JP2755311B2 - Recording control method for multicolor ink ribbon - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording control method for a multicolor ink ribbon, for example, to a recording control method for a multicolor ink ribbon in a serial printer.

2. Description of the Related Art A multicolor ink ribbon for a serial printer is usually one in which ink of each color is applied on a single film of a predetermined width in a plane-sequential manner for a predetermined length. In order to determine which color is applied to which portion, a bar code portion is provided in the application portion of each color.

Conventionally, when printing is performed using this ink ribbon, the bar code portion is first read while the ink ribbon is being wound up before printing, the target color portion is detected, and when the target color portion comes, the target color is read. The recording for each color is sequentially performed from the color of.

At this time, the length of the ink application portion for each color (the length of the continuous same color application portion) is determined to be a fixed length.
For this reason, the maximum recording length that can be continuously recorded for each color is set in advance to prevent recording from the same color part to the next color part, and control is performed so that continuous recording is not performed beyond this length. Have been.

Therefore, when printing exceeding the maximum continuous printing length is performed, the printing operation is interrupted once, and the next same color coated portion is monitored again by the bar code while the ink ribbon is wound up to come to the next printing position. Then, after the same color portion comes, the remaining portions are connected and recorded. In other words, in this case, the ink portion of another color applied between the colors is not used, and is wound up as it is, and is wasted.

In order to avoid this, it is only necessary to lengthen the continuous ink application length of each color, but if it is too long, on the other hand, when recording one color only and then recording another color, A large portion of the continuous ink application length of the color would be wound up and wasted without use.

Therefore, conventionally, generally, in consideration of the width of the recording paper,
Determine the continuous ink application length to be slightly longer than the width of the recording paper so that continuous printing can be performed on B4 size vertical (257 mm) or A4 size vertical (210 mm) recording paper at one time. ing.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, since the length that can be continuously recorded at one time is emphasized, when narrow paper such as a postcard is used, the recording range on the first floor is narrow. However, there is a disadvantage that a large part of one continuous ink application portion is left unused and wasted.

To improve this, separate from the conventional ink ribbon,
It is sufficient to make an ink ribbon with a reduced length of one continuous ink coating only for narrow paper such as postcards. However, considering the manufacturing cost, the method of discriminating the two, and the user's misuse, it is not very realistic. I can't say.

Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and divides an area of each color of an ink ribbon into a plurality of areas according to the size of a recording medium such as recording paper to perform recording. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a multicolor ink ribbon control method capable of increasing the use efficiency of the ink ribbon.

In order to solve this problem, a recording control method for a multicolor ink ribbon according to the present invention includes the following steps. That is, using a ribbon cassette having a multi-color ink ribbon to which a plurality of colors of ink are sequentially applied along the feed direction, the applied ink is transferred onto a recording medium while the multi-color ink ribbon is fed, and recording is performed. A method for controlling the recording of a multicolor ink ribbon to be performed, comprising: a step of designating the number of divisions; and a step of virtually dividing an area coated with ink of each color into a plurality of areas along the feed direction according to the number of divisions. And performing a recording of each color using a predetermined area among the divided areas of each color, and in the recording after the front and back of the ribbon cassette is reversed, the recording of the plurality of divided areas is performed. The printing is performed by using an unused area among the divided areas of the multi-color ink ribbon based on the number of areas where the printing is performed.

Hereinafter, an embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

First Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 denotes a control procedure stored in a ROM 11 and described later in FIG. 8 and FIG. A CPU for controlling the overall operation of the present embodiment, a ROM 11 for storing the above-described control procedure and the like, and an R for storing recording information and the like sent from the host.
AM, 13 is a host interface for connecting to an external device such as a host computer, 14 is a barcode reading unit that reads a barcode indicating an ink color of a color ink ribbon described later, 15 is a sensor for reading a barcode, Reference numeral 16 denotes a ribbon feed control unit, 17 denotes a ribbon mechanism, 18 denotes a printer recording control unit, 19 denotes a printer engine unit, and 20 denotes an operation unit including a keyboard and a display unit.

FIG. 2 shows a part of the ribbon mechanism 17 and the printer engine unit 19 of the present embodiment.

In FIG. 2, a recording sheet 34 is pressed against a rubber portion of a sheet feed roller 36 by a pinch roller 36b while being backed up on a platen 35. A gear 37 is mounted on a shaft 36a of the sheet feed roller 36, and is connected to the sheet feed motor M1 via a reduction gear 37a.
For this reason, the sheet feed roller 36 is rotated by the rotation of the sheet feed motor M1, and the recording paper 34 is conveyed.

Therefore, when a thermal head 48, which will be described later, comes into contact with the recording paper 34 via the ink ribbon to perform recording, the platen 35 maintains the position of the recording paper 34.

 Next, the reciprocating movement of the carriage 50 will be described.

A shaft 42 is fixed parallel to the front side of the platen 35, and a rack 43 is fixed on the opposite side of the carriage 50 so as to have a predetermined positional relationship.
The carriage 50 is guided and supported so as to be movable in the direction of arrow B while maintaining a predetermined positional relationship determined by the guide surface on the upper surface of the carriage 50. That is, the carriage 50 can reciprocate in a direction perpendicular to the transport path A of the recording paper 34.

A part of the belt 41 is fixed to the carriage 50 and is stretched by a pulley gear 39 and a pulley 40. The pulley gear 39 is connected to the carriage motor M2 via reduction gears 38a and 38b. Therefore, when the carriage motor M2 rotates, this rotation is transmitted to the pulley gear 39 via the reduction gears 38a and 38b, and the pulley gear 39 rotates. As a result, the belt 41 is driven, and the carriage 50 fixed to the belt 41 reciprocates (along arrow B) along the shaft 42.

In addition, two ink ribbon cassettes are attached to the cartridge 50.
A head holder 55 for mounting on a stack is rotatably guided and supported around a head holder shaft (not shown).
A thermal head 48 is attached to the head holder 55, and the head holder 55 also serves as a heat sink for heat generated by the thermal head 48. The head holder 55 has a color sensor (color detecting means) S3 for identifying the color of the multi-color ink ribbon in the ink ribbon cassette.
Are arranged. Further, the carriage 50 is provided with a ribbon sensor S2 for detecting the presence / absence, type, and end of the ink ribbon cassette 60 of the ink ribbon cassette.

Pins 35a, 35b and hooks 35c, 35d, 35e are provided on the upper surface of the head holder 55, so that the ink ribbon cassette 60 can be removably loaded.

Next, the structure of the ink ribbon cassette 60 used in the apparatus according to the present embodiment, which is mounted on the head holder 55 shown in FIG. 2, will be described below with reference to FIGS.

3 and 4, the ink ribbon cassette
Reference numeral 60 denotes an upper case 61 and a lower case 62, which are detachably mounted on the head holder 55 with the ink ribbon 21 stored in the cassette 60.

The ink ribbon 21 is wound around the supply core 23, and once passes through a roller 68 rotatably attached to the protruding portions 62a and 62b of the lower case 62, and then temporarily enters a cassette 60 through an opening 62c of the lower case.
After being exposed to the outside, insert the cassette 6 again through the lower case opening 62d.
Infiltrate into 0. Further, after the cassette 60 is again exposed to the outside of the cassette 60 through the lower case opening 62e, it enters the cassette 60 through the lower case opening 62f, and is taken up by the take-up core 22.

When the cassette 60 is loaded at a predetermined position of the head holder 55, the ink ribbon 21 exposed from the openings 62c and 62d is positioned between the cassette 60 and a recording sheet facing the head 48 on the main body. The ink ribbon 21 can be reliably and easily heated by the thermal head 48 that generates heat according to the recording information. In addition, ink ribbon
21 is urged by protrusions 62g, 62h of the lower case 62 by press contact springs 65, 66 provided on the lower case 62, respectively. In addition, felts 65a, 66a are attached to the press contact springs 65, 66, and damage is prevented by the press contact of the ink ribbon 21.

The tension spring 67 urges the ink ribbon 21 in the direction of arrow K in FIG. 13, and cooperates with the pressure contact springs 65 and 66 to remove slack in the ink ribbon 21.

