JPH0999595A - Character output system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a recorder from skipping blank character codes and losing its performance, by providing a character code-data-extracting means, a pattern data-storing means, a print character pattern searching means, a character- recognizing means, a blank character pattern generating means, and a drawing data generating means. SOLUTION: When a target print character pattern is present in a character pattern data memory 23 or a character pattern data storage's external memory 24, a decision is made whether it is a blank character pattern or not. That is, whether pattern data from the character pattern data memory 23 or the character pattern data's external memory 24 are blank characters or normal characters is decided by a blank character pattern judging section 21. If they are blank patterns, a character drawing data generating section 22 generates information for one blank character, and accumulate blank character pattern data which are specified continuously as a blank character width until normal print characters are received.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character output device, and more particularly to a character output device for receiving a character code string from a host device and outputting a character corresponding to the code in a character font using vector data such as an outline font. Regarding the device. Conventionally, when printing in large quantities, at high speed, and with rich expressiveness, if the number of print characters (character code data) existing in the page to be printed is large, the performance of the printing machine will not be fully exhibited. There is a point. At this time, a blank character that is not normally printed is also sent as character data for one character, so that the influence of the blank character on the performance of the printing machine is reduced and the function as a blank character is not lost. The technology to do is required.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Based on print data sent from a host device, a character pattern is searched for from a character code included in the print data, and the character pattern data is expanded on a bit map memory for printing. In the printing apparatus, the designated blank character code is converted into one character of drawing data as it is, and a method of drawing a blank character like other ordinary characters is used.

By adjusting the writing position, aligning the digits, etc.,
Many blank character data included in the print data cannot be discriminated from the printed data. That is, it is not possible to visually recognize a portion having blank data and a portion having no blank data from the printed matter. However, in the printing apparatus, blank characters are printed in the same manner as other normal characters. Therefore, if there are many blank characters, the processing of blank characters deteriorates the performance of the printing apparatus as much as normal characters.

Therefore, as a solution to such a problem, there has been proposed a process of skipping the blank character code and moving the coordinate axis to the character data to be printed next.

[0005]

However, in the process of skipping the blank character code and moving the coordinate axis to the character data to be printed next, when the character string including the blank character is overwritten on the figure, the blank character is overwritten. There is a problem that the figure drawn as the background below is output only for the blank characters because the part of is only skipped the coordinate axis.

This problem will be described with reference to FIG. Figure 8 (a) shows "ABCD
The case of overwriting the characters "EFGHIJKL" will be described. When "ABCDEFGHIJKL" is overwritten on the □ part on the hat type background, as shown in Fig. 8 (b), only the overwritten part of the hat type background becomes white, and characters are written on it. be painted. Similarly, when the character “ABCD (blank) IJKL” is overwritten on the part □ on the hat-shaped background, there is a blank character code between D and I. ).

However, as described above, if the blank character code is skipped and the coordinate axis of the normal character is moved to the character data to be printed next, "ABCD ( When the character "blank) IJKL" is overwritten, the blank character code is skipped between D and I. As a result, the print result is different from the intended print result (Fig. 8 (c)), because only the blank characters that are skipped in the hat type background are output as shown in Fig. 8 (d). There is a problem that a print result is obtained.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a character output device which does not skip blank character codes and does not deteriorate the performance of a printing device even if the number of blank characters is large.

[0009]

FIG. 1 shows the principle configuration of a character output device of the present invention for achieving the above object. The present invention is a character output device for outputting a print character based on print data sent from a higher-level device, wherein the character code data extraction means extracts character code data from the sent print data. Further, the character output device is provided with a pattern data storage means for storing character pattern data corresponding to the character code data, and the print character pattern search means stores the print character pattern corresponding to the extracted character code data. The pattern data storage means is searched. Further, the character identifying means identifies the normal character and the blank character from the data length information of the retrieved print character pattern, and the blank character pattern creating means makes at least one continuous character.
One blank character pattern is collected to create one rectangular blank pattern data. Then, the drawing data creation means adds rectangular blank pattern data to the normal character pattern data of one character adjacent to the blank character pattern data to create drawing data for one character.

Such a character output device draws by drawing the rectangular blank pattern adjacent to the normal character pattern of one character as a surface fill of the rectangle by the rectangular blank pattern data included in the drawing data for one character. Data processing means may be further provided. Further, the drawing data processing means may process the rectangular surface painting with the drawing attribute of overwriting or overwriting given to the character.

According to the character output device of the present invention, the character code data is extracted from the print data sent from the host device, and the character pattern data corresponding to the character code data is retrieved from the pattern data storage means. And
A normal character and a blank character are identified from the data length information of the retrieved print character pattern, and at least one continuous blank character pattern is created collectively as one rectangular blank pattern data. This blank pattern data is added to the normal character pattern data of one character adjacent to this blank pattern data to create drawing data for one character. On the other hand, at the time of drawing, the rectangular blank pattern included in the drawing data for one character is adjacent to the normal character pattern of one character as a rectangular surface fill. Further, when the rectangular surface is painted, it is processed according to the drawing attribute given to the character, that is, overwriting or overwriting.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 2 shows the printing apparatus 10 of the present invention.
2 is a block configuration diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a character output device in FIG. The printing device 10 prints the print data transferred from the higher-level device 100 on a sheet,
Inside the data analysis unit 1, the character data processing unit 2,
The graphic data processing unit 3, the image data processing unit 4, the drawing data storage shared memory 5, the drawing unit 6, the bitmap memory 7, and the printing mechanism 8 are provided.

The print data transferred from the higher-level device 100 is sorted into "character data", "graphic data", and "image data" by the data analysis unit 1 in the printing device 10, and each is processed by the character data processing unit 2 , The graphic data processing unit 3 and the image data processing unit 4. "Figure data" is the data that draws the figure represented by points and lines,
"Image data" is dot data read by a scanner. Since the present invention relates to the processing of character data, the description of the data sent from the data analysis unit 1 to the graphic data processing unit 3 and the image data processing unit 4 is omitted, and the data is sent to the character data processing unit 2. Only the "character data" processing will be described. Therefore, the internal configurations of the graphic data processing unit 3 and the image data processing unit 4 are not shown.

Inside the character data processing unit 2, there are a blank character pattern determination unit 21, a character drawing data generation unit 22, a character pattern data storage memory 23, and a character pattern data storage external memory 23. A character pattern (font) corresponding to a character code is stored in the character pattern data storage memory 23 and the character pattern data storage external memory 23. Since the "character data" sent from the data analysis unit 1 to the character data processing unit 2 is a character code, the blank character pattern determination unit 21 uses the character code to store the character pattern data in the memory 23 or the external for storing character pattern data. The memory 23 is searched and the character font corresponding to the character code is read out.

FIGS. 5 (a) and 5 (b) show examples of print data relating to characters in the print data sent from the higher-level device 100. As shown in FIG. In the print data of the character, the attribute for the character, that is, the information for specifying the output method (Fig. 5 (a))
And the information of the character data to be output (FIG. 5 (b)) is included. In the attribute designation information for the character, the data length, the character size, and the character drawing method, that is, the character is overwritten on the background information and the character is double printed on the background. Do you want to do it, or do you want to overwrite the information on the background information and erase the background and print only the character?
Information is included. The character data information to be output includes the data length, the character output position, and the character code string.

The drawing unit 6 includes a character drawing data processing unit 60, and the character drawing data processing unit 60 includes:
There is a blank character drawing processing unit 61. Here, the operation of the character output device configured as shown in FIG. 2 will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. FIG. 3 is a control flowchart showing a part of a processing routine of the printing device in the character output device shown in FIG.

In the first step 301, the host device 100
The print data received from the data analysis unit 1 is analyzed and the character data is transferred to the character data processing unit 2. In subsequent step 302, the character data processing unit 2 that has received the character data transfers the print attribute of the character data designated by the upper level device 100 to the drawing data storage shared memory 5. Then, in step 303, it is determined whether or not the processing of the received character data is completed. If it is not completed, the processing of step 304 and subsequent steps is performed, and if it is completed, the drawing unit 6 described later is requested to draw. .

In the next step 304, the blank character pattern determination unit 21 outputs the print character pattern corresponding to the character code in the character data to the character pattern data storage memory 23,
Alternatively, the character pattern data storage external memory 24 is searched. At this time, in the following step 305, it is judged whether or not the target print character pattern exists in the character pattern data storage memory 23 or the character pattern data storage external memory 24. Perform processing. The processing of this undefined character will not be described here.

If the target print character pattern exists in the character pattern data storage memory 23 or the character pattern data storage external memory 24, step 306.
At, the blank character pattern determination unit 21 determines whether the print character pattern retrieved is a blank character pattern. That is, the blank character pattern determination unit 21 performs a process of distinguishing the pattern data acquired from the character pattern data storage memory 23 or the character pattern data storage external memory 24 into a blank character and a normal character.

If the acquired pattern data is a blank pattern, the character drawing data generator 22 creates information for one blank character in step 307. Then, in subsequent step 308, the character drawing data generation unit 22 accumulates the continuously designated blank character pattern data as a blank character width until the normal print character is received. After step 308 ends, step 30
The process from 3 is executed again.

