Image forming apparatus with image distortion correction function
View Patent ↗Image distortion is corrected in a color printer wherein print units for a plurality of colors are aligned to form a color image by superposing images formed by the print units. A quantity of image distortion is detected, and correction data of main scan address and subscan address are calculated and stored according to the detected image distortion for each main scan address. When input color image data are corrected, printing position is corrected in combination of address change with density interpolation. When the correction data exceeds the maximum correction range, the correction data are replaced by the maximum in the correction range for distortion correction. Further, in the image data correction, after the image data are converted to data having a smaller number of gradation levels, the data are delayed according to the serial arrangement of the print units. Then, the delayed data are converted again for printing.
1. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a printer which forms an image according to image data in the unit of each pixel;
a sensor which detects a quantity of image distortion in the image formed by said printer;
a corrector which corrects the image by providing print data according to the quantity of image distortion detected by said sensor, wherein said corrector corrects the image distortion in a predetermined range; and
a controller which sets the quantity of image distortion to a maximum in a predetermined range when the quantity of image distortion detected by said sensor exceeds the predetermined range and makes said corrector correct the image according to the corrected quantity of image distortion, wherein the image distortion corrected includes at least one of magnification distortion, bow distortion and skew distortion.
2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said printer performs printing with a plurality of print colors and said sensor detects the quantity of image distortion of other colors than a reference color in the print colors relative to the image of the reference color.
3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein said printer comprises a plurality of image-forming units in correspondence to the plurality of print colors, and said image-forming units are arranged serially.
4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein said corrector corrects the image distortion in a main scan direction and in a subscan direction.
5. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a printer which forms an image according to image data;
a sensor which detects image distortion in the image formed by said printer;
a corrector which corrects the image data according to the image distortion detected by said sensor, wherein said corrector can correct the image distortion within a predetermined range; and
a controller which sets the image distortion to a predetermined value when the image distortion detected by said sensor exceeds the predetermined range and makes said corrector correct the image data according to the predetermined value, wherein the image distortion corrected includes at least one of magnification distortion, bow distortion and skew distortion.
6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the controller sets the image distortion to a maximum value in the predetermined range.
7. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein said corrector corrects the image distortion in a main scan direction and in a subscan direction.
8. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a printer which forms an image according to image data;
a sensor which detects image distortion in the image formed by said printer;
a corrector which corrects the image data according to the image distortion detected by said sensor, wherein said corrector can correct the image distortion within a predetermined range; and
a controller which sets the image distortion to a predetermined value when the image distortion detected by said sensor exceeds the predetermined range and makes said corrector correct the image data according to the predetermined value, wherein
said printer performs printing with a plurality of print colors and said sensor detects image distortion of other colors than a reference color in the print colors relative to the image of the reference color.
9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8 , wherein said printer comprises a plurality of image-forming units in correspondence to the plurality of print colors, and said image-forming units are arranged serially.
10. An image forming apparatus comprising:
a printer which forms an image according to image data;
a sensor which detects image distortion in the image formed by said printer;
a corrector which corrects the image data according to the image distortion detected by said sensor, wherein said corrector can correct the image distortion within a predetermined range; and
a controller which sets the image distortion to a predetermined value when the image distortion detected by said sensor exceeds the predetermined range and controls said corrector to correct the image data according to the predetermined value, and which continues a print operation even though the image distortion detected by said sensor exceeds the predetermined range, wherein the image distortion corrected includes at least one of magnification distortion, bow distortion and skew distortion.