JPH02211519A - Printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To identify a color-designated character by observing the character after printing by executing a processing, which is different from that for the other characters, for the character concerned. CONSTITUTION:Printing data from a host device are successively stored into a page buffer 105, when the data for one page are prepard, they are successively read from the buffer 105, and the presence/absence of color designation is checked. When a color is not designated, or a black color is designated, a first font ROM 106 is accessed, dot image data by the character font of the Ming font type are successively read, and stored into a frame memory 108. A CPU 102 sends the data through a P/S converter 109 to a printing part 110. When the color other than the black is designated, a second font ROM 107 is accessed, and the dot image data by the character font of the Gothic type are sent to a printing part 110 in the same way. Thus the color-designated character can be identified from the other character.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer control device provided in a monochrome printer.

[Background Art] In recent years, with the spread of multicolor printers, there are many opportunities to process character data having one-color information using monochrome printers. When character data having the above-mentioned color information is printed by a single-color printer, it is printed uniformly regardless of whether a color is specified or not.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

Therefore, in the past, when print data intended for multicolor printing was output using a single-color printer, it was difficult to distinguish between characters with a specified color and characters that were not specified. This is completely useless in printers, and causes inconveniences such as the need to check color designation characters after printing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a printer control device that can distinguish characters having one color specification from other characters even in a monochrome printer.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention is characterized in that, in a printer control device provided in a monochrome printer, when printing characters designated in a color, processing is performed differently from that for other characters.

[Function] In the present invention, when printing characters specified in one color, a different process is applied to the characters than other characters, so that the characters specified in color can be identified by looking at the printed characters. .

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention.

This printer control device has an interface 101 and a C
It has a PU 102, a ROM 103, a RAM 104, a page buffer 105, a phono ROM 106, 107, a frame memory 108, and a parallel-serial converter 109. It controls the printing unit 110 of a monochrome printer and causes it to print.

The CPU 102 controls the entire printer, the ROM 103 stores firmware, and the RAM
A work area 104 is provided.

The page buffer 105 stores print data sent from the host device, and the frame memory 108 stores bitmap data of the print data.

Each font ROM 106, 107 stores character fonts with different fonts. In the following description, it is assumed that the first font ROM 106 stores a Mincho character font, and the second font ROM 107 stores a Gothic character font.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the printer control device configured as described above.

Print data from the host device is sequentially passed through the interface 101 and stored in the page buffer 105 (Sl), and when data for one page is prepared (Sl)
2) Continuing to input the next data, print data is sequentially read from the page buffer 105, and the presence or absence of color specification is checked by referring to the color information of each character data (S3).

Then, if there is no color information or if black is specified (S4), the first font) ROM 106 is accessed, and based on the print data read from the page buffer 105, a Mincho character font is The dot image data is sequentially read out (35) and stored in the frame memory 108 (37).

When the bitmap data in the frame memory 10B is appropriately configured, the CPU 102 sends this data to the printing section iio via the parallel-to-serial converter 109 (S8 and S9).

Further, in S4, if a color other than black is specified, the second font ROM 107 is accessed, and based on the print data read from the page buffer 105,
The dot image data in the Gothic character font is sequentially read out (S6), and the processes from S7 onwards are performed.

In this way, characters specified in colors other than black will be printed in Gothic font.

It is emphasized compared to other Mincho typeface characters.

As described above, in the present invention, 1 the designation of black used for normal printing is not regarded as a color designation, but is handled in the same way as if there is no color information. Therefore, the color designation in the claims refers to black This refers to cases of chromatic colors other than chromatic colors or grayish intermediate colors that are different from normal black.

Further, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention.

This printer control device does not emphasize the color designation characters by changing the font as in the first embodiment, but emphasizes the color designation characters by tinting them.

Therefore, in this printer control device, instead of providing a plurality of phono ROMs 106 and 107 as in the first embodiment, one
a ROM 206, an emphasis image buffer 201 storing tint data, a selector 202 that selects tint only for color specified characters, and an emphasis image buffer 202 based on a signal from this selector 202.
It has an OR circuit 203 that controls the output of 01.

Note that the other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment,
These are given the same reference numerals and their explanations will be omitted.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of such a printer control device.

In the same manner as in the first embodiment, print data from the host device is sequentially stored in the page buffer 105.
11), when data for one page is prepared (S12
), continue to input the next data, and sequentially read the print data from the page buffer 7105 (5f3),
The font ROM 206 is accessed and the code data is converted into dot image data using a common character font. If there is no information or if black is specified (S15), selector 202 is switched to frame memory 108 (516).
, in S14, the imaged data is stored as it is in the frame memory 10g (S19),
When the bitmap data in the frame memory 108 is appropriately configured, this data is sent to the printing section 110 via the parallel-to-serial converter 109 (S
20.521).

Further, in S15, if a color other than black is specified, the selector 202 is switched to the OR circuit 203 side (S17), and the dot image data is ORed.
Supplied to circuit 203. As a result, the OR circuit 203 turns off the dot image data from the selector 202 and the tinted data from the emphasized image buffer 201 (51g), sends the tinted character data to the frame memory 10g, and sends the half-tinted character data to the frame memory 10g. Perform subsequent processing.

In this way, characters specified in a color other than black are printed in a shaded manner and are emphasized compared to other characters.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and can be further modified. For example, instead of the Gothic typeface in the first embodiment, it is possible to use an italic typeface or the like as shown in FIG. 5 for emphasis.

In addition, in FIG. 5, the characters surrounded by - dotted broken lines are italicized.

Further, in the second embodiment, it is also possible to use an underline or the like as shown in FIG. 6 instead of the shaded area. In addition,
In FIG. 6 as well, underlined characters are surrounded by dotted lines.

Furthermore, the method of emphasis may be changed depending on the designated color by using three or more fonts or a combination of multiple fonts and tints.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, in a monochrome printer, when printing characters with a specified color, processing is performed differently from other characters, so that one color can be specified by looking at the printed characters. be able to identify written characters. Therefore, even in a single-color printer, print data having one-color information can be effectively used to emphasize specific sentences, words, etc., and the functionality can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of the present invention. ! 142r1! J is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the printer control device of the same embodiment. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the printer control device of the same embodiment. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a specific example of printing according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing still another specific example of printing according to the present invention. 102...CPU, 105...Page buffer 106.107.206...Font ROM, 108
... Frame memory, 110... Printing section, 201... Emphasis data buffer, 202... Selector, 203... OR circuit. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Arata Kubo for the same agent Figure 2 Figure 1 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 6

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) A printer control device installed in a single-color printer, characterized in that when printing characters specified in a color, a process different from that for other characters is performed. (2) The printer control device according to claim (1), wherein the process different from the other characters is a process of printing in a font different from the other characters. (3) The printer control device according to claim (1), wherein the processing different from the processing for other characters is processing for adding tint or underlining to characters having color information.