JPH01118474A - Printer with partial erasing function of doubly printed part - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an image having no defect by composing to provide erasing means for covering all characters obtained from a plurality of printing data, and character reprint control means corresponding to printing data not to be erased. CONSTITUTION:A correction buffer 46 is of an input buffer which performs a function as printing data storage means. If printing data to be erased is provided in a storage area, when a correction key 26 is depressed in a state that a printing head 6 faces a duplicate printed part, a plurality of printing data corresponding to the positions of the head are read by a CPU 32 from the buffer 46, erasing operation is executed for all printing patterns obtained on the basis of the plurality of the data. Then, the printing pattern corresponding to the printing data not to be erased in a doubly printed part is reprinted. Accordingly, since the residual image on a printing sheet is composed of characters obtained on the basis of the residual printing data from which the printing data to be erased is removed in the duplicate printed part, it becomes an image having no defect.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a printing device capable of erasing a previously printed portion printed on printing paper based on print data stored in a print data storage means. It is something.

[Prior Art] The input means of such a printing device is capable of inputting print data and erasing commands, and the print data storage means stores the print data inputted from the input means with the print head position. It is designed to be associated and temporarily stored. In addition, in general, in a device that prints in a dot pattern, the print pattern storage means stores in advance the print pattern of each character corresponding to the print data that can be input, and when certain print data is input, the print pattern is - The print processing means prints on the print paper with a print pattern corresponding to the data. On the other hand, in devices that print using type, such as gauge wheel printers, a type position memory stores in advance the type position of each character that corresponds to print data that can be input, and when certain print data is input, The print processing means prints characters on the printing paper in accordance with the print data.

Then, in a device that is equipped with an erasure processing means for erasing printed data from the printing paper using the above-mentioned print data storage means, auto-correction is performed in the already printed area corresponding to the storage area of the print data storage means. It is possible.

That is, with the print head positioned on the printed area to be erased, based on an erase command from the input means, the erasure processing means reads out the print data of the printed area facing the print head from the print data storage means, Based on the print data, the already printed portion is erased.

[Problems to be solved by the invention] By the way, due to input errors, for example, two different characters (the first character and the second character) are printed in duplicate at the same position on the printing paper. Sometimes. Conventionally, when erasing only one character, for example, the second character, from such a duplicate print area and leaving the first character on the printing paper, the first character overlaps with the second character. Since the part with the original character is also erased, there was a problem that the remaining first character would be partially missing and incomplete.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and even when a command is given to erase characters forming a part of the overlapped printing area, the overlapped printing area does not erase the characters on the printing paper. An object of the present invention is to provide a printing device that does not cause defects in the image remaining on the image.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The printing device according to the present invention is a printing device equipped with the above-described input means, print data storage means, and print processing means, as shown in FIG. The feature is that when an erase command is input from the input means, the print data of the printed area facing the print head is read from the print data storage means, and a plurality of pieces of data printed in an overlapping form on the printed area are read out from the print data storage means. If print data exists, an erasure processing means performs erasure covering all characters obtained based on the plurality of print data, and corresponds to the print data that was not targeted for erasure in the duplicate printing section by the erasure command. and reprint control means for causing the print processing means to reprint characters.

[Operation and Effect] In such a printing device, when there is a plurality of print data printed in an overlapping form at a position on the printing paper facing the print head, an erasure command is input from the input means. Then, the erasure processing means executes erasure covering all characters obtained based on the plurality of print data. Then, nothing is printed at the position on the printing paper where the erasure was performed. Then, under the control of the reprint control means, the print processing means executes reprinting of the characters corresponding to the print data that was not targeted for erasure in the duplicate printing section. As a result, the image remaining on the printing paper is composed of characters obtained based on the remaining print data excluding the print data targeted for erasure in the duplicate print section, and therefore is an image without missing parts. Moreover, since the above-mentioned erasing operation and reprinting operation are performed automatically, an image without the above-mentioned omission can be obtained even though the operator's operations are the same as those of the conventional method.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 shows an electronic typewriter which is an embodiment of the present invention. This typewriter is equipped with a keyboard 2 as input means and a printer 4 constituting printing processing means or erasing processing means. In this example, the printer 4 is of a thermal transfer type, and the print head 6 heats the ink on the print ribbon 10 as the carriage 8 moves to print on the print paper 1.
2 and print characters, etc.

A collection blade 13 is provided adjacent to the print head 6. During erasing, the print head 6 is pressed against the object to be erased via the print ribbon 10, and heat treatment is performed in an appropriate pattern, and the collection blade 13 applies a predetermined pressure from the print head 6 along the print line. The printing ribbon 10 is pressed against the printing paper 12 at a separated position, and collection is performed in this state. That is, in this example, the ink in the printing ribbon 10 becomes viscous at a temperature intermediate between the printing temperature and room temperature, and the ink that reaches the printing temperature due to the heat generated by the print head 6 flows between the print head 6 and the collection plate 13. While running between the print ribbons 10 and 10, the print ribbon cools down to an intermediate temperature and becomes viscous, causing the ink to be erased to adhere to the print ribbon 10 and be peeled off.

Keyboard 2 has alphabet keys 14°, space key 16. Including print data input keys such as numeric keys 18 for inputting print data, carriage return key 24 for moving the carriage 8 to the left margin. Many function keys are provided, such as a correction key 26 for performing autocorrection.

As shown in FIG. 3, the keyboard 2 is connected to the CPU 32 via a keyboard interface 30, and the printer 4 is connected to the CPU 32 via a printer driver 34 and a printer interface 36. A ROM 38 and a RAM 40 are connected to the CPU 32.

The ROM 38 includes a program memory 42 that stores programs for controlling the operation of the entire typewriter, a dot pattern memory 44 that stores individual dot matrix printing patterns such as characters that can be manually operated, and other necessary memories. is provided. The dot pattern memory 44 is commonly called a character generator, and will be referred to as such hereinafter.

On the other hand, the RAM 40 includes a collection buffer 746 that temporarily stores the code data of the input key, and a head counter 50 that indicates the position of the print head 6 on the print line. Various registers and counters are provided, including a start position register 52 that stores the start position of the collection buffer 46 in association with the head position.

The collection buffer 46 is an input buffer that functions as a print data storage means, and has a capacity that can store code data corresponding to a limited fixed number of characters (for example, about 20 characters), and corresponds data input manually with the head position. In this embodiment, the correction buffer 46 is also used as a buffer for executing autocorrection. That is why it is called a collection buffer.

That is, if the print data to be erased is within the storage area of the collection buffer 46 (in other words, if the print data to be erased is in the already printed area corresponding to the storage area of the collection buffer 46), the print head 6 is erased. By pressing the ``rection key 26'' while facing the object, the print data corresponding to that head position is sent to the CPU 3.
2] is read from the collection buffer 746,
The above-described erasure operation is performed using the same pattern as the erasure target, and autocorrection is achieved.

Further, when the correction key 26 is pressed with the print head 6 facing the overlapped printing section in the already printed area,
A plurality of print data corresponding to that head position is sent to the CPU 3.
2 from the collection buffer 46,
The above-described erasing operation is performed on all the print patterns obtained based on the plurality of print data, and then reprinting is performed in the duplicate print section using the print pattern corresponding to the print data that was not targeted for erasure. This achieves partial erasure of the overlapped print area.

In addition, in the collection in this duplicate printing section, the print data inputted last among the plurality of print data is targeted for deletion.

Next, the concept of the contents of the collection buffer 46 will be explained with reference to FIG. 4 and the like. If all the characters have the same graininess, the character data input and printed in the format shown in the upper row of FIG. stored within. In addition to the printed character data, pitch information is added as data representing attributes related to the character data in association with the character data. Note that (I11 in the figure) means "'Nul code'" and is a code indicating that nothing has been written.

