JPH04291665A - Vertical ruled line printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a vertical ruled line printing system capable of shortening a printing processing time for each page by rapidly printing out vertical ruled lines without generating a printing shear. CONSTITUTION:A serial printer is provided with a vertical ruled line format character code detecting part 6 for detecting a vertical ruled line format character code, a vertical ruled line memory 7 for respectively storing the data of the digit position of the vertical ruled line format character code and a line start position and a line end position in its line direction and a vertical ruled line printing control part 8 for reading out data stored in the memory 7 to paper on which data of one page have been printed out except vertical ruled lines and collectively printing out ruled lines on their positions to be printed by moving the paper in a paper feed forward or backward direction.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

0001

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention uses a vertical ruled line printing method, particularly in a serial printer that prints data transferred from a CPU, etc., in which one page is printed excluding the vertical ruled lines, and then the vertical ruled lines are printed. This invention relates to a vertical ruled line printing method in which printing for one page is completed by printing digit by digit at once, thereby shortening the printing processing time per page.

0002

[Prior Art] When printing vertical ruled lines with a conventional serial printer, for example, the method of printing vertical ruled lines in the commonly used 1/6 inch line feed and 24 x 24 dot configuration per character is shown in Fig. 8. 24 dots + 3 dots (interpolation printing) were printed twice. To explain in more detail using FIG. 9, if the character spacing is 1/6 inch, the line feed pitch is 1/120 inch, and the print head dot density is 160 dots/inch, then one character will be printed at 2
4 dots = 24/160 (≧18/120), 3 dots for interpolation printing = 3/160 = 2/120, and the vertical length of the print is 24/160 + 3/160 = 27/160 inches, therefore 27/160- 20/120=0.002
Dots are printed overlapping each other by an inch of 0.05 mm. That is, by printing 24 dots vertically and creating a line feed of 18/120 dots, and printing 3 dots vertically and creating a line feed of 2/120 dots, a vertical ruled line can be printed with a line feed width of 1/6 inch.

[0003] By the way, when printing these vertical ruled lines, two-way printing is performed in which 24 vertical dots are printed from left to right and the remaining 3 vertical dots are printed from right to left. Backlash in the drive system causes dot misalignment between the 24-dot vertical line printed from right to left and the 3-dot vertical line printed from left to right. It becomes harmful.

Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 8, 24 dots are printed vertically from left to right, a 18/120 dot line feed is performed, the print head is returned to the left end, and then vertically printed from left to right. Vertical ruled lines were printed by repeating this process of printing 3 dots and starting a 2/120 dot line feed.

[0005]

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] In the conventional vertical ruled line printing method, which performs unidirectional printing to prevent dot misalignment during vertical ruled line printing, when printing of vertical ruled lines is included, the printing rate is four times that of normal printing of one line. This method has the disadvantage that it takes too much time to print one page.

The present invention aims to solve the above-mentioned drawbacks, and when a format character code having vertical ruled lines is received, the vertical ruled lines are not printed and the column position and the line starting point in the line direction are stored in memory. and the end of the line, and when the normal line printing (excluding vertical ruled lines) of one page is completed, move the print head in the direction of the digit stored in memory, and move the paper in the direction of the previous or next line. It is an object of the present invention to provide a vertical ruled line printing method that prints vertical ruled lines in one breath by moving the vertical ruled lines, thereby reducing printing processing time without causing dot misalignment.

[0007]

[Means for Solving the Problems] FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a data receiving unit that stores the sent data, 2 is a paper feed mechanism that moves the paper to be printed in the front and back direction, that is, the row direction (Y direction), and 3 is a part that stores the sent data. A paper feed control section which controls the operation of the paper feed mechanism 2; 4 a print head which prints dots on the paper placed on the paper feed mechanism 2; 5 a head position control section; , which controls the digit direction (X direction) of the print head 4, and 6 is a vertical ruled line format character code detection unit, which detects vertical ruled line format character codes including, for example, ",", g, etc. having vertical ruled lines. 7 is a vertical ruled line memory that stores the digit position (Xi) of the vertical ruled line format character code detected by the vertical ruled line format character code detection unit 6 and its line direction (Y direction), that is, the movement of the paper on which printing is performed. The positions of the line start point (Yi, s) and line end point (Yi, e) in the direction are each placed on a predetermined address for one page of paper.
Items to remember are 8, the vertical ruled line printing control unit;
When the vertical ruled line format character code detection unit 6 detects a vertical ruled line format character code, the head position control unit 5 displays the vertical ruled line of the vertical ruled line format character code, the vertical ruled line for the vertical ruled line “,”, etc. In addition to performing printing loss control for vertical ruled lines in the line portion, the digit position (Xi) of each vertical ruled line and the direction of walking in that direction are determined from the position information of the vertical ruled line format character code detected by the vertical ruled line format character code detection unit 6. The positions of the line start point (Yi, s) and the line end point (Yi, e) are respectively stored in the vertical ruled line memory 7, and after the normal printing of one page without printing of vertical ruled lines is completed, the vertical ruled line memory 7 is stored. The column position (Xi) of the vertical ruled line format character code and the positions of the line start point (Yi, s) and line end point (Yi, e) in the line direction are read from 7, and the paper feed control unit (3) and the head position are read out. Control unit (
5) and the line starting point (Yi) for the corresponding digit position (Xi).
, s) and the line end point (Yi, e). 9 is a code expansion section, which converts the corresponding characters of the print data stored in the data receiving section 1 into dots. It is developed into a dot pattern for printing.

[0008]

[Operation] When a certain Yj-th row data is set in the data receiving section 1, the vertical ruled line format character code detection section 6 determines whether the data corresponds to a vertical ruled line format character code having vertical ruled lines. be done. When the data is determined to be a vertical ruled line format character code having vertical ruled lines, the vertical ruled line printing control unit 8 accesses the vertical ruled line memory 7 based on the digit position (Xi) information to be printed, and prints the vertical ruled line memory 7. 7
Read the data stored in. The vertical ruled line printing control unit 8 checks whether a flag is set in this read data or not, and if the flag is set, the data in the column of the line end point (Ye) in the vertical ruled line memory 7 is printed in the corresponding vertical line. Rewrite the ruled line format character code with position information Yj in the line direction where it should be printed. If the flag is not set, the position information Yj is newly written in the column of the line start point (Ys) in the vertical ruled line memory 7, and the flag is set at the same time. In this way, each time data is set in the data receiving unit 1, it is determined whether the character code is in a vertical ruled line format with vertical ruled lines, and each time a vertical ruled line format character code with vertical ruled lines is detected, the flag is set. Depending on the presence or absence, the above position information Yj is updated or new written and a flag is set.

When CR and LF code data representing a print line feed is set in the data receiving section 1 and transmitted to the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 via the vertical ruled line format character code detection section 6, the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 Column positions (where a flag is set in the vertical ruled line memory 7 and the data in the row start point (Ys) column or the row end point (Ye) column does not correspond to the above position information Yj)
Xi) is retrieved, and the flag of the data at that digit position (Xi) is cleared.

[0010] The code development section 9 has vertical ruled lines (
The character code to be printed for one line is stored, excluding horizontal lines such as "Yato etc.", which will be explained in detail later.
When the data of the CR and LF codes representing printing line breaks are set in the data receiving section 1, the code development section 9 sequentially develops the stored character codes to be printed into dot patterns of the corresponding characters, and Send to 4. One line of characters without vertical ruled lines is printed on the Yjth line of the paper set in the paper feed mechanism 2.

[0011] Such processing is repeated for each line, and when printing for one page without vertical ruled lines is completed, the vertical ruled line memory 7 stores information on each digit position (Xi) of the vertical ruled lines to be printed.
Its line start point (Yi, s) and line end point (Yi
, e) are stored.

[0012] The vertical ruled line print control unit 8 reads out the data of the line start point (Yi, s) and the line end point (Yi, e) for the column position (Xi) from the vertical ruled line memory 7, and
) is sent to the head position control unit 5, and the line starting point (
The information on the line end point (Yi, s) and the line end point (Yi, e) is sent to the paper feed control section 3. Therefore, the print head 4 receives the dot pattern of vertical ruled lines sent from the code development unit 9, and prints the line starting point (Yi, s ) and the line end point (Yi
, e) are printed continuously.

In this way, the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 obtains the line start point (Yi, s) for the column position (Xi) from the vertical ruled line memory 7.
) and the line end point (Yi, e), and sends each information to the head position control section 5 and paper feed control section 3,
Since the print head 4 prints vertical ruled lines at once, vertical ruled lines are printed without dot misalignment, and the printing processing time for one page is shortened by increasing the vertical ruled line printing speed.

[0014]

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the vertical ruled line printing method according to the present invention, in which numerals 1 to 9 correspond to those in FIG. 1, 10 is a buffer, and 11 is a distance detection unit between vertical ruled lines. ,1
2 represents a moving distance detection section.

The buffer 10 stores one line of data to be printed, which is sent in advance from the CPU or the like.

The vertical ruled line distance detection unit 11 detects the distance between the vertical ruled lines at both ends to be printed, for example, in FIG. The distance (number of digits) from the rightmost vertical ruled line is calculated from the data stored in the buffer 10, and when the distance between the vertical ruled lines is smaller than a predetermined distance, the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 is instructed to control printing omission of vertical ruled lines. It sends out a signal to stop.

The moving distance detecting unit 12 reads data from the vertical ruled line memory 7 and when printing the next vertical ruled line, the moving distance detecting unit 12 reads data from the vertical ruled line memory 7, and when printing the next vertical ruled line, the movement distance detecting unit 12 reads data from the vertical ruled line memory 7 and reads data from the end point of the vertical ruled line that has finished printing to the starting point and the ending point of the vertical ruled line to be printed next. It is used to find distance.

The operation in FIG. 2 will first be explained using the flowchart in FIG. When data for one line to be printed is stored in the buffer 10 from the CPU etc., the distance between vertical ruled lines detection unit 11 determines the distance between vertical ruled lines at both ends to be printed, for example, the leftmost edge in FIG. The distance between vertical ruled lines 30-5=25 is calculated from the data of digit 5 of the vertical ruled line and the data of digit 30 of the vertical ruled line printed at the rightmost end. If the distance between vertical ruled lines is smaller than a predetermined distance, the print head 4
Since the moving time for the vertical ruled line is short, a signal is sent to the vertical ruled line printing control unit 8 to stop the vertical ruled line printing loss control, and the conventional vertical ruled line printing method explained in FIG. 8 is adopted.

Now, in order to explain the vertical ruled line printing method of the present invention, it is assumed that the distance between vertical ruled lines is larger than a predetermined distance as shown in FIG. The example shown in FIG. 6 will be explained below.

One line of data to be printed on a certain Yj-th line is stored in the buffer 10, and the data to be printed is set from the buffer 10 to the data receiving section 1 (
Step 1). The vertical ruled line format character code detection section 6 determines whether or not the data set in the data receiving section 1 is a format character code (step 2). If it is determined to be a format character code, it is further determined whether or not vertical ruled lines are included (step 3). When the data is determined to be a vertical ruled line format character code that includes vertical ruled lines, the vertical ruled line printing control unit 8 selects the digit position (X
i) in the vertical ruled line print control section 8 (step 4)
). When this digit position (Xi) is set for the first time, a specific address of the vertical ruled line memory 7 is assigned, and the vertical ruled line memory 7 is accessed with this address, and this digit position (X
When i) is set for the second time or later, the vertical ruled line memory 7 is accessed using the above address assigned to the corresponding digit position (Xi), and it is checked whether a flag is set in the flag column (step 5). . When no flag is set in the flag column, Xi is written in the digit position (X) column of the address, Yj is written in the line start point (Ys) column, and a flag set is written in the flag column (step 6).
). On the other hand, when a flag is set in the flag column,
The row end point (Ye) column is rewritten with Yj, and the row end point is updated (step 7).

[0021] The data set in the data receiving unit 1 is not a format character code, and even if it is a format character code, it is a format character code that does not include vertical lines, for example, a format character code other than vertical ruled lines such as horizontal ruled lines. When the vertical ruled line format character code detection unit 6 determines this (steps 2 and 3), the data is input to the code development unit 9.

[0022] Such processing is performed in order for the data to be printed in the Yj-th line stored in the buffer 10, and continues until the data of the CR and LF codes representing a printing line feed are set in the data receiving section 1. (Step 8). When data of CR and LF codes representing printing line breaks are transmitted to the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 via the vertical ruled line format character code detection section 6 (step 8), the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 is set in the data receiving section 1. CR, LF code data is 1
It is determined whether CR and LF codes for a page have been received (step 9). CR set in data receiving section 1,
When the LF code data is not received for one page of CR and LF code, the vertical ruled line print control unit 8 prints the vertical ruled line memory 7.
A search is made for a column position (Xi) in which a flag is set and the data in the row start point (Ys) column or the row end point (Ye) column does not indicate Yj. Digit position X that was not updated
If there is i (step 10), the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 clears the flag of this digit position (Xi) that has not been updated (step 11).

The data set in the data receiving section 1 is sequentially input to the code development section 9 until the CR and LF code data for the Yj-th line is received, but as described above, the vertical ruled line format character code The data is sent to data receiving section 1.
When set to , the vertical ruled line print control section 8 sends out a control signal that does not accept data of the vertical ruled line format character code. However, as shown in Figure 5, data of a vertical ruled line format character code that has a vertical ruled line that includes a horizontal line is decomposed into two constituent characters, a vertical line and a horizontal line, as shown in the same figure, and the format character code for the horizontal line is The data is input to the code development section 9 based on instructions from the vertical ruled line printing control section 8.

When the data of the CR and LF codes representing the printing line feed for the Yj-th line are set in the data receiving section 1 (step 9), the characters to be printed for one line stored in the code expansion section 9 are set. The code is sequentially developed into a dot pattern of its corresponding character (step 12), and the print head 4
sent to. Therefore, one line of characters with a missing vertical ruled line is printed on the Yjth line of the paper set in the paper feed mechanism 2 (step 13).

One line of data to be printed on the next line Yj+1 is stored in the buffer 10, and the process described above is performed.

Similar processing is thereafter performed for each line, and the vertical ruled line print control section 8 receives one page's worth of CR and LF code data via the vertical ruled line format character code detection section 6.
When the printing head 4 finishes printing one page without vertical ruled lines, the vertical ruled line memory 7 stores the line starting point (Yi, s) for each digit position (Xi) of the vertical ruled line to be printed.
and the data of the row end point (Yi, e) are stored.

For example, when vertical ruled lines are printed in columns and rows A to H shown in FIG. 6, each data shown in FIG. 7 is stored in the vertical ruled line memory 7.

Next, the method of printing vertical ruled lines will be explained using the flowchart shown in FIG. For example, in the vertical ruled line memory 7,
As is clear from the above explanation, the horizontal ruled lines ABC,
DEF and GH are already printed.

The vertical ruled line printing control section 8 sets address XXXX0 of the vertical ruled line memory 7 to print the vertical ruled line AD (step 31), and stores the vertical ruled line AD at address XXXX0 of the vertical ruled line memory 7. The data contained in the data is read out (step 32). The information on the read digit position
Information of 0 is sent to the paper feed control section 3. When the head position control section 5 receives the information of the digit position X=5, it moves the print head 4 to the digit position 5 (step 33). Further, the paper feed control unit 3 sets the line start point Ys = 5 and the line end point Ye = 1.
When the information of 0 is received, the paper is first fed to the position 5 in the row direction via the paper feeding mechanism 2 (step 34). The print head 4 starts printing from this position A. Since the dot pattern of the vertical ruled line is sent from the code development section 9, a vertical line of, for example, 24 dots is printed on the paper (step 35). Next, the paper feeding mechanism 2 feeds the paper to a position in the row direction 6, and
Perform a 4-dot line feed and print on paper (step 36)
). The paper feed mechanism 2 sequentially prints line feeds until the paper reaches the line end point in the line direction 10, and the vertical ruled line AD is printed on the paper.
is printed (step 37).

In order to print the next vertical ruled line BED, the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 increments the address of the vertical ruled line memory 7 by +4 and sets the address to ×××4 (step 38), and sets the address of the vertical ruled line memory 7 to ×××4. The data stored on XX4 is read out (step 32). At this time, the moving distance detection unit 1
2 determines the distance between DB and DG, and the vertical ruled line print control section 8 sends a paper feed control signal to the paper feed control section 3 so that printing is performed from B, which is the smaller distance, to G. That is, the print head 4 moves to the digit position 20, and the paper is fed to the position 5 in the row direction. The print head 4 starts printing from B on the fed paper, moves to G, and prints on the vertical ruled line BE.
G is printed. The next vertical ruled line HFC is printed from H to C by distance detection by the movement distance detection section 12.

