JPH0441657B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an automatic line alignment printing device that aligns each input line character string to a line printing area set based on the printing limit area of a printer. .

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, when printing character information stored in the memory of a higher-level device (host) is transferred to a printer line by line and printed, if the left end of each line is made to coincide with each other, the right end becomes messy and unsightly. As shown in Figure 4, when transferring English data to a serial dot printer, the host usually requires appropriate margins on both sides, with P between the left edge (LE) and right edge (RE) as a reference, which is the physical printing limit of the printer. The alignment is automatically corrected so that it fits exactly in the line printing area Q between the left margin (LM) and right margin (RE).

Therefore, as shown in the figure, each line is modified to fit within the line printing area Q by increasing or decreasing the character spacing. This is the printer's automatic line alignment feature.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional configuration for performing an automatic row alignment function. That is, character information from the host is input to the input section 1 of the printer, and information for performing the automatic line alignment function is separated here. That is, the print character information ₁₁ is directly sent to the print control unit 5, and the print position information ₁₂ representing the print position (address) of the print head and a signal indicating whether or not the automatic line alignment function is applicable are sent to the light end contact detection unit. 2 to the mode determining section 3. The right end contact detection section 2 detects the right end of the physical print limit P of the printer shown in FIG. 4 and separates lines to be subjected to automatic line alignment. Therefore, if it goes outside this range P, it cannot be corrected. In the case of applying the automatic row alignment function, the mode determination unit 3 sends the automatic row alignment calculation processing unit 4 based on the instruction from the host.
The character spacing is corrected according to the count from the character number counter ₁₃ .

As a standard, the character spacing is set so that the printer's physical printing limit P is within Q. If the length of the input line character string is shorter than the printing limit P of the printer, the character spacing is expanded evenly so that it fits neatly into Q. This corrected character spacing is sent to the print control section 5 and combined with the print character information ₁₁ to perform print control. Further, in the mode determining section 3, character spacings that do not need to be corrected, that is, character spacings that are the same as P, are directly sent to the print control section 5 for similar printing control.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the above configuration, the print position information 1 ₂ inputted as described above is sent to the light end contact detection unit 2.
The right end is detected by , and only the character strings between P are subject to the automatic line alignment function.

Long character lines that extend beyond this P are excluded.

However, there are cases where the length is slightly longer than the physical printing limit of the printer. Even in this case, if the characters are compressed, they can fit within Q, and even if the distance between adjacent characters becomes slightly narrower, it is often possible to distinguish the characters sufficiently. The present invention attempts to relieve such cases.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic line printing device that allows input line character strings to be aligned within a predetermined line printing area even when input line character strings exceed the physical printing limits of the printer.

[Means for solving problems]

The reason why the input line character string is limited to the physical printing limit P of the printer in the conventional example is considered to be because if this limit is exceeded, there is no actual printing position. However, what is actually printed is the line printing area Q, and even if the input character string exceeds P, it should be possible to fit it within Q by compressing it. Therefore, in the present invention, the length of the input character string is not divided by the light end contact detection section 2 in front of the automatic line alignment calculation processing section 4 shown in FIG. 3, and virtual position information corresponding to the printing position is provided. to calculate the automatic line alignment function and correct the character spacing. In addition, when the automatic row alignment function is not required in the mode determination unit 3, the light end contact detection unit 2
Since it is necessary to separate the data into sections, it is placed after the automatic row alignment calculation processing section 4. input line string is P
If it becomes longer, the character spacing within Q will become narrower, but it is sufficient that adjacent characters are separated enough to be distinguishable and not overlap.

[Effect]

With the above configuration, regardless of whether the input line character string exceeds the printing limit P of the printer, the automatic line alignment calculation processing section corrects the character spacing, and the length limit is within Q. It is sufficient that the space between compressed characters can be distinguished.

In this way, the length range of line character strings limited to P can be expanded.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 2 is a functional explanatory diagram of the main parts of the present invention.

1, the difference from the conventional example shown in FIG. 3 is that a virtual position generating section 11 is provided at the output of print position information ₁₂ of the input section 1, and the virtual position information is sent directly to the mode determining section 3. If there is an instruction to apply the automatic line alignment function, the virtual position information is input to the automatic line alignment calculation processing section 4 together with the corresponding character number counter value, and the character spacing is corrected and output. On the other hand, when it is not necessary to apply the automatic line alignment function in the mode determination unit 3, the character spacing that does not require correction is determined by one line through the light end contact detection unit 2 in the same manner as the corrected character spacing. Detect and separate. This detection is important for checking the status in case of abnormality, whether it is not corrected or corrected. However, in the corrected state, the line printing area crawls into Q, so this detection is unnecessary.

This character spacing from the light end contact detection unit 2 is sent to the print control unit 5, and the printed character information 1 ₁
In combination with this, printing control of the row printing area Q is performed.

FIG. 2 is a functional explanatory diagram of the automatic row alignment calculation processing section 4, which is the main part of the present invention. That is, if the input line character string exceeds the printing limit P of the printer and reaches P' as shown in the figure, in order to make it irrelevant to P, a virtual position corresponding to the original printing position information is set,
This is sent to the automatic line alignment calculation processing section 4 without separating the light end, and the character spacing is corrected so that the character string within the range of P' falls within Q. In this case, it is necessary to compress the text in the line direction so that characters do not overlap and words can be distinguished.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, even when the input line print string exceeds the physical print limit of the printer, the print position information is not separated at the right end of the print limit. The automatic line alignment function is performed by setting a corresponding virtual position.
This expands the scope of application of the automatic line alignment printing function, relieves cases in which it could not be applied because the printing limit of conventional printers was slightly exceeded, and is greatly useful for promoting business operations.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the functions of the main parts of the present invention, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of the configuration of the conventional example, and Fig. 4 is the function of the main parts of the conventional example. It is an explanatory diagram, in which 1 is an input section, 1 ₁ is printed character information,
1 ₂ is print position information, 1 ₃ is a character number counter, 2 is a light end contact detection section, 3 is a mode determination section, 4 is an automatic line alignment calculation processing section, 5 is a print control section, and 11 is a virtual position generation section. .

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In order to align each line character string corresponding to the inputted print character information with the left and right ends aligned in the line print area set based on the printing limit area of the printer, the print position information of each line character is used. In an automatic line alignment printing device for a printer, which includes an automatic line alignment calculation processing unit that automatically corrects the character spacing based on the character count and the character count number, and performs printing control for each line of printed character information using the corrected spacing. , a means is provided for setting and storing a virtual position for a line string that exceeds the printing limit area of the printer, and a means for correcting the line string set at the virtual position in the automatic line alignment calculation processing unit is provided. An automatic line alignment printing device for a printer, characterized in that it is provided with means for compressing the aligned line printing area within the range of the line printing area so that the spacing is greater than or equal to an interval that allows adjacent characters to be distinguished and there is no overlap.