JPH07115492B2 - Character generator - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention relates to a character generator capable of generating various image patterns while reducing cost and space and improving system flexibility.

[Prior Art] As a conventional character generation device, there is, for example, a device for converting a character code (for example, JIS C6226) into an image by software processing. According to this character generator, the character codes serially sent from an external personal computer or the like are sequentially imaged, a predetermined amount of this is stored in the image memory, and then output to the recording unit for printing. .

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, according to the conventional character generator, since the character code is directly imaged by software, the processing efficiency is poor, and when trying to generate various character patterns, it is necessary to prepare a type of font corresponding to that. However, since the cost and space become large and the character code is serially imaged, there is an inconvenience that it is difficult to apply to a printer that prints randomly such as a page printer.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and in order to improve processing efficiency, reduce cost and space, and improve system flexibility, enlargement, rotation, inversion, and emphasis are performed based on character codes and control codes. A character that creates an intermediate language having attribute information such as reduction, position information in image memory, corresponding font address information, and character pattern size information, and generates output dot data by this intermediate language. A generator is provided.

Hereinafter, the character generator of the present invention will be described in detail.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the present invention. An image signal generator 1 (a network may be configured by LAN) that inputs a character code from an external device such as a personal computer and outputs an image signal, In addition to receiving image signals, print commands, etc. from the signal generator and printing on the recording paper 5,
A recording section 2 for supplying a clock signal, a line synchronization signal, a status signal, etc. to the image signal generating apparatus 1, a power supply circuit 3 for supplying power to the image signal generating apparatus 1, the recording section 2, etc., and a display panel 4 for operating the printer. have.

FIG. 2 shows the image signal generator 1, which includes an interface section 11 for receiving a character code from an external personal computer or the like according to the RS232C standard, a control section 12 for system control, a character pattern and a pixel pattern. A stored character pattern ROM 13, an image handler 14 that performs image processing of a character pattern or a pixel pattern based on an intermediate language described later, and a character pattern or a pixel pattern image-processed by the image handler 14 is stored in page units. Bitmap memory 15 and bitmap memory 15
Controller that controls access timing to memory
16 and an interface unit that outputs an image signal to the recording unit
17 and an output interface section 18 for outputting a signal to the display panel 4. The control unit 12 is a CPU 1 that controls various operations.
2a, RAM 12b that stores an intermediate language to be described later in addition to data and calculation results in various operations, ROM 12c that stores various programs, and operation key signals are input in parallel and signals are output in parallel to the display unit. It has a parallel input / output circuit 12d for controlling and a DMA controller 12c for controlling access in data transfer between memories.

3 (a), (b), and (c) are created by the CPU 12a by the program of the ROM 12c based on the character code and control code input from an external personal computer or the like.
The specifications of the intermediate language stored in the RAM 12b are shown. FIG. 3 (a) is a page spec having information on the size of the bitmap memory 15 which is an image memory, and the X dimension and the Y dimension are the size X _{1 of} FIG. 3 (d).
And Y ₁ . Also, L / P in the page specifications is a graph showing whether the recording paper is used in Landscape mode (landscape mode) or in Portrait mode (portrait mode), and T / Y is printed in portrait print mode. Or a flag indicating whether to print in the horizontal print mode. FIG. 3B is a character spec, which has an attribute code, a span code, a position code, and a font address code. Attribute code is 1 from D _{0 to} D ₁₅
It consists of 6 bits, and is configured as follows, for example.

Next, the span codes of the X span and the Y span represent the sizes X ₂ and Y ₂ of the character pattern A in FIG. 3 (d), and the position codes of the X position and the Y position are the bit maps in FIG. 3 (d). It represents the distances X ₃ and Y ₃ from the reference point of the memory 15. The font address code indicates the address of the character pattern ROM13.

The operation of the above configuration will be described below. When a character code and a control code are input to the interface section 11 of the image signal generator 1 from an external personal computer or the like, the CPU 12a creates the intermediate language specifications of FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (c) based on the program of the ROM 12c. Then, it is stored in the RAM 12b. The character pattern ROM 13 is accessed based on the font address of the character specification, and the corresponding character pattern is generated from there. When this character pattern occurs, the image handler 14 edits / processes the character pattern based on the attribute code. The editing / processing of the character pattern in the image handler 14 and the specification of the intermediate language corresponding to the character code sequentially input in serial are performed in parallel. Edit
The processed character pattern is stored in the bitmap memory 15. In this storage, a page spec is placed at the beginning of each page and an end spec is placed at the end of each page.

FIG. 4 shows the recording unit 2, 20 is a laser light source for emitting a laser beam 22, 21 and 25 are polarizers, 23 is a modulator having an image signal input terminal 24, 26 is a rotary polygon mirror, and 27 is fθ.
A lens, 28 is a photosensitive drum, 29 is a developing device, and 30 is a transfer device.

In the recording unit 2 having the above configuration, the input terminal 24 of the modulator 23
When an image signal is input from the interface section 17, the laser beam 22 emitted from the laser light source 20 is modulated according to the image signal. The laser beam 22 is subjected to scanning control by the rotary polygon mirror 26, and the photosensitive drum 28 is exposed through the fθ lens 27. Photoreceptor drum 28 is charged before exposure, and this exposure causes bitmap memory
An electrostatic latent image corresponding to 15 images is formed on the photosensitive drum 28. This electrostatic latent image is developed with toner by the developing device 29 and transferred onto the recording paper 5 by the transfer device 30. Chart paper 5
The toner image of is fixed by a fixing device (not shown), and the recording of the image is completed. In this printing operation, since the character spec has a position code, it can be printed randomly at any position using a page printer,
Further, the supply side of the character code does not have the limitation of serially supplying the character code in a predetermined order.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the character generator of the present invention, attribute information such as enlargement, rotation, inversion, emphasis, and reduction based on the character code and control code, position information in the image memory, address information of the corresponding font. By creating an intermediate language having character pattern size information and controlling the image generation means by this intermediate language, it is possible to improve processing efficiency, reduce cost and space, and improve system flexibility. You can Moreover, since the intermediate language specifications can be created while the dot data is being output to the image recording unit, the processing speed can be increased as compared with the case where the character code is directly converted to the dot data. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 shows the first
Explanatory drawing which shows the image signal generator in a figure. FIGS. 3A to 3D are explanatory diagrams showing the specifications of the intermediate language. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing a laser recording unit. Explanation of code 1 …… Image signal generator 2 …… Recording unit 11 …… Interface unit 12 …… Control unit 13 …… Character pattern ROM 14 …… Image handler 15 …… Bitmap memory 16 …… Memory controller 17, 18 ...... Interface section

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── --Continued from the front page (56) Reference JP-A-55-43626 (JP, A) JP-A-57-136683 (JP, A) JP-A-59-49584 (JP, A) JP-A-55- 124842 (JP, A)

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A character generator that edits / processes a character pattern corresponding to a character code based on editing / processing information such as a position, size, and form corresponding to a control code to generate output dot data. A spec creating unit that creates a spec that defines the editing / processing information in an intermediate language together with an address of a pattern memory of the character pattern based on the character code and the control code; and a spec that stores the created spec. Storage means, editing / processing means for reading the character pattern from the pattern memory based on the address of the spec, and editing / processing the character pattern based on the editing / processing information of the spec; The character pattern edited and processed by the processing means is output to the image recording unit. Character generating apparatus characterized by comprising an image memory for storing a predetermined address as use dot data 2. The character generating device according to claim 1, wherein the specification creating means creates a specification including a print area of the image memory. 3. The character generating device according to claim 1, wherein the specification creating means creates a specification including a flag of a landscape mode or a portrait mode of the storage paper.