KR20060032412A - Printing apparatus and method having toner saving mode by graphic object - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and method for saving, by graphic object, the amount of toner used in developing a print image according to the toner saving mode. The device includes a reception separator for parsing data and separating the data into graphic objects, a conversion part for converting the separated data into a print image for printing, and a setting part for setting whether toner saving mode is on or off for each graphic object. And a developing unit for developing the print image with the amount of toner adjusted according to the setting of the setting unit, and a printing unit for printing the developed image together.

According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a high-quality printed matter that maintains readability so that it is difficult to visually check the difference in print quality before and after using the toner save mode while using the toner save mode.

Description

Printing apparatus and method having a toner saving mode for each graphic object {Printing apparatus and method having toner saving mode by graphic object}

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a printing system having a toner saving mode for each graphic object.

2 is an overall block diagram of a printing apparatus having a toner saving mode for each graphic object, which is an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a schematic flowchart of a printing method having a toner saving mode for each graphic object, which is an embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a detailed flowchart of FIG. 3.

<Description of Symbols for Main Parts of Drawings>

100: computer 200: output device

110: data 300: receiving separator

310: receiver 330: parser

350: separating unit 370: converting unit

380: storage unit 390: setting unit

410: developing unit 420: developed image

430: printing

The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and method having a toner saving mode. More particularly, the present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a method for saving, by graphic object, the amount of toner used in developing a print image according to the toner saving mode.

There are various cases where the toner saving function of the laser printer can be used. For example, the toner save mode is used to obtain a normal document when a specific toner used among relatively many toners of the printer is insufficient. In this case, the user refers to the state of the previous output document and selects the toner save mode to determine whether to perform a print job. When the user selects the toner saving mode, the toner of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black is developed by reducing a predetermined amount from the amount of toner actually used. Is fixed on printing paper and output.

As another case where the toner save function can be used, there is a case where the toner save mode is used to reduce the toner consumption when a high resolution such as an internal document is not required. In this case, the toner saving mode is used while adjusting the transfer interval of the toner to save the toner and taking the density of the entire printed image blurred.

As a result, the conventional toner save mode performs toner save mode by reducing the toner usage of the entire image to be printed (hereinafter referred to as "printed image"). There is a problem that is lower than the print quality of the output image.

The technical problem to be achieved by the present invention is to reduce the amount of toner used for developing a print image for each graphic object, and to provide a toner saving mode for each graphic object such that a difference in print quality before and after using the toner saving mode is hardly visually confirmed. It is to provide a printing apparatus and method.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a printing apparatus having a toner saving mode for each graphic object according to the present invention includes a reception separator for parsing data and separating the data into graphic objects, and converting the separated data into a print image for printing. A setting unit for setting whether toner saving mode is turned on or off for each of the graphic objects, a developing unit for developing the print image with the amount of toner adjusted according to the setting of the setting unit, and the developed image; And a printing unit for printing.

The developing unit of the present invention develops the print image at a normal toner amount when the setting unit is set to off, and sets the print image at a toner amount smaller than the normal toner amount when the setting unit is set to off. It is preferable to develop.

In order to solve the above technical problem, a printing method having a toner saving mode for each graphic object according to the present invention includes parsing data and separating the data into graphic objects, and converting the separated data into a print image for printing. Setting an on-off state of the toner saving mode for each graphic object, developing the print image with the toner amount adjusted according to the setting, and printing the image generated by adding the developed images. Characterized in that it comprises a step.

In the developing step of the present invention, when the toner save mode is set to off, the print image is developed with a normal amount of toner, and when the toner save mode is set to on, a predetermined amount is greater than the normal amount of toner. Preferably, the printing image is developed with a low amount of toner.

The setting of the present invention may further include storing in advance whether the toner saving mode is on or off, and setting the toner saving mode for each graphic object with reference to the stored on / off status. Do.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a printing apparatus and method having a toner saving mode for each graphic object according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, terms to be described below are terms defined in consideration of functions in the present invention, and may be changed according to intentions or customs of users or operators. Therefore, the definition should be made based on the contents throughout the specification.

1 is an overall configuration diagram of a printing system having a toner saving mode for each graphic object. As shown, the data 110 transmitted from the computer 100 is transmitted to the output device 200 and output.

2 is an overall block diagram of a printing apparatus having a toner saving mode for each graphic object, which is an embodiment of the present invention. As shown, the output device 200 includes a reception separator 300, a converter 370, a storage 380, a setting unit 390, a developing unit 410, and a printing unit 430. .

