JPH0412868A - Printing method for subscript of superscript in printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print an inferior or superior letter at the optimum position in accordance with the size of a normal letter by printing the letter at the optimum printing position corresponding to the size of the normal letter based on the printing position data of a designated font file. CONSTITUTION:When a request command for subscript printing is received, image data of a designated character is read and compressed with a constant ratio. At the same time, an offset in a vertical direction of the subscript is read from a header part of the subject font file, so that the image data of the subscript letter which is a compressed letter is stored at a position corresponding to the offset on a video buffer 14. When image data of one page is completed on the video buffer 14, it is sent to a printer engine 9. The printer engine 9, upon receipt of the image data, prints the subscript letter at the optimum printing position which is different depending on the size of a normal letter.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a subscript printing method in various printers such as laser printers, dot printers, and printer units of digital copying machines.

[Conventional technology]

In printers such as laser printers, characters are generally generated using character image data registered in advance in a font file, but at this time, the character image data is stored in the image memory and then Some printers have a subscript printing (script printing) function that prints reduced characters obtained by reducing ``-'' at a certain ratio along with normal characters.

Note that the script printing includes superscript printing in which a subscript is printed above a normal character, and subscript printing in which a subscript is printed below.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in conventional printers equipped with a script printing function, the subscript (script character) is shifted by a fixed amount from the normal character, for example, based on the baseline of the normal character N shown by the broken line in FIG. Δ above that
The following problem occurred because the superscript character Su was printed at a position shifted by P, and the subscript character Sd was printed at a position shifted downward by Δq.

For example, as shown in FIG. There was a problem in that the printing position of the script character S2 was too low, and conversely, when the smaller size N3 was used, the printing position of the superscript character S3 was too high, resulting in poor visibility.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 5(b), for example, the subscript character S4 for the central normal character N1 is printed at the optimal position, but if a larger normal character N2 is used, The printing position of the subscript character S5 was too high, and conversely, when the smaller size N3 was used, the printing position of the superscript character S6 was too low, resulting in a poor appearance.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to enable printing of subscripts at optimal positions corresponding to the size of normal characters.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention, in the above-mentioned printer, carries print position data of subscripts for normal characters for each file in the phono 1 used to create character image data in the image memory. Then, based on the print position data, the subscript is printed at the optimum print position according to the size of the normal character.

[For production]

In a printer to which the subscript printing method according to the present invention is applied,
When performing subscript printing, the subscript is printed at the optimal print position according to the normal character size based on the print position data of the specified font file, so the character arrangement after printing looks very good on the paper. becomes.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a laser printer embodying the present invention.

The printer controller 1 of this laser printer includes a host interface 3 for connecting to a host computer 2 as an interface circuit, a panel interface 5 for connecting to an operation panel 4, and the like. Path buffer 8 for connecting with font cartridge 6 and emulation cart 7. An engine interface 10 for connection with the printer engine 9, and a microcomputer (hereinafter abbreviated as rcPUJ) 11. ROM12
．． Buffer memory 13. It includes a video buffer 14, a nonvolatile memory 15, and connectors 16 to 20.

Note that each part is interconnected by a path line 21 consisting of an address bus, a control bus, and a data bus.

The host interface 3 sends and receives various data such as character code data, control commands, and status information to and from the host computer 2 such as an office computer, personal computer, word processor, data processing device, or image processing device via the connector 16. It is an interface circuit that controls the connection, and selects various serial interfaces or parallel interfaces depending on the host computer to be connected.

The panel interface 5 transmits display control data and receives each key information to and from the operation panel 4 via the connector 17.

The path buffer 8 is in charge of transmitting and receiving data to and from the font cartridge 6 or the emulation cart 7 via the connector 18 or 19.

The engine interface 10 is in charge of sending and receiving data such as commands and status information to and from the printer engine 9 via the connector 20.

The CPU II is a general-purpose 16 or 32-bit microcomputer, and is in charge of overall control of the entire printer controller.

The ROM 12 is a read-only memory, and the CPU 1.
In addition to various programs for operating 1, resident fonts and the like are stored.

The fonts are grouped into font files with different fonts.

The buffer memory 13 is composed of RAM, and the CPU
working memory of II, an input buffer that temporarily stores data received from the host computer 2, a page buffer that stores page data created by the data on the implanter 1 to banfa, a download font or phono 1 from the host computer 2; This area is used as a font file area for storing fonts from the cartridge 6 in separate font files.

The video buffer 14 is a memory that stores image data (video data) of characters created page by page based on the data on the page buffer of the buffer memory 13 and the font data of the font file.

The non-volatile memory 15 stores set mode information (page format information, paper size, font, emulator, host interface selection information, etc.) and service information (error information).

(operation information, etc.).

This nonvolatile memory 15 is NVRAM.

RA bank-amplified with EEPROM or battery
Use M etc.

The operation panel 4 includes various operation keys and various indicators that indicate the status of the printer and the like.

The printer engine 9 includes an optical writing section that optically scans the photoconductor drum with a laser beam modulated in accordance with a video signal, an image forming section that includes the photoconductor drum and various process equipment around it; It also consists of a mechanism section consisting of a paper transport section made up of rollers such as registration rollers, etc., and an engine driver as its control section. Printing is executed by controlling the sequential operation of the conveyance section and the video modulation signal to the optical writing section.

The font cartridge 6 has a built-in RAM or ROM that stores optional fonts, and by inserting it into a predetermined external slot, CPTJII
can load the font into the buffer memory 13 via the connector 18 and cause printing to be performed using the font.

As this font cartridge 6, for example, Fourier 10. There are fora 1 to cartridges that store various fonts such as Helvetian Power and Time Slow Man.

The emulation cart 7 owns the data of the emulation program (emulator), and by inserting the second card into a predetermined external slot, the CPU
1 receives the data of the emulation program via the connector 19, exhibits an emulation function corresponding to the type of host computer, and performs operations similar to those of various existing printers such as dot printers and digi-wheel printers. I can do it.

Next, a font file according to the present invention will be specifically explained with reference to an example of a font file of "Fourier 10" shown in FIG.

The structure of this font file is font name, cell (character)
height, cell width, symbol set, superscript vertical offset 1~. and subscript A "font header section" composed of a data group representing attributes of the font (typeface) such as vertical offset, and a table showing image data (dot patterns) of each character and the address of each image data. It can be broadly divided into the "image data section" that contains it.

The vertical offset of the superscript is, for example, from the baseline of the normal character rNORMALJ, shown as a dashed line in FIG.
This corresponds to the distance value (number of dots) Δp to the baseline of ER5cRI PTJ, which is 119 dots in this example.

The subscript vertical offset is also shown in Figure 1 (
b) Subscript character rSUBSC shown as a solid line from the baseline of ``normal character rNORMAL'' shown as a dashed line
Corresponds to the distance value Δq to the baseline of “RIP Ding”,
In this example, there are 6 dots.

The optimal value for the vertical offset of each script is stored for each font file according to its character size, and when printing using any of these font files, each script vertical offset in that font file is The offset allows the script characters to be printed at the optimal printing position according to the size of the normal characters.

That is, when the printer controller 1 receives character data from the host computer 2, it usually reads the image data of the character specified by each character data (code data) from the image data section of the font file selected in advance, and prints it. The data are sequentially stored in the video buffer 14.

After that, for example, when a request command for superscript printing or subscript printing is received following character data, the image data of the character specified by the character data (coat data) is read from the image data section of the font file and fixed. At the same time, the superscript vertical offset or subscript vertical offset is read from the header of the font file, and the image data of the reduced superscript character or subscript character is transferred to the video buffer Aco 4. Store it in a position corresponding to the above offset.

Then, when the image data for one page is completed on the video buffer 14, it is transferred to the printer carrot 9.
The printer engine 9 that receives the superscript characters or subscript characters prints the superscript characters or subscript characters at the optimal printing position that varies depending on the size of the normal character, as shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), respectively. .

Therefore, the character arrangement after 5 printouts looks very good.

The embodiments in which the present invention is applied to a laser printer have been described above, but the present invention is applicable not only to other optical printers such as LED printers and liquid crystal shutter printers, but also to dot printers such as wire dot printers, thermal printers, and inkjet printers. Furthermore, it is also applicable to the printer section of a digital copying machine.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, when printing subscripts on a printer, the subscripts can be printed in the optimal position according to the normal character size, so the character arrangement after printing is very attractive. Become something.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of subscript printing for normal characters of three different character sizes by a printer embodying the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of a laser printer embodying the present invention. FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the structure of the font file, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the subscript printing position for normal characters, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of conventional subscript printing. Printer controller/font cartridge Printer engine Microcomputer (CPU) Video buffer 1, 9, 14,

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a printer equipped with a subscript printing function that prints reduced characters obtained by reducing character image data in an image memory at a certain ratio along with normal characters, The printing position data is provided for each font file used to create the image data of the character, and the subscript is printed at the optimum printing position according to the size of the normal character based on the printing position data. Subscript printing method.