JP2009025633A - Image forming method, image forming program and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To control the highest density of an image having a plurality of areas, for each of the area. <P>SOLUTION: A control section 50 creates image data from print data received from a host computer. If the created image data includes an image composing a bar code, the control section 50 extracts a first area 96 (position data) that forms the bar code, from the image (all the image data) for a recording medium. According to the image data and the position data of the first area 96, input from the control section 50, an exposure device 26 adjusts (sets) quantities of laser beam for each of the first area 96 and a second area 98. The image forming apparatus 10 forms an electrostatic latent image on a photoreceptor 22 by using the quantities of laser beam, adjusted (set) in the process in S102. Then, the apparatus 10 forms (prints) on the recording medium, an image in which the highest density of the image in the first area 96 is higher that in the second area 98. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming method, an image forming program, and an image forming apparatus.

  Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11-260260 discloses that the image density is read from a toner mark transferred onto a sheet to control the image density.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-123531

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming method, an image forming program, and an image forming apparatus capable of controlling the maximum density for each area of an image having a plurality of areas.

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention according to claim 1 includes a first region for forming a predetermined image and a second region for forming an image different from the image formed in the first region. On the other hand, this is an image forming method in which the maximum density of each image is controlled to be different.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, a first region for forming a predetermined image is extracted from image data, and an image different from the extracted first region and the image formed in the first region is formed. In this image forming method, the maximum density of the image is controlled to be different from that of the second region.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, a first area for forming a predetermined image is extracted from the image data, and an image different from the extracted first area and the image formed in the first area is formed. This is an electrophotographic image forming method in which the laser light amount or the LED light amount is adjusted so that the maximum image density differs from that of the second region.

  The present invention according to claim 4 is the image forming method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code is formed in the first region.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the highest density of an image is obtained for each of a first region that forms a predetermined image and a second region that forms an image different from the image formed in the first region. This is an image forming program for causing a computer to execute the step of controlling so as to be different.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a step of extracting a first area for forming a predetermined image from image data, an extracted first area, and an image different from the image formed in the first area are obtained. An image forming program for causing a computer to execute a step of controlling a maximum density of an image to be different from that of a second region to be formed.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a step of extracting a first area for forming a predetermined image from image data, an extracted first area, and an image different from the image formed in the first area. An electrophotographic image forming program for causing a computer to execute a step of adjusting a laser light amount or an LED light amount so that a maximum density of an image differs from a second region to be formed.

  The present invention according to claim 8 is the image forming program according to any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code is formed in the first area.

  The present invention according to claim 9 forms an image different from the extraction means for extracting a first area for forming a predetermined image from image data and the image formed in the first area extracted by the extraction means. The image forming apparatus includes a control unit that controls the second area and the first area so that the highest image density is different.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image carrier, an optical writing device for writing an electrostatic latent image on the image carrier, and a developing device for developing the electrostatic latent image written by the optical writing device with a developer. And a fixing device for fixing the developer image developed by the developing device to the recording medium, wherein the control means is configured so that the maximum densities of the images formed in the first region and the second region are different from each other. The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the optical writing apparatus is controlled.

  According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the ninth or tenth aspect, the extraction unit extracts a first region that forms an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the maximum density can be controlled for each area of an image having a plurality of areas.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, even if the image data includes a predetermined image and an image different from the predetermined image, the maximum density can be controlled for each region with respect to an image having a plurality of regions. it can.

  According to the third aspect of the present invention, even if the image data includes a predetermined image and an image different from the predetermined image, the laser light amount or LED light amount in the electrophotographic method is applied to an image having a plurality of regions. By adjusting, the maximum density can be controlled for each region.

  According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the maximum density can be controlled for each region with respect to a region for forming an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code and a region for forming another image.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the maximum density can be controlled for each area of an image having a plurality of areas.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, even if the image data includes a predetermined image and an image different from the predetermined image, the maximum density can be controlled for each region with respect to an image having a plurality of regions. it can.

  According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, even if the image data includes a predetermined image and an image different from the predetermined image, the laser light amount or LED light amount in the electrophotographic method is applied to an image having a plurality of regions. By adjusting, the maximum density can be controlled for each region.

  According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, the maximum density can be controlled for each region with respect to a region for forming an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code and a region for forming another image.

  According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, for an image having a plurality of regions, the maximum density can be controlled for each region.

  According to the tenth aspect of the present invention, the maximum density can be controlled for each area of an image having a plurality of areas included in the electrostatic latent image written by the optical writing device.

  According to the eleventh aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect of the present invention according to the ninth or tenth aspect, an area for forming an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code and an area for forming another image are provided. On the other hand, the maximum density can be controlled for each region.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
1 and 2 show an outline of an image forming apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image processing apparatus 10 is, for example, an electrophotographic system for color, and includes an image forming unit 12 and a document reading device 14. The image forming unit 12 includes, for example, an image forming apparatus main body 15 and a sheet feeding tray 16 on which sheets are stacked, and forms an image on a sheet supplied from the sheet feeding tray 16 to the sheet conveyance path 20. It is one of.

  That is, the image forming unit 12 includes a photosensitive member 22 as an image holding member, a charger 24 that uniformly charges the photosensitive member 22, and a latent image on the photosensitive member 22 that is uniformly charged by the charger 24. An exposure device (optical writing device) 26 for forming the image, a developing device 28 for visualizing the latent image on the photosensitive member 22 formed by the exposure device 26 with toner (developer), and the developing device 28. A primary transfer device 32 that transfers the toner image to the intermediate transfer belt 30 and a photoreceptor cleaner 34 that cleans the toner remaining on the photoreceptor 22 are included. The exposure device 26 is of a laser scanning type, for example, and outputs image data output by a host computer (not shown), for example, by turning on / off the laser. The exposure device 26 may be one that exposes with an LED. The developing device 28 is of a rotary type, for example, and has Y, M, C, and K four color developing devices 36a, 36b, 36c, and 36d arranged around it, and rotates so as to face the photoreceptor 22 when developing each color. To do. The primary transfer device 32 is composed of, for example, a corotron, and the transfer device 32 transfers four color toner images to the intermediate transfer belt 30. The toner image transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 30 is transferred to a sheet by the secondary transfer device 38, this sheet is sent to the fixing device 40, and the toner image is fixed to the sheet by the fixing device 40. The fixed sheet is discharged to the discharge tray 42. The toner remaining on the intermediate transfer belt 30 is scraped off by the intermediate transfer belt cleaner 44.

  A resist roll 46 is disposed in the sheet conveyance path 20. The registration roll 46 temporarily stops the supplied sheet, and supplies the sheet to the secondary transfer device 38 in synchronization with the timing at which the toner image is formed on the intermediate transfer belt 30.

  In the image forming apparatus main body 15, a power supply unit 48 that applies a predetermined voltage to each part of the electronic device constituting the image forming apparatus 10 and a control unit 50 that controls each part constituting the image forming apparatus 10 are arranged. Has been.

  The document reader 14 includes an automatic document feeder 52 and an optical system 54 that optically reads a document. The document reader 14 scans and reads a document (image) sent by the automatic document feeder 52, and a platen glass 56. This is one of image processing units having a function of reading a document (image) placed thereon.

  The optical system 54 includes, for example, a box-shaped optical system main body 55, and a full-rate carriage 58, a half-rate carriage 60, a lens 62, and a photoelectric conversion element 64 are included in the optical system main body 55. The full-rate carriage 58 moves in the scanning direction in the scanning direction in the stroke space 57 in the document reading apparatus 14 with the document sub-scanning direction (from left to right in FIG. 1) as the scanning direction. The half-rate carriage 60 is configured to move a half stroke in the sub-scanning direction in the stroke space 57.

The lens 62 irradiates the original placed on the platen glass 56 provided above the movement range of the full-rate carriage 58 and the half-rate carriage 60 or the original passing through the transported original reading position from the full-rate carriage 58. The reflected light of light is received through the half-rate carriage 60 to form an image.
The photoelectric conversion element 64 receives the reflected light at the imaging position of the reflected light by the lens 62 and, for example, analog signals corresponding to the respective RGB amounts of light by a photodiode provided with RGB filters (primary color filters). For example, it is a 3-line color CCD that outputs an electrical signal to the controller 50, for example.

The control unit 50 is connected to a user interface device (UI device) 66 including a display device and a keyboard, a storage device 68 such as an HDD / CD device, an image forming unit 12 and a communication device 70. The control unit 50 includes a CPU 72, a memory 74, and the like.
As described above, the image forming apparatus 10 includes a function as a computer, and performs processing such as printing by executing the program received via the storage medium 76 or the communication device 70.

Next, a data flow and processing example when the image forming apparatus 10 receives print data from the host computer and prints an image will be described.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a data flow when the image forming apparatus 10 receives print data from a host computer and prints an image.
The print data output from the host computer 78 is received by the data control unit (extraction unit) 82 which is a program in the control unit 50 via the communication device 70. The data control unit 82 creates image data (image data) from the received print data, and when the created image data includes an image constituting a barcode (one-dimensional code), for example, as shown in FIG. In addition, the position data of the first area 96 forming the barcode is extracted as the density adjustment target area from the image (entire image data) on the recording medium. That is, the data control unit 82 divides the image data into a first area 96 and a second area 98 that forms an image other than the barcode. The second area 98 is an area where an image having a higher density than that of the first area 96 is formed, for example.

Then, the data control unit 82 outputs image data (image data) to the image memory 84 included in the memory 74, and the first area to the code image (barcode) position memory 86 included in the memory 74. 96 position data are output.
The position data of the first region 96 extracted by the data control unit 82 may be a layer indicating the position of the first region 96 with respect to the entire image data, or the first region 96 with respect to the entire image data. It may be coordinate data indicating the position.

  A DMA (Direct Memory Access) unit 88 is provided in the control unit 50, and acquires image data stored in the image memory 84 and position data of the first area 96 stored in the code image position memory 86, respectively. The image data and the position data of the first area 96 are output to the exposure device 26 without going through the CPU 72.

The exposure apparatus 26 includes a reference voltage generator 90 and a laser unit 92. The reference voltage generator 90 receives the image data and the position data of the first region 96 from the DMA unit 88, sets the reference voltage for the first region 96 and the reference voltage for the second region 98, respectively, and sets the image The reference voltage for the first region 96 and the reference voltage for the second region 98 are output to the laser unit 92 according to the data and the position data of the first region 96, respectively.
For example, the reference voltage generation unit 90 has a high density (or no adjustment) of the image formed in the second region 98, and the density of the image formed in the first region 96 is the second region 98. The reference voltage is adjusted so as to be lower than the density of the image formed on the laser beam, and the adjusted reference voltage is output to the laser unit 92.

  The laser unit 92 turns on and off the laser according to the image data input from the DMA unit 88, adjusts the light amount according to the reference voltage input from the reference voltage generation unit 90, and applies the laser with the adjusted light amount to the photoconductor. 22 is irradiated.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a processing example (S10) in a case where the image forming apparatus 10 receives print data from a host computer and prints an image.
As shown in FIG. 5, in step 100 (S100), the control unit 50 creates image data from the print data received from the host computer, and the created image data includes an image constituting a barcode. Then, a first area 96 (position data) for forming a barcode is extracted from an image (entire image data) on the recording medium.

  In step 102 (S102), the exposure apparatus 26 applies laser to each of the first region 96 and the second region 98 in accordance with the image data input from the control unit 50 and the position data of the first region 96. Adjust (set) the light intensity.

  In step 104 (S104), the image forming apparatus 10 forms an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive member 22 with the laser light amount adjusted (set) in the process of S102, and the maximum density of the image formed in the first region 96 is determined. Also, an image in which the maximum density of the image formed in the second region 98 is increased is formed (printed) on the recording medium.

