Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Memory
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-01
2002-12-17
Coles, Edward (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Memory
C358S001120, C358S001170, C358S001180, C382S296000, C382S297000, C399S403000, C399S404000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06496278
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a printer apparatus, a digital copier, having an electronic-sorting function, a composite machine having functions of these apparatuses and also a facsimile function, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital copier, a printer apparatus or the like has a storage memory for storing input image data therein, and can selectively read the image data from the storage memory and output it.
Such an image forming apparatus can perform various functions such as: a continuous copying function of repeatedly reading the same image data and copying a plurality of sheets of the same image continuously; a so-called electronic-sorting function of storing in a image memory a plurality of pages of image data input from a high-order apparatus or a scanner, controlling an order of reading the image data from the storing memory and performing printing operations so as to perform sorting not using any mechanical sorting function; and a function of rotating or changing in size of the image data read from the storing memory so as to output an image in a condition different from that of the original image. Further, it is also possible to perform these functions combinationally.
For example, when a document consisting of a plurality of pages is printed so as to obtain a plurality of collated copies of the document, it is possible to perform sorting printing, as shown in
FIG. 1
, for example, so that the separation between adjacent copies can be easily recognized, by rotating image data for each copy.
FIG. 1
shows a case where a document consisting of 10 pages is printed so as to obtain four continuous collated copies of the document. (In this case, the image data is rotated for each copy. However, it is also possible that the image data is not rotated for each copy. In this case, the four collated copies of the document are output continuously, as shown in
FIG. 1
, but the orientations of all the sheets are the same as each other. Such sorting is called electronic sorting. That is, in electronic-sorting printing for obtaining n copies of a document consisting of m pages, m pages for the first copy are output in sequence, m pages for the second copy are output in sequence, m pages for the third copy are output in sequence, . . . . and, then, m pages for the n-th copy are output in sequence. The example shown in
FIG. 1
is obtained as a result of combining electronic sorting and rotation sorting.) In the case of
FIG. 1
, for the first copy, the image data is input to the storage memory and to a printing portion at the same time. For the copies subsequent to the first copy, the image data is input from the storage memory to the printing portion. The rotation of the image data is performed at the same time only for the even-numbered copies, and printing of the image data is performed on a paper sheet having the orientation corresponding to the thus-rotated image data. Thus, by ejecting copies in a manner in which orientations of the copies are changed alternately for each copy, it is possible to reduce a sorting work performed by human hands.
In such a kind of image forming apparatus, when image data is stored in a storage memory, the image data developed in a page memory is compressed and stored as code data, generally. However, because the capacity of the storage memory is limited, there may be a case of occurrence of a memory-full condition where it is not possible to store all the pages of input image data in the storage memory depending on a type (character data, image data, graphic data, or the like) of the image data and the number of pages.
For example, a case of a copier, when an original document consisting of a plurality of pages is read in sequence and printing is performed such as to obtain a plurality of collated copies of the document, will now be considered. In this case, read image data is developed in a page memory in sequence, and, then, the image data is sent to a storage memory and a printing portion at the same time. However, when the storage memory enters a memory-full condition while the original document is being read, all the pages are not printed out for the first copy. At this time, the last printed-out page of image data is only sent to the printing portion, but is not stored in the storage memory.
When the data in the storage memory is cancelled in this case, printing for the copies subsequent to the first copy is not performed at all and the printing is stopped. Therefore, it is necessary for an operator to again perform all the operations and settings for reading the original document.
Further, when printing for the copies subsequent to the first copy is performed using only the pages of the image data which were stored in the storage memory (such a kind of printing is called forcible printing), because a number of pages of the image data which can be read from the storage memory is one less than the number of pages which were printed for the first copy, the number of pages printed for the first copy is different from the number of pages printed for each of the copies subsequent to the first copy. That is, for the first copy, the page which was being developed in the page memory at the time the storage memory entered the memory-full condition can be printed. However, because this page of image data is not stored in the storage memory, this page of image data is not printed for the copies subsequent to the first copy.
Therefore, to solve the problem, the image data for the pages which are stored in the storage memory, may be sent to the printing portion and be printed out, and, then, the image data for the page being processed at the time the storage memory became full, may be sent to the printing portion from the page memory directly and be printed out.
However, because, normally, an image rotating portion is placed between the storage memory and printing portion, when the image data is sent to the printing portion from the page memory to the printing portion directly without passing through the storage memory, this image data cannot be rotated. As a result, for example, as shown in
FIG. 2
, sorting is not performed correctly.
The example of
FIG. 2
shows a case where, when a document consisting of 10 pages is attempted to be printed so as to obtain four continuous collated copies of the document through a combination of electronic sorting and rotation sorting, the storage memory becomes full during the sixth page of image data being stored there. In this case, when forcible printing for the copies subsequent to the first copy is attempted to be performed using only the image data stored in the storage memory, the last page (in this example, the sixth page) which was printed for the first copy is not printed. Therefore, the image data for the pages (in this example, the first page through fifth page) which are stored in the storage memory, is sent to the printing portion without emptying the page memory until the printing for the specified copies (in this example, four copies) is finished, and, after the image data for the last page (in this example, the fifth page) of each copy is printed out, the image data for the subsequent page (in this example, the sixth page) stored in the page memory is sent to the printing portion directly and is printed out.
However, because the image data from the page memory does not pass through the image rotating portion, it is not possible to perform rotating processing on this image data. As a result, when the rotating processing is performed on the image data from the storage memory, sorting is performed in erroneous units, as shown in FIG.
2
. In this case, it is necessary for an operator to again perform sorting manually. Therefore, in comparison to a case where only electronic sorting is performed but rotation sorting is not performed, the operator must perform a troublesome work.
In order to prevent such a problematic situation from occurring, the image rotating portion may be provided before
Miyazaki Satoshi
Tamura Noboru
Coles Edward
Cooper & Dunham LLP
Rahimi Alan
Ricoh & Company, Ltd.
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