JP2012144007A - Serial dot printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform the printing to be easily read in a short time when any dot-missing part is generated.SOLUTION: A font switching unit 2B usually uses the standard font data 10A including the constitution in which parts formed of the characters of the same kind and being continuous in the lateral direction by the dots of the predetermined number or more are consolidated on the same line as the use font data 100. On the other hand, when switching the use font data 100, the preliminary font data 10B in which the standard font data 10A is shifted upwardly or downwardly, is used as the use font data 100 based on the switching instruction of the use font data 100.

Description

  The present invention relates to a serial dot printer that performs printing by reciprocating a print head in a main scanning direction (lateral direction).

  Examples of this type of serial dot printer include an impact printer and a thermal printer. Here, description will be made assuming that the serial dot printer is configured as an impact printer. The impact printer is a printer configured to drive pins into a print medium while reciprocating a print head on which a plurality of pins are mounted in the main scanning direction (lateral direction).

  A serial dot printer can simultaneously print on a plurality of media by printing on a medium configured as pressure-sensitive paper, or by printing via carbon paper between the medium. For this reason, serial dot printers are still widely used in operations that use a plurality of media on which the same content is printed, particularly in delivery operations for transportation facilities and office operations in public offices.

  By the way, the pin of a serial dot printer may be damaged. Hereinafter, the phenomenon that the pin is broken is referred to as “pin breakage”. In the serial dot printer, when pin breakage occurs, a portion where dots are missing (hereinafter referred to as “dot missing portion”) occurs in characters printed on the medium. When a dot missing portion is generated continuously in a plurality of dots in the horizontal direction, a printed character may be unreadable. In particular, characters such as numbers, katakana, and alphabets are frequently used in the delivery service of the above-mentioned transportation system and the office work of the public office, etc., but these characters are omitted because they have a simple structure. When a plurality of dots occur in the horizontal direction, it is often impossible to decode. If the printed characters are indecipherable, they are easily misread. For this reason, the user of the serial dot printer has to stop using the serial dot printer, which may cause troubles in business operations.

  Therefore, the conventional serial dot printer divides the printing process into a plurality of times (for example, twice) so that the printed characters can be read when a missing dot portion occurs. The same character is printed at the same position while slightly moving. Specifically, a conventional serial dot printer prints one character, moves the medium minutely, and then prints the same character over the previously printed character (for example, patents). Reference 1). As described above, the conventional serial dot printer performs printing that complements the missing dot portion so that the printed characters can be read.

JP-A-62-246744 (FIG. 3)

  However, the conventional serial dot printer divides the printing process, which is normally completed once, into a plurality of processes in order to make the printed characters decodable when a missing dot portion occurs. Therefore, since the medium is moved minutely, there is a problem that the processing time is significantly increased.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems, and has as its main object to provide a serial dot printer capable of performing printing that can be easily read in a short time when a missing dot portion occurs. .

  In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a serial dot printer that performs printing by reciprocating a print head in a horizontal direction, and includes a font switching unit that performs switching of font data to be used for printing. And the font switching unit includes the standard font data including a configuration in which the same type of characters and a portion in which a predetermined number of dots or more continue in the horizontal direction are collected on the same line in the normal state. And the preliminary font data in which the standard font data is shifted upward or downward based on the switching instruction of the used font data when the used font data is switched. The configuration is used as data.

  In this serial dot printer, the font switching unit normally uses standard font data as used font data. Therefore, this serial dot printer performs printing using the standard font data at normal times. The standard font data has a configuration in which characters of the same type (for example, numbers) are consecutively arranged on the same line at a predetermined number of dots (for example, 3 dots) in the horizontal direction. . For this reason, when dot missing occurs on the aggregated line, a dot missing location in which a plurality of dots continue in the horizontal direction occurs. In this case, the printed character may be indecipherable.

  In this serial dot printer, when a missing dot portion (particularly, a missing dot portion where a plurality of dots are continuously arranged in the horizontal direction) occurs when the used font data is switched, the font switching unit determines whether to use the used font data. The spare font data is used as the used font data. As a result, the serial dot printer performs printing using the spare font data. The preliminary font data has a configuration in which standard font data is shifted upward or downward. For this reason, the missing dot portion moves to a position off the aggregated line of each character. As a result, the missing dot moves to a position where it is difficult to affect the decoding of the printed characters. As a result, the printed characters are easily readable.

  Therefore, this serial dot printer does not perform printing that complements the missing dot area when the missing dot area occurs, but leaves the missing dot area, but the position is difficult to affect the decoding of the printed characters. It is configured to print in a moved state. For this reason, this serial dot printer can perform easy-to-read printing in a short time (specifically, a printing time equivalent to the case where each character is printed in one printing step) when a dot missing portion occurs. it can.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a serial dot printer capable of performing printing that can be easily read in a short time when a dot missing portion occurs.

1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a serial dot printer according to an embodiment. FIG. It is a figure which shows the pattern of the font data used by embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a printing image at the time of normal, and the example of a printing image at the time of pin breakage generating. It is a figure which shows the sample print image example.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as “the present embodiment”) will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Each figure is only schematically shown so that the present invention can be fully understood. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the illustrated example. Moreover, in each figure, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected about the common component and the same component, and those overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

[Embodiment]
<Configuration of serial dot printer>
The configuration of the serial dot printer according to the embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the serial dot printer according to the embodiment. Here, description will be made assuming that an impact printer is used as the serial dot printer.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the serial dot printer 1 according to the present embodiment includes a control unit 2, a storage unit 3, a drive unit 4, a printer mechanism unit 5, and a display operation unit 6.

  The control unit 2 is a component that controls the operation of the serial dot printer 1. The control unit 2 is configured by a CPU. The CPU functions as the drive control unit 2A and the font switching unit 2B.

The drive control unit 2 </ b> A is a functional unit that controls operations of the drive unit 4 and the printer mechanism unit 5.
The font switching unit 2B is a functional unit that switches font data (hereinafter referred to as “used font data”) 100 used in actual printing.

  The storage unit 3 is a component that stores data necessary for printing. The storage unit 3 includes a RAM and a ROM. The storage unit 3 includes a used font storage unit 3A and a font storage unit 3B.

The used font storage unit 3 </ b> A is a storage area for storing used font data 100.
The font storage unit 3B is a storage area for storing font data 10 prepared in advance by the manufacturer or user of the serial dot printer 1. Details of the font data 10 will be described later with reference to FIG.

The drive unit 4 is a component that drives the printer mechanism unit 5 such as a motor.
The printer mechanism unit 5 is a mechanism that performs printing on a medium. The printer mechanism unit 5 includes a print head 5A that performs printing by reciprocating in the main scanning direction (lateral direction). Here, since the serial dot printer 1 is an impact printer, the print head 5A is configured to include a plurality of pins.

  The display operation unit 6 is a component that displays various types of information and receives inputs from the operator. The display operation unit 6 includes, for example, a display unit such as an LCD and an input unit such as a switch.

<Details of font data>
The details of the font data 10 will be described below with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a pattern of font data used in the embodiment. The font data 10 is prepared in advance corresponding to each type of character such as numbers, katakana, and alphabets. Here, the font data 10 will be described by taking a number that is particularly frequently used as an example. In the example shown in FIG. 2, the font data 10 of the numbers “0” to “9” has a space of one character having horizontal 13 dots × vertical 24 dots, and the maximum print width of one character is horizontal 9 dots × vertical. It consists of a pattern of 20 dots.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the font data 10 used in this embodiment includes standard font data 10A and preliminary font data 10B.

  The standard font data 10A is font data that is used as the used font data 100 at normal times. The standard font data 10 </ b> A has a configuration in which a predetermined number of dots (for example, 3 dots or more) continuous in the horizontal direction are collected on the same line. In the following, a portion that is continuous on a character in the horizontal direction for a predetermined number of dots or more and that is concentrated on the same line is referred to as “aggregated portion 11”.

  In the example shown in FIG. 2, four lines including the third dot line 11A, the 11th dot line 11B, the 18th dot line 11C, and the 22nd dot line 11D from the top are “ It is an aggregation location 11 ”.

  The aggregation location 11 is set by separating one or more dots in the vertical direction so that the lines adjacent in the vertical direction do not become the aggregation location 11. The aggregation location 11 is preferably set so as to be 3 dots or more apart in the vertical direction. In the example shown in FIG. 2, four lines are set as the aggregation location 11, but the number of the aggregation locations 11 is preferably as small as 3, for example. However, the number of aggregation locations 11 is not limited to three or four.

  The spare font data 10B is font data that is used as candidate data for the used font data 100 when a missing dot portion occurs. The spare font data 10B has a configuration in which the standard font data 10A is shifted upward or downward. In the example shown in FIG. 2, four spare font data 10Ba to 10Bd are shown as the spare font data 10B.

  Hereinafter, when the preliminary font data 10Ba to 10Bd are distinguished from each other, the “first preliminary font data 10Ba”, “second preliminary font data 10Bb”, “third preliminary font data 10Bc”, and “fourth preliminary font data” are used. This is referred to as “font data 10Bd”. The first preliminary font data 10Ba has a configuration in which the standard font data 10A is shifted upward by one dot. The second preliminary font data 10Bb has a configuration in which the standard font data 10A is shifted upward by two dots. The third preliminary font data 10Bc is configured such that the standard font data 10A is shifted downward by one dot. The fourth preliminary font data 10Bd is configured such that the standard font data 10A is shifted downward by 2 dots.

  In this embodiment, the serial dot printer 1 stores in advance the five patterns of font data 10 of the standard font data 10A and the four spare font data 10Ba to 10Bd in the font storage unit 3B. In this state, printing is performed. Do.

<Operation of serial dot printer>
Hereinafter, the operation of the serial dot printer 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 3, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a normal print image and an example of a print image when pin breakage occurs. FIG. 4 shows an example of a sample print image.

  The serial dot printer 1 receives print data from a host device (not shown). Then, the control unit 2 of the serial dot printer 1 reads the standard font data 10A and the four spare font data 10Ba to 10Bd from the font storage unit 3B. In normal times, the standard font data 10A is used as the used font data 100. Therefore, here, the control unit 2 stores the standard font data 10A in the used font storage unit 3A as the used font data 100 so that the standard font data 10A is used as the used font data 100. Then, in the control unit 2, the drive control unit 2A performs a printing process using the used font data 100 stored in the used font storage unit 3A.

  Note that the serial dot printer 1 preferably stores the standard font data 10A as the used font data 100 in the used font storage unit 3A in advance, so that when the print data is received from a host device (not shown), the serial dot printer 1 is driven immediately. The controller 2A may be configured to perform a printing process.

  If the printed image is normal (if no pin breakage has occurred), as shown in FIG. 3A, the printed image is an image in which no dot dropout has occurred.

  On the other hand, if pin breakage has occurred, the printed image is an image in a state where dot missing portions have occurred as shown in FIG. 3B, for example. In FIG. 3B, as an example, four lines including the third dot line 11A from the top, the 11th dot line 11B, the 18th dot line 11C, and the 22nd dot line 11D are pinned. An example of a printed image in a state in which a fold has occurred is shown. Thus, when pin breakage occurs, a dot missing portion occurs in the print image, and as a result, the print image cannot be recognized as a number.

  The operator of the serial dot printer 1 switches the used font data 100 at an arbitrary time when the printed characters are difficult to decode. Hereinafter, the switching operation of the used font data 100 will be described.