On the other hand, if the acquired pattern data is a normal character pattern in step 306, the character drawing data generator 22 sets an address (storage address) on the storage memory of the character pattern to be printed in step 309. . Then, the character drawing data generator 22
In the following step 310, the coordinate value for printing the pattern data is calculated. After that, the character drawing data generation unit 22 takes in the blank character width in step 311, and transfers the created character drawing data to the drawing data storage shared memory 5 which is a shared memory with the drawing unit 6 in step 312. . After the step 312 is finished, it is judged that the processing of the character data received in the following step 303 is finished, and the drawing unit 6 is requested to draw.

FIG. 4 is a control flowchart showing a processing routine of the drawing unit 6 of the printing device in the character output device shown in FIG. In step 401, the drawing unit 6 acquires the print attributes of the character from the drawing data storage shared memory 5 and the drawing data. In the subsequent step 402, the drawing unit 6 determines whether the drawing data is character drawing data. If it is not the character drawing data, each processing unit other than the character is activated, and if it is the character drawing data, the number of characters requested in step 403. It is determined whether the minute drawing processing has been performed. The processing of each processing unit when the drawing data is not the character drawing data will not be described.

If it is determined in step 403 that the drawing unit 6 has completed the processing, this routine is completed,
When the drawing process is not completed, it is determined in step 404 whether the width of the blank character is 0 or not. When the blank character width is 0, it means that normal characters are continuous, so the drawing unit 6 sets the print coordinate value designated in step 407 as the character print coordinate value.

On the other hand, when the blank character width is not 0, in step 405 the drawing unit 6 causes the character drawing data processing unit 60 to perform the drawing.
The blank character drawing processing unit 61 in is drawn, a rectangle for the blank character width is drawn with respect to the coordinate value at which the pattern data is printed, and the surface painting process is executed according to the drawing attribute of the character. That is, if the character drawing designation is overwriting, OR writing is performed with that drawn at the same location, and if overwriting is designated, processing is performed to fill the rectangle drawn at the same location.

After the processing of blank characters is completed, the drawing unit 6
In step 406, the character drawing data processing unit 60 updates the print coordinate value of the normal character by the width of the blank character to obtain the character print coordinate value. In this way, when the print coordinate value of the normal character is determined in steps 406 and 407, the drawing unit 6 is executed in step 408.
Is the bit map memory 7 for the character pattern indicated by the pattern data storage address specified in the character print coordinate value.
To draw. The character pattern drawn in the bitmap memory 7 is printed on the paper by the printing mechanism 8.

As described above, according to the character output device of this embodiment, it is possible to compress the print data in the printing device 10, transfer the print data, and draw the drawing unit 6.
The analysis amount of the drawing data is reduced, and the influence of the blank character on the performance of the printing apparatus 10 is reduced. Further, since the rectangular surface painting process is performed on the blank character according to the attribute of the character, it is possible to easily cope with the black and white reverse output of the character, the overwriting process, and the like.

FIG. 6 (a) shows an embodiment of character drawing in the character output device configured as described above, and FIG. 6 (b) prints up to 10 digits of the first line of FIG. 6 (a). It is a figure which shows the structure of the drawing data in the case. As shown in FIG. 6 (a), in this embodiment, there is a vertical ruled line at the first digit of the first line, blank characters at the second and third digits, and a character "Mr"
, The fifth digit is a blank character, the sixth digit is the character "name", the seventh to ninth digits are blank characters, the first digit is
There is a vertical ruled line at the 0th digit and a blank character at the 11th digit.

Since the first digit is a ruled line character pattern,
The character data processing unit 2 sets the address where the corresponding pattern data is stored in the character drawing data, sets the coordinate value of the specified print position, and creates the character drawing data for one character. This data is as shown in the portion indicated by the symbol A of the drawing data in FIG. 6 (b). When the pattern data corresponding to the character code of the second digit is determined, it is known that there is a blank pattern with no data to print. At this time, the character data processing unit 2 sets the width of the blank character to be printed in the second digit in the drawing data of the second character. The print coordinate value also sets the position of the second digit.

If the third digit is also determined to be a blank pattern as a result of determination, the character data processing unit 2 adds the width of the blank character to be printed at the third digit to the character drawing data for the second character. When the pattern data corresponding to the character code of "Mr." is determined at the fourth digit, it is known that the character has data to be printed as a normal character. In this case, the character data processing unit 2 sets the address where the pattern data of "Mr." is stored in the character drawing data of the second character, and completes the character drawing data of the second character. This data is as shown in the portion indicated by the symbol B of the drawing data in FIG. 6 (b).

Similarly, for the character data of the fifth digit and thereafter, when the character data processing unit 2 creates the character drawing data while determining the normal character and the blank character, FIG.
6B is obtained as the character drawing data of the first line.
Character drawing data for four characters indicated by symbols A to D are created.

