Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Emulation or plural modes
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-15
2004-08-10
Evans, Arthur G. (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Emulation or plural modes
C358S001900
Reexamination Certificate
active
06775017
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to an image duplicating apparatus, such as a copying machine and a facsimile machine, that duplicates an image of an original on a recording paper and to a storage medium that stores a program for controlling the image duplicating apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, there are some facsimile machines having printing functions and scanner functions, and the like, in addition to ordinary facsimile functions. Those facsimile machines may be used as periphery input/output devices of personal computers. With the functions of those facsimile machines further developed, some facsimile machines have duplicating functions for duplicating images read from an original on a recording paper. The facsimile machines with the duplicating functions have two copying modes, similar to an ordinary copying machine. One is a single-copying mode where images read from an original are duplicated on a sheet of the recording paper. The other is a multi-copying mode where images read from an original are duplicated on the sheets of the recording paper. In such facsimile machines, either mode can be set.
In the multi-copying mode, there are provided two copying methods. One is known as a stack copying method and the other is a sort copying method. For example, when three (3) copies of one page each of the original A, B, and C (total of 3 pages) are designated and copied using the stack copying method, images are first read from the original A and those read images are consecutively duplicated on three sheets of the recording paper. Then, images are read from the original B and those read images are consecutively duplicated on three sheets of the recording paper. Images on the original C are duplicated in the same manner as described above. In other words, in the stack copying method, images on an original are read and duplicated on the required number of recording paper to produce the designated number of copies. In the stack copying method, a memory capable of storing images on at least one page, is required. When three (3) copies of one page each of the original A, B, and C (total of 3 pages) are designated and copied using the sort copying method, for example, images are first read from the original A and duplicated on one sheet of the recording paper. While the image data of the original A is stored in a memory, images are read from the next original B and duplicated on another sheet of the recording paper. Similarly, while the image data of the original B is stored in a memory, images are read from the next original C and duplicated on another sheet of the recording paper. Thus, one copy of the originals A, B, and C is produced. Thereafter, the other two (2) copies are produced in the same manner as described above, based on the stored image data of the originals A, B, and C. In this sort copying method, a memory capable of storing images on all the pages of the originals, is required.
In an ink jet type color printer, four ink colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK) are used as standard ink colors when color images are formed using the printer. Some ink jet type color printers currently add two further particular ink colors of light cyan (LC) and light magenta (LM) to the standard ink colors, to produce more subtle tones and finer color graduations. Six-color ink jet type printers are adopted for facsimile machines having such as the above-described duplication functions, to make the facsimile machines more multifunctional. The image forming processing is performed for duplication while storing the duplication data according to the number of ink colors to be used for duplication, in a memory.
However, in a conventional facsimile machine having the functions of duplication using a color printer mechanism that employs the above-described six ink colors including two further particular ink colors, when duplicating is performed using more ink colors of six ink colors than the standard four ink colors, the size of the duplication data to be stored in a memory becomes larger than that of duplication data when the standard four ink colors are used for image forming processing. According to conditions during duplication, such as copying mode and color style settings, the duplication data may occupy all the data storage area in the memory. This may be a serious problem especially in the multi-copying mode where the duplication data at least for one page of the original needs to be stored in the memory. If duplication data occupies all the data storage area in the memory, units such as the CPU that controls the operations of a facsimile machine, cannot stably perform the required duplicating operations, causing problems for the other operations of the machine. To solve the above-described problem, the increase in the size of the memory will be the easiest way, however, it leads to the increase in costs. Therefore, improvements in terms of costs are also required.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One aspect of the invention is to provide an image duplicating apparatus capable of stably performing duplicating processing to be required via a memory, without increasing the size of the memory. Another aspect of the invention is to provide a storage medium that stores programs for controlling the image duplicating apparatus.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an image duplicating apparatus capable of forming images in a standard color style using standard ink colors or in a fine color style using more ink colors than the standard ink colors when images read from an original are duplicated on a recording paper. The image duplicating apparatus includes a setting copying mode determination device that determines whether the single-copying mode where images read from the original are duplicated on a sheet of the recording paper, or the multi-copying mode, where images read from the original are duplicated on the sheets of the recording paper, is set, and a duplicating operation controlling device that starts duplicating in the fine color style when the setting copying mode determination device determines that the single-copying mode is set, and that starts duplicating in the standard color style when the setting copying mode determination device determines that the multi-copying mode is set.
In the image duplicating apparatus, duplicating in the single-copying mode where images read from the original may be duplicated on a sheet of the recording paper, is started in the fine color style wherein the amount of duplication data to be processed becomes greater than when it is processed using the standard ink colors, and duplicating in the multi-copying mode where images read from the original are duplicated on the sheets of the recording paper, is started in the standard color style wherein the duplication data is processed using the standard ink colors. Therefore, the duplication data processed in each copying mode is optimized so that all the duplication data can be stored in the memory. Especially, the number of ink colors to be used is limited to the standard ink colors in the multi-copying mode, so that the size of the duplication data can be minimized. Consequently, the space in the memory occupied by the duplication data is reduced as much as possible. The duplicating operations in each copying mode can be stably performed, without increasing the memory size and its costs.
The image duplicating apparatus may further include a color style setting device that presets which of the standard or fine color styles is to be used for duplication, wherein when the setting copying mode determination device determines that the multi-copying mode is set, the duplicating operation controlling device starts duplicating in the standard color style regardless of the color style set by the color style setting device, and when the setting copying mode determination device determines that the single-copying mode is set, the duplicating operation controlling device starts duplicating in the color style set by the color sty
Matsushita Satoshi
Morisaki Hiroshi
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Evans Arthur G.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
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