JP3130910U - Thermal line printer - Google Patents

Abstract

In a thermal line printer, a print image of a thermal serial printer is easily and reliably realized without particularly changing the hardware configuration.
A thermal line printer has two types of print modes: a “normal print mode” and a “serial printer compatible print mode”. In the serial printer compatible printing mode, first, a printing operation is performed by energizing the heating element 21 at a predetermined position, and then a paper feeding operation is performed once. Next, a second printing operation is performed by energizing the heating element 21 at a position where half of the heating element 21 overlaps half of the first printing area, and one paper feeding operation is performed. Next, the printing operation is not performed, and only one paper feeding operation (idle processing) is performed. By doing so, a print image having an aspect ratio of 3: 2 can be obtained.
[Selection] Figure 6

Description

  The present invention relates to a thermal line printer, and more particularly to print control of a thermal line printer.

  Recently, in the field of thermal printers, generation changes from serial printers to line printers are progressing. The thermal serial printer prints characters one by one, whereas the thermal line printer prints one line at a time, so the thermal line printer can perform high-speed and high-quality printing.

  By the way, while the print image of the thermal line printer has an aspect ratio of 1: 1, the print image of the thermal serial printer generally has an aspect ratio of 3: 2. Therefore, even if the same content is printed on a predetermined sheet using a thermal line printer, there is a problem that it is different from the print image of the thermal serial printer.

For this reason, character layout information is prepared, and the character information to be created is added with a flag for the same type / different types of characters, and the character layout (height, etc.) to be printed is changed based on the flag. Thus, a method for dealing with different print images has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-324906

  However, since the conventional method according to Patent Document 1 supports this by changing the character layout, when the printing pitch is 3: 2, a certain part is developed to two pitches and a certain part is developed to one pitch. I have to let it. In this case, since the entire vertical pitch cannot be set to 1.5 times, there is a problem that the print image cannot be adjusted 100%. There is also a problem that the conversion determination work is wide at the time of character layout, which is very complicated and difficult to understand.

  In order to solve such a problem, it is more reliable and simpler to separate the character information developed in the print buffer by changing only the print pitch without preparing the same kind or different kinds of information.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a thermal line printer capable of easily and reliably realizing a print image of a thermal serial printer without particularly changing the hardware configuration.

  The above object of the present invention is to provide a thermal line head for printing with thermal paper being heated,

  A paper feed mechanism that controls the paper feed of the thermal paper; and a print control unit that controls the thermal line head and the paper feed mechanism. The print control unit prints a pixel with an aspect ratio of 1: 1. A first print mode for printing an image, and a second print mode for printing a print image in which the aspect ratio of one pixel is m: n (where m and n are integers and m> n). This is achieved by a thermal line printer characterized by:

  According to the present invention, two types of print modes having different aspect ratios of print images can be selectively used, so that compatibility with a thermal serial printer can be ensured.

In the present invention, when the aspect ratio of the thermal line head is 1: 1 and the width of the thermal line head in the paper feeding direction is W ₁ , the paper feeding mechanism has a paper feeding pitch P = It is preferable to perform a paper feeding operation with W ₁ / n. In this case, in the first printing mode, after one printing operation and paper feeding operation are performed, one pixel is printed by performing (n-1) paper feeding operations, and the second printing mode is performed. In the print mode, it is preferable to print one pixel by alternately performing n times of printing operation and paper feeding operation and then performing (mn) times of paper feeding operation. According to this, since the sheet feeding pitch P of the thermal paper is set to a narrower value than the width W ₁ of the paper feeding direction of the thermal line head, possible to perform the printing operation and the paper feed operation a predetermined number of times Thus, it is possible to realize print images having different aspect ratios using a general thermal head having an aspect ratio of 1: 1. That is, two types of print images can be easily and reliably realized without particularly changing the hardware configuration.

  In the present invention, the aspect ratio of the thermal line head is 1: n, and in the first printing mode, one pixel is printed by performing printing operation and paper feeding operation n times, and the second printing operation is performed. In the printing mode, it is also preferable to print one pixel by performing m printing operations and paper feeding operations. According to this, two types of print images can be realized without performing complicated print control.

  In the present invention, it is preferable that the first print mode is a normal print mode and the second print mode is a serial printer compatible print mode in which m: n = 3: 2. According to this, in the thermal line printer, compatibility with the thermal serial printer can be ensured.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a thermal line printer capable of easily and reliably realizing a print image of a thermal serial printer.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the overall configuration of a thermal line printer according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, a thermal line printer 10 includes a thermal line head 11 for printing thermal characters on a thermal paper, a paper feed mechanism 12 for controlling the paper feed of the thermal paper, and a thermal line. A system controller 13 for controlling the entire printer including the head 11 and the paper feed mechanism 12, a sensor 14 for detecting the presence or absence of thermal paper and a predetermined operating position of the thermal line head 11, and a panel for performing various settings A switch 15 and an interface circuit (I / F) 16 for connecting to the host PC are provided.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the thermal line head 11.

The thermal line head 11 has a configuration in which heating elements 21 for heating the thermal paper 20 as printing paper in units of dots are arranged in a line. The thermal line head 11 of this embodiment has 448 heating elements 21, and the width (vertical width) W1 of _one heating element 21 in the paper feed direction and the width (horizontal width) W in a direction orthogonal thereto. Both ₂ are 0.14 mm.

The paper feed mechanism 12 includes a plurality of conveyance rollers, a stepping motor for rotationally driving a predetermined conveyance roller, a drive circuit for controlling the driving of the stepping motor, and the like. The paper feed mechanism 12 performs a paper feed operation for moving the thermal line head 11 to a desired print position. Generally, the paper feed amount (paper feed pitch) P by one paper feed operation is set to be substantially the same as the vertical width W ₁ (that is, the dot size) of the thermal line head 11. However, in the present embodiment, the paper feed pitch P is set to half the longitudinal width W ₁ of the thermal line head 11, that is, P = W ₁ /2=0.07 mm. Therefore, after printing at a certain position, in order to move the thermal line head 11 to the next printing position, two paper feeding operations are required.

  3 and 4 are schematic diagrams for explaining the printing mode of the thermal line printer 10.

  The thermal line printer 10 of the present embodiment has two types of print modes, “normal print mode” and “serial printer compatible print mode”. The normal print mode is a mode for printing a print image in which the aspect ratio of one pixel is 1: 1 as shown in FIG. The serial printer compatible print mode is a mode for printing a print image in which the aspect ratio of one pixel is 3: 2, as shown in FIG. In either mode, the same thermal line head 11 is used to change the paper feed amount and print timing, thereby realizing each mode. These modes may be switched by operating the panel switch 14 or by transferring a print mode selection command from the host PC. This print mode information is stored in a memory (not shown) as a print pitch flag.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining the normal printing mode. Here, the operation of one heating element 21 of the thermal line head is shown, and the overall description is omitted.

  In the normal printing mode, first, as shown in FIG. 5A, a printing operation is performed by energizing the heating element 21 at a predetermined position, and then a single paper feeding operation is performed. Next, as shown in FIG. 5B, the printing operation is not performed, and only the paper feeding operation (idle processing) is performed. By doing in this way, as shown in FIG.5 (c), the heat generating body 21 arrives at the following printing position. Therefore, when printing is performed at a new printing position, as shown in FIGS. 5A to 5C, one printing operation and paper feeding operation and one blanking process are sequentially performed. . Since the size of one pixel printed in this way is 0.14 mm in both length and width, a print image having an aspect ratio of 1: 1 can be obtained.

  FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram for explaining the serial printer compatible printing mode. Here, as in FIG. 5, the operation of one heating element 21 of the thermal line head is shown, and the overall description is omitted.

  In the serial printer compatible printing mode, first, as shown in FIG. 6A, a printing operation is performed by energizing the heating element 21 at a predetermined position, and then a single paper feeding operation is performed. Next, as shown in FIG. 6B, a second printing operation is performed by energizing the heating element 21 at a position where half of the heating element 21 overlaps half of the first printing area, and one sheet of paper. Perform feed operation. Next, as shown in FIG. 6C, the printing operation is not performed, and only one paper feeding operation (idle processing) is performed. By doing in this way, as shown in Drawing 6 (d), heating element 21 arrives at the next printing position. Therefore, when printing is performed at a new printing position, as shown in FIGS. 6A to 6D, two printing operations and paper feeding operations and one blanking process are sequentially performed. . Since the size of one pixel printed in this way is 0.21 mm in length and 0.14 mm in width, an elongated print image having an aspect ratio of 3: 2 can be obtained.

As described above, according to the thermal line printer 10 of this embodiment, with respect to the width W ₁ of the paper feeding direction of the thermal line head 11, to set the paper feeding pitch P of the thermal paper to W _1/2, usually In the printing mode, one printing operation and two paper feeding operations are performed per one pixel printing, and only one paper feeding operation is performed every two times. In the serial printer compatible printing mode, one pixel printing is performed. Since the printing operation is performed twice and three times, and only the paper feeding operation is performed once every three times, the thermal line printer 10 can print the same print image as the serial printer at a higher speed. be able to. Also, since the character information to be developed in the print buffer is divided by changing only the print pitch without preparing the same kind or different kinds of information, a serial printer compatible print mode can be realized reliably and easily.

