JPH06155808A - Printing control device and print control method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To designate a printing region to be actually printed in data received by a printer. CONSTITUTION:A printing region register 7 storing the number of columns which is designated by means of a printing region designation command from an upper device is provided. After a control section 2 reads data from a receiving buffer 3, it compares contents of an index register 8 with that of the print region register 7. When the contents of the index register 8 is not greater than that of the print region register 7, the control section reads a required font from a ROM 4 and develops it in an image buffer 5 and when the contents is greater, the control section throws the data away not to operate it so that only the print data in a printing region designated by the command is printed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer which receives data and a command sent from a host device and controls the printing of the data according to the command, and permits the printing of only a specified range of the received data. Related to a printer that accepts commands

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Normally, in printing, prior to data transmission, a left margin, which is a print-prohibited area at the left end, and a right margin, which is a print end position, are designated by commands from a host device. The printer prints the received data within the range enclosed by the specified or default left and right margins. At this time, when the data to be printed to the right of the right margin is received, a carriage return line is forced before printing the data, and the printing of the data is restarted from the left end.

It is also possible to send an automatic carriage return line feed prohibition command from the host device to prevent this carriage return line feed, but in that case, printing is continued beyond the right margin, and in any case, The data received was always printed.

By using such a printer, a copy is printed on a receipt or a prescription called margin printing. For example, as shown in Fig. 3, the contents to be printed on the receipt are printed together in a small margin on the margin that can be separated from the receipt by perforations, and the receipt is issued and stored separately for later verification. It is used for etc.

[0005]

In some cases, the same format as that shown in FIG. 3 may be used to print on a sheet of paper that does not have a marginal portion connected by perforations. At this time, the sheet may be removed to print on the platen. To prevent this, the data that had been printed on the margins should not be printed. Therefore, by setting the right margin at the right end position of the receipt and printing, it is possible to prevent printing on the platen to the right of the right margin, that is, outside the right end of the receipt.

However, as in the conventional case, when the data to be printed on the margin portion is transmitted from the host device, this data, that is, the data to be printed to the right of the right margin is
After performing a carriage return and line feed, there was a problem that printing was performed from the left end, which is a position completely unrelated to the position to be printed originally. Further, there is a problem that the print position after that is also misaligned because a predetermined amount of line feed is forcibly performed by this return line feed.

Further, in order to avoid the above problem, the print program on the host device side is modified to determine whether the print position of the data is a marginal portion before transmitting the data, and the data to be printed on the marginal portion. There was also a method of not sending, but sending only the data that should be printed on the receipt to the printer, but this modification was complicated and was a heavy burden.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a printer which can handle both marginal printing and non-marginal printing with minimal modification to the print program on the host device side.

[0009]

According to the present invention, a reception buffer for storing data received from a host device, a print position register for indicating a print position, and a print range designated by a print range designation command from the host device are provided. A storage means for storing, a comparison means for comparing the content of the print position register with the content of the storage means, and a control means.
The control means solves the above problem by printing only the data within the print range according to the comparison result of the comparison means.

Further, a print range designation command from the host device is received, the print range designated by the command is stored in the storage means, and when printing the data received from the host device, it is stored as the print position of the data. The above problem is solved by comparing with the print range and printing only the data within the print range.

[0011]

In the printer of the present invention, the range designated by the print range designation command from the host device is stored in the storage means, and of the data read from the reception buffer, only the data to be printed within the range stored by the storage means. After printing, print data that should be printed outside the range is discarded.

[0012]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a printer according to the present embodiment, in which 1 is an interface for receiving data and commands from a higher-level device, 2 is a control unit, and the received data is stored in a reception buffer 3. Then, the stored data is interpreted, necessary fonts are read from the ROM 4, developed in the image buffer 5, and the contents of the image buffer 5 are printed according to the received command.
It is a configuration to instruct. Reference numeral 8 is an index register which is incremented by 1 each time one character is processed by the control unit 2 and indicates a digit position for printing the next character, and 6 is a printing unit which can operate asynchronously with the control unit 2. A print range register 7 stores the digit position designated by the print range designation command.

The print range designation command is a command sent from the host device to the printer in order to limit the print range to be actually printed and to prohibit printing of data outside the range.
The range is specified in units of digits.

The operation of this embodiment will be described below with reference to the flow chart of FIG.

The host device transmits a desired number of digits by a print range designation command before transmitting the data, and then transmits the print data to the printer.

The control unit 2 reads the data from the reception buffer 3, and if it is a print range designation command, stores the number of digits designated by the command in the print range register 7 (S4), and then the next data. Return to reading.

After that, if the read data is character data, the contents of the index register 8 and the print range register 7 are first compared to determine whether the print position is within the print range (S6). If so, the necessary character font is read from the ROM 4, developed into the digit position indicated by the index register 8 of the image buffer 5 (S7), and then 1 is added to the index register 8 (S8). If it is outside the print range, the character data is discarded and nothing is processed. That is, while the content of the index register 8 is smaller than the content of the print range register 7, the character data received by the receive buffer 3 is processed and expanded in the image buffer 5, but the content of the index register 8 is If it becomes larger than the content of 7, it means that the character printing position exceeds the range specified by the print range specification command.
The character data is discarded without being processed.

When a print trigger command such as a return or line feed is read (S9), the image development processing of the line is completed, and the contents of the image buffer 5 are printed by the printing unit 6 (S10).

As described above, if the desired number of digits is stored in the print range register 7 by the print range designation command from the host device at the start of printing, all the character data at positions beyond that number of digits are not processed. It will be.

However, control commands other than character data,
For example, the line feed amount setting command, the character font designating command, etc. are processed in step S11 regardless of whether they are inside or outside the printing range. The other printing conditions are exactly the same except for whether or not the character data outside the printing range is printed.

By the way, in this embodiment, at the stage of expanding the received data in the image buffer 5, it is judged whether or not it is within the print range, that is, whether or not to print. It is also possible to perform the contents of the above at the stage where the printing unit 6 actually prints.

That is, the print range is designated by the number of dots by the print range designation command and stored in the print range register 7, and when the dot image of the image buffer 5 is printed instead of the index register 8. The dot register 9 indicating the print position is provided as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 2, and the contents are compared with the contents of the print range register 7 so that when the print position indicated by the dot register 9 exceeds the print range, Finish printing.
By doing so, it is possible to control the print range more finely than when the digit unit is specified.

Further, the length of the image data may be specified in mm instead of the number of dots and stored in the print range register 7, converted into the number of dots and compared with the contents of the dot register 9. Similar processing can be performed.

[0024]

According to the present invention, when the print range designation command is sent from the host device at the start of printing, even if the data exceeding the print range is transmitted thereafter, it is discarded by the printer and the print range is printed. Only the data inside is printed.

As a result, the problem that the print data outside the print range is printed after the carriage return line feed, and the carriage return line is misaligned thereafter can be solved.

Depending on the paper to be used, the same contents are printed in a predetermined range, but in a device that needs to support both cases of printing and other cases, a print range designation command is used. Only the difference between sending and not sending,
Since the others can be processed in exactly the same manner, the change of the print program on the host device side can be minimized, which is extremely effective.

Further, by setting the print range, it is possible to prevent the print head from being detached from the paper and to prevent the print head from being damaged.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a printing processing procedure according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an overall configuration of a printer according to an embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a receipt.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 interface 2 control unit 3 reception buffer 4 ROM 5 image buffer 6 printing unit 7 printing range register 8 index register 9 dot register

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A receiving buffer for storing data received from a host device, a print position register for indicating a print position, a storage unit for storing a print range designated by a print range designation command from the host device, Comparing means for comparing the contents of the print position register with the contents of the storage means, and control means, the control means printing only the data within the print range according to the comparison result of the comparison means. A print control device for a printer. 2. A print range designation command from a host device is received, a print range designated by the command is stored in a storage means, and the print position of the data is stored when printing the data received from the host device. A print control method for a printer, wherein the print range is compared and only the data within the print range is printed.