JPH06276330A - Color facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow a black/white print device to print out a black/white facsimile signal in a short time when the color facsimile equipment receives the black/ white signal. CONSTITUTION:A signal processing circuit 5 discriminates whether a received facsimile signal is a black/white signal or a color signal. When the result of discrimination indicates the black/white signal, a facsimile signal storage circuit 4 stores tentatively the facsimile signal and the signal is transferred to a black/ white print device 8, in which the facsimile information is printed out in black/ white. Moreover, when the result of discrimination indicates the color signal, a color print device 6 directly prints out the facsimile information in color.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a monochrome facsimile signal reception.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art By using a color facsimile apparatus, it is possible to send and receive black and white prints as well as color prints. In the case of a color facsimile machine, when color combination is performed during reception, subtractive color mixing is used as in normal color printing, and an ink jet method in which cyan, magenta, and yellow inks are directly sprayed onto paper, or a transfer film for these colors is used. There is a thermal transfer system in which the heat is applied to the surface of the recording medium and printed by a thermal recording head.

[0003]

Generally, a black-and-white printed matter has a much smaller amount of information than a color printed matter. But,
Regardless of this difference in the amount of information, the conventional color facsimile printing mechanism has only a mechanism for printing black-and-white printed matter as color printed matter. Therefore, when a black-and-white printed matter is received by the color facsimile apparatus, it takes as much time as the color printed matter for printing, and this time is much longer than the printing time of the black-and-white facsimile apparatus. In addition, since a monochrome image is expressed by subtractive color mixing, resources such as color ink are wasted.

In order to eliminate this drawback, it is conceivable to use two lines to distinguish between the lines for the color facsimile machine and the lines for the monochrome facsimile machine, but which line is for the transmission side and which line is for the color facsimile machine. It is necessary to know whether or not it is for a black and white facsimile machine, and since there are multiple lines, the user must secure an extra line, which is expensive.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a color facsimile apparatus which requires only one line, can print a printed matter in a short time when a monochrome facsimile signal is received, and does not waste color printing resources. .

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a color facsimile apparatus according to the first invention of the present invention selectively selects a telephone line (9) for a black-and-white printing mechanism (8) and a color printing mechanism (6). ) And a line switching circuit (1), which is connected to the line switching circuit (1), determines whether the facsimile image signal is black and white or color by the received identification information, and depending on the result. A color facsimile apparatus having a signal processing circuit (5) for selectively outputting a facsimile signal to a monochrome printing mechanism (8) and a color printing mechanism (6).

A color facsimile apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the color facsimile apparatus according to the first aspect of the invention, the monochrome printing mechanism (8) is a monochrome facsimile apparatus separate from the color printing mechanism. It is a thing.

A color facsimile apparatus according to a third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the color facsimile apparatus according to the first aspect, a monochrome printing mechanism and a color printing mechanism are integrally provided.

A color facsimile apparatus according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that identification information is transmitted and received together with a facsimile signal.

A color facsimile apparatus according to a fifth aspect of the present invention is the color facsimile apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the facsimile image signal is monochrome.
It is characterized by having a signal storage circuit (4) for storing the identification information and the facsimile image signal.

A color facsimile apparatus according to a sixth aspect of the present invention is the color facsimile apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the facsimile image signal is monochrome.
It is characterized in that the identification information and the facsimile image signal are directly transferred to the monochrome printing mechanism (8).

[0012]

In the color facsimile apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention, the line switching circuit (1) takes in a facsimile signal and the signal processing circuit (5) converts the facsimile image signal into a color image by the identification information in the facsimile signal. And whether it is black and white,
Since the facsimile signal is selectively output to the color printing device (6) and the black and white facsimile device (8) according to the result, when the facsimile signal is black and white, the black and white facsimile device is used without using the color printing device. Can print in a short time and save the resources of color printing.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an outline of connection of a color facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 1A shows an existing black-and-white facsimile apparatus before installation of the present invention. In this embodiment, the color facsimile apparatus of the present invention is shown in FIG.
As shown in B, it is installed between the telephone line and the black and white facsimile machine.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the color facsimile apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 1 is a line switching circuit, and the telephone line 9 is switched to the line control circuit 2 or the monochrome facsimile machine 8. Further, the line switching circuit 1 relays between the line control circuit 2 and the monochrome facsimile machine 8.

When a facsimile signal is sent from the telephone line 9, the line switching circuit 1 switches the line to the line control circuit 2.
, And the line switching circuit 2 opens the line. As a result, the facsimile signal is demodulated by the modulation / demodulation circuit 3,
The demodulated output is sent to the signal processing circuit 5.

Based on the function information in the facsimile signal, the signal processing circuit 5 determines whether a color facsimile image signal or a monochrome image signal will be sent next. As a result of this determination, when it is determined that a color facsimile image signal is sent, the signal processing circuit 5 sends the facsimile image signal to the color printing device 6 to perform color printing.

If the result of the discrimination is a monochrome facsimile signal, the signal processing circuit 5 first stores the above-mentioned functional information of the facsimile signal in the facsimile signal storage circuit 4. When all the facsimile signals including the functional information and the facsimile image information are received and the accumulation is completed, the facsimile signals are transmitted through the signal processing circuit 5, the modulation / demodulation circuit 3 and the line control circuit 2 to the line switching circuit 1 And the line switching circuit 1 switches the line to the black-and-white facsimile device 8 for transfer. As a result, monochrome printing is performed by the monochrome facsimile device 8.

The flow from the reception of the facsimile signal to the printing of the image information is summarized as follows according to the flow chart of FIG. First, when a facsimile signal is received, the facsimile function information is extracted from the facsimile signal by the signal processing circuit 3 via the line switching circuit 1, the line control circuit 2, and the modulation / demodulation circuit 3 (SP
1) The monochrome / color of the facsimile signal is discriminated (SP2). If the determination result is color, the facsimile image signal is continuously received (SP3), and the color printing device 6 prints (SP4).

When the determination result is black and white, the signal processing circuit stores the facsimile function information signal in the facsimile signal storage circuit 4 (SP5), and then stores the facsimile image signal in the facsimile signal storage circuit 4 (SP6). Next, these black and white facsimile signals are transmitted to the modulation / demodulation circuit 3,
It is transferred to the monochrome facsimile machine 8 via the line control circuit 2 and the line switching circuit 1 (SP7), and monochrome printing is performed by the monochrome facsimile machine 8 (SP8).

When the color facsimile apparatus of the present invention is used to transmit a color printed matter, the color reading apparatus 7 reads the color printed matter, and the signal processing circuit 5 reads functional information indicating a color facsimile image signal. And send it. This transmission operation is similar to that of a normal color facsimile machine.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In another embodiment, instead of storing the monochrome facsimile image signal in the facsimile signal storage circuit, the image signal may be directly transferred to the monochrome facsimile device 9. However,
Line control circuit 2 and modulation / demodulation circuit 3 used for reception
It is assumed that the line control circuit 10 and the modulation / demodulation circuit 11 different from the above are used to transfer the monochrome facsimile signal to the monochrome facsimile apparatus 9.

The flow from receiving a facsimile signal to printing image information according to this method will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, when a facsimile signal is received,
The facsimile signal is extracted from the facsimile signal information by the signal processing circuit 3 via the line switching circuit 1, the line control circuit 2, and the modulation / demodulation circuit 3 (SP1), and the monochrome / color of the facsimile signal is determined ( SP2).
If the result of this determination is color, the facsimile image signal is continuously received (SP3), and printing is performed by the color printing device 6 (SP4).

When the result of the determination is black and white, the modulation / demodulation circuit 12 and the line control circuit 1 which are different from the signal path which is used for reception and which includes the modulation / demodulation circuit 3 and the line control circuit 2 are used.
The black and white facsimile signal is transferred to the black and white facsimile device 8 via a signal path composed of 1 and the line switching circuit 1 (SP7), and the black and white facsimile device 8 performs black and white printing (SP8).

In the above-described embodiment, the color facsimile apparatus of the present invention is connected to the existing monochrome facsimile apparatus, but a monochrome printing mechanism may be incorporated in the color facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

The present invention is not limited to the reception of a monochrome facsimile signal from a monochrome facsimile apparatus, but the reception of a monochrome signal (for example, the reading output of an original of several pages) partially included in the color facsimile signal from the color facsimile apparatus. It is also applicable when doing. However, in this case, functional information for enabling monochrome / color discrimination for each page is required.

[0026]

As described above, according to the color facsimile apparatus of the present invention, when a monochrome signal is received by determining whether the facsimile signal is color or monochrome and controlling the facsimile signal. Since it has a function to make the black-and-white printing mechanism print, it does not require as much time as when using the color printing mechanism, and only one line is required, and it is possible to handle both color and black-and-white facsimile signals. You can Also, an existing monochrome facsimile machine can be connected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a connection relationship between a color facsimile apparatus according to the present invention and an existing monochrome facsimile apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing in another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 line switching circuit 3 modulation / demodulation circuit 4 facsimile signal storage circuit 5 signal processing circuit 6 color printing device 7 color reading device 8 black and white facsimile device

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A switching means for selectively switching a telephone line between a black-and-white printing mechanism and a color printing mechanism, and whether the facsimile image signal is black-and-white or color according to the received identification information in combination with the switching means. And a signal processing circuit for selectively outputting a facsimile signal to the black-and-white printing mechanism and the color printing mechanism according to the result. 2. The color facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monochrome printing mechanism is a monochrome facsimile apparatus separate from the color printing mechanism. 3. The color facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the monochrome printing mechanism and the color printing mechanism are integrally provided. 4. The color facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification information is transmitted and received together with the facsimile signal. 5. The color facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a signal storage circuit for storing the identification information and the facsimile image signal when the facsimile image signal is black and white. 6. The color facsimile according to claim 1, wherein when the facsimile image signal is monochrome, the identification information and the facsimile image signal are directly transferred to the monochrome printing mechanism. apparatus.