JPH04353879A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] This invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
In particular, by irradiating the image carrier with a laser beam,
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that utilizes an electrostatographic process that generates an electrostatic latent image and develops the electrostatic latent image to obtain an image.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art As a type of image forming apparatus, there is a laser beam printer that forms an image on recording paper according to information from an external device.

In this laser beam printer, a photoconductor, that is, a photoreceptor, is irradiated with laser light that changes according to information from an external host device such as an electronic file device or a word processor, and this information is Record and visualize
An image is formed on a transfer material such as paper.

The image forming apparatus described above includes a photoreceptor on which an electrostatic image, that is, a latent image, corresponding to optical information supplied from a light source such as a laser is formed, and the photoreceptor is charged with an electric charge. A charging device, a developing device that visualizes the latent image formed on the photoreceptor, a transfer device that transfers the visualized image to a transfer material,
It has a fixing device that fixes the image transferred to the transfer material, and a cleaning device that returns the photoreceptor to its initial state.

[0005] In the image forming apparatus, an external device (a personal computer,
Image data received from a word processor, etc.) is developed into bitmap data, and this bitmap data is optically transferred onto a photoconductor using ON/OFF of a laser beam, etc. By irradiating the electrostatic charge, a charge distribution pattern, that is, an electrostatic latent image is formed. A developer such as toner is supplied to this electrostatic latent image via a developing device to make it visible. This image is transferred to a transfer material, such as paper, supplied from a paper feeder, and the toner is fixed via a fixing device (generally, toner is heat-fusible, so it is heated or not heated). At the same time, it can be fixed by applying pressure) and then discharged.

Conventionally, image forming apparatuses have been used by being connected to a host device such as a personal computer or CAD, but the image displayed on the display means of the host device has been inverted (black and white inverted). ), but when an inverted image is formed, the periphery of the image is usually solid black. For this reason, in conventional image forming apparatuses, when an image displayed on a display is formed as an inverted image, the surrounding area becomes a solid black image, making it very difficult to see. Furthermore, when a black and white inverted image is formed, a large amount of toner is used. Furthermore, the life of the toner hopper is shortened due to the large amount of toner consumed, and the exposure time of the laser, which is the exposure device, is also lengthened, so the life of the exposure device is also shortened. Since toner is often fused to the periphery of the paper, there is a problem in that there is a high possibility that the image forming apparatus will wind up the paper.

[0007]

As described above, conventional image forming apparatuses have had various problems when performing reverse printing of images. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that can select various reverse image forming modes when performing a reverse image and solves the above-mentioned problems.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] An image forming apparatus of the present invention includes an image forming means for forming an image on an image carrier, and an image forming means for recording an image formed on the image carrier by the image forming means. A printing means that prints on a medium, and a continuous mode that instructs the printing means to print the image printed on the recording medium by reversing black and white, and continuously printing the reversed image. , a reversal instruction means having a time release mode for canceling the continuation mode after a certain period of time, and a number release mode for setting the number of sheets to be printed and canceling the continuation mode after printing the set number of sheets. and a control means for controlling the image forming operation of the image forming means in response to the instruction from the reversal instruction means.

[0009]

[Operation] The image forming apparatus of the present invention has a continuous mode in which a reversed image is continuously printed, a time release mode in which this continuous mode is canceled after a certain period of time, a number of sheets to be printed, and a set number of sheets. It is very easy to use because it has a number-of-sheets release mode that is released after printing.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a laser printer as an image forming apparatus, and FIG. 2 is a side view showing the internal configuration.

Laser printer 10 as an image forming device
has the following configuration. Laser printer 10
In this case, the upper surface part is formed one step lower, and a recessed part 12 as a first paper ejection part is formed, and a recessed part 13 as a second paper ejection part is formed in the left side part. In this recess 13,
A paper discharge tray 14 is detachably attached to the apparatus. As shown in FIG. 2, a manual feed guide 32 that can rotate in the direction shown in the figure about a fulcrum 30 facing the apparatus is attached to the right side. At the bottom of this manual feed guide 32, there is a fulcrum 36 facing the device.
Side cover 3 that can be rotated in the direction shown in the figure around
4 is installed. An operation panel 16 is arranged on the right side of the front part, and paper cassettes 400 and 401, which are detachable from the apparatus, are attached to the lower part. Additionally, between the paper cassettes 400 and 401, there are font cards for adding functions and cards for application software.
Openings 24a and 24b are provided for inserting a card or the like.

