JPH07179013A - Judging method for kind of ribbon cassette and printing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute good quality color printing at all times without fail. CONSTITUTION:When an ink ribbon cassette is installed in a ribbon carriage 11, a CPU 2 reads the detection signal for detecting the kind of the cassette through an input-output port 13 so as to display an installation advice of the cassette having the ink ribbon of designated color on an LCD 8, when the color of the ink ribbon of the installed cassette is proved by the detection signal to be different from the color designated on the display of the LCD 8 and stops the execution of printing until the correct cassette is installed. Thus, no failure at color printing occurs. Further, when a cassette having the ink ribbon of specified color easily blurring at printing is installed and, at the same time, the printing mode at that time is no high grade mode, the CPU 2 changed over the printing mode to a high grade mode and then the printing with the cassette having the specified ink ribbon color is executed by a printer device 1. Thus, good quality printing can be executed at all times.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a serial printer which requires an ink ribbon such as a thermal transfer printer, and more particularly to a method for discriminating the type of an ink ribbon cassette corresponding to the color of the ink ribbon and a method for discriminating the same. The printing device used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, also in a thermal transfer printer, color printing has been realized by replacing a plurality of color ribbon cassettes. When performing such color printing, the type of ribbon to be replaced is displayed on the screen for specifying the printing of the device equipped with this thermal transfer printer, so that the user can set the color ribbon cassette and set the color ribbon cassette. The method of printing is adopted. When color printing is performed in this way, printing will be executed even if the user sets the color ribbon cassette of the wrong color in the device. There was a problem that resulted in failure.

Further, when performing color printing while exchanging a plurality of color ribbon cassettes as described above, there are ink ribbon cassettes such as gold and silver color ribbon cassettes in which print data is difficult to store. When such an ink ribbon cassette that print data is hard to stick is attached, printing tends to be faint in the high-speed printing mode designation. Nevertheless, when the user attaches this kind of ink ribbon cassette to the apparatus, there is only a description in the manual or the like to perform printing in the high quality printing mode. I installed and specified the high-speed printing mode,
There was a fear that poor quality printing such as faint printing would be performed.

The cause of the above-mentioned problems is that the conventional printing apparatus cannot discriminate the type of the attached ink ribbon cassette, so that the management of the type of the attached ink ribbon cassette is left to the user. It was However, the conventional printing apparatus of this type does not currently have a function of discriminating the type of the attached ink ribbon cassette.

[0005]

Color printing can be performed by replacing the designated color ribbon cassette in the thermal transfer printer device as described above by the user, but the color ink ribbon cassette of the color designated by the user. Even if the printer is not installed, the printing is executed, and the color printing fails. Further, if the user mistakenly specifies the high-speed printing mode by mounting a color ribbon cassette on which printing data is hard to be stored, there is a drawback that poor quality printing such as faint printing is performed.

In view of the above, the present invention eliminates the above-mentioned drawbacks, allows the user to always attach the designated type of ink ribbon cassette, and prints in a printing mode suitable for the color type of the attached ink ribbon cassette. An object of the present invention is to provide an ink ribbon cassette type determination method and a printing apparatus that can always perform high-quality printing without failure.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a printing apparatus for performing printing by designating a color type of an ink ribbon cassette to be mounted and allowing a user to replace the ink ribbon cassette. The detecting means for detecting the color, the judging means for judging whether or not the color of the ink ribbon detected by the detecting means is the same as the designated color type, and the color of the ink ribbon detected by the judging means is And a control unit for stopping the execution of printing when it is determined that the color type is different from the displayed color type.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a printing apparatus for performing printing by designating a color type of an ink ribbon cassette to be mounted and allowing a user to replace the ink ribbon cassette, a detecting means for detecting the color of the ink ribbon of the ink ribbon cassette. And a first judging means for judging whether the color of the ink ribbon detected by the detecting means is a preset color type, and the color of the ink ribbon detected by the first judging means. Is a preset color type, second determining means for determining whether or not the currently set printing speed is appropriate, and the second determining means determines that the printing speed is not appropriate. Control means for changing the printing speed to execute the printing when the printing is performed, and the color of the ink ribbon detected by the determination means is different from the displayed color type. When it is determined that, with a configuration provided with the display means for displaying a message that recommends to replace the color type of displaying the ink ribbon cassette.

