JP3961518B2 - Image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having an aggregate printing function that aggregates a plurality of document images and prints them on a single recording sheet.

  In recent years, each document image is reduced to generate an aggregate image so that a plurality of document images are printed on a single recording sheet, and the boundary lines for partitioning each document image are aggregated in the generated aggregate image. A copier that prints in a margin area of an image is known.

  In recent years, a convenience store or the like has been developing a copy service with an advertisement in which a predetermined advertisement image is added to a recording sheet and printed, and the copy fee is discounted. Patent documents 1 to 4 exist as technologies related to the copy service with advertisement. Patent Document 1 discloses an invention in which an advertisement image is printed on the back side of a recording paper on which a document image is printed. Patent Document 2 discloses an invention in which a manuscript image is reduced to increase the size of a margin area, and an advertisement image is printed in the margin area.

Patent Document 3 discloses an invention in which an original image and an advertisement image whose density is lower than that of the original image are superimposed and printed on a recording sheet. In Patent Document 4, the size of the advertisement image is changed in accordance with the size of the blank area generated by the difference between the size of the recording paper and the size of the document image, and the document image and the advertisement image are printed on the same recording paper. The invention is disclosed.
JP 2000-326581 A JP 2001-285616 A JP 20011643 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-281282

  However, none of the inventions described in Patent Documents 1 to 4 describe how to print an advertisement image on the same recording paper when the original images are collectively printed on the recording paper.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that prints an advertisement image on a recording paper without reducing the visibility of the original image that is collectively printed on the recording paper.

  An image forming apparatus according to the present invention is an image forming apparatus that collects and prints a plurality of document images on a sheet of recording paper, and includes an acquisition unit that reads the document and acquires the document image, and the document image. Storage means for storing the advertisement image to be printed, and reducing each original image so that the plurality of original images acquired by the acquisition means fit on one recording sheet, and arranging the reduced original images An aggregating unit for generating an aggregated image, and extracting a blank area that divides adjacent document images in the aggregated image, so that the advertisement image becomes a boundary line between adjacent document images in the extracted blank area, The image processing apparatus includes: a combining unit that combines the aggregated image and the advertisement image; and a printing unit that prints the image combined by the combining unit on a recording sheet.

  Further, in the above configuration, the advertisement image is a belt-like image, and the synthesizing unit is configured so that the longitudinal direction of the advertisement image is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the extracted blank area and orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the advertisement image. It is preferable that the aggregated image and the advertisement image are combined so that the length in the width direction to be performed is smaller than the length in the width direction of the margin area.

  In the above configuration, the image forming apparatus further includes setting means for setting whether to print the advertisement image on a recording sheet based on a user operation command, and the combining means records the advertisement image by the setting means. When setting to print on paper is made, it is preferable that the advertisement image is combined with the aggregated image.

  In the above configuration, it is preferable that the advertisement image is composed of a belt-shaped background image and advertisement characters including at least one of characters and marks displayed on the background image.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of document images are reduced so as to fit on one sheet of recording paper, and an aggregate image is generated. In the aggregate image, blank areas that divide adjacent document images are extracted. Since the advertisement image is printed as the boundary line of the image, the advertisement image can be printed on the recording paper without lowering the visibility of the document image to be collectively printed. In addition, the blank area that divides the document image is generally located at a location that is easily noticeable by the user, such as the center of the recording paper, and the advertisement image is printed in such a blank area. The degree of attention of the advertisement image to the user can be increased.

  According to the invention of claim 2, the length in the width direction of the strip-like advertisement image image is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the advertisement image with respect to the longitudinal direction of the blank area that divides the document image in the aggregated image. Since the advertisement image is synthesized so as to be smaller than the length of the blank area in the width direction, the advertisement image can be printed on the recording paper without reducing the visibility of the document images to be collectively printed.

  According to the invention described in claim 3, the user can select whether or not to print the advertisement image.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, since the advertisement image is an advertisement character written on the belt-shaped background image, the advertisement line is printed so that it is closer to the boundary line, and the advertisement image is recorded on the recording paper without a sense of incongruity. Can be printed on.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic side view mainly showing a mechanical configuration when the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a copying machine. The copying machine is installed in a store that provides a user with a copy service such as a convenience store or a stationery store. The copying machine includes a main body unit 200, a sheet post-processing unit 300 disposed on the left side of the main body unit 200, an operation unit 400 for a user to input various operation commands and the like, and an upper part of the main body unit 200. The document reading unit 500 is disposed, the document feeding unit 600 disposed above the document reading unit 500, and a fee payment device 700 for the user to pay a copy fee.

  The operation unit 400 includes an operation panel 401, a start key 402, a numeric keypad 403, and the like. The operation panel 401 displays various operation screens and various operation buttons for the user to input various operation commands. The start key 402 is used for the user to input a print execution command and the like, and the ten key 403 is used for inputting the number of copies to be printed.

