JP2024149243A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

To allow a user to easily designate colors used for image formation when performing single-color printing or two-color printing.SOLUTION: A control unit 10, when receiving an instruction to designate the number of colors, executes color detection processing of detecting, from image data, predetermined seven colors usable for image formation performed by an image forming unit 12, determines the combinations of the colors of the designated number of colors that can be formed on the basis the plurality of colors detected according to a predetermined rule, displays, on a display 15, selection keys 703A to 703F respectively indicating the determined combinations of the colors, when receiving an instruction to select any one of the selection keys 703A to 703F, displays, on the display 15, a preview image 705 represented by the combination of the colors corresponding to the selected selection key, and when receiving an image forming instruction, causes the image forming unit 12 to form an image indicated by the image data on recording paper P with the combination of the colors indicated by the preview image 705.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 4

Description

The present invention relates to an image forming device, and in particular to a technique for setting colors to be used in image formation.

Technology is known that extracts colors that satisfy certain conditions from an image and uses the extracted colors. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a technology that extracts the dominant color in an image displayed in the user interface of an application and uses the extracted color as the background color of a toolbar. Patent Document 2 discloses a technology that detects the most prevalent color in an image and repaints, with the most prevalent color, portions of a group of pixels in which the same color other than the most prevalent color is consecutive, that correspond to groups of pixels whose color difference from the most prevalent color is smaller than a predetermined threshold and whose size is smaller than a predetermined size.

U.S. Pat. No. 1,030,408 U.S. Pat. No. 8,395,813

When printing a color image, if you want to print a different color representation that is different from the original color representation, you may want to print in one color or two color instead of full color. Also, you may want to minimize the degree of color change from the original color image by using colors contained in the original color image for one color or two color printing. In such cases, if a user manually sets the colors to be used for printing, and does not know the colors to be used for printing, they will need to specify the colors and check the preview image multiple times, which is time-consuming.

The technologies disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 are simply technologies for using colors extracted from an image to correct the colors of the image, and therefore cannot solve the above problems.

The present invention has been developed in consideration of the above circumstances, and aims to make it possible to easily specify the colors to be used in image formation when performing one-color or two-color printing using the colors contained in the original color image.

An image forming apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention includes an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium, an operation unit to which a user's instructions are input, and a control unit.
When the control unit receives an instruction to specify the number of colors via the operation unit, it executes a color detection process to detect a predetermined number of colors that can be used for image formation by the image forming unit from image data of the image formation target, and determines color combinations consisting of the specified number of colors that can be constructed based on the plurality of colors detected by the color detection process in accordance with predetermined rules, and causes the display unit to display at least one selection key indicating each of the determined color combinations.When the control unit receives an instruction to select one of the at least one selection key via the operation unit, it causes the display unit to display a first preview image that represents an image indicated by the image data in a color combination corresponding to the selected selection key.When an instruction to form an image is received via the operation unit, it causes the image forming unit to form the image indicated by the image data on a recording medium in the color combination indicated by the first preview image.

According to the present invention, when performing one-color or two-color printing using colors contained in an original color image with minimal color change from the original color image, a combination of colors that can be used in image formation is presented to the user, so that the user can easily specify the colors to be used in image formation without much effort compared to manually setting the colors.

FIG. 2 is a front cross-sectional view showing the structure of the image forming apparatus. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of an image forming apparatus; FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a print color setting screen. 10 is a flowchart showing a print color setting process. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a unit selection screen. 13 is a flowchart showing a color detection process. FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a confirmation screen. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a selection key display. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing another example of display of the selection key. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a preview image. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a state when one-color printing is selected. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a color wheel.

The image forming apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front cross-sectional view showing the structure of the image forming apparatus 1. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 1. With reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the image forming apparatus 1 is a color multifunction machine equipped with multiple functions such as a copy function, a transmission function, a printer function, and a facsimile function.

