EP1125751A1 - Procede et appareil pour l'impression sur rotative et procede de conversion d'image - Google Patents

Procede et appareil pour l'impression sur rotative et procede de conversion d'image Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1125751A1
EP1125751A1 EP99940462A EP99940462A EP1125751A1 EP 1125751 A1 EP1125751 A1 EP 1125751A1 EP 99940462 A EP99940462 A EP 99940462A EP 99940462 A EP99940462 A EP 99940462A EP 1125751 A1 EP1125751 A1 EP 1125751A1
Authority
EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
image data
print medium
coordinate
disk
disk print
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Withdrawn
Application number
EP99940462A
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German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP1125751A4 (fr
Inventor
Kenichi Nagai
Yasunori Tsukuda
Norihiro Sawamoto
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Star Micronics Co Ltd
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Star Micronics Co Ltd
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Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by Star Micronics Co Ltd filed Critical Star Micronics Co Ltd
Publication of EP1125751A1 publication Critical patent/EP1125751A1/fr
Publication of EP1125751A4 publication Critical patent/EP1125751A4/fr
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J3/00—Typewriters or selective printing or marking mechanisms characterised by the purpose for which they are constructed
    • B41J3/407—Typewriters or selective printing or marking mechanisms characterised by the purpose for which they are constructed for marking on special material
    • B41J3/4071—Printing on disk-shaped media, e.g. CDs
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J19/00—Character- or line-spacing mechanisms
    • B41J19/16—Special spacing mechanisms for circular, spiral, or diagonal-printing apparatus
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/315—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material
    • B41J2/32—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material using thermal heads
    • B41J2/325—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material using thermal heads by selective transfer of ink from ink carrier, e.g. from ink ribbon or sheet
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2/00—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed
    • B41J2/315—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material
    • B41J2/32—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material using thermal heads
    • B41J2/35—Typewriters or selective printing mechanisms characterised by the printing or marking process for which they are designed characterised by selective application of heat to a heat sensitive printing or impression-transfer material using thermal heads providing current or voltage to the thermal head
    • B41J2/355—Control circuits for heating-element selection
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J29/00—Details of, or accessories for, typewriters or selective printing mechanisms not otherwise provided for
    • B41J29/38—Drives, motors, controls or automatic cut-off devices for the entire printing mechanism
    • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
    • B41—PRINTING; LINING MACHINES; TYPEWRITERS; STAMPS
    • B41J—TYPEWRITERS; SELECTIVE PRINTING MECHANISMS, i.e. MECHANISMS PRINTING OTHERWISE THAN FROM A FORME; CORRECTION OF TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS
    • B41J2202/00—Embodiments of or processes related to ink-jet or thermal heads
    • B41J2202/30—Embodiments of or processes related to thermal heads
    • B41J2202/36—Thermal printing on disk-shaped medium

Definitions

  • the present invention relates to a rotary printing method and apparatus for printing on a disk print medium such as a CD-R (Compact Disk-Recordable).
  • the invention also relates to a method of image conversion for converting rectangular coordinate-type image data into rotational coordinate-type image data.
  • CD-Rs compact disk-recordables
  • CD-ROMs read only memories
  • Data recorded on CD-Rs can be reproduced by a reproducing apparatus for CD-Rs as well as CDs and CD-ROMs. Because of their inexpensiveness, easiness to handle and large recording capacity, CD-Rs are frequently used for software publication on a small scale of approximately 100 copies.
  • CDs or CD-ROMs having the same design are generally published in large quantity, printing is performed by use of a large-size printer. Since CD-Rs are used for small-scale publication and private uses, a small-size and inexpensive printer is desired which is capable of easily producing and changing print contents for a small number of disks or for each disk.
  • printers examples are described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications JP-A 5-238005 (1993) and JP-A 6-31906 (1994).
  • information recorders information is recorded onto a record surface of an optical disk through a pickup, while ink-jet printing is performed on the print surface.
  • the printing the optical disk is performed while moving an ink-jet nozzle in the radial direction of the optical disk and rotating the optical disk.
  • Such information recorders are large-sized and complicated because the information recorders have an ink cartridge and a mechanism for supplying ink to an ink-jet head for an ink-jet printing method and as well a pickup for information recording. Moreover, since the ink-jet head and the pickup are provided in the same apparatus, information recording may be hindered for a reason such that ink scattering from the ink-jet head adheres to the pickup. Further, maintenance such as replacement of the ink cartridge and cleaning of parts around the ink-jet head takes time.
  • the main scanning direction is set along the radial direction of the optical disk, and the sub-scanning direction along the circumferential direction of the optical disk
  • the printed image will be distorted with the image in the inner radius portion being compressed in the circumferential direction and the image in the outer radius portion elongated in the circumferential direction, because the printing area is curved in a fan-shaped form along the circumferential direction of the optical disk.
  • An object of the invention is to provide a rotary printing method and apparatus, capable of forming an image expressed in rectangular coordinates on a disk print medium without causing distortions.
  • Another object of the invention is to provide a method of image conversion, capable of faithfully converting image data in rectangular coordinates into image data in rotational coordinates.
  • the invention provides a rotary printing apparatus comprising:
  • the image converting means for converting the rectangular coordinate-type image data into rotational coordinate-type image data an image identical in appearance to the image expressed in rectangular coordinates can be printed on the disk print medium even if the arrangement pattern of print pixels is changed. Accordingly high quality image printing can be achieved by solving the problems of image curving, compression and elongation of printed images in conventional apparatus.
  • the print head is a line print head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a line at predetermined pitches, and the main scanning direction crosses at a predetermined angle with the radial direction of the disk print medium.
  • the gap between lines printed in the sub-scanning direction by the recording elements can be reduced by an amount equivalent to the crossing angle. Furthermore, by suitably setting the crossing angle and the length in the sub-scanning direction of the pixel printed by each recording element, the gap between lines printed in the sub-scanning direction can be reduced to zero.
  • the invention also provides a rotary printing method comprising the steps of converting rectangular coordinate-type image data, supplied from an external host device, to rotational coordinate-type image data consisting of a plurality of pixels arranged in a main scanning direction along a radial direction of a disk print medium and a sub-scanning direction along a circumferential direction thereof; and performing printing of the disk print medium in the main scanning direction of the disk print medium based on the rotational coordinate-type image data while rotating the disk print medium, to form an image on the disk print medium.
  • an image identical in appearance to the image expressed in rectangular coordinates can be printed on the disk print medium even if the arrangement pattern of print pixels is changed. Accordingly high quality image printing can be achieved by solving the problems of image curving, compression and elongation of printed images in conventional apparatus.
  • the printing in the main scanning direction is performed using a line print head having a plurality of recording elements arranged in a line at predetermined pitches, and the main scanning direction crosses at a predetermined angle with the radial direction of the disk print medium.
  • the gap between lines printed in the sub-scanning direction by the recording elements can be reduced by an amount equivalent to the crossing angle. Furthermore, by suitably setting the crossing angle and the length in the sub-scanning direction of the pixel printed by each recording element, the gap between lines printed in the sub-scanning direction can be reduced to zero.
  • printing with high density can be accomplished because of reduced non-print area, and besides, a pixel density higher than the resolution of the print head can be achieved. Moreover, since the contact length between the line print head and the disk print medium increases, medium warping and deformation due to the pressing force of the head can be suppressed.
