JP2012042545A - Image formation device and image formation method - Google Patents

Abstract

Energy saving for printing in monochrome or color mode.
An image forming apparatus outputs print data received from an information processing apparatus as a printed matter, receives the print data, generates page data, and acquires image forming color information for printing the printed matter. An image forming control unit 110 that obtains page data and image forming color information from the image forming control unit 110, and outputs a printed matter at a fixing temperature specified by the image forming color information. The control unit 110 receives the print data, issues a first page generation request for starting the temperature rise of the fixing unit using the image forming color information of the first page of the print data, and outputs the print data. An image solution that renders raster data using a page description language, extracts image formation color information from the rendered raster data, and then issues a second page generation request including the image formation color information. Which is not a part 202.
[Selection] Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method for optimizing electric power required for fixing.

  In an electrophotographic image forming apparatus, an electrostatic latent image is developed with a developer made of a thermoplastic resin as a developer, transferred to a sheet, and then the developer is heated and pressed together with the sheet to provide a robust printed matter. This process is called a fixing process, and a fixing heater using mainly resistance heating is used for the fixing process. A fixing heater used for fixing usually requires a large amount of electric power in order to perform heat fusion firmly in a short time. The amount of power required depends on the fixing temperature, and if the fixing temperature can be lowered, power consumption can be suppressed. On the other hand, the fixing temperature is determined by factors such as the characteristics of the developer such as paper type and toner.

  The power consumption of the fixing heater can also be performed by optimizing the fixing process. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-260185 (Patent Document 1) describes the time required for the drawing processing of the image analysis unit from the print contents. By predicting and adjusting the engine start request command issuance timing, it is possible to reduce the loss of fixing energy due to the fact that the image processing takes time and the engine returns to the energy-saving state again even though the engine is requested to start. Techniques for preventing are disclosed. Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-15461 (Patent Document 2) discloses a technique for changing the fixing temperature depending on the toner used for printing.

The technique described in Patent Document 1 focuses only on the start timing of the engine, and does not perform control depending on the characteristics of the developer to be fixed and the contents of printing.
Further, in the technique described in Patent Document 2, when the fixing temperature is raised to a temperature required for full-color printing regardless of the contents of the print data when returning from the state saved in the energy saving mode to the printable state. Even in monochrome printing, there is a problem that printing must be performed at a high fixing temperature, and printing is performed at an unnecessarily high fixing temperature.

  Particularly in recent years, an apparatus for fuzzy determination of color determination of print data is also known, and even if monochrome printing is acceptable as a result of color determination, the image forming apparatus may have to instruct the start of temperature increase in advance. In some cases, the data to be printed is heated to an unnecessary temperature and wasteful power is consumed.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems of the prior art, and is based on more accurate determination of optimum fixing temperature control in printing at the time of returning from the state of being saved in the energy saving mode. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus and an image forming method that can be performed.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, when the image forming apparatus returns from the energy saving mode, the print contents of the first page to be printed are analyzed by the control command and the raster image after the actual drawing process is performed. Judging from the above, a page generation request with a time difference is issued. Therefore, according to the present invention, a color image / monochrome image is determined more accurately on a page-by-page basis even under printing conditions set as an option by the information processing apparatus, and the color temperature to be used is increased according to the determination. By notifying the engine side before it can be done, it is possible to specify the toner to be used more accurately and to reduce the fixing temperature due to the characteristics of the toner, thereby improving the energy saving efficiency.

2 is a hardware functional block diagram of the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment. FIG. FIG. 2 is a software block diagram of the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram of image forming processing of the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment. 1 shows an overall flowchart of an image forming method of the present embodiment. The flowchart of the detailed process of step S405 demonstrated in FIG. 4 which the image analysis part 202 performs. 6 is a schematic diagram of raster data for each CMKY created from job data to be processed by the image analysis unit 202 in the present embodiment. FIG. The figure which shows embodiment of raster data when it is judged that the 1st page of the process target of print data is monochrome by the above-mentioned judgment what is called ambiguous judgment. 6 is a flowchart of fixing control processing executed by the fixing control unit 210 according to the present embodiment. The figure explaining the process of step S803 demonstrated in FIG. 6 is a temperature profile showing temporal changes in fixing temperature according to the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an embodiment of a GUI 1100 displayed on the desktop screen of the PC 160 by the printer driver 220 of the present embodiment.

