JPH0813556B2 - Character font rotation controller for printer - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial field of application] The present invention uses a 90-degree character font used in ordinary portrait printing (a printing method in which character strings are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the paper). The present invention relates to a character font rotation control device of a printing device having a landscape printing (printing method in which character strings are arranged in the longitudinal direction of paper) function of rotating and printing.

[Prior Art] For example, a printing device such as a laser printer, as shown in FIG. 8, stores an MPU (microprocessor) 1 for controlling various operations, a storage unit A1 of a control program, and character font data for portrait printing. It is made up of a ROM, etc. that includes a portrait font storage unit A2 to store and a landscape font storage unit A3 that stores the character font data for landscape printing that is rotated by 90 degrees from the character font data for portrait printing. Non-volatile memory 2,
A data storage memory 3 formed of a RAM or the like capable of writing / reading various data having a raster area B1 capable of writing / reading each character font data, and a character from the raster area B1 of the data storage memory 3 A data output circuit 4 for reading out font data and outputting it to the laser printer engine unit 5, and a laser printer engine unit 5 for printing out characters on a printing paper based on the character font data given through the data output circuit 4. Etc.

Further, in the non-volatile memory 2 formed by the ROM, as shown in FIG. 9, header areas A4 and A5 are formed at the head positions of the font storage sections A2 and A3, respectively. Each header area A4, A5 stores the header information of each character. Each header information includes, for example, each font storage unit.
It contains the start address where the font data of the corresponding character in A2 and A3 is stored.

In the printing apparatus having such a configuration, the MPU 1 operates according to the control program in the storage unit A1 in the non-volatile memory 2, and when performing portrait printing on a desired character, the non-volatile memory 2 changes from the character code of the desired character.
The header address for storing the header information of the corresponding character code in the portrait character font storage unit A2 in is calculated.

Header address = start address of header area A4 + character code x number of data of header information Then, the start address where the font data of the corresponding character code is stored is read from the header information of the corresponding character code and stored at the corresponding address. Raster area B1 of memory 3 for reading character font data and storing data
Write to.

On the other hand, when performing landscape printing for a desired character, the corresponding address of the landscape character font storage unit A3 in the non-volatile memory 2 is read from the desired character code by the same method, and the character font data of the corresponding address is read. Write to the raster area B1 of the data storage memory 3.

Then, the character font data written in the raster area B1 is read out, output to the laser printer engine section 5 by the action of the data output circuit 4, and printed out on the paper.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in this printing apparatus, it is necessary to separately provide a landscape font storage unit A3 in the nonvolatile memory 2 in addition to the portrait font storage unit A2. However, there is a problem that the storage capacity required by the device increases and the manufacturing cost increases.

In order to eliminate such inconvenience, during landscape printing, MPU1 reads the portrait character font of the desired character, and MPU1 itself rotates 90 degrees to create the landscape character font and write it in raster area B1. It is also possible. However, in this case, the MPU 1 also performs other processing, and the load increases, so that the processing speed extremely decreases.

The present invention, by providing a dedicated circuit for generating a landscape character font by rotating the portrait character font by 90 degrees, most of the font data in the landscape character font storage unit can be made unnecessary,
90% reduction in storage capacity and manufacturing costs
An object of the present invention is to provide a character font rotation control device for a printing device that can ensure a printing quality above a certain level by leaving the character font data for landscape only for characters that become unnatural when printed after being rotated once. And

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, in a character font rotation control device of a printing apparatus according to the present invention, a portrait font storage for storing font data of a portrait character shape for each character code. Section, a rotation permission / prohibition information memory that stores rotation permission / prohibition information indicating whether or not the portrait character shape corresponding to the corresponding character code is rotated by 90 degrees and printed to have an unnatural shape. Landscape font storage unit that stores landscape character shape font data for each character code stored in the information memory as non-rotatable, data storage memory that temporarily stores font data to be printed out, and font data
When the font rotation circuit that rotates once and the character code input from the outside are specified as rotatable in the rotation possibility information memory, the font data of the corresponding character code is read from the portrait font storage unit and the font rotation circuit is executed. Rotate 90 degrees by using the portrait character rotation storage means to store it in the data storage memory, and landscape font storage when the externally input character code is specified as non-rotatable in the rotation possibility information memory And a landscape character storage means for reading the font data of the corresponding character code from the unit and storing it in the data storage memory.

[Operation] First, it will be described that there is a character shape that becomes an unnatural shape when a normal portrait character shape is rotated by 90 degrees and printed.

Generally, characters printed by a laser printer or a thermal print head are represented by a set of dots. This dot generally has a circular shape. However, the laser beam or thermal printing head transfers dots to the photosensitive drum or printing paper while scanning at a considerably high speed. Therefore, the dot is not a perfect circle but an ellipse extending in the scanning direction. That is, when lines with the same thickness are printed, the thickness of the line in the scanning direction becomes smaller than the thickness in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction. In order to eliminate such an inconvenience, in a normal portrait character shape, assuming that each dot is printed in an elliptical shape, the thickness of the line in the scanning direction is changed to the thickness in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction. The thickness is made thicker so that a normal character shape can be obtained when printed out.

Therefore, when the character font data of such portrait character shape is rotated 90 degrees as it is and printed out, the line in the scanning direction becomes thinner and the line in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction becomes thicker. Most characters have vertical and horizontal lines with a certain thickness, so there is almost no difference in appearance between when printed as it is and when printed by rotating it 90 degrees. With special characters, the difference is noticeable when you pay attention, and it gives a strange impression to the reader.

Therefore, in the present invention, the portrait character shape font data is stored only for the character code of the character that becomes unnatural when the portrait character shape is rotated by 90 degrees and printed as described above. In addition to the font storage unit, a landscape font storage unit that stores font data of landscape character shapes is provided.

Then, for example, when the character code of the character to be printed is input from the outside, it is read from the rotatability information memory whether the corresponding character code is rotatable, and if it is rotatable, the font is stored from the portrait font storage unit. The data is read out, rotated by 90 degrees in the font rotation circuit, and then stored in the data storage memory. On the other hand, if the font cannot be rotated, the font data is read from the landscape font storage unit and stored in the data storage memory as it is.

[Embodiment] An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a character font rotation control device of the embodiment. In this embodiment, a laser printer is used as the printing device. The MPU11 that controls various operations of the laser printer, the storage unit C1 of the control program, the font storage unit for portrait C2 that stores each character font data for portrait printing for all characters, the rotation permission / inhibition information memory C6, and some Non-volatile memory 12 consisting of ROM etc. for storing landscape font storage C3 etc. for storing each character font data for landscape printing of character codes, raster area B1 and data for writing / reading of each character font data RA with area B2 etc. formed
A data storage memory 13 composed of M etc., a data output circuit 14 for reading out character font data from the raster area B1 of the data storage memory 13 and outputting it to the laser printer engine unit 15, and a data output circuit 4 It is composed of a laser printer engine section 15 for printing on a sheet based on the character font data given via a font rotation circuit 16.

In the non-volatile memory 12 formed by the ROM, the second
As shown in the figure, a header area C4 is formed at the head position of the portrait font storage unit C2. The header area C4 stores the header information for each character stored in the portrait font storage unit C2. And
In the header information of each character, as shown in the figure, the start address C5 of the font data of the portrait character corresponding to the corresponding character in the portrait font storage unit C2, the portrait character shape of the corresponding character is rotated 90 degrees. A rotatability information memory C6 that stores rotatability information indicating whether or not printing is unnatural is stored. This rotation permission / prohibition information is stored as [00] _H when rotation is possible, and is stored as [FF] _H when rotation is impossible. Further, the head address C7 of the font data of the landscape character corresponding to the corresponding character in the landscape font storage unit C3 when the rotation permission / inhibition information is not rotatable is stored. If the rotation permission / prohibition information is rotatable, the start address C7 of the font data for landscape characters is naturally
Is not remembered.

Therefore, in the landscape font storage unit C3,
Only the font data of the landscape character shape corresponding to each character set as non-rotatable is stored in the rotatability information memory C6 of each character.

Also, the font rotation circuit 16 is, as shown in FIG.
Eight character rotation registers 21 to 28 in which 8-bit (= 1 word) data can be written, and 1-bit data is selectively read from the corresponding registers 21 to 28 provided corresponding to each register 21 to 28. The selectors 31 to 38 for outputting, and the buffers 41 to 38, which are provided corresponding to the respective selectors 31 to 38, temporarily store the outputs of the corresponding registers 31 to 38 and output as bit data bit0 to bit7.
It consists of 48 and.

In such a configuration, when the character code CD to be printed is input and the character code needs to be landscape-printed, the MPU 11 stores the font data of the corresponding character in the data storage memory 13 according to the flowchart of FIG. The program is configured to execute the process of writing to the raster area B1.

That is, at P1, this character code CD, the start address AHD ₀ of the header area C4 shown in FIG. 2 in the non-volatile memory 12, and the data number D _H of the header information of one character sentence
And the start address of the header information of the corresponding character code CD
Calculate AD _H.

AD _H = AHD ₀ + (CD × D _H ) Then, at P2, the rotation availability information of the rotation availability information memory C6 included in the header information of the corresponding character code CD is [FF] _H.
If so, the character of the character code CD cannot be rotated by 90 degrees, but the process proceeds to P3, and the head address C7 of the landscape font data of the corresponding header information is read. And
The font data indicating the landscape character shape stored after the corresponding start address C7 in the landscape font storage unit C3 is read and written in the raster area B1 of the data storage memory 13.

If the rotation propriety information of the rotation propriety information memory C6 included in the header information of the corresponding character code CD at [P2] is [00] _H , the character of this character code CD can be rotated 90 degrees. Then, the head address C5 of the portrait font data of the relevant header information is read. Then, the process proceeds to P6, and the character font rotation process using the font rotation circuit 16 is executed for the font data indicating the portrait character shape stored at the corresponding start address C5 and thereafter in the portrait font storage unit C2. Then, the font data rotated by 90 degrees is stored in the raster area B1 at P4.

Next, the character font rotation process in P6 will be described with reference to FIGS. 3, 5, and 6.

First, the MPU 11 determines the size of font data that constitutes one character, so-called transfer data size (word or bit unit), the scan width when reading font data of this transfer data size, and the data area of the data storage memory 13.
The transfer destination address of the font data of the transfer data size in B2 is set in the font rotation circuit 16.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, one character font (for example, [a]) having a transfer data size of 32 words (256 bits) is divided into 4 blocks of 8 × 8 bits, and each is divided into 90 blocks. A case of rotating and transferring the data will be described.

In this case, the transfer data size is set to 3 by the MPU 11 beforehand.
Two words are set and two words are set as the scan width. Further, for example, [7030] _H is set as the transfer destination address for the data area B2. If it becomes necessary to print the character [a] in landscape,
The head address C5 read ahead of the character code of the character [a] from the MPU 11 is input to the font rotation circuit 16 as a transfer source address AD ₀ (= [A000] _H ).

Then, the flow chart of FIG. 5 is started, and the input transfer source address [A000] _H is written into the first memory (temporary storage register) TMP1 and the preset transfer destination address [7030 ] Write _H to the second memory TMP2. Further, the third memory TMP3 and the fourth memory TMP4 are each cleared to "0".

In this state, the rotation process of one block (8 × 8 bits) shown in FIG. 6 is executed. First, the content of the memory TMP1 is set to address X, and the content of the memory TMP2 is set to address Y.
Also, the counter N is initialized to "0". Then, one-word data is read from the address X in the portrait font storage unit C2 and written into the character rotation registers 21 to 28 in the font rotation circuit 16 shown in FIG. 3 corresponding to N-bit output. Thereafter, the address X is advanced by a preset scan width and the counter N is updated by "+1". Then, in the same manner as above, one word data is read from the address X of the portrait font storage unit C2,
Write to each character rotation register 21-28 of the font rotation circuit 16 corresponding to N-bit output.

In this way, the same processing as above is repeated until the counter N reaches "7", the counter N becomes "7", and the address X is stored in the character rotation register 28 corresponding to the 7-bit output bit7.
1 word data is written and the address X is advanced by the corresponding scan width, the counter N is initialized to "0" again. Next, N of each character rotation register 21-28
The bit number is selected and output by each of the selectors 31 to 38 and written to the address Y of the data area B2 in the data storage memory 13 via each of the buffers 41 to 48. After that, address Y
Is returned by the scan width and the counter N is incremented by "+1".
Update. Then, in the same manner as above, the Nth bit of each character rotation register 21-28 is selected and output by each selector 31-38, and the data storage memory is output via each buffer 41-48.
Write to address Y of data area B2 in 13.

In this way, the same processing as above is repeated until the counter N reaches "7", the counter N becomes "7", and the 7th bit of each character rotation register 21-28 is set to each selector 31-38.
When the address Y is selectively output and written to the address Y of the data area B2 in the memory 13 for data storage via each of the buffers 41 to 48, and the address Y is returned by the scan width, the rotation processing of one block is completed.

As described above, the 8 × 8-bit data of the addresses [A000] _H , [A002] _H , [A004] _H ...... [A014] _{H in} the portrait font storage unit C2 corresponds to the addresses [7030] _H , [7028] in the data area B2. ] _H , [7026] _H …… [7016] _H 8 ×
It has been transferred to the 8-bit area.

Next, returning to FIG. 5, "1" is added to the contents of the second memory TMP2. Also, (8 × scan width) is added to the contents of the first memory TMP1. In addition, the third memory
Add (8 x scan width) to the contents of TMP3. Then
The contents of the third memory TMP3 are compared with the preset transfer data size, and if they do not match, the rotation process for one block is executed again. As a result, the address [A016] _H , in the portrait font storage unit C2
_{[A018] H, [A020]} H ...... [A030] Address 8 × 8-bit data _H is in the data area B2 [7031] _H, [702
9] _H , [7027] _H ... [7017] _H is transferred to the 8 × 8 bit area.

In this way, one block of rotation processing is repeated until the contents of the third memory TMP3 match the transfer data size. If they match, (8 × scan width) is subtracted from the contents of the first memory TMP1 and the value is set. Add "1". Also, the second
"1" is subtracted from the contents of the memory TMP2 of, and (8 x scan width) is further subtracted from the value. Further, "1" is added to the contents of the fourth memory TMP4. Next, the contents of the fourth memory TMP4 are compared with the preset scan width, and if the two do not match, the third memory TMP3 is cleared to "0", and then the one block in FIG. Execute the rotation process again. As a result, the addresses [A001] _H , [A003] _H , [A00 in the portrait font storage unit C2 are displayed.
_{5] H} ...... _[A0015] Address 8 × 8-bit data _H is in the data area _{B2 [7014] H, [7012} ] H, [7010] H
...... Transferred to the 8 × 8 bit area of [7000] _H. Subsequently, the address of the portrait font storage unit _{C2 [A017] H, [A019} ] H, the _{[A021] H ...... [A013]} H 8
× 8-bit data is the address in the data area [701
5] _H , [7013] _H , [7011] _H ... [7001] _H is transferred to the 8x8 bit area.

Thus, if the contents of the third memory TMP3 again match the transfer data size and the contents of the fourth memory TMP3 match the scan width, the character font using the font rotation circuit 16 for this character "a" The rotation process ends.

Then, returning to FIG. 4, the raster area of the memory 13 for data storage uses the character font data written in the transfer destination data area B2 as the character font data for landscape.
Write to B1. Then, the character font data read from the raster area B1 is given to the laser printer engine section 15 by the operation of the data output circuit 14, and the character [a] is printed in landscape on the paper.

When it becomes necessary to print the character [a] in portrait, the MPU 11 displays the character [a] port from the portrait font storage unit A2 indicated by the transfer source address AD ₀ of the character [a] described above. The rate character font data is read and directly written in the raster area B1 of the data storage memory 13. By doing this, the laser printer engine unit 15
Thus, the character [a] is printed on the paper in portrait form.

As described above, according to this embodiment, the character font for portrait of the desired character is created by using the dedicated font rotation circuit 16.
Since the landscape character font of the desired character is generated by rotating 90 degrees, the processing time can be shortened compared to the case where the MPU11 itself generates the landscape character font.

Also, for a small number of character codes that become unnatural when printing portrait character shapes by rotating 90 degrees, a landscape font storage unit C3 that stores landscape character shapes is provided, without rotating 90 degrees, The font data in landscape character form is printed out as it is.
Therefore, normal portrait characters and landscape characters rotated by 90 degrees can be printed out for all characters. Therefore, the print quality of each character can always be maintained at a certain level or higher.

Also, the number of landscape character shapes stored in the landscape font storage unit C3 is very small, so compared to the case of storing the landscape character shapes for all the characters shown in FIG. The storage capacity required by the character font storage unit C3 can be significantly reduced. Therefore, manufacturing costs can be significantly reduced.

As described above, according to the character font rotation control device of the printing apparatus of the present invention, a dedicated circuit for rotating the portrait character font by 90 degrees to generate the landscape character font is provided. It is provided. Therefore, most of the font data in the landscape character font storage unit can be eliminated, the storage capacity can be reduced, the manufacturing cost can be reduced, and the processing load of the MPU associated with the rotation of the character font can be reduced. Furthermore, the landscape font data is left only for the characters that have an unnatural shape when printed by rotating 90 degrees. Therefore, it is possible to achieve the above-mentioned various effects while always ensuring the print quality of a certain level or higher.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 7 show a character font rotation control device of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a block diagram and FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a memory configuration of a non-volatile memory. , FIG. 3 is a font rotation circuit diagram, and FIGS.
FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the operation, FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example in which a character font of the character [a] is rotated by 90 degrees, and FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing a character font rotation control device of a conventional printer. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a memory configuration of a nonvolatile memory of the conventional device. 11 …… MPU, 12 …… Nonvolatile memory, 13 …… Data storage memory, 14 …… Data output circuit, 15 …… Laser printer engine, 16 …… Font rotation circuit, C2 …… Portrait font storage Section, C3 ...... Landscape font storage section, C4 ...... Header area, C6 ...... Rotatability information memory, B1 ...... Raster area, B2 ...... Data area.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A portrait font storage unit for storing font data of a portrait character shape for each character code, and a portrait character shape corresponding to the corresponding character code for each code is rotated by 90 degrees and printed. Then, a rotation propriety information memory that stores the rotation propriety information indicating whether or not the shape becomes unnatural, and a landscape that stores the photo data of the landscape character shape for each character code stored as non-rotatable in this rotation propriety information memory Font storage unit, data storage memory for temporarily storing font data to be printed out, font rotation circuit for rotating the font data by 90 degrees, and the character code input from the outside is rotated in the rotation possibility information memory. When specified as possible,
Input from the outside, portrait character rotation storing means for reading the font data of the corresponding character code from the portrait font storage unit, rotating it by 90 degrees using the font rotation circuit, and storing it in the data storage memory. Landscape character storage means for reading the font data of the corresponding character code from the landscape font storage unit and storing it in the data storage memory when the specified character code is designated as non-rotatable by the rotation permission / inhibition information memory. A character font rotation control device for a printing device equipped with.