JPH0584989A - Printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently use a font storage memory by reducing the dot pattern capacity of registered fonts in a printer device capable of using a various forms of fonts. CONSTITUTION:When a special font (e.g. an outline font) is to be registered, both a dot pattern 27 and an outline font dot pattern 28 are generated with respect to a corresponding character font. One of the two dot patterns having a smaller dot pattern capacity is registered in a register memory. A data link is formed between a character set information part 24 corresponding to the registered dot pattern and a management table 21.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device,
In particular, the present invention relates to a printer device that can register and use a dot pattern font of any shape.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional printer, when printing is performed using various types of fonts, for example, when using a normal character font and an outline font, these two dot patterns are individually registered.
It was stored as a different character pattern. As another method, the character pattern corresponding to the outline font is stored in the dot pattern format, and when the command for instructing the print character mode is received from the host to which the printer device is connected, the outline font is selected from the dot pattern. The desired character was generated and printed.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional example, a large dot pattern, for example, 100 × 10.
For a character pattern or the like composed of 0 dot dot matrix, the dot pattern font requires more registered storage area as compared with the dot pattern capacity after the outline font is generated. The most standard 10 points (1 point is 1/72 inch, resolution 3
Even with a dot pattern of about 42 × 42 dots at 00 dpi, depending on the structure of the pattern, it is possible to register outline fonts in a storage area with a smaller amount of storage, but a large-capacity character dot pattern font can be registered. There is a problem that it requires a lot of memory to register with. Further, in the case of the method of individually registering the normal character font and the outline font, more memory is required.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an object thereof is to provide a printer device capable of registering a special character font with a small storage capacity.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the printer device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a printer device that is connected to a host computer and can use various types of dot pattern fonts is provided.
Registration means for registering the various patterns of dot pattern fonts, and special font generation means for generating special fonts having the same meaning as the predetermined dot pattern fonts,
The storage means for storing the predetermined dot pattern font or the special font and the dot pattern capacities of the predetermined dot pattern font and the special font are compared, and the font having the smaller dot pattern capacity is stored in the storage means. And a control unit for controlling the storage.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the dot pattern capacity required for a given dot pattern font is smaller than that for a special font having the same meaning as a given dot pattern font. Operates to select and store fonts.

[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. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing the internal structure of a laser beam printer (hereinafter referred to as LBP) applied to this embodiment. This LBP is a character pattern registration and correction format (form data) from a data source (not shown). ) Etc. can be registered.

In the figure, the LBP main body 1000 receives and stores character information (character code) or form information or macro instruction supplied from an externally connected host computer (hereinafter referred to as a host). A corresponding character pattern or form pattern is created according to the information, and an image is formed on the recording paper which is a recording medium. The operation of the LBP is performed from the operation panel 1012 in which the operation switch and the LED display are arranged, and is supplied from the host by the printer control unit 1001 (hereinafter, control unit) based on the instruction input from the operation panel 1012. Analysis of character information and the like and control of the entire LBP 1000 are performed. The control unit 1001 mainly changes the character information into a video signal of a corresponding character pattern and outputs it to the laser driver 1002. The laser driver 1002 is a semiconductor laser 100.
3 is a drive circuit for switching the laser light 1004 emitted from the semiconductor laser 1003 on and off in accordance with the input video signal. The laser 1004 is deflected in the left-right direction by the rotating polygon mirror 1005 to scan the electrostatic drum 1006. As a result, an electrostatic latent image having a character pattern is formed on the electrostatic drum 1006. This latent image is developed by a developing unit 1007 around the electrostatic drum 1006 and then transferred to a recording paper. A cut sheet stored in a paper cassette 1008 is used as the recording paper.
The cut sheet is taken into the apparatus by the sheet feeding roller 1009 and the conveying rollers 1010 to 1011,
It is supplied to the electrostatic drum 1006.

