CN112590402B

CN112590402B - Thermal printer control method, thermal printer control device, thermal printer and medium

Info

Publication number: CN112590402B
Application number: CN202011446322.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张斌; 许统辉; 唐滔; 蓝菊芳
Original assignee: Nanyang Clear Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: Nanyang Clear Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-12-11
Filing date: 2020-12-11
Publication date: 2022-02-22
Anticipated expiration: 2040-12-11
Also published as: CN112590402A

Abstract

The application discloses a thermal printer control method, a thermal printer control device, a thermal printer and a medium. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring a hardware interface control signal, wherein the hardware interface control signal comprises a data signal, a first clock signal and a second clock signal; the first clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a first area of a printing head of the thermal printer, and the second clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a second area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the working time periods of the first clock signal and the second clock signal are the same, and the first clock signal and the second clock signal are in equal and opposite directions in each period; the data signal is used for transmitting data to be processed sent by a host connected with the thermal printer; and transmitting the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal.

Description

Thermal printer control method, thermal printer control device, thermal printer and medium

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of thermal printers, in particular to a thermal printer control method and device, a thermal printer and a medium.

Background

Thermal printers are widely used in various industries due to their advantages of small size, low noise, high speed, etc.

The most common thermal printer uses a fixed print head with a dot matrix, on which a semiconductor heating element is mounted, and the print head is heated and contacted with thermal printing paper to print a desired pattern. The thermal printer converts the print data into bitmap data after receiving the print data, and then controls the semiconductor heating elements on the print head to pass current according to the dots of the bitmap data, thus changing the print data into the print content on the thermal printing paper. When each line of bitmap dot matrix data is printed, the control unit needs to receive the current printing data to complete the printing of one line of dot matrix data. However, the requirements of people on the corresponding speed of data receiving and the processing speed of printing tasks of thermal printers are also increasing at present.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a thermal printer control method, a thermal printer control device, a thermal printer and a medium.

In a first aspect, a thermal printer control method is provided, including:

acquiring a hardware interface control signal, wherein the hardware interface control signal comprises a data signal, a first clock signal and a second clock signal; the first clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a first area of a printing head of the thermal printer, and the second clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a second area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the working time periods of the first clock signal and the second clock signal are the same, and the first clock signal and the second clock signal are in equal and opposite directions in each period; the data signal is used for transmitting data to be processed sent by a host connected with the thermal printer;

and transmitting the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal.

In an alternative embodiment, the transmitting the data to be processed to the print head according to the hardware interface control signal includes:

sending the first data to be processed to elements of a first region of the print head on a rising edge of the first clock signal;

sending the second data to be processed to elements of a second region of the printhead on a rising edge of the second clock signal.

In an alternative embodiment, the hardware interface control signals further include a latch signal and a strobe signal;

the latch signal is used for controlling the data to be processed to be temporarily held in a latch circuit;

the strobe signal is used to control the output of the data to be processed held in the latch circuit to the elements of the print head.

In an alternative embodiment, the latch signal includes a first latch signal and a second latch signal; the strobe signal comprises a first strobe signal and a second strobe signal;

the transmitting the data to be processed to the print head according to the hardware interface control signal comprises:

temporarily holding the first data to be processed in a first latch circuit by the first latch signal; outputting the first data to be processed held in the first latch circuit to an element of the first region by the first strobe signal;

temporarily holding the second data to be processed in a second latch circuit by the second latch signal; the second data to be processed held in the second latch circuit is output to an element of the second region by the second strobe signal.

In an alternative embodiment, the first region and the second region of the print head each include N sub-regions, where N is a positive integer;

each of the data signals is for transmitting the data to be processed through a data line to elements of M of the sub-regions, M being a positive integer less than N.

In a second aspect, there is provided a thermal printer control apparatus comprising:

the device comprises an acquisition module, a processing module and a control module, wherein the acquisition module is used for acquiring a hardware interface control signal, and the hardware interface control signal comprises a data signal, a first clock signal and a second clock signal; the first clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a first area of a printing head of the thermal printer, and the second clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a second area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the working time periods of the first clock signal and the second clock signal are the same, and the first clock signal and the second clock signal are in equal and opposite directions in each period; the data signal is used for transmitting data to be processed sent by a host connected with the thermal printer;

and the control module is used for transmitting the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal.

In a third aspect, there is provided a thermal printer comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the steps as in the first aspect and any one of its possible implementations.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a computer storage medium storing one or more instructions adapted to be loaded by a processor and to perform the steps of the first aspect and any possible implementation thereof.

The method comprises the steps of obtaining a hardware interface control signal, wherein the hardware interface control signal comprises a data signal, a first clock signal and a second clock signal; the first clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a first area of a printing head of the thermal printer, and the second clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a second area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the working time periods of the first clock signal and the second clock signal are the same, and the first clock signal and the second clock signal are in equal and opposite directions in each period; the data signal is used for transmitting data to be processed sent by a host connected with the thermal printer; the data to be processed is transmitted to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal, the change time of the data signal is controlled by the first clock signal and the second clock signal which are in equal and reverse directions at the same time, so that the data at two side areas of the printing head are sent simultaneously, the data transmission time is shortened by about half, the response time of the printer for receiving the printing data of the host is shortened, and the whole time of the thermal printer for processing the printing task is prolonged.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions in the embodiments or the background art of the present application, the drawings required to be used in the embodiments or the background art of the present application will be described below.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a thermal printer control method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a printhead according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of control signals of a printhead driving method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of control signals for another printhead driving method according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of a control device of a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the technical solutions of the present application better understood, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present application, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

The terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and claims of the present application and in the above-described drawings are used for distinguishing between different objects and not for describing a particular order. Furthermore, the terms "include" and "have," as well as any variations thereof, are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions. For example, a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not limited to only those steps or elements listed, but may alternatively include other steps or elements not listed, or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment can be included in at least one embodiment of the application. The appearances of the phrase in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. It is explicitly and implicitly understood by one skilled in the art that the embodiments described herein can be combined with other embodiments.

The thermal printer in the embodiment of the application has the working principle that the printing head is mainly provided with the semiconductor heating element, and the printing head can print required patterns after heating and contacting with thermal printing paper, and the principle is similar to that of a thermal fax machine. Typically the heaters are logically controlled in the form of square dots or stripes by the printer which, when activated, produce a pattern on the thermal paper corresponding to the heating elements. The same logic that controls the heating elements also controls the feeding of the paper, thus enabling the printing of a pattern on the entire label or sheet.

The embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Referring to fig. 1, fig. 1 is a schematic flowchart illustrating a method for controlling a thermal printer according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. The method can comprise the following steps:

101. acquiring a hardware interface control signal, wherein the hardware interface control signal comprises a data signal, a first clock signal and a second clock signal; the first clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a first area of a printing head of the thermal printer, and the second clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a second area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the working time periods of the first clock signal and the second clock signal are the same, and the first clock signal and the second clock signal are in equal and opposite directions in each period; the data signal is used for transmitting data to be processed sent by a host connected with the thermal printer.

102. And transmitting the data to be processed to the printing head according to the hardware interface control signal.

The execution main body of the embodiment of the application can be a thermal printer. The thermal printer can comprise a host computer and a printing head which are controlled logically, and the printing head can be controlled to execute printing operation through a hardware interface control signal.

The DATA signal DATA may be transmitted by a DATA line for carrying the above-mentioned DATA to be processed, i.e., DATA to be printed. The data to be processed may be controlled by the first clock signal and the second clock signal.

The Clock Signal (Clock Signal) is the basis of sequential logic, which determines when the state in the logic cell is updated, and is a Signal quantity that has a fixed period and is independent of operation. The clock signal has a fixed clock frequency, which is the inverse of the clock period. In electronic, especially synchronous digital circuits of signals, the clock signal is a high and low state between special signal oscillations of the signal, the digital circuit of the signal acts coordinately like a metronome, and the digital clock signal is basically a square wave voltage. In the embodiment of the application, the state updating of other signals is controlled by the CLOCK signal CLOCK.

Specifically, the first data to be processed may be sent to an element in a first area of the print head on a rising edge of the first clock signal; and sending the second data to be processed to elements of a second area of the printing head at a rising edge of the second clock signal.

In the embodiment of the application, two clock signals, namely a first clock signal and a second clock signal, are used for controlling data transmission of two areas of the printing head, specifically, the data signals change states according to the corresponding clock signals, and data transmission is carried out on rising edges.

In a general driving method of a thermal printer, two clock signals are used, and the two clock signals have different effective times, that is, for example, a first clock signal controls data transmission of one half area of a print head, and a second clock signal controls data transmission of the other half area of the print head.