The housing of the image forming device 1 contains multiple devices for realizing various functions of the image forming device 1. For example, the housing of the image forming device 1 contains an image reading unit 11, an image forming unit 12, a fixing unit 13, and a paper feed unit 14, etc.

The image reading unit 11 is an ADF (Auto Document Feeder) that includes an original transport unit 6 that transports an original placed on an original table, and a scanner that optically reads an original transported by the original transport unit 6 or an original placed on a platen glass 7. The image reading unit 11 reads the image of the original by illuminating the original with a light irradiation unit and receiving the reflected light with a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) sensor, thereby generating image data.

The image forming unit 12 includes a photosensitive drum, a charging device, an exposure device, a developing device, and a transfer device. The image forming unit 12 forms an image composed of a toner image on the recording paper P transported along the transport path T by the transport unit 17 based on the image data generated by the image reading unit 11 or image data input via the communication unit 22.

The fixing unit 13 heats and presses the recording paper P on which the toner image has been formed by the image forming unit 12, thereby fixing the toner image to the recording paper P. The recording paper P on which the toner image has been fixed by the fixing unit 13 is discharged to the discharge tray 8.

The paper feed unit 14 includes a manual feed tray and multiple paper feed cassettes. The paper feed unit 14 uses a pickup roller to pull out recording paper P stored in one of the multiple paper feed cassettes or recording paper placed on the manual feed tray one sheet at a time and feeds the paper to the transport path T.

The image forming device 1 includes a control unit 100. The control unit 100 includes a processor, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), etc. The processor is, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), or an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), etc. The control unit 100 functions as a control unit 10 by the processor executing a control program stored in the ROM or HDD 18.

The control unit 10 is responsible for the overall control of the image forming device 1. More specifically, the control unit 10 controls the operation of each part of the image forming device 1 and communication with external devices connected via a network. Note that the control unit 10 may be configured with a logic circuit, regardless of the operation based on the control program.

The control unit 10 also operates according to a setting program described later, and when an instruction to specify the number of colors is received via the operation unit 16, the control unit 10 executes a color detection process to detect from the image data a number of predetermined colors that can be used for image formation by the image forming unit 12, and obtains color combinations consisting of the specified number of colors that can be constructed based on the number of colors detected by the color detection process according to predetermined rules, and causes the display unit 15 to display at least one selection key indicating each of the obtained color combinations. When an instruction to select one of the at least one selection key is received via the operation unit 16, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display a preview image in which the image indicated by the image data is expressed in the color combination corresponding to the selected selection key. When an instruction to form an image is received via the operation unit 16, the control unit 10 executes a print color setting process to cause the image forming unit 12, etc. to form the image indicated by the image data on the recording paper P with the color combination indicated by the preview image.

The control unit 100 is electrically connected to the document transport unit 6, image reading unit 11, image forming unit 12, fixing unit 13, paper feed unit 14, display unit 15, operation unit 16, transport unit 17, HDD 18, image processing unit 19, image memory 20, facsimile communication unit 21, and communication unit 22, etc.

The display unit 15 is a display device configured with a liquid crystal display or an organic light-emitting diode (EL) display, etc. The display unit 15 displays various screens for each process that can be executed by the image forming device 1.

The operation unit 16 includes a number of hard keys, such as a start key 16A, for instructing the start of execution of each process. The operation unit 16 also includes a touch panel 16B that is placed over the display area of the display unit 15. User instructions are input to the operation unit 16.

The transport unit 17 includes a transport roller pair 17A, a discharge roller pair 17B, etc., and a transport motor connected to the transport roller pair 17A and the discharge roller pair 17B, etc. The control unit 10 drives the transport motor to rotate the transport roller pair 17A and the discharge roller pair 17B, etc., thereby transporting the recording paper P fed by the paper feed unit 14 along the transport path T toward the image forming unit 12 and the discharge tray 8.

The HDD 18 is a large-capacity storage device for storing various data such as image data generated by the image reading unit 11. The HDD 18 stores various control programs for implementing the operation of the image forming device 1. As one of the various control programs described above, the HDD 18 stores a setting program for executing the print color setting process according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The image processing unit 19 performs image processing as necessary on the image data generated by the image reading unit 11. The image memory 20 includes an area for temporarily storing the image data generated by the image reading unit 11. The facsimile communication unit 21 connects to a public line and transmits and receives image data via the public line.

The communication unit 22 includes a communication module such as a LAN (Local Area Network) board. The control unit 10 performs data communication via the communication unit 22 with an external device such as an information processing device 2 that is connected via a network.

Each part of the image forming device 1 is connected to a power source, and each part of the image forming device 1 operates when power is supplied from the power source.

[Action]
3 to 10, the operation of the image forming apparatus 1 will be described below. In the following description, it is assumed that the image forming apparatus 1 is in a powered-on state.

Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the print color setting screen 300. Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing the print color setting process. Fig. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the unit selection screen 500. Fig. 6 is a flowchart showing the color detection process. Fig. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the confirmation screen 700. Figs. 8 and 9 are diagrams showing examples of the display of the selection keys 703A to 703F. Fig. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a preview image.

The user places an original on the platen glass 7 and presses the start key 16A. When the start key 16A is pressed, the control unit 10 causes the image reading unit 11 to read the image of the original on the platen glass 7 and generate image data for image formation. When the image reading unit 11 has completed reading the original, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the print color setting screen 300 shown in FIG. 3.

The user touches key 301 on print color setting screen 300 to specify two-color printing (i.e., the number of colors is set to "2") and key 304 to input an instruction to use the automatic color detection function, and then touches key 305 to input an instruction to display a preview image.

When touch panel 16B detects a touch operation on key 305, control unit 10 determines that touch panel 16B has detected touch operations on keys 301 and 304 and has received an instruction to set the number of colors to "2" and an instruction to use the automatic color detection function, and starts executing the print color setting process shown in FIG. 4.

(1-1) Print color setting process (from step S10 to step S11)
When the print color setting process is started, the control unit 10 first causes the display unit 15 to display the unit selection screen 500 for selecting a color detection unit (step S10). After the process of step S10, the control unit 10 repeats the process of determining that a unit selection instruction has not been accepted (NO in step S11) until the key 503 on the unit selection screen 500 is touched.

Here, it is assumed that the user checks the radio button 501 for selecting page units as the color detection unit on the unit selection screen 500, and then touches the key 503. When the touch panel 16B detects a touch operation on the key 503, the control unit 10 determines that a unit selection instruction has been received (YES in step S11), and executes the color detection process shown in FIG. 6 (step S12).

(1-2) Color detection process (step S12)
When starting the color detection process, the control unit 10 first stores in the RAM the detected color information indicating that all seven colors, cyan, magenta, yellow, black, red, green, and blue, which are colors that can be used for image formation by the image forming unit 12, are "NO" (i.e., "Cyan=NO, Magenta=NO, Yellow=NO, Black=NO, Red=NO, Green=NO, Blue=NO") (step S30).

After processing step S30, the control unit 10 acquires the first page of the image data as the page to be detected (step S31). After processing step S31, the control unit 10 acquires the first pixel on the acquired first page (step S32). After processing step S32, the control unit 10 executes a color separation process to separate the color of the first pixel into the above seven colors (step S33).

After processing in step S33, the control unit 10 updates the detection color information stored in the RAM based on the separation colors obtained by the color separation process (step S34). In this case, it is assumed that the separation color was only magenta. The control unit 10 updates the detection color information by setting only magenta in the detection color information to "YES" (i.e., "Cyan=NO, Magenta= YES, Yellow=NO, Black=NO, Red=NO, Green=NO, Blue=NO").

The control unit 10 only updates the input by changing "NO" to "YES" and does not update the input by changing "YES" to "NO." In other words, if the color has been detected even once, "YES" is entered.

