IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS AND IMAGE PROCESSING METHOD

• US 20090201518A1
• Filed: 02/03/2009
• Published: 08/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/12/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Hino, Yasuhiro
• Granted Patent: US 8,179,560 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.900
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/02 using printers
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1849 using an intermediate representation, e.g. a list of graphical primitives
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1855 Combining raster data and graphic primitives
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/325 Modified version of the image, e.g. part of the image, image reduced in size or resolution, thumbnail or screennail

Abstract

An image processing apparatus is provided for realizing a higher speed print-out of a scan image. It is determined whether an input data type stored in metadata of document data is PDL or not (S1609). If the input data type is “full-page image”, page data is divided into blocks and a thread is allotted to each of the blocks (S1608). If the input data type is not “full-page image”, the process goes to S1603. Subsequently, DL data is generated from vector data in the document, the DL data is added to the document, and the DL data is rendered into a bit map (S1603 to S1605). If the threads are processed by a plurality of processors, respectively, it becomes possible to carry out the processing in parallel and thereby to realize higher speed processing, when the input data type is “full page image”.

Claims

1. An image processing apparatus, comprising:

a reception component receiving PDL data from an external apparatus;

an input component inputting scan image data from a scanner;

a first conversion component converting at least a part of an area in the data input by the reception component and the input component into resolution-independent data which does not depend on a resolution of the input component;

a second conversion component converting subsidiary information obtained when generating the resolution-independent data into additional information data as additional information which is not subjected to print processing;

a component retaining the resolution-independent data and the additional information data in association with each other;

a component retaining information indicating which of the image data and the PDL data is a type of the data input into the first conversion component; and

a component switching data conversion processing depending on the type of the data input into the first conversion component.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a component performing drawing development of the resolution-independent data into a bit map, wherein

the component performs the processing using a different processor for each division unit of a page, which is divided in the process of the conversion into the resolution-independent data, when the data type is the image data.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a component optimizing the resolution-independent data, wherein

the component omits the optimization processing, when the data type is the image data.

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a component converting the resolution-independent data into a universal data format, wherein

the component performs drawing development into the bit map before the conversion to the universal data format, and changes the type of the data to the image data, when the data type is the PDL data.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising

a component searching the additional information data, wherein

the component performs the search processing only for data, the data type of which is the image data.

6. An image processing method, comprising the steps of:

a reception component receiving PDL data from an external apparatus;

an input component inputting scan image data from a scanner;

converting at least a part of an area of the data input by the reception component and the input component into resolution-independent data which does not depend on a resolution of the input component;

converting subsidiary information obtained when generating the resolution-independent data into additional information data as additional information which is not subjected to print processing;

retaining the resolution-independent data and the additional information data in association with each other;

retaining information indicating which of the image data and the PDL data is a type of the data input by the reception component and the input component; and

switching data conversion processing depending on the data type.

7. A computer-readable recording medium recording a program for causing a computer to execute a method comprising the steps of:

a reception component receiving PDL data from an external apparatus;

an input component inputting scan image data from a scanner;

converting at least a part of an area of the data input by the reception component and the input component into resolution-independent data which does not depend on a resolution of the input component;

converting subsidiary information obtained when generating the resolution-independent data into additional information data as additional information which is not subjected to print processing;

retaining the resolution-independent data and the additional information data in association with each other;

retaining information indicating which of the image data and the PDL data is a type of the data input by the reception component and the input component; and

switching data conversion processing depending on the data type.