JP2003320656A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a recorder capable of printing along a rule by detecting the print contents of a recording medium and adjusting the driving timing of a plurality of recording elements. <P>SOLUTION: The recorder for recording on a recording medium using a recording head arranged with a plurality of recording elements comprises a means for detecting the contents printed previously on the recording medium, a means for detecting the position of the print contents thus detected, and a means for adjusting the driving timing of the recording elements depending on the print position. The means for reading out the contents printed previously on the recording medium is located on the upstream side of the head section having the plurality of recording elements. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording apparatus having a plurality of recording elements arranged therein, and more particularly to recording position control on a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a recording apparatus, it has been conventionally performed to record on a sheet in which ruled lines are printed in advance such as an entry column, that is, a format sheet. In this case, recording is performed on the ruled line or the entry field, but the alignment based on the ruled line is often performed visually by the printer operator. In order to solve such a problem, some recording devices provided with an optical reading device for reading ruled lines have been proposed. Specifically, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9-30074 discloses a configuration in which a print format is detected, an operator arbitrarily designates a print position, and printing is performed according to the print format.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-177195 discloses means for detecting a print format and correcting the print position and the character size according to the information of the print format.

[0003]

However, in the configuration disclosed above, it is possible to avoid the occurrence of the deviation of the printing position due to the skewed conveyance of the recording medium or the deviation of the conveyance timing. No consideration is given to the configuration. Further, the configuration in the case where the ruled line printed in advance on the recording medium is a curved line is not considered, and such a case cannot be dealt with.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. An object of the present invention is to detect the print contents of a recording medium and adjust the drive timing of a plurality of recording elements according to the print contents. An object of the present invention is to provide a recording device capable of printing along ruled lines.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, the present invention is an apparatus for recording on a recording medium, wherein recording is performed using a recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged. In the apparatus, a detection unit that detects the content printed in advance on the recording medium, a unit that detects the position of the print content detected by the detection unit, and a unit that adjusts the drive timing of the recording element according to the printing position. It is characterized by having.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the detecting means detects the ruled line previously printed on the recording medium, and detects the printing position on the recording medium based on the detection data detected by the detecting means, By controlling the recording element that drives the recording element based on the printing position according to the preprinted position, printing can be performed without overlapping the preprinted ruled line.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

<First Embodiment> FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an ink jet printer (hereinafter, printer) according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the printer.

The printer is provided with a menu set by a control method by a printer driver in the host computer. When recording on a recording medium on which ruled lines are printed in advance, such as the report paper shown in FIG. 3, the user has the function of controlling the print position in the print format as described above from these setting menus. When execution is selected, the print format is detected, and the printing operation is performed based on the detection result. Hereinafter, this printing operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When a print command is received from the host computer or the like, the recording medium is conveyed by the paper feed roller in the sub-scanning direction at S1 and is fed to the reading position of the optical sensor mounted on the carrier. At this time, the paper is fed so that the print start position of the recording medium faces the optical sensor. It should be noted that an optical sensor is mounted on the carrier at the upstream side in the sheet feeding direction side by side with a recording head at the downstream side. A plurality of inkjet nozzles are arranged at predetermined intervals in the recording head. The optical sensor is mounted at a position that is an integral multiple of the nozzle interval.

The recording medium will first pass under the optical sensor and then under the recording head.

Next, in S2, the carrier is scanned along the shaft in the main scanning direction, the optical sensor emits light toward the recording medium prior to printing, and the reflected light is measured by the light receiving portion, so that Detect if is printed. This detection operation is performed by scanning the carriers in a predetermined area. That is, one detection area corresponds to one scan, and the reading width in one scan is about the width of the recording head.

If no sheet is detected in S3, the sheet is conveyed again in S1. When the sheet is detected in S3, the ruled line detection unit in S4 subsequently recognizes the ruled line read by the scanning operation and detects the position of the read ruled line.

The optical sensor sends the detection data detected at any time to the nozzle controller.

In S6, first, the position and width of the character to be printed are detected in the character data sent from the host computer. Based on this detection data, the ruled line detection data sent from the optical sensor is divided into the character width x at the printing position. Then, in the ruled lines in each of the divided areas, a point on the ruled line that is the most downstream in the sub-scanning direction is detected, and the detected point is set as the ruled line height y in the divided area.

Among the values of y detected by one scanning operation, a straight line passing through the point on the most upstream side and parallel to the main scanning direction is set. This is used as the reference line of the ruled line detected in this one scanning operation. The nozzles driven in the print area x of each character perform printing by controlling the nozzles in accordance with the deviation of the ruled line height y from the reference line.

When the heights of the reference line and the ruled line are detected, S
In 7, the carrier moved to the end of the recording medium is returned to the initial position, and the recording medium is moved in the sub-scanning direction by a certain amount, that is, the distance between the head and the scanner, by the conveying roller.

In step S8, the carrier is again moved in the main scanning direction, and the amount of movement is detected. And
Based on the detected movement amount, in S9, the nozzle to be used is selected in accordance with the amount of deviation between the reference line and the ruled line height y in each print area detected earlier, and the nozzle is driven in S10 to perform printing. .