  7 and 8 are schematic views showing the configuration and operation of a thermal line printer according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

The feature of this embodiment is that the aspect ratio of the thermal line head is 1: 2. That is, the vertical width W ₁ of the heat generating element 21 is 0.07 mm, and the horizontal width W ₂ is 0.14 mm. In such a hardware configuration, in the normal printing mode, as shown in FIG. 7, by performing the printing operation twice and the paper feeding operation, one pixel with an aspect ratio of 1: 1 is printed, which is compatible with a serial printer. In the print mode, as shown in FIG. 8, one pixel having an aspect ratio of 3: 2 is printed by performing a print operation and a paper feed operation three times. Thus, according to the present embodiment, since the aspect ratio of the thermal line head is changed, two types of print images can be realized without performing complicated print control. In the case of the present embodiment, the paper feeding step is increased twice in the normal printing mode. However, since the size of the heating element is reduced, the time required for heating can be shortened, and the entire time required for the printing process is the first. There is no great difference from the thermal line printer shown in the embodiment.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various changes can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

For example, in the above-described embodiment, the case where compatibility with a thermal serial printer having a print image with an aspect ratio of 3: 2 has been described, but the present invention is not limited to such a case. For example, an aspect ratio of 5: In the case where there is a thermal printer having 3 print image, if you wish to ensure compatibility therewith, and a paper feeding pitch P = W _1/3, 3 times of printing operation and 2 It is sufficient to perform the empty shot process once. This can be generalized as follows.

In the first embodiment, when it is desired to ensure compatibility with a thermal printer having a print image with an aspect ratio of m: n, the paper feed pitch P of the thermal paper is set to W ₁ / n. After performing the printing operation and paper feeding operation once, (n-1) times of paper feeding operation are performed, thereby printing one line. In the compatible printing mode, n times of printing operation and paper feeding operation are alternately performed, and then (mn) times of paper feeding operations are performed to perform printing for one line. By doing in this way, it has a normal print mode in which the aspect ratio of the print image is 1: 1, and a compatible print mode in which the aspect ratio is m: n (where m> n), A thermal line printer that can switch these modes by a switch operation can be realized.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the overall configuration of a thermal line printer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the thermal line head 11. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram for explaining the normal printing mode of the thermal line printer 10. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining the serial printer compatible printing mode of the thermal line printer 10. FIGS. 5A to 5C are schematic diagrams for explaining the operation of the thermal line printer 10 in the normal printing mode. 6A to 6D are schematic diagrams for explaining the operation of the thermal line printer 10 in the serial printer compatible printing mode. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram for explaining the normal printing mode of the thermal line printer according to the second embodiment. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram for explaining the serial printer compatible print mode of the thermal line printer according to the second embodiment.

Explanation of symbols

10 thermal line printer 11 thermal line head 12 paper feed mechanism 13 the system controller 14 sensor 15 panel switch 20 thermal paper 21 heating element _{W 1} heating element 21 that is perpendicular to the width _{W 2} paper feed direction of the paper feed direction and parallel to the heating element 21 Width of

Claims (5)

A thermal line head for printing with thermal paper
A paper feed mechanism for controlling the paper feed of the thermal paper;
A print control unit for controlling the thermal line head and the paper feed mechanism;
The print control unit
A first print mode for printing a print image having a 1: 1 aspect ratio of one pixel;
A thermal line printer having a second print mode for printing a print image having an aspect ratio of one pixel of m: n (where m and n are integers and m> n). The aspect ratio of the thermal line head is 1: 1,
When the width of the paper feeding direction of the thermal line head and W _1,
The thermal line printer according to claim 1, wherein the paper feeding mechanism performs a paper feeding operation with a paper feeding pitch P of the thermal paper of P = W ₁ / n. In the first print mode, one pixel is printed by performing (n-1) paper feed operations after performing one print operation and paper feed operation,
2. The method according to claim 1, wherein in the second print mode, n times of printing operation and paper feeding operation are alternately performed, and then (mn) times of paper feeding operations are performed to print one pixel. 2. The thermal line printer according to 2. The aspect ratio of the thermal line head is 1: n,
In the first printing mode, one pixel is printed by performing n times of printing operation and paper feeding operation,
2. The thermal line printer according to claim 1, wherein in the second printing mode, one pixel is printed by performing m times of printing operation and paper feeding operation. The first print mode is a normal print mode,
5. The thermal line printer according to claim 2, wherein the second printing mode is a serial printer compatible printing mode in which m: n = 3: 2.

Images