JPH07256954A - Image-forming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an image forming apparatus having a function eliminating an unnecessary printing process and thus saving time and waste of paper by processing inputted parameter and the attribute of a stored font, and carrying out printing through the free selection of a sample of the font. CONSTITUTION:An image-forming apparatus has a function for printing a sample of a font, and includes font storing means 1 having various samples of fonts together with the attribute of the font stored therein, inputting means 2 for inputting parameter value for selecting the kind of a font, and processing means 3 for selecting a font from the font storing means 1 by processing the inputted parameter value from the inputting means 2. The apparatus also includes processed result-storing means 4 for storing the processed result obtained by the processing means 3 in this way, and outputting means 5 for printing a sample of the font based on the processed result stored in the processed result storing means 4.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a dot printer, a laser beam printer and an ink jet printer, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus equipped with an efficient font sample printing means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, an image forming apparatus such as a printer has a function of printing various fonts as a sample, but a conventional image forming apparatus having a function of printing a font sample is All or some of the fonts written in the ROM (read-only storage element) are printed in order. However, in such a conventional method, print samples of the same type of fonts having different sizes, for example, Mincho font, appeared in various places, and it was difficult to print only with the same font, which was difficult to see. Further, even when only one kind of font is desired to be printed and viewed, it is impossible to freely select and print, and unnecessary samples are printed, resulting in a waste of time and paper.

To briefly explain this, FIG. 5 shows an example of the layout of fonts and their attributes stored in the font storage means, including some attribute displays necessary for implementing the present invention. It is the one illustrated. Mincho and courier in the font name column indicate a typeface of characters, and although not shown, there are various types of fonts such as Gothic, textbook, Qing dynasty, and line book. Also, the genus 1 in the attribute column indicates the number of characters, and an example thereof is shown in the right column. The genus 2 indicates, for example, a division divided by the first level, the second level, the symbol, etc. in the kanji.
The genus 3 is a horizontal character size, and the genus 4 is a numerical value indicating a vertical character size. Although not shown, the attributes also include the character width of the typeface, the degree of inclination, and the like. Therefore, if all of these types are stamped and printed, much time is required and the printing paper becomes enormous. Moreover, since fonts are often added as needed, the uniformity of the font arrangement is lost, and the font face, character size, character width, etc. of the printed font sample become uneven. Further, it is rare for the user to print all of the enormous amounts of printing of the above-mentioned typeface, and in reality, it is often desired to see a font sample for a specific character of a certain typeface.

[0004]

In the above prior art, print samples of the same type of fonts having different sizes, for example, Mincho font, appear at various places, and printing can be performed only with the same font. It was hard to see. Also,
Even when I wanted to print only one type of font, I could not freely select and print it, and even unnecessary samples were printed, resulting in a waste of time and paper. Therefore, the present invention saves time and wastes paper by processing the parameter input and the stored font attributes so that font samples can be freely selected and printed. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus capable of performing the above.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a font in which various font samples are stored together with font attributes in an image forming apparatus having a function of printing font samples. Storage means; input means for inputting a parameter value for selecting a font type; processing means for selecting a font type from the font storage means based on the parameter value input from the input means; The present invention is characterized by comprising processing result storage means for storing the processing result obtained by the means, and output means for printing a font sample based on the processing result stored in the processing result storage means.

Further, the main feature of the processing means is that it is configured to process two or more parameter values.
Further, the main features are that the input means is installed on the input operation panel, and further that the input means is configured to input a parameter from another device by the connecting means.

