Graphic processing apparatus allowing the user to specify image appearance by automatically expressing differences in color and hatching attributes

• US 5,877,772 A
• Filed: 07/01/1996
• Issued: 03/02/1999
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/1995
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Inventors: Hayashi, Naoki, Nomura, Takahiko
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Young, John L.
• Application Number:
  US08/684,834
• Time in Patent Office: 974 Days
• Field of Search: 345/141, 345/194, 345/193, 345/10, 345/150, 345/431, 345/116, 345/131, 345/133, 345/507, 345/369, 345/340, 345/362, 345/421, 345/139, 345/351, 345/352, 345/419, 345/429 , 345/147, 345/432, 345/433, 345/430, 345/434, 345/418, 345/420, 345/22, 345/296, 382/162, 395/183.14, 358/500, 358/518, 358/520, 358/521, 358/530, 358/537, 358/515, 358/531, 707/3, 707/502, 707/526, 707/516, 707/528, 707/529, 707/530, 707/531, 33/465
• US Class Current: 345/594
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/203 Drawing of straight lines or curves

Abstract

A graphic processing apparatus is described which is capable of controlling the highlighting states of regions of an image by providing differences in color and hatching densities and the like to the regions in accordance with the area and the degree of importance of the region. This allows high quality coloring and hatching to be easily performed. The graphic processing apparatus has a memory for temporarily storing the image; a region extractor that extracts a plurality of regions to be painted with a color from the stored image; a region color determiner that determines region colors to be applied to the extracted regions; and an output image generator that generates an image having the color attributes applied to the extracted regions of the stored image. The region colors are differentiated from each other by differences in color attributes from among the regions in accordance with the areas of the individual regions each to be painted with a color. When used in a digital photocopier environment, an image that is scanned and stored in memory can have regions, selected by a user through a graphical user interface, colored or hatched, the colors/hatching applied at the same time to the regions and the modified image printed.

Claims

1. A graphic processing apparatus that changes appearances of selected regions of an image, comprising:

a memory that temporarily stores the image;

a region selector that allows a plurality of regions of the image to be selected;

an appearance alterer that alters an appearance of each of the plurality of selected regions at the same time, the altered appearances of the plurality of selected regions being different from one another; and

an outputter that outputs the image, the selected regions of the output image having the altered appearances.

2. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of region appearances are differentiated by at least one of color and hatching.

3. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 2, wherein the hatching is at least one of hatching designs and hatching patterns.

4. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 3, wherein the hatching designs and hatching patterns are differentiated by hatching density.

5. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 4, wherein the difference in hatching density is at least a difference in dot density, a difference in hatching segment gap, a difference in hatching-line thickness and a difference in hatching-overlap count.

6. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a region appearance selector that selects the appearance for each of the plurality of selected regions based on at least one of an area and an importance of that selected region.

7. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 6, wherein each of the plurality of selected regions is one of at least one category, a characteristic of each category based on the at least one of the areas and the importances of the at least one selected region included in that category;

and

the at least one category is differentiated from one another by differences in the characteristics of each of the at least one category.

8. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 7, wherein for each of the at least one category, the characteristic of that category is determined in accordance with a sum of the areas of the at least one selected region included in that category.

9. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 7, wherein for each of the at least one category, the characteristic of that category is determined in accordance with a largest area of the at least one selected region included in that category.

10. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an importance-degree determiner that determines degrees of indicated importance for each of the plurality of selected regions, wherein, for each of the plurality of selected regions of the output image, the appearance of that selected region is based on the degree of indicated importance of that selected region.

11. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 1, wherein the appearance alterer is a region-color alterer that differentiates appearance attributes from each other among each of the plurality of selected regions based on at least one appearance-arrangement rule.

12. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 11, wherein:

the at least one appearance attribute is a color attribute; and

differences in the color attribute used to differentiate the plurality of selected regions from one another is at least one of differences in density, differences in chroma and differences in hue.

13. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one appearance-arrangement rule comprises altering any of the plurality of selected regions having an area larger than a reference area in appearance with a region color having a low density, and altering any of the plurality of selected regions having an area smaller than the reference area in appearance with a region color having a high density.

14. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 13, wherein the at least one appearance arrangement rule comprises altering any of the plurality of selected regions having an area larger than a reference area in appearance with a non-vivid region color having a low density, and altering any of the plurality of selected regions having an area smaller than the reference area in appearance with a vivid region color having a high density.

15. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one region-appearance arrangement rule comprises altering any of the plurality of selected regions having an area larger than a reference area in appearance with a region color having a low chroma, and altering any of the plurality of selected regions having an area smaller than the reference area in appearance with a region color having a high chroma.

16. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one appearance-arrangement rule comprises altering each of the plurality of selected regions having an area larger than a reference area in appearance with a non-vivid region color, and altering each of the plurality of selected regions having an area smaller than the reference area in appearance with a vivid region color.

17. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one appearance-arrangement rule comprises gradually decreasing the density of a color to be applied to each of the plurality of selected regions as the area of the selected region increases.

18. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one appearance-arrangement rule comprises gradually decreasing the chroma of a color to be applied to any of the plurality of selected regions as the area of the selected region increases.

19. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 12, wherein the at least one appearance-arrangement rule comprises gradually decreasing the density and the chroma of a color to be applied to any of the plurality of selected regions as the area of the selected regions increase.

20. A digital copier that graphically alters appearances of each of the selected regions of a document, comprising:

a scanner that scans a document and outputs the image;

an image forming device that forms the output image; and

the graphic processing apparatus of claim 1.

21. A method for graphically altering appearances of a plurality of regions of an image, comprising:

storing the image in memory;

selecting a plurality of regions of the stored image;

altering at the same time the plurality of selected regions such that each selected region has an appearance different than the other selected regions; and

outputting an output image, wherein each selected region of the output image has the altered appearance.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising selecting at least one appearance attribute to be altered.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the at least one appearance attribute is at least one of color and hatching.

24. The method of claim 21, wherein the appearances of the plurality of selected regions are differentiated in accordance with areas of the selected regions.

25. The method of claim 21, further comprising displaying the stored document on a graphical user interface.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the regions are selected by a user using the graphical user interface.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising categorizing each of the selected regions, wherein:

each selected region is placed into one of at least one category; and

the graphical user interface has at least one icon for assigning each selected region to the at least one category.

28. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

specifying categories in a sub-window of the graphical user interface; and

allowing a user to categorize the selected regions wherein a first region is included in a first category and a second region is included in a second category.

29. The method of claim 28, further comprising altering appearance of the selected regions grouped in the first category and the second category with the same attribute in accordance with rules applicable to the first category and the second category.

30. The method of claim 21, further comprising differentiating each of the selected regions by importance.

31. The method of claim 21, further comprising applying different hatching patterns to the selected regions.

32. The method of claim 21, further comprising applying different colors to the selected regions.

33. A graphic processing apparatus that changes the appearances of selected regions of an image, comprising:

memory means for temporarily storing the image;

region selecting means for selecting a plurality of regions of the image;

appearance altering means for altering an appearance of each of the plurality of selected regions at the same time, the altered appearances of the plurality of selected regions being different from one another; and

output means for outputting the image, the selected regions of the output image having the altered appearance.

34. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 33, wherein the plurality of region appearances are differentiated by at least one of color and hatching.

35. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 33, wherein the hatching is at least one of hatching designs and hatching patterns.

36. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 35, wherein the hatching designs and hatching patterns are differentiated by hatching density.

37. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 36, wherein the difference in hatching density is at least one of a difference in dot density, a difference in hatching segment gap, a difference in hatching-line thickness and a difference in hatching-overlap count.

38. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 33, further comprising region appearance selecting means for selecting the appearance for each of the plurality of selected regions based on at least one of an area and an importance of that selected region.

39. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 38, further comprising means for categorizing each of the plurality of selected regions into one of at least one category, a characteristic of each category based on the at least one of the area and the importance of each of the at least one selected region included in that category, wherein the at least one category is differentiated from one another by differences in the characteristic of the at least one category.

40. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 33, wherein the appearance altering means is a region-color alterer for differentiating appearance attributes from each other among each of the plurality of selected regions based on at least one appearance-arrangement rule.

41. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 40, wherein:

the at least one appearance attribute is a color attribute; and

differences in the color attribute used to differentiate the plurality of selected regions from one another is at least one of differences in density, differences in chroma and differences in hue.

42. The graphic processing apparatus of claim 41, wherein the at least one appearance-arrangement rule prescribe that any of the plurality of selected regions having an area larger than a reference area shall be altered in appearance with a region color having a low density while any of the plurality of selected regions having an area smaller than the reference area shall be altered in appearance with a region color having a high density.

43. A digital copier for graphically altering the appearances of each of the selected regions of a document, comprising:

scanning means for scanning a document and for outputting the image;

image forming means for forming the output image; and

the graphic processing apparatus of claim 33.