As shown in FIG. 3, the operation panel 16 includes a liquid crystal display 16 that displays the number of sheets, mode guidance messages, etc.
a. LED display 16b that lights up and displays various LEDs;
and a switch 16c that displays various operations. The LED display 16b indicates whether or not it is connected to an external device, that is, "online" indicating online/offline mode, "ready" indicating that the device 10 is ready for operation, and image transfer in progress. The system is comprised of ``data'' indicating that the system is in use, ``service'' indicating a request for an operator call, and ``mode'' indicating auto/manual. The switch 16c includes, for example, a menu key, a value key, a numeric keypad (not shown), or the like. The above menu key is composed of two keys, "Next item" and "Previous item", and each time the "Next item" key is pressed, multiple menu information displayed on the left half of the liquid crystal display 16a is displayed. Each time the ``previous item'' key is pressed, the ``previous item'' key is decremented and displayed, and these display operations are repeated cyclically. In addition, the above value key
The menu is also composed of two keys, "Next Item" and "Previous Item", and a plurality of value information corresponding to the menu information displayed on the left half of the liquid crystal display 16a is displayed when the "Next Item" key is pressed. Each time the ``previous item'' key is pressed, the ``previous item'' key is decremented and displayed, and these display operations are cyclically repeated. To reverse the image, use the above menu on the operation panel.
Select "Image reversal printing" using the key. The operator selects and instructs a desired operation by operating the menu keys and value keys.

As shown in FIG. 2, the apparatus 10 is provided with a drum-shaped photoreceptor 202 as an image carrier.
Around this photoreceptor 202, along the rotation direction shown by the arrow, a charging device 204 made of a scorotron, an exposure section 206 as an electrostatic latent image forming means, a developing device 208 for performing a developing process, a drum cleaner device 210, and pre-exposure device 3
01 are arranged sequentially. Among these, the photoreceptor 20
2. An electrophotographic process unit 20 in which a charging device 204, a developing device 208, a drum cleaner device 210, and a pre-exposure device 301 are integrated and can be installed and removed within the device body.
It is placed as 0.

The laser exposure unit 100 includes a case 10
A laser diode (not shown) is provided in 6, and a laser beam 10 emitted from this laser diode
2 is condensed by a condenser lens (not shown), and polarized by a polarizer 108.
is incident on the The polarization device 108 is equipped with a polyhedral mirror 106 that rotates at high speed.
The laser beam 102 reflected by the laser beam 102 passes through an Fθ lens 110, a reflective mirror 112, and a dustproof glass 114, and scans an exposed portion 206 of a photoreceptor 202.

The developing device 208 includes a magnet roller 220, stirring rollers 222a, 222b,
Two-component developer consisting of carrier and toner (not shown)
The electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 202 is developed with toner. In addition, this developing device 2
08, toner is supplied to replenish the consumed toner.
A replenishment device 226 is attached.

The drum cleaner 210 has an elastic blade 232 in a case 230 that is in contact with the photoreceptor 202, and is adapted to scrape off toner remaining on the photoreceptor 202 from the photoreceptor 202. ing. The scraped toner is transferred to the toner storage section 21 in the case by the conveyance roller 236.
It is now sent to 4.

The fixing device 350 includes a heat roller 352 containing a heat lamp 351 and a heat roller 352.
The pressure roller 353 is pressed into contact with the
As the paper P passes between the rollers 352 and 353,
The toner image is fused and fixed onto the paper P. heat roller 35
2 and the pressure roller 353 are surrounded by a lower casing 354 and an upper casing 356, and are designed to prevent heat from escaping to the outside in order to ensure a good temperature atmosphere necessary for fixing. It has become. A cleaner 358 is in contact with this heat roller 352, and is kept in a clean state so that good fixing can be performed at all times. - The surface temperature of the roller 352 is detected and temperature control is performed to maintain the temperature necessary for fixing.

[0018] Also, within the upper casing 356 and the
A paper peeling guide 368 is disposed near the downstream side of the contact portion 362 between the troller 352 and the pressure roller 353.
The leading edge of the paper P guided to the fixing device 350 is reliably separated from the heat roller 352. A paper guide 366 is provided on the paper exit side of the fixing device 350 to guide the fixed paper P to the first pair of paper discharge rollers 408.

An image transfer section 209 formed between the photoreceptor 202 and the transfer device 300 is provided in the apparatus 10, and on the upstream side of the image transfer section 209, there are transfer guide rollers 422, A pair of paper guides 420 and a pair of aligning rollers 406 are provided.

A paper conveyance guide 416, a fixing device 350, a first pair of paper discharge rollers 408, and a second pair of paper discharge rollers 409 are arranged downstream of the image transfer section 209. These paper discharge roller pairs are provided with static eliminating brushes 412, 4 that contact the non-image forming side of the paper P along the conveyance direction.
13 are provided.

Paper feed rollers 402, 4 are provided at the bottom of the device 10.
03, paper cassettes 400 and 401 are arranged. A paper cassette 4 is located near the paper feed rollers 402 and 403.
A paper empty switch (not shown) is provided to detect the paper P in 00 and 401. Further, on the sides of the cases 450 and 470 of the paper switches 400 and 401, there are paper size detection switches (not shown) for detecting the paper size of the stored paper P. A mounting detection switch (not shown) is provided for detecting that the device 10 is mounted.

[0022] On the downstream side of the first paper ejection roller pair 408,
A gate device 442 is provided to change the conveyance path of the paper P to a first paper discharge section or a second paper discharge section, and as shown in the figure, a gate device 442 is provided to change the conveyance path of the paper P to a first paper discharge section or a second paper discharge section. 2 on the dashed line side
Two positions can be selected, so that the paper P is conveyed to the first paper discharge section or the second paper discharge section.

[0023] On the right side of the paper cassettes 400 and 401,
A paper transport path 424 is provided, and this paper transport path 4
24 is composed of paper guides 431, 432, 433 and a pair of paper transport rollers 440, 441. paper guide 43
1 is integrally constructed with a side cover 34. Paper guides 435 and 436 that guide the paper P to the aligning roller pair 406 are provided upstream of the paper transport roller pair 440. Further, a paper transport path 425 for manual paper feeding is provided above the paper transport path 424, and this paper transport path 425 merges with the paper transport path 424.

An aligning switch 630 is provided near the aligning roller pair 406, and a paper discharge switch 414 is provided near the first paper feed roller pair 408. The paper P moving inside the paper 10 is detected.

On the back of the apparatus 10, there is an engine control board (not shown) equipped with an engine control circuit for controlling each electrical device installed in the apparatus 10 to control operations for completing the electrophotographic process, and a power source. (not shown) etc. are arranged.

A printer control board 6 equipped with a printer control circuit that controls the operation of the engine control circuit is installed in the board storage section 18 provided between the paper cassettes 400 and 401.
02 is placed. Up to two printer control boards 602 can be installed depending on the degree of addition of functions (for example, addition of types of fonts, kanji, etc.). Furthermore, additional functions can be added by inserting a function-adding font card (not shown) into two font card connectors 610a and 610b arranged on the side edges of the printer control board 600.

In the image forming operation, the drum-shaped photoreceptor 202 is rotated and the pre-exposure device 30 is rotated.
1 keeps the surface potential of the photoreceptor 202 constant,
The laser beam 102 is then uniformly charged by the charging device 204 and emitted from the laser exposure unit 100.
is scanned and exposed onto the photoreceptor 202 to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to the image signal. This electrostatic latent image on the photoreceptor 202 is
The toner image is developed by a developing device 208, visualized as a toner image, and sent to an image forming section 209.

