JPH0890864A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To obtain a printer which is capable of printing character data using an image buffer with a small capacity. CONSTITUTION: A print data consists of character data, and attribute data and positional data which correspond to the character data one for one. A controller 25 develops bit patterns of the character data based on the attribute data and positional data, and develops the bit patterns for a line of printing on an image buffer in a RAM 24. The image data on the image buffer are transferred to a print controller 15 to perform printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device such as a serial printer, and more particularly to a printing device capable of printing an image using a small capacity print buffer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Printers that are used as output devices of computer systems and printer units that are output units of word processor devices are widely known as printing devices that mainly print out characters.

FIG. 9 shows an example of a print control operation in a conventional general printer. As shown in FIG. 9, the print data 1 is composed of character data including a character code and attribute data indicating a character size, a font, a print position, and the like.

The character code forming the character data is, for example, JIS (Japan Industrial Standard) -ANK character (Alphabet Numeric Kana Character) code, AS.
CII code (American Standard Code for Informati
on Interchange) and standardized character codes.

As the attribute data, for example, character attribute data represented by a control code for printing or screen display such as so-called escape sequence is used. The escape sequence is typically an escape code (ESC) that is a code for a control code in the JIS character code or ASCII character code, that is, "1B".
It is a series of code strings of several bytes starting from _H "(hexadecimal notation), and is widely used as a control code for printing or displaying.

The print data 1 including such character data and attribute data is sequentially sent to the printer control device 2.
The printer control device 2 develops a character code into a character image, that is, a bit pattern using the font data 3 in accordance with the attribute data, stores the image in the image buffer 4 for one page, and prints it by the printing device 5. .

[0007]

Image buffer 4
Stores data in the bitmap format, the image buffer 4 for one page requires a large-capacity memory, which contributes to cost increase. However, print data 1
Since the font, the character size, the pitch, the printing position, and the like according to are not standard, it is necessary to sequentially develop the character data into image data, and it is necessary to use the large-capacity image buffer 4.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus capable of printing characters and the like using a small-capacity print buffer.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a first printing device according to the present invention includes character data,
A data memory for storing the attribute data and the position data of each of the character data according to the print pitch, a print head having a plurality of dots and scanned in the row direction, and one scan of the print head in the row direction. The character data stored in the data memory has a capacity capable of storing the amount of data printed, and the character data stored in the data memory includes a print buffer that stores the character data in a bit pattern based on position data. Character data stored in the data memory in response to printing by the print head are sequentially stored in the print buffer in units of the amount of data printed by one scan of the print head in the row direction. And

A second printing device according to the present invention prints character data and character data input from the data input means for inputting attribute data relating to the character data on the print medium. Print pitch setting means for determining a print pitch at the time, position data relating to a position when the character data input from the data input means is printed on the print medium, attribute data input from the data input means, and A computing means for computing on the basis of the printing pitch set by the printing pitch setting means, and character data inputted from the data input means are stored as a character code and inputted from the data input means in correspondence with the character data. First storage means for storing the attribute data and the position data calculated by the calculation means, And a capacity for storing the amount of data printed by scanning the print head once in the row direction. The print head is stored in the first storage means. Second storage means for storing a character pattern corresponding to the character code in a bit pattern corresponding to the character code based on the attribute data and the position data stored in the first storage means; Rewriting means for sequentially reading and rewriting the content stored in the storage means from the storage content of the first storage means in accordance with the printing by the print head in units of the amount of data printed by one scan of the print head in the row direction. And is provided.

A third printing apparatus according to the present invention responds to character data consisting of a character code indicating a character, attribute data corresponding to the character data and indicating a character attribute, and the attribute data and a predetermined print pitch. A data memory that stores the position data of each character of the character data, a printing unit that uses a print head that has a plurality of dots in the column direction and that scans in the row direction to perform printing, and a single row direction of the print head. A print buffer having a capacity corresponding to a bit pattern printed by scanning the data memory, and storing character data retrieved from the data memory in a bit pattern based on attribute data and position data; and character data and attribute data from the data memory. And position data, and develops the character data into a bit pattern according to the attribute data and position data. Then, the data amount of the bit pattern printed by one scan of the print head in the row direction is sequentially stored in the print buffer, and the bit pattern stored in the print buffer is sequentially printed by the printing unit. And a control unit for controlling the control.

