JP2673052B2 - Label printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a label printer which prints on a label having a preset print format.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional label printers are known that print on various labels for which a print format is set in advance in accordance with each print format.

Such a label printer is equipped with a PLU file, and generally registered product names, unit prices,
The main information such as weight and price can be printed on most commonly used labels because the amount of information contained in most products falls within a certain range, but it is possible to print it on most commonly used labels. Since the amount of sub-information such as is considerably different depending on the product, a label having a size that accommodates the amount of information is selected and used according to the amount of sub-information of each product. Therefore, a label used for a product having a large amount of sub information has a large size (long).

[0004]

In the conventional label printer, when the printing amount of the sub information of the product is large, the label used for the product becomes large (long), and therefore, the printing issuance is performed. There is a problem that the label sometimes hangs down at the ejection port, and the adhesive surface on the back surface of the label reaches the vicinity of the ejection port. Further, if the size of the label can be reduced, the running cost of the label can be reduced, which is economical.

Therefore, according to the present invention, a label having a large number of printable lines of sub information in the print format can be printed by reducing the width of the margin between the lines, and thus the length of the entire label can be shortened. Further, another object of the present invention is to provide a label printer which eliminates the readability caused by reducing the margin between the lines.

[0006]

The invention corresponding to claim 1 is:
In a label printer that prints information such as product name, price, raw materials and additives on a label whose print format is preset, a determining means for determining the number of printable lines set in the print format of the label used, Line spacing adjusting means for narrowing the print line spacing as the number of printable lines determined by this determination means increases , and this line spacing
The print line spacing adjusted by the spacing adjustment means is preset.
If the line spacing is smaller than the
And a line printing control means for controlling the line printing .

[0007]

[0008]

In the present invention having such a structure, the number of printable lines set in the print format of the label to be used is determined by the determining means, and the line is printed as the determined number of printable lines increases. The space between the lines on which the labels are printed is narrowed by the space adjusting means. When adjusted print line spacing This is narrower than the set line spacing, line delimiting the line is printed by the line printing controller unit.

[0009]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to a label printer with an electronic scale.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a printer unit, 2 is a scale unit for measuring the weight of a product to be weighed, 3 is a keyboard provided with an issuing key and one-touch key, and 4 is a product name and price of the product. It is a display device.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 11 is a CPU (central processing unit) which constitutes the main body of the control unit. A ROM (Read Only Memory) 12 in which program data for processing performed by the CPU 11 is stored, and an RA in which areas of various memories used when the CPU 11 performs processing are formed.
M (random access memory) 13 and PLU (price
The lookup file 14 is connected to the CPU 11 via a system bus 15.

The A / D (analog / digital) converter 16 to which the voltage data from the weighing section 2 is inputted by weighing the weighted goods is digitally converted into the voltage data and supplied to the CPU 11. Has become. The clock circuit 17 also supplies time data to the CPU 11.

A keyboard controller 18 for controlling an input signal from the keyboard 3 and a display controller 19 for controlling the display 4 are also the system bus 1.
It is connected to the CPU 11 via 5.

Further, the print head 23 for printing on the label paper 20 and the print controller 23 for supplying the label paper to the print head 21 and controlling the transport mechanism 22 for transporting the printed label to the outside are also the above-mentioned system. It is connected to the CPU 11 via the bus 15.

Although not shown, the label paper is contained in a cartridge, and the surface of this cartridge has a format such as the number of printable lines of sub-information such as raw materials and additives of the label contained therein. An interface is provided for transmitting the information of (1) to the apparatus main body.

The replacement of the label paper is carried out by the replacement of the cartridge, and at that time, the interface provided on the surface of the cartridge allows the format information such as the printable line number of the sub information to be transmitted to the apparatus main body. There is.

The label attached to the label paper used here is a label for this label printer. For example, compared to a conventional label, a line in which the sub information can be printed has a length in the printing direction of the label. The number is about 3 mm for 10 lines,
It is about 9 mm shorter for 20 lines and about 16 mm shorter for 35 lines. FIG. 3 shows a flow chart of the processing for setting the line spacing performed by the CPU 11.