On the other hand, in synchronization with this toner image forming operation, the paper P taken out from the paper cassette 400 or 401 is sent to the paper guide 432 or 433, passes through the paper conveyance path 424, and is sent to the aligning slot. -La v. 406,
The toner image is sent to the image transfer section 209 via the transfer guide roller 422 and the paper guide pair 420, and the toner image previously formed on the photoreceptor 202 is transferred onto the paper P by the action of the transfer device 300. Next, the paper P is guided by a transport guide 416 and passes through the paper transport path 410 to the fixing device 350.
The toner image is fused and fixed onto the paper P. Further, the paper P fed from the manual feed guide 32 passes through the manual paper feed transport path 425, joins the paper transport path 424, and
Operations similar to those described above are being performed.

The paper P that has passed through the fixing device 350 is sent to a pair of paper discharge rollers 408 and then to a gate device 440. The position of the gate is selected in advance according to an instruction from the host computer, and when the first position is selected, the paper P is sent to the first paper ejection section, and the paper P is sent to the second paper ejection section. The paper is discharged onto the top cover via a pair of paper discharge rollers 409. When the second position is selected, the paper P is sent to the second paper discharge section and is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 14.

After the toner image is transferred onto the paper P, residual toner remaining on the photoreceptor 202 is mechanically scraped off from the photoreceptor 202 by a drum cleaner device 210 comprising an elastic member 212. , by the transport roller 234,
The toner is collected in a toner storage section 34 within the device.

Next, the configuration of the printer control board 602 will be explained. FIG. 4 shows the main parts of the electric circuit of the printer control board 602. The CPU 701 performs overall control of the printer control board 602. Since the ROM 702 stores a control program, the CPU 701 operates according to this program. ROM 702 contains the password number, top margin, and left mark that are checked when changing data.
Data related to paper such as paper type and paper type are stored. The RAM 703 is used as a page buffer for temporarily storing image data sent from a host device (not shown). The expansion memory (not shown) is used when the image data sent from the host device is a large amount of data such as bitmap data and the RAM 703 cannot store one page of data. It has a large capacity of memory. Video RAM 705 is a bit image
The output is supplied to a serial-to-parallel conversion circuit 706. The serial-parallel conversion circuit 706 converts the image data expanded into a bit image and sent as parallel data in the video RAM 705 into serial data and sends it to the engine control circuit. . This serial-parallel conversion circuit 706 includes a serial-parallel conversion section 706-1 that performs serial-parallel conversion, and an image inversion control section that controls image inversion using an image inversion control signal 1002 from the I/O port 1001. 706-2. The host interface (not shown) may be, for example, an electronic computer or
Host device (not shown) consisting of an image reading device
Since data is transferred between the printer control board (not shown) and the printer control board (not shown), two types of transfer lines are provided: a serial transfer line and a parallel transfer line. Then, it can be used appropriately depending on the type of data transferred between the host device and the host device. Engine interface 711
mediates the exchange of interface signals 717 between the printer control circuit and the engine control circuit. A connection circuit (not shown) cuts off the power and signal lines that supply the IC card (not shown) to the connector (not shown), and prevents this from occurring during insertion. The operation panel control circuit 707 controls displaying a guidance message on the liquid crystal display 16a of the operation panel 16.
It controls lighting, turning off, and blinking of the D display 16b, or controls sending data input from the switch 16c to the CPU 701. In addition, internal bus 71
2 is the above CPU701, ROM702, RAM703,
Data is exchanged between the extended memory (not shown), video RAM 705, operation panel control circuit 707, host interface (not shown), engine interface 711, and connection circuit (not shown). This is a bus to do. In addition, an IC card (not shown) is
It is constituted by a non-volatile memory, such as a static RAM with battery backup, an EEPROM, an EPROM, or a mask ROM. These IC cards store, for example, character fonts, emulation programs, and the like.

The printer control board described above develops image data sent from an external device into a bit image, synchronizes the image data of this bit image with a synchronization signal on the engine side, and outputs the image data on the engine side. Send to.

Control of the image reversal printing function will be explained using a flowchart with reference to FIG. First, operation panel 1
It is determined whether or not the image reversal printing function is selected using the menu key 6 (S1). If the image reversal printing function is not selected using the menu key, the image reversal printing function is not used and the image reversal control signal is OFF (S7
). Further, when the image reversal printing function is selected using the menu key, it is continuously determined using the menu key whether or not the image reversal printing function is ON (S2). If the image reversal printing function is continuously selected to be ON using the menu key, an image reversal control signal is output (S8). In addition, if the image reversal printing function is not continuously selected to be ON using the menu key, it is determined whether or not the timer setting is turned ON using the menu key (S3 ). If the timer is turned on using the menu key, it is determined whether or not to set the timer using the value key again (S9). If ON of the timer is not selected using the menu key, then it is determined whether or not the number of sheets is to be set using the menu key (S4). When the timer setting is selected as Yes using the value key, the timer is set and the timer is driven for the set time (
S10), the image inversion control signal is turned ON (S11)
. If the timer setting is not selected by the value key, it is determined whether a certain period of time has elapsed (S12
). When it is determined that a certain period of time has elapsed, the image reversal printing function is no longer used and the image reversal control signal is turned OFF. When it is determined that the number of sheets should be set using the menu key,
It is determined whether or not to set the number of sheets using the value key again (S5). Further, if it is determined that the number of sheets is not set using the menu key, the process returns to whether or not the image reversal printing function has been selected using the menu key. value key
If it is determined that the number of sheets is to be set, the number of sheets is set (S13), and the image reversal control signal is turned on (S14).
). If it is determined that the number of sheets is not set with the value key, it is determined whether the count is out (S6)
. When it is determined that the count is out, the image reversal control signal is OFF, so the image reversal printing function is not used and the image reversal control signal is OFF. If it is determined that the count is not out, the process returns to the step in which it is determined whether the image reversal printing function has been selected.

In the above flowchart, the menu
When image inversion ON is selected with the key, the operation panel 16
A signal for inverting the image is stored in the RAM 703 via the operation panel control circuit 707 . Then, an image inversion control signal 1002 is generated from the I/O port 1001 to instruct the image inversion control section 706-2 to invert the image. This performs image reversal. This state will be explained below.

In the above flowchart, if image reversal printing is not performed, the signal for image reversal printing is not input from the operation panel 16, so naturally the I/O port is
The image inversion control signal 1002 is not output from the port 1001 to the image inversion control section 706-2. As a result, normal image formation is performed. In addition, in the case of a mode in which image reversal printing is performed continuously, a signal for performing image reversal printing is input from the operation panel 16, so it is stored in the RAM 703, and the image reversal printing signal is input from the I/O port 1001. control signal 100
2 is always output to the image reversal control unit 706-2 during image formation, and image reversal is always performed. Next, in a mode in which image reversal printing is canceled after a certain period of time, the image is stored in the RAM 703 and stored in the I/O port 100
The image reversal control signal 1002 from 1 to the image reversal control unit 70
The image is outputted at 6-2 during image formation, and image inversion is performed. However, after a certain period of time has passed, the stored RAM 703
The image inversion control signal 10 is output from the I/O port 1001 by
02 is not output to the image reversal control unit 706-2 during image formation, image reversal is stopped, and normal image formation is performed. Furthermore, in a mode in which image reversal printing is canceled after a predetermined number of sheets have been printed, the RAM 70 is
The image reversal control signal 1002 is output from the I/O port 1001 to the image reversal control section 706-2 during image formation, and image reversal is performed. However, after reaching a certain number of sheets, the image reversal control signal 1002 is not output from the I/O port 1001 to the image reversal control unit 706-2 during image formation using the stored RAM 703, and image reversal is stopped and normal operation is performed. Image formation is performed.

As a specific example of the method for setting the image reversal printing function according to this flowchart, first, a case of continuous use mode will be described. First, press the menu keys ``Next Item'' and ``Previous Item'' on the operation panel 16 to select ``Image Reverse Printing.''
is selected. Then, the message "Is the image reversing mechanism ON?" is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16a, so press the menu key.
Select YES (S1). After that, a message "Continuous image inversion printing?" is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16a, so YES is selected using the menu key (S2). Then, an image reversal control signal is output (S8), and a mode is set in which image reversal printing is always performed continuously, and the display returns to its initial state. In this state, printing will always be reversed,
To release this state, "Is the image reversal mechanism ON?"
is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16a, image inversion printing is canceled by selecting NO with the menu key (S1).

