JPH02139262A - Monochromatic printing dot printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform printing even by a printer performing dummy gradation printing and having a monochromatic ribbon by replacing color printing data with a monochromatic image by converting color printing data to monochromatic image data having dot density matching with the color density of said color printing data. CONSTITUTION:When color image data of Yellow, Magenta and Cyan are printed, mask pattern data A, B, C, D, E, F to colors of Yellow, Magenta, Red, Cyan, Green and Violet are stored in a printer. When the color image of Yellow is printed, a result obtained by ANDing the color image data X with the mask pattern data A becomes printing pattern data A. In the same way, printing pattern data B is obtained in the case of Magenta and printing pattern data D is obtained in the case of Cyan. By performing printing on the basis of the obtained printing pattern data, monochromatic printing becomes possible with the dot density proportional to the density of each color and a printing result not damaging an image is obtained.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly to a printer that converts color image data into monochrome image data and prints with a monochrome ribbon.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, in a printer having a single color ribbon, when color print data is received, the type of color cannot be identified, so all color image data undergoes the same printing process as single color image data.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the conventional printer mentioned above, all colors of color image data are printed using a single color ribbon in the same way as single color image data, so the print result is difficult to distinguish image patterns based on color differences (identification of color boundaries).
The drawback was that it was impossible to do so. That is, there is a drawback that even if color print data is received, it cannot be printed normally.

[Means to solve the problem]

The printer of the present invention includes a reception section that receives print data from an external interface, a reception data decomposition section, a color image data editing section, and a conversion section that converts the color image data into monochrome image data. The printer has a printing section that prints the image using a single color ribbon.

〔Example〕

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an embodiment of the present invention, and is a flowchart of printing processing of a printer.

The data received from the external interface is edited into image data after being analyzed. If the edited image data is monochrome image data (for example, monochrome black image data), printing processing is performed using the image data as it is. If the edited image data is color image data, the type of color is identified.

A mask pattern with a dot density proportional to the color density is stored inside the printer, and a mask pattern corresponding to the color data to be printed is selected. A logical product (AND) of the selected mask pattern and color image data is performed, and printing processing is performed using the image data obtained from the result.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of converting image data. As an example, a case will be described in which yellow, magenta, and cyan color image data X is printed. Inside the printer are YelJow and M-ag.
enta, Red, Cyan, Green and Vio
Mask pattern data A, B,
C.

D, E and F are stored. When printing a yellow color image, the print pattern data A is the result of the logical product of the color image data X and the mask pattern data A. Similarly, in the case of Magenta, print pattern data D is obtained in the case of print pattern data B%C-yan.

By performing printing using the obtained printing pattern data, it becomes possible to perform monochrome printing with a dot density proportional to the density of each color, and a printing result that does not damage the image can be obtained.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the printer of the present invention can perform pseudo gradation printing by converting color print data into monochrome image data with a dot density that matches the density of the color, and can print on monochrome ribbons. This has the effect that color print data can be replaced with a monochrome image and printed even with a printer that has the same color.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a diagram showing conversion of color image data. Agent: Patent Attorney Shinwaka Uchihara

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a dot printer that prints with a single color ribbon, a receiving unit that receives print data from an external interface;
an editing section that edits color image data based on the reception data received by the reception section; a conversion section that converts the color image data into monochrome image data; and a conversion section that converts the converted image into monochrome image data. 1. A single-color printing dot printer, comprising a printing section that prints using a ribbon, and converting received color print data into monochrome image data and printing the same.