JPH0430073B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (a) Industrial Application Field The present invention relates to a method for editing and printing tickets such as railway tickets whose printing formats are divided into several types (having multiple layouts), and in particular, The present invention relates to a ticket editing and printing device that automatically edits and prints print formats and characters.

(b) Conventional technology Conventional ticket printing uses a stamp plate with common printed characters and a stamp plate with variable characters, and a combination of the two is used to perform the necessary printing, or all tickets are Printing was done by preparing a set of printing plates corresponding to each type of printing, and then selecting the necessary printing plate from among them.

Furthermore, methods for electronically editing printed characters have been proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 51-69948 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 52-55699. In the former method, printed characters are edited by multiplying character dot data vertically/horizontally within one fixed ticket format (fixed layout). The latter has a variable layout and is divided into fixed characters and variable characters, and only the variable characters are edited.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, the method of using printing plates, etc. has the disadvantage that as the number of printed characters and printing formats increases, the number of printing plates increases accordingly, resulting in an increase in the size of the printing device. In addition, changes in printed characters and print formats are complicated, and these changes cannot be handled quickly and easily. Furthermore, since it is necessary to select the printing plate before starting the printing operation,
This had the disadvantage that the printing speed tended to be slow and it took a long time to issue the ticket.

In addition, the above-mentioned conventional method of electronically editing and printing printed characters, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 51-69948, involves doubling the basic character font (for example, 32 x 32 dots) in height to width. Since it is only possible to edit the printed characters by using the printer, the editing content of the printed characters is extremely limited. In addition, in the method shown in JP-A No. 52-55699, variable characters can be edited, but multiple fixed ticket patterns (fixed image patterns of the entire ticket) are stored in advance, and the selected Since the method involves adding variable characters to the pattern to obtain the final ticket pattern, there is a problem in that it uses a large amount of memory. In other words, since the entire pattern of the ticket is handled, an increase in memory capacity cannot be avoided, and particularly when the number of fixed patterns increases, a considerable amount of memory is required.

An object of the present invention is to provide a ticket editing and printing device that can extremely easily cope with an increase in printed characters and printing formats, requires a small memory capacity, and can perform high-speed printing.

(d) Means for solving the problem For each printed character block that can be printed on a ticket, print area information on the ticket is set and one of the following four types of printing units having a printed character information area is stored. means for storing input information such as dates and charges; and selecting one of the printing units to be used for printing based on the input information, and selecting (B) or (C) below among the selected printing units. means for setting printing character information in the area based on the input information for a printing unit; and means for sequentially printing character blocks corresponding to the selected printing unit, the printing means comprising: , is characterized in that it includes means for transferring character dot data for the next line to a buffer of the printing section when character dot data for one line is being printed.

(A)...Printing unit for common printing characters that is common to all types of ticket types and in which fixed printing character information is set in advance (B)...Common editing printing in which printing character information changes depending on input information Printing unit for characters (C)...The printed character information changes depending on the input information,
Printing unit (D) for selective editing printing characters that are printed or not printed...Fixed printing character information is set in advance, and printing is used for common selected printing characters that are printed or not printed depending on the input information. Unit (e) Function When input information such as date and charge is set, a printing unit to be used for printing is selected based on the input information. There are four types of printing units, one printing unit being associated with each character block that can be printed on a ticket.

(A)...Printing unit for common printing characters that is common to all types of ticket types and in which fixed printing character information is set in advance (B)...Common editing printing in which printing character information changes depending on input information Printing unit for characters (C)...The printed character information changes depending on the input information,
Printing unit (D) for selective editing printing characters that are printed or not printed...Fixed printing character information is set in advance, and printing is used for common selected printing characters that are printed or not printed depending on the input information. Unit Print character information is set (edited) for the selected print unit based on the input information.
Each selected printing unit includes print area information on the ticket and prefixed or set (edited) print character information. Therefore,
By performing printing according to this printing unit, desired printing can be performed.

Further, the printing means includes means for transferring character dot data for the next line to the buffer of the printing section when character dot data for one line is being printed. Therefore, printing can be speeded up.

(f) Embodiments Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

The figure shows an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a ticket printing device. In the figure, a program memory 2 connected to a CPU 1 via a bus stores a control microprogram.
Similarly, the print character memory 3 stores character dot patterns in a character dot memory area and stores a ticket editing format table in a ticket format memory area. Also, RAM4 is used as a work area. The print head section 5, which consists of a print head control circuit and a print head, prints dot data on a line-by-line basis. The printing mechanism unit 6, which includes a printing mechanism control circuit and a printing conveyance mechanism, prints and issues tickets. Furthermore,
An input section 7 consisting of an operation section control circuit and an operation console is a section for inputting ticket information.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the format of a ticket printed and issued by this printing device. In addition, Figure 3 shows the ticket pieces in rows and
This shows the dot arrangement when the dots are decomposed in the column direction. In this example, one dot in the row (X) direction is one row, and eight dots in the column (Y) direction are one column.
Determine character position by row/column number. Further, FIG. 4 shows a diagram of the minimum dot structure of a character, in which A represents a horizontal character and B represents a vertical character. Each has 16 (2
Dot matrix of 12 (columns) x 12 (12 rows) and 16 (2 columns)
It is expressed as a dot matrix of ×16 (16 lines).

FIG. 5 shows the correspondence between the character dot pattern configuration of the minimum horizontal character (FIG. 5A) and the character dot memory that stores the character (FIG. 5B). Eight dots in one column and one row are set as 1 BYTE, and the ~ BYTEs are stored in order. All characters used for printing are 1BYTE in the order x ₁ y ₁ , x ₁ y ₂ ~ _{x o} y _n like this
Each item is broken down and stored. That is, all characters to be used are stored in the character dot memory 20 between addresses 0 and i in a dot pattern every 1 BYTE. This 1BYTE (1 row 1 column)
The character dot pattern becomes the basic character font in this embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the character arrangement necessary for printing and issuing the ticket shown in FIG. 3. In the same figure, A,
The following types of characters are printed in each character block: B, C, D, {A, B, C, D are each circled in the figure}.

A...Common printed characters common to all types of ticket pieces.

B...Common editing print characters that change depending on input print information and internal print information.

C: Selective editing printing characters that change depending on input print information and internal print information, and are printed or not printed depending on the type of ticket piece.

D...Common selective printing characters that are printed or not printed depending on the type of ticket piece.

By dividing the blocks into four types like this,
The characters in each block of A and D are non-numeric characters such as kanji characters, and the characters in each block of B and C are numbers.

In addition, in Figures 6 and 7, the A block
xx represents the number of printed character lines in that block, and yy represents the number of printed character strings. Also, the * mark in x _o and y _n is the printing start position point. As mentioned above, one dot in the row (X) direction is treated as one line, and eight dots in the column (Y) direction are treated as one column, so the number of printed character lines (1 x 8 dots is the standard character font) xx represents the number of dots in the X direction, and yy, the number of one character string printed, represents 8 times the number of dots in the Y direction.

7 and 8 show the printing format of each character block in FIG. 6, that is, the printing unit for specifying the printing start position and the type of printed character. The printing unit 21 in FIG. 7 corresponds to either the A or D block in FIG. 6, and the printing unit 22 in FIG. 8 corresponds to either the B or C block. The total number of character blocks in FIG. 6 is therefore equal to the sum of the total number of printing units 21 in FIG. 7 and the total number of printing units 22 in FIG.

In FIG. 7, the print character dot data address indicates the first character address (character dot memory: see FIG. 5B) of the character block to which the unit 21 corresponds. Further, in FIG. 8, the number of edited characters l indicates the number of printed characters in the character block in FIG. 6 to which the unit 22 corresponds. In addition, the print character code area address (An) is input in input section 7.
In the input print information storage memory 23 (shown in FIG. 10) in which the input information input from the
It shows the print information storage area corresponding to the character block. For example, if the unit 22 corresponds to a character block representing a 4-digit ticket number (B block on the rightmost side in Figure 6), the printed character code area address (An) in that unit is the first
This shows area A6 in Figure 0. The character dot data index address (iX) is stored in the character dot data index table 24 (shown in FIG. 11).
It shows the start address of. In the printing unit 22, l pieces of printing position information are also stored in order.

Referring to FIGS. 8, 10, and 11, the method for determining the character dot data address in the character dot memory 120 (see FIG. 5B) in the printing unit 22 can be summarized as follows. Become.

Assuming that the printing information (number) of the address (An) of a certain printing unit 22 is four digits, the first number of this information is directly added to the index address (iX). As mentioned above, this index address (iX) stores the start address of the table 24 shown in FIG. 11. The character dot data index table 24 is set for each address in order from character code = 0 (number 0).
Since the configuration is such that the character dot data address (in the character dot memory) of the code is memorized up to an arbitrary value (usually the number 9), the result added as above is the first of the print information (numbers). Indicates the character dot data address corresponding to the number. For example, if the first number is 0, 0+
Since iX=iX, iX, which is the leading address of the table 24, is determined as the character dot data address of the first number. Note that this character dot data address is the first address of the area representing the first number in the character dot memory shown in FIG. 5B. In this way, the character dot data address corresponding to each number of the print information of the address (An) is obtained in the same way.
In other words, this printing unit 22 stores the address (An) in the input print information storage memory shown in FIG. (iX), the unit essentially determines the character address of the corresponding character block (see FIG. 6).

FIG. 9 shows a ticket editing format table 25 in which printing units 21 and printing units 22 are edited for each block type. The operations necessary for editing and printing are first performed based on this table 25.

Next, the editing method of this device will be specifically explained.

FIG. 12 and FIG. 13 show the editing control procedure.

Editing control begins when print information is input from the console of the input unit 7. The input print information is stored in the input print information storage memory 2 shown in FIG.
3 is stored.

This editing control involves selecting all the units necessary for printing from the ticket editing format table 25 based on the input printing information, and then converting all the selected units into the format shown in FIG. After this, the main task is to transfer the ticket to the ticket printing format buffer 26 shown in FIG.

In the first process 10, the A block is transferred to the ticket print format buffer 26. A
The block is a fixed block that is common to each ticket, and the printing unit of block A is the seventh one.
Since this is the format shown in the figure, all block unit numbers i are sequentially transferred as they are.

In the next process 11, the B block is transferred. Here, since the unit has the format shown in FIG. 8, it must be converted to the format shown in FIG. 7. The procedure for this format conversion is shown in FIG. In the process 12, the number of edited characters l, print character code area address, and character dot data index address of the unit are transferred to counter C and buffers A1 and A2, respectively, to prepare for format conversion. In process 13, the print position information is transferred to the format buffer 26. In process 14, buffer A
1 and A2 to create a print character dot data address and transfer it to the format buffer 26. This process is performed on the buffer A1 as described above.
The content of the indirect specified address, that is, the print information is A.
This is a task of adding the contents of the address No. 2, that is, the index address iX (the first address of the table in FIG. 11) to obtain the print character dot data address. Processes 15 and 16 are counter processes for performing all format conversions for the number of edited characters l in that unit. Therefore, in process 13, the information is transferred in order from l=1, and in process 14, the print information (numeric value) is transferred in order from the first number.
The above processing is performed for all B block units using counter i.

Process 17 transfers the C block. This process uses the C block ticket unit selection table 27 (FIG. 15). The C-block ticket unit selection table 27 specifies the printing unit corresponding to the ticket (ticket type) code (see FIG. 10) obtained based on the printing information. In other words, it has the role of selecting the printing unit of the C block necessary for printing. For example, when the input ticket code is "0", the printing units in the range of ticket code=0 are selected from the table of FIG. 15 as the printing units of the C block. Since the ticket code has already been determined before entering this process 17, the printing unit is selected by reading out the unit number stored in the area corresponding to the ticket code. This reading is performed using the print unit counter n. In process 17, N represents the unit number of each printing unit of block C of the ticket code (see FIG. 15). Further, counter i is used to read out all the C block units. Note that since the selected printing unit has the format of the printing unit 22 shown in FIG.
Similarly, it is converted into the format of the printing unit 21 of FIG. 7 by the subroutine of FIG. 13, and then transferred to the ticket printing format buffer 26.

After completing process 17, process 18 is finally executed.
This process 18 transfers the D block. This process uses the D block ticket unit selection table 28 (FIG. 16). The D block ticket unit selection table 28 specifies the printing unit corresponding to the ticket (ticket type) code obtained based on the printing information. In other words, it has the role of selecting the printing unit of the D block necessary for printing. Therefore, the work in process 18 is similar to process 17,
Its purpose is to read out the unit number stored in the area corresponding to the ticket code. However, since it is not necessary to change the selected unit format, you can use the ticket printing format as is.
It will be transferred to 6.

When the above processes 10 to 18 are completed, the table end code is finally transferred and format editing is completed.

Next, a control procedure for printing characters according to the format edited as described above will be explained. FIG. 18 is a time chart of the print cycle of this apparatus, FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a group of print control counters, and FIG. 20 is a flow chart showing a character generation procedure.

The control procedure can be summarized as follows.

First, when the editing work is completed, character data for one line is created, that is, character generation is performed, and an edit line counter LCNT (see FIG. 19) representing the line position where the generation is performed is reset. Then request data (RQD) from the print head.
A signal is generated, whereby the character generated data is transferred to the print head section and printing is executed, and the counter LCNT is incremented by 1.
This operation is repeated and printing is performed continuously.

Character generation will be explained with reference to FIG.

First, in process 20, print line buffer (Figure 17)
29 (the row direction is the vertical direction as shown in FIG. 5A) is cleared. Subsequently, the head address of the first printing unit of the ticket printing format buffer (FIG. 14) 26 is stored in register iY.
The start address (0th line address) of the print line buffer 29 is stored in register iX. Note that each line number from 0 to m in the print line buffer is 0 in Figure 3.
It corresponds to the column number ~y-1. Process 21 is a step of reading out from the format buffer 26 a printing unit that matches the contents of the counter LCNT. In process 22, prepare for the next process by adding +1 and -1 to the print start line and print line count of the printing unit, respectively, and if the result is that the print line count = 0, clear the start line. do. The purpose of the latter process is to ensure that when the format buffer 26 is subsequently searched by process 21, the unit whose start line has been cleared is stepped through.

In process 23, character dot data is transferred downward (column direction) from a predetermined address in the print line buffer 29. Initially, the row buffer address that is the memory contents of register iX (initially the address of column 0)
the starting column of that unit (indicated by iY+2)
Assuming that the address value obtained by adding the .
Stored in iX2 (adding in this way is
This is because columns 0 to m of the print row buffer 33 directly represent the columns of ticket pieces. ). and,
The character dot data of that unit is transferred downward (in the column direction) from the address represented by the register iX2 for the number of character strings.

With the above processing, one line of the unit that performs character generation (first line: see Figure 5 A)
The character dot data will be transferred to the print line buffer 29.

In process 24, the character dot data address of the unit that performed the character generation is updated, and preparations are made to search for another unit in the same printing character start line as that unit. The necessity of updating the former address is clear from FIG. That is, each time a print line is updated, the address of the character dot memory must be increased by the number of character columns. The latter preparation means updating the unit, that is, adding 5 to the contents of register iY (print character start line address of the currently specified unit).

Character generation for one line is completed by performing the above processing on all units specified by the counter LCNT (units whose start line matches the edit line of LCNT). From then on, this character generation is performed by the same process as described above every time the counter LCNT is updated.

In this way, character generation is performed line by line.

In FIG. 18, the execution of the above character generation is a data request signal for the next printing.
It can be seen that the process ends before the RQD signal is output. In other words, when character generation for one line is performed,
An RQD signal is generated, and the character generated data is transferred to the print head section and printed. At the time of printing, character generation for the next printing is being executed at the same time. By this,
It becomes possible to further increase printing speed.

Although the above-described embodiment is a printing device that continuously prints one line at a time, it is also possible to perform continuous printing one line at a time by controlling the rows and columns to be interchanged. That is, continuous printing can be performed for each line of one row or one column.

(g) Effects of the Invention As detailed above, according to the present invention, common printing characters, common editing printing characters, selective editing printing characters, and common printing characters corresponding to character blocks such as dates and ticket codes can be used. Each printing unit for selected printing characters is stored in a table (printing unit storage means), the one necessary for printing is selected based on the input information, and the printing character information is edited based on the input information. After that, the printing unit prints the corresponding character block.
Each print unit is not pattern data, but print area information (determined by print start matrix and number of character columns)
and print character information. Therefore, the memory capacity can be reduced compared to a method in which a print format (pattern) is stored for each type of ticket or for each ticket fixed pattern. In addition, by changing, adding, or deleting the printing units stored in this table (ticket editing format table), it is possible to easily support many ticket types, and in this case, the memory capacity can also be increased. There is no.

Furthermore, since character dot data for the next line is transferred to the buffer of the printing section when one line is being printed, there is an advantage that the printing speed is improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a ticket printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the format of a ticket printed and issued by this device, and FIG. 3 is a dot arrangement diagram of a ticket. Figures 4A and B are minimum character dot configuration diagrams for horizontal and vertical characters, Figures 5A and B are diagrams showing the minimum character dot pattern configuration and character dot memory that stores the characters, and Figure 6 is a diagram showing the minimum character dot pattern configuration for horizontal and vertical characters. Figure 3 shows the character arrangement necessary to print and issue the ticket, and Figures 7 and 8 show the printing unit that specifies the print start position and print character type for each character block in Figure 6. Figures, Figures 9, 10, 11,
Figure 14, Figure 15, Figure 16, Figure 17, Figure 1
Figure 9 shows a ticket editing format table, an input print information storage memory, a character dot data index table, a ticket printing format buffer, and a ticket editing format table, respectively.
C block ticket piece unit selection table, D block ticket piece unit selection table, print line buffer,
A diagram showing a group of counters for printing control, Fig. 12, Fig. 1
3 and 20 are flowcharts of editing control, its subroutine, and character generation control, respectively.
Figure 18 is a time chart. 3...Print character memory, 5...Print head section,
6... Printing mechanism section, 7... Input section, 20... Character dot memory, 21... Printing unit, 22...
...Print unit, 24...Character dot data index table, 25...Ticket piece editing format table, 26...Ticket print format buffer, 27...C block ticket piece unit selection table, 28...D Block ticket unit selection table, 29...Print line buffer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Means for storing any of the following four types of printing units each having print area information on a ticket and having a print character information area for each printed character block that can be printed on a ticket. , a means for storing input information such as dates and charges, and a means for selecting one of the printing units to be used for printing based on the input information, and printing the following (B) or (C) among the selected printing units. means for setting printing character information in the area based on the input information for the unit; and means for sequentially printing character blocks corresponding to the selected printing unit, the printing means comprising: 1 A ticket editing and printing device characterized by comprising means for transferring character dot data for the next line to a buffer of a printing section when character dot data for a line is being printed. (A)...Printing unit for common printing characters that is common to all types of ticket types and in which fixed printing character information is set in advance (B)...Common editing printing in which printing character information changes depending on input information Printing unit for characters (C)...The printed character information changes depending on the input information,
Printing unit (D) for selective editing printing characters that are printed or not printed...Fixed printing character information is set in advance, and printing is used for common selected printing characters that are printed or not printed depending on the input information. unit