JPH0640082A - Printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print by using a line buffer as it is even when it is not corresponding to a print head, in a printing device equipped with a print head, such as multi-line head, capable of printing a plurality of lines. CONSTITUTION:A printing device comprises a line buffer 13 where pattern of dot character is developed at line unit and a print head 16 having a plurality of printing parts arranged in the paper feed direction for printing the dot character developed in the line buffer 13 on a paper through the printing parts. Using ranges of the printing parts in the print head 16 are changed corresponding to developable range of the line buffer 13 in the paper feed direction so as to print.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer used in an information processing device such as a word processor or a personal computer, and more particularly to a printer having a print head capable of printing a plurality of lines such as a multi-line head.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, for example, some word processors are equipped with a printing device for printing a created document in advance, or are optionally connected. As this type of printing apparatus, a thermal transfer type dot printer is generally used in which the solid ink on the ink ribbon is melted by heat generated by the print head and transferred to the paper. In this case, a plurality of heating elements are arranged in the print head in the paper feeding direction, for example, in a row for several dots. While moving the print head in the row direction, each heating element is energized and heated according to the pattern of the dot characters to be printed, so that dot characters are formed on the paper.

By the way, there is a print head capable of printing a plurality of lines by one scanning. Such a print head is called a multi-line head. This multi-line head has a printing unit (heat generating element in the thermal transfer system) several times in the paper feeding direction. For example, the dot character composition is 56x56
If it is a dot, it usually has a printing portion (heating element) for 56 dots in one row, but a printing portion (heating element) for 160 dots in a multi-line head.
Can be printed in one column and 2.5 lines can be printed in one scan.

[0004]

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the past,
When using the multi-line head as described above, it is necessary to mount a line buffer corresponding to it. That is, for example, in the case of a 160-dot multi-line head, a line buffer capable of developing a 160-dot character pattern was required. Therefore, in the case of an apparatus that has used a normal print head until now, it is necessary to change the capacity of the line buffer according to a new print head, that is, a multi-line head, and with the change in capacity,
There was a problem that the pattern development had to be reassembled.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a printing apparatus capable of performing printing by directly using a line buffer which does not correspond to a print head. .

[0006]

According to the present invention, a line buffer in which a pattern of dot characters is developed line by line, and a plurality of printing units are arranged in the paper feed direction, are developed in the line buffer through the respective printing units. In a printing device having a print head for printing dot characters on paper,
The use range of each printing unit in the print head is controlled according to the expandable range of the line buffer in the paper feed direction.

[0007]

According to the above construction, the range of use of the printing section in the print head is changed according to the capacity of the line buffer. Therefore, even a line buffer not compatible with the print head can be used as it is for printing.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A printer according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a serial printer installed in, for example, a word processor. In FIG. 1, a CPU 11 controls the entire apparatus, and here executes a character pattern expansion control process as shown in FIG. The font memory 12 is composed of, for example, a ROM and stores various dot character patterns. The line buffer 13 is, for example, a RAM,
This is a memory in which character patterns are expanded in units of lines, and here, as shown in FIG. 2, it has an expandable range of n bytes in the paper feed direction (column direction) and m columns in the head running direction (row direction). The counter 14 counts a count value T indicating the development position of the character pattern in the paper feed direction (column direction).

The head drive circuit 15 drives the print head 16 under the control of the CPU 11. The print head 16 is
It is mounted on the carriage 18 and forms dot characters on the paper while moving in the row direction. Here, as shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of printing units (for example, heat generating elements) 16a are arranged in a line in the paper feeding direction. The dots are arranged. The carriage drive circuit 17 drives the carriage 18 under the control of the CPU 11. The carriage 18 includes the print head 16
Is moved in the row direction. The host interface 19 sends and receives data to and from the host device 20.
The host device 20 is a word processor here,
Transfers print data such as character codes for printing documents. Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described.

Basically, when print data including a character code is transferred from the host device 20 via the host interface 19, the CPU 11 reads a character pattern corresponding to the character code from the font memory 12, and the line pattern is read. The data is sequentially expanded in the buffer 13. When the line buffer 13 stores a character pattern of a predetermined line, the CP
U11 drives the print unit 16a of the print head 16 through the head drive circuit 15 to execute printing on the paper.

