Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd.

Katsuya Yamaguchi

Hideaki Kitamura

Hiroshi Shibazaki

Hideaki Kashihara

Masayuki Sasahara

Koji Hatta

Provided is a printing system capable of printing, when one or more pages are replaced after raster image processing (RIP), by performing RIP of only the page(s) to be replaced. A job ticket is issued from a printing apparatus. In a printing data creating apparatus, information of page data for replacement is added to the content of the job ticket and then sent to the printing apparatus together with the page data for replacement. In the printing apparatus, only the received page data for replacement is subjected to RIP, and then printing after replacement processing is executed in accordance with the job ticket. It is unnecessary to perform again RIP of printing data irrelevant to the replacement. This increases the efficiency of processing and also lowers the cost.

Printing system

A printing apparatus and a printing method capable of preventing stacks of printed sheets from falling apart which can occur when continuously printing stacks of sheets of different sheet sizes. A printing press is controlled to suspend printing for removal of printed sheets, to change the storage destination of the printed sheets or to change printing order, based on a result of sequential or simultaneous comparisons between print sizes of a plurality of print data and a previously determined permissible limit.

Method and system for managing component data for design and prepress process using component layout information corresponding to a plurality of component areas laid out on a base sheet, each component area corresponding to either an image component, text component or linework component. The size of the base sheet and component area of each component to be laid out on the base sheet is determined and recorded in a memory means storing file name data of each component to be laid out in each of the component areas in a tree structure. Data for command sheet for each component is generated and recorded for each component with a file name attached. Each command sheet is generated using the tree structure of file name data of each component recorded in the memory and the original of component data in the tree structure of file name data of components recorded in the memory means is inserted.

Method and system for managing component data of the design process and

An image is read by an image reader and displayed on a color display. A segment (S) (or other graphic) is designated on the displayed image. Areas which overlap the segment and which have a designated color are specified as objective areas. The colors of the objective areas are changed to a newly designated color.

Method of and apparatus for processing image having a plurality of image

Representative pixel data is extracted for each predetermined region in an original image according to priority of color codes representing colors. The representative pixel data constitute a reduced image. The reduced image is a clear and complete reproduction of the original image without line omissions and distortion of a desired linework. M pieces of pixel data on each scanning line are successively read until the pixel data reaches a maximum value Xmax in a main scanning direction. One pixel data having a color code with the highest priority is selected from the read pixel data according to a priority code table TBL. If the color code is not in the priority table, pixel data at a predetermined position in the region of the read pixel data is selected. The results of selection for two adjacent scanning lines are compared based on the priority code table TBL, and final representative pixel data is selected.

Method of and apparatus for generating reduced image

An image data processor including a plurality of unit processors and processes a block of image data using the unit processors in parallel. Allotment ratios corresponding to the unit processors are stored in an allotment memory, and each of the unit processors processes its allotment of the block of image data according to its allotment ratio, whereby the lengths of time needed to process the allotments are equalized. The allotment ratios can be updated from time to time regarding the actual results of the processing time of the unit processors, or regarding the content of the image (which can be detected by sampling a part of the image data) and the type of data processing.

Image data processor and image data processing method

A method for extracting partial run-length data comprises the steps of: reading out total run-length data from a first memory in order of scanning; generating index data which indicates the relationship between the address of the first memory assigned to run-length data representing a first run of each scanning line and the subscanning coordinate of each scanning line; extracting partial run-length data representing the specified partial image out of the total run-length data from the first memory while referring to the index data corresponding to a range of the subscanning coordinate of the partial image; and executing image processing on the partial run-length data extracted.

Method and apparatus for extracting image data

An original image is represented in a run-length format. Run-length of each image region is compared with a predetermined reference value, and if the former is smaller than the latter, the run-length (l) is divided into two values (l.sub.1, l.sub.2). The two values are added to the run-length of image regions adjacent thereto, respectively. As a result, a linework (R1) included in the original image is erased without leaving a blank on the erased area.

Method of processing linework with electronic image processor

Gradation levels of an image to be recorded are expressed by gradation data having integral parts and decimal parts. Random numbers are composed with the decimal parts to provide composite values. When the composite value exceeds, the quantity is added to the value of the integral part. The decimal parts are accumulated along the direction of an array of pixels, to provide accumulated values. Also when the accumulated value exceeds, the quantity is added to the value of the integral part to provide a modified integral part. The modified integral parts are employed as gradation data in image recording.

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Kyoto, Japan

Katsuya Yamaguchi