Image reading apparatus and method, and image forming apparatus

1. An image reading apparatus comprising:

an image reading unit that reads, from a sheet being transported, an image printed onto the sheet, the image reading unit including

a reference reflecting member that acts as a color reference, having at least a part thereof disposed at a location in proximity to the sheet being transported in the sheet width direction that intersects the sheet transport direction,

an illuminating unit that illuminates the reference reflecting member and the sheet passing through,

a line sensor that reads, from the sheet being transported, the image formed on the sheet, and in addition, reads the part of the reference reflecting member in proximity to the sheet in the sheet width direction, and

a spectroscope which has a visual field encompassing a plurality of patches for correcting color tones formed on the sheet and arranged in the sheet transport direction, and which measures spectral distribution of each patch; and

a computational unit that generates color tone correction data for correcting color tones by performing computations based on the spectral distribution of each patch measured by the spectroscope, and the read values of the reference reflecting member obtained by the line sensor,

wherein the computational unit stores, in memory, reading results from the line sensor and measurement results from the spectroscope at timings that match each other, extracts the measurement results expressing the spectral distributions of the patches as measured by the spectroscope on the basis of the reading results from the line sensor at the matched timings, and uses the extracted spectral distributions to generate the color tone correction data.

2. An image forming apparatus comprising:

an image forming unit that forms an image on a sheet being transported, the image forming unit including

a color correction mode that forms a plurality of patches for correcting color tones in an image onto the sheet and arranged in the sheet transport direction;

an image reading unit disposed downstream from the image forming unit in the sheet transport direction that reads, from the sheet being transported, the image printed onto the sheet, the image reading unit including

a reference reflecting member that acts as a color reference, having at least a part thereof disposed in the sheet width direction that intersects the sheet transport direction at a location in proximity to the sheet being transported,

an illuminating unit that illuminates the reference reflecting member and the sheet passing through,

a line sensor that reads, from the sheet being transported, the image formed on the sheet, and in addition, reads the part of the reference reflecting member in proximity to the sheet in the sheet width direction, and

a spectroscope which has a visual field encompassing the plurality of patches formed on the sheet, and which measures spectral distribution of each patch in the color tone correction mode;

a computational unit that generates color tone correction data for correcting color tones in the image by performing computations based on the spectral distribution of each patch measured by the spectroscope, and the read values of the reference reflecting member obtained by the line sensor, wherein the computational unit stores, in memory, reading results from the line sensor and measurement results from the spectroscope at timings that match each other, extracts the measurement results expressing the spectral distributions of the patches as measured by the spectroscope on the basis of the reading results from the line sensor at the matched timings, and uses the extracted spectral distributions to generate the color tone correction data; and

a storage unit that stores the color tone correction data generated by the computational unit;

wherein the image forming unit corrects image data on the basis of the color tone correction data stored in the storage unit, and forms an image onto a sheet based on the corrected image data.

3. An image reading method comprising:

illuminating a reference reflecting member that acts as a color reference, having at least a part thereof disposed at a location in proximity to a sheet being transported in the sheet width direction that intersects the sheet transport direction, and also illuminating the sheet passing through;

reading, from the sheet being transported, an image formed on the sheet, and in addition, reading the part of the reference reflecting member in proximity to the sheet in the sheet width direction to generate reading results;

measuring spectral distribution of each of a plurality of patches for correcting color tones formed on the sheet and arranged in the sheet transport direction to generate measurement results;

storing, in memory, the reading results from the reading and the measurement results from the measuring at timings that match each other; and

generating color tone correction data for correcting color tones by performing computations based on the measured spectral distribution of each patch, and the read values of the reference reflecting member,

wherein the generating comprises extracting the stored measurement results expressing the spectral distributions of the patches on the basis of the stored reading results at the matched timings, and using the extracted spectral distributions to generate the color tone correction data.