JPH03113498A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To freely and simply change the scaling condition of a font by providing an analyzing means for analyzing the scaling information inputted by an input means and a generating means for generating a printing pattern in accordance with a result by the analyzing means. CONSTITUTION:This printer is provided with an input means 101 for inputting a scaling condition containing an attribute of printing data, an analyzing means 108 for analyzing the scaling condition inputted by the input means 101 and a generating means 110 for generating a printing pattern in accordance with a result by the analyzing means 108. In this state, the scaling condition containing an attribute of printing data is inputted, the inputted scaling condition is analyzed, and in accordance with a result of its analysis, the printing pattern is generated, and by outputting its printing pattern, printing is executed. In such a way, the scaling condition of a font can freely and simply be changed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a printing device, and more particularly to a printing device that develops a dot pattern based on a dot font or a vector font and is capable of printing using the dot pattern.

[Prior Art] In recent years, when printers such as laser beam printers form characters or data using dot patterns, font data is stored in a font memory, and dot patterns are created based on the font data. Configured to expand. The font data uses two types of data: dot font and vector font.

The above-mentioned dot font is a font that has data in a dot pattern corresponding to the size of the font (referred to as the number of points).

Furthermore, a vector font is a font that stores only the dot data necessary for drawing the outline of the font with lines, for example. This vector font is
It stores character information using less data than dot fonts. However, when printing with this vector font, it is necessary to find outline data based on the character information according to the actual size of the characters to be output, and then develop it into dot data, which takes time. .

FIG. 4 shows an example of dot font data, and the "mouth" in the figure corresponds to a dot. Also, the fifth
The figure shows an example of vector font data, and black circle points A1 to A I2 in the figure are stored as character data. And FIG. 6 shows - for example (x, y
) indicates coordinate data.

Conventionally, when selecting one of the two types of character sets mentioned above, this has been done by specifying whether or not scaling is to be performed according to the size (number of points) of the characters.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the conventional example described above, once the scaling conditions are set, it takes time and effort to change them, and the settings cannot be changed frequently.

The present invention was made to solve the above problems, and
To provide a printing device that can freely and easily change font scaling conditions.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, a printing apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, in a printing device that outputs and prints a print pattern generated based on print data, an input means for inputting scaling conditions including attributes of the print data, and an analysis of the scaling conditions input by the input means are provided. analysis means,
and generating means for generating the printing pattern according to the result of the analyzing means.

[Operation] In the above configuration, scaling conditions including print data attributes are input, and the input scaling conditions are analyzed. Then, a print pattern is generated according to the analysis result, and the print pattern is output and printed.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Note that although the device in this embodiment will be described as having a configuration connected to a host computer, it may function as a standalone device.

Description of Configuration (Fig. 1)> Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, 112 is print data (text information) or command data sent from a host computer (not shown), 101 is a host computer I/F unit that controls data exchange with the host computer, and 10
2 is a page memory that stores text information 112; 1
A font memory 03 stores font data, and stores a dot font 104 and a vector font 105 inside. 106 is page memory 102
This is a dot pattern development section that refers to the font memory 103 and develops the character data stored in the font memory 103 into a dot pattern.

107 is a main control unit that controls the printing apparatus, includes a command analysis unit 108 to be described later, and executes a control procedure (program).
A ROM that stores the program and a CPU that executes the program.
It is composed of etc.

Reference numeral 109 is an operation panel for displaying keys for specifying operations of the apparatus and various statuses. Reference numeral 110 denotes a printer engine I/F that performs sending control when outputting the dot data developed by the dot pattern development section 106 to the printer engine 111.

A printer engine 111 forms a permanent visible image on paper from an input dot pattern.

Explanation of Scaling Instruction (FIG. 2) Next, the scaling permission instruction in this embodiment will be explained below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data format of the scaling permission command in this embodiment. As shown in the figure, the scaling permission command includes a scaling permission flag 201, character size data 2029, condition designation flag 2031, and character style data 204. First, the scaling permission flag 201 is a flag that instructs to permit or prohibit scaling; for example, if it is "1", it is "permitted".
, and if it is 0", it indicates "prohibited".

Next, the font size data 202 is the font size.

This is data indicating the number of points. The condition designation flag 203 is a flag that designates whether the number of points designated by the character size data 202 is to be the upper or lower limit of scaling, or whether only the characters of that number of points are to be scaled. Finally, character style data 204 is data indicating whether the data to be printed is upright or italic. Then, the above-mentioned scaling permission command is sent from a host computer (not shown), and the command analysis unit 108 analyzes and processes the command.

Description of Processing Procedure (FIG. 3)> Next, the processing procedure when the above-mentioned scaling permission command is received will be described below according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step S1, upon receiving the above-mentioned scaling permission command from a host computer (not shown),
The process advances to step S2, and the attributes of the print data are checked. This process is a process of checking the character size, etc. of print data stored in the page memory 102 in advance.

Next, in step S3, the scaling permission flag 201 of the scaling permission command is checked to determine whether scaling is "permitted" or "prohibited". If the result is "permission", the process advances to step s4, and a font corresponding to the print data is selected from the vector fonts 104.

However, as a result of the determination, if scaling is "prohibited", the process advances to step S5, and a font corresponding to the print data is selected from among the dot fonts 104.

When the selection process in step S4 or step s5 described above is completed, the process advances to step s6, and the selected font data is developed in the dot pattern development section 106. The process then proceeds to step s7, where the expanded pattern is output to the printer engine 111 via the printer engine I/FIIO, and the process ends.

As described above, according to this embodiment, by attaching a character attribute designation to a scaling permission/prohibition command, scaling can be performed by selecting only characters having a predetermined attribute.

Also, by specifying it using a command, settings and changes can be made easily, and various scalings can be performed within the same text.

In the embodiment described above, the scaling permission command is received from the host computer, but it is also possible to set scaling permission from the printer's operation panel, for example.

Although the present invention has been explained above using preferred embodiments,
The present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various modifications can be made within the scope of the claims.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, scaling conditions including print data attributes can be changed freely and easily.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printing apparatus in this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the data format of the scaling permission command in this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure in this embodiment, FIG. 4 is a diagram explaining a dot font, FIG. 5 is a diagram explaining a vector font, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing coordinate data of the vector font. In the figure, 101... host computer I/F, 102...
Page memory, 103... Font memory, 104.
...Dot font, 105...Vector font,
106... Dot pattern development section, 107... Main control section, 108... Command analysis section, 109... Operation panel, 110... Printer engine I/F, 111
. . . Printer engine, 112 . . . Text information.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A printing device that outputs and prints a print pattern generated based on print data, comprising: an input means for inputting scaling conditions including attributes of the print data; and a scaling condition input by the input means. A printing apparatus comprising: an analysis means for analyzing; and a generation means for generating the printing pattern according to a result of the analysis means.