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Claims  |
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I claim
1. An image processing apparatus comprising:
image signal input means for entering an image signal;
character code signal input means for entering a character code signal;
means for half-tone processing the image signal to produce a digital
half-tone image signal, said half-tone processing means including means
for storing the image signal entered by said image signal input means;
converting means for converting the character code signal into a digital
character image signal, said converting means including means for storing
the character code signal entered by said character code input means;
digital character image signal storing means for storing the digital
character image signal converted by said converting means; and
common image forming means for receiving the digital half-tone image signal
and the digital character image signal;
wherein said common image forming means provides a sync signal that is
synchronized with an image forming operation, and the digital character
image signal stored in said digital character image signal storing means
is read out in response to the sync signal and transmitted to said common
image forming means.
2. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said half-tone processing
means includes means for storing the digital half-tone image signal.
3. An apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for
designating output regions and output positions at which an image
represented by the digital half-tone image signal is to be formed by said
common image forming means.
4. An apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising color designating
means for reproducing a character represented by the character code signal
in a predetermined color.
5. An apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said half-tone processing
means includes dither conversion means for dither converting the image
signal entered by said image signal input means into a binary image
signal.
6. An image processing apparatus comprising:
image signal input means for entering an image signal;
character code signal input means for entering a character code signal;
means for color processing the image signal, entered by said image signal
input means, to produce a digital color image signal, said color
processing means including means for storing the image signal;
converting means for converting the character code signal, entered by said
character code input means, into a digital character image signal, said
converting means including means for storing the character code signal;
digital character image signal storing means for storing the digital
character image signal converted by said converting means; and
common image forming means for receiving the digital color image signal and
the digital character image signal;
wherein said common image forming means provides a sync signal that is
synchronized with an image forming operation, and the digital character
image signal stored in said digital character image signal storing means
is read out in response to the sync signal and transmitted to said common
image forming means.
7. An apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising means for
combining the digital color image signal with the digital character image
signal and sending the combined image signal to said common image forming
means.
8. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said color processing means
includes means for storing the digital color image signal.
9. An apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising means for
designating output regions and output positions at which an image
represented by the digital color image signal is to be formed by said
common image forming means.
10. An apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said color processing means
includes dither conversion means for dither converting the image signal,
entered by said image signal input means, into a binary image signal.
11. An image processing apparatus comprising:
image signal input means for entering an image signal;
character code signal input means for entering a character code signal;
means for processing the image signal, entered by said image signal input
means, to produce a digital image signal, said processing means including
means for storing the image signal;
means for reproducing a character represented by the character code signal,
entered by said character code signal input means, in a predetermined
color;
converting means for converting the character code signal into a digital
character image signal, said converting means including means for storing
the character code signal;
digital character image signal storing means for storing the digital
character image signal converted by said converting means; and
common image forming means for receiving the digital image signal and the
digital character image signal;
wherein said common image forming means provides a sync signal that is
synchronized with an image forming operation, and the digital character
image signal stored in said digital character image signal storing means
is read out in response to the sync signal and transmitted to said common
image forming means.
12. An image processing apparatus comprising:
image signal input means for entering an image signal;
character code signal input means for entering a character code signal;
means for color processing the image signal, entered by said image signal
input means, to produce a digital color image signal;
converting means for converting the character code signal, entered by said
character code signal input means, into a digital character image signal;
means for reproducing a character represented by the character code signal
in a predetermined color;
digital character image signal storing means for storing the digital
character image signal converted by said converting means; and
common image forming means for receiving the digital color image signal and
the digital character image signal;
wherein said common image forming means provides a sync signal that is
synchronized with an image forming operation, and the digital character
image signal stored in said digital character image signal storing means
is read out in response to the sync signal and transmitted to said common
image forming means.
