Image forming apparatus, image forming method, toner counter and calculation method of toner consumption

An image forming apparatus, comprising:

• a receiver which receives from an external apparatus an image formation command which contains operation-related information, which is for determining a mode of an image forming operation to execute, and pixel information which is related to a tone level at each pixel to be formed;
• an image forming unit which performs an image forming operation in a mode which is suitable to the operation-related information, and thereby forms an image corresponding to the pixel information;
• and
• a toner consumption amount calculator which calculates a toner consumption amount which is consumed for image formation,
• wherein the toner consumption amount calculator corrects tone level value at the respective pixels contained in the pixel information, based on the operation-related information, integrates the corrected value and calculates the toner consumption amount based on the integrated value.

An image forming apparatus which forms an image using toner inside the apparatus, comprising:

• a data processor which performs predetermined data processing of multi-level halftone input image data corresponding to toner colors and generates multi-level halftone output image data;
• an image forming unit which forms an image which corresponds to the output image data;
• and
• a toner consumption amount calculator which calculates a toner consumption amount which is consumed for image formation based on the input image data,
• wherein the data processor performs the data processing so as to establish a predetermined correlation between the input image data and the output image data, and based on a preliminarily identified relationship between a tone level and an image density within the image forming unit, scales a tone level of the output image data so that the tone level will be equal to or lower than a saturation-initiating tone level at which an image density increase in response to a tone level increases starts saturating.

An image forming apparatus which forms an image using toner inside the apparatus, comprising:

• a data processor which performs predetermined data processing of multi-level halftone input image data corresponding to toner colors and generates output image data;
• an image forming unit which forms an image which corresponds to the output image data;
• and
• a toner consumption amount calculator which calculates a toner consumption amount which is consumed for image formation based on a tone level of the input image data,
• wherein a data processing characteristic within the data processor is set so as to uniquely determine a toner consumption amount demanded by an image which is formed based on the output image data corresponding to the input image data, in response to the tone level of the input image data.

A toner counter for use within an image forming apparatus which receives from an external apparatus an image formation command which contains operation-related information, which is for determining a mode of an image forming operation to execute, as well as pixel information, which is related to a tone level at each pixel to be formed, performs the image forming operation in a mode which is suitable to the operation-related information and forms an image which corresponds to the pixel information, comprising:

• a corrector which corrects the tone level value based on the operation-related information;
• and
• an integrator which integrates a corrected value which is obtained as the corrector corrects the tone level value,
• wherein the amount of toner which is consumed to form an image is calculated from the integrated value yielded by the integrator.

A toner consumption amount calculation method of calculating a toner consumption amount which is consumed for image formation in an image forming apparatus which receives from an external apparatus an image formation command which contains operation-related information, which is for determining a mode of an image forming operation to execute, as well as pixel information, which is related to a tone level at each pixel to be formed, performs the image forming operation in a mode which is suitable to the operation-related information and forms an image which corresponds to the pixel information, comprising:

• a correction step of correcting the tone level value based on the operation-related information;
• an integration step of integrating a corrected value which is obtained through correction of the tone level value at the correction step;
• and
• a calculation step of calculating the toner consumption amount from the integrated value yielded at the integration step.

An image forming method, comprising:

• a data processing step of executing data processing of multi-level halftone input image data corresponding to toner colors and generating multi-level halftone output image data which are in a predetermined correlation with the input image data;
• an image forming step of forming an image which corresponds to the output image data using toner;
• and
• a toner consumption amount calculation step of calculating the amount of toner which is consumed for image formation based on the input image data,
• wherein at the data processing step, based on a relationship between a tone level and an image density identified in advance for the image forming step, a tone level of the output image data is scaled to or below a saturation-initiating tone level at which an image density increase in response to a tone level increase starts saturating.

An image forming method, comprising:

• a data processing step of executing predetermined data processing of multi-level halftone input image data corresponding to toner colors and generating output image data;
• an image forming step of forming an image which corresponds to the output image data using toner;
• and
• a toner consumption amount calculation step of integrating a tone level value of the input image data and calculating the amount of toner which is consumed to form an image based on the integrated value,
• wherein a data processing characteristic at the data processing step is set so as to uniquely determine a toner consumption amount demanded by an image which is formed based on the output image data corresponding to the input image data, in response to the tone level of the input image data.