JPH064344B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing device, and more particularly to a printing device for performing dot-shaped printing for each line in a raster scan system.

(Prior Art) FIG. 1 shows a main part of a conventional character pattern and a printing device 40 using the same.

In the page buffer 41, by a commonly known method,
A video signal corresponding to a character (image) to be printed in one page of an image to be printed is transferred from a processor (not shown) and stored therein. In this case, the video signal--that is, the print data is composed of a character code and character spacing information.

The print data stored in the page buffer 41 is taken out line by line and placed in the line buffer 42. The mapping processor 43 takes out the print data for each character from the line buffer 42 and calculates the address of the font memory 44 and the print position.

According to the instruction of the mapping processor 43, the print pattern read from the font memory 44 has a pair of output buffers 45 and 46 having a capacity of one scan.
Is written to any of the corresponding positions.

The output buffers 45 and 46 have switches S1 and S, respectively.
By switching 2, writing and reading are performed alternately,
The read data is transferred to the recording head 14 as a video signal.

As described above, the page buffer 41, the line buffer 42, the mapping processor 43, the font memory 4
4 and the operation of the output buffers 45 and 46 and their timing are controlled by the sequence control circuit 49.

That is, as is well known, the sequence control circuit 49 is supplied with a page start signal PSS and a scan start signal SSS, and generates a signal for controlling the operation timing of each of the above-mentioned devices.

In addition, FIGS. 2A to 2F show examples of character patterns for designating the dot configuration of the letter A and horizontal and vertical lines.

As can be seen from these figures, the character pattern has a dot pattern corresponding to each character and forms a corresponding character, and generates a character spacing when printed in the main scanning direction and the sub scanning direction. The space areas for the above are appropriately designated on the top, bottom, left and right, as indicated by the diagonal lines in each figure.

To do this, using these character patterns,
Even if printing is performed without character spacing, an interval or space (blank portion) corresponding to the space area is left between each character, so that it is possible to print characters, symbols, etc. that are easy to distinguish.

However, as is clear, it is not possible to print a continuous straight line or a pattern by using only the character pattern shown in FIG.

For the purpose of printing continuous straight lines or patterns, as shown in FIGS. 3A to 3D, a character pattern having a dot configuration extended to the space area must be prepared. I won't.

By using such a character pattern, continuous straight lines or patterns can be printed when printing is performed without character spacing.

However, if the character pattern shown in FIG. 3 is printed with the character spacing maintained, the dots are not continuous and the pattern becomes a broken line.

That is, for example, when a vertical (sub scanning direction) or a horizontal (main scanning direction) straight line is printed with the character pattern of FIG. Since it is not printed, there is a drawback that it becomes a broken line.

Further, in the above example, the character pattern, which is not continuous even when the character spacing is 0, is provided with a predetermined number of lines (or dots) of space areas.

For this reason, there are many blank areas in which information is not stored in the font memory (for example, in the example of FIG. 4, there is a blank area for N lines at the top and blank areas for several dots on the left and right). There was a problem that the utilization efficiency of was poor and the required memory capacity became large.

In order to solve such a problem, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 57-18262, in order to improve the utilization efficiency of the character pattern memory, the line information is printed by using the bit information at the bottom of the font matrix. Techniques for doing so are disclosed. However, in the case of such a method, it suffices if the print targets are all "continuous patterns", but if the print target is a "character", the bit information at the bottom end becomes the bottom end of the character, so When the line spacing is printed by using, the inconvenience occurs because the bottom end of the character appears continuously between the lines that should be blank. However, in the above-described conventional technology, a control system that determines whether the printing target is a “character” or a “continuous pattern” and does not perform the above operation when the character is a “character” is provided. There is a problem that the configuration becomes complicated because it becomes necessary.

(Purpose) The present invention has been made to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks, and an object thereof is to perform printing even when character spacing is maintained.
An object of the present invention is to provide a printing device capable of obtaining a continuous pattern.

(Outline) In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention extends a character pattern of a pattern to be continued to a portion corresponding to a space area for generating a character interval when printed, and maintains the character interval. When printing, it is characterized in that the extended portion of the character pattern is continuously and repeatedly printed as many times as the character spacing.

(Example) Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

4 (A) and 4 (B) are schematic views showing an example of a character pattern according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an embodiment when the present invention is applied to pattern continuation in the sub-scanning direction. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation example of a mapping processor 43 in FIG.

Note that FIG. 5 shows only the operation part of the mapping processor directly related to the present invention, and the operation part described with respect to the conventional example is omitted.

FIG. 4 (A) is an example of a character pattern relating to characters that should not be continuous when printed, and has a space area of N dots on the upper side and an appropriate number of dots on the left and right sides (indicated by diagonal lines). Are provided).

Further, FIG. 4B is an example of a character pattern of a pattern to be continuous, and in the first to Nth columns corresponding to the upper space area of FIG. 4A, an extended font for making the pattern continuous. Is set.

In this example, the size of the character pattern in the sub-scanning direction, that is, the number of dots is shown as M columns.

The mapping processor 43 first determines the page buffer 4
The character spacing s stored in 1 is read (step S1 in FIG. 5), and it is determined whether it is 0 (step S2 in FIG. 5).

When s is not 0 (the present invention corresponds to this case)
Is a space area indicated by hatching in FIG.
~ Nth column), a dot pattern for any one column is read out, transferred to the output buffer 45, and one line is printed by the recording bet 14 (step S3 in the figure).

Then, the s is reduced by 1 (step S4 in the figure),
The steps S2-S3-S4 are repeatedly executed.

If you print the number of lines corresponding to the character spacing s,
When s becomes 0, the determination in step S2 is established. Therefore, the process proceeds to step S5, and thereafter, the normal print process as usual is performed.

That is, first, i is set to 1 (step S in FIG.
5) Then, read the dot pattern for the first row,
This is transferred to the output buffer 45, and the recording head 14 prints one line (step S6 in the figure).

Next, 1 is added to i (step S7 in the figure),
i is (M + 1) (where M is the number of columns or dots in the sub-scanning direction of the character pattern as shown in FIG. 4)
It is determined whether or not (step S in FIG.
8).

Initially, since i is smaller than (M + 1) and the determination is established, the process cycles through the above steps S6-S7-S8. In this way, when M times have been circulated, the printing of one character ends, and the determination in step S8 is no longer established, so the process ends there.

As is clear from the above description, according to this embodiment,
Regardless of what value the character spacing s is set to, a pattern that should be continuous can be printed so that it is continuous, and characters that should not be continuous can be printed so that the specified character spacing is maintained.

Further, according to the present embodiment, even when a pattern that should be continuous and a character that should not be continuous are mixed, it is not necessary to determine which is the print target, and therefore the processing content is also determined according to the determination result. Since a control system for differentiating is not required, the configuration can be simplified.

Further, in the above, even when the character spacing s is 0, a space area having a predetermined number of lines (or number of dots: N columns in this example) is provided for a character pattern of characters that are not continuous.

For this reason, there are many blank areas in which information is not stored in the font memory (for example, in the example of FIG. 4, there is a blank area for N lines at the top and blank areas for several dots on the left and right). There is a problem that the utilization efficiency of is low and the required memory capacity becomes large.

The second embodiment of the present invention can further improve this point and reduce the memory capacity.

6 (A) and 6 (B) are schematic diagrams showing an example of a character pattern according to this embodiment, and FIG. 7 is an operation of the mapping processor when this embodiment is applied to pattern continuation in the sub-scanning direction. It is a flowchart which shows an example.

As is clear from the comparison with FIG. 4, FIG.
In the character pattern of (B), the space regions on the upper side and the left and right sides in FIG. 4 are reduced by 1 dot each, in other words, the number of vertical lines is changed from M lines to (M−N +).
This is equivalent to saving the memory size by (N-1) rows by using 1) rows.

The symbols S, M, and N are also used here in the same meaning as in FIG. Obviously, in this example,
Even when the character spacing s is 0, it is necessary to perform the same processing as in the case of the character spacing in the first embodiment by software.

The processing procedure will be described below with reference to FIG.

The mapping processor 43 first determines the page buffer 4
The character spacing s stored in 1 is read (step S1 in FIG. 7), and N (that is, the number of dots or lines in the sub-scanning direction of the upper space area shown in FIG. 4) is added to this value s. (Step S21 in FIG. 7).

As a result, the first character pattern shown in FIG.
The number of iterations to read the row is determined. Steps S22, S23, and S24 in FIG. 7 are processes corresponding to steps S2, S3, and S4 in FIG. 6, the contents of which are clear from the above description.

By the processing from step S1 to step S24 described above, (1) for the characters to be separated, a space corresponding to the character spacing s and the space area in the character pattern is secured on the print image. Also, (2) Continuous printing is performed for patterns that should be continuous.

After that, as in the case of FIG. 5, by the circulation from step S5 to step S81, the second to last lines of the character pattern, that is, in this case, the (M−N +) th line.
1) The reading and printing of the character pattern up to the line is executed.

As is apparent, according to this embodiment, the memory capacity can be reduced by (N-1) lines as compared with the font memory having the N-row space area as in the first embodiment. On the contrary, if the memory capacities are the same, a large amount of character patterns can be stored correspondingly.

Further, although the pattern continuation in the sub-scanning direction has been described above, it is clear that the same thing can be carried out in the main scanning direction by a completely similar method.

However, in this case, as will be easily understood by those skilled in the art, from the space area provided on at least one of the left and right ends of FIGS. Only, it is necessary to read the character pattern and output it additionally.

(Effect) As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the following effects are achieved.

(1) Since the dots of the extension portion stored in the space area portion of the character pattern are repeatedly read and printed by software according to the set character spacing s,
No matter how large the character spacing s is selected, patterns that must be continuous can be printed in a completely continuous state.

(2) Since the space area needs to be provided for at least 1 dot (1 line), the required memory capacity can be reduced. Conversely, if the memory capacities are the same, a large amount of character patterns can be stored correspondingly.

(3) Even when a pattern that should be continuous and a character that should not be continuous are mixed, there is no need to determine which is the print target, and therefore, there is also a control system that changes the processing content according to the determination result. Since it is not necessary, the configuration can be simplified.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing generation of a character pattern and a main part of a printing device by the generation of the character pattern, and FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional example of a character pattern for a character which must not be continuous at the time of printing, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a conventional example of a character pattern of a pattern that must be continuous at the time of printing, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a character pattern according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 6 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the mapping processor in FIG. 6, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a character pattern according to another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 7 is a view for explaining the operation of the mapping processor in the other embodiment. It is a flowchart for. 14 ... Recording head, 40 ... Printing device, 41 ... Page buffer, 42 ... Line buffer, 43 ... Mapping processor, 44 ... Font memory, 45, 46 ... Output buffer, 49 ... Sequence control circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A character, which is to be separated from each other when printed, has a dot pattern constituting the character and a space area for at least one line for generating a character spacing when printed, and , A dot pattern that constitutes a pattern that should be continuous when printed, and a character pattern that has a dot pattern extended to at least one line space area for generating a character spacing when printed Based on the above, a printer for performing dot configuration printing in a raster scan system is provided with means for repeatedly reading out a dot pattern for one line of the space area according to a character spacing. Printing device.