JPH06202308A - Mask forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the mask forming device which can make good printing without a break in the balance of a line width. CONSTITUTION:A mask material 44 is formed by thermally transferring an ink layer 42a of a thermal transfer ribbon 42 to a transparent sheet 43 by a thermal head 40 in accordance with fonts 10, 11 of the characters to be printed. The line width in the drop-out parts of the mask material 44 of the fonts 10, 11 is set at >=2 times the dot density of resistor elements 40a of the thermal head 40.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mask forming apparatus for forming a mask material by thermally transferring an ink layer of a thermal transfer ribbon onto a transparent sheet with a thermal head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A mask material is used for making a postcard or the like. For example, an image is printed on a photographic printing paper from a negative film. At this time, greetings and letters of an address and name are printed on the mask material.

This mask material is usually produced by computer photolithography or the like, but since it uses a photographic process, a special device is required for the production, which is troublesome. Therefore, for example, printing with a general printer may be considered, but since a toner is used in an electrophotographic printer as a general printer, blurring of characters due to toner scattering occurs and good printing cannot be obtained. There is.

[0004]

Therefore, the ink layer of the thermal transfer ribbon is thermally transferred to the transparent sheet by the thermal head,
When the mask material is formed, the mask material can be easily manufactured without the above-mentioned problems. However, in the mask forming apparatus using thermal transfer as described above, when using a white font, it is necessary to surely carry out the white drawing by the thermal head and prevent crushing.

When the printing area of the thermal head is large, the printing characteristics greatly change in the direction in which the resistor elements of the thermal head are arranged and in the direction at right angles thereto. That is, the resistor element of the thermal head is turned on to generate heat, whereby the ink layer of the thermal transfer ribbon is thermally transferred and printed, but even if the resistor element is turned off, the temperature of the resistor element does not fall, In a direction parallel to the arrangement of the resistive elements of the thermal head, a phenomenon occurs in which a line without a dot is crushed.

By the way, conventionally, the character data for printing is not matched with the characteristics of such printing, and thus the line width in one character is out of balance and good printing cannot be performed.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a mask forming apparatus capable of excellent printing without the line width being unbalanced.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, the invention of claim 1 uses a thermal head based on the font of characters to be printed to thermally transfer the ink layer of a thermal transfer ribbon onto a transparent sheet to form a mask material. In the mask forming apparatus for forming the above, the line width of the blank portion of the mask material in the font is set to be twice or more the dot density of the resistor element of the thermal head.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mask forming apparatus for forming a mask material by thermally transferring an ink layer of a thermal transfer ribbon to a transparent sheet by a thermal head based on a font of characters to be printed, in the vertical writing. And 2 for horizontal writing
There are different kinds of fonts, and the white line width in the direction parallel to the resistor element row of the thermal head in this font is 2 of the dot density of the resistor element of the thermal head.
It is characterized by being set more than twice.

The invention according to claim 3 is characterized in that the dot density of the resistor element of the thermal head is 300 DPI or more.

[0011]

According to the invention of claim 1, a thermal head is used to form a mask material by thermally transferring the ink layer of the thermal transfer ribbon to a transparent sheet based on the font of the characters to be printed. The line width is set to be at least twice the dot density of the resistive element of the thermal head. Therefore, even if the resistor element of the thermal head is turned off, the temperature of the resistor element does not fall and the line without a dot of the resistor element of the thermal head is only crushed, and good printing can be performed.

Further, the invention of claim 2 has two types of fonts for vertical writing and horizontal writing, and the white line width in the direction parallel to the resistor element array of the thermal head in this font is The dot density of the resistive element of the thermal head is set to be twice or more. Therefore, even if the resistor element of the thermal head is turned off, the temperature of the resistor element does not fall and the line without one dot is crushed in the direction parallel to the arrangement of the resistor elements of the thermal head. The line widths in the characters are balanced, which allows good printing regardless of the printing direction.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, the dot density of the resistive element of the thermal head is 300 DPI or more,
Good printing can be performed at a predetermined printing speed or higher.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT An embodiment of a mask forming apparatus of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a mask forming apparatus. An image memory 2 and a character image input unit 3 are connected to the image processing unit 1. The image processing unit 1 and the image memory 2 are composed of a computer P, and the character image input unit 3 is composed of, for example, a keyboard and a mouse. The image memory 2 constitutes a storage means, and the character information input from the character image input unit 3 can be stored in the image memory 2.
As for the character information, a font for printing is stored in advance, and this is called and used at the time of thermal transfer. The image information created or edited by the image processing unit 1 is sent to the thermal transfer printer 4 to create a mask material.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of the thermal transfer printer, FIG.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged side view showing a thermal transfer state in the thermal transfer printer. In the thermal transfer printer 4, the thermal head 40 is arranged so as to face the platen roller 41. The thermal head 40 thermally transfers the ink layer 42a of the thermal transfer ribbon 42 onto the transparent sheet 43. The transparent sheet 43 side on which the ink layer 42a is transferred is used as a mask material 44.

The thermal transfer printer 4 uses a line type thermal head whose resistor element dot density is 400 DPI, but the thermal head dot density is 300 DPI.
The above is sufficient. The thermal transfer in the thermal transfer printer 4 includes a melt type and a sublimation type, but the melt type is preferable from the viewpoint of clear printing.

Further, the thermal transfer ribbon 42 is composed of the ink layer 42a.
And the support 42b. In this embodiment, the ink layer 4
2a is set to 4 μm, and the support 42b is set to 4.5 μm. The transparent sheet 43 is set to 100 μm.

