JP2008245184A - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of pages of a document are aggregated into one page and a printed matter easy to read can be automatically provided. <P>SOLUTION: In an automatic aggregation mode, a number N of pages to be aggregated is set smaller as a number D of dots in a character area per page of a document becomes larger, and the number N of pages to be aggregated is set larger as the number D of dots becomes smaller. The number of dots is compared with a plurality of reference values and in accordance with its magnitude, the number of pages to be aggregated is switched to 1, 2, 4, and 8. Thus, the pages are aggregated in accordance with a font size or the number of characters, and the characters become easy to see. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having an N-up function for printing an N-page document on one page of paper.

In the recent trend of resource saving, image forming apparatuses are also required to suppress resource consumption such as paper consumption. In order to meet such demands, images that can be printed on the other side of a sheet that has already been printed on one side, and aggregated printing that consolidates multiple pages of a document on one page of paper, etc. A forming apparatus has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2005-49584 PR (published February 24, 2005)

  However, in the above conventional technique, a large number of pages of a document are gathered on one page of paper, which may cause a problem that it becomes difficult for a user to read characters on the printed paper.

  Accordingly, in view of the above-described conventional problems, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus capable of providing a printed matter in which two or more pages of a document are collected on one page of paper and easy to read characters. is there.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus having an N-up function for printing an N-page document on one page of paper, and includes characters per page of the document. An N number setting unit is provided for setting the N number so that the N number decreases as the amount increases.

  The image forming apparatus of the present invention includes an N number setting unit, so that an upper limit of the number of characters printed on a certain area on the sheet is set. Therefore, the created printed matter is relatively easy to see.

  A copying machine 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of the copying machine 1, and FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing an image including an image area and a character area.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a copying machine 1 includes a scanner 2 that reads an image on a document, a printing unit 3 that prints an image on paper, and an operation panel 4 that presents information to the user and receives input from the user. A main control unit 10 and a bus 5 for connecting them.

  As the printing unit 3, an apparatus using a conventionally known image forming technique such as an electrophotographic method or an inkjet method can be suitably applied.

  In addition, the operation panel 4 can accept, from the user, execution of an automatic aggregation mode in which, in particular, N pages of originals are automatically collected and printed on one page of paper.

  The main control unit 10 includes a separation unit 11, a dot counter 12, a comparison unit 13, an N number setting unit, a print control unit 15, a scanner control unit 16, and the like. In this embodiment, each block of the main control unit 10 is realized by software. That is, the main control unit 10 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and the like, and the CPU develops a program stored in the ROM on the RAM. Thus, the functions of these blocks are realized.

  The separation unit 11 separates the image read by the scanner 2 into an image area and a character area. For example, assume that the scanner 2 reads an original and obtains an image 21 shown in FIG. The separation unit 11 separates the image area A representing the image 21 and the character area B representing characters.

  The dot counter 12 calculates the number of dots in the image area A and the character area B.

  When the operation panel 4 receives an instruction to execute the automatic aggregation mode, the comparison unit 13 compares the number of dots in the character area 22 per page of the document calculated by the dot counter 12 with a preset reference value. The comparison unit 13 can have a plurality of reference values.

  The N number setting unit 14 determines the number N of document pages to be collected per page based on the comparison result of the comparison unit 13. N is hereinafter referred to as an “aggregation number”.

  The print control unit 15 controls the printing unit 3 based on the setting of the N number setting unit 14 and the like when the automatic aggregation mode is executed.

  The scanner control unit 16 controls the scanner 2 to execute reading of a document.

  Next, with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, the operation of the copying machine 1 when the automatic aggregation mode is executed will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation flow in the automatic aggregation mode in the copying machine 1, and FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an example of a printed matter created in the automatic aggregation mode.

  When a copy of the document in the automatic aggregation mode is received from the user via the operation panel 4, the scanner control unit 16 controls the scanner 2 to read the image on the document (S1).

  As described above, the separation unit 11 separates this image into an image region and a character region (S2). Then, the comparison unit 13 compares the number of dots D of the character area per page of the document acquired by the dot counter 12 with the reference values L1 to L3 (S3, S4). Here, L1> L2> L3.

  The N number setting unit 14 sets the aggregation number N to 1 when the dot number D is larger than the reference value L1 (Yes in S5 → S6), and when the dot number D is less than the reference value L1 and larger than the reference value L2. Sets the aggregation number N to 2 (No in S5 → Yes in S7 → S8), and when the dot number D is less than the reference value L2 and greater than the reference value L3, the aggregation number N is set to 4 (No in S7 → In S9, Yes → S10), and when the dot number D is equal to or less than the reference value L3, the aggregation number N is set to 8 (No in S9 → S11).

  The print control unit 15 controls the printing unit 3 so as to collect N pages of originals on one sheet of paper based on the aggregation number N set in this way (S12).

  As a method of setting the aggregation number N, for example, a method of automatically setting the aggregation number N according to the font size of characters so that the aggregation number N is reduced as the font size is smaller can be considered. According to this method, the characters of each document have the same font size and the characters are printed on one side (a large number of characters) and the characters are combined with a picture or a table (the number of characters is small). ) Documents occupy the same area when printed together on paper.

  However, even if the font size is the same, it is harder to see the larger number of characters in the same area than the smaller one on the printed matter.

  On the other hand, according to the above-described embodiment, the smaller the number of dots D, the larger the aggregation number N is set according to the number of dots D per page of the document, that is, the amount of characters (in other words, the number of characters). Thus, the upper limit of the number of characters printed on a certain area on the paper is set. Therefore, the created printed matter is relatively easy to see.

  Depending on the aggregation number N, as shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of originals with different aggregation numbers N may be printed on a sheet. In the example of FIG. 4, the aggregation number N of the document M1 on the first page is set to 2, and the aggregation number N of the second page M2 and the third page M3 is set to 4 by the N number setting unit 14. Then, under the control of the print control unit 15, the printed matter 30 is created by printing on the single sheet P with the original M1 being ½ size and the originals M2 and M3 being ¼ size.

In particular, it is preferable that the N number setting unit 14 sets the aggregation number N so as to be inversely proportional to the dot number D. In this case, N number setting unit 14, when the 4 N for original number of dots D ₁ is adapted to set the N 2 and for original number of dots (2 × D _1).

  In the above embodiment, the aggregation number N is set in the range of 1 to 8. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the aggregation number N is a numerical value that can be set as appropriate.

  In the above embodiment, a copying machine has been described as an example. However, the present invention can also be applied to other image forming apparatuses such as a printer that prints image data received from an external computer on paper. In the case of a printer, the number of dots can be similarly obtained from the received image data, and the aggregation number can be set from this number of dots.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be appropriately modified within the scope of the claims.

1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a copying machine 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image read from a document. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation flow in the automatic aggregation mode in the copying machine 1; It is a top view which shows an example of the printed matter produced in the automatic aggregation mode.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Copier 2 Scanner 3 Printing part 4 Operation panel 5 Bus 10 Main control part 11 Separation part 12 Dot counter 13 Comparison part 14 N number setting part 15 Print control part 16 Scanner control part A Image area B Character area

Claims (1)

An image forming apparatus having an N-up function for printing an N-page document on one-page paper,
An image forming apparatus comprising an N number setting unit for setting the N number so that the N number decreases as the amount of characters per page of the original increases.

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