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(11) | EP 2 592 481 A3 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | Toner consumption caculator, image forming apparatus, and toner consumption calculation method |
| (57) A toner consumption calculator includes a plurality of line memories; a processor
that sequentially records image data including a plurality of pixels into the line
memories and processes the image data by sequentially reading the image data from
the line memories; an exposing unit that performs exposure in accordance with the
processed image data and forms a latent image based on the image data on an image
carrier; and a counter that sequentially reads the image data from the line memories
and counts toner consumption of a target pixel on the basis of light amounts of surrounding
pixels of the target pixel. The processor reads the image data from the line memories
L times (L is a natural number) and reads M pixels (M is a natural number) per line
memory and per clock. M is equal to or larger than the number of surrounding pixels
of the target pixel in a main-scanning direction. The counter reads the image data
from the line memories L times, reads the M pixels per line memory and per clock,
and counts the toner consumption of N target pixels (N ≤ M).
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