JP2005215043A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus with which time and effort for completing an output image by division printing, such as enlargement consecutive printing, can be reduced and paper can effectively be used by minimizing a margin on an output printed paper. <P>SOLUTION: The image forming apparatus (1) having a division print function in which the image of a one-page document is divided into smaller parts and they are printed onto two or more sheets of paper includes: a plurality of paper feeding bins for feeding rolled paper and cut paper; a setting means (50) for receiving a setting which makes a division print function effective; and a control means (10) for selecting one of the paper feeding bins with which the number of divisions is made the smallest in printing by the division print function using the same size paper and an amount of margin is made the smallest. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a multifunction machine having these functions.

Some image forming apparatuses such as current copying machines have a division printing function. As a division printing function, a function of printing one original image by dividing it into a plurality of smaller printing papers, or enlarging one original image and dividing it into a plurality of printing papers for output. There is an enlarged continuous shooting function. A plurality of print sheets output in this way are bonded together to obtain a single printed image, and in the case of the enlarged continuous shooting function, a large poster can be created.
On the other hand, a printing device (large format printer) that can print an image on a large print medium such as roll paper, and a general printer eliminates a blank portion that does not perform printing between pages, and is divided into a plurality of pages. In response to this, there is a technology that enables continuous image printing (a kind of enlarged continuous shooting) on roll paper (see Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2). On the other hand, there is a copying machine that can set both a roll paper and a standard cut paper as a printing medium at the same time.
JP 2000-118042 A JP 2000-218890 A

A general division printing function of a copying machine, etc., performs a division printing operation on a plurality of standard cut sheets, and obtains one output image by pasting the sheets together as described above. there were. In this case, when the number of output sheets increases, the work of arranging and pasting output images at the same time increases. That is, it takes time and effort to complete one image.
Further, in the conventional divided printing, if the output image size does not match the size of a plurality of sheets, a margin portion (this may increase due to the relationship between the output image size and the paper size) occurs. This is cut off, and paper resources are wasted.

  In the case of using roll paper, the length in the paper discharge direction can be freely set, so that it is possible to prevent division or margin in this direction. In this respect, it is possible to reduce the labor of pasting and unnecessary margins compared to the use of the standard cut paper. However, since large roll paper is usually used, a large margin may occur in the width direction. In addition, when a plurality of paper feed stages including roll paper are used, it is difficult for the user to select an optimum paper feed stage in order to reduce the number of divisions and the amount of margin as desired by the user.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above points. In particular, one of a plurality of paper feed stages including a paper feed stage for feeding roll paper is selected and output by divided printing such as enlarged continuous shooting. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that can reduce the effort for completing an image and that can effectively use paper resources by reducing unnecessary margins of output printing paper.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, the invention described in claim 1 is directed to supplying a roll paper in an image forming apparatus having a division printing function for dividing and printing the content of one page of a document on a plurality of sheets. Printing with a plurality of paper feed stages including paper stages, setting means for receiving the setting for enabling the division printing function, and division printing function using the same size of paper, the number of divisions is the smallest, And a control unit that selects a paper feed stage that minimizes the amount of blank space in a non-printed portion.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus having a division printing function for dividing and printing the contents of one page of a document on a plurality of sheets, and including a plurality of paper feed stages for supplying roll paper. Paper feeding means, setting means for receiving the setting for enabling the divided printing function, and printing by the divided printing function using the same size paper, the paper feed stage in which the margin amount of the non-printed portion is minimized. And a control means for selecting.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus having a divided printing function for dividing and printing the content of one page of a document on a plurality of sheets, and including a plurality of paper feed stages for supplying roll paper. In the paper feeding means, the setting means for receiving the setting for enabling the divided printing function, and the printing by the divided printing function using the same size paper, the margin amount of the unprinted portion is the largest regardless of the number of divisions. Switch according to the selection between the margin-oriented mode for selecting the paper feeding means to be reduced and the division-weighted mode for selecting the paper feeding means having the smallest number of divisions and further reducing the margin amount according to the selection. Control means for performing divided printing control in the selected mode, and selection means for receiving selection of the margin importance mode and the division number importance mode.

