JP2020128078A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

To provide a hand-held type printing device that facilitates grasping of a starting position of printing.SOLUTION: The printing device, which has a recording part provided on a bottom surface of an enclosure of the device, comprises means for executing printing on a position, separated by a predetermined distance in a scan direction from a reference position of the recording part when starting of printing is instructed, as a reference position for the recording part to start printing. The reference position for the recording part to start printing is a position appearing below the enclosure of the device when the starting of printing is instructed. Further, in the printing device, the reference position for the starting of printing is a position at an outermost end of a lower part of the enclosure of the device in the scan direction with respect to the reference position of the recording part.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 7

Description

The present invention relates to a printing device.

Due to the downsizing of notebook PCs and the rapid spread of smart devices such as smartphones, the downsizing of printers has been cited as one of the major demands for easy portability.

In view of such a demand, there has been proposed a handheld printer that eliminates the paper transport system and applies ink while freely scanning (freehand scanning) on a plane such as a paper surface with a human hand (for example, Patent Document 1). 1).

Currently, the proposed handheld printer starts printing with the nozzle position of the recording head when the user presses the print button as the origin.

However, when the user presses the print button, the nozzle position of the recording head cannot be seen by the user, so it is difficult for the user to accurately grasp the print start position, and after the printing is finished, the print start position is the desired position. It was easy for me to notice that I was off.

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus in which the start position of printing can be easily grasped.

As a result of earnest studies on a printing apparatus that makes it easy to grasp the printing start position, the present inventor conceived the following configuration and arrived at the present invention.

That is, according to the present invention, the printing apparatus is provided with the recording unit on the bottom surface of the apparatus casing, and is located at a position separated from the reference position of the recording unit when printing is instructed by a predetermined distance in the scanning direction. A printing apparatus is provided, which is provided with a unit that executes printing as a reference position for starting printing of the recording unit.

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus in which it is easy to know the print start position.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a printing system of this embodiment. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an external configuration of a handheld printer of this embodiment. The hardware block diagram of the handheld printer of this embodiment. 3 is a hardware configuration diagram of a control unit of the handheld printer according to the present embodiment. FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a printing process using the handheld printer of this embodiment. The figure which shows the printing condition setting screen of the image data providing apparatus of this embodiment. The flowchart of the initial position setting process of this embodiment. The conceptual diagram for demonstrating the initial position setting process of this embodiment. The conceptual diagram for demonstrating the initial position setting process of this embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the concept of the outermost end of the lower part of the device housing. FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the concept of the outermost end of the lower part of the device housing. The figure which shows the print preview screen of the image data provision apparatus of this embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining image editing according to print start position setting. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a handheld printer provided with two print start buttons. 9 is a flowchart of initial position setting/image processing processing according to another embodiment. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a printing result of another embodiment.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described with reference to embodiments, but the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described below. In each of the drawings referred to below, common elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be appropriately omitted.

FIG. 1 shows a printing system 1000 that is an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the printing system 1000 is configured to include a handheld printer 10 and an image data providing device 60, which is an exemplary embodiment. The printer is not limited to the handheld type, and includes a so-called self-propelled printer in which the printer is mounted on the moving device and the printer prints while moving the print target by external control.

The handheld printer 10 is a handheld printer, and employs an inkjet method as a printing method. The user can form an arbitrary image on the print medium 70 by holding the handheld printer 10 in his/her hand and moving it freely on the print medium 70. The printing method of the handheld printer 10 is not limited to the inkjet method, and in other embodiments, another printing method such as a dot impact method or a thermal transfer method may be adopted.

The image data providing device 60 is an information processing device that provides image data to be printed to the handheld printer 10, and may be a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a notebook PC, or the like.

Both the handheld printer 10 and the image data providing device 60 are equipped with a wireless communication function complying with a predetermined wireless standard such as infrared communication, Bluetooth (registered trademark), Wi-Fi (registered trademark), and the like. , Sends and receives necessary information via wireless communication. However, the present embodiment does not exclude that both parties transmit and receive information via wired communication.

