Image forming apparatus and double-sided image forming method

Abstract

An image forming apparatus including: an image forming section which has a writing head, each head having a plurality of writing elements arranged in a line, and forms images on both sides of a paper sheet; and an image processing section which sends image data to each of the writing elements of the writing head, wherein the image processing section executes a magnification adjustment processing on image data for the front surface and image data for the back surface in an arrangement direction of the writing elements according to a kind of the paper sheet.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings, and these are not intended to limit the present invention, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing the structure of a color copier 100 according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the structure of an LED writing unit 3Y and its peripheral circuits;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the structure of a control system in the color copier 100;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the structure of LED writing units 3Y, 3M, 3C and 3k for Y, M, C and BK colors, respectively, and their peripheral circuits;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of control from inputting of an image to writing by the LED writing unit;

FIG. 6A is an explanatory view showing an inserting processing with respect to image data for a front surface, and 6B a thinning processing to image data for a back surface; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an image forming processing executed by the color copier 100.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming section which has one or more writing head, each head having a plurality of writing elements arranged in a line, and forms images on both sides of a paper sheet; andan image processing section which sends image data to each of the writing elements of the writing head,wherein the image processing section executes a magnification adjustment processing on image data for the front surface and image data for the back surface in an arrangement direction of the writing elements according to a kind of the paper sheet.

2. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein, when executing the magnification adjustment processing, the image processing section executes a pixel inserting processing on the image data for the front and executes a pixel thinning processing on the image data for the back.

3. The image forming apparatus of claim 2, wherein the number of pixels to be inserted into the image data for the front in the pixel inserting processing is substantially equal to the number of pixels to be thinned out from the image data for the back in the pixel thinning processing.

4. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a storage section which stores a table correlating kinds of paper with a magnification for the front and a magnification for the back, wherein the image processing section executes a magnification adjustment processing based on the magnification for the front and the magnification for the back, read from the storage section.

5. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the image forming section comprises a plurality of writing heads corresponding to respective color components of a color image and forms color images on both sides of the paper sheet.

6. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the kind of the paper is a kind based on a thickness of the paper.

7. The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the writing head is an LED writing head.

8. A double-sided image forming method for forming images on a first surface and a second surface of a paper sheet with use of a writing head having a plurality of writing elements arranged in a line, the method comprising the steps of: obtaining a magnification for the first surface and a magnification for the second surface corresponding to a kind of the paper;executing a magnification adjustment processing on image data for the first surface in an arrangement direction of the writing elements based on the magnification for the first surface and sending the magnification-adjusted image data to each of the writing elements of the writing head to form an image of the first surface; andexecuting a magnification adjustment processing on image data for the second surface in the arrangement direction of the writing elements based on the magnification for the second surface and sending the magnification-adjusted image data to each of the writing element of the writing head to form an image of the second surface.

9. The double-sided image forming method of claim 8, wherein a pixel inserting processing is executed on the image data for the first surface when the magnification adjustment processing is executed on the image data for the first surface, and a pixel thinning processing is executed on the image data for the second surface when the magnification adjustment processing is executed on the image data for the second surface.

10. The double-sided image forming method of claim 9, wherein the number of pixels to be inserted into the image data for the first surface in the pixel inserting processing is substantially equal to the number of pixels to be thinned out from the image data for the second surface in the pixel thinning processing.

11. The double-sided image forming method of claim 8, wherein, in the step of obtaining the magnification for the first surface and the magnification for the second surface, a table which is stored in advance and correlates kinds of paper sheets with the magnification for the first surface and the magnification for the second surface, is referred for obtaining the magnification for the first surface and the magnification for the second surface corresponding to a kind of paper.

12. The double-sided image forming method of claim 8, wherein the kind of paper is a kind based on thickness of the paper.

13. The double-sided image forming method of claim 8, wherein the writing head is an LED writing head.

14. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming section which has a writing head having a plurality of writing elements arranged in a line and forms images on both sides of a paper sheet;an image processing section which sends image data to each of the writing elements of the writing head; anda storage section which stores in advance magnifications for the front surface and for the back surface in pairs,wherein the image processing section executes a magnification adjustment processing in an arrangement direction of the writing elements with the magnification for the front surface applied to image data for the front and the magnification for the back surface applied to image data for the back.

15. The image forming apparatus of claim 14, wherein, when executing the magnification adjustment processing, the image processing section executes a pixel inserting processing on the image data for the front, and a pixel thinning processing on the image data for the back.

16. The image forming apparatus of claim 15, wherein the number of pixels to be inserted into the image data for the front in the pixel inserting processing is substantially equal to the number of pixels to be thinned out from the image data for the back in the pixel thinning processing.

17. The image forming apparatus of claim 14, wherein the kind of paper is a kind based on thickness of the paper.

18. The image forming apparatus of claim 14, wherein the writing head is an LED writing head.