(Change work of used font data)
(1) The operator confirms the presence or absence of occurrence of pin breakage (occurrence of missing dots) by visually recognizing the printed image. When the printed image becomes the image shown in FIG. 3A, no pin breakage has occurred. However, when the printed image becomes, for example, an image in the state shown in FIG. 3B, pin breakage has occurred.

  (2) When the operator recognizes that the pin breakage has occurred, the operator operates the display operation unit 6 to input a print instruction for the sample print image 31 (see FIG. 4) to the serial dot printer 1. Here, “sample print image” means an image printed with preliminary font data 10Ba to 10Bd (however, the standard font data 10A may be included).

  (3) The operator sets the print medium in the serial dot printer 1. Then, in the serial dot printer 1, the drive control unit 2A drives the printer mechanism unit 5 to print the sample print image 31 (see FIG. 4) on the print medium.

  4A to 4E show sample print images 31A to 31E of five patterns as the sample print image 31. FIG. A sample print image 31A shown in FIG. 4A is an image in which the standard font data 10A is printed. A sample print image 31B shown in FIG. 4B is an image in which the first preliminary font data 10Ba is printed. A sample print image 31C shown in FIG. 4C is an image in which the second preliminary font data 10Bb is printed. A sample print image 31D shown in FIG. 4D is an image in which the third preliminary font data 10Bc is printed. A sample print image 31E shown in FIG. 4E is an image in which the fourth preliminary font data 10Bd is printed.

  (4) When the sample print images 31A to 31E of five patterns are printed on the print medium, the operator compares the sample print images 31A to 31E and determines which pattern of the sample print image 31 is most easily deciphered. Judging. In the example shown in FIGS. 4A to 4E, the sample image 31 of any pattern can be decoded as a number, but here, the sample print image 31E shown in FIG. Explain that it is the easiest to decipher.

  (5) The operator operates the display operation unit 6 to instruct the use font data 100 to be changed to use the spare font data 10B used in the sample print image 31 having the most decipherable pattern as the use font data 100. Is input to the serial dot printer 1. Here, it is assumed that the operator inputs an instruction to switch the used font data 100 using the fourth preliminary font data 10Bd used in the sample print image 31E as the used font data 100. Then, in the control unit 2, the font switching unit 2B reads the fourth preliminary font data 10Bd designated by the switching instruction from the font storage unit 3B, and uses the read fourth preliminary font data 10Bd as the used font data 100. It is stored in the used font storage unit 3A.

  Thereby, the switching operation of the used font data 100 is completed. Thereafter, the serial dot printer 1 performs a printing process using the fourth preliminary font data 10Bd stored in the used font storage unit 3A.

  Here, the sample print image 31E shown in FIG. 4E is described as being most easily deciphered as a number. However, when the other sample print images 31B to 31D are most easily deciphered as numbers, the preliminary font data 10B used for the sample print image 31 is stored as the use font data 100 in the use font storage unit 3A. The When the sample print image 31A is most easily deciphered as a number, the standard font data 10A used for the sample print image 31A is used as the use font data 100 without switching the use font data 100. It remains stored in the font storage unit 3A.

  As described above, the serial dot printer 1 has a configuration in which a plurality of font data 10 is prepared and the operator can select which font data 10 is used (font switching unit 2B). Therefore, even if a plurality of pins mounted on the print head 5A are broken, the serial dot printer 1 can immediately perform a setting process for making the printed characters readable. As a result, the serial dot printer 1 performs easy-to-read printing in a short time (specifically, a printing time equivalent to the case where each character is printed in one printing process) when a dot missing portion occurs. Can do. As a result, the serial dot printer 1 can avoid misreading of printed characters, avoid stoppage of use of the serial dot printer 1, and prevent troubles in business operations. Moreover, the serial dot printer 1 can continue the operation of business without reducing the processing speed.

  As described above, according to the serial dot printer 1 according to the present embodiment, when a missing dot portion (particularly, a missing dot portion where a plurality of dots are continuously arranged in the horizontal direction) occurs, it is possible to perform printing that can be easily read in a short time. .

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, in the embodiment, the font data 10 is described using a number as an example. However, according to the present invention, even in the case of characters such as katakana and alphabets, a configuration in which a predetermined number of dots or more (for example, 3 dots or more) in the horizontal direction are gathered on the same line as in the case of numbers. By applying, it can be applied to characters such as katakana and alphabets.
Further, for example, in the embodiment, the description has been given using the impact printer, but the present invention can also be applied to, for example, a thermal printer.

  Further, for example, in the embodiment, the preliminary font data 10B is described as being prepared in advance by the manufacturer or user of the serial dot printer 1 and stored in the font storage unit 3B in advance. However, the preliminary font data 10B may be generated, for example, by the font switching unit 2B and stored in the font storage unit 3B.

  Specifically, the font switching unit 2B receives the standard font data 10A stored in advance in the font storage unit 3B one dot at a time in the upward or downward direction when the operator receives (inputs) a print instruction for the sample print image 31. The preliminary font data 10B having one or more patterns is generated by shifting. Then, the font switching unit 2B temporarily stores the generated preliminary font data in the font storage unit 3B. After that, the font switching unit 2B, when receiving (inputting) the switching instruction of the used font data 100, the pattern designated by the operator from the one or more patterns of preliminary font data 10B stored in the font storage unit 3B. The preliminary font data 10 </ b> B is used as the used font data 100 to be used font storage unit 3 </ b> A. Even with such a configuration, the serial dot printer 1 can perform print processing using the preliminary font data 10B stored in the used font storage unit 3A.

1 Serial dot printer 2 Control unit (CPU)
2A Drive control unit 2B Font switching unit 3 Storage unit (RAM, ROM)
3A Font storage unit 3B Font storage unit 4 Drive unit 5 Printer mechanism unit 5A Print head 6 Display operation unit 10 Font data 10A Standard font data 10B (10Ba, 10Bb, 10Bc, 10Bd) Preliminary font data 11 (11A, 11B, 11C) , 11D) Aggregation location 100 Font data used

Claims (5)

In a serial dot printer that prints by moving the print head back and forth in the horizontal direction,
It has a font switching unit that switches the font data used for printing,
The font switching unit
In normal times, using the standard font data including a configuration in which the same type of characters are combined on the same line where a predetermined number of dots in the horizontal direction are continuous, is used as the used font data.
When the used font data is switched, preliminary font data in which the standard font data is shifted upward or downward is used as the used font data based on the used font data switching instruction. Serial dot printer characterized by The serial dot printer according to claim 1.
Furthermore, a font storage unit that stores in advance the standard font data and a plurality of patterns of the preliminary font data;
A used font storage unit for storing the used font data;
The font switching unit
During normal times, the standard font data stored in advance in the font storage unit is stored in the used font storage unit as the used font data,
When the used font data is switched, the spare font data of the pattern designated by the switching instruction is used as the used font data from the plurality of spare font data stored in advance in the font storage unit. A serial dot printer that is stored in a storage unit. The serial dot printer according to claim 1.
Furthermore, a font storage unit for storing the standard font data in advance;
A used font storage unit for storing the used font data;
The font switching unit
During normal times, the standard font data stored in advance in the font storage unit is stored in the used font storage unit as the used font data,
When the used font data is switched, the preliminary font data of one or more patterns is generated by shifting the standard font data stored in advance in the font storage unit upward or downward, and the switching instruction A serial dot printer characterized in that the preliminary font data having a pattern designated by (2) is stored in the used font storage unit as the used font data. The serial dot printer according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
2. The serial dot printer according to claim 1, wherein the standard font data has a predetermined number of “3” at locations where a predetermined number of dots or more continue in the horizontal direction. In the serial dot printer according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
A serial dot printer characterized in that the standard font data is such that lines in which portions where a predetermined number of dots or more continue in the horizontal direction are gathered are separated from each other.

Images