13. An image processing apparatus comprising:
first image signal input means for entering a first image signal
representing a background image;
second image signal input means for entering a second image signal
representing a second image;
means for combining the first image signal, entered by said first image
signal input means, with the second image signal, entered by said second
image signal input means, in overlayed relation; and
means for modifying the second image signal in accordance with the
background image overlayed on the second image represented by the second
image signal.
14. An apparatus according to claim 13, wherein said modifying means
modifies the second image signal in accordance with a level of the first
image signal when the second image represented by the second image signal
is overlayed on a background image represented by the first image signal.
15. An apparatus according to claim 14, wherein said modifying means has
discriminating means for discriminating whether the level of the first
image signal exceeds a predetermined value, said discriminating means
including means for arbitrarily setting the predetermined value.
16. An apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising first memory
means for storing the first image signal and second memory means for
storing a character signal, wherein the second image signal is the
character signal.
17. An apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising means for
designating output regions and output positions of the first image signal.
18. An apparatus according to claim 16, further comprising color
designating means for reproducing a character represented by the character
signal in a predetermined color.
19. An apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising character code
signal input means for entering a character code signal and converting
means for converting the character code signal into a digital character
image signal, wherein the second image signal is the digital character
image signal.
20. An apparatus according to claim 13, further comprising density image
signal input means for entering a density image signal and dither
conversion means for dither converting the density image signal into the
first image signal.
21. An image processing apparatus comprising:
first image signal input means for entering a first image signal
representing a first image;
second image signal input means for entering a second image signal
representing a second image;
means for combining the first image signal with the second image signal,
said combining means including means for modifying the first image signal
to convert a region of the second image represented by the second image
signal into a predetermined condition appropriate for combination with the
first image represented by the first image signal.
22. An apparatus according to claim 21, wherein said modifying means
modifies the first image signal when the image represented by the second
image signal is overlayed on an image represented by the first image
signal.
23. An apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising first memory
means for storing the first image signal and second memory means for
storing a character signal, and wherein the second image signal is a
character signal.
24. An apparatus according to claim 23, further comprising means for
designating output regions and output positions of the first image signal.
25. An apparatus according to claim 23, further comprising color
designating means for reproducing a character represented by the character
signal in a predetermined color.
26. An apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising character code
signal input means for entering a character code signal and converting
means for converting the character code signal into a digital character
image signal, and wherein the second image signal is the digital character
image signal.
27. An apparatus according to claim 21, further comprising density image
signal input means for entering a density image signal and dither
conversion means for dither converting the density image signal into the
first image signal.
28. An image processing apparatus comprising:
input means for entering first and second types of image data to be
combined and identification data identifying the first and second types of
data respectively;
separating means for separating the first and second types of the image
data entered from said input means, said separating means separating the
image data in accordance with the identification data identifying the
respective types of the image data;
first processing means for processing the first type of the image data
separated by said separating means;
second processing means for processing the second type of the image data
separated by said separating means; said second processing means including
half-tone processing means for half-tone processing the second type of the
image data; and
means for combining the image data processed by said first processing means
with the image data processed by said second processing means.
29. An apparatus according to claim 28, wherein said first processing means
produces a character dot signal and wherein said second processing means
produces a dot image signal, and said combining means combines the
character dot signal with the dot image signal.
30. An apparatus according to claim 28, wherein the first type of the image
data is a character code signal, and said first processing means includes
means for converting the character code signal into a digital character
image signal.
31. An image processing apparatus comprising: input means for entering
first and second types of image data to be combined, respectively
representing first and second images, and identification data identifying
the first and second types of data respectively;
means for separating the first and second types of image data entered from
said input means, said separating means separating the image data in
accordance with the identification data representing the respective types
of the image data;
first processing means for processing the first type of image data
separated by said separating means;
second processing means for processing the second type of the image data
separated by said separating means; and
combination means for combining the first type of image data processed by
said first processing means with the second type of image data processed
by said second processing means, said combining means including means for
selecting a position for combination of an image represented by the first
type of the image data with an image represented by the second type of the
image data.
