Image processing apparatus, information processing method, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9709922-B2
Application number	US-201514705758-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 6, 2015
Priority date	May 9, 2014
Publication date	Jul 18, 2017
Grant date	Jul 18, 2017

Abstract

An image processing apparatus includes a generation unit configured to generate a composite image to be combined with an input image, a first calculation unit configured to perform, based on a type of the composite image, approximation calculation of a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the composite image generated by the generation unit, a second calculation unit configured to calculate, based on a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image and the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the composite image, which is obtained by approximation calculation performed by the first calculation unit, a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image combined with the composite image, and a notification unit configured to notify a printing unit of the value calculated by the second calculation unit.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An image processing apparatus comprising:
a memory;
a controller that includes a circuit and a processor coupled to the memory and executes the following:
generating a composite image to be combined with an input image, wherein the input image is to be printed on a first area on a sheet and the composite image is to be printed on a second area on the sheet, and the first area and the second area are allocated separately on the sheet;
obtaining a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image;
determining, based on at least a size of the second area and a rate of the composite image area to the second area, a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the composite image generated;
calculating, based on the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the input image and the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the composite image, a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image with which the composite image has been combined; and
notifying a printing unit of the value calculated.

2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising performing, based on the size of the second area, the rate of the composite image area, and density of the input image, approximation calculation of the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the composite image.

3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising calculating the toner amount to be used in printing the composite image based on the following equation:
toner amount to be used for printing the composite image=the size of the second area×the rate of the composite image area×(maximum density value−average density value of the input image).

4. The image processing apparatus according to claim 3 , further comprising performing, using the rate of the composite image area set according to a type of the composite image, the calculation of the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the composite image.

5. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising setting the rate of the composite image area.

6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 ,
wherein the printing unit transfers toner based on the value calculated from a first toner containing space to a second toner containing space, a size of the first toner containing space being bigger than that of the second toner containing space.

7. An image processing method comprising:
generating a composite image to be combined with an input image, wherein the input image is to be printed on a first area on a sheet and the composite image is to be printed on a second area on the sheet, and the first area and the second area are allocated separately on the sheet;
obtaining a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image;
performing, based on at least a size of the second area and a rate of the composite image area to the second area, calculation of a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the composite image;
calculating, based on the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the input image and the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the composite image, a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image with which the composite image has been combined; and
notifying a printing unit of the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the input image with which the composite image has been combined.

8. A printing apparatus comprising:
a memory;
a controller that includes a circuit and a processor coupled to the memory and executes the following:
generating a composite image to be combined with an input image, wherein the input image is to be printed on a first area on a sheet and the composite image is to be printed on a second area on the sheet, and the first area and the second area are allocated separately on the sheet;
determining, based on at least a size of the second area and a rate of the composite image to the second area, a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the composite image generated;
calculating, based on a value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the input image and the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the composite image, a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image with which the composite image has been combined; and
supplying toner to a printing unit, based on the value calculated.

9. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rate of the composite image area is a coefficient indicating the size of the second area.

10. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a type of the composite image is one of a plurality of character types, the plurality of character types including at least alphabet and numeral.

11. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the rate of the composite image area represents a percentage of a number of colored pixels in the second area.

12. The printing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the rate of the composite image area is a coefficient indicating the size of the second area.

13. The printing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein a type of the composite image is one of a plurality of types of characters, the plurality of types including at least alphabet and numeral.

14. The printing apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein the composite image area represents a percentage of a number of colored pixels in the second area.

15. The printing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the first area and the second area are in contact.

16. An image processing apparatus comprising:
a counting unit that measures a video count value of an input image using hardware, the video count value being a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image;
a memory that stores a set of instructions; and
at least one processor that executes the instructions to:
obtaining the video count value measured by the counting unit;
determining, based on at least a size of a second area on a sheet and a rate of a composite image area to the second area, a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing a composite image, wherein the sheet includes a first area and the second area, the input image is printed on the first area, and the composite image is printed on the second area;
determining, based on the video count value measured by the counting unit using the hardware and the value indicating the toner amount to be used in printing the composite image determined by the at least one processor executing the instructions in the memory, a value indicating a toner amount to be used in printing the input image with which the composite image has been combined; and
notifying a printing unit of the value calculated.

Assignees

• Canon Kk

Inventors

• Narita Tateki

Classifications

• G03G15/0856 Primary

  Detection or control means for the developer level · CPC title

• G03G15/556

  for toner consumption, e.g. pixel counting, toner coverage detection or toner density measurement · CPC title

• G03G15/0831

  Physics · mapped topic