[0012]

In the printing apparatus having the above-described structure, the print data is composed of character data, attribute data, and position data, and the print data is image-developed for each print target line based on the position data and is used for printing. Therefore, only one line of image data needs to be expanded in order to expand the print data consisting of character data, attribute data and position data into the image data which is a bit pattern, and the characters can be freely arranged in any size and position. Can be deployed to. That is, as a print buffer for storing the bit pattern to be printed, in principle, only an image buffer for one line print is required, and a page buffer for one page is not necessary, and the memory capacity for the print buffer is small. I'm sorry.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an example of a word processor device incorporating a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The word processor device shown in FIG.
A display memory 12, a display driver 13, a dot matrix display unit 14, a print control unit 15, a print head driver 16, and a head drive motor driver 17.
, Carriage / platen motor driver 18, print head 19, head drive motor 20, carriage / platen motor driver 18,
A platen motor 21, a font generator 22,
A ROM (Read Only Memory) 23, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 24, and a control unit 25 are provided.

The key input unit 11 has a keyboard and inputs characters and function information. The display memory 12 temporarily stores input information at the time of input / edit, document information, image information for displaying a print layout and the like. Display driver 1
3 drives the dot matrix display unit 14 based on the contents of the display memory 12 to display image information. The dot matrix display unit 14 is driven by the display driver 13 and displays image information such as input information at the time of input / edit, document information, and print layout.

The print controller 15 controls the print head driver 16, the head drive motor driver 17, and the carriage / platen motor driver 18 to perform the printing operation. The print head driver 16 is the print head 1
9 is electrically driven and controlled. The head drive motor driver 17 drives and controls a head drive motor 20 for mechanically driving the print head 19.

Carriage / platen motor driver 18
Is a carriage / platen motor 21 for two-dimensional scanning of the print head 19 and a print medium such as printing paper.
Drive. The print head 19 is, for example, a thermal head including a 64-dot heating element, and prints a bit pattern on a print medium. Head drive motor 20
Causes the print head 19 to come into contact with and separate from the print medium. Under the control of the carriage / platen motor driver 18, the carriage / platen motor 21 moves (scans) the carriage including the print head 19 in the main scanning direction and conveys the paper (print medium) in the sub scanning direction.

The font generator 22 generates a character font, that is, a bit pattern of a character, corresponding to a character code forming character data in print data. RO
An M (read only memory) 23 stores a system operation program and other necessary information that does not require rewriting. R
The AM (random access memory) 24 is a rewritable memory and stores print data, input data, and the like. An image buffer for printing is also included in the RAM 24.

The control unit 25 is composed of a CPU (central control unit) and the like, and controls the entire system. The printing apparatus according to the present invention mainly includes a print control unit 15, a print head driver 16, a head drive motor driver 17,
A print unit including a carriage / platen motor driver 18, a print head 19, a head drive motor 20, and a carriage / platen motor 21, a font generator 22, a ROM 23, a RAM 24, and a control unit 2.
It is composed of a part of 5.

As shown in FIG. 2, the RAM 24 has a character data area 24A for storing character data (text data) consisting of character codes and an attribute for storing attribute data (attribute data) defining character size, font, etc. The print data area includes a data area 24B and a position data area 24C that stores position data indicating the print position of the corresponding character.

The RAM 24 further defines an image buffer 24D for storing one line, that is, image data (bitmap data) corresponding to one scan of the print head 19 in the main scanning direction, a character pitch and a line pitch. A print pitch area 24E, a counter area 24F, a mode register M, and the like for storing the print pitch to be stored are provided.

The character data, the attribute data and the position data which form the print data are each composed of 2 bytes of data, and are composed of a total of 6 bytes, which are constant regardless of the type of character. Is the size. The data format of print data is shown in FIG. The data in the format of Figure 3 is
At the same time as the print data, it is the document data edited by this system, and constitutes the print data from the beginning of the sentence to the end of the sentence. The position data is, as shown in FIG.
Assuming that one line printed by one line scan of 9 is 64 dots, it is 8 for each of the X coordinate and the Y coordinate of the print space.
Indicates the print position of the corresponding character in dots. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, if the hatched portion is one character, the position data of this character is represented by X = 4 and Y = 2 with the upper left corner as a reference.

The print pitch in the contents of the RAM 24 shown in FIG. 2 is information on the character pitch and the line pitch, and the mode register M prints in the input setting mode when M = 0 and when in M = 1. Indicates the mode.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The input editing operation in this word processing device will be described. First, when the input mode is set by operating the key input unit 11, 0 is set in the mode register M and the processing shown in FIG. 6 is started. When the input process is started, the print pitch is first set according to the print format or the like (step S11), and characters and attributes are input from the key input unit 11 (step S12). The position data is calculated based on the input characters and attributes (step S13), and the character data, the attribute data, and the position data are made to correspond to each other and R
The data is stored in the areas 24A to 24C of the AM 24 (step S
15).

Next, it is determined whether or not there is a character change request for the input character (step S15). If there is a character change request, the character data is rewritten (step S16), and the character change request is issued. If not, the process proceeds to the next process as it is. Further, it is determined whether there is a print pitch change request for the input character (step S1).
7) If there is a print pitch change request, the position data is recalculated (step S18) and the position data is rewritten (step S19). If there is no print pitch change request, the process directly proceeds to the next process. To do.

Then, it is judged whether or not there is a request for changing the attribute of the input character (step S20), and if there is a request for changing the attribute, the position data is recalculated (step S21) to determine the position. The data and the attribute data are rewritten (step S22), and if there is no attribute change request, the process directly proceeds to the next process. After the above processing,
It is determined whether or not the sentence creation is completed (step S23),
If it is finished, the processing is finished, and if it is not finished, step S
Returning to 12, the next character is input.

In this way, the document to be printed is created and the print data is created. The print data created in this way, that is, the document data is stored in a floppy disk, a hard disk, or the like as needed.

Next, referring to the flowchart of FIG.
The printing operation in the word processor will be described. It should be noted that in FIG. 7, the symbol L indicates a line to be printed and the RAM 2
4 counter areas 24F.

When a print command is input from the key input unit 11, the control unit 25 sets the mode flag M to 1 and the number of lines L to 1 (step S31). next,
It is determined whether the print line is the first line (step S32).
In the case of the first line, the font generator 22 is accessed according to the character code and the attribute data from the position data described above to the first line data, that is, the character data corresponding to the Y coordinate value of 0 to 7. To develop into a bit pattern,
The image is stored in the image buffer 24D of the RAM 24 (step S33).

The position data is generated based on the upper left point of the font. Depending on the size of the characters and the X and Y coordinate values, there is a case where one line (eight blocks in the Y direction) cannot be filled. In this case, the protruding portion is ignored and the bit pattern is developed.

When the image data for one line is completed in the image buffer 24D, the control section 25 sequentially cuts out the image data and transfers it to the print control section 15 (step S34). The print control unit 15 controls the drivers 16 to 18 in accordance with the supplied image data, prints one line of characters on the printing paper, which is the medium to be printed, and performs line feed (step S35). Further, the number of lines L is incremented by 1 (step S36), and the number of lines L is the last line (since there is a possibility that a protruding portion exists, the line next to the last line where the print data actually exists is the last line. (Step S37), and if it is the last line, the process ends.

When it is determined in step S37 that the line is not the last line, the process returns to step S32. In this case, 2
Since it is after the line, the position data corresponding to the (L-1) line immediately preceding the corresponding line L is searched, the character data and the attribute data corresponding to the position data are checked, and the next line, that is, The image buffer 24D is the portion protruding to the L-th line.
(Step S38). After that, step S3
3, the L-th row is expanded, and the image data in the preceding row is logically ORed and expanded in the image buffer 24D.

When the development into the image buffer 24D is completed, the control unit 25 sequentially cuts out the image data and supplies the image data to the print controller 15 for printing as described above. After that, the same operation is repeated to perform printing.

When the printing of the last line is completed, the protruding portion of each character of the last line to the next line is developed in the image buffer and printed, and the printing process is completed.