Note that the image forming apparatus 10 may form a barcode in the first region 96 using only the K (black) developer, or may use the Y, M, and C developers. A bar code may be formed in the region 96. When the barcode is formed in the first region 96 using only the K (black) developer, the image forming apparatus 10 has a first density higher than that of the black image formed in the second region 98. The maximum density of the black barcode formed in the area 96 is reduced.
In addition, when the image forming apparatus 10 uses the Y, M, and C developers to form a barcode in the first area 96, the image forming apparatus 10 has the highest Y, M, and C of the image formed in the second area 98. The density is different from the maximum density of Y, M, and C of the image formed in the first region 96.

  Further, the image forming apparatus 10 adjusts the amount of laser light in order to individually set the maximum density of the image formed in the first area 96 and the maximum density of the image formed in the second area 98. Without being limited thereto, for example, the image data may be changed for each of the first region 96 and the second region 98 to adjust the density, or the first region 96 and the second region 98 may be adjusted. The density may be adjusted by changing the developing bias for each of them.

  Further, the image formed in the first region 96 is not limited to a barcode (including EAN128) which is a one-dimensional code, and a two-dimensional code such as a QR code (registered trademark) or a two-dimensional symbol is used. The code may be included.

1 is a side view illustrating an outline of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating an overview of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a data flow when an image forming apparatus receives print data from a host computer and prints an image. FIG. 6 is an arrangement diagram illustrating positions of a first area and a second area of an image with respect to a recording medium. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a processing example (S10) in a case where the image forming apparatus receives print data from a host computer and prints an image.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Image forming apparatus 12 Image forming part 22 Image holding body 26 Exposure apparatus 28 Developing apparatus 36a, 36b, 36c, 36d Developing device 40 Fixing apparatus 50 Control part 70 Communication apparatus 72 CPU
74 Memory 82 Data control unit 84 Image memory 86 Code image position memory 88 DMA unit 90 Reference voltage generation unit 92 Laser unit 94 Recording medium 96 First area 98 Second area

Claims (11)

  An image forming method in which a first area for forming a predetermined image and a second area for forming an image different from the image formed in the first area are controlled to have different maximum image densities.   A first area that forms a predetermined image is extracted from the image data, and the extracted first area and a second area that forms an image different from the image formed in the first area, respectively. An image forming method for controlling the maximum density of images to be different.   A first area that forms a predetermined image is extracted from the image data, and the extracted first area and a second area that forms an image different from the image formed in the first area, respectively. An electrophotographic image forming method in which the laser light amount or the LED light amount is adjusted so that the maximum image density is different.   The image forming method according to claim 1, wherein an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code is formed in the first region.   The computer has a step of controlling the first area for forming a predetermined image and the second area for forming an image different from the image formed in the first area so that the maximum density of the images is different. An image forming program to be executed.   Extracting a first area for forming a predetermined image from image data, the extracted first area, and a second area for forming an image different from the image formed in the first area And an image forming program for causing a computer to execute a step of controlling the maximum density of each image to be different.   Extracting a first area for forming a predetermined image from image data, the extracted first area, and a second area for forming an image different from the image formed in the first area An electrophotographic image forming program for causing a computer to execute the step of adjusting the laser light quantity or the LED light quantity so that the maximum density of each image differs.   The image forming program according to claim 5, wherein an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code is formed in the first area.   An extraction unit that extracts a first region that forms a predetermined image from the image data, a second region that forms an image different from the image formed in the first region extracted by the extraction unit, and the first region And an image forming apparatus having control means for controlling the maximum density of the images to be different from each other.   Image holding member, optical writing device for writing electrostatic latent image on image holding member, developing device for developing electrostatic latent image written by optical writing device with developer, developer developed by the developing device And a fixing device that fixes the image on the recording medium, wherein the control unit controls the optical writing device so that the maximum densities of the images formed in the first region and the second region are different from each other. The image forming apparatus according to 9.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the extraction unit extracts a first region that forms an image of a one-dimensional code or a two-dimensional code.

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