Printing apparatus, method and program for automatic image quality
Contents
1. PRINT SETTING BUTTON OK BUTTON 54g SHEET NUMBER 944 SETTING BUTTON RETURN KEY 54h U S Patent Mar 5 2013 Sheet 3 of 8 US 8 390 880 B2 FIG 3 DISPLAY MENU SCREEN S100 IS THERE ANY KEY INPUT PRINT SETTING MANIPULATION PRINT EXECUTION ANY MANIPULATION MANIPULATION CONTENT IMAGE DISPLAY MANIPULATION S130 S150 PERFORM PERFORM IMAGE PERFORM PRINT SETTING DISPLAYING PRINTING PROCESSING PROCESSING PROCESSING FIG 4 PAPER KIND PHOTO PAPER C LAYOUT NO LATCH QUALITY NORMAL AUTOMATIC IMAGE QUALITY ADJUSTMENT DO BRIGHTNESS ADJUSTMENT STANDARD CONTRAST HIGH SHARPNESS WEAK SETTING CHANGE END U S Patent Mar 5 2013 Sheet 4 of 8 US 8 390 880 B2 FIG 5 IMAGE DISPLAYING PROCESSING DISPLAY ORIGINAL IMAGE S200 DISPLAY PROCESSING ICON S210 START IMAGE QUALITY S220 ADJUSTING PROCESSING IS THERE DEMAND FOR ANOTHER PROCESSING YES NO S240 IS IMAGE QUALITY ADJUSTING PROCESSING FINISHED NO YES DISPLAY ADJUSTMENT S250 LEVEL ICON S THER DEMAND FOR ANOTHER PROCESSING S270 NO IS ON OFF SWITCH TURNED ON SWITCH DISPLAY OF ORIGINAL IMAGE WITH DISPLAY OF ADJUSTED IMAGE STOP U S Patent Mar 5 2013 Sheet 5 of 8 US 8 390 880 B2 FIG 6 IMAGE QUALITY ADJUSTING PROCESSING PRODUCE SAMPLING IMAGE S300 S310 SET CORRECTION AMOUNT FOR S320 EACH IMAGE QUALI2. then the printing is performed after the checking At this time since the information about the correction amount is displayed along with the quality adjusted image a user can precisely check the image quality correction level which is difficult for a user to recognize by watching only the quality adjusted image In such a printing apparatus it is preferable that the display controlling unit be a means for displaying identification infor mation which indicates the correction amount in multiple levels as information about the correction amount on the displaying portion In this way a user can precisely check the effect of the image quality adjustment In the printing apparatus it is preferable that the display controlling unit be a means for performing the image quality adjusting processing using the correction amount for auto matic image quality adjustment and the correction amount for manual image quality adjustment when the correction amount for manual image quality adjustment is set by user s manual manipulation and displaying the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting process ing on the displaying portion along with information about the correction amount based on the correction amount for automatic image quality adjustment and the correction amount for manual image quality adjustment With this processing it is possible to respond to both the correction amount for automatic image quality adjustment
3. YCbCr data to RGB data using an YCbCr RGB conversion table In this manner when the original image is displayed an in processing icon which indicates the middle of processing is displayed step S210 and the image quality adjusting processing is started step S220 The image quality adjusting processing is performed regardless of the setting of the automatic image quality adjustment i e regardless that items of the automatic image quality adjustment is DO or UNDO in the print setting screen 70 exemplarily shown in FIG 4 Here description of the image displaying processing shown in FIG 5 is suspended and image quality adjusting processing will be described FIG 6 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the image quality adjusting processing performed by the main control ler 60 When the image quality adjusting processing is per formed the CPU 62 of the main controller 60 produces sam pling image data first step S300 and analyzes the produced sampling image data step S310 Here production of the sampling image data means devel opment of an image selected from the images stored in the memory card 42 in the print data storage region and resolu tion changing processing processing for thinning out the number of pixels for changing resolution of the developed image to fit the analysis ofthe image for image quality adjust ment is performed In addition analysis ofthe sampling image data is process ing for ab
4. amount for adjusting the quality ofthe image automatically perform image quality adjusting processing with respect to the image using a third cor rection amount that is based on the first and second correction amounts and display on the displaying por tion the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing along with informa tion indicative ofthe amount of correction applied to the image and US 8 390 880 B2 13 c performing printing processing on the quality adjusted image 5 The printing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the information is in antenna form indicating the amount of cor rection as a level of correction 6 The method according to claim 4 wherein the informa tion is in antenna form indicating the amount of correction as a level of correction 7 The printing apparatus according to claim 5 wherein the information comprises a number of level icons indicating the amount of correction the number of level icons being zero 14 indicating no amount of correction and each subsequent number of level icons indicating a subsequently higher amount of correction 8 The printing apparatus according to claim 6 wherein the information comprises a number of level icons indicating the amount of correction the number of level icons being zero indicating no amount of correction and each subsequent number of level icons indicating a subsequently higher amount of correction
5. an example of image quality adjusting processing FIG 7 is an explanatory view illustrating a correction level setting method FIG 8 is an explanatory view illustrating an example of an image displaying screen 80 displayed in the middle of per forming the image displaying processing FIG 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of printing processing FIG 10 is an explanatory view illustrating an example ofa correction level setting method FIG 11 is an explanatory view illustrating an example of an image quality readjustment amount setting screen 90 FIG 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of image quality readjusting processing DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter preferable embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings FIG 1 is a perspective view illustrating appearance of a multifunction printer 10 which is an embodiment ofa printing apparatus according to the invention FIG 2 is a block dia gram illustrating the multifunction printer 10 As shown in FIGS 1 and 2 the multifunction printer 10 according to this embodiment consists of a printer unit 20 which performs printing on print paper S by a printing job a scanner unit 30 which reads a manuscript mounted ona platen 31 a memory card controller 44 for exchanging data with a memory card 42 inserted in a memory card slot 40 a manipu lation panel 50 which displays various information to a dis playing
6. and the correction amount for manual image quality adjust ment In addition in the printing apparatus it is preferable that the display controlling unit be a means for displaying an original image of the inputted image and starting the image quality adjusting processing regardless of the user s manual manipulation when a display of the image is demanded and switching a display of the original image with a display of the quality adjusted image according to the user s manipulation when the image quality adjusting processing is finished With this processing it is possible to make a user not feel lagging of the image quality adjusting processing Further in the printing apparatus it is preferable that the display controlling unit be a means for receiving a demand for image quality readjusting processing with respect the quality adjusted image displayed on the displaying portion by a user s manipulation performing the image quality readjust ing processing with respect to the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing when the demand is received and displaying the quality readjusted image obtained through the image quality read justing processing on the displaying portion US 8 390 880 B2 3 With such processing it is possible to respond to the user s demand for the image quality readjustment Further in the printing apparatus it 1s preferable that the print controlling unit be a means f
7. controller 60 receives various operation signals and various detection signals from the printer unit 20 the scanner unit 30 and the memory card controller 44 or receives manipulation signals generated in response to the manipulation of the buttons 54 of the manipulation panel 50 In addition an image file is read out from the memory card 42 an instruction outputted to the main controller 60 is fur ther outputted to the memory card controller 44 an instruc tion is outputted to the printer unit 20 so that the printing of the image data is performed an instruction is outputted to the scanner unit 30 so that the manuscript mounted on the platen 36 is read out as the image data according to a scanning instruction made by the use of the buttons 54 of the manipu lation panel 50 and control instructions for controlling the displaying portion 52 are outputted to the manipulation panel 50 Next operation of the multifunction printer 10 structured in the above mentioned manner and printing operation for performing printing after checking the image stored in the memory card 42 using the displaying portion 52 will be described FIG 3 shows a flowchart of a main routine executed by the CPU 62 of the multifunction printer 10 This processing is repeatedly performed at a predeter mined time interval When the main routine is executed the CPU 62 of the multifunction printer 10 displays a menu screen step S100 and performs processing of waiti
8. portion 52 or receives user s instructions through user s manipulation of buttons 54 and a main controller 60 which controls the entire apparatus The multifunction printer 10 is structured such that the printer unit 20 the scanner unit 30 the memory card control ler 44 and the main controller 60 exchange various control signals and data via a bus 12 The printer unit 20 is equipped with a printer ASIC 22 and a printer engine 24 The printer ASIC 22 is an integrated circuit for controlling the printer engine 24 and controls the printer engine 24 to print an image file which is an object of the instruction on paper S when receiving a printing instruction from the main controller 60 US 8 390 880 B2 5 In addition the printer engine 24 is structured to have a function of a color printer which is based on a known ink jet system which ejects ink to the paper from a print head for printing ASIC stands for Application Specific Integrated Circuit The scanner unit 30 is equipped with a scanner ASIC 32 and a scanner engine 34 The scanner ASIC 32 is an integrated circuit for controlling the scanner engine 34 and controls the scanner engine 34 to read a manuscript mounted on the platen 32 as image data when receiving a scanning instruction from the main control ler 60 In addition the scanner engine 34 is constituted from a known image scanner and is equipped with a color image sensor which splits light reflected from the manuscri
9. readjustment amount set ting screen 90 of FIG 11 such that the readjustment amount is set by selecting any of items weaker weak and stron ger by leftward and rightward manipulation of the arrow keys 54f and clicking the OK button 54g FIG 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the image quality readjusting processing performed by the main con troller 60 This processing is performed if the instruction of the image quality readjustment is not issued at the time between steps 260 to S280 of the image displaying processing of FIG 5 If the image quality readjusting processing is performed the CPU 62 of the main controller 60 performs processing for resetting the correction amounts for every image quality parameter on the basis of the readjustment amount selected by a user step S500 This processing can be performed by applying coefficients depending on the readjustment amounts selected by the user to the current correction amounts for every image quality parameter Next the image quality adjusting processing is performed using the reset correction amount step S510 the correction level is reset using the relationship shown in FIG 7 on the basis of the correction amounts for every image quality parameters step S520 the correction level icon of the reset correction level and the quality readjusted image obtained through the image quality readjusting processing are displayed in the image displaying screen st
10. value UNDO of the setting item automatic image quality adjustment in the print setting screen 70 shown in FIG 4 users can check the effect of the image quality adjusting processing from the image displaying screen 80 without feel ing lagging ofthe image quality adjusting processing in com parison with the case in which the users make an instruction to start the image quality adjusting processing by themselves In sucha state it is possible to select DO or UNDO ofthe automatic quality adjustment by pressing the print setting button 54c in the screen At this time the correction level is displayed with the antenna icon 84 as the effect of the image quality adjusting processing and the original image and the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting process ing are switched to each other every when the on off switch ing button is pressed Accordingly it is possible for users to easily check the difference between the original image and the quality adjusted image obtained through the image qual ity adjusting processing Further the image displayed in the image displaying screen 80 can be selected and printed ina manner such that the number of print copies of the image displayed on the display ing portion is set by the use of the print copy number setting button 54d in the image displaying screen 80 and the print button 545 is pressed When the print performing mode is selected in step S120
11. 099 022 B1 8 2006 Kawaoka we 358 1 9 7 324 749 B2 1 2008 Kubo 358 527 7 330 189 B2 2 2008 Nichogiet al 345 589 7 444 038 B2 10 2008 Shimizu et al 358 1 9 7 466 857 B2 12 2008 Nishiet al 358 1 9 7 511 853 B2 3 2009 Nakami we 358 1 9 7 589 863 B2 9 2009 Kita wees we 358 1 9 7 664 335 B2 2 2010 Kurumisawa etal 382 254 2005 0212914 Al 9 2005 Seto et al FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS JP 08 317237 11 1996 JP 11 088672 3 1999 JP 11 345321 12 1999 JP 2001350467 A 12 2001 JP 2005 096301 4 2005 JP 2005284411 A 10 2005 JP 2005 342963 12 2005 JP 2006013618 A 1 2006 JP 2006264012 A 10 2006 cited by examiner Primary Examiner Scott A Rogers 74 Attorney Agent or Firm Nutter McClennen amp Fish LLP John J Penny Jr Christina M Sperry 57 ABSTRACT A printing apparatus having a displaying portion a display controlling unit and a print controlling unit 8 Claims 8 Drawing Sheets 6558 13 E oos m FINAL VIEW ON 7 PRI SETTII U S Patent Mar 5 2013 Sheet 1 of 8 US 8 390 880 B2 FIG 1 U S Patent Mar 5 2013 Sheet 2 of 8 US 8 390 880 B2 FIG 2 PRINTER ASIC PRINTER ENGINE SCANNER ASIC SCANNER ENGINE FLASH MEMORY COMMUNICATION I F ii e 6 4 ES MEMORY CARD MEMORY CONTROLLER CARD DISPLAYING UNIT 52 MODE SELECTION 54a POWER BUTTON BUTTON 54e 54b PRINT BUTTON PRINT CANCEL sic
12. OUNT PERFORM IMAGE QUALITY S510 ADJUSTING PROCESSING PERFORM RESETTING OF CORRECTION 5520 LEVEL FROM CORRECTION AMOUNT FOR EACH IMAGE QUALITY PARAMETER 530 DISPLAY ADJUSTED IMAGE ALONG WITH CORRECTION LEVEL ICON US 8 390 880 B2 1 PRINTING APPARATUS METHOD AND PROGRAM FOR AUTOMATIC IMAGE QUALITY ADJUSTMENT BASED ON COMBINATION OF CORRECTION AMOUNTS AND DISPLAY OF IMAGE AND CORRECTION INFORMATION BACKGROUND 1 Technical Field The present invention relates to a printing apparatus having a displaying unit a controlling method of controlling the printing apparatus and a program for causing one or more computers to execute processing steps of the controlling method 2 Related Art From the past JP A 1996 317237 and JP A 2009 88672 disclose a system in which an inputted image undergoes image quality adjusting processing the result of the pressing is displayed on a display panel and then printing processing for the image is performed In such a system a user can print an image after checking the result of the image quality adjusting processing for the selected image Accordingly it is convenient to use the sys tem By the way in even the printer having a displaying device in the similar manner an image undergoes the image quality adjusting processing before printing and then the processed image can be displayed on the displaying device However the displaying device mounted in the printer generally has a smal
13. TY PARAMETER PERFORM IMAGE S330 ADJUSTING PROCESSING SET CORRECTION LEVEL ON THE BASIS OF CORRECTION AMOUNT FOR S340 EACH IMAGE QUALITY PARAMETER FIG 7 CORRECTION LESS A3 OR AMOUNT A THAN A1 1 2 2 3 MORE CORRECTION LEVEL Tul i ol NO LOW MIDDLE HIGH U S Patent Mar 5 2013 Sheet 6 of 8 US 8 390 880 B2 FIG 8 zz QUALITY NORMAL CZ Uy PRINT PRINT SETTING START LSETTING CHANGE Q SELECTION IMAGE QUALITY i JL ADJUSTING PROCESSING L SIZE 80 NO LATCH Aaa PRINT SETTING START SETTING CHANGE O QASELECTION L SIZE NO LATCH VIEW ON gl PR CD START SETTING 84 U S Patent Mar 5 2013 Sheet 7 of 8 US 8 390 880 B2 FIG 9 PRINTING PROCESSING READ IMAGE DEVELOP IMAGE S420 IS THERE DEMAND FOR IMAGE QUALITY ADJUSTMENT PERFORM IMAGE QUALITY ADJUSTING PROCESSING PERFORM PRINTING PROCESSING FIG 10 CORRECTION AMOUNT A LESS A3 OR THANA1 1 2 A2 A3 MORE og Gu Se Ow a On mm Oz W D cu xg U S Patent Mar 5 2013 Sheet 8 of 8 US 8 390 880 B2 FIG 11 90 READJUSTMENT HIGHER ADJUSTMENT AMOUNT CHANGE 00 END FIG 12 IMAGE QUALITY READJUSTING PROCESSING READJUST CORRECTION AMOUNT FOR 5500 EACH IMAGE QUALITY PARAMETER ON THE BASIS OF READJUSTMENT AM
14. a2 United States Patent Nakajo US008390880B2 US 8 390 880 B2 Mar 5 2013 10 Patent No 45 Date of Patent 54 PRINTING APPARATUS METHOD AND PROGRAM FOR AUTOMATIC IMAGE QUALITY ADJUSTMENT BASED ON COMBINATION OF CORRECTION AMOUNTS AND DISPLAY OF IMAGE AND CORRECTION INFORMATION 75 Inventor Naoki Nakajo Shiojiri JP 73 Assignee Seiko Epson Corporation Tokyo JP Notice Subject to any disclaimer the term of this patent is extended or adjusted under 35 U S C 154 b by 727 days 21 22 Appl No 12 220 213 Filed Jul 23 2008 65 Prior Publication Data US 2009 0027706 Al Jan 29 2009 30 Foreign Application Priority Data J01 23 2007 JP usss saa aa 2007 190490 51 Int CI H04N 1 40 H04N 1 60 2006 01 G06T 5 00 2006 01 U S CI 358 1 9 358 3 27 358 518 358 527 Field of Classification Search 358 1 9 358 1 13 518 527 537 448 452 3 27 382 254 311 715 274 275 345 589 399 81 455 566 See application file for complete search history 2006 01 52 58 56 References Cited U S PATENT DOCUMENTS 4 692 797 A 9 1987 Matsumoto 358 518 5 012 290 A 4 1991 Sawamuraetal 399 81 5 119 182 A 6 1992 Tsuboi et al 358 500 5 870 683 A 2 1999 Wells etal 455 566 6 262 817 B1 7 2001 Sato etal 358 518 6 748 119 B1 6 2004 Bollman 382 254 7
15. alues DO and UNDO bright ness adjustment setting values brighter bright normal dark darker contrast setting values normal strong and weak and sharpness setting values sharpness strong sharpness weak normal soft focus weak and soft focus strong One of the setting items is selected by combining cursors i e by upward and downward manipulations of the arrow keys 54f and one of the setting values of each setting item can be selected by rightward manipulation of the arrow keys 54f In step 5120 when the image displaying mode is selected the image displaying processing is performed step S140 and the main routine ends US 8 390 880 B2 7 FIG 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the image displaying processing performed by the main controller 60 When the image displaying processing of FIG 5 is per formed the CPU 62 of the main controller 60 performs pro cessing of displaying an original image of the selected image step S200 In greater detail an image of images stored in the memory card 42 is read out and is then developed in the display data storage region of the RAM 66 Then resolution changing processing in which the developed image is changed to fit the display of the displaying portion 52 is performed processing for thinning out the number of pixels Further when the read image is YCbCr data compressed in JPEG format the image development is performed by decod ing JPEG data and changing the
16. e image receive a second correction amount for adjusting the quality of the image automatically perform image quality adjusting processing with respect to the image using a third correction amount that is based on the first and second correction amounts and display the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing along with information indicative of the amount of correction applied to the image on the displaying portion and a print controlling unit configured to perform printing pro cessing on the quality adjusted image 2 The printing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the display controlling unit is configured to switch alternately display the image in its uncorrected form and the quality adjusted image based on user manipulation after the image quality adjusting processing is finished 3 The printing apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the display controlling unit receives a command for readjusting the quality of the quality adjusted image and performs image quality readjusting processing with respect to the quality adjusted image and displays a quality readjusted image obtained through the image quality readjusting processing 4 A method for controlling a printing apparatus having a displaying portion the method comprising a receiving an image b controlling a display to automatically set a first correc tion amount for adjusting quality of the image receive a second correction
17. ep 530 and the processing ends 20 40 45 50 55 65 12 In the description of the embodiment the invention is applied to the multifunction printer 10 equipped with the printer unit 20 and the scanner unit 30 but may be applied to typical printers which are not equipped with scanner units In the description of the embodiment the invention is applied to a full color printer 10 using ink as a coloring agent and employing an ink jet system but may be applied to a color laser printer using toner as a coloring agent and employ ing an electro photographic system or a color printer using a ink ribbon as a coloring agent and employing a thermal trans fer system Besides the printing apparatus such as FAX machine the invention may be applied to an image displaying apparatus such as a displaying portion of a digital still camera or a photo view The description in the embodiment mainly refers the print ing apparatus but the invention can be implemented in the form of a controlling method of a printing apparatus or a program which causes one or more computers to perform steps of the controlling method of the printing apparatus What is claimed is 1 A printing apparatus having a displaying portion com prising an image inputting unit for receiving an image a display controlling unit in communication with the image inputting unit configured to automatically set a first correction amount for adjusting quality of th
