Patent Application
20240174004
This application claims priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2022-191183 filed on Nov. 30, 2022. The entire content of the priority application is incorporated herein by reference.
Heretofore, a technology has been known in which an image forming apparatus forms on a medium an image represented by image data obtained externally. In such an image forming apparatus, for instance, it may be possible to make a selection between so-called “bordered printing” in which an image is formed with margins at a periphery portion of the medium, and “borderless printing” in which the image is formed over an entire area of the medium with no margin formed. In the known technology, whether the borderless printing is to be performed is settable by a function of a printer driver on an external device such as a PC.
In recent years, as image forming apparatuses are used in a variety of environments, a situation is anticipatable in which each image forming apparatus obtains image data from various types of printer drivers and applications. Under such circumstances, there may be, as image data to be obtained by each image forming apparatus, data that does not explicitly indicate which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed, as well as data explicitly indicating it. If an image forming apparatus is employed that is configured to uniformly select a particular one of the bordered printing and the borderless printing when the obtained image data does not explicitly indicate which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed, there is a risk of frequently occurring cases where an image unintended by the user has been formed.
Aspects of the present disclosure are advantageous for providing one or more improved techniques for an image forming apparatus that facilitate image formation in accordance with the user's intention even when image data does not explicitly indicate which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed.
According to aspects of the present disclosure, an image forming apparatus is provided, which includes an image forming engine and a controller. The image forming engine is configured to form on an image formation medium an image represented by image data externally obtained, by a borderless image forming operation or a bordered image forming operation. The borderless image forming operation is an operation to form the image over an entire image forming target area on the image formation medium. The bordered image forming operation is an operation to form the image on the image formation medium with a margin formed at a periphery portion of the image forming target area. The controller is configured to, when the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation is to be performed, select one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation, based on a status of the image forming apparatus or a content of the image data, or based on the status of the image forming apparatus and the content of the image data. The controller is further configured to cause the image forming engine to perform the selected one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation.
According to aspects of the present disclosure, further provided is a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-readable instructions that are executable by a processor of an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes an image forming engine configured to form on an image formation medium an image represented by image data externally obtained. The instructions are configured to, when executed by the processor, cause the image forming apparatus to, when the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of a borderless image forming operation and a bordered image forming operation is to be performed, select one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation, based on a status of the image forming apparatus or a content of the image data, or based on the status of the image forming apparatus and the content of the image data. The borderless image forming operation is an operation to form the image over an entire image forming target area on the image formation medium. The bordered image forming operation is an operation to form the image on the image formation medium with a margin formed at a periphery portion of the image forming target area. The instructions are further configured to, when executed by the processor, cause the image forming apparatus to cause the image forming engine to perform the selected one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation.
According to aspects of the present disclosure, further provided is a method implementable on a processor of an image forming apparatus. The image forming apparatus includes an image forming engine configured to form on an image formation medium an image represented by image data externally obtained. The method includes selecting, when the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of a borderless image forming operation and a bordered image forming operation is to be performed, one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation, based on a status of the image forming apparatus or a content of the image data, or based on the status of the image forming apparatus and the content of the image data. The borderless image forming operation is an operation to form the image over an entire image forming target area on the image formation medium. The bordered image forming operation is an operation to form the image on the image formation medium with a margin formed at a periphery portion of the image forming target area. The method further includes causing the image forming engine to perform the selected one of the borderless image forming operation and the bordered image forming operation.
It is noted that various connections are set forth between elements in the following description. It is noted that these connections in general and, unless specified otherwise, may be direct or indirect and that this specification is not intended to be limiting in this respect. Aspects of the present disclosure may be implemented on circuits (such as application specific integrated circuits) or in computer software as programs storable on computer-readable media including but not limited to RAMs, ROMs, flash memories, EEPROMs, CD-media, DVD-media, temporary storage, hard disk drives, floppy drives, permanent storage, and the like.
