JPH07125325A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To add a necessary and sufficient curtain printing mechanism by the addition measure of software by rearranging a series of the character codes from a host computer in reverse order and rotating selected font data by 90 deg. in a counterclockwise direction to control the same. CONSTITUTION:When vertical writing curtain printing is indicated at the time of curtain printing, the font data control software built in a program memory 14 uses lateral writing font data with respect to a general character and uses vertical writing font data with respect to a special character and subject a series of the character codes transmitted from a host computer 10 to printing in character arranging order. When lateral writing curtain printing is indicated, vertical writing font data is used with respect to a general character and lateral writing font data is used with respect to a special character and, after a series of the character codes transmitted from the host computer 10 is rearranged in reverse order, font data to be used is rotated by 90 deg. in a counterclockwise direction to be subjected to printing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device capable of printing a banner in either vertical writing mode or horizontal writing mode in response to a command from a host computer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some word processors and some personal computers are equipped with a printer device. However, the print fonts that can be used are limited to those unique to the printer device, and the printing speed is slow. There is also a drawback that it is not suitable for printing in a short time. on the other hand,
Personal computers, which surpass word processors in terms of popularity, are left to the discretion of the user to select not only the display and external storage device but also the printer device, and are not comparable to word processors in terms of versatility and expandability. It is also true that there is potential, and even if only a printer device is used as an example, dot impact methods and thermal transfer can be used from serial printers that print in units of one or several lines to page printers that print in batches of pages. In fact, various types of printer devices such as a system, an inkjet system, and a laser system have been put on the market.

Most of the printers connected to the host computer have a printing function almost equal to that of a general word processor. For example, not only horizontal printing in which characters are arranged side by side on paper but also printed, It is also possible to select different formats such as vertical writing in which characters are arranged vertically and printed. For example, in horizontal writing, as shown in FIG. 6A, the sentence "Today is rain" is printed in the horizontal direction according to the same notation format displayed on the screen of the host computer.
However, in vertical writing, as shown in FIG.
For the general characters except the punctuation "," and the punctuation ".", That is, "now", "day", "ha", "rain", "de", and "su", the font data is counterclockwise (to the left) 90
While the characters are rotated and printed, the horizontal writing font data is the same as the vertical writing font data for the reading character “,” and the punctuation mark “.”, Which are special characters that have different printing positions for adjacent characters between horizontal writing and vertical writing. Since it cannot be diverted to the horizontal writing font data, a method of printing using vertical writing font data prepared separately from the horizontal writing font data is used. Note that such special characters include, for example, commas “,” and periods “.” As well as the opening parenthesis “(” and the closing parenthesis “)” in addition to the punctuation “,” and punctuation “.”. .

[0004]

Not only the printer device connected to the host computer, but also most of the latest word processors have a banner printing function for printing one letter vertically or horizontally on a long sheet of paper to create a banner. , It is useful for printing the characters at the beginning of writing such as “Happy New Year” and in-store advertising such as “End of Year Sale”. However, until now, printers connected to a host computer have no compatible low-priced popular printers such as serial printers that can print banners. Therefore, for example, paper that is long in the vertical direction "is rain today." On the screen of the host computer for the purpose of printing the banner

It is assumed that a sentence is created as described above and is printed horizontally. In this case, as shown in FIG. 6C, since the punctuation marks are not printed in a formal positional relationship with the preceding and following characters, it is not an unreadable sentence, but obviously deviates from the formal notation. There was a problem such as.

On the screen of the host computer, even though he was trying to print the banner on a long sheet of paper in a horizontal direction, he knew that it was impossible. It is assumed that characters are created in reverse order and are printed vertically. In this case also, as shown in FIG.
Punctuation is not printed in a formal position relative to the characters before and after it, and when the paper that has been printed is separated from the roll paper and read sideways, it is not an unreadable sentence, but it is clearly official There were problems such as deviation from the notation.

Further, in order to eliminate such a difficulty associated with the hanging banner printing, a method of preparing special font data for the vertical printing and the horizontal writing of the special characters for the hanging banner printing is also conceivable. It is necessary to expand the stored contents of the font ROM, or to correct the stored contents of the program memory that regulates the operation of the CPU incorporated in the printer device. Even
When printing horizontal banners, the user can reverse the characters that make up the final desired sentence, one character at a time, for example, ".
It was necessary to rearrange and edit as "Amae, ha ha ni ni nin", and there was a problem that it did not have market value in terms of practicality.

[0008]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The present invention has solved the above-mentioned problems and stores special vertical writing font data and special horizontal writing font data corresponding to special characters such as punctuation marks or parentheses, and the special characters. Other than the general vertical writing font data and the general horizontal writing font data corresponding to the general character, a command and character code sent from the host computer to determine the hanging print command determination means, and the hanging print When vertical banner printing is designated by the banner printing command determined by the command determining means, the general horizontal font data and the special vertical font data are selected, and the series of character codes transmitted from the host computer are converted into characters. It is controlled in the order of arrangement, and horizontal banner printing is specified. If the general vertical writing font data and the special horizontal writing font data are selected, the series of character codes transmitted from the host computer are rearranged in the reverse order of the character arrangement, and then the selected font data is set to 90 degrees. And a font data control means for controlling by rotating in a counterclockwise direction.

Alternatively, the present invention stores special vertical writing font data and special horizontal writing font data corresponding to special characters such as punctuation marks or parentheses, and general vertical writing font data corresponding to general characters other than the special characters. And a general memory for storing horizontal writing font data, a hanging curtain print command judging means for judging a hanging curtain printing command by a command and a character code transmitted from the host computer, and a hanging curtain printing command judged by the hanging curtain printing command judging means The general or special vertical writing font data or the general and special horizontal writing font data is selected according to whether the specified banner print is vertical writing or horizontal writing regardless of the character or special character, and is transmitted from the host computer. A series of character codes are arranged in the reverse order of the character array. After was example, it is characterized in that it comprises a font data control means for providing rotating the font data selected by 90 degrees counterclockwise banner printing.

Further, the present invention is characterized in that the memory stores font data in an outline font format in which a character is represented by some points and a contour line connecting the points. is there.

[0011]

According to the present invention, when the vertical writing banner printing is designated when the host computer commands the banner printing,
Horizontal font data is used for general characters and vertical font data is used for special characters.
When a series of character codes sent by the host computer is printed in the order of character arrangement and horizontal writing banner printing is specified, vertical writing font data is used for general characters and horizontal writing font data is used for special characters. After rearranging the series of character codes transmitted by the printer in the reverse order of the character array, the font data to be used is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise and used for printing. Enables vertical banner printing in any format.

Alternatively, the general and special vertical writing font data or the general and special horizontal writing font data are used depending on whether the banner printing designated without distinction of general characters or special characters is vertical writing or horizontal writing. After rearranging a series of character codes transmitted by the computer in the reverse order of the character arrangement, the font data to be used is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise to be used for banner printing, so that the host computer connection type printer device Enables banner printing in both horizontal and vertical formats.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a schematic block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a printer device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the CPU shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a flow chart shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of printing when it obeys.

The printer device 11 shown in FIG. 1 is a thermal transfer serial printer which is used by being externally connected to the host computer 10. The printer device 11 includes a CPU 1
2 around the reception buffer 13 and the program memory 14,
Further, a font ROM 15, a print buffer 16, an output interface 17, etc. are arranged to provide an output interface 1
The print head 18, the carriage driving device 19, or the paper feeding mechanism 20 is controlled via the control unit 7. The reception buffer 13 is connected to an output interface (not shown) of the host computer 10 by a connection cable 21 conforming to the Centronics specification, and receives the data indicating the instruction code and the character code sent from the host computer 10 all at once. Hold. The program memory 14 stores an operation program indispensable for the operation of the CPU 12, and the print processing operation corresponding to the format and print mode designated by the host computer 10 side is defined in the form of software. As the format, for example, there is an item indicating vertical writing or horizontal writing in addition to items such as paper size, paper direction, number of lines per page, number of characters per line, line feed pitch, character spacing, and number of character points. The print mode includes items such as the number of print copies, print start page, print with page, start page with page, and print speed.

The font ROM 15 is a mask ROM in which font data defining a font of a character to be printed is stored, and horizontal writing font data and vertical writing font for general characters which can be used for vertical writing and horizontal writing by rotating the font data. The data is stored. Further, the font ROM 15 used in the embodiment is not a dot font format in which all the dots forming a character are stored so that an enlarged character can be printed with a smooth contour line, and the character is represented by some points (points). The font data is stored according to the outline font format expressed by the outline (outline) connecting the points. The utility of this outline font format is that it not only makes it easy to enlarge characters, but it also makes it very easy to rotate the font data 90 degrees counterclockwise.

The print buffer 16 stores the font data expanded in the outline format as dot data suitable for printing by the print head 18, and stores the data until the print head 18 is used for actual printing. A thermal head of 400 DPI, for example, is used as the print head 18, and is mounted on a carriage for serial scanning. The carriage driving device 19 is a device for reciprocally driving the carriage on which the print head 18 is mounted in the row direction at a constant speed, and the traveling speed according to the print quality can be selected. The paper feed mechanism 20 feeds paper in conjunction with the carriage drive device 19, and has a function of feeding paper by a pitch specified in the format when the carriage returns and runs.

By the way, in the program memory 14, the hanging curtain print command discrimination software used for judging the hanging curtain print command included in the instruction code transmitted from the host computer 10 and the font for selecting appropriate font data according to the designated format. Data control software is built in. This font data control software uses the horizontal writing font data for general characters and the vertical writing font data for special characters when the vertical writing banner printing is designated during the hanging printing, and the host computer 10 transmits the characters. A series of character codes to be printed are printed in the order of character arrangement. When horizontal banner printing is specified, vertical font data is used for general characters and horizontal font data is used for special characters, and the series of character codes transmitted by the host computer 10 is in the reverse order of the character arrangement. After rearranging to, the font data to be used are all rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise (to the left) for printing.
The hanging screen print command discrimination software and the font data control software are stored in the program memory 14 and C
The PU 12 is a means for supporting the hanging curtain printing function realized by hardware on the software side. Here, the notation according to the hardware is adopted as the hanging curtain printing means 22 collectively with these software.

Here, when printing a sentence created on the screen of the host computer 10, first the host computer 10 side appropriately sets the format and print mode, and finally presses the execute key. As a result, the print command and the document data issued by the host computer 10 are taken into the reception buffer 13 in the printer device 11 via the connection cable 21. As a result, first, in step (101) shown in FIG. 2, the CPU 1 in the printer device 11
2 searches the reception buffer 13 for 1 byte, and in the subsequent judgment step (102), it is judged whether or not a command is received. Here, if it is determined that the command has been received, the command analysis generally shown in step (200) is executed. It should be noted that these command data include all data necessary for print designation, such as line feed designation, normal printing, banner printing, vertical writing and horizontal writing.

On the other hand, if it is found in the judgment step (102) that the character code is not the command, the font data corresponding to the character code is read from the font ROM 15 in the following step (103). Further, in the subsequent judgment step (104), it is judged whether or not the hanging-printing is designated. If it is not the hanging print, it is judged in the judgment step (105) whether it is the vertical writing print or the horizontal writing print, and the step (106) or the step (10) is executed according to the judgment result.
Proceed to 7). In case of vertical writing, step (106)
In vertical print font data in outline font format converted to dot font format in print buffer 1
6, and finally, in step (108), the font data in the dot font format is output to the print head 18. In the case of horizontal writing, step (107)
In horizontal print font data in outline font format in dot font format, print buffer 16
Output to the print head 18 (1
08). However, with respect to such normal horizontal writing and vertical writing, the conventional printer device is also guaranteed, and the above-mentioned sentence "Today is rain" is also shown in FIGS. 3 (A) and 3 (B). Is printed as is.

On the other hand, in the judgment step (104),
If it is determined that the hanging print is designated, that is, if the CPU 12 determines the hanging print command according to the hanging print mand discrimination software, it is first determined in the judgment step (110) whether it is the vertical writing or the horizontal writing. Then, depending on the result of the judgment, step (1
11) or shift to step (112). That is,
If it is vertical writing, in step (111), horizontal writing font data is used for general characters and vertical writing font data is used for special characters, and these outline font format font data are converted to dot font format. The data is expanded in the print buffer 16 and is output to the print head 18 in step (108). Therefore, in the vertical banner printing, the vertical banner is printed in the longitudinal direction of the paper, such as "Today is rain", as shown in FIG.

