characterised in that said compression means is adapted to compress said bit-map information at a first compression rate when said determination means determines that text information has been received, and for compressing the received image information at a second compression rate higher than the first compression rate when said determination means determines that image information has been received. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein compressed text data is stored in a text pixel memory (18). Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the compressed image data is stored in an image pixel memory (19). Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised by further comprising expanding means (20, 21) for expanding compressed bit-map information compressed by said compression means. Apparatus according to claim 4, characterised by further comprising print means (9) for printing the expanded bit-map information. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, characterised in that said output apparatus is a printer apparatus. A method of outputting data comprising: receiving text or image information; converting (S13) the text information into bit-map information; determining (S12, S16) whether text information or image information has been received; and compressing said image information and said bit-map information; and characterised in that said bit-map information is compressed at a first compression rate when it has been determined that text information has been received, and compressing the received image information at a second compression rate higher than the first compression rate when it has been determined that image information has been received. A method according to claim 7, wherein compressed text data is stored in a text pixel memory (18). A method according to claim 8, wherein the compressed image data is stored in an image pixel memory (19). A method according to any one of claims 7 to 9, comprising expanding compressed bit-map information compressed in said compression step, and printing the expanded bit-map information.

Inventors: SAKAI MASAHIKO, SAKAI, MASAHIKO, Sakai, Masahiko, c/o Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Applicants: CANON KK, CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1992
Main classification: H04N1
IPC codes: G06K15, H04N1