KR20050083496A - Control method for density of a image of electric-photographic printer - Google Patents

Abstract

An image density compensation method of an electrophotographic developing apparatus is disclosed. The image density compensation method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: detecting the residual amount of the developer at predetermined intervals, transferring the detected residual amount of the developer to a driver installed in the host, and printing through the driver when the residual amount of the developer is less than or equal to the set value. Changing at least one of color balance, lightness, saturation, color of the data for printing, and printing the changed data. As a result, the electrophotographic developing apparatus not only shortens the time required for improving the sharpness of the image printed on the print medium, but also reduces the cost of product production.

Description

Image density compensation method of electrophotographic development apparatus {Control method for density of a image of electric-photographic printer}

The present invention relates to an image density compensation method of an electrophotographic development apparatus, and more particularly, to an image density compensation method of an electrophotographic development apparatus capable of obtaining an optimal image even when the remaining amount of toner or ink is insufficient.

In general, an electrophotographic developing apparatus refers to an apparatus for printing a predetermined image on a paper by using an electrophotographic developing method such as a copying machine, a printer, a facsimile or the like. In the electrophotographic developing apparatus, a photosensitive medium such as a photosensitive belt or a photosensitive drum is used. The surface of the photosensitive medium is charged by the charging voltage control device, and the potential level of the surface of the photosensitive medium is selectively changed by beam scanning to form an electrostatic latent image.

1 is a view schematically showing a general electrophotographic developing apparatus.

Referring to the drawings, the electrophotographic developing apparatus includes a print media tray 11, a pickup roller 13, a feeding roller 15, a photosensitive belt 17, a transfer roller 19, a developing unit 23, and a fixing roller ( 25) and a residual amount detection unit 27.

The print media tray 11 is installed at a predetermined position of the electrophotographic developing apparatus and loads print media by type. The loaded print media is picked up by the pickup roller 13 for each type of print media such as copy paper, bond paper, special application, recycled paper, and transparent paper according to a printing command. The picked up print medium is transferred to a feeding position while being guided by a print medium guide (not shown), a print medium guide roller (not shown), or the like. The feeding roller 15 transfers the transferred print medium to the transfer roller 19 at a predetermined speed.

On the other hand, the surface of the photosensitive belt 17 is maintained in a charged state by a corona device or a charging device. In addition, an electrostatic latent image is formed on the surface of the photosensitive belt 17 by beam scanning by a laser scanning device (not shown).

The developing unit 23 attaches a developer of black, yellow, cyan, and magenta prepared according to the color of the pigment to form an electrostatic latent image to form a toner image. The toner image formed on the photosensitive belt 17 is transferred to the print medium by the transfer roller 19. The fixing roller 25 compresses the toner image transferred to the print medium and fixes it on the paper.

The remaining amount detection unit 27 detects the remaining amount of toner or ink in the electrophotographic developing apparatus. At this time, according to the remaining amount of toner or ink detected by the remaining amount detector, the developing unit 23 adjusts the amount of the toner or ink to be ejected to adjust the density of the image printed on the print medium. That is, when the remaining amount of the toner or ink (hereinafter referred to as a "developer") detected by the remaining amount detection unit 27 is a "low level" smaller than a predetermined value, the developer 23 supplies the developer. Toner image formed on the photosensitive belt 17 by increasing the developing voltage by increasing the developing voltage by supplying more developer by driving the rotation of the roller (not shown) more than the steady state rotation speed. Increasing the density of the enhances the sharpness of the image printed on the print medium.

However, since the general electrophotographic field apparatus as described above uses a method of improving the sharpness of the image printed on the print medium through the remaining mechanical amount of the developer, it is necessary to drive the system for improving the sharpness of the image. There is a problem that there is a lot of time.

In addition, the general electrophotographic developing apparatus has to control the supply roller of the developer or to control the developing voltage in order to improve the sharpness of the image by a mechanical method, so that the cost of product production is increased. There is this.

The present invention was devised to solve the above problems, and it is possible to shorten the time required to improve the sharpness of the image printed on the print medium, and to reduce the cost of product production. An object of the present invention is to provide an image density compensation method.

The image density compensation method of the electrophotographic developing apparatus according to the present invention for achieving the above object comprises the steps of: (a) detecting the remaining amount of the developer at a predetermined period, (b) Transmitting the detected residual amount of the developer to a driver installed in the host; (c) at least one of color balance, brightness, saturation, and hue of data for printing through the driver when the residual amount of the developer is less than or equal to a predetermined value; And (d) printing the data in which at least one of color balance, lightness, saturation, and color is changed by the step (c).

Preferably, the image density compensation method of the electrophotographic developing apparatus further comprises (e) selecting one of an automatic setting mode, a manual setting mode, and a no setting mode provided in the driver.

Preferably, the image density compensation method of the electrophotographic developing apparatus includes: (f) a lookup table corresponding to the remaining amount of the developer detected by the step (a) when the selected mode is the automatic setting mode; Retrieving the stored change value. Here, step (c) changes at least one of color balance, brightness, saturation and color of the data according to the change value retrieved by step (f).

Preferably, the image density compensation method of the electrophotographic developing apparatus includes: (f) retrieving setting values for color balance, brightness, saturation, and color of the data set by a user when the selected mode is the manual setting mode; It further comprises the step. Here, step (c) changes at least one of color balance, brightness, saturation and color of the data according to the change value retrieved by step (f).

Thus, the image density compensation method of the electrophotographic developing apparatus according to the present invention not only shortens the time required to improve the sharpness of the image printed on the print medium, but also reduces the cost of product production.

Hereinafter, an image density compensation method of an electrophotographic developing apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram illustrating the concept of an electrophotographic developing apparatus according to the present invention. Hereinafter, the electrophotographic developing apparatus will be described using a printer as an example.

Referring to the drawings, the printer 40 includes a residual amount detection unit 45. The remaining amount detection unit 45 detects the remaining amount of the developer of the printer 40.

On the other hand, the printer 40 is connected to the host 30. At this time, the printer driver 35 is installed in the host 30. Here, the host 30 refers to an application in which an application program capable of creating or editing document or image data is installed, and generally refers to a personal computer.

The printer driver 35 converts data created or edited by the host 30 into a printer command language (PCL), which is a language that the printer 40 can interpret, and transmits the data to the printer 40. In addition, the printer driver 35 provides a selection menu for selecting whether or not to change the setting values for color balance, brightness, saturation, hue, gray value, and the like for printing data. Here, the selection menu provided by the printer driver 35 is represented by the automatic setting mode, the manual setting mode, and the no setting mode. In this case, the automatic setting mode refers to a mode for automatically changing to a lookup table changed value corresponding to the residual value of the developer, and the manual setting mode refers to color balance, brightness, saturation, hue, gray value, and the like of printing data. Refers to a mode that allows the user to input each setting value. Further, the no setting mode refers to a mode in which respective preset setting values for color balance, brightness, saturation, color, gray value, and the like of printing data of printing data are held.

Here, the printer 40 has been described as being connected locally with the host 30, but is not limited thereto, and the printer 40 and the host 30 may be connected over a network.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method for compensating image density of an electrophotographic developing apparatus according to the present invention. Referring to the drawings, the remaining amount detection unit 45 installed in the printer 40 detects the remaining amount of the developer at a predetermined cycle (S301). At this time, the printer 40 transmits the remaining value of the developer detected by the remaining amount detecting unit 40 to the host 30 (S303).

The reference value of the residual amount of developer is set in the printer driver 35 installed in the host 30, and the printer driver 35 compares the residual value of the developer received from the printer 40 with the set reference value. That is, in the printer driver 35, reference values of the developer of each of black, yellow, cyan, and magenta of the printer 40 are set, and the printer driver 35 Compares the residual value of each developer received from the printer 40 with a corresponding reference value.

When the residual value of the developer received from the printer 40 is equal to or lower than the reference value (S305), that is, when the residual value of each developer is equal to or lower than the reference value, the printer driver 35 determines whether the mode selected by the user is a no setting mode. It is determined (S307).

When the menu selected by the user is in the automatic setting mode (S309), the printer driver 35 searches for a lookup table stored value corresponding to the remaining value of the developer received from the printer 40 (S311).

When the changed value stored in the lookup table is retrieved, the printer driver 35 changes at least one setting value among color balance, brightness, saturation, color, and gray value of the data for printing (S313).

The host 30 transmits the printing data in which the at least one set value is changed by the printer driver 35 to the printer 40, and the printer 40 prints the printing data received from the host 30 (S315). .

For example, when the original data of the printing data is shown in FIG. 4A, when the remaining amount of the developer of the red system is insufficient, the set value of the color balance is changed to increase the set value of the red system. In addition, the printer driver 35 changes the density of data for printing by changing the setting values of hue, lightness, saturation, and gray value in accordance with the insufficient developer. 4B, 4C, and 4D show examples of printing data in which the set value of the color balance is changed, the brightness, the saturation, the color is changed, or the gray value is changed by this method.

As a result, the electrophotographic developing apparatus can change the density of data for printing in a simple manner when the remaining amount of developer is insufficient, so that the original image can be made to have no difference after being printed.

According to the present invention, when the remaining amount of developer is insufficient, the electrophotographic developing apparatus can change the density of data for printing by a simple method, so that the original image can be made to be different from the image after being printed.

In addition, the image density compensation method of the electrophotographic developing apparatus according to the present invention not only shortens the time required to improve the sharpness of the image printed on the print medium, but also reduces the cost of product production.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been illustrated and described above, the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above, and the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments of the present invention without departing from the spirit of the present invention as claimed in the claims. Anyone skilled in the art can make various modifications, as well as such modifications are within the scope of the claims.

1 is a view schematically showing a general electrophotographic developing apparatus;

2 is a block diagram illustrating the concept of an electrophotographic developing apparatus according to the present invention;

3 is a flowchart showing a method for compensating image density of an electrophotographic developing apparatus according to the present invention; and

4A is a diagram showing an example of original data, and FIGS. 4B, 4C, and 4D are diagrams showing an example of printing data changed by FIG. 3.

Explanation of symbols on main parts of drawing

11: printing and tray 13: pickup roller

15: feeding roller 17: photosensitive belt

19: transfer roller 23: developer

25: fixing roller 27, 45: remaining amount detection unit

30: host 35: printer driver

40: printer

Claims (4)

In the image density compensation method of the electrophotographic developing apparatus, (a) detecting the residual amount of the developer at a predetermined cycle; (b) transmitting the remaining amount of the detected developer to a driver installed in a host; (c) changing at least one of color balance, brightness, saturation and color of data for printing through the driver when the remaining amount of the developer is less than or equal to a set value; And and (d) printing the data in which at least one of color balance, brightness, saturation, and hue has been changed by the step (c). The method of claim 1, and (e) selecting any one of an automatic setting mode, a manual setting mode, and a non-setting mode provided in the driver. The method of claim 2, (f) if the selected mode is the automatic setting mode, retrieving a lookup table stored value corresponding to the remaining amount of the developer detected by the step (a); In the step (c), at least one of color balance, brightness, saturation, and color of the data is changed according to the change value retrieved by the step (f). . The method of claim 2, (f) if the selected mode is the manual setting mode, retrieving setting values for color balance, brightness, saturation, and color of the data set by a user; In the step (c), at least one of color balance, brightness, saturation, and color of the data is changed according to the change value retrieved by the step (f). .