JPH0723009B2 - Printer control method - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to printer printing in which print data is divided into a plurality of print data and printed, and more particularly to a printer control method suitable for controlling ruled line printing.

[Background of the Invention]

The conventional printing device is a terminal control device (TC
E) Receives print data and Kanji dot pattern from 1, print code buffer 2 and character generator (CG) 3 respectively
Store in. Then, in accordance with the contents of the print code buffer 2 in accordance with the print instruction, the image data is input to the image buffer 5 using CG3, moved to the print buffer 6 and printed line by line. Further, if there is ruled line data, generally ruled lines and character data cannot be printed at once, so one line is divided and printed such as upper ruled lines, character data and vertical ruled lines and lower ruled lines.

There is an end code (EM) in the last line, print the last line,
A new line is printed and printing is completed.

Further, FIG. 2 shows a control method in which one print data is divided into a plurality of units in order to improve the printing efficiency and a plurality of print code buffers for controlling the print data are provided. This conventional example has print code buffers 8 to 11.

The host device 1 sequentially inputs the units into the empty print code buffers 8 to 11 to start printing.

When the unit of the print code buffer is printed, the print completion of the print code buffer is reported to the host device. In this control method, the print data in one print code buffer is transferred to another print code buffer while the print data is being printed, and the print data can be printed one after another, so that the printing efficiency is improved.

Next, an example in which there is no ruled line designation in the unit data is shown in FIG. In this conventional example, one line is divided into three units. When the host device sends the units 1 to 3 shown in FIG. 3 to the print code buffers 8 to 10 shown in FIG. 2 and issues respective print instructions, the print data of the unit 1 stored in the print code buffer 8 CG3 is used and input to the image buffer 5 to complete printing in the print code buffer 8.

Similarly, the units 2 and 3 are input to the image buffer 5.
Unit 3 has NL (NEWLINE), so Unit 1
The dot expansion for one line of the character data 1 to 3 is completed, the dot data is transferred to the print buffer 6, the printer 7 prints, and the print code buffer 10 containing the unit 3 completes printing.

Thus, when the print data has no ruled line, the image buffer can be used on one side.

Further, FIG. 4 shows a conventional example in which one line of print data is divided into a plurality of units and there is a ruled line instruction.

The host device replaces the units 1 to 3 in FIG. 4 (a) with 8 in FIG.
It is assumed that the print instructions are sent to the print code buffers of ~ 10 and each print instruction is issued.

Now, consider a case in which one line of data is divided into an upper ruled line, character data and a vertical ruled line, and a lower ruled line, respectively, as shown in FIG. When the upper ruled line data of the unit 1 of FIG. 4 (a) is input to the image buffer 5 of FIG. 2 and the printing of the unit 1 is completed, the data of the unit 1 and the corresponding CG are erased and character data is obtained. Vertical ruled lines and lower ruled lines cannot be printed.

Moreover, only the character data of the unit 1 is transferred to the image buffer 5
If the data is input to, and the printing of the unit 1 is completed, the character data can be saved but the upper and lower ruled line data cannot be printed.

In addition, print instruction code, NL (NEWLINE), FF (FRMFEE
It is also possible to hold all the units in one line until D) etc. appear in the unit.

However, for example, if there are four print code buffers and there is no print instruction code in the four units, the completion of printing of the print code buffer from any unit will not reach the host device. An example of this print data is shown in FIG.

As described above, the conventional method has a problem in that ruled lines cannot be printed when the print data is divided into a plurality of print data for printing.

[Object of the Invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a printer control method capable of performing ruled line printing even if a host device divides print data into a plurality of print data and sends the print data to a printer in order to solve the conventional problems.

[Outline of Invention]

Character data and ruled line data of print data stored in a plurality of print code buffers are stored in a plurality of print code buffers that are divided into a plurality of units and print data for each line including character data and ruled line data is stored in units of units. Is decomposed into dots as a printable data by using a character generator, this printable data is stored in an empty image buffer, the ruled line data is saved in the save line buffer, and one line is printed in the print data. When a unit with an instruction code is detected, the printable data that has already been stored in the image buffer and the ruled line data of the print data saved in the save line buffer are decomposed into dots, and the printable data is sequentially transferred to the print buffer and transferred to the dot printer. It is characterized by being printed.

