Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Makio Gotoh

Masanori Minami

Yasutaka Hirayama

Yoshinori Murakami

Kenji Kimura

Masakazu Ohira

Tatsuya Tanaka

Takeshi Ohwaku

Takafumi Hosogi

Kazuyuki Hamada

Kazuhisa Kubota

Sohichi Yoshimura

Mihoko Tanimura

Motohiro Hayashi

Gaku Furuichi

Yuri Nakayama

An image processing apparatus includes: a segmentation process section which performs a segmentation process on the image data; and a spatial filter section which performs first image processing that varies according to a result of the segmentation process. When a degree of downsampling in the downsampling process is not higher than a predetermined reference level, the spatial filter section performing the first image processing on the image data; and when the degree of downsampling in the downsampling process is higher than the predetermined reference level, the spatial filter section performs second image processing irrelevant to the result of the segmentation process, instead of performing the first image processing, on the image data. This brings about an advantage of making it possible to suppress deterioration in quality of an image whose preview is displayed.

Image processing apparatus including first image processing section performing first image processing on image data to be supplied to image output apparatus and second image processing section performing second image processing on image data to be supplied to image display device, and image forming apparatus including the image processing apparatus

The present invention includes: an image size detection section detecting an image size according to image data including a photograph; a paper size detection section detecting a paper size for printing the image; and an enlarging/reducing unit carrying out an enlarging/reducing process to the image data, the enlarging/reducing unit comparing the image size with the paper size and carrying out the enlarging/reducing process by selecting, between a first enlarging/reducing ratio which is a first ratio of a short side length of the paper to a short side length of the image and a second enlarging/reducing ratio which is a second ratio of a long side length of the paper to a long side length of the image, one of the first enlarging/reducing ratio and the second enlarging/reducing ratio which one is to be reduced by a ratio greater than a ratio by which the other one is to be reduced.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image forming method, and recording medium

An image processing apparatus of the present invention uses a spatial filter section or an enlarging/reducing section to perform a blur process on image processing data to be supplied to an image display device, thus allowing the image display device to display a preview without deterioration in image quality.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and computer-readable storage medium containing image processing program

An image processing apparatus of the present invention includes: a blank document determination section determining whether or not input image data is image data of a blank document, regardless of a process mode set for setting a process with respect to the input image data; a storage device storing the input image data in association with a determination result made by the blank document determination section; and a control section (i) reading out the input image data from the storage device and (ii) excluding the input image data determined as image data of a blank document by the blank document determination section, from images to be displayed by the image display device, when the image display device carries out a preview display of the input image data. This configuration makes it possible to carry out a preview display in which a blank document (blank page document) is skipped, without reading the document again.

An image processing apparatus of the present invention includes a color matching section for performing, on monochrome or two-color image data to be supplied to an image display device, a color matching process of reducing differences in color from a single- or two-color image to be outputted by an image display device, and as such, can display a comfortable preview of a single- or two-color image data by reducing differences in color between an image to be previewed and an image to be actually printed.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and storage medium, each of which performs, on monochrome image data to image display device, or two-color image data, color matching process of reducing differences in color between image to be outputted by image display device and image to be outputted by printing apparatus

A two color process section included in the image processing apparatus includes a luminance and chroma calculation section, an image-data determination section, and an output-color generation section. The luminance and chroma calculation section calculates a luminance value and a chroma value based on input image data. The image-data determination section determines the input image data, the chroma value of which is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold, as first input image data constituting a chromatic color in a two-color image and determines the input image data, the chroma value of which is less than the threshold, as second input image data constituting an achromatic color in the two-color image. The output-color generation section generates image data of CMY from the first input image data based on the chroma value and the luminance value and generates image data of CMY from the second input image data based on the luminance value.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and computer-readable recording medium on which image processing program is recorded

Unevenness in density (line noise) resulting from color misregistration among RGB components in a halftone region or a line screen region is suppressed. With respect to a document that is discriminated as a printed photo document or a text/printed photo document that includes black halftones by a document type discrimination section, or to a region segmented into a black halftone region by a segmentation section, a non-uniform image suppressing operation mode is executed. In the non-uniform image suppressing operation mode, a black generation and under color removal section does not carry out a black generation and under color removal process on a pixel in which a minimum value of the image data of the plurality of color components is at least equal to or less than a predetermined threshold.

