JPH02215552A - Printing controlling circuit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To realize high-speed printing by printing two dots in a period in which printing of one dot has conventionally been completed. CONSTITUTION:A printing timing generating part 11 generates a first printing timing 12 in the same printing period as that of conventional printing of one dot at a time, and outputs a second printing timing 13 with a shift of one-half of the period from the first printing timing. The first and second printing timings 12, 13 are supplied to a printing head controlling part 14 and also to a printing data processing part 15. The processing part 15 is supplied with printing data 16 for two dots at a time. The processing part 15 decides whether printing is to be conducted with the first or second printing timing or not to be conducted. The processing part 15 receives sequentially two-dots amounts of the printing data 16 on the same printing line, in the printing period. When a printing dot 18 appears, the data on two dots is treated collectively as printing dot data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a thermal recording printer using a print head, and particularly to a print control circuit that can perform print control suitable for high-speed printing.

[Conventional technology]

In printers that use a print head such as a thermal head, the printing cycle is determined in relation to the processing speed of a processing system such as a microprocessor. That is, in printers that receive print data in units of dots, the minimum time between printing one dot and printing the next one is set as the printing cycle.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

For this reason, even if such a printer receives print data in units of 2 dots, it will take twice as long to process it one dot at a time, and in the end, the printing speed will be limited on the printer side. There was a problem with this.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a print control circuit which, when receiving print data in units of two dots, makes the printing cycle the same as that of the conventional method, thereby enabling high-speed printing.

[Means to solve the problem]

In the present invention, (i) a print timing generation unit that outputs a first print timing every print cycle and outputs a second print timing shifted by half a cycle from this print cycle, and (ii)
) Input the print data of two dot rows in each printing cycle, and decide whether to print these two dots at the first print timing or the second print timing, or whether to print these two dots at the first print timing or the second print timing. A print data processing section,
(in) a first storage circuit that stores the decisions processed by this print data processing section; (iv) a second storage circuit that stores the energization time of the print head for each dot; and (v) print timing generation. The print control circuit is provided with an energization control section that controls the start timing and energization time of each dot by the print head based on the data obtained from the first and second storage circuits.

That is, in the present invention, printing data is supplied in units of two dots, so printing is performed in units of two dots. At this time, printing can be performed even at a timing shifted by half a cycle from the printing cycle, so that it is possible to cope with the appearance of dots with printing at any timing.

〔Example〕

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to Examples.

FIG. 1 shows a print control circuit in one embodiment of the present invention.

This print control circuit includes a print timing generation section 11 for generating print timing.

The print timing generation unit 11 generates a first print timing 12 at the same print cycle as the conventional one-dot printing, and also generates a second print timing at a point shifted by half a cycle from this print timing. Print timing 13 is output. These first and second print timings 12 and 13 are supplied to the print head control section 14, and are also supplied to the print data processing section 1, although not directly shown.
5 is also supplied.

The print data processing section 15 is configured to manually input print data 16 of two dots each. The print data processing unit 15 determines whether to print at the first print timing, the second print timing, or not to print at these timings.

FIG. 2 is for explaining the determination operation by the print data processing section. The print data processing section 15 sequentially receives print data 16 for two dots on the same print line every printing cycle. In Figure 2, the circle with diagonal lines (・
) When a dot 18 with printing appears, the two dots are collectively treated as having printing. In this case, whether a tod 19 without printing, indicated by a white circle 0), appears immediately after the dot 18 with printing, or whether a dot 18 with printing appears, is completely irrelevant to the printing process.

As shown in the nth printing line, dot 1 with printing
8 appears at the first printing timing t, or at the next first printing timing t+z after a printing cycle T has elapsed, the dot 18 with printing and the next dot (dot 18 with printing) (dot 19 without printing) is registered in the first register 22 in the first storage circuit 21 in order to print at the first printing timing. On the other hand, when the dot 18 with printing appears at the second printing timing j21Sjg2... which is delayed by half a cycle from the printing cycle T, these second printing timings t11, j22...・・・
In order to perform printing, the printed dot 18 and the next dot (regardless of whether it is the printed dot 18 or the non-printed dot 19) are stored in the first memory circuit 2.
It is registered in the second register 23 in 1. In addition, if there are consecutive dots 19 without printing on that printing line,
Printing is not performed until dot 18 with printing appears.
When a dot 18 with printing appears, a registration operation is performed so that this dot and the next dot are grouped together and printed at a predetermined printing timing.

The second memory circuit 25 stores data for controlling the energization time of each print head so that the print density by the print head 26 is optimized.

The print head control unit 14 has a first register 22
The data stored in the second register 23 is sent to the print head 26 in correspondence with each print timing 12 and 13, and printing is performed in units of two dots. At this time, 2
In both cases where the dots are dots 18 with printing and when the subsequent dot is dot 19 with no printing, the printing operation is performed on the assumption that there is a dot 18'' with printing.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, since two dots are printed at the same frequency as conventional one dot printing, high-speed printing can be achieved. Moreover, the first dot of the two dots is always the one with printing, so
Another advantage is that fine lines can be reproduced with sufficient quality.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings are for explaining one embodiment of the present invention, of which FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a print control circuit, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of a print data processing section. 11...Print timing generation section, 14...
...Print head control unit, 15...Print data processing unit, 16...Print data, 18...Dot with printing, 19...No print 21...first memory circuit, 22...first register, 23...second register, 25...second Memory circuit, 26...print head, T...print cycle, tll, t+z...'Jl print timing,
t21, t22... Second printing timing.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A printing timing generation unit that outputs a first printing timing for each printing period and outputs a second printing timing that is shifted by a half period from the printing period; Enter the print data,
These two dots are printed at the first printing timing or the second printing timing, or these two dots are printed at the first printing timing or the second printing timing.
A print data processing unit that determines whether or not to print a dot; a first storage circuit that stores the decision processed by the print data processing unit; and a first storage circuit that stores the energization time of the print head for each dot. a second storage circuit; and an energization control section that controls the timing and duration of energization of each dot by the print head based on the data obtained from the print timing generation section and the first and second storage circuits. A printing control circuit comprising: