JPS6353044A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify operation and to allow the consumption of a developing agent to approach an optimum value, by judging which is main, a character or an image with respect to data and performing low density recording when the character is main while performing high density recording when the image is main. CONSTITUTION:The recording information from a host computer 2 is outputted to a microprocessor 4 by an interface part 5 to judge whether said information is image data or character data. Since the former is transmitted by an U.S. standard code for information exchange and the latter is transmitted by a bit image, judgement is easy and the microprocessor 4 calculates the recording are occupied by each data. The character and image data are stored in a page memory 8 and areas occupied by both data are compared and, when the area of the image data is larger, the microprocessor 4 indicates high density recording to a microprocessor 11 and, when the area of the character data is larger, said microprocessor 4 indicates low density recording. The microprocessor 11 controls the light intensity of a light source 13 to perform recording at a density corresponding to recording. Therefore, efficient recording can be performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention is applied to word processors and computer aided design systems (hereinafter abbreviated as CAD).
The present invention relates to a recording device used as a character and image output device of a data processing device such as a computer aided manufacturing system (hereinafter abbreviated as CAM).

Conventional technology In recent years, with the development of computers, word processors, C
The spread of AD, CAM, etc. is remarkable.

A conventional recording device will be explained below.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of the main parts of a conventional recording device, in which 18 is a photoreceptor drum on which a photoreceptor layer (not shown) is formed and rotates in the direction shown by arrow A, and 19 is a center drum. Charged with electricity! jA 19a is a charger that applies an electric charge to the photosensitive drum 18, and the charger 18 has an elongated frame shape as shown in more detail in FIG. 20
2 is a laser unit that generates a laser beam and modulates the laser beam in accordance with recorded information; 21 is a reflecting mirror that changes the direction of the laser beam; 22 is a developing device; and 23 is a developer; inside the developing device 22; A roller 24 is disposed, and a magnet 25 is disposed inside the roller 24. The roller 24 rotates in the direction shown by arrow B, and the developer 22 is held in a triboelectrically charged state, and a suitable amount is removed from the blade 26. It is configured such that the amount leaks and is supplied to the photoreceptor drum 18. 27 is a paper feed roller that rotates in the direction shown by arrow C, 28 is a recording paper, and 29 is a charged 1! 29 a is a transfer device disposed; 30 is a cleaning device having a cleaning blade 31 that contacts the photosensitive drum 18; 32 is a static eliminator; and 33 is an eraser lamp disposed inside the static eliminator 32.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional recording apparatus, in which 34 indicates the entire recording apparatus, 35 a paper cassette, 36 a power switch, and 37 a density adjustment knob.

The operation of the conventional recording apparatus configured as described above will be described below.

First, the photoreceptor drum 18 rotates in the direction shown by arrow A, and the surface of the photoreceptor drum 18 is charged to a negative potential by the charger 19. Next, the laser unit 20 generates a laser beam modulated according to recorded information sent from a connected computer (not shown in the figure), scans the photoreceptor drum 18, and emits a laser beam onto the photoreceptor drum 18. Forms an electrostatic latent image. Next, a developing device 22 causes a developer 23 to adhere to the electrostatic latent image, thereby performing development. Note that at this time, a developing bias current is applied to the roller 24, and the developer 23 adheres to the photoreceptor drum 18 due to the potential difference with the electrostatic latent image. The recording paper 28 is conveyed by a paper feed roller 27 and comes into close contact with the photoreceptor drum 18 on which a developed image is formed, and the developer 23 is transferred to the recording paper 2 by a transfer device 29.
Attach to 8. The developer 23 adhering to the recording paper 28 is fixed by a fixing device (not shown in the figure) and becomes the final printed matter.

Density of printed characters and images (hereinafter abbreviated as ID).

) can be changed using the density adjustment knob 37. This density adjustment knob 87 is provided to prevent the density from decreasing in response to a decrease in the remaining amount of the developer 23. When the density adjustment knob 37 is operated, the voltage value and current value of the charging wire 19a are changed, the charging potential on the photoreceptor drum 18 is changed, and the laser unit 2
By changing the light intensity of 0 and changing the potential of the electrostatic latent image,
Further, by changing the developing bias current of the developing device 22, the density of the printed matter can be changed.

