JPH03102396A - Printer controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the best merging processing for characters on a buffer by controlling a mask pattern which masks an unnecessary part of a pattern according to position relation between characters when plural successive character patterns are edited. CONSTITUTION:A character pattern is read out of a character pattern buffer, rotated clockwise by a rotator 2 by the value of an allocation start register 3, and ANDed with the output of a mask pattern generator 6. A last character pattern is set in a merging buffer 8, read out in synchronism with data on a buffer 1, and ANDed with the output of a mask pattern generator 7. The AND results are ORed and merging processing is finished. When dot data are generated by the access unit of a merging processing dot storage memory 11, the merging result is transferred to a memory write buffer 10 and written in the memory 11. Further, the output of the rotator 2 is transferred to the merging buffer 8 and merged with a next character pattern.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printer control device, and particularly to a control means for storing character data in a memory that stores dot data to be printed on a printer.

[Conventional technology]

For example, as shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-220356, when merging adjacent character patterns in a process of expanding dot data onto a memory that stores print data for one page, conventional devices merge the previous character pattern. The character pattern is on the left,
The next character pattern was merged so that each pattern overlapped on the right side.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The above conventional technology not only overlaps parts of adjacent character patterns or allocates characters from left to right;
No consideration was given to highly flexible allocation, such as allocation from right to left. Therefore, when overlapping parts of characters, it was necessary to process each character one by one. Furthermore, when assigning characters in the reverse direction from right to left, it was necessary to either process each character one by one or change the arrangement of characters in a higher-level device. For this reason, performance could not be ensured with this kind of allocation.

An object of the present invention is to perform processing without degrading performance even in character allocation with a higher degree of freedom as described above.

[Effect]

The mask pattern in merge processing is generated so that when the character order is from left to right, the previous pattern is valid on the left side of the memory access unit, and the new pattern is valid on the right side, and the character order is from the right. When it is on the left, the previous pattern is generated on the right, and the new pattern is generated on the left. In addition, mask patterns are generated independently for the previous pattern to match the end position of the pattern, and for new patterns to match the start position of the pattern. By controlling mask patterns in this way, character patterns can be merged regardless of character spacing values, including character arrangement and overlapping character patterns, allowing for free character allocation without degrading performance. becomes possible.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above purpose, we have provided a means to control the mask pattern that masks unnecessary parts of the pattern by controlling the positional relationship between the characters when editing multiple consecutive character patterns. This allows you to select the most suitable merging method.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be explained below with reference to FIG. Prior to allocating a character pattern, the allocation start register 3 stores the allocation start position of the character pattern to be allocated on the dot storage memory 11, and the allocation end register 5 stores the end position of the character pattern allocated in the previous process +1. is set. In the flag register 4, O is set when the characters are arranged from left to right, and 1 is set when the characters are arranged from right to left. A mask pattern generator 6 generates a mask pattern according to the values of register 3 and flag register 4. In the mask pattern, when the value of flag register 4 is 0, the bit from the left end to the bit before the value of allocation start register 3 is O, the rest is 1, and when the value of flag register 4 is l, The bits from the right end to the previous bit of the value in register 3 are O, and the rest are 1. At the same time, the mask pattern generator 7
A mask pattern is generated according to the values of the allocation end register 5 and flag register 4. In the mask pattern, when the value of flag register 4 is 0, the bits from the left end to the bit before the value of allocation end register 5 are 1, and the rest are 0, and when the value of flag register 4 is l, allocation starts from the right end. The bits up to one bit before the value in end register 5 are l, and the rest are o. The character pattern is read from the character pattern buffer 1, rotated to the right by the value of the allocation start register 3 by the rotator 2, and ANDed with the output of the mask pattern generator 6. The previous character pattern is set in merge buffer 8, and character pattern buffer 1
The mask pattern is ANDed with the output of the generator tuff. The merging process is completed by calculating the logical sum of the above two logical product results.

When the dot data for the access unit of the merge processing dot storage memory 11 is created, the merge result is transferred to the memory write buffer 10 and written to the dot storage memory 11. Also, the output of the rotator 2 is transferred to the merge buffer 8 and merged with the next character pattern.

When dot data corresponding to the access unit of the dot storage memory 11 is not created by the merging process, the merging result is transferred to the merging buffer 8 and merged with the next character pattern.

When considering overlapping characters, the overlapping portion may span two access units as shown in FIG. At this time 2
It is necessary to merge the data of the character number with the data of both the merge buffer 8 and the memory write buffer 10. The processing at this time will be explained using FIGS. 3 to 5.

The contents of the buffer at the start of processing are as shown in FIG. At this time, first, the second character start coordinates in the access unit 1 are set in the allocation start register 3, merged with the contents of the memory write buffer 10, and the result is transferred to the memory write buffer 10. Also, the output of the rotator 2 is transferred to the character pattern buffer 1. The contents of each buffer at this time are as shown in FIG.

Next, the start coordinate of the second character in the access unit 2, ie O, is set in the allocation start register 3, and the end coordinate of the first character in the access unit 2 is set in the allocation end register 5.

Then, the data in character pattern buffer 1 and merge buffer 8 are merged and transferred to merge buffer 8. The contents of each buffer at this time are as shown in FIG.

The above process can be performed in the same way by setting the value of frang register 4 to 1, even if the characters are arranged in reverse order. [Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, characters can be merged on the buffer regardless of the direction in which the characters are arranged or the degree of overlapping of the characters, so even when characters are allocated with a high degree of freedom, performance is not degraded. There is an effect that can be processed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example in which overlapping characters span multiple access units, and FIGS. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the state of data in a buffer during processing in an embodiment of the present invention in the example of FIG. 2; 1... Character pattern buffer, 2... Rotator, 3... Allocation start register, 4... Flag register, 5... Allocation end register, 6, 7... Mask pattern generator, 8... ...Merge bath sofa, 9...Merge output storage register, 10...Memory write buffer, broom! Dankatsu 2 figure

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A dot storage memory that stores print data for one page in the form of dot images, a character pattern buffer that stores font data, and a merge that temporarily stores data that is less than the access unit of the dot storage memory. a buffer, a memory write buffer for storing data to be written into the dot storage memory, and a circuit for merging the contents of the character pattern buffer, the merge buffer, and the memory write buffer; A printer control device comprising means for controlling a mask pattern when output data is masked based on the positional relationship between characters. 2. The printer control device according to claim 1, further comprising means for generating mask patterns independent of the output data of the character pattern buffer and the merge buffer.