Abstract: An ink jet printing system is provided which has an ink jet printing apparatus and a host and which alleviates a data processing load on the ink jet printing apparatus, prevents a reduction in a printing operation speed, and realizes a cost reduction. The ink jet printing apparatus of this invention has an ink receiving member for receiving waste ink ejected onto an overrunning area outside edges of a print medium and an accumulated value memory section for storing an accumulated value equivalent to waste ink volumes ejected onto the ink receiving member. The host includes a waste ink volume setting section for obtaining a value equivalent to a waste ink volume and a data sending section for sending data to the ink jet printing apparatus. The accumulated value memory section of the ink jet printing apparatus stores the accumulated value equivalent to waste ink volumes obtained by the host.

Abstract: A printing apparatus of the invention acquires a velocity and an acceleration of a printing medium when a rear end of the printing medium passes through a detection lever. A correction amount for the rear end of the printing medium is determined in accordance with the velocity and the acceleration of the printing medium. The correction amount is a transportation amount of the printing medium during a physical return time after the rear end of the printing medium passes through the detection lever until the detection lever is detected by a sensor. A remaining region from a printing position of a print head up to the rear end of the printing medium is controlled in accordance with the correction amount for the rear end of printing medium.

Abstract: When the time period is night, processing advances to step S13 to set the initialization speed of a line feed motor to the first speed (v1), and to step S15 to execute initialization operation of the line feed motor at the first speed (v1). When the time period is morning or daytime, the processing advances to step S12 to detect a cover open/closed state. When the cover is open, the processing advances to step S13 to set the initialization speed of the line feed motor to the first speed (v1). When the cover is closed, the processing advances to step S14 to set the initialization speed of the line feed motor to the second speed (v2) which is higher than the first speed (v1). The processing advances to step S15 to execute initialization operation of the line feed motor at the second speed (v2).

Abstract: A color image processing apparatus which codes image data while suppressing image deterioration. A color character area discrimination unit divides an input color image into 16×16-pixel blocks, and determines whether or not each block expresses color characters. In accordance with the determination result, a sub-sampling ratio switching unit switches the sampling ratio for each of color components YCrCb composing the color image data so that the sample ratio is Y:Cr:Cb=4:2:2 or Y:Cr:Cb=4:1:1. Subsequently, sampling is performed in accordance with the switched sampling ratio, and DCT, linear quantization and entropy coding are then performed.

Abstract: An ink jet printer which has a cover that can be opened to expose the interior of the apparatus to allow the ink tank and print head to be replaced and in which when the cover is detected to be opened, the apparatus is set so that the replacement of the ink tank or print head can be made, when the cover is opened for other purposes not accompanied by the replacement, unnecessary operations such as the replacement enable setting are eliminated. Hence, when the cover is opened during a standby state in which no print data is received and there is no error, the above setting (e.g., moving the print head to the replacement position) is permitted. When the cover is opened during the printing operation or in the presence of a print medium jam error, the apparatus does not permit the setting and waits for the cover to be closed.

Abstract: An image processor includes a video processing circuit which converts and processes a video signal. A first image processing circuit further processes the video signal processed by the video processing circuit, with emphasis on image gradation to generate image data matching the recording format of a recording apparatus. A second image processing circuit further processes the video signal processed by the video processing circuit, with emphasis on the sharpness of image contours to generate image data matching the recording format of the recording apparatus. A selecting circuit selects the first or second image processing circuit based on the type of video signal processed by the video processing circuit.

Abstract: One object of the present invention is to cut out areas of different natures from an image hierarchically. For encoding, an area identifier identifies areas of an input image. A multivalued area is encoded in a multivalued encoding mode. As for a bicolor area, typical-color values are computed and then encoded in a binary encoding mode. For decoding, multivalued coded data is decoded in a multivalued decoding mode. As for binary-coded data, values of pixels of a binary image resulting from binary decoding are transformed into multivalued data using associated typical-color values. The multivalued data is structured according to structural information, wherein areas of the data may be superposed mutually. Thus, an image is reconstructed.

Abstract: An image-retrieving system for retrieving a desired image from a data base. A storage device in the data base stores a plurality of images, additional information for identifying each of the plurality of images and calculated feature data for identifying each of the images. A first input device inputs additional-information data for identifying a desired image stored in the data base. An additional-information selection device selects a first set of candidates as the desired image by comparing the input additional-information with the stored additional-information for each of the stored plurality of images. A second input device inputs an illustrative image, which is illustrative of the desired image, and a generation device generates feature data from the input illustrative image. A selection device selects as the desired image a one of the candidates whose stored feature data is most similar to the generated feature data of the input illustrative image.

Abstract: In a data transmission system having a main controller for transmitting polling messages in a polling sequence and a plurality of terminal controllers responsive to a polling message to transmit data to the main controller, the finally polled terminal controller transmitting an END code for informing the main controller of the end of data transmission.