Ink jet printing apparatus that identifies a region adjacent to a character for a thinning operation
An ink jet printing apparatus that improves the visibility of a character and its background in different colors or of outline characters is provided. Specifically, outline character bold data is inverted and each of the pixels in the data is expanded to adjacent eight pixels. Then, the expanded outline character is processed into expanded inverted data. The logical AND of the inverted expanded data and K data on a background image is then calculated to generate K data with the outline character expanded. This results in an image with the outline character expanded. That is, the present invention enables characters with improved visibility and free from blurredness to be printed while preventing the adverse effect of bleeding on the outline character.
1. An ink jet printing apparatus, comprising:
a print head adapted to eject ink to a print medium to perform printing according to print data;
a generating unit configured to generate the print data by thinning out a first region of image data, the first region being adjacent to a contour of a character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being, composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected, and without thinning out a second region of the image data, the second region being located outside the contour of the character, where a distance from the contour of the character to the second region is greater than a distance from the contour of the character to the first region; and
a control unit configured to cause the print head to perform a printing operation based on the print data generated by the generating unit.
2. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a discriminating unit configured to discriminate character data and image data, corresponding to the first region, from inputted image data.
3. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the inputted image data is composed of the character data and the image data.
4. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the generating unit thins out the image data corresponding to all pixels composing the first region to generate the print data.
5. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein among pixels composing the first region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are all positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are all positioned a second distance from the contour of the character, the second distance being longer than the first distance.
6. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the generating unit thins out the image data corresponding to the first region according to mask data for thinning only the image data of the pixels composing the first region among the image data to generate the print data.
7. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein thinning ratios for ink colors, at which the image data of the pixels composing an adjacent region is thinned out, are different from each other.
8. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the generated print data includes character data of the character.
9. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image data excludes the character data.
10. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein all of the pixels composing the character are pixels showing white.
11. An image processing method of generating print data used for causing a print head to eject ink to a print medium to perform printing, the method comprising:
a generating step of generating the print data by thinning out a first region of image data, the first region being adjacent to a contour of a character and located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected, and without thinning out a second region of the image data, the second region being located outside of the contour of the character, where a distance from the contour of the character to the second region is greater than a distance from the contour of the character to the first region; and
a control step of causing the print head to perform a printing operation based on the print data generated in the generating step.
12. The ink jet printing method according to claim 11 , further comprising:
a discriminating step of discriminating character data and image data, corresponding to the first region, from inputted image data.
13. The image processing method according to claim 12 , wherein the inputted image data is composed of the character data and the image data.
14. The ink jet printing method according to claim 11 , wherein the generating step thins out the image data corresponding to all pixels composing the first region to generate the print data.
15. The ink jet printing method according to claim 11 , wherein among pixels composing the first region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are all positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are all positioned a second distance from the contour of the character, the second distance being longer than the first distance.
16. The ink jet printing method according to claim 11 , wherein the generating step thins out the image data corresponding to the first region according to mask data for thinning only the image data of the pixels composing the first region among the image data to generate the print data.
17. The ink jet printing method according to claim 11 , wherein thinning ratios for ink colors, at which image data of the pixels composing the adjacent region are thinned out, are different from each other.
18. The image processing method according to claim 11 , wherein the generated print data includes character data of the character.
19. The image processing method according to claim 11 , wherein the image data excludes the character data.
20. The image processing method according to claim 11 , wherein all of the pixels composing the character are pixels showing white.
21. An ink jet printing apparatus, comprising:
a print head adapted to eject ink to a print medium to perform printing according to print data;
a generating unit configured to generate the print data by thinning out a predetermined region of image data, the predetermined region being adjacent to a contour of a character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected;
wherein among pixels composing the predetermined region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a second distance, longer than the first distance, from the contour of the character, and
a control unit configured to cause the print head to perform a printing operation based on the print data generated by the generating unit.
22. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 21 , wherein the generating unit generates the print data by thinning out all of the pixels composing the first region.
23. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 21 , wherein thinning ratios for ink colors, at which the image data of the pixels composing an adjacent region is thinned out, are different from each other.
24. The ink jet printing apparatus according to claim 21 , wherein all of the pixels composing the character indicate white color.
25. An ink jet printing method for printing an image by ejecting ink on a print medium from the print head, comprising:
obtaining image data;
generating print data by thinning out a predetermined region of the image data, the predetermined region being adjacent to a contour of a character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected;
wherein among pixels composing the predetermined region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a second distance, longer than the first distance, from the contour of the character, and
controlling the print head to perform a printing operation based on the generated print data.
26. A data generating method for generating print data to print an image by applying ink to a print medium, comprising:
obtaining image data corresponding to the image including a character; and
generating the print data by thinning out a predetermined region of the image data, the predetermined region being adjacent to a contour of the character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected;
wherein among pixels composing the predetermined region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a second distance, longer than the first distance, from the contour of the character.
27. The data generating method according to claim 26 , wherein all of the pixels composing the first region are thinned out in the generating step.
28. The data generating method according to claim 26 , wherein all of the pixels composing the character indicate white color.
29. A data generating apparatus for generating print data to print an image by applying ink to a print medium, comprising:
an obtaining unit configured to obtain image data corresponding to the image including a character; and
a generating unit configured to generate the print data by thinning out a predetermined region of the image data, the predetermined region being adjacent to a contour of the character and being located outside of the contour of the character, with the character being composed of pixels to which ink is not ejected;
wherein among pixels composing the predetermined region, a thinning ratio for a first pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a first distance from the contour of the character is higher than a thinning ratio for a second pixel group composed of a plurality of pixels that are positioned a second distance, longer than the first distance, from the contour of the character.