Pitch information represents the interval (distance) between a certain character and the next character, and is determined as "1" for one printing pitch and "2" for two printing pitches. When a character is printed overlapping another character (for example, I"HJ and "■" in the figure), its pitch information becomes rOJ. By adding pitch information, the position in the buffer can be associated with the head position, and the existence of a space can be known without putting the space code itself in the buffer, so more character data can be stored in the buffer. can be done. For example, if there is a space after "C" in the diagram, the pitch information is set to "12", so
Spaces are stored in the form of pitch information. The space that is stored in place of pitch information in this way is also referred to as "packaged space" hereinafter.

As shown in Figure 5, when characters have different serrations, in addition to pitch information, character width information is added in association with the character data as data representing attributes related to the character data. . This character width information is determined as "1" for normal width, ro, 5J for half width, r2J for double width, and 13 for triple width, and by incorporating this character width information, pitch information is determined. It will be decided.

As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the head position of the buffer is managed by the head position register 52 regardless of whether the characters are all the same size or different.

A state in which this buffer has reached its storage capacity limit (rF
ullJ) shifts the data in the buffer to the left and stores the new data at the target position. During the shift, the head position register adds the pitch information and establishes a correspondence between the position of the print head 6 (that is, the contents of the head counter 50) and the buffer head position.

The program stored in the program memory 42 of the ROM 38 will be explained below, focusing on the parts related to the present invention, based on the flowchart shown in FIG. In the following description, reference numerals for members or elements will be used only when necessary.

In FIG. 6, when the power is turned on, initial processing is performed in step S1 (hereinafter referred to as S1; the same applies to other steps), and the collection buffer 46 is cleared in S2. In detail, the collection buffer clearing process, as shown in Figure 7, clears the entire collection buffer in Sb1, that is, all memory areas are
This is a routine in which the current head position is written into the head position register 52 in step Sb2.

Then, at 83 in FIG. 6, the key enters the state of waiting for manual input, and depending on the type of key operated, for example, alphabet key 1.
If it is a print data input key such as 4, the printing process of S5 is
If the correction key is the 26, the correction process of S7 is executed, if the carriage return key is the 24, the carriage return process of S9 is executed, and if it is any other key, the other process of 310 is executed, and the process returns to S3.

The carriage return process, as shown in the routine in Figure 8, moves the print head to the left margin using SCI, and feeds a predetermined amount of line at SC2, in other words, uses a predetermined paper feed motor to move the print paper perpendicular to the print line. This process consists of sending the data in the same direction and clearing the collection buffer at SC3 as described above.

Further, FIG. 9 shows a detailed routine for the printing process in S5. First, it is determined by Sal whether the print data can be printed, and if the print head is on the light margin, an alarm processing of Se9 is performed, but if printing is possible, S
Move to e2. At Se2, it is determined whether the indicated position in the collection buffer corresponding to the print head position is an additional position. If this judgment is No, it means that in the print area corresponding to the storage area of the collection buffer, the print head is placed opposite to the already printed data on the print paper, and another data is printed overlappingly. means.

In addition, if the above judgment is YES, it means that the input is in a regular format that does not overlap, and in that case, Sa
Move to 3.

In Sa3, human data is stored in a space (in the figure, “'S
P”), and if it is a space, it is 5.
The process moves to a10, and it is determined whether 1 can be added to the pitch information of the last data of the correction buffer, and YE
If it is S's judgment, by executing step 5a11 which adds 1, the data in the space becomes the ``compressed space''.
The pitch information is stored in the form of an increase in pitch information. If the limit number of compressed spaces that can be replaced by pitch information is exceeded, the determination in 5a10 will be No, and the space will be stored as a single space code in the same way as a character.

The manually entered print data is stored in the collection buffer, but the correction buffer 7 is rF
It is determined whether it is FullJ or not, and "If it is FullJ,
At Sa5, the data in the correction buffer is shifted to the left along with attributes such as pitch information. Data at the beginning of the buffer.

The attributes will overflow the buffer and be deleted, but
The pitch information at the head of the buffer is added to the contents of the head position register to maintain the correspondence between the head position and the head of the buffer. On the other hand, Collection Buff 1 is “Ful
If it is not lj, 3a4 is No, and Sa5 is skipped.

In any case, the process moves to Sa6, and print data, pitch information, and necessary character width information are written at the end of the buffer 1 that is empty as a result of the left shift or is originally empty.

Further, the process moves to Sa7, where printing is performed according to the print data and attributes, and increases in accordance with the movement amount of the print head of the head counter.

On the other hand, if Sa2 determines that it is not the buffer addition position, this means that printing will be performed in the same position as the data that has already been printed, and the buffer position corresponding to that head position has already been printed. Contains data. At step 5a13, existing data corresponding to the current head position is read out prior to storing the actual manually input data in the collection buffer.

Then, in 5a14, it is determined whether the existing data is a compressed space, and if YES, the process moves to 5a15. In 5a15, it is determined whether the data input later is a space, and if so, the head is simply moved in Sa7 even if it overlaps with existing data, but if not, 5a16 is executed. . In other words, a space in which existing data is compressed means that the data itself is not stored in a buffer but in the form of pitch information, but when looking at printing, the space is compressed (
New data will be printed in the margin) and the space will disappear. Therefore, in 3a16, the pitch information of the corresponding data in the buffer is decreased by 1, and it becomes "2".
will be "1".

Furthermore, it moves to 5a17 and the collection buffer becomes 1-F.
It is determined whether it is ullJ or not. If YES, 5
The process moves to a18, and the data to the left of the current head position is shifted to the left along with its attributes. The data corresponding to the head position, that is, the data having the space facing the head position as pitch information, is included and shifted to the left, and the same applies to the similar steps in FIG. During this left shift, the pitch information at the head of the buffer is added to the head position register. If the determination in 5a17 is NO, the process moves to 5a19, and the data on the side of the current head position is shifted to the right together with its attributes. The data corresponding to the head position remains unchanged, and the data to the right is shifted to the right. The same applies to similar steps in FIG. Then, data and attributes are written in the space vacated by executing 5a18 or 5a19 in 5a20, and then the process moves to Sa7.

On the other hand, if the input is in the form of duplicate printing and the existing data corresponding to the head position is normal character data, the determination in 5a14 is No.

Here, if the data entered later is a space, 5
The process moves to Sa7 in the same way as the judgment in a15. On the other hand, if the input data is character data, the process moves to 5a25 via 5a24, and the collection buffer is rFu I.
It is determined whether it is IJ or not.

If it is not "Full", 5a32 is executed to right shift the data and attributes on the right side of the current head position,
At 5a33, data and attributes (excluding pitch information) are written into the vacant locations. Further move to 5a34,
The step of writing the pitch information attached to the data on the left side of the newly written old data as the pitch information of the newly written data, and erasing the pitch information of the left side data (O clear) is executed. be done.

Since the previous data on the left side and the subsequent data, newly written data, are printed overlappingly at the same position, the pitch information is set to "O".

Also, at 5a25, the collection buffer is
, and if it is determined in 5a26 that the head position does not correspond to the beginning of the buffer, then 5a
By executing step 30, the data on the left side of the current head position is shifted to the left along with the attributes, and the pitch information at the beginning of the buffer is added to the start position register.
5a34 is executed.

If it is determined in 5a26 that the head position corresponds to the head of the buffer, the input print data is overwritten at the head of the buffer, and as a result, the previous data at the head of the buffer is erased.

The data at the beginning of the buffer is replaced with new data. However, the previous pitch information of the first data remains unchanged.

In any case, 5a27 or 5a34, or 5
a20. Sa7 is executed after Sa6 etc., and if the input print data is at the buffer addition position, it is in the normal form.
If it is not an additional position, each piece of data is printed in an overlapping form at the same position as the previous data. Thereafter, this print processing routine can be handled and the process returns to 83 in FIG. Similarly below,
83. By going through a loop passing through S4 and S5, the print data is sequentially written into the collection buffer and printing is performed.

Next, the correction processing routine of S7 is shown in FIG. 10. During auto-correction, the correction key is usually pressed while the print head is positioned facing the object to be erased on the print paper. Yes, but first Sdl
, it is determined whether collection by that key operation is possible. If the head position is outside the storage area of the correction buffer, alarm processing is executed in Sd9, but if it is within the storage area, the process moves to Sd2, and character data exists at the corresponding location in the collection buffer corresponding to the current head position. It will be decided whether or not to do so.

If YES, the process moves to step 5d13, where the dot pattern to be erased is read out from the CPU or the character generator 44, and correction is executed based on the pattern data. Note that if the printing at the head position is duplicate printing and there is a plurality of print data, the dot pattern corresponding to the last of the print data is read out. Then, in step 5d14, it is determined whether there are any further printed characters at the same position facing the print heads, in other words, whether there are any duplicated characters. This is r as pitch information in the print data of the corresponding part of the collection buffer corresponding to the head position.
This is done by the CPU determining whether there is any item with OJ attached. If YES, in step 5d15, the print data to which "0" is attached, that is, the dot pattern of the character not to be erased, is read out from the character generator, and a collection is executed based on the dot pattern.

For example, rHJ conceptually shown in FIG. 11 (A>, (B))
If "■" and "■" are printed overlappingly in this order, the pattern shown in FIG. 11(C) will be printed on the printing paper. If the correction key is pressed with the print head facing this duplicate print area, rIJ will be erased, and "■" will be displayed in the process of 5d13.
will be deleted. Thereafter, rHJ is erased in the process of 5d15. That is, for the overlapping printing portion of rHJ and rlJ, the heating element of the print head generates heat corresponding to "■" and the erasing pattern of rHJ, and as described above, the printing ribbon is connected to the print head and the rection blade. While traveling between the two, the temperature drops to an intermediate temperature and becomes viscous, and the ink in the portion corresponding to the erasing pattern is stripped from the overlapping print area to the print ribbon side.

After 8d15, the process moves to 5d14 again, and if there are characters printed overlappingly at the same position that are not to be erased,
]rection is executed.

In addition, in conjunction with this correction in 5d13, the print data targeted for deletion in the correction buffer is deleted, but the pitch information is retained.

On the other hand, when the determination in step 5d14 is No, that is, when the objects to be erased facing the print head do not overlap, only the correction based on the dot pattern of the print data is performed.

If the determination at 5d14 is No, it is determined at 5d18 whether or not the executed collection was for only one character. If the duplicate print area is not corrected, the judgment result is YES, and in 5d20, the pitch information of the data one level above the position corresponding to the current head position in the correction buffer is set to the pitch of the print data to be erased. It is determined whether the information can be added. If addition is possible, the process moves to 5d21 and the pitch information of the print data to be erased is added to the upper pitch information. In other words, “compressed space”
It is remembered as.

Thereafter, in step 5d23, the print data on the lower side than the position where the erased print data was located is shifted to the upper side to eliminate unnecessary areas. On the other hand, if the pitch information on the upper side has reached the specified value (if it cannot be added), 5d
22, a space code is written in the location where the erased print data was stored, and the pitch information held in 5d18 is left unchanged as the pitch information of the location, and then the process moves to Sd5.

On the other hand, when the judgment in 5d18 is YES, that is, if the executed collection is for the duplicate print area,
At step 5d24, the pitch information of the print data targeted for erasure is written in the pitch information of the last print data other than the data to be erased in the duplicate print section. If there is only one piece of print data excluding the data to be erased, the above writing is performed on that print data. In the example of Fig. 11, since rHJ and rIJ are printed in duplicate in this order, the pitch information of "H" is "□II," but the pitch information of "H" has "■". This is to write the pitch information that was previously used. Then, the print data targeted for erasure is erased, and the print data lower than that position is shifted to the upper side to eliminate unnecessary areas.

Thereafter, in 5d25, printing is performed based on all the print data remaining at the current position. In the example of FIG. 11, rHJ is printed.

Then, the process moves to Sd5, and it is determined whether or not there is character data below the buffer position corresponding to the current head position. If this judgment is YES, it means that the space resulting from the collection is inside the string, and in this case, the collection processing routine can be handled and the 6th
Return to 83 in the figure. On the other hand, if the judgment in Sd5 is No, it means that the space generated as a result of the collection is located at the end of the character string, and in this case, it is normal that further printing is performed in that part. Therefore, the buffer space is not treated as space, and 5d21 or 5
The space information given in d23 is deleted. That is, if the space at the erase position is captured as compressed data, the pitch information corresponding to the compressed data is decreased by 1 through Sd6 and Sd7, and if it is written as code data instead of compressed data, Sd
At step 8, the code data and attributes of the space are erased, and the collection process is completed.

