JP2000101820A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve a print processing rate and/or ease of storage management. SOLUTION: The image forming device (printer) that can continuously print out received image data on a wide continuous form sheet is provided with an image rotation compensation means 331. Then the width of the continuous form sheet is compared with an image paper size of the received image data, and whether or not rotation of the image data is required is discriminated. In the case that the rotation of the image data is required, the image is rotated and a continuous print control means 332 continuously prints out the rotated image data on the sheet with a prescribed paper size.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having a reading function and a wide printing function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, output from a personal computer or C
An image forming apparatus having a function of printing an AD drawing or the like is known, and an image forming apparatus having a document image reading function in addition to the printing function is also known. However, in the case of printing, only printing was performed in a designated sheet size, and reading was the same.

[0003]

By the way, originally CAD
Printing of drawings and the like is often once saved in a file on a computer, and then printed in large quantities. in this case,
If printing is repeated for each page, and the sheet is cut at a sheet size corresponding to the page, the overall printing processing speed is reduced. In addition, since one continuous printing is often related, storage management becomes troublesome if the sheet is cut in page units. Furthermore, when a drawing is read by a reading device and stored in a file, there is a case where management is not prepared by management using only a file name.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such a situation of the prior art, and has as its object to provide an image forming apparatus capable of improving the printing processing speed and / or the ease of storage management. It is in.

[0005]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus capable of continuously printing input image data on a wide continuous image sheet. Rotating means, comparing the width size of the continuous paper and the image paper size of the input image data, determine whether the rotation of the image data is necessary, if it is necessary to rotate, rotate the image, Control means for continuously printing on a predetermined paper size.

The second means is the first means, wherein the control means executes image rotation when taking in the original image data into the work buffer when rotating and printing the image, and outputting the image data from the work buffer. And compressing the rotated image data.

The third means is such that the first means further has an image reading function, and the control means stores the read image data in a file and prints a reduced image of the image data stored in the file. It is characterized by the following.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a system configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. This system is basically composed of a computer 100 and a printing apparatus 200, and outputs an image to the computer 100. Alternatively, an image processing unit 300 that performs image processing for storing the read image in a storage unit in the computer 100 is mounted. The computer 100 generates image data from the application 110, and set values necessary for printing, that is, the number of prints, the print paper size, the type of print paper, and the like are set using a connected printer driver. The necessary image data is output based on the setting of. The printing device 200 is an image processing device 30
0 is an output device for outputting the image data output from the printer to the roll paper.
It is also a reading device that transfers image data to the image data.

The image processing means 300 includes programs such as a printer driver 310, a spooler 320, a print monitor 330, and a reading control means 340 as shown in FIG.
And performs image processing for printing and reading. The printer monitor 330 is provided as one of ordinary print operation means such as a personal computer equipped with Windows as an OS. The printer monitor 330 further includes a rotation compression unit 331 and a read control unit 332 as a program. I have. The reading control means 340 includes the image means reducing means 3.
41 is provided as a program.

Signals are bidirectionally transmitted and received between the application 110 and the printer driver 310 and between the reading control means 340. Control data is transmitted to the printing apparatus 200 from the printer driver 310 via the spooler 320 and the print monitor 330. 410 and compression (MM
R) data 420 is transmitted, and compressed (MMR) data 430 obtained by compressing image data obtained by reading a document is transmitted from the printing apparatus 200 to the reading control unit 340. Note that the MMR data shown here is compressed data generally used in G4 facsimile and the like.

In the system shown in FIG. 2, control data and compressed data are received as input data, and printing is performed based on these data. On the other hand, when the original is read by the printing apparatus 200, the reading control unit 340
The image data is transferred to the application 110 via the printer 110. At the same time, the reduced image data is transferred from the image
Can be printed out.

For example, ten files in which the paper sizes A0 and A1 are mixed are created from the application 110, and all the ten files are continuously printed in a state where the roll paper having the width of A0 is set in the printing apparatus 200. When printing, the print setting values and print data are stored in the printer driver 310.
Is passed to the print monitor 330 via the spooler 320, and the print monitor 330 performs continuous printing, rotation, and compression.

