JP2016004231A - Image processor, control method thereof and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To inhibit the temperature of a fixing part from becoming high.SOLUTION: An image processor includes: acquisition means for acquiring image data; detection means for detecting a toner applied amount when forming the image data acquired by the acquisition means on a recording medium; thinning-out processing means for performing thinning-out processing of the image data on the basis of the toner applied amount detected by the detection means; calculation means for calculating a fixing temperature when a fixing part fixes a toner image, on the basis of a toner applied amount corresponding to the image data thinned out by the thinning-out processing means; and fixing temperature control means for controlling the temperature of the fixing part on the basis of the fixing temperature calculated by the calculation means.

Description

  The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus suitable for use in fixing a toner image formed by an electrophotographic method onto a recording medium by a fixing unit, a control method thereof, and a program.

  There is a technique for controlling the fixing temperature of the fixing device in accordance with the amount of applied toner obtained from image data. Patent Document 1 discloses a method for determining whether input image data is a photographic image or a character image, and fixing the photographic image by raising the fixing temperature of the fixing device compared to fixing the character image. .

JP 2000-242107 A

However, in Patent Document 1, when photographic images are continuous, a large amount of heat is required to increase the fixing temperature of the fixing device.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the present invention, and an object of the present invention is to perform fixing temperature control according to the amount of applied toner in image data while suppressing an increase in the temperature of the fixing unit. .

  The present invention is an image processing apparatus that processes image data that is a source of a toner image when a toner image formed by an electrophotographic method is fixed on a recording medium by a fixing unit, and acquires the image data. An acquisition unit; a detection unit that detects a toner application amount when the image data acquired by the acquisition unit is formed on a recording medium; and a thinning process of the image data based on the toner application amount detected by the detection unit And a calculation unit for calculating a fixing temperature when the fixing unit fixes the toner image based on a toner application amount corresponding to the image data thinned by the thinning processing unit, and the calculation Fixing temperature control means for controlling the temperature of the fixing portion based on the fixing temperature calculated by the means.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to perform fixing temperature control corresponding to the amount of applied toner of image data while suppressing an increase in the temperature of the fixing unit.

1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image forming system. 1 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a configuration of an image forming apparatus. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image forming apparatus. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a toner loading amount detection method. It is a figure for demonstrating the detection method of a printing rate. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a toner applied amount and a fixing temperature. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a relationship between a toner application amount, a fixing temperature, and a thinning amount. It is a figure which shows the fixing temperature when not performing a thinning process. It is a figure which shows the fixing temperature at the time of performing a thinning process. It is a figure which shows an example of a thinning process. 3 is a flowchart illustrating processing of the image forming apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of a thinning pattern. It is a figure which shows an example which applied the thinning pattern to the character.

Hereinafter, embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[Configuration of image forming system]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image forming system according to the present embodiment. In the image forming system 100, an image forming apparatus 101 that functions as an image processing apparatus, a client server 102, and a client PC 103 are communicably connected via a network 104.

The image forming apparatus 101 performs printing using a copy function or a print function of image data received from the client server 102 or the client PC 103. Specifically, the image forming apparatus 101 forms an image by fixing a toner image based on the image data on a recording medium, and outputs a printed matter.
The image forming apparatus 101 according to the present exemplary embodiment suppresses an increase in the fixing temperature by performing image data thinning processing.

[Operation of Image Forming Apparatus]
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of the configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment. Here, an image forming apparatus 101 which is a monochrome electrophotographic system and employs an intermediate transfer member will be described.
The image forming apparatus 101 includes a paper feeding unit, a photosensitive member 22, an injection charger 23, a scanner unit 24, a toner cartridge 25, a developing unit 26, a primary transfer roller 27, an intermediate transfer member 28, a secondary transfer roller 29, a cleaning unit 30, A fixing unit 31 and the like are included.

The paper feed unit has a paper feed tray 21a and a manual paper feed tray 21b, on which a recording medium 11 such as paper is loaded.
The photoreceptor 22 is rotated counterclockwise by a drive motor (not shown).
The injection charger 23 is configured to charge the photoreceptor 22 and includes a sleeve 23S. Exposure light to the photosensitive member 22 is sent from the scanner unit 24, and an electrostatic latent image is formed by selectively exposing the surface of the photosensitive member 22.
The developing device 26 is configured to perform development in order to visualize the electrostatic latent image, and includes a sleeve 26S. The developing device 26 is detachably attached.

  The intermediate transfer member 28 contacts the photosensitive member 22 and rotates clockwise as the photosensitive member 22 rotates. At this time, the monochrome toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer member 28 by the rotation of the photosensitive member 22 and the primary transfer roller 27 facing the photosensitive member 22. By applying an appropriate bias voltage to the primary transfer roller 27 and making a difference between the rotational speed of the photosensitive member 22 and the rotational speed of the intermediate transfer body 28, a monochrome toner image can be efficiently transferred onto the intermediate transfer body 28. it can. Such transfer from the photosensitive member 22 to the intermediate transfer member 28 is referred to as primary transfer.

  The monochrome toner image transferred to the intermediate transfer member 28 is conveyed to the secondary transfer roller 29 as the intermediate transfer member 28 rotates. The recording medium 11 is nipped and conveyed from the paper feed trays 21 a and 21 b to the secondary transfer roller 29. Accordingly, when the recording medium 11 comes into contact with the intermediate transfer body 28, the monochrome toner image on the intermediate transfer body 28 is transferred to the recording medium 11. At this time, a monochrome toner image can be electrostatically transferred by applying an appropriate bias voltage to the secondary transfer roller 29. Such transfer from the intermediate transfer body 28 to the recording medium 11 is called secondary transfer. The secondary transfer roller 29 contacts the recording medium 11 while the monochrome toner image is being transferred onto the recording medium, and is separated from the recording medium 11 after the monochrome toner image is transferred (see the broken line shown in FIG. 2). .

  The fixing unit 31 includes a fixing roller 32 and a pressure roller 33. The fixing roller 32 heats the recording medium 11 in order to melt and fix the monochrome toner image transferred to the recording medium 11 to the recording medium 11. The pressure roller 33 presses the recording medium 11 against the fixing roller 32. The fixing roller 32 and the pressure roller 33 are formed in a hollow shape, and heaters 34 and 35 are incorporated therein, respectively. That is, the fixing unit 31 conveys the recording medium 11 onto which the monochrome toner image has been transferred by the fixing roller 32 and the pressure roller 33 and applies heat and pressure to fix the monochrome toner image on the recording medium 11. The fixing unit 31 is provided with a temperature sensor (not shown), and is controlled so that the fixing operation is started when a temperature sufficient for fixing is detected by the temperature sensor.

  The recording medium 11 on which the monochrome toner image is fixed is discharged to a discharge tray (not shown), and the image forming operation ends. The cleaning unit 30 cleans the toner remaining on the intermediate transfer member 28. Waste toner that is toner after the monochrome toner image formed on the intermediate transfer body 28 is transferred to the recording medium 11 is stored in a cleaner container of the cleaning unit 30.

[Configuration of Image Forming Apparatus]
FIG. 3A is a diagram illustrating an example of the configuration of the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment.
The image forming apparatus 101 includes a system controller unit 301 and a print controller unit 302.
The system controller unit 301 includes a CPU 304, a ROM 305, a RAM 306, a storage unit 307, a printer communication IF 308, and the like, and each component is connected by a system bus 309.
The print controller unit 302 includes a CPU 310, a ROM 311, a RAM 312, a storage unit 313, a controller communication IF 314, a fixing unit 31, and the like, and each component is connected by a system bus 315.

  The system controller unit 301 and the print controller unit 302 can bidirectionally transmit and receive data via the printer communication IF 308, the controller communication IF 314, and the communication line 303. In addition to image data to be printed, the transmitted / received data includes a control signal from the system controller unit 301, a toner application amount described later, a copy-prohibited document detection result, image composition setting information, and information related to the fixing temperature It is. Note that transmission / reception of data between the system controller unit 301 and the print controller unit 302 is not limited to this case, and may take any form as long as data can be transmitted.

FIG. 3B is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of the image forming apparatus.
The functional configuration of the system controller unit 301 illustrated in FIG. 3B is realized by the CPU 304 expanding and executing a program stored in the ROM 305 or the storage unit 307 in the RAM 306. The functional configuration of the print controller unit 302 shown in FIG. 3B is realized by the CPU 310 developing and executing a program stored in the ROM 311 or the storage unit 313 on the RAM 312.
The system controller unit 301 includes an image processing unit 320 and a fixing temperature calculation unit 325. The image processing unit 320 includes an image generation unit 321, a toner application amount detection unit 322, a print rate detection unit 323, and a thinning processing unit 324.
The print controller unit 302 includes a fixing temperature control unit 326 and a print control unit 327.

  The image generation unit 321 is an example of an acquisition unit, receives image data from the client server 102 or the client PC 103, generates raster image data that can be printed based on the image data, and outputs the raster image data for each pixel. . The image generation unit 321 is not limited to receiving image data, and may use image data read by a reading unit provided in the image forming apparatus 101 itself. A processing unit that performs predetermined image processing on the read image data may also be provided. Further, the image forming apparatus 101 itself may not be configured to receive image data read by an external reading unit via an interface (not shown).

The toner application amount detection unit 322 is an example of a detection unit, and detects the toner application amount when image data is formed on the recording medium 11 based on the monochrome binary data generated by the image generation unit 321. A specific method for detecting the amount of applied toner will be described later with reference to FIG.
The print rate detection unit 323 is an example of a detection unit, and detects toner when forming image data on the recording medium 11 by detecting the print rate based on the monochrome binary data generated by the image generation unit 321. Detect loading amount. A specific method for detecting the printing rate will be described later with reference to FIG.
The toner application amount detection unit 322 and the printing rate detection unit 323 notify the fixing temperature calculation unit 325 of the toner application amount detected when the toner application amount for one page is detected. The toner application amount detection unit 322 and the printing rate detection unit 323 are switched depending on the printing color mode.

The fixing temperature calculation unit 325 is an example of a calculation unit, and calculates the fixing temperature based on the toner application amount detected by the toner application amount detection unit 322 or the printing rate detection unit 323. A method for calculating the fixing temperature from the applied toner amount will be described later with reference to FIGS.
The fixing temperature calculation unit 325 is not limited to calculating the fixing temperature, and the fixing temperature may be calculated on the print controller unit 302 side. In this case, the print controller unit 302 can calculate the fixing temperature by receiving the applied toner amount detected by the applied toner amount detection unit 322 or the printing rate detection unit 323 via the communication line 303.

The thinning processing unit 324 is an example of a thinning processing unit, and performs a thinning process for thinning out dots of image data according to the amount of applied toner. The thinning method will be described later with reference to FIGS. 10 (a), (b), and (c).
The fixing temperature control unit 326 is an example of a fixing temperature control unit, and controls the temperature of the fixing unit 31 based on the fixing temperature calculated by the fixing temperature calculation unit 325.
The print control unit 327 is an example of a control unit, and controls an image forming operation for forming a toner image based on the image data on the recording medium 11.

[Toner loading detection]
Next, a method for detecting the amount of applied toner will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
The amount of applied toner refers to the amount of toner per unit area, and will be described as the sum of dots.
First, when the toner application amount detection unit 322 receives monochrome binary data, the toner application amount detection unit 322 calculates a necessary toner application amount of monochrome pixels in one band. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a part of image data for one band. FIG. 4 illustrates a pixel block 401 composed of, for example, 32 × 32 dot units 402. The numerical value in the frame of the 32 × 32 dot unit 402 indicates the applied toner amount detected by the applied toner amount detection unit 322.

The toner application amount detection unit 322 calculates the average value of the toner application amount in the plurality of dot units 402 in the pixel block 401 from each toner application amount in the 32 × 32 dot unit 402. Here, the reason for calculating the average value in a plurality of dot units 402 in the pixel block 401 is that the temperature generally required for fixing an image is not the amount of applied toner per pixel, but the amount of toner within a certain range. This is because it often depends. In FIG. 4, a 32 × 32 dot unit 402 is taken as an example as an example of a plurality of dot units. However, the present invention is not limited to this case, and an arbitrary size can be adopted.
The toner application amount detection unit 322 calculates the sum of the toner application amounts in the pixel blocks for one page, and calculates the maximum value of the average values of all the pixel blocks 401 in one page as the toner application amount. The fixing temperature calculation unit 325 is notified as a representative value.
In addition, although the case where the maximum value among the average values of the pixel blocks 401 in one page of image data is used as the toner application amount has been described, the present invention is not limited to this case.

[Print rate detection]
Next, a method for detecting the printing rate will be described.
The print rate detection unit 323 detects the ratio of print pixels with respect to the print target area as a print rate. The printing rate is the ratio of the actual count number to the maximum count value of the total number of pixels in the area. That is, it can be expressed as follows.
Print rate [%] = (pixel count in area / maximum value in area) × 100
When the print rate is detected, the print rate of the entire page 501 may be calculated as shown in FIG. 5A, and the predetermined area 502, as shown in FIG. 5B or 5C. The printing rate for 503 may be calculated. The number of areas in the predetermined area is not limited to the example in FIG. 5 and may be two or more areas. In addition, the printing rate of a predetermined area is detected individually for each area. The printing rate detection unit 323 detects the amount of applied toner by converting the detected printing rate.

[Calculation of fixing temperature based on toner loading]
Next, a method for calculating the minimum fixing temperature necessary for fixing the target page based on the applied toner amount will be described.
Here, in order to fix the toner without fixing failure, it is necessary to set the fixing temperature of the fixing unit 31 to a temperature at which the toner can be reliably fixed with the maximum amount of applied toner in the target page. However, since the maximum amount of applied toner varies depending on the image data, the temperature required for fixing also differs for each image data. The larger the maximum amount of applied toner, the higher the temperature required for fixing.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing the relationship between the applied toner amount and the fixing temperature. The horizontal axis indicates the toner loading amount, and the vertical axis indicates the fixing temperature. For example, the applied toner amount that can be printed as it is without performing the thinning process is defined as 100%, and the fixing temperature at that time is defined as T3. The fixing temperature is T4 when the applied toner amount is 80% with respect to the applied toner amount of 100%, the fixing temperature is T2 when the applied toner amount is 120%, and the fixing temperature is T1 when the applied toner amount is 150%.
In this embodiment, the thinning processing unit 324 performs a thinning process when the amount of applied toner is large so that the fixing temperature does not increase. Specifically, the thinning processing unit 324 thins out dots from the image data so that the applied toner amount is 100% when the applied toner amount is 120% so that the toner can be fixed at the fixing temperature T3. Here, the thinning-out amount for setting the toner applied amount 120% to the toner applied amount 100% is set to level 2.
Further, the thinning processing unit 324 thins out dots from the image data so that the applied toner amount is 100% when the applied toner amount is 150% so that the toner can be fixed at the fixing temperature T3. Here, the thinning-out amount for setting the toner application amount from 150% to the toner application amount of 100% is set to level 1.

FIG. 7 is a table in which a thinning amount is added to the graph shown in FIG. 6 and shown in a table. A table 700 illustrated in FIG. 7 is recorded in the storage unit 307 of the system controller unit 301, for example.
The table 700 shows that the fixing temperature is originally T1 when the applied toner amount is 150%, but the thinning amount is set to level 1 in order to set the fixing temperature to T3. Further, the table 700 shows that the fixing temperature is originally T2 when the applied toner amount is 120%, but the thinning amount is set to level 2 in order to set the fixing temperature to T3. The thinning amount is level 1 when the applied toner amount is greater than 120% and 150%, and the thinned amount is level 2 when the applied toner amount is greater than 100% and equal to or less than 120%.
On the other hand, when the applied toner amount is 100% or 80%, the fixing temperature is T3 or T4, indicating that no thinning process is required. That is, when the applied toner amount is 100% or less, the thinning process is not performed.

Next, the fixing temperature when printing 10 pages without performing the thinning process of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 8, the horizontal axis indicates the number of pages, and the vertical axis indicates the fixing temperature.
As shown in FIG. 8, since the amount of applied toner is small on the first page, the fixing temperature may be T4. On the second page, the amount of applied toner is 150%, and the fixing temperature is T1. On the third and fourth pages, the amount of applied toner is 120%, and the fixing temperature is T2. For the ninth page, the applied toner amount is 100%, and the fixing temperature may be T3. Here, the fixing temperature T3 is the optimum printing temperature.

Next, FIG. 9 shows a fixing temperature when printing 10 pages by performing a thinning process of image data when the applied toner amount detected by the thinning processing unit 324 of this embodiment is larger than 100%. The description will be given with reference. In FIG. 9, the horizontal axis indicates the number of pages, and the vertical axis indicates the fixing temperature.
As shown in FIG. 9, the fixing temperature can be lowered to T3 by setting the thinning amount to level 1 for the second page, the sixth to eighth pages, and the tenth page. Further, by setting the thinning amount to level 2 for the third and fourth pages, the fixing temperature can be lowered to T3.
In addition, since the fixing temperature of the first page, the fifth page, and the ninth page is already T3 or less, it is not necessary to perform a thinning process to lower the fixing temperature.

