JPH0367671A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform printing at an indicated printing position by a method wherein a printing position indication means indicates a printing position at the time of printing based on the overlapped state of a printing pattern on a preprinted pattern, which is applied on paper and can be seen through the printing position indication means. CONSTITUTION:An LCD controller 17 indicates a string of printing pattern data transmitted thereto on a liquid crystal display board 13. When a printer is loaded on paper to be printed 20, on the transparent liquid crystal display board 13, the indicated character printing pattern is seen overlappedly on a character frame on the paper 20 as a preprinted pattern 21. The printer is positionally corrected to obtain an optimum overlapped state as a printing position, thereby positioning the characters within the preprinted printing pattern 21. With the detection of the travel of a printing head 10 by a distance from a printing head position to the first-byte position of the liquid crystal-displayed printing pattern, a printing action is started here. Strings of printing pattern data are sequentially read from a memory of a control part 15 per byte at every travel of one line pitch and transmitted to a printing head driver 18, whereby data for one line is printed per 8 dots by the printing head 10.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] This invention is applicable to printing devices such as desk-top type printing devices (printers) and small-sized printing devices (handheld printers) that manually scan and print on paper. The present invention relates to a printing apparatus, and in particular, to a printing apparatus having a function of aligning the positions of the ruled lines and the like on the paper with the printing position when printing on a sheet of paper on which ruled lines and the like are printed in advance.

[Prior Art] As an example of a conventional printing device, a printer is connected to a small computer via an interface cable, receives print data that has been manually edited on the small computer side via the interface cable, and then starts printing from an operator. There is a printing device that prints by manually scanning a sheet of paper in response to an instruction.

As shown in FIG. 7, such a printing device includes a timing roller (2) that rotates as the printing device moves, and a timing roller (2) that has a slit on a disk and rotates in conjunction with the timing roller (2). A movement detection mechanism (1) of a printing device consisting of a disk (3) and a timing sensor (4) that detects the amount of rotation of the timing disk, an ink ribbon (B), an ink ribbon supply reel (7>), and an ink ribbon winder. an ink ribbon cassette (5) consisting of a take-up reel (8>), an ink ribbon take-up reel drive unit (9>) that rotates the ink ribbon take-up reel (8) during printing, a print head <10>, and a printing head. Button (11)
, an interface cable (12), and a control unit (not shown) that controls the entire printing apparatus from receiving print data to printing.

Next, the operation of the above conventional printing apparatus will be explained.

First, the control section receives encoded print data from a small computer, develops it into a print pattern data string corresponding to the print data, and then stores the print pattern data string in a memory within the control section.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a print pattern data string of the character "2°. In this example, the print pattern data string has a length of one character of 5 bytes.

Next, when the operator places the printing device on the paper to be printed and starts moving the printing device while holding down the print button (11), the timing roller (2) rotates and the movement amount detection mechanism (1) The amount of movement of the printing device is detected. The control unit drives the ink ribbon take-up reel (8) via its drive unit (9), then monitors the movement information obtained from the movement amount detection mechanism (1), and adjusts the ink ribbon at a predetermined interval (line pitch).
Each time it moves, a print pattern data string is sequentially read out and transferred to a print head driver (not shown). To explain the example of printing the character "2" in FIG. 8, when the printing device is moving in the right direction (X direction), the control unit controls the character "2" when the print head (lO) is at the position xl. The 1st byte of the 2" print pattern data string is transferred to the print head driver, the print head (1o) prints the first row, and then the 2nd byte data is transferred at x2 after moving by 1 line pitch. And so on.

The printing operation continues in this manner, and ends when the end of the print pattern data string is reached or the print button is released.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, with such conventional printing devices, when placed on paper, the position to be printed by the printing device is covered up, and the position of the print head (10) cannot be seen. ,
Print alignment was difficult. Also, if the print head (
1G) Even if the position is visible, it is difficult to know from which position printing will start and whether printing will be performed at the correct position.