On the other hand, the optical sensor detects the area set at the reading position by the movement of the recording medium in the preceding sub-scanning direction, that is, the area following the area detected by the previous scanning, as the carrier moves. The process moves to S4 to perform a ruled line recognition operation, and similarly to the above, the detection data is sent to the printed matter recognition unit at any time. The print control unit controls the nozzle block for the print head based on the detection data of the printed matter recognition unit. Hereinafter, these operations are repeated over the entire area of the recording medium. In this way, the printing operation of the recording head and the detection operation of the optical sensor are simultaneously performed by scanning the carrier in the main scanning direction to complete the image.

A nozzle control process for printing character data in accordance with the position of the curved line will be described by taking as an example a case where a curved ruled line is printed on the recording medium.

In FIG. 5, the optical sensor reads a curved ruled line on the recording medium to detect the position of the ruled line, and then divides the ruled line into a character width x according to character data from the host computer. The point ya on the ruled line, which is the most downstream in the area, is detected and used as the reference point in each area. This detection data is sent to the nozzle controller.

When the carrier moves to the edge of the recording medium by the scanning operation, the carrier is returned to the initial position and the recording medium is moved in the sub-scanning direction by a certain amount by the conveying roller.

Subsequently, the carrier is again moved in the main scanning direction, and the amount of movement is detected. The recording head calculates nozzles located downstream of the ruled line height ya from the ruled line height ya at the position where the carrier has moved and the amount of conveyance of the recording medium, and drives the nozzles by a predetermined number.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the driving of nozzles when printing on the recording medium of FIG. That is, when printing a character having a character width x1, the nozzle L1 to be driven is designated from the position calculated from the ruled line height ya and the carry amount by which the recording medium has been previously conveyed by a predetermined amount, and X
In No. 2, recording can be performed along the ruled line by driving the nozzle L2.

By repeating these processes up to the edge of the recording medium, printing for one line is performed. When the printing of one line is confirmed in S11, the process moves to S8 and the printing of the next line is performed. Here, if the completion of all recording is confirmed in S12, the recording is completed and the paper is discharged.

<Embodiment 2> Next, in a recording medium in which curved lines are printed on a recording medium, the characters to be printed are also printed according to the inclination of the ruled lines, as an example. The designation process will be described.

In the case of the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6, the printing position of the character follows the ruled line, but the direction is printed without correction. Here, a case where it is desired to print characters in parallel with the inclination of the ruled line at each printing position will be described.

When the print angle adjustment is selected from the selection menu of the printer driver, the optical sensor reads the curved ruled line on the recording medium and detects the position of the ruled line, as in the first embodiment, as in the first embodiment. Then, the ruled line is divided into the character width x according to the character data from the host computer. Here, a point yb on the ruled line which is the most upstream in each divided area is detected. Further, an approximate straight line of the ruled line in this area is calculated, and this approximate straight line is recalculated as a straight line passing through the point yb on the upstream side of the ruled line, and this line is set as the reference line in the area.

Next, the reference line for each area is stored, and the point y on the reference line, which is the most downstream side of the reference lines, is stored.
a is detected and this is set as the reference height. FIG. 7 shows an example in which the reference line is calculated by the configuration described above in the example of FIG.

Subsequently, the inclination of the reference line is detected from the positions of the two points ya and yb in each area, and the coordinate of the print data is converted so that the print data is printed in parallel with the reference line. FIG. 8 shows an example in which the nozzles that are driven when printing each character at this time are also changed according to the coordinate-converted character data.

Hereinafter, printing is performed as in the first embodiment. That is, when the carrier moves to the edge of the recording medium, the carrier is returned to the initial position, and the recording medium is moved by the transport roller in the sub-scanning direction by a certain amount. Then, the carrier is again moved in the main scanning direction, and the amount of movement is detected. The recording head detects a reference height ya which is a point on the most downstream side of the reference line at the position where the carrier has moved. Then, the nozzles located downstream of the ruled line height ya are used as the previously calculated coordinate-converted drive nozzles. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, the previously calculated coordinate-converted nozzles are driven, and the nozzles are sequentially driven in accordance with the reference in the area as in the example of FIG. 6 to drive along the curved ruled lines. Can be recorded.

The pre-printed ruled lines are ruled lines of a report paper or the like, and even if the ruled lines are skewed, according to the above-described embodiment, it is possible to print in parallel with the ruled lines according to the degree of skewing. Therefore, even if the report paper or the like is skewed, it can be printed without overlapping the ruled lines.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When the print format is printed on the recording medium in advance, the detection means detects the printed format, detects the deviation between the paper and the main scanning direction due to the diagonal conveyance, and based on the detected data, the nozzle block is detected. By correcting and ejecting the ink, it is possible to obtain an effect that printing can be performed without overlapping ruled lines that are printed in advance.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an inkjet according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of the inkjet printer according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of report paper.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the recording apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram in which reference points are detected when the recording medium according to the first embodiment of the present invention has curved ruled lines.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of nozzle drive control according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram in which a recording medium according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention has curved ruled lines and a reference line is detected.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of nozzle drive control by coordinate conversion according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 recording head 2 Optical sensor 3 career 4 Conveyor rollers 5 shafts 6 recording media

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A recording apparatus for recording on a recording medium, comprising: a recording head having a plurality of recording elements arranged therein for recording; A recording apparatus comprising: a means, a means for detecting the position of the print content detected by the detection means, and a means for adjusting the drive timing of the recording element according to the print position. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the means for reading the preprinted contents on the recording medium is located upstream of the head unit having at least the plurality of recording elements. 3. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the recording head is an inkjet recording apparatus that performs recording by ejecting ink onto a recording medium.