Next, specific thinning processing by the thinning processing unit 324 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10A to FIG. 10C are enlarged views of an image of a predetermined portion in one band.
FIG. 10A is a diagram illustrating an example of an image that is not subjected to thinning processing in normal printing.
FIG. 10B is a diagram illustrating an example of an image with the thinning amount set to level 2. In the example shown in FIG. 10B, a state in which dots are thinned out in a range up to the fourth line at the rear end among the ten lines at the rear end is illustrated.
FIG. 10C is a diagram illustrating an example of an image in which the thinning amount is set to level 1. In the example shown in FIG. 10C, a state in which dots are thinned out in a wide range from the fourth line at the front end to the fourth line at the rear end is illustrated.
FIG. 10B and FIG. 10C are examples of the thinning process, and are not limited to the number of lines.

Next, the processing of the image forming apparatus 101 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
In FIG. 11, the flowchart on the left side is the process of the system controller unit 301, and the flowchart on the right side is the process of the print controller unit 302. The processing by the system controller unit 301 is realized by the CPU 304 executing a program stored in the ROM 305 or the storage unit 307. The processing by the print controller unit 302 is realized by the CPU 310 executing a program stored in the ROM 311 or the storage unit 313.

First, in step S1101, the image generation unit 321 generates image data that can be printed.
In step S1102, the applied toner amount detection unit 322 detects the applied toner amount based on the image data. Note that the toner application can also be detected by the print ratio detection unit 323 detecting the print ratio based on the image data and converting the print ratio into the toner application amount.
In step S1103, the thinning processing unit 324 determines whether thinning is necessary based on the detected toner amount. Specifically, the thinning processing unit 324 refers to the table 700 shown in FIG. 7 and determines that the thinning is necessary when the applied toner amount is larger than 100%, such as 120% or 150%. The process proceeds to S1104. On the other hand, if the applied toner amount is 100% or less, such as 100% or 80%, it is determined that thinning is not necessary, and the process proceeds to step S1106.

In step S1104, the thinning processing unit 324 determines the thinning amount based on the detected toner amount. Specifically, the thinning processing unit 324 refers to the table 700 shown in FIG. 7, and determines the level 2 thinning amount when the applied toner amount is greater than 100% and equal to or less than 120%. Further, when the applied toner amount is greater than 120% and equal to or less than 150%, the level 1 thinning amount is determined.
In step S1105, the thinning processing unit 324 performs a thinning process on the image data based on the determined thinning amount.

  In step S1106, the fixing temperature calculation unit 325 calculates the fixing temperature and notifies the print controller 302 of the calculated fixing temperature. Specifically, when the thinning process is performed in step S1105, the fixing temperature calculation unit 325 determines the fixing temperature as T3 which is the optimum printing temperature. That is, in step S1105, thinning processing is performed according to the amount of applied toner so that fixing can be performed at the fixing temperature T3. Therefore, the fixing temperature can be uniformly determined as T3 here. On the other hand, if the process proceeds from step S1103 to NO and the thinning process is not performed, the fixing temperature calculation unit 325 refers to the table 700 shown in FIG. 7 and calculates the fixing temperature according to the applied toner amount.

In step S <b> 1107, the fixing temperature control unit 326 receives the fixing temperature notified from the system controller unit 301.
In step S1108, the fixing temperature control unit 326 controls the temperature of the fixing unit 31 so as to be the received fixing temperature.

In step S <b> 1109, the thinning processing unit 324 transmits the image data subjected to the thinning processing and a print instruction to the print controller unit 302.
In step S1110, the print control unit 327 prints the received image data on the recording medium 11.
In the image forming apparatus 101, the processing from step S <b> 1101 to step S <b> 1110 is performed for each page, and the printing of all pages is completed, whereby the processing of the image forming apparatus 101 is completed.
As described above, according to the present embodiment, the image data is thinned out based on the applied toner amount, so that the fixing temperature when the fixing unit 31 fixes the toner image can be suppressed.

Next, an example of a thinning process different from the process described above will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 12A is a diagram showing an example of a thinning pattern when the thinning amount is set to level 2. FIG. FIG. 12B is a diagram illustrating an example of a thinning pattern when the thinning amount is set to level 1. The thinning pattern shown in FIG. 12B has a larger thinning amount than the thinning pattern shown in FIG. Such a thinning pattern associated with the thinning level is recorded in the storage unit 307 of the system controller unit 301, for example.
The thinning process may be a combination of the thinning method described in FIG. 10 and the thinning pattern shown in FIG.

Next, a case where the thinning pattern shown in FIG. 12 is applied to characters will be described with reference to FIG.
FIG. 13A shows a character without thinning.
FIG. 13B is a diagram in which the thinning pattern of FIG. 12A in which the thinning amount is level 2 is applied to characters.
FIG. 13C is a diagram in which the thinning pattern of FIG. 12B in which the thinning amount is level 1 is applied to characters.
In this way, the thinning process is performed by applying the thinning pattern to the image data in accordance with the applied toner amount.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated by embodiment mentioned above, this invention is not limited only to embodiment mentioned above, It can change within the scope of the present invention.
For example, in the above-described embodiment, the case where there are two types of thinning amounts, Level 1 and Level 2, has been described, but there may be only one type of thinning amount, or two or more types.
In the embodiment described above, the monochrome electrophotographic image forming apparatus 101 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be similarly applied to a color electrophotographic image forming apparatus.
In the above-described embodiment, the case has been described in which the printing rate detected by the printing rate detection unit 323 is converted into the applied toner amount and the image data thinning process is performed based on the applied toner amount. Absent. For example, the thinning process may be performed based on the printing rate detected by the printing rate detection unit 323 by using a table in which the printing rate and the thinning amount are directly associated with each other.

In the embodiment described above, the case where the system controller unit 301 and the print controller unit 302 are separated has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to this case, and the system controller unit 301 and the print controller unit 302 may be configured integrally. .
The present invention can also be realized by executing the following processing. That is, a program that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to the system or the image forming apparatus 101 via a network or various storage media, and a computer (such as a CPU) of the system or the image forming apparatus 101 reads out and executes the program. It is processing to do.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 31: Fixing part 100: Image forming system 101: Image forming apparatus (image processing apparatus) 301: System controller part 302: Print controller part 321: Image generation part 322: Amount-of-toner detection part 323: Print rate detection part 324: Thinning Processing unit 325: Fixing temperature calculation unit 326: Fixing temperature control unit 327: Print control unit

Claims (5)

An image processing apparatus that processes image data that is a source of a toner image when a toner image formed by an electrophotographic method is fixed on a recording medium by a fixing unit.
Acquisition means for acquiring image data;
Detecting means for detecting the amount of applied toner when the image data acquired by the acquiring means is formed on a recording medium;
Decimation processing means for performing decimation processing of the image data based on the amount of applied toner detected by the detection means;
Calculating means for calculating a fixing temperature when the fixing unit fixes the toner image based on a toner application amount corresponding to the image data thinned by the thinning processing means;
An image processing apparatus comprising: a fixing temperature control unit that controls the temperature of the fixing unit based on the fixing temperature calculated by the calculating unit. Storage means for storing a plurality of thinning patterns having different thinning amounts;
The thinning processing unit performs a thinning process by applying one thinning pattern of the thinning patterns stored in the storage unit to the image data based on the toner applied amount detected by the detection unit. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1.   3. The detection unit according to claim 1, wherein the detection unit detects a toner application amount when the image data is formed on a recording medium based on a printing rate of the image data acquired by the acquisition unit. Image processing apparatus. A method for controlling an image processing apparatus that processes image data that is a source of a toner image when a toner image formed by an electrophotographic method is fixed on a recording medium by a fixing unit.
An acquisition step of acquiring image data;
A detection step of detecting the amount of applied toner when forming the image data acquired in the acquisition step on a recording medium;
A thinning-out processing step for performing the thinning-out processing of the image data based on the toner applied amount detected by the detection step;
A calculation step for calculating a fixing temperature when the fixing unit fixes the toner image based on a toner application amount corresponding to the image data subjected to the thinning processing in the thinning processing step;
And a fixing temperature control step for controlling the temperature of the fixing unit based on the fixing temperature calculated in the calculating step. A program for controlling an image processing apparatus that processes image data that is a source of the toner image when a toner image formed by an electrophotographic method is fixed on a recording medium by a fixing unit,
An acquisition step of acquiring image data;
A detection step of detecting the amount of applied toner when forming the image data acquired in the acquisition step on a recording medium;
A thinning-out processing step for performing the thinning-out processing of the image data based on the toner applied amount detected by the detection step;
A calculation step for calculating a fixing temperature when the fixing unit fixes the toner image based on a toner application amount corresponding to the image data subjected to the thinning processing in the thinning processing step;
A program for causing a computer to execute a fixing temperature control step for controlling the temperature of the fixing unit based on the fixing temperature calculated in the calculating step.

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