JPH0520295B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a label printer that prints information corresponding to the weight of an article on a label.

As is well known, in recent years supermarkets and other stores have increasingly been displaying products in packages, with labels recording the unit price, weight, price, product name, product mode, etc.

By the way, this labeling is a very complicated process, so when the weight of the package is measured, the price is calculated by multiplying the weight by a preset unit price, and this data is printed on the label. It is used for awards. According to this, the worker only needs to attach the issued label to the pack, and it is possible to print advertising text such as "bargain item" or "bargain item" on the label, which is very convenient.

What is shown by the symbols CM in Figure 1 A and B is an example of such advertising text, which is inserted after the product name AN to display the characteristics of the product. Such advertising text is registered in memory in advance, read out by specifying the advertising text number using input means such as a keyboard, combined with the product name, edited, and printed on the label. I was getting used to it.

By the way, in conventional label printers,
Since the advertising text was only printed on the label,
There was an inconvenience that even if an incorrect advertisement number was specified, it would not be known until the printing of the label was completed. Furthermore, it was inconvenient that the editing status of the product name and advertising text could not be checked until they were printed on the label. Furthermore, since the advertising text was set in advance by the manufacturer, there were cases in which the user's desired advertising text could not be used.

In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide a label printer that can monitor advertising text before printing it on a label.

In order to achieve such an object, the label printer of the present invention is a label printer that prints the product name, unit price, weight, price, etc. of the product by dot printing in each printing column of the label. , a first storage means for storing a plurality of pieces of article-specific printed information such as product name, unit price, etc. for each article; article specifying means for specifying the article for which the label is to be issued; A dot-type display means (second
A dot-type display d) in the figure, a second storage means (storage means a in Figure 2) for storing a plurality of types of advertisement texts, and a designation of the advertisement text to be printed from among the advertisement texts. an advertisement text designation means (input means b in FIG. 2); reads the specified advertisement text from the second storage means, and inputs the number of characters that can be printed in the product name printing field of the label, the product name to be printed, and the advertisement; Editing means (editing means c in FIG. 2) for composing and editing the product name and advertisement text by calculating the space between the product name and the advertisement text and the space between each character in units of dots based on the total number of characters in the sentence. When the editing is successfully completed, the editing result is displayed in text on the dot-type display means, while when the editing cannot be performed because the total number of characters in the product name and advertising text exceeds a predetermined number, a message to that effect is displayed on the dot-type display means. The present invention is characterized by comprising a display control means for displaying characters on a dot-type display means, and a dot-type printing means for printing the editing result on a label together with other print information other than the called product name.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the external appearance of a label printer that is an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the embodiment.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 1 denotes a weighing section composed of a plate-shaped weighing pan, a load cell, etc., and supplies a weight signal corresponding to the article 2 to the main body 3. This main body 3
includes a label printing unit 4 (dot type printing means) that prints on a label attached to a strip-shaped mount;
A display section 5 for displaying various displays, an operation section 6 consisting of a keyboard and key switches, a journal printer section 7 for issuing tally marks, etc. are provided.

As shown in FIG. 5, the display section 5 includes a message area 5-1 (corresponding to the dot display d shown in FIG. 2), a weight display area 5-2, a price display area 5-3, and a product number. (Number predetermined according to the type of article) display area 5-4, tare weight display area 5-5, unit price (unit price per 100g) display area 5-6, number of packs (packs of the same type of article) The operating section 6 includes a keyboard section 6-1 (second
(corresponding to input means b in the figure) and key switches 6-2 and 6-3 for switching the operating mode of the device. Further, each display area in the display unit 5 is constituted by a liquid crystal dot display,
It is now possible to display arbitrary numbers, letters, symbols, etc.

Next, each output signal of the measuring section 1 and the operation section 6 is as follows.
As shown in FIG. 4, they are supplied to a CPU (central processing unit) 12 via a measuring section interface circuit 10 and an operating section interface circuit 11, and are also supplied to a label printing section 4 and a journal. The printer unit 7 prints on labels or paper based on print signals supplied from the CPU 12 via the printer interface circuit 13. In this case, the label printing section 4 and the journal printer section 7 are configured to each perform thermal dot printing, and as a result, as with the display section 5, arbitrary printing of characters, symbols, etc. is possible. The display section 5 performs display using display symbols supplied from the CPU 12 via the display section interface circuit 14. In addition, 17 shown in FIG.
Programs used by CPU12 have been memorized.
This is a ROM (read only memory), and 18 is a working RAM (random access memory) in which various data are temporarily stored.