On the other hand, in the case of horizontal writing, in step (112), vertical writing font data is used for general characters, and horizontal writing font data is used for special characters. Print buffer 1 converted to format
Expand to 6. However, before the font data output shown in step (108) is entered, in step (113), the character codes received by the reception buffer 13 are rearranged in the reverse order of the character array, and then in the following step (11).
In 4), the font data is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. That is, in step (113), that is, the character code for the characters that form the sentence "Today is rain." After rearranging to the character codes of the constituent characters, the vertical writing font data for general characters and the horizontal writing font data for special characters, which are already developed in the dot font format, are rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. . Therefore, in horizontal banner printing, horizontal banner printing is performed as "Today is rain" in the longitudinal direction of the paper, as shown in FIG. When the characters arranged in reverse are rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise for each character, the reading direction is reversed upside down, but vertical writing and horizontal writing can be achieved.

In this case, the characteristic is that in the banner printing, the font data corresponding to the format is used for special characters in vertical writing and horizontal writing, whereas for general characters, horizontal writing font data is used for vertical writing. It is used, and vertical writing font data is used for horizontal writing. However, since both vertical writing font data and horizontal writing font data used for normal printing can be diverted to banner printing, it is not necessary to add special font data in addition to the font data already stored in the font ROM 15. .

As described above, according to the printer device 11, when the vertical writing banner printing is designated when the host computer 10 commands the hanging banner printing, the horizontal writing font data is used for the general character and the special character is used. With respect to, the vertical writing font data is used, and a series of character codes transmitted by the host computer 10 is used for printing in the order of character arrangement, and when horizontal writing banner printing is specified,
Vertical font data is used for general characters and horizontal font data is used for special characters.
Since the series of character codes transmitted by the host computer 10 is rearranged in the reverse order of the character arrangement and the font data to be used are rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise for printing, the banner printing is , The font data for general characters can be used interchangeably for vertical writing and horizontal writing, and only for horizontal hanging banner printing, simply rotate the font data counterclockwise and print the character array in reverse order. Therefore, it is possible to very finely cope with the hanging screen printing. In addition to the conventional host computer connection type printer device, the printer device 11 only needs to have a banner print command determination function and a font data control function in addition to the horizontal writing function and the vertical writing function. For special characters, prepare font data exclusively for banner printing, or prepare a special clockwise rotation method in addition to the counterclockwise rotation method of font data, which is a basic essential means for supporting vertical and horizontal formats. Without
A necessary and sufficient banner printing function can be added by additional processing of software.

Further, since the font ROM 15 stores font data in the outline font format in which a character is represented by some points and a contour line connecting the points, the enlarged character is printed with a smooth contour line. Not only that, it is especially effective for banner printing that requires enlargement and rotation of the font data at the same time. It is possible to print banners that give the impression of smooth lines.

In the above embodiment, when printing the banner, the font data relating to the general characters are interchanged between the vertical writing and the horizontal writing, and the font data is rotated counterclockwise only for the horizontal printing. The character array to be printed on the screen is printed in reverse order. However, as shown in steps (211) and (212) of FIG. 4, when the banner printing is performed, the font data for general characters is written vertically and horizontally. It is also possible to rotate the font data counterclockwise for both formats without performing the replacement, and then print the character array to be printed in reverse order. In this case, in both the vertical writing format and the horizontal writing format, the font data in the outline font format read from the font ROM 15 according to the designated format is rearranged in the reverse order of the character arrangement in the character code in step (213). After that, regardless of the type of the general character or the special character, in step (214), it is rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise (to the left).