18. he automatic image quality adjusting processing the printing processing is performed without performing the image quality adjusting processing step S440 and the main processing ends Hereinafter the relationship between elements of the embodiment and elements ofthe invention will be described The memory card slot 40 and the memory card controller 44 of the embodiment correspond to an image inputting unit the main controller 60 which performs the image displaying processing of FIG 5 and the image quality adjusting process ing of FIG 6 correspond to a display controlling unit and the main controller 60 which performs the printing processing of FIG 9 corresponds to a print controlling unit With this embodiment a method of controlling the printing apparatus ofthe invention will be described by referring to the operation of the multifunction printer 10 According to the multifunction printer 10 of the above mentioned embodiment when the image displaying mode is selected the original image ofthe selected image is displayed on the image displaying screen the image quality adjusting processing which performs the image quality adjustment by setting correction amounts for the selected image for every image quality parameter is started and the correction level is displayed in the image displaying screen when the image quality adjusting processing is finished Accordingly users can check the effect ofthe image quality adjusting processing
19. l size and thus it was difficult for a user to precisely check the effect of the image quality adjusting pro cessing by watching the image displayed on the displaying device SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that it provides a printing apparatus which allows a user to effec tively check the effect of image quality adjusting processing ofan image before performing printing processing ina printer which can print an image after perform image quality pro cessing for the image In order to accomplish the above mentioned object the printing apparatus has the following structure According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a printing apparatus equipped with a displaying portion which includes an image inputting unit for inputting an image a display controlling unit which causes the image inputting unit to input the image when there is a demand for image display sets correction amount for automatic image quality adjustment of the image which is inputted by image inputting unit performs image quality adjusting processing with respect to the corresponding image by using the set correction amount and displays the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing along with information about the correction amount on the displaying portion and a print controlling unit which inputs the image to be printed by using the image inputting unit and performs printing processing of the i
20. mount for automatic image quality adjustment for the inputted image is set image quality adjust ing processing is performed with respect to the inputted image using the set correction amount and the quality ad justed image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing is displayed on a displaying portion along with information about the correction amount For instance when the printing of the image is demanded but the image quality adjusting processing is not demanded the image to be printed is inputted and the printing processing for the inputted image is performed On the other hand when the printing of the image is demanded and the image quality adjusting process ing for the image is also demanded the image to be printed is inputted the image quality adjusting processing is performed with respect to the inputted image and then the printing processing is performed Accordingly a user can perform the printing after checking the effect of the image quality adjusting processing on the displaying portion At this time since both of the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing and information about the correction amount are displayed a user can precisely check the correction level which is hardly checked by a user when the user checks it only watching the quality adjusted image According to a further aspect of the invention there is provided a program which causes one or more computers t
21. ng a key input Step S110 Even though not shown in the figure for example there are various menu items such as an image display mode for dis playing images stored in the memory card 62 on the display ing portion 52 and allowing selection of an image to be printed a print setting mode for performing various printing settings and a print performing mode for performing printing of the selected image in the menu screen These menus are selected by using the print button 545 the print setting button 54c and the arrow keys 54f When the key input is performed it is determined which mode is selected from various modes including the print setting mode the image displaying mode the print perform ing mode Step 120 In step S120 when the print setting mode is selected print setting processing is performed in a manner such that a print setting screen is displayed and a print setting is performed step S130 and the main routine ends FIG 4 shows an example of a print setting screen 70 As shown in FIG 4 the print setting screen 70 includes selection items such as paper kinds setting values include photo paper plain paper and matt paper paper size setting values include L size postcard size and A4 size layout setting values include no latch and presence of latch print quality setting values include fast normal clean automatic image quality adjustment for adjusting an image so as to have the best color tone setting v
