JP2010006022A - Printer, printer control method, and operation control program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a printer can do printing in a highly-visible and good print appearance on a sheet of paper with a small width without changing a printer driver and an application program mounted on a host computer. <P>SOLUTION: The control method of the printer 1 executing printing based on print data 5 sent from the host computer 3 includes a step S101 of determining whether or not each line data q0 to q4 contained in the print data 5 settles in a preliminarily established reduced width, a step S104 of reducing a font size of a commodity name sa can be reduced in accordance with a data property of each construction data constructing the line data when it is determined (step S101:No) that respective line data do not settle in the reduced width, and then generating reduced line data qs1 and qs2 shortened so as to settle in the reduced width by reduced construction data sa1 after reduction and price data sc1 as other construction data, and a step S102 of executing the printing based on the reduced line data qs1 and qs2. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a printer that executes print processing based on print data transmitted from a host computer, a printer control method, and an operation control program.

In recent years, various stores have introduced POS systems for the purpose of reducing the checkout work and improving the accuracy of inventory management and ordering management that combines purchase and inventory with sales performance. It is increasing.
In this POS system, for example, when a bar code attached to a product purchased by a customer is read by a POS register (POS terminal) installed at an accounting place of a store, the sales information ( Product name, quantity, sales amount, total sales amount, sales time, etc.) are recorded, while a receipt describing the sales amount of the product is issued.

Normally, the sales information of the product read by the POS terminal is notified from the POS terminal to the host computer, analyzed on the host computer side, and used for inventory management / order management.
In the POS system, a host computer that receives product sales information from a POS terminal generates receipt print data in which the sales information is arranged to fit within a predetermined print paper width, and the generated receipt print data is sent to a printer. A receipt is issued by outputting.
The host computer includes a receipt printing application program for generating receipt print data specifying the arrangement of various data included in the sales information based on the sales information of the product received from the POS terminal, and the application program generated by this application program. A printer driver that outputs receipt print data to a printer is installed.

  The receipt print data usually includes data such as sales store name, store contact information, sales date and time, product name sold, sales volume, sales price for each product, total sales price, and store advertising text. included. An application program that generates receipt print data arranges and sets various data constituting the receipt print data in a format for each data type.

  In recent years, with the aim of saving printing paper, application programs and printer drivers installed in host computers have been improved to generate reduced print data with a reduced print width, for example, by reducing the font size of characters to be printed. Various techniques for realizing printing on printing paper having a smaller paper width have been proposed (see Patent Document 1).

  Also, printers used in conventional POS systems often have a fixed paper width. For this reason, in order to change the receipt paper to a paper having a small paper width in order to save paper, it is necessary to replace the printer itself with a printer corresponding to the paper width. When the printer is replaced, it is necessary to change the application program and printer driver installed on the host computer so that the host computer can output receipt print data corresponding to the changed paper width. . For this reason, it may take time for maintenance work such as introduction of a new program to the host computer.

  To cope with this, the print range of print data sent from the host device (host computer) is calculated, and print information (movement, reduction, enlargement, etc.) is created so as to match the requested print range. Thus, a printing apparatus (printer) that prints a requested printing range by changing the printing range based on the printing information at the time of printing has been proposed (see Patent Document 2). According to such a configuration, even if the data transmitted from the host device is print data in a fixed range, it is possible to automatically print by matching the print range.

JP 09-220829 A JP 05-000552 A

In the printing apparatus described in Patent Document 2, the print data is uniformly moved, reduced, enlarged, and the like. For this reason, for example, when applied to a printer that performs receipt printing and the print data is uniformly reduced, the character size printed on the receipt becomes too small, and various information such as the purchased product, purchase quantity, amount, etc. described on the receipt There is a possibility that the visibility of the lowering.
Specifically, as shown in FIG. 5, when the print data of (a) is uniformly reduced, various information such as purchased products, purchase quantities, and amounts are printed in small characters as a whole as shown in (b). Therefore, the visibility is lowered.

  In particular, information such as the money amount data 102 is important information for the customer, so it is desired to print without reducing visibility. In addition, since information such as the store name 101 is data that fits in one line without being reduced, it is not necessary to perform reduction processing. As described above, whether or not to perform the reduction process may differ depending on the data attribute.

