1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to a facsimile machine capable of printing out previously stored image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been described in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. SHO-62-97874 a printing apparatus that has a copy of its operation manual stored in its ROM in the form of print data. If a user loses the original hard copy of the operation manual, the user can produce another copy of the operation manual by printing out the print data. There has been described in Japanese Patent Application Kokai No. SHO-62-26570 a printing apparatus with presentation information also stored in its ROM in the form of print data. The presentation information includes descriptions of special functions and features of the printing apparatus. During demonstrations for sales promotion of the printing apparatus, printing out the presentation data allows potential customers not only to see the quality of the printed characters produced by the machine, but also the special functions and features in list form on the printed out page.
However, facsimile machines are conventionally constructed for receiving, transmitting, or copying images and not for printing out previously stored data. In image reception, a facsimile machine receives compressed image data from a remote facsimile machine, decodes the compressed image data, and then prints out an image accordingly. In image transmission, after reading an image on an original document and compressing the data of the image, a facsimile machine transmits the compressed data to a remote facsimile machine. To copy an image, a facsimile machine reads an image on an original document, temporarily stores it in a memory as image data, retrieves the image data, and then prints out a copy of the image in accordance with the image data thus retrieved.
To introduce the functions and features of conventional facsimile machines or to show the quality of the printed characters to a potential customer, the copy mode of the facsimile machine has been used to copy, for example, a document containing a list of the functions and specifications. However, this has proven troublesome because the image must first be read by the scanner, the image data outputted from the scanner must then be temporarily stored in a memory, and the image must then be printed out on the same number of pages as the original document. Storing presentation data and then printing out pages with presentation information according to the presentation data, as has been done in word processors and printers, has proven economically unfeasible in a facsimile machine. This is because facsimile machines, unlike printers, use bit image data and so require a great amount of storage space for each page to be printed out. Accordingly, the amount of image data required for a normal letter-size piece of paper would take up a great amount of memory space. Moreover, the memory space would be consumed for a purpose not implicit for control of the machine. Depending on the memory capacity of the ROM used for control programs, adding a separate ROM might prove necessary, which would require adding extra space for locating the extra ROM and increasing the end price of the unit to cover the cost of the extra ROM.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds