JP2778944B2 - 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 printer, and more particularly to a printer which can visually identify a print center position of a long card or label used as a spine of a file, and can arbitrarily and easily make various layouts. The present invention relates to a simple type printer that can be selected.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, there has been known a label or card for a heading which can be adhered to or attached to a spine of a file or the like. There is a mode used as a file. Generally, writing of characters on this type of label or card is mostly by handwriting, and there is an individual difference in obtaining beautiful character display, and appearance can not be said to be good,
In addition, there is an inconvenience that much time is spent on handwriting.

In recent years, printers specially designed for printing the labels and cards have become commercially available, and headings corresponding to each file are printed on the labels, and the labels are attached to spines of files or the like. The mode of doing has become widespread. This type of printer has various print modes according to the paper width and length as in the existing word processor, etc., so that a specific print mode is set at the time of input work or at the start of printing. By doing so, printing corresponding to the paper size can be performed.

[0004]

However, such a printer employs a closed structure as a whole except for a paper feed port and a feeding port, and it is impossible to access a peripheral area of a print head by hand. It has become. Therefore, it is inevitable to input various printing conditions, such as setting the paper width and specifying the offset width, at the start of input or at the start of printing, and the system is not provided with the simplicity that anyone can easily use. In particular, when a single-sheet label or the like used as a spine is to be printed, it is necessary to obtain a clear character display and to shorten the work time required for printing, thereby increasing the value of use as a printer. I can't expect that. As described above, in the conventional printer, at least the work of inputting the character information and the work of setting the printing conditions are always required, and there is a disadvantage that the working time cannot always be reduced.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to enable a position of a carriage equipped with a print head to be manually moved to an arbitrary position where printing is desired, and to enable visual confirmation of a printing center and a start position to easily and quickly obtain a desired position. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer capable of printing characters and the like.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention freely selects a relative position between a sheet supplied to a print head and the print head while observing the position of the sheet.
A configuration that allows setting is adopted.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a control unit is provided in a case main body and controls predetermined information input through an input unit. In a printer including a carriage provided in the main body and a print head mounted on the carriage, the carriage is provided so as to be manually movable and can be stopped at an arbitrary position, and the carriage is set at a predetermined position. Paper is fed
Issued provided can print by the print head to the paper, the carriage or in the vicinity thereof, and a center mark to visually confirm the printing center of the sheet to be supplied to the print head, substantially sandwiching the center mark Place on both sides of the same line
To display the print width display mark to be placed and the print start position
A configuration is provided in which a print start position display mark is provided. According to this configuration, the paper is set in the carriage movement area in the case body,
The carriage can be manually moved on the sheet to adjust the center to the desired printing while viewing the center mark. Therefore, it is possible to omit the operation of inputting the printing conditions according to the paper size. In addition, printing width display mark
By using, the balance can be adjusted according to the paper width.
It is easier to select the font size
Top of paper by using character start position indicator
The operation of setting the margin can be omitted.

[0008]

[0009]

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are external perspective views of a printer according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 3 is an upper plan view of the printer with a cover opened. In these drawings, a printer 10 includes a case body 11 having an open top surface, a cover 12 hingedly connected to the rear end of the case body 11 and provided to be openable and closable, and a front side of the case body 11. A keyboard 14 as an input unit disposed on the upper surface, a control unit 15 for performing predetermined processing of information input from the keyboard 14, a liquid crystal display 16 connected to the control unit 15, A carriage 17 movably provided in the direction;
A print head 19 is provided in the carriage 17 and connected to the control unit 15 via a flat cable 18.

[0012] The case body 11, as shown in FIG. 2, a slit hole 11B extending in the transverse direction is formed in the rear wall 11A, a label is printed from the slit hole 11 B, paper card P can be paid out. A paper feed bar 20 and a guide bar 21 are disposed along the left and right direction of the case main body 11 in an inner depth side area of the case main body 11.
The carriage 17 is mounted movably in the left-right direction so as to straddle 0 and 21. A notch 12A is formed in the cover 12, and the cover 12 is closed by the notch 12A even when the liquid crystal display 16 is closed.
Is visible from the outside.

The carriage 17 is provided so as to be manually movable along a guide bar 21 to an arbitrary position. As shown in FIG. 3, the carriage 17 is equipped with a print head 19, a cassette ribbon (not shown), and the like inside.
A center mark 25 and a pair of print width indicating marks 26 located on both sides of the center mark are provided. The center mark 25 and the print width display mark 26 are formed by forming protrusions on the front end surface of the carriage 17. Here, the center mark 25 is provided at a position corresponding to the center in the width direction of the character to be printed by the print head 19, while the print width display mark 26 is provided at the print head 19.
Is provided at a position corresponding to the maximum width of a character or the like to be printed. Incidentally, in the present embodiment, although not particularly limited, the center mark 25 and each print width display mark 2
6 is set to 9mm each, the maximum distance is 18mm
Characters of width can be printed. On the left side of the carriage 17, a print start position display mark 27 is provided so as to protrude from a side surface portion of the carriage 17. The print start position display mark 27 indicates the start point of printing by the print head 19 in the horizontal direction of the print head 19, whereby the paper P is set even if the position of the print head 19 is not visible from the outside. Occasionally, an approximate indication of the start of printing can be visually confirmed.

The control unit 15 includes, in addition to various functions necessary for inputting and outputting characters, such as Roman character conversion and kana conversion, a character inverted from the last character to the first character based on the input character information. And a function of outputting a print command.

Further, the printer 10 according to the present embodiment
In addition to being operable by an internal battery (not shown), a commercial power supply can be used via an adapter. In FIG. 3, sign-30 is a right end guide of the paper P, and is provided movably along a horizontal direction in FIG.

Next, a series of operations when printing is performed using the printer 10 will be described.

After the power is turned on, when a predetermined character or symbol is input by operating the keyboard 14, the input character is displayed on the liquid crystal display 16 in a vertically written state. Before or after the input operation, a printing condition according to the user's request, such as whether the printing is in a vertical writing format or a horizontal writing format, is selected.

Next, as shown in FIG. 4A, the cover 12 is opened and the carriage 17 is moved to the right to widen the work area, and one edge of the paper P is directed in the depth direction. Put in. Then, as shown in FIG. 4B, the carriage 17 is moved on the sheet P to position the sheet P under the carriage 17. In this state, a desired print start position is visually checked while viewing the print start display mark 27. At this time, the guide 30 is set so that play in the left-right direction of the sheet P does not occur so that the sheet P is fed straight. Next, as shown in FIG. 4C, the carriage 17 is manually moved to the left. At this time, the vicinity of the center position where characters are desired to be printed in the width direction of the paper P is aligned while viewing the center mark 25.
Here, assuming that printing is performed substantially at the center of the paper P in the width direction for convenience, the center mark 25 may be aligned with the visual imaginary center line C of the paper P.

By turning on the print start switch in the state where the input work and the setting of the paper P are completed, the paper P is automatically sent and characters and the like are printed on the paper P. The leading edge of the paper P is the rear wall 11 of the case body 11.
A is fed out from the slit hole 11B formed in A. Then, the printed paper P can be attached to a spine such as a file.

In some cases, characters or the like to be printed on the paper P are printed only on the lower end area of the paper. In this case, FIG.
When the paper is set at the position shown in (B), a print mode in which printing is to be performed in the order from the last character to the first character may be set, so that when the print start switch is turned on, the lower end of the paper P is set. Printing on the area can be easily performed.

In the above embodiment, the printer 1 of the type in which the keyboard 14 is formed integrally with the case body 11 is used.
0, but the present invention is not limited to this.
The case body 11 and, consequently, the control unit 15 via a cable
Also includes the type connected to.

The center mark 25 and the print width display mark 2
6 and the printing start indication mark 27 can be displayed by engraving on the carriage 17 or the case main body 11 which is a peripheral portion thereof, or by attaching a label for marking, in addition to being formed by a projection.

Although the notch 12A is formed in the portion of the cover 12 corresponding to the liquid crystal display 16, a viewing window may be formed in the cover 12 instead.

[0024]

The present invention is constructed and operates as described above, so that the position of the sheet can be freely determined while visually observing the position on the sheet where printing should be performed. In particular, in the present invention, when the print layout is changed, the paper is set at a coarse position so that the paper can be freely moved, while the carriage is moved so that the center of the print head is viewed at the center mark. It is possible to obtain a very novel printing mode not available in existing printers, in which the relative positioning between the paper and the print head can be visually checked by performing positioning or the like, and printing can be started with the desired position determined. it can. Therefore, it is possible to provide a printer that satisfies the simplicity required especially when the paper used for the file spine is used.

Further, since the print width display marks are provided on both sides of the center mark, it is easy to intuitively grasp the selection of a balanced character size according to the left and right widths of the paper, and it is possible to make a printing error. There is no inconvenience of reprinting or the like caused by the above.

Further, since the print start position indicating mark for visually identifying the print start position is provided on the carriage, it is not necessary to set the top margin or the bottom margin on the paper from the input unit. Printing can be realized through simple operations.

[0027]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of a printer according to an embodiment viewed from above.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of the printer as viewed from the rear.

FIG. 3 is an upper plan view of the printer with a cover opened.

FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C are explanatory diagrams showing procedures when printing is performed using the printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 10 printer 11 case body 14 keyboard as input unit 15 control unit 17 carriage 17 print head 25 center mark 26 print width display mark 27 print start position display mark P paper

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yuki Shiozawa 435 Shimodonooka, Iida-shi, Nagano Heiwa Clock Mfg. Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-60-190376 (JP, A) JP-A-63- 188077 (JP, A) JP-A-6-325032 (JP, A) JP-A-60-85982 (JP, A) JP-A-61-109758 (JP, U) JP-A-60-120856 (JP, U) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 29/42

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A control unit disposed in a case main body and configured to control information input through an input unit in a predetermined manner; a carriage connected to the control unit and provided in the case main body; And a print head provided with the carriage, wherein the carriage is provided so as to be manually movable and can be stopped at an arbitrary position, and the carriage is moved to a predetermined position.
The paper is fed out in a state where it is set at a position, and is provided so as to be printable by the print head on the paper. The print center of the paper supplied to the print head is visually confirmed at or near the carriage. Center mark and the two sides on the same line sandwiching the center mark
Print width display mark and print opening to visually check the print start position
And a start position display mark .