JP4428009B2 - Image forming system - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a technique for performing calibration in an image forming system including a control device and a printing device.

  In an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, a recording method such as a thermal method, an electrophotographic method, or an ink jet method is used. Recently, with the progress of colorization, various requests have been made by users, and in each of the above-mentioned methods, efforts are being made to improve image quality by taking advantage of the respective characteristics. Especially in the electrophotographic system, the electrostatic phenomenon of toner, which is a fine particle, is used, so the image density fluctuates or is used by being strongly affected by environmental changes such as temperature and humidity and changes over time. There is a tendency that differences in image density are likely to occur due to minute variations in the performance of component parts. Therefore, generally, a process called toner image density control and a process called calibration are performed in order to stably maintain the image density.

  Toner image density control refers to comparing the density of a toner image formed on a photoconductor or intermediate transfer body with a target toner image density, which is a control target value, based on an image signal of a predetermined level. If there is, the charging potential of the photosensitive member, the irradiation light quantity of the exposure device, and the like are controlled to match both. Normally, this toner image density control is automatically executed at the timing when the image forming apparatus is powered on, and thereafter periodically.

Next, calibration refers to reading the density of a test image formed on a recording medium such as recording paper and adjusting the level of the image signal so that the image density becomes a predetermined value to perform tone correction. It is processing. This calibration is usually performed by an operator giving an instruction to perform calibration to the image forming apparatus.
FIG. 8 shows a general calibration flowchart. As shown in the figure, the image forming apparatus first detects a calibration execution instruction from the operator (step S1), and forms a test image composed of a plurality of reference patches having different densities on a recording sheet (step S1). S2). For example, as shown in FIG. 9, this test image is an image made up of a plurality of reference patches whose density changes stepwise. When the operator places a recording paper on which such a test image is formed on the image reading unit of the image forming apparatus and instructs to read the image, the image forming apparatus reads the density of each reference patch (step S3). It compares with the target image density which is each target value (step S4). Next, the image forming apparatus creates a gradation correction curve for correcting the input image signal so that the density of the read reference patch matches the target image density (step S5). Thereafter, an image having a desired density can be obtained by outputting the input image signal after correcting the input image signal based on such a gradation correction curve.

FIG. 10 is a diagram exemplifying the gradation correction curve obtained by performing such calibration and the image density changed before and after the calibration.
As described above, the signal level of the input image is lowered for a portion where the output image density is higher than the target image density, and conversely, for the portion where the output image density is lower than the target image density, the input image By increasing the signal level, it is possible to make the corrected image density coincide with the target image density at all signal levels.

  Here, in calibration, a gradation correction curve is created based on the test image formed at the start of calibration, so the reference patch of the test image is recorded with the density as accurate as possible for the image forming apparatus. It is desirable that it be formed on paper. However, as described above, the electrophotographic image forming apparatus has a problem that the image density tends to fluctuate due to changes in the environment and time. Therefore, it is effective to perform the above-described toner image density control immediately before starting calibration, and then shift to the calibration process after the toner image density matches the target toner image density.

  By the way, in recent years, networking of electrical devices is rapidly progressing in offices and homes. Also in the field of image forming processing, an image forming system including a printing apparatus that forms an image and a computer group (hereinafter referred to as a control apparatus) that supplies image data to the printing apparatus is widely used. Also in this type of image forming system, the calibration as described above is executed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 11-161455 A

However, when performing calibration in the above-described image forming system, there are concerns about the following problems.
In the image forming system, when data indicating a test image is stored on the printing apparatus side, the printing apparatus recognizes that the data is the data of the test image and before forming the test image on the recording paper. It is possible to execute toner image density control. However, when data indicating a test image is stored on the control device side in the image forming system, the printer device distinguishes whether the data output from the control device is test image data or normal image data. Therefore, it is impossible to execute toner image density control only before the test image data is formed on the recording paper. Therefore, in such an image forming system, the toner image density matches the target toner image density except when the test image data is formed on the recording paper immediately after the toner image density control is accidentally executed. In this state, the test image could not be formed on the recording paper.
The present invention has been made under such a background, and its purpose is to perform calibration after matching the toner image density with the target toner image density even when test image data is stored in the control device. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming system capable of executing the above.

