Patent attributes
A power control method and apparatus to control a heating roller, the power control method including gradually increasing a maximum level of a source power supplied from an external source up to a specific maximum supply level, and supplying the source power to a heating resistor as a roller, power, measuring a surface temperature of the heating roller, and supplying the source power having a maximum level equal to the maximum supply level to the heating resistor as the roller power until the measured surface temperature reaches a specific fixing target temperature, supplying the source power having an upper limit of the maximum level equal to a specific fixing property improving level to the heating resistor as the roller power until a printing medium is first fed, and fixing a toner image of print data onto the fed printing medium by using the heating roller.