JPH0462088B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a printer control device that has a function of arbitrarily setting the printing position of a printer in a document creation device.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a document creation device such as a word processor prints an inputted document or character string using a printing mechanism such as a serial printer, the following problems have occurred. That is, conventionally, if you want to print a document or character string at a desired position on paper, you adjust the print position by setting and inputting shift margins, tabs, spaces, line breaks, etc. when inputting the document or character string. Alternatively, the printing position was adjusted by changing settings such as character pitch, line pitch, print top margin, print left margin, etc. Therefore, conventionally, when inputting a document or character string, it is necessary to take into account the position on the paper when it is printed, which makes inputting very complicated, and it is difficult to print fine, high-precision prints. The drawback was that it was difficult to adjust the position. In particular, when attempting to print characters in a well-balanced manner between preprinted characters, it is extremely difficult to adjust the positions.

Furthermore, in printing means such as word processors, printing is performed in units of documents or pages, and printing only arbitrary character strings has not been considered.

Providing a means of printing only character strings is extremely useful for low-cost, simple word processors, etc. that can display only a small number of characters and lines on a display device, and the printing speed of the printer is slow. . For example, when a simple word processor is used to make corrections, insertions, deletions, etc. and the entire part cannot be displayed at once, it is possible to confirm the changes by providing the above-mentioned character string printing means. You can print only the part that you have printed. Also, in simple word processors, lettering machines, etc.
When printing characters that have been subjected to various character processing such as enlargement, rotation, italics, outline, shading, etc., the provision of the character string printing means described above is effective for the processing work.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a printer control device for a document creation device that can print a created/edited document from a desired position on a sheet of paper.

Further, the present invention can be applied to arbitrary character strings in an input document or input character strings, as well as enlargement, reduction,
Printing control for characters and character strings that allows characters or character strings that have been subjected to desired pattern conversions such as rotation, italics, whiteout, and shading to be easily specified for printing at a desired position on paper with high positional accuracy. The purpose is to provide a method.

[Summary of the invention]

In a word processor or other character processing device, the printing start position of a printer head provided in a printing mechanism can be directly and selectively set to any position on a sheet of paper according to an operator's designation. It is possible to print the document or character string input from the set position, as well as characters or character strings that have undergone desired pattern conversion such as enlargement, reduction, rotation, italics, outline, shading, etc. According to
With a simple and inexpensive configuration, any character string in an input document or an already input document, or input character strings, as well as characters or character strings that have been subjected to the various pattern conversions described above, can be converted into desired characters on paper. It is possible to easily print with higher positional accuracy than the position of , and the output function of documents or characters can be greatly expanded.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 11 controls the entire device.
It is a CPU, and 12 is a Kanji pattern memory (KPM) having a ROM configuration, for example. 13 is a dictionary memory used for kana-kanji conversion, etc., and 14 is a RAM for document data and CPU work. 16
is a display device using a display body such as a CRT or LCD that displays input sentences and the like under the control of a display control section 15. Reference numeral 17 denotes a KB control unit that controls key input on the keyboard (KB) 18. Here, a KB control unit is used to control the key input of the keyboard (KB) 18. Has command generation function. 19 is a drive control unit for moving the printer head in the line direction; 20 is a drive control unit for feeding paper (in the vertical direction); and 21 is data sent to the printer (PRT) 22 and the printer 2.
2 status is set (D-
REG). Reference numeral 25 denotes an enlargement/reduction circuit that enlarges or reduces characters according to a designated magnification, performs pattern conversion such as rotation, italics, outline, shading, etc., and generates and outputs a dot image thereof.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a specific key arrangement particularly used in the present invention on the keyboard 18.
1 is a head movement instruction key for instructing the operator to directly control the printer head. 32 is a character print instruction key for instructing printing of a document; 33 is a partial print instruction key for instructing partial printing (character string printing); 34 to 37 are cursor keys for moving the cursor on the display device 16. Here, it is a movement key for moving the printer head and paper in a predetermined direction immediately after the head movement instruction key 31 is operated.

3A and 3B are diagrams for explaining the printer head positioning means of the serial printer 22. In the figures, 50 is the printer head, 51 is the outer frame of the characters to be printed, and 55 is the position desired by the operator. Indicates the character printing position.

FIG. 4 shows an example of printing a document using a position 60 on a sheet of paper as a starting point.

Figure 5 shows enlarged characters at position 70 on the paper.
An example is shown in which characters are printed with the upper left corner as the upper left corner.

Here, the operation of one embodiment will be explained. Here, after pressing the head movement instruction key 31 of the keyboard 18, the cursor key 3 is pressed within a certain period of time.
By pressing 4 to 37, the pressed cursor key becomes a positioning and movement key for the printer head, but the same function as described above can be obtained by operating cursor keys 34 to 37 while operating the instruction key 31. to do. Cursor key 3 on keyboard 18
By pressing 4 to 37, the cursor moves in the designated direction on the display device 16, as in conventional devices.

A first feature of an embodiment of the present invention is that the printer head 50 of the printer 22 can be directly operated by the operator.
The keyboard 18 can be set at any position on the paper according to the intention.
A head movement instruction key 31 is provided on the top, and the key 31
The position of the printer head 50 is adjusted by pressing the cursor keys 34 to 37 while pressing the key 31, or by pressing the cursor keys 34 to 37 continuously within a certain period of time after pressing the key 31. CPU11 is cursor key 3
When it is detected that any one of 4 to 37 has been pressed, it is checked whether the head movement instruction key 31 has been pressed before that, and if the specified key 31 has not been pressed, the display device 16 is displayed as before. The upper cursor is moved, and if the instruction key 31 is pressed, the next process is performed. When the cursor key 34 or the same key 36 is pressed once, the CPU 11 instructs the LF drive control section 20 to execute sheet feeding by a predetermined unit amount. (For the cursor keys 34 and 36, the paper feeding direction is upside down).
When the cursor key 35 or 37 is pressed once, the CPU 11 instructs the drive control section 19 to move the printer head by a predetermined amount (the cursor key 35 is to the right, and the cursor key 37 is to the left).
Further, if the cursor keys 34 to 37 continue to be pressed, the above processing is repeated.

Next, the document print instruction key 32 on the keyboard 18
When pressed, the character information stored in the RAM 14 is converted into a dot pattern using the kanji pattern memory 12, and the pattern data is stored in the register 21.
The document is sent to the printer 22 via the printer 22, and the document is printed from the set printing position. Also, if the partial print instruction key is pressed instead of the document print instruction key 32,
Character information in a specified range specified by a cursor or the like in the document information in the RAM 14 is converted into a dot pattern in the same manner as described above, and sent to the printer 22 to print a character string in the specified range from the above-mentioned set printing position.

A second feature of an embodiment of the present invention is that a head movement instruction key 31 is used and the key 31 is pressed to enable document printing or character string printing from any position on a sheet of paper. while or the key 3
1 and then press the document print instruction key 32 or the partial print instruction key 33 within a certain period of time, the position of the print head 50 at that time (position 60 shown in FIG. Document printing or character string printing is performed using the position 70 shown in the figure as a base point. That is, in the case of document printing, the position 60 shown in FIG.
Corresponding to the digits, position 60 in Figure 4 is the beginning of the line,
Documents are printed sequentially in the direction of arrow 65. In the case of the above-mentioned character string printing, character strings (or characters) are sequentially printed with the position 70 shown in FIG. 5 as the first character or the upper left corner of the first character of enlarged characters, etc. in the character string.

The third feature of this embodiment of the present invention is the position adjustment means for the printer head 50 and its operation immediately after a print instruction is issued. When attempting to perform positional adjustment, the desired print location is actually hidden behind the printer head 50, making it difficult to perform fine or highly accurate positioning. Therefore, the printer head 50 is aligned with the position 51 shown in FIG. 3B with respect to the desired printing location 55 shown in FIG. Then, the desired position 55
Control to start printing more accurately.
It should be noted that the method of generating various modified character patterns using the enlargement/reduction circuit 25 is not directly related to the present invention, and therefore its explanation will be omitted here.

By providing the above-mentioned print control means, it is possible to print documents from any position on the paper as a starting point, and to print character examples such as enlargement, rotation, italics, outlines, and shadows using a complicated position control mechanism. This can be achieved with a simple configuration without the need for a Additionally, the printer head can be aligned easily and accurately.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the printer head moves over the paper, and the characters and characters are printed on the paper.
In the printing mechanism that prints images such as figures,
printer head positioning instruction means for instructing the printer head to be set at an arbitrary position on the paper by an operator's operation; and means for enabling the printer head to be moved to an arbitrary position on the paper according to the instruction; It has means for activating the start of printing, and means for storing the position of the printer head moved and positioned by the operator's operation when the start of printing is activated by the means, After being hung,
The above-mentioned memorized printer head position corresponds to the printing position of the first line and first digit of the document, and the document is printed from that position onwards, allowing input with a simple and inexpensive configuration. The printed document can be printed with higher positional accuracy than the desired position on the paper, thereby improving the print output function of the document.

The present invention also provides printer head positioning instructing means for instructing to set the printer head at an arbitrary position on the sheet by operator operation;
and according to this instruction, a means for enabling the printer head to move to any position on the paper, a means for specifying a range of print characters, a means for activating the start of printing, and a means for activating the start of printing. The set position of the printer head when the specified character string is specified corresponds to the printing position of the first character specified by the character string range specifying means, and the specified character string is printed from that position onwards. With this, you can easily and inexpensively convert any character string in an input document or input character string, as well as desired pattern conversions such as enlargement, reduction, rotation, italics, outlines, shading, etc. It is possible to print characters or character strings with a higher positional accuracy than a desired position on a sheet of paper, thereby improving the printing output function of a document.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall system configuration in an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a specific key arrangement on the keyboard in the above embodiment, and Figs. 3 a, b to b. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the positioning operation of the printer head in each of the above embodiments. 11...CPU, 12...Kanji pattern memory (KPM), 13...Dictionary memory, 14...RAM,
15...display control unit, 16...display device, 17...
...KB control unit, 18...Keyboard (KB), 1
9, 20... Drive control unit, 21... Register (D
-REG), 22... Printer (PRT), 25...
Enlargement/reduction circuit, 31...Head movement instruction key,
32...Document print instruction key, 33...Partial print instruction key, 34-37...Cursor key.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a printer control device of a document creation device that controls a printer that prints created and edited document information on paper, based on the position of the document information displayed on the screen of a display device, position setting input means for specifying a print start position for printing at a specified position on the paper set in the printer; and a position setting input means for specifying a print start position specified by the position setting input means, printer head moving means for moving the printer head to a horizontal position of the print start position; and a print start position specified by the position setting input means to move the paper set in the printer to the print start position. a paper feed drive means for feeding the paper to a position in the vertical direction of the print position; and a print start position on the paper based on the relative position of the printer head and the paper set by the printer head moving means and the paper feed drive means. 1. A printer control device for a document creation device, comprising: print control means for printing the document information. 2. A partial print input means is provided for specifying a desired range of the document information displayed on the screen of the display device, and the print control means inputs the document information in the range specified by the partial print input means. Claim 1, characterized in that the document information is printed from the print start position on the paper.
A printer control device for the document creation device described in Section 1.