The outline of the configuration of the printing system 1000 according to the present embodiment has been described above. Next, the external configuration of the handheld printer 10 according to the present embodiment will be described.

2A, 2B, and 2C show a top view, a side view, and a bottom view of the handheld printer 10, respectively. As shown in FIG. 2, the handheld printer 10 has a substantially rectangular parallelepiped casing, and a power button 12, an LED lamp 13, and a print start button 14 are provided on the upper surface of the casing. .. On the other hand, guide rollers 15a and 15b, a navigation sensor 21, and a recording head unit 26 are provided on the bottom surface that faces the print medium when printing is performed, and a gyro sensor (not shown) (described later) is provided in the housing. ) Is installed. The recording head unit 26 corresponds to the recording unit in this embodiment.

The navigation sensor 21 is means for detecting the amount of movement of the handheld printer 10 by a mechanism similar to that of an optical mouse. The navigation sensor 21 irradiates light on a print medium that faces it, photographs the reflected light, and calculates the amount of movement of the handheld printer 10 based on the difference in the acquired image data. To be more precise, the movement amount of the handheld printer 10 referred to here is a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system in which the width direction of the housing bottom surface of the handheld printer 10 is the X-axis direction and the longitudinal direction is the Y-axis direction ( Hereinafter, it means the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) of the position of the navigation sensor 21 in the printer coordinate system.

The recording head unit 26 includes a recording head having a plurality of nozzles (nozzle row) as a recording unit, and forms a print image on a print medium on which ink droplets ejected from each nozzle face each other.

The guide rollers 15a and 15b are means for smoothly scanning the print medium, and at the same time, the guide rollers 15a and 15b are spacers for ensuring a gap required for printing between the nozzle of the recording head and the print medium. Function as.

The external configuration of the handheld printer 10 according to the present embodiment has been described above. Next, the hardware configuration of the handheld printer 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in FIG. 3, in addition to the navigation sensor 21 and the recording head unit 26 described above, the handheld printer 10 has a power supply 16, a power supply circuit 17, a memory 18, a control unit 20, and a gyroscope in its housing. A sensor 22, an operation unit (OPU) 24, a recording head drive circuit 27, and an image data communication I/F 28 are mounted.

The power supply 16 is a power supply that supplies power used by the handheld printer 10, and is, for example, a secondary battery such as a battery. The power supply circuit 17 is a circuit that controls power supply to each unit of the handheld printer 10.

The memory 18 is a storage device including a ROM and a DRAM. The ROM stores a program for controlling hardware of the handheld printer 10, drive waveform data for driving the recording head, data of initial setting information, and the like. The DRAM provides an execution space for programs and temporarily stores various data such as image data and drive waveform data.

The control unit 20 is means for performing overall control of the handheld printer 10, the details of which will be described later.

The gyro sensor 22 is means for detecting the rotation angle of the handheld printer 10. The rotation angle of the handheld printer 10 referred to here means a rotation angle (Δθ) about an axis orthogonal to the printer coordinate system (planar coordinate system).

The OPU 24 is a means for receiving a user operation and notifying the user of the state of the handheld printer 10. In the present embodiment, the power button 12, the print start button 14, and the LED lamp 13 correspond to this.

The recording head drive circuit 27 is means for controlling the recording heads included in the recording head unit 26.

The image data communication I/F 28 is a data communication I/F complying with a predetermined wireless standard, and the handheld printer 10 receives data from the image data providing device 60 via the image data communication I/F 28.

The hardware configuration of the handheld printer 10 according to the present embodiment has been described above. Next, the hardware configuration of the control unit 20 of the handheld printer 10 will be described with reference to FIG.

