Image forming apparatus

Abstract

To facilitate editing of image data acquired after reading a document during execution of a copy job or a scanning and transmission job.SOLUTION: After an image reading unit 13 reads a document to acquire image data, a control unit 111 displays a setting screen G1 on a display 121. The control unit 111 displays preview images of the image data page by page on the setting screen G1. The control unit 111 edits contents of the image data indicated by the preview images while the setting screen G1 is displayed according to an instruction input to an input receiving unit 12.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus for forming an image on a sheet of paper. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent document 1 describes an image editing device that displays preview images of each page of image data in a scrollable manner on a display surface, and in response to user operations, displays image information of a selected page on the display surface separately from the preview image, and edits the sequence of pages by moving the image information within the image data in response to user operations such as dragging the image information into the sequence of preview images.

[0003] Patent document 2 describes a multifunction image forming device that, when a user instructs printing of a file stored in an external storage device, displays the status of image formation by an image forming means and a user registration window on a display operation means, thereby starting user registration.

[0004] Patent Document 3 describes an image processing device that encodes prescanned image data obtained by scanning in advance at a predetermined low resolution to form thumbnail image data in a predetermined coding format. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] JP 2010-216586 A [Patent Document 2] JP 2011-113129 A [Patent Document 3] US7599100B2 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] Generally, in a copy job, various settings regarding the image formation contents are completed before the document is read, and the image data obtained by scanning is immediately formed after the document is scanned, and the image data obtained by scanning cannot be edited before the image formation. Also, in a scan transmission job, various settings regarding the transmission contents are completed before the document is read, and the image data obtained by scanning is immediately transmitted after the document is scanned, and the image data obtained by scanning cannot be edited before transmission. Here, Patent Documents 1 to 3 do not disclose a technology that enables the image data obtained by scanning to be edited before image formation or transmission after the document is scanned during the execution of a copy job or a scan transmission job.

[0007] An object of the present invention is to enable easy editing of acquired image data after scanning an original when executing a copy job or a scan transmission job. [Means for solving the problem]

[0008] The image forming apparatus of the present invention comprises a display unit, an image reading unit that reads a document to acquire image data, an input accepting unit to which instructions are input, a control unit that controls the display of the display unit and causes the image forming apparatus to perform an operation indicated by the instructions input to the input accepting unit, an image forming unit that forms an image on paper, and a communication unit that transmits the image data acquired by the image reading unit to an external device, and when an instruction to execute a copy job or a scan transmission job is input to the input accepting unit, the control unit causes the image reading unit to acquire the image data by reading the document, and before the image forming unit forms an image or the communication unit transmits the image data, causes the display unit to display a setting screen that displays a preview image of at least one page of the image data, and when the setting screen is displayed, edits the setting contents for the output of the image data indicated by the preview image in accordance with the instructions input to the input accepting unit. Effect of the Invention

[0009] According to the present invention, after scanning a document, the control unit causes the display unit to display a setting screen including a preview image of the image data obtained by document reading, and when the setting screen is displayed, the contents of the image data shown in the preview image are edited in accordance with instructions input to the input receiving unit, so that after reading a document when executing a copy job or a scan transmission job, the settings for image formation of the image data obtained by document reading can be easily edited. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0010] [Figure 1] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an electrical configuration of the image forming apparatus. [Diagram 2] 11 is a flowchart showing the flow of a page deletion process in the present embodiment. [Diagram 3] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. [Figure 4] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. [Diagram 5] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. [Figure 6] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. [Figure 7] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed by a display unit. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0011] An image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the electrical configuration of an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0012] The image forming apparatus 1 is configured to include a control unit 11, an input receiving section 12, an image reading section 13, an image forming section 14, a storage section 15, and a communication section 16. The input receiving section 12 includes hardware keys such as a decision key for confirming various operations and settings and a start key, and a display section 121. The input receiving section 12 is an example of a deletion receiving section, a rearrangement receiving section, and an input receiving section in the claims. The display section 121 is, for example, an LCD (liquid crystal display) or the like, and displays an operation screen, messages, and the like. The display section 121 may be configured integrally with a touch panel.

[0013] The image reading unit 13 includes a scanner and the like, and reads an image of a document to obtain the document image. The image reading unit 13 also includes an automatic document feeder (ADF) and continuously reads a stack of documents consisting of multiple documents. The image forming unit 14 prints the document image read by the image reading unit 13 and the data stored in the memory unit 15 on paper.

[0014] The storage unit 15 is a large-capacity storage device consisting of an SSD (Solid State Drive) or an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) that stores image data, various programs, data tables, etc. The communication unit 16 is composed of a communication module, etc., and transmits and receives various data to and from external devices via a network.

