JP2004112514A - Image processing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image processing method and apparatus for creating an electronic document in a plurality of desired formats by easy operations. <P>SOLUTION: An instruction document analysis section 12 receives a user's instruction from a scanner 2, acquires an image obtained by the scanner 2 by reading an original on the basis of the received instruction, and generates a master job on the basis of the instruction. Then a job management section 13 converts the acquired image into print data in accordance with each printer and into a storage file stored in a file server 6 on the basis of the master job. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an image processing method and apparatus, and more particularly to an image processing method and apparatus for storing and printing an image or the like obtained by reading a document as a digital document in a specified format.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, the number of opportunities to digitize documents has increased, and electronic documents may be created not only from documents created using application software but also from documents printed and described on paper.
[0003]
When creating an electronic document from a document printed and described on paper, an image reading device such as a scanner reads a paper document to generate an image, and stores the image as an electronic document in a desired format. Then, when an electronic document is generated from a paper document, if there are a plurality of formats desired as the electronic document, it is necessary to perform processing corresponding to each format.
[0004]
For example, when handing out explanatory materials, such as a mixture of color printed graphs and photographs and samples of exhibition halls, in paper manuscripts, this is stored as an electronic document, and it is printed and distributed by a printer. When printing, a color printer takes a long time to output or has a high running cost. In order to do this, the original is read by a color-compatible scanner and converted into document data in a desired format. Thereafter, a document is displayed from a personal computer or the like using the corresponding application software, converted into a printer description language corresponding to the printer using a printer driver, and sent to the printer for printing. At this time, if you select a black and white printer, it will be printed in black and white, and if you select a color printer, you will use the printer driver user interface to select whether to print in black and white or color and send it . However, it is not possible to operate both at once, and it may take a very long time to send print data to the printer. (This is because the printer driver decompresses the compressed image data once and processes it. This is because the data is multiplied by many times to be sent to the printer in an uncompressed state.)
[0005]
Also, for example, when there is a paper manuscript including color data, one copy of the same material is printed by a color printer, the other copy is printed in large quantities by a black and white printer, and further attached to mail or the like. Suppose you create a file. At this time, electronic data that is attached to a mail cannot be used if the data size is large, so we want to reduce the data size by lowering the resolution.However, when printing on a printer, the print result will be poor if the resolution is low. Therefore, it is necessary to print the high resolution data as it is. In such a case, when reading the original, scan at a low resolution such as 100 dpi to generate a file, attach the file to an e-mail, send the e-mail, scan again at a high resolution, and re-scan in a desired format. The document is converted into an electronic document, the corresponding application software is activated, and converted into a page description language by a printer driver and sent to a printer. This operation needs to be performed a plurality of times for black and white and color.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
As described above, when an electronic document is generated from a paper document, if there are a plurality of formats desired as the electronic document, the user needs to perform a process corresponding to each desired format. It took a lot of trouble.
[0007]
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image processing method and apparatus capable of creating an electronic document in a plurality of desired formats by an easy operation.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an image processing method for performing a designated process on an image obtained by reading an original by an image reading apparatus is provided by reading the original with the image reading apparatus. An image is obtained, and the obtained image is converted into a plurality of types of designated images.
[0009]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, a job is generated for each of a plurality of types of images to be converted, and each of the generated jobs is executed.
[0010]
The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that, in the invention according to claim 2, the job is generated by a master job generated based on the designation.
[0011]
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the conversion includes at least one of resolution conversion, color space conversion, format conversion, and image direction conversion.
[0012]
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus for performing a designated process on an image obtained by reading an original with an image reading apparatus, wherein the instruction receiving means for receiving an instruction from the image reading apparatus; An image acquisition unit configured to acquire an image obtained by reading an original by the image reading device based on the instruction received by the unit; and an image acquired by the image acquisition unit designated by the instruction received by the instruction reception unit. Image conversion means for converting into a plurality of types of images.
[0013]
The invention according to claim 6 is the invention according to claim 5, further comprising a job generating unit for generating a job for each of a plurality of types of images to be converted, wherein the image converting unit is generated by the job generating unit. Image conversion is performed based on each job.