The mask material 44 thus produced by thermal transfer printing using the thermal transfer printer 4 is used when producing a photographic print in which characters are mixed in an image such as a postcard.

FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of the thermal head. The thermal head 40 is provided with a resistor element 40a. The resistor element row direction of the thermal head 40 is the main scanning direction, the transparent sheet conveying direction is the sub-scanning direction, and the distance between the centers of the resistor elements 40a is M.

FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram of an outline font.
In the character “10” of the outline font F, the line width A in the direction parallel to the sub scanning direction is A ≧ 2M, and the line width B in the direction parallel to the main scanning direction is B ≧ 2M. The line width of the white part of the mask material in the font is the thermal head 40
The dot density of the resistor element 40a is set to twice or more.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of the font, and FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan view showing a thermal transfer state in the thermal transfer printer. The image memory 2 of the mask forming device has two types of fonts 10 and 11 for vertical writing and horizontal writing. In the fonts 10 and 11, ink in a direction parallel to the resistor element 40a row of the thermal head 40 is used. The white line widths D1 and D2 of the layer 50 are the same as those of the resistor element 4 of the thermal head 40.
The dot density is set to be twice the dot density of 0a.

Therefore, after turning on the resistor element of the thermal head 40 to generate heat, the resistor element is turned off.
Then, it takes more than a predetermined time for the ink layer 50 to be sufficiently melted to a temperature at which it does not melt. Even if the resistor element is turned off for one line, the temperature of the resistor element does not fall and the line with one dot It will be crushed. by the way,
For the fonts 10 and 11, the white line widths D1 and D2 in the direction parallel to the resistor element array of the thermal head 40 are set to 1 in advance.
Since the dot density of the resistor element 40a of the thermal head 40 is set to be twice or more in consideration of the collapse of the line without dots, the line width D with a predetermined width is set as shown in FIG.
3 and D4, and good balanced printing can be performed regardless of the printing direction.

Further, the resistor element 4 of the thermal head 40
The dot density of 0a is set to 300 DPI or more in relation to the printing speed as shown in Table 1.

[0025]

[Table 1] That is, 10 msec or more is required to turn on the resistor element 40a of the thermal head 40 to generate heat, and then to turn off the resistor element 40a to sufficiently lower the temperature at which the ink layer 42a of the thermal transfer ribbon 42 does not melt. Is. Therefore, if the cycle of one line is 10 msec or less, 1
Even if the line portion is turned off, the temperature of the resistor element 40a does not fall and the line without one dot is crushed. In order to output as a blank line, it is necessary to turn off the resistor element 40a for two lines or more. Realistically A3 (29
(8 mm) size requires a printing time of 30 seconds or less, so if the printing speed is 300 DPI or more, 1
Since the dot line is crushed and becomes difficult to come out, it is necessary to set the dot density to twice or more the dot density of the resistor element 40a of the thermal head 40.

[0026]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the ink layer of the thermal transfer ribbon is thermally transferred onto the transparent sheet by the thermal head to form the mask material, but the line width of the blank portion of the mask material in the font is formed. However, since the dot density of the resistive element of the thermal head is set to twice or more, even if the resistive element is turned off, the temperature of the resistive element does not fall and one dot of the resistive element of the thermal head Although the outline lines are crushed, the line width in one character is balanced and good printing can be performed.

The invention according to claim 2 has two types of fonts for vertical writing and horizontal writing, and in this font, the white line width in the direction parallel to the resistor element array of the thermal head is set. Since the dot density of the resistive element of the thermal head is set to twice or more, even if the resistive element of the thermal head is turned off, the temperature of the resistive element does not fall and In the direction parallel to the line, lines without about 1 dot are crushed, but this balances the line width in one character, which allows good printing regardless of the printing direction.

According to a third aspect of the invention, the dot density of the resistive element of the thermal head is 300 DPI or more,
Good printing can be performed at a predetermined printing speed or higher.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a mask forming apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a thermal transfer printer.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view showing a thermal transfer state in the thermal transfer printer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a font stored in a storage unit.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view showing a thermal transfer state in the thermal transfer printer.

[Explanation of symbols]

 F, 10,11 font 40 thermal head 40a resistor element 42 thermal transfer ribbon 42a ink layer 43 transparent sheet 44 mask material

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] October 6, 1992

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

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

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a mask forming apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a thermal transfer printer.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view showing a thermal transfer state in the thermal transfer printer.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a font stored in a storage unit.

FIG. 5 is an enlarged plan view showing a thermal transfer state in the thermal transfer printer.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing another example of a font.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged plan view showing a thermal transfer state in a thermal transfer printer.
It is a figure.

[Explanation of reference symbols] F, 10, 11 font 40 thermal head 40a resistor element 42 thermal transfer ribbon 42a ink layer 43 transparent sheet 44 mask material

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A mask forming apparatus for forming a mask material by thermally transferring an ink layer of a thermal transfer ribbon to a transparent sheet by a thermal head based on a font of characters to be printed, and a line of a blank portion of the mask material in the font. The width is set to 2 of the dot density of the resistive element of the thermal head.
A mask forming apparatus characterized by being set to twice or more. 2. A mask forming apparatus for forming a mask material by thermally transferring an ink layer of a thermal transfer ribbon onto a transparent sheet by a thermal head based on a font of a character to be printed, the two types of vertical writing and horizontal writing. It has a font, and the white line width in a direction parallel to the resistor element array of the thermal head in this font is set to be twice or more the dot density of the resistor element of the thermal head. Mask forming device. 3. The mask forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the resistor element of the thermal head has a dot density of 300 DPI or more.