  • the invention also provides a method of image conversion for converting rectangular coordinate-type image data into rotational coordinate-type image data, comprising the steps of placing an image area for rotational coordinate-type image data within an image area for rectangular coordinate-type image data; specifying a rotational coordinate point (r, c) using a radial position coordinate c defining a pixel position in a radial direction from a rotational coordinate center and an angular position coordinate r defining a pixel position in a circumferential direction from a rectangular coordinate axis; obtaining a rectangular coordinate of a pixel containing the rotational coordinate point, out of pixels in the rectangular coordinate system; and the extracting image data in the rectangular coordinate as image data in rotational coordinate.
  • a circular image area expressed in a rotational coordinate system is placed within a rectangular image area expressed in a rectangular coordinate system, the rectangular coordinates of a pixel containing the desired rotational coordinate point (r, c) are calculated, image data in rectangular coordinates is extracted as image data in rotational coordinates, and by performing this process over an entire range of the radial position coordinate c and angular position coordinate r or over part of that range, the image data can be converted into the rotational coordinate-type image data.
  • FIG. 1 is a perspective view explaining a thermal recording method according to the invention.
  • a rotary printing apparatus 10 comprises a thermal head 11, a backup roller 12 and cathode tubes 13 and 14, for printing on a disk print medium M.
  • the disk print medium M is a disk-shaped print medium having heat-sensitive coloring layers which are colored when heat is applied.
  • the thermal head 11 is a line thermal head extending in the radial direction of the disk print medium M.
  • a stepping motor 15 rotates the disk print medium M about its axis.
  • the cathode tubes 13 and 14 emit ultraviolet rays of wavelengths at which the coloring layers of the disk print medium M are fixed.
  • Printing of the rotary printing apparatus 10, in which the radial direction of the disk print medium M is the main scanning direction and the circumferential direction of the disk print medium M is the sub scanning direction, is carried out by selectively supplying heat to pixel areas arranged in the radial and circumferential directions of the disk print medium M to color them.
  • the thermal head 11 as shown in Fig. 1 may be a serial head capable of scanning in the radial direction of the disk print medium M. Moreover, a turntable 31 may be used in place of the backup roller 12 as shown in Fig. 1.
  • Fig. 2A is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a heat-sensitive print sheet 21 used as the disk print medium M as shown in Fig. 1.
  • Fig. 2B is a cross-sectional view showing the structure of a medium 19 in which the heat-sensitive print sheet 21 is pasted on an optical disk 20.
  • the heat-sensitive print sheet 21 as shown in Fig. 2A has a cross-sectional structure similar to those of multicolor heat-sensitive record sheets described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publications JP-A 3-43293 (1991) and JP-A 5-69566 (1993).
  • the printing method of coloring a multicolor heat-sensitive record sheet by applying heat to the sheet is called a TA (thermo-auto chrome) method.
  • the rotary printing apparatus 10 of this embodiment is also a TA printer.
  • a heat-sensitive coloring layer 23 is formed on the surface of a base material 22 such as paper, and the plane shape of the sheet 21 is a disk shape.
  • the heat-sensitive coloring layer 23 is composed of a yellow coloring layer 23a, a magenta coloring layer 23b and a cyan coloring layer 23c.
  • the yellow coloring layer 23a contains a yellow pigment material encapsulated in microcapsules-and a coupler. By applying thermal energy of 20 mJ/mm 2 or more, the pigment material passes through the microcapsules to react with the coupler, so that the layer 23a is colored. Moreover, by applying ultraviolet rays of a wavelength of 420 nm to the yellow coloring layer 23a, the unreacted yellow pigment material is decomposed, so that coloring does not continue any more.
  • the magenta coloring layer 23b contains a magenta pigment material encapsulated in microcapsules and a coupler. By applying thermal energy of not less than 40 mJ/mm 2 , the pigment material passes through the microcapsules to react with the coupler, so that the layer 23b is colored. Moreover, by applying ultraviolet rays of a wavelength of 365 nm to the magenta coloring layer 23b, the unreactedmagenta pigment material is decomposed, so that coloring does not progress any more.
  • the cyan coloring layer 23c contains a dye encapsulated in microcapsules, and is colored by applying thermal energy of approximately 80 mJ/mm 2 or more.
  • the thermal head 11 as shown in Fig. 1 is capable of supplying any of thermal energy of 20 mJ/mm 2 to 40 mJ/mm 2 , thermal energy of 40 mJ/mm 2 to 80 mJ/mm 2 and thermal energy of 80 mJ/mm 2 to 120 mJ/mm 2 .
  • the cathode tube 13 emits ultraviolet rays of a wavelength of 420 nm to fix the yellow coloring layer 23a.
  • the cathode tube 14 emits ultraviolet rays of a wavelength of 365 nm to fix the magenta coloring layer 23b.
  • the heat-sensitive print sheet 21 is pasted on the print surface 20a of the optical disk 20 such as a CD-R with an adhesive layer 24 in between.
  • an organic pigment layer 25, a reflective layer 26 made of metal and a protective layer 27 are laminated in this order on a polycarbonate substrate 30.
  • data recording is performed by phase-changing the organic pigment layer 25 by applying a laser beam from the record surface 20b.
  • the optical disk 20 usable for the rotary printing apparatus 10 is not limited to a disk having such a structure, but may be, for example, a CD, CD-ROM or CD-RW (rewritable).
  • the optical disk 20 may be a DVD (digital video disk) -ROM, DVD-RAM (random access memory) , DVD-R, DVD-RW or the like.
  • the heat-sensitive print sheet 21 as shown in Fig. 2A may be used as it is, or the medium 19 as shown in Fig. 2B may be used.
  • the heat-sensitive print sheet 21 can be pasted on the optical disk 20 after printing.
  • the heat-sensitive coloring layer 23 may be directly formed on the optical disk 20 by vapor deposition or the like.
  • Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the electrical structure of the rotary printing apparatus 10.
  • An interface (I/F) 64 performs data transmission with an external host such as a personal computer through communication such as parallel communication or serial communication, for example, receives image data to be printed from the external host and transmits status data representative of the operation condition of the printing apparatus 10.
  • a CPU (central processing unit) 61 operates in accordance with a predetermined program stored in a ROM (read only memory) 62 or the like, and controls general operations such as processing of signals for the thermal head 11 and operations of the stepping motor 15 and the cathode tubes 13 and 14.
  • the ROM 62 is a nonvolatile memory in which the program for the CPU 61 and various data are stored.
  • a RAM 63 is a volatile memory in which printing data and various data are stored, and functions also as a buffer memory for continuously expanding image data thereinto.
  • the function of the buffer memory for data development may be assigned to a memory on the side of the external host to thereby save the memory capacity on the side of the printing apparatus 10.
  • Fig. 4 is a timing chart showing the operation of the rotaryprinting apparatus 10.
  • Figs. 5A to 5F are views stepwisely showing the print condition of the disk print medium M.
  • the data of a print image produced by the external host is transmitted to the thermal head 11 through the I/F 64, the CPU 61 and the like.
  • energization of the stepping motor 15 is started, so that the stepping motor 15 rotates the disk print medium M at predetermined rotation speed.
  • energization of the thermal head 11 is started, and thermal energy of the lowest heat-sensitive coloring level is applied to the disk print medium M. Consequently, the yellow coloring layer 23a is colored.
  • a forefront line 73 of a colored area 75 of the yellow coloring layer 23a reaches a rearmost part 71b of a light irradiated area 71
  • energization of the cathode tube 13 is started. Consequently, light from the cathode tube 13 is applied to the disk print medium M.
  • the light irradiated area 71 is an area irradiated with light from the cathode tube 13.
  • energization of the thermal head 11 is stopped to end coloring of the yellow coloring layer 23a.
  • Fig. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the invention.
  • the thermal head 11 has a plurality of heating elements arranged in a line along the radial direction of the disk print medium M, and prints on the disk print medium M while the medium M is being rotated in a clockwise direction about the center of rotation O.
  • Pixel P (c, r) designates the pixel specified by the rotational coordinates of the r-th main scanning line and the c-th sub-scanning line
  • HDN is a numeric value expressing the effective print width in the ring-shaped printable area in terms of the number of pixels
  • DIN is a numeric value expressing the ineffective print width inward of the innermost circumference in terms of the number of pixels
  • Fig. 7 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the method of image conversion for converting rectangular coordinate-type image data into rotational coordinate-type image data.
  • a rectangular image area Q showing the arrangement of image data in rectangular coordinates is described in a rectangular coordinate system having the x axis along the rightward direction, the y axis along the downward direction, and the origin (0, 0) at the upper left corner of the image.
  • Such image data expressed in rectangular coordinates is supplied from an external host device.
  • a circular image area U is defined in order to extract from the image area Q the rotational coordinate-type image data necessary for printing on the disk print medium M.
  • the square area circumscribed about the image area U is defined by rectangular coordinate points P1 (X1, Y1) and P2 (X2, Y2).
  • P1 X1, Y1
  • P2 X2, Y2
  • the image data PixelData(c, r) can be expressed as shown below by using the rectangular coordinates X, Y.
  • PixelData(c, r) PixelData(X(c, r), Y(c, r))
  • X(c, r) INT[Xo + L*cos( ⁇ )* ⁇ 0.5*(X2 - X1 + 1)/(DIN + HDN) ⁇ ]
  • Y(c, r) INT[Yo - L*sin( ⁇ )* ⁇ 0.5*(Y2 - Y1 + 1)/(DIN + HDN) ⁇ ]
  • L is a numeric value expressing the radius from the center of rotation O to the pixel P in terms of the number of pixels
  • ⁇ is an angle measured anti-clockwise from the X axis direction to the pixel P
  • INT is a function for rounding down the calculation result to the nearest integer.
  • the radial position coordinate c is substituted into the equation (4) to calculate L
  • the angular position coordinate r is substituted into the equation (5) to calculate ⁇ .
  • L and 6 are substituted into the equations (1) and (2) to calculate the rectangular coordinates (X, Y) of the pixel containing the rotational coordinate point (r, c).
  • the image data of the pixel specified by the rectangular coordinates (X, Y) is extracted as the image data PixelData(c, r).
  • Fig. 8A is a flow chart illustrating the method of image conversion
  • Fig. 8B is a flow chart illustrating the entire process of rotary printing.
  • the top address TOP_ADRS of a memory free space is set as a buffer address Buf_ADRS in order to secure a buffer area for storing rotational coordinate-type image data.
  • the angular position coordinate r as a sub-scan counter is set to 1
  • the radial position coordinate c as a main scan counter is set to 1.
  • step a4 the rotational coordinates (r, c) are converted into rectangular coordinates (X, Y) by using the equations (2) to (5), and in step a5, the image data of the pixel specified by the rectangular coordinates (X, Y) is extracted as image data PixelData(1, 1) and stored in the memory area designated by the buffer address Buf_ADRS.
  • step a6 the buffer address Buf_ADRS is incremented by one, and in step a7, the radial position coordinate c is incremented by one.