  The document feeding unit 600 includes a document placement unit 601, a document discharge unit 602, a paper feed roller 603, a document transport unit 604, and the like, and the document reading unit 500 includes a scanner 501 and the like. The paper feed roller 603 feeds out the original set on the original placement unit 601, and the original transport unit 604 transports the fed originals one by one on the scanner 501. The scanner 501 sequentially reads the conveyed document, and the read document is discharged to the document discharge unit 602.

  The main body 200 includes a plurality of paper feed cassettes 201, a plurality of paper feed rollers 202, a transfer roller 203, an intermediate transfer body roller 204, a photosensitive drum 205, an exposure device 206, and development for each color of yellow, magenta, cyan, and black. Devices 207Y, 207M, 207C, and 207K, a fixing roller 208, a discharge port 209, a discharge tray 210, and the like are provided.

  The photosensitive drum 205 is uniformly charged by a charging device (not shown) while rotating in the direction of the arrow. The exposure device 206 converts the modulation signal generated based on the image data of the original read by the original reading unit 500 into a laser beam and outputs it, and forms an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum 205 for each color. The developing devices 207Y, 207M, 207C, and 207K supply each color developer to the photosensitive drum 205 to form a toner image for each color.

  The intermediate transfer roller 204 transfers the color toner images from the photosensitive drum 205, and forms a color toner image on the intermediate transfer roller 204.

  On the other hand, the paper feeding roller 202 pulls out the recording paper from the paper feeding cassette 201 in which the recording paper is stored, and feeds the recording paper to the transfer roller 203. The transfer roller 203 transfers the toner image on the intermediate transfer body roller 204 onto the conveyed recording paper, and the fixing roller 208 heats and fixes the transferred toner image on the recording paper. Thereafter, the recording paper is carried into the paper post-processing unit 300 from the discharge port 209 of the main body unit 200. The recording paper is also discharged to the discharge tray 210 as necessary.

  The paper post-processing unit 300 includes a carry-in port 301, a recording paper transport unit 302, a carry-out port 303, a stack tray 304, and the like. The recording paper transport unit 302 sequentially transports the recording paper carried into the carry-in port 301 from the discharge port 209 and finally ejects the recording paper from the carry-out port 303 to the stack tray 304. The stack tray 304 is configured to move up and down in the direction of the arrow in accordance with the number of recording sheets stacked from the carry-out port 303.

  The fee payment device 700 includes a bill insertion slot 701 into which bills are inserted by the user, a currency insertion slot 702 into which money is inserted by the user, a display unit 703 that displays the input fee, and the like.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the copying machine shown in FIG. The copying machine includes a document image acquisition unit 11, a display unit 12, an operation unit 13, a charge input unit 14, a printing unit 15, a display control unit 21, a charge calculation unit 22, a charge determination unit 23, an aggregated image generation unit 24, a print A control unit 25, a document image storage unit 31, an advertisement image storage unit 32, and an operation image storage unit 33 are provided. The display control unit 21 to the print control unit 25 are configured by a CPU or the like, and the document image storage unit 31 to the operation image storage unit 33 are configured by a storage device such as a hard disk or a RAM.

  The document image acquisition unit 11 includes an image reading unit 500 shown in FIG. 1, acquires an image of a document (hereinafter referred to as a document image) by optically reading the document, and stores it in the document image storage unit 31. . The display unit 12 includes the operation panel 401 illustrated in FIG. 1, and displays various images under the control of the display control unit 21. The operation unit 13 includes an operation unit 400 shown in FIG.

  The fee input unit 14 includes the fee payment device 700 shown in FIG. 1, determines the type of bills and money inserted by the user, and calculates the copy fee paid by the user. The printing unit 15 includes the transfer roller 203, the intermediate transfer roller 204, the photosensitive drum 205, the exposure device 206, the developing devices 207Y, 207M, 207C, and 207K and the fixing roller 208 shown in FIG. The output image generated by the above is printed on recording paper.

  The document image storage unit 31 stores the document image acquired by the document image acquisition unit 11. The advertisement image storage unit 32 stores an advertisement image and a discount rate determined in advance for the advertisement image. In the present embodiment, an image in which advertising characters made up of predetermined characters, marks, etc. are written on an elongated strip-shaped background image is adopted as the advertising image. Note that the length in the width direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction of the background image is smaller than the width direction of the blank area that divides the document image described later.

  The operation image storage unit 33 stores various operation images displayed on the display unit 12 when the user inputs various operation commands to the copying machine.

  The display control unit 21 causes the display unit 12 to display various operation images stored in the operation image storage unit 33. In addition, the display control unit 21 causes the display unit 12 to display various data input by the user via the operation unit 13.

