Patent Application
20220291884
Image forming apparatuses may be capable of performing functions such as printing documents, scanning documents, copying documents, and/or the like. An image forming apparatus may be a single function peripheral (SFP) or a multi-function peripheral (MFP). Example SFP may include a printer, a copier, or the like that may perform one of the functions. Example MFP can incorporate the functionality of multiple devices in one, to perform a combination of some or all of a printer, a scanner, a photocopier, and the like. Such image forming apparatuses may be capable of performing the functions based on user-defined setting information.
Examples are described in the following detailed description and in reference to the drawings, in which:
An image forming apparatus (e.g., a single function peripheral (SFP) or a multi-function peripheral (MFP)) may be capable of performing different functions. The functions may include printing documents, scanning documents, copying documents, and/or the like. For example, the image forming apparatus may execute a print/copy request in accordance with user-defined setting information. The print/copy request may include a document (e.g., including multiple pages) to be printed. Further, a print quality may depend on various factors such as a type of a print medium, a device (e.g., a printer, scanner, and/or the like) used to perform the function, setting information, and/or the like. For example, the print quality may depend on parameters such as a contrast setting, a darkness setting, ink density of the print content, legibility of the print content, and/or the like.
In order to print the document with an acceptable print quality, one option may be to print the complete document and check whether the print quality is as expected. Another option may be to cancel the print/copy request during the printing of the document when a user identifies an unacceptable print quality. In both the scenarios, if the print quality is not acceptable, the user may have to modify the setting information of the image forming apparatus, retrigger the print/copy request, and analyze the printed output. Thus, the user may end up printing the document multiple times to obtain the acceptable print quality. However, printing the document multiple times may lead to a wastage of toner/ink, print medium (i.e., paper), and user's time, thereby affecting user experience.
In other examples, the user may print a page (e.g., a first page, a middle page, or any page) of the document as a sample to check the print quality. Upon printing the sample page, the user may end up printing remaining pages of the print/copy request assuming the print quality would be good. However, the print quality of some of the pages may not be acceptable as the sample page may not be the one which consumes a maximum or heavy toner/ink compared to other pages. Thus, printing of such test prints may affect productivity and also results in a wastage of toner/ink, media, and the like.
Examples described herein may provide an image forming apparatus to manage print/copy requests. The image forming apparatus may receive a print/copy request to print a document having multiple pages. Further, the image forming apparatus may estimate an amount of print material coverage for each page in the document and select a page having a maximum amount of print material coverage from the document. Furthermore, the image forming apparatus may print the selected page on a print medium. Upon printing the selected page, the image forming apparatus may provide at least one user-selectable option on a user interface and receive a user input via the user-selectable option. Further, the image forming apparatus may manage an execution of the print/copy request in accordance with the user input.
In an example, the image forming apparatus may execute the print/copy request to print remaining pages of the document when the user input indicates a user acceptance of a print quality of the selected page. In another example, the image forming apparatus may discard the execution of the print/copy request when the user input indicates a user refusal of the print quality of the selected page. In yet another example, the image forming apparatus may enable to modify setting information to execute the print/copy request when the user input indicates a user decision to change the setting information. Thus, examples described herein may enable the image forming apparatus to determine a maximum print material coverage page of a print/copy request and print the maximum print material coverage page prior to executing the print/copy request. Thus, examples described herein may reduce/avoid the wastage of toner/ink, print media, and/or user's time, and thereby enhancing the user experience.
In the following description, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present techniques. However, the example apparatuses, devices, and systems, may be practiced without these specific details. Reference in the specification to “an example” or similar language means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described may be included in at least that one example but may not be in other examples.
Turning now to the figures,
Example image forming apparatus 100 may include a processor 102 and a memory 104 coupled to processor 102. Processor 102 may be any type of central processing unit (CPU), microprocessor, or processing logic that interprets and executes machine-readable instructions stored in memory 104. Further, memory 104 may include quality acknowledgment-based print module 106.
During operation, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may receive a print request including a document to be printed. Example print request may include the document to be printed in accordance with setting information. The setting information may include a quality setting such as color or black/white, resolution, halftone or binary image, contour enhancement, and/or the like. In an example, the document may include a first page and a second page. An example document 200 including a first page 202 and a second page 204 may be depicted in
In an example, image forming apparatus 100 may receive the print request from a user device corresponding to a user. The user device may be communicatively connected to image forming apparatus 100 via a network. Example network may be a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN), the Internet, and/or the like. The user device may be an electronic device supporting a printing application to generate the print request. For example, the user device may be a laptop, a desktop, a mainframe computer, a smartphone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, or the like. Further, the user device may include a printer driver (e.g., to support the printing application) that is either installed in or accessible to the user device to generate the print request and send the print request to image forming apparatus 100 for printing.
In another example, image forming apparatus 100 may include an email-based print function which allows the user to print the document by emailing the document to an email address associated with image forming apparatus 100. In yet another example, image forming apparatus 100 may include a read-slot (e.g., a universal serial bus (USB) interface) to receive a memory card (e.g., an SD™ card (Secure Digital card), a CompactFlash™, flash drives having a USB interface, or the like), in which electronic documents to-be-printed are stored. Furthermore, a print request associated with the electronic documents may be triggered through a user interface 108 (e.g., a control panel) of image forming apparatus 100.
Further, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may estimate an amount of print material coverage for the first page and the second page. In an example, the print material coverage may indicate an amount of print material that can be consumed to print each of the first page and the second page. In the example
In an example, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may estimate a percent coverage of each page, e.g., a ratio of black pixels to total number of pixels on the printable area of the page. The total number of printable pixels may include the total number of pixels on the printable area of the page and may depend on a size of the selected page (e.g., A4 size). The number of pixels to be printed per page may be determined from a count of image pixels that are received from the user device. Particularly, each pixel value that is received by quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may be indicative of a spot which may have ink/toner applied. Each such pixel value may be counted, and the count may be used to provide an indication of the amount of ink/toner used for the respective page.
Furthermore, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may select a page from the first page and the second page based on the estimated amount of the print material coverage. In an example, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may select the page having a maximum amount of print material coverage from the first page and the second page based on the estimation. In an example, the print material coverage may be a sum of color print material coverages when the print request is a color print job. In another example, the print material coverage may be a black print material coverage when the print request is a monochrome black print job. Example print material coverage may be a toner coverage or an ink coverage. In the example shown in
Upon selecting the page, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may print the selected page on print medium (e.g., a paper). Further, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may generate a notification on user interface 108 (e.g., of image forming apparatus 100) in response to printing the selected page. The notification may seek a user input to execute the print request, discard the print request, or modify setting information to execute the print request. In other examples, the notification may also be sent to the user device that is used to initiate the print request. An example user interface 108 depicting the notification is described in
Furthermore, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may receive the user input via user interface 108 in response to printing the selected page. Further, quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may manage the execution of the print request (e.g., execute the print request, discard the print request, or enable to modify the setting information) in accordance with the user input.
In some examples, the functionalities described herein, in relation to instructions to implement functions of quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 and any additional instructions described herein in relation to the storage medium, may be implemented as engines or modules including any combination of hardware and programming to implement the functionalities of the modules or engines described herein. The functions of quality acknowledgment-based print module 106 may also be implemented by a processor. In examples described herein, processor may include, for example, one processor or multiple processors included in a single device or distributed across multiple devices.
Further, notification 302 may provide a second option 306 to discard the print request. In this example, printing of second page 204 may be terminated. Furthermore, notification 302 may provide a third option 308 to modify setting information corresponding to the print request. In this example, when third option 308 is selected, the user may be provided with other options on user interface 108 to modify the setting information of the print request. Further, based on the modified setting information, the print request may be retriggered.
In another example, upon receiving the user input to discard the execution of the print request, a second notification 450 may be generated on user interface 108 as shown in
Furthermore, image forming apparatus 500 may include printer 510 capable of printing the scanned document. Printer 510 may include processor 512. During operation, processor 512 may estimate an amount of print material coverage for each page of the scanned document. Further, processor 512 may select a page having a maximum amount of print material coverage from the scanned document based on the estimation. In an example, for each page, processor 512 may:
Furthermore, processor 512 may print the selected page on a print medium in accordance with setting information. An example document 600 having first page 602 and second page 604 is depicted in
Consider that the amount of print material coverage for first page 602 may be greater than the amount of print material coverage for second page 604 based on the number of objects within first page 602 and second page 604, the type of the objects, and the amount of dot area coverage for the objects as shown in
Upon printing the selected page (e.g., first page 602), processor 512 may provide, on a user interface 504 of control panel 502, a set of user-selectable options to manage an execution of the request. Further, processor 512 may manage the execution of the request in response to receiving a user input via a user-selectable option of the set of user-selectable options.
In an example, processor 512 may execute the request to print remaining pages of the scanned document when the selected option indicates a user acceptance of a print quality of the selected page. In another example, processor 512 may discard the execution of the request when the selected option indicates a user refusal of the print quality of the selected page.
In yet another example, processor 512 may enable to modify the setting information to execute the request to copy the document when the selected option indicates a user decision to change the setting information. Further, processor 512 may receive modified setting information to execute the request to copy the document via user interface 504 of image forming apparatus 500. Furthermore, processor 512 may reinitiate the copy job and repeat the process of printing, providing, and managing using the modified setting information.
At 702, a print/copy request including a document having multiple pages may be received by an image forming apparatus. In an example, the image forming apparatus may receive the print request from a user device via a wired connection (e.g., a USB connection) or a wireless connection (e.g., server-based printing, cloud-based printing, or the like). In another example, the image forming apparatus may receive the print request from the user device via an email (e.g., email-based printing). In yet another example, the image forming apparatus may receive the print request via a control panel of the image forming apparatus (e.g., walk-up USB printing). In other examples, the image forming apparatus may receive the copy request to copy the document via the control panel.