Also, a part of the ink ribbon 21 is exposed from the opening 62n of the lower case 62, and the cassette 60 is
2, the ribbon sensor S2 on the main body side shown in FIG. 2 is located at the opening 62n of the cassette 60, and the ribbon sensor S2 detects the ribbon end of the ink ribbon 21. Also, the color ribbon S3 on the main body side shown in FIG. 2 has the ink ribbon 2 exposed through the openings 62e and 62f of the lower case 62.
Opposed to position 1.

Next, a case where the above-described ink ribbon cassette 60 is detachably mounted on the head holder 55 will be described.

First, when the ink ribbon cassette 60 is loaded in the lower stage, the openings 61a, 61b, 62i, and 62j provided in the upper case 61 and the lower case 62 of the ink ribbon cassette 60 are connected to the head holder 5.
5 is fitted into the pins 35a and 35b. Then, the hook 35c is elastically engaged with the locking portion 62k of the lower case.

Thus, the ink ribbon cassette 60 is removably mounted on the head holder 55.

In this way, the lower part of the ink ribbon cassette 60
After loading the ink ribbon cassette 60 on the upper stage, the head holder 55
The openings 61a, 61b, 62i, 62j are fitted into the pins 35a, 35b. Then, the hooks 35d and 35e are elastically engaged with the locking portions 62k of the lower case.

As a result, the upper ink ribbon cassette 60 is also removably loaded on the head holder 55.

Next, the color ink ribbon 21 in the ink ribbon cassette 60 used in this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The ribbon shown in FIG. 5 is an example of the color ink ribbon 21 used in this embodiment. In this embodiment, the three color inks of yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) correspond to the barcode 1. , 2, and 3 are sequentially applied with a width of “L”, such as “L _Y ”, “L _M ”, and “L _C ”.

When the ribbon cassette 60 is loaded at a predetermined position of the head holder 55, the color sensor S3 on the main body faces the color ink ribbon 21 exposed from the openings 62e and 62f of the lower case 62.

When the color ink ribbon 21 is wound around the winding core 22, the barcodes 1, 2, 3
Is detected by the color sensor S3, and the color applied next to the barcode can be identified.

The bar code may be configured so that the color can be identified by the difference in the number of black lines as shown in FIG. 5, or may be identified by the difference in the width of the black line. In this embodiment, the form of the barcode is not limited at all, and may be any form as long as the color can be identified.

Also, the desired number of colors may be provided instead of the three colors of Y, M, and C.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing the use state of the multicolor ink ribbon used in the color printer according to the present embodiment having the above-described configuration when dividedly used. In the case of FIG.
Similar to FIG. 5, three color inks of yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) are applied in order.

In the figure, 1, 2, and 3 are bar codes for determining the application positions of yellow, magenta, and cyan inks, and 4, 5, and 6 are color ink portions to which yellow, magenta, and cyan inks are applied. _{Further, L Y, L M, L} C is the contiguous inking length of each _{ink, l Y, l M, l} C is the length of the portion used by recording the each ink. That is, the sixth
In the figure, after the ink ribbon is used, the yellow, magenta, and cyan inks are (L _Y −L _Y ) and (L _M , respectively).
−l _M ) and (L _C −l _C ) are left unused. For this reason, even after once used for recording, if the recording can be performed again using the unused portion of the ink, the use efficiency of the ink ribbon is increased, and the ink ribbon can be used without waste. .

The problem here is that the length of the unused portion of the ink ribbon after use of the ink ribbon remains in each portion depending on the lengths l _Y , l _M , and l _C used for recording in each portion. Therefore, if this is not detected by any method, there is a possibility that the ink will be reprinted using the used ink portion.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, the following methods are employed to solve the above problems.

First, the above-described problem is solved by dividing a continuous ink application portion of each color ink into a predetermined number and using only a designated divided region among the divided regions for printing.

That is, the user inputs and specifies the desired number of divisions from the keyboard of the operation unit 20 in consideration of the recorded contents. For example, by inputting an instruction of "3", the continuous ink application length "L" of each color is divided into three regions each having a length of 1/3 as shown in FIG. Only one ink ribbon divided area is used.

For example, at first, recording is performed using only the area A of each color shown in FIG.
The third time is controlled to record using only the B area of each color, and the third time is controlled to record using only the C area of each color.