22. nputted image when the printing of the image is demanded but the image quality adjusting processing is not demanded and which inputs the image to be printed by using the image inputting unit then performs the image quality adjusting processing of the input ted image and finally performs the printing processing when the printing of the image is demanded and the image quality adjusting processing is also demanded 20 25 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 2 In the printing apparatus when a display ofan image is demanded the image is inputted correction amount for auto matic image quality adjustment of the inputted image is set the inputted image undergoes image quality adjusting pro cessing on the basis of the set correction amount and the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing and information about the correction amount are displayed on the displaying portion On the other hand when the image quality adjusting processing is not demanded the image to be printed is inputted and then the printing processing ofthe inputted image is performed When the image quality adjusting processing is demanded the image to be printed is inputted the inputted image undergoes the image quality adjusting processing and then the printing processing of the quality adjusted image is performed Accordingly a user can check the effect of the image quality adjusting processing on the displaying portion and
23. nt from the adjustment item of the automatic image quality adjusting processing as well as the automatic image quality adjusting processing can be performed and image quality adjustment FIG 10 shows an example of the relationship between the correction amount A used in the automatic image quality adjusting processing and the correction level used in the manual image quality adjusting processing In this example as shown in FIG 10 the correction level is selected from the correction level determined on the basis of the correction amount A used in the automatic image quality adjusting processing and the correction level determined on the basis of the correction amount used in the manual image quality adjusting processing That is stronger correction level is set With this embodiment when the image displaying mode is instructed the original image is displayed and the image quality adjusting processing of FIG 6 is performed When the image quality adjusting processing is finished the display change between the original image and the quality adjusted image is performed by manipulation of the on off switching button However when a user sets readjustment of the image after the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing is displayed on the displaying portion 52 image quality readjusting processing may be per formed In this case the setting of the readjustment amount is performed using an image quality
24. o execute step of the controlling method of the printing appa ratus In the program it is preferable that the program may be recorded ina computer readable medium for example hard disk read only memory ROM floppy disk FD compact disk CD digital versatile disk DVD et al may be trans ferred to a computer from another computer via a transmis sion medium for example Internet local area network LAN et al or may be exchanged through another method In both cases in which the program is executed in a single computer and in which steps of the controlling method are 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 4 separately performed in a plurality of computers since the steps of the controlling method of the printing apparatus are performed it is possible to obtain the same effect as the controlling method by the program BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein like numbers reference like elements FIG 1 is a schematic view illustrating the overall structure ofa multi function printer 10 FIG 2 is a block diagram illustrating the multi function printer 10 FIG 3 is a flowchart illustrating an exemplary main rou tine FIG 4 is an explanatory view illustrating an example of a print setting screen 70 FIG 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of image displaying processing FIG 6 is a flowchart illustrating
25. of the main routine the printing processing is performed step 150 and the main routine ends FIG 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example ofthe printing processing When the printing processing is executed the CPU 62 of the main controller 60 reads the image selected by a user from the memory card 42 step S400 and the image which is read out is developed in the print data storage region of the RAM 66 step S410 Next it is determined whether the automatic image quality adjusting processing is demanded by a user i e whether the automatic image quality adjustment is set with DO or notin the print setting screen 70 step S420 When the automatic image quality adjusting processing is demanded the image quality adjusting processing is performed using the correc tion amounts for every image quality parameter set in step 320 of the image quality adjusting processing of FIG 5 to produce print image data step S430 printing processing is performed using the produced print image data step S440 and the main processing ends The printing processing is performed such that half tone processing or RGB CMYK color conversion processing is performed with respect to the produced print image data print data is produced by adding a print control command to the print image data and the print data is outputted to the printer ASIC 22 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 10 In addition when there is no demand for t
26. of the image to be printed from the displaying portion 52 before performing printing That is it is difficult for users to know how the image is adjusted by the image quality adjusting processing by only watching the adjusted image which is displayed in the image displaying screen However it is possible to help a user pre cisely check the correction degree by displaying the correc tion level in the image displaying screen Furthermore since the displays of the original image and the quality adjusted image obtained through the image qual ity adjustment are switched by user s direction by the use of the on off switching button the original image and the qual ity adjusted image can be directly compared with each other by the users In addition the image quality adjusting processing is started as soon as the original image is displayed regardless of user s selection between DO and UNDO of the auto matic image quality adjustment in the print setting screen Accordingly users may not feel lagging ofthe image quality adjusting processing in comparison with the case in which the original image is displayed first a user makes an instruction to perform the automatic image quality adjustment and finally the image quality adjusting processing is started With this embodiment the correction level is expressed by the correction level icon 84 which shows the correction level in four levels zero bar of antenna one bar of antenna t