[0014]
Also, in the invention according to claim 7, in the invention according to claim 6, the instruction receiving unit generates a master job based on the received instruction, and the job generating unit performs conversion based on the master job. A feature is to generate a job for each of a plurality of types of images.
[0015]
According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect of the invention, the image conversion means includes a resolution conversion means for converting the resolution of the image, a color space conversion means for converting the color space of the image, and a format of the image. It is characterized by comprising a format converting means for converting and an image rotating means for converting the direction of the image.
[0016]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, an embodiment of an image processing method and apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0017]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a document management system to which the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 1, the document management system includes a document management apparatus 1, a scanner 2 (2-1 to 2-n), a printer 3 (3-1 to 3-m), and a client 4 (4-1 to 4-4). -L) is connected to the network 5 and configured. Although FIG. 1 shows a configuration in which each of the scanner 2, the printer 3, and the client 4 is connected to the network 5, a plurality of these are not necessarily required.
[0018]
The document management apparatus 1 to which the present invention is applied performs document management and processing, output control to the printer 3, and the like. The scanner 2 reads a document to obtain an image. The printer 3 receives the image or the like acquired by the scanner 2 via the document management device 1, and prints out this image. The client 4 issues an instruction to the document management apparatus 1 for editing or reusing a document.
[0019]
Here, details of the document management apparatus 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the document management apparatus 1.
[0020]
As shown in FIG. 1, the document management apparatus 1 includes an instruction creation unit 11, an instruction analysis unit 12, a job management unit 13, a file management unit 14, a file conversion unit 15, and a printer management unit 16. You.
[0021]
The instruction book creating unit 11 provides the scanner 2 with a user interface for a user to create an instruction book. However, the scanner 2 itself may have a user interface for creating an instruction, and the instruction creating unit 11 does not always provide the user interface. The instruction includes an instruction to the scanner 2 such as what kind of resolution, what kind of color space, what kind of compression format, what kind of image scan area to perform scanning, and the like. Includes instructions on what data to save in what electronic format, what color space, what compression format, what resolution, and where. It also includes instructions on how to print the scanned image data on the printer 3 and how.
[0022]
The instruction analysis unit 12 receives the instruction from the scanner 2 after the scanner 2 scans the original, acquires the image data from the storage location of the image data described in the instruction, and transmits the image data to the file server 6. Alternatively, it is stored on a local disk (not shown). The file server 6 is a server for storing and managing files connected to the network 5 (not shown in FIG. 1), and the local disk is a storage device such as a hard disk of the document management device 1 itself. Further, instead of acquiring the image data, the instruction book analyzing unit 12 may acquire position information such as a URL indicating a storage location of the image data. Then, the instruction book analysis unit 12 generates a job (here, referred to as a master job) according to the contents described in the instruction book. In the generated master job, positional information (URL of the file server 6 or a path of a local disk or the like) indicating the storage location of the image data is specified as an attribute.
[0023]
The job management unit 13 receives the master job generated by the instruction analysis unit 12, and generates a job corresponding to the instruction based on the attribute information of the master job. When there is a print instruction in the attribute information of the master job, a print job is generated for each print instruction, and the print job is passed to the printer management unit 16. In this job, in addition to the contents of the print instruction, the image data or the position information of the image data, and the designation information for the printer 3 as the output destination are designated as attributes. If there is a file conversion instruction in the attribute information of the master job, a file storage job is generated for each output file format and its storage destination and passed to the file management unit 14. In this job, in addition to the content of the file conversion instruction, the image data or the position information of the image data, an output format and a storage destination are specified as attributes. Then, the job management unit 13 waits for completion of all the jobs generated based on the master job (generated based on the instruction of 1), and when all the jobs are completed, the account corresponding to the master job Record the information and complete the master job.
[0024]
The file management unit 14 causes the file conversion unit 15 to convert the image data included or specified in the job passed from the job management unit 13 based on the specification of the attribute, and the converted image data is specified. Save to location. When the saving is completed, the job management unit 13 is notified of the end of the job.
[0025]
The file conversion unit 15 includes conversion units such as a color space conversion unit, a resolution conversion unit, a format conversion unit, and an image direction conversion unit (all not shown). Various conversion processes are performed on the image data based on the instruction.
[0026]
The printer management unit 16 always acquires characteristic information of the printer from the connected printer 3 and manages the characteristic information. Then, when the job is passed from the job management unit 13, the printer 3 as the output destination is specified based on the attribute information of the job, and the image data included in or specified by the job is specified based on the characteristic information. Is converted by the file conversion unit 15 into the format shown in FIG. For example, if the image data is color and the printer specified as the output destination is a black and white printer, the file conversion unit 15 converts the color space from color to gray. For example, when the print format supported by the printer specified as the output destination and the format of the image data are different, the format conversion is performed by the file conversion unit 15. Then, if the conversion of the image data is completed or the conversion is not necessary, the image data or the position information thereof is sent to the designated printer 3 together with the print instruction information. Is notified to the job management unit 13.
[0027]
Next, an operation flow of the document management apparatus 1 will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of the operation of the document management apparatus 1.
[0028]
When the instruction analysis unit 12 receives the instruction sent from the scanner 2 (YES in step 101), the document management apparatus 1 analyzes the received instruction and saves the image data described in the instruction. Determine if image data should be obtained from the location. If it is necessary to acquire it, it is stored in the file server 6 or a local disk (step 102). Subsequently, the instruction analysis unit 12 generates a master job based on the content described in the instruction, and passes the generated master job to the job management unit 13 (step 103).
[0029]
If the master job includes a print instruction (YES in step 104), the job management unit 13 that has received the master job from the instruction document analysis unit 12 generates a print job (step 105). Contains a file storage instruction (YES in step 106), a file storage job is generated (step 107), and these generated jobs are executed by the file management unit 14 and the printer management unit 16 (step 108). ). Note that the job management unit 13 generates a job for each instruction included in the master job.
[0030]
When all the jobs executed by the file management unit 14 and the printer management unit 16 are completed (YES in step 109), the job management unit 13 records the account information, associates the account information with the master job, and associates the account information with the master job. Alternatively, the data is stored in the local disk (step 110), and the process ends.
[0031]
Next, the relationship between an instruction, a job, and image data in the document management apparatus 1 will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the relationship between the instruction sheet, the job, and the image data.
[0032]
In the document management apparatus 1, the instruction analysis unit 12 generates the master job 30 based on the instruction 20, and acquires the corresponding image data 40 (in this case, the image data itself is acquired, and the position of the image data is Information (URL etc.) in some cases). The instruction form 20 includes a storage location of the image data 40, a designation of saving a file for screen display, a designation of print output from the printer 3-1, a designation of print output from the printer 3-2, and a mail transmission of a distribution file. It is assumed that the specification is described. The image data 40 is color and has a resolution of 400 dpi.
[0033]
When the master job 30 is generated, the job management unit 13 generates a job 31 for saving a file for screen display, a job 32 for print output from the printer 3-1, and a job for printing from the printer 3-2 based on the master job 30. A print output job 33 and a distribution file mail transmission job 34 are generated.
[0034]
Each job is executed, and the job 31 converts the image data 40 into color 72 dpi image data 41 as image data for screen display and stores the image data 41 in the file server 6.
[0035]
The job 32 converts the image data 40 into image data 42 of 600 dpi of black and white as image data for print output to the printer 3-1 (to be a monochrome printer), and causes the printer 3-2 to print out.
[0036]
The job 33 converts image data 43 indicated by position information (URL) indicating the image data 40 as image data for print output to the printer 3-2 (a format of the image data 40 can be received by a color printer). Print output from 3-2.
[0037]
The job 34 converts the image data 40 as gray image data 44 of 200 dpi as image data for distribution, generates an e-mail attached with the image data 44, and sends the e-mail to the mail server 7 (connected to the network 5). (Not shown in FIG. 1) to a designated destination.
[0038]
Here, a case has been described in which the job is executed by sending a mail in addition to saving and printing the file. However, various other outputs such as sending by fax can be performed.