When the line buffer 13 does not correspond to the print head 16, the CPU 11 prints according to the expandable range of the line buffer 13 in the paper feed direction by the following character pattern expansion processing. Printing is performed by controlling the use range of each printing unit 16a in the head 16. Hereinafter, the character pattern expansion processing of the embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The CPU 11 first of all, the line buffer 13
When developing the character pattern for the first column of, the count value T of the counter 14 is set to "0" (step S1). The count value T indicates the expansion position of the character pattern in the paper feed direction (column direction), and is updated by "+1" each time the character pattern read from the font memory 12 is expanded by 1 byte (step S2). , S
3). Here, when the count value T reaches H before reaching n, that is, the character pattern changes to the line buffer 13
If the number of H dots corresponding to each printing portion 16a in the print head 16 is expanded by the time 1 line (n bytes) is expanded, the CPU 11 finishes the expansion process and expands the next line. (Step S4).

On the other hand, if the count value T does not reach H even if it exceeds n, that is, even if the character pattern is expanded by one line (n bytes) in the line buffer 13, each printing portion 16a in the print head 16 is expanded. When the number of H dots is not expanded according to (step S5), the CPU 11 outputs null data (empty data) until the count value T becomes H (step S6).

In this way, the CPU 11 repeats the same expansion processing as described above up to m columns of the line buffer 13,
The character pattern developed by this developing process is output to the head drive circuit 15 and the carriage drive circuit 1
A movement start instruction is issued to 7. As a result, the print head 16
The printing portions 16a are driven and controlled in accordance with the character pattern at the timing synchronized with the movement of the, and dot characters are formed on the paper. In this case, printing is performed by using all or some of the printing units 16a according to the expandable range of the line buffer 13 in the paper feed direction.

That is, as shown in FIG. 3, if the expandable range (n bytes) of the line buffer 13 in the paper feeding direction fills the printing portion 16a for H dots (n =).
H), all of the printing units 16a are used, and if the expandable range does not satisfy the printing units 16a for H dots (n <H), a part of each printing unit 16a corresponds to the range. It will be used and printed. Regarding the usage range of each printing unit 16a, it is not always necessary to use the printing unit 16a at the beginning, and the printing unit 16a may be used halfway.

As described above, printing can be performed by controlling the use range of each printing unit 16a in the print head 16 according to the expandable range of the line buffer 13 in the paper feed direction. Therefore, for example, when a 160-dot multi-line head is used, even if the line buffer 13 corresponds to a 56-dot normal print head, printing is performed using only 56 dots of the 160 dots. This makes it possible to eliminate the need to change the capacity of the line buffer 13 and the work of reassembling the pattern expansion associated with the capacity change.

The present invention is not limited to the multi-line head, and even in the case of a normal print head, the range of use is changed and printing is performed by performing the same processing as above in relation to the line buffer. be able to. Also,
In the above embodiment, the serial printer has been described as an example, but the same method as described above can be applied to other printing devices such as a line printer.

[0019]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the printing range is controlled by controlling the use range of each printing unit in the print head according to the expandable range of the line buffer in the sheet feeding direction, Even a line buffer that does not support printing can be used as it is. As a result, it is possible to eliminate the need to change the capacity of the line buffer and the reassembling work for the pattern expansion accompanying the capacity change.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a line buffer of the same embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a print head of the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining a character pattern expansion processing operation of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 ... CPU, 12 ... Font memory, 13 ... Line buffer, 14 ... Counter, 15 ... Head drive circuit, 16
... print head, 16a ... print section, 17 ... carriage drive circuit, 18 ... carriage, 19 ... printing section, 20 ... host device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A line buffer in which a pattern of dot characters is expanded line by line, and a plurality of printing units are arranged in the paper feed direction, and the dot characters expanded in the line buffer through the respective printing units are printed on paper. And a print section control means for controlling the use range of each print section of the print head according to the expandable range of the line buffer in the paper feed direction.