JP4568250B2 - Character attribute management system for double-sided printing apparatus and character attribute management method thereof - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a double-sided printing apparatus for printing images or characters on both sides of the recording medium, and more particularly management system and method that character attribute management character attributes to be printed.

  Generally, a printer that prints images and characters on recording paper is provided with a recording head on one side (for example, the front side) of the recording paper, and performs a printing process on the conveyed recording medium. Yes. For this reason, images and characters are usually printed only on the front side (one side) of the recording paper. When printing on the back side of the recording paper, it is necessary to provide a transport mechanism having a reversing function (double-sided unit) for reversing the front and back of the recording paper as proposed in Patent Document 1. For this reason, the double-sided printing apparatus is provided with a large-scale transport mechanism and is increased in size. In addition, such a printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing by inverting can be used if the recording medium is cut paper (for example, A4 size copy paper), but cannot be applied to double-sided printing if the recording medium is roll paper.

Thus, for example, Patent Document 2 discloses a recording paper that can be printed on both sides by using a double-sided printing apparatus including two thermal heads. In this double-sided printing apparatus, two pairs of thermal heads and a platen facing each other so as to sandwich a recording medium to be conveyed are arranged upstream and downstream in the conveying direction. These print heads can print images and characters substantially simultaneously on the front and back surfaces of a recording medium that can be recorded on both sides by arranging one print head on each of the front side and the back side of the recording medium. it can.
JP-A-6-024082 US Patent No. US 6,759,366

  When performing double-sided character printing according to Patent Document 1 described above, the front and back of the recording medium are reversed by a transport mechanism including a double-sided unit, and printed by passing twice through one recording head (photosensitive drum). The print data is printed on a recording medium by a print head after character attributes are processed so that the print data can be sequentially read from the buffer in units of pages or in a certain amount of data and printed in a desired print style. In Patent Document 1, if the print data cannot be printed on both sides when performing double-sided printing, the character direction of the odd-numbered page and the even-numbered page and the binding margin position are aligned by changing the print direction of the data. Processing is disclosed.

  In this way, a process for changing the printing direction of data has been proposed. In printing by a recording head arranged on one side of a recording medium, basically, when one or a series of printing data is printed, Most of the change of the character attribute or the like is not executed during printing.

  When the character attributes of print data to be printed on the front surface and the back surface of the recording medium are different in duplex printing, the character attributes must be switched for each surface of the front and back surfaces. If character attributes can be switched programmatically, the print style must be specified for each side of the front and back sides. In double-sided printing, character data is printed alternately on the front side and the back side of the recording medium, which must be set assuming that state, which is a cumbersome operation. For example, the print style (character attribute, etc.) is designated for each front and back surface in page units.

  On the other hand, in the case of an apparatus configuration in which print data is recorded using two thermal heads as disclosed in Patent Document 2, printing is performed on the front and back surfaces of the recording medium almost simultaneously. Required. That is, if the character attribute processing of the print data is not performed in parallel on the front surface and the back surface of the recording medium, the processing time until the start of printing becomes long if the character attributes are switched for each front and back each time. As a result, it takes time to complete printing.

  Also, in the print style designation work, if the character attributes of the front and back surfaces of the recording medium are different, the character data is printed alternately on the front and back surfaces of the recording medium. It must be set assuming that state, which is a complicated operation.

Therefore, the present invention is mounted on a double-sided printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing on a recording medium, and separately performs character attribute processing on the front and back surfaces of the recording medium, facilitating high-speed double-sided printing and character attribute management. The present invention relates to a character attribute management system and a character attribute management method for a duplex printing apparatus.

To achieve the above object, the present invention is, in front and back surfaces of the recording medium comprising paper roll is mounted an image including characters duplex printing apparatus including at least two recording heads for duplex printing, the recording Provided for each head, and at least two character attribute setting sections for registering and rewritable character attributes for specifying a print style for print data, and a print head for performing printing based on the print data The character attribute is read from the character attribute setting unit in charge of setting the character attribute to the recording head, the print data is character-edited for each predetermined amount of data, and printing is performed as needed for each character-edited print data. There is provided a character attribute management system for a double-sided printing apparatus, comprising a control unit that outputs to the recording head to be performed.

According to the present invention, it is mounted on a double-sided printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing on a recording medium, and separately performs character attribute processing on the front and back surfaces of the recording medium, facilitating high-speed double-sided printing and character attribute management. It is possible to provide a character attribute management system and a character attribute management method for a duplex printing apparatus.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a conceptual configuration of a character attribute management system mounted on a double-sided printing apparatus that performs double-sided printing with a thermal head as a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows a conceptual configuration of the thermal head and the transport mechanism.

  This double-sided printing apparatus includes a first thermal head 1 for printing an image or characters on one side (for example, front surface 12a) of the recording medium 12, and the other side (for example, back side) of the recording medium 12. 12b), the second thermal head 2 for printing, the transport mechanism 5 for transporting the recording medium 12, the recording medium transport motor 3 for driving the transport mechanism 5, the thermal heads 1, 2 and the motor 3 being driven. Image data and character information input from a drive control unit 4 to be controlled, a control unit (CPU) 6 that performs control and calculation of the entire system based on a program, and an external host device (such as a connected external computer) A RAM 7 for storing print data, a ROM 8 for storing predetermined programs, and a non-volatile RAM (NV: n for storing parameters input by the user) on-votatile RAM) 9 and first and second character attribute setting units 10 and 11 (to be described later) provided independently for the first and second thermal heads 1 and 2, respectively. And an input unit 15 including a touch operation panel or a key input panel having various display functions.

  These first and second thermal heads 1 and 2 are arranged, for example, as shown in FIG. In this arrangement example, the first thermal head 1 is in contact with the front surface 12a of the recording medium 12, and a platen roller 13 is provided on the back surface 12b side of the opposing recording medium 12. Similarly, the second thermal head 2 is in contact with the back surface 12b of the recording medium 12, and a platen roller 14 is provided on the front surface 12a side of the opposing recording medium 12. The platen rollers 13 and 14 may be driven by providing a drive motor separately, or by providing a transmission mechanism and using the recording medium transport motor 3 as a drive source. A transport mechanism 5 for transporting the recording medium 12 is provided on the upstream and downstream of the first and second thermal heads 1 and 2. Further, although not shown, a supply unit that supplies an unprinted recording medium 12 and a storage unit that stores the printed recording medium 12 are also provided. The transport mechanism 5, the supply unit, and the storage unit have a general configuration, and can be configured so that the recording medium can be a cut sheet or a roll sheet.

  In the present embodiment, the character attribute is information necessary for printing in a desired print style on the recording medium, such as font (Mincho and Gothic), character style (bold and italic, etc.), Size, color, strikethrough, superscript / subscript, rotation, black / white reversal, etc. can be considered. Furthermore, the printing direction in page units (upside down, landscape, etc.), line feed width, character pitch, etc. are handled in the same manner.

  The character attribute management system according to the present embodiment includes a first character attribute setting unit 10 that sets character attributes for the first thermal head 1 and a second character that sets character attributes for the second thermal head 2. In accordance with the attribute setting unit 11, the print data and the user instruction, the print data set and registered in the first and second character attribute setting units 10 and 11, respectively, and the character data edited in accordance with the setting registration are stored in each thermal head 1. 2 is configured using a control unit 6 to be sent to 2, a ROM 8 for storing a program for setting, and an NVRAM 9 for storing information on character attributes. Of course, the character attributes stored in the NVRAM 9 can be rewritten by a user operation, and new character attributes can be added or deleted as appropriate. Such a character attribute management system can be realized by the function of a personal computer.

Next, print output to a recording medium will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, the user displays print data for printing out on the screen of the host device (step S1). While viewing the print data, a print style, for example, setting of a character attribute such as a font, a recording medium size, the number of sheets, and the like are instructed (step S2). Note that display of print data is not an essential requirement, as long as the print style can be specified. Further, the print style may be instructed by using the input unit 15 such as an operation panel provided in the printing apparatus without using the host apparatus.

A print style instruction subroutine will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
First, the first character attribute setting unit 10 of the first thermal head 1 is set so that the print data (mainly character data) to be printed on the front surface of the recording medium 12 has a desired print style. Then, for example, a font, a character size, etc. are designated and registered from among a large number of character attribute data stored in advance (step S11). Subsequently, setting registration is similarly performed for the second character attribute setting unit 11 of the second thermal head 2 (step S12). Next, the size of the recording medium used for printing and the number of printed sheets are designated (step S13), and the process returns to the routine of FIG.

  The user designates the printing start after designating the printing style (step S3). In response to this print start instruction, the control unit 6 reads the print data from the RAM 7 on a page-by-page basis, distributes the print data to the character attribute setting units 10 and 11 in charge, and edits the character data (step S4). Here, the character data editing subroutine will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, the control unit 6 reads out print data from the RAM 7 in page units or in a predetermined data amount, and determines a thermal head in charge of printing (step S21). Specifically, it is determined whether or not the print data is printed on the front surface 12 a of the recording medium 12 by the first thermal head 1. If it is determined that the print data is printed by the first thermal head 1 (YES), the character attribute set in the first character attribute setting unit 10 is read (step S22), and the printing is performed. Data is character-edited with character attributes (step S23), and the process returns to the flowchart shown in FIG. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S21 that the print data is not printed by the first thermal head 1 (NO), it is determined that the print data is printed on the back surface 12b of the recording medium 12 by the second thermal head 2. To do. Then, the character attributes set in the second character attribute setting unit 11 are read (step S24), the print data is edited with the character attributes (step S25), and the process returns to the flowchart shown in FIG. .

  Next, the control unit 6 instructs the drive control unit (recording head driver) 4 to drive the designated first thermal head 1 or the second thermal head 2, and print data whose character editing has been completed. Is printed out (step S5). Next, it is determined whether or not printing with print data has been completed (step S6). If all the print data has been output (YES), a series of printing is terminated. On the other hand, if printing has not ended (NO) and there is still print data to be printed, the process returns to step S4 to edit the print data characters. In the present embodiment, the control unit 6 performs the character editing of the second character attribute setting unit 11 in parallel (or at the same time) while performing character editing using the character attributes of the first character attribute setting unit 10. You can edit characters by attribute.

  In this embodiment, the control unit reads out the designated character attribute and performs character editing. However, each character attribute setting unit may be configured to have a character editing function. That is, the control unit is configured to send the print data to the character attribute setting unit, and send the print data edited by the character attribute setting unit to the thermal head (head driver in the drive control unit). You may reduce the load.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, the character attributes can be set independently for the front surface and the back surface of the recording medium, so that the user designation operation of the print style is facilitated. In addition, the character attribute setting unit that sets the character attribute independently for each surface of the recording medium enables the character attribute processing of the print data to be performed in parallel, so that the printing process can be speeded up.

Next, a second embodiment will be described.
In the first embodiment described above, a routine for performing print output while performing character editing in units of pages, the second embodiment sequentially stores print data in which character editing has been completed in units of pages, Printing is started after character editing has been completed for all print data. The constituent parts of the present embodiment are the same as the parts of the first embodiment described above, the same reference numerals are given, and the description thereof is omitted. However, the page-by-page print data for which character editing has been completed is stored in the RAM 7, but a separate memory may be provided.

  Next, print output to a recording medium in the second embodiment will be described with reference to flowcharts shown in FIGS. In the steps shown in the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the same steps as the steps shown in the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 are given the same step numbers to simplify the description.

  First, the user displays print data to be printed out on the screen of the host device, and instructs a print style or the like while viewing the print data (steps S1 and S2). Next, when a print start is instructed after designating the print style (step S3), the control unit 6 distributes the print data read from the RAM 7 to the character attribute setting units 10 and 11 in charge of each page. Character data editing is performed (step S4). A character data editing subroutine will now be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, the control unit 6 reads print data from the RAM 7 and determines a thermal head in charge of printing (step S21). If it is determined that the print data is printed by the first thermal head 1 (YES), the character attribute set in the first character attribute setting unit 10 is read (step S22), and the printing is performed. The data is character-edited with character attributes (step S23), and the print data that has been edited is stored in the RAM 7. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S21 that the print data is not printed by the first thermal head 1 (NO), it is determined that the print data is printed on the back surface 12b of the recording medium 12 by the second thermal head 2. To do. Then, the character attribute set in the second character attribute setting unit 11 is read (step S24), the print data is character-edited with the character attribute (step S25), and the edited print data is stored in the RAM 7. To remember. In each of steps S23 and S25, after editing is completed, it is determined whether or not character editing has been completed for all print data (step S26).

  If character editing has not been completed for all print data in this determination (NO), the process returns to step S21, and character editing is performed for the next print data (page unit). On the other hand, if character editing has been completed for all print data (YES), the process returns to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  Next, the control unit 6 reads out the print data whose character has been edited from the RAM 7 and instructs the drive control unit (recording head driver) 4 to designate the designated first thermal head 1 or second thermal head 2. Is driven to print out (step S5), and a series of printing processes is terminated.

In this embodiment, printing is started after character editing is completed. However, the present invention is not limited to this. If character editing of a certain amount of print data is completed, the storage capacity in which character-edited print data is halfway is displayed. Printing may be started when the value reaches.
As described above, the effect of this embodiment can obtain the same effect as that of the first embodiment described above. The character attribute management system of the present invention has been described by taking a printing apparatus equipped with a thermal head as an example of a recording head of a double-sided printing apparatus. However, the present invention is not limited to this. Alternatively, it can be easily applied to a sublimation type printer apparatus. Further, the present invention can be applied not only to a single printing apparatus but also to a register computer, a cash dispenser, a ticket issuing apparatus, a ticket issuing machine such as a ticket, a copying machine, or a duplex printing unit mounted on a facsimile telephone.

It is a figure which shows the notional structure of the character attribute management system mounted in the double-sided printing apparatus which performs double-sided printing with the thermal head which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the notional structure of a thermal head and a conveyance mechanism. 4 is a flowchart for explaining print output of the double-sided printing apparatus according to the first embodiment. 6 is a flowchart for explaining a print style instruction subroutine according to the first embodiment; It is a flowchart for demonstrating the subroutine of character data editing in 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the subroutine of character data editing in 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the printing output of the double-sided printing apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... 1st thermal head, 2 ... 2nd thermal head, 3 ... Recording medium conveyance motor, 4 ... Drive control part, 5 ... Conveyance mechanism, 6 ... Control part (CPU), 7 ... RAM, 8 ... ROM , 9: Non-volatile RAM (NVRAM), 10: First character attribute setting unit, 11: Second character attribute setting unit, 12: Recording medium, 12a: Front surface, 12b: Back surface, 13, 14 ... Platen roller, 15... Input unit.

Claims (4)

Mounted on a double-sided printing apparatus comprising at least two recording heads for double-sided printing of images including characters on the front and back sides of a recording medium made of roll paper ,
At least two character attribute setting units which are provided for each of the recording heads, and which register and set so that a character attribute for specifying a print style for print data can be rewritten,
The recording head that performs printing based on the print data is determined, the character attribute is read from the character attribute setting unit that is in charge of setting the character attribute for the print head, and the print data is character-edited for each predetermined amount of data. A control unit that outputs to the recording head that performs printing at any time for each print data that has undergone character editing;
A character attribute management system for a double-sided printing apparatus. Both sides comprising a first thermal head for printing an image containing characters on one side of a recording medium made of roll paper and a second thermal head for printing an image containing letters on the other side of the recording medium. Installed in the printing device,
A first character attribute setting unit configured to register and set a rewritable character attribute for specifying a print style for print data input to the first thermal head;
A second character attribute setting unit for registering and rewritable character attributes for designating a print style for print data input to the second thermal head;
The character attribute setting for determining one of the first and second thermal heads in charge of printing based on the input print data and designating a print style for the first or second thermal head for printing The first or second thermal head that reads out the registered character attribute from the unit, edits the print data for each predetermined amount of data, and is in charge of printing for each character-edited print data A control unit that outputs to
A character attribute management system for a double-sided printing apparatus. Mounted on a double-sided printing apparatus comprising at least two recording heads for double-sided printing of images including characters on the front and back sides of a recording medium made of roll paper ,
A control unit for determining a recording head for performing printing based on the input print data;
Provided for each of the recording heads, rewritable character attributes for designating a print style for print data are registered and rewritable, receive print data distributed by the control unit, and for each predetermined data amount The print data is character-edited using the character attributes, and a character attribute setting unit that outputs the print data to the recording head as needed for each character-edited print data;
A character attribute management system for a double-sided printing apparatus. At least two recording heads for double-sided printing of images containing characters on the front and back sides of a recording medium made of roll paper , and provided for each of the recording heads, for specifying a print style for print data A character attribute management method for providing character-edited print data to a double-sided printing apparatus comprising: at least two character attribute setting units that register and set character attributes so as to be rewritable;
Determine the recording head that performs printing based on the input print data,
Read the character attribute from the character attribute setting unit in charge of setting the character attribute to the recording head, edit the print data for each predetermined amount of data,
A character attribute management method for a double-sided printing apparatus, wherein the character-edited print data is output to the recording head for printing whenever necessary.

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