[0039]
Next, the operation of the entire document management system shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow of information exchanged between the respective units of the document management system.
[0040]
In the document management system, first, the document management apparatus 1 provides display information of a user interface to the scanner 2 (Step 201). This user interface information is described in, for example, HTML or the like.
[0041]
Subsequently, when the information input by the user with the scanner 2 is notified to the document management apparatus 1 (step 202), the document management apparatus 1 creates the instruction sheet by the instruction sheet creating unit 11 and writes the created instruction sheet. The data is transmitted to the scanner 2 (step 203).
[0042]
Then, the scanner 2 reads the document based on the instruction, and the instruction is transmitted to the document management apparatus 1 in order to execute the continuation of the instruction (step 204). The document management device 1 determines whether to acquire data from the storage location of the image data described in the instruction. If it is necessary to acquire the image data, the image data is acquired from the file server 6 (Step 205).
[0043]
Subsequently, the document management apparatus 1 executes the job in accordance with the description of the instruction sheet, and sends the image data or the position information (URL) of the image data to the designated output destinations of the printers 3-1 and 3-2. The data is sent (steps 206 and 207), and the process ends.
[0044]
By the way, in the above-mentioned example, although the contents described in the instruction are input from the scanner 2, the instruction itself is created by the document management apparatus 1. When the document management apparatus 1 creates an instruction, it is not necessary to send the entire instruction to the scanner 2, only information relating to control of the scanner 2 is transmitted, and other parts (instructions after image data generation) are not transmitted. Alternatively, the script may be transferred from the script creation unit 11 of the document management apparatus 1 to the script analysis unit 12.
[0045]
In this case, when the document management device 1 provides display information of the user interface to the scanner 2 (step 211), and when the information input by the user with the scanner 2 is notified to the document management device 1 (step 212), In the document management apparatus 1, the script creation unit 11 creates a script, and transmits only the control information of the scanner 2 to the scanner 2 (step 213). When the scanner 2 reads the document based on the instruction, when the document reading is completed, the scanner 2 notifies the document management device 1 of the scan result information (step 214), and the document management device 1 It is determined whether data should be obtained from the storage location of the image data described in the created instruction sheet. If it is necessary to acquire the image data, the image data is acquired from the file server 6 (step 215). In this case, the subsequent job execution is the same.
[0046]
Further, the scanner 2 does not necessarily need to have the display information of the user interface provided from the document management apparatus 1, and the scanner 2 itself displays the user interface, and generates an instruction based on the information input thereto. Can also be created. In this case, the scanner 2 reads the manuscript based on the created instruction, and then transmits the instruction to the document management apparatus 1 (step 221). When receiving the instruction, the document management device 1 determines whether to acquire data from the storage location of the image data described in the instruction. If it is necessary to acquire the image data, the image data is acquired from the file server 6 (step 222). In this case, the subsequent job execution is the same.
[0047]
Next, input of information for creating an instruction in the scanner 2 will be described. 6 to 8 are diagrams showing display examples of the user interface displayed on the scanner 2. FIG.
[0048]
First, a screen 300 as shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the scanner 2. This screen 300 is a screen for specifying an output method of scanned image data. When a button 301 is pressed, print output can be specified, and when a button 302 is pressed, file saving can be specified.
[0049]
When the user presses the button 301, a screen 310 as shown in FIG. On this screen 310, a printer specification column 311 for specifying a printer as an output destination and a printing condition specification column 312 for specifying printing conditions are displayed, and the user can input desired conditions.
[0050]
When the user presses the button 302 on the screen 300, the scanner 2 displays a screen 320 as shown in FIG. On this screen 320, a storage destination specification column 321 for specifying the storage destination of the image data as a file and a storage condition specification column 322 for specifying the storage conditions are displayed, and the user can input desired conditions. Can be.
[0051]
It should be noted that the screen example of the user interface shown here is an example, and any screen may be used as the user interface as long as information required for creating the instruction sheet can be input.
[0052]
As described above, the document management apparatus 1 may generate a plurality of files based on one instruction. Since the plurality of files are created based on one instruction, it is clear that the files are obtained by reading the same document. Therefore, by adding a UUID (Universal Unique ID) as an attribute to each of the plurality of files created, it may be easier to reuse each document.
[0053]
For example, as shown in FIG. 9, the document management apparatus 1 performs processing based on the instruction, saves the image data 51 in the file server 6 (Step 401), and distributes the image data 52 (this is distributed by e-mail). May be a sample image of 72 dpi) for the client 4 (step 402). At this time, the same UUID 60 is added as an attribute to the image data 51 and the image data 52.
[0054]
Thereafter, when the client 4 requests to obtain the original image data 51 instead of the image data 52 for distribution (for example, to print or to process the data), the user transmits the UUID 60 from the client 4 to the file 4. The data is transmitted to the server 6 (step 403). The file server 6 searches the image data 51 having the notified UUID 60 as an attribute, and transmits the image data 51 to the client 4 (Step 404).
[0055]
By performing such a process, the user can easily and accurately obtain a related document.
[0056]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, a scanner obtains an image obtained by reading a document, and based on the user's designation, prints or saves data corresponding to each printer for printing. Since the configuration is such that the file is converted, the user can execute a plurality of processes with a single operation, and the efficiency of the process for the document is improved.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a document management system to which the present invention is applied.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the document management apparatus 1.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of an operation of the document management apparatus 1.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a relationship between an instruction, a job, and image data.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flow of information transmitted and received between units of the document management system.
FIG. 6 is a diagram (1) showing a display example of a user interface displayed on the scanner 2;
FIG. 7 is a diagram (2) showing a display example of a user interface displayed on the scanner 2;
FIG. 8 is a diagram (3) showing a display example of a user interface displayed on the scanner 2;
FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a usage example when a UUID is added to a file.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Document Management Device 2, 2-1 to 2-n Scanner 3, 3-1 to 3-m Printer 4, 4-1 to 4-1 Client 5 Network 6 File Server 7 Mail Server 11 Instruction Writing Unit 12 Instruction Writing Analysis unit 13 Job management unit 14 File management unit 15 File conversion unit 16 Printer management unit 20 Instruction manual 30 Job (master job)
31 Job 32 Job 33 Job 34 Job 40 Image data 41 Image data 42 Image data 43 Image data 44 Image data 51 Image data 52 Image data 60 UUID
300 screen 301 button 302 button 310 screen 311 printer specification field 312 printing condition specification field 320 screen 321 storage destination specification field 322 storage condition specification field

Claims (8)

An image processing method for performing a designated process on an image obtained by reading a document with an image reading device,
An image processing method comprising: acquiring an image obtained by reading a document with an image reading device; and converting the acquired image into a plurality of types of designated images. 2. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein a job is generated for each of a plurality of types of images to be converted, and each of the generated jobs is executed. The job is
3. The image processing method according to claim 2, wherein the image is generated by a master job generated based on the designation. The conversion is
2. The image processing method according to claim 1, further comprising at least one of resolution conversion, color space conversion, format conversion, and image direction conversion. In an image processing apparatus that performs a designated process on an image obtained by reading an original with an image reading apparatus,
Instruction receiving means for receiving an instruction from the image reading device;
Image acquisition means for acquiring an image obtained by reading a document with the image reading device based on the instruction received by the instruction reception means,
An image processing apparatus comprising: an image conversion unit configured to convert an image acquired by the image acquisition unit into a plurality of types of images specified by an instruction received by the instruction reception unit. A job generating unit that generates a job for each of a plurality of types of images to be converted;
The image conversion means,
6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein image conversion is performed based on each of the jobs generated by the job generating unit. The instruction receiving means,
Generate a master job based on the received instruction,
The job generating means includes:
7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a job for each of a plurality of types of images to be converted is generated based on the master job. The image conversion means,
Resolution conversion means for converting the resolution of the image;
Color space conversion means for converting the color space of the image;
Format conversion means for converting the format of the image;
6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising: an image rotation unit configured to convert an image direction.

Images