Image forming apparatus, image forming process and image forming program

Abstract

The present invention provides an image forming one which is capable of shortening the first copy time and equalizing the image qualities of a plurality of all output copies when a plurality of copies of the original document are output using the memory copy function is provided. An image data of each one line of an original document is sequentially read by a scanner unit. Whenever the image data of a given portion of the original document less than one page thereof (for example, image data of 8 lines) is accumulated, it is subjected to irreversible compression in a compressing circuit. The irreversible compressed image data which is obtained by this irreversible compression is sequentially stored in a storage area of an image memory or HDD and thereafter is sequentially decompressed in a decompressing circuit. Image forming is sequentially conducted based upon the sequentially decompressed image data in a printing device.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method, and particularly relates to forming an image on a transfer sheet based on image data stored in a predetermined storage unit so as to execute a plurality of parts by reading a document once. An image forming apparatus, an image forming method, and an image forming program that make copies and have a so-called memory copy function. Background technique [0002] Among the image forming apparatuses, a conventional image forming apparatus that can shorten the time until the first (first) copy is ejected (hereinafter referred to as "first copy time") will be described using a first block diagram (see JP-A-9 -224106 Bulletin). Here, FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the image forming process (see FIG. 1 of JP-A-9-224106). [0003] In Fig. 1, 1 is a scanner, 2 is a printer, 3 is an operation panel, and 4 is a system control unit. The system control unit 4 includes: ...

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Problems solved by technology

[0004] However, in the image forming process of JP-A-9-224106, there is a route stored in the image memory and a route to the printer that does not pass through the data compression / decompression unit, and the first part does not pass through the data compression / decompression unit. While being printed, the second part is printed through the data compression / decompression part, so in the case where irreversible compression is used for the data compression part, the image quality of the copy of the first part and the image quality of the copy after the second part are produced The problem of different quality

On the other hand, if reversible compression is used in the data compression section to make the image quality of the first part of the copy equal to the image quality of the second part and subsequent copies, a large capacity is required because the compression rate is lower than that of the irreversible compression. image memory, resulting in the problem of high cost

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