JPH04129755A - Printing control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make density correction available in accordance with the difference of printing mode and to prevent blur of printing by a method wherein electrification control tables are provided respectively for thermal transfer printing and thermosensitive printing and either one of the two control tables is selected in answer to a specified printing mode, and printing density is corrected in accordance with control information obtained from the selected electrification control table. CONSTITUTION:Previous printing record and obliquely precedent printing record are read out of a historical buffer 8 and with reference made to a historical condition table 9, a pattern for adding of partical times corresponding to historical. conditions is obtained. Then duration of electrification is determined by adding partial tames stored in a register 14. In the case where the historical condition is I, the adding pattern which corresponds to said condition reads T1+T2+T3+T4. Therefore, in the case where the specified printing mode is thermosensitive printing and the temperature is 25 deg.C, the duration of electrification T can be obtained as follows: T=70+220+90+100-5807musec. As an electrification control table 6 is selected in the case where the specified printing mode is thermal transfer, the duration of electrification becomes T=130+160+65+100-455musec. even in the same historical condition of I.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Industrial application field The present invention relates to a print control method in an information processing device such as a word processor equipped with a thermal printer. Thermal printers are widely used because they are small and lightweight.

This thermal printer has a thermal head consisting of multiple heating elements, and if the ink ribbon is attached to a device that is detachable, if the ink ribbon is installed and plain paper or thermal transfer paper is used as the recording paper, thermal transfer printing will be possible. If the ink ribbon is removed and thermal paper is used as recording paper, thermal printing can be performed.

In addition, in such a printer, the temperature of each heating element of the head increases due to printing, which affects the print density. The energization time of each heating element was controlled in accordance with dot information, so-called printing history.

(c) Problems to be solved by the invention In conventional thermal heads, the number of heating elements was small, about 24 or 32, and the printing speed was not very fast, so sufficient energy was supplied to one heating element. We were able to. Therefore, even if thermal transfer printing is performed,
Even when thermal printing was performed, it was possible to secure a printing density suitable for practical use.

However, recently, the number of heating elements has increased to over 100, and as a result, the size of each heating element has become smaller and the printing speed has become faster. If the same energization control is performed, 1
In thermal transfer printing, sufficient energy can be supplied to two heating elements to melt and transfer ink, but it has become impossible to supply sufficient energy to thermal paper.

For this reason, during thermal printing, a problem has arisen in which the print density decreases and the characters become blurred or faded.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention stores a specifying means for specifying whether thermal transfer printing or thermal printing is to be performed, and control information for controlling the energization time of the heating element in thermal transfer printing. A first energization control table, a second energization control table that stores control information for controlling the energization time of the heating element in thermal printing, and a second energization control table that stores control information for controlling the energization time of the heating element in thermal printing, and controls the control information of the first or second energization control table according to the printing history. a print density correction circuit that refers to and corrects print density by controlling the energization time of the heating element, and in response to the designation by the designation means, the first and second
The above problem is solved by selecting one of the energization control tables and correcting the print density based on the control information of the selected table.

(e) Effect In the present invention, an energization control table for thermal transfer printing and an energization control table for thermal printing are provided separately, and one of them is selected according to the designation of the printing method, and control information of the selected energization control table is provided. Since the printing density is corrected based on the printing method, the density correction is realized according to the printing method, and characters are prevented from becoming blurred.

(v) Embodiment FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, in which (1) is a keyboard, (2) is a display, and (3) is a keyboard.
) is a processing unit, (4) is a temperature sensor, (5) is a print buffer that stores print data, (6) is an energization control table for thermal transfer printing, (7) is an energization control table for thermal printing, (8 ) is a history buffer that stores the printing history, (9) is a history condition table that shows the relationship between history conditions and energization time,
(10) is a density correction circuit that corrects print density by referring to the energization control table and the history condition table according to the printing history; (11) is a serial type thermal head consisting of a plurality of heating elements (110); 12) is a driver for heating the heating element, (13) is a register that stores a specified printing method, and (14) is a register that stores an input partial time value.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, the energization time T of one heating element is a first partial time TI, a second partial time T2, .
Third partial time T3. It is determined by adding some partial times out of the fourth partial time T4.

