JP3195978B2 - Color image forming apparatus and color image forming method - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a color image forming apparatus and a color image forming method for forming a color image using a plurality of colorants.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a facsimile apparatus for processing a black-and-white image, only one kind of ink is used in a printing unit, and if this ink runs out, printing becomes impossible. .

Therefore, the copying is interrupted at the time of copying, and if the receiving operation is in progress, the receiving is refused at that time, or the received document is stored in the memory if there is a memory that can perform the alternate receiving. Was.

Therefore, in the case of such a lack of ink, copying cannot be performed at the time of copying until ink is replenished, and a document stored in the memory by proxy reception cannot be confirmed until ink is replenished and printed out. .

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] By the way, even when a facsimile apparatus having a printing unit capable of printing a color image with a plurality of color inks and capable of communicating a color image is configured, one of the plurality of inks is not used. If it has run out, proper color image printing cannot be performed. Therefore, in this case, similar to the above-described black-and-white facsimile machine, processing such as interruption of copy and reception operations, alternate reception, and the like are required, and there is a drawback that copy processing is delayed and output of a received document is delayed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems,
When forming a color image using a plurality of colorants, even if an unusable colorant cannot be used to form an appropriate color image, a color image is formed while minimizing the consumption cost due to this error. The purpose is to:

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention detects that one of a plurality of colorants to be used for outputting a color image cannot be used when a color image is to be output using a plurality of colorants. When an unusable colorant is detected by the above detection,
The color image is output while controlling to reduce the amount of other colorants that can be used in the plurality of colorants, and in the case of the control, by reducing the color image, the other coloring is performed. The use of the agent is reduced.

In addition, the present invention, when a color image is to be output using a plurality of colorants, detects that any of the plurality of colorants to be used for the output of the color image cannot be used, When an unusable colorant is detected, the color image is output while controlling to reduce the amount of other colorants that can be used in the plurality of colorants, and in the case of the control, the color By converting the resolution of the image, the amount of the other colorant used is reduced.

[Function] In the present invention, when a color image is formed using a plurality of colorants, even if a proper color image cannot be formed due to an unusable colorant, the color image is reduced. Alternatively, by converting the resolution of the color image, the color image is output while reducing the amount of other colorants that can be used, so that the consumption cost due to this error can be reduced as much as possible.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

The facsimile apparatus of this embodiment is configured to be able to communicate red, green, and blue (RGB) color image data in addition to normal black-and-white image data. Is converted into binary pseudo-halftone color image data for communication. When reproducing a color image, the above RG
From the data of B, yellow, magenta, cyan, and black (YMCK) are generated, and a color image is printed with each color ink.

 Hereinafter, each element will be described.

The scanner 101 reads a document and outputs the RGB multi-valued digitized color image data.

The inkjet printer 102 is connected to the RG from the scanner 101.
B Inputs multi-valued color image data, converts it to YMCK ink characteristics, and prints out a color image on recording paper by inkjet.

The scanner / printer interface 103 interfaces image data and control signals between the scanner 101 and the printer 102 and the facsimile main body circuit.

The first image processing unit 104 performs binarization and other image processing on the RGD multi-valued color image by an error diffusion method or the like.

The second image processing unit 105 performs multi-value processing, color / monochrome conversion, and the like on the RGB binary color image data. The color / black and white conversion is performed by using the black component K as a function of RGB and obtaining the value using the equation K = 0.3R + 0.59G = 0.11B.

The encoder 106 converts the binary color image data into a facsimile code.

The decoder 107 decodes the received encoded binary color image data.

The image memory 108 is a memory that stores encoded transmission image data and reception image data in page units,
It has a capacity of about 2 MB, is composed of a semiconductor memory such as an SRAM or a DRAM, and has a configuration including an address control unit. The image memory may be an image memory using a magnetic hard disk or the like.

A communication control unit (CCU) 109 is connected to the line 112, controls a facsimile protocol, performs communication with a communication partner,
Send and receive image data.

The main CPU 110 performs overall sequence control and the like.

The operation panel 111 is connected to the main CPU,
It has a display unit and a keyboard and performs various displays and input operations.

The line 112 is connected from the CCU 109 to a digital data network or an ISDN network.

 Next, a facsimile transmission / reception operation will be described.

First, at the time of transmission, image data read by the scanner 101 is transmitted from the interface 103 to the first image processing unit 104.
Are binarized, facsimile-coded by the encoder 106, and stored in the image memory 108 in page units.

Following these sequence controls, the main CPU 110
Activate U109 to start communication. That is, the CCU 109 stores the transmission image data in the image memory 108 after the connection with the communication partner.
And send it out.

Also, when receiving an incoming call from the line 112,
The CU 109 stores the received image data in the image memory 108 in page units.

Following these controls, the main CPU 110 controls to output the received image to the printer 102. That is, the address of the received image data stored in the image memory 108 is designated, and the decoder 107 is activated. The decoder 107 decodes the received image data from facsimile code to binary color image data, and the second image processing unit 105 converts the image data into multi-valued RGB color image data. Then, this image data is sent from the interface 103 to the printer 102 and output as a YMCK color image.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the printer 102.

The RGB / YMCK conversion unit 201 has a selector that inputs RGB multi-valued color image data, converts the data into YMCK image data that matches the characteristics of the ink, and switches a YMCK signal at the time of ink empty described later. .

The resolution conversion unit 221 performs resolution conversion, specifically, image reduction, when ink is empty, which will be described later.

D / A converters (D / A1 to 4) 202 to 205 convert digital data of each of the YMCKs into analog signals.

