JPH04260273A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To avoid the operator from being troubled of change of the direction of an original and of caring about the size of transfer paper by selecting the method for minimizing number of transfer paper sheets automatically in the case of magnification consecutive print and processing the data. CONSTITUTION:When the magnification consecutive print mode is set in which an original image is formed on plural transfer paper sheets, the selected paper size is discriminated by a printer controller PCON based on outputs of cassette sensors S3-S5. Then the result is informed to a reader controller RCON and when the detection of the original size is finished in the copying, the reader controller RCON calculates number of sheets when the original is rotated and that when the original is not rotated based on the magnification and the original size. Then whether or not the picture processing is rotated is controlled depending on the result of calculation so as to minimize number of sheets and the magnification consecutive print is implemented by a required and minimum sheet number.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that stores image information read from a document in an image memory and forms an image on a recording medium based on this image information.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there have been image forming apparatuses that have a so-called enlarged continuous copying function that divides and outputs enlarged copies of a size that cannot fit on a single output sheet using a plurality of sheets.

[0003] This enlarged continuous copying function automatically calculates the number of sheets of transfer paper by selecting the magnification to obtain an output image of a desired size and the paper size to be used for divided output. There is a method for copying.

In addition, as another method, instead of specifying the magnification as described above, there is a method that automatically calculates and outputs the magnification by specifying the paper size and number of sheets to be used.

[0005] In FIG. 6, A3 is selected as the paper size, and A4
FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the number of sheets used and the magnification when originals of the same size are placed in portrait mode. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the number of sheets used and the magnification when documents of the same size are placed in landscape mode. It is. Moreover, FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the two in a table.

As shown in FIG. 9, portrait placement refers to the case where the image is placed vertically with respect to the scanning direction, and landscape placement refers to the case where the image is placed horizontally with respect to the scanning direction.

[0007]

However, as can be seen from FIG. 8, for example, when the specified magnification is 200%, when the document is placed in landscape mode, it is output in A3 size and in two sheets, and when it is placed in portrait mode, it is outputted in two sheets. The document will be output on 4 A3 size sheets, and the number of output sheets will vary depending on how the document is placed.

[0008] For this reason, the operator must always be aware of the paper size, document direction, and magnification during operation, and may inadvertently increase the number of sheets used.
This placed a heavy burden on the operator.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can automatically perform optimal enlargement continuous shooting.

0010

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides an image forming apparatus having a function of dividing and outputting an image read from a document using a plurality of sheets of transfer paper.
It is characterized by having a control circuit that calculates the number of sheets of transfer paper to be used when outputting with rotation by approximately 90 degrees and when outputting without rotating approximately 90 degrees, and selects the process that requires less number of sheets. shall be.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view illustrating the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in the figure, in this embodiment, a color image forming apparatus having four image forming units will be described.

Each of the cassettes 100 to 102 stores transfer paper of a predetermined size, for example, A4 paper from the top.
Cassette, A4R cassette, and A3 cassette are set.

The transfer paper in each cassette 100 to 102 is
Paper is fed by driving a paper feed roller (not shown), and
03 to the transfer belt 104, and the photosensitive drum 10
5 to 108.

The photosensitive drums 105 to 108 sequentially print magenta, magenta, and
A latent image is developed using cyan, yellow, and black toners. Each photosensitive drum 105 to 108 has
A laser beam modulated based on the video signal of each color is scanned, and the video signal of each color is output according to the timing chart shown in FIG. 2 so that the registration is synchronized.

The fixing roller 109 fixes the toner images developed and transferred on each of the photosensitive drums 105 to 108 onto the transfer paper.

The controller unit (CONT) 110 includes a reader controller RCON and a printer controller PC.
ON, etc., and collectively controls each part based on a control program stored in a ROM (not shown) or the like.

Note that the reader controller RCON includes an image memory, which will be described later, that stores video data of each color obtained by exposure scanning.

Sensors S1 and S2 are sensors for detecting the size of a document, and are provided at predetermined positions. sensor S
3 to S5 are cassette size sensors configured to detect the size of the cassette mounted so that paper can be fed, and to notify the controller unit 110 of the detection output.

In the image forming apparatus configured as described above, when an enlarged continuous shooting mode is set in which an original image is formed on a plurality of sheets of transfer paper, the output of the cassette sensors S3 to S5 of the selected paper size is transferred to the printer. The controller PCON makes a judgment, and notifies the reader controller RCON of this judgment result information. In the copy operation described later, when the document size detection operation is completed, the number of sheets used when rotating the document is determined based on the magnification and paper size. The reader controller RCON calculates the number of sheets when the
To minimize the number of sheets, it is possible to perform enlarged continuous shooting with the minimum necessary number of sheets by controlling whether or not to rotate image processing according to the calculation result.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of the reader controller RCON in the controller section 110.

The image sensor 300 is composed of a charge-coupled device such as a CCD, has an RGB filter attached to each pixel, and receives reflected light from an original to obtain RGB color separation output. An A/D converter 301 digitally converts the CCD output, a shading correction circuit 302 corrects the light receiving characteristics of each pixel, and a logarithmic converter 303 converts luminance information into density information.

The original detection circuit 304 is composed of the original size sensors S1, S2, etc., and outputs the position information of the original obtained by prescanning to the logarithmic converter 303, and the original size is detected by the CPU bus (not shown). The structure is as follows.

The UCR/masking circuits 305 to 308 are connected to image memories 309 to 312, in which image information for each color component is stored, and the yellow density signal 313, magenta density signal 314, and cyan density signal 315, and a black density signal 316 is output to the printer controller PCON.

FIG. 4 shows the image memories 309 to 309 shown in FIG.
3 is a block diagram showing an example of an access control circuit of No. 312. FIG.

Note that each of the image memories 309 to 312 has a similar configuration, but here, the image memory 309
will be explained using an example.

The image memory 309 is divided into upper and lower addresses, the upper address being connected to the output of the V counter 404 and the lower address being connected to the output of the H counter 405.

Further, the output of the selector 400 is connected to the input of the V counter 404, and the output of the selector 401 is connected to the input of the H counter 405.

The image clock CLK and the main scanning synchronization signal HSYNC are input to the respective inputs A and B of the selectors 400 and 401, respectively.

The input/output port 403 has a port P1, from which a select signal or an inverted select signal based on an input from a CPU bus (not shown) is input to the select input S of each selector 400, 401. It is something.

By these signals, for example, the V counter 4
Input horizontal synchronization signal HSYNC to H counter 4.
When the image clock CLK is input to 05, the image memory 3
The contents of 09 are read in the normal state.

Furthermore, when the signal at port P1 is inverted, the image clock CLK is input to the V counter 404, and the main scanning synchronization signal HSYNC is input to the H counter 405, the contents of the image memory 309 are rotated by 90° and Read out.

The AND gate 406 is connected to a CPU (not shown).
Image memory 3 based on the enable signal output from
It outputs the video signal read from 09.

Rate multiplayer RMP410, 41
1 is connected to the above CPU bus, and the image memory 3
This process performs scaling processing of image data to 09.

Further, the V counter 404 and the H counter 405 are also connected to the CPU bus, and are configured so that they can be read from any position in the image memory 309, and for each image to be printed on paper, The configuration allows you to set a readout start address and perform enlarged continuous shooting.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure for enlarged continuous shooting according to this embodiment.

First, when a copy start button (not shown) is pressed, an operation is performed to detect the document size (
S11), the length of the document placed on the document table in the sub-scanning direction (original X) and the length of the document in the main scanning direction (Y) are determined by the reader controller R.
CON will be notified.

Next, multiply the document X by the current magnification, divide this by the length of the selected paper in the sub-scanning direction, paper X,
The quotient Nx is calculated. Similarly, the quotient Ny is calculated in the main scanning direction as well (S12).

Next, the same calculation is performed with the originals X and Y exchanged, and Nx' and Ny' are calculated (S13).

[0040] Then, the product of Nx and Ny, and the product of Nx' and Ny
' is compared to determine the size (S14), and if they are the same or the product of Nx and Ny is smaller,
The number of sheets of paper required to output the image is displayed as Nx×Ny on the operation panel (S15), and HSYN is displayed on the V counter 404.
is input and the output of port P1 of the input/output port 403 is controlled so that CLK is input to the H counter 405 (S16).

Furthermore, if the product of Nx' and Ny' is smaller in S14, the number of sheets of paper Nx'×Ny' is displayed on the operation panel (S17), and the reading from the image memory 309 is rotated by 90 degrees. The output of port P1 is controlled so that CLK is input to the V counter 404 and HSYC is input to the H counter 405 (S18).

Then, the readout address and magnification of the image memory 309 are set in accordance with the calculated number of sheets, and a copy sequence for the number of sheets is performed (S19).

Note that in the above embodiment, the image memory 309
~ Rotation processing when reading video data from 312,
Although the rotation process is carried out using the hardware shown in FIG. 4, it is also possible to connect a CPU bus to the image memories 309 to 312 and perform the rotation process using software.

Further, in the above embodiment, the rotation process is performed when reading the video data, but before storing the image information in the image memories 309 to 312, the above S4 is performed.
It is also possible to make a judgment in , perform rotation processing according to the judgment result, and store it in the image memories 309 to 312.

[0045]

According to the present invention, when performing so-called enlarged continuous copying, a method that uses less transfer paper can be automatically selected for processing, so the operator can change the orientation of the document each time, or change the size of the transfer paper. This has the effect of freeing you from the hassle of having to worry about operating the device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing the configuration of an image forming apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart showing the timing of transmitting video signals in the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a reader controller of the controller section in the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an access control circuit of the image memory in the same embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for enlarged continuous shooting in the same embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the number of sheets used and the magnification when a document is placed in portrait mode during enlarged continuous shooting.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the relationship between the number of sheets used and the magnification when the document is placed in landscape mode during enlarged continuous copying.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating the relationship between the number of sheets used and the magnification when the document is placed in portrait mode and in landscape mode.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating portrait placement and landscape placement of a document.

[Explanation of symbols]

100-102...cassette, 103...transport unit, 104...Transfer belt, 105-108...photosensitive drum, 109...Fixing roller, 110...controller section, 309-312...image memory, S1 to S5...Sensors.

Claims (3)

[Claims] Claim 1: In an image forming apparatus that has a function of dividing and outputting an image read from a document onto multiple sheets of transfer paper, there are cases in which the image to be output is output after being rotated approximately 90 degrees, and when the image is output without being rotated approximately 90 degrees. 1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a control circuit that estimates the number of transfer sheets to be used in each case, and selects the process that requires the least number of sheets to be used. 2. In claim 1, the control circuit comprises:
An image forming apparatus characterized in that the number of sheets of transfer paper to be used is estimated based on each information of original size, magnification, and transfer paper size. 3. In claim 1, the control circuit comprises:
An image forming apparatus characterized in that it has a calculation table in which trial calculation results of the number of sheets of transfer paper to be used are stored in advance, and selects a process that requires the least number of sheets to be used based on this calculation table.