JPH07101113A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To save a capacity of a memory for storing a fixed pattern by reading and assembling data of elemental fixed pattern designated from the memory in response to a print command to form a fixed pattern for printing. CONSTITUTION:A controller 1 receives a designation of printing from a host computer such as a designation of a fixed pattern of a first group used for a printed matter or a fixed pattern of a second group, etc., and stores this designation information in a RAM 3. In this case, the information is stored in a buffer memory area of the RAM 3. The controller 1 reads data the fixed pattern A and data of (b) from the data in the RAM 3, and reads variable information of print content from the buffer. Further, a font of designated character style is read from a RAM 2, a print pattern for one sheet is formed in the RAM 3, the pattern for the one sheet is printed by a print controller 5, and a sign of end of the print is sent to the computer.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for printing a pattern consisting of a fixed pattern and a variable pattern in which different data is written for each leaf in the same frame.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some printed materials have a form in which various data are entered in a fixed frame such as a slip. In such a case, the frame itself is a combination of plural kinds of fixed patterns. In some cases, the same data may be entered in the data entered in the frame for each leaf, regardless of each leaf, and in this latter case also, the frame pattern as one fixed pattern, It can be seen as a combination of several types of fixing patterns that are fixed for some reason. As described above, there are plural types of fixed patterns as elements, and some of them may be combined and printed as one fixed pattern for printing.

In contrast to the above-mentioned case, conventionally, possible combinations of a plurality of element patterns are stored in the memory as print fixed patterns, so that, for example, the element patterns are the first group A, B, C second group. In the case of a, b, and c, the print fixing pattern is formed by combining one of the first group and one of the second group, the maximum is A + a, A + b, A + c, B + a, etc., which is 9 in total. There were types of fixed patterns, each stored in memory.

[0004]

In the conventional apparatus as described above, when a plurality of element fixing patterns are combined to form a fixed pattern, the combined fixed patterns are stored in the memory one by one. When the number of types of combinations used increases, there is a problem that a large area of the memory is occupied because the fixed pattern is stored. The present invention seeks to overcome this problem and save the amount of memory taken to store a fixed pattern.

[0005]

[Means for Solving the Problems] A print pattern is composed of a fixed pattern and a variable pattern that changes for each leaf.
In the case where the fixed pattern to be printed is a pattern obtained by combining several fixed patterns of elements,
Each of the element fixing patterns is stored in a memory, and a designated pattern is extracted from the element patterns in the memory in accordance with a print command and combined to form a printing fixed pattern.

[0006]

According to the above-described structure, it is not necessary to store all the fixed patterns to be printed in the memory, and only the element patterns need to be stored in the memory, so the memory capacity can be small. For example, in the previous example, conventionally, it was necessary to store nine types of fixed patterns, but in the present invention, A,
It is only necessary to store six types of fixed patterns of B, C, a, b, and c.

[0007]

EXAMPLE FIG. 1 schematically shows an example of the structure of a printed matter handled in the present invention. In this example, the fixed part of the print pattern is composed of a combination of two fixed patterns, X is one of the fixed patterns of the first group, and Y is one of the fixed patterns of the second group. The respective patterns are as shown in FIG. 1A, and the fixed patterns of X and Y are overlapped with each other in FIG. 1B.
The fixed pattern for printing as shown in FIG. Actual printing is configured by inserting a pattern that changes for each leaf in the pattern of FIG. 1B. The fixed pattern is not limited to the case where the two are arranged in this way. The present invention can be applied to a case where another fixed pattern is included in a fixed pattern or a case where three or more fixed patterns are combined.

There are a plurality of types of fixed patterns for the first group, the second group, etc., and the fixed pattern for the first group is A,
The fixed patterns of the second group of the three types of B and C are four types of a, b, c, and d. The combination of the patterns of these two groups is 3 × 4 = 12 in the simple calculation. FIG. 2 shows an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a control device (computer) that controls the printer, 2 is a ROM storing the operation program of this computer, characters used for printing, fonts of ruled lines, etc.
Is the fixed pattern A, B, C of the first group and the second
This is a RAM that stores each data of the fixed patterns a, b, c, and d of the group and the attribute of the variable item of the printed matter. The variable item attribute here refers to the size or font of a character used for printing. A communication interface 4 receives information from the host computer. Reference numeral 5 is a print control unit, 6 is a print head, and 7 is a paper feed motor.

The printing operation of the above-mentioned device is performed as follows. The control device 1 receives a print instruction from the host computer. The content of the instruction is an instruction of the size or type of the character used in the fixed pattern of the first group and the fixed pattern of the second group used for the printed matter and the variable pattern to be imprinted in the fixed pattern. The control device stores this instruction information in the RAM 3. For example, the fixed pattern of the first group is A, and the fixed patterns of the second group are three types of a, b, and c, and the variable pattern is 10
In the case of the instruction of Mincho type Kanji or Hiragana of the point, the fixed patterns A, a, b, and c are sent and stored in the RAM, and the instruction information of the used character is stored in the RAM as other information. After that, the host computer sends an instruction of the print contents for each sheet. It is a combination of fixed patterns, for example, A + b and the contents of a variable pattern, which are stored in the buffer memory area of the RAM 3, and the control device 1 reads the data of the fixed pattern A and the data of b according to the data in this RAM, The variable information that is the print content is read from the buffer and the font of the specified font is R0.
The data is read from M2, a print pattern for one sheet is formed in the RAM3, the print control unit 5 is made to print one sheet, and a signal indicating the end of printing is sent to the host computer. Then, the data for the next one sheet is sent from the host and the same operation as above is performed.

In the above example, the instruction of the fixed data combination and the variable pattern are sent from the host computer one by one. However, the content of the variable pattern is the serial number of the document or the RAM 3 is stored in the RAM 3. If you want to print the print contents of each leaf stored in advance,
Even if the shake hand method as in the above example is not used between the control device 1 and the host computer, the host starts to instruct the fixed pattern data and the character type, A + a number of sheets, A + b number of sheets. After that, the control device 1 can voluntarily print one by one. Also, the fixed pattern may not be received from the host, and a non-volatile memory may be provided in the printer and stored in advance.

[0011]

According to the present invention, when a fixed pattern is composed of some combinations of a plurality of types of fixed patterns, the combined fixed pattern becomes an element instead of being stored in a memory. Since the fixed patterns that are stored are stored and the fixed patterns necessary for printing are combined, the capacity of the memory that stores the fixed patterns can be saved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a print pattern handled in the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 controller 2 ROM 3 RAM 4 interface 5 print controller 6 print head 7 paper feed motor

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A print pattern comprising a fixed pattern and a variable pattern that changes for each leaf, and the printed fixed pattern is a combination of some elemental fixed patterns. In the above, each of the elemental fixed patterns is stored in the memory, and the data of the elemental fixed pattern designated from the memory is read out in accordance with the print command and combined to form the fixed pattern for printing. Characteristic printer.