JP3150396B2 - Printer control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a message output system in a serial printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a printer, a DIP switch is not used to set a default value, and functions such as selection of an interface, selection of a character table, and selection of a printer language emulation are selected by an operation panel display using an LCD or an LED. Although the method is often used, the message content is difficult to understand due to the limit of the number of digits of the LCD, and the operation method is difficult to understand only by the LED display.

The limitations on the number of digits in these LCD messages and the LE
As a method of improving the incomprehensibility of the D display and not increasing the cost, a method of printing a message and setting according to the method is often adopted as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2-10974.

[0004]

With such a message printing method, the initial function setting and the setting method guide and the confirmation of the setting contents in the serial printer can be more easily understood, and the effect is sufficiently achieved.

[0005] However, many serial printers are small products, and in some cases, the user does not always set the lower surface of the product down. Depending on the product, there are several ways to place the printer from the beginning. While connecting the optional sheet feeder to the printer body,
The installation direction may need to be on the back.

When the printer is used with the back face down instead of the bottom face down, a message for setting the function of the printer, a display of the current settings, and printing of an operation guide or the like are performed. In addition, the printout direction of the message is upside down and left and right for the user in normal printing, and the output message becomes difficult to read.

Therefore, the present invention solves such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to set the function of the printer regardless of whether the printer is used with the bottom face down or the back face down. When printing the message of the time, the display of the current setting, the operation guide, etc.,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer control method in which a printout direction of a message becomes a direction that is easy for a user to read.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a vertical inversion means for reading out dot image data given to a print head in one main scan from a storage means and supplying the dot image data to the print head while inverting the image data vertically. By supplying the dot image data inverted upside down by the upside down means to the print head and making the print head main scan from the left and right reverse direction, it is possible to output a print image that is inverted up and down and left and right in one main scan unit. A serial printer, wherein the vertical inverting means includes an in-byte inverting means for inverting and outputting the MSB and LSB of the dot image data in 1-byte units along a vertical direction, and the MSB and the LSB-inverted dot image data; After being inverted in the vertical direction in the byte unit and latched, and then given to the print head. In addition, in the method of printing upside down, left and right in a serial printer according to the present invention, dot image data given to the print head in one main scan is read out from the storage means, and MSB and LSB are inverted in units of 1 byte in the vertical direction. In-byte inversion process of outputting the dot image data, MSB and LSB inversion, and inverting and latching the dot image data in the byte unit in the vertical direction, and then supplying the same to the print head. In the main scanning direction from the reverse direction.

[0009]

According to the above construction of the present invention, whether the printer is used with the bottom face down or the back face down, the message for setting the function of the printer, the display of the current setting, and the operation When printing a guide or the like, the printout direction of the message is a direction that is easy for the user to read.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
This is a case where the pin serial impact printer is controlled by an 8-bit CPU. However, the printer control method of the present invention is irrelevant to the printing method of the printer, the number of print elements (print pins, etc.), and the number of bits of the control CPU. Just one.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an up / down / left / right reversed printing method in an embodiment of a printer control system according to the present invention. RAM
Since the upper dot image (102) is a 24-pin printer, one byte of a print dot image is expressed by 3 bytes.
In the dot image (102) on the RAM, a square (101) separated by a dotted line represents 1-byte data, and a square (105) separated by a dotted line in a print result.
(112) indicates a print result of the data (101) expressed by one byte on the RAM.

When performing normal printing, the dot image (102) developed on the RAM is stored in the first byte (10
1) to 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 →..., And correspond to pins 1 (104) to 8 of the print head so that dots are arranged in the same place and in the same order on the paper. .. From the location (105) where the data is transferred to the print head and the printing direction (103).
Should be controlled.

On the other hand, when printing upside down, left and right is performed,
The dot image (102) developed on the RAM is
Read in the order of 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 →... From the byte (101) and up and down the paper surface (direction perpendicular to the printing direction)
Then, data is transferred to the print head in the opposite direction on a dot-by-dot basis, and the printing direction is controlled so as to be opposite (113) to the direction following the character order of the RAM.

In order to transfer data to the print head in the vertical direction of the paper so as to be opposite to the dot image data (102) on the RAM in dot units, the most significant bit (byte) is transferred in byte units during data transfer. It is necessary to invert the least significant bit (hereinafter abbreviated as LSB) and to invert the assignment to the print pin in byte units. The former MSB and LSB reversal are realized by providing dedicated hardware (106) and performing data transfer to the print head during data transfer.
Details of the MSB / LSB reversing means (106) will be described later. The latter inversion of the print pin assignment in byte units is realized by reversing the order of the transfer destination of the print data from the normal order. That is, the dot image (102) developed on the RAM is changed from the first byte (101) to 1 →
Read in the order of 2 → 3 → 4 →...
Places corresponding to the 7th pan to 24th pin (111) (11
From 2), as shown in the figure, 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 →...