  Hereinafter, although this invention is demonstrated with embodiment, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned later. FIG. 1 is a hardware functional block diagram of the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment. The image forming apparatus 100 includes an image forming control unit 110, a print engine 170, an operation panel 180, and a hard disk device 190 in an area indicated by a broken line in FIG. The image forming control unit 110 receives electronic data created by the user in the PC 160 from a PC 160 such as a personal computer or a workstation (hereinafter simply referred to as a PC) connected via a network, and performs various image processing. And print data is sent to the print engine 170 to instruct image formation. The print engine 170 receives print data from the image forming control unit 110 and outputs a printed matter corresponding to the electronic data.

  More specifically, the image forming apparatus 100 includes a CPU 112, a ROM 114, a RAM 116, and an NVRAM 118. The CPU 112 can be configured as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) configured to enable image formation of the image forming apparatus 100, reads a control program, execution data, and the like stored in the ROM 114, and print engine 170 performs various processes for printing.

  The RAM 116 provides a runtime execution space for enabling the processing of the CPU 112, and the CPU 112 writes runtime data and variables generated by executing the program to the RAM 116 in a timely manner, and fetches the runtime data and variables from the RAM 116. Thus, processing of the image forming apparatus 100 is enabled. The NVRAM 118 is a non-volatile memory that stores values for continuous control according to the present embodiment, among runtime data and variables necessary for image forming processing of the image forming apparatus 100.

  The image forming apparatus 100 further includes a network I / F 130, an engine I / F 140, a panel I / F 150, and a storage device I / F 120. The network I / F 130 provides functions of a physical layer and a network layer for connecting to a LAN (Local Area Network) or the like, and electronic data transferred according to a protocol such as Ethernet (registered trademark) or FTH, for example, TCP It is possible to send / receive data to / from the PC 160 under a transaction protocol such as / IP or UDP / IP.

  The engine I / F 140 performs processing for sending print data generated from the electronic data by the image forming control unit 110 to the print engine 170. For example, a bus such as PCI, CompactPCI, PCIExpress, USB (Universal Serial Bus), IEEE1396, etc. It can be implemented as an interface or other suitable interface. The panel I / F 150 receives a control signal from the operation panel 180 used for performing various settings for the image forming control unit 110, decodes the control signal into a code that can be interpreted by the image forming control unit 110, User input via the operation panel 180 and output of the processing result of the CPU 112 are enabled for the CPU 112.

  In another mounting form of the present embodiment, the operation panel 180 can be configured as a display such as a CRT, LCD, PD, and an input / output device such as a keyboard / mouse. The functional units described above are connected to each other via an internal bus (system bus and I / O bus) 192 to enable the image forming control unit 110 to perform processing. The storage device I / F 120 performs data transfer with an external storage device, specifically, a large-capacity hard disk device 190, a USB memory, or the like. ULTRA-ATA, SERIAL-ATA, USB 2.0 For example, an interface using an appropriate protocol can be used.

  The PC 160 sends electronic data to the image forming apparatus 100 and causes the print engine 170 to output a printed matter corresponding to the electronic data. The PC 160 is mounted with a CPU, a RAM, a ROM, a hard disk device, and the like, and operates a word processor, graphics, draw, CAD, and other applications under an appropriate operating system (OS) to create a document. When the PC 160 requests the image forming apparatus 100 to print, the PC 160 displays a print wizard provided by the printer driver on the desktop screen. The user performs various settings from the print wizard, and after completing the settings, performs a predetermined mouse event on the “OK” button icon to start processing for the printer driver to print electronic data. To do. The electronic data is converted into print data corresponding to the electronic data through processing such as rasterization and spring, and is sent to the image forming apparatus 100.

  The printer driver generally adds page description language: PDL (Page Description Language) to electronic data, rasterizes image data, performs spool processing, and print data created for addresses on the network of the image forming apparatus 100. This program executes processing such as sending. In the present embodiment, the control signal for performing the fixing temperature control can be added to the print data by setting by the user via a graphical user interface (GUI) provided by the printer driver. Hereinafter, the control signal described above is referred to as image forming color information.