Next, a mode will be described in which image reversal printing is stopped after a certain period of time has elapsed. First, select 2 of the menu keys on the operation panel 16 for "Next item" and "Previous item".
``Image reversal printing'' is selected by pressing one of the keys. Then, the message "Is the image reversal mechanism ON?" is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16a, so press the menu key to select YES.
(S1). Thereafter, a message asking "Continuous image inversion printing?" is displayed, so select NO using the menu key (S2). After that, the message "Setting the timer?" will be displayed, so select YES using the menu key (S
3). "Timer time setting" is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16a, and the timer setting ON is input using the value key (S9). Then, "What is the set time?" is displayed, so input a predetermined time (S10). After that, the image will be printed in reverse mode for a predetermined period of time (S1
1) The display returns to its initial state. When the set time returns to the initial state, a countdown is started, and the image inversion printing mode continues until the time reaches zero (S12).
). If it becomes necessary to cancel this mode during the process, if the message "Is the image reversing mechanism ON?" is displayed on the LCD 16a in the initial state, press the menu key.
This mode is canceled by selecting NO at (S1).

Finally, the case of a mode in which image inversion printing is performed until a predetermined number of sheets is reached will be explained. First, select "next item" and "previous item" from the menu key on the operation panel 16.
``Image reversal printing'' is selected by pressing the two keys. The message "Is the image reversal mechanism ON?" is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16a, so select YES using the menu key (S1). After that, the question ``Continuous image reversal printing?''
" is displayed, so select NO using the menu key (S2). After that, the message ``Set timer?'' is displayed, so select NO using the menu key (S3). The liquid crystal display 16a displays "Set the number of sheets?", so select YES using the menu key (S4). ``Set number of sheets'' is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16a, and YES is selected using the value key (S5). Then, "What is the setting for the number of sheets?" is displayed, so input the predetermined number of sheets (S13). Thereafter, a mode is entered in which images are printed in reverse for a predetermined number of sheets (S14), and the display returns to its initial state. This mode continues until the number of sheets on which images are formed reaches a predetermined number (S6). If it becomes necessary to cancel this mode during the process, if the message "Is the image reversing mechanism ON?" is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16a in the initial state, press the menu key. This mode is canceled by selecting NO (S
1).

In addition to the above three modes, for example, a mode in which the image is printed in reverse after a certain period of time, a mode in which the image is printed in reverse after a certain number of sheets, etc. can be provided. , is obvious. By providing such various modes, the complexity of image reversal printing can be eliminated, so that image reversal printing can be easily performed.

[0040]

Effects of the Invention The image forming apparatus of the present invention has a mode in which image reversal printing is continuously used, a mode in which image reversal printing is stopped after a certain period of time, and a mode in which image reversal printing is continued until a predetermined number of sheets are reached. Since it is possible to form a reversed image in various states, such as in various modes, image reversal printing can be easily performed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an image forming apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 1 according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing the operation panel of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a printer control board circuit of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a flowchart of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10... Laser printer, 16... Operation panel, 202... Photoreceptor, 204... Charging device, 206... Exposure section, 208... Developing device, 210... Drum cleaner device, 706-2... Image reversal control section, 707... Operation panel control circuit, 1002
...Image inversion control signal.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image forming means for forming an image on an image carrier, a printing means for printing the image formed on the image carrier by the image forming means on a recording medium, and the printing means. This command instructs the image printed on the recording medium to be printed with black and white reversed, and there is a continuous mode in which the reversed image is continuously printed, and a continuous mode in which the continuous mode is canceled after a certain period of time. a reversal instruction means having a time release mode and a number release mode for setting the number of sheets to be printed and canceling the continuation mode after printing the set number of sheets; in response to instructions from the reversal instruction means;
An image forming apparatus comprising: a control means for controlling an image forming operation of the image forming means.