JPH0640159A - Color printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily replace ink ribbons of two or more colors by providing a means displaying a message urging the replacement of the ink ribbons and a means rewriting a control table in order to alter the replacing order of the ink ribbons. CONSTITUTION:A color printing apparatus is constituted of an input part 1, an input buffer 2, a control and judge part 3, a memory 4, a developing buffer 5, a printing buffer 6, a printing output part 7 and a display output part 8. The input part 1 is a selection and indication means operating the respective functions of the printing apparatus and the input buffer 2 stores and holds the indication signal inputted from the input part 1. The control and judge part 3 controls and judges inputted data and the memory 4 stores the program or accumulated data necessary for the execution of the data processing due to the control and judge part 3. The developing buffer 5 stores data when the control and judge part 3 processes printing data so as to match the same with the signal format of the printing apparatus.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color printer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional color printing apparatus using an ink ribbon replacement system, the order of colors of ink ribbons to be replaced is fixed, and only the order based on a management table of a storage memory of the apparatus is used.

[0003]

As described above, the exchange order of the ink ribbons is fixed, and the operator cannot arbitrarily change the exchange order depending on the contents of the drawing to be printed.

The present invention solves this problem and provides a color printing apparatus in which work efficiency and operation flexibility are taken into consideration.

[0005]

The color printing apparatus of the present invention includes means for storing and managing the order of ink ribbon replacement in a management table, and means for displaying a message prompting replacement of the ink ribbon according to the management table. And a means for rewriting the management table to change the order of ink ribbon replacement.

[0006]

The ribbon replacement order is stored in the management table and a message is displayed. By updating the storage contents of the management table, the replacement order of ribbons of a plurality of colors can be arbitrarily changed.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of an information processing apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention. The apparatus is composed of an input unit 1, an input buffer 2, a control / determination unit 3, a storage unit memory 4, a development buffer 6, a print output unit 7, and a display output unit 8.

The input section 1 is a selection instruction means section for operating each function of the apparatus, and the input buffer 2 is a section for storing and holding an instruction signal input from the input section 1. control·
The determination unit 3 is a unit that makes a control determination on the input data. The storage unit memory 4 is a unit that stores and holds programs, accumulated data, and the like required by the control / determination unit 3 to execute data processing. The expansion buffer 6 is a unit that stores data when the control / determination unit 3 processes the data for printing so as to match the signal format of the printing apparatus (not shown). The print buffer 6 is a storage holding unit for compensating for a difference in data processing or communication speed with the printing apparatus. The print output unit 7 and the display output unit 8 are interface units to the printing device and the display.

An embodiment of the image output function will be described below with reference to the processing flowchart of FIG. The image data is printed using data stored in advance in the information processing apparatus main body, and the image to be printed is arbitrarily selected. First, the image printing function is entered by a predetermined operation. A print image is selected in step S1 by an operation from the input unit 1 for an item of output data provided in advance by the display output unit. The image data shown in FIG. 4 for printing is stored in the memory storage unit in the storage format shown in FIG.

In the selected image, a management table for output data candidates is detected in step S2. The value of the number of superposition is set (S3), and the data is read to the expansion buffer 5 (S4). If the number of overlaps is not 0 in step 5, the process proceeds to the ribbon setting procedure. If the number of overlaps is 0, the process moves to the end and all the steps are completed.

To change the setting order of the ribbons, the steps from S6.
This is performed in step S9. First, the necessity of setting change is set (S6). Current setting status and "Setting change:
"Necessity" is displayed on the monitor via the display output unit 8 (S7). The operator selects either "necessity" or "necessity" by moving the cursor. After this selection, “change for three color ribbons” is displayed for a predetermined time regardless of any operation and disappears. Change the setting contents in step S8 by changing the display characters "red ribbon, blue ribbon, yellow ribbon" on the monitor display.
This is done by moving the cursor to one of the character positions and clipping. The set order is displayed as "first time: red ribbon, second time: blue ribbon, third time: yellow ribbon". After all the settings have been completed, the contents of the storage unit memory 4 are updated from the contents of the information table for the image data shown in FIG. 5 from "before change" to "after change" (S
9). The display output unit 8 displays “* setting end *” to complete the setting.

When the setting is completed, the print standby screen is displayed, and the first data is read into the expansion buffer by referring to the information table. In addition, the ink output ribbon 20 to be set is instructed to be displayed by the display output unit and prompted (S10). Figure 6
The ink ribbon 20 is attached and the paper is set, the print start position is designated (S12), and the print process is executed by a predetermined operation.

Data for one line is set in the print buffer from the address pointer of the data in the expansion buffer (S
14), the address pointer is incremented. When the data in the print buffer is output, this process is repeated until the end of the data in which the data for the next one line is set is detected from the expansion buffer.

At the time of the first printing, printing of the position mark 22 shown in FIG. 7 is added. The second and subsequent repeated superposition printing is started after the printing position coordinates 21 are aligned with the position marks 22 after the ink ribbon 20 is replaced.

When the printing is completed, the paper is once ejected.
Further, the counter is decremented with respect to the referred number of times of superimposition according to the above information table (S18), 2
A message "Please set a yellow ribbon" is output from the display output unit for the ink ribbon 20 to be replaced and mounted in the standby state for the second printing process, and the instruction is prompted. The once ejected paper is set again, and the printing position coordinates 21 are determined by a predetermined operation using the previously printed position mark 22 as an index to determine the printing position for superimposing. The printing process is executed by a predetermined operation.

The same process is repeated for the third overlay printing, and the overlay printing is completed.

FIG. 8 shows a process of the above printing process.
(A) of the figure is a red printing diagram of printing process 1.
(b) is a yellow print diagram of the printing process 2, and (c) is a blue print diagram of the printing process 3. An overall view of Process 1 to Process 3 is shown in FIG. 8 (d).

[0018]

According to the color printing apparatus of the present invention, the order of colors to be printed can be freely changed. The effect obtained by this action is that the flexibility of the process is increased, printing from important parts,
The degree of freedom in changing the color of the overlapping portion is increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional configuration block diagram of a color printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a storage format of image data.

FIG. 4 is an example of a printed view of a stored image.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of changing an output management table.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration of an ink ribbon portion of the color printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a form of a print overlay position mark.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a printing process.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 input unit 2 input buffer 3 control / judgment unit 4 storage unit memory 5 expansion buffer 6 print buffer 7 print output unit 8 display output unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A means for storing and managing the order of ink ribbon replacement in a management table, a means for displaying a message prompting replacement of the ink ribbon according to the management table, and a method for changing the order of replacement of the ink ribbon. A color printing device comprising means for rewriting the management table.