JPH09109465A - Manual scanning type printing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manual scanning type printing machine which can print vertically or horizontally by a method in which an operator only changes a grip position. SOLUTION: A vertical writing switch and a horizontal writing switch 22 are arranged to meet at right angles in a manual scanning type printing machine housing 1, and a vertical writing font or a horizontal writing font is selected by pushing either of them. By driving a print head 2 by CPU corresponding to the selected font, characters are printed vertically or horizontally.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a manual scanning type printing apparatus for manually scanning and printing on a printing medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a manual scanning type printing apparatus capable of printing on an arbitrary printing paper surface. Hereinafter, a conventional manual scanning printer will be described with reference to the drawings.

First, the structure of a conventional example will be described. FIG. 7 is an internal configuration diagram showing an internal configuration of a manual scanning type printing apparatus in a conventional example. The thermal head 51 is a print head having a heating resistor and a driving circuit for driving the heating resistor. The ribbon reel 52 is rotatably mounted in the apparatus. The thermal transfer ink ribbon 53 is a recording material wound around the ribbon reel 52. Guide roller 54
Is the thermal transfer ink ribbon 5 from the ribbon roll 52.
3 is guided in the direction of the thermal head 51. The feeding rollers 55 and 56 are the guide rollers 5
The thermal transfer ink ribbon 53 guided by 4 is sandwiched between the thermal transfer ink ribbon 53 and the guide roller 54.
Apply tension to. The encoder 57 is a slit disk 5
8 and a photo interrupter 59, the slit disk 58 is driven by the delivery roller 55 via a belt 60. The roller 61 rotates in contact with the surface of the printing paper together with the feeding roller 56 during scanning of the printing device.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a conventional CPU and its peripheral portion. Input unit 6
Reference numeral 2 has a transparent touch panel for inputting character recording data, and a segment display for pressing monitor under the panel. The character generator 63 outputs Chinese character data, kana data, English character data, and numeric data (hereinafter simply referred to as character data). The CPU 64 reads character data from the character generator 63 based on the character recording data input by the input unit 62. The thermal head 51 is driven only once for each predetermined scanning distance detected by the encoder 57 based on the read character data. The display 65 displays the characters read by the CPU 64. The console 66 instructs the format of vertical writing and horizontal writing, and sets the enlargement ratio of Chinese characters and the like.

Next, the operation will be described. First, the console 66 selects either the vertical writing format or the horizontal writing format. Then, the character is input to the input unit 62. Then, the CPU 64 reads the vertical writing font data or the horizontal writing font data from the character generator 63, and the characters are displayed on the display 65 according to the selected format.

Then, when the main body of the printing apparatus is placed on the paper and scanned rightward in FIG. 11, the ribbon reel 5
2, roller 61, guide roller 54, feeding roller 5
5 and 56 rotate, and the slit disk 58 of the encoder 57 rotates as the feeding roller 55 rotates. Therefore, the thermal head 51 uses the CPU based on the font data for each constant distance detected by the encoder 57.
Driven by 64.

[0007]

However, in the conventional manual scanning type printing apparatus, the operator needs to select a font such as vertical writing or horizontal writing in advance before printing, and various types of writing such as vertical writing and horizontal writing are required. When the fonts are mixed, there is a problem that the font setting must be reset each time.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object thereof is to enable vertical writing, horizontal writing, etc., only by the operator changing the gripping position of the casing of the manual scanning printer. An object of the present invention is to provide a manual scanning type printing device capable of printing with different fonts.

[0009]

In order to achieve this object, in a manual scanning type printing apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention, a manual scanning type printing is carried out by manually scanning an arbitrary print medium. In the apparatus, first manual print font selecting means for selecting a first print font among print fonts to be printed by the print head, the manual print printer being arranged on the casing of the manual scan printer. First on the housing
Is arranged at a position different from the print font selecting means, and when any one of the second print font selecting means for selecting the second print font is selected and operated, the print head follows the selected print font. Print on the print medium.

In the manual scanning printer according to the second aspect of the invention, the first print font selecting means selects the horizontal writing font and the second printing font means selects the vertical writing font.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a manual scanning type printing apparatus including a print head having a plurality of pixel forming elements in at least one row, and the print head is manually scanned in a direction orthogonal to a row direction of the pixel forming elements. Then, in the manual scanning type printing device for printing on the printing medium, the horizontal writing font is selected from the printing fonts which are arranged on the side surface of the casing of the manual scanning type printing device on the manual scanning direction side and printed by the printing head. For horizontal writing font selection means and a vertical writing font selection means for selecting a vertical writing font from the printing fonts arranged on the side surface of the casing of the manual scanning printer at a position substantially orthogonal to the horizontal writing font selection means. When any one of them is selected and operated, the print head drives a plurality of pixel forming elements in accordance with the selected print font to print on the print medium. Performing a character.

[0012]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an internal configuration diagram showing the internal configuration of a manual scanning printer, and FIG. 2 is a bottom view. Print head 2
Is a printing unit, and is, for example, an inkjet head having a drive circuit. The print head 2 has seven nozzles 2a as pixel forming elements arranged in a line at the tip thereof. Ink tank 4
Supplies ink to the print head 2. Encoder 6
Has a slit disk 8 and a photo interrupter 10, respectively. The slit disk 8 is configured to rotate when scanned to the right in FIG. 1, and is driven by a roller 14 via an idle gear 12. The rollers 14, 16a, 16b are configured to rotate while contacting a printing paper surface as a print medium during the scanning of the printing device to move the printing device in a direction orthogonal to the direction in which the nozzles 2a are arranged. .

A horizontal writing switch 22 as first printing font selecting means or horizontal writing font selecting means is arranged on the side surface of the manual scanning type printer housing 1 on the scanning direction side in the printing apparatus. Further, a vertical writing switch 20 as a second print font selecting unit or a vertical writing font selecting unit is arranged on the side surface of the apparatus housing 1 which is orthogonal to the scanning direction. And vertical writing switch 2
Either the 0 or horizontal writing switch 22 is operated by the operator at the time of printing to print vertically or horizontally.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of the CPU and its peripheral portion in this embodiment. The input unit 30 has a transparent touch panel for inputting recorded data of characters, and a segment display for a press monitor under the panel. The character generator 32 outputs kanji data, kana data, English character data, and numeric data (hereinafter simply referred to as character data). The CPU 34 reads character data from the character generator 32 based on the character recording data input by the input unit 30 and displays it on the display 36. Further, during scanning printing (when the output signal of the encoder 6 is input), the character selected in the vertical writing font or the horizontal writing font is printed according to the operation state of the vertical writing switch 20 or the horizontal writing switch 22. The drive of the print head 2 is controlled. The console 38 sets the enlargement ratio of the print character.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. First, in step S1 (hereinafter, simply referred to as S1 and other steps are also the same), when the enlargement ratio of printing is set by the console 38 and a character is input by the input unit 30, the CPU 34 inputs from the character generator 32. The selected character data is read out, and characters are displayed on the display 36 in accordance with the selected format (S2).

4 and 5 are top views of the manual scanning type printer. As shown in FIG. 4 in the case of vertical writing and in FIG. 5 in the case of vertical writing, the rollers 14, 16a, 1
Place the manual scanning printer so that 6b contacts the paper (the arrow in the figure indicates the scanning direction).

For example, when it is desired to print vertically.
Since both sides of the device housing 1 in the direction orthogonal to the scanning direction are sandwiched by the operator's thumb and other fingers for scanning, the vertical writing switch 20 is just naturally pressed with the thumb. Therefore, when the vertical writing switch 20 is pressed and scanned downward in FIG. 4, the CPU 34 determines in S3 that the vertical writing switch 20 has been operated, and S
At 4, the vertical writing font data of the selected character is read.

After that, when the rollers 14, 16a, 16b rotate and the encoder 6 operates (S5: Y), the CPU
34 drives the print head 2 based on the vertical writing font data for each constant distance detected by the encoder 6 (S6), and prints a character in vertical writing.

Similarly, when it is desired to print in the horizontal writing mode, if the operator holds the apparatus housing 1 as in the vertical writing mode, the thumb will just naturally press the horizontal writing switch 22. Therefore, when the horizontal writing switch 22 is pressed and scanned in the right direction in FIG. 5, the CPU 34 determines in S7 that the horizontal writing switch 22 is operated, and S
At 8, the horizontal writing font data of the selected character is read.

After that, when the rollers 14, 16a, 16b rotate and the encoder 6 operates (S5: Y), the CPU
The reference numeral 34 drives the print head 2 based on the horizontal writing font data for each constant distance detected by the encoder 6 (S6), and prints a character in horizontal writing.

As described above, if the vertical writing or horizontal writing is changed so as to be the scanning direction of the manual scanning printer, the vertical writing switch or the horizontal writing switch is naturally pressed by the same gripping method for both vertical writing and horizontal writing. Therefore, it is not necessary to select vertical writing and horizontal writing as in the conventional manual scanning printer.

It should be noted that what has been described above is an example of the form of the present invention, and any form is possible without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

The selection switch for vertical writing and horizontal writing is not limited to the position shown in the above embodiment, but vertical writing and horizontal writing may be reversed, and the operator can freely select the position. May be

In the above embodiment, the two selection switches constituting the print font selection means are set to the vertical writing font and the horizontal writing font. However, the number of selection switches may be three or more, and other different fonts may be used. You may set it. For example, in addition to vertical writing and horizontal writing, italic characters, bold characters, enlarged characters, etc. may be set at different grip positions.

Some conventional manual scanning printers are provided with a switch of printing permission type so that printing is not performed unless scanning is performed while pressing the switch.
The font selection means (switch) described above can be used together as a print permission switch. According to the manual scanning type printing apparatus having this configuration, a desired font can be selected and printed at the same time that printing is permitted by scanning while pressing the font selection switch.

Further, for example, the scanning type printing apparatus may be configured not to include an input unit or the like, but to be used by being connected to an external text editing apparatus such as a personal computer like a normal printer. In this case, it is composed of an interface for inputting character data from a personal computer, a print head, a CPU and its peripheral devices.

[0028]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the manual scanning type printing apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention, the operator only needs to change the grip position of the casing of the manual scanning type printing apparatus. , Can be printed in different fonts.

According to the manual scanning type printing device of the second aspect, the operator can naturally select and print vertically or horizontally by simply changing the grip position of the casing of the manual scanning type printing device. You can

Further, according to the manual scanning type printing device of the third aspect, the operator can hold and scan the casing of the manual scanning type printing device in the same manner regardless of vertical writing or horizontal writing. The operability can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an internal configuration diagram showing an internal configuration of a manual scanning printer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the manual scanning printer.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a CPU and its peripheral portion of the manual scanning printer.

FIG. 4 is a top view showing a vertical writing state of the manual scanning printer.

FIG. 5 is a top view showing a horizontal writing state of the manual scanning printer.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the manual scanning type printing apparatus.

FIG. 7 is an internal configuration diagram showing an internal configuration of a manual scanning type printing device in a conventional example.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of a CPU and its peripheral portion of a manual scanning printer according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Manual Scanning Printer Case 2 Print Head 2a Nozzle 20 Vertical Writing Switch 22 Horizontal Writing Switch

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A manual scanning type printing apparatus for manually scanning and printing on an arbitrary printing medium, a print head for printing on the printing medium, and a manual scanning type printing apparatus housing arranged. And a first print font selecting means for selecting a first print font among the print fonts printed by the print head; and the first print font selection on the manual scanning printer casing. 2. A manual scanning printer, comprising: a second print font selecting means arranged at a position different from that of the means for selecting a second print font different from the first print font. 2. The manual scan according to claim 1, wherein the first print font selecting means selects a horizontal writing font, and the second printing font selecting means selects a vertical writing font. Printing device. 3. A manual scanning printing method, comprising: a print head having a plurality of pixel forming elements in at least one row, and manually scanning the print head in a direction orthogonal to the row direction of the pixel forming elements to print on a print medium. In the apparatus, horizontal writing font selection means for selecting a horizontal writing character font, which is arranged on a side surface of the manual scanning printing device casing on the manual scanning direction side, for selecting a horizontal writing font from the print font printed by the print head, and the manual scanning And a vertical writing font selecting means for selecting a vertical writing character font from the printing fonts, the vertical writing font selecting means being arranged at a position substantially orthogonal to the horizontal writing font selecting means on a side surface of the type printing device housing. Manual scanning printer.