JPH04191064A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To store data for a plurality of lines with a data memory for 1 line by controlling an expansion control area when a printing data is expanded in an expansion area and the printing data is printed and determining whether or not a printing image data is to be expanded in the expansion area based on state of the expansion control area. CONSTITUTION:A printer comprises an expansion area 101 for expanding a printing font data based on an inputted printing data, an expansion control area 102 for recognizing a line to be used, a control means 103 for controlling the expansion control area 102 when the printing data is expanded and when the printing data is printed, and a determining means 104 for determining whether or not a printing image data is to be expanded in the expansion area 101 based on the state of the expansion control area 102. There are provided a logic for writing a received data in a printing data memory when the printing data is received and making a control flag ON and a logic for making the control flag OFF at execution of printing operation and operating to recognize the data on the printing data memory as a printing data existed previously, so as to store and control data for a plurality of lines in the printing data memory for 1 line.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing device that temporarily holds print data in a memory and then performs printing based on this memory information.

[Conventional technology 1 Traditionally, this type of device is a serial printer.

There are line printers and page printers. It goes without saying that line printers and page printers (even serial printers) have a huge amount of temporary memory to temporarily store character data transferred from the print data source, and then print according to this stored character data. Running.

Executing printing in this manner is particularly effective as a method for dealing with the difference between the printing operation in the printing device and the data processing speed of the document processing device that is the print data generation source.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional printing device, the storage device installed in the printing device to store character strings or image data is enormous, and it is necessary to store only 2 to 3 lines of character data. A memory element with a storage capacity of ~200 kilobytes is required. This not only makes the device expensive in terms of cost, but also occupies a large area of the printed circuit board, which affects the overall size of the device.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to store data transferred from a document processing device or the like to a print data storage device that stores data for current printing or the next one. By providing a buffer management area for managing whether the data is for line printing in a one-to-one relationship with the above-mentioned storage device, data for multiple shares can be stored in the data storage device for one line. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an inexpensive and compact printing device.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve such an object, the present invention provides a development area that develops print font data based on input print data, and a development area that recognizes used lines in the development area. A management area, a control means for controlling the development management area when print data is developed in the development area, a control means for controlling the development management area when the print data is printed, and whether or not to develop the print image data in the development area based on the state of the development management area. and determining means for determining whether the

[Function] According to the present invention, a management flag area for managing the print data storage device is provided, and when print data is received, the received data is written in the print data storage device, and the logic for turning on the management flag and execution of the print operation are implemented. By providing a logic function that sometimes turns off the management flag and recognizes the data on the print data storage device as already printed data, multiple lines of data can be stored in the print data storage device for one line. It is something to be managed.

[Example] The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the printing device according to the present invention includes a development area lot that develops printing font data based on input printing data, a development management area 102 that recognizes used lines in the development area 101, A control means 10 that controls the development management area 102 when print data is developed in the area 101 and print data is printed, and whether or not print image data is developed in the development area 101 based on the state of the development management area 102. Determination means 10 for determining whether
4.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. Here, 20 is a CPU (central processing unit), and according to a program stored in the memory in the CPLI 20, an interface unit (IF
) 32 is stored in the input data buffer (FIFO) 32, and the input data buffer (FIFO) 3
A field input data counter (FICNT) 33 for managing the number of data in Z is counted up.

When data is transferred from an external document processing device via the interface unit (IF) 32, which is an input unit, this count-up is notified by the interoperable line (INT) 35, and interrupts the process of importing the transferred data. It is executed as a process.

In addition to the above-mentioned interrupt processing, the CPU 20 also performs processing as a printing device. Normally, if the received data stored in the input data buffer 33, which performs the process of printing input character data, is a character code, it is necessary to develop the received data into a print buffer (PRTBUF) 36 as a dot image. be.

Therefore, the printing device is equipped with a character font read only memory (FONTROM) 37 corresponding to each character, which converts the character code into dots and converts the character code into a print buffer (
PRTBUF) Create printing data in 36. At this time, the corresponding bit in the print buffer control flag (PBFFLG) 38 area is turned on as 1-bit information for each print operation.

The flag 38 indicates that the data existing in the print buffer (PRTBUF1) 36 is valid data, and if the flag 38 is off, it can also be determined that the data is invalid. If it is recognized that the print buffer control flag 38 is in the OFF state, it can be determined that printing of the current print line has ended.

In order to make this determination possible, after controlling the printer driver (PRTDVR) 39, the corresponding control flag of the print buffer control flag (PBFFLG) 3g is reset to OFF. By this resetting, the empty state of the print buffer (PRTBLIF) 36 can be determined based on the state of the print buffer control flag (PBFFLG) 3g.

FIG. 3 shows a thermal transfer recording apparatus suitable for implementing the print buffer control method according to the present invention.

This thermal transfer recording apparatus is configured so that a recording head (thermal head) 4 mounted on a carriage 3 records on a recording sheet 2 backed up on a platen 1.

Note that the platen 1 has a roller shape and also serves as a sheet feeding roller. The carriage 3 is mounted so as to be movable along a guide shaft 5 installed parallel to the platen 1.
Stepping motor (carriage drive motor)6. It is reciprocated by a drive system consisting of a driving pulley 7, a driven pulley 8, and a timing belt 9 wound around these pulleys and coupled to the carriage 3.

On the carriage 3 is a ribbon cassette 1 for feeding the ink ribbon lO between the thermal head 4 and the sheet 2.
1 is attached replaceably.

A printing pattern forming means configured by arranging a plurality of electrothermal transducers in the form of heating resistors is provided on the front surface of the thermal head 4. Pulley 1 through
The ink ribbon 10 is mounted so as to be driven to swing between a head down position where the ink ribbon 10 is pressed against the ink ribbon 10 and a head up position where the ink ribbon 10 is moved away from the ink ribbon 10.

The ink ribbon 10 in the ribbon cassette 11 is wound and driven in synchronization with the movement of the carriage 3 when the carriage 3 is moved in a head-down state.

During recording, the thermal head 4 is moved in a head-down state, and the ink ribbon lO is fed in synchronization with this movement, while recording is performed while driving the electrothermal transducer of the head 4 based on print data. , pitch feed in the direction of arrow F on sheet 2 and start a new line.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system of a thermal transfer recording apparatus suitable for implementing the present invention. In FIG. 4, commands and data signals are transmitted to a control circuit (CPU) 20 of the recording device from a host document processing device 21 in the form of a computer, word processor, etc. Carriage drive motor 6, sheet feed motor 23. The ribbon winding motor 16 and head up/down motor 24 are driven.

The driver 22 operates to drive a plurality of electrothermal transducers constituting the thermal head 4 to generate heat based on a print data signal received from the CPU 20 to form a predetermined print pattern on the sheet 2.

The configuration of the print buffer and its control flag in the thermal transfer recording device embodying the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. This embodiment is a thermal transfer printer with a resolution of 360 dpi (360 dots per inch) and a printing width of 1 inch. Therefore, the horizontal direction is 6120 Bits (360X
17) and one line = 176 inches, so
The vertical direction requires 60 Bits (360x 1/6). In other words, the print buffer is 367.200 Bits (approximately 45 kBytes).

In the print buffer area in the figure, assuming that a character string of 10 pitches is printed by a printer with a print width of 1 inch, one character will be expressed using 36 bits in the horizontal direction. The control flag area, like the print buffer area, is horizontally advanced with 6120 bits in the horizontal direction and 2 bits in the vertical direction.

The control flag area in FIG. 5 shows a state in which the upper column is the current line and the lower column is the next line, and indicates the presence or absence of print data in the print buffer area in each line. In other words, in the figure, when a bit is on (1) in the control flag area, the data to be printed exists in the corresponding print buffer area, and conversely, when it is off (0), no data exists. means.

Accordingly, in the figure, the status of the control flag area indicates the respective states of the A section, the B section, and the 0 section. Since the upper part is the current print line, the print data of the next line is being developed (or completed) in part A, and the beginning of part B is the remaining part of the current print data. Copy 0 is the current unprinted area. In this way, by setting a control flag area for a single line print buffer area, it becomes possible to divide the print buffer area into multiple line areas for use.

The internal processing of the thermal transfer recording apparatus embodying the present invention will be explained using the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6 to 8.

FIG. 6 shows a processing procedure for receiving character codes or control codes to be printed by the printer from a host device. This process is designed using interrupt processing, and when data is written to the CPU 20, an included occurs and the operation of the main reception process is started.

As shown in the flowchart, this processing includes data capture from the boat (step 561), saving processing to the receiving input data buffer (FIFO) 33 (step 562), and a counter for managing the number of data in the FIFO 33. By performing the count-up process (step 563) of the input data counter 34 as a series of processes, the operation of receiving the print data sent from the external host machine is completed.

FIG. 7 shows a process of expanding the data received by the process in FIG. 6 into a print data buffer. Step S71 is a check to see if the number of print data sent from the above-mentioned external host machine is zero. If the print data is zero, step S71 is looped and data is waited until print data is received. The state will be as follows. If print data exists, the process advances to step S72.

In step S72, the received data is transferred to the FIFO 33.
Further, the input data counter 34, which is a counter for managing the FIFO 33, is counted down. The processing of the retrieved print data is divided in step S73 into cases where the key is a character key and cases where the key is a trigger key for starting a print operation.

If the key is a character key, check whether the buffer position in the print buffer where the desired data is to be developed is empty, using the area of the print buffer control flag 38, and only if the buffer position is empty, the character key is Loads the character printing font corresponding to the character code from the font read-only memory (FONTROM) 37 and stores it in the print buffer 3.
6 is developed as print data. Such processing is performed in step S74.

Further, in step S75, a corresponding flag bit is set to ON (1) in the print buffer control flag 38, which means that the character font development for the received data has ended.

As described above, the data development process for one character is completed through the processes of steps S71 to S75, and the process returns to step S71 to continue the process for the next data. The above process is continuously performed as a print buffer creation process until the reception of character data is completed and print trigger data is received.

Furthermore, when data development for one line is completed and data that triggers printing, such as carrier return, is determined in step S73, the process advances to step S76, and the print buffer created in steps S71 to S75 is actually printed. The operation starts.

In step 376, since the print buffer creation is completed, processing is performed to permit execution of print processing. In the case of this embodiment, a series of printing operations are performed by performing processing based on interrupt operations of a timer. In order to permit this process, a timer interleaved enable is set to trigger the execution of the print process.

FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of the actual printing operation. In step S81, the carrier is moved to the desired position for printing.

In step S82, the head portion is pressed onto the paper surface. In step S83, the carrier is accelerated and moved in parallel to obtain a constant moving speed. Furthermore, the printing buffer 36
In step S85, data to be output to the print head is extracted from the control buffer, and a flag area corresponding to the output is cleared in the control buffer.

In step S86, data is actually transferred to the print head, in step S87, a heat pulse is output to the head heating resistor, and ink is transferred to the paper surface.This is a series of processes from step S84 to step S87, in which data is expanded to the print buffer area. All printed data is printed.

The end of the data is determined in step S84, and if the data does not exist continuously, a carrier motor deceleration process is performed in step S88, and step S
In step 89, the rad-up process is performed. Step S
In step S90, it is determined whether or not there is subsequent data to be printed on the current print line, and if there is data to be printed, the process returns to step S81 and data output for one line is finished. This is achieved by repeatedly performing the above-described series of printing operations.

In the first embodiment described above, the print buffer control flag area corresponds to 2 bits for one printing operation, and by expressing everything from the left limit of the printing operation, it is possible to print two lines. It enables data expansion.

This is to perform the printing without correcting the printing position relative to the paper surface, and the actual printing only needs to be performed by recognizing the start address as the same print buffer processing. Here, two data pointers are newly set as shown in FIG.

This setting divides the control flag area and the print buffer area into line units.Relatively, the difference from the left limit of the data expansion position of each line is set, and the print data buffer of one line is Make it usable as a multi-line print buffer.

In Figure 9, two data pointers are set and illustrated, but
This number depends on the speed performance of each printing device or
It goes without saying that settings should be made to maximize performance depending on the relationship with the external host device being used.

Fig. 1θ of Mitate shows an example in which the present invention is applied to a page printer. In the figure, the print buffer area has a print buffer for one page, so the print area is for 55 lines (vertical 3
300 bits, 6120 bits horizontally).

In this case, the print buffer area for 1 page can be used as a print buffer for 2 pages by expanding the control flag area, and as a serial page printer, it is possible to receive data for the next page while printing the current page. Make it familiar. In other words, in the figure, the control flag area indicated by symbol A is the page flag region currently being printed, and the control flag region indicated by symbol B is the control flag region for the next page, and by preparing these for 55 lines, the print buffer area are being used repeatedly.

This is for the purpose of freeing up the print buffer memory for data expansion of the next page after printing is completed, and is a particularly remarkable example of the buffer memory labor saving of the present invention.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the present invention, a management flag area is set for the print data buffer, so a data storage buffer for one line can be used as a data buffer for multiple lines. While maintaining the same level of performance as a high-speed printer with a printing buffer, it is possible to reduce costs by saving on memory, and as a result, it is possible to provide an inexpensive printing device.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of a printing device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the control system of the printing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a schematic perspective view of the printing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. A configuration diagram of the flag area, FIG. 6 is a flowchart of the input section of the printing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 shows the processing of the print data development section of the printing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Flowchart, FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the printing process of the printing device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 9 is a buffer memory configuration diagram for explaining the second embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a buffer memory configuration diagram for explaining a third embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Platen, 2... Recording sheet, 3... Carriage, 4... Recording head, 5... Guide shaft, 6... Carriage drive motor, 7... Drive pulley, 8... ... Driven pulley, 9... Timing belt, 10... Ink ribbon, 11... Ribbon cassette, 20... CPLI (Central Processing Unit), 21... Host document processing device, 22... Printer driver, 23...Sheet feed motor, 24...Head up/down motor. Ntoko 4-11ro 1z inotomiru ip'i;
σF1 tone tomire 1-1h＼：Roku 1 fig. 3 fig. 4 fig. 7 fig. 8 fig. 9

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) a development area for developing print font data based on input print data; a development management area for recognizing lines used in the development area; and a development area for developing the print data in the development area. a control means for controlling the development management area when the printing data is printed, and a determination means for determining whether or not to develop the print image data in the development area based on the state of the development management area. A printing device characterized by: