JPH08129592A - Data printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To easily print data on a printing form in different format. CONSTITUTION: An optical image reader 2 optically reads the format of the form, that a printer 1 prints, as image data, and the format is displayed on the screen of a CRT display device 4 and stored in a 1st area of a magnetic disk memory 5. Print data inputted from the outside is displayed in the format of the printing form displayed on the CRT screen and stored in a 2nd area in the magetic memory 5. Then, the format data is read out of the 1st area in the magnetic memory 5 and the print data is read out of the 2nd area in the magnetic memory 5 according to the read format data, so that the read print data is printed on the printing form.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data printing method capable of easily printing data on various printing sheets of different formats.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, when a conventional host PC (personal computer) or the like gives a print command to a printer to print on a predetermined paper such as a form, an application program according to the format of the paper to be printed in advance is used. It was prepared in the host PC and the printer was made to print by this prepared application program. Therefore, when the format of the printing paper such as a form is changed, it is necessary to change the application program to one that corresponds to the changed format, and this change work requires a considerable amount of time and cost. In addition, when it is necessary to perform processing with a different form for each customer, it is often impossible to print with a printer. In this case, the form was handwritten and a copy of this handwritten form was managed as a master file. .

[0003]

However, in the method of printing data on paper of various formats as described above,
There were the following problems. (1) When the format of printing paper such as a form is changed, the user cannot freely change the application program so that the format can be changed. (2) It takes a considerable amount of time and cost for the programmer to change the application program so that the programmer can cope with the change in the format of the printing paper. (3) In the case of a handwritten form, a copy of the form is managed as a master file, and electronic form management by a PC is impossible.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A data printing method according to the present invention optically reads a paper printed by a printer as image data, displays the read format data of the printing paper on a screen, and a magnetic memory. First of
The print data input from the outside is displayed in the format of the print paper displayed on the screen, and stored in the second area of the magnetic memory to store the first print data in the first area of the magnetic memory. Format data is read from the area, the print data is read from the second area in the magnetic memory according to the read format data, and the read print data is used to print on the print paper.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the optical image reading device optically reads the paper printed by the printer as image data, displays the read printing paper format data on the CRT display screen, and stores it in the magnetic memory. Of the print data input from the outside and displayed in the format of the print paper displayed on the CRT display screen and stored in the second area of the magnetic memory. Format data is read from the first area in the magnetic memory, print data is read from the second area in the magnetic memory according to the read format data, and printing is performed on the print paper according to the read print data. Since it is done, even if the format of the printing paper such as forms is changed, the format is automatically changed. Comprising printing on the printing paper becomes possible, it is also easily cope with a case requiring treatment with different form for each customer.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram in which a data printing method according to the present invention is implemented. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a printer, which stores a required number of papers in a paper tray of the printer 1 when printing on papers such as ordinary forms. Reference numeral 2 denotes an optical image reading device, which is provided right above the paper tray of the printer and optically reads the format of the uppermost printing paper as an image (image data). Then, the read image data is output to the personal computer. A personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) 3 is provided with a CPU, a ROM, a RAM, an interface with an external device, and the like, and performs all processing such as format data display storage, print data display storage, and printer print control. To do. 4 is a CRT display device, 5 is a magnetic disk memory, at least the first
And a second storage area. 6 is a keyboard.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the reading and storing process of the paper format according to the present invention, FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of the input storing process of print data according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of the data printing process according to the present invention. The operation of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. Note that each step in FIGS. 2 to 4 is simply denoted by S.
Further, in this example, the printing paper will be described below as a form. In S11 of FIG. 2, the form to be printed by the printer is set in the paper tray of the printer 1 before printing. In S12, when the form is set on the paper tray of the printer 1, the optical image reading device 2 optically reads the form of the form placed on the top of the paper tray as an image (image data), The read image data is output to the PC 3.

In S13, the PC 3 determines whether or not the format data of the form input from the optical image reading device 2 is correctly read. If the determination result is NO, the process returns to S12 and is read until it is correctly read. Repeat the operation. When the determination result of S13 is YES, S1
Go to 4. In S14, the format data of the read form is displayed on the screen of the CRT display device 4. S15
Then, the PC 3 determines whether or not to store the displayed format data. When storing, the format data of the form is stored in the first storage area in the magnetic disk memory 5 in S16. If you don't need a memory,
The process proceeds to the print data input storage process (process shown in FIG. 3).

The process of reading the format data of the print sheet from the optical image reading device 2 performed by the PC 3 may be performed only when the new print sheet is first printed. For example, when printing is performed by changing the printing paper to A, B, and C within a certain time, it is necessary to read the format data of each printing paper only once at the first change.
However, when the print sheet A is printed again after the print sheet C is printed, the PC 3 has the three A, B, and C already stored in the first storage area in the magnetic disk memory 5. It is only necessary to read the format data A to be printed next from the format data and display the read format data on the screen of the CRT display device 4.

In S21 of FIG. 3, the PC 3 displays the form data on the screen of the CRT display device 4. In S22, PC
3 determines whether or not the print data is input, and if it is input, the process proceeds to S23, and if not, the process proceeds to S24. S
In 23, the worker operates the keyboard 6 while viewing the form format displayed on the screen of the CRT display device 4, and prints data such as characters, symbols or figures in the form displayed on the CRT screen. input. The characters entered,
The symbols and the like are displayed on the screen of the CRT display device 4.

At step S24, the PC 3 determines whether or not to store the displayed format data.
In S25, the format data of the form is stored in the first storage area in the magnetic disk memory 5. If no storage is required, the process ends. In S26, the PC 3 determines whether or not to store the input print data, and in the case of storing, in S27, the print data such as already input characters and symbols and the position data in the form are stored in the magnetic disk memory. 5 is stored in a second area (an area different from the first area in which the format data of the printing paper is stored).

In the present invention, the method of inputting the data to be printed at each printing position on the printing paper to the PC 3 is not limited to the above manual input by the operator. For example, OCR data entered by customers etc.
The data may be read by an (optical character reader), the read data may be supplied to the PC 3, and the PC 3 may automatically display the supplied data at each print position of the format on the display screen. In this case, the operator need only confirm that the print data is correctly displayed at each print position of the format on the display screen. Further, print data supplied to the PC 3 from a host computer or the like may be input, and similarly, the print data may be automatically displayed at each print location of the format on the display screen.

Further, as described above, the magnetic disk memory 5 is divided into two areas, the format data of the printing paper,
Since the data to be printed is stored separately from the data to be printed, in the present invention, the format data of the printing paper and the print data can be separately managed as files. That is, when printing is performed with the print paper format changed to A, B, C ...
3 reads the format data of each print sheet only once for the first change, and stores all the read format data A, B, C ... In the magnetic disk memory 5, so that it is already stored. With respect to the printing paper of the format that is present, only the reading process of the printing data will be required from the next time.

In S31 of FIG. 4, the PC 3 displays the form data on the screen of the CRT display device 4. In S32, PC
3 determines whether or not the print data is input, and if it is input, the process proceeds to S33, and if not, the process proceeds to S34. S
In 33, the operator operates the keyboard 6 while viewing the form format displayed on the screen of the CRT display device 4, and prints data such as characters, symbols or figures in the form displayed on the CRT screen. input. The characters entered,
The symbols and the like are displayed on the screen of the CRT display device 4. S34
Then, the PC 3 determines whether or not to print the displayed form (which includes characters, symbols, etc. in the form). If it is to be printed, the process proceeds to S35, and if not, to S3.
Go to 6.

In S35, the PC 3 reads the print data to be printed at each print location in the form from the second storage area in the magnetic disk memory 5 according to the form format of the form displayed on the CRT display device 4, and the printer 1 reads it. Send to. The printer 1 prints each print data according to the format of the form supplied from the PC 3 at the correct print position on the set form. In S36, the PC 3 determines whether or not to store the displayed format data. When storing, the format data of the form is stored in the first storage area in the magnetic disk memory 5 in S37. If no storage is required, the process ends.

As a result of adopting the data printing method as described above, (1) even when the format of the printing paper such as a form is changed, it is not necessary to change the application program as in the conventional case, and the format is automatically changed. Printing on different printing paper is possible. (2) Since the format data of the print sheet and the print data can be managed separately, the print sheet of the already stored format can be printed only by reading the print data. (3) Even when processing by a different form for each customer is required, the occurrence rate of erroneous writing etc. is reduced by eliminating the handwriting processing. (4) Electronic management of paper data printed and issued by the printer, its print data, and related issued data (date of issue, customer data, etc.) can be computerized, and retrieval by these data is also possible. Become.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, the paper to be printed by the printer is optically read as image data, the read format data of the print paper is displayed on the screen, and the first data in the magnetic memory is displayed. Memorize in the area of 1,
The print data input from the outside is displayed in the format of the print paper displayed on the screen and is stored in the second area of the magnetic memory, and the format data is stored in the first area of the magnetic memory. Since the print data is read from the second area in the magnetic memory according to the read format data and the read print data is used to print on the print paper,
Even if you change the format of printing paper such as forms,
It is possible to automatically print on printing paper of different formats, and it is possible to easily deal with the case where processing with different forms for each customer is required.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram in which a data printing method according to the present invention is implemented.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a read / store process of a paper format according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an input storage process of print data according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a data printing process according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Printer 2 Optical Image Reader 3 Personal Computer 4 CRT Display 5 Magnetic Disk Memory 6 Keyboard

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer prints a sheet of paper optically read as image data, and the format data of the read print sheet is displayed on a screen and stored in a first area in a magnetic memory, and input from the outside. Displayed print data in the format of the print paper displayed on the screen, store the print data in the second area of the magnetic memory, and read the format data from the first area of the magnetic memory. According to the read format data, the print data is read from the second area in the magnetic memory,
A data printing method, wherein printing is performed on the printing paper according to the read printing data.