[0015] The control unit 11 is composed of a processor, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), etc. The processor is a CPU (Central Processing Unit), an MPU (Micro Processing Unit), an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), etc. The control unit 11 functions as a control unit 111 and a page editing unit 113 by the processor executing a control program stored in the ROM, etc. Note that each of the above-mentioned parts of the control unit 11 may be composed of a hardware circuit, regardless of the operation based on the control program.

[0016] The control unit 111 is responsible for controlling the overall operation of the image forming apparatus 1. The control unit 111 controls display on the display unit 121. The page editing unit 113 rearranges the pages included in the image data in accordance with the operation input received by the input receiving unit 12.

[0017] Next, a flow of a page deletion process by the image forming apparatus 1 will be described. Fig. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of the page deletion process in the present embodiment. Figs. 3 to 7 are diagrams showing examples of display screens displayed by the display unit 121.

[0018] First, in accordance with a copy job execution instruction or a scan transmission job execution instruction input to the input reception unit 12 by a user operation, the control unit 111 causes the image reading unit 13 to continuously read a document stack consisting of multiple documents at once (S1). Here, a case where a copy job execution instruction is input to the input reception unit 12 will be described as an example.

[0019] After the control unit 111 has the image reading unit 13 read the document and obtains the image data (after scanning), it causes the display unit 121 to display the setting screen G1 (S2). At this point, the control unit 111 causes the setting contents for the copy operation that were input to the input receiving unit 12 before receiving the instruction to execute the copy job to be displayed on the setting screen G1. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the setting screen for a copy job. The control unit 111 causes a preview image P of one page (in this example, the first page is displayed) of the image data of each document of the multiple documents to be displayed in the center of the setting screen G1.

[0020] Then, when control unit 111 receives an input such as the number of copies to be printed from the user by operating input receiving unit 12 while setting screen G1 is displayed (YES in S3), it changes the number of copies to be printed up to that point for the image data of the page for which a preview image is currently being displayed to the input number of copies (S4). In other words, control unit 111 edits the contents of the image data shown by the preview image in accordance with the instructions input to input receiving unit 12 while setting screen G1 is displayed.

[0021] Furthermore, when an image formation instruction is received from the user by operating the start button 31 ("Image formation" in S5), an image based on the image data is formed on paper by the image forming unit 14 in accordance with the print settings, including the number of copies set at this time (S6).

[0022] In addition, the control unit 111 displays a button 20 for receiving a switching instruction to switch a copy job to a scan transmission job on the setting screen G1. When the setting screen G1 is displayed on the display unit 121 after scanning by the image reading unit 13, if the user wants to perform scan transmission to transmit image data obtained by document reading to an external device instead of image formation, the user touches the button 20. Based on this touch operation, the control unit 111 receives an instruction to execute scan transmission to transmit image data to an external device instead of a copy job via the touch panel, and when an instruction to execute scan transmission is further received from the user by operating the start button 31 ("Send" in S5), the control unit 111 executes a scan transmission job according to the execution instruction of the scan transmission, and transmits the image data from the communication unit 16 to the external device indicated by the destination selection instruction through a destination reception process described later (S8). That is, when the setting screen G1 after document reading is displayed, the control unit 111 switches the setting to execute a copy job to a setting to execute a scan transmission job according to an instruction input to the input reception unit 12. In addition, if the number of copies to be printed is set for a copy job and then the process is switched to executing a scan transmission job, the control unit 111 discards the setting for the number of copies to be printed and maintains the setting for whether to produce a monochrome image or a color image for each page of image data obtained by scanning the original document, as described below.

[0023] Here, we will explain the preview image and screen display when the control unit 111 causes the image reading unit 13 to continuously read a stack of documents consisting of multiple documents at once (S1) in accordance with a scan transmission job execution instruction input to the input receiving unit 12 by user operation.

[0024] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a setting screen for a scan transmission job. When the setting screen G2 for a scan transmission job is displayed (S2), the control unit 111 at this time displays the setting contents for the scan transmission operation that were input to the input reception unit 12 before receiving the scan transmission execution instruction on the setting screen G2. The control unit 111 displays a preview image P of one page (in this example, the first page is displayed) of image data of each document of a plurality of documents in the center of the setting screen G2. Then, the control unit 111 changes the setting contents for the transmission of image data according to the instruction input by the user to the input reception unit 12 (S3, S4), and when the start button 31 is touched to input an instruction to transmit image data to the input reception unit 12 ("Send" in S5), the control unit 111 displays an address book for specifying a transmission destination on the display unit 121.

[0025] 5 is a diagram showing an example of the display screen of the address book. A list of destinations is displayed on the display screen G3 of the address book. When the user selects a check box associated with a desired destination, for example, check box 41, and touches the send button 42, a destination selection instruction for selecting the destination corresponding to the operated check box is input to the input receiving unit 12, and the control unit 111 transmits the image data via the communication unit 16 to the external device that is the destination indicated by the destination selection instruction (S8).

[0026] The process of accepting settings for editing image data obtained by scanning a document, which is performed based on an instruction from a user in the process of S3 above, will be further described.

[0027] 3, the button 21 is a button for accepting a selection of whether to form an image in monochrome or color by the image forming unit 14. When the user touches the button 21, the monochrome selection input or the color selection input is input to the input accepting unit 12.

[0028] Control unit 111 accepts the monochrome selection or color selection input to input receiving unit 12 only when control unit 111 is causing image reading unit 13 to obtain image data by color reading of the document. When control unit 111 is causing image reading unit 13 to obtain image data by monochrome reading of the document, control unit 111 sets image formation by image forming unit 14 to only monochrome image formation, and does not accept monochrome selection input or color selection input by input receiving unit 12.

[0029] When the setting screen G1 is displayed, the control unit 111 performs a known monochrome conversion process on the image data consisting of a color image and displays a preview image of the image data in monochrome when the control unit 111 receives a monochrome selection input via the input receiving unit 12. Furthermore, when the preview image is displayed in monochrome, if the input receiving unit 12 receives a color selection input, the control unit 111 switches the preview image from monochrome to color and displays it.

[0030] Thereafter, when an image formation instruction is input to the input receiving unit 12 based on the touch operation of the start button 31, the control unit 111 causes the image forming unit 14 to form an image according to the monochrome selection input or color selection input received at this time, with the content indicated by the selection. That is, in this embodiment, it is possible to set whether to form a monochrome image or a color image for each page of image data obtained by scanning the original.

[0031] Furthermore, the number of sheets to be printed (number of sheets on which images are formed) is displayed in a field 22 on the setting screen G1. When the user touches the field 22 and inputs a number using the numeric keypad, which is a hard key of the input receiving unit 12, the control unit 111 accepts the number input in the field 22 as the number of sheets to be printed and causes the accepted number of sheets to be displayed in the field 22.

[0032] Alternatively, when the user touches field 22 or numeric keypad button 25, control unit 111 may display a soft numeric keypad on display unit 121. Fig. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a case where soft numeric keypad 30 is displayed on setting screen G1. When the user touches soft numeric keypad 30, the number associated with the touched key portion is accepted by control unit 111 via the touch panel as the number of prints. Control unit 111 displays the accepted number of prints in field 22.

[0033] Buttons 26 on setting screen G1 are buttons for accepting an instruction to enlarge or reduce preview image P. When the user touches button 26 with a + mark, control unit 111 accepts an instruction to enlarge preview image P by a predetermined enlargement amount and enlarges preview image P by the enlargement amount, and when the user touches button 26 with a - mark, control unit 111 accepts an instruction to reduce preview image P by a predetermined reduction amount and reduces preview image P by the reduction amount.

[0034] In a field 28 on the setting screen G1, the control unit 111 displays the page number of the preview image P being previewed. When the user touches the field 28 and inputs a number using the numeric keypad 30 or the like, the control unit 111 accepts the number via the touch panel as an instruction to specify the page to be previewed, and causes the control unit 111 to display the accepted number in the field 28 and to display on the display unit 121 a preview image of the page number indicated by the number.

[0035] Button 27 on setting screen G1 is for receiving an instruction to switch the display mode of the preview image. When the user touches button 27, control unit 111 receives, via the touch panel, a display instruction in list mode in which thumbnail images of multiple page images are displayed when a preview image of one page is displayed, and a display instruction in individual mode in which preview images of one page are displayed when thumbnail images of multiple page images are displayed. Control unit 111 switches the preview display up to that point to a display in the mode indicated by the received display instruction.

[0036] 7 is a diagram showing an example of a preview display in the list mode. The control unit 111 displays a window W1 within the setting screen G1, and displays thumbnail images of multiple page images in the window W1. When displaying in the list mode, the input receiving unit 12 temporarily does not accept selection of the button 26 and the field 28. The control unit 111 grays out the button 26 and the field 28 to notify the user that they are not selectable. To switch from the list mode to the individual mode, the user touches the button 27 again.

[0037] Furthermore, in the index mode, when the touch panel accepts a drag on a specific thumbnail image and a drop on an area between other thumbnail images, the control unit 111 changes and sets the page order of the image data of the page indicated by that thumbnail image to the page order corresponding to the drop position accepted by the input accepting unit 12. The control unit 111 arranges and displays the thumbnail image at the drop position accepted by the input accepting unit 12. Then, the page editing unit 113 changes the page order of each image data to the set page order. This makes it possible to easily change the page order of each image data after reading the document and before image formation or data transmission.

[0038] Furthermore, when the user touches the save button 23, the control unit 111 receives a cloud transmission instruction via the touch panel to transmit image data for each document obtained by document scanning at this time to a cloud server connected to the image forming apparatus 1 via a network such as the Internet. In accordance with the cloud transmission instruction, the control unit 111 transmits the image data for each document from the communication unit 16 to the cloud server. The cloud server stores the image data for each document in a built-in storage device. In other words, even when a copy job is being executed, the image data for each document obtained by document scanning can be transmitted to the cloud server and stored therein.

[0039] The above describes the image data editing setting acceptance process using the setting screen G1 for a copy job as an example, but the image data editing setting acceptance process is also performed in the same manner for the setting screen G2 for a scan transmission job, except for the setting of the number of copies to be printed.

[0040] As described above, after scanning the document, the control unit 111 causes the display unit 121 to display the setting screen G1 or G2 including a preview image of the image data obtained by reading the document, and while the setting screen G1 or G2 is displayed, the contents of the image data shown in the preview image are edited in accordance with instructions input to the input receiving unit 12. Therefore, after reading the document when executing a copy job or a scan transmission job, editing of the obtained image data can be easily performed.

[0041] Furthermore, according to the above embodiment, when the setting screen G1 or G2 is displayed after the document has been read but before the image formation or data transmission, the user can easily switch the job from image formation to transmission, or from transmission to image formation. Even if the user intended to execute either the copy operation or the scan transmission, but after inputting an instruction for the copy operation or the scan transmission, wants to change the execution to the other, the user can easily switch from image formation to transmission, or from transmission to image formation, at the timing after the document has been read.

[0042] The present invention is not limited to the configuration of the above embodiment, and various modifications are possible. The configuration and processing of the above embodiment described with reference to Figures 1 to 7 are merely one embodiment of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the configuration and processing. [Explanation of symbols]

[0043] 1. Image forming device 11 Control unit 111 Control section Page 113 Editorial Department 12 Input reception section 121 Display section 13 Image reading unit 14 Image forming section 15 Storage section 16 Communications Department

Claims

1. An image forming apparatus, A display unit; an image reading unit that reads an original and acquires image data; an input receiving unit for receiving an instruction; a control unit that controls the display of the display unit and causes the image forming apparatus to perform an operation indicated by an instruction input to the input receiving unit; an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet; a communication unit that transmits the image data acquired by the image reading unit to an external device, The control unit is when a copy job execution instruction or a scan transmission job is input to the input receiving section, cause the image reading section to acquire the image data by reading an original, and cause the display section to display a setting screen for displaying a preview image of at least one page of the image data before the image forming section forms an image or the communication section transmits the image data; When the setting screen is displayed, the image forming apparatus edits setting contents for output of the image data shown by the preview image in accordance with an instruction input to the input receiving unit.

2. The control unit, when displaying the setting screen, When an instruction to execute scan transmission for transmitting the image data to an external device instead of a copy job for causing the image forming unit to perform image formation based on the image data is input to the input receiving unit, the image data is transmitted from the communication unit to the external device indicated by the instruction to execute scan transmission; 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when an instruction to execute a copy job that causes the image forming unit to perform image formation based on the image data is input to the input receiving unit instead of a scan transmission job that transmits the image data to an external device, the image forming unit is caused to perform image formation based on the image data.

3. when the control unit is causing the image reading unit to acquire the image data by color reading of a document and then displaying the setting screen, if the input receiving unit receives a monochrome selection input, the control unit causes a preview image of the image data to be displayed in monochrome, and if the input receiving unit receives a color selection input, the control unit causes the preview image to be displayed in color; 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, after the preview image is displayed, when a selection instruction is input to the input receiving unit to select whether to form an image of the image data in monochrome or color, the image forming unit is caused to form an image in accordance with the content indicated by the selection instruction.

4. the display unit includes a touch panel as the input receiving unit, The control unit is displaying the setting screen on the display unit in a list mode in which thumbnail images of a plurality of page images are displayed on the display unit and an individual mode in which the preview image of one page is displayed on the display unit; during display in the list mode, when the touch panel receives a drag operation on a specific thumbnail image and further receives a drop operation into an area between other thumbnail images, the touch panel arranges and displays the thumbnail image at the drop position received by the touch panel; 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a page editing unit that changes a page order of the image data to an order of the thumbnail images displayed on the display unit by the control unit.

5. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 4, wherein during the individual mode, the control unit displays zoom buttons and a page number input field for the preview image, and during display in the list mode, the input accepting unit does not accept operational input into the zoom buttons and the page number input field.

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