JPH0345355A - Printing processing method at boundary part to adjacent line - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate a failure in ink transfer at a boundary part to an adjacent line and to reduce a deviation in printing density, color, and the like by a method wherein a boundary position to an adjacent line is shifted at every printing conducted by one scanning of a recording head. CONSTITUTION:After the completion of data transfer for one line, a process goes on to a step S4, wherein whether printing data for one line are all printed with respect to all colors is checked. If a color to be printed on the appropriate line still remains, the process goes on to a step S5, wherein recording paper is fed by a predetermined amount 'L' by an instruction issued to a recording paper feed mechanism of a printer engine part 19. Then the process returns to a step 2, wherein a next color is transferred. After data for one line are completely transferred for every color in this manner, the process goes on from the step S4 to a step S6, wherein all printing to be applied to the recording paper is completed is checked. In this manner, when lines are lap-printed at the boundary parts thereof, boundary positions to an adjacent line in the 1st, 2nd, 3rd printings are shifted in a line feed direction by the amount 'L' at every printing conducted by one recording head scanning.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing processing method for a boundary between adjacent lines in a printer that scans a recording head multiple times to print one line. It is.

[Prior Art] Due to its structure, printing by a serial printer is performed by sequentially repeating printing by scanning a recording head and feeding a recording sheet in a direction orthogonal to the scanning direction of the recording head.

For this reason, there are some systems that perform line breaks by making the line break distance for each line match the line spacing. The printing completion state in this case is shown in FIGS. 8(A) and 8(B).

Figures 8 (A) and (B) show the line boundaries of a cross section cut in the line feed direction in the printing completed state when the line feed distance for each line is simply made to match the line spacing distance and printing is continued. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a portion enlarged.

In Figure 8 (A) and (B), 1a and 2a are ↓ in each row.
For example, yellow ink is transferred in the second print head scan, 1b and 2b are magenta ink, for example, transferred in the second print head scan, and cyan ink is transferred in the third print head scan for c, 2c. 3 is a recording paper. Further, an arrow 4 indicates the line feeding direction of the recording paper 3.

The specific print control procedure in this case is to first ink the la
, lb, and lc in order, then feed the recording paper one line in the line feeding direction of 4, and do the same with ink 2a and 2b for the next line.
, 2c and so on.

Here, FIG. 8(A) is a printing example where there is no line feed error at all, and where the line boundaries are exactly connected. In such cases, there is no problem as the lines are connected perfectly, but in R9, there is almost always a line break error, and as shown in Figure 8 (B), there is an error 4 in the line feed, so there is no problem. A gap will be created (or they will overlap) at the boundary of some parts.

In this way, when print data is continuous over a plurality of lines, there is a drawback that gaps are created at the boundaries of each line if the line feeding accuracy of the recording paper is poor.

Conventionally, in serial printers, when printing continuous print data over multiple lines, the line feed error is equivalent to the line feed amount for one line of recording paper rather than the printing width in the feeding direction of the recording paper for each line. The border area of adjacent lines was controlled to be printed overlappingly by that amount. As a result, even if the line feeding accuracy is slightly poor, there will be no gaps at the boundaries of each line.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In order to solve the above problems, FIGS. 9(A) and 9(B) show a case where the boundary portions of each line are controlled to be overlapped by the maximum value of the line feed error. FIG.

FIG. 9(A) is a printing example of the theoretically predicted method. This is the ideal case, but if it were done this way, a line leading (feed) error would occur,
Even if this becomes L", it will be exactly as shown in Fig. 8 (A).
8(B), there will be no gap as shown in FIG. 8(B).

However, in this conventional example, since the already printed inks la, lb, and lc form a large step equivalent to three layers of ink in the overlapping printing area, when printing inks 2a, 2b, and 2c, there is a gap between the recording paper and the ink. A space shown in 5 in FIG. 9(A) is created in between. For this reason, as shown by the dotted line in Figure 9(B), in reality, the ink is not transferred well onto the recording paper in this area, and is rarely transferred, or even if it is transferred, the adhesive force is very small. It peels off more than anything.

Furthermore, even if the printing is successful as shown in FIG.
Since the three layers a, 2b, and 2c are also printed extra, the printing density or color of this area becomes much different than it should be, and the ink level is lower than that of the area where no overlap is printed. Printing performance tends to deteriorate due to poor transferability and changes in density and color.

Particularly when performing color printing or gradation expression printing using a binary printer, each line must be printed by scanning the recording head multiple times. In this case, the boundary portion between adjacent rows is redundantly printed with ink twice as many times as the number of scans, so there is a drawback that the above-mentioned deterioration in printing performance becomes particularly noticeable.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention has been made for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems, and includes the following configuration as one means for solving the above-mentioned problems.

That is, a printer capable of printing one line by scanning the recording head a plurality of times is provided with means for printing by shifting the printing boundary position with an adjacent line by a predetermined amount for each scan of the recording head.

[Operation] In the above configuration, deterioration in printing performance is minimized by controlling the overlapping amount of ink at the boundary between adjacent lines to a predetermined amount or less.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a color printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, and reference numeral 10 denotes a CPU which is stored in the ROM 11 and controls the entire embodiment according to the control procedure shown in FIG. 3, which will be described later. , 11 is a ROM that stores the above-mentioned control procedures, etc., 12 is a RAM that stores printing information etc. sent from the host, 13 is a host interface for connecting with an external device such as a post computer, and 14 is a color ink ribbon to be described later. 15 is a sensor for reading the barcode, 16 is a ribbon feed control unit, 17 is a ribbon mechanism, 18 is a printer print control unit, and 19 is a paper feed control mechanism. The printer engine includes a printer engine section, and 20 is an operation section consisting of a keyboard and a display, into which operation instructions and the like of this embodiment are input.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing the state of use of the multicolor ink ribbon used in the color printer of this embodiment having the above configuration, and in this embodiment, yellow (Y), magenta (M), Three colors of cyan (C) ink are sequentially applied.

In the figure, 51. ．． 52 and 53 are bar codes for determining the yellow magenta and cyan ink application positions, 54 and 5, respectively.
5.56 is a color ink portion coated with yellow ink, magenta ink, and cyan ink.

This embodiment has the above configuration, and when performing color printing, the recording head is operated up to three times to sequentially transfer yellow, magenta, and cyan inks.

Print control in this embodiment will be described below using flowcharts 1 to 1 in FIG.

In this embodiment, prior to the start of printing processing, print data to be recorded on recording paper is sent from a mailbox or the like. Therefore, this data is received by the host interface 13 or the like and stored in a predetermined area of the RAM 12. Then, when a print start instruction is input, the control shifts to the one shown in FIG.
For example, color printing is performed one line at a time.

When a print start instruction is input, the CPUIO first instructs the printer print control section 18 in step SL to control the recording paper feed mechanism of the printer engine section 19,
Feed the recording paper to the recording start position.

Then, in the following step S2, the barcode reading section 14 is activated, and the ribbon feeding control section 1G is controlled to drive the ribbon mechanism 17, and the ink ribbon is fed until the sensor 15 detects the barcode of the ink ribbon of the desired color. . When the sensor 15 detects the ink ribbon barcode of the desired color and the barcode indicating the desired color position, the ink ribbon continues (since the ink of the desired color is applied from the position, the process advances to step S3). , controls the printer print control section 18 to scan the recording head and transfer one line of desired color.

When the transfer for one line is completed, the process proceeds to step S4, where it is checked whether or not all of the print data for one line for each color has been printed.
If there are still colors to be printed on the layer, the process advances to step S5. The recording paper feeding mechanism of the printer engine section 19 is instructed to feed the recording paper by a predetermined amount "L". Then, the process returns to step S2 and transfer processing for the next color is performed.

When the transfer of each color for one line is completed in this manner, the process advances from step S4 to step S6, and it is checked whether all printing on the recording paper has been completed. If the next line is to be printed, the process advances to step S7, where the recording paper is line-feeded by one line, and step S
Return to 2.

On the other hand, if all the processes have been completed in step S6, the printing process ends. In this case, if printing is subsequently to be performed on the next recording paper, the process returns to step S1, the next recording paper is fed to the recording start position, and the above process is performed again.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram similar to FIG. 8 showing a state in which a total of three colors are actually printed on one line under the above control, but with almost no line feed errors.

In this embodiment, as described above, when printing the boundary portion of each line repeatedly, the boundary position with the adjacent line is changed by °L'' for the first, second, and third printing for each print head scan. Printing is performed by shifting the lines one by one in the line feed direction.

The specific recording state transition at this time will be explained below with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 10, 21 is a recording head, and "H" is a printing width in the line feeding direction.

Printing width “H” is done by one head scan,
Recording control is performed in the order of (A) to (F).

(2) Ink 1a is transferred and printed from an ink ribbon in (A). Then, move the recording paper in the direction opposite to the line feeding direction.
'Feed ■ (B) transfers and prints ink 1b from the ink ribbon. Then, move the recording paper in the direction opposite to the line feed direction.
Transfer print the ink IC from the ink ribbon using the L°° feed (C). Then, the recording paper is fed "H+L" in the line feeding direction.

(2) Ink 2a is transferred and printed from the ink ribbon in (D). Then, the recording paper is fed "L" in the direction opposite to the line feed direction.

(2) Ink 2b is transferred and printed from the ink ribbon in (E). Then, the recording paper is "L" fed in the opposite direction to the line feeding direction.

(2) Ink 2c is transferred and printed from the ink ribbon in (F).

With the above recording control, a recording state similar to that shown in FIG. 4 described above can be achieved.

Thereafter, the recording paper is fed in the line feeding direction H+L'" and printing is continued in the same manner.

By controlling as described above, the step created by the transfer ink is only as thick as one layer of ink, as shown in FIG. 4. Therefore, the space created when printing the next line can be made small as shown in 6 in the figure. Therefore, even in this area, transfer to the recording paper is achieved with almost no problems, and the printing quality can be good without causing peeling or the like.

Further, FIG. 5 shows the printing state in this embodiment in a case where a recording paper feed error as shown in FIG. 8(B) occurs and the feed interval widens.

According to this embodiment, even in such a case, the intervals are dispersed to the overlapping portions of each color ink, and the spaces are formed at 7a, 7b, 7c, and 7d.

Although the number increases to 7e, the difference in level only corresponds to one layer of ink in any part, and there is no part that is not transferred. Therefore, even in this area, transfer to the recording paper is achieved with almost no problems, and it is possible to obtain a print of good quality without peeling or the like.

Additionally, compared to the conventional example shown in FIG. 9(B), excess ink that is not originally needed in the overlapping print area is suppressed in one layer of ink, making it possible to reduce deviations in printing density or color in this area. .

[Second Example] Furthermore, the present invention is not limited to the above example, but L
Good results can also be obtained if the line is shifted in the opposite direction to the line feed direction and printed so that it overlaps with the immediately preceding print line.

In this case, when printing the boundary part of each line repeatedly, for each printing by one recording head scan, the boundary position with the adjacent line is changed by L in the opposite direction to the line feeding direction for the first, second, and third printing. Print by shifting the direction.

In this case, Fig. 6 shows an example of printing when there is no line feed error, and Fig. 7 shows an example of printing when there is an error of 4° in the line feed, similar to Fig. 8 (B). .

In either case, only the steps 8a, 8b, and 8c corresponding to one layer of ink are formed, and the boundary portion can be printed overlappingly without causing printing defects due to the steps and without ink peeling or the like.

According to the second embodiment, as in the first embodiment, the excess ink in the overlapping printing portion is only an ink layer. Therefore, deviations in print density, color, etc. can also be minimized.

Furthermore, in the case of this embodiment, since the space created by the step becomes constant regardless of line feed errors, more stable printing can be performed compared to the first embodiment.

Also, compared to the conventional example shown in FIG. 9(A), the overlapped printing part is
Since excess ink that is not originally needed is contained in one layer of ink, deviations in printing density or color in this area can be reduced.

[Third Example] A third example of the present invention, which is another method of obtaining the same results as the first example, will be described below with reference to FIG. 11, which is similar to FIG. 10.

The method of this embodiment is carried out by shifting the usage range of the recording head by .degree.L.degree. for each head scan.