  An object of the present invention is to solve the above-described problem. When the printer is changed to a model having a small paper width, the application program and printer driver installed in the host computer are not changed. To provide a printer, a printer control method, and an operation control program capable of performing printing with good visibility while maintaining a print appearance on a paper having a small paper width, and realizing paper saving by adopting a paper having a small paper width. Objective.

The present invention that can solve the above problems is a printer that prints based on print data transmitted from a host computer,
When printing the print data, it is determined whether or not it falls within a preset print range. If not, the predetermined font size of the print data is reduced according to the data attribute of the print data. A data expansion unit for generating actual print data;
And a print execution unit that prints the actual print data in the print range.

According to the above configuration, the print data transmitted from the host computer is generated by reducing the font size of the predetermined print data within the preset print range by the data development unit on the printer side. Is done. Therefore, for example, when the printer is changed to a model with a small paper width in a POS system or the like, printing is performed on a paper with a small paper width only on the printer side without changing the application program or printer driver installed in the host computer. can do. In this case, the actual print data is data developed into dots that are actually printed by the printer head.
As a result, it is possible to avoid the inconvenience of having to change the application program and the printer driver on the host computer side when the printer is introduced, and it is possible to improve the handleability when the printer is introduced. Further, paper saving can be realized by adopting a narrow paper by changing the printer.
Further, since the font size is reduced by reducing only predetermined print data in accordance with the data attribute, information important to the customer and information that does not need to be reduced can be printed without being reduced. Therefore, it is possible to perform printing with good visibility while maintaining the print appearance on a narrow paper, and it is possible to provide an output result of good print appearance that does not cause a decrease in visibility.

  In the printer according to the aspect of the invention, the data expansion unit may make the font size to be reduced the maximum within a range that fits in the print range.

  According to the above configuration, the font size can be reduced to a range where the print data is within the print range. That is, the font size is gradually reduced within the range of the font size held by the printer, and the maximum font size that can fit the actual print data in the print range is automatically designated. Therefore, since the maximum font size can be specified within the range that fits within the print range, there is no inconvenience that the character size becomes too small and it is difficult to confirm the contents. Further, it is possible to prevent the printing style such as line spacing from being lost due to the character size becoming too small.

  In the printer according to the aspect of the invention, if the data expansion unit does not fall within the print range even if the font size of the predetermined print data is reduced, a part of the print data is set according to the attribute of the print data. Is omitted.

  According to the above configuration, even if the predetermined print data for reducing the font size is reduced to the minimum font size held by the printer and the actual print data does not fit in the print range, a part of the print data Is omitted. On the other hand, since print data other than the predetermined print data is not omitted, print data consisting of information important to the customer or information that does not need to be reduced can be printed without omission. It is possible to provide an output result of a good printing style that does not cause a decrease in image quality.

In the printer according to the aspect of the invention, the data expansion unit may set the print range as a print width. According to such a configuration, when the printer is changed to a model with a small paper width, printing is performed on a paper with a small paper width only on the printer side without changing the application program or printer driver installed in the host computer. can do.
In the printer of the present invention, the predetermined print data for reducing the font size is print data excluding data having at least a data attribute indicating a number.

  If the print data is receipt print data, the product information such as the name of the product sold, the quantity sold, and the sales amount for each product in the data should be as easy as possible so that the customer can easily confirm the contents of the product purchased. Therefore, it is desired to use a large font size to make the print appearance excellent in visibility. In particular, the sales amount is important information for customers. According to the above configuration, money amount data having at least a data attribute indicating a number is not print data that can be reduced, and thus is not included in print data that is reduced or omitted. Therefore, the amount data is not reduced or omitted. Therefore, it is not difficult for the customer to visually recognize the amount of the purchased product. Not only numbers but also desired data characteristics such as product names may be used.

Further, the present invention that can solve the above-described problems is a printer control method for executing a printing process based on print data transmitted from a host computer,
When printing the print data, a step of determining whether or not the print data falls within a preset print range, and a predetermined font of the print data according to the data attribute of the print data when it is determined that the print data does not fit And reducing the size to generate actual print data; and printing the actual print data in the print range.

  According to the above configuration, when the printer is changed to a model having a small paper width, the printer can execute the above steps on the printer side without changing the application program or printer driver installed in the host computer. Can be printed on small paper. Therefore, it is possible to avoid the inconvenience of having to change the application program and printer driver on the host computer side when installing the printer, and it is possible to improve handling at the time of installing the printer. Further, paper saving can be realized by adopting a narrow paper by changing the printer.

