JP2001045224A - Image forming device and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To save recording paper without damage of the image quality by recording a received image while skipping it when a white pixel area with a prescribed number of consecutive white lines is detected and recording the received image on paper sheets of a prescribed size less than number of sheets, otherwise, required for the received image. SOLUTION: When number of received lines is more than a half of number of lines of one page and there is a white pixel area in excess of a setting value, number of lines excluding the white pixel area is stored. When the sum of calculated number of lines of consecutive pages is within number of lines of one page, image data of a white pixel area of a first page are read from a page memory, image data other than the white pixel area of a succeeding page are read from the page memory and both the image data are recorded on the same recording paper, e.g. A3 paper. When two images sharing the A3 paper sheet are transmitted, the first image excluding the white pixel area is recorded and the 2nd image is similarly recorded on the A3 paper.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for receiving image data, temporarily storing the image data in a memory, and recording the image data on facsimile recording paper of a fixed size.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a facsimile receiving apparatus in which cut paper of a fixed size is used as a recording sheet and all received data is stored in an internal memory and then recorded, a plurality of originals having an image only in a part of the fixed form are received. Also in this case, conventionally, recording is performed for the number of received pages on recording paper of the same reception size as the size of the document. However, in this case, a blank portion is large, which is a waste of recording paper.

Also, a document having a fixed width in the main scanning direction and a certain number of scanning lines (lines) of image data in the sub-scanning direction being less than half the number of lines for one page of the size is continuously received. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG.
Even when a plurality of originals whose image data is less than half in the vertical direction in the paper size are continuously received, they are recorded as they are on the same number of A3 sheets as shown in FIG. 9B. This also has a large amount of blank paper, which causes a large amount of large recording paper to be consumed.

[0004] A technique for reducing a received image vertically and horizontally at a predetermined magnification and recording it on a small-sized recording sheet has been conventionally known. However, in this case, since the entire area of the received page is reduced regardless of the content of the received data, there is a problem that a complicated portion of the image is degraded due to a process such as thinning out and the recorded image becomes difficult to see. . It is sufficient to cut out the portion where the image exists, and record only that portion on a small-sized paper. However, since there are various portions where the image exists depending on the original, it is very complicated to determine how to cut out. Would.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional facsimile receiving apparatus, waste of the recording paper occurs, or an attempt to save the recording paper causes image deterioration.
Alternatively, there is a problem that it is difficult to determine the cutout.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus which can solve the above-mentioned problems and can save recording paper relatively easily without deteriorating image quality.

[0006]

According to a basic feature of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus for recording image data sent from a transmitting side on a sheet of a predetermined size. A white pixel area detecting means for counting a signal of a white line for one continuous scanning line and detecting a white pixel area in which the white line continues for a predetermined number of times; and when a white pixel area is detected by the white pixel area detecting means. An image forming apparatus for recording a received image on a sheet of the predetermined size smaller than the number of received images or a sheet of a size smaller than the predetermined size. I will provide a.

According to another basic feature of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus for recording image data sent from a transmission side on a sheet of a predetermined size, a white line of one continuous scanning line is used. A white pixel area detecting means for counting a signal and detecting a white pixel area in which the white line continues for a predetermined number of times; and when a white pixel area is detected by the white pixel area detecting means, the portion is skipped and recorded. A narrow-area recording detecting means for detecting that the image can be recorded in a size equal to or smaller than 1/2 of the predetermined size;
Means for recording a plurality of continuously received images on one sheet of the predetermined size when detecting that recording can be performed to a size of 2 or less.

Accordingly, without deteriorating the quality of the image,
A plurality of image data can be easily recorded on one sheet, and facsimile recording sheets can be saved.

According to still another basic feature of the present invention, in an image forming apparatus for recording image data sent from a transmitting side on a sheet of a predetermined size, a continuous white line for one scanning line is provided. And a white pixel area detecting means for detecting a white pixel area in which a predetermined number of continuous white lines are detected, and when the white pixel area is detected by the white pixel area detecting means, the portion is skipped and recorded. And a narrow-area recording detecting means for detecting that recording can be performed at a size of 1/2 or less of the predetermined size, and that the received image can be recorded at a size of 1/2 or less of the predetermined size by the narrow-area recording detecting means. Means for recording the received image on half or less of the sheet of the predetermined size when the image is detected.

