JP2000131897A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device capable of increasing a toner saving ratio and also capable of confirming an original color. SOLUTION: As a printing mode, the device is provided with at least an image forming material saving mode of printing by using image forming material less than in the normal practice and a normal mode of printing by using the normal quantity of the image forming material, and printing is executed by using the image forming material in accordance with the printing mode and an inputted image data, and the device is provided with a patterning part 5a for converting the prescribed area of the inputted image to a prescribed pattern so as to obtain the image pattern data of the image forming material saving mode, a mode selecting part 7 for selecting one printing mode out of plural printing modes including the image forming material saving mode and the normal mode, and an image selecting part 8 for selecting the image pattern data of the image forming material saving mode or the image pattern data of the normal mode in accordance with the printing mode.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for printing an input image by transferring toner (image forming material) onto paper in accordance with image data (input image data) received from a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a mode in which printing is performed using a smaller amount of toner than usual (hereinafter, referred to as a "toner save mode"), a mode described in JP-A-7-107280 is known.

Hereinafter, a toner save mode in a conventional image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 is a block diagram showing a conventional image forming apparatus, FIG. 9 is an image diagram showing a general image (that is, a general input image) output from an image storage unit, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing general edge image data. FIG. 11 is an image data diagram showing general internal image data, and FIG. 12 is an image diagram showing a printing result in the image forming apparatus of FIG. FIG.
An image developing unit 1 expands a printer code transferred from a host computer (not shown) via a cable or the like into a binary code, and an image 2 stores image data expanded by the image expanding unit 1. The storage unit 3 detects an edge included in the image data output from the image storage unit 2 and determines an edge portion and an internal region of the edge (hereinafter, referred to as an “internal region”). A toner saving unit that performs image processing on image data output from the image storage unit 2 so that the area determined to be an internal area by the determination unit 3 is printed with less toner than usual; A mode selection unit for selecting either the toner save mode (image forming material save mode) or the normal mode, and a toner saving unit 8 according to the output of the mode selection unit 7 An image selection unit 9 for selecting and outputting either the output image data 11 or the output image data from the image storage unit 2, and prints and records the image data output from the image selection unit 8 on a recording medium such as paper. An image recording unit.

The operation of the image forming apparatus having the above-described configuration when the normal mode is selected by the mode selector 7 will be described first.

When the normal mode is selected, image data (input image data) transferred from the host computer
Are developed into binary data by the image developing unit 1 and stored in the image storage unit 2. The image data output from the image storage unit 2 is sent to the image recording unit 9 through the image selection unit 8,
It is printed on a recording medium such as paper. In this case, the edge determining unit 3 and the toner saving unit 11 may or may not perform a predetermined operation.

Next, the operation when the toner selection mode is selected by the mode selection section 7 will be described.

When the toner save mode is selected, similarly to the case where the normal mode is selected, the image data transferred from the host computer is expanded into binary data by the image expansion unit 1 and stored in the image storage unit 2. Is done. The image data output from the image storage unit 2 is transferred to the edge determination unit 3 and the toner saving unit 11.

Hereinafter, in the toner save mode, FIG.
The case where the image of (1) is output from the image storage unit 2 will be described. The operation of the edge determination unit 3 is as follows.

The edge discriminating unit 3 calculates the logical product of a plurality of pixels adjacent to the target pixel using a 3 × 3 matrix centered on the target pixel, and if the result is 1, judges that the target dot is inside the edge. , The image data is classified into edge image data corresponding to the edge portion and internal image data corresponding to the inside of the edge. When the image in FIG. 9 is processed by the edge discriminating unit 3, if the edge is represented by “1” and the other parts are represented by “0”, the edge image data is as shown in FIG. When the inside of the edge is represented by “1” and other parts are represented by “0”, the internal image data is as shown in FIG.

The operation of the toner saving unit 11 in the toner save mode is as follows. For the portion determined to be internal image data by the edge determination unit 3, the toner saving unit 11 performs signal processing so that the dot diameter becomes １ ／ of the original image. Similarly, for a portion determined to be edge image data, the toner saving unit 11 performs signal processing such that the dot diameter becomes ／ of the original image. The image data processed in this manner is transferred to the image recording unit 9 by the image selection unit 8 and printed on a recording medium such as paper. As an example, FIG. 12 shows an output image when the above processing is performed on the image of FIG.

As described above, in the toner save mode, there is an effect of reducing toner consumption as compared with the original image. The mode selection unit 7 may be provided on the image forming apparatus side or on the host computer side. When the mode selection unit 7 is provided on the host computer side, the operation can be executed by putting a command for executing the toner save mode in the image data transferred from the host computer to the image forming apparatus.

[0012]

However, in the above-described conventional image forming apparatus, since the printing is basically performed with a reduced density, the toner saving rate (the toner saving rate with respect to the amount of toner used in printing in the normal mode) is reduced. However, there is a problem that the ratio of the toner reduction amount during printing in the mode is small, and the original color cannot be confirmed.

In this image forming apparatus, it is required to increase the toner save rate and to confirm the original color.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus capable of increasing a toner save rate and confirming an original color.

[0015]

In order to solve this problem, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention uses an image forming material save mode in which printing is performed using at least a smaller amount of image forming material than usual. And an ordinary mode for performing printing using a normal amount of image forming material, and an image forming apparatus that performs printing using the image forming material according to the print mode and input image data. A patterning unit for converting a predetermined area into a predetermined pattern to obtain image pattern data in an image forming material save mode; and a plurality of printing modes including an image forming material save mode and a normal mode.
There is provided a configuration having a mode selection unit for selecting one of the printing modes, and an image selection unit for selecting image pattern data in the image forming material save mode or image pattern data in the normal mode according to the printing mode.

As a result, an image forming apparatus capable of increasing the toner save rate is obtained.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An image forming apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention includes an image forming material save mode in which printing is performed using at least a smaller amount of image forming material than a normal mode and a normal mode. An image forming apparatus that performs printing using an image forming material according to a print mode and input image data. A patterning unit for converting image data into a predetermined pattern to obtain image pattern data of an image forming material save mode, and a mode selecting unit for selecting one printing mode from a plurality of printing modes including an image forming material save mode and a normal mode And an image selection unit that selects image pattern data in the image forming material save mode or image pattern data in the normal mode according to the print mode. Ri, when the user selects the image pattern data of the image forming material saving mode, the image forming material saving rate depending on the shape of the image pattern has the effect of greatly improved.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus of the first aspect, the image forming apparatus further includes an area determining unit that controls a patterning operation in the patterning unit according to the size of the area of the same color. If patterning of an image is performed only in a large area and printing of a fine image is performed in the same manner as normal printing, it is possible to easily determine a fine image.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first aspect, the image forming apparatus further includes a color determination unit that controls a patterning operation of the patterning unit in accordance with a color type of the target area. For example, if the type of color is black, the patterning operation is not performed, and if the image pattern data in the normal mode is to be printed,
In general, it has the effect of easily recognizing characters that are often black.

An image forming apparatus according to a fourth aspect is the image forming apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects,
The image forming material save mode includes a correspondence table forming unit that forms a correspondence diagram between an image pattern of the image forming material save mode and a color type corresponding to the image pattern of the image forming material save mode. In this case, the problem that the original color is not known, which is often found, is solved, and the original color of the print result is confirmed.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
7 and 9 to 11 will be described.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an image forming apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG.
In FIG. 8, the image developing unit 1, the image storing unit 2, the edge discriminating unit 3, the mode selecting unit 7, the image selecting unit 8, and the image recording unit 9 are the same as those in FIG. . Reference numeral 4 denotes an area determination unit that compares the size of the area (internal area) determined to be inside the edge by the edge determination unit 3 with a predetermined size, and 5a denotes an area of the image data output from the image storage unit 2. A patterning unit for converting a part whose internal area is determined to be larger than a predetermined size by the determination unit 4 into a predetermined pattern; Is a correspondence table creation unit for adding the correspondence diagram of (1) to the image data. In FIG. 1, the image selection unit 8 includes a mode selection unit 7
And outputs either the output image data of the correspondence table creation unit 6 or the output image data of the image storage unit 2 in accordance with the output of.

The operation of the thus configured image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5 and FIGS. 9 to 11. 2 is an image pattern diagram showing a patterned image in the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1, FIG. 3 is an image diagram showing an example of an input image, FIG. 4 is an image print diagram showing a print result of the image shown in FIG. FIG. 5 is a color / image correspondence diagram showing the correspondence between the original color types and the image patterns.

First, the operation when the normal mode is selected by the mode selection section 7 will be described. When the normal mode is selected as the print mode, the image data transferred from the host computer is developed into binary data by the image developing unit 1 and stored in the image storage unit 2. The image data output from the image storage unit 2 is sent to the image recording unit 9 through the image selection unit 8, and is printed on a recording medium such as paper. In this case, the edge determining unit 3, the area determining unit 4, the patterning unit 5a, and the correspondence table creating unit 6 may or may not perform a predetermined operation.

Next, the case where the toner selecting mode (image forming material saving mode) is selected by the mode selecting section 7 will be described. When the toner save mode is selected as the print mode, similarly to the case where the normal mode is selected, the image data transferred from the host computer is expanded into binary data by the image expansion unit 1 and stored in the image storage unit 2. Is done. The image data output from the image storage unit 2 is transferred to the edge determination unit 3 and the patterning unit 5a. Hereinafter, a case where the image of FIG. 9 is output from the image storage unit 2 will be described.

The operation of the edge discriminating section 3 is the same as that of the conventional image forming apparatus, and the description is omitted. Further, similarly to the conventional image forming apparatus, the edge image data output from the edge determining unit 3 is as shown in FIG. 10, and the internal image data is as shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of the area determination section 4 will be described. In the internal image data output from the edge determining unit 3, the total number of pixels continuously determined as internal image data (hereinafter, referred to as “internal pixel number”) is obtained. In the case of FIG. 11, the total number of pixels surrounded by a thick line, that is, 234 is obtained.
The number of internal pixels is compared with a predetermined value. If the value of the number of internal pixels is larger than the predetermined value, the internal image data of the area and the edge image data corresponding to the area are output as they are. When the value of the number of internal pixels is smaller than a predetermined value, the value of the internal image data of the area and the value of the edge image data corresponding to the area are converted to “0”.

Next, the operation of the patterning section 5a will be described with reference to FIGS. A region of pixels having a value of “1” in the internal image data output from the region determination unit 4, that is, a region continuously determined as an internal image (ie, an internal region) is converted into a predetermined pattern. In addition, in the area of the pixel having the value 1 in the edge image data, that is, in the area determined to be the edge image, the original pixel is output as it is. FIG. 2 shows the conversion result when the patterning process is performed on the image of FIG. FIG. 2 shows a case where a predetermined pattern is performed as oblique lines. FIG. 4 shows a conversion result when the above processing is performed on the image of FIG. However,
In FIG. 4, A is an area determined by the area determination unit 4 to be smaller than a predetermined size.

Next, the operation of the correspondence table creating section 6 will be described with reference to FIG. The correspondence table creation unit 6 adds a correspondence diagram between the pattern and the original color as shown in FIG. 5 to the image data. This may be added to a predetermined location, or may be instructed using a function for instructing the location.

The image data thus processed is
The image is transferred to the image recording unit 9 by the image selection unit 8 and printed on a recording medium such as paper.

The mode selection section 7 may be provided on the image forming apparatus side or on the host computer side. When the mode selection unit 7 is provided on the host computer side, the operation can be executed by putting a command for executing the toner save mode in the image data transferred from the host computer to the image forming apparatus. Further, in the above description, the case where the toner is used as the image forming material has been described. However, it is needless to say that other image forming materials, for example, inks used in an ink jet printer can be similarly implemented. Although two types of print modes, a toner save mode (image forming material save mode) and a normal mode, have been described, three or more types of print modes may be set in the mode selector 7.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, only an internal region having a predetermined size or more is patterned into a predetermined shape (here, a pattern formed by oblique lines at predetermined intervals) and printed. Therefore, the toner save rate can be significantly improved, and in the case of a fine image, the image pattern data in the normal mode is printed, so that a print result in which the fine image can be easily distinguished can be obtained. In addition, the original color can be easily confirmed from the correspondence table between the image pattern and the original color.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing an image forming apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

In FIG. 6, the image developing unit 1, image storing unit 2, edge discriminating unit 3, correspondence table creating unit 6, mode selecting unit 7, image selecting unit 8, and image recording unit 9 are the same as those in FIG. , The same reference numerals are given, and the description is omitted. Reference numeral 10 denotes a black discriminating unit (color discriminating unit) for discriminating a black portion included in the image data output from the image accumulating unit 2; This is a patterning unit that converts a part determined not to be a predetermined pattern. In FIG. 6, the correspondence table creating unit 6 adds a correspondence diagram between the original colors of the area patterned by the patterning unit 5b and the converted image pattern to the image.

The operation of the thus-configured image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 3, 7, and 9 to 11. FIG. 7 is an image printing diagram showing a printing result of the image shown in FIG. The operation when the normal mode is selected by the mode selection unit 7 is the same as that in the first embodiment, and the description is omitted.

The operation when the mode selection section 7 selects the toner save mode will be described. When the toner save mode is selected, similarly to the case where the normal mode is selected, the image data transferred from the host computer is expanded into binary data by the image expansion unit 1 and stored in the image storage unit 2. The image data output from the image storage unit 2 is transferred to the edge determination unit 3 and the patterning unit 5b.

Hereinafter, in the toner save mode, FIG.
The case where the image of (1) is output from the image storage unit 2 will be described.

The operation of the edge discriminating section 3 is the same as that of the conventional image forming apparatus, and the description is omitted. The output of the edge discriminating unit 3 is the same as in the conventional image forming apparatus.
When the image of FIG. 9 is output from the image storage unit 2, the edge image data is as shown in FIG. 10 and the internal image data is as shown in FIG. The black determination unit 10 determines whether the pixel of interest is black in the image output from the image storage unit 2.

Next, the operation of the patterning section 5b will be described. The area of the pixel having the value “1” in the internal image data output from the edge determining unit 3, that is, the area (internal area) determined to be the internal image of the edge and the black determining unit 1
The area determined to be 0 and not black is converted to a predetermined pattern. In addition, in the area of the pixel having the value “1” in the edge image data, that is, in the area determined to be the edge image, the original pixel is output as it is. FIG. 7 shows a conversion result when the above processing is performed on the image of FIG. However, in FIG. 7, B is an area determined to be black by the black determination unit 10.

The operation of the correspondence table creator 6 is the same as that of the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted. The image data processed in this manner is transferred to the image recording unit 9 by the image selection unit 8 and printed on a recording medium such as paper.

The mode selection section 7 may be provided in the image forming apparatus or in the host computer. When the mode selection unit 7 is provided on the host computer side, the operation can be executed by putting a command for executing the toner save mode in the image data transferred from the host computer to the image forming apparatus. Further, in the above description, the case where the toner is used as the image forming material has been described. However, it is needless to say that other image forming materials, for example, inks used in an ink jet printer can be similarly implemented. In addition, although the black discriminating unit is shown as the color discriminating unit, a color discriminating unit such as a yellow discriminating unit (for example, when characters are described in yellow) or a cyan discriminating unit may be used.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the internal area of the input image is patterned and printed, so that the toner save rate can be greatly improved, and the input image can be a character. Since many black areas are not patterned, characters can be easily recognized.

[0043]

As described above, according to the image forming apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention, at least the print mode
It has an image forming material save mode in which printing is performed using a smaller amount of image forming material than normal and a normal mode in which printing is performed using a normal amount of image forming material, depending on the printing mode and input image data. An image forming apparatus for performing printing using an image forming material by using a pattern forming unit that converts a predetermined area of an input image into a predetermined pattern to obtain image pattern data in an image forming material save mode; A mode selection unit that selects one print mode from a plurality of print modes including a material save mode and a normal mode, and selects image pattern data of the image forming material save mode or image pattern data of the normal mode according to the print mode. When the image pattern data in the image forming material save mode is selected by having the image selection unit, the image may be changed depending on the shape of the image pattern. Advantageous effect of the formation material saving rate can be significantly improved.

According to the image forming apparatus of the second aspect,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the patterning unit includes an area determination unit that controls a patterning operation according to the size of the area of the same color, so that the image is patterned only in a large area, If a fine image is printed in the same manner as the normal printing, the advantageous effect that the fine image can be easily distinguished can be obtained.

According to the image forming apparatus of the third aspect,
The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a color determination unit configured to control a patterning operation in the patterning unit according to a color type of the target area. If the image pattern data in the normal mode is printed without performing the conversion operation, an advantageous effect is obtained in that it is easy to recognize characters that are generally black in general.

According to the image forming apparatus of the fourth aspect,
4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a correspondence table is formed to form a correspondence diagram between an image pattern in the image forming material save mode and a color type corresponding to the image pattern in the image forming material save mode. 5. By having a part,
Conventionally, the problem that the original color, which is often used in the image forming material save mode, is not known can be solved, and the advantageous effect that the original color of the print result can be easily confirmed can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an image forming apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an image pattern diagram showing a patterned image in the image forming apparatus of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an image diagram showing an example of an input image.

4 is an image printing diagram showing a printing result of the image shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a color / image correspondence diagram showing a correspondence between an original color type and an image pattern.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an image forming apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is an image printing diagram showing a printing result of the image shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a conventional image forming apparatus.

FIG. 9 is an image diagram showing a general image output from an image storage unit.

FIG. 10 is an image data diagram showing general edge image data.

FIG. 11 is an image data diagram showing general internal image data.

FIG. 12 is an image diagram showing a printing result in the image forming apparatus of FIG. 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image development part 2 Image storage part 3 Edge determination part 4 Area determination part 5a, 5b Patterning part 6 Correspondence table preparation part 7 Mode selection part 8 Image selection part 9 Image recording part 10 Black determination part (color determination part)

Claims (4)

[Claims] An image forming material save mode in which printing is performed using a smaller amount of image forming material than a normal amount and a normal mode in which printing is performed using a normal amount of image forming material are provided. An image forming apparatus for performing printing using an image forming material in accordance with the print mode and input image data, wherein a predetermined area of the input image is converted into a predetermined pattern and the image forming material save mode is used. A patterning unit that obtains the image pattern data, a mode selection unit that selects one print mode from a plurality of print modes including the image forming material save mode and the normal mode, An image selection unit for selecting image pattern data in the material save mode or the image pattern data in the normal mode. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an area determining unit that controls a patterning operation in the patterning unit according to a size of an area of the same color. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a color determination unit that controls a patterning operation in the patterning unit in accordance with a color type of a target area. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a correspondence table forming section for forming a correspondence diagram between the image pattern in the image forming material save mode and the color type corresponding to the image pattern in the image forming material save mode. An image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3.