Therefore, an example of printing according to this embodiment is shown in FIG.
As shown in (A) to (D) of FIG.
The reverse arrangement characters written in brackets in (D) are rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise for each character, so that the reading direction is reversed upside down, but vertical writing and horizontal writing can be achieved. To be done. In this case, as is apparent from the principle of rotation of the font data, the font data used for the normal horizontal writing shown in FIG. 5A and the font data used for the horizontal hanging banner printing shown in FIG. 5D. Is
The same font data is used although the directions are different. Similarly, the font data used for the normal vertical writing printing shown in FIG. 5B and the font data used for the vertical hanging banner printing shown in FIG. 5C are the same font data although the directions are different. Is. That is, in step (213), the font data is reversed from the character arrangement and then rotated in the counterclockwise direction in step (214), so that all the font data used for normal printing can be diverted to the banner printing. become,
In addition, the font data may be rotated in the counterclockwise direction uniformly, and therefore no special font data need be added to the font data already stored in the font ROM 15.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When printing banners, the font data for general characters are used interchangeably for vertical writing and horizontal writing.For horizontal banner printing, rotate the font data counterclockwise and then print the character array in reverse order. It is possible to deal with the problem by simply printing by printing, and it is possible to add a necessary and sufficient banner printing function by the additional processing of the software, which has an excellent effect.

Further, according to the present invention, the general character which can be dealt with by rotating one of the font data for vertical writing and horizontal writing by 90 degrees or the special character in which the front-back or left-right continuation deviates from the regular notation due to the 90-degree rotation Regardless of the character type such as characters, first use the horizontal writing function and the vertical writing function to rearrange the fixed character codes in the reverse order of the character arrangement, and then rotate the font data uniformly 90 degrees counterclockwise. By doing so, it is possible to achieve an excellent effect such as being able to cope with the printing of the hanging curtain extremely finely.

Further, according to the present invention, since the font data in the outline font format in which a character is represented by some points and a contour line connecting the points is stored in the memory, the enlarged character can be smoothly contoured. Not only can it be printed with lines, but it is especially effective for banner printing that requires expansion and rotation of the font data at the same time, and the enlargement ratio is higher than that of dot font format font data in which the outline of the enlarged characters has jagged edges. As the number increases, the effect of being able to print a hanging curtain that gives an impression of the smoothness of the contour line is produced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a printer device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the CPU shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of printing in the case of following the flowchart shown in FIG.

4 is a flowchart for explaining a modified example of the operation of the CPU shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a print example in the case of following the flowchart shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of printing by a conventional printer device.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Host Computer 11 Printer Device 12 CPU 13 Receive Buffer 14 Program Memory 15 Memory (Font ROM) 16 Print Buffer 17 Output Interface 18 Print Head 22 Droplet Command Discrimination Means, Font Data Control Means (Droplet Printing Means; 12, 14)

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. General vertical writing font data and general horizontal writing font data which store special vertical writing font data and special horizontal writing font data corresponding to special characters such as punctuation marks or parentheses and which correspond to general characters other than the special characters. Memory for storing vertical lines, vertical line hanging banner printing is designated by the hanging curtain printing command discrimination means for discriminating the hanging curtain printing command by the command and character code transmitted from the host computer, and the hanging curtain printing command discriminated by the hanging curtain printing command discrimination means In the case of the horizontal writing font data and the special vertical writing font data, the series of character codes transmitted from the host computer are controlled in the character arrangement order, and when the horizontal hanging banner printing is designated, Vertical writing font data and the special horizontal writing font Font data control means for selecting font data, rearranging a series of character codes transmitted from the host computer in the reverse order of the character arrangement, and rotating the selected font data by 90 ° counterclockwise. A printer device comprising: 2. The printer according to claim 1, wherein the memory stores font data in an outline font format in which a character is represented by some points and a contour line connecting the points. apparatus. 3. General vertical writing font data and general horizontal writing font data which store special vertical writing font data and special horizontal writing font data corresponding to special characters such as punctuation marks or parentheses and which correspond to general characters other than the special characters. Of a general character or a special character by a memory storing therein, a hanging curtain print command judging means for judging a hanging curtain print command by a command and a character code transmitted from the host computer, and a hanging curtain print command judged by the hanging curtain print command judging means. Select the general and special vertical writing font data or general and special horizontal writing font data according to whether the specified banner print is vertical writing or horizontal writing and select the series of character codes sent from the host computer. Selected after sorting in the reverse order of the character array A printer device, comprising: font data control means for rotating the font data by 90 degrees counterclockwise for printing a hanging banner. 4. The printer according to claim 3, wherein the memory stores font data in an outline font format in which a character is represented by some points and a contour line connecting the points. apparatus.