JPH01157866A - Printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent printing quality or throughput from being lowered by determining a printing position through feeding a paper after recognizing the part of a printing text at which characters not greater than the original character size are expanded, even where a printing text containing enlarged characters and the characters not greater than the original character size. CONSTITUTION:A printing text received from a computer 11 is processed by a microprocessor 13, and images or figures and characters greater than the original character size are stored in an OR basis into a page memory 16. Characters of the original character size are stored into a code buffer 14 after printing attribute data is added to the code values thereof. Where the original- size characters are absent, images stored into the memory 16 sequentially from the top of a page (TOF) are outputted by an amount corresponding to the width of a printing head 30, e.g., 24 dots, and are printed. An original-size character 'C' is found with a relationship of c<c'<d between lines (c) and (d) by retrieval. As a result, paper feed data for a paper feed of c'-c is added to the end of the content of a line buffer 19, and the content of the page memory 16 between the lines (c) and (d), namely, parts of characters 'A' and 'B' are printed, and the paper feed of c'-c is conducted.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a printer control device for controlling printing of a Kanji serial printer or the like.

(Prior Art) In general, as it has become essential for Kanji serial printers (hereinafter abbreviated as KSP) to have form overlay/image processing functions and printing enlarged characters, KSPil
It has page memory in the Jtlli location. This is because if the contents of one page to be printed are stored in advance in the page memory, it is possible to cut out and print out the dot images sequentially from the beginning of the page by relatively simple control.

However, in the case of KSP, the above-described control causes problems when printing characters whose vertical magnification is equal to or lower than the same size (hereinafter abbreviated as equal-size characters).

Normally, full-size characters are printed with one head movement, but for example, when printing text that includes enlarged characters rAJrBJ and full-size characters rCJ rDJ as shown in Figure 3, the same-size characters rcJ rDJ are It is divided into upper and lower parts and printed twice.

This is because when printing is performed, it is not recognized where in the page memory the same size characters are expanded, and the characters are simply output sequentially by the head width, for example, 24 dots, from the top of the page (TOF>). When characters are printed separately in this way, the top and bottom may not connect properly due to mechanical characteristics such as paper feeding and head movement of the KSP.
There was a problem that print quality deteriorated. Further, as shown in FIG. 4, in the case of normal text in which only characters of the same size are printed, there is a drawback that most of the characters are printed in parts, resulting in a reduction in throughput.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, in conventional printer control devices, characters of the same size are printed in parts, and as a result, printing quality may deteriorate due to mechanical vertical deviation. However, it also has the disadvantage of reducing throughput.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to provide a printer control device that is compatible with form overlay image processing without deteriorating the print quality and throughput of a Kanji serial printer or the like.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) This invention interprets printed text given from a host computer, and expands images, figures, and characters larger than the same size into a page memory as dot images. , For characters of equal value or less, the character code is stored with printing attribute information such as Y coordinate value added, and the printing position of the print head and the cutting position when the dot image developed in the page memory is printed out are stored. and the content of the above print attribute information corresponding to the characters with the same value or less, to search whether there is a character with the same value or less between the print lines, and when a character with the same value or less is detected. The printing timing is determined based on the above printing attribute information, paper feeding, etc. are controlled, and characters of equal value or less are printed in one movement of the print head.

(Function) In the printer control device configured in this way, even when printing text that includes enlarged characters and characters whose value is less than the same value, it is difficult to determine where in the printed text the characters whose value is less than the same value are expanded. Since the print position is determined by recognizing whether the print head is present or not and feeding the paper accordingly, it is possible to print characters of equal value or less by moving the head - times.

(Example) Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 11 is a host computer main body, which receives and passes print text to a printer control device. Reference numeral 12 denotes an upper interface circuit in the printer control device that receives print text and the like from the computer main body 11. Reference numeral 13 denotes a microprocessor that controls printing of the entire printer control device in response to the printing text received from the calculation 1fi11. Reference numeral 14 is a code buffer that stores character codes corresponding to characters in the print text, and for characters of equal or smaller value (hereinafter referred to as equal-size characters), print attribute information is added to the code value and stored. . 15 is a character generator that generates a character pattern corresponding to the character code of the print text stored in the code buffer 14; Reference numeral 16 denotes a page having the capacity to store an image such as a character or figure larger than the actual size as a dot image, consisting of a character pattern taken out from the character generator 15 according to the code value stored in the code buffer 14. It's memory. A line counter 17 stores the current print head position (based on the highest bin), and is incremented and updated by the amount of paper feed each time paper feed is executed. A line counter 18 stores the cutting position of the page memory, and is updated by the head width every time the page is cut out. Both line counters 17 and 18 are cleared to zero when the page length is exceeded. Is 19 a line buffer for storing dot images of dot width x - lines and control codes before and after? It is. 20 is the above line buffer? This is a printer mechanism section that prints the dot image developed on the paper 19 and controls paper feeding according to instructions from the microprocessor 13.

The operation of the printer control device configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIG. 2.

The process of receiving a series of print text from the higher-level calculation atii and causing the printer mechanism unit 20 to print characters, etc. is broadly comprised of two processes: expansion processing and print output processing.

First, in the expansion process, the microprocessor 13 interprets the printed text received from the higher-level calculation unit 8!11 via the higher-level interface circuit 12, and distributes and processes the text according to the content. That is, all images/graphics and characters larger than the same size are OR-stored in the page memory 16 by converting the processing results into dot images. On the other hand, the same size characters are not expanded into the page memory 16, but print attribute information is added to the code value and stored in the code buffer 14.

The above printing attribute information includes the Y coordinate value which is the tag of the printing position,
It also includes information such as the X coordinate, ANK/Kanji type, and modification (magnification/rotation). In other words, in Figure 2,
The characters rAJ and rBJ are stored in the page memory 16 as dot images, and the characters rCJ and rDJ are stored in the code buffer 14 as a code to which print attribute information such as a Y coordinate value is added.

Next, when the print text processing for -pages is completed, a print start command is received and the process moves to print output processing. When printing, if there are no same-sized characters, the images stored in the page memory 16 are sent to the print head 30 sequentially from the top of the page (TOF).
The image is printed out by cutting out the width, for example, 24 dots at a time. In this way, the contents of the line (a, b) (b, C) lit stored in the page memory 16 are output, and the contents of the line counters 17 and 18 are assumed to be C. Next, a part of the characters rAJ rBJ stored in the page memory 16 to be printed between lines (c, d), and a part of the characters rCJ stored in the page memory 16 but the same size character rCJ whose character code is stored in the code buffer 14. Perform rDJ output printing. First, the contents stored in the page memory 16 between lines (c, d) are transferred to the line buffer 19 while being converted. After this process, the line counter 18
The content of is updated by the head width to become the value of d. Next, the contents of the code stored in the code buffer 14 are searched to determine whether a character of the same size exists in the line (c, doll).

This search is performed by comparing the Y coordinate value, which is the tag of the code group, with the contents of the line counters 17 and 18. As a result of the above search, the character "C" of equal size is found between lines (c, d) with the relationship c<c'<d. This result (C'-C)
The paper feed information of is appended to the end of the line buffer 19, and the contents of the page memory 16 between lines (c, d), that is, part of the characters rAJ rBJ, is printed, and (c'-c)
Paper feeding is performed. At this time, the contents of the line counter 17 change from C to C' because paper feeding is executed. After printing the contents of the page memory 16, the line buffer?
19 is open, the dot image for the same size character rCJ is taken out from the character generator 15, and based on the print attribute information added to the code value and stored in the code buffer 14, the line buffer? Expanded on 19th.

Next, the line (C', d) 1m is searched in the same manner as above to see if there are any more characters of the same size. In this case, the character rDJ is found by searching with the relationship C'<C''<d.The paper feed information of this result (c"-c') is added to the end of the line buffer 19, and the character "C" of the same size is printed. and (C“-C
/ ) paper feed is executed. At this time, the contents of the line counter 17 change from C' to C'' because the paper feed has been executed.After printing the same size character "C", the line buffer 19 is empty, so the dot for the same size character rDJ is The image is taken out from the character generator 15 and developed in the line buffer 19 based on the print attribute information added to the code value and stored in the code buffer 14.

Next, in the same way as above, a search is made to see if there is a character with the same size on the line [C", doll. In this case, since there is no character with the same size, the paper feed information of (d-c") is stored in the line buffer. Add it after 19 and print the same size character rDJ, (
d-C") paper feed.

At this time, the contents of the line counter 17 change from C'' to d because paper feeding has been executed.

In this way, page memory between lines (c, d) and printing of same-sized characters are completed. Thereafter, the contents of the page memory 16 starting from line d are printed out.

In this way, characters and figures that are larger than the original size are stored in the page memory 16 as dot images, and characters that are the same size are stored in the code buffer 14 by adding printing attribute information to the code value.
By storing the information in the line counter 17 and 18, it is possible to recognize whether there is a same size character between the lines to be printed by searching by comparing the printing attribute information stored in the code buffer 14 with the contents of the line counter 17 and 18. However, if there are characters of the same size, the paper is fed so that it can be printed by moving the head - times, thereby preventing the characters from being printed in parts.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, even if printed text includes a mixture of enlarged characters and characters less than the same size, it is possible to determine whether or not there are equal-sized characters between the printed line and the customer line. , Recognizes from a search by comparing the print attribute information corresponding to the character code of the character of the same size or less stored in the code buffer and the contents of the line counter, and if a character of the same size or less exists,
Since the paper is fed so that each character can be printed with one head movement, the same size characters are not printed vertically and print quality deteriorates due to mechanical misalignment. Even in the case of normal text in which only characters of the same size are printed, the throughput is not reduced because the text is not divided and printed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer control device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the same embodiment, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are diagrams of a conventional printer. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of printing under control. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11... Calculation line, 12... Upper interface circuit, 13... Microprocessor, 14... Code buffer, 15... Character generator, 16...
...Page memory, 17, 18...Line counter,
19...Line buffer, 20...Printer mechanism section. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] A printed text determining means for determining whether the printed text is a figure and a character larger than the same size or a character less than the same size, and a page memory for developing an image of the figure or a character larger than the same size determined by the printed text determining means. , a code buffer for storing character codes of characters of equal size or smaller determined by the printed text determining means, print attribute information added thereto, print position storage means for storing the print position of the print head, and the page memory; A cutout position storage means for storing the cutout position at which the developed image is printed out, and whether there is a character smaller than the same size in the print line indicated by the information stored in the print position storage means and the cutout position storage means. A same-size character detection means searches for whether or not the print attribute information is stored in the code buffer from the contents of the print attribute information stored in the above-mentioned code buffer, and a print timing of a character smaller than the same size detected by the same-size character detection means is determined from the above-mentioned print attribute information. 1. A printer control device comprising: printing timing determining means for determining printing timing.