Image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and storage medium

The image processing apparatus of the present invention includes: a bit number correction process section for converting tones of binary image data into a maximum tone and a minimum tone of multilevel image data; a spatial filter section for performing a smoothing process on image data resulting from the bit number conversion; and an enlarging/reducing section for performing an interpolation process on the image data subjected to the smoothing process so that smoothness of tones of the image data is maintained, the image data subjected to the interpolation process being supplied to the image display device. This allows an image display device for displaying multilevel image data to display a preview image of binary image data without deteriorating the quality of image data.

In an image processing apparatus, a color/monochrome determination section determines whether color image data is image data indicative of a color document or image data indicative of a monochrome document, regardless of which color setting is selected to output image data, and a control section stores a determination result and the color image data in a storage device so that they are correlated with each other. Upon receiving a change instruction to change the color setting, the control section generates output image data, following a color setting that is changed according to the change instruction, on the basis of the determination result and the color image data each stored in the storage device. As a result, even if the color setting is desired to be changed, it is possible to carry out output processing without reading the document from an image reading apparatus again.

Processing apparatus, image reading processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, image processing method, and storage medium, all of which carry out automatic color selection (ACS) regardless of color setting of output image data

A segmentation process section classifies signals of pixels in input image data into respective signals of a black text/low density area, a black text/high density area, a color text area, and an area other than a text area. A black generation and under color removal section performs an under color removal process with respect to the signal of the black text/low density area so that an amount of UCR is a middle value (C, M, Y) of signals indicative of color component density levels. Consequently, it is possible to prevent color fringing and a white spot at a time when chromatic aberration occurs in the input image data.

Image processing and/or forming apparatus for performing black generation and under color removal processes on selected pixels, image processing and/or forming method for the same, and computer-readable storage medium for storing program for causing computer to function as image processing and/or forming apparatus for the same

A document matching process section calculates feature points (e.g., the centroid) on the basis of an inputted document image, then selects a plurality of feature points from among the calculated feature points, and then calculates a hash value on the basis of the selected feature points. Then, on the basis of the calculated features, the document matching process section determines whether the document image is similar to a preliminary reference format (reference image). When it is determined as being similar, the document matching process section determines whether write-in is present in the document image, and then outputs a determination signal (a determination result indicating the presence or absence of write-in). In the determination of similarity of the document image, permission or non-permission for processing such as copying is determined more accurately than in the prior art.

Image processing method, image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and image reading apparatus

An image processing apparatus is provided that restrains image quality deterioration of image data read with a resolution in a sub-scanning direction set lower than a resolution in a main scanning direction from a document containing text, halftone photographs, line drawings, photographs, etc. An image processing apparatus performs the tone reproduction processing by applying error diffusion processing to the image data that has undergone processing of making the resolution in the sub-scanning direction equal to the resolution in the main scanning direction when the resolution in the sub-scanning direction is lower than the resolution in the main scanning direction and applying dither processing to the image data in other case. When the resolution in the sub-scanning direction is lower than the resolution in the main scanning direction, the halftone processing is applied to the entire image data that sharpness and smoothing processing has been performed.

Image processing apparatus, image processing method, image forming apparatus, program, and recording medium

An image processing apparatus includes a counting section for counting pixels belonging to a chromatic text component and chromatic pixels belonging to a component other than the text component among pixels composing image data obtained by reading a document, a comparison section for comparing the counted numbers with respective predetermined values, a determination section for determining that the document contains a chromatic color when either one of the number of the pixels belonging to the text component and the number of the chromatic pixels belonging to the component other than the chromatic text component is not less than the corresponding predetermined value, and an image processing section for performing a process with respect to the image data in accordance with a determination result by the determination section.

Image processing method, image processing apparatus, image forming apparatus, and recording medium for chromatic content determination

The image processing apparatus executes a zoom process to an image data depending on a received zoom level, selects a dither matrix from a plurality of dither matrices each having a different resolution. The image processing apparatus selects a dither matrix that has a higher resolution in a case that the received zoom level is equal or less than a first zoom level to reduce the image data. Furthermore, the image processing apparatus selects a dither matrix that has a lower resolution in a case that the received zoom level is equal or more than a second zoom level to enlarge the image data.

Image processing method, image processing apparatus, image forming system and recording medium readable by a computer

A display control device controls an image display device capable of displaying a preview of an output image that is to be subjected to an output process, before the output image is subjected to the output process. The display control device refers to a storage section in which specific information specifying an image process which a user cannot recognize from a previewed output image is stored, and selects an image process specified by the specific information out of image processes to be carried out on the output image. Further, the display control device causes the image display device to display a setting confirmation image showing a content of the selected image process. This allows a user to correctly understand the content of an image process to be carried out on the output image and the image quality of the output image subjected to the output process.

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Nara, Japan

Makio Gotoh