JPH02116560A - Thermal transfer type serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a same color to be represented and to shorten useless feed of a ribbon and printing time by a method wherein when overlap printing is performed with colored ink ribbons of two or more colors, a control part by which a pulse width to be applied to a printing head is varied according to an overlapping order of color is installed. CONSTITUTION:When overlap printing is performed with colored ink ribbon 2 of two or more colors, a control part 4 varies a pulse width to be applied to a printing head 3 according to an overlapping order of color. When an alphanumeric character 'A' is printed in red by using the ribbon 2, there are two methods such as a method in which printing is performed with a ribbon 2 of M (red purple color) and red is represented by performing overlap printing with the ribbon 2 of C (light blue), and a method in which printing is performed with the ribbon 2 of C (light blue) and red is represented by performing overlap printing with the ribbon (2) of M (red purple color). When pulse widths to be applied to the printing head 3 are set to a same one, red slightly varies. Then, the pulse width to be applied to the printing head 3 is varied with the control part 4 according to overlapping order of color, and a same color is realized in printing by abovementioned two methods.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Field of Application] The present invention relates to an improvement in a thermal transfer serial printer, particularly a non-impact serial printer in which a print pattern is constructed using a dot matrix. [Prior Art] Used in the field of information processing, etc. A variety of printers are widely used as output devices for computer systems that use computer systems. Among these, printers that use a printing method that expresses character patterns using dot matrices are flexible and have recently become popular.

In particular, thermal transfer serial printers have a simple structure, low noise, and are inexpensive, so demand is expanding for personal use such as terminal systems and personal computers.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, such thermal transfer serial printers (
(hereinafter referred to as a printer), when printing in color or making a hard copy of a color screen, the printing time is long, and
There are problems specific to printers, such as high running costs.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printer that improves the above-mentioned drawback that printing time is long when performing color printing or hard copying of a color screen.

[Means to solve the problem]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a thermal transfer serial printer having a ribbon cassette containing a thermal transfer color ink ribbon and a thermal transfer print head that performs printing by melting the ink of the color ink ribbon. The apparatus is equipped with a control section that changes the pulse width applied to the print head when overlapping printing is performed using an ink ribbon in accordance with the overlapping order of colors.

〔Example〕

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

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

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a ribbon cassette containing a thermal transfer color ink ribbon 2. As shown in FIG. 3 is a thermal transfer print head that melts the ink of the color ink ribbon 2 to perform printing. Reference numeral 4 denotes a control unit that changes the pulse width applied to the print head 3 when overlapping printing is performed using color ink ribbons 2 of two or more colors in accordance with the overlapping order of colors.

FIGS. 2(a) to 2(d) are operation diagrams showing control operations in the embodiment of the present invention.

Using the ribbon 2 configured as shown in Figure 1, alphanumeric r
When printing AJ in red, in Figure 2 (a), print with M (magenta) ribbon 2, and in b), print red by overprinting with C (light blue) ribbon 2. There are two ways to express red: (c) by printing with C (light blue) ribbon 2 and (d) by overprinting with M (magenta) ribbon 2. exist.

In the two methods, if the pulse width applied to the print head 3 is set to be the same, the red color will be slightly different. Therefore, in the present invention, the pulse width applied to the print head 3 is changed by the control unit 4 depending on the order in which the colors are stacked, thereby achieving the same color in printing by the two methods described above.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the thermal transfer serial printer of the present invention, when printing two or more colors, the control unit recognizes the order of overlapping and controls the pulse width applied to the head no matter which color is printed first. It is possible to express the same color with the same color, and it also has the effect of reducing wasteful ribbon feeding and printing time.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2(a)
-(d) are operation diagrams showing control operations in the embodiment of the present invention. 1... Ribbon cassette 2... Color ink ribbon 3... Thermal transfer print head 4... Control unit patent applicant Niigata NEC Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In a thermal transfer serial printer that has a ribbon cassette containing thermal transfer color ink ribbons and a thermal transfer print head that prints by melting the ink of the color ink ribbons, overlapping printing can be performed using color ink ribbons of two or more colors. A thermal transfer serial printer, characterized in that the thermal transfer serial printer is equipped with a control unit that changes the pulse width applied to the print head in accordance with the order in which colors are stacked.