32. An apparatus according to claim 31, wherein the first type of image
data is a character code signal, and said first processing means includes
means for converting the character code signal into a digital character
image signal.
33. An image processing apparatus comprising:
input means for entering first and second types of image data to be
combined and identification data for identifying the first and second
types respectively;
separating means for separating the first and second types of image data
entered from said input means, said separating means separating the image
data in accordance with the identification data representing the
respective types of the image data;
first processing means for processing the first type of the image data
separated by said separating means;
second processing means for processing the second type of the image data
separated by said separating means, said second processing means including
color processing means for color processing the second type of the image
data; and
means for combining the image data processed by said first processing means
with the image data processed by said second processing means.
34. An image processing apparatus comprising:
image signal input means for entering a dot image signal;
character signal input means for entering a dot character signal;
first storing means for storing the dot image signal entered by said image
signal input means;
second storing means for storing the dot character signal entered by said
character signal input means;
common image forming means for receiving the dot image signal from said
first storing means and the dot character signal from said second storing
means;
means for allowing said common image forming means to receive the dot image
signal and the dot character signal
wherein said common image forming means provides a sync signal that is
synchronized with an image forming operation and the dot character signal
stored in said second storing means is read out in response to the sync
signal and transmitted to said common image forming means.
35. An image processing apparatus comprising:
first image signal input means for entering a noncompressed image signal;
second image signal input means for entering a compressed image signal;
first processing the noncompressed image signal entered by said first image
signal input means;
second processing means for processing the compressed image signal entered
by said second image signal input means, said second processing means
including means for decoding the compressed image signal;
common image forming means for receiving and combining the respective image
signals from said first and second processing means; and
means for allowing said common image forming means to receive and combine
the respective image signals from said first and second processing means. |
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Claims |
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Description |
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for
processing image data such as half tone and line images (e.g.,
characters), or code data such as a compression code.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Ink jet, thermal transfer and laser beam printers are conventionally known
as image processing apparatuses for reproducing a half tone image from a
dot image. In order to reproduce the half tone image in these apparatuses,
a dither method or a density pattern method is used to reproduce the half
tone image by dot modulation of a small region. In particular, the dither
method is mainly used to reproduce the half tone image by a color laser
beam printer.
Image data supplied from a color video camera or an image file to the color
printer of the type described above is temporarily stored in a buffer
memory in the color printer and is read out therefrom. In this case, the
color printer performs dither processing to print out a dot image obtained
in accordance with the density of the transferred image. However, when
only one type of image buffer memory is used, character data is mixed with
the half tone image data. As a result, the edge sharpness of the character
image is degraded by dither processing, resulting in inconvenience.
In particular, in an image consisting of characters and lines with high
contrast, the character and line edges become vague after dither
processing. In addition to this disadvantage, the density of the solid
image portion is decreased, resulting in a loss of image sharpness.
In addition, when a half tone image is superimposed onto characters, for
example, the half tone image is copied by a known copying apparatus. The
resultant copying sheet is used as a printing sheet and is printed with
the characters by a hard copy printer. However, the operation of this
method is time-consuming and cumbersome. Furthermore, it is difficult to
align the image with the characters, resulting in an impractical
application.
On the other hand, a composite type electrophotographic copying apparatus
is known, as shown in FIG. 1. This apparatus has a copying unit and a line
printer (e.g., laser beam printer). A copy image of an original placed on
an original table 150 is superimposed on a printer character output
supplied from an external device (not shown) such as a host computer
through a signal line 163. The composite image is then printed out on a
copying sheet 161. The original table 150 is illuminated by an exposure
lamp 151, and light reflected thereby is focused on the surface of a
photosensitive drum 159 through mirrors 152 to 155 and a lens 156, so that
a latent image corresponding to the original image is formed on a surface
portion of the photosensitive drum 159. On the other hand, character data
is supplied from the external device (not shown) to an interface control
circuit 162 where it is converted to dot data. The dot data modulates a
laser beam generated from a semiconductor laser 164. A polygonal mirror
157 serves to horizontally scan the laser beam. When the laser beam is
modulated and scanned in this manner, a latent character image is
superimposed on a latent original image on the surface of the
photosensitive drum 159. Thereafter, the normal electrophotographic
process of consecutive development, transfer, and fixing is performed on a
composite image consisting of both the half tone and character images.