When the character drawing data has been created,
The character data processing unit 2 stores the character drawing data in the drawing data storage shared memory 5. At the same time, the drawing unit 6 is requested to perform drawing processing according to the stored character drawing data. The drawing unit 6 receiving the drawing request causes the character drawing data processing unit 60 to analyze and draw based on the received character drawing data and the character attribute information such as the character size.

Since the blank character width = 0 for the drawing data of the first character, the character pattern at the specified address in the character pattern data storage memory 23 is drawn at the specified coordinates in the bitmap memory 7. Since the blank character width is not equal to 0 in the drawing data of the second character, the blank character drawing processing unit 61 draws a rectangle for the blank character width × the height of the character from the designated coordinate 1 to the character color and the character drawing. Surface painting processing is performed on the bitmap memory 7 according to the attributes (OR writing, overwriting, etc.). After that, the character at the specified address in the character pattern storage memory 23 is drawn on the bitmap memory 7 having the specified coordinate + the blank character width of 1.

The drawing unit 6 sequentially analyzes the received character drawing data in this way, and terminates the processing when all the drawing data is drawn on the bitmap memory 7. FIG. 7 shows pattern data of normal characters and blank characters. (A) shows pattern data of normal characters and (b) shows pattern data of blank characters. As can be seen from FIG. 7, the data length of the pattern of the normal character is large, and the data length of the pattern of the blank character is 0. Therefore, the blank character pattern determination unit is read based on these information. The blank signal and the normal character can be determined from the signal.

[0034]

As described above, according to the character output device in the printer of the present invention, (1) the normal character and the blank character are distinguished by the structure of the character pattern data, so that the blank character is specified. Print processing can be performed without being limited to character codes. (2) When converting print data from the host device into drawing data for internal processing, a blank character is created as additional information of the normal character Since the internal data transfer processing volume is reduced, the processing performance of the printing device can be improved. (3) When drawing blank characters,
Since blank characters of one character are not drawn and they are processed at once by the rectangular surface painting process, it is possible to reduce the influence on the printing device due to the amount of blank characters included in the print data. (4) Since the rectangular surface painting is processed with the drawing attribute given to the character, even when printing on other media, it is possible to guarantee the printing of the blank part as well as other characters. Therefore, there is an effect that the blank character code in the print data transferred from the host device is not skipped and the performance of the printing device is not deteriorated even if the number of blank characters is large.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle configuration diagram showing a configuration of a character output device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a character output device in the printing device of the present invention.

3 is a control flowchart showing a part of a processing routine of a printing device in the character output device shown in FIG.

4 is a control flowchart showing a processing routine of a drawing unit of the printing device in the character output device shown in FIG.

5A and 5B show examples of print data from a higher-level device according to the present invention, FIG. 5A is a diagram showing a data structure for designating attributes of characters, and FIG. 5B is a diagram showing a structure of output character data. is there.

6A is a diagram showing an example of character drawing in the character output device of the present invention, and FIG. 6B is a diagram showing a structure of drawing data when printing up to 10 digits of the first line of FIG. is there.

FIG. 7 shows pattern data of normal characters and blank characters, where (a) illustrates pattern data of normal characters and (b) illustrates pattern data of blank characters.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a problem in a conventional printing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Data analysis part 2 ... Character data processing part 5 ... Shared memory for drawing data storage 6 ... Drawing part 7 ... Bit map memory 8 ... Printing mechanism 10 ... Printing device 21 ... Blank character pattern determination part 22 ... Character drawing data generation part 23 ... Character pattern data storage memory 24 ... External memory for storing character pattern data 60 ... Character drawing data processing unit 61 ... Blank character drawing processing unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A character output device for outputting a print character based on print data sent from a host device, comprising: character code data extracting means for extracting character code data from the sent print data; Pattern data storage means for storing character pattern data corresponding to the code data, print character pattern search means for searching the print character pattern corresponding to the extracted character code data from the pattern data storage means, and searched print A character identifying means for identifying a normal character and a blank character from the data length information of the character pattern; and a blank character pattern creating means for collecting at least one continuous blank character pattern to create one rectangular blank pattern data, The normal character pattern data of one character adjacent to the blank character pattern data A character output device, comprising: drawing data creating means for creating rectangular character blank pattern data to create drawing data for one character. 2. A drawing data processing means for drawing the rectangular blank pattern as a surface fill of the rectangle adjacent to a normal character pattern of one character by the rectangular blank pattern data included in the drawing data for one character. The character output device according to claim 1, further comprising: a character output device. 3. The character according to claim 2, wherein the drawing data processing means, when performing the surface painting of the rectangle, processes with a drawing attribute given to the character, which is overwriting or overwriting. Output device.