Means for inverting the character image to be printed, which is a feature of the structure of the present invention, in the up / down / left / right direction is as follows: hardware means for inverting the MSB and LSB of data to be transferred to the head; It can be said that it consists of
Except for the B and LSB reversing hardware means, they are present in the control program of the printer and are also used by the printer control means in normal times, that is, when printing is performed in accordance with data from the host device. The function can be shared with the up / down / left / right inversion means. This is because the control to change the print direction is a function that is naturally provided for a printer that prints by moving the print head in both directions, and the function to reverse the transfer destination of the print data from the normal one is to change the print head. For a printer that moves and prints in both directions, when the order of the character data sent by the host computer and the printing direction do not match, that is, when printing in the direction of the first column, a dot image for one line is printed. The reverse printing has already been realized by performing control to store the data in the RAM and read it in the reverse order of the character data sent by the host computer, while also making the transfer destination of the print data reverse to the normal order. Because it is.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer in the embodiment of the printer control system of the present invention. CP
The U (201) operates according to the program stored in the ROM (202), and the print dot image data developed on the RAM (203) is read from the RAM (203) by the operation of the CPU (201). MSB, L
Through SB inversion means (215), 1 to 8 in 1-byte units
Pin print data latch driver (205), 9-16
Pin print data latch driver (206), 17-2
20 for 4-pin print data latch driver (207)
5, 206, 207, or 207, 206, 20
The MSB / LSB inverting means (215) which is selectively sent and printed in the order of 5 is an MSB / LSB inverting circuit (204)
When the inversion is not used, the function can be disabled by the address accessed by the CPU (201). In this case, the print data is output from the MSB / LSB inversion circuit (20).
4), the print data is sent to the print data latch driver through a path. Panel switch (21
The state of 3) indicates the state of the CPU through the I / O port (212).
It is monitored at (201) and is reflected in the selection of the message direction and the like.

The MSB / LSB inverting circuit (204) exists between the data bus to which the print data latch driver is connected and the data bus of the CPU (201), and transfers bit 7 of the CPU side data bus to the print data latch side. In bit 0 of the data bus, bit 6 of the CPU-side data bus is set to bit 1 of the print data latch-side data bus, and bit 5 of the CPU-side data bus is set to bit 2 of the print data latch-side data bus. Bit 4 is set to bit 3 of the print data latch side data bus, and bit 3 of the CPU side data bus is set to bit 4 of the print data latch side data bus.
Then, bit 2 of the CPU-side data bus is set to bit 5 of the print data latch-side data bus, bit 1 of the CPU-side data bus is set to bit 6 of the print data latch-side data bus, and C
This is hardware that connects bit 0 of the PU data bus to bit 7 of the print data latch data bus.

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate a function setting procedure of the present invention. FIG. 3A is a diagram showing an operation panel of a printer, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing an output message.
The operation panel (301) shown in FIG. 3A has five switches in the case of this printer.
E (302), LF (303) and FF (304) are used for normal printer operation, and MENU (305) and SE
LECT (306) is used for the default state setting mode of the printer.

The default state setting mode of the printer is:
The message shown in FIG. 3B is printed out, and a menu switch (305) is used to select a setting item, and a SELECT switch (30) is used.
6) has a function of changing the setting contents. All selectable settings for a certain setting item are printed on the line following the item name. The currently selected setting is displayed with an underline.

When the printer enters the default state setting mode, the first item to be set is the message direction (308).
If the currently selected normal (309) is changed to the inverted (310) by the SELECT switch (306), a message that the inverted (311) is selected is printed on the next line, and the menu is displayed here. Switch (30
When the process proceeds to the next item in 5), the next setting item name message is displayed. In FIG.
2) Thereafter, the message is printed upside down.

This example is an example of the print message direction selecting means, and does not limit the print message direction selecting means in the present invention. The meaning of the print message direction selecting means in the present invention is that any means capable of changing the direction of a print message existing as one of the functions of the printer may be used.
For example, it may be one of the printer commands sent from the host computer, or the connection of the sheet feeder may be detected, and the direction of the print message may be changed. The direction of the print message may be changed with reference to the detection output of the means for detecting the fact.

[0022]

As described above, whether the printer is used with the bottom face down or the back face down, the message when setting the printer functions, the display of the current settings, the operation guide, etc. When printing
By setting the printout direction of the message to a direction that is easy for the user to read, there is an effect that a more user-friendly printer can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a method of vertically and horizontally reversing printing in an embodiment of a printer control system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a printer in a printer control system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an operation panel of the printer and a message printing result at the time of setting in the embodiment of the printer control system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 204 MSB, LSB inversion circuit 205 Data latch and driver of 1 to 8 pins 206 Data latch and driver of 9 to 16 pins 207 Data latch and driver of 17 to 24 pins 214 Bus switching circuit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-64-24763 (JP, A) JP-A-2-217271 (JP, A) JP-A-1-210356 (JP, A) JP-A-63-1987 312163 (JP, A) JP-A-5-80703 (JP, A)

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] An up-down inverting unit for reading out dot image data given to the print head in one main scan from a storage unit and supplying the dot image data to the print head while inverting the image data vertically; while supplying dot image data to the print head, by main scanning of the print head from the left and right opposite directions, in one of a serial printer which is capable of outputting a print image that is vertically and horizontally inverted in the main scanning unit, said upper and lower reversing means Is the dot image in 1-byte units along the vertical direction
In-byte inversion means for inverting data MSB and LSB and outputting
And the MSB and LSB inverted dot image data
After inverting and latching up and down in units of
And a reversal assigning means for giving a serial number to the serial printer. 2. An in-byte inversion process of reading dot image data given to a print head in one main scan from storage means, inverting MSB and LSB in units of 1 byte in the vertical direction, and outputting the result. The LSB-reversed dot image data, after inverting and latching the byte unit in the up-down direction, supplying to the print head, and performing a main scan of the print head in the reverse direction along with the supply step, Up / down / left / right reversed printing method of serial printer.