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US 6,308,041 B1Granted
Image forming apparatus having paper size discrimination and stapling control
AssigneeToshiba Tec Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorShingo Shiramura
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An image forming apparatus checks the paper size of input documents images one by one, and cancels the stapling process when the documents have different widths in the main scanning direction. When the documents have the same width in the main scanning direction, the maximum number of the documents that can be stapled is set to be the value which is set when the documents have different sizes. Therefore, even if it is not preliminary known whether the documents have the different sizes, the appropriate stapling operation can be executed, the received document images can be sequentially printed, and processing can be improved.
Claims10
An image forming method comprising:
- a receiving step for sequentially receiving a plurality of pages of image data of at least, a single size, in a main scanning direction and in a sub-scanning direction, in accordance with an instruction of a stapling process;
- an image forming step for sequentially forming images on an image formation medium, on the basis of each page of the image data received in said receiving step;
- a discrimination step for discriminating a width in the main scanning direction and a size, of each image data received in said receiving step;
- a setting step for setting the maximum number of pages of the image data that are to be stapled, on the basis of a result of the detection performed in said discrimination step about the size of the first page of the image data received in said receiving step;
- a cancellation step for canceling the setting of the stapling process when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received in said receiving step, as discriminated in said discrimination step, is the same as the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received in said receiving step, as discriminated in said discrimination step, is different from the width in the main scanning direction of the first page;
- and
- a changing step for changing the maximum number of pages that are to be stapled, as set in said setting step, when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received in said receiving step, as discriminated in said discrimination step, is different from the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received in said receiving step, as discriminated in said discrimination step, is the same as the width in the main scanning direction of the first page.
4 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a receiving unit for sequentially receiving a plurality of pages of image data of at least, a single size, in a main scanning direction and in a sub-scanning direction, in accordance with an instruction of a stapling process;
- an image forming unit for sequentially forming images on an image formation medium, on the basis of each page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a discrimination unit for discriminating a width in the main scanning direction and a size, of each image data received by said receiving unit;
- a setting unit for setting the maximum number of pages of the image data that are to be stapled, on the basis of a result of detection of a first detecting unit about the size of the first page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a cancellation unit for canceling the setting of the stapling process when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the width in the main scanning direction of the first page;
- and
- a changing unit for changing the maximum number of pages that are to be stapled, as set by said setting unit, when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the width in the main scanning direction of the first page.
4 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a receiving unit for sequentially receiving a plurality of pages of image data of at least, a single size, in a main scanning direction and in a sub-scanning direction, in accordance with an instruction of a stapling process;
- an image forming unit for sequentially forming images on an image formation medium, on the basis of each page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a discrimination unit for discriminating a width in the main scanning direction and a size, of each image data received by said receiving unit;
- a setting unit for setting the maximum number of pages of the image data that can be stapled, on the basis of a result of a detection of a first detecting unit about the size of the first page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a cancellation unit for canceling the setting of the stapling process when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the width in the main scanning direction of the first page;
- a first cancellation unit for canceling the setting of the stapling process when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the width in the main scanning direction of the first page;
- a second cancellation unit for canceling the setting of the stapling process when the size and the width in the main scanning direction, of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, are different from the size and the width in the main scanning direction, of the first page thereof;
- and
- a changing unit for changing the maximum number of pages that are to be stapled, as set by said setting unit, when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the width in the main scanning direction of the first page.
6 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a receiving unit for sequentially receiving a plurality of pages of image data of at least, a single size, in a main scanning direction and in a sub-scanning direction, in accordance with an instruction of a stapling process;
- an image forming unit for sequentially forming images on an image formation medium, on the basis of each page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a discrimination unit for discriminating a width in the main scanning direction and a size, of each image data received by said receiving unit;
- a setting unit for setting the maximum number of pages of the image data that are to be stapled, on the basis of a result of a detection of a first detecting unit about the size of the first page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a cancellation unit for canceling the setting of the stapling process when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the width in the main scanning direction of the first page;
- a changing unit for changing the maximum number of pages that are to be stapled, as set by said setting unit, when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the width in the main scanning direction of the first page;
- and
- an execution unit for executing the stapling process about plural sheets of image formation mediums on which the images are formed by said image forming unit, when the number of pages of the image data received by said receiving unit is smaller than the maximum number of pages of the image data that are to be stapled as changed by said changing unit.
5 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a receiving unit for sequentially receiving a plurality of pages of image data of at least, a single size, in a main scanning direction and in a sub-scanning direction, in accordance with an instruction of a stapling process;
- an image forming unit for sequentially forming images on an image formation medium, on the basis of each page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a discrimination unit for discriminating a width in the main scanning direction and a size, of each image data received by said receiving unit;
- a setting unit for setting the maximum number of pages of the image data that are to be stapled, on the basis of a result of a detection of a first detecting unit about the size of the first page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a cancellation unit for canceling the setting of the stapling process when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the width in the main scanning direction of the first page;
- a changing unit for changing the maximum number of pages that are to be stapled, as set by said setting unit, when it is discriminated that the size of second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is different from the size of the first page and that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit, as discriminated by said discrimination unit, is the same as the width in the main scanning direction of the first page;
- an execution unit for executing the stapling process about plural sheets of image formation mediums on which the images are formed by said image forming unit, when the number of pages of the image data received by said receiving unit is smaller than the maximum number of pages of the image data that are to be stapled as changed by said changing unit;
- and
- a cancellation unit for canceling the setting of the stapling process when the number of pages of the image data received by said receiving unit is smaller than the maximum number of pages of the image data that are to be stapled as changed by said changing unit.
6 more elements
An image forming apparatus comprising:
- a receiving unit for sequentially receiving a plurality of pages of image data of at least, a single size, in a main scanning direction and in a sub-scanning direction, in accordance with an instruction of a stapling process;
- an image forming unit for sequentially forming images on an image formation medium, on the basis of each page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a first detecting unit for detecting the size of each image data received by said receiving unit;
- a second detecting unit for detecting the width in the main scanning direction, of each image data received by said receiving unit;
- a setting unit for setting the maximum number of pages of the image data that are to be stapled, on the basis of a result of size detecting obtained by said first detecting unit, about the first page of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a discrimination unit for discriminating, when a result of the size detecting obtained by said first detecting unit about the second and following pages of the image data received by said receiving unit is different from the size of the first page of the image data, whether or not the width in the main scanning direction of the first page of the image data detected by said second detecting unit is different from the width in the main scanning direction detected by said second detecting unit about the image data having the different size;
- a changing unit for changing the maximum number of pages that are to be stapled, that has been set by said setting unit, when said discrimination unit discriminates that the width in the main scanning direction of the second and following pages of the image data is different from the width in the main scanning direction of the first page thereof;
- a counting unit for counting the number of the image data received by said receiving unit;
- a prohibition unit for prohibiting the stapling process when the number of the image data that is counted by said counting unit reaches the maximum number of pages that are to be stapled as set by said setting unit or by said changing unit;
- and
- an execution unit for executing the stapling process for the image formation medium on which images are formed by said image forming unit, when receiving the image data by said receiving unit has been ended and the stapling process is not prohibited by said prohibition unit.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.