By performing such control, the recording is always performed using the unused portion of the ink when the ink is reused, so that the above problem can be solved.

Note that the maximum continuous recording length “L _B ” of each color is automatically changed according to the input division number.

For example, in the case of FIG. 7, the number of divisions is “3”, and (L _B =
L / 3). Here, when printing print data exceeding “L / 3”, printing of that color cannot be completed within the divided ink ribbon. Therefore, in this embodiment, in such a case, the barcode of the next same color portion is detected and the subsequent portion is recorded. Therefore, even if the recording data exceeds the divided area, it can be recorded without any problem.

The above-described recording control specific to the present embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In the apparatus of this embodiment, prior to recording, the operation unit
Specify the number of ink ribbon divisions from 20 keyboards, and
Enter the number of use of the ink ribbon.
The recording data for each color is stored in the RAM 12 via the host interface 13 or the like.

Incidentally, the number of divisions, taking into account the width of the recording sheet, to allow continuous recording of one line on the recording sheet, as made inker length L _B of the divided slightly longer length than the recording sheet width You only have to decide.

When a print start instruction is input, the flow shifts to the control in FIG. 8, and color printing is sequentially performed, for example, for one line.

The CPU 10 first checks in step S1 whether there is a division instruction input from the operation unit 20. If there is no division instruction input, the process proceeds to step S2. Then, the maximum continuous recording length “L _B ” of each color is set to the continuous ink application length “L” of each color. In the following step S3, the bar code identification in the bar code reading section 14 is set to the normal rotation identification mode, and the ink color specified by the bar code read by the sensor 15 is set to a mode in which the ink color is applied following the bar code. . And
In step S4, set so that recording control for each color is performed using all of the continuous ink application length "L" of each color.
Proceed to S5.

In step S5, the ribbon feed control unit 16 is activated, and the ink ribbon is driven until the bar code reading unit 14 detects the ink ribbon color to be recorded. When the desired color position is reached, the process proceeds to step S6, instructs the printer recording control unit to scan a recording head (not shown), and prints the designated color ink from the ink ribbon when the desired position is reached. Then, the ribbon feed control unit 16 drives the ink ribbon by the recording length. Thus, for recording recorded data of a specified color within the L _B. Then, in step S10, it is determined whether or not the recording of the color has been completed. If not,
The recording of the desired color of the line has not been completed, and the process proceeds to step S11.
To start the ribbon feed control unit 16 and drive the ink ribbon until the bar code reading unit 14 detects the next same ink ribbon color (to the same color ink position in the next cycle). Then, when the desired color position is reached, the processing shifts to the processing of step S6 and thereafter.
The above processing is repeated until the recording of the color is completed.

Then, in step S10, if the recording of the record row has been completed, the process proceeds to step S15, and it is checked whether or not the recording of all the recording data in the RAM 12 has been completed. If all recording has been completed, the recording process is terminated.

If there is still data to be recorded, proceed to step S16,
The ribbon feed control unit 16 is activated, and the ink ribbon is driven until the barcode reading unit 14 detects the color of the ink ribbon to be recorded next. At this time, if the recording paper needs to be fed, the recording control unit 18 is instructed to perform the necessary line feed processing. When the desired color position is reached, the processing shifts to the processing in step S6 and thereafter, and the recording of the next recording color is performed.

On the other hand, in step S1, when a division instruction is input by the operation unit 20, the process proceeds to step S20.
The maximum continuous recording length “L _B ” of each color is set to a value “L / division number” obtained by dividing the continuous ink application length “L” of each color by the designated division number. In the present embodiment, for example, the following description will be made with an example where the number of divisions is three. However, the number of divisions may be any number, and the color ribbon can be used repeatedly by the number of divisions.

Subsequent to step S20, it is checked in step S21 whether the number N of times of use of the ink ribbon is 1, that is, whether the ribbon is used first. If the number of times of use N is "1" and the first use, the process proceeds to step S22, where the bar code identification in the bar code reading section 14 is set to the normal rotation identification mode, and the ink specified by the bar code read by the sensor 15 is set. The mode in which the color is applied following the bar code is set. Then, in step S23, a mode is set in which recording is performed using the first divided area within the continuous ink application length "L" of each color. When the image is divided into three, the mode is set to use the area shown in FIG. 7A for each color ink. Since the initial setting before the start of recording is completed, the process proceeds to step S5 and subsequent steps.

In this case, after detecting the desired color position of the ink ribbon by the bar code 1-3, immediately starts recording L _B content.

On the other hand, if N is not 1 in step S21, step S21 is executed.
Proceed to 25 to check whether N = 2, that is, whether or not it is the second use. If N = 2 in the second use, the process proceeds to step S26, where the bar code identification in the bar code reading section 14 is set to the inversion identification mode, and the bar code detection position read by the sensor 15 is specified by the bar code. In this mode, the last ink color is applied, and the ink color applied after the bar code is the color applied immediately before. In the present embodiment, after the recording of the ink ribbon is completed to the end, if division is designated, the number N of times of use of the ink ribbon is incremented by one, and the ink ribbon is driven in reverse in the reverse direction. . Therefore, the mode is set to the inversion discrimination mode. The ink ribbons are arranged in the order of yellow (Y), magenta (M), and cyan (C) in the order of Y → M → C → Y →
.. C, Y →,..., For example, if a yellow (Y) bar code is detected, it is subsequently determined that the area is applied with cyan (C) ink. it can.

Then, in step S27, a mode is set in which recording is performed using the second divided area within the continuous ink application length "L" of each color.

In this case, after detecting the desired color position of the ink ribbon by the bar code, the ink ribbon {(number of divisions) -2} driven L _B component only, to start subsequent to the recording of the longest L _B min .

When the image is divided into three, the mode is to use the area B in FIG. 7 for each color ink. Since the initial setting before the start of recording is completed, the process proceeds to step S5 and subsequent steps.

If the number of uses N is not 2 in step S25, the process proceeds to step S30 to check whether or not the number of uses N = 3.
If N = 3, the flow advances to step S31 to set the bar code identification in the bar code reading section 14 to the normal rotation identification mode.
The mode in which the ink color specified by the bar code read by the sensor 15 is applied subsequent to the bar code. Then, in step S32, a mode is set in which recording is performed using the third divided area within the continuous ink application length "L" of each color. When the image is divided into three, the mode is set to use the area of C in FIG. 7 for each color ink. Since the initial setting before the start of recording is completed, the process proceeds to step S5 and subsequent steps.

In this case, after detecting the desired color position of the ink ribbon by the bar code, and driving the "2L _B" component ink ribbon, to start subsequent to the recording of the longest L _B content.

In this manner, the ink ribbon is used repeatedly by the number of divisions. When the recording of all the ink ribbon divided areas is completed, a subsequent ribbon replacement request or the like is displayed, the recording process is interrupted, and the new ink ribbon is set again without performing reverse use.

In the above description, the case where the number of divisions is “3” is assumed, but the number of divisions may be arbitrary. In addition, the use order of the ink ribbon divided areas does not necessarily have to be performed in the order of FIGS. 7A, 7B, and 7C.
And so on.

The details of the ribbon cueing process of the ink ribbon 21 in the above description will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

The ribbon cueing is performed by detecting the bar code portions 1, 2, and 3 provided on the color ink ribbon 21 by the color sensor S3.

First, in step S501, the head motor M3 is driven to shift the ink ribbon cassette 60 to the position where the ribbon winding is turned on. Next, in step S502, it is determined whether the ribbon sensor S2 has detected the ribbon end. If the ribbon end has been detected, the flow advances to step S503 to drive the head motor M3 to turn off the ribbon winding. Then, the flow advances to step S504 to display a ribbon end error, and ends the processing.

On the other hand, if the ribbon end is not detected in step S502, the process proceeds to step S505, and it is determined whether or not a bar code is detected by the color sensor S3. If a barcode has not been detected, the process proceeds to step S506, in which the carriage motor M2 is driven to move the carriage 50 in the recording direction (rightward).
The color ink ribbon 21 is wound up. Next, the process proceeds to step S507, where it is determined whether or not the ribbon winding amount has exceeded a predetermined winding length "L". Here, if the ribbon winding amount does not exceed the predetermined winding length, the process returns to step S502, and the ribbon winding and the color sensor detection are repeated.

If the ribbon take-up amount exceeds the predetermined take-up length in step S507, this ink ribbon is regarded as a single-color ink ribbon instead of the multi-ink ribbon 60. Shift to the winding off position. Next, at step S509, a cassette set error is displayed.

Further, when the color sensor S3 detects the bar code in step S505, the process proceeds to step S510, and the detected color of the color ink ribbon is set to a color according to the bar code.

Next, in step S511, it is determined whether or not the detected color of the color ink ribbon is the designated color for which cueing is to be performed, and if it is not the specified color for which cueing is to be performed, the process proceeds to step S515, and the designated color bar is displayed. Continue ribbon feed until code is detected. Then, the process returns to step S502. After the power is turned on, if the detected color of the color ink ribbon is undecided, it is not possible to determine what color will come when cueing is performed. In such a case, the ribbon is wound up and returned to the original state. And so on. .

In step S511, if the detected color of the color ink ribbon is the designated color for which cueing is to be performed, step S512 is performed.
Then, the head motor M3 is driven to shift to the ribbon winding off position, and the ribbon leading-out process of the designated color is completed.

By performing the above processing, the color ink ribbon can be efficiently caught without being caught wastefully, and an error can be detected when a different ink ribbon is inserted. Become.

Then, when there is a division designation or the like, the ink ribbon area on which recording and transfer has been performed is skipped, and actual recording is started.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by allowing the user to input and specify the desired number of divisions, the unused portion of the ink can be minimized, and the recording use efficiency of the ink ribbon can be improved.

Second Embodiment In the above description, a case has been described in which the printer is capable of performing bidirectional recording in which the ink ribbon is driven to the reverse direction once the ink ribbon is used up to the end. However, the present invention is not limited to the above example. The invention is not limited to this, and may be a one-way printing printer.

In this case, the interior of the used ink ribbon cassette case is schematically shown in FIG. 10 (A), and the ink ribbon 21 is wound around the winding core 22 as shown in FIG. For this reason, it cannot be reused as it is, but if the cassette case can be disassembled, the ink ribbon 21, the take-up core 22, and the supply core 23 can be used.
Is taken out in that state, and can be made the same as the initial state by inverting and reinserting it as shown in FIG. 10 (B).
Reuse becomes possible.

However, if the ink ribbon is reversed and reinserted,
In this case, the bar code identification is set to the inversion mode as shown in step S26 in FIG. 8, and if the bar code is magenta, the next yellow color is used. For magenta for cyan, and magenta for yellow, it is read on software so as to be distinguished from cyan ink.

Alternatively, even if the cassette case is not disassembled, an ink ribbon rewinding mechanism is provided to rewind the ink ribbon to the initial state, thereby bringing the initial state shown in FIG. 10B.

Further, the shape of the ink ribbon cassette is changed to, for example,
As shown in FIGS. (A) and (B), the recording head insertion opening 51,
The winding core 22 and the supply core 23, the fitting portion between the ink ribbon cassette and the mounting portion, and the like are arranged at symmetrical positions.

With this configuration, the ink ribbon cassette is not disassembled, the ink ribbon is not rewound, etc., and after being used in one direction, it can be reused immediately by simply turning it upside down and mounting it upside down. Becomes

Further, in this case, the first use is performed alternately such that the front surface is in the normal rotation state, the second use is the rear surface in the inverted state, and so on.

Thus, it is possible to control to automatically perform conversion detection for normal rotation of the front surface of the barcode identification and for reverse of the rear surface of the barcode identification in accordance with the odd and even numbers of input values of the number of times of use. This eliminates the risk of erroneous normal / reverse conversion of the barcode identification.

For example, an outline of the control when the number of divisions is designated and input as “4” will be described below with reference to FIG.

By inputting "1" at the time of the first use, in the first time recording, each color is recorded using only the area A of FIG.

Then, at the time of the second use, the reverse side of the ink ribbon cassette is used. By inputting "2", recording is performed using only the area B in FIG. At this time, the number of inputs is even and the barcode identification is automatically exchanged for reversal.