Therefore, without deteriorating the quality of the image,
Image data can be easily recorded on a sheet of paper one size smaller, and facsimile recording paper can be saved.

According to a basic feature of the method of the present invention, in an image forming method for recording image data sent from a transmitting side on a sheet of a predetermined size, a signal of a white line for one continuous scanning line is counted. A white pixel area detecting step of detecting a white pixel area in which the white line is continuous for a predetermined number;
When a white pixel area is detected by the white pixel area detection step, a recording step of skipping and recording the portion is provided, the number of sheets of the predetermined size or the predetermined number of sheets smaller than the number of received images. Provided is an image forming method for recording a received image on a sheet having a size smaller than the size.

Therefore, according to the method invention of the present application,
Recording paper can be saved without deteriorating image quality.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. In FIG. 1, an image forming apparatus 101 includes a main body 102, an extension interface 103 connected to the main body 102, and a facsimile signal processor 104.
Consists of

The main unit 102 is provided with a main central control unit (main CPU) 106 for controlling the entire apparatus, and an operation panel 107 for inputting various operations, and displays the status of the image forming apparatus, the operation method, and the like. Display device 108
A random access memory (RAM) 109 storing various configuration information, telephone directory information as a facsimile, and the like; an image processing unit 110 for performing digital image processing such as correction filtering of image data; A scanner 111 connected to the image processing unit 110 to capture an image signal; a printer 112 connected to the image processing unit 109 to output and record image data;
1 and a mechanical control unit 113 for controlling the operation of each mechanism such as the printer 112. Display device 108, nonvolatile memory 109, image processing unit 110, and mechanical control unit 11
3 is the main CPU 10 via the main CPU bus 114
6 is connected.

A facsimile signal processor 104 controls the entire facsimile signal processor 104 by using a FAX-C
PU 121, a telephone network control circuit (NCU) 122 for connecting to an analog telephone line, and a modem (MODEM) 123 for transferring an encoded image to the analog telephone line or demodulating the transferred image. And an encoding / decoding IC 124 for encoding / decoding image data
A total line counter 125 for counting the number of scanning lines in the sub-scanning direction of the received image, a white line counter 126 for counting the number of scanning lines determined as scanning lines having no signal of the received image, and an encoding / decoding IC 124 Page memory 1 for temporarily storing facsimile image data decoded by
27. The FAX-CPU 121 and these circuits are connected by a FAX-CPU bus 128.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the reception of a facsimile is started, the processing 201
In, reception and demodulation are performed. That is, the telephone network control circuit 122 is connected to the other party, and the encoded image data is received and demodulated by the modem 123. The demodulated image data is sequentially decoded by the encoding / decoding IC 124 (process 202). First, in process 203, it is determined whether the decoded one-line image signal is a white line. Here, the white line refers to a scanning line having only a white signal without an image over one scanning line.

In practice, even if there is no meaningful image, a small amount of black signal may be mixed due to dust or the like.
Even when there is a predetermined amount of black image, it can be determined that the image is a white line. In this case, the threshold for determining a white line may be adjusted. If one line is determined to be a white line in the process 203, the white line counter 12 shown in FIG.
6 is incremented by 1 (process 204). On the other hand, if it is determined in the process 203 that one line is not a white line, that is, it is determined that a meaningful image is included, the image signal of the one line is stored in the page memory 127 (process 205). When an image for one line is processed in this manner, an all-line counter 125 indicating the number of decoding lines is displayed.
Is incremented by 1 (process 205 ').

As long as there is a reception line in the process 206 in FIG. 2, the process returns to the process 203 to check whether the next line is a white line. Therefore, the above processing is continuously performed until the reception of one page is completed. When the decoding for one page is performed, it is checked in processing 207 whether the number of received lines is equal to or more than の of the number of lines of one page. If the number of received lines is not equal to or more than の of the number of lines of one page, that is, if the number of received lines is less than １ ／, the process proceeds to step 208, where the number of received lines is one for one page. It is checked whether the number of lines is equal to or less than 1/2. If the number of received lines is less than の of the number of one page lines for both consecutive pages, the received data of the previous page is recorded on one side of the recording paper in Step 209, and the received data of the subsequent page is recorded in Step 210. Record on the other side of the recording paper. In the process 211, it is checked whether it is the last page.
Returning to step 09, the same processing is performed. In this way, for example, even if two images of A3 paper are sent, if less than half each is actually received, these images are regarded as one A3 sheet.
It will be recorded on three sheets. Here, the white pixel area has not been examined, and the white portion has not been removed.

When the number of received lines is equal to or more than の of the number of lines of one page in process 207, it is checked in process 221 whether there is a white pixel area exceeding a set value. If there is such a white pixel area, the start position and the end position of the white pixel area are stored in step 222, and the number of lines excluding the white pixel area is calculated in step 223. Next, the processing shifts to the processing 301 in FIG. 3, and it is checked whether or not the calculated total number of lines of continuous pages is within the number of lines of one page. 1
If it is within the number of lines of the page, the image data of the white pixel area of the first page is first read from the page memory 127 in the processing 302, and the image data other than the white pixel area of the subsequent page is read in the processing 303 in the processing 303.
Read from Then, in step 304, both image data are recorded on the same recording paper, for example, A3 paper. In the process 305, it is confirmed whether it is the last page, and if not, the process returns to the process 301. Therefore, for example, when two images of A3 paper as shown in FIG. 5A are sent, the image forming apparatus records the image without the white pixel area of the first sheet and the same A3 sheet is also printed. It will be recorded on paper. Note that reference numeral 501 denotes a mark indicating that the received data is followed by a white pixel area.

Steps 208, 221 and 3
In the case of No in 01, since a plurality of images cannot be recorded on one sheet, the images are recorded one by one as before. That is, as shown in FIG.
In step, the image data of the corresponding page is read from the page memory 127, and in step 402, the image is recorded on, for example, A3 paper.

Next, a description will be given of another embodiment of the present invention in which the data may be recorded on a half size of the reception size.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of this embodiment. It is assumed that there are three types of reception sizes, A3, B4, and A4. In a process 601, image data is received and demodulated by the telephone network control circuit 122 and the modulation / demodulation circuit 123 in FIG. Next, the image data demodulated by the encoding / decoding IC 124 is decoded (step 60).
2). In step 603, the paper size of the received image is determined. Next, in step 604, it is determined whether the decoded one line is a white line. If the one line is a white line, the count value is incremented by 1 in the white line counter 126 (process 605). If the one line is not a white line, the image data of that line is stored in the page memory 127 (process 606). When processing such as decoding and determination of one line is completed, the number of decoded lines indicated by the total line counter 125 is incremented by one in step 607. This process is repeated until the reception of one page is completed (process 608).

When the reception of one page is completed, processing 609 is performed.
Is determined whether there is a white pixel area exceeding the set value. That is, it is checked whether there is an area where the number of black pixels is less than a predetermined value and the number of white lines continuously exceeds a predetermined number. When such a white pixel area exists, the start position and the end position of the white pixel area are stored in the page memory 127 (processing 61).
0). Next, in step 611, the number of lines excluding the white pixel area is calculated from the count values of all line counters and the contents of the white line counter 126, and whether the number of lines calculated in step 612 is less than 1/2 of the number of page lines. Is checked.

If there is no white pixel area exceeding the set value in the process 609, and if the number of lines calculated in the process 612 exceeds の of one page line, recording is performed as usual. That is, in step 614, image data is read from the page memory 127, and in step 615, the image data is recorded on a recording sheet having the same size as the reception size.

On the other hand, when the number of lines calculated in the process 612 is within 1/2 of the number of one page lines,
Subsequently, as shown in FIG. 7, the data is recorded on a sheet having a size half of the reception size. That is, in the process 701, it is first checked whether the reception size is A3, and if so, in the process 702, only the image data portion excluding the white pixel area is read from the page memory 127.
At 03, the image data is recorded on A4 recording paper.
At this time, if the A3 sheet and the A4 sheet are in different directions, the recording may be performed in the same direction as shown in FIGS. 8A to 8B. However, when the A3 paper and the A4 paper are in the same direction, the recording may be performed by rotating the scanning line direction by 90 degrees as shown in FIG. 8C. Note that reference numerals 801 and 802 indicate marks indicating that a white pixel area follows the received data.