Specifically, the illustrated area "a" of the recording head 21
"-c" is used in the order of (A) to (F) for each head scan.

Note that "H'" in the figure is the recording width of each area in the line feed direction.

(2) In (A), the region "a" of the recording head is heated and the ink 1a is transferred and printed from the ink ribbon.

(2) In (B), area "b" of the recording head is heated to transfer and print ink 1b from the ink ribbon.

(2) In (C), area "c" of the recording head is heated to transfer and print ink 1C from the ink ribbon. Then, the recording paper is fed by H'-L''.

2) In (D), the area "aoo" of the recording head is heated and the ink 2a is transferred and printed from the ink ribbon.

(2) In (E), heat is generated in area "b" of the recording head, and ink 2b is transferred and printed from the ink ribbon.

(2) In (F), area "c" of the recording head is heated to transfer and print ink 2C from the ink ribbon.

With the above recording control, it is possible to achieve a recording state similar to that shown in FIG. 4 described above.

Note that in the above explanation, the recording area "a" is replaced by "c".
Then, change the recording area “c” to °°a°° and
By carrying out the recording controls shown in the figure, it is possible to obtain the same recording state as in FIG. 6 described above. That is,
Similarly to the second embodiment of the present invention, a recording result of 0 can also be obtained.

As explained above, by shifting the boundary position between adjacent lines each time the printing head prints once, it is possible to eliminate ink transfer defects at the boundary and reduce deviations in print density, color, etc. There is an effect that can be done.

Although the examples have been explained based on the case of a thermal transfer type printer, the effect of reducing print density and color deviation can be applied to any type of printer such as a sublimation type, an inkjet type, a dot impact type, etc. , it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to these cases as well.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, by shifting the position of the boundary between adjacent lines each time printing is performed by one scan of the recording head, defective ink transfer at the boundary between adjacent lines can be prevented. However, it is possible to reduce deviations in print density, color, etc.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment according to the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a color ink ribbon used in this embodiment, Fig. 3 is a print control flowchart of this embodiment, and Fig. 4 is a diagram of this embodiment. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a cross section of the printing result when there is almost no feed error when printing by shifting each line by L in the line feeding direction. FIG. Fig. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a cross section of the printing result when there is a feed error in the case where there is a feed error. A schematic diagram showing a cross section of the print result when there is almost no error. Figure 7 shows the print result when there is a feed error when printing by shifting each line by L in the opposite direction to the line feed direction in the second embodiment. Fig. 8 (A) is a schematic diagram showing a cross section of the printing result when there is almost no feed error when printing each row simply by joining in the conventional method, and Fig. 8 (B) Figure 9 (A) is a schematic diagram showing a cross-section of the printing result when there is a feed error when printing each line simply by joining them in the conventional method. FIG. 9(B) is a schematic diagram showing a cross section of the print result when there is a feed error when the conventional boundary portions of each line are simply overlapped. The figure is a schematic sectional view showing a specific aspect of printing in the first embodiment, and FIG. 11 is a schematic sectional view showing a specific aspect of printing in the third embodiment. In the figure, la, lb, lc... each ink printed in one line, 2a, 2b, 2c... each ink printed in the next line, 3... recording paper, 5, 6.7a ~7e, 8a~
8C... Space between recording paper and transfer ink, 10.
...CPU, 11...ROM, 12...RAM, 1
3... Host ink face, ■4... Barcode reading unit, 15... Sensor, 16... Ribbon feed control unit, 17... Ribbon mechanism, 18... Printer printing control unit, 19 ... Plink engine section, 20... Operation section, 21... Recording head, 51-53...
・Barcode to identify each ink color, 44-5
5...This is the area where ink of each color is applied. Patent Applicant Canon Stock (1) Figure 4 Figure 15 Figure 8 8a 8b 8c 6rJA Figure 7 @ Figure 9

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A printing processing method for a boundary between adjacent lines in a printer capable of printing one line by scanning a recording head multiple times, comprising: printing with an adjacent line for each scan of the recording head; A printing processing method for a boundary portion between adjacent lines, characterized in that the boundary position is shifted by a predetermined amount and printed.