JP2564210Z - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a label printing device capable of printing an input character string on a label.
In particular, the present invention relates to a label printing device capable of creating a heading label for a document or the like. [Background Art] A headline label of a document or the like is formed by writing a character string having the same content on both sides with the center line of the label as a boundary, and affixing the center line to a document or a document holder at a fold. Conventionally, in order to create such a heading label, in order to print a character string having the same content in two places, the printing position is changed after printing the character string in one place by a printing means, and the same character string is printed. Was printed again on the other part. [Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-described conventional printing apparatus, a printing operation must be performed twice in order to print a character string having the same content in two places. There is a problem that operability is poor because an operation of changing a printing position after printing or changing a printing mode from the first printing is required. With the present invention, a normal printing tape can be created, and no special operation is required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a label printing apparatus capable of producing a heading label such as a document by one printing operation. Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, a label printing apparatus of the present invention is a label printing apparatus capable of printing an input character string on a label, and stores a character string. Means,
Printing means for printing on a label; normal printing control means for causing the printing means to print a character string stored in the storage means at a predetermined location on the label by one-time printing operation in one direction ; a headline print control means for causing each of the character string stored in said storage means to the means in two places in the width direction on the label by the one direction <br/> printing operation once printed with the same contents, the normal print control Selection means for selecting one of the means and the heading printing control means. [Operation] According to the label printing apparatus of the present invention having the above-described configuration, the storage means stores the input character string, and the stored character string is printed on the label by the printing means. At this time, one of the normal print control means and the heading print control means is selected by the selection means. The normal printing control means causes the printing means to print the character string stored in the storage means at one predetermined position on the label by one printing operation in one direction . On the other hand, the heading printing control means stores the character string stored in the storage means in the printing means in the same two positions in the width direction on the label by one printing operation in one direction .
And print it. [Embodiment] An embodiment of the label printing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows the label printing apparatus. The printing apparatus includes an input unit 10, a printer unit 12, and a liquid crystal display 14 having a predetermined number of digits (hereinafter, simply referred to as a display). In the printer section 12, a thermal head 16 as a print head is provided at a fixed position, and is pressed against a platen roller 18. Between the thermal head 16 and the platen roller 18, a print tape 20 is supplied from a supply spool 22 via a guide roller 24, and an ink ribbon 28 stored in a ribbon cassette 26 is supplied from a supply spool 30. The printing tape 20 is fed to the left in FIG. 1 by a pair of tape feeding rollers 33 driven by a tape ribbon feeding motor 32 (see FIG. 3), and the ink ribbon 28 is wound by the motor 32. It is wound up on a take-up spool 34. A tape cutter 35 is provided downstream of the roller 33 in the tape feed direction, and the printed print tape 20 is cut by a cutter drive motor 36 (see FIG. 3). Note that the printing tape 20 has an adhesive layer on the opposite side to the thermal head 16, and a release paper is adhered to protect the adhesive layer. As shown in FIG. 2, the thermal head 16 has a heating element array 38 as a printing element array on the head main body 17. The heating element array 38 includes a large number of heating elements 39, and in this embodiment, includes 48 heating elements 39 arranged in one row.
The heating elements 39 are arranged adjacent to each other in a direction perpendicular to the tape feeding direction, and the heating element array 38 is driven at a predetermined timing in accordance with the tape ribbon feeding, so that the input unit 10 inputs the heating elements 39. Printing is performed on the printing tape 20 according to the data thus obtained. The printer unit 12 constitutes a printing unit of the present invention. Returning to FIG. 1, the input unit 10 is provided with a keyboard 40.
Is a label printing key 4 including character keys 42 such as kana and alphabets.
6, various function keys such as a print direction switch 48, a print key 49, and a tape cut key 50 are provided. The functions of these keys will be described later. Next, the control system will be described based on the block diagram shown in FIG. The input unit 10 is connected to an input interface 58 of a microcomputer (hereinafter, simply referred to as a microcomputer) 56. The input interface 58 is connected to a CPU 62, a ROM 64, a RAM 66, character generators for printing and display (hereinafter referred to as CG-ROMs) 68 and 69, and an output interface 70 via a bus line 60. The ROM 64 includes a program memory 71 for storing a program for controlling the overall operation of the present tape printer, and a dictionary memory 72 used for kana / kanji conversion. The RAM 66 includes an input buffer 73, a print buffer 74, a shift register 75, and other necessary counters and registers. The input buffer 73 constitutes the storage means of the present invention. The CG-ROM 68 generates a dot pattern for printing based on the input code data of the character, and the CG-ROM 69 generates a dot pattern for display to be displayed on the display 14. A head drive circuit 76, a motor drive circuit 77, a display drive circuit 78, and a motor drive circuit 79 are connected to the output interface 70, and the thermal head 16, the tape / ribbon feed motor 32, the display 14, and the cutter drive motor 36 are respectively connected to the output interface 70. It is connected. FIG. 4 schematically shows the head drive circuit 76 in further detail. Each heating element 39
Has one electrode connected to a + 12V power supply terminal 80 and the other electrode connected to a printing driver 82, respectively. An input terminal of each printing driver 82 is connected to an inverter 8 whose input side is connected to a printing strobe input terminal 84.
6 is connected to each output terminal of the data latch circuit 90 whose input side is connected to the latch signal input terminal 88. Further, the data latch circuit 90
Are connected to the output terminals of the shift register 75 whose inputs are connected to the data input terminal 92 and the clock input terminal 94, respectively. Therefore, first, data corresponding to printing is stored in the shift register 75 in synchronization with the clock signal. Thereafter, when the latch signal is taken into the data latch circuit 90, the data recorded in the shift register 75 is output to the corresponding data latch circuit 90 and stored. At the same time, the data is applied to each printing driver 82. In this state, when a printing pulse signal of logic "0" is applied from the printing strobe input terminal 84 to the input terminal of the inverter 86, a signal of logic "1" is output from the output terminal of the inverter 86, and each printing signal is output. It is applied to the input terminal of the driver 82. Therefore, the data of the data latch circuit 90 is logic "1".
", The output side of the print driver 82 becomes logic" 0 ", and the drive current is supplied from the power supply terminal 80 to the corresponding heating element 39. At that time, the heating element 3
9 so that the surface temperature of the print strobe 9 becomes a temperature suitable for printing.
The pulse width of the print pulse signal to be input to is set. By the way, the label printing apparatus according to the present embodiment can generate a heading label such as a document by operating the label printing key 46 in addition to a normal printing tape. As shown in FIG. 5, the heading label created in the label printing mode has a character string input in advance printed on both sides of the center line O in the width direction of the printing tape 20 as a boundary. The user can use the created heading label as a heading label by folding the center line O on the center line O and pasting the document or the document holder or the like with the adhesive layer of the printing tape 20. Here, in the label printing apparatus of the present embodiment, since the thermal head 16 is composed of 48 dots, in the label printing mode, the upper and lower character strings can be simultaneously printed by one printing operation. The character size of each character string is 24 dots including space dots between upper and lower characters. Further, the label printing apparatus of the present embodiment can prepare a heading label having a format as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 in preparation for diversification of positions where the heading label is attached to a document or the like. That is, in the label print mode, the print direction switch 48
By operating, a heading label as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 can be created. The heading label in FIG. 6 is a label in which the character string becomes a normal image of horizontal writing from both sides of the document when pasted on the document, etc., and the heading label in FIG. 7 is pasted on the document etc. It is a label that will be written vertically. The modes "I", "II", and "III" of the print direction switch 48 shown in FIG. 1 indicate the types of heading labels to be created, and are shown in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7, respectively. Corresponding to the heading label. Further, the thermal head 16 of the present label printing apparatus is composed of 48 dots, and the character size of each character string in the label printing mode is 24 dots. Therefore, two lines of character strings can be printed in one printing operation. Printing is possible. For this purpose, the CPU 60 transfers the dot pattern obtained from the printing CG-ROM 68 via the print buffer 74 to the shift register 75 while developing the dot pattern in accordance with each label printing mode. That is, the print CG-ROM 68 stores two types of print dot patterns, 48 × 48 dots and 24 × 24 dots. In the label print mode, the print buffer has a 24 × 24 dot pattern. The dot pattern in the print buffer 74 is transferred to the upper 24 bits and lower 24 bits of the shift register 75 in parallel by the CPU 62. Hereinafter, an example of a printing program of the label printing apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to a flowchart shown in FIG. When the power is turned on, initialization of each buffer register in the RAM 66 and other initialization are performed in step S1 (hereinafter simply referred to as S1; the same applies to other steps). The print data input by the character key 42 is S2,
At S3 and S4, the character is stored in the input buffer 73, and at S5, the character corresponding to the print data is displayed on the display 14 via the display CG-ROM 69. When the print key 49 is depressed, S7 is executed via S2 and S6, and the dot pattern generated in the CG-ROM 68 for printing is developed in the print buffer 74 in accordance with the input code data. In this case, the printing mode is the normal printing mode.
