JPH07186467A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print by using an outline font at a high speed and a high quality level by effectively applying a hardware resource. CONSTITUTION:The printer comprises a rasterizer 1 for developing an outline font 2a, a nonvolatile memory 3 connected to the rasterizer 1, a font storage unit 4 receiving installation of the font to store an installation font 2b in the memory 3, and a front switching unit 5 for switching a previously installed internal font 2c to the font 2b.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer device,
In particular, it relates to a printer device having an outline font printing function.

Printer devices are classified into dot printers, ink jet printers, laser printers, etc., depending on the configuration of the printing unit, and are classified into serial printers, page printers, etc., according to the processing unit of print data. The present invention can be provided to any type of printer device, but the main subject here is a serial dot printer.

[0003]

2. Description of the Related Art There are two types of print data formats sent from a host device such as a personal computer to a printer device, depending on whether or not the printer device has a font. One is print data when the printer has font data, and this print data is
It is described centering on the character code and character size. The target font data is extracted from the font data installed at the time of manufacturing the printer device and printed. When printing an outline font, the rasterizer is used to convert the outline font into a bitmap, and then the printing process is started.

On the other hand, there is print data in the case where neither a font nor a rasterizer is provided inside the printer device.
This print data is described mainly with bitmap data. When printing an outline font, the rasterizer provided in the host device is used to convert the outline font of the host device into a bitmap. Then, the rasterizer generates bitmap data, and the print data is described mainly with the bitmap data.

[0005]

Conventionally, the outline font that can be used by the printer device having the outline font printing function is limited to the font stored inside the printer device. When a font other than the above is selected by the host device, in order to print the outline font, the rasterizer of the host device must develop the bitmap data and then transfer the bitmap data to the printer. When sending bitmap data, a huge amount of data is transferred, so that it takes a long time to complete printing. Further, in this case, there is a problem that the upper device is restrained for a long time.

Further, when the printing density when developed by the upper apparatus does not match the printing density of the printer, the printing density is converted on the printer side, which causes the deterioration of the printing quality. In particular, in a low-resolution printer device such as a dot printer, there is a disadvantage that the print quality may be significantly deteriorated.

[0007]

An object of the present invention is to improve the inconvenience of the conventional example, and in particular, it is possible to perform a printing process using an outline font at high speed and high quality by effectively utilizing hardware resources. It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer device.

[0008]

According to the present invention, a rasterizer for expanding an outline font, a non-volatile memory connected to the rasterizer, and a font storage for accepting the installation of the font and storing the installed font in the non-volatile memory. And a font switching unit for switching between a preset internal font and the installed font.
This aims to achieve the above-mentioned object.

[0009]

[Operation] First, the operation of installing the outline font will be described. When a font installation request is made from the host device, the font storage unit first receives outline font data together with the font name. The font storage unit outputs the font ID and font name of the received outline font to the font switching unit. Then, the received outline font is stored in the non-volatile memory.

The operation of receiving print data from the host device and printing it out will now be described. First, when print data is transmitted from the host device, the font switching unit selects the last installed outline font and outputs this selection to the rasterizer if the font is not specified by the font ID. The rasterizer which receives this receives the outline font from the non-volatile memory or the internal font. The rasterizer converts this outline font into a bitmap at the resolution required by the printing unit and outputs it to the printing unit.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment. The printer device 10 receives the installation of the rasterizer 1 that develops the outline font 2a, the non-volatile memory 3 connected to the rasterizer 1, and the font 2a and installs the installed font 2b in the non-volatile memory 3.
And a font switching unit 5 for switching between a preset internal font 2c and an installed font 2b.

The internal font 2c is stored in the internal font memory 6 when the printer device 10 is manufactured. Further, the rasterizer 1 is provided with a printing unit 7 that performs actual print output.

The non-volatile memory 3 has a structure that can be overwritten any number of times, and writes / reproduces digital data using magnetism, light, or both. In this embodiment, a hard disk is used because of its writing and reading speeds and storage capacity. A memory using a semiconductor may be used as long as it is non-volatile.

Next, the operation of the printer device will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the operation of installing the outline font 2a in the printer device 10 will be described. In order to install the font 2a in the printer device 10 by the host device 20 such as a personal computer, the printer driver 7
Is started and the outline font to be installed is specified by selecting information such as the font ID. The printer driver 7 is the display unit 1 of the host device 20.
The outline font 2a is processed according to the print density of the printer device 10 and the rasterizer 10 by determining the resolution of 1 and the type of the rasterizer 11 of the host device. Basically, it is desirable that the rasterizers 1 and 12 of the upper device and the printer device are the same. If there is a difference between the two, the data format of the outline font is naturally different, and the attached printer driver 7 converts the installed outline font 2a into data suitable for the rasterizer 1 of the printer device.

When the data processing is completed, the outline font data 2a is transferred to the printer device. In the printer device 10, the font storage unit 4 receives the transferred data 2 a and stores it in the non-volatile memory 3. As a result, the transferred data 2a is selected as the font with the highest priority, unless there is a command in the print data or a font switching by a setting command from the operation panel of the printer device 10.

Next, the print output operation of the printer device in which this font has been installed will be described. When a print command is issued from the application software operating on the higher-level device 20, the printer driver 7 edits the data generated by the application into data that can be analyzed by the printer device 10 to generate print data (step S1). ). When the printer device 10 receives this print data (step S2), the font switching unit 5
Is character code data (step S3), the last installed outline font 2b is selected (step S4). The character code in the received print data is output to the rasterizer 1 and the rasterizer 1
Then, the outline font is expanded through the font switching unit (step S5). The bit-mapped data is output to the printing unit, and the printing unit drives the head based on the bitmap data and prints it on the medium by dot impact (step S6).

If the font to be used for printout is selected, the font switching unit 5 selects the designated font by a command in the print data or a setting command from the operation panel (step S4). When printing with the internal font 2c stored in the internal font memory 5 when manufacturing the printer device,
It is possible to specify a command on the host device 20 or switch it on the operation panel of the printer.

When a font that is neither the installed font nor the internal font of the printer is designated, the host device transfers the bitmap data as before.

Since the installed font 2b is stored in the non-volatile memory 3, if it is desired to install a different font, the printer driver 7 is operated again by the host device 20, and if the same operation is performed, the previous font is replaced. It is released and new font 2a can be installed.
Also, if a plurality of fonts are to be used frequently, the internal font 2c of the printer device 10 cannot be rewritten, so the nonvolatile memory 3 has a capacity large enough to allow the installation of a plurality of fonts.

The font storage unit has a code-by-code storage function for accepting the installation of outline fonts only within the character code range of the font.
When the character code used for print output can be narrowed down to a specific range, the character code range can be specified. More fonts can be installed by limiting the character code range.

The range of the character code is limited, for example, when it is limited to hiragana or when it is limited to katakana and alphanumeric characters. Also, in the case of a printer device for printing general sentences, since the JIS character code is different from the common kanji table, only common kanji may be collected and limited from the character code. You may limit to only the place name. By the font storage unit 4 receiving such a limitation by the code-based storage function, the capacity of the valuable non-volatile memory can be effectively utilized to the maximum depending on how the printer device 10 is used.

Specifically, the code-based storage function outputs a list of the character codes stored in the non-volatile memory upon acceptance of installation to the font switching section 5 as a list. When the print data is received, the font switching unit 5
Based on this list, it is determined whether or not the font can be supplied to the rasterizer, and when an uninstalled character code is found in the print data, the bitmap data of the character code is requested to the printer driver 7 of the upper level device 20. To do.

[0024]

Since the present invention is constructed and functions as described above, according to this, since the font storage unit receives the installation of the outline font and stores it in the non-volatile memory, the rasterizer stores the installed font. It can be used as a bitmap. Therefore, it is not necessary to convert the outline font into a bitmap on the higher-level device side and then output it to the printer device, which shortens the printing time. Further, the rasterizer converts the print density into a bitmap with a print density suitable for the characteristics of the print portion, so that print quality deterioration caused by a difference in resolution does not occur. Further, since the outline font is supplied to the printer device only by the font data, the outline font can be supplied at a lower cost than in the case of using the font cartridge. As described above, it is possible to provide an unprecedented excellent printer device capable of performing high-speed and high-quality printout of an outline font by effectively utilizing hardware resources such as a non-volatile memory.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing steps of outline font output processing according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Rasterizer 2a Outline font 2b Installed font 2c Internal font 3 Non-volatile memory 4 Font storage unit 5 Switching unit 6 Internal font memory 7 Printing unit 10 Printer device

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A rasterizer that expands outline fonts, a non-volatile memory connected to the rasterizer, a font storage unit that accepts font installation and stores installed fonts in the non-volatile memory, and a preset internal unit. A printer device comprising: a font and a font switching unit for switching between the installed font. 2. The printer device according to claim 1, wherein the font storage unit has a code-by-code storage function that accepts a limited range of character codes of an installed font.