First, it is determined whether or not the number of printable lines of the sub information transmitted from the interface provided on the surface of the cartridge containing the label paper 20 is less than 10. (Judgment means)

If the number of printable lines of the sub information is less than 10, the margin between the lines in the printing of the sub information is set to a width of 5 dots, that is, the space between the lines is formed by the dot rows (horizontal rows) of 5 rows which are not printed. To be done. (Line spacing adjustment means).
If the number of printable lines of the sub information is not less than 10, then it is determined whether the number of printable lines is less than 20 (determination means).

If the number of printable lines of the sub information is less than 20, the width of the space between lines in the printing of the sub information is set to 3 dots, that is, the space between lines is formed by the dot row of 3 lines which is not printed. If the number of printable lines of the sub information is not less than 20, the width of the blank space between lines in the printing of the sub information is set to 2 dots (line spacing adjusting means), that is, the blank space between lines is not printed. Is formed by. Therefore, a line such as a solid line or a broken line that separates the lines is set by the dot row below them. (Line printing control means) As described above, the process of setting the line interval is completed, and then the process of creating the label image is continued.

In the main information print portion,
Since processing such as narrowing the margin width between lines is not performed, the number of lines that can be printed with sub information increases, and even if the margin width between lines in sub information printing is narrowed, the main information print area remains It's not hard to read.

In this embodiment having such a configuration, the information on the number of printable lines of the sub information in the format of the label paper is transmitted to the label printer apparatus main body through the interface provided on the surface of the cartridge containing the label paper. Reportedly.

Based on the transmitted information about the number of printable lines, the number of printable lines is less than 10, 10 or more, less than 20, and 20 or more, and in each case, the line spacing is printed in the printing of the sub information. The width of the margin is 5 dots,
It is set to 3 dots and 2 dots.
Then, when the width of the blank space between lines is set to 2 dots in the printing of the sub-information, the printing of the line for separating the lines is set by the dot row below them. Therefore, when a label with less than 10 printable lines of sub information is used, the margin width between lines is 5 when printing sub information.
It becomes a dot. Further, when a label in which the number of printable lines of the sub information is 10 or more and less than 20 is used, the margin width between lines becomes 3 dots in the printing of the sub information.

Furthermore, the number of printable lines of sub information is 2
When the label of 0 or more lines is used, the margin width between lines becomes 2 dots in the printing of the sub information, and the line separating the lines is printed by the dot row below them.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the margin width between lines can be set in three steps according to the number of printable lines of the sub information set in the label format, and the margin width between lines is 2 With dots, you can print lines that separate the lines.

Therefore, for example, when the number of printable lines of sub information is 10, 20, and 35 lines, respectively, compared with the conventional label, the same printing can be performed on a label shorter by about 3 mm, about 9 mm, and about 16 mm, respectively. The amount can be printed.

Therefore, there is no problem that the adhesive surface on the back surface of the label sticks near the take-out port, which is economical. Moreover, just by exchanging the cartridge, the line spacing corresponding to this short label is set automatically,
It is easy and unnecessary.

[0028]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
For labels with a large number of printable lines of sub-information in the print format, the width of the blank space between lines can be reduced, and therefore the length of the entire label can be shortened. Furthermore, the blank space between lines can be reduced. It is possible to provide a label printer that eliminates the readability caused by the above.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a flow of processing for setting line spacing according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Printer unit, 11 ... CPU.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A label printer which prints information such as a product name, price, raw materials and additives on a label having a preset print format, and determines the number of printable lines set in the print format of the label used. determining means for, with line spacing adjusting means for narrowing the print line spacing in accordance been made many printable number of lines determined by the determination means, adjusted print line interval the line spacing adjusting means
Breaks if is less than the preset line spacing
A label printer provided with a line printing control means for printing a line .