In particular, when printing on paper with pre-printed lines or postal code frames (hereinafter referred to as pre-printed paper), it is necessary to make several test prints to ensure accurate alignment. For this reason, there were problems such as a lot of work time being required before the actual printing, and pre-printing paper being wasted.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the prior art described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printing device in which a pre-print pattern such as ruled lines of a pre-print paper and a print pattern to be printed can be aligned as desired. With the goal.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A printing device according to the present invention includes a print head for printing a print pattern, and a window provided at a predetermined distance from the print head for pre-printing ruled lines, character frames, etc. on paper. printing position display means fixed so that the pattern is visible and displaying the print pattern to be printed by the print head superimposed on the pre-print pattern on the paper; and printing means for printing the printing pattern at the position displayed on the printing position display means. Further, a print head that prints a print pattern, a window that is provided at a predetermined interval from the print head and that takes in a pre-print pattern such as ruled lines and character frames on the paper, and a print that is printed on the paper by the print head. printing position display means for superimposing and displaying a pattern and a pre-print pattern taken in from the window; and a printing position display means for scrolling the print pattern displayed on the print position display means based on the relative movement amount between the window and the paper to select a pre-print pattern. The apparatus includes a display scrolling means for changing the display area of the printing pattern, and a printing means for printing the printing pattern at the position displayed on the printing position displaying means based on the relative movement amount between the printing head and the paper. be.

[Function] In the first invention, when aligning the print position, printing is performed based on the degree of overlap between the pre-print pattern such as ruled lines and character frames on the paper that can be seen through the print position display means and the print pattern to be printed. Display the print position of the hour. Then, when printing, it prints at the displayed print position.

Further, in the second invention, when aligning the print position,
The print position display means displays the print position at the time of printing based on the degree of overlap between a part of the pre-print pattern of ruled lines and character frames on the paper taken in from the window and a part of the print pattern to be printed. The scroll means causes the print position display means to always display the print position for the portion of the pre-print pattern taken in at the current window position.

Then, when printing, it is printed at the displayed print position.

[Embodiment] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a printing apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, (10) is a thermal transfer 8-dot printing head, and (5) is an ink ribbon cassette containing an ink ribbon (6), an ink ribbon supply reel (7), and an ink ribbon take-up reel (8). (9
) drives the ink ribbon take-up reel (8) to run the ink ribbon (6) during printing, and the print head (10
) is an ink ribbon take-up reel drive unit for supplying ink to the ink ribbon. (13) is fixed to the window (14) provided on the side of the print head (10), and is parallel to the printing surface of the paper so that the ruled lines, character frames, etc. of the paper overlap with the printed pattern displayed and can be seen through. (2) is a timing roller, (3) is a timing disk, (4> is a timing sensor, and (11) is a timing sensor.
) is a print button for instructing printing operations, and (I2) is an interface cable for connecting to a small computer and receiving print data.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, in which (1
5) is a control unit that controls the entire printing device, (16) is an interface unit that receives print data from a small computer, and (17) is an L that controls the liquid crystal display board (13).
The CD controller (18) is a thermal transfer print head (
(19) is a pulse signal generated by the timing sensor (4) when the print head moves. This is a counter that counts.

Next, the operation of the printing apparatus configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3(a) to 3(d), which show operations from print positioning before printing to completion of printing.

First, the control unit (15) prints a character example "1" from the small computer via the interface cable (12).
23'' character code string is received, a printing pattern data string corresponding to each code is generated, and the control unit (15)
Store in memory within. Next, the stored print pattern data string is sent to the LCD controller (1 byte at a time from the beginning).
Transfer to 7>. The LCD controller (17) displays the sent print pattern data string on the liquid crystal display board (13). At this time, the position on the liquid crystal display board (13) from which the print pattern data string is displayed is set in advance. For example, from the print head (2) position to DIII11
The first byte of the print pattern data string is displayed at a position on a distant liquid crystal display board (13).The state in which the print pattern to be printed is displayed is shown in FIG. 3(a).

This figure is a top view of the printing apparatus shown in FIG.