The control unit 20 includes a SoC 40 and an ASIC/FPGA 50. The SoC 40 includes a CPU 41, a memory controller 42, and a position calculation circuit 43, which perform data communication via the bus 45.

The CPU 41 is means for performing overall control of the handheld printer 10. The memory controller 42 is means for controlling the memory 18.

The position calculation circuit 43 calculates the position coordinates of the navigation sensor 21 using the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) detected by the navigation sensor 21 and the rotation angle (Δθ) of the handheld printer 10 detected by the gyro sensor 22. Is a means for calculating the position coordinates of each nozzle of the recording head based on the calculated position coordinates of the navigation sensor 21.

The ASIC/FPGA 50 includes a navigation sensor I/F 51, a gyro sensor I/F 52, a timing generation circuit 53, a recording head control circuit 54, an image RAM 55, a DMAC (Direct Memory Access Controller) 56, and a rotator 57. An interrupt circuit 58 is included, and these perform data communication via the bus 59. The bus 59 is connected to the bus 45 so that the SoC 40 and the ASIC/FPGA 50 can perform data communication with each other.

The timing generation circuit 53 includes a timing at which the navigation sensor I/F 51 reads the output values (ΔX, ΔY) of the navigation sensor 21, a timing at which the gyro sensor I/F 52 reads the output values (Δθ) of the gyro sensor 22, and a recording head. Is a means for generating timings for ejecting droplets and notifying the timings to the navigation sensor I/F 51, the gyro sensor I/F 52 and the recording head control circuit 54.

The navigation sensor I/F 51 is means for performing data communication with the navigation sensor 21.

The gyro sensor I/F 52 is means for performing data communication with the gyro sensor 22.

The DMAC 56 reads out image data to be formed by ejecting droplets from each nozzle from the memory 18 via the memory controller 42 based on the position coordinates of the nozzle calculated by the position calculation circuit 43, and stores it in the image RAM 55. ..

The image RAM 55 is a storage device that temporarily stores the image data read by the DMAC 56.

The rotator 57 is means for rotating the image data to be printed according to the head position and head inclination of the handheld printer 10. The rotator 57 acquires the image data from the image RAM 55, rotates the image data according to the head position and the head inclination of the handheld printer 10, and the image data has a predetermined condition necessary for ejection (hereinafter, “ejection condition”). If the above condition is satisfied, the image data is transmitted to the print head control circuit 54.

The print head control circuit 54 is means for controlling the print head drive circuit 27 to control the ejection operation of the print head. The print head control circuit 54 transmits a control signal for controlling the ejection operation of the print head and the image data to be printed to the print head drive circuit 27 at the timing designated by the timing generation circuit 53.

The interrupt circuit 58 is means for transmitting an interrupt signal to the SoC 40. The interrupt circuit 58 transmits to the SoC 40 an interrupt signal for notifying that the navigation sensor I/F 51 has finished communicating with the navigation sensor 21, and an interrupt signal for notifying status information such as an error.

The hardware configuration of the control unit 20 of the handheld printer 10 has been described above. Next, the flow of printing using the handheld printer 10 will be described based on the flowchart shown in FIG. In addition, in FIG. 5, the operation of the user is shown on the left side and the operation of the control unit 20 is shown on the right side of the broken line.

When the user presses the power button 12 of the handheld printer 10 (step S100), the control section 20 starts operating in response to the supply of power (step S200). The SoC 40 initializes each device (step S201), and when the initialization is completed (step S202, Yes), turns on the LED lamp 13 (step S203) and informs the user that printing is possible. Notice.

In response to this, the user operates the image data providing device 60 to select an image to be printed (step S101), and at the same time, to set various printing conditions via a predetermined setting screen provided by the image data providing device 60. It is set (step S102).