According to the apparatus described above, the half tone image is formed
independently of the character image and is printed out. For example, when
characters are superimposed on a substantially dark portion of the half
tone image, the characters cannot be easily read, as shown in FIG. 2. In
particular, the characters superimposed on the solid portion cannot be
read entirely.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the problems described
above.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an image
processing system wherein the edge sharpness of a line image consisting of
characters or the like will not be lost when the line image is combined
with a half tone image such as a photographic image, and at the same time
the half tone image can be reproduced with high quality.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image
processing apparatus capable of clearly discriminating between a line
image portion, such as characters, and the superimposed half tone image
portion.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image
processing apparatus capable of clearly discriminating between a line
image portion, such as characters, and a superimposed half tone image
portion, irrespective of the color of the background portion.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image
processing apparatus capable of combining a line image, such as
characters, with a half tone image so as to reproduce a desired color
image.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image
processing apparatus capable of reproducing a line image, such as
characters, or a half tone image in a desired color.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image
processing apparatus capable of combining a clear character image at a
desired position of a reproduced image including a half tone image
portion.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a
general-purpose image processing system which can be connected to any
other equipment.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide an image
processing system capable of performing proper processing even if the
input status (e.g., half tone dot data, character codes and compressed
codes) of the image data differ from each other.
According to the present invention, the character image can be combined
with the half tone image without degrading the edge sharpness of the
character image. In addition, the character and half tone images can be
moved to specified regions, respectively. Therefore, an effective,
aesthetic design using the character and half tone images can be provided.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a character image or the
like can be entered using codes, so that the apparatus of the present
invention can be connected to any other equipment, thereby providing a
general-purpose image processing apparatus.
Furthermore, the character image can be reproduced in any color in
accordance with the color of the half tone image as the background
portion.
Furthermore, the compression codes from, for example, a facsimile system
can be received by merely adding input data discrimination commands.
Therefore, various types of image entered from a variety of equipment can
be combined.
Furthermore, since at least one of the half tone and character images can
be reproduced in color, images suitable for subsequent clerical jobs can
be obtained by changing the color of characters in units of specific data.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, since the character image
can be clearly reproduced irrespective of the color, hue, and density of
the character image, the character image can be clearly discriminated from
the solid image portion, unlike the conventional case wherein the
character image cannot be clearly discriminated from the half tone image.
Other objects, features and advantages will be apparent from the following
detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, and
appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 a schematic sectional view showing a conventional composite type
copying apparatus;
FIG. 2 is a representation showing the state wherein characters (i.e.,
letters) are partially superimposed on a dark image;
FIG. 3 shows how FIGS. 3A through 3D are arranged to form a block diagram
showing the overall configuration of a color image recording apparatus
according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 4 shows the format of character image data;
FIG. 5 is a timing chart of signals constituting color image data;
FIG. 6 is a representation showing a character screen stored in a character
code buffer;
FIGS. 7A and 7B respectively are representations showing a character whose
data are entered in a character generator and converted to dot data;
FIG. 8 shows representations wherein the character and half tone images,
respectively, are independently moved to specified positions to obtain a
composite image;
FIG. 9 is a detailed block diagram showing a control circuit 16;
FIG. 10 is a table for explaining various commands;
FIG. 11 is a block diagram of a data input section;
FIG. 12A and 12B are flow charts of a program stored in a ROM 41;
FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an image recording apparatus capable of
receiving compression code data according to a second embodiment of the
present invention;
FIG. 14 is a representation showing a composite image consisting of a
character image, a color half tone image and a a facsimile image;
FIG. 15 shows how FIGS. 15A through 15D are arranged to form a block
diagram showing the overall configuration of a color image recording
apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 16 is a detailed block diagram of a dark tone extraction circuit;
FIG. 17 is a representation showing an image obtained by the apparatus
shown in FIG. 15;
FIG. 18 shows how FIGS. 18A through 18D are arranged to form block diagram
showing the overall configuration of a color image recording apparatus
according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention; and
FIGS. 19A, 19B, and 19C respectively are representations for explaining an
image with white portions in a solid image portion.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying
drawings.
FIGS. 3A through 3D are a block diagram showing the overall configuration
of a color recording apparatus according to a first embodiment of the
present invention. This color image recording apparatus receives a
character code string signal (FIG. 4) as character image data 101, a color
discrimination signal 104 having R (red), G (green) and B (blue)
components and vertical and horizontal synchronizing signals 106V and
106H, as shown in FIG. 5, which are supplied as color image data, and an
image signal 105 supplied from external equipment such as a host computer.
In addition, image trimming position designation signals 102, 103, 107 and
108 are also externally supplied to the color image recording apparatus.
It should be noted that numerals on lines in FIG. 3 indicate the numbers
of bits, respectively. Interface circuits 12 and 29 serve to store the
character image data 101 and the half tone image data in a character code
decoder 11 and an image buffer memory 28, respectively.
FIG. 4 shows the character image data string signal. The data format of
this signal includes character string data C.sub.10, C.sub.11, C.sub.12. .
. of the first line which follow a start discrimination code ITOP. A RET
code is inserted after the end character of each line. Therefore, when the
input device (i.e., color image recording apparatus) detects the RET code,
carriage return is performed. FIG. 4 shows a first-line RET code R.sub.1
and a second-line RET code R.sub.2. An end code IEND of a character image
is inserted at the end of the last line of the character image, thereby
indicating the end of the character image data. When the color image
recording apparatus receives this end code IEND, it discriminates the end
of the character image data.
The character image data 101 of one frame supplied in the manner described
above is stored in a character code buffer 10. In this case, the special
codes (ITOP, RET and IEND) are decoded by a character code decoder 11, so
that a character image storage start/line return designation signal 109
and a storage end signal 110 are generated. A write address generator 19
sequentially generates address signals in response to the signal 109.
FIG. 6 shows a character storage pattern. Characters A, B, . . . , a, b, c,
. . . are represented by ASCII codes. The color image recording apparatus
uses a laser beam system wherein an image to be reproduced is expressed as
a dot image. Therefore, the character code string must be converted to the
dot form. For this purpose, this embodiment employs a character generator
9.
The character generator 9 generally has a character portion CP and a white
portion WP, as shown in FIG. 7A. When character A is converted to dot data
in accordance with the format shown in FIG. 7A, data in the 9.times.9 pel
(picture element) matrix are also converted to dot data, as shown in FIG.
7B. Meanwhile, the color image recording apparatus also receives an
external region data signal 102 (row and column data of the character code
image) which represents which region of one-character image is printed
out.
For example, in the character code image shown in FIG. 6, when a printout
start character and a printout end character are given by coordinates
(m.sub.1,n.sub.1) and (m.sub.2,n.sub.2), the character data surrounded by
the thick line are read out from the character code buffer 10. In response
to the printout designation data (m.sub.1, n.sub.1) and (m.sub.2, n.sub.2)
included in the region data signal 102, a read position designation
circuit 17 and a read address generator 18 generate read address signals
for the designated region.
On the other hand, the designation signal 103 represents which print image
region the designated character image is printed in. The write region for
printout is given by a write start position pel number (scanning line
number) (m.sub.1 ',n.sub.1 '). and a write end position pel number
(m.sub.2 ',n.sub.2 '). An image memory write position designation circuit
15 and an image memory address generator 14 generate write addresses of an
image memory 8.
The character code image of a designated region which is read out frdm the
character code buffer 10 in this manner is converted by the character
generator 9 to dot data. This dot data is stored in a designated region of
the image memory whose data is printed out. The data status is illustrated
in FIGS. 7A and 7B.
Processing of color half tone image supplied as a density data of colors R,
G and B will now be described. As shown in FIG. 5, the color half tone
image consists of the R-G-B color discrimination signal 104, the vertical
and horizontal synchronizing signals 106V and 106H, and 8-bit density data
(i.e., image signal) 105 for each pel of the image. In this embodiment,
8-bit parallel density data is used. However, 8-bit serial density data
may be used instead. The R, G and B components are stored in buffer
memories 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3 respectively in accordance with the color
discimination signal 104.
The synchronizing signals 106V and 106H are supplied to a write address
generator 32, so that necessary address signals are supplied from an
address selector 30 to the image buffer memories 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3.
Thus, image signal components of the respective colors are stored in the
corresponding image buffer memories 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3.
Thereafter, designation of the region to be printed out of the half tone
image stored in the buffer memory is performed in response to the signal
107 simultaneously supplied from external equipment when the character
code buffer 10 is subjected to read access. This region designation is
performed by giving the printout start point, the pel number, and the
scanning line number, so that address signals for the image memories 28-1,
28-2 and 28-3 are generated by an address generator 31.
In the read mode, identical pels are simultaneously read out as Y, M and C
components from the yellow (Y) image buffer memory (for storing the B
signal) 28-1, the magenta (M) image buffer memory (for storing the G
signal) 28-2, and the cyan (C) image buffer memory (for storing the R
signal) 28-3. It should be noted that complementary color signals of the
B, G and R components are generated as the Y, M and C signals. The color
signals read out in the manner described above are subjected to
predetermined processing and are then stored in a half tone image memory
21. As previously described, the write start position is designated by the
signal 108 such that the image region is printed out at the designated
position. In response to this, an image memory write position designation
circuit 23 and an image memory address generator 22 generate an address
signal for the designated position of the image memory 21. This operation
is the same as in the character image data processing and is illustrated
in representations C and D of FIG. 8.
The color density data of the respective pels which are read out from the
image buffer memories 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3 are gamma-transformed
(density-converted) by a .gamma. correction circuit 27, so as to match the
characteristics of the color image recording apparatus. In addition, these
data are then subjected to masking by a masking processor 26 which is
well-known in printing technique. These masked data are then subjected to
UCR processing (undercolor removal) by means of a UCR processor 25. The
UCR-processed data are then stored as dot data (binary data of logic "1"
or "0") in a designated position of the image memory 21. It should be
noted that dither processing is an electrical processing for comparing
density data of each pel with its threshold value and generating recording
dots to be produced. Alternatively, the dither circuit 24 may comprise a
memory such as ROM, which may be directly accessed by using the density
data as an address, thereby performing dither processing (dither
conversion). In this embodiment, processing by a method such as a density
pattern method may be performed to determine the recording dots by
comparing one pel with a plurality of threshold values. Processing by the
density pattern method can also be referred to as dither processing.
In the color image recording apparatus, a yellow latent image, a magehta
latent image, a cyan latent image and a black latent image are
sequentially formed on the photosensitive drum 159 in the order named, and
yellow, magneta, cyan and black toner images are superimposed on a
transfer sheet to obtain a full-color image. Therefore, the image memory
21 has only one-image capacity. As each color image is formed on the
photosensitive drum, the color processing described above is performed and
at the same time the respective density data (Y, M, C and BK) are
transferred into the image memory.
In order to read out data from the character image memory 8 and the half
tone image memory 21 and transfer the readout data to a laser modulator 5,
these image data are stored as dot data in the image memories 8 and 21 and
are assigned to identical addresses for identical pels. In this
embodiment, address designation of the image memories 8 and 21 is
controlled by the image memory address generator 14. In other words, when
the image data are in the image memories 8 and 21, respectively, the read
addresses are generated, thereby sending out the character and half tone
image dot data of the identical pel.
The dot data read out from the image memories 8 and 21 are superposed by an
OR gate 7, and a logically ORed data are supplied to a line buffer 6. The
dot data read out from the line buffer 6 are supplied to the laser
modulator 5. The laser modulator 5 produces a laser beam 4 in accordance
with the dot data. The laser beam 4 modulated in response to the dot data
irradiates a photosensitive drum 1 through the lens 2, so that a latent
image is formed on a surface portion thereof. The print image formation
process is the same as that in the conventional laser beam printer. Y, M,
C and BK developing units (not shown) are selectively used. A signal 113
is a horizontal synchronizing signal (BD signal) generated from a sensor
40 when irradiated by the laser beam. The image data are read out from the
image memories 8 and 21 in response to the signal 113.
FIGS. 3A through 3D show shows a 4-bit signal 120 for designating the
character image color. This signal may be supplied from external equipment
such as a host computer or from a switch arranged in the color image
recording apparatus. In this embodiment, color designation signal bits
C.sub.0 to C.sub.3 respectively correspond to Y, M, C and BK components.
When a color latent image corresponding to the designated bit is formed,
the character image output is controlled in response to a signal 112,
thereby obtaining a character image having a desired color. Assume that
the signal (C.sub.0, C.sub.1, C.sub.2, C.sub.4)=(1, 1, 0, 0) is given.
When Y and M latent images are superposed, the character data is read out
from the image memory 8, thereby reproducing a red character.
When the character image is combined with the black (BK) component, the
character image in the half tone image becomes sharp. In this case, the
color designation signal (C.sub.0, C.sub.1, C.sub.2, C.sub.3) becomes (0,
0, 0, 1). Similarly, when the half tone image data is read out from the
image memory 21, the data with a desired color may be controlled to be
read out. In addition, either a single or a mixed color image can be
obtained.
FIG. 8 shows a case wherein the designated regions of the character image
and the half tone image, respectively, are independently moved to specific
positions, and the character and half tone images are combined. Input
images A and C are moved to specific positions, and resultant images B and
D are combined to obtain a composite image (B+D).
FIG. 9 is a detailed diagram of the control circuit 16 shown in FIG. 3A.
The control circuit 16 mainly consists of two functional blocks
represented by an I/O port 43 controlled by a CPU 40 such as a
microcomputer and an address timing generator 44, respectively. A program
ROM 41 of the CPU 40 stores a program. A data RAM 42 for the CPU 40 stores
processed data. The I/O port 43 is connected to the following signal lines
controlled by the CPU 40 and the program ROM 41. These signal lines
consist of a signal line for sending a character buffer enable signal (to
be referred to as a CBE hereinafter) 122 serving as a W/R enable signal of
the character code buffer 10, a signal line for sending a character image
memory enable signal (to be referred to as a CME hereinafter) 112 serving
as a W/R enable signal of the character image memory 8, a signal line for
sending a color image memory enable signal (to be referred to as a CLME
hereinafter) 121 serving as a W/R enable signal of the half tone image
memory 21, a signal line for sending a character buffer address select
signal (to be referred to as a CBAS hereinafter) 123 serving as a W/R
address switching signal of the character code buffer 10, a signal line
for sending a character buffer R/W control signal (to be referred to as a
CBRWC hereinafter) 124 serving as a W/R start signal of the character code
buffer 10, a signal line for sending a character image memory R/W control
signal (to be referred to as a CMRWC hereinafter) 125 as a W/R start
signal of the character image memory 8, and a signal line for sending a
color image memory write control signal (to be referred to as a CLMWC
hereinafter) 126 serving as a write start signal for the half tone image
memory 21. These signals are generated from the output port. It should be
noted that the memories can be subjected to read/write access when the
memory enable signal is set to be logic "1". The input port of the I/O
port 43 receives the color designation signal 120 for designating the
color of the charact | | |