Next, the above operation will be specifically described by taking as an example the case of inputting and printing a character pattern as shown in FIG. The part surrounded by a frame in FIG. 8 corresponds to the font of one character. First, the user sets the print pitch according to the print format or the like (step S11). In the example of FIG. 8, both the character pitch and the line pitch are set to “3”.
Next, the user inputs an attribute indicating the character “A” and the vertical and horizontal size “1 × 1” of the character from the key input unit 11 (step S12). The control unit 25 calculates the position data (2, 1) based on the input characters and attributes (step S
13), character data, attribute data and position data are R
The data is stored in association with the areas 24A to 24C of the AM 24 (step S14).

Next, an attribute indicating the character "E" and the size "2 × 1" is input from the key input unit 11 (step S1).
2). The position data (11, 1) is calculated based on the input characters and attributes (step S13), and the character data, the attribute data, and the position data are stored in the area 2 of the RAM 24.
4A to 24C are stored in association with each other (step S1).
4).

If necessary, after instructing a line feed or the like, the character "H" and the attribute "1x1" are input from the key input unit 11 (step S12). The position data (3, 10) is calculated based on the input characters and attributes (step S1
3), character data, attribute data and position data are RA
It is stored in association with the areas 24A to 24C of M24 (step S14).

Next, when printing is instructed, the control unit 25
Sets L = 1 (step S31), and for each character whose Y coordinate of the position data is located in the range of 0 to 7, develops a bit pattern for one line on the image buffer 24D (step S33). In this example, since the Y coordinates of the position data of the characters “A” and “E” are both “1”,
The font of those characters is read from the font generator 22 based on the character code and the attribute data, and developed on the image buffer 24D according to the position data and the attribute data.

For the character "E", "2.times.1" is set as the attribute data, and the lower half of the bit pattern overflows the image buffer 24D, so that part is ignored. When the development of the bit pattern is completed, the character "A" and the upper half of the vertically long "E" character are printed (steps S34 and S35).

Next, the control unit 25 sets L = 2 (step S36), and first, for the character on the (L-1) th line, that is, the first line, the protruding portion to the Lth (= 2) th line is set. The image is expanded in the image buffer 24D (step S38). Here, the lower half of the letter "E" extends to the second line, and this portion is expanded. Next, the character corresponding to L = 2, that is, the character "H" in which the Y coordinate of the position data is in the range of 8 to 15 is developed into a bit pattern, and the protruding portion and the OR are taken and printed. The lower half of the letters "H" and "E" are printed on the second line.

Further, since the attribute data and the position data are added to each character data, it is possible to print the image of the print data for each print line based on the position data and the attribute data without sequentially expanding the character data into the image data. can do. Therefore, the capacity of the image buffer is enough for one print line, and the capacity of the image buffer can be made much smaller than the conventional one. Further, according to this embodiment, since the attribute data and the position data are added to each character data, the data has a fixed size of 6 bytes. Therefore,
The handling of print data becomes very easy.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, but various modifications and applications are possible. For example, in the above embodiment, when expanding an arbitrary print line, the protruding portion of the character located on the previous print line was expanded, but for example, when an auxiliary buffer is prepared in the RAM 24 and each character is expanded. The protruding portion may be expanded in the auxiliary buffer, and the expanded contents and the contents stored in the auxiliary buffer may be ORed at the time of expanding the next line and written in the image buffer.

Further, the image buffer is composed of two buffers each having a capacity of one line.
Alternatively, the two buffers may be alternately used so that the bit pattern stored in one buffer is printed by the printing unit while the bit pattern is written in the other buffer.

The circuit configuration shown in FIG. 1 is an example, and it goes without saying that other circuit configurations may be used. In addition, FIG.
And the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. 7 is only an example,
Other input and print processing procedures may be used.
Also, the character pitch, character size, font type, etc. may be set on the initial setting screen, and thereafter, attribute data setting, position data calculation, etc. may be performed according to the setting until a change is instructed. .

Further, in the above embodiment, the control unit 25 calculates the print position of each character according to the print pitch and the attribute data. For example, the print position of each character corresponding to the print pitch and the attribute data is tabulated and stored in the ROM 23. Etc., and the position data may be set according to the contents of this table. Further, although the position data is set with reference to the upper left position of each font, other positions may be used as a reference. In the above embodiment, an example in which the printing device of the present invention is applied to the word processor device is shown, but it is applicable to any printing device. In addition, the present invention is not limited to the above specific examples, and various application modifications are possible.

[0045]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, print data is composed of character data, attribute data, and position data, and the print data is developed into a bit pattern for each print target line based on the position data. And print it. Therefore, it is not necessary to continuously expand the print data into an image pattern, and basically, as a print buffer for storing a bit pattern to be printed, only an image buffer for one print line is required. Therefore, an arbitrary character can be printed by using the image buffer having a smaller capacity than the conventional one.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a word processor device incorporating a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a memory map showing an example of stored contents of a RAM in the word processor device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a data format of print data.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining position data.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for specifically explaining position data.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining an input editing operation of the word processor device of FIG.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining a print processing operation of the word processor device of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a character pattern to be printed.

FIG. 9 is a diagram schematically illustrating the configuration of an example of a conventional printing device.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... Key input section, 12 ... Display memory, 13 ... Display driver, 14 ... Dot matrix display section, 15 ... Print control section, 16 ... Print head driver, 17 ... Head drive motor driver, 18 ... Carriage / platen motor driver, 19 ... Print head, 20 ... Head drive motor,
21 ... Carriage / Platen Motor, 22 ... Font Generator, 23 ... ROM, 24 ... RAM, 25 ... Control Unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A data memory for storing character data, attribute data, and position data of each of the character data corresponding to a printing pitch, a print head having a plurality of dots and scanning in a row direction, and A print buffer having a capacity capable of storing the amount of data to be printed by one scan of the head in the row direction and storing character data stored in the data memory in a bit pattern based on position data; In response to the printing of the character data stored in the print buffer by the print head, the character data stored in the data memory is sequentially printed in units of the amount of data printed by one scan of the print head in the row direction. A printing device characterized by being stored in a print buffer. 2. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the data memory stores one attribute data and one position data for one character data. 3. A data input means for inputting character data and attribute data relating to the character data, and a print pitch setting for determining a print pitch when the character data input from the data input means is printed on a printing medium. Means and position data relating to the position at which the character data input from the data input means is printed on the printing medium, the attribute data input from the data input means and the printing set by the print pitch setting means. Position determining means determined based on the pitch, character data input from the data input means is stored as a character code, and attribute data and the position determining means input from the data input means in association with the character data. And a first storage means for storing the position data determined by, and having a plurality of dots and scanned in the row direction. And a character pattern corresponding to the character code stored in the first storage means, which has a capacity capable of storing the amount of data to be printed by scanning the print head once in the row direction. The second storage means for storing a bit pattern based on the attribute data and the position data stored in the first storage means corresponding to the character code, and the contents stored in the second storage means Rewriting means for sequentially reading and rewriting in units of data amount printed by one scan of the print head in the row direction from the stored content of the first storage means in accordance with printing by the print head. apparatus. 4. The printing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the first storage unit stores the attribute data for each character data and the position data determined by the position determination unit. 5. The rewriting unit detects character data to be printed by scanning the print head this time based on the position data, develops a bit pattern of the character data in the print buffer, and based on the position data. 5. The character data to be printed is detected by the previous scan of the print head, and a portion of the bit pattern that extends from the print buffer is expanded in the print buffer. The printing device described. 6. A data memory for storing, for each character, a set of character data indicating a character to be printed, attribute data indicating the attribute of the character, and position data indicating the position of the character, and a plurality of dots in the column direction. A printing unit that uses a print head that scans in the row direction to perform printing, and has a capacity corresponding to a bit pattern that is printed by one scan of the print head in the row direction, and is retrieved from the data memory. A print buffer that stores character data in a bit pattern based on attribute data and position data, and retrieves character data, attribute data, and position data from the data memory, and converts the character data into a bit pattern according to the attribute data and position data. Unfold,
A control unit for sequentially storing in the print buffer the data amount of the bit pattern printed by one scan of the print head in the row direction and sequentially printing the bit pattern stored in the print buffer by the printing unit. A printing apparatus comprising: 7. One of the data stored in the data memory
The printing device according to claim 6, wherein the data size per character is fixed. 8. The control unit detects a character to be printed this time based on the position data, develops a bit pattern of the character in the print buffer, and detects a character to be printed previously based on the position data. 8. The printing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein a portion of the bit pattern that extends from the print buffer is expanded into the print buffer.