JPH08300776A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] Even if printing is performed under conditions other than general-purpose printing conditions, after printing is completed, it will automatically return to general-purpose printing conditions, or if processing is performed for a while under special printing conditions, printing will end. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that solves the problem of wasting printing paper and time due to setting mistakes by resetting the setting to the special printing condition later, saving the trouble of resetting the printing condition as much as possible. A condition setting unit 1 for setting image forming conditions when forming an image, a specific condition storage unit 2 for storing a specific one of the image forming conditions of the condition setting unit 1, and the condition setting unit. The image forming unit 3 forms an image according to the image forming condition set to 1, and unlike the setting of the image forming condition of the specific condition storing unit 2, according to the image forming condition set to the condition setting unit 1. After the image formation, the image forming condition set in the condition setting unit 1 is provided with the image forming condition copying unit 4 for making the same as the image forming condition stored in the specific condition storing unit 2.

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 such as an electrophotographic copying machine, a printer and a fax machine, and more particularly to improvement of image forming conditions set when forming an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electrophotographic image forming apparatus having a function of storing image forming conditions for forming an image has been known. The print conditions can be input and set from the operation panel provided at the appropriate place on the outer surface, and the print conditions can be stored in the storage unit, and the operation panel can be provided with a switch corresponding to the stored print condition one-to-one. It is provided so that the printing conditions can be easily selected and the printer can be initialized by operating the switch (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 3-247478). However, in this conventional example, it is necessary to confirm the setting contents of the printing condition when printing,
Once you print under conditions other than the general-purpose printing conditions that are most frequently used, the next time you print under the general-purpose printing conditions,
There was a problem that the general-purpose printing conditions had to be selected again by operating the switch.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional technique, when it is necessary to confirm the setting of printing conditions at the time of printing, or when printing is performed under conditions other than the general-purpose printing conditions that are used most frequently, Even when printing under the same general-purpose printing conditions, there is a problem that the general-purpose printing conditions must be selected again by operating the switch.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above, and even when printing is performed under conditions other than the general-purpose printing conditions that are most frequently used, after the printing is completed, the general-purpose printing conditions are automatically set. If you want to return to a specific print condition or if you want to process for a while with special print conditions, you can reset the settings to the special print conditions after printing and save the trouble of resetting the print conditions as much as possible. An object is to provide an image forming apparatus that solves the problem of wasting printing paper and time.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the invention of claim 1 is an image forming apparatus having a function of storing image forming conditions at the time of forming an image. A condition setting section for setting image forming conditions,
A specific condition storage unit that stores a specific one of the image forming conditions set in the condition setting unit, and an image forming unit that forms an image in accordance with the image forming conditions set in the condition setting unit, After the image formation is completed according to the image forming conditions different from the image forming conditions stored in the specific condition storing section, the image forming conditions set in the condition setting section are stored in the specific condition storing section. It is characterized in that it is provided with a forming condition copying section for making the conditions the same.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus having a function of storing image forming conditions when forming an image, a condition setting unit that sets the image forming condition when forming an image,
A specific condition storage unit that stores a specific one of the image forming conditions set in the condition setting unit, and an image forming unit that forms an image in accordance with the image forming conditions set in the condition setting unit, After the image formation is completed according to the image forming condition different from the image forming condition stored in the specific condition storing unit, the image forming condition set in the condition setting unit is left as it is or stored in the specific condition storing unit. It is characterized by comprising a condition selection unit for selecting whether to make the same as the image forming condition. According to a third aspect of the present invention, when a plurality of sets of image forming conditions in the specific condition storage unit are stored, the image forming condition set in the condition setting unit is stored in the specific condition storage unit. In order to make it the same as the image forming condition, a specific condition selecting unit for selecting one from the plurality of sets of image forming conditions is provided.

[0006]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus including:
Since the image forming apparatus has a condition setting unit for setting image forming conditions, a specific condition storing unit for storing specific image forming conditions, and an image forming unit for forming images according to the set image forming conditions, an image frequently used The formation conditions can be stored in the specific condition storage unit, and after the image formation is completed, the image formation conditions stored in the specific condition storage unit are automatically set as conditions for the next image formation in the formation condition copying unit. Since it is set to, it is possible to save the trouble of resetting the general-purpose image forming condition that is often used and reduce the setting error.

According to another aspect of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, a condition setting unit for setting image forming conditions, a specific condition storing unit for storing specific image forming conditions, and an image forming unit for forming an image according to the set image forming conditions. Since it has a copy section, it is possible to store frequently used image forming conditions in the specific condition storage section. The image forming conditions can be the same as the general-purpose image forming conditions stored in the image forming section or can be selected in the condition selecting section. When the process ends, the general-purpose image forming condition stored in the specific condition storage unit is selected, so that the trouble of resetting the image forming condition can be omitted and the setting error can be reduced.

According to the image forming apparatus of claim 3,
Alternatively, in the image forming apparatus described in the item 2, the specific condition storage unit can store a plurality of sets of image forming conditions, and after the image formation is completed, one of the plurality of sets is selected as an image forming condition for the next image formation. Since the image forming conditions can be selected by the specific condition selection unit, not only the general-purpose image forming conditions that are frequently used but also the image forming conditions that are most frequently used for each processing operation are next displayed. It can be selected as an image forming condition at the time of forming.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the description, an electrophotographic copying machine (hereinafter referred to as a copying machine), which is a typical image forming apparatus, is described as an example, but the same idea is applied to other image forming apparatuses described in the section of industrial application field. it can. The general structure and function of the copying machine are well known and will not be described. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a copying machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Recently, there are copiers having various functions, and a copier with an external connection section 11 can also serve as a printer by an instruction from an external device 20 such as a personal computer. Various image forming conditions for forming an image are stored in the external connection unit 1 as data from the external device 20.
1 can be received via the image forming apparatus 1
Input can also be made by using a switch or a lamp of the operation unit 7 provided in 3. The various image forming conditions include the size of the printing paper, the number of prints, the print density, and the scaling factor. These image forming conditions are set in the condition setting unit 1 before the image formation. Of the image forming conditions that are frequently used, in order to save the trouble of resetting after a series of image forming operations, it is stored in the specific condition selection unit and automatically set any number of times. There is.

On the other hand, as the image information, an original image is read by an image scanner or the like (not shown), or sent from the external device 20 via the external connection section 11. The image information thus obtained is temporarily stored in the image storage unit 8, and after the image processing unit 9 performs image processing that meets the image forming conditions of the condition setting unit 1 set in advance, The image forming unit 3 forms an image according to the image forming conditions.
Also, when a series of processing is completed to obtain the set number of prints, the conventional copying machine may be set to the image forming condition that has been processed so far, or set to the initial state when the power is turned on. However, according to the image forming apparatus 13 of claim 1 of the present invention, the condition setting unit 1 is operated by the operation of the forming condition copying unit 4.
If the image forming conditions from the general condition and the general-purpose image forming condition stored in the specific condition storage unit 2 do not match, the general-purpose image forming condition stored in the specific condition storage unit 2 is used as the condition setting unit. Automatically set to 1 to prepare for the next image formation.

The control unit 12 is generally equipped with a micro CPU and transmits information as described above among the various units, issues a command to operate each unit at correct timing, and checks whether any abnormality has occurred. It has a role to monitor. Further, the ROM of the ROM / RAM 10 stores the programs of the micro CPU of the control unit 12, print fonts, and the like, and the RAM is used for calculation results of the micro CPU and temporary storage locations.

According to the second aspect of the invention, instead of the formation condition copying unit 4 of FIG. 1, a condition selection unit 5 indicated by a dotted line is arranged, which is used for image formation after the image formation is completed. The condition selecting unit 5 can select whether to use the image forming condition as it is in the next image forming, or to use the same condition as the general-purpose image forming condition stored in the specific condition storing unit. By doing so, unlike the invention of claim 1 in which a series of processing is finished and the specific image forming condition is restored, unlike the invention of claim 1, when the same image forming processing is continued thereafter, the condition selecting unit 5 It is sufficient to select the current image forming condition, and it is possible to save the trouble of resetting.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing one of the inventions of claim 3 and is different from FIG. 1 in that a specific condition selecting section 6 is added. The operation other than the operation related to the specific condition selecting unit 6 is the same, and therefore omitted, and only the operation difference from FIG. 1 will be described. In FIG. 1, after the image formation is completed, the fixed image formation conditions stored in the specific condition storage unit 2 are returned to.
In FIG. 2, a plurality of sets of image forming conditions that can be stored in the specific condition storage unit 2 are possible, and after a series of image formation is completed, the specific condition selecting unit 6 sets a plurality of sets of image formation conditions stored in the specific condition storage unit 2. One of the image forming conditions can be selected and used as the setting content of the condition setting unit 1. By doing so, the image forming condition most frequently used for each processing operation can be selected as the image forming condition for the next image forming.

Similarly, it is needless to say that the specific condition selecting section 6 is added to the image forming apparatus 13 of the second aspect of the invention to obtain the functions and effects described above. That is, in this case, the condition selecting unit 5 can select either the immediately preceding image forming condition or the image forming condition stored in the specific condition storing unit 2, and a plurality of image forming conditions stored in the specific condition storing unit 2 are selected. It is also possible to select any of the conditions.

FIG. 3 shows an image forming apparatus 1 according to the first aspect of the invention.
3 is an example of a flowchart showing the main operation in 3, and the confirmation of the set value set in the condition setting unit 1 is confirmed by the display means or the like in the operation unit 7 (step S1).
If the image forming conditions that have been set match the image forming process that you want to perform, you can leave them as they are (S2 YE
S) If it is not suitable for the image forming process to be performed (S2 NO), the image forming condition in the condition setting unit 1 is changed and reset from the operation unit 7 or the external device 20 (S2).
3). When it is desired to leave the reset image forming condition in the specific condition storage unit 2 (S4 YES), a predetermined key of the operation unit 7 is pressed to newly replace the previously stored image forming condition. The image forming conditions reset in the condition setting unit 1 are stored in the specific condition storage unit 2 (S5).

After that, the image forming apparatus 13 receives the image forming start signal (S6), and the image forming unit 3 forms an image according to the image forming condition set in the condition setting unit 1 (S7). Until a series of image forming processing is completed (S8 N
O) The image formation is performed by repeating the above, and after waiting for the end of the processing (S8 YES), the image formation condition of the specific condition storage unit 2 that is likely to be used again is set as the condition for the next image formation. The forming condition copying unit 4 automatically sets the condition setting unit 1 (S9). In this way, in the next image forming process, it is possible to reduce the trouble of resetting the image forming conditions and the setting error.

FIG. 4 shows an image forming apparatus 1 according to the invention of claim 2.
3, the image forming condition set in the condition setting unit 1 is not suitable for the image forming process to be performed from now on. In the case (S12 NO), the condition setting unit 1
If it is desired to reset the image forming condition of (S13) and add and keep the image forming condition in the specific condition storing unit 2, the specific condition storing unit 2 newly adds this condition in addition to the image forming condition stored previously. Can be stored in memory (S15).

When a series of image forming processing is completed (S1
8 YES), whether the image forming conditions for the next image formation should be left unchanged (S19 NO) or changed (S1).
9 YES) can be selected by the condition selection unit 5. If the same image forming condition as the immediately preceding image forming operation is set, the contents of the condition setting unit 1 are left as they are (S20).
When the content of the condition setting unit 1 is changed, one set of image forming conditions is further selected from the plurality of sets of image forming conditions stored in the specific condition storage unit 2 by the specific condition selecting unit 6, It is possible to set the image forming condition for the next image forming (S21). In this way, the image forming condition most frequently used for each processing operation can be set as the next image forming condition.

[0019]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, general-purpose image forming conditions that are frequently used can be stored in the specific condition storage unit, and after the image formation is completed, stored in the specific condition storage unit. The general-purpose image forming conditions are automatically set as the conditions for the next image formation in the forming condition copying section.Therefore, re-use only when the image forming conditions other than the general-purpose image forming conditions that are frequently used are used. Since it suffices to make the setting, it is possible to reduce the time and effort for re-setting and the setting error, so that the waste of paper due to the setting error can be eliminated and the operability can be improved.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, after the image formation, whether the next image formation condition is the same as the present condition or the same as the general-purpose image formation condition stored in the specific condition storage unit is set. Since it is possible to select in the selection unit, if you want to continue the same current image forming process that deviates from the general-purpose image forming condition continuously, select the current image forming condition, and if the series of image forming processes is completed It becomes possible to select a general-purpose image forming condition that is frequently used and is stored in the specific condition storage unit, and it is possible to further reduce the resetting trouble and setting error compared to the case of the above item 1. Therefore, waste of paper due to different settings can be eliminated and efficiency can be increased.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the image forming apparatus according to the first or second aspect, after the image formation is completed, a plurality of sets of image formation are set as image formation conditions for the next image formation. From the specific condition storage section that stores the conditions,
Since one image forming condition can be selected by the specific condition selecting unit, the image forming condition most frequently used for each processing operation can be selected as the image forming condition for the next image forming. Then, the above item 1,
Or, the effect of item 2 can be maintained even if the processing work is different,
It has become possible to provide a highly flexible and efficient image forming apparatus.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a main part of an image forming apparatus showing an embodiment of claim 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a main part of an image forming apparatus showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the main operation of the image forming apparatus showing the embodiment of claim 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the main operation of the image forming apparatus showing the third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Condition setting unit, 2 ... Specific condition storage unit, 3 ...
Image forming unit, 4 ... Forming condition copying unit, 5 ... Condition selecting unit, 6 ... Specific condition selecting unit, 7 ... Operating unit, 8
... Image storage unit, 9 ... Image processing unit, 10 ... R
OM / RAM, 11 ... External connection unit, 12 ... Control unit, 13 ... Image forming device, 20 ... External device.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In an image forming apparatus having a function of storing image forming conditions when forming an image, a condition setting unit for setting the image forming condition when forming an image and the condition setting unit. A specific condition storage unit that stores a specific one of the image forming conditions and an image forming unit that forms an image according to the image forming conditions set in the condition setting unit are stored in the specific condition storage unit. Forming condition copying in which the image forming condition set in the condition setting unit is made the same as the image forming condition stored in the specific condition storage unit after the image forming is completed according to the image forming condition different from the image forming condition An image forming apparatus having a section. 2. An image forming apparatus having a function of storing an image forming condition when forming an image, and a condition setting section for setting the image forming condition when forming an image, and the condition setting section. A specific condition storage unit that stores a specific one of the image forming conditions and an image forming unit that forms an image according to the image forming conditions set in the condition setting unit are stored in the specific condition storage unit. After the image formation is completed according to the image forming condition different from the image forming condition, the image forming condition set in the condition setting unit is left unchanged or the same as the image forming condition stored in the specific condition storage unit. An image forming apparatus comprising a condition selection unit for selecting whether to perform. 3. When a plurality of sets of image forming conditions are stored in the specific condition storage section, the image forming conditions set in the condition setting section are stored in the specific condition storage section. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a specific condition selecting unit that selects one of the plurality of sets of image forming conditions so as to be the same.