According to the present invention, since a paper feed stage with a small number of divisions is selected by the control means, it is possible to reduce time (man-hours) for completing an output image.
In addition, according to the present invention, the paper source can be selected by the control means so as to reduce unnecessary margins. As a result, paper resources can be saved.
Further, according to the present invention, since it is possible to select whether the number of divisions is important or the margin is important, an optimum division printing operation desired by the user can be performed.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The basic configuration of the image forming apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is the same as that of a conventional image forming apparatus, and includes a control unit 10, a storage unit 20, a scanner unit 30, an image forming unit 40, an operation unit 50, and a display unit 60. The notification unit 70 is schematically configured.

The control unit 10 controls each unit of the image forming apparatus 1. The image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment has a divided printing function such as enlarged continuous shooting (divided output of enlarged images) as a function thereof. For example, when an enlarged continuous shooting mode is designated, divided output by enlarged continuous shooting is performed. It becomes possible (details will be described later). The control unit 10 also performs such control.
The storage unit 20 stores a control program executed by the control unit 10 and various data. Note that an area (image memory) for storing image data read by the scanner unit 30 is set in the storage unit 20.

  The scanner unit 30 is a portion that reads a document set on a document table, and is equipped with an automatic document feeder (not shown) that sequentially conveys a plurality of documents to the document table. The scanner unit 30 has a function of detecting the length in the width direction (main scanning direction) of the original paper and the length in the paper feeding direction (sub-scanning direction), that is, the paper size of the original.

  The image forming unit 40 includes a sheet feeding unit that feeds a sheet material (fixed cut paper, roll paper) that is printing paper, a transfer unit that performs a transfer process of a toner image to the sheet material, and a toner that is transferred to the sheet material. The image forming apparatus includes a fixing unit that performs an image fixing process and a paper discharge unit that discharges a sheet material after fixing (none of which is shown in FIG. 1), and performs a series of processes related to the image forming process. For example, when copying, the scanner unit 30 reads a document set on a document table, supplies the image data to the image forming unit 40, and the image forming unit 40 performs an image forming process according to the image data. . The paper feed unit includes a paper feed stage for setting roll paper and a paper feed stage for setting standard cut paper, and the sheet material of the selected paper feed stage is fed. Each paper feed stage on which roll paper is set is provided with a sensor for detecting the paper size (width of roll paper) of the set paper.

The operation unit 50 includes various keys, a touch panel, and the like for the user to input operation commands and settings to the image forming apparatus 1. From the operation unit 50, the user makes settings for enabling the divided printing function such as enlarged continuous shooting, selection setting for manual paper setting mode and automatic paper selection mode, which will be described later, selection setting for division number emphasis mode and margin emphasis mode. Make various settings.
The display unit 60 is a display unit that displays a processing status in the image forming apparatus 1 and setting information input from the operation unit 50. A touch panel that constitutes the operation unit 50 is provided on the surface of the display unit 60. .
The notification unit 70 emits a notification sound (buzzer sound, melody, etc.) for abnormality notification or the like.

The control unit 10 includes a memory, a CPU (central processing unit), and the like, and loads a program (not shown) for realizing each function of the control unit 10 into the memory and executes the program. Functions shall be realized.
The storage unit 20 is configured by a nonvolatile recording device such as an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory) and a hard disk, and the display unit 60 is configured by a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), a liquid crystal display device, or the like.

Here, FIG. 2 shows a mechanism configuration (schematic) of the image forming unit 40 of the image forming apparatus 1.
The figure shows a paper feed stage (one stage) where cut paper (standard cut paper) is set and two paper feed stages where roll paper (two types in the figure) is set, and roll paper is set. Roll paper (thick line in the figure) drawn from one of the paper feed stages is fed to the transfer unit / fixing unit via the paper feed roller, registration roller, and pre-transfer roller, and discharged to the paper discharge unit. This shows the state.

  Under the control of the control unit 10, once the printing operation is started, the sheet material of the selected paper feed stage is unconditionally fed to the position of the registration roller. From there, the sheet material stopped on the registration roller is further fed to the transfer unit / fixing unit after the original reading timing and other necessary parts are ready to operate. When roll paper is fed, the paper feed roller outputs a pulse for detecting the length of the sheet material to be fed, and the control unit 10 counts this pulse and determines the sheet material to be fed. When the length reaches the designated length or the length of the original detected from the original, the sheet material is cut by the cutter. At this time, the sheet material is temporarily stopped between the paper feed roller and the registration roller, but before cutting, the registration roller quickly feeds the sheet material, and the deflection between the registration roller and the pre-transfer roller gives the transfer / fixing etc. It can be done continuously.

When the paper is switched, the roll paper fed to the registration roller is rewound once, and the newly selected sheet material is fed to the position of the registration roller.
In addition, when a standard cut sheet is selected and fed, the lift plate shown in the drawing is lifted by a motor (not shown), and the vicinity of the leading end of the standard cut sheet placed on the upper surface of the lift plate is pressed by the pickup roller to be fed. The paper is fed to the paper roller and further fed to the position of the registration roller. Thereafter, the sheet material stopped on the registration roller is further fed to the transfer unit / fixing unit after waiting for the original reading timing and other required parts to be ready (ready).

Here, a divided printing function such as enlarged continuous shooting under the control of the control unit 10 will be described.
There are manual paper selection mode and automatic paper selection mode for selecting the print paper. In the manual paper setting mode, the printing operation is performed using the paper source of the paper size specified by the user. In this case, an optimum paper feed stage is selected according to the document size and designated magnification, and the printing operation is performed.

  In this embodiment, when the enlarged continuous shooting mode is specified and the paper feed stage is set to the automatic paper mode, printing by the division printing function using the same size paper is further performed. Regardless of, the margin-oriented mode that selects the paper feeding means that minimizes the amount of margin in the non-printed part, and the division that selects the paper feeding means with the smallest number of divisions and the smallest amount of margin A number-oriented mode is selected, and one of the modes is selected by operating the operation unit 50 by the user.

  For example, A3 cut paper is set in the paper feed stage 1, roll paper of 594 mm width is set in the paper feed stage 2, and 841 mm roll paper is set in the paper feed stage 3, and the A3 size (420 mm × 297 mm) in the division number priority mode. ) Is copied at 215%, the output image width is (903 mm × 639 mm), so the 594 mm width roll paper in the paper feed stage 2 is selected and two sheets of 594 mm × 639 mm paper are output ( FIG. 3 (a)). In this example, as shown in FIG. 3C, the A3 cut sheet in the paper feed stage 1 is not selected because it does not meet the first condition because the number of divisions is nine. Further, as shown in FIG. 3B, the 841 mm wide roll paper in the paper feed stage 3 has the same number of divisions as that in the paper feed stage 2, but the margin is increased, so the second condition ( Not selected because it does not apply to (the least margin). In FIG. 3, the hatched portion indicates a portion where printing is performed, and the plain (white) portion indicates a blank space.

  Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

[Processing in the division number emphasis mode (FIG. 4)]
First, the paper selection mode is determined (steps S101 and S102). Here, it is assumed that either the manual paper selection mode or the automatic paper selection mode is selected by the user using the operation unit 50.
If the manual paper selection mode is selected at this stage, [Manual selection] is determined in step S102, and the process proceeds to step S103 to select a paper feed stage having a paper size designated by the user.

On the other hand, if the automatic paper selection mode is selected at this stage, [automatic selection] is determined in step S102, and the process proceeds to step S104.
In step S104, it is further determined whether or not the setting for enabling the enlarged continuous shooting mode is made.
If the setting for enabling the enlarged continuous shooting mode is not set at this stage, it is determined in step S105 that there is no enlarged continuous shooting mode, the process proceeds to step S106, and printing of the same size as the original image size is performed. Select the paper source with paper loaded.

On the other hand, if the setting for enabling the enlarged continuous shooting mode is made at this stage, it is determined in step S105 that there is an enlarged continuous shooting mode, and the process proceeds to step S107.
In step S107, for each paper feed stage, the number of divisions in the main scanning direction when the printing paper set in each is used is calculated.
For example, the prepared printing paper is A4 cut paper, A2 roll paper, A1 roll paper, and the lengths in the main scanning direction are lA4, lA2, and lA1, respectively, and the length Li in the main scanning direction of the image to be output is Then, the division numbers in the main scanning direction are Li / lA4, Li / lA2, and Li / lA1, respectively.

  Next, in step S108, for each paper feed stage, the number of divisions in the sub-scanning direction when printing paper set in each is used is calculated. In the case of roll paper, the number of divisions in the sub-scanning direction is 1.

Next, in step S109, the total number of divisions (total number of divisions = number of divisions in the main scanning direction × number of divisions in the sub-scanning direction) when the printing paper set in each of the paper feed stages is used is calculated. , Respectively.
In steps S110 and S111, a paper feed stage having the smallest total number of divisions is determined, and it is further determined whether or not there are a plurality of division patterns having different paper feed stages to be used and having the same minimum division number.

