JPH0278582A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To previously know a omission of printing by judging and informing the presence or absence of a specified pattern of a character or symbol in input printing information prior to printing. CONSTITUTION:Code data received through an interface 1 is stored once in a memory 2 and therein read by a CPU 7 to be edited by the amount of one page according to each command. At the printing start time for the page, the edited data is sequentially read by the CPU 7. The CPU 7 interprets a parameter determining a character, reads an appropriate font from a ROM 3, and developes the font in a memory 4 coincidently with a printing position. Simultaneously, with a command determining a resolving power, the CPU 7 transmits information to a printing part 12 through an interface 5 to change over a resolving power to be printed. After the completion of the development of the required data on the memory 4, the CPU 7 transmits the printing dot data from the memory 4 to the interface 5 in the order of being printed out. The interface 5 transmits this data to the printing part 12 according to a printing sequence, and the data is printed. In this manner, the failure in printing a specific character or symbol in an arbitrary page can be known prior to the start of a real printing processing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a printing device capable of printing with a plurality of dot densities, and particularly to a printing device that performs printing processing based on printing information input from a host. It is.

(Prior Art) With the rapid spread of computer media in recent years, a wide variety of printing devices as output devices have been proposed or put into practical use.

The printing device analyzes the printing information input from the host computer device and prints the analyzed characters and symbols at a single dot density, and the printing device prints the characters and symbols specified by the command at a single dot density. A so-called page printer has been proposed that prints characters and symbols at different dot densities depending on the dot density.

Particularly in page printers that print characters and symbols at a single dot density, for example, if a character font of the size specified by a command is not available, the character will not be printed or the character will be printed in a different size. (or print symbols instead of letters). The same applies to printing devices in which a plurality of dot densities can be selected.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, the operator cannot confirm that the above-mentioned situation has occurred until he/she sees the actual printout, and the operator must re-set the printable dot density to avoid the above-mentioned situation. There are problems in that such complicated operations and printing waste occur, which increases printing efficiency and printing cost.

This invention was made to solve the above problems, and starts printing by determining and notifying the presence or absence of a pattern of each character and symbol specified in the input printing information before printing. To provide a printing device capable of controlling printing by determining in advance a print defect due to a previously specified character size and dot density and switching to printing at a printable dot density or a different character size.

[Means to solve the problem]

The printing device according to the present invention refers to the stored contents of the character pattern storage means and determines whether or not a character pattern matching the character occurrence information specified for each character or symbol is stored in the printing information before the printing starts by the printing means. It is equipped with a notification means for notifying the user.

[Effect]

In this invention, when page editing based on the print information from the data transmission source is started, the notification means refers to the stored contents of the character pattern storage means and selects the characters specified for each character and symbol in the print information. The presence or absence of a character pattern memory that matches the generated information is notified before the printing means starts printing, and the printing process is temporarily interrupted.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a host computer interface that receives printing information from the host computer (resolution designation command, character type, font of one character, printing position, etc.)
and sends status information to the host computer.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a page buffer memory, which functions as a place to store input data from the host computer and perform processing such as page editing. 3 is a character font ROM that serves as a means of storing character patterns, and has different resolutions (different dot densities).
Dot patterns are stored for various characters with different numbers (2400 Pl"t-8 points, 10 points, 10 points, 12 points at 300 DPI, etc.).

4 is a bitmap memory that expands and stores the print pattern. Reference numeral 5 denotes a printer interface, which sends dot data on the bitmap memory 4 to the printing section 12 according to a printing sequence.

Reference numeral 6 denotes an input device for inputting commands and the like to the printer from the outside. 7 is a CPU, which controls the printing device in general according to a control program stored in the program ROMB. 9 is random access memory (RAM), CP
Functions as U7's work area.

A display device 10 displays various information about the printer.

A system path 11 communicates information between the CPU 7 and each device. Reference numeral 12 denotes a printing unit that prints out data sent from the printer interface 5 on paper according to a printing sequence.

The printer interface 5 communicates with the printing section 12 to control the transfer of the dot data developed in the bitmap memory 4. Note that the CPU 7 also serves as a notification means of the present invention, and when a beige uA collection based on print information from a host computer serving as a data transmission source is started, the CPU 7 refers to the stored contents of the character font ROM 3 and updates each print information with the print information. letter,
Before the printing means starts printing, the host computer or display device 10 is notified of whether or not a character pattern matching the character generation information specified for the symbol is stored, and the printing process is temporarily interrupted.

Next, the operation shown in FIG. 1 will be explained.

One page of print code data from the host computer is composed of a command for determining resolution, data for determining character type, font, size, print position, etc.

The code data received through the host computer interface 1 is temporarily stored in the page buffer memory 2, where the data is read by the CPU 7.
18% of one page is performed according to each command of the code data. Then, when it is time to start printing that page, the edited data is read out by the CPU 7, and the parameters that determine the characters, i.e., the type, font, size, etc. of the characters, are interpreted and the corresponding font is selected. is read from the character font ROM 3 and developed in the bitmap memory 4 in accordance with the printing position. At the same time, information is sent to the printing unit 12 via the printer interface 5 by a command for determining the resolution, and the printing resolution is switched. The command for determining this resolution does not have to be from the CPU 7, and may be input from the input device 6, for example. When this switching is complete, bitmap memory 4
After completing the development of the necessary data, the CPU 7 transfers the print dot data from the bitmap memory 4 to the printer interface 5 in the order of print output, and the printer interface 5 sends this data to the printing unit 12 for printing in accordance with the print sequence.

