JP2006068922A - Image forming apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform printing on a sheet such that a binding margin is arranged at a specified binding margin position and the side arranged with the binding margin becomes the sheet cutting side. <P>SOLUTION: A document inputted from a scanner 4 is stored in an image memory 6 as input image data. A control section 1 receives response data indicative of the binding margin position when the input image data is printed on a print sheet. An image processing section 9 performs image processing of all input image data for arranging a binding margin according to the response data. Based on a binding margin position indicated by the response data, the control section 1 rotates any one of odd page or even page image data by 180° about the surface of print sheet as the plane of rotation and performs image processing for making upside down. Finally, a print processing section 7 prints two images of the input image data at a time on one side of the print sheet. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, a printer, and a multifunction machine having these functions.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer, for the purpose of improving printing efficiency, two pages of a document are printed on one sheet of printing paper having a size corresponding to two pages of the document, and the center line of the printed sheet is followed. It is common to cut and use. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-151867 discloses a method of taking a binding hole or a binding margin on a sheet when a printed sheet is cut along a center line of the sheet and overlapped for bookbinding. Further, Patent Document 2 discloses an image forming method in which, in an apparatus that does not perform bookbinding processing, printed sheets can be stacked in the ascending order of pages by stacking them in the cutting order.
JP 2002-68577 A JP 2002-281278 A

However, in the image forming method according to the invention of Patent Document 1, as shown in FIG. 5, since the binding margin or the binding hole position of the printed paper is different for each page, when the paper is cut and used repeatedly, the printed image is displayed. There is a problem in that the shape is printed on the front and back sides of the paper. Further, the image forming method according to the invention of Patent Document 2 has a problem that the binding margin is not arranged in the sheet as shown in FIG. Further, when printing is performed by adding the binding margin arrangement to the invention of Patent Document 2, the cutting edge of the paper cut along the center line of the paper appears on the right side or the left side, and thus there is a problem that it differs for each page (see FIG. 7).
The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an image forming apparatus and an image which prints on a sheet so that a binding margin is arranged at a designated binding margin position and a side where the binding margin is arranged is a cutting edge. An object is to provide a forming method.

  In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 is directed to a data writing means for storing a plurality of input page-by-page image data in a storage means, and at which position with respect to the input direction of the image data. Binding margin creation means for inputting binding margin position instruction data indicating whether a binding margin is provided and performing image processing for providing a binding margin according to the input binding margin position instruction data; and the input binding margin position instruction data The image data of a predetermined page is read based on the image data, the image conversion means for performing image processing, and the image data generated by the image conversion means is read from the storage means in the ascending order of the pages and printed on the paper. An image forming apparatus comprising an image printing unit.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the image converting means prints the image data on every other page of the image data according to the binding margin position instruction data input by the user. The image processing is performed such that the image is rotated so that the top and bottom of the image are reversed in the reverse direction.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, a binding margin position instruction data indicating a position at which a binding margin is provided in a storage unit storing a plurality of input page-unit image data in a storage unit. Is input, image processing for providing a binding margin according to the input binding margin position instruction data is performed, the image data of a predetermined page is read based on the input binding margin position instruction data, and image processing is performed. The image forming method is characterized in that the image data generated by the image conversion means is read from the storage means in the ascending order of the pages and printed on the paper.

  According to the first and third aspects of the present invention, the binding margin according to the binding margin arrangement position set by the user is arranged on the document image input by the scanner or the like to the image forming apparatus, and image processing is performed in units of pages. It is possible to perform the applied printing.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, when a two-page original image is printed on one side of a two-page-size paper, and the user cuts the paper at the center line and stacks the paper, A sheet having a cutting edge on the binding margin side in the page is obtained, and the sheets can be aligned.

  The image forming apparatus of the present invention is an image forming apparatus that performs image processing such as reduction, enlargement, layout, etc. on image data captured from a host computer while connected to a scanner or a network. A FAX, a multifunction machine, etc. are mentioned.

  Hereinafter, an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of a copying machine of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment. Reference numeral 1 denotes a control unit that performs overall control of processing operations of the image forming apparatus. An input unit 2 includes a touch panel, function keys, numeric keys, a keyboard, and the like. Reference numeral 3 denotes a display unit composed of a liquid crystal display or the like. 4. When using the image forming apparatus as a copying machine, whether or not a document has a document setting table for storing a plurality of documents and a read document tray for storing a plurality of read documents, and a document is currently set This is a scanner having a function of detecting the image and a function of reading out the document set on the document setting table as image data. Reference numeral 5 denotes a document transport unit that transports a document that has been read by the scanner 4 from a document placement table to a scanned document tray. An image memory 6 stores image data read by the scanner 4 when the image forming apparatus is used as a copying machine. 7 includes a paper feed tray for storing a plurality of printing papers to be printed and a printed paper tray for storing a plurality of printed printing papers. A print processing unit that prints stored image data on printing paper stored in a paper feed tray. 8, when the image forming apparatus is used as a copying machine, the printing paper to be printed is fed from the paper feed tray to the printing processing unit 7, and the printed printing paper is printed from the printing processing unit 7. This is a printing paper transport unit for discharging paper to a printed paper tray. An image processing unit 9 performs image processing such as reduction, enlargement, and layout change on the image data stored in the image memory 6.

Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, the user places a plurality of originals on the original placement table of the scanner 4 and inputs an instruction to start copying originals from the input unit 2 to the image forming apparatus. Based on this input, the control unit 1 of the image forming apparatus causes the display unit 3 to display a display for inquiring whether to provide a binding margin on the left or right side of the printed paper (step S1).

  The user inputs a response to the inquiry displayed on the display unit 3 from the input unit 2 as response data. The control unit 1 of the image forming apparatus temporarily stores response data from the user in the storage area, and issues an image reading instruction to the scanner 4. A document counter for counting the number of documents is generated and its initial value is set to zero. Based on an instruction from the control unit 1, the scanner 4 reads the first document placed on the document placement table, and stores the input image data in the image memory 6. The control unit 1 generates an empty pointer array A that can store the address of each input image data on the image memory 6, and sets the head address of the image data of the first original stored in the image memory 6. Point to array A (0) (step S2), and add 1 to the document counter (step S3). Next, the control unit 1 causes the document transport unit 5 to transport the first document that has been read to the scanned document tray of the scanner 4. Thereafter, the scanner 4 determines whether or not there is a next original (step S4). If there is a next original, the image forming apparatus proceeds to step S2 and repeats the process, and thereafter repeats the process until all the originals placed on the original setting table are exhausted. Finally, the array A stores the addresses of the input image data in the input order as shown in FIG.

Thereafter, the control unit 1 extracts the response data obtained in step S1 from the storage area, and transmits it to the image processing unit 9 together with a request for image processing. The image processing unit 9 determines whether the transmitted response data is an instruction to provide a binding margin on the left or right side of the printed / cut sheet (step S5).
Next, when the response data from the control unit 1 is an instruction to provide a binding margin on the left of the input image data, the image processing unit 9 reads the input image data with reference to the address stored in the array A, Image processing is performed so that a binding margin is formed on the left side of the input image data (step S6a). Further, the image processing unit 9 refers to the address stored in the odd-numbered element of the array A, reads the input image data of the odd-numbered page, displays the image including the binding margin, and the sheet surface when the image is printed. The image is rotated 180 degrees as a rotation plane and the image is turned upside down (step S7a). At this time, if the response data from the control unit 1 is an instruction to provide a binding margin to the right of the input image data, the input image data is read with reference to the address stored in the array A, and the input image data Image processing is performed so that a binding margin can be made on the right side (step S6b). Further, the image processing unit 9 refers to the address stored in the even-numbered element of the array A, reads the input image data of the even-numbered page, displays the image including the binding margin, and the sheet surface when the image is printed. The image is rotated 180 degrees as a rotation plane and the image is turned upside down (step S7b).

  Next, the control unit 1 instructs the printing paper transport unit 8 to feed printing paper. In addition, a print counter for counting the number of printed sheets is created, and its initial value is set to zero. The printing paper transport unit 8 feeds one printing paper from the paper feed tray to the printing processing unit 7 (step S8), and notifies the control unit 1 of the end of paper feeding. In response to this, the control unit 1 issues a print instruction to the print processing unit 7. The print processing unit 7 refers to the addresses stored in the first and second elements of the array A, prints the two image data stored in the addresses on the same side of the printing paper, and performs processing. The control unit 1 is notified of the completion. In response to this, the control unit 1 adds 2 to the print counter (step S9), compares the values of the print counter and the document counter (step S10), and processes if the value of the print counter is equal to or greater than the value of the document counter. Exit. On the other hand, when the value of the print counter is less than the value of the document counter, the control unit 1 performs processing from step S8. Thereafter, the processes in steps S8 to S10 are repeated until printing of all data in array A is completed.

  FIG. 1 shows a print state printed by the image forming apparatus in the embodiment described above. Here, the printing paper indicated by reference numeral 100 is cut according to the center line of the paper (symbol a), and the papers (symbols 101 and 102) are stacked so that the orientation of the image is correct. As a result, the uncut paper edges of the stacked sheets are aligned, and the cut edges of the sheets become the binding margin side in all pages.

  In the above-described embodiment, it has been described that a person installs a manuscript paper on a manuscript placement table. However, the image forming apparatus is used as a printer, the apparatus is installed on a network, and image data is transmitted from a user terminal. It is also possible.

  As mentioned above, although one embodiment of this invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings, the specific configuration is not limited to this embodiment, and design and the like within the scope not departing from the gist of this invention are included. .

FIG. 10 is a plan view showing a result of image processing performed by rotating an odd-numbered document image by 180 degrees and turning upside down according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of one Embodiment of this invention. 3 is a flowchart showing an image forming operation in the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a state in which an array A stores an address of image data in the same embodiment. It is a top view which shows the example of a printing result at the time of implementing patent document 1. FIG. It is a top view which shows the example of a printing result at the time of implementing patent document 2. FIG. FIG. 10 is a plan view illustrating an example of a printing result when image processing for binding margin arrangement is performed when Patent Document 2 is implemented.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Control part 2 ... Input part 3 ... Display part 4 ... Scanner 5 ... Original conveyance part 6 ... Image memory 7 ... Print processing part 8 ... Printing paper conveyance part 9 ... Image processing part 100 ... Printing paper 101 ... Odd page printing paper 102: Even page printing paper a ... Printing paper center line

Claims (3)

A data writing means for storing a plurality of input page-by-page image data in a storage means;
Binding margin position designation data indicating where a binding margin is to be provided in the input direction of the image data is input, and a binding margin for performing image processing for providing a binding margin according to the input binding margin position instruction data Creating means;
Based on the input binding margin position instruction data, image conversion means for reading out the image data of a predetermined page and performing image processing;
Image printing means for reading out the image data generated by the image conversion means from the storage means in the ascending order of the pages and printing them on paper;
An image forming apparatus comprising:   In accordance with the binding margin position instruction data input by the user, the image conversion means reverses the image upside down with the paper surface when the image data is printed as the rotation surface for every other page of the image data. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein image processing to rotate is performed. A plurality of input page unit image data is stored in a storage means,
Input binding margin position instruction data indicating a position at which a binding margin is provided in the input direction of the image data, and perform image processing for providing a binding margin according to the input binding margin position instruction data.
Based on the input binding margin position instruction data, the image data of a predetermined page is read, image processing is performed,
An image forming method, wherein the image data generated by the image conversion unit is read from the storage unit in ascending order of pages and printed on paper.

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