Note that if Si2 determines that there is no character data in the buffer area corresponding to the current head position, Si3
The process moves to 5d12, where it is determined whether the data in the upper digit is a space, that is, whether there is character data in the upper digit. It is moved one digit higher, and then the process moves to steps 5d13 and subsequent steps as described above. In other words, if there is a character at the current head position, that character is collected (Si2→5d13...), and if not, the next higher character is collected (Si2→Si3→5d1...).
2→5d13...).

Further, if there is no character at the current head position, and the higher-order digit is also a space instead of a character, the process moves to Si2 and the print head is moved to the higher-order position by one digit, resulting in a determination of Si5. If this judgment is No, that is, the space is located at the end of the character string, for example, the operator inserted a space in the middle of printing, realized that the space was unnecessary and pressed the correction key. Depending on the situation, in such a case, the data of the space at the position after the head movement is transferred from Si6 to SO2 or S
It is deleted from the collection buffer via i8. On the other hand, if the space is not the last space in the string but exists between characters, Si5's judgment is YE.
S, the print head only moves at Si2, the space data is not erased, and the collection processing routine ends.

It should be noted that the program flowchart described above is just one example, and the program configuration can be changed as appropriate depending on the model of the printing device.

In addition, regarding the structure of the correction buffer, it does not use pitch information to correlate the buffer position and head position, but rather stores an absolute position, or has a storage capacity for one line and stores a relative position. The so-called pointer management method to be stored can be changed as appropriate.

Roughly speaking, in this embodiment, the last inputted print data among the plurality of print data in the duplicate print section was targeted for erasing, but any print data among the plurality of print data can be deleted manually using a separate key. It is also possible to specify it as a deletion target.

Furthermore, although the printer of this embodiment has been described by taking as an example a printer that prints by dot patterns, it goes without saying that the present invention is also applicable to printers that print by type.

Furthermore, it is not necessary to perform the correction for the duplicate print area for each character corresponding to each print data.With a dot printer, the print patterns obtained from all the print data in the duplicate print area are synthesized in advance, and collection is performed using the combined pattern. If you are using a printer that uses type, you can collect using a pattern that covers all the dots.Also, if you are using a printer that uses type, you can perform collection using type that is specifically designed for erasing and covers all types of type characters. Good too.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be implemented with various other modifications based on the knowledge of those skilled in the art.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a diagram conceptually showing the present invention, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of an electronic typewriter which is an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing its control circuit, and Fig. 4. and FIG. 5 are diagrams showing the contents of the collection buffer in correspondence with printing examples of character data, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an outline of the program stored in the program memory, and FIG. 7 is a collection in FIG. 6. 8 shows the same carriage return process, FIG. 9 shows the same print process, and FIG. 10 shows the same correction process. FIGS. 11 (A) and (B) show the dot pattern. An example is the 11th
Figure (C) is a diagram showing an example of a dot pattern in the overlapped printing portion. In the figure, 2 is a keyboard, 4 is a printer, 6 is a print head, 12 is a printing paper, 26 is a collection key, 44 is a dot pattern memory (character generator), 46
is a collection buffer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] Input means capable of inputting print data and erasing command; Print data storage means for storing print data input from the input means in association with print head position; a print processing means for printing a character corresponding to the print data on the print paper; and when an erase command is input from the input means, reading the print data of the already printed portion facing the print head from the print data storage means. ,
If there is a plurality of printed data printed in duplicate on the already printed area, an erasure processing means that performs erasing covering all characters obtained based on the plurality of printed data; A printing device having a function of partially erasing a duplicate printing section, comprising: reprinting control means for causing the printing processing section to reprint characters corresponding to print data that was not targeted for erasure in the printing section. .