Image forming apparatus employing two printing methods
AssigneeOki Data Corporation
InventorHidehito Jingu
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An image forming apparatus has a first image forming unit and a second image forming unit that form images by different methods on the same page. The image formed by the second image forming unit is used as an identifying image to distinguish an original document made by the image forming apparatus from copies of the original document. The second image forming unit may, for example, emboss or punch holes in the printing medium. The second image forming unit may accordingly be a serial impact dot matrix printing unit or a stamping unit, while the first printing unit may be, for example, an ink jet printing unit or an electrophotographic printing unit. One of the two image forming units is preferably capable of making copies by printing on multiple-ply forms.
Claims19
An image forming apparatus having a first image forming unit and a second image forming unit, the first and second image forming units forming images by different methods on a single page, wherein the second image forming unit forms an identifying image and the first image forming unit forms an image different from the identifying image.
12 The image forming apparatus of claim 8, wherein said mechanism is a punching mechanism for punching holes in the page.
13 The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first image forming unit is an ink jet printing unit.
14 The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first image forming unit is an electrophotographic printing unit.
15 The image forming apparatus of claim 1, wherein the second image forming unit is a serial impact dot matrix printing unit.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.