JP2007108272A - Image recording system and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image recording system and method for decreasing standby power without decreasing productivity of image recording and for extending lives of a plurality of storage devices. <P>SOLUTION: The image recording method comprises steps of sequentially receiving a plurality of color separated image data from a host device and recording a color image based on the color separation image data, further including steps of: starting a plurality of disk storage devices that can store image data in rotatable disk media; determining whether one disk storage device in the plurality of disk storage devices receives color separation image data or not; allocating color information to the disk storage device when the disk storage device does not receive color separation image data and rendering the disk storage device into a standby state; or rendering the disk storage device into a standby state when the disk storage device already receives the color separation image data and switching disk storage devices in the above determination step; and informing the color information allocated to the disk storage device to a host device. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image recording system and an image recording method for sequentially receiving a plurality of color separation image data from a host device and recording a color image based on the color separation image data.

  In general, when producing a color printed matter, it may be required to perform color calibration at the stage of an original film. In such a case, C (cyan) plate, M (magenta) plate, Y (yellow) ) And proof plates (color proofs) using each color separation network original film color-separated into K (black) version, before preparing the actual printing plate, the layout and color of the original film, In addition, the finished quality of the final printed matter including the presence / absence of errors related to characters, etc. is confirmed.

  In recent years, with the spread of DTP (Desk Top Publishing) and the like, the work of image editing and page imposition on computer software has become common, and full digital editing has become rare. In such a process, aiming at further efficiency, image setter output that directly outputs image data after page editing to film, CTP (Computer To Plate) output that directly outputs to a printing plate, and a printing machine CTC (Computer To Cylinder) is performed to directly output an image to a printing plate wound on a cylinder.

  In this case, it is necessary to perform film output and printing plate output only for calibration confirmation, and there is a problem that labor and time equivalent to or more than the final printed matter creation, and waste of the film and printing plate are generated.

  Therefore, particularly in the process of creating and editing a full digital image by such a computer, color proof is created by using digital image data called DDCP (Direct Digital Color Proof) or DCP (Digital Color Proof). There is a need for a system that directly outputs and obtains a color image.

  Such DDCP records digital image data processed on a computer on a plate-making film with an image setter or the like, performs a final printing operation for directly producing a printing plate with CTP, or a printing machine with CTC. Before performing image recording directly on the printing plate wound on the cylinder of the machine, create a color proof that directly outputs the digital image processed on the computer and reproduces the print finish quality, its supply pattern, It is designed to check the color, text, characters, etc.

Also, in the calibration process in such plate making and printing processes,
1) Internal school for confirming mistakes inside the work site 2) Outer school submitted to the orderer and designer for confirmation of finishing 3) Printing provided as a sample of the final printed matter to the printing press master Proofs are created and used for three main uses of the sample.

  In the proofreading process, for in-school and some out-of-school applications, DDCP using proofreading materials that cannot reproduce halftone images due to needs such as shortening of delivery time and cost reduction, that is, sublimation transfer method, ink jet and electrophotography In some cases, the output product is used mainly as a proof for appearance confirmation, but the reproducibility of highlights, fine details, and the presence or absence of inappropriate interference fringes in the halftone image called moire during printing, etc. In the proof application used for quality confirmation and as a printing sample, a proof output that faithfully reproduces a printing halftone dot is desired.

  As a DDCP satisfying such needs, there is a type that performs image exposure on a silver salt photosensitive material using a high-power heat mode laser and transfers it to a printing paper. However, such a system capable of reproducing a high-quality halftone dot has a drawback that the cost of the apparatus and the silver salt photosensitive material is increased.

  On the other hand, in recent years, DDCP using a silver salt color light-sensitive material capable of further confirming a halftone image at low cost has begun to spread. A method using a silver salt color photosensitive material (hereinafter also referred to as “silver salt photosensitive material”) is, for example, a light spot synthesized by combining a plurality of lights having different wavelengths of R, G, and B, for example, C The silver salt light-sensitive material composed of the color-developing layers of M, Y, and Y is exposed to color each dot of C, M, and Y to form a halftone color image.