FIG. 6A exemplarily shows a print start position setting screen for setting the print start position. As shown in FIG. 6A, in the present embodiment, two types of print start positions of “head center alignment” and “exterior right alignment” are presented on the print start position setting screen in a selectable manner. In response to this, the user selects either "head center alignment" or "exterior right alignment" as the print start position. In the present embodiment, when “head center alignment” is selected, the reference position of the recording head is the reference position for printing start, and when “exterior right alignment” is selected, the right end of the casing of the handheld printer 10 prints. It will be the starting reference position. The hardware and software for executing the processing configure the print start reference position setting unit in this embodiment.

The above-mentioned “reference position of the recording head” means the position of one nozzle (hereinafter referred to as the reference nozzle position) to be the reference among the plurality of nozzles included in the recording head. Further, the above-mentioned “print start reference position” means a position where the calculation for printing described later is started, but the position where the calculation for printing is started and the actual printing operation (recording head It is to be understood that the position does not always coincide with the position at which the operation of ejecting the ink) is started.

Further, the user selects a paper type through the paper setting screen shown in FIG. 6B, and selects three types of print modes (text printing, bar printing) through the print mode setting screen shown in FIG. 6C. Select the desired print mode from code print and image print.

“Image printing” is a printing mode corresponding to the freehand scanning of the user, and is a mode in which printing is controlled so that the printed image is not bent or chipped. "Text printing" is a mode that prints a character string in one or more linear scanning passes, and allows bending of the character string to give priority to printing without missing characters. Is. “Bar code printing” is a mode in which a bar code or QR code (registered trademark) is printed in one linear scanning pass, and by allowing the upper and lower edges of the image to be cut, the bar code or the like does not bend. This is a mode that gives priority to printing with.

In another embodiment, the print start position is set to either “exterior right alignment” or “head center alignment” according to the type of print mode (text print, barcode print, image print) set by the user. It may be configured to be initialized.

Returning to FIG. 5 again, the explanation will be continued.

When the user who has finished selecting the image to be printed and setting the print condition operates the image data providing device 60 to request execution of printing, the image data providing device 60 includes the selected image and the set print condition. A print request is generated (step S103), and the generated print request is transmitted to the handheld printer 10.

In response to this, the CPU 41 of the SoC 40 blinks the LED lamp 13 while receiving the image data to notify the user of that fact (step S204).

On the other hand, the user places the handheld printer 10 at a desired position on the print medium to be printed, determines the position as the initial position for printing (step S104), and then presses the print start button 14. (Step S105). After that, the user freely scans the print medium (freehand scanning) to form an image (step S106).

On the other hand, in response to the press of the print start button 14 (step S105), the navigation sensor 21 and the gyro sensor 22 start detecting the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) and the rotation angle (Δθ), respectively (step S250). ), the CPU 41 of the SoC 40 executes the "initial position setting process" to store the position coordinates of the initial position of the navigation sensor 21 in the memory 18 (step S205). The details of the "initial position setting process" will be described later. The hardware and software that enable the processing constitute the sensor position information setting means in this embodiment.

After storing the initial position of the navigation sensor 21, the CPU 41 notifies the navigation sensor I/F 51 to acquire the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) from the navigation sensor 21 and acquires the rotation angle (Δθ) from the gyro sensor 22. The gyro sensor I/F 52 is notified to do so. In response to this, the timing generation circuit 53 of the ASIC/FPGA 50 measures the time by the counter (step S206), and the navigation sensor I/F 51 and the gyro sensor I/F 52 respectively detect the navigation sensor 21 and the gyro sensor 22. The arrival of the read timing is waited (step S207, No), and each time the set sensor read timing arrives (step S207, Yes), the movement amount (ΔX, ΔX, respectively) is read from the internal memory of the navigation sensor 21 and the gyro sensor 22. ΔY) and the rotation angle (Δθ) are read (step S208).