If it is determined in step 701 that the received size is not A3, the process proceeds to step 704 to check whether the received size is not B4. If the reception size is the B4 size, only the image data portion excluding the white pixel area is read from the page memory 127 in the processing 705, and the image data is recorded on the B5 paper in the processing 706. If the reception size is neither A3 nor B4, the reception size is set to A4 in step 707, only the image data portion is read from the page memory 127 in step 708, and this image data is recorded on A5 paper in step 709.

[0028]

According to the present invention, only when a white line having a black pixel equal to or less than a predetermined value continues for a predetermined line is recorded except for the white pixel area, the quality of the received image is not impaired and the number of recorded images can be reduced. Since recording can be performed on a small recording paper, recording paper can be saved. In addition, since the white pixel area is determined based on how many white lines continue, the area to be removed can be specified relatively easily.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a flowchart for explaining the operation of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a flowchart following FIG. 2 for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a view showing a flowchart following FIG. 2 for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining how image data is recorded in the image device of the present invention by the operation of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a view showing a flowchart following FIG. 6 for explaining the operation of another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining how image data is recorded in the image device of the present invention by the operation of FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a view for explaining how image data is recorded by a conventional facsimile apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

101 image forming apparatus, 102 body part, 10
3 ... Extended interface, 104 ... Facsimile signal processing unit, 106 ... Main CPU, 107
..Operation panel, 108 display device, 109
RAM, 110: image processing unit, 111: scanner, 112: printer, 113: mechanical control unit, 114: main CPU bus, 121: FA
X-CPU, 122... Telephone network control circuit, 123.
. A modulation / demodulation device, 124... Code / demodulation IC, 125.
..All line counters, 126 ... white line counters, 127 ... page memory

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus for recording image data sent from a transmitting side on a sheet of a predetermined size, counts signals of white lines for one continuous scanning line, and generates a predetermined number of continuous white lines. A white pixel area detecting means for detecting the pixel area, and a recording means for skipping and recording the white pixel area when the white pixel area is detected by the white pixel area detecting means, the number of which is smaller than the number of received images. An image forming apparatus for recording a received image on a number of sheets of the predetermined size or a sheet of a size smaller than the predetermined size. 2. An image forming apparatus for recording image data sent from a transmission side on a sheet of a predetermined size, counts signals of white lines for one continuous scanning line, and outputs a predetermined number of white lines. A white pixel area detecting means for detecting a pixel area; and when a white pixel area is detected by the white pixel area detecting means, the portion is skipped and recorded, thereby recording to a size of 1/2 or less of the predetermined size. A narrow-area recording detecting means for detecting that a plurality of continuous received images can be recorded in a size equal to or less than の of the predetermined size by the narrow-area recording detecting means. Means for recording on one sheet of the predetermined size. 3. An image forming apparatus for recording image data sent from a transmitting side on a sheet of a predetermined size, counts a signal of a white line for one continuous scanning line, and outputs a white line for a predetermined number of continuous white lines. A white pixel area detecting means for detecting a pixel area; and when a white pixel area is detected by the white pixel area detecting means, the portion is skipped and recorded, thereby recording to a size of 1/2 or less of the predetermined size. A narrow-area recording detecting means for detecting that the received image can be recorded in a size equal to or smaller than 1/2 of the predetermined size by the narrow-area recording detecting means. Means for recording on 1/2 or less paper. 4. An image forming method for recording image data sent from a transmission side on a sheet of a predetermined size, wherein a signal of a white line corresponding to one continuous scanning line is counted, and a predetermined number of white lines are generated. A white pixel area detecting step of detecting the pixel area, and a recording step of skipping and recording the portion when the white pixel area is detected by the white pixel area detecting step, wherein the number of received images is smaller than the number of received images. An image forming method, wherein a received image is recorded on a number of sheets of the predetermined size or a sheet of a size smaller than the predetermined size.