Amplifiers (AMP1-4) 206-209 are analog signal YMCK
The print heads 210 to 213 are driven by the data.

The print heads 210 to 213 print the respective inks of YMCK according to the drive signals from the amplifiers 206 to 209.

The printer state monitoring circuit 220 detects the state of the printer, that is, the empty state of the print heads 210 to 213, the empty state of the recording paper, the jam, and the like from various sensors (not shown), and processes the detected states.
Notify the status information to 103, and further control the RGB / YMCK conversion unit 201 in the case of ink empty, and control to replace the YMCK signal corresponding to the empty ink with another color signal, Here, the color signals are replaced as shown in FIG.

In this way, by printing with another ink instead of the empty ink, the image can be reproduced, but an image having a different color tone due to a change in the combination of the inks.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of the color conversion selector in the RGB / YMCK conversion unit 201.

This conversion processing mode is hereinafter referred to as C mode.

First, it is determined whether each ink of YMCK is present (S1 ~ S
4) If there is no Y ink, the Y signal is replaced with the M or C signal (S5). If there is no M ink,
The M signal is replaced with the Y or C signal (S6). Further, C
If there is no ink, the C signal is replaced with the Y or M signal (S7). If there is no K ink, the K signal is replaced with the Y, M and C signals (S8).

Further, in S5 to S8, it is detected that there is no ink, and if replacement processing is being performed, resolution conversion is performed (S9). As a result, even when an improper image is printed, the image is reduced and printed, so that the paper is not wasted,
Further, it is convenient because the state of the general image can be understood.

Next, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation at the time of reception in this embodiment.

First, upon receiving an incoming call from the line 112, the CCU 109 sends the main C
The PU 110 is notified (S11). Therefore, the main CPU 110
The address of the receiving area is set in the image memory 108,
Prepare for image reception (S12).

Next, the received image is sent from the CCU 109 to the image memory 108, and is stored in page units (S13). Where CCU109
Monitors the end of reception by facsimile protocol,
If the communication has been completed, the communication ends, and the process proceeds to the next step (S14). Next, an area is set for each page in the image memory 108, and the address is updated (S15).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating print output after reception.

First, the main CPU 110 sets the address of the received image area of the image memory 108 (S21), and sets the mode of the decoder 107 and the second image processing unit 105 (S22).

Next, the presence or absence of each ink of the printer 102 is checked (S23),
If there is, the received image is read out from the image memory 108 (S24), and the received image for one page is printed out by the printer 102 (S25). Then, when such processing is repeated and printout of all pages is completed (S26), the processing is terminated.

If there is no ink in the printer 102 in S23, the main CPU 110 performs the processing in the C mode shown in FIG. 4 (S27), and after performing the resolution conversion (S28),
To store received images in the image memory 108, the main C
The current page area is saved in the PU 110 (S29).

Thereafter, ink is replenished by the operator, and
When the operation panel 111 gives an instruction to output the stored received image saved in step 8, the received image is printed out.

In the above embodiment, the printing mechanism may be a system using color toner by electrostatic transfer or a system using a color ribbon by thermal transfer.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the ink empty process for detecting the ink shortage is performed on a page basis, but may be monitored on a print line basis of the printer or on a print block basis of the printer.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, when a color image is formed using a plurality of colorants, the color image is reduced even if an appropriate color image cannot be formed due to unusable colorants. Or by converting the resolution of the color image, the color image is output while reducing the amount of other colorants that can be used, so that the consumption cost due to this error can be reduced as much as possible. Becomes On the other hand, it is possible to grasp what the color image looks like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of the printer in the embodiment. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a combination of color conversions in the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing operation of a color conversion selector in the RGB / YMCK conversion unit of the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation at the time of reception in the embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining print output after reception in the embodiment. 101: scanner, 102: inkjet printer, 103: interface, 104: first image processing unit, 105: second image processing unit, 108: image memory, 109: CCU, 110: main CPU , 111: Operation panel, 201: RGB / YMCK converter.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A detecting means for detecting, when outputting a color image using a plurality of colorants, that any of a plurality of colorants to be used for outputting the color image cannot be used; When detecting the unusable colorant by the detection means, while controlling to reduce the amount of other colorants that can be used in the plurality of colorants, the color amount control means to output the color image, A color image forming apparatus, wherein the control means reduces the amount of the other colorant by reducing the color image. 2. A detecting means for detecting that any of a plurality of coloring agents to be used for outputting the color image cannot be used when a color image is to be output using a plurality of coloring agents; When the unusable colorant is detected by the detection unit, while controlling to reduce the usage amount of the other colorants that can be used in the plurality of colorants, the color amount control unit that outputs the color image, A color image forming apparatus, wherein the control means converts the resolution of the color image to reduce the amount of the other colorant used. A detecting step of detecting that any of a plurality of coloring agents to be used for outputting the color image cannot be used when a color image is to be output using the plurality of coloring agents; When detecting an unusable colorant in the detection step, while controlling to reduce the amount of other colorants that can be used in the plurality of colorants, a color amount control step of outputting the color image, A color image forming method, wherein the control step reduces the amount of the other colorant by reducing the color image. 4. A detecting step for detecting that any of a plurality of coloring agents to be used for outputting the color image cannot be used when outputting a color image using a plurality of coloring agents; When detecting an unusable colorant in the detection step, while controlling to reduce the amount of other colorants that can be used in the plurality of colorants, a color amount control step of outputting the color image, A color image forming method, wherein the control step reduces the amount of the other colorant used by converting the resolution of the color image.