Further, in the detecting means in both of the above-mentioned constitutions, through holes are provided in the ribbon cassette, and thereafter, the number and positions of the through holes opened in the ribbon cassette mounted on the ribbon carriage are used as sensors. The ribbon cassette type is determined by the number and position of the through holes detected by the sensor.

[0010]

In the first invention, the detecting means detects the color of the ink ribbon of the ink ribbon cassette. The determining means determines whether or not the color of the ink ribbon detected by the detecting means is the same as the displayed color type. The control means stops the execution of printing when the determination means determines that the detected color of the ink ribbon is different from the designated color type. The display means displays a message recommending that the ink ribbon cassette be replaced with the displayed color type when it is determined that the color of the ink ribbon detected by the determination means is different from the displayed color type. As a result, it is possible to notify the user that the mounted ink ribbon cassettes have different colors and to replace the ink ribbon cassettes with the correct color, so that color printing can be reliably performed with certainty.

In the second invention, the detection means detects the color of the ink ribbon of the ink ribbon cassette. The first determination means determines whether or not the color of the ink ribbon detected by the detection means is a preset color type. The second determination unit determines whether or not the currently set printing speed is appropriate when the color of the ink ribbon detected by the first determination unit is a preset color type. The control means changes the printing speed and executes printing when the second judging means determines that the printing speed is not appropriate. As a result, when an ink ribbon cassette of a color type that prints faintly is installed,
The printing speed (high-quality printing mode) can be reduced to prevent the blurring, and high-quality printing can always be performed.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printing apparatus of the present invention which employs the method of determining the type of an ink ribbon cassette of the present invention and a document preparation apparatus equipped with this printing apparatus. Reference numeral 1 is a printer device having a ribbon carriage 14, 2 is a CPU for controlling document creation and printing, 3 is a printer drive circuit for driving the printer device 1 to print a document or the like, and 4 is a line for storing fonts to be printed. A buffer memory, 5 is a document memory for storing created document data, color print designation control code, etc., and 6 is a CPU 2
A ROM that stores a program for controlling a table and table data described below, 7 is a character generator that generates a font of characters to be printed, and 8 is an LC that displays a document or the like.
D and 9 are LCs for controlling the display of documents on the LCD 8.
D drive circuit, 10 is a keyboard to which characters and various function commands are input by the user, 11 is a keyboard control circuit that interprets a key code input from the keyboard 10 and outputs the key code to the CPU 2, and 12 is for the CPU 2 to operate. A RAM 13 for storing various necessary data is an input port for inputting a detection signal for detecting the type of the ink ribbon cassette.

Although the printer device 1, the printer drive circuit 3, the input port 13 and the CPU 2 constitute the printing device of the present invention, the CPU 2 and the like also serve to control the document creation device.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed example of the ribbon carriage 14 constituting the printer device 1 shown in FIG. Reference numerals 21 and 22 denote ribbon feed shafts 23A, 23B, 2 which are inserted into a ribbon cassette side (not shown) to feed a ribbon.
3C is a ribbon sensor. This ribbon sensor is a sensor in which a light emitting element and a light receiving element are paired, and a detection signal is generated depending on whether light is transmitted in front of it.

FIG. 3 shows the ribbon carriage 14 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the structure of an ink ribbon cassette detachably attached to the ink ribbon cassette. This ink ribbon cassette has 3
Identification (ID) holes corresponding to ribbon types such as 1A, 31B, and 31C are formed. In this example, 3 IDs
Although the holes are provided, it is assumed that this number is determined according to the color of the ink ribbon.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. If you want to print the created documents, the user can use the keyboard 1
This is the keyboard control circuit 1 to press the 0 print key.
It is input to the CPU 2 via 1. This makes CP
The U2 reads out the table data in the ROM 6, transfers it to the RAM 12, and then displays the print setting screen as shown in FIG. 5 on the LCD 8 through the LCD drive circuit 9.
The user sees this screen and sets various values from the keyboard 10
After setting to U2, press the execute key. This makes CP
U2 executes the color printing process shown in the flowchart of FIG.

That is, the CPU 2 initializes black as a development color of color printing in step 401 of FIG. Then C
In step 402, the PU 2 reads a character string that matches the expanded color from the document memory 5, causes the character generator 7 to generate a font corresponding to each character, and expands the obtained font in the line buffer memory 4. In addition, CPU
When reading a character string that matches the expanded color from the document memory 5, the reference numeral 2 refers to the color print designation control code stored in the document memory 5 to search for the character string that matches the expanded color. Thereafter, the CPU 2 determines in step 403 whether or not the color ink ribbon cassette is mounted on the ribbon carriage 14 of the printer device 1. If not, the process proceeds to step 404, and a message prompting the mounting of the color ink ribbon cassette is driven by the LCD. After displaying through the circuit 9 on the LCD 8 as shown in FIG. 6, step 4
Return to 03.

When the color ink ribbon cassette is mounted on the ribbon carriage 14, the CPU 2 proceeds to step 405 to read the detection signal indicating the type of the color ink ribbon cassette from the input port 13, and at step 406, the detection signals are stored in the RAM 12. The type of the color ink ribbon cassette is determined by comparing with the table data shown in FIG. 7, and it is determined whether the color of the color ink ribbon of the mounted cassette matches the set development color. If they do not match, go to step 407,
If they match, the process proceeds to step 408. Step 407
Then, the CPU 2 displays a message on the screen of the LCD 8 as shown in FIG. 8 that the color ink ribbon of the cassette mounted through the LCD drive circuit 9 is different from the designated one and that the cassette of the correct color is mounted. Return to step 405. If the process proceeds to step 408, the CPU
2 activates the printer drive circuit 3, so the printer drive circuit 3 reads the font stored in the line buffer memory 4, and the printer device 1 according to this font.
By operating a thermal head (not shown), the color ink on the color ink ribbon mounted on the ribbon carriage 14 is melted and printing is performed on a sheet (not shown). Next, the CPU 2 proceeds to step 409, sets a development color to the next color, displays a message for replacing the ink ribbon cassette with the cassette of this color on the screen of the LCD 8 through the LCD drive circuit 9, and then returns to step 402.

By the way, the ribbon carriage 14 shown in FIG. 1 has ribbon sensors 23A and 23A as shown in FIG.
B and 23C are provided. Further, the ink ribbon cassette mounted on the ribbon carriage 14 of this embodiment has ID holes 30 as shown in FIG. 3 according to the color of the ink ribbon. Therefore, when the ink ribbon cassette shown in FIG. 3 is mounted on the ribbon carriage 14 shown in FIG. 2, the ID hole is located directly above the ribbon sensor 23, so that the detection signal of the ribbon sensor may vary depending on the number and position of the ID holes. Since the level is high or low, the type of the attached ink ribbon cassette can be detected. The output level of the ribbon sensor 23 becomes 0, which is a low level, when the ID hole is opened, and the output level becomes a high level and outputs "1" when the ID hole is not opened.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 7, eight kinds of ribbon cassettes can be identified by the number and position of the ID holes of the ink ribbon cassette mounted, for example, 000 is a cassette not mounted, 001 is a black ink ribbon cassette, and 00 is a black ink ribbon cassette.
2 can identify a red ink ribbon cassette ... The table data shown in FIG. 7 is stored in the RAM 12, and the CPU 2 inputs a detection signal corresponding to the left column of FIG. If so, the color of the ink ribbon of the cassette can be identified.

When the CPU 2 is executing the printing process as shown in FIG. 4, each time the developed color is changed, the ribbon cassette of the corresponding color is attached to the printer device 1 and the printing is executed. At this time, for example, when a gold or silver color ink ribbon cassette is mounted and the print mode is not the high quality mode, a problem such as faint printing occurs. For this reason, in this example, by performing the processing as shown in the flowchart of FIG. 9 at the time of printing, it is possible to prevent the above-described problems from occurring.

First, the CPU 1 stores the print mode set by the user from the keyboard 10 in the RAM 12 in step 90 at the start of printing described in the flowchart of FIG.
Register in 1. Then, in step 902, a detection signal indicating the type of the attached ribbon cassette is read from the input port 13. Next, the CPU 1 determines whether the type of the cassette read in step 903 is a gold or silver ink ribbon cassette, and if not, the process proceeds to step 904, where printing according to the setting is replaced by the ink ribbon cassette. The process is repeated until the process is completed and the process returns to step 902. If it is determined in step 903 that the mounted cassette has a gold or silver ink ribbon, the CPU 2 proceeds to step 905 to determine whether the print mode is the high quality mode. If so, go to step 904; otherwise, go to step 906. In step 906, the CPU 1 switches the print mode to the high quality mode, executes printing with this ink ribbon cassette, and when this printing is completed, returns the print mode to the high speed mode in step 907, and then proceeds to step 902. Return.

According to this embodiment, the ribbon carriage 14
When the ink ribbon cassette is mounted on, the color of the ink ribbon of the mounted cassette is discriminated, and if the color of this ink ribbon is different from the color of the ink ribbon specified on the screen of the LCD 8, , L message to have the correct ink ribbon installed
Since it is displayed on the CD 8 and printing is not executed by the wrong ink ribbon cassette, color printing can be properly performed without failure. Also, if a gold or silver ribbon cassette is installed and the high-quality print mode is not in effect, the high-quality print mode is automatically changed and printing is performed. Therefore, high quality printing can always be performed.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, a ribbon cassette of a designated type is always mounted by the user, and printing is performed in a print mode suitable for the mounted ink ribbon cassette, thereby preventing a failure. It is possible to perform high-quality printing without any problems.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printing apparatus of the present invention which employs the method for determining the type of an ink ribbon cassette of the present invention and a printing apparatus equipped with this printing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a detailed example of the ribbon carriage shown in FIG.

3 is a diagram showing an example of an ink ribbon cassette mounted in the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a printing operation of the apparatus shown in FIG.

5 is a diagram showing an example of a print setting screen displayed on the LCD shown in FIG.

6 is a diagram showing an example of a message screen displayed on the LCD shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a view showing an example of table data stored in the RAM of FIG.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing another example of a message screen displayed on the LCD shown in FIG.

9 is a flowchart showing a printing operation of the apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Printer device 2 ... CPU 3 ... Printer drive circuit 4 ... Line buffer memory 5 ... Document memory 6 ... Control program storage ROM 7 ... Character generator 8 ... LCD 9 ... LCD drive circuit 10 ... Keyboard 11 ... Keyboard control circuit 12 ... RAM 13 ... Input port

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A method for determining the type of a ribbon cassette when printing is performed by adhering ink of a ribbon cassette mounted on a carriage to a sheet, wherein a through hole is provided in the ribbon cassette, and then a ribbon is formed. A sensor detects the number and position of through holes opened in the ribbon cassette mounted on the carriage, and the type of the ribbon cassette is determined by the number and position of through holes detected by the sensor. A method for determining the type of ribbon cassette. 2. A detecting device for detecting a color of an ink ribbon of the ink ribbon cassette in a printing apparatus for performing printing by designating a color type of an ink ribbon cassette to be mounted and exchanging the ink ribbon cassette. Determination means for determining whether or not the detected color of the ink ribbon is the same as the designated color type, and the determination means determines that the detected color of the ink ribbon is different from the displayed color type. And a control means for stopping the execution of printing. 3. When a color of the ink ribbon detected by the determination means is determined to be different from the displayed color type, a message recommending that the ink ribbon cassette be replaced with the designated color type is displayed. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a display unit. 4. In a printing apparatus which performs printing by designating a color type of an ink ribbon cassette to be mounted and replacing the ink ribbon cassette, a detection unit for detecting the color of the ink ribbon of the ink ribbon cassette, and the detection unit First determining means for determining whether or not the detected color of the ink ribbon is a preset color type;
Second determining means for determining whether or not the currently set printing speed is appropriate when the color of the ink ribbon detected by the first determining means is a preset color type; A printing apparatus comprising: a control unit that changes the printing speed and executes printing when the second judgment unit determines that the printing speed is not appropriate. 5. The printing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the detecting means uses the ribbon cassette type determination method according to claim 1.