JPH03268963A - Half tone printing system of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To establish a different half tone mode respectively to a printing part and a non-printing part by a method wherein a prototype dot matrix pattern and a half tone pattern are logically operated. CONSTITUTION:When a data for printing of a character N is inputted, a master control part 1 reads a control program from a ROM 2 and executes it. Then, the control part 1 takes in a dot pattern A inside based on the program. When a data B for establishing a half tone mode is inputted thereafter, the control part 1 reads respectively the program from a ROM 2 and executes it. Then, logic product C=A*B is executed based on respective patterns of A and B to obtain a pattern C. When a data D for establishing a half tone mode of a non-printing part is inputted, the program is stored. Then, a pattern of reversing the pattern A is obtained by operation of the control part 1. The pattern A is obtained and E is obtained by executing logical product E=A*B. Then, logical add F=C+E is executed to obtain F. Thereafter, a printing control part 5 takes in a pattern F inside the prints it. It becomes possible thereby that a printing part and a non-printing part are discriminated and a different half tone mode is established respectively to each of them.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a halftone printing method for a printer, and particularly to a halftone printing method for a printer that prints a halftone pattern in extended control.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of printer did not separate the printing area and non-printing area, and instead printed a cross-hatched pattern in the print area using a logical sum, resulting in the printed area being printed in black and the cross-hatching pattern only appearing on the non-printing area. It was printed.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

When using the conventional printer mentioned above, the shading is applied to the entire printing area, so it is not possible to shade only the printing area, and even if it is done in a pseudo manner, the desired printing result must be mapped to the dot row in advance. The data must be made compatible with graphics and sent from the host device to be printed, which makes it impossible to quickly respond to data calculations, and the program required to send the data from the host device is long. This was not an easy method to handle.

[Means to solve the problem]

The printer of the present invention is for printing character patterns stored in a dot matrix type font, and has means capable of distinguishing printed parts from non-printed parts and setting different shading modes for each part. ing.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 1, one embodiment of the present invention includes a mask control section 1 and a program memory.
(program ROM) 2, buffer memory (RAM)
) 3 and dot matrix pattern memory (print RO
M) 4 and a print control section 5, which are connected via an address bus 6 and a data bus 7.

The mask control unit 1 has a function of controlling the entire printer device and a function of setting a halftone mode, and is constituted by a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as rcPUJ) that operates according to a control program written in a program ROM 2. Each component is controlled via an address bus 8 and a data bus 7.

The program ROM 2 contains a program for controlling the entire printer device and a shading mode setting program, and outputs control data to the data bus 7 based on commands output from the mask control unit l via the address bus 6. It has a function.

The RAM 3 is composed of a buffer memory, and has a function of temporarily storing print patterns such as calculation results while the halftone mode setting program is being executed.

The print ROM 4 stores dot, tomato, and cross-shaped print data (normal printing) corresponding to specified characters.
It has a function of outputting this print data to the data bus 7 based on the control of the mask control section 1.

The print control section 5 has the function of inputting print data via the data bus 7 and sending it to a printing mechanism section (not shown) to perform dot printing.

Next, a method of program control by the mask control section 1 when setting independent hatching modes for the printed portion and the non-printed portion based on normal printing data will be explained with reference to FIG.

Now, when data for printing the characters rNJ is input from the host device, the mask control section 1 reads a control program from the program ROM 2 and executes it. Print RO
An address specifying the dot pattern of the character rNJ based on the print command is output to M3 via the address bus 6, and a read command is also output, causing the data bus 7 to output this dot pattern. Next, the mask control section 1 takes in this dot pattern internally based on the control program. This dead pattern is shown in FIG. 2(a) (this pattern is designated as rAJ).

Next, when the data for setting the shading mode for the printing section is input from the host device, the mask control section 1 stores the data in the program ROM.
Each control program is read from 2 and executed. The shading pattern set at this time is shown in Figure 2(b).
(This pattern is referred to as rBJ).

Next, based on each pattern of A and B, the logical product C=A-%B
The resulting pattern is shown in FIG. 2(C) (this pattern is referred to as "C").

When the data for setting the shading mode to be set on the non-printing area is input, the control program is stored in the same way as when setting the shading mode on the printing area, and the shading pattern at this time is shown in Figure 2 (d). (Let this pattern be rDJ). Next, a pattern obtained by inverting pattern A is calculated by the mask control unit 1, and the resulting pattern is shown in FIG. 2(e).
(This pattern is designated as [τJ). The logical product E=A%D is executed in the same way as C was obtained, and the resulting pattern is shown in FIG. 2 (O (this pattern is referred to as rEJ)).

Finally, based on each pattern of C and E, logical sum F=C+
The resulting pattern is shown in Figure 2 (g
) (this pattern is designated as F).

The mask control section 1 outputs the execution result pattern F of the hatching mode, which is set independently for the printing section and the non-printing section, to the data bus 7, and also issues a printing command to the printing control section 5 via the address 6. Output. As a result, the print control section 5
takes in the execution result pattern F and prints it.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention has the advantage that different shading modes can be set for the printing area and the non-printing area by performing logical operations on the original dot matrix pattern and the shading pattern.

A pattern with a set mode.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a microprogram-controlled printer having a dot matrix type font structure, a printing section on a printing area formed by a character pattern of normal printing characters;
A shading printing method for a printer, comprising means for distinguishing a printing area from a non-printing area other than the printing area and setting a shading mode for each area.