27. or performing printing processing after the image quality adjusting processing with respect to the inputted image is performed using the correc tion amount which is set by the display controlling unit With such a structure it is possible to perform the printing processing at high speed because there is no need to newly set the correction amount when performing the printing process ing According to another aspect of the invention there is pro vided a controlling method of a printing apparatus equipped with a displaying portion including a when a display of an image is demanded inputting an image setting correction amount for automatic image quality adjustment with respect to the inputted image performing image quality adjusting processing with respect to the inputted image using the set correction amount and displaying the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing along with information about the correction amount which is used in the processing of the corresponding image on the displaying portion b when a display of an image is demanded but the image quality adjusting processing is not demanded inputting the image to be printed performing the image quality adjusting processing with respect to the input ted image and performing the printing processing According to the controlling method of a printing appara tus when the display of an image is demanded an image is inputted correction a
28. processing ends On the other hand in the case in which the on off switching button 1s in the on state while another processing is not demanded the original image is switched with the quality adjusted image obtained through the image quality adjusting processing step S280 and the processing flow returns to step S260 FIG 8 shows an example of a screen displayed on the displaying portion 42 by the image displaying processing of FIG 5 As shown in FIG 8 when the image displaying mode is instructed the original image of the image selected by the user is displayed on the image displaying screen 80 and the US 8 390 880 B2 9 in processing icon 82 is displayed Thus the image quality adjusting processing is started step S200 through S220 Here the item final view off of FIG 8 means the state in which the original image which has not undergone the image quality adjusting processing is displayed When the image quality adjusting processing is finished the display ofthe in processing icon 82 is eliminated and the antenna icon 84 showing the correction level of the image quality adjusting processing is displayed steps S240 and S250 Further every when the on off switching button is pressed the display of the screen is switched between the original image and the quality adjusted image steps S270 and S280 Since such processing is started as the original image is displayed even in the case in which a user selects the setting
29. pt into red R green G and blue B colors to produce scan data The memory card controller 44 performs input and output of data to and from the memory card 42 inserted into the memory card slot 40 arranged alongside the manipulation panel 50 The memory card controller 44 reads a file stored in the memory card 42 when the memory card 42 is connected with the memory card slot 40 sends the file to the main controller 60 receives an instruction from the main controller 60 and writes data into the memory card 42 according to the instruc tion The manipulation panel 50 is provided with the displaying portion 52 and the buttons 54 The displaying portion 52 is a liquid crystal display Vari ous manipulation screens for enabling menu selection and menu setting are displayed on the displaying portion 52 The buttons 54 include a power supply button 54a for switching on and off power a print button 545 for performing printing a print setting button 54c for performing various settings such as print paper and quality a print copy number setting button 54d for setting the number of print copies of the selected image a mode selection button 54e for selecting a mode left right up and down arrow keys 54 for selecting various items or settings an OK button 54g for effecting the selected setting and a return button 54 for returning the menu screen to a previous screen The buttons 54 are made such that user s instructions are inputted
30. rection amount which is set for each image quality param eter step S340 and the main processing ends Here with this embodiment the relationship between aver age values of correction amounts correction amounts A which are set for every image quality parameter and correc tion levels are obtained and stored as a map in the ROM 64 and the correction level corresponding to the correction amount is calculated from the map FIG 7 shows an example of the map As shown in FIG 7 when the correction amount A is less than the value Al the correction level becomes no When the correction amount A is the value A1 or more and less than the value A2 the correction level becomes weak When the correction amount A1 is the value A2 or more and less than the value A3 the correction level becomes middle When the correction amount A is the value A3 or more the correction level becomes strong As the correction amount A the averages may be obtained with different weights for every image quality parameter Returning to step S220 ofthe image displaying processing shown in FIG 5 when execution of the image quality adjust ing processing is started in this manner it is determined whether another processing for example print setting mode or print performing mode is demanded or not step S230 and whether the image quality adjusting processing started in step S220 is finished or not step S240 When another processing i