Next, the operator selects the paper (20) that he wants to print by turning the printing device on
Place it on top. Figure 3(b) shows the printing device placed on the paper (20) and the transparent liquid crystal display panel (13).
> has the printed pattern of the displayed characters “123” and
The pre-printed pattern (21) of the character frame on the sheet of paper (20) appears to overlap.The operator corrects the position of the printing device so that this overlapping condition is optimal as the printing position, for example, as shown in Fig. 3 (21). Align the numbers so that they fit within the pre-print pattern (21) as shown in C).

After alignment is complete, the operator presses the print button (1).
1) Press to move the printing device in the direction of the arrow. When the control unit (15) detects that the print button (11) has been pressed, the control unit (15) drives the ink ribbon take-up reel (8) using its drive unit (9), and also controls the movement amount detection unit (1).
Start monitoring the counter (19).

As the printing device moves, the timing roller (2) and timing disk (3) rotate, and a pulse is generated from the timing sensor (4), causing the counter (19) to count up. 〉 print-device, i.e. print head (lO)
Find out the amount of movement. When the print head (10) detects that the print head (10) has moved a distance D am between the print head position and the first byte print pattern position displayed on the LCD, the printing operation is started from here, and control is performed every time the print head moves by one line pitch. Department (
By sequentially reading out the print pattern data string one byte at a time from the memory in 15) and sending it to the print head driver (18), the print head (10) prints 8 dots per line. Therefore, immediately after the printing position is adjusted, printing starts from the position where the 1st byte print pattern of the liquid crystal display board (13) was displayed. Printed at the same print position as displayed.

When the printing pattern data string is printed to the end in this manner, the control section (15) completes the printing operation.

FIG. 3(d) shows the state at the end of printing.

In the above embodiment, the printing device (that is, the liquid crystal display panel (13
) and print head (10)) were moved to align the print position and print, but the printing device (liquid crystal display board (13) and print head (10)) and paper (20) were moved relative to each other. Since it is a good translation, the printing device (liquid crystal display board (13)
) and the print head (10)) may be fixed and the paper (20) may be moved.

In addition, this moving operation does not have to be an operation in which the operator directly moves it as in the above embodiment. For example, in the printing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, the timing roller (2) is driven by a pulse motor, and the operator Alternatively, the controller may issue a movement instruction to move the printing device from the small computer side.

In this case, the control unit (15>) rotates the pulse motor by a predetermined amount of pressure or reversely according to the movement instruction received via the interface cable (12), so that the printing device moves by moving left and right.

Furthermore, in the above example in which the pulse motor is added, the amount of movement of the printing device is determined by the number of pulses given to the pulse motor by the control unit (15); The amount of movement of the printing device can be monitored.In other words, the printing device (print head (lO) and liquid crystal display board (13)) and paper (20
), and in the case of a printing device in which the amount of movement is self-evident depending on the movement means, the amount of movement detection means (1) such as the timing sensor of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is used. becomes unnecessary.

Furthermore, although the printing apparatus described above is of a type connected to a small computer, the printing apparatus itself may have means for inputting and editing print contents (for example, a small word processor with a printing function, etc.).

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of position matching according to the present invention. First, the control section (15) prints a character string "" from the small computer via the interface cable (12).
12345'' character code string, it generates a print pattern data string corresponding to each code, and the control unit (
15). Next, data from the beginning of the stored print pattern data string to the second character that can be displayed on the liquid crystal display (13a) is transferred one byte at a time to the LCD controller (17). The LCD controller (17) displays the sent print pattern data string on the liquid crystal display board (13). At this time, the print pattern data string is displayed on the liquid crystal display board (13).
3) The position from which to display is set in advance.
For example, one of the print pattern data strings is placed on the liquid crystal display board (13) 20 mm away from the position of the print head (lO>).
We will display the first byte. FIG. 4(a) shows a state in which the printing pattern to be printed is displayed in this manner. The first two characters of the print pattern to be printed are displayed on the liquid crystal display board (13).

When the printing device is moved left and right on the paper, the timing roller (2) rotates forward or backward, and the value of the counter (19) increases or decreases.The control unit (15) monitors changes in this counter value. , the direction of movement (right or left) and distance can be grasped.Now, after displaying the beginning of the print pattern as described above, the control unit (15) controls the printing device every time movement of a certain predetermined distance is detected. The printing pattern displayed on the liquid crystal display board (13) is scrolled by the predetermined distance in the opposite direction to the direction of movement of.For example, if the printing device is moved to the right by
In this case, each time the control unit (15) detects movement of one mountain by a predetermined distance, it instructs the LCD controller (17) to scroll the display pattern one step to the left.The LCD controller (17) When this scrolling instruction is received, the display pattern is moved one step to the left, and the control unit (15
read from memory and display. After moving the printing device 10m+s to the right in this way, the LCD controller (
17) is scrolling a total of 10 times, and the print pattern displayed on the LCD is 10 m long for the printing device.
It moves to the left by +e and does not move relative to the paper (20). Therefore, even if the printing device is moved from side to side, the print pattern displayed on the liquid crystal display appears stationary with respect to the paper (20). Such scroll display processing is always performed during the print position alignment and confirmation operations described below. However, if you want to move the LCD display without scrolling during the print alignment operation, you can lift the printing device a little and move the timing roller (2) off the paper (20).The above-mentioned scroll display This is because the operation is not performed unless the timing roller (2) rotates.

First, the operator picks up the printing device and brings it onto the sheet of paper (20) that he wishes to print on. Figure 3(b) shows the state in which the printing device is placed on the paper, and the transparent liquid crystal display board (13) shows the displayed character "12° printing pattern and the character frame (21 ) appear to overlap with the pre-printed pattern.The operator corrects the position of the printing device so that this overlapping condition is optimal for the printing position, and prints the character frame (21) as shown in FIG. 3(C), for example. Match the numbers so that they fit inside.

Next, the operator moves the printing device to the right on the paper (20) without lifting it, in order to check whether the printing position is appropriate for printing patterns other than "12" displayed on the liquid crystal display. Then, as the printing device moves, the pre-printed pattern on the paper (2o) that is moving to the left can be seen through the liquid crystal display board (13), and together with the pre-printed pattern, the printed pattern displayed on the liquid crystal display. scrolls to the left as described above.Therefore, the LCD screen (13) displays the moving pre-printed pattern and -
The printing position is always displayed based on the overlap with the printing pattern that moves along with the printing pattern. In this way, the operator slowly moves the printing device while moving the LCD screen (1
Check the printing position by looking at the degree of overlap between the two printing patterns in step 3). FIG. 3(d) shows the state when the printing positions up to the last printing pattern "5" to be printed have been confirmed.

To explain the printing operation, as shown in FIG. 3(d), the distance between the position of the print head (10) and the rightmost position of the display area of the liquid crystal display board (13) is expressed as f) (mm). It is defined as

If there is no problem with the alignment, the operator presses the print button (11) to move the printing device to the left. When the control unit (15) detects that the print button (11) has been pressed, it starts winding the ink ribbon. After driving the take-up reel (8) via its drive section (9), the movement amount detection means (1)
Start monitoring the counter (19).

As the printing device moves, the timing roller (2) and the timing disk (3) rotate, a pulse is generated from the timing sensor (4), and the counter (19) counts up.The control unit (15) The amount of movement of the printing device, that is, the print head (IO) is known from the counter value of
Each time the movement corresponds to one line pitch, the print pattern data string is transferred one byte at a time from the memory in the control unit (15) (starting from the one byte of the print pattern displayed at the rightmost end of the display area of the liquid crystal display board (13)). By sequentially reading out the data (backwards to the beginning of the print pattern data string) and sending it to the print head driver (1B), the print head (10) prints 8 dots per line.

Therefore, immediately after aligning the print position, the liquid crystal display board (13)
Because printing starts exactly from the position where the rightmost print pattern 1 byte of the display area was displayed, the third
Printing is performed at the same printing position as the display state of the liquid crystal display board (13>) shown in FIGS. (C) and (d).

