JPH0696322B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention moves a print head supported on a carriage along a print line of print paper, and through a print ribbon fed by a ribbon feeding mechanism. The present invention relates to a printer that prints characters and the like on print paper based on print data.

[Prior Art] The above-described printer has conventionally been equipped with a ribbon feeding mechanism for feeding a predetermined amount of print ribbon each time one character is printed. Therefore, a new print ribbon portion is always supplied to the position facing the print head every time one character is printed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the printer configured as described above,
The ribbon is fed by a specified amount each time one character is printed regardless of the shape or size of the character, so the used printing ribbon has many parts that were not used during printing, which is very uneconomical. there were.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made to solve the problems of the conventional printer as described above, and an object of the present invention is to provide a printer in which a print ribbon can be efficiently used. .

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the printer of the present invention includes a buffer for storing print data, a pattern memory for storing patterns of printable characters, and the like. Based on the pattern of characters, etc. stored in the pattern memory, the pattern of characters, etc. printed immediately before is compared with the pattern of characters, etc. printed next, and the presence or absence of the overlapping portion of both patterns is detected, A control means for controlling the ribbon feeding mechanism so as to feed the print ribbon before printing the next character when there is an overlapping portion in both patterns and not to feed the print ribbon when there is no overlapping portion.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, in the printer of the present invention, the control unit reads the pattern of characters or the like corresponding to the print data from the pattern memory, and the pattern of the read characters or the like and the character to be printed next. Detecting the presence or absence of the overlapping portion with the pattern, etc., if there is an overlapping portion in both patterns, send the printing ribbon before printing the next character, and if there is no overlapping portion, feed the ribbon so that the printing ribbon cannot be sent. Control the mechanism.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a printer embodying the present invention.

The printer body 1 includes a keyboard 2 as an input device and a printing device 3.

A large number of input keys 4 to which letters, numbers and symbols or specific functional operations are assigned are arranged on the upper surface of the keyboard 2. A cylindrical platen 6 is rotatably supported on a frame 5 of the printer body 1. There is. A guide shaft 7 and a guide plate 8 which are parallel to the platen 6 are fixed to the frame 5, respectively. A carriage 10 is supported on the guide shaft 7 and the guide plate 8 so as to be capable of reciprocating along the longitudinal direction of the platen 6. A ribbon cassette 11 is mounted on the upper surface of the carriage 10 in a replaceable manner. A print ribbon 12 coated with carbon ink is wound and housed in the ribbon cassette 11.

A type wheel 13 is mounted on the platen 6 side of the carriage 10, and a hammer 14 is supported behind the type wheel 13. . As a result, a large number of input keys 4 on the keyboard 2
In response to this operation, the printing device 3 is driven and a desired printing operation is executed.

Next, the control circuit of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The CPU (Central Processing Unit) 30 has a paper feed motor 2
0, the carriage drive motor 21, and the ribbon feed motor 22 are respectively connected via the drive devices 20a, 21a, 22a, and the character selection motor 23 and the hammer solenoid 24 connect the character selection motor drive device 23a and the hammer drive device 24a. Are respectively connected via. The keyboard 2 is connected to the CPU 30. Furthermore, the CPU30 has a ROM (Read Only Memory)
31 and a RAM (random access memory) 32 are connected. The ROM 31 has a built-in program for controlling the operation of this printer and also stores a pattern memory 33 that stores patterns such as characters and symbols printable by this printer.
Is equipped with. RAM32 is a buffer that sequentially stores character / symbol data and function data input from the keyboard 2.
Equipped with 34. The pattern memory 3 described later in the CPU 30
A for performing calculation based on the pattern of characters etc. read out from 3 and temporarily storing the result
A register 40 and a B register 41 are provided.

Next, the pattern memory 33, which is an essential part of the present invention, will be described.

As shown in FIG. 3, the pattern memory 33 has an area corresponding to the print ribbon portion used for printing one character.
The pattern data is divided into small blocks of × 3, and the small blocks into which the pattern data such as various printable characters are stored are stored in advance as pattern data.

FIG. 4 is a table schematically showing the stored contents of the pattern memory 33. When each character pattern is contained in each of the divided small blocks, "1" is set, and when not included, "0" is set. It is remembered for each character. Further, FIG. 5 is a diagram in which a part of the characters or symbols stored in the table is developed in an area corresponding to the print ribbon.

Next, the operation of the control circuit, which is the main part of the printer of the present invention, will be described by taking as an example a case in which "A", "_", "B", and "..." are sequentially printed.

First, when print data of “A” is input from the keyboard 2, the CPU 30 reads the pattern data 50 of “A” from the pattern memory 33 and writes it in the B register 41. The printer prints the character "A" without feeding the ribbon.

Next, when the print data of “_” is input from the keyboard 2, the CPU 30 reads the pattern data 51 of “_” from the pattern memory 33 and writes it in the A register 40. Then, the CPU 30 compares the pattern data 51 in the A register 40 with the pattern data 50 in the B register 41. Overlapping portion between both (the same digit area of both is "1")
When it is detected that the ribbon feeding operation is not necessary after this printing sequence, the CPU 30 stores the result in the B register 41 by ORing the contents of both A and B registers. . After that, the printer prints the symbol "_" without performing ribbon feeding.

Next, when the print data of "B" is input from the keyboard 2, the CPU 30 reads the pattern data 52 of "B" from the pattern memory 33 and writes it in the A register 40. Then, the CPU 30 compares the pattern data 52 in the A register 40 with the pattern data in the B register 41 in which the pattern data 50 and 51 are combined. When detecting that there is a superposed portion between the two, the CPU 30 stores the fact that the ribbon feeding operation is necessary after the printing sequence, and then rewrites the contents of the B register 41 with the contents of the A register 40. At the same time, the CPU 30 outputs a signal for ribbon feeding to the ribbon drive device 22a, and after a predetermined amount of ribbon feeding is performed, the printer prints the character "B". As described above, the printer of the present invention prints on the same print ribbon portion as "A" and "_" and then feeds the ribbon to print "B". Also, the next time you print "~", the CPU3
1 compares the pattern data 53 of "to" with the pattern data 52 of "B", and when it detects that there is no overlapping portion between them, it rewrites the contents of the B register 41 to the value of the logical sum of both. After that, the printer does not perform ribbon feeding
Is printed.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, the printer of the present invention uses the pattern memory in which patterns of printable characters or the like are stored in advance, and the pattern of characters or the like printed immediately before and the character to be printed next. The pattern is read out and compared to detect the presence or absence of an overlapping portion of both patterns, and when there is an overlapping portion in both patterns, the print ribbon is fed before printing the next character, and when there is no overlapping portion. By controlling the ribbon feeding mechanism so as not to feed the printing ribbon, the printing ribbon can be used efficiently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a printer showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control circuit of the printer, and FIG.
FIG. 4, FIG. 5 and FIG. 5 are views showing the contents of the pattern memory. 1: Printer body, 10: Carriage, 12: Print ribbon, 22:
Ribbon feed motor, 30: CPU, 33: Pattern memory, 34:
buffer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A print head supported on a carriage is moved along a print line of print paper, and a character or the like is printed on the print paper via a print ribbon sent by a ribbon feeding mechanism based on print data. In a printer for printing, a buffer for storing the print data, a pattern memory for storing a pattern of printable characters and the like, and a pattern printed immediately before based on the pattern of characters and the like stored in the pattern memory The pattern of characters or the like is compared with the pattern of characters or the like to be printed next to detect the presence or absence of an overlapping portion of both patterns, and when there is an overlapping portion of both patterns, the print ribbon is printed before printing the next character. And a control means for controlling the ribbon feeding mechanism so that the printing ribbon is not fed when there is no overlapping portion. Printer that.