JP2003162395A - Image forming device, document line feed method, program, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow image forming and outputting by automatically converting a text on which line feeds have not been performed, into a text which is easy to see. <P>SOLUTION: The number of characters for line feed is set on document data beforehand. When the document data is received from the external device (S3), the line feed processing is executed on the received document data in accordance with the configured number of characters (S4, S5). If the line feed at punctuation marks on the document data is set up (YES at S6), the line feed is executed at punctuation marks on the line feed-processed document data. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

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, a document line feed method, a program, and a storage medium, and in particular,
An image forming apparatus for image-processing document data input from an external device to form a print image on a transfer sheet, a document line feed method applied to the image forming apparatus, and a program for causing a computer to execute the document line feed method. And a storage medium storing the program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine or a printer for forming an image of digital data, when data is sent from an external terminal device to form an image, the image forming apparatus changes the data. Instead, the image was formed and output as it was according to the input data.

[0003]

However, for example, when the external terminal device is a mobile phone and an e-mail document stored in the mobile phone is to be image-formed and output by the conventional image forming apparatus described above, There is a possibility that the obtained printed document becomes very difficult to see.

That is, in an e-mail document displayed on the display screen of a mobile phone, the line feed input operation is complicated and the display screen is small, so that there is a tendency that no line feed occurs in the text. Also, some e-mail software built into mobile phones may not allow line breaks. If such a sentence without line breaks is image-formed and output as it is, the obtained printed document becomes very difficult to see.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an image forming apparatus capable of automatically converting a sentence without line breaks into an easy-to-see sentence and outputting the image. It is an object to provide a document line feed method, a program, and a storage medium.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, according to the invention described in claim 1, image processing is performed on document data input from an external device to form a print image on a transfer paper. In the apparatus, setting means for setting the number of characters to be inserted into the document data, receiving means for receiving the document data from an external device, and the document data received by the receiving means are set by the setting means. An image forming apparatus for forming a print image on a transfer paper based on the document data output from the line feed processing unit, and an image forming unit for performing line feed processing according to the number of characters and outputting the line feed processing unit. Will be provided.

According to the invention described in claim 4, in the document line feed method applied to the image forming apparatus for image-processing the document data input from the external device and forming the print image on the transfer paper, the document data To the document data received from the external device, and a line feed according to the number of characters set by the setting step, for the document data received by the receiving step. There is provided a document line feed method including a line feed processing step for performing processing and an image forming step for forming a print image based on the document data processed in the line feed processing step.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, a document line feed method applied to an image forming apparatus for image-processing document data input from an external device and forming a print image on a transfer sheet is provided to a computer. In the program to be executed, the document line feed method includes a setting step of setting the number of characters for line feed to document data, a receiving step of receiving document data from an external device, and a document received by the receiving step. A line feed processing step of performing line feed processing on the data according to the number of characters set by the setting step; and an image forming step of forming a print image based on the document data processed in the line feed processing step. A featured program is provided.

Further, according to the invention of claim 10,
A computer-readable storage medium in which a document line feed method applied to an image forming apparatus for forming a print image on a transfer sheet by image processing of document data input from an external device is stored as a program. Is set by the setting step for setting the number of characters for line feed to the document data, a receiving step for receiving the document data from an external device, and the setting step for the document data received by the receiving step. There is provided a storage medium including a line feed processing step for performing line feed processing according to the number of characters and an image forming step for forming a print image based on the document data processed in the line feed processing step.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an internal sectional view showing the construction of an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

Reference numeral 101 denotes a document table glass on which the documents fed from the automatic document feeder 142 are sequentially placed at predetermined positions. Reference numeral 102 denotes a document illumination lamp composed of, for example, a halogen lamp, which exposes a document placed on the platen glass 101. Scanning mirrors 103, 104 and 105 are housed in an optical scanning unit (not shown),
While reciprocating, the CCD unit 1 reflects the light reflected from the document.
Lead to 06.

The CCD unit 106 includes an image pickup element 108.
An image forming lens 107 for forming an image of reflected light from the original, an image pickup element 108 formed of, for example, a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), a CCD driver 109 driving the image pickup element 108, and the like. The signal output from the image sensor 108 is converted into, for example, 8-bit digital data, and then input to a controller unit 139 that controls image formation and the entire apparatus.

