Patent ID: 6168327
Filing Date: 2001-01-02
Classification: B41J,B65H,G03G

Abstract:
An image forming device, comprising: an image data storage memory storing image data; an image forming/discharging section capable of performing an image forming/discharging operation to form images, based on a set of image data stored in the image data storage memory, onto one or more image recording medium, and to discharge the image-formed one or more image recording medium selectively in either one of a face-down discharging condition and a face-up discharging condition, thereby producing a document stack in the corresponding one of the face-down discharging condition and the face-up discharging condition; a discharge tray capable of holding the produced document stack; an indication unit that indicates a discharging condition of a document stack to be produced during a present image forming/discharging operation;an image forming/discharging control unit that controls, when the indication unit indicates the face-down discharging condition for the present image forming/discharging operation, the image forming/discharging section to successively form one or more page's worth of image onto one or more image recording medium with a set of image data in an order from a first page to a last page and discharge the image-formed one or more image recording medium in the face-down discharging condition to thereby produce one document stack in the face-down discharging condition, and that controls, when the indication unit indicates the face-up discharging condition for the present image forming/discharging operation, the image forming/discharging section to successively form one or more page's worth of image onto one or more image recording medium with the set of image data in a reversed order from a last page to a first page and discharge the image-formed one or more image recording medium in the face-up discharging condition to thereby produce one document stack in the face-up discharging condition; and an automatic switching unit that automatically selectively switches the discharging condition indicated by the indication unit from the present discharging condition into the other discharging condition after the image forming/discharging section completes performing the present image forming/discharging operation and before the image forming/discharging section starts performing the next image forming/discharging operation.