A printer 100 (which may be an example of an “image forming apparatus” according to aspects of the present disclosure) in a preferred illustrative embodiment according to aspects of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to
As shown in
The feed tray 1 is disposed below the head 5 in the housing 100a. The feed tray 1 is configured to be inserted into and removed from the housing 100a along the front-to-rear direction via an opening 10p formed in a front wall of the housing 100a.
The feed tray 1 accommodates a roll body R and cut sheets Kp. The feed tray 1 may be configured to accommodate both the roll body R and the cut sheets Kp simultaneously or to selectively accommodate either the roll body R or the cut sheets Kp. The feed tray 1 has a roll body supporter 11 configured to support the roll body R, and a placement surface 12 on which the cut sheets Kp are placed thereon.
The roll body R is a long sheet of paper wound in a roll shape around an outer circumference of a cylindrical core member Rc. The cut sheet Kp is a sheet of paper shorter than the long sheet of paper that forms the roll body R. For instance, the cut sheet Kp is a standard-size sheet of A4 or B5. The largest size of the cut sheet Kp usable in the printer 100 is A4 size. The placement surface 12 is configured to support a plurality of cut sheets Kp stacked thereon.
The conveyor 2 is configured to convey a sheet P along a conveyance path (i.e., a path along a thick black line representing the sheet P in
The conveyor 2 includes a pick-up roller 21, intermediate rollers 22, conveyance rollers 23, discharge rollers 24, and a guide 25. These rollers are disposed along the conveyance path in the order of the feed roller 21, the intermediate rollers 22, the conveyance rollers 23, and the discharge rollers 24 from upstream to downstream in the conveyance direction.
The pick-up roller 21 is configured to feed, from the feed tray 1, a roll sheet Rp unwound from the roll body R supported by the roll supporter 11 or a cut sheet Kp placed on the placement surface 12 (more specifically, a cut sheet Kp picked up from the plurality of cut sheets Kp stacked on the placement surface 12). In the following description, when a roll sheet Rp and a cut sheet Kp are not distinguished from each other, they may be referred to as a “sheet P.”
The pick-up roller 21 is driven to rotate by a feed motor 21a (see
The intermediate rollers 22 include a driving roller and a driven roller. The driving roller is driven to rotate by a driving force from an intermediate motor 22a (see
The conveyance rollers 23 include a driving roller and a driven roller. The driving roller is driven to rotate by a driving force from a conveyance motor 23a (see
When the conveyance motor 23a are driven by the controller 9, the conveyance rollers 23 rotate while holding the sheet P therebetween, thereby conveying the sheet P forward in the conveyance direction. Likewise, when the discharge motor 24a are driven by the controller 9, the discharge rollers 24 rotate while holding the sheet P therebetween, thereby conveying the sheet P forward in the conveyance direction. The conveyance rollers 23 are disposed rearward of the head 5. The discharge rollers 24 are disposed in front of the head 5. The conveyance rollers 23 are configured to convey the sheet P guided forward by the guide 25 further forward toward the discharge rollers 24. The discharge rollers 24 are configured to convey the sheet P conveyed forward by the conveyance rollers 23 further forward while holding the sheet P therebetween, thereby discharging the sheet P onto the discharge tray 7.
The cutter 3 is disposed upstream of the intermediate rollers 22 in the conveyance direction, along the conveyance path. Further, the cutter 3 is disposed between the rear end portion of the feed tray 1 and the intermediate rollers 22. For instance, the cutter 3 includes a disk-shaped rotating blade and a driven blade. By a driving force from a cutting motor 3a (see
The head 5 includes a plurality of nozzles formed on a lower surface of the head 5, and a driver IC 52 (see
The moving mechanism 6 has two guide rails 61 and 62, and a carriage motor 63 (see
A platen 51 is disposed below the head 5. The platen 51 is a flat plate member configured to support the sheet P that is placed on the platen 51 after conveyed by the conveyor 2. The platen 51 extends to straddle and cover an area onto which ink is ejectable from the head 5 in both the front-to-rear direction and the left-to-right direction. The platen 51 has an absorbing member 53 to absorb ink. The absorbing member 53 is configured to absorb and hold ink that has been ejected from the head 5 to positions outside an area where the sheet P exists. The platen 51 has an ink receiving status sensor 95 to detect a status of the ink held by the absorbing member 53. The ink receiving status sensor 95 is configured to detect whether the absorbing member 53 is holding ink to its limit (platen full error). A result of the detection by the ink receiving status sensor 95 is output to the controller 9.
When the ink, which the head 5 has ejected while reciprocating along the scanning direction in accordance with the movement of the carriage 4, reaches the sheet P, dots are formed in sequence along the scanning direction on the sheet P. Such rows of dots along the scanning direction are formed in sequence as the sheet P is conveyed by the conveyor 2. In any rectangular area within an image forming target area on the sheet P, the dots are lined up in both the scanning direction and the conveyance direction. Thus, an image formed by such arrays of dots appears. For the cut sheet Kp, an entire surface area thereof corresponds to the image forming target area. For the roll sheet Rp, an after-mentioned user-defined area on the surface thereof corresponds to the image forming target area. The head 5 is enabled to eject ink toward the outside of the sheet P in the scanning direction. In such a case, the ink is absorbed by the absorbing member 53 of the platen 51.
The discharge tray 7 is disposed in front of the head 5 and above the feed tray 1 in the housing 100a. The discharge tray 7 is configured to be inserted in and removed from the housing 100a via an opening 100q formed in the front wall of the housing 100a along the front-to-rear direction. The sheet P with an image recorded thereon by the head 5 is received on the discharge tray 7.
When the sheet P is the roll sheet Rp, the roll sheet Rp itself as discharged onto the discharge tray 7 is a user-desired final printed material, or an appropriately-sized sheet cut out by the user from the roll sheet Rp is a final printed material. The cutting by the user is mainly made along the longitudinal direction (i.e., the direction corresponding to the conveyance direction of the roll sheet Rq) of the discharged roll sheet Rp, as will be described later. Hereinafter, the printed material finally obtained as above may be referred to as the “final printed material.”
A cartridge holder is disposed in the housing 100A. The cartridge holder is configured to hold four ink cartridges removably attached thereto, each of which stores ink of a corresponding one of the four colors (i.e., black, yellow, cyan, and magenta). Ink is supplied to the head 5 from each of the ink cartridges attached to the cartridge holder, for instance, via a tube.
A touch panel display 96 is disposed on an outside front face of the housing 100a. The touch panel display 96 is configured to display various types of information such as characters and images on its screen under control by the controller 9. The touch panel display 96 is further configured to, in response to an indicator (e.g., a finger or a stylus) coming into contact with the screen, detect the contact position and send the detection result to the controller 9.
The controller 9 is configured to take overall control of the printer 100. As shown in
As shown in
The controller 9 may be configured in such a manner that only the CPU 91 performs various processes, that the ASIC 94 performs various processes, or that the CPU 91 and the ASIC 94 perform various processes in cooperation with each other. The controller 9 may have a single CPU 91 configured to perform processing alone, or may have a plurality of CPUs 91 configured to share the processing. The controller 9 may have a single ASIC 94 configured to perform processing alone, or may have a plurality of ASICs 94 configured to share the processing.
The controller 9 mainly performs an information input process to allow the user to input various types of setting information, and an image forming process to form an image on the sheet P.
In the information input process, the controller 9 allows the user to input which the user selects from the two types of printing (i.e., the bordered printing and the borderless printing). In this process, the controller 9 causes the touch panel display 96 to display a screen containing text and images for prompting the user to input information, and the user is allowed to make a selection between the bordered printing and the borderless printing based on a position where the user has brought an indicator (e.g., his finger or a stylus) into contact with the touch panel display 96. The result of the selection is stored as setting information in the ROM 92 by the controller 9. Until such information is first input, the ROM 92 does not store any setting information indicating which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed.
In the image forming process, the controller 9 controls the conveyor 2, the cutter 3, and the head 5 as follows. Based on the image data stored in the RAM 93, the controller 9 alternately and repeatedly performs a sheet conveying operation and an image forming operation. In the sheet conveying operation, the controller 9 causes the conveyor 2 to convey the sheet P by a particular distance along the conveyance path. In the image forming operation, the controller 9 causes the head 5 to eject ink onto the sheet P from the plurality of nozzles while causing the moving mechanism 6 to reciprocate the carriage 4 along the scanning direction. Thereby, the controller 9 performs image formation by either the bordered printing or the borderless printing.
The borderless printing is a method to form an image over the entire image forming target area. In the illustrative embodiment, the controller 9 causes, in the borderless printing, the head 5 to eject ink onto an area that straddles and covers the image forming target area in both the longitudinal direction and the transverse direction. This makes it difficult for a blank space to be formed at a periphery portion of the image forming target area of the sheet P and makes it easy for an image to be surely formed over the entire image forming target area. On the other hand, in the borderless printing, ink may be ejected onto the outside of the sheet P. If ink is ejected onto the outside of the sheet P, the ink is absorbed by the absorbing member 53 of the platen 51. In the bordered printing, the controller 9 causes the head 9 to eject ink onto an area inside (and surrounded by) the periphery portion of the image forming target area. Namely, the bordered printing is a method to perform image formation while securing, at the periphery portion of the image forming target area, a margin where no image is formed. According to the bordered printing, it is difficult for ink to be ejected onto the outside of the sheet P.
For instance, when the sheet P is the cut sheet Kp, the image forming target area is set to an entire surface area of the cut sheet Kp. Then, as indicated by an alternate long and short dash line in
When the sheet P is the roll sheet Rp, the image forming target area is set to a user-defined area β. The user-defined area β is an area with a user-defined size on the roll sheet Rp. As indicated by an alternate long and short dash line in
In the meantime, as described above, in the illustrative embodiment, the image data may not contain data that explicitly indicates which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed. If the printer 100 is configured to uniformly perform image formation by the borderless printing or uniformly perform image formation by the bordered printing when the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed, there may be a risk of frequently occurring cases in which an image unintended by the user has been formed.
Therefore, the controller 9 in the illustrative embodiment is configured to select either the bordered printing or the borderless printing based on a status of the printer 100 and contents of the image data when the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed. For instance, the status of the printer 100 includes contents of the setting information stored in the ROM 92. Further, for instance, the contents of the image data include contents of the data indicating the user-defined size and the image. The controller 9 may be configured to, when the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed, select one of the bordered printing and the borderless printing, based on the status of the printer 100 or a content of the image data, or based on the status of the printer 100 and the content of the image data. The controller 9 selects either the bordered printing or the borderless printing based on information such as the above information that suggests the user's intention.
Specifically, the controller 9 performs a process shown in
On the other hand, in response to determining that the absorbing member 53 is not in the state of platen full error (S1: No), the controller 9 determines whether the image data contains data that explicitly indicates which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed (S2). For instance, the determination in S2 is made by determining, when a character string indicating that the borderless printing is on or off is set as an image data format, whether the image data contains data indicating the character string. In response to determining that the image data contains data that explicitly indicates which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed (S2: Yes), the controller 9 determines whether the data contained in the image data indicates the bordered printing or the borderless printing (S8). In response to determining that the data contained in the image data indicates the bordered printing (S8: Bordered Printing), the controller 9 proceeds to S7 to perform the bordered printing. Meanwhile, in response to determining that the data contained in the image data indicates the borderless printing (S8: Borderless Printing), the controller 9 proceeds to S10 to perform the borderless printing. In the bordered printing, the controller 9 performs image formation in such a manner that the entire image represented by the image data is formed over the entire area a shown in
In response to determining that the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed (S2: No), the controller 9 determines whether setting information indicating which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed is stored in the ROM 92 (S3). In response to determining that setting information indicating which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed is stored in the ROM 92 (S3: Yes), the controller 9 determines whether the setting information stored in the ROM 92 indicates the bordered printing or the borderless printing (S9). In response to determining that the setting information stored in the ROM 92 indicates the bordered printing (S9: Bordered Printing), the controller 9 proceeds to S7 to perform the bordered printing. Meanwhile, in response to determining that the setting information stored in the ROM 92 indicates the borderless printing (S9: Borderless Printing), the controller 9 proceeds to S10 to perform the borderless printing.
In response to determining that setting information indicating which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed is not stored in the ROM 92 (S3: No), the controller 9 determines whether the user-defined size in the transverse direction that is indicated by the image data is smaller than a particular value (S4). As shown in
In response to determining in S4 that the user-defined size in the transverse direction is equal to or greater than the particular value (S4: No), the controller 9 determines whether a blank space corresponding to the margin A in
According to the illustrative embodiment described above, even when the image data does not contain data that explicitly indicates which of the bordered printing and the borderless printing is to be performed, the controller 9 selects either the bordered printing or the borderless printing based on the status of the printer 100 and the contents of the image data, without uniformly selecting a particular one of the bordered printing and the borderless printing (see S2 to S10 in
In the illustrative embodiment, as a selection between the bordered printing and the borderless printing based on the contents of the image data, the controller 9 makes the selection based on the user-defined size (see S7 after S4: Yes in
Further, in the illustrative embodiment, the controller 9 selects either the bordered printing or the borderless printing based at least on a status of a range of the blank space included in the periphery portion of the image represented by the image data. Specifically, when the user-defined size in the transverse direction is equal to or greater than the particular value (S4: No in
While aspects of the present disclosure have been described in conjunction with various example structures outlined above and illustrated in the drawings, various alternatives, modifications, variations, improvements, and/or substantial equivalents, whether known or that may be presently unforeseen, may become apparent to those having at least ordinary skill in the art. Accordingly, the example embodiment(s), as set forth above, are intended to be illustrative of the technical concepts according to aspects of the present disclosure, and not limiting the technical concepts. Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the technical concepts according to aspects of the present disclosure. Therefore, the disclosure is intended to embrace all known or later developed alternatives, modifications, variations, improvements, and/or substantial equivalents. Some specific examples of potential alternatives, modifications, or variations according to aspects of the present disclosure are provided below.
In the aforementioned illustrative embodiment, as shown in
In the aforementioned illustrative embodiment, the controller 9 performs the process shown in
In the aforementioned illustrative embodiment, aspects of the present disclosure have been applied to the inkjet printer 100. However, practicable examples to which aspects of the present disclosure are applicable are not limited thereto. Aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to a system having another inkjet-type image forming apparatus (e.g., a multi-function peripheral or a copy machine) configured to eject ink from a head. Further, aspects of the present disclosure may be applied to a system having a laser-type image forming apparatus configured to perform an image recording process by transferring toner onto a printing sheet instead of ejecting ink onto the printing sheet in the inkjet method. In this case, a toner cartridge containing toner may be removably attached to the image forming apparatus.
The following shows examples of associations between elements illustrated in the aforementioned illustrative embodiment(s) and modification(s), and elements claimed according to aspects of the present disclosure. For instance, the printer 100 may be an example of an “image forming apparatus” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The head 5 may be included in an “image forming engine” according to aspects of the present disclosure. Further, the carriage 4 and the moving mechanism 6 may be included in the “image forming engine” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The controller 9 may be an example of a “controller” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The feed tray 1 may be an example of a “sheet medium storage” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The conveyor 2 may be an example of a “conveyor” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The cutter 3 may be an example of a “cutter” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The ROM 92 may be an example of a “memory” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The ROM 92 may be an example of a “non-transitory computer-readable storage medium” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The programs 92a may be an example of “computer-readable instructions” according to aspects of the present disclosure. The CPU 91 and the ASIC 94 may be included in examples of a “processor” according to aspects of the present disclosure. An “image forming target area” according to aspects of the present disclosure may be an area of an entire surface of an image formation medium, or may be a partial area of the surface of the image formation medium. For instance, the former may be an area set for a standard-size sheet of A4 or B5. For instance, the latter may be an area set for roll paper of a long sheet of paper wound in a roll shape. As a more specific example in a case where the roll paper is used, a user-defined size area set for the roll paper may correspond to the “image forming target area” according to aspects of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-191183 | Nov 2022 | JP | national |