In addition to the above-mentioned purpose, this density adjustment knob 37 is used to record with low density so that the spaces between lines are not filled up when recording only characters (hereinafter referred to as fine line reproducibility). When printing images such as photographs, it is also used to record with high density to prevent density unevenness.

However, in the above conventional configuration, the density adjustment knob 87
is unrelated to the data sent from computers etc.
When attempting to record images such as text and photographs by changing the density from the outside, the problem is that the density adjustment knob 37 must be operated each time one sheet of recording is completed, making the operation complicated. However, when text and images such as photographs are recorded on a single sheet of recording paper, there is a problem in that the user has to judge which image is more important, placing a heavy burden on the user. Furthermore, if the recording apparatus is connected to a large number of computers, the position of the density adjustment knob 87 must be confirmed each time a user changes, complicating the operation. Furthermore, when recording images such as important photographs and text that explain them in a continuous manner, recording is performed at a high density to prevent density unevenness in the photograph, but at this time, the text is also high. Since recording is performed in density, there is a problem in that the amount of developer consumed increases.

Means for Solving Problems The present invention provides a determining means for determining whether sent data consists mainly of characters or images, and a system that determines whether the data sent mainly consists of characters according to the output of the determining means. It is equipped with a recording means that performs low-density recording for images, and high-density recording for images.

Effect: With the above configuration, it is not necessary for the user to judge the content of each image to be recorded and adjust the density, and the density can be adjusted automatically.

Embodiment FIG. 2 is a sectional view of essential parts of a recording apparatus in an embodiment of the present invention, in which 18 is a photosensitive drum, 19 is a charger, 20 is a laser unit, 21 is a reflecting mirror, 22 is a developing device, and 23
is a developer, 24 is a roller, 25 is a magnet, 26 is a blade, 27 is a paper feed roller, 28 is a recording paper, 29 is a transfer device, 3o is a cleaning device, 31 is a cleaning blade, 32 is a static eliminator, 33 is an eraser These lamps have the same configuration as the conventional example.

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of this embodiment, where 1 shows the entire recording device, 2 is a host computer connected to the outside of the recording device 1 and transmits recorded information, and 3 transmits recorded information in page units. 4 is a microprocessor that controls the controller unit 3; 5 is an interface unit that receives recorded information transmitted from the host computer 2; 6 is a program storage unit that stores the program of the microprocessor 4; 8 is a font storage unit that stores fonts corresponding to character data, 8 is a page memory that stores characters and image data laid out in units of one page, and 9 is a unit that converts input parallel data into serial data. 10 is an engine section that performs recording; 11 is an engine section 10 that outputs a parallel-to-serial converter;
12 is a light source drive unit that drives the light source 13 in the laser unit 20; 14 is a density control unit that controls the light source drive unit 12 according to instructions from the microprocessor 4 to control the recording density; 15 is a density control unit that controls the recording density; A sensor manual section 16 controls the inputs of various sensors, a mechanism control section 16 controls the photoreceptor drum 18, etc., and a mechanism section 17 is composed of parts as shown in FIG.

Regarding the recording device of this embodiment configured as described above,
The operation will be explained below using the flowchart of FIG.

First, when record information is transmitted from the host computer 2, the interface unit 5 receives the record information and outputs the record information to the microprocessor 4 (step a).

Next, the microprocessor 4 determines whether the recorded information sent is image data or character data (step b). Character data is American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCI).
It is abbreviated as I code. ), and since the image data is transmitted as a bit image, this judgment is easily made.If the zero-order recorded information is image data, the microprocessor 4 calculates the recording area occupied by the sent image data. Calculate (Step C).

If the recorded information sent is image data, first the font of the character corresponding to the ASCII code is read from the font storage section 7 (step d), and the area occupied by the character data is calculated (step e). Next, the character data and image data are stored in the page memory 8 that stores the states of dots corresponding to all recorded images (step f).
. When the storage in page memory 8 is completed (step g)
, the area occupied by the image data and the area occupied by the character data are compared (step h). If the image data occupies a large area, the microprocessor 4
The microprocessor 11 that controls the microprocessor 11 is instructed to perform recording at a high image recording density (step l). If the area occupied by the character data is large, the microprocessor 4 instructs the microprocessor 11 controlling the engine section 10 to perform recording at a lower character recording density (step j). At this time, the microprocessor 11 outputs a signal corresponding to the recording ei degree to the density control means 14, and the density control means 14 controls the light source 13 so that the light intensity corresponds to the recording density. Next, the microprocessor 11 controls the mechanical section according to the data stored in the page memory 8, and performs recording at a density corresponding to the recording density.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between recording density and developer consumption, where the vertical axis shows the recording density ID and the horizontal axis shows the developer consumption when recording is performed at that density.

In the recording apparatus of this embodiment, when recording is performed at an image recording density, ID=1.2 and the developer consumption amount is B.

At this time, there is no density unevenness during black solid recording, but fine line reproducibility is poor. Note that since the slope of the curve is nearly horizontal near ID=1.2, the developer consumption amount C hardly changes at ID=1.2.

In addition, when recording is performed at character recording density, ID=1°0, and the developer consumption is flA. At this time, the amount of developer consumed is less than when recording is performed at the image recording density, and fine line reproducibility is good, but density unevenness is likely to occur during black solid recording.

As mentioned above, since developer consumption is lower when recording is performed at character recording density, it is possible to determine whether to perform recording that emphasizes characters or images based on recording information as in this embodiment. By performing recording based on this judgment, the amount of developer consumed can be brought close to the optimum value, and efficient recording can be performed.

Note that in this example, the decision as to whether text data or image data is important was made by comparing the area occupied by each data. It is effective in cases where no density unevenness is required. However, even though the image data was sent as a bit image,
This method is not effective for images with many lines, such as graphs containing a large number of characters, because fine line reproducibility is poor. For this reason, when comparing character data and image data, it is better not only to compare the area ratio, but also to calculate the average dot density of the image data, and configure it so that when that value exceeds a certain value, high-density recording is performed. It is even more effective.

Effects of the Invention The present invention provides a determination means for determining whether sent data is mainly composed of text or an image, and a method for determining whether the transmitted data is mainly composed of text or images. In order to record mainly images, it is equipped with a recording means that records in high density, and the density is automatically adjusted without the need for the user to judge the content of the image to be recorded and adjust the density each time. This simplifies the operation of the entire recording device, and furthermore, since high-density recording is performed only when it is determined that the image is the main object, developer consumption can be brought closer to the optimum value. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram of a recording device in an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the main parts of the same, FIG. 3 is a graph showing the relationship between recording density and developer consumption, FIG. 4 is the same flowchart, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the main parts of the conventional recording apparatus. FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the charger, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view thereof. 3... Controller section, 4... Microprocessor, 5... Interface section, 6... Program storage section, 7... Font storage section, 8... Page memory, 9... Parallel. Serial conversion section, 10... Engine section, 11... Microprocessor, 12... Light source driving section, 14... Concentration control means, 1
5...Sensor human power section, 16...Mechanism control section, 17
...Name of the representative of the Mechanisms Department Patent attorney Toshio Nakao Number 1 Fig. 1g - Part 11 Light-reflecting drum 79 - Part 2 O - L - Unit number 2 22 - Ichigu Bodon 23-Genden Sai J 28-Monday 29-Itda Sha 1 Gourd, 30--Cleaning Volume 1, 32-Ichirei Ryuho 2nd 3 Figure D4 8 BC. Figure 19 - Charger 1'/a --- One-Charge Charger 6 Figure 19-34 - Recorder I

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) Judgment means for judging whether the sent data consists mainly of text or images, and if the data is mainly text based on the output of the judgment means, the density 1. A recording device characterized by comprising a recording means for performing thin recording and recording with high density when the data is mainly an image. (2) The determining means compares the area occupied by the character data and the area occupied by the image data, and determines that the data with the larger area is the main data. Recording device. (3) The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining means determines that the image data is mainly image data when the density of dots constituting the image to be recorded exceeds a certain value. .