Method for determining a graphic area ratio of a printing plate and an apparatus therefor

An area ratio computing apparatus for computing an area ratio between a graphic area comprising characters and graphics to be printed on at least one page by a printing plate in a printing press, relative to a total area of the printing plate, the characters and graphics represented by character data and graphics data, respectively, said apparatus comprising:

• first layout means for arranging the character data and the graphic data for each page, to generate first layout data;
• data conversion means for carrying out a bit map making operation on said first layout data for each page, to generate binary dot data;
• second layout means for arranging each page on the printing plate;
• counting means for dividing the printing plate into specified regional divisions and counting said binary dot data for each specified regional division, to generate regionally divided counting data;
• computing means for computing a total relative area of graphic data based upon the regionally divided counting data.

A method for calculating an area ratio between a graphic area comprising characters and graphics to be printed on at least one page by a printing plate in a printing press, relative to a total area of the printing plate, the characters and graphics represented by character data and graphic data, respectively, said method comprising the steps of:

• arranging a first layout of the character data and the graphic data for each page, to generate first layout data;
• generating binary dot data by carrying out a bit map making operation for said first layout data for each page;
• arranging a second layout of each page according to page layout information to produce plate-based data for the printing plate;
• and
• dividing the printing plate into regional area divisions, each regional area division having a width not more than a width of an ink key of the printing press, and counting the binary bit data for each regional area division.

An area ratio computing apparatus for computing an area ratio between a graphic area comprising characters and graphics to be printed on at least one page by a printing plate in a printing press, relative to a total area of the printing plate, the characters and graphics represented by character data and graphics data, respectively, said apparatus comprising:

• first layout means for arranging the character data and the graphic data for each page, to generate first layout data;
• data conversion means for carrying out a bit map making operation on said first layout data for each page, to generate binary dot data;
• second layout means for arranging each page on the printing plate;
• counting means for dividing the printing plate into regional area divisions, each regional area division having a width not more than a width of an ink key of the printing press and counting said binary dot data;
• and
• computing means for computing an area of the graphic data relative to a standard width of the ink keys based upon said counted binary dot data.

An apparatus for computing an area ratio for a graphic area comprising characters and graphics to be printed on at least one page by a printing plate in a printing press, relative to a total area of the printing plate, the characters and graphics represented by character data and graphics data, respectively, said apparatus comprising:

• conversion means for converting the graphic data into exposure related binary data;
• exposing means for exposing the graphic data directly on the printing plate by using the exposure related binary data,
• counting means for counting the exposure related binary data divided into regional blocks corresponding to areas of the printing plate, each regional block having a width not more than a width of the printing press;
• and
• computing means for computing the area ratio of graphic area, for each regional block, based on the output information from the results of the counting means.

A method for computing a plate area ratio between a graphic area comprising characters and graphics to be printed on at least one page by a printing plate, relative to a total area of the printing plate, the characters and graphics represented by character data and graphic data, respectively, said method comprising the steps of:

• arranging a first layout of the character data and graphic data for each page, including a step of obtaining character area ratio information of the character data having particular fonts, from first memory means which stores a plurality of area ratio information respectively corresponding to a variety of font formats;
• determining graphic area ratios for the graphic data obtained from graphic data area ratio information in a second memory means which stores the graphic data area ratio information based on image nettings having predetermined area data;
• and
• dividing the print plate into regional divisions and determining the plate area ratio of the character data and the graphic data from said character area ratio information and said image nettings, according to a layout of the printing plate and according to said regional divisions.

An area ratio computation apparatus for computing a plate area ratio between a graphic area comprising characters and graphics to be printed on at least one page by a printing plate, relative to a total area of the printing plate, the characters and graphics represented by character data and graphics data, respectively, said apparatus comprising:

• layout means for arranging the character data and the graphic data for each page;
• first memory means for storing a plurality of area ratios for character data having respectively corresponding fonts;
• and
• second memory means which stores graphic area ratio information based on image nettings having predetermined area data;
• area ratio accumulating means for obtaining a sum of the area ratios of the character data to be printed from the first memory means and the image nettings from the second memory means;
• and
• computing means for dividing the printing plate into regional divisions and computing the plate area ratio based on the output data from said accumulating means according to a layout of the printing plate and said regional divisions.