JP3000741B2 - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, facsimile apparatuses using fixed size paper (plain paper or thermal paper) of A4 size or A5 size have been increasing. In this type of facsimile machine, 1
Even if the received document length of the page is less than half of the A4 size, it is printed on A4 paper as one page, so there is a lot of blank space on the recording paper, and paper that did not cause much problems in facsimile using roll paper The problem of waste has become noticeable.

Therefore, in order to minimize the waste of recording paper on the receiver side, the contents of a received document of a plurality of pages are printed on one recording paper by using a non-standard frame which is generally established between the proprietary machines. Page composition is performed.

[0004]

In the conventional page synthesizing process, first, the contents of a received document of one page are stored in a memory, and after determining the length of the document of one page, a printing operation of the stored contents is started. Then, the image data of the next page is continuously received. If it is determined that the original length of one page is less than, for example, half of the A4 size, the original length of the next page is checked and this is the recording paper on which the previous one page is recorded. It is determined whether or not it fits in the margin of the recording paper. If it is determined that it fits, the printing operation is continuously performed on the recording paper, so that the printing operation is started one page later. Become. That is,
Since the page combination cannot be executed unless the length of the received document of the next page is known, the printing operation is started one page later, and as a result, the printing operation is prolonged even after the line is disconnected. There was a drawback that new incoming calls could not be accepted.

[0005] A similar problem also occurs when a reduction process is performed on the receiver side. For example, when the size of the recording paper on the receiver side is A4 and the size of the received document is B4, the reduction process is performed. However, in such a case, the magnification cannot be set unless all the contents of the page are received. Without
The printing operation is started one page later. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile apparatus capable of receiving image data and simultaneously starting a printing operation on the image data.

[0006]

Facsimile apparatus according to the present invention SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION To solve the above problems, the transmitting side, the transmission original is temporarily stored in the memory, knowledge that to know at least the original length of each page And transmitting means for transmitting the obtained document length information to the receiving side prior to image data transmission by handshaking. The receiving side performs the processing based on the document length information of each transmitted page. Negotiate printing style
Arrangement means, and the arrangement means
A facsimile apparatus provided with a printing means for printing on recording paper in accordance with the determined agreement ,
Multiple pages are reduced and printed on a single sheet of paper.
Page combination printing mode is included, the arrangement means,
The sum of the document lengths of the pages to be combined is
Original with an allowable value added to the original length corresponding to the recording paper size
Only when the length is less than or equal to the length,
It is characterized by making arrangements .

[0007]

According to the above arrangement, the printing mode is determined based on the document length information of each page obtained in advance, and the obtained image data is printed in accordance with the above-described rule. , As soon as the image data is received, the printing operation for the image data can be started.
It is possible to prevent a prolonged printing operation after the line is disconnected.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic circuit configuration of a facsimile apparatus. The facsimile apparatus includes a control unit 1 having one or more CPUs for controlling the entire facsimile, and transmitting data, receiving data, or telephone data. RAM for storing numbers
2, an auto dialer 3 for dialing,
An NCU 4 for controlling a line, a reading unit 6 for optically reading the contents of a document set on a document table (not shown),
A modem 7 for performing modulation / demodulation processing, a recording unit 8 for recording on recording paper, a ROM 9 for storing a program necessary for the operation of the control unit 1, an operation panel 10 including ten-keys and one-touch keys, an LCD, etc. And a display unit 11 composed of

In such a facsimile apparatus, the basic transmission operation is performed roughly as follows. That is, when the communication key or the one-touch dial key on the operation panel 10 is turned on by the operator, the control unit 1
The telephone number of the other party stored in the AM 2 is read, and the read telephone number is dialed to the telephone line 5 via the auto dialer 3 and the NCU 4. Then, after dialing, the image data of the document read by the reading unit 6 is transmitted to the telephone line 5 via the modem 7 and the NCU 4, and a transmission operation is performed. On the other hand, the receiving operation is performed as follows. That is, when receiving information is received from the other party via the telephone line 5, the NCU 4, and the modem 7, the control unit 1 drives the recording unit 8 based on the receiving information to record the received information.

The control unit 1 can perform the following processing by using a non-standard frame in the transmission / reception processing. The process on the transmitting side is shown in FIG.
As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 1, first, one of the transmission originals set on the original platen is guided to the reading section 6 to read the contents of the original, and the read image data is stored in the RA.
The document is stored in M2 (S1), and the size and length of the document (for example, the number of lines) are determined and stored in the RAM 2 (S2). Next, the presence or absence of a document on the platen is detected (S3). If there is a document, the process proceeds to step 1, while if there is no document, dial transmission is performed (S4).

Next, a facsimile communication procedure is executed (S
5) In this procedure, an NSF signal, a DIS signal, etc. are received, and whether the other party has a non-standard function,
It is determined whether the other machine is using roll paper or regular recording paper (S6). And
If the other machine has no non-standard function or uses roll paper, normal transmission is executed (S7). on the other hand,
If the destination machine has a non-standard function and uses standard recording paper, the size and length of each document determined in step 2 are set in a non-standard frame and transmitted to the destination machine ( S8). After that, like normal transmission,
The image data in the RAM 2 is transmitted (S9), and then the termination procedure is executed (S10), and the line is disconnected (S1).
1).

On the other hand, in the processing on the receiving side, as shown in the flow chart of FIG. 3, after the incoming call (S21), a facsimile communication procedure is executed (S22), and the non-standard equipment is provided with a nonstandard function by the NSF signal. Send a message that there is. Then, based on the document length information and the like sent from the partner machine in this communication procedure, for each page, the header information indicating the necessity of reduction (if necessary, the magnification) and the presence or absence of discharge. Is created (S23).

FIG. 4 shows the total number of pages n = 4,
First, one page of B4 size document, one page of A4 width and half the document length of A4 is one page, and then one document of A4 width and slightly longer than A4 half document. page,
Next, an example of header information of each page is shown in the case where information that an A4 size document is sent in the order of one page is obtained from the transmission side.

The creation of the header information is performed, for example, according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5. For the above-mentioned first page, step 42 → step 45 → step 4
6, header information of the page is generated,
Step 4 for the second and third pages
By going through 2 → step 45 → step 48 → step 51 → step 54, header information of both pages is generated. That is, in step 48, YES is determined in the determination of the document length XL of the second page + the document length of the third page (X + 1) L ≦ A4 document length + permissible value α (a range considered reasonable even if reduced). In step 51, the determination of “document length of the second page + document length of the third page> A4 document length is YES, so in step 54, the header information of the second page includes“ do not discharge ”,“ reduced ” And the header information of the third page incorporates information of “discharge paper” and “with reduction”. Although not shown in the flowchart, the magnification is such that the contents of the second and third pages can be accommodated in the A4 document, that is, magnification β × (the length of the second page + the length of the third page) = A4 document length. The magnification β is set.
For the fourth page, the header information of the page is generated through steps 42 to 43.

After the facsimile communication procedure, image data is received (S24). In parallel with this, a print control unit (for example, one CPU of the control unit 1 having two CPUs performs print control). Starts the printing operation. That is, the print control unit monitors whether or not image data reception has been started (S25). If image data reception has been started, m = 1 (S26), and the header information of the m-th page is set. And image data (S27 and S28), and printing is performed based on the header information and the image data (S29).

Since the header information of the first page is “reduced”, “reduced magnification B4 → A4”, and “discharges”, printing is performed at such reduced magnification. And
Since the result of YES is obtained in the determination of the presence or absence of paper discharge (S30),
After a paper discharging operation is performed (S31), a new recording paper is led to the recording head unit (S32), the processing of m = m + 1 is executed (S33), and it is determined whether m> n (S34).
The process proceeds to step 27 after obtaining a result of NO.

In step 27, the header information of the second page is fetched, and printing is performed on the new recording paper derived in step 32 based on the header information. Since "reduction exists", "reduction ratio 90%", and "do not discharge", printing is executed at a reduction ratio of 90%, and the presence or absence of discharge is determined (S
In the case of 30), a NO result is obtained, so that the paper discharging operation is not performed,
As it is, after step 33 and step 34, step 2
Go to 7.

In step 27, the header information of the third page is fetched, and based on the header information, the third page is printed following the margin of the recording sheet on which the second page is printed, thereby synthesizing the page. But 3
The header information of the page is “reduced” “reduction ratio 9
0% "" discharge "
To execute printing, and in the determination of the presence or absence of paper discharge (S30), a result of YES is obtained, so that the paper discharge operation is performed (S3).
1) After newly introducing the recording paper to the recording head (S3
2), steps 33 and 34 followed by step 27
Proceed to.

In step 27, the header information of the fourth page is fetched, and printing is performed on the new recording paper derived in step 32 based on the header information. Since "No reduction" and "Do not discharge" are set, the operation of printing the A4 original on A4 recording paper as it is is performed. And steps 31, 3
After 2, the process of m = m + 1 is executed (S33), and the determination of whether or not m> n in step 34 obtains a result of YES, and ends the printing operation.

If an EOP signal is received in receiving image data (S35), a termination procedure is executed to perform a line disconnection process (S36), and the process is terminated. According to the above processing, FIG.
As shown in (a), as a transmission original, first, one page of B4 size, then one page of A4 width and half the original length of A4 is one page, and then A4 width and one half of A4 original length. 1 page slightly longer than 2 pages, and 1 page of A4 size document at the end
If it is a page, as shown in FIG.
It will be recorded on a sheet of A4 recording paper.

As described above, since the document length information of each page can be obtained in advance before the image data is transmitted, even when performing the page synthesizing process, the receiver waits for the reception of the image data of the next page. There is no necessity, and even when the reduction process is required, the printing operation for the image data can be started at the same time as the image data of the page is received. It is possible to prevent the printing operation after the line is disconnected from being prolonged.

In the flowchart of FIG. 5 of this embodiment, two pages can be combined.
It is also possible to perform page synthesis for three pages or four pages. Further, information on whether the mode is the fine mode or the normal mode may be incorporated in the header information, and printing may be performed according to the information.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention, even in the case of reduced printing or page composition, the printing operation for the image data can be started simultaneously with the reception of the image data. This produces an effect that the printing operation can be prevented from being prolonged.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing a facsimile apparatus as one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a transmission side process.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a receiving-side process.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing header information of each page.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating a header information creation process.

6A and 6B are diagrams illustrating a relationship between a transmission-side original and a reception-side original. FIG. 6A is an explanatory diagram illustrating a transmission-side original, and FIG. 6B is an explanatory diagram illustrating a reception-side recording sheet.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 2 RAM 6 Reading part 8 Recording part

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/387-1/393 H04N 1/21 H04N 1/00 H04N 1/32-1/333

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] The method according to claim 1] transmitting side, the transmission original is temporarily stored in the memory, to know at least the original length of each page Chitoku
Means and transmitting means for transmitting the obtained document length information to the receiving side prior to image data transmission by handshaking, and the receiving side negotiates a printing mode based on the document length information of each transmitted page. that arrangement means, in accordance with arrangements the arrangement means image data obtained negotiated, with a printing means to continue to print on the recording paper facsimile
A plurality of pages are reduced in one printing mode in the printing mode.
A page composite printing mode to be printed on a recording paper is included, and the arranging unit determines the length of the document length of the page to be composited.
The total of the document length corresponds to the document length
Only when the document length is equal to or less than the
A facsimile apparatus for determining a printing mode of a page .