After processing in step S34, the control unit 10 determines whether or not all of the seven colors have been detected based on the detected color information (step S35). In this case, since only magenta has been detected, the control unit 10 determines that all colors have not been detected (NO in step S35) and determines whether or not all pixels on the detection target page have been acquired (step S36).

In this case, since the control unit 10 has only acquired the first pixel on the page to be detected, it determines that not all pixels have been acquired (NO in step S36) and acquires the next pixel on the page to be detected (the second pixel in this case) (step S37). The control unit 10 repeats the processes from step S33 to step S37 in the same manner as above until it determines that all pixels on the page to be detected have been acquired (YES in step S36).

If the separated colors obtained by the color separation process are all the seven colors, the control unit 10 updates the detected color information by setting all seven colors in the detected color information to "YES" (i.e., "Cyan=YES, Magenta=YES, Yellow=YES, Black=YES, Red=YES, Green=YES, Blue=YES") (step S34). In this case, the control unit 10 determines that all of the seven colors have been detected (YES in step S35), and ends the color detection process.

When the control unit 10 determines that all pixels on the detection target page have been acquired (YES in step S36), it determines whether or not all of the seven colors have been detected based on the detected color information (step S38). If the detected color information is "Cyan=YES, Magenta=YES, Yellow=YES, Black=YES, Red=YES, Green=YES, Blue=YES", the control unit 10 determines that all colors have been detected (YES in step S38) and ends the color detection process.

On the other hand, if the detected color information indicates that at least one of the seven colors is "NO", the control unit 10 determines that all colors have not been detected on the display unit 15 (NO in step S38), and determines whether "page unit" has been selected as the color detection unit (step S39). In this case, the control unit 10 determines that "page unit" has been selected (YES in step S39), and ends the color detection process.

On the other hand, if "document unit" is selected as the color detection unit, the control unit 10 determines that "page unit" is not selected (NO in step S39), and determines whether all pages in the image data have been acquired (step S40). If the control unit 10 determines that all pages in the image data have not been acquired (NO in step S40), it acquires the next page in the image data as the page to be detected (step S41).

The control unit 10 repeats the process from step S32 to step S41 in the same manner as described above until it determines based on the detected color information that all of the seven colors have been detected (YES in step S35 or YES in step S38), or until it determines that all pages in the image data have been acquired (YES in step S40).

(1-3) Print color setting process (from step S13 to step S11)
When the color detection process is completed, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display a confirmation screen 700 shown in Fig. 7 for confirming the detection result (step S13). At this time, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display a preview image 701 expressed in all colors detected from the image data on the confirmation screen 700.

After the process of step S13, the control unit 10 repeats the process of determining that the instruction to display the selection keys has not been accepted until the application key 702 on the confirmation screen 700 is touched (NO in step S14). Here, it is assumed that the user has touched the key 702. When the touch panel 16B detects a touch operation on the key 702, the control unit 10 determines that the instruction to display the selection keys has been accepted (YES in step S14) and executes a process to display the selection keys on the display unit 15 (step S15).

Specifically, in step S15, the control unit 10 first determines whether or not all of the seven predetermined colors have been detected from the image data based on the detected color information. If the control unit 10 determines that all of the seven predetermined colors have been detected, the control unit 10 determines all color combinations consisting of a specified number of colors (in this case, "2") that can be constructed based on the seven predetermined colors, according to a predetermined rule.

In this case, the control unit 10 is assumed to have preset the rule of "combination of black with one other color" as a predetermined rule. Therefore, the control unit 10 determines six color combinations consisting of black and each of the remaining six colors. As shown in FIG. 8, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display selection keys 703A to 703F indicating each of the determined six color combinations in a predetermined first display mode (e.g., a predetermined color) indicating that the combinations are selectable on the confirmation screen 700. At this time, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the selection keys 703A to 703F in order of the colors that include the largest detection range.

On the other hand, when the control unit 10 determines based on the detected color information that at least one of the seven predetermined colors has not been detected, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the selection keys 703A to 703F including the undetected color in a predetermined second display mode indicating that they are not selectable, and causes the display unit 15 to display the other selection keys in the first display mode. For example, when the control unit 10 determines based on the detected color information that blue has not been detected among the seven colors, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the selection key 703B indicating the combination of black and blue in a grayed-out second display mode, as shown in FIG. 9, and disables touch operation on the selection key 703B.

After the process of step S15, the control unit 10 repeats the process of determining that an instruction to display a preview image has not been accepted (NO in step S16) until the preview key 704 on the confirmation screen 700 is touched. It is assumed that the user touches any one of the selection keys 703A to 703F (in this case, key 703A) and then touches key 704.

When the touch panel 16B detects a touch operation on the key 704, the control unit 10 determines that an instruction to display a preview image has been received (YES in step S16), and causes the display unit 15 to display a preview image 705 on the confirmation screen 700, as shown in FIG. 10, which is expressed in a color combination (in this case, a combination of black and red) corresponding to the selected selection key (in this case, key 703A) (step S17).

After processing in step S17, the control unit 10 repeats the process of determining that an image formation instruction has not been accepted (NO in step S18) and the process of determining that an instruction to display a preview image has not been accepted (NO in step S19) until the start key 706 or copy key 707 on the confirmation screen 700 is touched, or the preview key 704 is touched.

If the user wishes to check a preview image 705 corresponding to another color combination, the user touches any other of the selection keys 703A to 703F and then touches key 704. When the touch panel 16B detects a touch operation on key 704, the control unit 10 determines that an instruction to display a preview image has been received (YES in step S19), and executes the process of step S17 in the same manner as described above.

On the other hand, when the user touches the start key 706 or the copy key 707, the control unit 10 determines that the image formation instruction has been accepted (YES in step S18), and causes the image forming unit 12, etc. to form the image indicated by the image data on the recording paper P with the color combination indicated by the preview image 705 (step S20). After processing step 20, the control unit 10 ends the print color setting process.

According to the above embodiment, when the control unit 10 receives an instruction to specify the number of colors via the operation unit 16, it executes a color detection process to detect from the image data of the image formation target, a predetermined number of colors that can be used for image formation by the image forming unit 12, and obtains color combinations consisting of the specified number of colors that can be constructed based on the multiple colors detected by the color detection process according to a predetermined rule, and displays selection keys 703A to 703F indicating each of the obtained color combinations on the display unit 15. When an instruction to select one of the selection keys 703A to 703F is received via the operation unit 16, it displays a preview image 705 on the display unit 15, which represents an image indicated by the image data in the color combination corresponding to the selected selection key. When an image formation instruction is received via the operation unit 16, it causes the image forming unit 12, etc. to form the image indicated by the image data on the recording paper P with the color combination indicated by the preview image 705.

In this way, when performing one-color or two-color printing using colors contained in the original color image with minimal color change from the original color image, the user is presented with color combinations that can be used in image formation, allowing the user to easily specify color combinations to be used in image formation without the hassle of manually setting them.

According to the above embodiment, when the control unit 10 detects all of the seven predetermined colors from the image data, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the selection keys 703A to 703F in a predetermined first display mode indicating that the selection keys are selectable. On the other hand, when the control unit 10 does not detect at least one of the seven predetermined colors from the image data, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the selection key 703B, which includes the undetected color, in a predetermined second display mode indicating that the selection keys are not selectable, and to display the other selection keys 703A, 703C to 703F in the above first display mode.

In this way, the user is presented with both selectable and unselectable color combinations that can be constructed based on seven predefined colors, further improving user convenience.

Furthermore, according to the above embodiment, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display a preview image 701 that is expressed using all colors detected from the image data. In this way, the original colors of the image represented by the image data are presented to the user, further improving user convenience.