Example of Invention

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining the control system of the printer control device.

Reference numeral 1 is a terminal control device (TCE) of a host device, and 3 is a CG sent by TCE1. Reference numerals 8 to 11 denote print code buffers in which a plurality of divided print data units are stored. Reference numeral 4 denotes a print control unit which decomposes the data into dots according to the print data in the print code buffers 8 to 11 and inputs the dots into the image buffers 12 to 16. A print buffer 6 stores the data being printed by the printer 7. 17 is a save line buffer, when one line of print data spans the unit,
Save the print data and use it when printing ruled lines. Sixth
In FIG. 7 and FIG. 18, 18 is a ruled line start print code, and 19 is a ruled line stop print code.

In FIG. 5, when all the ruled line data and the character data are developed into dots and held on the five sides of the image buffers 12 to 16, the save line buffer 17 is unnecessary.

On the other hand, two sides of the image buffers 12 and 13 and the save line buffer
When using 17, the image buffers 14 to 16 are unnecessary.

First, the case of using the five sides of the image buffers 12 to 16 will be described.

It is assumed that the print head of the printer 7 is composed of 24 dots in the vertical direction, the dot spacing is 1/180 inch, and the print width of one line is 13.2 inch (2376 dots). The size of the image buffers 12 to 16 at this time is 24 dots × 2376 dots. When one Chinese character has 24 × 24 dots, it is preferable to print the characters at one time in order to eliminate dot misalignment due to reciprocal printing of the print head.

Therefore, the printing of one line is composed of the upper ruled line and the lower ruled line with the character of 24 × 24 dots as the center of the line. Therefore, one line of image buffer consists of 60 dots when the line feed interval is 1/3 inch. That is, if the character position is 24 dots in the center of one line, the structure of one line is as shown in FIG. 6 (b), and three image buffers are required. Also, the line feed interval is 1/2
In inches, one line consists of 90 dots. Therefore, the structure of one line is as shown in FIG.
Face is necessary.

Next, the case of printing the print data shown in FIG. The print data of the unit 1 is expanded into dots in the image buffers 12 to 16 of FIG. 6 (c), and the print completion is returned to the host device.

Similarly, the unit 2 also develops dots in the image buffers 12 to 16 and returns the print completion to the upper device. When the data of the unit 3 is also expanded into dots in the image buffers 12 to 16 and the NL code is detected, the image buffer 12 → 13 → 14 → 15 → 16 is printed and one line is printed while the print dots are also line feed. As described above, even if one line of print data including ruled lines is divided into a plurality of units, the ruled lines can be printed by saving them in the image buffer.

In FIG. 6 (c), if the image buffers 13 and 15 have the same data, one of them may be omitted. If the image buffer 15 is removed, the print order is image buffer 12 → 13 → 14 → 13 →
16

Next, one image buffer is 24 dots x 2376 dots, which is about 7 KB. To save memory, the two faces of the image buffers 12 and 13 in Fig. 5 and the save line buffer 17 for saving ruled line data are used. An example of implementation is shown below.

Below, the print data shown in Fig. 7 (a)
The case of printing at 1/2 inch will be described.

Printing is performed by the image buffer 12 in FIG. 7 (b) → the image buffer 12 in FIG. 7 (c) → the image buffer 13 in FIG. 7 (b) → the image buffer 12 in FIG. 7 (c) → the seventh.
The image buffer 13 shown in FIG.

That is, the order in which the print data is created in the image buffer is as shown in FIG. 7 (b). First, the upper ruled line data is stored in the image buffer 12, and part of the vertical ruled line data and the character data are stored in the image buffer 13. create. When the print data is changed to an image in which dots are decomposed, the dot data is taken out from the CG (character generator) 3 shown in FIG. 5 and stored in the image buffers 12 and 13.

The print data of the units 1 to 4 enters the print code buffers 8 to 11 of FIG. First, the dot division of the unit 1 is started, and part of the upper ruled line data is stored in the image buffer 12, and part of the vertical ruled line data and character data is stored in the image buffer 13.
Then, dot decomposition is performed using CG3 shown in FIG.