If you print to the end of the print pattern data string in this way,
The control unit (15>) completes the printing operation. FIG. 3(e) shows the state at the end of printing, and FIG. 3(f) shows the paper after printing.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing another embodiment of the invention. In this embodiment, instead of the liquid crystal display panel (13) in the embodiment shown in FIG.
〉 and a window (14〉), and a cathode ray tube (22〉)
The printed pattern displayed on the paper (20
〉Half mirror (23〉) arranged so that the upper pre-printed pattern is transparent and both printed patterns overlap.
It uses An advantage of this configuration is that the indicator of the print pattern to be printed does not have to be a transparent indicator.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing still another embodiment of the present invention,
In this embodiment, light is projected downward from a window (14) instead of the liquid crystal display panel (13) in the embodiment shown in FIG.
A light source (24) that illuminates the paper (20) is fixed above the print head (10) at a predetermined distance from the bottom surface of the print head (10)
) Lens (25) and image sensor (photoelectric conversion element) for condensing, imaging and reading the pre-printed pattern on
(2B) and a display device (28) that receives the read pre-print pattern by a small computer (27) and displays it superimposed on the print pattern to be printed.The advantages of this configuration are , the position of the print position indicator is determined independently of the position of the window (image sensor (position 20)) that captures the pre-printed pattern on the paper, and the image capture function can be used for multiple purposes. This is a point of generality.

As described above, the print position display means of the present invention can be configured using any display device. As you can see from the previous explanation, the important point is to set the pre-print pattern capture position on paper <20> ( It is important to understand in advance the distance between the window position (referred to as the window position) and the print head position (1G) before designing.

In the above embodiment, an example of a small manual printing device (a portable printer) was explained, but it is clear from the above explanation that the same principle can be applied to a desktop-type printing device. be.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above in detail, according to the first invention, the print position display means allows the pre-print pattern such as the ruled line or character frame of the paper to be the print pattern set as the print position display means. They appear to overlap, and the degree of overlapping indicates the printing position during printing, so the printing position can be confirmed before printing, and the printing position can be easily and accurately aligned without making a test print.

Further, according to the second invention, a part of the pre-print pattern such as ruled lines and character frames of the paper taken in through a window fixed at a predetermined distance from the print head, and a part of the print pattern to be printed from now on, It appears to overlap the print position display means, and by moving the window further, the display area scrolls and is constantly updated to show the print position, so the overlap between the pre-print pattern and the print pattern can be adjusted before printing. The printing position can be checked in every corner of the printing pattern, and when printing is started, the distance between the window and the print head is taken into account, so printing is performed at the printing position displayed on the printing position display means. Printing positions can be easily and accurately adjusted without printing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a printing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the printing device shown in FIG. 1, and FIGS.
(d) is an explanatory diagram of its operation, FIGS. 4(a) to (f') are explanatory diagrams of another embodiment, and FIGS. 5 and 6 are schematic diagrams of still another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a conventional printing device, and FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of its operation. 1: Movement amount detection mechanism, 5: Ink ribbon cassette, lO
: Print head, 11: Print button, 13: Liquid crystal display board,
14: window, 15: control section, 16: interface section,
17: LCD controller, 18: Print head driver, 19: Counter, 20: Paper, 21: Character frame, 22 Braun tube, 28: Half mirror, 24: Light source, 25:
Lens, 26: Image sensor.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A print head that prints a print pattern, fixed so that pre-print patterns such as ruled lines and character frames on the paper can be seen in a window provided at a predetermined interval from the print head, and the print head prints. a print position display means for displaying a print pattern superimposed on a pre-print pattern on the paper, and printing the print pattern at the position displayed on the print position display means based on a relative movement amount between the print head and the paper. What is claimed is: 1. A printing device comprising: printing means for printing. (2) A print head that prints a print pattern, a window that is provided at a predetermined interval from the print head and that takes in pre-print patterns such as ruled lines and character frames on the paper, and printing that is printed on the paper by the print head. printing position display means for superimposing and displaying a pattern and a pre-print pattern taken in from the window; and a printing position display means for scrolling the print pattern displayed on the print position display means based on the relative movement amount between the window and the paper to select a pre-print pattern. The present invention further comprises a display scrolling means for changing a display area of the printing pattern, and a printing means for printing the printing pattern at the position displayed on the printing position displaying means based on the relative movement amount between the printing head and the paper. Characteristic printing device.