FIG. 1 shows a typical embodiment of the present invention L
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a control unit 1001 that controls the entire BP. In the figure, the control unit 1001
Is a reception buffer 2 for storing the reception data, a CPU 3 for controlling the apparatus, a registration memory 4 for storing a registered dot pattern font or a generated outline font, a page buffer 5 for storing the received data page by page, and It is composed of a bit map memory 6 which stores an output image of one page. Also, the control unit 10
01 is connected to the host 1 for data transfer, and the output paper 8 printed by the printer engine 7 for outputting the bit pattern developed in the bit map memory 6 on paper is obtained.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data link structure for managing an outline pattern or a dot pattern. The data link will be briefly described below with reference to FIG. First, all the character sets that can be used in the apparatus are managed by a character set management table 21 (hereinafter, referred to as a management table) that manages registered character patterns. The management table 21 is composed of a pointer table 22 for pointing the address of the stored registered character set and an attribute table 23 in which the attributes of the character set (Mincho type, Gothic type, etc.) are defined and used when selecting fonts. In the character set information section 24 of the registered character set, the width and height of the character set,
Attributes and the like are described. The character pointers 25-26 are
A character pattern registered in a one-to-one correspondence with a character code input from the outside is linked. Here, a character pattern 27 registered as a dot pattern addressed by the character pointer 25 is shown, and the pattern identifier indicates that it is a dot pattern. Further, a character pattern 28 registered with an outline pattern addressed by the character pointer 26 is shown, and the pattern identifier indicates that the pattern is an outline pattern.

Next, a character pattern registration process using the LBP having the control unit and the data link structure as described above will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the character pattern registration data is transferred from the host 1 to the buffer 12 prior to this processing.

First, in step S31, a character set information section 24 is created which stores the character types of fonts, fonts, etc. to be registered for all the characters of the transferred registration data of the character pattern. This is followed by step S3
2, the address of each created character set information section 24 is stored in the pointer table 22 of the management table 21, and the attribute table 23 further stores attribute information such as the width, height and typeface of the corresponding character pattern to be registered. To store.
As described above, the link between the character set information part 24 of the registered character pattern and the management table 21 is formed.

In step S33, one character code transmitted from the host 1 is extracted from the buffer 12,
Generate the corresponding dot pattern. In step S34, contour extraction processing is performed from the generated dot pattern,
Take out the outline of the character. The fonts generated in this way are called outline fonts. Note that the contour extraction processing of this embodiment is based on a known technique, and a description thereof will be omitted.

Next, in step S35, the normal character font dot pattern capacity is compared with the corresponding character outline font dot pattern capacity.
If the outline font has a small capacity, the process proceeds to step S36 to form a link so that the outline pattern has a one-to-one correspondence between the character code and the outline pattern in the character pointer part in the character set information part 24. To register. On the other hand, when the capacity of the normal character font dot pattern is smaller, the character code and the dot pattern are linked and registered in a one-to-one correspondence.

Finally, in step S38, it is checked whether the link formation and registration of all the character patterns are completed. If the process is not completed, the process returns to step S33 to complete the link formation and registration of all the character patterns. The same process is repeated.

Next, the print processing procedure for printing the registered character pattern on the LBP will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG.

First, in step S41, character set information (Mincho type, Gothic type, etc.) and character form (height and width) information for selecting a character are input. Then, in step S42, a character set is selected from the management table 21 based on the information input in step S41. On this occasion,
Since the character set can have an arbitrary shape for outline and height, the character set may be different from the input value.

In step S43, the character code sent from the host 1 is read from the reception buffer 12, and then in step S44, a dot pattern is obtained from the character pointer corresponding to the character code in the character set information section 24 selected in step S42. Take out a font or outline pattern font. In response to this, in step S45,
It is checked whether or not the pattern extracted in step S44 is a dot pattern. If it is determined to be a dot pattern, the process advances to step S46 to perform contour extraction processing to extract the contour of the character and generate an outline font. On the other hand, if the extracted pattern is an outline pattern font, the process proceeds to step S47, and the outline font generated in step S46 or the extracted outline pattern font is developed according to the character form input in step S41. To obtain a desired dot pattern.

The dot pattern thus obtained is written in the bit map in step S48 to generate image information of the character pattern. Next, in step S49, it is checked whether or not the processing for the character data for one page is completed. If the processing is not completed, the processing returns to step S41 and the above processing is repeated for the character data for one page. On the other hand, when the dot expansion for one page is completed, the dot expanded image is output on the recording paper in step S50.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, at the stage of the character pattern registration processing, only the smaller dot pattern capacity of the normal dot pattern font or outline font is selectively registered for the same character. In addition, since the dot pattern registered in the outline font printing process is read and the outline font is generated only when the outline font is not registered, the font registration memory can be efficiently used.

[0022]

[Other Embodiments] In the above embodiment, the outline font is created from the registered fonts. In this embodiment, the printer font used in the above embodiment is used to utilize the ROM font built in the device. An example of creating and printing the outline font will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. Here, it is assumed that the dot pattern registration has already been performed prior to this processing, and the dot pattern is stored as it is according to the data link configuration shown in FIG. Incidentally, in the present embodiment, with respect to the same processing steps as those already described in the above-mentioned embodiments, the same step numbers are given to the corresponding steps of the flow chart in FIG. 5, and the description will be omitted.

With respect to the character pattern extracted in steps S41 to S44, first, in step S51, the pattern identifier corresponding to the character pattern is referred to check whether or not the character pattern has been used before.
If it is determined that the character pattern is used for the first time, the process proceeds to step S53 to perform the contour extraction process. On the other hand, if it is determined that it has been used, the process proceeds to step S52 and step S4.
It is checked whether the character pattern extracted in step 4 is an outline font or a dot pattern. If it is determined to be the outline font, the process proceeds to step S57, where the character pattern is developed according to the character form input in step S41 to obtain a desired dot pattern. On the other hand, if it is determined that the pattern is a dot pattern, the process proceeds to step S53 to execute the contour extraction process to extract the contour (that is, outline) of the character,
Generate outline fonts.

Next, the processing advances to step S54, and the capacity of the generated outline pattern is compared with the capacity of the corresponding normal dot pattern. If the capacity of the outline pattern is small, the process proceeds to step S55 to link the outline pattern to the character pointer corresponding to the character code of the character set information section 24. On the other hand, when the capacity of the dot pattern is small, the process proceeds to step S56 and the capacity-checked information is written in the character pattern identifier in the character pattern.

In step S57, the outline font generated in step S59 is pattern-developed in accordance with the character form input in step S41 to obtain a desired dot pattern. In step S58, the dot pattern obtained as described above is written in a bit map to generate image information of the character pattern.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, the device built-in ROM
If the outline font can be selectively generated by checking the past usage status of the target dot pattern from the dot font, and the dot pattern capacity of the generated outline font is smaller than the dot pattern capacity of the ROM dot font. Since the pattern registration is selectively performed only in the above, the font registration memory can be efficiently used.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, the capacities of a special font dot pattern and a normal font dot pattern are compared with respect to the same character to selectively select the smaller font dot pattern. Since it can be stored, the font registration memory can be used efficiently and the storage area can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer control unit that is a typical embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data link structure for using dot font.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a character pattern registration process.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a character printing process.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing a character printing process according to another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printer device incorporating a printer control unit.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Host 2 Reception buffer 3 CPU 4 Registration memory for storing dot pattern font 5 Page buffer 6 Bit map memory 7 Printer engine 8 Printing paper 21 Character set management table 22 Pointer table 23 Character set attribute table 24 Character set information section 25-26 characters Pointer 27 Dot pattern 28 Outline pattern

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ───

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] October 23, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] Brief explanation of the drawing

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printer control unit that is a typical embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a data link structure for using dot font.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a character pattern registration process.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing a character printing process.

FIG. 5A is a flow chart showing a character printing process according to another embodiment.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart showing a character printing process according to another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of a printer device incorporating a printer control unit.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 Host 2 Reception buffer 3 CPU 4 Registration memory for storing dot pattern font 5 Page buffer 6 Bit map memory 7 Printer engine 8 Printing paper 21 Character set management table 22 Pointer table 23 Character set attribute table 24 Character set information Part 25-26 Character pointer 27 Dot pattern 28 Outline pattern

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printer device, which is connected to a host computer and can use various types of dot pattern fonts, having the same meaning as a registration unit for registering the various types of dot pattern fonts and a predetermined dot pattern font. A special font generating means for generating a special font, storage means for storing the predetermined dot pattern font or the special font, and comparing the dot pattern capacity of the predetermined dot pattern font and the special font, And a control unit for controlling to store the font having the smaller dot pattern capacity in the storage unit. 2. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the special font is an outline font, and the special font generating means extracts an outline of the dot pattern font to generate an outline font.