JPH0569603A - Recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a recording device capable of recognizing the allocated state of a memory area about the memory area split in the inside of the recording device itself, in other words, of recognizing the information of an allocated image area from the outside. CONSTITUTION:Both a character inputted by a picture memory 7 and the recording information of an image are mixed and stored. When the recording information is stored in the picture memory 7, the present recording state is registered in an environment setting register 5. A space area based on the recording state registered in the environment setting register 5 is computed by an IA computation part 6 before recording according to indication from the outside. The space area computed by the IA computation part 6 is output as a picture by a printing part 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording device, and more particularly to a recording device for outputting mixed characters and images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of apparatus, in order to output a mixture of characters and image information, a printer for printing information is divided into a memory for character information and a printer for image information. There is.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, the external device calculates the print information memory as the memory amounts of the image information and the character information, and the print device is provided with the memory areas of the image information and the character information. It is not possible to see the allocation of the memory area from the outside because it is specified or the memory area is divided internally by the printing device itself. Therefore, the printing device operates to output an error message when the image information has a larger information amount than the memory area during the printing operation. In this case, there is a drawback that it takes time and effort to manage the memory area externally and that the memory over cannot be recognized before printing.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the conventional example, and an object of the present invention is to provide a recording apparatus capable of recognizing information in an image area from the outside.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the object, a recording apparatus according to the present invention is a recording apparatus which records a character and an image in a mixed manner, and a storage unit which stores the input character and image record information in a mixed manner, and the storage unit. Registration means for registering the current recording status when the recording information is stored in, and before recording,
It is characterized by comprising a calculating means for calculating an empty area based on the recording condition registered by the registering means and an output means for outputting the empty area calculated by the calculating means as an image in accordance with an instruction from the outside. And

[0006]

According to this structure, the storage means stores the input character and image record information in a mixed manner, and the registration means registers and calculates the current recording status when the record information is stored in the storage means. Before recording, the means calculates an empty area based on the recording status registered by the registration means according to an instruction from the outside, and the output means outputs the empty area calculated by the calculating means as an image.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the recording apparatus of the present invention. In the figure, 1
Is an external input / output unit for inputting print information from the outside (a host computer (not shown)) or outputting environmental information of the printing apparatus of this embodiment to the host computer. Two
Is a CPU that controls the entire apparatus, 3 is a ROM that stores a program according to a third flow chart, which will be described later, and an error processing program, and 4 is a RAM that is used as a work area for various programs. There is.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an environment setting register for registering (storing) environment information inside the apparatus, which will be described later. Reference numeral 6 denotes an image area (IA) calculation for calculating an image memory area based on the environment information in the environment setting register 5. 7 is an image memory for storing character and image information by developing it into a dot pattern, and 8 is a printing unit for printing an image based on the dot pattern developed in the image memory 7.
Shows buses of data, address signals, and control signals inside the device.

In the present embodiment, when the ROM 3 is used as the main memory, the image memory 7 is used as the sub memory, and the image memory 7 is divided and used for character information (code information) and image information. is there. Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of environment information used in this embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining a control procedure of a printing operation corresponding to an image area request according to this embodiment.

In FIG. 2, 20 is environmental information,
The image area is set in the environment setting register 5 so that the IA calculating unit 6 can calculate the image area. The environmental information of this embodiment includes resolution DPI (dot per inch), image memory capacity (MB: megabyte), number of characters per line (C: character), number of lines per page (L: line), paper. The size (column A), character code unit (B: byte), and square image area (I: square of inch) are parameters. Case No. 1 to 5 are independent examples, and in fact, Case No. Although 1 to 5 or more cases are possible, FIG. 2 shows a case where there are 5 cases. The parameters are environmental information corresponding to each case, and indicate how many inches each side of the image area is a square.

Therefore, the operation when the image area request command is input will be described below. The CPU 2 inputs the image area request command from the external input / output unit 1 (step S1, step S2) and analyzes it (step S).
3) The necessary environment information 20 is sent from the environment setting register 3 to the image area calculation unit 4. This environmental information 20
It is used by the image area calculation unit 4 to calculate an unused image area (step S4). This calculation method will be described using the example of FIG. As the formula, the area of the image area which is not currently used is calculated by the following formula. That is, when expressed by the following formula (1),

[0012]

[Equation 1]

[0013] It should be noted that X is obtained by multiplying DPI by the length (inch) × width (inch) of column A. Formula (1) above
, M is the sub-memory capacity, and the unit is dot
And is represented by the following equation (2). That is,

[0014]

[Equation 2]

[0015] C * L * B * 8 is a memory capacity of character information for one page, and X is a memory capacity of the image memory 7 for one page, and the unit is dot. X is represented by the following equation (3). That is,

[0016]

[Equation 3]

[0017] The memory capacity for image information is calculated by "M-C * L * B * 8-X". Further, when the square root of the calculated memory capacity is obtained, one side when the memory capacity is squared in dot units The dot number of is calculated. By dividing this dot number by the resolution,
The conversion into the number of inches on one side of the square is performed, and I is calculated. The calculation result of the image area is developed as a dot pattern on the image memory 7 as image area information (step S5), and is further transferred to the printing section 8 for printing processing (step S6).

In this embodiment, the printout of the image area information has a square printable area (image area) as shown in FIG. 2, and the length of one side is a numerical value (I).
Is used. As described above, according to this embodiment, the image area can be easily recognized from the outside.

In the above-described embodiment, the image area is printed out as a numerical value. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the printing of the image area information is within the scope not departing from the gist of the present invention. The output can be modified in various ways such as a method of indicating the memory capacity as a numerical value or a method of indicating the printable area by a square frame. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the image area is expressed by printing, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the external input / output unit 1 may be used as long as it does not deviate from the gist of the present invention. The information of the image area may be output by outputting information to the display unit or the connected host computer.

In the above embodiment, the registration of environmental information is
Either a switch as hardware or a switch as software may be used.

[0021]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The image area can be easily recognized from the outside.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a recording apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of environment information used in this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a control procedure of a printing operation corresponding to an image area request according to the present exemplary embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 External Input / Output Section 2 CPU 3 ROM 4 RAM 5 Environment Setting Register 6 IA Calculation Section 7 Image Memory 8 Printing Section 9 Bus

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A recording device for recording a character and an image in a mixed manner, and a storage means for storing the input character and image record information in a mixed manner, and a storage means for storing the record information in the storage means. A registration unit that registers the current recording status, a calculation unit that calculates an empty area based on the recording status registered by the registration unit according to an instruction from the outside before recording, and a calculation unit that calculates the free area. A recording apparatus comprising: an output unit that outputs an empty area as an image. 2. The recording apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the empty area is an area for storing at least image recording information.