31. s demanded the main process ing ends In this case data produced in the middle of performing the image quality adjusting processing is discarded When the image quality adjusting processing is finished and another processing is not demanded a correction level icon corresponding to the correction level set in step S340 of the image quality adjusting processing of FIG 6 is displayed on the displaying portion 52 instead ofthe in processing icon step S250 With this embodiment the correction level icon is shown in an antenna form As shown in FIG 7 when the correction level is no the antenna level shows no bar When the cor rection level is weak the antennal level shows one bar When the correction level is middle the antenna level shows 2 bars When the correction level is strong level the antenna level shows 3 bars In this manner it is possible to help a user check comple tion of the image quality adjusting processing and the effect ofthe image quality adjusting processing by changing an icon displayed on the displaying portion 52 from the in processing icon to the correction level icon When the correction level icon is displayed it 1s deter mined whether another processing is demanded step S260 and where the on off switching button corresponding to the arrow keys 54f with this embodiment is in the on state or in the off state step S270 In the case in which another pro cessing is demanded the
32. stracting a specific amount of each image quality parameter of the image data In greater detail the analysis of the sampling image data is performed by obtaining an RGB histogram of sampling image data and a histogram of bright ness and obtaining specific amount of each image quality parameter such as maximum luminosity minimum luminos ity brightness chroma saturation color balance highlight shadow contrast and sharpness Next a correction amount is set for each image quality parameter step S320 and image quality adjustment is per formed using the set correction amount step S330 The correction amount for each image quality parameter is set on the basis of the specific amount of each image quality parameter which is obtained by analyzing the sampling image data and a target value which is predetermined as the specific amount of each image quality parameter which a desirable image quality has In greater detail the correction value is set such that the correction value of each image quality parameter of the sampling image data is equal or similar to the target value In greater detail the image quality adjusting processing is performed by changing the characteristic of a tone curve using the set correction amount and producing display image data using the characteristic of the changed tone curve 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 8 Accordingly a correction level is set on the basis of the cor
33. to the main control ler 60 via an internal communication interface 69 Here modes that can be selected by the mode selection button 546 include a copying mode for copying the manu script set on the platen 32 by scanning the manuscript a memory card mode for printing an image stored in the memory card 42 or saving the manuscript in the memory card 42 as data by scanning the manuscript a film mode for scan ning and printing a photograph film or saving the scanned data into the memory card 42 and a CD DVD driving mode for printing the image stored in the CD DVD The main controller 60 is constituted from a microproces sor having a central processing unit CPU 62 as acore and is equipped with a read only memory ROM 64 which stores various processing programs various kinds of data and vari ous kinds of tables therein a random access memory RAM 66 which temporarily stores scan data or print data a flash memory 68 into which data can be electrically rewritten and which maintains data even when power is not supplied and the internal communication interface 69 which enables com munication with the manipulation panel 50 These elements are connected to each other via the bus 12 so that signals can be exchanged The RAM 66 has a display data storage region for storing display image data therein and a print data storage region for storing print image data therein 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 6 The main
34. wo bars of antenna and three bars of antenna on the basis ofthe correction amount A of the image quality parameter of the selected image but the number of levels showing the correc tion degree is not limited to four but may be any number as long as the number is two or more Alternatively the correc tion amount A may be directly displayed Further expression of the correction level is not limited to the antenna icon but may be any diagrams numbers or char acters as long as those can be identified by users as the correction level In addition the correction level may be expressed by light color voice et al With this embodiment the image quality adjusting pro cessing step S430 of the printing processing of FIG 9 is performed by using the correction amount set in the image US 8 390 880 B2 11 quality adjusting processing step S320 of FIG 6 but may be performed by newly setting the correction amounts for every image quality parameter With this embodiment the correction level is set on the basis of the correction amount A used in the automatic image quality adjusting processing but may be set on the basis of both of the correction amount A used in the automatic image quality adjusting processing and the correction amount set by users in the manual image quality adjusting processing in an apparatus in which the image quality adjustment can be per formed according to user s manual setting with respect to items differe
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