If there is no plurality of division patterns that have different paper feed stages to be used and have the same minimum number of divisions, it is determined in step S111 that there is no plurality of same division number patterns, and the process proceeds to step S112, and step S110. The paper feed stage that is the minimum number of divisions determined in step 1 is selected.
On the other hand, if there are a plurality of division patterns having different paper feed stages and the same minimum number of divisions, it is determined in step S111 that there are a plurality of patterns having the same division number, and the process proceeds to step S113.

In step S113, a blank amount (for example, the area of the plain (white background) portion shown in FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C) is calculated for each division pattern that is the minimum division number.
In step S114, a paper feed stage that minimizes the margin amount is determined. In step S115, the paper feed stage is selected. Then, the printing paper of the selected paper feed stage is fed and enlarged continuous printing is executed.
The processing in the division number emphasis mode has been described above.

[Processing in the margin amount emphasis mode (FIG. 5)]
First, the paper selection mode is determined (steps S201 and S201). Here, it is assumed that either the manual paper selection mode or the automatic paper selection mode is selected by the user using the operation unit 50.
If the manual paper selection mode is selected at this stage, it is determined as [manual selection] in step S202, the process proceeds to step S203, and a paper feed stage having a paper size designated by the user is selected.

On the other hand, if the automatic paper selection mode is selected at this stage, “automatic selection” is determined in step S202, and the process proceeds to step S204.
In steps S204 and S205, it is further determined whether or not the setting for enabling the enlarged continuous shooting mode is made.
If the setting for enabling the enlarged continuous shooting mode is not set at this stage, it is determined in step S205 that there is no enlarged continuous shooting mode, and the process proceeds to step S206 to print the same size as the original image size. Select the paper source with paper loaded.

On the other hand, if the setting for enabling the enlarged continuous shooting mode is made at this stage, it is determined in step S205 that there is an enlarged continuous shooting mode, and the process proceeds to step S207.
In step S207, a margin amount is calculated for each division pattern when printing paper of each paper feed stage is used.
In step S208, a paper feed stage with the smallest margin amount is determined, and in step S209, this paper feed stage is selected. Then, the printing paper of the selected paper feed tray is fed and enlarged continuous printing is executed.
In the foregoing, the processing in the margin amount emphasis mode has been described.

Each processing flow described above is an example, and the present invention is not limited to the above processing flow.
The embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and includes a configuration and the like that do not depart from the gist of the present invention. Needless to say.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a mechanism configuration of an image forming unit of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment. It is a figure explaining a division | segmentation pattern. It is a processing flow of the enlargement continuous shooting in the division number emphasis mode. It is a processing flow of the enlarged continuous shooting in the margin amount emphasis mode.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image forming apparatus 10 ... Control part (control means)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 20 ... Memory | storage part 30 ... Scanner part 40 ... Image formation part 50 ... Operation part (setting means, selection means)
60 ... Display unit 70 ... Notification unit

Claims (3)

In an image forming apparatus having a division printing function for dividing and printing the contents of one page of a document on a plurality of sheets,
A plurality of paper feed stages including a paper feed stage for supplying roll paper;
Setting means for receiving a setting for enabling the divided printing function;
Control means for selecting a paper feed stage that has the smallest number of divisions and further minimizes the amount of blank space in a non-printed portion when printing by the division printing function using the same size paper. An image forming apparatus. In an image forming apparatus having a division printing function for dividing and printing the contents of one page of a document on a plurality of sheets,
A plurality of paper feed means including a paper feed stage for supplying roll paper;
Setting means for receiving a setting for enabling the divided printing function;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a control unit that selects a paper feed stage that minimizes a margin amount of a non-printed portion for printing by a divided printing function using paper of the same size. In an image forming apparatus having a division printing function for dividing and printing the contents of one page of a document on a plurality of sheets,
A plurality of paper feed means including a paper feed stage for supplying roll paper;
Setting means for receiving a setting for enabling the divided printing function;
Printing with the split printing function using the same size paper, with a margin-oriented mode that selects the paper feeding means that minimizes the amount of blank space in the unprinted part, regardless of the number of divisions, and with the smallest number of divisions Further, a control unit for switching the division number emphasis mode for selecting a paper feeding unit that minimizes the margin amount according to the selection, and performing divided printing control in the selected mode;
An image forming apparatus comprising: selection means for receiving selection of the margin-emphasized mode and the division number-oriented mode.

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