An 8 × 48 dot pattern is developed. Subsequently, the flow shifts to S8, where the dot pattern developed in the print buffer 74 is shifted by one dot row into
The dot row is printed, and it is determined at S9 whether all the data to be printed has been printed. By repeating S8 and S9, the printing result of 48 × 48 dots over the entire length of the heating element row 38 is obtained. can get. In this way, by executing S7 to S9 in accordance with the press of the print key 49, the normal print control means of the present invention is configured. When the tape cut key 50 is depressed, S11 is executed via S2 and S10, and the tape 20 is cut by the tape cutter 35 by driving of the cutter driving motor 36, and the print tape 20 having a desired length is created. When the label print key 46 is depressed, S13 is executed via S2 and S12 in order to print the headline label of the data input in S4 and S5. S
In step 13, it is detected which mode is selected by the print direction switch 48. If the "I" mode, that is, the mode for creating a heading label as shown in FIG. If the mode, that is, the mode for creating a heading label as shown in FIG. 6, has been selected, go to S15. If the "III" mode, that is, the mode for creating a heading label as shown in FIG. 7, has been selected, go to S16. Migrate each. In S14, after the input data is developed as a 24-dot character pattern in the print buffer 74, the dot data is transferred in parallel to the upper 24 bits and the lower 24 bits of the shift register 75 in order from the first dot row of the print buffer 74. And
Move to S17. In S15, the input data is stored in the print buffer 74 as in S14.
After being developed as a 4-dot character pattern, dot data is transferred to the lower 24 bits of the shift register 75 in order from the leading dot row of the print buffer 74, and from the last dot row of the print buffer 74 to the upper 24 bits of the shift register 75 in reverse. The dot data is transferred upside down to the bit, and the process proceeds to S17. That is, a virtual image character string vertically and horizontally symmetrically with respect to the character string printed in the lower part is printed on the upper part of the print tape 20. In step S16, after the input data is developed as a 24-dot character pattern in the print buffer 74, the dot data is transferred in parallel to the upper 24 bits and lower 24 bits of the shift register 75 in order from the first dot row of the print buffer 74. , The vertical / horizontal conversion of the dot pattern is performed, and the process proceeds to S17. In S17 and S18, a printing operation is performed on the dot data transferred to the shift register until all the input character strings are printed. As described above, by executing S13 to S18 in accordance with the pressing of the label print key 46,
The heading printing control means of the present invention is configured. Further, when either the print key 49 or the label print key 46 is pressed, either the normal print or the label print is executed, so that the print key 49 and the label print key 46 are A selection means is constituted. If necessary, processing such as kana / kanji conversion is performed.
, S19, and other processing of S20. By executing the above printing program, the label printing apparatus of the present embodiment
In addition to printing a desired character string on the printing tape 20, printing in a format that allows the printing tape 20 to be used as a heading label is also possible. In particular, the label printer of the present embodiment can print an input character string with the same contents in two areas of the upper and lower rows of the print tape 20 by one key operation at the time of heading label printing. Is good. Further, the label printing apparatus of the present embodiment has a printing tape 2
Since the thermal head 16 is divided into two areas and printed at the same time when printing is performed in the two areas of the upper and lower rows of 0, the printing speed is also improved, and the print results of the upper and lower rows are not shifted. In the above-described embodiment, the heating element array 38 is constituted by 48 heating elements 39, but this number can be changed as appropriate, and the printing element array is not limited to the heating element array, but may be formed by wire dots. even dot row is constituted, etc. Ru can be applied to the present invention. [ Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, the label printing apparatus of the present invention can select normal printing for creating a printing tape and heading printing for creating a heading label by a simple operation, and can also perform heading printing. In this case, since the character string having the same content can be printed at two places in the width direction on the label by one one-time printing operation of the printing means, the heading label can be created very easily. This has the effect of improving the operability of label printing work for creating the heading label.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view of a label printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a front view of a thermal head as a printing head, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a control system of the label printing apparatus, and FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram showing a head drive circuit of FIG. 5 to 7 are explanatory diagrams showing different printing examples, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a portion of the program stored in the program memory of FIG. 3 which is closely related to the present invention. . In the figure, 10 is an input unit, 12 is a printer unit, 16 is a thermal head, 20 is a print tape, 40 is a keyboard, 42 is a character key, 46 is a label print key,
8 is a print direction switch, 49 is a print key, 56 is a microcomputer, 66 is a RAM, 73 is an input buffer, and 74 is a print buffer.

Claims (1)

Claims: 1. A label printer capable of printing an input character string on a label, comprising: storage means for storing the character string; and printing means for printing on the label. Normal printing control means for causing the printing means to print a character string stored in the storage means at a predetermined location on the label by one-time printing operation in one direction; and storing the character string in the storage means in the printing means. Heading printing control means for printing the same character string at two locations in the width direction on the label by a single one-direction printing operation, and one of the normal printing control means and the heading printing control means A label printing device comprising: a selection unit for selecting one of the labels.