Since the unit 1 does not have a code such as the NL code indicating printing and has ruled line data, the ruled line data of the unit 1 is saved in the save line buffer 17 and the completion of printing in the print code buffer 8 is reported to the host device. .

Part of the vertical ruled line data of unit 1 and character data are
Since the dots have already been decomposed in the image buffer 13,
Ruled line data is saved in the save row buffer 17.

Next, the upper device recognizes from the print completion report that the print code buffer 8 is empty, and therefore sends the print data of the unit 5 to the print code buffer 8. The print data in the units 2 to 4 of the print code buffers 9 to 11 are processed in the same manner as in the unit 1, and the ruled line data is saved in the save line buffer 17.

That is, the upper ruled line data is decomposed into dots
Overlaid on the ruled line image data created by Unit 1 to 12. Similarly, a part of the vertical ruled line data and the character data are dot-decomposed, and the image buffer 13 superimposes them on the part of the vertical ruled line data and the character data.

Further, the print data of the unit 5 of the print code buffer 8 is similarly dot-decomposed and held in the image buffers 12 and 13 (the result is shown in FIG. 7B). Further, the ruled line data is saved in the save row buffer 17.

An NL code (printing instruction code) is added to the print data of the unit 5. When this NL code is detected, a part of the upper ruled line data of the image buffer 12 is moved to the print buffer 6 for printing, and line feed for printing is performed. To do.

Next, the vertical ruled line data of the units 1 to 5 is divided into dots from the save line buffer 17 into the image buffer 12 as shown in FIG. 7 (c), and then transferred to the print buffer 6 for printing.
Line break for printing.

Further, the contents of the image buffer 13 shown in FIG. 7 (b) are transferred to the print buffer 6 for printing, and line feed is performed for each print.

Also, the vertical ruled line data of FIG. 7 (c), which has been dot-decomposed first, is moved to the print buffer 6 for printing in the image buffer 12, and a line feed for printing is performed.

Finally, the lower ruled line data of the units 1 to 5 are read from the save row buffer 17 and stored in the image buffer 13 as shown in FIG.
After being divided into dots as shown in (1), they are moved to the print buffer 6 and printed, and line feed for the print is completed to finish printing one line.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to divide the print data into a plurality of units to improve the printing efficiency and to enable the ruled line printing.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining a conventional control method,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram for explaining a control system having a plurality of print code buffers, FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining printing without a ruled line in the related art, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining printing in a certain case, FIG. 5 is a block diagram for explaining the control system of the present invention, FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the number of image buffers required by the line feed interval, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining printing when the image buffer has two sides and a save line buffer. 1 ... Terminal control unit (TCE), 2 ... Print code buffer, 3 ... Character generator (CG), 4 ... Print control unit, 5 ...
... image buffer, 6 ... print buffer, 7 ... printer, 8-11 ... print code buffer, 12-16 ... image buffer, 17 ... save line buffer, 18 ... ruled line start code, 19 ... ruled line Exit code.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A dot printer with a line feed interval of 1/2 inch, comprising a character generator for dot-decomposing print data including character data and ruled line data, and a print buffer for storing print data for printing. The print data for each line divided into units is stored in a plurality of print code buffers in units, and the upper ruled line data and the vertical ruled line data of the print data stored in the plurality of print code buffers in unit units are stored. Copies and character data are divided into dots in the first and second image buffers by the character generator, and when there is no print instruction code for one line in the print data for each unit, the save line The ruled line data of the print data is saved in the buffer, and the above process is repeated until the print instruction code for one line is included in the print data for each unit. When a print instruction code for one line is detected in the unit print data, the upper ruled line data stored in the first image buffer is moved to the print buffer and printed, and the line feed for the print is performed, and then Dot decomposition of part of the vertical ruled line data from the save line buffer via the character generator,
Created in the first image buffer, transferred to the print buffer, printed, and line feed for printing, and then part of the vertical ruled line data and character data stored in the second image buffer are printed in the print buffer. To print and line feed for printing, and further move a part of the vertical ruled line data stored in the first image buffer to the print buffer, print and line feed for printing, and finally to the save line buffer. The saved lower ruled-line data is dot-decomposed via the character generator, is created in the second image buffer, is moved to the print buffer, is printed, and is line-printed for printing. A printer control method characterized by ending printing.