  Upon receiving the print data, the image forming apparatus 100 interprets the PDL, creates page data in a format that can be printed by the image forming apparatus 100, and starts executing printing. In this embodiment, when the image forming apparatus 100 receives print data, the image forming color information is extracted from the print data, and the image forming color information is output to the print engine 170 during the period when the image forming apparatus 100 is generating page data. And start fixing temperature control according to the image forming color information.

  FIG. 2 is a software block diagram of the image forming apparatus 100 of the present embodiment. Each functional block shown in FIG. 2 is realized on the image forming apparatus 100 by causing a hardware resource to function as a functional unit of the image forming apparatus 100 by a CPU executing a program. The image forming control unit 110 of the image forming apparatus 100 includes a printer control unit 204 and an image analysis unit 202. In addition, the image forming control unit 110 includes a network I / F 130, a panel I / F 150, and an engine I / F 140. These I / Fs 130 to 150 execute the interface processing described above according to a known protocol. Therefore, detailed description is omitted.

  FIG. 2 shows a printer driver 220 included in the PC 160. The printer driver 220 performs processing such as rasterization on electronic data in response to a user command to create print data and create an image. It is sent to the control unit 110.

  The printer control unit 204 manages the processing of the entire image formation control unit 110 and executes data acquisition, data transmission, various notifications, control of the image analysis unit 202, and the like. The image analysis unit 202 has a function of analyzing the print data sent from the PC 160, interprets the PDL, causes the printer control unit 204 to generate page data, and sends the generated page data to the print engine 170. Send it. Further, the image analysis unit 202 according to the present embodiment acquires image forming color information described in an area describing data control information such as header information of print data or an area describing PDL before starting page processing, and prints it. It is sent to the engine 170 to start temperature control of the fixing device. Note that if the image forming color information cannot be detected in the predetermined data area, the image analyzing unit 202 can send the image forming color information as blank, for example, or can explicitly send the image forming color information. Information notifying that there is no data can be sent to the print engine 170.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the print engine 170 of the image forming apparatus 100 includes a control unit I / F 206, an engine control unit 208, and a fixing control unit 210. The control unit I / F 206 has a function of receiving page data sent from the engine I / F 140 and passing it to the engine control unit 208, and includes an appropriate bus interface corresponding to the engine I / F 140. be able to. The engine control unit 208 has a function of controlling the operation of each functional unit such as latent image formation, transfer, conveyance, and fixing of the print engine 170, and can include an ASIC dedicated to the print engine 170. The fixing control of this embodiment is possible.

  When the engine control unit 208 receives image forming color information in units of pages from the image forming control unit 110, the engine control unit 208 notifies the fixing control unit 210 of the image forming color information of the page. When the image forming color information is received from the image forming control unit 110, the fixing control unit 210 refers to a look-up table stored in the NVRAM 118 or the like, acquires a fixing temperature corresponding to the image forming color information, and acquires the acquired fixing. The current fixing temperature change determination is performed by comparing the temperature with the previous fixing temperature which is the value of the immediately preceding fixing temperature across the energy saving mode. Further, the fixing temperature determined after the change determination is set as a temperature increase target temperature in the fixing control unit 210 and is used for temperature management of the fixing device. This change determination is configured to end before the temperature of the fixing device reaches the lowest fixable temperature in the fixing system. For this reason, even if the fixing control unit 210 starts to raise the temperature for color printing, the optimum fixing temperature can be achieved without causing excessive overshooting of the fixing temperature.

  More specifically, the fixing control unit 210 includes a fixing temperature monitoring unit 212 and a fixing temperature setting unit 214. The fixing temperature monitoring unit 212 acquires the temperature value of the fixing roller 230 detected by the temperature sensor 232. The fixing temperature setting unit 214 is notified, and the energization control to the fixing roller 230 is performed in response to the comparison determination between the fixing temperature value for fixing by the fixing temperature setting unit 214 and the current fixing roller temperature. Do. The fixing temperature setting unit 214 uses the image forming color information acquired from the engine control unit 208 to acquire a fixing temperature value to be used in the current fixing process, and enables the fixing temperature monitoring unit 212 to control the temperature. ing. Therefore, the fixing control unit 210 can be configured to include the NVRAM 216, and various data used for temperature control are stored in the NVRAM 216 and provided for the processing. The NVRAM 216 can be shared with the NVRAM 118 of the image forming control unit 110 if it can be shared.

  FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram of the image forming process of the image forming apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. In step S300, the image forming process of the image forming apparatus 100 is acquired by the image analyzing unit 202 of the image forming control unit 110 in step S300. The image analysis unit 202 analyzes the page configuration of the print data with reference to the PDL, extracts image formation color information from the job information, and sends a page generation request to the image formation control unit 110 in step S301. Upon receipt of the request, the image formation control unit 110 asserts a WakeUp signal that is a signal for turning on the fixing device in step S302 and notifies the engine control unit 208 of it.

  At this time, the wakeup signal is set to enable printing in the color mode set in the PC 160. When the assertion of the WakeUp signal is notified, the engine control unit 208 notifies the fixing control unit 210 of the fixing ON in step S303, and starts the fixing heater temperature control sequence according to the present embodiment. The target temperature at this time is set to a temperature setting before retreating to the energy saving mode. In FIG. 3, t4 is a time required to reach the target temperature for monochrome printing, and t5 is image forming color information generated from pixel analysis of raster data generated from page data after page drawing is completed. Is the time until it is sent to the fixing control unit 210.

  Subsequently, the printer control unit 204 of the image forming control unit 110 notifies the engine control unit 208 of a print preparation request in step S305. The print preparation request includes an application ID and image forming color information, which are unique identification values for identifying which print application is used. The engine control unit 208 refers to the received application ID, calls a module of the print execution program, and notifies the image forming color information to the fixing control unit 210 in step S306.

  The fixing control unit 210 determines the current fixing temperature with reference to the image forming color information and the fixing temperature before saving to the immediately preceding energy saving mode, and uses the determined fixing temperature as the target temperature of the current temperature control sequence. To start the temperature rise. On the other hand, the image analysis unit 202 creates raster data for printing from page data currently being processed during the temperature increase period. In step S308, when the image analysis unit 202 completes the page drawing process and creates raster data for one page, the image analysis unit 202 sends the raster data to the printer control unit 204 as a second page generation request.

  In the present embodiment, the image forming control unit 110 determines the image forming color based on raster data to be actually printed. The image forming color is determined by determining whether or not the raster data is a CMYK color system and has a color element other than K, and the engine control unit sends a second print preparation request together with the image forming color determination result. Send to 208. This timing corresponds to time t5 based on the time when fixing ON in step S303 is instructed. When the engine control unit 208 receives the image forming color information at time t5, the engine control unit 208 notifies the fixing control unit 210, and the fixing control unit 210 reports the image forming color information received at time t5 and the current fixing control unit 210 sets the target. It is determined whether or not the image forming color information set as the temperature matches, and if they are the same, the temperature rise is continued without correcting the target temperature setting in the fixing control unit 210.

  On the other hand, when the fixing temperature reaches the target temperature, the engine control unit 208 is notified that the temperature increase has been completed in step S311. Upon receiving the notification, the engine control unit 208 asserts a Ready signal and notifies the image forming control unit 110 in step S312. When receiving the Ready signal, the image forming control unit 110 instructs the printer control unit 204 to start control for printing.

  In step S313, the printer control unit 204 of the image forming control unit 110 notifies the engine control unit of print settings such as page information described in PDL and raster data, and instructs the start of printing in step S314. The sequence is finished.

  Note that the time t5 at which the second print preparation request is sent is sufficiently earlier than the time t4 until the target temperature for monochrome printing is reached. For example, the target temperature is set as the color mode and the temperature is increased in step S307. Even in such a case, it is possible to sufficiently control the target temperature for monochrome printing. On the other hand, even if the raster data to be printed is in the color mode, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to achieve a smooth fixing temperature without causing a time delay in the fixing process. In addition, when time is required for the drawing process, it is predicted that the time t4 is delayed. However, since a raster image having a large file size generally corresponds to a color image with a halftone, this embodiment Thus, even if the second print preparation request is issued after the time t5 is exceeded, substantially no problem occurs.

