JP2000168110A - Printer, printer controlling method, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effect high speed printing of one or a plurality of ink colors onto a bankbook. SOLUTION: A black nozzle group at the upper side of a printing head is set at the initial black print line. A printing image for two black lines are produced, and the next line feed position is determined. The line feed position is determined according to the smaller one of the number of line feed for setting a red nozzle group to the next unprinted red print line and the number of line feed for setting the upper side black nozzle group to the next unprinted black line. First, two black lines are printed simultaneously on a bankbook. Next, the line feed operation is executed for the determined number of line feed (in this case, one line). Then, the red print for the first line by the red nozzle group and the black print for the third line by the lower side black nozzle group are executed simultaneously. At the time, since the second line is printed already, the upper side black nozzle group is not operated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, a printer control method, and a recording medium. Accordingly, the present invention relates to a printer device, a printer control method, and a recording medium that enable high-speed printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a so-called passbook printer that prints on a passbook generally prints on the passbook line by line using a dot impact type print head. That is, in the conventional dot impact type passbook printer,
When only one line is printed by one print head operation (the print head moves the line to be printed in the left and right direction while printing), and the red print is executed, the ink ribbon is changed from black to black. After switching to red, the print head operation is performed again for red printing.

[0003] Regarding the ink jet head,
A method of improving print quality by disposing nozzle rows of each ink color in a line feed direction (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-183)
013) and a method of improving printing speed by using a single black color (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-234859).

[0004]

However, these prior arts have the following problems. The first problem is that when printing each line of a passbook, a print head operation is always required, and when characters of a plurality of colors are to be printed, the number of ink colors to be printed is the same on the same line. Print head operation is required, which is inefficient.

[0005] The reason is that only one line of printing can be performed by one printing head operation. Further, for example, when two colors of red and black ink ribbons are used, printing is performed in each color. This is because the ink ribbon is changed every time the printing operation is performed.

A second problem is a method of improving the print quality by displacing the nozzle rows of each ink color in the line feed direction with respect to the ink jet head (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.
-181313) and a method of improving the printing speed by using a single black color (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 09-234859). However, according to these methods, nozzles that are not used because they hit a blank portion between passbook lines are generated, resulting in poor efficiency. That's what it means.

The reason is that the nozzles of each ink color are arranged continuously.

[0008] The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and is intended to print one or a plurality of ink colors on a passbook or the like at high speed.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printer device capable of simultaneously printing a plurality of lines, comprising: storage means for storing data to be printed; and image data corresponding to the data. Generating means for generating
Or one or more printing units for printing characters corresponding to image data in two or more colors, a printing means for printing characters on one or more lines, and a next printing unit for each printing unit. Detecting means for detecting the number of line feeds necessary to move to the power line, and among the number of line feeds for each printing unit detected by the detecting means, perform a line feed for the smallest number of line feeds,
Line feed means for controlling the printing position of each printing section; and generating means for printing the image of one or more lines to be printed by each printing section at the printing position of each printing section controlled by the line feed by the line feeding means. It is characterized by generating data. In addition, the printing section constituting the printing means, in the line feed direction,
The red print portion, the black print portion, and the black print portion may be arranged in this order. In addition, each printing unit can be arranged at a predetermined interval corresponding to the line spacing. Further, each printing unit can print a character string for one line in one printing operation. The printing unit may be an inkjet head that performs printing by discharging ink. A printer control method according to claim 6, wherein the printer control method controls a printer device capable of simultaneously printing a plurality of lines.
A storage step of storing data to be printed, a generation step of generating image data corresponding to the data,
Or a printing step for controlling one or more printing units for printing characters corresponding to image data in two or more colors and printing characters on one or more lines, and then printing for each printing unit A detection step for detecting the number of line feeds necessary to move to the line to be performed, and performing a line feed for the smallest number of line feeds among the detected number of line feeds for each print unit, and controlling the print position of the print unit A line feed step, wherein in the generation step, at the print position of each print unit controlled by the line feed in the line feed step, one or more lines of image data to be printed by each print unit are generated. And A recording medium according to a seventh aspect is characterized by recording a program capable of executing the printer control method according to the sixth aspect. In a printer device, a printer control method, and a recording medium according to the present invention, data to be printed is stored, image data corresponding to the data is generated, and characters corresponding to the image data are printed in one or more colors. Controlling one or more printing units to print characters on one or more lines, detecting the number of line feeds necessary to move to the next line to be printed for each printing unit, and detecting The line feed is performed for the smallest number of line feeds among the line feeds for each of the print units, and the print position of each print unit is controlled. One or more rows of image data are generated.

[0010]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an embodiment of a printer according to the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the present embodiment determines the number of line feeds up to the next print position with reference to print data 1, and creates a print image on print buffer 2.
Then, the print image actually created in the print buffer 2 is transferred to the print head 4, and the print execution unit 5 that prints on the medium is aligned with the print head 4 at the position where the next print operation is to be performed. And a line feed execution unit 6 for executing a line feed. It is assumed that the print data 1 is stored in a memory or the like (not shown).

The print editing unit 3 receives image data of an ink color to be printed for each line as print data 1 and does not receive empty data between lines. The print image created in the print buffer 2 is completed by a single print operation by the print head 4, and is not printed separately.

As shown in FIG. 2, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, the nozzle arrangement of the ink jet print head 4 is such that a red nozzle group corresponding to the ink color red and a black nozzle group corresponding to black are arranged in the line feed direction. The number of nozzles of each block composed of the nozzles (hereinafter, the red nozzle group and the black nozzle group are each simply referred to as a block, as appropriate) is adjusted to correspond to one passbook row (passbook row). In addition, the interval between blocks (line spacing of the passbook) is set to the LPI (line pe
r inch) (for example, 5 LPI), and a plurality of blocks are provided for black nozzles.

In this example, only one block of red nozzles and two blocks of black nozzles are provided. Hereinafter, the upper block of the black nozzle group is referred to as an upper black nozzle group, and the lower block is referred to as a lower black nozzle group.

Therefore, for example, when black printing is performed for two lines, red printing for the preceding line can be simultaneously performed. For this reason, it is possible to reduce the number of print head operations. In the conventional dot impact method, when performing red printing, the ink ribbon is switched from black to red, and then the print head operation using the red ink ribbon is performed again to perform red printing.

The print editing unit 3 obtains a block having the smallest number of line feeds to a line to be printed next to each block of red and black (unprinted line) from the print data 1 and determines the number of line feeds as a line feed execution unit 6 Has been made to notify. Further, the print image is developed on the print buffer 2 and the end of the development is notified to the print execution unit 5.

The print execution unit 5 controls the transfer of data corresponding to the print image created in the print buffer 2 to the print head 4 while operating the print head 4, and prints the print image on the passbook. At the end of printing, the end of printing is notified to the line feed executing unit 6.

The line feed execution unit 6 receives a print end notification from the print execution unit 5 and executes a line feed operation for the number of line feeds notified by the print editing unit 3.

Next, the overall operation of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. Fig. 3 (1)
FIG. 3 (2) shows an example of printing in the case where a passbook is line-feeded from the lower side to the upper side with respect to the print head 4.

First, before starting printing, the upper black nozzle group of the print head 4 is adjusted to the first black print line (FIG. 3).
(1)). Next, the print editing unit 3 creates a print image of two lines of black, and determines the next line feed position. The line feed position is determined by the number of line feeds for matching the red nozzle group to the next unprinted red print line and the smaller number of line feeds for matching the upper black nozzle group to the next unprinted black print line. Is determined from the number of line breaks. The print editing unit 3 notifies the line feed execution unit 6 of the determined number of line feeds.

The print execution unit 6 operates the print head 4 to print two lines of black on a passbook simultaneously, as shown in FIG. 3A. Next, after the printing is completed, the line feed executing unit 6 feeds the line by the number of line feeds notified from the print editing unit 3. As a result, as shown in FIG. 3B, the red nozzle group moves to the position of the first row, the upper black nozzle group moves to the second row, and the lower black nozzle group moves to the third row.

Then, under the control of the print execution unit 5, the print head 4 simultaneously executes the first row of red printing by the red nozzle group and the third row of black printing by the lower black nozzle group. At this time, since printing on the second line has already been completed, the upper black nozzle group does not operate.

In this manner, three lines can be printed with the print head 4 being operated twice.
When printing by the method described above with reference to FIGS. 3A and 3B is performed by a conventional dot impact type passbook printer, four times of printing including switching of the ink ribbon is performed. Head operation is required. Therefore, according to the present embodiment, it can be seen that the number of print head operations can be reduced.

In the case of print data of only black, printing can be completed with half the number of print head operations.

As described above, in this embodiment, the print editing unit 3 determines the next print position from the print data 1 and
The unprinted lines of both red and black colors that can be printed at the print position are developed in the print buffer 2, and printing of a plurality of colors can be simultaneously performed on the plurality of lines by the print head 4 controlled by the print execution unit 5.

That is, by using an ink jet head as a print head and adjusting the nozzle arrangement in the line feed direction to the line interval between passbook lines, it is possible to simultaneously execute black printing on a plurality of lines. In the dot impact method, red printing performed by switching the ink ribbon can be performed simultaneously with black printing on another line. Thus, a passbook printer capable of printing at high speed can be realized.

Further, only in the case where red printing is not performed on the passbook, simultaneous printing lines can be further increased by setting all the nozzle groups of the ink jet head to black, thereby realizing high-speed printing of the passbook. be able to.

In the above embodiment, the interval between blocks (line spacing) is set to 5 LPI, but the present invention is not limited to this.

Further, in the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a passbook printer that prints on a passbook has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this.

[0029]

As described above, according to the printer apparatus, the printer control method, and the recording medium of the present invention, data to be printed is stored, and image data corresponding to the data is generated. To control one or more printing units that print characters corresponding to image data in color, to print characters in one or more lines, and to move to the next line to be printed for each printing unit The number of line feeds required for each print section is detected, line feed is performed for the smallest number of line feeds among the detected line feed numbers for each print section, the print position of each print section is controlled, and each print section controlled by line feed is controlled. At each print position, one or two or more lines of image data to be printed by each print unit are generated.
Alternatively, printing of a plurality of ink colors can be performed at high speed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an embodiment of a printer device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an arrangement of a red nozzle group and a black nozzle group of a print head 4;

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a procedure for simultaneously performing black printing and red printing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 print data 2 print buffer 3 print editing unit 4 print head 5 print execution unit 6 line feed execution unit

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A printer device capable of simultaneously printing a plurality of lines, comprising: storage means for storing data to be printed; generating means for generating image data corresponding to the data; and one or more colors A printing unit for printing the characters on one or more lines, the printing unit comprising one or more printing units for printing characters corresponding to the image data, Detecting means for detecting the number of line feeds necessary to move, and among the number of line feeds for each printing unit detected by the detecting means, perform a line feed for the smallest number of line feeds and control the printing position of each printing unit The generating unit generates one or more lines of image data to be printed by each printing unit at a printing position of each printing unit controlled by the line feed by the line feeding unit. A printer device characterized by the above-mentioned. 2. The printing device according to claim 1, wherein the printing units constituting the printing unit are arranged in the line feed direction in the order of a red printing unit, a black printing unit, and a black printing unit. Printer device. 3. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein each printing unit is arranged at a predetermined interval corresponding to a line interval. 4. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein each printing unit prints a character string for one line in one printing operation. 5. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the printing unit is an inkjet head that performs printing by discharging ink. 6. A printer control method for controlling a printer device capable of simultaneously printing a plurality of lines, comprising: a storage step of storing data to be printed; a generation step of generating image data corresponding to the data; A printing step of controlling one or more printing units for printing characters corresponding to the image data in one or more colors, and printing the characters on one or more lines, A detection step for detecting the number of line feeds necessary to move to the next line to be printed; and a line feed for the smallest number of line feeds among the detected number of line feeds for each print section, and printing of each print section. A line feed step of controlling a position. In the generating step, each print section should print at a print position of each print section controlled by the line feed in the line feed step. A printer control method wherein one or more rows of image data are generated. 7. A recording medium on which a program capable of executing the printer control method according to claim 6 is recorded.