In the image recording apparatus as described above, high productivity and low running cost are required, and an image recording apparatus having a function of reducing power consumption is known as a function that meets this requirement. There is an image recording apparatus described. This image recording apparatus is intended to reduce standby power by stopping rotation of an HDD apparatus that is not used for receiving and recording image data after a predetermined time has elapsed. In this case, there is a problem in that productivity is reduced because it takes time to start the rotation of the HDD device when image data reception / image recording is started.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-166094

  SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-described problems of the prior art, the present invention aims to reduce standby power without deteriorating image recording productivity and to extend the life of a plurality of storage devices and image recording. It aims to provide a method.

  In order to achieve the above object, an image recording system according to the present invention includes a host device that transfers a plurality of color-separated image data, and sequentially receives the plurality of color-separated image data from the host device, and their colors. An image recording system including an image recording apparatus that records a color image based on the decomposed image data, wherein the image recording apparatus is capable of storing at least one page of image data on a rotatable disk-shaped medium. The disk-type storage device, storage device control means for independently controlling the plurality of disk-type storage devices, and information exchange means for exchanging information with the host device. Means for receiving the color separation image data or recording the color separation image data for which reception has been completed; Control is performed so that the disk-type storage device in the activated state is switched every time the device enters the standby state, and the color information assigned to the disk-type storage device in the standby state is transferred to the host device by the information exchange unit. It is characterized by controlling to notify.

  According to this image recording system, when the color separation image data is not being received or the recording of the color separation image data that has been received is not being executed, the disc type storage device that has been activated is put on standby. By switching each time the state is changed, the operation times of the plurality of disk storage devices can be controlled equally. For this reason, the life of each disk type storage device can be averaged and the life can be extended, and standby power can be reduced by putting the disk type storage device in a standby state. In addition, since the color information assigned to the disk type storage device in the standby state is notified to the host device, the transfer destination of the color separation image data of that color can be easily and immediately specified. For this reason, since it does not take time to transfer, the productivity of image recording does not decrease.

  In the image recording system, when the color separation image data is transferred to the image recording device, the host device may start transfer from color separation image data of a color based on color information notified by the information exchange unit. it can.

  An image recording method according to the present invention is an image recording method for sequentially receiving a plurality of color-separated image data from a host device and recording a color image based on the color-separated image data. Starting a plurality of disk-type storage devices capable of storing image data on a medium, and determining whether one of the plurality of disk-type storage devices accepts color separation image data; A step of assigning color information to the disk-type storage device and placing the disk-type storage device in a standby state when the disk-type storage device does not accept color separation image data; and When the decomposed image data is accepted, the disk type storage device is set in a standby state and the display in the determination step is performed. It includes a step of switching a click-type storage device, and characterized in that it sends the color information assigned to said disk-type storage device to the host device.

  According to this image recording method, it is determined whether or not each disk-type storage device accepts color-separated image data, and in any case, the disk-type storage device that has been activated is placed in a standby state and is not accepted. Notifying the host device of the color information assigned to the storage device, and switching the next disk type storage device every time the disk type storage device shifts to the standby state, thereby equalizing the operation time of the plurality of disk type storage devices Can be controlled. For this reason, the life of each disk type storage device can be averaged and the life can be extended, and standby power can be reduced by putting each disk type storage device in a standby state. In addition, since the color information assigned to the disk type storage device in the standby state is notified to the host device, the transfer destination of the color separation image data of that color can be easily and immediately specified. For this reason, since it does not take time to transfer, the productivity of image recording does not decrease.

  In the image recording method, the host device can start transfer from color separation image data of a color based on the notified color information.

  Note that the above-described disk-type storage device activation state means a state in which the disk-shaped medium can be rotated and stored / read, and the standby state refers to the state before the rotation activation where the disk-shaped medium has stopped rotating. Means state.

  Further, the present invention particularly sensitizes a color silver halide light-sensitive material with a plurality of light sources having different wavelengths based on halftone dot image data processed by a RIP (raster image processor) or a halftone dot conversion processing device. The present invention is preferably applied to an image recording system and an image recording method for creating a color proof for confirming the finish of printed matter in advance.

  According to the image recording system and the image recording method of the present invention, it is possible to reduce standby power without reducing the productivity of image recording and to extend the life of a plurality of storage devices.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration example of a printing system including an image recording apparatus capable of creating a color proof according to the present embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system inputs image data such as PS (PostScript) data from a client terminal 1A of a printing factory to a RIP (Raster Image Processor) 2A that is an image processing apparatus, and the RIP 2A rasterizes the PS data. Data converted to image and raster image converted by RIP2A is sent to CTP (Computer-to-Plate) 3A, which is a device for creating a digital original directly for printing, while images such as PS data The data is sent to a host device 100 having an image processing function for creating a color proof, binary halftone dot image data separated into four colors of YMCK is generated and sent to the image recording device 1, and these four colors are sent. The image recording apparatus 1 is configured to create a color group based on the halftone image data.

  The host device 100 can be constituted by, for example, a personal computer, and constitutes an image recording system 101 together with the image recording device 1 as indicated by a broken line in FIG. 1, and this image recording system 101 creates a color group as described above. System.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the entire image recording apparatus of FIG. FIG. 3 is a view of the inside of the image recording apparatus of FIG. 2 as viewed from the front side. FIG. 4 is a plan view of the main part of the drum and the optical unit of the image recording apparatus shown in FIG. 3 as viewed from above.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the image recording apparatus 1 includes an exposure unit 11 that exposes a silver salt photosensitive material to form an image, and a developing unit 21 that develops the exposed silver salt photosensitive material.

  The exposure unit 11 includes a front panel 5 that can be opened and closed so that maintenance can be performed from the front side, an input display unit 2 that includes various information displays and a touch panel and can input various types of information for operation of the entire apparatus, and a roll shape inside. First and second loadings in which a cartridge 13 containing photosensitive paper (hereinafter also referred to as “photosensitive material”), which is a sheet-like silver salt photosensitive material wound around, can be loaded after the paper feed covers 3 and 4 are opened. Parts 12 and 12 '. FIG. 2 shows a state before the cartridge 13 is loaded in the first loading unit 12, and a state after the cartridge 13 is loaded in the second loading unit 12 '.

  The development unit 21 includes an upper panel 6 that can be opened and closed for maintenance, and a replenishment panel 7 that is provided on the front surface so as to be opened and closed for replenishment of a developing solution or the like.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the exposure unit 11 of the image recording apparatus 1 includes a pair of conveying rollers 40, 41, and 42 for feeding the photosensitive material from the cartridge 13 loaded in the first and second loading sections 12 and 12 ′. A drum 10 that rotates in the rotation direction (main scanning direction) R for main scanning while vacuum sucking and holding the photosensitive material S fed from the feeding unit 14 to the outer peripheral surface; An optical unit 16 that exposes a light beam such as LED light or laser light to the photosensitive material on the drum 10 to form a latent image on the photosensitive material, and the optical unit 16 in the sub-scanning direction (the surface of FIG. A sub-scanning unit 17 that conveys in the vertical direction) and a peeling member 15 that peels off the photosensitive material on the drum 10 after image recording. The exposed light-sensitive material is conveyed to the developing unit 21 through the outlet 19 and the connecting portion 19a.

  The image recording apparatus 1 in FIG. 3 further includes a driven roller 43 that is arranged on the downstream side of the pair of conveying rollers 42 and rotates following the conveyance of the photosensitive material that is sent toward the drum 10, and the photosensitive material between the drum 10. The driven roller 31 to be conveyed, the guide member 18 that guides the photosensitive material when the photosensitive material peeled off from the drum 10 by the peeling member 15 is conveyed by the drum 10 and the driven roller 31, and the guide member 18 are sent. A pair of conveying rollers 32 that further conveys the photosensitive material to the outlet 19, an accumulation rate portion 30 for accumulating the photosensitive material that has reached the conveying roller pair 32, and a feeling disposed in the vicinity of the downstream side of the conveying roller pair 32. A light reflection type detection sensor 33 for detecting the tip of the material.

