JPH04201585A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable a quantization unit of a character pitch to be decreased without increasing a memory capacity of a printing data by a method wherein a bland data between characters is stored as the number of pulses of an encoder. CONSTITUTION:When a data from a control bit memory part 3 is '1', a printing count part 6 is selected with a character blank control part 8 to count a pulse from an encoder 9, and one pulse is outputted to the control part 8 and a synchronous printing control part 7. A control part 7 transmits a character data from a printing data memory part 2 to a printing data head driving part 10 in synchronization with the inputted pulse. Besides, when the data from the control bit memory part 3 is '0', the control part 8 selects a blank counting part 5, counts the same number of pulses from the encoder 9 as that of a data from a printing data memory part 2, and one pulse is outputted to the control part 8. Printing is not performed during that time. Since a blank data is made to be stored as the number of pulses of the encoder, a printing pitch can be regulated by varying the number of pulses.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device that performs printing in synchronization with encoder pulses generated as a rad carriage moves toward printing.

2. Description of the Related Art A general example of a conventional printing device of this type will be described with reference to FIG.

As shown in the figure, the printing device has a rad carriage for printing.
An encoder 14 generates one pulse each time a dot that makes up a character moves the distance, a storage unit 11 stores character data and data representing spaces between characters in units of dots, and It is composed of a synchronous print control section 12 that sequentially extracts data from the storage section 11 in synchronization and outputs it to a print head drive section 13, and a print head drive section 13 that drives the print head.

In the above configuration, when the rad carriage is moved toward printing during printing, the encoder 14 generates a pulse, and the synchronous print drive unit 12 sequentially extracts data from the storage unit 11 in synchronization with the pulse and sends it to the print head drive unit 13. Supply and print.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In such conventional printing devices, since the spaces between characters are expressed by dots that make up the characters, it was not possible to realize a printing character pitch other than that quantized by dots. Furthermore, as the blank space increases, the amount of data increases, and the capacity of the print data storage circuit must be increased, resulting in poor efficiency.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing device that can finely adjust the printing pitch.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a print data storage section that stores print data, and a control that stores control bits that identify character data in the print data and blank data between characters. A bit storage unit, a blank count unit that counts blank data, a print count unit that counts the dots that make up a character, a character blank control unit that switches between the two counting units, and a synchronization unit that prints in synchronization with pulses. It is equipped with a print control unit and an encoder that generates pulses at a shorter cycle than the dots that make up a character, the character data and the blank data are placed at the same address, and the blank data between characters is stored in the number of pulses of the encoder. It is something to do.

Effects The present invention is arranged so that blank data between characters is stored by the number of pulses of the encoder due to the above-described configuration, so that the quantization unit of the print character pitch can be made small without increasing the storage capacity of the print data. This makes it possible to finely control the pitch of printed characters.

EXAMPLE Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

As shown in the figure, the storage section 1 consists of a print data storage section 2 with an 8-bit configuration and a control bit storage section 3 with a 1-bit configuration, each of which is arranged at the same address. The control unit 4 includes a blank count unit 5, a print count unit 6,
It consists of a synchronous print control section 7 and a character blank control section 8, and output pulses from an encoder 9 generated as the rad carriage moves toward printing are input to the two count sections 5 and 6, respectively. The character blank control unit 8 switches between the blank count unit 5 and the print count unit 6 based on the data retrieved from the control bit storage unit 3. The synchronous print control section 7 transmits data retrieved from the print data storage section 2 to the print head drive section 10 in synchronization with the input. The encoder 9 is
One pulse is generated each time the rad carriage moves to print a distance of 1/16 of the dots that make up the character.

As for the data in the print data storage section 2, as shown in FIG. 2, the print data is stored as image data, and the blank data between characters is stored as the number of encoder pulses. Further, in the control bit storage section 3 arranged at the same address, "1" is stored for print data and "0" is stored for blank data between characters.

The operation of the above configuration will be described. When printing starts, data is taken out from the print data storage section 2 and the control bit storage section 3. Furthermore, pulses are generated from the encoder 9 as the rad carriage moves toward printing.

The data taken out from the control bit storage unit 3 is “1”
(character), the print count section 6 is selected by the character blank control section 8, counts 16 pulses, and outputs one pulse to the character blank control section 8 and the synchronous print control section 7. Furthermore, the synchronous print control section 7 transmits character data retrieved from the print data storage section 2 in synchronization with the input pulse to the print head drive section 10 for printing.

On the other hand, the data taken out from the control bit storage unit 3 is “0”.
” (blank), the blank count section 5 is selected by the character blank control section 8, counts the same number of pulses of the encoder 9 as the data taken out from the print data storage section 2, and sends 1 Hals to the character blank control section 8. Output. No printing will be performed during this time.

When a pulse from the print count section 6 or the blank count section 5 is input to the character blank control section 8, the next data is taken out from the print data storage section 2 and the control bit storage section 3.

By repeating the above operations, printing and blank spaces are generated.

In the above example, the encoder pulse was set to 1716 dots, so the spaces between characters were quantized in units of 1/16 dots, but by setting the pulses to 1/n dots, it is possible to realize any printing pitch. can.

As described above, according to the printing device according to the embodiment of the present invention, since the space data between characters is stored in accordance with the number of pulses of the encoder, the printing pitch can be adjusted by changing the number of encoder pulses. can.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above embodiments, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a printing device in which the printing pitch can be finely adjusted without increasing the storage capacity of the printing data storage unit.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 (al, (bl) is a schematic diagram of data in the storage section of the same device, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional printing device. 1... Storage section, 2... Print data storage section, 3... Control bit storage section, 4...
Control section, 5...Blank count section, 6...
・Print count section, 8...Character blank control section, 9
...Encoder.

Claims (1)

[Claims] an encoder that detects the moving distance of the print head and outputs a pulse; a storage unit that arranges character data, blank data between characters, and control bits that identify the character data and the blank data at the same address; a blank count unit that counts the same number of encoder pulses as the blank data; a print count unit that counts the encoder pulses corresponding to the distance of dots forming a character; and a blank and print count unit that counts the number of encoder pulses corresponding to the distance of dots forming a character; A printing device comprising a character/space control unit for switching between characters and spaces.