Patent Application
20080018944
The configuration of an image forming apparatus 1 related to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is explained referring to
The image forming apparatus 1 related to the embodiment is configured to have an ADF (Automatic Document Feeder) 10, an image read-in section 20, an image writing section 21, an image forming section 22, a conveying section 30, and one or more sheet feeding trays 40. The image forming apparatus 1, for example, reads-in the documents fed from the ADF 10 in the image reading section 20 and carries out image processing, and then forms the image on the sheet fed from a sheet feeding tray 40 by the image forming section 22. The sheet, on which the image is formed is conveyed by the conveying section 30. Meanwhile, the image forming method in the image forming apparatus 1 related to the embodiment is the widely known electro-photographic method. The configuration of each section of the image forming apparatus 1 are described below.
The automatic document feeding apparatus 10 has a document loading section 11 on which the document is placed, and when the document is loaded on it, it conveys said document to the image reading section 20. The document of which image is read by the image reading section 20 is discharges to the document discharge section 12.
The image reading section 20 reads the image of document that is conveyed from the automatic document feeding apparatus 10 or is placed on a document table 13 using a CCD (Charge Coupled Device). The image writing section 21 radiates laser light beam corresponding to the image data read onto a photoreceptor drum 23 thereby forming an electrostatic latent image, developing this electrostatic latent image, and forming a toner image on the photoreceptor drum 23.
On the other hand, recording sheets are conveyed by the conveying section 30 to the image forming section 22 from the sheet feeding trays 40.
The image forming section 22 has a photoreceptor drum, and transfers the toner image formed on the photoreceptor drum. When said toner image is transferred onto the sheet, the sheet is separated from the photoreceptor drum, and said toner image is fixed on the sheet by applying pressure and heat. In the case of double-sided printing, an image is formed also on the other surface of said sheet. The sheet on which image formation is made is discharged form the image forming apparatus 1.
Next, using
As is shown in
The control section 5 is configured to include a microprocessor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), a RAM (Random Access Memory) and a ROM (Read Only Memory) etc. In addition, control programs are stored in advance in ROM 9, and the CPU loads said control programs into the RAM. Thus it functions as control section 5. Specifically, it carries reading control, read address control, transmission and reception control, display operation control, image processing control, rearrangement processing to rearrange read-out address, stamp data combining processing, and printer control. Each of the processes and controls are described later. In addition, ROM 9 also stores display screen data that is displayed in the display section 8a of display operation section 8 in advance.
Image data transmitted from an external terminal 50, and received by the I/F 3 via the network 2, is temporally stored in memory 4. The network 2 can be, for example, a LAN (Local Area Network), etc.
The temporally stored image data is subjected to image processing, and is transmitted to the image memory 6 by the transmission and reception control to be described. The image memory 6 stores the image data received from the receiving memory 4 and the image data read out through the image reading section 20.
The stamp data creation section 7 is configured to have an internal clock for managing the date information, and a counter for counting the serial number. Also, the stamp data creation section 7 stores in advance the identification information of the image forming apparatus, and manages the serial number used for the management number, etc., and the date information that indicates the output date. Among these, the serial number is incremented and updated every time it is added to the image data. Stamp creation section 7 creates the stamp data having these items of information, according to the settings made via the display operation section 8. Meanwhile, the information managed by the internal clock can also be the date and time information.
The display operation section 8 is configured to have a display section 8a and an operation section 8b. For this display section 8a, for example, an arbitrary display device such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) can be used. The operation section 8b is configured including an arbitrary input device and an operation device such as operation buttons, ten keys, light pen, etc. Meanwhile, the display section 8a and the operation 8b need not be provided separately, but they can be integrated such as, for example, a touch panel type LCD display, etc.
Here, each process and control of the control section 5 in an image forming apparatus 1 related to the embodiment are explained below.
In the read-in control by the control section 5, the automatic document feeding apparatus 10 is controlled to convey the document loaded in it or the document placed on the document table is conveyed to the image reading section 20, and the image of the document is read out by the image reading section 20.
In the transmission and reception control by the control section 5, when there is an input of image data from the image reading section 20 or from the network 2, the image data is received as a job and is accepted in input sequence of pages of the image data. When the job is received from the network 2, the image data input via the I/F 3 is stored in the receiving memory 4 temporally. The image data temporally stored in receiving memory 4 is image-processed and transmitted to image memory 6. On the other hand, when the job is received from the image reading section 20 based on the read-out control, read-out address is given to the image data related to the job and is controlled to be memorized in the input sequence of page in image memory 6. Further, according to the instructions from the display operation section, the control is carried out transmission of the image data to an external device via the network 2.
In the read-out address control by the control section 5, for each page of the image data received via the I/F 3 or from the image reading section 20, the read out address is allocated in the input sequence. The image data corresponding to this allocated address is memorized in the image storage device 6. Next, a list of read-out addresses is made and the image data is controlled using the list. Also, this read- out address is used, when the stamp data combining process to be described later, is carried out, for read-out the image data from the image memory 6, and, when outputting the image data in which the stamp data is combined, this is also used for reading-out the combined image data.
In the display operation control by the control section 5, the display screen, in which the user sets details related to the job regarding the documents to be input, is displayed in the display section 8a of the display operation section 8. The details related to jobs are, for example, the details related to the sheets for the output image data (enlargement or reduction ratio, sheet orientation, size of sheets, and heet feeding tray, etc.), the details related to the output sequence of the job (book copy function, page and inserting function), details related to output (number of sheets, sheet discharging ray, sheet discharging mode, sorting, separating, presence or absence of transmission to IP scanner and transmission destination, etc.), details related to bookbinding (position of stitching and type of printing, etc.), and the details related to the stamp (date information, image forming apparatus identification information and serial number, etc.).
As an example of the settings of details related to the job, etc., set by the user, there is the setting of the book copying function or the setting of the page insertion function. For example, in the display screen displayed in the display section 8a, the user can make these settings using the operation section 8b. Further, these settings are normally made before carrying out the operations of inputting the document data.
Here, the method of setting the book copying function or the page insertion function is described below with reference to
As is shown in
For example, when using the book copying function as the page editing function of the output images, the book copying function button 61 is selected through the operation section 8b, and the detailed settings for the book copying are made. When using the page insertion function, the page insertion function button 62 is selected, and the settings are made in the page insertion setting screen. Further, in the present embodiment, the operation of the editing functions list screen 60 is carried out using the display section 8a and the operation section 8b.
To confirm any one of the selected book copying functions, the user selects the OK button 74 through the operation section 8b. When any book copying function is selected and the OK button 74 is pressed, the control section 5 stores the corresponding selected conditions into ROM 9 as the control signals. In these control signals, the output sequence of the page of the job for the documents is included. Further, when canceling the book copying function, select the Cancel button 75. When the cancel button 75 is selected, the control section 5 reads-out the screen data of the editing functions list screen 60 from ROM 9 and displays it in the display section 8a.
Here, “Two-page spread reading” is the function by which the image forming apparatus 1 accepts input of a two-page spread document, and the two-page spread document inputted is divided into two pages i.e. left and right or top and bottom pages, and these are respectively output as separate pages. Further, the “two-page spread reading for front and back cover sheet” function is a function of rearranging the output page sequence wherein when the “Back cover” is input second in a single job, “Back cover” is output last in the page output sequence of the job of the two-page spread document. The “two-page spread reading” here is the same as that described earlier. However, in this, book copying function, while the “Front cover sheet” and the “Back cover sheet” are inputted first and second, “Front cover sheet” and the “Back cover sheet” are outputted without being divided.
Further,
The settings button 82 is selected for inputting insertion pages in the page insertion assigning area 81a and 81b and for setting the insertion pages so input. When the insertion pages are needed to be modified, the page insertion assigning area where the insertion pages to be modified are inputted is selected and then the delete button 83 is selected. When the setting of the insertion pages is completed, the OK button 84 is selected in the operation section 8b, thereby the insertion page function is confirmed.
In this manner, when any insertion page function is selected and then the OK button 84 is selected, the control section 5 transmits the conditions of the confirmed insertion page function as control signals and stores them in ROM 9. These control signals include the sequence of page output of the job related to the document. Further, the cancel button 85 is selected in case the insertion page function is cancelled. When the cancel button 85 is selected, the control section 5 reads-out the screen data of the editing functions list screen 60 and displays it in the display section 8a.
The insertion page function here means that after reading a document having a plurality of pages sequentially, a new document different from that read in advance is read, and at the time of outputting these documents data, the documents are not output in the sequence in which they were read-in, but the newly read image data of the document is inserted in between some desired pages among the plurality of pages of image data of the document read first, and the images data are output in that sequence.
Further, regarding the setting of the stamp, the user can carry out setting of combining stamp data and image data of the document in a screen displayed in the display section 8a, through operation section 8b. The control section 5 transmits the setting of executing stamp data combining as control signals and stores them in ROM 9.
In the above manner, the rearrangement processing of outputting sequence and the stamp data creation processing to be described are executed based on the control signals related to the conditions of page editing or related to the settings of the stamp data stored in ROM 9.
In the image processing control by the control section 5, compression processing or decompression processing is carried out for the image data of the document memorized in the receiving memory 4 or in the image memory 6, and image processing where the input or output document data is rotated is carried out, so that the function of generating the timing signals of the I/F 3 is carried out. In addition, the control of discharging the document which is read-in the image read-in section 20.
In the rearranging processing of outputting sequence by the control section 5, a judgment is made as to whether or not page output sequence rearrangement processing for the image data of the document stored in image memory 6 is to be carried out. In this judgment, whether or not the control signals related to the rearrangement processing of page outputting sequence for the aforesaid job is stored in ROM 9. In case, the control signals related to page rearrangement is stored in ROM 9, the page rearrangement processing described later is carried out based on the information related to the page sequence which is present in those control signals.
As a concrete method of this rearrangement processing, for example, it is possible that the output sequence of image data to be output is changed by rearranging readout address added to each page of image data of the document in a read-out address list made by address management function regarding the job.
Further, the processing of rearranging the output sequence is executed in the cases, for example, when the “two-page spread reading for front and back cover sheet” function is set for the book copying function, when the insertion page function is set, or when some other inter-sheet function is set. Now, the condition in which the output sequence is rearranged is explained with referring to
Further,
When the “two-page spread reading for front and back cover sheet” function is set for the book copying function, as shown in
Further, when the insertion page function has been set, as is shown in
In the stamp data processing by the control section 5, if the control signals indicating that the stamp data related to the job is to be combined is stored in ROM 9, the stamp data creation section 7 creates the stamp data based on those control signals. This stamp data is created for each page of the image data. This stamp data creation processing is carried out after the rearrangement processing when the rearrangement processing is executed. In addition, when adding a serial number to each page of the image data as stamp data, every time the serial number is added, a counter is incremented one by one and this increment updates the serial number for the next image data to which the stamp is added.
In the stamp data combining processing by the control section 5, the stamp data created for each page of the image data is combined with the corresponding image data. This combining processing is, for example, as shown in
Further, in the stamp data combining processing, the image data in which the optional stamp and the image data are combined is stored in image memory 6. In addition, when the combined image data is stored in the image memory 6, it is registered in the read-out address list that combined image data is combined with the stamp data using the read-out address added to the combined image data,
In the printer control, a job related to the inputted image data of the document is carried out and combined image data stored in image memory 6 is output to the sheet for forming an image by controlling the image writing section 21, the image forming section 22, the conveying section 30, and the sheet feeding trays 40.
Next, using
Control section 5 stores the conditions set in ROM 9 in case conditions related to the job for the document is set. At this time, based on the conditions stored in ROM 9, a judgment is made as to whether or not the aforesaid rearrangement process of image data outputting sequence is to be carried out.
When a job related to an image data of a document is accepted and the image data of the document is inputted, the control section 5 starts processing the job related to the image data of the document based on the set conditions of the image data of the document which is set by the display operation control when a job related to an image data of a document is accepted and the image data of the document data is inputted. At this time, the processing is started with the conditions set beforehand in case no setting have been made by the display operation section. The processing here means managing of the read-out addresses and so forth.
When the processing of the job related to the image data of the document starts, the control section 5 carries out compression processing on the image data of the document inputted and stores it in the image memory 6. Further, when the image data of the document is inputted by reading the document placed on automatic document feeding device 10 or on the document table 13, the image is stored in image memory 6, and the image data inputted from an external apparatus such as an external terminal 50, etc., is first stored in the receiving memory 4 and is then stored in the image memory 6.
Control section 5 judges whether the reading of all the documents is completed for the job referring to the set conditions for the job related to that document stored in S01 and the number of pages in the job related to the documents accepted in S02.
If it is judged that the reading of documents is not completed (S04: NO), the operation in S02 of inputting the image of the document is continued.
When, the control section 5 judges that the reading of the image of the documents is completed (S04: YES) in S04, the output sequence of the image data of document stored in the image memory 6 is rearranged by changing the read-out address added to each page in the read-out addresses list. This rearrangement is carried out based on the information related to the output sequence of image data of each page in the conditions stored in the RAM in S01. For example, as shown in
The control section 5 creates the stamps data for each of the pages of the rearranged image data when the rearrangement processing for output sequence of the image data is executed in S05 and the rearrangement processing is completed. This stamp data is created based on set conditions stored in the RAM in S01. In this manner, by carrying out the creation of the stamp data after the rearrangement processing of output sequence of the image data, even in case the rearrangement processing of output sequence of image data is made, the serial numbers of the stamp will be output as sequential numbers without having contradiction of the output sequence. For example, even when the “two-page spread reading for front and back cover sheet” function is set in the book copying function, as shown in
After control section 5 executes and completes creation processing of the stamp data in S06, the control section 5 combines the stamps data created for each page with the image data in the sequence of the image data where the output sequence is rearranged in the read-out list in S05. In this manner, an image data becomes the combined image data where the image data and the stamp data combined, which is actually output.