The partial time to be added is determined according to the printing history in the history condition table (9) shown in FIG. For example, the dots PI and P2 that are one and two dots before the dot to be printed (previous history), and the two dots Ql and Q2 diagonally in front of the dot to be printed (diagonal history) are all "0". In the case of history condition ■, the energization time T is the sum of all partial times TI+T2+T3+T
It becomes 4. Further, in the case of history condition (2) in which the previous history and oblique history are all "1", the energization time T is only the partial time T4.

Furthermore, each partial time TI, T2 . The value of T3 is predetermined for each temperature in the energization control tables (6) and (7) as shown in FIG. The diameter value is set to a larger value than the diameter value of the thermal transfer energization control table (6) shown in FIG. 5(A). Note that T4 is a fixed value, and here it is determined to be 100 μsec.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, when you press the print key on the keyboard (1), the print specification screen shown in Figure 6 is displayed on the display (2) screen, and when you move the cursor to the paper type and press the convert key, the thermal transfer Either paper or thermal paper can be specified. The specified printing method is the register (13)
is memorized.

When the print specification is completed, the processing unit (3) stores the register (
13) It is determined whether the designated printing method is thermal transfer printing or thermal printing, and the energization control table corresponding to the printing method is selected. Then, in accordance with the temperature information from the temperature sensor (4), the partial time value at the corresponding temperature in the selected table is sent to the concentration correction circuit (10).

Now, suppose that the specified printing method is thermal printing and the temperature is 2.
If it is 5 degrees, T1=170. T2=220, T3=9
A diameter value of 0 is sent.

After sending this control information, the processing section (3) sends the print buffer (
The print data stored in 5) is sent out to the density correction circuit (lO) for each dot row.

The density correction circuit (10) stores the previously inputted partial time value in the register (14), and controls the energization time as follows every time one dot row of print data is input.

That is, the previous history and oblique history are read from the history buffer (8), the history condition table (9) is referred to, the addition pattern of the partial time corresponding to the read history condition is obtained, and the register (14) is written according to this addition pattern. Add the partial time values to determine the energization time. Then, only the heating element corresponding to the black dot to be printed is heated for the determined energization time via the driver (12).

For example, if the history condition is 1, the addition pattern is TI+
Since T2 + T3 + T4, if the specified printing method is thermal printing and the temperature is 25 degrees, the energization time is T = 170.
+220+90+100=580 μsec.

However, even if the temperature is the same 25 degrees, if the specified printing method is thermal transfer printing, the energization control table (6)
is selected, so even if the history condition is the same (I), T=130+160+65+lOO"455μsec
becomes. In other words, thermal printing is set so that the energization time is longer.

In this embodiment, the temperature is detected every time printing for one page is completed, and a partial time value corresponding to the detected temperature is read from the energization control table.

(G) Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, an appropriate energization time is determined depending on the printing method, so that during thermal printing, as well as during thermal transfer printing,
Printing with appropriate density without blurring is possible.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a flowchart showing processing contents in an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of the embodiment, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining control of energization time in the embodiment, and Fig. 4 is a history history. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of the condition table, FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of the energization control table, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the print designation screen. (1)...Keyboard, (2)...Display, (3)...Processing section, (4)...Temperature sensor, (5)... Print buffer, (6)...
...Thermal transfer energization control table, (7)...Thermal transfer energization control table, (9)...History condition table, (10)...Density correction circuit, (11)・・・
...Thermal head, (110) ...Heating element.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) In an information processing device equipped with a thermal printer that has a thermal head consisting of a plurality of heating elements and an ink ribbon that can be freely attached and detached, a specification means for specifying whether printing is to be performed by thermal transfer printing or thermal printing, and thermal transfer printing. A first energization control table that stores control information for controlling the energization time of the heating element during printing, a second energization control table that stores control information for controlling the energization time of the heating element during thermal printing, and a printing history. and a print density correction circuit that corrects the print density by controlling the energization time of the heating element by referring to the control information of the first or second energization control table accordingly, and responds to the designation by the designation means. and the first
and the second energization control table,
A print control method characterized by correcting print density based on control information of a selected table.