In addition, an operation control program of the present invention that can solve the above-described problems is provided in a computer connected to a printer that performs printing based on transmitted print data.
When printing the print data, a step of determining whether or not the print data falls within a preset print range, and a predetermined font of the print data according to the data attribute of the print data when it is determined that the print data does not fit Reducing the size and generating actual print data; and printing the actual print data in the print range.

According to the above configuration, the operation control program is installed in the printer as firmware, so that the above steps are executed on the printer side without changing the application program or printer driver installed in the host computer, and the paper width Can be printed on small paper.
Therefore, it is possible to avoid the inconvenience of having to change the application program and printer driver on the host computer side when installing the printer, and it is possible to improve handling at the time of installing the printer. By employing a printer equipped with the operation control program, paper saving can be realized.

Embodiments of a printer, a printer control method, and an operation control program according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a printer according to the present invention, FIG. 2A is a configuration diagram of receipt print data transmitted from the host computer by the printer shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. ) Is a configuration diagram of the receipt print data generated by the printer shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 2C is another configuration diagram of the receipt print data generated by the printer shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is the printer of this embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the details of the reduction processing of FIG. 3.

  The printer 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a printer that issues a receipt in the POS system, and executes print processing based on print data 5 (see FIG. 2A) transmitted from the host computer 3. Note that the host computer 3 according to the present embodiment includes a POS terminal function in the POS system.

  The print data 5 is receipt print data created based on sales merchandise information transmitted from the POS terminal by the receipt print application program 7 installed in the host computer 3. The receipt print data is transmitted to the printer 1 via the printer driver 9 installed in the host computer 3.

In the print data 5 that is receipt print data, as shown in FIG. 2A, a store information column D1, a product information column D2, and a tabulation column D3 are arranged in order from the top.
In the store information column D1, the store name p1 is set. Although not shown in the present embodiment, in addition to the sales store name p1, information such as the contact information (telephone number) of the sales store, the name of the person in charge of the sales floor, and the sales date / time may be set by shifting lines. In the present embodiment, the store information column D1 is composed of one line of row data q0 including the store name p1.

  In the product information column D2, row data q1, q2, q3... Set for each sold product is arranged. Data types (data attributes) constituting each line data are a product name sa (predetermined print data), a sales amount sc, and the like, and are set by shifting the position in the paper width direction. In addition, a specific character string indicating a boundary with the totalization column D3 (in the example of FIG. 2A, a character string W in which “−” (hyphen) is continuous is set.

  Among the product information described in each line data of the product information column D2, the product name sa is designated in the corresponding data area so that the first characters are aligned between the line data. The sales amount sc is designated in each data area so that the end digits are aligned.

Further, the total sales amount r1 is set in the aggregation column D3. Although not shown in the present embodiment, in addition to the total sales amount r1, other data such as a tax amount, a total sales amount by tax, a total number of sales products, and a sentence for a store advertisement may be set by shifting lines. . Further, in the present embodiment, the aggregation column D3 is configured by one line of row data q4 including the total sales amount r1.
Note that the print data 5 is a data area in which each line data is arranged for an 80 mm wide print sheet.

The printer 1 of this embodiment receives print data 5 transmitted from the host computer 3 via the printer driver 9 via the communication interface 11 and stores it in the reception buffer 13.
The printer 1 converts the print data 5 stored in the reception buffer 13 into reduced print data 51 (see FIGS. 2B and 2C) reduced to a preset reduction width and outputs the reduced print data 51 to the print buffer 14. A main control unit 15 and a print execution unit 19 that operates the print head 17 based on the reduced print data 51 (actual print data) output to the print buffer 14 to execute print processing are provided. The print execution unit 19 executes print processing based on reduced print data 51 including reduced row data qs0 to qs4 generated by a data expansion unit 15a described later in a series of processes by the printer 1.

  The printer 1 also includes a font information holding unit 23 that holds font information. The font information holding unit 23 holds fonts of a plurality of sizes in advance, and is read when the font size of each component data is reduced. In this embodiment, the font information includes font A (size of one character is 24 dots long × 12 dots wide), font B (size of one character is vertical 17 dots × width 9 dots), and font C (size of one character is vertical). 17 dots x 7 dots wide).

