Image forming apparatus for avoiding a feeding direction restriction when printing

• US 9,781,302 B2
• Filed: 01/22/2015
• Issued: 10/03/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Canon Ayutthaya Limited (Canon Inc.)
• Inventors: Kaneda, Takeshi
• Primary Examiner(s): PACHOL, NICHOLAS C
• Application Number:
  US14/603,247
• Publication Number:
  US 20150220820A1
• Time in Patent Office: 985 Days
• 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:

a memory;

a controller configured to;

receive image data,

in a case where the image data has a first resolution, store the image data in the memory without halftone processing,

in a case where the image data has a second resolution higher than the first resolution, store the image data in the memory after the halftone processing thereof, and

perform rotation processing for the image data stored in the memory in accordance with a direction of a sheet; and

an image forming device configured to form an image on the sheet based on the image data for which the rotation processing is performed,

wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where the halftone processing has been performed for the image data stored in the memory and a direction of the sheet does not correspond to a direction of the image data stored in the memory;

perform, if a type of the sheet is an envelope, a rotation processing of the image data, and cause the image forming device to perform image forming on the sheet based on the rotated image data, and

cause, if the type of the sheet is not an envelope, a display device to display an alert screen without performing the rotation processing.

2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where the halftoning processing has not been performed, perform halftone processing for the image data after performing the rotation processing for the image data stored in the memory, and control the image forming device to perform image forming on the sheet.

3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a feeding control priority mode that prioritizes a feeding direction of the sheet and an image quality priority mode that prioritizes an image quality can be set, and

wherein the controller is configured to:

in a case where a size of the sheet is a predetermined size, in the case where the image quality priority mode is set and irrespective of whether or not the size of the image data is less than or equal to a threshold, store image data to which the halftoning processing is performed, in the memory, and

perform, in accordance with the direction of the sheet, after performing rotation processing for which a rotation angle is restricted on the image data stored in the memory, image forming on the sheet.

4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where, when the rotation processing is to be performed for which the rotation angle is restricted and the direction of the sheet does not match, display a screen indicating that the image forming cannot be executed.

5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where, when the rotation processing is to be performed for which the rotation angle is restricted and the direction of the sheet does not match, display a screen prompting a user to rotate the sheet.

6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where, when performing the image forming on the sheet, in the rotation processing for which the rotation angle is restricted the direction of the sheet does not match, display a screen indicating that the image forming cannot be executed.

7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where, when performing the image forming on the sheet, in-the rotation processing for which the rotation angle is restricted the direction of the sheet does not match, display a screen prompting a user to rotate the sheet.

8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where the type of the sheet is not an envelope:

store image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory unit, and

perform, in accordance with the direction of the sheet, after performing rotation processing for which a rotation angle is restricted on image data stored in the memory, image forming on the sheet.

9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where the type of the sheet is an envelope and a size of the image data exceeds a threshold, select a dither for which a rotation angle is 45 degrees and for which there are few rotation angle restrictions, and store the image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory.

10. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the controller is configured to, in a case where the size of the sheet is the predetermined size and the image quality priority mode is set, select a dither for which a rotation angle is not 45 degrees and for which there are many rotation angle restrictions, and store image data to which the halftoning processing is performed in the memory.

11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to determine whether or not the type of the sheet is an envelope, and determine whether or not the rotation processing is performable, based on a result of determining the type of the sheet.

12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising the display device,

wherein the controller is configured to cause the display device to display a warning screen in a case where it is determined that the rotation processing is not performable.

13. A method of controlling an image forming apparatus comprising a memory and a controller, the method comprising:

receiving, in the controller, image data;

in a case where the image data has a first resolution, storing, in the controller, the image data in the memory without halftone processing;

in a case where the image data has a second resolution higher than the first resolution, storing, in the controller, the image data in the memory after the halftone processing thereof;

in a case where the halftone processing has been performed for the image data stored in the memory and a direction of the sheet does not correspond to the direction of the image data stored in the memory;

performing, if a type of the sheet is an envelope, a rotation processing of the image data, and causing the image forming device to perform an image forming on the sheet based on the rotated image data, and

causing, if the type of the sheet is not an envelope, a display device to display an alert screen without performing the rotation processing.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute each step of a method of controlling an image forming apparatus comprising a memory and a controller, the method comprising:

receiving, in the controller, image data;

in a case where the image data has a first resolution, storing, in the controller, the image data in the memory without halftone processing;

in a case where the image data has a second resolution higher than the first resolution, storing, in the controller, the image data in the memory after the halftone processing thereof;

in a case where the halftone processing has been performed for the image data stored in the memory and a direction of the sheet does not correspond to a direction of the image data stored in the memory;

performing, if a type of the sheet is an envelope, a rotation processing of the image data, and causing the image forming device to perform an image forming on the sheet based on the rotated image data, and

causing, if the type of the sheet is not an envelope, a display device to display an alert screen without performing the rotation processing.