  The fee calculation unit 22 reads the discount rate for the advertisement image from the advertisement image storage unit 32, and multiplies the read discount rate by a copy fee per recording sheet that is predetermined for aggregate printing. Is calculated.

  The fee determination unit 23 determines whether or not the copy fee paid by the user via the fee input unit 14 exceeds the copy fee calculated by the fee calculation unit 22. A control signal for generating an aggregate image is output.

  When the aggregated image generating unit 24 receives the control signal from the fee determining unit 23, the aggregated image generating unit 24 sequentially outputs the number of document images corresponding to the type of aggregated printing such as 2in1, 4in1 set by the user from the document image storage unit 31. Each original image is reduced so that the read original image is printed on one recording sheet, and the reduced original images are arranged in a predetermined row × column to generate one aggregated image.

  The print control unit 25 extracts a blank area that divides a document image constituting the aggregate image from the aggregate image generated by the aggregate image generation unit 24, and an advertisement image is displayed in the extracted blank area. The aggregated image and the advertisement image are combined to generate an output image.

  In the present embodiment, the document image acquisition unit 11 corresponds to an example of an acquisition unit, the advertisement image storage unit 32 corresponds to an example of a storage unit, the aggregated image generation unit 24 corresponds to an example of an aggregation unit, and the print control unit 25 corresponds to an example of a combining unit, and the printing unit 15 corresponds to an example of a printing unit.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation when the copying machine prints an advertisement image on a recording sheet. The operation of the copying machine when printing an advertisement image will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. In step S1, when the operation unit 13 receives an operation command for selecting the aggregate print mode from the user (YES in S1), the process proceeds to step S2, and the operation unit 13 selects the aggregate print copy mode from the user. If an operation command not to be selected is received (NO in S1), the process is terminated. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation screen displayed on the display unit 12 when the user selects the aggregate print mode. In the operation screen shown in FIG. 4, three buttons “No setting”, “2 in 1”, and “4 in 1” are displayed in a line in the vertical direction below the location described as aggregation. The user selects the aggregate print mode by pressing a “2 in 1” or “4 in 1” button on the operation screen shown in FIG.

  When the “2 in 1” button is pressed, the copying machine executes collective printing for printing two original images on one recording sheet, and when the “4 in 1” button is pressed, Aggregate printing is performed to print a document image on one sheet of recording paper. On the other hand, when the “no setting” button is pressed, the copier assumes that the aggregate print mode has not been selected and ends the processing of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  In step S2, when the operation unit 13 receives an operation command for printing an advertisement image from the user (YES in S2), the process proceeds to step S3, and when a selection command for not printing the advertisement image is received from the user ( The process is terminated.

  Here, the user selects “No Line”, “Solid Line”, “Dotted Line”, or “Advertisement Line” displayed below “Pacify” on the right side of the operation screen shown in FIG. By pressing the button, it is selected whether or not to print the advertisement image on the recording paper.

  When the “No Line”, “Solid Line”, or “Dotted Line” button is pressed, this copier does not execute the process of printing the advertisement image on the recording paper, while the “Ad Line” button is pressed. If it is, the process of printing the advertisement image on the recording paper is executed.

  In step S3, the fee calculation unit 22 multiplies the copy fee per recording sheet in aggregate printing by multiplying the advertisement image stored in the advertisement image storage unit 32 by a predetermined discount rate. calculate.

  In step S4, the display control unit 21 causes the display unit 12 to display an image for notifying the user of the calculated copy fee.

  In step S5, the fee determination unit 23 compares the copy fee paid by the user through the fee input unit 14 with the copy fee calculated by the fee calculation unit 22, and the paid copy fee ≧ calculated. If the copy fee is determined (YES in S5), the process proceeds to step S6. If it is determined that the paid copy fee is less than the calculated copy fee (NO in S5), the process returns to step S5.

  In step S 6, the document image acquisition unit 11 reads the document placed on the document placement unit 601 and stores it in the document image storage unit 31. Here, when the “2 in 1” button is pressed by the user, the document image acquiring unit 11 sequentially reads two documents, and when the “4 in 1” button is pressed, sequentially reads four documents.

  In step S7, the aggregated image generation unit 24 sequentially reads and reduces a plurality of document images that are aggregated and printed on one recording sheet among the document images stored in the document image storage unit 31, and reduces the predetermined row × An aggregated image is generated by arranging in rows. Here, when the size of the recording paper to be output is not designated by the user, the aggregated image generating unit 24 fits the read plural original images on the recording paper having the same size as the original read by the original image acquiring unit 11. As described above, each original image is reduced. On the other hand, when the size of the recording paper to be output is designated by the user, each original image is reduced so that a plurality of original images read from the original image storage unit 31 can fit on the designated size recording paper.

  In step S <b> 8, the print control unit 25 extracts a blank area that divides the document image from the aggregated image, and synthesizes the advertisement image with the extracted blank area to generate an output image. 5A and 5B are diagrams showing an example of an output image generated by the print control unit 25. FIG. 5A is an overall view of the output image, and FIG. 5B is an enlarged view of an advertisement image included in the output image. Show.

  As shown in FIG. 5A, the print control unit 25 extracts a blank area G3 that partitions the document image G2 from the aggregated image G1. Then, the aggregate image G1 and the advertisement image G4 are combined so that the center line C2 of the advertisement image G4 overlaps the center line C1 of the blank area G3. Here, the center line C1 passes through the center of the width W1 of the margin area G3 and shows a straight line parallel to the longitudinal direction of the margin area G3, the center line C2 passes through the center of the width W2 of the advertisement image G4, In addition, a straight line parallel to the longitudinal direction of the blank area G3 is shown. Further, the margin area G3 has a strip shape (band shape), and when the document image is collectively printed in two rows and two columns (in the case of 4 in 1), there are two margin areas G3 that divide the document image.

  Then, as shown in FIG. 5 (b), in the margin area G3, a strip-like image long in the longitudinal direction of the margin area G3 is used as a background, and a predetermined advertisement character (example of FIG. 5 (b)) is placed on the background. Then, it can be seen that the advertisement image G4 on which “Advertisement: XX is a general manufacturer of XX”) is written.

  In step S9, the printing unit 15 prints the output image generated by the print control unit 25 on a recording sheet.

  As described above, according to the present copying machine, it is possible to print an advertisement image without reducing the visibility of the document images to be collectively printed. In addition, an advertisement image is printed in a margin area for partitioning the document image, and this margin area is present at a position that is easily noticeable by the user, such as the center of the recording paper, thereby obtaining a high advertisement effect. Can do.

  In the above-described embodiment, 4in1 or 2in1 is selected as the aggregate printing. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention is applied to the case where six or more originals are aggregated and printed on one recording sheet. Also good. In addition, when four or more originals such as 4 in 1 are collectively printed on one recording sheet, a plurality of margin areas for dividing the original image are generated. In this case, the same or all of the margin areas are the same. Advertising images may be printed, or different types of advertising images may be printed in all or part of the blank area. If a plurality of advertisement images are printed, the discount rate of the copy fee may be increased.

  Further, when there are a plurality of margin areas for partitioning the document image, the shape of the background image of the advertisement image is matched to the margin area (for example, in the case of 4 in 1 in which the document image is arranged in 2 rows and 2 columns, a cross-shaped shape) It may be.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view mainly showing a mechanical configuration when the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a copying machine. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a functional configuration of the copier illustrated in FIG. 1. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an operation when the copying machine prints an advertisement image on a recording sheet. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an operation screen displayed on a display unit when a user selects an aggregate print mode. It is drawing which showed an example of the output image produced | generated by the printing control part, (a) shows the whole view of an output image, (b) has shown the enlarged view of the advertisement image contained in an output image.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Document image acquisition part 12 Display part 13 Operation part 14 Charge input part 15 Printing part 21 Display control part 22 Charge calculation part 23 Charge determination part 24 Aggregated image generation part 25 Print control part 31 Original image storage part 32 Advertisement image storage part 33 Operation image storage

Claims (4)

An image forming apparatus that collects and prints a plurality of document images on a single recording sheet,
Obtaining means for reading a document and obtaining a document image;
Storage means for storing an advertisement image printed along with the original image;
An aggregating unit configured to reduce each original image so that the plurality of original images obtained by the obtaining unit fit on one recording sheet, and to arrange the reduced original images to generate an aggregated image;
In the aggregated image, a blank area that partitions adjacent document images is extracted, and the aggregated image and the advertisement image are combined so that the advertisement image becomes a boundary line between adjacent document images in the extracted blank area. A synthesis means to
An image forming apparatus comprising: a printing unit that prints an image synthesized by the synthesizing unit on a recording sheet. The advertisement image is a belt-like image,
The synthesizing means is configured such that the length in the width direction of the advertisement image is parallel to the length direction of the extracted blank area and the width direction perpendicular to the length direction of the advertisement image is longer than the length of the margin area in the width direction. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the aggregated image and the advertisement image are combined so as to be smaller. Further comprising setting means for setting whether or not to print the advertisement image on recording paper based on a user operation command;
3. The image according to claim 1, wherein the combining unit combines the advertisement image with the aggregated image when the setting unit is set to print the advertisement image on recording paper. 4. Forming equipment.   The said advertisement image is comprised from the strip | belt-shaped background image and the advertisement character containing at least one of the character displayed on the background image, and a mark, The Claim 1 characterized by the above-mentioned. Image forming apparatus.

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