IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS, METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE SAME, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20150220820A1
• Filed: 01/22/2015
• Published: 08/06/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaneda, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 9,781,302 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1861 taking account of a limited available memory space or rasterization time
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 15/1881 Halftoning halftoning of still images in general H04N1/405, H04N1/52
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/60 Rotation of whole images or parts thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/3877 Image rotation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/405 Halftoning, i.e. converting the picture signal of a continuous-tone original into a corresponding signal showing only two levels

Abstract

An image forming apparatus analyzes image data corresponding to a received job, and when as a result of the analysis is that the image data has a resolution that exceeds a predetermined value, determines a size of a sheet to be printed, and when a result of the determination is that the size of the sheet is a predetermined size, if a size of the image data is less than or equal to a threshold, stores image data to which halftoning processing is not performed in a memory, and if the size of the image data exceeds the threshold, stores image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory, and based on a direction of the sheet, performs image forming on the sheet after performing rotation processing for the stored image data.

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus, comprising:

an analysis unit configured to, when a job is received, analyze image data corresponding to the job;

a size determination unit configured to, in a case where as a result of the analysis by the analysis unit is that the image data has a resolution that exceeds a predetermined value, determine a size of a printing medium on which to form an image corresponding to the image data;

a storage unit configured to, in a case where a result of the determination by the size determination unit is that the size of the printing medium is a predetermined size, if a size of the image data is less than or equal to a threshold, store image data to which halftoning processing is not performed in a memory unit, and if the size of the image data exceeds the threshold, store image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory unit; and

a control unit configured to, in accordance with a direction of the printing medium, perform image forming on the printing medium after performing rotation processing for the image data stored in the memory unit.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein,

the control unit, in a case where the halftoning processing is not performed,

performs halftoning processing for the image data after performing rotation processing for the image data stored in the memory unit, and performs image forming on the printing medium.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

a feeding control priority mode that prioritizes a feeding direction of the printing medium and an image quality priority mode that prioritizes an image quality can be set, and

the storage unit,

in a case where the result of the determination by the size determination unit is that the size of the printing medium is the predetermined size, in the case of the image quality priority mode, irrespective of whether or not the size of the image data is less than or equal to the threshold, stores image data to which the halftoning processing is performed, in the memory unit, and

the control unit performs, in accordance with the direction of the printing medium, after performing rotation processing for which a rotation angle is restricted on the image data stored in the memory unit, image forming on the printing medium.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the control unit,

in a case where, when performing the image forming on the printing medium, in the rotation processing for which the rotation angle is restricted the direction of the printing medium does not match, displays a screen indicating that the image forming cannot be executed.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the control unit,

in a case where, when performing the image forming on the printing medium, in the rotation processing for which the rotation angle is restricted the direction of the printing medium does not match, displays a screen prompting a user to rotate the printing medium.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the storage unit, in a case where the result of the determination by the size determination unit is that the size of the printing medium is not the predetermined size, stores image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory unit, and

the control unit performs, in accordance with the direction of the printing medium, after performing rotation processing for which a rotation angle is restricted on image data stored in the memory unit, image forming on the printing medium.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the storage unit,

in a case where the result of the determination by the size determination unit is that the size of the printing medium is the predetermined size, and the size of the image data exceeds the threshold, selects a dither for which a rotation angle is 45 degrees, for which there are few rotation angle restrictions, and stores image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory unit.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the storage unit,

in a case where the result of the determination by the size determination unit is that the size of the printing medium is the predetermined size, in the image quality priority mode, selects a dither for which a rotation angle is not 45 degrees, for which there are many rotation angle restrictions, and stores image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory unit.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the printing medium which is of the predetermined size is an envelope.

10. A method of controlling an image forming apparatus, the method comprising:

an analysis step of, when a job is received, analyzing image data corresponding to the job;

a size determination step of, in a case where as a result of the analysis in the analysis step is that the image data has a resolution that exceeds a predetermined value, determining a size of a printing medium on which to form an image corresponding to the image data;

a storage step of, in a case where a result of the determination in the size determination step is that the size of the printing medium is a predetermined size, if a size of the image data is less than or equal to a threshold, storing image data to which halftoning processing is not performed in a memory unit, and if the size of the image data exceeds the threshold, storing image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory unit; and

a control step of, in accordance with a direction of the printing medium, performing image forming on the printing medium after performing rotation processing for the image data stored in the memory unit.

11. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute each step of the method of controlling the image forming apparatus according to claim 10.