Patent ID: 7277207

Claim:
A recording device comprising: an image retrieval unit that transports document pages one at a time at an image retrieval speed while retrieving images of the document pages as document image data; a memory that stores the document image data retrieved by the image retrieval unit; an image forming unit that transports recording sheets at a recording sheet transport speed that is faster than the image retrieval speed, while forming images on the recording sheets using document image data that was retrieved by the image retrieval unit and stored in the memory; and a control unit that begins retrieving document image data of a document page from the memory as the image retrieval unit is retrieving document image data of the document page and sends the document image data to the image forming unit at a time determined such that the image retrieval unit completes retrieval of the document page nearly simultaneously with the image forming unit recording the document image data onto a recording sheet, the control unit checking the memory to confirm whether document image data for a next document page is stored in the memory at a timing that is: after the image forming unit completes forming an image of a present document page at the recording sheet transport speed; and when storage of image data retrieved by the image retrieval unit for the next document page is anticipated to start in the memory.