Image forming apparatus and its control method
AssigneeCanon Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorManabu Takebayashi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
It is difficult for a conventional image forming apparatus to append additional information to image information so as not to deteriorate the image quality and to decode the additional information more reliably. In this invention, since an appending method is determined based on the print density value detected by a printer engine to control switching of the appending method and an add-on pattern, an optimal add-on pattern can be appended by an optimal method.
Claims18
An image forming apparatus having image forming means for forming an image on the basis of input image information, comprising:
- a plurality of appending means for appending predetermined additional information to the input image information respectively by different methods;
- density characteristic acquisition means for acquiring density characteristics of an image formed by the image forming means;
- and
- selection means for selecting one of said plurality of appending means on the basis of the acquired density characteristics.
A method of controlling an image forming apparatus for forming an image on the basis of input image information, comprising:
- the density characteristic acquisition step of acquiring density characteristics of an image formed by the image forming apparatus;
- the determination step of determining an appending method of predetermined additional information to the input image information on the basis of the acquired density characteristics;
- and
- the appending step of appending the predetermined additional information to the input image information by the determined appending method.
A program for controlling an image forming apparatus having image forming means for forming an image on the basis of input image information, said program comprising at least:
- codes of a plurality of appending processes for appending predetermined additional information to the input image information respectively by different methods;
- a code of a density characteristic acquisition process for acquiring density characteristics of an image formed by the image forming means;
- and
- a code of a selection process for selecting one of the plurality of appending processes on the basis of the acquired density characteristics.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.