  A relatively narrow driven roller 43 disposed in the vicinity of the downstream side of the conveying roller pair 42 is driven to rotate along with the movement of the photosensitive material, and a rotary encoder 58 is connected coaxially to the driven roller 43. By rotating the rotary encoder 58 together with the driven roller 43 and measuring the rotation amount, the length of the photosensitive material wound around the drum 10 through the pair of conveying rollers 42 can be obtained. Further, the downstream conveying roller pair 32 has a one-way clutch structure, and can freely rotate the photosensitive material in the delivery direction to the downstream side.

  Also, cut portions 10a for cutting the photosensitive material are arranged in the vicinity of the downstream side of the pair of conveyance rollers 40 and 41 in FIG. 3, and each cut portion 10a has a rotary cutter that is driven to rotate by a motor (not shown). And the photosensitive material is cut into a predetermined length based on the above-described measurement of the photosensitive material length.

  The developing unit 21 shown in FIG. 3 performs wet development on the exposed photosensitive material sent from the exposure unit 11 to visualize a latent image of the photosensitive material. The developing unit 23 performs a photosensitive material developing process, and a fixing process. The image is visualized by the fixing unit 24 that performs the stabilization process, the stabilization unit 25 that performs the stabilization process, the drying unit 26 that performs the drying process, the discharge unit 27 that discharges the dried photosensitive material to the outside by the conveying roller pair 27a and the like. And an accumulating unit for accumulating the discharged photosensitive material.

  As shown in FIG. 4, in the drum 10 of the image recording apparatus 1, the rotating shaft 14a of the rotating shaft portion 14 'and the rotating shaft 15a of the rotating shaft portion 18' can rotate to the support bases 34a and 34b via the bearings 33a and 33b. Is pivotally supported. One rotating shaft 15a of the drum 10 is provided with a driving pulley 35a, which is connected to an output pulley 35b of a drum driving pulse motor M6 by a belt 36 and driven by the drum driving pulse motor M6. 10 rotates. The rotary shaft 15a of the drum 10 is provided with a rotary encoder 37, which outputs a pulse signal for rotation and is used for pixel clock control synchronized with the rotation of the drum.

  The other rotating shaft 14a of the drum 10 is connected to the suction blower P1. A large number of suction holes 31c are formed on the surface of the drum 10 so as to extend linearly in the direction of the rotation axis. The inside of the drum 10 is depressurized by driving the suction blower P1, and the photosensitive material is sucked onto the surface of the drum 10. .

  The optical unit 16 is configured to be movable in parallel with the drum axis by the sub-scanning unit 17, receives a digital image signal, exposes the photosensitive material adsorbed on the drum 10 with a light beam, and writes an image. As shown in FIG. 4, an LED unit 320, an LED unit 321, and an LED unit 322 are arranged in the optical unit 16 as light sources for three wavelengths, for example, B, G, and R light sources. The light beams from the LED units 320, 321, and 322 expose an image on the photosensitive material on the drum 10 from the condenser lens 331 via the mirrors 325, 326, and 327. The exposure shutter 332 is opened / closed by an exposure solenoid 333 to open / close the optical path at the start / end of exposure.

  The sub-scanning unit 17 includes a moving belt 340, a pair of guide rails 341 and 342, a pair of pulleys 343 and 344, and a sub-scanning motor M7. The optical unit 16 is fixed to a moving belt 340, and is guided by a pair of guide rails 341 and 342 so as to be movable in a direction parallel to the drum shaft. The moving belt 340 is stretched over a pair of pulleys 343 and 344, and one pulley 344 is connected to the output shaft 345 of the sub-scanning motor M7, and the optical unit 16 moves in parallel with the drum shaft by driving the sub-scanning motor M7. .

  As shown in FIG. 4, the suction blower P <b> 1 sucks the inside of the drum 10 through the suction connection pipe 51 by the air suction pump, and makes the inside of the drum 10 have a negative pressure before the exposure by the exposure unit 11 to adsorb the photosensitive material to the outer peripheral surface. . Further, when the photosensitive material is wound around the drum 10 and conveyed, the suction blower P1 is operated to suck the photosensitive material.

  Next, a control system of the image recording apparatus 1 shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of main parts of a flow of image data in the exposure unit 11 of the image recording apparatus 1 of FIGS. 1 to 4 and a control system of the image recording apparatus 1.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the image recording apparatus 1 in FIGS. 1 to 4 uses the exposure unit 11 to output a plurality of (half-color-separated to YMCK) binary halftone dot image data transmitted from the host apparatus 100 in FIG. A color proof is generated based on the received halftone image data.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the exposure unit 11 includes an image data I / F unit 52 to which halftone image data is input from the external host device 100 in FIG. 1, and a plurality of halftone images from the image data I / F unit 52. Light source driving for first to fourth data buffers 53a, 53b, 53c, and 53d that store data once and read and output as needed, and YMCK halftone image data read from the data buffers 53a to 53d An exposure look-up table (exposure LUT) 54 that sets the exposure amount for exposure of the photosensitive material in association with the values, and B, G, that convert the digital signal of the exposure data from the exposure look-up table 54 into an analog signal A plurality of D / A converters 55a, 55b, 55c corresponding to the R LED units 320 to 322, and D / A converters 55a to 55c A plurality of drivers 56a in direct analog modulation drive each LED of each LED units 320 to 322 by the analog signal, comprising 56b, and 56c, a.

  Each of the first to fourth data buffers 53a to 53d includes a hard disk storage device (HDD) that stores and stores image data in a hard disk (HD) that is a disk-shaped medium that is rotationally driven by a motor. It has a capacity for storing one page. The HDD stores and reads out image data with a magnetic head by rotating a metal hard disk with a motor at a relatively high speed.

  As shown in FIG. 5, the control system of the image recording apparatus 1 includes a control unit 50 including a central processing unit (CPU). The control unit 50 includes an image data I / F unit 52, first to fourth. An HDD control unit 57 for independently controlling the operations of the data buffers (HDDs) 53a to 53d, an information exchange unit 60 for exchanging color information of halftone image data with the host device 100 of FIG. Controls the exposure look-up table 54 and other device parts.

  The HDD control unit 57 controls ON / OFF of the respective power supplies of the first to fourth data buffers 53a to 53d, and controls the rotation of each motor that rotationally drives each hard disk (HD).

  Next, the first and second operations of the image recording apparatus 1 of FIGS. 1 to 5 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  <First operation>

  A first operation of the image recording apparatus 1 of FIGS. 1 to 5 will be described with reference to FIG. First, when the image recording apparatus 1 is operated by turning on the apparatus power switch (SW) 59 of FIG. 5 (S01), the HDD controller 57 causes the first to fourth data buffers (HDDs) 53a to 53d. Are rotated and activated (S02).

  Next, the control unit 50 designates one data buffer (HDD) (for example, 53a) (S03), and the rotation of the data buffer 53a is stopped under the control of the HDD control unit 57, thereby setting the standby state (S04). Then, it is determined whether or not the data buffer 53a accepts halftone image data (S05).

  If the data buffer 53a has already received halftone image data, the data buffer 53a is switched to another data buffer (for example, 53b) (S06), and the process returns to steps S04 and S05. Similarly, the data buffer 53b is set in a standby state. Then, it is determined whether or not the data buffer 53b accepts halftone image data.

  On the other hand, if the data buffer 53a has not yet received halftone dot image data (S05), the control unit 50 assigns the data buffer 53a to store, for example, Y halftone dot image data (S07), and the color thereof. The information exchange unit 60 notifies the host apparatus 100 that is the transfer source of Y halftone dot image data (S08).

  The above steps S04 to S08 are continued until all the image data of YMCK are assigned to each data buffer (S09). That is, when there is unallocated image data, the process returns to step S06 and the data buffer is switched.

  Next, the host apparatus 100 sequentially transfers each halftone dot image data to the image recording apparatus 1 based on the notified color information (S10), and the image recording apparatus 1 starts reception at the image data I / F unit 52. Then, the data buffer assigned with the color information is sequentially activated (S12), and each halftone dot image data is stored (S13).

  When performing image recording, the photosensitive material S is conveyed from the cartridge 13 loaded in the loading unit 12 or 12 ′ to the drum 10 through the feeding unit 14, and the photosensitive material S is vacuum sucked and held on the outer peripheral surface of the drum 10. Then, each halftone dot image data is sequentially output from each of the data buffers 53a to 53d (S14), and the rotation start of the data buffer for which this output has been completed is stopped and put into a standby state (S15). Based on the image data, the photosensitive material on the drum 10 is exposed with the light beams from the LED units 320 to 322 on the optical unit 16 (S16).

  Next, the exposed photosensitive material is peeled off from the drum 10 by the peeling member 15, transported through the guide member 18, transported by the transport roller pair 32 from the outlet 19 to the developing unit 21 through the connecting portion 19a, and the developing units 23, The fixing unit 24, the stabilizing unit 25, and the drying unit 26 sequentially perform development processing and drying (S17), and then the developed photosensitive material is discharged to the outside through the discharge unit 27 and output to the stacking unit 28 (S18). .

  As described above, according to the first operation of the image recording apparatus 1, it is determined whether each of the data buffers 53a to 53d accepts halftone image data, and color information is assigned to the unaccepted data buffer. The operation time of the plurality of data buffers 53a to 53d can be made equal by switching each data buffer in the activated state to the next data buffer and making the above determination every time the data buffer is shifted to the standby state. For this reason, it is possible to average the lifetimes of the data buffers 53a to 53d, thereby extending the lifetime. Further, standby power can be reduced by setting each of the data buffers 53a to 53d to a standby state. In addition, after outputting halftone dot image data for image recording, each data buffer is sequentially put into a standby state, so that standby power can be reduced and operation time can be equalized.

  Further, when color information is assigned to each of the data buffers 53a to 53d, the color information is notified to the host device 100 each time it is assigned, so that the data buffer that is the transfer destination of the halftone dot image data of that color can be easily and instantly determined. Can be identified. For this reason, since it is not time-consuming to transfer the halftone dot image data of each color, the productivity of image recording does not decrease.

  <Second operation>

  The second operation of the image recording apparatus 1 shown in FIGS. 1 to 5 will be described with reference to FIG. In the second operation, in step S07, S08, and S09 in FIG. 6, the data buffer 53a is assigned to store, for example, Y halftone dot image data, and the color information is assigned to the host that is the transfer source of the Y halftone dot image data. When there is unallocated image data notified to the apparatus 100, returning to step S06 and switching the data buffer is the same as the first operation, but as shown by the broken line in FIG. When the allocated color information is notified to the host apparatus 100 by the information exchange unit 60 (S08), the host apparatus 100 transfers Y halftone dot image data to the image recording apparatus 1 based on the notified color information (S10). ). On the other hand, if there is unallocated image data after step S08, the process returns to step S06 and the data buffer is switched (S09).

  As described above, according to the second operation of the image recording apparatus 1, since the operation times of the plurality of data buffers 53a to 53d can be equalized similarly to the first operation, the lifetime of each of the data buffers 53a to 53d. Can be averaged and the life can be extended. Further, standby power can be reduced by setting each of the data buffers 53a to 53d to a standby state. Further, standby power can be reduced by setting each of the data buffers 53a to 53d to a standby state. In addition, after outputting halftone dot image data for image recording, each data buffer is sequentially put into a standby state, so that standby power can be reduced and operation time can be equalized.

  Further, when color information is assigned to each of the data buffers 53a to 53d, the color information is notified to the host device 100 each time it is assigned, so that the data buffer that is the transfer destination of the halftone dot image data of that color can be easily and instantly determined. The identified host device 100 transfers the halftone image data of that color to the image recording device 1. For this reason, since it is not time-consuming to transfer the halftone dot image data of each color, the productivity of image recording does not decrease.

  As described above, the best mode for carrying out the present invention has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to these, and various modifications are possible within the scope of the technical idea of the present invention. For example, the image data input to the host device 100 in FIG. 1 may be image data in various formats. For example, the vector system may be PDF, EPS, etc. in addition to PS (PostScript) data. Further, the raster system may be TIFF, TIFF / IT, and other dedicated formats, and the binary data may be TIFF bitmap, other dedicated formats, and the like. Furthermore, data that has undergone raster-image conversion processing by the RIP 2A may be input as indicated by the dashed arrows in FIG.

  Also, the halftone dot image data that is separated into a plurality of colors by the host device 100 is not limited to YMCK, and may be YMC, for example. Further, although the first to fourth data buffers 53a to 53d are provided as the disk type storage devices, the number of data buffers may be increased or decreased.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration example of a printing system including an image recording apparatus capable of creating a color proof according to an embodiment. It is a perspective view which shows the external appearance of the whole image recording apparatus of FIG. 1 by this Embodiment. It is the figure which looked at the inside of the image recording device of Drawing 1 and Drawing 2 from the front side. FIG. 3 is a plan view of a main part when the drum and the optical unit of the image recording apparatus of FIG. 2 are viewed from above. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a flow of image data in the exposure unit 11 of the image recording apparatus 1 of FIGS. 1 to 4 and a control system of the image recording apparatus 1. 6 is a flowchart for explaining each operation of the image recording apparatus 1 of FIGS.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Image recording device 11 Exposure unit 21 Development unit 50 Control part 53a-53d Several data buffer, HDD (disk type memory | storage device)
57 HDD control unit (storage device control means)
60 Information Exchange Unit 100 Host Device 101 Image Recording System

Claims (4)

A host device that transfers a plurality of color-separated image data, an image recording device that sequentially receives the plurality of color-separated image data from the host device, and records a color image based on the color-separated image data; Image recording system including
The image recording apparatus includes a plurality of disk-type storage devices each capable of storing at least one page of image data on a rotatable disk-shaped medium, and storage device control means for independently controlling the plurality of disk-type storage devices. And information exchange means for exchanging information with the host device,
The storage device control means is a disk-type storage that is activated in the plurality of disk-type storage devices when receiving the color-separated image data or recording of the color-separated image data that has been received is not executed. Control is performed so that the device is switched every time the device is shifted to a standby state, and color information assigned to the disk type storage device in the standby state is controlled to be notified to the host device by the information exchange means. Image recording system.   2. The image according to claim 1, wherein, when the color separation image data is transferred to the image recording apparatus, the host device starts transfer from color separation image data of a color based on color information notified by the information exchange unit. Recording system. An image recording method for sequentially receiving a plurality of color-separated image data from a host device and recording a color image based on the color-separated image data,
Activating a plurality of disk storage devices capable of storing image data on a rotatable disk-shaped medium;
Determining whether one of the plurality of disk storage devices accepts color separation image data; and
If the disk-type storage device has not accepted color separation image data, assigning color information to the disk-type storage device and placing the disk-type storage device in a standby state;
When the disc type storage device accepts color separation image data, the disc type storage device is set in a standby state and the disc type storage device in the determination step is switched.
An image recording method comprising: notifying the host device of color information assigned to the disk type storage device. The image recording method according to claim 3, wherein the host device starts transfer from color separation image data of a color based on the notified color information.

Images