The CPU 41 of the SoC 40 reads the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) and the rotation angle (Δθ) from the navigation sensor I/F 51 and the gyro sensor I/F 52 of the ASIC/FPGA 50, respectively, and stores them in the memory 18. The current position coordinate of the navigation sensor 21 is calculated based on the position coordinate (in this case, (X _S , Y _S )) of 21 and the movement amount (ΔX, ΔY) and the rotation angle (Δθ) read in step 208. Then, it is stored in the memory 18 (step S209). Harware and software that enable the processing constitute the calculation means in this embodiment.

The CPU 41 of the SoC 40 notifies the ASIC/FPGA 50 of the calculated current position coordinates of the navigation sensor 21. In response to this, the rotator 57 of the ASIC/FPGA 50 calculates the position coordinates of each nozzle of the recording head from the positional relationship between the navigation sensor 21 and the recording head unit 26 (step S210).

The DMAC 56 of the ASIC/FPGA 50 reads the image data around each nozzle from the memory 18 (DRAM) and transfers it to the image RAM 55 based on the position information of each nozzle calculated in step S210 (step S211).

In response to this, the rotator 57 rotates the image data stored in the image RAM 55 according to the head position and head inclination designated by the CPU 41 at the time of initialization, and the rotated image data and the coordinates of the position of each nozzle are calculated. The comparison is performed (step S212), and it is determined whether the ejection condition is satisfied (step S213).

If the ejection conditions are not satisfied (step S213, No), the process returns to step S207, and if the ejection conditions are satisfied (step S213, Yes), the rotator 57 transfers the image data to the printhead control circuit 54. Yes (step S214). In response to this, the recording head control circuit 54 controls the recording head drive circuit 27 to eject ink from the nozzles of the recording head onto the print medium.

After that, until the discharge of all the image data is completed (step S215, No), the above-described steps S207 to S215 are repeated, and at the time when the discharge of all the image data is completed (step S215, Yes), the CPU 41 of the SoC 40, The LED lamp 13 is turned off and the user is notified to that effect (step S216).

The series of flow of the printing process using the handheld printer 10 has been described above. Next, the “initial position setting process” executed in response to the press of the print start button 14 is shown in the flowchart of FIG. It will be explained based on.

In the "initial position setting process", first, the print condition included in the print request received from the image data providing device 60 is read (step S301), and the print start position is set to "head center alignment" or "exterior right alignment". It is determined whether it is set (step S302).

As a result, when the print start position is set to "head center alignment", the process proceeds to step S303, and the position coordinate α held in a predetermined storage area is set as a value corresponding to "head center alignment". The position coordinate α is read out and set as the initial position of the navigation sensor 21, and the process ends.

On the other hand, if the print start position is set to "exterior right alignment", the process proceeds to step S304, and the position coordinate β held in a predetermined storage area is read as a value corresponding to "exterior right alignment". The position coordinate β is set as the initial position of the navigation sensor 21, and the process ends.

Here, the above-mentioned two position coordinates α and β set as the initial position of the navigation sensor 21 will be described.

First, based on the conceptual diagram shown in FIG. 8, the position coordinate α set as the initial position of the navigation sensor 21 when “head center alignment” is set will be described. In the present embodiment, when the print start position is set to “head center alignment”, the reference nozzle position when the print start button 14 is pressed is the reference position for the print start, and the reference nozzle position is the origin. Printing is executed in the print target area.

Here, as shown in FIG. 8A, the print target area when “head center alignment” is set is an area defined by a two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system having the reference nozzle position as the origin (0, 0). This means that the axial direction (xy) of the two-dimensional orthogonal coordinate system corresponds to the axial direction (XY) of the printer coordinate system when the print start button 14 is pressed.

Here, when the position of the navigation sensor 21 and the reference nozzle position have the positional relationship shown in FIG. 8B, the position coordinate α of the navigation sensor 21 on the printer coordinate system with the reference nozzle position as the origin (0, 0). Becomes (-b, a). That is, in the example illustrated in FIG. 8B, when the “head center alignment” is set, by setting the position coordinates of the initial position of the navigation sensor 21 to (−b, a), the reference nozzle position is set to the print target area. Is the origin (0, 0).

Next, based on the conceptual diagram shown in FIG. 9, the position coordinates β set as the initial position of the navigation sensor 21 when “exterior right alignment” is set will be described. In the present embodiment, when the printing start position is set to “exterior right alignment”, the right end of the housing of the handheld printer 10 is the reference position for printing start, and the right end of the housing of the handheld printer 10 is the origin. Printing is executed in the print target area.

Here, the print target area when the “exterior right alignment” is set is a straight line extending in the scanning direction (that is, the X-axis direction of the printer coordinate system) from the reference nozzle position as a starting point, as shown in FIG. 9A. It means a region defined by a two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system having an origin (0, 0) at a position P where the outermost ends on the right side of the apparatus housing intersect, and the axial direction (xy) of the two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. ) Corresponds to the axial direction (X-Y) of the printer coordinate system when the print start button 14 is pressed.

Here, when the position of the navigation sensor 21 and the position P have the positional relationship shown in FIG. 9B, the position coordinate β of the navigation sensor 21 on the printer coordinate system with the position P as the origin (0, 0) is ( -{B+c}, a). In other words, in the example shown in FIG. 9B, the position P(({{+c+c},a)} is set by setting the position coordinate of the initial position of the navigation sensor 21 when "exterior right alignment" is set. That is, the outermost position on the right side of the apparatus housing is the origin (0,0) of the print target area. In this case, the user can accurately grasp the print start position by using the right end of the device housing of the handheld printer 10 as a guide.

In this embodiment, the print start position may be set to "exterior left alignment" based on the same concept as that of "exterior right alignment" described above. In that case, the position P′ at which the straight line extending in the scanning direction of the handheld printer 10 from the reference nozzle position and the outermost end on the left side of the apparatus housing intersect is the origin (0, 0) of the print medium coordinate system. The initial position of the navigation sensor 21 may be set based on the positional relationship between the position of the navigation sensor 21 and the position P′. In this case, the user can accurately grasp the print start position by using the left end of the device housing of the handheld printer 10 as a guide. The same process can be applied even when the above process is implemented as a self-propelled printer.

In short, the handheld printer 10 of the present embodiment executes printing in the print target area whose origin is a predetermined position not hidden under the apparatus housing when the print start button 14 is pressed to instruct the print start. Therefore, the user can easily grasp the print start position and easily start the print from the desired position. The “predetermined position that is not hidden under the device casing” here is a position that is separated from the reference nozzle position by a predetermined distance in the scanning direction, and that the user can accurately know the print start position. It means the proper position for the purpose. Therefore, the meaning of the "outermost end of the lower part of the device casing" described above should be interpreted purposely in view of the above purpose, and should not be unnecessarily limitedly interpreted.

For example, as shown in FIG. 10A, when the device housing of the handheld printer 10 has a certain width in the height direction, the position P1 on the print medium 70 is set to "the lowermost part of the device housing." If the width of the device housing of the handheld printer 10 is narrowed from the top surface to the bottom surface as shown in FIG. It may serve the above purpose to regard the position P2 of the above as "the outermost end of the lower part of the device casing". Further, when it is premised that the user prints in a posture that looks into the lower part of the device housing, the position P3 near the position P2 is regarded as the “outermost end of the lower part of the device housing” for the above purpose. It will come true.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 11A, when a guide member 19 is provided on the side surface of the device housing of the handheld printer 10 to assist in grasping a print target area, as shown in FIG. As shown, it may serve the above purpose to regard the position P4 of the tip of the guide member 19 lying in the scanning direction as the "outermost end of the lower part of the device housing". The guide member 19 is connected via a hinge to an extension line in the scanning direction when viewed from the recording head, and is accommodated on the side surface of the apparatus housing when printing is not performed.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the following design changes can be made.

