JP3327430B2 - Printer control device - 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 control device used for a serial printer which outputs an image containing a plurality of colors in color.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 2 shows an arrangement of a print head of a conventional serial dot matrix type color printer, in which a plurality of print elements (corresponding to one pin of an impact printer and one nozzle of an ink jet printer). The same single heads, which are arranged in a line in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction, are arranged at a predetermined interval for each color in the main scanning direction and integrated to form a print head. This print head is mounted on a carriage and scanned in the digit direction, and the dot image is overprinted at the same position while correcting the interval between the color heads by shifting the output timing of print data.

In the driving of the print head shown in FIG. 2, first, as shown in the timing chart of FIG.
Drive), the print head moves to cyan-
The magenta (hereinafter abbreviated as M) head is driven after waiting for the magenta head interval a to move. Hereinafter, the yellow (hereinafter abbreviated as Y) and black (hereinafter abbreviated as B) heads are also driven after the print heads have moved by intervals b and c from the immediately preceding head driving time, so that B, Y,
The superimposition of four colors of M and C is realized.

[0004]

When color printing is performed by this method, it is necessary to drive all the printing elements of each color head, so that the hardware load such as power consumption is larger than that in single color printing. Become. In addition, since a buffer for holding an image to be printed is required for each color, a large amount of buffers must be prepared in advance, and the cost burden increases accordingly.

[0005] The present invention has been made in view of the above situation,
An object of the present invention is to provide a printer control device capable of performing multi-color printing with the same hardware configuration as that for performing single-color printing.

[0006]

Means for Solving the Problems] printer control apparatus of the present invention has a print head having a plurality of printing elements independently and in parallel for each color in the digit direction, the printing by scanning the print head in the girder direction in line Upu printer controller, and analyzing means for analyzing the number of colors used in a line, based on a result of the analysis means, a head control means for determining a number of used printing elements of the respective colors of the print head , based on the result of said analyzing means, and a buffer control means for dividing a buffer for storing the print image, the determined use indicia
It is possible to complete one-line printing with the number of scans according to the number of character elements.
And features.

Accordingly, when printing a plurality of colors at the same time, the number of printing elements to be used is limited according to the number of colors to be used and divided printing is performed. Printing can be performed with the same capacity as printing.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of a printer 2 incorporating a control device of the present invention. Print data sent from the host computer 1 to the printer 2 is first analyzed by the control unit 3, and color information is sent to the color counter 5.
The color counter 5 counts how many colors exist during one scan, and sends the counting result to the buffer control unit 6 and the head control unit 8. The buffer controller 6 divides the print buffer 7 for each color according to the number of colors sent from the color counter 5, and the head controller 8 determines the number of print elements of each color head to be used according to the number of colors sent from the color counter 5. To the print control unit 9 to restrict

Thereafter, the control unit 3 analyzes the transferred print data, reads font data from the character generator 4 as necessary, and writes a print image into the print buffer 7. At this time, the control unit 3 selectively develops only the image of the portion corresponding to the position of the print element to be used. The data written in the print buffer 7 is sent to the print control unit 9 with a print start command sent from the host computer 1 as a trigger, and printing is executed. At this time, printing is performed the number of times counted by the color counter 5. For example, when printing an image of three colors, an image for one pass is completed by three scans.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the buffer control unit 6. In this example, the colors to be used are B,
Y, M, and C are shown as four colors.

First, the print buffer is divided according to the number of input colors (S1). For example, if three colors are used, one print buffer is equally divided into one third to make three buffers. Then, in order to enter a process of determining which color each of the divided print buffers can correspond to, the print buffer number n is set to an initial value 1 (S2), and it is checked whether there is a pattern of B. (S3).

If the pattern B exists, the first print buffer is set as the print buffer for the image B (S4).
n is incremented by 1 (S5). In the same manner, if necessary for Y, M, and C, a print buffer corresponding to each color is determined (S6 to S13).

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an operation example of the head control unit 8. FIG. 5A shows elements which can be used when only one color (B) is used. In the element, a black circle is an unusable element. In this case, all the elements in one row of the B head can be used. FIG. 5B shows the elements that can be used when two colors (B, Y) are used, and only half of the elements of each of the B head and the Y head can be used.

Similarly, FIGS. 5C and 5D show a case where three colors (B, Y, M) are used and a case where four colors (B, Y, M,
Elements that can be used when (C) is used are shown, and the total number of elements that can be used in each case is limited to be the same. In the drawings, the positions of the elements to be used are shown with regularity, but the elements at any positions may be used as long as the number of available elements of each color is the same.

FIG. 6 is a view for explaining a printing method when printing is performed using four colors (B, Y, M, C). In FIG. 6A, printing elements which can be used at that time are indicated by white circles. (B) shows the final printing result. (C) to (f) are diagrams for explaining a state in which printing is performed in each scanning process.

First, in the first scan, only dots corresponding to black circles of lines 1, 5, and 9 are developed in the print buffers of the respective colors, and are printed by the printable elements (FIG. 6).
(C)). Thereafter, the paper is fed by one line (an amount corresponding to m), and only the dots corresponding to the black circles of 2, 6, and 10 lines are developed in the print buffers of the respective colors, and are printed by the printable elements ( FIG. 6D). Hereinafter, the same operation is repeated (FIGS. 6E and 6F), and finally the printing of the pattern shown in FIG. 6B is completed.

Next, another embodiment will be described.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a head used in this embodiment. In the heads of Y, M, and C, printing elements are arranged at a quarter of the density of the head of B.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an outline of the present embodiment. Print data sent from the host computer 11 to the printer 12 is first analyzed by the control unit 13 and color information is sent to the buffer control unit 15 and the head control unit 17. The buffer control unit 15 divides the print buffer 16 into four when the transmitted color information includes information other than black,
The head controller 17 controls the printer unit 1 to use only the printing elements corresponding to the element positions of the Y, M, and C heads among the printing elements of the black head in accordance with the transmitted color information.
Command 8

Thereafter, the control unit 13 analyzes the transferred print data and, if necessary,
The font data is read out from the printer, and the print image is written into each print buffer 16. At this time, the control unit 13 selectively develops only an image at a position corresponding to the position of the element to be used. The data written in the print buffer 16 is sent to the print control unit 18 with the print start command sent from the host computer 11 as a trigger, and as described in the first embodiment, one line is scanned by four head scans. Complete the printing of.

When only a black image is present during one scan, the print buffer 16 is not divided, and printing is completed by one head scan using all print elements in the black head.

[0022]

As described above, in the present invention, a print head having a plurality of print elements is arranged independently and in parallel for each color, and when printing in a single color, all print elements of the corresponding print head can be used. When printing multiple colors at the same time, the number of printing elements used is limited according to the number of colors used, and printing is completed by multiple scans, so power supply and image buffer perform single color printing It is possible to print with a plurality of colors by using the same hardware configuration of a conventional single-color printer as it is.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a head of a conventional color printer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing timing for driving a head of a conventional color printer.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the buffer control unit of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a printing element use state in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a printing operation when four colors are used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a print head arrangement used in another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an outline of another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Host computer 2 Printer as an example 3 Control part 4 Character generator 5 Color counter 6 Buffer control part 7 Print buffer 8 Head control part 9 Print control part 11 Host computer 12 Printer as an example 13 Control part 14 Character generator 15 Buffer Control unit 16 Print buffer 17 Head control unit 18 Print control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 2/525 B41J 2/21 B41J 5/30 H04N 1/46

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing head having a plurality of printing elements,
Independently and in parallel for each color,
Printer control device that prints by scanning in
The colors used in one linenumberAnalysis means for analyzing the; and the analysis meansResultBased on the print head of each color
Head control means for determining the number of printing elements used,Storing a print image based on the result of the analysis means;
Buffer control means for dividing the buffer into The number of scans based on the result of the analysis means Finish printing
A printer control device characterized by performing the following. 2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein when printing in a single color, printing is completed using all the printing elements of the corresponding print head, while printing in a plurality of colors is completed by scanning a plurality of times. The printer control device according to claim 1, wherein 3. The head control means determines the number of print elements that can be used in printing a target line so that the number of print elements that can be used is constant in total of all colors used.
Or the printer control device according to 2 .