Furthermore, according to the above embodiment, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the selection keys 703A to 703F in order of the colors with the largest detection ranges. This allows the user to grasp the color combination that is closest to the original document.

(First Modification)
In the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to two-color printing, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment. In a first modification of the above embodiment, the present invention is applied to one-color printing. In the following description of the first modification, the same content as in the above embodiment will not be described repeatedly.

For example, as shown in FIG. 11, when the user touches key 302 for selecting one-color printing and key 304 on print color setting screen 300, and then touches key 305, control unit 10 starts executing the print color setting process shown in FIG. 4 in the same manner as described above.

In step S15, the control unit 10 determines, in accordance with a predetermined rule, all color combinations consisting of a specified number of colors (in this case, "1") that can be constructed based on the multiple colors detected by the color detection process. In this case, it is assumed that the control unit 10 has preset the rule of "combinations of only one color" as the predetermined rule. Therefore, when the control unit 10 determines that all of the seven predetermined colors have been detected, it determines seven color combinations consisting of only one of each of the seven predetermined colors.

(Other Modifications)
In the above embodiment, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the preview image 701 that is expressed using all the colors detected from the image data, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment. For example, as shown in Fig. 12, the control unit 10 may cause the display unit 15 to display a hue wheel 801 that shows all the colors detected from the image data, instead of the preview image 701. This allows the user to easily recognize the original colors contained in the image represented by the image data. This further improves user convenience.

In the above embodiment, the control unit 10 causes the display unit 15 to display the selection keys 703A to 703F in order of the color with the largest detection range, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment. For example, the control unit 10 may cause the display unit 15 to display the selection keys 703A to 703F in order of the color with the largest remaining toner amount.

In the above embodiment, the control unit 10 presets the rule "combination of black and one other color" as the predetermined rule, but the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment. For example, the control unit 10 may preset the rule "combination of any two colors out of the seven predetermined colors" as the predetermined rule.

The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible. For example, in the above embodiment, a color multifunction printer is used as the image forming device 1, but this is merely one example, and other image forming devices such as a monochrome multifunction printer, a copier, or a facsimile machine may also be used.

The configuration and processing of the above embodiment shown in Figures 1 to 12 are merely one embodiment of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention to these configurations and processing.

Reference Signs List 1 Image forming apparatus 10 Control unit 12 Image forming unit 15 Display unit 16 Operation unit

Claims (5)

an image forming unit that forms an image on a recording medium;
an operation unit into which user instructions are input;
A control unit,
The control unit is
When an instruction to specify the number of colors is received via the operation unit, a color detection process is executed to detect a plurality of predetermined colors that can be used for image formation by the image forming unit from image data of an image formation target;
determining color combinations consisting of a specified number of colors that can be constructed based on the plurality of colors detected by the color detection process in accordance with a predetermined rule, and displaying at least one selection key indicating each of the determined color combinations on the display unit;
when an instruction to select one of the at least one selection keys is received via the operation unit, a first preview image is displayed on the display unit, the first preview image being an image represented by the image data expressed in a combination of colors corresponding to the selected selection key;
When an image formation instruction is received via the operation unit, the image forming apparatus causes the image forming unit to form an image indicated by the image data on the recording medium in the color combination indicated by the first preview image. The control unit is
when all of the predetermined plurality of colors are detected from the image data, displaying the at least one selection key indicating each of the determined color combinations in a predetermined first display mode indicating that the combinations are selectable;
2. The image forming device according to claim 1, wherein, when at least one of the predetermined plurality of colors is not detected from the image data, the display unit is caused to display, in a predetermined second display mode, a selection key among the at least one selection key including the undetected color, which selection key is not selectable, and to display the other selection keys in the first display mode. The image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the display unit to display a second preview image that is expressed using all colors detected from the image data. The image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the display unit to display a color wheel showing all colors detected from the image data. The image forming device according to claim 1, wherein the control unit causes the display unit to display the at least one selection key in order of the color having the largest detection range.