For example, the print image corresponding to the print start position selected by the image data providing device 60 may be previewed. FIG. 12A shows an example of a preview screen when "head center alignment" is selected as the print start position, and FIG. 12B shows a case where "exterior right alignment" is selected as the print start position. The example of the preview screen of is shown.

Further, the size of image data to be printed may be changed according to the setting content of the print start position. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 13, when a printing rule is adopted in which the device housing of the handheld printer 10 does not protrude from the standard size paper in the scanning direction at the time of printing, the print target area is set by setting the print start position. Size changes. As shown in FIG. 13A, when the print start position is set to “head center alignment”, the width of the print target area in the scanning direction is maximized, but as shown in FIG. When the print start position is set to "exterior right alignment", the width of the print target area in the scanning direction becomes narrow. In this case, the image data providing device 60 calculates the size of the print target area based on the selected print start position and the selected paper size, and the image data to be printed according to the calculated size of the print target area. The size of may be changed.

Further, the setting of the print start position (that is, the setting of the origin of the print target area) may be accepted via the operation unit included in the handheld printer 10. For example, as shown in FIG. 14, two print start buttons 14a and 14b are provided on the upper surface of the housing of the handheld printer 10, and in response to pressing of the print start button 14a arranged at the center of the upper surface, "head center The setting of "alignment" may be accepted, and the setting of "exterior right alignment" may be accepted in response to pressing of the print start button 14b arranged near the right end of the upper surface.

Further, the content of the setting of the print start position (that is, the setting of the origin of the print target area) may be displayed via the display unit included in the handheld printer 10. For example, the print start buttons 14a and 14b are configured as glowing buttons (display means) by incorporating an LED lamp or the like, and as shown in FIG. 14A, when "head center alignment" is set, print start is started. The button 14a is lit, and as shown in FIG. 14B, when the "exterior right alignment" is set, the print start button 14b is lit so that the user can visually check the set print start position. You can

Heretofore, as shown in FIG. 9B, by setting the position P separated from the reference nozzle position by the distance c in the scanning direction as the origin of the print target region, the handheld printer 10 has a lower part of the device housing. Although the embodiment in which the printing is started from the outermost end has been described, in another embodiment, the same result can be obtained by processing the image data to be printed. The details will be described below.

(Another embodiment)
In another embodiment, in step 205 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 5, the “initial position setting/image processing process” shown in the flowchart of FIG. 15 is executed instead of the “initial position setting process” shown in FIG. 7. It

In the "initial position setting/image processing", first, the position coordinate α held in a predetermined storage area is read out, and the position coordinate α is set as the initial position of the navigation sensor 21 (step S401). The position coordinate α here is calculated so that the reference nozzle position when the print start button 14 is pressed becomes the origin (0, 0) of the print target area, as described in FIG. 8 above. Means the defined position coordinates (-b, a).

Subsequently, the print condition included in the print request received from the image data providing device 60 is read (step S402), and it is determined whether the print start position is set to “head center alignment” or “exterior right alignment”. (Step S403).

As a result, when the print start position is set to "head center alignment", the process ends as it is. On the other hand, if the print start position is set to “outer casing right alignment”, the process proceeds to step S404.

In a succeeding step S404, a process of adding margin data of a predetermined width to an edge of the image data to be printed included in the print request, the edge being orthogonal to the scanning direction is executed. The size of the predetermined width here corresponds to the distance L in the scanning direction from the reference nozzle position to the outermost end of the lower part of the device housing.

FIG. 16A shows a print result when the print start position is set to “head center alignment”, and FIG. 16B is a case where the print start position is set to “exterior right alignment”. Shows the print result of. As shown in FIG. 16B, in the present embodiment, when “exterior right alignment” is set, margin data of width L is added to the edge of the image data on the origin side (left side of the paper). As a result, the actual printing operation is started from the outermost end of the lower part of the apparatus housing, even though the reference nozzle position is the origin of the print target area. It should be noted that the hardware and software that enable the processing configure a unit that executes printing of the image data to which the margin data is added in the present embodiment.

If the print start position is set to “outer left alignment”, the margin data of width L is added to the edge opposite to the edge of the image data on the origin side (that is, the edge on the right side of the paper) in the same way. Good.

Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and the functions and effects of the present invention can be achieved within the scope of other embodiments conceivable by those skilled in the art. As long as it is effective, it is included in the scope of the present invention.

10... Handheld printer 12... Power button 13... LED lamp 14... Printing start button 15... Guide roller 16... Power supply 17... Power supply circuit 18... Memory 19... Guide member 20... Control unit 21... Navigation sensor 22... Gyro sensor 24... Operation Unit (OPU)
26... Recording head unit 27... Recording head drive circuit 28... Image data communication I/F
40... SoC
41... CPU
42... Memory controller 43... Position calculation circuit 45... Bus 50... ASIC/FPGA
51... Navigation sensor I/F
52... Gyro sensor I/F
53... Timing generation circuit 54... Recording head control circuit 55... Image RAM
56...DMAC
57... Rotator 58... Interrupt circuit 59... Bus 60... Image data providing device 70... Printing medium 1000... Printing system

JP, 2016-215472, A

Claims (14)

A printing device in which a recording unit is provided on the bottom surface of the device housing,
A printing apparatus comprising: a unit that performs printing with a position, which is separated from a reference position of the recording unit in the scanning direction by a predetermined distance when a print start is instructed, as a reference position for starting the printing of the recording unit. The print start reference position is a position that is not hidden under the apparatus housing when print start is instructed,
The printing apparatus according to claim 1. The reference position for starting the printing is a position of an outermost end of the lower portion of the device housing in the scanning direction with respect to a reference position of the recording unit,
The printing device according to claim 1. A printing device in which a recording unit is provided on the bottom surface of the device housing,
The reference position of the recording unit when the print start is instructed, or the position separated from the reference position of the recording unit when the print start is instructed in the scanning direction by the reference position of the print start of the recording unit Print start reference position setting means for setting the position,
A printing apparatus comprising: a position set by the printing start reference position setting unit as a reference position for starting the printing. The printing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a display unit that displays the setting content of the reference position for starting printing. Characterized by comprising operation means for receiving the setting of the reference position for starting printing,
The printing device according to claim 4. 7. The printing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising a receiving unit that receives information about the reference position for starting printing from an information processing apparatus that is a transmission source of a print request. 8. The image data is edited according to a print target area based on the reference position of the print start and the size of a sheet on which the image data to be printed is printed. The printing device according to the item. A sensor for detecting the movement amount of the recording unit,
Sensor position information setting means for setting position information of the sensor on a coordinate system having the reference position of the printing start as the origin of the print target area,
And a calculation unit that calculates the position information of the recording unit based on the position information of the sensor and the movement amount of the recording unit,
The means for executing the printing is
The printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein printing is performed based on position information of the recording unit. The means for executing the printing is
The printing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein printing is performed in a print target area whose origin is the reference position for starting printing. The means for executing the printing is
The printing apparatus according to claim 9, wherein when a reference position of the recording unit is set as a reference position for starting the printing, printing is performed in a print target area whose origin is the reference position of the recording unit. .. A printing device in which a recording unit is provided on the bottom surface of the device housing,
Means for receiving image data to be printed from the information processing device that is the sender of the print request;
Image data processing means for adding margin data of a predetermined width to the edge of the received image data,
A reference position of the recording unit when a print start is instructed, and a unit that executes printing of the image data to which the margin data is added. Printing device. The predetermined width is
The printing device according to claim 12, wherein the printing device corresponds to a distance from a reference position of the recording unit to a position that is not hidden under the device housing in the scanning direction. The printing device according to claim 13, wherein the position is a position of an outermost end of a lower portion of the device housing.