In order to solve the above-described problem, an image forming system according to the present invention includes a storage unit that stores test image data for forming a test image on a recording medium, and a control unit that includes an output unit that outputs the image data. Input means for inputting image data output from the output means, image forming means for forming an image based on the image data on a recording medium using a toner via a transfer member, and on the recording medium Reading means for reading the formed image, and the test image formed on the recording medium by the image forming means based on the test image data output from the output means of the control device, and further read by the reading means as the concentration becomes equal to the target value, and the gradation correcting means for correcting the gradation of an image to said image forming means for forming, on the transfer member And the toner image density control means for controlling the density of a toner image by correcting the image forming conditions based on the made the toner image, and set-up mode in which the toner image density control means controls a density of the toner image, the image forming A printing apparatus having a mode switching unit that switches between print modes for forming images, and the control device is a device that can be connected to or separated from the printing device, and performs correction by the gradation correction unit In response to an execution instruction to perform the operation, instruction data for instructing the mode switching unit of the printing apparatus to switch to the setup mode is supplied and is different from the test image data. , set to perform processing for supplying the test image data stored in the storage unit to the printing device Possess up mode instructing means, said printing apparatus, said an instruction data is supplied by the setup mode instruction means of the control device, switching the mode switching means is mode to the set-up mode, the toner image density control After the means controls the density of the toner image, the mode switching means switches the mode to the print mode, and the gradation correcting means corrects the gradation of the image based on the test image data .
As a result, even when test image data is stored in the control device, the image forming system switches to the setup mode immediately before performing calibration and performs calibration after matching the toner image density with the target toner image density. It becomes possible to execute.
Further, the printing apparatus itself can perform image formation without performing a heavy rasterizing process, and the printing apparatus can increase the processing speed of image formation and shorten the output time.

The image forming system according to the present invention, in a more preferred embodiment, the control apparatus, the test image data described in a page description language is stored in the storage means, rasterizing processing the test image data The setup mode instruction means includes processing for causing the rasterization means to perform rasterization processing, and the output means outputs the test image data rasterized by the rasterization means to the printing apparatus. .
According to this aspect, the capacity of the test image data stored in the storage unit can be reduced.

In a more preferred aspect of the image forming system according to the present invention, the output unit adds instruction data for instructing switching to the setup mode to the test image data and outputs the test image data, and the mode switching unit. When the test image data to which the instruction data is added is input to the input unit, the mode is switched to the setup mode, the toner image density control unit controls the density of the toner image, and then the mode is switched to the print mode. A test image is formed on the image forming means.
According to this aspect, data processing performed between the printing apparatus and the control apparatus can be simplified.

(1) First Embodiment Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an image forming system 1 according to the present embodiment. In the figure, a dotted line P indicates a recording paper conveyance path.
The image forming system 1 is roughly divided into an image forming unit 10, an image reading unit 20, and a control unit 30. The image forming unit 10 has a so-called printer function, and the image reading unit 20 has a so-called scanner function. The control unit 30 receives image data from a computer 2 such as a PC (personal computer) and supplies the image data to the image forming unit 10, and performs mode switching described later by an operator input.

  The image reading unit 20 includes a platen glass 210 on which an original to be read is placed, a platen cover 220 that blocks external light, a lamp 230 that irradiates light on the original on the platen glass 210, and reflected light from the original. A sensor 240 that receives light and converts it into an image signal, and optical systems 250 and 251 that collect reflected light from the document and guide it to the sensor 240 are provided. With the above configuration, the image reading unit 20 reads an image on a document, converts the image into image data, and outputs the image data to the image forming unit 10.

  The image forming unit 10 includes image forming units 100Y, 100M, 100C, and 100K that form toner images of four colors Y (yellow), M (magenta), C (cyan), and K (black), and the image forming system 1. The image forming unit 100Y, 100M, 100C, or 100K is circulated in contact with the control unit 110 that controls the operation of the image forming unit 100, the image data input unit 120 that receives the image data output from the image reading unit 20 or the control unit 30, and the image forming units 100Y, 100M, 100C, and 100K. The intermediate transfer belt 130 that is moved, the drive roll 131 that circulates and moves the intermediate transfer belt 130, the plurality of driven rolls 132 that are driven by and stretch the intermediate transfer belt 130, and the image forming units 100Y, 100M, 100C, A primary transfer roll 14 that primarily transfers a toner image formed at 100K to the intermediate transfer belt 130. Y, 140M, 140C, and 140K, a secondary transfer roll 141 that secondarily transfers the toner image primarily transferred onto the intermediate transfer belt 130 onto the recording paper, and a fixing device 150 that heats and fixes the toner image on the recording paper. A paper feed tray 170 for supplying recording paper, a plurality of transport rolls 171 for transporting recording paper, a paper discharge tray 172 for discharging recording paper on which an image is printed, and an operator for image formation and image reading. Alternatively, an operation unit 160 for inputting an instruction to execute an operation such as calibration, a gradation control unit 180, and a toner image density control unit 190 are provided. Note that the image forming units 100Y, 100M, 100C, and 100K differ only in the toner used, and the structure is common. Therefore, in the following, the image forming unit 100 is generically referred to unless otherwise distinguished. Similarly, the primary transfer rolls 140Y, 140M, 140C, and 140K are collectively referred to as the primary transfer roll 140.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing details of the image forming unit 100, the gradation control unit 180, the toner image density control unit 190, and the peripheral portions thereof. As shown in the figure, the image forming unit 100 includes a photosensitive drum 101, a charging device 102, an exposure device 103, a developing device 104, and a toner box 105.
The photosensitive drum 101 is a rotatable roll-shaped member having a photoconductive layer formed on the surface thereof. The charging device 102 charges the surface of the photosensitive drum 101 to a predetermined charging potential. The exposure device 103 emits light of a light amount corresponding to an image signal of a desired image to lose the charge of the irradiated portion, and the surface of the photosensitive drum 101 charged by the charging device 102 is set to a predetermined exposure potential. An electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum 101. The developing device 104 charges and discharges the toner. Since the discharged toner adheres according to the charge on the surface of the photosensitive drum 101, the electrostatic latent image is visualized by the toner, and a toner image is formed there. The toner box 105 includes a motor (not shown), and supplies a predetermined amount of toner to the developing device 104 by driving the motor.
The above is the function of each part of the image forming unit 100. The image forming unit 100 forms a toner image of a desired image on the surface of the photosensitive drum 101 by causing each part to function as described above while rotating the photosensitive drum 101 in the direction of arrow R in the drawing. The toner image is transferred to the intermediate transfer belt 130 in contact with the photosensitive drum 101 at a portion where the photosensitive drum 101 faces the primary transfer roll 140.

The toner image density control unit 190 stores a toner image density sensor 192 that detects the density of the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 130 and a target toner image density that is a control target value of the toner image on the intermediate transfer belt 130. A toner image density storage unit 191. The toner image density control unit 190 compares the toner image density on the intermediate transfer belt 130 with the target toner image density, and if there is a difference, the charging potential of the charging device 102, the exposure potential of the exposure device 103, At least one of the developing bias potential of the developing device 104 and the motor driving of the toner box 105 is controlled to match the measured toner image density with the target toner image density.
This control is referred to as “toner image density control” in the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the gradation control unit 180. As shown in the figure, the gradation control unit 180 includes a test image forming unit 181, a target image density storage unit 182, a gradation correction curve creation unit 183, and a gradation correction curve storage unit 184.
The target image density storage unit 182 stores the target image density, that is, the image density to be output at each signal level of the input image signal input to the image forming unit 10. The test image forming unit 181 outputs an image signal for forming a test image as shown in FIG. 9 to the exposure apparatus 103 based on the target image density stored in the target image density storage unit 182. The gradation correction curve creating unit 183 compares the image density (hereinafter referred to as test image density) of the test image obtained by reading the test image formed on the recording paper by the image reading unit 20 with the target image density. Then, a gradation correction curve is created based on the comparison result. The tone correction curve storage unit 184 stores the tone correction curve created by the tone correction curve creation unit 183, and performs tone correction on the image signal output to the exposure apparatus 103 based on the tone correction curve. .
As described above, the gradation control unit 180 compares the test image density with the target image density, forms a gradation correction curve so that the test image density matches the target image density, and outputs the output ratio of the image signal. So-called calibration is performed.

The control unit 110 controls the operation of each unit of the image forming system 1 described above.
The image forming system 1 includes a “print mode” for outputting image data onto a recording sheet and a “setup mode” for executing toner image density control by the toner image density control unit 190 described above. Switch between these modes. Specifically, when the control unit 110 detects that the image forming system 1 is turned on, the control unit 110 executes the setup mode to execute the toner image density control, and switches to the print mode when this is completed. Thereafter, the control unit 110 periodically switches the image forming system 1 to the setup mode at a set appropriate timing and executes toner image density control to maintain good color reproducibility.
Further, the control unit 110 causes the image forming system 1 to periodically execute the setup mode as described above, and also executes the setup mode by receiving a setup mode execution instruction from the control unit 30.

  The configuration of the image forming unit 10 is as described above. Based on the above configuration, the image forming unit 10 appropriately executes calibration and toner image density control, and forms an image on a recording sheet while maintaining good color reproducibility.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the control unit 30. As shown in the figure, the control unit 30 includes a communication interface 310, a test image storage unit 320, a rasterization unit 330, an image data output unit 340, and a setup mode instruction unit 350.
The communication interface 310 receives image data transmitted from the computer 2. Further, the test image storage unit 320 stores image data of a test image used for calibration. These image data are described in a page description language such as PostScript (registered trademark), for example, and are rasterized by a rasterizing unit 330 having a so-called RIP (Raster Image Processor) function and output to the image data output unit 340. The Then, the image data output unit 340 outputs the rasterized image data to the image forming unit 10.
When the setup mode instruction unit 350 detects that the operator has input a calibration execution instruction in the operation unit 160, the setup mode instruction unit 350 outputs data instructing execution of the setup mode to the image forming unit 10 and performs calibration. The test image data used for the operation is supplied to the rasterizing unit 330. The data instructing execution of the above-described setup mode is hereinafter referred to as “setup mode instruction data”.

Next, the operation of the image forming system 1 of the present embodiment performed under the configuration described above will be described.
When the image forming system 1 repeatedly performs the image forming process, the color reproducibility changes due to environmental changes such as temperature and humidity and changes with time. For this reason, the image forming system 1 periodically executes toner image density control to maintain color reproducibility in a good state. The operator causes the image forming system 1 to execute calibration at an appropriate timing, thereby maintaining the color reproducibility of the image forming system 1 in a good state.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of calibration executed in the present embodiment. As shown in the figure, the image forming system 1 first detects the calibration execution instruction by the operator with the operation unit 160 of the image forming unit 10 (step Sa1), and this information is set in the setup mode of the control unit 30. This is supplied to the instruction unit 350. When this information is supplied, the setup mode instruction unit 350 supplies setup mode instruction data for starting the setup mode to the control unit 110 of the image forming unit 10 (step Sa2). At the same time, the setup mode instruction unit 350 causes the rasterization unit 330 to rasterize the test image data stored in the test image storage unit 320 and supply the test image data to the image forming unit 10.
Subsequently, in the image forming unit 10, the control unit 110 that has received the setup mode instruction data switches the image forming system 1 to the setup mode (step Sa3). That is, the control unit 110 causes the toner image density control unit 190 to execute toner image density control.
When the toner image density control is completed, the image forming unit 10 forms a test image on the recording paper based on the test image data output from the control unit 30 (step Sa4), and reads the density of the reference patch of the test image. (Step Sa5), this is compared with the target image density which is the respective target value (Step Sa6). Then, the tone correction unit 180 of the image forming unit 10 creates a tone correction curve for correcting the input image signal so that the density of the read reference patch matches the target image density (step Sa7). Thereafter, an image having a desired density can be obtained by outputting the input image signal after correcting the input image signal based on such a gradation correction curve.

  The above is the calibration operation in the present embodiment. By performing the calibration in this way, even in the image forming system 1 in which the test image data is stored in the control unit 30 as in the present embodiment, the toner image density control is reliably executed immediately before the test image is formed. As a result, highly accurate calibration can be performed.

(2) Second Embodiment Subsequently, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of the image forming system 1a according to the present embodiment. In the figure, portions having the same functions as those of the image forming system 1 of the first embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals.
The image forming system 1 a according to the present embodiment includes a printing apparatus 1 </ b> P that includes the image forming unit 10 and the image reading unit 20, and a control device 1 </ b> C that has the same function as the control unit 30. In other words, the present embodiment is different from the first embodiment in that the control unit 30 is an external device separated from the device including the image forming unit 10 and the image reading unit 20. Since other configurations and operations are the same as those in the first embodiment, description thereof will be omitted.

By configuring the image forming system 1a in this way, the following effects can be obtained.
First, since the rasterizing unit 330 is provided outside the printing apparatus 1P, the printing apparatus 1P itself can perform image formation without performing a heavy rasterizing process. As a result, the printing apparatus 1P can increase the image forming processing speed and shorten the output time. Further, since the test image storage unit 320 is also provided outside the printing apparatus 1P, there is an effect that a larger storage area of the printing apparatus 1P can be secured. This is particularly effective when the test image data is bitmap data rather than data described in a page description language.
Further, since the image forming system 1a is provided as an external device to which the control device 1C can be connected or separated, a configuration in which a plurality of printing devices 1P are connected to the control device 1C can be realized.

(3) Third Embodiment Subsequently, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The feature of this embodiment is in the header portion of the test image data. Hereinafter, it demonstrates, referring drawings.
FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram when the test image data of the present embodiment is rasterized to form bitmap data, which is shown in binary format. As shown in the figure, the test image data of the present embodiment has a format having an image area indicating the image itself and a header area indicating header information. A specific area of the header area is “test”. It is secured as an “image flag”. The test image flag is instruction data for causing the control unit 110 to execute the setup mode. Further, the test image flag may be 1 byte. For example, a value “1” indicates test image data, and a value “0” indicates normal image data.

  In general, header information is added to image data, and the image data includes mode information for identifying whether the image data is a photographic document or a character document, data indicating the number of screen lines, and the like in the header area. It is not unusual to be described in For this reason, including the test image flag in the header area as described above can be easily realized without changing the configuration of the printer system. That is, such test image data can be used in both the image forming system 1 of the first embodiment and the image forming system 1a of the second embodiment.

By using such test image data, the following effects can be obtained.
First, by including the test image flag in the test image data, the setup mode instruction data as described in the first embodiment is not required. That is, it is possible to omit data processing related to the setup mode instruction data from data processing performed between the image forming unit 10 and the control unit 30.
Further, since the control unit 110 does not require the setup mode instruction data to determine whether or not the setup mode can be executed, the setup mode instruction unit 350 in the control unit 30 can be omitted.

(4) Modifications The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made. An example is shown below.

(4-1) Modification 1
In the above-described embodiment, the control unit 30 includes the rasterizing unit 330, and the image data is rasterized by the control unit 30 and output to the image forming unit 10. However, the rasterizing process is not necessarily performed on the control unit 30 side, and the control unit 30 outputs the image data described in the page description language to the image forming unit 10 and executes the rasterizing process in the image forming unit 10. It is of course possible to perform image formation after that.
If the image forming system is configured in this way, the amount of image data output from the control unit 30 to the image forming unit 10 can be reduced. This is particularly effective in an image forming system in which the control unit 30 is provided as an external device as in the second embodiment.

(4-2) Modification 2
In the above-described embodiment, only the configuration in which the image reading unit 20 having a so-called scanner function is integrated with the image forming unit 10 has been described. However, the present invention is not limited to the image forming system having such a configuration. For example, the present invention is also applied to an image forming system having a configuration in which the image reading unit 20 is an external device provided as a single scanner. Of course it is possible to do.

(4-3) Modification 3
In the above-described embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 to 6, the image forming unit 10 is a so-called four image forming units 100 </ b> Y, 100 </ b> M, 100 </ b> C, and 100 </ b> K arranged in a line along the intermediate transfer belt 130. The tandem configuration is assumed. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described configuration, and may be a multiple cycle configuration. Further, instead of the intermediate transfer belt 130, another intermediate transfer member may be used. In addition, an image forming apparatus that directly transfers a toner image to a recording medium conveyed by a recording medium conveying unit such as a conveying belt or a conveying roll without using an intermediate transfer member may be used.

(4-4) Modification 4
In the above-described embodiment, the recording medium on which the image is formed is limited to the recording paper. Of course, other recording media, for example, plastics such as an OHP film, and various materials such as metal, wood, and cloth are used. A recording medium can be used.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of an image forming system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating details of an image forming unit, a gradation control unit, a toner image density control unit, and a peripheral part thereof in the embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the gradation control part in the embodiment. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the control part in the embodiment. It is a flowchart of the calibration performed in the same embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structure of the image forming system which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is the conceptual diagram which showed the test image data in the embodiment. It is a flowchart of a general calibration. It is the figure which showed the general test image. It is the figure which illustrated the gradation correction curve obtained by performing general calibration, and the image density changed before and after calibration.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Image forming system, 2 ... Computer, 10 ... Image forming part, 100, 100Y, 100M, 100C, 100K ... Image forming unit, 101 ... Photosensitive drum, 102 charging device, 103 ... Exposure apparatus, 104 ... Developing apparatus, DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 105 ... Toner box, 110 ... Control part, 120 ... Image data input part, 130 ... Intermediate transfer belt, 131 ... Drive roll, 132 ... Driven roll, 140, 140Y, 140M, 140C, 140K ... Primary transfer roll, 141 ... Two Next transfer roll, 150... Fixing device, 160 .. operation unit, 170 .. feed tray, 171 .. conveyance roll, 172... Discharge tray, 180 .. gradation control unit, 181 .. test image forming unit, 182. Storage unit 183 ... gradation correction curve creation unit 184 ... gradation correction curve storage unit 190 ... toner image density control 191 ... Target toner image density storage unit 192 ... Toner image density sensor 20 ... Image reading unit 210 ... Platen glass 220 ... Platen cover 230 ... Lamp 240 ... Sensor 250,251 ... Optical system 30 ... Control unit 310 ... Communication interface 320 ... Test image storage unit 330 ... Rasterization unit 340 ... Image data output unit 350 ... Setup mode instruction unit

Claims (2)

Storage means for storing test image data for forming a test image on a recording medium;
A control device having output means for outputting image data;
Input means for inputting image data output from the output means;
Image forming means for forming an image based on image data on a recording medium using a toner via a transfer member ;
Reading means for reading an image formed on the recording medium;
Based on the test image data output from the output means of the control device, the density of the test image formed on the recording medium by the image forming means and read by the reading means matches the target value. Gradation correction means for correcting the gradation of the image formed by the image forming means;
Toner image density control means for controlling the density of the toner image by correcting image forming conditions based on the toner image formed on the transfer member ;
A printing apparatus comprising: a setup mode in which the toner image density control means controls the density of a toner image; and a mode switching means for switching between a print mode in which the image forming means forms an image , and
The control device includes:
A device that can be connected to or disconnected from the printing device;
In response to an execution instruction for executing correction by the gradation correction unit, instruction data for instructing the mode switching unit of the printing apparatus to switch to the setup mode, which is different from the test image data supplies instruction data is data, have a process setup mode instruction means for performing for supplying test image data stored in the storage unit to the printing device,
The printing apparatus includes:
When the instruction data is supplied by the setup mode instruction means of the control device, the mode switching means switches the mode to the setup mode, the toner image density control means controls the density of the toner image, and then An image forming system in which a mode switching unit switches a mode to the print mode, and the gradation correction unit corrects the gradation of an image based on the test image data . The control device includes:
Storing the test image data described in a page description language in the storage means;
Comprising rasterization means for rasterizing processing the test image data,
The setup mode instruction means includes processing for causing the rasterizing means to perform rasterization processing in the processing,
The image forming system according to claim 1 , wherein the output unit outputs test image data rasterized by the rasterizing unit to the printing apparatus.

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