At 704, a check may be made to determine whether the print request includes an instruction to check quality of a print. In other words, the check may be made to determine whether a “quality acknowledged print” option is selected while generating the print request. When the “quality acknowledged print” option is not selected, the print request may be executed to print the document, at 706. When the “quality acknowledged print” option is selected, the print request may be parsed and stored, at 708. For example, the multiple pages of the document corresponding to the print request may be parsed and stored in the image forming apparatus.
At 710, an amount of print material coverage (e.g., ink/toner coverage) may be estimated for each page of the document upon parsing the print request. At 712, a page having a maximum amount of print material coverage may be selected from the multiple pages and the selected page may be printed. In an example, the amount of print material coverage may be estimated based on objects in the multiple pages. For example, while generating the print request, the print driver may generate the print job with objects. Further, the objects may include text stream, images, or other multimedia elements. The colors used for the objects may be mentioned in an array. Furthermore, the objects may have color values associated with each stream of data. From the color values of each objects, print material coverage for each page may be calculated in red, green, and Blue (RGB) format. Furthermore, the values may get converted to cyan magenta yellow black (CMYK). Based on coverage value in CMYK, the page with the maximum amount of print material coverage can be identified.
Further, as the identified page would be the maximum ink/toner consuming page, the identified page can be printed first. Upon printing the selected page, a user interface with multiple user-selectable options may be provided to proceed with the print request, at 714. Thus, the user can check the quality of the printed page and then decide whether to proceed with the print request. User can then take the decision to continue printing, change a print setting, or discard the print job in the image forming apparatus.
At 716, a check may be made to determine whether the selected option indicates an execution of the print request. When the user selected option indicates to execute the print request, the print request may be executed, at 718. In this example, the user may accept the quality of the printed page, so remaining pages of the document may be printed. When the selected option does not indicate to execute the print request, a check may be made to determine whether the selected option indicates to modify a print setting corresponding to the print request, at 720. When the user selected option does not indicate to modify the print setting, the print request may be discarded, at 722. When the user selected option indicates to modify the print setting, a user interface may be provided to modify the print setting and the modified print setting may be received, at 724.
In an example, based on the received modified print setting, the print request may be executed to print the document (e.g., as shown in block 718). In another example, if a quality check may have to be made before executing the print request with the modified print setting, the user may select “quality acknowledged print” option while modifying the print setting. In this example, method 700 may goes to 712 and repeat the process shown in bocks 712 to 724 with the modified print setting.
Machine-readable storage medium 804 may be a random-access memory (RAM) or another type of dynamic storage device that may store information and machine-readable instructions that may be executed by processor 802. For example, machine-readable storage medium 804 may be synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), double data rate (DDR), rambus DRAM (RDRAM), rambus RAM, etc., or storage memory media such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a CD-ROM, a DVD, a pen drive, and the like. In an example, machine-readable storage medium 804 may be non-transitory machine-readable medium. Machine-readable storage medium 804 may be remote but accessible to server 800.
As shown in
Instructions 808 may be executed by processor 802 to estimate an amount of print material coverage for the first page and the second page. In an example, instructions 808 to estimate the amount of print material coverage for the first page and the second page may include instructions to:
Instructions 810 may be executed by processor 802 to select a page having a maximum amount of print material coverage from the first page and the second page based on the estimation. Instructions 812 may be executed by processor 802 to transmit the selected page to the image forming apparatus for printing.
Instructions 814 may be executed by processor 802 to receive a user input via a user interface of the image forming apparatus. In an example, server 800 may instruct the image forming apparatus to print the selected page on a print medium. Further, server 800 may instruct the image forming apparatus to generate a notification on the user interface in response to printing the selected page. The notification may seek a user input to execute the print request, discard the print request, or modify setting information to execute the print request. Instructions 816 may be executed by processor 802 to manage the print request based on the received user input. In an example, instructions 816 to manage the print request may include instructions to transmit the print request to the image forming apparatus for printing the document when the received user input indicates an acceptance of a print quality of the selected page. In another example, instructions 816 to manage the print request may include instructions to discard the print request when the received user input indicates a user refusal of a print quality of the selected page.
The above-described examples are for the purpose of illustration. Although the above examples have been described in conjunction with example implementations thereof, numerous modifications may be possible without materially departing from the teachings of the subject matter described herein. Other substitutions, modifications, and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the subject matter. Also, the features disclosed in this specification (including any accompanying claims, abstract, and drawings), and/or any method or process so disclosed, may be combined in any combination, except combinations where some of such features are mutually exclusive.
The terms “include,” “have,” and variations thereof, as used herein, have the same meaning as the term “comprise” or appropriate variation thereof. Furthermore, the term “based on”, as used herein, means “based at least in part on.” Thus, a feature that is described as based on some stimulus can be based on the stimulus or a combination of stimuli including the stimulus. In addition, the terms “first” and “second” are used to identify individual elements and may not meant to designate an order or number of those elements.
The present description has been shown and described with reference to the foregoing examples. It is understood, however, that other forms, details, and examples can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present subject matter that is defined in the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202141010875 | Mar 2021 | IN | national |