In the continuous printing control means 332, FIG.
As shown in the flowchart, the continuous printing is executed using the rotary compression unit 331. That is, in this processing procedure, when continuous printing is instructed, first, the width of the roll paper of the printing apparatus 200 is acquired (step S1), and the acquired roll paper width is compared with the data paper size (step S1).
2). Then, based on the comparison result, it is determined whether or not rotation is necessary (step S3). If rotation is unnecessary, the print data is directly compressed (step S4). If rotation is required, printing is performed while rotating. The data is compressed (step S5), and it is determined whether each sheet is to be divided (step S6). If the roll paper is not to be divided, the roll paper is printed without cutting (step S
7) If it is to be divided, roll paper is cut and printed (step S8). Thereafter, it is checked whether or not the next printing is to be performed (step S9). If the printing is to be performed, the processing after step S3 is repeated. If the printing is not to be performed, the continuous printing ends.

In the case of continuous printing, as shown in FIG. 4, all files are printed on the paper size of the file.
As the paper, ten prints are formed.
By setting so that cutting is not performed as described above, printing can be continuously performed on one sheet of paper. In addition, the rotation operation and the compression operation usually require two memory areas corresponding to the size of the original image, but the rotation compression unit 331 in the present embodiment uses the work buffer 501 as shown in FIG. By doing so, the rotation and compression work can be performed in the memory area for the original image data.

That is, conventionally, the original image data 502
Was temporarily stored in the work buffer 501, a rotated image was created in the work buffer 501, the created rotated image 503 was stored in the memory, and the stored image was compressed and stored as the rotated compressed image 504. Here, the original image data 502 is rotated and stored in the work buffer 501 when it is taken out of the memory, and is compressed in this state. Therefore, the memory capacity for storing the rotated image data is unnecessary, and only the memory capacity of the original image data is required. Can be processed.

The image reducing means 341 in the reading control means 340 shown in FIG. 2 reads the original 601 using the reading function of the printing apparatus 200 as shown in FIG. In this case, the read data is converted into a file, and at the same time, reduced printing for confirmation is performed. This allows
The contents of the file can be easily grasped.

[0018]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the image compression unit, the image rotation unit, and the width size of the continuous paper are compared with the image paper size of the input image data. When it is necessary to determine whether or not the image data needs to be rotated, and when it is necessary to rotate the image data, a control unit for rotating the image and continuously printing it on a predetermined paper size is provided. Can be printed on one sheet of paper, whereby related file groups can be put together and storage management becomes easy.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when the image is rotated and printed, the image rotation is executed when the original image data is taken into the work buffer, and the rotated image data output from the work buffer is output. , The memory for two original image data is usually required, but the processing can be performed with the memory for one image data. As a result, the memory pressure of the computer is reduced, and when the computer uses the virtual memory, no unnecessary swap occurs. For this reason, the rotational compression speed image can be improved, and thus the printing speed can be improved.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the image processing apparatus further comprises image reading means for storing the read image data in a file and printing a reduced image of the image data stored in the file. The file contents can be confirmed by printing. As a result, there is no need to separately perform printing for checking the file contents, and efficient data processing can be performed. In addition, useless paper consumption can be minimized due to reduced printing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a system configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of an image processing unit.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a procedure of a continuous printing process performed by an image processing unit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of continuous printing in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of rotational compression using a work buffer.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a configuration in the case of performing reduction confirmation printing of a file.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 100 computer 200 printing device 300 image processing means 310 printer driver 320 spooler 330 print monitor 331 rotation compression means 332 continuous printing control means 340 read control means 341 image reduction means 410 control data 420,430 compressed data (MMR) data 501 work buffer

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page F term (reference) 2C087 BB20 BC03 BD24 BD40 BD53 CA03 DA17 5C073 AA06 AB04 BB02 CA01 CC01 CE01 CE04 CE06 5C076 AA19 AA19 AA22 AA24 BA03 BA09 CB04 9A001 HH24 JJ35

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus capable of continuously printing input image data on a wide continuous image sheet, comprising: an image compression unit; an image rotation unit; Control means for comparing the image data with the image paper size, determining whether or not rotation of the image data is necessary, and rotating the image if necessary, and continuously printing the image on a predetermined paper size. An image forming apparatus. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the image is rotated and printed, the image rotation is performed when the original image data is taken into a work buffer, and the rotated image data output from the work buffer is compressed. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an image reading unit, wherein the control unit stores the read image data in a file and prints a reduced image of the image data stored in the file. Image forming apparatus.