JPH0524301A - Automatic selection of paper in printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To start printing as it is without paying attention to the size of paper to be printed by a user, to alter a printing position without altering data and to automatically perform magnification and contraction in matching relation to indicated paper without requiring magnification and contraction using a copy after printing. CONSTITUTION:By the judgment at the point of time when the data from a host computer is converted to an intermediate code or the data of one page is arranged, the smallest paper coinciding with a size is selected and, from the difference between the size of the selected paper and the size of the paper selected by a user and a printing position, the printing position is calculated according to left shifting, centering or right shifting by addition and subtraction. Further, the aspect ratio of the size of the indicated paper and that of the size of a printing region are calculated and the smaller ratio is selected to automatically perform magnification and contraction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of automatically selecting a paper in a page printer, which allows the user to print without being concerned about the paper size.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the case of a conventional page printer, for example, an electrostatic printer, a B4 or A5 size facsimile is used.
In the case of computer output, the maximum paper width is 16 to 18 inches, but in the fields of image processing and kanji processing, larger recording may be required. In the case of electrostatic recording, high-quality large-screen output can be realized relatively easily, so that 20, 22, 24, 36, 42 and 72-inch type devices have already been put to practical use. However, there is no device that automatically switches between these sizes. Further, in the impact printer, when it is desired to use a thick paper such as a postcard or conversely to use a thin paper such as a dictionary, the selection range becomes narrow. If the sprocket hole is in the way, cut it off after printing,
The choice is limited by whether to use paper without holes from the beginning. In addition, it is necessary to decide whether to remove the carbon after printing with a special machine, to use no carbon paper, or to print as many times as the number of copies. Note that the paper selection of the printer is described, for example, in "Electronic Science", 1978, April issue, April 1, 1978, published by Kobunsho, pp.14-17, pp.67-73.

[0003]

Conventionally, when a printer is used to print, a printer in which a plurality of paper sheets can be manually selected has the intention that the user forgets the confirmation, so that the output is A4. There are many examples of printing in B4 size and A3 size, or conversely, printing in A4 size while intending to output in A3 size.
In addition, even if the paper size is the same, the print position on the paper is misaligned and printed due to the difference in setting from the host computer side, and it is often impossible to read in the middle of a sentence. As described above, in the conventional page printer, when the paper is selected, the paper set by the user can be used as it is, or the paper can be switched by the paper switching command from the host computer or the setting of the user. Was there. Further, even if the automatic paper selection function is provided, it is not possible to select the paper completely automatically, and it is a function of selecting the paper of the same size from other paper supply devices. It should be noted that this type of printing requires a little more printing than an accurate position, such as when you want to output a list or when you want to print the data output on the screen, unless it is an official document. Even if there is misalignment, all data
In many cases, it is sufficient if the data is completely printed. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve such a conventional problem, eliminate a simple mistake, and allow a user to print with a correct paper size without worrying about the paper size. To provide.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above object, an automatic paper selection method for a printer according to the present invention comprises:
(B) Converts the print data sent from the host computer to an intermediate code that includes information on the printed characters, enlargement / reduction, emphasized characters, and inclination, and buffers the intermediate code. In a page printer that stores in memory and prints,
The size required for printing is calculated at the time of conversion to the intermediate code or at the time when one page of data is prepared in the page memory, and the smallest size of paper larger than the calculated size is calculated. There is a feature in selecting. (B) From the difference between the size selected by the calculation process and the paper size specified by the user and the print position, according to left alignment, centering, or right alignment, in the case of left alignment, the minimum print position is used as an offset, and in the case of centering Is 1/2 of the difference,
In the case of right alignment, the difference is used as an offset, and the actual print position is obtained by adding or subtracting to the print position information of the intermediate code. Further, the ratio between the horizontal and vertical size of the paper and the horizontal and vertical size of the actual print area is calculated and calculated so that the actual print area size can be enlarged or reduced according to the paper size selected by the (c) calculation process. Another feature is that one with a smaller ratio is selected and the actual print area is enlarged or reduced by that ratio.

[0005]

In the present invention, the print data sent from the host computer of the upper level is converted into an intermediate code including information such as print characters, types of enlargement and reduction, emphasized characters, and inclination. At the time of conversion and at the time of conversion or when one page of data is stored in the page memory, the smallest paper among the paper larger than the size required for printing is selected. Also, according to the difference between the selected size and the paper size specified by the user and the print position, the minimum print position is used as an offset for left alignment, centering, or right alignment, and 1 / of the difference for centering. When 2 is right-justified, the difference is used as an offset to add or subtract to the print position information of the intermediate code to obtain the actual print position. In addition, calculate the ratio of the horizontal and vertical size of the paper to the horizontal and vertical size of the actual print area so that the user can enlarge or reduce the size according to the paper size specified by the user, and select the smaller one to enlarge or reduce. Perform processing. This allows the user to start printing immediately without worrying about the paper size of the data to be printed.
The print position can be automatically converted, and the enlargement / reduction processing can be automatically performed according to the designated paper.

[0006]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a paper selection method showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a view showing an intermediate code table and print positions on a print paper. In many cases, a processor control system is adopted as a controller of a page printer, and this advantage is that a program (firmware) in which most of the functional specifications required for a product are incorporated is used. ) Is built in. In other words, it is possible to change the functional specifications by changing this program, and it has much greater flexibility than the conventional wired logic controller. A printer controller is a host computer with a higher rank
In a page printer that receives print data from a printer and prints in page units, the print speed, method (partial bit map / full bit map), or error
In many cases, an intermediate code is used because of the backup relationship. The intermediate code is set as shown in FIG. That is, the print code sent from the host computer is an intermediate code for determining character information, enlargement ratio and other attributes suitable for the printer connected to the controller in the printer controller. Is converted to. Here, X and Y indicate print positions, and CODE
(DATA) indicates that characters to be printed, enlargement ratio, emphasized printing, inclination, and other information are set. At the time when the printer controller converts this intermediate code, the required paper size at that time is stored from the print position and the size of the character. Alternatively, the required paper size is obtained by checking the print position and the size of the character when the data of one page is completed. Then, of the papers larger than the obtained paper size, the smallest paper in use is selected, and the paper is set and printed. FIG. 2B shows the range in which the print position (X, Y) moves. In the case of horizontal writing, the print positions X and Y change from X = 0, Y = 0 to (1,0) on the paper.
(2,0) (3,0) ... to move to form one line in sequence, and after line feeding, (1,
1) (2, 1) (3, 1) ...

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a paper selection method of a printer showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the dotted line is the print character and the solid line is the size of each sheet. In the figure, the case of left alignment is shown. A4 size, B4 size, and A3 size sheets are stacked on the left end as a reference point.
It is set on the memory. On the overlapped page memory, the character code to be printed is positioned on the paper of the size designated by the user with the character size and the enlargement or reduction ratio set by the controller. When printing characters are sequentially positioned, if there is a character that exceeds the A4 size boundary, the B4 size is selected, and if there is a character that exceeds the B4 size boundary, the A3 size is selected. It In the case of FIG. 1, B4 size paper is selected. In addition, from the obtained size and the difference between the paper and the print position specified by the user, the minimum print position is used as an offset in the case of left alignment, and half the difference in the case of centering
In the case of right alignment, the difference is used as an offset and added (subtracted) to the print position information (X, Y) of the intermediate code.
By doing so, the print positioning on the selected paper can be performed. That is, when printing characters on the paper specified by the user, the printer controller prints an intermediate copy.
When converted to text, the characters may be enlarged or reduced, and may be extruded from the specified paper by emphasizing printing, or may be smaller than the specified paper. Therefore, the optimum format is set by selecting the smallest sheet in which the character string is accommodated and by left-aligning, centering, or right-aligning on the selected sheet. Further, by taking the ratio of the obtained size and the paper designated by the user and multiplying the position information of the intermediate code and the enlargement ratio by the ratio, it is possible to print in accordance with the paper size. .. Then, by setting the range of the ratio allowed at that time, it is possible to avoid extreme expansion and contraction.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example in which left alignment, centering, and right alignment are performed according to the present invention. In FIG. 3, the portion indicated by the dotted line is the actual print area, and the solid line indicates the paper. Also, a is a leftward space, b
Indicates a rightward space. The print position of a character is X, Y
Then, in the case of left alignment, the print position is (Xa,
In the case of centering in (Y), set the print position to (X +
(Ba) / 2, Y), and in the case of right alignment, the print position is converted to (X + b, Y).

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example in which the actual print area is enlarged or reduced according to the paper size according to the present invention.
In FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C, the portion indicated by the dotted line is the actual print area, and the portion indicated by the solid line is the designated paper. In this case, the actual print area is enlarged or reduced according to the designated paper, and printing is performed within the range of the designated paper. In the case of FIG. 4A, since the actual print area is larger than the size of the paper, the characters are reduced so that they can be stored on the paper. In the case of (b), since the actual print area is within the range smaller than the size of the paper, the characters are enlarged so that printing can be performed within the range suitable for the paper. That is, as shown in FIG. 4C, by enlarging or reducing the character, the character is printed at a position corresponding to the size of the paper. The size of the actual printing area indicated by the dotted line is a ₁ × b ₁ and the size of the paper is a ₂ × b ₂ . In these cases, the smaller one of the horizontal size ratio a ₂ / a ₁ and the vertical size ratio b ₂ / b ₁ is selected for the enlargement and reduction ratios. For example, the specified paper is B4 size (257 x 364 mm) and the actual print area is 32.
In the case of 1 × 404 mm, a ₂ / a _{1 in the} lateral direction =
Since 0.8 and b ₂ / b ₁ = 0.9 in the vertical direction, the smaller horizontal ratio a ₂ / a ₁ = 0.8 is selected, and this ratio is reduced. It is also possible to limit the enlargement and reduction to some values and use the maximum value that does not exceed the obtained ratio. For example, when the above value is 0.5 and the upper limit value is 0.5, the actual printing range is reduced at the reduction rate of 0.5 even if the reduction rate becomes 0.8.
In this way, as shown in FIG. 4C, printing is executed by enlarging and reducing the size of the sheet so that it fits within the specified paper size a ₂ × b ₂ .

[0010]

As described above, according to the present invention,
(A) Since the paper is automatically selected by the print data from the host computer, the user can print on the optimum size paper without worrying about the paper size of the data to be printed. be able to. Further, (b) the print position can be automatically changed by left-aligning, centering, or right-aligning the selected paper size. Furthermore, (c) the data from the host computer is enlarged or reduced according to the specified paper size.
There is no need to change the data or recreate the data, and to enlarge or reduce the once printed matter by copying or the like.

[0011]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a paper selection method according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing settings of intermediate codes and print positions of characters used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conversion method for left alignment, centering, or right alignment according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method of enlarging and reducing data according to a sheet according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

X X coordinate printing position Y Y coordinate printing position a Left space b Right space a ₁ , b ₁ Horizontal and vertical size of actual print area a ₂ , b ₂ Horizontal and vertical size of paper

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. The print data sent from a host computer is used as print characters, enlargement / reduction, emphasized characters,
In a page printer for converting to an intermediate code including inclination information, storing the intermediate code in a buffer memory and printing, 1 at the conversion time to the intermediate code or in the page memory. An automatic paper selection method for a printer, wherein the size required for printing is calculated at the time when the data for the pages are prepared, and the smallest paper is selected from the papers larger than the calculated size. 2. The automatic paper selection method for a printer according to claim 1, wherein the difference between the size selected by the calculation processing and the paper size designated by the user and the printing position are left-aligned, centered, or right-aligned. In the case of left alignment, the minimum print position is used as an offset, in the case of centering 1/2 of the difference is used, and in the case of right alignment, the difference is used as an offset, and the difference is added or subtracted from the print position information of the intermediate code. An automatic paper selection method for a printer characterized by obtaining the actual print position by 3. The automatic paper selection method for a printer according to claim 1, wherein the horizontal and vertical sides of the paper are arranged so that the actual print area size can be expanded or reduced according to the paper size selected by the calculation processing. An automatic paper selection method for a printer, characterized in that the ratio between the size and the horizontal and vertical sizes of the actual print area is obtained, the smaller one is selected, and the actual print area is enlarged or reduced by the ratio.