JPH0234367A - Printing control of serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve printing speed efficiently by providing a means of selecting a characteristic part of character pattern and printing this part only which is selected. CONSTITUTION:A character pattern is transmitted from a character pattern generation device 1 to a pattern selection device 2, then the device 2 selects its necessary part and sends only the selected pattern to a printing control device 3. The printing control means 3 uses this pattern. For instance, this pattern consists of vertical 30 dots with the use of a 24-dot head, and this does not allow printing in the 30 dots, unless it is performed twice. Actually a character pattern generation device uses a 1-byte word memory and the pattern is composed of vertical 4 bytes. When the selection device 2 is operated, the parts to be selected are one where 'n' dots ('n' bits) are deleted from the top of an original pattern and one where (32-n-24) dots are deleted from the bottom. Consequently, the number of printing actions required for printing can be reduced.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a printing control method for a serial printer.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention aims to reduce the number of printing operations and the time required to complete printing by omitting a portion of a character font pattern in the vertical direction in printing control of a serial printer.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional serial printer print control, in order to print a large amount of data in as short a time as possible, the printing dot density in the horizontal direction (print head movement direction) is made coarser, so that the print head is not driven at the same frequency. The method of increasing the number of characters printed per unit time was generally adopted and effective.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the printing control of conventional serial printers, a method of obtaining high-speed printing at the cost of sacrificing print quality is applied only to the horizontal direction, and application to the vertical direction has not been considered.

For example, in situations where printing speed takes priority over printing quality, such as printing program lists or data dump printing, the print data may contain characters that are too tall to be printed in one printing operation. When the button is pressed, the entire button is printed by performing multiple printing operations (in most cases twice) (see Figure 6). In such usage situations, the printed character is In many cases, it is sufficient if something is clear, and conventional printing control methods alone cannot be said to be sufficiently time efficient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to eliminate the waste of time that occurs when characters whose size (height) exceeds the dot configuration of a print head in the vertical direction must be printed in a short period of time.

[Means to solve the problem]

The printing control method of the present invention is characterized by having means for extracting a characteristic part from a character font button, and printing only the extracted part.

[Effect]

By printing only the extracted characteristic batons, the effective printing speed can be improved without impairing the distinguishability of the characters.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, specific examples of the present invention will be described.

As a specific example, a serial printer having a 24-dot print head will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the element configuration necessary to carry out the printing control method of the present invention. A character pattern is sent from the character slam generating means 1 to the button extracting means 2, and the button extracting means 2 extracts the necessary part and sends only the extracted button to the printing control means 3. Control is performed in such a way that it is used for printing.

FIG. 2 is an example of a character slam that is larger than the dot configuration of the print head. The height is 30 dots vertically for a 24-dot head, and printing is not possible unless the printing operation is divided into two. In reality, the character button generating means is a 1-byte word memory element, and the buttons are stored using 4 vertical bytes as shown in FIG.

When the button extraction means 2 performs extraction, the third
As shown in the figure, n dots (n bits) from the top of the original pattern
is the part to be deleted, and (32-n-24) is the part to be deleted from the bottom. Actually, as shown in Figure 4,
Store the original pattern in a 4-byte shift register, and
By shifting to the surface, using the top 3 bytes as a print button, and discarding the remaining 1 byte, the print button is transferred to another work area, creating a button suitable for a 24-dot head in the work area. In particular, when n=o is determined, a shift register is not necessary and it is sufficient to simply discard the lower 1 byte.

The value of n is determined for each character or for a group of several characters, and can be further increased by increasing the number of bits of the shift register stored in the character bang generation means 1 or print control means 3. It can also handle large fonts.

Next, FIG. 5, which shows an example of printing by the printing control method of the present invention, shows data dump printing by the printing control method of the present invention (n=o). Here, data dump printing converts the data input from the host machine into a serial printer into a number indicating the data value and a character corresponding to that value using the printer's unique character surface, and prints out the data in the order of input. This refers to the printing that follows (see Figure 5). In this print,
Since all data, including image data sent in large quantities, is converted into approximately 4 characters each, the number of lines to be printed is far greater than in normal printing, and high-speed printing is required. . Furthermore, since its purpose is to inspect and confirm input data, high-quality printing is not required; in other words, high-speed printing should be achieved at the expense of print quality.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the printing control method of the present invention, the number of printing operations required for printing can be reduced, and printing can be performed with better time efficiency than conventional printing control methods.

For reference, there is a measurement result that shows that the time required to print the image shown in FIG. 5 compared to the image shown in FIG. 6 is about 80%.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of elements for realizing the printing control method of the present invention. FIGS. 2 and 3 are diagrams showing an example of a character button of 30 vertical dots and an example of its allocation in memory. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a method for deleting the upper n-dot of a button according to the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an actual printing example using the printing control method of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a conventional example. Applicant Seiko Epson Co., Ltd. Agent Patent Attorney Kizobe Suzuki 1 person Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 44 Figure 1 AOAi A2 A3 A4 B0 81 82 B384 Co CI C2C3C4 Do DI C203D4 εOEl C2C3ε4 FOFI F2 F3 F4 A 5 A6 A7 A8 A9C5C6C7C
8C9 D5 C60708D9 ε5 C6C7C8ε9 F5 F6 F7 F8 F96Figure 70 71 72 7! 74 AOAI A2 A3 A4 Co CI C2C3C4 Do Dl 02 03 04 EOEl C2C3ε4 FOFI F2 F3 F2 O306070809 25,26272829 9596979B 99 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9B 5 86 8
7 88 89 C5C6C7C8C9 05C6C7C8D9 E5 C6C7C8ε9 F5 F6 F7 F8 F95 diagram

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a serial printer having a means for supplying a character font having a height that cannot be printed in a single horizontal movement of the print head (hereinafter referred to as printing operation), means for extracting only a characteristic part from the pattern of the character font. 1. A method for controlling printing of a serial printer, characterized in that only a portion of the printer is printed and the other portions are discarded.