Next, 19 is a preset memory that stores preset data such as the code, product number, product name, and unit price corresponding to the article, and a total memory that stores total data such as the number of issued labels, weight, price, etc. for each code. and the advertisement text memory 19a shown in FIG.
(This corresponds to the storage means a in FIG. 2). Here, as shown in FIG. 6, the advertising text memory 19a is allocated an area of 21 bytes for one advertising text, and in this embodiment, the area is for 40 advertising texts, that is, 21×40=
840 bytes are taken. Then, the number of characters in the advertising text is written in the first byte of each area, and the following:
Two bytes are taken for each character, and each character is stored as a 3-digit (1 digit is 0.5 byte) number (character code). For example, the advertising text "Special sale item" is 367 (special), 392 (sale), 311 (product) as shown in Figure 6.
That's how things are going. In addition, this RAM19
is backed up by a battery, making it non-volatile. 20 is a P-ROM (programmable ROM) in which character patterns of various characters for display and printing, ie, hiragana, katakana, alphanumeric characters, and general-purpose kanji, are stored as dot data; Reading is performed using the above-mentioned character code (1 to 3 digit number). For example, the above character code "367"
The kanji ``toku'' was read out, and it was ``392''.
This means that the kanji ``sale'' is read out. Note that the product name stored in the RAM 19 described above is composed of a string of character codes.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. First, the operation when setting an advertisement text will be explained, and then the operation when editing and displaying an advertisement text will be explained.

(1) Behavior when setting advertisement text.

A description will be given of an example in which an advertisement text called "Special Sale Item" is set in the first area (21 bytes) of the advertisement text memory 19a shown in FIG. 6. Note that although the advertisement text number in this example is 0, any advertisement text number k (k=0 to 39) can be similarly set. However, for advertisement number k,
The advertisement text memory 19a is stored starting from the first address +21×k address.

Now, the operator presses the key switch 6- shown in FIG.
2 to the setting mode and press the □% (shift key) and the product name at the same time in the same figure. ``Advertisement program in progress'' is displayed in message area 5-1, and advertisement text can be set. Thereafter, the operator sets the advertisement text according to the following procedure.

□0 Press the product number...Set advertisement number 0.

Press the product name...This will cause the CPU12 to
The advertisement text setting program stored in the ROM 17 starts running, and "( )" is displayed in the unit price display area 5-6.

Press □3□6□7, □3□9□2, □3□1□1...CPU1
2 stores these character codes in a predetermined location shown in FIG.

Pressing the product name...This causes the CPU 12 to confirm the completion of inserting the advertisement text, write the number of characters at the beginning of the area, and complete the process.

In this way, the setting of the advertisement text number 0 is completed.

Thereafter, settings for each advertisement text are made in the same manner, and finally, pressing □% and product name at the same time returns to the normal setting mode and the above-mentioned displays disappear.

(2) Operation when editing and displaying advertising text.

When the operator sets the key switch 6-2 to registration mode and presses a code number, for example, □2□0□1, and then presses the product number, the character code of the product name corresponding to this code is read from the file RAM 19. (As mentioned above, this product name is stored in advance as a character code in the file RAM 19 corresponding to the code), and character patterns corresponding to the character code are sequentially extracted from the P-ROM 20 and stored in the work RAM 18. The messages are written to the buffer memory taken above, and these are displayed as dots in the message area 5-1. Here, the keyboard section 6-1 for inputting a character code serves as an article specifying means for specifying an article for which a label is to be issued, and also inputs the product number and number of the article for which a label is to be issued.
The file RAM 19, which stores product-specific preset data such as product name and unit price, is
It has become a means of memory. For example, the first row of message area 5-1 has "beef" and the second row has "beef".
``For sukiyaki'' is displayed on the first line, and ``special item'' is displayed on the third line. Note that each of the above lines corresponds to a print line of a label, and will hereinafter be referred to as display line l (l=1, 2, 3).

In this way, after the product name is displayed, when the operator presses the advertisement number, for example, □3□9, and then presses the product name, the CPU 12 starts executing the advertisement text editing program stored in the ROM 17, and Processing is performed according to the flow shown in the figure.

The operation of editing and displaying advertising text will be explained below according to the flowchart shown in FIG. When the advertisement text number k is input as described above, the CPU 12
At step SP1, the first address +21×k address of the advertisement memory 19a is checked to see if there is an advertisement text. If there is no advertising text, the process advances to step SP2, where an error message "No advertising text available" is displayed in the message area 5-1, and the process ends.

On the other hand, when the advertisement text is found, the step
In SP3, the above-mentioned display line 1 is initialized to 1, and in the next steps SP4-5, it is checked whether the product name and advertising text can be accommodated in one line. That is, in step SP4, M=N-n(l)-n _s ...(1) where N is the number of characters that can be accommodated in one line n(l) is the number of characters in the product name in the 1st line n _s is the number of advertising characters M is The margin is calculated, and this M is checked in step SP5. If M<2, it is determined that the product name and advertising text cannot be accommodated in the first line, and l is the last line L (in this example, L = 3) (step
SP6), up l by 1 (step SP7)
Search for a display line l that can accommodate the advertising text along with the product name (loop lP). If it is not found even when l=L, an error message ``There is no space for advertisement text'' is displayed in the message area 5-1 in step SP8.

On the other hand, in step SP5, if M≧2, it is determined that a display line that can accommodate the product name and advertisement text together is found, and in steps SP9 and 10, the space to be inserted between the product name and the advertisement text and between each character is calculated. , combine and edit the product name and advertising text. That is, in step SP9, when M given by equation (1) is 2≦M<4, the space between the product name and the advertising text is set to 2 characters, and when M≧4, the space is set to M/2 characters (decimal number). (hereinafter truncated). (The number of characters is counted in units of 8 x 16 dots, and 16
×16 dots count as 2 characters. ) Also, in step SP10, the number of characters in 16 x 16 dots is Na, and the number of characters in 8 x 16 dots is Nb (in this case,
The space calculated above also includes the number of characters), and the number of characters N that can be accommodated in one line is Sc=8×N−16×Na−8×Nb/Na+Nb−1 ……(2) Find the space Sc of .
When each space is determined in this way, the CPU 12
The product name and character code are stored in a predetermined area of the preset memory of the file RAM 19, and the character code (three-digit number) of the advertisement is stored in the advertisement memory 19a.
The corresponding character patterns are extracted from the P-ROM 20, and these character patterns are sequentially written into the buffer memory while taking the space determined above (step SP11). In this case, the above-mentioned space is taken between the product name and the advertisement text. When the combination and editing of the product name and advertising text are completed in this way, this is displayed as a dot in the message area 5-1 (step SP12). Here, among the functions of the CPU 12, step SP12 displays the editing result, and step SP8 displays what could not be edited.
The functional section serves as display control means.

In this way, according to this embodiment, the automatically edited product name and advertising text are displayed in the message area 5-1 before being printed on the label, so that the desired advertising text can be displayed without printing each item. You can check whether it has been called or not, and check the automatically edited state. Additionally, since the user can set the advertising text, the user can use the optimal advertising text according to the products and customer base of the store.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and the following modifications are also possible.

(1) Automatically display advertisements in the message area in order from advertisement number 0. This allows you to search and confirm the advertisement text that has been set.

(2) The set advertisement text is sent to the journal printer section 7.
Print out from.

(3) Color-code the message area appropriately to make it easier to see.

(4) Audio output such as error messages can also be performed.

(5) Manually create a layout using the message area.

(6) Enable font size to be enlarged or reduced.

Further, in the above embodiments, each display area is configured by a liquid crystal dot display, but it goes without saying that other display devices such as LEDs and CRTs can be used.

As explained above, in this invention, the dot-type display is displayed before the product name and advertising text are combined and printed on the label, so it is possible to confirm that the correct advertising text has been called up, and to confirm that the advertising text is correct. You can check the automatic editing results before printing the label.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a plan view showing an example of advertising text printed on a label, Fig. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention, and Fig. 3 shows the external structure of a label printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4 is a block diagram showing the electrical configuration of the same embodiment. FIG. 5 is a front view showing details of the display section 5 and operation section 6 of FIG. 3.
FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of the advertising text memory 19a, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the same embodiment. 5-1...Message area (dot display), 6-1...Keyboard section (input means), 12
...CPU (editing means), 19a...advertisement text memory (storage means).

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a label printer that prints the product name, unit price, weight, price, etc. of an article by dot printing in each printing field of the label, a first storage means for storing a plurality of pieces of printed information for each article; an article specification means for specifying the article for which the label is to be issued; and a first storage means for storing the printed information including the product name of the specified article. a dot-type display means for displaying the recalled product name as a dot; a second storage type for storing a plurality of types of advertising texts; and an advertising text specifying means for specifying an advertising text to be printed from among the advertising texts. and, the specified advertising text is retrieved from the second storage means, and the product name and advertising text are retrieved based on the number of characters that can be printed in the product name printing column of the label and the total number of characters of the product name and advertising text to be printed. editing means for composing and editing the product name and advertising text by calculating the space between each character in dot units; and when the editing is successfully completed, displaying the editing results in characters on the dot-type display means; display control means for displaying a text message to that effect on the dot-type display means when the total number of characters of the product name and advertising text exceeds a predetermined number and the editing cannot be performed; A label printer comprising: a dot-type printing means for printing on a label together with other printing information;