  • step a8 it is determined whether the radial position coordinate c has exceeded the effective print width HDN, that is, whether the conversion for one main scanning line has been completed.
  • step a4 image data PixelData(2, 1) is extracted and stored at the buffer address Buf_ADRS. In this way, the image data for the first main scanning line from PixelData(1, 1) to PixelData (HDN, 1) are sequentially extracted and stored in the buffer.
  • step b2 gamma correction is applied to the image data so that the gray scale level of the image data converted into rotational coordinates will match the gray scale characteristics of a printing process.
  • step b3 density unevenness is corrected that arises from the difference in surface velocity between the inner and outer radii of the disk print medium M. This correction is applied to eliminate the problem of density unevenness in which the print density at the inner radius appears higher and that at the outer radius appears lower because the surface speed of the disk print medium M is lowest at the inner radius and gradually increases toward the outer radius.
  • step b4 density unevenness is corrected that arises from the thermal history prior to the start of the print operation of the thermal head 11.
  • This correction is applied to eliminate the problem of density unevenness in which if printing is started when the temperature of the thermal head 11 is high, more than necessary heat is applied to the recording medium, and conversely if printing is started when the thermal head 11 is cool, the heat applied to the recording medium is insufficient.
  • the rectangular coordinate-type image data supplied from the external host device, is converted into the rotational coordinate-type image data, and the various corrections are applied to the converted image data; in this way, an image identical in appearance to the image expressed in rectangular coordinates can be formed on the disk print medium M by rotary printing using the thermal head 11.
  • Figs. 9A to 9C and Fig. 10 are explanatory diagrams illustrating a second embodiment of the invention.
  • the thermal head 11 has a plurality of heating elements arranged in a line oriented obliquely so as to cross at a predetermined angle with the radial direction of the disk print medium M, and prints on the disk print medium M while the medium M is being rotated in a clockwise direction about the center of rotation O.
  • printing is performed for three revolutions, one for each of the three primary colors.
  • Pixel P (c, r) designates the pixel specified by the rotational coordinates of the r-th main scanning line and the c-th sub-scanning line
  • HDN indicates the total number of heating elements 11a of the thermal head 11
  • DN is a numeric value expressing the effective print width in the ring-shaped printable area in terms of the number of pixels
  • DIN is a numeric value expressing the ineffective print width inward of the innermost circumference in terms of the number of pixels
  • SLN represents the number of sub-scanning lines in one revolution of the disk print medium M. Accordingly, a print image consisting of a number, HDN ⁇ SLN, of pixels is formed on one side of the disk print medium M.
  • Fig. 11 is an explanatory diagram illustrating the method of image conversion for converting rectangular coordinate-type image data into rotational coordinate-type image data when the thermal head 11 is oriented obliquely.
  • Fig. 12 is an explanatory diagram of parameters used in mathematical equations.
  • a rectangular image area Q showing the arrangement of image data in rectangular coordinates is described in a rectangular coordinate system having the x axis along the rightward direction, the y axis along the downward direction, and the origin (0, 0) at the upper left corner of the image.
  • Such image data expressed in rectangular coordinates is supplied from an external host device.
  • a circular image area U is defined in order to extract from the image area Q the rotational coordinate-type image data necessary for printing on the disk print medium M.
  • the square area circumscribed about the image area U is defined by rectangular coordinate points P1 (X1, Y1) and P2 (X2, Y2).
  • P1 X1, Y1
  • P2 X2, Y2
  • the image data PixelData(c, r) can be expressed as shown below by using the rectangular coordinates X, Y.
  • L1 to L4 are the parameters shown in Fig. 12, ⁇ is an angle measured anticlockwise from the X axis direction to the pixel P, ⁇ is the angle that the outermost pixel P and the innermost pixel P make when viewed from the center of rotation O, and INT is a function for rounding down the calculation result to the nearest integer.
  • the radial position coordinate c is substituted into the equations (15) to (18) to calculate L1 to L4, and the angular position coordinate r is substituted into the equation (14) to calculate ⁇ .
  • L1 to L4 and ⁇ are substituted into the equations (12) and (13) to calculate the rectangular coordinates (X, Y) of the pixel containing the rotational coordinate point (r, c).
  • the image data of the pixel specified by the rectangular coordinates (X, Y) is extracted as the image data PixelData (c, r).
  • the image conversion method described above may be carried out using the CPU 61 of the rotary printer, but in an alternative configuration, the external host device such as a personal computer equipped with a high speed CPU and large capacity memory may be utilized to carry out the image conversion and to transfer the obtained rotational coordinate-type image data to the rotary printer.
  • the external host device such as a personal computer equipped with a high speed CPU and large capacity memory may be utilized to carry out the image conversion and to transfer the obtained rotational coordinate-type image data to the rotary printer.
  • the gap between lines printed in the sub-scanning direction can be reduced to zero by making the printing line in the main scanning direction cross at a predetermined angle with the radial direction of the disk print medium, printing with high density can be accomplished because of reduced non-print area, and besides, a pixel density higher than the resolution of the print head can be achieved.

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EP99940462A 1998-10-30 1999-08-25 Procede et appareil pour l'impression sur rotative et procede de conversion d'image Withdrawn EP1125751A4 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
JP31100698 1998-10-30
JP10311006A JP2000135853A (ja) 1998-10-30 1998-10-30 回転印刷装置および方法ならびに画像変換方法
PCT/JP1999/004570 WO2000026036A1 (fr) 1998-10-30 1999-08-25 Procede et appareil pour l'impression sur rotative et procede de conversion d'image

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EP1125751A1 true EP1125751A1 (fr) 2001-08-22
EP1125751A4 EP1125751A4 (fr) 2002-01-23

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EP99940462A Withdrawn EP1125751A4 (fr) 1998-10-30 1999-08-25 Procede et appareil pour l'impression sur rotative et procede de conversion d'image

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EP (1) EP1125751A4 (fr)
JP (1) JP2000135853A (fr)
KR (1) KR20010110295A (fr)
CN (1) CN1325345A (fr)
WO (1) WO2000026036A1 (fr)

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EP1450366A3 (fr) * 2003-02-14 2008-10-08 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Marquage de disque

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US6974661B2 (en) * 2003-01-24 2005-12-13 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Compositions, systems, and methods for imaging
KR100513771B1 (ko) * 2003-05-09 2005-09-09 삼성전자주식회사 디스크 프린팅가능한 화상형성장치, 및 화상형성장치용디스크 프린팅장치

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GB2320912A (en) * 1997-01-07 1998-07-08 Eastman Kodak Co Printing on compact discs
US6264295B1 (en) * 1998-04-17 2001-07-24 Elesys, Inc. Radial printing system and methods

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CN1325345A (zh) 2001-12-05
JP2000135853A (ja) 2000-05-16
EP1125751A4 (fr) 2002-01-23
KR20010110295A (ko) 2001-12-12
WO2000026036A1 (fr) 2000-05-11

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