JPH0557967A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To achieve effectiveness of transmission of printing information to a printer, processing for edition of printing, etc. CONSTITUTION:When printing is performed by transmitting printing information to a printer from an external device in a page printer or the like, a control number is given on each item of the printing information. When the printing information is changed, whether the printing information is a data to be changed or not is judged according to whether the control number on each item is preliminarily registered or not, and the data part to be changed is written on the registered printing information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer, and more particularly to a printer which receives print information from a host as a code and expands the code to print it.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a printer of the above system, information to be printed is usually transferred (or input) from a host computer or the like in code form, stored, stored in a bit image, and printed. There is. When exchanging print information, in the conventional device, there is a method of transferring all the information and bit-expanding it, or registering the fixed information and variable information separately and transferring only the variable information and bit-expanding this. It was Also, for variable information, a method has been proposed in which the variable information is compared with the variable information of the same item on the previous page and new bit expansion is performed only if there is a difference.

[0003]

Therefore, in the conventional printer, when the print information is transferred and replaced, all the information is transferred, or all the items designated as variable information are transferred and the transferred print information is transferred. All bits need to be expanded. It is almost the same when inputting print information directly. (Hereinafter, "input" is applicable in any case.) The present invention is intended to provide a printer capable of efficiently inputting / editing print information.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a number for managing print information (hereinafter also referred to as a "management number") for each item of a series of print information is input to a printer,
A printer characterized in that this is registered, and when a series of print information is replaced, the print information of the unregistered management number is overwritten on the corresponding portion of the previous series of print information. Yes, and more specifically, in a printer having a function of storing coded print information, a means for storing a management number for managing each item, and a label number, a management number when replacing print information A means for transferring the coded print information and determining whether it is replacement data based on the registered number, and if it is replacement data, the transferred print information is the registered coded print A printer characterized by having means for overwriting registration in the item corresponding to the management number in the information, and further, bit expansion is currently performed by the management number. To determine whether, if it is a bit expansion, the print information that has been transferred to bit expansion,
A printer having means for overwriting on a bit image that has been bit-developed.

[0005]

According to the present invention, as described above, when a document of a substantially constant form such as a label or a slip is printed out one after another, the document of almost the same type as the preceding document but partially different,
It is only necessary to input (including transmission input and direct input) only the part where the print information is replaced, and it is possible to greatly reduce the input time and the bit expansion time before printing.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which (L) is a data bus line,
(1) is a CPU, (2) is a control program storage unit that stores a control program for editing print data and controls printing, (3) is a print information storage unit that stores print information,
(4) is a print control unit for controlling printing operation and feeding of paper, (5) is a print head, and (6) is an external device, for example, a communication interface for exchanging print information with a host computer. is there.

A characteristic feature of the present invention resides in a control program storage section (2) and a print information storage section (3), and the control program storage section (2) is composed of, for example, a ROM, and has a transferred management number. Determines which item corresponds to, overwrites the corresponding item of the stored coded print information, expands the print information transferred at the same time into bits, and overwrites it on the bit image for the previous page. It includes a control program and a program peculiar to the present invention that performs the operation of FIG.

The print information storage section (3) is, for example, a RAM.
And an input buffer memory (31) for temporarily storing print information received as a code from the host computer (7) by the communication interface (6), and coded print information is stored for each label. A code information storage unit (32), an output buffer for bit-expanding the data transferred for exchanging print information, and storing a bit image output from the print head (5) by the print control unit (4). It includes a memory (33). FIG. 3 shows an example of the stored contents of the code information storage unit (32), in which the management number and data input for the label number are stored.

Next, the operation of the device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. A) Write the received data from the host computer in the input buffer memory (31). B) The label number is read from the input buffer memory, it is judged whether or not it has been registered, and if it has been registered, it is judged as replacement data. C) The management number for one item and the coded print information are read, and the item corresponding to the management number in the registered code information storage section (32) is overwritten and registered. D) It is judged whether or not the designated label number is currently bit-expanded, and if it is bit-expanded, only the transferred information is bit-expanded, and the bit image for the previous page and the output buffer memory (33) And the data is output from the print head (5) by the print control unit (4). FIG. 4 shows that the management number and data of the replacement item are transferred and the printing information is rewritten every time the printing information is replaced.

[0010]

As described above, according to the present invention, when different labels are output, only the portion for exchanging print information needs to be transferred / input, and the time required for bit expansion before printing can be greatly shortened. became.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic system configuration diagram of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an operation procedure of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of stored contents of a code information storage unit (32).

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 Control program storage unit 3 Print information storage unit 4 Print control unit 5 Print head 6 Communication interface 7 Host computer 31 Input buffer memory 32 Code information storage unit 33 Output buffer memory L Data bus line

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A management number is attached to each print information item for each item of the print information, and this is stored in memory. When a series of print information is replaced, the management number and data are changed only for the items whose contents change. A printer characterized in that it is configured to send and rewrite the item. 2. A means for storing a coded print information, a means for storing a management number for managing each item of the print information, and a document number and a management number when replacing the print information. A means for transferring the coded print information and determining whether it is replacement data based on the registered number, and if it is replacement data, the transferred print information is the registered coded print A printer having means for overwriting registration in an item corresponding to the management number in the information. 3. A means for judging whether a bit is currently expanded by a management number, and if the bit has been expanded, expands the transferred print information into a bit and overwrites it on the bit image which has been expanded. The printer according to claim 1, further comprising: a printer.