When the vertical ruled line printing control section 8 reads all the data in the vertical ruled line memory 7 (step 32), the missing vertical ruled lines that should be printed are printed, and the printing of one page is completed. .

[0032]

As explained above, according to the present invention, since the vertical ruled lines are printed all at once in the paper feeding direction, printing misalignment due to dot misalignment can be prevented, and paper feeding can be performed using the forward and back directions. Since printing is performed, the printing time for vertical ruled lines is shortened, and as a result, the printing processing time per page is shortened.

Furthermore, in the case of claim 2, when the printing processing time is disadvantageous, the printing processing in the normal method is performed, so that unnecessary consumption of time is avoided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows the configuration of an embodiment of the vertical ruled line printing method according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an embodiment in which vertical ruled line data to be printed later is stored in a vertical ruled line memory.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of an embodiment of how to print vertical ruled lines to be printed later.

FIG. 5 is an exploded explanatory diagram of a vertical ruled line format character having vertical ruled lines including horizontal lines.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a printing schedule according to an embodiment.

7 is an explanatory diagram of vertical ruled line data stored in a vertical ruled line memory for the printing schedule format shown in FIG. 6; FIG.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of conventional vertical ruled line printing.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of printing by dots of vertical ruled lines.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Data receiving section 2 Paper feeding mechanism 3 Paper feed control section 4 Print head 5 Head position control section 6 Vertical ruled line format character code detection part 7 Vertical ruled line memory 8 Vertical ruled line printing control section 9 Code expansion part 10 Buffer 11 Distance detection section between vertical ruled lines 12 Moving distance detection section

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A paper feed control unit (3) that controls a paper feed mechanism (2), and a head position control unit (5) that controls a print digit position of a print head (4). a vertical ruled line format character code detection unit (6) that detects a vertical ruled line format character code having vertical ruled lines in the sent data; A vertical ruled line memory that stores the digit position (Xi) of the vertical ruled line format character code detected in , and the positions of the line start point (Yi, s) and line end point (Yi, e) in the line direction, respectively, for one page of paper. (7) When the vertical ruled line format character code detection section (6) detects the vertical ruled line format character code, the head position control section (5) is caused to perform printing omission control of the vertical ruled line;
The digit position of each vertical ruled line (
Xi) and the positions of the line start point (Yi, s) and line end point (Yi, e) in the row direction are respectively stored in the vertical ruled line memory (
7), and after the normal printing of one page is completed under the vertical ruled line printing loss control, the vertical ruled line memory (7) is stored in the vertical ruled line memory (7).
) to the column position (Xi) of the vertical ruled line format character code and the line start point (Yi, s) and line end point (Yi, e) in the line direction
The paper feed control section (3) and the head position control section (5) read out the position and set the line start point (Yi, s) and line end point (Yi, e) for the digit position (Xi). A vertical ruled line printing method characterized in that a vertical ruled line printing control section (8) for controlling printing of vertical ruled lines between is provided, and the vertical ruled lines are printed later. [Claim 2] In claim 1, when the distance between the codes located at both ends is determined from the digit position (Xi) of the vertical ruled line format character code located at both ends, and this distance is within a predetermined distance. A vertical ruled line printing method, characterized in that a vertical ruled line distance detection unit (11) is provided for stopping the vertical ruled line printing omission control in the vertical ruled line printing control unit (8). [Claim 3] In claim 1, the next digit position (Xi
When printing a vertical ruled line (Yi+1), the line starting point of the next vertical ruled line to be printed is
, s ) and the end point of the line (Yi+1 , e ), is provided in the vertical ruled line printing control section (8), and the movement to the printing start point of the next vertical ruled line is performed as described above. The line start point of the vertical ruled line with the smaller distance (Yi+1,
s) to the line end point (Yi+1, e) or from the line end point (Yi+1, e) to the line start point (Yi+1, s)
A vertical ruled line printing method characterized in that a control signal is sent from a vertical ruled line printing control section (8) to the head position control section (5) and paper feed control section (3) so as to print in a direction.