The printer 1 of the present embodiment determines whether or not each row data q0 to q4 set to 80 mm width fits in a preset reduction width (58 mm). The line data q1, q2, and q3 that do not fit in the reduction width (printing range) reduce the font size of the configuration data that can be reduced according to the data attributes such as the product name sa, the sales amount sc, and the character string W that constitute each line data. To do. Here, the configuration data that can be reduced is the product name sa and the character string W. Then, reduced row data qs1, qs2 shortened to be within a reduction width of 58 mm is generated by the reduced configuration data sa1, sa2 after reduction and the other configuration data (sales amount sc1, sc2). Further, the reduced row data qs3 shortened to fall within the reduction width of 58 mm is generated by the reduced configuration data Ws after reduction.
On the other hand, the line data q0, q4 in which the print digits fall within the reduced width is not subjected to reduction processing of the configuration data (sales store name p1, sales total amount r1), and the reduced line data qs0 shortened to fall within the reduced width of 58 mm. , qs4 is generated.

A process of generating reduced print data 51 including reduced line data qs0, qs1, qs2, qs3, and qs4 from the print data 5 is performed by the data expansion unit 15a of the main control unit 15.
The data expansion unit 15a processes the print data 5 based on the operation control program 22 stored in the program storage unit 21 in the printer. Specifically, the printing operation of the printer 1 is controlled according to the procedure shown in FIGS. Hereinafter, a method for generating reduced print data executed by the printer 1 will be described in detail.

When the print data 5 transmitted from the host computer 3 is temporarily stored in the reception buffer 13, the main control unit 15 retrieves the data constituting the print data 5 from the reception buffer 13 and determines whether there is a line feed trigger. As a result, a data array for each row is obtained.
First, when the line data q0 is acquired, it is determined whether or not the print digit of the line data q0 fits in one line in the set reduction width of 58 mm (step S101). Here, since the print digits of the store name p1, which is the configuration data of the line data q0, fits in one line in the reduced width of 58 mm (step S101: Yes), the data development unit 15a is shortened to fit in the reduced width of 58 mm. The reduced reduced line data qs0 is generated and sent to the print buffer 14. The reduced row data qs0 sent to the print buffer 14 is sent to the print head according to the printing trigger, and printing processing is executed under the control of the printing execution unit 19 (step S102).

  When acquiring the next line data q1, the data expansion unit 15a determines whether or not the print digits of the line data q1 fit in one line in the set reduction width of 58 mm (step S101). Here, since the print digits of the line data q1 do not fit on one line in the reduction width of 58 mm (step S101: No), it is determined whether the font size of the product name sa and the sales amount sc that are the configuration data can be reduced (step S101). S103). For example, when the font A is designated as the font of the product name sa and the sales amount sc, the font size can be reduced because the font B or the font C is held as the reduced font (step S103: Yes). In step S104, a character size reduction process is executed.

The character size reduction process will be described with reference to FIG.
The data expansion unit 15a searches the line data q1 (step S201) and determines whether the configuration data is money amount data (step S202). Since the product name sa in the configuration data is not money amount data (step S202: No), the character size of the product name sa is reduced (step S203). That is, the designated font A is switched to the font B to reduce the font size.

  If the search for the line data q1 has not been completed (step S204: No), the process returns to step S201, and the search for the line data is continued. Since the next component data sales amount sc is amount data (step S202: Yes), the search for row data is terminated without reducing the character size (step S204: Yes), and the character size reduction process is terminated. To do.

In step S202, the following methods (A) to (C) can be adopted as a method for determining whether or not the configuration data is money amount data, for example.
(A) A method in which the end of line data is regarded as the end of monetary data.
(B) A method in which a character string composed of ASCII code numbers 0x31 to 0x39 (numbers 0 to 9) is regarded as a character string of quantity or amount.
(C) A combination of the ASCII code numbers 0x31 to 0x39 (numbers 0 to 9) with the amount symbol 0x24 ($) or 0x2F (¥), and the decimal point symbol 0x2E (.) How to consider.

  Returning to FIG. 3, it is determined whether the print digits of the line data qs1 after the character size of the product name sa is switched from the font A to the font B can fit on one line (step S101). That is, when it is determined that the print digits of the reduced line data qs1 including the sales amount sc1 of the font A following the product name sa1 switched to the font B fits in one line with the reduced width of 58 mm (step S101: Yes), The reduced row data qs1 is sent to the print buffer 14. The reduced row data qs1 sent to the print buffer 14 is sent to the print head in response to a printing trigger, and printing processing is executed under the control of the printing execution unit 19 (step S102: see FIG. 2B). .

