JPH0751380B2 - Printing reference position setting method in page printer - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a control system in a page printer including a page memory such as a laser printer or an LED printer.

(B) Conventional Technology In recent years, page printers have been expanding in application fields such as being used as an output device of a word processor or a personal computer, and compatibility with existing printers such as a Wider dot printer is required. It's coming.

A technique for satisfying such compatibility is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-14040, and in this publication, attention is paid to a difference in resolution between an existing printer and a page printer, The print data is converted according to the difference,
The size of the print output was made approximately equal.

(C) Problems to be Solved by the Invention The problem of resolution disclosed in the above publication is also one of the factors for maintaining compatibility, but print data created by a program for an existing printer is printed on a page. Printing with a printer has the following problems.

That is, in the existing serial printer or the like, for example, it is not necessary to inform the printer itself of the used size and the used direction of the paper, and the operator may set the paper of the desired size in the desired direction. However, in the case of a page printer, paper is stored in a cassette, and a plurality of paper cassettes of various sizes are attached to the device in a predetermined direction,
Further, in the page printer, it is necessary to set the used memory range of the page memory, rotate the character pattern, etc. according to the paper size, so that the printer control information must be input to the page printer. . In addition, in order to use the page printer such as switching between various modes, various printer control information that does not exist in the existing printer is required, and it is possible to print to the page printer by simply using the program for the existing printer on the host side. Cannot be executed.

Therefore, conventionally, the program for the existing printer is changed to the program for the page printer, and the work is very troublesome. (D) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention is output from a host device. A page printer having a page memory for storing print data is provided with a storage means for storing a plurality of types of printer control information including at least paper size information and paper use direction information, and any one of the plurality of types of printer control information group By inputting the identification information for specifying the identification information from the operation panel or the host device, reading the printer control information group corresponding to the input identification information from the storage means, and controlling the page printer based on the information group, Is the solution.

(E) Operation In the present invention, the print data created by the existing printer program of the host device can be obtained by simply inputting the identification information that specifies any of the plurality of types of printer control information groups from the operation panel or the host device. , Printed by page printer.

(F) Embodiment FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. (2) is a host computer equipped with a plurality of processing programs, and (3) is a page printer. The program is a conventional serial printer program.

In the page printer (3), (4) is a central processing unit,
(5) is an interface with a host, (6) is a page memory for storing print data for one page, (7) is a line buffer for temporarily storing print data for one dot line in the page memory (6), (8) is a print engine section that actually prints on the paper (1), and (9) is a page memory (6) and a line buffer (7) that are synchronized with the drive timing of the print engine section (8). An output control unit that controls the reading of data, (10) a font memory in which the dot pattern of each character is stored, (11) an operation panel, (12) an input control unit, and (13) a serial according to the resolution. A data conversion unit that converts print data for a printer into print data for a page printer, (14) is a character pattern rotation unit that rotates a character pattern 90 °, (15) (16)
(17) is the first, second, and third control command tables having different control command systems such as ESC sequence.

Further, (18) is a plurality of printer control information lists (19).
(20) ..., a non-volatile memory including a format registration table (21) showing the correspondence between each list and the format number, and a format number storage section (22) for storing the selected format number, (2
3) is a format information control unit for controlling writing and reading of information to the non-volatile memory (18).

The information registered in the printer control information list includes paper size information, paper use direction information, control command table designation information, print start horizontal reference position information, and reduction / reduction.
Normal mode information and the like are included.

Hereinafter, the control content of this embodiment will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 and the explanatory diagrams of FIG. 3 and FIG.

First, on the operation panel (11), as shown in FIG. 3, a display section (24), a selection key (25), a registration key (26), an enter key (27), an up key (28) and a down key. (29) is provided, and in response to pressing the selection key (25), as shown in FIG.
“SHOSHII 2” …… is displayed on the display (24).

Here, when the registration key (26) is pressed when a desired format, for example, "SHOSHI 1" is displayed, the character "YOSHI SIZE" indicating the first information of the printer control information is displayed in response to the pressing. It Next, each time the selection key (25) is pressed, "YOSHISHOUKO", "INJIKIJUN", ... Are sequentially displayed on the display unit. Then, while either of these is displayed, press the up key (2
8) Or, press the down key (29). Depending on the press, in the case of "paper size", "B5", "A4",
"B4" ... and "1" for "Injikijun",
"2", "3" ... "50", "51" ... and the specific selection information of each are displayed.

Then, when the operator selects the desired selection information and presses the enter key (27), each input information is registered in the printer control information list (19) as the information of the first selected format "SHOSHI 1". It In the same manner, the printer control information list (20) for other formats "SHOSHII 2", "SHOSHI 3" ... Is registered.