Note that in this embodiment, the page buffer memory 2
C
Recognized by PU7. If there is a code that does not have a font in the page buffer memory 2, the CPU 7 manages it by holding it in RAMe as information for that page, retrieves that information when printing starts for that page, and if the corresponding font If there is no such information, printing is stopped and the information is notified to the host computer. This information can include at least a missing font error, and in addition, the page where the error occurred, character code, and size.

It is also possible to add the printing position etc. and send it.

For subsequent processing, the CPU waits for a re-command from the host computer by sending an error without font to the host computer, returns from the wait state, and performs subsequent processing based on the sent command. Subsequent processing includes, for example, skipping the error page and continuing printing, or changing characters that do not have a font to a different font, or
There are ways to print by replacing the text with characters or symbols of a different size, or by switching the resolution, editing the page again at that resolution, and printing.

Next, the printing process for one page will be explained with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the printing processing procedure according to the present invention. Note that (1) to (12) indicate each step.

Data is received from the host computer and transferred to the page buffer memory 2 (1).

Next, command analysis is performed on the received data, and page editing is performed according to the analysis results (2). At this time, determine whether there is a code that does not have a font of the corresponding font and size (3), and if YES, proceed to step (10).
The process proceeds to step (4), records the error information in a specific area (memory area) of the RAM 9, and returns to step (4) onwards.

On the other hand, if the judgment in step (3) is NO, it is necessary to judge whether the page editing process for one page has been completed.
), if No, return to step (2), if YES, wait for the printing time of the page 5), and when the printing time comes, switch to the printing resolution of this page (6),
Referring to the error information in the specific area above (7), it is determined whether there is an error or not (8). If No, the dot image of the page is developed in the bitmap memory 4 and printing processing is started ( 9).

On the other hand, if the judgment in step (8) is YES, the error information is transferred to the host computer (11), and the process is completed according to the command from the host computer (11).
12).

Next, another printing process according to the present invention will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of another print processing procedure according to the present invention. Note that (1) to (12) indicate each step.

Data is received from the host computer and transferred to the page buffer memory 2 (1).

Next, command analysis is performed on the received data, and page editing is performed according to the analysis results (2). At this time, determine whether there is a code that does not have a font of the corresponding font and size (3), and if YES, proceed to step (10).
The process proceeds to step (4), records the error information in a specific area (memory area) of the RAM 9, and returns to step (4) onwards.

On the other hand, if the judgment in step (3) is NO, it is necessary to judge whether the page editing process for one page has been completed.4)
, If No, return to step (2); if YES, wait until the printing time for the corresponding page5); When the printing time has passed,
Switch to the print resolution of this page (6), refer to the error information in the specific area on RAM 9 (7), and determine whether there is an error (8). If no, bitmap the dot image of the page. The data is developed in the memory 4 and printing processing is started (9).

On the other hand, if the determination in step (8) is YES, error information is displayed on the display device 10 (11), command input processing from the input device 6 is performed, and the process ends (12).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of still another print processor to -1 order according to the present invention. In addition, (1
) to (11) indicate each step.

Data is received from the host computer and transferred to the page buffer memory 2 (1).

Next, command analysis is performed on the received data, and page editing is performed according to the analysis results (2). At this time, determine whether there is a code that does not have a font of the corresponding font and size (3), and if YES, proceed to step (10).
The process proceeds to step (4), records the error information in a specific area (memory area) of the RAM 9, and returns to step (4) onwards.

On the other hand, if the judgment in step (3) is No, it is necessary to judge whether the page editing process for one page has been completed.
), if No, return to step (2), if YES, wait for the printing time of the page 5), and when the printing time comes, switch to the printing resolution of this page (6),
Referring to the error information in the specific area above (7), it is determined whether there is an error or not (8). If No, the dot image of the page is developed in the bitmap memory 4 and printing processing is started ( 9).

On the other hand, if the determination in step (8) is YES, the error information is transferred to the host computer or displayed on the display device 10.
11) To display error information and perform printing processing,
Return to step (9).

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention refers to the stored contents of the character pattern storage means and prints out whether or not a character pattern is stored that matches the character occurrence information specified for each character or symbol using printing information. Since the notification means is provided to notify before the start of printing by the means, it is possible to know that a specific character or symbol cannot be printed on any page by printing based on the specified print information before the actual printing process starts. Therefore, without wasting paper, it is possible to switch to printing processing based on page re-editing according to changes in printing parameters, etc., and it is possible to flexibly deal with printing failures due to the presence or absence of character patterns, which is an excellent effect.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a printing processing procedure according to the invention, and FIG. 3 is another printing processing procedure according to the invention. A flowchart illustrating an example of
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of still another printing processing procedure according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a host computer interface, 2 is a page buffer memory, 3 is a character phono (ROM), 44
5 is the bitmap memory, 5 is the printer interface,
6 is an input device, 7 is a CPU, 8 is a program ROM, 9
is RAM, 10 is a display device, 11 is a system bus, 12
is the printing part. Figure 2 '5i%3 Figure

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printing device having a character pattern storage means for storing a plurality of characters and symbols with different dot densities according to size, and a printing means for editing input printing information page by page and switching printing at different dot densities, the character pattern The apparatus further comprises a notification means for referring to the storage contents of the storage means and informing whether or not a character pattern matching the character occurrence information specified for each character or symbol in the printing information is stored before the printing starts by the printing means. A printing device featuring: