JPH0546143B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a control device for a printer that prints format data and print data in a superimposed manner, and relates to an improvement in print positioning between format data and print data. [Background of the Invention] A format overlay type printer control device stores format data in a memory, combines this with print data, and sends it to a printer to print the format and characters at the same time. This method involves preparing paper with pre-printed formats such as ruled lines and characters, and printing variable information on it.The operator then replaces the printing paper with one that matches the printed data. This has made this cumbersome work unnecessary. This is discussed in USP 4125829. FIG. 1 shows an example of a form to be printed. In the figure, the shaded area is the print area where the print data is printed, and the other areas are the format. Generally, a plurality of formats are stored in memory, one of which is selected and read out and combined with print data. Conventional printer control devices that perform such format overlays have had the problem of having to carefully specify line feed processing, column processing, etc. in a user program in order to match the print position of print data to the format. For example, print data that specifies "year" should be printed by considering which line from the top of the form and what character position from the left it should be printed in, and then specifying the print position as "month". It is necessary to similarly designate the print position for the print data that specifies the print position. Another problem was that whenever a change occurred in the format, the program had to be changed each time. [Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to facilitate alignment in combining format data and print data. [Summary of the Invention] In the printer control device according to the present invention, a field identifier is inserted into the format data in order to connect the format data and the print position of the print data. This identification is located at the beginning of the field where print data is to be output. When format data is read out for output in sequence, when a field identifier is read out, output of print data is started using this as a trigger. Print data is not provided with positional information indicating where it should be placed on the format, but is classified by field. [Embodiment of the Invention and Its Effects] An embodiment of the present invention will be described using a form as shown in FIG. 1 as an example. The format data is stored as a collection of thin lines in the horizontal direction of a figure, such as a TV scan line. From the top line, set the white part to "0" and the part that should be printed in black to "1"
It is represented in correspondence to and stored in memory. A few lines from the top, following the line from the left leads to a field indicated by diagonal lines where the name should be printed. A field identifier is inserted at the beginning of this field, followed by the subsequent formatted data. There is no need to specify the end of the field. On the other hand, print data is stored separately from format data. In this example, the name, name number, etc. are stored. The format data is read out in order, starting with the topmost line, and transferred to an output device such as a laser beam printer. At this time, when the field identifier is read out, it is indicated that it needs to be combined (overlaid) with the print data, and the separately stored name data is read out, and this and the format data are combined and output to the output device. will be forwarded to. Therefore, the format data and print data are superimposed with appropriate positional relationship. The print data does not require information indicating the position on the form. However, the delimiter between the name data and the year data printed next is memorized so that it can be determined. In other words, divisions are made for each field. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. A main processor 1 receives print data and format data from a host device (not shown), stores the print data in the page memory 2, and stores the format data in the format memory 3. The print data and format data will be described later. Here, the memory configuration of the page memory 2 and format memory 3 is a normal memory configuration, where 1 byte is the unit of address, and the page memory 2 has a capacity to store the printed character code of about 3 pages on the printing paper surface. be. Similarly, the format memory 3 has a normal memory configuration, with one byte as a unit of address, and only needs to have a capacity capable of storing about 8 pages of format data. The number of print pages that each memory can accommodate may be set to an optimal value based on the relationship between the processing capabilities of the printer and the host device and the data transfer speed between the printer and the host device. 4 is a print processor that sequentially reads print data (character codes) from page memory 2 and stores the corresponding character pattern in character pattern memory 1.
1 and generates a character pattern video signal 7a in synchronization with the horizontal synchronizing signal sent from the laser beam printer 8. 5 is a format processor. This is generated by sequentially reading the format data from the format memory 3 and decoding it to synchronize the corresponding video signal 7b with the horizontal synchronizing signal 9. As will be described in detail later, when the format processor 5 detects a field identifier in the format data, the format processor 5 sends the detection signal and field classification number information to the print processor 4 as an interrupt signal 10.
When the print processor 4 side receives the same interrupt signal 10, the print data field is switched and the print data field having the field number matching the field division number is read out from the page memory 2. The video signals 7a and 7b are logically summed by an OR circuit 6 to form a video signal 7, which is sent to a laser beam printer 8. Here, regarding the Rege beam printer 8, the third
This will be briefly explained using figures. In the figure, 17 is a photosensitive drum, 12 is a laser oscillator, 13 is a rotating polygon mirror, and 14 is a lens. The laser oscillator 12 emits intermittent laser light in accordance with the video signal 7 from the printer control device. This laser light is reflected by the rotating polygon mirror 13 and scans the photosensitive drum 17. The printing process using the photosensitive drum 11 is the same as that of a normal copying machine, so a description thereof will be omitted.
Note that a reflecting mirror 1 is located near one end of the photosensitive drum 17.
5 is arranged, and the beam detector 16 is irradiated with laser light. This beam detector 16 sends a horizontal synchronization signal 9 to the printer control device by detecting the laser beam. Next, the timing relationship between the horizontal synchronizing signal 9 and the video signal 7 will be explained using FIG. 4. In order to generate the horizontal synchronization signal 9, the printer control device turns on the video signal 7 from the start of each scan line. When the horizontal synchronization signal 9 is sent from the beam detector 16 some time after the start of scanning, the printer control device temporarily turns off the video signal 7 until entering the printing section, and then outputs the print data and format data. A dot pattern corresponding to the video signal 7 is sent out as a video signal 7. Once the printing interval has passed, the printer controller
Video signal 7 is turned off until the end of the scan line.
The above-mentioned on/off control of the video signal 7 and the process of placing a dot pattern on the video signal 7 are performed by the format processor 5 and the print processor 4, which are similar to those of a normal raster scan type display device. Since this is the same as in the case above, the details are omitted. Next, format data will be explained. As mentioned above, the format data is expressed by "1" and "0", but in order to compress and store it, it is expressed in a format called an instruction and stored. This instruction is 2 bytes long, and the first 4 bits define what the remaining data (called operands) that follows represents. An example of this is shown in Table 1.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, when creating a print data output program, there is no need for cumbersome descriptions such as line breaks to format positions and column specifications, and it is possible to significantly improve the print data output program. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a form, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a laser beam printer used in an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. The figure is a time chart showing the operation of the laser beam printer in Figure 4, Figure 5 is a detailed view of the format memory and format processor in Figure 2, Figure 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of format data, and Figure 7 is a diagram showing the operation of the laser beam printer in Figure 4. 8 is a diagram showing an example of print data, FIG. 8 is a detailed view of the print processor shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the processing of the print processor shown in FIG. 1; Main processor, 2; Page memory,
3; Format memory, 4; Print processor, 5;
Format processor.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A first memory that stores print data; a second memory that stores format data as image information having control information at a position where the print data is to be printed; a first control means for reading format data from a memory to generate a first video signal and generating a control signal when the control information is read; and printing from the first memory in response to the control signal. A printer control device comprising: second control means for reading and dot-developing data to generate a second video signal; and composition means for synthesizing and outputting the first and second video signals. 2. The print data includes print data classification information, the control information includes field designation information specifying that the field is one of the fields included in the format data, and the second control means further receives the field designation information. , the printer control according to claim 1, wherein print data to be superimposed on the format data in the specified field is selected based on the print data classification information and the second video signal is generated. Device. 3. The second control means controls a register storing the field designation information and the address of each of the first memory of print data to be superimposed on the format data in each field according to the field designation information. The method includes a third memory storing data to be read out, and a third control means for reading out print data from the first memory in accordance with an address read out from the third memory. A printer control device according to claim 2, characterized in that: