IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS AND IMAGE FORMING SYSTEM

Abstract

An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of sheet feed units, a first output unit which performs a first output prior to an image forming by an image forming unit when it is judged that no sheet feed unit accommodates a recording sheet of a requested sheet size while it is judged that a recording sheet is present in at least one of the sheet feed units, and a second output unit which performs second a output after the image forming is started when is the sheet size judging unit judges that a recording sheet judged by the sheet presence detecting units to be present in at least one of the sheet feed units does not match a recording sheet of the requested sheet size.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an image forming system according to an aspect of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the multifunction device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the multifunction device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a control block diagram of the multifunction device of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 are diagrams showing an example of image data, and FIG. 5A is an image diagram of image data and FIG. 5B is a diagram showing a data structure of the image data shown in FIG. 5A;

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a variation of the data structure of the image data;

FIG. 7 is a control block diagram of the client PC shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of a receiving command processing program stored in the multifunction device shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of a printing processing program stored in the multifunction device shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of the printing processing program shown in FIG. 9; and

FIG. 11 is a table showing a relationship between sheet feed states and operations of the multifunction device when the printing processing program shown in FIG. 10 is executed (automatic designation).

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of sheet feed units, the respective sheet feed units corresponding to different sizes of recording sheet;an image forming unit which forms an image on the recording sheets based on image data;sheet presence detecting units each detecting presence of the recording sheets in the respective sheet feed units;a sheet size judging unit which judges whether the sizes of the recording sheets in the respective sheet feed units match a requested sheet size for image forming of the image data;a first output unit which performs a first output prior to the image forming by the image forming unit when the sheet size judging unit judges that a size of a recording sheet judged by the sheet presence detecting units to be present in at least one of the sheet feed units does not match a recording sheet of the requested sheet size; anda second output unit which performs second a output after the image forming is started when the sheet size judging unit judges that a size of a recording sheet judged by the sheet presence detecting units to be present in at least one of the sheet feed units does not match a recording sheet of the requested sheet size.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: an image forming period judging unit which judges whether the image forming is started based on the one image data according to the presence of image forming start information corresponding to the image data.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a display unit which displays information,wherein the first output unit displays on the display unit an instruction for informing that the at least one of the sheet feed units does not accommodate a recording sheet of the requested sheet size, andwherein the second output unit displays on the display unit an instruction for informing that no recording sheet exists in the at least one of the sheet feed units.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sheet size detecting unit which detects sheet sizes of the recording sheets accommodated in the plurality of sheet feed units.

5. An image forming system comprising: an image forming apparatus; andan external device which communicates with the image forming apparatus,wherein the image forming apparatus includes: a plurality of sheet feed units, the respective sheet feed units corresponding to different sizes of recording sheet;an image forming unit which forms an image on the recording sheets based on image data;a receiving unit which receives the image data from the external device;sheet presence detecting units each detecting presence of the recording sheets in the respective sheet feed units;a sheet size judging unit which judges whether the sheet sizes of the recording sheets in the respective sheet feed unit match a requested sheet size for image forming of the image data;a first output unit which performs a first output prior to the image forming by the image forming unit when the sheet size judging unit judges that a size of a recording sheet judged by the sheet presence detecting units to be present in at least one of the sheet feed units does not match a recording sheet of the requested sheet size; anda second output unit which performs a second output after the image forming is started when the sheet size judging unit judges that a size of a recording sheet judged by the sheet presence detecting units to be present in at least one of the sheet feed units does not match a recording sheet of the requested sheet size, and wherein the external device includes:a display unit which performs displaying according to the first output or the second output received from the image forming apparatus.