  On the other hand, if the print digit of the reduced line data qs1 consisting of the sales amount sc1 of the font A following the product name sa1 switched to the font B does not fit on one line with the reduced width of 58 mm (step S101: No), the font is further reduced. It is determined whether or not the size can be reduced (step S103). Specifically, even if the font of the product name sa1 is switched to the font B, since the font C is held as another reduced font, the font size can be further reduced (step S103: Yes). Therefore, the character size reduction process can be executed again in step S104. The character size reduction processing is omitted because it overlaps with the above description.

  Even when the character size of the product name sa1 is switched from the font B to the font C, it is determined whether the print digits of the line data qs1 can be fit on one line (step S101). That is, when it is determined that the print digits of the reduced line data qs1 including the sales amount sc1 of the font A following the product name sa1 switched to the font C fits in one line with the reduced width of 58 mm (step S101: Yes), The reduced row data qs1 is sent to the print buffer 14 and sent to the print head in response to the printing trigger, and printing processing is executed under the control of the printing execution unit 19 (step S102). On the other hand, if the print digit of the reduced line data qs1 composed of the sales amount sc1 of the font A following the product name sa1 switched to the font C does not fit on one line with the reduced width of 58 mm (step S101: No), the font size is further increased. It is determined whether or not can be reduced (step S103).

  However, since the printer 1 does not include a font that can be reduced from the font C, it is determined that the font size cannot be further reduced (step S103: No), and a part of the product name sa1 switched to the font C. Is omitted (see step S105, FIG. 2 (3)). In other words, the end of the product name sa1 switched to the font C is replaced by the abbreviation display “...”, And then the reduced line data qs1 including the sales amount sc1 of the font A is sent to the print buffer 14. In response to a print trigger, the print head is sent to the print head, and print processing is executed under the control of the print execution unit 19 (step S102: see FIG. 2C).

The data expansion unit 15a performs the above process on the row data q2 in the same manner.
Next, when acquiring the line data q3, the data expansion unit 15a determines whether or not the print digits of the line data q3 can be contained in one line in the set reduction width of 58 mm (step S101). Here, the print digit of the character string W (hyphen “−”), which is the configuration data of the line data q3, does not fit on one line with a reduction width of 58 mm (step S101: No), so the font size of the character string W is reduced. It is determined whether it can be performed (step S103). If there is a reduced font of the character string W, the reduction process is executed in step S104. The reduced line data qs3 composed of the reduced character string Ws is reduced until the print digits fit in one line, and the reduced line data qs3 is sent to the print buffer 14 and sent to the print head according to the printing trigger to be sent to the print execution unit. The printing process is executed under the control of 19 (step S102: see FIGS. 2B and 2C).

  Next, when acquiring the line data q4, the data expansion unit 15a determines whether or not the print digits of the line data q4 can be contained in one line in the set reduction width of 58 mm (step S101). Here, since the print digits of the sales total amount r1, which is the configuration data of the line data q4, can be accommodated in one line in the reduced width of 58 mm (step S101: Yes), the data developing unit 15a is shortened to be within the reduced width of 58 mm. The reduced reduced line data qs4 is generated and sent to the print buffer 14. The reduced row data qs4 sent to the print buffer 14 is sent to the print head according to the printing trigger, and printing processing is executed under the control of the print execution unit 19 (step S102).

  Through the processing described above, each line data of the reduced print data 51 shown in FIG. 2B or 2C is created and printed.

As described above, according to the printer 1 and the control method thereof according to the present embodiment, the line data q0 to q4 included in the print data 5 transmitted from the host computer 3 is the data expansion unit on the printer 1 side that receives the print data 5. By 15a, the reduced row data qs0 to qs4 is generated by being shortened to a preset reduction width. Therefore, in the POS system, when the printer 1 is changed to a model having a small paper width, the paper width can be reduced only on the printer 1 side without changing the application program or printer driver installed in the host computer 3. Can be printed.
In addition, since the font size is reduced according to the data attribute of each configuration data, only the configuration data (product name sa) that can be reduced is reduced. Important information and information that does not need to be reduced such as the store name p1 can be printed without being reduced. For this reason, it is possible to perform printing with good visibility while maintaining the print appearance on a narrow paper, and it is possible to provide an output result of good print appearance that does not cause a decrease in visibility.

  Further, according to the printer 1 and the control method thereof according to the present embodiment, the font size can be further reduced until the reduced line data qs0 to qs4 are within the reduction width. That is, the configuration data is gradually reduced within the range of the font size (font A, font B, font C) held by the printer 1, and the font size when the reduced line data qs0 to qs4 fit within the reduced width is the same. Automatically specified. Therefore, since the maximum font size can be specified within a range that can be accommodated in the reduced width, the character size becomes too small and it is difficult to check the contents. Further, it is possible to prevent the printing style such as line spacing from being lost due to the character size becoming too small.

  Further, according to the printer 1 and the control method thereof according to the present embodiment, even if the product name sa is reduced to the font C which is the minimum font size held in the printer 1, the reduced line data qs1 and qs2 are reduced. If it does not fit within the width, part of the product name sa1 and product name sa2 is omitted. On the other hand, since the sales amounts sc1 and sc2 which are other configuration data other than the product name sa1 and the product name sa2 are not omitted, the configuration data including information important to the customer and information that does not need to be reduced is not omitted. Therefore, it is possible to provide an output result of a good print appearance that does not cause a decrease in visibility.

  In the above embodiment, the configuration data constituting the row data q1 and the row data q2 is configured by the product name sa and the product price sc, but is not limited thereto. For example, the reduction process can be performed based on the row data including the product quantity in addition to the product name sa and the product price sc. In this case, only the product name sa may be reduced or omitted, or the product name sa and the product quantity may be reduced or omitted.

  In the above embodiment, as an example, the case where the print data 5 assuming 80 mm printing paper is reduced-printed on 58 mm printing paper is shown. However, in the printer and the control method thereof according to the present invention, the reduction width is not limited to the example of the above embodiment. The printer and its control method according to the present invention can also be applied to printing on a narrower sheet.

  The application of the printer according to the present invention is not limited to the POS system. The present invention can be applied to various printers in which the width of printing paper to be used is limited.

1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an embodiment of a printer according to the present invention. 1A is a configuration diagram of receipt print data transmitted from the host computer to the printer shown in FIG. 1, FIG. 1B is a configuration diagram of receipt print data generated by the printer shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 10 is another configuration diagram of receipt print data generated by the printer shown in FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining generation of reduced row data and print processing executed by the printer of the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining details of a reduction process of FIG. 3. FIG. (A) is a block diagram of the print data before the conventional reduction process, and (b) is a block diagram of the reduced print data reduced by the conventional reduction process.

Explanation of symbols

1: Printer, 3: Host computer, 5: Print data, 7: Application program, 9: Printer driver, 13: Receive buffer, 14: Print buffer, 15: Main control unit, 15a: Data development unit, 17: Print head 19: Print execution unit, 21: Program storage unit, 22: Operation control program, 23: Font information holding unit, 51: Reduced print data, D1: Dealer information column, D2: Product information column, D3: Total column, q0 to q4: Row data, qs0 to qs4: Reduced row data, sa: Product name, sc: Sales amount

Claims (7)

A printer that prints based on print data sent from a host computer,
When printing the print data, it is determined whether or not it falls within a preset print range. If not, the predetermined font size of the print data is reduced according to the data attribute of the print data. A data expansion unit for generating actual print data;
And a print execution unit that prints the actual print data in the print range.   The printer according to claim 1, wherein the data expansion unit sets the font size to be reduced to a maximum within a range that fits in the print range.   The data expansion unit omits a part of the print data according to the attribute of the print data when the font size of the predetermined print data is not within the print range even if the font size of the print data is reduced. The printer according to claim 1.   The printer according to claim 1, wherein the data expansion unit sets the print range as a print width.   5. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined print data for reducing the font size is print data excluding data having a data attribute indicating at least a number. A printer control method for executing print processing based on print data transmitted from a host computer,
When printing the print data, determining whether or not the print data is within a preset print range; and
A step of reducing the font size of the predetermined print data according to the data attribute of the print data and generating actual print data when it is determined that the print data does not fit;
And a step of printing the actual print data in the print range. To a computer connected to a printer that prints based on the sent print data,
When printing the print data, determining whether or not the print data is within a preset print range; and
A step of reducing the font size of the predetermined print data according to the data attribute of the print data and generating actual print data when it is determined that the print data does not fit;
And a step of printing the actual print data in the print range.

Images