JPH08334933A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To prevent printing paper which is fed manually from being set in a wrong direction, in the case of the printing paper with a copy made on its surface is fed manually in order to make a copy on its rear surface as well. CONSTITUTION: When a manual both side mode is set as operation mode, since a guide screen for manual paper-feed by a manual paper-feed means 14 is outputted and displayed, based on data on an image formed on the surface of the printing paper by an image forming means 3 after being read and scanned by an image reading means 2, the direction in which the printing paper with a copy made on its surface is set to be fed manually is guided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus used in a multifunctional copying machine or the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine or a DTP system reads digital image data from a read original by an image scanner or the like and prints the image data on a printing paper by a printer or the like. It is possible to process image data. Therefore, the high-performance image forming apparatus is designed so that image data read by an image scanner or the like can be processed by a microcomputer or the like and then printed by a printer or the like, and an image of this processing can be confirmed. LCD (Liquid Crys)
A display such as a tal display) is provided. For example, in a digital copying machine which is such an image forming apparatus, there is also a model in which image data read by an image scanner is displayed on a touch panel and a processing range and the like can be designated by plotting on the touch panel.

In the environment where the image forming apparatus as described above is used, various works are required for image reading and image formation, and for example, double-sided printing may be performed. In this case, some image forming apparatuses perform double-sided printing mechanically by the sheet reversing mechanism, but image forming apparatuses that do not have a sheet reversing mechanism perform double-sided printing by manual feeding. For example, when the image data of one side of the read document is copied to both sides of the print sheet, the operation of copying the image data of the front side of the read document to the front side of the print sheet is executed in the same manner as in normal one-sided copying. Then, the print paper on which the image data of the front side of the read original is copied is carried out, so this print paper is manually inverted and manually fed to the paper feeding position, and the read original is placed on the back side of the print original. Copy the image data of the surface of.

[0004]

As described above, even in an image forming apparatus having no paper reversing mechanism, double-sided copying can be realized by manual paper feeding.

However, in the case of manually feeding a printing paper having image data copied on the front surface, since the general user performs this work, the setting direction may be wrong. For example,
If you make a mistake in the vertical direction of the printing paper, the vertical direction of the image data copied on the back side of the printing paper will be opposite, and if you make a mistake in the front and back directions of the printing paper, two image data will overlap on one side of the printing paper. Will be copied.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
Image reading means for reading and scanning image data from a read document, image display means for displaying and outputting the image data, manual feeding means for manually feeding the printing paper, and image forming for forming the image data on the printing paper. Means, a mode setting means for setting the manual double-sided mode as an operation mode, and when the manual double-sided mode is set by the mode setting means, the image reading means scans and scans the surface of the printing paper by the image forming means. And an operation control unit that causes the image display unit to display and output a manual feed guide screen for the manual paper feed unit based on the image data formed in (1).

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the operation control means reverses the image data formed on the surface of the printing paper by the image forming means, which is read and scanned by the image reading means. To create a guidance screen.

The manual feed guide screen in the present invention is a screen for guiding the manual feed work to prevent mistakes. Specifically, the manual feed work procedure It is a screen including a schematic diagram, notes regarding manual paper feeding, and the like.

[0009]

According to the present invention, when the image reading means scans and scans the image data of the read original, the image data is displayed and output by the image display means. When the printing paper is manually fed to the manual paper feeding means, the image forming means forms image data on the printing paper. When the manual double-sided mode is set as the operation mode by the mode setting means, the manual paper feed means is read based on the image data read and scanned by the image reading means and formed on the surface of the printing paper by the image forming means. Since the operation control means causes the image display means to display and output the manual feed guide screen, when performing double-sided copying by manual feed, a manual feed setting of printing paper with image data copied on the front side is set. The direction is guided by the guidance screen.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the operation control means reads and scans the image data by the image reading means and inverts the image data formed on the surface of the printing paper by the image forming means to create a guide screen. A simple guidance screen is created easily.

[0011]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, as shown in FIG. 1, a digital copying machine 1 which is an image forming apparatus according to the present exemplary embodiment includes a scanner unit 2 which is an image reading unit that reads an image from a read document and an image forming unit that forms an image on a printing sheet. And the printer unit 3 which is

In the printer unit 3, a toner cleaner 5, a charging charger 6, a laser scanner 7, four developing devices 8, a transfer belt 9 and the like are arranged around a photosensitive drum 4 arranged above the inside. The electrophotographic mechanism 12 is formed by arranging the transfer belt 9 and the fixing device 10 in the paper transport path 11.

At a position communicating with the electrophotographic mechanism 12 through the paper feed path 11, a plurality of paper feed cassettes 13 for feeding print papers of different sizes and directions and a manual paper feed means are provided. A tray 14 is provided, and a drive control mechanism (not shown) for driving the print sheets set in the manual tray 14 and the paper feed cassette 13 is provided in the electrophotographic mechanism 1.
Supply to 2. Since the printer unit 3 of the digital copying machine 1 of this embodiment forms a full-color image on the printing paper by the electrophotographic mechanism 12, the four developing units 8 are provided.
YMCK (Yellow Magenta Cyanide Black)
Color toners (not shown) are individually stored.

In the scanner unit 2, a contact glass 16 is provided on the upper surface of the main body housing 15, and a read document (not shown) is placed on the upper surface of the contact glass 16. And this contact glass 1
A first scanning unit 17 is movably supported at a position facing 6 and a second scanning unit 18 is movably supported at a position facing the first scanning unit 17. Here, the first scanning unit 17 is formed of a halogen lamp 19 which is an image illuminating light source and a reflection mirror 20 whose reflection surface is inclined at 45 degrees, and the second scanning unit 18 is 45 times each. It is formed by a pair of reflecting mirrors 21 and 22 that are inclined at an angle of 90 degrees and face each other at an internal angle of 90 degrees.

An image forming optical system 23 is provided at a position facing the reflecting mirror 22 of the second scanning unit 18.
A 3-line CCD 24 is fixedly arranged via a B line, a G line, and an R line for reading B light, G light, and R light, respectively. And (not shown) are connected at intervals of several lines.

Here, the first and second scanning units 1
Since the scanning speeds of 7 and 18 are set to 2: 1, the optical path length of the imaging optical path that communicates from the contact glass 16 to the 3-line CCD 24 through the first and second scanning units 17 and 18. Is constant even if the first and second scanning units 17 and 18 move. The 3-line CCD 24 photoelectrically converts the reflected light of the read original placed on the contact glass 16 and illuminated by the halogen lamp 19 by such an image forming optical path of a constant length.

Further, an operation panel 25 is provided on the upper surface of the main body housing 15 in front of the contact glass 16, and the operation panel 25 has a single image as shown in FIG. 3 in appearance. A touch panel 26 as a display unit and various keys 27 to 36 are provided.

More specifically, the operation panel 25 includes
As various basic keys related to the copying operation, a numeric keypad 27 for inputting numerical values, a clear / preheat key 28 for inputting operation for mode initialization and preheating, an interrupt key 29 for inputting operation for starting interrupt operation, Image quality adjustment key 30 for inputting image quality adjustment, program key 31 for inputting mode registration or start of mode call, start key 32 for inputting copy start, clear / stop key for inputting data initialization or operation stop 33, an area processing key 34 for inputting the start of the area processing of the image data, a manual double-sided key 35 for inputting and operating the mode setting of the manual double-sided mode, a dimming key 36 for adjusting the brightness of the touch panel 26, etc. Has been.

Then, the various keys 27 to 36 as described above.
Thus, the keyboard 37 is formed as one unit, and the operation panel 25 is formed by incorporating the touch panel 26 into the keyboard 37.

Further, around the touch panel 26, as shown in FIG. 4, as various keys related to the image display, the reading key 3 for inputting the operation of starting the image reading.
8. Whole key 3 for input operation of whole display of image data
9. Three magnifying keys 40, which are input and operated when the image display magnification is about 150,200,300 (%), a screen movement key 41 for inputting and moving the display screen, a cursor key 42 for inputting and moving the cursor, and a cursor A point designation key 43 for inputting to plot at a designated point, a close key 44 for inputting and setting a machining area by a designated point, a clear key 45 for inputting to erase the last designated point, and a deletion of all designated points An all clear key 46 for inputting and is provided.

The electrical block structure of the digital copying machine 1 of this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. Each of the scanner unit 2 and the printer unit 3 has
A system control unit 47 that executes various controls and an image processing unit 48 that processes image data are respectively connected. Then, the system control unit 4
7, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 50 is connected via a serial communication driver 49 for communicating various commands, and the image processing unit 48 has a data buffer 51 for communicating image data and a transfer of image data. (First In First Ou)
t) line buffer 52, DRA for accumulating image data
An M (Dynamic Random Access Memory) 53 is sequentially connected.

Here, the CPU 50 has a DMAC (D
irect Memory Access Controller) is built in,
This DMAC is connected to the DRAM 53. Further, the CPU 50 is connected to an LCD controller 54 that controls the display of the touch panel 26, the keyboard 37, and the like, and a ROM (Read Only Memory) 55 and an SRAM (Stati) that store control programs and the like.
c Random Access Memory) 56 is also connected. A VRAM (Video Random Access Memory) 57 for expanding image data is connected to the LCD controller 54, and the DRAM 53 is connected to the VRAM 57 via the LCD controller 54.

The touch panel 26 has an EL (Ele
a backlight (not shown) such as ctro Luminescence),
The dot matrix LCD module 58 and the analog switch plate 59 are sequentially laminated. A menu displayed as an operation key by the LCD module 58 can be input and operated by the switch plate 59, and it also functions as a display editor.

The electrical block structure of the operation panel 25 will be described below with reference to FIG. First, R
The LCD module 54 of the touch panel 26, the switch plate 59, and the keyboard 37 are connected to the LCD controller 54 in which the OM 60 a and the RAM 61 are directly connected. The key 27 of this keyboard 37
Since LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) are built in a part of the components 36 to 36, an LED driver 62 is connected to the keyboard 37.

An address latch 63 is connected to the LCD controller 54, and the address latch 63 and the LCD controller 54 are CPs.
It is connected to U64. An optical transceiver 65 is connected to the CPU 64.
Serially communicates various data with an external device (not shown) using a light beam. Further, an address decoder 66 is connected to the address latch 63, and the address decoder 66 includes the LCD controller 54 and the LED.
It is directly connected to the driver 62 and the ROM 60b, and also connected to the CPU 64 via a system reset 67.

Further, as shown in FIG. 6, the switch plate 59 of the touch panel 26 has a transparent substrate 68 having transparent electrodes formed at both ends in the X direction and a transparent electrode formed at both ends in the Y direction. It has a structure in which a transparent substrate 69 is laminated. The coordinate detection circuit 70 connected to the switch plate 59 includes an analog switch 71, a pull-up resistor 72, various gates 73 to 80, and A / DC.
(Analog / Digital Convertor) 81 and controller 8
It is formed by 2.

Incidentally, the coordinate detection of the operation position of the touch panel 26 by the coordinate detection circuit 70 as described above is performed in accordance with the potentials X1, Y1, X2 and Y2 of the transparent substrates 68 and 69 as shown in Table 1 below. It is executed by arithmetic processing.

[0028]

[Table 1]

The digital copying machine 1 of the present embodiment is
It has mode setting means and operation control means. The mode setting means is a manual double-sided key 3 on the operation panel 25.
When the manual operation of 5 is detected, the manual double-sided mode is set as the operation mode. When the manual double-sided mode is set as the operation mode as described above, the operation control unit causes the scanner unit 2 to read and scan an original document and the image data formed on the surface of the printing paper by the printer unit 3. On the basis of the above, the guide screen of the manual feed for the manual tray 14 is displayed and output on the touch panel 26. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 10, the operation control means reverses the image data formed on the front surface of the printing paper by the printer unit 3 by being read and scanned from the read original, As shown in FIG. 9, a guidance screen is created by combining this with a guidance image prepared in advance.

In the case where the image of the read original is copied by the digital copying machine 1 of the present embodiment having such a structure,
The read original is read and scanned by the scanner unit 2 to output RGB image data, and the YMCK image data generated from the RGB image data is printed on the printing paper by the printer unit 3. When performing such image copying, the scanner unit 2 is manually operated by the touch panel 26.
Various information is set in the printer unit 3 and the printer unit 3, and the scanner unit 2 and the printer unit 3 operate in accordance with the setting information.

Specific examples of various display screens on the touch panel 26 will be described below with reference to FIGS. 7 to 11. First, as shown in FIG. 7, on the basic screen of the copying operation, there are modes such as color mode, automatic density, manual density, image quality mode, automatic paper selection, paper tray, automatic paper scaling, normal magnification, sorting, and stacking. A selection menu is displayed, and further, a sub-screen selection menu such as create, color processing, moving / book processing, and scaling is also displayed.

When it is desired to perform image copying on both sides of the printing paper in such a state, the manual double-sided key 35 of the operation panel 25 is manually operated to set the manual double-sided mode as the operation mode. The processing operation of the digital copying machine 1 in the manual double-sided mode thus set will be sequentially described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when the setting of the manual double-sided mode is confirmed (step S1), a guidance image for manual double-sided copying is displayed and output on the touch panel 26 as shown in FIG. In this state, the user can select the front side copy or the back side copy (steps S2, S
6) If both are canceled, the manual duplex mode is released. When the manual double-sided mode is started from the front side copy, after various settings are completed similarly to the normal copying operation, the start key 32 of the operation panel 25 is used to specify the start of copying (step S3), and the copy is set in the scanner unit 2. The image data of the read original document is copied on the front surface of the printing paper by the printer unit 3 (step S4).

At this time, the image data read and scanned from the read original by the scanner unit 2 and formed on the surface of the printing paper by the printer unit 3 is stored in the DRAM 53, and is optimally used as a guide screen by a plurality of preset image processes. It is converted to a different state. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 10, the image data is inverted, and its contour line is extracted and replaced with a broken line. The image data thus modified is incorporated into a guidance image prepared in advance, and as shown in FIG. 9, a manual feed guide screen is created.

In such a state, if the back side copy is canceled, the manual double-sided mode is canceled and the guide screen is deleted, and when the back side copy is selected, the guide screen is displayed and output on the lower half of the touch panel 26 (step S7). ). As shown in FIG. 9, in this guide screen, guidance for manual feeding of the printing paper to be copied on the back side in manual double-sided copying is formed by characters and a pattern, and the direction in which the printing paper is set is set in this pattern. It is incorporated according to the image actually formed on the surface. Therefore, if the user sets the printing paper on the manual tray 14 according to the guide screen of the touch panel 26, the user can set the printing paper in the correct direction.

In this state, when the start key 32 of the operation panel 25 is designated to start copying (step S8), the image data of the read original set in the scanner unit 2 is copied by the printer unit 3 onto the back side of the printing paper. (Step S9).

As described above, the digital copying machine 1 of the present embodiment can copy the image data on both sides of the printing paper by applying the manual feed as in the conventional model, but the image data can be printed on the front surface. Since the guide screen based on the image data formed on the front surface is displayed and output on the touch panel 26 when the printing paper on which is formed is manually fed to the manual feed tray 14,
With this guide screen, it is possible to easily and reliably guide the setting direction of the manual feed of printing paper, and it is possible to prevent an error in the setting direction of the manual feed. Moreover, since such a guide screen is created by reversing the image data formed on the front surface of the printing paper, it is possible to easily create an appropriate guide screen, and it is possible to set the guide screen in the manual feed direction. Mistakes can be prevented very well.

In the digital copying machine 1 of this embodiment,
As shown in FIG. 9, the output of the guidance screen is displayed on a part of the touch panel 26. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and the guidance screen is touched as shown in FIG. It is also possible to display and output on the entire surface of 26. Further, in the case of creating the guide screen, as shown in FIG. 10, it has been illustrated that the contour line of the image data whose front and back are reversed is extracted and replaced with the broken line, but the present invention is limited to the above-mentioned embodiment. Not a thing, as shown in FIG.
It is also possible to whiten out the image data that has been turned upside down.

[0039]

According to the present invention, the image reading means for reading and scanning the image data from the read document, the image display means for displaying and outputting the image data, and the manual paper feeding for feeding the printing paper by manual feeding Means, image forming means for forming image data on printing paper, mode setting means for setting a manual double-sided mode as an operation mode, and image reading means for reading the manual double-sided mode by the mode setting means. And an operation control unit that causes the image display unit to display and output a manual feed guide screen for the manual paper feed unit based on the image data scanned and formed on the surface of the printing paper by the image forming unit. The guide screen guides the manual feeding direction of the printing paper on which the image data is copied.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the operation control means creates the guide screen by reversing the image data read and scanned by the image reading means and the image data formed on the surface of the printing paper by the image forming means. , It is possible to easily create an appropriate guidance screen.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view showing an internal structure of a digital copying machine which is an embodiment of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit structure of a digital copying machine.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing an appearance of an operation panel including a touch panel as a part.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing the appearance of a touch panel.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a circuit structure of an operation panel.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a circuit structure of a coordinate detection circuit connected to a touch panel.

FIG. 7 is a plan view showing a state in which a basic operation setting screen is displayed and output on a touch panel.

FIG. 8 is a plan view showing a state where a manual double-sided mode setting screen is displayed and output on the touch panel.

FIG. 9 is a plan view showing a state where a guide screen for manual paper feeding is displayed and output on the touch panel.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a process of creating a main portion of a guide screen from image data formed on the surface of printing paper.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the digital copying machine.

FIG. 12 is a plan view showing a state in which a guide screen of a modified example is displayed and output on a touch panel.

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing a process of creating a main portion of a guide screen from image data formed on the surface of a printing paper as a modification.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 image forming apparatus 2 image reading means 3 image forming means 14 manual paper feeding means 26 image display means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An image reading unit for reading and scanning image data from a read document, an image display unit for displaying and outputting the image data, a manual paper feeding unit for manually feeding a printing paper, and an image data on the printing paper. Forming means, a mode setting means for setting a manual double-sided mode as an operation mode, and when the manual double-sided mode is set by the mode setting means, the image reading means scans and scans the image forming means. An operation control means for displaying and displaying on the image display means a manual feed guide screen for the manual paper feed means based on image data formed on the surface of the printing paper. Forming equipment. 2. The operation control means reverses the image data read and scanned by the image reading means and formed on the surface of the printing paper by the image forming means to create a guide screen. The image forming apparatus described.