JPH04103381A - Document editing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make reverse control of a cassette unnecessary by a method wherein the identification of an installed cassette ribbon is previously input, and when the ribbon end of the cassette ribbon is detected, if the cassette is a multi- time cassette, after stopping printing once, a head is turned off, rewinding is performed, and after detecting the leading end of the ribbon, reprinting is performed. CONSTITUTION:When ribbon end detection is detected at process 55 during printing, a carriage 25 is returned to the home position at process 56. Whether it is a one-time cassette or multi-time cassette is decided at process 57. As the result, in the case of one-time cassette, re-installation of a new one-time cassette is verified at process 58. Then, whether printing is continued or not is decided at process 59, and when printing is not continued, paper delivery motion is performed at process 54, and printing is completed. When printing is continued at the process 59, process 50 is performed. In this case, the carriage 25 moves from the home position to a printing position at which printing was interrupted, and printing is resumed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing operation in a document editing device such as a Japanese word processor.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art In document editing devices such as Japanese word processors, which have become rapidly popular in recent years, thermal transfer printers are generally used, which take advantage of advantages such as high-definition printing and low noise.

The printer is equipped with a ribbon cassette, and heat from the printer head melts the ink in the ribbon stored in the ribbon cassette and transfers it to paper.

The configuration of the above Japanese word processor will be explained using FIG. 2.

Input characters from keyboard 1, which is an input device.

Display device display for displaying the results2. Printer 4, which is an output device for outputting input or editing results. It is composed of a floppy disk 3 which is a storage device, a control board 5 which is a control device which centrally controls these devices, and a housing 6 which holds each device.

The connection relationship between the above devices will be explained using FIG. 3.

Program storage type computer unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU)
8. The following devices are connected to the bus of the CPU 8. After the power is turned on, the program is transferred from the floppy disk 3 to the RA memory via the floppy controller 12.
Boot ROM (read-only memory) 9 expanded on M (random access memory) 10, the ROM
In addition to this boot function, it also includes a dictionary and 9-character font.

By the developed program, the CRT controller 11
It is possible to perform a series of processing operations such as displaying on the CRTZ and processing characters input from the keyboard 1 via the keyboard controller 14, and further driving the printer 4 via the printer controller 13 to enable printing. becomes.

The series of processing operations will be explained using FIG.

In processing step 15, a processing start message and executable processing work menu as a Japanese word processor are displayed on the CRTZ, and in processing step 16, a work menu selection menu specified by the operator's operation from keyboard 1 is read. It's crowded. In processing step 17, it is determined whether the specified task is an input processing task, in processing step 18, it is determined whether or not it is an editing input processing task, in processing step 19, it is determined whether or not it is a print processing task, and in processing step 20, it is determined whether the specified task is an input processing task, and in processing step 20, it is determined whether the specified task is an input processing task. It is determined whether it is a functional processing task or not, and branching is performed from each processing step to the corresponding processing task 21 to 24. If it is not any of the processing tasks, the process returns to processing step 15.

Here, the structure of the printer 4 will be explained using FIG. 5. The rotation of the motor 29 is transmitted to the shaft 32 via the gear 30. A rubber roller (not shown) is attached to the shaft 32, and the paper is conveyed by the roller.

Rotation of the motor 28 is transmitted to the timing belt 27 via a gear 31. The timing belt 27 is installed endlessly, and a carriage 25 is attached at one location. Further, a head 26 is mounted on the carriage 25 in a structure that allows it to be turned on and off.

FIG. 6 shows a specific printing operation. A signal for driving the head 26 from the printer controller 13 is sent to the driver 34.
is input to. The driver 34 drives the required number of 24 heating elements (not shown, which function as resistors and generate heat at R12 when energized) arranged on the head 26. As a result, the required heating element generates heat,
Applying heat to the ink ribbon 33, melting the ink with the heat,
It is transferred onto paper.

The a waveform shows a motor drive waveform for moving the head 26 (carriage 25) laterally, and the time corresponds to the width of one head heating element. The data is given in synchronization with the a waveform as ■■■■..., and as a result, the 1
~24 required heating elements are driven.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

When printing using the above-mentioned conventional technology, the following improvements are being made to the cassette ribbon. In other words, conventionally, when transfer is performed once, the ink formed on the film is completely removed from the film (generally, a ribbon has a base film, and the ink layer to be transferred onto the film is completely removed from the film). ), it was impossible to print using the same location multiple times. In contrast, the number of cassette ribbons (hereinafter referred to as multi-time cassettes) that can be used multiple times without melting the ink layer during transfer due to one-time transfer heat is increasing. On the other hand, a cassette that can be used only once is called a one-time cassette. Naturally, if a one-time cassette is used more than once, the quality will deteriorate significantly, such as smudges in printing, missing characters, etc.

Conventional technology does not take into account the operation system that assumes these conditions, and if the ribbon stops at the end, it is necessary to remove it with a one-time cassette and install a new one, or reinstall it with a multi-time cassette. be.

It is an object of the present invention to make it possible to identify the type of cassette ribbon in advance, to eliminate the need for reversing the cassette in the case of a multi-time cassette, and to provide a means for knowing the number of times the multi-time cassette has been used. The purpose is to

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above purpose, the identification of the loaded cassette ribbon is input in advance, and when the ribbon end of the cassette ribbon is detected, in the case of a multi-time cassette, after stopping, the head is turned off and rewinding is performed. However, after the ribbon tip is detected, printing is performed again.

Further, the number of times of rewinding is measured and stored, and the number of times of rewinding is displayed by a display means during blank printing.

[Effect]

The ribbon end is detected by the detection means, and printing is interrupted after detection. In the case of a cassette ribbon that is currently in the apparatus, rewinding is performed and the leading edge of the ribbon is detected. Under this condition, the detection means is located after the head that executes printing, so when the ribbon tip is detected, the ribbon tip identification section is at the head position, so the printing must be restarted after performing the advance operation. Make the action possible.

In the case of this operation, the identification of one-time cassette and multi-time cassette is input and memorized in advance.

Further, an identification portion at the end of the ribbon is made to distinguish between the one-time cassette and the multi-time cassette.

Further, the shape of the cassette is detected and identified by the detection means.

There is no problem in identifying one-time cassettes and multi-time cassettes.

By measuring the number of times the ribbon end is detected under these conditions, the number of times the multi-time cassette is used can be ascertained, making it possible to predict print quality in advance.

〔Example〕

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

The functional description of the processing operations of the program is based on the content of FIG. 3. As shown in Figure 1, the general printing operation is as follows:
Processes 50 to 54 are executed repeatedly. However, in the case of the present invention, ribbon end detection (described later) is performed during printing in step 55.
If detected, the carriage 25 is returned to the home position in step 56. In process 57, it is determined whether the cassette is a one-time cassette or a multi-time cassette. If the result is a one-time cassette, it is confirmed in step 58 that a new one-time cassette has been reinstalled.

Thereafter, in process 59, it is determined whether or not to continue printing, and if continuous printing is not to be performed, a paper ejecting operation is performed in process 54, and the printing is ended.

If continuous printing is to be performed in process 59, process 50 is executed. In this case, as described above, the carriage 25 is at the home position, moves from this position to the printing position where it was interrupted, and resumes printing.

If it is determined in the above-mentioned process 57 that the cassette is a multi-time cassette, processes 60 and 61 are executed to rewind the tape until the leading edge of the ribbon is detected. After the detection, in step 62, winding is performed by a certain amount. This is due to a problem with the arrangement of the ribbon end sensor, ribbon end identification section, and ribbon, which will be described later.When detecting the ribbon end, the ribbon end identification section is located where the head is located, so it is necessary to move it. This is because

After that, process 5o is executed, the carriage 2S is moved from the home position to the printing position where printing was interrupted, and printing is restarted.

The configuration of the ribbon end sensor and ribbon end identification section described above will be explained using FIG. 7.

A shows the structure of the carriage seen from the top, with a reflective ribbon end sensor 65 disposed diagonally to the upper right.

b shows a cross section of a cassette ribbon (common to one-time cassettes/multi-time cassettes).

The cassette ribbon is loaded onto the carriage 25, and the cassette ribbon arrow, ie, the part indicated by A homeland, is framed so that the moving ribbon can be seen. The frame is positioned to match the ribbon end sensor 65 described above.

C shows the structure of the identification element ribbon stored in the cassette ribbon. The ribbon contributes to printing, and the identification portion is detected by the ribbon end sensor 65 described above. - For example, reflective and non-reflective bands are alternately arranged in the longitudinal direction. Then, this area is detected by a ribbon end sensor.

In FIG. 8, the determination in process 57 is automatic.

That is, the widths of the reflective and non-reflective bands arranged in the vertical direction of the identification section are different between the one-time cassette and the multi-time cassette. That is, a indicates a multi-cassette in which the identification section has a narrow repetition width, and b indicates a one-time cassette in which the identification section has a wide repetition width. By performing this processing, the troublesomeness of manual settings can be relieved.

FIG. 9 shows a configuration for counting and storing the number of times rewinding is used by the above-mentioned process 60.61, and is composed of a RAM 64 which is a negative time storage element and a battery 63 which holds the RAM as a backup amplifier. .

That is, after executing processes 60 and 61, the counter in the RAM 64 is incremented. Therefore, when printing, the counter value,
By displaying the number of repetitions of a multi-time cassette, it is possible to grasp the expected quality before printing.

As another example of storing the number of repetitions of the multi-time cassette, as shown in FIG. This can also be achieved by applying heat to the dots and transferring the ink on the ribbon (in this case, the carriage is at the home position, so even if heat is applied to the head, it will not be transferred to the white paper). . In other words, if all ink on the film is removed, this heat can create a transparent or non-transparent state. However, after that,
It is made possible to confirm the counting band with a sensor.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, when a cassette ribbon capable of printing multiple times is installed in a thermal transfer printer, when the ribbon end of the ribbon is detected, it is automatically rewound to the ribbon tip and printing can be continued, improving operability and usability. This has the effect of significantly improving

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a processing operation flowchart of an embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 is a structural diagram of a Japanese word processor, Figure 3 is a block diagram, Figure 4 is a flowchart of processing operations, Figure 5 is a structural diagram of a printer, Figure 6 is an explanatory diagram of printing operations, and Figure 7 is a cassette ribbon structure. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example in which the type of ribbon can be distinguished by the ribbon end identification section, and FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the configuration of the storage means when the ribbon is used multiple times. 4...Printer, 25...Carriage, 26...
Head, 63...Battery 64...RAM, 6
S... Ribbon end sensor.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. At least an input device for inputting desired characters, a display device for displaying input and editing results, a control device for temporarily storing characters inputted from the input device and storing a system program, and an input device and a display device for displaying input and editing results. In a document editing device having an output device consisting of a thermal transfer printer that outputs editing results, when the end of a ribbon in a ribbon cassette installed in the thermal transfer printer is detected, printing is interrupted and the ribbon is rewound. A document editing device characterized in that a printing operation is continued after the leading edge is re-detected.