At the time of the third use, the surface of the ink ribbon cassette is further turned upside down. Then, by inputting "3", recording is performed using only the area C in FIG. At this time, the number of inputs is odd, and the barcode identification is automatically converted for normal rotation.

Further, at the time of the final fourth use, the ink ribbon cassette is further reversed to the back side, and by inputting "4", recording is performed using only the area D in FIG. At this time, the number of inputs is even, and the barcode identification is automatically converted for inversion.

For forward / reverse bar code identification conversion,
It is not a necessary means in the present invention, but a problem of the barcode itself.

That is, in the above description, it is assumed that the color identification barcode uses, for example, an ink ribbon having exactly the same information in the normal rotation direction indicated by arrow 81 and the reverse direction indicated by arrow 82 in FIG. .

However, if the barcode has different information in the normal rotation direction and the reverse direction as shown in FIG. 14, for example, the color can be determined directly without distinguishing between the normal rotation and the reverse direction. That is, in FIG. 14, the barcode is “thin”
Alternatively, “thin and thin” may be determined as yellow ink, “thick and thin” or “thick” may be determined as magenta ink, and “thin” may be determined as cyan ink.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the area of each color of the ink ribbon is divided into a plurality of areas according to the size of the recording medium such as recording paper, and the recording is performed. It is possible to increase the efficiency, that is, to suppress the generation of the unused area of the ink ribbon.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of a ribbon mechanism and a printer engine unit of this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a plan view of an ink ribbon cassette of this embodiment, FIG. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the ink ribbon cassette of the present embodiment, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of the color ink ribbon of the present embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the state of the color ink ribbon used in the present embodiment after printing. FIG. 7, FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining an example of ink ribbon division in the present embodiment, FIG. 8 is a flowchart for recording control of the present embodiment, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing ribbon cueing processing of the present embodiment. FIGS. 10 (A) and (B) are schematic views showing the inside of the ink ribbon cassette of this embodiment, and FIGS. 11 (A) and (B) are diagrams showing an ink ribbon cassette case of another embodiment according to the present invention. FIG. 12 shows another embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining ink ribbon division control, FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of an ink ribbon using a barcode having the same information in normal rotation / reversal, and FIG. 14 is a bar having different information in normal rotation / reversal. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an ink ribbon using a code. In the figure, 1, 2, 3,... A bar code for identifying the color of each ink, 4, 5, 6,.
11… ROM, 12… RAM, 13… Host interface,
14 barcode reading unit, 15 sensor, 16 ribbon feed control unit, 17 ribbon mechanism, 18 printer recording control unit, 19 printer engine unit, 20 operation unit, 21 …… Ink ribbon, 22 …… Rewind core, 23…
… Supply core, 34… Recording paper, 35… Platen, 48…
Thermal head, 50 ... Carrier, 51 ... Opening for inserting recording head, 55 ... Carriage table, 60 ...
… Ink ribbon cassette, 61 …… Upper case, 62 …… Lower case, 81 …… Ink ribbon forward running direction, 82 …… Ink ribbon reverse running direction, l _Y , l _M , l _C … Recording of each color , L _Y , L _M , L _C ... Each continuous ink application length of each color, M1... Sheet feed motor, M2... Carriage motor, S2... Ribbon sensor, S3.

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] An ink is transferred onto a recording medium while feeding the multicolor ink ribbon using a ribbon cassette having a multicolor ink ribbon to which a plurality of colors of ink are sequentially applied along a feeding direction. A method for controlling the recording of a multi-color ink ribbon that performs recording by performing a step of designating the number of divisions, and arranging an area where the ink of each color is applied to a plurality of areas along the feed direction according to the number of divisions. And performing a recording of each color using a predetermined area of the divided areas of each color. In the recording after the front and back of the ribbon cassette is reversed, the plurality of divided A multi-color ink ribbon recording control method, wherein recording is performed using an unused area among the divided areas of the multi-color ink ribbon based on the number of areas where the recording has been performed among the areas. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the number of divisions can be specified by a user input. 3. When the data relating to recording of a predetermined color indicates an area longer than the recording length of the divided area of the predetermined color of the multicolor ink ribbon, the predetermined color area of the next cycle is used. 2. The printing control method for a multicolor ink ribbon according to claim 1, wherein printing is performed.