Image file editing apparatus and method, and program

• US 9,247,099 B2
• Filed: 04/01/2009
• Issued: 01/26/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Yamashina, Saneyuki
• Primary Examiner(s): BEKELE, MEKONEN T
• Application Number:
  US12/416,317
• Publication Number:
  US 20090245666A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,491 Days
• Field of Search: 382/243, 382/176, 382/164, 382/33, 382/171, 382/168, 382/232, 382/233, 382/234, 382/235, 709/246, 709200-205, 709217-227
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00442 Simultaneous viewing of a plurality of images, e.g. using a mosaic display arrangement of thumbnails
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00453 arranged in a two dimensional array
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00461 marking or otherwise tagging one or more displayed image, e.g. for selective reproduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00474 outputting a plurality of functional options, e.g. scan, copy or print
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/215 Recording a sequence of still pictures, e.g. burst mode
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2166 for mass storage, e.g. in document filing systems information retrieval G06F16/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/12 Selection from among a plurality of transforms or standards, e.g. selection between discrete cosine transform [DCT] and sub-band transform or selection between H.263 and H.264
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 19/17 the unit being an image region, e.g. an object
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2101/00 Still video cameras
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/212 Selecting different recording or reproducing modes, e.g. high or low resolution, field or frame
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3273 Display

Abstract

An image file editing method includes an analysis step of analyzing a compression format of each of a plurality of images included in a plurality of image files, a display step of displaying analysis results together with thumbnail images each of which corresponds to one of the plurality of images, a selection step of selecting images based on the thumbnail images, a determination step of determining, based on the results obtained in the analysis step, whether or not a compression format of each selected image is changeable, a compression step of applying a changed compression format, and an output step of collectively outputting selected images as a single image file.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

a display step of causing a display device to display a plurality of thumbnail images corresponding to a plurality of images with display items for emphasizing one or more first thumbnail images corresponding to one or more images which have been compressed with a high-compressed PDF, so that each of the display items is added to corresponding one of the first thumbnails and the one or more first thumbnail images are more emphasized than one or more second thumbnail images corresponding to one or more remaining images which have not been compressed with the high-compressed PDF, wherein each of the display items indicates the high-compressed PDF;

a selecting step of selecting one or more thumbnail images from the plurality of thumbnail images, in accordance with an instruction from a user; and

a generating step of generating a file which includes one or more images corresponding to the one or more thumbnail images selected in the selecting step and corresponds to a high-compressed PDF, by compressing, using a predetermined compression method of the high-compressed PDF, the one or more images which corresponds to the one or more thumbnail images selected in the selecting step and has not been compressed with the high-compressed PDF.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising a specifying step of specifying an image which can be compressed using the high-compressed PDF,

wherein the generating step compresses the image specified in the specifying step using the high-compressed PDF.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein an image including a first image region and a second image region that are configured as different layers, is compressed in the generating step with the high-compressed PDF, so that the first image region and the second image region are compressed with different compression methods, and

wherein in the specifying step, it is determined whether each of the plurality of images has a layered structure.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the first image region is a background region, and the second image region is a character region, and

wherein the specifying step includes a step of performing an analysis as to whether each of the plurality of images includes a character region.

5. The method according to claim 2, wherein the specifying step includes a step of performing an analysis as to whether each of the plurality of images has text data added thereto, and

wherein the method further comprises an addition step of performing character recognition on an image having no text data added thereto and adding text data to the image.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the display step causes the display device to display the list, so that one or more thumbnail images corresponding to one or more images to which text data has been added are further emphasized.

7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising an editing step of editing the plurality of images, wherein the editing in the editing step includes deletion of an image, addition of an image, or rearrangement of image.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the file generated in the generating step can include one or more images compressed by using the predetermined compression method and one or more images which are not compressed by using the predetermined compression.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of images is included in corresponding one of a plurality of image files, and the display step causes the display device to display the plurality of thumbnail images each of which is based on data included in corresponding one of the plurality of image files.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein, in the high-compressed PDF, an image is compressed by using the predetermined compression method in which a first region in the image is compressed by a first compression process and a second region in the image is compressed by a second compression process.

11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the first region is a character region and the second region is a background region.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the generating step further compresses one or more remaining images which cannot be compressed by using the predetermined compression method, using another compression format different from the compression format.

13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the display step causes the display device to display a list of the plurality of thumbnail images and adds the display items to the one or more first thumbnail images.

14. The method according to claim 1, wherein if the one or more thumbnail images corresponding to the one or more images that have been compressed with a high-compressed PDF are selected in the selecting step, the generating step does not compress the one or more images.

15. An apparatus comprising:

a display control unit configured to cause a display device to display a plurality of thumbnail images corresponding to a plurality of images with display items for emphasizing one or more first thumbnail images corresponding to one or more images which have been compressed with a high-compressed PDF, so that each of the display items is added to corresponding one of the first thumbnail images and the one or more first thumbnail images are more emphasized than one or more second thumbnail images corresponding to one or more remaining images which have not been compressed with the high-compressed PDF, wherein each of the display items indicates the high-compressed PDF;

a selecting unit configured to select one or more thumbnail images from the plurality of thumbnail images, in accordance with an instruction from a user; and

a generating unit configured to generate a file which includes one or more images corresponding to the one or more thumbnail images selected in the selecting unit and corresponds to a high-compressed PDF, by compressing, using a predetermined compression method of the high-compressed PDF, the one or more images which corresponds to the one or more thumbnail images selected in the selecting unit and has not been compressed with the high-compressed PDF.

16. A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores a program, the program being executed by a computer, the program comprising:

a display step of causing a display device to display a plurality of thumbnail images corresponding to a plurality of images with display items for emphasizing one or more first thumbnail images corresponding to one or more images which have been compressed with a high-compressed PDF, so that each of the display items is added to corresponding one of the first thumbnail images and the one or more first thumbnail images are more emphasized than one or more second thumbnail images corresponding to one or more remaining images which have not been compressed with the high-compressed PDF, wherein each of the display items indicates the high-compressed PDF;

a selecting step of selecting one or more thumbnail images from the plurality of thumbnail images, in accordance with an instruction from a user; and

a generating step of generating a file which includes one or more images corresponding to the one or more thumbnail images selected in the selecting step and corresponds to a high-compressed PDF, by compressing, using a predetermined compression method of the high-compressed PDF, the one or more images which corresponds to the one or more thumbnail images selected in the selecting step and has not been compressed with the high-compressed PDF.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 16, further comprising a specifying step of specifying an image which can be compressed using the high-compressed PDF,

wherein the generating step comprises the image specified in the specifying step using the high-compressed PDF.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein an image including a first image region and a second image region that are configured as different layers, is compressed in the generating step with the high-compressed PDF, so that the first image region and the second image region are compressed with different compression methods, and

wherein in the specifying step, it is determined whether each of the plurality of images has a layered structure.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 18, wherein the first image region is a background region, and the second image region is a character region, and

wherein the specifying step includes a step of performing an analysis as to whether each of the plurality of images includes a character region.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 17, wherein the specifying step includes a step of performing an analysis as to whether each of the plurality of images has text data added thereto, and

wherein the method further comprises an addition step of performing character recognition on an image having no text data added thereto and adding text data to the image.