[0007]

In the image forming apparatus constructed as described above, various fonts and font attributes are stored in the font storage means, and the processing means for selecting a sample of the font inputs the parameter value to the input means. Then, the selection process according to the parameter value is performed, and the sample of the corresponding font can be selected from the font storage means in the order of the processing result. Furthermore, the sample of the selected font can be stored by the processing result storage means, and the font sample can be printed on the paper by the output means. Also, by changing the input parameter value, the desired font sample can be freely selected and printed. Further, the parameter value can be easily input from a keyboard or touch keys installed on the input operation panel. If the image forming apparatus has a means for connecting to another apparatus, it can be configured to easily print a sample of a target font by receiving a command from the outside. Further, if the processing means is configured to process two or more parameter values, font samples can be arbitrarily selected so that, for example, a vertically long font is preferentially printed or a horizontally long font is preferentially printed. An image forming apparatus capable of printing can be provided.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows an image forming apparatus 11 to which the present invention is applied.
2 is a main block diagram of FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is a font storage means in which various fonts and their attributes are stored in advance, such as an optical disk, a ROM or a dedicated LSI.
Etc. Reference numeral 2 is an input means for inputting a parameter value for selecting a part or all of the font from the font storage means 1 in an order suitable for the purpose. The processing means 3 compares or calculates the above-mentioned input parameter value with the attribute assigned to each font according to a certain procedure,
The font corresponding to the input parameter is selected from the font storage means 1 in the designated order. Further, the selected font is temporarily stored in the processing result storage means 4, and is further printed by the output means 5 on paper or the like after storing all the fonts or in parallel with the storing processing. .

Further, as the input means 2 for inputting the above-mentioned parameter value, it is a general construction method to use an input operation panel such as a keyboard or a touch key installed in the image forming apparatus. At this time, if the input is confirmed on the attached display panel, the operation becomes reliable. Further, in the case where the image forming apparatus is provided with the connecting means 6, for example, a command (instruction code) from another device such as a personal computer is received and passed to the control device 10 to be processed by the keyboard or the keyboard. It can be processed in the same manner as the input of the parameter value from the input means such as a touch key. In addition, the control device 10 is also in charge of signal transfer between the above-mentioned means, control of the start and end timings of the operations between the means, the operation sequence between the means, etc. Therefore, in general, a micro CPU is used. ROM for storing programs and temporary storage of program processing
8 and RAM9.

A method for extracting and printing a sample group of a desired font or freely rearranging and printing under a predetermined condition will be described with the above configuration. In FIG.
Within the range surrounded by the one-dot chain line on the upper side, (a) to (p)
It is assumed that a sample group of fonts represented by the size is arranged in the font storage means 1 in the order shown in the figure. Each of the sample groups (a), (b), ... Is the font data stored in the font storage means as shown in FIG.
Corresponds to the sample group. Further, in order to simplify the explanation, it is assumed that the font groups of (a) to (p) have already selected the same typeface. Now set the following conditional expressions.

P = α1 × β1 + α2 × β2 + ... + αn × βn (1) α1, α2, ..., αn: Sort conditions 1, 2 ,.
Parameter values β1, β2, ..., βn: Sort conditions 1, 2, ..., N
In FIG. 2, considering two parameter values of sort conditions 1 and 2, P = α1 × β1 + α2 × β2 (2) is added to α1 = vertical length, α2 = horizontal length, β1 = 1,
When β2 = 0.95, α1 in (a) to (p) of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a table in which the P value is calculated from the value of α2 by the equation (2). In the bottom row of FIG. 3, the order of numbering from the largest P value is written, and in the frame surrounded by the chain double-dashed line on the lower side of FIG. 2, (a) to (p) The sample groups are arranged according to the above ranking.

Comparing the groups in the upper and lower ranges, it can be seen that the groups in the upper range are arranged in order of the size of the pieces, while the groups in the lower range are arranged in line according to a certain rule. The horizontal and vertical lengths are β1 = 1, β2 = 0.95.
If the vertical length and the horizontal length are the same, the vertical weight is more important than the horizontal length. Comparing the areas of (a) and (b) from FIG. 3, (b) is 12.5% larger than (a), but the order is reversed.

By selecting the weighting factors according to the purpose in this way, the sample groups can be easily rearranged and printed. For example, β1 = 1, β2 = 0.01
As described above, if β1 >> β2, the vertical length α1 is first arranged in the order of the longest length, and when the vertical length α1 has the same value, the horizontal length α2 is arranged in the longest order. Also, β1 =
By setting β1 << β2 such that 0.01 and β2 = 1, they are arranged in the descending order of the horizontal length α2, which is the reverse of the above, and when the same horizontal length α2, the vertical length α1 is long. Arranged in order. In the above description, the case where there are two parameter values as shown in the equation (2) has been described, but the case of more than that may be considered in the same manner. For example, if a typeface with a slanted inclination is mixed, input the angle as the third parameter value, and arrange the sample of the fonts that are arranged in order in consideration of the weighting, and arrange them in the order of composition suitable for the purpose. be able to. Further, in practice, it is possible to rearrange and print only a sample of some fonts by inserting a condition for selecting a typeface that matches with the font name and genus 2 in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart showing an embodiment of the main operation in printing a font sample group using the present invention. First, in response to an input instruction from the input unit 2 or another device 7, the storage unit used for the processing of the processing unit 3, the processing result storage unit 4 used for printing, and the like are initialized in advance (S1). When the above-mentioned initialization progresses, the condition of the parameter value and the weighting factor is received by the input from the input means 2 or the command (command code) from the other device 7 (S2). If there is a font (typeface) designating condition from the received conditions, the font storage unit 1 is inquired (S3) whether or not the corresponding font exists (S4). If the corresponding font does not exist, an alarm is issued to notify (S9). If a corresponding font exists, the attribute parameter values (genus 1 to gen 4) of the font as shown in FIG. 5 are set (S
5). From the set font attribute parameter values and the received input conditions, the print priority of the font sample group is calculated by the processing means 3 according to the above equations (1) and (2) (S6). Based on the processing results, the processing results are stored in the processing result storage unit 4 in the order of higher priority according to the print format (S7), and printed on the paper by the output unit 5 (S8). As described above, the storage process S7 and the print process S8 may be performed at the same time.

[0015]

In the image forming apparatus configured as described above, various fonts and font attributes are stored in the font storage means, and the processing means for selecting a sample of the font inputs the fonts via the input means. It is configured such that the selection processing according to the parameter value can be performed and the sample of the corresponding font can be selected from the font storage means according to the order of the processing result. You can freely select and print the sample fonts. In addition, parameter values can be easily entered using the keyboard or touch keys installed on the input operation panel. If the image forming apparatus has a structure for connecting to another apparatus, the sample of the desired font can be easily printed by receiving a command from the outside. Further, if the processing means is configured to process two or more parameter values, it is possible to provide functionality having many options such that a vertically long font is printed with priority and a horizontally long font is printed with priority. It is possible to provide a rich image forming apparatus.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a main part of an image forming apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a main part of a font sample group of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram for obtaining a print order of a font sample group of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention from a conditional expression.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a main operation in font sample group printing of the image forming apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a font print sample and a main part of a font attribute for explaining problems of the conventional technique and an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... font storage means, 2 ... input means, 2a ...
..Input operation panel, 3 ... Processing means, 4 ... Processing result storage means, 5 ... Output means, 6 ... Connection means,
7 ... other device, 8 ... ROM, 9 ... RAM,
10 ... Control device, 11 ... Image forming device.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus having a function of printing a font sample, a font storage means for storing various font samples together with font attributes,
Input means for inputting a parameter value for selecting a font type, processing means for selecting a font designated from the font storage means based on the parameter value input from the input means, and the processing means An image forming apparatus, comprising: a processing result storage means for storing the result obtained; and an output means for printing a font sample based on the processing result stored in the processing result storage means. 2. The processing means is arranged to process more than one parameter value.
The image forming apparatus described. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input unit is a keyboard or a touch panel installed on the input operation panel. 4. When the image forming apparatus is connected to another apparatus by a connecting unit, the parameter is input from the other apparatus instead of the input unit. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1.