Further, 110 is a photosensitive drum, and 112
The pre-exposure lamp eliminates the charge in preparation for image formation.
Reference numeral 113 denotes a primary charger, which uniformly charges the photosensitive drum 110. Reference numeral 117 denotes an exposure device, which is composed of, for example, a semiconductor laser or the like, exposes the photosensitive drum 110 based on the image data output from the controller unit 139,
Form an electrostatic latent image. Reference numeral 118 denotes a developing device, which contains a black developer (toner). A pre-transfer charger 119 applies a high voltage to the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 before transferring it to a sheet.

Reference numerals 120, 122 and 124 denote paper feed units, and the transfer papers are fed from the paper feed units into the apparatus by driving the paper feed rollers 121, 123 and 125. The transfer sheet is temporarily stopped at the position where the registration roller 126 is provided, and is re-fed at the timing for writing the image formed on the photosensitive drum 110. A transfer charger 127 transfers the toner image developed on the photosensitive drum 110 to the transfer sheet fed. Reference numeral 128 denotes a separation charger, which transfers the transfer paper after the transfer operation to the photosensitive drum 1
Separate from 10. The toner remaining on the photosensitive drum 110 without being transferred is collected by the cleaner 111.

A conveyor belt 129 conveys the transfer sheet after the transfer process to the fixing device 130, and fixes the transfer sheet by, for example, heat. A flapper 131 controls the conveyance path of the transfer sheet after the fixing process to either the finisher 132 as the post-processing device or the arrangement direction of the intermediate tray 137. The sheet discharged to the finisher 132 can be center-folded, Z-folded, and have a cover sheet inserted, and can be stapled by the stapling unit 141 according to an instruction from the controller unit 139. Further, 133 to 136 are feeding rollers, which feed the transfer paper, which has once undergone the fixing process, to the intermediate tray 137 after being inverted (multiplexed) or non-inverted (double-sided). A re-feeding roller 138 conveys the transfer sheet placed on the intermediate tray 137 again to the position where the registration roller 126 is provided.

The controller section 139 is provided with a microcomputer, an image processing section, etc., which will be described later, and carries out the above-mentioned image forming operation in accordance with an instruction input through the operation panel 140. The operation panel 140 includes a key input unit (not shown) and a liquid crystal device or a display unit (not shown) made up of LEDs. The operator inputs a key from the key input unit, the state of the device, etc. Is displayed on the display.
The controller unit 139 also has an interface with the mobile terminal 143, and controls transmission / reception of data between the mobile terminal 143 and the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal structure of the controller section 139.

Reference numeral 201 denotes C for controlling the entire image forming apparatus.
A PU, which sequentially reads and executes programs from a read-only memory (ROM) 203 that stores a control procedure (control program) of the apparatus body. A program for an electronic mail printing process described later is also stored in the ROM 203, and the CP
It is read by U201 and executed. The address bus and data bus of the CPU 201 are connected to the respective parts via the bus driver / address decoder 202. Also,
A random access memory (RAM) 204 is a main storage device used as a storage area for input data, a storage area for work, and the like.

205 is an I / O interface,
An operation panel 140, a paper feed system, a transport system, motors 207 for driving the optical system, clutches 208, solenoids 209, paper detection sensors 210 for detecting the paper to be transported, etc. are connected. The developing device 11 includes the developing device 11
A toner remaining amount detecting sensor 211 for detecting the amount of toner in 8 is arranged, and this toner remaining amount detecting sensor 211 is also connected to the I / O interface 205, and its output signal is I / O.
Input to O port. 215 is a high-voltage unit,
The instruction from the CPU 201 is transmitted via the I / O interface 205, and the above-mentioned primary charger 113 and the developing device 11 are transmitted.
8. High voltage is output to the pre-transfer charger 119, the transfer charger 127, and the separation charger 128.

An image processing unit 206 receives an image signal from the CCD unit 106. Image processing unit 206
Performs the image processing described later on the input image signal, and outputs a control signal to the exposure device (laser unit) 117 according to the obtained image data. Exposure device 117
Outputs a laser beam according to the control signal, and the laser beam irradiates the photosensitive drum 110 to expose it. At this time, the light emission state is detected by the beam detection sensor 213 which is a light receiving sensor in the non-image area, and the output signal thereof is input to the I / O interface 205.

A communication control unit 207 controls data communication performed between the mobile terminal 143 and the controller unit 139, and is connected to the bus of the CPU 201. CPU2
01 refers to the mobile terminal 143 via the communication control unit 207.
And data communication. Communication control unit 207 and mobile terminal 14
The interface with 3 is, for example, USB (Univer
A serial I / F such as sal Serial Bus) is used.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the internal arrangement of the image processing section 206 in the controller section 139.

The image signal after electric signal conversion sent from the CCD unit 106 is first shaded by the shading circuit 301.
After the variation between pixels is corrected by, the scaling circuit 302 performs data thinning processing during reduced copying and data interpolation during enlarged copying. Next, in the edge emphasis circuit 303, for example, the second-order differentiation is performed in a 5 × 5 window to emphasize the edge of the image. Since this image data is luminance data, the γ conversion circuit 304 performs data conversion by a table search in order to convert it into density data suitable for the printer. The image data converted into the density data is input to the binarization processing unit 305. Here, multi-valued data is converted into binary data by the ED method, for example. The binary-converted image data is input to the combining circuit 307.

The synthesizing circuit 307 selectively outputs one of the input image data and the image data in the image memory 310, or outputs a logical sum (OR) of them. The image memory 310 is, for example, a DRA.
The memory control unit 309, which is configured by M, performs read / write control on the image memory 310. Also,
The memory control unit 309 is connected to the bus of the CPU 201,
The CPU 201 can read / write data from / to the image memory 310 via the memory control unit 309. The image data output from the combining circuit 307 is the PWM circuit 308.
To the exposure device (laser unit) 117, and the PWM circuit 308 converts the signal into a signal of the emission intensity of the laser (pulse width modulation signal) according to the density of the image.

Next, referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the operation panel 1
40 will be described.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a basic screen displayed on the operation panel 140.

Reference numeral 1001 denotes an extended function key, and when this key is pressed, a mode such as double-sided copying, multiplex copying, moving, setting of binding margin, setting of frame erasing, etc. is entered. An image mode key 1002 enters a setting mode for shading, shadowing, trimming, and masking a copied image. A user mode key 1003 allows each user to register a mode memory and set a standard mode screen. An applied zoom key 1004 is entered in a mode in which the X and Y directions of a document are independently scaled, or in a zoom program mode in which the scale factor is calculated from the size of the document and the copy size. Reference numerals 1005, 1006 and 1007 denote M1 key, M2 key and M3 key, respectively, which are used when calling the corresponding mode memories. 1
A call key 008 is used to call the previously set copy mode. An option key 1009 is used to set an optional function of a film projector or the like which directly copies from a film. 10
A sorter key 10 is used to sort sorters and set modes such as groups. Reference numeral 1011 denotes a document mixed loading key, which is used when setting A4 size and A3 size documents or B5 size and B4 size documents together in the document feeder. Reference numeral 1012 is a same size key, and the copy magnification is 1
Used when setting to 00%. 1014, 1015
Are a reduction key and an enlargement key, respectively, which are used when reducing or enlarging to a standard size. Reference numeral 1016 denotes a zoom key, which is pressed when performing non-standard size reduction / enlargement in 1% steps.
A paper selection key 1013 is used when selecting a copy paper. Reference numerals 1018 and 1020 denote density keys. When the density key 1018 is pressed, a dark copy is made, and each time the density key 1020 is pressed, a light copy is made. Reference numeral 1017 denotes a density display portion, and when the density keys 1018 and 1020 are pressed, the display changes to the left and right. 1019 is an AE key,
It is used when you want to copy a document with a dark background, such as a newspaper, with automatic density adjustment. Reference numeral 1021 denotes a HiFi key, which is used when copying a document such as a photographic document having a high halftone density. Reference numeral 1022 denotes a character emphasizing key, which is used when the character original is desired to be emphasized in copying.
Reference numeral 1023 denotes a guide key, which is pressed when the function of each key is unknown, and the explanation of the key is displayed on the display screen. A copy key 1024 is used when copying is performed. A fax key 1025 is used when faxing. A file key 1026 is used when it is desired to output file data. 1
A printer key 027 is used when it is desired to print out image data sent from an external device such as a computer. An e-mail print key 1028 is used when it is desired to print out an e-mail document stored in the internal memory of the mobile terminal 143.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a screen displayed on the operation panel 140 when the e-mail print key 1028 is pressed. In the figure, the same parts as those of the basic screen of the operation panel 140 shown in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

When the e-mail print key 1028 is pressed on the basic screen of the operation panel 140 shown in FIG. 4, a detailed setting screen of the e-mail print mode is displayed as shown in FIG. A display portion 1029 for inputting the number of line feed characters and a punctuation line feed key 1032 are displayed on this screen. In the present invention, a line feed is performed for each predetermined number of characters in the electronic mail document to be printed. This predetermined number of characters can be arbitrarily set as the number of line feed characters, for example, 10 is set as an initial value and displayed on the display portion 1029. To change the number of line feed characters, use the "+" key 1030,
This is done by pressing the "-" key 1031. Further, the punctuation mark line feed key 1032 is used when a document line feed is desired immediately after the punctuation mark “.” In addition to the line feed for each line feed character number.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the electronic mail printing process executed by the CPU 201. Description will be given along the steps shown in the figure.

First, in step S1, it is determined whether or not the e-mail print key 1028 on the operation panel 140 is turned on (whether or not it is pressed). If it is not turned on, the process ends. If it is turned on, the process proceeds to step S2, and it is determined whether or not the copy key 1024 on the operation panel 140 is turned on (whether or not it is pressed). If it is determined that it is turned on, the process proceeds to step S3, and the CPU 201 causes the communication control unit 2 to move from the portable terminal 143 connected to the image forming apparatus.
The electronic mail data displayed or selected on the mobile terminal 143 is received via 07.

Next, in step S4, the CPU 201 reads the number of line feed characters displayed on the display portion 1029 on the operation panel 140, and in step S5, feeds the received electronic mail data by the designated number of line feed characters, and once ,
It is stored in the work memory RAM 204.

Next, in step S6, it is determined whether or not the punctuation mark line feed key 1032 on the operation panel 140 has been turned on (whether or not it has been pressed). If it is turned on, the process proceeds to step S7, and the CPU 201 recognizes the punctuation mark code “.”, And then the line feed of the electronic mail data in the work memory RAM 204 is performed again, and the data is stored in the RAM 204 again. Next, in step S8, the CPU 201 converts the e-mail data in the work memory RAM 204 into a bitmap and temporarily stores it in the image memory 310, and thereafter, the image data in the image memory 310 is used as output paper. To print. In step S6, the punctuation mark line feed key 10
When it is determined that 32 is not turned on, step S7
Line feed processing is not performed, and the process proceeds to step S8.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a conventional print output in the case where the electronic mail data is printed as it is without a line break. FIG. 8 shows an example of print output when the document shown in FIG. 7 is subjected to line feed processing with 15 line feed characters and printed out. FIG. 9 shows an example of printed output when the document shown in FIG. 7 is subjected to line feed processing with the number of line feed characters of 15, and further punctuation line feed is performed.

As described above, when the electronic mail data of the mobile terminal is printed out, the line feed can be automatically performed with the specified number of characters, and further, the line feed can be automatically performed at the punctuation mark. It makes it possible to provide very easy-to-read print output.

(Other Embodiments) In the above embodiment, the external terminal device is a mobile phone, and an electronic mail document stored in the mobile phone is printed out. Instead, the external terminal device may be any device that outputs a document, including a fixed telephone, and
Even if the document is not an e-mail document, any document that does not have line breaks can be processed.

Furthermore, the program code itself of the software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments may constitute the present invention, or the storage medium storing the program code may constitute the present invention. .

In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the function of the above-described embodiment, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.

As a storage medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy (registered trademark) disk,
Hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-
ROM, CD-R, magnetic tape, non-volatile memory card, ROM, etc. can be used.

Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also the OS and the like running on the computer are executed based on the instructions of the program code. Needless to say, the present invention includes a case where a part or all of the actual processing is performed and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion board inserted into the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code, It goes without saying that the present invention also includes a case where the CPU or the like included in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs some or all of the actual processing and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments. .

[0043]

As described above in detail, according to the invention of claim 1, claim 4, claim 7 or claim 10, the number of characters to be inserted into the document data is set in advance,
When the document data is received from the external device, line feed processing is performed on the received document data according to the set number of characters. Then, a print image is formed based on the document data subjected to the line feed.

As a result, it becomes possible to automatically convert a sentence without line breaks into an easy-to-see sentence and output the image.

Further, according to the invention as defined in claim 2, claim 5, claim 8 or claim 11, it is set that line breaks are added to the document data at punctuation marks, and the received document data is set. On the other hand, line feed processing is performed according to the set number of characters, and when line feed at punctuation is set, line feed processing at punctuation is performed on the document data subjected to line feed processing.

As a result, a line break is made at each punctuation mark,
It is possible to form and output a text that is easier to read.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an internal sectional view showing the configuration of an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a controller unit.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of an image processing unit in the controller unit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a basic screen displayed on an operation panel.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a screen displayed on an operation panel when an e-mail print key is pressed.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a procedure of electronic mail printing processing executed by a CPU.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a conventional printout example in a case where a line feed is not performed for electronic mail data and the printout is performed as it is.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a printout example in the case where the document shown in FIG. 7 is subjected to line feed processing with a line feed character number of 15 and printed out.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a printout example in the case where the document shown in FIG. 7 is subjected to line feed processing with a line feed character number of 15 and further punctuation line feed is performed.

[Explanation of symbols]

106 CCD unit 117 exposure device (laser unit, image forming means) 139 Controller section 140 Operation panel 143 Mobile terminal (external device) 201 CPU (line feed processing means) 202 Bus driver / address decoder 203 ROM 204 RAM 205 I / O interface 206 image processing unit (image forming means) 207 Communication control unit (reception means) 1028 Email Print Key 1029 Display part (setting means) 1032 Punctuation mark line feed key (Punctuation mark line feed setting means)

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus for image-processing document data input from an external device to form a print image on a transfer sheet, and setting means for setting the number of characters to be inserted into the document data, and an external device. Receiving means for receiving the document data from the receiving means, line feed processing means for performing line feed processing on the document data received by the receiving means according to the number of characters set by the setting means, and outputting the line feed processing means; An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming unit that forms a print image on a transfer sheet based on document data. 2. A punctuation mark line feed setting unit for setting a line feed at a punctuation mark in the document data, wherein the line feed processing unit sets the setting unit for the document data received by the receiving unit. The line feed processing is performed according to the number of characters set by, and when the line feed at the punctuation mark is set by the punctuation line feed setting unit, the line feed processing at the punctuation mark is performed on the document data subjected to the line feed processing. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the external device is a mobile phone terminal, and the document data is electronic mail data stored in the mobile phone terminal. . 4. A document line feed method applied to an image forming apparatus for image-processing document data input from an external device to form a print image on a transfer sheet, and setting the number of characters for line feed to the document data. Setting step, a receiving step for receiving document data from an external device, a line feed processing step for performing line feed processing on the document data received by the receiving step according to the number of characters set by the setting step, and the line feed Based on the document data processed in the processing step,
An image forming step of forming a print image, and a document line feed method. 5. A punctuation line feed line setting step for setting a line feed at a punctuation mark in the document data, wherein the line feed processing step sets the setting for the document data received by the receiving step. Carry out line feed processing according to the number of characters set by the step, and if line feed at the punctuation mark is set by the punctuation line feed setting step, perform line feed processing at the punctuation mark on the document data subjected to the line feed processing. 5. The document line feed method according to claim 4, wherein. 6. The document line feed method according to claim 4, wherein the external device is a mobile phone terminal, and the document data is electronic mail data stored in the mobile phone terminal. . 7. A program for causing a computer to execute a document line feed method applied to an image forming device for image-processing document data input from an external device to form a print image on a transfer sheet, the document line feed The method includes a setting step of setting the number of characters for line breaks in the document data, a receiving step of receiving the document data from an external device, and a setting step of the document data received by the receiving step in the setting step. Based on the document data processed in the line feed processing step and a line feed processing step that performs line feed processing according to the number of characters
An image forming step of forming a print image, the program. 8. The document line feed method further includes a punctuation line feed line setting step for setting line feed at a punctuation mark in the document data, wherein the line feed processing step includes the document data received by the reception step. On the other hand, line feed processing is performed according to the number of characters set by the setting step, and when line feed at punctuation marks is set by the punctuation line feed setting step, the line feed processing is performed at the punctuation marks for the document data subjected to the line feed processing. The program according to claim 7, which executes line feed processing. 9. The program according to claim 7, wherein the external device is a mobile phone terminal, and the document data is electronic mail data stored in the mobile phone terminal. 10. A computer-readable storage medium in which a document line feed method applied to an image forming apparatus for forming a print image on a transfer sheet by image processing of document data input from an external apparatus is stored as a program. The document line feed method includes a setting step of setting the number of characters for line feed to the document data, a receiving step of receiving the document data from an external device, and the document data received by the receiving step, A line feed processing step for performing line feed processing according to the number of characters set by the setting step, and based on the document data processed in the line feed processing step,
An image forming step of forming a print image, the storage medium. 11. The document line feed method further includes a punctuation mark line feed setting step for setting line feed at a punctuation mark in the document data, wherein the line feed processing step includes the document data received by the receiving step. On the other hand, line feed processing is performed according to the number of characters set by the setting step, and when line feed at punctuation marks is set by the punctuation line feed setting step, the line feed processing is performed at the punctuation marks for the document data subjected to the line feed processing. The storage medium according to claim 10, wherein line feed processing is executed. 12. The external device is a mobile phone terminal,
The storage medium according to claim 10 or 11, wherein the document data is electronic mail data stored in the mobile phone terminal.