After the printer control information list has been registered in this way, when the operator selects the format “SHOSHII2” corresponding to the processing program 2 on the host side and presses the decision key (27), the format number “2 Non-volatile memory (18)
It is registered in the format number storage section (22).

Then, the host computer (2) outputs the print data created by the processing program 2 to the page printer (3).
Then, the central processing unit (4) activates the format information control unit (23) to read the format number “2” registered in the format number storage unit (22) and respond to the format number. The print control is executed by referring to each information in the printer control information list (20).

That is, first, the memory use range of the page memory (6) is determined based on the paper size information, and the first to third control command tables (15) (16) (17) are determined based on the control command table information. Select the corresponding table from the list.

Next, when the character code and the print command as print data are input from the host side through the interface (5), the central processing unit (4) displays the input information as data as shown in the flowchart of FIG. If it is data, the printable range in the existing serial printer is set as a virtual print range, and the print coordinates of the received print data in this range are calculated. Then, the print start horizontal reference position information is read from the printer control information list (20), and the position information is compared with the calculated virtual print coordinates.

Here, as the print start horizontal reference position information, information indicating the origin of the virtual print range, that is, the position coordinates from the left end (origin) of the printable range of the existing printer is used.

As a result of the comparison, when the virtual print coordinates of the print data are smaller than the reference position information, the received print data is ignored, and when they are larger, the new print coordinates are obtained by subtracting the reference position information from the virtual print coordinates and received. After converting the character code to a dot pattern by the font memory (10), this dot pattern is written at the new print coordinate position of the page memory (6). Therefore, the print data after the print start horizontal reference position on the virtual print coordinates are sequentially written from the horizontal head position of the page memory (6) as shown in FIG. Is sent to the print engine unit (8) to execute printing, the target print data is printed from the left end of the paper (1) as shown in FIG. No printing misalignment occurs.

When the horizontal tab command is input, the coordinate calculation that advances the print coordinates in the virtual print coordinates by the length specified by the command is executed, but the new print coordinates are calculated as described above when data is input. Therefore, as in the case of the blank code, the print data is printed from the left end of the paper.

By the way, if the paper use direction is set to “horizontal” in the printer control information list, the central processing unit (4)
Activates the character pattern rotator (14), rotates the dot pattern read from the font memory (10) by 90 °, and then writes it to the page memory (6).
If the reduction / normal mode is set to "normal", the data conversion unit (13) is activated to convert the data according to the resolution, and the converted dot pattern is stored in the page memory (6).
The process of writing to is executed, and printing is performed in the same size as the printing by the serial printer. When the paper usage direction is "vertical", the character pattern rotation unit (14) is not activated,
In the reduction mode, the data conversion unit (13) is not activated, and reduction printing is performed due to the difference in resolution.

In the above-described embodiment, the print start horizontal reference position information and the like are input through the operation panel, but may be input from the host computer (2), and the format number may also be input from the host. May be.

(G) Effect of the Invention According to the present invention, in a page printer, a set of a plurality of format information is set using an operation panel, and for each of them, the value of the print reference position can be easily checked while confirming the value on the display unit. Can be set. Then, by selecting an appropriate set of format information from the operation panel, it becomes possible to print the print data created by the program for the existing printer as it is on the page printer. Therefore,
The compatibility between the existing printer and the page printer can be maintained without changing the program for the existing printer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a page printer according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the processing contents of the embodiment, FIG. 3 is an explanatory view for explaining the operation of an operation panel in the embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a printing example and contents of a page memory in the embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a printing example in an existing printer and a printing example in a conventional page printer. (1) ... paper, (2) ... host computer,
(3) ... page printer, (4) ... central processing unit,
(6) …… Page memory, (8) …… Print engine section, (11) …… Operation panel, (13) …… Data conversion section,
(14) …… Character pattern rotation part, (15) (16) (17)…
… Control command table, (18) …… Nonvolatile memory.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A 63-307962 (JP, A) JP-A 1-233485 (JP, A) JP-A 60-159074 (JP, A) JP-A 1- 140221 (JP, A) JP 62-237520 (JP, A) JP 2-231622 (JP, A) JP 1-238940 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A page printer having a page memory for storing print data output from a host device, and means for storing a plurality of sets of format information including at least a paper size, a paper use direction and a print reference position, and a display. Section and an operation panel having a plurality of operation buttons are provided, and in response to the operation of a predetermined operation button of the operation panel, a. A name indicating a set of the stored format information is sequentially displayed on the display section, b. Select the desired name displayed, c. For the set of format information indicated by the selected name, display the format information such as the paper size in order, and d. Display the print reference position, then , The numerical value indicating the print reference position is displayed in ascending or descending order, and e. When the desired numerical value is displayed, specify it and specify the numerical value for the format information set selected in step b. Registered in the serial storage means, as print reference position setting method in the page printer being characterized in that the.