JPH0647964A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the developing time of printing data and to more finely control a printing start position by providing a storage means of indicated data, a means determining the editing start position stored in the memory means and a data editing means developing printing data as a dot pattern from the editing start position. CONSTITUTION:When an altering command 51 indicating the editing start position in the line direction of an editing buffer 41 in a dot unit is preliminarily transmitted from host machinery, the editing start position at the time of the development of printing data on the buffer 41 is shifted to the left. Therefore, when a blank is ensured on the left margin of paper, it is unnecessary to add a necessary number of space character codes to the head of the printing data and the time developing the printing data on the buffer 41 as a dot pattern can be shortened. A parameter B-BYTE is added to the point value P of a pointer area 44 and dot pattern data is developed from the position shifted from an editing start pointer RP by a parameter B-BIT not only to make a printing start position variable at a dot interval but also to finely control the printing start position.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing apparatus for reading out print data line by line from print data developed in a dot pattern in an edit buffer and printing it out.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a line thermal printer equipped with a line thermal head of 416 dots, when a character generator in which one character is patterned with 24 dots × 24 dots is used, if the character spacing is 2 dots, the maximum per line is Up to 16 [= 416 ÷ (24 + 2)] characters can be printed.

In this type of printing apparatus, when a margin of, for example, 4 characters is secured on the left side of the paper so that the printing width of one line is 12 characters or less, conventionally, four spaces are provided at the beginning of the print data of each line. It was dealt with by adding a character code.

[0004]

However, in the conventional printer of this type, a predetermined number of space character codes had to be added to the head of the print data of each line when the print width was varied. Therefore, it takes a long time to develop the print data in the edit buffer as a dot pattern.

Further, since the size of the space is fixed to the size of one character generated from the character generator, it is impossible to shift the print start position within the width of the one character size or less.

Therefore, according to the present invention, the print start position can be shifted in the line direction without adding a predetermined number of space character codes to the head of the print data of each line, and the print data is expanded in the edit buffer in a dot pattern. An object of the present invention is to provide a printing apparatus which can shorten the processing time and can adjust the printing start position more finely than the size of one character generated from the character generator.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, in a printing apparatus for reading out and printing out line by line print data developed in a dot pattern in an edit buffer, the edit start position in the line direction of the edit buffer is in dot units. Data storage means for storing designated data, edit start position determination means for determining the edit start position in the line direction of the edit buffer based on the edit start position data stored by this data storage means, and this determination means Data editing means for expanding the print data in a dot pattern from the edited start position.

[0008]

According to the present invention having such a configuration, when the edit start position in the line direction of the edit buffer is designated from the outside in dot units, the designated edit start position data is stored in the data storage means. Next, when print data is input from the outside, the edit start position with respect to the line direction of the edit buffer is determined based on the edit start position data stored by the data storage means, and the print data is a dot pattern from the edit start position. Be expanded.
Then, the print data expanded in a dot pattern in the edit buffer is read line by line and printed out.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a line thermal printer will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the main part of a line thermal printer according to this embodiment. This line thermal printer has a CPU (central processing unit) 1 as a control unit main body.

The CPU 1 has a ROM (read only memory) 3 in which program data for controlling the respective parts of the CPU 1 are stored in advance via a bus line 2.
A RAM (Random Access Memory) 4 in which various memory areas for storing various data processed by the CPU 1 are formed, an interface 5 for transmitting and receiving data to and from a host device managing the printer, It also controls the character generator 6 which stores dot pattern data of various characters.

The CPU 1 also drives, via the I / O port 7 connected to the bus line 2, a head drive circuit 8a for driving the line thermal head 8, a motor drive circuit 9a for driving the paper feed motor 9, and a ribbon feed. The motor drive circuit 10a etc. which drive the motor 10 are controlled.

Here, in the line thermal printer of this embodiment, as the character generator 6, as shown in FIG. 2, one character (in this case, "A") is 24 dots × 2.
The one that generates a character dot pattern patterned with 4 dots is used. In addition, the line thermal head 8
In this case, a heating element having 416 dots arranged in the line direction is used. Therefore, when the line thermal head 8 is used in the full width, it is possible to print up to 16 characters per line if the character spacing is 2 dots.

As shown in FIG. 3, the RAM 4 has an edit buffer 41 for storing print data expanded in a dot pattern, and an edit start position parameter R.
A parameter area 42 for storing BYTE and R-BIT, a counter area 43 for counting the number L of lines of print data, and an edit start pointer R in the edit buffer 41.
Each area such as the pointer area 44 for storing the value P (byte) of P is formed.

Here, the edit buffer 41 constitutes one line of dot pattern data with 52 bytes (= 416 bits) corresponding to the number of dots of the line thermal head 8.

However, the CPU 1 is program-controlled so as to execute the processing shown in the flow chart of FIG. 5 when a print request is issued from the host device. First, the parameter area 42 and the counter area 43 of the RAM 4
And the pointer area 44 are cleared. next,
It waits for a command sent from the host device.

Here, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), the header COM1 for specifying the type of command and the edit buffer 4 are specified.
Change command 5 consisting of parameter PA1 specifying the edit start position in the line direction of 1 in dot units
When 1 is received through the interface 5, the parameter PA1 is divided by the bit number "8" of 1 byte to obtain the quotient and the remainder. Then, the quotient is stored in the parameter area 42 as R-BYTE data, and the remainder is stored in the area 42.
And stores it as R-BIT data in (data storage means). Then, it waits for a command transmitted from the host device.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4B, an editing command 52 composed of a header COM2 for specifying the type of command and one line of print data consisting of a character code string such as ASCII code is issued through the interface 5. When received, the line count value L in the counter area 43 is first set to "+
Count up by 1 ".

Next, the R-BYTE data of the parameter area 42 is added to the edit start point value P of the pointer area 44, and the sum is determined as the edit start pointer RP of the edit buffer 41 (edit start position determining means).

Next, the print data in the edit command 52 is converted into a dot pattern using the character generator 6, and the dot pattern data is converted from the edit start pointer RP of the edit buffer 41 into the parameter area 42.
The data is expanded from a position shifted by the number of dots corresponding to the R-BIT data (data editing means).

After that, the edit start point value P in the pointer area 44 is multiplied by [52 (byte) × line count value L] to obtain the edit start point value P of the next line, and the command transmitted from the host device is set. stand by. When the change command 51 or the edit command 52 is received, the same processing as above is repeated.

When the editing of all print data is completed in this manner, the print data developed in the dot pattern is read line by line into the edit buffer 41 and supplied to the head drive circuit 8a, and the motor drive circuits 9a, 9a, 1
0a is controlled at a predetermined timing to print out print data.

In the line thermal printer of this embodiment having the above-described structure, one line has 16 characters [ABCD
EFGHIJKLMNOP] is printed by an edit command 5 including print data of 16 characters from the host device.
Send 2.

At this time, the parameter area 4 of the RAM 4
2, the counter area 43 and the pointer area 44 are respectively cleared, so that the edit start pointer RP becomes "0". As a result, as shown in FIG.
The edit start pointer RP = for the edit buffer 41
The dot-patterned print data is expanded from the position of 0.

Also, 13 characters in one line [ABCDEFGH
IJKLM] is printed to the right, the print start position may be shifted to the right by three characters. In this case, the change command 5 for setting the parameter PA1 to “82” from the host device before transmitting the print data edit command 52.
Send 1.

Then, the parameter PA1 is divided by "8" to obtain the quotient "10" and the remainder "2", and the quotient "10" is stored in the parameter area 42 in the R-BYTE.
It is stored as data, and the remainder "2" is stored in the area 42
-Stored as BIT data.

Thereafter, the print data for 13 characters is transmitted from the host device. Then, the edit start pointer RP
Is determined to be "10", and as shown in FIG. 6B, the edit start pointer RP =
The dot-patterned print data is expanded from a position that is shifted from 0 by 10 bytes + 2 bits.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the change data 51 including the parameter PA1 for designating the edit start position in the line direction of the edit buffer 41 in the dot unit is transmitted from the host device in advance, so that the print data is dot-printed. It is possible to shift the editing start position when the pattern is formed and expanded in the editing buffer 41 to the left.

Therefore, when a blank space is secured on the left side of the paper, it is not necessary to add the required number of space character codes to the beginning of the print data as in the conventional case, so that the print data is expanded in the edit buffer 41 as a dot pattern. The time required for

The parameter PA1 is in dot units, and the parameter PA1 is divided by the number of bits "8" corresponding to 1 byte, the quotient is set as the parameter B-BYTE, and the remainder is set as the parameter B-BIT. Then, a value obtained by adding the parameter B-BYTE to the point value P in the pointer area 44 is set as an edit start pointer RP, and the parameter B- is set from the edit start pointer RP.
Since the dot pattern data is expanded from the position shifted by BIT, the print start position can be changed by the dot interval, and the print start position can be finely adjusted.

Although the present invention is applied to the line thermal printer in the above-mentioned embodiments, the present invention is not limited to this and can be applied to, for example, a serial printer.

[0032]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, the print start position can be shifted in the line direction without adding a predetermined number of space character codes to the head of the print data of each line. It is possible to provide a printing apparatus which can shorten the time for processing the process of developing a dot pattern in the edit buffer and can adjust the print start position more finely than the size of one character generated from the character generator.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a line thermal printer that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a character dot pattern generated from a character generator used in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a main memory area formed in the RAM of the same embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a data format of main commands in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a main part process executed by the CPU of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of dot pattern data development of an edit buffer in the same embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... CPU (central processing unit), 5 ... Interface, 6 ... Character generator, 8 ... Line thermal head, 41 ... Edit buffer, 42 ... Parameter area, 51 ... Change command, 52 ... Edit command.

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Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing device for reading out and printing out, for each line, print data expanded in a dot pattern in an edit buffer, and data for storing data for designating an edit start position in a line direction of the edit buffer in dot units. Storage means, edit start position determining means for determining an edit start position in the line direction of the edit buffer based on the edit start position data stored by the data storage means, and from the edit start position determined by this determining means A printing apparatus comprising: a data editing unit that develops the print data in a dot pattern.