In the embodiment of the application, the working time periods of the first clock signal and the second clock signal are the same, and the first clock signal and the second clock signal are in equal and opposite directions in each period, and under the control of the two clock signals, the rest signals respectively play their roles, so that the transmission of data is controlled, the data transmission in different areas of the printing head can be completed simultaneously, and then the printing is performed, the time can be shortened by nearly half, and the response time of the printer for receiving the data printed by the host computer is reduced. The invention mainly changes the driving algorithm of the printing head to improve the speed of the printing head for receiving the image data, thereby reducing the image printing time of the thermal printer and improving the printing speed.

In one embodiment, the hardware interface control signals for a thermal printer printhead may include the following: DATA signal DATA, CLOCK signal CLOCK, LATCH signal LATCH, and STROBE signal STROBE.

The latch signal is used for controlling the data to be processed to be temporarily kept in the latch circuit; the strobe signal is used to control the output of the data to be processed held in the latch circuit to each element of the print head, and the role of the strobe signal can also be understood as specifying the energization time for energizing the heat generating elements.

A general thermal printer is constituted by: a thermal head (line head) including a plurality of linearly arranged heating elements; a shift register (shift register circuit); a latch (latch circuit) that temporarily holds a value of the shift register; a latch (latch circuit) for controlling the heat generation of the heat generating element; a latch driver configured as a driver of a driving circuit such as a transistor; a head control section, etc. The head control part can control the thermal printer to execute the printing function through the hardware interface control signal.

The head control unit may transmit print data (serial data, input data) to the shift register in synchronization with the clock signal, and may transmit the latch signal to the latch driver at a point of time when the transmission of the print data is completed. This causes the latch driver to latch the print data (temporary holding data), and the head control unit transmits a strobe signal to the latch driver. The latch driver energizes the heating element corresponding to the latched data "1" by the strobe signal (0 indicates no printing, and 1 indicates printing). By this energization, the thermal paper as a recording medium develops color, and a corresponding image is formed. Thereafter, the sheet is fed by 1 dot line by a sheet feeding mechanism including a motor or a roller. By repeating the above steps, printing can be performed sequentially for each dot row. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the hardware structure of the thermal printer.

Specifically, the working time periods of the first CLOCK signal CLOCK1 and the second CLOCK signal CLOCK2 in the embodiment of the present application are the same, and are reversed in equal magnitude in each cycle, and since the changes of the signal state quantities of different areas of the print head are controlled by the CLOCK signals, the corresponding data transmission may not be affected.

In an alternative embodiment, the latch signal includes a first latch signal and a second latch signal; the strobe signals include a first strobe signal and a second strobe signal;

the transmitting the data to be processed to the print head according to the hardware interface control signal includes:

temporarily holding the first data to be processed in a first latch circuit by the first latch signal; outputting the first data to be processed held in the first latch circuit to an element in the first region by the first strobe signal;

temporarily holding the second data to be processed in a second latch circuit by the second latch signal; the second data to be processed held in the second latch circuit is output to the element in the second area by the second strobe signal.

In the embodiment of the present application, the print head of the thermal printer may be divided into two parts: the left and right portions, whose data lines are multiplexed, may be controlled by different CLOCK signals CLOCK (the above-described first and second CLOCK signals), LATCH signals LATCH (first and second LATCH signals), and STROBE signals STROBE (first and second STROBE signals), respectively. The first clock signal mainly controls the state quantity of signals received by the elements of the first area of the printing head, and the second clock signal controls the state quantity of signals received by the elements of the second area of the printing head, so that the data to be processed is sent to the printing head.

Optionally, the first region and the second region of the print head respectively include N sub-regions, where N is a positive integer;

each of the data signals is used for transmitting the data to be processed to elements of M sub-regions through a data line, wherein M is a positive integer smaller than N.

In the embodiment of the present application, the hardware parameters of the printer are not limited, and include input power (power for printing each dot), input voltage (power supply voltage for the print head), pulse period, pulse width, and related hardware parameters of the heating platen.

For a clearer explanation of the method in the embodiment of the present application, reference may be made to a schematic structural diagram of a print head shown in fig. 2, and as shown in fig. 2, the print head is divided into 47 sub-regions (element numbers 0 to 46 in the figure), wherein the sub-regions 0 to 23 can be regarded as a first region, and the sub-regions 24 to 46 can be regarded as a second region. Where VH is the printhead voltage and R represents the firing resistance.

Specifically, the first CLOCK signal CLOCK1, the first latch signal LATCHl, and the first STROBE signal STROBE1 are responsible for communication of the first area; the second CLOCK signal CLOCK2, the second LATCH signal LATCH2, and the second STROBE signal STROBE2 are responsible for communication of the second region.

In fig. 2, 6 data signals are set, and data transmission is performed in corresponding areas:

DATA 6 is responsible for the 0-3 and 24-27 regions;

DATA 5 is responsible for the 4-7 and 28-31 regions;

DATA 4 is responsible for the 8-11 and 32-35 regions;

DATA 3 is responsible for the 12-15 and 36-39 regions;

DATA 2 is responsible for regions 16-19 and 40-43;

DATA 1 is responsible for the 20-23 and 44-46 regions.

The embodiment shown in fig. 2 corresponds to the case where N is 47 and M is 3, which is only illustrated here.

Based on the foregoing schematic of the printhead structure, the following description is made in conjunction with hardware interface control signals.

Reference may be made to the control signal diagram of one printhead driving method shown in fig. 3, which may also be referred to as a communication timing diagram. As shown in fig. 3, CLOCK1 and LATCH1 are synchronized, CLOCK2 and LATCH2 are synchronized, and data is transmitted using multiplexed data lines while the CLOCK1 and CLOCK2 signals are active, respectively, by first sending data to the printhead for one region (e.g., the first region) and then sending data to the printhead for the other region (e.g., the second region). Since the data lines are multiplexed, this driving method takes twice as much time to transmit all the data.

Specifically, after receiving data on the rising edge of CLOCK1 and latching data in LATCH1, STROBE1 gates the data and the corresponding resistors of the printhead heat up. Since there are four blocks in the area corresponding to each DATA signal DATA n on the left half, four cycles of the clock signal are required to print all the left half of the printhead area. Similarly, the rising edge of CLOCK2 receives data, LATCH2 latches the data, STROBE2 gates the data, and the corresponding resistors of the printhead heat up. Since there are four blocks in the right half of the area corresponding to each DATA signal DATA n, four cycles of the clock signal are required to print all the right half of the area of the printhead. Wherein, the number in the data signal represents the corresponding sub-area, the value of the data signal has 0 and 1, 0 represents not printing, 1 represents printing.

As can be seen from fig. 3, the time for printing 1 data signal corresponding to the printing film of the printer is 8n CLOCK, where n is the gray level. The corresponding bits of one DATA in the left half area are 1, 2, 3, 4 bits, and the corresponding bits of one DATA in the right half area are 5, 6, 7, 8 bits.

Further, referring to the control signal diagram of another print head driving method shown in fig. 4, as shown in fig. 4, on the basis of fig. 3, the CLOCK1 and CLOCK2 signals provided in the embodiments of the present application are inverted at the same time, and in one CLOCK cycle, the change time of the DATA signal is changed, that is, the DATA signal in fig. 3 changes once in one cycle, and now the DATA signal in one cycle can change twice, so that the DATA transmission in the two side regions of the print head is completed at the same time, which can be shortened by nearly half.

As can be seen from fig. 4, the time for printing 1 data signal corresponding to the printing film of the printer is 4.5n CLOCK, where n is the gray level. (clock1 and clock2 overlap, 180 out of phase), the corresponding bits of one DATA in the left half are 1, 3, 5, 7 bits, and the corresponding bits of one DATA in the right half are 2, 4, 6, 8 bits. The print head may also have other structures, such as the number of data signals or sub-regions, or adjusting the control correspondence between each data signal and a sub-region, and the like, which is not limited in this embodiment of the application. Compared with the method in the embodiment shown in fig. 3, the thermal printer control method provided by the embodiment of the application can simultaneously send the printing data to the two side areas of the printing head, can shorten nearly half of the data transmission time, and can reduce the response time of the printer for receiving the printing data of the host, thereby improving the overall time of the thermal printer for processing the printing task.

Based on the description of the embodiment of the thermal printer control method, the embodiment of the application also discloses a thermal printer control device. Referring to fig. 5, the thermal printer control device 500 includes:

an obtaining module 510, configured to obtain a hardware interface control signal, where the hardware interface control signal includes a data signal, a first clock signal, and a second clock signal; the first clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a first area of a printing head of the thermal printer, and the second clock signal is used for controlling the state quantity of signals received by elements in a second area of the printing head of the thermal printer; the working time periods of the first clock signal and the second clock signal are the same, and the first clock signal and the second clock signal are in equal and opposite directions in each period; the data signal is used for transmitting data to be processed sent by a host connected with the thermal printer;

a control module 520, configured to transmit the data to be processed to the print head according to the hardware interface control signal.

According to an embodiment of the present application, the steps involved in the method shown in fig. 1 may be performed by the modules in the control apparatus 500 of the thermal printer shown in fig. 5, and are not described herein again.

The thermal printer control device 500 in the embodiment of the present application can control the change time of the data signal through the first clock signal and the second clock signal which are in the same time and in the same direction, so as to complete the sending of the data in the two side areas of the printing head at the same time, shorten nearly half of the data transmission time, reduce the response time of the printer for receiving the host printing data, and improve the overall time of the thermal printer for processing the printing task.

Based on the description of the method embodiment and the device embodiment, the embodiment of the application also provides a thermal printer. Referring to fig. 6, the thermal printer 600 includes at least a processor 601, an input/output device 602, and a memory 603. The processor 601, the input/output device 602, and the memory 603 in the thermal printer 600 may be connected via a bus 604 or in other ways.

A computer storage medium may be stored in the memory 603 of the thermal printer 600 for storing a computer program comprising program instructions, and the processor 601 for executing the program instructions stored by the computer storage medium. The processor 601 (or CPU) is a computing core and a control core of the thermal printer, and is adapted to implement one or more instructions, and in particular, is adapted to load and execute the one or more instructions so as to implement a corresponding method flow or a corresponding function; in one embodiment, the processor 601 according to the embodiment of the present application may be configured to perform a series of processes, including the method according to the embodiment shown in fig. 1.

Embodiments of the present application also provide a computer storage medium (Memory) that is a Memory device in a thermal printer for storing programs and data. It is understood that the computer storage medium herein may include both the built-in storage medium in the thermal printer and, of course, the extended storage medium supported by the thermal printer. The computer storage media provides storage space in which one or more instructions, which may be one or more computer programs (including program code), are stored that are suitable for loading and execution by the processor 601. The computer storage medium may be a high-speed RAM memory, or may be a non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as at least one disk memory; and optionally at least one computer storage medium located remotely from the processor.

In one embodiment, one or more instructions stored in a computer storage medium may be loaded and executed by processor 601 to implement the corresponding steps in the above embodiments; in particular implementations, one or more instructions in the computer storage medium may be loaded by processor 601 and executed to perform any steps of the method shown in fig. 1, which are not described herein again.

It can be clearly understood by those skilled in the art that, for convenience and brevity of description, the specific working processes of the above-described apparatuses and modules may refer to the corresponding processes in the foregoing method embodiments, and are not described herein again.

In the several embodiments provided in the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus and method may be implemented in other ways. For example, the division of the module is only one logical division, and other divisions may be possible in actual implementation, for example, a plurality of modules or components may be combined or integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not performed. The shown or discussed mutual coupling, direct coupling or communication connection may be an indirect coupling or communication connection of devices or modules through some interfaces, and may be in an electrical, mechanical or other form.

Modules described as separate parts may or may not be physically separate, and parts displayed as modules may or may not be physical modules, may be located in one place, or may be distributed on a plurality of network modules. Some or all of the modules may be selected according to actual needs to achieve the purpose of the solution of the present embodiment.

In the above embodiments, the implementation may be wholly or partially realized by software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. When implemented in software, may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. The procedures or functions according to the embodiments of the present application are wholly or partially generated when the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on a computer. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a network of computers, or other programmable device. The computer instructions may be stored on or transmitted over a computer-readable storage medium. The computer instructions may be transmitted from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center by wire (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)), or wirelessly (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.). The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device, such as a server, a data center, etc., that includes one or more of the available media. The usable medium may be a read-only memory (ROM), or a Random Access Memory (RAM), or a magnetic medium, such as a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape, a magnetic disk, or an optical medium, such as a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), or a semiconductor medium, such as a Solid State Disk (SSD).

Claims

1. A thermal printer control method, comprising:

2. The thermal printer control method according to claim 1, wherein said transmitting the data to be processed to the print head according to the hardware interface control signal comprises:

sending first data to be processed to elements of a first region of the print head on a rising edge of the first clock signal;

and sending second data to be processed to elements of a second region of the printing head on the rising edge of the second clock signal.

3. The thermal printer control method of claim 2, wherein the hardware interface control signals further comprise a latch signal and a strobe signal;

4. The thermal printer control method according to claim 3, wherein the latch signal includes a first latch signal and a second latch signal; the strobe signal comprises a first strobe signal and a second strobe signal;

5. The thermal printer control method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first region and the second region of the print head respectively include N sub-regions, N being a positive integer;

6. A thermal printer control apparatus, comprising:

7. A thermal printer comprising a memory and a processor, the memory storing a computer program which, when executed by the processor, causes the processor to perform the steps of the thermal printer control method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.

8. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that a computer program is stored which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to execute the steps of the thermal printer control method according to any one of claims 1 to 5.