The control section 5 stores the combined image data in which the stamp data combining processing in S07 is carried out, in the image memory 6. At this time, the sequence of the pages of the image data stored becomes the sequence of the list of read-out addresses which is rearranged by the output sequence rearrangement processing.
Every time a serial number is added to each page of the image data as the stamp data in S07, the control section 5 increments the serial number of the counter in the stamp data creation section 7 by 1, and updates the serial number stored in the stamp data creation section 7 by the incremented value.
When the serial number stored in the stamp data creation section 7 is updated, the control section 5 makes a judgment as to whether the combining of the stamp data is completed for all pages of the image data in the job related to the document. This judgment is made by judging whether the image data for each read-out address is registered as “processed” based on the list of read-out addresses prepared in the image memory 6 by the read-out address management function.
If it is judged that the combining of stamp data is not completed (S10: NO), the stamp data combining is continued again from S06. On the other hand, if it is judged that the combining of stamp data is already completed (S10: YES), the control section 5 executes the job related to the document, and controls the image writing section 21, the image forming section 22, the conveying section 30, and the sheet feeding trays 40, and then outputs the combined image data stored the image memory 6 according to the method set in display operation, namely forming an image on a sheet or outputting an image via IP scanner transmission.
The operation and effect of the image forming apparatus related to the present embodiment described above are explained hereunder.
The image forming apparatus related to the embodiment of the present invention sets the output sequence different from the input sequence of the image data of the document through control section 5. Further in case of “two-page spread reading for front and back cover sheet” function of the book copying function or page insertion function which requires rearrangement processing of the output sequence, stamp data and image data of the document for each page are combined after the output sequence is changed.
Therefore, even when the stamp data function is set and the rearrangement processing of output sequence is executed, it is possible to make the serial number added to the image data of the document into the sequential number which is in the sequence of output. As the result, it prevents that the output sequence and the serial number are reversed between pages of the job, and a contradiction between the output sequence and stamp. Thus it can avoid confusion of user.
Next, a modified example of an image forming apparatus related to the present invention is explained hereunder.
In the image forming apparatus 1 according to the embodiment described above, although it is configured that a sequential serial number, the date information or the identification information of image forming apparatus are combined together as a function to identify the image outputted, the present invention shall not be construed to be limited to this embodiment. For example, it is also possible to combine page numbers, standard format stamps, and watermarks that are added to the output image, and it is further possible to combine text information such as “Confidential”, “Circular”, “Recover”, “Copy Prohibited”, “Urgent”, etc., as the stamp data with image data of the document, thereby making it possible to eliminate the work of affixing these text information by manual operations.
Further, although the image forming apparatus 1 related to the embodiment is configured to have a plurality of input sections (I/F 3, image reading section 20, etc.,) and a plurality of output sections (I/F 3, image forming section 22, etc.,), the present invention shall not be construed to be limited to this embodiment, and it is possible that only one input section is provided, and similarly, it is possible that only one output section is provided. In this modified example, by preventing a contradiction between the output sequence and stamp, the user can avoid confusion.
Further, although the image forming apparatus 1 related to the embodiment is configured that in the rearrangement processing of output sequence by the control section 5, the rearrangement of the output sequence is executed by rearranging the read-out address affixed to each image data in the list of read- out addresses, the present invention shall not be construed to be limited to this embodiment and it is possible to configure that the image data per se is rearranged. For example, it can be configured that in image memory, the image data of the document can be managed by the list, and control section 5 rearranges the image data of the document in the list. In this modified example, similar to the image forming apparatus 1 related to the embodiment described above, it is possible to avoid confusion of the user by preventing any contradiction between the output sequence and the stamps.
According to the embodiments, the configuration is such that after the sequence of the pages is rearranged by the output sequence adjusting section, said page and the stamp data are combined, and the combined image data is then output. Therefore, even if the output sequence of the images data is different from the input sequence of the document, the serial numbers are not assigned in the input sequence of the document, but because the stamp data are added to the image data which is rearranged in the output sequence set, it is possible to assign the sequential serial numbers to the output image data in the output sequence, and to prevent a shift between the output sequence and the serial numbers. As a result, it is possible to avoid the confusion for the users of the output sequence rearranging function in the image forming apparatus.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP2006-198202 | Jul 2006 | JP | national |
| JP2007-136631 | May 2007 | JP | national |