The reception separator 300 may include a receiver 310 that receives the data 110 from the computer 100, a parsing unit 330 that analyzes the received data, and a graphic object on the received data. It includes a separator 350 for separating by (object).

Graphic objects include fonts, vectors, and images. Font refers to data such as font and font size, and vector refers to data representing coordinate values of the data. An image refers to data having continuous pixel values.

The data separated into a font, a vector, and an image by the separator 350 are converted into a bitmap image, that is, a print image, by the converter 370. Each of the printed images is developed by the toner in the developing unit 410, and before being developed, on / off of the toner saving mode is set in the setting unit 390 according to the user's selection.

However, it may not be set only by the user's selection, and may be automatically set by reading settings stored in the storage unit 380 in advance. The storage unit 380 is preferably a non-volatile RAM (NVRAM).

The developing unit 410 develops a toner amount less than the normal toner amount when it is set to on in the setting unit 390, and develops it as a normal toner amount when it is set to off.

The printing unit 430 may accumulate and retain the developed image, and may include a determination unit that determines whether the accumulated image completely fills the printing paper. If it is determined that the determination unit does not fill, the image is continuously accumulated, and when it is determined that the image is filled, the printing unit 430 prints the accumulated image.

3 is a schematic flowchart of a printing method having a toner saving mode for each graphic object, which is an embodiment of the present invention. The printing method illustrated in FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2.

As shown, after separating the data for each graphic object, converting the data into a print image, and setting the toner saving function for each graphic object is set by the user (step 100). The print image is developed according to the setting and prints the developed image created by adding the developed images (step 200).

The printing method of FIG. 3 is described in more detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 4 as follows. As shown in FIG. 4, the output device 200 receives the data 110 (step 112), analyzes the data (step 114), and separates the data into graphic objects (step 116). The conversion unit 370 converts all of the separated data into print images to be printed, respectively. That is, font processing for converting font data into a font print image (step 142), vector processing for converting vector data to a vector print image (step 144), and image processing for converting image data into an image print image (Step 146).

Meanwhile, the setting unit 390 sets on / off according to a user selection or with reference to the setting items stored in the storage unit. That is, in step 172, whether toner saving mode is turned on or off for the font print image, in step 174, whether toner saving mode is turned on or off for the vector print image, and in step 176, toner saving for the image print image is set. Option to turn the mode on or off. This sets the toner save mode on or off for all graphic object components of the print image.

At each setting (step 170), the print image is developed with the normal toner amount when it is set to OFF (step 210), and when it is set to on, the print image is developed with a toner amount smaller than the normal toner amount (step 220). . The development using less toner than normal toner (step 220) uses a mask that omits part of the developed line or omits part of the scan line within a range that does not affect readability. It is possible by doing.

The printing unit 430 generates the developed image by adding the developed image for each of the graphic objects (step 230) and prints the developed image (step 260).

What has been described above is just one embodiment for carrying out the printing apparatus and method having the toner saving mode for each graphic object according to the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but in the following claims Various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the gist of the invention as claimed.

As described above, according to the printing apparatus and method including the toner saving mode for each graphic object according to the present invention, it is possible to maintain readability so that it is difficult to visually check the difference in print quality before and after using the toner saving mode. High quality prints can be obtained using Toner Save Mode.

Claims (5)

A reception separator for parsing data and separating the data for each graphic object; A converting unit converting the separated data into a print image to be printed; A setting unit to set whether toner saving mode is turned on or off for each of the graphic objects; A developing unit for developing the print image with the toner amount adjusted according to the setting of the setting unit; And And a printing unit for printing the developed image by adding the developed image. The method of claim 1, wherein the developing unit, The set unit is set to off, the print image is developed with a normal amount of toner; and if set to on, the print image is developed with a toner amount less than the normal amount of toner. A printing apparatus having a toner saving mode for each object. Parsing the data and separating the data by graphic objects; Converting the separated data into a print image for printing; Setting a toner saving mode on-off for each of the graphic objects; Developing the print image with an amount of toner adjusted according to the setting; And And printing the image generated by summing the developed images. The method of claim 3, wherein the developing step, When the toner save mode is set to off, the print image is developed with a normal amount of toner, and when the toner save mode is set to on, the print image is printed with a toner amount smaller than the normal amount of toner. And a toner save mode for each graphic object. The method of claim 3, wherein the setting comprises: And before storing whether the toner saving mode is on or off in advance, and setting the toner saving mode for each graphic object by referring to the stored on / off status. The printing method provided.

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