  Thereafter, when the temperature of the fixing roller 230 reaches the temperature increase target temperature as the temperature control sequence progresses, the fixing control unit 210 notifies the engine control unit 208 of a fixing temperature increase completion notification in step S311. Upon receiving the notification, the engine control unit 208 notifies the printer control unit 204 of a Ready signal indicating that the fixing device is ready, and simultaneously sends a page data transmission request to the engine control unit 208. To do.

  Note that the designation of the print tray, paper type, print paper size, and the like are included in the data area that describes the print attributes of the print data received in step S300. For this reason, in addition to the color mode (full color or monochrome) when printing as a print attribute, the target temperature can be set including any attribute that affects the fixing temperature, such as paper type, paper thickness, and printing speed.

  FIG. 4 shows an overall flowchart of the image forming method of the present embodiment. The processing in FIG. 4 starts from step S400. In step S401, the image formation control unit 110 receives received data from the printer driver 220, and analyzes the PDL from the received data. In step S402, it is determined whether or not the user designates a color mode. If the color mode is set (yes), the target temperature of the fixing control unit 210 is set to a color mode printing value in step S403. .

  On the other hand, if the user does not specify a color mode in step S402 (no), it is determined in step S404 whether or not a driver's unique color mode setting is specified. If it is determined in step S404 that the color mode setting is not unique to the driver (no), another process is called and executed in step S405. The color mode setting unique to the driver is a color mode set by default by the printer, and the other processing means processing for performing ambiguous color conversion, for example, and will be described in detail later.

  If it is determined in step S404 that the color mode setting is unique to the driver (yes), the printer driver command is analyzed in step S406, and the color based on the command analysis is also set in step S407. Thereafter, a page generation request is transmitted in step S408. On the other hand, when other processing is completed in step S405, it is determined in step S409 whether or not image processing for one page has been completed. If image processing for one page has not been completed (no), processing is performed in step S401. The process is repeated until the image processing for one page is completed.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S409 that image processing for one page has been completed (yes), control is passed to step S410, and it is determined whether there is a pixel having a color other than black (K). If it is determined in step S410 that there is an image having a color other than black (K) (yes), it is necessary to perform color printing. Therefore, in step S415, the second print preparation request is not generated. Control is passed to determine whether or not printing is finished. If the print job has not ended in step S415 (no), the process returns to step S401, and the process is repeated until the print job ends. If it is determined in step S415 that the print job has ended (yes), the process ends in step S416.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S410 that there is no pixel of a color other than black (K) (no), the print request can be processed in monochrome printing, and therefore it is necessary to issue a second print preparation request. , Steps S411 to S414 are executed. More specifically, in step S411, the color mode is set to monochrome, and in step S412, it is determined whether or not it is the first page of the job. If it is the first page of the job, monochrome printing is designated for the subsequent job. In step S413, a page generation request is issued again, and a second print preparation request is issued.

  If it is determined in step S412 that the page is not the first page of the job (no), control is passed to step S414, and the page information indicating a monochrome page is stored in, for example, the register memory of the fixing control unit 210. It is stored as explicit information or a monochrome page flag so that it can be used as reference data for subsequent fixing temperature change determination. Thereafter, control is passed to step S415, and the process returns to step S401 until the end of the print job. As a result, in the present embodiment, even for a print job in which monochrome pages and color pages are mixed, a printed matter can be created under optimal fixing temperature control.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart of detailed processing of step S405 described with reference to FIG. 4 executed by the image analysis unit 202. The other processing in step S405 is a preprocess that enables ambiguous color conversion by determining whether or not drawing data is received from the received print job and performing color conversion. The processing in FIG. 5 starts from step S500. In step S501, the drawing data portion is searched from the data received as a print job with reference to a specific PDL command or the like. If the drawing data is not drawing data (no), In step S502, for example, processing such as font identification, margin setting acquisition, and image data determination is performed except for other processing currently described. In step S505, the processing of the other processing block is terminated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S501 that the data is drawing data (yes), the image analysis unit 202 passes control to step S503, and displays color information in the RGB color system in the drawing data using a lookup table or the like. Use it to convert to the CMYK color system. The color conversion using the look-up table can be used in any known method / data format. In this embodiment, the color conversion includes a default mode in which color values in the RGB color system are used as they are and an ambiguous color conversion mode in which a pixel determined to be R≈G≈B is forcibly converted as K. Can be configured. The ambiguous color determination is an ambiguous color conversion mode in which pixels having slightly chromatic color elements other than K are rounded to K as described above, and color determination caused by a color balance shift caused by various jitters is performed. It has a function to prevent. When the ambiguous color conversion is not used in the process of FIG. 4, the drawing process is performed via the processes of steps S406 to S408 of FIG.

  In step S504, drawing processing is executed using the CMYK data after color conversion, raster data is created, control is passed to step S505, and the processing is terminated.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of raster data for each CMKY created from job data to be processed by the image analysis unit 202 in this embodiment. Rendering data for generating raster data is raster-converted using color data of the CMYK color system or the RGBK color system in accordance with an instruction from the user, and black (K), cyan (C), magenta ( M) and raster data 610, 620, 630, 640 corresponding to yellow (Y) are generated. In the embodiment to be described, the character is described in K, and for the photograph, the data separated in color for each CMYK component is included in the raster data.

  The raster data for each color shown in FIG. 6 is sent to the print engine 170 to form a color image. The determination that the image is a monochrome image can be made using a criterion such as a case where raster data corresponding to CMY includes a small number of pixels that should be determined as noise generated by jitter or the like.

  FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of raster data when the first page to be processed of print data is determined to be monochrome by the above-described determination, so-called ambiguous determination. As shown in FIG. 7, the raster data determined to be monochrome has raster data corresponding to K having meaningful image data, and raster data corresponding to CMY is generated as empty pixels. On the other hand, when the image analysis unit 202 receives a print job, it is necessary to send a page generation request to the image formation control unit 110 for the purpose of fast warm-up. It is preferable to send a generation request.

  On the other hand, as a result of color conversion and ambiguous determination, it is determined at the end of the rendering process that the page can be printed in monochrome. At this stage, the second page generation request is notified to the image forming control unit 110 together with the rendering data. There is a need to. In the present embodiment, for a page that can be printed in monochrome, the timing at which a large overshoot does not occur with respect to the target temperature in monochrome printing, even if the drawing load and judgment load are taken into consideration. Focusing on the fact that the second print preparation request can be issued, it is possible to perform optimum fixing temperature control.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart of the fixing control process executed by the fixing control unit 210 of this embodiment. The processing in FIG. 8 starts from step S800. In step S801, the fixing control unit 210 receives a fixing ON command in response to the first page generation request. At this time, the target temperature for fixing ON uses the setting in the color mode specified by the user in the printer driver 220 as it is. This is because it is not necessary to set the fixing temperature in the color mode until the user designates monochrome printing. For the target temperature setting value, refer to a lookup table registered as control data in the NVRAM 118, for example, and obtain a target temperature reflecting various information such as printing speed, paper thickness, paper type, temperature, humidity, etc. Can be set.

  In step S802, energization of the fixing heater is started, and the temperature of the fixing roller 230 is increased. The temperature of the fixing roller 230 is monitored by the temperature sensor 232 and fed back as energization control data to the fixing heater. In step S803, the target temperature in the current fixing process is acquired from the lookup table and set in the register memory, and in step S804, a feedback signal from the temperature sensor 232 is acquired as fixing temperature information. In step S805, the current fixing temperature is compared with the target temperature, and it is determined whether or not the current fixing temperature exceeds the target temperature. If it is determined in step S805 that the current fixing temperature does not exceed the target temperature (no), the process returns to step S804 and the temperature increase is continued.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S805 that the current fixing temperature has exceeded the target temperature (yes), in step S806, the energization to the fixing heater is stopped and the temperature increase of the fixing roller is stopped. After that, in step S807, a notification of completion of fixing temperature rise is issued, print setting in the engine control unit 208 is started, and in step S808, the fixing processing control sequence is ended.

  The processing in step S803 described with reference to FIG. 8 is processing that enables the fixing temperature control in units of pages in the present embodiment, and the processing in step S803 will be described in more detail with reference to FIG. The processing in FIG. 9 starts from step S900, and image forming color information is extracted from the job data received in step S901 while referring to the PDL command. In step S902, the extracted image forming color information is compared with the currently set image forming color information in units of pages. In step S903, it is determined whether or not the target temperature is to be changed. If the target temperature is not to be changed (no), the process is branched to step S907 and the process is terminated.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step S903 that the target set temperature is to be changed (yes), it is determined in step S904 whether or not page printing is being performed. If page printing is being performed (yes), the process is performed in step S906. In step S904, the process returns to step S904 to suspend the target temperature setting change process until the page printing is completed. If it is determined in step S904 that the page is not being printed (no), the process proceeds to step S905. Then, the target temperature setting is changed, the control of the fixing heater to the changed target temperature is started, and the process is terminated in step S907. With the processing in FIG. 9, control toward a predetermined temperature is possible before the next page printing, and optimal fixing temperature control is possible with a minimum time delay.

  FIG. 10 is a graph showing temporal changes in the fixing temperature according to the present embodiment. The image forming apparatus 100 silences the fixing temperature in the period t1, and performs fixing in the color mode after the fixing temperature reaches the set temperature k3 in the color mode in the period t2. After that, when the print job is finished and the saving period to the energy saving mode has elapsed, the energization to the fixing heater is stopped at the period t3 to set the fixing temperature k1 in the energy saving mode. Although k1 is described as being higher than the first temperature in the period t1, k1 may be the same as the first temperature in the period t1.

  After that, when the image forming apparatus 100 receives a print job, the image forming apparatus 100 returns from the energy saving mode in the period t4, and starts energization control of the fixing heater based on the temperature set as the target temperature at that time. A temperature profile immediately after the energization control is started is indicated by a line 1010. Note that the target temperature at this time is a temperature set by the user with the printer driver 220, and is the target temperature k3 corresponding to the color mode when the user designates the color print mode with the default setting, When the user designates monochrome printing from the beginning, the target temperature is k2 for monochrome printing.

  In order to explain this embodiment more clearly, the following description will be made assuming that the user's default print setting mode is the color print mode. At an appropriate timing in the period t4, the fixing control unit 210 receives print preparation requests with different target temperature settings according to the present embodiment. This timing corresponds to time t5. At this time, since the page printing is not executed, the setting of the target temperature is immediately changed. As a result, for example, the current value of the PWM control is gradually decreased, the temperature increase rate is lowered, and the temperature is increased as a temperature profile indicated by the period line 1020 after t5. Thereafter, when the target temperature k2 is reached, the temperature is kept constant by PWM control or the like as indicated by a line 1022, and a fixing temperature rise completion notification is issued at time t6.

  Regardless of the present embodiment, for example, when printing is performed in the color mode, the temperature increase control is continued after time t6 as shown by a line 1030, and finally the temperature is increased to the target temperature k3. A notification of completion of fixing temperature rise is issued. For this reason, according to the present embodiment, it is possible not only to reduce the power consumed for unnecessary temperature increase, but also to improve the printing speed (ppm) while optimizing the power consumption of the fixing process. It is possible to do.

  FIG. 11 shows an embodiment of a GUI 1100 displayed on the desktop screen of the PC 160 by the printer driver 220 of this embodiment. In the GUI 1100 shown in FIG. 11, a menu tab 1110 for selecting various settings and a pull-down list for inputting various settings are provided. For example, it is assumed that the user clicks the pull-down list 1120 and defaults printing in the color mode as shown in FIG.

  Further, the GUI 1100 is provided with a pull-down list 1130 for setting paper feed selection, paper type, paper discharge destination, and the like. The user makes various settings according to the purpose of printing. When the setting is completed, the user clicks an “OK” button 1140 to send a print job to the image forming control unit 110 to execute the image forming method of the present embodiment. In the embodiment to be described, since the color mode is set in the setting of the printer driver 220, the value corresponding to the color mode is set as the target temperature in the first page generation request, and the fixing heater Start heating up towards the temperature.

  By the way, in the present embodiment, when setting to apply ambiguous color conversion, for example, when “ambiguous color conversion” is set from the pull-down list 1150 displayed as the one-click setting icon name and printing is performed, the color mode setting is set. Even if it remains as it is, it is determined whether it is possible to cope with monochrome printing in units of pages, and the fixing target temperature is corrected according to the determination, and energy saving can be achieved.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus and an image forming method capable of creating a printed matter using a fixing temperature corresponding to monochrome printing or color printing in units of pages.

  Although the present embodiment has been described so far, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and other embodiments, additions, changes, deletions, and the like can be conceived by those skilled in the art. It can be changed, and any aspect is within the scope of the present invention as long as the effects and effects of the present invention are exhibited.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Image forming apparatus 110 Image formation control part 112 CPU
114 ROM
116 RAM
118 NVRAM
120 Storage device I / F
130 Network I / F
140 Engine I / F
150 Panel I / F
160 PC
170 Print Engine 180 Operation Panel 190 Hard Disk Device 192 Internal Bus 202 Image Analysis Unit 204 Printer Control Unit 206 Control Unit I / F
208 engine control unit 210 fixing control unit 212 fixing temperature monitoring unit 214 fixing temperature setting unit 216 NVRAM
220 Printer Driver 230 Fixing Roller 232 Temperature Sensor 610 Raster Data 1010 Line 1020 Period Line 1022 Line 1030 Line 1100 Graphical User Interface

JP 2006-260185 A JP 2003-15461 A

Claims (8)

An image forming apparatus that outputs print data received from an information processing apparatus as printed matter,
Image forming control means for receiving the print data to generate page data and acquiring image forming color information for printing the printed matter;
Print engine means for obtaining the page data and the image forming color information from the image forming control means and outputting the printed matter at a fixing temperature specified by the image forming color information;
The image formation control unit receives the print data, issues a first page generation request for starting temperature rise of the fixing unit using image formation color information of the first page of the print data, and The print data is rendered into raster data using a page description language, image forming color information is extracted from the rendered raster data, and then a second page generation request including the image forming color information is issued. Including image analysis means,
When the print engine means returns from the energy-saving mode and starts printing, fixing that sets a target temperature that is a target for raising the temperature of the fixing means by using image forming color information of the second page generation request An image forming apparatus including a control unit.   The image analysis unit obtains image forming color information from the print data in units of pages, and sets the first page generation request and the second page generation request for setting the target temperature in units of pages. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, generated as:   The image analysis means includes a color conversion mode that directly uses the RGBK color system used by the information processing apparatus as a color conversion mode for printing from the print data, and RGB values of the RGBK color system. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a color conversion mode for converting image forming colors of equal pixels into K.   The fixing control means responds to the second page generation request after receiving the first signal for starting the fixing means and before notifying that the fixing means has been heated to a temperature capable of fixing. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the target temperature that has already been set is changed at the target temperature specified by the corresponding image forming color information.   The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the fixing control unit determines whether to change the target temperature for each page. An image forming method for outputting print data received from an information processing apparatus as printed matter, wherein the image forming apparatus includes:
Receiving the print data to generate page data, and obtaining image forming color information for printing the printed matter;
Receiving the print data and issuing a first page generation request for starting the temperature rise of the fixing means using image forming color information of the first page of the print data;
The print data is rendered into raster data using a page description language, image forming color information is extracted from the rendered raster data, and then a second page generation request including the image forming color information is issued. Steps,
Using the page data and the image forming color information corresponding to the first and second page generation requests, and outputting the printed matter at a fixing temperature specified by the image forming color information. ,
The step of outputting the printed matter sets a target temperature that is a target for raising the temperature of the fixing unit using image forming color information of the second page generation request when printing is started after returning from the energy saving mode An image forming method including the step of:   The step of acquiring the image forming color information acquires the image forming color information from the print data in units of pages, and the first page generation request and the second page for setting the target temperature in units of pages. The image forming method according to claim 6, further comprising a step of generating a page generation request as a pair.   Further, as the color conversion mode for printing from the print data, the drawing process is applied using the RGBK color system used by the information processing apparatus as it is, or the RGB values of the RGBK color system are substantially omitted. The image forming method according to claim 6, further comprising a step of determining whether to apply the drawing processing after converting the image forming color of the equal pixel to K.